let's talk about the unions a minute

Many [Europeans] have come to regard early retirement, free public healthcare and generous unemployment benefits as fundamental rights. They stopped asking, a long time ago, how these things were paid for. It is this sense of entitlement that makes reform so very difficult.

Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

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a few months ago i read a really good novel by dennis lehane [who, far as i can tell, seems to only write really good novels] called the given day, which dealt with, among other things, the events leading up to the boston police strike of 1919.

and lemme tellya, by the time he was finished making his case--poor bastards had no collective bargaining rights, worked 90 hours a week with no overtime, got no health or death benefits, paid for their own uniforms, had been screwed outta raise after raise and risked life and limb every day for less than fuckin' streetcar operators made--hell, my twenty-first century reactionary, conservative ass was suddenly all like

[and what happened when the dedicated, overworked, starving policemen of boston finally couldn't take it anymore, collectively rose up and walked out on the job?  looting and rioting ensued, the striking policemen were blamed, fired and made pariahs, and then their raw, unqualified replacements were suddenly given all the benefits their predecessors had sacrificed everything for--i.e., the perfect cynical mkf ending.

but i digress.]

fast-forward 90 years:

In the past decade, [Los Angeles Unified School District] officials spent $3.5 million trying to fire just seven teachers for poor classroom performance — and only four were fired, during legal struggles that wore on, on average, for five years each. Two of the three others were paid large settlements, and one was reinstated. The average cost of each battle is $500,000.

source:  LA Weekly, in a recent story about the california teachers union


what the fuck happened between 1919 and now?  simple:  the pendulum swung too far from one labor extreme to the other, and now it's way past time for a correction.

problem is, our president and current congress don't see it that way, and, even as europe collapses under its own weight, seem determined to take us down their same path to entitlement hell.

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when after nine years of [non-union] employment at my former job i was suddenly laid off a month ago, i was given three months' severance (which i considered generous), the remainder of that month's healthcare coverage, the balance of my 401(k) and a kiss on the cheek goodbye--that's all.

when a scant two weeks later i was suddenly offered a similar [non-union] position for significantly less than i had formerly been making, i woulda been outraged and insulted had i not immediately understood--being non-union and living in recession central [i.e., california] as i do--how damn lucky i was.

i rapidly adjusted to this new reality, accepted the [non-union] job, took the pay cut, and whistle every day on my way to my new work.

tell me, why is it too much to ask of goddam union members--with all the job-security, retirement and healthcare benefits they'll enjoy unto perpetuity courtesy of non-union taxpaying suckers like me--to do the same?

splain me, noblesavage--i'm waiting.

a couple interesting charts

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if you're anything like me, you know how risky and uncertain playing the market can be--how, with the infinite number of variables constantly in play, it's impossible to pitch a perfect game for more than a few days in a row, right?

yeah well, you obviously don't work for the big boys.

consider for a moment the following chart from page 121 of goldman sach's 10-Q for first quarter 2010.

the columns to the left of the red arrow [which i've added for your viewing convenience] represent negative (i.e., money-losing) days for goldman during the 63 trading days of the quarter; whereas the columns to the right of the red arrow...

h/t zerohedge

in case you don't believe your eyes, allow me to break it down for you:

• on seven of those 63 days, goldman made between $25 and $50 million;
• on five of those 63 days, goldman made between $50 and $75 million;
• on 16 of those 63 days, goldman made between $75 and $100 million; and
• on 35 of those 63 days, goldman made $100 million or more.

and on how many days in Q1 '10, with all the market's ups and downs, did goldman lose money?  why, not a single one.  you wanna calculate the random statistical probability of 63 straight days of high-volume high profitability in a row, go ahead, but you're gonna need a calculator with decimal places into the quadrillions.

jpmorgan's chart in their 10-Q for the same period is much more efficient--they don't even bother wasting space on empty negative columns (and the pretty purple's nice, too):

you get it, right?  the american stock and bond markets have devolved into nothing more than a rigged, no-risk playground for the big bankers funded by as much zero-interest money from the fed as they can grab, and they're not even bothering to pretend to have bad days anymore--they know this is the endgame, and they're taking everything off the table they can before the casino goes dark, aided and abetted in their brazen, bulletproof arrogance by the full faith and credit of the government of the united states of america.

anybody out there willing to put down their remotes long enough to grab a torch and a pitchfork?  nah, didn't think so.

burning down the house

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remember back in the fall of 2008 when things were really scary-bad here and it looked like we were headed for a meltdown and all it took was a couple trillion dollars' worth of TARP money and other fiscal nonsense to provide the world with almost two years' worth of phony assurance that the US was on the road to recovery?

well, when things finally got equally scary-bad for europe this past week and germany was forced to resort to the same desperate ploy, instead of the breathing room i'm sure they thought they were buying, the false euphoria only lasted for a day.  apparently, everybody's finally gotten wise.

if you're unclear about what all this means, here's the best assessment i've seen of the european bailout fiasco, from one of the smartest, most prescient (and profitable) hedge fund managers out there, in a letter he wrote today to his fund's investors.  a sample quote:

Germany weakened itself as it has now abandoned the core bargain of the Euro (which was that they would never be responsible for another country’s debt) by opting to be the largest guarantor of a new loan program that essentially makes European countries jointly and severally liable for emergency funds for the worst fiscal offenders in the EU. It has begun a process of ceding its fiscal sovereignty to the over-indulgent countries.

what's worse than falling on your sword and committing national suicide?  doing it for nothing, that's what.

read the whole letter--it's short, sweet and to-the-point.

ode to the sweetest lil' truck there ever was

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as i detailed her for the last time today--ran my soapy sponge lovingly over every battle scar i'd carelessly inflicted upon her once-pristine sheetmetal, eradicated the last traces of spilled coke, melted chocolate and dropped ketchup-drenched french fries from her interior, thought about every angry, tire-screeching acceleration around every slow-moving asshole who'd ever dared impede my path--i contemplated the flawless, doglike devotion and pure, simple pleasure this humble little truck has given me in return.

i've never been careful when it comes to my vehicles, and god knows i was harder on this one than most; to this day, i can't remember where that first ding came from--i just looked up one day and there it was

and god, was i pissed.  but damage to a new car is like murder--once you get past that first one, it gets easier.

the next one, i halfway remember [i.e., i know i did it, i just don't remember the details]:

the one after that i remember clearly, if for no other reason than because it was a two-parter:  first, inflicting the initial minor damage by backing into a bollard at the 7-11 at olympic and la cienega

and then, furious at myself, peeling away and in the process of so doing, burning a significant amount of rubber off the rear tires whilst simultaneously tearing the bumper half off the damn truck in order to get free [and yes, alcohol may or may not have been involved].

the last one--from trying to park up under a tree and getting a little too close--might be due to simple carelessness, or maybe just my innate need for symmetry

whatever; outta all the vehicles i've ever owned in my semi-long life--and i'm talking a wide variety, including any number of high-end german ubermachines--this humble little '05 tacoma prerunner has unquestionably been the best of the bunch.

after almost six years and 70,000 miles of hard use [and with the exception of the minor damage outlined above], damn thing's still good as new:  tight and solid, engine still strong, paint glossy as ever, interior still perfect, never a single mechanical problem, ever.

of course it never even for a moment occurred to me to have any of the above shit fixed; on the contrary, coming as i do from a part of the country where people with "nice" pickups are dismissed as pussies, i consider each blemish a badge of honor.

hopefully her new owner will feel the same way.