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Spotted over at The Big Picture, here’s a pretty funny look at how not to make slides using PowerPoint, the world’s most popular (or is it the world’s only) presentation software.
It’s been a couple years since I did anything like this and, for anyone wanting to know how to do it correctly, Presentation Zen is well worth a look. If you haven’t already seen this or other similar books, it will change everything you thought you knew about presentations.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the recent economic collapse and the ongoing financial market crisis is that there is still widespread disagreement over who or what caused it.
All too often, pundits say, “You can’t lay all the blame for our current condition on one institution or one man” and that is true, but these same commentators oftentimes skirt answering the toughest of questions about what nearly brought the whole financial system down by distributing the blame among many players and many failings.
By arguing that the entire system must be reformed, nothing ends up being changed as we see now – almost eighteen months after the worst financial market crisis since the Great Depression and there have been no substantive changes to how the financial system works.
Many argue the system has become more crisis-prone.
An even more disheartening development is that there continues to be debate about whether the most fundamental aspect of credit markets – short-term interest rates – was a major factor in precipitating the late-2008 meltdown.
As evidenced by the musings of current Fed chief Ben Bernanke in early-January, the central bank – the group that controls short-term rates – suggests that people look elsewhere for the root cause of the biggest credit bubble and bust in the history of Mankind as the nation’s central bankers did everything right in their conduct of monetary policy.
How could the central bank do everything right and then watch everything go so wrong?
Maybe the idea of more Congressional oversight of the central bank isn’t such a good idea after all. In the question and answer session with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke before the House Financial Services Committee a short time ago, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) asked the following questions:
Starting with your discussion on page 4, “in addition to closing the special facilities, the Federal Reserve is normalizing its lending to commercial banks through the discount window” and you go on to talk about your new federal funds rate and a discussion of why you have done this and encouraging banks to go to the private market for investments.
And you say further in this discussion that these adjustments are not expected to lead to higher financial conditions for households and businesses.
The last thing I heard before I came here this morning was a prediction by some of the analysts on television that, in about one month, we can expect that there will be an increase in interest rates on mortgages and home loans. Everybody that I talk to really believes that this change that you have made in the federal funds rate is what’s going to trigger that.
Is that true? Did you give any thought to this? How can you guarantee that it won’t?
Wow – a pretty stunning lack of basic understanding about how the central bank works.
Recall that, last week, the Fed funds rates was not raised – it was the discount rate that was hiked from 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent and the potential rise in mortgage rates next month would come about due to the Fed stopping their purchase of mortgage backed securities.
The Census Bureau reported(.pdf) that new home sales reached a new record low last month, down 11.2 percent from 348,000 units in December to just 309,000 units in January, in what looks to be the beginning of another very difficult year for the homebuilders.
The level of new home sales last month came in below the prior record low of 329,000 reached in January 2009, a full 78 percent below the peak level of sales in 2005.
Even more astonishing is the fact that the pre-2009 record low of 338,000, seen in September of 1981, works out to be about 406,000 when adjusted for population growth, meaning that the January new home sales level could rise by about 31 percent next month and still only reach the pre-2009 population-adjusted record low.
In this item from yesterday, Jake over at ECONOMPICDATA breaks down yesterday’s sharp decline in consumer confidence as reported by the Conference Board.
Recall that the Present Situations Index fell to its lowest level since 1983 and the Expectations Index dropped more than 13 points to 63.8, far short of the levels typically associated with economic recoveries. Looking at the chart, you’d think that the Jobs are Plentiful Index must also be at or near record lows – it registered only 3.6.
TOP STORIES
Facing pressure, Bernanke to face lawmakers – AP
At F.D.I.C. , Bracing for a Wave of Failures – NY Times
Commercial Mortgage Default Rate More Than Doubles – Bloomberg
White House recommits to “Volcker rule” bank trade ban – Reuters
Greenspan: Crisis ‘By Far’ Worst, Recovery Uneven – Bloomberg
21st Century Breakdown – Quinn, Burning Platform
Basically, It’s Over – Munger, Slate
The doomsday cycle – Vox
MARKETS/INVESTING
Oil slips on weak recovery signs – Reuters
India keen to buy 191 tonnes of IMF gold – Commodity Online
Bull markets often begin before confidence hits bottom – MarketWatch
Ride this bull, but be ready to jump – MSN Money
Why gold’s rally may be a short one – MarketWatch
Get Shorty: A Loser’s Answer – Barron’s
By Tim Iacono, Since 2005
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