The Guardian reports today:
It looks like the Titanic. It is meant to feel like the Titanic. But the Australian billionaire who on Tuesday unveiled blueprints for a successor ship to the doomed ocean liner is confident his dream project will not sink like the Titanic.
At a news conference in New York, mining tycoon Clive Palmer said his ambitious plans to launch a copy of the Titanic and sail her across the Atlantic would be a tribute to those who built and backed the original.
In completely unrelated news, The Wall Street Journal wrote this about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s recent Capitol Hill testimony:
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke came down firmly in favor of continuing the central bank’s bond-buying programs, even as he acknowledged concerns that the efforts might encourage risk-taking that could someday destabilize markets or the economy. … “Although a long period of low rates could encourage excessive risk-taking, and continued close attention to such developments is certainly warranted, to this point we do not see the potential costs of the increased risk-taking in some financial markets as outweighing the benefits of promoting a stronger economic recovery and more-rapid job creation,” he said. … Fed studies estimate that between 2008 and 2012 its bond buying increased the level of economic output by 3%, both by making it easier for households and businesses to borrow and by boosting stocks and household wealth.
In other news, The Wall Street Journal also reported:
Sales of new homes are surging in the U.S., far outpacing results for less expensive existing homes and creating an unusual disparity in the housing recovery.
The trend partly reflects the small inventory of previously owned homes, now at a 13-year low after investors picked over the long-depressed market. But the strong sales of new homes also show how the nation’s home builders have mastered the art of selling, even to cash-poor buyers or those with spotty credit histories.
Easy money, asset appreciation fueled-growth, government subsidies for no-money down home buyers. What could go wrong?
