Tag: Economics

Flawed economics (via to boondoggle is human.)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is what I have been saying in many blog posts. We simply cannot keep doing the same economic things over and over again when they have failed over and over again. Some have said that is the very definition of insanity.

It is not ethical or moral to have corporations and the wealthy shed their tax burdens while leaving the average wage earners holding the bag. Those who control large sums of money in this country benefit like everyone else from educational systems, roads and bridges, and the work of police, firemen and our soldiers. Calling yourselves, “job creators” does not place a halo on your head or relieve you of your duty to your country, your state, your community and your fellow citizens.

We need to have a tax code that allocates the taxes paid in relation to the excess wealth accumulated and severely limits the amount paid on the base money necessary for basic needs, like food, shelter, education and medical needs.

I like this blogger’s thinking and I wish him well.

James Pilant

Flawed economics Supply-side Economics (see http://bit.ly/e8cvkl for definition and description), founded by Milton Friedman and made policy by Reagan, has been tested over the past 30 years.  It is working for the top 1%; not so much for the rest of us.  The dawned (indeed, dawned) realization is that the vast majority of ordinary consumers – the massive lower middle- and middle-class – are seeing their wages stagnate.  We are witnessing the impact of wage-stagn … Read More

via to boondoggle is human.

16 Reasons To Feel Really Depressed About The Direction That The Economy Is Headed (via Organic News Net)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I agree with virtually everything here. I believe the economy is in serious trouble and it is not getting better soon. I firmly believe that the deficit reduction talks will result in an agreement that will damage the nation severely in the short term, savagely in the long term and serve as the final nail in the coffin of the middle class.

The prosperity and well being of individual Americans making less than a quarter of a million dollars a year no longer registers in any form whatever in the concerns of the governing class.

James Pilant

16 Reasons To Feel Really Depressed About The Direction That The Economy Is Headed The American Dream July 7, 2011 If you do not want to feel really depressed, you might not want to read this article.  The U.S. economy is coming apart at the seams, and there are a whole lot of indications that things are about to get even worse. After a time of relative stability, the pace of job cuts is starting to pick up again, inflation is rising but paychecks are not, the U.S. housing crisis shows no signs of ending, millions of American f … Read More

via Organic News Net

The Seduction of Power (via Only Ed)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Battle. That’s a very strange word to use in the context of media in conflict but I don’t doubt its importance or relevance.

I believe the battle for the print, broadcast and cable media has been lost. The kind of news that was in the paper and on the television 35 years ago is gone. We now live in an age of “distraction” news, content free news and outright deception. It is a great pity.

A free people cannot defend itself without information, facts and leadership, we have none of that. We have celebrity scandals, fake facts that our sniveling media decline to describe as a lies and a jello spined leadership so beholden to financial interests they contest among themselves for who is the most slavish in their devotion. They throw their offering on the altars of these demigods like the food offerings thrown before the wooden carvings of Odin in Pre Medieval Scandinavia.

Read on and discover nations and cultures where the media is still up for grabs.

James Pilant

  The Seduction of Power   Posted 24 June 2011, by Raúl Pierri, Inter Press  Service (IPS), ips.org MONTEVIDEO, Jun 24, 2011 (IPS) – The governments and big private media groups in Latin America are waging a war to win over public opinion, the ultimate arbiter of legitimacy, and the only solution would appear to be to strike up an alliance. "Battle" was the most oft-repeated term in the seminar on "Communication, pluralism and the role … Read More

via Only Ed

$6.64 Billion Damages Sought over Israeli Government and AIPAC Use of Stolen Classified US Trade Data (via Aletho News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

What a surprise! A union between commercial interests and the government, the only surprise being in this case it concerns another nation.

This is nasty. The government of Israel stole diplomatic information on trade and commerce and handed it over to their business community giving those businesses an enormous and illicit advantage.

When should the government cooperate with industry? We can argue over where and when it is ethical. But can we really argue with direct illegality? I don’t think so. It was wrong to use privileged information, not just because it was illegal but because it endangers all future international cooperation.

This is not the first time the government of Israel has acted as a rogue government. It will not be the last.

James Pilant

Grant F. Smith | IRmep | May 24, 2011 WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today the Section 301 Committee of the US Trade Representative formally received a petition demanding $6.64 billion in compensation for US exporters. In 1984 US exporters were urged to submit business confidential data about their prices, market share, internal costs and market strategy to the International Trade Commission. The USTR guaranteed confidentiality and compiled the dat … Read More

via Aletho News

Koch Foundation Hires and Fires Economists at Public University (via Wake-up Call)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

It is questionable morally to use money and influence to diminish or destroy the rights of Americans. It is questionable morality to subvert or buy the media to prevent unfavorable stories or to spread lies and misinformation. And it is questionable morality to buy influence at American universities so that your perverted economic doctrines can become mainstream, to use public institutions as private breeding grounds for followers, to pollute the social science with the continuous contributions of bought academics, not searching for the truth, but in opposition to it.

Shall large Christian denominations dispose of evolutionary biology using the same methods? Shall opponents of gay marriage dispose of social scientists using the same methods? Shall we give up the field of criminology, after high dollar contributors insist that crime is produced by demonic possession?

Think of the possibilities! These independent researchers, these tenured beasts, all brought to heel. Is global warming a problem? Buy enough academics and it disappears. Some damn nosy professor says dumping radioactive material can damage our genetic heritage, that can be fixed. We can buy as many professors as we want. History can become what we want. The very definition of reality can be changed, literature and painting cleansed of subversive influences.

Are public universities in need of money? Let them get money the old-fashioned way. Haven’t people justified their immoral actions by saying they did it because it was part of the job and they had to feed their families? Haven’t people said they had to do it, it was part of the job? Let’s put academics in that same boat. They shall have their jobs only if they give the proper respect to the contributors, only if their search for truth is predetermined, I promise you that every university in this nation will be rolling in money the moment they realize just like Florida State University that selling the “right” kind of education is more profitable than the pursuit of knowledge. Educating the young has never been very profitable.

We can double, triple administrative salaries. We can build new buildings and a first class physical plant. There will be stadiums and first class football teams at the smallest of institutions. No more begging to the state legislatures, the money will never stop. Donors will compete against each other for professors. If one gets five, then the other must have six.

We can price them. The more influential the professor, the more money they will be worth. It’s easy to measure, who’s on television more often. Who testifies before Congress the most. Whether or not they teach or get published is insignificant. Who wants to buy that?

We have sold so much in this country. Let’s follow free market economics to their logical conclusion.

The brave new world of green is out there waiting for us. Let us walk forward bravely, open palm extended, to sell our last possession, our integrity.

James Pilant

Koch Foundation Hires and Fires Economists at Public University by Rebekah Wilce on May 12, 2011     PR Watch     According to news reports, the Charles G. Koch Foundation has bought “the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.” Kris Hundley of the St. Petersburg Times reports that the elder Koch brother’s foundation “pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a … Read More

via Wake-up Call

Italy’s Great Nuclear Swindle (via Aletho News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Seldom has a politician been so up front about his contempt for the masses –

From the essay –

On April 26th, the 25th anniversary of the catastrophic Chernobyl accident, Berlusconi held a press conference with French president Nikolay Sarkozy in Rome. At this press conference Berlusconi made his radioactive intentions clear for all. “We are absolutely convinced that nuclear energy is the future for the whole world,” he said. He went on to detail how recent polls showed that the referendum to block nuclear power for decades to come could pass at this time and that by temporarily suspending Italy’s return to nuclear program the issue would be revisited when the Italian voters had been “calmed down” and returned to the realization that Nuclear Energy was the most viable and safe way to produce electricity. He went on to explain how the “leftists and ecologists” had manipulated the emotions of the Italian voters after Chernobyl and penalized the Italian people who have to pay higher electric rates than France that operates 58 nuclear power plants. Berlusconi explained that the “situation in Japan had scared the Italian voters” and that the “inevitable return to nuclear power in Italy” would not be abandoned nor would the collaborations between Enel and Eletricite de France.

You see voters have no wisdom and judgment. When they err by disagreeing with you, for instance, their failure to realize that nuclear power is “viable and safe,” that can be fixed. If you have the media, you just patiently convince them of your point of view. You don’t worry about their judgment because there is nothing that cannot be fixed by good PR.

It would be difficult to find more open contempt for the democratic process or the facts of the situation. If nuclear power is going to be safe, there is some work that is going to have to be done. If that isn’t obvious based on the last twenty years, where have you been hiding?

James Pilant

The Radioactive Dictatorship of Silvio Berlusconi By MICHAEL LEONARDI – CounterPunch – May 13, 2011 Italy’s democracy is in tatters as Silvio Berlusconi and his ruling right-wing coalition work to block a citizen’s referendum that would repeal the decision of the Berlusconi government to return to nuclear energy production on the peninsula. Italy has not produced nuclear energy since 1990 and recent polls indicate that more than 75 % of Italians … Read More

via Aletho News

Confronting “Grazing” At The Supermarket (via Kevin Benko)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Here we have an analysis of a moral conundrum. Is it okay to take something of small value? Even if it is very small in value? The analysis here results in a finding of “still wrong whatever size.”

I agree with that.

But follow the line of reasoning and see if you would have worked through it the same way. It’s interesting.

James Pilant

I was shopping at a local Wholefoods for a few items when I noticed someone in the store “grazing” at the bulk foods. Grazing is the term that is commonly used to describe the act of theft, or shoplifting, by eating the store’s food while shopping. I suspect that the term “grazing” is used to justify this particular act of theft and attempting to delude oneself that their theft is not, indeed, theft. I confronted the individual, a man who seemed … Read More

via Kevin Benko

Human Development vs Eco-footprint (via design 2 good)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’m very fond of graphs and charts. So is this fellow. We need clarity to make good decisions and unfortunately words only go so far. Of course, we can do pictures but sometimes pictures don’t convey data accurately so we marry mathematics to words and pictures. Thus, we can,  sort of,  see facts and numbers in action.

And also, the Human Development Index is one of my favorite concepts, measuring human development not by per capita income but by a number of factors.

So, look at the graphs and read the comments. Best wishes!

James Pilant

Human Development vs Eco-footprint   A version of a favorite chart of mine… there are other versions with GDP vs Eco-footprint, Plastics/capita vs Eco-footprint and so on.  In this version, we have:   Human Development Index:  in simple terms, is a normalized average of a country’s life expectancy, ed … Read More

via design 2 good

Chernobyl Stalkers (via L’appel de Fukushima)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I had heard that the Titanic disaster and the First World War were both predicted by novels, but this is the first that I’ve heard that Chernobyl was predicted by a film.

I pity the poor souls who feel obligated to make a living by stealing high radiation scrap from a nuclear dead zone.

On the other hand, the future may hold that kind of existence for many millions.

James Pilant

Chernobyl Stalkers The people most affected by the explosion of Reactor Number Four on the morning of April 26,1986, soon learned that the event known as Chernobyl was predicted by a feature film made seven years earlier. Stalker, by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, explored the limits of our technical explanatory power against the backdrop of a mysterious force that can only be approached on foot, by forest “stalkers” who have learned to accept its risky gifts. … Read More

via L’appel de Fukushima

Media has moved on, but not Japanese (via News and Brews)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is the only beer related post having to do with the disasters in Japan that I have found. It’s not bad.

I do agree the Japanese have not moved on. The disaster continues there as recovery is handicapped by the ongoing nuclear problems. American media has a tawdry interest in current events however inconsequential. So, in America, it may well appear that the crisis is over.

No, not for quite some time.

James Pilant

Media has moved on, but not Japanese The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on Mar. 11 has mostly disappeared from the collective conscious of American mainstream media. Many news outlets have shifted focus to Syria or Yemen–both very important stories in their own right. However, Japan is still recovering from the natural disasters that struck their shores over a month and a half ago. It severely damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Power P … Read More

via News and Brews