Clipmarks | schreibe's clips

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:03:25 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Check out the entire article to be reminded of the legacy of this failed administration.

Clip Source: www.vanityfair.com

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush

The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.

by Joseph E. Stiglitz

December 2007

When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this page.

After almost seven years of this president, the United States is less prepared than ever to face the future. We have not been educating enough engineers and scientists, people with the skills we will need to compete with China and India. We have not been investing in the kinds of basic research that made us the technological powerhouse of the late 20th century.

Tags: politics, bush, economy

The Swill Is Gone

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:28:24 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Government regulation? How awful! We should never mess with the business of business! The system will alway correct itself without our intervention! Government is the problem, not the solution!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Swill Is Gone

THE milk was marketed as pure and wholesome, and it looked fine to the naked eye. How were the mothers to know they were poisoning their babies? They had paid good money for it on the open market. It would take thousands of sick children before lawmakers did anything to stop it.

China in 2008? No, New York City in 1858. Missing from the coverage of the current Chinese baby formula poisoning, in which more than 53,000 babies have been sickened and at least four have died, is how often it has happened before.

But the greater part was swill milk, a filthy, bluish substance milked from cows tied up in crowded stables adjoining city distilleries and fed the hot alcoholic mash left from making whiskey. This too was doctored — with plaster of Paris to take away the blueness, starch and eggs to thicken it and molasses to give it the buttercup hue of honest Orange County milk. This newspaper attributed the deaths of up to 8,000 children a year to this vile fluid.

Tags: business, politics, regulation

Gov. Palin’s Worldview

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:53:37 GMT

clipped by: schreibe

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Gov. Palin’s Worldview

If he seriously thought this first-term governor — with less than two years in office — was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raises profound questions about his judgment. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.

It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness.

What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications.

The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls “the mission” that they won’t even pause for reflection — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country.

Tags: palin, 2008election, politics, mccain

Our Living Constitution

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:29:16 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Like it or not....we have what is called a "Living Constitution", where Court decisions are made that are based on today's national and international events!

Clip Source: www.loyalresistance.blogspot.com

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

When Judges Make Foreign Policy

Every generation gets the Constitution that it deserves. As the central preoccupations of an era make their way into the legal system, the Supreme Court eventually weighs in, and nine lawyers in robes become oracles of our national identity. The 1930s had the Great Depression and the Supreme Court’s “switch in time” from mandating a laissez-faire economy to allowing New Deal regulation. The 1950s had the rise of the civil rights movement and Brown v. Board of Education. The 1970s had the struggle for personal autonomy and Roe v. Wade. Over the last two centuries, the court’s decisions, ranging from the dreadful to the inspiring, have always reflected and shaped who “we the people” think we are.

Noah Feldman on the relatively unprecedented forays into international relations by U.S. courts. (mp3)

Times Topics: Supreme Court, U.S.

Tags: constitution, supreme court, politics

What is the FDIC? Is your money safe?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:57:28 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: This is a primer on what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is all about.
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The FDIC was created, over the vociferous opposition of its beneficiaries—the banking industry—in the dark spring of 1933, when 4,000 banks had closed. Francis Sisson, then-president of the American Bankers Association, thought the idea of having banks kick in to a fund that would insure individual banks against losses--and the entire system against the contagion of bank runs—was "unsound, unscientific, unjust, and dangerous."

But it worked. In 75 years, no insured deposit—the current limit for a regular account is $100,000—has been lost

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

MONEY CULTURE

Daniel Gross

A Run on Your Money?

What the FDIC is doing to stabilize troubled banks.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

While the FDIC has weathered its first 75 years quite well, it still faces some issues. By law, it maintains a rainy-day fund equal to 1.25 percent of the level of insured deposits. The result: today, some $52.8 billion—all of it in ultra-safe Treasuries—stands behind $4.2 trillion in insured deposits. That's not much of a margin for error. The failure of IndyMac will sap from $4 billion to $8 billion from the fund, or up to 9.5 percent of its total.

she's been calling for lenders to absorb pain now to avoid systemic pain in the future. Last fall, she strayed from Administration talking points when she urged lenders to convert loans with teaser rates into permanent fixed rates at low levels. Doing so, she believed, would stave off a spiral of foreclosures and fire sales, which depress prices further—leading to more foreclosures.

Tags: banks, money, fdic

100 Great Tips for Increasing Your Gas Mileage

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:03:44 GMT

clipped by: schreibe

Clip Source: articles.mercola.com

100 Great Tips for Increasing Your Gas Mileage

So Ecomodder’s list of 100 suggestions for cutting down on the gas you use could not have come at a better time.

Some of the possibilities include:

1. Remove unused roof racks to reduce aerodynamic drag
2. Track your fuel consumption
3. Choose a route with trees or buildings along the edge to prevent crosswinds
4. Avoid drive-through windows, which lead to excessive idling
5. Drive shoeless to modulate the accelerator to the finest degree
6. Avoid “warm-up” idling -- it wastes fuel
7. Not driving during peak traffic times
8. Minimizing your use of the brake pedal as much as safely possible
9. Avoid parallel parking (which causes you to do multiple reverse/forward maneuvers)
10. Shift automatic transmissions to neutral when stopped

For 90 more great tips, click the link below!

Sources:

Ecomodder

Tags: economy, gas prices.

What Should Uncle Sam Do?

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:19:59 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: I like the sound of the phrase "socialized capitalism"..... Every time someone mentions that there should be more regulation of the greedy corporations, some ditto-head conservative yells "Socialism!". I gues they would rather have "Socialized Capitalism" in which the CEO's of these large corporations get to go home each year with millions of dallars in income, while the rest of us bail out their failed businesses.....nothing but greed and corruption!

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

What Should Uncle Sam Do?

NEWSWEEK's Business Roundtable takes stock of the real damage—and offer solutions to the economic crisis.

A Modest Proposal

Robert Reich , secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, and author of "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life"

Of course Fannie and Freddie are getting bailed out. They're Bear Stearns to the 10th degree—way too big to fail, especially with the rest of the Street in turmoil. And of course taxpayers get stuck with the tab.

We've created the worst form of socialized capitalism—private gains combined with public losses. These executives and bankers are among the best paid in all of corporate America. Their organizations are treated as if they're giant investor-driven private sector entities as long as they're healthy. But when they start to go down the tubes they become public entities with public responsibilities, and the rest of us have to bail them out.

Tags: politics, business, corporations

AP: Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:58:23 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: I guess this is what is meant by less government is good government. This administration has been on the side of big business every step of the way, and this is only one of the paybacks that we the citizens have had to endure. I wonder how many more "slaps in the face" we have been unknowingly receiving through the fact that our President and the present administration, and now including the Supreme Court are on the side of BIG BUSINESS! I kinda think that the 28% interest rate on credit card loans, or the inability to declare bankruptcy, or the lack of adequate health care...etc. etc. etc., might just be a result of the successful lobbying of Big Business to help them with the only thing they are really concerned with.....and that my friends is their BOTTOM LINE! Deregulation has bitten us upon the ass on many fronts....this is just one of them!

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

AP: Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

WASHINGTON - One of the worst outbreaks of foodborne illness in the U.S. is teaching the food industry the truth of the adage, "Be careful what you wish for because you might get it."

The industry pressured the Bush administration years ago to limit the paperwork companies would have to keep to help U.S. health investigators quickly trace produce that sickens consumers, according to interviews and government reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

The White House also killed a plan to require the industry to maintain electronic tracking records that could be reviewed easily during a crisis to search for an outbreak's source. Companies complained the proposals were too burdensome and costly, and warned they could disrupt the availability of consumers' favorite foods.

The government's plans would saddle business with unnecessary and costly regulations.

Tags: politics, business, deregulation, big business, fda, food

Obama’s No-Brainer on Education

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:26:39 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: The stakes couldn't be higher. The United States now ranks 25th among 30 industrialized countries in math. "If I told you your basketball team finished in 25th place, you'd be outraged," says former West Virginia governor Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education. When the landmark "A Nation at Risk" report was issued 25 years ago, the education system was ailing, but the United States was still No. 1 in college-graduation rates. Now we are No. 21. "We simply have not progressed," says former Colorado governor Roy Romer, who heads a commission that recently updated the report. "The rest of the world has." For example, the average European nation has 13 more school days than we do.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

Jonathan Alter

Obama’s No-Brainer on Education

Moderates would respond to a Democrat willing to slip the ideological stranglehold of a liberal interest group.

One of the best things about the democratic primaries was that horse-race-obsessed reporters rarely asked the candidates about education. Why was that good? Because hundreds of delegates who were at stake are members of Paleolithic teachers unions, ready to pounce on any challenge to the failed system they dominate. When the subject did arise, it quickly became a pander party with President Bush's (and Ted Kennedy's) No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as the piñata.

Now Obama needs to embrace a Grand Education Bargain—much higher pay for teachers in exchange for much more accountability for performance in the classroom. Good teachers need to be rewarded with more pay and respect for being members of our noblest profession. They need more resources. But they also need to be removed from the classroom when they fail to improve.

Tags: politics, education, obama

The and the new...At Arm's Length

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:55:19 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Interesting assessment of today's realities, and yesterdays realities.....a new day dawns!

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

In private, though, the relationship was more complicated, and not as close as it seemed. The men had different approaches to politics: Jackson was old school, an unyielding civil-rights-era fighter ever on the lookout for injustice to denounce. Obama—like other younger black politicians who came up after Jim Crow—was less heated, a results-oriented pragmatist who was willing to compromise and who saw the old guard's combative style as obsolete.

the Rev. Al Sharpton tells NEWSWEEK. "There's definitely a generational divide going on in the black community, and it's been happening for a while. People who deny it aren't seeing clearly."

Jackson Junior seemed to take his father's words personally. "Reverend Jackson is my dad and I'll always love him," he said. "He should know how hard that I've worked for the last year and a half [for Obama] … So, I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric."

Rep. Jackson said that his dad's way of doing things is a throwback to another time: "

Tags: poltitcs, obama, jesse jackson, race

The Gratitude Campaign

Sun, 18 May 2008 11:01:02 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: I feel that this is a great way to show thanks and appreciation. I am deffinitely not a champion of this devestating unneccessary war, but these guys and girls are stuck in the middle of it all, and need to understand that we understand, and appreciated what they are going through. This video is only a few minutes long, and there is another shorter version at the youtube website. It would be a good thing if this got passed around, and all of us civilians were prepared for the inevitable time when the troops come marching home.
On a personal note, thanks to Don for passing this on to me, and I will do my best to pass it on to others.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

the gratitude campaign (full length)

From: gratitudecampaign
Views: 70,243
Comments: 54

Tags: war, sacrifice, service

It’s About the White House

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:45:21 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: A good title to an article that explains what we will be getting if "long in the tooth" manages to win the Presidency. Imagine that! ..... another four years of the same lousy trip back in time!.....the same give it to the rich and the corporations.....welcome back to "The Guilded Age".

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

It’s About the White House

Like many Americans, we have been intrigued and often exasperated by the long-running Democratic primary and the ever smaller-bore spats between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So we are thankful to Senator John McCain for reminding us Tuesday what this year’s presidential race really is about.

He is determined to move a far too conservative and far too activist Supreme Court and federal judiciary even further and more actively to the right.

Mr. McCain predictably criticized liberal judges, vowed strict adherence to the Founders’ views and promised to appoint more judges in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. That is just what the country does not need.

Since President Bush chose Justices Roberts and Alito, the Court has ordered Seattle and Louisville to scrap voluntary school integration, protected employers who illegally mistreat their workers, and constrained women’s right to choose and voters’ right to vote.

Tags: politics

The Court Fumbles on Voting Rights

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:44:51 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: How to disenfranchise groups of people. Our Supreme Court is following the Republican line of partisen politics......just as we all expected!

Clip Source: select.nytimes.com

The Court Fumbles on Voting Rights

Democracy was the big loser in the Supreme Court on Monday. The court upheld Indiana’s voter identification law, which solves a nearly nonexistent problem by putting major barriers between voters — particularly minorities — and the ballot box. Worse, the court set out a standard that clears the way for other states to adopt rules that discourage disadvantaged groups from voting. It is a sad reversal for a court that once saw itself as a champion of voting rights.

The Indiana law does not meet this test. The harm it imposes on voters, some of whom will no doubt be discouraged from casting ballots, is considerable. The state’s interest in the law, on the other hand, is minimal. It was supposedly passed to prevent people from impersonating others at the polls, but there is no evidence that this has ever happened in Indiana. It seems far more likely that the goal of the law’s Republican sponsors was to disenfranchise groups that lean Democratic.

Tags: politics, voter rights

Even the Insured Feel Strain of Health Costs

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:36:59 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Here's the real skinny on what most of us are putting up with these days.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Even the Insured Feel Strain of Health Costs

“It’s a bad-news situation when an individual or household has to pay out-of-pocket three, four or five times as much for their health plan as they would have at the time of the last recession,” she said. “Americans have been giving their pay raise to the health care system.”

His wife, Marianne, started researching individual insurance policies and was able to find policies for her husband and daughter offering basic, if minimal, coverage, costing $161 a month for father and daughter. But Ms. Falacienski, 32, who has arthritis and the severe digestive disorder Crohn’s disease, is now uninsured. Because of her conditions, she said, four major insurers rejected her.

“I even applied for Medicaid,” she said, “but I wasn’t low-income enough.”

Tags: health care, health insurance

Triple-A Failure

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:38:57 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: This is a long read, but worth the effort if you want a better understanding of how the big banking and mortgage institutions got into this mess. What is really comical is how they try to blame the mortgage holders, as the following quote illustrates:
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"Moody’s and S.&P. have announced reforms. But they reject the notion that they should have been more vigilant. Instead, they lay the blame on the mortgage holders who turned out to be deadbeats, many of whom lied to obtain their loans."
======================
The only "deadbeats" I see here, are the ones that allowed this rediculous situation to develop.....in the name of MONEY....more and more of it!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Triple-A Failure

The Ratings Game

In 1996, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, remarked on “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” that there were two superpowers in the world — the United States and Moody’s bond-rating service — and it was sometimes unclear which was more powerful. Moody’s was then a private company that rated corporate bonds, but it was, already, spreading its wings into the exotic business of rating securities backed by pools of residential mortgages.

Moody’s and S.&P. have announced reforms. But they reject the notion that they should have been more vigilant. Instead, they lay the blame on the mortgage holders who turned out to be deadbeats, many of whom lied to obtain their loans.

Thanks to the industry’s close relationship with the banks whose securities it rates, Partnoy says, the agencies have behaved less like gatekeepers than gate openers.

Tags: finance, mortgage crisis, moody's

Clipmarks | schreibe's clips

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush

The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.

The Swill Is Gone

The Swill Is Gone

Gov. Palin’s Worldview

Gov. Palin’s Worldview

Our Living Constitution

When Judges Make Foreign Policy

Related

Times Topics: Supreme Court, U.S.

What is the FDIC? Is your money safe?

MONEY CULTURE

Daniel Gross

A Run on Your Money?

100 Great Tips for Increasing Your Gas Mileage

What Should Uncle Sam Do?

What Should Uncle Sam Do?

AP: Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

AP: Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

Obama’s No-Brainer on Education

Jonathan Alter

Obama’s No-Brainer on Education

The and the new...At Arm's Length

The Gratitude Campaign

It’s About the White House

It’s About the White House

The Court Fumbles on Voting Rights

The Court Fumbles on Voting Rights

Even the Insured Feel Strain of Health Costs

Even the Insured Feel Strain of Health Costs

Triple-A Failure

Triple-A Failure