If you have ever wondered why prices seem to climb faster than the official numbers you hear reported from the media, here is your answer. From The Intelligence Daily

The details and chronology of the corruption of economic data are presented in a new book by Kevin Phillips, the political commentator and former Republican Party adviser who has become something of a muckraking critic of the “excesses” that he helped set in motion. The book is entitled, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism Phillips summarizes some of his main conclusions in an article in the current issue of Harper’s Magazine. (paid subscription required

The author’s primary conclusions are that the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), the quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the monthly figure for the unemployment rate have all been systematically distorted over the past half-century by successive US presidents and their economist brethran. Some highlights:

• the real unemployment rate in the United States is between 9 and 12 percent, not the 5 percent or less that is officially claimed.
• The real rate of inflation is between 7 and 10 percent, not 2 or 3 percent
• Real economic growth has been about 1 percent, not the 3-4 percent officially claimed during the most recent Wall Street and housing bubble that has burst

Some examples of how they did it:

• John F. Kennedy appointed a committee to recommend possible changes in the measurement of official joblessness which resulted the category of “discouraged workers” to exclude all those who had stopped looking for jobs because they weren’t available.
• Lyndon Johnson began using the concept of a “unified budget” to combine Social Security with other expenditures, thus allowing the current Social Security surplus to disguise growing budget deficits.
• Under Nixon’s Federal Reserve chairman, Arthur Burns, the concept of “core inflation” was devised. This became the means of excluding certain areas like food and energy, on grounds of the “volatility” of these sectors. The suggestion was that these prices jumped and then sometimes fell, so that it was best to remove them from the prices surveyed.
• Ronald Reagan addressed the problem of housing in the inflation index by inventing “Owner Equivalent Rent”, dreamed up for the purpose of artificially lowering the cost of housing—from a purely abstract statistical standpoint.
• Bill Clinton was especially active at tinkering with economic data making three other “adjustments” in the Consumer Price Index: product substitution, geometric weighting, and hedonic adjustment.

• Product Substitution means that, for example, if steak gets too expensive, individuals substitute hamburger. Steak is simply removed from the typical food basket even though it has been used in the past to track price changes
• Geometric Weighting is defined as lower weighting in the price index for those goods and services that are rising most rapidly in cost, on the assumption that they are consumed in lower quantities.
• Hedonic Adjustment allows for the improved quality of some products and services to translate into a reduction in their effective cost.
  

Share:

Why can’t this be the campaign commercials we see?

Share:

From CNN (April 30, 2008):

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, has stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, in a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran’s nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.

“The dollar has totally been removed from Iran’s oil transactions,” Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard told state-run television Wednesday. “We have agreed with all of our crude oil customers to do our transactions in non-dollar currencies.”

There is no doubt about it, this means war. The US cannot afford to lose the benefits of the petrodollar system at a time of financial crisis. I fear that the current administration may even resort to the nuclear option, a thought so horrific I can’t bear to think of it. When will we finally call a spade a spade and realize that our American Cousins have let the extremists take over their nation. American people, I beg of you, stand up for what is right. Take back your democracy. Write a letter you your congressman. Tell your friends you refuse to be bullied by tyrants any more. Tell them the truth. War is wrong. Thou shalt not kill. It is as simple as that. America needs heros, now more than ever. Are you one of them?

Update: And so it begins. One day after Iran’s announcement, the US announces it is developing a plan of attack. [From CBS News]

Share:

If this service had existed 2 years ago, I would have a phone company by now - well 1/2 a phone company to be exact. (Another post for another day)

Read Write Web brings us an exclusive on the launch of Prototype Invest a new technology investment firm with a unique twist:

Rather than put money into startups, Prototype supplies technology in exchange for equity. This is an investment firm for anyone who has ever been told, “Ideas are a dime a dozen, kid. Come back when you have a working prototype.”

Interesting concept. What do you think Could it work?

Share:

From Venture Beat (March 25, 2008):

Optoelectronix a Silicon Valley company has just raised $6 million in a Series A from unnamed investors.

They are one of the first companies to focus on commercializing LED lighting systems for general illumination. LED lighting is known to be more energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and offers better quality light than the incandescant and compact fluorescent alternatives.

Commercializing LEDs is challenging. Rather than a simple bulb with a hot wire, LEDs are actually made up of several parts, including a thermal management system used to vent the heat, a lens to diffract the light, electronics and the semiconductor that actually produces the light. The CEO of Optoelectronix, Chuck Berghoff, told me these complexities often mean a “complete disconnect” between what lighting fixture makers know how to do — traditional light bulbs — and “what the hell to do with a pile of semiconductor chips.”

Industry analysts and insiders claim that the market for LED based lighting technologies is set to explode within the next 5 years. As Chuck Berghoff puts it,

“Once designers start to understand the technology and how to work with it, we’ll get to a point of efficiency we’ve never had before.”

LED lighting technology has advanced rapidly over the past few years and significant investment has gone into the underlying technology. Now it appears that the big challenge will be commercializing products and solutions that address real user needs.

Competitors include Philips Lumileds, a large LED manufacturer that has been around for decades. Lumileds is also trying to get LEDs to replace light bulbs in all sorts of lighting, from car headlights to traffic signals and mood lighting.

Could it be that LED Lighting really is the next big thing?

Share:

From Mark Kuznicki at Remarkk!, an article on Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles:

This is the fine work of Quartier des Spectacles. They bring new meaning to vibrant nightlife.

Share:

From New Scientist:

17 Top Scientists are each asked to name one book that changed their life. Here are the results:

1. Farthest North - Steve Jones, geneticist

2. The Art of the Soluble - V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist

3. Animal Liberation - Jane Goodall, primatologist

4. The Foundation trilogy - Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist

5. Alice in Wonderland - Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist

6. One, Two, Three… Infinity - Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist

7. The Idea of a Social Science - Harry Collins, sociologist of science

8. Handbook of Mathematical Functions - Peter Atkins, chemist

9. The Mind of a Mnemonist - Oliver Sacks, neurologist

10. A Mathematician’s Apology - Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician

11. The Leopard - Susan Greenfield, neurophysiologist

12. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior - Frans de Waal, psychologist and ethologist

13. Catch-22 / The First Three Minutes - Lawrence Krauss, physicist

14. William James, Writings 1878-1910 - Daniel Everett, linguist

15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Chris Frith, neuroscientist

16. The Naked Ape - Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

17. King Solomon’s Ring - Marion Stamp Dawkins, Zoologist

Share:

Food Rationing in the America - April 2008

From The New York Sun:

Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

Costco and other major retailers are limiting purchases of rice, flour, and cooking oil.

“It’s sporadic. It’s not every store, but it’s becoming more commonplace,” the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. “The number of reports I’ve been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I’d say in the last three to five weeks.”

Seriously folks, wtf?

Share:

Every once in a while I come across a building that makes me smile from ear to ear. This is one of those. In a brilliant display of kicking ass in every possible way, fans of FC Barcelona will soon be able to experience game day in Technicolor in their newly re-imagined stadium.

The Nou Camp reimagined from Future Structures:

On September 18, 2007, British architect Lord Foster has been chosen by the Catalan club to “restructure” the 98,000-seater stadium at a cost of €250m. The stadium will be given a complete facelift, with a mosaic of multi colored tiles in blue and scarlet, the football team colors, and red and yellow, those of Catalonia’s flag. Construction work will begin in 2009 and is due to be completed by the start of the 2011-2012 season.

» Read the rest of the entry..

Share: