1/25/15 Today's Inquiries

Buttered Coffee


The Links:

Global Warming is going to make living in the midwest suck. Chicago is going to become like Texas.

Yemen is looking like a wonderful place. First a coup and now a divided government. Glad to see the anarchy keeps spreading. Contrary to popular belief, middle east anarchy and internecine warfare is good for US security. As long as we stay out of it. D'oh!

Fascinating look at the labor force participation rate. Basically, the poorest portion of the population is working more while the moderately wealthy (3rd quartile) are working less. Evidence of both the hollowing out of good middle class jobs and that the poor are working more than they used to.

In the bottom 10 percent of households by household income, 33 percent of individuals participated in the labor market in 1998-1999. By 2011-2013 this proportion was 44 percent. At the other end of the household income distribution, the rate of labor market participation fell from 81 to 76 percent. The largest decline was for individuals living in households in the third quartile of the household income distribution, where the participation rate fell from 74 percent to 68 percent. ...

Most of the decline in participation occurred among teenagers and young adults. The finding that these effects tend to be larger in more prosperous families points strongly away from much of a role for rising influence of benefit programs, because these programs, especially food stamps, are only available to families with incomes well below the median.  

Redefining full time work, Obamacare, and employer benefits.

One of the U.S. Congress’s first acts of 2015? Trying to redefine what counts as full-time work, from 30 hours a week up to 40. 

Just over 50% of Americans want single payer health insurance.

The battle between capital and labor. Here's my advice: invest like "capital" but vote for labor.

Wealth is not income, income is not consumption. This is a bit of a critique of the recent Oxfam report on global inequality and coverage of that report. For example:

Oxfam report (and in the report on which Oxfam study is based, Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report for 2014) that among the bottom decile  of adults, that is, among those with zero net wealth, there are about 40 million Americans and more than 50 million Europeans. That came as a shock: how can almost 100 million people from the rich world be among the poorest people on earth? ...

Finally, wealth, especially when we look at the rich, is the source of both economic and political power. It is not people who are running huge, and hard to repay, credit card debts, who are likely to be "players" by contributing to the political campaigns, influencing policy and setting legislative agenda. It is the global top 1% who own half of world's wealth, or within the United States, the top 1% who own about 35% of net wealth, who wield political influence. 

Grading the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's annual letter.

to preview, my overall grade is a B.

I have three reasons:

1. Over-claiming: Making big steps sound like monumental leaps
2. Providing solutions that will work best in the countries that will probably grow anyways
3. Downplaying the harder barriers these breakthroughs won’t solve

Last week's Economist correctly blamed energy subsidies for a large chunk of carbon emissions. It's generated some buzz. Followup here.

By one count, such handouts [energy subsidies] led to extra consumption that was responsible for 36% of global carbon emissions in 1980-2010

Speaking of subsidies, Joni Ernst, who bragged about her family's self reliance and wore breadbags on her feet, received $460,000 in farm subsidies.

Romney is not polling well vs Clinton right now. There goes his biggest argument, that he can beat Hillary.

Are we going to see a bloodbath among tech startups valued over $1 billion?

Stop me if you've heard this one: video of a NJ cop shooting a black man with his hand up in the "don't shoot" position.

Gaming while black. One reason I don't play much multiplayer is exactly the casual sexism, racism, and generally threatening environment which seems to pervade much of the experience.

"I'd love to say no, but the frequency with which I'm called a nigger by people while playing Counter-Strike begs to differ," he said. "It's worth noting that every slur thrown out on voice chat – 'nigger,' 'faggot,' 'pussy,' 'dyke' – is really code for 'different', in the same way that 'relatable' when spoken by a marketer is shorthand for 'straight, white and male.' But I don't think it's unique to the game industry at all. The racial issues we deal with are endemic in our society; just so happens the gaming industry is a part of society as well."

The "secret" Douglas Adams RPG people have been playing for the last 15 years. Except Starship Titanic is hardly a secret. I can remember looking at it's box in the various stores where I bough video games.