A Little Background on the Origins to our Current Crisis

This is a link to a Bloomberg article I read a while back. It's dated May 2007, but I think it will give those of you who read it a detailed description of the subprime-mortgage-backed-security process, as well as, some good anecdotal background.

Subprime Fiasco...

Clairvoyance

Sorry, but I've got to toot my horn on this one. The following link will connect you to the September 23rd, 2007 Econbrowser forum on "Money creation and the Federal Reserve." My post is about one-quarter of the way down on the page. You can find it most easily by doing a word search on the page for "morellid."

I included the link more or less to verify the date I made the observation. So you don't actually have to go there, the following is what I wrote:

"How does the Federal Reserve Bank value the "high-value" securities accepted as collateral. Hypothetically, wouldn't it be unsustainable, if the primary securities dealer, such as Countrywide Financial, uses the increase in reserves to cover a run on assets without using the additional funds to make a productive investment? If the Federal Reserve Bank rolls over the repo to that institution, wouldn't that constitute a feedback loop that ultimately will permanently expand monetary supply and leave the Federal Reserve Bank holding the "high-value" securities (i.e. -- AAA rated CDOs)?"

Econbrowser Link September 23, 2007

Cool Diapers

I'm really in support of these hyper-yuppie diapers. Usually I don't get behind these kinds of products, because they're usually expensive and unnecessary. This one a bit different. These diapers decompose. You can literally flush them down the toilet as you would toilet paper or Notre Dame paraphernalia.

GDIAPERS

Converting Deserts into Farms

Desertification is a serious issue. The following idea for improving the productive nature of the Sahara Desert for humans is technically quite simple. I hope it works. It looks cool.

Sahara Desert Farms