Ramen Review

going very quickly any time now.
There will, of course, always be a week or two of warning time, when you can stock up on legumes and grains. But the whole mess — call it Capitalism or The System or whatnot — is dangerously close to the edge.
It may fracture in 2012 or it may shatter in 2014.
Any case, in one year one week and a day’s time people will look back on the 13th b’ak’tun and surmise this or that. … read more

Guajardo et al. “Why (and How) Austerity Kills” (IMF, 2011)
Howse “Why Regime Debts Are Not State Debts (and Neither Are Corruption Debts)” (UN, 2007)
Sproul “Why Zimbabwe Collapsed and the US Didn’t Despite Neither Having ‘Solid’ (i.e. fossil) Money” (UCLA, 2003)
Hutchinson “Most Overlooked Use of the Word “economics” in the History of Knowledge” (Yale/AMNH, 1948)
The present global economic woes, at least, should be largely solvable based on this.

After all is said and done, burn everything. Dump the ashes into the … read more

So, revisiting the river valley overlooked by Hill 431, where two nights before the CinC[*] and his “publisher of a major newspaper” friend went to their little outing.
While the Minister was back in Berlin getting 80% of the major media pissed off mightily (and one Mr. Wonka of the Leipziger Volkszeitung[de:] presumably shitlisted — watch 1:20 to 1:32 and 1:50 here:)

some Afghan guy who presumably will forever remain nameless had decided to take matters in his own hands — alas, … read more

Hanging tough at Hill 431 with the publisher of a major newspaper (To be ’splained below)Image by fritz13.
Dax floating free above the train wreck (but still within grund effect I presume — TINA was a capitalist whore all along after all). DJIA is so-so, definitely not off the ground. N225 remains groundbound essentially.
Them sandniggers are getting restive, and neither Sammy not Johnny (nor the Kaiser nor anyone else) can seem to hold them at bay. Too bad too that it’s … read more

So, on May 20th, 2010, I said in a private conversation (that was duly noted down) regarding the economy:

the significant index values of the coming ?weeks:
dax 6500 and rising
djia 10000 and falling

Meaning that until one of these marks is breached, and robustly so, the global economy will remain in limbo, and other matters of concern may be leisurely regarded as utterly more important.
Almost 3.5 months later, I have no reason whatsoever to change my opinion on this issue.
The last week … read more

Last Saturday’s mass protests in Germany were not like this:

T. rex vs. Big Bad Bank Building
I was in Bankfurt, where around 20k ppl gathered, take a few thou, give a few thou; the official figures ran mostly between 15k and 30k. More — closer to around 30k, perhaps as much as 35k protested in Berlin.
The demonstrations were generally peaceful, to the point of being boring. In Berlin there was some aggro at the very end, when police charged into some … read more

…not really. But the difference is about as much as fluctuation, with Citi stock dropping to about a buck a hit.
And yet[de:]: all the humans in the world legally entitled to conduct business could not own it yet, if each gave this one buck.
Indices bouncyballed, with the dax very tenderly raising Tue but strongly Wed - only to lose all and more today. Dow got a huge load of flak. It looks like the Dax is gonna take cover … read more