Banks to Cash-In Again on New Fed Plan

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November 9, 2010

Banks to Cash-In Again on New Fed Plan

Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith: Fed's $600 B cash injection may do no more than increase banker profits


Transcript

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay, and we're coming to you today from the PERI institute in Amherst, Massachusetts. And now joining us to talk about the $600 billion Fed move and what does it mean to the economy and to all of us is Yves Smith. Yves is the creator of the influential financial blog Naked Capitalism, author of ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism. Thanks for joining us.

YVES SMITH, BLOGGER AND AUTHOR: Thanks so much. My pleasure to be here.
JAY: So let's see if I have this right. The Fed's going to take $600 billion and buy government bonds that are owned by the big banks, except they're not just going to buy them from the banks; they're going to let other people buy them from the banks and then sell them to the Fed and make money on that. I mean, the whole thing seems rather bizarre. The critics are saying that this move, as many other moves at the Fed, seem to have absolute benefit for the big banks and relative to dubious benefit to the economy. So what's your take?
SMITH: I would agree with that. What we've had, the Fed has been engaged in two efforts, only one of which has been somewhat successful. They've been trying on the QT to shore up the balance sheets of the banks. They had explicit programs during the crisis. You remember they had an alphabet soup of different rescue programs. And their second effort has been to have very low interest rates, in the hopes that bank would go out and lend in order to stimulate the economy, but also just to make a big spread between the low lending cost, the low borrowing cost, and what they were lending it on.
JAY: They're getting money at zero.
SMITH: They're getting money at zero, exactly. Now, what's in fact turned out is that the banks have gone and instead have basically bought a lot of Treasuries. A significant amount of what they have done is, instead of lending, exactly, just go and purchase Treasuries. And even on that they've gotten a very big yield between, again, a zero cost to funding, or very close to zero cost of funding, and what they get on the Treasuries.
JAY: So they're getting zero money here.
SMITH: Right.
JAY: They go and buy T-bills.
SMITH: Exactly.
JAY: And they're earning interest on the T-bills.
SMITH: And they earn an interest.
JAY: So one arm of public money is financing them to earn money from another arm.
SMITH: Exactly. Exactly.
JAY: It's a good business, but you need a lot of money to get into that business, don't you?
SMITH: You need a lot of money to get into that business, exactly. And the whole point is that the banks have a lot of losses they haven't yet recognized in the crisis, so this is a way to basically—without having any bills go through Congress that would be very unpopular, to recapitalize the biggest banks, which are the weakest. Now, then the Fed has another set of stories that it tells, and I honestly think that [Ben] Bernanke actually believes his PR. He has stories like this in various papers, but he said it in a more straightforward fashion in an op-ed in The Washington Post the day after the $600 billion so-called quantitative easing program was announced. First thing he said, this program has worked so far, which is absolutely untrue. The Fed did a first round of quantitative easing, and obviously we're still at 10 percent—.
JAY: Okay. For everybody that hasn't heard this yet, quantitative easing, if I understand it correctly, is increase the money supply, except I don't want to say that, and they keep coming up with these cockamamie—.
SMITH: It's specifically that they go out and do it by buying Treasury bonds, and they do it—the argument is they are doing it to lower yields, not just on short-term money, but to lower it on, you know, 10-year money, 30-year money that the Treasury borrows out. So the idea is if we lower—the theory is that if we lower rates on the lowest-risk assets, which are Treasury bonds, therefore it will lower rates on all the other assets, like mortgage bonds, and it will make equities a more attractive purchase. Basically, to put it another way, the notion is that by making Treasuries so unattractive to own, by making the interest you could earn on them so low, that investors will have to go out and buy riskier assets.
JAY: In other words, get back in the stock market.
SMITH: Get back into the stock market or get back into real estate, like a bubble.
JAY: So let's create a stock market bubble—
SMITH: Exactly.
JAY: —to supposedly get the economy running.
SMITH: And that's the whole problem with this logic is the first time any central bank went on this program was Japan in the bubble era. Japan had a problem then that they had a very big export sector and very little in the way of domestic consumption, and they were getting a lot of pressure, particularly from the US, because it was such a mercantilist policy and it was taking so many jobs from a lot of other countries, but particularly, you know, the US. And Japan is de facto a military protectorate, so we do have a little leverage over Japan, unlike, you know, the situation we have now with China. So the Japanese went to engage in a similar program at very low interest rates to try to stimulate consumption, and the notion was, we're going to pump up asset prices, we're going to pump up real estate and stock market prices, and everybody will feel richer and they'll spend more. Well, of course, all that they got out of that was a bubble and a 20-year bust. So this program has no history of success.
JAY: And a lot of furious retired people.
SMITH: Yes. Yes.
JAY: Which is a lot of what drove this election last Tuesday is anyone that hopes to live on interest income is furious right now.
SMITH: Exactly.
JAY: More than furious. They're getting poor.
SMITH: Exactly. So if we have the first part, which is it didn't work in Japan, then we tried it when the economy was weak—you know, it was a different fact set then in Japan. [inaudible] when the economy is weak. QE1, there was one study done by a California academic who said that—Jim Hamilton, who said that for—.
JAY: QE1—quantitative easing one.
SMITH: Quantitative easing one. Right.
JAY: Not the the vote.
SMITH: Not the vote. Yes, exactly. QE1, quantitative easing one, because the Fed had an earlier program where they bought something like $300 billion worth of Treasury bonds and slightly over $1 billion of mortgage-backed securities, and he found that they only lowered long-term interest rates by 17 basis points. So that's 0.17—17 hundredths of a percent. So for all the money they spent, it had only a very small impact on interest rates and obviously no impact on the economy. You know, it was Einstein who said, defined insanity as repeating the same behavior and expecting different results.
JAY: Okay. I'm a great believer that Bernanke and anyone that succeeded on Wall Street is not insane. So if the objective they're claiming it is is—ain't going to work, it means there is an objective that is going to work. So let's back up a second. A whack of cash is now being put back into the hands of the big banks, they're still making the spread on T-bills, and now they are selling off the T-bills. Why? Isn't one of the reasons is they're taking the cash now and they're going to Brazil and they're going to other places where they can earn even bigger spreads on their zero percent money?
SMITH: That's correct. But that's the big concern is that, you know, there's a big pushback [from] a lot of the other banks and policymakers in other countries, because they say all this is going to do is stimulate inflation, that we're going to have resumption—another finance term—of what is called the carry trade, which happened in Japan when, after Japan's bubble era, they had a protracted period of very low interest rates. And what other investors would do is they would borrow in yen because the borrowing rate was very low, and then they would go buy assets in other currencies. And that—because—and when you do that, you actually wind up selling the yen, because if you're going to—again, if you borrow in yen and you're going to, say, invest in the New Zealand stock market, you have to sell your yen to buy New Zealand dollars. So the act of selling the yen makes the yen go down. So the the low interest rates and then the falling currency go together in this sort of carry trade. And the big risk is that [inaudible] something's going to change and the yen goes up relative to the New Zealand dollar. You lose more on the currency than you saved on the interest rate. There is a risk in that trade.
JAY: So let me ask you a question. Is the reality of what's happening here—forget all the rhetoric coming from the Fed and other places. It wasn't that we were, a year and a half, two years ago, looking into the abyss. The finance system and the global economy was hanging on by fingernails, dangling. And what they've been able to do now is cover up the fact that we're kind of still hanging, the finance system is still dangling, because there's so much bad, toxic stuff that's being hidden on the balance sheets of the big banks. So what the Fed's really trying to do is bail out the big banks before this all explodes again and everybody finds out the financial system has no clothes.
SMITH: Right. That's correct. But I also actually think that the Fed does believe to a degree the story they tell about quantitative easing, which I find, you know, that it will somehow stimulate the economy [inaudible]
JAY: But how? 'Cause the banks are already sitting on $1 trillion they won't loan. So now they'll have $2 trillion to sit on [inaudible]
SMITH: Well, they believe that—no, I think that I—I tell you, I have to say that I think they believe it for different reasons, and everybody they talk to is in Washington and in New York, and those two economies are doing relatively well, so that they are getting feedback—they don't go out in the real economy. They're getting too much feedback from the wrong people.
JAY: Or is it just about how do we create another bubble and to hell with what's going on on Main Street?
SMITH: Well, it could very well be that also. But the second thing is, when you're talking about sort of the hanging on, the sort of the image that I use is what happened is we had the equivalent of a 500 pound man (which is our bloated financial sector) that's already diabetic that then had a heart attack and went to an intensive care. And normally what you would take with the 500 pound diabetic man who had a heart attack is give him the quadruple bypass, you know, get him to lose weight, and as soon as he's lost enough weight that he could exercise, go out and exercise. What we've instead done is put him in the hospital, he's getting meds, and he's ordering in from his gourmet restaurant, and his friends are bringing him bonbons when they visit, and so now he's actually gained 50 pounds.
JAY: So he's getting burgers and cherry pie intravenously.
SMITH: Right. Right. That's correct. So, you know, we haven't solved anything, and if anything the problem's gotten worse, because the big banks that were too big to fail actually got more concentrated, because players like, you know, Bear Stearns were merged into the big banks, so the big banks got bigger.
JAY: So is part of this that if they don't hide just how fragile and weak the banking system really still is, the market's going to crash, there is no chance of getting their bubble going, and back to panic city?
SMITH: Right. Exactly. And the other thing that the regulators are doing, and the Fed is included, is something they call (again to use another technical term) regulatory forbearance. The banks are still carrying a lot of bad assets. You know, for example, they're carrying a lot of second mortgages. And with housing down 25 to 45 percent, if you foreclose on the house, all that money is going to go to a first mortgage. There's going to be nothing left for the second mortgages. They really should be written down quite a lot. And yet the banks, the four biggest banks, which are the ones that are most at risk, are still carrying them on their books at values of hundreds of billions of dollars, just writing down the second mortgages alone, which show these banks to be very weak. But they're not being required to do that.
JAY: So if you understand this dynamic, I'm saying, and I'm sure people on both sides of the Fed and Goldmans and all the—if you're on the inside of Wall Street, you know all of this. So what you're doing is creating the bubble, because you know when to get out.
SMITH: Exactly.
JAY: You'll get out, the bubble will burst, and there'll be another whack of people losing their pension funds and whatever.
SMITH: Except the funny bit is that they're all telling themselves this. I mean, I even heard some of my investor friends were saying that they had—were basically—everybody, at least the investor types, and you presume the Wall Street types are thinking this way also, that the Fed's creating a bubble, we're going to ride the bubble, everybody's all in. And the problem is this was the same mentality people had in early 2007. You could tell it was going to end badly, and everybody thought that, oh, we'll just ride it and we'll be able to get out on time, we'll be able to save our hides. Even the professionals couldn't. That's why we had a crisis, that what happens in a crisis is suddenly the number of trades and the volume of trades you can do collapses and they can't exit. They think they can exit in time, and the reality is the exit shrinks and only a very few people get through.
JAY: They're going to get their bonuses, and too-big-to-fail is still too big to fail, so it doesn't matter what the finance reform legislation was. We know it didn't solve too-big-to-fail and they'll come back again. So why not? What's to lose, except the rest of the society has a lot to lose?
SMITH: Well, the one thing that might happen this time if we have a crash sooner rather than later is people [are] already profoundly angry with the banks. And if we have a crisis of some type in, I would say, the next 6 to 18 months, there's going to have to be a pound of flesh for another round of bailouts. It's not going to be acceptable for there to be another round of bailouts without at least the management of major firms being fired. I mean, there will have to be some price to pay.
JAY: And that will rip the Republican Party apart, because how do the Tea Party sign on to another bailout? And we know old-line Republicans will be there. I mean, Bush always was.
SMITH: Right. Right.
JAY: Okay. Segment two, we'll come back, and we're going to talk about what should be done, because the way it's going don't look good.
SMITH: Right.
JAY: Thanks for joining us on The Real News Network. And come back for part two.
End of Transcript








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“George Will did something that no one is supposed to do on American television: Acknowledge that we live in a class society,” said Paul Jay. “Of course, in elections we hear all about the middle class. One would think that presupposes there is a lower and an upper class... but no one wants to talk about it, never mind suggest it’s the elites that rule.”

In 2008, people voted for the elites that “promised change they could believe in”, but less than two years later, public enthusiasm for the Democratic Party has dwindled while the Republican Party has gained momentum.

“President Obama and the Democratic Party could lose 50 or more seats in the House, might lose control of the Senate and a string of governorships across the country,” said Jay.

Jay said that part of that momentum can be attributed to choices made by Obama’s administration. “The Democratic Party allowed Republicans to rebrand themselves as populist behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.”

Jay lists six major choices of the Obama administration that allowed the recovery of Republican Party, starting with the choice to not investigate President Bush and Vice President Cheney for criminal actions while in office. Obama left the previous administration off the hook for the costs of a war founded on lies, and an economy founded on gambling, and now the origins of the present mess are lost in the public memory.

Failing to demand a system overhaul for the the broken-down banking and automotive industries are number five and four. Instead, Obama appointed a staff from Wall Street to help mend a system in need of complete renovation, and similarly failed to build a green economy out of the GM/ Chrysler bailout, said Jay.

“The message could have been if you want public dollars, then you have to serve the public interest.”

Not defending the public option for health care reform is reason number three.
“When the process began, polls showed that most people were ready for a government run health insurance program of some sort. The insurance industry wanted a more regulated environment where everybody had to buy insurance. The industry got what they wanted, big Pharma got a sweetheart deal to boot, and most people were left dazed and confused by the process.”

Choice number two is failing to change American foreign policy.

“The underlying assumption that the U.S. must dominate the globe by projecting military power everywhere goes unquestioned. The almost trillion dollar military budget goes untouched, when the funds are desperately needed at home,” said Jay.

The number one thing Obama’s administration did that allowed the GOP to make such a resurgence, said Jay, it to strive for bi-partisan agreements. Instead of fighting for the policies he promised, Obama compromised at the expense of the American public.

“By not fighting for a bigger more effective stimulus package. Not fighting for a direct government jobs program. Not fighting the deficit hawks by taxing those who had cashed in during the bubbles, and making them pay down the debt. Not fighting for promised legislation that would have made organizing unions easier and for polices that would have significantly lowered workers tax burden and raised wages. Not seriously dealing with urban poverty and immigration reform, which would have given blacks, Latinos, young people and the poor a reason to vote on Tuesday.”

Finally, echoing George Will, he said “Perhaps it’s way past time we realize that we are not one nation, there really are two Americas. That the lack of civil discourse and extremes of competing ideology is not the underlying problem but a symptom of an objective difference of interest. That what’s rational for most billionaires may not be so sane for the rest of us.”

-30-

To read/view the full interview - How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP

Transcript

Welcome to the The Real News Network, I’m Paul Jay in Washington.

On Tuesday American voters are going to choose which section of the American elite they want to govern them. Who says that’s the choice? Conservative pundit George Will did, that was in the fall of 2008 during the Presidential elections.
Here’s what he had to say: "Surely in a democracy it's time for us to quit being sentimental and say the question we settle in an election is not whether elites shall rule but which elites shall rule"
George Will did something that no one is supposed to do on American television. Acknowledge that we live in a class society. Of course, in elections we hear all about the middle class. One would think that presupposes there is a lower and an upper class (unless we live in something like an open-faced sandwich society), . . . but no one wants to talk about it, never mind suggest it’s the elites that rule. Mr. Will had to get pretty angry to break down that wall.
Well, in 2008 the majority of Americans decided to vote for a section of the elite that promised change they could believe in. Who would have imagined in Jan 09, when pundits were talking about a Democratic Party dynasty that could last for a decade, with such enthusiasm and so much public support, that two years later President Obama and the Democratic Party could lose 50 or more seats in the House, might lose control of the Senate and a string of governorships across the country.
Of course a lot of factors went into this but here's my top six list of Obama Administration decisions that set the stage for a Republican resurgence.
Number 6: Not investigating Bush and Cheney for criminal actions while in office - including the deaths of at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians in a war founded on lies; illegal wire-tapping; authorizing the use of torture; and at the very least, for gross negligence or worse in the events that led to the attacks on 9/11.
First of all, it would have been the principled thing to do. It would have told all future administrations they are not above the law and the constitution. From a political point of view, it would put the Republicans on the defence for years to come. This decision not only let Bush/Cheney off the hook for all of the above, it was the start of Obama’s naïve bipartisanship policy, that left the previous administration off the hook for the economic meltdown as well. Instead, Bush is rehabilitated with an assignment to go help Haiti.
Number 5: Bailing out bankers and not the banking system. Obama appointed a Wall Street crowd to advise him, allowed public money to refloat banks and investment houses that gambled and lost, without demanding any real public control or any public interest mandate. Bankers made more obscene bonuses and continue to sit on billions of cash, while unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies ruin countless lives. Instead of taking advantage of a moment when bankers were on their knees, he gave them back keys to their Lamborghinis.
Number 4: Not using the GM/Chrysler bailout as an opportunity to build a green economy. President Obama campaigned for rebuilding America's infrastructure and a new green transportation system. Instead, after billions of public dollars, we are getting an auto industry based on lower wages, fewer jobs, making more or less the kind of cars they were already making. The message could have been if you want public dollars, then you have to serve the public interest. If a public option made sense for health insurance, why not for the auto industry as well? If we are going to take climate change seriously, where was there a better place to start?
Number 3: Not defending the public option for health care reform. The summer of 2009 was the start of the Tea Party surge and the rebranding of the Republican Party. For months, the White House fiddled while their health care reform burned. When the process began, polls showed that most people were ready for a government run health insurance program of some sort. The insurance industry wanted a more regulated environment where everybody had to buy insurance. The industry got what they wanted, big Pharma got a sweetheart deal to boot, and most people were left dazed and confused by the process.
Number 2: Not bringing a promised new mindset to US foreign policy. The underlying assumption that the U.S. must dominate the globe by projecting military power everywhere goes unquestioned. The almost trillion dollar military budget goes untouched, when the funds are desperately needed at home. Not only did this help to fiscally tie the Presidents hands, it put him in an unholy alliance with the Republicans who gave him more support for his Afghan adventure than he had within his own party. It also freed the Libertarian section of the Tea Party, people like Rand Paul who say they are against empire and the two wars, to cover up their unholy alliance with people like Karl Rove and the others that not only brought us two wars but also the Patriot Act and other things Libertarians are supposed to abhor.
The Number 1 reason for the resurgence of the Republican Party: The Democratic Party allowed Republicans to rebrand themselves as populist behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. How did the Dems accomplish this? By not fighting for a bigger more effective stimulus package. Not fighting for a direct government jobs program. Not fighting the deficit hawks by taxing those who had cashed in during the bubbles, and making them pay down the debt. Not fighting for promised legislation that would have made organizing unions easier and for polices that would have significantly lowered workers tax burden and raised wages. Not seriously dealing with urban poverty and immigration reform, which would have given blacks, Latinos, young people and the poor a reason to vote on Tuesday. By trying to negotiate by-partisan agreements instead of calling on the millions of people who voted for Obama to mobilize in the streets and on the web in support of policies that are more likely to have been effective. To talk to their neighbours; to win them over to a real change of course. In other words, by fighting for the change people thought they had voted for.
In 2009, when we were looking into the abyss, millions of people would have supported such dramatic and rational measures. Now, millions of voters are rejecting half-baked stimulus policies and think that radical reform will come from trickle down voodoo supply side economics, ideas that should have been buried a long time ago. And millions of people here and around the world will pay a terrible price for the austerity measures a Republican victory is sure to bring.
So in the end, George Will was right. As things stand, we get to choose between which section of the elite will rule. And maybe we do have to hold our nose and choose the elite that we think will do us less harm.
But perhaps it’s way past time we realize that we are not one nation, there really are two Americas. That the lack of civil discourse and extremes of competing ideology is not the underlying problem but a symptom of an objective difference of interest. That what’s rational for most billionaires may not be so sane for the rest of us.
Yes, we would like everyone to be in the same rowboat, all working hard to “get things done”, to solve the grave problems facing us. But the problem is some are sailing around in yachts, and the harder the rest of us row, the bigger those yachts get. The real division in America is not between the Democratic and Republican parties, it’s between the people who day after day, are out there pushing those oars and those that are taking a cruise.

Municipal Meltdown in Harrisburg

Municipal Meltdown in Harrisburg

Elections an afterthought in capital city of key state as bank debts threaten basic public services

紀登斯：全球能源管理，需要第三條路

影音簡介／
油價飛漲，原物料價格屢創新高，全球能源管裡瀕臨崩潰邊緣，「節能」成為最熱門的議題。在這個關鍵時刻，英國重量級社會學家，曾經提出「第三條路」深刻影響台灣的紀登斯，在倫敦接受《天下雜誌》專訪，帶來最前瞻的觀察與思考。（採訪：吳韻儀）


英國社會學家紀登斯：底層脫貧，才有穩定發展

這是政權更替的大時代。除了台灣換上國民黨重新掌舵，同屬亞洲小龍的南韓也換了新掌門；在歐洲，法國結束一場轟轟烈烈的選舉；到南半球，澳洲新選出會中文、重環境的總理；幾個月後，美國的改朝換代，更是各方矚目。

�@�̡G吳韻儀 �@�X�B�G天下雜誌



但是，想想現在的情況，沒有一個政府眼前不是問題連連。即使在民主最成熟、經濟連續十五年景氣的英國，新首相布朗上任不到一年，聲望直直落，甚至傳出要提早改選、結束布朗政權的風聲。

很重要的原因，就是全球化下、財富重分配的大難題。不論左派還是右派，似乎都無法創造均富的社會。

英國經濟雖然吸引了全球資金、連續十五年成長、打造超越紐約的金融中心。但是，《國際先鋒論壇報》報導，英國貧窮問題沒有改善，相對貧窮的人口達一千三百萬人，社會流動已經倒退到戰前時代。你是誰、住哪裡、屬於哪個階層，才決定你分到什麼樣的經濟果實。不平的民怨開始蔓延。

「領導人要注意社會態度的轉變，」英國重量級社會學家、上議院議員紀登斯（Anthony Giddens）指出，「英國政府尤其應該協助最底層的人脫貧。」


英國成長的重要智囊

英國在每一個難關、每一段發展，都有重要智囊與政府共同思索方向。紀登斯就是英國過去十年成長的重要智囊。

紀登斯是英國現代對政治與思想極具影響力的社會學者，他所提出的「第三條路」，就是前任首相布萊爾施政的基本藍圖。他現在進入英國上議院，對於英國一路的發展、未來的挑戰，都有最貼近的觀察與思考。

紀登斯坐在倫敦政商流連的雀爾喜區（Chelsea），從他熟悉的社會結構變遷談起。現在，英國最富有的五分之一人口中、即使程度最差的孩童，在七歲時的表現就已經超過最貧窮的五分之一人口中、程度最好的孩童；富有家庭的小孩半數一路念到大學，但是最貧窮家庭的孩子，只有十分之一取得大學學位。這是英國未來很大的問題。

患不均，不只是英國的問題，也是全球的新難題。紀登斯曾任英國倫敦政經學院院長、現在參與政經學院全球治理研究中心（Center for the Study of Global Governance），更從全球角度來思索當代政府的挑戰，呼籲應該有更廣泛的國際合作。

以下是紀登斯接受《天下雜誌》獨家專訪的內容。



問：近來主要已開發、民主國家都換了新政府，但似乎都碰上問題，不是很順利。你的觀察是什麼？

答：世界各國都面臨不同挑戰，現在不同社會的人、同樣都期待改革，領導人要注意社會態度的轉變。去年底澳洲選舉產生新政府，就是人民期待因應環境變遷有所改革、領導人心態應改變的例子。

新興與發展中國家，包括印度、中國、拉丁美洲國家，發展迅速、社會階層與區域發展很不平均，在社會和諧與凝聚上有相當嚴重的問題。德國、法國等先進國家則面對更開放市場、改變退休與福利制度、提升人力的改變。


全球化造成不平等

問：如何面對全球化下快速成長、造成不平等的問題？

答：說全球化造成不平等，我認為太簡化了。

不平等的因素很複雜，產業的改變，例如製造業的消失，階層的改變，甚至包括家庭結構的改變、單親家庭比例愈來愈高也是原因。英國、法國、美國單親家庭的比例達三分之一，許多單親家庭屬於社會底層、處於劣勢、很難找到工作。

種族間的文化差異也會造成不平等，例如在英國的印度和亞洲人在教育和經濟上表現都很傑出，巴基斯坦、孟加拉、西印度群島的人表現較英國人遜色。愈來愈多元的國家都有不平等的情形。就連社會向來較平等的北歐國家，也面對下階層擴張的問題。

不過，全球化毫無疑問的是不平等的因素之一。尤其全球化金融市場最上層的人，似乎是連結在一起，賺到大筆財富，企業獲利也大幅超過一般員工收入，幾十年前的落差沒那麼大。

全球化的影響，也不只在經濟發展，也創造不同文化之間的交流。不管我們喜不喜歡，我們已經處在文化多元的社會。

在文化多元的社會環境下，我認為教育尤其重要。

教育不僅幫助經濟發展，更提升公民水準、開拓對世界的觀點、全方位了解其他文化。現在各國愈來愈重視高等教育，因為要適應變化迅速的複雜社會。全世界都轉向知識經濟，全球六八％的ＧＤＰ都是來自服務業，未來十年這比例還會增加到七五％，英國八○％的人口都必須倚靠知識經濟，增加投資大學教育愈來愈重要。

問：過去英國有很成功的經濟改革經驗。在全球化下，改革的方式與挑戰與過去有什麼不同？

答：英國過去幾年經濟表現很好，是從八○年代柴契爾夫人執政時期就開始的重大改革，削減工會力量、開放勞動市場、創造就業機會。但是，柴契爾的政策也造成很多不平等的問題。

全球化前改革比較容易，政府可以掌控本國經濟、影響經濟發展與成長率、用政策提高就業率。自由開放後政府的主導力不像過去，但是政府的角色還是很重要。


協助貧童脫貧

面對不平等，沒有完美的政策。雖然我認為應改善富人逃漏稅問題、多徵稅。但要求富人繳更多稅，可能不利創造就業機會，就連勞工局也不願意，也擔心他們跑到其他國家去，對整體社會可能更不利。

現在政府要大力投資在人才教育、公共服務、基礎建設上，這些都是經濟發展的基本條件、提升現代公民水準的基礎。政府尤其必須協助最底層的、最貧窮的人脫貧，要幫助底層的人有穩定的經濟來源，尤其要照顧貧困孩童，那些孩子七、八十年後都還在社會上。

問：如何協助貧童脫貧？英國有什麼政策嗎？

答：協助貧童脫貧，主要透過幫助小孩來幫助父母，同時建立更好的照顧體系與鼓勵學習的環境。初等教育重要，但同時要給父母更多時間陪同孩子，這對於貧窮階級很不容易。愈有錢、就愈有能力負擔服務，富裕的小孩也覺得自己比窮小孩優秀，嚴重的不平等問題在一開始就阻止了未來發展機會。

英國貧童的比例蠻高的、做得不好，很需要改變。這不是全球化經濟該有的現象，頂端的人似乎搶走了下面階層人的財富。我們面臨兩個問題，一面是超級富人，底層的問題又牽涉種族問題，很難用社會體制改善，可能要花好幾世代的時間改善。

如果要改善孩童的命運，必須有全方位的方式來做。英國開始從家庭、學校，改善七十萬孩童的生命，但還有三百萬的孩童身陷貧困之中，平等還是很遙遠。

問：你提到全球化金融市場最上層的人好像都連在一起。這些超級資本主義富人，現在似乎不受任何政府約束。英國政府如何平衡吸引資金與課稅的問題？

答：我不太喜歡超級資本主義這個說法，因為它的焦點是單一面向，不夠精確。我比較喜歡全球資本主義（global capitalism），讓我們注意國際化面向。


不合作，很愚蠢

過去全球經濟以國家為主體，現在資本組織在世界各地擴張，逃避國家的稅賦制度，影響很多層面，他們層層包裹各種風險，沒人知道這些風險最後對世界金融的影響、沒人知道明年會發生什麼事。

的確需要更嚴格、更好的管理制度，而且國際社會真的需要更多合作。如果不合作，大筆資金為了節稅，跑到那些政治腐敗國家的銀行戶頭，如果合作建立管制方式，就可能有更多資金釋放出來。這關係到每個國家的利益，如果不合作改進，很愚蠢。國家還是很有力量，我希望十年內會有更多稅制管制。

當然，建立全世界有效的規則制度比想像中還要困難，不單只是對資本市場來說困難而已，管制核子武器、面對全球暖化都很難，各國制度要結合、在超越國家的資本力量之中取得權力平衡，很困難。

這是很巨大的改變，政府不可能靠自己做到，沒有那麼多資源，必須合作，跟企業、市民或ＮＧＯ一起努力。

還有心理層面的困難，人很難為未來需要改變而從現在開始行動，就像年輕人不願意戒菸，二十歲怎麼會去想四十歲的日子。

我們處在人類歷史上很危險的階段，我們期待新一代領袖建立全球治理的方式。

問：你是政治人物長期諮詢的智囊。你認為新世代的領導人該有什麼樣的特質？


領導者要夠敏銳

答：首先，新領導者要有世界觀，我們所處的世界是全球化的，國家領導不能獨立而行，他必須跟其他領袖合作，不管國家的規模，都一定要跟國際組織合作。這是今天與三十年前最大的差別。全球化的意思就是互相依賴，現在與通訊科技出現前不同，大家互相影響。

領導者也必須是改革者。

世界變化迅速，除非能挖個洞、抵抗改變。在多元文化下，領導者還要夠敏銳。十九世紀末從歐洲到美洲的移民，通訊太困難，就失去跟母國聯繫，可是現在的移民會感覺到自己在母國的國際通訊網絡裡面，每天保持聯繫，跟上個世紀很不一樣了，個人對於國家和世界的概念都變了，有些人無法適應，世界各地都可以看到基本教義派和世界主義派，如果領導階層過度反應，會發生很多激烈的衝突。（盧昭燕整理）

Keith Richards and .............................

Zagat brings best restaurant guide to mobile

What's the best restaurant guide company? Zagat. Been at it for 30 years and they have the most complete databases of great places around the world. Did you know they now have a mobile app? Here you get to meet co-founder Nina Zagat and also the head of mobile, Brian Charles, and they show you their latest.

Starbucks CIO shows off Starbucks Network

I had breakfast with Starbucks CIO, Stephen Gillett, and he during that he showed me the new Starbucks Network, that released that morning. It includes content from a range of partners and shows up anytime you start wifi in one of its stores. 31 million people a month do just that, so it's always interesting to see what Starbucks is up to.

Get around your local mall easier with FastMall

FastMall is a mobile app that helps you get around your local mall. Need to know where the Apple store is? This app will show you and will help you navigate there. How does it do that? Without GPS! Here CEO Sam Feuer shows us how it works and tells us what happened to his business after Apple featured it in the app store.

George Carlin on XM Radio's "Unmasked"

Lewis Black on XM Radio's "Unmasked"

Lewis Black on XM Radio's "Unmasked," hosted by Ron Bennington.

Video: Musician/Comic Reggie Watts Improvises Song About Pancakes Using Only His iPhone During Sirius XM Interview

Your iPhone, now a musical instrument. Musician slash comic Reggie Watts was recently interviewed by Ron Bennington (of Ron & Fez fame) on Sirius XM’s Unmasked. (Unmasked is a series of long-form interviews, hosted by Bennington, with comics, musicians, writers, etc. It’s quite good, and is a pretty much proof positive that, for all its faults, Sirius XM can actually be worth a damn every once in a while.) This bit, I thought, would be particularly interesting to you iPhone fans out there. It may also interest those of you who like pancakes.

What we have here is Watts, who forgot to bring his equipment to the interview, completely improvising a song using only his iPhone. (And as we all know, improv is quite difficult.) I don’t know if the song is officially tittled “Pancakes,” but if I can suggest a subtitle, how about, “Yeah, that’s pretty great”?

Incidentally, I may be working on a music+iOS thing in the coming weeks. Hopefully it turns out all right, knock on whatever.

English Language Learners in Middle and High School: An Introduction

English Language Learners in Middle and High School: An Introduction

Featuring Kathleen Leos, Deborah Santiago, and Susan Lafond in a discussion on English Language Learners (ELLs). Our expert panel discusses demographic trends, instructional strategies, school-family partnerships, and college readiness.

Building Battlestar Galactica: The Exhibition

An inside look at the EMP|SFM team and how they've gone about creating Battlestar Galactica: The Exhibition which opens 10/23/10 at Seattle's EMP|SFM. See how the full size ships used in the reimagined series came to Seattle and the hurdles the EMP|SFM team had to overcome to get the ships inside the building. Also includes images of artifacts being displayed in the exhibition. Full details at www.empsfm.org/bsg

Haitian and North American schools videoconference this week for Students Rebuild

極簡主義的最高境界

常搬家的人一定很清楚傢俱的份量是多麼的恐怖，光是桌子、床與書櫃這3樣就夠瞧的了，但是假如能把這些都裝進一個箱子裡？

別以為不可能，看了就知道！

Empire - The new arms race

Empire - The new arms race

Al Jazeera: The world has entered a new arms race, but what justifies this global military addiction?

稀土戰爭開打！ 中國限出口 日美發飆！俄韓日越印 新島鍊全面堵中國！

「10月29日」週五有話好說預告：中國限制稀土出口，日本美國歐盟叫苦連天！痛批中國不該拿稀土當成國際談判籌碼！中國號稱和平崛起，但是日本、南韓、印度、俄羅斯、越南等國卻飽受中國威脅。美國趁機合縱連橫，重新建立更強大的圍堵中國的島鍊，美國國務卿希拉蕊跟總統歐巴馬這一兩個禮拜相繼訪問亞洲，是為了強化圍堵策略，還是要跟中國握手言和？

MyCityWay gives you a tour around NY

Are you visiting New York soon? You'll want to put MyCityWay on your mobile device. Why? Watch the video and you'll meet the team and see all the information it brings to your fingertips.

上網，找朋友一起忘掉網路吧！

研究報告(連結為PDF下載)指出，68%的美國人有離線焦慮症(disconnection anxiety)。不分年齡層，只要沒上網、沒收到email，就頭腦昏昏、焦慮、緊張、無法滿足，甚至出現恐慌、歇斯底里的狀態。

年輕人焦慮的理由大都是社交壓力，擔心與同儕有隔閡。年紀稍長者的壓力則來自於工作安危。

報告還指出，有63%的黑苺機使用者會在浴室裡送email，當然年輕人則喜歡在臥室裡，邊睡覺邊上網。

離不開網路嗎？之前有人推一天不上網(Shutdown Day)活動。現在更推動，一年52天不上網(一週安排一天絕不上網)。不上網的這天，要好好看書、親子互動、用筆寫信、畫畫、跳舞、戶外活動...。

關掉大大小小的電子螢幕(電腦和手機)，絕對是個大挑戰！4月22日地球日，少用電一點，少上網一些，也許說服自己挑一天不上網。您覺得呢？

延伸連結：
．Forbes編輯沒有手機的慘痛影片(點3)最後他哭著要回手機...

After 3 Years In Stealth And $20 Million Raised, Aro Mobile Shows Some Skin — Some Android Skin. And We Have Invites.

So what is Aro? Currently, it’s a piece of software that runs on top of Google’s mobile Android OS. But it’s not just another layer like some of those awful skins that OEMs design for Android. Instead, it weaves itself into the OS and uses AI and machine intelligence to make sense of what you’re doing with your phone. It natively ties into your email, phone, calendar, address book, and browser to make them potentially much more useful to you when you’re on the go.

Video: Spaceport America Inaugurated By Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise

Among the many things about living in the year 2010 that blow my mind (robot vacuums, smartphones, Google Books), the fact that we are at the beginning of commercial space flight is, incredibly, not constantly on my mind. Yet advances are constantly being made, most visibly by Virgin Galactic, which just this last week inaugurated the commercial facility for vertically- and horizontally-launching aircraft. I mean spacecraft. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to saying that.

Spaceport America, in addition to having a snazzy logo, sports training facilities for Virgin Galactic pilots spacemen, a 10,000ft runway, and will serve as Virgin Galactic’s headquarters for the next two decades. Want to visit? Good luck with that — you should probably just watch this video.

WITN: “I Don’t Care what a Rich Person in Camden, Maine Says”

As he explains here, Paul spent the latter half of last week in Maine for PopTech.

Which is great because while he was outside the Valley he was eligible to be a guest on Why Is This News. In this week’s episode, then, he talks about his highlights of the conference and elaborates on his comparison between it and TED. Meanwhile Sarah finds herself in the unusual position of being the one defending

CloudMagic Intro Video

Open Gmail in a new tab or refresh an existing Gmail tab to start using CloudMagic


Advanced search options


These are query words that perform special actions in CloudMagic:

Email Search Operators

Operator
Definition
Example(s)
from: Search only in the 'from' address of email Example: from:Peter
Meaning: Show all emails from Peter
to: Search only in the 'to' address of email Example: to:Martin
Meaning: Show all emails sent to Martin
filename: Search only in the 'attachments' of email Example: filename:pdf
Meaning: Show all emails which have pdf files as attachments
Example: filename:sales
Meaning: Show all emails which have 'sales' word in attachment filenames
subject: Search only in the 'subject' of email Example: subject:reservation
Meaning: Show all emails with word reservation in subject
body: Search only in the 'contents' of email Example: body:furniture
Meaning: Show all emails with word furniture in body
cc: Search only in the 'cc' address of email Example: cc:Jessica
Meaning: Show all emails cc to Jessica
bcc: Search only in the 'bcc' address of email Example: bcc:Paul
Meaning: Show all emails bcc to Paul

Contact Search Operators

Operator
Definition
Example(s)
name: Search for a 'name' in contacts Example: name:Mark
Meaning: Show all contacts with name Mark
email: Search contacts for particular email address Example: email:jane@hotmail.com
Meaning: Show contact for jane@hotmail.com

何謂免疫系統？中西醫大揭秘！ 感冒.氣喘.濕疹.癌症…身體大小狀況 都是免疫失調惹的禍？

面對面，和你說石化！

來賓：

國光石化科技公司 董事長 陳寶郎

彰化環保聯盟 理事長 蔡嘉陽


衣食住行，都離不開石化產品。石化投資帶來工作，但卻有人堅決反對。

台塑連續大火，燒出雲林人對六輕的恐懼國光石化，給彰化帶來的是繁榮還是威脅？聽專家說，不如聽當事人自己說。國光石化董事長陳寶郎，彰化環盟理事長蔡嘉揚，在有話好說，面對面和你說石化。

主持人不主導討論方向，僅做簡單開場及結尾。節目進行中，來賓可自行決定討論主題、回應澄清對方質疑，亦可向對方提問。

一次發言長度為兩分鐘，雙方結論預計以一分鐘為限。現場貴賓將以各種手板道具進行具體論證，為樹立台灣公共論壇的優良典範。

France is Right To Ban The Veil - A Debate