Posts
Friday, June 08, 2012
How Soon They Forget | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary
How Soon They Forget | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "the House voted 330-93 not only to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, but to increase its funding to $140 billion. The Ex-Im Bank is used to subsidize U.S. exports, and most of the benefit goes to a couple of large companies such as Boeing Co. and General Electric Co. Yes, it is good that Boeing exports its planes to other countries, but you, the taxpayer, should not be on the hook to finance these exports. There is plenty of private money available."
Proposed Reforms Won't Fix Alabama's Immigration Law | Alex Nowrasteh | Cato Institute: Commentary
Proposed Reforms Won't Fix Alabama's Immigration Law | Alex Nowrasteh | Cato Institute: Commentary: "[trying to correct] their identity information in government databases, [takes] an average of 104 days to fulfill (as of 2009). If the worker is unsuccessful in contesting the government's decision in a short amount of time, he must be fired.
E-Verify is largely ineffective at weeding unauthorized workers out of the labor force — missing them more than half of the time"
"Around one percent of legal American workers are initially denied employment by E-Verify and many of them have to spend many months sorting out the problems — all because the government has forced them to ask permission to work."
E-Verify is largely ineffective at weeding unauthorized workers out of the labor force — missing them more than half of the time"
"Around one percent of legal American workers are initially denied employment by E-Verify and many of them have to spend many months sorting out the problems — all because the government has forced them to ask permission to work."
Questions Not Yet Asked about Mitt Romney | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary
Questions Not Yet Asked about Mitt Romney | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary: " Obama often imposes his will outside the Constitution. But Romney has yet to even mention — let alone rebuke the president for — any of those unconstitutional breaches."
15 Most Ludicrous Jobs the Government Counts as ‘Green’ - Independent Journal Review
15 Most Ludicrous Jobs the Government Counts as ‘Green’ - Independent Journal Review: "
Floor Sweeper at a solar panel factory
Driver of a hybrid public transportation bus
College professor teaching environmental studies classes
Any school bus driver
Anyone who puts gas in a school bus
Employee at a bicycle shop
A clerk at a bicycle repair shop
Antique dealer
Salvation Army employee
Employee of a store that sells rare manuscripts
Employee of a consignment shop
A full-time teenage employee at a used record shop
Train car manufacturers
Garbage men
Ladies and gentlemen: your number one most incredible green job is…[Drum roll please]: Oil Lobbyist"
I have a green job! I help reduce resource utilization.
Floor Sweeper at a solar panel factory
Driver of a hybrid public transportation bus
College professor teaching environmental studies classes
Any school bus driver
Anyone who puts gas in a school bus
Employee at a bicycle shop
A clerk at a bicycle repair shop
Antique dealer
Salvation Army employee
Employee of a store that sells rare manuscripts
Employee of a consignment shop
A full-time teenage employee at a used record shop
Train car manufacturers
Garbage men
Ladies and gentlemen: your number one most incredible green job is…[Drum roll please]: Oil Lobbyist"
I have a green job! I help reduce resource utilization.
JPMorgan Losses Do Not Make the Case for Regulation | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary
JPMorgan Losses Do Not Make the Case for Regulation | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary: "In September 2003, when warned of problems at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, then-House Financial Services Chair Barney Frank stated, "I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation." Well, Chairman Frank did indeed "roll the dice," and now the American taxpayer is almost $200 billion poorer.
JPMorgan rolled the dice, betting that the U.S. economy would improve — essentially a bet on Obama's economic agenda. That bet went south. JPMorgan lost $2 billion, one hundredth of the losses so far on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
But the losses at JPMorgan were borne not by the American taxpayer, but by JPMorgan. The losses also appear to have been offset by gains so that in the last quarter JPMorgan still turned a profit."
"The losses at JPMorgan have also resulted in the quick dismissal of the responsible employees. Show me the list of regulators who lost their jobs, despite the massive regulatory failures that occurred before and during the crisis. In fact, some of the most incompetent, such as the previous president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, actually got promotions."
"What the recent JPMorgan losses actually prove is that a major investment bank can take billions of losses, and the financial system continues to function even without an injection of taxpayer dollars."
"What we need is not a system free of errors, but one that is robust enough to withstand them. And the truth is that the more small errors we have, the fewer big errors we will have."
JPMorgan rolled the dice, betting that the U.S. economy would improve — essentially a bet on Obama's economic agenda. That bet went south. JPMorgan lost $2 billion, one hundredth of the losses so far on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
But the losses at JPMorgan were borne not by the American taxpayer, but by JPMorgan. The losses also appear to have been offset by gains so that in the last quarter JPMorgan still turned a profit."
"The losses at JPMorgan have also resulted in the quick dismissal of the responsible employees. Show me the list of regulators who lost their jobs, despite the massive regulatory failures that occurred before and during the crisis. In fact, some of the most incompetent, such as the previous president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, actually got promotions."
"What the recent JPMorgan losses actually prove is that a major investment bank can take billions of losses, and the financial system continues to function even without an injection of taxpayer dollars."
"What we need is not a system free of errors, but one that is robust enough to withstand them. And the truth is that the more small errors we have, the fewer big errors we will have."
Killers of Banks and Jobs | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary
Killers of Banks and Jobs | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "JPMorgan Chase, revealed that the bank had made a $2 billion-plus trading mistake. The bank has more than $2 trillion in assets and made a profit of about $20 billion last year. So it lost one-tenth of 1 percent of its assets and an amount equal to about 10 percent of its income for last year."
"Sen. Carl Levin immediately issued a press release calling for more bank regulation."
"about 20 percent, or $100 billion, of Medicare spending is fraudulent. Other estimates of Medicare fraud, including those of the U.S. government, range between $20 billion and $100 billion."
Why is Levin worried about a $2 billion loss that only affects JPMorgan Chase shareholders when there is $100 billion in Medicare fraud?
"Sen. Carl Levin immediately issued a press release calling for more bank regulation."
"about 20 percent, or $100 billion, of Medicare spending is fraudulent. Other estimates of Medicare fraud, including those of the U.S. government, range between $20 billion and $100 billion."
Why is Levin worried about a $2 billion loss that only affects JPMorgan Chase shareholders when there is $100 billion in Medicare fraud?
Iran's nuclear program: 4 things you probably didn't know - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said that Israel should be "wiped off the map." - CSMonitor.com
Iran's nuclear program: 4 things you probably didn't know - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said that Israel should be "wiped off the map." - CSMonitor.com: "Ahmadinejad "never... uttered the words 'map,' 'wipe out,' or even 'Israel'" in his statement. Rather, he argued, the translation should have been that "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." (Both The Washington Post and The Atlantic came up with similarly variant translations.)
This is a key difference, Mr. Norouzi argued, because Ahmadinejad used the "vanish from the page of time" idiom elsewhere in his speech: when describing the governments of the Shah of Iran, the Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein. While war and revolution were involved in the three regimes' collapse, none of them, Norouzi argued, were "wiped off the map." Rather, they underwent regime change. This suggests in turn, he said, that Ahmadinejad was calling for regime change in Israel, not nuclear genocide. Juan Cole, another critic of the speech's translation, compared Ahmadinejad's statement to Reagan-era calls for the end of the Soviet Union."
"on Aug. 9, 2005, [the country's supreme leader and foremost religious figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] issued a fatwa against the production and use of nuclear weapons, it was not simply a sermon – it carried political weight."
"in 2000 that Iran ranked second only to the US in gasoline consumption. But despite Iran's huge oil production, it lacks the facilities to refine it into gasoline, forcing it to import a barrel of oil for every eight it exports. According to Majd, some Iranians blame their lack of refining infrastructure on Western sanctions."
"Both US and Israeli intelligence agree that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program."
This is a key difference, Mr. Norouzi argued, because Ahmadinejad used the "vanish from the page of time" idiom elsewhere in his speech: when describing the governments of the Shah of Iran, the Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein. While war and revolution were involved in the three regimes' collapse, none of them, Norouzi argued, were "wiped off the map." Rather, they underwent regime change. This suggests in turn, he said, that Ahmadinejad was calling for regime change in Israel, not nuclear genocide. Juan Cole, another critic of the speech's translation, compared Ahmadinejad's statement to Reagan-era calls for the end of the Soviet Union."
"on Aug. 9, 2005, [the country's supreme leader and foremost religious figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] issued a fatwa against the production and use of nuclear weapons, it was not simply a sermon – it carried political weight."
"in 2000 that Iran ranked second only to the US in gasoline consumption. But despite Iran's huge oil production, it lacks the facilities to refine it into gasoline, forcing it to import a barrel of oil for every eight it exports. According to Majd, some Iranians blame their lack of refining infrastructure on Western sanctions."
"Both US and Israeli intelligence agree that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program."
GOP measure protects lawmakers' office budgets | Fox News
GOP measure protects lawmakers' office budgets | Fox News: "Several GOP tea party freshmen had sought to cut office budgets by 11 percent, but House leaders shut down the effort"
Orlando man given George Zimmerman's old cellphone number bombarded with death threats | Fox News
Orlando man given George Zimmerman's old cellphone number bombarded with death threats | Fox News: "he got about 70 threatening calls between May 7, when he bought the phone, and May 16"
It is sad that people would do that!
It is sad that people would do that!
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