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):
Harlem Dad 
Posts
The toxic assets are “hard to value!” They’re “hard to value” at the prices we wish they were valued.