links for 2008-06-27

• Capital inflows to China - Economist.com
• Fed Lays Groundwork to Increase Rates, If Needed - John M. Berry
• Why the Irish said ‘no’- Vox EU
• Luskin’s Criticism of Obama’s Social Security Proposal Flunks - pgl
• I can't hear you (hands on ears) - Environmental Economics
• Roundtable: 'How to stop the next bubble' - Prospect Magazine
• Pay Dirt: Martian Soil Fit for Earthly Life - Scientific American
• How Lies Live and Grow in the Brain - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
• New Flavors of Web Addresses Are On the Way - NYTimes.com
• Does anyone know how much oil there is in the world? - Yves Smith
• Pricking housing bubbles in a monetary union: taxes and regulation - Vox EU
• Toward a Transparent Financial System - WSJ.com

Comments

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/opinion/27fri4.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

June 27, 2008

DDT on Ice

It has been getting ever harder to pretend that Antarctica is a pristine place. We like to think of it as being scoured clean by hostile winds and extreme cold. But more and more, Antarctica, like the Arctic, shows the lasting scars of human negligence.

The effects of climate change are being felt far more strongly at the poles than elsewhere on the planet. Some of the most persistent and dangerous chemicals ever created have accumulated there and remain there.

Take DDT, the long-banned pesticide. When it was still sprayed on crops and gardens across the globe, it moved through the atmosphere to the polar regions, where it was deposited in water, snow and ice, ultimately making its way into the food chain.

The residue of DDT found in many Arctic species has declined in the past 30 years. But recently, scientists in Antarctica reported that Adélie penguins have a constant and, in some cases, increasing level of DDT in their body fat. It appears that the birds are being newly exposed to remnants of DDT that was deposited long ago.

Scientists estimate that between 2 pounds and 8.8 pounds of DDT are being released annually. This is not a large amount, but it is troubling nonetheless, especially since the levels released are likely to rise as climate change intensifies. As more ice melts, it will only add to the burden of so-called persistent organic pollutants that have made their way into the Antarctic’s life stream.

Nothing could seem farther removed from our ordinary lives than these isolated populations of Adélies. But they are frighteningly near to our pesticidal past and one more reminder of the long-lasting consequences of human behavior.

[Leverage]

GS..."Markets are given to extremes of euphoria and panic, and therefore you need to use margin requirements and minimal reserve requirements more actively and vary them according to market conditions."

That would be a step in the right direction. Of course, it may not be politically possible to raise margin requirements on homes (down-payment), or other popular items (GSEs are being pressured to accept more high risk paper). Still, if a way could be found to limit leverage during boom times, this might help protect the system.

GS..."But on the broader issue, the excessive use of leverage is at the heart of the problem."

I think George got this one right. Prices can adjust upward and downward just fine to clear the market, as long as excessive leverage is not involved. There was just too much demand for highly leveraged loans at negative interest rates, and no effort to limit systemic risk due to the leverage. Just say no to 30 to 1 hedge fund bets using subsidized negative interest rate loans, and just say no to no/little money down NINJA loans.

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?hp&pagewanted=print

June 27, 2008

3 U.S. Marines and More than 30 Iraqis Die in 2 Bomb Attacks
By ALISSA J. RUBIN

The bombings extended a pattern of attacks that are clearly intended to kill local Iraqi leaders, in particular those believed to have worked with American forces against insurgents.

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/washington/27medicare.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

June 27, 2008

Doctors Face Payment Cuts for Patients on Medicare
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — Doctors face a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments next week, following the Senate’s failure on Thursday to take up legislation that would have averted the cuts.

Republican senators blocked efforts by Democrats to call up the bill, which was approved Tuesday in the House by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 355 to 59.

In the Senate, supporters fell two votes short of the 60 needed to close debate. The vote was 58 to 40.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said, “We have to pass this bill to avoid catastrophic cuts to doctors.”

Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, said the cuts would force many doctors to “limit the number of new Medicare patients they treat.”

The bill would cancel the 10 percent cut scheduled to occur on Tuesday and would increase Medicare payments to doctors by 1.1 percent in January.

President Bush had threatened to veto the bill, in part because it would reduce federal payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, offered by insurers like Humana, UnitedHealth and Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.

The 10 percent cut occurs automatically because of a statutory formula that reduces Medicare payments to doctors when spending would otherwise exceed certain goals....

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/us/27solar.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

June 27, 2008

Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects
By DAN FROSCH

DENVER — Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.

The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

But the decision to freeze new solar proposals temporarily, reached late last month, has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry, as fledgling solar companies must wait to see if they can realize their hopes of harnessing power from swaths of sun-baked public land, just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating.

"It doesn't make any sense," said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. "The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry."

Much of the 119 million surface acres of federally administered land in the West is ideal for solar energy, particularly in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, where sunlight drenches vast, flat desert tracts.

Galvanized by the national demand for clean energy development, solar companies have filed more than 130 proposals with the Bureau of Land Management since 2005. They center on the companies' desires to lease public land to build solar plants and then sell the energy to utilities.

According to the bureau, the applications, which cover more than one million acres, are for projects that have the potential to power more than 20 million homes.

All involve two types of solar plants, concentrating and photovoltaic. Concentrating solar plants use mirrors to direct sunlight toward a synthetic fluid, which powers a steam turbine that produces electricity. Photovoltaic plants use solar panels to convert sunlight into electric energy.

Much progress has been made in the development of both types of solar technology in the last few years....

[Alex Tolley]

Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.

How very convenient. I wonder if there is a bigger, "follow the money" story here.

Anne, thanks for posting this story.

[kthomas]

Two Americas. One for the rich. The other for everyone else.

Stopping these solar projects reeks on Big Oil intervention.

[anne]

George Bush ordered federal administrators to write or cancel regulations that will apply in coming years well before the end of his term, and there will be other important regulatory changes that become evident in the coming months. What I do not understand, even after asking, is how difficult regulatory change will be should the President differ in opinion after January. After regulations or limits have been published by agencies, they are not easily changed.

Bill Clinton asked that agencies look ahead too late in the Presidency to actually allow for publishing changes, but that mistake is not being made now.

There may simply be no additional solar development on public lands for 2 years at least.

[anne]

I would expect that when alternative power generation becomes significantly important the prime oil companies will be buying power generators, but beyond wind energy generation there is relatively little alternative source power generation.

[anne]

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2008/Update70_data.htm#table4

Solar power generation has been at 0.4% of total power generation since 1999, growing at 1% a year as opposed to 3.3% for total power generation.

[anne]

Correction:

Solar power was 0.4 gigawatts of a total 988.1 gigawatts by 2007. Contrasting, wind power generation was at 11.1 gigawatts of total generation by 2007, and had grown by 29.3% a year from 2000. Natural gas power generation was at 389.8 gigawatts and had grown at 10% through these years.

[anne]

Clarifying:

Solar power was 0.4 gigawatts of a total 988.1 gigawatts of power generation by 2007, growing at 1% a year from 2000 as opposed to 3.3% for total power generation.

Contrasting, wind power generation was at 11.1 gigawatts of total generation by 2007 and had grown by 29.3% a year from 2000. Natural gas power generation was at 389.8 gigawatts and had grown at 10% through these years.

Solar power then accounted for a portion of power generation of merely 0.4/988.1 or .0004 by 2007 and has been growing far more slowly relatively than total generation.

[anne]

We have really not begun to use alternative energy significantly for power generation, and with problems have become evident in carbon dioxide capture from coal generation I am struck at just what a problem we have. Coal generation was 314.1/988.1 by 2007, while coal supplies at what are relatively most abundant. Coal generation however because of environment problems had declined by -0.1 a year from 2000. Being clean then meant turning to natural gas.