Archive for the 'Economy' Category
“Computer Glitch Blamed For Nationwide EBT System Shutdown On Saturday”
October 12th, 2013There’s no shortage of imbeciles on the Internet predicting certain doom every five minutes, but the dole situation is something that Cryptogon readers in the U.S. need to watch carefully—unless you think that tens of millions of heavily armed, broke and hungry people aren’t any cause for concern. “Normal operations” depend on the availability of […]
Ghoulish Corporate Fascism and the Cost of Pharmaceuticals
October 12th, 2013In the piece below, “Market competition among pharmaceutical companies,” means a market failure situation with cartel pricing. Via: New York Times: Thanks in part to the $250 million last year spent on lobbying for pharmaceutical and health products — more than even the defense industry — the government allows such practices. Lawmakers in Washington have […]
‘Google Is Going to Include Your Face in Its New Ads’
October 11th, 2013Via: Business Week: Google (GOOG) is tinkering with the ever-delicate balance between selling advertisements and creeping its users out. On Friday the company said it would begin including recommendations that Google+ users make in advertisements. The new policy kicks in on Nov. 11. Here’s how it works: You use Google+ to rate some product or […]
The Big Data Magic 8 Ball Now Hiring
October 11th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: They can drive cars, win Jeopardy and find your soon-to-be favorite song. Machines are also learning to decipher the most human qualities about you — and help businesses predict your potential to be their next star employee. A handful of technology companies from Knack.it Corp. to Evolv Inc. are doing just that, developing […]
USC Helps Hollywood Concoct Obamacare PSYOP: “People Learn from TV”
October 11th, 2013Here are some excerpts from related posts: ‘Clearly a Smash Hit’: Population Reduction Through ‘Long-Running Serialized Dramas’: And if the story is right, if the narrative is correct, people will live into that narrative. And in the absence of a good narrative will default into – maybe I will call them more “primal” sort of […]
“A Corporate Trojan Horse”: Obama Pushes Secretive TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S. Laws
October 11th, 2013Via: Democracy Now: As the federal government shutdown continues, Secretary of State John Kerry heads to Asia for secret talks on a sweeping new trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is often referred to by critics as “NAFTA on steroids,” and would establish a free trade zone that would stretch from Vietnam to Chile, […]
In Russia, 110 people Own 35% of Wealth
October 10th, 2013Via: Los Angeles Times: Global wealth levels have set records, but in Russia, the explosion in wealth has given way to the highest income inequality level, a new report showed. In Russia, just 110 people own 35% of the country’s wealth, according to a report released Wednesday by Credit Suisse. The country (population 139 million) […]
Report: Foxconn Using Forced Student Labor to Build Sony’s PS4
October 9th, 2013Via: Games in Asia: If reports in the Chinese press are to be believed, Sony’s next-gen games console may be being assembled using some very outdated labor practices. According to Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily, thousands of students from an IT engineering program at the Xi’an Institute of Technology are being forced to work at Foxconn’s […]
U.S. Treasury Bill Interest Rates Skyrocketing
October 9th, 2013Via: Washington Post: Normally, the interest rate the government pays on bills is around the same as the short-term interest rates in other money markets (for example, the interest rates banks charge each other for overnight cash, or the interest rate that the Federal Reserve targets). Both of those are near zero right now, which […]
Microsoft and Lockheed Martin Team Up for Government Cloud Platform
October 8th, 2013Via: Information Week: Microsoft will soon launch a dedicated multi-tenant cloud environment that meets the distinct requirements of U.S. government agencies. The Windows Azure U.S. Government Cloud will be an exclusive community cloud available for U.S. state, local and federal government agencies. It will be hosted in Microsoft data centers located in the U.S. and […]
