The whopper’s on its way

A leading economist has warned that another big American bank could fail as a result of the credit crunch within the coming months. Professor Kenneth Rogoff, the former chief economist of the IMF, said:
 

“The US is not out of the woods. I think the financial crisis is at the halfway point, perhaps. I would even go further to say the worst is to come… We’re not just going to see mid-sized banks go under in the next few months, we’re going to see a whopper, we’re going to see a big one — one of the big investment banks or big banks.”

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Most amusing

Motorists should pay more to park in town centres to force them to walk more and reduce traffic congestion, according to a Government minister.

Well, maybe he's right and maybe he's wrong. But here's what happens when politicians throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into their arguments.

In a clear sign that he believes motorists should be targeted, Mr Healey said that charging more would result in "reducing congestion, improving levels of health and exercise, encouraging the use of local shops".

Ah, no. Parking meters were first used in Ohio (Cincinnatti? Cleveland? Not that it makes...

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Well, yes George

George Monbiot makes a very good point here:

Federal government is a vast corporate welfare programme, rewarding the industries that give millions of dollars in political donations with contracts worth billions. Missile defence is the biggest pork barrel of all, the magic pudding that won't run out, however much you eat. The funds channelled to defence, aerospace and other manufacturing and service companies will never run dry because the system will never work.

To keep the pudding flowing, the administration must exaggerate the threats from nations that have no means of nuking it - and ignore...

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Money and evil

I have to say that I don't always agree with the thoughts of Peter Singer (those that I understand, anyway) but they are almost always provocative. His latest is on the way in which money reduces communal feeling.

Why does money makes us less willing to seek or give help, or even to sit close to others? Vohs and her colleagues suggest that as societies began to use money, the necessity of relying on family and friends diminished, and people were able to become more self-sufficient. "In this way," they conclude, "money enhanced individualism but diminished communal motivations, an...

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Was that Policy Exchange report so wrong after all?

That's the question James asks over there a page or two. Having had a weekend to think about it (yes, mine was lovely, thank you, and yours?) I think I might be able to give an answer.

Yes.

That we can't buck economic geography is true, just as we can't buck markets. But what seems to be missing is that economic geography is determined by technology. The port and industrial cities of the north were indeed responses to the available technologies of the times: Bristol and Liverpool grew as sailing ships find it rather difficult to get around to...

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