Brain Wrinkles as Helmets; Economic Recovery or Not; Modularizing the Motherboard; Debt to Net Worth Ratio Not too Hot

by Fern Phan


MWF (Wednesday) Briefing:

Are we in recovery or not economically. Opinions are flying all over the place with many pundits saying that we are stabilized and back on the uptrend.  Others push it out into 2010. Nouriel Roubini, the doomsday economic prince, says that this will be a double dip recession.  If that leads to banging of one's head on a hard object in frustration, there's the relief in knowing that there are always new scientific and technological breakthroughs to give one hope and recovery.

• The brain’s wrinkles protect against head banging. If you find yourself in need of banging your head repeatedly on a wall or desk out of economic frustration, don't worry about brain damage. You might already have a built in helmet. Wired

• To wit, if this economy does send you into a damaging head-banging binge (80s vintage) there's always a possibility of technological augmentation.  Hardware hackers have created a modular motherboard.  "The design, called the Illuminato X Machina, is vastly different from the separate processor,memory and storage components that govern the design of computers today." Wired

• Recovery indicators don't necessarily mean an end for the recession. "Some of the so-called “green shoots” observed in the economy in recent months can be defined as green shoots only if compared with the economic picture painted at the beginning of the year. The contraction in some indicators, such as industrial production, is still comparable to the recessions in the 1970s and 1980s." Forecasters are aiming at the late 2009-2010 range for recovery, which doesn't necessarily growth. It could also mean zero growth. Research Recap

• According to uber negative Nouriel Roubini, economic recovery is a phantom for these reasons: 1) households and individuals are still highly leveraged; 2) severe damage to the banking sector and non-banking sectors take time to heal and get credit back to normal; 3) the corporate sector has excess capacity; 4) public sector deficits. He believes there will be a double bottom to the recession meaning there will be more weakness following a perceived recovery before the economy is truly strong, again.  RGE Monitor

• Household debt to net worth ratio is spiking. EconomicPicData

Click to Enlarge