Ending the Postal Monopoly: Lessons from Europe; Germany Has Sold 99.9% of Its Post Office Buildings

New York Times  -- "With the United States Postal Service facing insolvency, and one of the postal workers’ unions hiring consultants on business restructuring, it is looking toward Europe for new operating models, even though American legislation currently precludes adapting some of those innovations.

After selling off all but 24 of 29,000 post office buildings in the past 15 years, the German postal service is now housed mostly within other business “partners,” including banks, convenience stores and even private homes. In rural areas, a shopkeeper or even a centrally located homeowner is given a sign and deputized as a part-time postmaster.

At the same time, many European postal services, including the one here, have developed a host of electronic services that are increasingly making traditional post offices and mailboxes obsolete. Bills and catalogs can go first to digital mailboxes run by the post office on customers’ computers, and the customers can tell the post office what they want it to print and deliver. And while Americans are asked to send in suggestions for what celebrity should grace the next stamp, Germans can buy virtual postage from their cellphones. 

European postal services vary widely in their degree of adaptation to the digital age. “But the U.S.P.S. is probably the best example of a pure monopoly that has seen the least change,” said John Payne, the chief executive of Zumbox, a Los Angeles-based start-up that offers virtual mailboxes for personal computers in the United States on a private basis and that has sold the program to foreign postal services."

Price-Gouging Vendors of Prescription Drugs vs. Unionized Taxpayer-Gouging of Public Education

The graphic above is from the White House blog showing that 650% is the "average markup by price-gouging vendors when the drug is in short supply."  In response, "President Obama signed an Executive Order to prevent and reduce prescription drug shortages that lead to price gouging." 

The graphic below is from Investor's Business Daily showing a 375% increase in public school spending over four decades, with no change in reading, math and science test scores.  Reason? A bloated, bureaucratic, unionized public school monopoly that is sheltered from competition.  

Question: If President Obama is concerned about "price gouging" for prescription drugs, will he sign an Executive Order that will expose the public school monopoly to greater competition, and end the "taxpayer-gouging" that has increased the cost of public education by 375% with no change in educational outcomes?

Pendulum Swings on American Oil Independence

From Ed Crooks, writing in the Financial Times:

"Along with oil booms that are under way or expected across North America, from Alberta to Texas, is a development that holds profound implications for the economy of the US and its status as superpower. In prospect is energy independence – a decades-old dream of American politicians of all stripes. 

“Over the past couple of years, there has been a great U-turn in US oil supply,” says Daniel Yergin of IHS Cera, the research group. “Until recently, the question was whether oil imports would flatten out. Now we are seeing a major rebalancing of supplies.”

Many analysts expect that in the coming decade the US will leapfrog Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest producer of liquid hydrocarbons, counting both crude oil and lighter natural gas liquids such as propane and ethane. That optimism reflects the increasing flow of “tight oil” as well as gas from shale – rock formations holding reserves unlocked through new extraction technologies.

Hydraulic fracturing (pumping a mix of water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressure to crack the rock) and long-reach horizontal drilling (sending wells up to a mile sideways and more than a mile below the surface) have transformed US gas production, opening up reserves some estimate will last 100 years. Now these techniques, used in places such as North Dakota, are having a similar impact on oil output. Already, America has cut the share of its oil consumption met by imports from more than 60 per cent in 2005 to 47 per cent last year (see chart above)."

Read more here. 

Question of the Day

What is your favorite Halloween costume? It doesn't have to be one you've worn but can be one you've seen or the like.

Mine is this:



That would be me, in 1985 (so five years old), as a pear. My request, as I thought pears were MADE OF AWESOME. My mom (who was also MADE OF AWESOME) made the costume with two pieces of poster board that she colored in--front and back!--with pear-green marker and rigged string inside for it to hang on my shoulders and to tie at the sides. I was THRILLED with it. While I was out trick-or-treating a lady asked me if I was asparagus. AS IF! I was so indignant about that at the time, LOL!

My next favorite costume just may be this one where the little girl couldn't decide between "a princess" or "Darth Vader", so her dad combined the two: Princess Vader!

Quote of the Day

"I had always been more interested in the private Marilyn, and the unguarded Marilyn. Even as a young girl, my primary concern wasn't with this larger-than-life personality smiling back from the wall, but with what was going on underneath."—Michelle Williams, who is playing Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming film My Week With Marilyn, which looks very good.

Or maybe I just think it looks very good, because I like Michelle Williams so much.

There are precious few actors whose involvement in a film will make me see it just because they're in it, but Michelle Williams is one of them.

Brazil to Surpass U.K. in 2011 to Be No. 6 Economy

Brazil's amazing economic rise: It will surpass the U.K. this year to become the world's sixth largest economy.

As recently as seven years ago in 2004, the U.K. economy ($2.2 trillion in GDP) was more than three times larger than Brazil's economy ($665 billion, see chart).  And even as recently as four years ago in 2007, the U.K. as the world's sixth largest economy, produced more than twice as much economic output as Brazil: $2.8 trillion of GDP for the U.K. vs. less than $1.4 trillion for Brazil, based on IMF data available here (see chart above).   

But then the global economic slowdown took a huge toll on the U.K.'s economy and its GDP fell 20% between 2007 and 2010, while Brazil's GDP soared by 52% during that period.  

Now the IMF is forecasting that Brazil's economy will surpass the size of the U.K. economy this year for the first time ever, and will overtake the U.K. to become the sixth largest economy in the world, behind the U.S., China, Japan, Germany and France.  And based on IMF projections, Brazil will surpass France in 2015 to become the world's fifth largest economy.     

Related: Here's a news report. 

Daily Dose of Cute

The Lady Matilda

U.S. Faces Severe Shortages of Farm Workers

1. NPR -- "Alabama farmers are facing a labor crisis because of the state's new immigration law as both legal and undocumented migrant workers have fled the state since the strict new rules went into effect last month.

In Baldwin County on the Gulf Coast, strawberry planting season is just a few weeks away. Farmers are wondering if they'll have the crews to get the plants in the ground.

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan says there's no doubt the immigration law has left farmers in a lurch. He says they're concerned about where the labor is going to come from since legal immigrants are leaving along with the illegal ones."

2. SEATTLE TIMES - "One after another, at a recent emergency meeting called by the Governor's Office, Washington fruit growers talked about how hard it's been to find workers as the harvest hits its sweet spot. Apples alone are a $1.5 billion-a-year business in the state.

And two weeks ago Gov. Chris Gregoire amped up what now has become an almost annual harvest-time refrain by growers when she declared the state's farm-labor shortage a crisis.

Growers mostly blame rising tensions around illegal immigration that have spooked migrant farmworkers, the majority of whom are here illegally, while worker advocates say there'd be no shortage if growers were willing to pay workers more."

3. ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION -- "State officials have set their sights on another potential pool of workers to help bridge Georgia’s severe farm labor gap: prisoners."

Sure

Herman Cain, during a National Press Club event earlier today, at which he was asked about sexual assault allegations and reported cash settlements therefore, breaks into the forgiveness hymn "He Looked Beyond My Faults."

And so since it's an opportunity for me to share a little bit of my faith, I will: Amazing Grace / Will always be / My song of praise / For it was grace / That brought me liberty / I'll never know / Why Jesus came / To love me so / He looked beyond / All my faults / And saw my needs. Thank you. [Cheers and applause.]

I haven't heard anything that beautiful since John Ashcroft let loose with "Let the Mighty Eagle Soar." Someone get these two magnificent songsters on a Conservative Croonerz 2012 National Tour—STAT!

During the same press event, Cain was also asked to comment on race relations in the US, and replied, "This many white people can't pretend that they like me." I can't decide if that's hilariously weird, or a genuinely insightful commentary on the state of the conservative electorate.

Well, maybe it doesn't have to be one or the other.

[Via Andy.]

Broke Shit Mountain

So, this weekend, our ancient dishwasher and new stove broke.

Not new enough, though: Our warranty ran out October 17. *sad trombone* In good news, planned obsolescence is getting super awesome! Jeeves, call my broker and tell him to invest EVERYTHING in Obsoleticorp! BUY! BUY! BUY!

Anyway!

Yesterday, Iain and I went out to comparison shop new dishwashers. It was so much fun! (No, it wasn't.) And not just because of the salesman who was suffering from the misapprehension that my eyeballs are located in my boobs. (Really, sir, it is 2011.) And not just because of the self-directed disablism that was manifesting as guilt that a dishwasher is a necessity in our home because of my garbage back, which makes the stand-and-lean of sink-washing unbearably painful. (A ridiculous bit of judgment I would never direct at someone else, yet continue to direct at myself.)

Mostly it was fun (not fun) because every dishwasher looks the same to me. What does a $1,200 dishwasher do that a $300 dishwater can't? Does it put away the dishes when it's done? No? Well, the $300 model is looking pretty good then.

When we got home, our brains fried from investigating the virtually indistinguishable innards of nine thousand dishwashers, I figured Consumer Reports was our best hope. I paid the $26 for an annual subscription, which seemed like a decent investment to avoid potentially making a couple-hundred dollar mistake.

I clicked through to their dishwasher analysis. Its first line: "Almost all of the dishwashers we tested clean well and are easy to load." LOL. Of course they were.

We still haven't picked out a dishwasher.

LSU-Alabama Tickets on Stubhub for $10,000

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - "Simple question: Would you pay $10,423.14 to watch No. 1 LSU at No. 2 Alabama? That is the listed price per ticket on Stubhub.com for a seat in the lower level north end zone in row 25. You can pick seat 17 or 18, or buy both for a total of $20,486.28. Tack on an additional $16.49 for overnight delivery of the ticket(s). There are dozens of tickets being sold for more than $1,000 per ticket (see sample ticket prices above)."

An Observation

[Trigger warning for rape culture.]

I'm glad that the sexual harassment allegations against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain are getting a lot of attention, especially because Republicans tend to get be held to a different (lower) standard than Democrats with a different (lesser) level of scrutiny, and sexual harassment is too important to be casually elided with the "boys will be boys" shrug of indifference it's so frequently given in politics.

But that gladness is cut through with a bolt of suspicion that the focus on Cain is not indicative of an awakened seriousness about sexual harassment, as much as it is evidence that Herman Cain is seen as a weirdo buffoon and sexual abuse of all sorts still the exclusive purview of weirdo buffoons.

That is, these allegations have been given an unusual level of credibility because Herman Cain seems like the sort of guy who might harass women, according to our awful cultural narratives about there being discernible sorts of guys who might harass women—not aggressive, entitled, privileged, powerful men (of which Herman Cain is also one), but weirdo buffoons.

Herman Cain is, of course, also a Black weirdo buffoon, and I imagine that has rather something unfortunate to do with the uncommonly fervent attention given to sexual harassment allegations against an unserious candidate, too.

[Note: This is not an argument that allegations against Cain should receive less scrutiny. If there is an argument being made, it is that allegations against other politicos should receive more.]

What do black women really think about love and marriage?

by Tamara Winfrey Harris, of What Tami Said


[Graphic created using image from nedari06]
The way our society talks about black women and marriage—from the daily paper to the pulpit to movies and self-help books—is flawed, sexist and damaging. When black women tell their own stories, a more thoughtful truth emerges.

I am working on a project juxtaposing the authentic experiences of African American women with the tragic common narrative about black women and marriage—a narrative that narrows lives, turns black female successes into failures and unfairly burdens us alone with responsibility for the success of black male/female relationships, black families and the black community. My goal is that my efforts will result in a published book.

I am currently working to identify black women to have frank discussions about how they navigate relationships, sexuality, singleness, marriage and divorce. If you, or someone you know, is willing to be a part of this effort, please contact me at Tamara@BackTalkBook.com.

Some things to know:

I am interested in interviewing black women of all ages, backgrounds, geographic locations and experiences. One goal of my effort is to illuminate the lives of women often erased in discussions of the black marriage rate, including married women, divorced women, women who don't wish to marry, lesbian women, women in interracial relationships and others.

Subjects should be willing to participate in multiple one-on-one interviews both in person and through technology. Initial interviews will be conducted by phone in November. While I will not require an inordinate amount of time from interviewees, I will need to interact with them enough to understand their stories, experiences and perspectives.

Elements of participants' stories, including quotes, will be included in a published work, written by me. Women have the option of being referred to by their full, real names, first names only or a pseudonym.

Beyond the ABC specials, "think like a man" romantic advice tomes and panic-inducing women's magazine articles, exist the real stories of black women—too often told from another perspective and voice. Everyone is talking about black women and marriage. I want to talk back.

Please help by responding to and sharing this call for participants through your networks. Please direct questions about this project to Tamara@BackTalkBook.com.

[Cross-posted.]

Yikes

You know, I really hate mosquitoes, but this can't be good.

These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children.

Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.

The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.

But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.

Ha ha well let's go ahead and do it anyway wheeeeeeeeeee!

Monday Blogaround

This blogaround is brought to you by pumpkins, both carved and baked into gluten-free treats.

Some recommended reading:

Archaeology News Network reports a finding from the 2nd Bolzano Mummy Congress: Otzi’s final hours: A rest, a meal, then death. (N.B.: Image of mummified body at the link)

Angry Asian Man: asian americans teens bullied more than any other group

PalMD: Return of an old foe

New York Magazine: The Rebirth of the Feminist Manifesto. Shakesville is mentioned in the list of "The Lady Blogosphere" at the article's end. Amusingly, the other blogs listed have "slogans", while Shakesville has a "catchphrase"--just like a sitcom! I'm such a silly Lady; I thought those thingies beneath the titles on blogs were called taglines.

Brooke: Worms do it, mice do it: eggs destroy sperm mitochondria

WhySharksMatter: Do environmental regulations harm the economy?

Farhan Nuruzzaman: Transistors from natural fibers could lead to wearable electronics

Kelly: Woman Responds To Marriage Proposal Like A True Lady

Zombie Research Society: Best Dog Costume Ever!

Andy Sowards: 50+ Creative, Delicious, & Spooky Real Edible Halloween Dessert & Snack Food Art Design – Ideas & Inspirations


Share your links in comments.

Random Bit O' Encouraging News

Last August I wrote about the US border patrol's habit of harassing foreign-looking people on trains, planes, and buses in the northern United States.

According to recent anonymous reports, the border patrol is dramatically scaling back these activities.

Of course, the news coverage I've seen of the story focuses on what a horrible idea it is to stop the searches. Plus, this could result in the loss of a bunch of government jobs. Prevailing wisdom appears to maintain is a good thing, unless of course the job cuts could hurt the police state.

September Restaurant Performance Index Improves

"Buoyed by stronger same-store sales and customer traffic levels, the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) topped the 100 mark in September for the first time in three months. 

The Restaurant Performance Index consists of two components - the Current Situation Index (measuring current trends) and the Expectations Index (measuring restaurant operators’ six-month outlook) - and tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry.

The Current Situation Index stood at 100.1 in September – up 0.8 percent from August and the first gain in three months (see chart above).  In addition, the Current Situation Index rose above 100 for the first time since June.

Restaurant operators reported stronger same-store sales and customer traffic in September.  Fifty percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between September 2010 and September 2011, up from 45 percent who reported a sales gain in August. In addition, 43 percent of restaurant operators reported higher customer traffic levels between September 2010 and September 2011, while 33 percent of operators reported a traffic decline.

The Expectations Index stood at 100.2 in September – up 0.7 percent from August and the strongest gain in nine months (see chart).  In addition, September represented the first time in three months that the Expectations Index stood above 100."

When Mendacious Corporate Media Shills Say With Affected Wide-Eyed Wonder That They Just Can't Figure Out What Occupy Wall Street Is All About...

...it is quite reasonably pointed out to them by patient people who indulge their manufactured ignorance that many USians are quite frustrated with the banks, and deregulation, and the erosion of workers' rights, and corporate greed. Unemployment. Student loans. Foreclosures. Bankruptcies.

Big concepts. All correct. But it's also just shit like this, wearing on people day in and day out and grinding them down until they're nothing but raw nerves, vibrating with anticipated pain from the constant attacks on their security and dignity:

Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

It also gave workers a mandate - quit smoking, curb obesity, or you'll be paying higher healthcare costs in 2013. It doesn't yet know by how much, but one thing's for certain - the unhealthy will pay more.

The credit union, which has more than 500 employees, is not alone.

In recent years, a growing number of companies have been encouraging workers to voluntarily improve their health to control escalating insurance costs. And while workers mostly like to see an employer offer smoking cessation classes and weight loss programs, too few are signing up or showing signs of improvement.

So now more employers are trying a different strategy - they're replacing the carrot with a stick and raising costs for workers who can't seem to lower their cholesterol or tackle obesity. They're also coming down hard on smokers. For example, discount store giant Wal-Mart says that starting in 2012 it will charge tobacco users higher premiums but also offer free smoking cessation programs.

I'm not going to get into, yet again, the reality that weight is not a great indicator of health, nor the inherent disablism in a policy requiring people to lose weight irrespective of any underlying illnesses or disabilities contributing to weight gain, nor the outsized fuckery of penalizing people for eating crap like ubiquitous, fat-making HFCS or being addicted to cigarettes which our government allows tobacco companies to make increasingly more addictive, because, while those things are ALL TRUE, the average worker being subjected to this garbage isn't thinking, "This is bullshit! I am being tasked with finding an individual solution to systemic problems!" but is thinking, "Oh my god, how am I going to pay for my healthcare?" and/or "I'm a moral failure because I am fat!" and/or "CHEESUS FUCKING CHRIST THERE IS TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON ME FROM UNPAID DEBT AND UNPAID OVERTIME AT MY UNDERPAID JOB AND MY MOTHER IS COMING TO LIVE WITH ME BECAUSE SHE LOST HER HOUSE AND MY KID NEEDS NEW CLOTHES AND MY CAR'S ABOUT TO DIE AND I HAVEN'T HAD A VACATION IN TEN YEARS AND I DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ THE PAPER AND I AM GOING TO CRACK."

Hey, USians! We heard you didn't have enough stress already, so howsabout adding "quit smoking" and "lose weight" to the pile? Sound good? Great! Love, Corporate America.

That's what people are feeling. And all the arguments about "healthfulness" and "long-term costs to the collective" and whatever are not going to change the fact that hard-working and highly-stressed people are hearing, "You know that cigarette or candy bar you enjoy at the end of another shitty, soul-destroying day in the employ of a corporation who is wringing every last shred of carefreedom out of your life to maximize its profits so its CEO can have a gold-plated bidet installed in his executive bathroom? Well, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ANYMORE. Not if you want healthcare benefits."

It doesn't matter if that thinking is right, or wrong, or ethically neutral. What matters is that's what a hell of a lot of 99 percenters are thinking. And when they think it, they aren't blaming institutional prejudice, and they're not blaming Washington, and they're sure as shit not blaming themselves for wanting the ability to exercise a little fucking control over their bodies and lives.

They're blaming corporations—their employers, and their benefits providers.

And rightfully so.

* * *

About the same article, Digby makes a related point: "Libertarians make the argument that the government is a threat to liberty because it employs 'men with guns' who can rob you of your life and freedom. Without getting into that tired debate, I would just like to make one observation: for most Americans, the greatest threat to their freedom comes from 'men with pink slips' not men with guns, particularly now. (These men with pink slips, by the way, are exalted by 'free market' worshipers of all philosophical bents.)"

Wank Swap: S1 E2

Brought to you by Konami, makers of Basque Basque Revolution.


With US elections just over a year away, President
Barack Obama visits Greece to urge moderation.
[Obama saying "Heyyyyy, sit on it!"]

Meanwhile:

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has a brilliant plan to save America, but finds himself trapped at a fundraising gala in New York.
[George Papandreou exclaims "I've pulled better finger food out of my ass."]

Previously: Season Preview, S1 E1

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Aaron Carter: "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)"

The Walking Thread

"Wanna make out a little now?"       "Okay."
Does anyone want a The Walking Dead open thread? If so, we should have one! If there's one thing I always say Shakesville needs more of, it's zombiepocalypsy!

So just let me know if you want an open thread. Just kidding! This is one.

Let us talk about Griiiiiiiiiiiiimes! Remember when he was in Love Actually and he wore a cute zippy sweater and loved Keira Knighley? I doooooooo!

(Spoilers lurch undeadly herein.)

The "Imaginary Hobgoblin" of Income Inequality

The charts above were prepared using Census Bureau data (Table E-2) on the Gini coefficients (a statistical measure of dispersion that quantifies income inequality on a range from 0% for complete equality to 100% for complete inequality where one person receives all of the income) for full-time, year-round workers.  Like other measures of income inequality for families and households over time presented recently here, income inequality for full-time , year-round workers follows the same pattern: 

The Gini coefficient for full-time workers increased gradually through the 1960s, 1970, 1980s, and then stabilized in the mid-1990s (after rising from 34% in 1967 to 39.5% in 1994, see top chart) and hasn't changed at all in the sixteen-year period from 1994 (39.5%) to 2010 (39.7%).  

Bottom Line: Whether we look at Census Bureau data on Gini coefficients for U.S. households, families, or year-round workers, or look at the share of income going to the top fifth of Americans, there is absolutely no statistical support for the commonly held view that income inequality has been rising recently.  So why are we even having this national debate about solutions to the "non-problem" of rising income inequality.  Is this another "imaginary hobgoblin" (see below)?

H.L. Mencken: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."    

Occupy Everywhere & Economic News Round-Up

At Occupy Lancaster, one of the many smaller protests around the country, demonstrators held fast despite the unseasonably early snowfall by making snowpeople to hold their signs while they tried to stay warm in tents overnight. [Thanks to Shaker Eccaba.]

Here's some of what I've been reading this morning...

Detroit Free Press—Veteran hit in head expected to recover:

An Iraq war veteran badly injured when police stormed an Occupy Oakland encampment last week is expected to make a full recovery, his roommate said Sunday.

Scott Olsen, 24, was hit in the head by a tear-gas canister fired by police trying to control a crowd on Tuesday night, according to witnesses.

Olsen was listed in critical condition at first with damage to the speech center of his brain, according to Olsen's roommate, Keith Shannon.

Although Olsen remained hospitalized Sunday and was not able to speak, doctors expect a full recovery, Shannon said.

Olsen's condition Sunday was listed as fair.

LA Times—Occupy Wall Street braces for winter:

Organizers have predicted the freezing temperatures and snow would reduce the Lower Manhattan encampment to a small assemblage through winter.

"But that's OK with us," said Richmond, 26, a carpenter from upstate New York. "The hardy will stay. The junkies will go. And in the spring all somebody has to do is declare Occupy Central Park or Occupy Union Square and everyone will return. This was just practice."

...It's also clear [authorities] don't want the demonstrators to get too comfortable.

City fire and police officials on Friday confiscated gas tanks and half a dozen generators being used for electricity in the makeshift kitchen and for media equipment. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had declared them a safety hazard. Organizers were baffled; they said fire marshals had inspected the park the day before and hadn't mentioned any violations.

ABC News—Occupy Veterans Movement Growing across US:

Since Occupy Wall Street protests have broken out in cities across the U.S. and abroad, support has come from what might seem like an unlikely corner: war veterans.

"For veterans especially, health care is paramount, yet is always on the table to be cut," [veteran and organizer Paige Jenkins] said in an interview with ABC News. "Vets in this movement don't want to fight anymore. We want to make peace and live peaceably. We shouldn't have to fight for our benefits, and if vets are fighting for their benefits then it can't be any better for nonvets. ... What do you think is going to happen in 2012 after everyone gets home from Iraq? No jobs, no benefits. This will not be a good scene."

...Another group that called itself Occupy Marine Corps recently posted on its Facebook page advise about how to protest in winter weather. According to a Tweet by @Kruggurl, Occupy Marine Corps has offered protesters supplies for the winter.

"We are a collection of prior service Marines intent on protecting American citizens and their ability to exercise their First Amendment rights," a spokesperson for the group said.

In other Occupy Movement news, smaller protests, like the one in Lancaster County, are starting to get more media—and police—attention...

Chicago Tribune—Occupy Wall Street spinoff pickets Niles (MI) City Hall.

AP—Police break up Occupy Wall St. camp in Richmond.

Reuters—Occupy Wall Street arrests in Texas and Oregon.

The Hill—Fears about inequality in income grow: "Two-thirds of likely voters say the American middle class is shrinking, and 55 percent believe income inequality has become a big problem for the country, according to this week's The Hill Poll. ... Majorities across practically all income levels, and all political, philosophical and racial lines agreed that the middle class is being reduced, while the bulk of respondents in each category thought income inequality was at least a moderate concern."

The New York Times—As Meeting Approaches, Fed Panel Is Divided on Direction: "When the Federal Reserve's policy-making committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, 5 of the 10 voting members will arrive in open disagreement with the chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, about the direction of monetary policy. Three conservative members say the Fed has already done too much. Two liberals say the Fed needs to do much more. But it is still the chairman who determines whether the central bank should expand its campaign to stimulate growth for the third time since August, and lately Mr. Bernanke has been focused on an old theme: communicating the benefits of existing policies in order to increase their impact."

Paul Krugman in The New York Times—Bombs, Bridges and Jobs: "What's bringing out the military big spenders is the approaching deadline for the so-called supercommittee to agree on a plan for deficit reduction. If no agreement is reached, this failure is supposed to trigger cuts in the defense budget. Faced with this prospect, Republicans—who normally insist that the government can't create jobs, and who have argued that lower, not higher, federal spending is the key to recovery—have rushed to oppose any cuts in military spending. Why? Because, they say, such cuts would destroy jobs."

HuffPo—GOP Candidates' Plans on Economy, Housing, Challenged by Studies: "'Republicans favor tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, but these had no stimulative effect during the George W. Bush administration, and there is no reason to believe that more of them will have any today,' writes Bruce Bartlett. He's an economist who worked for Republican congressmen and in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. As for the idea that cutting regulations will lead to significant job growth, Bartlett said in an interview, 'It's just nonsense. It's just made up.' Government and industry studies support his view."

Meanwhile, in Europe...

AFP—OECD says EU economy set to 'shrink': "Top economies are slowing with the eurozone set to shrink briefly, and rapid action by European leaders to enact promised crisis measures is key to global recovery, the OECD said on Monday. The eurozone should also cut interest rates, and countries with stronger public finances undertake short-term measures to boost growth, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said."

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share links to things you've read or written in comments.

Open Thread

Happy Halloween!

Intrade Update: Cain Drops From 8% to 3.4%

Most recent odds from Intrade.com.  Note: Cain contracts are experiencing high volume trading and high volatility, probably because of this recent news report.

U.S. Income Inequality Has Been Flat Since 1994

We keep hearing from the media and OWS protestors that rising income inequality (or exploding income inequality according to Jonathan Chait) and stagnating household incomes have gotten worse in recent years, caused allegedly by the "rich getting richer at the expense of the poor and lower-income income groups" because disproportionate and rising shares of national income have been going to the top 1% or top 20%, etc.  In other words, we're hearing the standard, typical "class warfare" narratives. 

Another part of that narrative is that income inequality wasn't nearly as much of a problem in the decades of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s when there was an upwardly mobile middle-class, when real median household income was rising year after year, and when income was more equitably and fairly distributed among income groups, i.e. during the "Golden Age" of the middle class.  But once we experienced the Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s and the first "decade of greed," the American Dream of middle class equality started to fade.  Once the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 took effect, the middle class was doomed, and "the rich" dominated the economy, upward mobility was over, the share of income going to the rich skyrocketed and income inequality "exploded." 

But there's a problem, because three different measures of income dispersion (the share of total U.S. income going to the top 20% of American households, and Gini coefficients for both U.S. households and families) from the Census Bureau (Tables E-1 and F-4) displayed in the two charts above show trends that are completely contrary to the common narrative. 

As can be seen in the top chart, all three measures of income dispersion have gradually increased over time, but most of the increases occurred in the earlier period between 1967 and 1994.  Starting in the mid-1990s, the three measures of income inequality stalled out and barely changed in the sixteen years from 1994 to 2010 (see bottom chart of just the 1994-2010 period).

Read more at The Enterprise Blog.  

Thanks to the Political Calculation blog posts here and here for the inspiration. 

The Next Big Thing: It's Not Alternative Energy, It's Traditional Energy Through the Miracle of Fracking

From the Bloomberg editorial "Energy Revolution Keeps Carbon on Top," by Nathan Myhrvold, former chief strategist and technology officer at Microsoft and the founder/CEO of Intellectual Ventures:

"A remarkable thing happened in Silicon Valley during the past decade. Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs set their sights on clean energy as the Next Big Thing. They audaciously hoped to reinvent energy by harnessing the incredible innovation that had transformed information technology and biotechnology. 

Some of the best venture capitalists in the business detached from their computing roots and focused on energy startups. The result was a staggering surge of capital into clean-energy technologies. Worldwide, from 2006 to 2010, about $535 billion in venture capital, private equity and initial public offerings as well as mergers and acquisitions flowed into 4,236 clean-tech businesses, according to a recent analysis by GlobalData.

Venture-capital investing is inherently high-risk, so it shouldn’t surprise or bother anyone that many of these startups failed -- some rather spectacularly. Solyndra, the solar-cell company, for example, went bankrupt even after receiving a $535 million in loan guarantees from the U.S. Energy Department. But similar failures happened during the dot-com bubble. Remember pets.com and its infamous sock-puppet TV ads?

What is worrying is that almost a decade of energy investing hasn’t produced any home runs -- no green-energy equivalents of eBay, Amazon, Google or Facebook. The modest, incremental advances we have seen don’t perceptibly move the needle on the energy problem.

In the meantime, however, a real revolution has happened in traditional energy -- one that poses a serious challenge to companies and investors betting on alternative energy. This breakthrough is arguably one of the greatest advances in energy production since the 1960s. And it came not from a Silicon Valley company, or from MIT or Stanford, but from George Mitchell, the son of a Greek goatherd who immigrated to the U.S.

After graduating from Texas A&M, Mitchell tinkered with a variety of long-known techniques that had never been used in combination. One of these was horizontal drilling, which originated in the 19th century, was adapted for oil production by the Soviets in the 1930s and was perfected by oil drillers in the 1980s. A second idea was to inject fluid into the rock to fracture it into lots of pieces, thus allowing the gas and oil inside to flow more easily. 

A third technique that Mitchell tried was adding sand to the water to help prop open the cracks that formed in the rock. Together these approaches, collectively called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” allowed drillers to inexpensively recover gas from tight shale rock.

Not so long ago, many people believed that the cost of oil and gas would rise indefinitely, thus supporting the market for alternatives. Mitchell’s miracle has changed that calculus, much to the chagrin of the Silicon Valley venture capitalists who caught the green-energy bug."

Sunday Shuffle

Pearl Jam, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

You?

Romney: "Pretzel Candidate," But Still Frontrunner

From George Will's Washington Post column today (Mitt Romney, The Pretzel Candidate"):

"Romney cannot enunciate a defensible, or even decipherable, ethanol policy.  Life poses difficult choices, but not about ethanol. Government subsidizes ethanol production, imposes tariffs to protect manufacturers of it and mandates the use of it — and it injures the nation’s and the world’s economic, environmental, and social (it raises food prices) well-being.

In May, in corn-growing Iowa, Romney said, “I support the subsidy of ethanol.” And: “I believe ethanol is an important part of our energy solution for this country.” But in October he told Iowans he is “a business guy,” so as president he would review this bipartisan — the last Republican president was an ethanol enthusiast — folly.

Romney said that he once favored subsidies to get the ethanol industry “on its feet.”  But Romney added, “I’ve indicated I didn’t think the subsidy had to go on forever.” Ethanol subsidies expire in December, but “I might have looked at more of a decline over time” because of “the importance of ethanol as a domestic fuel.” Besides, “ethanol is part of national security.” However, “I don’t want to say” I will propose new subsidies. Still, ethanol has “become an important source of amplifying our energy capacity.” Anyway, ethanol should “continue to have prospects of growing its share of” transportation fuels.

Got it?

What would President Romney competently do when not pondering ethanol subsidies that he forthrightly says should stop sometime before “forever”? Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for this?" 

 

MP: The chart above shows the current Intrade odds for the Republican nominee, with Romney (68%) still far ahead of both Perry (11%) and Cain (8%).

Markets in Everything: In-N-Out Burgers Delivered

EATER.COM -- "Hello, In-N-Out (pictured above) fanatics who do not live in California, Utah, Nevada or the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Today is your lucky day: website Midtown Row (online speciality food retailer) is offering to overnight two frozen double-doubles — classic OR animal style — to your pathetic, non-In-N-Out-having location for the low (high?) price of $50 plus $6 shipping. Burgers will be shipped from California November 1."

One transplanted California fanatic feels so strongly about "In-N-Out" burgers that she was brought to tears when the chain recently opened a new  restaurant in Dallas.

How Technological Breakthroughs and Not Energy Policy Have Created A New World Order of Oil

From Daniel Yergin's editorial in today's Washington Post (emphasis added):

"For more than five decades, the world’s oil map has centered on the Middle East. No matter what new energy resources were discovered and developed elsewhere, virtually all forecasts indicated that U.S. reliance on Mideast oil supplies was destined to grow. This seemingly irreversible reality has shaped not only U.S. energy policy and economic policy, but also geopolitics and the entire global economy.

But today, what appeared irreversible is being reversed. The outline of a new world oil map is emerging, and it is centered not on the Middle East but on the Western Hemisphere. The new energy axis runs from Alberta, Canada, down through North Dakota and South Texas, past a major new discovery off the coast of French Guyana to huge offshore oil deposits found near Brazil.

This shift carries great significance for the supply and the politics of world oil. And, for all the debates and speeches about energy independence throughout the years, the transformation is happening not as part of some grand design or major policy effort, but almost accidentally. This shift was not planned — it is a product of a series of unrelated initiatives and technological breakthroughs that, together, are taking on a decidedly hemispheric cast.

The new hemispheric outlook is based on resources that were not seriously in play until recent years — all of them made possible by technological breakthroughs and advances. They are “oil sands” in Canada, “pre-salt” deposits in Brazil and “tight oil” in the United States.

One major supply development has emerged right here in the United States: the application of shale-gas technology — horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, a process popularly known as “fracking” — to the extraction of oil from dense rock. The rock is so hard that, without those technologies, the oil would not flow. That is why it is called “tight oil.”

Case study No. 1 is in North Dakota, where, just eight years ago, a rock formation known as the Bakken, a couple of miles underground, was producing a measly 10,000 barrels of oil per day. Today, it yields almost half a million barrels per day, turning North Dakota into the fourth-largest oil-producing state in the country, as well as the state with the lowest unemployment rate.

Similar development is taking place in other parts of the country, including South Texas and West Texas. Altogether, tight oil production is growing very fast. The total output in the United States was just 200,000 barrels per day in 2000. Around 2020, it could reach 3 million barrels per day — a third of the total U.S. oil production. (And that is a conservative estimate; others are much higher.)

For the United States, these new sources of supply add to energy security in ways that were not anticipated. There is only one world oil market, so the United States — like other countries — will still be vulnerable to disruptions, and the sheer size of the oil resources in the Persian Gulf will continue to make the region strategically important for the world economy. But the new sources closer to home will make our supply system more resilient. For the Western Hemisphere, the shift means that more oil will flow north to south and south to north, rather than east to west. All this demonstrates how innovation is redrawing the map of world oil — and remaking our energy future."

HT: Bill Miller

Open Thread

Hosted by a fairytale pumpkin.

This week's open threads have been brought to you by winter squash.

Higher Education Bubble Update: Colleges and Universities Charging $50k+ Increases 25X in 3 Yrs.

2012 Mercedes E550 Coupe ($56,590) = 1 Year of College

Top 25 Colleges for Tuition and Room & Board, 2011-2012

Rank	College	2011-2012 Tuition, Room and Board
1	Sarah Lawrence College	$59,170
2	Landmark College	$57,330
3	New York U.	$56,787
4	Columbia University	$56,310
5	Harvey Mudd College	$56,268
6	Wesleyan U.	$56,006
7	Claremont McKenna College	$55,865
8	Johns Hopkins U.	$55,742
9	Berklee College of Music	$55,615
10	Bard College	$55,592
11	Barnard College	$55,566
12	Vanderbilt U.	$55,556
13	Trinity College	$55,450
14	U. of Chicago	$55,416
15	Dartmouth College	$55,365
16	Bates College	$55,300
17	Stevens Institute of Technology	$55,276
18	Vassar College	$55,135
19	Washington U. in St. Louis	$55,111
20	Boston College	$55,079
21	Haverford College	$55,050
22	Pitzer College	$54,988
23	Connecticut College	$54,970
24	Bard College at Simon's Rock	$54,960
25	Bennington College	$54,960

From the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

"The 50K club is getting crowded: 123 institutions now charge $50,000 or more for tuition, fees, room, and board, according to data released by the College Board. That's up from last year, when 100 colleges and universities charged that much."

MP: The table above shows the top 25 colleges for tuition, and room and board, for the current 2011-2012 academic year.   

In this related Chicago Tribune article, they point out that: a) only 58 schools charged more than $50,000 for tuition and room and board in 2009-2010 and the year before it was only five colleges, and b) an increasing number of colleges are now charging more for tuition than the average American earns per year ($42,000 according to the Social Security Administration).

HT: Steve Bartin 

Amazing NASA Video of a Decade of Earth's Fires

"NASA has released a series of new satellite data visualizations that show tens of millions of fires detected worldwide from space since 2002. The visualizations show fire observations made by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instruments onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.

NASA maintains a comprehensive research program using satellites, aircraft and ground resources to observe and analyze fires around the world. The research helps scientists understand how fire affects our environment on local, regional and global scales."

Open Thread

Hosted by pumpkins.

The Virtual Pub Is Open

[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]

TFIF, Shakers!

Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!

(Don't forget to tip your bartender!)

Daily Dose of Cute

Zelda.


Dorito Ears!

Number of the Day

11: The number of US states that have an explicit prohibition on gay individuals and/or same-sex couples adopting a child. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) would like to change that.

[Related Reading: What don't you lousy motherfuckers understand about keeping your noses out of our britches, our beds, and our families?]

Richard Epstein on Income Inequality in America

HT: Don Boudreaux and Pete Friedlander

Oil Boomtowns of ND: 2k Job Openings Every Day

Quote of the Day

"You can't be a perfectly lubricated weather vane on the important issues of the day."—Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, on Mitt Romney's flip-floppery.

That is also, for the record, what she said.

Income Mobility is Much More Important Than Rising Income Inequality or Stagnating Household Income, and We Have a Lot of It (Mobility)

We hear a lot these days about "increasing income inequality" and "stagnating household income," but those discussions rarely include what is probably the most important factor when it comes to income over time: income mobility.  In fact, even if: a) income inequality was increasing over time, and b) median household income was stagnant over time, those outcomes wouldn't necessarily be a problem if there was significant income mobility.  Reason? If there is substantial movement of households over time from lower-income to higher-income quintiles, households may only be earning the median household income for a short period of time on their way up to a higher quintile.  

In other words, it's more likely that most households are "typical" or at the "median" level" only temporarily on their way to a higher income group.  The fact that median household income might be stagnant over time seems far less important than what happens as households exceed median income and move up to a higher-income category.  In the case of significant income mobility over time, wouldn't households actually benefit from increasing income inequality over time if that allowed them to earn higher incomes relative to the median or low-income quintiles once they arrived at one of the top two quintiles?  

Most of those complaining about income inequality and stagnating income seem to statically assume that households or individuals stay in the same income group (by quintile, or the "top 1%," "top 10%," bottom 50%, median income, etc.) forever, with no movement over time.  If we assume that you're stuck in the bottom income quintile for life, or even earn the median household income for life (both highly unrealistic), then the concerns about rising income inequality or stagnating median household income have greater strength.  But with dynamic movement over time in the income of households and individuals, the "problems" of income inequality and stagnating income seem much less important, and might even be "non-problems."

Thomas Sowell offers this key insight (emphasis added):

“Only by focusing on the income brackets, instead of the actual people moving between those brackets, have the intelligentsia been able to verbally create a "problem" for which a "solution" is necessary. They have created a powerful vision of "classes" with "disparities" and "inequities" in income, caused by "barriers" created by "society." But the routine rise of millions of people out of the lowest quintile over time makes a mockery of the "barriers" assumed by many, if not most, of the intelligentsia.”

                      

Contrary to prevailing public opinion that households get stuck at a given income level for decades or generations, there is strong empirical evidence that households actually move up and down the economic ladder over even very short periods of time.

For example, recent research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is summarized in the table above, based on income data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics that followed the same households from 2001 to 2007.  The empirical results answer the question: For households that started in a given earnings quintile (20 percent group) in 2001, what percentage of those households moved to a different income quintile over the next six years? Short answer: a lot. 

Read more here at The Enterprise Blog.

Herman Cain's Campaign is a Real Thing in the Real World

Herman Cain is making stuff on the interwebs. America, I give you the current Republican front-runner:



[Transcript Follows]

There's an opening sequence that suggests the projectionist is loading the YouTube video. A cowboy on a horse rides towards the camera to generic twangy music. On screen, we see that “THERE WAS A TIME IN AMERICA WHEN A MAN WAS A MAN... “ Then the video cuts to the sheriff taking some government-paid leave.

“AND A HORSE WAS A HORSE...” [Go to hell, postmodernist eurotrash!]

Then a deputy/government employee chugs whiskey. “AND A MAN ON A HORSE WAS JUST A MAN ON A HORSE...” We see that the cowboy is carrying yellow flowers, so that's probably a BFD. [This is just like Blazing Saddles, only if it had been directed by Andrew Breibart.]

A few taxpayers stroll by, disgusted by the lazy government workers.

“UNLESS HE CARRIED EXTRANEOUS COMMA BIG FONT FOR EMPHASIS YELLOW FLOWERS” [But not roses. And certainly not bread.]

Women scurry away from the cowboy, as he comments on their chicken. I think this is supposed to be sexy. Presumably there's some kind of joke here? I don't hang out in sports bars, so I don't really get the reference.

“Cock-a-doodle-do, Ma'am”

[Wow, this dude harasses women, but he's also a gentleman and holy non-sequitur what the hell is going on, we're forty-five seconds into this garbage already.]

“CTV [Isn't that Canadian?] PRESENTS: HE CARRIED YELLOW FLOWERS”

Cowboy ass shot.
Cowboy using rope shot.
Cowboy wearing moon boots while not really bow-legged shot.

The cowboy knocks on the door, because apparently having women scurry away from you is code for “Yes, please come into my cabin.”

The drunken sheriff mocks the man's gay looking flowers. Also, they are YELLOW flowers.

'Hey look at me, the Montana Territory is paying me to get pissed on my 3-hour lunch break!'

Daaaamn! One of the men accuses our hero of being “as yellow as those flowers there.”

Witty rejoinder: “Why does it always have to be about color, what are you guys, liberals?” [Did you notice one of the guys was black? Did you?!? He's such a reverse racist.]

The reverse-racist responds that he's a “card carrying” liberal [Hey, remember Dukakis?], and spits on our hero's moonboot.

A fight breaks out, and the opening chords of a Monkees song plays in the background for some reason.

In perhaps the video's most Brechtian moment, a Hollywood director in baggy pants yells cut, and everything stops.

A conventionally attractive young woman offers the cowboy a watermelon-mango margarita, because all actors are homos who sip fruity drinks like little girls. Because she's a lady, the dude gives her shit about wanting a straw. Then he threatens to fire her.

A woman praises the man and does his girly makeup, but he cuts the dumb bitch down to size.

As it turns out, the actor is Nick Searcy. [You know, the guy who played Tom Hanks's friend in Cast Away? No, not the volleyball.]

Nick Searcy levels with us. He's not a tough guy because he says catch phrases like “hope” and “change.” [Would those be catch words?] He also doesn't have a fancy teleprompter like those rich-ass community organizers, just fyi.

Then, over 140 seconds into this train wreck, Nick Searcy tells us about Herman Cain. He's a real thing in the real world. He urges us to “get real” and vote for Cain, as dudes beat each other up in the background.

Herman Cain and Nick Searcy are sexy, apparently. OMG IS THIS CAMPAIGN VIDEO HITTING ON ME?

Cowboy Searcy urges the public not to get distracted by trivial things this election season, all while joking with his Hollywood director. Then he gets so distracted while threatening a liberal that he forgets his line.

And then Herman Cain smirks at us for some reason. [Probably because he knows you aren't getting the last three-and-a-half minutes of your life back.]

As Cain fades out, Cowboy Searcy hits on a lady by yelling “nice chicken, honey!” Then he gives us a wink and a thumbs up as he goes into the cabin, presumably to have some sort of freaky Dadaist sex.

THE END

Canadian Women Take Soccer Gold at Pan Am Games

Alright, this is Caitie the football* fan here, and Caitie the Canuck too, saying "Go Canada Go" to our talented women's team. Shockingly turfed out of the World Cup this summer in no uncertain terms, a big surprise coming after our second Gold Cup championship in 2010, this didn't look like it was going to be much of a year for Karina LeBlanc and the women footballers of Canada.

But then they sent half of the World Cup team to the Pan Am Games, a competition open to nations up and down the Americas, athletes from anywhere between Ellesmere Island and Tierra del Fuego. The US team didn't attend, and Brasil were without their stellar forward and five-time World Player of the Year, Marta, but in Thursday night's final in Guadalajara, Mexico, the Canadian goalkeeper (LeBlanc) stopped two penalties by Brasil's shooters, while the Canadians put all theirs into the net, for a 4-3 victory in the shootout.

The game had looked a disaster for Canada early, giving up a goal only four minutes in, but control went back and forth before Christine Sinclair (Canada's all-time top scorer, with 117 goals in 163 appearances, as of June 30 this year) managed to finally head home a corner taken by fierce terrier/midfielder Diana Matheson (another long-time veteran of the Canadian team - all 5'0.25" of her) in the 88th minute. Two 15-minute periods of extra time settled nothing, though both sides had chances, leading to the penalty shootout.

Speaking personally as a goalkeeper, I understand LeBlanc's statement that she enjoys shootouts. I hate them as a fan, hate the tension and the irrelevance to the game, but as a player, they thrill me. The only championship my current team won, for several years, was a cup competition in which we endured two penalty shootouts - the semi-final and the final. In both - I swear this is literally true, every word - I saved all five of my opponents' shots, and scored the only one of five for us. Best two games I ever played, stopping ten penalties. Time used to be that when stopping penalties, the strategy for keepers was to guess-and-leap, hoping you'd got the right direction. Some keepers, and I'm among them, have come more recently to the conclusion that, in fact, they're the easiest shots keepers ever face, in some ways. Consider: you know when it's coming, who's taking it, there's no one else in the way, and you don't have to worry about a rebound (as the ball is dead when it ceases forward motion in shootouts). Every advantage is mine.

Well, except for the 24-foot wide net, with the crossbar eight feet up. But other than that...

Anyway, big congratulations to the Canadian women's team for their stellar success throughout the tournament, almost completely unnoticed by our national media - five games in seven days! What a grueling schedule.

* AKA soccer, for you folk who think a game where only a very few people ever touch the ball with their feet should be called "football": see NFL/gridiron, CFL-Canadian style, et c.. :)