$72 billion isn't what it used to be.

Kerviel received a base pay for 2007 of $87,000 before tax and a $435,000 bonus, or half what he was asking for. In his testimony, he says he had actually made an $80 million profit for the bank last year, but couldn't tell anyone because that would have led to his unmasking.

His testimony is self-serving, of course, but what's striking is the disparity between the sums he was earning and the amounts he was allowed to play with in his job. He told prosecutors that his first big career win came early on as a trader, in 2005, when he shorted stock of German insurer Allianz (AZ) and earned the bank $720,000. Under such circumstances, it's easy to see how numbers become so abstract that they bear no relationship to reality.

The $72 billion position he amassed in the end is the equivalent to the gross domestic product of Tunisia. But to Kerviel the whole thing appears to have seemed more like a game. Proponents of financial market globalization like to talk about the huge advances that have been made by innovative financial engineering, such as the advent of exotic financial derivatives of the type SocGen packages, sells and trades.

But taken together with the U.S. subprime crisis - in which U.S. banks packaged thousands of deadbeat mortgage loans into leveraged securities that they then sold on to often unwitting investors - one of the big questions raised by the Kerviel affair is whether the world of finance has lost touch with the real world it's supposed to be financing, and what's needed to bring it back into line.

The total volume of financial derivatives of one sort or another floating around the world greatly exceeds the world's GDP. A scandal of this nature may be just what the doctor ordered to make regulators and the banks themselves ponder whether that's so smart.

4 things I learned from the Soci�t� G�n�rale scandal - Feb. 1, 2008

Damn, I'm tired of always being right, because it's always about the bad news. In this case, Aaron wrote to give me the heads-up that six long years after I predicted Iranian irregular naval forces in small civilian craft would make an American fleet in the Persian Gulf look foolish, the glorious NY Times itself lowered itself to repeat today what I'd said way back in 2002. Here's Aaron's message:

Dear Mr. Nerd,

I'm a longtime reader of your column and it wouldn't surprise me if you've already seen this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/ washington/12navy.html?ref=todayspaper

But if you hadn't, allow me to stroke your ego (and ego alone) by making pointing out that you're the only motherfucker in the world that seems to have picked up on this. It only took the press five years. Adding insult to ineptitude, it was the New York Times.

Hope this brightens an otherwise bleary in Fuckno for ya.

Aaron

THE EXILE - Take America’s Navy Battle Group…Please! - By Gary Brecher - The War Nerd

Currently parked, owned by the BroStrong Group, soon to be developed into a hotornot for rating jihadis, 1-10 or "This person is not a terorrist."

JIHADNORNOT.COM

Eyewitness Neil Jones said the plane had made a "very, very unusual approach" to the airport and sounded louder than usual, PA reported.

"The aircraft was banking to the left and it was coming in very low over the surrounding houses," Jones said. "The plane was significantly lower than it would normally be.

"You could see the pilot was desperate, trying to get the plane down. The aircraft hit the grass and there was a lot of dirt. The pilot was struggling to keep the plane straight. I think he did a great job."

Crash passenger: We just dropped - CNN.com

"At approximately 600ft and two miles from touch down, the Autothrottle demanded an increase in thrust from the two engines but the engines did not respond.

"Following further demands for increased thrust from the Autothrottle, and subsequently the flight crew moving the throttle levers, the engines similarly failed to respond. The aircraft speed reduced and the aircraft descended onto the grass short of the paved runway surface."

Just flew on one of these from Hawaii to Chicago. They're my favorite planes... hope this isn't a widespread issue.

Two engines 'did not respond' - CNN.com

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.

The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.

Good for them! Those treaties are garbage.

The Raw Story | Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US

Magnitude 7.2

Huge earthquake in Alaska. I'm monitoring North American seismomoeterographs as long as I'm here so I can notice my first earthquake.

Magnitude 7.2 - ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA

Magnitude 4.6
Date-Time

* Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 11:06:10 UTC
* Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 05:06:10 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 14.698�N, 91.798�W
Depth 97.1 km (60.3 miles)
Region GUATEMALA
Distances 35 km (20 miles) WSW of Quezaltenango, Guatemala
55 km (35 miles) ESE of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico
140 km (85 miles) W of GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala
945 km (580 miles) ESE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico

Woman heard sirens in DF and felt it. I slept through it.

Magnitude 4.6 - GUATEMALA

I haven’t seen Family Guy all that much, but whenever I do I am pretty surprised that it’s allowed on the airwaves right there during prime time on broadcast TV (not cable). It’s a cartoon comedy that packs more gags per minute about race, sex, incest, bestiality, etc. than any other show I can think of. (It may have been beaten by South Park and a dozen others for all I know, but I can’t think of anything that comes close on broadcast TV.) Its characters include a father whose cartoon chin is drawn as a pair of testicles, a masochistic toddler, and a talking dog who, I believe, is both homosexual and an alcoholic. Let me put it this way: if you have or had a mother, any sort of mother, it is the kind of show you would not dare watch while sitting beside her.

I don't really like this link, except for the quote. hhahahaha

Why Is Family Guy Okay When Imus Wasnt? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Bush insisted he made that comment before he learned of the new NIE, though he acknowledged Mike McConnell, his director of national intelligence, gave him an inkling something was up last summer.

"Mike McConnell came in and said, 'We have some new information,' " Bush recalled. "He didn't tell me what the information was. He did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze."

Sen. Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, said he can't believe the president got tipped off in August to a change and didn't follow-up with questions until last week.

"If that's true," Biden told reporters, "he's one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history."

Analysis: Bush won't back down on Iran - CNN.com