Things looking somewhat more positive on the “stranded in London” front. Airlines are starting to push back versus air travel authorities, and it does appear that airplanes can fly below the volcanic ash (albeit with presumably worse economics, since engines on big planes are optimized to fly at 30,000+ feet). So flight might resume this week.
Mat of microbes the size of Greece discovered on seafloor Scientific American
A Data Point on “Epistemic Closure” Bruce Bartlett (hat tip Richard Smith)
Steven Rattner Caught Up In Pension Probe Huffington Post
Wall Street beware: the lawyers are coming Frank Partnoy, Financial Times
A Modern Tale of Financial Loss Jesse
Report: SEC knew of Stanford scheme since 1997 Associated Press (hat tip reader Hubert)
First, define the problem Free Exchange
Was Fully Half Of Chinese Q1 GDP Simply Wasteful Projects? Clusterstock
Antidote du jour (hat tip reader Tim C):
A dog who survived being shot in the head three times has fully recovered, and now spends much of his time playing doting dad to a litter of kittens.
When Been was found, he was 10 kilograms underweight, but now the mongrel weighs a healthy 27kg and enjoys tending to four kittens who are being bottle-fed after being rejected by their mother.
After the three-week-old kittens are fed, Been licks them clean. If they are not locked up at night, he picks them up and puts them in his basket.
“He’s just a big sook,” says his new owner Jaine Reynolds, a Nelson SPCA administrator.
The story continues here.
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Partnoy makes a credible argument about the problem with financial regulatory reform – specifically:
“Regulators will never keep pace with financial innovation, and bankers run circles around even the best-intentioned rules, especially in derivatives. More fundamentally, Wall Street interprets detailed rules as a shield from liability.”
This point is well-demonstrated by the deviant alliance between Goldman and AIG which was ultimately foisted on the American public via the bailout scheme.
And concurrent posting of the link to “SEC knew of Stanford scheme” nicely illustrates the public’s misplaced faith in “regulatory oversight”.
It seems private litigation and actions by foreign investors may be our best hope of real “financial reform”.
(The link to Partnoy’s piece brings up a registration notice from FT.com, but it is accessible via Google.)