Here are some easy tricks that I found to be very helpful in maintaining at least some sort of privacy and security for life on the internet (Note: This is in addition to keeping Windows, anti-virus software, Java, Flashplayer, etc. updated). Smartphones: If you use a smartphone (and a lot of apps) for everything…
Monthly Archives: August 2012
A Cacophony Of Discord, Default, And Visions Of Impossibility
by Wolf Richter • • 5 Comments
The Eurozone wasn’t supposed to be a house of cards. And as long as there was “confidence” that it would work, it worked: the financial markets offered cheap no-questions-asked loans to the most profligate governments that sucked up phenomenal amounts of money. But all that remains from this drunken frenzy are mountains of decomposing debt. Now taboos are violated, sacred cows are slaughtered, and the euro has been tossed on the chopping block.
Nuclear Radiation On San Francisco’s Treasure Island: We Don’t Need To Know, Apparently
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Nuclear Radiation On San Francisco’s Treasure Island: We Don’t Need To Know, Apparently
“That amount of radium found to date cannot be explained by gauges, deck markers, and decontamination activities,” wrote Stephen Woods, an environmental cleanup manager at the California Department of Public Health, about Treasure Island, the rectilinear speck of land in the San Francisco Bay two-and-a-half miles of white caps from our kitchen window. It summed up decades of US Government efforts to bury nuclear sins under layers of ignorance.
The Greek Bailout Sham Is Getting Gummed Up
by Wolf Richter • • 5 Comments
“Default is not necessarily destructive,” said Panayiotis Lafazanis, a Greek politician. “It is a weapon of the weak when they reach the point of not being able to pay their debts.” Closer to the truth than anything else emanating from Greek politics. “Not necessarily destructive” for the Greeks, but highly destructive for the European Central Bank that ended up with the Greek bonds; and for banks with derivative exposure to them. Hence the bailouts. To keep the bondholders afloat, not the Greeks—no one wants to recapitalize the ECB.
Natural Gas And The Brutal Dethroning of King Coal
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Natural Gas And The Brutal Dethroning of King Coal
It’s been tough for natural gas drillers. Prices crashed. Drilling activity collapsed. Producers are writing down their natural gas assets by the billions. And the bloodletting continues. On the other side, power generators have switched from coal to natural gas, pushing their consumption of it to new highs. A trend started two decades ago with a new technology and the usual suspect, Congress. A toxic brew for coal.
German Bailout Rebellion: “We Have Euro-Anarchy”
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
For German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ilk, it’s going to be a steamy August and an even steamier September and October with political battles left and right, to be fought mano a mano, as the Eurozone debt crisis and the growing bailout rebellion in Germany are migrating from parliamentary discussions, closed-door meetings, and shaky EU summits—21 of them so far—to electoral politics. Voters may finally have a say. And it doesn’t look good for the euro.
The Political Euro Revolt Spreads To Austria: “Europe Can Only Function If Every Country Has Its Own Currency”
by Wolf Richter • • 1 Comment
Germany and Austria may have their differences, and their love for each other may not always be palpable, but when it comes to money, they’re joined at the hip. And have been for decades. The peg of the Austrian schilling to the Deutsche mark that was put in place in the early 1970s survived even external shocks, for example when Italy devalued the lira on January 6, 1990, or again on September 14, 1992. Now the euro debate took on sharp tones in Austria. With a new theme: “Insolvency Procrastination.”
The Empire State Vixen Index And Other Befuddled Ironies
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Empire State Vixen Index And Other Befuddled Ironies
We’ve all heard about Wall Street employees who lost their jobs and ended up doing something unrelated, chasing after a dream, starting up a software company, working on a crab boat, teaching English to immigrants, run a taco truck, become a pole dancer…. So there should be indices that measure the number of people undergoing sudden and unlikely career changes—to give us a better gauge of the real job market.
Is The Greek Calamity Economy Headed For Revolt?
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Is The Greek Calamity Economy Headed For Revolt?
“Dire” is no longer the right word to describe the situation in Greece. Unemployment hit 23.1% in May, according to ELSTAT, the Greek statistical agency, which released the report on August 9. That it takes over two months to do a job—producing unemployment numbers—that other countries accomplish in a couple of weeks may be symptomatic of Greece’s calamity economy. And a calamity it is.
Ron Paul’s Legacy: A Complete Audit Of The Secretive Banking Cartel?
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Ron Paul’s Legacy: A Complete Audit Of The Secretive Banking Cartel?
They only bubble up rarely, these scandals at the Federal Reserve System, but when they do, they’re doozies, involving huge amounts of money, massive conflicts of interest, all-out manipulation, collusion, favoritism, dizzying cronyism…. Over the 100 years the Fed has existed, it has done an excellent job in one of its other functions, maintaining the dollar, which has lost only 96% of its value—instead of 100%. Yet, it just doesn’t want to be audited.