Talking Points for Wall Street protestors

Update: October 6, 2011

It is becoming more apparent that the intentions of the protestors are not “noble” as we first wrote. The majority of the mob are run-of-the-mill anarchists who flock to any situation around the world allowing them to cause trouble and feel important or a brief amount of time.

If any impact to Wall Street practices will come of these protests, the few in the crowd who truly care about reducing financial corruption and improving democracy will have to take charge. The Beatles’ George Harrison said it best. When he was leaving his LSD-marijuana “mysticism” phase and visited the Haight-Ashbury protestors of the 60′s, he said “I got out of there fast…They were just smelly bums.”

October 1, 2011

The NY Times beat me to the punch and made their own list of talking points to help educate the kids who have encamped near Wall Street in protest of something. It is painfully clear that many of the protestors do not really understand how Wall Street caused the global depression. However, their intentions are noble, and with some leadership and basic guidance, they can possibly alter the debate ahead of the 2012 elections and get congress and The White House back to focusing on Wall Street reforms that are much overdue.

As a former Wall Street and hedge fund executive, I know better than most just how corrupt our financial systems are. Here are some basic talking points that I would suggest for all of the protestors to learn and use in slogans:

• First of all, stay peaceful. Your message will be marginalized if you turn violent. Emulate Mohandas Gandhi methods.
• Do not let the organized unions hijack your cause. They are as corrupt as Wall Street bankers and you will be marginalized, categorized, and dismissed
• Understand how the Federal Reserve, led by Ben Bernanke, has infused more than a trillion dollars of “free money” to Wall Street in the form of “Quantitative Easing or “QE2″, etc, and in the form of almost zero interest rates to banks. QE2 did nothing but prop up the stock markets briefly, feeding Wall Street. It is well recognized now to have done nothing beneficial to the economy.
• The “free money” at zero interest rate given out by Ben Bernanke and the Fed has made the U.S. Dollar weak compared to other currencies. This directly causes the price of gasoline, food, and other commodities to go up since those items are priced on the U.S. dollar. Therefore, in the Fed’s plan, it is more important to help big corporations export their products than to help the Average Joe have more buying power with their wallet.
• Understand that the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, or whom I have coined as Timmy the TARP Man (A new Marvel Comics super hero perhaps?), was directly responsible for bailing out the Wall Street banks in 2008, before he was Treasury Secretary. Then, under the Obama administration when he became the Treasury Secretary with his name on our dollar bills, he and super genius Larry Summers (The guy fired from his job as President of Harvard for making sexists comments) has persuaded the President to back down on tougher Wall Street reforms and to continue to allow the largest banks to exist as “Too big to fail”.
• Understand that some advisers to President Obama, like Paul Volcker (Federal Reserve Chairman under Reagan and critic of Wall Street) and Sheila Bair, Chairwoman of the bank regulator FDIC, tried to liquidate Citigroup, the largest bank and also one with so much toxic debt related to those infamous subprime mortgages instruments called “CDO’s”, but Timmy the TARP Man won the day and bailed out Citigroup with tax payer’s dollars.
• Know that none of the fat cats on Wall Street, who acquired trillions in risky debt via the CDO’s and who directly caused the global financial meltdown, economic depression, and real unemployment around 20%, none of these men have been arrested, yet thousands of protestors on Wall Street have been bused to jail.
• A “Most Wanted” list of Wall Street criminals should be memorized, starting with Stan O’Neill, former CEO of Merrill Lynch who ignored internal risk managers and loaded up with toxic debt CDO’s, and walked away with almost $100 Million in severance pay after he was fired. He drove Merrill Lynch into insolvency and the bank had to be saved by TARP and by being acquired by Bank of America. Other executives with similar stories who’s names should be mentioned on protest signs and to the media include Angelo Mozilo (former CEO of Countrywide who oversaw predatory subprime mortgages being given to millions who could never afford the homes), Dick Fuld (former CEO of now defunct Lehman Brothers), Jake DeSantis (former head of derivatives unit at AIG who took on ultra-risky credit default swaps insuring CDO’s. AIG gave out hundreds of millions in bonuses to employees in 2009 using federal bailout money in a deal approved by Timmy Geithner), Robert Rubin, and others.
• Robert Rubin was the Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs before being appointed as the Treasury Secretary by Bill Clinton. After his Treasury Secretary post, he went back to Wall Street and ran Citigroup as it accumulated countless levels of toxic CDO’s that caused Citigroup to become insolvent. He walked away, after being forced out, with a reported $126 Million severance package.
• Understand that Wall Street banks became “Too big to fail” as a result of actions by the Clinton administration. In 2000, under the guidance of Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, Clinton signed the of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 (also known as Gramm Leach Bliley) that repealed the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act and allowed wall Street banks to merge with regular consumer banks and insurance companies. Behemoths like Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America were born.
• Understand that the Wall Street banks make most of their money on the backs of the masses. The banks get money at no interest rate from Ban Bernanke’s Federal Reserve, and turn around and loan it to consumers through credit cards or other loans for more than 12% interest.
• Understand that “derivatives” are unregulated financial instruments that have ballooned into such a global problem that famed investor Warren Buffet called them “Weapons of mass destruction“. Some estimate the value of derivatives at more than $700 trillion. Translation: there is no way the global economy could ever in a million years pay off these debts should they turn into bad deals like the CDO’s of 2008. Wall Street lobbyist money has effectively thwarted any attempt by congress to regulate derivatives.
• After the Wall Street collapse in 2008 through 2009, the only legislation that was passed to attempt to reform the “moral hazard” of Wall Street taking risks knowing that the government will bail them out was the Dodd-Frank law (also known as Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act). The lobbyists watered down the law and the law has not been enacted yet as details still need to be addressed. The vast majority of Dodd-Frank is being stalled in congress.
• The most important provision of Dodd-Frank yet to be implemented is the Consumer Protection aspect via the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. This was championed by a Harvard professor named Elizabeth Warren. The Wall Street lobbyists were so effective that they made it impossible for President Obama to appoint her as the leader of the very agency she created. Elizabeth Warren is now running for Senate in the state of Massachusetts.

There are two tangible political goals the protestors should have. The “Occupy Wall Street” camps and others around the country might help Elizabeth Warren get elected to the Senate (not that Scott Brown is a bad person). Also, the fate of the Dodd-Frank law is another outcome that mass protests can influence going into the 2012 elections.

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The GOP is tone deaf and clueless

September 29, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

The current Republican (GOP) strategy for the 2012 elections will lead to President Obama being re-elected despite high unemployment and low job approval. Compared to the numerous GOP presidential candidates, most Americans will view President Obama as the sanest smartest person to lead the country.

Every GOP presidential candidate placed in the lead position so far has quickly been exposed as a either a nut job or incompetent. Why has the GOP bungled so badly?

The answer is simple and obvious: our political system is corrupted to the core and big-money special interests control the process. By definition, the leaders of these special interests are out of touch with the majority. The GOP is tone deaf and clueless right now.

How should the GOP change strategy and better appeal to the masses who will vote in November of 2012?

The first and foremost concept that the GOP strategists need to realize is that the voters are pissed off and either unemployed or in deep debt. The 13-day-long Wall Street protests that have taken root in Liberty Park near Wall Street are the manifestation of unemployed young people needing a sense of purpose. These protests will spread across the country. Look for Vietnam-era-style protests next year. The Tea Party of older Caucasians will expand to include younger more radical constituents. The young kids gathered on Wall Street do not realize it, but they are the same as the Tea Party.

None of these disgruntled masses want to hear GOP presidential candidates or conservative pundits defend millionaires against the “Warren Buffet plan” tax hikes. President Obama will win that battle. He is pulling off a brilliant Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu move and the old schoolers in the GOP like Carl Rove and Reince Priebus are falling for it.

The Republicans, however, can tap into this populace rage and win 2012 in a landslide if they change tack. (But don’t hold your breath)

Michele Bachmann rocketed to the lead in the polls (briefly, before she continued to open her mouth on HPV, etc) by simply stating in a debate that the Wall Street bailouts were a bad thing. However, like a bunch of Vicodin and crack addicts, the GOP is addicted to Wall Street campaign donation money and is perversely supporting the very same institutions that caused the 5-year-long-no-end-in-sight global depression that has created real unemployment in excess of 20%. Supporting tax loopholes that allow Connecticut billionaires to pay only 15% federal tax will not resonate very well with voters.

The GOP should throw Wall Street under a bus and leverage the populace rage into a winning strategy, stealing it from the Democrats. Former federal attorney Chris Christie, or Rick Perry, or whomever is the GOP candidate, should promise to make a “10 Most Wanted” list of people to arrest who caused the global depression. On that list would be Merrill Lynch’s Stan O’Neill who ignored internal council and loaded up on toxic debt that ruined the company (now Bank of America) yet walked away with almost $100 Million in severance pay. Others on the list who would make for good visual “perp walks” would be Angelo Mozilo who oversaw Countrywide Financial and all of the fraudulent predatory mortgages, Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers, heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, etc.

The GOP should continue to attack the actions of Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve (which are blessed by President Obama) of printing money in QE1 and QE2 as nothing more than welfare to Wall Street traders. The various actions of the Fed have not helped the economy and have only devalued the dollar reducing the purchasing power of Americans (low dollar means higher gas, food, commodity prices). Rick Perry scored points by saying that if Bernanke created a QE3 it would be “Almost treasonous”.

The GOP should abandon this defense of low tax rates on millionaires as “Class warfare” by the Democrats. That is an ineffective strategy. Instead, the GOP should state that the problem with the federal budget lies in an addiction to spending, and one does not give an addict an ounce of the drug they seek until they have been rehabbed. Taxes on millionaires will be raised, but only after $4 Trillion in spending cuts.

The GOP should take the golden opportunity created by The White House proposals to cut Medicare and propose their own cuts to entitlements. When Paul Ryan hinted at Medicare cuts earlier in the year, he was demonized. Obama has now created cover with his own Medicare cuts. Cutting entitlement spending is the only way to truly solve the root cause of the depression and to spur confidence in the American economy.

The GOP should support the Elizabeth Warren Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It would resonate well on the campaign trail and eliminate her as a threat to Republican Senator Scott Brown if she were to head up that agency. Defending predatory credit and debit card practices by Too Big Too Fail banks will not be a winning strategy for the GOP.

If the GOP made these tactical changes now, not only would they win over the millions of outraged silent mobs in America, but the GOP would expand its base. The college kids, traditionally in the Democrats’ base, would be inclined to vote Republican given that they are unemployed an unhappy with the incumbents. The kids camped out on Wall Street (of all races) are not exactly chanting pro-Obama slogans. There are no pro-Obama signs at all. They are ripe for the taking if the GOP wised up.

If the GOP continues with its current strategies, and ignores the voters as they reject one presidential hopeful after another, then President Obama will be the first president to be re-elected with a job approval in the 40%-range and unemployment above 9%. The GOP ought to be very very concerned right now.

Survey: Your opinion of the 9/11 memorial ceremonies

September 11, 2011

Please take our survey on the 9/11 memorial ceremonies. We will post the results on Monday.

September 12, 2011

The results of our survey were:

76% of the responders were from Battery Park

100% liked the design of the 9/11 Memorial. 34% strongly approved.

76% thought that the tight security measures were appropriate

74% agreed with Mayor Bloomberg in not allowing various religious leaders to make speeches

However, 76% disagreed with the Mayor’s decision to not allow living firefighters and policemen to make official speeches.

How the FDA could rapidly generate 100,000 jobs in NJ and NY

By Steven Greer, MD

September 4, 2010

The Commissioner of the FDA, Margaret Hamburg, could become the single biggest job creator in the Obama administration and generate hundreds of thousands of  jobs in the New Jersey and New York areas. How?

FDA Commissioner Hamburg

Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, as well as clinical trial development, have been outsourced to China, India, Ireland, and other countries, taking with it the jobs required to do these functions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 300,000 jobs involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing alone back in 2008. Data are not readily available on the number of people employed in non-U.S. drug and device plants, but the FDA tracks more than 100,000 international facilities. Therefore, the number of jobs that are outsourced to manufacture drugs and devices, which are then imported to the U.S., seems to be well into the hundreds of thousands.

Monitoring safety is the primary mandate for the drug and device divisions of the FDA. It has become increasingly more difficult for the FDA to properly monitor all of these overseas plants. We recently spoke with the Commissioner of the FDA and the Director of CDER about this.

The FDA recently added a fee to the drug industry to allow the FDA to hire more overseas inspectors in the wake of numerous drug safety horrors, such as counterfeit Chinese-made heparin that killed hundreds and resulted in the execution of the director of China’s equivalent of the FDA. However, the new number of FDA inspectors will still only inspect a small fraction of the overseas plants, according to the GAO.

A much more effective solution would be to mandate that the majority of drugs and devices be made right here in the United States. How many jobs could be rapidly created in the Tri-State area by such a decree? One can easily imagine 100,000. When Roche assimilated Genentech like a Star Trek Borg, it eliminated as many as 8,800 employees at just one plant in Vacaville, California when it outsourced the biologics manufacturing to Singapore. We also know that tens of thousands of jobs were lost after the Pfizer/Wyeth and Merck/Schering Plough mergers. Many of those jobs were replaced by China and India plants. It is reasonable to assume they would return if the FDA mandated U.S. drug and device manufacturing.

Making drugs meant for Americans in American plants is the only sensible thing to do from a safety standpoint, but the financial power on K Street of the drug industry has allowed the rules to become relaxed so much that we now have the vast majority of our pharmaceuticals being made in China and India. Never before would it have been conceivable to change this practice, but with the prolonged economic depression and 10% unemployment for the foreseeable future, the political climate might just allow such a bold regulatory change.

Of course, such a radical change by the FDA would require presidential and congressional support. This could be the most effective and bipartisan popular move the President can make. Governor’s Cuomo, Christie and the various Senators/congressmen of the states could also help out.

Waste, fraud, and cost overruns at the 9/11 Memorial

9/11’s White Elephant

By JOE NOCERA New York Times

There is nothing wrong — and much that is right — with building a national monument to memorialize the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks a decade ago. The awful events of that day traumatized the country — and changed it. The dead deserve to be remembered. Far be it from me to suggest otherwise.

What I do want to suggest, though, is that what’s being built in the name of 9/11 — a staggering $11 billion worth of government-sponsored construction on the 16 acres we now call ground zero — is an example of just about everything wrong with modern government. When the World Trade Center site is finally completed, it will include a state-of-the-art train station whose cost overruns have surpassed $1 billion. The 9/11 memorial itself, which covers the footprint of the former twin towers, was so far behind schedule that it is now being hastily constructed, out of sequence, so that it will be ready by the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.

And then there’s 1 World Trade Center, scheduled to be completed in 2013, which will add 2.6 million square feet of office space in a city that doesn’t need it, at a cost so high that it will be a cash drain for decades to come. Where’s the Tea Party when you need them?

Last year, I wrote about 1 World Trade Center, pointing out that its $3.3 billion price tag made it, by far, the most expensive office building ever constructed in America. At the time, Richard Gladstone, the project manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is in charge of rebuilding ground zero, told me point-blank that despite its costs, the new skyscraper would not affect the commuters who pay the tolls to cross the six bridges and tunnels the agency operates.

But, on Friday, that statement was shown to be — how to put this nicely? — untrue. The Port Authority, with the complicity of Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie, the governors of New York and New Jersey, who oversee the agency, approved a series of toll increases so onerous that by 2015, a typical commuter who uses the George Washington Bridge will have to pay $62.50 a week to get to work.

What has been especially galling has been the cynicism surrounding the efforts to get the toll increases. First, the Port Authority said that unless it could increase the tolls, it would have to “slow or stop” the construction of 1 World Trade Center. Though this scenario was highly unlikely, it got the construction unions duly aroused, as it was intended to do. They began calling in favors among the politicians.

The Port Authority was originally going to propose two increases of $2, spaced a few years apart. But the politicos in both Cuomo’s and Christie’s offices suggested that the agency come forth with a much higher initial toll increase — thus allowing the two governors to look like heroes when they “persuaded” the Port Authority to lower the increases. The governors also railed on about waste and fraud at the Port Authority, while knowing full well the real problem was the fact that $3.3 billion — money that could have been spent on needed infrastructure improvements — was instead diverted to a white elephant at ground zero.

I understand that it’s hard, even for a blunt-talking fiscal conservative like Christie, to openly criticize 1 World Trade Center. For many people, its rebuilding has enormous symbolic importance. George Pataki, the former New York governor, who pushed hardest for the rebuilding, originally named the building Freedom Tower. Recent editorials in the New York tabloids objecting to the toll increases nevertheless tiptoed gingerly around the outrageous costs of 1 World Trade Center.

But despite the shroud of patriotism that its supporters have always cloaked it in, it’s really just a big, fancy office building. An office building with such poor economics that it will soak New Jersey and New York commuters for decades to come. An office building only the government could love.

Lately, supporters of the project have begun saying that its economics have improved. They point to the fact that Condé Nast, the publishing giant, has agreed to be the anchor tenant. What they fail to point out is that Condé Nast’s rent is less than half the break-even cost of the 1 million square feet it will occupy. In other words, a company that publishes high-end magazines aimed at rich people will be getting an enormous government subsidy for the foreseeable future.

And who will be paying for that subsidy? The mailroom attendants who use the Lincoln Tunnel to get to work. The middle-class New Jersey-ites who use the George Washington Bridge. The firefighters and police officers who live in Staten Island. Thus, in the name of 9/11, does New York and New Jersey place another economic burden on the already overburdened middle class. How sad.

The false debate over stimulus: there never was actually a stimulus package.

By Steven Greer, MD  August 16, 2011

The political left and the political right have been debating whether the Keynesian $787 Billion “stimulus package” (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or ARRA) signed by President Obama in February of 2009 was effective. After passage, the unemployment got worse, surpassing the promised 8% maximum, and the country is now heading for a double dip depression. Based on that, the fiscally conservative right claims that ARRA was a failure. The fiscally liberal left, led by people such as Princeton economist Paul Krugman, asserts that the stimulus failed to lower unemployment because it was too small, and that a hypothetical worse economic situation was averted.

Meanwhile, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the U.S. Treasury credit worthiness by one notch (to AA+) due to the deficit and long-term forecasts of an even larger debt-to-GDP ratio. For the first time since ratings began, the U.S. does not have the best possible rating.

The debate over whether more stimulus should be tried has been muted somewhat by the S&P downgrade, but those in scholarly circles still talk about printing more money to spur the economy. The conservatives do not think this would work and point to the supposed failure of “Stimulus 1″.

This is all a debate based on a false premise. There never really was a stimulus package at all. Almost all of the money from the ARRA was essentially hijacked by the states in order to pay for pension benefits, union healthcare costs, and other expenses causing massive state budget deficits. Admittedly, there are little data to support this assertion that the funds were diverted because the government will not release the necessary information, but state and local leaders know. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg acknowledged as much on Meet the Press (click here for the video clip).

The “stimulus” was a complicit handout to the same unions that got President Obama elected. Most of the ARRA money went to pay bloated benefits packages.

Recall, back in early 2009, President Obama was still riding a wave of popularity and momentum. The bad economy was still viewed as George Bush’s fault. Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi were rewarding the victors of the 2008 election and pushing for radical healthcare overhauls while they still had the momentum. The deficit was of little concern.

As 2010 turned into 2011, and the unemployment persisted and worsened, idiotic signs sprouted up along on our highways touting “A shovel ready job made possible by the ARRA”. President Obama made one public relations photo-op stop after another at small business supposedly hiring thanks to the ARRA.

Yet unemployment rose. The bulk of the $787 Billion was confiscated by state governments in the biggest heist in the history of the world, breaking the previous record for theft set by the bank bailout TARP of 2008 (The ARRA would never have been politically feasible if it were not for the George Bush’s, Hank Paulson’s, and Ben Bernanke’s TARP that desensitized us to such large spending numbers). The money was not getting to the companies that could actually hire employees. Almost exclusively, the “jobs created” were state highway or airport jobs. Small businesses “need not apply” for ARRA funding.

It gets worse. The ARRA was not the only “stimulus package”. The lesser known stimulus has come from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in the form of quantitative easing, better known as “QE1″ and “QE2″. The Fed created new electronic money from thin air to purchase long-term Treasuries, thereby reducing the yields and keeping interest rates low.

The net effect of QE1 and QE2 was an artificially inflated inflow of money into the equities markets and “free money” for the Wall Street banks. The banks take the almost-zero-interest money, turn around and loan it out to consumers at much higher rates, making an arbitrage profit of hundreds of billions. The Wall Street lobbyists are pleased and the campaign donations flow back to the elected officials. In turn, laws like Dodd-Frank get watered down and neutered.

QE1 and QE2 also deflated the U.S. dollar. Presumably, President Obama and his economic team believe that a cheap dollar will spur exports and help the economy. Whether that works is debatable amongst economists. One thing that is certain about a cheap dollar, however, is that it directly translates into lower purchasing power for the average consumer. Oil, gasoline, food, cotton, gold and other commodities are priced in U.S. dollars, therefore the prices for those go up as the dollar goes down.

This impact is not captured in the rigged government metric for inflation, the CPI, because oil and food are not part of the equation intentionally. Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Giethner publicly claim that the various stimulus packages and subsequent printing of money have not led to inflation. This is a ruse. The real purchasing power of Americans has diminished as gasoline, food, etc. have spiked.

QE1 and QE2 were nothing other than a welfare stimulus plan for Wall Street banks and union pension funds that hold trillions of dollars in stocks, designed to be so complex as to be incomprehensible to the public and dodge the Tea Party outrage that exists over TARP and the ARRA. GOP Presidential candidate Rick Perry recently called these actions by Ben Bernanke “Almost treasonous”.

If Obama wanted a real stimulus plan that would create real jobs, he could give tax breaks or grants for new hires. He could give grants and loans directly to small businesses. But he has chosen the aforementioned strategies. In other words, a true job stimulus package was never really attempted and debating whether the ARRA worked is a false argument.

Steven Greer is a financial analyst and portfolio manager, and former Wall Street sell side analyst.

Bloomberg The Big Liar?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is solidifying his legacy as “Bloomberg the Liar”. In 2011 alone, he lied (in our opinion) about being AWAL in Bermuda for the big blizzard, lied to us about the severity of “Hurricane” Irene (it was not a hurricane when it hit us and he shut down the city nevertheless), and flat out lied about the causes for his deputy Mayor Goldsmith resigning. This is all on top of his biggest lie, which was to exploit the financial catastrophe to bypass the term limits rule and buy himself a third term.

Do you agree? Will Bloomberg’s legacy be one of “The Big Liar”?

Take our survey here

Rupert Murdoch’s biggest threat is from nepotism and incompetence

July 16, 2011

Much is being discussed in the news about the metastasizing scandals relating to News Corp (NWS). It seems that criminal behavior was the modus operandi within the London tabloid news operations. There is now real concern that U.S. laws were broken, and that this might bring down Rupert Murdoch’s entire empire.

However, not being commented upon is the root cause of these problems for Rupert Murdoch: nepotism and incompetence. Like most large and powerful organizations ranging from Wall Street banks to Big Oil companies, executives rise to the top and are rewarded more for loyalty than competence.

Rupert Murdoch is not the only elderly powerful media mogul who has promoted a female lieutenant to top CEO levels simply because he liked her sexually, or who made one of his sons the heir of an empire regardless of competence.

News Corp is very successful at managing old-media operations such as print and TV. However, News Corp is utterly incompetent with new media. This is the same company that bought the most widely used social networking site, MySpace, for $580 Million and promptly ran it into nothing but a brand names sold for $35 Million. News Corp’s head of “digital”, Jon Miller, still has his job.

Again, loyalty is rewarded over competence.

At a recent media conference in Sun Valley hosted by Allen & Co, the old media Titans finally recognized that they could not hold off the impending paradigm shift toward new media original content delivered via the Internet, bypassing the cash cow cable box deals. Yet News Corp seems to have no significant plans to adopt this technology. None of the News Corp cable or broadcast channels have significant online offerings.

News Corp co-owns Hulu and has plans to sell it. With its $12 Billion in cash, News Corp is not acquiring new media distributors like Netflix.

Jon Miller, the MySpace genius, is still running the digital “new media” operations. His main contribution recently has been the launch of the Apple iPad-ready “Daily”.

While News Corp’s main concern in the near-term is a brewing FBI/SEC/DOJ investigation related to the London tabloids and possibly hacking of 9/11 victim’s phones, Rupert Murdoch’s biggest threat comes from his new partner Steve Jobs over at Apple.

Once Apple launches a 50-inch livingroom TV device that allows one to download content from the Internet over iCloud, Netflix, etc, the older viewers who still hang on to their cable plans will make the final cut. In New York City, Verizon offers a package for phone, TV, and Internet that costs $173 a month with HBO added. For $55 a month, one can get just the Internet, and use Skype for the phone calls and download their TV from Hulu. Moreover, Steve Jobs will have the upper hand in distribution deals of TV and film, just as he has dominated the book publishing and music industry.

Does any TV executive at Fox recognize how imminent this threat is to their cash cow cable and broadcast model? Who’s running the ship at news Corp to take it into this new era of “New media”? This remains to be seen, but all indications are that incompetence will accelerate the demise of News Corp.

Is P90X a mental health risk to congressmen?

June 7, 2011

A growing number of 40-something congressmen are getting into the best shapes of their lives after joining an informal “P90X caucus“, whereby they religiously workout to the instructions of the infomercial P90X program. However, is this detrimental to their careers? Should never-before-in-shape dorky white men receive psychological counseling before getting buff?

Earlier this year, a 46-yo married member of the P90X caucus, Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) was ejected from his congressional seat after being busted posting a shirtless photo on Craigslist (while seeking a prostitute). Now, another 46-yo member of the P90X gang, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), will likely lose his seat, one way or the other, after posting on Twitter his surprisingly in-shape shirtless thorax created by his workout regimen (who knew that below that pencil neck were any muscles greater than a 10-yo girl?).

Politics is often called the Hollywood for ugly people. Now, with better knowledge of diet and exercise, and some “Low-T” prescriptions thrown in, these men are adding the aesthetic aspect to the mix. But this added power seems to be too potent for them, and they snap, risking it all with risky ultra-stupid sexting.

Of course, P90X might not be to blame. The State of New York might be the epidemiological risk factor here, given the past relics of Eliott Spitzer, Eric Massa, David Paterson, etc.

How crass do you look while texting?

May 7, 2011

We were in the production process of filming real people in TriBeCa as they walked while listening to headphones or pushed baby carriages while texting, when we saw that ABC beat us to it (see video).

Texting and constantly checking one’s smartphone during inappropriate times (i.e.  nonstop for many) has become a genuine addiction that likely triggers the same neuropathways of reward as does gambling. Just as people in the 1950′s through 1990′s were forced to watch and smell the crass behavior is cigarette addicts, we are now forced to be insulted at meals, bumped into by text walkers, run over by mothers pushing baby carriages while texting, and so on.

Using a more serious analogy, just as hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered on our highways by drunk drivers prior to MADD movement and stricter state laws, texting while driving is a significant cause of highway mortality.

When Blackerries were invented, they were expensive and meant only for Wall Street executives. They were not meant for teenagers. As the technology evolved, a weapon of mass destruction, on par with prescription pain pills, was unleashed upon America.

As the media covers this addiction more, and social terms are invented to describe the crass and rude behavior, modern society will adopt new rules of etiquette. For the more serious consequences of driving, new laws will curtail those activities.

Bernanke’s missing link of chainmail on his underbelly

April 27, 2011

As investors know, The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, gave a first-of-its-kind press conference today, pulling the curtain away from the Wizard of Oz. Coinciding with the event, the Fed released discouraging updates that downgraded the estimates for first quarter GDP, increased inflation expectations for inflation, and decreased job growth expectations.

All of this is after the $600 Billion spent on “QE2″, which was the perverse purchasing by The Fed of the US treasuries. Most economists and analysts have assessed QE2 as a dismal failure. As a result of the lack of political will, The Fed officially announced that there would be no QE3.

The Fed had hoped to trigger job growth with the various forms of “printing money”. The tradeoffs to these actions are always a triggering of inflation, reduction in the spending power of the American citizen as the dollar depreciates, and rise in commodity prices that are pegged on the USD.

The most important increase in commodity prices has been oil.

Politically, the current economic scenario and series of actions by the Obama administration is starting to have an uncanny similarity to the stagflation (inflation coupled with slow economic growth and unemployment), high gas prices, and foreign policy unrest as the 1970′s and President Carter administration. True inflation, not the bogus number used by the government that back out the costs of food and gasoline, is a now a reality and will get worse.

Chairman Bernanke was asked by the Wall Street Journal what the Fed could do to lower the price of gas. He answered by attributing the rise to supply and demand, unrest in the Middle East and Africa, and to Wall Street speculators manipulating the futures markets.  He made no mention of the powerful role of the Fed’s quantitative easing and low value of the dollar, when by definition, a low dollar will mean a higher price for oil.

If President Obama’s own policy actions, and those of his appointed members of the Fed, were to be implicated in directly causing inflation and the high price of gas, that would be a serious blow to his re-election chances. Therefore, one might explain Ben Bernanke’s peculiar answer leaving out the powerful role of the Fed in oil and gas prices, seen in the video below, to politics. As gas prices get higher, the Fed’s role in causing it will be Bernanke’s weak spot: his missing link of chainmail on his underbelly.

(The video can be viewed in full screen 1080i HD)

April 28, 2011

One day later, the White House was on the defensive denying the relationship between the low dollar, casued by the Fed, and the high gas prices.

The NFL needs to take a year off

Op-Ed February 7, 2011

By most accounts, Super Bowl 45 (XLV) was a big disappointment to fans and viewers, despite the actual game and Fox show being good. Due to incompetent planning, more than a thousand fans were kicked out of their seats because the fire marshal deemed the temporary seats to be unsafe. To start off the game, a Snooki-looking Christina Aguilera botched the National Anthem. The halftime show was diminished by audio problems, and the sideshow of it all, the TV commercials, were not received well.

This Super Bowl took place amidst contentious negotiations between the players’ union and the owners. The economic depression forced severe cutbacks in corporate spending on luxury box seats, and overall attendance has been down in the NFL. The reduced revenue now has the owners proposing measures that would cannibalize the game and further erode the integrity of the sport.

The sport of football has risen to become the most popular sport in America because, unlike the NBA and MLB, each game actually means something. When the NFL expanded to 16 regular season games and a longer playoff series, the game was tarnished. The owners now want to go even further and expand to 18 games.

Star players, particularly running backs, are wearing out sooner. Helmet-to-helmet collisions and increased violence have been ignored and viewed as ways to increase viewership. Rampant use of steroids and HGH is seemingly tolerated.

2011 could be the year in which the negatives of NFL have reached a critical mass and viewers could tune out. If the players and owners cannot come to an agreements, perhaps a year off is best for the game.

Is the NCAA corrupt?

March 31, 2011

The best journalists in all of sports, in our opinion, are Bryant Gumble, Bernie Goldberg, and the others on the cast of HBO’s Real Sports. They just aired a special on corruption in big time college football and basketball. Star players are routinely given cash, and many say the NCAA and coaches look the other way.

The NCAA, the universities, and the coaches feed off of the billions in revenue made possible from television rights and sports apparel deals. The players that drive it all get paid a few thousand under the table. They are banned from any sort of outside financial deal with local business. Also, players cannot hold part-time jobs or sell any personal memorabilia.

As the revenue grows, each punishment handed out to the small players becomes more hypocritical. For example, during the 2010-2011 football season, the NCAA declined to punish Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton. Doing so would have taken away lucrative money from Auburn, tarnished a memorable year good for the entire sport, and hurt a good individual.

Where does the NCAA go from here? Currently, money talks. The top teams in the NCAA are significant sources of tax revenue and jobs for the small towns such as Auburn, Ann Arbor, Lincoln, etc. If Wall Street can seemingly function without real reform as too-big-to-fail entities after bringing down the world economy, can we expect reform at the NCAA?

Ivy League Athletics Commissioner Jeff Orleans and Billy Packer made the most poignant comments. The NCAA 2010 revenue was at least $760 Million, yet it pays no taxes masquerading as a non-profit. Likewise, the cash to players goes untaxed. If lawsuits challenge that, it will be a whole different ballgame for the NCAA.

How Wall Street banks have enabled socialism throughout American history

Op-Ed January 20, 2011

As the new congress begins, led by the Republican Party in the House, the traditional GOP ranks are now ramping up the rhetoric opposing the recently enacted financial reforms (FinReg) that will threaten Wall Street[1] earnings. Those same groups opposed to Wall Street FinReg are also the ones who fear the most a creeping wave of socialism in The United States. Ironically, one could well argue that Wall Street has been the single biggest enabler of the socialist agenda throughout American history.

To review recent events, the new financial reform law passed last year is just a template. The Wall Street Journal wrote, “Now, the legislation hands off to 10 regulatory agencies the discretion to write hundreds of new rules governing finance. Rather than the bill itself, it will be this process—accompanied by a lobbying blitz from banks—that will determine the precise contours of this new landscape, how strict the new regulations will be and whether they succeed in their purpose. The decisions will be made by officials from new agencies, obscure agencies and, in some cases, agencies like the Federal Reserve that faced criticism in the run-up to the crisis… Republicans said the bill could jeopardize the recovery by constraining credit and crimping the banking industry, and chided the expansion of government power it envisions.”

Why might this GOP lobbying on behalf of Wall Street banks be helping the advance of socialism? To answer that, one needs to review and compare the two periods of American history in which socialism expanded significantly and recognize that they occurred after collapses in the stock markets caused by corrupt Wall Street practices.

After the stock market crash of 1929, President Hoover lost the election to Franklin Roosevelt who then inherited a long period of high unemployment and declining home prices in The Great (global) Depression. This created the political window of opportunity for his New Deal, Social Security, and the expansion of the Federal Government. The Great Crash was caused by many factors including an overleveraged mass of common investors in the stock markets, fraudulent foreign loans, insider trading, and mispricing of stocks by exchanges.

With eerie similarity to the Great Crash and Great Depression, the stock market crash of 2008 and subsequent global depression was caused by similar factors, such as overleveraged homeowners, many of whom were in fraudulent mortgages, combined with unregulated derivatives trading of mortgage-backed securities by too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks and traders. As with Roosevelt, the current depression led to the election of a new president promising radical change to ease the suffering of the common folk. So far, we have seen the biggest expansion in government spending in the history of the planet. Along with it, the progressive agenda was advanced with the ACA healthcare reform law, government takeover of corporations, and a nearly-trillion-dollar “Stimulus” package give-away to the states, etc.

Critics of this essay will assert that FinReg is mostly idealistic ineffective new burdensome regulation that will be quickly made obsolete by crafty Wall Street executives. That is likely correct, but aside from the point.

Make no mistake. FinReg is being opposed by lobbyists because it has already dampened earnings from the Wall Street banks. Goldman Sachs reported a 53% drop in Q4 earnings mostly due to lower trading revenue as the firm anticipated the “Volcker rule” of FinReg that ends proprietary trading.

The special interests have no concern for the well-being of the Nation and whether another financial crisis will usher in more expansion of government and social entitlements. They are short-sighted and paid based on near-term legislative results.

It is an undeniable fact that wealthy special interests, such as Wall Street, fund powerful lobbying efforts. The opposition to financial reform by those lobbyists and GOP has nothing to do with conservative values that allowed the Republicans to regain the House. Rather, it is a classic shameless special interest move that will ensure a future financial bubble, which will surely burst, and allow yet another moment of crisis to usher in more socialism, as the best case scenario. China might take over next time.

The NFL needs to take a year off

Op-Ed February 7, 2011

By most accounts, Super Bowl 45 (XLV) was a big disappointment to fans and viewers, despite the actual game being good. Due to incompetent planning, more than a thousand fans were kicked out of their seats because the fire marshal deemed the temporary seats to be unsafe. To start off the game, a Snooki-looking Christina Aguilera botched the National Anthem. The halftime show was diminished by audio problems, and the sideshow of it all, the TV commercials, were not received well.

This Super Bowl took place amidst contentious negotiations between the players’ union and the owners. The economic depression forced severe cutbacks in corporate spending on luxury box seats, and overall attendance has been down in the NFL. The reduced revenue now has the owners proposing measures that would cannibalize the game and further erode the integrity of the sport.

The sport of football has risen to become the most popular sport in America because, unlike the NBA and MLB, each game actually means something. When the NFL expanded to 16 regular season games and a longer playoff series, the game was tarnished. The owners now want to go even further and expand to 18 games.

Star players, particularly running backs, are wearing out sooner. Helmet-to-helmet collisions and increased violence have been ignored and viewed as ways to increase viewership. Rampant use of steroids and HGH is seemingly tolerated.

2011 could be the year in which the negatives of NFL have reached a critical mass and viewers could tune out. If the players and owners cannot come to an agreements, perhaps a year off is best for the game.

Why the Mid-term elections could destroy the GOP in 2012

Opinion October 16, 2010

It is a foregone conclusion that the Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives this November. However, will this be exactly what President Obama needs, and indeed has orchestrated, to be re-elected in 2012?

It was only four years ago that the American voters fired the GOP, and the duo of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid led what would become a completely Democrat-controlled congress and executive branch. The GOP had become an out-of-touch political party catering to the special interests of Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Pharma, etc. Independents turned away from the Republican Party in droves and formed the Tea Party movement.

The GOP, along with plenty of help from Democrats, allowed the subprime mortgage bubble to balloon into the largest global financial catastrophe ever. The Republican Bush administration also led the country into the longest series of wars in history, costing trillions, as the deficit reached record levels. What has the GOP done since 2006, and the election of President Obama in 2008, to learn from their mistakes and recruit better leaders into the party? Are they ready to lead the country again so soon?

The top leadership of the GOP still does not seem to have gotten the message. RNC chairman Michael Steele has made a series of gaffes on par with Joe Biden. There are no popular stars in the party with novel ideas. Very few Americans have ever heard of soon-to-be Speaker of the House Boehner, and the Tea Party has all of the name recognition with Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, etc.

There are many indications that the new Republicans, soon to be control of the House, will squander this political goodwill faster than Lindsay Lohan violates probation. Numerous wackos with little experience at public speaking are stumbling over each other to make headlines, ala Mr. Paladino in New York and Christie O’Donnell in Delaware. The late night talk shows will graciously welcome all of this. Jay Leno is already poking fun at the lame appearances of Senate leader Mitch McConnell (see video below).

President Obama was accused a few months ago of throwing Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats under the bus when he mentioned that the GOP could take control of the House. Indeed, Rahm Emanuel might very well have been genius enough to have had Pelosi and Reid do the dirty work of passing Obama-care knowing that the subsequent rise of the GOP in 2010 would help the President get elected in 2012. If the economy continues to stall, the housing market continues to fester, and unstable European debt is not addressed before 2012, having a GOP-run congress to blame is President Obama’s only hope for re-election.  Conversely, if all of the problems improve, then the GOP could take credit.

Did Rick Sanchez make another anti-Semitic comment on ABC?

October 8, 2010

Today, on ABC’s Good Morning America show, fired CNN anchor Rick Sanchez made a highly-coached, insincere, mea culpa about his comments that Jews run the media and comedian Jon Stewart is a bigot. However, did he work in another anti-Semitic comment as he was apologizing about anti-Semitic comments? At the 7:00 mark of this video, Mr. Sanchez makes what seems to be a thinly veiled reference to a Jewish “wealthy lady” in Boca Raton who refused him drinking water as a kid. You decide.

We have seen just a few seconds of Mr. Sanchez over the years. His appearance on GMA demonstrated body language of a man in love with himself and making a perfunctory apology for his anti-Semitic comments. As Fox’s Bill O’Reilly pointed out, Mr. Sanchez accuses people of bigotry quite often, but these latest comments were likely just a good excuse to fire a man with poor ratings and bad journalism skills.

Comparing an Islamic mosque by ground zero to a porn shop?

Update: August 15, 2010

ABC Nightly News used the same distorted logic as did the New York Times back in May and made the moral equivalence of pornography shops and strip clubs many blocks away from Ground Zero to a proposed Islamic mosque. Presumably, ABC did this to make the point that Ground Zero is not the “hallowed ground” that mosque protestors claim. Therefore, to oppose the proposed mosque based on the grounds that Ground Zero is special is hypocritical. Read below our original commentary on the flaws of that logic.

Op-Ed May 28, 2010

In what could be one of the poorest uses of logic in recent mainstream media history, the New York Times featured a column by Clyde Haberman supporting the construction of a five-story Islamic mosque near “Ground Zero” (The name for the former World Trade Center sites demolished after the Islamic terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 that killed thousands). In his column, Mr. Haberman compares the insult of an Islamic site of possible future anti-American teaching to a strip club and off-track betting shop that are already nearby ground zero.

He wrote, “No one is known to have protested the fact that three blocks from ground zero, on Murray Street off West Broadway, there is a strip joint. It prefers to call itself a gentlemen’s club. A man stood on the street corner the other day handing out free passes to willing gentlemen.”

Huh? How does a passive purveyor of porn compare to militant murdering terrorists? Pornography and incubators of mass murder are not morally equivalent.

The organizers of this unfunded mosque idea have tried to soften it up by referring to it as a cultural center. Will the mosque really be this multi-religious “cultural center” that it claims to be? Will women be allowed inside without being covered up with various forms of head shrouds? Will the acts on 9/11 and radical Islam be condemned? Of course not.

Mr. Haberman does not seem to be willing to admit publicly that the terrorists who attacked us on September 11, 2001, were all brainwashed by Islamic radicals in extremist mosques. Perhaps he is pandering to the mayor who supports the mosque. The NY Times would benefit from an acquisition by Bloomberg News.

The authorities will undoubtedly keep close tabs on this “Ground Zero mosque” if it is ever built, but critics are justified in raising concern. In contrast, no adult porn shop or off-track betting site ever produced a jihad of America-hating murderers.

How to eliminate head injury in football

Op-Ed August 21, 2010

Serious head injury in American football is commonplace and has received national attention within the last two years. The New York Giants quarterback, Eli Manning, is sitting out a few games due to head injury. Last season, star quarterback for the Florida Gators and Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow, suffered yet another concussion that was witnessed by millions of sports fans, as did Super Bowl champ Ben Roethlisberger and many others.

Bryant Gumbel of HBO’s Real Sports was an import factor in bringing this problem to the mainstream. As a result of his show and subsequent coverage in the press, the NFL was pressured to make changes. There is now a mandatory time-off for players suffering concussion, and new posters have been placed in locker rooms. The concern is extending to off-the-field injuries as well. In 2009, then Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien gave head injury more national attention with his on-air concussion.

A recent study commissioned by the NFL found an astonishingly greater prevalence of Alzheimer’s-like memory loss in ex-NFL players. Young athletes in high school or lower grades are even more vulnerable to permanent brain damage after the initial concussion than adults. In addition, there is now new credible evidence from the same scientists at Boston University that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is caused by head injury.

Concussions are one of the dirty secrets of football. What can be done to make America’s favorite sport safer?

The cause of the vast majority of concussions in football is the lack of enforcement of the rules dictating proper tackling and blocking. The helmet is currently used as the primary ramming tool, particularly at the higher levels, when in fact the facemask and helmet should theoretically never be used in contact. It is against the rules for a defensive player to dip his head and tackle headfirst with his helmet. On the offense, a proper block should use the arms and hands as the initial point of contact, and runners should not dip down and ram headfirst. In reality, however, virtually every block on the interior line and every running play uses the facemask and helmet as battering rams.

It would be quite feasible to enforce the existing rules of football that dictate the helmet should not be used as a weapon and the quality of play as seen by the spectator would not be diminished. Running backs should run with their facemasks up at all times. If a running back were to dip his head and spear forward, it should be a 15-yard penalty and loss of down. Likewise, offensive and defensive linemen should be penalized if their helmets clash.

The ground collisions with helmeted heads that cause injury cannot be easily prevented. However, a simple enforcement of the blocking, tackling, and running rules should eliminate a significant portion of the head (and spine) injuries in football. Also, preventing the premature return of head injured players will help reduce further injury as well.

Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers can lay out some the most vicious and entertaining blocks in all of football just by using his shoulder pads. Using the helmet as a weapon is cheating, unnecessary, and should be banned.

The pretentious way to pronounce Muslim

Op-Ed August 14, 2010

The old media TV news is infamous for using pretentious odd pronunciations of common words or new words of the day. Some examples include the numerous ways to botch “Qatar” as Cutter, etc, pronouncing Pakistan as “Pawkeestan” and Taliban as “Tollyban”.

The basic word Muslim is now being changed. Watch ABC Nightly News pronounce it multiple ways in the same story.