Gulag Blog

Evening Links 12-6

(Reader note: One bug we’re still trying to work out is that links in the top line of a post aren’t “hot” in the front-page view of the blog. If you click “continue reading” the link is available)

The FBI agent inside the Galleon case (Goldstein, Reuters) More great work from Matt.

MIT team wins DARPA red balloon challenge (darpa.mil) But how did they do it?

Requiem for the dollar (James Grant, WSJ) A fun (and frustrating) piece to read. Grant is a good writer, but he throws provocative comments around without explaining them. He says we need to collateralize the dollar, presumably with gold, but acknowledges early in the article that the gold standard was far from perfect: “The lifespan of no monetary system since 1880 has been more than 30 or 40 years, including that of my beloved classical gold standard…” No doubt he has ideas to improve his “beloved” standard, and that would be useful to read. Too bad he doesn’t go into it.

Bair weighs loan principal cuts to fight foreclosure (Vekshin, Bloomberg) Writing off principal is the opposite of extend and pretend. But if Bair wants to pay for it using the Deposit Insurance Fund, she’ll have to stay aggressive with assessing insurance premiums on banks.

Amazon in secret plan to open high street shops (Davey, Times UK) Some brick and mortar for Amazon? Update: Amazon says “no plans” for physical stores. A non-denial denial…

The gambler who blew $127 million (Berzon, WSJ) “During a year-long gambling binge at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in 2007, Terrance Watanabe managed to lose nearly $127 million. The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history.”

Schadenfreude Alert: Harvard in trouble (The Awl) This piece quotes another good article in this month’s Vanity Fair (have to buy the mag to read it).

The ultimate vanity plate (Taibbi, True/Slant) On the Porsche Cayenne owned by Morgan Stanley’s Rob Kindler: “2BG2FAIL” From Sorkin’s book.

Girl dumps tennis star over his 7-hr-per-day video game addiction (Telegraph)

NOT Obama’s job strategy…

Tags: Amazon, andy murray, DARPA, galleon, james grant, sheila bair

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