. . . Doubling reward again from B to C, though, brings significant incremental risk. . . Read more at: The risk/reward confusion (Seth’s Blog)
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Water, water everywhere, and you’re entitled to a drop.
As scientists warn that the world’s fresh water supplies will soon run critically short, and companies scramble to privatize them, some researchers and activists say water should be considered a basic human right.
“Access to clean water, which is essential for health, is under threat,” write the editors of Public Library of Science Medicine in an essay published Monday.
In terms of intellectual coherency, the idea passes muster. Water’s just as essential to life as food, which makes an appearance in Article 25 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As of now, the World Health Organization estimates that inadequate water is responsible for nearly one-tenth of the world’s disease burden, and that six percent of all deaths could be prevented by universal access to safe drinking water and better sanitation.
Of course, it’s a lot easier to declare a right than to enforce it. Despite the UN’s pledge to end hunger, nearly a billion people don’t have enough to eat. And the UN’s promise to halve the number of water-impoverished people by 2015 has a snowball’s chance in the Sahara of being met. But as the PLoS Medicine editors point out, recognizing water as a human right would at least provide a framework for dealing with water privatization. (Read more at: Wired Science)
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{Photography by laszlo-photo}
This quote, from Newsweek’s piece on former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, strikes me as a bombshell:
Paulson–by his own admission–was not paying much attention to the way banks were slicing and dicing mortgages and selling them as complex securities. “I didn’t understand the retail market; I just wasn’t close to it,” he told NEWSWEEK.
If Newsweek won’t play prosecutor, I will: “Hank Paulson, you were Goldman’s chief executive as mortgage securities boomed in 2004-5. Your earned an incredible severance, partly because of it. And you say you didn’t understand mortgage securities? How is that remotely possible?”
I’d like to offer a bit of analysis, but all I’ve got is bewilderment. The reason I find the revolving door between Wall St. and Washington somewhat acceptable is that I think it’s important that those who govern Wall Street understand it. But Paulson, by his own admission, didn’t really. Think about this: A guy whose $46 million compensation package was made possible by leaving during Goldman’s mortgage-security boom “was not paying much attention” to the mortgage-security boom! I don’t know if Paulson is fibbing, or if mortgage-securities were such a specialized and esoteric money machine that basically nobody understood what was going on, but either way, this seems devastating. (Read more at: the Atlantic)
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{Photography by Moose.Boy}
IF the last 18 months have taught Americans anything, it’s that market collapses don’t discriminate. Even the most sophisticated and affluent investors lost big chunks of their fortunes. Access to the most exclusive hedge funds did not always limit the damage, as many participants had hoped it would.
As a result, a new mentality has emerged among some investors, who are rethinking the traditional approach to asset allocation. The upheaval in the markets and in the broader economy has led them to question long-honored principles of investing and to sound a death knell, at least for now, for the buy-and-hold mind-set.
Moving away from the conventional mix of stocks, bonds and cash, many affluent investors and their advisers are turning to alternative investments — like managed futures and hedged mutual funds — that are liquid but behave differently from the rest of the investment pack.
And some of the wealthiest investors are beginning to shed the bunker mentality, at least long enough to exploit shorter-term opportunities.
“In an environment of extraordinary uncertainty, the traditional role of asset allocation and long-term investing is far more difficult,” said Michael Sonnenfeldt, chief executive of Tiger 21, a forum for wealthy investors who meet monthly to discuss financial matters. “Many of our members believe we are in a trader’s market where long-term investing should be shunned but trading opportunities should be seized.”
Indeed, many investors are reluctant to place longer term bets and cling to larger cash allocations, anticipating continued volatility. (Read more at New York Times Online)
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{Photography by Wellington264}
OSLO — When capitalism seemed on the verge of collapse last fall, Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s Socialist finance minister and a longtime free market skeptic, did more than crow.
As investors the world over sold in a panic, she bucked the tide, authorizing Norway’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund to ramp up its stock buying program by $60 billion — or about 23 percent of Norway ‘s economic output.
“The timing was not that bad,” Ms. Halvorsen said, smiling with satisfaction over the broad worldwide market rally that began in early March.
The global financial crisis has brought low the economies of just about every country on earth. But not Norway. (More at the New York Times online)
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{Photography by Jimg944}
