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Before I forget it …

By on May 18, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

I just heard a remarkable fact: Mark Zuckerberg is now worth more than the bottom 1/5 of US families put together. Time we insisted on the statisticians ignoring the mean and model financial averages and presenting the modal average. It looks to me, for instance, that the modal average (the value with them peak representation) [...]

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Spain drags the euro down another rung

By on May 17, 2012 in General Discussion

Spain’s banks, saddled with bad loans after a property boom collapsed, lie at the heart of the euro zone crisis as markets fear any major rescue would strain Madrid’s already stretched finances and possibly require an international bailout. via Spanish Banks Downgraded as Borrowing Costs Soar – Business News – CNBC. It’s time to look [...]

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I tend not to blame Obama too much.

By on May 17, 2012 in General Discussion, Human Behavior, International affairs

I think Obama has done a number of things wrong, at least from my personal perspective. However, there are two major reasons for these failures, neither of which diminish my opinion that his intentions are commendable. These two reasons are his lack of administrative experience, which is being slowly rectified as his time in the [...]

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Where America is Losing . . .

By on May 14, 2012 in General Discussion

Linda: It has been a steady progression downward for much of the payroll wage earning population not tied to capital income since the late seventies and a number of authors have taken the time to study and document it. The issue has become more aggravated since the late nineties. I was asked to read James [...]

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Guns and butter and jobs.

By on May 11, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

With the automatic cuts looming in defense spending as a result of the budget “agreement” the Republican are digging in their heels and making the case that cuts should be made in other government programs rather than in the defense. This would cause cuts in programs that help a great many people. In reference to this I [...]

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There’s inflation and then there’s inflation.

By on May 10, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

We tend to think of inflation being sort of the same in the different times it occurs but there is a real difference between supply/demand driven inflation and currency debasement driven inflation. Now if you have inflation, so a loaf of bread costs twice as much, but a lot more loaves of bread are being sold [...]

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The cost vs. benefit of national security.

By on May 10, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion

The recent foiled “underwear” bomber plot got me thinking about how much it costs us to catch these people. If we add up everything we’ve spent chasing terrorists including and aside from the two wars, all the intelligence gathering, all the extra security throughout society, all the costs of various operations I really find it hard [...]

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Corporate taxes.

By on May 4, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

There has been and continues to be a lot of debate amongst people as to whether or not a corporate tax rate should exist, there is a piece now over at Project Syndicate about this issue. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-corporate-tax-conundrum These arguments seem to center around a couple things, one that taxing corporations amounts to double taxation, another that it [...]

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Oh, no! Not another conspiracy theory.

By on May 3, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

Well, yes; I have another conspiracy theory. It is that those giants of industry who are supporting the Republicans in the coming elections will use their control of major employers to force a basically growing economy into retreat. They can do this through sudden layoffs, inventory reductions, reduction in advertising, shifting operations offshore, constraining resource [...]

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How are you preparing for retirement?

By on May 2, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Human Behavior

I know what my wife and I did, but that was then and this is now. We were both able to build up future income in non-contributary (mostly) defined benefit pensions. Of course, we both paid into Social Security and Medicare for decades. My wife now receives my spousal benefit rather than her own because [...]

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