GestureTek Turns You into the Controller h+ (hat tip Sugar Hush). Hhm, did Minority Report have a demo?
Obese, gluttonous, and cannibalistic is no way to go through life, son Discover Magazine
Which country is the smuggest of them all? Edmund Conway, Telegraph
ECB reveals €16.5bn bond purchases Financial Times
Three Reasons a GOP Landslide Won’t Happen Paul Waldman, The American Prospect. This is not consistent with what I hear from pollsters I trust…so reach your own conclusion.
It Isn’t Always a Liquidity Problem EconomPic Data
Disaster Plans Lacking at Deep Rigs Wall Street Journal Quelle surprise!
12 ways to cash in on the ‘collapse of Eaarth‘ MarketWatch. Easier to take wagers than do something about it.
MMT: Market discipline for fiscal imprudence and the term structure of interest rates Ed Harrison
Parents as Unemployment Insurance Mark Thoma
JPMorgan’s Dimon Tells Graduates ‘Do the Right Thing’: Video Bloomberg. Do not watch if you have eaten recently.
What’s Up With Goldman Sachs? Barry Ritholtz (hat tip reader John M)
Joel Silver Sues Goldman for $30 Million THR, Esq. (hat tip reader Buzz Potamkin). This may sound like small potatoes, but in Hollywood, this is a Big Deal. Some backstory here.
Consumer spending trend is a shaky foundation for economic recovery Los Angeles Times (hat tip reader Doug S)
Europe’s Debt Crisis Casts a Shadow Over China New York Times
Germany’s paranoia about the ECB and hyperinflation Eurointelligence
“Dark pools”: The menace of rising opacity in financial markets Venkatachalam Shunmugam, VoxEU
Antidote du jour:
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The Euro’s rapid 15% decline against the Euro has had an important side effect against the Yuan which is pegged to the dollar.While currencies around the world are depreciating against the dollar due to “safe haven” trade,the yuan remains immune,due to its peg to the dollar.Europe is China’s biggest export market throwing a number of its companies in peril due to the Greek Contagion . A 15% movement in currency makes it very difficult for a company to adjust particularly if it is running on paper thin margins.A Chinese company with 10% margins which exports solely to Europe has the potential to go bankrupt if the situation sustains for a long time.
I wonder if people will question whether some European countries are too small to exist, if the European Union is too big to fail.
The Jaime Dimon graduation speech reminds me of my own commencement address, which was given by GM’s Roger Smith (of Roger and Me fame). At one point he began bemoaning how there weren’t enough students in the liberal arts and that GM looked for well-rounded people and not just specific degrees–the woman sitting next to my parents leaned over and said, “That’s funny, because my husband is a liberal arts (I forget the field) grad and he’s been trying to get a job at GM for years. But I guess someone writes the speech for them and they deliver it without hearing a word.
Re: Pollsters and polls.
Yves,
I presume these pollsters you trust basically tell you that overestimating the intelligence of the average American voter is a sure way to lose money.
Que sorpresa!
Re: Deepwater in deep doo doo
Not only they didn’t have disaster plans, but one could be forgiven to believe they were planning for one to happen. See this:
http://crooksandliars.com/media/play/wmv/12863/
As I was reading the Wall Street Journal article, I came to this paragraph:
The Minerals Management Service, the government agency that oversees offshore drilling, in recent years moved away from requiring specific safety measures in offshore drilling and instead set broad performance goals that it was up to the industry to meet.
That sounds like I paradigm change, I told myself.
My suspicions were confirmed in the following paragraphs:
MMS declined to make an official available for an interview for this article. In a statement, the agency said it’s reviewing its oversight in light of the disaster.
In joint MMS-Coast Guard hearings into the Deepwater Horizon accident, Michael Saucier, an MMS official, testified that the agency “highly encouraged,” but didn’t require, companies to have back-up systems to trigger blowout preventers in case of an emergency.
“Highly encourage? How does that translate to enforcement?” Coast Guard Capt. Hung Nguyen, who is co-chairing the investigation, asked at the hearings.
“There is no enforcement,” Mr. Saucier replied.
Yep, ain’t libertarianism swell!
Here’s a simple indicator to predict the relative dem/rep fortunes in Nov. If you start hearing reps talk about making the Bush tax cuts permanent expect a 35 – 45 rep gain. If you start hearing dems talk about extending the Bush tax cuts expect a rep blowout gain of 100+. If you don’t hear any talk about the Bush tax cuts expect an average mid term rep gain, 20 – 30.
Well that gesture stuff is obviously going to take off … what they’ve been doing it for 20 years and nobody’s even ever heard of them?
Waving your arms about just gets tiring, and gestures are too easy to misinterpret even with years of cultural experience, let alone with clunky, slow and power-hungry software.
No, I didn’t want to scroll up, I was just scratching my nose …
In the 3rd Congressional district Iowa, we have six or seven contenders for the nomination to run against the elderly, professional politician Democrat incumbent. I would be reasonably happy with any of them. The Democrat in the race has not had to fight a real challenge in years. He’s clearly rusty, and from what I’ve seen very inept at even attempting to defend the indefensible spending, taxes, and bailouts he’s voted for in Congress.
If this is any indication of the way races in other districts tend to be going, I don’t see how Republicans can fail to administer a knock-out punch. It involves not only delineating the flaws of the current majority, but doing an end run around the traditional GOP machine-approved candidates (Bob Bennett, RIP). The only thing I’m waiting to hear from the GOP contenders is specifics about real spending cuts. I mean, amputation-type cuts, not dermabrasion-type cosmetic budget reductions.
Let’s not forget relatives, however distant, can be your umemployment insurance as well, if you try hard enough. This is all about work ethics.
Re: Which wing of the Republicrat Party wins…
I read until here: The economy added 290,000 jobs in April — the fourth month in a row of positive growth. There are six more monthly jobs reports between now and Election Day, and if they are all positive, then a powerful narrative will take hold, one of an economy clearly on the mend.
Fake jobs, for a fake economy, with fake reform. Does it really matter which Party gets to loot the government anymore?
Manipulation of the birth/death modeling won’t be able to overtake the state and local job cuts during the next month or so.
Shadows
So, all enterprise systems are 3 phase / generation motors, and the kids have built a new global control circuit for their global phase C. The american enterprise system can be merged to get CAB or the kids can move ahead with CDE, leaving aes AB to implode. aes, which no longer has enterprise support, has been creating artificial demand for the old socialist 3 phase motor, and together they have been creating artificial demand for Asia, on a promise of taxing the unborn, to support their virtual currency system.
The empire currently has two polar responses, austerity, to reduce overheating of a 3 phase motor pulling on 2 legs, which has the opposite effect (Greece), and debt acceleration, to replace the 3 phase motor with a 2 phase motor, bankrupting the global economy (aes). Both responses are an attempt to keep the current control circuit intact. Bill Clinton wants to accelerate debt, increase immigration, and add a VAT tax, all of which piss off phase C, and most everyone with more than a few functioning synapses.
The US Constitution was designed for a relative handful of people, with all kinds of exploitable resources, across a massive land mass, and little access to a highly controlled global communication system. None of these conditions exist today, and the “secular service economy”, efficiently replicated across the globe with the empire technology, has run its course. Supply-side, horse and buggy, economies have one outcome. Without phase C, the nation/state system is a dead horse walking.
The currency traders are betting accordingly, driving the cattle into Treasuries, while PIM(P)Co points at locked doors, assuring an exit strategy.
From that GestureTek thing
Interactive surfaces like floors and walls and windows would be reacting to your movement. We found it to be not just natural, but engaging.
OMG! Bob is back …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
A bad night for incumbents. While I have few illusions that their replacements are dramatically better, the very dynamic of establishment figures with deep pockets getting voted out by angry voters will have a positive effect in the long run. In the short run, expect some rough sailing as Congress makes a sudden turn in the populist direction . . .