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  • You’d Be A Fool To Hold Anything But Cash Now

    David Stockman was Reagan’s budget director and quit because he thought there was too much deficit spending.  Then he went to Blackstone and really learned the pro’s and con’s of using debt to make things happen.

    Q: How do investors protect themselves? What about the stock market?

    A: I wouldn’t touch the stock market with a 100-foot pole. It’s a dangerous place. It’s not safe for men, women or children.

    Q: Do you own any shares?

    A: No.

    Q: But the stock market is trading cheap by some measures. It’s valued at 12.5 times expected earnings this year. The typical multiple is 15 times.

    A: The typical multiple is based on a historic period when the economy could grow at a standard rate. The idea that you can capitalize this market at a rate that was safe to capitalize it in 1990 or 1970 or 1955 is a large mistake. It’s a Wall Street sales pitch.

    Q: Are you in short-term Treasurys?

    A: I’m just in short-term, yeah. Call it cash. I have some gold. I’m not going to take any risk.

    via Business Insider.

    The whole article is worth reading.  Amazing stuff.

    Another little tid-bit I can’t help sharing:

    Q: But the unemployment rate is falling and companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 are making more money than ever.

    A: That’s very short-term. Look at the data that really counts. The 131.7 million (jobs in November) was first achieved in February 2000. That number has gone nowhere for 12 years.

    Another measure is the rate of investment in new plant and equipment. There is no sustained net investment in our economy. The rate of growth since 2000 (in what the Commerce Department calls non-residential fixed investment) has been 0.8 percent — hardly measurable. (Non-residential fixed investment is the money put into office buildings, factories, software and other equipment.)

    We’re stalled, stuck.

    You’ve been warned.

  • Dog Walker in Custody After Stabbing

    This is the third or fourth stabbing in the last two weeks.

    A 61-year-old man is in custody after police said he stabbed another man this morning after the two had an argument that began when the victim tried to swat the dog away in the Longwood Manor neighborhood.  …

    An argument escalated and resulted in the stabbing of the younger man, said O’Brien.

    The man was stabbed in the back and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in serious condition, officials said.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    No word yet on whether or not Rahm is going to request a statewide registry on knife owners.

  • Gun Control Measures Advance

    Yes, this is a few days old:

    Two controversial gun control proposals advanced to the full House Wednesday.

    On a partisan vote, the Democratic-controlled House Executive Committee approved a measure requiring handgun owners to register their weapons with the state.

    The panel also signed off on legislation that would create a special 2 percent tax on ammunition, which would finance trauma facilities that treat gunshot victims.

    Both measures headed to the floor after failing to win support from Republican committee members. They said it remains unproven that such laws will reduce crime. And, they added, downstate gun owners would be unfairly burdened with the changes.

    via The Quad City Times.

    This is of course ridiculous.  I have already written on how gun control registries are expensive and don’t live up to their claims.  But I guess the gun control Nazis don’t care about such things.

    Thanks to the folks over at Second City Cop, I did not a little research and found out that in the U.S. (my previous writing was on the Canadian registry) criminals actually cannot be prosecuted for not registering their weapons.  Really?  Yes, really!

    The USSC (United States Supreme Court) ruled in Haynes v. United States that:

    Miles Edward Haynes was a convicted felon who was charged with failing to register a firearm under the Act. Haynes argued that, because he was a convicted felon and thus prohibited from owning a firearm, requiring him to register was essentially requiring him to make an open admission to the government that he was in violation of the law, which was thus a violation of his right not to incriminate himself.

    In 7-1 decision, the Court ruled in favor of Haynes.

    You see, in Illinois if you are felon you cannot get a FOID card which is necessary to possess — even touch a single bullet — a firearm or ammunition in the state.  So if you don’t have a FOID you cannot register your handgun.  However, because registering your handgun would force you to demonstrate that you do not have a FOID means that you would be incriminating yourself by trying to register.  Therefore, registration would violate your 5th Amendment right against self incrimination.

    So, this registry has absolutely NOTHING to do with getting guns out of the hands of criminals — the don’t have to register them!!

    It’s all about creating a list of law abiding citizens (including police officers) who happen to own handguns.

  • Judge Rules Eavesdropping Law Unconstitutional

    A Cook County judge today ruled the state’s controversial eavesdropping law unconstitutional.

    The law makes it a felony offense to make audio recordings of police officers without their consent even when they’re performing their public duties.

    Judge Stanley Sacks, who is assigned to the Criminal Courts Building, found the eavesdropping law unconstitutional because it potentially criminalizes “wholly innocent conduct.”

    via Chicago Tribune.

    What the story has wrong is that it’s not just illegal to record police officers; it’s illegal to record ANY conversation where all parties to said conversation are not aware that they are being recorded.

    So it’s safe to say that this is not the end of the story.  It’s most likely still illegal to record you telephone calls without letting the party on the other end know.  I wonder what the Illinois legislature will do with this.

  • High Gas Prices Raise Airline Ticket Costs

    “[R]ising jet fuel costs put significant cost pressure on the airline industry,” Steve Lott, vice present of communications for Airlines for America told CBSDC. “Regarding fuel, it was the airline industry’s largest expense in 2011, representing 35 percent of total costs. In 2011, the price of jet fuel reached a record high of $3.00 per gallon for the year.  …

    “As with any business, if [an airline] pays more for fuel and operational costs, they need to pass that cost on to the consumer,” she told CBSDC. “There have been [similar] effects in the past.”

    via CBS DC.

    The article cites way that airlines try to reduce the impact of rising fuel prices, include “single engine taxi” which is just as it sounds.  One issue with this practice is that jet engines are really designed to run “at operating temperature” and not take to the air immediately upon start-up.  Naturally the airlines’ practices are pretty safe, but I would suggest this particular solution is less than ideal.

  • GM (Temporarily) Laying off 1300 Due to Low Volt Sales

    General Motors Co. announced the temporary suspension of Chevrolet Volt production and the layoffs of 1300 employees, as the company is cutting Volt manufacturing to meet lower-than-expected demand for the electric cars.

    “Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” GM spokesman Chris Lee said. The car company had hoped to sell 45,000 Chevy Volts in America this year, according to the Detrot News, but has only sold about 1,626 over the first two months of 2012.

    “GM blamed the lack of sales in January on “exaggerated” media reports and the federal government’s investigation into Volt batteries catching fire, which officially began in November and ended Jan. 21,” the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News reported.

    The laid-off employees will be rehired April 23rd, when GM resumes production of the Volt.

    via Washington Examiner.

    I kinda think the headline should be, “People don’t want a car that starts on fire; Media to blame.”

    This is the kind of story that would only appear in a country where the government ran the auto company… oh, wait….

  • The 99% Spring

    It’s coming:

    From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country.  We will organize trainings to:

    Tell the story of our economy: how we got here, who’s responsible, what a different future could look like, and what we can do about it

    Learn the history of non-violent direct action, and

    Get into action on our own campaigns to win change.

    This spring we rise! We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts. We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.

    via The 99% Spring.

    Let’s see… April 9th through the 15th… if only there was something these folks could be training for.  Maybe something going on say, a month later.  Maybe if there was a big gathering of heads of state and other world leaders and if maybe it was going to take place in May somewhere.

    Oh, May in Chicago is going to be one wild ride.  Hang on to your hats ’cause in the Windy City it’s surely going to blow.

  • Emanuel vs. Lewis

    Karen Lewis, the Chicago Teacher’s Union President, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, have a testy relationship at best.  …

    The two leaders met privately last year ahead of Emanuel’s inauguration.  They went for dinner and to attend a dance — both are fans of the art form — and to develop a working relationship.   …

    “In that conversation he did say to me that 25 percent of the students in this city are never going to be anything, never going to amount to anything and he was never going to throw money at them.”

    via NBC Chicago.

    But naturally Emanuel’s people respond:

    The Mayor’s Office said Lewis made up the anecdote.

    “That’s simply false,” said Emanuel Press Secretary Sarah Hamilton. “The Mayor is committed to making sure that every single child in Chicago has access to an excellent education, which is why he is fighting so hard to transform the Chicago public schools that have failed our children year after year.”

    No one knows what was true except those who there.  But that’s not really the point is it?

    The real issue is that CTU President Karen Lewis believes that the way to improve education is to throw money at it.  And doesn’t that just about say about everything that needs to be said?

    We have been throwing more and more money at CPS for years.  The results have not trended with the spending.  Check this out:

    Educational Spending Over the Years

    I wonder how much more money Ms. Lewis want to spend?

  • Businesses Get the Old Yes No on the G-8/NATO Summits

    Well which is it?

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel was asked Thursday whether businesses located within the inner-most security perimeter will have a process to recover lost profits incurred during the May 19-21 events at McCormick Place.

    “The [NATO and G-8] Host Committee is working on it. They’ll have a process for that,” he answered.   …

    Later, after some reflection:

    His answers to the questions, once reported online Thursday, set off a flurry of denials. A spokeswoman issued a statement saying: “We have no plans to reimburse businesses – the city is open for business.”

    When Jennifer Martinez, a spokeswoman for the NATO and G-8 Host Committee, was asked about compensation, she said: “The plan is for all businesses to be open. We do not anticipate businesses being closed. We will not reimburse businesses that decide to close on their own.”

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    Oh, I see.  I guess they didn’t want businesses closing to protect themselves and their employees from what might be 50,000 nutty protesters.  I mean, other businesses are going to be doing just that:

    Already, DePaul University has decided to close its Loop campus on the day before and the day after the summits and deny access to classrooms, labs, the cafeteria and offices in the Loop campus over a four-day period.

    That seems a bit extreme for a private university.  If there’s one thing the protesters understand it’s education.  They want more of it for free.  So why bother a university?  Maybe DePaul knows something they’re not telling.

    The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has said it has “extensive contingency plans” that would allow its employees to “work from home” or from an “off-site location” in the event that demonstrations turn ugly during the summits.

    The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is an old building that has few doors and no windows.  It has it’s own very intense security barriers between the street and the building itself and 24 hour armed guards in the adjacent alley.  It is a fortress.  And yet this place is making plans for employees to work from home or from an off-site location. If this place ain’t safe what chance does the rest of the city have?

    And the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that the civil courtrooms at the Daley Center … could be closed down for security reasons in the days surrounding the unprecedented gathering of world leaders.

    Earlier this month, United Airlines employees worried about how they will get to Willis Tower during the summits questioned Emanuel during a roundtable about the potentially $65 million event expected to turn the world spotlight on Chicago.

    So it’s safe to say that a lot of people appear to have some very reasonable concerns.  It’s not a much ado about nothing situation.

    The mayor played down the inconvenience by describing the summits as a “weekend” event, conveniently ignoring the fact that protesters and world leaders are likely to arrive days before the meetings begin.

    But, what was it that the protesters were saying again?  Oh ya…

    On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month.

    via AdBusters.

    Note to Rahm:  It’s not the Heads of State breaking windows, blocking traffic, and starting squad cars on fire that people worry about.  It the protesters.  And they plan to be here for a month.

     

  • Beavers Indictment: Where’s Madigan?

    So I understand that our unwanted and tried to be run out of town U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois has indicted Old Man Beavers.  The feds are usually pretty good about putting their case together and have a 85-90% conviction rate.  So it’s safe to say that the Hog of Cook County is going to join the long list of Chicago (specifically and Illinois generally) politicians who in the end do time.  Way to make us proud.

    But has anyone asked where Lisa Madigan was when all this was going down?  Isn’t this corrupt political number six or seven for the U.S. Attorney?  How many politicians has Ms. Madigan prosecuted?  Exactly NONE.

    Well ain’t that something.