Monthly Archives: November 2004

Pete Cokinos, RIP

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Houston’s business community lost another of its longtime oil and gas entreprenuers on Sunday when Geneos P. “Pete” Cokinos of Beaumont died at the age of 88. Mr. Cokinos died a day after another famous Houston wildcatter, Michel T. Halbouty, who was a friend and contemporary of Mr Cokinos. Mr. Cokinos’ obituary is here.
Mr. Cokinos was the oldest of five children of the P.D. Cokinos family, which included a sister and four brothers. Mr. Cokinos and his three brothers were all veterans of the U.S. Army in World War II and graduates of Texas A&M University, and Mr. Cokinos was the first of an incredible seventeen members of that family to attend and graduate from Texas A&M. Mr. Cokinos and his brothers subsequently funded an academic Presidential Scholarship at A&M in memory of their parents.
Mr. Cokinos was the uncle of well-known Houston attorney, Greg Cokinos. Funeral services are scheduled for this evening and Wednesday in Beaumont.

David Medina to be named to Texas Supreme Court

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Former former Harris County state district court judge David Medina is expected to be named today to the Texas Supreme Court by Governor Rick Perry during a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. at the South Texas College of Law in Houston. Mr. Medina is currently serving as the Governor’s general counsel.
The appointment will fill the second of two vacancies on the nine-member court. Mr. Medina will replace Michael Schneider, who was confirmed as a U.S. District Judge in Tyler in September. The other vacancy was filled by Wallace Jefferson, a Supreme Court justice who Governor Perry recently promoted to chief justice. Chief Justice Jefferson replaced former Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips, who retired to enter private practice.
Mr. Medina, who is 46, was born in Galveston and grew up just to the north in Hitchcock. He graduated in 1980 from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University-San Marcos), where he was a member of the baseball team and the state-championship karate team. He subsequently received his law degree from South Texas, where he was on the dean’s list and was a member of the American Bar Association Regional Moot Court National Championship Team.
From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Medina served as judge of the 157th District Court in Harris County, during which time the Houston Bar Association members consistently cited him as one of the top jurists in Harris County. Before and after his tenure on the bench, Mr. Medina worked for Cooper Industries, a worldwide manufacturer of electrical products, tools and hardware. He has served as Governor Perry’s general counsel since January of this year.
Before becoming Governor Perry’s general counsel, Mr. Medina was involved in a controversy when he was arrested in June 2002 and charged with driving while intoxicated. His trial ended in a hung jury, and then Medina pleaded guilty to making an improper lane change, paid a fine, and the original DUI charge was dismissed.
Upon appointment to the Supreme Court, Mr. Medina will have to through the Texas Senate’s confirmation process next year. To remain on the bench, Mr. Medina would have to run for election in 2006.

An interesting economics debate

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This week, Tyler Cowen of the Marginal Revolutions blog and Jon Irons of the Argmax.com blog will be debating various economics issues over at the 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.

The Rovenian Candidate

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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.

Euro reaction to America’s new Ryder Cup captain

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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.

The politics of tax policy

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This NY Times article reviews the growing consensus within the Bush Administration that something needs to be done with the federal government’s absurdly complex and special interest-riddled income tax system. There is no real economic analysis of the alternatives here, just a review of the political implications of such a movement. The most hopeful quote in the article comes from a Democrat:

“It strikes me that there’s consensus in the country, and hopefully in Washington, that the tax system is too complex, that it’s full of loopholes that are exploited by special interests and that we need to simplify them,” said Senator-elect Barack Obama of Illinois, a Democrat who won easy election to an open seat.
Mr. Obama, speaking on “This Week” on ABC, said, “If we can arrive at a tax simplification agenda that is not resulting in a shift toward a more regressive tax system, but is instead genuinely making it simpler for ordinary Americans to file their tax returns without a lot of paperwork and gobbledygook, then I think that’s something we could work together on.”

Amen.

Trying to avoid living like a poor student at 70

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Ben Stein writes this personal finance op-ed for the NY Sunday Times in which he illuminates the mounting retirement finance problem that is confronting the Baby Boomer generation:

This is the bore of the gun pointed right between the eyes of the baby boomers. With the low interest rates of today and tomorrow, with the lavish way we have come to expect to live, with a stock market that is sluggish, let us say, what on earth are we going to do about retirement?
Unfortunately, this is not just a paranoid fantasy about my own life. This is going to be the reality of millions, maybe tens of millions of baby boomers unless they get their backsides into gear and make some serious changes in their lives.
You can look at it anecdotally, or you can look at it statistically. Anecdotally: If you are a woman in your mid-50’s living on a salary of $150,000 a year, and if you wish to maintain your living standard when you retire at age 65, you will need about $200,000 a year to live on, assuming inflation raises prices by 3 percent a year. If you assume you will get about $15,000 a year from Social Security, you will need about another $185,000 a year. To have that much income with today’s interest rates, you will probably need about $4.6 million in the bank. Do you have it?
Or, we can look at it statistically. About 77 million baby boomers are racing toward retirement. That’s people roughly between 40 and 60 years old. More than 34 percent of the ones over 55 report having financial savings (not counting their home equity) of less than $50,000. Only 21 percent have more than $100,000. The average Social Security benefit as of 2003 was only $895 a month. Only roughly one in eight workers as of 2001 had a pension with a defined benefit (as opposed to a defined contribution).
We can look at it another way. If you had to retire in 10 years with (now let’s be really generous here) twice the savings you now have, and would receive interest of 4 percent on it, how close would you be to having a living income, i.e. an income you could live on at your present style of life? Be honest.
You can look at it still another way. The average family in the New York area earns roughly (and I mean really roughly) $50,000 a year. You would need to have at least $1.25 million in principal to yield that income at 4 percent. Do you have it?

And the solution?

Major league retirement planning right here and now. Right this second. Make a plan with an adviser you trust and for whom you have gotten superb references. Make it a plan with a lot of diversification of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, foreign, domestic, emerging, variable annuities (but study them carefully – there are immense variations among them), real estate and even cash.
The plan has to allow for expensive, long-term medical care. It has to provide for the possibility of losing your job at some point before you reach retirement age. The plan cannot count on miracle cures from the federal government. The federal government is just a means of transferring money from wage earners to retirees – and the wage earners are not going to want to bankrupt themselves for the baby boomers (who got all of the good music anyway).

Read the entire piece.

2004 Weekly local football review

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Broncos 33 Texans 13. After a month of strong performances, the Texans looked absolutely awful against the Broncos. The offensive line play was horrible, and David Carr — who does not throw particularly well under pressure — was mediocre (22/41 for 245 yds, no turnovers) as he was sacked four times. Meanwhile, the offense’s incompetence left the Texans’ shaky defense over-exposed, and Broncos’ QB Jake Plummer took advantage, flinging four TD passes on the day. Just to give you an idea of how bad it was, the Texans’ best player — receiver Andre Johnson — had three catches for 28 yards. Things don’t get any easier for the 4-4 Texans as they travel to Indianapolis next week to be lit up by Peyton Manning and Co., and then return to Reliant Stadium for games against Green Bay and Tennessee the following two weeks.
Bengals 26 Cowboys 3. Not to be outdone, the Cowboys looked even worse than the Texans as the Bengals pummeled them in Cincy. Making things worse was that the Bengals were wearing possibly the worst looking uniforms in NFL history while administering this whipping on the Pokes. Cowboys QB Vinnie Testaverde looked all of his 41 years, spraying three interceptions to go along with a fumble in the pocket. The 3-6 Cowboys are a horrible football team right now. An over-the-hill QB, no top flight running back, and a questionable defensive secondary. This could end up being the Big Tuna‘s worst professional football team since his first Giants team in 1983, which finished 3-12-1. The Pokes get Philly at home and Baltimore on the road in their next two games before hosting the Bears in what is stacking up to be a forgettable Turkey Day game.
Oklahoma 42 Texas Aggies 35. Like a champion heavyweight fighter, the Sooners got off the mat before a wild crowd in College Station after the Aggies had taken 14 point leads on three occasions in the first half. OU systematically took the lead in the third quarter, and then hung on for dear life as a final Hail Mary pass fell just short of an Aggie receiver at the buzzer. OU’s Jason White showed again that he is a marvelous college QB, as he shredded the Aggie secondary for five TD passes. This was simply a whale of a college football game in which the Aggies threw the kitchen sink at the Sooners, scoring TD’s on a fake punt and a fake field goal. Meanwhile, both teams’ secondaries looked a bit shell-shocked as both teams combined for almost 700 yards of passing yardage. OU has two relatively easy games (Nebraska and Baylor) before the Big 12 Championship game against one of the Big 12 weak sisters, so it is looking like OU and USC will meet in the BCS National Championship game. The Sooners are a top flight team, but my sense is that Coach Stoops will really have to coach around their defensive limitations to beat USC. Meanwhile, The 6-3 Aggies have no time to feel sorry for themselves, as they face tough Texas Tech in College Station next Saturday before their finale in Austin against the Longhorns on the day after Thanksgiving.
Texas Longhorns 56 Oklahoma State 35. A tale of two halves. As my wife and I went into a charity gala dinner on Saturday night, I turned off my car radio with the score Oklahoma State 35 Texas 7 with just a minute left in the first half. After the salad at dinner, a friend with a son text messaging him from the game told me it was 35-21. Then, midway through the entree, it was tied, and just as we were getting dessert, Texas was leading 49-35. You gotta love college football. The 8-1 Horns play at Kansas next Saturday before entertaining the Aggies in their finale on the day after Thanksgiving. The Horns are finally looking like a BCS bowl team to me.
Houston 34 East Carolina 24. The Coogs continued their mini-recovery after a 1-6 start by beating mediocre East Carolina at Robertson Stadium in Houston. The Coogs were behind 17-14 at halftime, but put this one away by scoring 20 straight points in a 10 minute span at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth. The 3-6 Cougars have two tough games remaining, next Saturday at 5-3 Alabama-Birmingham and then the following week at home against nationally-ranked and Louisville (6-1), so a 3-8 finish for the Coogs is still a distinct possibility.
Fresno State 52 Rice 21. The bottom has fallen out of the season for the Owls, who are now 3-6 and bleeding badly. Fresno just manhandled the Owls at Rice Stadium in Houston, as the Owls trailed 28-7 at the half and 52-7 after three quarters. Rice (3-6) should get ready for more of the same next week as they must go to El Paso to take on the Mike Price-revived UTEP(6-2)squad before finishing at home the following week against 4-5 La Tech.
By the way, in a reflection of the continued polarization of college football, the Longhorn and Aggie games on Saturday drew a combined total of about 165,000 fans. UH and Rice’s games drew a combined total of barely 30,000.
And, as usual, Kevin Whited has his excellent review of Big 12 games over at PubliusTx.net.

Michel Halbouty, RIP

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One of the characters the local business community that make Houston a special place — Michel T. Halbouty — died on Saturday in Houston after a long battle with cancer. He was 95 at the time of his death. His obituary is here.
As founder, president and chairman of Michel T. Halbouty Energy Co. in Houston, Mr. Halbouty was one of Houston’s famed wildcatters who made and lost millions in the wild and wooly Texas oil and gas business over the past 70 years.
With his trademark bushy mustache, Mr. Halbouty cut quite a swath in business circles. An expert in Gulf Coast salt dome prospecting, Mr. Halbouty was inducted into the Texas Science Hall of Fame in 2002 for his contributions to geoscience. He authored four books and more than 300 articles on geology and petroleum engineering, and among the well-known oil and gas fields that Mr. Halbouty either discovered or developed were the South Boling Field in Wharton County, the South Liberty Field in Liberty County, the West Saratoga Field in Hardin County, the Pheasant Field in Matagorda County, and the Fostoria Field in Montgomery County.
Mr. Halbouty was also an important figure in the development of Texas A&M University over the past two generations. After graduating from A&M in 1930 with a degree in petroleum engineering, Mr. Halbouty earned masters’ degrees in geology and petroleum engineering the following year, and, in 1956, was the first recipient of Texas A&M?s professional degree in geological engineering. Mr. Halbouty was also a recipient of distinguished alumni awards from the A&M Association of Former Students and A&M?s Dwight Look College of Engineering. He was a an A&M Visiting Centennial Professor and a founding member of the President?s Endowed Scholars Program. For his service and contributions to the university, the building that houses the A&M’s department of geology and geophysics is named for him.
Finally, Mr. Halbouty is widely credited with persuading former president George H.W. Bush to locate his presidential library on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station.
Mr. Halbouty was also widely involved in civic affairs in the Houston area. Mr. Halbouty also served on the boards of the Houston Symphony Society, Houston Grand Opera, Greater Houston Council of Camp Fire Girls, Texas Children’s Hospital, and Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Funeral services for Mr. Halbouty are pending.

Another Mark Cuban first

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Mark Cuban is the young and dynamic owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks, which he has reshaped into one of the NBA’s winningest franchises over the past several seasons.
Cuban is a live wire, and he undoubtedly leads the NBA in the past few seasons in the amount of fines that the NBA front office has levied against an owner for criticism of various aspects of the league, particularly in the area of referee evaluation.
For several months, Mark has been running an interesting blog called Blog Maverick. In another first, Mark notes in this blog post that the NBA front office has fined him again, this time for criticizing the league in a blog post.