Yearly Archives: 2012

Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes says province looking to tap U.S. military personnel to help develop oilsands

"Hughes said there are a half-million unemployed or underemployed younger military veterans in the U.S. Forecasts conducted on the labour needs of Alberta’s energy sector range greatly, with one study stating the province could be short 130,000 workers within seven years. Concerns over the welfare of U.S. military personnel returning from overseas — particularly the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — have been growing in the U.S. Among the challenges they face are homelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder and unemployment in a country still struggling with an unemployment rate of around 8%." Continue reading →

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Still the Endorsement?: Libertarians Shouldn’t Act Like Paul Ryan Fans

Rand Paul endorsing Mitt Romney had everything to do with the liberty movement and little to do with Mitt Romney. I explained why, after it happened, here. If Sen. Paul had not endorsed Romney, I would be pretty regretful that he didn’t. The necessity of this is as clear to me now as the day [...]

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Occupy hatches plot to destroy payday loan industry

"'The Debt Resistor’s Operations Manual' is 122 pages of some of the dodgiest financial advice we’ve ever seen. It’s no wonder the entire thing was published for free and written by 'an anonymous collective' of contributors. Here’s one of their more elaborate plans to upend the predatory payday lending industry, which involves finding 1,000 people from three different continents willing to commit fraud." Continue reading →

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Walmart Goodies: retail giant goes gourmet

"'For only $7 a month, including tax and shipping, subscribers receive a gift box at their doorstep filled with five to eight hand-picked taster samples ranging from healthy and organic to artisan and ethnic,' Walmart said in a statement Wednesday. 'The new Goodies Co. box underscores Walmart’s commitment to e-commerce and its use of social innovations to create new offerings for consumers.' Goodies has been in beta testing for a few months, and now has over 3,000 subscribers, according to the company. The more popular products have a good chance at eventually being offered in Walmart stores." Continue reading →

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Oklahoma Doctors vs. Obamacare

"Three years ago, Dr. Keith Smith, co-founder and managing partner of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, took an initiative that would only be considered radical in the health care industry: He posted online a list of prices for 112 common surgical procedures. The Surgery Center's consumer-driven model could become increasingly common as Americans look for alternatives to the traditional health care market—an unintended consequence of Obamacare. Patients may have no choice but to look outside the traditional health care industry in the face of higher costs and reduced access to doctors and hospitals." Continue reading →

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The Twinkie, a Suicide

"The snack giant endured $52 million in workers' comp claims in 2011, according to its bankruptcy filing this January. Hostess's 372 collective-bargaining agreements required the company to maintain 80 different health and benefit plans, 40 pension plans and mandated a $31 million increase in wages and health care and other benefits for 2012. Union work rules usually required cake and bread products to be delivered to a single retail location using two separate trucks. Drivers weren't allowed to load their own vehicles, and the workers who loaded bread weren't allowed to load cake. 'Pull up' employees moved products from back rooms to shelves." Continue reading →

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Detlev Schlichter: Some personal thoughts on surviving the monetary meltdown

"That government bonds are a safe investment can, of course, not be left a matter of simple opinion but has to be enshrined in the laws of the land, and the state’s rapidly expanding finance constabulary is already working on it. Via legislation and regulation, the state is busily building itself a captive investor base for its own debt. I fear that to a large degree this is even welcome by the asset management industry. In an unstable and increasingly uncertain world, being told what to buy lifts a great responsibility off one’s shoulders." Continue reading →

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Homelanders propose raising taxes on US Persons abroad to pay for “territorial taxation”

"In case you hadn’t already figured it out, this is the shape of things to come for U.S. Persons abroad: relentless bipartisan attacks on the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. The latest effort in this direction contains provisions to phase out 20% of the FEIE every year until it is fully eliminated in 2017. It uses the taxes and penalties raised from U.S. Persons abroad to cut taxes on Homeland corporations, allowing them to repatriate their foreign profits with a waiver of 85% of the U.S. tax that would be due. The benefits of this tax cut will be denied to U.S. corporations which do not maintain their 'U.S. employment levels'." Continue reading →

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