Still a bit under the weather. Went to Greenwich and croaked a book talk (was losing my voice) to a very nice and savvy group, the Stamford CFA Society.
Bionic feet for amputee cat BBC (hat tip reader John M)
Biologist: Ocean pollution ‘threatening the human food supply’ Raw Story (hat tip reader John M)
Dean Baker: Pay Retirees to Leave the Country Mark Thoma (hat tip reader John M)
Replacing McChrystal Doesn’t Change Anything Michael Hirsh, Newsweek
Think the Gulf Spill Is Bad? Wait Until the Next Disaster Robert Kiyosaki, Yahoo Finance (hat tip reader Bruno L)
BP Alaska a “Ticking Time Bomb” CNN (hat tip Glenn Stehle)
Internet bosses set to approve .xxx for porn sites Reuters (hat tip reader John D)
June deadliest month of Afghan war for coalition troops CNN (hat tip reader Glenn Stehle)
“Risky Management” Tom the Dancing Bug (hat tip reader Swedish Lex)
World’s rich got richer amid ’09 recession: report Reuters (hat tip Marshall Auerback)
London: Art Auctions Set Record Results CNN
China Bank Debt Repackaging Raises Risk of Crisis, Fitch Says Bloomberg (hat tip reader Michael Q)
Banks win battle for limits to Basel III Financial Times
Divide emerges as companies tackle debt Gillian Tett, Financial Times
Ben Bernanke needs fresh monetary blitz as US recovery falters Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (hat tip readers Gonzalo Lira and Swedish Lex). The Fed balance sheet at $5 trillion? Aieeeee.
Beyond the false growth vs austerity debate Mohamed El-Erian, Financial Times. There is a bit of straw manning in his “growth now” characterization, but otherwise, a useful piece.
Antidote du jour:
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a tie in to this, Think the Gulf Spill Is Bad? Wait Until the Next Disaster, from zero hedge:
A Bankrupt BP – Worse For The Financial World Than Lehman Brothers –
People are seriously underestimating how much liquidity in the global financial world is dependent on a solvent BP. BP extends credit – through trading and finance. They extend the amounts, quality and duration of credit a bank could only dream of. The Gold community should think about the financial muscle behind a company with 100+ years of proven oil and gas reserves. Think about that in comparison with what a bank, with few tangible assets, (truly, not allegedly) possesses (no wonder they all started trading for a living!). Then think about what happens if BP goes under. This is no bank. With proven reserves and wells in the ground, equity in fields all over the planet, in terms of credit quality and credit provision – nothing can match an oil major. God only knows how many assets around the planet are dependent on credit and finance extended from BP. It is likely to dwarf any banking entity in multiples. And at the heart of it all are those dreadful OTC derivatives again!
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-bankrupt-bp-worse-financial-world-lehman-brothers
If an asset is “dependent” upon BP’s finance or credit, it must be BP’s asset, right? I was not aware that oil cos extended unsecured credit, other than the usual 60 days to pay. And even then, longer-term supply contracts can have security provided against real estate, etc, in the event of non-payment.
These sums lent, or booked as receivables, are BP’s assets. just not the oil-producing kind.
If BP goes broke, their receiver can realize the security, and collect the debts.
Again, how can BP’s bankruptcy cause BP’s debtors to fail?
Or do you mean to say that if BP goes broke, they have a long list of creditors who’d go under too?
To whom does BP owe so much?
There’s no right to undeclared dividends…amd shareholders are not creditors…so it’s BP’s bond-holders who would take the world down with them if BP fails?
BP has been a very profitable co for a long long time: I find it hard to believe that they should OWE, rather than, OWN, so very much.
BP is run not unlilke a drug cartel.
RE:Antidote
That’s a cute cuppa.
Morning Edition had a propaganda piece on the financial reform this morning, saying that the Volcker rule was only “weakened” and that the new consumer protection agency will have “broad powers”. Not sure I buy that.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128100004
“The Fed balance sheet at $5 trillion? Aieeeee. ”
But it’s for a good cause – to prevent a deflationary spiral. (That was sacrastic, by the way.)
The US is at the end of its fiscal credibility – fiscal stimulus is difficult from here on in.
The US has already tried enormous quantitative easing – so the Fed’s balance sheet is 2.4 trillion.
The US has already bailed out BS, AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Citi and by extension GS, JPM, and nearly everyone else.
It has done all these things because, supposedly, if it hadn’t done any of them, then there would be a Great Depression II. There are a lot of people who are patting or have patted themselves on the back as saviors of the world.
Well, having done all these things, America’s situation is now only worse. And it’s *still* looking at the abyss. And now the abyss is *even bigger and deeper*. All the budget deficits of the last 2-3 years will make it more difficult for America to borrow over the next five. All that quantitative easing will cause enormous losses to the Fed. All those bail-outs is money down the drain. It’s just made the situation worse.
America needed to consume less, and it needed to become poorer. That’s the solution, and the only solution, out of the crisis. If America can’t accept it, then it will just go over the edge, and end up even poorer than anyone could even have imagined.
They bailed out everybody except the workers and the poor.
Next time, cut checks for poor people, not mega-corps in the financial sector.
That’s the only fair way to reflate.
Also going to have to tax the rich at higher rates. Otherwise, since we gave them the bailout money first, they’ll buy up all the commodities first and extract rents again.
not under obama’s watch. that is, raising the tax rates on the rich. oh, it’ll LOOK like he did but, in reality, it’ll be on you and me.
“All the budget deficits of the last 2-3 years will make it more difficult for America to borrow over the next five.”
“America needed to consume less, and it needed to become poorer. That’s the solution, and the only solution, out of the crisis.”
These expressions are quasi-religious, perhaps with ancient roots, and similar to those expressed here by Malidoma Patrice Some, a member of the West African Dagara culture:
The Dagara people, on the other hand, are suspicious of abundance. It translates into a cultural attitude that a person of abundance is a person too worldly to deal with hardship. This is an obvious trick from a god to put someone to sleep before the final blow. In my village there was a man whom everyone knew to be very poor or at least he did not have anything that anyone would desire. His compound was as normal as anyone else’s. He was married with several children. But on e day that man began to act most strangely. First, there was a delivery of a half-dozen cows from nearby Ghana by someone no one knew of. The man soon began to build a modern home and bought himself a brand new English bicycle. He wore clean clothes. He had changed in ways that were suspicious. And he showed abundance in ways that insulted the entire setup of the tribe. People waited for the inevitable. It occurred quickly.
Elders say that the real police in the village is Spirit that sees everybody. To do wrong is to insult the spirit realm. Whoever does this is punished immediately by Spirit….
M.P. Some, Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community
There’s nothing inherently bad with religious or quasi-religious beliefs, as almost all orthodox economics is based on a quasi-religious belief system.
However, simply declaring something so doesn’t make it so. You have to show how, if a majority of people embrace those beliefs, how that will affect human behavior and social organization. Will the outcome be to make society function better, or worse?
You fail to show how austerity will improve the functioning of society, which is typically defined as enhancing social cohesion and cooperation.
exactly, continuing the Ponziconomy is the only true way to improve the functioning of society, which is typically defined as enhancing social cohesion and cooperation.
What the world needs now — duckies!
They said, “Don’t drink the water!”,
“Its foul and it really sucks!”
So I got my cup to check myself,
And out came a couple of ducks …
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
RE: Pay retirees to leave the US…
Bakers premis is that the retirees are not working and costing the US a lot of money in Medicare. His proposal is to negotiate with other countries to take in the American retirees for a certain fee for the receiving countries and a voucher, paid yearly, to those who choose to relocate abroad.
Why stop there? Why not pay everyone without a job, every small business person that is BK, every one on welfare, everyone receiving food stamps, in fact, everone that does not work for the US Gov or on Wall St, to leave the country?
Since the new economy of the US is built on the finance, insurance, and real estate markets why does the US need anyone that is/was engaged in making real products (except fast food for the gov employees).
Hey, ya gotta start somewhere so the old go first. Then the others mentioned above. Soon the US would be populated by those willing to work for next to nothing and no benefits plus the 1% that own all assets that those shipped abroad had left behind.
…and, how long would those taking the ‘go abroad’ option continue to receive their US vouchers? LOL
How many foreign countries would accept the outcasts of the US? How many foreign countries would accept a guarantee by the US Gov that the vouchers would continue to be sent?
This clown, and his suggestions that the people that built the American economic model that has been cast aside, should be cast aside as well, is disgusting. Do Americans want to be cast adrift like the lost tribes of Israel? I think not.
A government that does not act in the best interests of it’s citizens is not legitimate and should be replaced. Find replacement candidates to vote for…not d or r…but some grown ups that are willing to represent the people that built America. Send a message.
Indeed. The answer is not to throw out people who expect the entitlements they were promised 80 years ago during the FDR administration. The answer is to take the money from the people who destroyed the country, ie, the speculators.
Austerity means austerity for those who can’t really afford it. That means you and me.
Sounds like you already fell for the usual way the government tries to shield itself against well deserved critique: “It weren’t us, it were the evil speculators!”
“A government that does not act in the best interests of it’s citizens is not legitimate and should be replaced.”
Agreed, but how is Baker’s suggestion anything other than acting in our citizen’s best interest? Nobody would be forced to leave, it would simply be another option they would have. How is it any different from somebody who lived in NY choosing to retire in the Carolinas because it’s cheaper? (that’s very popular around here).
People who want to retire abroad are often prevented from doing so because the Medicare system they’ve paid for only provides services in the US. That’s an injustice. If you retire abroad can still collect your Social Security, so why not your Medicare too? You paid for it your whole working life.
Under Baker’s plan if you do retire abroad you’ll get a bonus from the fact that healthcare everywhere else in the world is so much cheaper. It would be unjust to do otherwise. Why shouldn’t you get a cut of the cost savings? As it stands now you get screwed out of your entire Medicare benefit if you retire abroad. Is that fair?
The only citizens that current policy helps are those that benefit from the rent-seeking of the medical-industrial-congressional complex. It’s blatant protectionism that forces American retirees to buy from US healthcare providers and not foreign ones. You can buy all kinds of foreign goods, and to suggest that you shouldn’t be able to would be called blatant protectionism, so why do we handle retiree healthcare any differently?
“Under Baker’s plan if you do retire abroad you’ll get a bonus from the fact that healthcare everywhere else in the world is so much cheaper. It would be unjust to do otherwise. Why shouldn’t you get a cut of the cost savings? As it stands now you get screwed out of your entire Medicare benefit if you retire abroad. Is that fair?”
How long would ‘health care everywhere else’ remain cheap if the US saddles foriegn countries with enormous numbers of people over the age of 65? Or, put another way, how much more would Medicare cost the US Gov every year if all Japanese over age 65 suddenly immigrated to America? Foreign health care is cheaper because costs are spread through age distribution. The young usually require little medical care compared to those 65 or older.
” It’s blatant protectionism that forces American retirees to buy from US healthcare providers and not foreign ones.”
I agree. The entire US Health Care biz needs revamping…and it will get revamped after it becomes apparent to our foreign creditors and foreign suppliers of commodities that the current US economic model is unsustainable.
The Fed is considering another QE of $5Trillion…that will kick the can down the road another year perhaps. After that, what? Most economic indicators, even though fudged, are pointing to another recession…or, a continuation of the one that was relieved slightly by QE1.
You have more to be concerned about than how to collect your Medicare while living abroad…imo.
“How long would ‘health care everywhere else’ remain cheap if the US saddles foriegn countries with enormous numbers of people over the age of 65? Or, put another way, how much more would Medicare cost the US Gov every year if all Japanese over age 65 suddenly immigrated to America?”
Other countries know about demand shocks, and I’m sure that, even if every American retiree suddenly decided they wanted to move to one particular foreign country, that country wouldn’t allow it. They have visa quotas and could set them in their own best interests.
OTOH originally small, perhaps eventually increasing, numbers of American retirees moving to a number of different countries could easily be accommodated. As Baker points out, there would be money to pay those countries a premium beyond their costs. They could choose to use that money to expand their healthcare systems to meet the increasing demand, or whatever they thought best suited their citizens interests.
“Foreign health care is cheaper because costs are spread through age distribution.”
No, foreign countries deliver healthcare at lower cost for every age and health status group. The fact that they often charge the same “premium” for all their citizens is a way of spreading the burden, but they’re acutely aware that the average 70 y.o. costs more than the average 20 y.o. We would have to of course pay them for what it costs to provide healthcare to a 70 y.o. or whatever, and it would still be much cheaper than the US.
“Foreign health care is cheaper because costs are spread through age distribution. The young usually require little medical care compared to those 65 or older.”
That certainly may explain some of the difference in cost, but does it explain all of the difference?
I can only speak for Mexico. I have a friend here in Mexico who is an anesthesiologist, and he makes only about $50,000 a year. My brother-in-law was a nurse anesthetist, and when he retired about 10 years ago, at that time he was making $1,000 per day working on a contract basis for small rural hospitals, doing vacation relief duty. What does an anesthesiologist make in the US? I’d say probably $50,000 x 10.
And sometimes here in Mexico you can buy prescription drugs outright for less than what the co-pay is in the US—-same manufacturer and same packaging.
The devil will be in the details of the Baker plan. Will those that choose to migrate have a right of return? If the US Gov defaults on it’s debt what will happen to those that have chosen to migrate but become unfunded by the USA? If a new administration takes over and decides to change the ‘immigration plan’, what happens to those that are already abroad? There are many things that can go wrong with such a plan and leave lots of aged people abroad and stranded. I think it’s nothing short of a ploy to ship the aged out of the US and then forget them. It certainly would not be the first time the US reneged on a deal!
I know from first hand experience that many old people in Florida who have expended all their resources in hospitals in a losing attempt to stay alive are next shipped to hospices. Once in hospice, they are not given expensive proceedures, but enormous amounts of morophine…to the point of death. That is what I have seen happen to many of my long time friends living in this area.
There is nothing wrong with what the hospices do, imo. What is wrong is that the wealth of these old people is extracted by proceedures in hospitals until the aged are bankrupt and then they are sent to the hospices.
If expensive proceedures are to be withheld in foreign countries that the aged are shipped to, why ship them at all? Why not leave them here and send them directly to hospices, skipping the enormous hospital expenses for a few more months or a year or two of, usually miserable, life?
Looking at the moral aspects of the Baker plan; what do you personally think of a country that would ship it’s old people, in mass, abroad? To me, this is nothing short of a government abdicating all responsibility for it’s people. Any government that pursues such a policy forfeits it’s right to govern the US.
“Will those that choose to migrate have a right of return?”
Of course, just as they do now (there are lost of Americans retired abroad). This is a plan to let you collect Medicare abroad, just as they can now collect Social Security abroad.
“If the US Gov defaults on it’s debt what will happen to those that have chosen to migrate but become unfunded by the USA?”
What will happen those in the US?
“If a new administration takes over and decides to change the ‘immigration plan’, what happens to those that are already abroad?”
In the current situation, what will happen to those currently abroad if the US denies Social Security to its retirees abroad?
“Looking at the moral aspects of the Baker plan; what do you personally think of a country that would ship it’s old people, in mass, abroad?”
Nobody is talking about shipping anyone “in mass, abroad”. Everyone would would be free to do as they wish, just as they can now, except that currently retirees abroad are screwed out of their Medicare.
Here’s another look @ Baker’s plan = covert competition for the US health care system.
A significant percentage of our health care expenditure is marginal or unnecessary treatment near the end of life, NOT COMMONLY REPLICATED ELSEWHERE. As I recall the source, I recently read or (more likely) heard on NPR that medical professionals rather than those cared for are responsible for most of the questionable procedures.
Moving this population out of the US, would save them trouble and ‘starve the beast’ of a bloated health care structure by introducing competition.
A big thumbs up.
Biggest news of the day – Congress has managed to gut every single provision of what were already weak Financial Reform bills:
(Ignore the nonsensical title)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-25/lawmakers-agree-on-wall-street-s-biggest-overhaul-since-1930s.html
The trick was to leave all of the provisions (derivatives reform, Volcker rule, capital standards, CFPA, etc) in place but to systematically weaken every one to the point of being meaningless. Then declare victory without actually accomplishing anything.
OFF TOPIC: ‘Matt Simmions Predicts Gulf Evacuation’ from the site ‘Peak Oil’…I am not posting this for sensationalism, but everyone living in the Gulf region should be aware of what is happening…imo.
A tropical system is forming and predicted tracks are at link below.
This story was originated by Wash Post’s Joel Achenbach.
“In response to a tropical storm brewing in the Caribbean, Simmons says: “We’re going to have to evacuate the gulf states. Can you imagine evacuating 20 million people?… This story is 80 times worse than I thought.”
“AccuWeather.com forecaster Joe Bastardi said steering winds could bring the storm into the Gulf of Mexico by early next week. Gulf waters are very warm, so that would not be good news, according to Bastardi. An AccuWeather.com illustration (above) depicts the storm pushing oil onshore.
Oil in the Gulf not only contains a massive amount of methane, but also deadly hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride. BP admits methane makes up about 40 percent of the leaking crude by mass.”
http://peakoil.com/enviroment/matt-simmons-predicts-gulf-evacuation/
I thought this was the biggest news of the day:
Congress Fails to Pass an Extension of Jobless Aid
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/us/politics/25jobs.html?scp=3&sq=unemployment%20benefits&st=cse
Democrats, citing data by the National Employment Law Project, say that without Congressional action, 1.2 million Americans will exhaust their jobless benefits by the end of the month.
The legislation would reinstate numerous expired tax breaks, as well as provide an array of safety-net spending…
Even some Democrats have expressed deep reservations about adding to the nation’s fast-growing deficit. Mr. Nelson and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, who caucuses with the Democrats, have joined with Republicans in opposing the bill.
You can definitely see what Congress’s priorities are. It’s trillions for the banksters, and the middle finger for the poor, working- and middle-class.
“I thought this was the biggest news of the day …”
Nah, that was yesterday’s biggest news. RueTheDay is right that today’s biggest news is a “final” deal to gut finance reform.
You gotta stay current – congress is on a roll. Yesterday they decided to screw the unemployed by the deficit hawkery of not passing a bill that would have cost 0.02%/GDP, and today they decided to screw everyone who’s not a bankster by gutting any reform of the industry that caused the unemployment.
Keith David to Martin Sheen in Platoon: “What we got us here is a martyr”…
“Doan you know the rich always gettin over on the poor?”…
“Always have, always will”…
Privitize the profits! Socialize the losses!
Lord Acton said long ago that it would someday come down to an epic battle between the banks and the people. Smart guy!
I call “phony” on the pic of ducklings in coffee cup.
A site dedicated to exposing phony finances shouldn’t be offering up phony photos except as example of the first, which I don’t think is the case here.
Bah humbug!
Yes, this duck shot is a photoshop fake but it metaphorically represents the fraud in the financial markets and the lack of transparency and disclosure. Why were ducks used?
> If criticism or something similar is like water off a duck’s back to somebody, they aren’t affected by it in the slightest.
This indicates to me that ducks are symbolic of transition and migration, perhaps fluidity as well.
See: Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration.
==> This actually brings to mind that Yves probably remembers that one of favorite metaphors is the duck, and more specifically, “Make Way for Ducklings”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Way_for_Ducklings
In this context, there is paradox as to why the Mallards make a choice to place themselves in the path of all sorts of shit that seems to be unavoidable, e.g., why didn’t they move to a home near a lagoon, where that location apparently would have had less risk — versus running in front of cars and bicycles on roads and paths that were not designed for them?
There seems to be a connection between this metaphorical and the psychopath story — which, would obviously show the increased intellect of Yves — she’s never done this before, and thus the layering of multiple metaphors in is a new twist on the time/space thing, which brings us back to the illusions of photoshop and the likelihood that the ducks are just a clue which points to the enclosure — the envelope of space within the teacup, and obviously the duck illusion sets up the condition that the teacup is empty …. hmm, yes, yes, very clever.
So, this simply is a Zen-thing: “You cannot learn anything if you already feel that you know.”
Re: “Still a bit under the weather.”
Hope you get better soon! Have a tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AZMxDhUZEs
Doc, for me, the metaphor might lie in the shape of the reproductive organ of the duck.
As biologists have recently just found out, it is shaped like a corkscrew for both the male and the female duck.
So, perhaps, it’s symbolizing the screwy world we live in or perhaps we need a good corkscrew to open a bottle of Tokaj wine.
doc/
This line from the Wikipedia dissertation on “Making Way for Ducks”
“Each time Mr. Mallard selects a location, Mrs. Mallard finds something wrong with it”
Reminds me of what Ma and Pa did many year ago on their search for a new home to buy in the burbs. My father, Mr. Mallard, was prone to take the first house they came across. Mother though, Mrs. Mallard, was looking for the best possible deal. Total conflict, the yin and yang of human cognitive thinking and motivation. (That swirling symbol, with two objects nipping at each other’s tail wasn’t done to be just a logo for a New Age paraphernalia shop)
Eventually they settled on a house solely from the fact my father refused to drive one more block to look at another place. At $19,000 for a new home, my mother was sure they had been taken.
Don’t know how this fits into the World view you elaborated, there was no tea cup as far as I know.
“Yves”: Hope you are back up to full speed soon. Won’t consider Dodd Frank satisfactorily parsed until you have weighed in.
Oil response hurricane plans still lacking details
http://www.wwltv.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/Oil-Response-Hurricane-Plans-Still-Lacking-Details-97018794.html
More than three weeks into hurricane season, there are still no firm plans from BP nor Unified Command, on how to handle the oil response should a storm threaten.
This comes as a weather disturbance in the Caribbean Sea is forecast to move into the Gulf early next week.
The situation is now worrying state and local officials, who wonder how BP will evacuate its assets stationed in some of Louisiana’s most storm-vulnerable parishes.
“I don’t have a lot of faith in the decision-making,” said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.
Sorry about lack of editing previous thing … oh well.
You must not have got the memo…stay in doors till we give the all clear.
Yves et alia:
There’s an excellent, if depressing, post by Michael Pettis, from yesterday on the “Greek” crisis:
http://mpettis.com/2010/06/what-might-history-tell-us-about-the-greek-crisis/
H/T CR
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=BUSINESS&ID=565884348362260754
To me, Starbucks’ strategy is a reminder of how long so many have been out of work. Nearly half those looking for work have been without a job for more than six months. The long-term unemployed have become so much a part of our world that they’ve achieved a sad new status: They’ve gone from being a group we worry about to being a group we market to.
rt
I see the problem: Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn, June 26, 2010
http://realastrologers.com/full-moon-lunar-eclipse-in-capricorn-june-26
The Full Moon peaks at 7:30 a.m. EDT (11:30 UT), at 4°46 Capricorn opposite the Sun at 4°46 Cancer. The Moon will be in the same degree as Pluto, with Sun, Moon, Pluto, and Mercury in a tight square with Uranus at 0°33 Aries and Jupiter at 2°14 Aries.
That’s a lot of pressure on the Earth.
Also see: http://sabiansymbols.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/destinations-and-destines-rowing-your-boat-junes-capricorn-full-moon.html
Wherever you are in the world, this eclipse is set to have some interesting, intense and profound energies flowing from it. This is because this full Moon is conjunct (smack on) Pluto, the planet of transformations, death, rebirth, sex, and a slew of other deep and meaningful things. Combining Pluto with the full Moon, plus being an eclipse and taking into account the Sabian Symbols points to this being a meaningful, and for many, a deeply transformational time. Some will instigate major changes in their lives, some will have the changes landing on them, sometimes unexpectedly
==> Just F’ing great, …. I’m really left without a paddle and a canoe.
BP didn’t have a plan to cap the well, BP didn’t have a plan to scoop up the oil, BP didn’t have enough skimmers or enough vacuums so I mean that’s not a surprising to me,” said Landrieu “We just have to deal with it as it comes.
BP says they have hurricane plan; Jindal says it lacks detail
http://www.wwltv.com/news/Oil-Storm-Preps-97207664.html
While listening to yet another superlative set courtesy of Inflatable Squirrel Carcass with Rich Hazelton on WFMU, I came across this news out of Reykjavik about the new mayor.
At 11, he decided school was useless to his future as a circus clown or pirate and refused to learn any more. At 13, he stopped going to class and joined Reykjavik’s punk scene. At 14, he was sent to a boarding school for troubled teenagers and stayed until he was 16, when he left school for good.
“I consider myself a very moral person,” he said. “Suddenly, I felt like a character in a Beckett play, where you have moral obligations towards something you have no possibility of understanding. It was like ‘Waiting for Godot’ — I was in limbo.”
Sally McGrane, “Icelander’s Campaign Is a Joke, Until He’s Elected”
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/world/europe/26iceland.html
On the topic of cognitive dissonance (which is to political deception as the Great White Shark is to the King Salmon), macroresilience and Kedrosky among others point to this NYRBesque opus.
Errol Morris, “The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is”
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/the-anosognosics-dilemma-1/
Fine with me if NYT wants to go there, but why can’t I search NYT on “Monterrey Zetas” and find coverage of dozens of trucks and buses being commandeered to bring Mexico’s second largest city to a halt within hours of a narco chief being taken into custody?
Earlier this month, the news that the alleged local leader of the Zetas, Héctor Luna Luna, had been captured, brought this city of almost four million people to a standstill.
Julian Miglierini, “Monterrey caught up in Mexico’s drug conflict” (June 24)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10400784.stm
Borderland Beat was on the case immediately.
Gerardo, “Monterrey a Battleground after Top Zeta Captured” (June 10)
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/06/monterrey-battleground-after-top-zeta.html
Chris Arkenberg (visiting researcher at The Institute for the Future) has a good if conservative summary post on the DTO issue, heavily peppered with good links.
It’s important to understand that the Mexican narco-insurgency is possibly the most direct threat to the stability of American communities, far more so than any of our foreign wars.
Chris Arkenberg, “The Mexican Narco-Insurgency”
http://www.urbeingrecorded.com/news/2010/06/25/the-mexican-narco-insurgency/
Actually I would rather say that cognitive dissonance is to political deception what the population of oceanic viruses is to the Great White Shark.
Check this interview by Carl Zimmer (author of “Parasite Rex” and a genuine Living National Treasure) with Curtis Suttle.
http://www.microbeworld.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=614:mts46-curtis-suttle-its-a-virus-world-and-we-just-live-on-it&catid=37:meet-the-scientist&Itemid=155