Daily Archives: 8 April 2013

Alameda County rewards boss: $400k…for life

California will be the first state to declare bankruptcy.

open quoteAlameda County supervisors have really taken to heart the adage that government should run like a business — rewarding County Administrator Susan Muranishi with the Wall Street-like wage of $423,664 a year.

For the rest of her life.

According to county pay records, in addition to her $301,000 base salary, Muranishi receives:

– $24,000, plus change, in “equity pay’’ to guarantee that she makes at least 10 percent more than anyone else in the county.

– About $54,000 a year in “longevity” pay for having stayed with the county for more than 30 years.

– An annual performance bonus of $24,000.

– And another $9,000 a year for serving on the county’s three-member Surplus Property Authority, an ad hoc committee of the Board of Supervisors that oversees the sale of excess land.

Like other county executives, Muranishi also gets an $8,292-a-year car allowance.

Muranishi has been with the county for 38 years, and she’s 63. When retirement day comes, she’ll be getting a lot more than a gold watch.

That’s because, according to the county auditor’s office, Muranishi’s annual pension will be equal to the dollar total of her entire yearly package — $413,000. She also has a separate executive private pension plan, for which the county chips in $46,500 a year.close quote

‘Underwear bomber’ was working for the CIA

(May 2012)

open quoteA would-be “underwear bomber” involved in a plot to attack a US-based jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged.

The revelation is the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida to strike at a high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the clothing of an attacker.

The plot, which the White House said on Monday had involved the seizing of an underwear bomb by authorities in the Middle East sometime in the last 10 days, had caused alarm throughout the US.

It has also been linked to a suspected US drone strike in Yemen where two Yemeni members of al-Qaida were killed by a missile attack on their car on Sunday, one of them a senior militant, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso.

But the news that the individual at the heart of the bomb plot was in fact an informer for US intelligence is likely to raise just as many questions as it answers.close quote (Read more)

Bitcoin fever!

Bitcoin fever!!! I was paid about 8.7 bitcoins a couple years ago for articles I wrote for dailyanarchist.com. Their total value was about $70. Today, the value of each bitcoin is $195. My 8.7 bitcoins are worth $1700.

We may be seeing the emergence of a new money. Think of the advantages — no transaction costs. Setting up an account takes a few seconds and no paperwork whatsoever. Mastercard and Visa take 3% from merchants. Imagine bitcoin merchants passing this savings onto consumers.

There were some libertarians who went into bitcoins very early and very big. If bitcoins emerge as money they will become Rothchild rich. We have yet to see major attacks from governments. Surely, they will come. But how can they possibly succeed? There’s nothing for them to effectively strike.

It is much easier for government to stop gold than to stop bitcoins. This may be why there is already a developed bitcoin market, while there’s no such dynamically growing market for gold.

Bitcoins will tear down the fiat system. Gold may replace bitcoins in the distant future after the fiat system is long dead and buried.