Network Archives

Chinese farmer ‘privatizes’ part of Great Wall to develop new tourist attraction

"At the farthest end of the Great Wall, Yang Yongfu limps along the section he arduously restored, in effect 'privatising' it and putting himself on a collision course with the authorities. The farmer spent five million yuan ($800,000) and years of backbreaking work renovating several hundred metres of the national symbol deep in northwestern China, turning it into a tourist site. He set up an entrance area for tourists, complete with a car park and fishpond, and his wife Tao Huiping collects the 25 yuan admittance fee at the ticket booth — a table in the open air. A 2006 law gave the government the exclusive right to manage national relics — making Yang’s project illegal." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese farmer ‘privatizes’ part of Great Wall to develop new tourist attraction

Chinese farmer ‘privatizes’ part of Great Wall to develop new tourist attraction

"At the farthest end of the Great Wall, Yang Yongfu limps along the section he arduously restored, in effect 'privatising' it and putting himself on a collision course with the authorities. The farmer spent five million yuan ($800,000) and years of backbreaking work renovating several hundred metres of the national symbol deep in northwestern China, turning it into a tourist site. He set up an entrance area for tourists, complete with a car park and fishpond, and his wife Tao Huiping collects the 25 yuan admittance fee at the ticket booth — a table in the open air. A 2006 law gave the government the exclusive right to manage national relics — making Yang’s project illegal." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese farmer ‘privatizes’ part of Great Wall to develop new tourist attraction

Chinese farmer ‘privatizes’ part of Great Wall to develop new tourist attraction

"At the farthest end of the Great Wall, Yang Yongfu limps along the section he arduously restored, in effect 'privatising' it and putting himself on a collision course with the authorities. The farmer spent five million yuan ($800,000) and years of backbreaking work renovating several hundred metres of the national symbol deep in northwestern China, turning it into a tourist site. He set up an entrance area for tourists, complete with a car park and fishpond, and his wife Tao Huiping collects the 25 yuan admittance fee at the ticket booth — a table in the open air. A 2006 law gave the government the exclusive right to manage national relics — making Yang’s project illegal." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese farmer ‘privatizes’ part of Great Wall to develop new tourist attraction

Washington’s Vampire Economy Thrives on Bloodshed

"The Wall Street Journal observes a new 'Gilded Age' for Washington, which has been 'a time of lush business profits fueled by government outsourcing and war.' Well-connected recent college graduates secure entry-level bureaucratic jobs that pay enough to support rentals that charge $3,000 a month. Military contractors like Northrup Gumman, corporate lobbying groups, and Wall Street firms bring in hordes of first-time home buyers, driving real estate values upward. This does much to explain the invincible indifference of the ruling class to our nation’s unfolding economic catastrophe." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWashington’s Vampire Economy Thrives on Bloodshed

Part-Time Track Jobs For Mainstream Professionals?

"'Ford didn’t offer paternity leave, but it did offer a part-time track so long as an employee’s manager approved it. When baby Dylan arrived, Trombley went to his bosses and told them he wanted to drop down to 70 percent and work from home two days a week. [...] There are now three other men in his department with similar part-time setups; there were none when Trombley started.' Is there a list of large, Fortune 500 employers that offer such a 'part-time track' option? Hopefully the idea of breaking down the traditional 'full-time' job into smaller pieces is gaining momentum in the corporate world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPart-Time Track Jobs For Mainstream Professionals?

Everything Created Digitally Is Nearly Free–Including Money

"The key feature of digitally creating credit/money is this: it is immeasurably easier to digitally create claims on real-world assets than it is to create real-world assets. This is why the digital creation of trillions of dollars in credit/money is distorting and disrupting the real economy of real-world assets: the claims on those assets keep expanding while the actual assets remain stubbornly tied to the real world. This widening disconnect between rapidly multiplying digitally created claims on real assets and the actual assets has spawned a multitude of pernicious consequences." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEverything Created Digitally Is Nearly Free–Including Money

Botched circumcisions during initiation ritual kill 30 in South Africa

"Botched circumcisions killed 30 young men and landed almost 300 more in hospital during traditional initiation rites in a South African province, the health department said Sunday. The 30 deaths in rural Eastern Cape province occurred during the annual season when young males undergo a rite of passage into manhood. Ten other youths were hospitalised after being rescued from a forest on Sunday. 'The ten initiates’ private parts are rotten. They are badly damaged. Their condition is scary,' said spokesman Sizwe Kupelo. A further 293 young men were undergoing hospital treatment for dehydration, gangrene and septic wounds. Some had lost their genitals." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBotched circumcisions during initiation ritual kill 30 in South Africa

Libyans demand end to violence of rebel militias from 2011 regime change

"Prime Minister Ali Zeidan spoke to reporters of the necessity 'to dissolve the brigades and other formations (of ex-rebels who battled the late Moamer Kadhafi) and integrate them individually into the army and police'. 'In future, no one will bear arms in Libya unless he is in the army or police and is subject to military law… which prevents the taking of political actions,' he said. Libya’s authorities, who are struggling to form a professional army and police, regularly use former rebels to secure the borders or to intervene in tribal conflicts. The government has failed to disarm and disband the former rebel groups who implement the law in parts of the country." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLibyans demand end to violence of rebel militias from 2011 regime change

Here’s a New Way to Bet on China: Open a Renminbi Bank Account [2011]

"China's economy is booming, and in the West, everyone from President Obama on down is demanding that the Chinese currency be allowed to rise in value. Now, it's possible for small investors in the U.S. to capitalize on this opportunity. The Bank of China's New York Branch announced this week that Americans will now be able to open FDIC-guaranteed accounts in the bank in a way that was never before permitted -- by converting their deposits into the Chinese currency, known officially as the renminbi and colloquially as the yuan. According to the bank's website, account owners can exchange as much as $4,000 worth of renminbi a day, up to a maximum of $20,000 a year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHere’s a New Way to Bet on China: Open a Renminbi Bank Account [2011]

Yippee! More Bank Runs in Our Future

"The recent financial crisis was not initiated by bank depositors scrambling to withdraw their funds. Rather it was precipitated by a 'run' among short-term lenders who had purchased banks’ commercial paper or lent money to banks through 'repos' (repurchase agreements). When these lenders suddenly tried to liquidate these assets by selling them or not renewing the loans, their actions deprived banks of the short-term funds that the banks had been using to finance their long-term lending and investments. In other words, federal deposit insurance no longer works to discourage or mitigate bank runs, because it does not cover short-term lenders." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYippee! More Bank Runs in Our Future