Incredible Mistake

This story is in Spanish, but it is so good that I had to post the video here. Basically, the Romenian army wanted to help the humanitarian effort in Haiti by sending a battalion of mountain troops and 2,000 tons of supplies. However... their defense ministry messed up the names and sent everyone and everything to Tahiti instead!

I guess this is the kind of mess that we only expect to see in financial markets!

UPDATE: Just found out it was a hoax. I guess I should have done my due diligence better! :) Nice one though.

UPDATE2:  The story did appear in Spanish news, but THEY didn't do their due diligence. The story was in fact a hoax from a Romanian website. Nothing like blaming others... ;)

Spanish Mess

Paul Krugman has written a nice summary of how Spain has reached its current (poor) economic situation.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-euromess/

The comparison with Germany is also nice. We can definitely see all the rent income earned by Germans who invested in Spanish real estate. I bet that if we look at the UK we might see the same thing.

I wonder what will happen with the deficit as this rental income (due to smaller demand for real estate) goes down.

Financial Bets

This is funny: the directors of the Indianapolis Museum of Art waged an online bet with the New Orleans Museum of Art which depends on who wins the Super Bowl this Sunday (the Indiana Colts play the New Orleans Saints). The losing city will lend a good paiting to the winning one for three months (Indianapolis waged a Turner, while New Orleans waged a Claude Lorrain).

Here is a quick suggestion for how to solve the problem with the Chinese yuan overvaluation: if the US has more medals than China during the next Summer Olympic Games, the Chinese agree to revalue their currency by say 20%. If they lose, the US government refrains from calling for a revaluation for at least 20 years...

Something to Relax the Eyes

Possibly my favorite painting:

I really should have gone to the d'Orsay last time in Paris. I'll pay the National Gallery a visit next time I go to London to see its cousin.