“Something’s happening here / What is ain’t exactly clear.”

Ron Paul raised $6 million yesterday in the “most successful fundraising day in American political history.” Sure, it was geared as a massive one day fundraiser, but still, those numbers are impressive.

His campaign has gotten major traction from usually apolitical libertarian geeks like Chris Pirillo and Adam Curry. His campaign is flying under the radar, fueled by the net. Hey, geeks do know how to spread memes through cyberspace.

Rogers Cadenhead, like many on the left, isn’t sure whether to be appalled or excited.

I can’t decide whether that rave-like scene [the video of Paul breaking $12 million] is thrilling or terrifying.
…
I can’t say I’d vote for Paul — I’m a Democrat who still believes in the necessity of many federal programs he’d destroy — but I think he brings something important to our politics: a scalpel.

That’s the crux of it. Paul is saying things no other candidate is, about the size of government, personal freedom, and interventionism. That he is coming to these views from an extreme right viewpoint hasn’t really filtered out yet. But what he is saying is absolutely resonating with many. If his polls numbers keep rising and he looks to be a threat to the mainstream Republican candidates, his free pass will be over and the long knives will be out.

But for now, he’s a genuine phenomenon.

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The fine folks at Bluehost, our hosting service, quickly fixed the SQL problems and we’re back.

Burps happen,  fixing them is what counts. I never have to wait more than a few minutes on the phone with them, and the techs fix problems quickly. Can’t ask for more than that. (And problems are very infrequent.)

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The Financial Times has a quite understandable, informative article about the collapsing shadow banking system and how it is impacting real banks and the financial world at large.

How crazy did it get?

Satyajit Das, an author and derivatives industry expert, cites an example where just $10m of real, unlevered hedge fund money supports an $850m mortgage-backed deal. This means $1 of real money is being used to create $85 of mortgage lending.

Little of this was regulated, because CDOs and SIVs are not real banks. While this allowed them to do insane things, it also means that, unlike actual banks, they have no lender of last resort to bail them out.

But they were borrowing from real banks, who now will suffer real pain too.

Most of these vehicles, and the shadow banking sector as a whole, is supported by back-up liquidity lines with “real” banks – promises to lend money that bankers never imagined they would have to deliver on.

The rot is not just in the US. Municipalities in Australia may sue Lehman Brothers after CDOs Lehman sold to them are now worth pennies on the dollar. And a Canadian bail out by a consortium of banks has failed before it got started, just like the US effort (deemed by some as the “Save Citi plan”) also has.

Not only were municipalities buying this now toxic waste as supposedly safe investments, so were pension funds and enhanced money markets, maybe your pension fund…

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Four Bolivian regions declare autonomy from government

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Transit Oriented Development or “Smart Growth” is often cited as one of the potential solutions to dealing with peak oil by reducing suburban sprawl and creating more usage of mass transit and walkable communities. The idea generally is to promote development near existing transit hubs or along transit corridors.

Thus, a genuine community is created, with stores and services within walking distance. Crucial to the idea is having a train station in the middle of the town, with other forms of mass transit branching off from it.

The creation of compact, walkable communities centered around high quality train systems…makes it possible to live a higher quality life without complete dependence on a car for mobility and survival.

Principles of New Urbanism

Walkability. (10 minute walk to most things)
Connectivity. (make walking pleasurable, narrow streets on the periphery)
Mixed-use & diversity. (multi-cultural, all ages and incomes)
Mixed housing. (housing for all, not just the well-off)
Quality architecture & urban design. (”human scale architecture”)
Traditional neighborhood structure. (discernable edge and center, with public space in the center)
Increased density.
Smart transportation. (encourage bicycles, scooters, rollerblades as well as mass transit)
Sustainability.
Quality of life.

One of the central ideas here is that high-speed, modern trains can and should be used to move large numbers of people efficiently. NewTrains.org proposes a nationwide grid of such trains - as already exists in many parts of Europe and Japan.

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