Personal Information

Favorite Quotes

ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΑΥΤΟΝ

Website

http://twitter.com/#!/EmmaZahn

History

Member for

1 year 37 weeks

Blog Posts

The Ultimate Meaninglessness of Money

by EmmaZahn 11/21/2011 - 4:40 pm

If you haven't already seen today's xkcd cartoon, I hope you will take a few minutes to look at some interesting, some amusing and some appalling information about how much different things cost in 2011 dollars.  

If, like me, you think that dollars or whatever token form money takes represent human time and energy, then xkcd has seriously underestimated the total economic productivity of the human race so far at $2,396,500,000,000,000. [Read more]

• 
• Add new comment
• 81 reads

Appointment in Samarra?

by EmmaZahn 9/7/2011 - 9:45 pm

In attempting to avert catastrophic climate change and/or replace petroleum as our primary energy source, are we inadvertently hastening it? That is the question that came to mind after studying these images and their accompanying article, Geotimes - April 2008 - Desert Power: A Solar Renaissance: [Read more]

• 
• 13 comments
• 532 reads

Winning with Smack Talk

by EmmaZahn 8/8/2011 - 12:47 pm

Kevin Drum @ Mother Jones:

"I've been browsing through conservative websites tonight, and the amount of crowing over the 'Obama downgrade' is really pretty remarkable. S&P made it crystal clear that brinksmanship over the debt ceiling was the reason for the downgrade, and Republicans not only provoked the brinksmanship and bragged about it for months, but have since gleefully promised to repeat their performance at every opportunity. And yet they're now insisting that this is all Obama's fault. It's a display of chutzpah that's shameless even by their standards." [Read more]

• 
• 14 comments
• 153 reads

Pay Cut Disguised as Tax Cut

by EmmaZahn 6/16/2011 - 11:34 am

My reply to A Better Payroll Tax Cut | ThinkProgress

How can I convince you that what you are considering is in reality a general pay cut.

What is a payroll tax to employers is a form of compensation to employees. In the case of FICA it is deferred compensation in the form of a retirement annuity. Last year's cut letting employees take the compensation now rather deferring to retirement was one thing but now to even consider cutting the employer's portion without requiring that it be passed on to employees is effectively a cut in their pay and a windfall to the employers.

Of course owners and the self-employed will love the idea but don't progressives generally support labor? [Read more]

• 
• 12 comments
• 322 reads

Quantum computers, Qubits, Entanglements

by EmmaZahn 6/6/2011 - 12:58 pm

World’s first commercial quantum computer sold to Lockheed Martin for $10 million! including service and support, of course.

So what is a quantum computer?  From the article:

Unlike computers based on transistors, quantum computers rely on principles of quantum mechanics to conduct operations. The computers take advantage of properties like entanglement — when two particles have the same properties and behave identically while being separate — and storing data with “qubits,” or quantum bits. Typical bits store memory by registering an “on” or “off,” or a one or zero, while qubits can represent information as both memory and the state of entanglement with other particles. [Read more]

• 
• 10 comments
• 171 reads

Make it stop

by EmmaZahn 6/1/2011 - 4:38 pm

A retweet of sorts > John Cole > Balloon Juice » Ride the King’s Highway, Baby

  [Read more]

• 9 comments
• 297 reads

Guerres des Étoilles Existentielles

by EmmaZahn 5/1/2011 - 3:37 pm

• 20 comments
• 232 reads

Informationally-insensitive debt?

by EmmaZahn 4/16/2011 - 2:10 pm

Felix Salmon asks Is informationally-insensitive debt a good thing?  

My own thinking falls somewhere in between the two sides he discusses.

Salmon is correct that the current system masks the risks inherent in holding any security or commodity, including cash. However, there is and always will be a demand for a safe place to stash cash pending reinvestment or distribution. [Read more]

• 
• 12 comments
• 510 reads

LET. IT. GO.

by EmmaZahn 4/12/2011 - 11:57 pm

• 9 comments
• 739 reads

Questionable Finance

by EmmaZahn 4/3/2011 - 12:50 pm

Will someone explain to me why, in light of this U.S. Repo Close: Current 3-Year Note at Lowest Rate, Minus 1.7% - Bloomberg, are we, e.g. the US Treasury, paying positive 1.25% on that same note?  That makes its current yield 2.95%.  The difference in time to maturity is not a satisfactory answer.   The overnight markets are so awash with money fleeing to safety that they are gobbling up anything Treasury issues.   A 30-year bond can be rented out as an overnight repo instantly monetizing it. [Read more]

• 
• 8 comments
• 248 reads

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• next ›
• last »