March 14, 2008
For what is probably the fifth time in the last fortnight, the BBC reports President Bush is uptalking the collapsing economy again.
President George Bush has attempted to restore confidence in the US economy, amid the deepening financial crisis.
Speaking at the Economic Club of New York the President acknowledged that growth had slowed but said that the economy is basically sound.
He said the economy was “obviously going through a tough time.”
The problem is, no matter how much he denies recession is here, that doesn’t change the truth. And the truth is that years of financial mismanagement and corporate greed has driven America over the edge of the financial precipice and into a recession that’s going to outlast the Bush administration.
Predominantly the Iraq war is the worst drain on finances, given as it is top priority, priority over domestic spending and domestic future investment. When you drop a bomb, the cost of that bomb is gone. When you fire a bullet, the cost of that bullet is gone. But right across the board there is mismanagement; tax cuts when finance needs to be raised, corporations like Halliburton still allowed to tender – and win – large no-bid contracts even though they’re now based off-shore and don’t pay taxes to America. Pallets of US Dollars shipped to Iraq that then vanish without trace. Pentagon money vanishing that they can’t account for. The list goes on and on.
Bush is finally waking up to the terrifying fact that he isn’t going to be able to prop up the economy long enough to get out of office and blame the economic crash on the Democrats. The economy is already crashing, and – like many other things in his administration – now he’s facing a real, genuine crisis, he doesn’t know what to do about it.
The by now infamous tax rebates are his only apparent plan and he is refusing to accept the possibility that this plan may not work. The difficulty, as I’ve written before, is that the plan relies on the consumer using this money as disposable income and spending it, thereby putting it back into the economy, on luxury goods. That isn’t the reality at all. The reality is that most people are in debt, most have mortgage worries, and the vast proportion of people are going to use this money either for debt repayment or for saving against future mortgage or debt troubles. This means that money disappears as well, from an economic point of view – but more importantly it means that if it isn’t put back into the economy, this plan is doomed to failure.
And since President Bush doesn’t seem to have a ‘plan B’ this leaves a massive uncertainty about how bad the recession is going to be. Even if US firms refuse to see it, foreign investors haven’t, and it’s their reluctance to prop up Bush’s years of failed policy that’s speeding up the implosion.
Yet still he stands up time and time again, trying to reassure people that everything is going to be alright. Well, Mr President, I’ve got news for you. It’s NOT alright. It hasn’t been alright for many years. It’s time to plan on how to get out of the recession, not keep stubbornly arguing that you’re not in it. Nobody minds you getting wet feet, but please don’t drag the rest of the economy down into the cold depths with you.
UPDATE: Clearly the market isn’t taking any notice of what President Bush is saying. The stock market fell again sharply on the news of Bear Sterns woes.
March 13, 2008
Here’s a novel take on the old Nigerian 419 scam. A hitherto unknown user, with no profile set up, using Skype messaged me out of the blue.
[5:00:40 PM] diana555517 says:hello
[5:01:00 PM] diana555517 says:pls how are you today?
[5:01:21 PM] Edward Sheldon says: Hello, I’m good thanks, how are you?
[5:02:02 PM] diana555517 says: oh that is good atht you are good and i am happy to hear that too
[5:02:32 PM] Edward Sheldon says: 
[5:03:00 PM] diana555517 says: pls my name is Diana Opoku and i am a student of 15 years old and also from Ghana west africa
[5:03:07 PM] diana555517 says: and you pls
[5:03:18 PM] diana555517 says: (handshake)
[5:03:31 PM] Edward Sheldon says: I’m the same person it says I am in my profile
[5:03:57 PM] diana555517 says: oh i see
[5:04:12 PM] diana555517 says: so pls what do you make for a living?
[5:04:49 PM] Edward Sheldon says: I’m a computer consultant
[5:05:22 PM] diana555517 says: oh i see that is good of you and i am happy about that too
[5:05:29 PM] Edward Sheldon says:
[5:05:37 PM] diana555517 says: thank you
[5:05:57 PM] diana555517 says: pls can you add me to your contcat
[5:09:48 PM] diana555517 says: thank you for that too
[5:10:03 PM] diana555517 says: so pls can i tell you why i call you today
[5:10:33 PM] Edward Sheldon says: Sure, go for it
[5:11:10 PM] diana555517 says: ok thank you for that too
[5:12:12 PM] diana555517 says: pls i stay with my grandfather and for now he is too old to work so he does not get money for me to pay for my school and i am pleasding with you to have mercy on me so that i can go back to school pls i know it is not eassy for you to belive me with what i am saying and you can not belive that i use to clean this cafe elary in the morning before the cafe master give me some thime to chat so pls i am begging you to have mercy on me and help me to go back to school i really want to go back to school but i don’t any one to help me here that is why i call you todayu so that you can help me with this
[5:13:31 PM] Edward Sheldon says: And in what way do you envisage me assisting you?
[5:14:15 PM] diana555517 says: how please do you mean how you can help me?
[5:14:27 PM] Edward Sheldon says: Yes
[5:14:37 PM] diana555517 says: ok
[5:15:54 PM] diana555517 says: pls by send me some amount of money to pay for my exam so that i may be allow to write the school exam which is going to take place on friday
[5:16:41 PM] Edward Sheldon says: How?
[5:18:01 PM] diana555517 says: pls for that you can write to my school herdmaster e-maill so that he may show you the way to send me the money
[5:18:28 PM] diana555517 says: but i only think you can send it westren union
[5:19:19 PM] Edward Sheldon says: I am assuming that this school has a valid, traceable email address, and does not just use a free service like hotmail or yahoo?
[5:20:04 PM] diana555517 says: oh pls yes we have e-mail
[5:20:20 PM] Edward Sheldon says: What is the email address?
[5:21:27 PM] diana555517 says: St.JosephsRomanCatholicSchool@yahoo.com
[5:21:41 PM] diana555517 says: and our Head Master name is Mr. James Manu.
[5:22:04 PM] Edward Sheldon says: That is an anonymous yahoo address. We do not deal with anonymous addresses on the following domains: Yahoo, hotmail, googlemail or gmail
[5:23:38 PM] diana555517 says: hello
[5:23:47 PM] Edward Sheldon says: yes?
[5:24:27 PM] diana555517 says: oh pls can you help me to go back to school?
[5:25:47 PM] Edward Sheldon says: If you can find a proper email address that is not at yahoo, hotmail, gmail or googlemail and if you can do that before the western union office closes in 35 minutes, I’d be glad to help. But the email address has to be registered and traceable
[5:26:31 PM] diana555517 says: oh pls that is all what i know
[5:26:47 PM] diana555517 says: and that is our school e-mail
[5:27:09 PM] Edward Sheldon says: We cannot assist you without a traceable email address, as all overseas donations must be accounted for by our book-keepers.
[5:27:47 PM] diana555517 says: and pls am afriad i can’t go my school herdmaster and ask him to change his e-mail
[5:28:25 PM] Edward Sheldon says: He does not need to change anything, just to have a traceable domain or email address. Even an IP we can do a reverse lookup on would be useful
[5:29:37 PM] diana555517 says: pls i don’t understand pls
[5:30:36 PM] Edward Sheldon says: All I can offer is to put in a request to Yahoo for them to verify the email address you have given me, but it can take them up to 28 days to give us a reply
[5:31:09 PM] diana555517 says: oh pls why
[5:31:24 PM] Edward Sheldon says: Ask Yahoo. I have no idea why they take so long.
[5:31:32 PM] diana555517 says: you don’t want to help just say it please
[5:32:05 PM] Edward Sheldon says: I can’t help you without a traceable location or email address.
[5:32:59 PM] diana555517 says: ok please you can use this information to send me the money
[5:33:52 PM] Edward Sheldon says: You haven’t provided me with sufficient information. We need a traceable location, which either you need to provide or we need to ask your ISP to vouch for you, and in yahoo’s case they do take a long time to process such requests.
[5:34:25 PM] diana555517 says: Diana Opoku
City:Kumasi
Contury:Ghana
Code:00233
[5:35:04 PM] diana555517 says: pls you can use that to send me the money if only you want to help me
At this point in time, totally out of the blue, I try to use Skype to call them directly, you know, to talk to this poor unfortunate girl. Rather unsurprisingly (because it’s really a guy) the call first rings out for a long period of time, then is immediately redirected to Skype Voicemail
[5:36:07 PM] diana555517 says: hello
[5:36:08 PM] diana555517 says: please i
[5:37:04 PM] diana555517 says: hello
[5:37:28 PM] diana555517 says: pls do you hear me
[5:37:48 PM] Edward Sheldon says: Why do you not respond to a voice chat request?
[5:37:53 PM] diana555517 says: then it may be my mic
[5:38:03 PM] diana555517 says: is not good
[5:40:13 PM] diana555517 says: please sorry my mic was not good
[5:40:39 PM] Edward Sheldon says: So I have no provable address for you, and I can’t even verify you’re femail… can you see how this is looking?
[5:41:11 PM] diana555517 says: please do you mean my pic
[5:41:38 PM] diana555517 says: hello
[5:43:19 PM] Edward Sheldon says: I ask for verification – you give me an unverifiable address. I send a voice chat request, you refuse it. I cannot verify who you are, and as time ticks closer to the closing of our local western union office, we’re no further forward than we were 20 minutes ago
[5:45:09 PM] diana555517 sent file “Me and my grandfather.jpg” to members of this chat
[5:46:03 PM] diana555517 says: ok pls accept it
[5:46:36 PM] Edward Sheldon says: Transfer is in progress. 2% done, 21:54 remaining
[5:46:55 PM] diana555517 says: ok
[5:50:26 PM] diana555517 says: hello
[5:51:15 PM] Edward Sheldon says: Transfer is now 30% complete, with 11:28 remaining
[5:51:58 PM] diana555517 says: plsi will be happy if you can help to back to school
At this point in time, her transfer stalled and when 6pm came around I switched to away mode.
So let’s review. No profile. Unsolicited contact. Wants you to talk to someone else. Wants to use an untraceable email address that anyone could set up. Wants money. Wants to use Western Union (which, incidentally, would supply the other party with a passport or driving license number that they’d doubtlessly find usable for identity theft.)
These people really don’t have any morals whatsoever. They shamelessly try to guilt trip people into sending them money, and there’s no doubt in my mind that if I had done so, I’d have become target of the month to whichever rings or gangs this particular scammer belonged to.
So I don’t mind messing with them. Oh, and the picture she tried to send was likely a stock photo. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t complete, actually, I’d have been interested to see if there was any imbedded information in it that might give them away…
March 12, 2008
I’m glad this happened. From the BBC:
A compulsive gambler has lost his bid at the High Court to force bookmaker William Hill to repay his £2m losses.
Greyhound trainer Graham Calvert, 28, of Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, said the company failed in its “duty of care” and the judge agreed.
But Mr Justice Briggs ruled on Wednesday that William Hill was not liable for the losses.
This is the ultimate “it’s somebody elses fault” argument. The guy has a gambling addiction, and after a while facing the problem and asking the bookies not to accept further bets, he falls off the wagon and deliberately opens two further accounts. Then, after he loses, he decides that clearly he isn’t to blame, it’s all the bookies fault for accepting his bets, and he sues them.
I totally agree with the judges findings. Yes, the bookies were wrong to accept this guys markers, but at the end of the day if this particular bookie wouldn’t accept the account, the guy would have gone someplace else, and still ended up gambling his money away. Why? Because he wasn’t strong enough to fight his “addiction”.
There’s no doubt an addiction can be a terrible thing, but if we let people disassociate from the responsibility that comes with fighting the addiction, we open a very dangerous pandoras box, and that’s exactly what this guy was trying to do. It was he who had the addiction, not the bookmakers, but he was trying to say his woes were the bookmakers fault, not his, and that’s blatantly untrue.
So I’m glad he lost. And I hope that if he appeals he’ll lose that too. Maybe then he’ll start to think that it’s just possible that it’s HIM who has the responsibility to deal with his problems, not somebody else.