I am concerned that the “success” of healthcare has empowered policy wonks to think government is all about policy. It took a year to hatch healthcare, in that same year closing Guantanimo failed, fixing the securitized mortgages at the banks failed and the big savings from removing waste in government failed.
I am sorry for all the family dairy farms that have closed. Pig farmers got to big because they are too greedy, but it’s sad to see farmers suffer.
Is it possible that you can only deal with one issue at a time? Everything was on hold while you dealt with Afghanistan and then Healthcare.
Do you ever spend time thinking that Treasury, Justice or Agriculture could do with improved leadership? If the answer is never, let me remind you of the greatest one-liner on the failure of management “Heck of a job, Brownie.”
You and your people love policy and basketball. What you need is a Chief Operating Officer who looks after the day to day business of good government. Women are especially good at this, Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi come to mind.
Things you can do to improve is to find team players. Emnual, Pelosi, Clinton, Gates get things done through teamwork. The economy suffers partly because there is no teamwork from the members of your government.
Because of the tough political climate, everyone is thin skinned when it comes to hearing criticism. I suggest you have someone schedule a half hour a week to give you highlights of Inspector General Reports from various departments. Obviously Justice, Treasury and Defense come to mind.
I told you so.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Basic Justice
I perceive a wide gap between the theory of justice as viewed by an Academic and the practice of justice by an elected official. I have no expertise in law.
I am most disturbed by the failure of the People to present an acceptable case to the Courts regarding the Blackwater affair. Incompetence in the Justice Department is a serious failure to Society. This happened on your watch. What’s the point of teaching the theory of Justice, if the People cannot present credible cases?
The other clearly legal failure is providing KSM a fair trial. I don’t understand news reports suggesting that the White House is deciding the forum for KSM’s trial. The mere suggesting of meddling and delay is justice denied.
Another issue is more a failure in management but deals with a legal matter. There was a promise to close Guantanimo in one year. The reason for the closing was on principle. This should not be an empty campaign promise nor false rhetoric. It turns out to be just that. The Academic did not understand the real world issues in practicing justice.
The final issue is pure management. Why are you so behind in nominating judges in to the various courts? This is surely justice denied.
Let’s get real about Justice! That means the mundane matter of managing, making sure people are doing their jobs well. You are not minding the store, and you are supposed to know something about justice never mind the economy.
I am most disturbed by the failure of the People to present an acceptable case to the Courts regarding the Blackwater affair. Incompetence in the Justice Department is a serious failure to Society. This happened on your watch. What’s the point of teaching the theory of Justice, if the People cannot present credible cases?
The other clearly legal failure is providing KSM a fair trial. I don’t understand news reports suggesting that the White House is deciding the forum for KSM’s trial. The mere suggesting of meddling and delay is justice denied.
Another issue is more a failure in management but deals with a legal matter. There was a promise to close Guantanimo in one year. The reason for the closing was on principle. This should not be an empty campaign promise nor false rhetoric. It turns out to be just that. The Academic did not understand the real world issues in practicing justice.
The final issue is pure management. Why are you so behind in nominating judges in to the various courts? This is surely justice denied.
Let’s get real about Justice! That means the mundane matter of managing, making sure people are doing their jobs well. You are not minding the store, and you are supposed to know something about justice never mind the economy.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Basic Economics
To Christina Romer
I wrote you September 5, 2009 about the rising price of peanut butter and jam sandwiches with a glass of milk. I wrote to you because the President doesn’t listen to me. Believe it or not, I think you listen. It helps that you have been right, there hasn’t been any inflation, I’m waiting for the Yuan to rise (you will see a real bump in consumer prices because so much of consumer goods is made in China) and interest rates to rise because of the national debt.
Geithner has pressed on the gas pedal (gas = people’s money) with a heavy foot, oblivious of the amount of gas in the tank (the national debt). He has not fixed the engine (securitized mortgages in the banks) so we use more gas than we need to and we risk to have another breakdown. The cars’ owners took out insurance from AIG for engine troubles, and Geithner paid AIG to payoff the insurance policies without an engine change. Geithner will use the people’s money to pay the owners to fix the engine. I tried to keep it simple for the President to understand, may be he doesn't understand the car analogy either.
Some consider housing as the backbone of the American economy. The
mortgage modification program has provided 17 revised mortgages. Reset
mortgages will continue to trigger for a year. The number of
homes whose mortgage exceeds market value is unsustainably high.
Unemployment contributes to more foreclosures. The administration
has only provided band-aid fixes. They have never defined the problem
and this makes it difficult to arrive at a solution.
The following suggestion was sent to the President, March 8, 2009. I felt it was better than Geithner's plan, 13 months later, we know Geithner's plan hasn't worked.
The government consolidates all bundled securitized mortgages, uses a
task force of Audit firms to re-value them, then re-distributes the
actual mortgages back to eligible holders.
The banks will properly show mortgages in their long-term assets
instead of current assets when they held the securitized slices (An
improper accounting shift to enhance executive bonus's).
We will end up with a mortgage market true to capitalism.
Detailed explanation.
Securitized mortgages means mortgages were bundled then tranches of
the bundle were sold off. Every mortgage is local so this instrument
is invalid.
1)Collect all bundled mortgages.
2)Classify the Mortgages
Within each bundle is a list of mortgages.
All the mortgages must be placed on a master list.
This list must be sub-divided in the following order:
Region/city New England, Rust belt, New York, East coast,
Florida, Nevada etc
Interest rate Standard prime, escalating interest rates including subprime
Current market value divided by mortgage
Mortgagee income to mortgage amount -ability to repay
Within each region you will be able to determine three categories
Low, medium and high risk.
3)Calculate the write down.
4)Collect all holders of bundled mortgages
5)Pro-rate the write down according the portion of the bundled mortgage holding.
6)Classify holders
Banks allowed to issue Mortgages in US and those not allowed.
7)Re-distribute the gathered mortgages to the banks allowed to issue
mortgages in the US.
The US government only has jurisdiction over banks allowed to issue
mortgages in
the US. The other holders will get no mortgages, it's a risk they
took. If this is too severe offer silent partner relationships with
the banks with title.
The redistribution will have to depend on what the data looks like.
Redistribution must be as fair as possible so should be done before a
Judge (We want justice). Ideally regions would be distributed to a
regional bank but markets may have to be tranched among several banks
to fairly spread the risk
I wrote you September 5, 2009 about the rising price of peanut butter and jam sandwiches with a glass of milk. I wrote to you because the President doesn’t listen to me. Believe it or not, I think you listen. It helps that you have been right, there hasn’t been any inflation, I’m waiting for the Yuan to rise (you will see a real bump in consumer prices because so much of consumer goods is made in China) and interest rates to rise because of the national debt.
Geithner has pressed on the gas pedal (gas = people’s money) with a heavy foot, oblivious of the amount of gas in the tank (the national debt). He has not fixed the engine (securitized mortgages in the banks) so we use more gas than we need to and we risk to have another breakdown. The cars’ owners took out insurance from AIG for engine troubles, and Geithner paid AIG to payoff the insurance policies without an engine change. Geithner will use the people’s money to pay the owners to fix the engine. I tried to keep it simple for the President to understand, may be he doesn't understand the car analogy either.
Some consider housing as the backbone of the American economy. The
mortgage modification program has provided 17 revised mortgages. Reset
mortgages will continue to trigger for a year. The number of
homes whose mortgage exceeds market value is unsustainably high.
Unemployment contributes to more foreclosures. The administration
has only provided band-aid fixes. They have never defined the problem
and this makes it difficult to arrive at a solution.
The following suggestion was sent to the President, March 8, 2009. I felt it was better than Geithner's plan, 13 months later, we know Geithner's plan hasn't worked.
The government consolidates all bundled securitized mortgages, uses a
task force of Audit firms to re-value them, then re-distributes the
actual mortgages back to eligible holders.
The banks will properly show mortgages in their long-term assets
instead of current assets when they held the securitized slices (An
improper accounting shift to enhance executive bonus's).
We will end up with a mortgage market true to capitalism.
Detailed explanation.
Securitized mortgages means mortgages were bundled then tranches of
the bundle were sold off. Every mortgage is local so this instrument
is invalid.
1)Collect all bundled mortgages.
2)Classify the Mortgages
Within each bundle is a list of mortgages.
All the mortgages must be placed on a master list.
This list must be sub-divided in the following order:
Region/city New England, Rust belt, New York, East coast,
Florida, Nevada etc
Interest rate Standard prime, escalating interest rates including subprime
Current market value divided by mortgage
Mortgagee income to mortgage amount -ability to repay
Within each region you will be able to determine three categories
Low, medium and high risk.
3)Calculate the write down.
4)Collect all holders of bundled mortgages
5)Pro-rate the write down according the portion of the bundled mortgage holding.
6)Classify holders
Banks allowed to issue Mortgages in US and those not allowed.
7)Re-distribute the gathered mortgages to the banks allowed to issue
mortgages in the US.
The US government only has jurisdiction over banks allowed to issue
mortgages in
the US. The other holders will get no mortgages, it's a risk they
took. If this is too severe offer silent partner relationships with
the banks with title.
The redistribution will have to depend on what the data looks like.
Redistribution must be as fair as possible so should be done before a
Judge (We want justice). Ideally regions would be distributed to a
regional bank but markets may have to be tranched among several banks
to fairly spread the risk
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