Obama stimulus net job creation is zero-San Francisco Federal Reserve study, August 10, 2010

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12/5/10, "Net job impact of stimulus Zero, from San Francisco Federal Reserve," American Thinker, Richard Baehr

"A study by Daniel J. Wilson of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, suggests that the net job creation from the $814 billion stimulus bill passed in February, 2009, was zero by August 2010. In the first year, the stimulus "saved or created" 2 million jobs (not 4 million as repeatedly claimed by the Administration), but

• this number proved to be short lived, paying for temporary jobs, at a

• very high cost of $400,000 per job "saved or created."

By August, 2010, the impact of the stimulus on net job creation had disappeared. This is an astounding result, which destroys the Paul Krugman argument that the economy would be so much better right now, if only Congress had approved much more spending in February 2009. Double the initial spending, double the number of temporary jobs, with likely the same net result by this point in time, or a trivial number of "permanent jobs created .

• In fact, the unemployment rate is at a substantially higher percentage rate today at 9.8% than when the stimulus bill was passed.

The E21 team concludes

• "The results suggest that though the program did result in 2 million jobs "created or saved" by March 2010, net job creation was statistically indistinguishable from zero by August of this year. Taken at face value, this would suggest that the stimulus program (with an overall cost of $814 billion) worked only to generate temporary jobs at a cost of over $400,000 per worker.
  

Even if the stimulus had in fact generated this level of employment as a durable outcome, it would still have been an extremely expensive way to generate employment.

Interestingly, federal assistance to state Medicaid programs appears to have decreased local and state government employment. One possibility is that requirements to maintain full Medicaid benefits in order to receive federal aid proved sufficiently expensive that state governments pushed though additional rounds of layoffs in non-health related areas."...

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WikiLeaks Obama's Abu Graib-US diplomats to be shuffled

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Obama will soon control all US medical records which someone only half as smart as Bradley Manning will hack in no time.

12/6/10, "US forced to shake up embassies around the world after WikiLeaks revelations," Independent UK, Adams and Sengupta

"Among those whose private thoughts have been embarrassingly revealed is Gene Cretz, the US ambassador to Libya who wrote a now-notorious cable to Washington in 2009 noting that that the country's leader

• Muammar Gaddafi never travels without his "voluptuous blonde" Ukranian nurse.

America's current envoy to the United Nations has also been criticised following the revelation that Hillary Clinton instructed them to procure credit card and frequent flyer numbers, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, passwords and other data

• from foreign diplomats and top UN officials, including the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The difficulty regarding the future of America's diplomatic service is the fact that the authors of many of the most important emails in the WikiLeaks tranche are among their most-experienced senior staff, and

• will therefore be tough, if not impossible, to replace.
  

None of the countries that were affected by the WikiLeaks cables had requested the withdrawal of any American diplomatic staff.

"That's another part of the tragedy of this," a senior US national-security official told The Daily Beast website, which yesterday detailed the extent of the crisis on the ground and claimed that the reassignment of affected diplomats

• had already been planned and would take place in the coming months.

"We're going to have to pull out some of our best people – the diplomats who best represented the United States and were the most thoughtful in their analysis – because they dared to report back the truth about the nations in which they serve."

Among the foreign governments to have already expressed outrage about the contents of some of the files are those of supposed

• allies like France, Italy and Turkey, whose Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
  

threatened to sue the former US Ambassador Eric Edelman over a memo he wrote suggesting that Erdogan had hidden wealth in Swiss bank accounts.

• Old enemies of the US are also upset. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was described in one memo as playing Robin to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Batman. Cuba and Venezuela were branded an "Axis of Mischief" in a document released at the weekend.

When the first cables were made public, the White House condemned the release saying it "put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the US for assistance in promoting democracy and open government".

Although there have yet to be formal moves to oust the diplomats responsible for the most awkward memos so far revealed,

• foreign governments are expected to soon begin "PNG-ing" US diplomats, a practice which involves
  
• demanding the removal of an official by branding them "persona non grata".

"We think it's only a matter of time, though," one State Department official told The Daily Beast. Diplomatic sources told The Independent that there no immediate plans to move staff because that would suggest they had done something wrong and damage confidence.

Tensions with Arab states

The latest leaked memos reveal that Hillary Clinton criticised the Saudi government, saying the country was the world's largest source of funds

for Islamist militant groups but that its politicians were reluctant to stem the flow of money.

• In the memo, dated December 2009, she told US diplomats that "Riyadh has taken only limited action" to interrupt the flow of money to the Taliban and groups launching attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
  

She added that Hamas raised millions in Saudi, often from Hajj and Ramadan pilgrims. The note also highlighted Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE as sources of militant money

• and singled Qatar out as "the worst in the region" for not co-operating with Washington."

via Drudge Report

UN hailed Calderon for emotional tree planting program which he ignored as 90% of trees died, wasting Mexican citizen money

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12/2/10, "Cancun climate change summit: one lesson not to learn from Calderon," UK Guardian, Tuckman

"Pragmatism, we are told, is the watchword for the United Nations' talks in Cancún where progress on issues such as how to stop the world's forests disappearing would allow hope to resurface that an overall deal on climate change is possible at some time in the future.

• But in Mexico the debate over how best to help efforts to deal with deforestation is much more than a stepping stone to something else.
  

It is a major issue that affects huge swathes of a country and hundreds of communities...

The groups are in Cancún trying to plant the idea that the UN scheme supposed to

• provide funding for developing countries to stop deforestation known as Redd –

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation – should focus on sustainable community forest management. ...

Mexico also provides a rather less flattering lesson for the world than the government delegation at the Cancún talks is keen to publicise.

• It is just too embarrassing, and not just for the hosts,
  
• but for the UN as well.

When Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 he promised to be the greenest ever Mexican president. And one of the ways he set out to prove his commitment was by planting trees. Lots of trees. He started with a pine,

• planted with his own bare hands alongside his young son and a speech
  

announcing that there would be 250m more where that came from before the season was out. By the end of the year the government was claiming that it had not only met the target, but would be repeating the effort in 2008. It was a feat that led the United Nations Environment Programme to heap praise and prizes on Calderon.

• The problem was that by that time the original presidential tree, tendered with reverential care throughout the year, was one of the few left standing.
  

The vast majority were dying or already dead. After months ignoring exposés in the local media, the official auditor came out with a report in March 2009 that

• concluded only 10% of the trees had survived.
  

Worse, the massive reforestation effort had taken funds away from supporting the community-based management schemes.

Though it never fully accepted the farce into which the massive reforestation programme had fallen, Calderon's government did appoint a new head of the national forestry commission who reassigned resources back to what works. Small communities looking after their own trees collectively."...

• Reference: Countries believe simply not cutting down trees will get them (US) cash. Nigeria for example:

"Indications are that Nigeria will, at the end of the day, be allocated some funds – $3 million to $4 million – to prepare a REDD Readiness Plan (RPP) within two years. National REDD+ Programme Coordinator, Salisu Dahiru, said: “The RPP shows the plan of action and how it will be implemented, cost and timelines as well as the role of agencies. It indicates the country’s readiness to participate in the REDD carbon market, which officially commences in 2013.”

• He adds that Nigeria will rake in “millions of dollars” from sold REDD credits when the market becomes fully operational. “In simple terms,

it is payment for keeping your forest standing.”"...

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Citibank sues Ground Zero Mosque developer for $100K

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12/3/10, "Citibank sues Ground Zero Mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal for $100,000," NY Daily News, by J. Fanelli

• "The developer of the so-called Ground Zero mosque owes nearly $100,000 in overdue credit, a new suit charges.

In a complaint filed in Manhattan court, Citibank charges Sharif El-Gamal and his real estate firm, Soho Properties, have balked at repaying $99,489 borrowed from a business credit account in the past year.

El-Gamal said the default was a standard way to negotiate better credit rates and that the matter would be resolved.

"In every industry at this time, major business leaders are working with their financial institutions to restructure their debt in order to take advantage of historically low interest rates," he said in a statement. "It is important to note that Soho Properties manages over $300 million worth of property."

El-Gamal has been hounded by other creditors. In October, Valley National Bank sued El-Gamal and Soho Properties for $95,778 plus interest after they

• defaulted on a loan in 2009, the suit charges.

In August, a Manhattan landlord sued El-Gamal and Soho Properties for $39,000 in back rent. The suit was later withdrawn, and the matter was resolved out of court."

• 11/22/10, "Ground Zero Mosque group seeks another back room deal, $5 million from NYC 9-11 Redevelopment Fund (for which it's likely unqualified"

via Weasel Zippers

Japan opts out of Kyoto protocol, Cancun climate summit in disarray-UK Guardian

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12/1/10, "Cancun climate change summit: Japan refuses to extend Kyoto protocol," Guardian UK, John Vidal

"Talks threatened with breakdown after forthright Japanese refusal to extend Kyoto emissions commitments...

• 'The forthrightness of the statement took people by surprise,' said one British official Link to this video

The delicately balanced global climate talks in Cancún suffered a serious setback last night when Japan categorically stated its opposition to extending the Kyoto protocol – the binding international treaty that commits most of the world's richest countries to making emission cuts.

• The Kyoto protocol was adopted in Japan in 1997 by major emitting countries, who committed themselves to cut emissions by an average 5% on 1990 figures by 2012.

However the US congress refused to ratify it and remains outside the protocol.

The brief statement, made by Jun Arima, an official in the government's economics trade and industry department, in an open session,

• was the strongest yet made against the protocol by one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

He said: "Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances."

• The move came out of the blue for other delegations at the conference.

"For Japan to come out with a statement like that at the beginning of the talks is significant," said one British official. "The forthrightness of the statement took people by surprise."

If it proves to be a new, formal position rather than a negotiating tactic, it could provoke a walk-out by some developing countries and threaten a breakdown in the talks. Last night diplomats were urgently trying to clarify the position.

The move provoked alarm among the G77, the grouping of developing countries who regard the Kyoto protocol as the world's only binding agreement on climate change cuts.

• Japan gave no reasons for making its brief statement on the second day of the talks, but diplomats said last night that it represented a hardening of its line.
  

"Japan has stated before that it wants only one legal instrument and that it would be

• unfair to continue the protocol," said one official who did not wish to be named.

Japan, which last night declined to clarify its position, has said in the past that it would not reject a new legally-binding overall agreement, but is concerned that it would be penalised if it signed up to cuts

• while other countries such as India and China were not legally bound to make similar cuts.

Britain and other countries, recognising the totemic significance of Kyoto for developing countries, have said that they would be prepared to agree to a second commitment period – as long as other countries also did so.

"This is a very bad start to the negotiations.

The danger is that other countries may want to follow Japan's example and run away from binding commitments to cut emissions," said Poul Erik Laurisden, a spokesman with the aid agency Care International."

comments to story at WUWT:

1. "R Taylor says:

   December 2, 2010 at 8:33 am

   To what delicate balance does the Grauniad refer? Whether or not the delegates can maintain a shred of dignity as the farce unfolds?
2. Vince Causey says:

   December 2, 2010 at 8:33 am

   Kyoto has achieved precisely nothing. Even if you were a rabid believer in AGW catastrophism, it is obvious that there is absolutely no point in continuing. The EU will continue to offset their emissions to enable business as usual. Japan has merely stated the obvious."

via Climate Depot

Immelt got gelt, GE raked in $16 billion from Federal Reserve

• Monies received from Dec. 1, 2007, through July 21, 2010.

12/1/10, "Fed names recipients of $3.3 trillion in crisis aid," Bloomberg, Torres and Lanman

"The data detail the breadth of central bank support that reached beyond banks to companies

• such as General Electric Co., which accessed a Fed program 12 times for a total of $16 billion

in commercial paper. Lawmakers demanded disclosure,

• over the Fed’s initial objections,

as U.S. central bankers pushed beyond their traditional role of backstopping banks. The Fed bought short-term IOUs from corporations, risky assets from Bear Stearns and

• more than $1 trillion in U.S. housing debt. ...

At Goldman Sachs Group Inc....borrowing from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility peaked at $24 billion in October 2008....

Congress excluded one Fed lending program from disclosure, the discount window, which is the subject of a 2008 lawsuit filed by Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News, against the central bank. A group of banks is appealing to the Supreme Court over lower-court decisions ordering the Fed to identify loan recipients.

• The program peaked at $110.7 billion in October 2008. ...

“We see this not as the end of a process but really a significant step forward in opening

• the veil of secrecy that exists in one of the most powerful agencies in government,” Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont Independent
  

who wrote the provision on Fed disclosure, said to reporters Nov. 17.

Request Rebuffed

Sanders said he was motivated to use legislation to force the Fed to reveal borrowers after Bernanke rebuffed his request to identify the firms.

• “Given the size of these commitments, it is incomprehensible that the American people have not received specific details about them,” Sanders said in a letter to Bernanke on Feb. 4, 2009.

“The Federal Reserve does not release specific information regarding the borrowings of individual institutions from our lending facilities,” Bernanke said in a reply to Sanders. “The approach is completely consistent with the long-standing practice of central banks.”

A year after his 2009 correspondence with Sanders, Bernanke said in House Financial Services Committee testimony the Fed would agree to reveal the names of borrowers of emergency facilities with a “sufficiently long” lag.

• Once again, he said that the confidentiality of the discount window “must be maintained.”

Today’s information relates to aid from Dec. 1, 2007, through July 21, 2010, when President Barack Obama signed Dodd- Frank into law. The act also requires the Fed,

• after a two-year delay, to identify firms that, following the law’s passage,
  

borrow through its discount window and participate in its purchases or sales of assets such as mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries."

ADDENDUM: Harley-Davidson got Fed cash too.

• Harley will be building bikes in India.
• Harley calls for concessions from US workers in Kansas City.

Race for last House seat in NY 1 could drag on for weeks with double residency ballot issues

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11/30/10, "Last House race could drag on for weeks," Politico, A. Isenstadt

"Nearly one month after Election Day, one final undecided House race appears likely to stretch on for days - if not weeks - longer.

As the campaigns for New York Rep. Tim Bishop and Republican challenger Randy Altschuler headed to a Suffolk County courtroom on Tuesday for what an Altschuler spokesman called an "informational" meeting regarding about

• 2,000 challenged ballots that will decide the outcome of the race. A bipartisan election commission is expected to meet next week to pore over the contested votes.
  

As of Tuesday evening, Bishop held a 221-vote lead over Altschuler. The Republican picked up 13 votes earlier in the day as local election officials counted 71 military votes and both campaigns agreed to withdraw challenges on 258 ballots. ...

• Rob Ryan, an Altschuler spokesman, said the Republican was not close to conceding the race and predicted that the outcome of the contest would not be known for weeks."

There's going to be some serious, serious challenges going on because of residency issues," said Ryan, pointing to a Monday Fox News investigation that suggested several

• cases of voter registration irregularities in the race."...

11/29/10, "Voting Twice? Ballot questions in congressional race," Fox News

"A Fox News Voter Fraud Unit review of approximately 438 of the absentee ballot voters, who also maintain mailing addresses in New York City, reveals that

• 48 have double registrations.
  

They voted by absentee ballot in Suffolk County, but are also listed as current "active" voters on the New York City rolls. Being registered in two separate jurisdictions is illegal and is a felony in New York State...

• The overwhelming majority of the Long Island voters, who are also on the New York City voter rolls, appear to be
  

• wealthy Manhattanites who own second-homes in the posh resort towns

• of East Hampton, Southampton, Montauk, Amagansett and Shelter Island.

Many of them voted in Manhattan as recently as last November in New York City's mayoral election, and in the presidential election of 2008."...

• 11/9, Alec Baldwin has said if the Republican wins, he'll run against him in 2012.

Amazing the Republicans aren't rolling over.

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US home prices decline worse 'than expected,' BBC

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11/30/10, "US house prices in fresh decline," BBC

"US house prices fell again in September and at a quicker-than-expected rate, a survey has suggested.

• Prices were down 0.8% from the previous month on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to the Case-Shiller index of 20 major US cities.

The data - which is actually an average of house prices during July, August and September - was lower than expected.

• A tax credit for homebuyers expired in April, leading to a steep drop in home sales over the summer....

"This tells the post-tax credit relapse in housing is substantial and it's deeper and

• more persistent than I had expected," said Richard Dekaser, of economic analysts Woodley Park Research.

"...On balance, the housing market is very weak and it's not rebounding as quickly as one had hoped for."

• But Mr Dekaser added that he expected home sales to pick up in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The survey found that Cleveland recorded the largest decline in house prices, which fell by 3% from a month earlier.

• Washington and Las Vegas were the only metropolitan areas to experience gains in house prices.

Despite the month-on-month fall, the index also showed that house prices were up 0.6% from the same point last year."...

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