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May 022012
Hundreds of thousands of people across Europe participated in anti-austerity May Day protests
ETCHING THE TOMBSTONE OF EUROPEAN-STYLE AUSTERITY: “THE STRATEGY OF AUSTERITY HAS…BEEN COUNTERPRODUCTIVE…”
(The Globe & Mail)
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A new report from the International Labor Organization lays out in raw statistics the destruction and “devastating consequences” of the austerity programs imposed on most of Europe and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the United States. The inability of the global economy to recover from recession combined with the rapid implementation of large scale austerity regimes in Western industrialized nations is killing the growth of jobs around the world. The ILO report shows that over 200 million people are out of work worldwide, an “alarming” figure that is predicted to rise again next year. Such dire numbers indicate the deep failure of austerity to stimulate balanced economic growth and create jobs, a situation already leading to rising social upheaval in Europe. Greater civil unrest across the Western world is likely unless debt reduction is paired with meaningful job creation programs, the report concludes.
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IS FACEBOOK A FIRST AMENDMENT-FREE ZONE?
(Volokh Conspiracy)
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An unusual case out of Virginia raises alarming prospects concerning constitutional protections in the new and evolving world of social media. Online communities like Facebook and Twitter are rapidly becoming how Americans interact not only with friends and family, but with colleagues and like-minded people in support of various causes or individuals. The Constitution and the First Amendment are obviously invoked to protect the rights of Americans to attend political rallies, support campaigns through speech and via text, and generally engage in ordinary civic expression. Most Americans would say those protections extend to new mediums like Facebook, right? Wrong. One federal judge in Virginia ruled that two former employees of a local sheriff’s office fired for “liking” the Facebook page of the sheriff’s electoral opponent did not have their constitutional rights violated because the First Amendment does not protect an activity such as the “like” button on Facebook. So think twice before you click…
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CLIMATE SCIENCE IS FAR FROM “CLOUDY,” DESPITE VOCAL QUESTIONING FROM QUESTIONABLE DENIERS.
(New York Times)
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The string of unseasonably hot temperatures — many record-breaking — continues across the United States has piqed the interest of average Americans in the science behind such extraordinary weather. As public interest in our changing planet grows, new data seems poised to undermine some of the last “bastions” of the shrinking band of opponents denying the spiking mercury and insisting warnings of consequences brought on by a warming globe are the work of alarmists. A favored argument to fall back on for those unable to accept the climate facts is one aggressively peddled by an MIT meteorologist with impressive credentials but disturbing affiliations. Richard Lindzen is a longtime researcher and forecaster with a lengthy resume at the indomitable Massachusetts institution, and he has latched onto theory that the proof that the effects of climate change will be harmless can be founds in the clouds. A warming planet will create more of some clouds and less of others, enabling a temperature balance even as carbon emissions soar. But the MIT expert is associated with some of the worst offenders in junk science theory, being feted and bankrolled by corporate-backed think tanks like the Heartland Institute. Mainstream scientists and climate experts denounce Lindzen’s hypothesis as deeply flawed, a point ignored by his loud supporters in the energy industry and climate denialist community.
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HOW IS THE STATE OF FLORIDA REPAID BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR HOSTING THEIR NATIONAL CONVENTION THIS SUMMER? BY BEING EXILED TO “SIBERIA.“
(Miami Herald)
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With the Republican National Convention to be hosted by Tampa in 2012, residents will be forced to deal with huge inconveniences and throngs of guests while taxpayers across the state will foot the bill of hundreds of millions of dollars in security and other convention-related costs. It’s a massive ordeal for Tampa and the Sunshine State, but many say its worth it for the honor and prestige such an event brings. Except the GOP doesn’t quite agree. Despite taxpayers in the state of Florida underwriting much of the lavish proceedings in order to nominate Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential nominee, GOP officials have moved to punish the Florida delegation at what is basically their own celebration. Because Florida was deemed to have breached GOP rules pertaining to when states can hold primary elections, their delegation has been sent to what is being called “Siberia” to stay during the activities in Tampa this August. While delegations from the dual home states of Mr. Romney — a former Massachusetts Gov. and native of Michigan — have been given lodgings only steps from the convention hall, Florida’s gaggle of conservative partisans are staying over one hour away, in the sleepy enclave of Palm Harbor, and may miss the convention proceedings entirely.
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1921 — GOP drops top tax rate from 91 to 25%
1929 — Great Depression
1932 — Hoover raises the top tax rate from to 25 to 63 percent.
1933 — Roosevelt comes into office. He begins spending at the same time that new tax hike comes into effect. The Depression bottoms out.
1934 — Recovery begins. The GNP rises 7.7 percent, unemployment falls to 21.7 percent.
1935 — New government spending on public works and rural electrification. A push to strengthen labor and raise wages. New taxes through the creation of Social Security.
The GNP grows another 8.1 percent, and unemployment continues to fall.
1936 — The top tax rate is raised again. This time to 79 percent.
GNP grows a record 14.1 percent; unemployment falls even further.
1937 — Roosevelt is afraid of deficits! He cuts spending for 1937.
There’s a new recession. It continues for a year.
1939 — The U.S. borrows, resumes deficit spending, this time on a military build-up. The recession ends.
1941 — America enters World War II.
After spending was cut — to balance the budget — a recession immediately followed. When taxes were raised and government spending resumed — with deficits — that recession ended.
“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
-George Santayana
Europe has drifted right into the grip of international corporate fascism. The US and a number of European countries used unsustainable economic bubbles to create the impression of prosperity while selling off the foundations of true prosperity.
Casey, congratulations! That’s the nuttiest interpretation of The Depression I’ve ever seen!