Links for 2/9

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There’s a persistent myth to the effect that low borrowing costs are a reward for austerity; you still hear that all the time from the current UK government. But Spain, with its BBB rating, now has a lower 10-year rate than the UK, with its AAA rating. Even Italy, with its BBB-, is now on a par with Britain. Oh, and isn’t it amazing how people continue to talk about a French debt crisis with French 10-years at 0.58, that’s right, 0.58 percent?

Rates and Ratings NYTimes.com

How the German chancellor navigates the two-front crisis emanating from Moscow and Athens could determine whether she rises to her role as Europe’s dominant leader or slips into history as a risk-averse manager who couldn’t hold the region together.

It’s Merkel Legacy Moment as She Tackles Twin Crises - Bloomberg Business

One of the world’s largest activist hedge funds has made a bet worth nearly £100m on Britain’s solar power industry, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

One of the world’s largest activist hedge funds has made a $152 million bet on Britain’s solar power industry - Business Insider

Keeping cyber thieves at bay is hard. They are busy, well-motivated and well-financed. Just one example serves to show just how prolific they are. Every day, come rain or shine, they crank out about 250,000 novel variants of viruses.

BBC News - Why small firms struggle with cyber security

The pace of job growth over the past three months was the fastest in 17 years. The gains spanned nearly every industry, and some employers have finally had to dangle higher pay to attract or retain top talent.

US job growth over the past 3 months was the fastest in 17 years - Business Insider

In the span of 45 minutes today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rewrote the history of the Cold War, accused the West of fomenting a coup in Ukraine and declared himself a champion of the United Nations Charter. The crowd here in Germany laughed at and then booed him, but he didn’t seem to care.

Europeans Laugh as Lavrov Talks Ukraine - Bloomberg View

I signed some papers saying that, 30 days after my episodes aired, I would receive a check for $25,000. I stared through the document as I signed it, seeing nothing but that missing zero. My producer escorted me toward the exit. She took my picture as she bade me farewell. “You’re the best contestant I’ve ever had,” she said. I was one of the biggest losers in Who Wants to be a Millionaire? history.

I went on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' and it nearly destroyed me - Business Insider

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But his speech also contained, perhaps inadvertently, some interesting arguments that the rounds of bond-buying after the acute phase of the financial crisis did little for the real economy. (We covered the tenuous relationship between asset purchase programmes and inflation here.)

Did the Fed’s QE actually do anything for the real economy? | FT Alphaville

Reforming European labour markets ranks high on the current political agenda. Particular attention is being paid to the mid-2000s series reforms in Germany (the Hartz I-IV reforms) as a potential role model for other European countries. Before these reforms and the subsequent decrease in unemployment rates, politicians and economists had pointed to Germany as the ‘sick man of Europe’, a country characterised by high unemployment rates, low labour market turnover, and highly persistent of adverse shocks.

Labour-market institutions and worker flows: Comparing Germany and the US | VOX, CEPR’s Policy Portal

Globally, and for the most part even within countries, a rise in debt isn’t an indication that we’re living beyond our means, because as Fatas puts it, one person’s debt is another person’s asset; or as I equivalently put it, debt is money we owe to ourselves

Debt is money we owe to ourselves Paul Krugman NYTimes.com

Unlike during the Cold War, though, Russia doesn’t have a worldwide network of allies and proxies. Its economy is smaller than Italy’s; per-capita economic output is smaller than in Cyprus. Meantime, sanctions, slumping oil prices and the ruble’s biggest rout since the 1998 debt default are sending the economy toward recession... Belgium, for example, has rebuffed calls to bar Russia from the global SWIFT banking-transaction system. An EU summit on Feb. 12 may put those divisions on display.

Is Putin Bent on Reshaping the World Order? - Bloomberg Business

Mr. Hamm, seeking to exploit a wrinkle in divorce law, made the unusual argument that his wealth came largely from forces outside his control, like global oil prices, the expertise of his deputies and other people's technology. During the nine-week divorce trial, his lawyers claimed that although Mr. Hamm had founded Continental Resources and led the company to become a multibillion-dollar energy giant, he was responsible for less than 10 percent of his personal and corporate success.

Are CEOs that talented, or just lucky?

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In the course of December and January, the balance sheet of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) expanded by $186.7 billion to a total of $4.02 trillion. That policy reversal came after an impressive $244.6 billion liquidity withdrawal between August and November of last year.

Why is the Fed easing again?

Interestingly, the Fed's apparently puzzling return to aggressive asset purchases continued in an environment of mounting concerns about much-feared and presumably fast-approaching interest rate increases in the United States.

Why is the Fed easing again?

Many people are finally coming to a realization that should have been evident long ago: Greece’s debts are not going to be repaid. And as discussion turns to who might be next, it seems a good time to revisit the question of whether the United States could some day find itself in similar trouble. I am substantially more optimistic about this than I was a couple of years ago, and here is why.

Sovereign debt scares– is the U.S. immune? | Econbrowser

Today, nearly all major technological advances are accompanied by fear. As Douglas Adams put it, “Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re 15 and 35 is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re 35 is against the natural order of things.”

Why tomorrow's technology needs a regulatory revolution -- Fusion

But things right now look even more favorable than that. The CBO report was released on Jan 29 and was assuming a value for the 10-year yield of 2.5% for 2015:Q1. But last week it fell all the way down to 1.83%.

Sovereign debt scares– is the U.S. immune? | Econbrowser

Many economists, including Janet Yellen, view global economic troubles since 2008 largely as a story about “deleveraging” — a simultaneous attempt by debtors almost everywhere to reduce their liabilities. Why is deleveraging a problem? Because my spending is your income, and your spending is my income, so if everyone slashes spending at the same time, incomes go down around the world.

Nobody Understands Debt - NYTimes.com

Stern magazine wrote that Varoufakis's appearance reminded Germans of Greek heroes immortalized in marble statues, even though media elsewhere in Europe have said he looked more like a night club bouncer.

Germans just can't resist the charm and masculinity of Greece's charismatic finance minister - Business Insider

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The net, he argues, was meant to be “power to the people, a platform for equality”: an open, decentralised, democratising technology that liberates as it empowers as it informs. Instead, it has handed extraordinary power and wealth to a tiny handful of people, while simultaneously, for the rest of us, compounding and often aggravating existing inequalities – cultural, social and economic – whenever and wherever it has found them. Individually, it may work wonders for us. Collectively, it’s doing us no good at all.

The great internet swindle: ever get the feeling you've been cheated? | Technology | The Guardian

Has there ever been an achievement like this? Has there ever been a manager who has revolutionised a club like he has revolutionised Atlético, changing their history, their identity?

Atlético’s deserved 4-0 win over Real Madrid is one for the photo album | Sid Lowe | Football | The Guardian

Russian child athletes are taking banned substances while still at school, the country’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko has claimed. With Russia enduring doping scandals for months, Mutko vowed to crack down on doping among child athletes, which he suggested was the result of a system where youth coaches can be paid sizeable bonuses when young athletes win competitions.

Russian child athletes are doping at school, says sports minister | Sport | The Guardian

We believed that American aid to a fragile China whose leaders thought like us would help China become a democratic and peaceful power without ambitions of regional or even global dominance. Every one of the assumptions behind that belief was wrong—dangerously so.

The Hundred Year Marathon excerpt - Business Insider

uring every minute of every day of 2014, according to Andrew Keen’s new book, the world’s internet users – all three billion of them – sent 204m emails, uploaded 72 hours of YouTube video, undertook 4m Google searches, shared 2.46m pieces of Facebook content, published 277,000 tweets, posted 216,000 new photos on Instagram and spent $83,000 on Amazon.

The great internet swindle: ever get the feeling you've been cheated? | Technology | The Guardian

Putin's lies aren't directed at concealing the war from Russians: They know what's going on, because dead soldiers are impossible to conceal. Putin's lies are a message to the West, a signal that Russia isn't yet fully committed.

Why Putin Is Lying About Ukraine - Bloomberg View

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There is lots in the media at the moment about how interest rates on government bonds in some developed countries are dipping below zero for the first time. This is indeed an historical moment, but it reflects a 30-year trend of collapsing yields rather than a short-term phenomenon.

Interest rates have been falling for 30 years and pose big risks - Business Insider

Salmon is one of thousands of older men who have rediscovered the joys of playing football again through a sport that makes the basic elements of a match accessible to them by slowing the game down. Walking football, which is supposed to involve a free kick every time a player runs, was only invented six years ago and already there are 225 registered clubs all over the country, with new sessions springing up every week.

Walking football wins over older men to new form of the beautiful game | Society | The Guardian

I learned that researchers who scoured public transit in New York found "hundreds of species" of bacteria on the trains, along with a smidge of bubonic plague and anthrax, inert. Only 2 percent of the 15,000 types of DNA swabbed out of the subway's bowels were human, raising the obvious and unsettling question of who the other 49 of every 50 riders are.

New York Subways Are Full of Bacteria and Yet We're Healthy, Mostly | The New Republic

It’s been just over 45 years since the Apollo Moon landings, and some would have it that we are failing to build big anymore; that we've since become too fascinated with the small, too impressed by our tablet computers, games consoles, and smartphones that we don't invest in grand, world-changing engineering projects. Stand on the bridge of a container ship docked in a mega-port in Korea, however, and it's clear that's just not true.

BBC - Future - The invisible network that keeps the world running

Texan hedge fund manager Kyle Bass' war against the US pharmaceutical industry has officially begun.

Kyle Bass files first IPR petition - Business Insider

Hedge funds are playing with fire as they turn short on Nikkei futures for the first time in two years, according to one analyst, noting Japan's public pension fund is ready to buy the dip.

Hedge funds playing with fire shorting the Nikkei

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The most convincing case for why Amazon pushes so aggressively on Prime is that members just spend a lot more. Analysts have found Prime customers spend somewhere in the realm of three times as much on Amazon every year as their non-Prime counterparts. Even factoring in the extra costs, this spending makes Prime members much more valuable to Amazon’s bottom line.

Amazon Prime Is One of the Most Bizarre Good Business Ideas Ever | WIRED

So, your TV might be spying on you. It probably just wanted to join in with the rest of the technology in your life, because let’s face it: if you live in the 21st century you’re probably monitored by half a dozen companies from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. (And if you wear a sleep tracker, it doesn’t even stop then.)

Six ways your tech is spying on you – and how to turn it off | Alex Hern | Comment is free | The Guardian

Subsequent scholarship shows, however, that the main reason monetary policy didn’t work more powerfully in the 1930s was that it wasn’t tried (apologies to E. Cary Brown). As I have argued here, central banks in the 1930s were reluctant to utilise their newfound monetary freedom. They were uncomfortable about making policy without an exchange rate anchor. They feared an outbreak of uncontrollable inflation even in what was a deeply deflationary environment.

Eichengreen: Cassandras and currency wars | FT Alphaville

Alcohol use contributes to diseases including cancer and cirrhosis, and kills 3.3 million people a year, about 6 percent of global deaths, according to the World Health Organization. While the beverage industry has seized on studies that tout alcohol’s supposed benefit in preventing heart disease, new research shows that reducing even light drinking may improve your health

That Glass of Merlot May Not Actually Be Good for Your Health - Bloomberg Business

To die, sometimes you need only believe you are ill, and as David Robson discovers, we can unwittingly ‘catch’ such fears, often with terrifying consequences.

BBC - Future - The contagious thought that could kill you

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China's central bank engineered a quiet revolution in monetary policy last year, newly released data have shown, as authorities invented tools to grow the money supply in response to a dramatic fall in capital inflows.

Chinese monetary policy undergoes big shift

There are six stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500, including video-game maker Electronic Arts, telecom Frontier Communications and grocery store chain Kroger that have outperformed Apple in terms of stock-price gains, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Capital IQ.

6 big stocks devour Apple!

Global gold demand slumped to its lowest level in five years in 2014 as bar and coin buying plunged and jewelry purchases cooled, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

Gold tarnished: Demand sinks to five-year low - Yahoo Finance

We already have the NSA, FBI, DHS and NCTC, but the White House feels that we're still an acronym short on the cyber warfare front. That's why, later today, the president's counterterrorism chief will announce the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center -- a new department designed to protect America from digital aggressors. With the Sony Pictures and JPMorgan hacks in mind, President Obama pledged to beef up America's digital security in his most recent state of the union address, and the CTIIC is part of that.

US launching a new cyberwarfare agency in wake of Sony attacks

You probably had some palm oil today. If it wasn't in your toothpaste, or your shampoo, it was in the margarine you had at breakfast. Found in roughly half of the products sold in modern supermarkets, it's the world's most popular edible oil. It's also the cause of one of the world's biggest environmental catastrophes, the decimation of southeast Asia's rainforests.

Your Toothpaste Is Destroying Asia's Rainforests - Bloomberg View

We all have been there: you go a little overboard the night before and wake up to a dry mouth, aching body, pounding headache, and maybe a little bit of vomiting. It sucks. Now, if you live in the Manhattan area and have a few extra hundred dollars to spend, these mornings can be a thing of the past. The Hangover Club, one of a number of "hangover cure" services cropping up around the US, allows you to order a nurse on demand. The nurse, who is guaranteed to arrive in 45 minutes, administers a medical cocktail of fluids and vitamins that the company claims will fix your hangover and give you the energy you need to take on the day.

I tried Hangover Club IV drip - Business Insider

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In its most basic form, HDR is a photographic technique that produces brighter and more detailed photos. It takes multiple exposures and then combines them, retaining detail in the brightest and darkest parts of a scene that are often lost. HDR photos, in effect, have a much wider luminance range – i.e. they contain more light information. You can see what this looks like below. The idea of HDR video is essentially the same, but on a grander, more sophisticated and actually more effective scale. For while HDR video should still deliver greater luminance extremes – inkier blacks and blazing whites – within the same frame like an HDR photography does, a great quality HDR video will also deliver much more subtlety and finesse at every stage between the black and white extremes.

HDR TV: What is it and should you care? - Opinion - Trusted Reviews

From the trough in May 2009 to its peak in October 2014, rigs drilling for oil soared from 180 to 1,609: multiplied by a factor of 9 in five years! And oil production soared, to reach 9.2 million barrels a day in January.

Fracking has collapsed - Business Insider

The US Energy Information Administration reported that crude oil inventories (excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) rose by another 4.9 million barrels last week to 419.9 million barrels – the highest level in the weekly data going back to 1982. These weekly storage reports have been relentlessly terrible for months.

Oil price debacle continues - Business Insider

But evidence is growing that napping can produce cognitive benefits from increased alertness to improved motor skills, perception and memory consolidation. So how do you get the best from a brief bit of shuteye?

BBC - Future - Sleep: How to nap like a pro

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UK commuters spend an average of about 1.5 hours a day at the wheel. Road vehicles in particular are known to emit polluting nanoparticles which contribute to respiratory and heart diseases. Now, researchers at the University of Surrey have found that where drivers spend just 2% of their journey time passing through traffic intersections managed by lights, this short duration contributes to about 25% of total exposure to these harmful particles.

Stopping at red lights exposes drivers to high levels of air pollution, new study finds | EurekAlert! Science News

The tablet half has an 8.9-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS LCD display and quad-core 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3735F processor. There's 2GB of RAM on board and 32GB of storage. A microSD card slot can expand that by up to a further 128GB and it sports a 5-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel snapper on the front.

The tablet half has an 8.9-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS LCD display

There are over one million juvenile gang members in the U.S., more than three times the number estimated by law enforcement, according to a recent study.

Juvenile gang members in US top 1 million, new study finds | EurekAlert! Science News

It shows average disposable incomes per person by NUTS2 region as of 2011, the latest data we have. Disposable income is generally a better measure of individual purchasing power than GDP per capita since it looks at how much actual people take home in cash, leaving out profits of big multinationals based in a particular region, while accounting for taxes and cash transfers. Dark green places are the richest, while pale yellow are the poorest.

Euro area divergence more about regions than countries | FT Alphaville

Even before the oil price collapsed, "21st-century socialism" had become unaffordable. Instead of saving windfall oil revenues, as prudence would dictate, the government racked up debt. Between them, the government and PDVSA, the state oil company, issued more debt than any other emerging economy in 2007-11. The fiscal deficit is heading for 20% of GDP this year, according to independent economists.

Venezuela is fraying - Business Insider

Gamblers who won $1.5 million at a casino after realizing the cards hadn't been shuffled have been ordered to return the money. State Superior Court Judge Donna Taylor has sided with the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in its long-running dispute with 14 gamblers who say the fault wasn't theirs and they should be allowed to keep their winnings.

Gamblers ordered to return $1.5 million in casino winnings because the cards weren't shuffled - Business Insider