"Those whom the gods would destroy, they first encourage to borrow cheaply"

Today's must read on the next financial panic.

Adventures in Alternative Currencies - Bristol Launches Its Own

The Bristol ten pound banknote

Here is another reason to love the quirky, iconoclastic south western British city.

From the BBC:

It is a direct assault on global trade. The city of Bristol has launched its own currency, which cannot be used in Bath, never mind Berlin or Bombay. 

More than 350 firms in the city have signed up, making it the UK's largest alternative to sterling. 

Unlike previous schemes which have relied on paper, the Bristol Pound can be used online, even by mobile phone.

h/t Tyler 

The Hyperloop - San Francisco to L.A. in 30 Minutes

Good article here on entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The article briefly touches on his lastest, still relatively secret paradigm shifting idea, the Hyperloop.

Ben Bernanke Cannot Print a New Steve Jobs

Gold bulls rejoice, for open-ended QE is here!

Yesterday's Fed announcement wasn't the long rumored 'QE3', as a '3' implies a beginning and an end like the two prior rounds of quantitative easing.

The Fed has instead committed to not stop printing new money until the economy improves.

What then will the Fed do if the economy never improves, meaning unemployment never gets back below 5%? Will the Fed go on printing forever? We shall have to wait and see.

In the meantime anyone who believes that printing money ad infinitum will fix what ails the U.S. economy, or the global economy for that matter, is living in macroeconomic Willy Wonkaland.

Monetary policy in the form of printing new money and changing interest rates does very little if anything to improve the foundational competitiveness of an economy. The most dynamic economies are the ones which are the most productive and most innovative, and monetary policy has very little if any impact on these two areas.

The kind of GDP growth driven by purchases of products like Apple's iPhone reflects real economic growth. The kind of GDP growth derived from nominal GDP targeting (aka inflation) is fake.

In short, Ben Bernanke cannot create new real jobs. Real jobs are created by the Steve Jobs of the world.

However, it's much easier for central planners to punch a few buttons on a keyboard and print more money than to make the long-term adjustments necessary for fundamental economic improvement.

All About 'The Blob'

Read it and weep.

Who Wants to Break Up Too Big to Fail Banks?

Quite a few former Too Big to Fail bank CEOs, actually.

h/t Simon Johnson.

Video: The Great Euro Crisis (BBC)

A good series of interviews for understanding why many Greeks (and Germans) still prefer that Greece keep the euro rather than return to its previous currency, the drachma. 

Self-confessed Eurosceptic Michael Portillo visits debt-stricken Greece. He believes that the euro crisis must have shaken the Greeks' faith in Europe's single currency and wonders if there'll be a desire to revert to the free-floating drachma. In Athens he meets everyone from a destitute young family to the former finance minister and the outgoing Prime Minister, and is surprised by some of their answers. Meanwhile in Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, Michael encounters the taxpayers who are paying most towards Greece's mammoth financial bailout while having to watch angry Athenians burning the German flag.

Video: Niall Ferguson on Milton Friedman's Legacy

Book Review: Private Empire – ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

If you were expecting Private Empire, the latest book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Steve Coll, to serve as a hit piece on ExxonMobil (and 'Big Oil' in general) you’ll be somewhat disappointed.

For anyone unfamiliar with his previous work, Steve Coll’s earlier books include the highly recommended Ghost Wars, arguably the definitive geopolitical account of the activities of the CIA and other national intelligence agencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan from the time of the Soviet invasion up to the eve of the 9-11. Ghost Wars won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for general non-fiction and was one of the books a newly elected President Barrack Obama was reported to be reading upon entering office.

Steve Coll describes in an interview with Charlie Rose what lead him to want to write Private Empire and how his original idea for the book was to tell a broader story about the oil industry in the style of Daniel Yergin’s The Prize. He soon realized, however, that he needed a central character and Exxon was for him the only logical choice.

Coll’s portrait of Exxon begins in March 1989 with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, an event which made the company the most reviled in the United Sates. The book’s timeline spans the subsequent transformation of the company, which was led by CEO Lee “Iron Ass” Raymond, up through its present day stewardship by current CEO Rex Tillerson. Along the way we learn a great deal about Exxon, including its somewhat peculiar cult-like corporate culture, its blockbuster merger with Mobil, its controversial stance and efforts on global warning, the access it enjoyed to political leaders such as Vice President Dick Cheney, its somewhat misleading approach to reporting oil reserves, and the company’s record setting financial success. The book in fact makes for a compelling business case study and students of business history, strategy and management will find much of interest.

The most interesting sections of the book are the ones detailing ExxonMobil’s operations in some of the world’s most politically unstable regions. ExxonMobil’s bread and butter business is to invest billions of dollars drilling holes in the ground in countries like Equatorial Guinea and Chad and then spend the next 30-40 years working to make sure that nothing interrupts the company's return on investment. Coll’s account of the 2004 attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea by a group of British and South African mercenaries, who were supported from some elements within the Spanish government, is one of the most fascinating stories in the book.

Continue reading the full review here.

Video: Michael Burry 2012 UCLA Commencement Address