links for 2011-09-21

"Greece pledged to bring forward painful austerity measures on Tuesday, convincing international lenders to return to Athens early next week for talks that it hopes will secure the aid it needs to avert bankruptcy."

"the extent to which one believes in God may be influenced by one’s more general tendency to rely on intuition versus reflection. Three studies support this hypothesis, linking intuitive cognitive style to belief in God. Study 1 showed that individual differences in cognitive style predict belief in God."

"Should Greece actively seek an exit, in its own interests? Here economists are at odds. Mr Buiter thinks a currency devaluation useless, arguing that it would be eroded by inflation. Mr Roubini thinks it essential. I am with Mr Roubini. Greece has both a huge current account deficit and a depressed economy. A big real depreciation is required. It is far easier to achieve this via currency depreciation than cost deflation."

"Unlike Rick Perry, I don’t think it is treasonous to advocate easy money or tight money.  Treason is advocating policies that you know will hurt the country, because you hope you can derive political gain from America’s misfortune.  I’ll leave it to my readers to decide who should be charged with treason."

"Does this count as political interference? Republican leaders have sent a letter to Ben Bernanke telling him they really think he shouldn’t do anything else to help the economy."

"From the very beginning, Obama was advised by those favoring a "balanced," deficit-mindful approach, while he himself bought into self-defeating structural arguments. And so the stimulus turned out to be a wet blanket that leaves the economy faltering today."

"Greece will default and the sovereign debt crisis could drag on for years, but the eurozone will survive without full fiscal and political union, according to ratings agency Fitch."

"I haven't always held this view, but am becoming increasingly sympathetic to it.  Sometimes it is for the best of all that a bad, abusive relationship gets terminated.  Maybe it is time for Germany to leave the Eurozone."

"the ECB data on MFI (monetary financial institutions) deposits do not demonstrate that European banks are decreasing their cash holdings in Europe for the U.S. safe haven over the last six months. "

"an unconditional ECB bail-out could be dangerous, just as a eurobond would be if not accompanied by a fiscal union. You would resolve the short-term crisis, but the underlying imbalances would persist, and cause a further build-up of debt. It would delay a break-up of the eurozone, but would make it more probable in the long run."

"A hedge fund designed to profit from a slowdown in the Chinese economy, run by the London hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry, has soared in value over the past two months as global markets have plummeted and industry peers have suffered damaging losses."

"In the movie Wedding Crashers, Owen Wilson's character pours eye drops into an enemy's drink to put him out of commission and is rewarded with audience laughter. In real life, a Wisconsin college student does the same to her roommate and is charged with a felony that stuck her with 90 days in prison and 30 months of probation."

"In Saturday's Wall Street Journal, Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, gave his explanation of what's wrong with peak oil. Here's why I don't find his analysis altogether convincing."

"According to sources, Papandreou hopes that the outcome of such a vote would constitute a fresh mandate for his Socialist government to continue with an austerity drive backed by Greece’s international lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund."