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rePost:: – Obama’s Credibility Gap – NYTimes.com

Just wishing that Obama isn’t being like this because he is obsessed with a second term. He should watch the first half of season one of The West Wing. Let Bartlett be Bartlett. Be the best president he can be, not obsess about being a one term president. People are hurting because of the weak job market, no universal healthcare, and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the worsening conditions in Haiti. We need hope back!!!!!

Mr. Obama may be personally very appealing, but he has positioned himself all over the political map: the anti-Iraq war candidate who escalated the war in Afghanistan; the opponent of health insurance mandates who made a mandate to buy insurance the centerpiece of his plan; the president who stocked his administration with Wall Street insiders and went to the mat for the banks and big corporations, but who is now trying to present himself as a born-again populist.
Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, however skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it.
Mr. Obama’s campaign mantra was “change” and most of his supporters took that to mean that he would change the way business was done in Washington and that he would reverse the disastrous economic policies that favored mega-corporations and the very wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor.
via Op-Ed Columnist – Obama’s Credibility Gap – NYTimes.com.

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rePost::SoCal school district bans the dictionary Boing Boing

I usually erase the tags of the post I repost but the tags were funny. Fuck, these small minded people are starting to irritate me.

Cory Doctorow
POSTED AT 5:06 AM January 26, 2010
Action • betraying our duty to the next generation • bluenose • book • censorship • ignorant • kids • prig • ridiculous • seriously banning the dictionary wtf • socal • stiffnecked • stupid • tightassed • what the hell is wrong with you
SoCal school district bans the dictionary
Southern California's Menifee Union school district has banned the Merriam Webster's 10th edition from use in fourth and fifth grade classes, over this salacious definition of “oral sex”: “oral stimulation of the genitals”.
“It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.
via SoCal school district bans the dictionary Boing Boing.

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rePost::If Steve Jobs gave the State of the Union address Boing Boing

If only hope’s plan was something Steve Jobs would present. We know he doesn’t like presenting crap!!!!!

You know, it was just a year ago that we announced our economic plan for 2009. We said we were going to turn around the recession. We said we'd create jobs. And we said we'd do it in 12 months. What happened? We did it in three. It was the most successful period in the history of the United States. And 2010 is only going to be better. How awesome is that?
(APPLAUSE.)
How did we do it? Simple. We made a stimulus package. It had the most features of any package we've ever created—more jobs, more money, more everything. We could have stopped there. We could've said, Hey, that was great. Let's go do something else. But you know what? It wasn't enough. The American people deserve something even better and more revolutionary.
via If Steve Jobs gave the State of the Union address Boing Boing.

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rePost::DARPA Works on Reinventing all of Manufacturing Modelled on the Semiconductor Industry to Boost Economic Growth in the USA

This is actually a very worthy proposal.  I suspect that the company of the future would be the individual. As many others have pointed we may all just be free-agents in the future.

DARPA Works on Reinventing all of Manufacturing Modelled on the Semiconductor Industry to Boost Economic Growth in the USA
Popular Science reports – DARPA believes that replicating the semiconductor industry manufacturing model will enable other manufacturing sectors to experience similar economic booms.
Vertical integration has become inefficient, dragging creative companies down with costs associated with maintaining manufacturing facilities. “The seams between each stage of development; between design and prototyping, early production runs, limited, and large scale manufacturing … create extensive rework and are the source of production delays, surprises, and cost overruns,” Dugan said in her statements to PCAST.
The semiconductor industry, on the other hand, designs products and relies on semiconductor foundries to manufacture — even to prototype at the prototype stage — their products. These fabrication-less firms focus on innovating and leave the core manufacturing to the foundries, which distribute their costs across the products of many companies. The result is greater efficiency on both ends; designers focus on innovating and manufacturers are never idle waiting on the next big idea from upstairs.
via DARPA Works on Reinventing all of Manufacturing Modelled on the Semiconductor Industry to Boost Economic Growth in the USA.

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Elink Video:: "Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem

We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits
[Keynes Sings:]
John Maynard Keynes, wrote the book on modern macro
The man you need when the economy’s off track, [whoa]
Depression, recession now your question’s in session
Have a seat and I’ll school you in one simple lesson
BOOM, 1929 the big crash
We didn’t bounce back—economy’s in the trash
Persistent unemployment, the result of sticky wages
Waiting for recovery? Seriously? That’s outrageous!
I had a real plan any fool can understand
The advice, real simple—boost aggregate demand!
C, I, G, all together gets to Y
Make sure the total’s growing, watch the economy fly
We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits
You see it’s all about spending, hear the register cha-ching
Circular flow, the dough is everything
So if that flow is getting low, doesn’t matter the reason
We need more government spending, now it’s stimulus season
So forget about saving, get it straight out of your head
Like I said, in the long run—we’re all dead
Savings is destruction, that’s the paradox of thrift
Don’t keep money in your pocket, or that growth will never lift…
because…
Business is driven by the animal spirits
The bull and the bear, and there’s reason to fear its
Effects on capital investment, income and growth
That’s why the state should fill the gap with stimulus both…
The monetary and the fiscal, they’re equally correct
Public works, digging ditches, war has the same effect
Even a broken window helps the glass man have some wealth
The multiplier driving higher the economy’s health
And if the Central Bank’s interest rate policy tanks
A liquidity trap, that new money’s stuck in the banks!
Deficits could be the cure, you been looking for
Let the spending soar, now that you know the score
My General Theory’s made quite an impression
[a revolution] I transformed the econ profession
You know me, modesty, still I’m taking a bow
Say it loud, say it proud, we’re all Keynesians now
We’ve been goin’ back n forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Keynes] I made my case, Freddie H
Listen up , Can you hear it?
Hayek sings:
I’ll begin in broad strokes, just like my friend Keynes
His theory conceals the mechanics of change,
That simple equation, too much aggregation
Ignores human action and motivation
And yet it continues as a justification
For bailouts and payoffs by pols with machinations
You provide them with cover to sell us a free lunch
Then all that we’re left with is debt, and a bunch
If you’re living high on that cheap credit hog
Don’t look for cure from the hair of the dog
Real savings come first if you want to invest
The market coordinates time with interest
Your focus on spending is pushing on thread
In the long run, my friend, it’s your theory that’s dead
So sorry there, buddy, if that sounds like invective
Prepared to get schooled in my Austrian perspective
We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits
The place you should study isn’t the bust
It’s the boom that should make you feel leery, that’s the thrust
Of my theory, the capital structure is key.
Malinvestments wreck the economy
The boom gets started with an expansion of credit
The Fed sets rates low, are you starting to get it?
That new money is confused for real loanable funds
But it’s just inflation that’s driving the ones
Who invest in new projects like housing construction
The boom plants the seeds for its future destruction
The savings aren’t real, consumption’s up too
And the grasping for resources reveals there’s too few
So the boom turns to bust as the interest rates rise
With the costs of production, price signals were lies
The boom was a binge that’s a matter of fact
Now its devalued capital that makes up the slack.
Whether it’s the late twenties or two thousand and five
Booming bad investments, seems like they’d thrive
You must save to invest, don’t use the printing press
Or a bust will surely follow, an economy depressed
Your so-called “stimulus” will make things even worse
It’s just more of the same, more incentives perversed
And that credit crunch ain’t a liquidity trap
Just a broke banking system, I’m done, that’s a wrap.
We’ve been goin’ back n forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No it’s the animal spirits
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”
John Maynard Keynes
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
F A Hayek
The Fatal Conceit
from here : http://www.econstories.tv/home.html
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rePost:: » Philippines: “Renewable Marriage Bill”

This law is stupid, the problem is that there is no divorce law, or that annulment is too expensive. This law is wrong in so many levels.

A partylist group in the Philippines wants to introduce a law that would put a ten-year expiration date on marriage contracts. The unique proposal is the group’s answer to lengthy and expensive annulment proceedings in the country. The Catholic-dominated Philippines does not have a divorce law.
According to the group, the “Renewable Marriage Bill” would “spare incompatible couples the expense of lengthy legal proceedings before their marriages are annulled.” The group added that a marriage contract “should be just like a passport or driver’s license. If we are not interested to renew it, then it expires.”
More than 500,000 marriages are administered by the Catholic Church every year with less than 10 percent getting annulled and reported.
via Global Voices Online » Philippines: “Renewable Marriage Bill”.

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rePost::Obama Liquidates Himself – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com

Damn that was fast, bye bye hope!

Obama Liquidates Himself
A spending freeze? That’s the brilliant response of the Obama team to their first serious political setback?
It’s appalling on every level.
It’s bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting corpse of Andrew Mellon” (Mellon was Herbert Hoover’s Treasury Secretary, who according to Hoover told him to “liquidate the workers, liquidate the farmers, purge the rottenness”.)
It’s bad long-run fiscal policy, shifting attention away from the essential need to reform health care and focusing on small change instead.
And it’s a betrayal of everything Obama’s supporters thought they were working for. Just like that, Obama has embraced and validated the Republican world-view — and more specifically, he has embraced the policy ideas of the man he defeated in 2008. A correspondent writes, “I feel like an idiot for supporting this guy.”
Now, I still cling to a fantasy: maybe, just possibly, Obama is going to tie his spending freeze to something that would actually help the economy, like an employment tax credit. (No, trivial tax breaks don’t count). There has, however, been no hint of anything like that in the reports so far. Right now, this looks like pure disaster.
via Obama Liquidates Himself – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.

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Better Class of Politicians Please::Villar tried to buy me off – Enrile – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

During the meeting, Enrile said, Villar expressed his request “for my help because he was concerned about the investigation.”
“He asserted that he had done nothing wrong and that Senator [Jamby] Madrigal's charges had no basis,” he said.
“I explained to him that since the complaint of Senator Madrigal has been referred to the Committee of the Whole and that the Supreme Court had not issued the temporary restraining order they sought, the hearing must proceed,” he further said.
Enrile said he then “very clearly” and “repeatedly advised” Villar to participate in the proceedings so he could present his case.
“Several times during that meeting, Senator Villar interjected: “Manong, baka naman may maitutulong ako sa inyo. Makakatulong naman ako kung may kailangan kayo [Manong, there might be something I can do to help you. I can help if there’s anything that you need],” Enrile said, recalling their conversation during the meeting.
“I chose to ignore these statements, feeling very uncomfortable. But I told him, Manny, gusto kitang tulungan [I want to help you]. What I can promise you is that I will be fair to you. I will not allow the hearings to go beyond the issues referred to the committee nor for it to be turned into a fishing expedition,” the Senate leader said.
When he repeated his offer, Enrile said he told Villar, “Manny, if I help you, don't worry walang kapalit yun [I ask for nothing in return].”
Enrile sponsored the Committee of the Whole report censuring Villar for allegedly making sure that his real estate company benefit from the right-of-way deals in the C-5 road project. The report has been signed by 12 senators, including Enrile.
via Villar tried to buy me off – Enrile – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

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rePost::The True Secret of Female MBA’s? – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

“This is a strange twist. Many of the best and brightest women in the U.S. get an MBA so they can earn high wages, but they end up marrying the best and brightest men, who also earn high wages — which affords these women the luxury of not having to work so much. … Perhaps they never would have met such husbands if they hadn’t gone to business school.”
Would you cut us some slack? I think we are smarter than you give us credit for! Especially for two guys who are willing to go back 20-plus years to understand that the drop in crime in the 1990’s was due to the outcome of Roe v. Wade! You need a similarly long perspective on this issue because you are missing the boat.
Many of us — here’s the surprise — got our MBAs precisely because we wanted to have children and work, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to recover from the economic hit nearly as well unless we had an MBA to accelerate us back up the speed ramp when we re-entered the workforce post-child-raising! In fact, one could argue that having an MBA helps on the pregnancy end too, with presumably higher skills and therefore occasionally higher leverage to negotiate a better childcare leave than we might have otherwise.
via The True Secret of Female MBA’s? – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.

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rePost::Google, land of the spoiled brats?

Perhaps the strongest business argument against perk mania is that if you’re going to spend that much money on perks, at least make them performance-based. I can buy that. But why should that principle apply only to the rank and file?
Last September The Street published an interesting article by Eric Jackson [4] about Whitman’s tenure at eBay. He writes that “something happened in Whitman's last four years on the job in which her pay became dramatically disconnected with eBay's stock price and her perks started to go through the roof.” From 2005 to 2008 eBay’s stock declined 59 percent, while at the same time, Jackson alleges, “Whitman’s interest had drifted away from increasing the stock price of eBay to increasing her cash compensation and perks.” According to Jackson, in her last two years, this included nearly $1 million per year in expenses incurred by flying around on the corporate jet for personal business.
Yet in Whitman’s diatribe about frugality, she has the gall to write this about her reign at eBay: “We had Bagel Wednesday, and we had to plead for those.”
via Google, land of the spoiled brats?.