Sunday, May 26, 2013

Weekend Links

  • No clear evidence that tornadoes are likely to get worse under climate change.  Well, that's something.
  • How a big bank failure could unfold.
  • The jet stream - what it is and how it's changing.  This is a very good, long, primer on the changes in the weather that appear to be occurring as a result of the melting arctic.  I blogged about this last April.
  • Could Europe surprise to the upside?
  • Suicide on the rise.  I expect the causes are complex, but at a minimum this is consistent with something I would predict as we continue to move towards the singularity: humans need a sense of meaning, and in the industrial west, a lot of us are used to this coming from work.  As the economy starts to need fewer of us, I expect more depression and suicide.
  • China contemplating economic reform, and perhaps slower growth.
  • Climate change creates some high-class problems too.

1 comment:

Hypnos said...

There is no hope for Europe until the competitiveness gap with Germany is mended, and that cannot happen until the euro is broken up - preferably through Germany leaving.

Spanish exports are picking up because internal demand has been wiped out. Italy on the other hand after a positive trade balance in 2012 is going negative again - the deindustrialization of the country (the second largest economy by manufacturing output after Germany, and 5th largest in the world) is picking up pace, and the businesses that could export are simply going broke due to lack of credit, lack of internal demand, and the State not paying its bills.

There is no upside to Europe until either Germany reflates or the euro is abandoned.