News from around the web: 2009-09-22

"High U.S. unemployment keeps pushing up the rate of mortgage delinquencies, which could in turn drive personal bankruptcies and home foreclosures, monthly data from the Equifax Inc credit bureau showed on Monday."

Is this company imploding? They can’t possibly think their "I fought the law" posture is going to work in a strongly anti-bank climate. This seems a bit reckless.

There is a huge inventory glut which will keep the market weak for a longtime to come.

This part says it all. And everything leads from there. "First and foremost, we require safety for our money. That’s what banks were originally for."

"The German sportswear companies Puma and Adidas have ended a feud started 60 years ago by their founding brothers."

The BIS is not convinced good times are permanent.

When I first worked in NY two decades ago in Bernie Madoff’s building, the lipstick building, I remember quite well how relaxed and easy security across the street at the Citicorp Center was. Last week when I stepped out of the subway there, I saw armed officers with submachine guns like the men I saw years ago in the Frankfurt airport after terrorism struck Europe. America is definitely changed. To say otherwise is ridiculous.

"The takeaway? In the president’s mind, a tax penalty is not a tax increase—although the public may not see it that way. As the weeks wear on, it will be up to the American people to decide who won the semantic game played on ABC this Sunday. "

"Anticipation often proves worse than the event itself. So the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation should stop prevaricating and borrow from the Treasury to top up its funds, as Sheila Bair, its chairman, suggested it might last week. Tapping its $500bn credit line would avoid further bank levies while the industry remains under stress. Furthermore, it would put the FDIC’s ability to fulfil its role – closing defunct banks and protecting depositors – beyond doubt."

"For several weeks I have been working on the analysis of economic activity from the point of view that without some temporary, artificial and unsustainable factors, the U.S. would not have had what appeared to be prosperity during the years from 2002 to 2007. This article is the result. However, rather than providing answers, I think this piece just raises more questions. I have come to realize that this is the start of a research process, not the culmination."

"An official in the New York Insurance Department says insurance regulators from across the country are expected to discuss dropping Moody’s Investors Service from a list of acceptable rating organizations at a meeting later this week."

"A new review paper, published online today in Trends in Cognitive Science, investigates whether such intense approaches, labeled as torture by some, might be counterproductive to obtaining accurate information from suspects.’

"Scientists have ample evidence that individuals use a variety of cues to identify their own kin. People can also detect resemblances in families other than their own. A new study shows that their success in doing so is the same, whether or not those families are the same race as themselves."

"Watch the "Top Ten Reasons President Obama Agreed To Appear On The Late Show," edited from the September 21, 2009 broadcast."

"Profound discoveries and insights on the frontiers of science do not burst out of thin air but often arise from incremental processes of weaving together analogies, images, and simulations in a constrained fashion."

"By merging more than a decade of atmospheric data from European satellites, scientists have compiled a homogeneous long-term ozone record that allows them to monitor total ozone trends on a global scale – and the findings look promising."

"Crazy as it sounds, alcohol may one day be given to people with brain injuries to help them recover."

"Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) may be one of the world’s cuter critters, but that doesn’t mean they have it easy."

"American infants and toddlers watch TV an average of two hours a day, and much of the programming is billed as educational. A new study finds that children under age 3 learn less from these videos that we might think—unless there’s an adult present to interact with them and support their learning."

Distraction of the Day: The Case of the Samurai Sword Killing