More IT layoffs, but not in India

Here's globalization for you in light of the Microsoft announcement that 5,000 are to be laid off:

The layoff, however, would not be impacting the Indian operations. "It's not going to impact us. No job cuts in India," a Microsoft India spokesperson said in New Delhi.

I'm unclear as to the answer here, other than more domestic layoffs mean less income to actually purchase Microsoft product.

Information technology is a referral or word of mouth business. No one begrudges software companies having operations in India, as there is a real business need for 24/7 development. But when the layoffs are not universally felt, than one has to question their loyalty to the Microsoft product stack. The new model for a startup company is not spending on expensive software licenses in order to be able to have budget to actually spend on human beings to write customizations.

In our own state, we had the infamous Judicial Information System. So while there's plenty of laid off Microsoft talent soon to be looking for work, your tax dollars just paid for software built overseas. I'm not sure how that dovetails with the state's plan to getting people back to work, but there you have it.

It all becomes one vicious spiral downward for all involved. One wonders when IT workers will finally don longshoreman's caps and stop viewing themselves as superior "knowledge workers" not constrained by the forces of history.

Who will sponsor the prayer breakfast now?

The Columbian worries about who will pick up the slack on local charitable giving in light of Bank of Clark County's demise:

While many leaders say they still don’t know the long-term effects, the bank’s collapse signifies the loss of an institution with a hand in nearly every philanthropic effort in town, they note.

The Humane Society for Southwest Washington. The Southwest Washington Chapter of the American Red Cross. The Southwest Washington Medical Center Foundation. Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust. The list goes on.

What The Columbian conveniently leaves out is the bank's sponsorship of the controversial annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast:

The theme for this year's Breakfast was "Goals Are Obtainable" and the Master of Ceremonies was Ralph Stevens, VP of The Bank of Clark County. Rey Reynolds of the Vancouver Police Department sang the National Anthem.

Prayer sounds decent enough. Unfortunately, it was combined with a political and cultural agenda:

The featured speaker was Jeff Kemp, former NFL Quarterback and now executive Director of Families Northwest. Based in the Seattle area, Families Northwest advances the Northwest Marriage & Family Movement, a cultural campaign aimed at increasing the rate of marriage success, enhancing family health and turning the tide on family breakdown so more children are raised in nurturing homes by their married mother and father.

Bank of Clark County aligned well with the Republican agenda of financing sprawl and funding the culture wars. It's sad that a local bank has succumbed, but supporting exclusionary "clubs" is also part of the bank's legacy.

Bank Seizures R' Us

DeVore at HA has a lot more on this, but the list of the seized Bank of Clark County's board of directors reads like a Who's Who of local movers and shakers, with two names in particular sticking out:

Arch Miller, founder of the International Air and Hospitality Academy in Vancouver, is a founding director of Bank of Clark County and served as the company’s first chairman from 1999 to 2002. Miller was a member of audit, loan, and IS/IT steering committees. Miller has been involved with Columbia River Economic Development Council, the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, Vancouver Rotary Club and Identity Clark County. He served as an elected Port of Vancouver commissioner for 18 years.

[...]

John “JD” White is vice president and regional client development director of the JD White division of BERGER/ABAM Engineers Inc. in Vancouver. White is a founding shareholder of Bank of Clark County. He chairs the Bank’s IS/IT steering committee and serves on the loan, asset and liability, and governance, nominating and compensation committees. White is a trustee for Clark College and serves on the following boards: Southwest Washington Medical Center, Columbia United Providers, Southwest Washington Regional Surgery Center and the Washington State University Vancouver Advisory Council.

I'm unclear as to what made these board members uniquely qualified to analyze loan risk, and obviously, they've come up a bit short.  It's probably incumbent on the FDIC to do some "clawbacks" on board members who didn't perform their due diligence.

Near as I can tell, there's nothing illegal about getting insider information when a bank is in trouble, precipitating a bank run:

“I got a call on Friday morning” from someone in the know, a Vancouver home builder who had more than $250,000 in his account told The Columbian on Monday. He drew down his account to keep it within insured limits. 

Between Jan. 13 and the close of business Friday, customers had withdrawn $28 million in deposits.

So a bank operated ostensibly by and for realtors and developers is seized, with the best parts sold to Umpqua Bank:

This time, FDIC offered terms that Davis liked. Umpqua could assume the Bank of Clark County’s insured deposits, could buy its two bank branches, and would not have to take on its loans or uninsured deposits. FDIC would handle those.

How much of our taxpayer dollars are being used to bail out this failed bank?  What's the tab for all those state and federal regulators having to descend on Vancouver to do the first bank seizure in Washington state since 1993?  

Socialize the risk, and privatize the gain.

Tire swingers receive criticism

Remember the most excellent video of fawning journalists relaxing at John McCain's ranch in Sedona, from whence the TalkingPointsMemo.com term tire swing came from? Apparently, that wasn't good enough for Cindy McCain:

Well, I think, without sounding bitter—and I'm not bitter—I do believe there was a media bias. I do believe that the media had a specific agenda and with that said, the American people cast their vote. But I do believe that there is a voyeuristic media: Everyone is a reporter now because everyone has a camera on their phone, the face of reporting in general has changed. There is very little difference now between journalism and gossip.

So note to press: even when you do the tire swing for McCain, you'll still get criticized for it.

Hahahahaha

It's laughter time at the insane asylum:

WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved, according to a person with knowledge of the opinion.

If I'm the Federal government, just make sure to route all voice and email traffic through a Canadian router, subjecting them to the "international" standard. Even better, just declare certain square footage at government buildings the "international desk".

Good times, people, good times.

Leavitt to challenge Pollard

Royce Pollard has been mayor of Vancouver so long that voters tend to have forgotten his first name and he's simply known as "Mayor Pollard", so it's interesting to see an actual challenge coming from city councilman Tim Leavitt in this year's mayoral election.

Leavitt appears to have his Republican rhetoric down pat:

Leavitt said he has supported pro-business policies during his six years on the council.

“Vancouver does not have a very friendly business climate at all,” he said. “And part of that is the mayor continues to support taxation that has a direct and negative impact on the recruitment of new business.”

This coming from one of the guys leading the charge to raise C-Tran fares (a tax by any other name), but I digress.

My hunch the other day was that Leavitt would wait until Pollard's eventual retirement. Perhaps he was getting signals that Mayor Pollard simply wouldn't retire any time soon. There must be some sort of dissatisfaction amongst the downtown business community in order for Leavitt to make the decision, since both are dutiful members of the Growth Coalition.

All I know is that this should be a pretty exciting race, and for outside the city limits folks like myself, it's high time to fire up the popcorn.

Jeff Mapes pens bicycling book

"Socialism can only arrive by bicycle" - Jose Antonio Viera Gallo

BikePortland's blog has a first look at an upcoming book penned by longtime Oregonian political reporter and blogger Jeff Mapes, "Pedaling Revolution" which details how "ordinary citizens are becoming transportation revolutionaries":

From traffic-dodging bike messengers to tattooed teenagers on battered bicycles, from riders in spandex to well-dressed executives, ordinary citizens are becoming transportation revolutionaries. In Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes traces the growth of bicycle advocacy; examines the environmental, safety, and health aspects of cycling; and explores the growing bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities, suburbs, and small towns across North America.

Although the recent weather has put a crimp on commuting by bicycle, it's pretty clear that the Portland Metro area is becoming Bike City, USA, from the percentage of bike commuters (as high as 8% and growing) to a budding bike industrial base:

Add up the revenues for retailers such as the Bike Gallery, manufacturers such as Chris King Precision Components, organized rides such as Cycle Oregon and professional services firms such as Alta Planning and Design, and you get about $90 million in annual sales, in Portland alone.

I'd argue that figure is a bit higher, with several successful online bicycle outlets operating out of Portland to avoid having to charge their customer's sales tax, or corporate headquarters such as Castelli USA.  Regardless, there's something brewing (fermenting?) on the Oregon side that hopefully Vancouver can tap into.

Bicyclists know first hand the impacts of sprawl on their country road romps, where farm lands become subdivisions virtually overnight.  And the rationale for car ownership is becoming much harder to maintain in difficult economic times.  Gas, insurance, and auto payments all add up to one pretty sweet full carbon-fiber ride, I'm just sayin'.

It will be interesting to see if Mapes covers one aspect that seems to be missing from most public transit planning discussions, the use of inter-modal transportation by bicyclists.  In the Portland system, it's incredibly easy to take part of your bike trip by light rail.  Inter-modal could also work great if CRC gets off the ground with the light rail extension in Vancouver.  Taking short bicycle trips to and fro the light rail station is something ordinary people can hack, from age 15 to 50.

To think that we could have had light rail running as far north as Salmon Creek if the 1995 vote had passed.  It's unfortunate that the 50% of the county that moved in after that date have to be punished for that fateful decision, but there you have it.

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the light blogging. Hope you made sure to put up your new calendars on the fridge. Mine is right here: