Chuck Jones’s rules for writing the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote @AmosPosner. This is how to write a spec….
Citigroup Checks in the Mail After Bank Bungles Foreclosure Deal Bloomberg. They only “forgot” to mail 23,000.
Servicing Matters Credit Slips
US banks face profit threat from shadow financing FT
Five Questions for Mario Draghi Bloomberg. On QE.
Bank of England embroiled in money-market fraud probe FT
Banks brace for U.S. Fed capital buffers inspection Reuters
New Head of CBO makes Preposterous Claims on Disability Economic Populist
The Millennials’ Money Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 New Economic Perspectives
TPP
U.S. optimistic global trade deal will come into force this year Reuters
Dems, GOP can agree: Trade is good for America Cokie Roberts and Steven V. Roberts, Record Argus
Letter to the Editor – TPP is a raw deal Corrente. On the Roberts
propagandasyndicated Op-Ed. With handy letter-writing tip!
Grexit?
Athens faces uphill struggle despite eurozone deal FT
Can Greece avoid going bankrupt this month? Daily Telegraph
Greece heading towards third bailout: Spain The Local
Political fault line widens between Greece and Iberia’s anti-Athens axis Irish Times
Greek Gov’t Looking More and More Like the Tower of Babel Greek Reporter
ECB glimpse of Cyprus debt shows limits of bank cleanup Ekathimerini
Germany is not a model for Europe – it fails abroad and at home Bill Mitchell
Warmongering Watch
Bibi Goes to Washington Project Syndicate. Bibi to US: “Let’s you and him fight.”
Support for using ground troops against the Islamic State is increasing WaPo
US Soldiers Readying for Ukraine Deployment Defense News. For “training”….
Dempsey does not rule out U.S. ground troops in Syria Military Times
Putin Sounds the Alarm Over Budding ‘Color Revolutions’ in Russia Moscow Times
New Zealand Spies on Neighbors in Secret ‘Five Eyes’ Global Surveillance The Intercept
The Rebalance in Southeast Asia: Not About Containment The Diplomat
China Loses Millionaires as Wealthiest Tempted Overseas Bloomberg. Chinese squillionaires want to relocate from China, US squillionaires want to relocate from the planet…
King v. Burwell
Round-up: Today’s argument in King v. Burwell SCOTUSblog. Awesome summary. And SCOTUSblog has wall-to-wall coverage of King v. Burwell, so do check that blog. Here’s a transcript of the oral arguments.
Challenge to Health Overhaul Puts Obscure Think Tank in Spotlight New York Times
Rideout Hospital, California: CEO Pinocchio on quality of patient care during hospital computer crash Health Care Renewal
McDonald’s Moving to Limit Antibiotic Use in Chickens New York Times
Obesity Is Hurting the U.S. Economy in Surprising Ways Bloomberg. Why not ban High Fructose Corn Syrup, for starters?
Class Warfare
Guest Contribution: “Analyzing Recent Trends in the U.S. Wealth Distribution” Econbrowser
To Fight Inequality, Tax Land Peter Orszag, Bloomberg. Orszag a closet Georgist?!
Caring too much. That’s the curse of the working classes David Graeber, Guardian
ATMs and a Rising Number of Bank Tellers? Conversable Economist
Meltdown at The Market; The Self Service Checkout Daily Kos
AP will use software to write NCAA game stories Poynter Institute
Britain’s stunted ‘recovery’ leaves us wishing for what might have been Guardian
Easier said than done The Economist. More public spending boosts philanthropy.
Alien abduction? Stolen by Russia? MH370 theories keep coming Reuters. (Because “the story is out there.” Here’s a level-headed interview from Emirates CEO Tim Clark in November 2014. I’m not sure the state of play has advanced since then.)
The East India Company: The original corporate raiders Guardian (furzy mouse)
Tomorrowland: How Silicon Valley Shapes Our Future Der Spiegel
Financial collapse leads to war Club Orlov
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Every so often the cat gets out of the bag.
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2015/03/04/imfs-director-batista-greek-bailout-was-to-save-german-french-banks-video/
Rana Dasgupta: How India’s Traumatic Capitalism is Reshaping the World
Great link. I go to India fairly often and the change in just the last 10 years is intense. One aspect he doesn’t touch on much is the increased separation of religions. In the past, especially in the South, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jain and Christian shared holidays and mixed more than they do now. Maybe it’s only me but it seems that nearly every young (even very young) Muslim girl I see in India covers her hair now and I did not notice that until recently. I think this increased communitarianism (if you can call it that) it’s a direct result of the BJP policies + market liberalisation + these impacts of Partition that have been kicked down the road. At least India’s kept control of her banks…so far.
Private domains, comrades. They’re as essential as private equity and private jets:
After applying the usual logical inversion needed to parse assertions from the Clintons, it’s obvious that overlapping Hillary’s government role with Bill’s ‘global philanthropist’ role was the whole point.
Nobody makes contributions to the Clintons’ so-called charities except to curry favor and buy influence from someone who could become president.
We’ve come a long way from ‘Chelsea Morning’ (the Joni Mitchell song that inspired Clinton’s daughter’s name) to ‘Chelsea Office,’ a reference to the family offices that billionaires and wannabes set up for optimal investment and tax shelter. It sucks when you’re not in the Forbes 400 yet, and all your friends are.
And don’t forget Fleetwood Mac. The Clintons seem drawn to pop songs that represent what they aren’t. But then Bob Dylan is doing tv commercials these days.
As we used to say around the hippie newspaper office: “Just tell me where I need to go to sell out.”
“Don’t … stop … stinkin’ up tomorrow.”
Its happy-smiley lilt jazzes up the donors much better than, say, Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs.’ The ‘witches at black masses’ bit only reaches the wiccan voter demographic.
By request, Pink Floyd:
“The dogs of war won’t capitulate…”
“One world, oh-oo-wo-oo-woah…”
that should definitely be the official anthem of the republican party.
the democrats can have [blue] dogs of war.
“To Fight Inequality, Tax Land Peter Orszag”
Not in my backyard!
Land is already taxed. Property tax assessments break down the value of land and buildings. In most states, agricultural land is taxed at a lower level to discourage development.
What Orszag wants is a federal land tax on top of local land taxation. For what? It don’t matter. If you’re a gov-lover, more taxes are always good. We can always send the money to the Ukrainian front.
I’m sure Peter O believes the way to fight inequality is to tax the feudal lords’ land so us serfs farming the land will need LESS of a new Federal Sales Tax levy (on top of the 9% state sales tax many of us pay already) . A flat tax on income always sounds good too, so as not to discourage yuppy serfs with plans to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and enter Lower Nobility someday.
Peter O is serious about fighting inequality. Not.
And in times of deflation, we will unburden the rich by taxing less, to reverse higher taxes imposed during inflation battles?
In much of LatAm, property is taxed lightly or not at all.
If you own a house that you inherited or paid for, you are secure in your home, even with no cash income. The state will not sell it out from under you to recoup unpaid taxes.
That is true security of tenure for people of limited means, which is not available in America at any price. The sole exception I know of is in Louisiana, where if you own a modest dwelling valued at $75,000 or less, you do not owe any property tax.
http://www.actualtitle.com/information/louisiana-homestead-exemption/
I think in LA they make up for it with vehicle registration. Something like $1500/ year. Tho I’m not sure how they ramp it down with vehicle age. Good thing about AZ is it starts kinda high – $500 for the ave price car. But then it gets reduced every year and is down to maybe $125 after 5 years. Then property taxes in AZ are around 1.5%, which isn’t too terribly bad for property prices around the national median.
But none of this addresses the problem the Federal government has with paying off the Korean War.
It’s Mississippi that has the humongous car tag fees. They do start out kind of high and peter out over time.
Several states have some form of “Homestead Exemption.” See:
http://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/cons/features/0406_01/homestead.html
I almost forgot, Mississippi is or was the highest taxed state as a percentage of income. If they don’t get you coming, they’ll get you going.
I recall that during Clinton’s first campaign for Arkansas governor in 1978 he vowed to never increase car tag fees. Well, he did it anyway and the fees went from something like $3.00/yr to $5.00/yr.
I have many Arkansas relatives who in addition to his lying found the amount itself outrageous. As at least a partial result, he was voted out of office in 1980.
Orszag probably wants land taxed beyond the ability of normal-person landowners to pay the tax. The goal is to force them to sell their land to multi-billionaire oligarchs who want more power than they already have.
“What Orszag wants is a federal land tax”
I think this is a good pick-up. Also
“”The revenue could be used to reduce other taxes, or to help close the actuarial deficits in our entitlement programs, or some combination thereof.””
I think this is getting too many things mixed together. The federal govt doesn’t need the money for entitlements. It makes sense on a local level if a rise in property tax is offset by lowering taxes on wages and consumer purchases. This makes less money available to the banks through less money available for the interest and principal portion of home payments.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/stockholm-syndrome-in-the-baltics-latvias-neoliberal-war-against-labor-and-industry.html
“To Fight Inequality, Tax Land Peter Orszag”
I have a better idea. No more jail time for theft of any kind. We just let the government take a percentage of the booty. Wait…thats kinda like what’s already happening.
Ok how about we outlaw all money making money.
Property taxes are already pretty high for most middle income homeowners. Also, I’m not clear on how this could be made fair. If this were based on just taxing the land, as opposed to property taxes already being paid on real estate, would the billionaire’s multimillion dollar condo in a rental tower be charged less than the middle class suburban homeowner’s residence?
More fair, IMO, is a wealth tax on all assets, with a modest exemption for the shrinking middle class. Choosing one asset class as the tax base could be seen as regressive since, for many in the middle class, their home is their only asset.
Worth a look: realestate4ransom.com
Executive summary: Land tax prevents speculation, and actually makes property cheaper.
One other note: Even California’s famous Proposition 13 that limits taxes on land has had the effect of 1) making the State fund schools (so guess where local control has gone), and 2) handing commercial property owners a massive windfall. Residences used to pay 30% of property taxes. Now they pay 70%. Why? Because commercial properties don’t trigger re-assessment if a majority interest in the entity owning the land doesn’t transfer. So Michael Dell bought a fancy hotel with his wife and child, and presto! It’s still assessed at its 1978 value, avoiding millions in tax obligations. This kind of thing occurs all over the state. It’s a scam.
This has been understood for a long time, but is, as I assuming you are indicating, not
as widely known as it ought to be; and perhaps not sufficiently acknowledged in the blog.
My post was about the “cats out of the bag” link, the Greeks really being indebted to French and German banks.
It was posted out of order therefore doesn’t make sense.
“This has been understood for a long time, but is, as I assuming you are indicating, not
as widely known as it ought to be; and perhaps not sufficiently acknowledged in the blog.”
I note that Cokie Roberts is forcefully advocating for the TPP but neglects to mention that her late brother, Tommy Boggs (of mega-lobbyists Squire Patton Boggs) was paid tons of money to promote it.
And they’re both children of former Congress critters Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr., and his successor and widow Lindy Boggs. Eeek! Yet another dynasty!
President Johnson attended Cokie’s wedding. She and her husband are players.
How cozy!
Cokie Roberts, with her southern patrician beltway bilge was the main reason I quit listening to NPR over fifteen years ago. Finding out she was essentially part of a PR Op only confirmed me in my loathing.
I heard someone once say that when fascism comes to America, Cokie Roberts will be the Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment.
You think she’d be the Tokyo Rose of America?
“Nice Polite Republicans”. Puff pieces about the latest new American weaponry, supposedly “middle-of-the-road” views. Corporo-fascist rubbish, but then what did you expect given their overlords.
Her mommy was not only in Congress, but was ambassador to the Holy See too. Not bad for a Gulf Coast political clan.
Cokie Roberts’ commentary /opinion has always struck me as geared toward “adults” who can’t be convinced to take their vitamins unless they look and taste like gummy bears.
Goodnight, Moon.
China Loses Millionaires as Wealthiest Tempted Overseas. Not at all suprised to see the first country mentioned in this article is Australia. The relatively small population here makes these movements quite visible.
Also, not sure if this article has been linked to from NC yet, however it is worth bookmarking this site imo.
The Archdruid Report: Peak meaninglessness
If the Chinese did reach Australia and America before the Europeans, they missed twice at acquiring land much cheaper than today.
I’m wondering if your comment is a gong’an, so I will just reply by mentioning that if I knew what I now know one year ago, things would be different as I would now be considered a prophet, and would be the richest person in the world!
I would use this wealth for good btw.
Financial collapse leads to war.
Yes, and economic war in various forms leads to financial collapse too.
It’s a cycle and it’s repeated endlessly.
To exit that cycle is to enter Nirvana, according to economic Buddhists, or Econobuddhists.
China loses millionaires.
It’s expensive to reside in those maternity motels, according to the details in the various news reports…and still be able to charge $4,000 to $5,000 for luxury goods as they do their duty to contribute to the local, albeit foreign (but not long – in China, 20 years for the ‘foreign’ baby to bring over his/her parents is not long) economy.
I don’t imagine you will find many Chinese 99%ers in those places.
This is backwards, finance causes war, not the other way around. Just like used car salesmen sell cars, bankers sell debt, and their best customers are governments. The best way to get them to take on huge new piles of debt is to make sure there are (perceived or real) barbarians at the gate. In the GWOT they finally have the Perfect Enemy: can’t be seen, and can never be defeated.
Re: Meltdown at the Market. Every so often, I gather courage (or abandon sanity) and dip the old toe into Daily Kos. And, without fail (almost) my blood pressure skyrockets.
And the failing ears are assaulted by the whine of white middle-class privilege, the unthinking assumption that one simply must have available – in the middle of a cold-and-snowy-snap in the middle of a long winter – long grain rice and acorn squash. Adjust your menu, eat kale and basmati. Or cabbage and potatoes. Or mushrooms and polenta.
I so agree with the rant on the self-checkouts. But, I have a relationship going with the long-time employee of the local King-Sooper, whom management has relegated to trouble-shooting for cranky software and crankier shoppers at the computerized stations. They’re hoping to force her into retirement, but she triumphantly rules her little empire of bemused shoppers who don’t know the code for organic arugula. I deliberately foul up the machine, so we can talk solidarity.
We Luddites must meet in catacombs.
Ha ha, if I had read the comments more carefully I would have seen this and saved the trouble of my own diatribe below. Going to ye olde supermarket and realizing your purchasing power no longer affords you a staff of personal shopping assistants is a peculiar hardship.
And it’s all so big and hard to walk across! The produce section is like a hundred feet long! Why does the store have all these choices transported from ten thousand places around the world, instead of just what I want!
About short-staffing checkout and the writer’s favorite supermarket, trader joe’s. The only time I was ever in trader joe’s, I only saw maybe three checkout stands? Same number of checkers, it just isn’t as lonely and empty.
NO KIDDING!!!!!
ABUNDANCE is so, well, INCONVENIENT and TIME-CONSUMING!!!! And you actually have to WALK through it!!!! Can you imagine???? We have “dinner parties” to give.
Acorn squash. Long grain rice.
Travails abound.
PS. Love the “peculiar hardship” construct.
Truer words were never spoken.
Fail to see what rice and acorn squash have to do with “middle class privilege”. Vons, in its majestic equality, allows the rich as well as the poor to consume squash and staple grains during winter, just as people have for thousands of years.
Normally a fan of Graeber but the Guardian op-ed was a bit much. Like Graeber, I grew up in a working class family, and in a working class town, and the spousal abuse, bullying, pride in ignorance and sectarian hostility I saw and experienced did not impress me as generous or big-hearted. Perhaps because life could be so rough and uncertain, it did not seem as if my extended family or many of the people I grew up around had any time or patience for other people’s problems. If the lying, stealing, drug-dealing, system-abusing slacker is sleeping on your couch and won’t get off it until you call the police, it makes sense to me that you’re not going to support assistance for said slacker.
For myself, getting the hell outta town was my biggest priority growing up, and going to college in a middle class neighborhood in another city, where I was able to meet polite social-liberals who actually read books in their free time, was freaking heaven. Granted these new folks I encountered were mostly spoiled and rather naive, but I learned I would far rather feel irritated than threatened. Perhaps this was not Graeber’s experience. I’m guessing not.
It’s a pity, because I feel as if economic progressivism (or whatever you want to call it) really doesn’t have a chance in the U.S. until/unless folks like Graeber stop it with the romanticizing. Solidarity is not going to emerge from the ashes of unionism (because racism, immigration, pick-a-divisive-issue), and class conciousness runs into the barrier that too many folks in one’s own class are complete tools. If I were to suggest a buzzword, it would be accountability. The non-tools I know want it: from bankers, from the police, from their kids’ schools, from their niece who dropped her kid off for the evening two days ago and hasn’t been seen since. Granted, accountability could easily become a double edged sword, but in my opinion you’ll have an easier time convincing people that we should all be held to the same standard than that everyone who isn’t bougie is therefore awesome. Maybe something to consider.
Good post.
Re:It’s a pity, because I feel as if economic progressivism (or whatever you want to call it) really doesn’t have a chance in the U.S. until/unless folks like Graeber stop it with the romanticizing
Economic “Progressivism” doesn’t have a chance become the percentage of nice people isn’t high enough. The only places that have Economic “Progressivism” is where the predators running the place have enough fear of outsiders, usually due to ethic differences, that they need to keep the their own similar ethnic prey alive for protection.
Yes, amen. I grew up among lower middle class Catholics, and a more bigoted bunch you would hardly see outside Bull Connor’s police department. In fact, a ton of the kids I grew up with became NYC, Nassau and Suffolk county cops. The only thing I can say for them unequivocally is that they got the reality of America: you were not going to get fairness or justice out of those above you, so you might as well go after those below you. I wish they had wanted to fight that reality, but they assumed (and they may have been right) that butting your head against that brick wall was just a stupid waste of time. In their hearts they knew America was a rigged game, but it was the only game in town, and identifying with it meant you were part of the winning team, not some frightened loser from Europe, Commie drone, or starving ignorant slob in the Third World. How you get around that mentality is way beyond me.
Jesus. This so transcends the run-of-the-mill-vituperative-yeah-team!-peanut-gallery-rant it should be signed and framed as an example for all you boneheads.
Authentic, personal thought and feeling is the key to success.
If you’re hot and single, Stephanie, I’ll marry you tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll respect your mind and soul tomorrow as much as I do today. You’re on my team now. You can play wide receiver on the Gnostic Rangers from Magonia. I bet you can score big time if somebody throws you the ball! hahahahah
I agree. Stop romanticizing ignorance. The only working class solidarity I ever saw before I “got outta town” was among the petty criminals in the awful crowd I ran with – until they eventually ratted each other out or got stabbed or worse. I’m so much better off from what could have happened to me for the very same reason as you. I managed to get to a school far above my class beginnings and make a new life – yes, those social liberals are annoying, especially when they tell you how great Clinton was, etc. but man it’s better than the alternative I was facing.
Yeah, I think that what he meant to say is that the work that working class women do is thankless.
To be a revolutionary is to be a romantic. But hang on, what’s so head-in-the-clouds romantic about solidarity? Especially when you consider the real concrete gains that our labor movement was able to achieve.
By comparison, accountability seems like an empty idea. Accountable to whom or what?
Our owners know the value of solidarity, we have forgotten it. Peasants who think in the terms of their masters just might be problem numero uno.
Robots are coming.
Going by historical experiences of conversion, where you got the king to convert first and the rest would follow, voluntarily or otherwise, the key will be to put a robot in the White House and it will be a cakewalk to put robots in other jobs.
I’ll bite. You’re referring to the present occupant?
So life like, don’t you think?
Robots to write sports stories.
This matters. It made sense for finance stories, which are mostly read by robots anyway.
Now I’m seeing the world through new eyes – if the only thing that matters is the pre-set narrative that the facts illustrate, well a robot can do that easy, better than a human.
But sports stories carry emotional weight. Is a hug from a robot satisfying? A tender letter? A pat on the back? Lovemaking?
This is the loneliest society ever.
For something not completely different, I suggest a reading, or, better yet, a viewing of Tom Stoppards play, “Professional Foul.”
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Foul
For the original BBC broadcast, (I’m sorry, but for copyright reasons, it’s broken up into small packets.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTt09jaz-PQ&list=PL6DEE570E1AD3E6F9
Most cult members will tell you, wait for the next, improved model, featuring dual Aritificial Intelligence and Artificial Love.
“Still lonely after all these years? Introducing our newest, AI-AR robot. You have never experienced robot intimacy like this before!!!!”
Shorter Kos “Meltdown at the Market”: High-maintenance shopper resents having to navigate lower-class supermarket without pleasant, sedulous staff to smooth the rough edges.
BTW, I have relatives who have worked at supermarkets for decades. When they started it was a solid middle-class job, dignified work. They’re retiring with pensions! Not really the case now. It’s peculiar to see a progressive wish there were more supermarket serfs.
Peculiar, but telling. I dare say that’s all the “progressive” class has ever wanted… the return to Athenean democracy, complete with the slaves that made it possible.
I know, right? Reading through Thucydides I am struck by the similarities between Anthens and us. No wonder that vicious, grasping, amoral bunch of hegemons have been so popular to Anglo Saxon readers.
The democratic ideal looks a lot less ideal if you look anywhere other than the land of marble pillars and smiling well fed faces.
From the article:
I seem to recall that it was unusual for slaves or serfs to belong to labor unions. Another quote from the article:
Don’t we in the NC commentariat often complain about the way that top executives skim their fortunes from the labor of their employees (or from their machines and customers, in this case)? Perhaps this article really isn’t so bad.
The “Robots are Coming” LBR article gets that point across and is much more cogent and much less self-absorbed.
The Obama Administration rolls over for the the railroad industry on oil train safety. It is called “regulatory capture”:
REUTERS: Exclusive: White House mulled, then balked at curbing explosive gas on oil trains
One of these days one will blow up in a city… wait, that already happened almost 2 years ago, didn’t it?
No, that was just a small town. Unless you kill over a thousand peasants it’s not a real industrial accident.
Yes, 47 people burned alive in Lac Megantic because the tanker cars used were not designed to carry such flammable oil. I’m sure that the search for “efficiency” played a role too.
If the trains aren’t safe due to old tracks or weight limits or whatever, make the damn oil companies and the railroads guarantee their safety, make them upgrade everything to guaranteed safe standards or hold them liable for damages and deaths caused. I mean, WTF. Wouldn’t that be a free market – ie… one that causes innocents no harm? We can’t ever ask an oil producer to spend money when we subsidize their enormous profits??!!! It’s sooo irritating that no one that matters demands better.
Leave the oil in the ground, where it was meant to stay.
“Obesity is weighing on the U.S. economy.” This is a comedy, because it’s actually an economic godsend according to economists, because what kind of buyer is more motivated than one who will die without the product (in this case health care).
“Widespread obesity raised medical-care costs by $315.8 billion in 2010, according to John Cawley, an economics professor”
That’s not “loss”, that’s PRODUCTIVITY and the markets would suffer without it. There’s also a couple billion in gasoline expenses because us fatties won’t walk places. Also: PRODUCTIVITY. If they walked it won’t show up on GDP anywhere.
And pray tell, article, what productivity losses balance against that $316 billion in health care extortion?
$8 billion in obesity induced absenteeism.
That’s the tragedy they are bewailing – not that people are sick, and killing themselves with inedible, hyper-palatable empty calorie filler. It’s that they can’t go to work.
You mean that they can’t swell the reserve army of labor and lower wages further. . .
+100 Garrett
Today’s antidote is the most gorgeous, diaphanous and luscious image I have ever seen! It appeals to all the senses and makes it easy to believe in a Supreme Being.
I love it too. Thanks Lambert.
What is with all the German-phobia? They’ve done good for themselves. Why can’t that be a model for Europe?
Why? Because eventually there’d be no other europeans left.
It’s their Manifest Destiny century.
what should rank and file germans do differently?
Because evangelism is antisocial and proselytism is violence (eventually).
Ever seen a BMW factory in Greece?
McDonalds make a promise. The Guardian reminds everyone – they did this once before: The Guardian has learned that this is not the first time that McDonald’s has made – and failed to keep to – a similar antibiotics-use pledge. In 2003 McDonald’s introduced a “global policy on antibiotic use in food animals”, which said:
McDonald’s prohibits the use of antibiotics belonging to classes of compounds approved for use in human medicine when used solely for growth promotion purposes. Growth promotion is defined as the use of antibiotics for any purpose other than disease treatment, control or prevention. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/04/mcdonalds-chicken-food-safety-experts
Please ignore all the Ag/GAG laws that have popped up in the past decade and Please ignore that the funding for Inspectors via FDA continues to be cut.
PR or facts? I’m willing to bet a nickel that it is the first.
I did not realize that McDonalds mcnuggets actually contained any chicken.
Corporate behemoth Kraft did something similar back when there was an outcry against growth hormones in milk. It told consumers it was going to get rid of them in some of it’s cheese products and then promptly did absolutely nothing.
Thank you, Furzy Mouse– I am a big fan of Dalrymple.
China Loses Millionaires as Wealthiest Tempted Overseas Bloomberg. Chinese squillionaires want to relocate from China, US squillionaires want to relocate from the planet…
Chinese “squillionaires” overstates the barrier when it come to the step to the front of the line gaming of the US visa program. It simply is not that financially challenging ($500,000 is the gate fee).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EB-5_visa
The EB-5 visa provides a method of obtaining a green card for foreign nationals who invest money in the United States.[1] To obtain the visa, individuals must invest $1,000,000 (or at least $500,000 in a “Targeted Employment Area” – high unemployment or rural area), creating or preserving at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers excluding the investor and their immediate family.[1] Initially, under the first EB-5 program, the foreign investor was required to create an entirely new commercial enterprise; however, under the Pilot Program investments can be made directly in a job-generating commercial enterprise (new, or existing – “Troubled Business”[2]), or into a “Regional Center” – a 3rd party-managed investment vehicle (private or public), which assumes the responsibility of creating the requisite jobs. Regional Centers may charge an administration fee for managing the investor’s investment.
More simply, but a longer play are the “Maternity Tours” to game US citizenship
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150304_34.html
US federal agents raid ‘birth tour’ facilities
World
Mar. 4, 2015 – Updated 10:09 UTC
SO, why is North America such a popular destination to drop anchor?
“You may laugh at me. I am illegal and probably committed a fraud when I told the official I was just a tourist, but mark my word, my son is an American now, born on the same soil as you, here – and with a birth certificate, take that, you birthers – and one day, he will be president and he will avenge meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”
Sadly, the mother in our tale under-estimated her own dragon son. He grew up to rule two empires…count them, two, not one, but two.
* To learn more about this dual-emperor who united East and West, you will have to wait for my book.
Only USD500k? That might be the cheapest ticket in of any developed Western economy, and competitive with many developing ones. Didn’t Cyprus want $2mn?
$500K is cheap.
You can cover that in a few container loads of laminating flooring or dry walls.
HAHAHA.. Indeed. Perhaps we’ll wait for the book on the inscrutable Dragon Boy.
I do love the food, I just couldn’t take all the hacking & spitting, everywhere, jeeze, in restaurants? really, is that necessary?. Must be a challenge for the Chinese sent to colonize Singapore.
Children’s toys painted a beautiful litharge red. mmmm…looks like caaaandy
http://www.panarabiaenquirer.com/wordpress/islamic-state-wins-prestigious-turner-prize-modern-art/
A twofer: both modern art and religious fanaticism are satirized in the same article.
J.D. Alt and the Millenials. J.D. politely tells us old boomers to back off and let the millenials speak. Except for this post. So I’ll give it my last and best. I agree the millenials could be the pivotal “civic” generation. They are very thoughtful kids (since I’m their mother/grandmother). They will come to understand fiat as if it were just a gentle rain. I hope nobody will be able to terrorize them with balanced budgets for the masses. Especially when there isn’t enough good collateral to go around even once. Now there’s a disgrace waiting to be revealed. There isn’t enough good collateral in the world to cover the outstanding debt even fractionally. Why the hell not? The value is there staring us in the face. The planet is worth its weight in gold. And what difference does it make if you mine the gold or put the gold back in the mine? As long as you clean up your dreadful toxic mess? Here’s the reason double-entry bookkeeping “works” – it’s because we live on a zero sum planet. But it is so big… we’ve only just begun to understand.
And also too: Orlov on financial collapse and idiot-war. He gives us a variant on Yves “financial time goes faster than political time.” Orlov says that financial time burns out faster than political time (I think we’re talking suicide here), leaving nothing and causing chaos. And that America will use any mirage to move the economy forward – even if it seems more lucrative to engage in disaster capitalism without the reparations at this point. Just devastation. Orlov says we are a failure economy – meta even; that we gladly fail even at failing. Clever guy. Yes. I agree. What we need is a new vision and a new constructive financial model. But not if Orlov is thinking about a gold standard. That is the thing that got us here in the first place. I’d like to read some Orlov on the joys of fiat. No sarc.
The Der Spiegel author, like every author I can recollect who (as usual) ‘critiques’ Silicon Valley™ from thousands of miles away, stunningly neglected to comment on the chilling (an understatement) fall out effects that Silicon Valley™ (a totality of less than one hundred, or so, 99.999999999999 WHITE ENLIGHTENED! MALE ALGORITHM MASTER$ who view themselves as GAWDZ ) on those who actually live in ‘silicon valley.’
Very disappointing, since the author could have most easily made the case for reigning in by describing: just how significant inequality is right in that Silicon Valley™ Sandbox (what, not even an obligatory mention of the Racial, Pedigree, and Age Inequality, and no more than a sentence as to that horrifying gender write off?); the DOD money involved, indeed, the fact that Silicon Valley is the U$ Government, apparently.
Personal and typical anecdote (have lived in Silicon Valley for over thirty years):
Was at a Silicon Valley convenience store asking the clerk how he was doing while at the same time exchanging coin for my purchase, when a – I’m more logical and more important than you –late twenties – thirtyish aged white male loudly whipped his desired purchase on the counter between myself and the clerk; clearly noting disdain for the both of us for sharing human kindness in acknowledging the immeasurable value of sociability in one another.
When I called special male on his insult, he informed me:
After which (my epithets have been redacted, dear reader) he skittered into his gleaming white SUV (with, now doubt, the requisite Green™ $2, 000 bicycle in the back, along with the well trained and groomed, in its master’s ‘idiosyncrasies,’ requisite pet dog – 100% reliant on being fed by such gawd master) and rode off into his world’s sun set, away from the contemptible stain of the Middle Eastern™ human clerk and I, towards his fellows.
As to Silicon Valley’s economic inequality:
10/17/14 Census Bureau: California still has highest U.S. poverty rate
About that Bay Area , where Silicon Valley™ reigns:
(Thanks for that link Yasha, but about Mike Honda, and the rest of the 100% Silicon Valley DemRats ? Much further: it is not only Techie workers who have been utterly mowed over (as to wage destroying and ‘bot’ (read [Rentier] Soft Ware™) replacement) in “The Valley.”
Is it really that long ago (NOT) that there were (STILL ARE) other needed vocations to sustain a healthy society?)
They didn’t call them glassholes for nothing.
RE: Why not ban High Fructose Corn Syrup, for starters?
HFCS isn’t the problem. (Or at least there’s no existing evidence that HFCS is any more unhealthy than other processed sugars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup_and_health.)
The problem is too many calories and not enough exercise. Processed sugars and fats make it easy to consume large amounts of calories, so people do. You have to run more than a mile to burn off a Snickers.
P.S. I’m not a shill for corn. Who cares about corn? I just like science, and science is about proof.
The “syrup” part matters just as much as the corn part if not more. Calories imbibed appear to be much less satisfying than eaten.
Not that I advocate it, but the nanny government strategy to HFCS that has precedent would be to treat it as a prescription drug –HFCS has persistent deleterious neurological effects.
ucla.edu/releases/this-is-your-brain-on-sugar-ucla-233992
“Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think,” said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. “Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage.”
While earlier research has revealed how fructose harms the body through its role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, this study is the first to uncover how the sweetener influences the brain.
Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid sweetener. The syrup is widely added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. The average American consumes roughly 47 pounds of cane sugar and 35 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“We’re less concerned about naturally occurring fructose in fruits, which also contain important antioxidants,” explained Gomez-Pinilla, who is also a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center. “We’re more concerned about the fructose in high-fructose corn syrup, which is added to manufactured food products as a sweetener and preservative.”
How come it’s always “Nanny government” and never “greed-crazed brats”?
Never say never/always, it’s always a generalization
The distinction for me is along the lines of:
nanny government=arbitrary criminalization of a personal choice(eg: smoking a weed)
greed crazed brats= eliminating a choice to benefit a commercial gain (eg: Monsanto GMO corn)
If someone inadvisably wants to consume HFCS I’m think’in they should be allowed to. IMO people should reject products that contain it.
By the same token if someone does not want to consume GMO corn products, they should not have to by default/subterfuge (lack of labeling).
A link that go to the premise that bad health outcomes linked to obesity are most fundamentally systemic lifestyle problems here in the US (and elsewhere).
Of course people need to actually consider what they are putting in their food holes, but lifestyle is the fundamental issue that wont remedied w/banning this or that, additive pharma drug interventions, yoga, self-torture in “healthclubs” at 5AM before going to work..
A famous health and lifestyle study that most people never heard of.
http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/14_2%20The%20Roseto%20Effect.htm
I saw a movie about HFCS. Sorry, I forget what it was called. It talked about how the body metabolizes HFCS. It basically by-passes the liver and turns directly into fat. Another reason why I avoid it is because it’s probably GMO corn used. I now buy low-fat chocolate syrup with no fructose and I see no real difference in taste.
TedWa,
did you mean this video?
“Sugar, The Bitter Truth”, by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
I saw it as well. I clearly remember the doctor saying that Coca Cola was poison.
Probably “King Corn,” which is where I’m coming from on this. Remember the PR woman in the plant?
From an anecdotal point of view, I don’t drive, walk everywhere(when well anywhere from 3 to 5 miles 5 days a week) and still somehow managed to become overweight.
I’m not as convinced that problems like processed food and endocrine disruptors in our food chain aren’t problematic.
It’s a week, and so more next week,in which the doom -scenario is palpable. Astrologers, I know, have to refrain from writing sentences like this one. And I only want say that I myself shuddered by the imagination, what might happen when blind Mars meets Uranus in square with Pluto: the historical constellation 2014/2015
in it’s crucial “first strike week”. (When, when not then?)
May God have mercy with us sinners.
http://astromundanediary.blogspot.de/2015/03/the-igniter-approaches-fuse.html
I thrust in the word of Carl G. Jung: “If the archetypes do remain conscious in any form
so the energy which complies them can accrue to man.”
If a man can keep his pants on it won’t matter what meets Uranus (and i mean the proverbial “you”, as a generalization, not any particular person). Pluto and Mars will just bounce off.
Otherwise, I hear you. Things just have to crash very very soon. It can’t go on like this. It’s been like this for several years now, day to day, with each moment feeling like it’s a Hail Mary hanging in the endzone over about 18 outstretched hands.
Eventually you wonder why you’re even paying attention. I wonder that’s for sure. It seems like a huge waste of time but you’ve just got to keep your pants on no matter what (unless nature calls).
ESTRAGON: I can’t go on like this .
VLADIMIR: That’s what you think.
I don’t think that sentence from Jung parses.
Lambert, thank you for this “parses”. To me with English as second language this word opens me some respect.
What I pointed at: the wandering lights in the zodiac talk (to me) forever the language of the “Self”.
If you perceive them is one thing but if you are ready for apperception it might give you the ability of not being identical with the holy and dangerous forces in the psyche, but to approach them with respect and distinction.
To parse, in this meaning, to me is to find the chaos assorted by the time of lights in signs. This relieves the psyche enormously. The last 34 of my 73 years told me so.
if this doesn’t qualify for Links tomorrow I don’t know what would. I would hope Yves personally intervenes and assures this news is given the respect it merits. This is news that wisll shake the ontological foundations upon which any thinking person reposes their contemplative faculties.
This is a real bigfoot sighting in Utah. This is phenomenal. I can’t believe this is a hoax:
http://myfox8.com/2015/02/28/did-this-photographer-capture-bigfoot-on-camera-check-out-the-footage/
I wonder how these beings survive without a growing economy. Maybe the scavange and eat deer. It would be weird to think of monetizing a bigfoot economy, as they go inn and out of our dimensions. Would they have recessions and booms and busts? If so, would these have existed without the existence of a medium of exchange? Does the medium of exchange carry with it as an intrinsic property an expansion of what we can call the “imaginative space” for creation of social structures around which society finds sustenance and which in turn give it an identity/? It’s a theoretical question of utmost interest to those pushing the boundaries of economic thought into the sunlight of lucidity. is this something Paul Krugman can write a blog entry about? Or does an MIT edukayshun crush the brain so badly it renders one virtually analytically unconscious? These questions are provoked simply by observing the bigfoot in the brush. How can anyone doubt the intellectual validity of these phenomenon?
Sorry, it’s from February 28. It’s stale. Links are timely! [brings down hammer]
Echoes (so it seems to my naive ears) of what Ms. Yves was trying to tell us the other day – it still sounds convoluted, but again, this is probably the nature of the message and not the messenger’s fault!
“Resolution for the humanitarian crisis in Greece may mean exiting the euro-zone since it will be impossible for Greece to pay €1.5 million to the IMF at the end of this month and € 300 million by this Friday says Dimitri Lascaris”
TRRN video interview
http://www.tastefullyoffensive.com/2015/02/time-lapse-video-of-sunbathing-cats.html
What is the provenance of today’s (now yesterday’s) antidote du jour? Where was it taken, by whom, etc?
It’s gorgeous.
For an interesting read about obesity and the general scene about adult onset of various degenerative conditions:
http://www.nufs.sjsu.edu/clariebh/Dutch%20Study.pdf
“Chronic diseases are the main public health problem in Western countries. There are indications that these diseases originate in the womb.”
Another good read (nerd warning) that shows that there is much behind most chronic medical conditions that lies off the horizon of the popular press. We need to clean up our environment while we find better lifestyles. Trying to live healthy atop a cesspool-can’t be done.
” Epidemiological evidence increasingly suggests that environmental exposures
early in development have a role in susceptibility to disease in later life. In addition, some
of these environmental effects seem to be passed on through subsequent generations. ”
http://medvetande.dk/EpiEnvironment_NATURE_2007.pdf