NY Times finally Gets Something Partly Right

A subject dear to my heart.

A Celebration of Tex-Mex, Without Apology

More on Laura Bush Wearing Abbaya

I commented on this here but found much better commentary thanks to
Little Green Footballs who points out this column by Caroline Glick.

Sunday morning, Mrs. Bush sought to answer her critics in an interview with Fox News. Unfortunately, her remarks compounded the damage. Mrs. Bush said, “These women do not see covering as some sort of subjugation of women, this group of women that I was with. That’s their culture. That’s their tradition. That’s a religious choice of theirs.”

It is true that this is their culture. And it is also their tradition. But it is not their choice. Their culture and tradition are predicated on denying them the choice of whether or not to wear a garment that denies them their identity just as it denies them the right to make any choices about their lives.

I am repeatedly astonished by the failure of the women's rights organizations to stand up and demand equal rights for women in Islam.

Update: from the BBC:

Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.

and

One witness said he saw three policemen "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya".

Most of the victims were crushed in a stampede as they tried to flee the blaze.

The school was locked at the time of the fire - a usual practice to ensure full segregation of the sexes.

Perhaps Mrs. Bush has further comment about how much choice these young women have of wearing the abbaya.

Al Gore and Inconvenient Facts

I believe it makes sense to reduce pollution and other environmental threats whether we can prove humans are causing global warming or not. I also believe it is terribly unproductive to rely on bad or fraudulent science and the politicization of the issue. Even worse is resorting to outright deception which risks discrediting the entire environmental movement.

35 Inconvenient Truths

The errors in Al Gore’s movie

An Interesting Quiz

A Preview Of HillaryCare

Michelle is on the case:

Paging Michael Moore: Brits flee socialized healthcare

Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.

And by the end of the decade 200,000 “health tourists” will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.

The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fuelling the increasing trend.

and from the loonies to the north:

A Short Course in Brain Surgery

Bernanke Between Inflation Or Investment Banks

The current market is alternating between liquidity worries and inflation fears. Helicopter Ben has to decide between bailing out greedy investment and mortgage bankers who got into trouble relying on the Greenspan put, or containing a risk of inflation stemming from global demand for energy and raw materials combined with money supply expansion from central banks that don't want their currency to be strong. (which is practically all of them) Mr. Bernanke also suffers from low expectations on the inflation fighting front due to his pre chairman speech about air dropping paper currency to stop deflation. All of this is reminiscent of the late 70's and G. William Miller which was not a terrific investment environment for equity markets, though a great period for futures markets. Perhaps that is why the CME stock price is so strong.
Jeff Matthews discusses inflation sightings at company conference calls this week:

There you have it: on top of “cost spikes,” “personnel and equipment shortages” and “dramatic” raw material cost increases, add the declining non-OPEC oil supply to the list of problems next week's Fed rate will exacerbate, as Bernanke continues his apparently ceaseless efforts to rescue Wall Street's banking goliaths from their self-created CDO tar pits.

Expect the Fed to give in and help out the bankers. After all there are future consulting jobs at risk here and no one wants to be blamed for a recession. For my part, I just hope Mr. Volcker is in good health 3 or 4 years from now when we need a fed chairman with balls.

Report: PDF files used to attack computers

SEE: Free utility looks for missing security patches ]

this link is directly to free Secunia Inspector download sight.


this link to Adobe Reader update site.

Go East Young Man

Another interesting item from Fullermoney:

Emerging markets represent 86% of the world's population, 75% of the world's land mass, 70% of the world's foreign reserves; 52% of world GDP, yet only 9% of world equity market capitalisation.

This staggeringly low equity capitalisation of only 9% might conceivably make sense if emerging markets were rapidly declining in GDP relative to the developed world. However the opposite is true. I can only conclude that emerging market equity capitalisation will soar relative to the developed countries over the next several decades, eventually reaching 70% to 80%.

I spent half of the last three years training traders in India. The growth and dynamism is stunning. India has a long way to go and many obstacles, not the least of which is resistance to change by corrupt political interests, but India is going to continue to advance at a tremendous rate. The China story is even more publicized. Tlhese markets have advanced a long way but they will keep going for years, interrupted occasionally by volatile shakeouts.

Tis The Season To Buy Stocks, At Least Historically

From David Fuller at Fullermoney a brilliant subscription based service:

This phenomenon is well known, not least to veteran subscribers. Nevertheless I still find the historic bullish performance from November-April, relative to May-October, breathtaking. I want to make sure that new subscribers are aware if it.

Will the bullish average be repeated over the next six months, or will we see one of the comparatively rare exceptions?

I believe that the bulls, which certainly include Fullermoney, will be vindicated. I also expect that our key investment themes such as resources, Asian-led emerging markets, and more recently technology, will be very much to the fore. The known risks are Western and Japanese banks, which remain a significant drag on their markets.

Free Hand writing Analysis from Tul

This is easy and fun. Follow the link.

More Throw the Bums Out

I think Stephen Green may be ready to join my campaign against Incumbistan:

I stopped voting Libertarian for local candidates, leaving lots of blanks on my ballot. Next year, I’m not sure which party I’ll support for President, much less which candidate. From here, it looks as if the Republicans have become wrong and corrupt, the Democrats are stupid and corrupt, and the Libertarians have gone plain crazy.

Bill Quick too! Maybe if I could get Glenn and Markos on board we could send a real message and restore representative government. (another hat tip to Instapundit for pointing out the Green and Quick articles)

Another Bush Mistake

I am a fan of Laura Bush. Mrs. Bush has conducted herself with charm and class throughout the years of her husband's presidency. But this was a mistake. The hijab is a symbol of repression of women, the treatment of women as property and no representative of the United States should lend legitimacy to that symbol. I am sure Mrs. Bush was trying to be polite and a good sport but this was a disgrace. ( hat tip Instapundit )

Shift Happens

Throw the Bums Out!

I have ranted before that I will not vote for any incumbents in the next election. None. Neither should you. The voters of both parties need to send a loud clear message "clean up your act or go home."
We need to bust up Incumbistan D.C.

Don Surber writes on related thought today:

If these 2 elections are any indicator of the public mood in the United States, then the mood is this: The people are fed up. They tire of the corruption. They tire of the war. And most of all, they tire of the incompetence in Washington.

Dollar Yuan Cross Rate

Dennis Gartman likes to say he wants to see movement from the lower left to the upper right in a trade. Well this one has got it.

Drug Usage and Side Effects at Practical Pablum

I would add that the inclusion of a 4 hour erection as a side effect may be one of the greatest marketing gimmicks of all time. Personally I don't have that much energy.

Subprime Mortgage Rate Resets Won't Peak Till 2008

chart from the IMF via econbrowser. This problem is not going away soon.

Pre Open Jitters In Stock

Some headlines at Bloomberg this morning:

Yen Rises to Six-Week High on Concern Global Growth Will Slow

Global Stocks, U.S. Futures Drop

SIV Shock, Inflation Make U.S. Treasuries Unbeatable

LoneK8 on commercials: good and bad

I will probably comment most on are the ones that fall just shy of the mark – they have smart or clever premises, but their execution is lacking. Unfortunately it is all too indicative of most people’s current attitudes towards their work, and it is a shame that whoever created the initial idea wasn’t committed enough to see it through to completion accurately.

The prime example of this is a commercial that ran several years back for the Nissan Sentra. This ad featured two crash test dummies fighting over getting into the car with the tagline “everybody wants to drive it.” Clever, it caught your attention, there was only one glaring problem. The dummies were fighting over the passenger side door. Maybe the crash test dummies were British, maybe it was a sly allusion to the fact that they just can’t afford the premiums on their insurance anymore after the number of wrecks they typically get into so they had to be passengers. What it said to me was “no one wants to drive it.” Whoops – probably not the message intended. But I bet it was awesome in England.

Yen and the Carry Trade Still Driving The Stock Market

If you are invested in stocks or want to be keep an eye on the yen euro cross. The similarity of these two charts is not accident.

Oil Prices Hit New Highs

I know it is convenient to blame the big oil companies greed for the high price of oil but, Charles Maxwell of

Weeden & Co offers some other explanations:
National oil companies (NOCs) now control some 70% of the
production and just under 80% of the reserves of the world oil industry.
NOCs are commonly starved of sufficient funds to expand their
exploration and production because the funds they produce are critical
to keeping the governments of these countries in power and critical to
meeting the basic everyday needs of their people (in that order). There
is little left over after this job is done to develop skilled manpower,
emphasize new infrastructure to support exploration success, build
pipelines and refineries to deliver the oil to where it is needed and in
usable product form, and so on.

Maxwell goes on to point out that oil companies cannot support 60% of world capacity and development expenditures with only 22% of world reserves. I am unable to reproduce the entire report due to copyright restrictions but one can try contacting Maxwell@Weeden.com for a copy.

The whole report supports what Donald Coxe has long suggested; investing in basic resource companies whose reserves are located in politically safe areas. The Candian oil sands are a good example.

Warren Buffett Considers Korean Stock Market ‘Still Attractive’

Korea ETF chart courtesy of Stockcharts.com
Buffett said, “The Korean stock market a few years ago was by far the most undervalued market in the world. Since then, there has been a huge advance in the Korean market and the won has appreciated against the dollar. Nevertheless, many Korean stocks still sell at more attractive prices than stocks in other major countries.”

Buffett’s view is quite a contrast to the market concern that Korean stocks may be “overvalued” with KOSPI having surpassed 2,000. In fact, in terms of PER (price earnings ratio), Korean market is still undervalued as Buffett argues. According to Thomson IBES, Korean stock market posted 12.3 PER, lower than the average of emerging markets (15.0) and the average of advanced markets (14.7).

G7 and IMF should be Pay to Play

Developing countries like China, India, and Brazil want more say in the IMF according to quotes from this weekends G7 meetings.
Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global finance chiefs on Saturday made progress on reforms that would give emerging economies a greater say in the International Monetary Fund and expressed confidence they could seal a deal next year. Under a plan backed by the IMF's policy committee, fast-growing emerging market nations would get more voting power in the global lender, which has long been dominated by rich developed countries.

Sydney Morning Herald:

Developing countries also took the opportunity to push for a greater say in the voting power of institutions like the IMF. Brazil warned bluntly that under-represented countries were likely to "go their own way" unless they get a greater stake.

Sounds like Brazil is getting a little uppity considering all the money they have taken from the IMF in the past. My suggestion is when the developing nations are paying their share of the fund thay can have a little more say. Or maybe it would be better to let them all go their own way. we haven't had to lend much money to Japan or France lately and so the US contribution to the IMF could be kept right at home. In fact, I would support the same policy at the UN (Useless Nations)

Subprime Cries Fire In A Crowded Stockmarket.

Whoops! I guess 50 basis points didn't cure years of abuse of sensible lending standards despite what Jim Cramer says.

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Cheyne Finance Plc and IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG's Rhinebridge Plc, two structured investment vehicles that bought securities backed by home loans, defaulted on more than $7 billion of debt as the value of their holdings fell.

Chart also courtesy of Bloomberg.

Buffett Still The best

Buffett continues to show why he has about the best investment record ever. Why is he not emulated more?
From Bloomberg:

Billionaire Warren Buffett said his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. won't buy a stake in Bear Stearns Cos. and that he ``never came close'' to acquiring shares of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., which fell 61 percent this year. Buffett also said Berkshire sold all its stock in PetroChina Co.

Berkshire paid $488 million for the stake, valued at $3.3 billion at the end of 2006, according to Berkshire's annual report.

Please note Buffett bought most of his shares below 30. He was up almost 700% at year end 2006 and the stock has doubled since then. Buffett's salary is around $100,000 per year, unchanged since the late 70's or so. He is the best bargain in fund management by far.

Yen Gains as Global Decline in Stocks Prompts Carry Trade Exit

from Bloomberg Tuesday night:

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The yen rose for a third day against the dollar, its longest winning streak in two months, as a decline in Asian stocks prompted investors to sell higher- yielding currencies bought with loans in Japan.

Yen rallies causing an exit from the carry trades have been the trigger for two sharp sell offs in the stock market this year. If the yen rally continues into the European trading day we could have some action in the US wednesday.

The last two charts are not good for the first

The New 900 Pound Gorilla

David Fuller writes today:

Sovereign wealth funds: the most important influence on markets that we will see over at least the next decade

He goes on to say:

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), currently estimated at around US$2 trillion, will soon be more important than both hedge funds and private equity combined. Morgan Stanley estimates that the total will be approximately US$12 trillion in SWFs by 2015.

David Fuller has been all over investment in physical commodities and India and Asia for four solid years. He opinion is always worth heeding. He provides this link to a good report on Sovereign Wealth Funds by Merrill Lynch.

Jeff Saut very good this week.

Jeff Saut of Raymond James has a very good commentary this week. A key paragraph:

Ladies and gentlemen, with consumer spending financed by mortgage equity withdrawals, whose mortgages have been sliced and diced into a spider web of opaque debt instruments, the extent of the contagion is still unknown despite the markets’ sense that the “Greenspan put” is alive and well. Moreover, the most financially-stressed homeowners are scheduled to see their low interest rate mortgages reset at substantially higher rates at a time when food and energy prices are soaring. Meanwhile, the political rhetoric is increasingly focused on more entitlements and higher taxes on the “rich.” Unfortunately, increased taxes on the alleged rich won’t come close to solving the debt-box we have painted ourselves into; implying taxes on EVERYBODY will be going up, including the preferred taxation of dividends and capital gains, a point that will eventually not be lost on the equity markets.

He also references "The Money Game" one of the best books ever on the markets.

Here She Comes To Save The Day!!

I cannot adequately describe the joy of grandchildren. This is Izzy my 18 month old grand daughter. She makes me laugh.

Demographics and the Eurocurrency

Central Bankers are diversifying into the Euro and away from the dollar and so are fund managers and individuals. The dollar faces many challenges to be sure. But Europe has plenty of problems of its own and the long term problems are worse than those of the US. For example with all those government social programs who is going to pay the taxes to support the spending. BusinessWeek lays out the problem:

There are currently more elderly people than children living in the EU, as Europe's young population has decreased by 21 percent - or 23 million -- in 25 years, 10 percent of which in the last ten years alone.

Only 16.2 percent of today's EU population is less than 14 years old, while one sixth (16.6 percent) is 65 years or more. In addition one out of every 25 EU citizens is over 80 years old.

Mark Steyn lays it out more thoroughly in his book America Alone.

R;ecord High Ice Cap growth in Antartica

Gateway Pundit has this graphic (purple area shows ice growth this year to record coverage) and relevant links. I hope Jeff Matthews sees this and it makes him feel better, or at least not quite so certain that we are doomed. The certainty and name calling from both believers and nonbelievers in man made global warning is counterproductive. Weather forecasting is iffy 3 days out, how accurate is it likely to be 50 years out?
Reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants is worth doing whether it is currently causing warming or not. A cleaner environment is its own reward. Let's let the scientists work on this research without politicizing the data.

A new ETF based on a global foreign bond index.

Calculated Spectator has a description and lays out the advantages of this new etf.

The basic appeal of foreign bonds is the diversification benefits they offer to most other asset classes. As the table below shows, there's low and in some cases virtually zero correlation between foreign bonds (represented here by the Citi World Gov't Bond Index Non-$ Index, unhedged) and the major asset classes.

Amex: BWX

The First Step In Curbing Excessive Coporate Compensation Is

clearly stating what that compensation is, and the SEC is trying to institute changes. Michele Leder explains.

This Is Getting Scary

Glenn Reynolds frequently adds a remark like this one to some posts:

They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected, we'd see enemies lists, dossiers, and naked abuse of political and regulatory power in order to silence criticism and secure an unfair electoral advantage. And they were right!

Glenn is being mildly sarcastic about Democratic behavior since they won control of Congress in the mid term elections. In the linked post Glenn is pointing to efforts by Congress to stifle free speech because they do not agree with the opinions. Every citizen should be outraged by these tactics. Democrat or Republican, or Independent, none of us can sit back and accept behavior like this by our elected representatives. Here is the article Glenn linked:

Others on the Democrat side are pushing ahead with other plans. Rep. Henry Waxman has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows, and to call in Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to discuss the so-called "Fairness Doctrine."

"Limbaugh isn't the only one who needs to be made uncomfortable about what he says on the radio," says a House leadership source. "We don't have as big a megaphone as these guys, but this all political, and we'll do what we can to gain the advantage. If we can take them off their game for a while, it will help our folks out there on the campaign trail."

There are other links in Glenn's post I recommend.

More evidence for taxing those greedy rich folks

TaxProf has the newest data on who really pays the taxes in this country:

The new data shows that the top-earning 25% of taxpayers (AGI over $62,068) earned 67.5% of the nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86%). The top 1% of taxpayers (AGI over $364,657) earned approximately 21.2% of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.4% of all federal income taxes. That means the top 1% of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal individual income taxes as the bottom 95% of tax returns

Populist politicians always like to claim they are going to make the rich pay their fair share, but it looks to me like they are paying more than their share already. What I would like to see is a politician who promised to see that government spends our money wisely and maybe even tries to spend less of it.

Ga!!!!!!g

I have watched a lot of sports in my 50 plus years and I am watching the Cubs come to bat in the 9th inning of game 3 of the playoffs against Arizona. Right now this stands as the most comprehensive choke I have ever seen in a team sport since....... well since the Cubs choked to the Marlins following the Bartman incident.
Only Carlos Zambrano did his job in this series.
It is over now as Soriano pops out trying to hit a 6 run homer with no one on base.

Multiculturism Trumps Women's Rights

Dr. Sanity reprises a post that I missed the first time. She links to this article by Johann Hari in the Independent. Both discuss the creeping loss of personal freedom created by attempting to tolerate the intolerable.

Do you believe in the rights of women, or do you believe in multiculturalism? A series of verdicts in the German courts in the past month, have shown with hot, hard logic that you can't back both. You have to choose.

and;

Indeed, in the name of this warm, welcoming multiculturalism, the German courts have explicitly compared Muslim women to the brain-damaged. The highest administrative court in North Rhine-Westphalia has agreed that Muslim parents have the "right" to forbid their daughter from going on a school trip unless she was accompanied by a male family member at all times. The judges said the girl was like "a partially mentally impaired person who, because of her disability, can only travel with a companion".As the Iranian author Azar Nafisi puts it: "I very much resent it when people - maybe with good intentions or from a progressive point of view - keep telling me, 'It's their culture' ... It's like saying the culture of Massachusetts is burning witches." She is horrified by the moves in Canada to introduce shariah courts to enforce family law for Muslims.

Pat Sanity explains forcefully:

From the perspective of the socialist utopian, what matters more than Women's rights or Gay Righs are the rights of a designated culture. The dogma of multiculturalism trumps the dogma of women's superiority. This is probably because for the socialist utopian, might makes right and the needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the few--and the few better remember that fact, or else.

Please go read the entire post. I find myself tempted to post the entire piece.

Heads up to NFL scouts looking for a running back.

Prieur du Plessis in South Africa has some film of an outstanding running talent. check it out for yourself.

One for all the Mothers: very funny.

Cubs Fan's Try To Cure The Curse

A friend shot this picture of Harry Caray's statue outside Wrigley Field yesterday morning. fans are desperate for a Cub World Series appearance. But after watching the team swinging wildly at any pitch thrown last night I find it hard to be optimistic. Oh well, GO CUBS GO!!

Unintended Consequences

Bruce Schneier has two good examples of unintended consequences:

Can Smuggling in the U.S.

and

Chlorine and Cholera in Iraq

Paul Belien: The Rape of Europe

This article appeared almost a year ago but still resonates.

Europe is turning Muslim. As Broder is sixty years old he is not going to emigrate himself. “I am too old,” he said. However, he urged young people to get out and “move to Australia or New Zealand. That is the only option they have if they want to avoid the plagues that will turn the old continent uninhabitable.”

and

Broder is convinced that the Europeans are not willing to oppose islamization. “The dominant ethos,” he told De Volkskrant, “is perfectly voiced by the stupid blonde woman author with whom I recently debated. She said that it is sometimes better to let yourself be raped than to risk serious injuries while resisting. She said it is sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of death.”

In a recent op-ed piece in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard (23 October) the Dutch (gay and self-declared “humanist”) author Oscar Van den Boogaard refers to Broder’s interview. Van den Boogaard says that to him coping with the islamization of Europe is like “a process of mourning.” He is overwhelmed by a “feeling of sadness.” “I am not a warrior,” he says, “but who is? I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.”

Another very good book on this subject is Mark Steyn's America Alone.

90 lb Gorilla?

from Yahoo News:

Thousands of people are investing their hard-earned money following the advice of a gorilla: not an actual primate, of course, but the mascot for a secretive but heavily advertised stockpicking service called GorillaTrades. The service charges members $600 a year for stock picks based on a proprietary blend of technical-market signals.
But does the gorilla deliver for investors? A BusinessWeek analysis of the service's picks found they performed far worse than the stock market as a whole.

Sometimes you don't get what you pay for. (hat tip to John Lothian Letter)

More Despicable Behavior From Incumbistan

From the Weekly Standard ( hat tip Instapundit);

Earmark Recipients Come through for Chairman Reyes

Roll Call reports that a few months after Silvestre Reyes became chair of the House Intelligence Committee, he asked his brother to create a political action committee called BEST PAC. That committee received tens of thousands in donations from employees and clients of a lobbying firm. Those clients subsequently received millions in earmarks from Chairman Reyes:

Read the rest of the article. Just more corrupt behavior from a congressional leadership that campaigned on the promise of cleaning up earmarks and corruption that went on under the previous leadership. These people are pigs at the trough, they cannot help themselves. Vote them all out of office. No incumbent should be re-elected. Both parties need to be cleaned out.

Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle

Headline is from the DailyMail article which includes this:

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

Ultimately all tyranny rests on the willingness to murder one's subjects.
I saw this news article thanks to the Instapundit who asks: " Where is the "international community" on this?" The mainstream media, the high profile celebrities, the anti-war and anti-violence groups seem strangely quiet. Just as they were years ago when the Cambodians were being massacred, or when women were being brutalized in Afghanistan, or when Saddam and his sons were butchering various members of the citizenry. Is this silence because they cannot blame Bush or is it because these aren't white people being murdered.
The Instapundit also links to a Rand Simberg post on the viability of non- violent protests . (Ghandism )

We can't necessarily remove every dictatorial regime on the planet, but there were many reasons to remove the one in Iraq. Critics of that decision often claim that it was up to the Iraqi people to stand up to Saddam and remove him if that's what they wanted. Some of them (particularly the pacifists among them) even cite Mahatma Gandhi as an example, and advocate the use of non-violent resistance techniques.

What they ignore in doing so is that Gandhi faced an almost unique situation--imperialists who were not monsters, and were unwilling to put down the rebellion with the brutality necessary to do so. To think that Gandhi's tactics would have been effective against a Hitler, or a Stalin, or a Saddam, is foolish.

And here we have a textbook example, that demonstrates the fatuity of such thinking. Who, after all, is more pacifist, and (according to their theory, should be more successful with such tactics) than Buddhist monks?

Unarmed civilian populations have no chance against modern government weaponry unless it is the British or the United States government.