Generating Giant Sandstone Walls to Fight Desertification Inhabitat
Studies from head to toe show Indonesian ‘hobbit’ is a new type of human ABC (the Australian ABC, hat tip reader Skippy)
UN ‘stunned’ by scale of bail-out BBC
DNA profiles of innocent to be kept for 12 years despite European ruling Telegraph
Surprise increase in Australian jobs Financial Times. Unlike supine US economists, the Aussie types said they don’t believe the report.
Dream of SEC Overhaul Fades Along With Crisis David Weidner, Wall Street Journal versus Elizabeth Warren: Wake Up, Wall Street, The World Has Changed Henry Blodget
How stress tests were carried out Financial Times. They got the banks to provide info, measured it against a one size fits all template, and then did a second round of questions. We’re supposed to find this reassuring?
Geithner: How We Tested the Big Banks Mark Thoma. One wee correction: the toxic assets in the overwhelming majority of cases do have market values. The fact that banks aren’t willing to sell at those values has been miraculously rebranded into “they are hard to value”.
Global Crisis ‘Vastly Worse’ Than 1930s, Taleb Says Bloomberg. Some of the things quoted sounded contradictory. I assume they made more sense in context.
B of A and Bernanke: Unstressed Bruce Krasting
Trade collapse and international supply chains: Evidence from Japan Kiyoyasu Tanaka, VoxEU
Antidote du jour (hat tip reader Barbara):
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The toxic assets are “hard to value!” They’re “hard to value” at the prices we wish they were valued.
Re: Elizabeth Warren: Wake up Wall Street.
I just love this woman! I have to borrow a remark that Jon Stewart made when she was on her show. I feel better. Whenever she speaks about the financial crisis we’re in, how we got here, what needs to be done about it …
I feel better.
I just wish I knew what I could do to support her efforts.
Tim in Sugar Hill
Re: Global Crisis Vastly Worse … Taleb says:
After reading the following quote from the article, I realize that I am innumerate.
Currency and credit derivatives will cause additional losses for companies that hold more than $500 trillion of the securities worldwide, Templeton Asset Management Ltd.’s Mark Mobius told the same Singapore conference today.$500 Trillion? With a T? I have no idea what that means.
I suspect that one reason the AIG bonuses caused such a flap is that ordinary Americans can almost grasp the concept of $165 million, with an M. My evidence is that, on occasion, multi-state mega lottery prizes reach that high. “Let’s see … $165 million, paid out over 30 years … that’s $5.5 million a year before taxes.”
You see what I mean? I can grasp, sort of, the amount of the AIG bonuses.
But $500 Trillion? I thought that the world GDP was 60 or 70 Trillion.
I just cannot grasp such large numbers. They just bounce off of me.
Tim in Sugar Hill
Re: antidote du jour… The plight of polar bears makes my girlfriend cry. Planet Earth series and movie tells the story in a microcosm but a population biologist friend say her boss has seen confidential materials asserting polar bears will be extinct in the wild in just a few decades. For now we visit San Diego polar bears regularly. Oddly enough they eat lots of carrots as well as the occasional complacent free range duck. Well wishes to Yves.
Polar bears rejoice. Arctic sea ice has recovered to the average 1979-2000 level!
http://tinyurl.com/6ncshu
Antarctic ice is growing (100,000 square km per decade for the past 30 years).
http://tinyurl.com/c6wyec
The polar bear picture, however, is a good metaphor for someone with cash looking for a safe place to invest with a decent return. Cry for the investor, not the polar bear.
Dear Autididact,
Thank you for giving me something to smile about regarding this distressing “antidote.” I have heard about polar bear drownings — this one is clearly about out of ice.
It’s like a frame from a wildlife snuff film. (How much longer was this bear able to stay alive?)
So the good news is very very welcome.
As someone trying to live off savings (my businesses aren’t producing any income) and faced with a future of more of the same, I’m really feeling the same way — as you note: stuck with the one resource I have to rely on, and it’s shrinking out from under me. (If I have about enough to live on if I only spend $20,000 a year, how much food will I be able to afford in 10 years?)
Also an autodidact.
:-)
Tim in Sugar Hill said,
But $500 Trillion? I thought that the world GDP was 60 or 70 Trillion.
I just cannot grasp such large numbers. They just bounce off of me.Tim, my eyes are bulging, too.
I am told that if a (pretend he’s immortal) person borrowed one million dollars a day, beginning on the day Jesus Christ was born, he still would not have amassed one trillion dollars by close of business tomorrow (5/7/09).
Is anyone out there available to check my math? Anyone? If this is so, Obama’s “budget cuts” aren’t drops in the bucket. They’re mist.
Tim in Sugar Hill said,
But $500 Trillion? I thought that the world GDP was 60 or 70 Trillion.
I just cannot grasp such large numbers. They just bounce off of me.Tim, my eyes are bulging, too.
I am told that if a (pretend he’s immortal) person borrowed one million dollars a day, beginning on the day Jesus Christ was born, he still would not have amassed one trillion dollars by close of business tomorrow (5/7/09).
Is anyone out there available to check my math? Anyone? If this is so, Obama’s “budget cuts” aren’t drops in the bucket. They’re mist.