Mani, Adam and I headed out to the Coronados last Sunday to dive at the lobster shack. It has been a while since I was out there, so I was hoping the sea lions were there in force. Unfortunately there were just a couple young ones and they weren’t quite ready to come play in the water. I’m expecting November will be a lot of fun.
Local news links
- Schwarzenegger has eliminated funding for a statewide beach monitoring program. In other words, swim at your own risk in IB and Mission Bay, and avoid the ocean after rainfall.
- High-Speed Rail Benefits San Diego – KPBS has some info on Proposition 1A. High speed trains to SF or LA, I’d love it.
- You need to get out more. City Beat has a big list of art and events this fall.
King Henry
You have got to be kidding me. You are a pretty funny guy, Paulson.
Which means that the Treasury would have no idea what the market rate is on this toxic debt, and would probably end up paying whatever the original price was. This is simply crazy.
As Rich says:
2. I hope there is going to be some sort of accountability among all the regulators who first denied the risks and are now throwing our money at fixing their aftermath. If all the same people stay in charge, this kind of stuff will just keep happening.
I’d also add a third point: If taxpayers are on the hook for recapitalizing the institutions, there needs to be equity participation for taxpayers.
The whole thing is eerily similar to the last time we heard “trust us”.
One wave of Henry’s magic wand and debt disappears
Wall Street rallied in a stunning late-session turnaround Thursday, shooting higher and hurtling the Dow Jones industrials up 400 points following a report that the federal government might create an entity to absorb banks’ bad debt. The report also cooled investors’ fervor for safe investments like government debt that were in demand for much of the day.
The report that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering the formation of a vehicle like the Resolution Trust Corp. that was set up during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s left previously solemn investors ebullient. Wall Street hoped a huge federal intervention could help financial institutions jettison bad mortgage debt and stop the drain on capital that has already taken down companies including Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
It is sadly amusing that those that made fortunes on deregulated markets are now pushing for socialism (and tax payer money) to save their investments. The issue here is not capital. The issue is insolvency.
As a side note, the article says that the report cooled the fervor for govt debt. Some seem to think this is a good thing, that people aren’t harboring cash in “safe” investments. But I see it slightly differently. Would you buy bonds from an instituation that wants to use its customer’s money to buy the worst assets of other companies? Once again, insolvency seems to come to mind.
New camera options
There seems to be some new photography options around the corner. Two in particular have me interested:
Micro Four Thirds
The 4/3m format uses SLR sized sensors, but no mirror, much like the Sigma DP1. Unlike the DP1, these will have a lens mount to allow for swapping different lenses. This will be a very interesting market if someone does it right – no RAW file write delay, decent focus performance, decent ISO performance.
Reshaping the Digital SLR
Though some SLRs have had live view for a while, Nikon has shaken things up by giving the D90 the ability to record HD video (720p). This combined with their new high sensitivity & ISO speeds makes the camera a very sweet package. I suspect this will really change the amateur underwater photography game – HD cameras and housings are very expensive, and most people have to make a choice in gear between shooting video or stills. The ability to shoot video with any lens – wide angle, macro, etc – and great variable focus & depth of field will be huge in the UW market. People are going to have to brush up on their manual focus skills.