China flexing

This is hardly surprising: Two Chinese officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning, for the first time, that Beijing may use its $1,330bn (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks …

Fed bubble bailout

Hillary, check your head. “Mrs Clinton proposed expansion of the groups among measures to tackle weaknesses in the mortgage market and ­support homeowners. She vowed to clamp down on “unfair lending practices” and create a $1bn federal fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Mrs Clinton said fixing the mortgage crisis would be among the priorities …

The ethanol scam

RollingStone has a great article called Ethanol Scam: Ethanol Hurts the Environment And Is One of America’s Biggest Political Boondoggles. If you aren’t familiar with the subject, this article is a great introduction. This is not just hype — it’s dangerous, delusional bullshit. Ethanol doesn’t burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current …

Escondido’s eccentric soap

Reading the bottle of Dr Bronner’s Soap I’ve always got a wiff of crazy mixed with peppermint. But the soap was damned good, so I didn’t really pay much attention. Someone else figured there was a story there. Grist has a post on a documentary called Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox that tells us all about …