Grafty Bastard

UK Foreign Minister William Hague is in deep shit after a leak pointing how he used diplomatic channels to raise the share price of an oil company at the expense of the dirt poor Ugandans:

After the visit, Mr Bellingham wrote to the Foreign Secretary, saying “My meeting with President Museveni allowed me to raise a specific trade issue, again regarding Tullow Oil.”

“Consequently, Tullow have concluded the deal with [Heritage Oil], allowing both companies’ share price to rise by approximately 50p and £1 respectively.” 

70,000 quid to save 175 million quid? What kind of unethical moron wouldn't jump at the chance?

Long weekend links

# The Economist looks at the prehistoric Shiva impact and the rotten luck of dinosaurs.

# Elizabeth Warren-a-thon. I first tripped over the Harvard Law Professor on the Daily Show back in April:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Elizabeth Warren Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Elizabeth Warren Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Huff Post has more from the TARP fund watchdog with out-takes from Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. Matt Taibbi sez Elizabeth Warren for President.

# On the subject of Matt Taibbi, his latest sketch of the blood funnelers in Rolling Stone almost creates sympathy for former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld. Along with Bear Stearns, Lehman was a target of vast naked short selling prior to their crash. Here's a sobering morsel. HT Bernard Hickey:

The best way to grasp what happened is to look at the data: On Tuesday, March 11th, there were 201,768 shares of Bear that had failed to deliver. The very next day, the number of phantom shares leaped to 1.2 million. By the close of trading that Friday, the number passed 2 million — and when the market reopened the following Monday, it soared to 13.7 million. In less than a week, the number of counterfeit shares in Bear had jumped nearly seventyfold.

WTF is naked short selling anyway? Here's Matt Taibbi and a whiteboard.

# Mother Jones ponders whether then-Treasury secretary Hank Paulson broke the law with a Moscow meeting in June 2008 with the Goldman Sachs Board of Directors:

When Paulson and the firm's execs got together at the Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel, the Treasury secretary gave the Goldman Sachs crew his read on what was happening with the economy and his department's effort to prepare for handling failed banks. He also previewed for them an important speech he would soon deliver.

# After all this evidence of corrupt insider trading, Fran O'Sullivan's column on NZ's Securites Commission almost seems a bit of an anti-climax. Almost. Just because the US SEC is a piece of shit, it doesn't mean our own companies watchdog has to be a bit shit too:

The commission subjected 20 companies to its latest surveillance exercise. It found a widespread lack of transparency. The commission noted it was "particularly concerned" over the lack of transparency around the under-lying assumptions used to value assets, disclosures over third-party transactions and the composition of unexplained expenses.

Six companies have received "please explain" letters over their related party transactions. But if past practice is anything to go by Diplock will be easily satisfied with a promise by the companies concerned to clarify or make the necessary disclosures in their next set of financial statements.

# NatRad News is reporting that KiwiSaver is worth less than the sum of its deposits:

The scheme is managing $3.039bn of assets, which is $115m less than the total of $3.154bn invested by the public and the Crown in the two years.

# Bill Moyers Journal looks at the life of Justice Justice, the judge who brought Texas kicking and screaming into the 20th century.

# UK Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge wonders what will face juries in the 21st century, when people can't sit still and listen and think for any length of time.

# Dutch law supposedly protects client-lawyer phone calls from surveillance, which is why they are frantic about the inability to delete tapped calls from other data. How the hell NZ's new Search & Surveillance works around this here, Dagg only knows.

# And finally, because you managed to stick in there through all those economics links, here's some real good bullet time photography. HT Daily Dish:

Shalom Shalom

It's hello and goodbye to Israel's far right nutjob Avi Lieberman, who has been accused of bribery and money laundering, according to the FT:

A police statement on Sunday said a recommendation had been submitted to the office of Menachem Mazuz, Israel’s attorney-general, who will decide whether to go ahead with the indictment. Mr Lieberman could be forced to resign as foreign minister if charges are pressed against him.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

Tales of Interest

Weekend links:

# With the MSM's ongoing obsessive compulsive coverage of Clayton Weatherston's sociopathic narcissism, Slate previews the black box process of compiling the next Mental Disorder Dictionary, the DSM V. China is treating internet addiction with electro-shock therapy. But I think Big Pharma are going to have a problem marketing anti-shopping treatments without causing some Ironic Displacement Anxiety. Hat Tip A&L Daily.

# Popular police harm minimisation tool, the taser, is back in the media. It's alleged that a petrol sniffing Abbo came running at police carrying a fuel can and a lighter. So they tased him, setting him on fire.

# Here in Wellington, even lawyers rejoice in a bit of urban seal delight. Things aren't so eco-friendly in San Diego, where seals were under eviction notices from their birthing grounds until the Governator changed the law:

Before Schwarzenegger's reprieve, the city said it planned to hire someone to walk the beach with a public address system broadcasting the sound of barking dogs to scare off the seals, said Andrew Jones, the assistant city attorney for civil litigation. Force cannot be used because the seals are a federally protected marine species.

# Three mayors, four rabbis and an organ bootlegger walk into a bar. Not the opening of a joke, but a New Jersey corruption scandal. As Gail Collins laments, favours are cheap.

Jim Bolger to become next Governor-General

John Key announced today that Jim Bolger will replace Hon Sir Anand Satyanand as Governor-General. Opponents are calling it Jobs for the Boys, whilst Key maintains Bolger's choice was not based along party lines.

"Mr Bolger has served this country for many years under a wide variety of governments," John Key said. "Helen Clark thought he had excellent governance skills, appointing him to several SOE boards including KiwiRail. Sir James will make an excellent contribution in this new role."

Leader of the Opposition, Labour leader Phil Goff, is not so sure. "This is just one more example of Jobs for the Boys," he said in a telephone interview with Radio New Zealand from a helicopter above Mt Albert." This is more rank than Spankin' Rankin's baubles of office," Goff shouted.

National candidate for Mt Albert Melissa Lee defended Bolger's appointment as well, saying that Bolger represents some of the rich diversity of New Zealand heritage. "We haven't had an old white guy as Governor-General since Keith Holyoake," she said from a safe house somewhere in the electorate.

When it was pointed out that the last old white guy head of state was Sir Michael Hardie Boys, who then prime minister Jim Bolger had suggested in 1996, Lee refused any further questions stating that talking was interfering with her campaign strategy for Mt Albert.

Overkill Bill

The Electoral Finance Bill makes a dog's breakfast look like fine cuisine. Even dog tucker has more meat in it than this Bill. I can't refer to this Bill as vomit because even puke has a few carrots in it. This Bill is sicker than sick. All this time behind closed doors wrangling a majority with the minors for this? THIS??

The preamble admits that this Bill "significantly amends the Electoral Act 1993 and also amends the Broadcasting Act 1989." Dr Helena Catt, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission, pointed out at the Electoral Symposium that there were twice that many Acts affecting electoral funding (buggered if I can remember them all). This Bill is not a holistic makeover of how elections are funded.

The policy objectives in this Bill include "promote participation in parliamentary democracy". This is the nub of it. Parliamentary democracy, not representative democracy. Parliament is supreme, not the people. If you're not in a professional party, then you won't be able to have your say. This is a power play.

I doubted my faculties when I read that third parties have to register with the Chief Electoral Officer, that they must appoint a financial agent to act as martyr. But the one that really whammed home was the part where third parties had to HAND OVER to the Chief Electoral Officer any anonymous donations over $500 for the WHOLE YEAR.

This one hit home. I have an AP of $10 weekly that goes to NORML. According to this Bill, if I didn't disclose my identity to the authorities, my donations would have to be handed over to the government. Lucky for me I don't give a flying mallard whether people know I give money to an organisation that seeks to legalise the prohibited, thereby possibly incurring the wrath of arrest and detainment at any moment by warrantless search under the Misuse of Drugs Act. It's OK, I've desensitised.

The intent of this Bill is clear. Knee-capped by fundraising to pay off last election, Labour, NZ First and Untied Future will knee cap everyone else to even the score for the next one. Better yet, don't give your meagre disposable income to a pressure group, give it to a party. Pity the poor bastard who wants to support an idea not an ideology.

But what really pisses me off is the Greens' support for the Bill. The Green Party started out as a coalescence of pressure groups, fused together in the Alliance and spat out before it went supernova. This Bill will kill any chance of that happening again. In spite of the very essence of the spirit of MMP, to encourage and foster more than two voices in the House, the Greens would throw that all away to be popular with Labour.

The next chink is Mark Burton.