@22:30, 9/2/14

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1

Automobiles

Wheelies: The Corvette Sinkhole Filled Edition

By BENJAMIN PRESTON | Sep 2nd 2014

2

Opinion

What Makes People Poor?

By THOMAS B. EDSALL | Sep 2nd 2014

Before we can get serious about inequality, the left, the right and the center need to realize that they have a lot to learn from each other.

Poverty; United States Economy; Unemployment; Income Inequality; Labor and Jobs; Sociology; Research; Men and Boys; Minimum Wage

It is not a proper general question.
Each person is uniquely impoverished.
Moral failure is a concept derived from religion.
Morals are a Revealed Truth.

3

Automobiles

Motorsports: Labor Day Weekend Rewards for Power, DeJoria, Kahne and Marquez

By JERRY GARRETT | Sep 2nd 2014

4

U.S.

Judge Rejects Defense’s Criteria for Convicting Ex-Governor as Jury Gets Case

By TRIP GABRIEL | Sep 2nd 2014

The case against Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, who are facing corruption charges, will go into its second day of deliberations.

Bribery and Kickbacks; Frauds and Swindling; Corruption (Institutional); Gifts to Public Officials; Jury System

Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, will be found guilty.

5

U.S.

Report Counters Claims of Migrant Abuse

By JULIA PRESTON | Sep 2nd 2014

Inspectors for the Department of Homeland Security’s found no evidence of “systemic abuse” at detention facilities, a report said.

Illegal Immigration; Immigration Detention; Child Abuse and Neglect; Inspectors General

The Department of Homeland Security has no wish to find itself guilty.

6

World

Years of Rape and ‘Utter Contempt’ in Britain

By KATRIN BENNHOLD | Sep 1st 2014

In Rotherham, England, at least 1,400 children were lured into a network of sexual exploitation while the authorities looked the other way.

Sex Crimes; Child Abuse and Neglect; Children and Childhood; Women and Girls; Police

I doubt there is an enormous conspiracy among the children.  The alternative is a profoundly corrupt police.
The prosecutors must place the commander on trial along with his command.  On conviction they will be placed in the general prison population.
I expect their early demise.
"Short eyes" are not tolerated.

7

Business Day

Europe Crisis Is Resistant to Medicine of Low Rates

By JACK EWING | Sep 2nd 2014

The European Central Bank’s negative rates strategy has not worked as planned, which is why it is under increasing pressure to try something else.

European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- ); Euro (Currency)

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/money-in-a-time-of-zero/

"Money in a Time of Zero

September 3, 2014 9:16 am

My old teacher Charles Kindleberger used to say that anyone who spends too much time thinking about international money goes mad; he meant that people start obsessing about the international role of the dollar or whatever, and start to think that it’s the most important thing in the world, when it’s actually fairly trivial. What he didn’t say, but seems obvious these days, is that a similar thing happens to people who spend too much time thinking about money in general — specifically, on trying to decode money’s true meaning and find the real, true measure of the money supply; they end up starting to believe that everything in economics hinges on getting that measure right, when in fact almost nothing does.

One particular variant of this madness — which I found myself thinking about after reading these two pieces by Simon Wren-Lewis and Frances Coppola (neither of whom has, I think, gone mad in this way, but allude to people who have) — is the sort of boomerang position that since we can’t clearly define money, and because there isn’t a fixed money multiplier, monetary policy doesn’t matter. That’s as wrong as the simplistic quantity-theory view that “printing money” leads directly to inflation, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

It’s true that we’re living in a time of monetary impotence, where central banks trying to reflate economies are not having much success gaining traction. But it’s important to note that contractionary monetary policy is working just fine; all the central banks that mistakenly decided that it was time to raise rates succeeded in doing just that, before realizing their error and reversing course.

But what about the fact that vast increases in the monetary base have failed to do much to the economy, and that various broad measures of money haven’t moved; doesn’t this show that monetary policy doesn’t matter?

No, not at all. The irrelevance of the monetary base isn’t a generic issue, it’s something that happens when you’re in a liquidity trap — when interest rates are at the zero lower bound. And this is not hindsight. Way back in 1998, when I analyzed the liquidity trap in Japan, I predicted exactly this disconnect (pdf):

[P]utting financial intermediation into a liquidity trap framework suggests, pace Friedman and Schwartz, that it is quite misleading to look at monetary aggregates under these circumstances: in a liquidity trap, the central bank may well find that it cannot increase broader monetary aggregates, that increments to the monetary base are simply added to reserves and currency holdings, and thus both that such aggregates are no longer valid indicators of the stance of monetary policy and that their failure to rise does not indicate that the essential problem lies in the banking sector.

You can see, by the way, why I get annoyed both by people who declare that nobody could have predicted the failure of balance-sheet expansion to cause inflation, and by those who claim that conventional economists like me just don’t understand that money is endogenous. Guys, I laid it all out 16 years ago.

And as for the idea that the absence of a clear definition of money, plus the fact that most money is created by financial institutions, means that central banks don’t matter, James Tobin dealt with all that more than fifty years ago (pdf). Just read the first couple of pages of that paper; Tobin anticipated just about every piece of the current debate.

The point is that if you think something deeply disturbing from an analytical perspective has taken place, if you think that recent events require a fundamental rethinking of monetary theory, you basically weren’t paying attention. If you read your Tobin, if you read what people like Mike Woodford and I had to say about the liquidity trap, you expected to see exactly what we’re seeing."

8

U.S.

Police Report Says Parents Didn’t Realize Daughter Had Shot Gun Instructor

By ADAM NAGOURNEY | Sep 2nd 2014

9

U.S.

A Prisoner’s Beard Offers the Next Test of Religious Liberty for the Supreme Court

By ADAM LIPTAK | Sep 2nd 2014

10

Technology

In Nude Celebrity Photos, Privacy Collides With the Wild Web

By MIKE ISAAC | Sep 2nd 2014

11

Opinion

The New Look of Smokers' Litter

By ANDREW C. REVKIN | Sep 2nd 2014

The tobacco companies are busy.

12

World

Israel: U.N. Chief Criticizes Seizing of West Bank Land

By RICK GLADSTONE | Sep 1st 2014

13

Business Day

New York Accuses Evans Bank of Redlining

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG | Sep 2nd 2014

A matter easy of proof.

14

Health

U.S. Health Agency Advises More Vigilance on Campuses

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA | Sep 2nd 2014

Needless window dressing.

 

15

U.S.

House Turns Its Sympathetic Ear From Big Business to Oil and Gas

By JONATHAN WEISMAN | Sep 2nd 2014

Wall Street and Big Business have lost their most sympathetic ear, oil and gas industries are on the rise, and Louisiana once again has a booming voice.

United States Politics and Government; Lobbying and Lobbyists; Banking and Financial Institutions; Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline

No visible change.

The lobbyists assistants were elected. 

16

U.S.

After a Father’s Plea, Few in Missouri Try to Disrupt Traffic

By MANNY FERNANDEZ | Sep 1st 2014

Smart man.

17

N.Y. / Region

Despite Strength, Cuomo’s Re-election Bid Is Hardly a Coronation

By THOMAS KAPLAN | Sep 1st 2014

whine.

18

Opinion

Dealing With Iraq, Syria and ISIS

Sep 2nd 2014

Responses to opinion articles about the Mideast turmoil.

Only the presidents opinion counts.

19

World

U.S. and Europe Are Struggling With Response to a Bold Russia

By PETER BAKER and STEVEN ERLANGER | Sep 2nd 2014

Officials hope that any new measures will have more impact than the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow so far.

Embargoes and Sanctions; United States International Relations; United States Politics and Government

War is never a good choice.
"The only way to win is not to play"

U.S.

Father Seeks Answers in Death of Son, Who Police Say Shot Himself While Cuffed

By KATY RECKDAHL | Sep 1st 2014

Calls for a federal review after the state police say a 22-year-old black man fatally shot himself in Louisiana while handcuffed in the back of a cruiser.

Police Brutality, Misconduct and Shootings; Blacks

The police have made a very grave error.
It is not clear what it was.

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