Off the Cuff

The Big Hate

Krugman has interesting peice in the NY Times:

And at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased. Exhibit A for the mainstreaming of right-wing extremism is Fox News’s new star, Glenn Beck. Here we have a network where, like it or not, millions of Americans get their news — and it gives daily airtime to a commentator who, among other things, warned viewers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency might be building concentration camps as part of the Obama administration’s “totalitarian” agenda (although he eventually conceded that nothing of the kind was happening).

Leaked from Palin's Debate Prep?

From Aden Nak:

Buffet is right, but the Bush Administration aren't qualified for the job.

Buffet is right:

"I bet they'll make a profit," said Buffett, who pointed out that hedge funds specialising in junk assets were already picking up mortgage-related securities with a view to making profits of 15% to 20%. He said a positive return was feasible if the government ignores the book value of instruments or the original cost to banks and instead pays the prevailing market rates for the bombed out assets. Banking crisis: Warren Buffett sees US bailout as a golden opportunity

The unfortunate part of it is, is that the members of the Bush Administration share the same mind set as those in financial industry that got us into this mess: short term profit and greed. Buffet invests for the long-term and looks for value. He practices capitalism the way it was meant to be practiced.

Funny.....

Via: Cagle

You just can't make this stuff up!

You just can't make this stuff up! Check it out.

McCain's Speech Backdrop Was Used In Matt Santos' West Wing Presidential Announcement

Manipulation

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting on possible manipulation of oil supply data being probed by CFTC.

Oil-Supply Data Probed for Manipulation

Among the periods the agency is examining, these people say, is a rapid shift in the structure of oil markets in July 2007. Price relationships flipped in a way that was extremely profitable for traders who may have had close knowledge of continuing and rapid drain-off in oil inventories. Oil for near-term delivery had been selling at a discount to oil to be delivered months and years into the future. Suddenly, oil for immediate delivery became much more expensive when a glut of oil at a key hub at Cushing, Okla. rapidly drained.

An agency spokeswoman said, "The CFTC has already announced one enforcement action [in July 2008] in the crude oil markets that resulted from the agency's nationwide crude oil investigation, and these investigative efforts are ongoing. Ensuring the integrity of the futures markets is critical, particularly in the energy sector given the impact energy prices have on all consumers."

It is illegal to report false data to the EIA. One issue is how much the EIA vets the information it receives; the CFTC is interested in doing more thorough examinations of inventory data that it suspects may be inaccurate. Jonathan Cogan, spokesman for EIA, says while the EIA doesn't do physical inventory checks to audit the accuracy of the reported numbers, the agency looks at other data on supply and demand to determine if the inventory data appears on target.

Obama's Legislative Accomplishments.

Here's are three of Obama's legislative accomplishments via: Obsidian Wings. If you click the link you will find more.

* Ethics Reform: Obama was the Senate's point person on ethics reform, and sponsored or co-sponsored the bills that made up what the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet." I'm also a fan of this bill, which I think of as the Journalists, Bloggers, and Citizens' Muckraking Empowerment Act: it creates a searchable database of recipients of federal grants and contracts.

* The Lugar-Obama initiative to strengthen the Nunn-Luger framework for securing loose nukes, and to extend it to securing and destroying stockpiles of conventional arms. (For instance, shoulder-fired missiles that could be used against passenger airlines, fired at our forces, or used to make any number of ongoing conflicts more deadly.)

* Various bills concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina, including an amendment putting strict limits on the use of no-bid contracts after disasters, requiring planning for the evacuation of people with special needs and senior citizens, creating a National Emergency Family Locator System, etc.

Boo Hoo

Let me wipe the tear from my eye....

Rising costs erode oil industry’s profits

Rodney Schmidt of Standard Chartered suggested that if oil prices continued to fall, oil companies could face growing difficulties. “We are now at a point of greater uncertainty...where there are questions about demand and about where prices will end up. At the same time, profit margins have not been increasing.”

Company profits have been squeezed because costs have risen along with revenues, and governments of resource-holding countries have been taking a greater slice of the proceeds through tax increases or contract renegotiations.

Well this makes sense.......well not really

AP IMPACT: Big Oil profits steered to investors

Can someone explain why the oil companies should be permitted to drill offshore after reading this:

The five biggest international oil companies plowed about 55 percent of the cash they made from their businesses into stock buybacks and dividends last year, up from 30 percent in 2000 and just 1 percent in 1993, according to Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. The percentage they spend to find new deposits of fossil fuels has remained flat for years, in the mid-single digits. AP IMPACT: Big Oil profits steered to investors