Fact

In eco-conscious Sweden, it's now legal to freeze bodies in liquid nitrogen, then shatter them.

Yen

Think about it, do you know of any wealthy acquaintance that has yen-denominated cash deposits? Dollars, euros, pounds, Swiss francs, even Singapore dollars, yes, but no one holds the currency of the world's second-largest economy. This arrangement is not viable in the longer term. To quote JK Galbraith, the Canadian-American Keynesian economist: "The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events."

Fuck yeah Yves Smith+Links

It is perverse that unions for middle and lower income workers are demonized, but unions for the educated, like the legal, accounting, and medical professions, get nary a second thought. And how about CEOs? While not a formal union, there are mechanisms that help keep pay aloft (most important, comp consultants who are hired by the CEO human resources department who manage to persuade boards to set the standard for their CEOs pay in the top 50% of his peer group or higher. That assures constant leapfrogging of pay). Why is collusion among workers to achieve higher pay levels savaged, but far more egregious featherbedding by top executives and boards given a free pass?
-Naked Capitalism

Read this now.

What are the ten least bohemian cities?
I won't give him ten, but how about Kuala Lumpur as the world's most non-bohemian city, counting the free world only? (Otherwise Pyongyang wins.) It doesn't have much to do with rent control. Dubai is an interesting choice but I don't think it counts as part of the free world. Santiago, Chile does not strike me as very bohemian. Better not nominate Prague!

In the United States, I would name San Antonio as the most non-bohemian major city, or maybe El Paso, with Atlanta as a runner-up. Might there be somewhere very non-Bohemian in northern Florida? Does Richard Florida have an index for this somewhere?

A commenter:
Someone mentioned Atlanta. I've been in both places, and if I really wanted a bohemian lifestyle I'd go to Atlanta instead of New York right now. Its (just) possible to find housing in Atlanta without holding down a regular job in Atlanta. In New York, it can be difficult to meet housing costs even if you have a regular job.
-MR

The first paragraph of my novel

He stalked the corridor firing aimlessly, his cordless stereo blaring "The Times They Are a Changing". Mr. Galt huddled against a hollow faux marble pillar felt the bullets slowly chewing threw the flimsy material of his defense. A shell casing rolled slowly down the rough concrete floor inclined for handicapped access as a requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The shaken man dribbling urine into his corduroy trousers imagined the crime scene technicians raising the copper cylinders to the light muttering the jargon of their profession to themselves as his desiccated corpse was wheeled out of the entrance way.

Thank fuck the housing market has been nationalized

A growing number of the people whose homes are in foreclosure are refusing to slink away in shame. They are fashioning a sort of homemade mortgage modification, one that brings their payments all the way down to zero. They use the money they save to get back on their feet or just get by.

“I tried to explain my situation to the lender, but they wouldn’t help,” said Mr. Pemberton’s mother, Wendy Pemberton, herself in foreclosure on a small house a few blocks away from her son’s. She stopped paying her mortgage two years ago after a bout with lung cancer. “They’re all crooks.”

Anecdote Time!

Mr. Pemberton and Ms. Reboyras decided to stop paying because their business, which restores attics that have been invaded by pests, was on the verge of failing. Scrambling to get by, their credit already shot, they had little to lose.

...They used the $1,837 a month that they were not paying their lender to publicize A Plus Restorations, first with print ads, then local television. Word apparently got around, because the business is recovering.

One reason the house is worth so much less than the debt is because of the real estate crash. But the couple also refinanced at the height of the market, taking out cash to buy a truck they used as a contest prize for their hired animal trappers.

It was a stupid move by their lender, according to Mr. Pemberton. “They went outside their own guidelines on debt to income,” he said. “And when they did, they put themselves in jeopardy.”

Fucking banks man. Frannie for evah! Housing Huzzah! We will not be crucified on a cross of homes we don't really own. Resume anecdotes,

His mother, Wendy Pemberton, who has been cutting hair at the same barber shop for 30 years, has been in default since spring 2008. Mrs. Pemberton, 68, refinanced several times during the boom but says she benefited only once, when she got enough money for a new roof. The other times, she said, unscrupulous salesmen promised her lower rates but simply charged her high fees.

...“I stopped paying in August 2008,” said Mr. Tsiogas, who is in foreclosure on his house and two rental properties. “I told the lady at the bank, ‘I can’t afford $2,500. I can only afford $1,300.’ ”

Mr. Tsiogas, who lives on the coast south of St. Petersburg, blames his lenders for being unwilling to help when the crash began and his properties needed shoring up.

Their attitude seems to have changed since he went into foreclosure. Now their letters say things like “we’re willing to work with you.” But Mr. Tsiogas feels little urge to respond.

“I need another year,” he said, “and I’m going to be pretty comfortable.”

-NYT, "Cunts are still ruling the world"

Go to Laos Young Man!

$3000 Shirt

What I always used in my class was the example of the $3,000 shirt. 1 shirt ("poet style", with yoke, sleeves, collar) takes approximately 7 hours of hard work to sew. To weave the cloth for that shirt takes approximately 7 times the 7 hours of sewing, i.e., 49 hours of hard work. To spin the thread for the cloth for that shirt takes approximately 7 * 7 * 7, i.e., 399 hours of spinning.

So, irrespective of the time either raising the wool (and the subsequent fleecing, washing, and carding required) or the linen (and the subsequent retting, hackling, etc. required), in that one shirt you have 400 (okay, I rounded) hours of hard work. Multiply that times $7.25 (minimum wage) and you have a $2,900.00 shirt (okay, I rounded again).

After pointing out that then you'd have to figure out costs for pants or skirt, bodice or vest, jacket or cloak, stockings, etc....

I have had students who remembered that lesson for years. And it perfectly explains why the Industrial Revolution was indeed all about clothing.
-Brad Delong