11
POPSFaith in Free-Market Capitalism Is Being Rewarded The biggest source of economic stimulus is not the $800 billion Barack Obama spending package. It's the $4.6 trillion of capital gains thrown off by the stock market over the past three quarters. This is investment money, and it also enhances consumer spending. As a result, jobs are likely to start rising early in 2010. The other source of economic stimulus is the amount of money Michael Moore invests in Dominos Pizza and Krispy Kreme, only later to bemoan those same corporations in which he owns shares. Michael Moore-on's movie in which he capitalistically makes money off of gullible liberals’ hatred of capitalism? Seriously, not only did that movie bomb, but the hippo-like hypocrite became enchanted by the ideals of socialism when he took an economics class while coked out of his mind. Using socialism to help revive a failing economy is like putting angry weasels down your pants because you need some rest.
6
POPSHot Air: Welcome to the Obama Administration’s “New Transparency” I’m sure it is … for analysts and Fannie and Freddie workers, but I’m not sure taxpayers should share that optimism. The report states the U.S. Treasury will receive preferred stock paying 10% dividends and warrants to acquire nearly 80% of the common shares in Fannie and Freddie. However, the Treasury has already loaned $60 billion to Fannie and $51 billion to Freddie. At this point, it’s hard to believe more money is the answer. Maybe the New York Times was right: Democrats plan to talk about deficit reduction in 2010 but not do anything about it for now. Or as President Obama puts it: “Mr. Obama calls it “a false choice” to pit spending to spur the economy against reducing the deficit. His advisers say the president, and American voters, favor both " spending to create jobs in the short term, and commitment to spending discipline and deficit reduction over the long term.”
2
POPSThe Economics of Coal Speaking of COP15 evidencing Coal over Climate, “it was one year ago,” records WaPo staff writer David A. Fahrenthold*, “an ‘earth-and-ash dam holding back 1 billion gallons of waterlogged coal ash’ in Kingston, Tennessee, failed, but ‘most of the fly ash on the land is still there’ and the Environmental Protection Agency is yet to regulate coal-ash ponds.”
8
POPSHospital Cleaners More Valuable Than Bankers
Interesting article. More below: "The study, "A Bit Rich" from the New Economics Foundation looked at six different types of British employees in aggregate, and found that: For a salary of between ?50,000 and ?12 million, top advertising executives destroy ?11 of value for every pound in value they generate. # or every ?1 hospital cleaners are paid, over ?10 in social value is generated. # For a salary of between ?75,000 and ?200,000 tax accountants destroy ?47 of value for every pound in value they generate. # For every ?1 of spent on waste recycling workers' wages, ?12 of value will be generated. Contrary to what we might expect, given the vociferous defence of the importance of wholesale banking to the UK economy, the City of London contributes only around 3 per cent of value added every year. Claims have been made about the trickle down effects of wealthy City bankers' spending in the economy but there is little real evidence to back this up"
10
POPSThe logic of a leftist Get this...Chestnut will move to a place where there are no jobs to receive public assistance instead of moving to a place where there are jobs to get off public assistance. Just a reminder why welfare doesn't work.
8
POPSSo Bad even the New York Times takes notice! The rector of the University of Athens, Christos Kittas, was sent to intensive care Sunday, after being beaten by assailants using iron bars and then thrown out of his office Mr. Kittas, who was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday after recovering from a heart attack, called on fellow academics and politicians to tackle the problem on campuses. He said he "felt dead inside watching young people who could be my grandchildren or students commit crimes and vandalize the shrine to free thought." Last week, a professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business, Gerasimos Sapountzoglou, was targeted by extremists who beat and throttled him when he refused to stop a lecture. Several other academics have suffered similar attacks in Athens and Thessaloniki in recent months.
6
POPS When the Charm Rubs Off 
denigration of his predecessor, aka "the last eight years." (Blighted by "a triumphant sense about war.") When Attorney General Eric Holder announced that five accused terrorists would be tried in federal courts, he said: "After eight years of delay. ..." When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force made the controversial recommendation that women should get fewer mammograms, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said: "This panel was appointed by the prior administration, by former President George Bush." In congressional testimony, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner almost deviated from the script. He said the Obama administration began after "almost a decade" -- slight pause -- "certainly eight years of basic neglect." Abroad, the fruits of the president's policy of "engagement" have been meager: Witness Iran continuing its nuclear program and China being difficult about carbon emissions. Here is a history lesson for an administration which .....
8
POPSLet's just borrow more so we can buy more...duh! If you compare a country to a company of individual, the idea that any entity that has too much debt can actually solve their problem by accumulating more debt seems absurd to me (and Jim Rogers as well). And the extent to which Americans consume is not only economically unfeasible, it is sort of pathetic. These days, I'm thinking we should make our county's moto "a flat screen for everyone!"
1
POPSThe Evolution of A New Trust Economy I have re-clipped Wildcat's finding, so I can tag it into our '1-self signifying' collection See tags on www.openintelligence.amplify.com. (I do so wish that Categories and Tags would be on Amplify's Newsfeed page.) I also emphasised the sCRM angle, as I wote a report a few years ago, called Beyond CRM which was about a new "buyer centric" economy.
3
POPSBlackwater’s Erik Prince to step down, reveals CIA role Later, news reports emerged alleging that Blackwater, which recently renamed itself Xe Services, was involved in the program which sought to assassinate high-value terrorist targets. Prince "confesses to feeling betrayed," Vanity Fair reports. Prince told Ciralsky that he was engaged in work for the CIA "up until two months ago—when Prince says the Obama administration pulled the plug." That would seem to confirm recent news reports that the Obama administration was using Blackwater for assassinations in Pakistan. Prince also told Ciralsky he plans to step down as chairman and CEO of Blackwater -- a move Ciralsky reports has started a "power struggle" within the company over who will succeed its founder. “I’m through,” Prince told Vanity Fair. “I’m going to teach high school. ... History and economics. I may even coach wrestling. Hey, Indiana Jones taught school, too.”
1
POPSA need to 'dig beneath the corporate surface' COMMENTARY | November 10, 2009 Simon Johnson of MIT says reporting like Ida Tarbell's of 100 years ago is badly needed today. One suggestion: the press should take on the financial institutions that helped cause the financial collapse, and are even benefiting from it.
1
POPSChina: Postscript to Obama Visit: When Bejing Blinked Advocating the G2 is in fact an American strategy, not China’s" said Shi Yinhong, an expert on international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. "The U.S. wants us in a tandem because that way it will be easier to work on all financial and security issues the way they want us to."
1
POPS Official Hot Air: The Obama Watch (actually 17.5 percent by the government's own numbers, counting "discouraged" workers who've quit looking for a job and counting part-timers seeking full-time), and the economy still losing a quarter million jobs per month, and 2.9 million jobs lost since Obama signed the $787 billion non-stimulating stimulus bill into law in February, the administration's economic agenda is basically a suicide mission that treats job creation like cigarettes -- something to discourage through increased regulations, more central controls and higher taxation. The basic Law of Demand principle in Economics-101 shows that consumers purchase less of something when the price goes up, and it's no different with employers and entrepreneurs when they're deciding on how much labor to purchase or how many jobs to create through business expansion or new start-ups.
2
POPSThe Value of Nothing Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn’t often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society.
3
POPSObama to Take 17% U.S. Emission Cut Vow to Copenhagen (Update1) Obama’s deputy national security adviser for international economics, told reporters yesterday. “We think it will enhance the prospects for success.” Negotiations for a new global climate treaty have been stymied as industrialized nations and developing countries disagreed on issues such as emissions-reduction targets and how much financial help rich nations should provide to poor ones. China and India have said industrialized countries must be willing to cut their carbon output 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 if they expect poorer nations to agree to long-term reduction goals. Pending Legislation The proposed U.S. emissions reduction is in line with the pending legislation in Congress. The House-passed measure calls for a 17 percent reduction while a version in the Senate calls for a cut of 20 percent. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said last week that his chamber won’t take up legislation until “sometime in the spring.”
1
POPSBook review: The High Cost of Free Parking More: By breaking the relationship between use and payment, "free" parking eliminates the negative feedback that keeps the system in balance. As a result, everyone decides to drive everywhere, and the car crowds out other forms of transportation… Of all the transport systems available, including public transit, shipping, and rail, cars are unique in that terminal costs (doing something with your vehicle when the trip is finished) are offset to the rest of the economy… Worse still, "free" parking provides the biggest per-mile subsidy to the shortest trips, meaning drivers have a major incentive to drive to destinations they would otherwise be able to reach with ease by foot or bicycle… Anticipating the righteous ire of those drivers accustomed to free parking, Shoup notes that the biggest barrier to eliminating this subsidy is political, not technical, and proper implementation is critical.
4
POPSLooking at the math behind "53 miles per burrito" More: Of course, a burrito comes with sales taxes, which pay for another fraction of that road. And the margin on a burrito is much higher than on gasoline - that margin then becomes profit for the owner and wages for the workers, all of which are taxable and turn into another fraction of that road I am freeloading on. Beyond the margin for the taqueria, money is made by people who grow and sell food, which is ostensibly a nobler pursuit than drilling, baby, drilling. But the real bottom line? It's not really 53 miles per burrito. It's one burrito per 53 miles. If you are sitting in your car, you will be shortly sitting on that burrito as it becomes a permanent part of your ass. I meanwhile will be adding extra guacamole because after I rode 53 miles to work, I ride 7 miles back to Caltrain on the way home. Yum. Guacamole, anyone? :-D
6
POPSHistory of tipping in the U.S. My wife has always told me I tip too much. Genearally 15-20% depending on the service. I am considering no longer tipping at all. Any thoughts?
4
POPSWash U Shuts Down Freedom Memorial on 20 Year Anniversary of End of Communism- It Was Too Offensive Video “We’re hoping to elevate the thinking of students about the connection between socialism, tyranny, and murder. Too often, we tend to think about state control in the abstract. This event is an opportunity to show the student body what socialism really is,” said junior Dirk Doebler, student leader of Young Americans for Liberty and lead organizer of the event. “We’re just twenty years away from the collapse of the Soviet Union’s despotic enslavement of hundreds of millions of people, yet everyone seems to forget that socialism killed over 150,000,000 people in the 20th century. All that gets lost in the convenient narrative our professors would have us believe. With this event, we’re striking down false notions. We’re speaking truth to power.” This event aims at showing the horrors of the implementation of that idea. ** There is more video to come of the university shutting down the gulag.
4
POPSObamaCare: A Bad Deal for Young Adults Massachusetts benefits from another type of subsidy that props up its regime of mandates and price controls: large subsidies from the federal government. In contrast, the United States as a whole has no external party it can exploit to subsidize a nationwide Massachusetts-style health care overhaul"unless Congress finances that overhaul through additional deficit spending, which is really just another way of taxing the young to subsidize the old. by Aaron Yelowitz Aaron Yelowitz is an associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. This paper is based on a lecture delivered to the Undergraduate Economics Society at the University of Kentucky on October 1, 2009.
2
POPS Washington and the Jobs Market The larger measure of joblessness that includes marginal and part-time workers jumped 0.5% to 17.5%. And the average hours worked in a week stayed the same at 33.0, which means that millions of Americans working part-time will have to become full-time before employers start hiring new workers. If Democrats really want to create jobs and save themselves from a debacle in 2010, their best policy option is to stop creating so much investment uncertainty and additional barriers to business hiring. Stop trying to raise business costs by making it easier to unionize via "card check." Stop trying to raise energy costs with a cap-and-tax bill. Stop adding to the deficit and future tax burden with a 12% increase in domestic spending for 2010. Above all, stop trying to ram through Congress on a partisan vote a health-care bill that imposes a 5.4-percentage-point income tax "surcharge" on anyone making more than $500,000 a year......
1
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update