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Because I bumped into some self-righteous evangelical Christians recently, here is my contribution to the evil cause of his noodliness, FSM:

Ariane Sherine has the backstory for the video over at The Guardian.

I should point out that I do have a soft spot for many modern-day Catholics, some of whom are very normal, fun to be around and well-read. The same cannot be said for Pat Robertson aficionados, Hal Lindsay groupies or Fred Phelps organizers.

I’ve discussed the instant-on hypervisor called SplashTop before. It’s primary competitor is HyperSpace, which has just released a new version that can be downloaded onto your system (something SplashTop cannot do right now).

Let me know if it’s any good.

Al being Mick:

HCS being Hung:

See also: William “She Bangs” Hung

I’ve worked in the EFL industry for about 18 months now. And if you’re looking for a new temporary career, it certainly beats working in a cubicle.

Plus there is a huge demand for it, especially in Asia.

I’ve previously discussed the gigantic push in Korea, where the domestic EFL industry generates about $15 billion per year (that’s not including public education either). In addition, about 100,000 Korean kiddos are temporarily sent to live in Anglophone countries in order properly understand and speak the language with a prized pronunciation (usually General American).

Apparently the same furor exists in China, which according to a three year-old piece from The Economist (full text here) hopes to have all kids speak English by 2020. This falls in line with an older, yet similar discussion in the NY Times regarding the economic rise of China and India — and international business language.

So if you’re from the Anglosphere, have a degree and have nothing big holding you back (like kids, monkey AIDS, or a criminal record) then be sure to check out Dave’s ESL Cafe. Oh, and try not to be an Ugly American when you get out here.

In the left corner:

In the right corner:

Other popular singers in China: Miriam Yeung :: Fish Leong :: Faye Wong

Over at Mises.org I created an open thread regarding economic predictions for this year.

For me, while it is pretty easy to see a new speculative bubble forming around US Treasuries especially since they’ve gone negative (perhaps the Fed is buying them as well), it is hard to guess if/when it will pop.

I think it is safe to say that for at least another 6-9 months everyone is going to still be on a honeymoon with Obama. Thus, I suspect that despite looming retail bankruptcies there will be a nominal increase in value for many major indices, with the Dow moving above 10000 again. In particular, all of the areas benefiting directly from his new stimulus packages will probably see temporary stock gains.

However, Frank Shostak has a thoughtful piece coming out soon (I took a peak) that causes some concern. I’ll link to it when it comes out. Suffice to say he discusses another worrisome scenario on top of what Murphy and Higgs have recently outlined.

And regardless of monetary policy the short-term price of oil will probably remain low for several months because demand is non-existent. If I had spare tanks, I’d be doing the same thing the Dutch, the US and the Chinese are: stocking up on cheap oil. Once the OPEC production cuts kick in and economic activity resumes, $45 will look awesome in the rear-view mirror. And you can’t print petroleum. (Maybe this will be another ‘73-’74?)

One other financing point is clear. While most analysts agree that the administration will be operating a large deficit that will grow throughout the year, I suspect the decline in tax revenue this April will probably be on the lower end of the estimates. And this trend will continue for several years as the private, tax-producing economy undergoes dramatic correction/deleveraging.

Regarding precious metals like gold and silver, so as long as the ECB and other major central banks continue to lower interest rates, an ounce of G probably won’t rise above $1000 for several months. Oppositely, if the UK or Europe dramatically raised rates, that would strengthen their currencies relative to the dollar, yet from all of the press releases I doubt this will occur anytime soon (quantitative easing is the new kool-aid). So a relatively stronger dollar in the near-term (sans the Yen).

Turn that frown upside down

One additional note regarding some of the emails I’ve been getting. In January 2007 I sent a questionnaire to about 40 different big wigs in the libertarian movement similar to what the Edge Foundation does each year. The main question was “What are you optimistic about the future? Why?” (their question from 2007).

Despite receiving a ton of thoughtful comments I never published them and probably won’t have a chance to anytime soon. However, one that stuck out was from economist Robert Higgs who was much more pessimistic than the rest (including Arnold Kling and Lew Rockwell), who thought that the state would continue centralizing its control through various industries — and would continue doing so for years to come. I’ll leave it to the reader to reflect on who is currently winning that battle right now, but it’d hard to say he’s been wrong.

For a more upbeat pep-talk, see Lew’s recent piece, “Don’t Cave” or the halftime speech from Murphy.

To be fair, the details were slightly different then. But I recall another presidential hopeful who said some of the same fundamental things yet was scoffed at.

To his credit Thompson is a polished actor and does a witty job:

Via Bob Murphy

Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore, is never at a loss of words. While it is a year old, this interview gives you a pretty decent look at how the 85 year-old, multi-lingual Chinese-descendant thinks.

Of note, his comments regarding Indonesia and YouTube are rather comical and germane.

If you watched the videos on China’s reforms, he was interviewed for the Commanding Heights series, in part because modern-day China emulated a number of the economic liberalizations after Singapore.