The Big Picture

---

• Systemic Risk, International Regulation, and the Limits of Coordination
• Apple MacBook Air Design Flaw
• More Food For Thought (& Eating)
• In 27 States, Unemployment At Lowest Levels in 4 Years
• 10 Friday AM Reads
• Military Law Expert: Obama Should Pardon Snowden

Systemic Risk, International Regulation, and the Limits of Coordination Posted: 28 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST

Apple MacBook Air Design Flaw Posted: 27 Dec 2013 11:30 AM PST Dear Sirs, I want to bring to you're attention a terrible design floor in the MacBook Air laptop: Its power switch. Unlike the MacBoook Pro that it replaced, someone at Apple placed the on/off switch as part of the keyboard. This is a terrible idea. It makes the laptop that much less usable, less efficient and less pleasant to work with. To be blunt, it represents a terrible compromise of utility for the sake of symmetry and appearances. It is very unApple like. I don't care of you are the world's greatest typist, eventually, you will accidentally brush this key with your right hand pinkie or ring finger. If you are lucky, you can flip the lid closed, wait a few beats, reopen it, and then enter your password. If the silicon Gods are smiling on you, you can proceed normally. Most of the time, however, you must reboot the entire machine, while muttering "WTF was Jony Ive thinking?" under your breath. Genius? Hardly. Making the matter worse, there is no software over ride. I cannot program this key to require a "2 second hold" before taking effect, or even a double click – just the merest wisp of an errant touch ends my session of work. The good news is twofold: Its a solid state machine, so it reboots quickly. And, when the reboot comes up, all of your work seems to have been saved. In other words, this terrible hardware design is made less painful by an excellent software design. Thank goodness for small favors. The on/off is immediately above the very commonly used delete/backspace key, thereby making this error all but inevitable, and revealing its inventor as utterly clueless about Human ergonomics. What makes this so stunning is it comes from a company that, since my MacClassic in 1989, seemed to anticipate, rather than thwart, my intentions. I have two new laptops to buy for work in January, and while my original plan was to add more MacBook Airs, this flaw makes that much less likely to occur. Note this was typed on an iMac, which means that I actually go to finish it in one streak, without being interrupted by a poorly designed, poorly placed on off key. Here's hoping you get your shit together soon,   Barry Ritholtz ~~~   Designed in California by people who apparently have never typed . . .

More Food For Thought (& Eating) Posted: 27 Dec 2013 08:30 AM PST Very cool infographic from the Economist, showing improvements in food availability worldwide:   The world has become better fed over the past 50 years Click for an interactive graphic. Source: Economist

In 27 States, Unemployment At Lowest Levels in 4 Years Posted: 27 Dec 2013 07:30 AM PST From the Washington Post: Unemployment has reached multi-year lows in 27 states, a bit of positive news for state labor markets that are still struggling through a mild recovery.   Click for an interactive map. Source: Washington Post

10 Friday AM Reads Posted: 27 Dec 2013 05:00 AM PST Happy Merry! Some expertly curated reads to end your light, holiday shortened week: • Bullishness Jumps to Three-Year High (WSJ) but see Mom and Pop Wary of Stocks (WSJ) • Bob Peck's Top 10 Disruptive Themes for 2014 (Reformed Broker) • Sorry, haters: Unloved stocks had a great year (MarketWatch) • Abenomics Drives Japan Hedge Funds to World's Top Performers (Bloomberg) • Fed wins battle of the exit – for now (FT) • Why Gold Would Be Useless in an Economic Apocalypse (The Atlantic) • Bank Of America Economist Torpedoes One Of The Main Arguments For Impending Inflation (Business Insider) • Send in the Drones? Retailers Ruined This Christmas (Daily Beast) see also Final Tally For All The Amazon Shopping This Holiday Season (Business Insider) • The Year We Broke the Internet (Esquire) • The Least Important Writers of 2013 (Gawker) What are you reading?   10 Year Treasury Yield Touches 3% Source: WSJ

Military Law Expert: Obama Should Pardon Snowden Posted: 26 Dec 2013 10:15 PM PST How Can Obama Let Criminals Like Clapper Go … Yet Go After Snowden? Professor Jonathan Turley is one of the nation's top military and constitutional law experts. Turley: Has held a top-secret clearance since the Reagan administration Is the second most cited law professor in the country Has worked as both the CBS and NBC legal analyst during national controversies Ranks 38th in the top 100 most cited 'public intellectuals' in a recent study by a well-known judge Is one of the top 10 lawyers handling military cases Has served as a consultant on homeland security and constitutional issues Is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues Turley writes today in the Los Angeles Times: It may be time for President Obama to show real leadership and acknowledge that Snowden is the reason for the current reform push. It may be time to pardon Edward Snowden. *** Snowden is a better candidate for clemency than many believe. A presidential pardon is not an endorsement of the underlying actions of an individual. To the contrary, the vast majority of pardons follow criminal convictions. Rather, pardons are issued because of mitigating or extenuating circumstances. *** Sometimes clemency is a way of healing a national divide or bringing closure to a national controversy. George Washington pardoned all of those in the Whiskey Rebellion, and John Adams considered it in "the public good" to pardon Pennsylvania rebels. Likewise, Gerald Ford did not condone the crimes of Richard Nixon, but he viewed a pardon as in the best interest of the country. Presidential pardons can be issued at any time after an alleged offense, even before a person is charged or convicted. Such was the case with Jimmy Carter's pardon of draft dodgers and Ronald Reagan's pardon of the six officials accused in the Iran-Contra affair. When considered in light of the thousands of past pardon and commutation recipients, Snowden compares favorably. *** Snowden faced a system that was entirely uninterested in, if not outright hostile to, hearing about abuses. Indeed, various people had tried to raise questions about the extent of government surveillance in previous years. I represented one prior NSA whistle-blower who disclosed the massive surveillance program, but the public ignored him and he was threatened with arrest. *** A pardon would demonstrate to both Americans and our allies that the White House is serious about reform, and accepts responsibility for the abuses that have been documented.Finally, a pardon would resolve a glaring contradiction in how the White House has dealt with alleged crimes by national security officials. After all, this is the president who pledged early in his first term that no CIA employee would be investigated, let alone prosecuted, for the Bush torture program. Likewise, no one was prosecuted when CIA officials admitted destroying torture tapes to avoid their use in any future prosecution. Finally, when the NSA program was raised in public, National Intelligence Director James Clapper appeared before Congress and lied about the program. He later said that he gave the least untruthful statement he could think of. But it was nevertheless untrue and potentially a crime for which he could be prosecuted. *** [Snowden] certainly deserves the same consideration in disclosing abuses that Obama officials received in concealing them from the public. Indeed, the calls for Clapper's head are growing louder by the day. If he remains unprosecuted, so should Snowden …

You are subscribed to email updates from The Big Picture To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

.