Saturday, August 15, 2015

Draper Boom

In case you've had your head stuck in the sand, the prison move is a done deal.  The Draper site will be abandoned, and in a display of petty vindictiveness and short-sightedness on an effectively criminal level, The Powers are moving it to the airport (There's brilliance for you.  It isn't enough that everyone flying into or out of the principal airport in the state already has a comprehensive view of Jersey-grade industrial blight; now they'll get to see our leading growth industry as well.).  And the yokels who herd Draper down the sheep path are licking their chops.  700 acres of loose land.  It will look like the Oklahoma Land Rush.  And having learned nothing from the Sandcrest, er Suncrest Debacle, Draper will not make sure there is adequate infrastructure, performance bonds, or even a way for the schools to handle the influx.  The fun just never stops.

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Friday, August 14, 2015

I Come Here to Bury, not to Praise

And unlike Marc Antony, I mean it.  Karen Martinez has retired as local counsel for the SEC, and the hagiographies are everywhere.  Pardon me if I don't join in.

As I've said numerous times on this blog, its companion, and elsewhere, the 2007 crash was an obvious thing, and it happened because the regulators were ignoring what was going on.  Of course, the regulators had been ignoring most things since Reagan took office, ratcheted it up several notches with the introduction of derivatives in the late 80s, and went into full snooze mode after the repeal of Glass-Steagall.  By 2005, there were billboards and radio and TV ads for straw buyers, no doc liars' loans were everywhere, appraisers were making up values, and rating agencies were making up risk levels.  The banks knew their game was crooked, but they were making to much in commissions and fees to stop it.  I have no doubt they also gave orders to the regulators to look the other way.

Then in Fall 2007 the banks figured out the merry-go-round was coming to a halt, so they woke up Martinez and everyone like her, pulled a Louis Renault, "We're shocked, SHOCKED to find that mortgage fraud is going on here," threw them some of their own people as sacrificial lambs, pointed them to the smaller players and ordered them to crack down on the small graft because it was interfering with large graft, and reminded them to leave the large graft alone.  And Martinez and everyone like her dutifully obeyed.  And along the way they slandered me all over the territory because they had decided I was the kingpin of one operation because they flunked Corporations 101 by not being able to tell the difference between a registered agent and a principal.

Now she's retired with her federal pension.  I wish I were compensated so well for accomplishing so little.  So I shall not be praising Caesar, now or any time in the foreseeable future.

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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Warning to Blackberry Users

I use a Blackberry.  The reason is simple: I hate touch screens.  I have a bad attitude about them because I have a bad attitude about Apple in general, but aside from that, I just can't get the right touch for the screen.  I just want to scroll down or expand a view, and the next thing I know, I'm dialing the ISIS volunteer hotline or surfing bestiality sites or putting my kidneys up for sale on eBay.  So I stay with the keyboard.  Today out of the blue I get a text from T-Mobile telling me that in a month my Blackberry will turn into a paperweight.  As is typical with technoboobs, they've improved things so much that nothing works any more.  They're going entirely 4G, and of course that leaves no room for old 3G stuff.  Massive bilge, and of course entirely deliberate in good old American planned obsolescence fashion.  So for no good reason, I have to change phones.  And find a T-Mobile store out there that isn't full of idiots so that when I have them switch phones, they won't screw up both phones and my entire account the way they did the last time I tried to do this.

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