From Tom Toles …

News and views for Monday, November 17th …

[NY, USA] “Syracuse police are saying what the family of Moses “Teish” Cannon believed all along: Cannon was shot and killed Friday because of his sexual orientation. Police have charged Dwight R. DeLee, of Syracuse, with Cannon’s murder. DeLee, 20, is scheduled to be arraigned on a second-degree murder charge today in Syracuse City Court … Moses Cannon, 22, often dressed like a woman and had a boyfriend. Family members called Cannon “Teish” and used “she” when speaking about him. Shaconia Williams, Cannon’s sister, said Cannon called himself a transsexual … “I’m angry. It wasn’t her time to go,” said Tameka Johnson, Cannon’s sister. “She was so full of life and had so much left to give.” Cannon’s loss leaves a void in the family that’s going to be hard to fill, relatives said. On Sunday, nearly 20 relatives and friends gathered at Cannon’s home to comfort each other and share stories about “Teish.” “She was always there for me,” said Cannon’s niece, Maniya Cannon, 10. “She would do anything to help other people.”" — Gender motive in death, cops say

[NY, USA] “A Syracuse man charged with murder after shooting two people on Friday night, one fatally, could wind up facing more serious charges. Police say Dwight DeLee, 20, shot and killed Moses Cannon, known by friends and family as Latiesha Green. The victim, 22, was a transgendered person. DeLee was arraigned Monday morning in Syracuse City Court on a charge of second degree murder. No bail was set and DeLee remains in custody … About 70 people attended a candlelight vigil for Latiesha Green on Arthur Street on Monday night. Balloons were hung, and mourners lined up to write their goodbyes on a memorial mural. Latiesha’s mother, Roxanne Green, expressed her frustration with the crime. “Because why would you take his life,” she asked, “just because he’s gay?” She then shook her head in disgust.” — No bail for murder suspect; hate crime charge a possibility

[NY, USA] “High heels are pesky things. They get caught in sidewalk grates, come in styles high enough to cause the wearer nosebleeds and, truth be told, aren’t terribly healthy for feet. Not everyone can walk in them, particularly men. Which is why folks make their way to Mary Veronica, aka Miss Vera, head of Miss Vera’s School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls.” — Mary Veronica’s Miss Vera’s School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls is in session

[USA] “Tyra Banks surprises Isis King, the first transgender contestant on America’s Next Top Model, with sex reassignment surgery in an episode of her talk show to air Tuesday. “This is not happening!” King, who was born Darrell Walls, says when Banks introduces her to Dr. Marci Bowers, a leading gender reassignment surgeon who has experienced the surgery herself. Bowers is paying for the surgery.” — Exclusive Video: Tyra Banks Surprises Contestant With Sex Change Operation

[USA] ““Unfortunately, transgender people end up at the very bottom of the financial totem pole, simply because we are who we are,” contends QueerCents’ new financial consultant, Ashley A. Wilson. “We get discriminated against employment wise, we get discriminated against when we go as consumers to buy things. The challenges are huge.” … For the trans community, already “horribly underemployed,” Wilson projects, “Things are going to be rough for us for a while—very rough. It will be harder for the transgendered to find employment, because they’re laying people off left and right. We’re going to have to do whatever we have to, to survive.” “When you transition,” Wilson contends, “it almost forces you to become an activist because there’s no other way you can survive. You have to stand up for yourself, everywhere. You get tired of it. Like why does it have to be hard all the time? As I say in my [QueerCents] series, in those instances, ‘Remember, you’re a consumer: Don’t back down, don’t get scared and run away—stand up for your rights.” Wilson suggests a similar approach to addressing the trans community’s legal and political woes: “We have to become activists…come together and come out of the shadows and stand up united and say, ‘We’re not asking for anything more than the rights that are supposedly ours as citizens of the United States of America.’”” — TransNation: Start Making Cents: Trans-specific Financial Advice

[Sweden] “Transvestism, along with six other sexual behaviours, will be struck from Sweden’s official list of medical diagnoses starting on January 1st, 2009. The National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) took the decision to declassify the behaviours as illnesses in order to avoid strengthening prejudices about them, said agency head Lars-Erik Holm … The other diagnoses which will soon disappear from the disease registry include fetishism, fetishistic transvestitism, sadomasochism, gender identity disorder in youth, and multiple disorders of sexual preferences.” — Transvestism ‘no longer a disease’ in Sweden

We all get spam. Nobody, myself included, wants it or deserves it. And, thankfully, most of it gets filtered out. But, I do get a chuckle out of some of it — when I occasionally check out what’s (mostly) going in the spam bin. My favorites are the two “enhancement” ones (think “boners” and Nigeria, as in enhance someone else’s bank account) as I call them … the greater “tool” and greater “fool” ones. But, what happens when you combine the two? You get something like this (via The Big Picture) …

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

DEAR AMERICAN:

I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

I AM WORKING WITH MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS THE LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S. THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE.

THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.

PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO WALLSTREETBAILOUT@TREASURY.GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION. AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.

YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON

Over at the Times so far today, this …

Another Way to Look at It, 12:27 p.m. “If it works the way it should work, this is not an expenditure, it’s an investment.” — Secretary Paulson

Reacting to Paulson’s Line, 12:30 p.m. Inside the hearing room, snide laughter greeted Mr. Paulson’s line, “This is all about the American taxpayer.” What was your reaction?

and it may be time to move to Venezuela … but, I’d rather go to Rio.

From Tom Toles …

David Byrne’s in Asheville tonight at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium … and, yes, you may ask yourself …

… who’s burning down the house.

Earlier this week Donna Rose touched upon the “melt down” in her blog.

To paraphrase what Donna said — you may have been prudent, have a few bucks in the bank, have a bit of credit, but when that cascade comes down, you’ll be right in its path — and you may not get two tickets on The Ark.

I think that that “fire” or “melt down” is symptomatic of a systemic failure and corruption of government in which both political parties are complicit.

So, for me — I just don’t see BO — or JM — as the solution, they are part of the problem. (Anyone have any updates on this?) The solution? Ask a pundit, not me … I’m busy getting my creaky rowboat ready.

A few of the weekend scribblings …

From Alan Abelson (”Going for Broke“) in Barron’s this week …

BABY, IT’S COLD OUT THERE. So let’s toss another billion on the fire.

What’s that make it? Well, let’s see: $29 billion for Bear Stearns, somewhere between $1 billion and $100 billion each for Fannie and Freddie (a nice narrow range), $85 billion for AIG, a couple of hundred billion to keep stray banks, brokers and their errant kin from asphyxiating themselves by swallowing toxic paper. And then there’s the proposed reincarnation of the Resolution Trust Corp., which all by itself may mean shelling out $800 billion, perhaps even as much as $1 trillion.

While we’re at it, we might as well include the $400 billion with which the Paulson-Bernanke grand plan envisages endowing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. so it can insure money-market funds.

But, please, understand those mind-boggling sums in no way, shape or form are to be construed as designed to aid and abet a bailout. Instead, they are merely the essential ingredients of an “intervention,” or, if you prefer, a “rescue” — just about anything, in other words, that’s semantically sweeter than bailout, with its ugly connotation of a sinking ship.

Besides, we have it on the best authority that none of this largess will cost the taxpayer a cent over the long run, which, if nothing else, speaks volumes about what constitutes the best authority these days.

Some other news and views (just a few) …

• Your Money at Work, Fixing Others’ Mistakes
• Why You Should Hate the Treasury Bailout Proposal
• Will a Crisis Create a Scandal?
• Bipartisan Support for Wall St. Rescue Plan Emerges
• Short Selling Ban Spreads Around the World

Dodd, Schumer, Frank … Tinker, Evers, Chance … “Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble.”

Maybe, we’ll have better luck than the Cubs since those words were penned by FPA. (Don’t bet on it.)

And, it’s the last night for the original Yankee Stadium — a big part of my growing up in the Bronx back in the 50s and early 60s — lots of memories. A few tears too — watching the pre-game ceremonies on ESPN. And a Stevens threw out the first ball, no less.

Don’t bite on the change-up, folks, in baseball … or politics. For what it’s worth, frankly, I think you may as well stay in the dugout. I don’t see a field of dreams beckoning. “The players” here are in a league of their own and I don’t think you or me are going to crack the lineup.

From cartoonist Steve Breen … as we brace for Hurricane Lehman this evening …

No, I’m not making a comment there about the overwhelming majority of Americans who no longer support President Bush or his chosen course of action regarding Iraq. (But, with relatively so few Americans serving in this military “mission,” with no pay-as-you-go tax increases to pay for it, and with the — until recently — feel-good, housing-boom economy … I suppose that it was easy to give Bush and company a free ride … kind of like Tony Blair here … but us commoners’ indignation can swell when things go sour, no doubt, as evidenced by those polls.)

No, what I was referring to was this item in Variety today …

Economists are citing some dire portents of a recession these days, but they’ve missed one indicator I find especially disturbing: The porn business has suddenly gone flaccid.

…

At a time when “gonzo” is fading, “limp” is in. What does that say about the mood of the country?

It means (for a while at least … as those poll numbers suggest) the country’s ready to take a new (with no comment about the remaining U.S. presidential aspirants intended), “limp” direction.

Barry Ritholtz posted this item in The Big Picture blog today …

We all use the term “Bellwether” — think about GE’s earnings miss and Google’s (GOOG) earnings beat — but did you ever wonder where it comes from?

Me neither.

It turns out that the term references a castrated ram (No, this is not a cheap shot at GE). English shepards used to employ a castrated ram — also know as a wether — to help manage the flock. Despite the Ram’s missing accoutrement, the flock of sheep, not knowing any better, followed it anyway. (Gee, that sounds suspiciously familiar!). To make it easy to locate the flock in large fields or thick fog, the shepherds hung a bell around the wether’s neck.

Hence the term bellwether: In the stock market, a bellwether (barometer stock in the UK) is the stock of a company that is regarded as a leader in its given industry (castration optional). . .

Now you know!

I have to admit that I never properly looked up the definition of that word — lazily taking for granted that it simply meant, “leader.”

I also have to admit that — having experienced (thankfully, not very often) the unfortunate consequences of unwitting putting my foot in my mouth — I’m relieved (I think) that I’ve never (as far as I can remember anyway) referred to any of the guiding lights of the transgender community as “bellwether leaders.”

Darnit, I never should have shorted that stuff … …

This is from Randall Forsyth’s UP AND DOWN WALL STREET DAILY column (”No Market For Young Men“) in Barron’s yesterday …

ALAN GREENSPAN IS OFF THE HOOK. The biggest bubble in history was not inflated by the Federal Reserve pushing interest rates too low for too long, science has proven conclusively.

No, the boom can be traced to raging testosterone levels of traders on Wall Street and the City of London, according to the results of a new study. And the current bust may be the result of swings in another hormone, cortisol, which is associated with stress.

Those are the findings of a study of hormone levels of City traders by John Coates and Joe Herman of Cambridge University and published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday. Coates also has additional insight in the matter, having previously run a trading desk for Deutsche Bank, according to the Financial Times, which reported on the research Tuesday.

“Steroids such as testosterone and cortisol affect our moods, memories and behavior,” Coates wrote in the FT. Testosterone levels rise when males prepare to compete, and increase further in the winner, but fall in the loser. Higher testosterone levels are associated with greater risk-taking and confidence; winners experience a positive feedback loop of higher testosterone begetting more confidence, Coates explains.

The Cambridge researchers monitored hormone levels in 17 London traders and found those with the higher testosterone levels in the morning made more money that day. Indeed, testosterone “is likely to rise in a bubble and, by increasing risk-taking, exaggerate the market’s upward movement,” they posit.

But, not surprisingly, that can go too far, as the last year or so has amply demonstrated. “Effective risk taking turns into dangerous behavior,” other studies show, they add.

When the markets go against these Big Swinging Dicks — as Michael Lewis called them in “Liar’s Poker,” his classic recounting of the trading floor culture of what was perhaps the most macho firm at the time, Salomon Brothers — they experience a hormone swing.

Cortisol, which has the opposite effect, increases with stress and lowers confidence. “Cortisol is likely to rise in a market crash and, by increasing risk aversion, to exaggerate the market’s downswing,” the Cambridge researchers say.

“In the present credit crisis, traders may feel the noxious effects of chronic cortisol exposure and end up in a psychological state known as ‘learned helplessness’,” they contend. “If this happens, central banks may lower interest rates only to find that traders still refuse to buy risky assets.” In other words, they may be pushing on rather limp string.

All this squares with experience of a top woman portfolio manager, who says her research in brain chemistry finds that men are more prone to hormonal mood swings than women. Men go through testosterone cycles every two weeks, making their swings twice as frequent as a woman’s, she points out. Incredibly, she relates, questions about dealing with her monthly cycle were a big deal for some prospective investors when she was launching her fund.

The real difference between male and female traders, she continues, is that men react to every economic number or report to play a short-term swing. “It’s almost like video games,” she says, breeding an addictive behavior.

Her experience finds women tend to be more contemplative and less eager to jump on every number for a play. Yet, despite the advances made by women in other fields, her impression is that there are fewer female traders and portfolio managers than, say, in 1980, though she adds there are more women in institutional sales on Wall Street.

Coates and Herman suggest that more women on trading desks would temper the irrational exuberance and inevitable crashes. Older men might also help dampen the swings. As pilots are wont to say, “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots.”

Diversity on trading desks would help dampen those testosterone-fueled swings, this female PM says, and it’s something she’s practiced. Gender alone can’t explain her fund’s success, which has produced steady, market-beating returns, even in the first quarter, when it scored double digits while the markets were sucking wind. The key, she says, is a personality type that can deal with failure and get on with it.

That has nothing to do with a Y-chromosome. As Kipling wrote:

“If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss…

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!”