List of Archived Posts
2008 Newsgroup Postings (07/15 - 07/30)
- OS X Finder windows vs terminal window weirdness
- dollar coins
- Republican accomplishments and Hoover
- CLIs and GUIs
- dollar coins
- Republican accomplishments and Hoover
- dollar coins
- Schneier
- Calling Out
- dollar coins
- Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
- IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
- CLIs and GUIs
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
- IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- dollar coins
- SEC bans illegal activity then permits it
- squirrels
- dollar coins
- squirrels
- squirrels
- dollar coins
- squirrels
- Calling Out
- Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
- Calling Out
- dollar coins
- IBM 029 keypunch -- 0-8-2 overpunch -- what hex code results?
- IBM 029 keypunch -- 0-8-2 overpunch -- what hex code results?
- SEC bans illegal activity then permits it
- recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
- recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
- IBM 029 keypunch -- 0-8-2 overpunch -- what hex code results?
- The PKC-only application security model
- The PKC-only application security model
- update on old (GM) competitiveness thread
- The PKC-only application security model
- recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
- recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
- The PKC-only application security model
- recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
- IBM 029 keypunch -- 0-8-2 overpunch -- what hex code results?
- IBM 029 keypunch -- 0-8-2 overpunch -- what hex code results?
- Mulally motors on at Ford
- Happy 20th Birthday, AS/400
- recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
- Historian predicts the end of 'science superpowers'
- Intel: an expensive many-core future is ahead of us
- Intel: an expensive many-core future is ahead of us
- Crippleware: hardware examples
- Crippleware: hardware examples
- Crippleware: hardware examples
- Intel: an expensive many-core future is ahead of us
- Historian predicts the end of 'science superpowers'
- Crippleware: hardware examples
- Intel: an expensive many-core future is ahead of us
- Cormpany sponsored insurance
- Transactional Memory
- Cormpany sponsored insurance
- Top 10 vulnerabilities for service orientated architecture?
- Disk drive improvements
- Disk drive improvements
- Disk drive improvements
- Secure64 Develops First Automated DNSSEC Signing Application to Help Secure the Internet Worldwide
- Larrabee details: Yes, it is based on the Pentium. :-)
- How to calculate effective page fault service time?
- IBM-MAIN longevity
- Telecommuniting and teleworking
- IBM-MAIN longevity
- Disk drive improvements
- IBM-MAIN longevity
OS X Finder windows vs terminal window weirdness
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: OS X Finder windows vs terminal window weirdness
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:08:04 -0400
Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> writes:
A period only on a line meant "quit the editor" on various BBS software,
so I suspect it derives from some other editor (I can't remember.
smtp mail transfer protocol uses a line with only a period in col. 1
as ending the mail ... from my rfc index
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/rfcidx2.htm#821
821 -
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, Postel J., 1982/08/01 (58pp)
(.txt=120432) (STD-10) (Obsoleted by 2821) (Obsoletes 788) (Refs 793,
822)
... clicking on the ".txt=" field retrieves the actual RFC
from rfc 821
SMTP indicates the end of the mail data by sending a line containing
only a period. A transparency procedure is used to prevent this from
interfering with the user's text (see Section 4.5.2).
... snip ...
(unix) line-mode mail command also uses a (sole) period in col. 1
as indicating the end of mail (being composed)
from mail man page:
dot The binary option dot causes mail to interpret a period alone
on a line as the terminator of a message you are sending.
... snip ...
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:44:48 -0400
sidd <sidd@situ.com> quotes Senator Bunning:
"And for this unprecedented intervention in the markets what
assurances do we get that it will not happen again? None. We are in
the process of passing a stronger regulator for the G.S.E.s, and that
is important, but it allows them to continue in the current form. If
they really do fail, should we let them go back to what they were
doing before?"
past posts asking isn't some of this province of FTC?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#71 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#84 dollar coins
somewhat related to new rules about lending practices for lower quality
loans ... in the congressional testimony today they announced that they
are using emergency powers to require verification for freddie/fannie
short-sales ... and that they would be investigating apparent cases of
(naked) short-sales followed by false rumors designed to drive stock
price down.
in the busines news show afterwards ... there were comments that there
are already several regulations that make naked short-sales illegal
... and this apparently now makes it possibly triply illegal (isn't
there some line from animal house? ... something about triple
suspension?)
there seems to be activity between the federal reserve and the treasury
attempting to use new powers to enforce things that already are illegal
under numerous existing regulations ... which were just not being
enforced.
finally shows up on some web pages:
SEC Can't Bear Naked Short Sellers
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/07/15/bernanke-cox-update-markets-econ-cx_md_0715markets27.html
SEC Puts Its Foot Down
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/07/15/lehman-wamu-genentech-markets-cx_er_0715transvideo3update.html
there have been some number of business shows about lots of practices
that go on everyday (in violation of regulations), everybody knows it is
going on and some people wonder why nobody is doing anything about it.
yesterday, they were commenting that the GSEs actually had fairly low
activity during the height of subprime activity (2002-2006) and therefor
should have little suprime loans on their books. the counter was that
they had possibly had bought some number of the triple-A rated (toxic)
CDOs ... which creates a lot of uncertainty about their net worth.
the other news was possibly related to conjecture that citigroup will
eventually win the subprime write-down sweepstakes ... that citigroup
has something like $2trillion on the books ... but there is also
something like $1.1trillion being held off-balance.
Citigroup's $1.1 trillion of mysterious assets shadows earnings:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a1liVM3tG3aI&refer=home
from above:
'You will rapidly realize what a farce these off-balance-sheet things
are,' said Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. analyst Richard X. Bove. 'You could
pick up a lot of loan losses with the stuff you're putting back on.'
... snip ...
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
Republican accomplishments and Hoover
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Republican accomplishments and Hoover
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:32:56 -0400
Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> writes:
And what's sad is, US workers are capable of building good cars. US
engineers are capable of designing better cars. It's the plague of
Harvard Business School managers and short-term Wall Street horizons
that have prevented better US cars from being built. If we could load
the managers onto that first space ship along with the hairdressers and
telephone sanitizers* and ship them out, we'd be in far better shape.
there are US workers that are capable of building good cars.
the story was that in the '80s, when some of the foreign companies
started building manufacturing plants in the us (one of the
side-effects of import quotas) ... they had to require two-year
(junior) college degrees, in order to get people with high school
education.
past posts on the subject:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#61 DEC's Hudson fab
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#63 DEC's Hudson fab
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#33 SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#31 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#33 EZPass: Yes, Big Brother IS Watching You!
past posts on related C4 effort to improve the process
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000c.html#56 Does the word "mainframe" still have a meaning?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#41 Reason Japanese cars are assembled in the US (was Re: American bigotry)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#43 Reason Japanese cars are assembled in the US (was Re: American bigotry)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#61 TGV in the USA?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#20 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#49 The Pankian Metaphor (redux)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#54 DCSS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#50 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#29 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#34 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#52 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#13 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#33 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#31 IBM obsoleting mainframe hardware
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#4 Horrid thought about Politics, President Bush, and Democrats
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#84 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#85 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#22 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#68 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#30 VMware signs deal to embed software in HP servers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#31 IBM announced z10 ..why so fast...any problem on z 9
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#50 Toyota's Value Innovation: The Art of Tension
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#65 Is a military model of leadership adequate to any company, as far as it based most on authority and discipline?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#31 Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
CLIs and GUIs
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CLIs and GUIs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:02:01 -0400
Peter_Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
Speaking of Script, someone mentioned Waterloo Script. I don't know
if it had SGML support, but the free version doesn't have support for
page printers, I believe, line printers only, which makes it fairly
useless (probably why it's now free.)
Did/Does Waterloo have an advanced version with page-printer support,
or did they just drop it altogether?
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#86 CLIs and GUIs
i had dropped the "l" in the above reference for waterloo script
page ...
http://csg.uwaterloo.ca/sdtp/watscr.html
which says it was reprinted from june 6, 1990 implementation guide
and lists script documentation for following:
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet Printer; HP LaserJet Series III Printer; Imagen
IP/II Printer; IBM 3820 Printer; PostScript Printer; QMS Lasergrafix
Printer; Xerox 2700 Printer; Xerox 4045 (Model 160) with Interpress;
... snip ...
it also says it was written in 370 assembler
the html history at cern
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:54:36 -0400
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
there seems to activity between the federal reserve and the treasury
attempting to use new powers to enforce things that already are illegal
under numerous existing regulations ... which were just not being
enforced.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#1 dollar coins
and from spring of 2007
CRAMER REVEALS A BIT TOO MUCH
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03202007/business/cramer_reveals_a_bit_too_much_business_roddy_boyd.htm
from above:
He added that the strategy - while illegal - was safe enough because,
"the Securities and Exchange Commission never understands this."
... snip ...
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
Republican accomplishments and Hoover
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Republican accomplishments and Hoover
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:38:18 -0400
Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> writes:
Many Canadians of First Nations origin have gone to University as
well, but in proportion to their numbers, the situation is poor. One
could legitimately be suspicious that some businesses might be asking
for more education than they need in order to get better empoyees in
other ways - and this means that some people from disadvantaged
backgrounds who could do well don't get the chance.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#2 Republican accomplishments and Hoover
my high school graudation class was relatively small ... only 60 some
... was twice as large as the class before it ... which was twice as
large as the class before it (something of baby boomer problem for the
building) ... and was also half native american.
the original post about requiring junior college degree (in the 80s)
in order to get people with high school education ... is somewhat more
related to how devalued a high school diploma in the US had become.
also somewhat related to some old results from 1990 census that half
the 18 yrs olds were functionally illiterate ... modern assembly
plants can require people with 12th grade literacy to perform expected
duties.
we've had past threads discussing states postponing high school
graudation proficiency tests that required 7th math and reading skills
... because they were concerned that too many students would fail the
tests and not be able to graduate.
misc posts mentioning issue about not enuf 12th graders being able to
pass middle school level profiency test for high school graudation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003j.html#28 Offshore IT
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#80 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#57 Govt demands password to personal computer
misc. past posts mentioning the functionally illiterate theme:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#45 How will current AI/robot stories play when AIs are real?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#28 Offshore IT
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#45 Offshore IT
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#55 Offshore IT
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003p.html#33 [IBM-MAIN] NY Times editorial on white collar jobs going
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#42 The SOB that helped IT jobs move to India is dead!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004d.html#18 The SOB that helped IT jobs move to India is dead!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004h.html#18 Low Bar for High School Students Threatens Tech Sector
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005e.html#48 Mozilla v Firefox
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005g.html#43 Academic priorities
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#20 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#63 DEC's Hudson fab
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#7 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#24 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#79 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#31 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#51 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#80 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#85 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#10 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#30 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#34 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#42 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#68 Poll: oldest computer thing you still use
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#21 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#22 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#29 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#39 competitiveness
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:17:07 -0400
jmfbahciv <jmfbahciv@aol> writes:
AFAICT, appraisers assign a value based on what the house would
sell for. In an inflated market, an appraisal would have
valued the cottage across the street at $350K, which is
what people bought it for. Using appraisers to estimate
the real value of the asset isn't going to work when
the prices go nuts.
there was a recent article claiming that there is currently something
like 1million excess inventory.
there have been articles about something like $1trillion expected
write-downs in (at one time) triple-A rated (toxic) CDOs to be
expected. That can be construed in the toxic CDOs having been
over-valued by $1trillion because of the triple-A rating. This implies
that possibly an excess of $1trillion was injectected into inflating
the real-estate market bubble ... which now has to (also) leak out
(deflate)
in addition, that possibly excess $1trillion injected into the
real-estate market and associated speculation, created the appearance
of demand much larger than reality ... leading to overbuilding of the
1million units.
with the bursting of the real-estate market bubble ... not only is there
a $1trillion deflation ... but law of supply & demand ... implies that
the excess 1million inventory is going to further significantly pull
down market prices.
it also perculates out into commercial loans and building market
... since with possibly 1million excess inventory ... it is going to be
awhile before any new units are really needed.
the law of supply & demand may also apply to some of the old threads
about era of cheap oil .... and what might happen when that finally
comes to an end (and how long might it possible be delayed). recent
thread mentioning cheap oil era:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#11 The Return of Ada
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#19 The Return of Ada
long winded earlier thread mentioning independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#59 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#69 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#70 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#76 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#77 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#78 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#0 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#1 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#4 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#5 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#10 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#11 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#14 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#15 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#16 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#17 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#20 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#25 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#26 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#32 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#51 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#52 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#57 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#13 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#16 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#20 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#67 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#0 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#12 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#55 independent appraisers
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
Schneier
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Schneier
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:33:21 -0400
jmfbahciv <jmfbahciv@aol> writes:
When I became head of the RUNOFF group, part of the efforts
to produce good repro print involved a IBM Selectric that
was coded to use as an output device. We had balls especially
made; I was the one who guarded the balls with my life.
i first got a 2741 at home, mar70 ... I still have a APL type-ball
... and an FE toolkit. I got the FE toolkit for other reasons (leather
breifcase looking thing) ... but it has a lot of tools that I remember
seeing *real* FEs use working on 2741s. 2740 & 2741 were somewhat more
ruggedized version of selectric typewriter (with electronic interface to
act as keyboard input/output). 1052 (and especially 1052-7) were
significantly more ruggedized than 2740/2741.
As earlier mention, original was done on CTSS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#86 CLIs and GUIs
and
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/CC-244.html
and some number of the CTSS people went to Multics on the 5th flr and
others went to science center on the 4th flr
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
where "script" (with runoff-like markup) for cms was done in the
mid-60s. gml then was invented at the science center in 1969 ... and
soon integrated into script command. there were large number of
documents that would have (both) runoff-like markup and
gml markup (intermixed)
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
Calling Out
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Calling Out
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:14:25 -0400
Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> writes:
But not all hybrids are really effiency boosters. The Prius,
yes. The Silverado (Chevy SUV), not so much: The point of the
Silverado's hybrid engine seems to be the convenience of having
a 3kW electric generator available when camping!
there have been some number of recent programs talking about fuel
efficiency and making statements that various foreign hybrids are
primarily a benefit for city (stop&go) driving ... but makes little
difference in highway driving. we have friend that is making cross
country trip, driving one of these foreign hybrids, and found that in
western interstate section posted at 80mph (and is being passed going
speed limit) ... is getting 53mpg.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:20:40 -0400
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#1 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#4 dollar coins
yesterday, the business news show were somewhat ridiculing the
announcement that they were going to (finally after decades?) start
enforcing regulations about illegal short selling ... starting with
fannie & freddie activity (speculation that a lot of the hammering that
their stocks have taken is from illegal activity).
this morning, a statement that the actions were being delayed until
monday (wasn't completely clear that only illegal activity after monday
would be looked for) ... was the butt of further jokes.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
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From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@xxxxxxxx>
Date: July 16, 2008 04:38 PM
Subject: Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
Blog: Financial Cryptography
re:
https://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001074.html
there are several issues:
1) toxic CDOs were used two decades ago during the savings and
loan crisis to obfuscate underlying value
2) long-winded, decade old post discussing (many of the current)
problems with securitized instruments obfuscating the underlying value
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm
3) depository institutions have been regulated ... and their deposits
had been major source of funds for loans and mortgages. with
securitized instruments ... almost anybody could get into the lending
business, and then unload the loans as toxic CDOs
... continually repeating the process for constant flow of money (no
longer dependent on deposits)
4) being able to obfuscate loans values as triple-A rated toxic
CDOs ... provided a constant flow of money ... to nearly anybody
that wanted to get into the business ... and decoupled actual loan
quality from being able to unload the loans as triple-A rated toxic
CDOs (i.e. loan originators previously had to pay attention to
loan quality to stay in the business, the use of triple-A rated toxic CDOs
allowed that whole feedback control mechanism (based on loan qaulity),
to be bybassed ... business success now only was coupled to how many
& how fast mortgages could be originated and unloaded).
5) lots of institutions bought up these triple-A rated toxic CDOs
... including regulated financial institutions ... however, the
underlying mortgages were no longer being considered based on quality
... the triple-A rated toxic CDOs sort of creating a situation
analogous to the emperor's new clothes parable.
6) subprime loans are interesting from a couple of perspectives.
supposedly they were to go to first time home buyers with no credit
history. They turned out to also be "subprime" in the sense that many
of them had introductory teaser rates way below prime ... and
supposedly at least 2/3rds went to entities with credit history (some
significant portion possibly speculators, effectively planning on
flipping the property before the rate adjusted).
7) the whole house of cards eventually came down ... and/or the bubble
burst. The problems with the toxic CDOs created a confidence
problem for all triple-A instruments ... somewhat akin to food
contamination problems ... since nobody was able to tell which were
contaminated and which weren't (i.e. toxic CDOs designed to
obfuscate underlying value did what they were designed to do).
8) There are projections that there will eventually be $1 trillion in
write downs related to these (overvalued, formally) triple-A rated
toxic CDOs (less than half of the projected write-downs have happened so
far).
9) One may conclude that if there was an excess valuation of $1
trillion in toxic CDOs ... there was an excess $1 trillion
valuation pumped into the real estate market bubble ... which will now
have a corresponding deflation
10) Recent articles are claiming one million unit excess inventory in
the real estate market. The excess $1 trillion pumped into the real
estate market and the related speculation created appearance of
significant more demand than actually existed. With the bursting of
the bubble ... not only does $1 trillion have to leak out of the real
estate market bubble ... but the excess 1 million inventory is going
to create additional significant downward pressure on real estate
values ... i.e. what happens in traditional supply and demand ... with
significant oversupply. It is possibly going to take a couple more
years to reach equilibrium.
11) nominally, there would have been limited customers for such
subprime loans (number of first time owners with no credit history)
... as well as limited market for being able to unload such low
quality loans. Being able to leverage (triple-A rated) toxic CDOs to
obfuscate the underlying values ... enormously increased the market
and the corresponding money supply. With the enormous money supply
(created by the use of toxic CDOs), resulted in significant more
money available for subprime loans than the original intended
customers (opening things up for significant amount of speculation,
resulting in the appearance of significantly larger demand and
overbuilding).
having done a lot of work in dynamic adaptive feedback systems as
undergraduate in the 60s (code actually shipping in large mainframe
vendor products) ... i have tendency to look for what are the feedback
control mechanisms that operate in any kind of infrastructure. i've
claimed that the use of toxic CDOs (to obfuscate underlying
values) allowed normal financial market operations to be short
circuited.
One question that might be asked is everybody was aware that a large
number of subprime loans were being written ... and a large number of
triple-A rated toxic CDOs were magically appearing .... but
(the emperor's new clothes scenario) nobody seemed to realize
the large disconnect?
One question that might be asked is everybody was aware that a large
number of subprime loans were being written ... and a large number of
triple-A rated toxic CDOs were magically appearing .... but
(the emperor's new clothes scenario), but nobody seemed to
realize the large disconnect.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:11:22 -0400
Peter_Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
This sounds like complete nonsense to me. The CDOs are backed by
mortgages and, even in these times, only a small percentage of
mortgages are going to defaut. If 5% of mortgages are foreclosed, 1
trillion represents 50X10(what?) 50,000 million dollars in bad
mortgages, assuming that the foreclosed houses are totally worthless.
It might take a while to determine the value, but I doubt it's 1
trillion (1000 billion) dollars.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#6 dollar coins
during the testimony this week and in prior testimony ... the "code
word" that has repeatedly been used for this, is transparency
... i.e. being able to determining the actual underlying value of the
components in a toxic CDO ... w/o the obfuscation.
the claim wasn't that the mortgages were going to default ... the
claim was that the toxic CDOs were given a triple-A rating and
sold for a significantly higher value than the underlying individual
loans would have otherwise warrented. eventually discovering that they
didn't really have triple-A rating would result in significantly
reducing the value of the securitized instrument.
as repeated several previous times, toxic CDOs had been used
two decades ago during the S&L crisis to obfuscate the underlying
value (i.e. the CDO would appear to be worth much more than the sum of
its parts).
long-winded, decade old post discussing (many of the current) problems
with securitized instruments obfuscating the underlying value
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm
as discussed in the above ... there became a significant problem with
accurately determining the value of a securitized instrument based on
the aggregate value for all of the component parts.
some specific past posts mentioning analytics related to accurately
determining value of large, complex, securitized instruments.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#25 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#66 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#70 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#12 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#21 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#87 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#29 dollar coins
this is also the issued raised in the initial post/thread regarding
"lack of information accuracy"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#64 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#66 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#67 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#68 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#69 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#70 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#71 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#73 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#75 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#76 lack of information accuracy
the numerous past posts mentioning write-down sweepstakes ... weren't
about toxic CDOs being repriced (possibly for as little as 20
cents on the dollar) because of mortgage defaults ... it was because
of loosing their original triple-A rating (securitized instruments
with triple-A ratings can have significantly higher value than
instruments w/o triple-A rating ... and also have access to much
larger market willing to deal in them ... in fact, there are numerous
institutions that aren't allowed to deal in instruments that have
lower than triple-A rating).
the comment then is if an extra trillion dollars ... in excess of
actual value was pumped into the toxic CDOs and therefor
possibly into the mortgage loan market ... then when the bubble bursts
... repricing the
toxic CDOs to some "fair" value ... may imply that there is
possibly a corresponding trillion that needs to deflate from the real
estate market.
the repeated toxic CDO issue ... dating back at least
to toxic CDO use two decades ago in the S&L crisis ... is
by obfuscating the underlying value ... the toxic CDO may be
sold for significantly higher value than the value of the underlying
components. That is part of the theme in the long-winded decade old
post about issues with securitized instruments obfuscating the
underlying values.
the problem escalulated beyond any specifically over-rated and
overpriced toxic CDOs ... something akin to contamination
and/or recalls in the retail market ... since toxic CDOs were
doing such a good job at obfuscating the underlying values ... and
since some number of triple-A rating toxic CDOs were discovered
to be extremely "toxic" ... there emerged a confidence issue with all
triple-A rated instruments (with large number of institutions wanting
to get rid of all of their triple-A rated instruments at whatever
price they could get) ... aka organizations couldn't tell which were
really contaminated and which weren't.
there is some speculation that during the height of the subprime runup
to the current crisis (2002-2006) that part of the possibly excess $1
trillion paid for misrated toxic CDOs helped fund the
$137billion in wall street bonuses (i.e. not all of the possibly
excess $1 trillion paid for the misrated toxic CDOs actually
made it back into the real estate market). a few past posts on the
2002-2006 wall street bonuses paid
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#76 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#52 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#42 The Return of Ada
misc. past posts mentioning toxic CDOs, write-down sweepstakes,
triple-A rating, subprime loans ... etc.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#81 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#82 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#10 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#12 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#0 The Unexpected Fact about the First Computer Programmer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007p.html#50 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#28 what does xp do when system is copying
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#41 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#58 Fixing our fraying Internet infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#60 Fixing our fraying Internet infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#25 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#12 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#50 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#90 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#25 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#85 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#42 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#65 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#70 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#75 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#78 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#1 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#4 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#17 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#20 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#28 US aerospace and defense sector braces for potential brain drain as Cold War workers retire
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#32 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#51 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#57 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#71 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#76 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#20 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#37 Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#44 Fixing finance
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#59 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#62 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#67 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#0 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#1 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#3 America's Prophet of Fiscal Doom
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#28 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#32 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#42 The Return of Ada
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#48 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#49 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#51 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#89 Credit Crisis Timeline
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#90 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#30 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#77 Do you think the change in bankrupcy laws has exacerbated the problems in the housing market leading more people into forclosure?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#9 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#20 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#22 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#23 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#38 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#40 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#46 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#60 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#1 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#10 Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:30:34 -0400
Peter_Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
This sounds like complete nonsense to me. The CDOs are backed by
mortgages and, even in these times, only a small percentage of
mortgages are going to defaut. If 5% of mortgages are foreclosed, 1
trillion represents 50X10(what?) 50,000 million dollars in bad
mortgages, assuming that the foreclosed houses are totally worthless.
It might take a while to determine the value, but I doubt it's 1
trillion (1000 billion) dollars.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#6 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
possibly $400billion has already been taken ... so they are only expecting
another $600billion or so. some of the speculation about citigroup
eventually winning the writedown sweepstakes is that they likely have
some additional pending writedowns (toxic CDOs) in assets held
off-balance sheet ... post with reference to institutions carrying some
amount of assets being held off-balance sheet
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#1 dollar coins
with citigroup apparently far ahead with $1.1trillion carried
off-balance sheet.
a couple articles with more detailed discussion of the mechanics of the
possible trillion dollar writedown:
Brace for $1 Trillion Writedown of 'Yertle the Turtle' Debt
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHCnscodO1s0
THE TRILLION DOLLAR MELTDOWN; Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great
Credit Crash
http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/publicaffairsbooks-cgi-bin/display?book=9781586485634
Bill Ackman Was Right: MBIA, Ambac on 'Ratings Cliff'
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ayw26W322L2A
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:10:52 -0400
Peter_Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
This sounds like complete nonsense to me. The CDOs are backed by
mortgages and, even in these times, only a small percentage of
mortgages are going to defaut. If 5% of mortgages are foreclosed, 1
trillion represents 50X10(what?) 50,000 million dollars in bad
mortgages, assuming that the foreclosed houses are totally worthless.
It might take a while to determine the value, but I doubt it's 1
trillion (1000 billion) dollars.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#12 dollar coins
another article from yesterday
Expect more crisis
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/07/16/banks-crisis-illiquid-oped-cx_al_0716lee.html
from above:
The Goldman auction might give us a clue about how inflated these assets
are, despite the more than $400 billion in write-downs that banks have
taken since the credit markets went south last summer.
... snip ...
the above discusses a lot of complexity involved in attempting to
calculate the valuation of toxic CDOs ... mentioning that they are
suppose to "mark-to-market" (what they would expect to get if they sold
them) ... in some cases, has given way to "mark-to-model" (some secret
internal calculations) ... "What Morgan Stanly might say is worth $0.80
on the dollar could be worth $0.60 to Goldman Sachs.".
and the following "Losses of at least $1 trillion and more likely $2
trillion":
How Many Trillions Lost?
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/07/15/roubini-crisis-economy-oped-cx_rl_0715croesus.html
An issue was that being able to sell off subprime loans as triple-A
rated toxic CDOs at inflated prices ... allowed for a lot of
money to be pumped back into the mortgage market ... significantly
more than could be used by the originally intended subprime borrowers
("first time buyers with no credit history"). The excess (possibly $1
trillion or so) money appeared to find likely takers in
speculators. The speculation then possibly inflated real estate market
by an equivalent $1 trillion ... which with the bursting of the bubble
... would/can now imply an equivalent deflating.
The other issue is that the speculation created the appearance of much
larger demand than actually existed ... which led to over production
(traditional supply and demand). Recent stories claim there are now one
million excess units in real estate market inventory. In addition to the
possible $1 trillion correction in prices due to huge infusion and
speculation ... there is now the opposite (tradtional supply and
demand) effect of having significant oversupply ... far in excess of
current demand ... which will have further downward pressure on home
prices ... until the excess inventory has been absorbed.
Then there is a kind of systemic risk ... with falling prices
(combination of possible $1 trillion correction after the bubble burst
and significant oversupply) ... some owners may find that their mortgage
is significantly larger than the house is worth in the current market
... especially people that had figured that they would take a much
larger mortgage than they could really afford ... but would make it back
by selling the house in a year or two, after significant appreciation
... a slightly less blatent form of speculation (being owner-occupied,
the more blatent tended to not be owner-occupied and would be basis for
impression that demand was much larger than it really was ... which in
turn led to over production). Now they find that they've been backed
into a corner ... and no graceful way out.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:08:19 -0400
Morten Reistad <first@last.name> writes:
Unfortunatly, the CDOs have so much defaults builtin. Total loss
is rather 2B, not 1B. But a lot of this is on the hand of the
homeowner, perhaps as much as half. This was a bubble in the first
place, so much of this is not fiscally a loss; e.g. for those who
refinanced themselves into higher debt on the same mortgages.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#12 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#13 dollar coins
they discover the triple-A rated toxic CDOs really didn't
deserve the rating ... that bursts the bubble. Those (inflated,
triple-A) toxic CDOs are downgraded and loose a trillion
dollars in value. The bubble bursting also deflates the (inflated
bubble) real estate market by corresponding trillion dollars.
Since the initial toxic CDO deflation was possibly based on the
downgrade, to something closer to the (original) underlying value
... the bursting of the bubble, deflating the underlying value
... results in corresponding further reduction in the value of
the toxic CDOs. Additional downward pressure on the real estate
market ... because of speculation, over building, and one million
excess inventory ... futher lowers value of real estate market
... with corresponding further reduction in toxic CDO values.
would eventually possibly exceed over $2 trillion in toxic CDO
write-downs ... aka
How Many Trillions Lost?
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/07/15/roubini-crisis-economy-oped-cx_rl_0715croesus.html
from above:
Losses of at least $1 trillion and more likely $2 trillion
... snip ...
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:02:27 -0400s
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#12 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#13 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#14 dollar coins
Mytsitified By Subprime? Ask the Telegraph
https://financialcryptography.com/
and the following almost has an example of the cartoon
Brown Adds 'Shocking New Details' to Countrywide Allegations; California
suit says Countrywide ignored its own underwriting guidelines
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/07/ca_countrywide.html
from above:
Brown sued Countrywide last month charging that it had engaged in
deceptive advertising and unfair competition by pushing homeowners into
risky loans for the sole purpose of reselling the mortgages on the
secondary market.
... snip ...
somewhat related ...
Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not
in Banking!
https://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001074.html
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:39:14 -0400
Peter_Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
So the problem isn't the "real" values of the CDOs, but the perceived
values. If you hold them you'll probably get back most of the
value. If you try to sell them now, while everyone's panicing, you'll
get pennies on the dollar. Typical Wall Street cock-up.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#12 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#13 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#14 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#15 dollar coins
that was a major point of the long-winded, decade old post about a major
issue with CDO-like instruments was to the ability to mask the
underlying values:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm
that obfuscation (or lack of transparency ... code-word used in
various testimony) is used to cloud what is really going on, therefor
the periodic drawing analogy to ponzi-schemes.
however, there is the aspect of too good to be true that caught up
lots of people ... therefor the periodic drawing analogy to
emperor's new clothes parable. part of this was industry knew
that toxic CDOs had been used two-decades ago in the S&L
crisis to obfuscate underlying values. another analogy would be the
*nigerian email scams*.
however, there were possibly hundreds of billions difference between
the underlying value in the toxic CDOs and the perceived
values of what was paid for them.
when the industry finally had to face the emperor's new clothes, the
resulting lack of confidence in "triple-A" ratings spilled over into
nearly everything with "triple-A" rating ... including regular corporate
and municipal bonds (which had long term and well tested valuation
processes). the resulting period of lack of confidence in everything
with a triple-A rating ... also had a lot of things having perceived
value much less than the underlying, actual value.
That should not be confused with what kicked off the whole thing, that
the aggregate value of the things that made up a significant number of
CDOs did not warrent a (perceived) triple-A rating. The
realization that the underlying value of a lot of triple-A
rated toxic CDOs did not justify a triple-A rating ... and
therefor was lower than what was paid for them ... precipitated a
period where nobody could figure out what the actual value was. This
demonstrated that triple-A ratings could be flawed and growing lack of
confidence in the ratings ... which also spilled over into questioning
the underlying values of all triple-A ratings.
Past post mentioning triple-A rating confidence crisis spilling
over into municipal bond market:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#18 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#20 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#60 dollar coins
with period of market demanding higher interest rate that would
correspond to higher risk than would have previously been assumed
associated with triple-A rated munis.
What precipitated this triple-A rating confidence crisis were toxic
CDOs that actually had much lower value (than what was paid) and
never should have qualified for triple-A ratings.
The enormous amount of money pumped into the real estate market via
these toxic CDOs ... fueled a major market inflation bubble. Having to
face the emperor's new clothes situation ... first involved
downgrading the triple-A ratings on the (overvalued) toxic CDOs. This
then created confidence crisis in things that still had (and presumed to
warrent) triple-A ratings. The rating downgrade in these toxic CDOs
significantly dropped their price (from inflated perceived to something
closer to reality). The rating confidence crisis *also* resulted in
value dropping in instruments that still had/deserved triple-A rating.
The bursting of the real estate market bubble also precipitates
deflating real estate values.
The rapidly inflating real estate market bubble also fueled a lot of
speculation ... which resulted in demand appearing to exceed supply
... which resulted in overbuilding. The bursting of real estate market
bubble ... burst the speculation bubble ... and voila ... there is one
million excess units in the inventory ... now supply is significantly
larger than demand. Previously, demand much higher than supply
... fueled significant value inflation. Reversing the situation
... with supply much larger than demand ... has the opposite effect,
significant value deflation. Bursting the speculation buble also exposes
large number of people practicing very risky behavior.
This perculates into the moral hazard scenario ... which the
FED has been worried about for large institutions ... large
institutions shouldn't begin to feel that they are immune from
accountability and possible failure because of risky behavior ... if
they become use to that ... can result in even more risky behavior
(never having to worry about held accountable with failure). However,
the moral hazard scenario also extends downs to individual
speculators. This brings up the Nigerian email scam analogy
... being promised $5million dollars if you would just send them your
bank account number (so they can wire the funds, wiring just not in
the way expected).
The large amount of risky speculation behavior and significant reversing
the demand much greater than supply ... to supply much greater than
demand ... has downturn effects that starts to spread out into several
areas of the economy ... analogous to the way that toxic CDOs getting
triple-A ratings precipitating a rating confidence crisis that spreads
out to other instruments with triple-A ratings.
Misc. recent posts mentioning moral hazard
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#71 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#76 lack of information accuracy
few past posts mentioning the emperor's new clothes, ponzi scheme,
and/or Nigerian email scam analogies:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#20 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#40 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#48 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#51 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#60 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#69 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#10 Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
misc. past posts that toxic CDOs' lack of visibility, toxic
CDOs being used to obfuscate underlying value, such toxic
CDOs getting triple-A rating (and commanding higher price) than
warrented ... resulted in risky behavior by mortgage originators
... realizing that they could unload an unlimited number of mortgages
w/o regard to quality ... as triple-A rated toxic CDOs ... the
only limiting factor then was how fast could they originate such loans
(again w/o regard to quality)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#28 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#40 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#46 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#69 lack of information accuracy
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:54:03 -0400
jmfbahciv <jmfbahciv@aol> writes:
Go look at any corporatation's books. They pay lots of taxes;
some of the earnings are double-taxed. Now, governments have
a choice: collect taxes ad infinitum or collect a pittance (in
comparison) at one time when an owner dies. Do you honestly
think that people who die and have stocks don't pay estate
taxes on the value of that stock?
stock dividends are being paid out of after-tax income ... and then
taxed again to the recipients of the dividend. this gives rise to the
churn in tax regulations whether dividends should be taxed at lower rate
than normal income (since they've already been fully taxed at least
once).
some number of corporate investments are structured where they pay
interest rather than dividends. interest is paid out of pre-tax income
(i.e. the interest paid is tax deductable to the corporation). Since
pre-tax income is larger than after-tax income ... the corporation has
more at its disposable to pay).
One could claim, that from gov standpoint they would prefer to have
things structured as dividends ... since the gov eventually gets a
larger percentage of overall corporate earnings.
I recently mentioned there was citing where the court ruled that
it wasn't legal for the IRS to assess greater than 100% tax rate
(situation where IRS had assessed 103% tax rate):
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#98 dollar coins
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:06:37 -0400
Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> writes:
When the government bails a bank out ban anyone who has been a director
in the last 5 years from working in or running a bank. It will
reduce the level of stupidity and warn the others.
there have been past claims of study in the wake of the S&L crisis about
skill level of bank executives. The claim was that in a heavily
regulated environment ... there was near zero skill level required
because everything was explicitly specified (other than possibly
high-school literacy level). In the S&L crisis scenario ... the claim
was as the industry went through some degree of deregulation ... there
were a large number of bank executives that were totally unqualified to
deal with the situation. Having a job w/o any significant qualification
requirements and/or skill level ... doesn't necessarily mean that the
person holding the job is totally unskilled and not qaulified to do
anything else.
more recently there was a claim that possibly 1000 people were
responsible for 80 precent of the current credit crisis ... and it
would go a long way if the gov. could figure out how they could loose
their job. The large number of the rest of the participants presummably
hadn't actually figured out how to circumvent the large number of
natural obstacles ... it was frequently a case of unbridled greed (the
Nigerian email scam scenario)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#89 Credit Crisis Timeline
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#67 Do you have other examples of how people evade taking resp. for risk
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:06:10 -0400
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#12 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#13 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#14 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#15 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#16 dollar coins
some more reference in this blog here
SEC starts to investigate Bear Stearns. Or does it?
https://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001076.html
the above also references may pontificating on toxic CDOs
in previous entry:
Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not
in Banking!
https://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001074.html
besides my comments in the above ... also archived here:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#10 Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
another post (following mine) in the thread references article here:
Desirable Features of Money
http://silverstockreport.com/email/The_Money_Chart.html
also that posting has references to
Derivatives, Banks, and Bailouts
http://www.guildinvestment.com/ARhome.asp?VAfg=1&RQ=EDL,1&AR_T=1&GID=undefined&linkid=298&T_ARID=261&sCID=&sPID=0&cTID=-1&cCat=&PRID=&cSubCat=&archive=&highstr=&UArts=
above reference has been quoted and posted to some other newsgroups
Derivatives, Banks, and Bailouts
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.invest.stocks/browse_thread/thread/4c1e18527d961133
reference article includes section:
FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC ... A BIG BAILOUT HAPPENED THIS WEEK AND IT WILL
CREATE GLOBAL INFLATION
note that in the above reference to fannie & freddy bailouts ... there
have been past references that during the subprime period 2002-2006,
fanne & freddy didn't actually buy up (directly) a lot of subprime and
lower-quality mortgages. however, they did buy some number of ("safe")
triple-A rated toxic CDOs ... which have since had their ratings
downgraded and they are facing eventually having to revaluate these
toxic CODs (and updating their books).
there has also been some number of references to the govs. liability (in
freddie/fannie bailout) could be so large, that it could result in
downgrade of the US Federal gov. triple-A rating (which would impact
the availabilty and the corresponding price ... for gov. borrowing).
the referenced article also has section:
SUMMARY-INFLATION IS IN THE FUTURE
which has very gloomy picture of the future of the (US) financial
industry ... again, in large part attributed to the spreading effects
(and systemic risks) that grew out of giving those toxic
CDOs, triple-A ratings.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:31:08 -0400
timothy.sipples@US.IBM.COM (Timothy Sipples) writes:
The quarterly financial results for any publicly traded company, including
IBM, get reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the
Internal Revenue Service (for tax purposes), and are scrutinized by
independent auditors. There's a whole legal and regulatory framework for
how this stuff gets reported, accurately. Revenue gets counted and counted
well. And since IBM (and others) have a really good estimate of total
server revenue in the global market, yes, the CFO can (and did) make that
kind of "global statement."
that is how it is suppose to work.
After worldcom/enron ... GAO started a study of such reporting and
looking at statistics of "refillings" ... i.e. were subsequently
reporting is refiled because of (at least) audit and accounting errors.
previously supposedly something like three percent of companies had
audit and accounting errors in their filed reports ... starting around
enron/worldcom it was approaching ten percent and has slightly increased
since then (even after legislation like sox). last time i checked there
was GAO report regarding their "database" of SEC filings up through
2006.
there have been some articles relating it to general decline of veracity
in society ... things like mistatements on resumes, fudged numbers in
SEC filings, triple-A ratings for toxic CDOs (which were subsequently
downrated), etc.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:00:51 -0400
timothy.sipples@US.IBM.COM (Timothy Sipples) writes:
You have to be very careful about the System i numbers though, and
Loughridge explained this. When you buy a new system to run IBM i OS,
you are now increasingly buying System p branded servers. IBM is
phasing out separate branded hardware as the models get updated. (For
some years now the underlying hardware has been virtually identical
anyway -- the POWER microprocessors definitely -- but now it's
official.) So some of the System p sales are to run i OS (on the whole
server or part of the server), and reported System i sales reflect
only System i branded server models. That's my understanding anyway,
and I think that's reflected in the statement.
long tortured road.
i've periodically claimed that John's early effort on 801/risc was to go
to the exact opposite in hardware complexity vis-a-vis what was
happening in the future system project.
future system was to completely replace mainframe ... and as radically
different from 360/370 as 360 had been from prior generations.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
when future system project failed ... there was then mad rush to
get stuff back into the 370 product pipeline (projects not going
on because of the expectation of shift to FS). old post with
reference to Fergus/Morris book that discusses some of FS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#33
Eventually 801/risc thought it found a market niche to consolidate the
corporation's large number of different (embedded) microprocessors on
801. The follow-on to 4341, the 4381 ... was initially going to be an
(microprogrammed) 801 Iliad chip. The follow-on to s/38 (as/400) was
also going to use 801 Iliad chip. Large number of other (embedded)
microprocessors around the corporation was to all standardize on
801/risc.
misc. old email mentioning 801, risc, and/or iliad
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#801
and past posts mentioning, 801, romp, rios, fort knox, power, power/pc,
etc
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
I contributed some sections to the white paper that helped kill the
Iliad chip strategy for the 4381 ... basically technology was getting
to the point that native 370 could almostly totally be implemented
directly in a chip (as opposed to requiring a microprogrammed
emulation layer) at much better price/performance.
801/risc Iliad chip ran into problems for AS/400 ... and there was
crash program to do CISC chip for initial AS/400. However, a decade
later, in era of (801/risc) power/pc chip ... AS/400 did move over.
Not long after the decision to do a native 370 chip for 4381 (circa
'85), I produced a series of documents for modular rack implementation
accomodating arbitrary mix of native 370 chip boards and 801/risc
Iliad chip boards ... where the racks were nominal branded as large
cluster of 370s ... with the 801/risc Iliad chip boards handling
specific application/function "offloads" (native code implementation,
as opposed to running 370 microcode emulation). misc. past references
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002l.html#27 End of Moore's law and how it can influence job market .....
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#17 mainframe and microprocessor
In the above, I was hoping for possibly 80 processor boards in a rack.
i would claim that the work on medusa (cluster-in-a-rack) ... several
years later ... was essentially the same thing ... but w/o 370 chip
boards. medusa started out with 32 processors per rack ... old email
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa
as part of scaleup for ha/cmp effort
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
also mentioned in this jan92 meeting ... looking to have four rack
medusa (128-processors) by ye92
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
CLIs and GUIs
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CLIs and GUIs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:49:16 -0400
rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock) writes:
Even the very first Lisp (1958) had a compiler (by 1962) to native
machine code, as did almost every one which followed (except a few
toy systems). The notion that "Lisp is (only) interpreted" is an
urban myth that seemingly won't die, possibly because almost every
Lisp system with a compiler *also* contains an interactive interpreter,
and permits free *mixing* of compiled and interpreted code in the
same program:
old email (in these posts) referencing lisp machine people asking
about being able to get a 801/risc processor (for the machine) and
being offered an 8100 instead (some flavor of uc.5 processor i
believe).
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003e.html#65 801 (was Re: Reviving Multics
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#3 Architectural support for programming languages
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#45 "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006t.html#9 32 or even 64 registers for x86-64?
for further trivia ... Evans eventually did ask my wife to do audit of
8100 ... which did result in it getting can'ed.
this is somewhat related to whether the 801/risc is executing
microcode and emulating a different architecture (as in the case of
lisp machine) or is directly executing "native" code (for purest, in
both cases it is executing "native" code).
this is also related to recent post about directly execution of 370,
emulating 370 in m'code and/or offloading directly to native code
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#21 IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
the above mentions trying to cram up to 80 (arbitrary mix of 370 and
801) processors in single rack (circa 1985) as well as (circa fall
1991) *medusa* getting 32 processors in single rack (both cases
possibly having arbitrary number of racks). in both cases, a major
gating factor was getting the heat out of the racks.
the question of directly, emulated, and/or (offloaded) native, I had
(also) looked at a decade earlier (mid-70s) with both virgal/tully
(i.e. 138/148) ECPS effort ... old reference
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#21 370 ECPS VM micrcode assist
and VAMPS multiprocessor ... lots of past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#bounce
In the 138/148 (which evolved into 4331/4341 and then 4361/4381) was
m'code 370 emulation that avg. about 10 native instructions to
emulated 370 instructions. A major piece of ECPS was to select 6k
bytes of the highest used kernel instructions and do an (approx)
1-for-1 translation into native microcdoe (getting 10-to-1 performance
improvement) ... the earlier (reference from '94) post gives kernel
path analysis used to select the 6k bytes moved into microcode. It
wasn't directly offload in the sense that function executed on
different processor.
The same time as ECPS, I also did VAMPS (which never was announced)
multiprocessor operation. The native machine had a nine-position
microprocessor memory bus. Delivered to customers it was a single 370
processor with integrated channels and controllers. Underneath there
werer several identical microprocessors, one running 370 microcode and
others executing microcode loads for various integrated control unit
functions. VAMPS effort was to do the hardware and software necessary
to support up to five of the microprocessors executing the 370
microprocessor load. I had done a higher-level multiprocessor function
architecture (additional function with some similarities to the later
intel i432). I had also done a higher level architecture for I/O that
allowed *offloading* lots of queueing and interrupt processing into
the disk controller (*IOP*), somewhat akin to later 370/XA.
In the mainframe world ... an example of "offloading" later in the
70s, was the 303x channel director. The 370/158 had microcode for both
370 emulation and integrated channels (sharing the same
microprocessr). For 303x, they split off the 370/158 integrated
channel microcode into a separate dedicated box (channel
director). 370/158 turned into a 3031 with two 370/158 microprocessors
(instead of just one); one with just the 370/158 370 emulation
microcde and the second with just the integrated channel microcode. A
370/168 became 3032 with one to three channel directors.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:34:34 -0400
Peter_Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
So the problem isn't the "real" values of the CDOs, but the perceived
values. If you hold them you'll probably get back most of the
value. If you try to sell them now, while everyone's panicing, you'll
get pennies on the dollar. Typical Wall Street cock-up.
the toxic CDOs (and real values) should never have been originally rated
triple-A. The (safety and soundness related to) triple-A rating affected
the number of entities that would be willing to purchase them as well as
corresponding price (some interaction between larger prospective market
and the price). These were subsequently downgraded to a more realistic
rating reflective their actual worth/value. These toxic CDOs have a loss
(compared to what was originally paid).
the systemic risk associated with increasing lack of confidence (in the
rating service) because of the failure to accurately rate the toxic CDOs
... eventually spilled over into other triple-A rated instruments.
there are a number of different losses (could be considered a form of
system risk resulting from loss in confidence in the rating services
... because some number of instruments were given triple-A rating ...
when they shouldn't have):
1)
toxic CDOs incorrectly given triple-A rating ... and therefor over
priced. when the toxic CDOs had rating downgrade ... the owner takes a
(potentially significant) loss. Some number of institutions have
covenants/regulations about only dealing in (safe) triple-A rated
instruments. When the "safe" triple-A rated toxic CDOs were downgraded
... they had to unload them (at at loss)
2)
the increasing loss in confidence in the rating agencies ... brings
into question the potential risk (or how safe are they really) other
kinds of triple-A rated instruments. Then lots of people looking to
dump all sorts of triple-A rated instruments ... driving down those
prices. If they can hold on (until after the initial panic), they may
be able to minimize the loss.
3)
various parts of the economy get caught up in the hysteria generated
from the real estate market bubble and speculation ... significantly
fueled by the revenue flow from the incorrectly rated triple-A toxic
CDOs. they may have taken investment/borrowing risks based on the rapid
inflation and apparence of the demand level in the real estate market
(parts of commercial market producing products used by the real estate &
building industry). when the bubble bursts (starting with downrating of
toxic CDOs) ... their investment and credit rating are at risk (and may
not have the resources to carry the associated costs through the period
it takes to recover). Trivial case could be municipal bonds to fund new
services for housing development (assuming would be paid for by
associated expected property tax revenue). They may have been perfectly
good reasons to give such bonds a triple-A rating originally (as opposed
to the toxic CDOs where there was never a good reason to give them a
triple-A rating). However, the housing development goes bust, the
expected property tax revenue doesn't show up, and therefor those bonds
get downgraded (which results in a loss).
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#12 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#13 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#14 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#15 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#16 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#19 dollar coins
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:45:07 -0400
greymaus <greymausg@mail.com> writes:
Subject under discussion was estate taxes.
AFAIK, if the dreaded Revenue here find that you have evaded or underpaid
taxes, interest is charged from the time that the tax should have been
paid, and sometimes penelties are added. They publish the list ever so
often, and it is common for people to have to pay more than they originally
should have, in the extra charges. This was fixed before we joined the
euro, when interest charges were around 18%, and the interest on unpaid
taxes was left at that. For a while, if you overpaid tax (some taxes have
to be paid by a certain time, even if profits are not fully realized), you
would be paid 18% or so, but they stopped that.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#98 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#17 dollar coins
the case was something like a 401k (tax deferred) in the estate of a
person that had died ... with some other issues (but no penalties
... just straight aggregate assessed tax rate as combination of estate
taxes on tax deferred account and whatever the other issues). the IRS
had assessed an aggregate tax rate of 103% ... and the court ruled that
it wasn't legal to assess larger than 100% tax rate.
the program was on setting up trusts as part of passing on assets and
minimizing estate taxes ... and they used the 103% assessed tax rate on
how bad it could get.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:02:56 -0400
timothy.sipples@US.IBM.COM (Timothy Sipples) writes:
This would be the "I don't believe the number is accurate" argument I
guess.
Well, if you think there's an error in IBM's earnings report, you can
contact the SEC by visiting http://www.sec.gov.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#20 IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
I didn't say that IBM was having auditing and accounting errors ... I
said that there is increasing percentage of filings that having to be
restated because of audit and accounting errors.
for other drift ... earlier the this week ... in congressional committee
statement, there was statement that SEC was going to start going after
(illegal) naked shorts. The business program that carried the testimony
then made derogatory references about SEC now making it triple illegal
as opposed to only double illegal (i.e. there were already regulations
making naked short sales illegal ... but not being enforced). recent
post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#1 dollar coins
then yesterday when they announced something about the earlier statement
only applied to very narrow situations ... the business program comments
were about "business as usual"
earlier post referring to the gao report(s)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#96
and reference to 2003 GAO report:
'Financial Statement Restatements: Trends, Market Impacts, Regulatory
Responses, and Remaining Challenges'
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-138
and more recent 2006 GAO report
Financial Restatements: Update of Public Company Trends,
Market Impacts, and Regulatory Enforcement Activities
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06678.pdf
Financial Restatement Database
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d061053r.pdf
and update (2006)
http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/gao-06-1079sp
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:35:46 -0400
timothy.sipples@US.IBM.COM (Timothy Sipples) writes:
This would be the "I don't believe the number is accurate" argument I
guess.
Well, if you think there's an error in IBM's earnings report, you can
contact the SEC by visiting http://www.sec.gov.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#20 IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#25 IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
... no ... this would be "Just because it is in an SEC filing, doesn't
necessarily make it true".
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:19:22 -0400
jmfbahciv <jmfbahciv@aol> writes:
There are ratings _companies_? This is not making any sense. If they
are not delivering their service, there should be competitors who
do.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#16 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#23 dollar coins
this was the whole start of the thread about independent
appraisers and the organizations selling the toxic CDOs are
paying the rating company for the rating. there are only a relatively
few rating companies that are general recognized.
the incorrect ratings is also behind the stuff about transparency and
thread on lack of information accuracy
it is also related to the periodic comments about toxic CDOs
having been used two decades ago to obfuscate the underlying values;
created confusion ... even for the rating companies. This was sort of
the periodic references to the emperor's new clothes parable
... pontentially everybody was assuming somebody else really
understood
this was also part of the point of the decade-old, long-winded post that
included discussion about requiring visibility (and understanding) about
CDO-like instruments
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm
this is also the point of drawing analogy between lack of visability
into toxic CDO underlying values and obfuscation related to
Boyd's OODA-loop
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop
supposedly part of what was happening was that organizations selling
CDOs, were shopping for ratings ... i.e. telling a rating company
that if they didn't get the rating they wanted ... they would take their
business to one of their competitors.
past posts referencing shopping for toxic CDO ratings
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#90 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#9 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#23 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#68 lack of information accuracy
past posts in information accuracy thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#64 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#66 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#67 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#69 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#70 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#71 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#73 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#75 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#76 lack of information accuracy
past posts in the independent appraisers thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#59 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#69 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#70 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#76 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#77 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#78 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#0 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#1 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#4 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#5 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#10 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#11 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#14 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#15 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#16 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#17 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#20 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#25 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#26 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#32 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#51 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#52 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#57 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#13 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#16 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#20 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#67 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#0 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#12 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#55 independent appraisers
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:21:42 -0400
jmfbahciv <jmfbahciv@aol> writes:
There are ratings _companies_? This is not making any sense. If they
are not delivering their service, there should be competitors who
do.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#16 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#23 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#27 dollar coins
a business news show just had commentary that the senate for the past
decade is the worst in history ... and are a major contributing factor
in the current financial crisis ... starting with their repeal of
Glass-Steagall. there was claim that part of the problem is that they
have been glorifying ignorance.
they didn't mention that the recent congress has had the lowest
attendance rate in the history of congress ... past reference:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#20 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#55 was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
this may also account for the fact that when some members of congress
were talking about the president's approval rate having dropped to one
of the lowest in history ... congress' approval rate *was* the worst in
history ... 1/3rd the approval rate of the president's.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#20 Education ranking
one wonders if the business school article claiming that 1000 are
responsible for possibly 80% of the current credit crisis ... whether
they included any members of congress in the tally.
misc. recent posts mentioning repeal of Glass-Steagall:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#12 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#11 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#87 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#85 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#42 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#59 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#1 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#17 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#71 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#73 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#75 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#79 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#96 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#2 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#16 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#44 Fixing finance
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#52 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#57 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#59 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#67 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#1 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#28 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#32 subprime write-down sweepstakes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#89 Credit Crisis Timeline
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#12 To: Graymouse -- Ireland and the EU, What in the H... is all this about?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#66 lack of information accuracy
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:10:29 -0400
Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> writes:
They all make the same mistake.
Alternatively, since the funds picked their own rating company, the
one that gave low ratings got few customers.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#16 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#23 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#27 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#28 dollar coins
for total topic drift ... analogous issues has been periodically raised
regarding SSL domain name server digital certificates ... misc. past
posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subpubkey.html#sslcert
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:46:16 -0400
Morten Reistad <first@last.name> writes:
With common law, the "books" are records of court proceedings.
With Massachussets it is both. It is a morass.
I got this from finance classes. Jurisdictions where you need
to be careful. Some of these can be used with benefit, like
Ireland, which has stellar conditions for taking care of
immaterial rights, or Nevada, where privacy rights are still
upheld like they used tho be throughout the US.
Or the Dutch Antilles, which is EES territory and is a
safe haven for pensions.
at one point we looked at computerized searches for precedents, some
states would go back to English common law, some states went back to
Scandinavia, other states went back to France.
misc. past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001i.html#50 I hate Compaq
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#29 [OT] Faces of terrorism
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#31 [OT] Faces of terrorism
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
SEC bans illegal activity then permits it
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@xxxxxxxx>
Date: July 21, 2008 01:42 PM
Subject: SEC bans illegal activity then permits it...
Blog: Financial Cryptography
re:
https://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001078.html
some posts from last week mentioning the subject:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#1 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#4 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#9 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#25 IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
there was a reference to an interview given some time ago on the
subject ... claiming that while its illegal, it was safe enough
because "the Securities and Exchange Commission never understands
this."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03202007/business/cramer_reveals_a_bit_too_much_business_roddy_boyd.htm
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
squirrels
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: squirrels
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:54:26 -0400
Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> writes:
Insufficient is insufficient. The scheduler can try to help, but if
the set of jobs you've got going causes thrashing that's really the
end of the road.
one of the technologies introduced in the 60s was page thrashing
controls by the scheduler. the most gross control level was limiting the
number of concurrently executing processes (i.e. limiting the number of
processes that could concurrently compete for real storage).
this was both estimated real-storage requirements for processes and
limiting the processes to those that the estimated aggregate
real-storage requirements could be satisified by available real storage.
this was in addition to actively monitor paging activity that might
approach page thrashing ... because of possible changes in process's
real storage requirements (and taking corrective action ... aka both
pro-active ... and re-active strategies for controlling page thrashing).
lots of past posts on working dynamic adaptive scheduling and resource
management implementations and algorithms ... going back to work
as undergraduate in the 60s
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare
as well as page replacement and paging activity control implementations
and algorithms ... also dating back to work as undergraduate in the
60s
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#wsclock
besides my work in the 60s ... some number of others also did work in
this area in the same time frame. later in the 80s ... there was
somebody that did their (Stanford) phd thesis in area very similar to
what I had done in the 60s. There was then a lot of opposition to
awarding the phd ... because of that work (and my earilier work) was in
conflict with some of the other strategies developed during the 60s.
old post discussing the situation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#46 The Future of CPUs: What's After Multi-Core?
including copy of old communication
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email821019
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:15:21 -0400
Morten Reistad <first@last.name> writes:
If they deliberatly manipulated the ratings. Or a person on the
inside did so. But it has to be proven.
part of the decade-old, long winded posting
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm
was about transparency/visability into securitized (CDO-like)
instruments.
part of this was toxic CDOs had been used two decades ago in
the S&L crisis to obfuscate the underlying value.
the other thing that went on during the S&L crisis was explicit
manipulating of real-estate appraisals ... there was some especially
egregious cases like appraisal for 4-story commercial building on an
empty lot someplace in Dallas. some conjecture as they tightened up on
actual property appraisals ... that the fallback was to toxic
CDOs to obfuscate the actual value.
similar arguments about subjective nature to (toxic CDO) ratings were
used for appraisals ... which contributed to attempting to tighten up
property appraisals. However, some of the toxic CDO ratings weren't
nudged a little ... but were specifically for triple-A rating for the
toxic CDOs. Besides increasing the toxic CDO value, it
also opened up the possible customers to all the institutions that
only dealt in triple-A rated instruments (lot of these are pension
funds).
related discussions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#23 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#27 dollar coins
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
squirrels
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: squirrels
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:50:31 -0400
Charlton Wilbur <cwilbur@chromatico.net> writes:
It is. But when your working set won't fit into physical memory,
there's very little the scheduler can do to prevent thrashing.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#32 squirrels
one of the strategies for this was to allow multiple tasks to
concurrently execute ... but to severely restrict the aggregate real
storage available to ill-behaved operations. a combination of
well-behaved tasks can maintain adequate cpu utilization ... while
masking the page-thrashing characteristic of ill-behaved operation.
the other strategy used was to also severely restrict the frequency that
such tasks were allowed to execute.
this is somewhat my old comment from the 60s about dynamic adaptive
scheduling and dynamic resource management coupled with scheduling to
the bottleneck (i.e. if it is not possible to provide sufficient
resources to run efficiently ... rather than scheduling more frequently
because the ill-behaved operation wasn't meeting its cpu-use objective,
adapt the scheduling strategy towards real-storage resource utilization
and away from cpu-use utilization).
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare
and
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#wsclock
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
squirrels
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: squirrels
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:00:53 -0400
Charlton Wilbur <cwilbur@chromatico.net> writes:
This is called "voodoo troubleshooting." You don't have a clear mental
model of how the computer works, yet; if you change things at random,
you'll only solve the problem by purest random chance.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#32 squirrels
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#34 squirrels
For something similar, I periodically referred to "witch-doctor"
performance tuning ... which was frequently the prevalent
state-of-the-art in the 60s & 70s ... old posts referring
to witch-doctor performance/system tuning:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/97.html#12 OSes commerical, history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#10 Multi-processor timing issue
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#25 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#51 subprime write-down sweepstakes
there is also the cross-over into reports, audits, ratings, evaluations:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#64 lack of information accuracy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#33 dollar coins
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
dollar coins
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: dollar coins
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:14:43 -0400
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
a business news show just had commentary that the senate for the past
decade is the worst in history ... and are a major contributing factor
in the current financial crisis ... starting with their repeal of
Glass-Steagall. there was claim that part of the problem is that they
have been glorifying ignorance.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#28 dollar coins
recent news item:
Citigroup Unravels as Reed Regrets Universal Model
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aVwxSMeM0MnA&refer=home
from above:
Smith asks where Rubin was when Citi was buying billions in assets
backed by subprime loans. CEO Prince, a lawyer with no capital markets
background, could have used some advice, he says.
"Rubin is an embarrassment," he concludes.
... snip ...
above also mentions Rubin was paid $150 million since joining Citi.
somewhat related item with reference to citi carrying over $1 trillion
off-balance
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#1 dollar coins
then there is ...
The Long Demise of Glass-Steagall
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html
from above:
Just days after the administration (including the Treasury Department)
agrees to support the repeal, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, the
former co-chairman of a major Wall Street investment bank, Goldman
Sachs, raises eyebrows by accepting a top job at Citigroup as Weill's
chief lieutenant.
... snip ...
past posts mentioning the pbs program on repeal of Glass-Steagall:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#71 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#2 Bush - place in history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#66 independent appraisers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#89 Credit Crisis Timeline
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
squirrels
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: squirrels
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:49:14 -0400
Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> writes:
Assuming that the news reader in SeaMonkey is just about the same
as the news reader in Thunderbird (I switched two years ago, after
noticing that the SeaMonkey build was no longer being actively
maintained) I can attest that alt.folklore.computers is just about
the ultimate test case for a thread-aware newsreader, because of the
extreme length of threads that is standard here. This creates both
a significant CPU load as one enters the news group and the thread
tree must be built, and a large working set to hold a tree that
might hold thousands of posts in a single thread tree if the
server has good, long expire times for the group. For a while,
I had set the group to "use offline" and had about 15000 messages
on my PC, and opening a thread could take up to 80 seconds at 100%
cpu time on my 1.6GHz processor.
misc. (seamonkey) build references:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/releases/
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/releases/1.1.11/
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/nightly/
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/nightly/latest-trunk/
i switched to firefox looking for better performance with a couple
hundred (or more) tabs open.
--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70
Calling Out
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Calling Out
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:29:40 -0400
stremler writes:
Okay,