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A well-known Russian journalist, head of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations  Oleg Panfilov in early November moved for permanent residency from Moscow to Tbilisi. In a conversation with journalists he explained that his decision was based on the fact that in Russia unknowns were constantly threatening him through the internet with physical lynching.

This news appeared on the internet on the 9th of November. To me this «news» was known two months ago: Oleg himself had told me about his desire to forsake Russia. In so doing no arguments in the form of threats did he name. I think

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John Riding, chief economist of RDQ Economics in New York, sits down with Michael Mackenzie, US markets correspondent of the Financial Times, to discuss Fed policy, inflation versus deflation and the US employment outlook.

Part 1: On Fed policy Riding says the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates until 2011 at the earliest. He says an extended period of easy monetary policy is laying the ground for the next bubble and that the Fed itself is engaged in the biggest carry trade out there through its policy of quantitative easing.

Click here or on the image below to view Part 1 of the interview.

Part 2: On the inflation versus deflation debate Riding says the debate between inflation and disinflation or potentially even deflation will be settled on the side of

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Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (MI) said on Tuesday that it anticipates a third-quarter loss due primarily to a higher loan loss provision for bank holding company loans.   The company expects to report a loss of 68 cents to 70 cents per share for the quarter as its allowance for loan and lease losses as a percentage of total loans and leases is expected to rise slightly over 3%.   The firm said that it will make a loan loss provision of $390 million to $400 million for the quarter and would make a special provision of about $185 million for certain bank holding company loans.   As a result of delays in raising capital, deterioration in loan portfolios and regulatory actions against some bank holding companies, total amount of loan and lease losses for the quarter are expected to range between $575 million and $585 million.   The ...

US Bancorp (USB) on Friday said it will start accepting California state-issued IOUs or registered warrants from customers as deposit from Sept. 8. It will receive IOUs till the close of business on Friday, Oct. 9 and credit interest owed on the IOUs to customers’ accounts within 30 days of the deposit.

The IOUs will only be accepted into accounts opened before Aug. 31, 2009 and third-party registered warrants will not be accepted. This accommodation for clients will not include correspondent banks, money service businesses or any client engaged in purchasing or consolidating registered warrants for deposit. The bank will also advise customers on redeeming the papers directly with the State Treasurer’s Office.

Last week, Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC) said they will also start accepting the warrants, after discontinuing the practice in early July. These actions by three major banks would make

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Good late morning, afternoon from Washington DC.  Before I make my way out to the airport to fly back home to London, I thought I would catch up on some of the weekend's news.Speaking of travel, over the years our correspondent in Russia, Grigory Pasko, has done an inordinate amount of reporting on this blog about the unfortunate conditions of the roads in so many parts of the regions.  Though perhaps peculiar to an outsider, anyone who has traveled to Russia and bothered to get outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, would understand our fixation on this routine minutae of transportation infrastructure. By comparison, I recall driving along ...

by Edward Hugh: : L'Escala de Empordàbr /br /According to a once-upon-a-time post on the Economist's a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2007/07/a_fistful_of_reply.cfm#list-comments"Certain Ideas of Europe Blog/a Edward Hugh “was very cross” about some of the journalism they were serving up over at that prestigious journal. Well, not to worry, since this time he is hopping mad. And the issue which lies behind his wrath is essentially the same one, how to interpret and understand the demographic processes which are currently so evidently affecting our societies. In what is simply the latest episode in a long and sorry saga (if you want documentation, please see the comments Claus Vistesen and I nailed to their "Wall" in the above linked post) this week's print issue contains a href="http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14164483"a research review from their science and technology correspondent/a who is evidently not backward in coming forward with headline grabbing claims. According to the said corresponedent the demographic transition ...

Movie Review: ‘Hangover’

After all, who hasn’t woken up in a trashed Las Vegas hotel suite with a missing tooth, a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and little or no memory of what happened the night before?

Director Todd Phillips and screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore take this familiar “What happens in Vegas … ” idea to bold new heights — or depths, depending on your perspective — with a comedy that stays weird and wild for the first two-thirds, only to disappoint in the final act.

Structurally, though, it’s based on a clever concept: Three guys take their buddy Doug (Justin Bartha) to Vegas for a bachelor party right before his wedding. When they wake up the morning after their bacchanal, they realize the groom is missing — and that’s only the beginning of their trouble.

As they nurse their pounding

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The financial debate during the past few days was dominated by President Obama’s sweeping revamp of financial market supervision, and this issue also occupies a number of slots in today’s Video-o-rama.

But it was not all about regulation, as pundits were also trying to figure out whether there were in fact economic “green shoots” and what the implications for financial markets might be. Commentators include Michael Lewis, John Rogers, Robert Kleinschmidt, Jack Welch, Barry Ritholtz, Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Roach, Mario Gabelli and George Friedman.

The compilation kicks off with author Michael Lewis discussing his article “The End of Wall Street”, and concludes with a fascinating analysis of the Iranian situation by George Friedman of Stratfor, geopolitical analysts.

You Tube: Michael Lewis - the end of Wall Street? “Author Michael Lewis discusses how his experience working at Salomon Brothers and writing Liar’s Poker influenced his article, ‘The End of Wall

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Recent stories about Russian passports being distributed in Crimea, Ukraine have raised quite a ruckus. But that doesn't seem to be the only place in the Ukraine with some ethnic nationalism issues, and a new report we've translated from Izvestiya after the jump tells the story of Moscow's possible assistance to the Ruthenians - an ethnic group located in Transcarpathia, the western-most Oblast of the country, near the Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian, and Romanian borders. For centuries, the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and known as Subcarpathia. (Everything depends on where you’re looking from: if your vantage point is Vienna or Budapest, the region is in the foothills “below” the Carpathian mountains, hence “Subcarpathia”. But if you’re looking from Moscow or Kiev, it’s on the “other side” of ...