Rag Hand

A couple of observations on the on going economic downturn. —”Downturn.” It’s such a nice word when compared to recession.

Pioneer Loan Center Blog says “Retail Sales Have Tanked”
“Everyone is scared. -We are in a full blown recession whether the number crunchers in Washington say so or not.”

Political Nevada says “It’s over! Economy isn’t!.” –Referring to the election and the economic problems.
“There are all manner of experts claiming to have the solution for our failed economy, and like anything else these experts can’t agree on any one issue other than the country is hurt.”

Opinions on economists:

Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, ‘on the one hand…on the other.’ —Harry S Truman

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.
—George Bernard Shaw

According to the Wall Street Journal The experts are looking for new ways to gauge the downturn.

WSJ — Economists struggling to gauge the depth of the U.S. downturn are turning to more forward-looking clues, such as home-vacancy rates and foreign stock markets.

The standard measures of gross domestic product and monthly payroll figures give snapshots of what has happened, but say less about what will happen next.

The current downturn is shaping up to be worse than the recessions of 1990-91 and 2001 and the prolonged downturn that ended in 1982. Banks are cutting back on lending, consumers are spending less, companies are shedding jobs amid sinking profits, and the housing bust that triggered the slide persists. Here are five areas economists are watching, and the indicators they are tracking.

From the Pioneer Loan Center Blog: “Expert” that’s the guy who tells you how smart he is and then blames his failures on everybody else. All the while making sure that even if you lose money he still gets paid. –By this definition the average economist is over qualified.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted he didn’t think this could happen: “Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder’s equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief.”

Everybody agrees we’re screwed. Now how are they going to fix the problem?

The answer is simple if painful:
Only loan money to people you think can pay it back.
Don’t use come-ons like interest only to sell people houses they can’t possibly afford.
And make Morgan Stanley and their ilk keep their reserves instead of using them as investment capital.

BBC: A manhunt is under way in western Germany for a convicted drug dealer who escaped by mailing himself out of jail.

The 42-year-old Turkish citizen - who was serving a seven-year sentence - had been making stationery with other prisoners destined for the shops.

At the end of his shift, the inmate climbed into a cardboard box.

When the weekly express courier arrived to pick up several boxes of merchandise, the one containing the prisoner was also loaded into the back of the lorry.

Shortly after it had passed through the prison gates, the inmate made his dash for freedom by cutting a big hole in the tarpaulin of the lorry and jumped off.

The police have no idea where the former prisoner is at this time.

Simple, elegant and something I thought only happened in the movies.

From Internet Cases

Defendant was tried and convicted for cocaine possession. He appealed his sentence, arguing the trial court improperly admitted two oral statements the defendant made while being interrogated. Defendant apparently objected to the method investigators used to interrogate him, because he asked the appellate court to take judicial notice of the Wikipedia entry for the John Reid technique.

(The term “Reid technique” is a registered trademark of the firm John E. Reid and Associates)

The Texas appellate court has held that it should not take judicial notice of a Wikipedia article on the following grounds:
Fed. R. Evid. 201 provides that a court may take judicial notice of a fact not in the record where it is “either (1) generally known within the territorial jurisdiction of the trial court or (2) capable of accurate and ready determination by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.”

Because anyone can edit the Wikipedia it’s accuracy can “reasonably be questioned.”

The Wikipedia is not only an unreliable site, there are other sites including Reid.com that would hold up under the “capable of accurate and ready determination by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned” provision in the law.

This guy needs a new lawyer….. Especially if he’s representing himself.

For more information:
Reid.com
Law.Wayne.edu
How Stuff Works

The European Court of Auditors say for the first time in 14 years they have given a clean bill of health for the accounts.

Ok, now we go to some samples of the top 100 cases of fraud and abuse from www.openeurope.org.uk.

The greedy dentist A dentist in Cosenza used EU funds to buy a yellow Ferrari Testarossa, which sells at around 200,000 euros and a Formula One car, along with 55 other luxury cars, which he stored in warehouses. He received EU money by inventing a solar-panel business that never saw the light of day. The dentist was part of a larger fraud scheme involving a staggering 80 million euros, in which four business organisations siphoned off funds during a four year period to buy luxury items such as cars, motorbikes and yachts. (IlGiornale 19 August 2006, Republica 23 February 2006)

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Bubbico and the story of the bogus silk worms Filippo Bubbico, President of the Basilicata region of Italy, and Senator of the Social Democrat party, received 10,329 euros in EU funds for a silk worm breeding business which never existed. The politician, Bubbico, operated under the false name Bibbibo when he acted as president of the consortium “Seta Italia” (Silk Italy), and Bobbidi when he acted on behalf of “Seta Basilicata”. Both consortiums managed EU funds for the programme “Silkworm breeding development” but not one strand of silk was produced. As President of the region, Bubbico Basilicata was also distributing EU funds to various relatives. 300,000 euros ended up in the pockets of Rocco Luigi Bubbico, the Undersecretary’s father, and Antonio Clemente, his father-in-law. (Corriere della sera 27 April 2007)

Italian unions steal money from disabled, unemployed and teachers to finance luxury cars and holidays Italian trade unions in Abruzzo, Ial-Cisl of Abruzzo and Molise, systematically siphoned off EU money intended for work training between 2000 and 2006. The unions announced that they would carry out around 300 different training programmes, but in reality the programmes were aborted at conception or never paid for. Each bogus training course cost between 60-70,000 euros, which ended up with a few individuals in the unions.

Far-right politician’s wife faking horse-riding lessons for disabled peopleLaura Ferrari Giorgetti, wife of Lega Nord politician Giancarlo Giorgetti, was the owner of a charitable horse-riding school. Giorgetti obtained some 400,000 euros in EU funds via the Lombard region.

‘Organic’ olive oil grown on a waste dump Certified ‘organic’ olive oil and fruit was found to be growing in a 10 metre high dump of waste in the southern region of Puglia, Italy

MEPs claim 820,000 euros for… nothing A leaked note from European Parliament Vice-President Diana Wallis shows that more than 60 MEPs regularly sign in to be present for the monthly EP session in Strasbourg on Fridays, even though the EP does not convene on Fridays - allowing MEPs to make 200 euros each time.

50 million euros to ‘ghost farmers’ The EU paid out approximately 50 million euros during the period 2001-2004 to farmers in southern Italy, for buying and selling surpluses of citrus fruits under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. However it was later revealed that the farmers, buyers and even the fruit did not actually exist. (Svenska Dagbladet 23 April 2007)

An EU-funded brothel Ramón Romera, the former Mayor of the town of the Spanish town of Chirivel, used EU funds to pay for a roadside brothel, named “Seventh Heaven”.

The award-winning toilet A public toilet in Hull was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The European Commission’s website described it as, “award-winning”, and the aim of the subsidy was purportedly to promote “regional competitiveness”. (European Commission 2007)

Intertango: “Internationalisation of Finnish tango” ‘Intertango’ is described by the EU Commission as a project which, amongst other things, will allow for an exchange of young tango musicians and the ‘internationalisation of Finnish tango.’

The Estonian puppet show The Estonian State Puppet Theatre received 105,996 euros from the EU “to develop the use of puppet theatre among the young people, disadvantaged groups and refugees within the community; to create new and innovative means of using puppet theatre.” (DG Culture, p. 37)

And on and on and on.
It sounds like a nice tight system with all the checks and balances in place.

This is the fun part of the European Union it give people a chance to steal across international borders without the complications that would occur if they physically crossed from Italy to Spain.

Cut and paste this www.openeurope.org.uk/research/top100waste.pdf to see the complete listing of the top 100 abuses in pdf form.

In 2000, Barak Obama cosponsored a bill that would have limited the purchase of handguns to one per month. That may not sound significant, but the truth is, such a bill would impede the rights of law abiding citizens. There is no justifiable reason to limit the ability of people who have no criminal record from purchasing any legal fire arm. Obama at the same time also voted against allowing people to violate local fire arms bans even in the case of self protection.

He also wants a nationwide law to ban concealed weapons permits.

After being elected as President, Obama has announced his support for reinstating the expired Assault Weapons Ban. –We all remember that rolling cluster-fuck. -Ugly guns are banned, pretty guns are ok, evidently they don’t kill people. It didn’t have even the slightest impact on the murder rate.

Here is an article from the Wikipedia.

Our economy couldn’t survive more of the NeoCon make the rich richer attitude. Because of that we have elected the quintessential far left liberal.

We’re pretty much screwed –Be afraid. Be very afraid.