Titan s Seas Get an Earthly Stand-in as Robot Explores Chilean Lake [Slide Show]
By Katie Worth
8 hours ago
Early Mars rovers had little more intelligence than a
fancy remote-controlled car. NASA’s Curiosity rover is somewhat more
evolved: It can navigate around simple obstacles and spot a dust devil
on its own. Much more brainpower would be required
for a robotic exploration of Saturn’s moon Titan. Home to one of the
solar system’s liveliest environments outside of Earth, Titan has tidal
seas of methane, a stormy atmosphere and perhaps ice volcanoes.
In 2005, the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe landed on a beach in
Titan and transmitted data about its surroundings for 90 minutes; ever
since, scientists have been eager to send another probe with more
staying power. But because communications from Earth to Titan take
hours, the robot would have to solve problems on its own. If it has been
floating in a methane sea for months and finally approaches shore, it
must begin taking pictures of newly visible land. If a methane-dwelling
octopus swims by, engineer Trey Smith of NASA’s Intelligent Robotics Group says, it must notice. He’s only mostly joking.
With the aim of building a robot smart enough for Titan, Smith and a
team of other engineers and scientists spent three weeks this month at a
remote lake in the high Chilean Andes. They were field-testing the
Planetary Lake Lander, an early prototype of a floating space probe that
could, among other things, notice an octopus swimming past.
Since no hydrocarbon seas are available on Earth, the researchers, from
NASA Ames Research Center and the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, Calif., chose to test
their probe on a lake under the disappearing Echaurren glacier, an ideal
setting for technology that must notice both abrupt and subtle
environmental changes.
View a slide show of the Chilean Andes test side for the Titan lander prototype
The robot has been exploring the lake with increasing astuteness since
2011, with periodic visits and upgrades from its makers. In August the
team endowed the robot with the ability to collect and communicate
meteorological data. Since then the team has received six emails from
the Lake Lander, each accurately announcing a storm on the lake. In one
case, the accompanying photograph sent by the robot showed its camera
buried in snow. “My colleague posted on Facebook
that he had just sent Curiosity its instructions for the day and I
wrote, ‘My robot is smarter than yours—he’s the one sending me emails!’”
says Principal Investigator Nathalie Cabrol of the SETI Institute. “We will stop it short of writing our papers.”
The Lake Lander has a long way to go before it can write scientific
studies, but it is already mastering some adaptive science techniques.
It has learned to notice irregularities in its environment and focus its
instruments on those anomalies. It conducts simple data analysis and
sends only the most interesting information to scientists.
Selectivity in transmitting data is crucial for a robot on Titan. It
takes about a joule of energy to send one bit of information from Titan
to Earth, says NASA roboticist Liam Pedersen. At that rate, sending a
single black-and-white compressed image would require the energy
equivalent of a D-cell battery. A probe on Titan must therefore be
stingy about what it sends and must compress information intelligently
based on what it has learned about its environment, Smith says.
These technologies have applications on Earth as well. Selective data
capturing and transmission could be used, for example, by probes that
monitor ocean chemistry or by telescopes that scan the skies and send
alerts when they spot pulsars, quasars, supernova or asteroids.
“I don’t know if we are smarter than the dinosaurs, but we have more
technology than they did,” Cabrol says. “If we want to continue
surviving on this planet, we’re going to have to get better at
monitoring our environment.” As it lays the
groundwork for a future Titan mission, the Planetary Lake Lander’s
technology is also monitoring the rapid decline of Echaurren glacier, a
victim of climate change whose remnants frost a toothy ridge 1,000 feet
above the lake. For the team’s recent visit, burros carried in equipment
from a nearby dirt road. Thunder frequently emanated from a
cloud-clotted volcano nearby, momentarily drowning out the assemblage of
small generators that buzzed the camp to life. Otherwise the only
visible mark of humankind was the canary yellow robot reflected in the
cobalt lake. In November the NASA Astrobiology
Science and Technology for Exploring Planets program notified Cabrol’s
team that the Lake Lander project had been extended for another year.
The scientists plan to use the time to advance the adaptive science
system. Yet whatever progress they make, the window will soon close for a
robotic visit to Titan’s largest seas. In 2012 a
proposal to drop a probe into Titan’s Ligeia Mare narrowly lost a NASA
funding bid to a 2016 Mars lander mission. The Titan Mare Explorer is
still seeking funding, but if it does not come through this year, it
will be too late—the robot must launch in 2016 if it wishes to arrive on
Titan before the polar area loses direct communications with Earth in
2025. It will not regain contact until 2040.
Waiting 15 more years to explore Titan’s seas would be a shame, since
they could host life, Cabrol says. She concedes that life may not exist
in a methane-drenched world, but you never know. “Methane has its
problems for life, but that being said, it could just be that our
intellect is limited,” she says. “And if I had to bet, I would bet on
that.” Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
end quote from: http://news.yahoo.com/titan-seas-earthly-stand-robot-explores-chilean-lake-130000848.html
BEIRUT
(AP) — Syrian warplanes bombed on Wednesday a barren range of Lebanese
hills used by Syrian rebels and refugees to cross between the two
countries, wounding at least 10 Syrians who were rushed to hospital in a
nearby Lebanese town, Beirut's state-run National News Agency said.
BEIRUT
(AP) — Syrian warplanes bombed on Wednesday a barren range of Lebanese
hills used by Syrian rebels and refugees to cross between the two
countries, wounding at least 10 Syrians who were rushed to hospital in a
nearby Lebanese town, Beirut's state-run National News Agency said.
This citizen journalism image
provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based
on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrians inspecting a burnt
bus after a missile fired by Syrian government aircraft hit the vehicle
in the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Bab in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday,
Dec. 31, 2013. The bus was full of people when it was struck, setting it
on fire and killing several people, activists said.. (AP Photo/Aleppo
Media Center AMC)
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian warplanes bombed on Wednesday a barren
range of Lebanese hills used by Syrian rebels and refugees to cross
between the two countries, wounding at least 10 Syrians who were rushed
to hospital in a nearby Lebanese town, Beirut's state-run National News
Agency said.
Cross-border
strikes have been particularly intense this week around the town of
Arsal, where thousands of Syrians have fled to escape their country's
civil war over the past months. The attack came days after Lebanese
forces fired on Syrian helicopters near the border, an apparent attempt
by Lebanon to signal that it would be forceful in defending its
territory.
The state news agency did not explicitly say the
bombing occurred on Lebanese territory. But the area they mentioned,
Jroud Arsal, refers to the barren rugged hills east of the town that are
within Lebanon.
Two Arsal residents said a wounded woman brought
to the town after Wednesday's air raid had died. They said three others
are in critical condition. The residents spoke on condition of
anonymity, fearing for their safety.
Arsal is on the other side of
Syria's rugged Qalamoun region where the government has been on the
offensive for weeks, capturing a number of towns and villages in the
area.
The Lebanese army did not respond to the bombardment.
Later
Wednesday evening, the area was hit again, this time with rockets, the
state-run news agency reported. No injuries were reported. The news
agency did not say whether government forces or rebels fired the rockets
that hit the Khirbat Daoud region, part of the Jroud Arsal.
On
Monday, the Lebanese army fired on Syrian aircraft that they said
violated the country's airspace. It was the first time Lebanon had
defended its borders from Syria's military since the uprising broke out
nearly three years ago.
Syrian forces often chase rebels sneaking
in and out of Lebanon. Communities on the Lebanese side of the border
dominated by Sunni Muslims have become safe havens for rebels battling
the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
It is one way that the
Syrian conflict has been expanding into Lebanon. The conflict has
exacerbated tensions between Lebanon's Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and
prompted shadowy groups to conduct attacks that have killed dozens this
year.
Also Wednesday, state media and activists reported heavy
clashes in the Damascus suburb of Adra, part of which was stormed by
rebels last month.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said opposition fighters battled with troops from Assad's army as
well as pro-government militias known as the National Defense Forces
and fighters from Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group. Hezbollah started
openly backing Assad's forces in May.
The Observatory said a number of government forces were killed as well as two Hezbollah fighters.
State TV said 21 rebels were killed in the latest fighting in Adra. Such conflicting death tolls are common.
Electricity
meanwhile was cut off in the entire northern province of Aleppo due to a
"terrorist" attack against main power lines, the state news agency SANA
said. Syrian state media refer to rebels as terrorists.
Attacks on the country's infrastructure have occurred periodically since Syria's crisis began in March 2011.
More
than 130,000 people have been killed so far in the war, now in its
third year, according to the Observatory. The group closely monitors the
violence in Syria through a network of activists across the country.
The U.N. said in July that 100,000 Syrians have been killed, and has not
updated that figure since. One third of Syria's entire pre-war
population of 23 million people has been displaced because of the
fighting.
To me this is another miracle in my life! If you had talked to me and I had been honest with you in February 2013 last year likely I would have said to you, "I'm not sure I will live to see another year." However, some of the miracles that saved my life are just increasing knowledge about health that I have picked up along the way.
Here are some of the things I have discovered through various medical practitioners. Without all of them I likely wouldn't be alive or at least able to write this for you now. But, as a result of all these things I'm not only alive but still travel, ski, ride my dualsport, hike in the woods and along the beach with my dogs almost every day, and am relatively happy in my life!
The first thing I learned this year that kept me alive was after $1000 in blood tests I found I was extremely allergic to Gluten. Though it was difficult to give up all gluten in my diet what was the alternative? To be dead now or soon?
The next thing I learned was that my gluten allergy came from the same thing that caused me to be hypothyroid, likely helped cause my heart virus that I almost died from for 7 months in 1998 and 1999 etc. which was that I had had giardhea that I got in India, Thailand and Nepal in 1985. Because it is almost impossible to completely rid yourself of the protazoa in your intestines without completely destroying your liver, some of them stay there (even when you don't have symptoms). The eventually cause (by attacking your intestines to not process Gluten) you intestines to not be able to process gluten sugars and this makes you allergic to gluten even if you weren't before.
(So, if you were exposed to giardhea in any 3rd world nation or even here in the U.S. and didn't know it there is a good chance they will make you hypothyroid eventually (within 10 to 20 years) and if you still don't go off of gluten you will then get an auto-immune disease (like LUPUS or something like that).
Luckily, I stopped eating gluten before this happened so I don't have an auto-immune disease.
So, since October 2012 I have had to start using lisinopril, gave up all gluten (which also ended 90% of the pain in my body), then this fall I learned about the miracle drug Spironolactone which basically cures edema while you are taking it. And so far, I have no side effects from either medicine. So, I would call both Lisinopril and Spironolactone and Armour Thyroid for a hypothyroid condtion all "Miracle Drugs" when you are on the right dose (and doses change over time).
So, thanks to all these things and more that I learned I'm still alive. So, if you potentially fall into any of the categories I'm talking about: heart virus, low heart compression, allergy to gluten from exposure to giardhea, or edema in you feet and legs (swelling of feet and lower legs) you might be able to lengthen your lives and reduce your suffering too just by learning what I did.
Staying alive with all of one's mental and physical faculties intact is a miracle in itself.
For example, in March likely I will go to Hawaii with my family (5 of us) and snorkel in the ocean there with all the tropical fish once again. Another miracle!
Howard
Kraft is among those the new health care provisions taking effect this
year will help. / AP photo. Photo. RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated
Press.
Howard Kraft is among those the new health care provisions taking effect this year will help. / AP photo
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) —
This could be the year that things finally turn around for President
Barack Obama's health care law. Yet it could start with another round of
glitches that vex consumers and leave Republicans crowing, "We told you
so."
The law's major benefits take effect with the new year,
along with an unpopular insurance mandate and the risk of more
nerve-racking coverage disruptions.
Big improvements are in store
for some, including Howard Kraft of Lincolnton, N.C. A painful spinal
problem left him unable to work as a hotel bellman. But he's got
coverage because federal law now forbids insurers from turning away
people with health problems.
"I am not one of these people getting a policy because I'm being made to," Kraft said. "I need one to stay alive."
What's
good for millions like Kraft is secured through what others see as an
imposition: requiring virtually every American to get covered, through
an employer, a government program or direct purchase of a plan.
But
the biggest health care headlines early this year could come from
continued uncertainty over the insurance program's messy rollout.
The
consumer-facing side of the HealthCare.gov website appears to be
largely fixed — with 2.1 million enrolled through federal and state
websites. But on the back end, insurers say they are still receiving
thousands of erroneous sign-ups from the government.
That means
early in the year insured patients could go for a medication refill — or
turn up in the emergency room — only to be told there is no record of
their coverage.
One of the main worries is over certain error-tainted enrollment records that insurers call "orphans" and "ghosts."
"Orphans"
are sign-ups that the government has a record of, but they do not
appear in insurer systems. Insurers say those customers never left the
government's "orphanage" to "go and live" with the carrier they
selected.
"Ghosts" are new customers that the insurer does have a
record of, but whose information mysteriously does not appear in the
government's computers.
The Obama administration says the rate of
such errors has been reduced dramatically, and insurers agree. The catch
is that the volume of sign-ups has surged in the meantime, which means
even with a lower error rate the number of problem cases keeps growing.
And there is no automated way to clear up mistakes quickly.
"There
are going to be problems for any number of people who thought they had
signed up, and it won't work right off the bat," said Mark McClellan,
who oversaw the rollout of Medicare's prescription drug benefit — a
program that also had its share of issues. "It would be particularly
disruptive for people in the midst of treatment."
Anticipating
disruptions, major drug store chains like CVS and Walgreens have
announced they will help customers who face coverage glitches, even
providing temporary supplies of medications without insisting on
up-front payment. Many smaller independent pharmacies are also ready to
help.
White House health care adviser Phil Schiliro told reporters
the administration was working with insurers and health care service
providers to minimize disruptions "as we deal with what are always going
to be unexpected problems where there is a transition."
Obama had
envisioned that the arrival of the Affordable Care Act's major benefits
in 2014 would be like a national seminar, showcasing his philosophy
that government can and should smooth the rough edges off an unforgiving
economy for struggling working people.
The goal was that in a
midterm election year, Democrats would be able to point to millions of
newly insured Americans, thanks to subsidized private plans and an
expanded version of Medicaid. Media reports would feature compelling
cases of people handed a lifeline.
That's indeed happening, but it
seems to be only part of the story. The Republican portrayal of
"Obamacare" as government inept and out of control appears to be
unfolding right alongside.
Legal challenges still lie ahead for
the health care law. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, acting
Tuesday night on a request from an order of Catholic nuns in Colorado,
blocked implementation of portions of the law that would have forced
some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for
employees that includes birth control. Several other Catholic groups won
similar stays in the lower courts.
Although the stated goal of
the law was to cover the uninsured, at least 4.7 million insured people
had individual policies canceled because they didn't measure up to new
requirements. That forced an apology from the president, who had
famously promised that if you like your health plan, you can keep it.
The administration says it believes most of those people have secured
new coverage.
Americans with job-based health plans are also
worried. A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found that most people
who've seen their employers scale back coverage blame that on Obama's
law, even though businesses were shifting health costs to workers before
the law passed.
The nation's divisive debate over health care
could go on for years. Having failed to repeal the entire law,
Republicans may start targeting pieces of it, such as a Medicare cost
control board, or various taxes.
For now, administration officials
say they are just focused on getting through the March 31 end of open
enrollment. People who enroll by that date will not face the law's tax
penalty for remaining uninsured.
The administration and its
supporters are also planning a big push to get younger, healthy
uninsured people to sign up, key to the law's long-term success.
If you study what happened when both Social Security and Medicare went into law it is actually quite similar to what is happening now to Obamacare. Obamacare just like Medicare and Social Security will ALWAYS be works in progress because these kinds of programs are always unwieldy and easy victims of various kinds of abuse by bureaucrats and criminals of all kinds.
But, in the end is our country better with Social Security and Medicare and Obamacare? OF course.
So, Obamacare just like Social Security and Medicare will constantly have to be tweaked in various ways legally to continue working. So, one way or the other it is very likely that Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare will still be here (though very different than now) still in 2100 AD.
Here are buttons if you want to read the actual history of all three.
In the United States, Social Security is primarily the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) federal program. The original Social Security Act ...
In the United States, Medicare is a federal government social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for certain Americans and legal ...
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or "Obamacare", is a United States federal statute ...
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed an alternative health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590). In 2010, the House ...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is divided into 10 titles and ...
AAP.
A roundup of trading on major world markets: NEW YORK - US stocks
powered to fresh records during the last session of 2013, closing out a
year of stunning gains that some analysts say could continue in 2014.
AMC Theaters CEO Gerry Lopez, left, accompanied by company
executives Elizabeth Frank and Craig Ramsay, gather at a trading post
Dec. 18 as they wait for their company's IPO on the New York Stock
Exchange. / Richard Drew, AP
NEW YORK -- Do U.S. stocks have any rocket fuel left in the tank
after skyrocketing to their steepest annual price climb in 16 years?
After posting its best return since 1997,
the odds of the broad Standard & Poor's 500 stock index delivering
an encore performance of similarly epic proportions in 2014 is unlikely.
Yet, while Wall Street isn't expecting gains of 25% to 30% again in 2014, after a 29.6% return for the S&P 500 index
in 2013, most stock market predictions lean bullish. More gains (albeit
less sizable ones) and more record highs are likely. There's a long
list of positive propellants working in the stock market's favor, top
investment strategists say, with rising confidence in the economy
topping the list.
"The outlook," says Dan Chung, chief investment officer at Alger
Funds, "is still positive. But the rate of the gains will likely be
slower."
But in the unpredictable world of investing there are always things
that could go wrong and cause the first 10%-plus correction since 2011.
USA TODAY has identified five stock market risks -- including the
potential downside of another 2013-style market "melt-up," a sharp spike
in interest rates and a return of irrational exuberance, to name a few
-- that could pose problems for the bull market as it nears its fifth
birthday in March. THE BULL CASE
There are a few key pillars underpinning the consensus bull case for stocks in 2014. â?¢ An improving economy. The U.S. economy is expected to
strengthen, which boosts the odds that GDP could grow at a 3% annual
clip for the first time since 2005. An uptick in growth will provide
additional support for stock prices as well as corporate profits, which
are expected to grow 11% in 2014, up from around 6% last year, Thomson
Reuters says.
"The economy still won't break any records, but the recovery will be
broader and stronger than any year since the Great Recession," says Bob
Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management.
Stocks have performed consistently well in periods when GDP was
trending around 3%, according to LPL Financial. The S&P 500 has
posted gains in 93% of the quarters in the past 35 years when GDP was
between 2.5% and 3.5%. "It's the growth sweet spot for stocks," says
Jeffrey Kleintop, LPL's chief market strategist.
There are a number of factors that could foster faster growth.
The rapid price appreciation of stocks and real estate makes
consumers feel richer. The resulting "wealth effect" is likely to spur
consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic
activity.
"The recovery in asset prices is an important part of the story," Chung says.
And it's not just the U.S. economy that's gaining traction, says
Martin Sass, CEO of investment firm M.D. Sass. Europe, Japan, China and
many emerging market economies are also showing improvement, setting the
global economy up for "synchronized growth," Sass says.
Negative impacts from fiscal drag and policy uncertainty are also
expected to ease. The two-year budget deal hammered out by Congress a
few weeks ago should reduce gridlock on Capitol Hill, take another
government shutdown off the table and reduce growth headwinds.
"Peace has broken out (in Washington, D.C.)," says David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds.
Peppier growth will also provide cover for a market that is neither
cheap nor expensive, but instead "fairly valued." The S&P 500's
once-depressed price-to-earnings ratio expanded a great deal in 2013 and
is back near historic norms. The market P-E, based on trailing 12-month
earnings, has swelled to almost 17 from 14.
But rising valuations don't worry Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab.
"The notion that bull markets end when valuations hit historic norms"
is misguided, Sonders says. "P-Es almost always overshoot to the
upside." â?¢ A pickup in corporate spending. As CEOs gain more
confidence in the recovery there's a strong likelihood they will manage
their businesses less defensively. The hope is Corporate America starts
investing again in the future and deploys more of its record $1.25
trillion cash hoard. Cash reserves held by non-financial companies in
the S&P 500 have doubled since 2008, according to S&P Dow Jones
Indices.
Wall Street expects corporations to continue buying back their own
shares and returning more cash to shareholders via dividends. In the
third quarter of 2013, the most recent data available, S&P 500
companies spent $207.4 billion on dividend payouts and buybacks, the
most since the final quarter of 2007, S&P says.
More important, investors envision CEOs ramping up spending on new
plants, new business ventures and new employees, as well as deploying
more cash to finance growth via acquisitions, says Ann Miletti, senior
portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Advantage Funds.
"We're expecting a shift back toward more capital spending and
M&A," Miletti says. "If that plays out it would be positive for the
market." â?¢ A rebound in confidence. Another bullish theme is an expected diminution of fear as the bad memories of the 2008 financial crisis recede.
A mindset shift from pessimism to optimism is likely to continue.
Rising confidence often results in more consumer spending, more risk
taking by investors and more aggressive spending by U.S. corporations.
Calendar 2014 will be marked by "a restoration of confidence," says
Alan Skrainka, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth
Management.
The latest readings on consumer confidence are the highest since
July, but well below the peak levels prior to the 2008 financial crisis. â?¢ A still-easy Fed. Wall Street also seems more comfortable
with the Federal Reserve's decision to start reducing its
market-friendly stimulus in 2014, thanks to the Fed's additional pledge
to keep short-term rates near 0% for a longer period of time after the
unemployment rate, now 7%, falls to 6.5%.
Market uncertainty over Fed policy has diminished since the Fed's
meeting in mid-December. That's when the Fed outlined "the timing, pace
and execution" of its exit from its bond-buying program and reiterated
its plans for continued market support via its "forward guidance," says
Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at US Bank Wealth Management.
"It removes a significant overhang to sentiment," Sandven says.
Indeed, there's a growing sense that the economy can continue to grow
and avoid a relapse even if long-term interest rates, currently around
3%, move gradually higher once the Fed starts to "taper" its monthly
purchases of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed bonds. The Fed's
bond-buying program, dubbed quantitative easing, or QE, is designed to
boost growth by keeping borrowing rates low. QE has been likened to a
steroid injection, or performing-enhancing drug, and has been cited as a
key driver of stock prices.
Outgoing Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed will reduce its
monthly asset purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion in January and
could wind down QE entirely in 2014 if the economy continues to heal.
Still, Sonders warns that it would be "naive" to think the market
won't suffer a hiccup or two as the Fed reduces its asset purchases. â?¢ A "Great Rotation" to stocks. Bonds, the investment of
choice after the 2008 financial crisis, are losing favor. The reason:
Stocks are soaring. And rising bond yields mean a drop in the principal
value of bonds, which means losses in bond funds, once perceived as
safe.
The 10-year Treasury note yield ended 2013 at 3.03%, its highest
level since July 7, 2011. And rates are expected to continue to rise. In
addition, the average core bond fund lost money this year, falling by
around 2%, according to fund-tracker Lipper.
The result: the roughly $1 trillion that flowed into bond funds the
past five years is now finding its way back into the stock market. 2013
was the first year since the Great Recession in which net flows to U.S.
stock mutual funds were positive, and bond funds suffered outflows,
according to the Investment Company Institute.
An estimated $20.9 billion flowed into domestic stock funds in 2013,
while $77.2 billion flowed out of bond funds. Still, since 2008,
domestic stock funds have suffered net outflows of $527 billion, while
bond funds have seen positive flows of nearly $996 billion, ICI data
show.
The shift of money from bonds to stocks, dubbed the "Great Rotation," has a long way to go, says Kleintop.
"Individual investors have just begun to come back into the stock
market after being out for five years," Kleintop says. "The heavy
lifting the past few years has been corporations buying back their own
stock. (In the first three quarters of 2013, companies spent $346.3
billion on share buybacks, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.) But
we could have a whole new class of buyers -- individual investors -- and
finally get the Great Rotation."
The bull market has delivered gains of more than 173% since it began
in March 2009. Betting against this bull has been a bad bet, at least so
far.
"My bottom line advice: Don't be the last investor to figure out we are in a bull market," Skrainka says.
‘Financial calculation
evaluates everything in pennies and pounds, transforming the most basic
goods – above all, housing – into "investments".’ Photograph: Peter
Macdiarmid/Getty Images
The mature economies of the modern world, particularly the
United States and Britain, are often described as "financialised". The
term reflects the ascendancy of the financial sector. Even more
important, it conveys the penetration of the financial system into every
nook and cranny of society, including housing, education, health and
other areas of life that were previously relatively immune.
Evidence that financialisation represents a deep transformation of mature economies is offered by the global crisis of 2007-09.
The crisis originated in the elephantine US financial system, and was
associated with speculation in housing. For a brief period it led to
serious questioning of mainstream economic theory and policy: how to
confront the turmoil, and what to do about the diseased financial
system; are new economic theories needed? However, after six years it is
clear that very little has changed. Financialisation is here to stay.
Consider,
for instance, the policies to confront the crisis. First, public funds
were injected into banks to boost capital. Second, public liquidity was
made available to banks to sustain their operations. Third, public
interest rates were driven to zero to enable banks to make secure
profits by lending to their own customers at higher rates.
This
extraordinary public largesse towards private banks was matched by
austerity and wage reductions for workers and households. As for
restructuring finance, nothing fundamental has taken place. The
behemoths that continue to dominate the global financial system operate
in the knowledge that they enjoy an unspoken public guarantee. The
unpalatable reality is that financialisation will persist, despite its
costs for society.
Financialisation represents a historic and
deep-seated transformation of mature capitalism. Big businesses have
become "financialised" as they have ample profits to finance investment,
rely less on banks for loans and play financial games with available
funds. Big banks, in turn, have become more distant from big businesses,
turning to profits from trading in open financial markets and from
lending to households. Households have become "financialised" too, as
public provision in housing, education, health, pensions and other vital
areas has been partly replaced by private provision, access to which is
mediated by the financial system. Not surprisingly, households have
accumulated a tremendous volume of financial assets and liabilities over
the past four decades.
The penetration of finance into the
everyday life of households has not only created a range of dependencies
on financial services, but also changed the outlook, mentality and even
morality of daily life. Financial calculation evaluates everything in
pennies and pounds, transforming the most basic goods – above all,
housing – into "investments". Its logic has affected even the young, who
have traditionally been idealistic and scornful of pecuniary
calculation. Fertile ground has been created for neoliberal ideology to
preach the putative merits of the market.
Financialisation has
also created new forms of profit associated with financial markets and
transactions. Financial profit can be made out of any income, or any sum
of money that comes into contact with the financial sphere. Households,
for example, generate profits for finance as debtors (mostly by paying
interest on mortgages) but also as creditors (mostly by paying fees and
charges on pension funds and insurance). Finance is not particular about
how and where it makes its profits, and certainly does not limit itself
to the sphere of production. It ranges far and wide, transforming every
aspect of social life into a profit-making opportunity.
The
traditional image of the person earning financial profits is the
"rentier", the individual who invests funds in secure financial assets.
In the contemporary financialised universe, however, those who earn vast
returns are very different. They are often located within a financial
institution, presumably work to provide financial services, and receive
vast sums in the form of wages, or more often bonuses. Modern financial
elites are prominent at the top of the income distribution, set trends
in conspicuous consumption, shape the expensive end of the housing
market, and transform the core of urban centres according to their own
tastes.
Financialised capitalism is, thus, a deeply unequal
system, prone to bubbles and crises – none greater than that of 2007-09.
What can be done about it? The most important point in this respect is
that financialisation does not represent an advance for humanity, and
very little of it ought to be preserved. Financial markets are, for
instance, able to mobilise advanced technology employing some of the
best-trained physicists in the world to rebalance prices across the
globe in milliseconds. This "progress" allows financiers to earn vast
profits; but where is the commensurate benefit to society from
committing such expensive resources to these tasks?
Financialisation
ought to be reversed. Yet such an entrenched system will never be
reversed by regulation alone. Its reversal also requires the creation of
public banking that would operate with a new spirit of public service.
It also needs effective controls to be applied to private banking as
well as to international flows of capital. Not least, it requires new
methods of meeting the financial requirements of households, as well as
of small and medium enterprises. There is an urgent need for communal
and associational ways to provide housing, education, health and other
basic goods and services for working people, breaking the hold of
finance on everyday life.
Ultimately, financialisation will not be
reversed without an ambitious programme to re-establish the superiority
of the social over the private, and the collective over the individual
in contemporary society. Reversing financialisation is about reining in
the rampant capitalism of our day. Costas Lapavitsas's latest book is Profiting Without Producing: How Finance Exploits Us All end quote from:
The penetration of finance into the everyday life of households has not only created a range of dependencies on financial services, but also changed the outlook, mentality and even morality of daily life. Financial calculation evaluates everything in ...
We had friends over for New Years Eve similar to Christmas Eve this year so when I woke up this morning to a warm sunny clear day I was pretty happy to start the year off this way. My son is coming to visit as well as my older daughter so we all can be together for the first time in about 1 year now in late January so I have something to look forward to. I got up this morning and had recorded the "Rose Parade" that I used to live next to in Glendale, California from the time I was 6 to age 21 when I left Los Angeles County for San Diego County. When I was 12 my cousin who was in the Glendale High School Band played in the parade so my Aunt (his mother) and my mother and father and I actually went to it. This is more difficult than you might imagine right off the bat because even in 1960 when we did this when I was 12 the traffic getting to the parade and then getting home from the parade is almost unimaginable because of thousands and thousands of people wanting to be there in person to see it or to be in it. So, for example, afterwards it took us about 4 hours to get home to Glendale which is only about 10 miles away from the parade. But, it was amazing getting there at 4 AM New Years Day 1960 and seeing the parade first hand and even watching my cousin (then 17) playing in the Glendale High Band. I also attended Glendale high in my Sophomore and Junior years before I transferred to a private school in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1965.
So, anyway, now I'm watching the Rose parade this morning which brings back all these memories of my father and mother and aunt who were all alive and young then. (My cousin and I still sail on his sailboat in Southern California a few times a year. Happy New Year everyone!
While I was writing about Avalanches in a previous article I found it sort of reminded me of an experience that wasn't an avalanche but where I did wind up upside down in the snow and scared.
My oldest daughter has been a really excellent skier since she was about 7. She is very coordinated like me and always loved skiing with me and still does at least once a year even though she is now 24 years old.
On this occasion we were skiing in Mt. Shasta Ski Park on Mt. Shasta when she was about 9 and she decided suddenly (as she was skiing in front of me and I was following her lead) to go off the groomed trails and out into the forest. So, because of the conditions I had to follow her in her tracks, because to leave the tracks she was in might be dangerous for me at that speed. So, when she fell down I had no safe place to go. So, like a good father I didn't run over her but my move threw me into the air where I turned upside down and entered the snow on my skis head first with my skis in the air while helicoptering slightly with my skis on top. This sort of screwed me into the snow so all my daughter could see was my skis sticking out horizontally on top of the snow. I was imprisoned there and scared because I couldn't really move and extricate myself. I asked her to help me by taking off my skis so I could get out. My face was freezing but the snow conditions were such that I didn't suffocate completely even though I couldn't really move to get out until I had my daughter take my skis off. Then I had her dig down and remove my poles because my arms were trapped too. The coldest thing was my face which got very red from being stuck in the snow so long.
But, luckily both my daughter and I tend to be good in emergencies and efficient at staying alive. So, what could have been very serious or even fatal for me if I was alone the two of us handled very well so I didn't die or have serious complications there. So, said she was sorry she fell down and this happened to me. I told her that it was okay as long as I survived it and in the end I wasn't really injured just very cold on my face and neck so it was okay. It's amazing what you can survive with a little help from one of your kids!
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