Speaking Personally

I don't believe the Dalai Lama has "given up." Giving up is not consistent with his personality. It's more likely he recognizes mortality and is planning for his succession ... a change in the way his office is filled since Tibet is occupied.

Three Important Stories

Obama’s Speech in Canton, Ohio

Daniel George Nocera

Dalai Lama Says He Has Lost Hope in China Talks

Quotes and Pointers

'Don't think for a minute that power concedes.'
Barack Obama

'Without efficient and low cost energy storage for electricity, their intermittent nature limits their use for base load power generation. Winds die down, the sea becomes calm, night falls just as electrical demand peaks. What this discovery promises for solar and other alternatives is that excess solar power can be used to generate hydrogen and oxygen for storage instead of expensive and limited life batteries. In a hydrogen storage scheme, when the sun goes down, a fuel cellconverts the hydrogen and oxygen back into electricity. Karsten Meyer, a professor of chemistry at Friedrich Alexander University, in Germany said that for solar power, "this is probably the most important single discovery of the century."['

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_G._Nocera

The Dalai Lama has called a special meeting of Tibetan exiles next month to discuss the future of the Tibet movement.

Representatives of Tibetan exile communities around the world will gather in Dharamsala, which is the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-26-voa21.cfm?rss=topstories

Out and About on the Net.

Zeiss projector

Subaru's environmental initiatives

"Spread the Wealth" Cartoon

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A.Word.A.Day from Wordsmith.org barrack

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Speaking Personally

Nouriel Roubini was on CNBC Wednesday morning and on NPR Wednesday afternoon. When I saw his article at Project Syndicate it occurred to me that the Universe might be trying to say something. Either that or Roubini is out and about a lot lately riding the high of having correctly foreseen and written about the current global economic mess for the last two or three years. He recommends a raft of measures he believes are needed to avert a global depression. If Roubini's prescription taste too bad one can always take comfort in Mike Bryan's observation: 'I am not aware of any individual forecast that can consistently outperform the consensus. And this is not an argument denying the economy is facing difficult times. But perhaps it’s useful to keep in mind the limitations of economic forecasts in times like these.'

Three Important Stories

Big Donors Drive Obama's Money Edge

Nouriel Roubini: From Financial Meltdown to Global Depression?

S&P: We Knew Nothing! Nothing!

Quotes and Pointers

'Lost in the attention given to Obama's Internet surge is that only a quarter of the $600 million he has raised has come from donors who made contributions of $200 or less, according to a review of his FEC reports. That is actually slightly less, as a percentage, than President Bush raised in small donations during his 2004 race, although Obama has pulled from a far larger number of donors. In 2004, the Bush campaign claimed more than 2 million donors, while the Obama campaign claims to have collected its total from more than 3.1 million individuals.'
Matthew Mosk and Sarah Cohen

'Do the recent measures go far enough? When policy actions don’t provide real relief to market participants, you know that you are one step away from a systemic collapse of the financial and corporate sectors. A vicious circle of deleveraging, plummeting asset prices, and margin calls is underway.

So we cannot rule out a systemic failure and global depression. As we have seen in recent days, it will take a big change in economic policy and very radical, coordinated action among all advanced and emerging-market economies to avoid disaster. This includes...'

Nouriel Roubini

'We rate every deal, it could be structured by cows and we would rate it.'

Shannon Mooney

Out and About on the Net...

a politician mentions disestablishment

$150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image

Joe Biden Is Drawn to a Daryl Cagle Cartoon

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A.Word.A.Day from Wordsmith.org palinode

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Speaking Personally

"Monsters are a way of telling children the world is dangerous." Heard on a BBC ad for Dr. Who. It sounds reasonable to me... like Hobbits and Orcs.

Three Important Stories

The Spreadsheet Psychic

As Fuel Prices Fall, Will Push For Alternatives Lose Steam?

Why humans are so quick to take offense, and what that means for the presidential campaign.

Quotes and Pointers

'We talked about Obama’s widening lead over McCain, and the remaining undecideds—a group, he says, that’s “mostly older rather than younger, more religious than not, and a lot of Independents, which is typical”—and how a lot of formerly solid red states now look like good bets to turn blue. “My pet theory is that these states along the Atlantic coast, like Virginia and North Carolina, are growing so fast that you have a lot of newly registered Democrats. That universe now contains people that it didn’t a month ago. Literally, the composition of the North Carolina electorate is different than it was six months ago. They update their registration figures on a weekly basis, and last week the Democrats registered about 16,000 new voters—which would represent one percent of their turnout from 2004.” And this year, at least, for all the surprises and Sturm und Drang, the electorate appears to be acting rationally. “The conventional punditry underestimates voters. The voters are pretty smart. They picked two very strong candidates. Even if McCain’s in trouble now, if it had been Fred Thompson, he might have conceded already.”'
Adam Sternbergh

'The electric car has the potential for making a bigger impact than alternative fuels because it would be powered by the electricity grid, which relies on a mix of coal, nuclear, natural gas and renewable energy sources. Moreover, recharging an electric car is much cheaper than refueling a gasoline car.'
Steven Mufson

'Since the 1990s, building on the work of E.O. Wilson, father of sociobiology, a disparate band of researchers, from psychologists to zoologists, have been studying the origin and expression of moral emotions—our instinctive feelings of right and wrong. They say Homo sapiens did not invent morality; instead, we come equipped with it. Yes, we have to teach our children accepted rules of conduct and proper character. But Marc Hauser, a professor of psychology at Harvard, argues that they are readily able to learn because a moral template is already there, just as linguists believe children quickly pick up speech because they are born with intrinsic language-learning ability.

A paradox of human life is that the evolutionary forces that have made us cooperative and empathetic are the same ones that have made us prickly and explosive. Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, is a leading theorist in the field of moral psychology. He says the paired emotions of gratitude and vengeance helped us become the ultrasocial, ultrasuccessful species that we are. Gratitude allows us to expand our social network and recruit new allies; vengeance makes sure our new friends don't take advantage of us.'
Emily Yoffe

Out and About on the Net...

Scouts to learn about sex

Some papers in financial trouble are leaving the AP to cut costs

John McCain's Irish Roots, reloaded...

et alli is cross posted at The Intelligence Forum

A.Word.A.Day from Wordsmith.org obambulate

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Technorati Tags: Adam Sternbergh, Emily Yoffe, Steven Mufson

Three Important Stories

US leading index at 6-yr low, growth at 33-yr low -ECRI

Powell Endores Obama

Death threat, vandalism hit ACORN after McCain comments

Quotes and Pointers

"With its biggest weekly plunge in 37 years WLI growth has dived to a new 33-year low. This data objectively shows that financial market turmoil is rapidly worsening an already-grim recessionary outlook."
Lakshman Achuthan

'Powell said he'd arrived at his decision within the past couple of months.

Notably, he specified that "decisions that came out of the conventions" played a role in his decision, strongly suggesting that McCain's choice of Sarah Palin cost McCain the chance of Powell's support.'

Greg Sargent

"A real concern is the impact that these terrible acts have on the people who registered through these registration drives. Legitimate, eligible voters who sign up through these registration drives may be understandably intimidated and choose not to show up at the polls, and the Voting Rights Act prevents voter intimidation."
Jonah Goldman

Out and About on the Net...

Photos from Obama, Japan

Songs of the Sacred Harp

What I have learned in 1000 blogs

et alli is cross posted at The Intelligence Forum

A.Word.A.Day from Wordsmith.org cacology

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Speaking Personally

So banks get $250 billion from the government at a rate of 5% over five years. To make money they will need to find opportunities at 5% plus their overhead and reasonable profits.

Abortion, one of several hot button topics raised by Senator McCain in last night's debates, is an emotional topic in the U.S. Its interesting to me that those who are morally smug on abortion don't express more concern about infant mortality. Emotion decries abortion while reason formulates policy to improve pre-natal care. However McCain did hit one of my hot buttons. He again tried to spin a Zeiss planetarium projector as a $3 million boondoggle. The line must have polled well. To me it ilustrates a candidate like George Bush on science.

Three Important Stories

What is Fibonacci retracement, and where do the ratios that are used come from?

U.S. falls behind other developed countries in infant mortality

Chicago Planetarium's $3M "Overhead Projector"

Quotes and Pointers

'For reasons that are unclear, these ratios seem to play an important role in the stock market, just as they do in nature, and can be used to determine critical points that cause an asset's price to reverse. The direction of the prior trend is likely to continue once the price of the asset has retraced to one of the ratios listed above. The following chart illustrates how Fibonacci retracement can be used. Notice how the price changes direction as it approaches the support/resistance levels.'

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/05/FibonacciRetracement.asp

'The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed the leveling off in mortality to a 9% increase in premature births over the same period and to stalled progress in saving the earliest preterm infants. Premature birth and low birth weight are by far the biggest causes of infant death.'

Mary Engel

Out and About on the Net...

Va. Ruling Bolsters Breakaway Parishes

Leeker marks 50 years as grocer

"crofting" as a metaphor for the new world of work?

et alli is cross posted at The Intelligence Forum

A.Word.A.Day from Wordsmith.org semasiology

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Speaking Personally

After three weeks of crisis it was good to hear Charlie Rose's interview with Paul Volcker. Its an hour long and worth the time. "The tools are in place" to deal with the crisis. By this he means all the big trading nations will guarentee their major banks and this clears the way for those banks to play a factoring role in international trade.

Three Important Stories

He Changed Economics

US yearly economic growth rate at 33-yr low-ECRI

Quotes and Pointers

Verdana 14 point bold space between and indent

'But his “family” has grown far beyond the thousand or so professors of economics or business who are research associates, bringing to their work together a broad spectrum of policy views. The man who is replacing him as president of the NBER, MIT public finance professor James Poterba, is a Republican, too; but among Poterba’s prize students were Austan Goolsbee, of the University of Chicago’s business school, who has been Barack Obama’s principle economic adviser, and David Cutler, a Harvard professor, who has been devising the Democrat’s plans for health insurance reform. Summers, who advised Bill Clinton, was Feldstein’s student; but then so was Glenn Hubbard, who advised George W. Bush (he’s dean of Columbia’s business school today). Michael Boskin, John Taylor (both of Stanford University) Alan Blinder and Ben Bernanke (both Princeton professors) are senior NBER figures, too.'

David Warsh

"With weekly leading index growth plummeting to a new 33-year low, the U.S. recession is set to rapidly worsen." Lakshman Achuthan

Out and About on the Net...

Friday Photos: The Soyuz train

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A.Word.A.Day:

epeolatry

from Wordsmith.org

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Speaking Personally

Waiting for the market thunder and lightning to settle into a gentle serain...

Three Important Stories

Venezuela dismisses press freedom concerns

Europe's Financial Vulnerability

Morning Brief: Crash

Quotes and Pointers

"Be careful who you pose with, King Juan Carlos."

Andres Izarra

'Now we hear that sub-prime mortgage holders have only themselves to blame. No one talks of the bank manager, under pressure to sell “financial products” and eager to sign up customers, even if the products were not in a customer’s best interest. The banker did not question a bonus system that favors one year of super profits, followed by bankruptcy, over two years of moderate, but stable, results.'

Hannes Androsch

'Today's Agenda

Drink heavily.'
Blake Hounshell

Out and About on the Net...

Bill Ayers

Charles Keating

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A.Word.A.Day:

Serein

from Wordsmith.org

Posted at 07:13 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Three Important Stories

ANALYSIS-Bolivia crisis talks breakdown won't slow Morales

“Why is the Fed Paying Interest on Excess Reserves?”

Business builds for a fight against big Dem majorities

Quotes and Pointers

"We know exactly where the government is heading, what we don't know is what the opposition can do."

Eduardo Gamarra

'As noted at Real Time Economics…

“The change will encourage banks to leave more money on deposit at the Fed, and that’ll give the Fed more maneuvering room to lubricate the financial system and lend to troubled institutions without increasing the total supply of credit in the economy and pushing down the federal funds interest rate, the Fed’s key interest rate tool.”

This description is just another way of saying what the Federal Reserve said in its questions and answers document released yesterday: “Paying interest on excess balances will permit the Federal Reserve to provide sufficient liquidity to support financial stability while implementing the monetary policy that is appropriate in light of the System’s macroeconomic objectives of maximum employment and price stability.”

Sometimes the simple explanation is the best one.'

Dave Altig

'All of the major business groups have built aggressive voter education programs to influence the employees of member companies and business associations. Several of the groups, which include the Business Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), have significantly expanded their target audience compared to 2004.

But the goal of the massive effort is less about giving Republicans control of Congress than about limiting how much of labor’s agenda passes under Democratic leadership. With the economy in freefall, Democrats are gaining ground in polls around the country and business lobbyists are pessimistic about the landscape changing in the next 30 days.'
Alexander Bolton

Out and About on the Net...

Obama Discloses earmarks to improve government transparency

Fact Check: McCain earmark claims examined

Subprime Suspects

et alli is cross posted at The Intelligence Forum

A.Word.A.Day:

Hey rube

from Wordsmith.org

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Three Important Stories

Congress sets stage for solar boom

Fannie and Freddie Did Not Cause This Financial Crisis

Natural Gas Winter Outlook 2008-2009

Quotes and Pointers

Verdana 14 point bold space between

'The $2,000 tax credit limit for residential solar systems has been lifted, meaning that homeowners can get a 30% tax credit on the solar panels they install after Dec. 31. That will save a bundle - especially for those who live in states with generous state rebates - and goose demand for solar panel makers and installers like SunPower (SPWRA) and First Solar (FSLR). (If you buy a $24,000 3-kilowatt solar array in California - big enough to power the average home - you can claim a $7,200 federal tax credit. Add in the state solar rebate and the cost of the system is cut in half.)'

Todd Woody

'...what sets the stage for a bubble to emerge - what allows the rumor, irrational exuberance, etc., to express itself as a bubble? One thing that is needed is liquidity and credit, some way of substantially increasing demand. This is the air that inflates the bubble. Even if all the other conditions for a bubble to emerge are present, if there is no way to inflate the bubble - no way for speculators to rush in and drive up the price - then it won't inflate.

We already know that there was enough available liquidity to inflate a housing bubble. So something went wrong in these markets that allowed the bubble to emerge and then pop, and this is causing us immense problems right now, but what was it?

I think the most important factors are agency problems, the mis-pricing of risk, and the failure of securitization to distribute risks across the financial system.'

Mark Thoma

'Production is rising in several basins and in the Gulf of Mexico deepwater, with overall production reaching its highest rates since the early-to-mid 1970s. Natural gas supplies from production this winter are forecast to be approximately 7.9 percent higher than last winter. Therefore, despite expected modest declines in total overall imports this winter, NGSA expects that onshore and offshore production increases will likely lead to an overall downward pressure on the wholesale market this winter heating season.'

Natural Gas Supply Association’s (NGSA) eighth annual Winter Outlook

Out and About on the Net...

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Three Important Stories

Biden's Best Moments, I Thought

Schwarzenegger to U.S.: State may need $7-billion loan

Mexicans in U.S. sending less money home, bank says

Quotes and Pointers

"Absent a clear resolution to this financial crisis," Schwarzenegger wrote in a letter Thursday evening e-mailed to Paulson, "California and other states may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the federal treasury for short-term financing."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality."

Andrew Halcro