House of Cards and earthquakes.

Saturday Shorts:
Opening Stuff:

I find it kind of scary when I realized that more and more we buy stocks and elect “leaders” using the same principle – Popularity. Do we live in a new world where two of the key legs of a society – the economy and the government – have a chance of being entirely superficial? Without any substance at all. Are two of historic strengths of our nation now just mere houses of cards relying solely on the whimsical minds of publicists and ad guys? Makes you nervous, doesn’t it?

I don’t know about you, but announcements of new electric cars with a battery life of 100 miles does not impress me. How nervous would you be wondering whether or not you have enough juice to get home? You would probably have to add some kind of a delay factor of about I0% to each trip plan. And then you have to have the faith that the indicators on your dash boards are accurate. Oh, I forgot, these new computerized cars are failsafe.

There is no such thing as running out of ideas. Let nothing bog you down.

The Headlines:
--Massive 8.8 Earthquake Devastates Chili; Aftershocks Are Giant 6.9 On Scale; Tsunamis Threaten ¼ of Pacific Ocean Countries; Hawaii Issued Tsunami Warning.
--Fannie Mae Needs $15.3 Billion In Government Aid After 4th Q Loss.
--Banks In Nevada And Washington Become 21st and 22nd Shut Down This Year By FDIC.
--3 Key Senators Rewriting Legislation That Would Disguise The Hazardous-To-The-Economy-And-Mental-Stability-Of-Logical-People “Cap & Trade” Travesty; Softer Version Would Just Slowly Suck Out The Guts Of America.
--Prime Time Says He Will Announce HC Strategy Next Week.
--US Rushing To Aid Chili.
--Suicide Attacks Continue To Kill In Pakistan.

Back to More Stuff:
Is it me, or are earthquakes bigger than ever and more frequent? With out getting into some pretty complex math, here’s a simple description of damage potential as indicated by the Richter Scale: 4-4.9 – light: Noticeable shaking of indoor items. 5-5.9 – Moderate: Major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small area. 6-6.9 – Strong: Destruction across 100 miles. 7-7.9 – Major: Serious damage over large area. 8-8.9 – Great: Serious Damage over several 100 miles. 9-9.9 – Great: Devastating across several 1,000 miles. 10+ -- Epic: Has never happened.

I never send along emails from people who try to make feel guilty if I don’t send it or threaten some kind of demonic intervention or a visit by the IRS. Oh, that’s the same thing. We have to have little rules in life to keep things orderly.

In fact, the Tids has a policy 25.2-A sub B that strictly forbids the urging of forwarding this daily morning morass. We don’t good readers to lose friends.

Despite her proclivity to Prima Donna-hood, Lindsey Vonn is one tough woman.

It’s about this media concocted controversy over the Canadian women’s celebration. If I were there I’d light their cigars. My understanding is that the Olympic village is one wild place. These women just celebrated their magnificent achievement out in the open on ice that was the place of an enormous victory for them –and their country. I’ll pop a Diet Coke (Or Pepsi – I’m going for sponsors) to them any day or night. Loosen up.

No Soul Department:
Like so many on this subject, the headline read: “The NY Democrat brushes off ethics finding.” These politicians of ours have long ago escaped the oppression of guilt, morality and conscience. Some people measure the greatness of politicians by their ability to bypass basic morality better than others. “It’s just the way politics works.”, they say. I’ll take ethics and honesty any day.

One of the great unsung woman of our times is Annette Downing. Annette died in 2002. But her legacy will live forever. She almost single handily saved Providence and all of it’s 18th and 19th century homes and buildings from modernization and redevelopment. Not only did she preserve history, but her steady campaign helped keep that big city downtown from becoming just another blight. And forcing people to move to the suburbs where additional land would be desecrated. You would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful place than Annette’s city. A modern place that has never forgotten it’s incredible history. Oh, maybe the politicians have forgotten.

Danika Patrick has become the Michelle Wie of racing.

When is Spring Training going to end?

Yesterday I made some remarks about Goldman and the “biggest bookie joint” in America People who don't know what Credit Default Swaps (CDS's) are, will naturally assume something fishy is happening. In the Greece situation, Goldman loaned the beleaguered country an upfront payment for a revenue stream later. For instance, Goldman may have sought to protect itself against heavy losses from Greece because it was uniquely exposed to those losses. The terms of the swap meant that GS essentially made an upfront payment to Greece in exchange for a later revenue stream. If Greece defaults, Goldman loses. In other words, GS short trades against the Greek debt is a prudent precaution. It is a form of credit protection – Buy short trades against assets such as loan and swap obligations due to them. It is easy to complain about these complex CDS’s, but here they were used exactly what they were created for -- to hedge against scary long positions.

One of the real issues here isn’t about Goldman actions but about the forthrightness of the Greek government. The Goldman money is masked from the total debt obligations of an entity, in this case a country. The EU would the see on the application to EU a different balance sheet, a leaner one. This is one of those issues where ethics are trumped by legality.

Want to read more: Check this out:
http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-shorted-greek-debt-after-it-arranged-those-shady-swaps-2010-2

I leave you with this poem from the Letters to the Editor section of the Providence Journal:

Why do they call Republicans Red and Democrats Blue?
It seems the opposite would be true.
Red is for Socialists, leftists and commies.
Blue is true blue: the flag, apple pie and mommies.
Who voted for this? Who made it true?
I’m not a Democrat, but I sure am blue.
             -Joe Thompson, RI

Oh well.