Central Perk: 9 mar. 2013

sâmbătă, 9 martie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Not Enough Fingers to Contain the Leak in the Dyke

Posted: 09 Mar 2013 04:31 PM PST

As I have repeatedly stated "Eventually, Will Come a Time When .... "a populist office-seeker will stand before the voters, hold up a copy of the EU treaty and (correctly) declare all the "bail out" debt foisted on their country to be null and void. That person will be elected."

Predicting when and where that happens is not easy. We have been following Greece, Spain, and Italy.

Could it be another country that gets the ball rolling? Actually, the most likely occurrence will be in a country that few are watching.

Please consider Dutch support EU referendum

Dutch lawmakers have been forced to debate a referendum on any further transfers of power to the EU after a citizens' petition demanding a plebiscite garnered 40,000 signatures in two weeks.

Although parliament is not obliged to follow through with legislation, the move underlines the surge euroscepticism in one of the EU's founding members, which could pose an obstacle to any further integration needed to bolster the eurozone.

Dutch lawmakers have been forced to debate a referendum on any further transfers of power to the EU after a citizens' petition demanding a plebiscite garnered 40,000 signatures in two weeks.

Although parliament is not obliged to follow through with legislation, the move underlines the surge euroscepticism in one of the EU's founding members, which could pose an obstacle to any further integration needed to bolster the eurozone.

Obligations? What Obligations?

Politicians are never under "obligation" to do anything. However, they are subject to voter backlash. In gerrymandered legislative districts in the US, voters do not have much of a chance.

Elsewhere, that is not necessarily the case as shown by the massive rise of support for comedian Beppe Grillo whose Five Star Movement is now the largest political party in Italy.

Justified Backlash

I am not the only one to note the justified backlash against the nannycrats. Pater Tenebrarum at the Acting Man Blog says a "storm is Brewing" in his article called Tone-Deaf Eurocrats

What makes Grillo suspect to the eurocratic elites is that he is an anti-establishment figure; that he doesn't regard euro membership as sacrosanct, and intends to increase the level of direct democracy in Italy. This is not to say that the man's economic policy ideas are necessarily better than what has been on tap so far, as he has a number of ideas that strike one as steeped in a kind of naïve romantic socialism.

The problem the EU faces is however that one cannot simply continue to ignore the increasing political backlash across Europe. In fact, Grillo's ascendance appears a relatively small problem compared to what could possibly happen if a few more years with no light at the end of the tunnel pass. Desperate people will eventually flock to anyone who promises them to shake off the yoke of EU diktats, and that could well lead to the baby being thrown out with the bathwater.

The central problem is then how exactly to achieve economic growth, and it can certainly not be achieved by deficit spending or manipulation of the money supply. There can be only one way: radical pro free market reform. Rehn and his colleagues in the eurocracy in the broader sense (i.e., including the national political leaders) must be prepared to surrender control and let the market economy work in as unhampered a manner as possible. The questions they should be asking themselves are: 'How can we do less? What regulations should be dismantled first? Which taxes and what spending can we cut as quickly as possible? What is the quickest way of replacing the the central bank directed banking cartel with free banking?'

Everything else is essentially a waste of time and effort, even if it should prove possible to kick the can down the road repeatedly. The current course is certainly fated to end in tears – eventually the political backlash will produce chaos, and usually chaos doesn't end well. As the protesters in Portugal have correctly intuited, it only tends to bring even worse snake oil sellers to power.

No Light at the End of the Tunnel

Pater wonders what might happen in a "few more years with no light at the end of the tunnel".

I rather doubt we get that far, and I am rather certain Pater would agree. Regardless, with all eyes now focused on Spain and Italy (way too late), it's time to move the spotlight to France and the Netherlands.

Eventually this mess is likely to blow sky high in multiple places at once. There are not enough fingers to contain the leak in this dyke.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

15 Year Old Kid Develops Foolproof Test for Pancreatic, Ovarian and Lung Cancer; Test Costs 3 Cents, Takes 5 Minutes

Posted: 09 Mar 2013 09:14 AM PST

Here's an inspiring story for the weekend. Jack Andraka, a fifteen year old freshman in high school, developed a paper sensor that could detect pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancer in five minutes for as little as 3 cents. He conducted his research at John Hopkins University.

Jack got the idea after a friend died of pancreatic cancer. His initial research started on Wikepedia, then after he had an idea, Jack approached 200 research labs. 199 labs turned him down. The 200th said "maybe".

Link if video does not play: Jack Andraka, My 3 Cents on Cancer

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

SEO Blog

SEO Apps for Android Phones

Posted: 09 Mar 2013 01:45 AM PST

SEO is one of the most heard words these days. This is a technique which is used for improving the websites and increasing the traffic to them and thereby increasing the traffic to them. There are a large number of SEO apps for android phones let us see some important...
Read more »

Weekly Address: End the Sequester to Keep Growing the Economy

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Weekly Address: End the Sequester to Keep Growing the Economy

In his weekly address, President Obama says that businesses have created jobs every month for three years straight – nearly 6.4 million altogether, and have added 246,000 new jobs in February. We must keep this momentum going, and that’s why the President recently met with Republican leaders to discuss how we can replace the harmful, arbitrary budget cuts, called the “sequester,” with balanced deficit reduction.

Watch this week's Weekly Address.

In Case You Missed It

Here’s a quick glimpse at what happened this week on WhiteHouse.gov:

Violence Against Women Act: On Thursday, President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act of 2013, which provides resources for thousands of victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. The renewed version of the law extends to protect LGBT victims, immigrants, Native Americans and victims of sex-trafficking. The act will ensure victims and survivors will have the resources they need. With survivors and advocates standing behind him President Obama recognized the significance of the day:

But everybody on this stage worked extraordinarily hard. Most of all, though, this is your day. This is the day of the advocates; the day of the survivors. This is your victory.

First Cabinet Meeting: On Monday, President Obama opened the 17^th Cabinet meeting of his presidency and the first of the new term. The President welcomed to the table his newest cabinet members, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. In his remarks, President Obama shared his deep concerns of the harmful and automatic budget cuts known as the sequester and advocated for bipartisan solutions so Americans can be poised for progress:

So one of the things that I’ve instructed not just my White House but every agency is to make sure that, regardless of some of the challenges that they may face because of sequestration, we’re not going to stop working on behalf of the American people to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to continue to grow this economy and improve people’s prospects.

Trio Nominated: On Monday, President Obama announced three new nominations. The President tapped Sylvia Matthew Burwell to direct the Office of Management and Budget. Burwell, head of the Walmart Foundation, will become the next budget director and oversee our spending policies. She served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the President and Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration.

“As the granddaughter of Greek immigrants, she also understands that our goal when we put together a budget is not just to make the numbers add up,” said President Obama. “Our goal is also to reignite the true engine of economic growth in this country, and that is a strong and growing middle class -- to offer ladders of opportunity for anybody willing to climb them.”

Ernest Moniz was picked to become the Secretary of Energy. He previously served as Under Secretary of Energy under President Clinton. The physicist has been directing MIT’s Energy Initiative, which is working “to develop the technologies that can lead the country to more energy independence and also to new jobs.”

Gina McCarthy was nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency and brings a wealth of experience from her position as Assistant EPA Administrator. President Obama noted McCarthy has “focused on practical, cost-effective ways to keep our air clean and our economy growing.”

Google Hangout with FLOTUS: On Monday, the First Lady participated in her first ever Google+ Hangout to promote Lets Move!, which is celebrating its third year. Her guests included parents, teachers, and schoolchildren for a conversation on the importance of physical activity for the health and well being of our children.

As Let’s Move! commemorates its third year, the project is developing Let’s Move! Active Schools. Besides working for healthy eating, the First Lady wants to show being active is fun and can lead to success in school. Check out the Let’s Move! Active Schools page and discover how you can create a healthy school for kids in your community.

National Consumer Protection Week: This week marked National Consumer Protection Week as government and private organizations provided tips and free materials online for Americans. The goal of the week is to encourage Americans to take full notice of their consumer rights and simply make better-informed choices in the marketplace. Consumer topics covered throughout the week have included credit & debt, identity theft, investing, scam alerts and technology.

100^th Anniversary of Department of Labor: On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor celebrated its 100^th anniversary and launched a page in honor of the milestone. For the last century, the Labor Department has been at the forefront of helping working men and women renew the American Dream. The Department has given us many privileges we take for granted such as the 40-hour work week, family leave, retirement plans and the minimum wage among others.

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Seth's Blog : What's now?

What's now?

When I was starting out in the software business in 1983 (gasp), our home computer of choice was the Commodore 64. I vividly remember one day in the playtesting lab when the overworked floppy disk drive burst into flames. The surprising thing was that none of us were surprised. The entire infrastructure of the time just barely worked.

Twelve years later, on a sales call at Levi's ad agency in San Francisco, in the middle of a presentation, my PC laptop started spewing smoke. I didn't miss a beat. I shrugged, closed the cover and dropped it into a trash can.

Today, nothing is starting on fire. Today, a well-designed app looks fabulous, polished and stable, even though it was built by one person, in a garage. Today, email gets through. Today, we have a platform that (almost always) does what it says it will. We're all on the same OS (the internet). We can expect that any person we'd like to do business with, anywhere in the world, has a device we can use to reliably communicate with them...

If you've been waiting for the next big thing before you dive in, it's here.

No longer do we need to wonder, "what's next?" No, I think it's better to take a long look at, "what's now?"