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Does GE Capital’s Demise Mean Financial Reform Is Working?

by Shavonn02T Posted on April 12, 2015

Mother Jones

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Interesting post today from Paul Krugman about the shadow banking system and GE’s recent decision to get out of the finance biz:

GE Capital was a quintessential example of the rise of shadow banking. In most important respects it acted like a bank; it created systemic risks very much like a bank; but it was effectively unregulated, and had to be bailed out through ad hoc arrangements that understandably had many people furious about putting taxpayers on the hook for private irresponsibility.

Most economists, I think, believe that the rise of shadow banking had less to do with real advantages of such nonbank banks than it did with regulatory arbitrage — that is, institutions like GE Capital were all about exploiting the lack of adequate oversight….So Dodd-Frank tries to fix the bad incentives by subjecting systemically important financial institutions — SIFIs — to greater oversight, higher capital and liquidity requirements, etc.. And sure enough, what GE is in effect saying is that if we have to compete on a level playing field, if we can’t play the moral hazard game, it’s not worth being in this business. That’s a clear demonstration that reform is having a real effect.

Read the whole thing for more.

By the way: On the occasions when I come up for air and write blog posts, I’ll probably mostly be doing stuff like this. That is, quick links to something interesting without much additional commentary.

The reason is fatigue, which is nearly everpresent these days. Physically, this is a nuisance, but not much more. Mentally, though, it’s worse, because it leaves me without the—what’s the right word? Cognitive will? Cognitive ability?—to really think hard about stuff. And without that, I can’t blog much even though typing is, obviously, not a very physically demanding activity.

Still, I continue to keep up as best I can, and I really love to blog. I won’t quite say that being unable to blog is the worst part of this whole chemotherapy thing, but it’s close. I just hate having ideas about the stuff I read but being just a little too foggy to really be sure of my ability to say something useful and coherent about it. So I’ll continue pointing out items that interest me, but mostly leaving it at that.

In case you’re curious, I use crossword puzzles as a sort of rough guide to my mental fatigue level. This afternoon, for example, I finished one. Hooray! That means I’m at least moderately alert. However, it was a Thursday puzzle1 and it took me about three hours to finally get through it. That’s not so great. But who knows? Maybe it was just unusually hard. I’ll try another one tonight.

1For those of you who aren’t into crossword puzzles, the New York Times puzzle gets harder as the week progresses. A Thursday puzzle is a bit of a challenge, but usually not a big one. Good solvers can finish them in 5-10 minutes. For me, it’s usually 15-30 minutes. Three hours is well outside my usual range.2

2Hmmm. On the other hand, maybe this wasn’t my fault. I just checked, and the name of the third baseman in Abbot & Costello’s “Who’s On First?” sketch is indeed “I don’t know.” I kept trying to fit that in somewhere, but the answer in the puzzle was “Tell me something.” Where did that come from?

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Does GE Capital’s Demise Mean Financial Reform Is Working?

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How Elizabeth Warren Made Expanding Social Security Cool

by MarianneTejada Posted on April 6, 2015

Mother Jones

For years, Washington politicians and policymakers been talking about cutting Social Security benefits. The Beltway consensus, unduly shaped by deficit hawks and Wall Streeters, has been that the system is broken and must be pared back, and progressives who support Social Security have often had to play defense.

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How Elizabeth Warren Made Expanding Social Security Cool

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Even Europe isn’t doing enough to meet its climate goals

by ToshaMuirz Posted on March 3, 2015

Even Europe isn’t doing enough to meet its climate goals

By on 3 Mar 2015commentsShare

Europe isn’t doing enough to fight climate change, according to a report out today from the European Environment Agency — and that’s bad news for all of the less ambitious nations out there.

While the European Union is on track to meet its 2020 climate goals, it’s not in a good position to continue on after that to meet its 2050 goals, the report found. The E.U. is also falling short on many other sustainability goals. From Reuters:

The Copenhagen-based EEA said Europe — backed by some of the toughest environmental legislation in the world — had improved air and water quality, cut greenhouse gas emissions and raised waste recycling in recent years.

“Despite these gains, Europe still faces a range of persistent and growing environmental challenges,” including global warming, chemical pollution and extinctions of species of animals and plants, the report said.

Europe is not on track to realise by 2050 its vision of “living well, within the limits of our planet”, as agreed in 2013, it added.

The report indicated that most Europeans were using more than four hectares (10 acres) of the planet’s resources each year — more than double what it rated a sustainable ecological footprint.

The E.U. aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95 percent by 2050. The report concludes that “although full implementation of existing policies will be essential, neither the environmental policies currently in place, nor economic and technology-driven efficiency gains, will be sufficient to achieve Europe’s 2050 vision.”

Of particular challenge to Europe is transportation, which accounts for a quarter of its greenhouse gas emissions. The E.U. hopes to cut that figure by 60 percent, but it isn’t making enough progress toward that goal.

This all comes a week after the European Commission released its vision for a U.N. climate pact to be hammered out in Paris in December. But though the E.U. was first to outline its ambitions for the hoped-for pact — something other countries have yet to formally do — its plan drew criticism for not doing enough to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, and for being too vague. “This does not look like a 2C compatible agreement,” Nick Mabey of the European nonprofit Third Generation Environmentalism told Responding to Climate Change. “It’s only a starting point but it’s a pretty poor starting point … Europe has a better story to tell.”

Both bits of news are particularly notable bummers because Europe has been leading the charge for sustainability and has gone further than other major polluters like the U.S., China, and India in factoring climate mitigation into economic planning. If even the E.U. is falling far short, that doesn’t bode well for global efforts to fight off climate catastrophe.

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Even Europe isn’t doing enough to meet its climate goals

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Video: A Drone Shoots Hauntingly Beautiful Footage of Buffalo’s Snowstorm

by AddieQMTNrgs Posted on November 20, 2014

Mother Jones

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James Grimaldi/YouTube

Flying personal camera-equipped drones directly over big events like the Hong Kong protests and Independence Day fireworks is becoming commonplace. Now come these amazing aerial images of Buffalo, New York, besieged by snow for the third day in a row. The Buffalo area was coated with up to six feet of snow on Wednesday and there’s been even more today. The eighth storm-related death was annouced this morning.

When the storm first set in, James Grimaldi of West Seneca, New York, sent his drone into the blizzard to film a bizarre world drained of color, and uploaded the stunning results to his YouTube channel. (Grimaldi has also posted his drone videos to his CNN’s iReport page.)

Grimaldi’s second-day video reveals the vast extent of the snow, the result of a massive “lake-effect snowfall event“. The houses now look like giant mushrooms:

And finally, posted today, a new storm bearing down on Grimaldi’s suburb:

This weekend’s forecasted rain won’t help recovery efforts. “We’re going to have a lot of water running off quickly,” the Weather Channel’s Wayne Verno told NBC News. “We’ll more than likely see some flooding.”

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Video: A Drone Shoots Hauntingly Beautiful Footage of Buffalo’s Snowstorm

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California’s Insane Nut Boom, In 3 Simple Charts

by HungNewbigin Posted on November 3, 2014

Mother Jones

California has entered the age of King Nut: The state produces more than 80 percent of the world’s almonds, and roughly 30 and 40 percent of the world’s pistachios and walnuts, respectively. Most of the production takes place in the Central Valley, a swath of farmland in California’s midsection.

A single almond requires a gallon of water to grow—bad news in the midst of California’s worst drought in half a millennium. But with ever-rising demand in a nut-crazed world, farmers continue to expand orchards, pumping water out of the ground to make up for the dried-up surface water. These charts tell the story:

By Lei Wang and Julia Lurie

As my colleague Tom Philpott recently reported, Since 2011, central California has lost “more water than all 38 million Californians use for domestic and municipal supplies annually—over half of which is due to groundwater pumping in the Central Valley.”

Groundwater is the stuff of centuries: rain percolating for ages through pores of soil and rock, coming to rest in aquifers. In wet seasons, water generally begins its slow trickle-down journey to replenish the aquifers (the small upward spikes in the third chart above). But as Jay Famiglietti, the NASA water scientist who gathered the groundwater data, has stated, “The downs are way bigger than the ups, which means that groundwater levels are on a one-way journey to the very bottom of the Central Valley.”

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California’s Insane Nut Boom, In 3 Simple Charts

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GDP Increases At Not-Bad 3.5% Rate in Third Quarter

by MelanieXFI Posted on October 30, 2014

Mother Jones

Today’s economic news is fairly good. GDP in the third quarter grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate, which means that the slowdown at the beginning of the year really does look like it was just a blip. Aside from that one quarter, economic growth has been pretty robust for over a year now.

At the same time, inflation continues to be very low, which you can take as either good news (if you’re an inflation hawk) or bad news (if you think the economy could use a couple of years of higher inflation).

We could still use some higher growth after five years of weakness, but at least we’re providing a bit of a counterbalance to Europe, which appears to be going off a cliff at the moment. Count your blessings.

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GDP Increases At Not-Bad 3.5% Rate in Third Quarter

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Here’s Obama’s latest strategy for a global climate deal

by PearlXHKPliajoj Posted on October 16, 2014

Here’s Obama’s latest strategy for a global climate deal

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16 Oct 2014 3:29 PM

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Obama’s chief climate negotiator, Todd Stern, has outlined the kind of global deal he might press for at the big U.N. climate conference in Paris in December 2015 — a summit negotiators have pinned their hopes on for finally hammering out a deal to reduce emissions. And while a plan is better than no plan, this one’s not as strong as many climate hawks would hope.

The plan Stern outlined during a speech at Yale earlier this week — a plan first suggested by New Zealand — would legally require countries to pledge to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to hit a 2025 goal. It would also legally require countries to periodically report to the international community how much progress they’ve made toward their goal. But it would not tell countries what their goal should be, nor would it legally require them to actually hit it. In August, Obama administration officials described this type of plan to The New York Times as a way to “name and shame” the world’s biggest emitters.

The danger of this kind of approach is that big-time polluters might commit to a target at the U.N., but then, faced with the realities of their own domestic politics, do little to reach it. “Shame” might not be enough of a deterrent for those nations struggling to keep their word.

So: Imagine telling your friends you’ll cut back on eating ice cream, detailing for them your plan to cut your ice cream consumption — and then, a week later, telling your friends, around a mouthful of ice cream, that you may not be able to keep your pledge. Your decision not to stick to your plan, and to face your friends’ shaming, would be informed by how much you care about your friends’ opinions, and how addicted you are to ice cream — just as big emitters’ decisions to hit their targets would dependon how much they care about international opinion and their ability to shift off of fossil fuels.

Stern acknowledged that this sort of nonbinding agreement will have some detractors. But there are benefits too! he said. For one, it would prevent big polluters from opting out, as happened with the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Stern:

First, many countries, including major ones, won’t be willing to make their mitigation commitment legally binding at the international level, and once some balk, the premise of a legal form applicable to all unravels. Second, many countries, if forced to put forward a legally binding commitment, might low-ball that commitment out of anxiety about what legally binding might mean in this context. Third, the accountability provisions that are legally binding in the New Zealand approach do most of what is needed in any event — allowing others to understand clearly what the mitigation commitment is and to track whether it is being implemented.

Another reason the U.S. would be interested in avoiding a legally binding climate agreement is that such an agreement would likely have to be ratified by a two-thirds majority in our Senate. And that just won’t happen. Even if Democrats retain control of the Senate in next month’s midterms, there would still be too many climate change–denying conservatives who would get in the way of a treaty. As Grist’s Ben Adler wrote in August:

In theory, this means that 34 senators, representing as little as 7.5 percent of the American public if they come from the least populous states, can block any global action on climate change. The U.S. is the world’s biggest economy, and many other big nations won’t join an agreement if we won’t.

For the world to have any hope of reaching an agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, Obama’s negotiators will have to circumvent congressional Republicans. Stern’s agreement will have to be carefully constructed to dodge the Senate.

The approach is similar to the one Obama has taken domestically, using executive action via the EPA, instead of pushing legislation, which could make bigger changes to environmental policy but would inevitably die in today’s Congress. These executive actions — such as efforts to control power plant emissions and vehicle emissions — will also give the U.S. more authority in upcoming negotiations, Stern said.

Negotiators will be working on this plan further at the U.N. climate summit in Lima, Peru, this December, and hope to have the new agreement hammered out ahead of the 2015 Paris summit. Many are looking to that summit in 2015 as the last chance to reach the no-more-than-2-degrees-Celsius-of-warming target that scientists have put forward to avoid some of the really awful effects of climate change — and that, despite 20 years of climate negotiations, is still gradually slipping away.

Source:
Obama’s Climate Diplomat Explains What a Paris Emissions Deal Should Look Like

, National Journal.

U.S. considers climate change plan that would mandate emission cuts

, Los Angeles Times.

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It Doesn’t Matter Which Diet You Choose

by Frederick Cunningham Posted on October 14, 2014

Mother Jones

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In the category of “news you can use,” Emily Oster summarizes a new study that compares weight loss on various diets. After cutting through all the muck, we get the chart on the right. The answer, it turns out, is that all of the diets are about equally effective.

So which one you choose is mostly a matter of preference. If you think you can stick to a low-carb diet, choose one of those. If you like vegetables, choose a veggie-based plan. If you think you can tolerate low fat, go for one of those. What matters isn’t so much the mechanics of the diet, but whether you can stick with it over the long haul.

(If your doctor recommends a particular diet because you suffer from some particular condition, then of course this changes things. And remember, “don’t be an idiot” is always an unvoiced component of all diet and health recommendations.)

As for me, I’m on the three-quarters diet. I do this about once a decade or so and then spend the succeeding decade gaining back the weight I lost. This is my third go-around. As you might guess, it’s a pretty simple diet: eat less food. In particular, I try to eat about three quarters of my usual meals and snacks. I’m finding it much more annoying this time than in the past—partly because I’m working at home, where temptation is ever present, and partly because my motivation and self-discipline have deteriorated over the years. However, the precipitous collapse of my body over the past six months is providing at least some short-term motivation, and yesterday I learned that my sleep apnea is apparently much worse than it was a decade ago. Maybe weight loss will help with that. I hope so, since I had no luck with a CPAP machine back then, and I kind of doubt I’ll have better luck this time around. But we’ll see.

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It Doesn’t Matter Which Diet You Choose

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What the Hell Is Going On in North Korea? Here Are the 5 Best Rumors About Kim Jong-Un

by UIALeonard Posted on October 10, 2014

Mother Jones

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North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un—known as “Supreme Leader,” or “Fatty the Third,” depending on where you are—has been conspicuously absent over the past month. At a July event, he was seen walking with a limp, and he hasn’t made a public appearance since September 3rd. That’s unusual for Kim, who made 25 public appearances in July alone. North Korean State media was forced to admit he’d been suffering from “discomfort.”

Most observers figured Kim was sidelined with gout, which might as well be a Kim family tradition. Today, Kim was expected to make a comeback for a deeply important annual event—the anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s Workers’ Party. He was, shockingly, a no-show. No one ever knows what’s really happening in North Korea, but the rumor mill, abuzz for weeks, has gone wild with speculation. Here’s some of the craziest rumors the world’s come up with to explain Kim’s extended absence:

1. Kim is being phased out as leader of North Korea. Some version of this is fast becoming a popular take on the situation. The Daily Beast‘s Gordon C. Chang posited that Kim may have been “politically weak” this whole time and kept around as a pawn because of the cult of personality surrounding his family. Chang suggests that a shadowy group of army officials—led by Gen. Hwang Pyong So—could be moving to take power, rendering Kim nothing more than a figurehead.

2. There was a straight-up coup, and Kim fled. In a more extreme version of Rumor 1, some are saying that Kim did indeed exercise total control, and that a coup was staged to get rid of him. People are even saying his wife was executed. Super-credible “Pyongyang watchers” point to tightened security in the capital, an odd shuffle of party leaders and dissatisfaction with Kim’s violent rule to back this one up. So who’d want to take him out? The army is a candidate, as is Kim’s powerful but little-known younger sister, who could’ve made a play. If you’re wondering how seriously to take these rumors, consider that some people thought a particular general—Vice Marshal Jo Myong-Rok—overthrew Kim. That guy is dead.

3. Kim was addicted to cheese. Judging from state media coverage, Kim has steadily put on weight since taking power. His alleged cheese addiction—he’s rumored to have sent out officials to procure rare, expensive cheese in Europe—may be the culprit. An Indian newspaper reported that cheese-induced gout didn’t strike Kim: apparently, his ankles broke because he got too fat. So, he may be recovering in a hospital, or cheese rehab.

4. Kim got too excited in a military drill and injured himself. A British tabloid alleged, among other things, that Kim walked with a limp after involving himself in a military drill. After “crawling” and “rolling around,” he’s said to have “injured his ankle and knee… because he is overweight.”

5. Kim is fine! North Korean officials insist there’s no problem—health-related or otherwise. “We must firmly establish the monolithic leadership system of Kim Jong Un,” North Korea’s state-run newspaper said. Guess that settles it.

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What the Hell Is Going On in North Korea? Here Are the 5 Best Rumors About Kim Jong-Un

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Hooray! This Young Billionaire Actually Invented Something Useful

by YvetteSepulveda Posted on October 2, 2014

Mother Jones

Elizabeth Holmes is the third-youngest billionaire on the Forbes 400 list (behind Facebook tycoons Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz). And hooray for her! Her business model doesn’t depend on getting drunk teenagers to eventually regret that they ever heard of the internet. It depends instead on a genuinely useful invention: a new type of blood test that requires only a tiny pinprick and a single drop of blood. Slate’s Kevin Loria tells us about it:

Traditional blood testing is shockingly difficult and expensive for a tool that’s used so frequently. It also hasn’t changed since the 1960s. It’s done in hospitals and doctors’ offices. Vials of blood have to be sent out and tested, which can take weeks using traditional methods and is prone to human error. And, of course, sticking a needle in someone’s arm scares some people enough that they avoid getting blood drawn, even when it could reveal lifesaving information.

Holmes recognized that process was ripe for disruption….The new tests can be done without going to the doctor, which saves both money and time. Most results are available in about four hours….Blood samples have traditionally been used for one test, but if a follow-up was needed, another sample had to be drawn and sent out—making it less likely that someone would get care. The Theranos approach means the same drop can be used for dozens of different tests.

It’s cheap, too. One common criticism of the healthcare system is that the pricing structure is a confusing labyrinth that makes it impossible to know how much anything costs. Theranos lists its prices online, and they’re impressive.

It so happens that I’ve been getting more than the usual amount of blood drawn lately, and it also so happens that I’m one of those people who really hates this. My angst is for completely irrational reasons. I know it doesn’t hurt; it doesn’t take long; and it poses no danger. As it happens, my own particular phobia is so bizarre and unaccountable that I’m reluctant to even fess up to it. But it’s this: The scarless incision wigs me out. For the rest of the day after a blood test, I’m convinced that any second it’s going to pop open like an oil gusher. I used to keep that little cotton ball taped on for a full 24 hours, until the next day’s shower finally forced me to take it off. I have recently, through sheer force of will, started taking it off after only a few hours.

This makes no sense. But then, phobias rarely do. And mine isn’t even that bad. When I need to get blood drawn, I do it. Still, I often put it off, and I refuse to get it done more than once every two weeks or so. I also refuse to ever have it done in my right arm.

By now, you’re either laughing at me or else wondering if I’ve lost my marbles. But I agree with Holmes: traditional blood testing is barbaric and medieval and it’s long past time to bring it into the 21st century. So hooray for Elizabeth Holmes. My only question now is this: When is she going to sign a contract with Kaiser so that I’ll be able to benefit from her marvelous invention?

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Hooray! This Young Billionaire Actually Invented Something Useful

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