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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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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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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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Traction.

By on April 25, 2012 in General Discussion, Politics

One has to wonder what issues will give the presidential candidates traction in the upcoming election. Lately Obama has been giving time to the issue of college student debt, the latest sound bites I have heard from Romney centered on Immigration. Romney lately seems to be trying to move to the middle, I actually heard [...]

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The EPA and fracking.

By on April 23, 2012 in General Discussion, Politics, Science

The EPA recently announced it’s first air pollution regulations of the fracking industry, the process by which chemicals and water are injected into the ground to expand fractures in rock to permit the capture of natural gas. This has been well received by environmental groups since fracking can release greenhouse gasses and benzene into the air. [...]

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Obama and the Bush tax cuts.

By on April 17, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

This is care of NPR who had commentary on an interview of Michael Bloomberg which appeared on CBS so the idea that anyone hasn’t heard this stuff is remote, but what the hell… In a interview on CBS Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, was atlking abouting fixing the federal budget deficit. He [...]

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The myth of wealth re-distribution.

By on April 16, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

Conservatives like to talk about how liberals are into wealth re-distribution, playing Robin Hood, taking from the hard-working deserving and giving to the lazy undeserving, but this term, ‘wealth re-distribution’ is misleading in serious way. It implies that government support programs give wealth to the poor, but in fact this isn’t the case at all. If [...]

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One more plug for equality?

By on April 7, 2012 in Economics, General Discussion, Politics

As the rush begins to get our last say in on this board, I’ll return to my favorite economic issue, inequality. Of the three most serious problems plaguing the economy (debt, inequality, lack of demand), I think that inequality is the root cause which creates, or at least exacerbates the other two. As during the [...]

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Final Post? Tennessee Leads The Way Into The Future!

By on April 6, 2012 in Human Behavior, Politics, Science

The Republican governor of the state of Tennessee is reportedly going to sign a bill that makes it open season on science in the schools of that state. The bill will allow science teachers to freely attack the theory of evolution in their classes, along with any other scientific theories they want to take pot-shots [...]

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