Mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps, stock injections. These and more are components of the global financial crisis. If you’re like me, they’re not things we learned along with supply-and-demand in basic economics classes. And yet, we’re being told we have to shoulder the burden to somehow solve this mess. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have some understanding of the issues?

Along comes my favorite radio program, This American Life with its ongoing patient and entertaining coverage which explains some of this. As is always the case, you can listen to the episodes for free online, download the most recent episode or go to iTunes to buy the shows.

First up is Episode #355, originally broadcast on May 9, 2008, entitled “The Giant Pool of Money”. This one deals with the mortgage crisis and those very odd financial instruments called mortgage-backed securities.

Then comes the show from last week, Episode #365, “Another Frightening Show About the Economy”.  Here they deal with credit default swaps and how the government failed us miserably in deciding to not regulate that market. They discuss an alternative to the bailout which involves the government investing money in the banks, something called stock injection. Prescience indeed… this is precisely the approach the European Union countries have taken today. It looks as if our government will reverse course in favor of stock injection as well.

By the way, remember how McCain said he would “fire” the chairman of the SEC? (Strictly speaking the President can’t do that.) You can hear about the man himself, Christopher Cox in Episode #363, “The Enforcers”. There they talk about how he declined to regulate another financial practice that contributed to the current debacle, naked short selling.

One of the ongoing reporters on the financial crisis, Alex Bloomberg, returns to the show this week, in Episode #366, “A Better Mousetrap – 2008” with updates. (If you haven’t heard this on your local NPR station, the episode should be up on the website tomorrow.)

Since we’re far from the end here, This American Life has updates on their homepage.

We have finally begun the final 100 days of the Bush era. A new poll from Newsweek today shows that 85% of us are dissatisfied with how things are going…a paltry 10% Panglossian optimists think otherwise. Similarly the failure-in-chief has a 25% job approval rating, the lowest in 50 years.

100 days…not a moment too soon.

On page A17 of today’s SF Chronicle, in the world section, I saw this entertaining ad:

I wouldn’t go to the “blossomgoodchild” website (who knows what malicious code might lurk there), but the blogspot address is probably safe enough.

What’s even better is when you see the ad that’s printed next to it:

www.10-14-08.blogspot.com

In all the years I’ve lived in California (and it’s been many), I have never seen this kind of smoke. Even the Oakland Hills fire of 1991 didn’t have this kind of atmospheric impact. The picture above is pretty much what the sun looked like today, all day, every day this week. Normally, we don’t see that kind of color except right at sunset. As far as I can tell, the closest fire is about 50-60 miles away.  It’s very strange to wake up in the morning and smell smoke like this. Today none of the local geography was visible from our house, not even the highest point in the Bay Area, nearby Mt. Diablo.

There are currently just over 1,000 wildfires burning, mostly in Northern California, of which 36 are considered major fires. About 159,000 acres have burned or are burning. The situation exploded last weekend, with 512 lightning strikes happening during mostly dry storms.

Here are some information resources if you’re interested:

Google’s wildfire map

California Dept of Forestry: wildfire information page

Governor’s Office of Emergency Services

As a guy whose parentage is half-Filipino, I could hardly believe my eyes and ears when I caught this latest insulting gaffe from the Idiot-in-Chief.

The president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was in Washington on my birthday (Tuesday) for a visit that unfortunately included a trip to the White House. Never mind that typhoon damage and the ferry disaster loom large on Filipino minds: GW had to make cute about a Filipino-American who works on the kitchen staff at the White House.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that — in which there’s a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the — of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

 

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Yes.

 

PRESIDENT BUSH: And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

 

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Thank you.

SHEESH!!! What a jerk…

YouTube video

Huffington Post

Today is the first full day of same-sex marriages here in California. It’s a historic day, carrying great cultural significance. It’s controversial for some small-hearted souls and welcome for the rest of us.

With all the ruckus, it’s easy to forget how touchingly romantic this day is  for couples tying the knot, the unleashed joy in all the days to come.

It’s also worth noting that marriage is not the only path to happiness. For decades, we have nurtured our relationships despite society’s indifference and institutionalized prejudice. And for some, legal legitimacy is not a terribly important goal in life.

Still, it’s definitely day to celebrate and to remember. There might be a Lesbian/Gay/Bi Pride Parade happening near you this month. This year, chances are they’re going to be transformed into the largest wedding receptions ever seen. How about joining the party?

(For those with long memories, the photo above was taken at the site of the Castro’s formerly boisterous bawdy Victorian, the Jaguar.)

        Google’s list of Pride Parades

There’s no reason for posting this other than the fact I thought a large cow is an interesting thing. Chilli, the pictured bovine, stands over 6 ft tall, weighs over a ton and is as large as a small elephant. The news story offers the interesting humanitarian tidbit that Chilli was a foundling, left on the doorstep of an animal sanctuary.

Daily Mail story

We’ve been seeing more expensive bread because of rising prices for wheat flour in this country. Well, other parts of the world less-equipped to take such a financial hit are experiencing price surges and shortages for their basic food grain: rice. It’s gotten bad enough that there are dangers of widespread social unrest.

There are rice shortages happening right now in Southeast Asia. Global benchmarks for the price of rice have increased dramatically since the beginning of the year. There are official or de facto export bans taking one-third of global production off the trading market.

There are an array of reasons for the shortages. The one I find most interesting is the clearing of farmlands for growing biofuel crops. This in spite of growing evidence that the carbon tradeoff for biofuels is poor and their effectiveness in abating climate warning is dubious.

No recommendations for action, just awareness. And if you eat as much rice as we do, a little judicious hoarding might not be a bad thing. (Yes I know we have domestic rice production, but it’s inferior to Thai jasmine rice, the best there is as far as I’m concerned.)

Links to some news articles below.

MyDesert.com

Independent Bangladesh/The Daily Commercial Times

Phillippine Daily Inquirer

NY Times