Eideard

What does it take to hold your powerful bosses accountable if they try to bully you out the door?

Documents, e-mails, a former deputy district attorney as your lawyer — and a never-say-die approach.

Such was the lesson learned by Michael G. Winston, a former executive at the Countrywide Financial Corporation. Mr. Winston spent three years in a legal battle against Countrywide, the once-mighty mortgage giant, and its current owner, Bank of America, contending that he was punished and pushed out for not toeing the company line. On Feb. 4, he won: a jury in California awarded him $3.8 million in damages…

Mr. Winston’s story provides a glimpse into how business was done at Countrywide at the height of the subprime craziness — and how assiduously Angelo R. Mozilo, the company’s fallen leader, worked to quash dissent in the ranks. Mr. Winston had the audacity to question Countrywide practices. Mr. Mozilo was not pleased and, before long, Mr. Winston was marginalized and later dismissed.

Mr. Winston, a prominent executive in the field of organization management, is a rarity among corporate whistle-blowers. Most of them get run over by their former companies. A fascinating detail in his case: after providing to the opposition his list of witnesses, which included former colleagues who had also been let go by Bank of America, the bank hired several of them back. Then they testified against him.

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Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have dropped their criminal investigation into Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nation’s largest mortgage lender…

The closure of the case after two years of inquiry follows last October’s settlement by Mr. Mozilo of insider trading allegations made by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Regulators had contended that Mr. Mozilo sold $140 million in Countrywide stock between 2006 and 2007 even as he recognized that his company was faltering. Countrywide and Bank of America paid $45 million of Mr. Mozilo’s $67.5 million settlement, and he was responsible for the rest.

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Mr. Mozilo agreed to be banned from serving as an officer or a director of a public company.

The conclusion by prosecutors that Mr. Mozilo, 72, did not engage in criminal conduct while directing Countrywide will likely fuel broad concerns that few high-level executives of financial companies are being held accountable for the actions that led to the financial crisis of 2008.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been lost by investors while millions of borrowers have lost their homes. Few of the people who ran the institutions that contributed to the disaster have been found liable…

Even as criminal and civil prosecutors are closing investigations into financial executives, private litigation is swelling. Investors who purchased dubious mortgage securities are bringing a wide array of cases against mortgage lenders and the Wall Street firms that enabled them. These investors maintain, citing internal documents and e-mails, that those putting together mortgage securities knew that they contained problematic loans that would likely fail…

In his years at Countrywide, Mr. Mozilo became one of the highest-paid executives in America. From 2000 until 2008, when he left, Mr. Mozilo received total compensation of $521.5 million…

Mozilo received a pat on the butt and wall-to-wall money from Bank of America on his departure. A historically criminal act even if the Department of Justice and the SEC feel successful prosecution at this time is unlikely. The operative phrase being “at this time”.

As civil cases proceed, the Feds retain the right to acquire information from those lawsuits to predicate future criminal prosecution against this creep. Still, it’s a sad day when the attitudes, premises and culture of American jurisprudence continues to bend over backwards to avoid criminal proceedings against the greedy bastards who brought down this economic house of cards.

“I tell you, you really had me scared there for a moment!”
(How it could have ended, if only…)

I just figured it out. Mubarak could have won over the masses if only he had had the good sense to open a Twitter account:

7:30 am
Just had breakfast. It was ok, but probably not as good as you get at home. Please don’t believe everything you hear. Everything I eat is brought to me, and you know that nobody fixes for other people with the same care as if they are cooking for themselves.

8:15 am
Just received a letter from Obama. It sounds almost like a threat. You people think you have it rough. Imagine being me.

8:45 am
I just received a call from Hillary Clinton. They ARE threatening me. At least that’s how I take it. NOW do you believe that I am the unlucky one?

10:30 am
Had a nap. Refreshed now. How are you all doing? How I wish I could be in the streets with you. I miss you all.

12 noon
Some of you have written me some nice messages. I appreciate that. You have been able to see my predicament. I never wanted to be a leader. I wanted to be a simple carpenter. I always liked working with tools.

1:00 pm
I can hardly believe my good fortune. Many many people are writing me kind messages and encouragements, and I realize now that opening a Twitter account is one of the best things I ever did.

2:30 pm
My military informs me that the crowds are beginning to disperse. People are starting to spread the word that I am not such a bad guy. I have tears in my eyes as I type this.

3:00 pm
My military tells me that the palace is easy and quiet now, and that I would probably be greeted with cheers if I ventured out. I want to believe them. I do know that you have all been very kind since I opened my Twitter account this morning.

4:30 pm
Back inside. I did it. I got up the courage to go out and meet you, my people. I didn’t expect to be hoisted upon shoulders with cheers of “We love you!”, but that is precisely what happened.

6:00 pm
CNN is now reporting that the Egyptian people now feel that this has all been a terrible misunderstanding. Things are changed, and everything is returning to normal. I guess that the internet does have a place after all. I promise to send out Tweets every day. I never knew that it would mean so much to you.

Any teabaggers ever join an anti-war demonstration?

After two years of struggling to balance the rights of patients against the beliefs of health-care workers, the Obama administration on Friday finally rescinded most of a federal regulation designed to protect those who refuse to provide care they find objectionable on moral or religious grounds.

The decision guts one of President George W. Bush’s most controversial legacies: a rule that was widely interpreted as shielding workers who refuse to participate in a range of medical services, such as providing birth control pills, caring for gay men with AIDS and performing in-vitro fertilization for lesbians or single women.

Friday’s move was seen as an important step in countering that trend, which in recent years had led pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for the emergency contraceptive Plan B, doctors in California to reject a lesbian’s request for infertility treatment, and an ambulance driver in Chicago to turn away a woman who needed transportation for an abortion.

“Without the rescission of this regulation, we would see tremendous discrimination against patients based on their behavior and based just on who they are,” said Susan Berke Fogel of the National Health Law Program, an advocacy group based in the District. “We would see real people suffer, and more women could die.”

The new rule leaves intact only long-standing “conscience” protections for doctors and nurses who do not want to perform abortions or sterilizations. It also retains the process for allowing health workers whose rights are violated to file complaints.

You wouldn’t ask Republicans, teabaggers and other hypocrites to give up on the Death Panels they already support, would you?

Geologists drilling an exploratory geothermal well in 2009 in the Krafla volcano in Iceland encountered a problem they were simply unprepared for: magma (molten rock or lava underground) which flowed unexpectedly into the well at 2.1 kilometers depth, forcing the researchers to terminate the drilling…

Currently, a third of the electric power and 95 percent of home heating in Iceland is produced from steam and hot water that occurs naturally in volcanic rocks.

“The economics of generating electric power from such geothermal steam improves the higher its temperature and pressure,” Wilfred Elders explained. “As you drill deeper into a hot zone the temperature and pressure rise, so it should be possible to reach an environment where a denser fluid with very high heat content, but also with unusually low viscosity occurs, so-called ‘supercritical water.’ Although such supercritical water is used in large coal-fired electric power plants, no one had tried to use supercritical water that should occur naturally in the deeper zones of geothermal areas…”

Elders and his team studied the well within the Krafla caldera as part of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project, an industry-government consortium, to test whether geothermal fluids at supercritical pressures and temperatures could be exploited as sources of power…

“When the well was tested, high pressure dry steam flowed to the surface with a temperature of 400 Celsius or 750 Fahrenheit, coming from a depth shallower than the magma,” Elders said. “We estimated that this steam could generate 25 megawatts of electricity if passed through a suitable turbine, which is enough electricity to power 25,000 to 30,000 homes. What makes this well an attractive source of energy is that typical high-temperature geothermal wells produce only 5 to 8 megawatts of electricity from 300 Celsius or 570 Fahrenheit wet steam.”

Elders believes it should be possible to find reasonably shallow bodies of magma, elsewhere in Iceland and the world, wherever young volcanic rocks occur.

Hmmm. A significant portion of the Rio Grande Valley is a volcanic rift. The youngest areas of volcanic activity are less than 6,000 years old.

Maybe they could slip a wee bit of their ever-increasing budget into something with this kind of environmental potential, eh?

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

What does it take to form a government?

Belgians are not sure, but a lighthearted mood prevailed Thursday as Belgium overtook Iraq’s record in trying to form a government: 249 days and counting.

To mark the occasion, 249 people planned to strip naked in Ghent (though apparently only about 50 people got down to their underwear), while students in Leuven tucked into free frites and downed beer — Belgian, of course.

After general elections last June 13…the political deadlock has increased fears that Belgium, made up of French speakers in the south and Dutch speakers in the north, may actually split apart.

Forming a government has proved so difficult because Flemish nationalists want a new constitutional settlement to give regions more power over issues like the economy. In Flanders, the more prosperous part of the country, many voters hope to limit transfers of cash to subsidize Wallonia.

Historically, French language and culture have dominated Belgium and Dutch speakers once suffered discrimination, a fact that overshadows relations between the country’s two main groups…

Analysts believe that new elections are coming and that the issue of dividing Belgium will move up the agenda.

Jean Faniel, a political scientist in Brussels, said that, despite the crisis, it was important to Belgians to keep their sense of humor. The stripping, beard-growing and beer-drinking protests bore a distinctive Belgian character, he said. “Here we have an acute sense of self-mockery.”

You might be a redneck…?

This young Himalayan Cat – called Ksyusha – likes to hide in a variety of places, including in the washing machine and under the kitchen table. Owner Yuriy Korotun, 37, who lives in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, said: “She was a special kitten from the beginning – always very playful. I came into the kitchen one day to find her in the jar. I couldn’t believe my eyes…”

Its previous claim to fame was as the birthplace of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But now the market town of Grantham in Lincolnshire has produced an even fierier export after a local producer grew the world’s hottest chilli.

Measuring 1.17 million on the Scoville Scale – an official measure of spicy heat – the Infinity chilli is so hot that it carries a health warning.

Grown by Nick Woods, 39, the chilli – which was grown in a greenhouse – made it to the Guinness Book of Records after out-spicing the previous title holder, the Bhut Jolokia, from India…

He explained: “I didn’t set out to grow it, it’s really easy for chillies to crossbreed in a greenhouse, one day I just saw this new chilli plant growing.

“When I tried it tasted nice at first, like an odd fruity taste, the effect is delayed. Then it hit me. All of a sudden I felt it burning in the back of my throat, so hot that I couldn’t speak.

“I began to shake uncontrollably, I had to sit down, I felt physically sick. I really wouldn’t recommend anybody eat it raw like that…”

He said: “We do feel quite honoured to get it because everyone in the world has heard of the Guinness Book of World Records.

“Even if someone else comes along and beats it, they can never take it away from us that we once held the world record.”

This is shattering news to anyone living in New Mexico. We not only are the repository for the collected works of Wilbur Scoville – this is one of the few places on Earth where you can get a college degree in chile peppers.

We grow over 2,000 varieties in New Mexico – and unlike most, we have a state question: – “red or green?”. A tipping point in many choices of where to eat what?

Thanks, honorarynewfie

Regulators should stem the growing tide of anonymous stock-trading and consider imposing fees on high-frequency traders, said a panel of experts advising how to avoid another “flash crash.”

The panel’s 14 recommendations for U.S. securities and futures regulators contained far-reaching ideas to overhaul the high-speed electronic market. Yet many of the ideas issued on Friday called only for “consideration” or “further study” — potentially raising more questions as the first anniversary of the May 6 flash crash nears.

“I don’t think it’s possible to prevent another one from happening,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York…

The unprecedented May 6, 2010, market crash sent the Dow Jones industrial average down some 700 points before rebounding, all in a matter of minutes. It rattled investors, exposed flaws in the structure of markets, and set regulators on a mission to fix the system and restore confidence.

Since then, individual stocks have experienced what some refer to as “mini” crashes, where shares unexpectedly move on a sudden burst of volume, absent of any news…

“What market regulation now has to do is limit uncertainty,” said Maureen O’Hara, professor of finance at Cornell University and member of the flash crash panel. “You limit uncertainty by limiting the amount of movement a price can have before it falls off the map…”

Some of the recommendations, such as expanding and modifying the “circuit breaker” trading pauses, had been anticipated and mostly endorsed by traders and exchanges such as NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group…

Following the flash crash, some lawmakers called for a crackdown on traders who use algorithms to execute complex trading strategies across markets.

But the panel’s report focused on structure and liquidity issues, and did not blame high-frequency trading, said Overdahl, who is also an advisor to the Futures Industry Association’s Principal Traders Group, which includes some of the largest high-frequency traders in the market.

Even if you’re not an investor you should RTFA. The consequences of something like the uncontrolled – and barely understood – Flash Crash could conceivably shove us into another recession for no reason other than an endless loop in corrupted software.

Not to mention corrupt practices by financiers.

A long and detailed article on Bobby Fischer, with a review of Brady’s new Fischer bio in the mix.

The sycophants you can easily ignore. The critics less so. But as you encounter one or another writer who portrays Fischer simply as a man with no principles, understand that that is not the opinion of many– I think most– Grandmasters. On the contrary, as Kasparov reminds us:

Fischer returned from beating Spassky in Reykjavík—the Match of the Century—a world champion, a media star, and a decorated cold warrior. Unprecedented offers rolled in for millions of dollars in endorsement deals, exhibitions, basically anything he was willing to put his name or face to. With a few minor exceptions, he turned it all down.

Keep in mind that the chess world of the pre-Fischer era was laughably impoverished even by today’s modest standards. The Soviet stars were subsidized by the state, but elsewhere the idea of making a living solely from playing chess was a dream. When Fischer dominated the Stockholm tournament of 1962, a grueling five-week qualifier for the world championship cycle, his prize was $750.

Of course it was Fischer himself who changed this situation, and every chess player since must thank him for his tireless efforts to get chess the respect and compensation he felt it deserved. He earned the nickname Spassky gave him, “the honorary chairman of our trade union.”…

It’s important to understand that Fischer turned down the huge advertising deals on principle. He didn’t feel that being a champion gave him any special perspective that should make someone else go out and buy a brand of sneakers that he endorsed. Maybe there are some American athletes who have displayed similar character regarding endorsements. Maybe you can name me one.

Brady does not, Kasparov tells us, spend much time trying to defend, explain, or judge Fischer’s bizarre side. Fischer was never medically diagnosed, so Brady’s– or your or my– analysis would be speculative and probably, for most of us, self-serving. In the end, Fischer’s failings are an important issue, but one outside of the questions that Fischer raised as a chess player. As Kasparov says:

Despite the ugliness of his decline, Fischer deserves to be remembered for his chess…. There is no moral at the end of the tragic fable, nothing contagious in need of quarantine. Bobby Fischer was one of a kind, his failings as banal as his chess was brilliant.

Fischer’s decline was a sad thing. Personally, I can leave it at that. As can also, apparently, Garry Kasparov.

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Related Link:
Above, one of a number of previously unseen portraits of Bobby Fischer