The original Tobin Tax was targeting currency trading, but other economists since have proposed it for securities trading as well.
It tends to hit mostly the high-frequency traders and the big hedge funds who are constantly shuffling huge sums of money around. It has very little effect on somebody who makes a few trades a year as part of a smaller individual investment portfolio.
Mr. Gates who has already moved most of his assets into a loophole (sorry, "Foundation") to protect his progeny's inheritance from taxes, certainly shouldn't worry about the future.
I think the Gates Foundation would be in more than a little trouble if they started making large payments to Melinda or Bill's children. Both Bill Gates (and Warren Buffett as well) have made it quite clear that their philosophy is that they don't want their kids to inherit ridiculously huge gobs of money, just something in the low 7 figures.
Also overrepresented: people with easy access to whatever crowdsourcing tool you adopt. If it's Internet-based, consider that a significant percentage of households have no Internet access at all, and they will not be represented at all.
Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin
on
The F-35 Story
·
· Score: 2
Somehow, that got warped into meaning we can spend an unlimited amount of money on the military and its contractors, and to criticize that at all is unpatriotic.
Yeah, someone should tell all those people about this totally military-hating unpatriotic coward who became president.
Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin
on
The F-35 Story
·
· Score: 2
You have to remember that from Lockheed's point of view, government funds *are* unlimited. From Lockheed's point of view, cost and timeline overruns are simply increased profit. They will never, ever, be punished for failing to meet their contract terms, and they know it.
People who've looked into the issue basically think a motivated POTUS could conceivably spend his entire term trying to clean up the cesspool of corruption known as defense contracting, and still wouldn't even come close to succeeding. That should give you some idea of how bad it is.
Apples grow quite well in Vermont, with a lot of small orchards around. Now, they may be buying apples from outside of Vermont too, but the most likely places would be upstate New York, New Hampshire, Quebec or possibly Maine (which has a very significant apple industry).
Other examples of behavior from the mainstream media that should be considered far more disturbing than the EAS: 1. Consider, for instance, that the New York Times has reported, on its own front page, that it sends the White House an advance copy of their major stories and asks them whether it's ok to print it. This was true during both the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations. This has caused the Times to delay publication of major news stories, including those regarding significant illegal activity by the US government.
2. Cenk Uyger, host of The Young Turks, worked for MSNBC for a brief period. He quit before his contract was up, because his bosses called him in and told him to stop being so critical about the White House because it was annoying people in Washington. After Uyger made an appropriately large stink about this on Youtube, the NBC executives started saying they were internal company people, but Uyger still believes that it was the White House officials that told them to stop his critical reporting.
3. Tom Brokaw saying that if his government asked him to report something other than the truth, he would remember that he was an American first and a reporter second.
The government doesn't need to use EAS to exercise control over the mainstream media. The mainstream media already cooperates just fine.
For anyone who didn't get the reference, it's the most annoying character ever on Red Dwarf (and that's saying a lot, given the existence of that total smeghead Rimmer).
Yeah, damn that government for encouraging market competition rather than a few giant corporations running the world!
That effect may have been intentional - more smaller banks give depositors and borrowers more choices, and can get them a better deal. And if Elizabeth Warren were able to get her way, they'd also be mostly using boilerplate contracts that get banks competing on service and interest rates and the like rather than on who can soak their customers the most.
Market forces, if left unchecked, create a playing field tipped in favor of the larger entity. This has been shown time and time again.
I should point out, in all fairness, that smaller community banks can also be pretty good. The proverbial Bailey Savings and Loans that have survived until the present day are usually nowhere near as evil as the big banks, because their prosperity is closely tied to the prosperity of the communities they're based in. It's not quite as good as a credit union, because in a credit union the depositors own the organization, but it's a heck of a lot better than BofA, Citi, etc.
Ever notice the dearth of American weapons in all of the third world killing zones?
No, actually - first off, I've never been there, so I have no firsthand knowledge. Second, with the amount of American-backed violence in those Third World 'killing zones', I figure they must have handed the guys we've decided are on our side at least a few American weapons.
There's also a practical reason for preferring the Russian-made weapons over American-made: The AK-47 is cheaper to make, and easier to maintain, repair, and clean.
I've found fantastic local libraries in both larger cities and in more rural areas. What made those libraries successful were a combination of good leadership, community support, and ample funding. Now, I admit the smallest community I've looked for a library in was about 16,000 people, but since the vast majority of the country's population lives in a community larger than that, I think the comment is fair.
And older material can be just fine: Jules Verne hasn't rewritten any of his works in the last 20 years, the Marx Brothers are still funny, and Louis Armstrong hasn't played any new hits recently.
They should also explain how cities and towns across the country have these buildings with lots of high-quality books that anybody can read completely for free. They can sometimes even take them home with a mere promise to bring them back reasonably quickly. It's really quite amazing.
Now I know, that whole thing sounds kinda socialist, so I should point out that many of these buildings were originally funded by the noted pinko commie Andrew Carnegie.
There are some known exceptions to the law of demand. They include:
* Cases where coercion is involved, so demand doesn't depend on price (e.g. buy this pill or you die from illness).
* Cases where person A is negotiating with person B's money.
* What are sometimes called "Giffen goods" or "snob goods", where the whole point is to show off how rich you are (e.g. the "I'm Rich" iPhone app)
It's just that it works for every other case - some consumers get priced out of the market, some look for substitute goods which are cheaper, and some choose just do without and do something else with the extra cash.
It's even been suggested that in some ways becoming President of the United States was a step down in Hoover's career. He had already written the standard textbook used for mine engineering, invented a new way to extract zinc from what was thought to be waste ore (basically creating Australia's zinc industry from a pile of junk), written the standard translation an important Latin work on metallurgy, and was involved in helping the US military during the Boxer Rebellion. His entry into politics was leading massive efforts to feed people affected by WW I throughout Europe and Russia, creating the Hoover Institution, and more-or-less created the modern US Department of Commerce out of what had been a fledgling organization.
And then he became president and screwed up royally, mostly because his economic advisers didn't how to combat recessions: Contrary to popular belief, he responded to the crash immediately, working feverishly to try to keep the US federal budget balanced via a combination of taxation and austerity measures, on the advice of his economic advisers who told him that this would restore confidence to the markets (sound familiar?).
It's worth noting that without limited liability, this maneuver would not be possible.
A similar idea, one that I'm sure has been used many times: 1. Get a large business loan for an LLC. (This is the hard part) 2. As head of the company, give yourself a nice large bonus, which you stash in the Cayman Islands. 3. Bank tries to recover the money from the company, but can't go after you due to it being an LLC. 4. Retire to Fiji.
Julian Assange has offered to be questioned over video or phone conference, which Sweden refused. That strongly suggests that Sweden wants him in physical custody more than it wants questions answered.
No, that's not correct: It was raw, unmitigated corruption.
Or did you think it was an accident that then-DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, in charge of DHS when they made the decision to use the scanners, just happened to have a financial interest in the company that makes the scanners?
Slashdot Mirror
The original Tobin Tax was targeting currency trading, but other economists since have proposed it for securities trading as well.
It tends to hit mostly the high-frequency traders and the big hedge funds who are constantly shuffling huge sums of money around. It has very little effect on somebody who makes a few trades a year as part of a smaller individual investment portfolio.
Mr. Gates who has already moved most of his assets into a loophole (sorry, "Foundation") to protect his progeny's inheritance from taxes, certainly shouldn't worry about the future.
I think the Gates Foundation would be in more than a little trouble if they started making large payments to Melinda or Bill's children. Both Bill Gates (and Warren Buffett as well) have made it quite clear that their philosophy is that they don't want their kids to inherit ridiculously huge gobs of money, just something in the low 7 figures.
Also overrepresented: people with easy access to whatever crowdsourcing tool you adopt. If it's Internet-based, consider that a significant percentage of households have no Internet access at all, and they will not be represented at all.
Somehow, that got warped into meaning we can spend an unlimited amount of money on the military and its contractors, and to criticize that at all is unpatriotic.
Yeah, someone should tell all those people about this totally military-hating unpatriotic coward who became president.
You have to remember that from Lockheed's point of view, government funds *are* unlimited. From Lockheed's point of view, cost and timeline overruns are simply increased profit. They will never, ever, be punished for failing to meet their contract terms, and they know it.
People who've looked into the issue basically think a motivated POTUS could conceivably spend his entire term trying to clean up the cesspool of corruption known as defense contracting, and still wouldn't even come close to succeeding. That should give you some idea of how bad it is.
Apples grow quite well in Vermont, with a lot of small orchards around. Now, they may be buying apples from outside of Vermont too, but the most likely places would be upstate New York, New Hampshire, Quebec or possibly Maine (which has a very significant apple industry).
However, these aren't made up:
1/3 of Americans believe in UFOs
Congressional approval rating
14% of Americans think they've seen a UFO. An additional 20% haven't seen one, but believe they exist.
Somewhere around 10% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing.
This says something about the United States, although I'm not sure exactly what.
Other examples of behavior from the mainstream media that should be considered far more disturbing than the EAS:
1. Consider, for instance, that the New York Times has reported, on its own front page, that it sends the White House an advance copy of their major stories and asks them whether it's ok to print it. This was true during both the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations. This has caused the Times to delay publication of major news stories, including those regarding significant illegal activity by the US government.
2. Cenk Uyger, host of The Young Turks, worked for MSNBC for a brief period. He quit before his contract was up, because his bosses called him in and told him to stop being so critical about the White House because it was annoying people in Washington. After Uyger made an appropriately large stink about this on Youtube, the NBC executives started saying they were internal company people, but Uyger still believes that it was the White House officials that told them to stop his critical reporting.
3. Tom Brokaw saying that if his government asked him to report something other than the truth, he would remember that he was an American first and a reporter second.
The government doesn't need to use EAS to exercise control over the mainstream media. The mainstream media already cooperates just fine.
For anyone who didn't get the reference, it's the most annoying character ever on Red Dwarf (and that's saying a lot, given the existence of that total smeghead Rimmer).
Yeah, damn that government for encouraging market competition rather than a few giant corporations running the world!
That effect may have been intentional - more smaller banks give depositors and borrowers more choices, and can get them a better deal. And if Elizabeth Warren were able to get her way, they'd also be mostly using boilerplate contracts that get banks competing on service and interest rates and the like rather than on who can soak their customers the most.
Market forces, if left unchecked, create a playing field tipped in favor of the larger entity. This has been shown time and time again.
I should point out, in all fairness, that smaller community banks can also be pretty good. The proverbial Bailey Savings and Loans that have survived until the present day are usually nowhere near as evil as the big banks, because their prosperity is closely tied to the prosperity of the communities they're based in. It's not quite as good as a credit union, because in a credit union the depositors own the organization, but it's a heck of a lot better than BofA, Citi, etc.
Ever notice the dearth of American weapons in all of the third world killing zones?
No, actually - first off, I've never been there, so I have no firsthand knowledge. Second, with the amount of American-backed violence in those Third World 'killing zones', I figure they must have handed the guys we've decided are on our side at least a few American weapons.
There's also a practical reason for preferring the Russian-made weapons over American-made: The AK-47 is cheaper to make, and easier to maintain, repair, and clean.
I've found fantastic local libraries in both larger cities and in more rural areas. What made those libraries successful were a combination of good leadership, community support, and ample funding. Now, I admit the smallest community I've looked for a library in was about 16,000 people, but since the vast majority of the country's population lives in a community larger than that, I think the comment is fair.
And older material can be just fine: Jules Verne hasn't rewritten any of his works in the last 20 years, the Marx Brothers are still funny, and Louis Armstrong hasn't played any new hits recently.
However, if you're killed by a 5.x quake that wouldn't have released a 9.x until 100 years after your normal lifespan, Do you care?
How could you care? You're dead!
They should also explain how cities and towns across the country have these buildings with lots of high-quality books that anybody can read completely for free. They can sometimes even take them home with a mere promise to bring them back reasonably quickly. It's really quite amazing.
Now I know, that whole thing sounds kinda socialist, so I should point out that many of these buildings were originally funded by the noted pinko commie Andrew Carnegie.
If it were true, that would imply that when geek guys meet geek girls, they get it on, instead of just looking awkwardly at each other.
There are some known exceptions to the law of demand. They include:
* Cases where coercion is involved, so demand doesn't depend on price (e.g. buy this pill or you die from illness).
* Cases where person A is negotiating with person B's money.
* What are sometimes called "Giffen goods" or "snob goods", where the whole point is to show off how rich you are (e.g. the "I'm Rich" iPhone app)
It's just that it works for every other case - some consumers get priced out of the market, some look for substitute goods which are cheaper, and some choose just do without and do something else with the extra cash.
It means "not Jewish", because shellfish aren't kosher.
It's even been suggested that in some ways becoming President of the United States was a step down in Hoover's career. He had already written the standard textbook used for mine engineering, invented a new way to extract zinc from what was thought to be waste ore (basically creating Australia's zinc industry from a pile of junk), written the standard translation an important Latin work on metallurgy, and was involved in helping the US military during the Boxer Rebellion. His entry into politics was leading massive efforts to feed people affected by WW I throughout Europe and Russia, creating the Hoover Institution, and more-or-less created the modern US Department of Commerce out of what had been a fledgling organization.
And then he became president and screwed up royally, mostly because his economic advisers didn't how to combat recessions: Contrary to popular belief, he responded to the crash immediately, working feverishly to try to keep the US federal budget balanced via a combination of taxation and austerity measures, on the advice of his economic advisers who told him that this would restore confidence to the markets (sound familiar?).
It's worth noting that without limited liability, this maneuver would not be possible.
A similar idea, one that I'm sure has been used many times:
1. Get a large business loan for an LLC. (This is the hard part)
2. As head of the company, give yourself a nice large bonus, which you stash in the Cayman Islands.
3. Bank tries to recover the money from the company, but can't go after you due to it being an LLC.
4. Retire to Fiji.
And eating shellfish makes you ...
... goyim?
Don't forget the repeated success of SciGen, an automatic computer science BS generator.
Julian Assange has offered to be questioned over video or phone conference, which Sweden refused. That strongly suggests that Sweden wants him in physical custody more than it wants questions answered.
No, that's not correct: It was raw, unmitigated corruption.
Or did you think it was an accident that then-DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, in charge of DHS when they made the decision to use the scanners, just happened to have a financial interest in the company that makes the scanners?