Today's Musings

No heavy lifting today as I am saving that capacity to write the next blog on a book I just read.

But for today, a few comments on the Sunday paper.

Thomas Friedman is as frustrated as I am that President Obama has not seized the moral high ground on the reality of the fiscal debate by promoting the Simpson-Bowles Plan from the day it was issued.  Of course, he being the professional pundit, he says it more eloquently than I ever have.

Friedman's Column

Also, the Times highlighted some of the arguments for the Supreme Court to allow state laws that basically ban what is allowed by the Citizens United decision at the Federal Level.  Montana instituted bans on mining companies giving money anonymously to state candidates because the mining companies stacked the legislature and courts with people favorable to the mining companies point of view.  The result was pollution and other nefarious mining practices that the vast majority of state citizens did not want.  I have visited Anaconda, Montana and seen the tailings hill.  I cannot imagine what poison flowed from this enormous mound into the stream that flows from that area into the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers eventually.  Those river waters are used as drinking and irrigation water in many states.

Another dive into the J.P. Morgan derivatives trade discusses the trade from the other side and leaves me confused as to who is long and who is short CDX.IG.9.10.  I thought I knew what was what before reading this article, and perhaps it is the journalist who is confused, but whatever, my take away is this type of index should be traded on an exchange with daily exchange of cash collateral for MTM changes.  There is no value in hiding such positions on a big bank balance sheet where it is non-material until it is suddenly material.

Finally, there is a detailed explanation of how criminals defraud the IRS by filing fake tax returns.  The reason the government cannot seem to stop this and it continues to grow now consuming billions of dollars is the rush to pay tax refunds.  A little delay to verify tax filing information through comparisons of physical addresses, email verifications if the physical address has changed, bank account information etc would seem appropriate to prevent such fraud from happening.  Yes, that is not exactly what the internet age is suppose to be all about, but it is reality that the internet age has facilitated criminal activity that could not have been anticipated by the vast majority of people.

Now onto Health Care again when I am done relaxing this holiday weekend.