German Future Prize

the Net economy

SIEMENS – The German Future Prize, presented annually by the German President, is the nation’s highest honor for technology and innovation. This year’s recipients, including Siemens researchers, were congratulated personally by President Joachim Gauck in a ceremony on November 28, 2012.

A research team led by Dr. Torsten Niederdränk in collaboration with the University of Oldenburg developed a so-called binaural hearing system that enables hearing aids in both ears to communicate. This represents an important evolutionary step toward spatial hearing and an improvement in the quality of life of those with hearing loss. more> http://tinyurl.com/d2ywhq2

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National Figures Opposed To Same-Sex Marriage Join Marylanders At A Rally

Inequality

Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

Income inequality is one of those things that we find almost impossible to talk about in US politics.  Simply raising the issue automatically leads to charges of “class warfare”, a term that is empty enough in meaning to raise emotions without much intellect.  Yet it is important.

One of the great features of recent global economic turmoil is the downturn in the developed world amid continued growth in the developing world.  What’s the main difference between the two?  According to a survey by the Economist, one of the main features is that the developing world generally has increasing income equality but the developed increasing inequality.  Emotional arguments aside, there is a distinct trend that raises real questions of global competitiveness, at the very least.

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Euro zone making scant headway on growth and reform

the Net economy

By Alan Wheatley – The euro zone is finally getting a move on and slinging a safety net under the single currency. If only it were making as much headway in correcting the economic imbalances that made a rescue plan necessary in the first place.

The European Central Bank has bought time for the euro with a scheme for secondary-market purchases of bonds of countries such as Spain if they are shunned by investors. And the European Stability Mechanism is set to buy the debt as it is auctioned, after Germany‘s top court approved the establishment of the permanent rescue fund. Immediate market pressure has subsided. more> http://tinyurl.com/8nk2lhu

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How central banks contributed to the financial crisis

the Net economy

By Michael Biggs and Thomas Mayer – As numerous studies over the last two decades have shown, interest rate policies of a large number of central banks can be explained by the so-called Taylor Rule. According to this rule, which is consistent with inflation targeting, the policy rate is determined by a neutral real rate, the target inflation rate, the output gap, and the deviation of inflation from the target (or expected) rate. In this formula, the output gap can be interpreted as a leading indicator for inflation, as suggested by an augmented Phillips-curve inflation model, where the deviation of actual inflation from the target has the character of an error-correction term.

There is no room for financial variables, such as money, credit, or asset prices, in this policy rule. more> http://tinyurl.com/9jlapra

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1999 Policy Analysis: Usurping Legislative Power by Executive Orders and National Emergencies | THE JEENYUS CORNER

The Jeenyus Corner

Alec Scheer
WeAre1776.org

I am, in the following paragraphs of this article, going to be discussing a policy analysis paper (No. 358) published, October 28th, 1999, entitled “Executive Orders and National Emergencies How Presidents Have Come to “Run the Country” by Usurping Legislative Power,” authored by William J. Olson and Alan Woll. It is a twenty-nine page analysis paper going over how presidents and their executive power have (they continue to do so) unconstitutionally usurped legislative power. Included in this compelling analysis is a history of presidential directives.

I would like to go over one section of the analysis with you, leaving it up to you to read it for yourself to concoct your own opinion. The section reads as follows:

“Clinton’s War against Yugoslavia

As a final example of rule through executive order, just this year President Clinton waged war, through NATO, against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Much…

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Ryan, Romney wrong on defense budgets

The Jeenyus Corner

By Josh Rogin
THE CABLE

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his would-be vice president Paul Ryan, and defense hawks in Congress are wrong that savings can’t be found in the U.S. defense budget, according to Grover Norquist, the influential president of Americans for Tax Reform, who said that he will fight using any new revenues to keep military spending high.

“We can afford to have an adequate national defense which keeps us free and safe and keeps everybody afraid to throw a punch at us, as long as we don’t make some of the decisions that previous administrations have, which is to over extend ourselves overseas and think we can run foreign governments,” Norquist said Monday at an event at the Center for the National Interest, formerly the Nixon Center.

But Ryan’s views are at odds with those of Norquist and other budget hawks, who argue that defense budgets can…

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The Anti-Corruption Pledge

The Tribune of the People

The Anti-Corruption Pledge.

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Stop the Spending

Two Heads are Better Than One

It’s easy-to-understand graphics like this that need to be repeated, and repeated again.

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Obama Blames Republicans for Blaming Him for Blaming Bush

The Busy Post

.Our Dear LeaderPresident Obama today spoke out about an increasingly common but vile tendency on the part of many people, such as Republicans: blaming other people for their mistakes.

According to Washington Post, President Obama warned supporters that Republicans have boiled down their campaign to a single phrase: It’s Obama’s fault. “You can pretty much put their campaign on a tweet and have some characters to spare,” Obama said, adding that these attempts at finger-pointing are pathetic lies because everyone knows the nation’s current troubles are all George W. Bush’s fault.
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I have to agree: the lack of self-awareness on the part of Republicans is mind boggling. It reminds me of an anecdote: a young model citizen once felt compelled to murder his parents on account of their lack of committment to social justice. In court, his lawyer pleaded for mercy on the grounds that the…

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