Whoops!

I completely missed this one..

The BSA apologises for newsletter goof.

Talk about long-term!

The story is on the New York Times website. I copied the first few paragraphs below. I strongly urge my readers to read the rest of the article. No comment is needed.

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February 13, 2009

That’s What You Call Investing for the Long Term

By JO CRAVEN McGINTY

Anyone who has failed to keep track of a winning lottery ticket for all of 12 months may want to consider the efforts of 39 bondholders who have been safekeeping valuable, tissue-thin, New York City securities since shortly after the Civil War.

Next month, one of the bonds, issued in 1868 and thought to be one of the oldest active municipal bonds in the country, will come due. And the city stands ready to retire the debt incurred when Winston Churchill’s grandfather came up with the idea of building a road to one of the nation’s first racetracks, which he had opened in what is now the Bronx.

For 135 years, New York City has been dutifully paying 7 percent annual interest on the bonds, which financed construction of the road. On March 1, the owner of one of them is entitled to come forward and collect its face value: $1,000.

The other 38 bondholders have notes that will mature sometime between now and 2147, a mere 138 years away.

Favorite comic of the day...

People who know me will understand why this comic made me laugh out loud (the only one today that I have seen that has done that).

The link to is here:

Approaching the end...

I haven't been posting very here much because I have been BUSY. The good part of this is there are a couple of things that are almost completed:

1. The Study Guide -- I have been working on this since May '08. All that needs to be done is to review the 2nd pass pages from the 2nd half of the chapters (which will be done as soon as I receive them from the publisher).

2. The Testbank/Textbook update -- The Textbook part is done. (I did NOT author the textbook. All I was asked to do was to update the Web Exercises and Web References at the end of each chapter for the new edition). The Testbank has a little more work to do. I have to finish updating the last five chapters (which should be done this weekend), error check the first half of the Testbank (which is being authored by my co-author), and check the 2nd pass pages (which will be sometime in March/April).

At least I have my "normal" load in terms of teaching (2 sections of Money & Banking and one section of International Trade) and the bulk of this "extra" work will be done before the 2nd half of the semester. That is when SIFE really takes up the bulk of my non-teaching time (competition time is always fun!).

Taking another meaning for the title of this post, my home desktop computer is approaching the end. It is to the point where I refuse to dump anymore money into it (it is about 5 years old). So I spent time this morning "building" and ordering a new computer. It should be here by next week. As for the old computer, it is still good enough to do basic tasks, so my son is happy that he is getting it so he can play his CD-ROM games. However, he will NOT have Internet access in his room. Not for security/safety issues mind you...logistically, connecting a non-wireless compatible computer to the Internet in his room is more work that I am willing to do (reference the statement above about dumping more money into this computer).

What do 2 million people look like...

...from 423 miles up?

Take a look:

This image is from the Popular Science web page. They have another image that is centered in on the Washington Monument at the link.

Link found via io9.com.

Yikes!

Warning! Rare wonkish post from this economist.

Oh Lord...it has happened. The Federal Reserve cut their target for the federal funds rate to a range between 0% and 0.25%. That's right, the floor is now as low as it can go. (Statement is here.) Three things that are interesting about all of this:



1. "In particular, the Committee anticipates that weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for some time." -- i.e., don't expect any moves from this range anytime soon.



2. "The focus of the Committee's policy going forward will be to support the functioning of financial markets and stimulate the economy through open market operations and other measures that sustain the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet at a high level. As previously announced, over the next few quarters the Federal Reserve will purchase large quantities of agency debt and mortgage-backed securities to provide support to the mortgage and housing markets, and it stands ready to expand its purchases of agency debt and mortgage-backed securities as conditions warrant." -- i.e., otherwise called quantitative easing. The traditional tools of monetary policy will not work now. The Fed has to rely on non-traditional methods. Which leads to...

3. "The Committee is also evaluating the potential benefits of purchasing longer-term Treasury securities. Early next year, the Federal Reserve will also implement the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to facilitate the extension of credit to households and small businesses. The Federal Reserve will continue to consider ways of using its balance sheet to further support credit markets and economic activity." -- The first sentence, in my view, is key. Of all interest rates, the Fed has the least effect on long-term rates. If they start buying the longer-term Treasury's, they will have a more direct effect on these rates. The last sentance is played very low-key, especially when you realize that the Fed has about $2.2 trillion to "play" with.

The downside of all of this is, on the face of it, we are looking very much like Japan did in the early 1990's (to my non-econ friends -- that is NOT good). A point that Paul Krugman makes.

Check please!

If you like your fantasy very campy and without a plot, you will LOVE this.

As for me, I'm wish I had my 4 wasted minutes back...

tip (or is it dig) of the sword to io9.com.