View From a Height

We all agree that there's a huge role for the state government in taking care of developmentally disabled individuals. While we need to guard against mission creep - identifying marginally disabled as needing the full range of care, for instance - we wouldn't even be talking about making these folks productive members of society if the state hadn't begun deinstitutionalizing 20 years ago. So the state has a historic role in helping these individuals, and shouldn't be shirking that.

That said, if this is more important than other things we've been spending money on, we ought to take money from those less important things and fund the waitlist, rather than raise taxes going into a recession.

So, what to do? Well, for those of you looking to make private donations, Jewish Family Services and Catholic Charities each run local group homes.

That helps now. But many parents of developmentally disabled children face the distress of knowing their child will have to face the world without them one day. The Wall Street Journal this morning discusses estate planning especially for such families. Most, after all, are middle class, and should be doing estate planning anyway. They provide a few links for families who want to set up special needs trusts:

• Academy of Special Needs Planners specialneedsanswers.com Professional group of lawyers knowledgeable about estate planning, government benefits and other disability-related concerns.
• MassMutual SpecialCare www.massmutual.com/specialcare Program provides financial products and advice for special-needs families. Agents get special training in disability planning.
• MetLife MetDESK www.metlife.com/desk MetLife's Division of Estate Planning for Special Kids offers products, financial advice and resources for families with disabilities. Web site also features a cost-of-care calculator.
• Special Needs Alliance www.specialneedsalliance.org Nonprofit group that provides referrals to experienced special-needs lawyers and other disability resources.

They won't obviate the need for a safety net, but they can certainly reduce the number of people who'll need it.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | District 6 Campaign

I'll be doing a special noon-time BTR show today about the financial crisis with King Banaian of SCSU Scholars, and William Polley of, ah, William Polley.

Hopefully, we'll all learn something.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Business, District 6 Campaign, Economics, Finance, Politics

One of the villains of Amity Shlaes's The Forgotten Man is uncertainty. Markets hate nothing more than uncertainty, which paralyzes decision-making and freezes capital. Typically, market uncertainty is nasty, brutish, and short. Typically, government uncertainly is agonizing and long.

At the end Roberts's and Kling's podcast, Kling points out that there are vulture funds waiting to buy distrssed securities and properties in order to re-sell them at a profit, but that the holders are waiting for a better deal on a bailout. (Something like this may have happened with Citigroup and Wells Fargo fighting over Wachovia.)

This is bad for about 100 different reasons, but I'll pick 5 ways this royally screws up market operations:

1) It prevents mark-to-market rules from working, hiding losses when there effectively is no market
2) It keeps distressed securities off the market, keeping markets illiquid
3) The lack of a market in certain securities makes it impossible to issue new securities of that type
4) It keeps the market from finding its level; something priced at 80 might sell for 50 after being dumped at 30; you'll never know the true value
5) It keeps the vultures from earning money while not capitalizing the guys holding onto the assets

I could go on, but you get the idea. It all adds up to nobody knowing what anything's worth, and nobody being willing to take risks because they can't price that risk adequately. As a result it freezes capital and damages the real economy.

FDR didn't help this problem, he made it worse. He got the politics of it - he didn't need to suggest a solution to get elected, and he steadfastly refused to work with Hoover after he was elected. I don't see anything from the forthcoming Obama administration to suggest anything different.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Economics

We have privatized profit and socialized loss;
We have over-regulated S&Ls;

We have demanded loans to people who can't pay;
We have mortgaged with low down-payments;

We have subsidized debt rather than down payments;
We have substituted credit scores for judgment;

We have masked risk with "insurance;"
We have used government to subsidize systemic risk;

For all these, forgive us, pardon us, grant us another bankroll to try again.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Finance

For those of you trying to figure out how the mortgage market evolved into this over-articulated dinosaur-like critical-care patient, Russ Roberts and and Arnold Kling trace the history from pre-Depression era mortgage markets to today. It's brilliant, detailed, and understandable to the layman.

And a little depressing as regards to the future.

Listen to the whole thing.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Finance

From the AP:

The Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday over judges' authority to limit the Navy's use of sonar to protect whales.

The court heard arguments in a dispute between the Bush administration and environmental advocates over court rulings that restrict sonar in naval training exercises off the coast of Southern California.

The administration says the training is vital for teaching sailors how to find enemy submarines.

Are they out of their minds?

Look, I like whales. When I was in 3rd grade, I made a "Save the Whales" poster. I like sperm whales, killer whales. When I see one of those National Geographic specials, I never have even the slightest urge to root for the krill.

I like the Smithsonian blue whale. I like Minki whales, batter-fried. I like Fudgy the Whale. I like the Wailing Wall and I like gunwales.

But the life of every whale on the planet doesn't add up to the life of one US Navy sailor.

The numbers involved are on the order of a few dozen per decade. It's not as though the Navy is using whales for torpedo practice, or for targeting practice, even for sonar practice. They just happen to be in the way.

ASW is a skill, it's an art, and it takes practice. And if the other guys are better at it than we are, because they don't give a damn about their whales, and would just as soon that they get the hell out of the way and head for the safe pastures of California, our sailors are going to die.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Environmentalism

This, along with the stolen McCain/Palin bumper sticker, has convinced me that fears for one's property for having a Republican sign up in Denver are not unfounded.

Even paranoids have enemies.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | District 6 Campaign

"Mr. Sharf, this is D---- at the Echo Mountain Lodge, and we think someone has turned in your camera."

So apparently the raccoons got tired of trying to figure out how to retrieve the batteries, and left it on the trail for someone to pick up.

"No, he wouldn't leave a name or any contact info, just wanted to turn in the camera."

And Sunday morning was spent trekking out to Mt. Evans, to retrieve a hopelessly broken camera. After all the thing had sat out in the increasingly harsh weather for weeks, after having bounced down the side of the mountain. The optics would be out of alignment, if not outright cracked; the zoom motor might not even work. Maybe - maybe - the flash card would still be in there, so I might get back the photos.

So up early and off to the lodge. Too early. It was like a scene out of Casablanca: "I'll be there at 7:00." "We'll be open at 9:00." Which meant that I had an hour or so to kill hiking the same trail and taking time-lapse photos of the prior month's scenery.

Lo and behold! The camera didn't seem the worse for wear; although the zoom toggle had broken off, it was still useable. No batteries, so the crash testing would have to wait for home. But the flash card was there. And something I had forgotten about: the screw-in base for the tripod.

And, yes, the camera seems to be working fine. Maybe Lowell Thomas is available for a testimonial.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 06:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Photoblogging

Promises, promises.

During last week's Blog Talk Radio show, I promised a whole bunch of links. Here they are.

First, I promised to link to information about solar and alternative energy IPOs, as well as a particular alternativ energy stock index. I can't find the particular index I mentioned right now, but there's a ton of informaion about Solar and Alternative Energy Indexes, so here are two of them:

• The Ardour Alternative Energy Index, which includes 125 constituents and a special Solar Energy ETF as well.

• The MAC Solar Energy Index, and its constituents, in case you like to play individual stocks
  

One's an ETF family, which means you can invest directly, the other is an index, but I'm pretty sure there's an ETF associated with it as well. The laser company I mentioned, whose stock has gotten crushed in the last couple of years, is Newport (NEWP). Only a portion of their business is lasers, but they had been banking heavily on solar, as lasers and optics are used to cut the solar panels and solar cells.

Naturally, none of this is an investment recommendation. It's been a long time since I looked at Newport, and I've done little (er, no) research on either of the ETFs. But it's a good place to follow what the market thinks of solar and alternatives.

And no fair investing, and then begging the government for subsidies or special breaks. (Hear that, Mrs. Pelosi?)

The DOE also has a site on oil shale. I'd strongly recommend printing out and looking at the PDFs on the various issues, including reserves, recoverability, environmental effects, and so on.

And finally, amidst all the talk about the rescue plan, here's a contrarian view, not merely that it's a bad execution of necessary help, but that the whole idea is flawed. These guys are from the fast-rising George Mason University econ department. They're good, and worth reading on a regular basis.

For a well-informed read from the traditional, "we're doing this to prevent 1930-1940 all over again" point of view, which is clearly where Bernanke & Co. are coming from, you can't do much better than these guys.

I'm going to try, but can't promise to pull off, a discussion between these fellows with me as the moderator over on BTR.

And BTR is at a special time this week: 9:30 on Thursday rather than our regular 9:00. I need a little recovery time from the Yom Kippur fast on Thursday.

Posted by Joshua Sharf at 07:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | District 6 Campaign