Author: p6admin

Did Senator Schumer cause the failure of IndyMac back?

The bank watchdog is blasting Sentaor Schumer for the IndyMac bank failure, more or less.

The immediate cause of the closing was a deposit run that began and continued after the public release of a June 26 letter to the OTS and the FDIC from Senator Charles Schumer of New York. The letter expressed concerns about IndyMac’s viability. In the following 11 business days, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion from their accounts.

“This institution failed today due to a liquidity crisis,” OTS Director John Reich said. “Although this institution was already in distress, I am troubled by any interference in the regulatory process.”

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Lady Thatcher to be given a state funeral

No, she’s not dead yet (I thought the same thing). It’s just that the planning stages for her funeral are underway and according to officials it will be a formal state funeral, not seen since the funeral of Winston Churchill. Thatcher, now 82, is said to be in good health but people are getting ready. From the article (so you don’t have to go to Wikipedia):

In the 19th century, four state funerals were granted to “commoners” – Lord Nelson after his death at Trafalgar, the Duke of Wellington, a prime minister as well as victor over Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo, Lord Palmerston and William Gladstone, both popular inhabitants of No 10.

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Volcano forces evacuation of Alaskan island.

A remote island in Alaska had to be evacuated by sea after a the volcano Okmok Caldera erupted, sending a plume of ash and smoke nearly 30,000 feet into the air as this Coast Guard photo shows. More info from the Alaska Volcano Observatory .

A fishing vessel had to rescue 10 people from a remote farm after a Coast Guard rescue helicopter had to put down in Dutch Harbor due to ash and smoke in the air.

The Anchorage Newspaper is also covering this story.

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Streetcars in DC coming soon, again, maybe, we hope…

The on again off again love affair with streetcars in DC is back on again, I think.

The Washington Post is reporting that streetcars should be rolling along a stretch of unused railroad track in Anacostia shortly, serving about 1,400 people a day at a cost of $45 million, which is about $32,000 per passenger. The cars have already been built (well, a few at least) but are stuck in the Czech Republic as the tracks are just not ready yet.

There are plenty of areas that could use streetcars in DC, though Anacostia does not immediately jump to mind as one of them. Making it an option for people to get ‘out of their cars’ should be the goal of most public transit programs, not merely taking people from one form of public transit (buses) and placing them in another (expensive street cars).

But that’s another story.

(and yes, that is a picture of a DC street car in the Czech Republic)

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Yahoo board tells Carl Ichan to get stuffed

The BBC and other sources are reporting on the ‘angry rejection’ of the most recent Microsoft / Carl Ichan takeover bid.

“It is ludicrous to think that our board would accept such a proposal,”

Yahoo said in a statement.

“This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!’s stockholders in mind,” Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo, said.

It has been a long drawn out affair, but the idea that you ‘MUST’ sell your company simply because it’s Microsoft offering the money has never quite resonated with me. I don’t get it.

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Tapie wins a long court battle for Adidas money

The wheels of justice move slowly, but when it involves a major name like Adidas and a French political/sports/business celebrity it moves even slower. Thirteen years to be exact.

Bernard Tapie bought Adidas many years ago with two loans from banks. But he had problems with the payments and the banks supposedly found a buyer for him, but in reality the bank bought back the company and resold for double the price they offered Tapie. He sued for unfair dealings, and the case moved up and down through the French judicial system until it was settled yesterday with a judgement against the banks. A judgement of over 230 million euros.

Unfortunately, after debts and legal fees, he stands to gain only 30 million euros. C’est la vie.

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Are iPhone launches the new Woodstocks, Burning Man?

One of the odder things that’s been occurring with iPhone launches (and to a lesser extent, new versions of OSX) is the almost ’social’ aspects of the event where techies and even some non-techies show up and make a day (and a night) of the wait. If you read stories on blogs and in the newspapers you’ll find dozens of examples of people showing up who don’t even want to buy one, but just want to be part of the experience.

Reminds me of the time I bought the original OSX operating system from the Apple store in Soho, New York. The line stretch around the block in two directions, and for hours we had fashion models and ‘beautiful people’ heading to clubs and parties that would come up to us and ask questions. “What club are you in line for? What restaurant has this wait?” They were quite fearful that they were missing out on the new new thing. Their fears were alleviated when we had to reply ‘we’re waiting in line for new computer software.’ They all sort of smirked and went on their way.

One guy said ‘you should wait in line for Microsoft because I have stock in them.’ At the time, APPL was trading for about $20. Split adjusted it is now well over $400. Guess he should have noticed and listened to the mob.

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French reject Muslim women's citizenship–says 'total submission' to husband incompatible with French values

Expect to hear more about this case.

France has denied citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears a burqa on the grounds that her “radical” practice of Islam is incompatible with basic French values such as equality of the sexes. The case yesterday reopened the debate about Islam in France, and how the secular republic reconciles itself with the freedom of religion guaranteed by the French constitution. The woman, known as Faiza M, is 32, married to a French national and lives east of Paris. She has lived in France since 2000, speaks good French and has three children born in France. Social services reports said she lived in “total submission” to her husband. Her application for French nationality was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of “insufficient assimilation” into France. She appealed, invoking the French constitutional right to religious freedom and saying that she had never sought to challenge the fundamental values of France. But last month the Council of State, France’s highest administrative body, upheld the ruling.
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