News, comments, musings, and items from here and there.

Strange situation the other day: In Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the temperature was 32, but in Orlando, Florida, on the heels of the FUN Convention, the temperature was 31. Moreover, not to be overlooked was a New England climate that was cooler than usual last summer, seems to have gathered no press or television interest on those who are bound to promote the idea of global warming. Logic is notably absent from all such discussions. The ethanol venture costing untold billions of dollars, raising the prices of corn and land, and producing fuel that costs more than gasoline, has to be one of the greatest business disasters ever-but little is said concerning it.

*****

Our congratulations to Victor England, Jr., who was recently honored at the annual Gala held by the American Numismatic Society at the Waldorf Astoria. A record attendance was on hand-180 people at $500 per seat, all to benefit the Society. A charity auction raised an additional $47,000. Your editor attended and had a great time, as did everyone.

*****

Explanation: Global share prices have risen “largely thanks to interest rates of one percent or less in America, Japan, Britain, and the Eurozone, which persuaded investors to take their money out of cash and to buy risky assets.” More: “Investors tempted to take comfort from the fact that asset prices are still well below their peaks would do well to remember that they may yet fall back a very long way. The Japanese stock market still trades at a quarter of the high it reached twenty years ago. The NASDAQ trades at half the level it reached during the dot.com mania. Today the prices of many assets are being held up by unsustainable fiscal and monetary stimulus. Something has to give.” (The Economist)

*****

Same idea but wrong identification: In my Coin World column on November 30th I misidentified an airship as the Graf Zeppelin when it should have been the Hindenburg.

*****

Different rules: “Nearly three years after Congress approved sweeping ethics rules to ‘drain the swamp,’ as incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, no member of Congress has been punished for wrongdoing.” However, last year alone there were 25 ethics inquiries. (USA Today)

*****

Makes sense to us: Headline from Bloomberg News: “Less Consumer Spending Reduces Growth.”

*****

Remember when? The Diners Club credit card business has been sold to the Bank of Montreal. In the 1960s this was one of the major credit cards, along with Carte Blanche. No one had ever heard of VISA or Master Card.

*****

Good luck to the American Numismatic Association on the idea of expanding the late winter Money Show, held in Fort Worth this year, to four days. The ANA will need it, in our opinion. It has been our experience that except for dealers and those who come for auction sales, nearly all collectors find one or two days quite enough to cover everything. In today’s world the old saying, “Time is money,” is more important than ever. Further, the extreme hassle of airline flying as opposed to the ease of “attending” a convention on the Internet is making a great change in our hobby.

*****

Hadn’t heard about this: Architect Santiago Calatrava has created designs, apparently ready to go before the current economy slump, for a “150-story luxury residential tower in Chicago.” (The Wall Street Journal)

*****

Dennis Tucker, who holds the title of publisher at Whitman Publishing LLC, sent an enthusiastic news release to eSylum the other day, stating that the new books of the company are doing very well, and many more titles are in the pipeline. It really is amazing that Whitman has created essentially enough new books to stock a good numismatic library, and F+W Publications has its share too. All of us in numismatics are very fortunate. Back in the 1950s, not even an average of one new book on American coins was released each year.

*****

Sounds fishy: GMAC is to get $3.5 billion in additional aid from the U.S. government on top of $2.5 billion already received since December 2008. This is because of “GMAC taking additional steps to absorb losses related to its mortgage operations.” (Wall Street Journal) What the heck was General Motors Acceptance Corporation doing in the real estate mortgage market? Weren’t they supposed to be financing automobiles? And now we, the taxpayers, have to pay for this stupidity.