Keeping score

Bank Failure 30: Silverton Bank, National Association, Atlanta, Georgia

Bank Failure 31: Citizens Community Bank, Ridgewood, New Jersey

Bank Failure 32: America West Bank, Layton, Utah

Another busy Friday for FDIC. Many, BTW, thought that Silverton Bank was a bank too big to fail. It’s a bank whose only customers are other banks. Its failure — and no bank stepped up to take it over — is expected to cost FDIC (that would be us, because the banks are seeing to it that their FDIC premiums are not increased) $1.3 billion.

Number of banks closed last year, 2008: 25
Number of banks closed previous eight years, 2000-2007: 26

Auto sales are worse than they appear

Reports today indicate that auto sales in April were down from last April about 25-42% depending on the manufacturer.

Bad enough, but here’s the vital piece of information. At the time, April a year ago was the worst auto sales month in a more than a decade.

May 1st

Today is the birthday

… of Chuck Bednarik, 84. The hall-of-famer played for the Eagles. Bednarik is the last NFL player who routinely played both offense (center) and defense (linebacker). Bednarik’s most famous play was a tackle of Frank Gifford that put Gifford out of action for a year-and-a-half (and ultimately shortened his career).

… of singer Sonny James, 80. James’s big hit was “Young Love” in 1956.

… of the amazingly graceful Judy Collins. She is 70 today.

… of Rita Coolidge, 64. Some say Coolidge is the reason for the 1970 dissolution of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, when she left Stills for Nash, but it was Kris Kristofferson she married in 1973. Miss Coolidge is part Cherokee.

… of Dann Florek of “Law and Order.” Florek is 58.

… of Tim McGraw. Tug McGraw’s boy is 42.

Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, was born on May 1st in 1923. Heller died in 1999.

And God Bless Kate Smith, born 102 years ago today.

I thought this about the best summary of why the H1N1 influenza is a big deal

What’s important about this virus is its genetic novelty. As far as we know, the human population doesn’t have any natural immunity to it. But what people perceive about the virus is its lack of novelty. Clinically it seems a lot like what they are used to with seasonal influenza. It’s not (so far) the monster of 1918 and doesn’t have the virulence of H5N1. What they are forgetting is what the genetic novelty might mean.

Because there is no natural immunity to this virus, even though clinically it appears to be like garden variety flu to the individual, with respect to the population it has the potential to spread faster and many more people sick than seasonal flu. And remember, seasonal flu is not a walk in the park. It kills an estimated 30,000 people a year.

A bad flu season can fill hospital emergency rooms and in patient beds to the bursting point. We currently have fewer staffed hospital beds per capita than we did in the last pandemic, 1968 (the “Hong Kong flu”). There is no reserve capacity. We can’t just add physical beds. Beds don’t take care of patients. Nurses and doctors do.

Now take a bad flu season and double it. To each individual it’s the same disease but now everybody is getting it at once, in every community and all over the world. In terms of virulence, it’s a mild pandemic. It’s not a lethal virus like 1918. But in terms of social disruption it could be very bad. If twice as many people get sick, the number of deaths could be 80,000 in the US instead of 40,000. Gurneys would line the hallways of hospitals and clinics. And absenteeism amongst health care workers would compound the problem. Infrastructure would probably survive intact. No need to have your own water supply or electricity generator. But it would be a very rough ride.

All of this could plausibly happen from this virus without it causing anything more than the usual case of influenza.

Effect Measure

Chrysler Bankruptcy Judge

From the Law Blog, the background of Chrysler bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez:

From 1969 to 1982, he taught math in a New York City elementary school. Then, after getting a law degree from Fordham Law School at night, he was a staff attorney for the Internal Revenue Service in New York and spent three years in private practice.

In 1991, he joined the U.S. Trustee’s office, an arm of the Justice Department that monitors bankruptcy proceedings. He was appointed a federal bankruptcy judge In 1995.

Judge Gonzalez handled the Enron and Worldcom bankruptcies.

Most important assessment of the 100 days

Obama 100 Days

“Since taking office, Barack Obama has worn twenty-four different neckties in public, photographed appearances. Obama’s top seven neckties reveal a lot about the type of administration he is crafting …

“Because the President and his valedictocracy are adept at correlating fashion sense with public opinion, we predict that the top seven neckties will continue to have a forceful showing for the remainder of the term.”

Neck of State

Whom Would Jesus Torture?

“A variety of policy positions are generally associated with evangelical Christians. Abortion, for example, is a moral wrong. So is gay marriage. Pre-marital sex, pornography, and adultery are also all morally offensive, inconsistent with their spiritual values.

“Torture, however, is fine.”

Steve Benen commenting on a Pew survey which shows that those who attend church most often are most prone to say torture is justified.

Most flattering line of the day

“Almost to make the point, a few days ago the White House uploaded a bunch of photos of Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office onto Flickr. If ever you had a doubt that this man is photogenic, doubt no more. He is. So is his dog, his wife, his staff, his daughters, his lawn, his aircraft and everything else touched by his good looking finger.”

The Moment Blog – NYTimes.com

People, please!

Don’t you love it when the cashier stops to cough or sneeze and covers their face with their hand, then goes back to touching your food and handing you your change and/or receipt?

If you cough or sneeze, cover your face — but please do not cover it with your hand. Your hand touches everything.

Cover your mouth and nose with the inside of your elbow. You pretty much keep the inside of your elbow to yourself.

Pass it on.

Does the U.S. Need an Auto Industry?

“With its survival, at least in the short term, so dependent on public assistance, it seems fair to ask, do we need a domestic auto industry? Many American manufacturing industries, like textiles and electronics, long ago moved to other producing countries. Why is the auto industry different?”

Four economists respond to the question. It’s more interesting than it sounds.

Room for Debate Blog