Category: business ethics

Small Boats Sunset wallpaper – The Attack of The Serious People (via The Long Goodbye)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a thorough analysis of the debt ceiling crisis. I enjoyed it. I hope you do too.

James Pilant

Small Boats Sunset wallpaper - The Attack of The Serious People Small Boats Sunset wallpaper   For better or worse the debt ceiling debate has turned into a horse race story. The closer any political event can be framed into a horse race context the better most of the media likes it … Boehner has a plan, talks break down, Reid has a compromise, tea toddler Republicans pull back. So ABC's report of a tentative debt ceiling compromise might mean something for the next few hours and then disappear into th … Read More

via The Long Goodbye

What is middle class? (via jumpstone)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

There is certainly a disconnect between what your average beltway expert (including congressmen) believe average incomes are and what the actual data says. One writer I enjoy argues that the average congressman doesn’t actually know anybody who makes less than 250,000 a year and they think those people are either average Americans or the ones that count.

Personally, I don’t get it. If I were a politician I would never let the basic income numbers depart from my regular reading, they are too important to policy making.

James Pilant

According to the 2010 Wall Street Journal, Gregory B. Maffei was the highest paid CEO at $87 million. If you take the highest paid person and the lowest paid (earning the $6.25 minimum wage) and average the two, "middle" would be roughly $43.5 million. But extremely few people earn that. Also according to 2010 statistics, the typical wage of the top 1% of earners is $380,354. In this case, "middle" should be $183,677. However, only the top 5% of … Read More

via jumpstone

House panel approves bill forcing ISPs to log users’ web history (via THE INTERNET POST)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Yes, it’s all true. I went and checked to make sure there was no exaggeration here because this is so scary. Well, there it is, a congressional attempt to clobber all privacy on the internet and create huge databases of personal information that can be used against American citizens.

James Pialnt

House panel approves bill forcing ISPs to log users’ web history This has actually precious little to do with finding pedophiles, and everything to do with spying on everyone using the net. Lawmakers are about to push the American people under a bus with this legislation, and into the dark abyss of Code Napoleon Law, where everyone was considered guilty until proven innocent. First and 4th Amendment to the Constitution, rest … Read More

via THE INTERNET POST

Middle Class And Poor To Feel The Pain After Deal Is Passed (via Sky’s Universal Predications)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

Yes, as always, this is the case. The beltway bloviators, the “villagers,” the 24 hour news networks, the opinion makers, etc. long ago decided that the great mass of Americans were a bunch of lazy, unmotivated, whiny, and fat hogs who need the discipline of the market in their pointless lives. I am reminded of the condemnation in the Bible for those who load the poor with burdens while being unwilling to bear any burden of their own.

James Pilant

Middle Class And Poor To Feel The Pain After Deal Is Passed (As always, the middle class and the poor will feel the pain the most, while the wealthy get another tax break. And when we hit the debt ceiling again in a few years, they'll be asked to do it all over again–by taking it up the ass for the rich.) Debt hope: Obama praises 'Gang of Six' plan WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and a startling number of Republican senators lauded a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan Tuesday that includes $1 tri … Read More

via Sky's Universal Predications

PROOF that tax cuts do not create jobs: Bush’s decade was a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers (via Under the Mountain Bunker)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

I always thought that once supply side economics failed in the 1980’s, the idea would be dead. That was a major miscalculation on my part. The idea that cutting taxes raises revenue is so much fun for some people, that facts do not inconvenience them.

James Pilant

PROOF that tax cuts do not create jobs: Bush's decade was a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers From the Washington Post: There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well. Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade … Read More

via Under the Mountain Bunker

Heritage Foundation’s Report Lacks Real Information (via Colloquial Usage)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

I was appalled when I read the Heritage report. Apparently if your children have video games and you can afford a fridge, you really can’t be in that much economic distress? How weird are these guys? I appreciate this take down of their case that appliance ownership negates economic insecurity.

James Pilant

Heritage Foundation's Report Lacks Real Information What is Poverty? a new report by The Heritage Foundation, has been getting a lot of press this week, first from Fox News and then from The Colbert Report. In fact, a link to the report was the first item that came up this morning when I searched for the term “poor in America” on Google. According to the abstract, the report's aim is to address the following problem: Exaggeration and misinformation about poverty obscure the nature, extent, and cau … Read More

via Colloquial Usage

How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Net Neutrality (via Web 2.0 – Instructional Systems – FSU)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is a very straightforward explanation of the case for net neutrality.

James Pilant

Net Neutrality – a topic often debated in congress with little understanding. What is it? In short it takes away the right from data providers (comcast, verizon, etc.) to treat users differently. Why is this important? Well a few years ago it wasn't. The days off users simply checking their email or a static website are over now. Now a days people visit web 2.0 (facebook), stream netflix, play games, and do many thing that use a lot of broadband. … Read More

via Web 2.0 – Instructional Systems – FSU

The Best of the Debt Ceiling Postings on the Web

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

Wright Investor Services discusses the debt ceiling debate’s effect on stocks. There is no pro or con here just cold analysis.

eleriravuby in a posting called: Conservative ire threatens GOP debt plan in House (AP)   comments as follows –

For all that, it was the tea party-backed members of Boehner’s own party who continued to vex him, and heavily influence the debt and deficit negotiating terms ? not to mention his chances of holding on to the speakership.

THE DC FOLLY TROLLEY (via Corruptus Maximus) This is not a kind view of the Obama Administration.

It’s a gorgeous road (via A Walternative Universe) Here are some beautiful photographs followed by political commentary – it’s all very well done.

Hurry up and wait…. (via From D.C., With Love) This appears to be an actual participant in the crisis, a D.C. insider. However, she’s not giving up any heads up’s on the crisis.

current politics (via JCS Blog) This writer believes that our current debt ceiling situation is a positive thing. Please read and see what you think.

Here’s a comment from  Predictions (via Tfgray’s Weblog) –

True, I came up with a different reason for Wall Street’s blasé attitude, but there’s a fundamental similarity. They’ve already figured out a way to make money off it. Buy low, sell high is a lot easier to do when everyone is bailing on their investments in order to cover the expenses that their Social Security check used to.

This is a very cynical comment. I really like it. One must appreciate cynicism when it is delivered accurately.

Here is the last of the blog posts I enjoyed (and had time to read). Take a look at this paragraph – this is some pointed writing.  It’s from – The Fairest Game: Servants of Oligarchs (via For The Kindle/Lulu Ebook Lover)

The debt ceiling debates in Washington seem to best illustrate my point. This is the silliest political side show I have ever seen. It seems like we have a lot of those these days with the strange goal of this non official so-called Tea Party leading these power hungry Republicans by the nose rings. In Speaker Beohner, for instance, we have what must be one of the most Lillie livered politician ever to grace the front page of any newspaper. If my memory serves me, I believe it was he who stated that the leader of the republican party was actually Rush Limbaugh. It wasn’t something that he suggested in some round about way, either. For this professional public servant a race/class baiting talk show host was the leader of the Grand Old Party, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the party of Dwight Eisenhower. It’s men like this, politicians like this who are, next to (very sadly to say) our current President who are the fairest game, the fairest game for the angry public, for comedians, for cartoonists. Why, because what we see speaking to us from the radios and TV sets are the servants of oligarchs. Their actions are meant to fly in the face of the overall public.

Obviously, I could only cover a small proportion of the writing on the net but I do hope you enjoy my selections.

James Pilant

 

Five Reasons the House GOP Is to Blame (via James Fallows from The Atlantic)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

James Fallows continues his comments on the current debt ceiling crisis. –

Here’s a comparison: Suppose, by similar quirk, there was an arbitrary ceiling on the amount of ammunition the U.S. military could buy each year. Or the amount of fuel for drones, bombers, and Humvees. Like overall national debt, these purchases are foreseeable consequences of previous political decisions — in this case, about the wars the country decides to fight. But suppose that when the “ammo ceiling” came due for its routine extension, a group of legislators said they would refuse. No more bullets or jet fuel after August 2, and for good measure no more food for the troops, unless demands for radical change in future foreign policy were met in full. That would rightly be seen as blackmail, and as a reckless willingness to damage the nation for partisan ends. A similar reckless exercise in blackmail is underway now, with the difference that the consequences can be longer-lasting and worse.

Blackmail- that’s exactly how I see it. I am happy to observe that I am not the only one.

There is not much to be done now. The Republicans cannot generate a bill that will get a majority of their own caucus’ vote. Without that, there is no chance of a congressional action ending the crisis. The only ball park left is for the President to declare that based on a Constitutional provision, the United States will continue to pay its debts.

I doubt if he has the will or the courage. Of course, even mice pushed into a corner will on occasion bite.

James Pilant

The only debt I can care about these days is my own (via MichaelEdwardKelly.com)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is a personal view of our current debt limit crisis. I liked his take on the situation and call your attention to it.

James Pilant

It's been a while since I've delved too deeply into a political discussion here, and that's been a conscious decision. I've really found myself thinking less and less about national issues as time has gone on, and I think this is a direct result of me thinking more and more about my own personal issues. So when it comes to this whole "problem" of the debt ceiling debate, I have little to offer. It's not that I haven't been watching the news, or r … Read More

via MichaelEdwardKelly.com