Friday 09-10-10

Our terrifyingly crowded solar system: New video reveals just how many asteroids are out there
It's not just our country that's a little over-crowded - our whole solar system is too.

A fascinating colour-coded video illustrates how we have become increasingly aware of the number of asteroids flying close to Earth as telescopes improve.

The footage shows the discovery of every new asteroid over the past three decades and charts it on an increasingly congested map of the solar system.

Created by British astronomer Scott Manley, the three-minute clip - which is the equivalent of two months per second - starts with a sprinkling of white 'dust' around the edge of the planets.

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Thirty years ago, we knew of just 8,954 within our solar system. Today, we have discovered 530,091 - forming a green 'eye' of minor planets.
Mr Manley, a former research student at Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, said: 'The images are created by using the known orbits of the asteroids to figure out where they've been on a day-to-day basis.
'Just like we can figure out where the Earth, Mars and Venus have been, we can do the same with anything orbiting the sun.
'I created maps for every day over the last 30 years - that's about 11,000 images - then I combined them to make a video.'

Asteroids are small solar system bodies that orbit the sun. They are smaller than planets, and are sometimes referred to as minor planets.

Their size ranges from 950km for the largest known asteroid, Ceres, to just tens of metres across.

Small asteroids - five to 10 metres in diameter - enter the Earth's atmosphere about once a year, but normally explode before impact. Larger minor planets - of about 1km in size - strike every 500,000 years.
But although some of the asteroids on Mr Manley's map look as though they are terrifyingly close to the Earth, he has some words of reassurance.
'The positions are all to scale, but the sizes of objects are expanded to make them visible,' he said.

'One pixel on the screen is one million kilometres - so even if an asteroid appears right on top of Earth in the video it could be up to a million kilometres away. That's more than twice the distance to the Moon.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1306555/Our-terrifyingly-crowded-solar-How-asteroids-closing-in.html

US loses ground in competitiveness report
By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING — The U.S. has slipped down the ranks of competitive economies, falling behind Sweden and Singapore due to huge deficits and pessimism about government, a global economic group said Thursday.

Switzerland retained the top spot for the second year in the annual ranking by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. It combines economic data and a survey of more than 13,500 business executives.

Sweden moved up to second place while Singapore stayed at No. 3. The United States was in second place last year after falling from No. 1 in 2008.

The WEF praised the United States for its innovative companies, excellent universities and flexible labor market. But it also cited huge deficits, rising government debt and declining public faith in politicians and corporate ethics.

"There has been a weakening of the United States' public and private institutions, as well as lingering concerns about the state of its financial markets," the group said.

Mapping a clear strategy for exiting the huge U.S. stimulus "will be an important step in reinforcing the country's competitiveness," it said.

The report was released in Beijing ahead of a WEF-organized gathering of global business executives next week in neighboring Tianjin. The group is best known for its annual Davos meeting of corporate leaders.

The report ranks 139 countries by assessing business efficiency, innovation, financial markets, health, education, institutions, infrastructure and other factors.

The United States was followed by Germany, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada.

Switzerland held its top rank due to its strong innovation, evenhanded regulation and one of the world's most stable economic environments.

The WEF cited education and regulation as key areas for improvement in a number of economies and warned leaders not to lose sight of long-term needs as they struggle with the global crisis.

"For economies to remain competitive, they must ensure that they have in place those factors driving the productivity enhancements on which their present and future prosperity is built," one of the report's co-authors, Columbia University economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin, said in a statement.

China performed best among major developing economies, rising two places from last year to 27th based on its large and growing market, economic stability and increasing sophistication of its businesses.

Japan gained two places, helped by strong innovative abilities, though its status was hurt by the country's two-decade-old financial malaise.

Greece plunged 12 places to 83rd, plagued by a debt crisis and mounting public concern about corruption and government inefficiency, according to the WEF.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5geQsDi67zuA4fPHVF4EotRXVMoEgD9I4A8O00

Why Hyperinflation is Coming to America and How to Prepare Now
Eric Roseman (September 7, 2010)

“We all keep worrying deflation, but it can turn so fast” – Adam Fergusson

Back in 1980 when my late grandfather, Abe Roseman, passed away, I inherited numerous personal items. These included tie bars, cufflinks, his old desk and lamp, and several other reminders of my childhood that to this day always put on a smile on my face.

Thirty years later, rummaging inside my late grandfather’s desk, I found 55 ounces of silver. Somehow, after all those years, I failed to pry open every drawer; what a surprise! How did he know I was a silver bull?

Or, perhaps, he wanted to be prepared for hard times.

Wisdom in Experience
I was pretty close to my grandfather. Abe was born in 1911 and lived through the Great Depression in Montreal. My grandmother would later remind me how bad things were in Canada at the time with unemployment at absurdly high levels from coast-to-coast. My grandparents knew how to be frugal and understood the value of money.

My generation (I’m in my early 40s) doesn’t know what it means to suffer an economic catastrophe; but we came darn close in 2008. I think we’re already in a “soft” economic depression. By “soft” I mean that without government backstops two years ago, we’d see blood in the streets, civil chaos and, possibly, runaway inflation by now.

In my view, this is a depression.
When 2 Million Marks Won’t Buy a Loaf of Bread
One item I inherited from my grandfather in 1980 was a bunch of old German bank notes, neatly tucked away in a plastic folder. At the ripe age of 14, I had no clue what these bills were worth, let alone what the German inscription meant. So I just buried Grandpa’s stash in my safety deposit box for the next 30 years.

Last month, however, I decided to review the causes and effects of the German Weimar Republic’s hyperinflation in the 1920s. I went to the bank and got Abe’s German notes. To refresh my history I read Adam Fergusson’s When Money Dies, first printed in 1975. I urge every investor to grab a copy ahead of “Quantitative Easing Part II” this summer.

It turns out my grandfather kept a bunch of German marks from periods ranging from 1922 to 1924; the note below is a scan. The amount is Zwei Millionen Mark or 2 Million Marks printed on Aug. 15, 1923 – exactly the same year that mind-boggling inflation started to run out of control in Germany.

Unbelievably, two million marks could barely buy a loaf of bread. Within hours, prices would escalate rendering that loaf to 3 million marks, four million marks etc. German paper had become almost worthless. Hyperinflation wiped out the entire middle class.

Germany in the early 1920s was a desperate place when prosperity was spreading across the United States. The Allied victory in World War I had forced a tremendous financial burden on the new republic with France and England especially hard on Germany for war reparations. Eventually, the Germans couldn’t meet the ridiculous terms of payment and in order to settle financing obligations in gold, had to start printing – and print they did.

322% to 19,000% Inflation Per Month
The German currency was relatively stable at about 60 marks per U.S. dollar during the first half of 1921. But the “London ultimatum” in May 1921 demanded reparations in gold be paid in annual installments of 2 billion gold marks plus 26 percent of the value of Germany’s exports. The first payment was paid when due in August 1921. It all went downhill from there.

When it finally reached its zenith, Weimar Germany saw its monthly inflation rate top 322% per month by late 1923. On average, prices quadrupled each month during the 16 months of hyperinflation.

Weimar hyperinflation is widely understood to be among the worst episodes of runaway inflation in the 20th century. But other nations before and after 1923 suffered even worse inflation.

Zimbabwe is one example where inflation skyrocketed over the past 24 months and the currency is being printed like there’s no tomorrow. Hungary also experienced hyperinflation after World War II when, from August 1945 to July 1946, prices went ballistic, soaring 19,000% per month. Prior to Weimar, revolutionary Russia witnessed a currency collapse and hyperinflation, as did Poland and Austria.

Can it Happen Here?
There’s a fine line between deflation and hyperinflation. Some would argue they’re different sides of the same coin.

The Fed’s unorthodox operations since late 2008 should be a serious warning to investors. In all honesty, we have no idea what’s going on behind closed doors in New York.

I rely on Shadowstats (www.shadowstats.com) to determine the approximate level of broader monetary aggregates because the Fed publicly abolished these figures several years ago.

The Fed has lost control.

Waves and waves of money-printing continue in Washington with no end in sight. Bank reserves will start to expand and then the Fed will have to drain excess liquidity from the financial system to avert an inflationary spike.

Given the Fed’s history since its creation in 1913, I have little faith that the economy, the dollar and financial markets will transition smoothly once this monetary shift occurs.

My action plan, and the one I recommend to all of my friends, is to have enough physical gold, some silver, agricultural commodities like the grains and several cash-rich large-cap stocks.

The Fed is losing the fight against deflation again in 2010 and another round of printing lies ahead subjecting the dollar to more weakness and eventually, a collapse in bond prices.

In many ways, the economy in 2010 mirrors the events that unfolded prior to Weimar’s hyperinflation in 1923.

Be wary of aggressive central banks with unlimited power to print currency. Protect yourself.

http://sovereign-investor.com/2010/09/07/why-hyperinflation-is-coming-to-america-and-how-to-prepare-now/