The interest rates in the national markets have low or no relation with the chance of default.
USA pays 1-1.5% of interest rates, and yet is one of the countries with more debt/gdp (plus, there is the political situation that almost lead to a short default)
Brazil pays 10-15% of interest rates, and have well less debt/gdp and never defaulted.
Why? Conflict of interest. Who works at the central bank will eventually get off the government. And this guy will need a job - at some bank or financial organization. Why should he(she) piss off the same institutions that will provide him(her) a job in the future?
You know, wikileaks is doing the job that a transparent government should do in the first place. And sorry, but is completely bullshit to compare mass-spying with disclosure of secret acts of the government.
Sorry to reply this in a off-topic, but your signature message had 3 lines, don't? (I'm serious). Anyway, I remember your signature for dozens of very good comments here.
there is a concept called 'informational asymmetry'. When you have a big IA, you cannot have well done system of agency (like the theory of agency). So, if you have a big gap between who votes and who gets votes, you cannot have a real democracy. That's plain and simple.
The true is that Ubuntu and Canonical are doing a great job. Unity is not there yet, but will be. Mir is starting, and I would bet that will be good in 2 years.
I loved linux back in '90s (slackware at the time). But after sometime I found that the fanatical community would never do a system intended for non-geeks. For this reason, I stoped using linux in the 2000s. But ubuntu changed that mentality. They have a system that have auto-updates, a good management pack system and a simple and beauty visual. I get things done in the office without going to source code. That's all I require from a computer. And Ubuntu, right now, is the ONLY linux (for desktop) that provide this.
Yeah, the communist (not Marxist socialist, but actually "to each according to his need") English NHS is awful.
Oh wait, no, it's the best healthcare system I've ever experienced.
Also the problem here is contracting out to the lowest bidder. The problem was introduction of the private sector into government work - the same problem there always is.
Ofc you're a troll, but a nice launchpad.
This. I worked at brazilian public sector. Everytime a private contractor was put on the loop, the costs rise 2 - 3x and the quality goes down. (And I should point out that brazilian public sector is really inneffective) The solution is not easy, but it is simple: contract a GOOD management guy and a few engeneers directly. Put this guy in charge and create a accontability proccess.
Looking from outside (Brazil here), it's almost impossible to understand how fox news became the mainstream media. They are clearly biased, superficial, and quality is clearly not a goal.
I know some people that have (or had) a N9. Everybody, including non-geeks, says it's the best phone ever. It's ok if you don't believe me, go check the reviews. And, hey, It was launched even before the Windows Phone 7.5 (which actually "late, buggy"). Microsoft only made a competitive OS with WP 8, 2 years after the Meego was ALREADY in the market.
I really don't understand how so many people buys the official MS-NOKIA-ELOP version of the history, where everything points the contrary.
How, exactly, one right destroys another right? If there is a correlation, it would be quite the opposite: more rights for the minories means more rights (and more fights for rights) for everyone.
I don't like anedoctes to understand the reality - Statistics are always better. So, let's see: The personal aproval rating of the president is 71% - yes, it was 79% one year ago, but is still a very high aproval rating. In the government aproval rating, ONLY 13% thinks it's 'bad' or 'terrible' (in pt-br: ruim ou péssimo). It was 7% at the beggining of the year, but is still a aproval. If you want to look by yourself: http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2013/06/aprovacao-do-governo-dilma-vai-55-aponta-pesquisa-ibope.html
I think the main problem of the north and northeast is exactly the budget help they receive from the south and southeast. The owners of the northeast (oligarchies) steal money exactly because this money came from elsewere. If it come from the pockets of their own people, probably this people will be very pissed off.
Don't think everyone in USA thinks the same. Lots of people there support universal healthcare (including co-ops of New York Times, for instance). The american right-wing-bat-shit-crazy thinks universal healthcare is socialism. And, yes, they have lots of voice there - but still, it's not the 'country'.
I don't think the south-Brazil will become independent. Maybe is even more possible that other countries will merge Brazil (not now, of course, but in the long term). As I see, in 50 years, all the Mercosul will be one country. And maybe that's when this country will be trully federal. (Actually, I think the main hope for south-Brazil it's not the independence, but the real federalization of the country).
You should know that Alckmin have a program to create vouchers insted of public healthcare. This is EXACTLY what Friedman suggests (a right-wing intellectual, even for USA standards).
Otherwise, Alckmin several times said He is against welfare - the 'bolsa-família' - (that even the right-wing governments in USA keep as 'food-stamps').
So, as you see, he IS right-wing for brazilian standards and he is right-wing even by american standards.
What is outside always look worst, isn't?;) But back to reality: Alckmin is a religious political figure from the right-wing sector of a right-wing party. Maybe he don't act like the tea party - and of course, he isn't so dumb as Sarah Palin - but at the end, it's not so different.
The main problem, as far as I see, it's not the federal government: are the states and municipal ones. The main riots begun against the price of the bus in the main cities (first in Porto Alegre in April, and took a big shape after Sao Paulo tried to raise the price of the bus ticket in may-june). People are beat by the local polices without clear reason (plus rubber bullets and moral gas) and lots of arrests are being made without a reason (in Sao Paulo the local police arrested hundreds of people with possession of VINEGAR*).
But look how crazy this sounds: the mayor of Sao Paulo (the city) is a left-wing (or center-left) workers party. The governor of Sao Paulo (the state) is a right-wing almost tea-party-look-a-like. The riots were against the mayor, but the state used its force (police). In porto alegre, the mayor is a center-right-wing and the state government is a left-wing workers party. The same: the riots were against the mayor, and the police (controled by the governor) was used in a brutal way (not so hard as sao paulo, but brutal) against the rioters.
Now that the main cities agreed to lower the price of the bus ticket (porto alegre in May and several other cities in the last few days), the riots looks more like french 68 riots than anything else. It's not about the price of the bus ticket anymore, but about the political and social culture in Brazil (corruption, a lack of social control, etc).
*Vinegar is used to decrease the effects of tear gas. ** One last thing: be careful with brazilian newspapers. Most of them will stand for its own agenda and they are part of the problem, not the solution.
No drop down notifications, you only get the LED to watch when the message comes. No push email except in exchange accounts (blame google for lack of activesync in in free gmail accounts). Sub par camera. Don't know if the alarm will work with the phone off (bb phones are the only smartphone that does this currently)
Actually, Symbian phone from Nokia do this pretty well. And yes, symbians ARE smartphones (I really like my E72. It have a battery life that no android phone could ever offer me)
This. I don't know about other countries, but here in Brazil prisioners have a terrible treatment - and we're not a totalitarian state, we're just nuts who think criminals don't deserve anything. The difference is that in N. Korea the officers torture, kill and do other terrible things. Here (and in many other countries), the officers don't do anything. The prisioners itself do all the atrocities between themselves. We just dump them in dozens in places where should be only 2 or 3.
Slashdot Mirror
USA pays 1-1.5% of interest rates, and yet is one of the countries with more debt/gdp (plus, there is the political situation that almost lead to a short default)
Brazil pays 10-15% of interest rates, and have well less debt/gdp and never defaulted.
Why? Conflict of interest. Who works at the central bank will eventually get off the government. And this guy will need a job - at some bank or financial organization. Why should he(she) piss off the same institutions that will provide him(her) a job in the future?
You know, wikileaks is doing the job that a transparent government should do in the first place.
And sorry, but is completely bullshit to compare mass-spying with disclosure of secret acts of the government.
Sorry, but when exactly NSA was part of the solution?
Sorry to reply this in a off-topic, but your signature message had 3 lines, don't? (I'm serious).
Anyway, I remember your signature for dozens of very good comments here.
there is a concept called 'informational asymmetry'. When you have a big IA, you cannot have well done system of agency (like the theory of agency).
So, if you have a big gap between who votes and who gets votes, you cannot have a real democracy. That's plain and simple.
unlike Israel? what?
Why do you think Iran is trying to get nukes in the first place?
That's exactly the problem: if you really think SUSE or FEDORA could be a non-geek linux, you probably don't even know what is a non-geek user.
The true is that Ubuntu and Canonical are doing a great job. Unity is not there yet, but will be. Mir is starting, and I would bet that will be good in 2 years.
I loved linux back in '90s (slackware at the time). But after sometime I found that the fanatical community would never do a system intended for non-geeks. For this reason, I stoped using linux in the 2000s. But ubuntu changed that mentality. They have a system that have auto-updates, a good management pack system and a simple and beauty visual. I get things done in the office without going to source code. That's all I require from a computer. And Ubuntu, right now, is the ONLY linux (for desktop) that provide this.
Yeah, the communist (not Marxist socialist, but actually "to each according to his need") English NHS is awful.
Oh wait, no, it's the best healthcare system I've ever experienced.
Also the problem here is contracting out to the lowest bidder. The problem was introduction of the private sector into government work - the same problem there always is.
Ofc you're a troll, but a nice launchpad.
This.
I worked at brazilian public sector. Everytime a private contractor was put on the loop, the costs rise 2 - 3x and the quality goes down.
(And I should point out that brazilian public sector is really inneffective)
The solution is not easy, but it is simple: contract a GOOD management guy and a few engeneers directly. Put this guy in charge and create a accontability proccess.
Looking from outside (Brazil here), it's almost impossible to understand how fox news became the mainstream media.
They are clearly biased, superficial, and quality is clearly not a goal.
Because nook tablets ARE android with google play?
As far as I know, they run pretty much everything a 'generica android tablet' runs.
http://xkcd.com/605/
I know some people that have (or had) a N9. Everybody, including non-geeks, says it's the best phone ever. It's ok if you don't believe me, go check the reviews.
And, hey, It was launched even before the Windows Phone 7.5 (which actually "late, buggy"). Microsoft only made a competitive OS with WP 8, 2 years after the Meego was ALREADY in the market.
I really don't understand how so many people buys the official MS-NOKIA-ELOP version of the history, where everything points the contrary.
How, exactly, one right destroys another right?
If there is a correlation, it would be quite the opposite: more rights for the minories means more rights (and more fights for rights) for everyone.
Your argument looks like a terrible fallacy.
here in brazil is common dell's with ubuntu preloaded.
sorry to tell you, but snowden did it.
look what he got.
I don't like anedoctes to understand the reality - Statistics are always better. So, let's see:
The personal aproval rating of the president is 71% - yes, it was 79% one year ago, but is still a very high aproval rating.
In the government aproval rating, ONLY 13% thinks it's 'bad' or 'terrible' (in pt-br: ruim ou péssimo). It was 7% at the beggining of the year, but is still a aproval.
If you want to look by yourself: http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2013/06/aprovacao-do-governo-dilma-vai-55-aponta-pesquisa-ibope.html
I think the main problem of the north and northeast is exactly the budget help they receive from the south and southeast.
The owners of the northeast (oligarchies) steal money exactly because this money came from elsewere. If it come from the pockets of their own people, probably this people will be very pissed off.
Don't think everyone in USA thinks the same. Lots of people there support universal healthcare (including co-ops of New York Times, for instance).
The american right-wing-bat-shit-crazy thinks universal healthcare is socialism. And, yes, they have lots of voice there - but still, it's not the 'country'.
I don't think the south-Brazil will become independent. Maybe is even more possible that other countries will merge Brazil (not now, of course, but in the long term).
As I see, in 50 years, all the Mercosul will be one country. And maybe that's when this country will be trully federal. (Actually, I think the main hope for south-Brazil it's not the independence, but the real federalization of the country).
Just guessing.
You should know that Alckmin have a program to create vouchers insted of public healthcare.
This is EXACTLY what Friedman suggests (a right-wing intellectual, even for USA standards).
Otherwise, Alckmin several times said He is against welfare - the 'bolsa-família' - (that even the right-wing governments in USA keep as 'food-stamps').
So, as you see, he IS right-wing for brazilian standards and he is right-wing even by american standards.
What is outside always look worst, isn't? ;)
But back to reality: Alckmin is a religious political figure from the right-wing sector of a right-wing party. Maybe he don't act like the tea party - and of course, he isn't so dumb as Sarah Palin - but at the end, it's not so different.
brazilian here:
The main problem, as far as I see, it's not the federal government: are the states and municipal ones.
The main riots begun against the price of the bus in the main cities (first in Porto Alegre in April, and took a big shape after Sao Paulo tried to raise the price of the bus ticket in may-june). People are beat by the local polices without clear reason (plus rubber bullets and moral gas) and lots of arrests are being made without a reason (in Sao Paulo the local police arrested hundreds of people with possession of VINEGAR*).
But look how crazy this sounds: the mayor of Sao Paulo (the city) is a left-wing (or center-left) workers party. The governor of Sao Paulo (the state) is a right-wing almost tea-party-look-a-like. The riots were against the mayor, but the state used its force (police). In porto alegre, the mayor is a center-right-wing and the state government is a left-wing workers party. The same: the riots were against the mayor, and the police (controled by the governor) was used in a brutal way (not so hard as sao paulo, but brutal) against the rioters.
Now that the main cities agreed to lower the price of the bus ticket (porto alegre in May and several other cities in the last few days), the riots looks more like french 68 riots than anything else. It's not about the price of the bus ticket anymore, but about the political and social culture in Brazil (corruption, a lack of social control, etc).
*Vinegar is used to decrease the effects of tear gas.
** One last thing: be careful with brazilian newspapers. Most of them will stand for its own agenda and they are part of the problem, not the solution.
No drop down notifications, you only get the LED to watch when the message comes. No push email except in exchange accounts (blame google for lack of activesync in in free gmail accounts). Sub par camera. Don't know if the alarm will work with the phone off (bb phones are the only smartphone that does this currently)
Actually, Symbian phone from Nokia do this pretty well.
And yes, symbians ARE smartphones (I really like my E72. It have a battery life that no android phone could ever offer me)
This.
I don't know about other countries, but here in Brazil prisioners have a terrible treatment - and we're not a totalitarian state, we're just nuts who think criminals don't deserve anything.
The difference is that in N. Korea the officers torture, kill and do other terrible things. Here (and in many other countries), the officers don't do anything. The prisioners itself do all the atrocities between themselves. We just dump them in dozens in places where should be only 2 or 3.