Gulf Oil Moves Forward: By CUBA!

What is there to say? A police state a stone's throw away will exploit the natural resources while the Obama admin and the left try and wither our oil industry on the vine. Great work!

HOUSTON — Five months after the BP oil spill, a federal moratorium still prohibits new deepwater drilling in the American waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And under longstanding federal law, drilling is also banned near the coast of Florida.

Yet next year, a Spanish company will begin drilling new wells 50 miles from the Florida Keys — in Cuba’s sovereign waters.

Cuba currently produces little oil. But oil experts say the country might have reserves along its north coast as plentiful as that of the international oil middleweights, Ecuador and Colombia — enough to bolster its faltering economy and cut its dependence on Venezuela for its energy needs.

The advent of drilling in Cuban waters poses risks both to the island nation and the United States.Ocean scientists warn that a well blowout similar to the BP disaster could send oil spewing onto Cuban beaches and then the Florida Keys in as little as three days. If the oil reached the Gulf Stream, a powerful ocean current that passes through the region, oil could flow up the coast to Miami and beyond.

The nascent oil industry in Cuba is far less prepared to handle a major spill than even the American industry was at the time of the BP spill. Cuba has neither the submarine robots needed to fix deepwater rig equipment nor the platforms available to begin drilling relief wells on short notice.

For a map at how close this is check here.

Hevesi to Plead Guilty

Considering the nature of the influence peddling and the fact that people's pension money was turned into a slush fund he got off easy:

ALBANY — Alan G. Hevesi, the former state comptroller, is poised to plead guilty to a felony corruption charge after a lengthy investigation into his office’s rewarding of pension investment business to firms that provided financial benefits to Mr. Hevesi and his aides, people with knowledge of the case said on Tuesday.

Barring an 11th-hour change of heart, Mr. Hevesi would become the highest-ranking state official convicted in the case and would be likely to serve time in prison. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to a separate felony after admitting he had used state workers to chauffeur his ailing wife, but avoided jail time in that case after he agreed to resign.

The pension investigation, conducted by the office of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, is one of the longest running in Albany and came to symbolize the ethically troubled culture of the capital. It has focused on allegations that Mr. Hevesi’s friends, family and associates sold access to the state’s $125 billion pension fund, one of the world’s largest, to reward allies, pay back political favors and reap millions of dollars for themselves.

Using the pension fund as a slush fund for favored investment houses, real nice. Much of this stems from Hevesi's connections to Hank Morris who all but admitted to "pay for practices". I guess you can say these guys are acting like a Chooch!

California Budget Deal Falls Short

Here we go again:

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California's leaders failed to reach a final budget agreement to close a $19.1 billion deficit on Monday, the 89th day of their stalemate over a spending plan, top lawmakers said.

California's budget has suffered massive shortfalls in recent years as a result of plunging revenue caused by the mortgage crisis, housing downturn, financial market turmoil and double-digit unemployment in the most populous U.S. state.

"We've got a little bit more work to do," Assembly Speaker John Perez told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other top lawmakers in the state capital of Sacramento.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said budget talks would resume at noon on Tuesday and that he hoped an agreement would be reached quickly so the full legislature could vote on a budget next week.

"We're almost there," Steinberg said.Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and leaders of the Democrat-controlled legislature had agreed on a framework for a budget deal on Thursday, signaling a final agreement was near despite sharp partisan differences over how to balance the state's books.

Democrats have pressed for raising revenue and spending cuts to fill the state's budget shortfall. Schwarzenegger and Republicans in the legislature's minority have held out for deep cuts and oppose tax increases to raise new revenue.

At more than $19 billion, California's budget deficit equals more than $500 for every person in the state and the political fight in Sacramento over closing coincides with the state's gubernatorial campaign.

I worry about California. For the past couple years it was federal bailouts that allowed the state paper over its Ponzi scheme finances. That is over, I do not know if the GOP will retake Congress this year, but they will surely make enough gains to put a stop to the bailouts. When that happens does California make the needed cuts, or do they play politics as usual with the hope that Obama will somehow get billions of dollars funneled to them. Personally I see the first massive political battle of next year being a California bailout.

Chavez Holds Majority: Opposition Makes Gains

Not a bad result considering how much of the state apparatus is designed to keeping Chavez in power:

While Mr. Chávez’s allies preserved a majority in the National Assembly, gerrymandering approved earlier this year that gave disproportionate power to rural districts where the opposition remains weak helped them achieve that goal.

Despite obtaining that majority, Aristóbulo Istúriz, a senior official in Mr. Chávez’s political movement, acknowledged that the results fell short of expectations since the opposition would now have the ability to block significant legislation. For instance, the president needs a two-thirds majority to obtain temporary decree powers and to get appointees like Supreme Court justices or the attorney general easily approved.

“We put forth two-thirds as a goal and it was not possible to achieve it,” Mr. Istúriz told reporters early Monday. “But we are the majority.”Still, senior opposition leaders contested that assertion as well, claiming their coalition won 52 percent of votes nationwide, according to their own unofficial count. In a proxy for the popular vote, an official count of votes for candidates to represent Venezuela in the Latin American Parliament showed Mr. Chávez’s candidates with 46.6 percent against 45.1 percent for the opposition.

Sunday’s elections offered voters a crucial plebiscite on Mr. Chávez’s government, which has been trying to promote its array of oil-financed social welfare projects to an electorate struggling with problems like a soaring homicide rate and a recession that officials here argue is finally subsiding after dragging on for more than a year.

Now the hard work of reigning him in.

The O'Donnell Affect

With all the talk that Christine O'Donnel as an extremist I was struck by how often that charge is used against people who upend the establishment candidates. It started in Utah where Senator Bennet was defeated over his TARP vote, and led to the eventual rise of Mike Lee, who will surely be a Senator next year. This was met with shock from the beltway and howls of outrage! (You could argue the rise of Rubio and Toomey were also part of this trend, but I don't recall the outrage over them unless you count the whining of the GOP elites) Then there was Angle who with Tea support upended the elite and took on the mantel of challenging Reid. She was immediately declared unelectable by prognosticators, but now has a better then even chance to defeat the Majority leader of the Senate. In Colorado the "extremist" Ken Buck has a decent lead over the incumbent Democrat. In Alaska an earmark professional was upended by Joe Miller who will surely end up being the next Senator from Alaska. Now here we are with O'Donnel, who happens to be the extremist enemy of the day. What isn't being noticed amidst the great media pile on is how every step of the way yesterday's extremist politician subtly become mainstream. Its as if attacks fail, the left moves onto a new target that is claimed to be an extremist, and yesterday's target now looks mainstream in comparison. (For the record I consider votes for cap and tax more extreme then any inane social views.) Its as if the entire political spectrum has shifted rightward. Who will be the next "extremist" after O'Donnell becomes accepted as the new norm?

Buffet: We are Still in a Recession

I guess he didn't get the memo.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the U.S. economy remains in recession, disputing this week's assessment by a leading arbiter of economic activity that the downturn ended more than a year ago.

"We're still in a recession," Buffett told CNBC television in an interview broadcast on Thursday. "We're not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.

"

On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research said the world's largest economy ended an 18-month recession in June 2009, but cautioned that its assessment did not mean normal activity had resumed.

Buffett said he defines a recession differently from the NBER, saying it ends when real per capita gross domestic product returns to its pre-downturn level.President Barack Obama said on Monday that economic weakness is "still very real" for the millions of Americans who are out of work, have seen the value of their homes fall, or are mired in debt.

Buffett, 80, runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc, which has roughly 80 operating businesses. "A great majority" of these businesses are "coming back slowly," he said.

10 percent unemployment and rising and they call that a recovery?

Bill Richardson was Subject to Further Questions Over Joining Obama Admin

Previously undisclosed, it appears Bill Richardson was the subject of an inquiry into whether he mis-led the Obama admin about his connections to CDR. Connections that later forced Richardson to withdraw his name from the Obama cabinet.

Questions about whether President-elect Barack Obama's transition team was misled during the vetting process for Gov. Bill Richardson's nomination for commerce secretary were investigated by a federal grand jury that recently ended its term without returning an indictment.


Obama nominated Richardson after the November 2008 election, but the governor withdrew his name two months later in the midst of a different federal grand jury probe. That investigation involved contributions to Richardson-affiliated political organizations by a California firm that was awarded lucrative state contracts.

Richardson and Rubin go way back and the intimate connections between the two led to subpoenas about massive donations that were funneled by CDR to interest groups that were designed around pushing Bill Richardson. Eventually Richardson was non-exonerated in regards to the massive muni-bond scandal that sank such politicians as Larry Langford.

Documents generated as part of a heated legal battle over what evidence the grand jury in the Commerce inquiry would be allowed to review enabled the Journal to piece together the existence of that investigation.


The issue involved what information the governor and his staff had in their possession, and what they disclosed, about the ongoing contract investigation at the time Richardson went through the vetting process for Commerce.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals published two heavily redacted opinions on Aug. 18 dealing with several claims, including attorney-client privilege, raised by defense lawyers, in the Commerce matter.


The appeals court reversed a lower court ruling that prevented grand jurors from reviewing certain documents and information; dismissed claims of prosecutorial misconduct and affirmed the lower court's ruling that two attorneys in the case would be required to answer nine specific questions from the grand jury.
The appellate judges decided to publish the redacted opinions because of the need "to advance the law on certain issues.


"The district court's approach treads upon the grand jury's broad investigatory powers, undermines its secrecy and causes unnecessary delay, as has amply been demonstrated in this case," one of the opinions said.


All names were taken out and replaced with "Attorney #1", "Attorney#2", "employee #1" and "Subject" of the investigation. The state of New Mexico is not mentioned nor do the opinions list the names of the attorneys involved.
The appeals court noted that "the subject of the Grand Jury has filed an objection to the publication of these two opinions. Alternatively, the subject of the investigation has suggested redactions ... and reported that those suggested redactions were agreeable to the United States Attorney."


The U.S. Attorney's Office wouldn't comment. Richardson's attorney, Peter Schoenburg, didn't return a telephone message asking about the opinions, and Richardson's spokesman said in an e-mail that he didn't know anything about them.
However, several people familiar with the broad outlines of the case confirmed that the documents deal with an inquiry into information on forms required for Richardson's nomination as Obama's commerce secretary.


The forms are usually completed by the nominee's staff and/or lawyers. They require detailed information about the nominee, his family, finances, personal history and legal problems and are signed under penalty of perjury by the nominee. The issue was the nominee's characterization of a federal investigation at that time into how a California financial firm landed lucrative business deals with the state while making political contributions to Richardson political committees in 2004.

Did Richardson's staff mis-characterize the investigation?

40 Years Late: A Hero Gets His Award

Killed in 1968, Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger is the epitome of courage and sacrifice.

President Barack Obama was to award the Medal of Honor to Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger, whose sons planned to attend the White House ceremony.

Etchberger, a native of Hamburg, Pa., was an electronics expert with no formal combat training when he single-handedly held off an enemy force while evacuating wounded comrades. He had gotten three of the wounded into rescue slings and his helicopter had taken off when ground fire came through the floor and mortally wounded him.

The reason it took so long was due to the secrecy of the original mission as it occurred in Laos.

Obama Admin Takes Razor Focus: On Tea Party!

Focused like a laser on jobs!!!

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s political advisers, looking for ways to help Democrats and alter the course of the midterm elections in the final weeks, are considering a range of ideas, including national advertisements, to cast the Republican Party as all but taken over by Tea Party extremists, people involved in the discussion said.White House and Congressional Democratic strategists are trying to energize dispirited Democratic voters over the coming six weeks, in hopes of limiting the party’s losses and keeping control of the House and Senate. The strategists see openings to exploit after a string of Tea Party successes split Republicans in a number of states, culminating last week with developments that scrambled Senate races in Delaware and Alaska.

I don't recall Bush taking on the anti-war movement with such personal fervor as this admin does. Personaly I think attacking political opponents and whole swaths of American society is what they know how to do and feel most comfortable with. They know they have friendly media
to carry the water for their attacks and lessen the blows on the them, so why not!

Greece: A Country in Distress

A sihn of society in distress, the Greek government took onto too much debt and an oppresive economic policy, as time wore on the state couldn't handle it and now lawlessness is becoming the norm.

Greece’s economic crisis is creating an unexpected boom for at least one industry.

Banks, stores and companies are hiring security guards, installing alarm systems and renting armored cars as rising hardship leads to an increase in crime. Britain’s G4S Plc and Brink’s Co. of the U.S., along with Pyrsos Security, Greece’s largest domestic private security firm, are winning new clients.

“Here in Greece we never had this situation,” said Sakis Tsaoussis, president of Athens-based Pyrsos, which counts Agricultural Bank SA, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. and retailer Inditex SA among customers. “We could walk anywhere. You could sleep with the windows open. Now we are scared.”

Robberies, ranging from street muggings to bank hold-ups and house burglaries, totaled about 80,000 in 2009, up from about 50,000 in 2005, data compiled by ICAP Group’s Athens office show. The increase occurred as the unemployment rate rose to a 10-year high of 11.8 percent and the government and European Union estimate the Greek economy will contract 4 percent this year and 2.6 percent next year.

Pyrsos’s armored cars were robbed five times in the past 12 months with the thieves getting away with 700,000 euros ($914,000), Tsaoussis said.As well as an increase in crime, companies needing security are being affected by shrinking government budgets, according to David Lea, western European analyst at Control Risks, a London- based risk consultant group.

The logical outcome of left wing policy.

Chavez and the Sept 26 Elections

In ten days the people of Venezuela will get a chance to rebuke the tyrant Chavez in assembly elections. Of course it won't drive him from power and he will simply strip the assembly of whatever power it has left, but its important even to provide subsistence to the general opposition to his rule. John Bolton writes today in the Times and provides a great synopsis of what is at stake.

Venezuela's Sept. 26 national parliamentary elections present a major opportunity for strongman Hugo Chavez to cement his grip on power. Despite a tradition of a free press and competitive politics, a cosmopolitan elite and extensive natural resources, Venezuela is increasingly a case study in how to lose political and economic freedom.

The stakes are especially high in light of evidence consistent with an emerging Venezuelan nuclear weapons program. Ironically, Chavez's frequently clownish behavior protects him, camouflaging the seriousness of his potential threat to U.S. security and to democratic societies throughout Latin America.

Washington, under Republican and Democratic administrations, has proved unable or unwilling to slow Chavez's descent into authoritarianism. Unlike coups by prior caudillos in the Americas, the situation in Venezuela today is like a slow-motion train wreck, which makes it all the more frustrating. A lack of international outrage is discouraging pro-democracy Venezuelans across the ideological spectrum. They worry they have been forgotten, especially by an Obama administration that finds foreign policy a distraction.

This month's elections, therefore, may be a last chance for change before Chavez completes his takeover. He has advanced his agenda since taking office in 1999 by fragmenting his domestic opposition, manipulating election rules, closing down opposition news sources and expropriating the considerable assets of businesses and entrepreneurs. He has materially impaired Venezuela's prosperous petroleum economy by failing to make prudent investments and improvements, while using substantial oil revenues to consolidate his hold on power.

God Bless the people of Venezuela.

DOJ Announcement on Douglas Lee Campbell

This is a follow up on what was reported the other day,:

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Former Employee of a National Bank Pleads Guilty for Role in Bid-rigging and Fraud Conspiracies Involving Proceeds of Municipal Bonds

WASHINGTON — A former employee of a national bank pleaded guilty today for his participation in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies related to contracts for the investment of municipal bond proceeds and other municipal finance contracts, the Department of Justice announced.

According to plea proceedings today in the U.S. District Court in New York City, Douglas Lee Campbell engaged in separate bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies related to the provision of a type of contract, known as an investment agreement, to public entities throughout the United States, such as state, county and local governments and agencies. Campbell also pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. According to the plea agreement, Campbell has agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

According to court documents, the bank that employed Campbell was a provider of investment agreements and other municipal finance contracts, such as swaps, to public entities. Public entities seek to invest money from a variety of sources, primarily the proceeds of municipal bonds that they issued, to raise money for, among other things, public projects. Public entities typically hire a broker to conduct a competitive bidding process for the award of the investment agreements to invest such money. Competitive bidding for these agreements is the subject of regulations issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and is related to the tax-exempt status of the bonds .

The department said in court documents that Campbell worked in the bank’s municipal derivatives group as senior vice president and a marketer of investment agreements and other municipal finance contracts. According to the court documents, Campbell engaged in a bid-rigging conspiracy from at least as early as 1998 until approximately September 2005. As a part of the bid-rigging conspiracy, Campbell and co-conspirators designated in advance which co-conspirator provider would be the winning bidder for certain investment agreements and other municipal finance contracts brokered by Rubin/Chambers, Dunhill Insurance Services Inc., also known as CDR Financial Products. CDR is a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based financial products and services firm. Campbell also agreed to submit intentionally losing bids to CDR on investment agreements or other municipal finance contracts that were steered to other providers, giving the false appearance that these deals had been bid competitively in accordance with relevant Treasury regulations.

As a part of the bid-rigging conspiracy, kickbacks in the form of inflated or unearned fees were paid by Campbell’s employer to CDR in exchange for assistance in controlling the bidding process and ensuring that certain co-conspirator providers won the bids they were allocated.

According to the court documents, Campbell also participated in a fraud conspiracy with CDR from at least as early as 1998 until approximately September 2005. As part of this conspiracy, CDR gave Campbell information about the prices, price levels or conditions in competitors’ bids, a practice known as a “last look,” which is explicitly prohibited by U.S. Treasury regulations. In exchange for the information, Campbell’s employer paid kickbacks to CDR. Campbell also submitted intentionally losing bids to CDR for certain investment agreements to make it appear that his employer had competed for those agreement s or contracts, when in fact, it had not. As a result of the bid manipulation, Campbell’s employer won investment agreements and other municipal finance contracts at artificially determined price levels, which deprived municipal issuers of money and property.

The court documents also charge that Campbell and co-conspirators misrepresented to municipal issuers or their bond counsel that the bidding process was in compliance with U.S. Treasury regulations. This caused the municipal issuers to award investment agreements and other municipal finance contracts to providers that otherwise would not have been awarded the contracts if the issuers had true and accurate information regarding the bidding process. Such conduct caused municipal issuers to file inaccurate reports with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and thus placed the tax-exempt status of the underlying bonds in jeopardy.

The bid-rigging conspiracy for which Campbell is charged carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The fraud conspiracy for which Campbell is charged carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The wire fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum fines for each of these offenses may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

This is the seventh guilty plea to arise from an ongoing investigation into the municipal bonds industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s New York Field Office, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation. The department is coordinating its investigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Three former employees of CDR have pleaded guilty to bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies in relation to the ongoing investigation. Three other individuals have pleaded guilty to charges related to the ongoing investigation. In addition, three former financial services executives were indicted on July 27, 2010, for participating in fraud schemes and conspiracies related to the bidding for investment agreements. In October 2009, CDR, two of its employees and one former employee were charged for participating in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies and related crimes. The CDR trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 12, 2011.

Today’s guilty plea is part of efforts underway by President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information on the task force, visit www.StopFraud.gov .

Anyone with information concerning bid rigging and related offenses in any financial markets should contact the Antitrust Division’s New York Field Office at 212-264-0390 or visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm , or the FBI at 212-384-5000.

10-1008

Antitrust

Ayn Rand Called the Collapse in Venezuela 60 Years Ago

Is anyone surprised by these disasters?

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--A deadly crash involving a government-run airliner Monday in Venezuela was just the latest in a string of major incidents involving the nation's state-run companies. Over the past six days, there have also been several huge, costly fires at oil facilities operated by state-owned energy firm Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.

It appears that all of the major incidents over the past week have been mere accidents. But critics of firebrand leftist President Hugo Chavez, who has nationalized dozens of companies and created sundry state-owned firms during his 11 years in power, charge that underinvestment and poor management at state-run firms have created dangerous operating conditions in which such accidents are likely.

Chavez alleges that some smaller incidents in recent weeks involving explosions at state-run electricity-generation plants were suspicious in nature. He said sabotage may have been involved as part of a plan to destabilize the country and discredit the ruling party ahead of important congressional elections Sept. 26.

Fifteen people were killed when an ATR-42 plane operated by state-run airline Conviasa crashed Monday morning in eastern Venezuela after the pilot radioed that he was unable to maintain control of the aircraft. The plane was carrying 51 people, and about three dozen survived, though many are critically injured. The exact cause of the crash remains unknown.

That tragedy follows a raging inferno that broke out last Wednesday at PDVSA's BOPEC oil storage facility on the Caribbean island of Bonaire when lightning struck during a storm. The fire raged for two days, burning off all the petrochemical naphtha that was in a giant tank, which itself melted away.

Chavez rails against a middle class that has the technical know how to run things and demonizes capital as some type of nefarious Yankee plot so the general decay in society these events represent is hardly surprising. As for Rand, readers of Atlas will easily recognize the how quickly things fall apart when thugs run the show.

Cuba to Privatize Massive Aspects of Economy

It must be getting real tough there to have to adopt free market ideology as a means to prop the system after 6 decades of left wing economic stagnation:

MEXICO CITY — In perhaps the clearest sign yet that economic change is gathering pace in Cuba, the government plans to lay off more than half a million people from the public sector in the expectation that they will move into private businesses, Cuba’s labor federation said Monday.

Over the past several months, President Raúl Castro has given stern warnings that Cuba’s economy needs a radical overhaul, beginning with its workers. With as many as one million excess employees on the state payroll, Mr. Castro has said, the government is supporting a bloated bureaucracy that has sapped motivation and long sheltered a huge swath of the nation’s workers.

“We have to erase forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where one can live without working,” he told the National Assembly last month.

Since permanently taking over from his brother Fidel two years ago, Mr. Castro has often pledged to make Cuba’s centralized, Soviet-style economy more efficient and open up opportunities for people. The government has handed tens of thousands of acres of state-held farmland to private farmers and begun freeing up a market for agricultural supplies. It has loosened restrictions on cellphones and other electronics, and created a few areas for private business, allowing barbers’ shops to become cooperatives and giving more licenses to private taxi drivers.

But these initial reforms have been comparatively limited, many analysts contend, and Cuba’s economy — grappling with the fallout from the global financial crisis and the aftermath of devastating hurricanes in 2008 — appears to be in dire shape.

The system didn't work.

Another Guilty Plea in Muni-Bond Scandal

Bank of America and an informant have played a key role in the massive DOJ case that is currently ripping through the muni-bond market, so this info isn't all that surprising:

WASHINGTON — Douglas Lee Campbell, a former senior vice president and marketer in Bank of America’s municipal derivatives group, pleaded guilty Thursday to three criminal counts for engaging in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies connected with guaranteed investment contract and other municipal finance agreements.The Justice Department announced that Campbell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to restrain trade, conspiracy, and wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. Court documents only identify Campbell’s former employer as “Bank A, a financial institution that was a national bank.” But documents show that Campbell worked at Bank of America from about June 1998 through at least August 2002. He worked as a managing director at Piper Jaffray Fixed Income Derivatives in Minneapolis after that, according to The Bond Buyer’s Municipal Marketplace.

The Justice Department charged Campbell, Bank of America, CDR Financial Products — formerly Rubin/Chambers Dunhill Services Inc. — and others with conspiring to rig bids for GICs and other municipal securities contracts from as early as 1998 until September 2005. Initially, Campbell worked at the bank’s office in Charlotte, N.C., but later was based in New York City. His compensation and bonus were based in part on the amount of revenue generated by the municipal derivatives group.

According to the Justice Department, on numerous occasions when Bank of America was underwriter on a muni bond deal, it recommended the issuer hire CDR to broker the process for obtaining GICs or other investment agreements. In exchange, CDR and the bank would rig the bids to try to ensure the bank won one or more of the investment agreements associated with the bond issue. The bank would then pay CDR inflated or unearned fees in exchange for assistance in controlling the bidding process.

Of course CDR was also politically connected, which in all likelihood gave certain financial houses an advantage when bidding time rolled around

Remember

I Want Your Money

Caught this in the Times and definitely looks like a winner:



Here is the site if you want more info.

Orszag Calls for Keeping Bush Era Tax Cuts

Its quite a surpise to see Obama's point man on the budget call for a full extension of the Bush tax cuts, but here he is in the Times doing just that:

In the face of the dueling deficits, the best approach is a compromise: extend the tax cuts for two years and then end them altogether. Ideally only the middle-class tax cuts would be continued for now. Getting a deal in Congress, though, may require keeping the high-income tax cuts, too. And that would still be worth it.

Why does this combination make sense? The answer is that over the medium term, the tax cuts are simply not affordable. Yet no one wants to make an already stagnating jobs market worse over the next year or two, which is exactly what would happen if the cuts expire as planned.

Higher taxes now would crimp consumer spending, further depressing the already inadequate demand for what firms are capable of producing at full tilt. And since financial markets don’t seem at the moment to view the budget deficit as a problem — take a look at the remarkably low 10-year Treasury bond yield — there is little reason not to extend the tax cuts temporarily.

For the record its a cannon of the left that the Bush tax cuts are evil beyond measure so the idea that the President could pivot in such a way and not have a full fledged rebellion among his base appears to be a bridge to far.

Military Increasing Women's Opportunities in the Islamic World.

U.S Air Force officials from the Transit Center at Manas International Airport and the Congress of Women pose for a picture during the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Women's Development Center Aug. 25.

We have seen this before in Iraq and Afghanistan, its one of the smarter and moral policies we have developed. Help half the population develop and overcome barriers and you have a solid accomplishment that leads to stronger relations across the board:

SHOPOKOV VILLAGE, Kyrgyzstan (Sept. 2, 2010) — The Congress of Women of Kyrygz Republic and the Transit Center at Manas held a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 25 to officially celebrate completed renovations of the Women's Development Center.


The Congress of Women initiated renovations on this former hospital in September 2009, focusing their efforts on the main facility which will house 55 women. The $750,000, year-long project was funded by the U.S. Central Command.


On behalf of the U.S. Air Force, Maj. Gen. Steven Foster, mobilization assistant to the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central, said "Today, we gather to recognize the completion of this exceptional facility that will impact the lives of women from all over Kyrgyzstan for many years to come. This women's development center will provide women with a place of refuge during difficult times as a place of training to give them the business skills needed to help themselves and other women in need."

Good Work. (By the way Vacation has been wonderful but its time to start work again. I will be posting again on a regular basis and will be updating information on the muni-bond scandal as soon as its all processed.)