Obama's call - WB presidency

Nyah. Serves everybody right. It's time now to forget the poor and their poverty. Bigger wars are to be fought.

Let Ngozi fix Nigeria first.

N

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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e9452230-780a-11e1-b237-00144feab49a.html#axzz1qOIry9tG

March 27, 2012 4:12 pm

Obama made the wrong World Bank call

By Edward Luce

BBC: Is the US Declaration of Independence illegal?

So long as enough people accept a lie.. your case is made.

Besides, possession is 9/10th of the law.

N

Is America built on a lie?

www.bbc.co.uk

Is the US Declaration of Independence illegal?

By Matt Danzico and Kate Dailey BBC News Magazine

In Philadelphia, American and British lawyers have debated the legality of America's founding documents.

On Tuesday night, while Republican candidates in Nevada were debating such American issues as nuclear waste disposal and the immigration status of Mitt Romney's gardener, American and British lawyers in Philadelphia were taking on a far more fundamental topic.

Namely, just what did Thomas Jefferson think he was doing?

Some background: during the hot and sweltering summer of 1776, members of the second Continental Congress travelled to Philadelphia to discuss their frustration with royal rule.

By 4 July, America's founding fathers approved a simple document penned by Jefferson that enumerated their grievances and announced themselves a sovereign nation.

Called the Declaration of Independence, it was a blow for freedom, a call to war, and the founding of a new empire.

It was also totally illegitimate and illegal.

At least, that was what lawyers from the UK argued during a debate at Philadelphia's Ben Franklin Hall.

American experiment

The event, presented by the Temple American Inn of Court in conjunction with Gray's Inn, London, pitted British barristers against American lawyers to determine whether or not the American colonists had legal grounds to declare secession.

For American lawyers, the answer is simple: "The English had used their own Declaration of Rights to depose James II and these acts were deemed completely lawful and justified," they say in their summary.

To the British, however, secession isn't the legal or proper tool by which to settle internal disputes. "What if Texas decided today it wanted to secede from the Union? Lincoln made the case against secession and he was right," they argue in their brief.

A vote at the end of the debate reaffirmed the legality of Jefferson and company's insurrection, and the American experiment survived to see another day.

It was an unsurprising result, considering the venue - just a few blocks away from where the Declaration was drafted. But did they get it right? Below are some more of the arguments from both sides.

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WSJ OpEd: How the death tax hurts the poor

Spoken like a true Armchair Economist:

"The death tax sends a powerful message to rich people: "You can't leave everything to your heirs, so spend now, before it's too late. Burn more fuel. Demand more timber for your mansions, more steel for your private planes, and more fiberglass for your yachts.''

Then all those resources—the fuel and timber, the steel and fiberglass—become unavailable to bu...ild factories, so the rest of us get worse jobs at lower wages. Those resources are unavailable to build farm equipment, so we all pay higher food prices. They're unavailable to build roads and schools and hospitals."

Just put punitive taxes on private planes, yachts, residential space above 1,000 sq. ft. per family member, and subsidize employment (removing payroll taxes). And even give the children of the rich a job on the farms or building roads, schools and hospitals instead of going to Ivy League schools, then into investment banking, and making a bonfire of poor people's savings.

The Wall Street Journal - the daily diary of the American nightmare.

See More

Steven E. Landsburg: How the Death Tax Hurts the Poor

online.wsj.com

In The Wall Street Journal, economist Steven E. Landsburg says the death tax encourages the rich to pick extra fruit, leaving the trees a little barer for the rest of us.

WaPo on Condi Rice's memoirs

And that's entertainment!

US government runs like people just have an acting role. Condi Rice no more had 'high honor' than just a chance to play along with the clowns.

‘No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington’ by Condoleezza Rice

www.washingtonpost.com

In “No Higher Honor,” former national security adviser and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice recalls her time in the administration of George W. Bush.

ProPublica: Cheat Sheet - What's happened to the big players in the financial crisis

Guess who is facing the police.

Hint: Not just the big players. The picture is of horse-mounted police against the Wall Street Occupiers.

Goldman Sachs doing just swell, thank you.

Cheat Sheet: What’s Happened to the Big Players in the Financial Crisis - ProPublica

www.propublica.org

With the financial crisis back in the center of the national conversation, here’s a quick refresher on the roles of some of the main players, as well as what consequences they’ve faced.

Tom Toles' cartoons about international news

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tom-toles-goes-global/2011/10/18/gIQAsaLpxL_gallery.html

A collection of cartoons about international news.

Allan Meltzer in WSJ: Four Reasons Keynesians Keep Getting It Wrong

What drivel.

One reason why anti-Keynesians also keep getting it wrong -- their theories have no proofs, nobody has ever tried them or will try them, and they can keep on pouting nonsense over and over again.

What has been going on - including at the Fed - is hardly textbook "Keynesianism" but bookish people wouldn't understand or accept that. Yes, policies so far haven't quite worked and yes, "reducing ...uncertainty and restoring investor and consumer confidence" would be a good idea. Here's hoping that Allan Meltzer goes to grave fantasizing how his four ideas would've saved the world, without having to be held accountable for death and destruction. ("Cut spending, cut taxes"?? Yeah. If spending on the rich is curbed. We don't have a crisis of investor confidence; they are all bringing their money to US Treasury. What we have, hopefully, is cautiousness, and what we don't have, unfortunately, is a market for products that would employ Americans at a living wage. And no, war is not a long term career option for people or the country.)

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204777904576651532721267002.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Allan H. Meltzer: Four Reasons Keynesians Keep Getting It Wrong

online.wsj.com
...

First, big increases in spending and government deficits raise the prospect of future tax increases. .Concern over future tax rates is one of the main reasons for heightened uncertainty and reduced confidence.

Second, most of the government spending programs redistribute income from workers to the unemployed. This, Keynesians argue, increases the welfare of many hurt by the recession. What their models ignore, however, is the reduced productivity that follows a shift of resources toward redistribution and away from productive investment. ...

lose

Third, Keynesian models totally ignore the negative effects of the stream of costly new regulations that pour out of the Obama bureaucracy.

Fourth, U.S. fiscal and monetary policies are mainly directed at getting a near-term result. The estimated cost of new jobs in President Obama's latest jobs bill is at least $200,000 per job, based on administration estimates of the number of jobs and their cost. .

..When will the Fed tell us how and when it is going to sell more than $1 trillion of mortgage-related securities? Will Fannie Mae, for example, have to buy them to hold down mortgage interest rates?

..Clearly, a more effective economic policy would aim at restoring the long-term growth rate by reducing uncertainty and restoring investor and consumer confidence. Here are four proposals to help get us there:

First, Congress and the administration should agree on a 10-year program of government spending cuts to reduce the deficit. . (Note to Republican presidential candidates: Permanent tax reduction can only be achieved by reducing government spending.)

Second, reduce corporate tax rates and expense capital investment by closing loopholes.

Third, announce a five-year moratorium on new regulations.

Fourth, adopt an enforceable 0%-2% inflation target to allay fears of future high inflation.

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