Mover Mike

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran Mover Mike

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Update:

Good defensive battle so far. Cal is offensively scary and Dixon of Oregon was a little off in his passing for 3/4 of first half, but he looks like he's settling down.

Update:

Beavers, my poor Beavers, go down to UCLA 40 to 14

PSU wins 28 to 21 over Eastern Washington.

You thirst for news and The Oregonian's A&E has it. Read what Grant Butler writes:

It's time for Storm Large to sing her big first-act number in "Cabaret," and she slinks up to the old-fashioned microphone and grabs the stand with the certainty of someone who's made this move thousands of times.

"Maybe this time," she sings in a near whisper, "I'll be lucky. Maybe this time, he'll stay."

As the power ballad builds, Storm's voice moves from timid to totally in command, her body leaning into the microphone, caressing the stand with a lover's touch. A knee juts in and she leans back, enveloped in lyrics that are at once passionate and vulnerable. When she gets to the optimistic climax — "Something's bound to begin!" — the air of the Armory's third-floor rehearsal hall crackles with electricity.

When you watch a seasoned rock singer like Storm perform in a nightclub, you're helplessly pulled into the music because the connection between audience and performer is so strong. Since much of "Cabaret" also is in a club setting, the duo hope to blur the lines between musicals and nightlife.

Where: Gerding Theater at the Armory, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

Tickets: $30-$61.50 adults, $23.50 students (excluding Friday-Saturday evenings), $18.50 for 18 and under with I.D. Rush tickets available at box office 15 minutes before some shows, $10 cash. 503-445-3700, www.pcs.org.

Note: Pre-performance discussions 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, Oct. 2-11. Oct. 5 evening performance will be audio described. Oct. 11 evening performance will be sign interpreted.

Storm Large Cabaret Mover Mike

map 1.3 2007/09/27 20:42:28 45.128N 120.936W 18.7 13 km ( 8 mi) ESE of Maupin, OR

Maupin Earthquake Mover Mike

California renters having problems with landlords that go bust.

Foreclosure California Mover Mike

I know it will make some of you laugh. It did me!

Courtesy of To The Point Weekly Report's Humor file.

Federal Reserve headquarters

The FED then prints $100 Million dollars or creates $100 Million out of thin air, and credits the U.S Government's bank account. Our interest bill each year on the national debt is about $500 Billion. So here's my question. Why don't we just cut out the middleman and create the dollars ourselves interest free? We would sure save a lot of money!

Greenbacks Federal Reserve Mover Mike

Update:

I have several questions:

How did she settle on that figure of $5,000?
That seems kind of puny compared to college costs of $100,000 in todays dollars.

Second, will the government invest the money for us or will it be invested like Social Security is invested?

Third, will the money be tax-free or will we have to pay gift taxes on the money?

Fourth, Why are the kids of the U.S. to be the only beneficiaries?
Libs are always worrying about the rest of the world. Wouldn't that put us at a decided advantage over the poor ibn other countries who can't afford college? After all, in Portland, Oregon we long ago said kids in smaller school districts or poorer neighborhoods have a disadvantage and should be supported by the richer districts. Portland currently sends $100 Million of our tax dollars out of the district to the disadvantaged school districts, each year.

Fifth, if she gives a student $5,000 and it is invested at 7% for 18 years, the student will have $16,900, not enough for college. How about 10%? $27,800! Suppose we are a Hedge and get 25%? $277,556! Now we are getting somewhere. Surely the smartest woman in the U.S. can show us how to get 25% annual return. Look what she did in commodities.

Sixth, Here's my suggestion, give me $5,000 in year one and then require me to invest $25 each month in myself until I retire. Assumming a 7.5% return, I could have $1 Million on which to retire. That could be my social security. Better yet why not just let me invest my own Social Security?

Seven, Do you seriously believe the U.S. could keep their hands off the funds of 4,000,000 babies a year piling up huge savings?
Pretty soon some enterprising politician would come along with ideas like Sen. Hillary Clinton on how to spend our money.

Sen. Hillary Clinton Mover Mike

Update:

Philip Klein - Hillary's Baby Bucks

Slublog - Yay! Free Money!

Political Derby.com - Hillary is attempting to buy votes…with YOUR money!

Billy Jack's Blog

Notice, she left out two major components of this idea. The first is that before a child could access this money at age 18, he/she must serve at least a year in the military.

Giving? The gov-ment makes no money, its collects it. From whose paycheck is this coming? Why not let people invest 25% of their Social Security payroll deductions? Oh, the gov-ment must be the Sugar Daddy, it must always be the socialistic approach. You are a dufus. Cost? Who “cares”? We only “care” when use knuckledragging voters want any little tax relief.
What kind of secular socialist vote-buying paradise is this cowardly nutcase proposing? There is no free lunch. democrats love to create dependency and grow the gov-ment for votes. How many feds and buildings and forms will this intrusion into families take? Hey, why not simply triple the tax deduction for kids and let families decide? Why not remove the death tax, the dividend tax and lower the income tax 5%? Socialism is as socialism does. There is no free lunch.

Britain launched a similar program in January 2005, handing out vouchers worth hundreds of dollars each to parents with children born after Sept. 1, 2002.

Earlier this month, Time magazine proposed a $5,000 baby bond program.

Along the Mexican Coast, hurricane warnigs are in effect from Cabo Rojo to Palma Sola. A tropical storm warning is in effect from Palma Sola to Veracruz, and a tropical storm watch is in effect from La Cruz to Cabo Rojo.

Hurricane Lorenzo Mexico Mover Mike

Posted by Richard Lloyd Parry on September 25, 2007 in Burma ,

To this:

(AP) In this photo made available by the Mandalay Gazette, blood soaked sandals are shown on a street following a shooting by soldiers during a protest in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, September 27, 2007.

Myanmar Saffron Revolution Mover Mike

Syria has gone on a profligate buying spree, spending vast sums on Russian systems, "considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology."

Syria now "possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world," with "more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types," some of which are so new that they have been installed in Syria "before being introduced into Russian operation service."

Notice how far away from Israel is Dayr az-Zawr, where the attack took place?

The systems (that cost so much Syrian money) didn't even light up, gave no indication whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip, zero, nada. The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us) blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so completely the Syrians didn't even know they were blinded.

Syria Israeli air strike Mover Mike

Update:

To me they look like charts of mortgage brokers that bit the dust. In Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis, they are singled out as the three with the highest risk of default.

This is a golden age of dining and drinking in a city that 15 years ago was about as cutting edge as a tomato in January. Every little neighborhood in this city of funky neighborhoods now seems to be exploding with restaurants, food shops and markets, all benefiting from a critical mass of passion, skill and experience, and all constructed according to the gospel of locally grown ingredients.

In close proximity is a cadre of farmers committed to growing environmentally responsible produce with maximum flavor, delivered to restaurants and to the gorgeous farmers’ markets that dot the city. There are local fisheries and small beef, lamb and pork producers. Not far away is the Hood River Valley, with its myriad fruit growers who supply glistening, fragile berries and stonefruits of every stripe and color.

While on the subject of restaurants, Sunday night Bev and I dined with some Madison High School friends at fenouil.

The dinner was a special event, $41 per person, wine included, that featured what I would call southern soul food or French Creole. We started with a dish of pickled shrimp, very tasty; followed by crab cakes with a kind of cole slaw topping: hoe cakes, a kind of cornbread pancake with apple sauce; pork tenderloin with collard greens. My first collard greens and they were good with the pork. Then deep fried okra, not so good! Then came a dish of shrimp and grits, again my first try of grits (and okra). I haven't missed anything all these years. After a very leisurely dinner with abundant conversation, dessert of pecan pie. (Waiter there's too much pepper in my paprikash, but I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie.)

The Madison High group gets together once a month to taste foods an eastside boy never tasted. We volunteered to be an alternate, we liked the experience so much.

Portland Restaurants Fine Dining

My doctor, Michael Lipke, burst into the exam room with a big smile and the words we wanted to hear. "There is no cancer!" The PSA test was 0.05 or negligible. Bev and I jumped up and down and hugged and shook Dr. Lipke's hand and said, "Good job!" The next follow-up is in six months. The most important thing any of us has is our health. Thank you God and all of you for your prayers.

Prostate Cancer Mover Mike

map 1.4 2007/09/23 19:43:08 45.119N 120.933W 5.8 13 km ( 8 mi) ESE of Maupin, OR

Maupin Earthquake Brooks, OR UPDATE: A 3.2 just hit at 11:20 near Brooks Oregon!

MAP 3.2 2007/09/24 06:20:54 45.107 -123.044 29.5 9 km ( 6 mi) NW of Brooks, OR

Update:

For those of you using IE, you have experienced Mover Mike with the side bar shifted to the right covering part of the column. I found the problem, I failed to close a tag with ">" and IE does not like that. When I view Mover Mike now on IE, it looks absolutely great again. Sorry for the interruption.

Obama also, would

...eliminate income taxes for about 7 million seniors making less than $50,000 a year. Twenty-two million more won’t even have to file a return, which also means they won’t have to hire an expensive accountant.

We could double the tax rates on those making over $188,000, but the politicians would just spend the money and come back for more. Would doubling of the tax bite on the rich help anybody create jobs? The incentive to earn big bucks provides jobs.

I will see my Veternarian Tuesday. This group of Vets just remodeled their offices, employ ten to twelve nurses and receptionists, pay property taxes and must pay their overhead for a reason. They have an incentive. They want to enjoy the perks of the top 20% of earners. Obama would sure take the fun out of the quest.

How Much Do They Families Make In the U.S.?

Average Pre-Tax Family Income (in 1995 US Dollars)

If you study the table one big thing pops out. The top 20% are earning about 50% more on average than they were in 1977. The rest of us (80%) have seen our income flat to down. Now maybe people are migrating up from one level to the next, but it sure seems like it takes more and more money today to buy the same things we bought ten years ago.

I do not think it is morally right to put our spending burden on the small percent we consider rich, or the burden on the smokers for childrens' healthcare. I think politicians should spend more time thinking about ways to get the average income up for the 80%.

Sen. Barack Hussein Obama Taxes Mover Mike

Listen to the windbag, Alan Greenspan, he admits he doesn't know either:

Hat Tip to Mike Shedlock

Alan Greenspan Federal Reserve Mover Mike

Update:

Massachusetts has not sent a Republican to Congress in more than a decade. It's time to make the change! The Democrats' actions demand it.

Jim Ogonowski Massachusetts Mover Mike

Update:

Called the Emergency Home Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act (H.R. 3608), the bill would make it possible for a bankruptcy court to restructure a home mortgage — meaning a bankruptcy judge could change interest rates or alter principal amounts as part of a Chapter 13 restructuring plan.

H.R. 3608 Sub-prime Mover Mike

"How do you respond to the occasional rumor that you're a lesbian?"

Sen. Clinton:

"People say a lot of things about me, so I really don't pay any attention to it,"

"It's not true, but it is something that I have no control over. People will say what they want to say."

It all depends on what the meaning of "it" is.

Who cares? It is too bad that people can't be "straight" about their sexual orientation.

Maupin Sean Kennedy Mover Mike

Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog writes:

Since landfall is expected Saturday between the Florida Panhandle and Southeast Louisiana, 93L probably does not have time to become fully tropical. If 93L makes landfall Saturday, it should not have winds stronger than about 55 mph. The GFDL, HWRF, and SHIPS intensity models all keep 93L's winds below 55 mph. If the storm spends an extra day over water and makes it to Texas, as the ECMWF model predicts, 93L could become fully tropical and make landfall as a strong tropical storm with 60-70 mph winds. However, there is plenty of dry air in the environment, and I don't think the storm will be able to intensify to a strong tropical storm.

93L Tropical Storm Jerry Mover Mike

Update:

Storms that start off as large, non-tropical systems like 93L typically take several days to organize and become fully tropical, and 93L will not have time to become anything worse than a minimal tropical storm. The storm is capable of dumping some heavy rains along its path--radar estimated precipitation from the Tallahassee radar (Figure 1) were as high as three inches. As 93L becomes more tropical in nature, it will be able to generate higher rain amounts. But, with the storm expected to move inland by Saturday afternoon, it does not appear 93L has time to generate the kind of tropical rains that would make it a serious flood threat.

Super Typhoon Wipha roared across Okinawa Prefecture Tuesday, packing record winds of 70 meters per second (156.6 miles per hour), eclipsing Nari’s record breaking bluster of 62.8 m/s (140.5 mph) last week.

[...]

Nari dumped more than 120mm (6”) of rain, including 45mm (1.8”) in a single hour.
Super Typhoon Wipha produced even more rainfall, 300mm (11.8”) on Ishigaki Island, and 250mm (9.8”) on Miyakojima. Weather observers issued flood warnings, and government agencies added landslide warnings for the islands.

A child walks in water-soaked street at a residential community in Rui'an city, east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 19, 2007. Typhoon Wipha packing winds of 45 meters per second landed east China's Zhejiang Province early Wednesday and moved northwestward. (Xinhua/Huang Shengang)

Typhoon Wipha China Mover Mike

Update:

Residents of the Mexico's Baja peninsula and surrounding areas are advised to stay tuned to hurricane advisories as this tropical storm was upgraded to hurricane yesterday. With a projected path towards the north-northwest, this storm is going to be tough to predict. While ocean waters are warm enough to sustain the storm, relatively stable air in the north may make this storm die down before it gathers strength. Landfall could occur on Sunday or Monday.

In addition, Lone Star has agreed to provide to Accredited financing of $49 million, approximately $34 million of which will be applied to extinguish outstanding debt from one of the Company's creditors, leaving approximately $15 million of additional liquidity for the Company.

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (LEND) Mortgages Mover Mike

map 1.5 2007/09/20 12:45:16 46.937N 119.460W 0.0 13 km ( 8 mi) ENE of Royal City, WA

map 1.7 2007/09/19 23:49:52 45.123N 120.939W 17.0 13 km ( 8 mi) ESE of Maupin, OR

map 1.2 2007/09/19 08:47:18 45.125N 120.922W 16.2 14 km ( 8 mi) ESE of Maupin, OR

Maupin Earthquake Mover Mike

Update:

map 1.1 2007/09/20 18:55:04 47.453N 119.088W 1.8 4 km ( 3 mi) NE of Wilson Creek, WA

map 1.1 2007/09/20 15:28:08 46.144N 119.660W 9.7 11 km ( 7 mi) SE of Prosser, WA

map 1.1 2007/09/20 15:23:14 46.112N 119.626W 6.8 15 km ( 9 mi) SE of Prosser, WA

And one in Molalla:

map 1.3 2007/09/20 13:48:47 45.091N 122.607W 6.9 7 km ( 4 mi) SSW of Molalla, OR

1. Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor E2160
2. 1 gig of RAM, soon to be boosted to 2 gig
3. 6-channel HD Audio
4. Microsoft Windows Vista
5. 19-inch LCD Flat Screen Monitor
6. 250 GB Harddrive
7. An Optical Drive

So now it's back to the blogging wars.

100% Preventable! And this week every one had been deported previously.

Amnesty alert! Congress seeking to pass an amnesty...again!

Make sure to vote for us in the Blogger's Choice Awards!

After next weeks show we will be taking a five week hiatus to revamp and improve the show. Please make sure to let us know what you're liking and what you ain't!

NumbersUSA has the goods on stopping the latest amnesty debacle.

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The Daily Mail reports on the shoreline north of Sydney where foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings.

Foam Sydney Mover Mike

map 1.0 2007/09/16 09:08:59 45.130N 120.921W 16.2 14 km ( 8 mi) ESE of Maupin, OR

These two quakes are on each side of Bakeoven creek and within an 1/8th of a mile of each other.

Maupin Earthquake Mover Mike

Government offices, schools, and financial institutions in several counties and cities in northern Taiwan, including the capital Taipei, will be closed today due to the arrival of Typhoon Wipha.

Packing winds of 140 miles per hour, the typhoon will cut through the northern parts of the island before moving into the Taiwan Strait on way to southeastern China.

Typhoon Wipha Taiwan Mover Mike

Update:

About 200,000 people living in exposed areas in Shanghai, a city of 14 million people, would be moved to temporary shelters before evening when Typhoon Wipha is expected to make landfall after swiping the island of Taiwan with maximum sustained winds of up to 250km/h (156 mph).

We are out of here for Saturday and most of Sunday to celebrate my bride's birthday. 57 today and I'd say she looks as good as ever! The Manzanita beach beckons. See you Sunday night.

Packing the strongest winds ever recorded, Typhoon Nari pounded Kumejima late Friday night and early Saturday before moving across Okinawa’s main island wreaking even more havoc. Kumejima Town registered wind speeds of 52.4 meters per second (118mph) beginning at 11 p.m., then buffeted the island with record breaking speeds of 62.8m/s (140mph) about 1:30 a.m.

[...]

Some 400 tourists were stranded...after the airport was closed. A tourist visiting from Nago was distraught over the situation. “I tried to make a new reservation but they say it will be three days before I can get an airplane. I can’t wait three days,” he said, “because I am supposed to be back today.”

Another tourist complained “I’ve never had this kind of problem before. The typhoon was none of my business.”

Typhoon Nari Okinawa Mover Mike

The Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission - a subsidiary of Metro, Portland's regional government - endorsed public financing on Wednesday for a 600-room hotel to recruit more out-of-towners to the Oregon Convention Center.

The proposal calls for Metro to take out bonds to finance the construction, then pay back the debt over 30 years with revenues from the hotel. Recently updated estimates pegged the hotel's total cost at $244 million to build and finance. The hotel's revenues wouldn't be enough to cover the debt payments and would require ongoing taxpayer subsidies, Metro attorney Daniel B. Cooper said this week.

Under these assumptions,neither the 600-room nor the 800-room hotels is able to support its full development cost let alone its land cost during weak market conditions. Including the burder of carrying an assumed and cost of $55 per square foot, the feasibility gap is in the vicinity of $20 Million for the smaller hotel and $27 Million for the larger hotel. If the parking must be placed underground the gap would grow to an even higher number

Back in 2003, The Portland Tribune had a novel idea, why not convert the Coliseum to a hotel:

The hotel is feasible because the city owns the land, building and parking, which it need not finance; improvements can be financed with tax-exempt revenue bonds, and no new taxes or subsidies are required.

Portland Convention Center Hotel Mover Mike

Update:

The hurry-up hurricane brought 16 inches of rain to the Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County just before landfall about 5 miles east of High Island, the National Weather Service reported.

[...]

In Beaumont at 5 a.m., water was knee-deep in some streets in Old Town, road underpasses were flooded and trees and power lines were reported down throughout the city.

[...]

...some of whose residents still are recovering from Hurricane Rita damage.

The lingering effects of Rita are physical, economic and mental. Just this week we reported a 100-person layoff at a local hospital, largely attributed to a decline in insured patients since Rita (2005.) Many common troubles in the marketplace are being attributed to Rita, even when there's little real reason to think the hurricane caused the problems.

Still, we have a troublesome number of people living in FEMA trailers ... to the point where the city fathers are uncomfortable with the length of time these people have postponed repairs to their regular homes. One still sees pockets of unrepaired Rita damage, but most neighborhoods and business districts have repaired fully.

Hurricane Humberto Beaumont, Texas Hurricane

In A Secret Time Bomb Made of Gold, Michael Kahn writes about the "Gold Carry Trade.

"The gold carry trade is similar to the yen carry trade, which has been a hot topic in the markets this year. Basically, money is borrowed from one source at a low interest rate and invested elsewhere at a higher rate. As long as relevant exchange rates and asset prices remain stable, a profit is made with little effort.

Central banks are sitting on huge supplies of gold that earn them no interest and cost them money just to store securely. To earn a little revenue on these static assets, they loan their gold to banks, called buillon banks, at a ridiculously low interest rate on the order of 1%.

The problem is that if the gold price starts to rise, profits can be wiped out or turned to losses. And in today's market, a falling dollar not only boosts gold prices but it also makes Treasury bonds less attractive to foreign investors. That reduces demand and weakens prices to create a potential double-edged sword for carry traders.

Well now, Gold has risen from $250 to over $700 since 2001. Do you realize that in Gold's trading history, in USD, Gold has closed over $700 only six times in 26 years! Four were in May 2006 and now 2 are in 2007.

If central banks call in their gold loans, the banks cannot wait for contract expiration to take delivery on the gold they purchased via their futures contracts.

Here's the 3 1/2 year chart of Gold. Any hedge fund and trader who's getting his butt kicked in the sub-prime market is going to look for some way to get back in the game. Gold is outperforming the Euro and the USD and is beating many stock markets. Open interest in gold futures, which measures the current size of bets made by futures traders, is 34% lower than it was last year when Gold traded at $700. This is looking like some buillon banks are going to get their butts kicked some more!

Michael Kahn Gold Mover Mike

map 1.1 2007/09/11 17:15:16 45.128N 120.938W 15.7 12 km ( 8 mi) ESE of Maupin, OR

Maupin Earthquake Mover Mike

Hey Mover Mike,

Remember our email exchange from a couple of years ago?

I'm still waiting for $100 oil.

In fact, I would be willing to wager that we see $50 before breaking to a new high.

The commodity "bubble" is in its final stages, as is the U.S. Stock Market.

Ron Griess
The Chart Store

The target of $105 seems to us to be outlandish. Yes, commodity prices do spike up and down, and often in very short time periods. Without a major, negative news event, we feel a target of $105 should be summarily dismissed

Ron Griess $80 OIL Mover Mike

Update:

Galveston seems to be the target of the latest gulf storm. TD nine is expected to make landfall The depression is expected to become a Tropical Storm before making landfall tonight. Currently max sustained winds are 35 mph.

Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog writes:

Since this system is very slow moving, it has the potential to drop rain amounts in excess of ten inches along the Texas and Louisiana coasts--including the Houston metropolitan area--over the next two days. These rains may cause serious widespread flooding. Rainfall amounts of 2-3 inches have already occurred along the coast, from Freeport to the Louisiana border.

A strong tropical wave near 12.5N 44W, 1100 miles east of the Lesser Antilles Islands, is headed west-northwest at 10 mph. This system (91L) may develop into a tropical depression today, and has the potential to become a large and dangerous major hurricane next week.

Tropical Depression Nine Hurricane Tropical Storm Humberto

Update:

Since Humberto is slow moving, it has the potential to drop rain amounts in excess of ten inches along the Texas and Louisiana coasts over the next two days. It now appears that the Houston area will escape the worst of these rains, which will be concentrated more towards the Texas/Louisiana border region. These rains may cause widespread destructive flooding. Rainfall amounts of 2-3 inches have already occurred along the coast, from Freeport to just beyond the Louisiana border, as estimated by radar. Freeport may have had as much a five inches already.

Tropical Storm Humberto gathered steam as he rumbled toward the Southeast Texas coast late Wednesday night, and forecasters expect near-hurricane force winds when he makes landfall in the wee hours Thursday morning.

Well, the WSJ offers a different take. Thousands of homeowners face an "imminent risk" of losing their homes because American Home, for example, collected our payments for principal, interest, taxes and insurance, but failed to make the payments to keep our insurance in force and failed to pay the property taxes.

"Therefore, there is the imminent risk that borrowers' insurance policies may lapse for nonpayment, subjecting the borrowers to a risk of loss of their mortgaged properties," Freddie Mac said

"Payments are being deemed late, even when they're not, because they can't catch up with the paper." The result is additional insurance costs and accumulating late fees.

imminent risk American Home mortgages

which focuses on asset-backed securities investments, was down 30% in June and July. Another Wharton fund, Trio Finance—which specializes in real estate ABS—is down 46% this year

...has stopped trying to calculate the net asset value.

[...]

The fund was heavily leveraged. By design, it can borrow as much as 20 times its own money to buy investments.

Managers of asset-backed funds "could be in a lot of pain over the next few months," said John Godden, head of London- based IGS Group, which invests in hedge funds. "There are no decent valuations on any of this stuff."

Imagine, you own assets in your hedge fund, that can be levereged 20 to 1 and you can't determine the values.

Wharton Asset Management PIRATE Capital Fund Hedge Fund

Countrywide Financial Corp. is putting together another multi-billion dollar bailout plan as the nation's largest home lender continues to struggle amid the global credit crunch and declines in the housing market, The Post has learned.

Quoting Dave,

I discovered that particular balance sheet account is essentially mortgage assets held by Countrywide, mostly "for sale" (i.e. to be sold into the asset backed market which is no longer functioning), and is financed by short term commercial paper, which needs to be rolled over if Countrywide can't get the mortgages sold. In effect, the $13.5 billion (11.5 bank plus 2 billion preferred) financed a portion of the above $46.1 billion. So, in reality, Countrywide ultimately needs close to another $33 billion in financing to replace the financing behind the above mortgages (assume they sold off some before the mortgage market collapsed as that number is as of 6/30 quarter end).

Don't worry about Mozilo, though. He's okay. He sold CFC stock that netted him over $500,000,000. The boys at Enron were such pikers.

Just three months ago the stock was almost $40 per share.

Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) asset backed commercial paper Mover Mike

Update:

The Wall Street Journal reports

Crude-oil futures rose to a record high settlement, shrugging off a planned boost in oil production from OPEC as traders focused on depleting U.S. oil inventories and signs demand may increase. The front-month October light, sweet crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 74 cents, or 1%, to $78.23 a barrel, the highest-ever settlement for a front-month contract.

map 1.9 2007/09/10 18:42:38 44.092N 121.878W 0.0 34 km (21 mi) SW of Sisters, OR

Three Sisters Earthquake Mover Mike

100% Preventable!

The Dem. Prez debates in Spanish.

And a small remembrance of 9-11

You can vote for us in the Blogger's Choice Awards here.

Outraged Patriots billboard vandalized!  Help put the next one up...here.

This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you'd like to join find out how right here.

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, nine eleven, never forget, blogs for borders, rape, murder, mexico, kidnapping, criminal aliens,

Bev and I were in bed when our neighbor Carol Sutton called about 8:10 AM and said, "Go to your television right now!" We did and saw one of the NY World Trade Center buildings was billowing smoke from up near the top.

We learned that 10,000 people work in the two towers, the first thing any one looking at the skyline sees. Two pristine square towers, over 110 stories, that defined the wall street area.

Suddenly, from the right a plane appeared and crashed into the second tower spewing flames from the opposite side of the building. Two maimed beasts on fire seemingly in agony. We watched horrified as rescue vehicles screamed to the disaster. By this time we knew that the U.S. had been attacked. Then, while fire fighters tried to staunch the flames and lead WTC workers from all over the world to safety, one tower seemed to fold in on itself and pancake to its death. Who among us would not cry for the lives lost? Within a half hour, without precedent, the other tower collapsed like the first.

Bev and I thought about friends of ours who lived in NY and acquaintances who I'd worked with and prayed that they were safe.

The world changed that day. Suddenly we were vulnerable to evil that believes it okay to kill the innocent as part of their campaign. Bev and I will never forget 9/11.

Michelle Malkin has made this an issue in many ways. Check out her post on 9/11.

9/11 World Trade Center Mover Mike

Update:

This is Huckleberry, just one of a future pal to somebody who is up for adoption:

I can't tell you about my past. I was a stray. When I came into Golden Bond, I weighed 40 pounds. I had open, bleeding sores from an extreme case of mange. I also had hip dysplasia. After hip surgeries in both hips, and with the help of physical therapy, I can walk, run, and jump with ease.

[...]

I am an affectionate puppy who loves to please. I am smart and a playful boy who is looking for a loving forever family.

Golden Bond Huckleberry Mover Mike

map 1.4 2007/09/10 07:29:21 45.119N 120.926W 16.4 14 km ( 9 mi) ESE of Maupin, OR

The puzzling thing about the quakes, the epicenters are rarely the same. The quakes basically occur in the same general area, a four square mile area (in the maps squares 21 and 22 and 28 and 27) bisected by Deep Creek.

Maupin Earthquake Mover Mike

(Actually, her grand total is now a ways north of $174k and still climbing, but I haven't had a chance to error-check, format, and post the newest data update yet.) All told, Hsu's suspicious bundling more than doubles the aggregate sketchy funds, from $787 thousand to $1.6 million (and rising).

Back in Sept., 2005, I wrote about terrorists in Lodi, California, The SacBee just reported

A federal judge on Monday sentenced Hamid Hayat, a 24-year-old Lodi cherry packer, to 24 years in prison for his conviction on charges that he underwent terrorist training in Pakistan and then returned to Lodi prepared to wage holy war against fellow Americans

Update:

Hsu boarded the train in Emeryville about 7 a.m. Wednesday, Amtrak said, two hours before he was to have appeared in a Redwood City courtroom in connection with his grand theft conviction. He had touched down earlier that morning on a charter jet flight to Oakland, his lawyer told prosecutors. Amtrak said he boarded the Zephyr with a ticket for Denver.

A harder working couple, you'll never meet, Marilyn and Pete Peterson lost The Guide Shop to fire late Friday night writes Bill Monroe in Wilson River loses landmark

The Guide Shop, a popular and familiar landmark at the throat of the Wilson River Canyon east of Tillamook, burned to the ground late Friday.

Its shaken owners, Marilyn and Charles "Pete" Peterson of St. Helens, said Sunday they don't know what they'll do. Pete Peterson is a former fishing guide who gave up his guide service a few years ago to buy the shop.

"This was the start of our peak season," said Marilyn Peterson. "I just don't know what we're going to do. First of all, I've got some major issues with debris removal and a loan coming due in just a few days. I don't know how we'll take that next step."

Update:

What the hell happened?

From WatchCat:

USAF Captain John Frueh was supposed to attend the wedding of a friend in Portland on Sunday and then return home to Florida on Monday. He never made it to the wedding as planned. His last cell phone call was traced to Vancouver, Washington, but nothing has been heard since.

Call Portland police with any information at 503-823-0400.

Skamania County law enforcement personnel recovered the body of U.S. Air Force Capt. John Frueh late Saturday night.

Frueh, 33, of Florida, had been missing since Aug. 30, when he last spoke with family before renting a car at Portland International Airport. He had come to Portland Aug. 25 for the wedding of a lifelong friend.

Skamania County personnel found Frueh's rental car earlier in the day and began searching for Frueh.

Update:

1st Place $25
2nd Place $15
3rd Place $10

Voting is free and you can vote every 24 hours.

To make it interesting vote for Mover Mike and if we win I will match the prize and donate the money to Golden Bond Rescue of Oregon.

Golden Bond Rescue of Oregon, Inc. grew out of one woman's passion for the plight of abandoned and homeless dogs in 1990. Having learned about canine rescues from the Golden Retriever Club of America, Jennifer searched in vain for an organization she could help in Oregon. To her dismay, the nearest golden retriever rescue was in Seattle.

Golden Bomd Mover Mike

Before 1913, multiple private banks issued banknotes with their own names on them; and as in England, the banks issued notes for much more gold than was in their vaults. The scheme worked until the customers got suspicious and all demanded their gold at once, when there would be a "run" on the banks and they would have to close their doors.

The Federal Reserve (or "Fed") was instituted to rescue the banks from these crises by creating and lending money on demand. The banks themselves were already creating money out of nothing, but the Fed served as a backup source, generating the customer confidence necessary to carry on the fractional-reserve lending scheme.

Brown writes that today what we think of as money, coins and paper currency, amounts to 3% of the total money supply. "The rest is created by commercial banks as loans."

Among other problems with this system of money creation is that banks create the principal but not the interest necessary to pay back their loans; and that is where the Ponzi scheme comes in.

...we simply cannot afford the bank bailouts coming down the pike. If it takes $300 billion to avert a market collapse precipitated by a few failing hedge funds, what will the price tag be when the $400-plus trillion derivatives bubble collapses?

Article I, Section 8, Clause 5. The Congress shall have Power…To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.

Web of Debt Ellen Hodgson Brown J.D. Federal Reserve Gold

The Current Crisis Posted On: Friday, September 07, 2007, 4:32:00 PM EST by Monty Guild is a very provocative read. Guild writes that the role of the banks has been to provide short-term financing to businesses, you know, to fund cash flow needs. Then companies started self funding by issuing commercial paper. Now that market has locked up. There is little appetite for that paper and short term yields like the LIBOR rate are higher than Fed Funds and Treasuries. In addition, the banks are trying to get their business back by husbanding liquidity. Guild writes,

Banks know they are going to have to keep their customers operating without the commercial paper market so they are hoarding capital to do that.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE WORLD MARKETS IS THAT A FLOOD OF LIQUIDITY IS COMING

The Federal Reserve and all other central banks will make capital available through the discount rate and other mechanisms allowed to provide liquidity short term and long term to banks. Central banks have become increasingly pressured by political events and that pressure will cause them to create a huge liquidity response to the current crisis.

Monty Guild writes,

In the short term there will be a recession in the US and world economic growth will slow from its current torrid pace to a moderate pace. The long term effect is more bubbles in many asset classes; gold, other precious metals, some well managed non-US currencies, commodities and probably stocks in fast growing sectors of the world.

Credit Bubble Gold Mover Mike

GLENN: Right. But isn't illegal immigration a crime in and of itself?

GIULIANI: Glenn, it's not a crime. I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime.

GLENN: It's a misdemeanor but if you've been nailed, it is a crime. If you've been nailed, ship back and come back, it is a crime.

GIULIANI: Glenn, being an illegal immigrant, the 400,000 were not prosecuted for crimes by the federal government, nor could they be. I was U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York. So believe me, I know this. In fact, when you throw an immigrant out of the country, it's not a criminal proceeding. It's a civil proceeding.

GLENN: Is it --

GIULIANI: One of the things that congress wanted to do a year ago is to make it a crime, which indicates that it isn't.

GLENN: Should it be?

GIULIANI: Should it be? No, it shouldn't be because the government wouldn't be able to prosecute it. We couldn't prosecute 12 million people. We have only 2 million people in jail right now for all the crimes that are committed in the country, 2.5 million. If you were to make it a crime, you would have to take the resources of the criminal justice system and increase it by about 6. In other words, you'd have to take all the 800,000 police, and who knows how many police we would have to have.

GIULIANI: To a very large extend, that's correct, particularly from the point of view of the federal government and the President. The President has to focus on the pillars of our economy and make sure that those are being handled correctly and if they are, the market will straighten out the rest. The pillars of our economy are low taxes, smaller government, moderate regulation, and a sound monetary policy. So on this question of how much help should the market in general be given, that should really be determined by the Fed through the supply of money, and they have shown that they can do a pretty darn good job of that. That should not be the function of the congress and the President. (my emphasis added)

What is a cartel? Google defines the word as:

1. A group of producers who enter a collusive agreement to restrict output in order to raise prices and profits
2. An organization of producers that work together to maximize joint profits.
3. a group of firms formally agreeing to control the price and output of a product

Rudolph Giuliani Federal Reserve Mover Mike

Waterville, WA Earthquake Mover Mike

Sen. Hillary Clinton Norman Hsu Mover Mike

What does it mean?

USD Gold Mover Mike

Update:

The U.S. economy unexpectedly lost jobs in August for the first time in four years, increasing speculation that the Federal Reserve will have to reduce interest rates to counter an economic slowdown.

Update:

Temp hiring fell again, signalling (sic)further broad payroll weakness ahead. One number is not a trend but this will scare the Fed; they will ease [a quarter percentage point] on 9/18 but should ease [a half percentage point]. Remember this report does not fully reflect the market turmoil; worse to come.

From the WSJ

Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu was arrested in Colorado late Thursday after a judge issued an arrest warrant when he failed to show up for a court appearance related to a felony theft conviction.

The Gold Continuous Contract

Gold Precious Metals Mover Mike