[1] Ever since I encountered pictures of this homey public library, I want to go to Amsterdam to pay a visit. Very beautiful. I wouldn't mind doing what the folks in the middle of this photo are doing either, or taking a nap over here after an afternoon of reading!

Apart from Amsterdam library visits, I also want to go to Istanbul. Pamuk's book of the same title seemed to have infected me with a huzun for that city of domes, spires, and waters. But since I can't, that lovely track first heard on the soundtrack of the movie, "Edge of Heaven"

But in the spirit of travel, self is headed out to the hills of New York later this afternoon. Yupiee!

[2] Ignoring that it is a case of the pot calling itself black, this sobering article by Morgan Stanley's former chief economist provides some clues (and food for thought) on the current American economic downturn/ recession/ clusterfuck/ what-have-you. The best quote (with the funny/ironic bits in bold):

"At the root of the problem was America’s audacious shift from income- to asset-based saving. The US consumer led the charge, with trend growth in real consumer demand hitting 3.5% per annum in real terms over the 14-year interval, 1994 to 2007 – the greatest buying binge over such a protracted period for any economy in modern history. Never mind a seemingly chronic shortfall of income generation, with real disposable personal income growth averaging just 3.2% over the same period.

American consumers no longer felt they had to save the old-fashioned way – they drew down income based saving rates to zero for the first time since the Great Depression. And why not? After all, they had uncovered the alchemy of a new asset-based saving strategy – first out of equities in the latter half of the 1990s and then out of housing in the first half of the current decade. Laxity in regulatory and supervisory oversight, in conjunction with excessive monetary accommodation,¹ led to an explosion of free and easy credit that turned out to be the icing on the cake."

All these folks should be made to read Charles Dickens's "David Copperfield", where Mr. Micawber saith to young David, "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery."

[1] I nearly drenched my keyboard with coffee when I read this gem. Looke who is speaking of regulation!