Precious

Angels with silver wings
Shouldn't know suffering
I wish I could take the pain for you

If God has a master plan
That only He understands
I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through

-- Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) 2005 

community design

Reliance on physical activity as an alternative to car use is less likely to occur in many cities and towns unless they are designed or retrofitted to permit walking or bicycling. The location of schools, work sites, and shopping areas near residential areas will require substantial changes in community or regional design.
-- Journal of the American Medical Association, Editorial (10/27/99)

government scale

"In a small town, government proceeds tolerably well. There is not much distance between governors and the governed. The latter know where the former live... and how they live... and how little difference there is between them. If the governors overreach, they are likely to find themselves beaten in the next election... or in the middle of the street.  But as the scale increases... as the distance between the governed and the governors increases... and as the institutional setting grows and ages... government becomes a bigger deal. More formal. More powerful. It can begin governing more grandly...."
-- Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning (11/21/12)

tomorrow is already here

Originally the set-up [was] to serve society. Now the roles have been reversed -- they want society to serve the institutions. 
-- Tim Gane / Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab) 1996

Radio Clash

This is Radio Clash, stealing all transmissions.
Beaming from the mountaintop, using aural ammunition.
With extreme prejudice on a terminator mission.
This is Radio Clash, consider your position.

Breaking news flash:  Assassination!
The whole country has been shot.
Evil will abate in revelation -- the ministry of whitewash.

This is Radio Clash from pirate satellite
Orbiting your living room, cashing in the Bill of Rights.
Cuban army surplus or refusing all third lights
This is Radio Clash on pirate satellite.

This sound does not subscribe to the international plan
In the psycho shadow of the white right hand.
Them that see ghettology as an urban Vietnam
Giving deadly exhibitions of murder by napalm.

Forces have been looting my humanity.
Curfews have been curbing -- the end of liberty.
Hands of law have sorted through my identity
But now this sound is brave and wants to be free!

-- The Clash (1981)

war is hell

"I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. Some say that war is all glory, but I tell you, boys, it is all hell."
-- William Tecumseh Sherman (1879)

rigged markets

Markets are so rigged by policymakers that I have no meaningful insights to offer. I am simply stunned that our policymakers seem so one-dimensional, so short-termist, and so utterly bereft of courage or ideas. It now seems obvious that in response to the financial crisis that has been with us for five years and counting, we are being told to double up on these same policy decisions [that have failed]. The crisis was caused by central bankers mispricing the cost of capital, which forced a misallocation of capital, driven by debt/leverage, which was ultimately exposed as a hideous asset bubble which then collapsed, destroying the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of relatively innocent people.

If you listen to the [policymakers in the US and Europe], it seems that the only solution they can offer up is to yet again misprice the cost of capital, in the hope that, yet again, through increased leverage/debt, we are yet again greedy enough to misallocate capital, which in turn will lead to yet another round of asset bubbles. Such asset bubbles are meant to delude us into believing that we are now "richer." When —- as they do by definition —- these bubbles burst, those who have been suckered in will realize that their "wealth" is instead an illusion, which in turn will be replaced by default risk...

When looking for where the bubbles may be, realize this: in this current cycle, where central bank balance sheets are at the core, the bubble is everywhere — in stocks, in bonds, in growth expectation, in credit spreads, in currencies, in commodity prices, in most real asset prices — you name it! This is why I think that this current bubble, if it is allowed to fester and develop into 2013, will have such widespread consequences when it bursts that it will make 2008 feel, relatively speaking, like a bull market... When this bubble bursts, I don’t think there is an easy way out. Who will be the bailout provider?

The longer we have to wait for the final resolution to the global financial crisis, the bigger and more devastating the final leg lower will be.

-- Bob Janjuah, Nomura Investments (February 20, 2012)

economists' numbers

Economists are not stupid. Especially those who win Nobel Prizes. They test well. They go to good schools. They can usually do higher math. Math is important to modern economics. It makes it look like science. So, if you review almost any PhD thesis in economics over the last 20 years, you are bound to find numbers. Lots of numbers. You’ll also find symbols. Greek symbols. And symbols from the mathematician’s trade. These symbols mean something. So do the numbers. And you can use these meanings to tease out even more confections. Complex. Sophisticated. Precise. Impressive. And generally not worth a damn. 

We say that after long observation. It is the result of careful reflection and reckless intuition. The observation has occurred over the last dozen years or so. Despite all their numbers, formulas and Nobel prizes, America’s leading economists, including the lead dog economist himself, Ben Bernanke, were apparently unable to see something so obvious that even we spotted it: the collapse of housing and the blow up of the credit market. Not that they are dumb. They are just following a different career path. 

A genuine economist keeps his eyes open. He reads the paper. He reads books. He studies history. He talks to taxi drivers and businessmen. He tries to understand what has gone on in the past... and what might be going on today. He has no illusions about it. The future will never be like the past. But there will be similarities. And those similarities can be studied. He has little appreciation for numbers. He knows they can’t be trusted. They are like whores and lobbyists — they will do their work for whomever pays them. He is especially wary of precise numbers. The greater the precision, the greater the lie. 

With their vision obscured by all their precise numbers and enhanced calculations, most economists could not see the crisis coming. On the evidence, their numbers are not very useful. But now they bring them out again... this time to solve the problem they never saw coming. 

-- Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning (July 19, 2012)

European Union

"One of the ironies of the European project is that this project that was set up to make us all love each other is actually beginning to make us hate each other.... Far from Europe coming together, Europe is being torn apart, and we are risking stirring up the very kind of nationalisms that the project was supposed to stop in the first place." -- Nigel Farage, UK Independent Party

economic correction continues

If the Feds would just leave well enough alone, Mr. Market would have handled the whole thing;  and we’d be out of this Great Correction by now. He would have knocked down almost all of Wall Street. He would have put dozens of our leading companies into Chapter 11, blown up trillions of dollars in derivatives, and forced thousands of bankers, brokers, businessmen, and hedge fund managers into early retirement.

That problem of unequal distribution of wealth, the rich getting richer and all? He would have taken care of it! And he would have done it all in a few short weeks in late 2008. By now, we’d have full employment again. And people building real wealth.

In other words, if the feds had not poured trillions of dollars down so many rat-holes -- good money after bad -- the whole thing would be over by now. We’d have a growing economy;  we’d have real businesses producing real stuff and paying real wages to real workers.

But the feds are on the job, and the job they’re on is to protect their voters and their campaign donors -- from Mr. Market. Of course, all they can do is delay the fix.  They can make the problem worse;  they can make the losses bigger;  but they can’t fix anything. Fixing requires pain, and the feds try to avoid pain at all costs -- especially when they are the ones who will feel it. So, they borrow and spend, and then print and spend, until the whole thing blows up.

-- Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning (June 6, 2012)