The chart below shows how, in the long run, short-term and long-term interest rates can’t diverge much, how they follow the same trend. It also shows how the manipulation of short-term rates by the Fed is not very successful in moving long-term rates: see what happens during and following the recent recession.

http://www.naftemporiki.gr/news/cstory.asp?id=2075654
This interview in a Greek newspaper is a fraud. I never met the journalist nor was I at the conference where he claims he made it.

Addendum of May 23, 2015: The linked article has now disappeared (although it must still be findable in the paper publication). The name of the journalist who published the made-up interview is Athanasios Papandropoulos.

If you don’t like the consumer society, it’s okay: just be content with working and producing. I’ll consume what you produce.

There is a form of privacy that is highly overrated. When you participate in social gatherings, whether on the street or on Facebook, you must expect your privacy to be partly exposed. And, of course, if you throw bits of personal information on passers-by in the street – as some do by not protecting their home computer networks – then you can blame only yourself if somebody peeps at the electrons hitting him. If you want total privacy, life in society is not for you. Most individuals, however, are willing to sacrifice some privacy for the benefits of social life.

There is another form of privacy which, paradoxically, is much underrated, Continue reading →

Government of Canada: “When there is a risk of serious or irreversible harm, the government recognizes that the absence of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing decisions to protect the health and safety of Canadians, the environment, or the conservation of natural resources.”

In other words, when we want to do something, let’s do it even if we don’t know what will be the consequences.