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Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Entrance
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Monday, March 16, 2009
Tone Poem
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Saturday, March 14, 2009
Sketches of NYC
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Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The Corner
Carl Sagan
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Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
La Talacha / Free Market
Karl Liebknecht.
March 2, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Revenge of the Glut
By Paul Krugman
Remember the good old days, when we used to talk about the “subprime crisis” — and some even thought that this crisis could be “contained”? Oh, the nostalgia!
Today we know that subprime lending was only a small fraction of the problem. Even bad home loans in general were only part of what went wrong. We’re living in a world of troubled borrowers, ranging from shopping mall developers to European “miracle” economies. And new kinds of debt trouble just keep emerging.
How did this global debt crisis happen? Why is it so widespread? The answer, I’d suggest, can be found in a speech Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, gave four years ago. At the time, Mr. Bernanke was trying to be reassuring. But what he said then nonetheless foreshadowed the bust to come.
The speech, titled “The Global Saving Glut and the U.S. Current Account Deficit,” offered a novel explanation for the rapid rise of the U.S. trade deficit in the early 21st century. The causes, argued Mr. Bernanke, lay not in America but in Asia.
In the mid-1990s, he pointed out, the emerging economies of Asia had been major importers of capital, borrowing abroad to finance their development. But after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 (which seemed like a big deal at the time but looks trivial compared with what’s happening now), these countries began protecting themselves by amassing huge war chests of foreign assets, in effect exporting capital to the rest of the world.
The result was a world awash in cheap money, looking for somewhere to go.
Most of that money went to the United States — hence our giant trade deficit, because a trade deficit is the flip side of capital inflows. But as Mr. Bernanke correctly pointed out, money surged into other nations as well. In particular, a number of smaller European economies experienced capital inflows that, while much smaller in dollar terms than the flows into the United States, were much larger compared with the size of their economies.
Still, much of the global saving glut did end up in America. Why?
Mr. Bernanke cited “the depth and sophistication of the country’s financial markets (which, among other things, have allowed households easy access to housing wealth).” Depth, yes. But sophistication? Well, you could say that American bankers, empowered by a quarter-century of deregulatory zeal, led the world in finding sophisticated ways to enrich themselves by hiding risk and fooling investors.
And wide-open, loosely regulated financial systems characterized many of the other recipients of large capital inflows. This may explain the almost eerie correlation between conservative praise two or three years ago and economic disaster today. “Reforms have made Iceland a Nordic tiger,” declared a paper from the Cato Institute. “How Ireland Became the Celtic Tiger” was the title of one Heritage Foundation article; “The Estonian Economic Miracle” was the title of another. All three nations are in deep crisis now.
For a while, the inrush of capital created the illusion of wealth in these countries, just as it did for American homeowners: asset prices were rising, currencies were strong, and everything looked fine. But bubbles always burst sooner or later, and yesterday’s miracle economies have become today’s basket cases, nations whose assets have evaporated but whose debts remain all too real. And these debts are an especially heavy burden because most of the loans were denominated in other countries’ currencies.
Nor is the damage confined to the original borrowers. In America, the housing bubble mainly took place along the coasts, but when the bubble burst, demand for manufactured goods, especially cars, collapsed — and that has taken a terrible toll on the industrial heartland. Similarly, Europe’s bubbles were mainly around the continent’s periphery, yet industrial production in Germany — which never had a financial bubble but is Europe’s manufacturing core — is falling rapidly, thanks to a plunge in exports.
If you want to know where the global crisis came from, then, think of it this way: we’re looking at the revenge of the glut.
And the saving glut is still out there. In fact, it’s bigger than ever, now that suddenly impoverished consumers have rediscovered the virtues of thrift and the worldwide property boom, which provided an outlet for all those excess savings, has turned into a worldwide bust.
One way to look at the international situation right now is that we’re suffering from a global paradox of thrift: around the world, desired saving exceeds the amount businesses are willing to invest. And the result is a global slump that leaves everyone worse off.
So that’s how we got into this mess. And we’re still looking for the way out.
NYT
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Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Pruning
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Sunday, March 1, 2009
Theme Day: Glass
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tulum
With over 60 restored temples, Tulum has hidden secrets that are spoken within the sacred walls with genuine paintings of the mysterious hieroglyphic writings. Only the high priests, mathematicians, astronomers, architects and engineers were allowed to dwell within the arms of this sacred city while the commoners remained living beyond this holy city.
These gifted Mayans invented a calendar more accurate than the one existing today and also left the legacy of the creation of the zero. These inventions and calculations are clearly proven by the distinct position between the temples and the precise timing of the sun called the Equinox. The most important structure is called The Castle, situated on a 40 foot bluff overlooking aqua blue waters. This temple is considered the tallest in the city.
Also examine the walls of the temple of the frescoes that was known for having great social and religious influence. This temple still has detailed carved figures with the original colored paintings. The risen cliff of Tulum has a break in it and has formed an accessible cove area with a white sandy beach. This location gave easy access to fishing boats. Trade was an essential living for the Mayans and the Quintana Roo coast was the primary route for Mayan trade of the time.
Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Cancun I
In the fall of 1968, the creation of the resort city of Cancun was nothing but a gleam in the eye of a young Mexican banker named Enrique Savignac. The young banker and a small group of optimists searched every inch of the exotic Mexican coastline in search of the ideal spot to built their vacation paradise.
The lost civilization of Quintana Roo was nominated the future location where the young banker's dream would soon become a reality. This thin sandy strip of land was basically molded and shaped by hand to create 15 miles of modern five star hotels along the white sandy shore that have been enticing the world ever since. Cancun has grown to be one of the most renowned resorts in the world
Cancun has a big international airport and you can get cheap flight from many cities of the world with a none stop flight, competitive airfares year round on regular and charter airlines. If your cheap airfare comes with 3 or 4 nights in a Cancun Hotel, snap it up. Extend your ticket and spend at least 3 days exploring the rest of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Then you can rent a car or take a bus, and head South and see the best of Mexico's Caribbean coast.,Virgin beaches, Mayan Ruins, beautiful reefs, cenotes and many natural wonders as Garrafon in Isla Mujeres, Xcaret and Xel-ha.
Cancun is a wonderful resort town with a lot to offer. It is a top location for a big city, shopping and partying,a wonderful experience. It is great for a little weekend get away - stay at a nice five star hotel, drink margaritas, dance at the night clubs, play, the golf courses, dineout, and relax or shop during the day.
Cancun offers a large variety of aquatic sports and tours, as the pirate night, the jungle tour, snorkeling, diving, fishing, parasailing, almost everything.
Cancun is the preferred place for high school and college Spring Break students, and they have a huge Spring jazz festival and many concerts, special events and Dj´s in some night clubs like the City . You will have a guaranteed good time, a splendid vacation.
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Thursday, February 5, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Obscured by Clouds
haiku
By the way, do you know haiku?
It is very short poem in Japan.
It has only three lines.
In Japanese the lines have five, seven and five syllables.
But only in those lines, people can understand the poet's feeling.
Here is a famous haiku:
Furu-ike ya(古池や)
kazazu tobikomu(蛙飛び込む)
mizu no oto(水の音)
The old pond
a frog jumps in
the sound of water.
You might think "so what is that? or what does it mean?" after reading it.
Haiku has no logic, or no subject and conclusion.
It has just only feeling. That's all.
I can feel it but it is hard for me to explain what it intends...
In the past there was no camera,
and brush and color for painting might be so expensive,
so people clipped and painted the daily scenery by language, not by brush and color.
It is like photography or art.
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Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Understanding
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