Friday, June 24, 2011

A Skeptic's Guide to the 2012 Debate Over Manufacturing Job Losses


Clock Problems Coming? Power Grid Change May Cause Disruptions


Employer-Side Payroll Tax Cut Won't Increase Hiring


SEC's Request For Budget Increase Denied Despite Expanded Duties


Corporate Tax Holiday Would Shift Investment, Jobs Overseas: Report


In Case You Missed It…


The debt-ceiling debate in one tweet

, “I want to meet an economist who thinks it would be better for US to default on debt than to cut tax credits, if one exists.”


Three bad debt ceiling arguments


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Deficit Hysteria: Washington's War on the Young

Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com

The most bizarre thing about this fiscal war on America's young people is that it's completely unnecessary. Lifting the payroll tax cap would make Social Security 100% solvent for the next 75 years. But that's off the table. Republicans are adamantly opposed to any taxes that discommode the wealthy. And the White House embraced a "payroll tax cut" that creates a useful, if minor, stimulus effect -- but at the effect of making the country's most effective and valuable program a target for future benefit-cutters.

Social Security can be stabilized easily and cleanly, just by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share. The only way to fix Medicare is by addressing our nation's broken health care system, which means taking on the structural flaws in our for-profit health economy.

Washington should be helping these young people find jobs. Instead, too many policy makers are abandoning them just as their work lives begin. Worse, they're also trying to make sure they're abandoned when their careers end, too. Enough is enough. It's time to call these misguided austerity policies what they really are: a war on America's youth.

Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com
 

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Bill Gross: Deficit reduction can — and should — wait

This seems to be a very strong economic (logical) argument that flies in the face of the "conventional wisdom" ideology that dominates the current politics. Especially, in light of the statistics and other quantitative measurements that provide strong data that the lowering taxes philosophy does not generate jobs the way its dogmatic adherents' believe.

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Gross’s credentials as a deficit hawk are unimpeachable, but he’s arguing here that, to be a deficit hawk over the long term, you need to be jobs-focused now, as no economy with 9 percent unemployment is going to achieve the growth necessary to get its deficit under control. And he’s right. The question is whether his call for the government to refocus on jobs and brush aside fantasies that deficit reduction is also job creation will get as much attention as his concerns about debt and deficits.

Read more at www.washingtonpost.com
 

Spying on a Silent Killer

Remarkable.

Amplify’d from news.sciencemag.org

Atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty deposits on the walls of major arteries, can kill without warning. The disease causes few symptoms in its early stages, so sufferers are often hit with a heart attack or stroke before they realize anything is wrong. Now researchers have devised a way to spot the deposits before they cause serious harm by using a combination of infrared light and ultrasound.

Read more at news.sciencemag.org
 

Intel Demos Its Version of Future Supercomputing

Amplify’d from www.eweek.com

Using the MIC architecture,
Intel believes it can empower supercomputers—and eventually enterprise servers—to
carry out as many as quintillions (a quintillion is 1,000 raised to the power
of six, or a cardinal number 10^18) of computer operations per second. This is
hundreds of times faster than current supercomputers can move.

Read more at www.eweek.com
 

Monday, June 20, 2011

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Why Conservatives Punish Their Victims: A Lesson From Arizona

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Why Conservatives Punish Their Victims: A Lesson From Arizona

Why Conservatives Punish Their Victims: A Lesson From Arizona


CHART: Since 1950, Lower Top Tax Rates Have Coincided With Weaker Economic Growth


Ryan Dunn Dead: 'Jackass' Star Dies In Car Crash

NBC Philadelphia reports that Dunn and another passenger died in a 3 a.m crash at Route 322 and New Street in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania.

Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com

Dunn posted to Twitter a photo of himself drinking with friends just hours before the crash.

A police report indicated that Dunn was most likely speeding in his 2007 Porsche 911 GT3, which was destroyed in the wreck. "Upon arrival, police located one vehicle in the road and in the woods that was fully engulfed in flames," the report said. "DUI" was not indicated in the report.

Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com
 

The worst tax cut in Washington


Supreme Court Blocks Climate Change Lawsuit Filed By States

The court said that the authority to seek reductions in emissions rests with the Environmental Protection Agency, not the courts. The ruling was 8-0.


(Not) spreading the wealth


Why the rich want to get richer