Bloomberg Wins, the Fed Chills, the Senate Pays Up, and

New York, New York, home of the ambitious. Billionaire Bloomberg gets another term as New York City's mayor, term limit laws having been properly adjusted to smooth his way. Meanwhile Andrew Cuomo, New York's attorney general, is making his own political moves in the form of suing Intel for violations of antitrust law.

In looking at the allegations, one could argue that Intel has every capitalistic right to reward and manipulate the customer base in favor of its own products. AMD, the smaller chip competitor, is perhaps peeved, but it's not truly Intels place to create a happy market for all. You could also make the case that AMD's building of a new chip manufacturing foundry in New York makes Cuomo's dubious effort even a bit more dubious.

Finally, you could wonder if this is the exact right time to engage in tearing down a particular company. We are, after all, smack dab in the middle of pretty sloppily attired economic times. Why now Mr. Cuomo?

Keith N. Hylton, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, said that Mr. Cuomo could benefit politically by taking such a prominent stand on behalf of local workers and consumers. “An attorney general is understood to be an aspiring governor,” he said. “They are politicians, and they want to be on the gravy train for big cases.”

During the news conference, Mr. Cuomo said that thwarting Intel’s abusive actions was important to consumers and businesses worldwide. “It is not just about New York,” he said.

(N.Y. Times)

We're thinking it's all about New York, for Mr. Cuomo.

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Mickey (as in Mouse) is going to go all hardcore on us, which is odd, because we were pretty sure he was the manliest, toughest, most hardcore fake living mouse ever. Can he get any harder, any badder? Badass Mickey? Let's just hope he does not go all the way street, and be the Vanilla Ice of mice, wording it to our mammas.

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Blow the trumpets. The Lords of Washington have spoken:

After nearly a month of gridlock, the Senate voted unanimously to extend unemployment benefits for some 1.3 million jobless Americans expected to lose benefits by the end of the year.

If, as expected, the House adopts the Senate version of the bill, it means workers in all states will be eligible for an additional 14 weeks of federal unemployment benefits. In states with unemployment rates higher than 8.5 percent, workers will be able to extend their federal unemployment benefits a further six weeks.

(Christian Science Monitor)

This is awesome news for those who are unemployed, and one marvels at the unanimity, but frankly, the same enthusiasm should be shown in working out healthcare legislation. It's that serious.

It probably would have also made sense for most stimulus to be funneled directly to each state to use to fill budget gaps, as opposed to dubious building projects, but  little late for that now. Just seems like there would be a lot less people out of work RIGHT NOW, if budgets were not so tight.

Somewhat related to that, it amazes how the Arizona legislature would rather throw people out of work in an effort to close a budget gap, rather than impose a small tax that nobody will even notice they have to pay. While low taxes are really good, zero taxes via total unemployment and lack of income is even worse; it's very bad for the voter and the economy.

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The Fed cut interest rates to near zero last December and has pumped more than $1 trillion into the economy to tame a severe financial crisis and the deepest recession since the 1930s.

Now that the economy is starting to recover, financial markets are increasingly wondering when the Fed and other central banks around the globe will begin to remove the extraordinary economic support they have provided.

(Reuters)

When the Fed stops trying to heal our inflated economy by inflating the economy, when they start to tighten up monetary policy, that's the exact moment when you should be sitting there with short positions in gold.  The smug or delusional (as all gold enthusiasts are one or the other, when not both) enthusiasm for that product far exceeds its true value, pumped and hyped like every other product on earth. We've gone, essentially, from an inflated housing market, to an inflated oil market (last year) to now an inflated gold market. Short of the type of doom posited in the 2012, there is no reason to be up to your buttox in gold.

In any case, the Fed has decided to keep rates at virtual zero until that exact moment when the economy is trending in the right direction, and so long as inflation does not come a loitering. This is probably the right thing, keeping borrowing cost low, and we are sure the reluctance of banks to make any dubious loans will keep things in check this time around.

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This will probably annoy some... the first lady making a cameo on Iron Chef in her continued promotion of healthy eating. If it annoys you (still seething over last year's political losses, or gloating over Republican wins in N.J. and Virginia yesterday), or you find room to be snarky, then it's a good time to examine your priorities and outlook.

The first lady came through the door of the South Portico in a pumpkin-orange dress with teal blue shoes and short sweater, announced the secret ingredient and talked to the chefs about getting children to eat vegetables.

“It’s important for these kids to have a hands-on experience,” she said. “And now we’re expanding the tours of the garden to any public school children that come to Washington, D.C., and we’re doing those on a regular basis, and it’s been just a wonderful educational addition.” She suggested that the chefs might want to consider cooking some of the exceptionally large sweet potatoes in the garden. “We are sweet potato lovers,” she said, “especially the president.”

(N.Y. Times)

Goldman Sachs Fixes NYC Marathon, Winner Won't Show U.S. Birth Certificate

It's Monday. An American (named Meb, out of Africa... hmmm) won the N.Y.C. marathon yesterday. We always view the marathon as the true start of the holiday and fall season. Here in Arizona even more, when the air does not even begin to turn cold until,... now.

Things are quite cold for Goldman, Sachs, and Greg Gordon at McClatchy gives us still another piece on Goldman filled with a bunch of isolated facts that, taken together, are meant to imply guilt except that, 1) every other firm did much of the same thing and 2) none of these things done were illegal. You can read the comments after the piece, and marvel at people's willingness to comment strongly on issues and businesses beyond their understanding. One can read Mr. Gordon's entire piece, with quotes from academics and lots of "ifs, ands or mayhapses," but he never gets around to breaking any ground on the matter, or proving any ill gotten gains.

The idea that you should expose your hedges to all your clients, and to the public, borders on the absurd. If Goldman was not considered Jewish, we might not even be having this single-minded focus on one firm, that, thankfully, is still running, making money and keeping our financial system from totally falling into the toilet.

Various firms that bought mortgage securities want to backdate Goldman's prescience (to the beginning of time no doubt), despite the fact that at one time everyone, EVERYONE, was working under the assumption that home prices would continue to rise indefinitely. A few individuals, firms, and companies thought otherwise, or paid close enough attention to come to their senses faster than the others (who often were motivated entirely by short term greed). Nobody is to blame for anyone overpaying for an asset, be it a tulip, gold, a home, a  dot com company or a mortgage backed asset.  Further, you don't fault a financial firm for hedging its exposure in its various lines of business. As individuals don't we both invest in our homes, paying for it over time, while simultaneously holding insurance to protect against lost?  That's a duality that is not overly complicated, unless one is being willfully ignorant.

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I am sitting here listening to Florence and the Machine, the song "Girl With One Eye" and not quite sure if they are a passing sonic fancy, much like Macy Gray and Amy Winehouse. Sometimes a voice is so unique that is seems contrived, even when not. Time will tell.

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In other news:

• Afghans decide to make life complicated... what is it with this sitting out elections just to undermine everything. Oh Abdullah, Abdullah. Might be time for us to call it a day and focus on Americans. We can't raise the dead by beating a dead horse. 
• New biography out on Ayn Rand, whose thoughts seem to permeate the conservative mind of late, leading them to mental perdition. Ayn did you see that rational market crash? Oh wait, you are dead. N.Y. Mag argues that her philosophy (like many philosophies), is merely the personal face of bias seeking a logical looking mask. Her bootstraps assertion of nobody helping her on her arrival in the United States is pointed out as a falsehood, but it's the type of myth by which certain types of conservatives inebriate themselves. Like most people, and ideas, Ayn is partially right, and partially wrong. People without discernment should stay away. 
•  Democrats are fighting, fighting, to hold on to things like New Jersey. Jon Corzine, governor of New Jersey, is in a close race. Given the ex-Goldman superpower mythology that is out there, he is probably getting ready to put his fist together with some other ex-Goldmanite and say, "Wonder Twin powers, activate, form of "landslide", shape of "avalanche". Christopher Christie, the Republican opponent, has a superhero on his side as well. South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson was on hand to say, "You Lie!" on behalf of his brother in arms. 
• The Yankees won again, needing one more. That is a sign of promising things. It will stimulate the inflation of payrolls by teams in other cities, which is good for consumer spending across the land. Ever notice that places like Afghanistan don't have strong sports leagues? Yea... build some sports leagues and everything would be peachy over there. 40,000 more athletes, not troops. Let the Taliban have a team too. They can call them the Taliban Yankees. 

Asia Not So Sick, America Sniffles, Homeowners Walk

We struggled to find news that is interesting, though news occurs despite the disinterest. Things here are in a holding pattern, though the average person sees the layoffs and home losses as evidence of change for the worse, and not realizing that this is the bad fruit from seeds of the past, and lagging in its economic import. That man getting unemployment today, had that decision made for him months or a year ago. It takes a while for the ice to melt, for things to unwind.

It is in Asia, elsewhere, that we are getting a glimpse of something new. Wait, let me take that back. The healthcare legislation that will surely pass soon, once cobbled together from the egos of the participants, will be something new. Like most change, it is bitterly fought. Lincoln is a saint today, but quite a shifty one in his own time, potentially wrecking the economic system to move the United States toward a better union. No doubt he would have been labeled a communist had that epithet been around to be tossed about with abandon. Yes, there is change here, but it is clocked and meanwhile we wait.

The Asian nations are talking more boldly, suffering the ills of a stalled economic world quite well. Considering  that most economic meltdowns would normally take down countries in Asia or South America, or, even Russia, Asia's robustness is fascinating.   South Korea's economy is growing at its fastest pace in seven years, so the N.Y. Times tells us.

South Korea has been recovering from its worst downturn since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis as a weaker currency and government stimulus programs overseas boost exports. Record-low interest rates and government spending at home have also helped stimulate Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The unemployment rate fell in September to a nine-month low of 3.4 percent, consumer and business sentiment have risen and the current account -- South Korea's broadest measure of trade -- is firmly back in surplus after a deficit last year for the first time since 1997.

(N.Y.Times)

But it's not just South Korea, but others, like China, that are growing at a fair clip, despite demand problems here in the United States. This is not the expected norm in the world as it was.

At their recent conference in Thailand (B.B.C), leaders of an Asian block of nations talked confident, arguing for an economic bloc similar to the European Union. The leader of our ally Japan suggested, "It would be meaningful for us to have the aspiration that East Asia is going to lead the world", by way of encouraging the heads of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to form a free trade group.

While China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand were considered a part of such thoughts, there was considerable debate as to whether the United States should be included. (Which, when we think about it, seems like one of those debates about whether to include Russia in NATO: depending on who is allowed into a given group, the group runs the risk of subverting its reason for being).

Regardless, the clear indicator is that the world is moving forward, even if the United States struggles against change.

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If we are waiting here in the States for things to resolve, unwind, repair... then we have to wait through episodes and people like Andres Duque, a homeowner who has decided he would rather not pay his mortgage because it is under water. The banks are taking all the criticism, despite the fact that a healthy banking system is the foundation on which capitalism rests, and regardless of whatever bad business decisions were made. It is obvious that everyone from Wall Street to Main, from mortgage dealer to man on the street, miscalculated amidst the euphoria of rising home prices.

Now those caught in the error of their greed or foolishness are opting to abandon their obligations. These same people will also wonder why banks are failing, or why the rates on their credit cards are rising, or why the economy is not going to their liking.

Andres Duque thought he got a real steal when he paid $125,000 for his Little Haiti condo. But four years later, similar units are selling for $35,000 and even less.

And so, faced with the prospect of being underwater on his mortgage -- owing more than the unit is worth -- for the next 20 years, Duque, 33, made what seemed to him like a rational choice: to cut and run.

He stopped paying the mortgage, basically forcing the lender to take the condo off his hands through foreclosure.

"I was able to pay off all my credit cards," said Duque, who is biding his time in the condo, waiting until they come and evict him. "In a way, it was the best thing that happened to me because all my income is not being consumed by this freaking monster of a debt."

(McClatchy)

The point could be made that the banks should take the hit for loaning money for overpriced assets and that if they take the home back, they still have something. But let's not forget that the money in that home loan went to someone... a previous owner, a builder. The main problem though is two fold. One, the more losses you pass on to the banks (out of owner necessity or whim in not paying mortgage), the longer you go when a given bank is not making loans to your business, your employer, your local entrepreneurs. Second, by walking away from the contract, the nature of contracts comes into question, and we become more like those banana places we don't wish to live in. (And an unintended third, your financial institutions will never trust you again, making it onerous to get the simplest credit terms).

Not sure, but with their savings habits, this seems a problem not cropping up in Asia, and one suspects most would be too ashamed to walk off an obligation when still able to pay.

On Monday Greenspan Predicts Colts Will Win On Previous Sunday

Former (and fallen) Fed God Allen Greenspan goes on the record to predict that employment will pass 10%. Given the year long move upwards, with the current number at 9.8%, one begins to understand why his predictive clarity (about the danger of over-inflating the economy) was a bit faulty in the past. No doubt Greenspan also thinks a bunch of people will lose their homes soon too.

Greenspan told the ABC program "This Week" that he expected 3 percent growth in the third quarter, up from the 2.5 percent he previously predicted. However, he said a "pretty awful" September employment report released Friday showed the jobless rate continued to climb.

A slowing or halt in job losses is different from reversing the rise in unemployment, Greenspan noted, adding that the nation's unemployment rate -- currently 9.8 percent -- is "going to penetrate the 10 percent barrier before heading down."

That prediction matches previous comments by President Obama and others, who say that unemployment is a lagging indicator in an economic recovery.

Obama said Saturday his administration would focus on job creation, and Greenspan said he supported that approach. However, Greenspan said it was too soon to consider another economic stimulus package or other major spending plan.

(C.N.N.)

Someone needs to ask Greenspan if the sun will rise, or if Christmas will come. Those are things we really worry about.

We've assumed for a long time that 2009 will be a year long mess of job and home deflation, and it takes a while for actions announced by corporations to show up in the stats.  Anyone fretting over unemployment numbers at this stage is just not paying attention to where we were last year, and how long it takes for layoffs to work through the system. It's a sorry state when someone like Greenspan is pointing out the obvious and such is printed as news.

Starting Out in the Evening, via Netflix, with Lili Taylor, Sans Company

Ah Netflix.... the poor man's cable. I love how you can just pull open a flick directly over your computer. Just finished watching a movie about an aged writer trying to write what will be his last novel, and living at the tail end of a literary era fast fading. He meets a young woman working on her college thesis who lures him back to some form of life, while using him and his connections to her own ends. The surprise for me was finding the ever interesting Lili Taylor playing the writer's daughter, and struggling with the desire for children. The film, Starting Out in the Evening, examines what it means when everyone pursues their own freedom; invariably when there is no compromise, pain and loneliness intrude.

In other words, true freewill is a beast wrapped up in a blessing. Frank Langella does a good job as he is slowly lifted by film's end out of his coffin of inaction. The characters that he struggles to create for his last novel follow his lead, failing to exist or do anything at all. By the end of the film Leonard Schiller, our author, has gained some insight and knows he must take action while the clock of his life still ticks. The delight for me, though, is Taylor. There is always a realness about her, whether in Mystic Pizza or Household Saints or here as Langella's daughter.

This cheap film shot quickly and in Manhattan shows that one need not spend millions to tell a story. On the other hand those folks used to rapid action and spectacle should surely avoid this. The dark, the talk, the silence will surely cause sleep among those inclined to sleep deeply through things.

Sarah Palin's Ghostwriter's Brain Writes Faster than Obama's Brain

Stunningly swift. Sarah Palin has completed her 400 page opus masterpiece in a mere four months. This from a woman who could barely consciously crack a newspaper open and remember what she read. Her ghost writer is to be applauded for the extra effort in getting the book ready in time for the holidays.

One does not want to let too much time pass between the heights of popularity and the depths of disillusionment; you strike the pig shaped pinata while the getting is good. Palin was probably paid a bundle for this and the quick release of the book, if anything, is a sign that the publishers are not willing to gamble on Palin's long term level of ripeness.

For months after the release will have to listen to her enthusiastic blind mice chatter about how her effort trumps that of Obama, for is it not a lengthy work? Oy vey. Brace yourselves.

Daily Update: Waiting for the Miracle to Come Edition

It's been odd observing the relative economic tranquility around the world. We half expected total collapse in South America and more signs of difficulty in certain Asian economies, but reality has proven otherwise. That is good for the world, and both good and bad for the United States. When you suffer, and the world does not, that "world" might begin to conclude that they don't need you, or don't need to listen to you. Being ignored or discounted is not America's default psychology, and the adjustment might be rough going for traditional thinkers.

In this year of populism run amok, with politicians and citizens enraged at various forces they pretend not to understand, or don't understand, we can hardly engage the world in a fashion that would benefit our own interests. We are still upset over losing manufacturing and jobs to overseas lands, not truly reflecting on the fact that every developed nation will face similar situations, and to the extent that people in China and India begin to have real incomes--and that process has begun--it offers a lot more opportunity than if the world were just shut down into several regional fiefdoms. We wonder if people are looking ahead.

Certainly certain institutions have that foresight. HSBC, the massive bank that has always spread itself across Europe and Asia, has decided to base its chief executive in Hong Kong in an acknowledgement of the importance of that region. We always believe that a nation's major corporations should leave ultimate authority in the home region. But, we also feel like smart businesses will make sure that their top personnel is focused on where opportunity can be had. HSBC is doing its part to stay attuned to opportunity.

The increasing shift in economic power from the west to the east was demonstrated yesterday when HSBC announced it was moving its chief executive Michael Geoghegan from London to Hong Kong.

The decision by the UK's biggest bank and largest company to move its chief executive to Asia comes at time when the traditional G7 power base is being overtaken by the wider group of nations in the G20, reflecting the growth in emerging markets such as China and India.

(UK Guardian)

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Norway's massive sovereign fund, font of oil revenue, continues to do well. A while back there were worries about falling oil income and declining stock shares, but the managers of the fund did not panic, using the opportunity of low prices to buy more assets.

Recent rises are the result of Slyngstad buying $175bn (£107.5bn) worth of equities when world markets crashed earlier this year, following the Norwegian government's decision to increase the share of equities in the fund from 40% to 60%.

(UK Guardian)

It would be awesome to see an American fund like this, but dedicated to healthcare or some other problem but what works so well in Norway would face political propaganda problems here. Namely, it would be referred to as socialist. Never you mind the number of programs in the United States that are some variation on socialism anyway. Any innovations in terms of how stuff is financed in this country would face unspeakable slander, which is why reforming healthcare now is such a never ending battle. We lack the foresight of Norwegians, who are saving money, growing money, and thinking about future generations while at the same time solving present day problems.

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And now, for those awake and alive, some music to take you into the week. The great Leonard Cohen had his first concert in Israel in more than twenty years. The sold out event was being used as a forum to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. That battle is not ending any time soon, but the concept of forgiveness is important.

Baby, I've been waiting,
I've been waiting
Night and day
I didn't see the time,
I waited half my life away
There were lots of invitations
And I know you sent me some,
But I was waiting
For the miracle,
For the miracle to come

I know you really loved me
but, you see,
my hands were tied
I know it must have hurt you,
it must have hurt your pride
to have to stand
beneath my window
with your bugle
and your drum,
and me I'm up there waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come

Ah I don't believe you'd like it,
You wouldn't like it here
There ain't no entertainment
and the judgements are severe
The Maestro says it's Mozart
but it sounds like bubble gum
when you're waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come

Waiting for the miracle
There's nothing left to do
I haven't been this happy
since the end of World War II

Nothing left to do
when you know
that you've been taken
Nothing left to do
when you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
when you've got to go on waiting
waiting for the miracle to come

I dreamed about you, baby
It was just the other night
Most of you was naked
Ah but some of you was light
The sands of time were falling
from your fingers and your thumb,
and you were waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come

Ah baby, let's get married,
We've been alone too long
Let's be alone together
Let's see if we're that strong
Yeah let's do something crazy,
Something absolutely wrong
While we're waiting
For the miracle,
for the miracle to come

Nothing left to do ...

When you've fallen
on the highway
and you're lying
in the rain,
and they ask you
how you're doing
of course you'll say
you can't complain --
If you're squeezed
for information,
that's when you've got to
play it dumb:
You just say
you're out there waiting
for the miracle,
for the miracle to come

Sometimes I wonder if I am sitting about waiting for the miracle to come, or if anything short of a miracle, the miracle, is compromise.

Efficient Market Hypothesis Re-examined; Wall Street Still Pursues Mammon

One of the great theories that seems to be approaching old age and senility is the efficient market hypothesis. Wikipedia describes the theory as follows:

In finance, the efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) asserts that financial markets are "informationally efficient", or that prices on traded assets (e.g., stocks, bonds, or property) already reflect all known information, and instantly change to reflect new information. Therefore, according to theory, it is impossible to consistently outperform the market by using any information that the market already knows, except through luck.

(Wikipedia)

We've always thought the theory bunk and rather defiant of the human element and human nature. People neither absorb available information at the same time, or process it in rational fashion. Nor does the available information always reflect the underlying truth of any given asset.

Via the New York Times we have academics now exploring the human element that makes economic and risk modeling less precise. If this is part of the outcome of the near collapse of the financial markets, it is a welcome philosophical adjustment in our opinion.

In related observations, there have been any number of articles demonstrating some surprise or resignation that Wall Street is back to its old ways, and resuming the pursuit of massive profits. An article last week (also N.Y. Times) noted that Wall Street is now hoping to make a market of people's insurance policies, packaging them into securities.

So the wheel goes round and round.

In the the efficient markets article, the interest among college students (at least at MIT) remains high for the very skills that helped contribute to past difficulties, all though this time the hope is to reinvent the wheel:

When a bridge over a river collapses, the engineers who built the bridge have to take responsibility. But typically, critics call for improvement and smarter, better-trained engineers — not fewer of them. The same pattern seems to apply to financial engineers. At M.I.T., the Sloan School of Management is starting a one-year master’s in finance this fall because the field has become too complex to be adequately covered as part of a traditional M.B.A. program, and because of student demand. The new finance program, Mr. Lo noted, had 179 applicants for 25 places. 

In the aftermath of the economic crisis, financial engineers, experts say, will probably shift more to risk management and econometric analysis and concentrate less on devising exotic new instruments. Still, the recent efforts by investment banks to create a trading market for “life settlements,” life insurance policies that the ill or elderly sell for cash, suggest that inventive sales people are browsing for new asset classes to securitize, bundle and trade.

(N.Y.Times)

It really is about time people dispensed with standard EMH theories altogether. It's also probably about time that Washington seriously writes some financial legislation that limits leverage and speculation by major banks.

New York City On A Sunday Morning...

I grew up in New York City, which is like growing up on Mytikas, the highest peak of Mt.Olympus, looking down on the rest of the nation. The only important "other" places were (almost) similar such cities, maybe Paris or London. Maybe Hong Kong or San Francisco or Chicago.

I traveled into high school in Manhattan from Queens, taking the E or F train, or the7 line if I was feeling bored and wanted a glimpse of Shea Stadium and the tennis center. I imagined that if someone was trying to kill me, I was shifty and unorthodox, never taking the same route. Hard to pin down.

Sometimes it all depended on what I wanted to eat. When the High School of Music and Art (now LaGuardia Arts) was still uptown on the hill, I had choices of glazed donuts, Jamaican beef patties, sandwiches or candy, depending on whether I took a number or a letter train.

I didn't appreciate New York when I was there. I did and didn't. I felt a contentment, but bristled at the rude and the dirty. I dreamed of small towns, and quaint markets, and going to a high school with a football program. Music and Art was short on athletics, as were many city schools.

Eventually the school moved from Harlem downtown, joining with the School of Performing Arts in a new structure across from Lincoln Center. Many students detested the move, not wanting to leave what they called "the castle on the hill" which overlooked the black part of Harlem down below. I was delighted. A new building, with new studios and being in the center of the city. In the mornings I used to stop at a magazine shop to pick up various photography and music magazines. I flipped through whatever I bought as I crossed the street toward Lincoln Center, happy to be where I was.

At that time I wanted to be a folk singer, but was too afraid to sing in front of people. I also couldn't sing. There was something delightful about a someone who could write an engaging tune with just a voice and guitar. I listened to the music thinking, "I could do that." The pop on the radio was electronic and blippy and the best qualities of that music could not be replicated even by the artists themselves, let alone the listener. I wanted music I could sing to, strum my own guitar to. I listened to people like Shawn Colvin, John Gorka, and this duo called Buskin and Batteau.

There were a couple of folk music shows that came on the radio, one by a guy named Vin Scelsa called "Idiot's Delight" and I listened eagerly, the music becoming a soundtrack to my version of New York City. Pete Fornatale was another dj who imposed his own taste and creativity into my life.

I had my favorite spots. As art students we were required to go to the museums and draw what we saw. I was too much the introvert. I didn't want tourists looking over my shoulder and thinking what a lousy artist I was. I didn't want to mess up in front of people. I took surreptitious photographs and then recreated what I saw back home in the comfort of Queens. I disliked the Museum of Modern Art before I had ever entered, and disliked it after I exited. I loved the Met, but liked the quiet solitude of the Frick the best. "That's real art!" I said to myself, thinking that if I could paint, that's how I would paint. Oil painting was my focus at school, but I had long concluded that my skills were far below those of my more dedicated classmates.

They spent their time dreaming of a future career in the arts, and I spent my time contemplating whether to have beef patties or donuts for breakfast that morning, and whether taking the route that lead to the best food would deprive me of the route that led to whatever girl I liked at the time.

Sometimes I wandered down to 34th street near Macys, my favorite landmark. There were a lot of camera stores with all sorts of electronic gear stacked up in the windows at prices that seemed to good to be true. I planned what camera I would get, lusting after some indestructible looking Nikon, and assuring myself that the Leica right there would be my alternate when I wanted to give the Nikon a rest. Usually the only thing I ever purchased was Kodak Tri-X or Plus X black and white film. I was way into black and white pictures, feeling that color looked fake, and removed all the mystery. I took a free photography class at the School of Visual Arts to expand my skills.

The teacher sent us out onto the streets to photograph stuff. Again, I was too timid to point my camera if people might end up in the frame. I shot a lot of streets and buildings. Somewhere downtown, and at night, I photographed a man with crutches leaning against a shop window. The light from the window flooded past his dark body onto the sidewalk. Later I showed the picture to my dad, "Hey, see, I got this homeless guy sleeping." My dad told me the man was not in fact sleeping. He was on heroin and out on his feet. "Oh, well the light looks neat doesn't it?" He, my father, was not as enthusiastic at my photo with an actual person in it.

Other times I made my way to Chinatown for fireworks or knives. Near Thanksgiving I wanted to feel Dickens, and to buy a freshly killed bird and wander through the streets holding it by the neck, while beaming merchants yelled "Good day to ya" (in Chinese?) from their street stalls. I wanted to be like Scrooge, but happy, and go into a shop and say, "I will take that bird right there, and some figgy pudding" Chinatown was the best way to replicate that, and I bought a whole duck. On my subway ride home I was excited, and presented the duck to my parents. At Thanksgiving, and once cooked, the duck shrunk down to nothing, fat leaching out, and I thought, "Next time, I will get the pheasant, or a goose!"

I loved Buskin and Batteau, and every time I traveled downtown to this big music shop, they never had any of their albums in stock. Other times I would make the trip and be distracted by something else, instead of what I came for. By the time I was really determined to get their music, they broke up. They were always on independent labels and never easy to find anyway. The two men were, among other things, jingle writers, and I remember listening to a concert where they ran through a bunch of the jingles they had created. My favorite song of theirs was "Guinevere," and while other folk singers had done the tune some justice, nobody could do it better than them.

On this Sunday morning, they crossed my mind and I was glad to find that not only have Buskin and Batteau gotten back together, but they are touring, and with videos on Youtube and albums for sale. Thank you technology! Of course I must let you have a listen, those few who come here to see what I am lately ranting and raving about.

Why is America So Angry? Because It's Stupid....

McClatchy asks, "Why is America So Angry" and goes on to point out various lunacies that are being spread across a gullible population. Do you really want to know why America is angry? We have the answer.

Put simply, America is angry because the economy is awful and when people have no jobs or money, they look to blame someone. But Americans are not always economically or historically astute, and the Republican Party has made sure to place the economic blame for the past (and the future) on Obama. In the off chance that a few people might be aware that our troubles precede the Obama Administration, they have offered up a host of side fantasies in order to make people more willing to blame Obama for everything. He is socialist. He is racist. He is a crooked Chicago politician . He is a foreigner. He is violating the constitution either now, or will do so shortly when he revokes all our freedoms and takes our guns and beheads us all. (Oh, and for the pure racists, his wife looks angry, ugly and like a monkey).

Essentially if your shit doesn't stink, well, that's all Obama's fault, despite the ironic benefit.

A good proportion of anti-Obama hatred comes from things he "may" do at some secret moment in the future, or from misinterpretations of policies that are otherwise clear and obvious when viewed rationally.

We also can't ignore how various religious fears (of the anti-Christ and "one world government") play into the overall irrational hatred for a man who to date has done very little that resembles anything he is accused of.

Smearing and bearing false witness has been taken to a new level of art by people who usually claim to be more familiar with morality and the Bible, and Obama being black aids this process, in the same way a film like "The Hangover" can draw easy laughs by reducing ethnic characters to  ridiculousness. We have pointed out in the past the tendency of late for films to have the white characters ape or copy perceived "ethnic" ways of speaking or dancing. "Look at that white girl, that Sandra Bullock, doing that wacky dance and rapping, that's so funny when white people act ridiculous." A ridiculousness that is seen as normative for blacks.

Obama's mere existence in the job he is in was one giant head fuck for a bunch of people who just could not fathom it. They reached for explanations that would conform to their own bias, not reality. Hence all the personal attacks based on partial or outright lies. I am justified at disliking this man if he is secretly ineligible to be president. Or, I am justified in calling him a racist because his pastor made statements relating to God judging America (a theme that most conservative churches preach constantly, if a bit more delicately).

In this framework, it is not the Bush Administration who bailed out the bankers (thus instituting, as they imagine it, "socialism"), and it is not the Bush Administration that allowed (with the aid of all of Congress) mortgage brokers to go hog wild in the pursuit of  sales, and it is not the Bush Administration who let Lehman Brothers fail or allowed interest rates to be so low as to inflate the economy. In fact the whole previous eight years don't exist at all, with all troubles beginning on January 20th, and, according to anger, amazingly unresolved by January 21st.

Everything will be laid at Obama, the man with the odd name, who does not deserve to be in his job merely because people have fantasies about what he might do if the world conformed to the nonsense in their heads.

There that cabal sits, tucked away in their homes wondering how they ended up jobless, insuranceless and bitter, and looking for easy, lazy answers.