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Submission + - China: Reducing reserve ratio to loan more money? (reuters.com)

pointless_hack writes: "On Friday, May 12th, the Wall Street Journal announced that China will have access to the US Banking system in the capacity of lenders. -> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304543904577394533978464876.html?mod=googlenews_wsj I speculate that they will leverage a reserve ratio more generous than anything they enjoy at home in China. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, they are actually LOWERING THEIR OWN reserve ratio THE SAME DAY! -> http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/12/china-economy-rrr-idUSL4E8GC03Q20120512 (Reuters links go stale in two weeks so they can monetize.) This boggles my imagination for this reason: if I had $700 M_illion per year, of pure profit, to invest, I would need literally two $1 Million dollar investment opportunities EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR, to invest it all."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot (water.org)

pointless_hack writes: "How good is the idea of a CAPTCHA instead of a default root password, on an UBUNTU system?

Pro: It would defeat many black hat installs, without coercing user forgotten p'words.

Con: It still would not address installs blessed by random RSA CERTS from indiscriminate browsers.

Link is straight up an ad for water.org"

Submission + - A Computer Program to Detect Possible Cheating in Chess (nytimes.com)

jeffrlamb writes: "Cheating in live chess matches — fueled by powerful computer programs that play better than people do, as well as sophisticated communication technologies — is becoming a big problem for world championship chess.
Kenneth W. Regan is attempting to construct a mathematical proof to see if someone cheated, the trouble is that so many variables and outliers must be taken into account. Modeling and factoring human behavior in competition turns out to be very difficult."

Government

Submission + - Toll roads make a comeback? (washingtonpost.com) 1

pointless_hack writes: "Historically, toll roads were all we had. We built the Interstate Highway system to make business more efficient and lower barriers of entry. I expect that only human judgment can keep toll fees fair. Variable rates seem like an invitation to abuse."

Comment Re:Not to mention... (Score 1) 1065

Estate taxes are mentioned (way down below,) but are bad for people who inherit farms and small businesses with wealth. I don't know what that means in an entire system of taxation, and an exception might be adequate. I favor Consumption taxes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumption_tax over Wealth taxes, because they mitigate many ills. The famous "Missing Merchant problem" is just as possible under a system of Income tax as any, and I suppose capital flight is a kind of "missing merchant" under a Wealth tax system.

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