next Saturday at home against 2-5 East Carolina.

Tulsa 39 Rice 22. The Owls' once promising season has now officially fallen apart as they lost decisively to a bad Tulsa team in Tulsa. The 3-5 Owls now face Fresno State and the Mike Price-revived UTEP in two of their final three games. Those games could be very ugly for the Owls.

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More business crime? Or just more prosecutions?

Readers of this blog know that I am critical of several recent "popular" prosecutions of business executives, and this NY Times article reports on the opinions of several experts who agree with my view:

"It is exaggerated to say that there is much more corporate malfeasance than in the past," said Luigi Zingales, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. "Malfeasance is just more likely to be revealed in recessions."

"Prosecutors are going after white-collar crime with an eagerness we hadn't seen before," said James D. Cox, a professor of law at Duke University. "The state attorneys general realized that the governor-in-waiting, otherwise known as the attorney general, can get a lot of headlines."

"In a bubble, people want to be lied to," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. "It was more than a conflict of interest - securities analysts boosted stocks because people wanted them to."

The article concludes by noting that the investing public's attitudes often changes with which way the investing winds are blowing, and that such changes have an effect on the resulting prosecutions of business executives:

[W]hen the market went south, . . . faith in self-regulation took a beating, and new regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley rules for corporate governance were passed. Suddenly less prosperous, Americans became much more willing to catch and punish abuses, and admiration for high fliers turned to suspicion.
"The social dynamics are sometimes more important than the law," Mr. Coffee said.

And we should all be concerned about that. For when we allow the law to be twisted to appeal to the "social dynamics" of a particular situtation, then the law becomes just another convenient political tool and the rule of law erodes.

And for those who would respond -- "So what? What's the problem with eroding the rule of law a bit to nail some greedy business executives?" -- I would remind them of Thomas More's advice to his son-in-law-to-be Will Roper from A Man for All Seasons:

"Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down -- and you're just the man to do it, Roper! -- do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"
"Yes, I'd give the Devil the benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"

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kets than there is in non-traditional markets and that impacts tontends that the media releases much more and better information Game Pool that takes place each holiday season. ;^)

f="http://blog.kir.com/archives/2004_08.asp#001015">This postJabbar Gaffney somehow fumbled the ball out of the endzone in the second quarter without being hit a moment before reaching the goal line. The Texans' often shaky defense was outstanding in this game, holding the Jags to a paltry 39 yards rushing and about 3.5 yards per pass, and tacking on a TD on DeMarcus Faggins' fourth quarter interception return to ice the game. Meanwhile, David Carr had probably his best game as a pro, hitting on 26-34 throws for 276 yards, a TD, and most importantly, no turnovers. The Texans are now an improbable 4-3, but face tough road games at Denver and then Indianapolis over the next two weekends.

Cowboys 31 Lions 21. Meanwhile, the our north, the Cowboys avoided sending the Big Tuna toward another coronary infarction with a win over the visiting Lions at Texas Stadium. The Cowboys finally found a run defense in this one, something that has been strangely absent this season for their usually formidable run defense. The 3-4 Pokes have a winnable game next Sunday at Cincinnati before returning home the following week for a showdown with the NFL East-leading Eagles.

Texas Longhorns 31 Colorado 7. The Horns' increasingly formidable defense keyed this win, as Colorado could muster only 3 yards rushing and 221 yards total offense. The Horns still can't pass a lick, which will be a problem against teams that have the defensive strength to stuff their rushing attack. However, a big difference in Texas this season is that their defense is good enought to win low scoring games. My friends in college coaching told me before the season that Dick Tomey would make a difference in Texas' defensive unit, and I am now a believer.

Baylor 35 Texas Aggies 34. The Aggies almost laid an egg at home last week against Colorado, but they went ahead and laid a whopper in Waco against the Bears. Frankly, I was not surprised that Baylor gave A&M a game, as I had been on the sidelines of the Baylor-Iowa State game the weekend before and concluded then that the Bears -- although undermanned at several line positions -- were very well motivated and well-coached. The Ags put the ball on the ground a few times and, before you now it, the Bears determined that they could win the game. The decision of Baylor coach Guy Morris to go for two points after pulling to within 34-33 in the first overtime is one of those decisions that anyone who enjoys college football just has to admire. The 6-2 Aggies must now try to regroup before Oklahoma comes to College Station next Saturday night. Given the performance of the Aggie defense over the past two games, here is a betting recommendation on that game -- take "the over."

Houston 24 Tulane 3. The Coogs, who really have played a brutal schedule this season, finally caught a break and pounded a poor Tulane team at Roberston Stadium in Houston. This one was over by halftime as the Coogs coasted in the second half against either a dominating defensive effort or an imcompetent Tulane offensive performance, depending upon your viewpoint. The 2-6 Coogs have another winnable game Pacers' brawl is not the first instance..." dc:creator="" dc:date="2004-11-29T07:14:58-06:00" /> -->

More on basketball, hockey style

On the heels of this earlier post on the fight that occurred on November 19 at the Pistons-Pacers game, do not miss Professor Sauer's analysis of the affair, with a Stros twist:

The Pacers' brawl is not the first instance of a fan being leveled by a player-thrown haymaker. In one memorable incident in 1999, a fan raced onto the field at Milwaukee County Stadium and jumped on Billy Spiers in right field. Spiers' Astros teamates were quick on the scene to defend him. I recall Mike Hampton landing a series of blows to the head of that bozo. Billy Spiers (a former Tiger in addition to being an Astro) was one of my favorite players. Put me in Hampton's shoes and I'd have done the same thing, though not so effectively. Thanks for that, Mike.
Now, how different is Hampton's defense of his teammate from Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson's defense of Ron Artest? While there are differences, they are mostly a matter of degree. The common thread between the two incidents is the out of control fan.

Many issues are highlighted by the fight in Detroit. The NBA paid service to the media with swift and draconian punishment for the players involved. But to me, fan control is a more serious and more difficult problem than player control. Each time fans rush the court or the playing field after a game, they illustrate the raw power inherent in a crowd that no level of security short of an armored division can manage. The trick for sports management is to short-circuit the potential for a crowd to turn into a mob.

Definite clear thinking. Read the entire post.

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Houston's bull on oil prices

This earlier post reported on an interview of Matt Simmons, the Houston-based investment banker who is an expert on forecasting oil supplies. Following that interview, this Barron's interview of Mr. Simmons warns that the Saudi oil supplies are not what they appear to be and that, because the Saudi oil industry is state-run, there is no independent auditor of national reserves who can verify just howl/players/profile?statsId=6437">Domanick Davis ran

Louisiana Tech 51 Rice 14. Rice's disappointing season ended on Monday night in a 51-14 loss to Louisiana Tech before a "crowd" of friends and family members of 8,317 at Reliant Stadium. The Owls finished with a record of 3-8 on the season.

The 3-8 Houston Cougars' season finished last week (mercifully).

And finally, don't miss Kevin Whited's final Big 12 wrap-up.

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More on the wild world of Equatorial Guinea

The latest news from the wild world of Equatorial Guinea is not good for Mark Thatcher, the son of former English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Here are the previous posts on this lurid affair. Movie rights to be sold soon.

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UAL, we have a big problem

Most of news over the past two years about the United Airlines chapter 11 case has focused on the legacy airlines operating losses, its unfunded pension ves/2004/11/ual_we_have_a_b.asp#comments">Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 27, 2004

Ken Lay's lawyer hammers the Chronicle and the Enron Task Force

The public relations contest that the Enron case has become continued today. In this Chronicle op-ed, Mike Ramsey -- former Enron chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay's criminal defense attorney -- levels a blast at the Chronicle for adhering to the government's witch hunt theme in regard to a recent Chronicle editorial critical of Linda Lay's involvement in the sale of a Lay Family charity's Enron stock days before the filing of Enron's bankruptcy case:

As the tabloids demonstrate, there is money to be made by jumping onto the popular side of a public frenzy. However, one can still hope that major newspapers will refuse to become mouthpieces for those who prefer strong-arm tactics to public trials.
Just maybe it is time to get to the truth by a public trial instead of in the backrooms of the Enron Task Force and Houston Chronicle. (One might even wonder if those backrooms have adjoining doors.)

Then, Mr. Ramsey gives the Lay side of the story regarding the stock sale:

Linda Lay sold Enron shares as president of the family's charitable foundation. They were shares that Ken and Linda had given to that foundation prior to the end of 2000 and every penny of the money from the sale went to such charities as United Way, YMCA, DePelchin Children's Center, Star of Hope, Holocaust Museum Houston, and Open Door Mission, among many others.
The sale was made on the day, Nov. 28, 2001, when the share price was in free-fall. Linda salvaged what she could, as was her duty as president of a charitable foundation. (The sale price was $2.37, off from a high near $85 earlier that year and a closing price the day before of $4.01.) More remarkable, during that market panic neither Ken nor Linda sold any of their personal shares.

Indeed, after Ken's return as CEO in August 2001 they held all their shares as the market plunged from near $40 per share to near $0.

The only shares that Ken and Linda ever sold during that tragic three and one-half months were sold to prevent margin calls from triggering a forced sale of all their shares. They never voluntarily sold a dime's worth after Ken's return. In fact, at bankruptcy they still held more than 1 million shares and more than 4 million vested stock options.

The dubious nature of the government's insider trading case against Mr. Lay has been examined in many previous posts here, including this one

"Alexander the Turkey"

My younger son, who is a serious film buff, went to see Oliver Stone's Alexander the Great yesterday. He passes along that it is an unmitigated disaster, and predicts that it will be out of the theaters in less than a month, a prediction that is supported by the woeful early financial performance of the $210 million film (there were few people in the audience of the showing that he attended). The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter agrees in this hilarious review, and passes along this gem on the performance of Angelina Jolie as Alexander's mother, Olympias:

Then there's Angelina Jolie as Mom. Really, words fail me here. But let's try: Give this young woman the hands-down award for best impression of Bela Lugosi while hampered by a 38-inch bust line. Though everyone else in the picture speaks in some variation of a British accent, poor Jolie has been given the Transylvanian throat-sucker's throaty, sibilant vowels, as well as a wardrobe of snakes. She represents the spirit of kitsch that fills the movie, and with all her crazed posturing and slinking, it's more of a silent movie performance than one from the sound era. Theda Bara, call your agent.

The blogosphere's foremost film critic -- Professor Ribstein -- passes along his thoughts in this post. And even Victor Davis Hanson chimes in with this review, in which he concludes:

There is also irony here. If we remember the embarrassing Troy, we are beginning to see, that all for all the protestations of artistic excellence and craftsmanship, Hollywood has become mostly a place of mediocrity, talentless actors and writers who spout off about politics in lieu of having any real accomplishment in their own field. I’ve heard so many inane things mouthed by Stone that I would like someone at last to address this question—why would supposedly smart insiders turn over $160 million to someone of such meager talent to make such an embarrassing film? Alexander the Great is third-rate Cecil B. Demille in drag.

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For Seinfeld fans

The Chronicle's Darrell Royal. By the way, Mr. Jamail paid for the statute of Coach Royal.

To this day, the Pennzoil-Texaco case is most remembered in Houston legal circles for the catastrophic trial decision that Texaco's general counsel made. Texaco's main defense was that it was justified in competing with Pennzoil for Getty Oil and, thus, could not have tortiously interfered with Pennzoil's takeover attempt. However, in support of an alternative defense, Texaco's trial counsel recommended that Texaco put on expert testimony that would contradict Pennzoil's evidence of alleged damages. Texaco's general counsel decided that putting on countervailing damages testimony would be a signal to the jury that Texaco did not confidence in its primary defense, so he directed Texaco's trial counsel not to put on any expert damages testimony.

Consequently, when the jury found in favor of Pennzoil on the liability issue, the only damages evidence in the trial record was Pennzoil's. Thus, the $11 billion jury verdict ensued, and the trial record contained inadequate evidence upon which an appellate court could base a decision to reduce the damages.

As they say in defense circles, "Ouch!"

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Oh great! Cell phone viruses?

Your cell phone may be the victim of the next wave of viruses.

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November 25, 2004

Rathergate is rather fine for CBS

This NY Times article reports that CBS executives are smiling these days, and Dan Rather's recent resignation as CBS anchorman does not really have much to do with it.

This is further confirmation that the mainstream television networks are really just entertainment venues, and that their news divisions have turned into just another entertainment show that they feel compelled to run for public relations purposes. Thus, so long as the news divisions are marginally profitable or do not lose much money, the networks don't really care much about the quality of the product.

My sense is that this is not the way that Edward R. Murrow thought that television network news was going to develop.

Meanwhile, this editorial provides The Economist's view of Mr. Rather's resignation, including the following observation:

Mr Rather's retirement epitomises two broader shifts of power. First, the old media are losing power to the new. And, second, the liberal media establishment is losing power to a more diverse cacophony of new voices.

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Spreading Holiday Cheer through Amazon

If you, like me, purchase a boatload of holiday gifts through Amazon.com, then you can help support this blog by clicking the "Holiday Shopping @ Amazon" link on the right side scroll bar. At no additional cost to the purchaser, Amazon's Associates program pays a small commission to this blog for any items purchased while accessing Amazon through that link. A number of other fine blogs are also in the program, (Virginia Postrel and Marginal Revolution to name just two), so I encourage you to use Amazon by clicking such a link and help support your favorite blogs during this Holiday Season. Thanks!

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Bill Moyers is retiring

Bill Moyers will retire next month from full-time broadcasting at the age of 70. This Rocky Mount Telegram article explores the life and work of Mr. Moyers, who has been one of the most thoughtful journalists regarding public affairs during his long career in journalism. Raised in Marshall, Texas, Mr. Moyers met Lyndon Johnson during his 1954 Senate campaign and then served as deputy director of the Peace Corps under President Kennedy and as President Johnson's chief advocate for the Great Society and the War Against Poverty from 1963-67.

Although I have not always agreed with Mr. Moyers' views, I have always apprecitz severance package pales in comparison to its failure to require Michael Eisner to adapt Disney's corporate strategy to maximize value for Disney's shareholders. This is true clear thinking, so check out the entire post.

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The political landscape for tax reform

This Washington Post article does a good job of describing the political landscape that confronts the Bush Administration in proposing and enacting tax reform legislation. The sponsors of the 1986 Tax Reform legislation -- Dan Rostenkowski and Robert Packwood -- are not particularly optimistic that the administration's approach to the issue will result in successful reform. Check it out.

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The real Oskar Schindler

This NY Times book review examines Holocaust historian David M. Crowe's authoritative your eyes corrected at a Lasik vision center.
Laser eye surgery has the highest patient satisfaction ratings of any surgery, it has been performed more than 3 million times in the past decade, it is new, it is high-tech, it has gotten better over time and... laser eye surgery has fallen in price. In 1998 the average price of laser eye surgery was about $2200 per eye. Today the average price is $1350, that's a decline of 38 percent in nominal terms and slightly more than that after taking into account inflation.

Why the price decline in this market and not others? Could it have something to do with the fact that laser eye surgery is not covered by insurance, not covered by Medicaid or Medicare, and not heavily regulated? Laser eye surgery is one of the few health procedures sold in a free market with price advertising, competition and consumer driven purchases. I'm seeing things more clearly already.

Touche!

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A new form of business regulation

Don't miss George Mason University law and economics whiz Henry G. Manne's brilliant Wall Street Journal ($) op-ed from yesterday in which he criticizes Eliot Spitzer's latest assault on business. Dean Manne cuts through the fog of Spitzer's public relations blitz to bear in on the true nature of Spitzer's campaign against the big insurers:

In an era of general acceptance of deregulation and privatization, Mr. Spitzer has introduced the world to yet a new form of regulation, the use of the criminal law as an in terrorem weapon to force acceptance of industry-wide regulations. These rules are not vetted through normal authoritative channels, are not reviewable by any administrative process, and are not subject to even the minimal due-process requirements our courts require for normal administrative rule making. The whole process bears no resemblance to a rule of law; it is a reign of force. And to make matters worse, the regulatory remedies are usually vastly more costly to the public than the alleged evils.

Professor Manne goes on to point out that Marsh's contingent commissions were as innocent as payola, which is widely misunderstood with regard to its market effect:

Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase once famously showed (Journal of Law and Economics 1979) how kickbacks in the so-called radio DJ payola scandal were really a legitimate, albeit superficially confusing, competitive device. Payola was essential, Coase explained, to preserving competition between record companies, and its demise was only sought by competitors who were injured by the practice -- not by consumers. There are eerie similarities between the two situations.
If the Coasian analysis is correct -- and no serious rebuttal has ever appeared -- we may witness the demise of specialized insurance-brokerage firms like Marsh & McLennan in favor of more integrated insurance companies who will do their own marketing. This is already rumored to have begun. Or we may see insurance brokerage firms beginning to acquire and operate insurance companies. In either case we would be witnessing a decrease in market specialization with a commensurate loss of economic efficiency. Mr. Spitzer would have succeeded in making the industry less competitive and less efficient, and insurance buyers will eventually pay higher not lower premiums.

With his usual insight, Professor Ribstein succiently points out in this post that governmental regulation of payola is misguided because of the valuable market benefits that it provides:

The problem is that, whenever government interferes with the market, it can create more problems than it solves. When government banned payola . . , it blocked a practice that was, after all, getting more air time for new kinds of music. (In general, regulation hurts the newcomers more than it hurts the established players.) But it didn’t stop payola. . . .“[N]ew payola” (spot buys) arose in response to the banning of the old payola. The new payola, . . . creates a less informed market than the old payola.

Payola's effect in making the music market less transparent is analogous to the effect of insider trading regulation. Insider trading, like payola, helps disseminate information. Regulation forces the trading underground, making markets less informed.

The criminalization of business practices exemplified by Spitzer's tactics and most of the Enron-type prosecutions combines the worst elements of business regulation with overt miscarriages of justice. Although the prosecutions play well as superficial morality plays in the mainstream media, I fear that the damage being done to America's business and justice systems will ultimately exceed even the tragic destruction of individual lives that has, and will continue, to occur.

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The theological dilemma of moderate Islam

In elected officials do not seem to mind having government compete with private financiers in connection with providing governmental financing for a new stadium?

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November 22, 2004

James A. Baker, III gets results

This NY Times article reports on the agreement of The world's leading industrial nations to cancel 80 percent of the nearly $40 billion of debt that Iraq owes them, which is a critical step in rebuilding the country's devastated economy and an important precedent for placing pressure on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq's other Middle Eastern neighbors to forgive Iraq's obligations owed to them.

Longtime Houstonian and former Secretary of both the State and Treasury Departments, James Baker III, who President Bush appointed last year as a special envoy to press Iraq's creditors to write off money owed them, toured the world over the past year persuading various foreign governments to sign on to the debt forgiveness plan. Kudos to Mr. Baker for a job well done.

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2004 Weekly local football review

Packers 16 Texans 13. On ESPN Sunday Night Football, the Pack handed the incearly in the third quarter and led the..." dc:creator="" dc:date="2004-11-21T21:03:52-06:00" /> -->
November 21, 2004

"The triumph of an uncluttered mind"

This Dallas Morning News article catches up with former Dallas Cowboy quarterback and folk hero Clint Longley, who as a 22-year-old rookie out of Abilene Christian University replaced a woozy Roger Staubach early in the third quarter and led the Cowboys to a dramatic 24-23 comeback victory over George Allen's Redskins 30 years ago on Thanksgiving Day.

Longley was a live wire, so his remarkable performance generated more than the usual amount of interest throughout Texas and the NFL. One of the best comments on the game came from Cowboys offensive lineman, Blaine Nye, who described Longley's performance (11-20 for 203 yards and 2 TD's) as "the triumph of an uncluttered mind."

Longley's three year professional career was utterly undistinguished except for that one magic game and one other incident -- when he sucker-punched Staubach during training camp in 1976, prompting the Cowboys to trade Longley to San Diego. By the end of that season, the Chargers waived Longley and he never played for another NFL team.

Charlie Waters, a former Cowboy teammate, noted that Longley's unpredictable nature manifested itself in the Staubach sucker-punch:

Waters knew how unpredictable Longley could be. The season before, Waters had agreed to let Longley keep his new pony on three acres of land he'd purchased near the team's practice facility.
"He pulls up in a 1957 Cadillac," said Waters, "and the horse's head was sticking out one of the back windows and its ass was hanging out the other side."

Over the past 30 years, Longley has refused all interview requests and now lives quietly -- albeit idiosyncratically -- in Corpus Christi. He did not grant an interview for the story, but DMN reporter Matt Mosley did a good job in the article, anyway. Read the entire piece.

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Basketball, NHL style

The Daily Recycler has the video of the hockey game that broke out last night at the Pacers-Pistons NBA game.

The typical reaction to the incident will be outrage and self-righteous indignation. However, I must admit that the riot made me somewhat nostalgic of the bygone days of the NBA when such fights were quite common.

Back in the 1970's, my late father and I would often go over to The Summit (my folks' house was nearby) at halftime of the Rockets' game of the night and get in free to watch the second half of the game (I was a poverty-sticken law student; my father was just, might we say, parsimonious). Even back then, the first halves of NBA games didn't make much difference.

On one particular evening, we went to the second half of a game between the Rockets of the Calvin Murphy, Rudy Tomjanovich, Mike Newlin era against the Celtics of the Sidney Wicks, Dave Cowens, and Charlie Scott era. It was a close game and by the 4th quarter, the players on both sides were getting a bit chippy. Finally, Wicks threw an elbow at Murphy, and all hell broke loose.

Unfortunately for Wicks, Murphy was a professional caliber fighter and never lost any of his half-dozen or so fights during his NBA career. Combining amazing quickness with a rapid fire delivery, Murphy was on top of Wicks within seconds, had him down on the floor, and was delivering a devastating series of punches to the bridge of Wicks' nose, opening up a broad cut in the process. It took four players -- each taking one of Murphy's limbs -- to extract Murphy from Wicks, who frankly didn't know what had hit him.

After order was restored and Wicks was carted off to the dressing room for stitches, the game continued in a rather heated fashion. A few minutes later, after a rough exchange under the Rockets' basket, a big, fat fan sitting in the courtside seats took offense to Cowens' actions, walked out on to the court, and pushed Cowens. Cowens proceeded to place his right hand on this idiot's neck and then started hammering him to the chops with a series of lefts that would have made Rocky Balboa proud. Just for good measure, Scott blazed in like a streak of light and as Children's -- as Houstonians call it -- is truly one of the mefore birth. Such early detection can ensure that babies receive immediate care, including surgery, for their problems.

In another high-tech development, heart center surgeons have performed 158 pediatric heart transplants — 17 of them this year — since the program began 20 years ago.

Texas Children's Hospital is a treasure of the Houston community.

Meanwhile, in other Medical Center news, Methodist Hospital announced on Friday the Methodist Board's approval of an initial $30 million endowment to launch the creation of the Southwest's first neurological institute to advance the discovery of the origins of neurological disease and to provide comprehensive care for patients with disorders and injuries of the brain and spinal cord.

The creation of the institute is the latest step in Methodist's plan to become an academic institution in the aftermath of this year's acrimonious split with Baylor College of Medicine, its partner and supplier of physician-scientists and residents for the past 50 years.

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Prosecution rests in Calvin Murphy trial

The prosecution rested on Friday in the sexual assault trial of former Houston Rocket and Basketball Hall of Famer Calvin Murphy in which five of his daughters have testified that Murphy sexually molested them years ago. Here are earlier posts on the indictment and trial of Murphy in this matter.

Although I have not sat in on any of this trial and Murphy is ably represented by Houston criminal defense attorney Rusty Hardin, my sense is that the case has not gone particularly well for Murphy to date. Press accounts have described the jury members as being visibly affected by the searing testimony of Murphy's daughters, and the jury will almost certainly hold Murphy's prodigious promiscuity (14 children by nine different women) against him.

Nevertheless, Mr. Hardin has plugged away at creating reasonable doubt by highlighting the daughters' ulterior motives and inconsistencies in their stories. His defense strategy apparently will center around testimony from Murphy's other children and Murphy'srong>Continental Airlines -- one of the city's largest employers -- announced Thursday that it is asking employees for reductions in pay and benefits effective Feb. 28 of next year as a part of a plan to reduce its annual costs by half a billion dollars.

Continental expects the savings to be generated from a combination of productivity enhancements, benefits changes and wage reductions with each employee group. The cuts would be in addition to $1.1 billion in annual cost savings and revenue enhancements that Continental announced previously this year.

However, even with the cuts, Continental does not expect to return to profitability unless there is a change in the current economic conditions that are depressing the airline industry. Continental has lost about $160 million through the first three quarters of this year and will likely lose more in the fourth quarter. All airlines have been coping with a glut of seats and high fuel prices over the past year, and traditional hub-and-spoke carriers such as Continental have been facing increased competition from discount airlines such as JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines. Although relatively healthy in comparison to the reeling legacy airlines, Continental is the last of the "big six" hub-and-spoke airlines to request such employee concessions after the terrorist attacks of 2001 on New York and Washington.

As a part of the plan, Continental President and Chief Operating Officer Larry Kellner agreed to cut both his base salary and annual and long-term performance compensation by 25% effective Feb. 28. Mr. Kellner will replace Gordon Bethune as chairman and CEO of Continental at the end of this year. Likewise, other top Continental management personnel will take similar reductions in compensation and benefits as a part of the plan.

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November 18, 2004

Scappleface: Bush on Arafat

Priceless.

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The 2004 Scientific American 50 Award

You can review them here.

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November 17, 2004

Enron pipeline sales close

Enron Corp.'s liquidating chapter 11 plan accelerated on Wednesday when the company closed the $2 billion sale of its prized remaining assets -- its interest in three natural gas pipelines.

Enron's Bankruptcy Court approved the sale in September of Enron's interest in the three natural gas pipelines to CCE Holdings LLC, a joint venture of Southern Union Co. and a unit of GE Commercial Finance. CCE Holdings will assume $430 million in debt as a part of the deal.

A $1.25 billion sale of Portland General Electric, which is Enron's Pacific Northwest utility, is still up in the air pending regulatory approval. If approved, a

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Scramjet rocks

Following on these earlier posts here and here, this Washington Post article reports on yesterday's test of the unmanned X-43A "scramjet" that broke the aircraft speed record for the second time this year. The X-43A flew at nearly 10 times the speed of sound as scientists continue their quest for "hypersonic" flight.

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The GOP's idea of leadership?

If this is the Republican Party's idea of wise leadership, then we are in for a long four years. Professor Bainbridge provides his usual insightful thoughts.

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Enron Task Force targets Linda Lay

Enron Task Force prosecutors are investigating whether Linda Lay, the wife of Enron's former Chairman and CEO, Kenneth L. Lay, engaged in illegal insider trading by selling Enron stock days before Enron filed its chapter 11 case on December 2, 2001.

The particular sale in question involved 500,000 shares of Enron stock that was sold through a Lay family foundation. The foundation proceeded to distribute the $1.2 million in sales proceeds to various charitable organizations.

The investigation of Mrs. Lay is a part of the Task Force's scrutiny of the Lays' actions during the weeks immediately preceding the filing of Enron's bankruptcy case. Sources close to the case indicate that other transactions that have not yet been publicly disclosed are also a focus of that investigation.

Mr. Lay's lawyer, Michael Ramsey of Houston, responded to the embarrassing disclosure by publicly criticizing the Task Force's motives and alleging that the disclosure is simply the latest ploy by the government to to bring pressure against Mr. Lay to plead guilty. "This is the last gasp of a dying prosecution,'' Mr. Ramsey said. "This is an attempt at extortion. If I tried something like this, I would be indi

The Diplomad on Colin Powell

I regularly read an interesting blog called The Diplomad, which is authored by several Republican U.S. Foreign Service officers who describe themselves as being "in an institution (State Department)in which being a Republican can be bad for your career -- even with a Republican President!"

In this recent post, the Diplomad passes along an analysis of Colin Powell's tenure at the State Department from a former Foreign Service Officer. It's an interesting and balanced piece, and I recommend that you give it a look, along with this interesting blog.

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Former KLOL-FM listeners can take solace in this

Debating the quality of law review articxml/rss/module/trackback/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"> -->
An endorsement for Judge Edith Jones

Professor Ribstein provides a nice endorsement for 5th Circuit Judge Edith H. Jones of Houston as the next Associate Justice for the U.S. Supreme Court, and I wholeheartedly concur.

Judge Jones is widely recognized as an outstanding jurist and one of the nation’s leading experts on bankruptcy law. A 1974 graduate of the University of Texas Law School, Judge Jones served as an editor of the Texas Law Review and, upon graduation, she joined the law firm of Andrews, Kurth, Campbell & Jones, L.L.P. (now Andrews & Kurth, L.L.P.), where she was the first woman to make partner in the history of the firm. While at Andrews & Kurth, Judge Jones became involved in the small but emerging Texas Republican Party and, in so doing, created her strong political ties with the Bush Family.

Judge Jones was nominated by President Reagan to become a judge on the Fifth Circuit, and she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 3, 1985. During her almost 20 years on the bench, Judge Jones has written nearly six hundred opinions and she has served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules for the Judicial Conference of the United States and the National Bankruptcy Review Commission. Judge Jones has also authored or coauthored more than 15 publications on the topics of bankruptcy law, mass tort litigation, arbitration, religion and the law, judicial workloads, and the judicial selection process. When Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. resigned from the Supreme Court in 1990, President George H.W. Bush considered Judge Jones for the Supreme Court before he ultimately nominated Justice David H. Souter to replace Justice Brennan.

If Judge Jones is nominated, then there is little question that opposition to her candidacy will coalesce arround her recent concurring opinion in McCorvey v. Hill, No. 03-10711 (5th Cir. Sept. 17, 2004). In that opinion, Judge Jones wrote both a panel opinion turning aside a new challenge to abortion rights by the original "Jane Roe" -- Norma McCorvey -- and a passionate concurring opinion in which she recommends that the Supreme Court reconsider its controversial decision in Roe v. Wade.

Although she was the original plaintiff in Roe, Norma McCorvey has since become an anti-abortion activist. In that role, she began a new challenge to Roe in U.S. District Court in June 2003. McCorvey filed a Rule 60(b) motion, which allows a federal court to relieve a party from an earlier judgment under certain limited circumstances.

In the District Court case, McCorvey's lawyers offered more than 5,000 pages of affidavits and other written evidence in seeking to undermine the foundation of the decision in Roe v. Wade. Included among the materials were 1,000 affidavits from women who had had abortions expr/madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/" xmlnsc:title="The Godfather Returns" dc:identifier="http://blog. dc:description="This NY Times book review tells us about The Godfather Returns, the latest book in the Godfather series that the late Mario Puzo began in the 1960's. Before Mr. Puzo die
The Godfather Retu1258347600&partner=rssnyt">This NY Times book reviewMario Puzo began in the 1960's.

Before Mr. Puzo died in 1999, he signed com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451167716/qid=1100607463/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-4590524-6955849">Godfather novel, or xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"> This earlier post referenced Kansas Coach Mark Mangino's comments after Saturday's controversial ending to the Texas-Kansas game in which Coach Mangino alleged that the officials were favoring UT to preserve the Horns' stature for a lucrative Bowl Championship Series Bowl game.

Well, it turns out that Lawrence, Kansas was not the only place where passions were bubbling out of control in Big 12 country this past Saturday. This article from Husker.com indicates that Darren DeLeone, a 6'4", 315 lbs. offensive tackle hauled off and whacked a member of of the Oklahoma spirit before Saturday's Nebraska-OU game in Norman:

During pregame warmups, an incident allegedly occurred involving Nebraska offensive lineman Darren DeLone and a member of the Ruf/Neks, an Oklahoma sideline spirit group.

According to Sunday's editions of The Oklahoman, Adam Merritt, a Ruf/Nek, was transported from Owen Field on a medical cart and taken to Norman (Okla.) Regional Hospital after having several teeth knocked out and suffering facial lacerations in what witnesses described as an assault by the 6-foot-4, 315-pound DeLone.
Merritt was treated and released before the game ended.

DeLone was not arrested and was allowed to leave the stadium with the team, according to The Oklahoman.

The Nebraska athletic department Sunday released a prepared statement saying it was "aware of a collision that occurred on the field of play during the official pregame warmup period."

The one-paragraph statement — which doesn't identify DeLone or any other Husker player — said several members of the Nebraska football team, including two coaches, "witnessed the collision and immediately summoned a member of Nebraska's medical staff to assist. Players and coaches spoke with officials immediately following the game."

The Nebraska athletic department and football team "are sorry the accident happened and wish the young man a quick and full recovery," the statement said.

However, there might just be more to the story than the Nebraska officials are letting on:

According to The Oklahoman, witnesses in the Sooner student section at Owen Field and on the sideline said DeLone head-butted Merritt in the face with his helmet and shoved him into the 3-foot brick wall.

Well, I guess that could be construed as a "collision."

But that was only the "before game" incident. After the game, Nebraska coach Bill Callahan came unhinged as he was leaving the field and began yelling obscenities at several boistrous OU fans. The AP wire story on the incident relates the following:

While acknowledging he used a poor choice of words in a profane outburst directed at Oklahoma fans Saturday, Nebraska coach Bill Callahan said he was upset because a group of hecklers were allowed so close to his players during warmups and oranges were thrown onto the field late in the game.
As he walked toward the Nebraska locker room after a 30-3 loss, Callahan looked into the stands and called OU fans "[expletive] hillbillies."

"I'm an emotional guy, and I'm a competitive coach, and on the field I stick up for my players," Callahan said Monday on the Big 12 coaches teleconference. "I don't think any team should be subjected to the type of treatment we were subjected to in that particular contest."

Callahan also said he could not comment on what Nebraska called a
"collision" between a player and an Oklahoma student fan incident because the coach did not see it.

Welcome to the Big 12, Coach Callahan.
Posted by Tom at" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack (1)for many years is the effect that the Swift Boat Veterans had onIncludeBlogs=1&search=Swift+Boat+Veteran&Submit1=Search">Here argazine, but who is now conservative writer and political activisning neutral on the Wright Amendment - that law that restricts flights from Dallas's Love Field Airport - Southwest Airlines is now calling the rule "anticompetitive" and "outdated". It's about time. The Wright Amendment was enacted in..." dc:creator="" dc:date="2004-11-14T19:53:09-06:00" /> -->
November 14, 2004

The Wrong Amendment

After years of remaining neutral on the Wright Amendment -- that law that restricts flights from Dallas's Love Field Airport -- Southwest Airlines is now calling the rule "anticompetitive" and "outdated".

It's about time.

The Wright Amendment was enacted in 1979 to facilitate the success of the then new Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which was built in a rural area in the northern part of the Metroplex between Dallas and Ft. Worth. Dallas' other airport -- Love Field -- enjoys a near-downtown location. In order to funnel air traffic to DFW, the Wright Amendment banned interstate service from Love Field on jets with more than 56 seats to all but seven states near Texas.

When DFW was built, Southwest did not want to move to DFW and has never had any service at the bigger airport. DFW is the dominant hub of AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, which has enjoyed the respite from competitive pressures that the Wright Amendment provides. That anti-competitive effect has been part of the reason why American has been slow to adapt to the rapidly changing airline industry, in which discount carriers such as Southwest have brought an era of lower fares and additional seats. The "legacy airlines" such as American, Delta, and United are reeling as a result.

The Wright Amendment -- which was questionable policy at best at the time it was enacted -- is clearly obsolescent. The area around DFW is no longer rural and the airport is now literally in the center of the northern part of the Metroplex. Moreover, Southwest is now a national airline, and it is inhibited from servicing that national network of flights from its hub at Love Field.

At DFW, Delta Air Lines recently announced that it is abandoning its unprofitable hub, which is cutting 250-plus daily flights to about 45. Although that move will increase American's dominance at DFW in the short run, industry observers expect some of the discount carriers to make a play for some or all of Delta's old gates at DFW.

Nevertheless, Southwest contends that it is going to remain at Love Field despite the galling Wright Amendment restriction on long haul flights from that airport. But Southwest is using Delta's exit as proof that DFW does not need the Wright Amendment's protection anymore. Southwest notes that many cities -- including New York, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles -- enjoy the benefits of two airports without any need of the "protections" afforded to DFW by the Wright Amendment.

As you would expect, American Airlines disagrees. In a statement issued Friday, American stated that the Wright Amendment is just as relevant today as it was when it first passed and helps preserve DFW's position as the principle aviation gateway for North Texas.

Folks, that type of thinking is a big part of the reason why American Airlines is in the poor financial shape that it currently finds itself, particulary in comparison to that of Southwest. It will be interesting to watch the politicians line up in regard to this particular issue. The issue will be a good barometer for determining whether a particular politician is attempting to protect the public's best interests or simply interested in keeping ong_amend.asp"> 7:53 PM | Peyton Manning toyed with the Texans secondary asa hard time stopping a hard charging marching band as Manning sl do not get any easier for the 4-5 Texans as the red-hot Packersttp://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=241115006">Eagles 4 games, and they have lost the last three by 21, 23 and 28 pointoxscore?gameId=243182305">Texas Longhorns 27 Kansas 23Kansas Coach Mangino
"You know what this is all about, dont banker over the probable amount of the fine from the Big 12 Conference stemming from those comments, Coach Mangino issued the after Thanksgiving. I do not expect the Horns to play as soft ag played their third overtime game in their last four in finally beating the Red Raiders, who have tormented the Ags in recent seer bet looked golden. Then, almost as if each team turned on a switch, both offenses started scoring almost at will in the fourtef="http://uhcougars.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/brilehe 3-7 Owls now have a week off before finishing their season on the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Rice Stadium against Louisiana Tech.

And Kevin Whited has his weekly Big 12 wrap-up over at PubliusTx.net

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November 13, 2004

Check out "Hairspray"

If you are looking for a fun evening in the next week or so, I highly recommend checking out the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hairspray, the latest event in Houston's Broadway Series at the Hobby Center. Even the Chronicle's notoriously tough theatre critic Everett Evans gave the performance a hearty thumbs up.

My wife, daughters and I attended Friday night's show, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Although the entire cast and production is magnificent, Keala Settle's peformance in the lead role is absolutely incredible -- she sings and dances with a dynamic combination of clarity, agility, and spunk that is truly infectious. Don't miss it.

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That's sure not Led Zeppelin

When I moved to Houston over 33 years ago as a young collegeback="http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"> -->
November 12, 2004

CIA's "Anonymous" author hits the talk shows

This prior post reviewed one of the books by the CIA counterterrorism agent who authored two books under the alias "Anonymous" that were highly critical of the Bush Administration's approach to battling the radical Islamic fascists.

Now, Michael Scheuer, who turns out to be Anonymous, has decided to resign from the CIA and violate the trench-coat oath by going public with his criticism of the government’s war against the radical Islamic fascists. His views are interesting, but made less credible by his decision to cash in on them at the expense of the trench-coat oath.

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Interesting developments in aviation

This BBC News article describes something that Houston's Katy Freeway commuters would support enthusiastically:

Commuters could soon be taking flying taxis to work instead of waiting in line for a street cab, experts suggest. British developers Avcen say Jetpods would enable quick, quiet and cheap travel to and from major cities. The futuristic machines will undergo proof-of-concept flight tests in 2006 and could be ready for action by 2010.
As well as taxis, which would use a network of specially-built mini runways, there are military, medical and personal jet versions as well.

London-based Avcen say Jetpods would be able to travel the 24 miles from Woking, Surrey, to central London in just four minutes.

And because it could make so many trips, fares for a journey from Heathrow to central London could cost about £40 or £50.

Meanwhile, this Washington Post article reviews ongoing research into scramjet technology, which is already achieving incredible speed levels:

Next week, NASA plans to break the aircraft speed record for the second time in 7 1/2 months by flying its rocket-assisted X-43A scramjet craft 110,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean at speeds close to Mach 10 -- about 7,200 mph, or 10 times the speed of sound.
The flight will last perhaps 10 seconds and end with the pilotless aircraft plunging to a watery grave 850 miles off the California coast. But even if the X-43A doesn't set the record, it has already proved that the 40-year-old dream of "hypersonic" flight -- using air-breathing engines to reach speeds above Mach 5 (3,800 mph) -- has become reality.

Under NASA's $250 million Hyper-X program, engineers at Langley Research Center here and the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., designed and built three aluminum scramjet aircraft, each one 12 feet long and weighing about 2,800 pounds. . .
[The second scamjet flight] on March 24, reached Mach 6.83 (5,200 mph), shattering the world speed record for air-breathing, non-rocket aircraft, previously held by a jet-powered missile. The highest speeds by manned aircraft were achieved by SR-71, the U.S. spy plane known as the "Blackbird," capable of flying in excess of Mach 3 (2,300 mph).

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Why are there so many corporate crime laws?

If corporations are so big and powerful, then why are there so many corporate crime laws? Doesn't it make more sense that corporations would lobby to restrict enactment of such laws?

Maybe not, according to University of Michigan law professor Vikramaditya S. Khanna. In this interesting paper (download required), Professor Khanna argues that corporate executives may reasonably believe that consenting to enactment of corporate crime laws is the least risky course:

One of the fundamental puzzles of corporate crime legislation is how does so much of it get enacted given that it targets corporations that are considered some of the most powerful and effective (if not the most powerful and effective) lobbyists in the country. My analysis suggests that corporate crime legislation may grow because it is a preferred response for corporate interests when some congressional action is inevitable. Corporate criminal liability’s growth could then be explained by the followis of corporate wrongdoing are numerous, and corporate crime legirg/jsource/biography/arafat.html">Yasser Arafat rem well-meaning sort overcome by reality. But while Hoover was blindsided by the depression, Carter failed on a broad range of matters and faced few crises he didn't first bring on himself. Most presidents, even the good ones (sometimes especially even the good ones) leave behind a mixed record of big wins and big errors, but with Carter, the darkness seems everywhere: He is all Bay of Pigs and no Missile Crisis, all Iran-contra and no "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

PBS, whose American Experience series on the presidents has done some fascinating things with such novelistic lives as those of Reagan, Kennedy, Nixon, Johnson, and both the Roosevelts, seemed (in a two-part series first aired two years ago and now reappearing) at a loss for how to handle this long dirge-like story, and, to its credit, the program did not flinch from portraying his actual presidency as the total disaster it was.

Ms. Emery notes that Mr. Carter's domestic policies were an utter mess:

As a domestic manager, his crowning achievement was to take the old liberal creed of big government and hitch it to the new liberal creed of "limits to growth" and create incoherence. "We have learned that 'more' is not necessarily 'better,' and that even our great nation has its recognized limits," he scolded, taking on two hundred years of the American temperament. Thus he tried to damp down the consumption machine that drives the economy, while balking at the tax cuts that might have spurred on investment. The result was stagflation, a condition economists had once thought impossible, of soaring inflation and no growth in jobs. Interest rates soared, and Carter's approval ratings sank into the thirties. For this he blamed the American people, for being too immature to realize the good times were over for good.

And even though Mr. Carter's domestic policies were bad, his foreign policy was even worse:

In an address at Notre Dame on May 22, 1977, [Carter] denounced the "inordinate fear of communism" that had produced the containment theory that had kept the peace for three decades. In his first month in office he announced his intention to withdraw nuclear weapons and ground troops from South Korea, cut six billion dollars from the defense budget, cancel development of the Trident nuclear submarine, and defer construction of the neutron bomb.
All of these proposals were made unilaterally, with no effort to induce concessions by the other side. Cyrus Vance, Carter's first secretary of state, was described by Democrat Morris Abram as the closest thing to a pure pacifist since William Jennings Bryan, and by Defense Secretary Harold Brown as a man who believed the use of force was always mistaken. Paul Warnke, Carter's chief arms-control negotiator, held views described by George Will as "engagingly childlike"--believing that if we disarmed, the Soviet Union would follow us. . .

Even Carter's much vaunted human-rights effort, which gave some people hope he would use it as a moral weapon against the Soviet Union, quickly lost much of its power and luster when it became evident that he intended to use it less against Communists than against the more marginal despots in the non-Communist orbit. Thus he embraced Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev at the 1979 arms-control summit and assured an assemblage of East Europeans that "the old ideological labels have lost their meaning," even as they remained under the Soviet boot. In Carter's State Department, the Sandinistas were thought to be moderates and the Ayatollah Khomeini a saintlike figure surrounded by "moderate, progressive individuals" with a notable "concern for human rights."

Ms. Emery goes on to mention many of the other debacles of the Carter Presidency that Mr. Hayward's book addresses, but then points out that Mr. Carter has perhaps exceeded the incompetence of his presidency by being arguably the worst former president in American history:

Carter has taken him dangerously close to the neighborhood of what we f malaise.

The main contribution of that 2001 bipartisan commission was to propose the establishment of a system of voluntary personal accounts, which would increase national savings as well as increase labor-force participation -- more on that later. But this contribution is also the commission's main flaw, for the proposal does not go far enough. We need to establish a system of mandatory savings accounts for retirement, not voluntary. Without mandatory savings accounts we will not solve the time-inconsistency problem of people under-saving and becoming a welfare burden on their families and on the taxpayers. That's exactly where we are now.

Professor Prescott debunks the notion that individual retirement acccounts are somehow riskier than the current Social Security system:

Some politicians have vilified the idea of giving investment freedom to citizens, arguing that those citizens will be exposed to risks inherent in the market. But this is political scaremongering. U.S. citizens already utilize IRAs, 401Ks, PCOs, Keoghs, SEPs and other investment options just fine, thank you. If some people are conservative investors or managing for the short term, they direct their funds accordingly; if others are more inclined to take risks or looking at the long run, they make appropriate decisions. Consumers already know how to invest their money -- why does the government feel the need to patronize them when it comes to Social Security?
It would be one thing if the government's Social Security system paid a decent return, but as the President's Commission reported, for a single male worker born in 2000 with average earnings, the real annual return on his currently-scheduled contributions to Social Security will be just 0.86%. And for a worker who earns the maximum amount taxed (then $80,400), the real annual return is a negative 0.72%. A bank would have to offer a pretty fancy toaster to get depositors at those rates of return.

Indeed, as Professor Prescott points out, the trend internationally is to such individual retirement accounts:

Further, about two dozen countries have reformed their state-run retirement programs, including Chile, Sweden, Australia, Peru, the U.K., Kazakhstan, China, Croatia and Poland. If citizens in these countries can handle individual savings accounts, especially citizens in countries without a history of financial freedom, then U.S. citizens should be equally adept. At a time when the rest of the world is dropping the vestiges of state control, the United States should be leading the way and not lagging behind.

In fact, Professor Prescott notes that the economic benefits of such accounts are substantial:

The benefits of such reform extend beyond the individual retirement accounts of U.S. citizens (although that would be reason enough for reform) -- they also accrue to the economy. As noted above, national savings will increase, as will participation in the labor force, both to the benefit of society. On the first point, more private assets means there will be more capital, which will have a positive impact on wages, which benefits the working people, especially the young. More capital also means that the economy will have more productive assets, which also contributes to more production.
Regarding labor supply, any system that taxes people when they are young and gives it back when they are old will have a negative impact on labor supply. People will simply work less. Put another way: If people are in control of their own savings, and if their retirement is funded by savings rather than transfers, they will work more. And everyone is better off. These are the type of win-win situations that politicians and policy makers should be falling over themselves to accomplish.

And what about the horrendous "transition costs" that we hear would undermine the transition from the current Social Security system to one based on mandatory individual retirement accounts? Professor Prescott keenly dispenses with that objection:

Some analysts have suggested that we can't move from a transfer system to a saving system because current retirees will be left in the lurch. Who will pay for them if workers' money is suddenly shifted to individual savings accounts? There will indeed be a period of time, likely no more than 10 years, when narrowly defined government debt relative to gross national income would increase before decreasing. But government debt is small relative to the present value of the Social Security promises that currently exist. Further, the sum of the value of government debt and the value of these promises will start declining immediately.
Under a reformed system there will always be some individuals who, owing to disabilities or other reasons that prevent them from working, will not have sufficient savings in their old age. The solution is to include a means-tested supplement to ensure that those citizens receive a required payment -- just like they receive today. Nobody gets left behind under this new system, and most will move ahead. U.S. citizens deserve more than a minimum payment, and the U.S. economy deserves more than to have its savings, capital and labor weighed down by an increasingly costly tax-and-transfer system.

And how would such a system work? Professor Prescott touts one:

Have three-quarters of employer and employee Social Security contributions (currently 12.4% of wages, salaries and proprietors' income up to $87,900) put into an individual savings account. This would be deferred income with taxes paid when people receive their retirement benefits. The other one-quarter of Social Security contributions would finance welfare and increase the labor supply, resulting in higher output and an increase in tax revenues.

Read the entire piece. Ed Prescott is definitely a clear thinker.

Update: Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution makes the case against forced savings accounts and for turning Social Security into a welfare program for the elderly.

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Alberto R. Gonzales is nominated to be U.S. Attorney General

Former Houston attorney (former partnerprevious posts, Richard Chesnoff is one of America's foremost commentators on Middle East affairs. He is also one of the relatively few American journalists to have interviewed and spent time with Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. With..." dc:creator="" dc:date="2004-11-10T18:29:19-06:00" /> -->
November 10, 2004

Arafat's fatal flaw

As noted in these previous posts, Richard Chesnoff is one of America's foremost commentators on Middle East affairs. He is also one of the relatively few American journalists to have interviewed and spent time with Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

With Arafat near death, Mr. Chesnoff writes this NY Daily News op-ed in which he notes what could have been:

If anyone had the ability to forge a Palestinian state then, it was Arafat. He had the political power, the money and the military force.
Tragically, like other Palestinian leaders before him, he wasted his chance. He used his political power to gain more power and the money to corrupt and control. Worst of all, instead of using his military force to squelch terrorism, he financed it, bringing more destruction to his people as well as to Israelis.

Then, Mr. Chesnoff zeros in on Arafat's fatal leadership flaw:

Why did a man who had both the opportunity and the intellect to deliver his people a state of their own fail to do so?
He lacked the realism, the vision and, most important, the courage to make the shift from terrorist to statesman. He spoke (in Arabic) not of peace with Israel but of a truce, something he could always break. And he refused to tell his people that Israel never would commit demographic suicide by letting millions of Palestinians return.

He also feared that if he ever told his people to accept a state that was less than what he had promised, he would lose stature, popularity and the place he believed he deserved in Arab history.

False pride is often a fatal error in the Arab world - a character flaw born not of heroism but of cowardice.

Read the entire piece. Would not it be ironic if Arafat's legacy is a new generation of Palestinian leadership that understands the destructive futility of Arafat's strategy towards Israel and embarks on a new, realistic path toward a Palestinian state?

Meanwhile, Max Boot writes of Arafat in this L.A. Times piece:

There has been no more successful terrorist in the modern age. Yet his biggest victims were not Israelis. It was his own people who suffered the most. If Arafat had displayed the wisdom of a Gandhi or Mandela, he would long ago have presided over the establishment of a fully independent Palestine comprising all of the Gaza Strip, part of Jerusalem and at least 95% of the West Bank. In fact, he seemed well on his way toward this goal when I met him in 1998 as part of a delegation of American scholars and journalists.
The place was his Ramallah compound, the time after midnight (Arafat was a night owl). He was wearing his trademark fatigues, and his hands and lips were shaking uncontrollably. Much of the session was conducted via translator, but Arafat broke into English when asked a s the kind of query a democratic statesman would have batted awaence hung in the air as we left. Clearly Arafat had not quite macian in the mold of Mugabe or Mao.

Posted by Tom at 6:29 PM | Comments (0) | Gre about their investments on behalf of public institutions.

Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley's top venture-capital firms, last year terminated two longstanding investors -- the universities of Michigan and California -- from its latest fund because it did not want information about the performance of its closely held investments to be disclosed under those states open-records laws. The Texas case potentially has bigger stakes because the information that would be disclosed includes data about the performance of individual portfolio companies and the value that venture backers place on them.

Texas Growth Fund filed the Texas case in state court and requests that the court overturn the attorney general's opinion. The teachers' retirement fund joined the suit after receiving the August letter from Austin Ventures. Utimco, which already releases performance data for the fund but not for its underlying investments, wrote to the attorney general objecting to his ruling, but has not decided whether to join the suit.

As of May 31, Utimco had $76 million committed to Austin Ventures, less than 1% of its $16.2 billion portfolio. On the other hand, Austin Ventures has $2.4 billion under management, so the Utimco investment is a larger percentage of that portfolio, but still not a substantial portion of it. TRS currently has committed $55.3 million of its $84.4 billion endowment to Austin Ventures. Consequently, we are talking about very small parts of the public funds' portfolios here.

Quare: Should trustees and investment management of Texas public and quasi-public funds be restricted from diversifying the investment portfolio of such funds by legislation that effectively denies such funds from investing in potentially profitable venture capital funds that limit information about their investments? If so, why should public funds be restricted from investing an appropriate amount of their portfolios in potentially the most profitable investments?

Posted by Tom at 8:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The intangible value of professional sports franchises

These prior posts have been following Jerry Jones' efforts throughout this year to obtain lucrative public financing for a new stadium in the Dallas area, which resulted in Arlington voters approving a financing deal for Jones and the Cowboys this past eletion den/vitae.pdf">Craig Depken has done a good job of criticizing the dubious economic arguments in favor of the stadiution. Professor Sauer over at the Sports Economist has also chimed in often on, economists this recent paper thaoy even if they never visit it. In addition, citizens enjoy a ceuthors' methodology to those more qualified than I in such mattehat the economic benefits of the deal were questionable, but thae economic issues in most stadium campaigns is muddled by well-fources on the issues relating to public financing of stadiums. | -->
. . . [But] Merck is in hot water now not because Vioxx was excessively risky but because the wrong people were taking it -- a problem for which doctors and the insurance system are also to blame.

. . . Marketing alone doesn't cause patients to shell out $2 for a pill that doesn't work any better than a five-cent aspirin. Bruce Stuart of the University of Maryland has showed that the biggest determinant of whether a patient takes a Cox-2 or a cheaper drug is whether an insurance company is paying.

Likewise, we've heard two schools of complaint from patients since Vioxx was yanked. Some patients are irate at Merck for depriving them of a drug they found genuinely useful, but others are mainly irate at their doctors for never mentioning that Advil or Tylenol work just as well.

The Vioxx debacle is symptomatic of a system that shields consumers from price signals and sometimes actually discourages them from making the right health-care choices. Forget pain relievers. In certain common breast cancers, women opt for expensive, risky, miserable chemotherapy even though it doesn't significantly improve an already high survival rate. They have a hard time waving it off, though, precisely because an insurer is picking up the tab.

In any case, Big Pharma is well along in being corrupted by third-party payership, just like the rest of the health-care industry. Drug makers increasingly aim their development efforts at the aches, pains, insecurities, heartburn and erectile dysfunction of price-insensitive, over-insured baby boomers because that's where the money is.

Read the entire piece.

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November 9, 2004

Nigerian Barge jury finds $13.7 million market loss

The jury in the Enron-related criminal trial known as the Nigerian Barge case concluded the market loss hearing by determining today that the sham barge sale that was at the center of the trial cost Enron shareholders $13.7 million.

In a case that was largely dubious from the beginning, the jury's conclusion on the market effect of the transaction was just as questionable as many other aspects of the case. In reality, there was no market loss resulting from the sham barge transaction. The fact that Enron did not account for the Nigerian Barge transaction properly actually | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Battle of Fallujah

The Belmont Club is providing an excellent and often updated thread on the Battle of Fallujah.

Posted by Tom at 9:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ray Fair assesses the election results

Yale professor Ray Fair's model for predicting Presidential elections were the subject of these prior posts here and here. In this new piece, Professor Fair tries to explain why his model predicted that President Bush would win 57.4% of the two-party popular vote when he actually got only 51.5% (he speculates that the war hurt Bush more than projected), and provides this early prediction regarding the 2008 race:

It is possible to use the current vote equation to make a prediction for 2008. There will be no incumbent running again (PERSON = 0), and the Republicans will have a negative duration effect (DURATION = 1). If, say, GROWTH is 3.0, INFLATION is 3.0, and GOODNEWS is 2, which is a moderately good economy, the vote prediction for the Republicans is 50.1 percent, a dead heat. So the main message for 2008 is that the election will be close if the economy is moderately good. It would take a quite strong economy for the equation to predict a comfortable Republican win, and it would take a quite weak economy for the equation to predict a comfortable Democratic win. The Democrats clearly have a much better shot in 2008 than they had in 2004 according to the equation.

Posted by Tom at 8:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Could you pass a maggot, please?

My late father -- Dr. Walter M. Kirkendall -- was a master internist who was a legend among his students for his diagnostic skills and conservative views toward use of many medicines. For one of the reasons supporting his skepticism regarding the use of clinically untested medicines, take a look at Alex Tabarrok's post over at Marginal Revolutions on Jerry Avorn's new book, Powerful Medicines.

Posted by Tom at 8:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

JP Morgan Chase unit buys big stake in Texas properties

A JPMorgan Chase & Co. subsidiary is paying almost a billion dollars to buy a piece of some of the state's biggest buildings, including three in Dallas and two in Houston.

Ft. Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. announced Monday that it is sellingthe Economics page of the on-line Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com. The Journal page is usually gated for use of paying customers only, but for this week it is open to all visitors.

The first discussion concerns social security privatization. On Tuesday comes outsourcing and trade, followed by the future of Europe and China. Tyler is far more persuasive in the first installment on Social Security, in which Mr. Irons largely ignores the costs of the current Social Security system while waxing eloquent about its hard to value benefits.

Check it the debate this week as it should be interesting.

Posted by Tom at 6:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Rovenian Candidate

Professor Ribstein of Ideoblog -- whose broad expertise in business law includes extensive knowledge on how business is portrayed in cinema -- continues development here of a sure-fire winning screenplay on how President Bush won the 2004 election. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 6:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Euro reaction to America's new Ryder Cup captain

From the complaining contained in this London Telegraph op-ed, it sounds as if the PGA of America may have finally chosen the right captain in Tom Lehman to revive America's flagging Ryder Cup fortunes:

Lehman's record in the Ryder Cup is statistically good - won five, lost three, halved two - but behaviourally bad.
In 1995, at Oak Hill, Lehman was a rookie and he was first out in the singles against Seve Ballesteros. On the 12th hole Seve asked Lehman to mark his ball, but instead the American tapped in his short putt. This, of course, was pounced on by Ballesteros, who said: "What are you doing? You play out of turn. Where is the referee?" The crowd then began booing and Lehman became unjustifiably angry. He was in the wrong. . .

[F]our years later at Brookline, Lehman was involved in a series of inexcusable incidents. On the second afternoon he holed a putt and indulged in all manner of vertical fist-pumping while Darren Clarke still had to hole out. Later on in the match, he looked on while his playing partner drove off before Clarke and Lee Westwood had arrived on the tee.

But Lehman saved the worst for the final afternoon. Before his singles against Westwood he began conducting the crowd in a reprise of God Bless America. He literally ran off the 13th green after holing a putt and began high-fiving the spectators. And then he led the infamous charge across the 17th green when Jose Maria Olazabal still had his putt to keep the match alive.

Perhaps most unforgiveable of all, Lehman has never properly apologised for any of this. It only required a letter saying he had become caught up in the exuberance of the moment, but that was no excuse and he apologised unreservedly for his conduct. Lehman couldn't bring himself to write such a letter and so he will always be haunted by Sam Torrance's charge of, "calls himself a man of God. That was the most disgraceful thing I have ever seen". . .

. . . Lehman should never have been appointed captain. His behaviour at Brookline and subsequent unwillingness to apologise should have disqualified him for eternity. The PGA's refusal to recognise these facts shows either they are out of touch with the rest of the world or too desperate and arrogant to care.

Come on, Brits. No American Ryder Cup captain has ever come close to the absurdly bad behavior of European captain Ballesteros during the 1997 Ryder Cup competition. Lighten up.

Posted by Tom at 6:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The politics of tax policy

This NY Times article reviews the growing consensus within the Bush Administration that something needs to be done with the fedencome tax system. There is no real economic analysis of the altek and gobbledygook, then I think that's something we could work 4_11.asp#001330" trackback:ping="http://mtcgi.kir.com/mt-trption="Ben Stein writes this personal finance op-ed for the NY Sdc:creator="" dc:date="2004-11-08T05:34:01-06:00" />

You can look at it still another way. The average fams/2004/11/trying_to_avoid.asp"> 5:34 AM | Jake Plummer took advantage, flinging fo107004">Bengals 26 Cowboys 3. Not to be outdone, thrst half. OU systematically took the lead in the third quarter, ts.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=243110248">Houston 34 East CaF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" lts Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola, 2002). She is working on a book based on her father's experience of Alzheimer's disease, and this New Atlantis article provides an outstanding overview of her research into the subject. There is no question that Alzheimer's is becoming an increasingly important health care issue:

. . . [E]very once in awhile, we face a situation that forces us to collectively consider what it means to be human persons who grow old, suffer, and die.
The looming Alzheimer's epidemic is just such a situation. This disease embodies everything we fear most about aging -- weakness and dependence, humiliation and oblivion. Its insidious onset and relentless progression have penetrated our collective consciousness, and nearly half of Americans over the age of 35 know someone personally whose brain has been ravaged by it. As Americans are living longer and more physicians are recognizing dementia as a disease to be diagnosed, Alzheimer's is claiming more victims. Some 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's today, more than double the number who had the disease in 1980. Alzheimer's has become the eighth-leading cause of death in America, and its impact is expected to mushroom as 77 million Baby Boomers head into retirement. By 2050, if no cure is found, 16 million Americans could have Alzheimer's. As they bid their long goodbye -- Alzheimer's can take up to 20 years to run its devastating course -- we will no longer be able to ignore the human questions raised by this disease. Such questions, about the basis of our human dignity and our identity as persons, cannot be answered by science or technology. We must grapple with them the old-fashioned way, drawing on both reflection and lived experience to find the meaning in this way of dying.

For anyone dealing with the onset of dementia in a loved one, this piece is essential reading. Read the entire article.

Posted by Tom at 8:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cancer in the House

Jamie Malanowski, a New York-based writer, pens this Washington Monthly op-ed on Houston congressman Tom DeLay and provides the following overview to a discussion of the various ethics complaints and criminal investigations that are currently dogging Mr. DeLay:

Tom DeLay is the most odious character in American politics today. He does not lack for competition,omist article addresses the second political murder in the Nethem/premium/sfa/stats/playerstats.asp?id=6279">Lance Berkman -- the Stros' best hitter over the past four seasons -- has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will undergo surgery at Methodist Hospital in Houston within the next ten days. Although the Stros' initial announcement this afternoon did not disclose how Berkman suffered the injury, it was disclosed later that Berkman suffered the injury playing flag football.

Normal recovery time from this type of injury is at least six months, so it is unlikely that Berkman will be ready for the start of the 2005 regular season. May or June is probably more realistic.

Just to give you an idea of how just how good a player Berkman is, Over the past 4 years, Berkman ranks 6th in the majors in runs created against average ("RCAA", explained here):

1 Barry Bonds 597
2 Todd Helton 284
3 Albert Pujols 281
4 Jim Thome 250
5 Manny Ramirez 240
6 Lance Berkman 236
7 Jason Giambi 225
8 Alex Rodriguez 218
9 Jim Edmonds 216
10 Gary Sheffield 210

That's pretty heady company.

Posted by Tom at 3:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Election map analysis

William J. Stuntz is a smart professor at Harvard Law School, and in this Tech Central Station article, provides an excellent and non-biased analysis of the voting patterns from Tuesday's Presidential election, including the following observation:

The best way to see how the two sides stack up is to look at one of those red-and-blue maps that seem to breed these days. Divide the country into three parts: Kerry's base, Bush's base, and the Midwest. Kerry's base is the Northeast -- everything North of the Potomac River and East of Ohio -- together with the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. (They don't call it the "left coast" for nothing.) Kerry swept his base 194-0. Bush's base is the South and the rest of the West. Bush swept his base too, by an electoral score of 237-0, assuming the New Mexico vote holds up. But Bush's base is bigger. Which means Kerry needed to nearly sweep the Midwest to catch up. He did carry the Midwest, but not by much: 58-49 in the electoral college. Bush carried Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa -- and he could have lost any of the last three without changing the result.

Read the entire article.

Posted by Tom at 8:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Perilous Times

In this New York Times review, Michiko Kakutani reviews Perilous Times, the new book about American restrictions on civil liberties and free speech by Geoffrey R. Stone, the Harry Kalven Jr. distinguished service professor of law at the University of Chicago. As the review notes, the restrictions of civil liberties under the recent Patriot Act are not unusual in time of war in the United States, regardless of whether the President is a Republican or a Democrat:

Impassioned yet methodical, [Professor Stone] lays out the vital role that free speech plays in a healthy system of self-governance, using lots of case studies to illustrate his arguments while creating a devastating portrait of those public figures whose commitment to free speech has been weak or hypocritical. Woodrow Wilson, who tried to squelch any disharmony that might impede his mission of making "the world safe for democracy," comes off especially poorly, and Franklin D. Roosevelt emerges as a president who would support civil liberties in the abstract, "but not when they got in his way."

However, Professor Stone is reassuring that America's commitment to civil liberties is strong, and that each period of restriction has been followed by a period of stronger restoration:

After each period in which the nation went too far in restricting civil liberties, Mr. Stone argues, "the nation's commitment to free speech rebounded, usually rather quickly, sometimes more robustly than before." A Congressional report declared that the Sedition Act of 1798 had been passed under a "mistaken exercise" of power and was "null and void." The Sedition Act of 1918, which was repealed two years later, helped give birth to the modern civil liberties movement. And in 1976, President Ford formally prohibited the C.I.A. from using electronic or physical surveillanc0}ðÌ«r"}P¨^¨æ¦gó$-!_6ÅjÄ–©++ß§È´sßû.‘'ohªCBP^f1ÍÛwÞí(—‹W›XRù'Q´P˜YùÉ‘›¾WöŠY5¹âºGS˜rÏÈ’ ÄÜ¶ùœÈ¢ŒÑ±Ï~77‹èÕk…°m$}c“Sbu(¾»Ø¦1Y‹ÕjvÜkbFù@ híc€éêx‡šó²5î5ñô²'ÞAƒ¢YmZ;Ï´ÇžÔ£ª5#:¸ß*)Zx=sÁÓ¢|[ –Èüý1r²Äêïúºëpš²ö :E·O#R zkËµ÷&@J”ŸEÞ$–õn¨¼G#¡ô[³Ñ¤ƒ·¢[ƒ¬+Õ1¡e-%ÝÚ‡5ZÛ˜2%Ñv¥-ðjíöÀ«@E<—r¸¯\Ž6 “ÈSÊn,8$T#´<}'q«S›Þ½¤NÌPó<3‰ó¡2C®}‘ ²A¨÷ÎRRëŽBž}!VI;ÂSà¿ÿâm»iOâ…šc[8Až³|$lŸŽ/uú˜²…c•kX©SD×àX†·çÁcê2º >êA¸šû¸~T“aXñ¥‹è«øÙ¢3¨ÕzºÍÐ©ÜR}¿T´ø—’g%õžP;_Ê*w£`ËÎ°44fÒ‰dÁ9©)ªžZ§FO†Ï3ƒ$aÈ¬Àl4DQÄ«È±ªvõžËI]hkvK]ê^XltÁ¬¤ õ¢Ul1KÚq’ŽÃ˜0j“ßh«Ÿöë_Å¯”Ùž¾YJALHÁqS¼OfÄ¹4jÖó&’›¨Kä¶70_“U]ãHOc¶´Ü0À×BÂÊŒ¥gEÉS¬’ÔGîÇÄå8-Ë Žéeoï‹¡Q+Ó00ldK=Yô´Oc35tANŠÂA«b> ¦=û7(Ÿsƒ_ƒIuGŸÅoÎ:hWºª¯ÈÓîÀÿŒ9Î¹1*6böÌ»Ek–;½¢Ð?{T¡FÿLB¶W+-Oò4MK”E¸0:ŽÖ¶Ù$ì ôzT¡ë-›¨Í•a… ËFž0KáEr’©a5åb¶8ÑÀ}Ö.Œ-…?êÚCc˜‘ÎÙè&ÈµW¾å£¬7N®¯$Àáîw\ŠÁŸÀ6ìÖTh˜}Õ1»aPÆÈÙ>n4¦ÁyéÞ}?’' ,^øÑ_or›VíòZ6'~k“dä”eæž_ël–v(šeAám÷§X0cg¯E¡ƒyÞ'©`é!Ñ‹\¥wudü‘S&G³U½%¬ºŠ$Ë ¶jÔ#¢æî+R™•U<ÞÑdâ–3‰Ç¹K^ž¶h&û0/”[)–¿à¯þÁ´ýf sq—gyJ°2²¤ˆ¬Uk’ž`¥›¼¡¤4™voÒ\6vXÃÎÙ´Wyê_ñ!(B¾Uã¨Îm0‹@ï×öÖrN—v~4VáÐ7¶E» ?Ð]Å9ë é’Ç |ÙN z0½€çêo¶l÷'K9•M±™ZvLF;Â1Á®›‹" º&“)ë)ÕÜS)3Ì 6,›Ø¦3ºK'…´†ðä‰–Šd.J›GVVzc…â–Å%Y‹]¿Åyõ¯˜n“;±±Î„’wÛºJ`9(©”Ý‡ÖiWTµØÜ—Vi€neY6ü® ãƒ&'gú•,Šgã+ƒ&ÍG‚é‰žK° »øÁ¨ÿeªèÆzPèµóåL¥„ç¹‹ð¶¦§;¦çÎH&Èu•ºI=+ÎœJðY2D(hJâÆ5'.ît³qîæ>zF¬ŒÑÀþ}}ž.±V‡À[^+äAÏYg>>þ–ã@ö<µÌhý€jA¶º&ÜBrîqÀBôckökQ²èÃÎ›Œ‡ÈŸ!>àÆ~ÂB¸úÞ$œ·f>ÝbLG7ŽbØ RØì¥•?½ÐŠñý Ñ{ÿÏ¦ ÿõjÔ©¸ã1fƒ…®×ŒFÑÖÍÌàß¼ ‘=¯²¬ÒcP;¢sû;ñ+ùçqbí}w:ß(oV—&ñ<¾@ÿ¼Jég–o:ü&ÇÂ·L&Âº¿×CŠŽ,pÐ\eHBRvÄ½ã_[w¢#Ï[p¸Y4W“¼Ï,¨w!t'-àßw@¿]ËÅ}Øc·›{áZI:îW¶hS¾r–»€îO ûWÆÀÆA-äDOFtW}Ç~oÌÂk¦Ëð—d—Íøàôt˜=¬¶4 ëR×ëB€É?„äþÒ”}ÃÇlØ™¶ª3õ8Ôí”œ7I’‡p˜t†!ûŠ×Y L¯˜¾RXºXÀ¦€¥¬¹ØÀ–€¬»8À¶€£šY˜í—Øµð€¯Ø»¨ç|`_²F’SMÐ´ ÛX©á ;iÃŸ^6+ï<;ÆÉ%Ïr ñ¶in{»áQÛ$]HÒ2H™@!…,ÒYlèÜÓ¬3äÞàñ%¨7PŽ›¬Ú™¾FíQÏœôe¤¢µ†4 Ûäh‰ÛÓ/™V^0!-ƒ®ª¾+ˆõ\oª7š&âÜ¢ÓCp# ðúÒ¡y~Œ¼¾ŸðLˆuÁ»p›0¨](M:â]c²Âq£!¤3Ýny¤D§‡q|¹è©H¹„¼ÁŽÅëÀçkœÀpCêv=ñÆ}/?¹ºí¥_6h»øºnqp¯·®AÔX¤½(ŠÉMvy<˜*2svä76’ÄmORZ©À(!.E›÷ñ7÷e°eCÙ£àû9ùº^ñ î÷÷ÕlÑÎ*¹õ£+ÎjˆGÏáz;º¶ðSlöaûÔrt!¬v÷hf¸÷‰Ù·)ã¿8'’_üPZ>‰vÃ*»§ás6 ðí—ÛjÞ|Y„_ï>Ñ´uýìwî‰²÷RR‘³‘ò¥½ÓOÜ¨ØEdo'ÃZ`¡j—u¡þâìÂãïÖ?Áþ4"—{kç³lÙŸîRÜ4×b÷â¡ûŽº`ò\a"ûMBUåmöÂøÒ‚q@oI§JBÑžÒ¹sØeÝü1+¡MèízŒbI=J&`¹Õ‘'¦)æÐ…)…Þ]p‹ÖM¸mÁóp7…ö<ÁüÇÁòún¥KªÿÁÖ¼ý F9V¯]Ð¨gä¯1êp¢¯E¡¦™X»pIà†5}r±-}Ž»NÌÞsõ?]jnsKnsYË¿ï_2¨¤°lMÒ~bÎ=9u6Ö»yf÷/¾´²òË^—› TžAÉí*'JwftÃ´^[¬ðLx6‡ã”™œ2°lhéŸSkïh/•ˆg7.µ²ÿÜÕEw}ù›nHÔEô¹Î¬îÂè³1oâ™\¡Àg}#{º@íïÀ´rl¿öêà‘T¹>ì¤‡„aåÙ2ÛVtm*è:0oæç:t÷ÛLïa´Ì¤€co¢ŸÄL^hs¿õ®f‘ƒC_]Ÿ§ÿ¤Åð½Ç‡FwŸ¸Îs…ÛÙdkbÛ¸üãöw¨rý8*Á)Ÿä â-·¬[Y‰bõ»4‡Gû0.•Äõ²+^å‰êÛßÉfÞ¬ÙÂ²^=ÄleÞ>í/VƒœxÑê+¾üc±*h}Ëú@Çk}Ê=¬n†-zp†V¼žËÊegWøÉÊ‡Ïç¹jsÌDØÄaç€€«mE¬i!ý§ÿAÓkÀ1hÂ'Úw’*Š`E¬u>Ö1BšÐ›‹’`¾ÿw\ÿgrÿ‚íkmR``hZik;Z(AÙ7ÅÞ‚€dÓÙîªÍVÚ® 5‹¹=2ï?K eš¡M1=-ûz©¶œGZ‰fŸRzµk?Ôî&ù«—Ê,—Ò¾©ðlq@§úXwñØÓf¾h£ÄÚ&šÛ¦&Fçç¨pŠŽU«ïKãGsC»~ó}’ÒsÌ+èÆ(Ú'#Å7>•jk?š‹oBY°÷«¶×|„³Yþ-²ÅñbÞi8È,¿mžü˜›;ø,ð—DßrŠ$SÞih<À{!"estment scams and tax avoidance schemes. 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Ø=Ö%V s~û£bfàIÄûìë «–¥ ãI)+Ø;û—ÈÇÈe´™×ÒÉÞMŒŒ/BO}Ç¡V.3{úø¿l–ªÝ5K`!&$…ÌÍ?/"ïGï@–¨‘3˜;è»-^b°"°aÖ=ÖuV#k‚Æ‘ñÌ},xÖ8à%àC¬^ÖßÍÅäöÀ]‡Öt*´žS›·sjõMçÓpãÆ 5:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 3, 2004

Nigerian Barge Jury convicts five out of six defendants

The federal jury in the Enron-related criminal case known as the Nigerian Barge case acquitted a former Enron accountant today and found her five co-defendants guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy charges.

The jury cleared former Enron accountant Sheila Kahanek of all charges, but returned guilty verdicts on all charges against former Enron Vice President Dan Boyle and four former Merrill Lynch bankers, William Fuhs, Robert Furst, James A. Brown and Daniel Bayly. Messrs. Brown and Boyle were also convicted of lying to investigators.

Ms. Kahanek's acquittal is not surprising. The prosecution's case against her was extremely weak and relied almost entirely on testimony regarding an alleged argument that Ms. Kahanek had with another Enron employee regarding the Nigerian Barge transaction. Moreover, Ms. Kahanek testified during the trial, something that three of her co-defendants chose not to do. Finally, Ms. Kahanek's attorney -- Houston-based criminal defense lawyer Dan Cogdell -- performed brilliantly during the trial and clearly connected with the jury better than any other criminal defense attorney involved in the trial.

The conviction of Mr. Fuhs is somewhat surprising. By all accounts, he did a good job of testifying during the trial and the prosecution's case against him was not much stronger than its case against Ms. Kahanek. However, Mr. Fuhs was undoubtedly prejudiced by the failure of the three higher-ranking Merrill executives -- Messrs. Bayly, Furst, and Brown -- to testify during the trial. Juries in white collar criminal cases want to hear what defendants have to say and the failure to address that jury desire is a huge risk.

Finally, the conviction of Mr. Boyle was not particularly surprising. His defense was a curious mix of appealing for jury sympathy (a questionable tactic given the public animus toward Enron) and relying on his seemingly poorly-prepared testimony during the trial. At one point during his testimony, Boyle said he knew the deal was wrong even as he continued working on it. If a white collar criminal defendant is going to testify during trial, then it helps to do so effectively. Mr. Boyle did not.

Now, the trial moves on to its second phase, in which the government will attempt to prove the effect on the market of the fraudulent transaction in which the defendants participated. Included in the indictment against the Nigerian Barge defendants is an allegation that the transaction caused the loss of more than $80 million, which is an allegation that can add years to a sentence under existing federal guidelines. This allegation was recently included in a superceding indictment of the Nigerian Barge defendants as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's Blakely decision (prior posts here), which held that the state of Washington's sentencing laws were unconstitutional because they allowed only judges (and not juries) to consider factors that increased sentences. Some legal experts have speculated that the decision calls the Constitutionality of federal sentencing guidelines into question for the same reason.

The Enron Task Force has not yet explained how the Nigerian Barge deal -- which was a relatively small transaction involving about $12 million in allegedly illegal profit for Merrill Lynch -- could have possibly caused $80 million in market loss to investors in Enron. In fact, neither Enron nor Merrill Lynch lost a dime on the transaction, and the allegedly questionable accounting on the deal was not even discovered until well after Enron had filed bankruptcy and its equity value had already become worthless. Where does the prosecution come up with $80 million in market effect from that?

During his distinguished legal career as a defense attorney before becoming a federal judge, Nigerian Barge Judge Ewing Werlein often defended corporate clients against dubious damage claims in civil cases. It will be interesting to watch how he deals with the government's equally questionable market loss allegations in this trial. Stay tuned.

Posted by Tom at 3:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Houston's Great Wall of China

Gordon Marino, a philosophy professor at St. Olaf College, writes this Opinion Journal article on the Houston Rockets' center Yao Ming. It's an interesting look at Yao, in which Mr. Marino observes:

I asked Yao to compare his life in China with the one he leads in the U.S. He observed: "In China everything was taken care of for me, and every daƒL\Cð; 2ªz¯À:6`œ#ÿ ëÚ3?òD•.BP$Ú‡LgÚ¤îõ5¬ÕNò}i¤M Ó¹ßuUXšñùò·gy{‰½õ¯åúX¡µÂæO…”ª‡1•3ò4ö(²®X)ÍseÂN•'b)Øµ½ÑkßE”k¶Æ×È˜‡¬Éf<þ Ò ÅË4Ù¦„FG3’Ûñ¢-£_9ôfPžê .L˜W¹eËsGÉš¢\ˆ×_šÀ‘—Y‘$Ý<¹r@%·w\Ý‚Òè¾£¨¯Â9óa‚p ÏYdæµÖÅRÅ£nH¸íŠ×Ùz·œ<ýñ£¼*ŽùêFâ'ÝÇb³§ˆv· æº\fòéNæ[ Ó³;¤Ú¼Å!š6¤”•€]UúkŸEBÁs‹)Ë+>f (ëF™Á5ÈÐÎÏÞPno¢|Ûy(q¡Ó]=ÕåBò{8ëžáý‘qÒ»~-ì©[öxïH€.JSÌa )M$xËóË»&ž8¶ÈøvKq’3ñ–ˆ ¨&¹hHÈqîüDSiµx@n÷ P! —9ò{-~Ð³£zgÊðÙ“’c{e¾PŒ !Ì‡*ÚBU¨Þ+IMFdâ "r5ƒS¹Ú‹ß† vh”Ô›ë™ü|!X+)78f+ÊÒ¢=u1ß¨¨I$Ràp}"e^ŠVõRƒág¥7rã1[›¸-Ž.CE%½üUþŽS¹«°jÅpù/'Ç€ý“d$‹Ò¿@JkÂêAô3¥i çµAKùêÂ&|}M1 0â²RÑEØPTQE„ÑÁÐŽê®I¹þ 5•"vbpØ¾¶ µ?¤@À/ñÀJœþ,ø5ëV*@è€‘7À°šÅÄ[1 VÕÓõÚ ’ûÎB½pBC *!8´ ¸5]<æ •vºMV=ŸŽpÆ[8ýßý{øÙ¹Í~-)&¸ãÌpÆ‘¬pÆ½‘ìpÆ‘ ðˆnß‘KMÂO!öèeÍ E¡ ÎÈsêmžs¢}JøÉv/JöNÜW¤ƒjGåwZØR¢{{0SªòÚÃé‘Ì¨6ÔGêkófóÃE´6TgÍöN¢„ÐÁT$h1óßL"êä—ìÆéåëÈÂM·´òŒÍå¦n0Û"Nþ¹´L gD²¢:P_©Ÿ5É›,»£±¢!ýE¾°±4q{C·š«¡-ýé‚D·ñpùMPË´ñ `¤2BL“`\l]µé¸PŒ»Ûž6>7Ó Ü¦KvØœcøz1¿-j‡ÝiÉûœÊ‹‘;çôVAFFGŽ8Ð“Ÿ0@…€ÿÁéÞþ·ð½Ô_™8|zuõÅrháŽÕ>“Ü¢}At 2(%À\7›|LA*Øƒ/(‘ôùà›Ùð2 SáëÜ?‡ªìEÃ E0BŸ^PÍž\-£2‰fÒ¦©gÏüN&Ú1þ(Ãq„"£P,§-·‡½x†~œøÁž"R“!šÍ™U¨¾
November 2, 2004

Dynegy agrees to buy energy plants

Houston-based Dynegy Inc. has entered into an agreement to purchase from Exelon Corp. all of the outstanding shares of ExRes SHC Inc. Through the acquisition, Dynegy will acquire a 1,042-megawatt, 7,211-Btu heat rate, combined-cycle independence power generation facility near Scriba, N.Y., four natural gas-fired merchant facilities in New York, and four hydroelectric generation facilities in Pennsylvania.

As a part of the deal, Dynegy will also acquire controlling interest in a 750-megawatt firm capacity sales agreement with Con Edison, a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison Inc. The sales agreement, which runs through 2014, provides annual cash receipts to Dynegy of about $100 million. The financial terms of the agreement include the payment by Dynegy of $135 million and the consolidation of $919 million in project debt, and Dynegy projects that the principal and interest payments related to the consolidated debt will be substantially funded through 2014 by the proceeds from the long-term capacity sales contract with Con Edison.

The deal is the first major purchase that Dynegy has made since it underwent a massive restructuring in 2002. That restructuring was prompted by the crisis in the energy trading industry that followed industry leader Enron's spiral into bankruptcy in late 2001.

Posted by Tom at 2:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 1, 2004

Gerry Hunsicker resigns as the Stros' GM

Gerry Hunsicker -- the most successful general manager in the history of the Houston Astros -- resigned Monday after nine years as the club's general manager.

Hunsicker's tenure as Stros GM coincided with the most successful decade in Stros' history. During the past nine years, the Stros won four National League Central titles and finished second three times, including this past season in which the Stros won their first post-season playoff series in club history. Over that span, the Stros had a won/loss record of 701-595 for a sixth-best winning percentage of .541 in Major League Baseball. Only three MLB GMs have served in their current job for more seasons than Hunsicker.

Hunsicker will be replaced by his long-time assistant, Tim Purpura.

The Stros hired Hunsicker as GM in 1995 from the New York Mets organization, where he worked for seven seasons, first as director of minor-league operations and then as assistant GM. Hunsicker and Purpura are credited in baseball circles with revamping the Stros' farm system over the past decade to produce such star players as Lance Berkman, Richard Hidalgo, Bobby Abreu, Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge, and Wade Miller. In addition to building the Stros' farm system, Hunsicker also traded for or signed such talents as Randy Johnson, «+/£Õº¹p#Z µbÞw„Àíg?t‘Ö”B8‚ñËTM\Ö¨ƒ•06´Å§^ ”‚–99ëc,Å•8Ò¥HUX P)U!ÜVÑÞb°ãå_%¤žŠun]-\ÇÁlröV‹ìD§ŒC¶pL+lju_´·ºk$}aì»!AïOŒþÃn´·jãÞ=Ù…RK]aÚªî)Tl|…°eÙDçœr*ãN7´áR£âCcXE—W$õ×ƒ6”ˆ;Ëtip!QŒáè„Ö@2'DðN@Õ-ºÌz\V’ilÒÕðÊÖó66+P‡7ˆ†¦÷ƒ–Ü:y#Å„}ø™5ü¿y9 3%=µ3µ Øa]~•¨>Ùà²ˆz(ç>™l;bÁJèÊê`VšËHéGÝËûú‹/ÃOHù«ô9—©Y›Óx¸ÜÙŽ²–É9-¾ŸzÉ½E¸PV½÷e…¶sð¶¤ ´‚!©ÿË|›ºg^&7Ocr¿–^úþ¡xBµ¸ácuQßQSß¥–\Q‚ €ÿ7Ôé-!Â¥'4ÀpŽù7'E ´f:„dVá 6à)À n¼ÃXIã›¼}ù£ì¯)±'—²‹FÕØ$©¡Ô¼òC.dM¶Þ9‹ùg[¿1òec¦h§ÁÄJ×Ìg4@ÞVœ³òÝ¤Â¶öeÌ9§¶ƒñý¤© Ñ9YÓ¬,àïÞs)ØÄw^þ›’¿7ƒŠÛÆ±Š½À´,~AI©>?$Œ!2C·Æ³™÷à}1Ç˜7LVbà{F úm»ŸŽ¡EýÊ‘V¨4CÏ+SðhË/ó^=kÔ'¢‡O‡˜þÿÝéÄþÔÛ£6½H.F¼dŽ‹[ÉÐãðz©ä6Î»P~ü`µÙð19µ’_êä`ªÐBÀoeÅøg5GHœî¹¹€éâ•ï—ôôõÃmØ£ë‹ªÂe?ÙÎ¶…åô‘vãÈ…q(®ˆi¨*\žø< ¹2Ø‹v?Å˜Ð¨üižÅ¾÷v<ù<:½ú¶mS<ê,+(»)å …vù¸_þ)Š©ˆkÁg Q¥ÍÇ°á—¡kN¦Pi%—y «7ÞöÍ°j§_ R*¶q•ÞZ¢ñMÂG}˜k ON–06¨I—8\5ÓWÀ¶‘Yd¬)fïy?—lk©9„gFÃ7*dÓÃÑJî1…59¤¤‹ê¿)»Aæn#ƒ Èh÷_2¿–¢Ü‹ùG 9Ýa¦Qûœ’G¾k¥Q¸—6ìþî¬%”˜ð-VÕø3,2ÜbëüòŸGë|¤5—‡´(¯š€úÂeíždÜ¤·«‹Ésƒ^'bƒ»íóW¤=Z¿ï}ã2G)eT§2ó+fÚð…‰¡e”gà¦ÿ zËáý®×ÊyšQXï6Ê?¢ Ó©1#çuÍÓcsH† Ê}†CVSëªWÛ†-ˆ¯ø&« Eî·´+¬8q9ÑhÍoé‘NR´:ù·ŸØ4À'Q˜“ŒÉwFy#i;ÈŒŠ¢â“·¸’Š‰Ì+}¶YÄI2/GUƒ÷®F èAºy-Ø’²]óHÀTÜ‘3±ÎÿÌ™vÛÁÛ›âNËX:¸ºÒ½Š÷#®Ã'¶ô#_!†Q¨tºø›¿.f•ÿM³ð°š”ëîE ¦Ê„CN«‹-nU(ŸCêëÀÂÚšW“OSŠ Öj};H@c¥ßay6^ù*¯ëkŸ‘ßbÝ¾öáâ5¾h©Q¦µÕHÓÈ¤,E‚s‰\Žº–a‚Wé2Ö=C•J8î¤£tÀr8ÅdâÓ€î¯añ¼4+<ƒÑ9Óðk,P™u¹[uáóŽ©À/'Ý¬"N=iAgŒ–Ùk¦Ãrg"bp+H¨Y9Ò‹—õåYDÀ)ß;ÈpTfíb«i;Æœ|«"ïQü[7¼W,uwŸH™Ý#;¹0 «‹9ÎUÛ·2^. 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