Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Don’t worry, the same company that just months ago said that bankruptcy was not an option, has now emerged from bankruptcy. Of course now we’re being told that all the government loans will be paid back in full and ahead of schedule. In addition, “[The new CEO] said the U.S. government, which owns a majority stake in GM, has vowed that it would not get involved in day-to-day decisions.” It seems that Congress isn’t aware of that pledge.

A majority of House members have signed onto a bill to reverse the closing of 789 Chrysler dealerships and block General Motors Corp. from closing more than 1,300, while the full House could vote on the bill as early as next week….

“A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives, an astonishing 222 members, and a quickly growing number in the Senate, from both parties, now fully recognize what is clear to the American people: The leadership of GM and Chrysler made a horrible mistake by their arbitrary termination of profitable dealerships,” the statement said. “Detroit and the (White House’s) auto task force’s flawed business plan will lead to the direct loss of more than 169,000 good jobs and cripple the U.S. auto industry’s ability to come back from bankruptcy.”

Here’s a question, have any of you actually thought to yourself how sorry you feel for these dealerships? I know I sure as shit have not.

Anyway, the executive branch is making business decisions for GM and Chrysler and Congress has decided they have veto power over the executive branch. Perhaps the government isn’t involved in “day-to-day” decisions, but they’re most certainly involved in the biggest decisions facing the companies.

Coming soon to a dealer near you:

At work today we received a brief summary of a talk from someone who is high up at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Here’s the gist:

• There are something like 13(?) energy bills circulating through the federal legislative branch right now. About 6 are “serious.”
• The bills are up to 1000 pages and big enough to crash a Mac (should you decide that you, unlike Congress, want to read bills before they’re voted upon).
• All of the 6 serious bills agree that the Feds need more power.
• None of them actually specify what the Feds are supposed to do, other than tell FERC to do something.
• FERC envisions spending the next year building a plan for all the new renewable-related transmission that is allegedly needed.
• FERC wants to have all the transmission built within 2 years.

Here’s the shorter gist: current energy policy is grounded in hope and change and reality is not an option.

Mark Steyn pens and excellent column, a snippet is here for your enjoyment:

In just about his last act as president, George W. Bush has declared Washington, D.C., a federal disaster area.

No, seriously. I’m not setting up some lame-o punchline here…

So what was it? An ice storm? A hurricane?

No, it’s the inauguration of his successor. The inauguration is scheduled to make landfall on Tuesday and wreak havoc all night long, as Category Five conga lines buckle highways round town, and emergency busboy crews find themselves overwhelmed as they struggle to clear drained champagne flutes…

“I don’t know if anybody’s ever done that,” said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.

Indeed. One reason why nobody’s ever done that before is because a presidential inauguration is not (to be boringly technical about it) an “emergency.” It’s penciled in well in advance – in this case, so well in advance that for years Democrats have been driving around with “1-20-09″ bumper stickers on the back of their Priuses…

The proposition that a new federal administration is itself a federal emergency is almost too perfect an emblem of American government in the 21st century.

In other news, here’s an article which offers a glimpse of the American milk industry, which makes you realize they’re not too different from OPEC. With this little bonus:

WASHINGTON — A stimulus package may be a lifeline for the nation’s economy, but it could be a death sentence for a lot of cows.

Lawmakers are looking for ways to use the forthcoming stimulus bill to help dairy farmers, and the number one priority is to dampen milk supplies and prop up prices. Translation: reduce the nation’s dairy herd.

Yes. The wonderful people in Washington are working their little tails off to stimulate the economy by raising your milk prices. You’re welcome!

Elsewhere, one of my favorite finance-type bloggers offered up the Financial Modelers Manifesto.

It’s a different story with finance and economics, which are concerned with the mental world of monetary value. Financial theory has tried hard to emulate the style and elegance of physics in order to discover its own laws. But markets are made of people, who are influenced by events, by their ephemeral feelings about events and by their expectations of other people’s feelings. The truth is that there are no fundamental laws in finance. And even if there were, there is no way to run repeatable experiments to verify them.

Finally, Doug with a refreshed blog design (I like it) offers up video of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Gump. Errr, Forrest Button. Benrest Gumton? Foramin Bump? It makes me a little glad that I haven’t paid to see that new version yet.

Originally, the IRS sent me a letter to tell me to look forward to receiving my stimulus rebate 3 days earlier. Now it is a few weeks later and I’m still waiting. Fortunately, the IRS must have realized both that it is botching some of the rebates and that they should have a handy “Where’s My Stimulus Payment?” page. And, let me tell ya, it’s super handy. So where is my rebate?

There is a delay in processing your Stimulus payment.

… as if I hadn’t already noticed.

Last Saturday at 8PM the world celebrated/marked Earth Hour. But, judging from load data from the United States, you either weren’t aware of the event or you completely ignored it. My boss asked this afternoon if we had noticed any major load drops during Earth Hour. We didn’t. We looked. Then we looked some more. And we still didn’t. At least, not for the markets we monitor (those markets include the Midwest, Northeast, and the areas in between).

After looking at the data, I did a quick Google search to see what people were saying about the event.

Some are taking Earth Hour and climate change very seriously.

Tonight at 8 p.m., I’ll be joining the (hopefully) millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off my lights for an hour.

One hour of one day out of one year. That’s some very, very serious action being taken.

Other writer/bloggers are clearly doing what writer/bloggers do… writing based on half-assed, non-supported assumptions.

There’s no denying it’s an idea that has caught on. Millions of people around the world turned off their lights for Earth Hour on Saturday night, following the lead set by Sydney last year. Darkness fell across Canada, Fiji and Denmark, in Dublin and big US cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and New York.

The author, I guess is technically correct. The sun did set on those big US cities. But if that was the author’s point, then they’re clearly trying to mislead. Or they’re just guessing.

And others, of course are also taking climate change and emissions very seriously; they unplugged… and started to burn stuff.

At 10 minutes before 8pm, sp and I dutifully went around shutting down computers (yes, we have more than one. He’s a programmer, duh), switching off appliances and all other equipment, turning out lamps and unplugging all power cables. It gets embarrassing when you realise that it might just take that long, because in your day-to-day life you are using that many items which draw electricity.

Then we fetched our candles, trimmed the wicks, lit them with a sense of ritual and appropriate gravitas, before placing them at various strategic points. I’m all for turning out the lights but really, there’s no need for fractures and concussions.

IN OTHER NEWS, Congress brought in leaders from Big Oil. I tried to avoid reading about it because I knew it would accomplish nothing other than give a few Congressmen a couple extra points in the polls.

I did like this sub-headline from CNN:

Lawmakers criticize industry for taking tax breaks amid record-high prices while underinvesting in renewable resources.

Goddamn. I can’t even begin to imagine why a company would take tax breaks available to them. The nerve of those guys…

And just why aren’t those bastards investing in alternatives?

Exxon has long said it is in the business of oil, and that it prefers to leave renewable energy up to the renewable energy companies.

Can you believe that shit? The nerve of a private company… not willing to spend billions of dollars to pursue it is absolutely not interested in.

Crooks and Liars directs us to a point made by Elizabeth Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, said she and John McCain have one thing in common: “Neither one of us would be covered by his health policy.”

Edwards lodged her criticism of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s proposal Saturday at the annual meeting of the Assn. of Health Care Journalists.

Under McCain’s plan, insurance companies “wouldn’t have to cover preexisting conditions like melanoma and breast cancer,” she said.

Certainly there is room for vigorous debate about what should and should not be covered. But no one the post, nor did any of the comments I perused note the other obvious point: why the fuck should a government health policy cover 2 people who are dirty, stinking rich?

Interesting, John McCain’s net worth is listed on his Wikipedia page, but John Edwards’s is not.