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Friday, February 27, 2009
Politique
-Obama unveiled his massive 2010 budget proposal, much of which breaks with the conservative consensus that governed US policy for much of the past 30 years. $634bn in health care spending will be, in theory, offset by tax increases on American's earning over $250,000 a year. The US president also vowed to cut the deficit in half by 2012. More than a few people questioned the likelihood, and math, of this plan.
-Obama fulfilled a core campaign pledge by announcing a withdrawal date for US combat troops in Iraq (August 2010). He aims to have all troops out by 2011. Oddly, congressional Republicans embraced the president's announcement. Didn't their candidate for the oval office just run on not "cutting and running"? I guess after seeing their poll numbers plummet in the wake of their stimulus obstructionism, they latched on to a sure political winner.
-In Pakistan, Taleban leaders in Bajaur province declared a unilateral ceasefire, a week after a negotiated truce was reached in the Swat valley. In Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz, the chief minister of Punjab province, were banned from holding political office by the Supreme Court, causing the Punjab government to collapse and igniting protests. Political instability + balance of payments crisis + losing control of large portions of your territory = failed state.
-In her first foreign trip abroad, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton promoted pragmatism in US-China relations, overlooking human rights in favor of economic and financial cooperation...and US treasuries. Days later, a US State Department report laid the smack-down on China over the very issue Clinton skirted face-to-face. China was not pleased.
-Cracks in the Russian power structure?
Economia
-The central banks of Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania issued coordinated statements defending their currencies, while a consortium of international institutions announced a loan package for the troubled region.
-The US government increased its stake in Citigroup to as much as 36%, days after Bernanke and Obama sought to calm fears over nationalization. Bernanke said the debate essentially "misses the point." The US Treasury also provided details on its upcoming stress tests.
-ASEAN signed trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand.
-The defense of the rouble appears to have been a success. For now.
The Rest
-In the Champion's League, ManU held Inter to a draw in the San Siro, Arsenal beat Roma on a Van Persie penalty, and Liverpool beat Real Madrid in typical Kop Champion's League fashion. In the UEFA Cup, two of the favorites, AC Milan and Aston Villa, crashed out.
-This. Is. Crazy.
-The Times of London looks at "Japan: the nation that loves robots."
-Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner at the 81st Academy Awards.
Much of the new American president's time and media coverage has been devoted thus far to the economic crisis. Rightfully so. But if you have been paying attention to the items buried behind the headlines of economic Armageddon, you know that the Obama administration has quietly been remaking the US socio-political landscape.
Among the steps taken in his first five weeks in office: passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, giving notice that he planned to rescind in 30 days a last-minute Bush administration rule that expanded the federal protection for, and scope of, the so-called "conscience clause" for healthcare providers, lifting the federal funding ban for international family planning groups that provide abortion services, expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance program, to name but a few. White House advisor David Axelrod has said Obama will soon lift the federal funding ban on stem-cell research. His 2010 budget includes substantial increases for student loan assistance (in fact, it proposes a complete reform the system by cutting out the private lenders who distribute federal loans) and $634 bn over the next decade for health care reform, to name just two provisions. This list doesn't even begin to include his actions on the foreign policy front (for instance, Iraq withdrawal date or interrogation and detention guidelines) or his intention to let the Bush tax cuts expire in a year's time.
Paul Krugman summed up Obama's actions in his NYT column,
"President Obama’s new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years. If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on a fundamentally new course."
We are all grabbed by the headlines on the economy, banking system and foreign policy challenges facing his administration. But the US president has quietly implemented an agenda that will transform the US social contract. The so-called Reagan revolution is being drawn back, and I would say, somewhat surprisingly, the majority of the American people are on board. The relationship between Americans and their government is changing; a fundamental sea change is upon us.
Now if only he could figure out how to pay for it all...
Grimshaw, the landscape architect Ken Smith and the doyens of green roofs, Rana Creek, will soon combine two of our favorite memes: golf courses and civic infrastructure.
According to The Architect's Newspaper, the $2.1 billion Croton Water Filtration Plant, currently under construction in the Bronx, will be topped off with “one of the largest and most intensive green roofs to date.” Unlike Ken Smith's inaccessible and inorganic roof garden at the remodeled Museum of Modern Art in New York, this one will be open to the public as a fully functioning golf course.
It's landscape, architecture, infrastructure, eco-machine and land art all rolled up into one.
So many things about this project are noteworthy, for instance, all this talk about sustainability when there's this golf course in the room. In common practice, golf courses are notoriously unsustainable. They are as land use intensive and ecologically suspect as new ex-urban developments on virgin land. They're water guzzlers, a symbol in post-water American West of irresponsible resource management. Seeing well-manicured, verdant greenery amidst a climate-changed sea of sand and rocks, or even hearing about Tiger Wood's golf course in Dubai, we can't help but think of them as the folliest of follies. In other words, a golf course described as “a true display of sustainable green design,” which might be the case here, is a bit of dissonance for us.
But to be perfectly clear, we think this to be one of the most interesting projects we have heard thus far this year.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
“International credit markets are linked, and so a snowballing credit crisis in Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries could cause New York municipal bonds to fall.”Actually, it's less the New York municipal bonds and more the Austrian banking system, which has a collective exposure to the region equivalent to some 70% of GDP. Belgian and Swedish banks are also heavily exposed to the danger of a spike in the number of nonperforming loans.
It's important not to overgeneralize - there are plenty of countries in the CEE and not all of them are facing the same challenges. Moreover, those countries within the EU have access to a different support system than those on the outside. As one Austrian banker pointed out in this FT article:
“What’s been lost in this crisis very often has been the ability of people to differentiate.”But that's exactly the problem with financial contagion - people generalize, leap to conclusions, and make rash decisions. For example, one consequence of this phenomenon is that, rightly or wrongly, the citizens of Central and Eastern Europe appear to be growing increasingly skeptical of the value of the EU free market integration project. It would be too rash to predict a complete halt to the process, or even a splitting of the EU, but the crisis certainly isn't helping.
So it doesn't look like Euromageddon just yet, but Europhiles are going to have work a lot harder over the next short while if they're going to keep the project going. If only there were some encouraging news to hang on to....
(Unless otherwise stated, stats used in this post originate from RGE Monitor)
Dave's ongoing coverage of the crisis in Central and Eastern Europe has highlighted not just the economic and political ramifications for the countries in turmoil, but the exposure of countries like Austria, Sweden and really all of Western Europe (the world if you ask Rogoff) to their problems. The weight of the crisis shouldn't be understated: it risks spurring rapid contagion, providing a political opening for the far-right (and Russia) in many countries and accelerating the moral collapse of capitalism's post-Berlin Wall workshop.
Yet not all is lost amidst the fear and uncertainty. A few developments provide hope that the crises will be met with an effective political response. The most immediate is a report by Alan Beattie of the FT that a group of multilateral institutions will announce on Friday a coordinated lending package of €25bn to the region's banks. This follows a report earlier this week that foreign banks were pumping cash into their subsidiaries in the region. The lending is key because the IMF simply lacks the resources to tackle the crisis on its own; it also masks the failures of Western European governments to follow through on anything but rhetorical promises of support. At the most basic level, however, an influx of Euros is desperately needed, and it looks like we are finally moving in the direction of a coordinated response.
The second promising development is more of a discussion than trend at this point. The merits and timing of Eurozone accession are hotly debated in the region (and Western European capitals). But it seems the attraction of the common currency's relative security has crystallized under the current crisis; Slovakia and Slovenia are perceived to be safe, for now, a feat many attribute to Euro membership. The Polish government has reportedly entered discussions for an accelerated accession to the ERM II (though, the Polish central bank was quick to temper those ambitions when it bluntly warned against joining the Euro too quickly). Even debate in the UK (I know, not in the region, just making a point) has started to discuss the merits of joining. Many, including us at IPE Journal, have opined on the threats posed to the common currency by the present crisis. But is it possible that the Euro could emerge from all the turmoil if not stronger, at least larger? Wolfgang Munchau and others argue its in fact preferable, a necessary step to stabilizing Central and Eastern Europe. But accession criteria, such as the ERM II timeframe and reference rate of inflation, would have to be scrapped (again, preferable).
On the political front, many of the governments in the region have demonstrated over the past week that they recognize the way out. In what should be held up as a lesson to the leaders of their western neighbors, the central banks of Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic issued coordinated statements denouncing the currency instability and effectively pledging to defend their currencies. This intervention signalled to many a commitment to monetary discipline, affirmed by Hungary's decision to hold steady at 9.5%. Forward-rate contracts are now averaging in a 60 basis-point increase over the next three months. The choice is a stark one for the governments in the region: defend the currency or growth. Given the political pressure, defending the currency won't be an easy choice. But its the right one.
A final point- the countries in the region have tended to be lumped under the acronym CEE for Central and Eastern Europe (by myself included, just look above). It's rhetorically convenient, but many are calling it intellectually lazy (even irresponsible), and they have a point. Slovakia's circumstances are different than Hungary's, whose policy options may be different than the Czech Republic's. Dave rightfully noted this variance in his post above. Lumping these countries together not only fails to distinguish their relative circumstances, but risks indirectly stoking the contagion everyone hopes to avoid.
Fisker Karma is out to prove that green cars don't have to be boring with its extended-range plug-in hybrid Karma, available in both sedan and retractable hardtop variants. Potential buyers have already placed over 1,300 orders for the four-door model and now we hear that the burgeoning automaker is accepting deposits of $25,000 for the Karma S drop-top. Those placing orders early are being told they can expect a delivery date in late 2011.
Both Karma models come equipped with lithium ion battery packs that can provide gasoline-free travel for up to 50 miles, after which a GM-sourced 2.0-liter turbocharged and direct injected Energizer Bunny powerplant will kick in to recharge the battery. There's reportedly enough juice to power twin electric motors that offer over 400 horsepower to the rear wheels, which is sufficient to push the electric stunner to 60 in under six seconds and up to a top speed of over 125 mph.[Source: eGMCarTech]
Here the details on the 2009 Aston Martin DBS Volante. The drop-top version of Bond's uber-Aston features a fabric roof that can be retracted in 14 seconds at speeds up to 30 mph and supposedly looks just as good with the top up as the top down. Motivation is provided by the same 6.0-liter V12 found in the standard DBS, putting out 510 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque to a rear-mounted six-speed manual or "Touchtronic" sequential gearbox. The run to 62 mph is dispatched in a scant 4.3 seconds on its way to a top speed of 191 mph. Aston says it was able to keep the weight down (the DBS Volante tips the scales at 3,990 pounds) through the use of a lightweight roof mechanism, along with a carbon fiber hood, front splitter and trunk lid. The standard carbon ceramic brakes – pulled directly from the fixed-roof DBS – reduce unsprung weight at all four corners and provide the neck-punishing stopping power you'd expect. We'll get our first look of the DBS Volante at the Geneva Motor Show next week, but in the meantime, get all the details in the press release below the fold.
Next year, Toyota Australia will begin local production of the Camry Hybrid. To celebrate this (and drum up some PR), Toyota Style Australia has created the HC-CV (Hybrid Camry Concept Vehicle) for the 2009 Melbourne Motor Show. What is that, exactly? Well, it's essentially the recently-updated 2010 Camry Hybrid, gussied up with a custom white paint color, a modified fascia, some snazzy wheels, blue decals and accents, and leather seats that incorporate the Hybrid Synergy Drive wave logo. Strip away the assorted pieces of flair, and you get the production car that's already been unveiled, only with the steering wheel moved over to the wrong side. [Source: Toyota Australia]
Bentley has decided to go green, and the fabulously white coupe you see above is how they've done it: "a muscular two-seater that delivers supercar performance and a highly focused driving experience." Sounds green so far, right? It's called the Continental Supersports, and the marque from Crewe hasn't merely pulled out all the stops... they created a few extra stops, just so they could pull them out as well.
Under the hood is the Supersports' main event: the most powerful engine Bentley has ever created, it is a 621 brake horsepower, 590 pound-feet of torque, E85-capable W12 that pulls the ghostly looking thing to 60 in just – ready for this? – 3.7 seconds. The engine is fitted with sensors to monitor how much gasoline and/or ethanol is being used, and power and torque stay constant no matter what the ratio is. Speaking of torque, all of it is available at the low, low rpm of 1,750. In case there's a Polaris rocket in the next lane you need to teach a few lessons.
While that engine might take the title card, there is a massively full undercard as well. That 3.7-second 0-to-60 flip is not only about the engine, it's about the fact that the car is 110 pounds lighter than its 4-seater brethren. The Supersports has rear deck where back seats once resided, and it has also scored a raft of weight-saving components like the wheels and those carbon fiber thrones. It also benefits from Quickshift, which halves gear change times.[Source: Bentley]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
If anyone was looking for further proof of the humbling of America's banking giants, take a look at this list of leading North American banks, by market capitalization. Citigroup sits 7th, behind three Canadian banks. Ouch.
Instead of an arboretum of indigenous flora as at Pedreres de s'Hostal, for this copper mine in Western Australia, how about an extraterrestrial garden of phytoremediating plants, both the unmodified and the genetically modified kinds, with gorgeously red- and orange-hued pools of metal-eating microogranisms?
Or you plant this ecosystem in all the disused open pits everywhere except here, where you merely design a circulation system interspersed with “educational signs” and some observation platforms — a masterpiece of topographical mapping, pictorial analysis and narrative making? Or you can scratch all that, and the only intervention you do involves installing a marker near the entrance, for instance, a cairn. How about Las Vegas neon marquee because beyond lies a terrestrial extravaganza? What routes people take inside will be up to them.
Or how about just a set of coordinate rendered perfectly on Google Maps' well-designed web interface? Should anyone want to visit the mine, at least they know where it is on the surface of the earth.
While the Corvette Stingray Concept (a.k.a. Autobot Sideswipe) introduced at the Chicago Auto Show earlier this month sports heritage-inspired cues, its futuristic styling could also hint at the design of the next-generation model. GM made no comment on whether any of the concept would find make its way into the C7 Corvette, but there will doubtless be plenty of people willing to speculate. The gang at BadBoyVettes.com have taken it one step further and have come up with what the C7.R would look like if the Stingray went to production as-is. Using one of our live shots from the show, they've added the Corvette Racing livery, complete with the "Jake" skull mascot featured prominently on the hood. We think they did a good job, which is to be expected, since BBV helped put together the design schemes for the actual C6.R racers. In full race livery, the Stingray looks like it'd be equally adept at chasing down Gulf-liveried Aston Martins or battling giant evil robots. After all, Jake plays no favorites; he's an equal-opportunity intimidator. [Source: BadBoyVettes.com]
Check out CorvetteGuys.com and their large inventory of Corvette Apparel.
Here's the rest of the car. When it premieres in Geneva next month, the Audi TT RS will arrive in both coupe and convertible bodystyles. Both are powered by a 340-horsepower, 331 lb-ft, 2.5-liter turbo five cylinder. The driver rows a six-speed stick, and quattro channels power to all the wheels. 0-62 mph takes under 5 seconds. As the teaser shots hinted, look for more aggressive front and rear fascias, LED driving lamps, and a fixed rear spoiler. As with other RS cars, the brakes and suspension are also beefed up. Inside? Typical good stuff from Audi -- you know the drill. If you missed the engine sound clip yesterday, hit the play button below. You won't be disappointed. Sadly, there are no plans to offer the hottest TT to enthusiasts on this side of the Atlantic.
[Source: CarScoop]
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Niall Ferguson and his ego arrived in town yesterday as part of a speaking and promotional tour for his new book, the Ascent of Money. Last week Rory linked to the Harvard professor's PBS documentary of the same name as required watching for anyone looking for a good summary of our current financial crisis and some historical context (it seems that non-Americans will have to search a little harder to find the video).
I've read bits of Ferguson's other historical books (Colossus and Empire) and have found myself very skeptical about his theories. But I agree with Rory: the Ascent of Money documentary is something I would highly recommend. It's a very digestible way to become familiar with the main elements of the crisis (subprime mortages, derivatives, bond markets) without... well, bothering to read about them.
I particularly liked that he finished off the video with a discussion of the problem of macroeconomic imbalances. My only quibble is that Ferguson has decided to nickname the issue "Chimerica," after the two biggest players in the drama. The trouble is, global macroeconomic imbalances really are global - this Chimerica thing risks ignoring the role played by Japan, East Asia, the Gulf region and other countries in creating the imbalances dilemma. This China-centric view is reminiscent of the (exaggerated) fears about Japan in the 1980s and isn't healthy for the broader public debate. Global macroeconomic imbalances may not be as catchy as Chimerica, but it's more accurate - and it still sounds better than AbuSaudiChimericapan.
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Thanks to Jeff for the pointer. Also: There will be blood - Ferguson predicts an increase in violent conflict as a result of the financial collapse.
Welcome to Chicago! No, not that Chicago.
This is “Chicago”, the fake Arab town built by Israel in the middle of the Negev desert to train its military forces in urban warfare.
Though artificial, our hometown's dessicated twin is “highly realistic.” Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, whose photographs of “Chicago” are collected in this book and are replicated here, wrote: “To create this alternative universe, Palestinian architecture has been carefully scrutinized. Roads and alleyways have been constructed to mimic the layout of towns like Ramallah and Nablus. In one corner the ground has been covered in sand, a reference to unpaved refugee camps like Jenin. Graffiti has been applied to the walls with obscure declarations in Arabic: 'I love you Ruby' and 'Red ash, hot as blood'. Burned-out vehicles line the streets.”
Perhaps more interesting than its spatial “authenticity” is the fact that the “history” of this ghost town “directly mirrors the history of the Palestinian conflict.”
The first and second Intifada, the Gaza withdrawl, an attempted assassination of Saddam Hussein, the Battle of Falluja; almost every one of Israel's major military tactics in the Middle East over the past three decades was performed in advance here.
This is where generations of Israeli soldiers rehearse over and over again like actors in a Hollywood studio set. Here, with props on hand or littered about, they perfect their stage presence, try out some new moves and hand gestures, and fine tune their dialogues in front of cardboard cutouts of generic terrorists. Here also, they practice their showstopper: walking through walls. And then it's time to step out in front of live television cameras, the whole world already a captive audience, to play out their well-choreographed routines.
Meanwhile, “Chicago” is so named because its bullet-ridden fake walls apparently recall the punctured real walls of Al Capone's Chicago. While still acknowledging the dizzying complexity of Arab-Israeli relations, one wonders if a small yet meaningful step towards lasting peace could be taken if, on Israel's side, it stops vicariously engaging with the Palestinians in secret, replicant cities after first exorcising this mythological, gangster-infested Chicago from their collective memory and replace it with something real and true?
Not everyone was a mobster then, the same way not everyone offered something to our former governor for Obama's senate seat. The same way not all Palestinians are terrorists.
In any case, should the ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman and his party's racist ideology get their way in a ruling coalition with Benjamin Netanyahu, and all Israeli-Arabs get expelled from Israel, their homes and cities dismantled and resettled over, at least part of their history, albeit one written by others, has been recorded for future archaeologists to study.
Subtopia: MOUT Urbanism
BLDGBLOG: A miniature city waiting for attack
Monday, February 23, 2009
Using their brand of computational algorithm and other tried and true methodologies, EcoLogicStudio dives into masterplanning on a regional scale in rural Disez, Senegal.
One component of their scheme is an algae farm deployed “in the confluence of vegetated ridges and flood plain toporegions” resulting in a visually compelling, vineyard-like organization. This is where renewable energy is produced and the location of a “research center on bioenergies and training facilities for locals.”
Go see.
So let's try this out with one topic that we've been hammering on about for quite some time: the value of free trade over protectionism. Here is a set of arguments on why a faith-based defense of free trade is problematic.
Bang for Buck - Paul Krugman has pointed out that, if you lack a set of internationally coordinated stimulus measures (like now), then the problem with injecting money into your economy is that some of it will be spent on the products of other economies (imports). And yet, the entire debt burden of additional spending falls upon the shoulders of the government that actually spends the stimulus money. The result is less-than-sufficient fiscal stimulus and a global economy that recovers very slowly.
If, however, every country shut down its economic borders and focuses on stimulating the local economy, then in theory, "protectionism can make the world as a whole better off." It's a second-best solution, but perhaps more politically feasible than international coordination.
Defense - What good is creating a wealthy society that cannot defend itself from aggressors? Some aspects of economic activity are crucial to defending the livelihood of society, and should thus be protected from foreign competition. Even Adam Smith, the prophet of free-marketeers, recognized the importance of Britain's navy to its overall wellbeing: "As defence, however, is of much more importance than opulence, the [monopolistic] act of nagivation is, perhaps, the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England." We've moved from sail-powered to nuclear-powered ships, but the principle is the same.
Monopoly - If a country possesses a monopoly over the production and sale of a particular good or service, there may very well be a higher marginal rate of return if prices are artificially raised by a tariff or something similar. With freer trade, those monopoly rents would disappear.
Development - The Ricardian model of comparative advantage that is taught in ECON1000 courses to explain why free trade works is oversimplified. Among other things, it assumes frictionless trade between economies. The reality of international trade is very different (see Dani Rodrik). Despite the progress achieved through the WTO, there remain high transaction costs for international trade. Moreover, labour mobility is still heavily restricted, which disadvantages poorer, labour-rich economies.
Protectionism-as-threat - It can be used to threaten other nations to back off from beggar-thy-neighbour policies. Protectionism can also be a tool to pry open foreign markets.
Ardent free traders insist that these costs are offset by economy-wide gains "a rising tide raises all boats." Let's leave aside for the moment the argument that the gains from more affordable toys for you kids is more than offset by the loss of your job - that's obvious. But there is evidence suggesting that the gains from trade are not all they're cracked up to be.
...the elimination of most fiscal and financial subsidies put a strain on the manufacturing sector’s relative rate of return. And although financial liberalization led to a serious restructuring of Mexico’s banking sector, domestic credit for productive activities and for investment has been severely rationed for the last ten years....
Thus a dual structure has been taking shape in Mexico's manufacturing sector. On the one hand, there are a few very large firms whose links with transnational corporations (TNCs) and access to foreign capital have helped them to become important players in export markets; on theother hand, vast numbers of medium and small firms struggle to survive the intensified pressure from their external competitors.
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Note that few of these arguments dispute the underlying logic of free trade theory, strictly speaking; these are instead exceptions to the theory or political economy realities which fall outside of the theory's scope. But these exceptions to the theory are ubiquitous in the real world of economic affairs, which means they need to be addressed. If NAFTA isn't doing for Mexico what it said on the box, simply re-iterating Ricardo's arguments or shouting "Heretic!" at all those who point out this inconvenient fact is not helping.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
No one wants to think about shit and the act of shitting. When we go, we want it out of sight and out mind as fast as we can quickly flush, for to linger longer than is socially acceptable could be a sign of an atavistic pathology. However, should an alien happen to drop by and see how much energy, time and resources we spend just on our sewers, it might think we are absolutely obsessed with our excrement. It would be right, of course.
We propose, then, a zine about this all too important biological process. Provisionally titled BUTT, it will collect any and all investigations into the myriad ways scatology is spatialized. Many will keep on regurgitating promotional materials like those automatically archived on dezeen but not BUTT. Everyone will talk about Daniel Libeskind but not BUTT. It's the contrarian preposition.
Coverage, then, will likely include ancient Roman sewers, Victorian public loos, modern pay toilets, the zero gravity toilet of the International Space Station, boutique pissoirs, big event porta-potties, battlefield latrines, methane farms, Appalachian heritage outhouses, Mexican sewer divers, and public transportation powered by poo.
Any proposal that sets out to rethink urban sewer systems, regardless of quality, will always be a featured content, and realized projects that address the sanitation needs of the other 90% will be automatically accepted for publication.
Published as well would be field reports from guided tours of municipal wastewater treatment plants, for instance, the world's largest located right on the periphery of Chicago, and also from illegal urban explorations of subterranean drainscapes.
A lucky freelancer would be sent off to Dubai to see if the beaches around the fourty-three-star Burj Al Arab hotel are still noxious with illegally dumped human waste. He'll probably write that it's actually clean but only because there aren't much sewage around to be spilt, as everyone has left. If the miniscule budget allows, another freelancer would be assigned to get an update on Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic and the Gaza Sewage Flood of 2007.
Interspersed throughout each issue would be engineering illustrations of sewer tunnels that immediately call to mind certain anatomical drawings by Jean-Jacques Lequeu.
How about self-portraits, preferably of architecture students, taken inside the bathrooms of post-Bilbao museums?
Shit. From Every Angle.
It'll be the infrastructural porn rag for the hipster design crowd, always mistakenly shelved in the fetish section, along with the German scheiße bestsellers, of your nearest independent bookstore.
Slice
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Urban Battery, by MOS, was the winning entry in last year's Flip a Strip competition, which challenged entrants to rethink and redesign the strip malls of Arizona. In response, the designers offered an “off-the-grid power station, vertical greenhouse and a billboard all at once.”
It's the unabashedly longitudinal literally flipped up.
Largely leaving the strip mall intact, MOS concentrated on the parking lot, wherein stands a “300’ by 300’ lightweight structure support[ing] a series of thin glass channels housing a network of pipes, tubes, and algae to produce filtered, clean air and gases for biofuel. A system of wind turbines generates electricity supporting the activities of the strip mall and the surrounding neighborhood. It dispenses electricity through wind turbines, breezes and healthy air offsetting the effects of Scottsdale Road and the parking.”
The team noted that the Scottsdale competition site “lacks any healthy urban infrastructures, no community centers, no pools, no green space, it's a dead quadrant.” To offset this, MOS added public and semi-public spaces underneath this vertical aquarium that would be used for dancing, yoga and other forms of physical activity. Additionally, these spaces are connected to other vertical gardens at other strip malls via bike and walking paths.
All put together, then, here is an urban infrastructure meant to counter the effects of obesity, pollution and urban sprawl.
Meanwhile, could you pixelate those algae-filled tubes — that is, make them chromatically flicker either by chemical means or through changes in light filtration and salinity or some heretofore unknown method &dmash; so that you could make an avant-garde movie (or an animated billboard ad) to be shown for spectators parked in their cars on the parking lot or for motorists navigating through the urban flatscape?
It was piloted by veteran racer Paul Gentilozzi of Michigan at Bonneville this year, and set a new speed record for its class at more than 225 mph. It looks like it could be driven to the grocery story, except for the spoiler and parachute on the back.
The Ferrari F430 16M Scuderia Spider is motivated by the same naturally aspirated mid-rear 4.3-liter V8 engine with a max power output of 510hp @ 8500 rpm and max torque of 470Nm @ 5250 rpm. Mated to a six-speed dry dual-clutch F1 gearbox, the engine features impressive fuel economy of 15.7L/100km (14.98 mpg) and is capable to propel the car to a top speed of stunning 315km/h.Inside, the 16M Scuderia sports a "new generation" audio system with native support of the Ferrari iPod Touch 16GB media player.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Dan Drezner has an interesting piece in Foreign Policy magazine on thirteen unexpected consequences of the financial crisis. It makes for some nice light Friday reading. A couple of comments:
- Evidence for #4 is provided by the FPs own annoying pop-up as you link to the page.
- I flatter myself to think #1 explains my new job, precisely for the reasons he outlined. It was either that, or #8, or going back to school.
- I'm very curious to see if #6 holds true. It probably will, at least for a while. But it's worth noting that the cautious savers of the past decade got hit just as hard as everyone else. At the very least, those who have come into "intellectual maturity" just in time to watch The Great Moderation dissolve before their eyes will be more cautious about future claims regarding the "self-regulation" of financial markets.
- With #7, Dan seems to be supporting my crank theory of fashion (which, not coincidentally, also appeared on a Friday)
- I hope #13 holds true as well; it certainly can't hurt. At the very least, if people are more aware of the examples of individual and collective suffering during that period, it will help put our current state of affairs in perspective.
Try, for example, this set of interviews broadcast on This American Life a couple of months back (see Act 1: Hard Times). If I went through something similar, I don't think I'd be able to eat mustard anymore either.
[Update: another unexpected consequence? A decline in shark attacks.]
Thursday, February 19, 2009
All I'm gonna say is: if President Obama and his entourage can stimulate the American economy like they stimulate complete traffic chaos wherever they travel, then the US economy will be humming in no time.
-What Commanding Heights was to incoming IPE students at LSE in 07-08, Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money will be to next year's class: your year in a convenient one-hour program.
-Succumbing to financial reality, Russian lawmakers have cut the budget for the Sochi Winter Games by 15%.
-Proving that even cheesy continental television contests aren't absent geopolitical tensions, the Georgian entry for this year's Eurovision final is called "We Don't Wanna Put In", a song that mocks Russia and its Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (get it, Put In=Putin). This is clearly an irresponsible provocation; expect Russian troops in Tbilisi by Sunday!
-Two interesting reports on the intelligence front. First, The Telegraph is reporting that Israel has been conducting a covert war against Iran, "using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime's illicit weapons project." Concluding that a direct military strike is too risky/ineffective/unsanctioned by the US, the Israeli strategy seeks to, according to a former US intelligence officer, "delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach."
Second, the cross section of international terrorism and technology is widely appreciated. Al Qaeda's use of the internet and certain media outlets for propaganda and fundraising is highly developed, as is the use of advanced military technology in attacking terrorist networks (for example, unmanned drones in Pakistan/Afghanistan). But the US may be more than a little unhappy with one of the world's most largest technology firms: Google. The US and Pakistani governments have long denied that the US was conducting military operations from Pakistani soil. Well, apparently a simple search on Google Earth blew that denial out of the water; the Times of London obtained satellite images clearly showing predator drones at Shamsi airbase in Baluchistan as early as 2006.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The US has been called the world's largest venture capitalist. Should China now be considered its largest value investor?
For a look at the implications of Chinalco's proposed investment in Rio Tinto, check out my recent piece at zzzeitgeist.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
While the science, technology and economics of turning algae into biofuel needs further research and refinement, that hasn't stopped designers from dreaming up projects using this new energy source as a point of departure in formal and systems experiments. We have been collecting many such projects over the past years and now would like to present some of the better ones to our readers in a series of posts. They vary in scales, deployment, logistics and context, so there should be something for everyone. Do take what you want from them.
We start with something regular readers will no doubt have seen before, from a year ago. The project is called Drip Feed, the winning entry from architects Thomas Raynaud and Cyrille Berger for the 2G Competition Venice Lagoon Park.
According to Raynaud and Berger:
Our project for the urban park of Sacca San Mattia consists of reinvesting the island in a Venetian, multi-functional approach to urban planning, in the context of an enlarged metropolitan, tourist centre. The Drip Feed project on the Island of Sacca San Mattia puts into place an above-ground ulva rigida cultivation device that is in keeping with the Greenfuel system. A saprophyte structure that ingests polluted waste from local industry, and conceptually redefines the lagoon’s future water level, without harming the natural state of the island.
In other words, algae from the lagoon will be harvested and “farmed” inside bioreactor tubings filled with water taken also from the lagoon.
This process of cultivation would produce the biofuel for the lagoon's transportation and somewhat incredibly, seaweed to feed the tourists. One other byproduct is oxygen, which would be used to reduce the eutrophication of the lagoon caused by industrial run-off. Supposedly, then, one would have to be careful not to reduce it too much or else a new source of algae would have to be found.
Since Venice is “codified as a city-diversion,” Ranaud and Berger wanted to program this site of production into a site of consumption as well. The tubes are arrayed trellis-like. Above and below this emerald ground plane are spaces for activities, for instance, outdoor concerts and camping.
Of course, the entire structure itself would be an attraction, an engineering marvel equal to the Renaissance churches and palazzos just across the lagoon. In fact, if the duo had followed the contours of the hills or better yet, sculpted some imaginary landforms into the structure, it might even compete with the sagging San Marco.
How about recreating the skyline of La Serenissima?
During aqua alta, unlucky tourists will rent gondolas and vaporetti to sail underneath striated onion domes and bulbous, vegetal skies, bathed in modulated light and shadows.
Until its time to eat an overpriced seaweed à la carte menu.
If a city upon a hill is but a utopian dream, i.e., unattainable, how about a city upon a chicken? A mobile, disaster-averting city with easy access to cheap, local and free range produce, watched by the rest of the world as a model for a sustainable community.
In January I quoted a report by the IIF that predicted 2009 would see a huge decline in capital flows to emerging markets, with Eastern Europe and Russia particularly hard hit. Now we can add a new dynamic to the mix: not only is new money going to stop flowing, but much of Eastern Europe's debt is short-term and will need to be either paid back or rolled over this year. Here's an article that lays out the implications, (via naked capitalism):
Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, said Eastern Europe has borrowed $1.7 trillion abroad, much on short-term maturities. It must repay – or roll over – $400bn this year, equal to a third of the region's GDP. Good luck. The credit window has slammed shut....As the article points out, $400 billion is also well beyond the capacity of the IMF. So where is the money going to come from? Or are we going to see swathes of bankrupt EU member states? This is messy stuff.
Almost all East bloc debts are owed to West Europe, especially Austrian, Swedish, Greek, Italian, and Belgian banks. En plus, Europeans account for an astonishing 74pc of the entire $4.9 trillion portfolio of loans to emerging markets....
Whether it takes months, or just weeks, the world is going to discover that Europe's financial system is sunk, and that there is no EU Federal Reserve yet ready to act as a lender of last resort or to flood the markets with emergency stimulus....
What's interesting is that recent history is filled with examples of countries who have set themselves up for precisely this sort of problem. In the mid-1990s, many East Asian countries (and their banks) were fueling their rapid economic growth with large amounts of short-term debt that was constantly in need of being "rolled over," or pushed off until a later date. But if creditors decide not to roll over your debt, you're in trouble - especially because creditors tend to be fairweather friends who will ask for their money back as soon as your financial situation starts looking shaky.
Moreover, many of these countries suffered from what are called currency mismatches: a state/firm borrows in a foreign currency and holds assets in the domestic currency. If the value of the domestic currency plummets, suddenly the debt becomes a whole lot more expensive - the assets are basically worth less to your creditors than they were a short time ago. That's what happened in East Asia, and sure enough, that's exactly what's happened once more. Again from the article:
In Poland, 60pc of mortgages are in Swiss francs. The zloty has just halved against the franc. Hungary, the Balkans, the Baltics, and Ukraine are all suffering variants of this story. As an act of collective folly – by lenders and borrowers – it matches America's sub-prime debacle....And just to tie this all together:
"This is much worse than the East Asia crisis in the 1990s," said Lars Christensen, at Danske Bank.It's discouraging reading. But from a political economy point of view, I'm curious as to what sort of incentives led banks to place themselves in this situation once more. Since they were probably aware of the precedent, there must have been incentives that outweighed their sense of prudence. Was it greed? Moral hazard? Prudential regulatory failures? A tragedy of the financial commons? I think I smell a steaming pile of Ph.D theses.
Monday, February 16, 2009
From the BBC:
Japan's finance minister is facing calls for him to resign amid claims he was drunk at a recent G7 meeting.
Shoichi Nakagawa has apologised for his behaviour but blamed cold remedies for a slurred performance at a news conference in Rome at the weekend.
You may recall similar suspicions following Nicolas Sarkozy's "winded" press conference at the '07 G8 in Heiligendamm. Which begs the question: what are they serving at these summits (and where can I get some)??
Update: Nakagawa's gone, can Aso be far behind?
IPE Journal regulars know we love Arsenal, and are probably all too familiar with my soft spot for the injured Eduardo. Well, the Croatian international took the pitch this evening and, in an inspirational performance, scored twice in 67 minutes to lead the Gunners into the 5th round of the FA Cup. The brace comes almost 12 months after the striker nearly lost his leg in an horrific injury at Birmingham City.
We talk a lot about sports, fashion, Japanese robotics and booze around here not just because they are personal interests, but to provide a break from the constant doom and gloom in the global political economy. It sounds cliche, but, now more than ever, we need our distractions, our little points of inspiration and excitement.
Eduardo's remarkable performance was exactly that.
(photo: Getty Images)
@karimrashid: How is life man? long time no see, let me know when you are back in NYC
@remkoolhaas: We'll see but not a lot of opportunity there right now.
Are they who they claim to be? Fo us, it doesn't really matter. We could go either way.
If he's a Fake Karim and he's a Fake Rem and they keep on tweeting (and maybe a Fake Zaha enters the fray), we could really be in for a bit of fun, something recalling the heady days of 2005 when The Gutter peaked in hilarious awesomeness.
But if that's really them, Rem's response says quite a lot. One could conceivably imagine him actually saying, “No way is my haute condominium gonna get built there now. Jacques, Pierre and Jean are totally fucked, too.” Or: “For really interesting stuff, i.e., my brand of architecture, look elsewhere outside Manhattan.” In which case, both aren't terribly shocking news. But if we consider Karim's question as something less quotidian than it looks, that it's actually the question that the entire architecture world this week has been clamoring an answer for, then we really have something interesting here. Many have asked the same question in articles, op-eds, blog posts and tweets: “How are you holding up after what happened to the TVCC, man?” But it was Karim who got a (public) answer back, and judging from Rem's reply, he wasn't rattled by it. (Or was he? Is his evasiveness a sign of inexpressible hurt and sorrow? Tough to crack that one.)
In other words, there's enough in those two tweets — less that 140 characters each — that a glossy architecture or design magazine could just publish them, mark off a couple of spreads as done, and then call it a day. An exclusive, privileged, intimate micro-look into the real-time personal and professional lives of the upper class.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Despite the country's lack of tourist infrastructure, its history of petro-conflicts, the nonstop flare-ups of ethnic and religious violence, and the fact that you need a letter of invitation to get a visa (and let's not forget to mention declining attendance at major resorts all over the world or even the lack of credit lines to fund ambitious mega-projects), The Motherland Group are nevertheless planning to build a $3.4bn slave history theme park and luxury resort with “the world's only museum dedicated to the memory of the Jackson Five” near Lagos, Nigeria.
If developers are still running around with such hysterical hubris (“The Motherland Group says their resort alone will pull in 1.4m visitors in the first year alone, rising to 4.4m in five years.”), so utterly complacent to the spectacular economic implosions of the last year or so, we — not just them — are all doomed.
Princeton Architectural Press is once again seeking proposals for the next installment in its Pamphlet Architecture series. This time, however, it's not as open ended as previous calls for entries. They've got a theme: infrastructure.
At a time of new government leadership committed to investing in America's Infrastructure, architects, engineers, and artists should propose new directions for transportation, energy, and agriculture at a continental scale. In this spirit, no visionary dimension is too large, no inventive proposal too ambitious to consider.
(Emphasis ours.)
The deadline is July 1, 2009.
Woops. I realize that, in my previous post, I was using poor examples to illustrate my argument. The article in question referred to assets, and I was using commodities to show the flaw in the argument. These are not the same thing (some commodities are assets, but not all assets are commodities), so that's a little embarrassing, both for me and our editing staff...
But even if we replace my bad examples with more traditional assets (land, buildings, machinery, government bonds) the argument stays exactly the same.
Politique
-G7 finance ministers meet in Rome following the passage of an $787bn US stimulus package. US Treasury Secretary Geithner received a not-so welcome reception at the meeting, with some ministers critical of the US deficit and "Buy America(n)" provision present in the final bill. While the meeting provided window treatment to the tensions over protectionism, it is clear that a substantive lack of coordination and consensus is setting the global economy up for a period of tense economic relations. G7 communique text here.
-The Israeli election ended in a stalemate as Kadima won a shock 1-seat minority victory over Likud. The insurgent candidacy of far-right party Yisrael Beitenu and its leader Lieberman shook the political establishment, banishing Labour to the political wilderness and winning the key to an eventual coalition government.
-Venezuelans voted again on abolishing term limits. Chavez has raised tensions in the run up to this vote by denouncing an opposition and US-led "coup" plot.
-For the first time, Pakistan officially acknowledged that "some part of the conspiracy" against Mumbai was carried out on its soil.
Economia
-US Treasury secretary Geithner unveiled an "outline" of the Obama administration's financial system rescue plan. The heavy on intentions, light on details presentation was immediately rebuffed by markets, commentators and policymakers begging for more clarity and substance.
-Karl-Theodore zu Guttenberg assumed the economic portfolio in Angela Merkel's coalition. The move comes less than a week after it was announced that German industrial output fell in December by its largest margin since unification.
-In testimony before Congress, US director of national intelligence Dennis C. Blair said that the global economic crisis was the most urgent threat to US, and global, security. The global political instability, economic uncertainty and diminished US authority stemming from the crisis surpassed the threats posed by terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
The Rest
-In the FA Cup, Everton beat Villa, ManU over Derby, and Swansea forced a replay against Fulham at the Cottage. In other Prem news, Big Phil went bye bye. In Serie A, Becks looked set to return to L.A. after the MLS imposed Friday deadline (or tactic?) passed without a deal. In Spain, Raul broke the all-time goals record at Real Madrid.
-In the biggest study of its kind, researchers found that regular multivitamin use did little to prevent cancer or heart disease in older women.
-Walking down Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan yesterday, my wife and I stumbled upon a disheveled, mad scientist looking Malcolm Gladwell. As we approached the best-selling author, he very clearly slowed down to walk parallel to us, awkwardly incapable of disguising the fact that he was eavesdropping on our animated, but admittedly unremarkable, conversation. I am convinced that we are now the subject of his next book, Caring for the Elderly, and demand royalties.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Normally I find the material from the Peterson Institute of International Economics to be high caliber, but this op-ed by Subramanian and Williamson, two senior writers from the Institute, strikes me as a bit fishy.
The authors take issue with the view that asset bubbles (of the kind that we saw in the US housing market) should be left to inflate and pop on their own. According to this line of argument, policymakers cannot know in advance when a bubble is forming, or at what point it has reached its peak. Instead, they should focus on creating an environment where these price fluctuations will not have such strong adverse effects. In other words, it's not up to government to prick the asset bubbles, but to soften the blow if one should burst.
The authors put forward the following, rather blunt, declaration:
However, the wreck that is today’s financial system is testimony to the catastrophically flawed nature of that doctrine. Policymakers have no choice but to have a view on what constitutes a reasonable or equilibrium level of all asset prices. (emphasis added)They go on to recommend that governments set "zones" within which fluctuations will be tolerated. How big are the zones to be? It depends. Are these zones to be national or international? It depends. What sort of policies would you use to contain price fluctuations? It depends. Are you suggesting that we return to that era in the 1970s when members of the government sat down every week to decide the price of milk? No. Well, maybe.
I'm not sure which is more galling, the very principle of the thing they're suggesting or their complete disregard for the practicalities involved. Because if they're willing to set zones for the prices of assets like housing, oil, and carrots, why not also set zones for prices on other things, like your salary - your wage is, after all, the price of your labour. Now, you might argue that the Obama administration has done just that. But even the latest decision to cap banking execs salaries at $500,000 applies only to those banks who are applying for public bailout funds. Geithner is not crazy enough to apply that to the economy as a whole.
But even if you're sympathetic to the idea of creating price zones for all assets, how on earth would you pull it off? OPEC has enough trouble coordinating oil prices and they represent less than half of the world's oil-producing capacity. What would happen if you tried to do the same thing with rice? Similarly, countries often try to set "zones" for a particular type of asset: their currency. But recent history is filled with examples of the failure of such attempts - sometimes with catastrophic results for the economy.
While I sympathize with the authors' sentiments, I think they've taken things too far. I agree that, in the case of the US housing market, there was a clear bubble and steps should have been taken to discourage, rather than encourage, such widespread financial irresponsibility. But to suggest that the government establish a reasonable price range for every single asset strikes me as ridiculous. This range is either going to be too restrictive to allow for normal price adjustments, or so wide as to be practically irrelevant.
It also seems to ignore the lessons from previous (failed) attempts by national governments to fine-tune their economy. I suspect this column is what happens when intellectuals who are paid to produce good ideas on a regularized schedule occasionally come up with a pretty bad one instead.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Remember in our post last month about the Tarim Desert Highway when we said it would be worthwhile to track down some of the research that went into protecting the road from the creeping sand dunes? We've been doing just that since then, though scientific journals being what they are, we kept stumbling into firewalls after firewalls. In other words, all that we have gathered so far are abstracts, which are perhaps fine for now. They're enough of a fodder for unhinged minds.
One abstract in particular describes an experiment using different kinds of “liquid polymers” to stabilize sand. These were sprayed onto test sandbeds in a wind tunnel and also on patch of the Taklimakan Desert, where they “produced a strong crust 0.2-0.5 cm thick.” The last sentence reads:
Our results suggest that all the stabilizers exhibited good infiltration, crushing strength, and elasticity, and that they could thus be used to control damage to highways caused by blown sand in the Taklimakan Desert.
Obviously, the most logical next step here is not to do more studies but to give us an oil tankerful of the stuff. With it, we'll paint the whole desert, freeze the landscape in time and space.
Better yet, how about re-sculpting the Talimakan to mimic the landforms of, say, the Painted Desert of Arizona. The dramatic, stratified coloring won't be copied, but all its contour lines would be replicated exactly. Of course, in China, simulating exotic terrains isn't new. Remember Huangyangtan?
How about gouging deep canyons, which are graded, arranged, oriented, networked and coated with the binding agent in such a way as to enable strong, steady wind currents flowing through this bifurcated aeolian-shed? These air channels would then be planted with a forest of wind turbines. Or wind-dammed.
How about taking the sand glue to Inner Mongolia? Its desert dunes feed the powerful sandstorms that regularly blanket northern China and choke Beijing in a thick, suffocating fog of pulverized earth. These granular blitzkriegs then cross over high seas to bombard cities in the Koreas and Japan, causing respiratory and eye diseases. With the desertification of the region continuing apace and water resource too scarce to support afforestation, maybe these chemical encrustation will be increasingly considered as a viable solution to a whole list of environmental problems.
And again, instead of spraying it around willy-nilly, how about “stabilizing” a city: a false ruin seemingly long buried in the sand but only just recently revealed by the wind. Hundreds of such cities forming a new Great Wall of China protecting real cities against advancing deserts.
One could even suround Ordos, wherein the lucky owners of one of the 100 boutique cabins can undertake an Antonionian adventure. Their carefully planned disappearance will surely be the talk of the whole village. And everyone will be grateful to you, because what else could be interesting to talk about? For many, “trying” to find you would be good sporting fun in the middle of nowhere. “So Monica Vitti,” one habitué of The Moment Blog will remark.
-The Bolivarian dictator who cried "coup" is at it again. Venezuelans go to the polls on Sunday in Chavez's second try at a constitutional amendment removing term limits.
-The Project for Excellence in Journalism profiles "The New Washington Press Corps". It finds that while the "traditional" media's footprint in the US capital has shrunk dramatically, niche media (small and targeted) and foreign correspondents have increased their presence. The Washington bureau of Mother Jones is now roughly the same size as Time's, while Al Jazeera now rivals CBS.
-Dubai is fastly becoming one of the biggest casualties of the credit crunch. The real estate market has collapsed and foreign workers (approx. 90% of the emirate's labor force) are being laid off en masse. The NYT looks at one aspect of the deteriorating economic situation: foreign professionals fleeing the debt and luxury vehicles they accumulated during the boom.
-Eduardo came on for Croatia last night in a friendly v. Romania, and Arsenal hearts were, if only for a moment, lifted.
