Today’s links to interesting news and analysis, collected from around the Internet. If you find this useful, pass it to a friend or colleague.
- US federalism faces the biggest challenges since the Civil War: “State of the States 2010: How the Recession Might Change States“, Pew Center for the States, 11 February 2010 — 35 page PDF.
- Here’s part of the problem: “The Trillion Dollar Gap: Underfunded State Retirement Systems and the Road to Reform“, 18 February 2010
- Talking heads on cable news are often paid by corporations (just like generals talking about war): “The Media-Lobbying Complex“, Sebastian Jones, The Nation, 1 March 2010 — Perhaps we like being lied to!
- “U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion“, The Onion, 16 February 2010
- They own America, we just live here: “Banks step up spending on lobbying to fight proposed stiffer regulations“, Los Angeles Times, 16 February 2010
- “‘Government in a box’ in Marja“, Andrew J. Bacevich, op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, 17 February 2010 — “No doubt the U.S. military will succeed in clearing the Afghan town of the Taliban. But can we bring lasting change?” This is probably like Falujah, a punitive strike in which we make big but false promises about rebuilding.
- “Muni Threat: Cities Weigh Chapter 9“, Wall Street Journal, 18 February 2010
- “The absurd trial of Geert Wilders“, Mark Steyn, Macleans, 18 February 2010 – “For as the spokesperson for the Openbaar Ministerie put it, ‘It is irrelevant whether Wilders’s witnesses might prove Wilders’s observations to be correct. What’s relevant is that his observations are illegal.’”
- It”s a feature, not a bug; airports train us to be serfs. “Adventures in Airport Morning Security Theater“, Paul Kedrosky, Infectious Greed, 18 February 2010 — Getting accustomed to pointless excerise of government authority. Baa, Baa.
- We had to kill them for the greater good: “The Chemist’s War“, Deborah Blum, Slate, 19 February 2010 — “The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.”
- Anger is not enough, and destructive without a proper foundation: “Anti-govt anti-Obama nuts launch Facebook page to honor domestic terrorist who crashed plane into IRS office“, John Aravosis, AMERICAblog, 18 February 2010
Today’s feature stories:
(A) One of the world’s top climate scientists looks at the debate
(B) Factoid of the day about America — so many rich people, so little tax revenue
(A) One of the world’s top climate scientists looks at the debate
See Henk Tennekes’ Wikipedia entry for details about his career.
- “Reflections of a Climate Skeptic“, Henk Tennekes, 6 January 2006
- I recommend this for anyone seeking to learn more about the global warming debate: “Three Essays on Climate Models“, Henk Tennekes, 30 January 2009
- “Rehabilitation of the country’s first CO2-exile“, De Telegraph, 13 February 2010 — “Henk Tennekes was made to clear his desk and resign as Director of the KNMI (Dutch Meteorological Institute). His sin? In a newspaper column the world-renowned meteorologist had disproved all the bold claims about climate change.”
(B) Factoid of the day about America — so many rich people, so little tax revenue
“Top 400 Earners in U.S Averaged $345 Million in 2007, IRS Says“, Bloomberg, 18 February 2010 — Excerpt:
The 400 highest-earning U.S. households reported an average of $345 million in income in 2007, up 31% from a year earlier, IRS statistics show. The average tax rate for the households fell to the lowest in almost 20 years.
The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic expansion, show that the average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from $131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts urged by then-President George W. Bush that Democrats say disproportionately benefits the wealthy.
Each household in the top 400 of earners paid an average tax rate of 16.6%, the lowest since the agency began tracking the data in 1992, the Internal Revenue Service statistics show. Their average effective tax rate was about half the 29.4% in 1993, the first year of President Bill Clinton’s administration, when taxes were increased.
Matthew Yglesias at ThinkProgress comments on this article:
Thank God George W Bush gave these people some much needed tax relief. That means that the top 400 households together earned $138 billion in 2007. By contrast, according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey the 24 million households who comprise the bottom fifth of the income distribution together hauled in about $247 billion.
Afterword
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