We're spending a billion dollars a day on the Iraq war. Elsewhere in the world, we're having food riots, because poor people can't get enough to eat. The U.N.'s World Food Programme estimates the food gap at $500 million. That's half a day's worth of the Iraq War to...
politics
Here are articles on politics
Taxes, yummy taxes!
It's almost April 15th, that wonderful time of the year when we pay taxes. And I say this time of year sucks!! It doesn't suck because of taxes; they're inevitable. It sucks because of all the whining people do about taxes. People complain about taxes all the time....
Once again, we penalize people who make smart money decisions
It's amazing. I always found it odd when applying for a mortgage that banks considered income, but not asset base. If I have a bunch of money and invest in an investment that's growing in value by 33% per year but not throwing off income, they won't consider that in...
Combatting vote fraud… Really cool system!
The New York Times reported today that a system has been developed that would let us avoid vote fraud by engaging the populace in double-checking the vote. It's a very elegant system, developed at MIT. Interestingly, it was developed by Ron Rivest, who also developed...
What if you had $1 billion to spend on a Presidential campaign?
I was reading reports that Michael Bloomberg was rumored to announce his candidacy for President. A friend mentioned that he had reportedly said he would spend up to $1 billion to get elected (no sources were cited). I was thinking: what would you do if you were going...
Cooking the numbers, nationally, to present a tasty inflation report
I was just reading an article in the Boston Globe about the trade deficit hitting a 4-month low when I stumbled across these two paragraphs: In a second report, inflation at the wholesale level jumped sharply in July, rising by 0.6 percent, far above the 0.1 percent...
Politics. Corruption. The destruction of democracy.
I don't like to get too political too often, since my Blog is mainly about business. But sometimes, the depth of our current incompetence is just too great to ignore. We've repealed Habeas Corpus, our Congress just approved Bush warrentless spying on Americans, and it...
Long-term Thinking: The Depopulation Problem
How much of our prosperity is driven by innovation, hard work, productivity, yada, yada, yada, and how much is simple demographics? The Long Now is an organization that encourages long-term thinking. The have free seminars about long-term perspectives. I just finished...
U.S. Auto Manufacturers outraged at 12-year target to reach below-average performance
I'm not quite sure what to say. The Senate has voted to raise mileage standards to 35 mpg by the year 2020. U.S. auto folks claim it will never happen, as AutoBlog reports. Is it just me, or are these folks crazy? Gas gas gone up 100% in the last 10 years, and 30% in...
Propoganda, by any other name, is still as manipulative
As I write this, CNN is announcing that the U.S. Military is now posting "unfiltered" videos on YouTube, to show what it's really like on the ground in Iraq. In the five minutes I watched the segment, every one of the videos showed uniformed servicemen playing with...