CB's Web Log

This article (unfortunately only in German) describes in a brilliant way, why the billions of money which are created at the moment by central banks and governments to end the financial and economic crisis, will ultimately lead to inflation and why the central banks will NOT be able to retract the money quickly by raising the interest rates.

Inflation however does require a second factor which is not mentioned in the article. It does not automatically occur when the amount of money is increased. Large amounts of money deposits in bank accounts do not cause inflation. Prices are created through supply and demand. Only if there is increased demand for something, and supply is short, prices will rise. Labour is not short in supply in today's globalized markets. But natural ressoures are and will spark inflation - someday.

Interesting article that explains why beauty and aesthetics are not just eye candy but acutally improve the usability of products.

"The year 2008 is thus likely to go down in American history as an even more pivotal

moment than 2001, when the 9/11 terrorrist attacks occurred, because the life

of the average American is going to be shaped far more by the consequences.We’re

not talking about the inconvenience of lining up to go through metal detectors at the

airport. We’re talking about the transformation of the American model itself. Joseph

Stiglitz was not exaggerating when he quipped to me earlier this year that “the fall of

Wall Street is to market fundamentalism what the fall of the Berlin Wall was to communism.” Just like that, we’re in a different era. ... Since the 1950s, when Nixon bested Khrushchev in the famous kitchen debate, our answer to the equalized deprivation of socialism has been consumer plenitude beyond compare. Khrushchev may have emptily blustered in those years about burying us, but it was the Communist Chinese, in the end, who gave us enough credit to hang ourselves when our consumer society desired more than we could pay for with our own savings."

I drive a BMW 320d, production July 2008, with automatic gear shifting. Using the automatic speed control at different speeds on a relatively empty German highway I discovered the following fuel consumption pattern:

Electric car from Switzerland, with 100km battery range + 700km conventional fuel range

140km/h max, 0-100 in 7 seconds

Available by end 2009 ...

Harald Martenstein schreibt im aktuellen Zeit Magazin:

"Ich beobachte ständig, dass kaum etwas die Menschen so aggressiv macht wie das Gefühl, auf der richtigen Seite zu stehen, im Recht zu sein, Opfer zu sein, für das Gute zu kämpfen. Alle großen politischen Verbrechen wurden im Glauben begangen, dass dadurch die Welt besser würde."

I like Google Chrome. It's very fast, faster than FF3. Many innovative, convenient features.

However, it will not yet become my default browser because it does not support single-sign-on, i.e. it does not support using your operating system authentication credentials for logging on to websites, typicall corporate intranet websites. Having to re-type my password each time I access a corporate intranet website is not acceptable.

Just one example for a great Chrome feature: open a web page, and press Ctrl+F and type a search keyword. The window scrollbar on the right will now highligh the areas in the whole document where the search term can be found.

I think this is a historical speech, no matter who will win the election on Nov 4th.

I was actually a bit irritated by the amount of coverage the upcoming US election got in German news during the past months, but I think now I understand why. Watch this speech and you will too.

Part One
Part Two