Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Wednesday Links

  • What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. [JFK]
  • I genuinely do not understand why more tweeters do not set up free blog or Substack accounts, and, if only five times or so a year, write a longer post or column explaining and defending their views and tying them into the broader literatures.  This seems to me to betray a certain kind of intellectual laziness, which the Twitter medium itself encourages and amplifies. [Marginal Revolution]
  • I work in casting R&D and am hence very familiar with Teslas GIGA Casting plans. I have heard Rumors that they are at 10% success rate in casting these. I.e they have to shredder/remelt 90% of their castings. To give you some perspective. A success rate 99% is aimed for. 95% is reasonable. Below 90% and your profits are melting away. [Real Tesla]
  • His death coincided with the disappearance of the world’s most famous cypherpunk: Satoshi Nakamoto. Only 2 months before Len died, Satoshi sent their final communication: "I’ve moved on to other things and probably won’t be around in the future.:" After 169 code commits and 539 posts in the span of a year, Satoshi disappeared without explanation. They left behind a slew of uncompleted features, raging debates about their vision for Bitcoin, and a still-untouched fortune of $64B in BTC. [link]
  • Banks with a parent holding company typically issue subordinated debt at the holding company level and then may downstream the proceeds to the bank. The proceeds are treated as Tier 2 capital of the holding company and, once contributed to the bank, as Tier 1 capital of the bank. Outside of a stock conversion, this is effectively the only way for a mutual bank to raise Tier 1 capital (other than, of course, over time through retained earnings). It is the reason that many mutual banks have reorganized into the mutual holding company structure. [KL Gates]
  • “In a ZIRP/NIRP world, every asset feels like a [principal only] PO, and there are scant [interest only] IO assets,” notes our old pal Nom de Plumber, a senior risk manager with a penchant for suing federal agencies. “So, assets generally behave in a digital manner, ping-ponging between 0:00 (extension and default) and 100:00 (prepayment), as you illustrate via accounting treatment. And market volatility and illiquidity go in tandem. Thank you.” By driving interest rates down, central banks not only increase volatility, but provide fertile ground for fraud as investors desperately search for yield in a market denuded of duration. [link]
  • UPDATE: All of the documents that the Concerned Shareholders have received from books and records inspections of LICOA are available now at this link. We believe that minority shareholders of LICOA should work together to "follow the money" and figure out the best path forward for the company so that shareholders can earn an attractive return on their capital invested. UPDATE: A new ruling in the litigation in Federal Court in Alabama: "ORDER re the court's December 8, 2020 Memorandum Opinion (doc. 49) and Order (doc. 50), where it would abstain from adjudicating Count II of the plaintiff Shareholders' Direct Complaint (doc. 25). Accordingly, this court concludes that it erroneously decided to abstain from adjudicating the Shareholders' claim for judicial dissolution of LICOA. To that end, the court ORDERS the parties to submit a Joint Status Report to the court on or by Wednesday, April 7, 2021, informing the court of the current status of this litigation and a proposal for moving forward in light of the Eleventh Circuit's decision in Deal. Signed by Judge Karon O Bowdre on 3/23/2021." [LICOA Shareholders]
  • In its recent decision in Deal v. Tugalo Gas Co., the Eleventh Circuit reversed a decision of a district court to abstain on Burford grounds from adjudicating a state-law claim for judicial dissolution of a corporation. The Eleventh Circuit explicitly stated its disagreement with Caudill and Friedman and pointed out that it “[saw] no compelling justification for extending [the Burford doctrine] to judicial-dissolution claims.” The Court then remanded the case to the district court and instructed it to consider the plaintiff’s claim for  judicial dissolution. Accordingly, this court concludes that it erroneously decided to abstain from adjudicating the Shareholders’ claim for judicial dissolution of LICOA. [Oddball Stocks]
  • Here, there was (and is) no ongoing state administrative proceeding—or, for that matter, even any preexisting action by a Georgia state court or executive official to dissolve Tugalo. All we have is a potentially thorny legal question—namely, whether a federal court has the authority to dissolve a state-chartered corporation. Standing alone, that’s no basis for refusing to decide a properly filed case. Any way you slice it, Burford is “an extraordinary and narrow exception,” to a federal court’s “virtually unflagging obligation” to exercise jurisdiction. We see no compelling justification for extending it to judicial-dissolution claims. Doing so would require us to elide the key ingredient that we and the Supreme Court seem to have demanded—the existence of an ongoing state administrative proceeding (or, at the very least, enforcement action). Accordingly, because it “based its ruling on an erroneous view of law,” we hold that the district court abused its discretion when it abstained from adjudicating Deal’s equitable counts. Rather than abstaining, the district court here should simply have decided, on the merits, whether the governing state law permits a federal court to dissolve a state-chartered corporation. [Deal v. Tugalo Gas Company, Inc. et al]

1 comment:

Stagflationary Mark said...

By driving interest rates down, central banks not only increase volatility...

Yes! Flashback to a quote from one of the first posts on my blog:

http://illusionofprosperity.blogspot.com/2007/09/let-them-eat-cake.html

In 2000, then-BOJ Governor Masaru Hayami was widely derided for raising rates from zero to 0.25 percent. Pundits called him Japan's answer to Herbert Hoover. - William Pesek

My thoughts:

Think about that for a minute. 0.25% made him Japan's answer to Herbert Hoover? I think that gives a very accurate reading on just how overleveraged this global economy is and has been.

3 months later, the Great Recession began. Very volatile!

A quarter point move near 0% has a much bigger effect than a quarter point move near 5%. Many talk of normalizing rates. Should be acknowledging instead that rates have been exponentially decaying for 40 years. That’s what has been normal. The 0.25% moves should be exponentially decaying too. I’m thinking 0.10% moves would be safer, but perhaps nobody wants to acknowledge the decaying elephant in the room.