Observations on current events

Energy & Finance:

Saddam Hussein made a similar 'mistake' (read: not using the US$) shortly before he was removed...

Zawya.com - Iran: Oil bourse inaugurated
"The Iranian Oil Bourse was inaugurated on Monday in the Persian Gulf island of Kish as a venue to export oil and petrochemical products.
National Petrochemical Company's Managing Director Adel Nejad-Salim said in the opening ceremony that all petrochemical products will be gradually offered on the market, IRNA news agency reported.
The oil bourse is intended as an exchange market for petroleum, gas, and petrochemicals in various currencies, primarily the euro and Iranian rial, and a basket of other major currencies..."


The Rule Of Law:

The Hill: Dems: CIA may have misled Congress five times since 2001
"The CIA may have misled Congress at least five times since 2001, two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday.
Intelligence subcommittee Chairwomen Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) are leading an ongoing investigation into what they described as a practice of incomplete and often misleading intelligence briefings, which arose in the wake of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s June 24 admission that intelligence officials failed to notify Congress about a top-secret program to assassinate al Qaeda leaders..."

Drug Safety:

NY Times: Industry Years Behind on Testing Approved Drugs
"Federal drug officials have long been criticized for failing to force drug makers to complete studies proving that their drugs work as hoped, and Congressional investigators on Monday released yet another report pointing out that some of these studies remain undone many years after being promised.
The result is that doctors and patients remain unsure whether some critical medicines used to treat illnesses like cancer and heart disease are actually beneficial..."


Iraq:

NY Times: Auditor Faults Work on U.S. Embassy in Iraq
"As the measure of success in Iraq shifts from peacekeeping to reconstruction, one showcase for American aptitude is the new United States Embassy, the most expensive in the world. The embassy compound, which cost more than $700 million to build, covers 104 acres along the Tigris River and was built in a rapid 34 months amid often unstable conditions.
But according to a report issued last week by the State Department’s inspector general, the complex is a monument to shoddy work and incompetent oversight. Walls and walkways are cracking, sewage gas flows back into residences, wiring is substandard, fire protection systems are faulty and other safety provisions are not up to contract specifications.
The report says that construction 'was significantly deficient in multiple areas' and may not meet safety codes. It called on the State Department to seek $132 million in damages from the main construction company, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting, which received $470 million for work on the embassy..."


Shelter:

TreeHugger: 12 Ways To Use Shipping Containers As Offices, Housing and Art : TreeHugger
"...dozens of interesting designs for shipping container housing by designers of all abilities from all over the world. There seems to be no end to the enthusiasm for them. A case still can be made that they are designed for freight, not people, but imaginative responses keep coming. We did a roundup last year, but have covered enough new projects to do another..."


Consumer Packaging:

TreeHugger: All UK and Irish Tetra Pak Packaging to be FSC Certified
"Tetra Pak is the world's largest packaging company so when they decide to do something environmental it has a big impact. They have just announced that all of their UK and Irish packaging will be FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. That means that all the products using the Tetra Pak system will now be using environmental packaging with the FSC logo.
How big is big? This development will see supply increase from 200 million FSC-certified
packs available across the world in 2008, to over 1.5 billion packs in the UK and Ireland alone..."


Energy Usage:

On a related note, one can easily find out how much an appliance uses over time with a Kill-A-Watt Power Meter...

TreeHugger: Power Socket SWITCH Would Cut 11% Off Electric Bills
"We all know about phantom load--the electricity that continues to run through your electronics and appliances when they're turned off but still plugged in. Also called vampire power, it accounts for as much as a whopping 11% of our electricity usage. And while there have been products designed to fight the phantom loads, we haven't yet seen a truly viable large scale solution. But the Power Socket Switch might be just that--with the flick of a wrist, it lets you turn off the power flow to each socket it your home...."

Economics:

The Nation: The Bailout in Under Ten Minutes (video)
"Chris Hayes, provides a quick run-down of the bailout, its limited trajectory, and what its limitations mean for the Obama administration. Although Hayes' explanation is easy to understand, the continued profits that the bailout is providing for Wall Street--and no one else--are more difficult to swallow. Because of the staggering 17.5 trillion dollars being pumped, basically for free, into the banks, they're making profits--but the bucks stop there...."

Nomi Prins & Christopher Hayes: Meet the Hazzards
"As we mark the end of the first year of the financial bailout, the public seems to regard the government's actions with a toxic combination of rage and confusion. People are pissed off but too bewildered to know what to do with that anger. The confusion isn't an accident. The government hasn't exactly been forthcoming about how it's made buckets of money available to the banking sector. When it does disclose some information--such as in July's SIGTARP report from the Treasury or the Federal Reserve's weekly balance sheet--it's in the form of intimidating descriptions, accounting mumbo jumbo and technical reports that do little to illuminate just what the hell is going on.
What's worse, banks and the establishment press have portrayed TARP as the sum of the banking industry's federal subsidies. An August 30 New York Times article, 'As Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit,' gives the impression that taxpayers should be happy to have made $4 billion on the deal, as if our checks were in the mail. But when the government became Wall Street's bank, it wasn't just $700 billion of TARP money that flew north to Wall Street. TARP was but a small fraction (roughly 4 percent) of the full $17.5 trillion bailout and subsidization of the financial sector. [See image.] The details of this total bailout are complicated, but the basic mechanisms aren't beyond the average citizen's grasp. We're going to walk you through it..."

Economics:

Matt Taibbi: Wall Street's Naked Swindle
"A scheme to flood the market with counterfeit stocks helped kill Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers — and the feds have yet to bust the culprits..."

'The Yes Men' Strike Again!

NPR: Chamber Of Commerce In Climate Change Hoax
"A story that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had dropped its opposition to climate-change legislation turned out to be an elaborate hoax. Posing as the Chamber, a small environmental group held a news conference at the National Press Club and issued a press release over the Internet..."


Domestic Surveillance:

TechFlash: The CIA's In-Q-Tel venture arm invests in Visible Technologies
"The CIA is getting a new tool to help root out the bad guys, and what they might be saying on blogs, Twitter and other social media sites. In-Q-Tel, the venture arm of the CIA and the U.S. Intelligence community, has invested in Visible Technologies and entered into a technology development agreement with the Bellevue startup company.
Exact terms of the financing deal and just how the CIA plans to use the technology were not known, and Visible vice president of marketing Blake Cahill said he's not even sure of the intelligence agencies' plans. But Visible's online tools do provide some insight into what the in intelligence agency might be interested in. Backed by Ignition Partners and advertising giant WPP, Visible has created a product called truCast that tracks what people are saying on social media sites..."


Economics:

Since the People now hold a controlling interest in GM, missing an opportunity to change the course of this industrial giant seems foolish.

Max Fraser: Who's Afraid of Industrial Policy?


Prohibition:

A small step, but cannabis is still, absurdly, a Schedule I drug, according to the Feds:

The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

The Nation: Ending Federal Lawlessness: DOJ Eases Off Medical Pot
"During the 2008 campaign, one of candidate Barack Obama's best applause lines was a promise to restore respect for science when it came to federal policy making.
On Monday, President Obama kept a piece of that promise when his Department of Justice issued a directive ordering agency lawyers not to prosecute individuals who use or prescribe medical marijuana in states that have legalized the drug for that purpose.
'It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,' explained Attorney General Eric Holder. 'This balanced policy formalizes a sensible approach that the Department has been following since January: effectively focus our resources on serious drug traffickers while taking into account state and local laws.'
In the overall scheme of the drug-policy debate, this is a relatively small -- and cautious -- step.
But for medical-marijuana advocates, the administration's formal embrace of a more responsible approach represents a major breakthrough..."

Food:

The momentous problem of how one feeds the world can be understood by pondering the fact that one third of Americans ate some form of hamburger in the last 24 hours. The demand for ultra-cheap beef, pork & chicken, and the water-consuming & -polluting agribusiness infrastructure necessary to provide it, poses a huge obstacle.

The Observer (UK) - How will the world feed itself in 40 years' time?
"...in 40 years' time the global population will be 9.2 billion people – a third larger than it is now. But to feed us all, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says, we will need to produce twice as much food.
That's because, despite the threats of this century, most developing countries will get richer. At present 350m households in the world live on £8,000 a year or more. That figure is projected to increase to 2.1bn by 2030. And the richer they are, the more wastefully people eat. Generally the poor eat vegetables, while the rich eat food that eats vegetables. Lots of it. To produce 1kg of beef takes 10kg of grass or soya-based feed. A farmed fish will have eaten three times its weight in wild fish. And the rate at which the richest consume these things is amazing: Americans consume 120kg of meat each per year; in the developing world they eat 28kg..."


Economics & Government:

Bill Moyers: Was the Financial Bailout Just a Slick, Friendly Takeover of the Federal Government?
"...BM: You asked on your blog, just this week, a question I want to put to you now, and to both of you. You asked: 'Does this crisis reflect something about the disproportionate influence of a few incompetent investment bankers, or a deeper breakdown of capitalism?' What's your answer to your own question?

[Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF]: Well, definitely, there's disproportionate influence of some fairly incompetent bankers, that's for sure. That's what we're seeing today. That's what we've seen over the past few months.
I think on the issue of capitalism, we have to take this very seriously. To me, at least, the financial part of our capitalism is very seriously broken.
They persuaded us to allow them to take incredible risks. And then they pushed all the downside, all those losses onto us, the taxpayer, at the same time as really hammering hard all the people who were duped, essentially, into taking out loans. People lost their houses. It's an absolute tragedy. This combination cannot go on.
And yet, the opportunity for real reform has already passed. And there is not going to … not only is there not going to be change, but I'll go further. I'll say it's going to be worse, what comes out of this, in terms of the financial system, its power, and what it can get away with..."

Calvin Trillin: Wall Street Smarts
"'If you really want to know why the financial system nearly collapsed in the fall of 2008, I can tell you in one simple sentence,'...
...'The financial system nearly collapsed,' he said, 'because smart guys had started working on Wall Street,'...
...'One of the speakers at my 25th reunion said that, according to a survey he had done of those attending, income was now precisely in inverse proportion to academic standing in the class, and that was partly because everyone in the lower third of the class had become a Wall Street millionaire,'..."


Technology:

LA Times: Analysis of cellphone studies finds tumor risk
"Scientists looking at 23 studies involving almost 38,000 people initially see no connection. But a closer look at the highest-quality studies tells another story..."

Health Insurance Reform?

NY Times: Lobbyists Fight Last Big Plans to Cut Health Care Costs
"As the health care debate moves to the floor of Congress, most of the serious proposals to fulfill President Obama’s original vow to curb costs have fallen victim to organized interests and parochial politics..."


Education:

Paul Krugman: The Uneducated American
"...The rise of American education was, overwhelmingly, the rise of public education — and for the past 30 years our political scene has been dominated by the view that any and all government spending is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Education, as one of the largest components of public spending, has inevitably suffered.
Until now, the results of educational neglect have been gradual — a slow-motion erosion of America’s relative position. But things are about to get much worse, as the economic crisis — its effects exacerbated by the penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior that passes for 'fiscal responsibility' in Washington — deals a severe blow to education across the board..."


Technology & The Environment:

Ecofont: less is more
"...'After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well.'
Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink..."

Energy:

While I'm certainly no fan of Dow Chemical as a corprate citizen, the fact that this product makes sense to a large American conglomerate is a positive sign.

Reuters: Dow to sell solar shingle, sees huge market
"Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it would begin selling a new rooftop shingle next year that converts sunlight into electricity -- and could generate $5 billion in revenue by 2015 for the company.
The new solar shingles can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingles, Dow said, and will be introduced in 2010 before a wider roll-out in 2011..."


Economics:

This story sent shockwaves through financial markets yesterday, and was quickly 'denied.' Saddam Hussein converted to the Euro for Iraq's oil exports in the fall of 2000, and we saw what happened to him. However, it is not as though the U.S. could intimidate all of the players involved in this latest story.

Robert Fisk: The demise of the dollar
"In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years..."

On naked short-selling, an arguably significant problem in today's equity markets...

Matt Taibbi: Caught On Tape: A Naked Swindle
"Continuing with the theme of naked short-selling, I have a video that was given to me last week that will allow people to see how naked short-selling can take place..."


Middle East:

ElBaradei is taking a risk by mentioning the unmentionable?

Xinhua (China): ElBaradei says nuclear Israel number one threat to Mideast: report
"Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that 'Israel is number one threat to Middle East' with its nuclear arms, the official IRNA news agency reported.
At a joint press conference with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran, ElBaradei brought Israel under spotlight and said that the Tel Aviv regime has refused to allow inspections into its nuclear installations for 30years, the report said.
'Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses,' ElBaradei was quoted as saying..."


Corporate Personhood

Privacy Law Blog: Since when does a legal entity have 'privacy' rights?
"Since the Third Circuit said so, in its September 22, 2009 decision in AT&T v. Federal Communications Commission (No. 084024).
Most privacy practitioners would not consider a legal entity to have privacy rights. Rather, a legal entity may have trade secrets or contractual confidentiality protections. However, in its novel holding, the Third Circuit found that a corporation (AT&T) was protected by an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that applies to 'unwarranted invasions of personal privacy,'..."

Health Insurance Reform?

Michael Moore: Why the Current Bills Don't Solve Our Health Care Crisis
"The current bills advancing in Congress look more like rearranging the deck chairs on the insurance Titanic than actually ending our long health care nightmare.
Some laudable elements are in various versions of the bills, especially expanding Medicaid, cutting the private insurance-padding waste of Medicare Advantage, and limiting the ability of the insurance giants to ban and dump people who have been or who ever will be sick.
But, overall, the leading bills and the President's proposal are, like the dog that didn't bark, more notable for what is missing.
Here are 13 problems with the current health care bills (partial list)..."


Income Inequality:

The people at the top of the pyramid have successfully convinced a majority of Americans that they, too, could some day be at the top, which is why they should never want to tax the rich too heavily.

Les Leopold: The Forbes 400 Shows Why Our Nation Is Falling Apart
"It's great to know that during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans, according to Forbes, actually increased by $30 billion. Well golly, that's only a 2 percent increase, much less than the double digit returns the wealthy had grown accustomed to. But a 2 percent increase is a whole lot more than losing 40 percent of your 401k. And $30 billion is enough to provide 500,000 school teacher jobs at $60k per year.
Collectively, those 400 have $1.57 trillion in wealth. It's hard to get your mind around a number like that. The way I do it is to imagine that we were still living during the great radical Eisenhower era of the 1950s when marginal income tax rates hit 91 percent. Taxes were high back in the 1950s because people understood that constraining wild extremes of wealth would make our country stronger and prevent another depression. (Well, what did those old fogies know?)
Had we kept those high progressive taxes in place, instead of removing them, especially during the Reagan era, the Forbes 400 might each be worth 'only' $100 million instead of $3.9 billion each. So let's imagine that the rest of their wealth, about $1.53 trillion, were available for the public good.
What does $1.53 trillion buy?..."


Transportation:

Vimeo: Boulder Bike Story
"This is the story of how any town can become bike friendly..." [13 min. video]