The EU unemployment rate set a new all-time high of 12.2 percent. But it's the youth unemployment crisis that's truly terrifying. In Spain, unemployment surged past 56 percent, and Greece now leads the rich world with an astonishing 62.5 percent.
According to the Atlantic, youth unemployment is bad for all the obvious reasons ,
including the big loss to future productivity and earnings. But Europe's
youth unemployment is strange, because we've never seen a generation
*this educated* also be this unemployed. For example, nearly 40 percent of Spain's
20-and early-30-somethings are college educated.
Is this the way you will get food delivered in the near future?
The video was shot in the U.K. Here in the U.S, there are FAA restrictions preventing this from being a near-term reality. But so are practical realities like figuring out how to ring the doorbell …
Pretty cool, whether it is a PR stunt or a real initiative.
Dr. Michio Kaku, a professor of Theoretical Physics asks "What if we could find one single equation that explains every force in
the universe?"
Kaku explores how physicists may shrink the
science of the Big Bang into an equation as small as Einstein's
"e=mc^2." Thanks to advances in string theory, physics may allow us to
escape the heat death of the universe, explore the multiverse, and
unlock the secrets of existence. While firing up our imaginations about
the future, Kaku also presents a succinct history of physics and makes a
compelling case for why physics is the key to pretty much everything.
If you are even partially a geek, this is pretty good.
When did playing 'smart' start to mean that you were a cheater?
Recently, Apple got grilled for its low-tax strategy. While not every business can, or does, copy that approach … many do.
Here is a look at what S.&P. 500 companies paid in corporate income taxes — federal, state, local and foreign — from 2007 to 2012, according to S&P Capital IQ.
At its core, our democratic process and legal system were designed to take care of issues like these over time.
Likewise, our free market system will adjust to level the playing field. There is game theory in government. If you make things too difficult, the smart players find a different game to play.
Meanwhile, other countries certainly are incented to find a way to make to entice big players to play on their turf … and creating a tax haven is one way to do it.
Going back to Apple, on one hand I'm sure the government wishes they had paid more taxes, but on the other hand I'm sure they are glad that Apple didn't move away and take their tax dollars with them.
As you have probably surmised, this happens on many levels and in many places.
In trading, for example, statistical arbitrage was once an easy way to make money (if you knew how to do it). The reason was that relatively few people knew how to do it, so there was limited competition (and fairly easy winnings). Then, as the success of the early winners signaled others into the game, it got harder to win. People started programming computers to find mis-priced assets and the discrepancies filled themselves in moments. As you might guess, many traders who have tried statistical arbitrage have moved on to other things.
Identifying inefficiencies (or loopholes) in a system is potentially good for everyone involved. It benefits the person who identifies the inefficiency, because they get paid. Yet, it is also good for the system because it identifies weaknesses or areas that need additional attention, oversight, or regulation. And it provides a feedback loop allowing the parties to course-correct and play smarter. Over time, this often results in real progress.
Are you more worried that China is cyber-snooping on us … or that the American government admitted doing it too?
When I travel on business in a foreign country, I assume that my
computer use is monitored. Likewise, many organizations are now
prohibiting production laptops, iPads, or other personal electronic
devices from traveling to certain countries. Instead, the users given a
clean travel device and instructions on certain types of communications
and activities to simply forgo until they're back in the country.
But here we are safe … right?
Many
years ago, my father told me he assumed that people could see what he
did and hear what he said. With that in mind, he told me, it wasn't hard
to act accordingly.
These days, it is hard for me to imagine
someone being genuinely surprised to learn that nation-states monitor
telephone conversations, email, or Internet usage.
Nonetheless,
it is somewhat surprising that digital privacy hasn't been more a higher
profile ("real") social issue in our society.
On some level,
people are becoming desensitized to 'sharing' … For example, look how
much personal information people freely give out every day
via social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and other social
media sites.
The rules of engagement will get more clear as we
start to hash out the laws and protections here in America, and the
conventions and accords that will at least superficially guide global
behavior.
While the calculation is based on five factors, the primary conditions indicate that there is a big disagreement about market conditions.
For example, two of the conditions are that a substantial number of
stocks have to be at yearly highs, while a substantial number of stocks
have to be at new annual lows. Ultimately, it is hard for those two
conditions to be met in a short period of time, unless there's
uncertainty in the market. Moreover, after a rally, uncertainty is
often a precursor to a decline.
In addition, technically (in order for the pattern to be complete), a
second sighting of the five elements must occur within 36 days.
Logically, lingering uncertainty is a momentum killer. Well, in this case we have it; the pattern flashed in mid-April and it happend again on the last day of May.
While this pattern has correctly predicted every big stock market
swoon of the past two decades, including the October 2008 decline (that
set the global economic recession into motion), not every Hindenburg
Omen has been followed by a crash. Resorting to a geometry analogy: All
rectangles are squares, but not all squares are rectangles.
Personally, I don't make trade decisions based solely on indicators
like this. Nonetheless, it has a pretty good track record, seems to be
based on reasonable theories, and might be useful as just another data point urging caution.
Helen Keller, the American author, political activist and lecturer, learned to talk despite being deaf and blind.
Here she is with her instructor and lifelong companion, Anne Sullivan. In this footage (from 1930) Sullivan shows the way how Helen Keller learned to talk.
