lifestyle leader

Sometimes I save the links to articles on particular topics in the hopes that, one day, they will be incorporated into a post. Other times, like now, I will just dump them into a messy pile.

- Should you go to graduate school in a recession? Maybe it's not such a good idea if you're studying the humanities.

- In America, differences in opinions about globalization appear to correlate strongly with education levels. One possibility is that those without university degrees are ignorant of the benefits of globalization and therefore deserve to be ignored. A more likely explanation is that the less-educated are not feeling those benefits too strongly these days.

- (Of course, in order to take people's opinions seriously, there is a minimum level of education required. Crazy sprinkler lady need not apply).

- The United Kingdom is considering shifting away from “a teaching year that mimics the medieval agricultural and religious cycle.” What, no more 6 week Easter break? Such a radical shift would threaten more research-oriented schools, presuming they haven't closed already.

- More news from the schools.

Now that the Bank of England has followed the Fed and embarked on "quantitative easing", readers may be asking themselves: what exactly does that mean?

Via FT Alphaville, the Telegraph provides a handy overview in "Printing money: an easy guide to quantitative easing."

UPDATE: The FT had a handy graphic/demonstration as well last month. You can find it here.

Poor Lord Mandy...



Note: I am, I confess, a fan of Mandelson (which I know is an unpopular position in many, ok most, circles). Despite his immense shortcomings, he is an architect of one of the late-20th century's greatest political innovations in the western world, the "third way"; which, despite its role in the present economic and financial crises, remains the most pragmatic approach to politics in the US, UK and much of the EU. Also, his performance as European Commissioner for Trade was applauded by even his most ardent critics (with the exception of Super Sarko, of course), under incredibly difficult conditions (how's that DDA progressing?). Let the backlash commence...

Upon learning that US unemployment has risen to 8.1%, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner called on Barack Obama to veto a $410 billion spending bill and impose a spending freeze until the end of the year.

Really, John Boehner? A spending freeze. Really?

Citigroup "broke the buck" today, trading below $1 a share for the first time in its history. How's that for a taxpayer return?

Countless traders must have headed out for lunch this afternoon asking themselves: what else can I buy for a buck? Some options to whet your appetite, courtesy of the McDonald's Dollar Menu:

-Hot Fudge Sundae
-Apple Pie
-Fruit 'N Yogurt Parfait

Quite the dilemma. Own a piece of what was once the largest company in the world, or sample a tasty treat under the golden arches. Choices, choices...

I've been traveling for the past week, and have thus spent a lot of time in lobbies and hotel rooms watching CNBC. I have always preferred Bloomberg as a source of financial/economic news and analysis, but it is a fact that CNBC is the business channel of record in the financial world (both within and outside of the US). They have unrivaled access, and so I tend to watch the network more than I do the decidedly better Bloomberg.

But recently, I, like many people, have simply become fed-up with CNBC's self-righteous, failed paradigm clinging, dancing on the deck of the titanic posture. The now infamous Rick Santelli spectacle on the floor of the Chicago Merc was but the tip of their hypocritical iceberg. The network's pundits have not only been cheerleaders for the financial industry bailouts, arguing incessantly that the systemic risks posed by the failure of large institutions dramatically outweighed any moral hazard or popular considerations, but now rally behind Santelli's bizarre and hypocritical admonishment of the Obama administration's efforts to provide less than 10% of US homeowners with less than one-billionth of the financial support provided to the banks. The debate over mortgage relief is a nuanced and important one, and both sides of this debate have merits to their argument. However, no one can possibly deny that the systemic implications of the mortgage market are any less important than those posed by the financial system. Remember, the practical foundation of the banking crisis is arguably the mortgage-backed securities that are still destroying confidence in the banking system and strangling credit, particularly inter-bank lending. Note to Santelli:

Your neighbors' (well, probably not your neighbors) mortgages matter as much to the recovery of the global economy as the profits of the trading firms you stand amidst daily on CNBC.

So, to limit the rant that this post has inevitably descend into, I will sum up my perspective on CNBC in this way:

CNBC has no credibility. Period.

Yet, because of their stature, access and unrivaled ability amongst business television outlets to influence the market, the network goes largely unchallenged in both its viewership and clout. In fact, the economic and financial downturn has boosted CNBC's ratings to record levels, as the amount of people looking to better understand their economic and financial circumstances increases. It is great that people are looking to educate themselves on the economic and financial forces impacting their lives, but unfortunate that they are turning to CNBC for that information (although, I am pleased to learn that the FT has been steadily increasing its circulation for some time).

Enter The Daily Show. Rick Santelli, who was scheduled to appear on the show last night, apparently cancelled at the last minute. The show was not, um, happy, and thus took it upon itself to, as only it can, call CNBC on its b*llsh*t. Enjoy.

These days, the banking industry is not what you might call a "high growth" sector, particularly in Europe and the United States. And yet, there may be some employment opportunities for the free range bankers that have recently been let loose by Wall Street upon an unsuspecting public. As Martin Wolf pointed out this morning, there is a very real chance that US federal government agencies are going to be majority owners of some rather large insolvent banks. It could be after a couple of months of the "stress testing" exercise, or it could be next week, but either way these banks are systemically important and thus "too big to fail." That means the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) - or some other such agency - will have to step in.

Of course, there are political barriers preventing a full-on nationalization of banks like Citi and Bank of America (nationalization = socialization = victory for Lenin). But there are also significant economic barriers to them being purchased by private capital: who'se going to buy two of the largest American banks? The Europeans? They're arguably in worse shape thanks to their exposure to certain plumetting Eastern Europe economies.

Therefore, since a public restructuring of these banks is probably going to happen in some form, that means the government is going to need bodies to replace the existing management. The last time the FDIC took over a systemically important bank (Continental Illinois in 1984), it took them 10 years to restructure the assets and finally sell the bank to private owners. And since those owners ended up being Bank of America (a delicious twist, yes?), a larger and even more interconnected bank, this could be a very secure job horizon indeed.

So polish up your resumés, unemployed bankers, because I suspect the FDIC will be hiring shortly. It's true, the bonuses will be smaller, but think about it this way: you can perform a valuable civil service by dismantling and restructuring your former banks and restoring a healthy financial sector. Besides, it could be worse.

(photo from nowpublic.com)

(Helmut Smits, Street fountain, 2002. Thanks to the artist for the photo.)

Here's a lovely piece of intervention by the Dutch artist Helmut Smits. A minor act but profoundly marvelous.

Smits briefly notes that his street fountain spurts via a small water pump. But how small is it, we wondered. How complex are its wirings and how great is its energy requirement? One certainly wishes that it could be mass produced, bought by the dozens, or at least hackable from easily procured cheap parts, a craft project whose step-by-step instructions can be downloaded from Instructables, like LED Throwies. When the rains do come and fill up pot holes or shallow pedestrian depressions, you can sow little fountains everywhere, adding a bit of playfulness to the concrete playgrounds of weary city-dwellers. It's Banksy meets Salomon de Caus hydro-graffiti.

Should you want to add a subversive underlayer, you could say that at the same time it highlights the deplorable condition of urban infrastructure, that pouring in billions of dollars into these pot holes isn't going to solve the problem. The collapse is perpetual.

In the Archives:
On fountains

(Spotted on Vulgare.)

From our correspondent in South Korea, Louisa Metcalfe:

Seoul - I sit reading about “dark clouds” moving over the Korean economy. Of course, the problem is common to all of the global economy, but a phenomenon which has been specific to Korea since the Lehman Brothers collapse of September last year. The continuing slide of the Korean economy begs the question: how will Asia, the apparent new beacon in the global economy, lead the world economy out of recession? Moreover, will the progress be facilitated by further cooperation as witnessed at the end of last year?

This is a question which is in part related to the recent news that a Tripartite Agreement has been formed between Japanese, Chinese and Korean leaders. Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, Japanese prime minister, Taro Aso, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, pledged “Tripartite cooperation” at Fukoka, Japan, on December 13th 2008. This agreement comes as somewhat of a breakthrough in Asia, after decades of mistrust and resentment toward the acts Japan committed during World War II, and before. Therefore, the subject of cooperation here in Korea seems to have witnessed symbolic progress - something which appears to be a result of the global economic downturn itself.

The relevance of this news resonates now as this week in Korea marks a year in power for the president Lee Myung-Bak. Yet despite talks of the Asian miracle of late, and hopes of economic success via cooperation in December, the ratings of the Korean president have been halved in the past year. This is arguably largely a result of the extent of the damage which has occurred in the Korean economy during this time. The past year has seen a vast decline in exports and capital reserves as the USA has become less able to consume Asian goods. Two of the traits which lead to nations such as Korea being held up as examples of the ‘Asian Miracles’.

So what now? Will the Asian miracle last? I see that this question may be subject to cooperation. Can and will the ‘Asian Miracle’ persist without external facilitation? For me, the answer is yes. The situation looks optimistic for the next year in power of Lee MyunBak. The Korean media is projecting that the president has finally accepted that the crisis means harder action must be taken, and his mantra has become, ‘Crisis equals Opportunity’. Moreover, the two words have the same meaning in Japanese, portraying an image that the national differences between the two countries will soon be offset, at least temporarily, in order to resuscitate the Asian economies.

The Tripartite Agreement promises to boost the Asian Development Bank, and supersede the "Chiang Mai initiative", created during the East Asian Financial Crisis, to allow bilateral swaps. Furthermore, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been further developed in recent years (for example, including China into ASEAN+3). The recent news of cooperation and change in Korea therefore comes as a refreshing change to the news of gloom and doom, with Korea, Japan and China comprising a quarter of the world’s population, and a fifth of the world’s economy. Thus portraying the potential for these countries, including Korea, to chase away the dark clouds over their economies over the coming year.

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Interested in being a guest correspondent? Fire us an email: ipejournal at gmail.com.

(Or “A Female Figure with Large Breasts, Three Eyes, Deformed Ears and Four Hands Standing in a Landscape,” from Giovanni Battista de' Cavalieri's Monsters from all parts of the ancient and modern world, 1585. Source.)

It's been a while since we posted a list of recently discovered blogs. Despite the lamentations of my colleagues about the demise of both the quality and quantity of blogs on the built environment, for every one that goes dimmer with each passing week without a post, there's a handful that crops up, most of which are worth keeping tabs on.

Of course, these newer blogs aren't going to be any less ephemeral. In fact, those started by thesis students and studios will most likely expire with the end of term, but at least a record of their investigations exists for anyone to use for whatever purpose. Because what if before they published the book, Venturi and Scott Brown's Las Vegas studio had maintained a blog in which students and instructors recorded all their initial observations, posted their pre-collaged photos, lecture podcasts and unedited videos using Flickr, Vimeo and YouTube, and the Web 2.0 crowd participated wiki-like, unencumbered by notions of proprietary and editorial control? It would have been interesting at the very least.

Here, meanwhile, is the list. The bloggers responsible for these blogs may or may not be as described above, but they all possess fertile minds and fecund imagination, are consummate observers, have individualized but keen insights into important issues of the day, and are voracious collectors of net flotsam and jetsam.

21st Century Plowshare

Arts and Ecology

christian barnard landscape blog

Edificial

fruitful contradictions

Geometry of Bending

Infrastructurist

Invent Civil

Mockitecture

Pop-up City

there is a lot to say, of this we are sure

Urban Floop

U.S./Mexico Border Wall as Architecture

Vulgare

The following are maintained by the incredibly fortunate three who were awarded The John K. Branner Traveling Fellowship.

Re:mote.......Controlled

Soundscrapers

Untested City

For our public blogroll, see our list of RSS feeds [good links] on Bloglines. Which of these you are going to subscribe to (or whether or not you are going to follow even one of them) will be up to you.