In January, the inflation rate in Zimbabwe was estimated to be 150,000% even though the official rate was much lower. Now the official inflation rate is 2,200,000%. That’s quite a rate!
As such, the Zimbabwean central bank has had a tough time keeping up. They’ve just now released a new $100,000,000,000 (that’s 100 billion) bill. The new notes trade for approximately $1 US.
Fortunately, for Zimbabwe, they were able to “democratically” re-elect their fearless and entirely benevolent leader.
Occasionally I listen to NPR’s Democracy Now on my way in to work. I usually can only catch small segments of the show since my drive is under 10 minutes. It seems like the guests have usually done some good research, and have some good insight, but them invariably wander off into a land of stupidity. This morning was no different.
This morning’s guest was talking about Bush’s revoking of the executive order against offshore drilling. To her credit, I think one thing she’s right about is the immediate impact on short-term prices that the opening up of new drilling sites would bring; that being zero. However, she brought up “evidence” to support her on that claim, saying something to the extent of “well the price of oil went up yesterday after the announcement,” and that “the rise is very significant.” This is pretty stupid for several reasons. First, the increase was on the order of 10 cents, I believe. The second reason is that it is a lone fucking data point. The third reason is the lifting of the executive order is only one in a series of many actions which must take place for drilling to be approved.
The other stupid thing she said things along the lines of “well increased drilling is only going to mean increased profits for multinationals” with a pretty implicit assumption that alternative energy will come from companies that are either not making profits or not multinationals or both. One thing many, many, many, many people need to get straight in their heads, is that whichever alternative we choose, we’re still going to be reliant on gigantic, profit-seeking, multinational corporations.
Addendum: NPR happened to be replaying part of the interview while I was driving home. It turns out the woman who was talking was Naomi (that spells “I moan” backwards) Klein. In what I caught this time, she was saying that Iraq’s oil industry should really be nationalized, in the Arabian model, because, you know, it’s worked so well for Iran and the people of Saudi Arabia. It is then perhaps no surprise that she has written a popular book, The Shock Doctrine, which Tyler Cowan described as “a true economics disaster.”
4. My traps have killed 4 mice in my shed in the last 2 days. My only regret is that I let the problem go on for too long. My 5 traps are reset and waiting silently for another night’s catch.
I’m particularly pleased the the old school wood and wire snap traps. The two I own have accounted for all the fatalities. I’m disappointed by the newer, jaw-like traps which are still waiting for their first KIAs. I’m extremely disappointed with the live trap I set which clearly caught and let go one of the varmints.
I’m even considering expanding my efforts. I may purchase some rat traps and start going after the tree rats furry little squirrels. Normally I like the little guys. But today… Today one of the smug bastards stole my first tomato of the season right off the vine. And then, just to piss me off, he merely nibbled on my little green tomato before carelessly discarding it.
My recent run ins with rodents have me rethinking my hatred toward cats. Maybe it’s okay to have some neighborhood cats with owners who “take care of them” by letting them constantly roam through and piss and shit in other people’s yards who can serve as judge, jury, and executioner of the local Varmint-Cong population. Or maybe not. I’ve definitely seen cats in my yard. Unfortunately I have mostly caught them lounging comfortably on my deck furniture. Perhaps they are on strike from rodent-hunting since I chase them away.
Anyway, this all brings me to my brief review of the 3rd installment of my recent reading series. The book? The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden. In short, the author, William Alexander, recounts humorous stories about and pertaining to his garden. The book is well put together, and I liked the author’s sense of reality. Alexander was able to take his gardening seriously without mindlessly preaching about urban sprawl and other crap as some single-minded gardener are wont to do. Right now I’m reminded of his writing about the deer that came after his plants. He very clearly wanted them dead. His wife, however, at first liked the cute little woodland creatures. Eventually, the reality of deer hit her and she apparently recommended that the best deer repellent was a good gun. This attitude shift actually ties in well with the rational irrationality model that was discussed in the first book in my recent reading series; being idealistic and pro-deer was fine… until reality hit and the costs associated with the pro-deer stance became clear.
Overall, The $64 Tomato is the one book of the 4 I read that I most recommend simply because I think it appeals to the widest audience and because, unlike Everything Bad is Good For You, it pretty much is what it says it is.
UPDATE 2008-07-15 07:30AM: Add 2 more to the list, both caught with traditional snap traps. All death-traps have been redeployed.
UPDATE 2008-07-15 07:30PM: Add on one more. The total is now 7.
UPDATE 2008-07-16: Two more this morning. Make it 9.
UPDATE 2008-07-17: Up to 10. Things are slowing down.
UPDATE 2008-07-22: Got two more the last couple mornings. Both with the old-school traps. I’ve now re-deployed both traps and one of the new traps to the recent “hot-spot” of activity.
You may have seen in the news recently that Iran tested a bunch of new missiles recently. In addition to having doctored some of the photographs of the test, there are now very public doubts that they launched as many missiles that they claimed to and whether any of the rockets actually contained any new technology.
From the Telegraph:
Analysis of Iranian television coverage has also indicated that one of the weapons actually remained on the ground but the video was doctored in an effort to cover up the failure.
Iran also issued misleading statements about the ranges and doctored videos to make the firings seem more numerous and fearsome than reality, The New York Times reported.
Coverage showing what appeared to be many missiles being fired was apparently just one device, filmed from different angles. “Deception was rampant,” said Charles Vick, an expert on the Iranian missile programme at Global Security, a prominent defence think tank.
Despite the deception, the Pentagon said it was taking the tests seriously, viewing them as an attempt further to destabilise the region.
“We don’t believe this exercise to have been an illusion,” said Geoff Morrell, a spokesman.
But he added: “They were not testing new technologies or capabilities, but rather firing off old equipment in an attempt to intimidate their neighbours and escalate tension in the region.”
Well there ya go.
Unfortunately the Telegraph completely botched the math in their last paragraph.
Last week’s missile tests sent oil prices soaring from $136 to $147 a barrel, delivering a windfall gain worth billions of dollars to Iran’s oil-based economy.
The windfall, I would have to presume is the $11 premium which showed up after the test. Since Iran exports about 2.5 million barrels a day, it would take them 36 days to receive a windfall of only a single billion dollars. It would be many months before they could receive several billions.
One might conclude that Iran will earn more from oil than they spent on the tests. If so, it sounds like a good investment on their part — probably not the best investment — but a good investment. However, if their display really does consist of a lot of fakery, that certainly does not make their defense services seem very credible: the test makes them seem less dangerous.
Therefore we must conclude that the test was not actually perpetrated by the Iranians. Instead the US clearly staged the whole thing both to help George Bush’s oil friends and to make a future invasion of Iran more likely and acceptable. It’s kind of like Spies Like Us. Good movie, by the way.
On side note, could the media try any harder to use some combination of the words “sky high” or “soaring” whenever they talk about oil or gas prices?
Part 2 of my review of recently read books covers Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good For You - How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter. I picked this up when I was in Portland last summer and figured I might need some reading material for the rest of my trip. The book looked intriguing and the subtitle really hooked me.
Unfortunately, the first several pages were boring enough that the book ended up collecting dust for a year until I picked up again recently.
Also, unfortunately, the book woefully over-promises and under-delivers. Johnson spends 60% of the book arguing that today’s pop-culture (video-games, TV, the internet, and to some extent movies) requires more brain activity than did pop-culture of 30 or 40 years ago and that, contrary to many claims, it doesn’t cater to the lowest-common-denominator. The 2nd part of the book begins with the citation of a study which shows that Americans have been getting smarter for the last 100 years or so. He spends about 2 pages explaining why other hypothesis for intelligence increase are wrong, then spends 70 more pages repeating arguments from the first half of the book and explaining why his hypothesis is right by throwing shit against the wall to see if anything sticks.
Overall the book is far longer than it needed to be. It looks like Johnson’s editors demanded a full book from what should have been an essay and then tried to sell it off as something that it really wasn’t. I don’t recommend going out of your way to get a copy of it. If you find yourself with access to it, it can help kill a few hours and it won’t be the worst thing you’ve ever read. You might even enjoy it. [note to self: I need to start a list of the worst books I've ever read.]
