Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Gigabit Seattle
December 14th, 2012Via: seattle.gov: In December of 2012 Mayor Mike McGinn announced that the City of Seattle has reached an agreement with broadband developer Gigabit Squared to develop and operate an ultra high-speed fiber-to-the-home/fiber-to-the-business broadband network. The plan will begin with a demonstration fiber project in twelve Seattle neighborhoods and includes wireless methods to deploy services more […]
The Great Decoupling of the U.S. Economy
December 14th, 2012Via: Andrew McAfee’s Blog: What’s going on? Why have the things that workers care about – jobs and wages – become decoupled from the the other things that economy-watchers care about? So far, explanations for this unhappy phenomenon include tax and policy changes, and the effects of globalization and offshoring. These are clearly powerful forces, […]
Tiny Bhutan to Move to 100% Organic Farming Methods; Most Farmers Already Farm Organically
December 13th, 2012Via: NPR: The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan drew international attention a few years back for saying gross national happiness should trump gross domestic product when measuring a nation’s progress. If you’re going to prioritize happiness, the Bhutanese thinking goes, you’d better include the environment and spiritual and mental well-being in your calculations. (Not everyone […]
The Real Toy Story
December 12th, 2012Via: Business Insider: German photographer Michael Wolf has taken a phenomenal series of photos he calls “The Real Toy Story” that shows what workers’ lives are like as they make all those toys. Wolf’s photographs come from visits to five toy factories around mainland China. He has given us permission to share them with you […]
More Fed Pumping
December 12th, 2012Who needs the Chinese to buy this stuff? Not the Fed. Via: Bloomberg: The Federal Reserve will amplify record accommodation tomorrow by announcing $45 billion in monthly Treasury buying that will push its balance sheet almost to $4 trillion, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Forty-eight of 49 economists predict the Federal Open Market […]
HSBC Said to Near $1.9 Billion Settlement Over Money Laundering
December 10th, 2012Via: New York Times: Federal and state authorities plan to announce a record $1.9 billion settlement with HSBC on Tuesday, a major victory in the government’s broad crackdown on money laundering at banks. The settlement with HSBC stems from accusations that the British banking giant transferred billions of dollars on behalf of sanctioned nations like […]
Eurozone Crisis Has Pushed Millions Into Poverty
December 10th, 2012Via: AFP: Crushed by an austerity squeeze and towering unemployment, millions of Europeans joined the ranks of the newly poor in 2012 in a crisis that showed no mercy for the old, women or children. An arc of misery spread pitilessly across southern Europe’s middle classes, engulfing bailed-out nations Greece and Portugal and tottering heavyweights […]
Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
December 10th, 2012Via: ZeroHedge: And we thought last month’s delayed foodstamp data was bad. The just reported foodstamp number for September was a doozy, with 607,544 new Americans becoming eligible for foodstamps, as a record 47.7 million Americans are now living in poverty at least according to the USDA. The monthly increase was the highest since May […]
FDA Increases Allowed Radiation Doses of Meats for Human Consumption
December 9th, 2012Via: Natural News: Rather than actually take the time to address the root causes of meat and poultry contamination, which more often than not are a direct result of outrageously unsanitary factory farming practices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has instead decided to simply up the doses of radiation that industrial food producers […]
A U.S. Apple Factory May be Robot City
December 9th, 2012Probably the biggest caveat that’s not mentioned about this alleged insourcing boom is that some companies will be looking to gain the benefits of manufacturing in the U.S. but using robotic labor to do it. —The Insourcing Boom Via: Computer World: Apple’s planned investment of $100 million next year in a U.S. manufacturing facility is […]
