Bob Morris @ 22:21 Category: Renewable energy Tags: tidal power;
ScottishPower Renewables plans to build tidal turbine farms in the Pentland Firth area of the Orkneys, which has been called “the Saudi Arabia of marine energy” because of its powerful tides. The tidal farms could provide power for as many as 40,000 homes.
Bob Morris @ 10:58 Category: Credit crisis;
Good. At least some members of the House are listened to their constituents and rejected the bailout and the doublespeak idiocy of Speaker Pelosi who said ” it wasn’t a bailout but a ‘buy-in’ for taxpayers to rescue the economy.
The populist uprising in the country continues to surge.
Bob Morris @ 09:21 Category: Credit crisis Tags: bailout, Cindy Sheehan;
Today Mon. Sept. 29th 4 pm
San Francisco Federal Reserve
101 Market (at Stearns. Embarcadero BART.)
From Cindy Sheehan’s listserv:
In response to the bipartisan “done deal” of the Wall Street bailout plan, Cindy for Congress is calling for another non-partisan protest in front of the Federal Reserve Bank: 101 Market (corner of Market and Stearns) at 4pm on Monday, September 29th.
This could be sizable. Sue and I will be there.
Bob Morris @ 08:38 Category: Credit crisis;
Bob Morris @ 05:20 Category: Unfiled;
“Has Sarah Palin been picked as the titular head of the coming police state?”, asks Naomi Wolf.
My answer: No.
Journalists were arrested [at the RNC] — for reporting. Amy Goodman and ABC producers were arrested. Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and others were forced to lie face down as armed agents tied their hands behind their backs.
This is not new. It happened repeatedly in the 60’s. We survived.
The riot police wore the black S&M gear of the Rovian fantasy life and carried the four foot batons cops carry in North Korea. All this is not John McCain’s imagery or strategy: it is Karl Rove’s.
How can she possibly know what Rove’s fantasy life is? Just wondering. Saying that the militarization of police is a Rovian plot grants way too much power to one person in addition to being more than a little Black Helicopter-ish. . Some perspective, southern cops in the 50’s did much worse things to nonviolent civil rights demonstrators than just cuff them on the ground. And - don’t forget - we eventually won that battle, against what at the time often seemed insurmountable odds.
Back in the 60’s-early 70’s, like now, there were dark rumors that the president (Nixon) was secretly setting up concentration camps for dissidents, would cancel elections, roll in the tanks, and that a police state was just ’round the corner. Didn’t happen, did it?
Wolf has done many important things, but if you posit the opponent as all-powerful and all-controlling, then you can paralyze yourself into inaction. Maybe it’s more like the Wizard of Oz. A little man with some machinery. Seems to me if you take that view, you will then be more optimistic and thus have a better chance of accomplishing your goals.
“Paranoia strikes deep / Into your life it will creep / Starts when you’re always afraid.”
Bob Morris @ 04:15 Category: Credit crisis Tags: bailout;
More from Sue:
Dear Congressmember
Please vote “no” on the revised bailout package, because it contains toothless safeguards for preventing abuses in the billions of dollars.
First: What good is a law that prohibits the Treasury from buying assets at a cost above what companies actually paid for them? The problem is that those assets are near worthless, and the financial institutions know it — which is why the credit markets have seized up. The CDO’s were “only paper” and therefore fraudulent from the beginning and massively overpriced. If you can’t reach through an agreement and seize the collateral in satisfaction upon a default, then the agreement is not “collateralized” in any meaningful sense. Credit default swaps, which are insurance contracts issued by companies without the necessary capital to back them up, are also by definition fraudulent.
There is no difference, philosophically, between CDOs and credit default swaps and the securities issued in 1919-21 by Charles Ponzi vis-a-vis purported international postal reply coupon arbitrage. There is no difference between these sham paper transactions and tulip bulb mania of 1636-37.
If the Treasury buys these securities for any more than pennies on the dollar, the American people will be cheated.
Second: Supposed restrictions on executive compensation are no more strict than current tax laws. There is no law capping executive compensation. Under Internal Revenue Code section 162(m) no tax deduction is allowed for corporations related to a CEO’s compensation above $1,000,000. But of course there’s a loophole, which is: It doesn’t apply to compensation the employee *actually earned* — by which they mean the payment of commissions, and payment for meeting performance goals preapproved by the BoD and shareholders. Performance goals can be as meager as you want them to be.
Under IRC 280G, no tax deduction is allowed for an “excess parachute payments” in connection with a “change in control” in the ownership of a corporation’s stock. The excess parachute amount is defined as the “excess amount” over a “base amount.” The base amount is the average of compensation for the last five years (however high the amount). There is no “excess golden parachute” unless the payment is equal to or more than 3 times the 5-year average. The law applies to all employees in highest paid 1% of employees of the corporation or, if less, the highest paid 250 employees of the corporation.
I can’t see that there is any difference between the law proposed and those already on the books. Also please consider that a tax penalty on a company that is already doing poorly (and therefore does not really need the deduction) isn’t a meaningful penalty.
Third and most alarming: The SEC will now be able to suspend “mark-to-market” rules? Isn’t this the same as telling companies they can now lie on their financial statements with impunity? Isn’t lack of transparency a main reason that financial companies got us into this mess in the first place? Isn’t this a primary cause of Japan’s “lost decade” – allowing banks to keep worthless securities on their books for years, without marking them down to their actual value? This is a horrible provision that should be opposed with all of your might.
Sincerely,
Bob Morris @ 03:32 Category: Credit crisis;
From Sue, a CPA
There are already limitations on executive compensation, and they already take the form of disallowing tax deductions and a tax penalty on the person receiving the compensation. There is no law capping executive compensation (yet).
First, there is no tax deduction allowed to corporations for compensation above $1,000,000. But of course there’s a loophole, which is: It doesn’t apply to compensation the employee *actually earned* — by which they mean the payment of commissions, and payment for meeting performance goals preapproved by the BoD and shareholders. These rules are under Internal Revenue Code section 162(m).
Second, there is no tax deduction allowed for “excess parachute payments” in connection with a “change in control” in the ownership of a corporation’s stock. The excess parachute amount is defined as the “excess amount” over a “base amount.” The base amount is the average of compensation for the last five years (whatever the amount). There is no “golden parachute” unless the payment is equal to or more than 3 times the 5-year average. The law applies to all employees in highest paid 1% of employees of the corporation or, if less, the highest paid 250 employees of the corporation. These rules are under Internal Revenue Code section 280G.
There appears to be no difference between the laws already on the books and those proposed in the Wall Street Executive Full Compensation Guarantee Act (aka Bailout Package)
Bob Morris @ 00:18 Category: Unfiled;
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger — one of the first civilians to own a Hummer — told car manufacturers in Detroit to “get off your butt” and stop living in the past of huge SUVs and cheap oil prices.
Subscribe
