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Pardon The Interruption
The Fed says its two mandates: a) maximize employment; b) minimize inflation. One wonders if the Fed truly "believes" that, especially after hearing Yellen's remarks, and then Batchelor's analysis, albeit pretty short.
There's a throwaway "letter to the editor" at The Wall Street Journal: raise interest rates, help seniors. The comments are helpful.
One could argue that the Fed has two mandates: a) minimize inflation; b) maximize stock market returns.
One of the comments Yellen is said to have said: "savers are selfish." It's dangerous to take these things out of context, but there is something to be said for keeping money moving. I think the most painful thing about the Obama administration has been the generally negative, gloomy attitude he seems to have about America. It is difficult to think about investing when one is consistently negative, depressed, gloomy. There's something to be said for a Ronald Reagan looking through rose-colored glasses.
One wonders if things could have been different (other than two lost decades) had we had an administration that talked about "good morning in America." Ironic, but even Oprah seems more upbeat than Obama.
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Pardon The Interruption (Again)
The AP is reporting: Germany to start sending natural gas to the Ukraine -- at this point, mostly symbolic -- reminiscent of the "Berlin Airlift" that kept that city alive ...
German utility company RWE said Tuesday it has started sending natural gas to Ukraine, a move that could support the country if Russia acts on its threat to cut off supplies because of a massive debt for past deliveries.
The reverse-flow deliveries from Germany via Poland are largely symbolic for the moment, but could be ramped up to provide about a fifth of the country's gas needs.
A "fifth" won't cut it.Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine owes Russia $35.4 billion for gas — about 20 times more than Moscow had previously asked for. He said Russia may ask for Ukraine to start paying for gas in advance or face a shut-off.
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Quantum Mechanics
The Timeline
From Louisa Gilder's The Age of Entanglement
1913: Bohr -- solved the problem of the "stable" atom
1925: Max Born (Gottingen), a mathematician, coined "quantum mechanics" and Heisenberg/Pauli would "produce" it.
1926: things starting to move a bit faster. Heisenberg, particles; Schrodinger, waves; Max Born, putting the two together. Heisenberg says Dirac, through mathematics, has made quantum mechanics as complete as relativity. Bohr frustrated with Schrodinger.
1927: Solvay.
1931: the year of Einstein's box and the particle. Well on the way to EPR. Podolsky and Rosen both coming of age.
1932: split the atom. 1932 a most momentous year for other reasons. Heisenberg called it the golden year of physics, 40 years later.
1933: everything started to fall apart; dispersed, as Hitler came to power. A lot of folks think theoretical physics was disrupted when basic research was superseded by applied research -- the Manhattan Project. Theoretical physics stopped at that moment.
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Quantum Mechanics
The Timeline
From Michael S Walker's Quantum Fuzz
September, 1927, International Physics Congress, Como, Italy: Bohr presented his Copenhagen view (complementarity -- the observation of wave or particle characteristics based on choice of information sought or by the nature of the measuring or observational device used); most everyone was there except the two that would oppose that mode: Einstein and Schrodinger. Einstein would not set foot in fascist Italy and Schrodinger was in process of moving/accepting Planck's chair in Berlin. This was a prelude to the Solvay conference.
October, 1927, the Fifth Solvay Conference, Brussels: Brussels temporarily lifted the ban on German participation; Einstein and Schrodinger both attended. The conference would lead to 80-some years of further straining classical concepts. Hendrik Lorentz chaired the sessions and in the official photograph of attendees, is seated between Einstein and Marie Curie.
