astraea.net/blog

It would be comforting to believe that the production of synthetic bacteria in the laboratory is going to accelerate cures for disease, replacement body parts and sympathetic engagement with nature.  But that is not happening.  The positive hopes are the marketing headline.

The reality, proven by the track record of Venter and his hairy faced cohorts as well as other biochemical-industrialists, is that they are simply there for the money.  They want to control the market for genetic engineering.  They want to patent life.  That should be totally unacceptable to you.  But it isn’t, because you think they are good people, working for the common good.  What they are really doing is taking control of you – not your choices, but your biology.  And we are allowing it to happen.  Scientists will calmly say that there are issues and their controls are damaging.  As a banker I can be a bit more emotional, and fearful.  Precaution before permissiveness should be humanity’s approach.

BBC: Synthetic life patents ‘damaging’

BBC: Scientists make ‘artificial life’

Earth’s ongoing nature losses may soon begin to hit national economies.  The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3), a major UN report, warns that some ecosystems may soon reach “tipping points” where they rapidly become less useful to humanity.  These tipping points include rapid dieback of forest, algal takeover of watercourses and mass coral reef death.

Ahmed Djoglaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), says “We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history – extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical background rate.”

“21% of all known mammals, 30% of all known amphibians, 12% of all known birds (and) … 27% of reef-building corals assessed … are threatened with extinction,” said Bill Jackson, deputy director general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The relationship between nature loss and economic harm is much more than just figurative, the UN believes.   An ongoing project known as The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is attempting to quantify the monetary value of various services that nature provides for us, such as purifying water and air, protecting coasts from storms and maintaining wildlife for ecotourism.  The rationale is that when such services disappear or are degraded, they have to be replaced out of society’s coffers.  TEEB has already calculated the annual loss of forests at $2 – 5 trillion, dwarfing costs of the banking crisis.

Humanity must stop consuming the planet.  We are consuming ourselves.

WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY?

• UN defines biodiversity as “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems”
• Considered to provide value to humanity in four ways:
• Provisioning – providing timber, fish, etc
• Regulating – disposing of pollutants, regulating rainfall
• Cultural – sacred sites, tourism, enjoyment of countryside
• Supporting – maintaining soils and plant growth

BBC: Nature loss ‘to damage economies’

CBD

Unep

IUCN

Red List

TEEB

The US government representatives have decided not to reform the financial system.  No surprise.  It was the richest that made the most from teh credit bubble of the 1990s/2000s and then got bailed out by the government rescue packages when the financial system imploded.  Why would they want to make it more difficult for themselves?

The only way to change the system is for individuals, you and me, to change the way we spend our money and time.  That means sharing more, taking less, and living more lightly.  But that enlightenment, which is happening, is difficult and takes time.  You can make a difference.

BBC: US Republicans block debate of finance rules reform

BBC: Goldman Sachs ‘misled investors’

The evidence has been revealed.  The bankers and investment managers that were looking after your cash in 2007, stole it. As the mortgage market crashed, the insiders sold the market short, and their clients.  The US Senate subcommittee has released more emails proving our conjecture made in 2007/2008 that the fiduciaries/regulators knew of the problems all along.

It wasn’t just in America – you can be sure that the same kind of immoral manipulation was occuring around the world.  We knew that the Irish banks sold their branches and leased them back in 2006/7 as the market peaked.

BBC: Goldman Sachs ‘profited at clients’ expense’

It wasn’t just bankers, we all played a part.  But top of the list of immoral players are fiduciaries.  The US Senate Subcommittee investigating the financial crash of 2007/8 highlighted emails by top investment bankers who were short selling the mortgage security market as it declined, while publicly obfuscating the hole in the financial system.  Not surprising, but infuriating and unethical.  Unfortunately not illegal.  And the system is not changing.  The global financial system is being resurrected as it was before with inherrent moral hazards.

Is there hope for change?  Yes, open media and personal choices about investment and consumption can change the system.  But that means all of us, individuals, must make more enlightened and less selfish choices.  And that is going to take time or catastrophe.

BBC: Goldman in crash profit boasts

BBC: Goldman Sachs ‘profited at clients’ expense’

It is sad news.  The internet is facilitating trade in endangered species.  I like the internet and I like nature, so it is painful to see that headline.

Of course, the internet, like money, is not evil, but can be used for evil as well as for good.  It reflects the values of the people that use it.  Overall the internet will promote positive values because it liberates information and communication.  And it lowers transaction costs.  Whether the behaviour of people trading endangered species changes may be influenced by the internet too, unfortunately even wealthy educated people often behave in a primitive way.  The sooner social leaders set the right example, the sooner behaviour will improve.

It’s still the same old story.  Despite economic recession, trillions of your euros, dollars, clams being spent to prop up the financial system, the prevalence of abuse by fiduciaries has not declined.  Bankers, stockbrokers, insurance companies, the whole lot of them (except, of course, the few with integrity, like you – ha ha) continue to nurture a system of inequity.

It is the system which is corrupt as long as the few good people allow themselves to play the game the same way as the majority of careless abusers.  Until we overcome the natural, primitive urges of greed and fear, the system will not operate with transparency and equity.

Another meltdown in the offing?  It’s happened before.

BBC: UK market abuse ‘unacceptably high’, says FSA boss

BBC: Lehman Brothers’ former heads criticised for lapses

A report on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy came out today.  It’s ancient history really, because to happened a year and a half ago.  But it’s relevant today to remind us of the obfuscation that we endure from banks, politicians, the boss and others.

Simply put, Lehaman fudged its financial performance by selling assets prior to a reporting date in order to improve its reported balance sheet and income statement.  Then after teh reporting date, borrowed to repurchase the assets, at a slightly higher price.  In other words, they paid someone to sweep the dust under the carpet for a few days.

There are some synopses of the story for finance geeks (like me?) here:

What’s in Repo 105 by FT/alphaville

Graphic: How “Repo 105? worked by Reuters

The moral of the story is that banks, fiduciaries, politicians are still playing the same old tricks.  It’s a bit like the Pope failing to atone for the abuse of children by priests also in the news today.  Nothing has changed and the consequences for the global economy, local economies and society will be dire.

A kind of open blog on financial markets.  Worth a browse.

Wikinvest

A good source of opinion on financial markets.

FT/alphaville