Rolfe Winkler

The Euro’s final battleground: Spain (Fidler, WSJ) The folks at Variant Perception warned the world about the impending disaster in Spain last August. Here’s a copy of their report, which they’ve graciously allowed me to share. (Though they’re famous for that one, they do write about more than Spain.) Anyway, Spain’s economic problems are prompting mainstream discussion that the euro could actually collapse. Greece is small enough that it can be rescued by Germany and France. Spain not so much.

What Greece tells us about Europe (Defterios, CNN) “It is not often discussed, but many [striking] government workers enjoy preferential tax rates, can retire at the age of 54 (in some cases earlier) and enjoy 14 months of pay for 12 months worked.”

Detroit Mayor emphasizes need to shrink city (MacDonald, Detroit News) Detroit is at the forefront of dealing with economic decline. The U.S. economy is overgrown and collapsing under its own weight. More to the point, we don’t have the resources to support all of our commitments. Some mode of shrinkage is necessary. Doing it proactively, as Mayor Bing seeks to do in Detroit, is better than the alternative….

Cash-strapped L.A. goes after unlicensed dogs (AP)

Madoff whistleblower Markopolos says he thought about killing Madoff in new book (Baram, HuffPo)

Idol winners: not just fame but big bucks (Wyatt, NYT) And you don’t have to win Idol to cash in….you just need to finish near the top.

Henderson back at GM, for $3,000 an hour (Taylor, Fortune)

Stand up while you read this (Judson, Opinionator) “Your chair is your enemy.”

Cringeworthy video resume…(more examples at Gawker)…be sure to check out the Michael Cera parody at the bottom. Disappointed that Gawker forgot the most infamous video resume of all time.

How overhauling derivatives died (Smith/Lynch, WSJ)

Debt ceiling raised $290 billion (Rogers, Politico) Another Xmas Eve vote. Dems had wanted to raise the ceiling at least $1.8 trillion to avoid having to raise it again before midterm elections, but they didn’t have the votes. Congress has bought itself about 4-6 weeks of breathing room. Senate Repubs made a showing of not voting for the measure, but had they been in the majority, you can bet they’d have done the same to avert default.

At tiny rates, saving money costs investors (Strom, NYT) “Duh” is the obvious response to this piece. Savers have been getting hammered ever since the Fed started dropping rates two years ago. Yet it’s well written and important to see in the paper of record. It makes the point that low rates are forcing many folks to chase risk. Low nominal rates would be fine IF the Fed were allowing the economy to delever/deflate as it clearly needs to. If the cost of goods/services is falling, then rates can be zero and savers still come out ahead. But the CPI has stayed positive, so savers lose. Of course punishing savers is precisely what economists like Paul “paradox-of-thrift” Krugman and Greg “confiscate-cash” Mankiw say is needed for the economy to recover. Krugman wants to steal savings via shock-and-awe deficit spending, i.e. future taxation. Mankiw would literally confiscate a portion of unspent savings.

Good news alert: Hunting trash for cash (Hudak, Orlando Sentinel) The recession is causing us to produce less trash. This is problematic for Covanta, which burns trash to create energy. But it’s great for the environment.

Investors see farms as way to grow Detroit (Huffstutter, LA Times) Urban renewal…

VIDEO: Stopping purse snatchers (LiveLeak)

Alcohol substitute that avoids drunkeness in development (Rodgers/Alleyne, Telegraph)

Japan’s “grass eaters” turn their back on macho ways (McCurry, Guardian) Twenty years of economic stagnation appears to be neutering Japan.

Teflon Buffett (Felix)