duh

one of the smartest and most obvious things that i heard last month was that to think about interest rates, you have to look at whats in the CPI. It was so obvious but something i had not bothered to take apart and think about for a while - since ECON 101, in high school. I'm not an economist and the point is not to actually look at inflation or interest rates but more that sometimes, the answer is really right in front of you, you're just not looking. It seems as though in life we all just muck around a lot because we are too lazy to be analytical. Or, we just dont want to deal with reality and so complain instead. Not that i have anything to complain about today. Just a thought, really.

Spain's parliament passed a resolution granting legal rights to apes. They basically argue that apes are genetically very close to humans, that they are capable of emotions, etc etc. What exactly does this mean though? And, given that apes cant speak, how will we know when it wants to assert its rights to whatever? I suppose that this now means that, for example, we can't harm apes in Spain or it is a criminal offense, but still - who draws the lines and how?

My brain is basically dead and i have a 930 mtg in the morning. Not that sleep is an option. What self respecting night owl would sleep at such an early hour?

Other random economics-related thoughts. Over 70% of US GDP is from consumer spending. What a number. And what a contraction everyone is in for. I love the term brics. Never remember to use it but always smile when it comes up.

Reading a book called Blubberland. It's talks about the excess in the (developed) world and the idea that the more we have, the more we want and how our insatiable appetites are, well, insatiable and counter-productive. I love its chapter on beauty and how we've basically done away with it (or we did away with it through the modernist movement). i love how i went from reading "On Ugliness" to this, because i was tired, and ended up ready on beauty nonetheless. Elizabeth Farrelly writes a mile a minute with more references than cartoons on a saturday morning but its fun to read nonetheless. Love the rant on architecture...

OK well now i've completely realized that not only am i not making any sense now, i obviously was not reading very well yesterday as i have no real recollection of what i read. Time, perhaps, for a cup of tea.