Some people have a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom. I believe that it is easier to establish an absolute and despotic government amongst a people in which the conditions of society are equal, than amongst any other; and I think that, if such a government were once established amongst such a people, it would not only oppress men, but would eventually strip each of them of several of the highest qualities of humanity. Despotism, therefore, appears to me peculiarly to be dreaded in democratic times.--deTocqueville
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unilateral executive action.
"The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.
Two Krugman quotes before he became an NYT darling:
One, "So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment."
And, two, "They also argue that because there are cases in which companies paying above-market wages reap offsetting gains in the form of lower turnover and greater worker loyalty, raising minimum wages will lead to similar gains. The obvious economist’s reply is, if paying higher wages is such a good idea, why aren’t companies doing it voluntarily?"
There are a trillion stars in the Andromeda Galaxy,
Sci-fi guy David Brin asks this: The JFK conspirators, if any, would now be at least eighty years old. So why, over that last decade or so, have we seen no death-bed confessions?
Sci-fi guy David Brin asks this: The JFK conspirators, if any, would now be at least eighty years old. So why, over that last decade or so, have we seen no death-bed confessions?
When Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. collapsed, its U.S. operations had 1.2 million derivatives transactions outstanding with 6,500 trading partners.
Many of them were far from Wall Street, including schools, which had relied on Lehman to help reduce their exposure to fluctuating interest rates through derivatives. In all, the contracts, which were tied to interest rates, bonds, currencies, commodities and stocks, had a "notional," or theoretical, value of $39 trillion. (wsj)
Many of them were far from Wall Street, including schools, which had relied on Lehman to help reduce their exposure to fluctuating interest rates through derivatives. In all, the contracts, which were tied to interest rates, bonds, currencies, commodities and stocks, had a "notional," or theoretical, value of $39 trillion. (wsj)
The world's gross domestic product (GDP)--total--is only about $65 trillion.
Russian scientists have now spotted a total of seven spontaneous craters, five of which appeared in the Yamal Peninsula. Two of those holes have since turned into lakes. And one giant crater is rimmed by a ring of at least 20 mini-craters, the Siberian Times reported.
Russian scientists have now spotted a total of seven spontaneous craters, five of which appeared in the Yamal Peninsula. Two of those holes have since turned into lakes. And one giant crater is rimmed by a ring of at least 20 mini-craters, the Siberian Times reported.
China's ambassador to Belgium, Qu Xing, was quoted as blaming competition between Russia and the West for the Ukraine crisis, urging Western powers to "abandon the zero-sum mentality" with Russia. Reuters assessment of Xing speech: "an unusually frank and open display of support for Moscow's position in the crisis."
The New Horizon spacecraft is closing in on Pluto. Nine years after its launch, New Horizons will achieve closest approach on July 14, 2015, collecting data on the surface and atmosphere of the dwarf planet, its large moon Charon and four smaller moons, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.
The "bartender and waiter" industry is having a growth spurt and soon will surpass the manufacturing sector in the U.S..
The New Horizon spacecraft is closing in on Pluto. Nine years after its launch, New Horizons will achieve closest approach on July 14, 2015, collecting data on the surface and atmosphere of the dwarf planet, its large moon Charon and four smaller moons, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.
The "bartender and waiter" industry is having a growth spurt and soon will surpass the manufacturing sector in the U.S..
A segment of Buffet's shareholder letter: [W]ho has ever benefited during the past 238 years by betting against America? If you compare our country’s present condition to that existing in 1776, you have to rub your eyes in wonder. In my lifetime alone, real per-capita U.S. output has sextupled. My parents could not have dreamed in 1930 of the world their son would see. Though the preachers of pessimism prattle endlessly about America’s problems, I’ve never seen one who wishes to emigrate (though I can think of a few for whom I would happily buy a one-way ticket).
In the United States, one in 98 boys is diagnosed with autism.
Central bankers are employees of a banking cartel that is owned by private banks. These banks have a license to lend money into existence, earning interest on their loans. It is no surprise that their share of US corporate profits has risen fourfold since President Nixon ended the quasi-gold standard Bretton Woods system. What a business! Their cost of goods sold is next to nothing.
The market can absorb a little central bank-created money. But there’s a limit. And that limit has been greatly increased, thanks to: A worldwide overcapacity of output, financed by previous lending and a huge glut of cheap labor, also largely brought forth by the credit expansion of the last 30 years
Without these unique circumstances, central banks’ policies – ZIRP and QE – would probably have caused inflation to rise to the double-digit range already … maybe higher. (zero hedge)Central bankers are employees of a banking cartel that is owned by private banks. These banks have a license to lend money into existence, earning interest on their loans. It is no surprise that their share of US corporate profits has risen fourfold since President Nixon ended the quasi-gold standard Bretton Woods system. What a business! Their cost of goods sold is next to nothing.
The market can absorb a little central bank-created money. But there’s a limit. And that limit has been greatly increased, thanks to: A worldwide overcapacity of output, financed by previous lending and a huge glut of cheap labor, also largely brought forth by the credit expansion of the last 30 years
Who is....Italo Calvino?
The first shipload of African captives to North America arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in August 1619, but for most of the 17th century, European indentured servants were far more numerous in the North American British colonies than were African slaves. By the time of the American Revolution, the English importers alone had brought some three million captive Africans to the Americas. America and Great Britain banned the African slave trade in 1807, but the trade of African slaves to Brazil and Cuba continued until the 1860s.
When private firms in competitive markets seek more revenue they considerately offer customers the carrot of better service; in contrast, when government agencies seek more revenue they angrily whack ‘customers’ with the stick of worsened service.
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Ancient languages did not have a word for blue — not Greek, not Chinese, not Japanese, not Hebrew. In the Odyssey, Homer famously describes the "wine-dark sea." But never "blue."
The only ancient culture to develop a word for blue was the Egyptians — and as it happens, they were also the only culture that had a way to produce a blue dye.
The only ancient culture to develop a word for blue was the Egyptians — and as it happens, they were also the only culture that had a way to produce a blue dye.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, testifying at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, said that they had uncovered more than 30,000 emails related to the IRS practice of targeting conservative and Tea Party groups for special ill treatment. I have no real idea what is going on here but the appearance of impropriety at a powerful segment of the Federal government seems important enough to be open and thorough about. Certainly something to be interested in.
Golden oldie:
The Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an has cited a Kuwaiti newspaper report Saturday, that US President Barack Obama thwarted an Israeli military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2014 by threatening to shoot down Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran. Interesting how the U.S. is trying to carry out its international plans with the defiant local nations' opposition.
The experimental French writer Georges Perec, like Italo Calvino, belonged to the "Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle" group, founded in 1960; translated, this would be "Workshop of Potential Literature," but the group is known internationally as OuLiPo, if only because of their enthusiasm for the lipogram. (A text that purposefully excludes a particular letter of the alphabet.) In 1969, he published La Disparition, a 100,000 word novel excluding the letter "e". This is a mystery novel -- Anton Vowl has vanished, taking the letter "e" along with him.
An interesting take on free markets in a review of Ira Katznelson’s Fear Itself by Arnold Kling: It is hardly uncommon to find intellectuals who believe that decentralized markets are chaotic, capricious, and misanthropic. On occasion, those with such beliefs have disparaged democracy and instead gravitated toward totalitarianism. Those who instead value the right of individual dissent and democratic decision processes tend to believe in a sort of collectivism that somehow emerges from and reflects the popular will.
In 1859, journalist Q. K. Philander Doesticks (Mortimer Thomson) attended an auction of 436 men, women, and children formerly held by Pierce M. Butler. Butler's slaves were auctioned in order to pay debts incurred in gambling and the financial crash of 1857-58. It was the largest such auction in American history. Many of the slave families described in Doesticks' report were the subject of a series of letters, written twenty years earlier, by famous British actress and author Frances Ann Kemble. Her Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation, 1838-1839, published in 1863 to galvanize English support of the North during the Civil War, is an unusual account of Southern planter culture from the perspective of an outspoken outsider who considered herself an abolitionist.
Women were far better represented in professional occupations in the first three decades of the 20th century than in the middle of that century. Women received a larger share of the postgraduate degrees necessary for such careers in the earlier era than in the 1950s and 1960s. The proportion of women among the high achievers listed in "Who's Who in America" in 1902 was more than double the proportion listed in 1958. The decline of women in high-level careers occurred when women's age of marriage and child-bearing declined during the midcentury "baby boom" years.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unilateral executive action.
"The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.
The original Lewis and Clark journals were not presented as a publication until 1904. 750 reprints of the 8 volume set were reprinted--including maps--in 1959.
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