Stable Genius Liberal

Robert Reich: The Answer Isn’t Socialism; It’s Capitalism that Better Spreads the Benefits of the Productivity Revolution

Francois Hollande’s victory doesn’t and shouldn’t mean a movement toward socialism in Europe or elsewhere. Socialism isn’t the answer to the basic problem haunting all rich nations.

The answer is to reform capitalism. The world’s productivity revolution is outpacing the political will of rich…

untilted: Review of the cardboard camera from IKEA

hishe:

IKEA KNÄPPA

Yesterday I attended a VIP sneak preview of the new IKEA PS designer furniture line in Malmö, Sweden. I was not the slightest bit interested in the designer furniture. I was there for one reason, to play with and acquire the new IKEA KNÄPPA, the cardboard camera.

The event…

Rest in peace, Adam Yauch.

You will be remembered by everyone who fights for their right to paaaaaaarty.

U.S. Has No Idea Whether al-Qaida is Beat

The official continued, “I think it is a very useful exercise, for us and for you all, to think about how do you conceive of the defeat of an organization like al-Qaida? But I think, I’ve said in the past, determining whether or not we’ve achieved strategic defeat may be more a question for historians than for analysts.”

So they are going to leave it to historians to decide when the country can get back to normal levels of security and military posture?

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I am not a defender of the economic policies of the Emperor Diocletian. Don’t Know Much About (Ancient) History – NYTimes.com

Robert Reich: How Europe’s Double Dip Could Become America’s

robertreich:

A large debt with faster growth is preferable to a smaller debt sitting atop no growth at all. And it’s infinitely better than a smaller debt on top of a contracting economy.

Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party. The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.… Continue reading Untitled

RNC Spokeswoman: Republican Economic Platform Will Be The Bush Program, ‘Just Updated’

So when everyone on the let starts calling Romney’s plan the Bush plan, Romney will admit it? Or will he claim that it both is and isn’t?

Venezuela Faces Shortages in Grocery Staples

By 6:30 a.m., a full hour and a half before the store would open, about two dozen people were already in line. They waited patiently, not for the latest iPhone, but for something far more basic: groceries. “Whatever I can get,” said Katherine Huga, 23, a mother of two, describing her shopping list. She gave a shrug of resignation. “You buy what they have.” Venezuela is one of the world’s top oil producers at a time of soaring energy prices, yet shortages of staples like milk, meat and toilet paper are a chronic part of life here, often turning grocery shopping into a hit or miss proposition.

If the economy is this messed up with oil at historic highs, what happens if oil drop by 10% or 20%? Price controls don’t work. As far as I can tell, Chávez’s has turned to really radical and awful price controls to reign in inflation. They should be raising interest rates to control inflation and opening up to free trade.

Robert Reich: Why Anyone Should Care that Bill O’Reilly Calls Me A Communist

robertreich:

Bill O’Reilly, the tumescent personality of Fox News, said on his Friday show “Robert Reich is a communist who secretly adores Karl Marx.” (This came after Fox News’ Neil Cavoto called me a “sanctimonious twit” for suggesting the rich should pay more in taxes.)

O’Reilly’s accusation is odd, to…