Snark of the Day

Combining Data, Reaching a Clear Conclusion

2011-06-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

Spa Talks with Former Not-So-Senior Administration Officials...
Four points emerged:

Doing something large-scale and effective about housing in 2009 would have been really, really hard because most underwater homeowners were making their payments, would have regarded it as grossly unfair for the government to have bailed out their peers in default, and banks had no interest in taking any haircuts at all on mortgage loans that were current--no matter how far underwater the borrower was.

The failure of the PPIP and other policies in 2009 to achieve significant scale and actually boost the economy-wide supply of safe assets that the market was so desperate for is actually the fault of Krugman, Sachs, and Stiglitz for opposing it...

DeLong comments:

I am very skeptical of (2)--Jeff, Joe, and Paul seem to have had no influence on anything else, so why should they have been decisive here?

But a pattern is emerging, and we can leap to conclusions in the manner of Young Sherlock Holmes ("You accused the French ambassador!" "It was the Russian ambassador.")

Yesterday, many of us thought that Richard Koo was bitter, or at least mishearing things.

Today, in the aftermath of The DeLong Revelation, we know better. Koo heard the official correctly, and probably was just too polite to call the person an idiot.

Today, we know that the problem is that the Administration has someone reading Krugman who knows how to play politics but hasn't the slightest understanding of what he reads.

Jourmalism Made Simple

2011-05-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen any of the Usual Suspects make this complaint in the blogsphere,* so I'm resurrecting this blog for the moment.

What idiot at The Daily Show decided that Annie Jacobsen** should be treated as if she were making a Serious contribution to knowledge?

*Maybe all the Cool Kids are only using Twitter these days.

**Clearly the same person, see her bio here.

Conventional 30-Year Mortgage Rate v 10-Year CMT

2010-08-20T11:15:00.001-07:00

Because the first word we think of when someone says "Alabama" is overeducated

2010-01-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

The University of Alabama has cancelled class this coming week so students can go to Pasadena to watch a football game.

Or, more accurately, the school has cancelled classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; students are expected to attend on Monday and Tuesday. As the press release notes:

[G]iven the number of students who have to be in Pasadena, Calif., to represent The University of Alabama on Jan. 7 and the number of faculty, staff and students who want to be there, we are dismissing classes on Jan. 6-8.

Enrollment at Alabama is about 27,000, with another 1,400 (rounding up) in faculty, per the 2008 Factbook. Those who "have to be in Pasadena" include maybe 100-150 players, some student trainers, cheerleaders, and the like, and maybe the marching band. Call it 500, to be nice.

So there are either a lot of students who can afford to fly to LA and back for a long weekend, or something else is going on.

They will be doing some good things while they are there.

Quote of the Day

2009-08-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

: It is a truth universally acknowledged in Romancelandia, that a single brooding man in possession of a dickbag nature must be in want of a Magic Hoo-Hoo to reform him.

More here.

Another Myth Laid to Rest

2009-03-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

There is an old Woody Allen routine where "a crazed Evbangelist" throws a Bible out of his hotel window, striking Woody in the chest. Fortunately, a bullet he has kept in his breast pocket for years saves his life.

Apparently, sadly, the other way around doesn't work:

The pastor of a Maryville, Illinois, church was shot to death during a service Sunday in front of horrified parishioners who then tackled the gunman, state police said.

Fred Winters, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Maryville, was shot and killed during the 8 a.m. service...

Witness Claudia Bohley told CNN affiliate KSDK she was in the church's foyer waiting for the service to begin when she heard "pop, pop, pop. ... We just couldn't imagine what had happened."

She said she ran into the sanctuary and saw what looked like paper scattered on the pulpit. She said she was later told that the bullet hit Winters' Bible.

Sad condolences to the family and the parishoners.

Can't Be a Coincidence...

2008-09-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

Paulson and Co. announced their bailout of risk-mismanaging firms on "Talk like a Pirate" Day.

Why talk the talk when you can walk the walk?

New York Daily News Moment of the Day

2007-08-10T06:03:00.000-07:00

The headline is clear: Monster in Our Midst.

The article features a picture of Charles Krauthammer.

There's apparently good reason the paper's editorial staff won a Pulitzer last year.

Unconscionable Ineptitude

2007-08-05T20:40:00.001-07:00

I went to Supercuts on Saturday evening at 6:30. While they are supposed to close at 7:00pm, there appeared to be only one person cutting hair, with three waiting. They said that they could not take me that day.

I ended up getting my hair cut there at 2:30 this afternoon. That I had to wait twenty hours clearly indicates that the Private Sector is incapable of managing health care.

(Reference to "original" snark)

Revenue Models

2007-06-07T04:06:00.000-07:00

5 June 2007 - Starbucks around the country begin playing the new Paul McCartney album in their stores.

6 June 2007 - Starbucks around the country report 25-30% sales declines as potential customers leave the stores, declaring that the wait is "too long."

Suspicion is aroused when several stores report having had no line at the time the reason was given.

Revelations?

2007-05-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

After this, what will he say if we tell him that Manager Miles and Drummer Stewart Copeland are brothers?

The new King Richard the Phlebitten

2007-03-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

The coincidence of G. Gordon Liddy and I. Lewis Libby is one thing, but this is quite another:

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has a blood clot in his leg and is being treated with blood-thinning medication, his office has said.

Second Place is a Legitimate Nobel Prize Nomination

2007-02-03T17:49:00.000-08:00

Does this signal the end of the "Draft Gore" movement?

Star Wars, Nothing but Star Wars...

2007-01-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India in aerospace defence plan

Were they painted first?

2007-01-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Pupils killed as Iraq schools hit

Phillie fans feel much better about Jaime Moyer now

2007-01-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

Yankees have tentative deal to send Unit to D-Backs

Extra credit to anyone who can explain how this trade is "in the best interest of the game."

Might have told the ticketholders this

2007-01-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

Saban says heart was in college coaching

A Clusterfucktabulous Language of Privilege?

2006-12-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

How did clustercunt become worse that clusterfuck?

Reasons Not to Read Hullaballo, Part 1

2006-12-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

Making people think about having sex with Jane Galt of Asymmetrical Information is evil.

Does Rachel Ray taste better when she sits on a Ritz?

2006-12-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

Question of the Economic Fundament

2006-12-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

Given that no corporation in its right management would ever attempt to maximize GDP, why do economists believe that GDP is an appropriate benchmark for a society?

(Cross-posted from Economics Question of the Day.)

The NCAA Certainly Deserves its Tax-Exempt Status

2006-11-15T15:10:00.000-08:00

It's all about "Education"

Michigan junior wide receiver Adrian Arrington moved one step closer on Wednesday to facing trial following a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence. But the pending charge should not affect Arrington's participation in Saturday's game between the Wolverines and Ohio State.

Anyone else feeling "educated" about what really matters to the NCAA?

Wasn't It All about the U.S. Elections

2006-11-15T10:50:00.000-08:00

Someone forgot to tell these guys the violence can stop now.

Rummed Out?

2006-11-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

If Bush hadn't lied about whether he was going to replace Rumsfeld, would the GOP have maintained elected control of the Senate?

Why Don't Republicans use Bookmrks?

2006-10-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

They just bend over a page.

This is the MBA Administration?

2006-08-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

If David Cay Johnston didn't exist, it would be embarrassing to have to invent him.

Within two weeks, the I.R.S. will turn over data on 12,500 taxpayers—each of whom owes $25,000 or less in back taxes—to three collection agencies....The move, an initiative of the Bush administration, represents the first step in a broader plan to outsource the collection of smaller tax debts to private companies over time. Although I.R.S. officials acknowledge that this will be much more expensive than doing it internally, they say that Congress has forced their hand by refusing to let them hire more revenue officers, who could pull in a lot of easy-to-collect money. [emphasis mine]

The cash flow choices are simple:

The private debt collection program is expected to bring in $1.4 billion over 10 years, with the collection agencies keeping about $330 million of that, or 22 to 24 cents on the dollar.

By hiring more revenue officers, the I.R.S. could collect more than $9 billion each year and spend only $296 million—or about three cents on the dollar—to do so, Charles O. Rossotti, the computer systems entrepreneur who was commissioner from 1997 to 2002, told Congress four years ago.

The math from that is also simple: Over ten years, the outside collection agencies will produce a net of $1.07B ($1.4B-0.33B). Over ten years, the IRS would produce $87.04B ($90B-$2.96B).

The net loss of owed tax revenues—all from low-level debtors—will therefore be approximately $85.97B.

And they're using reputable companies as well:

One of the three companies selected by the I.R.S. is a law firm in Austin, Tex., where a former partner, Juan Pena, admitted in 2002 that he paid bribes to win a collection contract from the city of San Antonio. He went to jail for the crime.

Last month the same law firm, Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, was again in the news. One of its competitors, Municipal Services Bureau, also of Austin, sued Brownsville, Tex., charging that the city improperly gave the Linebarger firm a collections contract that it suggested was influenced by campaign contributions to two city commissioners.

And the reasoning is the same as the justification for outsourcing: capital classification advantages, not value maximization:

Under federal budget rules, money spent to hire tax collectors is treated as a discretionary expense, and Congress is cutting discretionary spending. In business terms, the rules treat the I.R.S. as a cost center, not as the government's profit center.

The private debt-collection program, however, is outside the budget rules because, except for the start-up costs, the collectors are to be paid from the proceeds.

So we have the failed outsourcing experiment, the failed privatization experiment, bogus accounting, and poor incentive alignment combined to produce nearly $86B in lost revenues. If there were any responsibility to the shareholders, the CEO would be fired.

(Cross-posted to Economics Question of the Day)

If these gits had been in the 4-H Club instead, they wouldn't be graduating

2006-08-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

You might not know this is a case of Our Guys Redux from the lede.

A judge decided two high school athletes can complete the football season this fall before they serve 60-day jail sentences for a car crash caused by a decoy deer placed in a country road. Two teens were injured. [emphasis mine]

Doesn't sound too serious, right? Maybe 60 days is reasonable?

Second 'graf:

"I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to. I see positive things about participating in football," Judge Gary McKinley said Tuesday.

First hint something might be wrong. (Memo to the Judge: When you can verbalize "I shouldn't be doing this," your brain is trying to tell you something.)

Robert Roby Jr. crashed his car into a pole and broke his neck, collarbone, arm and leg. His passenger, Dustin Zachariah, suffered brain damage, Bailey said.

(Cross-posted from Marginal Utility)

13 August

2006-08-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

It's true; Lieberman losing ~~caused to panic~~ emboldened some.

Whether they are terrorists is left as an exercise to the reader.

08 August 2006 - Spared the wrath of SFWA, for now

2006-08-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

Until this comment to this post, I was worried that Brad at Sadly No! has once again decided to take on yet another member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

This generally is not a choice one makes without considering the possible consequences.

6 August 2006 - No, he gives them metaphoric blow jobs while complaining about the real thing

2006-08-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Joe Lieberman declares, understating the case severely, That’s something that separates me from my opponent – I don’t hate Republicans.

6 August 2006: What Vincente Fox REALLY learned from George W. Bush

2006-08-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

Democracy is great unless you count all the votes.

5 August 2006: Abreu already paying dividends for Yankees

2006-08-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

New York's lone hit was a clean first-inning single to right by Bobby Abreu.

3 August 2006

2006-08-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

Is synthetic testosterone something you get from reading too much Peter Beinart and the Corner?

Follow-up: When even The New Republic calls your effort "a textbook case of how not to wage a war," how long after that should you declare victory and leave?

2 August 2006

2006-08-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

If the current rage of killing of Lebanese civilians will "create a new momentum between us and the Palestinians," why did Olmert's government think it was a good idea to leave six years ago?

1 August 2006

2006-08-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

We keep thinking that it's George Bush's accent that causes him to say, "War on Terra."

What if we're wrong?