Lost my damn keys — running late today — here are some interesting items for your reading pleasure:
• Was There Insider Trading on S.&P.’s Downgrade? (DealBook) see also What Downgrade? Stocks Get It Back (WSJ) see also
• When money brought us together (Boston.com)
• Market’s got you down? Trade like a man (Market Watch)
• Roubini: Did George W. Bush cause this budget crisis? (Yes) (Money MSN)
• How Canada’s TD Bank Is Invading U.S. Market (WSJ)
• Paulson, Soros Pared Financial Stocks Last Quarter Before Losses (Busniessweek)
• Galbraith: Fixing the economy: We got it wrong (LA Times)
• Buffett Takes Off the Gloves? He’s Getting Worried. (Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up) see also Buffett higher tax call strikes a nerve (Reuters)
• Nevada Joins States Balking at Bank Releases in Foreclosure Practices Deal (Bloomberg)see also One answer to the foreclosure mess: More immigrants (LA Times)
• Apple-Google Duel for Mobile Supremacy Boon for Lawyers (Bloomberg)
What are you reading?
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Category: Financial Press
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc110815.htm
Oh, and as for your idea of bringing in “millions of engineers, PhD’s,” etc to solve the housing surplus:
There aren’t that many extant in the age cohort that would fit your idea. There are only about 1.7 million people in the US employed as engineers. The job market can’t absorb “millions” or even “hundreds of thousands” of engineers in the US.
When I was a noob engineer, fully 50% of our EE graduates in the early 80′s went into the defense sector. Let’s say that we’re successful in cutting the defense budget and that we’re (more specifically) successful in cutting idiotic projects like the F-35 from the budget. That’s going to be 10′s of thousands of engineers who will have to find another job.
The central problem for engineering employment in the US is that we’re increasingly a country that doesn’t “make stuff.” We provide “services.” To employ engineers, you need big projects that “make stuff” – like hydro dams, power systems, etc. Look at the “alternative energy” sector. Sure, it sounds real nice. All over Wyoming we see Suzlon wind turbines being put up in the air. Where are they made? Mostly India, with some in China. A few blades and nose cones here in the US. Where is the engineering done? Germany and Denmark. PV cells? Now made in China increasingly; US regulations make creating a fab line in the US too expensive for commodity silicon production.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1773403/made-in-china-the-3-that-would-save-our-economy
@dsawy
Yeah, it’s all those damned regs. I suppose that’s what killing Intel.
http://www.techeye.net/chips/intel-announces-8-billion-investment-in-next-gen-us-fabs
How does it make sense to make wind turbines in China?
The shipping should kill you.
The Right is blind to the windfall exploitation of the financial Elite, and the Left is blind to the windfall exploitation of those with access to Savior State free money.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug11/20-million-unemployed-8-11.html
JimRino — shipping is cheap. I used to figure 2 percent of value to ship steel in bulk from Asia. It’s gone up a bit, but not to the point of making Asian production uneconomical.
“Buffett higher tax call strikes a nerve”
Great interview of Buffett on Charlie Rose last night.
Well, where did you last put your keys?
@Mike in Nola: NB I said “commodity silicon production.” You obviously don’t know much about silicon production. A 22 nanometer fab line isn’t going to produce “commodity” chips, they’re going to be fat-margin chips that you can get from only Intel.
Most of you probably don’t remember (or never even knew) that Intel used to make DRAM chips here in the US in the 70′s and early 80′s, and they were the market leader. As the competition from Asia turned DRAM production into a commodity for everyone but IBM, Intel ceased DRAM production in the US, which was about 1985.
PV production isn’t remotely the same as CPU production. It is about as commodity as memory chips – lots of the same gates on the same wafer. Pud-simple compared to CPU production. Evergreen Solar learned this on our taxpayer dime:
http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/10/0305/evergreensolar.html
PV production is commodity silicon, and margins are falling in 2011 and will fall further in 2012.
BTW… Evergreen Solar just went tits up:
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view.bg?articleid=1358998&pos=breaking
So the GOP has got a secessionist to toss his turban into the ring…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D0R92mcTzWRw&source=android-browser-type&ved=0CA8QtwIwAQ&usg=AFQjCNHjwAzsst9ppObuCvS5c9T76STyQg
After their voters choose the wacky Bachmann as their front runner, the GOP has a Headache, a Secessionist and an Out-Sorceror.
B of A
Bank of America Eyes Higher-End Branches for Wealthy Customers – Shares Down
meaning automated/no branches for the more modestly resourced
many do this
but this is purest PR genius
Hmmm.. insider trading from S&P selective leak. It sure looked like that to me.
If that is true the securities and exchange commission should crucify these bastards.. speaking of the dark cross.
http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201109/peter-thiel-billionaire-paypal-facebook-internet-success#ixzz1VCNep352
Ape_girl,
That Peter Thiel article is so 1999. He is now interested in Friedman’s plan for Seastanding Institute where companies create offshore “countries” in which to conduct their affairs?
I remember reading about this back in 1999 in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon when someone else wanted to use a similar offshore place (fictional ) where they could create a data haven free from prosecution.
I also seem to recall a wired article detailing just such a place that someone tried to put together but which never really worked out as planned.
Ah here is the article from Wired.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/haven_pr.html
I am just a humble ape girl, forgive me for being a little behind the times on my knowledge of utopian civilizations….
Thanks for the link.