'Nuf sed

subliminal messages these fonts are feeding you...
(Lars Willem Veldkampf)

Civilian Employment-Population Ratio, 25-54 Years
Monthly, Percent, Seasonally Adjusted, 1970-2010

Small favors.

Civilian Employment-Population Ratio, Monthly, Percent, Seasonally Adjusted, 1970-2010

The civilian labor force participation rate (64.9 percent) and the employment-
population ratio (58.6 percent) continued to edge up in March.

Employment Situation News Release
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2. April, 2010

It's better than bad.

P+C Mark Goetz 2009

Here’s my new wallpaper at work.

Mark Goetz, My new wallpaper
Mark Goetz, A Blog of Technology, Usability and Sensemaking, 17. November 2009

Three and a half years ago, I posted a quick little rant about some pump 'n' dump website operator named Nicholas A. Czuczko.

Today, this supergenius emails me a DMCA pre-takedown:

To whom this will concern:

As a media organization, I'm sure you value your trademarks and copyrighted material. Be advised I am requesting removal (as soon as possible) of copyrighted and trademarked material under U.S. Law that I own from your site. The webpage is:

http://wcw.bignose.org/index.php?/archives/24-The-SEC-has-my-favorite-RSS-feed.html

Since there are no backlinks to the page, the material seems to have no editorial value to your website.

I have documented that your website has been publishing this content without permission since 2006.

Although this request is meant to be a friendly request, I am advising you that I will file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down notice, and all other necessary steps to have this content removed from your website, if not done in a timely manner. Thank you ahead of time and your timely removal of my copyrighted and trademarked material from your website.

Sincerely,

Nicholas A. Czuczko

Removal Request - Copyright & Trademark Infringement Take-Down Request
Nicholas A. Czuczko, 20. January, 2010

Wow. Just.. Wow.

Nicholas, although this was a friendly rant, I am advising you that I will mock your full SEC complaint [PDF] and that even a toothless Bush-era commission ordered you to disgorge $1,552,463 in ill-gotten gains, probably if I find the time, but especially if you file an actual 'take-down notice' in something like a timely manner.

Thank you for being such a lackwit. Your email buffoonery just made my day. If you'd like a beer some time, give me a call.

But you're buying.


Oh, and speaking of copyright: photo by Alaskan Dude under Creative Commons license.



Update: looks like our intrepid idiot has been peppering the interwebs with this bogus boilerplate.

I do not know if that would be the case here if Czuczko were to issue a DMCA takedown notice, but anyone who has considered issuing a DMCA takedown notice should consider whether this might apply to them. I suggest that the interested reader see the decision in Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc. [PDF], 337 F.Supp.2d 1195 (N.D. Cal. 2004).

An open letter to Nicholas Czuczko
Michael Goode, 20. January, 2010

Mr. Goode not only provides links to the SEC complaint, but also to the unopposed summary judgment against him [PDF, cf also this link to same].

Is Czuczko trying to raise the Google rank of pages pointing to his misdeeds, or is he just stupid?

But I repeat myself.

Stephen Colbert's view, Matteo Pericoli 2008

Stephen Colbert’s bleak view made me laugh. And he taps into many a city-dweller’s paranoia: “Because my studio is directly across from a windowless telecommunications skyscraper whose peak bristles with microwave transmitters, when I think of my view mostly I think about cancer, so I try not to think about it at all.”

Paul Goldberger, Slide Show: A Room With a View
The Book Bench, The New Yorker, 4. November, 2009

Rental and Homeowner Vacancy Rates for the United States, 1965-2009

Supply and demand, my shiny metal hiney.

Civilian Employment-Population Ratio, Monthly, Percent, Seasonally Adjusted, 1970-2009

The civilian labor force participation rate declined by 0.3 percentage point in September to 65.2 percent. The employment-population ratio, at 58.8 percent, also declined over the month and has decreased by 3.9 percentage points since the recession began in December 2007.

Employment Situation News Release
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2. October, 2009

Ugh.

I'll update the pure ugliness chart later today if I can stomach it.

The SEC alleges that DiPascali, who resides in Bridgewater, N.J., sustained Madoff's unprecedented fraud from at least the 1980s until the scheme's collapse, causing billions of dollars in investor losses. A specific computer was used to simulate phantom trading in advisory accounts, and to generate phony books and records reflecting that trading. This fake set of books and records was kept separate and distinct from the books and records for the market-making and proprietary trading operation at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BMIS). When investors sent in funds to BMIS for investment, the funds were deposited or wired into a bank account at JPMorgan Chase that was not in any way reflected on the books and records (including the ledger) of the BMIS broker-dealer operation.

SEC Charges Key Madoff Lieutenant For Operating And Concealing Fraud Through Bogus Trades And Documents
US Securities and Exchange Commission, 11. August 2009

Or as I mooted a little while back,

Me, I don't think it ever wasn't fraud. Bernie may even have fooled himself for a while, but the more I hear, the more through-the-looking-glass I feel. I think he got killed because he set up a Ponzi scheme.

Bernie's histogram #1.1.1.1
Wcw, 11. June 2009

It's not like our intrepid college dropout didn't have a nice run while it lasted, though.

The SEC further alleges that DiPascali misappropriated investor funds for personal gain, setting up an account at BMIS for himself in 2002 that he named after his fishing yacht, Dorothy Jo. DiPascali withdrew more than $5 million from the account between 2002 and 2008 to fund personal expenses, including the purchase of a new boat. DiPascali's withdrawals were funded directly from money deposited by investors with BMIS. Investor money being used to fund the overall operations of BMIS also contributed to the more than $2 million in salary and bonus that DiPascali received each year.

SEC Charges Key Madoff Lieutenant For Operating And Concealing Fraud Through Bogus Trades And Documents
US Securities and Exchange Commission, 11. August 2009

Whew. Punk rock.

An S&P/Case-Shiller index for May showed the first month- over-month increase in prices since 2006, or a slower 2 percent annualized drop after seasonal adjustments.

Jody Shenn, U.S. Home Prices Rise for First Time in Three Years
Bloomberg, 6. August 2009

More evidence that Bloomberg journalists really are ahead of the curve, if not by as much as I had hoped.

Congratulations, Jody Shenn.

Today is not that day.

U.S. single-family home prices rose in May from April...

S&P said its index of 10 metropolitan areas rose 0.4 percent in May..

Lynn Adler, U.S. home prices see first rise in three years
Reuters, 28. July 2009

When you report a monthly change in a strongly seasonal series, you need to report the seasonally adjusted data [XLS].

The Case-Shiller 10 dropped -0.2% in May.

I know, I know -- math is hard.


Update: Bloomberg picks up this line, too.

Home prices posted their first monthly gain in three years in May...

The price figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal effects..

Courtney Schlisserman, U.S. Home Prices Rise for First Time in Three Years
Bloomberg, 28. July 2009

The Bloomberg journalist even picked up on seasonal adjustment, yet somehow missed the existence of seasonally adjusted indexes. How misleading is S&P's press release, I wonder? Stenography is no excuse, but it is an explanation.

More Update: It isn't even stenography. S&P's press release is titled, "Home Price Declines Continue to Abate [PDF]."

Corporate Profits Percentage of National Income, 1947-2009

Two quarters more in the books and the golden age of profits lives on.

Wcw, Corporate profits, 8. April 2007

How things change.

Worth noting that despite the carnage, corporate profits as percentage of national income (with inventory and capital adjustments) are smack dab in the middle of the modern, postwar distribution. Things in aggregate just aren't that ugly out there unless you work for a living.

AIG 4.95% 3/20/12, CUSIP 02687QBL1, 3- 6- and 12-Month Charts

So, you can't afford a Bloomberg and you want to check out how much your broker's bond quote screws you?

FINRA, rather improbably, has your back, at least a little bit.

Welcome to the Bond Section of the Market Data Center. This section includes general bond market information such as news, benchmark yields, and corporate bond market activity and performance information, descriptive data on U.S. Treasury, Agency, Corporate and Municipal Bonds, Credit Rating Information from major rating agencies, and price information with real-time transaction prices for Corporate Bonds (TRACE), Municipal Bonds (MSRB) and end of day prices for U.S. Treasury Bonds.

FINRA - Investor Information - Market Data - Bonds

'Tain't perfect, but it's free.

Close second: EMMA, for munis. Gold.

Household real estate assets, %GDP and Real $ per Unit, 1952-2009