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Jacques Martin, Operation Thor and monetary weapon

One of the main authors of the Franco-Belgian comics, Jacques Martin (nothing to do with the former host of comic trooper Newshound (Oh), but also "under your applause" (euuuuuuu !!)), just left us.

Although I have no particular desire to feed heading necro , having already written a post about the death of Samuelson - excellent economist, but I think worse comic, comics anyway Samuelson are much less known - I can hardly resist the urge to talk a little about him. He is particularly known for a series loved by teachers of history, "Alice", and to a lesser extent for another round accents jacobsiens (P E. Jacobs, the author of Blake and Mortimer, undisputed master of the Franco-Belgian comic book with Hergé), "Lefranc".

Well, to be honest, if I still enjoyed some of the works of this author, we must recognize that, as the Hergé had made it clear early in his career, I think it was initially quite poor designer ... But this is hardly charitable to start as my post, especially since its rigor and hard work have enabled him to compensate his departure a little difficult.

What relationship between Jacques Martin and the economy you say? At least one ...

He indeed made a few years ago an album in the series Lefranc, entitled "Operation Thor." In this story with multiple plot twists, he envisages an attack on a country, namely the U.S., not by bombs or other foot soldiers armed to the teeth but by the dumping massive amounts of counterfeit currency. Why?

Ben, even a cartoonist can intuitively understand the quantity theory of currency: if we increase the money supply in astronomical proportions, all things being equal, induce hyperinflation (for those who know about all voulent hyperinflation, see here)!

The quantity theory of money is very simple and ancient, though its modern formulation is attributed to Irving Fisher (1908). It simply says that the value of income, that is to say economic transactions (eg about 2000 billion Euros in France for 2009) carried out during a given period is carried out with cash money. These species monetary is simply all of the money supply existing at any time (it's a stock of coins, notes and especially money) used during the period. For example for the eurozone money supply (as defined M3) is about 9500 billion and a GDP of 9.3 trillion euros in rated (watch it flow, whereas money supply is a stock). Approximately every euro of the money stock (which itself evolves meem each year, particularly in relation to the policy of the European Central Bank) is used about once to make transactions during a year (just under actually).

Assuming that the rate of use of a unit of currency does not change much in the short term (what economists call the velocity of money), and the volume of transactions is relatively stable, then any increase in money supply will result in higher prices. This idea is at least as old as economics itself, since Richard Cantillon seems to me he used this argument to denounce the dangers of stockpiling gold plundered from the New World by Kingdoms Spain and Portugal. Indeed, increasing amounts of gold in circulation could only lead to an increase in the prices of goods and therefore not represented in any increase in wealth ... It's basically one of the key theses of the Nobel Prize economist Milton Friedman, who wrote in 1976 " inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon .

is the basic idea of this operation Thor, in which an evil world-class climbs operation massive spill of counterfeit currency in the U.S..

In fact, Jacques Martin was inspired by an episode known World War II, Operation Bernhard, the name of a German officer who had assembled a team of forgers and had managed to distribute nearly 140 million pounds in the completely false British territory ... This incredible adventure is told here . The objective of the Germans was thus cause a panic similar to that resulting from the hyperinflation experienced by these same Germans during the Weimar Republic in 1923 (see photo below).

often used the phrase "economic weapon", but to divert the words of Clausewitz, who wrote that "the war continues the policy by other means ", as some have apparently thought that the economy conitnuait war by other means ... Moreover, as seems to Blueberry to the Spectre Golden Balls (Plate 43, the third box):

"Blood and guts! And if this operation Bernhard had helped revive the British economy with a massive injection of money? What an irony of history ... "

Bob Xl Vancouver Punch Bag

The hidden agenda in the purchase of Point Lepreau

targets hidden in the purchase of Point Lepreau

At a time when Canada, the United States, Germany, France and all nuclear countries are wondering what to do with their nuclear waste to toxic thousands of years;

At a time when cases of radioactive contamination reported by the media flourish and French nuclear giant Areva is accused of knowingly exposed its workers and local populations in Gabon and Niger at very high levels of radioactivity;

At As the world faces a looming shortage of uranium to fuel its reactors and when China built many plants without knowing where it will source its scarce because deposits are not even sufficient for current needs;

At where water resources must be protected and where the nuclear industry uses and contaminates vast amounts of water to cool its reactors;

At a time when green energies such as wind and solar power are making progress spectacular in their efficiency and have become real economic alternatives ;

At a time when private investors are willing to assume the financial risks of nuclear adventure and that all new power projects are rejected by U.S. law;

At a time when independent medical studies show beyond any doubt, the serious harm to human health in all activities of the nuclear industry, forcing more and more doctors and civic groups to speak out against this industry

At where the threat of proliferation of plutonium for nuclear weapons is at its peak and it is recognized that the civil and military sectors are inseparable;

How the Charest government can consider getting a good deal by acquiring the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant , the same one that almost caused the bankruptcy of New Brunswick Power? It is true that this transaction would allow NB Power to Hydro-Quebec to advantageously position to export energy to the United States. However, in light of the considerations listed here, one wonders if the government seeks other goals undisclosed to the public?

Presumably, the purchase of Point Lepreau complicate the task of those who want to stop the project of rebuilding the Gentilly II and finally to its decommissioning Quebec completely out of the production of nuclear energy.
Moreover, the need to supply two nuclear power would justify the exploration and exploitation of uranium in Sept-Iles, in the Otish Mountains and elsewhere in Quebec, without regard for those who are calling for a moratorium or a law prohibiting such activities.

Finally, since the government of Quebec should managing radioactive waste from its two plants, it could decide to adjust its territory, a permanent storage site for nuclear waste. This site could, for that matter, receive radioactive waste from Canada and why not, other countries that would pay top dollar to get rid of.

decidedly advantageous positioning of Hydro-Quebec on the North American energy is the coating of large iodine pills hard to swallow. Nicole Beland

, B.Sc. Geology
Longueuil

Masterbation In Public Shower

3D TV, war (s) of standards and coordination games

industry image and sound just emerged from a bloody war on the adoption of technical standards for high definition players - the famous war between Bluray and HD DVD - primarily between Sony and Toshiba, the first having come to prevail ... This war has not been without cost from the rest, the long period of cohabitation standards have led to some indecision on the part Consumers still hindering the purchase of bluray players, consumers preferring to remain shivering on the good old DVD players, also ever more efficient and less expensive.
Partly to boost sales of bluray players (end 2009, approximately 50 million players sold worldwide, up sharply, but apparently did not offset the decline in purchasing DVD players in particular) manufacturers have had the idea to engage in the production of 3D technologies, Blu-ray technology being the only one capable of withstanding the amount of data needed to store high definition movies in 3D (technically, to achieve the 3D, we must the film is stored twice on the disc, once for the left eye and once for the right eye so that the famous impression of relief is possible). The famous James Cameron's Avatar anticipates that this technology could be both used in cinemas but also in our modest homes with very short term we are told televisions 3D. Sony CEO Howard Stringer has also recently said "The train of 3D is on track and we are ready to bring it to homes."
However, it appears that industry, far from having learned from the previous standards war, want to again do battle, two 3D technologies is apparently possible (see here ). The first is defended primarily by Sony (well, well ... already the protagonist of the last war) and the second by Panasonic. Behind this war "high tech" future lies is a war ongoing between technologies high definition television using plasma (Panasonic and LG mainly) or liquid crystal display (LCD), which is one of the main promoters. ... Sony.
To summarize, because of a technical point of view I do not know much, Panasonic defends the 3D camera through a 3D double objective while Sony is promoting a 3D camera with single objective.
From an economic standpoint, this is a situation studied by industrial organization known as the standards war (See for example what say Carl Shapiro and Hal Varaine in the book "Information rules: A Strategic Guide to Network Economy).
As often in the recent industrial organization, this situation is analyzed using tools from game theory, cooperative or uncooperative. The game of standardization described a noncooperative game between two firms that defend each standard, each with an interest in what their technology is ultimately the only one to be adopted. For those unfamiliar with the game, I can describe it briefly, resuming the presentation Thierry Pénard in fact, a colleague, there :
If we have two firms, each defending a technological standard, we can assume that the network effect will be maximized if manufacturers were able to implement a common standard, which would stimulate demand. Obviously the original proponent of the common standard would gain more than its rival. The worst situation is one in which each firm would adopt the technical standard of the other (which makes little sense but ...) and an intermediate situation is one in which the two standards coexist, as in the situation that prevailed before Toshiba épongue drops on HD DVD standard and the final adoption of bluray as a common standard. The game can be described as:

This game is a coordination game in which two Nash equilibria in pure strategies exist, each corresponding to an equilibrium situation in which a single common standard, and also a mixed strategy equilibrium in which each firm chooses its own standard with a probability of 4 / 5. Good reader notes that the highest level of welfare would be achieved (assuming that the gain to consumers is identical in all contingencies) with a single standard. So after such a game is quite undetermined, except that it is unlikely that two standards coexist for very long. That's what often shown as the recent history of audio-video technologies, one of two (sometimes three) standard eventually prevail at the end of a war a few years (VHS vs. Betamax, DVD-R vs. DVD + R vs. DVD-RAM, CD MiniDisc cons, BR vs HD DVD etc. ..). In fact, I realize that the predictive scope, leaving me a bit overwhelmed by the enthusiasm is not so bad: he finally (almost) always be a common standard, even if it takes time!
But interest is also to see the side of consumers and producers not only technology. They also benefit from network externalities ( player, did not you frequently cursed your friend (s) to have a friend DVD-R + when you had a DVD player monosize -R-and you really wanted to see the last episode of Derrick?? ) and actually have an interest in technology is only available on the market. We will assume, probably unfair, but successfully defended by Brian Arthur in the famous metaphor of QWERTY vs. QWERTY, no technology is truly better than another and that the surplus is removed by each consumer depends not the standard ultimately adopted, but only the number of consumers who use technology with me.
Suppose we have two consumers, utility and Their functions can be described as the world's easiest writing Ui = x + a (s) where Ui is the utility of consumer i, s is the total number of consumers using a certain technological standard (may be equal to 1 or 2) with the constraint that each consumer uses one of two technologies, x and has two positive parameters irrelevant for now. For example, consider that Ui is equal to 10 +0.7 sec Notes Well, reader, that the utility function is increasing in s. The game in its strategic form can be represented as follows:

Again, we are dealing with a coordination game (a game with a multiplicity of equilibria in pure strategies), a standard is finally chosen if we consider the Nash equilibrium in pure strategies (two possibilities). There is also a Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies, in which each consumer chooses a standard with a probability of 0.5. As in the previous game in the situation of the game producers, the outcome remains relatively unknown.
In this very simple, what will happen, the balance of choice is relatively unknown? An interesting article by C. Ruebeck et al. Published in 2003 in Southern Economic Journal, "Network Externalities and Standardization: A Classroom Demonstration " gives us some indications. Basically, they play a class of 15 students the game I just described with different parameters, the game presented at time involving only two players. The utility function written as above but with the following parameterization Ui = 20 + 2 (s). In this game, if the 15 participants chose the same standard, their utility for each is 20 +2 (15) 50, which gives property to be 15 * 50 = 750. If 7 choose one of the standards and the remaining eight the other standard, then those who chose the standard 1 will each win 20 +2 (7) or 34 and the other 8 will each win 20 +2 (8) or 36 points. Total welfare will be 7 * 34 + 8 * 36 or 526 points. There is therefore good in their game a loss of welfare relating to the allocation of consumers between the two standards, network effects are considerably weakened in this coexistence standards. The standards are not described as such in the choice, participants must choose different colored cards (orange or purple) and the gain of each participant is a function of the total number of cards selected in a particular color. I'll just give the main results of the treatment "simultaneous" in which participants make a choice of color at the same time and then have to make a game of pure coordination. They are listed in the table below, taken from the article cited:

In concurrent processing, the game is repeated 10 times (in exactly the same conditions). One might think that this number of periods is too low to observe any convergence, but a solid experimental literature on coordination games shows that in fact the players tend to converge quickly to a balance and they do not move easily, even if you repeat the game 100 times, as did Duffy & Hopkins in 2005. The document 10 periods may be sufficient to say something interesting. What is spectacular here is that the balance that seems to appear is the mixed strategy equilibrium, with about half the participants chose "orange" and the other half "purple", repetition hardly alter this proportion (such as number of participants is odd, we can have a frequency 50% for each standard, but does not baffle the reader, 7 / 15 or 8 / 15 is pretty close to 0.5 right?). In fact, a result very often highlighted in the experimental literature on coordination games (see Ochs 1995 in the Handbook of experimental economics): players randomize their strategies in coordination games these fairly consistent with theoretical predictions given by the Nash equilibrium mixed strategy. This strategy of randomization leads to an aggregate level that the frequency of a particular choice is close to the probability of such a choice of a theoretical perspective.
What conclusion? That, as an economist, it is not very wise too mock the concept of equilibrium in mixed strategies by presenting it as a form of rationality rather "curious" a theoretical point of view: agents seem to actually "randomize" their strategy in coordination situations difficult. Moreover, manufacturers of these new 3D technologies should also consider that consumers in these situations of coexistence of different standards, are logically undecided, and they are choosing a technology much like they would play at once. Moreover, if a bit risk averse, which is the case for most of us (geeks being a relatively small fraction of the population), the status quo and waiting is probably preferable. That is exactly what is happening with the delays in the widespread support Bluray. Far from having learned their lesson, industrialists unhappy and wanting to revive this disappointment technology bluray, then likely undergo another disappointment on the issue of 3D they do not make a greater effort of coordination now.

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Feature: How To Save Energy At Home?

If this century is that of comfort and well-being, it is also one of urgency, particularly in environmental matters. The worsening of the greenhouse effect pushes us to reconsider our daily habits. Because household consumption is not a drop of water: it represents 47% of the energy produced in France (2006). Detailed review on these economies that everyone can achieve.



In terms of heating, control, save it

Stop overheating: a living room at 19 ° C, room 16 ° C can already reduce average consumption of 7 %. Similarly, hot water should not exceed 60 ° C, may affect the longevity of a water heater.
In 2006, energy consumption in primary residences was divided as follows: 65% heating, 16% for specific electricity (mainly electrical), 12% for hot water and 7% for cooking. (key figures of the building, Centre for Studies and Economic Research on Energy - 2006 )
Regular maintenance of the boiler generates a saving of 8% to 12% of energy consumed.
After 20 years of loyal service, it is wise to opt for models condensing or low temperature can save up to 20% on your order (15% to 20% with a condensing model 12% to 15% with a low temperature model).
Several tricks can automatically manage climate variability, and therefore to optimize the role of heaters. Thermostatic valves for radiators, but also regulatory systems controlling the heating or timer, hours to suit people of a home, provide substantial reductions of at least 10%.
The thermal insulation should not be overlooked. The roof to the walls, through the floor and windows - preferably equipped with double glazing - the seal is guaranteeing savings in all parts of a home.
Naturally, when possible, heating Wood has an advantage: renewable energy for sustainable economies ...

specific Electricity: extra stubborn habits!

the hit parade of big consumers can find the refrigerator (1000 kWh per year), the freezer and lighting (500 kWh per year), before the washing machine, dryer, dishwasher and equipment hi-fi. Some tips for using less electricity
• The first instinct is to move, acquisition, towards efficient appliances, indicated by the letter A on the new energy label. •
Lighting should be rethought, with the purchase of light bulbs. Five times less intensive, but a period eight times higher than the "classic", they divide by four spending lighting a home ... enough to justify their prices a little higher for purchase.
• Finally, we must remember that leaving appliances on standby consumption is a - totally unnecessary - 500 kWh per year.

The hot water, under the sun

CESI, individual solar water heaters, allows all occupants of a dwelling, across France, covering 50% to 70% of their needs hot water. Reliable, easy maintenance, this equipment shall in addition, tax credits, but also aid communities and organizations that promote specific installation (regions, departments, National Housing Agency ...)
associated with heating, sometimes enhanced with underfloor heating, solar system combined allows him to meet 25% to 60% of the needs for hot water and heating, depending on region and size of the facility.
Choice thermal sensors, based necessary dimension of the geographical area, qualified professionals in solar : All information on 0810 060 050 (space "individuals" from ADEME).
More info on state aid for investment in "sustainable" about: http://www.industrie.gouv.fr/energie/
developed / econo / Text / action-ee.htm or www . ademe.fr under "finance your projects."