Rouble collapse

I wonder how many Americans read this......

"In Washington, the White House said it had no intention of easing pressure on Russia to halt the freefall. "It is president Vladimir Putin's decision to make. The aim is to sharpen the choice that he faces," it said."


And then put 2+2 together on the fact that the USA economy is bankrupt and owes China more than they can ever afford to pay back......
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/economic-policy/news/article.cfm?c_id=185&objectid=11375623

Sydney hostage drama

Settle down folks..... its not like drones are flying over your head day in day out....

- http://www.smh.com.au/comment/martin-place-cafe-siege-overreaction-from-fear-is-a-measure-of-a-terrorists-success-20141215-127rih.html

I know its scary and all....but what did you think was going to happen? Abbott, Rudd, Gillard,Howard are all just as responsible for whats happening in Martin Place today as is the loony in the café.

The fact that most Australians aren't making the correlation jump concerns me more than anything out of this event.

New Horizons Spacecraft

If you are sick of hearing about Kim Kardashians butt then why not spend some time this morning educating yourself

- http://recode.net/2014/12/06/new-horizons-spacecraft-prepares-for-pluto-probe

Is grammar really more important than eyeballs?

Its interesting seeing this happening in a real world case considering same story is playing out on The Newsroom..... (which is set 2 years ago.....go figure).


http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/05/new-republic-magazine-staff-walkout-digital-strategy
Almost 30 senior staff and contributors have resigned from New Republic in a mass protest against a radical digital makeover of the 100-year-old magazine

Does Torture Work?

Best way of pointing out how USA's willingness to participate in torture is just plain wrong. thanks @LibyaLiberty
 

The rise of rich man’s subprime

http://fortune.com/2014/12/10/securities-based-lending-banks

Meh.......so a few rich people get wiped out on margin calls (yes I know its not equities being purchased but at the end of the day its the same effect).

As long as there IS moral hazard involved and the tax payers aren't needing to bail them out then I'm all for it as they are pumping up my 401k and I can chose when to exit my 401k as I'm not the one that is leveraged.

Just another symptom of too much money sloshing around looking for a home.

Once Upon A Bride There Was A Forest

Off Off broadway talent like this is definitely one of the perks of living in NYC.
Went to opening night and walked away "thinking" once again.

Target .... yep thats going to cost ya.

Well this is interesting......





......The decision could lead to significant changes in the way the cost of fraud is distributed among parties in the credit card ecosystem. Where once banks and merchant acquirers would have to shoulder the burden of fraud (which is how they have long justified increasing Interchange Fees), now, potentially, the order from Magnuson could pave the way for more card-issuing banks to sue merchants for not protecting their POS systems properly......


- http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/12/judge-rules-that-banks-can-sue-target-for-2013-credit-card-hack/

Great "ponzi economy" comments

The late economist Hyman Minsky defined three ways of borrowing......

- Hedge borrowing where borrowers were able to pay interest and principal out of income.
- Speculative borrowing were the borrower could pay the interest but not the principal and relied on someone paying the same price for the asset like he did 
- Ponzi borrowing were the borrower could not pay the principal nor the interest and hoped that he be bailed out by the next buyer.......


Well worth a read.
http://janelanaweb.com/trends/we-all-are-in-a-ponzi-world-right-now-hoping-to-be-bailed-out-by-the-next-person-interview-with-daniel-stelter/

NEWSROOM.....WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIIIIEEEEEEE

Aaron Sorkin writing at his best.







BTW if you want to check the data go here - http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/11/climate-desk-fact-checks-aaron-sorkins-climate-science-newsroom

However this is a great graph as well - http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/sep/27/climate-change-how-hot-lifetime-interactive