Category Archives: Walther

Commentary, Highlights, Walther

Evolution, Economics and Solar Power

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Nothing I’ve ever read has effectively explained to me how evolution works.  I know there are mutations: the beneficial mutations lead to survival and reproduction while harmful mutations lead to death.  How, I’ve always wondered, can the amazing complexity and diversity of live arise from so many individual efforts of trial and error?  How many amazing traits have been lost because mutation #1 didn’t benefit it’s host and thus couldn’t be spread, even though it would have provided the perfect foundation for mutation #2?

I’d imagine that an Eastern answer would go something like this: evolution is a path and every step forward in that path leads to perfection while space/time (circumstance) creates impediments; but these impediments are only temporary, just like all things, and the correct mutations will be discovered and will spread.  A Western answer might go like this: some organizational force (God) has a plan and evolution is the unfolding of that plan.  The Western one naturally leads to the next question: how can I understand this plan?  Is the Pope going to tell me?  The bible?  Natural scientists?  My own Spirit?  I can more easy grasp the concept of a path than a plan, which is probably why I’ve been finding Eastern wisdom more effective than Western as of late.

The most effective wisdom tradition in explaining our world, in my opinion, is economics. I’d consider it a wisdom tradition because, like the others, it has it’s own concept of Ultimate Reality, Perfection, Oneness, etc: the free market.  If something bad happens in the world, it’s not because of a failure of the free market: it’s because the market wasn’t really free (and of course, can never be.)  The intersection of evolution and economics is playing out particularly obviously in the current quest for solar power.

The human organism is evolving an organ to create electricity out of the light from the sun.  At a trade show in San Diego hundreds of different designs, each financed by a deliberate amount of capital, are displayed to people with access to clients and/or more capital.  CNET took photos of their favorites. Take a look at these pictures and ask yourself if these don’t look like a bunch of different mutations; if this doesn’t look like evolution in action.  Some of these technologies (mutations) will prove beneficial and receive more capital (life) while others will die off.  We will evolve the ability to capture the sun’s energy.  The only questions are how soon and how much.

Walther

Debunking “3 Men who brought down Wall Street”

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You’ve probably received a number of politically charged emails in the last fews days that purport to reveal questionable practices by one campaign or the other.  Today I got this email.  The highlights are as follows:


Here is a quick look into 3 former Fannie Mae executives who have brought down Wall Street.

Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae.  Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregulaties in Fannie Mae’s accounting activities.

Raines left with a “golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ .


Tim Howard –  Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard “was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a “stable pattern of earnings” at Fannie. In everyday English – he was cooking the books.  The Government Investigation determined that, “Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,”
Howard’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!


Jim Johnson –   A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as F annie Mae CEO.   Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae.
Johnson’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?????


FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor


TIM HOWARD?  Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama


JIM JOHNSON?  Johnson hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama’s Vice Presidential Search Committee


IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS – HIS ADVISORS HAVE THE EXPERTISE – THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.   Would you trust the men who tore Wall Street down to build the New Wall Street ?

The best hoaxes are those that combine truths with lies to escape detection.  The description on the crimes of these men are essentially accurate, but their relationship to Obama is not.

Raines is NOT an Obama adviser, much less a “chief economic adviser.”  It was fabricated from an interview in which Raines said that he had talked to someone within the Obama campaign about general issues concerning the housing market.

No one has any evidence of Tim Howard being linked to Obama.  Apparently this was simply fabricated.  One article I saw that said Howard was linked to Obama used this WSJ article as proof.  Obama isn’t names in it.  They just assumed you wouldn’t click.

The final charge is true: Johnson did advise Obama but resigned once the Fannie Mae scandal hit the front pages.

Of course, McCain’s team has been conspiring with the Fannie Mae people as well.

Fannie and Freddie were massive institutions that lobbied heavily: financing Democrats and Republicans alike.  The collapse of these semi-governmental mortgage giants is a mar on the record of both parties and the political-economic-media establishment.   Obama and McCain were both culpable.

Walther

We Need a Better .Gov(ernment)

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It’s easy to get distracted by the political theater of the day and forget what government is supposed to be doing.  Government organizes people.  At it’s simplest, government organizes it’s citizens to fight an external enemy and create an internal peace.  Governments also tend to take money from one group of people and use it to create outcomes that the market won’t.  The actual application of government power is conducted through the use of information technology (IT).  Indeed, if one views IT as a continuum (language at the beginning, then writing, printing press, internet, etc), then IT is the foundation of government.  Of course it is: how else can one person communicate a message (information) to another?

If government and IT are so linked, why does the Federal Government act like a pre-internet organization?  Unlike nearly every business in America, they have not been thinking about how they can modify their products and services for the internet age.  GE has a comprehensive website that explains nearly every aspect of their business but the Federal Government doesn’t… and the federal government is the one that’s supposed to be transparent!

The fact that the Federal Government doesn’t have a serious web strategy is a joke that costs tax payers billions of dollars and allows for corruption to continue unnoticed.  Why is the census data locked into a government made PDF instead of analyzable through (and integrated with) third party products like Google Earth, Microsoft Excel or Wikipedia?  Why do thousands of office workers commute to Federal office buildings when they could work remotely?  Why can I do banking online but not my taxes?  Why can I get a college degree online but not a free, public high school one?

It’s really quite amazing how much the government could reduce the cost of governance, increase the quality of services and  engage with it’s citizens if it used just a little of the internet’s potential.  Our elected legislators can have an online home with a profile, a blog (if they want), video and transcripts of all their speeches, their legislative work, all their votes, a listing of all their donors, etc.  Our federal agencies can reduce their size and increase their transparency by using more open source products, more online collaborative workflow and a paperless office.  Our judiciary can post every case online: evidence, testimony, outcome, classifications.  All this data can be freed and integrated with third party applications that allow us all to manipulate it: finding hidden causations and correlations, exposing inefficiency, etc.

The time has come for the government to create a web strategy.  If they don’t, someone else will.  I know a guy who just bought the URL govenant.com and he’s convinced that there is money to be made in online governance tools.

According to Neilsen, 220 million Americans already have internet access.  Let’s stop pretending we can’t, or shouldn’t, change the way government interacts with it’s citizens by using the internet in a sensible way.  Obama has already started.

Walther

End Game McCain

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John McCain he has proven he will do whatever it takes to win.

We has one final card in the deck: Declare war against the media.

The Couric interview of Palin is nothing short of amazing.  It revealled the logic behind her selection for VP.  The Republicans thoguht that since beautiful women sell everything to Americans; they might be able to sell a president.  Couric made Palin look foolish simply by reading, line for line, questions any mediocre journalist would ask.  This was a sad day for America. There will be much denial on the part of conservatives who invested in the McCain-Pailin ticket, but as the interview sinks in, many conservaticve media commentators will have to turn on the McCain-Palin ticket to save their own respectability.  Palin was so bad that one gets the sense Palin was angry she had to defend Rick Davis and answer questions she wasn’t prepared for.  She knows the Republicans used her.  She couldn’t perform.  Very, very few people could have in this situation.

As the final wave of media personalities flee McCain, his only move is to talk to the American people directly and say: “The media has lied to you.  They hate me because I will defeat them and they will try to convince you I’m not worth of being president.  They’re wrong: just like they were wrong about Iraq, the state of the economy and your level of intelligence.  Don’t listen to them now.  Let’s take our country back.”

Unfortunately for McCain, he cannot escape his own decisions.  He cannot escape Rick Davis, Sarah Palin or his 26 years in the Senate.  Obama has enough money to remind Americans McCain supported the invasion of Iraq and deregulation on Wall Street.  Sarah Palin has taken care of herself.

The game isn’t over.  Republicans are going to engineer a situation in which McCain saves the bail out plan  that has been temporarily put in jeopardy by a gang of Republicans who are waiting for McCain’s signal.   The media won’t buy this silly ploy and neither will the American people.  If McCain is really desperate, he’ll skip the debate, effectively declaring war on the press as they broadcast Obama waiting for an opponent who does not come.

McCain’s plan might have worked if there were only a few days left to the election, but with 40 days left, there’ll be more than enough time to sort through the wreckage.

Commentary, Walther

Would You Fight for President Palin? (Or WWPD)

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Let’s imagine for a moment that John McCain, a 72 year old with a history of lethal skin cancer, wins the election and then dies while in office.  Sarah Palin becomes president.  We need to start asking the question: what would Palin do (WWPD)?

Due to her limited foreign policy experience, Palin doesn’t have many (if any) trusted, experienced foreign policy advisers.  She will be extremely vulnerable to influence, and considering her lack of intellectual curiosity, I guess that’s some type of relief.  Unfortunately, the neocons (Cheney and friends) have a track record of influencing Evangelical presidents and, despite their massive failures, they’re eager to continue to use our military to achieve their imperial objectives.  Would Palin resist neocon influence?

Let’s assume Palin avoids the neocon pitfall and, instead chooses the somewhat less frightening McCain foreign policy team or, better yet, a team of experienced moderates like Colin Powell.  The nascent Palin presidency will have to face their next great challenge: a world that thinks she’s weak.

The world follows our election and they know that Palin was chosen for political expediency.  I think we can safely assume that a Palin Presidency will look weak in the eyes of our adversaries in Iran, Russia, Iraq and along the Afghan border.  They will test her administration, and the American people’s confidence in her presidency, by becoming more beligerent and aggressive.  It will take extremely skilled manuervoring to show the world that Palin is a competant leader.  Let’s hope she is.

The biggest challenge to a Palin Presidency is how the American people would respond to a crisis during her tenure.  Imagine, for a moment, that you’re watching CNN in a year or two and President Palin has just sent US bombers into Iran to destroy some piece of nuclear equipment.  How will you feel knowing that our nation’s favorite ‘hockey mom’ started a war?  How will you feel if she tries to send you to fight?  You’ll probably be angry McCain never took the WWPD question more seriously.

Walther

Searching for a Simple Financial Truth

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There is something about gold that attracts people.  It became the currency of choice for the Eastern and Western hemispheres before either one knew the other existed. Of course, its attractivness sciews judgement and creates hubris.  Governments have always enjoyed hording the stuff.

In the beginning, Roman coinage was worth the amount of gold it had in it.  As the government spent more than it grossed, they began to put less gold into their coins.  Eventually, the people wised up and realized that the coins weren’t worth as much as they once were.  Inflation began and so did decline.

There was a time when an America could take a dollar bill to the treasury and get it’s value in gold.  No more.  In fact, it’s illegal to own a lot of the stuff because the government wants to protect it’s monopoly on the money supply.  But what does that mean?

Despite reading quite a bit about this stuff, I still don’t understand how the Treasury and the Federal Reserve work.  I know the Treasury manufactures money, which is disconcerting in its own right because if someone forgot to turn the machine off at the end of the day, we’d all wake up and our money would be worthless.  I also know the Federal Reserve ‘regulates the money supply’ by determining interest rates and regulating reserve requirements, I don’t fully understand what they’re doing with treasury bonds?  And who makes sure the Fed is doing it’s job properly?  When did we decide the Fed could spend tax payer money (or am I deluding myself and it’s really government money?) to save one businesses but not the other?  Who regulates the Fed and makes sure they’re doing their job properly?

Basically, the point I’m trying to get at is this. Nothing in this world is free.  When government does something, there is always blow back, somewhere, sometime.  Right now, despite our ‘free market’ the government is influencing the financial markets from countless angles and things are spinning out of control.  If we were still on the gold standard, or a modified version of that system, would that allow the government to play a less significant role in the economy?  Would that create less incentives for financial service professionals to influence government policy? Could that pave the road for more honest regulation?

Commentary, Walther

An Alliance between the Real “Change” and “Maverick” Candidates

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What happens when you cross anti-corporate hippy socialists with anti-government conservative libertarians?  The most surprising (and interesting) political alliance of my lifetime.  Ron Paul and Ralph Nader have come together over four core issues neglected by the mainstream parties and media and discussed these ideas with Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room.  The following is the agreement from Ralph Nader’s website.  Excuse the odd use of bold and underlining, Nader is a quirky dude.

We Agree

Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations.

Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders.

The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation.

The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds.

We support opening up the debates beyond the two parties and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a private corporation co-chaired by former chairmen of the Republican and Democratic Party. It is time for our Presidential Debates to once again be hosted by a truly non-partisan civic-minded association.

As the mainstream ‘Change’ and ‘Maverick’ candidates continue their collective transformation into conventional politicians, it’s nice to see what real change would look like and who the real mavericks are.

If you haven’t watch Ron Paul give a speech, you’ll be shocked by his level headedness, philosophical consistency and candor.  His Rally for the Republic Convention Speech was great.  If you’re curious about the principles of Ron Paul’s libertarianism, watch his amazing discussion @ Google.

Walther

Three Commercials We Should Make for Barack

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Alright Barack, when I gave you my support well over a year ago, I assumed you’d be able to handle these Republican fools with a swift shot of truth serum.  I know these polls are generally BS, but the media tone is clearly changing.  Right now you look like a sour puss.  Show those naysayers you know how to fight!

Commercial One: Sarah Palin’s New Book

“How many interviews did it take for you to get your job?  If your answer is ‘more than one,’ you should buy Sarah Palin’s new book: ‘How to convince someone you can be President in under two hours.’  In this fascinating page turner, Sarah Palin explains how she did the impossible: convince John McCain that she could be President of the United States after only one meeting.  Buy it now and you’ll receive Cindy McCain’s “How to steal another woman’s husband in a one night or less” absolutely free!

Commercial Two:The Meaning of Forgiveness

Let me tell you a story about Senator McCain’s amazing capacity to forgive.  In 2000, John McCain ran against George W Bush in the Republican primary.  John ran an amazing grassroots, issue based campaign.  His honesty was infectious as liberals and conservatives came together around his underdog candidacy.  Everything was looking great until, at the last minute, Bush’s campaign created a fictitious story about John having an illegitimate black baby.  Instead of getting upset like most Americans would about that malicious lie, John showed us all the true meaning of forgiveness.  Not only did he honorably serve President Bush in the Senate for the next 8 years, but he actually hired the same men who fabricated the illegitimate child story to run his next campaign for president.  John McCain’s stunning act of forgiveness is an inspiration to us all and one of the many reasons he is a true maverick”

Commercial Three: A Thank You Note to Small Town America

Dear America,

Thank you so much for the prosperity of the last few decades.  I know it must have been hard to see the factories shut down, the stores on main street close and the kids leave but you’re sacrifice has allowed America’s cities to become stronger.  To be honest, we were surprised you folks wanted less regulation in the financial services industry, allowing Wall Street to get rich by sending American money oversees.  We know it’s because you love free-market economics just like us.  We were also surprised when you decided to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans because, if you haven’t noticed, nearly all of us live in coastal ‘blue’ states.  We were also surprised by the warmth of your small town hospitality when you welcomed our big city mayor and Fortunate 500 CEOs to your convention so they could tell you how grateful we, America’s urban elite, are for your hatred of us.

Keep the surprises (and the tax cuts) coming in 2008. Vote Republican.

Walther

Apple will be taking over your TV soon

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Most people in the Applephile world know that Apple is making an announcement tomorrow.  Since predicting Apple’s next moves is a celebrated past time for those who pretend to know what’s going on in tech, I’ll thow in my two cents while I still can.

Everyone is talking about new iPods.  Fuck that.  I’m sure they’ll have some nicely designed new iPods but unless they’ve figured out a way to incorporate a lighter and bottle opener into the design, they won’t make any iPhone users into iPod buyers.

What I’m waiting for, and hoping for, is that they combine their Mac Mini, Time Machine wireless internet/hard drive device and Apple TV into a single box top device that sits by your TV.  It should do the following:

Play steaming internet video.

Give me an innovative new keyboard that finally makes my TV into a useful computer.

Backs up all your computers wirelessly.

Hold all my media (audio, video, photos) and wirelessly send it to airport express like devices that I can  place by my other TVs and stereos.

Has communication functionality built into it.

Is all controlled via iPhone or iPod touch

Not give me cancer by filling my house with tons of radio waves.

I hope to see my brand new Apple iPort (?) tomorrow… and maybe an iPhone nano.

Walther

Why Georgia Matters

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First, let me just say people need to more closely monitor what Tom Clancy has to say because he called this conflict in Georgia a long time ago in the fantastic video game Ghost Recon.  Don’t worry.  America wins in the end.  He also wrote a novel about terrorists flying a jumbo jet into the capital building during the state of the union way before 9/11.  The man is really on top of things.

Of course, the US media performed admirably in telling the story of Georgia.  Here is the narrative I heard:  The Russians attacked Georgian cities and infrastructure, killing thousands of civilians in response to Georgian attacks in South Ossetia against Pro-Russian paramilitary units.  The Russian response was overwhelmingly harsh and John McCain swiftly and decisively called on the Russians to withdraw immediately or face the full might of American force.

Of course, this sounds normal to those of us in America because, at the end of the day, there is no such thing as history and everything in the world revolves around how US presidential candidates respond to events.

First, a little context.  Georgia has a significant oil pipeline that transports the black gold from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea oil fields to Turkey and the Mediterranean (and thus the western world) while bypassing Russia (yay!) and Armenia who is officially at war with Azerbaijan.That’s one reason people care about Georgia, but there is another reason this story is interesting and that brings us to the Republic of Kosovo’s recent independence from Serbia.

The global community has not come to an agreement about separatist movements.  When does a domestic separatist movement, many of which use terrorism as a weapon, become legitimate?  When can that territory declare itself free from their current home-nation and create their own.  The US and the West said ‘we decide’ this month when they recognized the Republic of Kosovo after it officially broke away from Serbia.

This separatist issue doesn’t really effect Americans, unless Hawaii decides to bounce, but other major world powers like Russia and China, as well as Pakistan, India, Spain, Israel and many more all have territories that would like to start their own countries.  Despite international guidelines that vaguely outline when a territory can secede, in reality its American and NATO that decides who can legitimately secede and who can’t.  See the Kosovo example.

The Russians, who strongly supported the Serbian effort to keep Kosovo officially within Serbia have a bunch of small territories that want to secede, notably the Chechens.  So when America and the West declared they call the shots over Kosovo, the Russian were infuriated.  That type of precendent could stoke the fire of many seperatist movements the world over, especially in Chechnya.

What makes the Georgian story so interesting is the Russians basically did the same thing the US did in Kosovo.  They support the separation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia.  These territories would then become satellite states of Russia or be annexed and join the Russian Federation.  The thing is, it sounds like most people living in these areas want to leave Georgia and join Russia.  (I’d love to see a reliable poll.)  Should we let them self-determine?