As Chris Joye notes, the proposed design ‘directly dishonours the agreement he struck with Macquarie Bank’s Rory Robertson’ to wear a t-shirt that read ‘I was hopelessly wrong on house prices.  Ask me how’.

Since joining the euro zone, the 16 euro countries have violated the deficit rule, under which net new debt cannot exceed 3 percent of GDP, 43 times. Most of the infractions have occurred in the last two years. Greece is at the top of the list of violators. Only once did the country manage to push its deficit rate below the magic limit, and only with an extremely creative trick: The Greeks sugarcoated their statistics by including prostitution, black-market trade and gambling in the calculation of economic output. As a result, GDP rose by a stunning 25 percent in 2006, and the deficit dropped to 2.9 percent.

While this is a remarkable story coming from Der Spiegel, the authors still can’t quite come to terms with giving up on the euro, suggesting that its problems could be solved through a common financial policy and an IMF-like European Monetary Fund.  Still, as Anne Appbaum notes, opinion in Germany is shifting.

2. Cash for Corfu.

3. Axel Weber and Philipp Hildebrand versus Olivier Blanchard.  See also Phil Lowe for further Blanchard repudiation.

4. Bill Emmott and Wolfgang Munchau as bumptious prats.

5. Hayek’s lessons for Kevin Rudd.

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether hedge funds might have banded together to drive down the value of the euro, people familiar with the matter say.

In a letter last week, the department has asked hedge funds including SAC Capital Advisors LP, Greenlight Capital Inc., Soros Fund Management LLC and Paulson & Co. to retain trading records and emails relating to the euro, say people who have seen the letter.

The letter was dated Feb. 26, the same day a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal outlined a large bet being made in recent weeks by heavyweight hedge funds against the euro, in moves that are reminiscent of the trading action at the height of the financial crisis like bets against Lehman Brothers and other troubled firms…

The Justice Department’s letter said the antitrust division “has opened an investigation into agreements among various hedge funds that trade euro contracts,“ including contracts to trade euros in the “cash or the derivatives market,“ a person familiar with the matter says.

The letter requested that the funds “preserve all documents” and electronic communications relating to agreements to trade the euro or communications about agreements to trade currencies, the person says.

As the article notes, the US authorities have a dismal track record in bringing successful prosecutions in these matters, suggesting that bureaucratic intimidation has become an end in itself.

Electronic Frontiers Australia on Facebook police.

The documentary that asks why parents aren’t rioting in the streets.

a Centrebet regular, has staked just short of $30,000 on the Reserve Bank sitting on its hands.

If at 2.30pm the bank announces its board has decided to keep rates on hold, he will walk away with a profit of $21,000. If it puts rates up, he will say goodbye to $29,500.

‘'He is very confident. He placed four separate bets, continuing to pile in as the odds went down,‘’ said Centrebet’s Neil Evans.

‘'Another punter staked $5000 on there being no change, another $3500.

‘'It’s the house against the punters. I am hoping they don’t know something I don’t.‘’

They didn’t.

This lack of timeliness in compiling and releasing inflation data gives monetary policy a backward-looking bias.  Around 45 per cent of the changes in the official interest rate since 1990 have been announced at the Board meeting immediately following the quarterly CPI release.  During the 2002-08 tightening episode, 67 per cent of rate hikes followed this pattern, including every one of the six tightenings between May 2006 and February 2008.

Today saw the release of the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute Monthly Inflation Gauge, which rose by 0.1% in February, following a 0.8% rise in January and a 0.3%  rise in December 2009. In the twelve months to February, the Inflation Gauge rose by 1.9%. The trimmed mean measure rose by 0.1%, to be 2.0% higher than a year ago.  The gauge points to a 1% rise in the March quarter CPI for an annual rate of 3%.

As I note in the op-ed, the Melbourne Institute has stopped publishing the index numbers for the gauge, limiting its usefulness and going very much against the spirit of its creators and sponsors.  However, for those who need it, Annette Beacher advises the index number for February is 123.45.

I will be talking on Australian monetary policy on Bloomberg TV Tuesday morning AEDT.

dynamic invoices that pay themselves — that constantly monitor exchange rates, say, or the price of lumber, and then automatically send out an order to withdraw funds or to make a purchase just when the price is cheapest.