tomelgin
AEMO's National Transmission Network Development Plan [0] describes in great detail how they foresee investments in the (eastern) grid infrastructure. As a frame of reference, just upgrading a couple transformers to increase the transfer capacity between South Australia and Victoria will cost tens of millions.[1]
[0] http://aemo.com.au/Electricity/Planning/National-Transmissio... [1] http://www.electranet.com.au/assets/Uploads/interconnectorfe...
Still, it's hard to argue with this advice...
* I believe Medicare (covers most Americans over 65) provides some in-home hospice benefit, so I'm not saying this is limited to the extremely rich, but it is limited to those with a home and the wherewithal to seek hospice care.
[edit: formatting]
Arguably, knowing that the laptop camera (or the wireless keyboard bluetooth pairing) is not active is not as useful information.
This info is publicly available and quite a bit more accurate that the Register's napkin math.
As of March 31, 2011 (end of BT's last fiscal year), they owned $23bln (that's USD) in "Property Plant & Equipment" (including all the copper in question) and held $35bln in liabilities.
[1]http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=BT+Balance+Sheet&annual
Also note: the price of copper was higher in March 2011 than it is now. http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/copper_historical_large.ht...
Yes, hedge funds (and everyone) are allowed to bet on this. If there's an issue here, the question is who is selling fire insurance policies (at non-exorbitant rates) when they know that arsonists are around? If it's European banks that know they'll be bailed out, that's a problem.
In theory, all CDS trades are registered with DTCC since 2009, and my understanding is this works pretty well for contracts as standardized and liquid as Greece. See also the WSJ article linked by ristretto below.
source: http://www.dtcc.com/news/press/releases/2009/cds_contract_va...
data: http://www.dtcc.com/products/derivserv/data_table_i.php?tbid... (see 'Hellenic Republic')
some analysis of data integrity: http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt0912y.htm
thanks to: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/debunking-some-myths-about-...)