Tuesday, October 23, 2012
IMF's epic plan to conjure away debt and dethrone bankers - The Telegraph
So there is a magic wand after all. A revolutionary paper by the International Monetary Fund claims that one could eliminate the net public debt of the US at a stroke, and by implication do the same for Britain, Germany, Italy, or Japan.
The IMF reports says the conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank-created money. Photo: Reuters
2:31PM BST 21 Oct 2012
1013 Comments
One could slash private debt by 100pc of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices,
and dethrone bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and
painlessly, by legislative command, far more quickly than anybody imagined.
The conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank-created money --
roughly 97pc of the money supply -- with state-created money. We return to
the historical norm, before Charles II placed control of the money supply in
private hands with the English Free Coinage Act of 1666.
Specifically, it means an assault on "fractional reserve banking".
If lenders are forced to put up 100pc reserve backing for deposits, they
lose the exorbitant privilege of creating money out of thin air.
SHOOT: So why won't it work? Where would you rather get money from, banks, or the state. Or put in another way, who would you rather trust, banks, or the state?
Ambrose Evan-s-Pritchard concludes: Arguably, it would smother freedom and enthrone a Leviathan state. It might be even more irksome in the long run than rule by bankers.
Read the full article here.
SHOOT: So why won't it work? Where would you rather get money from, banks, or the state. Or put in another way, who would you rather trust, banks, or the state?
Ambrose Evan-s-Pritchard concludes: Arguably, it would smother freedom and enthrone a Leviathan state. It might be even more irksome in the long run than rule by bankers.
Read the full article here.
Famous Lance Words
This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on? As quoted in "Lance Armstrong Ruined My Gym" by Neal Pollack, in Slate (1 July 2005)
Anyone who imagines they can work alone winds up surrounded by
nothing but rivals, without companions. The fact is, no one ascends
alone. Lance Armstrong (It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life)
Finally, the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe
in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics: I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry
that you can’t dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles.
But this is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event and you
should stand around and believe it. You should believe in these
athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of
the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets —
this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So Vive le Tour
forever! Farewell speech at the Champs-Élysées podium, after winning his seventh Tour de France, quoted in "Paris salutes its American hero" by Caroline Wyatt in BBC News (24 July 2005)
I wished hard, but I didn't pray. I had developed a certain distrust
of organized religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a
spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I
believed I had a responsiblity to be a good person, and that meant fair,
honest, hardworking, and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my
family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some
cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that
should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some
Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged
on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a
certain book, or whether I'd been baptized. - from It's Not About The Bike (2000)
All their players tested positive... for being assholes. (Referring to the French 2006 FIFA World Cup team during his speech at the ESPY Awards, as quoted in "Armstrong accuses France World Cup team of being 'assholes'") in The Guardian (16 July 2006)
The Denial of Death and the Practice of Dying - By Glenn Hughes
"Man breaks through the bounds of merely cultural heroism; he destroys the character lie that had him perform as a hero in the everyday social scheme of things; and by doing so he opens himself up to infinity, to the possibility of cosmic heroism .... He links his secret inner self, his authentic talent, his deepest feelings of uniqueness ... to the very ground of creation. Out of the ruins of the broken cultural self there remains the mystery of the private, invisible, inner self which yearned for ultimate significance. ...This invisible mystery at the heart of [the] creature now attains cosmic significance by affirming its connection with the invisible mystery at the heart of creation."
Kierkegaard has essentially this same view of human existence, a view that Becker praises in The Denial of Death. Because we are this tension of opposites, says Kierkegaard, in order to be authentically human we need to accept the mystery and responsibility of participation in both of these dimensions of reality that constitute life structured by death. Most people fall short of this authenticity, he declares. They flee its difficulties. And there are two basic ways of doing this. People either (1) immerse themselves in the dimension of things that perish, the things and pleasures of the world, which allows them to evade the awareness of death: the attitude summed up in the advice to "eat, drink, and be merry." Or they (2) cling to some false certainty about immortality, imagining that some kind of immortality is their assured possession, and this too allows them to evade the awareness of death.
Both types of inauthentic existence involve running away from the awareness of death, not allowing the fact of death to penetrate into consciousness, not facing up to the human situation, and not undergoing the crucial moral catharsis. So Kierkegaard, Becker, and Socrates all agree: the denial of death is indeed at the center of human inauthenticity.
... where the problem lies is in the self-comforting delusion that one possesses eternal meaning, and especially in the measures people take to defend their feeling of righteous invulnerability, especially through aggression. Authentic faith, by contrast, affirms enduring meaning in the context of an open if anxious acceptance of mortality. And so one must conclude that there are two opposites to authentic faith. One is the dogmatic clinging to an immortality project; and the other is the equally dogmatic insistence that enduring meaning is an illusion. Both of these are denials of our real human situation, making up two sides of the same counterfeit coin.
Read the rest here.
Kierkegaard has essentially this same view of human existence, a view that Becker praises in The Denial of Death. Because we are this tension of opposites, says Kierkegaard, in order to be authentically human we need to accept the mystery and responsibility of participation in both of these dimensions of reality that constitute life structured by death. Most people fall short of this authenticity, he declares. They flee its difficulties. And there are two basic ways of doing this. People either (1) immerse themselves in the dimension of things that perish, the things and pleasures of the world, which allows them to evade the awareness of death: the attitude summed up in the advice to "eat, drink, and be merry." Or they (2) cling to some false certainty about immortality, imagining that some kind of immortality is their assured possession, and this too allows them to evade the awareness of death.
Both types of inauthentic existence involve running away from the awareness of death, not allowing the fact of death to penetrate into consciousness, not facing up to the human situation, and not undergoing the crucial moral catharsis. So Kierkegaard, Becker, and Socrates all agree: the denial of death is indeed at the center of human inauthenticity.
... where the problem lies is in the self-comforting delusion that one possesses eternal meaning, and especially in the measures people take to defend their feeling of righteous invulnerability, especially through aggression. Authentic faith, by contrast, affirms enduring meaning in the context of an open if anxious acceptance of mortality. And so one must conclude that there are two opposites to authentic faith. One is the dogmatic clinging to an immortality project; and the other is the equally dogmatic insistence that enduring meaning is an illusion. Both of these are denials of our real human situation, making up two sides of the same counterfeit coin.
Read the rest here.
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Does it make sense to fear death?
From New Scientist:
Fear of death is inappropriate because death is certain. But what is not at all certain is when you are going to die. Perhaps, then, what we should be afraid of is not loss of life per se, but rather the possibility that we will die sooner rather than later.
Read more.
SHOOT: It is worth considering that the idea of living forever is actually a lot worse. Imagine being trapped in a jail cell and living forever. Or stuck underwater in a shipwreck. In this and many other sense, living forever would be a punishment.
Fear of death is inappropriate because death is certain. But what is not at all certain is when you are going to die. Perhaps, then, what we should be afraid of is not loss of life per se, but rather the possibility that we will die sooner rather than later.
Consider an analogy. Suppose you're at
a party. It's great, and you wish you could stay, but this is taking
place in high school, and your mother is going to call and tell you it's
time to go home. Now, there's nothing bad about being at home; it's
intrinsically neutral. You just wish you could stay at the party.
Suppose you know that the call is
going to come at midnight, guaranteed. Then, I think, there isn't
anything to be afraid of. But if all you know is that your mother is
going to call some time between 11 pm and 1 am, the conditions for
appropriate fear have been met. There is something bad, there is a
non-negligible chance of it happening, and yet there is also a lack of
certainty that it will happen. Now some degree of fear makes sense.
Perhaps we have something similar with regard to death. Perhaps it makes
sense to be afraid given the unpredictability of death.
As one grows older, the chance of dying within a given
period increases. But even here, fear that one will die soon can easily
be out of proportion. Even an 80-year-old has a more than 90 per cent
chance of living at least another year.
Obviously, fear that death may come
soon can make sense among the very sick or the very aged. But for the
rest of us, I think, it is typically misplaced. - Shelly kagan, Yale University.Read more.
SHOOT: It is worth considering that the idea of living forever is actually a lot worse. Imagine being trapped in a jail cell and living forever. Or stuck underwater in a shipwreck. In this and many other sense, living forever would be a punishment.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Diary of a Sub 40 minute 10K #6
While God has healed Elsje and told her to stop crying, I've struggled with a series of injuries, if not in my feet, then my calves, if not calves, then Achilles, or shins, or glutes. It's as if God is saying: "Don't run; don't even try." But without the warm feeling. It's frustrating, and depressing. It's a test of one's willpower and motivation. Fortunately I have a group of people around me that love running, and fortunately I've managed to pretty much stick to a diet that has lessened the load on the poor legs. And fortunately I believe that we are all born to run. Far.
The trouble I think is thinking one is an all-powerful teenager and running too much, too far and too fast, too soon, when you're 40 years old and sitting a lot of the time. I think one has to have a dream, but still be modest and humble and careful in the execution of it.
The lesson from here is to build gradually - brick by brick. So assuming I can get through October without further injury (I only have 22km to do in 10 days) I'm going to add 10km bricks to total mileage each month, thus 140km for November, 150km in December, 160km in January and so on. That's the plan.
I'm hoping that by December or January - when I'll be revisiting May's form and fitness - I'll be able to challenge some of these records I set this year and then didn't come close for months (due to injury). I especially have my eye on the 1km in 4:31 and 5km in 24:10.
My aim for Friday's run was simply to improve on the same run I did in 2011. I would have been happy with a sub hour. I cruised through 5km in just over 27 minutes, and ran the second 5km even faster. Since it includes two summits of the daunting Albrecht Road, an average pace of 5:17 isn't too shabby. I can also remember feeling painfully overweight the same time last year, as though I was running with a very hard tyre shoved around my chest and waist. Still some work to do in that department, but it shows the high protein diet is working.
When I saw I had improved 7-8 minutes from the previous year I could almost not believe it. This is also the first 10km run I've felt reasonable in (in about 4-5 races), which made the good time triply exciting and satisfying. My pace is definitely picking up again.
What has also stood me in good stead was:
- a 12km run from CBC school that included Basil Read and a number of other tough climbs
- a trail run through the Botanical Gardens (10km) that included 3 laps over two steep koppies
- a number of 10km races
- one week that included 3 very slow 10km runs over 3 consecutive days
Craig Booth has also improved, and what's good is that he is the mark to beat, although it seems he is not getting any closer no matter how fast I run. I think he did Friday's run in 48 minutes, 5 minutes faster than me. But it is good to have guys like him who are super-motivated and getting out there almost every day.
Let's hope (perhaps Elsje can pray for me) that November will produce a fitter and faster me, and my first sub 50 minute 10km since the end of winter.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
South Africa: Sad demise of a country - THE ECONOMIST
SHOOT: The solution to South Africa's massive unemployment, crime, corruption, education (basically everything) is proper, accountable leadership. The DA provides this, but are unlikely to come into power as they are perceived as 'white'. What a tragic irony. The poor majority of black South Africans held hostage to corrupt leaders by their own racism. Of course the rule of nature is 'adapt or die', and if one cannot see that one is dying (and refuses to adapt) then you have no one but yourself to blame. South Africa is a society where everything is blamed on someone of another race, consequently, nothing gets done or improved, because no one says, "Look to me, and I will fix it." Those who do say this are the most corrupt, the populists, who are trusted when they should not be.
Helen Zille offers a choice. Give me a chance. Things can only improve, but I believe it is a matter of pride and resentment. Only when South Africa can truly let go of the past, can we move forward, and even prosper. But can they? Can we?
ON JUNE 26th 1955, 3,000 South Africans gathered in a dusty square in
Kliptown, a district of Soweto, a sprawling black township on the
outskirts of Johannesburg. Members of the African National Congress
(ANC) congregated alongside their anti-apartheid confederates to
proclaim a new vision of the future. The next day police broke up the
meeting (Nelson Mandela disguised himself as a milkman to escape). But
the dream had already been declared. “The people shall govern,”
announced the Freedom Charter. South Africa would belong to all of its
people, no matter what their colour. There would be work, education and
security for all. Everyone would be equal before the law. It was an
extraordinary affirmation, full of hope and the promise of a better
future.
Today the square is named after Walter Sisulu, an ANC hero and mentor to Mr Mandela. It boasts shops, offices, a conference hall and a pricey hotel. As the birthplace of the new, inclusive South Africa, it has become a stop on the tourist trail. But just across the railway track, rickety shacks huddle together. The roads are rutted and muddy. Communal latrines stand useless, their doors open and rubbish piled inside. Next to them on the uneven ground wobbles a portable toilet, its door padlocked against vandals. A sludgy stream trickles past, fouled by children unable to find the key in time. Walter Sisulu Square is close by, but the aspirations of the Freedom Charter are nowhere to be seen.
In the 18 years since black-majority rule began and South Africa
became a full democracy, its people have made progress. Many more now
have access to clean water and electricity. Between 1996 and 2010 the
proportion living on less than $2 a day fell from 12% to 5%. The racist
legislation of apartheid has been abolished. The new constitution is
liberal and inspiring.
And yet in other ways South Africa is in a worse state than at any point since 1994. In August police shot dead 34 miners on strike at a platinum mine near Marikana, in North West province. Since then wildcat strikes have broken out at other mines. Some operations have been suspended. Thousands of miners have been sacked. In September Moody’s, a credit agency, cut South Africa’s sovereign rating, citing the declining quality of the government, growing social stresses and worsening conditions for investment. Meanwhile, South Africa’s leaders have floundered. The ANC’s leadership is up for re-election at a party conference in December. South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, faces possible ejection as party leader—which would prevent him from being the ANC’s presidential candidate in elections in 2014.
The past two months’ industrial strife is about more than just pay or perks. The protests are a symptom of the deep malaise that has taken hold of South Africa. The ANC was dealt a bad hand in 1994, and it has played that hand badly. South Africa’s difficulties are now so entrenched that the ANC looks incapable of solving them.
The starkest measure of South Africa’s failure is the yawning gap between rich and poor. Under apartheid, such inequality was by design. Since apartheid came to an end, a tiny black elite has accrued great fortunes. But that has only widened the wealth gap. South Africa’s Gini coefficient—the best-known measure of inequality, in which 0 is the most equal and 1 the least—was 0.63 in 2009. In 1993 it was 0.59. After 18 years of full democracy, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world.
Unchartered territory
Persistent inequality is in part down to the government’s failure to
educate young South Africans, particularly black ones. In the World
Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, South Africa ranks 132nd
out of 144 countries for its primary education and 143rd for the
quality of its science and maths. In the Department of Basic Education’s
national literacy and numeracy tests last year, only 15% of
12-year-olds (sixth graders) scored at or above the minimum proficiency
on the language test. In maths just 12% did.
Nokubonga Ralayo, a 20-year-old university student from Khayelitsha, a vast black township on the edge of Cape Town, says success comes down to being able to afford a better school. “It is hard to escape your background when you are growing up,” she says. Three-quarters of white pupils complete the final year of high school, but only a third of black pupils.
Schools suffer from poor equipment. Only 20% have libraries, and only 7.5% actually have any books. Almost half of all schools rely on pit latrines instead of proper toilets. In July textbooks that pupils should have received in January were found tossed into rivers in an effort to hide the failure to deliver them.
The standard of teaching is low, too. Training is inadequate. South Africa needs 25,000 new teachers a year but only around 10,000 qualify. Maths and science teachers are in particularly short supply. Many arrive late to school and leave early, spending barely half their allotted time in class. Many fail to turn up at all on Fridays. The teachers’ union is more concerned with protecting its members, even the incompetent ones, than with training them. There is little political will when it comes to improving education and few repercussions when those in charge perform badly.
These failures represent a colossal waste of money as well as talent.
Education accounts for about a sixth of all government spending—more
than in Rwanda, say, which does much better in rankings. Since 1995
South Africa has spent 5-7% of its GDP on education. Today the figure is
6.7%, more than in Brazil.
Chronically poor education means that thousands of jobs go unfilled. Almost half the 95,000 or so nursing jobs in the public sector are vacant, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations. Meanwhile, official unemployment is about 25% and the real figure nearer 40%. (In 1994 unemployment was 20%.) Unequal education creates unequal employment. The unemployment rate among blacks is 29%, compared with 6% for whites. Youth unemployment is over 50%. Young people who fail to find work by the age of 24 will probably never have a full-time formal job.
Skills shortages are a brake on growth and are just one reason why the country’s inclusion in the BRICS (albeit as an afterthought) looked incongruous. In September the Reserve Bank reckoned that South Africa’s growth rate for 2012 would be just 2.6%. Countries such as Nigeria and Angola have galloped ahead in recent years, with growth pushing 10%, albeit from a lower base. The economy, much smaller than that of the other BRICS, is likely to be toppled from its spot as Africa’s biggest by Nigeria’s in the next decade.
Read the rest of this excellent article here.
Helen Zille offers a choice. Give me a chance. Things can only improve, but I believe it is a matter of pride and resentment. Only when South Africa can truly let go of the past, can we move forward, and even prosper. But can they? Can we?
Today the square is named after Walter Sisulu, an ANC hero and mentor to Mr Mandela. It boasts shops, offices, a conference hall and a pricey hotel. As the birthplace of the new, inclusive South Africa, it has become a stop on the tourist trail. But just across the railway track, rickety shacks huddle together. The roads are rutted and muddy. Communal latrines stand useless, their doors open and rubbish piled inside. Next to them on the uneven ground wobbles a portable toilet, its door padlocked against vandals. A sludgy stream trickles past, fouled by children unable to find the key in time. Walter Sisulu Square is close by, but the aspirations of the Freedom Charter are nowhere to be seen.
And yet in other ways South Africa is in a worse state than at any point since 1994. In August police shot dead 34 miners on strike at a platinum mine near Marikana, in North West province. Since then wildcat strikes have broken out at other mines. Some operations have been suspended. Thousands of miners have been sacked. In September Moody’s, a credit agency, cut South Africa’s sovereign rating, citing the declining quality of the government, growing social stresses and worsening conditions for investment. Meanwhile, South Africa’s leaders have floundered. The ANC’s leadership is up for re-election at a party conference in December. South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, faces possible ejection as party leader—which would prevent him from being the ANC’s presidential candidate in elections in 2014.
The past two months’ industrial strife is about more than just pay or perks. The protests are a symptom of the deep malaise that has taken hold of South Africa. The ANC was dealt a bad hand in 1994, and it has played that hand badly. South Africa’s difficulties are now so entrenched that the ANC looks incapable of solving them.
The starkest measure of South Africa’s failure is the yawning gap between rich and poor. Under apartheid, such inequality was by design. Since apartheid came to an end, a tiny black elite has accrued great fortunes. But that has only widened the wealth gap. South Africa’s Gini coefficient—the best-known measure of inequality, in which 0 is the most equal and 1 the least—was 0.63 in 2009. In 1993 it was 0.59. After 18 years of full democracy, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world.
Unchartered territory
Nokubonga Ralayo, a 20-year-old university student from Khayelitsha, a vast black township on the edge of Cape Town, says success comes down to being able to afford a better school. “It is hard to escape your background when you are growing up,” she says. Three-quarters of white pupils complete the final year of high school, but only a third of black pupils.
Schools suffer from poor equipment. Only 20% have libraries, and only 7.5% actually have any books. Almost half of all schools rely on pit latrines instead of proper toilets. In July textbooks that pupils should have received in January were found tossed into rivers in an effort to hide the failure to deliver them.
The standard of teaching is low, too. Training is inadequate. South Africa needs 25,000 new teachers a year but only around 10,000 qualify. Maths and science teachers are in particularly short supply. Many arrive late to school and leave early, spending barely half their allotted time in class. Many fail to turn up at all on Fridays. The teachers’ union is more concerned with protecting its members, even the incompetent ones, than with training them. There is little political will when it comes to improving education and few repercussions when those in charge perform badly.
Chronically poor education means that thousands of jobs go unfilled. Almost half the 95,000 or so nursing jobs in the public sector are vacant, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations. Meanwhile, official unemployment is about 25% and the real figure nearer 40%. (In 1994 unemployment was 20%.) Unequal education creates unequal employment. The unemployment rate among blacks is 29%, compared with 6% for whites. Youth unemployment is over 50%. Young people who fail to find work by the age of 24 will probably never have a full-time formal job.
Skills shortages are a brake on growth and are just one reason why the country’s inclusion in the BRICS (albeit as an afterthought) looked incongruous. In September the Reserve Bank reckoned that South Africa’s growth rate for 2012 would be just 2.6%. Countries such as Nigeria and Angola have galloped ahead in recent years, with growth pushing 10%, albeit from a lower base. The economy, much smaller than that of the other BRICS, is likely to be toppled from its spot as Africa’s biggest by Nigeria’s in the next decade.
Read the rest of this excellent article here.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Philippe Petit - Man On Wire
WIKI: He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter of a mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head.
As soon as Petit was observed by witnesses on the ground, the Port Authority Police Department dispatched officers to take him into custody. One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:
I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.
Wiki: Although movie cameras were on the roof during the walk, the person who
was supposed to film the walk did not do so, apparently due to
exhaustion from pulling the heavy cable tight after some of it had
fallen, creating slack while the rigging was being set up.
More.
As soon as Petit was observed by witnesses on the ground, the Port Authority Police Department dispatched officers to take him into custody. One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:
I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.
More.
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