This is good news,right? If unemployment actually were 12.% in my county it would be a huge improvement.

I'll pretend I didn't hear that.

31 flavors of

Thirty states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increase

Blackhalo wrote: No need to be negative. Presumably UE decreased in 20 states...

From the main post:

... 9 states registered rate decreases, and 11 states had no rate change...

Rob Dawg wrote:

Fifteen states and D.C. constituting more than 40% of the population now have double digit unemployment rates.

Then let's focus our stimulus on only those states and bring a new meaning to the phrase "battleground state"!

Do they have pushes in baseball?

Only when the pantomime known as clearing the dugouts occurs~

J.D., I wondered if that would slip by. You're too perceptive.

Do they have pushes in baseball?

Baseball push - 30 seconds long: YouTube - Runner Destroys Catcher at Home ; Benches Empty

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

Those states that were prudent and have stable economies should be punished, and those that were irresponsible and run on speculative bubbles need to be rewarded.

It's the (new) American Way!
.
Cinco-X wrote:

and I say that with 8 of those states being reliable red states....

You can have a "battle" nowadays without guns. D'uh.

OT - some china housing numbers

That means that a middle-class family of three looking to buy a modest 80 square meter apartment will have to come up with RMB2.4 million, or about $350,000.

This is pretty startling considering that the average annual income of urban workers only reached about RMB29,000 ($4,250) in 2008, as reported by Xinhua News Agency. The median multiple, which measures the ratio of the median house price to the median annual household income, has historically hovered around 3.0 or less in the US, but rose dramatically prior to the recent housing bubble.

12th Percentile (profile) wrote on Wed, 3/10/2010 - 11:17 am

While the English did place horrible legal restrictions on the Irish I can find no documentation of a law to prevent fishing until after the end of the famine.

I'm certainly not an expert on the laws back then. I read it in the book Trinity. I assumed that guy did his research. I'm quite sure I remember it correctly because i was so pissed off when i read it. Guys were sneaking out at night in small boats to catch what they could to feed their starving families. I don't see why this should be surprise. The english had no problem letting the irish starve.

Irish potato famine also known as An Gorta Mor, The Great Hunger, caused mass emmigration & starvation in mid 1800s Ireland>

In September of 1845, the blight was observed first in Waterford and Wexford. It then spread quickly to other regions of Ireland. No part of the country was spared, but those who lived near fishing areas fared better than those who lived inland. "The scourge of famine has struck the West and the South with greater fury than elsewhere" (Keegan 18). In the first year of the blight, the English authorities took prompt action to remedy the situation. To prevent food prices from soaring, and to control the market, Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister of England, purchased $100,000 worth of Indian corn and meal from the United States (Moody 268). This was a considerate gesture, by any means, but the first act that should have been implemented was to prohibit the export of foodstuffs from Ireland. This was never considered because foremost in Peel's mind was the thought of the revenue that the exports would collect for England. But he did donate $365,000 in government grants and the Irish made it through the first year safely.

middle-class family of three looking to buy a modest 80 square meter apartment

1 square meter = 10.7639104 square feet

80 x 10.7639104 = 861.11 square feet

Is it that tight in NY ? I heard it's bad there, but hate big cities.

12th Percentile wrote:
That means that a middle-class family of three looking to buy a modest 80 square meter apartment will have to come up with RMB2.4 million, or about $350,000.
This is pretty startling considering that the average annual income of urban workers only reached about RMB29,000 ($4,250) in 2008, as reported by Xinhua News Agency.
"It is glorious to get rich"

That's only 80:1 or better... perfectly sustainable. Not even a whiff of speculative frenzy here. Yeah, they're FU!!

The State Government is reliably Red and has been for a very long time.

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

That's only 80:1 or better... perfectly sustainable. Not even a whiff of speculative frenzy here. Yeah, they're FU

Not as big a problem as here, if there is little secondary market and 'walking' is not an option(jail time).

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

Those states that were prudent and have stable economies should be punished, and those that were irresponsible and run on speculative bubbles need to be rewarded.

Well... A lot of those states may have gotten a disproportionate windfall from the stimulus and government spending.

Per Capita Federal Expenditure by State (by expenditure)

Crude jumped after EIA reported crude build up.

California global warming law may lead to job losses, report says - latimes.com

The headline has the story.

punchy wrote:

Crude jumped after EIA reported crude build up.

Mortimer Duke: "The squid has set the price."

Crude jumped after EIA reported crude build up

OPEC did raise their projections for demand in 2010.

Yep Nanoo and the citizens of this state suffer as as a result. In Florida we have one of the highest rates of non insured people at 25%. That number is scary but not terrifying until you think about the HUGE part of our population here that IS insured via Medicare (all our Seniors). Which means the working class stiffs are largely uninsured. We also have some of the lowest wages in the Union and a barely there social safety net. Ahhhh just another day in Paradise.

the is the largest holder of USO. Until that changes I doubt oil is going south.

Per Capita Federal Expenditure by State (by expenditure)

Nevada in last place and it has the Senate Majority Leader? Where's the pork?

If construction spending keeps going down this year and UE increases or stays the same I think we could go GDP negative in the 3rd quarter this year.

Nanoo-Nanoo wrote:

Beat me to it CK: Those states that give generous tax breaks to businesses and actively hold the people's business hostage in Congress for pork deals in their states are just as stressed, if not more, than the 'liberal' ones.

On the other hand, MI, CA and "purple" FL have more population than the the all of the "red: states in the top 12. In fact, I'll bet CA alone has more than the 8 I mentioned, and for that matter, I wouldn't be surprised if MI and FL together have more than those 8.

Except Florida is NOT purple in regards to it's state Legislature, not even close. Who runs the states finances? The State legislature.

Republican Party of Florida - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

December 2005 is pretty old. Today, however, is not:

Only Nevada to blame for puny share of U.S. money - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | 2 a.m. - Las Vegas Sun

They raised their projections from the previous month by roughly 1/10th of a percent! Super bullish signal no doubt Snark

I was just putting it out there. Not that any of these facts matter when it comes to the price of oil. Don't fight the squid.

Gas was up another penny today. That is 8 cents in the last 6 days.

Does it really matter Cinco? I suspect there will be both class warfare and political warfare waged in a blizzard of finger pointing rather than actually identifying and solving problems. There's a lot of blame to case on both sides. There been greed on both sides and much in the way of credit is wealth even among those who know better.

Only the Dakotas are barely solvent. The rest no matter their political alliances are either in the high single digits or double digits in budget gaps. All this means is a lot of pain for those worst off, those not so bad off will be worse off. We know who will likely only be playing games with their balance sheets but feel no change in their lifestyles or quality of life.

In the end this is about people, the services they need that won't be available, people losing livelihoods and families more challenged. I'm getting impatient as those who do Gawds work are so richly rewarded and yet are exempted from consequences or sharing responsibilities at the same level as those who work just as hard do but aren't as unethical. Greed knows no nation, state or political party.

+1

12th Percentile wrote:

They raised their projections from the previous month by roughly 1/10th of a percent! Super bullish signal no doubt Snark
I was just putting it out there. Not that any of these facts matter when it comes to the price of oil. Don't fight the squid.
Gas was up another penny today. That is 8 cents in the last 6 days.

And yet near contract Apr '10 natgas is at life contract lows and 60% off peak $4.50. When this BTU/$ imbalance corrects it will be a shock to the economy no matter which way it falls.

I need to stop trading oil! I lose my ass in both directions it seems. Research and fundamentals don't matter anymore It really is a losers game unless you're

Nanoo-Nanoo wrote:

Does it really matter Cinco? I suspect there will be both class warfare and political warfare waged in a blizzard of finger pointing rather than actually identifying and solving problems. There's a lot of blame to case on both sides. There been greed on both sides and much in the way of credit is wealth even among those who know better.

My reply was to a point about all of the red states in the top 12 for UE. Does it really matter if AK has a particularly high rate of UE? AK's population is only about 2/3's that of Cleveland, OH.

Clearly this increase in UE is good for the economy. Just look at the Dow.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

Their answer? Cut Medicaid and give tax breaks to business! Yay!

That's simple. Medicaid beneficiaries don't pay taxes. Business might.

Wholesale inventories fall while sales increase - Yahoo! Finance

Sales were up a solid 1.3 percent, the best showing since a 3.6 percent rise in November.

So please tell me how that ties back to a 5% decline in state sales tax revenues across the country, particularly at a time when there were several states that increased their sales tax rates?

Most of the states on the right side of the graph have relatively small populations.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

Florida's $3 Billion Deficit and Slow Recovery May Force Deep Cuts to State Programs | Latest News
| TheLedger.com
Their answer? Cut Medicaid and give tax breaks to business! Yay!

The Takeaway: State budget shortfalls for the 2008-2009 fiscal year
Painful, but not yet totally irresponsible. Also, from what I hear, a conservative is kicking Charlie Crist's @$$ in the primary, so he's apparently not all that red himself.

yagij wrote:

CK just got busted! Hooty-hoo!

I didn't bust her with my reply. I agree with her outlook. The State (doesn't matter if it's Florida or any other) cuts Medicaid benefits because it doesn't really give a damn about people, but has to balance its budget and balance it while giving additional tax breaks to people who don't qualify for Medicaid because they already have too much money.

ille_vir wrote:

Most of the states on the right side of the graph have relatively small populations.

A good outbreak of Black Plague would fix some of the problems.

Numbers are an abstraction. useful for those with power. But mostly a method of definition and division. Geometry on the other hand...

They hate Charlie because he is "Teh Gay". There is no doubt Rubio will beat Crist in a primary. The mouth breathers here love Rubios brand of crazy. I figure Crist will run Indy or switch to Dem and Rubio will be gone bye bye.

Jonathan,

Many thanks to the link - Econobrowser links the source paper as well:
http://research.chicagobooth.edu/igm/events/docs/2010usmpfreport.pdf

Blackhalo wrote:

And as in the link to Nevada's poor showing in federal largess being due to a stingy medicade plan, FL will lose out on the federal matching funds.

Absolutely, I believe it's 50% with Medicaid.

All snark aside, the very interesting question is what the States will do with poor sick people after the dismantling of the social services net is complete. That day is coming.

I should have said "Medicaid beneficiaries don't have any political power. Businesses do."

tncubsfan wrote:

Research and fundamentals don't matter anymore

Sadly true as commented here numerous times...

Always interesting to read how others see us...

But even when I've visited here before, as a student, my first impression was of a country that is full of madmen, ranging from somewhat mentally competent to total lunatics. And the further south I traveled, the more obvious this became.

LOL. ClubOrlov: Corn Madness

Disclaimer: My take on the American people is that they are among the most generous, open and welcoming people I've ever met. Especially in the South, which is where I live. However, this is and will continue to meet a harsher and angrier reality than many people expect.

Unemployment Stresses Spread To House:

Massa went on television Tuesday night for the first time since the allegations surfaced, but his comments in two cable television interviews contradicted earlier statements, serving only to raise more questions.

The freshman Democrat told Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck that "not only did I grope [a staffer], I tickled him until he couldn't breathe," then said hours later on CNN's "Larry King Live" that "it is not true" that he groped anyone on his staff.

He told Beck that he resigned from the House because he made the mistake of "getting too familiar with my staff" members....

Vonbek777 wrote:
Numbers are an abstraction. useful for those with power. But mostly a method of definition and division. Geometry on the other hand...
Numbers are the ultimate tool of control. By running our lives and making our decisions based on economic considerations we fall right into the hands of the predictive powers of government over our behavior. A bitter irony but an unfortunate reality (in that numbers can help us as individuals to make ideal choices).

Comrade Kristina wrote:

I can see Florida becoming its own little Somalia on the Gulf.

I'm seeing a business opportunity in opening a pirate school!

As Michigan goes, so goes the Nation

Doc Holiday wrote:

As Michigan goes, so goes the Nation

Where are we going? Not much to report from there.

Doc Holiday wrote:

As Michigan goes, so goes the Nation

Jeff Daniels for president!
Is that Dumb, or Dumber?

Nice link, good read. Thanks Jonathan.

Nanoo-Nanoo wrote:

Just sayin' those fiscal responsibility yappers were just yapping. Obviously there is no magic bullet, different state will suffer differently and for different reasons. You also have to break down the demographics further which I'm too lazy to do and then get into the meat and potatoes of their bases in employment and taxation.

As (I believe) Rob has pointed out, the average Congress Critter behaves far more liberally and far more irresponsibly than his/her constituents, with the possible exception of those from CA.....

Doc Holiday wrote:

He told Beck that he resigned from the House because he made the mistake of "getting too familiar with my staff" members....

Just trying to get to know them....
.
.
.
.
in the Biblical sense-

energyecon wrote:

Econobrowser links the source paper as well

Thanks for that. It's good work from the (Hatzius) so we may as well enjoy it!

With ever more government interference in all areas of everything, we need metrics that attempt to disentangle what's actually happening.

Vonbek777 wrote:
LHC to shut down for a year to address design faults
Best and the brightest......dreaming of perfect circles.
Low bidder gets the contract, skimp on problem discovery phase to meet unrealistic deadlines and come in under budget to get my bonus... Just guessin'

Black Star Ranch wrote:
.....and CNN-Money has the headline, "State unemployment picture brightens".......as in a 'bomb blast'?
The white flash of a nuke warhead detonation

Just got my electric bill for this month. The highest ever. I though the 315 dollar one was bad in December. We dropped our thermostat and managed to get it down to $284 last month, this month? $365 dollars. I give up. Since June of 2008 they've given themselves a 17% hike then a 9% hike and then another 8% hike. The one in '08 was an "emergency" hike because of the high cost of fuel during the spike. Of course they never removed that hike once the price of fuel sank like the Titanic. Thievery.

Vonbek777 wrote:
How about we just stamp EPIC FAIL on bankster and politician foreheads instead and shame them publicly for a lost decade, put them in prison where they can't hurt anyone or spend anyone's money, and the rest of us can get on with the real work of rebuilding this country.

I'm to bed now, but I'd like to pass along a short, seemingly simple statement from Broward last night:

"When governments destroy their credibility, they open the gates for anything and everything else."

I've been thinking about this today, and will think about it for a long time.

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

Can we leave liberals and conservatives out of it, and just say that most of the Congress vermin act more selfishly than their constituents?

Anyone can rattle off a few dozen liberals in Congress but conservatives are hen's teeth. That makes it a legitimate issue when we discuss the struggle to return to conservative fiscal policy.

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

Can we leave liberals and conservatives out of it, and just say that most of the Congress vermin act more selfishly than their constituents?

I repeated what I believe Rob Dawg said. Thought about it afterward and realized that there might be an implication that:
liberalism=(fiscally)irresponsible
Sorry 'bout that; 2000-2008 show that fiscally irresponsibility enjoyed bipartisan support.

Cinco-X wrote:

Can't be bothered with anyone that takes Noam Chomsky seriously.

I'll offer 100:1 odds you've never read anything he's written. (Well, aside from some brief quotes lifted out of context.)

Comrade Kristina wrote:

Just got my electric bill for this month. The highest ever.

No snark: should we start considering electricity and heating/AC more as a luxury going forward?
.
FD: I've been able to keep my utility bills easily under 100 USD (averaging ~70 USD), but I live in a small(ish) apartment and make sure things are turned off as much as possible (unplugged too where applicable).

Cinco-X wrote:

I repeated what I believe Rob Dawg said. Thought about it afterward and realized that there might be an implication that:
liberalism=(fiscally)irresponsible
Sorry 'bout that; 2000-2008 show that fiscally irresponsibility enjoyed bipartisan support.

Liberalism = fiscally unsustainable. Far less an indictment than irresponsible. You are also correct that 00-08 was a period of extreme irresponsibility.

That said that last vestiges of sustainable were when Clinton loggerheaded with a Republican Congress. Not coincidentally just before we blew the credit and housing bubbles.

Oil futures rise after supply report - Mar. 10, 2010

What analysts are saying: "U.S. oil demand hit its highest level since September 2009, giving us a bit of a boost today," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst for PFG Best.

Demand destructionists, demand destructionists, wherefore art thou?

I don't know if someone posted something about this, but the WSJ Blog put a curious spin on this:

"Unemployment Rates, by State: Most Regions Added Jobs in January"

Particularly obvious: Why say "State" when you use "Regions" as the criterion. And so in general, the least populated states are the ones with the better unemployment figures. Wow!

Outsider wrote:

Demand destructionists, demand destructionists, wherefore art thou?

I defer to energycon for that one. I am prone to believe someone who has a track record here over anyone with the title of "analysts". Loss of confidence does that to people.

What's your monthly cost (cost of power, distribution fees, and taxes) divided by kilowatts used? If it is about 14 cents or so, it's not an unusual price.

Rob Dawg wrote:

That said that last vestiges of sustainable were when Clinton loggerheaded with a Republican Congress. Not coincidentally just before we blew the credit and housing bubbles.

One might make the argument that those times were an artifact of large tax revenues resulting from the dot.com bubble, and even they did not represent sustainability. I don't know if anyone has look closely; it seems that both sides look back and draw unfounded conclusions that support their current philosophy without looking under the rug for the real dirt.....

sportsfan wrote:

All snark aside, the very interesting question is what the States will do with poor sick people after the dismantling of the social services net is complete. That day is coming.

Really? I don't really see this happening. For example, the never-ending continuation of unemployment. Commitment to a health bill. Programs to avoid foreclosure. Food stamp programs. Increased taxes to pay for shortfalls in social security, medicare, and pensions.

The only way these programs will end is if the US goes bankrupt -- which may happen. But your statement implies that we're in the process of dismantling social services now. I'll argue that what's happening is the opposite. We have a government that has promised far too much to far too many, and has no credible ability to repay. Plus we've crossed the rubicon, and there is no longer incentive to be responsible. We now have a critical mass of people who are on the receiving end of government largess, and have the ability to vote themselves additional benefits that OTHERS would pay for.

You'll interpret this as a partisan issue, because that's what you do. In reality it is a far larger problem, and I don't play the red/blue game.

It appears that way yagij. Unfortunately our homes down here are not insulated very well and tend to have many windows. We also are entirely electric (hot water, heat, ac, cooking etc.). I just called them and went over the numbers and double checked the readings. The Rep thinks they probably misread last months causing the spike this month. One lady was on the news here during the cold snap, her bill was over a thousand dollars for the month. Insanity.

Hoopajoops LTD wrote:
Can anyone explain to me why the markets have been so thoroughly kermit over the last few weeks? It doesn't make any god damned sense to me, and it feels like a set up for a fall.
Hope is our dope. Extend and pretend. Fake it till you make it.

Gambler world!

What analysts are saying: "U.S. oil demand hit its highest level since September 2009, giving us a bit of a boost today," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst for PFG Best.

WHAT?? And demand was what in Sep '09!!?? Total comment.

Hmmmmm.......Yalt and Janosik = fans of Noam Chomsky

I have a liberal friend that actually attended MIT (edit: and took a class from Chomsky), and who has a band that actually plays from time to time at democratic fund raisers; even he thinks Chomsky is out there.

How about $3.76? Sound good? Bill was for 365 bucks and I used 97Kw.

Gavshire Hathaway wrote:

The only way these programs will end is if the US goes bankrupt -- which may happen. But your statement implies that we're in the process of dismantling social services now. I'll argue that what's happening is the opposite. We have a government that has promised far too much to far too many, and has no credible ability to repay. Plus we've crossed the rubicon, and there is no longer incentive to be responsible. We now have a critical mass of people who are on the receiving end of government largess, and have the ability to vote themselves additional benefits that OTHERS would pay for.

If you think your electric bill is to expensive, consider the additional cost if it is green energy electricity.

ghostfaced would say: 1.25 trillion in MBS purchases that are ending 3/31 is all you should need to know.

FTW. You have a bingo!

Comrade Janošik wrote:

I think there are plenty of accusations you can sling at Chomsky (as well as loads of praise)?
But "quack" isn't really one of them.

No praise, and quack is quite suitable.

I'm sure it is traderwalt but the continual rate hikes for "emergencies" that never get rescinded are not helping. Also, each hike is then added to the new "cost". So the actual percentage is much higher than just adding up the hikes collectively.

Cinco-X wrote:

I have a liberal friend that actually attended MIT,

wtf, they allow libruls at MIT? Those dawgs will let anyone in.

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

and could observe the results.

You mean some economists might actually notice the events of the world's second biggest economy in the past 20 years instead of regurgitating half-understood Friedman from a half-century ago?

JP wrote:
wtf, they allow libruls at MIT? Those dawgs will let anyone in.
Them's as gots, gets... hell, remember Gee Dubya's academic pedigree...

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

Use your temporary political ascendancy to pass laws that give you special privileges. Then when the political winds turn, the laws (and your privileges) will remain, especially if you can make other people's livelihoods dependent on those privileges -- they will fight for you!

Ahem.......they already did that.....the lawyers anyway-

Cinco-X wrote:
Ahem.......they already did that.....the lawyers anyway-
Damn, there I am late to the punch bowl again... it's almost like I was extending an analogy and pretending it didn't already happen in another context

Umm, sounds off. For exj., my last bill, estimated was for $243 and we used 2073 kilowatts. $243/2073=0.117 per kilowatt hr. Does your bill give a 'price to compare' for your kilowatt cost? Perhaps the 97 kw was a daily use estimate?

Cinco-X wrote:

Actually, if she had the money for a grid tied solar system, it would pay for itself even without tax credit and such. FL has lots of "solar resources"

Maybe, but then if everyone went of Grid the job destruction would be huge. More loss.

the very interesting question is what the States will do with poor sick people after the dismantling of the social services net is complete

Use a broad brush and blame them all for their plight in order to sleep at night?

We now have a critical mass of people who are on the receiving end of government largess

Drive on a road? Do you flush your toilets? Do you have employees who were educated under a public system? Could you possibly become unemployed? Old? Is it possible you could get sick and need benefits? Congrats, you are also on the receiving end of government largess, welfare queen!

Once a critical mass is reached we are truly Dooooooooooooooom!!!ed.

I don't buy the conservative's critical welfare mass Armageddon scenario, though I hear it a lot. The fact is, people prefer to work and have their own family and run their own lives and will overwhelmingly choose to do so given the opportunity for square work and square wages. Not working sucks, and it drives a person crazy after a while. In my opinion, only where workers are paid debt-slave wages, where they don't truly own anything, their bottom line is met only by supplementing their income with debt, and it's economically impossible to build a stable life and raise kids on a household's one and a half income does the crappy lifestyle provided by going 100% on government support look appealing. Humans like working and building; it releases pleasing neurochemicals in the brain, it's addictive. We like to do it.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

I so want to go solar but it is very expensive to get started.

You could probably "jimmy" together a solar hot water system for not much money. Search the net-

Yes Cinco, the water heater set up is fairly inexpensive. It would be start anyway. I really want the whole house solar though. Maybe when I win the lottery.

Cinco-X wrote:

Right! The People's Republic of Cambridge is such a conservative bastion Snark

Don't know why you're snarking: MIT was #1 on the list of military funding, probably since the 50s. (Haven't seen the list in ten years tho.) Such pro-military is rarely on the list of librulism.

Ya' know it's just walking distance from Harvard Yard, don'cha?

I know enough to call it Hahvahd Yahd, and my pic made front-page of the Crimson, thankyouverymuch.

I stocked up here as well Outsider although I'll have my own crops by the end of April if all goes well with the weather. Last year I had my first tomatoes in April.

Lobbyist Ben Dover wrote:

Maybe, but then if everyone went of Grid the job destruction would be huge. More loss.

No; we're talking grid tied systems, and it's generally agreed that we need a newer, smarter grid to accommodate these new technologies. Besides, jobs lost at the electric company would be in part made up by jobs and solar manufacturers and installers. Since there would be real competition at those smaller companies, they wouldn't be sucking the economy dry like some of the big monopolies like to do. Disclaimer: I'm not opposed to BHO's "green jobs" initiative; I am opposed to government "supervision" of it.

Thor, I think that anarcho-syndicalism, along with many other, more equitable forms of government would be quite possible and sustainable if we could only wave a magic wand and raise everyone's IQ points by about 10-20 or so. You'd be astonished at what would could accomplish as a society if we were all just a hair smarter.

Outsider wrote:

You all are a bunch of whiners.

That's certainly a fact.

JP wrote:

I know enough to call it Hahvahd Yahd, and my pic made front-page of the Crimson, thankyouverymuch.

Link please? Also, you realize that for decades that funding for college research in psychology was predominantly from the military, though t was often disguised. Additionally, agencies like DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) fund a lot of stuff that has many other uses beyond the military, like.....uh...the Internet, formerly known as DARPAnet...

JP wrote:
Don't know why you're snarking: MIT was #1 on the list of military funding, probably since the 50s. (Haven't seen the list in ten years tho.) Such pro-military is rarely on the list of librulism.
Teach them the idealistic view of free market economics, and insulate them from the real world of business politics in a research lab, and they'll assume that's how it works, since everyone is a rational economic actor and the world is just a giant engineering problem.

Roberts made some remark about having to appear at the State of the Union to take humiliation from Congress.

I heard that on the radio. What a disgusting affront to the court's dignity the Speed Striped chief justice is.

He was upset about the POTUS chastising them on their Citizens United decision. I wonder if he noticed that somewhere in the vicinity of 70% of Americans are also chastising him...I'm sure he doesn't care. He did was he was put here to do. The coup is complete.

Cinco-X wrote:

I have a liberal friend that actually attended MIT (edit: and took a class from Chomsky), and who has a band that actually plays from time to time at democratic fund raisers; even he thinks Chomsky is out there.

Well, I can certainly see why you'd think there's nothing but "quackery" in that dim world all the way to the left of democratic fund raisers. Whatever you do, don't ever pick up one of his books.

Cinco-X wrote:

Link please?

Fortunately, the mid eighties is not online.

Also, you realize that for decades that funding for college research in psychology was predominantly from the military, though t was often disguised. Additionally, agencies like DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) fund a lot of stuff that has many other uses beyond the military, like.....uh...the Internet, formerly known as DARPAnet...

Yes, there are different classes of funding. Many of the grants made to research institutions explicitly allow pursuing things not on the proposal, if the PI thinks it's worthwhile. The agent is not obligated to renew funding if the PI goes nuts.

like.....uh...the Internet, formerly known as DARPAnet...

Internet formerly DARPAnet formerly ARPAnet formerly DARPAnet formerly ALOHAnet

and I'm sure some of the other folks here can fill in the incarnations that i've missed.

Hoopajoops LTD wrote:

Thor, I think that anarcho-syndicalism, along with many other, more equitable forms of government would be quite possible and sustainable if we could only wave a magic wand and raise everyone's IQ points by about 10-20 or so. You'd be astonished at what would could accomplish as a society if we were all just a hair smarter.

Hoops,

I'm afraid I would have to disagree; the problem being that intelligence does not automatically equate to, or correlate with, morality. The smartest people tend to make the best cheaters, after all, what good are smarts if they can't give you an advantage over everyone else? And that's to say nothing of the equally common problem of people assuming, based on their intelligence, that their ideas are automatically the best ones.

You can thank Gavin Newsom for him and every other judge appointed '04-'08. Heckuva job, Gav.

Why not do another rail off the ass of your best friend's wife, bro?

Cinco-X wrote:

Very nicely put; my utter disgust with Chomsky made it difficult for me to articulate my utter disgust....

Yes, the world can seem so cold, so unfathomably alien once you move aside the lens of American exceptionalism...

KC, I just checked and crude oil prices are almost 1/3 higher his February than last. By the way I don't have any sympathy for oil companies at all or utility companies, either. Nope, none at all...

Rob Dawg writes:
Anyone who thinks Choamsky is a quack is just too stupid to understand him.

That's not what I said, RD. I said we, as a people, aren't smart enough to pull it off. I didn't say that we as a people aren't smart enough to admire the noble qualities of the thinking of Noam Chomsky.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Classic. Anyone who thinks Choamsky is a quack is just too stupid to understand him.

Thanks Rob; I stand by my assertion, though I limit it to his political views, not his work as a linguist.

Yes it has gone up over the last year but that emergency hike was in '08 when oil was 140 a barrel. When it dropped to 40 a barrel in '09 they were given another rate hike on top of the 17% emergency one they got six months earlier. This January they were given another 9% or so. People simply cannot continue to pay another 10-20% every year when their pay (if they are lucky enough to have a job) is going down.

Whoops, cursory pre-coffee reading, confused EHP and hoops. Apologies to all.

160 and above IQs are liabilities, and they often come packaged with a stunning inability to judge the character of both individuals and organizations.

Oh my. Crimson has scanned back to the 1920s. I stand corrected.
A quick search doesn't find me. Perhaps they've purged those pissant MIT guys from the archives.

CR, you may be interested in this survey http://www.ebri.org/pdf/PR.868.9Mar10.RCS-10.Final.pdf

Here is part of it. People retiring later means that you need more jobs to keep any particular unemployment rate.

"Workers postponing retirement: One-quarter of workers (24 percent) report they have postponed
their planned retirement age in the past year. Among the reasons cited for delaying retirement are
the poor economy (29 percent of those postponing retirement), a change in their employment
situation (22 percent), inadequate finances (16 percent), and the need to make up for losses in the
stock market (12 percent).
• Later retirement expected: Although the age at which workers report they expect to retire shows
little change from 2009, a longer-term look finds significant change. In particular, the percentage
of workers who expect to retire after age 65 has increased over time, from 11 percent in 1991 to
14 percent in 1995, 19 percent in 2000, 24 percent in 2005, and 33 percent in 2010."

Agree about the liabilities...starring at the whole can blind you, but you can have those with high empathy past 160.

Rob Dawg wrote:

I mean, if I went 'round, saying I was an emperor, just because some moistened bink had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

"Moistened bink". Pure comedic awesomeness.

There is a very pertinent comment on an econbrowser post, that speaks to your point:

Econbrowser: Modeling problems in credit markets (See first comment)

A further problem that exacerbates the problem is that economic data has been too tampered with in some regards to still be meaningful, and one of them would be the CPI number. Anyone, in my opinion, which I admit isn't worth much, would have to overlook quite a bit to believe that the US had low inflation rates over the last decade. The US engaged in two wars on the other side of the world, we up military expenditures and all of this while lowering taxes? Also, with all the banking deregulation in the 1990's (like sweep accounts) and the loosening of monetary controls (such as bank reserve requirements) in conjunction with the huge amounts of banks we have that were lending, and we still got low inflation? I find it hard to believe. Further, still, we see the signs of inflation in people's economic behavior, that is, when people are struggling to keep up with the cost of living they tend to engage in more and more speculative endeavors in order to make up for that gap; and we saw rampant speculation in the housing market, which is uncommon for the ordinary person to engage in such wild speculation in the face of low inflation.

In contrast with the CPI, we had rampant healthcare and housing inflation. Elizabeth Warren's lecture on the Coming Collapse of the Middle-Class covers this extensively, with numbers that even she didn't believe initially.

Jonathan, you should repost that on the new thread.

conservative? liberal? these terms get mis-used too much

mostly to corral voters on issues that put fire the gut, so that pols can get re-elected and do what ever

the best laugh ive had in a while

was arguing with friends at a dinner party

about enforcing strict construction of the constitution esp the bill of rights

both the lib and the con present took turns arguing in favor of some rights while wiping the feet on others

dont know if should laugh or cry

personally i prefer that people just state their position on a particular policy and spare me the label

but we all gotta do what we gotta do...yeah i still call myself a lefty (librul) but i carry a pistol and believe in a balanced budget amendment

If solar or wind really had any real cost recovery to it I would have it. Does not add up. Manufacturing and instillation is job destruction. Like construction they are one and done sales/jobs. They can only exist with a tax subsidy as a sale point. Current electrical provides many sustainable jobs start to finish. As some one mentioned look back to the 80's for solar failure.