Guy Berger

A Chinese friend of mine pointed out to me that this panda is too thin.

I haven't paid attention to Radiohead since Amnesiac (which I thought was so-so) but here's aneconomist's perspective from the Marginal Revolution blog:

Are you sure you're thinking of Fort Yawuh? Aside from "Still Life, Still Life", all the songs are upwards of 12 minutes in length. Guy

Ok, so I pulled the trigger and picked it up today. I have to say that my first impression so far is really good. Haden's bass on the first track is haunting and mysterious. I haven't listened to the rest of the cd yet, because I've had too many interuptions from my kids and so forth. But so far, I'm very happy I got it. Great sound too. For those in the know: has 'Shades' or 'Backhand' ever been released on cd? I did a cursory search with no results. Just pick up the blue box set. It has a bunch of music that has never been released elsewhere and probably never will be. Unfortunately for Shades you will either have to pay for an expensive import or (if you want the great bonus tracks) Itunes. Guy

Well -- there is no direct connection between Northern Rock and dodgy US mortgages. However, Northern Rock engaged in securitization of (British, as far as I know) mortgages and financial institutions in the US engaged in securitization of (mostly American) mortgages. Guy But this seems to indicate that the problem wasn't with the mortgages themselves but with the funds NR used to fund them. MG Oh, definitely, it wasn't the problem with the mortgages directly. I was just saying because I misunderstood your statement (which I read as implying that there was a direct link between dodgy US mortgages and Northern Rock). One fact that hasn't been discussed (to my knowledge) -- was anxiety (rational or not) over Northern Rock's mortgage business the reason they were no longer able to borrow on interbank markets? I don't know. Or maybe I have read it somewhere and I don't remember. Guy

I disagree -- I would pick at least 4 or 5 of the Impulse albums before the Survivor's Suite. But SS is easily worth it just for Dewey's playing during the last 5 or 6 minutes. Guy

Al, when you return post pictures. It should be amazing. Guy

A few comments: 1) I have a hard time imagining how several million toys would fail to raise alarms in a situation with random inspections. 2) I don't see a reason to feel sorry for Mattel or step up to their defense. I haven't been following the story closely enough to recall the particulars, but even if they didn't know about the lead levels, they should have been aware that this kind of thing could happen. Guy

I should listen to this again (I've only heard it two or three times), but my assessment is "very good album that has been elevated to masterpiece status because it's hard to get a hold of". Maybe I will change my mind with time. Guy

You are being sarcastic? Guy Uh. No. I am being obvious. The American people were the ones who demanded inexpensive toys (and other goods)... the manufacturers complied. Guy Yeah, but not to get poisoned. Of course not. I was only objecting to GoodSpeak's specific claim that Americans had inexpensive Chinese products somehow "forced upon them". Guy

Well -- there is no direct connection between Northern Rock and dodgy US mortgages. However, Northern Rock engaged in securitization of (British, as far as I know) mortgages and financial institutions in the US engaged in securitization of (mostly American) mortgages. Guy

You are being sarcastic? Guy Uh. No. I am being obvious. The American people were the ones who demanded inexpensive toys (and other goods)... the manufacturers complied. Guy

I'm surprised you didn't include Shades or Backhand on the list -- they are among the group's best albums. I voted for Fort Yawuh. IMHO BopBe is one of the group's weakest albums. Guy

You are being sarcastic? Guy

I got mine this week as well. Currently doing the tedious "move" of music from the 20 to the 160. Unfortunately my laptop only has about 2 gigs of free space so I am doing it in installments. To enjoy all of this new space, I am re-encoding my music in 192. No clue if I'll be able to hear a difference on my $15 headphones... Guy

Reminds me of the old joke about how the only thing worse than being exploited by capitalists is not being exploited by capitalists. Guy

9/22/2007

By the way, I thought this WSJ blog item offers some historical perspective:

No, they didn't do it to skirt the health laws, they did it for the cheap labor costs. However, I'd be very surprised if the thought didn't cross their minds that something like this could happen. Guy

9/19/2007

I hope all my fellow Tribesmen have a bearable fast. Guy

Well, this is a silly response (to a silly statement), but iPods. If you were to value the US economy in terms of iPods, it's worth a lot more iPods now than it was 5 years ago. (And that's before we even adjust that today's iPod is much better than that of 5 years ago.) We could do the same for a bunch of other goods. I think focusing exclusively on exchange rates to compare international living standards is a mistake, because price levels aren't identical across countries. To some extent the depreciation of the dollar has made us poorer because imports are more expensive... but since a lot of what we consume is nontradeable, it will be less affected by shifts in exchange rates. For example, we all know that Venezuela has experienced quite a bit of inflation in past months; I'm almost sure that the Bolivar has depreciated against the US dollars. If I were to melodramatically conclude that the US has experienced great economic growth from the fact that it would cost me xxxx% more Bolivars to buy our country, you would burst out laughing. This guy has a very narrow definition of what has "intrinsic value". There's no doubt that the increase in the prices of these commodities, at least the ones we import in net, has made us poorer -- and that for those we import, the falling dollar has contributed to that increase. But these aren't the only goods in the economy, not by a long shot. Usually most knowledgeable people focus on real GDP, which involves draining away the effect of inflation on the numbers. (And we are talking about full inflation here, not just "core" inflation.) In other words, once you remove the effects of rising prices, the real economy is still growing. There are some statistical issues/controversies surrounding the calculation of real GDP, but I haven't heard any serious economists argue that in general the numbers are sound. Look, I fundamentally agree that occasional mild recessions are not an unmitigated disaster in the aggregate (though they can be horrible for particular individuals in the economy, and probably disproportionately harm the poor). And yes, it's possible that by delaying a mild recession in the short run you may get a worse recession in the medium run. But the idea that smoothing the business cycle (as has happened since WW2) is inevitably going to lead to a "huge recession (ie. depression)" is simply not true -- if anything, most of the worst recessions in the US's history (including the Great Depression) happened before people really figured out monetary policy. As far as "inflating its way to health" -- look, in the short run it's pretty well established that loosening monetary policy (particularly in low-inflation environments) can increase growth. If the Fed thinks that they can do this indefinitely they are in fact idiots... but they DON'T think they can do this. Guy

Out of curiosity, I checked today. If you look at the CPI (consumer price index), for the last year or two, year-on-year percentage changes for the full index have been higher than those for the core index... until the most recent month. (Which I think was August?) I think the same is true for the PCE (personal consumption expenditure) deflator, which is the measure that I believe the Fed prefers. In other words, for the past year, inflation if you include energy and food prices has been lower than if you exclude them. Somebody who is curious and less lazy than me can go to the BEA website (or is it the BLS?) and give us the exact numbers. Guy