Pawnbroking up 15-20%

When everyone is losing money but Wal-Mart, we call that a signal; specifically, that people are pessimistic and will only spend money on things with low prices, everyday (now: “Save money. Live better” – weird). This is another signal of the same, thought markedly worse, kind:

Hard times in the US are benefiting pawnbrokers as beleaguered consumers pledge jewels, electronics and other goods in return for loans with interest rates running as high as 300 per cent a year.

Dave Adelman, president of the National Pawnbrokers Association, said the number of loans at US pawn shops had risen 15-20 per cent since October. He attributed the increase to rising fuel prices and deteriorating economic conditions – an assessment echoed by other industry executives.

…

On Manhattan’s 47th Street, the New York block through which about 90 per cent of US diamonds are sourced, some merchants report a sharp uptick in the amount of jewellery being brought in for sale.

“Its real sad – they don’t want to sell,” said Ruben, a 52-year-old street hawker who buys jewellery from passers-by in the diamond district.

“They might have paid $150,000 for a necklace but they will get back $25,000 or $30,000 at most. But it’s either that or lose their house.”

That would be a rung more than somewhat lower than sales only being up at discount retailers. This is made worse only by, say, the number of gold teeth being sold by immigrants going up significantly.

Soros, Davos and threats to the financial system

Five-minute-or-so interview with George Soros, hosted over at the Financial Times.

He’s talking Monolines (single-type instrument firms), the Fed, the banking system and the real economy going forward.

He also gives his take on the use of tax-payers money to deal with the problems (and the increased regulation required from using our money to underwrite others’ debt), and the relative position of the financial world in the US, UK and European economies (quite insightful).

The economics of crime

Reminds me of one of the great lines in cinema: Cary Grant’s “I must remember to yell ‘timber’, occassionally”, from To Catch a Thief.

An excellent post over at Environmental Economics, about this story:

Across the country, trees are disappearing in cases that are often small in scale but largely unsettling, probably prompted by the rise in timber value and the increase in worldwide demand for American hardwood — particularly from builders in Europe and China. The total value of the American log export market has more than doubled since 2000, industry experts said, and it continues to grow.

In the United States, forests are not being illegally logged on a systemic scale, … Here, the issue is often scattered and intimate, and often affects homeowners, parks and public forests.

A couple of years ago it was gangs stealing the rail lines in Italy, to sell the copper (and let’s not forget those thefts of bronze sculptures – not to mention bronze plaques and, believe it or not, footpaths!).

Bizarrely, a lot of it seems to be neighbours stealing timber from neighbours – which is just messed up. The joy of the post is John Whitehead’s suggested efficient fine.

Hydrogen-powered, emissions free, mach 5 Awesomeplane

Nnng!

The LAPCAT project is a study, funded by Europa General R&D, that seeks to determine whether or not it is possible to create a plane that can cover long distances in a very short amount of time. The result? The A2 Mach 5 Civil Transport Concept.

The concept has been developed by Reaction Engines, which was formed by Alan Bond, John Scott-Scott and Richard Varvill. It is made out of two different pieces of technology. The First one is a hydrogen powered engine concept which can power an airplane up to speeds of Mach 5, that is, five times the speed of sound.

Why hydrogen? In order to achieve Mach 5, more power is needed than what would be commonly available from the common fossil fuels. The other innovation lies in the A2 Airframe. The Airframe is designed to withstand velocities that are five times the speed of sound, and carry up to 300 passengers.

I will sit and anxiously await its hitting the market. I’ll probably have to line up behind all the wankers who used to take the Concorde, I guess.