From the World AIDS Campaign:

2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Since 1988, the face and response to AIDS has greatly changed. While many of these changes are positive, this anniversary offers us an opportunity to highlight how much more still needs to be done.

For example:

• Leaders in most countries from around the world now acknowledge the threat of AIDS, and many have committed to do something about it. As of 2007, nearly all countries have national policies on HIV. However, despite these policies, most have not been fully implemented and many lack funding allocations.


• While treatment for HIV and AIDS has improved and become more widespread since 1988, many still do not have access to it – in 2007 only 31% of those in low- to middle-income countries who need treatment received it.


• Despite HIV awareness now reaching nearly all areas of the globe, infection rates are still happening 2.7 times faster than the increase in number of people receiving treatment.


• While the number of countries protecting people living with HIV continue to increase, one third of countries still lack legal protections and stigma and discrimination continues to be a major threat to universal access.


• More broadly, real action on HIV and AIDS and human rights remains lacking. Legal barriers to HIV services still exist for groups such as women, adolescents, sex workers, people who use drugs, and men having sex with men, and programmatic responses promoting HIV-related human rights have yet to be prioritised.

World AIDS Day began in 1988 when health ministers from around the world met and agreed on the concept of the day as an opportunity for all of us to come together to demonstrate the importance of AIDS and show solidarity for the cause. In 2008, this underlining principle of solidarity and awareness remains the same.

We have only two years to go for “the goal of universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010”[1].”

To achieve this goal, leadership and action is needed now. Governments must deliver on the promises they have made. Communities must encourage leadership of its members. Individuals must feel empowered to access treatment, to know their rights and take action against stigma and discrimination, and to know and use methods of prevention against receiving and transmitting HIV.

Now, more than ever is the time to lead – empower – deliver.

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Yeah, I know this isn’t news at this point, but there is a reason why I try to avoid going anywhere near a store on the weekend after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas. It’s not just Black Friday, but the entire season.

In fact, if it were possible to not spend any money at all during this season, I’d likely do my best to do so. Christmas long ago lost its true meaning and became all about mass consumerism.

Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, the Christmas season should be a celebration of life and of family. It should not be about buying stuff.

Wal-Mart worker dies in rush; two killed at toy store - CNN.com

(CNN) — Three violent deaths in two stores marred the opening of the Christmas shopping season Friday.

In the first, a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m., police said.

In the second, unrelated incident, two men were shot dead in a Toys “R” Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store, police said.

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I knew it!

Anatomy of the Morgan Stanley Panic - WSJ.com

Two days after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sought bankruptcy protection, an explosive rumor spread that another big Wall Street firm, Morgan Stanley, was on the brink of failure. The chatter on trading desks that Sept. 17 was that Deutsche Bank AG had yanked a $25 billion credit line to the firm.

That wasn’t true, but it helped trigger a cascade of bearish bets against Morgan Stanley. Chief Executive Officer John Mack complained bitterly that profit-hungry traders were sowing panic. Yet he lacked a critical piece of information: Who exactly was behind those damaging trades?

I’ll tell you who. Art O’Connor, that’s who! Well, not really … but I think he should share some of the profits from his short positions.

Oh sure, I could blame Merrill and Goldman and UBS and all the other major firms on the street for helping to drive down the value of my stock and retirement plan, but I prefer to blame Art.

And why? Because he’s tall, has a good-lookin’ fiancée, and can ride a bike pretty damned fast. Oh, and because he’s local and a friend … and if you can’t blame your friends for bad shit that happens nationally and internationally, who else can you blame???

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Okay; I can honestly say that I didn’t see this happening. I figured that Citigroup, like Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, would both be strong enough to weather almost anything the economy could throw at them, but their recent stock movements are highly precipitous.

Citi Weighs Its Options, Including Firm’s Sale - WSJ.com

Executives at Citigroup Inc., faced with a plunging stock price, began weighing the possibility of auctioning off pieces of the financial giant or even selling the company outright, according to people familiar with the matter.

The internal discussions are at a preliminary stage and don’t signal that Citigroup’s board and management are backing down from their insistence that the New York company has ample capital, funding and strategic direction, these people said. But with the stock down another 26% Thursday, its worst one-day percentage decline ever, Citigroup officials have decided they need to reckon with a range of scenarios that were unthinkable only weeks ago.

Citigroup’s board of directors is scheduled to have a formal meeting Friday to discuss the options, according to a people familiar with the situation. Meantime, directors have been talking by phone about what could be done to reverse the stock’s slide.

Top executives were locked in meetings Thursday to hash out a stabilization strategy. A Citigroup spokeswoman said in a statement Wednesday evening: “Citi has a very strong capital and liquidity position” and is “focused on executing our strategy,” which includes cutting expenses and selling assets. “We believe the benefits will be seen over time.”

With roots stretching back to 1812 and more than 200 million customer accounts in 106 countries, Citigroup is an icon of global capitalism. It is getting battered by the same financial storm that has already remade the face of Wall Street, forcing the sale of Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co. earlier this year, and triggering the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and other Citigroup executives have told colleagues they are frustrated and befuddled by this week’s 50% stock decline. Investors have dumped bank stocks en masse on fears that economic woes will batter financial companies worse than previously expected.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Wonder if the A-Train has been shorting “C”?

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California high court will hear appeal of gay marriage measure - CNN.com

(CNN) — California’s Supreme Court said Wednesday that it will hear the appeal of a challenge to Proposition 8, a voter-approved measure outlawing gay marriage.

California’s voter-approved measure banning gay marriage has sparked protests throughout the state.

In a written statement, the court said it will not block the implementation or enforcement of the law in the meantime.

Proposition 8 passed with about 52.5 percent of the vote, making California one of several states to ban gay marriage in the November 4 elections.

But unlike the other states, California had already been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples since May, after a state Supreme Court ruling legalized the unions.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed legal challenges to the vote, asking the high court to rule the ballot-initiative process was “improperly used” to strip away a right protected by the state constitution.

The court said arguments in the case could be heard as early as March.

In its May 15 ruling legalizing gay marriage in California, the justices seemed to signal that a ballot initiative like Proposition 8 might not be enough to change the underlying constitutional issues of the case in the court’s eyes.

The ruling said the right to marry is among a set of basic human rights “so integral to an individual’s liberty and personal autonomy that they may not be eliminated or abrogated by the legislature or by the electorate through the statutory initiative process.”

In the hours after the proposition’s apparent passage, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles and other cities across California in protest.

Observances in support of gay marriage were held in cities across the country Saturday.

It’s been more than two weeks since the election, and still no one has been able to tell me why the majority should be able to suppress the rights of the minority, when both the California and US Constitutions are supposed to be designed to protect the rights of all people, both majority and minority.

I think, however, that even if the California Supreme Court overturns Prop 8 as an unlawful constitutional revision, we won’t have heard the last of this issue; whether it goes back in front of the legislature to be voted on before going back on the ballot a third time, or whether it gets appealed to the US Supreme Court, this issue is not going to go away anytime soon.

And that’s a good thing. Issues like this need to remain as visible as possible until all people in the United States are affording the same rights and privileges.

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Looks like Paulson has taken at least one stance with which the A-Train shouldn’t have too many problems (if any), and while in many ways I disagree with the Train about how to fix the problem, in this particular situation I think we’re probably both on the same page.

Bloomberg.com: Paulson Warns TARP Isn’t ‘Panacea’ for Economy Ills

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson rejected using the government’s financial-rescue program as a “panacea” for economic difficulties, clashing with lawmakers who want the funds to help beleaguered homeowners and automakers.

“The rescue package was not intended to be an economic stimulus or an economic recovery package,” Paulson said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee in Washington. The $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program was designed to stabilize financial markets and the flow of credit and “is not a panacea for all our economic difficulties.”

Barney Frank, who heads the House panel, took issue with Paulson, urging the Bush administration to step up efforts to stem record foreclosures. Democrats are also pursuing legislation to deploy part of TARP to prevent General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC from collapsing due to lack of cash.

The American auto industry has been weak for years, and there’s absolutely no evidence that throwing additional cash at the industry will resolve any problems; it will just delay their inevitable collapse. It may be best for the Big 3 to go through Chapter 11, just as the airlines have done time and time again.

If the government starts bailing out every large corporation that is going through economic ills, then the claims that we are moving towards socialism start to gain a little more credence. It’s one thing to shore up the backbone of the American economic system by injecting capital into banks. It’s quite another thing to start buying stakes in every company that starts to experience some financial problems.

As for mortgages and foreclosures: in my opinion, the best way to help stem the tide of foreclosures is for the banks who are carrying these toxic assets (now that Paulson has indicated that the Treasury won’t be buying them, opting for direct investment in the banks instead) is for the banks to work with the individual mortgagees to reset the terms, using various loan-modification programs.

The IndyMac plan developed by the FDIC has been getting a lot of praise:

FDIC: Loan Modification Program for Distressed Indymac Mortgage Loans

Under the IndyMac Federal program, eligible mortgages would be modified into sustainable mortgages permanently capped at the current Freddie Mac survey rate for conforming mortgages (now about 6.5%). Modifications would be designed to achieve sustainable payments at a 38 percent debt-to-income (DTI) ratio of principal, interest, taxes and insurance. To reach this metric for affordable payments, modifications could adopt a combination of interest rate reductions, extended amortization, and principal forbearance.

If, consistent with maximizing the net present value of the mortgage, an interest rate reduction below the current Freddie Mac survey rate is necessary to achieve a 38% DTI, then IndyMac Federal could reduce the rate further for five years. After five years, the interest rate would increase by no more than 1% per year until it capped at the Freddie Mac survey rate where it would remain for the balance of the loan term. Other modification features could be combined with an interest rate reduction, as necessary and consistent with maximizing the value of the mortgage, to achieve sustainable payments.

A program like this should help out most people who either didn’t understand what kind of loan they were getting when they originally purchased their home, as well as some of those who bit off more than they could chew when they bought their homes, but it won’t benefit the most egregious acts of recklessness by home buyers (the $30K family who buys a $500K home).

More details (and in a more reader/listener friendly format) on Sheila Bair’s plan can be found in a great story broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition this past Friday morning.

While Ms. Bair’s plan is meeting some resistance from Henry Paulson, it sounds like it’s a matter of working out some of the finer details, rather than a wholesale rejection of the plan by the Treasury; and hopefully Paulson’s successor in the Obama administration will be even more open to Ms. Bair’s plan.

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Look at that Fat Boy go! Run, Fat Boy, Run!

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