Piracy is one of the things we importers buy insurance against, because piracy never went away. There are gun chests on those ships, but a 3000 TEU vessel may have a crew of max 12 people. 5 people can easily take over a ship. The ships forbid gun battles, even using mercenaries, because a sovereign nation would naturally detain ship and crew while it investigated gunplay and especially deaths in its waters. Rather face pirates than judges.
Modern Piracy is about robbing the ship's safe and crew, so this hijacking the entire ship is relatively new. There are completely safe responses to pirates: low level threats are met with ship's fire hoses and higher level threats can be met with those sonic anti-personnel weapons developed over the last decade. (and of course in waters that heavily trafficked they certainly could convoy through with PT boat escorts... no big deal.)
What smells fishy to me is the spike which demands a response. India steamed in and sank a boat, who else is on the way? The entire US Navy seems to be over there, will there be a further concentration of military might, under the pretext of counter-piracy. If USA attacks Iran, it could get damned dicey with all of those warships and auto-response defense systems... (recall the Vincennes shooting down a Iranian passenger jet after a skirmish with an Iranian patrol boat?)
I don't like it.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Pirates!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Of Course Big Three Will Be Bailed Out
One reason the Big Three Auto makers need to be bailed out is because we have only three automakers. Due to the government policy of "get big or get out" in USA, we have no small and medium sized auto makers in USA.
Because of the moral hazard of being assured they were too big to fail, auto makers in USA could give away the store in every union contract negotiations, knowing the US taxpayer would make up any loss. The proof is now.
Contact any of the Big Three auto makers directly to buy a car. They will tell you "no." It is against the law. You must buy through a dealer. The number of dealers is strictly limited, and controlled by the auto makers themselves. This limits competition and assures the auto makers can never get squeezed by the auto dealers. This makes sure no independently minded person can open a Ford dealership and offer good service and fair repair charges. (What one can charge for repairs is regulated and published in a book to which all dealers subscribe.)
It makes sure no dealer ever gets powerful enough to demand big discounts to pass on to consumers. It makes sure no dealer ever makes demands to raise quality or influence design.
If you took the money invested by taxpayers in electric car subsidies, each electric car costs about $250,000 and sells for about $25,000. Without subsidies, we'd have clean and green by now. With that kind of income, where is the incentive to win?
USA auto makers benefit from "voluntary restraints." Honda agrees not to sell as many cars into USA as they could, so the ones they do ship in sell for more than they would. Thus Detroit can raise its prices, relative to Japan.
For years Big Govt/Big Three have abused and ripped off the consumer. Now that their system has failed, they want you to bail it out, so they can do it some more. No changes. it is what you voted for when you voted for Obama (or McCain) You voted for no changes.
Detroit can make excellent cars, that can beat anything else out there. I drive the 1997 Cadillac STS. It was one of those models when Detroit manages to bring everything together. It beats anything Mercedes or BMW could make, plus adds real American luxury not hard Euro luxury. A monster Northstar engine in a touring sedan! For $250 you could get the Delco governor disabled so the beast has no problem sailing past 130 mph on out to 150 plus. Not that I would ever drive that fast (or hopefully need to). You can buy used now for around $8000. And now that price of gas is dropping again (of course) who cares about mileage?
My mechanic came out from under the car shaking his head saying "I forgot they make a car where you can tune the shocks... not often you see an electrical connection to shock absorbers..."
Of course, Detroit is blaming the workers for the problems. In America, it is never management's fault.
I Wannabe Luis Miguel
I pride myself in envying no one, having never met anyone i would trade places wit, anyone I envy. Pride before the fall... I want to be Luis Miguel... the guy can sing, has style, and doggone it, he has his own Mariachi Band as a backup!
Luis Miguel has two platinum albums in USA, the only artist to achieve that with songs solely in Spanish... oooh ..there is something else to envy... he can speak a foreign language! I'd like to meet his tailor. And his hair is perfect.