By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
TPP
Hatch and Wyden could unveil the fast track bill “as soon as” this afternoon [Reuters].
Senate Majority Whip Cornyn expects vote next Tuesday [Politico]. No amendments allowed [Democracy Now!]
Australia: “What the pharmaceutical industry is proposing is that it be provided with12 years of absolute monopoly – seven years longer than the current data protection period in Australia… Each year of extra monopoly protection would cost Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme hundreds of millions of dollars. Over the medium to long term, this could cripple the PBS” [Brisbane Times].
“Hatch revealed that the yet-to-be-unveiled legislation contains 150 negotiating objectives and said his committee will carefully review if the White House has met each one” [The Hill].
Banks and Banking
Derek Kaufman, global head of fixed income at Citadel LLC, is leaving the hedge fund firm after losing $1 billion last year in a variety of trades [Bloomberg]. Even today, a billion is a lot of money!
“Mr. Bernanke will become a senior adviser to Citadel, the $25 billion hedge fund founded by the billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin” [New York Times]. And to think Ben got his start blogging!
Dutch Nazi-costumed dominatrix banker fired [Daily Mail]. €10K a week seems low. Perhaps that was the difficulty?
2016
Sanders to hold conference call with Iowa Democrats tonight, Thursday [Guardian].
“So let Bernie risk the “spoiler” role and, as a presidential candidate, spearhead a truly progressive movement under whatever third-party ticket serves him best” [Manchester Journal].
Elizabeth Warren: “When small banks break the law, their regulators do not hesitate to shut down the banks, toss their executives in jail, and put
their employees out of work.” Not to be churlish, but I’d like to see jail time for executives as a bullet-point policy recommendation [“The Unfinished Business of Financial Reform,” Remarks at the Levy Institute’s 24th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference (PDF)]. And the audio (Furzy Mouse). The venue — Levy Institute is a citadel of heterodoxy, and the Wall Street Journal doesn’t name it in its coverage — is as interesting as the message.
Clinton on Warren in Time’s “100 Most Influential People”: “she never hesitates to hold powerful people’s feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants” [Time].
The S.S. Clinton
Chafee: Clinton too “Bush-like” on foreign policy [CNN].
Three tough questions for Clinton [WaPo].
1. Will Clinton support the trade deal in the Pacific?
2. What does Clinton think about standardized testing in schools?
3. Will Clinton propose an expansion of Social Security?
NC readers have a lot more questions than three!
Weeks after Cisco executives killed a shareholder initiative to force the company to prevent the Chinese government from using Cisco technology to engage in what critics said was widespread human-rights abuse, Cisco was honored as a finalist for the State Department’s award for “outstanding corporate citizenship, innovation and democratic principles.” The next year, they won. “[R]ecords reviewed by International Business Times show that Cisco had by December 2008 donated from $500,000 to $1 million to the [Clinton] foundation” [David Sirota, International Business Times].
Clinton’s populist themes warm the hearts of liberal donors [WaPo]. No. Policy is all.
“[The Clinton campaign is] all so dull, so bland, so scripted, so planned, so typically political. And perhaps, just perhaps, it’s what American voters deserve” [Liz Mair, Daily Beast]. Typically, it’s Democrats who blame the voters, not Republicans like Mair.
Clinton video team disputed [Reuters]. Can’t tell if the drama is real, or manufactured by the press.
Republican Principled Insurgents
“Rubio Rhetoric Breaks With Past, but Ideas Don’t” [AP]. As NC readers already know.
CNN host to Rubio on gay marriage: “You’re the candidate of yesterday” [Talking Points Memo].
Stats Watch
Jobless Claims, week of April 11, 2015: Initial claims rise, though 4-week moving average little changed, and is 25,000 below month-to-month comparison [Bloomberg].
Housing Starts, March 2015: Still “sluggish,” below expectations. Permits stronger, but still “disappointing” [Bloomberg]. “Overall, housing is still soft even with weather improving. The latest data will likely keep the Fed on the loose side in the near term.”
Consumer Comfort, April 12, 2015: Cooled from an eight-year high on expectations [Bloomberg]. “Moods improved for Americans at the top of the wage scale and worsened for those at the bottom. The comfort gauge for workers earning $100,000 or more climbed to 71.9, its second-highest level since August 2007. For the under $50,000 category, it fell to 34.5 last week from 36.1. The 37.4-point gap is the second-biggest between the groups so far this year.”
Philadelphia Business Outlook Survey, April 2015: Headline gain masks slowing of new orders and contracting backlog [Bloomberg].
“Not to forget every Fed member recognizes their role in ‘managing expectations’ as they all believe that the economic performance has a large psychological component. That is, if people were led to believe things were getting worse that would cause a downturn” [Mosler Economics].
Water
California Water Board attempting to flex atrophied muscles, inspired by Brown’s rationing order [Los Angeles Times].
When the water runs out in Sao Paolo [Le Monde Diplomatique].
Corruption
Senate leader Dean Skelos and son reported to be targets of Preet Bharara Fed investigation [New York Times].
UK’s Northampton University finances new “town centre” campus with private bond issue backed by Treasury [Northhampton Chronicle]. KPMG signed off. So that’s alright then.
Black Injustice Tipping Point
“EXCLUSIVE: ‘Sir, why was I shot? All I did was reach for my license’ – innocent black victim of yet another police shooting calls for bodycams after traffic stop cop opened fire” [Daily Mail]. When the Daily Mail gets in on the action…
Al Sharpton starts hunger strike on Loretta Lynch nomination [The Hill].
Supervisors told to falsify training records training record of Bob Bates, the Sheriff’s crony who says he wanted to tase Eric Harris but shot him instead. [Tulsa World].
Class Warfare
“How a living wage is calculated” [The Economist].
Survey: American’s economic mood improves (oh?), but almost 70 percent say inequality is growing [Bloomberg].
News of the Wired
- Elaine Santore is planting pansies in potholes in Schenectady. She was tired of just how bad the roads have gotten. So she went out, picked up some pansies and soil and started planting [CBS6]. “By the next morning, the pothole had been patched up.”
- Continuing fallout from two suicides in Missouri Republican party [Kansas City Star]. #awkwad.
- Doubling of search zone planned if MH370 isn’t found by June [BBC]. The additional 60,000 sq. km. could add a year to the search. Still no debris.
- Virginia voting machine’s hardcoded password was “admin”; it ran a Windows XP Embedded version unpatched since 2004 [Ars Technica]. It’s out of commission now, but how many more are out there?
- Muckrock allows dull normals to file FOIA requests [MuckRock].
Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant, the fourth of “I Wish It Were Spring!” week five (Kurt Sperry):
A Fritillaria, or “Checker Lily.”
Do others have more gardening photos yet? Too early?
If you enjoy Water Cooler, please consider tipping and click the hat. It’s the heating season!
Talk amongst yourselves!
72 comments
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Re: Windows XP
To put it in perspective, XP is almost as widespread as Ice-9. Most POS (point of sale) systems run a tweaked version of Windows XP. The reason for the reluctance to switch? For businesses, they use it for that one program whose company went out of business/was bought out before a more modern version could be made. For home residents, it’s a lack of funds to shell out decent money to build your own computer/buy a new one, hence Microsoft’s decision to stop supporting it after a decade.
Hopefully, Windows 10 will solve this problem, since it’s free to upgrade to for the first year.
someone who’s running XP is not likely to have a computer that can handle Windows 10.
Good point.
Windows 10 will be free to those running windows 7, 8, and windows phone 8.
This isn’t going to be available to windows XP users.
Continuing to use Windows XP for business users is taking a very dangerous gamble.
Even better point.
Most people don’t need a full-blown PC, though. A Raspberry Pi plugs right into your TV and is plenty enough computer for non-power users. You can pick up a kit for $129 at Rat Shack (while you still can).
For that matter, Linux will run on Intel-based machines you can’t hardly get at swap meets anymore — and most business-y Win32 programs run just fine under Wine. We’ll always have emulation… until it’s illegal.
(Politico)
Says it all: workers losing out to TPP will be “retrained” — but for what? Foodstamp application, un-employment form filing?
I called Wyden’s office this am. Staffer listened, no reply.
Nothing will change until we scare them. Period.
It does. Training is a scam, but the Congress critters can see how trainers in their districts will get walking around money (exactly like ObamaCare navigators) so that’s alright, then.
Walking around money is all fine and good, as long as you have a day job to pay the bills. My observations of the General Dynamic Heritagefoundationcare phone bank, in the old Stein Mart space in the run down Cloverleaf Mall in Hattiesburg MS, is that these ‘navigator’ jobs are temporary positions, being filled by people who look like they still want to live the full time middle class life. As I mentioned in a comment several days ago, I’ve seen almost no smiles on the faces of these workers. They act like they are trying to cope with extreme stresses. Their driving tells the tale to this observer. Quick and jerky motions, aggressive intrusions into oncoming traffic flows, a general lack of caution, all attest to disquiet and anger bubbling just below the surface. I fear for the mental health of these peoples’ children.
Flipping burgers is not as easy as it seems. Community colleges need to be ready to offer training. Raise the minimum wage to $10!
The Pacific Green Party is already searching for an opponent for Wyden, the arrogant traitor.
If you’re in Oregon, keep in touch with us at http://www.pacificgreens.org. We already have a volunteer, I think, but if you have suggestions, have them contact us. I’m deadly serious about this. We’d like to make an impact on him.
If your state’s own Green Party can find a real challenger with hatred in his heart who is devoted to the cause of exterminating Wyden’s presence in public life, your effort will probably attract lots of tiny little donations from beyond Oregon . . . if your state’s own Green Party is interested in such a thing.
But people would want to get the feeling that such a challenger is genuinely devoted to Wyden’s destruction.
Any bets on how the vote will go on fast track for the TPP? Would Wyden and the administration roll it out if they didn’t know for sure that they had the votes?
One way or another the TPP will be a done deal. After all, it’s a “legacy” issue for Obama and he wants to please his masters.
It isn’t done unless/until it is done. The stakes are so high that such pessimistic defeatism can be set aside for now.
The irony of this one is delicious. It seems that UMKC’s (University of Mo. Kansas City) business school, The Henry W. Bloch School of Management (as in H&R Bloch) has managed to run up a deficit of $10.6 million.
This discovery comes on the heels of a previous scandal where faculty members were found to have presented false or misleading information to the Princeton Review in order to bolster the ranking of the biz school.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article18632016.html
Finally a biz school that actually demonstrates to it’s students the reality of how to become a “business leader” in modern America: Cheat.
And I was just about to give a shout out to UMKC for the work done by Bill Black and company, as some of the heterodoxy along with the Levy Institute team fighting the good fight against the ortho (think pests) world.
Well, per Wikipedia (FWIW) Bill Black is a member of the UMKC Department of Economics and School of Law, not the business school. Not clear from a quick Google search how much autonomy the business school has (evidently too much).
Well, you still can.
The Levy Institute is not affiliated with UMKC, and in any case, the UMKC business school is not the UMKC economics department. (And given what one knows about business and ethics these days, the actions of the B-School professors and Dean are hardly surprising, sadly.)
We all knew Bernanke would eventually head to the Wall Street trough after his tenure at the Fed, but it still made me physically ill seeing the headline this morning. This country is hopelessly corrupt as our public officials continue to trade on the power of their public positions to personally enrich themselves. I can no longer see any political remedy that could possibly fix the monster we’ve created.
We can hope they listen to Bernanke and follow his advice. It should ruin them.
Cato and Public Citizen: No parallel legal system for foreign corporations The Hill. Strange bedfellows indeed!
During the 2012 election campaign, I would try to convince people to vote for the Green Party candidates. But for people who were adamantly opposed to voting Green, such as many Republicans, I would recommend the Libertarian candidates. I disagree with the Libertarians about a lot of issues, but they are much better on some things than either the typical Democratic or Republican politicians. And Cato is a libertarian think tank.
Yes. I’m not really for either party, not even as the lesser of two evils thing. What I’m for is one of the parties splitting, because I think then the other party will split too. A man can dream!
They already did; that’s why there are Green, Libertarian, and Constitution parties. (This doesn’t quite do justice to the history – for instance, quite a few Greens were never anything else – but is still effectively true.)
You should talk with Galbraith Jr.; this was his idea a couple of years ago. I tried to talk him into endorsing the Green Party, but without success. Maybe this year…
Now Cringely’s getting paranoid and foily. “Whatever tools we use today to determine who owns what and owes what are probably in danger which means new tools are coming.” All the more reason to beware of TPP…
With a remarkable show of hands in comments of duplicate tax returns rejected this year…
I don’t understand “duplicate tax returns”?
Maybe that’s referring to scamsters filing fraudulent returns early and absconding with the refund? Then when the actual taxpayer files, the IRS rejects it because it was “already filed.”
Not strictly speaking duplicate, since the fraudsters make up the numbers to be sure of a fat refund, but duplicate in the sense of ostensibly filed by the same person.
Duplicate returns:
When your credit information (including your Social Security Number) is stolen, the thief can file a return in your name, pretending to be you, and get your refund–provided he files before you do. Then when you go to file, the IRS bounces it as a duplicate return, and the fun begins.
Hunkerdown’s links are worth following.
–Gaianne
“California Water Board attempting to flex atrophied muscles, inspired by Brown’s rationing order [Los Angeles Times].”
To readers in CA, Courage Campaign and Food and Water Watch have teamed up to fight this. Please go to either website and sign on.
On another note, and not related to anything in today’s “Water Cooler” but can be filed in general under “Corruption” or “Monopoly Capitalism”…
This Tuesday I went to a hearing by the CA Public Utilities Commission for the Comcast/Time Warner merger. I made a public comment. There were about 60% “them” and 40% “us” – “them” being pro merger and “us” being consumers and against. One after another, all sharply suited up, were black and Latino representatives of both genders from various non-profit organizations such as NAACP, Urban League, Southern Christian Leadership Coalition and various Latino organizations. Each and every one said: “Comcast (or Time Warner) donated $$$ to my organization and we think they’re a great company and the merger should proceed.” It was jaw-dropping. I was way at the end and after I picked my jaw up off the floor, my comment was: “My name is xxx. I’m from xxx. I’m here as a consumer. I have received no money from Comcast or Time Warner. I am opposed to the merger. This does not appear to be a coincidence.” I could hear one person on the dias lol and some lol behind me. The game was soooo obvious.
There is a chance the merger may get killed. One CPUC Commissioner last week put out a strong ruling against the merger which threw a big old wrench into it. Comcast is basically saying they can’t be regulated by the CPUC – or anyone. We’ll see where it goes.
Pull the rug right out from under their pompous circumstances. Beautiful! I’m inspired to do much the same myself and point out naked emperors in my own neck of the woods.
What a superb comment on your part. Lucky you were able to see what the competition was fielding before you spoke. Thanks for standing up for those of us who aren’t in areas where hearings are being held. I haven’t watched t.v. in over 10 years, but I’m opposed to monopolies on principle.
Kudos for doing this. “Never be too proud to be present.” –CP Snow
Fight against the TPP isn’t over yet. Call your senators.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Yes thank you. I called congress, they seemed more interested in my address than what I was calling about but I tried to be crystal clear on that. NO FAST TRACK FOR THE TPP, NO TPP!
For what it’s worth, Sandy Levin is an ex officio member of the Senate trade subcommittee. Eastpointe, St. Clair Shores, everyone east of Woodward between 8 and 14 Mile Roads, now is the time to call up Mr. Levin and give him a piece of your mind on TPP.
I’ve contacted my senators (Boxer and Feinstein) and congressional representative urging a NO vote on fast track – no TPP. Interestingly, I was told by all three offices that no position has been taken on this issue. I’ve sent numerous e-mails to various senators also, so I hope the criminals in D.C. get the message. God help us if this monstrosity passes.
First, ask your senators if they even know what’s in the TPP.
If they say they don’t know, at least they’re being honest.
Sometimes I’m amazed at my naïveté. I saw the link about Al Sharpton starting a hunger strike over the Loretta Lynch nomination, and I thought, “Wow! Al Sharpton is protesting against the nomination of the female Eric Holder! This is very good!” Nope, no such luck. He’s actually protesting against the delay in her confirmation.
At lest you took the time to read it and see dirty al is up to no good for his puppet masters. What will be amazing is he will still be FAT.
How long until just a smile is left?
My memory of Al that I will seemingly take to the grave is him wearing a satin jumpsuit w/ the nugget jewelry ensemble standing up pointing forward in one of those airport golfcart shuttle thingies, like Washington crossing the Potomac, while some flunky was schlepping his carry-on debris.
Yep. No matter how hard I try, I’m never cynical enough. Seems like I’m not the only one….
Big Al knows where his bread is buttered.
If Mr. Sharpton is doing this hunger strike in public view, the least that Lynch-opponents can do is organize a 24/7 eatathon in Sharpton’s presence. People eating delicious wonderful-smelling food right up next to Sharpton where he just has to see it and smell it.
tACApocalypse Season is over. Would love to read more editorials or links on this topic here on NC, now that presumably some hard data will be reported.
How many ppl paid the Individual Mandate Penalty, despite 0bama & 0bot Lawrence O’Donnell claim that “the individual mandate is optional”? IIRC there was an link here in recent days claiming an estimate 4-6 Million Muricans would be paying the Individual Mandate Tax, that does not sound “Optional”!
How many people on ACA coupon private oligopolistic health insurance, could not Nostradamus in Dec 2013 their calendar 2014 income, were fortunate to outearn what the predicted, and now owe an IRS multiple $Ks in back taxes to the IRS, and be under the IRS’ thumb with penalties, wage garnishments, etc.
How many people had an exception to the Individual Mandate, such as the health insurance cost exceeds 8% income, or “religous exception”, or being under 138% FPL (Federal Poverty Level) whilst being in a non ACA Adult Medicaid state, etc; yet got hosed into paying the Individual Mandate Tax, because of the requirement of getting the required Waiver/Form from the IRS, & the IRS Call Center being recently understaffed & mass-layoff’d by Congress despite this new source of ACA-related demand, & the IRS claiming they will do “Courtesy Hangups” on these screwed-over taxpayers? What a textbook example of neoliberal right-wingers ReThugz + DLC Dems, intentionally making a Govt service an atrociously crappy experience, then crying “See, BigGov sux!” Dumbing down the level of IRS Customer Service to say a mobile phone company Customer No-Service?!
I would not be surprised if there ends up being a cohort of say 3% who were suffered such ACA tax abuse/headaches, & this cohort could swing a close 2016 Pres election from Hellary the DINO Republican to Jeb!/Walker The Re-pub-Lie-Con Classic TM. You read it hear first!
Walker wouldn’t even carry Wisconsin. Voters there are suffering from buyer’s remorse.
Scott Walker approval rating makes ‘significant drop’ in Wisconsin
live feeds of UK election debate, where Cameron didn’t show up for! (Lambert you have to watch/follow)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/apr/16/bbc-election-debate-live
twitter people is being quite funny #BBCDebate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/election-2015-32313846
Ukrainian journalist and historian Oles Bujina murdered in Ukraine:
http://thesaker.is/oles-buzina-has-been-murdered-in-kiev/
Aaaaaaaand…. TPP fast track was just approved.
That was fast.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/congress-strikes-deal-fast-track-controversial-trade-bill
Yep, not surprised and I’m sure we’ll hear we had to do this and we’ll fix it later by are very own corp. owned so-called elected officials.
Not a bug but a future for sure, thanks Lambert;)
Not surprised. Things sure seem pretty hopeless these days. I guess the question now is just how much worse will things get?
As long as we keep seeing ourselves as obligated to participate in the oligarchs’ reality, as bad as it possibly can.
It was? Passed or introduced? Yes I saw the linked article, but other news on the web was not so clear and seemed to contradict that.
It seems from all evidence like Fast Track was merely introduced. I know that’s bad enough. But it’s best to know where we actually are. There’s still time to fight this thing.
Not really approved; the deal was cut but there is no vote. Also, I read elsewhere that amendments will be allowed; I’m not sure what rule the bill will be brought up under, sadly. No doubt some form of parliamentary chicanery.
Is there going to be a vote?
That’s what confused me too (I’m just a bill …). I thought they had to at least vote on Fast Track (and I looked in vain for the bill # as well). Ok, they don’t “have to” anything I suppose in our lovely corporate dictatorship, but it’s very confusing what is going on if they aren’t going full dictatorship even before passing the thing.
Video of Senator Warren at the Minsky Conference yesterday ( 36 min ) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSpfGodTrtk&list=PLGGYihhM4K23u5h-2wBFx5bd3hX_8NjlX
And our goose is well and truly cooked. It feels a lot like Athens 411 BC. Today’s the day when “the oligarchy of 5,000” came back, but in our case it’s closer to 27,000.
What has Moore’s Law done for guillotines, one wonders.
The Muckrock link is very interesting. Randomly trawling the site I saw you can read the results of FOIA requests that have previously been submitted using the platform. Just as such a random example here are the results for a request to the FBI for their Steve Jobs files: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/steve-jobs-fbi-files-847/ It begins with an FBI “Questionnaire for Sensitive Persons” with questions such about such subjects as personal drug use and if he had ever been a member of the Communist Party [sic]! I wonder how one is chosen for this august group of sensitive individuals and under what circumstances people are compelled to supply such information?
The Muckrock site feels like it could be a powerful tool.
Dutch Nazi-costumed dominatrix banker fired [Daily Mail]. €10K a week seems low. Perhaps that was the difficulty?
“…..shows a range of provocative images, including one of her wearing an SS cap.”
A cap? really?
“Hatch and Wyden could unveil the fast track bill “as soon as” this afternoon'”
Indeed they did. Total betrayal.
Wyden is SO getting a Pacific Green opponent next year. The process has already begun – because I initiated it.
If the spoiler effect is all the power we’ve got, I say we make th emost of it.
Last year, the Republicans made us irrelevant by nominating total losers. Maybe they’ll do better next year (though I suspect collusion.) It would be nice to put some fear into the arrogant slime.
Could you drum up a Democratic Tea Partier primary challenge for Wyden? There are a lot of “prepper” type independents in the Northwest. Then, when Wyden chicanes the primary, pick up the bulk of the “preppers” and those they attracted from the party rank and file and meld them into a “United Front” Green challenge. It has worked before.
One could, but what good would it do? Wyden’s pulled the trigger and no MNC is going to let him starve. Now, something like not guaranteeing that he’ll be able to do business in the state might work, though really, there’s no reason now that he ever would need to come home, as he is Risen.
Prospective accountability is an oxymoron.
If he is ego-identified with BEing a SENator, then being successfully Nadered and having his “visible public life career” exterminated could make him feel bad, and might be a warning to other Senators who are ego-identified with BEing SENators. And some are. So arranging for the “Death by Nader” of Wyden’s public career would be worth pursuing for that reason.
did rubio miss his chance to say that, for most americans, yesterday was better?