Issue #8

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ISSUE #8 - Friday, 3rd October 2008

• Justin Webb, The Times
  "The day America was born again"
  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4735147.ece
  
  DJR's gist: There are some controversial topics discussed in this article that I have no desire to state an opinion on, but at its core is a very interesting analysis of how the driving force of US politics and the American national psyche has fundamentally shifted over the last few years. As such, this election is likely to merely represent a front of more fundamental pscho-structural changes in the USA.

• Edmund S. Phelps, Wall Street Journal
  "We Need to Recapitalise the Banks"
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122282719885793047.html
  
  DJR's gist: Phelps won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Economics, and argues with one of the fundamental ideals of capitalism - Adam Smith's "invisible hand". Financial markets, he argues, are distorted by the bounded rationality of bankers, fund managers, investors and the rest of them - none of whom has the availability of perfect information that underpins the market model. Information is the key, as he suggests that "what has occurred is not just an old-fashioned banking crisis but also a banking scandal". Crucially, the markets are so crippled that any thought of them rescuing themselves is decidedly unlikely. Government-led remidial surgery is required to provide the institutions necessary to allow some sort of rebirth.

• Daniel Finkelstein, Comment Central blog, The Times
  "By not winning, Sarah Palin lost"
  http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/10/the-conventiona.html
  
  DJR's gist: Short and sweet, Fink goes against general consensus that Sarah Palin didn't lose last night's debate, by arguing that in the present electoral environment, anything short of an outright victory equates to failure and loss. Barack Obama's lead now appears to be decisive - much like it became in the primaries against Hilary Clinton - and it will take something spectacular from McCain to bring it back. It would seem that the only opportunities left for this to happen would be the two remaining Presidential debates... let's just hope it goes down like his credit crisis stunt.

• BBC News
  "BBC nuclear bomb script released"
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7648042.stm
  
  DJR's gist: New documents released by the National Archives include the transcript of a pre-recorded message from the 1970s that the BBC were to broadcast across the UK in the event that a nuclear bomb knocked it off the air. Reading the transcript that is linked in the report not only represents a chilling reminded of how close the world was to nuclear annihilation, but how limited any potential response could have been. Chilling stuff.

• Anne Ashworth, The Times
  "Locals happy to bid farewell to bollards of Fort Grosvenor"
  http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article4870815.ece
  
  DJR's gist: The announcement that after the best part of 200 years in one of the most exclusive locations in London - surrounded by some of the most expensive real estate in the world - the US Embassy will be moving to an area of London famed for its hardcore gay scene will no doubt bring delight to residents of the surrounding Mayfair streets. The Embassy is presently a fortress, with ugly concrete bollards all over the place and cars banned from roads. New tennants will almost certainly see an end to this, and probably going to be much more likely to pay the Congestion Charge.

• London 2012
  "New Olympic Park cameras give public front-row seats"
  http://www.london2012.com/news/archive/2008-10/new-olympic-park-cameras-give-public-front-row-seats.php
  
  DJR's gist: An awesome new addition to the London 2012 website, you can now see auto-refreshed images of all the major construction sites in the Olympic Park. Hopefully they'll add an archive of photos over a period of time so that you can see the progression of development, but judging by what is currently on show it is clear that things are still running very much ahead of schedule. Let's hope it stays that way for the next 3 years...

Issue #6

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ISSUE #6 - Wednesday, 1st October 2008

• Ben Macintyre, The Times
  "Wall Street's Masters of the Universe are dethroned"
  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article4856942.ece
  
  DJR's gist: The only news that matters continues to be the ongoing credit crisis, with journalists and commenators queuing up to take a swing at big business, corporate fat cats, regulators, governments, the US Congress, and capitalism itself. But regardless of who's to blame, there is a strong possibility that it the globalised world of today, the actions and outcomes that have emanated from the US in the last two weeks may fundamentally shift where economic power lies in the world. In the interim alone it has shifted from New York City to Washington, D.C., but in the longer run it is hard to see who will be willing to let US ideology prevail again. In the meantime, the all-conquering investment banks have made many people smile by biting the dust.

• Camilla Cavendish, The Times
  "Congress is the best advert for dictatorship"
  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article4856393.ece
  
  DJR's gist: In a somewhat unique take on who's to blame for the present financial crisis, Cavendish takes a wild swing at the US Congress, and by extension the superpower status of the USA. Whereas European finance ministers have acted decisively having "learned from American's mistakes", the US Congress have given an illustrative example of what happens when elected politicians, with conflicting preferences, end up making decisions in which the best choice isn't the popular choice. It is times like these when democracy fails, to the extent that Cavendish has "never felt more attracted to benign dictatorship...It should come as a desperate irony to every American that the only grown-ups today are in the capitals of Europe. Europeans are forging the way ahead as Washington's childish sulk brings America to a new nadir."

• Andrew Buncombe, The Independent
  "Brothers in court: billionaire blood feud"
  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/brothers-in-court-billionaire-blood-feud-942801.html
  
  DJR gist: Whichever way you look at this, it's ridiculous. A man is suing his elder sibling because the elder sibling may have suggested he did the occasional bad thing. Or, the sixth richest man in the world, whose $42bn wealth is about the equivalent of the GDP of Equador, is suing the fifth richest man in the world, whose $43bn wealth is about the same as the GDP of Slovenia. The settlement, of Rs.100,000,000,000/- (£1.2bn) would be substantially more than the entire annual GDP of the Central African Republic. It is silly money being bandied about by silly brothers. Their Mum should do what any good mother would do, and give them two good smacks.
  

• The Times of India
  "Tax dept asks Microsoft to pay up Rs 256 crore"
  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/Tax_dept_asks_MS_to_pay_up_Rs_256_cr/articleshow/3532472.cms
  
  DJR gist: In what is certainly not their first run-in with the Indian government, Microsoft has today been fined Rs256 crores (approximately £32m/$55m) for tax evasion. It appears that one of their offices who claimed to be conducting marketing activities directed at Singapore were, in fact, marketing directly to the Indian consumer. The Indian government never resist the opportunity to bash a foreign multi-national (remember Coca-Cola?), and immediately slapped them with a solid fine. Happy days all-round.
  
  Speaking of getting slapped, this link was indirectly provided by "Chouders the Vicissitudinous Ayatollah of Misogyny". Any time soon, he might get off his lazy arse and post his own notes, instead of complaining when other people forget to cite him. We shall see...
  

• Robin Harding, Financial Times - Technology Blog
  "The joys of magnetic tape"
  http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2008/10/is-that-a-window-or-a-tv-aerial/
  
  DJR gist: Cassettes may have been replaced with CDs, video may have made way for DVDs, and digital cameras are about to finish off photo film. What happens to the film-making companies? They invent film-coated glass that can act as a giant antenna... or as a heat-proof wall. Ingenious.