Alternative Assets

ftalphaville:

Activity in the 5Y and 10Y indices of the Markit CDX.NA.IG.9, for discussion on our JP Morgan Whale post here http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/05/11/996131/too-big-to-hedge/

ilovecharts:

theatlantic:

The Difference Between the U.S. and Europe in 1 Graph

The euro zone has Greece. The United States has Mississippi. Or Missouri.

The difference between the U.S. and Europe is that when the Greek economy “pulls a Mississippi” (or perhaps I should say, when Mississippi “pulls a Greece”), the EU and the U.S. have 180-degree opposite reactions. Over here, we calmly write checks to Mississippi in the form of Medicaid and unemployment insurance, no questions asked. Europe has no comparable “Peripheraid” for its weak peripheral states. Instead, it has chaos.

Michael Cembalest, a JP Morgan analyst, passes along another clever graph which shows fiscal transfers (don’t worry, that’s just another word for money) between the rich California-Connecticut-Illinois-New Jersey-New York quintuple and poorer states like Tennessee. If similar, seamless transfers existed in the EU, the rich north would have to send to Portugal and Greece at least an additional 30 cents for every dollar they paid in taxes, year after year after year.

When you hear commentators say, “the euro zone must begin to transition toward a fiscal union,” what they are saying, in human-speak, is that the Europe needs to be more like the United States, with balanced budget laws for its individual members and seamless fiscal transfers from the rich countries to the poor, to protect the indigent, old, and sick, no matter where they reside.

The Germans call this sort of thing “a permanent bailout.” We just call it “Missouri.”

I’ve been trying to figure out the European economic situation for a minute now and … this helped a bit … I think? If anybody can recommend some good resources on the subject, please send them to me. Thank you!

Simple and easy graph. Nice.

stbrigid:

48 H AVEC FH par #2H12CREW

French presidential campaigning took a turn for the ingenious. I know very little about French politics, but I gather that after the first round of voting Sarkozy needs to Watch the Throne, if you will. #lolwordplay

(Source: vimeo.com)

Good stuff.

newyorker:

Photo Booth: Beautiful Tourists

Above: Stephen Shore, “Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California, August 13, 1979” (1979)/Courtesy 303 Gallery

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2012/04/sightseeing-usa.html#ixzz1rwbKe0iH

“In the far distance one can barely discern the rock-formed peak, El Capitan, which we recognize from the photographs of Ansel Adams, who rendered this same terrain in a more grandiose manner,” writes the gallery owner Franklin Parrasch, describing this photograph. “For Shore it is not, as it is for Adams, a place of spiritual encounter, but a publicly inhabited park…. We [do not] pay more than cursory attention to the landmark made monumental in Adams’ portrayals. We are more concerned with another subject, made notorious in previous works of art—the bather.”

- On our Photo Booth blog, in celebration of this week’s Journeys Issue, photographers who’ve captured U.S. tourist destinations while exploring the idea of sightseeing: http://nyr.kr/HGcogw

Paul McCartney - My Valentine (video with Natalie Portman)

nevver:

Camus

betterbooktitles:

William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing

Reader Submission: Title and Redesign by Helen Bendix.

braiker:

auto king curtis reblog

oldhollywood:

King Curtis - Melancholy Serenade

(Source: madfuture, via pegobry)

(Source: youknowyourefromnywhen)

NEW jj single - Beautiful Life

“DEAR LOVED ONES

BOSSALINIS AND FOOLIYONES
LEADERS OF THE NEW WORLD

YOU
WHO LIVE THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE
WE WANT YOU TO MAKE A VIDEO OF
THE LIFE YOU LIVE, LIFE AS YOU SEE IT
BECAUSE WE HAVE THE PERFECT SONG” — jj

via Gorilla vs Bear

"

Utqul Djerba

And you should tell him: My son, in the beginning our forefathers worshiped idols and signs beginning, as pronounced by the Sages, may their memory be a blessing, in the days of Enosh by the error of the common people and of the nobles. They began a false worship; they worshiped stars and spheres and they made temples and images of wood, stone, silver, and gold, until they included all of mankind. They came, assembled, and arranged this perversity to be worshiped. They asserted that the images could cause good or evil. This continued for a long time and so the name of God was forgotten from being mentioned and there did not remain one who knew God, the Most High, until there came Abraham, may peace be on him, and taught people the worship of God and His Oneness; so said the sages, may their memory be a blessing. At the time when Abraham, may peace be on him, was born, the astrologers saw a star arise which swallowed three stars. They marched to sultan Nimrod and said to him: “Our master, at this moment Terah is raising a son, and see what a significant wonder happened concerning heaven, concerning stars: there arose one star and swallowed three stars and we know, our master, he is that child, who will destroy the king and pervert religion.” Nimrod sent for Terah and said to him: “Terah, I want your child for a thousand pieces of gold; bring him for us to kill him.” Terah said to him: “Master, I will give you a simile for this case. A simile .of a horse to whom people said, “We shall give you a cafiz (a Tunisian dry measure, about 131 gallons) of oats and come, we shall cut off your head.’ The horse answered them: ‘How stupid! If you cut off my head, who will eat the oats?’ So it is here. If you kill my child, how can the thousand pieces of gold be useful for me?” They said to him: “Blessed to old age, this one shall die and you will have another child in his stead.” He said to them: “How can I know that I will have a child instead of him or what I will have as a child?” Then, when he saw strength in his child, he locked him up and kept him alone. There, our father Abraham, may peace be on him, grew up and became a child of three years. He became distinguished for his knowledge of the heavens and the stars. He saw the sun rising in the East and setting in the West. He reasoned that, if the sun were a god, why would the light go away and become dark [blue] for moonlight and the stars? He reasoned that, if they [the stars] were the masters who created all earthly things, why does daybreak shine and the sun rise? He, may peace be on him, said that an intelligent person must confirm the truth by one’s own mind that they [sun and stars] are created of the same kind, and a superior power makes them go according to His will. Then, when he had grasped this by his intelligence, God appeared to him in His radiance and said to him: “Abraham, how you do excel in your knowledge of heavens and stars! I am He Who created you, created them, and created all heavens and earths.” At that moment, Abraham proceeded to oppose his father and said to him: “My father, please inform me who is the master who created the world.” He said to him: “My son, the idols in the house, they are the masters who created the world.” He said to him: “My father, noble is their law for me; let us offer a sacrifice to them so they shall be satisfied before me.” Thereupon his father entered the house of the gods of wood, stone, silver, and gold, but he went to his mother and said to her: “My mother! Come and prepare a good meal for me to offer it to those idols so that they will be satisfied.” Thereupon his mother went and prepared what he was asking for. He set it before them and not one of them extended his hand to eat. He, peace be on him, said: “An intelligent person must confirm that they do not see and do not hear; like them are those who make them!” and he courageously burned them. Then his father came up to him and saw them burned. He said to him: “My son! What kind of evil deed did you do!” He said to him: “My father! I had nothing to do with this! Rather they were quarreling about their food and they burned each other!” He said to him: “How stupid! Can they talk or move, or can they do good or bad? How can you say these words?” He said to him: “My father! May your ear hear what your mouth says. Why do you worship those whose mouth has no voice and no power? And you forsake the eternal God who created me and created you and created all heavens and lands!” When his father heard his speech, he ran up to Sultan Nimrod and said to him: “My lord! Examine what my son did today!” Nimrod said to Abraham: “What is the evil deed that you did?” He said to him: “My master! I did not do anything but they quarreled about their food and burned each other.” He said to him: “What nonsense! Can they talk or move or do good or bad? How can you say such words?” He said to him: “My lord! May your ear hear what your mouth says! Those whose mouth has no voice and no power, why do you worship them? And you forsake the eternal God who created me and created you and created all heavens and lands!” Then Nimrod said to Abraham: “I am he who created you and created them and created all heavens and earths!” He said to him: “My master! If you are truly correct, command the sun to rise in the West and set in the East. Can you really do such things? The eternal God who ordered me to burn your idols, He will decree for me against you and He will burn you!” At this time, Nimrod said to his agents: “This one, if we let him go free and alive from judgment, he will destroy the king and pervert religion. There is no choice but to burn him.” As soon as the burning could be arranged, they took our father Abraham, may peace be upon him, and threw him into a burning fiery oven. Then God appeared to him in His splendor and liberated him in his magnanimity and His glory and he walked out from there unharmed. Then all the people saw the miracle and he, may peace be upon him, gave abundantly and taught people the worship of God and His Oneness. The sages, may their memory be a blessing, added this precious note: From the devotion that Abraham our father, may peace be upon him, observed, and from his being attached alone from all the world to His side, and his perspicacity in recognizing the Oneness of the Eternal One, this deed freed him from his calamity, and he taught people the worship of God and the belief in His Oneness. And that is the proof: [Hebrew text translated] And Joshua said to the entire people: So says Allah, the God of Israel: On the other side of the River lived your fathers, from the beginning, Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they practiced foreign kinds of worships. And I took Abraham from the other side of the River and led him through the entire land of Syria and made plentiful his progeny and gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau and gave the mountain of Seir to Esau as inheritance but Jacob and his sons descended into Egypt.

In Djerba and nearby communities, ihe following Arabic Utqul Djerba or Utqul

Gafsa is inserted after “Originally, our forefathers were idolaters” to tell the

story of Abraham’s recognition of the Unity of God.

For mobo

(via mason-mem)

New: School of Seven Bells - Lafaye (CREEP Remix)