Who pays what in taxes is about wealth and whether it pays its fair share of taxes – leave aside the question of whether the distribution of income and wealth is equitable. Here is the distribution of wealth in America as of 2007: Here is the distribution tax payers in the US as of 2009: First, there is a slight shift in time as the…
The US Health Care debate has turned on a curious combination of compexity and obscurity. But the bitter reality is that current health rules of the road are quite complex, the resulting care quite variabl[this is a must read link] and the costs keep escalating. Kaiser, one of the major players in health care provision, is blunt about costs: Health care costs have been rising…
Here is the recruiting poster for Islamic Terrorists that is a sure fire success throughout the Middle East: This is the map of the Palestinian West Bank with the Israeli “settlements”. No, no lets not call them incursions because that would imply the Israelis are squatters on territory that is not theirs – the final territorial treaty is still under negotiations … for 50 years…
ABC – that is the Australian Broadcast Corporation has published a story in which BRIC – i.e. India, acting in concert with Brazil and China [no word on Russia], scuttled the Copenhagen Climate Talks. Now by “doomed” is meant that no target date, no target levels for emission reductions , and no financing mechanism were agreed upon in Copenhagen. Here is what the Indian Environmental…
Now that the Swiss government, the US Internal Revenue Service and the major Swiss bank, UBS, have agreed to dislose up to four thousand US tax evaders names and details who have secret accounts in Switzerland in order to avoid paying US taxes – the Ship Hits the Fan. Unlike in the case of Financial Reforms the US administration has decided that tax dodging, even…
US Congressmen are fanning out across the USA to listen to their constituents. Bill Maher has a column about this at the Huffington Post. What Bill Maher does in this column is tell us what a harrowing process talking to Americans can be. The title of the column, New Rule: Smart President != Smart Country only intimates at what Bill has to say. Bill accuses…
Illustration for Frank Rich’s Who Is to Blame for the Next Attack, a superb op-ed piece. This is just another example of how Barry Blitt has been producing some of the most trenchant illustrative comentary(=politcal cartoons??) today. They certainly carry clout and sly humor as below: Now what could this possibly be about? This is about President Obama’s political skills: Mr. Blitt also illustrates for…
There are two books that I am “reading” and they have an intriguing confluence. One is the Tale of Two Cities in audiobook format. This is Charles Dickens’ alternately brutal and romantic tale of the French Revolutionary Times – it might be thought of as one of the first thriller novels. This audiobook reading of the unabridged novel by Frederick Davidson is masterful because not…
Settlers against a settlement is the title of the article in the Economist October 18th 2008 issue page 56. Here is a map of those settlements: Here is the population trends: Jewish population 1948 1966 1972 1983 1993 2004 2006 West Bank (excluding Jerusalem) 480 0 1,182 22,800 111,600 234,487 282,400 Gaza Strip 30 0 700 900 4,800 7,826 0 Golan Heights 0 0 77…
One of the arguments on how society got itself into the Boom-bust Business of blowing highly disruptive Financial and Economic Bubbles every 10-15 years is because our collective societal view is far too short. “Next quarters financial results” driven stock markets. Or advertising fashion changing every ratings blitz. Or political stature being poll driven. This idea is the theme of the book by James Gleick,…
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Captain Jack Aubrey and Spymaster Stephen Maturin are the matching pieces in this historical novel. It is remarkable that English literature has two series, Horatio Hornblower and Aubrey + Maturin both set in the same era and of such great quality. Desolation Island tells you why the era of the dawning Enlightenment, European Wars and Industrial Revolution was so tempestuous... and on a prison ship voyage to Australia. Such drama!