Central Perk: 20 iul. 2013

sâmbătă, 20 iulie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Drones are a Major U.S. Export and they Perpetuate War

Posted: 20 Jul 2013 06:10 PM PDT

Tired of perpetual war? So am I but US drone policy ensures perpetual war is her to stay. Blatant military waste is here to stay as well, and the all but useless F-35 project is a prime example.

Those are my opinions, but they also the opinions of guest writer Robert Taylor.

What follows is a well-stated guest-post courtesy of Robert Taylor and PolicyMic. I dispense with my normal indented block-quote style for this post.

Drones Are Becoming a Major U.S. Export, and They Kill Democracy in Every Nation They're Shipped To

President Obama's drone warfare policy is thankfully finally being discussed in the mainstream media. While the president's claimed authority to suspend the Fifth Amendment and order assassinations with no judicial oversight, even on American soil, is a disturbing outrage, the sale and spread of drone technology by the U.S. around the world also deserves attention.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the United Arab Emirates plans to purchase $179 million worth of drones from General Atomics. The purchase still needs approval from Congress and it is yet unclear whether they will buy surveillance drones or if it will also include the weaponized Reaper drones. What is clear, however, is that this development highlights the continuing growth of the influence of defense contractors, the spread of weapons that help governments tyrannize their citizens, and the dangers of America's permanent warfare state that has made the military-industrial-complex perhaps the most pervasive aspect of American society.

In President Dwight Eisenhower's famous farewell address, he warned the public about the threats that a large armaments industry posed to democratic process, constitutional liberties, and peace. Since then, the U.S. economy has been largely dominated by the perpetuation and exportation of weapons technology and a state of virtual perpetual war all over the globe.

Fifty years later, the U.S. is by far the world's largest weapons dealer in the world and spends more money on "defense" than nearly the rest of the world combined. All around the world, many of the most cruel and vicious states receive their means of maintaining their iron fists from the U.S. government.

American tanks and tear gas help quell protests in Bahrain, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and all throughout the Middle East. U.S. fighter jets are a staple of many militaries in countries where a large majority of their populations live in unbelievable poverty. The cluster bombs used to flatten southern Lebanon and the white phosphorous mercilessly dropped on the Gaza Strip by Israel might as well be draped in the stars and stripes. Even the much-maligned Iranian government received nuclear technology from the CIA.

It is only natural and predictable that the U.S. government's latest militarized technology is beginning to be exported.

The problem stems from America's foolish embrace of a foreign policy based on empire and global dominance, perpetual war, and the corporatist economics of "defense contractors."

The Pentagon's new F-35 program is the perfect example. While DC politicians play politics over a "sequester," the F-35 project will cost $1.5 trillion yet has performed so poorly in recent tests that the Pentagon has simply lowered the standards. It is big, bulky, and would be great against the Imperial Japanese Air Force, but it is completely useless in a world where enemies are increasingly stateless, decentralized and fighting fourth-generation warfare. Over-promising and under-delivering are staples of Pentagon contractors.

The reason that these programs are so popular in Washington is simple corporatism and politics. As even Lockheed-Martin notes, the F-35 would provide over 100,000 jobs in 47 states, spread out to hit nearly every congressional district. The incentive for perpetuating these monstrosities is enormous.

Unfortunately, the F-35 program is the rule not the exception. The bipartisan ideology of an interventionist foreign policy dominates DC, and weapons contractors spend millions lobbying for more weapons sales and wars that bring billions in returns; a self-licking ice cream cone of rent-seeking corporations and political power.

The military-industrial-complex is the perfect example of Frederic Bastiat's "broken window fallacy" and the problems with government intervention into the economy. What is seen are the engineering wonders of massive military hardware and millions of jobs hitched to the Pentagon and its contractors. What is unseen, however, is the wealth that could've been created serving people's actual wants and needs in the free marketplace that was instead forcibly extracted from the people by the state and handed out to politically-favored corporations.

For example, 85%-90% of large military contractors' profits come from government contracts. Each U.S. household pays over $1,000 per year in taxes to pay for the military-industrial-complex. The "shock and awe" 2003 carpet bombing of Baghdad might as well have been a Lockheed promotional video.

While the defenders of this military Keynesianism claim that this policy helps create inventions and technologies, there is actually very little useful spillover into the private sector. If people really wanted this national security state and weaponry, they wouldn't need to be forced to pay for it.
Unfortunately, from my libertarian perspective, it is very easy to highlight the horrors that unchecked state power unleashes but, very difficult to come up with answers and solutions. We can't un-invent drone technology, nuclear weapons and stealth fighters. But taking Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics off of welfare would be a good start.

What we can do is make it loud and clear as frequently as possible that we are sick and tired of a policy of empire, perpetual war, and corporatism that allows this system to exist. Our liberties, prosperity and peace depend upon it.

End Taylor

I don't know about you, but I sick and tired of a policy of empire, perpetual war, and corporatism.

I also agree with Taylor that "taking Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics off of welfare would be a good start".

If you are a supporter of drones, the F-35 program, or US defense policies in general, hopefully the guest post by Taylor changes your mind.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Damn Cool Pics

McDonald’s Happy Meals for Horror Film Fans

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 07:59 PM PDT

This is what they would look like. Not for kids.

Via newtclements

Confirming Rich Cordray to Lead the CFPB

Featured

Weekly Address: Confirming Rich Cordray to Lead the CFPB

In this week’s address, President Obama discusses the Senate’s confirmation of Rich Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB is an independent watchdog set up to protect families from irresponsible behavior in the financial sector – one that puts mortgage lenders, student lenders, payday lenders, and credit reporting and debt collection agencies under greater scrutiny, while providing the American people a place to get some measure of justice if they don’t play by the rules.

Watch this week's Weekly Address.

Top Stories

Watch the West Wing Week here.

Two Presidents in the White House: Former President George H.W. Bush joined President Obama at the White House on Monday to honor the 5,000th Daily Point of Light Award winners. This award recognizes Americans that serve their communities in unique ways. At the event, President Obama announced his plan to continue President Bush’s legacy: a new Presidential Memorandum on expanding national service. The President’s initiative will help Americans become more engaged in service by tapping the full resources of the federal government.

Immigration Reform: Spanish-language television anchors from around the country were offered a unique opportunity on Tuesday – the chance to visit the White House with behind-the-scenes access and interview President Obama. After attending briefings surrounding issues important to Latinos, the reporters spoke with President Obama about the importance of comprehensive immigration reform. “Immigration is always difficult – it always has been in this country,” said President Obama. “But what’s also been true is that this is the thing that separated America from every other country on Earth. It’s part of what makes us special, and we have to continue that tradition by passing comprehensive immigration reform.”

Protecting Americans: After blocking a vote on his nomination for two years, the Senate confirmed Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday. President Obama spoke from the East Room on Wednesday about the significance of Cordray’s role – one that looks out for the financial interests of every day Americans. The President noted the accomplishments already made by the CFPB and said that with a leader in place, the Bureau would be well equipped to continue protecting consumers.

"Today, if you want to take out a mortgage or a student loan or a payday loan, or you’ve got a credit reporting agency or debt collector who’s causing you problems -- maybe they're not playing by the rules, maybe they're taking advantage of you -- you have somewhere to go. The CFPB has already addressed more than 175,000 complaints from all across the nation, giving people an advocate who is working with them when they're dealing with these financial institutions that may not always be thinking about consumers first."

Health Care Refunds: President Obama spoke from the White House on Thursday to discuss the Affordable Care Act. This year, 8.5 million Americans will receive a refund from their health insurance company, thanks to a rule that requires insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of their customers’ premiums on medical care, instead of administrative costs. “So this is just an example of how the Affordable Care Act is doing what it’s designed to do: deliver more choices, better benefits, a check on rising costs, and higher quality care,” the President said. “That’s what it was designed to do, and we’re already seeing those effects take place.”

President Obama discusses Trayvon Martin: The President surprised the White House Press Corps today with an appearance in the Briefing Room to talk about Trayvon Martin and the verdict in the trial following the teenager's death. "Watching the debate over the course of the last week, I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit," the President said:

"You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away."

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Seth's Blog : Sort & search

Sort & search

Search is powerful, essential and lucrative. Google demonstrated just how much value can be created when you let people easily find what they want.

Sort, on the other hand, is easily overlooked and something that most of us can can work with.

For example, the way a restaurant sorts the wines on the wine list at will have a dramatic impact on what people order. If you list the cheap wines first, people will probably end up spending less. And when your wine list migrates to an iPad and you let the diner sort by price, popularity and other indicators, consumption patterns will instantly change.

Hotels.com, Zagats, Kayak and hundreds of other sites let you sort by quality, ranking and price. Not only does this change the way we choose, it also changes the behavior of the those being ranked! Once a metric for ranking becomes popular (or the default) then those being ranked will work to make their ranking go up. No surprise. Then how come Airbnb.com doesn't let users rank places by the quality of their reviews? It would cost them close to nothing, but it would dramatically change how hard a location works to earn good ratings.

When someone encounters what you make, you must make a choice about the order of what's on offer, and you also make the choice as to whether or not you'll let the user sort by other attributes. Typepad doesn't provide me with a way to let you sort the posts on this blog by popularity, but it would certainly change how you consumed it if they did.

Alphabetical, numerical and first-come sorts by default are primarily a copout. They imply that a simple search is what the user is after, but that's almost never the case. Users want you to build information into the order of things. When we have the guts (and tech) to provide relevant sorting, we present a point of view and train our users as well as our providers.

When we rank people, or the products we create, we have the opportunity to not only change the way people select, we can also change what we make.