YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT: Kerry On Yacht-Taxes Issue: ‘Nothing More To Say’.
Archive for 2010
July 26, 2010
ANSWERING MEDIA MATTERS’ PROBING QUESTIONS.
PAPER MONEY: “As they prepare for holiday reading in Tuscany, City bankers are buying up rare copies of an obscure book on the mechanics of Weimar inflation published in 1974. . . . As a signed-up member of the deflation camp, I think the Bank and the Fed are right to keep their nerve and delay the withdrawal of stimulus — though that case is easier to make in the US where core inflation has dropped to the lowest since the mid 1960s. But fact that O Parsson’s book is suddenly in demand in elite banking circles is itself a sign of the sort of behavioral change that can become self-fulfilling.”
(Sort of) related: Deflation Defies Expectations—and Solutions. “The old bogeyman of deflation has re-emerged as a worry for the U.S. economy. Here’s something else to fret about: After studying more than a decade of deflation in Japan, economists have slowly realized they have no idea how it works.”
UPDATE: A hedge-fund reader emails:
Inflation helps the government hide its spending, while easing the burden on politically influential debtors and those who’ve lent against property. Deflation helps savers, salary earners and those on fixed incomes.
This is all VERY well understood.
What “Ivy League” governing elites don’t know, is how to finesse the politics of debasing the currency without inciting the pitchforks-and-torches crowd, whose latest manifestation has been the Tea Party movement.
Well, good.
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS: Jimmy Carter Haiku. Or maybe not. . . .
UPDATE: Telford Work sends an illustration.
MAIMON SCHWARZSCHILD: One-Party Media = No Way to Quell Suspicion. Yes, that is a problem.
TODAY ONLY, KODAK DIGITAL CAMERA KIT for just 99 bucks. I have a similar (older) model, and it does a good job.
A LINK BETWEEN IVF and childhood cancers?
WHERE ARE THEY? The Fermi Paradox, Phase Changes and Intergalactic Colonisation.
A ROUNDUP OF kid-lit news.
THE PATIENTS BARBARIANS ARE AT THE GATE. “The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, gave all patients the legal right to read and even amend their own medical records. At the time, a group of national health care experts hailed this new transparency as a necessary component of better and safer care. But today, few patients have ever laid eyes on their own records. And those who try often come back from their missions with tales of bureaucratic obstacles, ranging from exorbitant copying costs to diffident administrators.” I’m sure that once the government takes everything over completely, these problems will vanish.
DENVER POST: “Welcome Back, Carter. Even the talking heads at MSNBC have compared Obama’s sudden lack of leadership, his summer spent adrift, to the uninspiring Jimmy Carter presidency after last month’s remarkably lackluster national address about the Gulf oil leak.” Remember, you heard it here first. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
DEPRESSING DATING NEWS? “Listen: I really like it when Jason Sudeikis dances on SNL and he’s funny, etc. But it’s alarming that Jason Sudeikis is the first palatable guy that a girl who looks like January Jones has managed to land. It’s just indicative of a bigger problem, is all I’m saying.”
THE ONES AT STATELY INSTAPUNDIT MANOR don’t use any sissy paintballs.
NICK SCHULZ: Does Europe Have A Paul Ryan? It Needs One. And we need more than one. . . .
PORN MADE FOR WOMEN. But the women in the comments don’t seem that impressed: “If I wanted a story I’d watch lifetime.”
NEW HOME SALES SOAR TO the second-worst number in a year.
CLAUDIA ROSETT: A Wish-List For WikiLeaks.
NINE “HARMLESS” HABITS that can prematurely age you. I’m happy to say that I avoid all of these, although honestly I wish I could keep my college bedtime, wrinkles be damned.
HOW TO FIND ALIENS: Follow The Photosynthesis.
FINALLY! Quantum Time Machine Solves Grandfather Paradox. I’m still worried about Niven’s Law, though.