Month: April 2009

Iraq disappears into the ether.

A little thing, but interesting:

For a tense hour on Thursday, Mr. Sarkozy and President Hu Jintao of China were going back and forth about tax havens. In a large conference room at the Excel Center, surrounded by 18 other world leaders, the two men sniped at each other, according to officials in the room. Mr. Sarkozy wanted the big communiqué produced by the Group of 20 to endorse naming and shaming global tax havens, maybe even including Hong Kong and Macao, which are under China’s sovereignty. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Hu was having none of it.

He appeared angry that Mr. Sarkozy was effectively accusing China of lax regulation, and that the French leader was asking China to endorse sanctions issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of wealthy nations that Beijing has yet to join.

According to accounts provided by White House officials and corroborated by European and other officials also in the room, Mr. Obama escorted both men, one at a time, to a corner of the room, to judge the dispute. How about replacing the word “recognize,” Mr. Obama suggested, with the word “note?” The result: “The era of banking secrecy is over,” the final communiqué said. “We note that the O.E.C.D. has today published a list of countries assessed by the Global Forum against the international standard for exchange of tax information.” Hong Kong and Macao did not appear on the list.

"Now we've met, will you please keep in touch?" – her Majesty the Queen, to Michelle Obama.

The usual suspects are crowing about an alleged breach of protocol – although as Ed Morrissey points out, the Queen started it by putting her hand around Michelle's back affectionately. The Times of London explains:

A breach of protocol? Hardly. Buckingham Palace was very relaxed today about the incident, and attitudes there have changed significantly since the days of Mr Keating and his lese-majesty. And no, they don’t issue instructions to people about not touching the Queen. “This was a mutual and spontaneous display of affection and appreciation between The Queen and Michelle Obama,” said a Palace spokeswoman.

What they don't quite understand is how Michelle Obama's informality and realness was a huge hit, even among the royals. London was agog. This is an America Britons actually relate to in the 21st century. Her best moment came at a London school for girls. I'll let the Telegraph explain the rest:

Fighting tears at one point, she described her audience as "the future leaders of Great Britain and this world". She said: "Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. "For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would standing here as the first African-American First Lady. "I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of." She spoke of the importance of love, strong values, education and a "whole lotta hard work" as she described her childhood, and said: "You too, with these values, can control your own destiny, you too can pave the way. "I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. "I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity. "Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude. "We are counting on you, we are counting on every single one of you to be the best that you can be." Mrs Obama provoked hysteria at the school as she arrived, as more than 300 onlookers lined the street nearby.

Yes, the Telegraph is the Tory paper. Not all conservatives look at the Obamas and feel revulsion.

(Photo: Students from the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language School in London hug US First Lady Michelle Obama during a visit to the school on April 2, 2009. Michelle Obama dared touch Queen Elizabeth II, but the US first lady has made such an impact in Britain that she was spared the media savaging that has gone with previous breaches of royal protocol. The pair met at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. The British monarch put her arm around the waist of President's Barack Obama's wife. The much taller first lady responded by putting an arm around the queen. By Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty.)

The econiverse is skeptical of today’s mark-to-market decision and rally. James Kwak:

Today the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted – by one vote – to relax accounting standards for certain types of securities, giving banks greater discretion in determining what price to carry them at on their balance sheets. The new rules were sought by the American Bankers Association, and not surprisingly will allow banks to increase their reported profits and strengthen their balance sheets by allowing them to increase the reported values of their toxic assets…I don’t know any of the back-room dealing, but it seems like the banking industry is taking advantage of the confusion to push through a change it wants, because it will make it easier for banks to massage their balance sheets and harder for investors to see what is really going on.

A reader adds:

The traders just got a big rock of crack. This is called a bear market bubble, and it’s going to do damage. The fact that stocks still went up significantly in spite of rather horrifying unemployment numbers coming out the same day tells you: a big rock of crack.

Justin Fox:

 One can never know for sure why the stock market does what it does on a daily basis—it could just be excitement about those Sizzling G-20 Wives—but the fact that financial stocks are up more than the overall market would seem to indicate that there’s something to the FASB-did-it explanation.

There is of course something very weird about this. Investors seem to be saying: Banks now have permission to lie to us more, so let’s bid up their stock prices! Then again, if investors are that dumb, maybe it makes sense for accountants to pay less attention to market prices in valuing the assets on banks’ books.

Paul Kedrosky:

Unbelievable the amount of spurious silliness being spewed about mark-to-market today. People  have their facts wrong — most financial services mark a small percentage of their assets to market today; GE Capital is at 2%  — and we are giving banks a pass in terms of how they report losses and value goofy assets.

Anatole Kaletsky is chipper:

The biggest surprise was the decision to support struggling developing countries with a package of new export credits and up to $750 billion of new money for the IMF. The increase was bigger than the $500 billion expected — and even more surprisingly, the G20 leaders agreed to a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights, a form of international money that can essentially be printed by the IMF.

CNBC celebrates 8,000.

She deserves real kudos for asking Colin Powell serious questions about his complicity in the Bush-Cheney torture regime. Too bad he ducked every one.

"When I'm sitting in a room making a record, I'm pretty much the master of my own universe. Then I step out the door: Forget it. If you sat like the Unabomber and just wrote a manifesto, it would be this completely self-contained psychotic document. But if you go to the store or a bar or to a friend's house, things are going to happen that are going to shift your life and take it off the line you thought you were on. That's the beauty of the ride. That's what we're here for — to learn to roll with that ride," – Bob Mould. 

Plumer has details on the massive draft energy bill:

…we still don't know how much of the money raised through the permit auctions will be rebated back to consumers, so as to cushion the blow of higher fossil-fuel prices. That gets a big "TBD" in the draft bill. It's also interesting that Waxman and Markey decided to make this a big omnibus measure—with cap and trade plus a renewable-power requirement for utilities plus no-brainer efficiency incentives plus low-carbon transportation fuel standards, plus… There's an ongoing argument about whether Congress should try to split these items up, and pass them incrementally, or lump them all together and put them up for one big do-or-die vote. I go back and forth on what the best political strategy for Democrats is here, but it's something to note. Pelosi wants the whole thing passed through the House by July. But everyone knows the Senate's where the real gladiatorial combat occurs.