Chrysler Group aired a poignant Super Bowl ad touting the Motor City’s turnaround with a message that said the United States could learn from Detroit’s rebound. …
Chrysler draws praise for Clint Eastwood ad touting U.S. turnaround
On the other hand …
… Chrysler nearly collapsed in late 2008 and was rescued as part of a $12.5 billion bailout. After a bankruptcy restructuring, Chrysler is now 58.5 percent owned by Italian automaker Fiat SpA. …
It’s Halftime in Italy, too.
And who holds that debt?
George W Bush was by far the worst President from an economics point of view. I always felt his goal (Cheney’s goal) was to shovel as many dollars to rich friends as possible.
Leave a comment if you’ve got data to refute these numbers.
(via myinnermonoblog)
Jeff Jarvis is at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the elite of the elite.
The theme is “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
… They’re discussing growth strategies and so far we’re hearing the same notions we hear elsewhere in Davos, the complete trick bag: spend money on infrastructure, be nice to business, regulate less, reform taxes, reform immigration. OK and OK.
“The problems of job creation are more complicated than that. …
Buzz Machine – Efficiency over growth (and jobs)
For example, Apple and Google are two of the wealthiest companies in 2011, but they don’t have many employees. Some jobs have been eliminated by technology. Others are gone overseas because people just as competent as you are willing to do it cheaper.
Obama’s State of the Union again chastised the American rich for not doing enough. That might be good politics, but it’s not going to do anything to create many American jobs nor reduce the “wealth gap“. I appreciate that he’s trying. … It’s better than nothing.
Is there any solution?
I don’t think so after listening to a new BBC audiocast documentary: The Wealth Gap: The View from London.
The future looks grim for most wealthy nations. The “occupy” protesters, most jobless, will continue being frustrated. And the rich will get richer. If you try to tax them, they’ll relocate abroad.
source – BBC – The Wealth Gap – Inequality in Numbers
If you have a job, I’d recommend you keep it. And start putting away emergency resources. (I’ll not be following my own advice, as you might guess.)
… One of the few bright spots is philanthropy – Davos 2012: Bill Gates commits $750m to fight AIDS
Having read Game Change, two things jump out moronic:
1. Iowa … why (since 1972) has the first major electoral event of the nominating process for President of the United States been held here?
Though only about 1% of the nation’s delegates are chosen by the Iowa State Convention, the Iowa caucuses have served as an early indication of which candidates for president might win. It’s by far the most important State. Unfairly.
If you want to be nominated you try to win Iowa. And how do you win Iowa? You buy Iowa …
2. Super PACs (new since 2010):
… which can raise unlimited sums from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as individuals. …
Supposedly independent, both Romney and Gingrich have Super Pacs … run by former employees. They are a joke and a lie.
To mock Super PACs, Colbert legally formed his own — Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (also known as the Colbert Super PAC)
Here’s one of Colbert’s real TV ads. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Parliamentary Democracy of Canada is not perfect. But I like it far better than the system in the USA.
Thomas Lee for The New York Times:
… Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.
Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said …
That article has been getting wide circulation. Not even an embargo of Chinese goods by President Newt is going to bring back manufacturing. Read the article to see why.
Foxconn City has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. … many workers earn less than $17 a day. …
related – why you shouldn’t use the new Apple iBooks Author software 😦
On the resort island of Boracay in the Philippines you see many of these culturally and age mismatched couples.
I don’t blame you for jumping to conclusions.
You’re probably right. 🙂
Yet some of these couples are in Boracay to be married. Many men of European ancestry, past their prime, look for younger Asian brides.
It’s not always the case that the rich dirty old man is taking advantage of the young, naïve woman from a developing country, more interested in the bulge of his wallet than anything else.
There’s a perfectly innocent story behind some of these photos.
Not far off life in the street myself, I’ve long been a student of the art and science of begging.
I’ve seen some good ones. Especially in India.
My philosophy on how to deal with beggars is posted here.
On the world famous resort of Boracay, Philippines you’ll meet many kids like this.
They wear torn, dirty and hilariously over-sized t-shirts. It works for me.
See more of Dennis Lee’s photos and find out what happened when he gave a mother enough money for food for a week.
These cute, tiny ragamuffins are the best beggars I’ve seen since the Chicklet girls (PHOTO) of Mexico.
A Chicklet girl, going restaurant to restaurant, might earn more than a Mexican police officer.
Randor has a Boracay blog. On one post he mentions that a beggar can easily earn more than a chambermaid at your resort ($.18/hr).
Before you hand that little guy a dollar, think on how that makes YOUR personal employees feel. Instead leave that dollar for your hotel staff (under your pillow) when you check-out. Give the little guy an orange.
Don’t reflexively go all Holier than thou, like this guy — Boracay Native Child Turned Beggar due to Island Invasion — ask the locals what’s really happening with the beggars in front of their shops. They know.
It’s more complicated than it first appears.
In Manila I stayed at a 5 Star hotel for a week. On Saturdays a vehicle pulls up and delivers a row of pitiful looking mothers with tiny babies. It’s business. You have to wonder how much of the money they collect the ladies get to keep.
I saw the same exact same mothers & babies on Sudder street, Calcutta.
The baby is not necessarily the child of the mothers. They mix and match to get the best donations.
I’m naturally sympathetic to popular uprisings … the Tea Party and Occupy _______, for example.
Nothing ever improves unless people get passionate.
On the other hand, both those movements have been mostly irrational and incoherent. Especially Occupy.
Occupy what?
Here’s the first list of complaints I can understand:
• a failure to price public goods (clean air, water, etc.) effectively
• high levels of inequality
• “the provision and distribution of medical care”
• undervaluing of “the welfare of unborn generations”
• financial crises
Those are from Economist Kenneth Rogoff.
Rogoff, not surprisingly, feels that free market Capitalism is the best solution for each:
… I am often asked if the recent global financial crisis marks the beginning of the end of modern capitalism. It is a curious question, because it seems to presume that there is a viable replacement waiting in the wings. The truth of the matter is that, for now at least, the only serious alternatives to today’s dominant Anglo-American paradigm are other forms of capitalism. …
Government regulatory reform is needed, not any experiment with Communism.
Why are the USA, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Italy — to name a few — so much worse off than their economic neighbours?
That’s the question.
(via Freakonomics)
Canada’s Oil Sands could be better regulated, certainly, but using them to symbolize evil is disingenuous at best.
I agree with the outspoken Rex.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
What percentage of delegates in Durban would I call hypocrites? … More than half, I reckon.
(via CBC)
Rick McCharles 