Month: February 2014

Sunday Funday: Russian Police Choir Gets Lucky

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Sunday Funday: Russian Police Choir Gets Lucky

This late edition of Sunday Funday brings you the best part of the otherwise strange opening of the Sochi Olympic games–a Russian police choir (Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs) singing Daft Punks “Get Lucky.”  Okay, so Russian police officers in fancy uniforms singing a song written by robots is also pretty strange, but it is also great fodder for an Olympic Sunday Funday.  Although NBC did not feel it warranted being televised, SLACE has you covered.  

Here is a description of the video from NBC: 

Members of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs choir perform a rousing rendition of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ before Friday’s Opening Ceremony. 

Bitcoin Bet: Niche, Novelty or Revolution

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Bitcoin Bet: Niche, Novelty or Revolution

The most recent episode of the Planet Money podcast discussed a bet between high profile venture capitalist Ben Horowitz and Reuters financial reporter Felix Salmon over the future of the virtual currency Bitcoin.  

Here is a description of the podcast: 

Ben Horowitz is a big-time venture capitalist. His firm invested in Facebook and Twitter. More recently, the firm invested some $50 million in startups related to bitcoin, the virtual currency that works like online cash. Ben thinks bitcoin is going to change the way people buy and sell stuff on the Internet.

Felix Salmon, a high-profile finance blogger at Reuters, is a prominent bitcoin skeptic.

So when Felix recently published an essay calling bitcoin a bubble that was sure to burst, Benposted a comment challenging him to a bet over the future of bitcoin.

“I said, ‘Why don’t we just bet?'” Ben told us. “And I’ve read enough of Felix’s stuff to know that would be irresistible to him.”

“He’s right about that,” Felix said. “Being challenged by Ben Horowitz is kind of a high point of my career. So I immediately said yes.”

When we heard about the challenge, we invited Felix and Ben to come on Planet Money to hash out the details of the bet. Basically, we offered to be their bookie. Fortunately for us, they accepted.

For more about Bitcoin from the SLACE Archive see:  

Bitcoin and the Law (Jan. 15, 2014)

Bitcoin: The Virtual Currency Bubble? (April 13, 2013)

 

Moral Maze: Boycotting the Sochi Winter Olympics

/ Matthew Clemente / 10 Comments

Moral Maze: Boycotting the Sochi Winter Olympics

With the Sochi Winter Olympics starting later this evening, I think it is fair to say that most Westerns assume that there is symbolic value in boycotting the games in protest of Russia’s human rights violations, particularly as they relate to homosexuals.  However, the most recent episode of the Moral Maze questions this assumption and debates the moral utility of Olympic boycotts.  Several of the “witnesses” of the programme assert that Olympic boycotts are useless.  They argue that, particularly with reference to Russia anti-gay policies, gay athletes would be better served competing and beating the Russians rather than sitting out the games.  They cite Jesse Owens at the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany.  What better way to show the absurdity of Hitler’s claims of “Aryan superiority” than an African American running faster and jumping further than Nazi “uberman.”

Here is a brief description of the podcast:

Are sporting boycotts of events like the Winter Olympics effective or just empty gestures?

Fed’s Tapering of QE3 Has Begun

/ Edward Thater / Leave a comment

So, despite the consensus of pundits I reported in this post, the Fed has begun tapeing off its third round of quantitative easing earlier than expected, known in economist parlance as QE3. Apparently, the Fed is taking it slow and wants to be cautious about its reduction of quantitative easing so as to not jeopardize the current recovery. The Fed’s stated unemployment rate target is 6.5%, and most pundits seem to feel that the Fed won’t start to raise interest rates until April of 2015. But the pundits were also wrong about when the Fed would start easing off the gas peddle that is quantitative easing, so take those predictions with a grain of salt.

On an addtional note, Janet Yellen has been sworn in and started her tenure as the first female chair of the Fed. Obviously, she’s not even a full week into the job yet, but it seems she will break with Ben Bernanke’s policy of putting the Fed’s cards on the table and going to great lengths to explain what they were doing and way. Instead, it seems she prefers the style of Alan Greenspan: speak rarely, do what you think is best, and don’t worry about the pundits. So where will the Fed be headed for the next year? Your guess is as good as mine, but watch this space.

Russell Brand: Anarchist? Revolutionary?

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Last October, comedian Russell Brand sparked a debate in the United Kingdom following his appearance on BBC’s Newsnight in which he calls for a radical reorganizing of the political order in the UK (and presumably the West more generally). Brand contends that the current political system has failed the populace and made traditional political participation (i.e. voting) futile. Brand states that revolution is inevitable and should be welcomed.

The interview has apparently not gained traction in the US as it has in the UK. I learned of it from the BBC’s Analysis podcast. Here is a description of the programme:

In a recent Newsnight interview, the comedian Russell Brand predicted a revolution. His comments entertained many and became the most-watched political interview of 2013. But between the lines, Brand was also giving voice to the populist resurgence of a serious but controversial idea: anarchism.

The new “anarcho-populism” is the 21st century activist’s politics of choice. In evidence in recent student protests, the Occupy movement, in political encampments in parks and squares around the world, it combines age-old anarchist thought with a modern knack for inclusive, consumerist politics.

Brand’s interview was just one especially prominent example. The thinkers behind the movement say it points the way forward. Jeremy Cliffe, The Economist’s Britain politics correspondent, asks if they are right?