From The Telegraph…..
The latest data from the Bank of Spain shows that the country’s banks have increased their ECB borrowing to a record €49.6bn (£39bn). A number have been issuing mortgage securities for the sole purpose of drawing funds from Frankfurt.
From Live Science….
Something beneath the surface is changing Earth’s protective magnetic field, which may leave satellites and other space assets vulnerable to high-energy radiation.
The gradual weakening of the overall magnetic field can take hundreds and even thousands of years. But smaller, more rapid fluctuations within months may leave satellites unprotected and catch scientists off guard, new research finds.
A new model uses satellite data from the past nine years to show how sudden fluid motions within the Earth’s core can alter the magnetic envelope around our planet. This represents the first time that researchers have been able to detect such rapid magnetic field changes taking place over just a few months.
This week’s poem of the week is Joel Dueck’s poem “Soar.” Rundy took the name of his new web site from this poem.
Paul Krugman is smart. There is no denying that. But he has established a well deserved reputation for being unfair and vindictive. Thus we are surprised to find ourselves making one of his columns rant of the week.
But his column entitled “The Great Illusion” is right on the money. The points he makes have been made by many others, but rarely so concisely.
Long time readers will remember that Full Circle was one of our first essays of the week back when we were getting started. Now Rundy (The Silverware Thief) has a web site up devoted to chronicling his care for Grandpa called As We Lived Before. Most of the essays on this site have never been made public before now. That includes this week’s essay of the week entitled “Bad Night, Bad Day.”
Britain’s honeybees have suffered catastrophic losses this year, according to a survey of the nation’s beekeepers, contributing to a shortage of honey and putting at risk the pollination of fruits and vegetables.
The survey by the British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) revealed that nearly one in three of the UK’s 240,000 honeybee hives did not survive this winter and spring.
Read this and weep. H/T Calculated Risk
From Naked Capitalism…..
Of the GSEs’ $5.2 trillion in debt (their own corporate bonds plus MBS), $1.3 trillion is in the hands of foreign investors and central banks. The speed with which the powers that be cobbled together a support program was seen in some circles as an admission of the importance of reassuring our friendly overseas credit suppliers.
If that was the motivation, it isn’t working. As we and others noted, spreads on GSE debt have risen to 215 basis points over Treasuries, only a tad shy of the pre-Bear crisis level of 238 basis points. And remember, they have reached this stratospheric levels despite the Paulson rescue package, despite an alphabet soup of new Fed facilities that accept GSE paper as collateral (as the discount window did) now in place (although there were raspberries all around for the bailout bill, due to its failure to make any changes in the operation, management, or policies of the GSEs and its lack of specificity as to triggers and what mechanism would be used).
And the reason? A big factor is that foreign central banks are exiting GSE debt and have pulled back significantly from purchases of new paper. This vote of no confidence appears likely to force the Administration’s hand and lead it to take more concrete measures to prop up Freddie’s and Fannie’s balance sheets. They are not about to risk a spike in mortgage rates and further trouble in the housing markets with elections approaching.
Food prices in Pakistan are high. So what does the democratically elected government do? They shut down flour mills of course. From the Nation…..
The Punjab government, in a massive crackdown, has sealed 24 flour mills in various districts of the province on charges of wheat hoarding, supply of substandard flour and attempts to create fake shortage of flour in open market, the sources revealed on Saturday.
On the other hand, the flour millers have announced an increase of Rs 85 per 20-kg bag in the flour price (from Rs 365 to Rs 450 per 20-kg) and threatened to shut down the mills across the province against the govt action terming it as ‘cruel and aggressive’.
Latter on in the same article we read…..
The flour millers were of the view that they were unable to sell 20-kg flour bag at Rs 365, the price fixed by the govt, when the price of wheat has shot up to Rs 760 per 40 kg in the open market particularly after an alarming increase in the prices of petroleum products and electricity.
Earlier, the millers had demanded of the govt to immediately issue wheat quota from the available stock to the mills to overcome shortage and to control the flour prices in case the govt did not allow any increase in the flour price.
The millers stopped the floor supply to the markets stating that they had no wheat to grind after both the miller and the govt failed to develop a consensus over the flour price issue.
In other words, the government is demanding that the flour mills sell flour for roughly the same price that they can buy un-ground wheat. The Flour mill owners are trying to explain to the government that they can’t do that and still pay for the electricity necessary to grind the wheat. Even less can they afford to pay wages or other expenses.