Clipmarks | JICWyllie's 'i-policy' clips

The Future of Death at the Pentagon

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:52:16 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

"How long until they start thinking about weaponizing insects as well?" Earlier this year, I answered my own question. Not long was the reply. I reported that DARPA was now working to create cyborg insects for surveillance purposes, and -- an even more frightening prospect -- "that such creatures could be weaponized, and the possibility, according to one scientist intimately familiar with the project, that these cyborg insects might be armed with 'bio weapons.'"

According to DARPA's current chief, some 85%-90% of its projects fail to meet their full objectives.

what now captivates DARPA researchers once captivated comic-book readers -- the dream of creating a real-life Captain America, that weakling-turned-Axis-smashing-super-patriot by way of "super soldier serum."

If you're a researcher in crucial fields and want the time, funding, and latitude to be creative, your work must benefit the Pentagon

Tags: politics, military, i-research, i-policy, i-ethics

Mechanism for Credit Is Still Stuck

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:28:30 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

A year after financial tremors first shook Wall Street, a crucial artery of modern money management remains broken. And until that conduit is fixed or replaced, analysts say borrowers will see interest rates continue to rise even as availability worsens for home mortgages, student loans, auto loans and commercial mortgages.

The conduit, the market for securitization, through which mortgages and other debts are packaged and sold as securities, has become sclerotic and almost totally dependent on government support. The problems, intensified by bond investors who have grown leery of these instruments, have been a drag on the economy and have persisted despite the exercise of extraordinary regulatory powers by policy makers.

Bond investors first stopped buying private home mortgage deals, then shunned commercial mortgages. Now, they are becoming wary of credit card debts and auto loans.

“It appears that every time we peel away this onion, there is another layer,”

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-losses, i-increase, i-forecast

US stocks surge on ‘watershed’ dollar jump

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:33:34 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.ft.com

US stocks soared on Friday as the dollar saw its biggest one-day jump against the euro in eight years and oil prices plunged.

The moves marked a key reversal of a trend that many investors had followed profitably for months – betting that high commodity prices would keep the dollar weak.

The shift in sentiment was triggered by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, who warned on Thursday that third-quarter eurozone growth would be “particularly weak”. This sparked talk that the ECB would be forced to abandon its hawkish policy stance and start cutting interest rates, thereby weakening the euro.

Traders said the violence of the move was testimony to the extent to which the market had been surprised by economic weakness outside the US.

UK economic data has shown increasing weakness this week; officials in Japan warned that the economy was headed for a recession; and the Reserve Bank of Australia said it was planning to start cutting interest rates

Tags: economy, currencies, i-exchange rates, i-trend reversal

Fannie Mae admits it may need fresh capital

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:59:26 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

The possibility of a US government takeover of Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance giant, moved a step closer yesterday after the company said it may not have enough capital to make it through next year.

The company plunged to a larger-than-expected $2.3bn loss in the three months to the end of June, as American homeowners defaulted on their mortgages in record numbers.

The company said it saw no let-up to the problems in the housing market and in the global credit markets, where it has a big portfolio of investments that have also declined in value. In fact, things had got worse in July,

Fannie's capital cushion could be wiped out by additional losses in 2009. That would require it to raise additional funds. Fannie shares slipped 8 per cent in morning trading in New York as shareholders feared they could be wiped out by any rescue fundraising. The US Treasury has said it would do whatever it takes to ensure that Fannie and Freddie do not fail,

ncluding injecting taxpayers' money

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-policy, i-subsidy, i-losses, i-increase

At Freddie Mac, Chief Discarded Warning Signs

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:31:24 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The chief executive of the mortgage giant Freddie Mac rejected internal warnings that could have protected the company from some of the financial crises now engulfing it, according to more than two dozen current and former high-ranking executives and others.

That chief executive, Richard F. Syron, in 2004 received a memo from Freddie Mac’s chief risk officer warning him that the firm was financing questionable loans that threatened its financial health.

Though the current housing crisis would have undoubtedly caused problems at both companies, Freddie Mac insiders say Mr. Syron heightened those perils by ignoring repeated recommendations.

Mr. Syron received a memo stating that the firm’s underwriting standards were becoming shoddier and that the company was becoming exposed to losses,

According to many executives, Mr. Syron was also warned that the firm needed to expand its capital cushion, but instead that safety net shrank.

Syron

collected more than $38 million in compensation since 2003.

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-policy, i-mistakes

Don't make the consumer pay for these inflated fuel prices

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:01:23 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

If you want to criticise the free market, look at the design of Britain's energy markets, particularly the wholesale market for gas where the big companies buy and sell to one another. As gas prices shadow every movement in oil price, other European countries have carefully built a substantial infrastructure to hold sufficient reserve stocks of gas in their systems to smooth price changes. Not in free-market Britain.

Amazingly, as North Sea gas production declines and we become more dependent on imports, we have capacity to store only 13 days' worth of gas. Germany has 99 and France 122.

So as wholesale gas prices have risen, the British system has offered no buffer to smooth the impact.

The so-called London loophole, created by the Labour government, excuses the London oil market from independent and transparent oversight.

Speculation is part of the oil price rise, and most of it is rooted in out-of-control London.

Tags: energy, natural gas, i-supply, i-prices, i-policy, i-failure

The world cannot grow its way out of this slowdown

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:45:27 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.ft.com

financial market regulation is never going to be stringent enough in booms. That is why it is important to be tougher in busts, so that investors and company executives have cause to pay serious attention to risks.

today’s mess was many years in the making and there is no easy, painless exit strategy. But the need to introduce more banking discipline is yet another reason why the policymakers must refrain from excessively expansionary macroeconomic policy at this juncture and accept the slowdown that must inevitably come at the end of such an incredible boom.

this means significantly raising interest rates to combat inflation. For Treasuries, this means maintaining fiscal discipline rather than giving in to the temptation of tax rebates and fuel subsidies.

Tags: economy, currencies. i-interest rates, i-recession, i-policy, i-increase

Fed extends emergency lending for banks

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:50:10 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.ft.com

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced that it was extending two emergency lending facilities for banks until the end of January of next year.

Both had previously been scheduled to expire at the end of September, and the announcement means that the emergency measures will stay in place until after the next president takes office.

Markets responded positively to the move, which came before trading opened in New York, and the dollar strengthened on the news.

“These pre-emptive moves underscore that the liquidity tensions are with us for a while yet,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, strategist at Société Générale.

Explaining its move, the Fed pointed to “continued fragile circumstances in financial markets”

In a co-ordinated action, the European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank are also extending their operations to include auctions of 84-day funds, the Fed said.

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-policy, i-liqudity, i-increase

OPEC 2.0

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:06:01 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

AMERICANS today spend almost as much on bandwidth — the capacity to move information — as we do on energy. A family of four likely spends several hundred dollars a month on cellphones, cable television and Internet connections, which is about what we spend on gas and heating oil.

Like energy, bandwidth is an essential economic input.

A future possibility is to buy your own fiber, the way you might buy a solar panel for your home.

The solution is to relax the overregulation of the airwaves and allow use of the wasted spaces. Anyone, so long as he or she complies with a few basic rules to avoid interference, could try to build a better Wi-Fi and become a broadband billionaire. These wireless entrepreneurs could one day liberate us from wires, cables and rising prices.

Americans are as addicted to bandwidth as they are to oil. The first step is facing the problem.

Tags: technology, internet, i-bandwidth, i-prices, i-policy, i-deregulation

Mortgaged to the World

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:15:40 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

the Treasury will be allowed to advance money to Fannie and Freddie (and even to buy their stocks) in unlimited quantities to keep them afloat — in any fashion Mr. Paulson sees fit. Yet the Constitution requires that “no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” Even in wartime, budgets for the military specify how much is to be spent for what purposes.

as an alternative to increasing the national debt, Mr. Paulson wants to let the two mortgage lenders become preferred customers of the Fed’s discount window, with the authority to pawn their own securities for cash. But only Congress has the constitutional power to borrow on the credit of the United States.

It isn’t a good idea to authorize the Treasury secretary to spend unlimited amounts of taxpayer money,

Even worse is the notion that the Fed’s portfolio of assets — assets that back our currency — should be polluted by the inferior stuff of collateralized mortgage obligations.

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-policy, i-risks

Paterson and Bloomberg Warn of Huge Deficits

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:08:56 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Gov. David A. Paterson and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg warned on Monday of further deterioration in state and city finances, with each saying that he or his successor would have to grapple with huge budget deficits in the years ahead.

The state budget office’s last official estimates, issued in May, projected a $5 billion budget gap next year, increasing to $7.7 billion for 2010 and $8.8 billion for 2011, owing in large measure to layoffs and billions of dollars in losses at Wall Street firms, which account for a fifth of state tax revenue.

Tags: government, budgets, i-deficit, i-increase, i-policy

Write-Down Is Planned at Merrill

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:56:09 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Only 10 days after stunning Wall Street with a huge quarterly loss, Merrill Lynch unexpectedly disclosed another multibillion-dollar write-down on Monday and sought to bolster its finances once again by selling new stock to the public and to an investment company controlled by Singapore.

Moving to purge itself of the tricky mortgage-linked investments that have brought the once-proud firm to its knees, Merrill said that it had sold almost all of the troublesome investments, once valued at nearly $31 billion, at a fire-sale price of 22 cents on the dollar.

As a result, Merrill expects to record a write-down of $5.7 billion for the third quarter.

The problems at Merrill, the nation’s largest brokerage, underscore how bankers and policy makers are struggling to contain the damage to the financial system and the broader economy caused by the collapse of housing-related debt. The latest news came on a day when the International Monetary Fund said there was no end in sight to the housing slump

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-losses, i-increase

Paying To Save Tropical Forests Could Be A Way To Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:20:25 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

Columbus OH (SPX) Jul 29, 2008
Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years,

It would take about that much money to put an end to a tenth of the tropical deforestation in the world, one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, researchers estimate.

If adopted, this type of program could have potential to reduce global carbon emissions by between 2 and 10 percent.

Tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert land to grow crops and raise livestock, accounts for about a fifth of all human-caused carbon emissions in the world.

Carbon at $2 per ton could translate into rental values of $20 to $35 per hectare per year, and carbon prices of $10 per ton would trigger land rental values of $85 to $252 per hectare annually.

"These payment levels could generate substantial financial flows to landowners who reduce deforestation,"

Tags: environment, forests, i-climate change, i-policy, i-emissions, i-decrease

UK scientists hit out at new coal station plans

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:16:25 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

In a letter to The Observer, some of Britain's leading scientists claim that government plans to build new coal-fired power stations - without technology to cut emissions - will accelerate global warming.

unless Britain acts with urgency, it risks losing a world lead in carbon capture technology to other nations, including Canada, Germany and the US.

The furore over carbon capture reveals how coal power has become a key new target of UK environmentalists. Next Sunday, thousands will descend on Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent and try to shut it down.

Tags: energy, coal, i-policy, i-sequestration

Contaminated US site faces catastrophic nuclear leak

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:03:52 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Conditions at Hanford were deemed to be dangerous nearly 10 years ago!

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

ONE of "the most contaminated places on Earth" will only get dirtier if the US government doesn't get its act together - clean-up plans are already 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050.

More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground.

There are now "serious questions about the tanks' long-term viability," says a Government Accountability Office report, which strongly criticises the US Department of Energy for delaying an $8 billion programme to empty the tanks and treat the waste.

The DoE's plan, however, is "faith-based", says Robert Alvarez, an authority on Hanford at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. "The risk of catastrophic tank failure will sharply increase as each year goes by,"

Tags: energy, nuclear, i-costs, i-risks, i-increase