Links: 2009-07-14

  • Testing the Tesla Roadster Electric Sports Car – WSJ.com

    A muscle car that’s electric? Yes.

  • BerkShares, Buckaroos, and Bear Dollars: What Makes a Local Currency Tick? – Randy Wray

    More on California’s IOUs as a currency.

  • Whitney gives Goldman her only ‘Buy’ recommendation

    But shares are up nearly 200%. Isn’t she late to the party?

  • Valuing banks – FT Lex

    “I’m zero weight banks,” muttered many Japanese portfolio managers in the 1990s. Even if they wanted to buy Daiwa Bank (RIP) they were often barred by their client. No one wanted to touch them. Why? Not because they were not making money – they were. Banks were spurned because balance sheets were stuffed with near-dead loans that were never going to revive as the economy was obviously sick as a dog.

  • "Jane Roe" Arrested at Hearing — Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire

    She is now pro-life.

  • Shadow Banking: What It Is, How it Broke, and How to Fix It – Mike Rorty

    Very good discussion in view of move toward regulatory reform. Hat tip Marshall Auerback

  • Some Want the Whole Truth about What Went Wrong – Bill Black

    A worthy petition via the HuffPo

  • Pick-a-Pay Loans: Worse Than Subprime – WSJ.com

    "For the third straight month, option adjustable-rate mortgages are generating proportionally more delinquencies and foreclosures than subprime mortgages, the scourge of the U.S."

  • Meredith on Goldman – re-redacted – FT Alphaville

    Goldman as beneficiary of the debt issuance tsunami

  • Swearing ‘helps to reduce pain’ – BBC News

    "On average, the students could tolerate the pain for nearly two minutes when swearing compared with only one minute and 15 seconds when they refrained from using expletives."

  • Lenny Dykstra Loves The Hate, Urges Creditor Clowns Bring It On, Bro – Dealbreaker

    I think the title gives you the gist. The tabloids are eating this up.

  • McDonald’s to move European HQ to Geneva – Guardian

    Certainly, the EU see the Swiss as a threat because of their tax regime. Here is another reason why.

  • Slump Spreads to Health Care as Michigan Loses Auto Jobs – WSJ.com

    "The erosion of Michigan’s gold-plated health benefits, long the envy of workers across the U.S., is accelerating the state’s downward economic spiral."

  • Teenager causes City sensation with research on media: report in full – Telegraph

    How UK teenagers use media.

  • Australian PM Kevin Rudd under pressure to intervene over Rio Tinto detentions – Telegraph

    The evidence of bribery needs to be revealed or this will be a huge international scandal.

  • China’s central bank signals end to credit boom – Telegraph

    Lending doubled in May and June. Now, the central bank is ending this.

  • Why Berkshire’s cutting back on reinsurance – Felix Salmon

    If Berkshire is cutting back, it’s more likely to do with the going rates for re-insurance i.e. uneconomic offers one by the competition.

  • "The Hottest Places in Hell are Reserved for Those Who, in Times of Moral Crisis, Maintain a Neutrality" – Economist’s View

    This makes one think of Nazi Germany, but in this case it is health care at issue.

  • The Tipping Point: Fascinating but mythological? – vox

    I think this article is total nonsense. White flight out of inner suburbs is what drove the exurbs to new heights. And in the 1960’s and 1970’s it was very much a real phenomenon. This ‘repudiation’ of the Tipping Point is total rubbish – and that’s not a phrase I throw around lightly.

  • Money Monopoly – Mark Thoma

    Thoma sees more advantage to currency union in America than disadvantages. He does not favor having states create money. Is this what California’s IOU’s are doing? Debatable.

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