David Cameron's gifts to Obama

*via a Dowd column

The British opposition leader David Cameron gave Obama a copy of Winston Churchill’s “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” and a box of CDs by British bands, including the Smiths, Radiohead and the Gorillaz.

Nice! I wonder what Obama would give other world leaders to represent our country...

Weep-worthy.

President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year.

President Bush's budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the White House predicted for the 2009 budget year.




Or maybe, that messed-up, expensive war we're in had something to do with it.

Spot the nerd.

*thanks Caroline!

Great blog.

http://creativecapitalismblog.com/

Creative Capitalism: A Conversation

A Conversation is a web experiment designed to produce a book -- a collection of essays and commentary on capitalism, philanthropy and global development -- to be edited by us and published by Simon and Schuster in the fall of 2008. The book takes as its starting point a speech Bill Gates delivered this January at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In it, he said that many of the world's problems are too big for philanthropy--even on the scale of the Gates Foundation. And he said that the free-market capitalist system itself would have to solve them.

Some contributors (both of their own accord and quoted, but relevant nonetheless):

Abhijit Banerjee
Alex Friedman
Bill Gates
Brad DeLong
Clive Crook
Conor Clarke
Ed Glaeser
Elizabeth Stuart
Eric Werker
Esther Duflo
Gary Becker
Gregory Clark
Jagdish Bhagwati
John Quiggin
John Roemer
John Williamson
Joshua Gans
Justin Fox
Kyle Chauvin
Lawrence Summers
Loretta Michaels
Matthew Bishop
Michael Kinsley
Michael Kremer
Milton Friedman
Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Koehn
Paul Ormerod
Richard Posner
Robert Reich
Steven Landsburg
Tim Harford
Vernon Smith
Warren Buffett
William Easterly

Boomers running up the national credit card

Taken from Slate:

The Democrat-sponsored housing bill received 72-13 Senate approval in a rare Saturday session, giving the Treasury Department sweeping authority to prop up the country's two largest mortgage finance companies and potentially costing the government billions of dollars. "The bill raises the national debt ceiling to $10.6 trillion ... the first time that the limit on the government's credit card has grown to 14 digits," the NYT reports. Sen. Jim DeMint (R, S.C.), mentioned in both stories, told the WP that that the Treasury's new authority "crosses the line into socialism"; John McCain and Barack Obama both support the bill. The Post's economist sources say that the end of crunch won't come near as fast as the bill's passing. In fact, one says, the 400,000 households the bill hopes to assist are "a drop in the bucket."



This will make things worse.

Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat

Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat

Outside Lands or Treasure Island?

Agh! Which one would you go to? (Keep in mind that it will be tough for me to catch the Friday bands because of work...) Oh and there's a price difference to take into account.

http://sfoutsidelands.com/

http://www.treasureislandfestival.com/

OH! Philly people - there's a Bob Dylan show at the Electric Factory for the venue's 40th Anniversary in mid-August. If there was any possible way I could make it, I would do so - that's going to be a GREAT show. Get on it.

Berlin

"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down."

-Barack Obama

Belgrade

Global Rich List

Type in your annual salary and this computes your place in a world income-ranking. According to this gadget, I'm in the top 1%. Nice to remind everyone how lucky they really are.

"You are the 54,175,729 richest person in the world! "

What I'll be doing October 3 - 5

The line-up for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is ridiculously great this year. Let me know if you want to come with...

Mat Collishaw

The Dark Knight mini-review

Well, while I was back east visiting my family I had the pleasure of seeing The Dark Knight... twice. (Unfortunately neither time at IMAX - sold out for days!) Both myself and the various family members who accompanied me were stunned after walking out of the theater. It has been a long time since I've seen a summer blockbuster that was so unbelievably good.

Obviously, as everyone has no doubt already heard, Heath Ledger was the piece de resistance of the film. At some points I was nearly moved to tears just by the sheer talent exhibited in his performance (and yes, I'm an over-dramatic person generally, so take that with a grain of salt). Given the character, and Jack Nicholson's prior performance, I thought Nolan etc. really made a great transition to a sick, depraved, intelligent Joker worthy of the more serious Batman films of today, as compared with the more cheesy Batman films of yore (though don't get me wrong, they still sneak in some great puns etc.). I feel the need to comment more on this because it was just SO phenomenal, but I'll let you all make up your own minds. And perhaps I'll post more later, depending on my mood.

Other bright spots of the film - cinematography, particularly shooting angles from skyscrapers. I actually felt afraid of heights while watching the film. In fact, the whole thing was incredibly well done. I also enjoyed the themes - particularly the exploration of depravity in every human being when put in a desperate situation. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't yet seen it, but it's a really loaded superhero film. Dark, gorgeous, open to interpretation... glorious. See this movie!

Some weak spots - Maggie Gyllenhaal was disappointing and I wish there was a bit more Caine in there, but overall, fantastic film. I'll be going at least once more, to an IMAX. (And I don't usually make it to the theater, so that's saying something.)

Watusi!

Note to self: Learn how to do all of these... just in case.

Cost of Government Day

Congratulations! In order to pay taxes, you worked from January 1 until today (if you're one of my American friends). During that time, the government spent some money on this, some on this, ran up debt like this, and wasted a whole bunch of their (our?) time trying to do shit like this. Now doesn't that feel good? Aren't you glad you labored for such noble causes? Just curious.

The truth is, it's not like I hate the government programs with admirable aims - Medicare etc. - but when our government can be hijacked for eight years by scoundrels, why give them such a big budget to play with? There's got to be a better way.


**I thought I should mention that I'm not a Republican, or a Norquist fan, and thus am not endorsing them nor their ideas through way of reference, but rather I find the information (if true) to be quite provocative.

I Ain't Gonna Marry, Ain't Gonna Settle Down

This struck a chord...

So friends of mine, take my advice,
If you've been stung once, don't get stung twice;
Married life is mighty sweet,
But a single life personally is hard to beat;
It's nice to say that you are man and wife,
It's hard to find a pal who will stick through life;
So if the right one ain't easy found,
I ain't gonna marry or settle down.

Get them advertising dollars, James.

Now THAT'S entertainment!

Check out Clarence's hair! Classic. And seeing Silvio Dante use his teeth on a guitar... brilliant. I actually can't say enough good things about this YouTube clip.

Reverse incentives much?

'Regulation-induced Innovation': The Role of the Central Bank in the Subprime Crisis

My favorite paragraph:

Regulators and others mistakenly focus on maintaining market liquidity, he noted, citing John Maynard Keynes: "There is no such thing as liquidity of investment for the community as a whole. The social object of skilled investment ... is to outwit the crowd, and to pass the bad, or depreciating half-crown to the other fellow." In the cases of the current subprime crisis and the 1980s savings-and-loan mess, the "other fellow includes the taxpayer," Kane said, "and that's what pisses me off."


More commentary to come on Fannie/Freddie, Bernanke (and what an idiot he is), etc.

Oh, Reuters Oddly Enough

This is one of those really great stories, and I must say, I love journalism with punch lines.

*Thanks to Jon

Loveliness.

This is a great way to combat theft.

Josh Ritter is the guy your mom wants you to marry.

Listen to this adorable recount of his night with the Boston Pops (came via e-newsletter):

Hello All!

I had a dream last night that my band and I had a gig the night after our concert with the Boston Pops. We were to be in the same building (Symphony Hall), but somehow things felt different. When I arrived for the show, the band and I got into a deep discussion about what songs to play; so deep, in fact, that we forgot we had a show to put on. We were laughing away at the songs and ideas we were coming up with when suddenly I heard "Girl in the War" being played over the Symphony Hall sound system. "Hmm," I thought, "Well, that song's off the list." Then for some reason I found myself out on stage with a tambourine and nothing else. But the weird part was that I was standing on a trampoline...

Our actual show with the Boston Pops was also a dream, but thankfully one that came true. While the details are fresh in my mind I'll jot a few down.

Symphony Hall, one of the greatest acoustic spaces in the entire world and a place that seems brimming over with the collected strains of music over the last century, was the setting. To walk the corridors and stand in the balcony is like climbing a high mountain and look back on how far you've come.

The project of bringing my songs to the Pops was undertaken by some folks at the Pops, my manager and booking agent, the arranger Sean O'Laughlin, my band, and myself. Zack Hickman in particular did a good deal of work with Sean to get the music to go smoothly. In most ways it was like any other show, but in a few crucial ones it was different. Firstly, Symphony Hall is big: 2,300 people is a lot of people. Secondly, this was a one-off show. If I forgot words or if the arrangements felt wrong or the sound system went out or the guitars were out of tune, that was that. Thirdly, alongside this incredible crowd our families were all going to be in attendance. I was pretty nervous for the rehearsal. Here, after a great deal of work on arrangements, set lists and set-up, we would see how the whole thing hung together. The orchestra was friendly, but not overly, still when the opening chorale written by Sean for "Best for the Best" began, I realized that the only way to enjoy the evening fully was to accept whatever was going to happen unconditionally. During the rehearsal the rain began to pour down Biblically on the Boston. "How Biblical," I thought. The thunder sounded truly enormous as well, and continued until the man tuning the timpani was finished.

We finished the rehearsal and I went back to the hotel, pressed my suit and paced around for an hour or so. The great poet Robert Pinsky had agreed to come back from Aspen to read a couple poems over my instrumental piece "Edge of the World," but because of the rain he and his wife had been unable to land.

Whatever fears the band or I had strangely melted away as show time neared. Symphony Hall was lit up and the sound of the house getting full drifted up into our dressing room. By the time we stood side stage and the orchestra tuned, the prevailing emotion was elation. That didn't subside for an hour and a half. "Idaho," which I played solo seem to fill up the hall, and from there, the orchestra swelled into "Best for the Best" and then "Other Side." "Monster Ballads," "Rumors," "Kathleen," "Adam" - every song was like unwrapping a gift. My friend, the violinist Hilary Hahn, told me once that the best place to listen to music is standing in the middle of an orchestra. She's right.

Midway through the set, Robert Pinsky, who had made it to the ground against all odds, read two beautiful poems and truly stole the night. Standing to the side of the stage and listening to him recite was astounding.

The audience was likewise astounding. It felt like we had won something before we even got out on stage, and in a very major way, we had. This sort of victory doesn't come around for free. It takes a lot of uncertainty and a lot of miles, a lot of sleep-starved nights and even more coffee, and it takes people who not only believe in you but are willing to show it.

The show went off without a hitch and we floated back up to the green room where there was champagne and slaps on the back. By the time we got back to the hotel it was 2:30 in the morning, but sleep came nearly instantly and there were no trampolines in it.

Swoon! Anyway, if you ever get the chance to see this guy in concert - do it! His internal goodness just shines through the entire set and stays with you after you leave. And the music's not bad either.

We're having a heat wave...

...again. This is getting a little scary. For Berkeley:

Jul 9 Tomorrow
Sunny skies. Hot. High 93F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.

Ok, so for most of you 93 isn't that bad, but it's just not like that here. Enough with all the heat, fires, air alerts, I want my "coldest winter...summer in San Francisco" back!

Haha why doesn't this surprise me?

Now I'm all for people who can enjoy good food to go ahead and do so, but 18 courses at this sort of event is a bit tacky.

"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." -Milton Friedman

In its latest batch of too-little-too-late actions, the Fed is going to restrict exotic and subprime mortgages. So they're going to take them off the market now that no one will touch them with a ten-foot pole? Way to be innovative and productive Bernanke (I hate when they do pointless things just so they can claim they did something). Additionally, Ben B. said that the Fed was considering extending its program of low-cost overnight loans to the nation’s largest investment banks into next year. Yup, that was supposed to be temporary. Soon enough, they'll be teaching discount window i-banking in b-school. Sigh.

Melinda's really long term real estate investment outlook

Long Alaska property - you heard it here first. At some point, those clever Alaskans may be the only ones with gas, water, a reasonable climate...

This is total BS

Coors to brew far from Rockies

Ok, in all honesty, I rarely drink Coors. But particularly as a girl raised in Colorado, this makes me very sad. I mean, I don't think "Brewed With Pure Trenton Spring Water" has the same ring...

Oh, also, holy censorship Batman!

Energy policy

There have been plenty of opportunities to avert the current oil crisis in the past 25 years, but all have been either ignored or deliberately blocked, analysts say. Reports beginning in the last oil crisis of the 1970s have warned of the problem, and all agree that the automobile is behind the spike in prices.

Well, yeah...

Steven Tyler Laid Off From Aerosmith As Band's Jobless Rate Hits 20%

Analysts speculate that the sector-wide layoff was a result of multiple factors, including redundancies in the singing-songwriting division, rising rehab fees that have cost the group millions, and a 34 percent decline in jump-kicks since 2003. In addition, some of Aerosmith's younger, more ambitious employees, such as Joe Perry, 57, are willing to sing and play an instrument at the same time, often for half the salary.

Tyler, already dangerously underweight, says he will struggle to put food on the table without a steady income.

*From The Onion

One of the funniest political pieces I've read in awhile...

McCain Battles a Nemesis, the Teleprompter

"You have been liberated."

So dramatic!

Awww yeah! (#2 for today!)

Baseball's best mustaches (courtesy of Olivia) - I think Rollie Fingers (what a name, too!) is my favorite.

Where is my mind?

The ADD post.

Indie Artists Drum Up Corporate Ties --- YUCK! Do you really think you can still call your band "indie" at that point? I mean, I know we all gotta survive but wow does that leave a bad taste in my mouth.

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
-Abraham Lincoln

Netherlands boots tobacco users from bars and restaurants -- even in coffee shops, it's the end of an era *tear*

Fugitive Fund Manager Who Faked Suicide Surrenders

Sorry I remember reading about this awhile ago, but this excerpt deserved recognition:

On the day that he was to report, Mr. Israel’s abandoned GMC Envoy was found along a shoulder of the Bear Mountain Bridge near the Hudson River with the message “suicide is painless” written in dust on the hood. The keys and a bottle of pills were still in the car.

When Mr. Israel’s body failed to turn up and the message turned out to be the theme song of ”M*A*S*H,” the authorities began to suspect he was on the run.

Sounds like some serious detective work to me.

Awww yeah!

As part of the unspoken Internet aspiration to answer all of our most inconsequential questions, some giant nerd ("Thank you!") plotted out Steve McQueen's route in the chase scene from Bullitt and put an animated Google map next to the clip from the movie. Particularly cool if you live in San Francisco ("I thought that's where it was!").

This also looks tantalizing.

Baby Boomers Fucked Everything: a psychedelic light show

Of course it is. Artist bios are pretty hilarious too.

Follow-up: Olafur Eliasson

http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/

Make sure to check out 'How the Waterfalls Work'.

The Money Trail

David Brooks dissects where each candidates' donations are coming from (and embeds how much Barack is whooping McCain's elderly ass).

The trends are pretty clear: rising economic sectors tend to favor Democrats while declining economic sectors are more likely to favor Republicans. The Democratic Party (not just Obama) has huge fund-raising advantages among people who work in electronics, communications, law and the catchall category of finance, insurance and real estate. Republicans have the advantage in agribusiness, oil and gas and transportation. Which set of sectors do you think are going to grow most quickly in this century’s service economy?

Ever the optimist, I disagree with Brooks' theory that this is all a bait-and-switch tactic by capitalists posing as Democrats, but rather, that maybe the people who are lucky enough to get an education and live comfortably have decided to put political ideals ahead of financial gain. Maybe? As one of the many in the "catchall category", that's my angle and I know many of my friends feel the same (although we're also filed into the "young and idealistic" category, maybe as you cruise up the corporate ladder, people become more cynical... I don't know, yet).