Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Wal-Mart Tests iPhone App Checkout Feature
September 1st, 2012Wow! Bonus points to Wal-Mart for getting their own employees to test a system that will be used to lay them off. Via: Reuters: Wal-Mart Stores Inc is testing a system that would allow shoppers to scan items using their iPhones and then pay at a self-checkout counter, a move that could trim checkout times […]
Drones Over Britain
August 30th, 2012Via: BBC: This year the US Congress passed legislation giving US airspace regulator the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) until September 2015 to open up its airspace to drones, and Britain is expected to follow suit. The UK’s airspace regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), has told BBC Newsnight that large unmanned drones could be flying […]
‘Americans Shot in Mexico Were CIA Operatives Aiding in Drug War’
August 30th, 2012Aiding in drug war… *cough* *wink* Via: New York Times: The two Americans who were wounded when gunmen fired on an American Embassy vehicle last week were Central Intelligence Agency employees sent as part of a multiagency effort to bolster Mexican efforts to fight drug traffickers, officials said on Tuesday. The two operatives, who were […]
Spain’s Jobless Turn to Barter System
August 29th, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: Even though she’s one of millions of young, unemployed Spaniards, 22-year-old Silvia Martín takes comfort in knowing that her bank is still standing behind her. It’s not a lending institution, but rather a time bank whose nearly 400 members barter their services by the hour. Ms. Martín, who doesn’t own a […]
IBM Envisions Watson as Supercharged Siri for Businesses
August 28th, 2012Via: Bloomberg: International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) researchers spent four years developing Watson, the computer smart enough to beat the champions of the quiz show “Jeopardy!” Now they’re trying to figure out how to get those capabilities into the phone in your pocket.
Venezuela Ramps up China Oil Exports
August 27th, 2012Via: OilPrice.com: The biggest geostrategic change of the past decade overlooked by Washington policy wonks in their fixation on their self-proclaimed “war on terror” is that Latin America has been throwing off the shackles of the Monroe Doctrine. These ignored developments may well soon refocus Washington’s attention on the Southern Hemisphere, as Venezuela’s President Hugo […]
Laid-Off US Workers Are Taking Huge Pay Cuts At Their New Jobs
August 26th, 2012“The Great Reession was now entering its third decade, and unemployment was still at a record high. Even the fast-food joints in my neighborhood had a two year waiting list for job applicants.” —Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline Via: AP: The U.S. economic recovery hasn’t felt much like one even for people who managed […]
The Cheapest Generation
August 25th, 2012Via: The Atlantic: The largest generation in American history might never spend as lavishly as its parents did—nor on the same things. Since the end of World War II, new cars and suburban houses have powered the world’s largest economy and propelled our most impressive recoveries. Millennials may have lost interest in both. … The […]
Australia: Bribes Related to Currency Printing
August 24th, 2012Via: Testosterone Pit: Central banks are designed to be “independent,” and they shroud themselves in secrecy. But they have formidable and, when it comes to money, “unlimited” powers that they harness for the benefit of their clientele, banks. And hiding behind their veil of secrecy are shenanigans that rarely seep to the surface, but when […]
Lesson from Iceland: Let Bondholders Eat Losses
August 24th, 2012I’m surprised that these admissions came from the IMF, which routinely promotes the types of absurd policies that lead to the economic crisis in the first place. If investors want to roll the dice on some country’s sovereign debt, and that stuff blows up, in any sane world they should take the hit and not […]
