By Jim Kunstler March 10, 2008 Source The feigned cluelessness in Paul Krugman's Sunday New York Times column ("The Face-Slap Theory") about the meltdown in finance is a good index of the cringing mendacity now emanating from those in service to the centers of power. I doubt an editor, or the publisher, Mr. Sulzberger, had to whisper in his ear to soft-pedal the situatioby ProjectC - Project C
“This is not a crisis of “crony capitalism” in emerging economies, but of sophisticated, rules-governed capitalisms in the world’s most advanced economy. The instinct of those responsible will be to mount a rescue and pretend nothing happened… Worse, the institutions that prospered on the upside expect rescue on the downside. They are right to expect this. But this can hardly be a tolerable bargaby ProjectC - Project C
By Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent March 10, 2008 Source They are the media-savvy generation, but teenagers are not so sharp when it comes to money. A study involving 8,500 teenagers from all social backgrounds found that most of them are financially illiterate. More than three quarters could not identify the cheapest loan. They also grossly overestimate their future earninby ProjectC - Project C
"The hardware that is used to lift the samples off the surface of the Red Planet would need to meet up in orbit with the propulsion unit which would carry it home. The technology for this in-orbit assembly might be derived from ATV know-how. And there may even be a grander application - one not lost on the Nasa chief Mike Griffin. "It occurs to me that it's a fairly short steby ProjectC - Project C
"...If Europe is to be saved from infinite misery and indeed from final doom, there must be this act of faith in the European family this 'act of oblivion against all crimes and follies of the past. Can these peoples of Europe rise to the heights of the soul and of the instinct and spirit of man? If they could, the wrongs and injuries which have been indicted would have been washed awayby ProjectC - Project C
"The United States is now going through its second post-bubble downturn in seven years. Yet this one stands in sharp contrast to the post-bubble shakeout in the stock market during 2000 and 2001. Back then, there was a collapse in business capital spending, a sector that peaked at only 13 percent of real gross domestic product. The current recession has been set off by the simultaneous buby ProjectC - Project C
'The CDS market entails complex chains of risk. This is similar to the re-insurance chains that proved so problematic in the case of Lloyds. The CDS markets have certain similarities with the reinsurance markets. The CDS fees like the reinsurance premiums are received up front. In both cases the risks are both potentially significant and "long tail" - they do not emerge immediatelyby ProjectC - Project C
"...the Basel process focused on making developing country financial institutions and processes transparent and standardized along the lines of what Wade calls the "Anglo-American" financial model. Calls to regulate the proliferation of these new, sophisticated financial instruments, such as derivatives placed on the market by developed country financial institutions, went nowhby ProjectC - Project C
"However the major international banks regarded the 8% capital requirement imposed by Basel as impossibly onerous, and believed that the Accord unnecessarily restricted their move into profitable new areas of finance. Consequently, from the middle 1990s they vigorously lobbied the Basel Committee for a new agreement, the Basel II accord, which would allow them to carry out their own risk manby ProjectC - Project C
NOT "GODS IN WHITE" German Doctors' Group Confesses to Mistakes Der Spiegel February 29, 2008 Source Surgical scissors left in stomachs, operations on the wrong knee, prescriptions of uppers instead of downers -- medical error is not just the stuff of fiction. Now a group of German doctors has decided to break a taboo and talk openly about their slip-ups. The myth ofby ProjectC - Project C
'In 2003, Matthews began work on a project that considered different legislative approaches to prostitution from around the world. The countries included Sweden, where buying sexual services was criminalised in 1999 - thus criminalising the punters, rather than the women in prostitution - and the Netherlands, where prostitution was legalised in 2000. The most important lesson learned in Swedby ProjectC - Project C
"In many respects, systemic stress from de-leveraging is more intense today than even during the LTCM fiasco. ... Throughout the system, risk models have broken down. They will now be functionally inoperable for some time to come. At the heart of the now unfolding systemic de-leveraging are some newfound realities. Leveraging, as Peloton Partners realized this week, has become a perby ProjectC - Project C
"Freedom from fear is the only environment in which people, particularly one lacking in breadth of political maturity, can express an honest voice. And how can this be obtained if one enemy ... refuses to negotiate with the other? How, on the other hand, can the rebels lay down their arms?" Seduced by the power of historic books By Robert Fisk Saturday, 9 February 2008 Sourceby ProjectC - Project C
"He longed for the day when a woman might travel long distances alone." -- Professor Mehmet Gormez Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts By Robert Piggott Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News 26 February 2008 Source Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisatioby ProjectC - Project C
There is a lack of affection. - Fire - The Art of Being Human - A State of Security - Project Consciousness - Haptonomy the Science of Affectivity J. *** Anti-depressants 'of little use' New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests. BBC News 26 February 2008 Source A University of Hull team concluby ProjectC - Project C
"We liked the idea of having an open enterprise and an infrastructure able to support anything." -- Tom Johnson Bank group takes Linux migration a step at a time By Tina Gasperson February 20, 2008 Source Metropolitan Bank Group is a large conglomerate in Illinois, comprising 10 banks and $3 billion in assets. As Metropolitan acquired more banking interests, IT Director Tby ProjectC - Project C
"it has often been innovation without substance. And it's achieved nothing. It's been cosmetic." -- Satyajit Das ( More ) *** "Over the last two decades, few industries have lobbied more ferociously or effectively than banks to get the government out of its business and to obtain freer rein for “financial innovation.” ... ...banks and Wall Street firms thaby ProjectC - Project C
"But today’s banking system as pointed out in recent Investment Outlooks, has morphed into something entirely different and inherently more risky. Our modern shadow banking system craftily dodges the reserve requirements of traditional institutions and promotes a chain letter, pyramid scheme of leverage, based in many cases on no reserve cushion whatsoever. Financial derivatives of all descrby ProjectC - Project C
"Six months ago, BaFin president Jochen Sanio was heavily criticized when he warned of the "worst financial crisis since 1931." But now many politicians are convinced that the situation is far more serious than they had assumed until now." WORST FINANCIAL CRISIS SINCE 1931? German State-Owned Banks on Verge of Collapse By Wolfgang Reuter February 20, 2008 Sourceby ProjectC - Project C
By Chris Taylor February 19 2008 Source Jeremy Grantham does not take any pleasure in watching world markets melt down. Well, perhaps just a little. This is because back in mid-November, the chairman of the Boston-based money manager GMO was feeling pretty foolish. He had just read in the Financial Times that corporate profit margins were taking a hit from the economic slowdown, and the nby ProjectC - Project C
"Exports reflect the importance of manufacturing. Almost nine-tenths of all German exports are industrial products. This is not without consequences for the service sector. According to a position paper by the Economics Ministry, "industry provides the impulse for growth in the service sector." Forty percent of all services, as well as 63 percent of all research and development actby ProjectC - Project C
'Frederick Smith, chief executive of FedEx, the world's largest express-transport company with 700 aircraft and 80,000 trucks, is more pointed. He wrote in Newsweek: "It shouldn't be forgotten that the proximate cause of World War II was the US oil embargo against Japan ? The first gulf war was caused totally by oil - it was Saddam Hussein's insistence that he owned certaby ProjectC - Project C
"Sweden is the latest of seven central banks to raise rates since the Federal Reserve slashed borrowing costs last month, as concern that inflation is set to accelerate worldwide offsets the prospect of a recession in the U.S. Australia, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Serbia have all raised rates since Jan. 30 as raw material costs and food prices increase." Swedenby ProjectC - Project C
'The magic phrase at Microsoft's third-largest subsidiary outside the United States is "trust-based working hours," and it has helped the company to not only achieve strong returns but has repeatedly earned it the distinction of being voted Germany's most popular employer. "We agree to certain goals with each employee. How and where they are reached is secondary,&quoby ProjectC - Project C
Default Swaps Intensify Credit Crunch Rob Roy Feb 11, 2008 Source Over the past several years my firm has highlighted the risks in the sub-prime sector, the lax lending standards, and the housing bubble that peaked in 2005. The residual effects of these have been vast and continue to support our view that the unraveling of the debt issue is not contained. Housing is clearly in a near-deaby ProjectC - Project C
"My journey is all about fulfilling a dream... to go to the South Pole. The slowness of the tractor symbolises the fact that fulfilling your dream takes time, that however slowly you travel, if you are committed you will get to your final destination." -- Manon Ossevoort Tractor woman on African rescues By Daniel Dickinson BBC News, Dar es Salaam 3 December 2007 Source Aby ProjectC - Project C
"I have an exhibit that shows the 30 years prior to 1982 when the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio was completely flat at 1.2 times. Total debt is defined as government debt, personal debt, corporate debt and financial debt. Then in the 25 years after 1982, the flat line goes up at a 45 degrees angle from 1.2 times to 3.1 times GDP. Massive. In the first 30 years, when debt is flat, annuby ProjectC - Project C
Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life by Admiral H. G. Rickover, U. S. Navy at a Luncheon Meeting of the San Diego Rotary Club San Diego, California Thursday, February 10, 1977 Source Voltaire once said: "Not to be occupied and not to exist are one and the same thing for a man." With those few words he captured the essence of a purpose in life: to work, to create, to excel, andby ProjectC - Project C
By Brian Berger Space News Staff Writer 04 February 2008 Source WASHINGTON -- Bigelow Aerospace officials said Feb. 1 they are making progress in their negotiations with United Launch Alliance for six initial launches for their planned commercial space station, starting around 2011. Subsequently the company hopes to conduct as many as a dozen launches per year as the new facility becomesby ProjectC - Project C
"Losses on CDS do not represent only a transfer of wealth from those who sold protection to those who bought it. If losses are large some of the counterparties who sold protection – possibly large institutions such as monolines, some hedge funds or a large broker dealer – may go bankrupt leading to even greater systemic risk as those who bought protection may face counterparties who cannot pby ProjectC - Project C