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“First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Texas Bluebonnets
News
Ten Reasons the JOBS Act Is an Insane Race to the Bottom
The JOBS Act is insane on many levels. It creates an extraordinarily criminogenic environment in which securities fraud will become even more out of control. One of the forms of insanity is the belief that one can "win" a regulatory "race to the bottom." The only winning move is not to play in a regulatory race to the bottom. The primary rationale for the JOBS Act is the claim that we must win a regulatory race to the bottom with the City of London by adopting even weaker protections for investors from securities fraud than does the United Kingdom (UK).
The second form of insanity is that the JOBS Act is being adopted without any consideration of the findings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), the national commission to investigate the causes of the current crisis. I am not aware of any proponent or opponent of the JOBS Act (other than me) who has cited the findings of FCIC. Everyone involved has ignored the detailed finding of a huge investigative effort. The FCIC report explained repeatedly how the three "de's" (deregulation, desupervision, and de facto decriminalization) had produced the criminogenic environment that drove the financial crisis. The FCIC report specifically condemned the "regulatory arbitrage" that the worst actors exploited by choosing to be (not very) regulated by the "winners" of the regulatory race to the bottom. The FCIC report shows repeatedly how damaging the anti-regulatory fervor in general and the race to the bottom in particular proved.
Setting the Record Straight: The Housing Bubble Lie
The classic example of a demand-driven bubble is Holland’s tulip craze in the 1600s. A much more recent version was the DotCom fever a couple of decades ago. And at the risk of dating myself, the most vivid consumer-good craze of my youth was “Cabbage Patch Dolls” (not that I had one; I wasn’t into dolls.) How did these bubbles happen? Simple. Irrational economic actors, that is, normal people acting as consumers, got a kind of mob/herd madness/fever and outbid each other endlessly, until suddenly reality intruded and they stopped.
But here’s the thing: Houses are not like tulips, shares of stock, dolls, or any other mass-market consumer product. They just cost too much. The only people who can buy a house simply because they want to are cash buyers. No one will argue that cash buyers drove the housing bubble of 2005 onward (or whatever year you want to peg its start.) Cash buyers don’t fuel a foreclosure crisis either, though banks have been known to foreclose on cash buyers anyway.
We didn’t have a housing bubble in the ordinary sense because consumers don’t buy houses; banks buy houses. The housing market cannot undergo a demand-driven bubble without lender collusion and complicity.
Defense Department Plans New Intelligence Gathering Service
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is revamping its spy operations to focus on high-priority targets like Iran and China in a reorganization that reflects a shift away from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan that have dominated America’s security landscape for the past decade.
Under the plan approved last week by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, case officers from the new Defense Clandestine Service would work more closely with counterparts from the Central Intelligence Agency at a time when the military and spy agency are increasingly focused on similar threats.
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The new intelligence service is expected to grow “from several hundred to several more hundred” in the coming years by shifting people’s assignments, but the defense official sought to allay concerns that the Pentagon organization would take over functions of the C.I.A. or its National Clandestine Service. He said it would seek no additional personnel, authorities or money, and would strive for “closer integration” with the C.I.A. and other American intelligence agencies.
Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said in an e-mail that he supported the plan in principle “because it will allow for greater value from our intelligence officers through integration.”
Convicting Bradley Manning in Secret
The defense for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, has decided to do its part to bring transparency to the ongoing pre-trial legal proceedings. In the face of refusal from the US government to be transparent, the defense has made an attempt to share court filings with the press that are usually made available during most federal trials but have not been available to press. However, the filings the defense posted—mainly defense motions—include redactions requested by the government, minimizing the value of the published filings.
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It has been more than a month since the Defense Department and the government still refuses to make all filings available. The legal fun and games that the government is playing makes it clear that the government wants to prosecute and convict Manning in secret.
Michael Ratner, CCR President Emeritus, has wholly condemned the government’s commitment to secrecy: “It’s not like it’s up to the individual defense counsel or government lawyer to decide what the public should have…I find it completely outrageous that we are not getting both the government and the defense filings.” He added, the provision of defense motions only is “worse than nothing if the court or the government thinks this is what’s required by a public trial.”
Apple: why doesn't it employ more US workers?
The electronics giant assembles its gadgets in China. But, according to new research, if it moved its production home, it would still be hugely profitable and create thousands of jobs
This is, I know, an unorthodox position. When journalists or politicians discuss the way that western companies make goods in China, or anywhere else in Asia, they almost always start from the premise that this is how business is done nowadays. This is the commonly accepted logic of globalisation, which enables companies to keep their costs down, which allows the ordinary American or Briton to spend less money shopping, and which also offers poorer nations in the east to develop their economies. Expensive shirts might still be made in Italy; high-end kitchens might be assembled in Germany – but the future of mass production inevitably lies in China.
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Using a mix of Apple's own filings and industry data, the academics broke down the cost of making one product in particular: the wildly popular 4G iPhone. Assembled in China, the total cost of putting together just one phone was $178.45. Compare that with a sale price (including downloads) of $630 and Apple makes $452 on each phone: a whacking gross margin of 72%.
Olympic park security guards forcibly stop journalists from taking photos
Incident which was filmed raises fears of potentially aggressive and over-intrusive security during London 2012 Games
Private guards at the Olympic park have been filmed forcibly attempting to stop the media taking pictures and footage of the complex in east London, raising new concerns about potentially aggressive and over-intrusive security during the Games.
During the incident two guards from G4S, the security giant which is recruiting at least 10,000 staff for the event, attempted to clamp their hands over the lenses of stills and video cameras, even though the footage is being shot on public land.
While there are numerous rules about photography and filming inside the Olympic complex itself, which is private land, there are no restrictions on the use cameras from public areas.
Bombshell: 2008 Shell Nigeria Oil Spill 60 Times Size Originally Claimed
Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) dropped a bombshell today.
The two NGOs unveiled documents pertaining to the Royal Dutch Shell Oil 2008 Bodo oil pipeline spill that showed that 60 times the amount of oil Shell had originally reported spilling have actually spilled in the ravaged Niger Delta coastal town with a population of 60,000 people.
Dutch PM resigns after failed austerity talks
The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix has reportedly accepted Mark Rutte and his cabinet's resignation.
The Dutch government information service confirmed on Monday that Rutte had met Queen Beatrix and she had accepted his resignation, asking him to tend to pressing matters of state with a caretaker government for the time being.
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The resignation has been widely expected since the weekend when Rutte acknowledged that his government's rift with anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders' Freedom Party would likely lead to early elections, otherwise due in May 2015.
"Legally, new elections can't happen before September... but the prime minister will continue on a caretaker until then," our correspondent said.
Old Havana gets a makeover
Cuba starts restoration project to bring capital's historic buildings in state of disrepair to safe living standards.
Cuba has started a massive restoration project of Old Havana, a neighbourhood where some buildings date back to the 17th century.
The Shame of Nations: A New Record is Set for Spending on War
On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money -- and the tax money of other nations -- went in the previous year, the answer from SIPRI was clear: to war and preparations for war.
World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 -- an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion.
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