I. So I keep hearing blah blah "stress tests for banks" blah. Right? I had NO IDEA what anybody actually fucking MEANT by 'stress test' up until just now*:
The only way to make sense of Tim Geithner’s “stress test” for banks is to assume a kind of triage. Banks that are reasonably healthy right now -- whose assets are fully adequate to fund their liabilities, and can make new loans...
I'm still really unclear on how exactly all this goes down, whether there's an acceptable leverage ratio vs "if everybody asked you for all of their money TODAY, could you do it?," &c. But still: a little clarity.
II. So I've lived in a seriously Puerto Rican neighborhood for over a year now, and while I was working I worked in a room full of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and an Ecuadorean. But I'm an awkward white kid from Maine. So I've always been at kind of a loss about the best way to refer to all these people collectively. Until earlier today:
Most Latin people know meringue like most white people know rock but some white people know good rock and underground rock..... Where a lot of Spanish people know “so much” about Latin music, there's still a lot they don't know about so we dig that up and do our own mixes.
That's from an interview (on the excellent FreeWilliamsburg) with a DJ from La Mega 97.9, aka Car Service Radio. That is to say, he knows what he's talking about. What have we learned? "Latin" and "Spanish." I've been saying "Latino" and feeling awkward about it, so I'll stop.
*I don't read this blog. I searched for "'stress test' bank definition" on google.
