Category Archives: american way

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Investment Management Company (MITIMCo)

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Investment Management Company (MITIMCo) announced today that MIT’s unitized pool of endowment and other MIT funds generated an investment return of 11.1 percent during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013. At the end of that fiscal year, MIT’s endowment funds totaled $11 billion, including pledges.
The goal of MIT’s endowment is to support current and future generations of MIT scholars with the resources they need. As such, endowment funds are used for Institute activities including education, research, capital projects, faculty work and student financial aid.
The Institute’s need-blind undergraduate admissions policy ensures that an MIT education is accessible to all qualified candidates regardless of financial resources. MIT provides financial aid to meet the full cost of an MIT education, based on the calculated need of the family. In 2012-13, the average financial aid award for need-based-aid recipients was $40,952. Currently, 61 percent of MIT undergraduates receive need-based financial aid, and 32 percent of MIT students receive scholarship funding sufficient to cover the total cost of tuition.
MITIMCo is a division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, created to manage and oversee the investment of the Institute’s endowment, retirement and operating funds. As of June 30, 2013, MITIMCo had approximately $17 billion of total assets under management.

MIT’s Report of the Treasurer for fiscal year 2013

Richard Leon

— There is the very real prospect that the (NSA) program will go on for as long as America is combatting terrorism, which realistically could be forever!
— I believe that bulk telephony metadata collection and analysis almost certainly does violate a reasonable expectation of privacy.
— I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism.
(Leon referred to a 1979 Supreme Court ruling, Smith v. Maryland, that the government has cited in arguing that no one has an expectation of privacy for the telephone data that phone companies keep as business records. The court ruled then that police didn’t need a warrant to obtain such phone records, but Leon said technology has changed dramatically since then.)
— When do present-day circumstances — the evolutions in the government’s surveillance capabilities, citizens’ phone habits, and the relationship between the NSA and telecom companies — become so thoroughly unlike those considered by the Supreme Court 34 years ago that a precedent like Smith simply does not a apply? The answer, unfortunately for the government, is now.
The almost-Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States is unlike anything that could have been conceived of in 1979.
— I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate‘ and ‘arbitrary invasion‘ than this systemic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for the purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy‘ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware ‘the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,‘ would be aghast.
— Of course, the public has no interest in saving the government from the burdens of complying with the Constitution! Then the government frets that such an order ‘could ultimately have a degrading effect on the utility of the program if the injunction is this case precipitated successful requests for such relief by other litigants.‘ … I will leave it to other judges to decide how to handle any future litigation in their courts.

Bain & Company

bain-40Our people make us different—energetic about supporting and challenging our clients in equal measure. We’re passionate about making a measurable impact in all we do. Our unique culture and approach deliver enduring results, true to each client’s specific situation. We’ll always do the right thing by our clients, our people and our communities.
We care for our clients’ business as our business. We think and act like business partners, not academic advisors. We share our clients’ aspirations, work to understand their reality, and align our incentives with their objectives—so they know we’re in this together.

Nissim

Nissim_________________________________________
Hi Guys,
We’re aware of this issue, and are looking into possible solutions.
We will be sure to post an update once we have further information.
_________________________________________
Indeed, this issue was caused by a change in Amazon’s policy, but Payoneer realizes the importance of this issue. I’m sorry if that wasn’t made clear on your chat with our support team.
It’s important to realize that Payoneer has very little control over this change, however we will do what we can to attempt to find a solution.
_________________________________________
It’s possible that this is a new policy implemented by Amazon, or that this is simply something they are reviewing before they make a final decision. We are doing our best to contact them and get further information regarding the issue of non-US residents receiving US direct deposit payments (as this was possible, and only recently seems to be removed as an option). As soon as we have an update, we will post it on the forum.
_________________________________________
It’s possible that this tooltip refers to the payment method being US based, meaning for associates that can receive US direct deposit transfers. As you mentioned, the option was added again for international associates, and you should now be able to receive your Amazon Associates payments via Payoneer again.

Step-By-Step Self-Publishing

(I publish with CreateSpace, and I am getting 30% taken out of my royalty checks because I’m a foreign author. I’m in Canada, which has a tax treaty with the US. How am I being taxed? What percentage?)
Canada has a very good tax treaty with the US. Your royalties will be taxed at either 5% or 10% max. In reality, it’s less than that, because you get an exemption on the first few thousand dollars of income.
However, without an ITIN, any money that you earn on US soil will be automatically withheld at 30%. You must file an application for the ITIN (Form W-7) in order to stop the automatic withholding. Your other option is to just let CreateSpace withhold, and then file a tax return (Form 1040NR, Nonresident US Tax Return) and file the application for the ITIN at the same time.
You only need to file for an ITIN once. After that, you are pretty much done. You will not even have a filing requirement if your royalties do not exceed the exemption amount (which is $3,700 in 2011 and goes up every year). That is assuming that your country has a tax treaty with the US.

Urban Dictionary

 
just kidding

You were just joking around with somebody.
You were actually serious but decided what you said was actually very mean.
You were actually serious but since that person took what you said offensively you cover it up by saying just kidding.
You soften a direct insult by saying it was just a joke, although you still mean the insult.
Something you should not say after I love you.

 
information

Information is data that is available to humans through the normal means of perception like sight, hearing, touch and maybe others.
Information aquired by humans is knowledge, knowledge combined with experience is wisdom.

 
wisdom

Wisdom is knowing what you know as well as what you don’t know.
Wisdom is not simply knowing what to do, but doing it.
Many people will without invitation offer their “words of wisdom”, wise people realize when it is not their time or place to do so.
A wise person does not think less of another who chooses not to follow their advice.
Wisdom is not undermining a person for their weaknesses, but appreciating their strengths differ from yours.

Ray D. Madoff

The government does its own charitable giving, in the form of tax deductions. When an individual makes a donation to a qualifying organization, the federal government essentially pays a portion of that donation: A $1,000 donation from a donor in the highest tax bracket costs that donor only $604. The federal government kicks in the remaining $396 in the form of a reduction in taxes.
These charitable donations are estimated to cost the federal government almost $40 billion this year alone and over half a trillion dollars in the next 10 years. What is the public getting for this investment of resources? Sadly, not enough.
The federal government too often provides the deduction for donations that offer little or no benefit.

Annie Gowen

CONTRACTHILL0011367597711Alan J. Dabbiere — a tech millionaire with a low profile and deep pockets — arrived here in 2006 with no job and few local contacts, fresh from two years living with his wife and the first of his four children on his 115-foot Italian yacht.
Since then, his mobile management company, Airwatch, which barely existed four years ago, has gone on to remarkable success in commercial industry and the public sector. In his private life, Dabbiere joined the boards of the Potomac School and the Inova Health Foundation. And after plunking down $8.2 million, he became the steward of Hickory Hill, the Georgian estate in McLean, Va., where Kennedy and his family once lived.
Dabbiere, 52, represents a new breed in the Washington region. Over the past 30 years, an influx of deep-pocketed CEOs, executives and company founders have helped drive the transformation of the area from a buttoned-down capital into the most highly educated and affluent place in the country.
They may see the nation’s capital as “the epicenter of everything,” as one of Dabbiere’s colleagues put it, but they’re not necessarily interested in politics. Rather, they’re creating and selling companies in fields such as biotech, cybersecurity, cloud computing and data mining. If they sell to the federal government, they’re more likely to see Uncle Sam as another client, rather than as a platform to change the world.
In recent years, the Washington area has seen a dramatic rise in “1-percenters,” households that make about $400,000 or more. Their ranks have jumped 65 percent in the past decade, from 32,000 people to 53,000. That growth has spawned a plethora of high-end retail establishments, restaurants that serve $22 cocktails and $110-a-night pet spas with doggie lap pools.

Salvador Atasoy

Lang wurde spekuliert. Nun ist klar: Die USA liessen auf Schweizer Boden spionieren. Über Jahre. Unter Missachtung der Schweizer Gesetze. Und gegen direkte Anweisungen des Bundesrates. Das zeigen Dokumente, die der SonntagsZeitung vorliegen. Von 2005 an – und möglicherweise bis heute – observierten Agenten in Genf Konsulate, Missionen und UNO-Einrichtungen im Umkreis von einem Kilometer zur US-Mission. Nun reagiert die Bundesanwaltschaft. Am Donnerstag hat sie ein Strafverfahren eröffnet.
Die US-Regierung schrieb den Auftrag 2005 aus. Online, für jeden einsehbar. Gesucht wurden «Sicherheitsspezialisten» für die US-Mission in Genf. «Wer etwas vom Fach versteht, dem war klar, dass es hier um Ermittlungsarbeit auf Schweizer Boden geht», sagt ein Brancheninsider im Gespräch mit der SonntagsZeitung. Die Arbeitsinstruktionen seien derart detailliert, dass sie ein ganzes Ringbuch füllten. Und sie verstiessen reihenweise gegen Schweizer Gesetze – etwa gegen Artikel 271: «Verbotene Handlungen für einen fremden Staat.»

USmissionUS-MISSION IN GENF:
Von hier aus observierten Agenten ab 2005 alles im Umkreis von einem Kilometer
Foto: Lionel Flusin

Steve Rothwell

Thanksgiving Day is no longer all about turkey: It’s eating away at Black Friday shopping.
U.S. shoppers spent $9.74 billion on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. That’s a drop of 13.2 percent compared with last year, according to data released on Saturday by research firm ShopperTrak.
The decline appears to show that more Americans shopped on the holiday itself: Combined spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, which had been considered the official start to the holiday buying season until this year, rose 2.3 percent to $12.3 billion.
The data reflects that Thanksgiving, which along with Christmas was one of two days a year that most stores were closed, is becoming an important day for major retailers.
Black Friday is a time when big retailers open early and offer deep discounts, but a few started opening and offering those discounts on Thanksgiving a couple years ago. And this year, at least a dozen did so, with a few opening earlier in the holiday than they did last year.
The National Retail Federation, a retail trade group, predicted that 33 million, or almost a quarter, of the 140 million people who planned to shop during the four-day holiday weekend that ends on Sunday, would do so on Thanksgiving. Analysts had questioned whether the holiday openings would steal sales away from Black Friday or result in people spending more overall.

Bob Garfield

The estimable online publication BuzzFeed has changed the rules of critical engagement. All I can say is “Bravo!”
At least, if I were writing book reviews for BuzzFeed that’s all I could say, because at BuzzFeed there is no room in the literary criticism section for, you know, criticism. Finally, in an online world of gratuitous snark, one courageous editor has displayed the vision to give thumbs down to thumbs down. You read that right: no negative reviews.
… To my way of thinking, BuzzFeed’s heroic initiative will succeed even if it merely eradicates the depressing negativity that has for so long kept literary criticism from becoming a full-fledged economic sector, like agriculture, transport and erectile dysfunction.
It also brings us one step closer to my two lifelong dreams: first, a newspaper that delivers only good news; and second, diet bacon.

Pamela Druckerman

The Americans in Paris tend to fall into three categories. There are the fantasists — people nourished by Hemingway and Sartre, who are enthralled with the idea of living here. The moneyed version of this person lives as close as possible to the Eiffel Tower. The Bohemian version teaches English or tends bar, to finance his true vocation: being in France.
Then there are the denialists — often here for a spouse’s job — who cope with living in Paris by pretending they’re not in Paris. They tap into a parallel universe of Anglophone schools, babysitters and house painters, and get their French news from CNN.
Finally there are people like me, who study France and then describe it to the folks back home. We’re determined to have an “authentic” French experience. And yet, by mining every encounter for its anthropological significance, we keep our distance, too.
No matter how familiar Paris becomes, something always reminds me that I don’t belong.

William Cullen Bryant

Towards what limits must the city grow. . . .? How much and what portions . . . will be required for business purposes . . . ? . . . Where will the rich man’s city place stand? Where will the laborer’s family rest? . . . What avenues of communication are needed between the sections for business and those for residence? How shall the latter be connected with the great park, and with other healthful and pleasant resorts? . . . Ought . . . the city have . . . one great “Central Park”; or are a number of parks required in different sections . . . ? Can any means be devised to make such places attractive to those who need them most; . . . those who are suffering from the . . . close air of shops and factories?

Warren St. John

twTwenty-six years ago this month, a coalition of New Yorkers led by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis won a historic victory for Central Park. At issue was a planned building on Columbus Circle by the developer Mortimer B. Zuckerman with 58- and 68-story towers that would cast long shadows on the park. After a lawsuit by opponents of the plan and a rally in Central Park at which over 800 New Yorkers with umbrellas formed a line to simulate the building’s shadow, Mr. Zuckerman relented and agreed to scale down his design, which eventually became known as the Time Warner Center.

Potter Stewart

Justice_Potter_StewartIn the absence of the governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the areas of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry — in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government. For this reason, it is perhaps here that a press that is alert, aware, and free most vitally serves the basic purpose of the First Amendment. For, without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people.

The US Government Printing Office

USSBS-NagasakiHiroshimaThe available facts about the power of the atomic bomb as a military weapon lie in the story of what it did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
One further measure of safety must accompany the others. To avoid destruction, the surest way is to avoid war. This was the Survey’s recommendation after viewing the rubble of German cities, and it holds equally true whether one remembers the ashes of Hiroshima or considers the vulnerability of American cities.
Our national policy has consistently had as one of its basic principles the maintenance of peace. Based on our ideals of justice and of peaceful development of our resources, this disinterested policy has been reinforced by our clear lack of anything to gain from war–even in victory. No more forceful arguments for peace and for the international machinery of peace than the sight of the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have ever been devised. As the developer and exploiter of this ominous weapon, our nation has a responsibility, which no American should shirk, to lead in establishing and implementing the international guarantees and controls which will prevent its future use.

U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey: The Effects of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – June 1946 (PDF)

The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command

RDECOMThe U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) is the Army’s technology leader and largest technology developer. RDECOM ensures the dominance of Army capabilities by creating, integrating and delivering technology-enabled solutions to our Soldiers. To meet this commitment to the Army, RDECOM develops technologies in its eight major laboratories and research, development and engineering centers. It also integrates technologies developed in partnership with an extensive network of academic, industry, and international partners.
RDECOM provides the Army with an organic research and development capability. More than 17,000 Soldiers, civilian employees and direct contractors form this world-class team. As part of that team, there are 11,000 engineers and scientists, many of whom are the Army’s leading experts in their fields. A fundamental characteristic of this workforce is the focus on the Soldier. Whether providing technology solutions to meet current operational needs or developing break-through technologies for the next generation, RDECOM stands at the forefront of what the Soldier eats, wears, fires, flies or drives.

Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Despite the growing diversity nationally, some religious groups clearly occupy a dominant demographic position in particular states. For instance, Catholics are the majority of the population in Massachusetts and Maine as are Mormons in Utah and Baptists in Mississippi. Catholics comprise over 40% of Vermont, New Mexico, New York and New Jersey, while Baptists are over 40% in a number of southern states such as South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia.
BibleBeltHistorical traces of the Bible belt in the South and an irreligious West are still evident. Those with “no religion” constitute the largest group in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming. In contrast, the percentage of adults who adhere to “no religion” is below 10 % in North and South Dakota, the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Such religious concentrations might well have significant impact on host of public policy issues as well as on such matters as religious-based philanthropy.
It remains the challenge of further explorations of these and related data to discover the complex ways in which the religious identification patterns of the American populace shapes the culture and fate of the United States.

NAVERまとめ

kuronuri2戦後、GHQにより戦争を推奨するような内容は全部黒塗りにされ、本もたくさん焼かれた。
黒塗りだけでなく、本そのものが焼かれた例もあることからわかるように、従来の教育内容からの方針転換は極めて急進的に行われた。急進的な改革が必要な時期だったからこそ、黒塗り教科書が生み出されたともいえる。
戦後、生徒自身の手で、国家主義や戦意を鼓舞する内容の部分に墨を塗って教科書を修正した。

5墨塗り教科書は、英語や算数もあったようだが、そのほとんどが国語だった。
地理、歴史、修身の教科書は皇国神話と軍国主義に溢れているため、墨塗りでなく廃棄となり、教科まるごと教えなくなってしまった。
国語は、国語をやめたら教える教科がなくなってしまうという理由で、都合の悪いところだけを消して使おうとしたのだ。実際には、黒塗りの箇所があまりにも多岐にわたったためほとんど教えるところが無くなってしまったという。

新井英和

kuronuri1
終戦直後の日本の小学校の教科書。「ボクハ センシャ兵 ダヨ」といった戦中の教科書をそのまま学校で使っていたために、軍国主義思想を排除する目的で、このように黒塗りの教科書が登場しました。

Ian Bremmer

Ian BremmerFor decades the U.S. had been espousing the virtues of free market capitalism, urging other countries to adopt the model. America’s exceptional economic success, the thinking went, allowed it to give advice about how other countries should build their own economies.
And then the bottom fell out. The crisis, spurred by lax regulations that were manipulated by the big banks, started in the United States, before its impact spread globally. An unemployment and debt crisis soon followed. So did a rush to rethink the way countries handle their economies. With the free-market system no longer sacrosanct, countries with other approaches were happy to second-guess the system. China’s state capitalist model became a viable alternative as it navigated the financial crisis much better than most. I’ll never forget my meeting with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei in 2009, when he asked me outright, “Now that the free market has failed, what do you think is the proper role for the state in the economy?” The financial crisis was an opportunity to reopen the debate surrounding perceived global values — and to kick the U.S. system while it was down.
That’s a case study that points to America’s larger problem. All too often, America has been leading by rhetoric rather than example. In a G-Zero world — what President Obama described as a “vacuum of leadership” in his U.N. General Assembly speech — strong words do not qualify as leadership. It’s only credible when you call for reforms or actions that you actually stand behind — and reflect them in your domestic policy.

Police State USA

PSUSA
Police State USA is a volunteer, grassroots alternative media outlet dedicated to exposing, what we believe, the systemic formation of an American police state.
Our mission is to educate and inform the public about issues that endanger our rights and liberties, and to work to fix them through non-violent means.
A complete paradigm shift will be necessary to save this country’s freedom. A necessary part of this involves a massive information campaign to expose the crimes of the police state and promote freedom-based alternatives. We are part of that information campaign.

Transport Security Administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Pay particular attention to your luggage and personal belongings. Unintended luggage will, and personal belongings may be treated as a danger to the facility. Do not be persuaded by strangers or individuals you do not know well to take articles aboard your flight. You are also reminded that any inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning security may result in your arrest. We appreciate your cooperation while these measures are in effect.

Wikipedia

In US military slang, “ground truth” is used to describe the reality of a tactical situation as opposed to what intelligence reports and mission plans assert the reality to be. The term is reflected in the title of the 2006 Iraq War documentary The Ground Truth and is used in military publications, for example Stars and Stripes saying “Stripes decided to figure out what the ground truth was in Iraq.”
The military usage of the term is long-standing but its origins are obscure. It is plausible but difficult to prove that “ground truth” began life as military terminology and then was applied to other domains such as remote sensing control.

Kate Greenberg

WestFarmers have always dealt with extreme weather. We’re the first to feel the frosts in winter and the last to leave the field under the scorching sun of summer. Neither hail nor high winds mean a day off.
But here in the west, in states like Colorado, weather is flip-flopping faster than politicians.
Flash floods, drought, wildfires—these are all natural extremes in the West. But their timing and intensity are changing.
As young farmers dedicating our careers and lifestyles to working landscapes, this is our climate context. And we have the opportunity, through our collective brain power, passion and hard work, to create a firm resilience on our farms and in our ecosystems.
We need to ensure our decision makers know that the health of our natural systems is not separate from, but is in fact critical to, the health of our farms.

Lindsey Lusher Shute, Benjamin Shute

LindseyLusherShute BenShuteOnce well-off city residents who are looking for second homes buy the land, farmer ownership is over. After they’ve added an air-conditioned home, a heated pool and an asphalt drive, the value increases so much that no working farmer can afford it. The farm, and its capacity to feed a community, is lost.
In the next 20 years, 70 percent of the nation’s farmland will change hands.Farmers do not live forever, and most farm kids do not choose to carry on the family business. An eager generation of young Americans is motivated to farm but, like us, they need land and few will be able to secure it without help.
The federal government and states spend hundreds of millions of dollars on farmland conservation each year, which can do much more than protect pastoral views for the wealthy. Those dollars must also be used to shore up rural economies and national food security with productive farms.

Michael Bohm

The concept of American exceptionalism is by no means about Americans believing that they are more honest, hardworking, democratic or otherwise superior to people from other nations. Nor is it about the U.S. “exporting democracy” to other countries through military interventions.
Instead, American exceptionalism is based on a much more banal and objective notion: that the historical and democratic development of the U.S. stands out as unique — or exceptional — in the world. While most countries developed on common ethnic, racial or religious grounds, the U.S. was founded and developed on a set of principles and ideals, such as inherent and inalienable individual rights, freedom of speech, private property protection, rule of law and an ingrained system of checks and balances against government abuse.
As British writer G.K. Chesterton famously said, “America is the only nation in the world founded on a creed.
This sense of American exceptionalism was also well-captured by French writer Alexis de ­Tocqueville in his 1840 classic, “Democracy in America.”
At the same time, however, you could argue that there is nothing particularly exceptional about Americans thinking they are exceptional. After all, most nations think they are special and unique in their own ways. U.S. President Barack Obama perhaps ­expressed this idea best during his first overseas trip as president in 2010 when he said, “I ­believe in American exceptionalism — just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks ­believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Boeing

X-45The Boeing Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) X-45 is the first highly autonomous, unmanned system specifically designed for combat operations in the network-centric environment of the 21st century. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the U.S. Air Force, and Boeing have completed the first two demonstration blocks on the X-45A and are developing the X-45C. The X-45C will fly high-risk operational missions and deliver precision weapons on target. Controlled by either line-of-sight or satellite communications, the X-45 is highly adaptable to changing battle conditions.

United States Navy

George H.W. Bush is conducting training operations in the Atlantic Ocean.An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator completes an arrested landing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. The landing marks the first time any unmanned aircraft has completed an arrested landing at sea. George H.W. Bush is conducting training operations in the Atlantic Ocean.

Americans for Prosperity

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is committed to educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing those citizens as advocates in the public policy process. AFP is an organization of grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state, and federal levels. AFP grassroots activists advocate for public policies that champion the principles of entrepreneurship and fiscal and regulatory restraint. To that end, AFP supports:

  • Cutting taxes and government spending in order to halt the encroachment of government in the economic lives of citizens by fighting proposed tax increases and pointing out evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse.
  • Removing unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship and opportunity by sparking citizen involvement early in the regulatory process in order to reduce red tape.
  • Restoring fairness to our judicial system.

Charles G. Koch

Koch2Do you think the government – or anyone else – should be able to arbitrarily take away your home?
Is it okay with you if the value of your savings is cut in half due to the government’s policy of quantitative easing?
Do you mind if someone else runs up a debt for $50,551 in your name, without your permission, then leaves you on the hook to pay for it, with interest?
If you care about issues such as these, then you care about economic freedom.
That $50,551, by the way, is the portion of the federal debt owed by every citizen of the United States.
If you look at total unfunded liabilities (which includes promises made for future payments) the total is a sobering $1.05 million per citizen.

Anand Chokkavelu

buy_vs_rentRent vs. buy. In finance circles, it’s a bigger debate than “paper vs. plastic” or “tastes great vs. less filling.”
It remains a debate fought by smart people on both sides, because the variables make calculus look like third-grade math.
Advocates of buying will use arguments that feature phrases such as “throwing away money on rent,” “mortgage interest rate deduction,” and “forced savings.” They may even appeal to your sense of community by pointing out the social benefits of an ownership mentality.
Advocates of renting will say the benefits of homeownership are overrated while the costs are underrated. A popular argument against owning housing is that home prices barely keep up with inflation. Buyers also pay closing costs, real estate agent fees, homeowners insurance premiums, property taxes, and sometimes refinancing costs. Then there are the “investments,” which are often better classified as “cool stuff I want,” or maintenance costs – neither of which meaningfully increase the value of the house.

The Economist

20110402_fnp003Quantitative Easing (QE) is an ugly name for a simple idea. Central banks buy long-term government bonds with newly printed money. This raises the bonds’ prices, lowers their yields and provides a helpful boost to growth when central banks’ main tool, the short-term interest rate, is close to zero.
There is plenty of dispute over whether QE works, but not over who should be doing it: the central bank, obviously. Yet is it so clear-cut?
In 1961, to lower long-term rates the administration of John Kennedy persuaded the Federal Reserve to co-operate with the Treasury in selling (shorter-term) bills and using the proceeds to purchase (longer-term) bonds. By altering the supply of different types of debt, the idea was to “twist” the yield curve. This came to be known as Operation Twist after the early 1960s dance craze sparked by Chubby Checker, a singer whose views on QE are not known.

Paul Krugman

Paul KrugmanEarly this year, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, made headlines by telling his fellow Republicans that they needed to stop being the “stupid party.” Unfortunately, Mr. Jindal failed to offer any constructive suggestions about how they might do that. And, in the months that followed, he himself proceeded to say and do a number of things that were, shall we say, not especially smart.
Nonetheless, Republicans did follow his advice. In recent months, the G.O.P. seems to have transitioned from being the stupid party to being the crazy party.

Bobby Jindal

Bobby JindalIf you believe in higher taxes, more debt, more government spending, weakness abroad, and taking guns from law-abiding citizens – you already have a party that is well represented in Washington.
No, the Republican Party does not need to change our principles…but we might need to change just about everything else we do.
Here are seven things that I believe we must change if we are to amass a following worthy of our principles, and if we are to be in position to win elections and lead America:

  1. We must stop looking backward.
  2. We must compete for every single vote.
  3. We must reject identity politics.
  4. We must stop being the stupid party.
  5. We must stop insulting the intelligence of voters.
  6. We must quit “big.”
  7. We must focus on real people outside of Washington, not the lobbyists and government inside Washington.

We can either go down the Government path or the American path. The left is trying to turn the government path into the American path. Shame on us if we let them do that.
We believe freedom incentivizes ordinary people to do extraordinary things and that makes America an exceptional nation.

New York Times Editorial Board

foodstamps-1In what can be seen only as an act of supreme indifference, House Republicans passed a bill on Thursday that would drastically cut federal food stamps and throw 3.8 million Americans out of the program in 2014.
The vote came two weeks after the Agriculture Department reported that 17.6 million households did not have enough to eat at some point in 2012 because they lacked the resources to put food on the table. It came two days after the Census Bureau reported that 15 percent of Americans, or 46.5 million people, live in poverty.

President of the United States

USincomeFundamentally, many of the problems that have plagued the economy in the past decade can be traced to weak income growth for middle-class workers.
A related phenomenon is that the size of the middle class has shrunk. This disturbing trend has taken place over several decades. While those at the top of the income distribution have seen strong income growth, many in the middle and at the bottom have struggled. Many economists have argued that, when confronted with easy credit and nontransparent terms, many families borrowed at an unsustainable rate to make up for the weak income growth they experienced in the 2000s. Strengthening and expanding the middle class, and adequately reforming the financial sector, are therefore at the root of the Obama Administration’s strategy to reestablish an economy that is built to last.

National Bureau of Economic Research

James Gustave Speth

America now has

  • the highest poverty rate, both generally and for children;
  • the greatest inequality of incomes;
  • the lowest social mobility;
  • the lowest score on the UN’s index of “material well-being of children”;
  • the worst score on the UN’s Gender Inequality Index;
  • the highest expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP;
  • the next-to-lowest score for student performance in math and reading;
  • the highest homicide rate;
  • the largest prison population in absolute terms and per capita;
  • the highest carbon dioxide emissions and the highest water consumption per capita;
  • the lowest score on Yale’s Environmental Performance Index (except for Belgium);
  • the largest ecological footprint per capita (except for Denmark);
  • the largest international arms sales.
  • the highest military spending both in total and as a percentage of GDP; and
  • the lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as a percentage of national income (except for Japan and Italy);

Margaret Sullivan

A Times reader, Lawrence DeVine, has a few questions about The Times’s publication of an Op-Ed article in Thursday’s paper by Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia. He asks: “Did he call up the editorial page editor and say, hey, how would you like 800 words on you, us and Syria, I’ll have it in by Wednesday night deadline, no sweat, I’ll take your usual freelance rates?”
It didn’t happen just that way, the editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal told me Thursday morning, but it also wasn’t too much more complicated than that.
The Times editorial department was approached Wednesday by an American public relations firm that represents Mr. Putin, offering the piece. Also on Wednesday, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, in the course of an interview about Syria, mentioned to The Times’s Moscow bureau chief Steven Lee Myers that an article was in the works.
Mr. Rosenthal agreed to review the article and quickly decided to publish it. It was posted on the Times Web site by Wednesday evening.
“I thought it was well-written, well-argued,” he said. “I don’t agree with many of the points in it, but that is irrelevant.”

Vets for Freedom

VFF
Vets for Freedom is a nonpartisan organization established by combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our mission is to educate the American public about the importance of achieving success in these conflicts by applying our first-hand knowledge to issues of American strategy and tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We support policymakers from both sides of the aisle who have stood behind our great generation of American warriors on the battlefield, and who have put long-term national security before short-term partisan political gain.
Vets for Freedom is the largest pro-victory Iraq and Afghanistan veterans organization in America.

Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

It has only been a dozen years, but it seems like a lifetime ago.
All of us will always remember where we were on Sept. 11, 2001. But the day is much more than that.
September 11 changed every one of our lives dramatically. And forever.
Twelve years have passed, and so much has changed, and yet the world we live in today is very much what it was like back then.
As it was 12 years ago, the world is still a confusing place. Twelve years ago, we mocked the French. “Freedom fries,” and all of that.
Today, the French may be our only ally as we contemplate what to do in Syria.

Consumer Reports

KetchupStore brands account for about one of every four products in a supermarket— and they’re branching into niches that lack national-brand competition: balsamic vinegar, for instance, or chocolate-covered raisins. Their popularity is understandable, considering that they typically cost 15 to 30 percent less than name-brand counterparts, according to an industry expert. The name-brand premium is largely the result of advertising and promotional costs that are passed on to consumers.
Costco, Sam’s Club, Target, or Walmart were among the low-price winners in every category. Most of the Sam’s Club products were 50 percent or even 60 percent cheaper than the name brands, but you’ll need to buy warehouse-size packages.
However, store brands aren’t always a bargain. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods usually contended for most-expensive store brand. In fact, five of the 10 tested Whole Foods products—cranberry juice, trail mix, ice cream, shrimp, and nuts— actually cost more than the national brand. That’s no surprise to Consumer Reports survey respondents, who have told us that Whole Foods has some of the highest prices of any major chain.

Russell Archibald Ramsey

On 4 February 1945, General MacArthur had announced the imminent recapture of the capital while his staff planned a victory parade. But the battle for Manila had barely begun. Almost at once the 1st Cavalry Division in the north and the 11th Airborne Division in the south reported stiffening Japanese resistance to further advances into the city.
For the rest of the month the Americans and Filipino guerrillas mopped up resistance throughout the city. With Intramuros secured on 4 March, Manila was officially liberated, but large areas of the city had been leveled. The battle left 1,010 U.S. soldiers dead and 5,565 wounded. An estimated 100,000 Filipinos civilians were killed, both deliberately by the Japanese and from artillery and aerial bombardment by the U.S. military force. 16,665 Japanese dead were counted within Intramuros alone.

The White House

We have intelligence that leads us to assess that Syrian chemical weapons personnel – including personnel assessed to be associated with the SSRC – were preparing chemical munitions prior to the attack. In the three days prior to the attack, we collected streams of human, signals and geospatial intelligence that reveal regime activities that we assess were associated with preparations for a chemical weapons attack.
Multiple streams of intelligence indicate that the regime executed a rocket and artillery attack against the Damascus suburbs in the early hours of August 21. Satellite detections corroborate that attacks from a regime-controlled area struck neighborhoods where the chemical attacks reportedly occurred – including Kafr Batna, Jawbar, ‘Ayn Tarma, Darayya, and Mu’addamiyah. This includes the detection of rocket launches from regime controlled territory early in the morning, approximately 90 minutes before the first report of a chemical attack appeared in social media. The lack of flight activity or missile launches also leads us to conclude that the regime used rockets in the attack.

Samantha Power

Syria is important because it lies at the heart of a region critical to U.S. security, a region that is home to friends and partners and one of our closest allies. It is important because the Syrian regime possesses stores of chemical weapons that they have recently used on a large scale and that we cannot allow to fall into terrorists’ hands.
It is important because the Syrian regime is collaborating with Iran, and works in lockstep with thousands of extremist fighters from Hezbollah. And Syria is important because its people – in seeking freedom and dignity — have suffered unimaginable horror these last two and a half years.
But I also recognize how ambivalent Americans are about the situation there.
On the one hand, we Americans share a desire, after two wars, which have taken 6,700 American lives and cost over $1 trillion dollars, to invest taxpayer dollars in American schools and infrastructure. Yet on the other hand, Americans have heard the President’s commitment that this will not be Iraq, this will not be Afghanistan, this will not be Libya. Any use of force will be limited and tailored narrowly to the chemical weapons threat.
On the one hand, we share an abhorrence for the brutal, murderous tactics of Bashar al-Assad. Yet on the other hand, we are worried about the violent extremists who, while opposed to Assad, have themselves carried out atrocities.
On the one hand, we share the deep conviction that chemical weapons are barbaric, that we should never again see children killed in their beds, lost to a world that they never had a chance to try to change. Yet on the other hand, some are wondering why – given the flagrant violation of an international norm – it is incumbent on the United States to lead, since we cannot and should not be the world’s policeman.

Notwithstanding these complexities – notwithstanding the various concerns that we all share – I am here today to explain why the costs of not taking targeted, limited military action are far greater than the risks of going forward in the manner that President Obama has outlined.

Barton Gellman, Ellen Nakashima

U.S. intelligence services carried out 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, the leading edge of a clandestine campaign that embraces the Internet as a theater of spying, sabotage and war, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Washington Post.
That disclosure, in a classified intelligence budget provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, provides new evidence that the Obama administration’s growing ranks of cyberwarriors infiltrate and disrupt foreign computer networks.
Additionally, under an extensive effort code-named GENIE, U.S. computer specialists break into foreign networks so that they can be put under surreptitious U.S. control. Budget documents say the $652 million project has placed “covert implants,” sophisticated malware transmitted from far away, in computers, routers and firewalls on tens of thousands of machines every year, with plans to expand those numbers into the millions.
The documents provided by Snowden and interviews with former U.S. officials describe a campaign of computer intrusions that is far broader and more aggressive than previously understood. The Obama administration treats all such cyber-operations as clandestine and declines to acknowledge them.
The scope and scale of offensive operations represent an evolution in policy, which in the past sought to preserve an international norm against acts of aggression in cyberspace, in part because U.S. economic and military power depend so heavily on computers.
Of the 231 offensive operations conducted in 2011, the budget said, nearly three-quarters were against top-priority targets, which former officials say includes adversaries such as Iran, Russia, China and North Korea and activities such as nuclear proliferation. The document provided few other details about the operations.

Rebecca Grant

The air operations of the early 20th century went from being a useful supporting force late in World War I to being “a determining factor” in the planning and execution of operations in World War II. It comes as no surprise, then, that when the radar game began to put the efficiency of air operations in jeopardy, scientists and airmen responded with vigor. The radar game is one that aircraft must play to maintain control of the skies and the freedom to attack and defend. The joint force has counted on their ability to win that game since World War II.
Winning the radar game has been and will remain central to future joint operations. As the US military moves away from decades of planning for a major war in Europe, the national military strategy still calls for the ability to intervene in regional conflicts that will vary in scope and intensity. Intervening on favorable terms will continue to require the air component to take direct and immediate action to control the air and the surface below. Air defense threats have increased throughout the 20th century and will continue to do so in the 21st century. Stealth is no magic panacea, but the edge it offers in the radar game is indispensable. Paired with other advantages from ECM to advanced munitions, the effects of low observables multiply, and will keep the edge of America’s airpower sharp.

Arshad Mohammed, Marie Harf

ReutersArshadArshad Mohammed: Was the U.S. use of nuclear weapons resulting in the mass and indiscriminate killing of civilians in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki a violation of the same international law that you are referring to?
Marie Harf: I’m not even going to entertain that question, Arshad.
Arshad Mohammed: Can I —
Marie Harf: Moving on. Yes.
Arshad Mohammed: — ask you, and maybe you got an answer to my question from yesterday, which wasn’t, honestly, a trick question – you thought it was —
MHarfMarie Harf: You convinced me of that later.
Arshad Mohammed: Okay.
Marie Harf: I believe you.
Arshad Mohammed: All right. Good.
Marie Harf: Go on with your non-trick question.
Arshad Mohammed: But in terms of the precedent —
Marie Harf: Yes.
Arshad Mohammed: — is there, that you’re aware, a precedent for a U.S. administration, or any other government that you’re aware of —
Marie Harf: Mm-hmm.
Arshad Mohammed: — to use the use of chemical weapons as a justification to take some kind of retaliatory or punitive action?
Marie Harf: No. Not to that specific question.
Arshad Mohammed: So there is no precedent for this. This —
Marie Harf: Not that I am aware of, no.

rgbviews

John Kerry said “The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity.”
Errr, John do you recall Hiroshima, Nagaski, (atomic bombing of civilians)? ….or Bagdad (cruise missles)? or Vietnam (agent orange)? ……or Gaza (phosphor bombing)?

Robert Reich

ReichWe’re losing public goods available to all, supported by the tax payments of all and especially the better-off. In its place we have private goods available to the very rich, supported by the rest of us.

Matt Damon

matt-damon-disses-obama-he-broke-up-with-meHe broke up with me.
There are a lot of things that I really question — the legality of the drone strikes, these NSA revelations. Jimmy Carter came out and said we don’t live in a democracy. That’s a little intense when an ex-president says that. So you now, he’s got some explaining to do, particularly for a constitutional law professor.
You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.

Dan Merica, Jason Hanna

Sixty years after the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a declassified CIA document acknowledges that the agency was involved in the 1953 coup.
The independent National Security Archive research institute, which published the document Monday, says the declassification is believed to mark the CIA’s first formal acknowledgment of its involvement.
The documents, declassified in 2011 and given to George Washington University research group under the Freedom of Information Act, come from the CIA’s internal history of Iran from the mid-1970s and paint a detailed picture of how the CIA worked to oust Mossadegh.

Lynnley Browning, Julie Creswell

Known for its white-sand beaches and killer rums, Puerto Rico hopes to stake a new claim: tax haven for the wealthy.
Since the beginning of the year, the island has gone on a campaign to promote tax incentives that took effect last year, marketing its beautiful beaches, private schools and bargain costs in an effort to lure well-heeled hedge fund managers and business executives to its shores.
So far, Puerto Rico’s pitch has attracted a handful of under-the-radar millionaires. Several American executives of mostly smaller financial firms say they have already relocated to the island, and Puerto Rican officials say another 40 persons, mostly from the United States, have applied.

Robert Frank

RichistanToday’s rich had formed their own virtual country. They were, in fact, wealthier than most nations. By 2004, the richest 1 percent of Americans were earning about $1.35 trillion a year—greater than the total national incomes of France, Italy or Canada.
And with their huge numbers, they had build a self-contained world unto themselves, complete with their own health-care system (concierge doctors), travel network (Net Jets, destination clubs), separate economy (double-digit income gains and double-digit inflation), and language (“Who’s your household manager?”). They didn’t just hire gardening crews; they hired “personal arborists.” The rich weren’t just getting richer; they were becoming financial foreigners, creating their own country within a country, their own society within a society, and their economy within an economy.
They were creating Richistan.

Daniel C. Martin, James E. Yankay

A total of 58,179 persons were admitted to the United States as refugees during 2012. The leading countries of nationality for refugees were Bhutan, Burma, and Iraq. During 2012, 29,484 individuals were granted asylum, including 17,506 who were granted asylum affirmatively by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and 11,978 who were granted asylum defensively by the Department of Justice. The leading countries of nationality for persons granted either affirmative or defensive asylum were China, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Documents for travel to the United States were issued to 13,049 individuals who were approved for derivative asylum status while located abroad. The leading countries of nationality for the recipients of follow-to-join travel documents were China, Haiti, and Nepal. In addition to those approved overseas, 1,028 individuals were approved for derivative asylum status while residing in the United States.

Refugees and Asylees: 2012

Robert D. Putnam

04DIVIDE-tmagArticleMy hometown — Port Clinton, Ohio, population 6,050 — was in the 1950s a passable embodiment of the American dream, a place that offered decent opportunity for the children of bankers and factory workers alike.
But a half-century later, wealthy kids park BMW convertibles in the Port Clinton High School lot next to decrepit “junkers” in which homeless classmates live. The American dream has morphed into a split-screen American nightmare. And the story of this small town, and the divergent destinies of its children, turns out to be sadly representative of America.

Danielle Kurtzleben

The End of the Easy Money Romance
As the Federal Reserve nears the end of its QE3 stimulus program, investors and homebuyers bid farewell to an economy they may never see again
bernanke
Of course no one thought the honeymoon could last forever. Even those who did not worry that easing would spark hyperinflation knew that the Fed couldn’t balloon its balance sheet forever. All signs point to the Fed letting everyone down easy; cutting easing off all at once could send bond yields spiking and stock markets plummeting.

Jesselyn Radack

Radack2“Hero or traitor?” was the original question. I don’t like these labels, and they are putting people into categories of two extremes, villain or saint. … By law, (Edward Snowden) fits the legal definition of a whistle-blower. He is someone who exposed broad waste, abuse and in his case illegality. … And he also said he was making the disclosures for the public good and because he wanted to have a debate.

J. Kirk Wiebe

J. Kirk WiebeI don’t want anyone to think that (Edward Snowden) had an alternative. No one should (think that). There is no path for intelligence-community whistle-blowers who know wrong is being done. There is none. It’s a toss of the coin, and the odds are you are going to be hammered.

William Binney

William BinneyWe tried to stay for the better part of seven years inside the government trying to get the government to recognize the unconstitutional, illegal activity that they were doing and openly admit that and devise certain ways that would be constitutionally and legally acceptable to achieve the ends they were really after. And that just failed totally because no one in Congress or — we couldn’t get anybody in the courts, and certainly the Department of Justice and inspector general’s office didn’t pay any attention to it. And all of the efforts we made just produced no change whatsoever. All it did was continue to get worse and expand.
(So Snowden did the right thing?)
Yes, I think he did.

Thomas Drake

Thomas Drake(Edward Snowden) is an American who has been exposed to some incredible information regarding the deepest secrets of the United States government. And we are seeing the initial outlines and contours of a very systemic, very broad, a Leviathan surveillance state and much of it is in violation of the fundamental basis for our own country — in fact, the very reason we even had our own American Revolution. And the Fourth Amendment for all intents and purposes was revoked after 9/11. …
He is by all definitions a classic whistle-blower and by all definitions he exposed information in the public interest. We’re now finally having the debate that we’ve never had since 9/11.

Joe Biden

The affirmative task we have now is to actually create a new world order, because the global order is changing again, and the institutions of the world worked so well in the post-World War II era for decades, they need to be strengthened, and some have to be changed.

Dylan Matthews

Soylent is not people.
The substance, designed by a 24-year-old programmer from Atlanta named Rob Rhinehart, may not actually contain human flesh, but it has some pretty weird ingredients nonetheless.
The yellow-ish liquid, which Rhinehart claims has all the nutrients a human needs to survive, is made from broken-down multivitamins, raw elements like potassium and magnesium purchased from lab supply stores, and olive and fish oils, among other ingredients. Rhinehart has been eating it as his main source of nutrition for a month now, and he tells Vice Magazine he’s never felt better.
For those of us who generally don’t like food, consider it an annoyance, and yearn for a way to avoid eating it, Soylent sounds immensely promising. But is it safe?
Surprisingly, the answer from nutrition experts seems to be, “Yeah, probably.”

Rob Rhinehart

Rob RhinehartWhy do people insist on believing that things are getting worse? Perhaps it is an extension of the observation of local entropy, or a latent belief in an ‘end times’ that is present in most religions. In reality, our ancestors were starving, miserable, and ignorant and today we have abundant food and warmth and the sum total of human knowledge at our fingertips. We have setbacks, but they are temporary. It does not take much perspective to realize that larger time scales invariably show improvement and progress.
Even life gets better. I am much more knowledgeable and experienced than my foolish high school counterpart. I look forward to the proficiency and stability that comes with age, and am optimistic about the tranquility and wisdom of seniority.
People today are much more likely to die from the complications of an unnaturally long, enjoyable life than war or famine. No one has ever hospitalized by artificial sweeteners or fluoridated tap water. Curious what actually has been overwhelmingly linked to the onset of cancer, heart disease, and a host of other ailments? Stress. Our world is more peaceful, healthy, and productive than ever, yet people are terrified of it. To really lower one’s risk of cancer one of the best things to do is stop worrying and enjoy your life and the people in it. The only modern idea worth being afraid of is the fear-mongering itself.
Given that we are continually receiving additional energy from the sun it makes sense that our planet would run up, not down. Despite what a tired mind would believe, things are going to get better, not worse. The future is going to be unrecognizably awesome.

Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America

Joint_Chiefs_of_StaffThe Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO) recognizes that military force is only one element of national power. In many cases strategic success will turn on our ability to operate in concert with the rest of the U.S. government, allied governments and their armed forces, and nongovernmental partners.
Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership identifies ten primary missions through which the Joint Force will protect U.S. national interests:

  • Counter terrorism and irregular warfare
  • Deter and defeat aggression
  • Project power despite anti-access/area denial challenges
  • Counter weapons of mass destruction
  • Operate effectively in cyberspace and space
  • Maintain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent
  • Defend the homeland and provide support to civil authorities
  • Provide a stabilizing presence
  • Conduct stability and counterinsurgency operations
  • Conduct humanitarian, disaster relief, and other operations

The Joint Force will accomplish these missions in a security environment characterized by several persistent trends: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the rise of modern competitor states, violent extremism, regional instability, transnational criminal activity, and competition for resources. Armed conflicts will be inevitable in such an environment—as will be opportunities for cooperation and peaceful competition.

Internal Revenue Service

Under common-law rules, anyone who performs services for you is your employee if you can control what will be done and how it will be done. This is so even when you give the employee freedom of action. What matters is that you have the right to control the details of how the services are performed.

People such as doctors, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, accountants, contractors, subcontractors, public stenographers, or auctioneers who are in an independent trade, business, or profession in which they offer their services to the general public are generally independent contractors. However, whether these people are independent contractors or employees depends on the facts in each case. The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. The earnings of a person who is working as an independent contractor are subject to Self-Employment Tax. … If you are an independent contractor, you are self-employed.

ContractorEmployee

Ron Paul

ron_paulPresident Obama announced late last week that the US intelligence community had just determined that the Syrian government had used poison gas on a small scale, killing some 100 people in a civil conflict that has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. Because of this use of gas, the president claimed, Syria had crossed his “red line” and the US must begin to arm the rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian government.
Setting aside the question of why 100 killed by gas is somehow more important than 99,900 killed by other means, the fact is his above explanation is full of holes. The Washington Post reported this week that the decision to overtly arm the Syrian rebels was made “weeks ago” – in other words, it was made at a time when the intelligence community did not believe “with high confidence” that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons.
Further, this plan to transfer weapons to the Syrian rebels had become policy much earlier than that, as the Washington Post reported that the CIA had expanded over the past year its secret bases in Jordan to prepare for the transfer of weapons to the rebels in Syria.
The process was identical to the massive deception campaign that led us into the Iraq war.

The Washington Post

Expansion is underway at the United States’ first counter- terrorism base, fenced within a one-runway airport shared by military and civilian aircraft in the heart of Djibouti. Scheduled to be complete in the next two years at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion, the Pentagon hopes the upgrades will strengthen the U.S. fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.
Lemonnier

Ira Brodsky

Many of us remember a time when the idea of the U.S. government monitoring everyone’s communications and transactions was unthinkable. That was something that happened in countries such as the Soviet Union and East Germany. Admittedly, the world has changed since then. The totalitarian regimes of yesterday relied on neighbors, classmates, and co-workers to spy on their fellow citizens. We’ve automated the process using computers, the Internet, and gigantic water-cooled data centers.
Many of our leaders insist that wholesale data gathering helps keep us safe. Actually, wholesale data gathering makes us less safe. It’s not the most effective way to detect and prevent terrorist attacks, and it needlessly exposes tens of millions of Americans to new threats.
New technology provides government with powerful investigative tools — tools that should help shift the emphasis in data gathering from quantity to quality. Spying on everyone won’t make us secure, but it will make us less free.

Sean M. Hoskins, Katie Jones, N. Eric Weiss

When making a decision about housing, a household must choose between renting and owning. Multiple factors, such as a household’s financial status and expectations about the future, will influence the decision. Few that decide to purchase a home have the necessary savings or available financial resources to make the purchase on their own. Most need to take out a loan. A loan that uses real estate as collateral is typically referred to as a mortgage.
A potential borrower applies for a loan from a lender in what is called the primary market. The lender underwrites, or evaluates, the borrower and decides whether and under what terms to extend a loan.
The secondary market is the market for buying and selling mortgages. If a mortgage originator sells the mortgage in the secondary market, the purchaser of the mortgage could choose to hold the mortgage itself or to securitize it. When a mortgage is securitized, it is pooled into a security with other mortgages, and the payment streams associated with the mortgages are sold to investors. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitize mortgages that conform to their standards, known as “conforming mortgages.” Mortgages that do not conform to all of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s standards are referred to as “nonconforming mortgages.” Ginnie Mae guarantees mortgage-backed securities (MBS) made up exclusively of mortgages insured or guaranteed by the federal government. Other financial institutions also issue MBS, known as private-label securities (PLS).
The characteristics of the borrower and of the mortgage determine the classification of the loan. What happens to a mortgage in the secondary market is partially determined by whether the mortgage is government-insured, conforming, or nonconforming. Depending on the type of MBS or mortgage purchased, investors will face different types of risks.

Wolf Blitzer, Rebecca Vitsmun

Wolf Blitzer: We’re happy you’re here. You guys did a great job. You’ve gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?
Rebecca Vitsmun: I … I’m actually an atheist.
Wolf Blitzer: You are. All right. But you made the right call.
Rebecca Vitsmun: We are here, and I don’t blame anyone for thanking the Lord.

Connecticut Hedge Fund Association

CIO’s Discuss the Role of Hedge Funds in a Pension Portfolio
            (Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, CT)

    5:30 – 6:30 – Registration, Cocktails and Networking
    6:30 – 7:30 – Main program
    7:30 – 8:30 – Cocktails, Networking

Patrick McGeehan

nycAnyone who has tried to park a car on a Manhattan street may already have deemed New York the world’s most competitive city. A new study concluded that it is and will stay that way for at least another 12 years.
The study, conducted for Citigroup by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked 120 cities around the globe on their competitiveness, based on their ability to attract investments, workers and tourists, among other attributes.