Economics // Current

Ford Unviels 2010 model: The 1993 Taurus!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/ford_unveils_new_car_for_cash Each 1993... more

asherp
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1 day ago
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1 comment

Jesus! I Give Unto Thee the Holy Bonus

It takes a crapweasel with unbelievably huge balls to suggest that God thinks it's... more

omnipotentpoobah
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3 days ago
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Einstein: A Socialist?

A clear, concise and comprehensive case for socialism, written by Albert Einstein in 1949. He discusses our nature as both solitary and social beings, simultaneously conditioned by biological and cultural constitutions, and what this means for the individual's role in society. He then asks "how the structure of society and the cultural attitude of man should be changed in order to make human life as satisfying as possible." The final passages prove particularly poignant in presaging the greatest atrocities committed by Soviet tyranny. The challenge: How is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?

Part of the answer may reside in bypassing the power of large bureaucracies through a decentralized system of democratic planning directed by workers' and consumers' councils. Moreover, with today's information communication technology, the capacity for mass collaboration and self-government/self-management has never been more viable and effective. Your thoughts?

An Excerpt:

"The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production—that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods—may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals...

(The) crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."A clear, concise and comprehensive case for socialism, written by Albert Einstein in... more

JMPxx85
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5 months ago
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Making a monkey's of economics

Primatologists are giving "guerilla marketing" a whole new meaning.

In Indonesia, researchers have watched how long-tail macaques trade for sex. In South Africa, vervet monkeys climbed the ladder of their social group by learning a new trade in apples.

This line of study examines how economic models explain social behavior in the natural world.

"Animals neither negotiate verbally nor conclude binding contracts, but nevertheless regularly exchange goods and services without overt coercion and manage to arrive at agreements over exchange rates," European researchers wrote in a recent paper on market behavior among vervet monkeys in South Africa.

"It's really looking at the economy of nature," said Michael David Gumert, a primatologist and assistant professor in the division of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Gumert spent 20 months in the jungles of Indonesia studying long-tail macaques, observing the mating market among the monkeys.

Gumert found that male monkeys "pay" for sex by grooming female monkeys. After being groomed, females would mate nearly four times an hour with the groomer, and are less likely to mate with others. But the larger the market of male companions, the higher the price of sex: Areas with low density of males, the price was only eight minutes of grooming. In areas where there were more males, the price could double to 16 minutes.

Sex isn't the only commodity for sale in the jungle. Female macaques will line up to groom a new mother in order to hold her offspring, Gumert observed. "When a mother has a baby, the other females are attracted to the baby and want access to it," he said.

The findings support the "biological market theory," a term created by researchers Ronald Noe and Peter Hammerstein in trying to understand reciprocal behavior in primates and the unwritten code of trade that appears in the wild.

Researchers stop short of saying this research has -- so far -- signaled that economics is an innate trait in our closest animal cousins, but it raises thought provoking questions if there is an evolutionary dynamic to the forces that gave rise to Wall Street.

From an evolutionary standpoint, the tacit negotiation that happens in primate groups suggests that the maxim that "only the strong survive" isn't quite right, Gumert said. "It seems really more like, 'only the cooperative survive'."

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2009/11/04/stevens.spotlight.monkey.business.cnnPrimatologists are giving "guerilla marketing" a whole new meaning. In Indonesia,... more

Hannah_LDN
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4 days ago
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Why Keep Geithner?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33586124/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_meeting/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_meeting

Ratigan: There are people who also understand the intricacies of finance and policy, but whose allegiances to the taxpayer are clearer.

A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system was a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs paid themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they didn't have to customers who couldn't pay back the loans.

In those dark days between the fall of Lehman Brothers and before the presidential election, we were often carried through that time by the small glimmer of hope in that at least we would soon have a new leader who would hopefully fix this mess and punish those responsible.

Yet in the past 9 months, not only has the administration not fixed anything, they have made things much worse for anyone who isn't a Wall Street banker. Therefore, we are past the point where anyone in power still gets the benefit of the doubt and the process of taking back our country for all citizens must begin now.

This is why I think we must ask if U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is still the right person for the job. It has become clear recently that back in his previous role as New York Federal Reserve Governor, he unnecessarily gave billions of dollars of U.S. tax money to banks and insurance companies with few strings attached. And it is now becoming clear that his lack of meaningful action is helping many of these same banks steal more by legalizing their most economically dangerous, socially destructive and self-enriching practices.

To stop the theft from continuing, it requires that the most basic rules of capitalism be applied to our banks and that our future national wealth be safeguarded by the U.S. Government. The current custodian of America's wealth, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is not doing a good job of either. The time for corrective action is now.

more at link

Wow, actual main-stream news calling out the Goldman Sachs establishment. No wonder Dylan got kicked off of CNBC's Fast Money, and lets not forget Jeff Macke as well.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33586124/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_meeting/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_me... more

rodstradamus
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5 days ago
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Go Green Power, but invest in Fossil Fuels for your retirement

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0921/financial-ken-fisher-fuels-portfolio-strategy.ht... more

plusaf
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5 days ago
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Too Little of a Good Thing

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/opinion/02krugman.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss... more

slovelett
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6 days ago
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From Brazil to America -- Striving for Stability

http://www.youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a6a166f71796552e6dd273a95... more

YouthOutlookMultimedia
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6 days ago
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Medal of Honor: Professor David Colander Tells Congress Econ Models are Flawed

David Conlander tells Congress we need a more reality-based and cross-disciplinary... more

WallStCheatSheet
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6 days ago
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Who Is Filing Bankruptcy? (Infographic)

Who is filing bankruptcy? In 2008, more than 1 million filed for bankruptcy... more

digitalfever
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11 days ago
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A Genetically Modified Proposal

Another fool who doesn't understand the dangers of GM foods...... thank goodness!... more

plusaf
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11 days ago
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petition to abolish money

want to abolish money? put it where your mouth is...

sffsmessiah
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13 days ago
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1 comment

Sony PlayStation 3 Outsells Nintendo Wii for First Time in U.S.

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo Co.’s Wii console for the first time following a $100 price cut, helping the U.S. video-game market end six consecutive months of declining revenue.

Hardware, software and accessory sales in the world’s largest video-game market rose 1 percent to $1.28 billion last month, researcher NPD Group Inc. said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Sales of Tokyo-based Sony’s PS3 more than doubled to 491,800, while those of the Wii fell 33 percent to 462,800. Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 sales gained 1.6 percent to 352,600.

Sony’s reduction of the PS3 price on Aug. 19 helped reverse an industry slump that had been exacerbated by the absence of new hit games. Industry revenue is down 13 percent through September, NPD said. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft lowered the price of its most powerful console, the Xbox 360 Elite, by $100 to $300 on Aug. 27. Kyoto-based Nintendo followed a month later with a 20 percent price cut for the Wii.

“For some time, people held off on buying because they were expecting a PS3 price cut,” said Atul Bagga, an industry analyst with ThinkEquity LLC in San Francisco. Nintendo’s Wii price cut came late in September so “they aren’t seeing the full effect. October should be better for Nintendo,” he said.

Sony rose 1.3 percent to 2,695 yen at 9:17 a.m. in Tokyo trading, while Nintendo declined 0.3 percent to 23,960 yen in Osaka. Microsoft fell 0.5 percent to $26.36 on the Nasdaq Stock Market yesterday.

Hardware Sales

With Nintendo’s slide, hardware sales fell 6 percent to $472.3 million, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said. September was the first month Sony outsold its rivals in the U.S. since the PS3 was introduced in November 2006. The system has a built-in Blu-ray player and wireless Internet connection.

“We’ve felt that we have a system that would stand the test of time,” Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America said in an interview yesterday. The sales pace is continuing in October, he said.

Video-game software sales totaled $649.3 million, up 5 percent from a year earlier. The top-selling games were Microsoft’s “Halo 3: ODST,” Nintendo’s “Wii Sports Resort” and Electronic Arts Inc.’s “Madden NFL 10.” “The Beatles: Rock Band” was the fifth best-selling game.

The increase in game sales was “disappointing,” said Bagga, who was expecting a gain of about 10 percent. Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter expected software sales to be up 21 percent.

Games that may be released for the holiday shopping season include Activision Blizzard Inc.’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” Electronic Arts’s “FIFA 10” and Sony’s “Uncharted 2.”

Sales of hardware, software and accessories for Microsoft Xbox 360 comprised 32 percent of industry revenue last month, NPD said. The Xbox 360 is the only console system to have an increase in sales this year.

Nintendo led in sales of handheld game systems, with 524,200 units compared with 190,400 PSPs sold by Sony.Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo Co.’s Wii... more

abehammy
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14 days ago
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Medical Marijuana Leading To Boon For Many Colorado Real Estate Firms

Real estate brokers say that Colorado's medical-marijuana law has sparked a land rush,... more

atomiclegion
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14 days ago
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14 comments

Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner: review - Telegraph

Anyone who read Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s bestselling Freakonomics and came... more

remanns
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14 days ago
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1 comment

Gender Spending in the Recession [infographic]

How men and women have made spending adjustments in 2009.

digitalfever
added this
18 days ago
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0 comments

Greed Is Not Good, and It’s Not Capitalism

An interesting article on the inherent morality of capitalism.

bullpcp
added this
23 days ago
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0 comments

Chamber of Horrors!!!

The U.S. House of Commerce is wrong about climate change, health care and everything else. It must be stopped.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce must be stopped. Here's how to do it.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the self-proclaimed voice of business in Washington—has been wrong on virtually every major public-policy issue of the past decade: financial deregulation, tax and fiscal policy, global warming and environmental enforcement, consumer protection, health care reform …

The chamber remains an unabashed voice for the libertarian worldview that caused the most catastrophic economic meltdown since the Great Depression. And the chamber's view of social justice would warm Scrooge's heart. It is the chamber's right to be wrong, and its right to argue its preposterous ideas aggressively, as it does through vast expenditures on lobbyists and litigation. Last year alone, the chamber spent more than $91 million on lobbying, and, according to lobby tracker Opensecrets.org, it has spent more than twice as much on lobbying(http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=a&indexType=s) during the past 12 years as any other corporation or group.

The problem is, the chamber is doing all this with our money. The chamber survives financially on the dues and support of its members, which are most of America's major corporations listed on the stock exchange. The chamber derives its political clout from the fact that its membership includes these corporations. Yet we—you and I—own the companies that support the chamber and permit it to propagate its views. Our passive, permissive attitude toward the management of the companies we own has enabled the chamber to be one of the primary impediments to the reform of markets, health care, energy policy, and politics that we have all been calling for. It is time for that to change.

How, you might ask, do we own these companies? Public pension funds and mutual funds are the largest owners of equities in the market. They are the institutional shareholders that have the capacity to push management—and the boards of the corporations. Yet the mutual funds and pension funds have failed to do so. They have failed to control the management of the companies they own because the actual owners of those mutual funds and pension funds—you and I—have failed to raise our voices. We haven't even asked questions.The U.S. House of Commerce is wrong about climate change, health care and everything... more

atomiclegion
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24 days ago
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Dollar Loses Reserve Status to Yen & Euro

So other central banks are diversifying their reserves (in other words, moving away... more

bbar
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25 days ago
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2 comments

Two Americans Win Nobel Economics Prize

Two academics who broke new ground in researching how people cooperate with each other... more

JeremyGoode
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27 days ago
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tagged w/ Economics

Ford Unviels 2010 model: The 1993 Taurus!

Jesus! I Give Unto Thee the Holy Bonus

Einstein: A Socialist?

Making a monkey's of economics

Why Keep Geithner?

Go Green Power, but invest in Fossil Fuels for your retirement

Too Little of a Good Thing

From Brazil to America -- Striving for Stability

Medal of Honor: Professor David Colander Tells Congress Econ Models are Flawed

Who Is Filing Bankruptcy? (Infographic)

A Genetically Modified Proposal

petition to abolish money

Sony PlayStation 3 Outsells Nintendo Wii for First Time in U.S.

Medical Marijuana Leading To Boon For Many Colorado Real Estate Firms

Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner: review - Telegraph

Gender Spending in the Recession [infographic]

Greed Is Not Good, and It’s Not Capitalism

Chamber of Horrors!!!

Dollar Loses Reserve Status to Yen & Euro

Two Americans Win Nobel Economics Prize

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