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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
May 4, 2013
Published on May 4, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the Great Leap Forward in central banks' central planning which has driven the Housewives of China to buy 300 tons of gold, an act of disloyalty to the central bank revolution.
Keiser Report: Interest Rates Apartheid
Published on May 4, 2013
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the Great Leap Forward in central banks' central planning which has driven the Housewives of China to buy 300 tons of gold, an act of disloyalty to the central bank revolution.
May 4, 2013
[font size="5"]If We're Going to Keep
Executing Murderers, Then
Capitalism Should Get the Chair[/font]
..... and here's the story it links to:
Suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have risen sharply in the past decade, prompting concern that a generation of baby boomers who have faced years of economic worry and easy access to prescription painkillers may be particularly vulnerable to self-inflicted harm.
More people now die of suicide than in car accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published the findings in Friday’s issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2010 there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides.
Suicide has typically been viewed as a problem of teenagers and the elderly, and the surge in suicide rates among middle-aged Americans is surprising. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html
Love the hyperlink headline on Michael Moore's homepage to the NYT story on the surge in suicides
[font size="5"]If We're Going to Keep
Executing Murderers, Then
Capitalism Should Get the Chair[/font]
..... and here's the story it links to:
Suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have risen sharply in the past decade, prompting concern that a generation of baby boomers who have faced years of economic worry and easy access to prescription painkillers may be particularly vulnerable to self-inflicted harm.
More people now die of suicide than in car accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published the findings in Friday’s issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2010 there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides.
Suicide has typically been viewed as a problem of teenagers and the elderly, and the surge in suicide rates among middle-aged Americans is surprising. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html
May 4, 2013
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/the_texas_miracle_20130504/
Texas Miracle (cartoon)
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/the_texas_miracle_20130504/
May 4, 2013
Clarence (Thomas), don't go away mad. Clarence, just go away.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas doesn't speak much on the job, but during an interview last month at Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh, Pa., he offered some candid insight into his thoughts about politics and President Barack Obama.
Asked if Obama's election as the first black president came as a surprise, Thomas said it didn't, claiming that he'd always believed a black person would become president one day. He went on to say, however, that Obama had only been elected because the president won over the elites and media, something Thomas argued most black people must do in order to advance.
"The thing that I always knew is that it would have to be a black president who was approved by the elites and the media, because anybody they didn’t agree with, they would take apart," Thomas said in a clip that surfaced on Friday. "You pick your person. Any black person who says something that is not the prescribed things that they expect from a black person will be picked apart."
Thomas's comments have since been picked up by a number of outlets and are being considered by some as a subtle jab at Obama. Adam Winkler, a professor at the University of California School of Law, told Mother Jones that the remarks were out of character for a sitting Supreme Court justice. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/03/clarence-thomas-obama_n_3210224.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
May 4, 2013
(Toronto Star) Apple Inc. appears to be throwing in the towel as one of history’s greatest growth companies.
In deciding to return $100 billion (U.S.) in surplus cash to shareholders, Apple is giving in to pressure from a Wall Street that is fretting over Apple’s slowing pace of sales growth and the heightened competition it faces. Apple shares have already dropped 37 per cent from their September 2012 peak. In recent months, even shares in beleaguered BlackBerry, up about 13 per cent over the past 12 months, have outperformed Apple.
How considerable was the pressure on Apple to restore its reputation with the Street? The trigger might have been news that one of the most prominent funds at Fidelity Investments, the world’s biggest mutual fund operator, had cut its Apple holdings by 12 per cent in the first quarter. Or it might have been the revelation as spring approached that some 870 other institutional investors had likewise reduced their exposure to Apple, while still others had evicted the Cupertino, Calif., company from their portfolios altogether.
Under Steve Jobs, who returned in 1997 to the firm he co-founded, Apple rolled out a parade of game-changing products for which there may be no equivalent in modern times. The iMac, the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone and the iPad are among the most prominent Apple breakthroughs, by which all things Apple became “aspirational.” This cult-like aura enabled Jobs to price his gadgets at a premium. As a result, Apple is now sitting on an accumulated $145 billion in spare cash, a nest egg that exceeds the entire market value of more than three-quarters of all S&P 500 companies. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/investing/2013/05/03/why_apple_is_losing_appeal_olive.html
Why Apple is losing appeal
(Toronto Star) Apple Inc. appears to be throwing in the towel as one of history’s greatest growth companies.
In deciding to return $100 billion (U.S.) in surplus cash to shareholders, Apple is giving in to pressure from a Wall Street that is fretting over Apple’s slowing pace of sales growth and the heightened competition it faces. Apple shares have already dropped 37 per cent from their September 2012 peak. In recent months, even shares in beleaguered BlackBerry, up about 13 per cent over the past 12 months, have outperformed Apple.
How considerable was the pressure on Apple to restore its reputation with the Street? The trigger might have been news that one of the most prominent funds at Fidelity Investments, the world’s biggest mutual fund operator, had cut its Apple holdings by 12 per cent in the first quarter. Or it might have been the revelation as spring approached that some 870 other institutional investors had likewise reduced their exposure to Apple, while still others had evicted the Cupertino, Calif., company from their portfolios altogether.
Under Steve Jobs, who returned in 1997 to the firm he co-founded, Apple rolled out a parade of game-changing products for which there may be no equivalent in modern times. The iMac, the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone and the iPad are among the most prominent Apple breakthroughs, by which all things Apple became “aspirational.” This cult-like aura enabled Jobs to price his gadgets at a premium. As a result, Apple is now sitting on an accumulated $145 billion in spare cash, a nest egg that exceeds the entire market value of more than three-quarters of all S&P 500 companies. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/investing/2013/05/03/why_apple_is_losing_appeal_olive.html
May 4, 2013
via truthdig:
Apple Walks Away From Multibillion Dollar Tax Obligation
Posted on May 2, 2013
Apple will deprive the American public of $9 billion in U.S. taxes by paying shareholders with proceeds from a $17 billion blockbuster bond sale instead of using money it made abroad.
The company has $100 billion of offshore cash compared with $45 billion held within the country. Any cash brought within national borders from abroad would be subject to a 35 percent tax rate, lawyers and accountants say.
The tariff would have been incurred by a record-breaking return of $55 billion to its investors. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/apple_walks_away_from_multibillion_dollar_tax_obligation_20130502/
Apple Walks Away From Multibillion Dollar Tax Obligation
via truthdig:
Apple Walks Away From Multibillion Dollar Tax Obligation
Posted on May 2, 2013
Apple will deprive the American public of $9 billion in U.S. taxes by paying shareholders with proceeds from a $17 billion blockbuster bond sale instead of using money it made abroad.
The company has $100 billion of offshore cash compared with $45 billion held within the country. Any cash brought within national borders from abroad would be subject to a 35 percent tax rate, lawyers and accountants say.
The tariff would have been incurred by a record-breaking return of $55 billion to its investors. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/apple_walks_away_from_multibillion_dollar_tax_obligation_20130502/
May 4, 2013
(BBC) Portugal is planning to cut 30,000 civil service jobs and to raise the retirement age by one year to 66 as it tries to meet the terms of a bailout.
Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said civil servants would also be required to work 40 hours a week instead of 35.
The proposals, which would be applied mostly from next year, would save 4.8bn euros (£4bn) over three years, he said.
Austerity measures have proved deeply unpopular and have triggered large protests. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22407235
Portugal puts the screws to its people at the behest of EU/ECB/IMF mob bosses
(BBC) Portugal is planning to cut 30,000 civil service jobs and to raise the retirement age by one year to 66 as it tries to meet the terms of a bailout.
Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said civil servants would also be required to work 40 hours a week instead of 35.
The proposals, which would be applied mostly from next year, would save 4.8bn euros (£4bn) over three years, he said.
Austerity measures have proved deeply unpopular and have triggered large protests. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22407235
May 4, 2013
from Slate:
Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte and Obama's pick for the next Secretary of Transportation, issued two city proclamations yesterday. One of them recognized the National Day of Prayer; the other one declared the day to be a Day of Reason. The second proclamation noted that the country was founded on the principles of reason and that "it is the duty and responsibility of every citizen to promote the development and application of reason." Even though we have no evidence that Mayor Foxx was taking a passive-aggressive swipe at the folks at Fox News, they decided to take it as an affront anyway, bringing on Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, to worry that once you start using reason, next thing you know, you're committing a mass genocide and starting a world war.
The relevant quote:
While my reasonable side suggests I shouldn't argue with fools, I can't help but point out that anti-Semitic institutions like the Spanish Inquisition and the myth of blood libel long predate the age of enlightenment. Then again, that's using reason, and we know how Nance feels about that. As Jon Stewart famously demonstrated, Nazis are Fox News’ catch-all villain, used to denounce anything they dislike: being liberal, supporting Obama, criticizing Fox News for its misinformation. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/05/03/national_day_of_reason_backlash_penny_nance_blames_the_holocaust_on_reason.html
Faux News escalates its war on brain cells
from Slate:
Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte and Obama's pick for the next Secretary of Transportation, issued two city proclamations yesterday. One of them recognized the National Day of Prayer; the other one declared the day to be a Day of Reason. The second proclamation noted that the country was founded on the principles of reason and that "it is the duty and responsibility of every citizen to promote the development and application of reason." Even though we have no evidence that Mayor Foxx was taking a passive-aggressive swipe at the folks at Fox News, they decided to take it as an affront anyway, bringing on Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, to worry that once you start using reason, next thing you know, you're committing a mass genocide and starting a world war.
The relevant quote:
"You know the Age of Enlightenment and Reason gave way to moral relativism. And moral relativism is what led us all the way down the dark path to the Holocaust."
While my reasonable side suggests I shouldn't argue with fools, I can't help but point out that anti-Semitic institutions like the Spanish Inquisition and the myth of blood libel long predate the age of enlightenment. Then again, that's using reason, and we know how Nance feels about that. As Jon Stewart famously demonstrated, Nazis are Fox News’ catch-all villain, used to denounce anything they dislike: being liberal, supporting Obama, criticizing Fox News for its misinformation. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/05/03/national_day_of_reason_backlash_penny_nance_blames_the_holocaust_on_reason.html
May 3, 2013
from YES! Magazine:
Survival of the ... Nicest? Check Out the Other Theory of Evolution
A new theory of human origins says cooperation—not competition—is instinctive.
by Eric Michael Johnson
posted May 03, 2013
A century ago, industrialists like Andrew Carnegie believed that Darwin’s theories justified an economy of vicious competition and inequality. They left us with an ideological legacy that says the corporate economy, in which wealth concentrates in the hands of a few, produces the best for humanity. This was always a distortion of Darwin’s ideas. His 1871 book The Descent of Man argued that the human species had succeeded because of traits like sharing and compassion. “Those communities,” he wrote, “which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.” Darwin was no economist, but wealth-sharing and cooperation have always looked more consistent with his observations about human survival than the elitism and hierarchy that dominates contemporary corporate life.
Nearly 150 years later, modern science has verified Darwin’s early insights with direct implications for how we do business in our society. New peer-reviewed research by Michael Tomasello, an American psychologist and co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has synthesized three decades of research to develop a comprehensive evolutionary theory of human cooperation. What can we learn about sharing as a result?
Tomasello holds that there were two key steps that led to humans’ unique form of interdependence. The first was all about who was coming to dinner. Approximately two million years ago, a fledgling species known as Homo habilis emerged on the great plains of Africa. At the same time that these four-foot-tall, bipedal apes appeared, a period of global cooling produced vast, open environments. This climate change event ultimately forced our hominid ancestors to adapt to a new way of life or perish entirely. Since they lacked the ability to take down large game, like the ferocious carnivores of the early Pleistocene, the solution they hit upon was scavenging the carcasses of recently killed large mammals. The analysis of fossil bones from this period has revealed evidence of stone-tool cut marks overlaid on top of carnivore teeth marks. The precursors of modern humans had a habit of arriving late to the feast. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/how-cooperatives-are-driving-the-new-economy/survival-of-the-nicest-the-other-theory-of-evolution
Survival of the ... Nicest? Check Out the Other Theory of Evolution
from YES! Magazine:
Survival of the ... Nicest? Check Out the Other Theory of Evolution
A new theory of human origins says cooperation—not competition—is instinctive.
by Eric Michael Johnson
posted May 03, 2013
A century ago, industrialists like Andrew Carnegie believed that Darwin’s theories justified an economy of vicious competition and inequality. They left us with an ideological legacy that says the corporate economy, in which wealth concentrates in the hands of a few, produces the best for humanity. This was always a distortion of Darwin’s ideas. His 1871 book The Descent of Man argued that the human species had succeeded because of traits like sharing and compassion. “Those communities,” he wrote, “which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.” Darwin was no economist, but wealth-sharing and cooperation have always looked more consistent with his observations about human survival than the elitism and hierarchy that dominates contemporary corporate life.
Nearly 150 years later, modern science has verified Darwin’s early insights with direct implications for how we do business in our society. New peer-reviewed research by Michael Tomasello, an American psychologist and co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has synthesized three decades of research to develop a comprehensive evolutionary theory of human cooperation. What can we learn about sharing as a result?
Tomasello holds that there were two key steps that led to humans’ unique form of interdependence. The first was all about who was coming to dinner. Approximately two million years ago, a fledgling species known as Homo habilis emerged on the great plains of Africa. At the same time that these four-foot-tall, bipedal apes appeared, a period of global cooling produced vast, open environments. This climate change event ultimately forced our hominid ancestors to adapt to a new way of life or perish entirely. Since they lacked the ability to take down large game, like the ferocious carnivores of the early Pleistocene, the solution they hit upon was scavenging the carcasses of recently killed large mammals. The analysis of fossil bones from this period has revealed evidence of stone-tool cut marks overlaid on top of carnivore teeth marks. The precursors of modern humans had a habit of arriving late to the feast. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/how-cooperatives-are-driving-the-new-economy/survival-of-the-nicest-the-other-theory-of-evolution
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