Monthly Archives: September 2014

Militarism Is a Public Safety Crisis

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“The United States cannot live like other wealthy nations while dumping $1 trillion a year into a killing machine.  There is a no-fly-zone over Ferguson, Mo., because people in the U.S. government, from which local police forces take their cues, view the people of the United States increasingly as they view the people of other countries: as best controlled from the air. The War Resisters League noted this view is perpetuated by police militarization programs, such as DoD 1033 and 1122 and the Urban Areas Security Initiative, in which the St. Louis Police participate, that train, equip and arm police departments from Pentagon supplies and directives.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/19/militarism-is-a-public-safety-crisis/

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A Troubling Feature of People Who Seem Nice All the Time

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“In 1961, curious about a person’s willingness to obey an authority figure, social psychologist Stanley Milgram began trials on his now-famous experiment.  A new Milgram-like experiment published this month in the Journal of Personality has taken this idea to the next step by trying to understand which kinds of people are more or less willing to obey these kinds of orders. What researchers discovered was surprising: Those who are described as ‘agreeable, conscientious personalities’ are more likely to follow orders and deliver electric shocks that they believe can harm innocent people, while ‘more contrarian, less agreeable personalities’ are more likely to refuse to hurt others.”

http://mic.com/articles/92479/psychologists-have-uncovered-a-troubling-feature-of-people-who-seem-nice-all-the-time

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Ron Paul: Nixon’s Vindication

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“Forty years ago many Americans celebrated the demise of the imperial presidency with the resignation of Richard Nixon. Today it is clear they celebrated too soon. Nixon’s view of presidential powers, summed up in his infamous statement that, ‘when the president does it that means it is not illegal,’ is embraced by the majority of the political class.Nixon’s abuse of federal power to spy on his ‘enemies’ was abhorrent, but Nixon’s abuses of civil liberties pale in comparison to those of his successors. Today literally anyone in the world can be spied on, indefinitely detained, or placed on a presidential ‘kill list’ based on nothing more than a presidential order.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35631/Ron-Paul-Nixons-Vindication/

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Federal gov’t to McDonald’s: You are responsible for your franchisees

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“A recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board claims that McDonald’s had the ability to control employment decisions at franchised restaurants. For fast-food workers fighting for better wages, this is positive news.  The NLRB’s general counsel said last week that the company is considered a joint employer that exerts ‘substantial power’ over the working conditions of its employees. The general counsel also found that McDonald’s holds such extensive influence over the business operations of its franchisees that individual operators have little autonomy when it comes to setting or controlling workplace conditions. In other words, McDonald’s is the employer.”

http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2014/aug/07/nlrb-mcdonalds-you-are-responsible-your-franchisee/

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Blackstone to Buy Louisiana Shale Assets for $1.2 Billion

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“Blackstone, the giant private equity firm, said on Thursday that it would buy a 50 percent stake in a large section of the Haynesville Shale, an underground rock formation located in Louisiana and eastern Texas. The stake, owned by Royal Dutch Shell, comprises more than 107,000 net acres in Louisiana, Blackstone said.  The deal is the latest example of private equity firms betting on natural gas, amid a surge in production. In recent months, Apollo Global Management agreed to pay about $1.8 billion for 360,000 acres and other assets in Alberta, and TPG paid $1.8 billion for124,000 acres of developed and undeveloped fields in Wyoming.”

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/blackstone-to-buy-louisiana-shale-assets-for-1-2-billion/

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Pulp Fiction: The Broken Promises of Biofuels

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“Despite optimistic federal mandates that required the addition of advanced biofuels to the fuel supply, commercialization has been slow to develop. Ethanol produced from cellulose was initially envisioned as a likely candidate for making a major contribution to the mandates, but project delays, overruns, and bankruptcy in the case of the first company to produce a qualifying batch of cellulosic ethanol have all tempered the initial enthusiasm. A different pathway called fast pyrolysis that results in drop-in fuels as the final product after upgrading has emerged as a contender, but this pathway has also struggled to gain a foothold.”

http://www.investingdaily.com/21069/pulp-fiction-the-broken-promises-of-biofuels-2/

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Shining the Spotlight on Solar Gains

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“Asia accounts for nearly 90 percent of global production of solar PV modules, with China producing 67 percent of the world total. A recent Bloomberg News story noted that solar PV installations are expected to grow by as much as 29% this year, and by more than 50% over the next two years. This is expected to reverse a glut of solar PV manufacturing capacity that has persisted for the past two years. In fact, the solar PV industry is expecting a possible shortage of panels for the first time since 2006, which will benefit the bottom lines of the largest solar PV makers. In 2013, new capacity additions of solar PV surpassed wind power capacity additions for the first time in history.”

http://www.investingdaily.com/21032/shining-the-spotlight-on-solar-gains-2/

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John Hussman: The Two Pillars of Full-Cycle Investing

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“While many observers pronounce victory at halftime, in the middle of a market cycle, at record highs and more extreme market valuations than at any point except the 2000 peak, remember the two pillars. First, the combination of high confidence, lopsided bullishness, overvaluation, and overbought multi-year advances has predictably been resolved by steep market losses, time and time again across history. Second, strong market return/risk profiles warranting constructive or leveraged investment positions emerge in every market cycle, generally following a material retreat in valuations, coupled with an early improvement in market action.”

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc140908.htm

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Broken Links: Fed Policy and the Growing Wall Street-Main Street Gap

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“Probably the strongest feature of the foregoing chart is the tendency for inflation to move higher and lower in trends that have very little to do with unemployment, and for unemployment to move up and down in trends that have very little to do with inflation. Not to ruin a good theory with the facts, the failure of this misguided Phillips Curve formulation to describe the real world has resulted in a wide variety of ways to ‘augment’ it using expectations, varying ‘natural’ rates of unemployment, and so forth. The idea seems to be that using the right set of assumptions, we can make sense of the fact that the planets that circle around the Earth keep stopping and going backwards.”

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc140825.htm

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Iraq Voids Real Estate Sales in ISIS Controlled Areas

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“The Iraq Ministry of Justice issued a statement on August 22 declaring that all real estate sales in Mosul and all areas under ISIS control since June 10, the day that ISIS captured the city, are null and void and will not be recognized.  Ms. Pascale Warda, former Minister of Immigration and Migration, confirmed that some Iraqis are exploiting the current conditions of the Christians and buying their properties below market value. In an interview, she said that ‘such despicable trends indicate that, one way or another, the perpetrators are carrying out the objectives of the terrorists and insurgents by taking advantage of the emergency circumstances experienced by the Iraqi minorities.'”

http://www.aina.org/news/20140825012457.htm

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