News Links 10/04/2011
- Who are the 99 percent? – The Washington Post
- ECB seen leaving rates on hold as Trichet bows out | Reuters
(Reuters) – The European Central Bank is likely to leave interest rates unchanged when it holds the last policy meeting of Jean-Claude Trichet’s presidency on Thursday, but may open the door to a cut under his successor and reintroduce some of its most potent crisis-fighting weapons.
- View: China’s Fall, Not Its Rise, Is the Real Global Threat – Bloomberg
China’s rise to global prominence has long preoccupied the leaders of the developed world. They should be more concerned about what happens if the country’s growth falters. With its combination of cheap labor, easy money, undervalued currency, heavy investment in manufacturing and focus on exports, the nation of 1.3 billion has built an impressive economic engine. From 2008 through 2010, China contributed more than 40 percent of the world’s growth. But the Chinese model has its limits, and that has far- reaching consequences for the U.S. and Europe, both of which are increasingly dependent on China.
- French-Belgian giant Dexia to be split into good and bad banks – European, Business – Independent.ie
FINANCIAL group Dexia will be split up with its "good" assets could be sold by the end of 2011. The French-Belgian bank, which received a €6bn bailout in 2008, has come under increasing market pressure over its exposure to Greece debt. Its board meeting went on into the early hours of today in an effort to resolve its problems.
- Warren Buffett hit as Bank of America shares slide – Telegraph
- Congress Is About to Make It Legal to Robocall Your Cell Phone; Here’s How to Speak Up Against It
- Don’t Rob A Convenience Store With A Cop Standing Right Behind You – The Consumerist
- More Banks Going After Strategic Defaulters To Get Back Balance Of Unpaid Mortgages – The Consumerist
- Amazon Kindle review (2011) — Engadget
- A Tale of Two Speeches: Is Obama Closeting America’s Black Experience? | Swampland | TIME.com
- Amazon "Punches Apple Hard" With Kindle Fire’s $199 Price | TechCrunch
- Amazon’s Kindle Fire Sells Nearly 100,000 On Day One Of Pre-Orders – Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog
- TheMoneyIllusion » Krugman’s peculiar views on American nationalism and the Chinese yuan
- BBC News – UK’s AAA credit rating confirmed by S&P
S&P said that despite sluggish growth, the UK’s "diversified" economy and "flexible" fiscal and monetary policy would enable it to weather a slowdown.
- Vice commerce minister urges to boost China’s imports
BEIJING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) — China should boost imports to balance trade as the country has emerged as a major global importer, a senior official said in a forum on imports held in Shanghai. The time has come for the government to attach equal importance to imports and exports, said Zhong Shan, vice minister of commerce.
“We all like to laugh at quacks when they misuse basic statistics. But what if academics, en masse, deploy errors that are equally foolish? This week Sander Nieuwenhuis and colleagues publish a mighty torpedo in the journal Nature Neuroscience.”
https://www.badscience.net/2011/10/what-if-academics-were-as-dumb-as-quacks-with-statistics/
“Bayes’ theorem is a mathematical equation used in court cases to analyse statistical evidence. But a judge has ruled it can no longer be used. Will it result in more miscarriages of justice?”
https://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/oct/02/formula-justice-bayes-theorem-miscarriage