The crucifixion of Latvia Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph
Optimism is not enough for a global recovery Wolfgang Munchau, FT
China’s recovery still isn’t supporting (much) global demand Brad Setser
German credit crunch deepens Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph
Cantona kick fan still hated 14yrs on The Sun
Silk Road threatened by melting glaciers New Scientist
How the world’s greatest golfer lost his game New Scientist
Colorectal Cancer Rates Increasing Worldwide Science Daily. Westernization is bad for you.
Tehran\’s Streets Become a Battleground Time
Michelle Obama finds a new friend in Britain’s Queen Reuters. Apparently the Queen and Mrs. Obama get on quite well. They call and write.
The Clock Is Ticking Away Under Latvia Edward Hugh. This is a very thorough and researched ‘Generational Storm’ argument using Latvia and birth statistics. Quite interesting.
The magical world of credit default swaps once again Willem Buiter
Antidote du Jour:
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clock is ticking link is broken
Thank you! Now that's an antidote.
Thanks for alerting me, David. I just checked the link and the problem seems to be on their side. Try reading the link from the front page.
http://fistfulofeuros.net/
It should be noted that Ambrose-Evans Pritchard has an axe to grind with the EU and the Euro.
He constantly predicts the end of the Euro and things like that.
While I am a reader of AEP myself I find increasingly disturbing that all his pieces have ALWAYS the same narrative: the EU and the Euro are to blame for everything.
While it is normal for people to have opinions and biases (we all have, of course) when somebody only sees through his own point of view I start to wonder if we are in propaganda territory or if the person emitting opinions can be trusted with sound judgement, not totally clouded by his own biases.
Take AEP with a big grain of salt. Especially if he sees problems with the Euro, club Med, Germany then he is clearly exercising his bias.
Tiago, I agree that one does need to read AEP with his biases in mind. But, he is indeed useful in pointing out the problems with the Eurozone and the lingering weakness of the European economy and banking system.
Broggler, thank you. Yesterday's antidote was a bit stressful, wasn't it?
re: the buiter piece.
it strikes me that the actions of Amherst was quite ingenuous, and an interesting way out of the mortgage mess. i think i read a story where some people on the verge of foreclosure got notices saying they could stay in their homes, b/c someone paid off the loan for them. i think it was amherst, but cannot remember.
at any rate, it seems like a great idea: sell CDS protection on CDOs backed by Detroit or SoCal real estate, buy the properties for pennies on the dollar, and forgive the debt. the CDS seller rakes in fees, & the value of the homeowner's debt gets written down to zero. the only loser in the deal would be GS, JPM, or whomever bought protection on the CDO.
am i missing something, or is this an ingenious potential solution to the housing crisis?
It is interesting that the headline for the Colorectal Cancer is "27 of 51 countries have seen an increase over the past 25 years". Hmm, the places they mention are places like Slovenia (pop. 2 million).
So basically half the countries saw an increase. What happened in the other countries? This seems at best statistical noise. They don't report anything about size of each country or anything along those lines. Not to mention that most of E. Europe has had radiation poisoning from Chernobyl. How about the weakness of the data from developing nations in general? Couldn't this just be better reporting?
BUNK.