news – Page 27306

Washington, D.C.’s Subsidies for New Soccer Stadium Delayed, Thank God.

Last year, Washington Nationals managing owner and billionaire
real estate tycoon Ted Lerner had an idea: build a
retractable roof over the Nats baseball stadium and stick the
taxpayers with the $300 million tab. That’s on top of the more than

$600 million the District already shelled out to build the
stadium that charges fans $9 for a Miller Lite. But in an unusual
twist to
an otherwise routine story, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray reportedly

started laughing when he heard the proposal and threw it
out.

D.C. taxpayers may have weathered that particular crony
capitalist squall, but more dark clouds have been lowering on the
horizon. For over a year and a half, developers, District
officials—including
Gray—and D.C. United, the city’s Major League Soccer team, have
been negotiating a sweetheart deal for the franchise. Unhappy with
the Washington Senators’ old
stomping grounds, D.C. United wants politicians to unite behind a plan to bankroll up to
half the cost of a new $300 million, 20,000-seat stadium.

The government largess will come in the form of land and
infrastructure payments as well as tax breaks for the franchise. To
justify this bald-faced cronyism, officials have promised the usual

litany of bogus benefits:
jobs, economic development, increased tax revenue, ad
nauseum.

There is a chance that fiscal sanity will prevail, at least for
the time being—not because of principled opposition to corporate
welfare, sadly, but because of political infighting. The deal
hinges on a pair of
property transfers to cobble together enough land on Buzzard
Point for the stadium, including a relocation of the Reeves
Municipal Center to Ward 8. Several council members have been
skeptical about the plan.

Other recent developments also threaten to delay the project,
hopefully indefinitely. In a completely nonpolitical move, of
course, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson on Monday decided to
postpone a council hearing on the proposal until after the
election, reports
The Washington Post:

Every candidate for mayor and council has said that their
decision on whether to support the $300 million stadium would
rest in part on the findings of a study commissioned by Mendelson
(D) that was set to be released Tuesday at a council hearing.

Instead, his office announced that the hearing would take place
the day after the election and that Mendelson wasn’t sure whether
the study, which details financial risks to the city, would be made
public before voters go to the polls.

This despite Mendelson having been briefed earlier this month on
the study’s findings. Those privy to the briefing confirm that the
study found issue with the city’s financial assessments of the
property transfers.

Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) interprets the postponement as a sign that
the project is dead. Others think the move will only delay the
council’s consideration until January, when a new mayor occupies
City Hall.

In either case, chalk one up for political gridlock saving the
taxpayers some money for a few months. God only knows they’ll need
it: The Gray administration recently announced that the District’s
harebrained streetcar project faces further
delays and will wreak
commuter havoc when finished—all for a very pretty penny,
indeed.

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Ebola Virus Is More Likely to Spread through Aerosols – and Survive Longer – When It’s Cold

A British government defense lab finds that Ebola can last up to 50 days in the cold.

The Daily Mail reports:

The UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) found that the Zaire strain [of Ebola] will live on samples stored on glass at low temperatures for as long as 50 days.

The left-hand charts plot survival rates of Zaire strain of Ebola (Zebov) and Lake Victoria marburgvirus (Marv) on glass (a) and plastic (b) at 4° (39°F) over 14 days. The right-hand charts reveal the survival rate under the same conditions over 50 days. Both viruses survived for 26 days, and Ebola was extracted after 50 days

The left-hand charts plot survival rates of Zaire strain of Ebola (Zebov) and Lake Victoria marburgvirus (Marv) on glass (a) and plastic (b) at 4° (39°F) over 14 days. The right-hand charts reveal the survival rate under the same conditions over 50 days. Both viruses survived for 26 days, and Ebola was extracted after 50 days.

The tests were initially carried out by researchers from DSTL before the current outbreak, in 2010, but the strain investigated is one of five that is still infecting people globally.

The findings are also quoted in advice from the Public Agency of Health in Canada.

Temperatures of 39°F or colder are common in the U.S., Canada and much of Europe during the winter.

Top Ebola scientists also say that the virus is more likely to be spread by aerosol in cold, dry conditions than in hot, humid weather.

(Given that sneeze droplets can travel 20 feet, that’s nothing to sneeze at.)

Indeed, the British defense study cited above also found:

***

All three filoviruses under investigation [Ebola is a type of filovirus] could be detected after 90 min in a dynamic aerosol (Fig. 4a)

In other words – even after 90 minutes – Ebola could survive suspended in aerosols if the temperature is chilly.

The amount of Ebola which survives in aerosol obviously diminishes with time:

However, since MIT has recently shown that sneeze droplets travel much farther than previously thought – and can enter into ventilation systems – Ebola protocols need to take these realities into account.

This is the first time that Ebola has spread out of West Africa to cooler, dryer nations … so we can’t assume that what works in the hotzone will work here.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/kfDuNJ9kd-w/story01.htm George Washington

Obama Explains What “Quarantine-Like Isolation” Really Means – Live Feed

Having confirmed earlier that Ebola Czar Ron Klain did not take the weekend off, and ensured the American public knows the decisions on what Chuck Hagel called “quarantine-like” isolation (though obviously not quarantine because the polls suggest that word would not play well with core liberal voters) are still under discussion; we anxiously await President Obama to explain how the mixed messages from various government entities and individual states (with Christie re-flopping to strict quarantines again today) all make sense and are not, as Christie said “incredibly confusing.”

Some select headlines from the administration today so far…

*EARNEST SAYS U.S. EBOLA CZAR RON KLAIN DIDN’T TAKE WEEKEND OFF
*EARNEST: KLAIN BRIEFING OBAMA ‘REGULARLY’ ON EBOLA
*KIRBY SAYS JOINT CHIEFS RECOMMEND 21-DAY SUPERVISED MONITORING
*KIRBY SAYS HAGEL HASN’T YET DECIDED ON ‘QUARANTINE-LIKE’ PLAN
*KIRBY SAYS PENTAGON NOT CHALLENGING OTHER AGENCIES’ PROTOCOLS
*KIRBY SAYS HAGEL WON’T OVERTURN ARMY POLICY `AT THIS TIME’

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he isn’t “moving an inch” on his quarantine rules for people with direct exposure to the Ebola virus.

Christie, a second-term Republican who has said he may run for president in 2016, said new federal guidelines for quarantines are “incredibly confusing.” He spoke during an interview on the NBC “Today Show.”

President Obama is due to speak at 1455ET (plan accordingly)

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/2qFfy-kw55M/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Forget “Free Trade” – Focus On Capital Flows

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

In a world dominated by mobile capital, mobile capital is the comparative advantage.

Defenders and critics of "free trade" and globalization tend to present the issue as either/or: it's inherently good or bad. In the real world, it's not that simple. The confusion starts with defining free trade (and by extension, globalization).

In the classical definition of free trade espoused by 18th century British economist David Ricardo, trade is generally thought of as goods being shipped from one nation to another to take advantage of what Ricardo termed comparative advantage: nations would benefit by exporting whatever they produced efficiently and importing what they did not produce efficiently.

While Ricardo’s concept of free trade is intuitively appealing because it is win-win for importer and exporter, it doesn’t describe the consequences of the mobility of capital. Capital–cash, credit, tools and the intangible capital of expertise–moves freely around the globe seeking the highest possible return, pursuing the prime directive of capital: expand or die.

Capital that fails to expand will stagnate or shrink. If the contraction continues unchecked, the capital eventually vanishes.

The mobility of capital radically alters the simplistic 18th century view of free trade. In today's world, trade can not be coherently measured as goods moving between nations, because capital from the importing nation owns the productive assets in the exporting nation. If Apple owns a factory (or joint venture) in China and collects virtually all the profits from the iGadgets produced there, this reality cannot be captured by the models of simple trade described by Ricardo.

In today's globalized version of "free trade," mobile capital can arbitrage labor, currencies, interest rates, regulatory burdens and political favors by shifting between nations and assets. Trying to account for trade in the 18th century manner of goods shipped between nations is nonsensical when components come from a number of nations and profits flow not to the nation of origin but to the owners of capital.

This was recently described in a Foreign Affairs article, (Mis)leading Indicators:

If trade numbers more accurately accounted for how products are made, it is possible that the United States would not have any trade deficit at all with China. The problem, in short, is that trade figures are currently calculated based on the assumption that each product has a single country of origin and that the declared value of that product goes to that country.Thus, every time an iPhone or an iPad rolls off the factory floors of Foxconn (Apple's main contractor in China) and travels to the port of Long Beach, California, it is counted as an import from China, since that is where it undergoes its final "substantial transformation," which is the criterion the WTO uses to determine which goods to assign to which countries.

Every iPhone that Apple sells in the United States adds roughly $200 to the U.S.-Chinese trade deficit, according to the calculations of three economists who looked at the issue in 2010. That means that by 2013, Apple's U.S. iPhone sales alone were adding $6-$8 billion to the trade deficit with China every year, if not more.

A more reasonable standard, of course, would recognize that iPhones and iPads do not have a single country of origin. More than a dozen companies from at least five countries supply parts for them. Infineon Technologies, in Germany, makes the wireless chip; Toshiba, in Japan, manufactures the touchscreen; and Broadcom, in the United States, makes the Bluetooth chips that let the devices connect to wireless headsets or keyboards.

Analysts differ over how much of the final price of an iPhone or an iPad should be assigned to what country, but no one disputes that the largest slice should go not to China but to the United States. That intellectual property, along with the marketing, is the largest source of the iPhone's value.

Taking these facts into account would leave China, the supposed country of origin, with a paltry piece of the pie. Analysts estimate that as little as $10 of the value of every iPhone or iPad actually ends up in the Chinese economy, in the form of income paid directly to Foxconn or other contractors.

In a world dominated by mobile capital, mobile capital is the comparative advantage. Mobile capital can borrow billions of dollars (or equivalent) in one nation at low rates of interest and then use that money to outbid domestic capital for assets in another nation with few sources of credit.

Mobile capital can overwhelm the local political system, buying favors and cutting deals, all with cash borrowed at near-zero interest rates. Mobile capital can buy up and exploit resources and cheap labor until the resource is depleted or competition cuts profit margins. At that point, mobile capital closes the factories, fires the employees and moves on.

Where is the "free trade" in a world in which the comparative advantage is always held by mobile capital? And what gives mobile capital its essentially unlimited leverage? Central banks issuing trillions of dollars in nearly-free money to banks and other financial institutions that funnel the free cash to corporations and financiers, who can then roam the world snapping up assets and arbitraging global imbalances with nearly-free money.

There's nothing remotely "free" about trade based not on Ricardo's simple concept of comparative advantage but on capital flows unleashed by central bank liquidity.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/S7OBFOl789w/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Are Libertarians Spoiling the Midterm Elections?

“When you give [Democrats and Republicans] your vote, you’re
telling them ‘Go ahead, keep on doing what you’re doing,'” explains
Libertarian National Committee Vice Chair Arvin Vohra. “And when
you vote for the Libertarian candidate you are telling them, in no
uncertain terms, ‘you do not have either my approval or my
permission to grow or sustain big government: shrink it now.'”

Click above to watch “Are Libertarians Spoiling the Midterm
Elections?” or click below for more information and downloadable
links.

View this article.

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Here’s a major risk you’re probably taking without even knowing it (and how to stop it)

October 28, 2014
Region VII, Chile

The killer lurked outside in the rainstorm, his axe still dripping with the blood of his last victim.

Inside, the sorority girls gossiped about their missing sisters who had mysteriously disappeared the week before.

–Stop me when this sounds familiar… it’s the standard plot of hundreds of b-rated horror movies–

Suddenly one of them hears a noise. It’s the killer, lying in wait to chop her up into kibbles n’ bits. The music heightens, and the audience shouts ‘Don’t go out there!’

We all know what’s about to happen. It’s so obvious.

The girl on screen senses that something’s wrong but she goes anyway, by herself, to ‘investigate’ the noise… and ends up face-first into the killer’s blade.

Ugh. It’s unbearable to watch… not necessarily for the cinematic gore, but for the sheer stupidity of the soon-to-be-victim falling into the killer’s trap, completely oblivious of the warning signs.

Yet as insufferable as much of the genre may be, perhaps it’s true that art is a reflection of life. Just look around—the alarm bells are sounding for anyone paying attention.

Entire nations are insolvent, including many of the bedrocks of Western Civilization itself. Many police forces have turned into violent, abusive paramilitaries. And with civil asset forfeiture on the rise once again, bankrupt government agencies are sinking their teeth into taxpayers’ flesh in record amounts.

Then there’s the banking system, another ticking time bomb in many jurisdictions.

Just like a bad horror movie, there’s no real mystery in how this is going to play out, regardless of whether it happens tomorrow or years from now. The information is out there as plain as day.

In Europe, the ECB just wrapped up its asset quality review (AQR) of eurozone banks, so the data is very fresh.

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of carnage. Some of the largest banks in Europe are in major distress.

Italy’s largest bank (Unicredit) is bleeding cash, having lost roughly 14 billion euros last year. Most of the other large banks in Italy, along with Unicredit, are posting serious capital deficits.

In other words, the banks don’t have strong enough balance sheets to be able to repay depositors’ funds and weather a financial storm.

In Ireland it’s even worse, with some banks there (like Ulster Bank) having a non-performing exposure (NPE) up to 40%. This means that a substantial portion of the bank’s loans aren’t paying up.

The situation is similar in Cyprus where, despite having frozen depositors’ funds last March and establishing capital controls for a year, the banking system there is still pitifully capitalized.

Bank of Cyprus has a whopping 45% NPE ratio and lost 2.1 billion euros last year. Other Cypriot banks aren’t doing much better.

Greece, Slovenia, Portugal, etc. All the usual suspects are there, still posting substantial capital deficits. There are even banks in Germany that are in trouble.

This situation isn’t exclusive to Europe. Across the water there are a number of cracks in the system.

Just last Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shut down National Republic Bank of Chicago, costing the FDIC insurance fund $111 million.

And there are a number of banks in the US (including Bank of America) that didn’t fare well in the Fed’s recent stress tests.

Of course, these stress tests are a total farce. Banks get to count US Treasuries as ‘risk-free’ assets even under the most adverse scenarios.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a total absurdity to view the greatest debtor that has ever existed in the history of the world as risk-free.

In fact, given that US Treasury yields are well below the rate of inflation, holding these bonds is actually destructive to bank balance sheets.

Whether you realize it or not, you’re taking a significant risk holding US dollars in a poorly capitalized US bank, or holding euros in a poorly capitalized European bank, and these hazards should not be underestimated.

There are places in the world where extremely well capitalized banks are backed by governments with zero net debt. Some of them actually pay a reasonable rate of return, or allow you to hold stronger currencies.

It makes sense to consider these options soon. Why wait until your bank ends up on some list of failed institutions? Why take the chance when there are so many better options out there?

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Human civilization was built on this one simple premise. Now it’s broken.

October 28, 2014
Region VII, Chile

In the early days of human civilization during the time of hunter-gatherers, every day was a struggle.

Satisfying an empty stomach was the primary function of life. Thus, every waking moment was devoted to finding food.

Everyone was simply living from one kill and gather to the next.

This all changed however with the advent of organized agriculture. For the first time in human history, people didn’t have to worry about what they were going to eat all the time. They no longer had to move around constantly.

By cultivating land, human beings could suddenly reap a huge bounty once or twice a year.

Far less effort and risk were required for much greater returns. And people’s energy could be devoted to other things.

Large harvests meant an excess of food could be saved for later consumption. This was, in effect, the first time that humans experienced the concept of ‘savings’.

This ‘food savings’ enabled people to trade; they had excess capacity to barter for the goods they didn’t have. Productivity blossomed and economies prospered.

By then, just a few people working in agriculture could cover the sustenance needs of the whole society.

By trading with those in agriculture, the energies of the rest could be devoted to other pursuits—manufacturing, housing, clothing, recreation, to name just a few.

This is how civilization was able to develop and progress. In fact, everything we have today was made possible by the ability of our ancient ancestors to accumulate savings through agriculture.

It was based on one simple rule: produce more than you consume. This is the foundation of civilization.

Today we turned that completely upside-down. The ‘rich’ countries of today consume far more than they produce.
Governments act as if they can spend interminably without consequence, and they make up the difference by indebting future generations and having central banks print money.

Even for individuals, debt is considered normal. Living off of credit cards is considered normal.

And instead of producing and saving, the high priests of economics tell us to spend our way out of recessions and borrow our way out of debt.

This is a massive departure from our roots. Human beings are not meant to live to such excess.

This is just another indicator that the present debt-based, consumption-driven, paper money system is a major abnormality on a long historical timeline, and it goes against the core tenants of human civilization.

It seems clear that this is due for a change back to more conservative traditions. Even those in charge are recognizing this and taking steps to do something about it.

All over the world, foreign governments and central banks are starting to hold other currencies beyond the US dollar.

Wealthy producer nations are beginning to align themselves with one another and overtake bankrupt, consumptive, debtor nations.

This system is due for radical change; it’s already happening. It won’t reset itself overnight. But like going bankrupt, it’ll roll out gradually, then suddenly.

This makes conventional paper assets far riskier than they appear.

Like our ancient ancestors, the best investment right now are real assets like productive land and profitable operating businesses… not paper claims on the empty promises of government.

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This Has Never Happened Before Without A Massive Bubble Bursting

Back in June we first observed that “America’s Most Important Housing Market Signals A Red Alert For Housing Bubble Watchers” and showed the following chart:

As expected, since then things have only gotten worse, and as today’s Case-Shiller report confirmed, the annual price increase in San Francisco has now put double-digit percent appreciation territory in the rear view mirror, and has slid back into the single digits, or 9% Y/Y to be precise (and only the second .

At this rate, all else equal, San Francisco home prices will slide into negative territory in another 5-6 months: only the fourth time they have done so in the past two decades.

In fact, as the chart demonstrates, there has never been a time when the all important leading indicator that is the San Fran housing market (see here for the reasons why) has posted such a steep slowdown in annual price increases without a bubble of some sort, be it the dot com, the first housing or the European sovereign debt bubble, having burst.

So: will this time finally be different?

Source: Case Shiller

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Australia’s Treasurer: Loose monetary policy has made the rich richer

October 28, 2014
Region VII, Chile

The Treasurer of Australia (equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury in the US, or Finance Minister in most European countries) has made a stunning admission.

Joe Hockey stated that the policy of ultra-low interest rates hasn’t spurred economic growth; instead it has mainly had one effect—making rich people richer.

“Loose monetary policy has done its work and unfortunately made the rich richer through rising asset values.”

Even those in charge are recognizing and admitting what devastating effects the voodoo magic of money printing and manipulating the price of money has.

Mr. Hockey also admitted that the alternative of ramping up government spending was limited as well because most countries around the world did not have the money or the ability to “put it on the credit card for ever.”

He said the only way to generate growth in the future was by having “a more competitive world with deregulated labor markets,” reduced barriers to trade and budget reform.

At least someone gets it.

Years of ultra-low interest rates by central banks of US, Japan, UK, Europe etc. have pushed bond and stock markets to record levels, even though the underlying economy is still flat.

Those on top are doing great, the middle class is being squeezed out, and the standards of living for average people are decreasing.

People are starting to understand what kind of charade this is.

They realize that the world’s largest debtor cannot be entrusted anymore with the role of the world’s reserve currency.

The whole world is screaming for a change. Even “friends” are looking for a way out of dependency on the US dollar. The French Finance Minister said recently that an alternative to the dollar is urgently needed.

The European Central Bank is now considering holding some of its reserves in Chinese renminbi, while UK just became the first Western country to issue government bonds denominated in renminbi.

The Europeans, the Chinese, the Russians, the Canadians, the Koreans, the Singaporeans… everyone is recognizing what’s going on. And they’re preparing for a new system.

This is happening. Even the establishment is pushing for it.

Of course, nothing happens overnight. Right now we’re seeing an orderly exit from the US dollar based system.

Just as with bankruptcy, this happens gradually, then suddenly.

Bottom line—we have a front row seat to experience this. The solutions are out there for people who recognize the trend. As with most things in life, it’s better to be years early than a moment too late.

from SOVEREIGN MAN http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/australias-treasurer-loose-monetary-policy-has-made-the-rich-richer-15475/
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You Look Too Calm. What Are You, a Terrorist? Now You Look Nervous, Terrorist.

Look too calm, you’re
suspicious. Look too nervous, you’re suspicious. These
contradictory assumptions are just several transportation
guidelines on “reporting suspicious activity,” revealed by an
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request.

They comes from an
employee document for Amtrak, which is publicly funded. These
are signs that you should be paranoid of your fellow Americans, and
call the police on them:

Evasive path through train station
Carrying little or no luggage
Last minute reservation
Traveling by an unusual itinerary (multi-changes in
reservations)
Carrying unusually large amount of currency
Purchase of tickets in cash
Purchase tickets immediately prior to boarding
Unusual nervousness of traveler
Unusual calmness or straight ahead stare
Looking around while making telephone call(s)
Position among passengers disembarking (ahead of, or lagging
behind passengers)

So, Amtrak travelers, make sure you walk straight, travel
straight, look straight ahead but don‘t look
straight ahead, keep pace with the rest of us, carry just the right
amount of clothes, and wipe that look of fear or curiosity or
contentment off your face, or else the terrorists win.

The ACLU
explains that it made this FOIA request because it “has
received reports from individuals wrongfully searched and arrested
on Amtrak trains,” and wanted to know what policies led to these
arrests.

Amtrak has a “See Something, Say Something” campaign like the
Department of Homeland Security, and like the Transportation
Security Agency, Amtrak’s “broad categories of ‘suspicious’
behavior is problematic because it almost always results in racial
and religious profiling, as well as the targeting of perfectly
innocent activity. Most importantly, building mountains of
irrelevant data is ultimately an ineffective law enforcement
tactic.”

The ACLU points out several stupid cases that make no one safer:
one woman was arrested for talking to loudly, and a photographer
was arrested while participating in Amtrak’s annual “Picture our
Train” competition.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/28/you-look-too-calm-what-are-you-a-terrori
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