Monday, October 29, 2012

What I'm reading these days - 25-28 October

Random articles I've found interesting over the last week or so, posted in each section from the oldest to the newest. Mostly for my own reminder, but if you feel like commenting, I'm always up for an interesting discussion in the comments! I've added a star system to signify the articles I found more interesting than the average interesting needed to get on the page and/or articles I very much agree with.

Top Spot:
☆☆☆☆ Why Milk? (Didn't know lactose intolerant people were the norm.. another thank God for being European.. no latte macchiato in the morning would be a nightmare!)
☆☆☆☆ I’m a Mac. You’re a PC. There really are two types of people (Yes, indeed, they are)
☆☆☆☆ Inequality: Living in the Second Gilded Age (Soon to come to Europe as well, if it isn't already here)


On the Euro Crisis:
Germany
☆☆ The Germans Are Coming for Their Gold (Ummm... when the only non struggling economy in Europe starts looking at its gold reserves, one has to wonder...)
☆☆ Here’s the “massive cover-up” in Europe’s ridiculously large banking sector (After all, what could go wrong when your banks are several times the countries' GDP?)
German Hypocrisy on “Strengthening Europe” (However, public investment banks to sustain depressed local regions should be allowed... just call them structural funds management agencies already!)

Spain
Spain’s funding problems are over (or, are they?)
☆☆☆ Why should Germans support poorer Spanish regions if Catalans object? (Right, in general, but I still think they are under-estimating the centrifuge forces in Catalunya...)

UK
☆ Sir Mervyn King: no recovery until banks recapitalise (But then again, who would give money to RBS, given its track record?)


On the US Economy:
Would Inflation Help Cut Government Debt? (Reducing costs while raising inflation... no, eh?)
The Plot to Destroy America's Beer (Sadness... and something that could happen soon in Europe both for beers and wines)
☆☆☆ College Reunion (However, I suspect that applies to Italy, Spain and France as well)


World Economy and Economics in general:
☆☆☆ The Third Industrial Revolution Has Only Just Begun (I wonder if we will actually see and enjoy the results or it will fall on our kids...)
Gawd but the currency wars are boring (well, until you realize they can wipe away hundred of thousands of job in your country, i guess they can be...)
Regulation: Collateral damage (Damage? Hey, that's precisely the aim: for bank not to hyper-leverage and have some assets behind their games)
Ocean Power the Ignored Alternative (My guess is that it will join fuel cell and cold fusion, but one may always hope)
Does Taxing the Wealthy Hurt Growth? (I'd suspect, it depends on where you have the "wealthy" bar)
☆☆ Transcript of 1944 Bretton Woods Conference Found at Treasury (For the econo-historians that's seriously a gift from above, I guess)

Big Companies
The Intransparent Methods of an Internet Giant (Why is it, exactly, that people should expect a for profit company to act as a social non-profit organization?)
Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition (and that's why I haven't bought a single Apple product yet... I'm an ultra-geek, apparently)
Too Big To Handle (So true... and while you are at it, please divide commercial and investment banks once again, thank you very much)
Amazon Is a Black Hole Threatening To Devour Corporate America (Fact is, if you have immense volumes and you eliminate competitors, then you can rise prices and have those margins... it's called getting a monopoly, you know, investors might have a point)

Argentina
A pari passu upset? (How speculators will end up reaping tons of money from Argentina... Also, see here)


Politics:
China
Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader (and that's surprising... why? Every dictatorial power creates immensely rich people at the top, see the Russian Oligarchs that originated from the end of the Soviet regime...)

Germany
Judgment in Parallel (Not shocking at all, this is going on majorly in UK and France, but also in Italy and most European countries with a sufficiently high and locally dense Arab and middle-east community)

Iran
☆☆ Sanctions are pushing Iran towards nuclear talks, just not US sanctions (Are they at all? Or, at the very least, quickly enough? I seriously doubt it...)

Israel
Gazans fire mortar shell at South despite informal truce (Why, did they ever stop doing that? And would they have any restraint, now that islamists rule Egypt anyway?)

Russia
Another Pricey Watch Disappears in Russia (Amateurs... their great-fathers were able to have whole people disappear, both in pictures and for real...)

USA
Equipment disposal a daunting job for military (What a waste, I wouldn't mind a couple of tanks, if they have no better use for it...)
Moving Further to the Left (Oh, my, what a surprise...)


Miscellania:
☆☆ Stay Alive: Imagine Yourself Decades From Now (Maybe I should try to have an aged picture of myself to help with keeping my fitness regime...)
Rand’s Dystopian Masterpiece (Ok, I guess it is time I read Rand's books, after having postpone it for about a decade now)
Our Debt to Stalingrad (REALLY... so we are in debt to the first top mass murder in history, Stalin, to have stopped the second on the list? Interesting logics at work... I would say our debt to Normandy, if I'd have to pick one)
The Lowly Button Gets A Brilliant Upgrade (GENIUS!!!)
Paintballs may deflect an incoming asteroid (No Bruce Willis? No hyper cool shuttle dodging the debris  How uncool is that?)
Why air travel has become so expensive, annoying, and cramped (Definitely applies to Europe as well)



Wednesday, October 24, 2012

What I'm reading these days - 20-24 October

Random articles I've found interesting over the last week or so, posted in each section from the oldest to the newest. Mostly for my own reminder, but if you feel like commenting, I'm always up for an interesting discussion in the comments! I've added a star system to signify the articles I found more interesting than the average interesting needed to get on the page and/or articles I very much agree with.

On the Euro Crisis:
☆☆ Were Hollande and Merkel at the same summit?
☆☆☆ EU Summit: The kiss of life, or of death?
☆☆ Taking A Man At His Word
Northern European Investors Steer Clear of Needy South
Financial transaction tax for 10 EU states
The S&P downgrade ratio in Europe – 4:1
(Seemingly) Perpetually Miserable Indices

Germany
Buba still unimpressed with ECB
Germany wants Greece to hand over more budget control ( just organize a Generalgouvernement already!)

Greece
The return of the Greek buyback (boondoggle)
Greece fact of the day (Scroll down to "So Much For Subtlety")

Portugal
IMF calls Lisbon’s austerity ‘imperative’

Slovenia
☆☆ Slovenia puts the ‘EM’ in EMU

Spain
☆☆ Foreign buyers and the OMT (Italy as well)


On the US Economy:
Black Monday, An Unforgettable Single Day
JPMorgan: If the payroll tax cut falls, so does growth
Did the financial blogosphere go away?


World Economy and Economics in general:
☆☆☆☆ Shrink Inequality to Grow the Economy?
☆☆☆ Is the Financial Sector Worth What We Pay It?
The East grows only because the West consumes. Bitch please.
Can Agricultural Productivity Keep Growing?
What would happen if investments in people succeeded?
When the Hedge Fund Industry Evolves…in a Bad Way
Gauging the multiplier: Lessons from history (Could someone notify the various governments in Europe, please?)
Jerome Kerviel loses appeal, heads to prison (Hey, 4,9 billion dollars losses by one man!)

HFT 
The geopolitics of computer trading

China
China flash PMIs are up, but there’s a catch


Politics:
Is Islam Misogynistic? (YOU DON'T SAY!)

EU
☆☆☆ You thought the whole 'EUSSR' thing was over the top? (Seriously, who hired the designer? And who the heck is the idiot pushing this in a moment when nationalist feelings are running high? Not that I mind, but who in the EU wants to give even more ammos to Golden Dawn, the British Defence League, Flemish nationalist and the like?)
Welcome to Berlin, Europe’s new capital

USA
Mitt Romney Speech At The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner (FUN!)
2008 Called. It Wants to Know What Happened to Barack Obama.
Guilford Co. voters say ballot cast for Romney came up Obama on machine (The fact that machines vote automatically for Obama is not really surprising as the fact people can vote two weeks to the official election date for no real reason)

UK
Britain has left the European Union in all but name (I'm skeptical they will really opt-out)
The Takedown of the EDL (Why I'm not surprised in the least?)

China
☆☆☆☆ China’s increasing military spending unnerves neighbors (Quote to look for: "We have a lot of land occupied by other countries". That'd be Taiwan, Japan , India, Buthan, South Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei... there is practically no neighbor without some land China is disputing about)


Miscellania:
☆☆☆☆ Brains plus Brawn
2012 Japan Juggling Festival Championship
The Rise of Childless Americans (and that sadly applies even more to most European countries, Italy in particular, altho I suspect here it is more for economical reasons)
Italian scientists sent to prison for false predictions (I do not usually issue public apologizes for my country, as I stick to the "right or wrong, my country" principle, but in this case I do apologize to the World Scientific Community for our judges)
Preparing for take-off (Planes indeed waste a lot on taxing, included  huge amount of MY time)
Apple, Google, and Amazon are so profitable because they know what to lose money on
Cosmo Wenman’s Mind-Blowing Sculpture Made On A MakerBot (I WANT this!)


Friday, October 19, 2012

What I'm reading these days - 3rd Week of October.

Random articles I've found interesting over the last week or so, posted in each section from the oldest to the newest. Mostly for my own reminder, but if you feel like commenting, I'm always up for an interesting discussion in the comments! I've added a star system to signify the articles I found more interesting than the average interesting needed to get on the page and/or articles I very much agree with.

On the Euro Crisis:
☆☆☆☆ Only big debt restructuring can save euro
What Germany, France and van Rompuy want in a fiscal union
☆☆☆ The red-eyed walk to banking union

Cyprus
A Cypriot seniority quirk?

France
French business erupts in fury against "disastrous" François Hollande

Germany
George Soros: Germany Leaving Eurozone Would Solve Crisis
Merkel Urges Tax Cuts to Boost German Economy

Greece
Greece faces anti-austerity shutdown as EU meets
Greece, Spain 'in depression': Nobel winner Stiglitz
Brothels Rescue Cash-Strapped Greek Soccer Team
☆☆☆☆ Alarm at Greek police 'collusion' with far-right Golden Dawn  (To be noted that the play cited depicts Jesus and the apostles as gay people living in Texas.. imagine what if it had depicted a gay Mohammed?)

Italy
If Italian corruption were its own country, it would be the world’s 76th largest economy

Spain
☆☆ Tantalising glimpses that Spain might be ready to jump through well-positioned hoop
Spanish bonds are feeling positively Moody
10am Madrid time - mortgage delinquencies


On the US Economy:
The Self-Destruction of the 1 Percent
☆☆ The Buyback Epidemic
For Every Person Added to Labor Force, 10 Added to Those Not in Labor Force
The middle class isn’t losing more jobs than usual. But it is losing more money.
Regardless of the Cost, College Still Matters
☆☆ U.S. Labor Unions: Fewer and Bigger


World Economy and Economics in general:
Dropping Like a BRIC
☆ Forcing frequent failures
☆☆☆☆ Will central banks cancel government debt?
☆☆ Downton Abbey Economics
The importance of being urban
☆☆ The disclosure dilemma: Why more disclosure has led to less information
As Global Economy Sags, Political Leaders Are AWOL
Gold up to $1,900 before year end, says HSBC

HFT (I don't know why, but I picked a weird interest in the topic)
☆☆ Markets: Rage against the machine
Why there’s less high-frequency trading
Pioneering High-Speed Trading Executives Shut Firm

UK
How Starbucks avoids UK taxes
☆☆☆ Starbucks makes a mochary of tax law

China
A Bear in the China Shop
☆☆☆ Boss Rail
Is China Due for a Slowdown?
China Set to Lose Top U.S. Lender Spot to Japan
China Job Needs Show Why GDP Slowdown May Be Tolerated: Economy
A Surreal Skateboarding Journey Through China's Infamous Ghost Town
Of China, the yuan, inequality and the euro


Politics:
☆☆☆ Secessionist wave sweeps Belgium
☆☆ Communists win Czech local elections
☆☆☆☆ Feminism and Defeated Tribes
☆☆☆ Europe’s Takeover by Islam, Part 1
☆☆☆☆ “Criminalisation of ‘Islamophobia’:” the “Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s” legal jihad

USA
What Biden Doesn’t Want You to Know
☆☆ Offshoring and middle-income workers in the US (But, I suppose, it applies to Europe as well...)
☆☆☆ If FP nerds were 'the public': 15 questions for a more interesting debate
☆☆ Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth (But, I suppose, it applies to Europe as well...)
Bizarre Coincidence: Democrats Get More Time in All Three Debates
☆☆☆ The state of the U.S. election system (That the greatest democracy in the world cannot find a system to conduct decent voting operation is absolutely ridiculous...)

Iran
Update on Iran sanctions

France
☆☆☆ Génération Identitaire
French president pushing homework ban as part of ed reforms (Right, let's lower the bar some more...)

Mali
☆☆ Will the World Go to War to Save Mali?
☆☆☆ Timbuktu’s Destruction: Why Islamists Are Wrecking Mali’s Cultural Heritage


Miscellania:
Where is the social Internet?
☆☆ The BlackBerry as Black Sheep
In Latest Bid to Lord Over Flies, One Man Tries Salting Them Away
Meet Mansa Musa I of Mali – the richest human being in all history
☆☆ Mapping the Potential for Solar Power On Every Roof
“What Makes a Technology Cool,” According to Neil deGrasse Tyson
☆☆☆ Cardboard bicycle can change the world, says Israeli inventor (Wishing him luck!)
☆☆ A Rogue Climate Experiment Outrages Scientists
☆☆ Stochastically Orthogonal