“Zealotry above it’s self-interest”

I’ve been tough on the Israeli hawks and the proclivity of the right to over-estimate the Iranian threat (which I still believe they do), but in a recent interview Netanyahu showed a much more sophisticated approach to analyzing Iran and perhaps justifying some of the paranoia.

He makes an interesting point that Iran wasted 1 million young male lives during the 8 year Iran-Iraq War without even batting an eyelash. Although, he might be overreaching when he says that the country “glorifies blood and death.” Certain extremists elements, yes, but this is the country with the largest middle class and most Westernized population in the Middle East and generalizing the extremist influence has not served us well up until now. However, when it comes down to it, Iran is the only country in the world with extremist elements at least partially in control who may soon have nuclear weapons and as Netanyahu notes, the question comes down to “can you take the risk?”

Israel very well may not be able to and we might be staring in the face of the next major war in the Middle East.

Dawg-Ma

A principle becomes a dogma when the principle is adhered to even when the logical underpinnings become irrelevant. The result is more or less an idea that counts more on faith than logic.

An LA Times reader named Steven Siry showed us a wonderful example of that this morning when he wrote in regards to the government’s ouster of Rick Wagoner at General Motors that “the last time I checked, personnel actions within a private corporation were governed by a board of directors and shareholders” and admonishes us to “honor the tradition of the separation of public and private entities.”

Well Steve, the last time I checked, when your company has no money, it goes out of business. Unless of course, you go to the government with your hat in hand and beg for billions of dollars in taxpayer money to keep your company afloat. In that case, sorry, but you’re going to have to accept some level of governmental decision making.

These free market fundamentalists really know how to turn a good idea into an irrational dogma. If you want decisions to be made by the “board of directors and shareholders” and solely the board of directors and shareholders, then don’t screw your company up so bad you need billions of dollars of handouts. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Only I can do that.

The Profound Genius of the Airline Industry

I just love it when my life resonates with current events.

So I want to move my outbound flight to NY up a few days. I contact the airline and ask what the cost is to change the flight. $300. Then I check  online and a one-way flight the same day I want to move my flight up to is $156. Including tax.

Interestingly enough, about 12 hours ago the International Air Transport Association announced that the airline industry is set to lose $4.9 billion in 2009.

Shocking. Positively shocking.

This Does Not Bode Well: Lieberman/Netanyahu cut settlement deal

It appears that new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut a deal with ultra right wing Yisrael Beiteinu party/new Foreign Minister/former Moldalvian nightclub bouncer/alleged strong-arm thug Avigdor Lieberman for a controversial new settlement construction in the West Bank in exchange for Lieberman’s inclusion and support in the new Israeli government. This does not bode well for those of us who hope that this ultra-right winger’s presence in the governing coalition is not a guarantee that Israel will continue to pursue certain counter-productive policies that degrade and impair their other worthy efforts at peace.

Look, I understand Israel’s security concerns and uniquely tough position, but anyone who thinks another settlement of 3,000 ultra-religious Israelis alongside and on top of 50,000 Palestinian refugees is going to enhance the Jewish nation’s strategic position is kidding themselves. The fact that Netanyahu is willing to easily kowtow to a man who obviously believes otherwise is troublesome.

Netanyahu, while hawkish and rigid, is a rational guy and history has shown that sometimes it takes a right-wing strongman to make peace in the Middle East (Menachim Begin, for instance). However, I am deeply concerned that the pull and pressure exerted by Lieberman is going to drown out the few remnants of moderation that keep Netanyahu from becoming a counter-productive entity himself. I sure hope I’m wrong.

Hitch threw down a recent column on Lieberman outlining some of his group’s radical beliefs, not to mention the hypocrisy which stems from demanding loyalty oaths when members of your organization don’t even speak the national language. To put it kindly, this is not encouraging.

Irrational Exuberance

Home sales rise 5%, the Fed announces a best-of-a-bad-lot solution to the banking crisis and all of a sudden the market shoots up 6% and we’ve got newspapers proclaiming that “The Bear Market Has Come to An End”. Well, so much for the hypothesis that the market acts rationally. Believe it or not, there was a day and time when things like corporate earnings, moving averages, price-to-book ratios, and other things called “fundamentals” actually governed market behavior and entire bull and bear markets were not determined by single-day activity in response to promising, yet dubious policy changes. But apparently we learn little to nothing from history and are doomed to repeat our mistakes operating at the whims of irrational exuberance.

So in honor of the market’s overreaction, I am dedicating this post to the Queen of Irrational Exuberance, my friend Nicole Furman (below). Nicole’s seeming need to dance to whatever synthetic top-40 pop song comes on no matter what the setting is far more charming than the market’s seeming need to inflate any sign of transformational news as the beginning of a new financial era.

ADD to NPD from the CPT on a Rhymin Spree

As you can see from the tag-line of this blog, I find an out-sized and inflated sense of self-importance to be a worthy point of interest. Whether (self) parody, general amusement, or as an insightful study of human nature and societal trends, people being overly pleased with themselves is a marvel to behold. I mean, let’s be honest, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, and Vince Vaughan have built careers (not to mention entire industries) off it. Since any supposedly destructive behavior prevalent enough to exceed mere habit needs to be co-opted into disease or disorder, why should Big Ego be an exception?

The commodification of personality faults is nothing new, but it really struck the public consciousness with Attention Deficit Disorder. All of a sudden, 10 year olds spacing out while being forced to sit in medieval torture devices masquerading as classroom desks became a multi-million dollar industry. Not to suggest that an inability to focus can reach the degree of “disorder”, but anything so ill-defined is just aching for abuse and mis-diagnosis. And now from the good people who brought you ADD,  we have NPD. Yes, Narcissistic Personality Disorder will uncover the mysteries of why hotshot business people come late to meetings with less powerful counter-parties, why selfishness is overcompensation for inadequacy, and why that guy who got all the girls in high school felt the need to make sure you knew you weren’t him.

Emily Yoffe thought NPD to be a worthy subject and queries “why does everyone seem to have it?” Her question seems less relevant when you consider that according to the American Psychiatric Association, only 1% of the population suffers from NPD (even though a stunning 10% of young people apparently have it, GO NET-GEN!). Proclaiming that everyone has it, means that it exists. And although I’m sure that it does exist on some plane, just like ADD does, there are too many attributes of NPD that operate in our society on a daily basis for them really to compile into an it.

Some say that a project expands to fill the amount of time allotted to it. Well sometimes the inflated sense of self-importance and accompanying self-serving behavior expands to fill the leeway to get away with it. When we had to churn our own butter, we had a lot more reliance on others and a lot less time to screw around on Facebook. Mass media, the Web, social networking and whatever other societal trends that seem to reward self-marketing have simply allowed the color pallete of ego to fill out the canvas of which it is projected. So the next time you get the inkling to start fretting over the destructive aspects of your self-indulgence, don’t blow things out of proportion. And start a blog, ha.

Re-Establish the Tyranny of “RISK”

RISK: an exposure to the chance of injury or loss [emphasis added]

I’ll spare you another long-winded soliloquoy, but as my old Corporate Law professor and noted conservative blogger, Stephen Bainbridge, notes, the crux of our financial meltdown was failure to assess RISK (see here for Bainbridge’s long-winded soliloquoy). In a nutshell, we had a seismic degree of capital being thrown around by parties who did not factor in the “chance of injury or loss” into their investment choices. Of course you’re going to throw around billions of dollars when you don’t account for the chance that the investment will go bad.

Well it looks like our major financial institutions have not yet learned their lessons. As Marc Cuban points out, Fidelity Investments is still marketing Annuities with the claim that returns are “Guaranteed”. Unfortunately the “guarantee” claim is qualified with a footnote making “guarantees”…”subject to the claims paying ability” of the issuer.

So in other words, there is no RISK to your investment…other than the RISK that the company you invested in cannot pay you back. Unbelievable. Truly truly truly unbelievable. No wonder this country is going to hell in a hand basket.

The Ultimate Showdown: Modern Glam Pop Covers of Phil Collins vs. Cyndi Lauper

Brandon Flowers seems suspiciously comfortable covering a Cyndi Lauper song, but from a musical perspective it ain’t too bad. MGMT’s Phil Collins mimicry suffers from poor sound quality, but one of the guys is wearing a dinosaur helmet. So they’ve got that going for them…which is nice.

Readers, you decide:

Greatest Thing Ever???

CNBC reporter Rick Santelli’s spastic orgy of phony populism over government bailouts of “loser homeowners” ranks as one of the most synthetic and cowardly displays of cheap media manipulation in modern history. Yeah Rick, sit back and keep you mouth shut while failed Wall Street banks swim in $1 trillion of bail-out money, but then get all outraged when the government wants provide a small fraction of that amount to actually keep people from being kicked out of their homes. Despite the fact that stemming the tide of foreclosures will actually have a tangible effect on preserving community home value, the real estate market overall, and the plethora of securities which were created off the backs of these mortgages. Yeah, Rick, this is what to get pissed off about.

Rick was given an opportunity to actually have to defend his rantings by appearing on the Daily Show to hash it out with Jon Stewart, but then Rick decided to cancel last minute. So to fill up the broadcasting time, Jon decided to rip Santelli, and his employer, CNBC, a new one. I still think Rick got off easy not having to appear with Stewart face-to-face, but Stewart still gets him good. Making this below video possibly the Greatest Thing Ever.

Tim, I’ll Give You A Cookie

Just please, for the love of God, answer the freakin question. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner testified before the House Ways and Means Committee this morning, and I gotta say he dodged questions like they were ninja stars. I’m not even asking for the perfect answer, just AN answer. Just something to let me know that you actually acknowledge some of the specific decisions you will have to make to effectuate the general principles you support.

The Obama Administration’s economy philosophy has a few basic tenets:

1) Irresponsible fiscal behavior by the prior administration has left us with crushing debt and a deflationary demand/credit vacuum.

2) Further debt via government spending is the only way to fill this vacuum and spark the economic growth that will eventually bring us out of this debt.

3) This all can be done in a (relatively) fiscally prudent manner.

Ok, I’m on board guys, let’s see if it can get done. But that still leaves a plethora of specific questions that need to be answered, some of which were answered by the President’s budget, but not all. So this morning, a few House members grilled Geithner on various specifics and his response was underwhelming at best.

Two questions served up to Geithner: 1) Who is going to lend us the money to finance this deficit spending program and 2) why are we shying away from outright nationalization of insolvent banks. Good questions with answers I’m anxious to hear. Geithner didn’t even try to answer them. He simply regurgitated the above principles in an verbally extraneous manner. Jesus christ man, just give me an answer. If the answer is “were hoping the Chinese and our other major creditors will cover a significant swath, with secondary foreign lenders gap-ing the rest, but we’re not entirely sure yet” then ok, at least that gives me the comfort that you have SOME idea of what you’re doing. While I do suspect, and strongly hope, that Geithner has more details than he let on today, his verbal gymnastics reminded me far too much of the guys I just spent 8 years screaming bloody murder about.  Timbo, please, tell me I won’t have to spend another 8 years.