Archive for the 'Economy/Finance' Category

Truth as Political Antibody

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Roger Ebert has written in his Chicago Sun-Times blog a strong indictment against the purveyors of subtle (and not so subtle) lies in today’s political process.

This is the best line: “Our political immune system has only one antibody, and that is the truth.”

Put up or shut up

This many Americans did not arrive at such conclusions on their own. They were persuaded by a relentless process of insinuation, strategic silence and cynical misinformation. Most of the leaders in this process have been cautious to avoid actually saying Obama is a Muslim. They speak in coded words and allow the implications to sink in. I recently watched Glenn Beck speaking at great length about Obama’s Muslim father, but you would not have learned from Beck that the father, who Obama met only once, was not a practicing Muslim in any sense.

Rush Limbaugh has told his listeners he can find “no evidence” that Obama is a Christian. In Paul Krugman’s op-ed column in the New York Times on 8/29, Limbaugh is quoted: “Imam Hussein Obama, is probably the best anti-American president we’ve ever had.” Limbaugh obviously doesn’t believe Obama is an imam. How many of his listeners realize that? Is he concerned that his words will be taken seriously?
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Bad Math = Bad Policy

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Last week, Utah’s Provo Daily Herald editorialized away a proposed increase in school spending thusly:

The reason that Utah spends less per pupil is mainly because there are more pupils per household. Once the equation is corrected to account for that — in other words, assume that Utah had family sizes in line with the national average — the amount of money spent per pupil would rise, and Utah would land in the middle of the pack of states.

Perhaps this same editorial board should go back to school themselves – for remedial mathematics and common sense.

LDS Recession

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

I’ve been saying for weeks that the LDS church has to be hurting financially on several levels: tithing receipts impacted by laid-off workers, more welfare expenditures and now today, this article from the SL Tribune, detailing the “restructuring” of the Deseret Management Corp.

Who’s Watching the Watchmen?

Friday, March 6th, 2009

John Stewart, of course.

Crisis of Credit

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Got 7 minutes? Watch this video. A quick introduction and overview of how we got where we are and why it’s not going to end overnight.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized – Part 1