Malaysian scientists find stone tools ‘oldest in Southeast Asia’ AFP Biologists Find Stem Cell-Like Functions in Other Types of Plant Cells NYU China birth defects ‘up sharply’ BBC Iran’s nuclear terrorism fears Asia Times Violent clashes in Russia as angry protesters call for Putin to resign over economy Daily Mail. The article hyperventilates, but has […]
Read more...A reader chided me for not making note of the truly dreadful factory output figures released last Thursday, which showed a fall of 9.6%. I have to confess that I have fallen into “Japan bad news” syndrome, in that I expect bad news out of Japan and therefore did not focus enough on the details. […]
Read more...Maybe I am reading too much into this development, but the fact that Team Obama is planning to announce some TARP restrictions prior to revealing how the money will be doled out is really odd. I welcome other views, but I can come up with only three theories: 1. The Administration is waking up to […]
Read more...To be fair, Willem Buiter’s latest post strives for a bit of gallows humor via its title, “YES WE CAN!! have a global depression if we really continue to work at it…,” before getting down to serious business, namely, that the powers that be risk missing the opportunity to salvage the global economy. What makes […]
Read more...This is starting to get interesting. Readers may recall that a fair number of hedge funds have restricted or barred redemptions (a classic example of “possession is 9/10 of the law” since it is contrary to the redemption policies in their investment agreements). The justification goes something like this: We the fund hold liquid and […]
Read more...Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning Telegraph Fabulous Gay Penguin Parents Rewarded With Wedding Truemor London Luxury-Homes Prices Have Second-Biggest Drop on Record Bloomberg. The biggest drop was in October. Fisher Island: Still a Refuge, but Not From the Downturn New York Times. Strikes spread across Britain as oil refinery protest escalates Guardian Stiglitz Criticizes […]
Read more...Your humble blogger has been saying for some time that efforts to prop up bank asset values are prolonging the financial crisis, and the the various incarnations of “bad bank” plans inevitably entail buying dud assets at above market prices. That has the ugly side effect, which some no doubt see as a virtue, of […]
Read more...When we have featured articles that mention growing unrest in China, we’ve been told that it’s overblown. The usual arguments: most of the people losing their jobs in Guangdong were young women who could go back to the provinces; that the violence wasn’t organized and hence posed not real threat to the authorities; that the […]
Read more...Reader Doug pointed to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, “FBI saw mortgage fraud early,” which was sufficiently misleading to get my juices going. Some key sections: The FBI was aware for years of “pervasive and growing” fraud in the mortgage industry that eventually contributed to America’s financial meltdown, but did not take definitive action to stop […]
Read more...Wish I’d written it. From Jesse: We believe that the stimulus is too backend loaded and unimaginative to affect anything sooner. Adding liquidity to the banks is as useful as filling the tank of a car wrapped around a telephone pole. Who are the banks going to lend to? And increased spending on health care, […]
Read more...Acid oceans ‘need urgent action‘ BBC. We wrote about this in 2007. Deadly heatwave causes havoc across south-eastern Australia Telegraph Tidal-powered datacenters: A sea of opportunity? InfoWorld “Bad bank” may be put on hold: report Reuters versus US set for ‘big bang’ financial clean-up Financial Times. Not necessarily contradictory, but released in close proximity with […]
Read more...Today, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri introduced legislation that would limit salary, bonus, and stock options for executives as financial firm recipients of bailout funds be limited to the President’s level of pay, currently $400,000. McCaskill’s proposal is likely to go all of nowhere. She is not a member of the Finance or Appropriations committee, […]
Read more...Reader Tim C pointed us to a post on Tim Price’s blog, “The Price of Everything,” which provides astute financial and sometimes social commentary. Below is an excerpt: Dear Western banking establishment, I notice that your unauthorised credit facility from international lenders of last resort now totals approximately $10 trillion. As a taxpayer and therefore […]
Read more...Floating rubbish dump ‘bigger than US’ News.com.au (hat tip reader Nivethan). It is also breaking down and getting into the food chain. Hidden Bonuses Enrich Government Contractors at Taxpayer Cost Bloomberg. Bonuses for non-performance are endemic in America (hat tip reader Larry) Vive la Révolution! Pension Pulse Stimulus Pork Econospeak Global Worries Over U.S. Stimulus […]
Read more...Now naive folks like me subscribe to the fantasy that a reputable newspaper maintains a church/state separation between its editorial pages and its news section. And then we have the Wall Street Journal as a telling counterexample. Last week, the Journal ran a op-ed piece by one Peter Schiff, a rather vocal libertaran and goldbug […]
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