The extraordinary life of a roo called Myrtle Sydney Morning Herald (hat tip reader Nivethan)
DR Congo gorilla numbers growing BBC
Obama’s Vietnam? Juan Cole, Salon
We’re in danger of losing our memories Guardian
PwC and Satyam – Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Yourself Into Francine McKenna
Shell Sells Oil Cargo, Phibro Tanker Leaves as Contango Shrinks Bloomberg
TARP-Linked NASDAQ Government Relief Index: Not Looking Good… jck
Hamptons Prices Fall as Recession Hits Wall Street Playground Bloomberg
Reaction to the Helicopter post John Hempton
Economic Cures Are Like Booze for an Alcoholic Caroline Baum, Bloomberg
Bet against a sovereign government if you dare John Dizard, Financial Times
Pfizer Buys Wyeth: Layoffs Financed by You and Me EconBlog Review. A colorful and pointed shredding of this deal.
Antidote du jour (hat tip reader Christine):
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That kangaroo story is kind of sad. Unrequited love. I wish the guy had stayed with her the night she died.
That cat is keeping my spot warm for me.
Skippy
Re: Obama’s Vietnam. Obama got a free pass from the press on his judgment that the war in Afghanistan is strategically more important than the war in Iraq. This however is substantively highly questionable. From which two implications follow: (1) It is highly unlikely that other NATO countries will even maintain, much less increase, their current level of troops. (2) US domestic opposition to this war will increase dramatically and it will be lead by the “libertarian right”. Obama risks playing Kerensky to Ron Paul’s (Start a Revolution) Lenin. From which we can conclude that Obama will be the first American President to lose two wars.
Caroline Baum is proposing that homeowners get no help. Only banks I suppose.
What can one expect, she works for Bloomberg News.
Interesting comment about Obama. Somehow I can’t see Ron Paul having enough energy left to pull it off, but I would not mind being wrong.
Obama is Kerensky all over, is is so true that I am sitting here pointing to my nose, but Ron Paul is no Lenin. Our Lenin will come from the ranks of the preceding administration.
re: oil/contango…the flattening term structure can mean one of two things (imho):
1.) there is more demand today than outer months
or
2.) the front end of the curve is about to tank (no pun) as everyone rushes to dump their stocks…”re-steepening” the contango structure, albeit at a lower base.
It looks like the outer months have started to slide lower…i have a feeling the front months are going to be sliding even faster over the next few weeks. But i could be wrong.
Good write up at the Econoblog.
In a somewhat similar example, a month ago Goldman Sachs sent one of their tech industry analysts to Redmond, to chide Microsoft for not taking advantage of the downturn to “overhaul its business model”, through extensive layoffs.
Not only is that offensive, it’s actually quite stupid: we are in a rapidly changing economic environment right now-with high unpredictability-so exactly what would you base your new business model upon (in terms of macroeconomics)? Deflation, then inflation? A U shape? An L shape? A recession, or a depression? And which part of the world comes back first…the EU or the Asian Tigers?
Quite frankly, at this point I would be quite comfortable if they shuttered Wall Street and the City permanently, and all my banking and investments were done via a branch of some bank out of Paris, Frankfurt, or Tokyo. I actually relish the thought…