Chart of the Week: Goldbags Hits Wall

Update:The German government has said that it, too, may file a fraud case against Goldman Sachs according to the German press. The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority will request information from the SEC to decide whether to file a suit. IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG based in Dusseldorf got clobbered by the Goldman CDOs. The German government spent $13.5 billion propping up IKB. The UK was stung too. The mostly government owned Royal Bank of Scotland Plc paid $841 million to Sachs to unwind its position in the Abacus CDO which it acquired with the purchase of ABN Amro in 2007. Prime Minister Brown said on TV he wants an investigation, and accused Goldman of "moral bankruptcy"--a long way from "God's work" touted by the cynical Goldman CEO Larry Blankfein [photo]. The twenty-something French trained whiz who created the synthetic security at the heart of the fraud is unavailable for comment. Does it matter that all the players were big boys doing their level best to get on the greed train that was the America housing market?  US Person says, "NOT"  Their shenanigans almost crashed the entire US economy, and cost taxpayers billions.  Let the hay making begin.

{4.18.10}The chart shows the 16 ton effect of the SEC's civil fraud filing against Goldman Sachs on its stock price. The Goldman case rapidly became a pink elephant as more and more information became common knowledge about the insider deal between trader John Paulson's company, Paulson & Co., and Goldman. The gravamen of the fraud case is that Paulson convinced Goldman to issue collateralize debt obligations (CDOs) made up of bundled subprime mortgages that were tailor made to fail. Paulson then bought credit default swaps insuring the securities against default. When the CDOs failed, Paulson made $3.7 billion. For its part in the alleged fraud, Goldman sold the securities to European banks without telling them of the bond selection by Paulson & Co. The banks lost $1 billion on the deal. Goldman responded to the allegations by saying it was under no obligation to disclose identities. Yo, ho, ho and a bucket of blood!

Creature Feature: Luna Plays with Dog

Watch "Luna" play with a friendly dog aboard a fishing boat. This scene took place in 2006. Unfortunately "Luna" was habituated to humans, and was killed by a tugboat in Nootka Sound on March 10, 2006. Tagged L-98 by scientists, the male orca from the Southern Resident Community of orcas lived away from his pod for more than five years and developed relationships with other species. The lesson US Person takes away from his tragic death is simple but profound: sentient wild animals like the orca must be respected by homo sapiens and allowed to live the life nature (or God, you choose) intended without lethal interference. Listen to the unusual music tribute to "Luna" or "Tsuxiit" here.

Black Rhinos Come Back to Luangwa Vallley

Black Rhinos {"rhinos"} were declared extinct in Zambia at the turn of the last century as a result of constant poaching. But Diceros bicornisis being reintroduced to the North Luangwa National Park in a enormous effort to re-establish a sustainable population in the Luangwa Valley.  Zambia had the third largest rhino population in the world until the 1980s.  The project is a joint one between the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Zambian Wildlife Authority which began in 2001. Twenty rhinos have been established in the national park since then.
One of the reasons the project is possible is because poaching has been put under control in North Luangwa. Some conservationists may say poaching is reduced there due in part to the ground breaking efforts of an American couple, Mark and Delia Owens. Others might say poaching was controlled in spite of the American biologists' involvement in what amounted to a private war. The Owenses lived in North Luangwa until 1996 when their North Luangwa Conservation Project was seized by the government of Zambia. The seizure was part of an investigation into a homicide captured on tape by an ABC video crew making a documentary on the activities of Mark Owens and the rangers he trained and equipped to stop devastating poaching in the park.

An article by Jeffrey Goldberg in the New Yorker magazine describes the furor caused by what Zambian officials called an unjustified homicide during a anti-poaching patrol of an unidentified man alleged to be a poacher. The article is critical of the Owenses for being too zealous, but it makes clear the biologists were selflessly dedicated to protecting the park's wildlife, especially it's elephants. One safari guide who knew Mark Owens in Zambia said Mark's experiences in the bush hardened him: "He was very angry with poaching. He loves the elephants, so all the killing made him very upset." The Owenses were well funded--the Frankfurt Zoological Society was their main supporter--and they used the money to purchase a Cessna airplane, a Bell helicopter, and trucks to transport "Owen's scouts" on "village sweeps" conducted at night. Some sixty game scouts were in their direct employ according to reports. During the sweeps, scouts would descend on local villages looking for poachers. Suspects were often beaten. Homes were disrupted and frightened villagers interrogated by armed men. These raids appear to have violated Zambian law which requires a warrant for a house search. In one raid in August 1993, according to Mark Owens in a funding proposal to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, more than fifty firearms were confiscated.

Anyone familiar with the state of wildlife conservation in Africa knows that protecting wildlife from poaching is dangerous work. The poachers are not just hungry villagers armed with old rifles and shotguns supplementing their starvation diets with meat. Nowadays they are gangs armed with automatic weapons engaged in a criminal enterprise of international scope. Local officials are often helpless to stop them, as the dire situation in the Congo demonstrates. Rangers must be ready to defend themselves with equal force, and to protect wildlife in certain desperate situations, rangers must be ready to shoot poachers on sight. If Africa's irreplaceable wildlife is to survive human depredation, then law enforcement must be taken to a more sophisticated, coordinated level*. Mark and Delia Owens now live in the US, perhaps never to return to the savannas they fought hard to protect. But black rhinos are returning back to North Luangwa National Park.
*David Higgins, manager of the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme, said, "The gorillas are yet another victim of the contempt shown by organized criminal gangs for national and international laws aimed at defending wildlife. The law enforcement response must be internationally co-coordinated, strong and united, and INTERPOL is uniquely placed to facilitate this."

[photo, top: a wild elephant walks through a safari lodge in South Luwanga National Park.  The lodge was unwittingly built atop a traditional elephant path to favorite mango trees, so the elephants insist on walking through reception.  No injuries have been reported by hotel staff, and no elephants have attempted to register. UK Telegraph.]

Wildlife in Congo Basin Is Victim of War

The chief warden for Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo reports that the Congolese army is largely responsible for the increasing amount of poaching taking place in the Park. Eight battalions are stationed around the boarders and they are turning to bush meat to feed themselves and to sell on the black market. The elephant population has declined by 90% in the past twenty years. Buffalos have also been decimated. Now endangered lions appear to be the wild meat of choice [photo courtesy, Gorilla CD]. Rangers are sorely outnumbered by the undisciplined soldiers, 10 to 1. Despite their unquestioned bravery--about 200 park rangers have been killed in the line of duty--the rangers are under equipped and in need of aircraft for rapid transport and surveillance.

Virunga NP is also the home of the mountain gorillas. A recent UN report tells a grim story of the future of the gorillas. [photo courtesy rescuetherainforest.org] They may be largely gone by 2020 due to human encroachment on forest habitat and the increasing demand for bushmeat. The report estimates that just 10% of undisturbed gorilla habitat will remain by 2030. Militias operating in the eastern part of the troubled country are blamed for most of the damaging illegal trade in minerals, timber and charcoal. The trade is 2 to 10 times official estimates. Militia control of boarder crossings alone brings in $14 to $50 million annually, used to perpetuate the conflict. The insecurity caused by the civil unrest has driven hundreds of thousand of people into refugee camps. Poachers keep the camps supplied with wild animals for food, and they have little respect for international efforts to enforce wildlife protection agreements. But the mountain gorillas have faired better than their lowland relatives because of strong joint efforts to protect them by Rwanda, Uganda and DRC law enforcement officials, along with local community support generated by benefit sharing.

Chart of the Week: Virtual Recovery Forges Ahead

Yes, stock watchers, the Dow Jones is back over 11,000 which is feel good news for Wall Streeters and those who still have 401k accounts. But look at these charts to see just how shallow the recovery is:

This chart shows that as a percentage of the total population, civilian employment has reached levels not seen since the 1950s. Approximately 42% of the total US population is not employed. Without wages to pay their credit bills, consumers are cutting back on their use of credit as shown in this chart:

That the recovery is restricted to a few sectors of the economy is reflected in this final chart. Some businesses such as home electronics and paper products have already experienced sharp reversals from the growth in the last quarter of '09 while others have stagnated near zero:

'Toontime: Would You Buy a Rug from This Man?

[credit: Deb Milbrath]

Wackydoodle sez:  If'n you shake his hand, count all yer fingers!

Thanks to a revitalized poppy industry, the Taliban is flush with money according to a US Treasury official.  So that means it can finance terror attacks, train and recruit soldiers, purchase and replace weaponry, and fight US troops.  Perhaps because the cash is getting greener on the other side, the increasingly erratic Hamid Karsai is threatening to join the jihad.

UK Takes a Giant Green Step

US Person believes in giving credit were it is due, and he is a little late acknowledging the British government's contributions to saving wildlife and it's habitat around the globe. Careful readers may have descerned by now, US Person firmly believes that preserving the wild is the major path out of the global warming box next to drastically reducing carbon combustion. {"preservation"} Her Majesty's officials announced on April Fool's Day that a significant swath of the Indian Ocean is designated a marine reserve. the Chagos Island Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory), a remote remnant of the British Empire (awarded to Great Britian by the Treaty of Paris in 1814) in the middle of the Indian Ocean is now off limits to human development. The 210,000 square mile sanctuary is a biological "hot spot" containing still numerous species in a relatively unpolluted marine habitat. An water analysis in 1996 said the ocean was "exceptionally pristine" The waters around the islands in the chain, including the infamous Diego Garcia military base, contain up to half of the healthy reefs in the Indian Ocean, providing a priceless treasure chest of biodiversity that replenishes the entire ocean. At least 60 species of fish on the IUCN's red list of endangered species survive with the sanctuary's 200 mile limit. It will also provide a haven for fish facing extinction due to man's over exploitation such as tuna, billfish and sharks. As a fully protected area the Chagos Marine Protected Area will be a research mecca for scientists studying crucial subjects for man's continued health such as ocean acidification, sea level changes, fish stock declines, pollution migration and climate change. There is only one cloud to mar the dedication of the largest marine reserve in the world: The Chagossian people were removed from their island home when the UK and US military moved in forty years ago. They are now suing in the European Court of Human Rights for their return. Even so, the designation of so much unspoiled territory as a wildlife reserve deserves a GREEN KUDOS award to the UK.

[photo: clown fish on Chagossian reef, courtesy BBC]