Register to vote October 6 is your last chance in a many states.
No Naked Black Holes Science News. No crude comments, since it took some effort to restrain myself.
Birth of an Ocean: The Evolution of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression Scientific American
Starbucks ‘wastes 23 million litres of water a day’ Telegraph
Short shrift James Mackintosh, Financial Times. A good overview of the politics and practicalities of the short-selling bans.
A Countrywide Settlement Angie Littwin, Credit Slips. BofA agreed to pay $3.7 billion in total. Have I missed the stories on this, or was it woefully underreported?
BNP Paribas to Buy Fortis Units for EU14.5 Billion Bloomberg. In case you were busy this weekend….
De-leveraging – Fairy Tale Endings Satyajit Das EuroIntelligence. A great post, but Das undermines his credibility by invoking liquidaitonist Andrew Mellon. Agreed completely that asset values need to find a bottom and bank and perhaps corporate balance sheets need to shrink (most non-LBO companies have been net savers), but the authoriities also need to prevent an overshoot on the downside, know who to recapitalize and what to do with the rest (merge or liquidate) and how to limit the real economy damage. But his critique is well founded.
No sleep ‘til bailout Pierre Briancon, BreakingViews (free two week trial). How our banking regulators are at risk of making bad decisions due to sleep deprivation. Heh, that gives them an excuse…
Antidote du jour:







Ariel: “I wuv you so.”
Caliban: “?? . . . Say again?”