Saturday, October 20, 2012

I know that the $50,000 home

(MORE: Gastrocrats Beware: Luxury Foods Aren’t Worth It)
Writing the above paragraph, I was put in mind of the famous
opening of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was
the best of times, it was the worst of times.” But maybe the
truly relevant book isn’t A Tale of Two Cities, but The Time
Machine, with its vision of a nightmarish future in which the
two classes of society, the delicate Eloi and the brutish
Morlocks, have diverged so completely that they don’t even
look the same anymore. Are we headed for bifurcated future
ourselves?  I know that the $50,000 home, the $10,000 car,
and the $25,000 college education have vanished. But does the
$50 dinner have to go that way too? My inner Morlock hopes
not.
  Ozersky, author of The Hamburger: A History, is a James
Beard Award–winning food writer. His most recent book,
Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, was published in May
2012. The views expressed are solely his own.
We love the Lebron James headband, the Great Britain rowing
team and tiny LEGO celebrations, complete with miniature gold
medals. The Guardian newspaper’s website hosted a bounty of
Olympic-specific reenactments, mostly from individual sports
during this past summer’s games. But for a quick London
Olympics recap, this highlight video does the trick.


There is a new smartphone app in Japan that stinks.
Literally.
RocketNews24, a Japanese news website, reports that a company
called Chaku Perfume claims its new product Chat Perf is
designed to send smells via iPhone. An attachment made up of
an atomizer and a smell tank fits into an iPhone’s dock

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The winner of Miss Indonesia 2012

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Asked the reason for so many transfers, Chautala said it was
government's prerogative. When reminded that Hooda government
was using the same argument, Chautala repeated, "We never
transferred officers with mala fide intention". He said
Khemka was promoted and was given crucial postings during his
tenure.
Asked whether INLD would give Khemka due honour and crucial
postings if it returned to power, Chautala first avoided a
direct reply but after repeated prodding said officers like
him would be honoured and those who were now sitting at plum
postings would be taken to task.
Ines Putri Tjiptadi is also a leading amateur golfer. (AFP
Photo)JAKARTA: The winner of Miss Indonesia 2012 Ines Putri
Tjiptadi will replace crown and gown with golf clubs and
caddie to compete in the Ladies Indonesia Open, which tees-
off in Jakarta on Thursday.
The 23-year-old beauty queen is also a leading amateur
golfer, winning the ladies Singapore amateur championship in
2010 and securing gold and silver medals in 2004 in
Indonesia's national championships.
She has been paired in the opening round with Australian star
Stacey Keating, fresh from back-to-back Ladies European Tour
wins, and Nontaya Srisawang from Thailand, who claimed the
Thailand Ladies Open in February.
"I am very nervous as I have hardly played for the last five
months. I just hope I don't finish last," said Tjiptadi,
according to a statement from the event organisers.
"I have had a lot to do since winning Miss Indonesia in April
including competing in Miss World. I am just aiming to have
fun this week and learn from some of the best players."

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

What is surprising

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At issue was Born's plan to explore the possibility of
regulating over-the-counter derivatives, a financial
instrument used to spread risk whose popularity had soared
during the '90s. Rubin and Greenspan would have none of it--
they objected even to the notion of thinking about greater
regulation of derivatives, which were not (and still aren't)
subject to the same basic rules that apply to other
securities like stocks and bonds. "If somebody says to me,
'I'm contemplating punching you in the nose,' I don't presume
that is a wholly neutral statement," Greenspan complained.
It's not surprising that an Ayn Rand disciple like Greenspan
considers even modest regulation of financial markets akin to
physical assault. What is surprising is how readily the
Clinton administration concurred. Born lost the debate and
quietly left the administration in 1999. But it wasn't long
before her view was vindicated: The lack of regulation in the
derivatives market helped fuel the panic caused by the 1998
implosion of Long-Term Capital Management, a major hedge
fund.
In recent weeks, liberal-minded wonks have gnashed their
teeth over the various regulatory failures that led to the
current subprime meltdown. And there's no question that the
deregulatory efforts of the last ten-to-twelve years played a
role. The formal repeal of Glass-Steagall--the New Deal-era
restriction on mergers between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurance companies--in 1999 helped clear the way
for financial giants like Citigroup to buy and sell now-
notorious assets like mortgage-backed securities. But the
truth is that the connection between specific deregulatory
efforts and the current crisis, while real, is murky and
indirect. By the time Congress had wiped Glass-Steagall from
the books, it had spent more than two decades pecking away at
such restrictions. Mergers between commercial and investment
banks had become commonplace.