Bait And Switch: California High-Speed Rail to Nowhere

by testosteronepit

It started out benign enough. In November 2008, California voters passed Proposition 1A, which authorized the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to fund the first stage of a high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco, with extensions to San Diego and Sacramento. The project would cost $35.7 billion. The federal government would pick up a chunk. And it would be profitable.

High-speed rail works if it [...]

Scientists develop weight-loss chewing gum

(Relaxnews) – Diet and exercise may be the most common prescription for losing weight, but a team of US scientists believes they’re close to delivering a gum that can help users fight the battle of the bulge one chew at a time.

The key to the gum’s formulation is a hormone called human PYY that regulates appetite and energy and is released into the bloodstream when people eat or exercise, say [...]

EUROPAC: We Have Entered The First Of Four Phases That Will Destroy Fiat Money

by John Browne, EuroPac

Last week, the G-20 meetings did not produce an expanded bailout fund for the eurozone. While this may bode well for the long-term solvency of the member-states (moral hazard and all), it has also triggered a market reaction that I expect to help destabilize the common currency. Wednesday’s market moves suggested that this development is good for the dollar and bad for gold. Allow me to step back from [...]

Bank Of America Is Restructuring Its Retail Bank Division – Full Memo

by ZH

Any internal memo that is distributed on the last day of the week, and intercepted by American Banker at 5pm on a Friday, must surely be a portent of many good news for the bank which recently added a few trillion in derivative “assets” to match its OpCo deposit pool “liability”. We can only hope that as a result of the restructuring, the company’s retail banking website will no longer mysteriously [...]