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In the Kitchen With Nathan Myhrvold
If someone were to gift me with the five volume set
I would study it.Those are some really low temperatures for cooking.
Mother has trouble believing that food will be good if it is left on low heat.
A quick finish is what she is looking for.
Eggs go hard at about 183f. -
ahmed
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Winning Progressive
I don't know how much you want.
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dalbin
Same here.
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dalbin
Marie Burns
Fort Myers, Floridahttp://www.realitychex.com
POSTED January 18, 2012
http://www.borowitzreport.com"Internet Blackout Forces Millions to Interact with Each Other
Awkward Silences, Unwanted Eye Contact Cause Widespread Panic
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – The blackout of thousands of Internet sites in protest of the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation forced millions of people across the country to interact with each other today.
Reports of interpersonal interactions created panic from coast to coast as Americans braced themselves for the horror of awkward silences and unwanted eye contact.
And even as officials warned people to remain calm, millions affected by the blackout feared the worst: conversations with members of their immediate family.
Davis Logsdon, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota who lectures extensively on the effect of sudden Internet blackouts on mental health, offered these words of advice for those who may be forced into direct contact with other human beings: “Be prepared. Write down possible topics to talk about in advance. Sports is a good one, and of course the weather. Remember, a conversation is basically a series of Facebook updates strung together.”
He also offered these words of hope for those trapped interacting with other people due to the Internet blackout: “At some point, those websites will go back on, and hopefully you won’t have to go through anything like this again for a long, long time.”" Curried Tofu
I can cook this but . . .
You will not want to be near me an hour after I eat it.
Commercial tofu is beans and I have an Anglo-Saxon gut.
I have made tofu from beans. I can make beans that do not ferment.
worth research.-
Winning Progressive
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Senka
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Bank Said No? Hedge Funds Fill a Void in Lending
“Bank Said No? Hedge Funds Fill a Void in #Lending - http://nyti.ms/jMVYJX #banks #fraud #crisis #wallstreet”
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/the-fof-theory-of-the-gop-primary/
The FOF Theory of the GOP Primary
Steve Benen notes that by normal standards, Mitt Romney is a terrible candidate — but just not as bad as his rivals. He adds,
I often wonder what the race for the Republican nomination would look like this year if Romney had just one credible opponent.
But that wasn’t going to happen! The weakness of the GOP field is not an accident.
I view the primary race through the lens of the FOF theory — that’s for “fools and frauds”. It goes as follows: to be a good Republican right now, you have to affirm your belief in things that any halfway intelligent politician can see are plainly false. This leaves room for only two kinds of candidates: those who just aren’t smart and/or rational enough to understand the problem, and those who are completely cynical, willing to say anything to get ahead.
What sort of things am I talking about? They range from the belief that Obama is a socialist who will destroy America with his dastardly Heritage Foundation devised health care plan, to the belief that unemployment is high because lazy people prefer their unemployment insurance checks. On budget matters, you have to claim to believe that we can cut taxes sharply, maintain high military spending, and eliminate the deficit — all without upsetting those Republican-voting Medicare recipients.
Notice that in the end, when it came to budget claims, even the supposedly hard-headed types — (cough) Paul Ryan (cough) — ended up relying on gigantic magic asterisks.
So what you have are fairly dim types like Perry, on the one side, and the utterly cynical Romney, on the other. (Gingrich manages to be both a fool and a fraud). Maybe, just maybe, the GOP could have found someone able to achieve Romney-level cynicism while coming across as sincere; but political talent on that level is quite rare. I mean, the various non-crazy-non-Romneys who were supposed to have a shot all turned out to be duds, e.g. Pawlenty.
The weakness of the GOP field is, in short, structural. Without the still-terrible economy, they wouldn’t have a chance.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/currencies-prices-and-mike-mussa-a-bit-wonkish/
Currencies, Prices, and Mike Mussa (A Bit Wonkish)
Michael Mussa died yesterday. I didn’t know him well, but like everyone in international economics, I was greatly informed by his work.
Probably his most influential paper — certainly the one that had the biggest impact on me — was his 1986 paper (pdf) on currency regimes and the behavior of real exchange rates. This bore on the question of whether exchange rate changes make adjustments in relative costs and prices easier; it bore more broadly on the question of whether prices are flexible, as fresh-water economists like to assume, or instead sticky in nominal terms.
Mussa had a simple but powerful insight: if prices were flexible, then all relative prices should be determined by “real” factors, and their behavior shouldn’t change if, say, a country goes from a fixed exchange rate to a flexible rate or vice versa. As he pointed out, this proposition could be tested using a natural experiment, the breakdown of Bretton Woods and the move to floating rates. Did the behavior of real exchange rates — relative price levels expressed in a common currency — change?
And how. Here’s one of the figures from his paper, with all variables expressed in natural logs:
With the end of fixed rates, relative prices became much more variable, with real exchange rates tracking nominal rates.
By the way, there was a second natural experiment with Europe’s move back to fixed rates, and then eventually to the euro. Once again real exchange rate behavior changed markedly.
All this amounts to the single most compelling demonstration that prices are indeed sticky, with all that follows from that observation — in particular, the case for activist monetary and fiscal policies to fight slumps.
I suspect that evidence like this is one reason international macroeconomists have been less likely than domestic macro types to march off into the dreamworld of real business cycles and all that.
Anyway, Mussa was a fine economist, and will be missed,
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/check-out-their-low-low-taxes/
Check Out Their Low, Low Taxes
Source.
As Ezra Klein says, the real issue raised by Romney’s maybe-revelation — are we sure that his tax rate is even as high as 15 percent? How much is shielded in tax havens? We need the returns — is the way our system allows those with very high income to pay substantially lower taxes than the upper middle class. If capital gains and other investment income didn’t receive special treatment, we’d be getting substantially more revenue. Why does our political elite talk only about cuts to social insurance, and not at all about raising more revenue from the upper tail of the income distribution?"
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jmcaninch68
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A Novel Court Model to Aid Veterans With P.T.S.D.
“A Novel Court Model to Aid #Veterans With #P.T.S.D. - http://nyti.ms/raGBkU” -
No, We Can’t? Or Won’t?
“Paul Krugman on jobs: "No, We Can’t? Or Won’t?" - http://nyti.ms/qT042u #p2 #topprog”
"If you were shocked by Friday’s job report, if you thought we were doing well and were taken aback by the bad news, you haven’t been paying attention. The fact is, the United States economy has been stuck in a rut for a year and a half.Yet a destructive passivity has overtaken our discourse. Turn on your TV and you’ll see some self-satisfied pundit declaring that nothing much can be done about the economy’s short-run problems (reminder: this “short run” is now in its fourth year), that we should focus on the long run instead.
This gets things exactly wrong. The truth is that creating jobs in a depressed economy is something government could and should be doing. Yes, there are huge political obstacles to action — notably, the fact that the House is controlled by a party that benefits from the economy’s weakness. But political gridlock should not be conflated with economic reality.
Our failure to create jobs is a choice, not a necessity — a choice rationalized by an ever-shifting set of excuses.
Excuse No. 1: Just around the corner, there’s a rainbow in the sky.
Remember “green shoots”? Remember the “summer of recovery”? Policy makers keep declaring that the economy is on the mend — and Lucy keeps snatching the football away. Yet these delusions of recovery have been an excuse for doing nothing as the jobs crisis festers.
Excuse No. 2: Fear the bond market.
Two years ago The Wall Street Journal declared that interest rates on United States debt would soon soar unless Washington stopped trying to fight the economic slump. Ever since, warnings about the imminent attack of the “bond vigilantes” have been used to attack any spending on job creation.
But basic economics said that rates would stay low as long as the economy was depressed — and basic economics was right. The interest rate on 10-year bonds was 3.7 percent when The Wall Street Journal issued that warning; at the end of last week it was 3.03 percent.
How have the usual suspects responded? By inventing their own reality. Last week, Representative Paul Ryan, the man behind the G.O.P. plan to dismantle Medicare, declared that we must slash government spending to “take pressure off the interest rates” — the same pressure, I suppose, that has pushed those rates to near-record lows.
Excuse No. 3: It’s the workers’ fault.
Unemployment soared during the financial crisis and its aftermath. So it seems bizarre to argue that the real problem lies with the workers — that the millions of Americans who were working four years ago but aren’t working now somehow lack the skills the economy needs.
Yet that’s what you hear from many pundits these days: high unemployment is “structural,” they say, and requires long-term solutions (which means, in practice, doing nothing).
Well, if there really was a mismatch between the workers we have and the workers we need, workers who do have the right skills, and are therefore able to find jobs, should be getting big wage increases. They aren’t. In fact, average wages actually fell last month.
Excuse No. 4: We tried to stimulate the economy, and it didn’t work.
Everybody knows that President Obama tried to stimulate the economy with a huge increase in government spending, and that it didn’t work. But what everyone knows is wrong.
Think about it: Where are the big public works projects? Where are the armies of government workers? There are actually half a million fewer government employees now than there were when Mr. Obama took office.
So what happened to the stimulus? Much of it consisted of tax cuts, not spending. Most of the rest consisted either of aid to distressed families or aid to hard-pressed state and local governments. This aid may have mitigated the slump, but it wasn’t the kind of job-creation program we could and should have had. This isn’t 20-20 hindsight: some of us warned from the beginning that tax cuts would be ineffective and that the proposed spending was woefully inadequate. And so it proved.
It’s also worth noting that in another area where government could make a big difference — help for troubled homeowners — almost nothing has been done. The Obama administration’s program of mortgage relief has gone nowhere: of $46 billion allotted to help families stay in their homes, less than $2 billion has actually been spent.
So let’s summarize: The economy isn’t fixing itself. Nor are there real obstacles to government action: both the bond vigilantes and structural unemployment exist only in the imaginations of pundits. And if stimulus seems to have failed, it’s because it was never actually tried.
Listening to what supposedly serious people say about the economy, you’d think the problem was “no, we can’t.” But the reality is “no, we won’t.” And every pundit who reinforces that destructive passivity is part of the problem."
The article needs no comment.
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For News Corporation, Troubles That Money Can't Dispel
“For News Corporation, Troubles That Money Can't Dispel - http://nyti.ms/pU6MfJ #Murdoch ”The resolution of the Murdoch problem will destroy the conservative cause on both sides of the Atlantic.There is no power constituency for that.It is the only necessary precondition for dealing with the world economy. -
Letting Bankers Walk
“RT @NYTimesKrugman - Letting Bankers Walk - http://nyti.ms/pjo82j #Economy #Finance #Mortgages #Housing”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/opinion/18krugman.html?src=tp"Letting Bankers Walk
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: July 17, 2011
Ever since the current economic crisis began, it has seemed that five words sum up the central principle of United States financial policy: go easy on the bankers.This principle was on display during the final months of the Bush administration, when a huge lifeline for the banks was made available with few strings attached. It was equally on display in the early months of the Obama administration, when President Obama reneged on his campaign pledge to “change our bankruptcy laws to make it easier for families to stay in their homes.” And the principle is still operating right now, as federal officials press state attorneys general to accept a very modest settlement from banks that engaged in abusive mortgage practices.
Why the kid-gloves treatment? Money and influence no doubt play their part; Wall Street is a huge source of campaign donations, and agencies that are supposed to regulate banks often end up serving them instead. But officials have also argued at each point of the process that letting banks off the hook serves the interests of the economy as a whole.
It doesn’t. The failure to seek real mortgage relief early in the Obama administration is one reason we still have 9 percent unemployment. And right now, the arguments that officials are reportedly making for a quick, bank-friendly settlement of the mortgage-abuse scandal don’t make sense.
Before I get to that, a word about the current state of the mortgage mess.
Last fall, we learned that many mortgage lenders were engaging in illegal foreclosures. Most conspicuously, “robo-signers” were attesting that banks had the required documentation to seize homes without checking to see whether they actually had the right to do so — and in many cases they didn’t.
How widespread and serious were the abuses? The answer is that we don’t know. Nine months have passed since the robo-signing scandal broke, yet there still hasn’t been a serious investigation of its reach. That’s because states, suffering from severe budget troubles, lack the resources for a full investigation — and federal officials, who do have the resources, have chosen not to use them.
Instead, these officials are pushing for a settlement with mortgage companies that, reports Shahien Nasiripour of The Huffington Post, “would broadly absolve the firms of wrongdoing in exchange for penalties reaching $30 billion and assurances that the firms will adhere to better practices.”
Why the rush to settle? As far as I can tell, there are two principal arguments being made for letting the banks off easy. The first is the claim that resolving the mortgage mess quickly is the key to getting the housing market back on its feet. The second, less explicitly stated, is the claim that getting tough with the banks would undermine broader prospects for recovery.
Neither of these arguments makes much sense.
The claim that removing the legal cloud over foreclosure would help the housing market — in particular, that it would help support housing prices — leaves me scratching my head. It would just accelerate foreclosures, and if more families were evicted from their homes, that would mean more homes offered for sale — an increase in supply. An increase in the supply of a good usually pushes that good’s price down, not up. Why should the effect on housing go the opposite way?
You might point to the mortgage relief that would supposedly be extracted as part of the settlement. But if mortgage relief is that crucial, why isn’t the administration making a major push to reinvigorate its own Home Affordable Modification Program, which has spent only a small fraction of its money? Or if making that program actually work is hard, why should we believe that any program instituted as part of a mortgage-abuse settlement would work any better?
Sorry, but the case that letting banks off the hook would help the housing market just doesn’t hold together.
What about the argument that getting tough with the banks would threaten the overall economy? Here the question is: What’s holding the economy back?
It’s not the state of the banks. It’s true that fears about bank solvency disrupted financial markets in late 2008 and early 2009. But those markets have long since returned to normal, in large part because everyone now knows that banks will be bailed out if they get in trouble.
The big drag on the economy now is the overhang of household debt, largely created by the $5.6 trillion in mortgage debt that households took on during the bubble years. Serious mortgage relief could make a dent in that problem; a $30 billion settlement from the banks, even if it proved more effective than the government’s modification program, would not.
So when officials tell you that we must rush to settle with the banks for the sake of the economy, don’t believe them. We should do this right, and hold bankers accountable for their actions."
There have been some headlines but no changes.
Foreclosures are picking up a bit.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/01/fnc-and-zillow-house-price-indexes-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculated+Risk%29"In nominal terms, Case-Shiller and CoreLogic show prices are back to 2003 levels too. In real terms (and as a price-to-rent ratio), prices are back to 2000 levels.
Even though there are some differences between the indexes, on a year-over-year basis they are fairly close with CoreLogic down 4.3%, FNC down 4.9%, and Zillow down 4.6%."
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/01/hud-secretary-donovan-mortgage.html"From the WSJ: U.S., Banks Near 'Robo-Signing' Settlement"Administration officials and attorneys general are "very close" to a settlement with major banks of the so-called robo-signing issues after about a year of negotiations, [Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan] said at a conference of U.S. mayors meeting in Washington.
The reductions in borrowers' principal balances contained in the settlement, Mr. Donovan said, will be "far and away the largest principal reduction of the [housing] crisis" ...
For months, officials have said that a settlement is close, only to be frustrated by new hurdles. ... Meanwhile, regional banks are also preparing for an agreement. U.S. Bancorp Inc. said Wednesday that it took a $130 million fourth-quarter charge tied to matters that involve collectingmortgage payments and foreclosing on delinquent home owners.""The settlement was "close" last year, and now it is "very close". The story mentions some regionalbanks taking charges that appear related to the settlement - and that suggests "very close" is probably means the next month or two."I doubt it.http://www.crgraphs.com/2011/10/house-price-graphs.htmlTitle: Case-Shiller year-over-year House Price Index, October, post on Dec 27, 2011
Post: Case Shiller: House Prices fall to new post-bubble lows in October (seasonally adjusted)
This is the change. It is less negative than it was.It is negative
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/Financial crisis latest news
The Armageddon threatened at the end of 2011 hasn't happened - yet
Latest unemployment figures confirm our economic woes while the cauldron of uncertainty continues to roil in the eurozone.
18 Jan 2012| 1 CommentTaxpayers face new £17.5bn IMF bail-out bill
International Monetary Fund makes request for an extra £17.5 billion to help bail out struggling European countries.
18 Jan 2012| 149 CommentsGreece fails to reach agreement with creditors
Greece failed to reach an agreement with its international creditors on Wednesday, further extending the critical bondholder talks.
18 Jan 2012| 7 CommentsDoubt over IMF's eurozone lifeline
Traders were unconvinced by a radical proposal by the International Monetary Fund to deploy $1 trillion to stem the European debt crisis and its impact on the global economy.
18 Jan 2012| 58 CommentsDebt crisis: as it happened January 18
Conservative backbencher attacks IMF attempts to increase resources to tackle eurozone contagion that will see Britain stump up a further £15bn, while German finance minister doubts US will support the plan.
18 Jan 2012| 1035 CommentsHungary PM hopes for quick remedy to dispute with EU
European Union concerns over Hungary's disputed laws on its central bank and judiciary can be resolved swiftly, Prime Minister Viktor Orban tells the European Parliament in an effort to stave off legal action by Brussels and win an aid package from the EU and IMF.
18 Jan 2012| 2 CommentsWorld Bank: euro crisis could set off deeper slump than Lehman
The World Bank has slashed its global growth forecast and told developing nations to prepare for the worst, warning that Europe’s debt crisis could trigger an even deeper slump than the post-Lehman collapse three years ago.
18 Jan 2012| 15 CommentsIMF push for $1 trillon rescue fund to cost UK £15bn
Downing Street says Britain is ready to consider a request for extra funds from the International Monetary Fund, which is seeking to boost its firepower to around $1 trillion to safeguard the global economy.
18 Jan 2012| 53 CommentsGermany cuts 2012 growth view but vows no recession
German growth will slow sharply this year, the government said this morning, but vowed Europe's top economy would dodge recession despite the ongoing eurozone crisis and weaker demand from emerging markets.
18 Jan 2012| 4 CommentsMan's client fund outflow
Top stories: UK jobs, Gold tip, Man Group and Wetherspoon.
18 Jan 2012| CommentWorld Bank warns emerging nations to prepare for slump
The World Bank warned developing countries on Wednesday to prepare for the "real" risk that an escalation in the euro area debt crisis could tip the world into a slump on a par with the global downturn in 2008/09.
18 Jan 2012| 12 CommentsOccupy protesters march through DC
Hundreds of protesters held a rally outside the White House in Washington DC, forcing a temporary lock-down of the building after a smoke bomb was thrown over its fence.
18 Jan 2012Debt crisis: Cameron holds talks with Italy's Mario Monti
Prime Minister David Cameron will hold talks on the eurozone debt crisis with the leader of one of the countries at the heart of the storm, Italy's Mario Monti, in London today.
18 Jan 2012| 20 CommentsVan Rompuy: S&P rate cut will not affect euro rescue fund
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy claims Standard & Poor's downgrade of Europe's bailout fund will have no impact on the fund's capacity.
17 Jan 2012Greece prepares to give way to banks to secure debt deal
Greek government and international officials have signalled they will yield to the demands of banks and hedge funds in order to secure a bond deal before the end of the week.
17 Jan 2012| 113 Comments -
New Autism Study Implicates Environmental Factors
“New #Autism Study Implicates Environmental Factors - http://nyti.ms/lg8EEU #Environment”This is important but not very informative.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutismThe article does not deal with this Times report.I will dig at it if you wish.Bookmark: Read onThe study is behind a paywall. -
Coal Curriculum Called Unfit for 4th Graders
“Coal Curriculum Called Unfit for 4th Graders - http://nyti.ms/mNhhCb #Scholastic #Education #TopProg”
Scandalous propaganda.
No, We Can’t? Or Won’t?
“Paul Krugman on jobs: "No, We Can’t? Or Won’t?" - http://nyti.ms/qT042u #p2 #topprog”
The article is very clear. It needs no further comment.
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/no-deal-greek-bondholders-do-not-think-agreement-can-be-reached-crunch-date
This looks like an ultimatum.
Hedge Funds May Sue Greece if It Tries to Force Loss
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
LONDON — Hedge funds have been known to use hardball tactics to make money. Now they have come up with a new one: suing Greece in a human rights court to make good on its bond payments.
Several funds have plans to go to the European Court of Human Rights if the country doesn’t make good on its bond payments.
The novel approach would have the funds arguing in the European Court of Human Rights that Greece had violated bondholder rights, though that could be a multiyear project with no guarantee of a payoff. And it would not be likely to produce sympathy for these funds, which many blame for the lack of progress so far in the negotiations over restructuring Greece’s debts.
The tactic has emerged in conversations with lawyers and hedge funds as it became clear that Greece was considering passing legislation to force all private bondholders to take losses, while exempting the European Central Bank, which is the largest institutional holder of Greek bonds with 50 billion euros or so.
Legal experts suggest that the investors may have a case because if Greece changes the terms of its bonds so that investors receive less than they are owed, that could be viewed as a property rights violation — and in Europe, property rights are human rights.
The bond restructuring is a critical element for Greece to receive its latest bailout from the international community. As part of that 130 billion euro ($165.5 billion) rescue, Greece is looking to cut its debt by 100 billion euros through 2014 by forcing its bankers to accept a 50 percent loss on new bonds that they receive in a debt exchange.
According to one senior government official involved in the negotiations, Greece will present an offer to creditors this week that includes an interest rate or coupon on new bonds received in exchange for the old bonds that is less than the 4 percent private creditors have been pushing for — and they will be forced to accept it whether they like it or not.
“This is crunch time for us. The time for niceties has expired,” said the person, who was not authorized to talk publicly. “These guys will have to accept everything.”
The surprise collapse last week of the talks in Athens raised the prospect that Greece might not receive a crucial 30 billion euro payment and might miss a make-or-break 14.5 billion euro bond payment on March 20 — throwing the country into default and jeopardizing its membership in the euro zone.
Talks between the two sides picked back up on Wednesday evening in Athens when Charles Dallara of the Institute of International Finance, who represents private sector bondholders, met with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos of Greece and his deputies.
While both sides have tried to adopt a conciliatory tone, the threat of a disorderly default and the spread of contagion to other vulnerable countries like Portugal remains pronounced.
“In my opinion, it is unlikely that this is the last restructuring we go through in Europe,” said Hans Humes, a veteran of numerous debt restructurings and the president and chief executive of Greylock Capital, the only hedge fund on the private sector steering committee, which is taking the lead in the Greek negotiations.
“The private sector has come a long way. We hope that the other parties agree that it is more constructive to reach a voluntary agreement than the alternative.”
At the root of the dispute is a growing insistence on the part of Germany and the International Monetary Fund that as Greece’s economy continues to collapse, its debt — now about 140 percent of its gross domestic product — needs to be reduced as rapidly as possible.
* * *
There is more, it does not much enlighten.
"“The real issue is not who participates in the deal,” said Jeromin Zettelmeyer, the deputy chief economist at the European Bank for Restructuring and Development and an authority on sovereign debt. “The question is whether there is enough debt relief for Greece, and there may not be, because the fiscal and growth situation in Greece is quite dire.”"
The bottom line.
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