Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Interesting Contrast
Krugman this morning
Oh, and about commodity prices: rises on the order of what we’ve seen lately aren’t at all unusual, even during periods now considered to have been characterized by low and stable inflation. Here’s the IMF commodity price index...Meanwhile, here's a UN press release about this report from a couple of days back:
Just not something to get frantic about.
Global consumption of natural resources could almost triple to 140 billion tons a year by 2050 unless nations take drastic steps, the United Nations warned Thursday.Count me with the UNEP.
A UN environment panel said the world cannot sustain the tearaway rate of use of minerals, ores and fossil and plant fuels. It called on governments to "decouple" economic growth from natural resource consumption.
With the world population expected to hit 9.3 billion by 2050 and developing nations becoming more prosperous, the report warned "the prospect of much higher resource consumption levels is far beyond what is likely sustainable."
A UN Environment Programme (UNEP) panel said the world is already running out of cheap and quality sources of some essential materials such as oil, copper and gold, which in turn need rising volumes of fuel and water to produce.
It said governments must find ways to do more with less, at a faster rate than economic growth -- the notion of "decoupling".
"We must realize that prosperity and well-being do not depend on consuming ever-greater quantities of resources," said the report.
"Decoupling is not about stopping growth. It's about doing more with less. Global resource consumption is exploding. It's not a trend that is in any way sustainable."
Friday, May 13, 2011
Note On Interruption
Google Blogger had a massive outage since sometime yesterday. Yesterday's post has been removed by them, and will hopefully be restored soon. Some recent comments have also gone missing. Hopefully normal blogging can resume soon...
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Rumors of Iraqi Target Cutback
The Australian has a news article claiming, based on anonymous sources, that Iraq will soon renegotiate the 12mbd worth of contracts that were issued in two rounds of bidding in 2009. The goal, according to the article:
Friday, May 6, 2011
Aaah
Der Spiegel:
Greece's economic problems are massive, with protests against the government being held almost daily. Now Prime Minister George Papandreou apparently feels he has no other option: SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained information from German government sources knowledgeable of the situation in Athens indicating that Papandreou's government is considering abandoning the euro and reintroducing its own currency.
Alarmed by Athens' intentions, the European Commission has called a crisis meeting in Luxembourg on Friday night. The meeting is taking place at Château de Senningen, a site used by the Luxembourg government for official meetings. In addition to Greece's possible exit from the currency union, a speedy restructuring of the country's debt also features on the agenda. One year after the Greek crisis broke out, the development represents a potentially existential turning point for the European monetary union -- regardless which variant is ultimately decided upon for dealing with Greece's massive troubles.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Osama bin Laden Dead
Better to have died in obscurity, I think, than with this as your signature achievement.