A new Marshall Plan?

Posted on December 24, 2008 by the editor

Japan should write-off its holdings of Treasuries because the U.S. government will struggle to finance increasing debt levels needed to dig the economy out of recession, said Akio Mikuni, president of credit ratings agency Mikuni & Co.

The dollar may lose as much as 40 percent of its value to 50 yen or 60 yen from the current spot rate of 90.40 today in Tokyo unless Japan takes “drastic measures” to help bail out the U.S. economy, Mikuni said. Treasury yields, which are near record lows, may fall further without debt relief, making it difficult for the U.S. to borrow elsewhere, Mikuni said.

From later on in the article….

Combining debt waivers with infrastructure spending would be similar to the Marshall Plan that helped Europe rebuild after the destruction of World War II, Mikuni said.

“U.S. households simply won’t have the same access to credit that they’ve enjoyed in the past,” he said. “Their demand for all products, including imports, will suffer unless something is done.”

This plan has no chance of happening. At least not officially. But it does reveal the extent to which Japan feels that its economic future depends on the US.

Some Good News

Posted on December 23, 2008 by ape man

From the Wall Street Journal….

“We are seeing more stress in churches than we have in modern history,” says Mark G. Holbrook, president and chief executive of the Evangelical Christian Credit Union of Brea, Calif., which specializes in lending to churches. The credit union has moved to foreclose on seven of its 2,000 member churches this year, and Mr. Holbrook says he expects to take similar action against two more next year. Before now, it had foreclosed on only two churches in its 45-year history.

Church Mortgage & Loan Corp. of Maitland, Fla., another church lender, foreclosed on 10 church properties in the past couple of years. Unable to sell any of them, the company didn’t have the funds to pay more than 400 bondholders the estimated $18 million it owes, says company lawyer Elizabeth Green. Church Mortgage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March.

Strongtower Financial of Fresno, Calif., says two of its 300 evangelical church borrowers are in default, compared with only one in the previous 15 years.

One of the most disgusting things about the modern Christian scene is the amount of money that gets spent on church buildings. Even the ones that don’t go into debt to build still spend the majority of their budget on upkeep and expansion.

One of the reasons that this country is messed up is that we have this cultural notion that that the Government should take care of the poor and that churches should build infrastructure.

Water Main Break

Posted on December 23, 2008 by the editor

It you want to understand more about why the rescue people behaved the way they did, you can go here where Megan Mcardle talks trash and gets slapped down by her comment section.

Why is the US investing so much money in stealth?

Posted on December 23, 2008 by ape man

From Danger Room…..

Soon after radar-guided anti-aircraft missiles became a threat, planners realized that the simplest way to stop them was to take out the radar. These radars make an easy target; in radio terms, they are equivalent to lighthouses, radiating brightly. So in 1958 the U.S. introduced the Shrike, an “Anti-Radiation Missile” that homed in on enemy radar and proved invaluable in the Vietnam War. The modern successor is the AGM-88 HARM High Speed Antiradiation missile, which has longer range and a speed of over mach 2. “No U.S. aircraft has ever been lost to surface-to-air missiles when HARM has been flying cover,” Mike Vigue, HARM Growth Manager at Raytheon, told me.

When ever you read articles like this, people act like it is a great weakness that HARM missiles can’t hit a radar set that has been turned off. But a radar set that has been turned off is not a threat. It is a lot cheaper to pay few planes armed with HARM missiles to fly cover then it is to make sure all of your planes are stealthy.

In a world of unlimited resources, naturally one would want all your planes to be stealthy. But in the real world, their are lot more pressing concerns.

Games are being played

Posted on December 22, 2008 by the editor

From the Wall Street Journal…

The Treasury Department’s inspector general is probing the Office of Thrift Supervision for permitting a backdated capital infusion into IndyMac Bancorp a few months before its collapse in July.

The infusion allowed the bank to be classified as “well capitalized,” instead of “adequately capitalized,” at the end of the first quarter. That let IndyMac avoid having to take certain steps with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

I would worry more about the safety of the residents

Posted on December 22, 2008 by the editor

From The Sentinel…..

Frustration over lingering power outages is turning to outrage in some New Hampshire communities, and police say they are concerned for the safety of line crews.

Unitil officials say that in some cases, residents have parked cars in front of utility trucks to keep them from leaving neighborhoods.

I find it hard to believe that there are enough residents of New Hampshire who can plausibly threaten the safety of an average line crew to be worth worrying about. I think the real police concern is that they not have to arrest a line crew for beating the snot out of somebody who deserves it.

I feel for the foremen though. Trying to keep the hot heads on your crew in line has to be a problem that they don’t need right about now. They are already working 16 hours or more a day from what I hear.

6 Camel Jump

Posted on December 22, 2008 by the editor

Privatizing the Police

Posted on December 21, 2008 by the editor

From the Telegraph….

The Government may increase the powers of debt collectors despite concerns that the industry is poorly controlled.

The new rules, allowable under legislation already passed by Parliament but not yet enacted, would give bailiffs the right to restrain or pin down householders.

Bailiffs are expecting a big increase in business over the next year as tens of thousands of Britons experience financial problems during the forthcoming recession.

From later on in the story….

The Government insists that any new powers would be overseen by an industry watchdog. Bailiffs would also be barred from searching people’s pockets or forcibly removing jewellery.

I find it ironic that a nation that has practically criminalize self defense will now allow private sector debt collectors to use force to seize collateral.