The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A lot of media hype has been generated about how much more dangerous some variants of COVID-19 are. But on closer inspection, many of those claims prove to be greatly exaggerated.
Continue reading Media Greatly Exaggerated Dangers of U.K. Covid variant
BY ALFRED NG
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, December 6, 2015, 5:23 PM
There’s a reason why hoverboards are the hottest holiday present of the year— they explode, US and UK officials warned.
Both the National Association of State Fire Marshals and the UK’s National Trading Standards are raising a red flag on hoverboards, claiming that they are blowing up across the world.
The national Fire Marshals organization issued an advisory on Friday, warning that these explosions are “not a unique occurrence,” H. Butch Browning Jr., the president of the group’s Board of Directors said in a statement.
“The sheer number of incidents occurring around the country, and abroad, is what prompted our organization to address this serious issue on a national level,” he said.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/hoverboards-blowing-uk-officials-article-1.2457027
Lisa Brownlee
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
TWEET THIS
the European Commission is preparing a frontal attack on the hyperlink
each web link would become a legal landmine
Another storm appears to be brewing in Europe that will impact the ability of many U.S. businesses to freely operate there. According to a leaked draft European Commission Communication, “the Commission will examine whether action is needed on the definition of the rights of ‘communication to the public’ and of ‘making available’,”–direct references to EU case law governing hyperlinks. According to European Parliament member Julia Reda, this means that “ the European Commission is preparing a frontal attack on the hyperlink , the basic building block of the Internet as we know it.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisabrownlee/2015/11/09/hyperlinks-may-be-under-attack-save-the-link/
ISLAMIC State terrorists are taking advantage of the waves of western sympathy towards would-be asylum seekers and sending trained operatives to Europe hidden among migrants crossing the Mediterranean in boats.
By JAKE BURMAN
PUBLISHED: 06:03, Mon, Sep 7, 2015 | UPDATED: 12:13, Mon, Sep 7, 2015
A sea-change in Britain and Europe’s approach to dealing with asylum seekers from north Africa and the Middle east was triggered last week when pictures of the body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Mediterranean beach emerged.
Celebrities, politicians and even the Pope have been queuing-up to state they wish to take migrant families into their homes.
David Cameron was today expected to announce that the UK will take 10,000 more migrants – despite previously arguing taking in refugees would encourage more people to risk the hazardous sea crossing to Europe.
But EU prosecutor Michele Coninsx, warned the charitable aims came with a potentially deadly caveat – that Isis terrorists and bombers are continuously being smuggled across the Med – hidden among migrants.
Coninsx, head of the EU’s judicial co-operation agency Eurojust, said she received the intelligence as part of the agency’s fight against illegal immigration, terrorism and cybercrime.
According to the prosecutor, ISIS and similar terror groups are also using money from people-trafficking to fund terrorism.
She said: “It is an alarming situation because we see obviously that these smugglings are meant to sometimes finance terrorism and that these smugglings are used sometimes to have and ensure infiltrations by members of the Islamic State.”
IMF CUTS FORECAST FOR US ECONOMY, UPGRADES EUROPE AND JAPAN
Apr 14, 9:47 AM EDT
BY PAUL WISEMAN
AP ECONOMICS WRITER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund, citing the consequences of a strong dollar, is downgrading its outlook for the U.S. economy but raising its forecast for Europe and Japan.
The IMF predicted Tuesday that the American economy will grow 3.1 percent this year and next – a performance the fund characterized as “robust.” But the U.S. outlook was down from the IMF’s January forecast of 3.6 percent growth in 2015 and 3.3 percent growth in 2016. The American economy advanced 2.4 percent last year.
The IMF forecast that the 18 European countries that use the euro currency collectively will expand 1.5 percent in 2015 and 1.6 percent in 2016, up from a January forecast of 1.2 percent growth this year and 1.4 percent next. The eurozone grew just 0.9 percent last year.
The fund expects Japan to grow 1 percent this year and 1.2 percent next year, versus an earlier forecast of 0.6 percent this year and 0.8 percent in 2016. The Japanese economy shrank 0.1 percent in 2014.
The IMF expects the world economy to grow 3.5 percent in 2015, barely up from 3.4 percent last year and unchanged for its January forecast. It raised the outlook for global economic growth in 2016 to 3.8 percent, up from a January forecast of 3.7 percent.
The international lending agency also left unchanged its prediction that the Chinese economy will grow 6.8 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2016. That marks a sharp deceleration from last year’s 7.4 percent expansion, already the slowest for China in two decades. But Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, the IMF’s deputy director for research, told reporters the slowdown in China reflects the country’s transition from growth built on often-wasteful investment in factories and real estate to slower but steadier growth built on spending by Chinese consumers. “We think it is a good slowdown for China,” he said.
September 5, 2012
By Lee Adler
For the past year or so I have espoused the opinion that chaos in Europe is good for the US because of capital flight from Europe to the US. That capital is funding the Last Ponzi Game Standing, the US Treasury market and US economy.
Here’s how that works. As Europe destabilizes, big money exits the problem markets of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and particularly Spain. Ireland and Italy have stabilized somewhat in recent months, but money is still pouring out of Greece, Portugal, and Spain. Much of it is transferred to the US to purchase Treasuries and probably big cap stocks to some degree. These purchase funds flow into the US Treasury and US bank accounts. The Treasury subsequently spends the cash it borrowed from these sources, and it ends up in US bank accounts.
Of every dollar the US Government spends, on average over the course of the year approximately 35 cents comes from borrowing. Some of that borrowing comes from domestic sources. About 8% of it over the past year has come from foreign central banks. Of the rest, the US Treasury TIC report says that Europeans made net purchases of $76 billion of US Treasury Bonds in the second quarter. That was equivalent to 30% of the new Treasuries issued. In other words, it appears that European capital flight accounted for 30 cents of every dollar of debt the Treasury raised. That debt accounted for 35 cents of ever dollar the government spent. Therefore, roughly 10 cents of every dollar of US government spending driving the US economy came from European capital flight.
Given those cash flows, anyone who argues that what’s bad for Europe is bad for the US is simply wrong. If Europe somehow manages to ameliorate its problems, or even create the impression that it is doing something to solve them, then these flows would slow down or even stop. The obvious effect would be that long term US bond yields would be forced to rise in order to attract investors. Alternatively, the US government would need to spend less or tax more in order to reduce borrowing. Any of those outcomes would slow the economy. The other option would be for the Fed to step into the breach to monetize the debt. No doubt that would have an immediate response in the commodities pits, driving the cost of energy, materials, and food into the stratosphere, which in turn would crush the US economy.
So the last thing the US needs is for the European situation to improve. In fact, the worse things are over there, the greater the capital flows from there into the US.
It is true that some of the capital flooding out of Spain, Portugal, and Greece heads to Germany. As a result European bank deposits in total have remained relatively stable. But that doesn’t account for all of the capital flowing from those countries. Some of it heads for the UK and elsewhere, and it seems clear that some of it heads for the US where it funds the Last Ponzi Game Standing.
https://wallstreetexaminer.com/2012/09/05/europe-funds-the-last-ponzi-game-standing/