Masood Mortazavi's Weblog

Wednesday January 10, 2007

[ Technology ] Patents on Financial Instruments

Many investment banks have filed U.S. patents on concepts for financial instruments, these patents have been filed on a vareity of instruments from derivatives to Islamic asset-based investments. Apparently such financial patents are not granted in Europe. It may be clear to some that if an instrument has a great market power, its exclusive availability to one firm can lead to particular instabilities when combined with unavailability to other firms of counter-instrument sor balancing instruments or instruments that "bet" in the same direction. This is a hypothesis worth studying but I think the investigation would be quite subtle and only simple cases can be modeled. Even so, the study of such cases can be illuminating. Economnic efficiency models suppose multiple actors capable of taking parallel actions to make corrections to market swings. Perhaps that story was simply what it was: a simple fiction.

2007-01-10 19:53:22.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
capital finance patents

[ History ] Modern Diplomacy

The "gunboat diplomacy" which was a constant feature of British Empire's 19th and 20th century dealings with Persia has been picked up for a dreamy revival by the new empire -- a dream that this time may prove ready to turn into a real nightmare! Other perspectives seeing recent developments in the U.S. occupation of Iraq can be found here, here, here and here. President Bush's speech can be found here. (Unfortunately, the latter speech blames others for the problems caused directly by the occupation and the consequent and gradual destruction of Iraq's civil society. It seems that Iraq must bleed more before it is left to its own account: "We must expect more American and Iraqi casualties"!) Financial Time's editorial about the same, can be found here. The Washington Post reports the story and some poll results here and elsewhere in an editorial. Unfortunately, the editorial, while advocating some pragmatism, accepts some of the fiction told earlier repeating several false mantras when it comes to the region.

The WP also carries Zbigniew Brzezinski's column analyzing the president's speech. Of the old guard of U.S. diplomacy, he has the keenest view of the trends in the region. He observes: "America is acting like a colonial power in Iraq. But the age of colonialism is over. Waging a colonial war in the post-colonial age is self-defeating. That is the fatal flaw of Bush's policy." [Some have produced evidence that Brzenzinski, who served in President Carter's administration, was the American diplomat who gave the green light to Saddam to attack Iran when Iran had disbanded its military after the revolution and the hostage crisis. See for example, Noam Chomsky's Towards a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There (1982 edition). So, Brzezinski is no dove.]

2007-01-10 18:53:09.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
boats guns imperial politics war

[ Travel ] Joobs of Tehran

Small water ways (joobs) have criss-crossed Tehran, from the time it was but a small village 250 years ago to the present, when it has become the indigenous metropolis of the Middle East. Better city planning during the Pahlavi regime, when the city experienced its initial, real growth into a modern metropolis, could have made these canals a more wonderful feature of the urban fabric. These short videos were taken experimentally with a Nikon digital photo camera during the last week of November, 2007. Since Tehran Metro has been built, the air pollution has seen a real reduction, and these water ways add a very nice natural touch to the urban landscape. They flow from the portion of Alborz Mountains range just north of Tehran. (Tochal the highest mountain just north of Tehran carries snow through the summer.) It is accessible directly from Tehran by one of the world's longest telecabins, and many use it for skiing in the winter time.