If gold is such an anachronism, why do governments maintain such large stockpiles of it?
++
Who knew that the Unions are in favor of national healthcare?
Union members and outside experts said the UAW will have difficulty keeping its commitments unless the federal government has a national health care system within 5-15 years.
Always looking out for their members, everyone else be damned.
++
Egypt is trying to copyright pyramids “in an attempt to get paid from the sale of replicas…” Even if you are inclined to accept traditional arguments in favor of Intellectual Property (i.e., the inventor/creator’s right to profit from his time and effort), this is utterly absurd. Egypt, a sovereign country, is trying to claim a copyright on something that they basically found, which merely by accident happens to lie within their present-day borders. Could Norway claim copyright on fjords? Can Spain copyright “The Americas”? Can China copyright pork-fried rice, and earn royalties on every late-night quart served anywhere in the world?
++
New home sales are at a 12-year low. This is not particularly good news, especially when it is combined with the number of adjustable rate mortgage loans (this is not limited to subprime loans) which have yet to reset, and are scheduled to do so throughout 2008.
Not good at all. Looks like 2008 is going to be one hell of a year…
$229.52 billion is a lot? Compared to, say, M2 or the total value of publicly traded securities?
[...] response to my Quick Hits, KipEsquire asks (about government gold holdings): $229.52 billion is a lot? Compared to, say, M2 [...]
Actually, nobody knows how much gold the US government *ACTUALLY* has stockpiled. The US gold reserves haven’t been audited in years.
A lot of that gold has been sold or leased to suppress the gold price.
I’ve heard varying degrees of that statement FSK, up to and including the rumor that there’s actually *no* gold whatsoever in Fort Knox… scary indeed.