Banks Lose In Swipe-Fee Showdown
Reacting to the latest round of depressing jobs numbers, the president said that it is just like "if you got hit by a truck, it's going to take a while for you to mend." Being hit by a truck is not a bad metaphor -- but he left something out. If you get hit by a truck, you are taken to a hospital for major interventions. When you are wheeled through the emergency room doors on a gurney, people react; they move purposefully and quickly; machines are brought out; desperate measures are taken. But that's not at all what happened with the economy. Instead, the economy got hit by a truck, was wheeled into the ER, and those in charge largely left the patient to heal on his own while they went into a back room to talk about the long-term building plan for the hospital. You know what might help speed along the mending? Surgery.
"You can't look at what happened in the run-up to 2008 and see how it's not going to repeat itself, given what we've done," says Neil Barofksy, who became TARP's Special Inspector General in December, 2008.
How I wish that Ben Bernanke would get caught emailing photos of his underwear-clad groin. Otherwise we don't stand a chance of reversing this administration's economic policy, which is shaping up to be every bit as disastrous as that of its predecessor.
Given the corruption and dependency we'll leave in our wake, without an introspective self-critique our policies, America could turn Afghanistan into Central Asia's Haiti.
Why should parents take more chances of their children getting sick because we are squandering their best medicines to fatten animals faster? Is this really what Montanans elected their sole congressman to do?
Is natural gas Satan or savior in our quest for energy independence? This is not just a technical question, it is a question that cuts to the very heart of what it means to be an American.
Let's say your spouse sends you a dirty picture. It doesn't matter if you both like it: officially, you're violating the Terms of Service of most software companies, and they can remove the offending image.
I'm not ready to go gentle into that good night without a fight for the American economy. So instead of depression, I recommend common sense, fueled by a little bit of genuine anger about how screwed up our economic policy debate has become.
The right thing for Weiner to do is accept some responsibility and get a Representative into that seat who can uphold the ideological values Weiner fumbled, by agreeing in this instance to metaphorically cut off his own head.
We do not need less stimulus right now, but more; we do not need less regulation, but more. We need to focus on job creation, not debt reduction, right now.
According to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, the recovery has stalled because of strict banking regulation. I'm not making this up.
What we badly need is a national conversation about our work environments and the technologies that make us feel isolated, anxious, and bored, despite all their promises of social connection.
One of the most troubling aspects of the ongoing outbreak in Europe is that it involves a strain of E. coli that often flies under the radar in the United States.
Why are so many men acting badly? The easy answer is to just say that these men are high-testosterone-driven cheaters. But as a neuroscientist, I know the brain tells a different story.
We need a society in which our government and our people embrace responsibility for the common good and in which altruism and philanthropy are more a motivation in supporting charitable activity than in the profit-seeking greed of capital markets.
Many news outlets marked the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS with stories on the medical and scientific aspects of the disease. But was religion mentioned?
In recent decades, unemployment in the U.S. has been less of a challenge than it has been in Europe. This is a double edged-sword that has rendered the country less resilient. Jobs must be the number one priority.
Whether we are consuming sugar, drugs, power, people, things or sex, we are addicted to the "fix," and what we are attempting to fix is ourselves and our lack of wholeness.
What's bothersome about the Anthony Weiner story is that the pictures seem to be serving the media's own interests more than the public's.
My family moved to our quiet farming town on the Delaware River so we could enjoy a simple, healthy life outside of the bustling city. We want to enjoy that peace down the road, and know that the tap water we drink, and bathe our children in, is safe.
To listen to the Saudis and their friends in the press, they are doing the very best they can about sky-high prices at the pump, and we should all be thankful. The sham is preposterous, and yet they are able to game us again and again.
As our technology evolves, we will have the capacity to reach new, ever-increasing depths. The question is: What kind of technology do we want to deploy in the far reaches of the ocean? Tools of science, ecology and documentation, or the destructive tools of heavy industry?
Looking ahead, the U.S. and Russia have the opportunity to share our experience and work with other countries to promote nuclear security and to combat terrorism.
We can only hope for the day that a U.S. Congresswoman is caught sending boob and crotch pictures to boy-fans, but no woman who leaves the second button undone on a blouse can get elected dog catcher in America.
Our deficit will not be reduced by ending Medicare and Medicaid. It makes no economic sense; it certainly is not morally justifiable. We must honor the moral obligation that our country has to help the less fortunate among us.
Can a school be both good and bad at the same time? Is educational quality -- like beauty -- in the eye of the beholder or do test scores say it all?
