Tesla Motors reported a quarterly profit for the first time in its 10-year history during the first quarter of 2013. This was done by exceeding their own targets for deliveries, expanding gross margin and improving execution throughout the company according to a press release on the matter. Or, in other… … Read More
“Game of Thrones” Recap: Flaming swords!
Let’s start with the most substantial aspect of this episode: man butt. “Kissed by Fire” is the episode of “Game of Thrones” where the writers finally said, “OK, OK, we will do something about our show’s gross nudity imbalance across genders.” So after Ygritte takes off her clothes, it’s John and Jaime’s turn to flash some tush, and then Loras’s conquest/Littlefinger’s spy puts a new twist on the “random character we have never met going full frontal” role just by being a man, instead of woman.Even more remarkably, the camera opts not to ogle Brienne of Tarth, treating her with the sort of restraint it usually reserves for its male characters. Jaime climbs in the bathtub with her and goads her into anger; she lurches up at him in the altogether. But while Jaime gets a good look at the whole Brienne, the camera stays squarely on her face and shoulders, never straying down. We see a flash of her backside, but that’s exactly the amount of nudity usually asked of the fellas. This is both respectful and complicated: Brienne, who is more ‘masculine’ than the other female characters, more attuned to the idea of male honor, gets treated with visual restraint. I’m sure, if she knew, she would appreciate the courtesy. But maybe all the other women on the show would prefer not being objectified too?Continue Reading… … Read More
Land desertification and drought causes up to $450 billion in lost farm output
Loss of land through desertification and drought costs up to five percent of world agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP), or some $450 billion (340 billion euros), every year, said a study presented at a UN conference Tuesday. Each year an area roughly three times the size of Switzerland is…
Lost war on drugs: ‘Heroin production up by 40 times since NATO Afghan involvement’
“Afghan heroin has killed more than 1 million people worldwide since the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales,” Viktor Ivanov said at the conference on the drug situation in Afghanistan.Ivanov stressed that the main factor of instability in the war-torn country remains the prosperous heroin industry.”Any impartial observer must admit the sad fact that the international community has failed to curb heroin production in Afghanistan since the start of NATO’s operation.”As the situation in Afghanistan changed with NATO withdrawing its troops, Russia along with Afghanistan and the international community must face the new reality and develop an efficient strategy to deal with the heroin problem, explained Ivanov. Opium production has been central to Afghanistan’s economy ever since US and NATO forces invaded in October 2001. Just before the invasion Taliban had implemented a ban on poppy growing, declaring it to be anti-Islam, which lowered the overall production. But after the West’s involvement, production resumed and now the country produces some 90 per cent of the world’s opium, the great bulk of which ends up on the streets of Europe and Russia.US and NATO officials have been stuck in a Catch-22 fight against Afghan opium. At the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna in March, Ivanov stated that on the one hand, they are attempting to win the hearts and minds of the local population, which increasingly depends on the cultivation of opium poppy for their livelihood. On the other, they need to cut off finances to the Taliban insurgency, which is fueled by the sale of opium poppy to foreign markets.About 15 per cent of Afghanistan’s Gross National Product depends on drug-related exports, which amounts business worth US$2.4 billion a year, according to UN 2012 figures.Spokesman for Afghanistan’s Counternarcotic Ministry Qayum Samir told Radio Free Europe on Monday that 157,000 hectares are being planted with poppies this spring, which is up by an estimated 3,000 hectares since last year. Samir argued that lack of security, lack of governance and widespread poverty are the reasons behind the increase in heroin production. … Read More
’1mn died’ from Afghan heroin, drug production ’40 times higher’ since NATO op
“Afghan heroin has killed more than 1 million people worldwide since the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales,” Viktor Ivanov said at the conference on the drug situation in Afghanistan.Ivanov stressed that the main factor of instability in the war-torn country remains the prosperous heroin industry.”Any impartial observer must admit the sad fact that the international community has failed to curb heroin production in Afghanistan since the start of NATO’s operation.”According to his presentation at UN’s 56th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna on March 11, opium growth has increased by 18 per cent from 131,000 hectares to 154,000.As the situation in Afghanistan changed with NATO withdrawing its troops, Russia along with Afghanistan and the international community must face the new reality and develop an efficient strategy to deal with the heroin problem, explained Ivanov. Opium production has been central to Afghanistan’s economy ever since US and NATO forces invaded in October 2001. Just before the invasion Taliban had implemented a ban on poppy growing, declaring it to be anti-Islam, which lowered the overall production. But after the West’s involvement, production resumed and now the country produces some 90 per cent of the world’s opium, the great bulk of which ends up on the streets of Europe and Russia.US and NATO officials have been stuck in a Catch-22 fight against Afghan opium. At the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna in March, Ivanov stated that on the one hand, they are attempting to win the hearts and minds of the local population, which increasingly depends on the cultivation of opium poppy for their livelihood. On the other, they need to cut off finances to the Taliban insurgency, which is fueled by the sale of opium poppy to foreign markets.About 15 per cent of Afghanistan’s Gross National Product depends on drug-related exports, which amounts business worth US$2.4 billion a year, according to UN 2012 figures.Spokesman for Afghanistan’s Counternarcotic Ministry Qayum Samir told Radio Free Europe on Monday that 157,000 hectares are being planted with poppies this spring, which is up by an estimated 3,000 hectares since last year. Samir argued that lack of security, lack of governance and widespread poverty are the reasons behind the increase in heroin production.Moscow believes the simplest solutions are the most effective ones, and eradicating the country’s poppy fields is the key to solving the problem, underlined Viktor Ivanov. But there is a big difference between how Russia and the US see the solution to the problem. “Metaphorically speaking, instead of destroying the machine-gun nest, they suggest catching bullets flying from the machine-gun,” Ivanov explained. “We suggest eradicating the narcotic plants altogether. As long as there are opium poppy fields, there will be trafficking.” However, based on the US and NATO strategy, there seems no intention to get rid of all Afghan poppy fields, which is an inconsistency in the Western approach. “The US together with the Colombian government eradicates 200,000 hectares of coca bushes a year. In Afghanistan, only 2,000 hectares of poppy fields are being eradicated – one 100th of that amount,” Ivanov pointed out. And alongside the refusal to get rid of the poppies, there is the apparent interest of international banks in “dirty” money. Narcotics have nearly as large a share in total world trade as oil and gas, argued Ivanov in his presentation to UN. The head of Russia’s drug enforcement suggested US and European banks tacitly welcome and “encourage” the inflow of drug money, he explained.Gil Kerlikovske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the executive office of the US president, told RT that “We can intercept and seize tons of narcotics, we can make arrests of traffickers, but we really need to choke off the funds that supply this.”Currently, Russia supports solutions proposing to improve social and institutional development in Afghanistan and discussing the problem at the international level. … Read More
Does Tina Fey still have Sarah Palin down? You betcha!
On last night’s Inside the Actor’s Studio, Tina Fey was generous enough to bring back her Sarah Palin impression, and given how absolutely fantastic she was, either she knew it was coming, or she’s very quick on her feet.“What is your view on same-sex marriage?”“Well, the Bible says it’s gross.”Continue Reading… … Read More
John Boehner is Right: “The Talk About Raising Revenue is Over.”
Over the weekend, Speaker of the House John
Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared on ABC News’ This Week. His big quotes
included this one about the government’s balance sheet:
“We do not have an immediate debt crisis,” Boehner said on ABC
News’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “But we all know
that we have one looming. ;And we have — one looming — because
we have entitlement programs that are not sustainable in their
current form. They’re gonna go bankrupt.”
I’d quibble with Boehner a bit on this. Maintaining a gross
national debt greater than 90 percent of GDP – something the
government has done since the finanical crisis in 2008 – is a clear
drag on current and future economic growth. As Carmen Reinhart,
Vincent Reinhard, and Kenneth Rogoff have shown, such
“debt overhang” for five or more years corresponds with
long-term reductions in economic growth:
When accumulated gross debt exceeds 90 percent of a country’s
total economic activity for five or more consecutive years – reduce
annual economic growth by more than one percentage point for
decades.
Over 20 years, [Reinhart, Reinhart, and Rogoff] write, there can
be a “massive cumulative output loss” that reduces gains by 25
percent or more. The U.S. went over the 90 percent threshold after
the 2008 financial crisis. At $16.3 trillion, our current gross
federal debt represents more than 100 percent of 2012’s total
economic activity or gross domestic product.
That may not constitute an “immediate”
debt crisis, but it’s one that demands immediate and serious
attention from both parties – not the phoney-baloney long-term
spending plans put out last week by both the Republicans and the
Democrats. Neither of these is a serious attempt to rein in
long-term spending that is behind our mounting debt levels. The GOP
wants to increase spending by 42 percent over the coming decade
while the Dems call for 58 percent more spending. (Read more
details ;here
and
here.)
However, Boehner said something that set off the chatterati that
is absolutely, unequivocably accurate when it comes to taxes for
next year:
“The talk about raising revenue is over.”
Give the speaker credit for hitting the nail on the head. Both
the House Republican and Senate Democratic budgets agree that in
fiscal year 2014 the federal government will have raise $3 trillion
from all sources of revenue. The budgets differ on the amount of
spending they propose: The GOP wants to spend about $3.5 trillion
in 2014 while the Dems want to spend $3.7 trillion.
As the budget season gets underway,
it’s is worth hammering home a few things. First and foremost,
despite containing projections for a 10-year “budget window,”
annual budget documents are only really about one fiscal year – in
this case, 2014. The decade-long projections are nice but are in no
way binding and are mostly used to score ideological points, not
guide actual governmental behaviors. ;Second, both
parties agree on how much revenue the government will generate in
2014. Third, they differ on spending by just $200 billion – a huge
amount, of course, but a small fraction of budgets that approach $4
trillion.
The federal government has gotten used to operating without an
actual budget that has been worked out through the normal
legislative process. That has actually been good for restraining
spending – it’s hard to boost spending under a series of continuing
resolutions. But it is a sign of a very basic level of incompetence
that can’t and shouldn’t go on indefinitely (and note that
this is irresponsibility, not gridlock – Congress has a knack
for getting shit done when they really want to). Uncertainty
gives ulcers to Rhesus monkeys and it’s not good for long-term
economic growth – which is already staggering under excessive
debt.
But Boehner is right that revenue for next year – the only year
under actual discussion in the 2014 budget – is a settled matter.
All that should be left to discuss is how much the feds plan to
spend. And even there, the difference is little more than a
grandiose elaboration of petty differences.
Maybe after Boehner, Reid, Obama, et al. hash that minor
disagreement out, they will actually start dealing with long-term
drivers of debt and the weak economic growth that piling on
trillion-dollar deficits tends to engender. … Read More
