Monthly Archives: May 2014

Who’s minding the nukes?

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“The entire Air Force chain of command of a missile base responsible for one-third of our land-based missiles was removed a few weeks ago because of a scandal involving drugs and cheating on tests.  We wanted to know what was going on: why so much turmoil in the missile corps? Who’s minding the nukes? And where are these weapons of mass destruction?  The warhead on each of these land-based missiles is 20 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and could kill millions if dropped on a major city. The Air Force still keeps nearly all 450 of them on constant alert, ready to go. We thought the missiles would be hidden away on some vast tract of federal land.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/whos-minding-the-nuclear-weapons/

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Climate Change and Captain Kirk

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“Of course, we aren’t seriously proposing government subsidies on the grounds that CO2 emissions confer ‘social benefits’ that aren’t being fully internalized by the emitters. The point is that even taking the Administration’s case on its own terms, it’s not even clear that CO2 emissions are a bad thing. And to repeat, we’re running 2 of the 3 computer models that the Obama Administration team used to come up with these figures for federal agencies. Last point: You might wonder why they (and I) didn’t try peeking under the hood of the third model, the so-called PAGE model. The answer is that it’s proprietary, and the creator (Chris Hope) doesn’t make the code publicly available.”

http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2014/04/climate-change-and-captain-kirk.html

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Seemingly terrific April jobs report poses strange puzzle

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“Let’s review. The U.S. added 288,000 jobs in April, the biggest spike since January 2012. The increase in employment is measured by the so-called establishment survey that quizzes private firms, government worksites and nonprofit institutions.  Yet the size of the labor force sank by 806,000. That’s the biggest drop since a 848,000 plunge in October and you have to go all the way back to 1981 to find another 800,000-plus decline. Labor-force changes are measured by the ‘household’ survey that interviews Americans directly.  ‘You have drastically different messages offered by the establishment and household surveys,’ said Stephen Stanley, chief economist of Pierpont Securities.”

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/05/02/seemingly-terrific-april-jobs-report-poses-strange-puzzle/

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Bill Bonner: Is Capitalism Doomed?

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“Capitalism has so few real aficionados they could all probably be rounded up and shot in an afternoon.  The poor don’t like it because they think it – rather than their own bad luck or bad habits – keeps them from getting rich. The rich don’t like it because it threatens to ruin them with crashes and bankruptcies. Businessmen don’t like it because its process of ‘creative destruction’ threatens to make their industries obsolete. Intellectuals don’t like it because it is inherently unpredictable and uncontrollable. The media doesn’t like it because it gives no press conferences and provides no ‘talking points’ for lazy journalists. Investors don’t like it because it punishes their mistakes.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/is-capitalism-doomed/

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Bill Bonner: What You NEED to Know about Wealth Inequality

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“After the 1970s, real capital played a smaller and smaller role. It was replaced by credit and its sinister twin: debt.  The r in Piketty’s now famous annotation r > g is supposed to represent the return on capital investment.  But where did the wad come from?  Savings rates went down. Real earnings went down. Growth rates went down. So how could there be more capital available and how could it produce higher rates of return (compared to economic growth)?   The whole thing is a headache for a thoughtful man. Capital investments with no real capital behind them. Profits that outstrip the economic growth from which they must come.  What to make of it?”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-wealth-inequality-debate/

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The heavy hand of the IRS seizes innocent Americans’ assets

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“Terry Dehko, who came to Michigan from Iraq in 1970, soon did what immigrants often do: He went into business, buying Schott’s Supermarket in Fraser, Mich., where he still works six days a week. The Internal Revenue Service, a tentacle of a government that spent $3.5 trillion in 2013, tried to steal more than $35,000 from Terry and Sandy that year.  Sandy, a mother of four, has a master’s degree in urban planning but has worked in the store off and on since she was 12. She remembers, ‘They just walked into the store’ and announced that they had emptied the store’s bank account.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-the-heavy-hand-of-the-irs/2014/04/30/7a56ca9e-cfc5-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html

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Bill Bonner: Don’t Be Fooled By the Wealth Inequality Debate

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“QE is supposed to be the weapon in the Fed’s fight against unemployment. The Fed is still buying $45 billion of bonds via QE every month… in addition to holding short-term interest rates to the floor.  Where does that $45 billion go? The insurance companies and pension funds that sell bonds to the Fed use this newly created money to buy the real assets of America – houses, companies, commercial property, resources, farmland… everything. And that drives up the prices of everything for everyone else.  The Fed says QE is meant to help create jobs… and ‘stimulate’ the economy.  It does nothing of the sort. Instead, it lines the pockets of those at the top of the heap.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/dont-be-fooled-by-the-wealth-inequality-debate/

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Tax-Free-Salaried OECD Calls For ‘Income Inequality’ Tax Overhaul

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“The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Wednesday called for an overhaul of the tax system in developed economies to ensure the very rich pay a large share of their incomes, and help limit or roll back the sharp increase in income inequality that has occurred over recent decades.  The Paris-based research body said governments should consider abolishing deductions and exemptions that are disproportionately favorable to high earners, taxing forms of remuneration such as stock options in the same way as wages, and raising a greater share of the total tax take from charges on real estate.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303678404579533202077342892

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An Economist’s Call For A Global Tax on Wealth

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“His main proposal is a comprehensive international agreement to establish a progressive tax on individual wealth, defined to include every kind of asset. He hedges a bit on the precise numbers but suggests that wealth below 200,000 euros be taxed at a rate of 0.1 percent, wealth between 200,000 and one million euros at 0.5 percent, wealth between one million and five million euros at 1.0 percent, and wealth above five million euros at 2.0 percent.  Piketty has nothing to say about the practical difficulties, distorting effects, and potential for abuse that would inevitably accompany such intense government control of the economy.”

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141218/tyler-cowen/capital-punishment

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Mt. Gox Settlement Proposal Could Make Former Users Whole

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“The ongoing legal battle over the future of Mt. Gox took a sudden turn on 29th April, when it was announced that Sunlot Holdings, the investor group seeking to buy what remains of the business, and lawyers representing the company’s global consumer creditors had struck a settlement deal.  Under that proposal, former exchange users would support Sunlot’s bid to buy and relaunch Mt. Gox in exchange for a 16.5% equity stake in the new business and settle with key defendants.  Lawyers representing international creditors will be continuing actions against CEO Mark Karpeles, Mt. Gox’s parent company Tibanne, Japan-based megabank Mizudo and other as-yet-unnamed defendants.”

http://www.coindesk.com/us-lawyer-mt-gox-settlement-proposal-could-make-former-users-whole/

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