Did ASU snub President Obama, or just blow an obvious opportunity?

After a day of digging and talking to ASU staff and faculty, it seems this may have been more of a bureaucratic snafu than a political snub. Many have questioned whether such a decision not to award Obama an honorary degree could be racially motivated. ASU is intent to say - after the gaffe - that they will "honor Obama in every way possible."

Dawn Teo kept at this story, which was one of the hottest items yesterday at the Huffington Post, and she discovered a university administration about as jittery as cats in a room full of rocking chairs by the look of it.

Faculty and staff at ASU have taken a lot of heat over this issue. Laurie Chassin co-chairs of the ASU Honorary Degree Committee along with Christine Wilkinson, but she is on sabbatical this year and is not involved in this year's evaluations. She reportedly received death threats, though, after this story hit national news on Thursday. An ASU spokesperson said they started receiving hate-email within minutes after the story was published on Huffington Post. Crow's office was barraged with so many calls that many went straight to voice mail.

Dawn's discovered that when the President accepted the invitation to speak at the ASU commencement, the news was top secret, because Obama's press team wanted to announce the story together with the other commencements at the President would appear - but stopping leaks inside the beltway is difficult to say the least. It seems likely the right hand at ASU didn't know what the left hand was up to...

...but they sure did bungle the opportunity, and the coverage, and end up with a lot of egg on a lot of ASU faces.

Meanwhile, as you'd likely expect, the White House seems utterly unconcerned over the snafu in Arizona. There's been no mention of it I can discover via the White House blog or briefings. Today's message was largely about hope that the anecdotal signs of an economic turn-around might signal the start of broader progress reversing the downward spiral, though it's clear the recovery will not be quick.

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Promise Technology, RAID, Cloud Computing and UC Berkeley

 

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I happened on a number of blog posts about a company called "Promise Technology" and became more interested in these terms: "RAID" and "Cloud Computing" and because my grad school, Cal Berkeley is apparently at the center of the creation of this technology. Also, I think, particularly in the wake of the San Jose fiber-optic cable crime of yesterday, it's important to shed a light on the little-known areas of technology and how they impact us.

Promise Technology (according to its website) is "a global leader in the storage industry and as an innovator in RAID technology". OK, fine and dandy, but what's "RAID technology" and why is it important? First, when David Patterson, Garth Gibson and Randy Katz created RAID according to Wikepedia at Cal in 1987 and confirmed by Scientic Commons , it was called "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks" but some companies now call it "Redundant Array of Independent Disks". Ok, but why is it important?

It's important, and Cal Professor David Patterson's a Macher in this field. Patterson led the creation of RAID technology, increasing storage capacity dramatically and opening the door to the creation of the kind of web servers used today. But really it started as combining small disk drives into something called an "array" which is a way of arranging information so that each part can be gotten according to some specific code index -- in other words it's a way of "filing" information in a certain order then using that order to, say, make a calculation of something. We do this every day when we teach kids to count the number of items in a case, that number of items is an array of sorts. Programmers get computers to do that same act by writing arrays as in this case (ok, simple yes, but I want people to at least be exposed to these ideas.)

Thus, RAID is a storage technology that uses arrays and is widely used in the corporate world. Promise Technology is one of a number of companies that uses this Cal-created technology to store information or more to the point of what Promise does, is make hardware that "sees" an array of hard drives and stores, receives, and protects that data that's in them.

As an old Cal student and booster I hope you see this example of where our dollars public and private go at the university. At present, we need to change our spending priorties do that great California institutions like UC Berkeley get more money fro the State of California. California spends more money today on prisons than education; that wasn't the case when RAID technology was created. Cal's leadership and innovation in computer technology has helped transform the World around us for the better and caused the launch of a new industry and companies like Promise Technology.

Indeed, RAID served as a foundation for what we now call "Cloud Computing" which is using the Internet to, say, use a spreadsheet, rather than an old disk or CD that had a copy of, say, Microsoft Office and Excel on it. If you're thinking of Google Docs, you're on the right track.

So the next time you're poking around online and see some technical term you don't recognize, stop and research it rather than clicking by it. It will expand your understanding of the world and it may cause you to appreciate your public university more than you do.

Fiber Optic Cable System Vandalism A National Security Problem

 

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On Thursday April 9th a criminal incident impacting nearly a million people in three counties of Silicon Valley went largely unnoticed by the media, both mainstream and blogs, yet has enormous national security implications far beyond the scale and scope of September 11th 2001 or "9-11" and potentially impacting millions of Americans. What was it and why?

On that day, someone one or a group of people cut a fiber-optic and landline network placed beneath a manhole cover in San Jose, California. No one knows who did it, but the act crippled operations in hospitals, stores, banks, and supermarkets. No one could make a call using a cell phone or regular phone, or get information from the Internet. The full extent of the impact of this act is as of this writing not known, but imagine not being able to call the police or the fire department or your loved one for any reason especially if they need your help. And forget using "Skype", the Internet phone service, because access to the Internet itself was down.

That's what happened yesterday.

To explain the importance of this, I go back in time in my own life, to 1988.

Then, I worked a temporary job at a firm called "The San Francisco Consulting Group" (SFCG) in of course San Francisco, California, and which still exists. (I must report I write this without contact with anyone at the firm. My friend who was a partner there and told the firm to work with me, Michael Taylor, passed away due to brain cancer in 2003 and who's survived by his wife and my friend Sandra Taylor.)

In an innocent conversation the human resources representative discovered that the person hired to help them with spreadsheets - me - was using a software program called "STELLA", knew the modeling paradigm "System Dynamics" or "SD" and as it happens "SD" was used by SFCG, so my value immediately increased dramatically. Michael and his staff wanted to use System Dynamics to make this "economic soft landing" computer simulation for a client.

What was changing is the provision of access by long distance companies to the cable fiber-optic lines owned by AT&T. With all of these companies now able to "poach" off lines owned by AT&T, the firm was certain to lose money, the question was "how much."


At the time, the Internet was not invented by Al Gore, but the fact was then and is now that national communications depend on the same fiber-optic and coaxial cables that are mostly owned by AT&T and were vandalized in San Jose.

In 2006, I pointed to the communications system that was established as vulnerable to attack by a hacker. I wrote in my Zennie62.com blog:

The Old Economy firms are threatened by the continuation of a process that started almost 20 years ago: the constant and inexorable decrease in market value that they have suffered since the mid-80s. A chain of events started when the Federal Government forced the then-powerful AT&T to share its cable lines with other long distance providers as part of the breakup of AT&T. Ever since that point in the early 70s, the "Baby Bells" have been trying to slow the rate of decrease in market share and in any way.


Now, the only proof I have of this is rather powerful. In 1988 I was to be hired as part of a consulting team led by The San Francisco Consulting Group. I was to constuct a System Dynamics model of the US long distance telephone industry. That team was to determine how the market for long distance service was changing and how the client -- GTE -- should respond to this change. In other words, how they should achieve "a soft landing" as their market share decreased. The schematic I created for the model was formed to have a pattern of numerical behavior such that each long distance company was losing market share as new players arrived on the scene.


That was before the emergence of the Internet, which didn't become a major factor in how we communicate until 1995. But after that year, the number of Internet-equipped computers increased dramatically, as did the number of Internet-based services and companies. In 10 years, we've went from dial up to DSL to Broadband, and the one constant in this process has been the use of phone lines used by companies like AT&T.


Ever hungry for new forms of revenue generation, the firms that provide Broadband service -- and standard telephone service -- saw a way to cut off competition from the "Vonages" of the World: force them to pay for faster Internet speeds.

In this, they found the perfect driver to increase revenues and at the same time hamper the growth of the Global Economy. It's easier now than even before in our history for a small business to have a global reach using the World Wide Web. The cost barrier to entry for many is close to zero if one knows how to find the free services needed.


But from the perspective of thee AT&T's of the World, their revenue gain would be unescapable; absent a way of hacking the system, billions of users would have to pay them for faster access, thus introducing a new barrier to entry for small companies in the Global market.

To put it simply and to repeat my message folks, the fiber-optic cable lines that AT&T  created in the late 40s and up to the 80s and then had to share with new firms in the 90s and beyond, that sunk infrastructure of lines that carry the information that makes up what we call the World Wide Web, and the cell phone and telephone communications industry is still largely concentrated in the same system that was the victim of vandals in Silicon Valley on Thursday.  But when the matter of security has been discussed in the past, it was always from the perspective of stealing information from the network, not destroying it as was the case on April 9th. 

All the vandals did yesterday was open a manhole cover, go down below ground to the space under the streets that holds our fiber-optic system, find the lines, and cut them, then escape the scene of the crime just by climbing our and running away from the scene of the crime. Again, no suspects were captured as of this writing. No security camera was in place to "see" the crime. No locks on the manhole covers. Nothing. A group of people went in and then got out and crippled much of Silicon Valley's economy and lifestyle in the process. But it could have caused the loss of life just be not being able to contact and help someone in need.

And to add insult to injury, the talks about fiber-optic security that are available online only concern someone tapping the lines to get information, not destroying them altogether. The assumption is others will want to maintain the lines, but that's a terrible guess to make. This act of vandalism proves that there are people who want to cripple our economy and may have stumbled on something. We have to stop them.

How do we know this wasn't a dry run for some larger act of vandalism? Sorry to be a conspriracy theorist, but hey, I've got reasonable evidence to back my concern. I now state that a well-financed anti-USA terrorist effort could successfully cripple much of America's Internet and communications infrastructure in much the same way that vandals damaged fiber-optic cables on Thursday. Prove me wrong. Where's your counter-evidence?

This is such an important issue that the Federal Government, and specifically the Federal Communications Commission should work with the Department of Homeland Security to first eliminate the development of an Internet access system that's in the control of a few large corporations because of the problem of having such an important system concentrated in the hands of a few.  It's not that they're bad; it's a matter of protection. 

Municipalities should call for an end to Comcasts' exclusive control of cable access in cities like Oakland. The overall objective must be decentralization and redundancy (in other words having more than one of the same lines) of Internet-related access and control. We have to lay new lines of cable to act as a replacement and redundancy system for what's there now and make sure that those lines are secure from vandalism -- right now, given the events of Thursday April 9th, I write with great concern that our national system of fiber-optic cables is not secure and subject to attack.

I welcome anyone out there to prove I'm wrong. I already have my example of why I'm right in San Jose -- where's your proof?

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Tiny "Smart Car" Spotted In Oakland Rockridge BART Parking Lot

I was walking from my car to Olivetto's in Market Hall last night to meet a friend for dinner when I spotted a really small car in the Oakland Rockridge BART Parking Lot, where I parked. I mean this car was tiny and at the rear had one word on it: "Smart." So, I removed my handy Flip Video Camera from my suit pocket and made this video blog about it.



As I filmed and talked I was totally both taken and scared by the sheer size of the vehicle (tiny), so I did some research. According to various online sources and this rather disjointed Wikipedia page, the Smart Car was the creation of the same person who came up with the Swatch Watch. That device -- a simple, monotoned plastic-looking timepiece -- was a hit with Valley Girls in the 80s. And that discovery explains why the car looks like, well, a Swatch..car?

The car in the video is called a Smart Fortwo, or "for two" as in two people. It's created by Mercedez Benz to this day, even though the Wikipedia seems to imply otherwise. The Smart Fortwo was brought to America over a year ago.

Still, I would not be caught driving one -- it's too small. I can't see surviving an accident in this thing at all. How small does a car need to be? And how much gas does it use? According to this site, it's 33 in the city and 41 on the highway. That's terrible considering its size and what a Prius can do. But the good news is unlike that hybrid car, the price is about $12,000. Still, I think it should be about $7,000 -- I'd pay for that just to drive it on the golf course!

SF Giants Baseball Opening Day; Party Economy Still Active In San Francisco

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San Francisco and the SF Bay Area have developed what I call a "party economy" where to the layperson people have events with food and drink and music everywhere, but really are marketing gatherings to present a restaurant or a type of drink or even a car. These happenings are the lifeblood of San Francisco and are prevalent during the Opening Day Game of the San Francisco Giants' baseball season as my video will show.

The game pitting the Giants against the Milwaukee Brewers was one I did not see much of. I was too busy talking to old friends and meeting new people and I wasn't the only one. Even with the wet weather, which eventually cleared, spirits were high, smiles were many, and at some events people dressed as if it was 90 degrees outside.

I went to meet friends in what has become an annual ritual for us, even though I live in Oakland, like the Oakland A's and even made a game called "The Oakland Baseball Simworld." But my good friends live in San Francisco and are in the marketing and promotions business, and have relationships with me that are over 10 years in the case of two of them, Beth Schnitzer and Randy Gordon, who helped me form the bid to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland (we lost to Jacksonville at the Atlanta Fall NFL Owners meeting in 2000). From those two I've developed a long list of friends and contacts in the restaurant, political, media, and hospitality areas. All of them come out on baseball opening day.

The parties were many and most of the visits were unplanned; I had no idea where we were headed next until we were at an event. We left the game early in the eighth inning, as I was literally dragged to a gathering thrown by Epic Roasthouse on the waterfront, the new eatery created by San Francisco restauranteur Pat Kuleto and Pete Sittnick, who's Epic's managing partner.

The party was part vodka promotion and part networking fest, but for me since about 70 percent of the party attendees were with our group, it was a kind of family day by the Bay. Then we went across the Embarcadero to Gordon Bierch and were treated to a great spread of food and drink by the marketing manager and staff of the legendary bistro.

Good friends who are also business contacts are a kind of way of life in the Bay Area, and especially in San Francisco, where its developed into an art form. These are my best friends, but also have helped me in various ways in building my business. Why San Francisco has evolved in that way is the stuff for another blog, but for now it's a way of life.

The event was for Blue Angel Vodka, and because of the name I expected to see the planes fly overhead. But what I got was a great time presented by Sittnick, who told me that people were "tired of talking about the Recession" and want to party. All the better for Epic Roasthouse and the people employed to staff the party, including three "dressed to sell vodka" women from Davis, California who told me what "Cow Tipping" was (where they actually turn over a poor cow) as I had no idea at all. Seriously. (In fairness, they said it was something they did when they were young and never again.)

And people were indeed out spending money. But not as much as even last year just by an observation. You could see it in the stands, where the third deck at AT&T Park was about half full. You could see it around the grounds where not as many were walking, but then it was the rain as much as the economy. That written, it was still crowded.

What I took from today's event was that the Giants have some offensive firepower from what little I saw of the game, but equally important, people are still out trying to drum up business and consummate agreements and partnerships to bring in money. Americans are losing their jobs at big firms and in government departments, but it's a great time to be an entrepreneur, especially in San Francisco on Giants Opening Day.

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The Fix is In?

The Fix Is In? A BASN/FRO EXCLUSIVE

By Michael – Louis Ingram

BASN/FRO



Bernie Parrish, it seems, has been playing defense all his life. From his playing days with the Cleveland Browns, he saw the future in understanding the need to look out for himself and his fellow players down the road.

Parrish would be instrumental in helping to set up the first Players’ Union back in the 1960s – the same one that would morph into the NFLPA and Players, Inc. today. “I got interested in it after I was voted player rep for the Browns in 1960,” said Parrish,” so I’ve been at this a while.

“We sat down and tore a retirement plan out of the hides of men like George Halas, Paul Brown and George Preston Marshall – a buncha tough old buzzards; developed and gifted a pension plan that became what the modern players have now; and baseball followed suit with our premise soon after.

“Fortunately, for the baseball players, Marvin Miller kept the baseball union straight and made it his business to look out for all his people, and Major League Baseball’s pensioners today receive four to five times more money from their sport than football, in spite of the fact we’ve made more money over the same time frame – while Gene Upshaw & (former NFL commissioner Paul) Tagliabue diverted from that path with retired players (from 1982 and back) into other plans for the players that excluded us.

The death of former NFLPA head Upshaw led to speculation a new leader would be sympathetic to a faction of retired players - Parrish among them – and resolve several long – standing issues; as well as a couple which emanated from the recent award of $28.1 million dollars won in a class – action suit spearheaded by Parrish and Hall of Fame defensive back Herb Adderley, now stuck in appeal.

During Super Bowl week the speculation of a new leader narrowed down to two principal candidates – former players Trace Armstrong and Troy Vincent; but the ascension of lawyer/lobbyist DeMaurice Smith to president of NFLPA was a complete surprise to just about everyone – except Parrish.

Parrish revealed on the BASN / blogtalkradio shows, “the Football Reporters Online” and “The Batchelor Pad” hosted by our colleague, L.A. Batchelor that the process in electing Smith, in his opinion, wasn’t on the up – and – up.

“I was in Tampa during Super Bowl week at the Marriott Waterside,” recalls Parrish, “which was across the street from where most of the Super Bowl stuff was happening, and was having a coffee at a Starbucks which was adjacent to the lobby and the Café Waterside when here comes the inner circle of the NFLPA - Richard Bertelsen, Jeffrey Kessler, Clark Gaines, Jack Quinn, etc. They walked right past me, and didn’t recognize me. There were a bunch of fans around, so it was a little loud.

“Kessler, who was eye to eye with me for 7 hours during the deposition in the class action suit, is looking right at me. I was ready to say, ‘So, Jeff – did you bring the check?’ But he didn’t recognize me, and I’m thinking, ‘this guy has got to be one arrogant ass…’

“They all looked dead at me, walked by and then walked into the Café Waterside, which was closed, but the maitre’d let them in and closed the door; he (maitre’d) soon left, and I walked in and sat down at a table right next to them about 4-5 feet away. I’m looking out the window at the Coast Guard gunboats - and I listened for 90 minutes to them talking about several things – including rigging the election and getting Smith enough votes to get him in as Executive Director.

“They also brought in Cornwell as a supposed challenger. At first I thought they were talking about (former Buffalo Bill) Cornelius Bennett, but it was Cornwell, who was on the list of nominees as of January 29.

“So here I’m thinking the judge leaves Berthelsen (de facto Executive Director) and Kessler (lead counsel vs. Retired players) in charge in spite of the fact they ruled their action shirked their fiduciary responsibility to the retired players, instead of appointing a conservator like they did with the Teamsters after we won the lawsuit.

“They had arranged through several phone calls what they called ‘breakout meetings’ with 10 guys and one meeting went 6-0 against them, so they reworked the process.

“They also talked about getting a hold of Mary Moran, daughter of Rep. Jim Moran, who works for NFLPA in Human Resources, saying they needed to get a hold of her right away and she had to make her dad make these calls right away.

“We know he (Moran) called Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Rep. Kendrick Meeks (D-FL) because Troy Vincent had called these congressmen, to insure the election was honest; but Rep. Moran outed Vincent due to the fact there were indications if Vincent had been elected, he would’ve cleaned house and fired his daughter in the wake of that move.

But Rep. Moran outed Vincent not just to help Smith to win the election. Patton Boggs, who is the largest lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., would be seen in a favorable light by NFLPA. So there were more things involved than just trying to have Moran help his daughter keep her job – there’s a lot of politicking goin’ on,” Parrish said.

According to Parrish, Patton Boggs earned $330 million in monies in 2008, and allegedly gave Moran over $2 million, according to an online watchdog concern.

It is because of these discoveries that Parrish is concerned about the direction of the NFLPA with regard to hundreds of millions of dollars owed to the retired players who had their the pension plan “infiltrated” by concerns not in their best interests – as well as the logic of the newly elected Executive Director.

“Well it doesn’t appear that a positive change is gonna happen,” said Parrish, “with Smith saying he was keeping Berthelsen and Kessler; and was ‘happy with the current staff’ – I don’t know how he was able to assess that over 3 days;

“They say they pay homage to us – well, homage doesn’t pay much; we’re owed 100s of millions of dollars because of the collusion between Upshaw, Tagilabue, the owners and Aon Consulting, who controls our plan actuaries; and our salaries are held down by Aon, who was ordered to pay $190 million in restitution to clients in Illinois, New York, and Connecticut – for cheating their customers.”

Parrish went on to imply there is more to this, and he is sending a letter to the new Executive Director to get a first – hand response to what he discovered.

“Smith says his staff is just fine; the same ones who violated fiduciary responsibility in taking care of our concerns. You think AIG’s crooked? Wait ‘til all this comes out.”



BASN will continue to keep you posted on this issue.

michaelingram@blackathlete.com

mike@footballreportersonline.com

Hot Stove Football #2

Hot Stove Football #2: Oh Plaxico oh Plaxico... and why did the NY Jets think they needed Jay Cutler?
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Managing Partner-Football Reporters Online

The Ny Jets never seem to be happy with what they already have. If they feel that Kellen Clemens will never run the Jets Offense on a regular basis, try trading him for the extra draft pick.Then people will take you seriously when you say you need a QB. Until then, people only see the Jets as further behind the Giants in PSL sales.
I'm not so sure they were ever seriously considered a factor in the "Jay Cutler" Saga. The three way deal between the Broncos, Titans, and the Jets was talked about for all of 5 minutes and then dismissed at least on NY sports talk radio.

The Giants are doing their "voluntary" off season workout program, and 59 of the current roster players are in attendance. Osi Umenoria is confident that his knee is close to 100%. He was also sure that his teammate Plaxico Burress would return to the Giants after getting probation. Guess that one went out the door with the last gasp of winter. Burress was released after he won his case against the Giants to recover his withheld roster bonus of one million dollars(think Mike Meyers' Dr. Evil when you hear that).

General Manager Jerry Reese has not yet made a major attempt at signing a receiver in free agency, but will certainly address that in the draft. The Giants had college prospect Percy Harvin in for a workout last week. but there have to be other names on the radar. One such name should be Cal-Poly's Ramses Barden.before the superbowl no one even knew who he was except for a handful of scouts. Barden is the only receiver in this draft at 6'5" or above (6'5-1/2"-229lbs) and while he is still a bit raw, he has the potential to go a long way in the pros. We wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Barden heard his name called mid to late on day two of this years draft. The other is Rutgers' WR Kenny Britt. I'm not so totally sold on Mr. Britt . Although he is 6'4", he only weighs about 212 pounds, hardly someone who can out muscle larger defensive backs over the middle. He can jump, but would need to learn the mechanics of the "Jump Ball" game in the endzone.

Up In Buffalo, Terrell Owens has already missed a "voluntary" off season work out with his new team of choice. So i ask you, is this the way to start off on the right foot with your new team and coaching staff? I woulkd think you'd want to do everything you can to show the people of upstate NY that you are happy to be there. Sure the workouts are "voluntary", but it is also "strongly suggested" that players attend.

Down I-95, the Eagles' QB Donovan McNabb isn't too happy that so many veteran players are leaving. One media vet tells us that it's been building up to this for years due to poor management on the part of the Eagles front office. You have to feel bad
for Donovan because he puts his heart and soul into trying to make the Eagles a winner. It's shameful that the front office won't give them the tools to do so.

Some of the area college programs have already released their schedules for 2009. The Liberty Cup match-up between Fordham University (Patriot) and Columbia University (Ivy) is sure to be hotly contested as always. Columbia's Head Coach Norries Wilson is one of the hardest working coaches to grace New York City's college football scene in some time. He also gives a great post game press conference no matter what the outcome of the game, and always has a high quality of Insight into all phases of the game. As a college player, coach Wilson played in two bowl games at the University of Minnesota as an offensive lineman. Fordham's head man Tom Massella has been around winning football for years, and while the Rams had a tough 2008, they were the 2007 patriot league champs. Both teams also work hard on the recruitment front each year. Circle your calendars for September 19th at 6pm at Fordham's Jack Coffey field.

The NFLPA elected a new executive director 2 weeks ago named DeMaurice Smith. Mr. Smith is a talented litigator, but has no other football related experience other then being a rabid Redskins fan. So maybe there is some truth to the story that the election may have been "jerrymanded" by player association lawyers Kessler and Berthlesen. At least one retired player who is part of the suit against the NFLPA to recognize the lack of health care benefits to retired players believes it is true, and has gone on record to anyone who will listen. There is even another story that the 28.1 million dollar settlement will be reduced by 50% to the players.

As comedy man Yakov Smirnoff says "what a country this America is"

You can also find us at:

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www.gridirondraftguide.com
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Obama: The U.S. Is Not At War With Islam

From Digg.com"Reporting from Istanbul, Turkey, and Ankara, Turkey -- When President Obama declared Monday that the United States "is not, and will never be, at war with Islam," he was addressing Turkey's parliament. But his audience was the wider Muslim world.

The president's ringing affirmation of partnership with Turkey, which he described as a vital bridge between East and West, was interwoven with a highly personal appeal for a change in the tone of discourse between the United States and the world's Muslims."

Early Star Trek Review: Best Movie Since Wrath Of Khan!

he new Star Trek movie is amazing- easily the best Trek movie since The Wrath of Khan, and a veritable feast of sight and sound: A captivating adventure that grabs you from the first and doesn't let go. The effects are amazing, finally what the stories have deserved so richly. There are enough huge fireballs, shattering explosions &exciting fights

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Paul Krugman is WRONG about The Obama TARP Plan - Once Again

On March 24th, I wrote a short post on Economist and NY Times Columnist Paul Krugman and created this video below.




Today, in the wake of Newsweeks' rather unfortunate April Fools Day article on the Princeton Professor (which presented him as a kind of edgy intellectual but lacked real substance in the discussion of why Krugman is wrong about Obama), I decided to offer this expanded blog post. The problem is that Krugman is really angry that the Obama administration is and has ignored him and this emotion has driven a sloppy intellectual approach, paced by the fact that he's not presented a plan for our troubled banks, all the while taking an aim at the President's plan that has the effectiveness of a drunken sailor at an arcade shooting gallery.

Who is Paul Krugman?

Professor Krugman is a decorated International Economist, who recently - in 2008 - won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his solid theory on two-country trade. Here Krugman attacked the standard idea of two-country trade by explaining with some heft that a country like the United States that makes a Cadillac sports sedan will see that car purchased to some degree in Germany, which just happens to produce the competitor BMW 5-series. In other words, rich countries trade like goods more often than poor country to rich country or vie versa. This idea was path-breaking in that the economies of scale were not included in traditional models of trade, so pretty much any country could trade with another one in this immmaginary World. Krugman's theory explained the real World.

Now, why do I have an interest in this? Because my background is in urban economics and I focused on it at both Texas-Arlingron and Cal-Berkeley, but fell in love with a kind of way of modeling relationships called System Dynamics which causes one to see the World as a set of feedback and control connections. And that's where I break with Krugman. As a traditional economist, he does not see beyond a set "straw-person example" and into the more complex World around him -- the political aspect of economics (the political economy as its called) is lost on him, which is why the Obama Administration does not embrace him.

The Obama plan for bank troubled assets, using Troubled Asset Relief Program money to finance non-recourse loans to encourage investors to buy the "junk" is one example (called the "Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets"). Krugman attacks this plan around the idea that we're giving taxpayer money away to create this market, then sets the idea that it will not work without emprically showing why it will not do so in detail or offering an alternative plan.

What Krugman missed is a read of the political landscape such that Obama's TARP plan is not only one the market asked for, and for months, but was needed to take the bad debts off the banks books. And that's what Krugman misses. He rants on about the plan's possible failure from within its own system, but says nothing -- zip -- about getting the assets off the banks books, which is the real success. Then Paul makes a real intellectual error by writing that the Obama administration sees the bank financial system as sound, which it does not, otherwise this plan would not exist.

He then writes as if the plan uses all of the TARP money, rather than the truth, which is that it uses a small portion of it, thus leaving enough left over for other plans.

As I have stated again and again, the plan lacks a payment to American taxpayers under $100,000 of $3,500 each -- or about $380 Billion -- to essentially help banks and to a degree stimulate spending. Why? The vast majority of Americans don't have massive debt problems asmany don't carry credit card debt and for those who do the average level of credit card debt is about $10,000, so this plan helps reduce that by one-third. But people aren't going to leave the money under a matress, they will put it in banks, thus helping both Wall Street and Main Street. Remember the unemployment program, designed for those who were laid off from large companies in the past, does not help the apprentice plumber who has a decade-long resume of customers that suddenly dried up.

See, my idea is a supplement that I introduced a while back in a talk with CNN's Ali Velshi, who agreed it could help. But it fits within the economic and political reality of what we need to do to fix America's economy in a way that Krugman's plan does not do.

Oh. I forgot. He doesn't have a plan.

In closing, I do not embrace crits of this post that are based on the "You're not an economist" view or juvenile name-calling, which is common online but not allowed here in my space, but I do like a good debate on rigor and detail. Bring it.

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Bottoms up? Not so fast...

From the article: "When IBM can be as proud of how they treat their workers every day as General Motors was during its glory years, when I see people going back to work at jobs with good salaries and benefits, then I'll be ready to believe the U.S. economy is back on its feet." Reality check as DOW creeps above 8000. I don't know who the pundits think is better off - it's not me, is it you?

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The Secrets Of Oakland, California - A Video For CNN's iReport

I created this video at the specific request of Tyson Chandler at CNN's iReport. The idea is to give viewers a look at the secret places in your town, so I made this one for Oakland: