- Green shoots? How about a ‘double dip’ – Globe & Mail
“One trigger for a relapse, some of the double-dippers say, is a likely clampdown on government spending and a hike in interest rates within the coming year. “The question is going to be,” said Mr. Rosenberg, “… what happens at the time that the Fed and the federal government start to withdraw their stimulus?””
- Men, Women And Tweeting – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
“Although men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers than women. Men also have more reciprocated relationships, in which two users follow each other. This “follower split” suggests that women are driven less by followers than men, or have more stringent thresholds for reciprocating relationships. This is intriguing, especially given that females hold a slight majority on Twitter.”
- The Palin Paradox: Women More Likely to be Elected in Male-Dominated Districts – 538
“All told, after controlling for the district’s partisan affiliation, male-dominated districts were more than twice as likely to elect a Congresswoman as were female-dominated districts.”
- 17 Million US Children Live More Than An Hour Away From Trauma Care
“The average proximity to a pediatric trauma center varies widely from state to state, with the largest gaps in the most rural areas.”
- Pathway Linked To Breast Cancer Stem Cells
“A gene well known to stop or suppress cancer plays a role in cancer stem cells”
- New iPhone specs and prices leaked? They look believable. – The Next Web
- FT.com / Wolfgang Munchau – Down and out for the long term in Germany
“Global current account surpluses and deficits add up to zero. So if everybody is saving more, who will be dissaving? It will have to be the corporate sector in the countries with large net exports. So if the US, the UK and Spain are heading for a more balanced current account in the future, so will the surplus countries…Germany will be down and out for a long time with a huge and still unresolved banking crisis, an overshooting exchange rate and lower net exports, presided over by politicians who panic about domestic inflation. This will not end well.”
- Japanese firms slash spending
“Japanese companies will collectively cut their capital investment by 15.9 per cent in the year to March 2010, representing the sharpest decline on record, according to a newspaper survey released Monday.”
- Global airlines to lose $11b in 2009: IATA
“The global airline industry is facing an unprecedented crisis and is likely to lose $US9 billion ($11.3 billion) this year, nearly double an estimate made just three months ago, the International Air Transport Association said on Monday.”
- Moody’s cuts Anglo senior debt rating to A3 due to significant capital erosion
Why not further? “Moody’s has downgraded its rating for Anglo Irish Bank to reflect the “serious challenges” faced by the bank. The international ratings agency also warned it may downgrade the senior debt ratings of other Irish banks.”
- Indiana Funds Ask Supreme Court to Delay Chrysler Sale – DealBook
“Three Indiana state funds late Saturday asked the United States Supreme Court to delay a deal to sell most of Chrysler’s assets to Fiat, hoping to again challenge the transaction after two lower courts approved it.”
- H1N1 influenza tally rises to 420 | The Japan Times Online
- Apple’s new iPhone set to heat up phone war – Telegraph
“The battle for dominance of the lucrative “smartphone” market will step up a gear on Monday as Apple is widely expected to launch a new version of the iPhone.”
- Canadians angered over ”Buy American” rule
“The Federation of Canadian Municipalities endorsed a controversial proposal to support communities that refuse to buy products from countries that put trade restrictions on products and services from Canada.”
- Report predicts 10 years of pain for Scotland – BBC News
“Economists at Ernst & Young say it will take until 2017 for Scotland to return to 2008 levels of employment.”
- After the Crisis: Macro Imbalance, Credibility and Reserve-Currency
The key passage here for me had to do with the currency crises suffered for non-reserve currency nations as a price of growth while reserve currency countries got off scot-free. Those days are well and truly over. Also there is this: “The generalized bankruptcy of banks and firms solved the problem of excessive indebtedness. Banks, enterprises and households were broken, but with no debts. The costs were dramatic, but the excess of debt disappeared. The fact that the mistakes of 1929 have not been repeated, lead to circumstances far different from those of 1932. “
- Global Crisis And Reform: Starting A Long Journey – Simon Johnson
“The crisis per se does not weaken the powerful. Sure, a few of them may go bankrupt, but this just increases further the concentration of economic power or, if you prefer, their market share. It is for good reason that Jamie Dimon, ever the master of CEO semiotics, said to his shareholders recently: 2008 “might have been our finest year ever.” Most countries are doomed to this oligarchy-boom-bust-oligarchy cycle. The US broke free or at least temporarily broke away from versions of this cycle, arguably, three times already (Jackson, Roosevelt I, Roosevelt II). Each time the reform process took 5-10 years; perhaps longer from start to finish. Can we do it a fourth time and how long will that take?”
- Federer. Desire. – Paul Kedrosky
I’m a bit of a Federer hater to be honest with you. But read the attached piece from the Times in 2006. It really gives you a sense of the Greatness of the player. He could be the greatest ever.
- “We Had Our Perestroika. It’s High Time for Yours.” By Mikhail Gorbachev
“I have often told listeners that I feel Americans need their own change — a perestroika, not like the one in my country, but an American perestroika — and the reaction has been markedly different. Halls filled with thousands of people have responded with applause”
- REIT Forfeits a W Hotel – WSJ
This is pretty high end stuff. So, as I have been saying, it’s not just commercial but hotel & leisure that is getting killed here. “Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. intends to forfeit the 258-room W San Diego to its lenders after its efforts to reach a compromise on the luxury hotel’s $65 million securitized mortgage failed.”
- Baltic Dry Index – more than a snap-back rally – Prieur du Plessis
“The Baltic Dry Index – a measure of freight rates for iron ore and bulk commodities – rose non-stop for 23 sessions until Wednesday, before declining somewhat Thursday. This surge represents a gain of 517% from its low on December 5. But one needs to put this in perspective: The Index fell by 94% from its high in May 2008, and therefore still needs to rise by a further 188% to match the previous peak. More importantly, this rise seems to be more than a snap-back rally and points to better economic tidings”
- Achieving Email Bliss with IMAP, Gmail, and Apple Mail – Tidbits
“For the past few months, I’ve been unusually happy with my overall email situation. I won’t say it’s perfect, but it’s way better than it has been in the past…I’d like to share how I achieved my personal state of email satisfaction.”