patrick.net

I’ll say we just tax you at 150% and use the money for a patrick.net down-payment pool.

Hey, said tax booze @100%. That's an effective 150% tax for me!

DinOR, Always nice to have you pop in. Woke up with a feeling of dread yesterday morning at that thought of the "stimulus" package and Keynesians running amok. Couldn't help but think of your "Hitting the wall at 100mph" aphorism -- except this time I fear the US government is going to give it a go. Evidently the market is having second thoughts too (see price of gold). I think I need a pep talk from one of the resident deflationistas.

Keynesians running amok

They are scarier than zombies.

kewp,

I hope there are not many people like you around. If you lived in the Weimar Republic, you would have been one of the many people standing by as millions of people were sent to their deaths.

Hilter loved gun control. If I had been in Germany at the time, I would have been an outlaw.

On second thought, if I lived in California with what I have, I would be an outlaw.

It is about time to slap some protectionist policy all around. Bravo Obama.

What is the point if I am living in the richest country in the world having to be exposed to melamine food scare? Why should China-made low quality ingredients infest every single aspect of my life? Why should I let my neighbors lose their jobs to China and India and create a hallowed out community around where I live and be exposed to unemployment crime?

This is a country rich in natural and human resources, and if we close our door tight entirely, it won't be the Americans that will suffer the most. So close the door, either default completely on our debt or just give them more freshly printed USD, let the other countries eat cake.

Certainly one's hours of labor are limited -- 40x52=2080 per year. But mass production quantities are just about unlimited -- mp3 files? So there is more value in equity than in labor. You can spend a few hours making a machine that makes products...then it is very valuable to own that machine.

On second thought, if I lived in California with what I have, I would be an outlaw.

"Assault" weapons? Or "unsafe" handguns?

And unless I'm mistaken, the Nazi's had guns too. Lots of them in fact. Good ones, even!

TOB,

I never owned any property in China, it is a personal principal of mine not to own any immobile assets in developing countries. I shorted the red chips from the peak all the way down :-) My biggest gain last year was by shorting BIDU.

I always wonder what makes liberals believe that outlawing guns can keep outlaws from owning guns.

The 2nd Amendment is arguably the most important amendment. The sixteenth is the least important and the most harmful.

Peter, be careful what you call a liberal. Being liberal is not bad. Being a leftist is bad. I do not consider them the same.

I know... most of my friends are (left-ish) liberals. :)

If they are "bad" why would I still befriend them?

Well... California.

In fact, even leftists are not so bad. They are bad only if they implement leftist policies.

Bad was not the best description. The leftist policies are bad. I also think the policies of the right are wrong.

What OO said.

"( see price of gold )" No Jive! Wow.

For me the broader point is, if there was a disconnect between incomes and home prices ( it was doubly so for the disconnect between incomes and actual labor! )

Some kind of twisted IPO/Start-Up scenario where people from all walks willingly subjected themselves to all manner of abuse if it meant they would become "rich, Rich!" ( so they ostensibly wouldn't be subjected to abuse ) ? WTF?

Sadly I feel the seeds of the 'next' bubble already being sown. Don't you just get the sense that others around us are already jockeying for position? Only this time they'll be smarter.

How about some good news? Last week I said the Fed's balance sheet could dip below $2 trillion. Check it out; Reserve Bank credit fell to $1.91 trillion, mainly on the strength of the improving commercial paper market (and declining repos). The last TAF auction only fell by $2 billion, so I'm not yet ready to declare victory (over the "credit crisis", and then we can get back to our regularly scheduled depression -- err, recession).

"It is about time to slap some protectionist policy all around. Bravo Obama.

What is the point if I am living in the richest country in the world having to be exposed to melamine food scare? Why should China-made low quality ingredients infest every single aspect of my life? Why should I let my neighbors lose their jobs to China and India and create a hallowed out community around where I live and be exposed to unemployment crime?

This is a country rich in natural and human resources, and if we close our door tight entirely, it won’t be the Americans that will suffer the most. So close the door..."

I see. Said another way, I got mine, I exploited the largesse of American society tolerating the H-1 program to make my fortune in the fortress, secure a foothold in the USA so I won't be subjected to chaos if things implode in my country, and, now that I've done that, time to close the door behind me because I got mine.

Got it.

sybrib,

I was never a Chinese citizen, so I don't care whether things implode there from day one.

And I never said H1B should be abandoned, I just think it should be tightened to reflect the economy. People migrate to the US not because they want to live in a third world country, but because they want to live in a first world country. Since I am a US citizen, shouldn't I care about what happens to the US than other countries? Shouldn't all US citizens would rather have other countries implode than the US?

I see.

Now that I've taken full advantage of America's culture of relative openness for immigration, now that I can count on protection of that US passport, now that I've got mine, time to close the door to the rest of the world.

Sybrib,
Being that the US of A is a democracy and I believe the majority of people are against H1B's then they should no longer exist. Whether you are for or against H1B's there is a need to make logical arguments, not emotional arguments. I think that in a recession they should cease, but if there is truly a need then great come on in. The fact that I know of a lot of great out of work engineers and that the large company I work for is still hiring H1B's really does not make sense. I have sent e-mails but we will see where that goes.

slumlord,

I hear ya, and I agree.

There's also a whole lot of "Now that I got mine, the problem with this (new) country of mine is all those goddarn foreigners they keep letting in". And this message seems to come loudly from those who wherever the heck they came from, were able to exploit privilege and American largesse to come here for grad school, an H-1 job, by various loophole hook and crook or whatever (sometimes marriage) turn that temporary privilege into a green card and then, particularly if from a country like Taiwan where they can get conscripted into a conflict, or China where they can get caught up in a political powderkeg, exempt themselves from those unfortunate situations by doing what it takes to become a US citizen. Wall themselves up in privileged Fortress neighborhood enclaves of like-minded folks. Fair enough. The American Dream. I suppose that my ancestors some of whom who arrived at Ellis Island and others who were early Puritan settlers in the Bay Colony were not too much different.

But then, now that we're here in the common fraternity of "citizens" safely ensconced in our Fortress Situation, well, now the whole damned problem is all those H-1's that "we" keep lettin' in, allowing themselves to be exploited at the expense of those of us who're already part of the fraternity. And oh by the way, now that I got mine, why the hell don't we build a Great Wall on the Mexican border to keep all those people out who live out their character at great risk to life and limb to feed their family?

That's the kind of folk we attract in Silicon Valley I suppose.

But damned if anyone else ought to be

I don’t think Left or Right are bad. Freedom is a precious and fragile balance of both.

I agree. One should be free to choose his philosophy and world view.

Does anyone around here speak Russian? I'm still stuck trying to read the graphic at the head of this thread.

The fact that I know of a lot of great out of work engineers and that the large company I work for is still hiring H1B’s really does not make sense.

Companies that lay off engineers should be banned from petitioning to hire new H1-B engineers (or processing green-card applicants) within x months of the layoff. If they claim that the layoffs were for a different skillset, the onus is on them to prove that existing staff could not be retrained. It just seems logical.

The main problem with H1-B during the boom years was not the program itself, but its flagrant abuse. The legislative intent was subverted and exploited significantly.

SP,
I agree with you. I have gone through a bunch of requisitions that my company is hiring H1B's for and forwarded them to friends so that they can apply for them. I have also sent e-mails to higher ups telling them that in a recession it is not right to hire H1B's seeing as we have plenty of out of work people here. We will see if anyone responds.
A good percentage of higher ups in the management chain are immigrants or H1B's, so I tried not to offend them and they need to understand that once you are here you are American and your allegiance is to the USA not any other country or peoples.
If we get into another tech bubble in the future and there are truly not enough qualified people here then I welcome anyone from any country to come help us be more competitive.
As far as abuse of the H1B program, I don't even want to get started.

Once you own a business your objective is to seek profit. In a capitalistic society, this is the right way to do.

Repeat after me, a business does NOT exist only to provide employment.

It is not right to ask companies to hire only from a group people, or to ask people to only work for a few industry sectors. When supply and demand meet, there is a deal.

Employers and employees cross paths only to satisfy market needs. This is an invariable truth.

How much money can these companies save anyway? Does it even worth the trouble?

SP, then the solution would be to go after the abusers.

We need few regulations in the society. But we must strongly enforce those regulations evenly.

The legislative intent was subverted and exploited significantly.

Yet another reason why legislation can never solve any economic problem.

I tried not to offend them and they need to understand that once you are here you are American and your allegiance is to the USA not any other country or peoples.

You are correct... but hiring is not about allegiance. It is about a greater good paradoxically created by unknowing self-interests through Free Market.

Former Cupertino Internet security worker pleads no contest to embezzlement
By Lisa Fernandez, Mercury News
Posted: 01/30/2009 08:38:46 AM PST

A former Internet security company employee has plead no contest to one count of felony grand theft following charges that he embezzled more than $130,000 from the Cupertino offices of Trend Micro.

In a statement issued today, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said Russell Morita, 48, of Sunnyvale could receive up to three years in prison when he is sentenced in June. He entered the plea last week and is out of custody.

According to prosecutors, Morita used a company credit card from 2004 to 2007 to buy flat screen televisions, laptop computers, video games, furniture and other electronics — items that he had shipped directly to his home. Also, prosecutors say Morita charged twice the amount on some items he bought with the company credit card, then had the balance refunded to his personal account.

An employee in Trend Micro's accounting department became suspicious when Morita tried to pay $25,000 to his corporate credit card, prosecutors say. Morita violated company policy when he approved the payment and then signed the check himself.

Trend Micro was founded in 1988, and has its headquarters in Tokyo with a U.S. annual revenue of $848 million and more than 3,700 employees, according to the company's Web site.

NEC Corp. announced it plans to cut 20,000 positions worldwide starting in April. Half the layoffs will be full-time positions. The company, a Japan-based technology provider of network, IT and identity management systems, plans to exit the liquid-crystal display business.

According the the company's Web site, NEC and its more than 300 subsidiaries employ approximately 150,000. Several of NEC Corp.'s subsidiaries are in Silicon Valley, including Santa Clara-based NEC Electronics America, San Jose-based NEC Tokin America Inc. and Cupertino-based NEC FiberOpTech Inc. NEC Laboratories America has an office in Cupertino.

Ever since central banks stopped pegging their currencies to the price of gold, money has been a nebulous concept: a promise to pay the bearer, or "cheque" from the central bank, rather than a permanent store of wealth.

Global recession - where did all the money go?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/dan-roberts-on-business-blog/interactive/2009/jan/29/financial-pyramid

WHITTIER, CALIF. - How in the world does a woman with six children get a fertility doctor to help her have more -- eight more?

An ethical debate erupted Friday after it was learned that the 33-year-old Southern California woman who gave birth to octuplets this week had six children already.

Large multiple births "are presented on TV shows as a 'Brady Bunch' moment. They're not," fumed Arthur Caplan, bioethics chairman at the University of Pennsylvania. He noted the serious and sometimes lethal complications and crushing medical costs that often come with high-multiple births.

But Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, who has fertility clinics in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, countered: "Who am I to say that six is the limit? There are people who like to have big families."

Kaiser Permanente announced the mega-delivery Monday. It was only the second time in U.S. history that eight babies survived more than a few hours after birth. The six boys and two girls are said to be in good condition.

So why, with a brood of six including 2-year-old twins, did Nadya Suleman chose to have more children?

Five young children and their mother are shot to death. Police find notes referring to 'work-related issues.'
By Andrew Blankstein, Richard Winton and Ruben Vives
3:15 PM PST, January 27, 2009
A man who had recently been laid off from a local hospital opened fire at his Wilmington home today, killing his five young children as well as his wife, police said.

The gunman then took his own life, according to authorities. Police said the children were an 8-year-old girl, twin 5-year-old girls and twin 2-year-old boys. LAPD Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner said police found notes inside the house in which the gunman referred to "work-related issues."

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"In these tough economic times, there are other options," Garner said. "In my 32 years, I've never seen anything like this."

Police discovered the bodies after a bizarre series of events this morning that included, authorities said, the gunman faxing a letter to KABC Channel 7 shortly before killing himself. Someone, possibly the gunman, called the LAPD about 8:20 a.m. saying, "I just returned home, and my whole family has been shot," according to Garner.

Police entered the house and smelled gunshot residue. The bodies were found around the house. Each person apparently had been shot with a revolver.

Garner said the bodies of the three girls were found in an upstairs bedroom and the bodies of the boys and the mother were found in a back bedroom. Notes found at the house suggested the case was a murder-suicide, he said.

According to Channel 7, the faxed letter detailed workplace problems both the man and his wife were having at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in West Los Angeles. The letter said that an unnamed administrator told him one day that he shouldn't have come to work and said "you should have blown your brains out."

The man said in the letter that he complained to his union to no avail. Then both he and wife were fired, Channel 7 reporter Gene Gleeson said in summarizing the letter.

The couple, Ervin Antonio Lupoe and his wife, Ana, were both former employees of Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center. "They were recently terminated," a spokesman for the hospital group confirmed.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the tragic deaths of Ana, Ervin and their five children," Kaiser said in a statement, extending the hospital group's sympathies to their family and friends. "We are providing support to Kaiser Permanente employees."

Kaiser officials said they are cooperating with the ongoing LAPD investigation.

"Once you own a business your objective is to seek profit. In a capitalistic society, this is the right way to do."

We are not a capitalistic society and never have been. We are a democracy. In a democracy it is the majority that rules not one ideology or one party. If the people don't want H1B then it should not be there.

"You are correct… but hiring is not about allegiance. It is about a greater good paradoxically created by unknowing self-interests through Free Market."

Unknowing self-interest? LOL Free Market is about greed and collusion both by corporations and unions. It is a race to the lowest common denominator. With people literally beating up union organizers or beating up scabs.

Ever since central banks stopped pegging their currencies to the price of gold, money has been a nebulous concept: a promise to pay the bearer, or “cheque” from the central bank, rather than a permanent store of wealth.

Easy solution to that.

A. Get a job.

B. Get paid in worthless fiat currency.

C. Trade said worthless currency for gold.

Note that this arrangement is much more flexible than having a gold standard. Assets and labor become the standard.

Is the Bad Bank or no Bad Bank the real issue here? I have been hearing lots of pros and cons on CNBC throughout the day.

I think it is being able to separate the fixed income securities into granular groups per their risk/return characteristics, in order to separate the “toxic” assets from the rest of them (based on whatever criteria of what “toxic” is). If one can do that, pricing will be quite easy.

The way pricing has been done on Wall Street prior to this crisis proved untenable. Not that the theoretical models were bad, but the structures/data used as inputs into the models was and still is extremely “dirty”. If not the data itself then it was the meta-data, the data that described it, which was “dirty”.
For instance, most Wall Street financial institutions and rating agencies do not have systems providing for the ability to drill all the way from RMBS instruments to the underlying loans to identify exposures. This is because the data models are not in line in terms of complexity with the structures of instruments they attempt at describing.

Pools statistics are also very sparse (that is, many of important composite statistics like distribution across geography & prime/sub-prime, superimposed, are simply missing) to be able to reliably estimate risk exposures based on them.
Imagine having a warehouse filled with candy. You know that 10% of the candy is poisoned with cyanide, but the rest of it is perfectly good. And you lost track of the process that resulted in the candy getting poisoned. Regardless how you separate the candy into multiple piles, and how you call the piles, if you cannot separate the bad ones from the good ones, nothing would help.
A theoretically feasible solution would be to go after the originators of the loans and issuers of the securities to determine which loan “feeds” which security, and under which circumstances (it is dependent on many factors, some of which change over time). But that would be extremely expensive. Using the above analogy, it is a little better than unwrapping and testing each candy.

Some “forensic” type of analysis could be done, but the challenge is to optimize the cost/benefit of a garden variety of approaches.
Hopefully, the next time around Wall Street will not be looking at raw data, reference data, data warehousing and business intelligence as nice-to-haves. As they loved to say, “if it was an ideal world, we could afford looking into that, but now we are after frying a bigger fish.” Looks like the “big fish” got a little “burned”.

Never heard of it.