What would America do if it couldn’t “solve” its problems by printing boatloads of its own currency?

We’d probably look something like Ireland, where the new budget for 2010 is being unveiled.

Irish Independent: Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will reveal Budget 2010 during his speech in Dail Eireann this afternoon.

A cut to the Taoiseach’s salary is expected and social welfare is also likely to face a reduction as the numbers on the Live Register continue to increase. The old age pension is thought to be safe from any possible decrease.

A 4-6% pay reduction for public sector workers is thought to be among the other expected cuts.

Could you imagine such a public sector compensation cut here? In the US, merely freezing wages during a time of deflation is considered the height of austerity.

And if you don’t appreciate what all this government largess is doing for the economy, look at the employment outlook in countries like Ireland and Spain. These charts come from Manpower’s survey of global hiring. While most Western countries are forecast to return to hiring growth in 2010, these two bad boys are nowhere close.

We haven’t seen a Greece chart yet, but we probably don’t want to.

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See Also:

• Developed Countries Rapidly Blowing AAA Ratings And Entering Debt Crisis Danger Zone
• Moody’s Says US And UK "Test" The Limit Of Their AAA Ratings — Pound Tanks .4%
• Finally, US Employers Ready To Start Creating Jobs Again

Photographer Troy Snow takes some of the most amazing animal photos I’ve ever seen. He specializes in capturing animals in their natural environment, having worked as a photographer at Best Friends Animal Society for six years. His collection of feral cat photos is incredible, showing how patient he is and how he knows just which angle to use to get the perfect shot.

Twelve of Troy’s feral cat photos have been compiled into a 2010 wall calendar available from lulu.com. $2.00 from each calendar will be donated to Alley Cat Allies, the leading organization in the US advocating for the humane care of feral cats.

You can see more of Troy’s amazing photos on his Flickr page. Get your calendar from lulu.com today!

Believe it or not, oil is set to become less and less important relative to other sources of energy going forward.

While the last few decades have been all about access to the best oil reserves, the next few decades will be about something new -- access to natural gas.

As Exxon argues, natural gas is set to become the world's second most important energy source...

And Americans are uniquely positioned to get ahead of it.

The Natural Gas Mega-Trend Starts Today >>>

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See Also:

• Natural Gas Is Getting So Sexy, Even Hollywood Has Noticed
• More Signs Of A Natural Gas Apocalypse (UNG)
• Coal Consumers Switching To Use Natural Gas (UNG)

FT Alphaville captures the Greece-related headlines that everyone is looking at (especially in Europe).

Bonds:

*GREEK 10-YEAR GOVERNMENT BONDS FALL; YIELD RISES TO 5.40%
GREEK-GERMAN 10-YR BOND YIELD SPREAD WIDENS 4 BPS TO 225 BPS

CDS:

5-YEAR GREEK CDS RISES TO 226.8 BPS VS 209 BPS IN NEW YORK CLOSE  ON TUESDAY – CMA DATAVISION

Traders:

Greece is getting slaughtered again today, the street basically hits ANY bid they can find.
5-year’s  25-35 bps wider.
make that 50 bps now
no more prices in Greece on screens

Don’t miss: The 10 Countries Most Likely To Default >>

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See Also:

• After Dubai, Is Greece Next?
• Time Bomb For The Euro: Greek Debt Poses Threat To The Common Currency
• The 10 Countries Most Likely To Default

People think that now but it hasn’t always been the case. The first white Australian colonists were not at all sentimental about the animal, and shot millions of the creatures for their dense, ash-grey fur. Two million skins had been exported out of Australia by 1924.

tinyfroglet

As a result, the koala appeared to be heading for extinction by the 1930’s, and only strict protection allowed the population in some parts of its range to recover to a healthy level. Paradoxically, some areas are now over-populated by koalas. In small, isolated forests it is easy for the animals to eat all their food supply, and on several occasions koalas have been removed from such areas by conservationists and released in places where food is more abundant.

The Koala is strictly a wild animal and does not keep well in captivity of any kind. It is now a protected species and people recognise its value as an indigenous Australian marsupial, rather than for its cute appearance.

Google’s dedication to speed doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone and a faster web is one of the main goals of the company. It tackles the problem on several fronts, building its own browser , its own Internet protocols and continually optimizing its own apps and services, but it can’t really do that much for the web at large, at least not directly. It can, however, do its best to help web developers build better and faster apps and it has several projects on this front as well. Recently, it launched an updated version of the Chrome dev tools with a couple of new features and now it’s releasing a new tool for the Google Web Toolkit, Speed Tracer.

“Speed Tracer is a Google Chrome extension that enables developers to identify performance problems in their web apps using a “Sluggishness Graph,” in combination with many other metrics. In the spirit of clean, simple design, developers need only look at the Y-Axis of their application’s Sluggishness Graph to see how they’re doing,” Bruce Johnson, engineering director, wrote. “We think developers will find that Speed Tracer looks under the covers of web applications like never before.”

It’s an interesting use of the new extensions platform which Google just launched for Chrome. Of course, loading times measuring tools … (read more)

	GM dealers tired of hearing about 2011 Chevrolet Volt? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?		LA 2009: Ford Focus BEV update These might be the most in-demand Fords around.
	REPORT: Audi e-tron sales to be limited to 1,000 units The line forms thataway.	Other news: 55 mph national limit to make a comeback? Not so fast. Tazzari Zero debuts at Bologna Motor Show, price revealed Reality Bites: limos, CO2 emissions and private jets at Hopenhagen

AutoblogGreen for 12.09.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China is once again using winks and nods to signal to the market that it will ease back its ultra-stimulative economic policies.

Reuters: The headline theme of the Central Economic Work Conference, which concluded on Monday, was continuity: the government once again vowed to maintain the stimulus spending and accommodative monetary stance that it adopted last year to cushion the blow of the global financial crisis.

Beneath that headline, though, Beijing offered a smattering of signs that it will gently pull on the reins.

It said that new investment projects would be "strictly controlled," implying that capital spending, which has been the biggest contributor to overall growth this year, will ease as the government slows the pace of approvals.

The top leadership also insisted that it would enhance policy flexibility, opening the door to a more pronounced shift to tightening at a later date.

Sounds pretty spineless... but according to 'a person' this time they might have more concrete measures to back their words:

Sydney Morning Herald: China's banking regulator plans to slow new lending to between 7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) and 8 trillion yuan next year, a person familiar with the matter said. The China Banking Regulatory Commission's recommended range compares with 8.9 trillion yuan of new local-currency loans in the first 10 months of this year. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Reuters: Increases in bank' reserve requirements could come as early as the start of the second quarter, while the central bank will probably raise interest rates by about 54 basis points during the second half of next year, he estimated.

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See Also:

• China Executes Rogue Trader
• Cnooc Doubles Down On Oil And Gas Production Off South China Sea
• New 3x Leveraged China ETFs Let You Super-Punt The Ultimate Bubble

If you’re an investor — or interested in being an investor — in the uber-speculative world of gold mining stocks, you’re highly encouraged to read this analysis from MineWeb, on the failure of many major gold miners to soar or spin off substantial cash, despite the boom in the yellow metal.

Gold producers are finding it increasingly difficult to generate profits, which are increasingly complicated to express under dazed modern accounting rules. But no gold miner can escape from the challenge that generating free cash flow is now agonizingly difficult. Free cash flow is simply operating cash flow, less cash laid out on capital expenditure.

Since the start of 2007 (and excluding the fourth quarter of 2009), eight of the world’s Tier I gold stocks — – AngloGold Ashanti, Barrick (ABX), Goldcorp, Newmont (NEM), Yamana, Kinross, Harmony, and Gold Fields —  have generated negative free cash flow of USD 3.2bn (for the first nine months of this year, in line with rising bullion prices, generation of free cash flow has been positive to the tune of USD 1.1bn).

Cash flow deficits have been financed by raising fresh equity, to the tune of USD 10.1bn, raising fresh debt, and selling assets. These eight gold companies have been determined, however, to create a lively impression, paying an astonishing USD 2.7bn in cash dividends over the period. Cash has often moved around in circles, rather than from profitable gold mines to shareholders.

Given the belief among so many in the gold world that cash is mere worthless paper, it’s a wonder these companies would go through such trouble to borrow cash, and then distribute it to shareholders. Why not just pay dividends by sending out envelopes containing gold flecks, and skip all the nonsense.

Regardless, it is pretty shocking looking at a company like Newmont (NEM), over the past 5 years, and seeing how lackluster its performance has been. Only with the latest gold surge has it really made much of a power move, and as the article notes, it’s still not anywhere its highs of just a couple of years ago.

Combine the free cash flow problems at the majors, with the .com-like IPO mania from junior miners without real businesses, and you have a situation in which investors need to proceed very cautiously.

Read the whole story at MineWeb >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Money Pours Into Tiny Speculative Miners As "Peak Gold" Looms
• Barrick Gold: Here’s Why We Eliminated Our Gold Hedges, Just As The Marked Started To Peak (ABX)
• Did Barrick’s De-Hedging Call The Top In Gold? (ABX)

Last year, we wrote about a case brought by a woman named Julie Riggs against MySpace. The complaint itself is somewhat of an amusing read (“At this point Plaintiff was literally seething with anger to the point that she was now consumed by it”). The main issue was that Riggs had created a website that tried to determine which celebrity profiles on MySpace were real and which were fake. She was upset (among other things) because (1) there were fake profiles on MySpace (2) MySpace later did something similar itself and (3) MySpace deleted her profile. After we wrote about the case, we received an angry email from Ms. Riggs telling us we “missed the point” and that MySpace “stole” her idea — and that we needed to get our story straight. She never explains how coming up with the same idea is illegal, of course. Also, my favorite: “What can you expect from site such as yours though.” Indeed.

Unfortunately, it appears that the district court also “missed the point” and did not get the story straight, because as Eric Goldman points out, it has dismissed the lawsuit. However, in this case, it may actually be true that the court missed the point. As Goldman notes in his discussion of the ruling, the court seems a bit confused about how Section 230 of the CDA works, and may have dismissed parts of the case for rather confused reasons. Riggs has appealed, so hopefully the Appeals Court fixes the problems (but still dismisses it). However, again as Goldman notes, this is taking place in the notoriously nutty Ninth Circuit, which often has a problem with reading Section 230 the way everyone else reads Section 230. Hopefully, they get this one right.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 —
full exif & map — nearby photos

odd assemblage of carved stones

What am I?

So, I didn’t stump anyone in my previous “Fairly Dirty
What am I? Quiz”, and probably won’t this time either, but while
in the back gardens
behind the Nishimura
Stone Lanterns workshop, amid the bounty of photogenic
beauty of 800 years worth of stone carvings, I came across the above
assemblage of stone (granite, I assume) whose purpose, like many of the
pieces I encountered that day, seemed mysterious to me.

It sort of looks like a bench, but it’s much smaller than that… maybe
8″ (20cm) tall.

What is it?

Google Groups may not be the most glamorous service the Internet giant runs, but apparently its one of the most popular. It enables users to easily setup and manage groups around topics or interests and access them through the discussion forums or receive updates by email. Now Google has integrated Groups with Apps, one of the most obvious product marriages the company has ever made. Companies and schools can now create and manage groups within the Premier and Education Editions of Google Apps.

“Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of Google Groups to Google Apps Premier and Education Edition users. Google Groups is one of our most widely used applications, enabling everyone from the local hiking club to the family next door to create mailing lists and discussion forums,” Rajen Sheth, senior product manager for Google Apps wrote.

“Now employees within a company can create groups for their departments, their teams or their projects. Employees can use these groups as mailing lists, but they can also share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, videos and sites with groups, instead of many individual recipients,” he added.

Users can keep update through the usual means, either by visiting the group and going through the threads or by opting to receive updates in thei… (read more)

Here it is in all its glory -- Goldman is forecasting no Fed rate hikes until 2012. That means over two more years of ultra-low interest rates. It's counter-consensus and well below what the market expects.

Do we hear a freight train coming?

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Dear Goldman: Welcome To Your New Neighborhood!
• John Stossel: Why Goldman Sachs Is Good For America (NWS, DIS, GS)
• Are We Wrong About The Suckiness Of Goldman’s Lobby Art?

The latest Google Chrome build, 4.0.249.30, has just been upgraded to the Beta channel on all platforms. This new beta release is an important milestone as it marks the first betas available for both Mac and Linux users which have been waiting more than a year to get to try a fully-baked Chrome on their machines. The biggest news for existing users though is the new Extensions Gallery which also went live along with the beta releases. The beta versions for the two platforms and full extensions support were the three most requested features the Chrome development team received.

For those who have been checking out the dev channel releases the Beta doesn’t bring any surprises and is very similar to the builds we’ve been seeing for the past couple of weeks with just a few bug fixes. This was to be expected, as the team worked to get the browser to beta quality and focused on bug fixing and stability rather than new features. If you’ve been running any of the 4.0.249.xx builds, you basically already have the beta installed.

If you’re updating from the latest beta version which launched more than a month ago, the latest beta comes with quite a few bug and stability fixes, but not so much in terms of features apart from a couple of new HTML 5 features.

However, this latest launch is a big one as it m… (read more)

Even as the BLS and the administration are trying to cover up the real state of unemployment affairs using assorted semantic gimmicks of just what it means to be unemployed, and as companies provide adjusted EPS numbers, while actual earnings continue to collapse, the true barometer of spending, provided by the Financial Management Service, tax withholdings (net of refunds), continues to paint the truest picture of just what is really happening with both America’s consumer and the corporate world. And it ain’t pretty. On a rolling 12 month basis, individual tax withheld has dropped by nearly 8% YoY, from $1.42 trillion to $1.31 trillion, while company witholdings are down a whalloping 64%, from $274 billion to just under $100 billion!

Read the whole story at ZeroHedge >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Ken Rogoff: Housing, Unemployment Will Get Worse Before They Get Better
• Here’s Why The Unemployment Survey Has Been Wrong All Year
• Gartman: Here’s Why The Unemployment Arithmetic Must Be Wrong

Here’s the picture after yesterday’s mini-beating.

Asia ended sharply lower:

WSJ: The Nikkei 225 was down 1.5%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.9%, South Korea’s Kospi Composite was off 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite index was 1.6% lower and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.7%, while shares in Taiwan bucked the region and were up 0.1%. Dow Jones industrial average futures were 22 points higher in screen trade.

Shares in China were being led lower by banks on concerns of capital raising leading to massive stock supply.

We actually wouldn’t put too much stock in the bank capital raising explanation. That’s basically become the default explanation for down move there.

Europe, meanwhile, is headed lower as well, with the STOXX down 0.4% and the FTSE 100 down 0.2%. Given the tremors out of Greece, this isn’t particularly bad.

And gold, which is now going on several days without showing much strength at all, is clawing back a tiny amount, though it remains well below where it was just a few days ago.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• After Dubai, Is Greece Next?
• The 10 Countries Most Likely To Default
• Dow Posts Triple Digit Loss

There are many things we’d like to have-lasting happiness, peace on Earth and a cure for cancer-but when it comes to material needs these are some gifts which would really lift our spirits.
1. Cash
One of the ways that depression hits hardest is financially. Between the medical bills and the loss of work days, it can be hard to just keep up. Offer to pay some bills, give a gift certificate or phone card or give them the cash to spend as needed.
2. A Day of Pampering
Some of the great products out there include spa gift certificates and luxurious kits for do-it-yourself spa days at home. There’s nothing like a little pampering to make a person feel special.
3. A Good Book
When you just feel like snuggling up in some comfy pajamas and hiding from the world there’s nothing like a good book to keep you company.
4. A Nice Journal
Writing one’s thoughts and feelings in a journal can be very therapeutic. Many blank books are available which have beautiful covers and inspirational quotes throughout. There are also quite a few guidebooks about journaling geared towards individual interests which you might include with a blank journal to give them inspiration.
5. Relaxation CD
Stress and anxiety are often problems faced by the depressed. Soothing music can be very helpful.
6. Night time Comfort
Does your loved one have trouble with sleep? How about a gift to make bedtime more comfortable?
7. The Gift of Music
Music has the amazing gift of conveying emotion without saying word. It has the power to express how we are feeling when we aren’t able.
8. Maid Service
Having a clean living environment can make a person feel so much better, but when even getting out of bed is a chore housework may get neglected.
9. Send Flowers
Your best choice is a live plant. There’s nothing more depressing than dead flowers and a live plant will give your loved one something to care for and nurture. Have them delivered to their workplace if possible. It’s a real boost for your co-workers to see that someone cares about you.
10. A Pet
It goes without saying that you should be certain this is something your loved one would want before making the purchase, but a pet can be a lifesaver for the lonely. Animals love us unconditionally.
From: Gifts vs Depression