You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September, 2008.
Mark Perry links up an article by Thomas Sowell:
The idea that politicians can assess risks better than people who have spent their whole careers assessing risks should have been so obviously absurd that no one would take it seriously. But the magic words “affordable housing” and the ugly word “redlining” led to politicians directing where loans and investments should go, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and various other coercions and threats.
More coercions and threats, i.e., laws and regulations, aren’t going to fix squat.
Google has pledged $10 million to launch ideas that will help as many people as possible.
If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We’re looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we’re committing the funding to launch them. You can submit your ideas and help vote on ideas from others. Final idea selections will be made by an advisory board.
I call dibs on submitting the idea for developing a matter-transmitter. You know, like that one in The Fly.
Via ArsTechnica.
Good.
Despite unprecedented calls for quick action, the White House’s $700 billion plan to rescue the financial industry appeared to fall apart late Thursday, less than 12 hours after a market-soothing deal seemed likely.
Anything that can delay or thwart Bernanke/Paulson/Bush saddling me with more taxation or financial obligations is a good thing.
Will it last?
I doubt it.
Consumerist.com has a simple Yes or No poll going to gauge reader support of the imminent bank bail-out:
Lawmakers are hashing out the details of a huge taxpayer-funded bailout of Wall Street in an attempt to keep afloat the system of banks whose willingness to lend drives this economy’s growth. Constituents have flooded their representatives phone lines and inboxes with with their heated reactions. What do you think?
When I voted just now it was 383 to 1967 against the bailout.
Not that it will make any difference.
Ben Bernanke advocated that Congress should use tax dollars to pay more for assets than their current estimated value:
Analysts said Bernanke is essentially advocating that government use a pricing model that assumes that the debt will be paid in full over a long period of time. That is different from the mark-to-market model used by investment banks that prices assets at what they are worth on a given day.
Bernanke’s remarks today indicate he favors paying above the market rate. “We cannot impose punitive measures on the institutions that choose to sell assets,” the Fed chief said today. “That would eliminate or strongly reduce participation and cause the program to fail.”
BuyMyShitPile has jumped on the bandwagon, and encourages you to submit your junk for Congress to purchase at any price you want, no matter what it’s actually worth:
Use the form below to submit bad assets you’d like the government to take off your hands. And remember, when estimating the value of your 1997 limited edition Hanson single CD “MMMbop”, it’s not what you can sell these items for that matters, it’s what you think they are worth. The fact that you think they are worth more than anyone will buy them for is what makes them bad assets.
It should be abundantly clear to even a chimp missing a chromosome that Bernanke and Paulson are completely delusional.
M J Perry wrote yesterday about what happened to Pakistan’s stock market when they banned short-selling. It wasn’t good.
CNN highlights five electric vehicles you can buy today. Four of the five are low-cost utilitarian transportation modules that look just like you might expect a low-cost electric car would look: pretty silly. On the other hand, the Tesla Roadster is easily the fastest and most attractive of the five, but comes with a pretty hefty price tag: $109k.
Of note is that a lot of high performance comes with that high price. Wikipedia notes that “the Tesla Roadster accelerates from 0 to 60 mph (100 km/h) in less than 4 seconds, and has a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h) (limited for safety).” Makes me wonder what the real top speed is. Also compare that sub-4-second 0-60 time with something like a 1992 Dodge Viper: 4.6 seconds. Not too shabby.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is like a small child:
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it had banned the short selling of shares in a bid to help crisis-ridden stock markets.
When it doesn’t like the inevitable outcome of the game it’s playing, it arbitrarily changes the rules.
Wired’s blog has a short article about William Yuan’s 3D solar cell design, which should be able to capture energy from UV light as well visible light making them more efficient. Pretty amazing development. Even more amazing: William is 12 years old.
The folks at Hack A Day demonstrate the powerful potential for using a thermite reaction to destroy your sensitive data at a moment’s notice. Note that in the photo above from Hack A Day’s article, the reaction has penetrated to the eighth layer of hell, unleashing a fountain of demons and brimstone.
This may seem just a bit excessive, until you learn that less fiery methods of data destruction, such as disk wipes, aren’t anywhere near as secure as they used to be.
Thermite demo via Gizmodo.
