My kids' Dad

Evolving Excellence on the mortgage crisis

Evolving Excellence just posted a great piece on the causes behind the current mortgage crisis:

Washington is as deeply implicated in this meltdown as anyone on Wall Street or at Countrywide Financial. Going back decades, but especially in the past 15 or so years, our politicians have promoted housing and easy credit with a variety of subsidies and policies that helped to create and feed the mania.

The Community Reinvestment Act. This 1977 law compels banks to make loans to poor borrowers who often cannot repay them. Banks that failed to make enough of these loans were often held hostage by activists when they next sought some regulatory approval.

These are the firms that bought the increasingly questionable mortgages originated by Angelo Mozilo's Countrywide and others. Even as the bubble was popping, they dived into pools of subprime and Alt-A ("liar") loans to meet Congressional demand to finance "affordable" housing. And they were both the cause and beneficiary of the great interest-group army that lobbied for ever more housing subsidies.

Fan and Fred's patrons on Capitol Hill didn't care about the risks inherent in their combined trillion-dollar-plus mortgage portfolios, so long as they helped meet political goals on housing. Even after taxpayers have had to pick up a bailout tab that may grow as large as $200 billion, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank still won't back a reduction in their mortgage portfolios.

Meanwhile, the least regulated firms -- hedge funds and private-equity companies -- have had the fewest problems, or have folded up their mistakes with the least amount of trauma. All of this reaffirms the historical truth that regulators almost always discover financial excesses only after the fact.

For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.

If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed. But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

The cognizant from both parties, and the President, could have made a much bigger stink about the upcoming crisis, but they didn't.  That's a crisis in leadership, from both parties.

So now that the government is 'fixing' our housing and financial crisis's we should look forward to them fixing our health care system, right?

Look Who's Irrational Now

Interesting research about the effect of religion upon superstition:

Wall Street Journal HOUSES OF WORSHIP section SEPTEMBER 19, 2008

By MOLLIE ZIEGLER HEMINGWAY
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html excerpt:

"You can't be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you're drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god," comedian and atheist Bill Maher said earlier this year on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien."

On the "Saturday Night Live" season debut last week, homeschooling families were portrayed as fundamentalists with bad haircuts who fear biology. Actor Matt Damon recently disparaged Sarah Palin by referring to a transparently fake email that claimed she believed that dinosaurs were Satan's lizards. And according to prominent atheists like Richard Dawkins, traditional religious belief is "dangerously irrational." From Hollywood to the academy, nonbelievers are convinced that a decline in traditional religious belief would lead to a smarter, more scientifically literate and even more civilized populace.

The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us.

On Oct. 3, Mr. Maher debuts "Religulous," his documentary that attacks religious belief. He talks to Hasidic scholars, Jews for Jesus, Muslims, polygamists, Satanists, creationists, and even Rael -- prophet of the Raelians -- before telling viewers: "The plain fact is religion must die for man to live."

But it turns out that the late-night comic is no icon of rationality himself. In fact, he is a fervent advocate of pseudoscience. The night before his performance on Conan O'Brien, Mr. Maher told David Letterman -- a quintuple bypass survivor -- to stop taking the pills that his doctor had prescribed for him. He proudly stated that he didn't accept Western medicine. On his HBO show in 2005, Mr. Maher said: "I don't believe in vaccination. . . . Another theory that I think is flawed, that we go by the Louis Pasteur [germ] theory." He has told CNN's Larry King that he won't take aspirin because he believes it is lethal and that he doesn't even believe the Salk vaccine eradicated polio.

Anti-religionists such as Mr. Maher bring to mind the assertion of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown character that all atheists, secularists, humanists and rationalists are susceptible to superstition: "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense, and can't see things as they are.

For a good link on the irrationality of atheism see this website.

Obsession the Movie

Just saw one of the best films about the threat of radical Islam. Called Obsession it is cogent and compelling. It paints a grim picture and explains why so many would refuse to accept an image which upsets their world of peace and ignorance.

One of the best moments of the film is how they show Neville Chamberlain signing a treaty with Hitler. The film provides ample evidence that the peace movements of today are just as misguided. We are right to desire peace and a world where love is the currency of life. Unfortunately the facts and my own years of experience and learning dash this hope. For those who may think I am being a pessimist I would ask you what you advice you would give the Jewish children who were told that the gas chambers were only showers. Truly without God's help we are in a worse predicament.

Despite this there is still an answer to the violence that is intended upon us. That answer is to grow in knowledge and develop strong relationships with our Muslim friends and neighbors. Building fear and suspicion will play into the extremists hands. There is a counter movement within Islam rejecting violence and terror and we need to understand and support it. So first we need to learn and this film is a good first step.

The official summary:

Obsession is a must see documentary about Radical Islam’s war against the west. Using images from Arab TV, rarely seen in the West, Obsession reveals an ‘insider's view' of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination.  With the help of experts, including first-hand accounts from a former PLO terrorist, a Nazi youth commander, and the daughter of a martyred guerilla leader, the film shows, clearly, that the threat is real. A peaceful religion is being hijacked by a dangerous foe, who seeks to destroy the shared values we stand for.  The world should be very concerned.

A Good Reason to Not Vote for Obama

What would you think of a law that forced you to accept a new regime on the basis of collecting signatures over an undefined period until the proponents had a simply majority? And not only that but the proponents would be able top openly see who had signed and who was holding out? The idea of secret ballots has been a key to our democracy since its inception. Although the Democratic Party has had problems dealing with this whole concept lately. But this is what the legislation co-sponsored by Barack Obama would do for unions. It is one of the few areas where Mr. Obama is unequivocal since he is a sponsor. It is deceptively titled "The Employee Free Choice Act" but widely known as the old tactic known as Card Check. Unions get to collect signatures until they reach a simple majority and then force union rule upon all of the employees. It is obvious how this leads to intimidation of employees. A secret vote is fair and pressuring employees to sign a card that leads to a union is not.

If Mr. Obama is elected expect to see certain businesses fall victim to the old practice from the days of the back room deals of union bosses. At a time when our businesses need to be more competitive and free this is the last thing anyone needs. If this is an example of the kind of regressive change Mr. Obama represents count me out.

Detroit Grand Prix

Spent two great days at the Detroit Grand Prix. We had a corral for our smart cars and took a lap around the track last night.

Steely Dan Chicago 2008 Think Fast Tour

Last Wednesday while at the conference in Vermont (post to follow soon) a colleague at work sent out an email asking if anyone wanted two tickets to see Steely Dan at the Chicago Theatre. She knew she could resell them through something like StubHub but she felt that she should just give them to someone. I was checking email everyday until Wednesday when my PC would bluescreen everytime I connected with the VPN to work so I gave up. When I saw her email on Friday I figured it was too late but asked her anyway. She graciously gave me the tickets but had printed them on a single sheet of paper (we try to save paper using duplex as a default).

On Saturday I set off to Chicago about a three hour drive (1/2 tank of gas or 4 gallons in the smart car). I was able to park right next to the theatre and saw that the show was sold out. I did not want the extra ticket to go to waste and I knew there would be fans desperate to get a chance to see the concert. As I was walking through the crowd which had not yet been allowed into the theatre one fellow asked if anyone had a spare ticket. I told him I did but it was obvious he was looking to make some money by reselling tickets and did not actually want to see the show. Since I could not separate my single ticket from the extra ticket he then found someone he knew was looking for a single seat. That's how I met Bob. Bob gave the fellow a few bucks for his connecting us. I didn't ask for any money for the extra ticket and Bob was grateful and offered to buy me some drinks and food. Bob and I hit it off enjoying great conversation and then the show. We both felt that these sorts of things do not happen by coincidence but that there was reason perhaps like that "paying it forward effect".  The show was phenomenal and my discussions with Bob inspiring (his encouragement for me to take up the guitar may soon take hold).

Today while shopping in the local grocery store a couple teens saw me with my new Steely Dan T-shirt and exclaimed, 'Steely Dan rules!', I can't agree with them more.  It is also heartening knowing that it's not just the older folks who appreciate the band.

Steely Dan

Enjoying the start of the concert it is phenomenal.

- Posted from my iPhone -

New blogger in town

It turns out one of my neighbors is blogging everything sports. Good luck, Jack!

Find him over at The Sports Kid.

Hot August Night

Neil Diamond was hot this August night as he performed in downtown Grand Rapids.

He still works hard at pleasing the crowd and his message received by a full house.

Doing good using ROI

Very rarely do we hear about the economics of doing good. Using Return on Investment is a classic way to measure this and that is exactly what Bjorn Lomborg recommends in today's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece called How to Get the Biggest Bang for 10 Billion Bucks.

For every dollar spent you get:

• 30 cents stopping average terrorism
• 90 cents preventing climate change
• $9 preventing a catastrophic terrorist event
• $11 researching clean alternative energy sources
• $16 or $17 reducing hunger and improving nutrition to poor nations
• $20 combating malaria and other communicable diseases
• $25 combating heart disease

To join in the discussion go to the link at the end of the article.