Worth knowing...

-- If we put a 2% surcharge on millionaires and 5% on billionaires, instead of cutting their taxes, the long-term deficit would disappear. :: RB Reich


-- "My colleagues, they study artificial intelligence; me, I study natural stupidity." -Amos Tversky, Stanford psychologist and a founding father of behavioral economics
:: quote of the day, The Big Picture


-- Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 :: this is a report issued by the Congressional Budget Office in October 2011 that assesses income inequality in the US. Needless to say, it  discourages. If you want to read a nice summary in the CBO Director's Blog

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-- Are Taxes in the U.S. High or Low? (Hint: Too low: completelybaked), Bruce Bartlett, NY Times
see also: TRUTH: US Top Margin, Capital Gains & Corporate Taxes Too Low

-- U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1913-2011 
(Note: maximum marginal rate is equal to or exceeds 70% from 1918 to 1981, when Ronald Reagan came along and ran the largest deficits in history outside of WWII, and initiated the decline of the middle class and concentration of wealth at the top end of the scale.)


-- The TRUTH About Who Really Owns All Of America's Debt
Most US debt is owned by Americans: mutual funds, money market funds, pension funds, Social Security trust fund, and "household" (including hedge funds); China holds about 8%


-- Europe Stifles Drivers in Favor of Alternatives
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: June 26, 2011
Cities in Europe want to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.


-- AP IMPACT: NRC and industry rewrite nuke history
By JEFF DONN
Jun 28, 6:39 AM (ET)
To rationalize unscrutinized 20-year license extensions on nuclear power plants designed for a 40-year lifetime, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear power industry collaborated to rewrite power plant history and design specifications.


-- The Koch Internship Program: become a blathering idiot (or, an even bigger blathering idiot), and get paid to do it! An internship program for fascists? This is nuts, it's Hitler Youth redux...Scotty! beam me the hell up!


-- Commodity traders: The trillion dollar club: you probably want to take 30 minutes or so and read this expose of who is trading the stuff that keep you alive and moving: food, fuel, and metals... and also who causes the price you pay for these essentials to rise beyond levels predicated by demand. These folks are ripping us off, and I think most of us (including myself), know little about what they are up to day to day, or how much their exploits cost consumers.