Rather, the problem is that the benefits of growth have failed to trickle down to disaffected youth…. With modern manufacturing underdeveloped, many young workers with fewer skills and less education are consigned to the informal sector. Corruption is widespread. Getting ahead depends on personal connections of the sort enjoyed by the sons of military officers and political officials, but few others.
It may stretch credulity to think that a high-growth economy like China might soon be facing similar problems. But the warning signs are there. Given the lack of political freedoms, the Chinese government’s legitimacy rests on its ability to deliver improved living standards and increased economic opportunity to the masses. So far those masses have little to complain about. But that could change, and suddenly.
via Barry Eichengreen: Wellsprings of Uprisings – Brad DeLong’s Grasping Reality with All Ten Tentacles.

 
The deal, as explained by Cnet, is that Hollywood used to see Netflix as a harmless company providing a cute little service to a niche audience. (The Internet? Streaming? What am I, a nerd?) But then Netflix experienced an explosion in popularity, with the company seeing a 66 percent growth in subscribers in the year leading up to last December. And given Netflix’s ubiquity—you can find it on many Blu-ray players, the Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, etc.—it’s hard to imagine a scenario where people will all of a sudden stop using the service.
Unless, of course, Hollywood drains the life out of it.
Since Netflix is no longer seen as a harmless little company—the studios are complaining that it’s eating in airline movie sales, DVD sales, and that cable companies will no longer pay for movie rights because Netflix eliminates movie “scarcity”—Hollywood now sees itself in a prickly situation. Do you go with the flow, and try to figure out how to make Netflix “work” for you, or do you try to eliminate the threat while you still can?
I’m sure you know the answer to that one.
via Fearing iTunes-Like Domination, Hollywood Plots Netflix’s Downfall.

 
I think Netflix could pretty much start by expanding their catalogue of foreign films and art films and documentaries. If the film studios aren’t going to allow netflix then they have to build their own.  Something more than the half effort the TV execs did with HULU.

Aquino confirms Heidi Mendoza’s return to COA
03/11/2011 | 12:01 PM
AMITA LEGASPI, GMA News
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III confirmed that Heidi Mendoza, a former state auditor and a whistle-blower on military corruption, will soon return to the Commission on Audit (COA).
“So pagbalik niya, sa palagay ko as a minimum she will be a COA commissioner,” Aquino told reporters on Thursday in Singapore where he is conducting a state visit.
(When she returns, I think, at the least, she will be a COA commissioner.)
Aquino said he has yet to talk with Mendoza after their meeting in February.
During the meeting, Mendoza told Aquino that she has to consult her family if she will accept the administration’s invitation for her to return to government service.
“Nung kinausap ko siya isa sa pinagdiinan niya nung nagdesisyon siyang maging testigo hindi niya pinaalam sa pamilya nya so sabi niya ‘kailangan kong konsultahin ang aking pamilya’,” the President said.
(When I spoke with her, she emphasized that when she decided to become a witness, she did not consult her family and this time, she said she has to consult her family.)
via Aquino confirms Heidi Mendoza’s return to COA.

 
My sense is that it’s good for us bad for her. She has already sacrificed more than most an still we have to ask more. If this was the NBA she should have an iron clad contract , with a player opt-out, buy-out,2 year player option, and the Kobe special trade veto power.  Which in government mean she must either be part of an independent commission (ie ombudsman) or she is part of a not so independent agency but with direct reporting to the President.

TAGORE: Otherwise, the drama of existence would be too desultory. It is the constant harmony of chance and determination which makes it eternally new and living.
EINSTEIN: I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it.
via Tagore and Einstein – School of Wisdom.

 
loved reading this conversation.

Rank	Name	Net Worth	Age	Source	Country of Citizenship
173	Henry Sy & family	$5.8 B	86	Retail	Philippines
512	Lucio Tan & family	$2.3 B	76	Diversified	Philippines
540	Andrew Tan	$2.2 B	58	Diversified	Philippines
1057	Enrique Razon	$1.1 B	51	ports	Philippines

via The World’s Billionaires – Forbes.com.

Craig Newmark launches Craigconnects.org, to connect and protect nonprofits

Xeni Jardin at 8:43 AM Tuesday, Mar 8, 2011 

 

Craig Newmark, O.G. internet guy and founder of Craigslist, tells Boing Boing this morning:

Hey, I know I say “this is a big deal” a lot, but this really IS a big deal. I’ve decided what I want to do for the next 20 years, which is to help connect and protect organizations that are doing good through a program I’m calling craigconnects.

I need your help. Together, we can make a difference.

Today the new craigconnects website launched:

* Craigconnects is about calling attention to and connecting good, effective nonprofits and other organizations that get the job done.

* Craigconnects is also about protecting organizations, and the public, from fake organizations that have a good story, but actually end up hurting the people they profess to serve.

via Craig Newmark launches Craigconnects.org, to connect and protect nonprofits – Boing Boing.

March 7, 2011, 12:15 PM
Comparative Destructiveness
Jonathan Chait gets angry at the way Republicans, who claim to care about the deficit, propose saving money by cutting back on expenditures that are needed to control health costs. Indeed. But there’s a larger dynamic at work here than mere stupidity.
Let’s focus, in particular, on the ridicule some of the quoted Republicans heap on “comparative effectiveness research.”
Ask yourself, what do we have to do to control Medicare costs? We can save some money, maybe a lot, by reforming payment systems so that providers are paid for overall treatment rather than on a fee-for-service basis. But over the long term, the fundamental issue is going to be to decide what Medicare will and won’t pay for. We need, as Henry Aaron has often said, to learn how to say no.
Notice that this is very different from the issue on Social Security. You can propose simply cutting retirement benefits by 25 percent, and that’s doable. But you can’t decide to do only three-quarters of every operation and test that Medicare pays for (and no, you can’t demand that patients pay 1/4 of the cost without effectively denying care to many Americans.) So Medicare cuts are an inherently harder problem than SS cuts. In fact, I suspect that’s one reason, beyond the political motivations, why inside-the-Beltway types love to talk about Social Security, a trivial concern, while avoiding the vastly more important Medicare issue.
So how are you going to make decisions about what not to do? Um, you need good information about which medical interventions work, and how well they work: comparative effectiveness research. And no, that information isn’t already out there: doctors know surprisingly little about how effective procedures are relative to one another.
Why, then, are Republicans opposed to this kind of research? Some of it is sheer stupidity and/or anti-intellectualism — hey, those researchers are probably atheistic Democrats, you know.
via Comparative Destructiveness – NYTimes.com.