Well, well, well, Mitch Daniels may be the first Bush administration official to resign over allegations of insider trading. Yes, Karl Rove floated the story that Daniels is leaving to run for governor of Indiana, and that may be true in the end. After all, alleged financial malfeasance is something that makes you highly qualified to run for public office as a Bush Republican.

Still, it is one big cowinky-dink, as they say, that Mitch Daniels resigned from his position as the Bush Cartel's "Budget Director" (kind of like being the chief financial officer at Enron) the day before the Indianapolis Star broke the story that he and approximately 30 other members of "Indiana's financial elite" are being investigated for -- you got it -- insider trading.

Yes, the man who oversaw the creation, selling and packaging of a ruinous, highway robbery U.S. budget is alleged to be a true Bush Cartel corporate malfeasance bandit, just like George "Harken" Bush and Karl "Enron" Rove and Dick "Halliburton" Cheney (okay, we'll stop with the list now):

State regulators are issuing subpeonas to a "who's who" of the Indianapolis business community over the sale of shares in IPALCO Enterprises about the time the utility company was sold in 2001.

The Indiana Securities Division on Friday sent the requests for information to about 30 former IPALCO officers and directors, The Indianapolis Star has learned.

They include former IPALCO director Mitch Daniels, a former Eli Lilly and Co. executive who is now President Bush's budget director. Daniels, who sold about $1.45 million in IPALCO stock in January 2001, on Tuesday announced he is resigning the federal post, leading to speculation he will run for governor here. (http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/4/041129-6234-092.html)

The state investigation came about as a result of 2,000 shareholders of IPALCO (an Indiana utility) filing a lawsuit alleging that Daniels and others dumped $71 million worth of stock just before the value of the shares nose dived.

A Hoosier financial analyst is quoted in the article as saying, "Corporate governance is in the spotlight these days. It's pretty clear that this was an example of bad corporate governance."

Hey, as far as the Bush administration is concerned, an accusation of insider trading resulting in millions of dollars in personal gain doesn't make Mitch Daniels a persona non grata. Are you kidding, being accused of illegal corporate governance and personal profiteering in the Bush Cartel makes Daniels a rising star!

But first, to avoid any messy questions from the lapdog press, Daniels needed to resign.

Now, he can run for Governor of Indiana, with a couple of high-profile visits from George W., who will tout him as a man of great financial genius!

Scoop Audio: Charges Possible Over CTV Collapse

In a press conference today, the New Zealand Police announced that they would be following up information passed on to them by the New Zealand Department of Building and Housing, regarding the construction of the Canterbury Television building. More>>

ALSO:

• Department of Building and Housing - Experts identify critical factors in CTV collapse
• Executive Summary: Structural performance of Christchurch CBD buildings in the 22 February 2011 earthquake (PDF)
• NZ Police - Police assess report into collapse of Canterbury TV Building
• NZ Govt - Report into CTV building collapse released
• Labour - Report on CTV building collapse devastating

Werewolf Is Back! And So Is State Capitalism ...

Welcome to the first Werewolf issue of 2012, and our return to regular publication after concentrating late last year on election campaign coverage. Fittingly, our cover story this month focuses on the role of government in the modern economy, and suggests that newer, smarter versions of state-led capitalism may be outperforming free market capitalism around the world.

Is it perhaps time for New Zealand - where the state continues to play the dominant role in economic performance but likes to pretend it doesn’t – to come clean, admit the state is the only real engine of innovation and economic growth, and get on with it? If only because free market rhetoric and practice has chronically under-delivered over the past 25 years, for most of us... More >>