Weekend Round-Up - April 19, 2008

I've been a busy with work (and a bit of play) the last few weeks, so here's some thoughts on recent events:

Check out this party at http://www.valys.com/ - Simon & Shaker from Spain had a fantastic set at this party that I helped produce at a club called Warehouse in Tokyo. A good time was had by all!

Well it seems Italy has shifted to the right, following Germany and France.
Italy's new PM isn't getting a lot of press coverage in the US or Japan, but when given a clear choice between anti-Americanism, appeasement, and socialist statism vs. pro-Western, defense of democracy and free markets, voters in "Old Europe" have yet again chosen the latter. This was no mere fluke. With 80% of voters making their opinion heard, this is a mandate. I

I don't know what George Bush's speech on global warming is meant to prove but at least the fact that the global warming alarmists are calling it too little too late, which means that W didn't give away the farm!

Who'd have guessed it but ABC (covered here in an LA Times piece) appears to have put together a watchable debate between Senators Obama and Clinton. With over 10 million viewers and some hard-hitting questions about electability on the table, both candidates actually had to squirm a bit. Obama is complaining that issues weren't discussed until 45 minutes in. When will he learn that presidential elections aren't really about issues. They are more about character. This is why McCain is now even in the polls. However, don't expect Senator Clinton to gain much from all this. To the Obama faithful it's not about character either - it's about the movement for "change". It's going to be an interesting summer.

Here Stephanopolous defends himself in more detail, and compellingly so. Seems he's turned into a real journalist. Don't expect him to be any easier on McCain either.

And as for issues - well, when they got to issues Obama muffed that too. Just look at the transcript on capital gains taxes and Gibson's challenge to Obama's answers there.
More from Lawrence Kudlow here .

I have another theory about presidential elections: The candidate that you'd most enjoy hanging out at with a bar is probably going to win. W had that over both Kerry and Gore. Clinton had that over Dole and W's dad, but GHW Bush had it over Dukakis. Reagan had it over everyone. I suspect McCain has it over both Obama and Clinton. But after Clinton's performance doing whiskey shots, hey I could almost vote for her (well not really, but almost!)

Citigroup's results were not as bad as some had feared, but Citi is not out of the woods yet. One concern is Pandit's statements about costs, and headlines mentioning 9000 job cuts and savings of up to 20%, particularly in Operations and Technology. O&T costs Citi something like $7B, and deep cuts there will only save about $1B a year - nothing like the $5B loss in just this quarter alone. I'd have to look at the latest numbers, but I don't think Citi is overweight on its technology spend compared to similar firms. That said, until Citi really develops a one-firm culture, with shared central services and purchasing, there will be room to manage costs better. But perhaps a bigger concern is the writedown of Old Lane, the hedge fund that Citi acquired bringing Pandit into the firm. The write down would suggest that Pandit isn't any better at managing risk than anyone else. Until I see evidence that Citi can overcome factional differences and truly develop a one-firm business model, right now I'd be in favor of splitting Citigroup into 3 parts: Retail Banking, Cards and Consumer Loans, and Corporate & Investment Banking.

Any news from Japan? Not really. Same old same old here. Zenkoji temple in Nagano is not going to be part of the Olympic torch relay. A court in Nagoya said that the Air Self Defense Forces mission in Iraq may be unconstitutional but refused to side with the plaintiffs (based on their lacking of standing to bring the case). In any case the government disagrees and isn't going to change anything. Some mobsters were held over an extortion attempt. Some businessmen didn't declare taxable earnings. Etc. Like I said. . .same old same old.

Zimbabwe? Still a mess and South Africa is losing credibility as a regional power almost daily. It's as if Mbeki wants Mugabe to hang on. Completely unacceptable.

China, Tibet, and the Olympics? CNN should have stuck up for what Cafferty said. . . but then CNN access to China is probably worth something too. As for the Chinese government - well why bother even commenting. If people haven't figured out by now, after nearly 60 years, that China is ruled by a one-party communist dictatorship, then I can't help them. Hypocrites all.

By the way, Moqtada al-Sadr lost in Basra. Not only that, he lost to Iraqi government forces. Even Iran was supporting the Iraqi government on this one. . .eventually the Western press will get it. More from Ed Morrissey.

And here's respect to Pope Benedict. His trip to the US this week is nothing short of spectacular.
Rush Limbaugh personally thanked President Bush for the greeting ceremony at the White House, which was amazing at multiple levels.

And here are a few award-winning blogs from my alma maters (Notre Dame and UC-Berkeley)
Irish Watchdog
California Patriot
It's good to see that the lefties haven't completely taken over!