Judge Approves Countrywide/Bank of America Mortgage Settlement

A U.S. District judge in Los Angeles announced terms of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit involving Countrywide Financial Corporation. The LA Times reported the story over this past weekend.

The terms require Bank of America, Countrywide's current owner, to pay $600 million to former Countrywide shareholders remaining in the case. KPMG, which provided the accounting fig leaf for Countrywide's bamboozling, has to pony up $24 million.

A number of plaintiffs won't settle, feeling they would be getting pennies on the dollar. The Oregon attorney general's office, for example, noted its clients would receive a grand total of $500,000 in the settlement; they were owed $14 million.

On the face of it, Bank of America (BOA) must love this settlement. The institution walks away from Countrywide's massive fraud with a manageable, one-time balance sheet hit. Keep in mind BOA received TARP funds, and no indictments of bank personnel for illegal activity have ever been issued. Countrywide's former boss Angelo Mozillo remains unindicted, and with plenty of money he collected as a direct result of his firm's fleecing of home buyers and mortgage investors.

The transfer of wealth from low-income home owners to institutional investors and high net-worth individuals has frayed our nation's social fabric. Our country's societal structure now resembles a barbell, with wealth extremes held together by a slender middle class rod. Do you think that's a desirable state of affairs? All opinions welcome, within reason.

Razzies for a Dull Oscar Year

The Razzies, a LA-based spoof on the Oscars, were recently announced. The BBC story linked here has some details. The big loser was The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyalaman's 3-D picture, although the dreadful Sex and the City sequel was deservedly cited for a number of "awards." (Remember all the hype around Memorial Day fawning over the Fab Four and their outfits? Ah, how quickly one forgets. Even Derek Jeter has put some distance between himself and the actress who played the Carrie Bradshaw character.)

My wife and I saw portions of The Last Airbender at a drive-in. It was an odd situation, as our car's location, on an embankment, provided sight lines for three movies. They ironically included (a) the Oscar-nominated Inception, (b) a bad animated picture for which we had sound, (c) the Shyalaman movie. I tried to watch all three movies to get the gist of them, but ended up wishing I could simply look up and enjoy a summer's night sky.

Wayne Barrett profile

Investigative reporting, and the reporters that do that rather thankless job, is becoming an endangered media species. It's a very tough profession, as The New York Times' article on Wayne Barrett notes.

While there are many curious angles to the Barrett story, the most troubling is that the Village Voice simply dropped him after decades of strong journalism.

Where will Barrett's new journalistic home be? He never fit in with the trendy horseshit editors such as Tina Brown champion. Barrett is much too streetwise and independent to put up with the intellectual cynicism and self-seeking someone such as Arianna Huffington projects. And he's far too rogue for, well, The New York Times.

In a way, the Internet may be Barrett's saving grace. He can start his own blog, as other well-connected journalists have done. And he won't be in it for the monetization.

NY Mets to MLB: Hey Bud, Can You Spare $25 Million

The New York Mets baseball team, according to today's New York Times, tapped Major League Baseball for a $25 million loan late last year.

The loan was provided on the hush-hush to the Madoff-tainted franchise. The secrecy has raised eyebrows among many interested parties. Those include other major league baseball franchises (the Yankees must be having a very good laugh over this episode), the banks whom the Mets' owners have strung out to the tune of $400 million in IOUs, the team's sponsors, the players who must be wondering if Met ownership is solvent enough to meet its $140 million payroll, and the trustee of the Madoff mess who is suing the Wilpon/Katz empire for a cool billion dollars.

Yes, the Mets have issues. Spring training has just begun, and already "Let's Go Mets!" sound pretty hollow. It's going to be a very long, lonely season at Citi Field.

Mr. Peanut Sighting

There was a Mr. Peanut sighting in Los Angeles this week. The LA Times noted the episode, in which the walking, talking legume took to the streets promoting "green" initiatives during pre-Oscar week. The photos above originally appeared in the Times article.

Too bad Mr. Peanut can't present a major award at Sunday's Oscar event. He would automatically win my vote for best outfit.

Geithner: We Can Handle Rising Oil Prices

Treasury secretary Tim Geithner told a Bloomberg Breakfast gathering today that the economic "recovery" put nations in stronger positions to navigate through the current wave of oil price hikes.

"Central banks have a lot of experience managing these things," Geithner said.

One wonders. Libyan resources represent 2% of the world's crude oil production. More significantly, Libya's oil goes to a select few, with Italy at the top of the list. Further, Libya's oil is a particularly good variety, making "one-to-one" swaps with, say, Saudi oil, an unrealistic proposition.

Finally, how many central bankers really know their way through the merciless world of Big Oil?

My guess is that Geithner will sing a different song once gas reaches four dollars per gallon. That was the price that sank John McCain's presidential run. Neither the current Treasury secretary -- nor his boss, the President -- wants to experience what the Arizona senator did in the late summer of 2008.

The photo shows Geithner (extreme right), Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, and Representative Barney Frank, in presumably happier times.

Internet-Inspired Revolutions: Chinese and Russian Empires Strike Back

Events in North Africa and the Middle East have reasonably caught the world's attention. However, there are some very interested parties which have been rather quiet during the recent uproar across the Islamic crescent of nations. Prime candidates include Russia and China.

Both countries have a ruling class whose appetite for control permits no quarter with free expression. Both China and Russia have a history of repression in the name of "progress." Both nations have populations that could resort to volatile behavior as a means of mass expression. And both former Communist monoliths harbor profound reservations about the Internet.

Chinese president Hu Jintao, in a recent speech at Beijing's elite Central Party School, was blunt about his concerns. The Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal noted his remarks at the end of an article about the Chinese government's heebie jeebies over the Internet's role in the downfall of North African regimes.

The key quote is as follows:

"At present, our country has an important strategic window for development, but is also in a period of magnified social conflicts," he said. Among the steps Beijing had to take, Mr. Hu said, was "further strengthening and improving management of the Internet, improving the standard of management of virtual society, and establishing mechanisms to guide online public opinion."

It's easy to imagine Russia's Vladimir Putin feeling that he and Hu are kindred spirits on this issue.

One wonders what the Chinese government's "improving management of the Internet," or "establishing mechanisms to guide online public opinion" might mean in practice.

Like it or not, the United States remains the global counterpoint to China's dark police state and Russia's gangster nation. That's one very important reason why our country must recover its economic mojo. The sooner we get it, the better off the world will be.

University Faculty Asked to Sign Time Sheets

University faculties, which have gotten a free pass during the turmoil over American public education, just received the first whiff of a trend they will decidedly dislike.

Kean University of New Jersey, a commuter school whose graduates frequently become public school teachers, has requested its faculty to complete weekly time sheets. The story from nj.com (the Internet version of the Star-Ledger of Newark) notes administration rationale as well as faculty response.

For some time, the education "reformers" had the wrong focus. They should have focused on the universities, where so much is misguided, wrong, corrupt. I don't think time sheets are the way to bring academia back to reality. What's needed is the end of the faculty tenure system, an end to annual tuition increases that are routinely, insultingly double or triple the inflation rate, and the churn of "papers" that accomplish next to nothing toward intellectual development.

Just don't ask the reformers to sign a time sheet.

NFL Star Backs Wisconsin Protest

Charles Woodson, an All-Pro defensive player with the NFL champion Green Bay Packers, publicly announced his support of those protesting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's intention to eliminate public employee collective bargaining rights.

Woodson's statement, in its entirety, appears in the Green Bay Press Gazette. The paper's related story notes other Packer players who have made public statements in support of the protest.

Blog Management of Reader Comments

The LA Times ran a very interesting item earlier this week about reader responses to the Lara Logan story. The piece appears in the "Reader's Representative Journal" and is part of the Times' blog roster.

It's obvious to note that "real time" reader comments posted on various Internet forums have changed the way many people evaluate information. From online retailers to news aggregators, the ability and willingness for total strangers to leave their thoughts for an unknown readership is a phenomenon that's here to stay. What are the phenomenon's impacts and ramifications? How does it add to one's understanding of the proposition being considered?

Notably and unsurprisingly, the Times added extra monitoring of reader comments to the Logan story. Managing public discourse is tricky business; the Times (among many other branded media information creators and distributors) has evidently worked hard to provide an environment where many opinions could be voiced.

For those who contribute readers opinions, or manage blogs, how do you manage your discourse or your site's discourse? All thoughts are welcome here, as long as they're "respectful."

Countrywide's Former CEO Beats the Rap

Federal prosecutors are reportedly terminating their criminal investigation into Countrywide's former CEO Angelo Mozilo. (He's the tanned, smiling figure in the photo.) The Feds apparently believe they don't have a case strong enough to convict a key figure in the financial pillaging of the savings of millions of Americans. There is some thought the various civil proceedings Mozilo faces may provide statements or other evidence to re-open a federal probe into Mozilo's activities at Countrywide.

To date, Mozilo has had to personally pay a $22 million fine levied by the SEC; the other $40-plus million was paid by the bailed-out Bank of America, which had acquired Countrywide. Mozilo thus remains unindicted for any criminal activity, and at liberty to enjoy the millions he retained from the Countrywide fraud. How much? From 2005-2007, Mozilo made nearly $300 million in Countrywide stock he sold.

Intriguingly, congressman Darrell Issa intends to have Mozilo testify before the House committee the conservative Republican chairs. (Issa, by the way, is the wealthiest member of the House of Representatives.) Issa's goal in his probe of Countrywide is to dig up dirt on Countrywide's VIP list of sweetheart mortgages. Among those known to have received them are two high-profile Democrats: former U.S. senator Chris Dodd and current U.S. senator Kent Conrad. Expect other Democrats, such as fund raisers and other party insiders, to be named during Mozila's testimony. One big prize Issa may be targeting might be Jim Johnson, who doubled as Fannie Mae chief and a prominent Democratic Party fund raiser and power broker. Johnson was originally the lead dog for Obama's VP selection process; that evaporated when allegations that Johnson received a sweetheart deal from Countrywide became public. Another prize might be Franklin Raines, Freddie Mac's CEO who also allegedly received a Countrywide mortgage with a "noncompeting" interest rate.

Issa and many Republicans would like nothing more than to expose corruption at Fannie and Freddie. That development would give them the hammer to shut Fannie and Freddie down once and for all.

TV Ratings During Egypt's "Revolution"

Distasteful as it may be to some outside the TV business, television networks were assiduously looking for a ratings "bump" via coverage of Egypt's so-called "revolution." Guess who made the biggest viewer gains? If you picked Al Jazeera and Fox News, you hit the daily double.

The LA Times had a brief story about the ratings game in today's edition.

The photo shows Fox News reporters Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig during a discussion of their encounter with violence during the "peaceful" Cairo demonstrations.

Senator Leahy Not Buying FBI Anthrax Case

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who was a target of the 2001 anthrax attacks, isn't buying the FBI's recent conclusion regarding the attack's perpetrator. He spoke with the Washington Post about his misgivings, including his belief that the case is "not closed."

The Post story also usefully reminded readers that then Senator Tom Daschle was another target of the anthrax mailings. The article noted that a number of former Daschle aides now work in high levels of the Obama administration. They might be inclined to work behind the scenes toward achieving a more believable investigatory conclusion than the FBI's "lone assassin" theory.

I still have a plastic bag used by the USPS during the anthrax scare; our postal mail was delivered in it. It won't do the FBI any good, but it serves as a reminder of a dark, unsolved, and very frightening episode in the strange days immediately following September 11, 2001.

The photo shows FBI agents wearing protective suits during their 2001 investigation of the anthrax affair.

Ballplayer Who Was Traded for Announcer -- RIP; TheBocX.com on ITunes

Believe it or not, a baseball player was once traded even up for a baseball announcer. I didn't know this until I noted Cliff Dapper's obit in today's LA Times.

Dapper, a catcher in the Brooklyn Dodger organization, had an espresso with the flagship club. His moment in history emerged in a way only baseball could conjer. According to the obit, Brooklyn's radio announcer Red Barber was in poor health, and the franchise needed a pinch voice. Available was the Atlanta minor league franchise's play-by-play man Ernie Harwell (who went on to a Hall of Fame career as the voice of the Detroit Tigers). Flesh, rather than cash, was required to consummate the deal. Dapper was tapped, and into baseball lore he stepped.

It would be very interesting to make similar deals today. What player or package of players would be worth, say, Bob Costas, Jim Nantz, or Al Michaels? Those who claim that Vin Scully is worth more than the entire LA Dodger roster would find agreement here. He remains without contemporary peer as a broadcaster. One of the charms of Los Angeles, a city I like visiting, is to hear Scully broadcast Dodger games.

On a side note, my friends at the Internet music station TheBocX.com are now accessible via ITunes. You'll find them in the "jazz" category. Their fresh musical mix goes well beyond jazz, into funk, r&b and contemporary electronic music with a nod toward dance, house, etc. If you're ever curious about what music I enjoy, tap into TheBocX.com, and you'll get an idea. I recommend clicking in and checking them out.

Sherrod Sues Breitbart

Shirley Sherrod, a former US Department of Agriculture employee, has sued Andrew Breitbart (shown in the photo) and Breitbart TV head Larry O'Connor. The lawsuit centers on a video Breitbart released in which Sherrod states before an NAACP audience that she discriminated against a white farmer because of his race. The Washington Post noted the story in today's editions. The article includes useful links, including one to Breitbart's website and statement on the litigation.

Breitbart's video, in which his selective editing of the speech presented Sherrod in such an unfavorable light, caused a firestorm when it was released. I have not seen the video. From the descriptions of it, the video distorts Sherrod's comments by eliminating the context in which they appeared. The eliminations were evidently intended to promote Breitbart's right-wing propaganda, rather than present a dispassionate view of an event.

Breitbart's odious agitprop should be denounced. Breitbart distorts situations and misrepresents innocent people in order to reach his ideological goals. Are Breitbart's repellent tactics how conservatives, in the wake of the moral nihilism of the Bush-Cheney era, plan to persuade Americans about the clarity and justice of their ideals?

Thain: Lehman Bailout Would Have Prevented TARP

The Bloomberg media empire, whatever its flaws, has performed some fine work exploring the 2008 bursting of America's financial boil. Its reporters have filed Freedom of Information Acts, the successful pursuit of which have brought to public light unsavory, discomfiting details about the financial markets and their interactions with federal agencies. Bloomberg's reporters have probed material gathered in testimony, gone to court, and basically done the dirty work that is the core of investigative journalism.

A case in point is today's simple story from Bloomberg reporter Hugh Son. In it, Son cites audio files released from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission focusing on comments submitted by John Thain.

Thain's thesis is that, had the Feds bailed out Lehman, the self-inflicted torpedoing of the American economy and subsequent (and largely misunderstood) TARP bailout would not have been necessary.

John who? How quickly we forget. Thain, currently CEO of CIT, was el primero at Merrill Lynch during the 2008 disaster. A former NYSE chairman, Thain stage managed the grafting of two wildly opposite enterprises -- Merrill and Bank of America -- into one splendid taxpayer subsidized catastrophe. He also had a hand in Merrill employees getting $4 billion in bonuses while the firm was plunging into the fiscal abyss. It has been strongly suspected, though unproven, that TARP funds paid for Merrill's way of saying goodbye.

For his part, Thain originally demanded a bonus for his role in the Merrill-BOA merger. He asked for $10 million in addition to his lavish compensation package. How lavish? In 1987, Thain earned around $83 million for his labors.

Thain, whose name rhymes with "vain," displayed an amazingly arrogant sense of entitlement throughout his career. The most egregious example of this behavior was his spending on his Merrill corporate suite. In early 2008, Thain had the firm pay over $1 million to redo two conference rooms, a reception area, and Thain's personal office. A $35,000 commode, part of the redecorating, was included in the deal. Only after those details became public information, and a source of outrage, did Thain reach into his pockets and pony up. (That leaves $82 million remaining from the 2007 compensation alone, in case you're keeping score at home.)

The former Merrill CEO still has powerful friends, as the linked relationship map from muckety.com suggests. He is a prominent Republican Party member and was among John McCain's economic advisors during the Arizona senator's unsuccessful run for the presidency. It's unknown whether Thain advocated for a continuation of the Bush tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

Impact of Climate Change in Alaska's National Parks

Scientific American recently published an article detailing phenomena in Alaska's national parks that one could reasonably attribute to climate change. One of the parks mentioned was Kenai Fjords, which is shown in the photograph.

The most notable observation in the article was the impact of thawing permafrost on the state's northern regions. (The Scientific American piece calls the phenomenon "thermafrost" for reasons that elude me.) Though not noted in the story, a similar permafrost situation is taking place in Siberia. The thawing of permafrost is a big deal, and impacts everyone throughout the world.

A useful, reasonably accessible introduction to permafrost is available from the International Permafrost Association. Its small photo gallery is quite interesting. The organization also holds occasional meetings, some of which have been held in the following sexy destinations:

West Lafayette, Indiana (home to Purdue University)

Yellowknife, Canada

Fairbanks, Alaska

Yakutsk, Siberia

Borders Bankruptcy

The Borders bookstore chain, which has been under financial siege for a number of years, will throw in the towel next week and declare bankruptcy. The New York Times broke the story today.

There remains value in some Borders assets, notably its retail customer list and associated data. Some enterprise will want them to leverage those marketing opportunities. Perhaps a leaner Borders will emerge from bankruptcy protection. I doubt it, though, unless Borders has some sort of online business miracle up its sleeve. That prospect seems most unlikely.

It's done.

Jerry Sloan

Jerry Sloan, the coach of the Utah Jazz pro basketball team, abruptly resigned this week.

Sloan will be missed. He was a great coach. His teams always seemed to have more wins than losses, even though Sloan often worked with B-level talent. Salt Lake City, a small, remote, decidedly Mormon and Caucasian market, was not a place where ambitious African-American basketball players wanted to make their names. Sloan coached the players he had, and typically made them better players. He didn't write self-aggrandizing books, as Phil Jackson and Pat Riley did. Sloan wasn't a telegenic coach, like Rick Pitino or the smug Mike Krzyzewski. He didn't invent a highfalutin' "system," reinvent the jump shot, or leverage the past to monetize the present.

He is the only coach to win 1,000 games with one NBA team. That's approximately 300 more than Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach, to give you a feel for the scale of the accomplishment. Sloan's teams played the way he played -- hard. Sloan, a two-time All-Pro guard, loved the game, and he always appreciated what it gave him. He made his name as a player with the Chicago Bulls, and his personality completely meshed with the Windy City's fans demands for toughness and desire. He remains very much respected in Chicago, and no one held against him his losing record as Bulls coach. (The b&w photo shows Sloan the player with Bulls' teammates Norm Van Lier, Chet Walker, and Bob Love.)

He came close to winning a championship with the Utah Jazz. It took a Michael Jordan-led Chicago team to beat Sloan's squad in consecutive seasons. The Jazz were never close to an NBA crown after that. As a consequence, there won't be an NBA championship on Sloan's resume. However, he can take solace from his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame while he was still coaching the Jazz. An active coach's induction is a rare honor; in Sloan's case, it's an entirely deserved one.

Ironically, Sloan was never named NBA Coach of the Year.

Home from the Hospital

I just returned home from hip replacement surgery. I spent three days in a New York hospital, followed by five nights in a rehabilitation facility close to my New Jersey residence. It's good to be home, and continuing the rehabilitation plan on an outpatient basis.

Spending time in medical institutions presents a number of challenges. One is a distorted sense of time. In a way, the experience is weirdly similar one experiences in a casino. I admit that a hospital room has a clock and windows, while a casino typically does not. However, the combination of the influence of medication, visits at just about any hour by hospital staff members, and the typically unvaried hospital environment produces a disrupted sense of time.

Another challenge is how one is thrown into a new community of fellow patients. If one has a semi-private room, as I did, the relationship with one's roommate can make institutional life heaven or hell. I was very fortunate, in that each of my roommates were interesting, even lovely men. When my father, during his later years, became something of a frequent patient, his relationship with his roommate colored his disposition.

A third challenge is the sense of boredom of spending long hours cooped up. I very quickly swore off watching television; the Internet and DVDs were my psychological relief. I couldn't stand the television programming, which seemed far more dangerous a drug than any of the narcotics used during or after my surgery. I also made it a point to get out of bed, and out of my room, as often as possible. The bed and the TV were my principal adversaries during my hospital and rehab stays.

I also had a deep dread of getting an infection or catching something dreadful such as pneumonia as a result of a medical procedure. I felt vulnerable, at the mercy of random events and other patients' cooties. In fairness, the two facilities involved in my surgery and rehab were very clean, with staff often quite conscious -- and conscientious about -- the need for reasonably sterile environments. Still, I felt unsettled by the accidental, unintended, uncontrollable role of chance that opportunistic disease presented. Each cough ignited my fear of contracting pneumonia; each sneeze represented the unleashing of a sinister biological force into the atmosphere surrounding me and other patients.

The challenges mask one very important fact: I accomplished the purpose of being in the hospital and in the rehab facility. For that, I am very grateful.

Steinway Mansion For Sale

The New York Times reported in today's edition that the Steinway mansion, once home to the piano manufacturing Steinways, is for sale.

The structure and its adjoining property is in Astoria, the Queens neighborhood where I lived for a grand total of six years. My residence was within relatively easy walking distance of the Steinway grounds. It was also a world away. The Steinway mansion was lost in time. Originally built as a weekend getaway on a desirable shoreline, the area surrounding the Steinway property morphed into a collection of low-rise industrial buildings, a decidedly uncharming water treatment plant, Archie Bunker-style houses, a bleak river view, and nearby airports. That left the mansion marooned in an eerie sort of isolation. And it wasn't as if one could break through the time warp by the radical notion of walking up to the mansion itself and knock on the door. Michael Halberian, who had purchased the house from the Steinways well over a generation ago, was rather selective about whom he permitted into the mansion.

There's much more to the Steinway mansion story than what appeared in the occasionally too-cutely written Times piece. I'm hopeful one writer in particular, who lived in Astoria when I did, will have something to contribute. She has the capacity to bring depth, nuance, and style to this chapter of the Steinway mansion's saga.

Jane Harman To Leave Congress

There was a significant news item today about a Californian, and it wasn't about Arianna Huffington. Jane Harman, a Congressional representative from LA's Venice Beach area, announced this House term would be her final one. The Washington Post noted Harman's decision in today's edition.

What's interesting in this is Harman's history as the Democratic hammer on the House Committee on Homeland Security. She was in the middle of the Bush wiretapping scandal, an issue over which conservatives maintained a silence that contributed to the moral bankruptcy of their ideology. There are many skeletons in the Bush wiretap closet; Harman knows more than her share of them.

In fairness, it's worth checking out Harman's official biography. If nothing else, enjoy the banner, which shows Harman against the backdrop of a southern California beach.

Dim Alcohol Sale Laws

The various states of the Union have some of the wackiest alcohol laws on their books. Some of them are designed to maintain state control, as a Washington Post story noted today. The WaPo article cited Maryland's arcane regulations, which prohibit ordinary citizens from having wine shipped from out-of-state to Maryland residents. These useless statutes only serve to encourage a casual disrespect for the law by ordinary citizens, and there's no point their continuance.

There are real reasons for legitimate laws: controlling the flow of wine across state lines is not one of them.

Drug Cartel Pirates Microsoft Office Software

According to a story in today's LA Times, Microsoft has accused a leading Mexican drug cartel of pirating and selling Microsoft Office software. Given the multitude of rogue copies of Office circulating in the world, Microsoft's spotlight on drug cartel puts an interesting spin on the issue of industrial-scale counterfeiting.

Past iterations on this topic have focused on "China" as the principal piracy culprit. The implication in such charges was that the illegal activity was encouraged by the state. Microsoft's concern with drug cartels brings some less tractable elements into the counterfeiting mix. The Microsoft accusation includes describing the drug cartel's sales and distribution operation. The illegal operation is reasonably sophisticated, although far from the scale of a multinational such as, say, Microsoft. One unspoken fear is that state supported gangsters, such as those in Russia and the former Soviet republics, could emulate and improve on the Mexican operation.

Of course, pimping widely copied software is one thing. Wait until the Apples of consumers' eyes enter the gray or downright dark market, courtesy of enterprising underworld "investors".

Kenneth Cole's Egypt Gaffe

Designer Kenneth Cole personally released an unimaginably thoughtless Tweet today, in which he conflated protests in Egypt with a sales pitch for his clothing line. He later apologized, claiming his Tweet was an inappropriate attempt at humor. The LA Times story offers a useful overview of Cole's dim actions.

The Cole episode is a curious one, given the MSM's trumpeting of Twitter and Facebook as popular communication devices for the Egyptian people during their time of crisis. It's evident that the MSM wasn't as nimble in its reporting as were the Tweets and Facebook entries that mobilized the Arab world's most cosmopolitan and culturally significant city to revolt. However, some MSM stars got a taste of the rough side of journalism. Ah, there's nothing quite like field experience....

Printed Books vs Reading Machines: A View from the Hospital

One curiosity of my hospital stay is that I have the inclination to read. I also, thankfully, have the ability to read in relatively unencumbered positions. This situation led me to think about the advantages of printed books as opposed to the various reading gadgets on the market.

What's most interesting so far is that I'm finding a printed book much more convenient to handle, to read, and to store in a hospital environment. I don't have to provide electricity for a printed book. I can drop a book without fear of damage. I can spill things on a book (I'm not advocating this) and it's not the end of the world.

I can't do any of those things with a reading gadget. I am using a laptop computer now. For reading newspapers such as the Financial Times, blogs, and even viewing YouTube clips, the laptop is great. Obviously, the laptop makes writing this blog entry possible. The annoyance of a laptop is its relatively large size, implicit need for a stable surface, and electrical demands.

I have to imagine what Nooks, Kindles, and iPads are like in my restricted hospital environment. My own sense is that they would be unwieldy devices. Scrolling is inconvenient compared to turning a printed page. I don't need or want endless applications with which to fiddle. I'm hardly a technophobe: I have two cell phones, an iPodTouch and a laptop by my bed. I use all of them, though not all at the same time.

However, I'm most comfortable reading Raymond Chandler in book form, and that's what I have now. The words retain their power, and his well-written stories retain their marvel and their magic. And I'm seeing them the way Chandler intended: on a printed page. (Yes, that's Chandler in the photo.)

Three Up: Aussie Drought, Jon Corzine, Hip

While the focus of the news has been on Egypt, it's worth noting three items, one of which is personal.

First up is Australia. While the disastrous floods in the eastern part of the country, a nasty drought has hammered the country's wheat growing regions. The financial blog Zero Hedge noted the meteorlogical situation and its impact on wheat prices. The issue of inflation in food prices has political impact, and has been directly linked to social unrest in a number of countries. The absence of a strong Australian wheat harvest is likely to pressure wheat prices upward. That's good news for US farmers, but not for consumers of the staff of life.

Meanwhile, Jon Corzine slipped back into the financial news. The former Goldman Sachs CEO and chairman began working in the same roles at a derivates trading enterprise called MF Global in March 2010. (I don't know what "MF" means, but I do have a salacious guess.) It seemed like a long way from a firm most of the public associates as the epitome "Wall Street." One

wondered what Corzine had up his sleeve besides a part-time gig teaching public policy at Princeton. Today's news provides an answer. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced MF Global would be among 20 financial institutions characterized as a "primary dealer." This is big money, as they can trade directly with the Federal Reserve. As the Wikipedia entry on primary dealers notes, "arguably, this group's members are the most influential and powerful non-governmental institutions in world financial markets." Welcome -- or should one say "welcome back" -- to the club, Citizen Corzine.

Last, but not least, is my newest venture in hipness. It has nothing to do with calculated posing in select New York bars. Rather, I'm in a New York hospital getting a hip replacement. Recovery is moving along at the anticipated rate, so far. For those who have called, e-mailed, texted, and/or visited, please accept my gratitude for your care and concern.