The issue of financial derivatives and their impact on the economy is complex and raises legitimate concerns. The recent proposals from federal bank regulators to impose stricter rules on large U.S. banks to hold more capital against their riskiest trading positions seem to be a response to the systemic risks associated with these complex financial instruments. It is undeniable that the three major banks - JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs - hold a significant share of the derivatives market, representing 77% of all derivatives held by federally insured financial institutions in the United States. This raises legitimate concerns about risk concentration and the potential for repeating past mistakes, as seen in 2008. The arguments put forth during recent Congressional hearings, suggesting that American farmers would be most affected by these stricter rules, appear to be an attempt to divert attention from the real issue. Data from the Department of Agriculture shows that the agricultural sector contributes significantly to the U.S. GDP, well below the total amount of derivatives held by major banks. Ultimately, it is crucial to balance financial stability with the need to prevent systemic risks. Regulatory proposals aim to avoid a repeat of past mistakes, where derivatives played a major role in the 2008 financial crisis. However, it is also important to carefully examine the potential consequences on the real economy, ensuring that rules are fair and well-balanced. What are your thoughts? What alternative solutions could be considered to regulate financial derivatives while supporting the real economy?
Currency and numeric formatting works differently by location, it looks consistent and correct for US formatting.
Personally, I think it's high time for a new global standard on this that abandons the dots and commas altogether, using new symbols so nobody can complain that it's unfair that only some people have to change. But that's... very unlikely to ever happen, for no good reason.
TIL Digit grouping style variances are even more fucked than I anticipated. International Bureau of Weights and Measures along with International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry uses spaces, but different countries use commas or dots and some use spaces and comma OR dot?
Fuck this, we should redo the whole numeric system. Burn it all down and start from scratch.
you can be assured that no matter what we choose America will legislate that whatever they're using now is defined in law by the new standard while people are free to ignore it, just like metric.
Was stuck at my friend’s dad’s house, stuck on Fox News for a week while this went down.
Dad and his wife literally laid in their armchairs all week, smoking pot, watching Fox. Nothing else. And I do mean literally. They slept in their Lazy-Boys, never in bed, Fox never got turned off. Not once.
His dad was a smart man, and quite reasonable. Asked him why the biggest story on the planet, one that made Obama look bad, didn’t get a single mention on Fox. Not one. Over an entire week. Shoulder shrug.
Still can’t understand what happened there. Perfect time for Fox to go ballistic on Obama. Silence.
They aren’t just towers in the dark. These things have all sorts of sensors on them. I doubt even a submarine is going to stealthily destroy these.
The power grid has way, way more weaknesses that would be way more impactful dont require a submarine to execute. Capitalism has guaranteed we have basically zero spare parts for large transformers. A single person can easily destroy these and do more damage in a war time scenario.
highly corrosive and pyrophoric fuels and coolants that, following irradiation, will become highly radioactive
How true is this? Because a highly radioactive and highly corrosive material that like to catch fire spontaneously - well, that just doesn't sound like a good idea, yet obviously some people are considering it. What am I missing?
If you can work it properly, molten salt reactors are MUCH safer and more efficient, because the waste heat from fission products cannot cause a problem with something cooled through convection and conduction of a molten salt. You can't really have a destructive meltdown when the coolant doesn't care if the fuel melts. The problem is, most previous attempts ended up with the reactor catching on fire. Not a dangerous fire, exactly, but generally not the outcome you're looking for.
On the waste front, neutron activation of water produces tritium at worst, which you dispose of by putting it into a bigger body of water. Neutron activation of the molten salt coolant can be more difficult to dispose of, but it's not exactly a major problem.
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