AllupInyourBiz

It is a little bit disconcerting when the largest financial stakeholder in the US government goes on the air and expresses concern about it’s debtor’s ability to repay. I mean, what would happen if China called all of their notes due, today? Would they foreclose on our government? Would Jiabao show up at the Whitehouse with a couple of marshalls, and be like “alight Bam, hand over the keys. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” These are all things that would have been important to contemplate before making rash budgetary decisions. This is one huge issue where I hope that I never get to say “I told you so.”

[photo: Diego Azubel/European Pressphoto Agency]

Ok, we all know that Karl Rove is not the most neutral guy out there. But his comments today in the WSJ article, entitled “Presidential Bait-and-Switch,” were for the most part, spot on. Rove points out the fact the Obama’s victory was based largely on his promise to implement “change.” Granted, it has not been very long, since the new president has been in office. But, Rove points out two very large areas where Obama has only given us more of the same. If the economy and fiscal policy of the federal government was not such a prima facie issue right now, no one would probably even care. Unfortunately for Obama, fiscal policy is under extreme scrutiny, and is the forum that he needs to use, to make good on all of his promises of “change.” The two huge discrepancies in what Obama promised versus what he is giving us are, Obama’s measures that have increased (instead of the promised decreasing of) the deficit, and Obama’s failure to reform earmarking practices. Rove observes:

Mr. Obama didn’t run promising larger deficits — but now is offering record-setting ones. He’ll add $4.9 trillion before his term ends and $7.4 trillion if given a second, doubling the national debt in five years and tripling it in 10. Mr. Obama’s deficits will be much larger than he admits because he relies on rosy economic assumptions and gimmicks that mask spending and debt (like assuming popular new programs he supports won’t be renewed).

Nor did Mr. Obama run promising more earmarks. Instead, he said he’d reform the earmark culture and “scour the federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts.” Now he wants to wave through a $410 billion omnibus spending bill with about 8,500 earmarks. This is on top of the $787 billion stimulus bill signed into law two weeks ago.

Obama justifies it by blaming it on the previous administration, calling it “last year’s business.” I’m sorry Obama, I’m not buying it. The follies of the Bush administration are not preventing you from making good on your promise to curb earmarking. If you are going to try to legislate the economy, at least do it in the way that you promised you would.

[Photo by David Duprey (NY Times)]

In the wake of the Turboprop crash in Buffalo, NY, on February 12, scrutiny is being applied to speed at which the FAA adopts changes suggested by the National Transportation Safety Board. A NY Times article concludes that the FAA, due to its entrenchment in bureaucracy, often times takes years to implement changes suggested by the NTSB. As an example of this, the Times cites the recommendation given by the NTSB to the FAA after an airliner exploded over Long Island in 1996, noting that recommendation has yet to be put into practice. According to the NY Times, “The safety board says there currently are 429 outstanding recommendations, of which 146 are more than five years old.”

Shepard Fairey is back at it, producing artwork for a “good cause.” The image to the left, is for a World Wildlife Foundation campaign to get everyone to turn out their lights for an hour on March 28th. Lets hope that Shep doesn’t get in any trouble for this one. He has been going through some rough times lately, including being arrested last Sunday. In addition, he is being sued by the Associated Press, for infringing copyright.

The iconic “Hope” image that was created and distributed by Fairey, during the Obama campaign, was tracked back to an Associated Press photo taken by Mannie Garcia, on assignment  by AP. The AP is now suing Fairey, claiming copyright infringement. Can you image the can of worms that is liable to open? Anyone who has done a stencil, can now owe royalties to the photographer who produced the picture it was taken from? Is the guy who took the Andre the Giant photo that Fairey modeled his “Obey” campaign on, now going to come out of the woodwork demanding cash?

Fairey’s lawyers argue that there is no infringement, under the “fair use” doctrine. I feel kind of bad for the guy. I hope that he doesn’t lose this one. Can you imagine the kind of damages that he would have to pay? That “Hope” piece was EVERYWHERE. I hope that if he does lose, that the court at least takes into account the fact that the profit generated from the piece, was primarily used to print and distribute more copies.

Here is the AP photo and the Fairey piece, side by side. You be the judge.

Being a person who has accidentally and otherwise started over with the Itunes library, on multiple occasions, I could not be happier about Apple’s decision to drop the DRM. If you have ever synced an Ipod to a new computer or library, you have probably seen the prompt, asking you if you would like to transfer your purchased songs. If you indicate the affirmative, then you have to put in your user information, hope that you haven’t already put the music on more than the allowed number of computers, etc. This is all because of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) that Apple has been so Nazi-like about embedding into Itunes purchases. Apple announced Tuesday that they will no longer be using DRM to control the use of millions of titles available on Itunes. Apple announced that by the end of the year, the entire Itunes catalogue should be free of DRM.

I will admit that this year, as in the 2004-2005 season, my ire toward the BCS system is heavily biased because my team is the one getting screwed, again. Anyone who watched the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, or this Year’s Sugar Bowl, knows what I’m talking about. What is with the mentality that the SEC and Pac-10 are the only real conferences in College Football? Just because in other conferences, people have interests outside of college football, does not mean that the schools cannot produce a quality football team. This post could be a voluminous discourse about how bad the BCS system sucks. I won’t beat a dead horse stating the obvious. But the inadequacy of the BCS system is more than evident in years like this one. It is pretty apparent this year, that the voters got it wrong. Honestly, who thought that it would be a good idea to have a system where the “national champion” is crowned based on votes, rather than record, and strength of schedule? What a joke. It isn’t very hard to assume that Barry Switzer’s ignorant statements during the Sugar Bowl’s Pre-game show represent the sentiments of a large cross section of the voters (primarily those who hail from the south). For those who didn’t catch it. Switzer claimed that the best player on Utah’s team would not have even qualified as an Alabama recruit. I guess we can just assume that Switzer was referring to the fact that the best players on Utah’s team don’t have a taste for possum, and like to use toilets that flush, over outhouses. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the final rankings turn out. Unfortunately, it will be determined by bias and speculation, since it is pretty clear that the best two teams are not the ones playing for the NCAA “championship.”

Yes, yes, there has been a lot going on, and I have definitely been neglecting to complain about it. So much commentary, so little time. Well, I have at least taken the time to upgrade the allupinyour.biz database software. I have also modernized it’s appearance. I am going to try to get back on track with the commentary, soon.

Former Governor of MA, and GOP figure in the recent election, submitted an OP Ed piece for the NY Times this week. The article addressed the floundering domestic automotive industry. Romney is a self made independently wealthy individual (Bain Capital) whose father was a Auto industry mogul before becoming a political in Michigan. You would think that these things would qualify Romney to speak on the topic of solving the problems of domestic auto producers. Indeed, Romney is qualified. But Romney’s article “let Detroit go bankrupt” does not delve into any sort of complex strategy based on his expertise as a Private Equity genius. Instead, Romney merely asserts that decisions should be made using common sense. Hmmm, imagine that. Romney astutely points out that “Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.” Romney also suggests that bailing out the floundering auto makers will only prolong the inevitable. I couldn’t agree more.

Just as I thought I was going to have to come up with my own idea as to why the DJIA was tanking today, Bloomberg came through for me.