Clip 1: Economic Democracy and Political Democracy.
Clip 2: Wider Context. Peace is an Economic Issue.
Footnote for MSNBC: The hard pre-rolls aren't going to cut it here; especially with multiple clips on a page. I'll leave this here this time, but if I don't get a share -- a significant revenue share -- of the pre-roll ad revenue for which I alone am the proximate cause and courier, I'm not going to distribute your advertising for free.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Educated, Unemployed, Frustrated: Not just the over 40 crowd any more
New York Times on America's new normal:
About one-fourth of Egyptian workers under 25 are unemployed, a statistic that is often cited as a reason for the revolution there. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January an official unemployment rate of 21 percent for workers ages 16 to 24.
My generation was taught that all we needed to succeed was an education and hard work. Tell that to my friend from high school who studied Chinese and international relations at a top-tier college. He had the misfortune to graduate in the class of 2009, and could find paid work only as a lifeguard and a personal trainer. Unpaid internships at research institutes led to nothing. After more than a year he moved back in with his parents.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Head of World’s Largest Asset Manager: “Markets Like Totalitarian Governments”
Head of World's Largest Asset Manager: "Markets Like Totalitarian Governments"
THE BIG PICTURE | MARCH 05, 2011
http://pulsene.ws/143s8
"If instead they preferred democracy, democracy would flourish."
---
Shared via Pulse, a great news reader for iPad, iPhone and Android.
http://www.pulsene.ws
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Massive wealth redistribution as richest shirk responsibilities
Via TruthOut:
One conclusion is clear and obvious: the richest Americans have dramatically lowered their income tax burden since 1945, both absolutely and relative to the tax burdens of the middle income groups and the poor.
Consider two further points based on this graph: first, if the highest income earners today were required to pay the same rate that they paid for many years after 1945, the federal government would need far lower deficits to support the private economy through its current crisis; and second, those tax-the-rich years after 1945 experienced far lower unemployment and far faster economic growth than we have had for years.
What we think vs. What we'd like vs. What is
Courtesy of Discover Magazine's Cosmic Variance:
"How many comments do you think we’ll get before someone claims that taxation = slavery? I’m guessing five." - Sean Carroll
What does it imply that most Americans think the distribution of wealth is much more even than it really is, and would like it to be more even still? By itself, nothing at all. These are just data — descriptions of the world — and science doesn’t imply morality. The data are just useful to keep in mind when we do think about how a just society should be ordered, and what strategies (“share the pain!”) might be most appropriate when thinking about how to recover from our recent economic pratfall.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Why real, permanent, structural unemployment is closer to 20%
"If you ask people how an unemployed person stops being unemployed, they'll probably say that the person gets a job. But that's not the only answer: A person can stop being counted as unemployed if she gives up looking for a job. That's the worst of all worlds, of course. Giving up on working when you want a job is bad for income, for skills, and even for health and happiness. But as this graph from Mike Konczal shows, it's become increasingly common" (Washington Post).
SOURCE: Washington Post
If we've explained this once, we've explained it a thousand times. The definitions are all there for anyone to read. This isn't hyperbole, it's reality, whether you choose not to believe in it, or not. The true rate of unemployment that we all feel is called U-6 Total Unemployment, it's defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as follows:
"U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force.
NOTE: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data."
The real numbers go like this:
If you believe these numbers aren't also understated, you have far greater faith than I do.
The fact that these numbers are "coming down" overall is ZERO aid or comfort to the millions of humans living in distress, despair, and depression due to these numbers. This isn't because they are sick people, it's because humans can only take a certain amount of stress and dire economic conditions are a major cause of depression. You'd develop clinical depression pretty quickly, too, if you were among these millions. Also, given the evolution of market economies, it's very highly likely that these numbers are the New Normal. They'll plateau here, and then get worse again with the next "correction."
We can't afford to keep stalling. It's time for a U.S. Basic Income and Global Basic Income.
If we've explained this once, we've explained it a thousand times. The definitions are all there for anyone to read. This isn't hyperbole, it's reality, whether you choose not to believe in it, or not. The true rate of unemployment that we all feel is called U-6 Total Unemployment, it's defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as follows:
"U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force.
NOTE: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data."
The real numbers go like this:
Not Seasonally Adjusted
| Jan 2010 | Dec 2010 | Jan 2011 |
| 18.0 | 16.6 | 17.3 |
If you believe these numbers aren't also understated, you have far greater faith than I do.
The fact that these numbers are "coming down" overall is ZERO aid or comfort to the millions of humans living in distress, despair, and depression due to these numbers. This isn't because they are sick people, it's because humans can only take a certain amount of stress and dire economic conditions are a major cause of depression. You'd develop clinical depression pretty quickly, too, if you were among these millions. Also, given the evolution of market economies, it's very highly likely that these numbers are the New Normal. They'll plateau here, and then get worse again with the next "correction."
We can't afford to keep stalling. It's time for a U.S. Basic Income and Global Basic Income.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The myth of 'American exceptionalism' implodes
Richard Wolff, Guardian.co.uk: "Until the 1970s, US capitalism shared its spoils with American workers. But since 2008, it has made them pay for its failures."
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Future of Money & Technology Summit
Finally. The step function to the next increment (the ++) may be nearing readiness for implementation with The Future of Money and Technology Summit, February 28, 2011.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)