Bullshit Artists

House votes to uphold increased spending on ‘unneeded and unwanted’ nuclear bombs

"The DOE requested about $537 million for the B61 Life Extension Programs, but the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee provided $23.7 million more than the department asked for. In a report, the committee explained the nuclear program had its funding boosted because it had a 'troubling history of insufficiently planning for its ongoing production requirements.' Polis noted that the Air Force had recently doubted the effectiveness of the B61 nuclear bomb. A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the bomb was virtually useless, Polis explained. In addition, some European allies no longer wanted the bomb deployed in their country." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHouse votes to uphold increased spending on ‘unneeded and unwanted’ nuclear bombs

Japan Government To Change Inflation Calculation Ushering In Even More BOJ Liquidity

"The official explanation for this upcoming adoption of core-core-CPI which also excludes energy prices in addition to fresh food costs (as core CPI does everywhere else in the world) is to 'raise the bar' on Abe's inflation goal. In reality, it will simply grant the BOJ unlimited ammo to continue injecting liquidity indefinitely because absent exploding energy costs (as we have discussed), inflation in Japan is quite dormant. But what will really happen is that inflation will merely become just one more governmentally-determined and goalseeked economic indicator and policy tool, as it is in the US and China." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJapan Government To Change Inflation Calculation Ushering In Even More BOJ Liquidity

eEconomics Episode 10: Austerity

"David examines austerity and its effects on austerity and austerity austerity. Also, austerity is discussed briefly. A note on Reinhart-Rogoff: Who cares? The idea of fiscal responsibility wasn't created in a Harvard classroom three years ago. (a) we don't have austerity (b) two people messing up a spreadsheet doesn't somehow negate the laws of economics. Also, we've actually had deficit spending/stimulus. That's what demonstrably didn't work. But now that's seen as the solution once again because of a spreadsheet advocating a policy we don't follow? It's too insane to really think about." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingeEconomics Episode 10: Austerity

Government Student Loan Program a Scam?

"If you think the federal student-loan program looks like a bad deal for taxpayers, imagine how it would look with honest accounting. And now you don't need to imagine thanks to a new [CBO] report that's receiving far too little attention. Turns out that the official 'savings' for taxpayers of $184 billion over the next decade really add up to $95 billion in losses.' The 'scam' is that Congress has enabled a huge subsidy for universities while claiming that student loans create huge tax savings, the editorial says. It can make that claim because a 1990 law 'requires a deliberate under-counting of the cost of defaults,' the editorial says." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGovernment Student Loan Program a Scam?

Glenn Greenwald Rebuttal To Washington Post’s Walter Pincus

"That you decided to write an entire column grounded solely in baseless innuendo is between you and your editors. But your assertion of several factually false claims about me, Laura Poitras, and others is not. [...] Our NSA stories have been published and discussed in countless countries around the world, where they have sparked shock, indignation and demands for investigation. So revealingly, it is only American journalists who have decided to focus their intrepid journalistic attention not on the extremist and legally dubious surveillance behavior of the US government and serial deceit by its top officials, but on those who revealed all of that to the world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald Rebuttal To Washington Post’s Walter Pincus

U.S. considering speeding up Afghanistan pullout

"The United States is seriously considering speeding up the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan because of frustration with President Hamid Karzai, the New York Times reported. Obama’s relationship with Karzai has been deteriorating and suffered a big and new blow last month with an effort by the United States to open peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar. Karzai opposed the talks, and halted negotiations with the Americans on a long-term security deal needed to keep US forces in Afghanistan after 2014, the Times said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. considering speeding up Afghanistan pullout

White House dodges questions of Egyptian ‘coup’ as military aid continues

"The Obama administration attempted to sidestep questions over the legality of military aid to Egypt on Monday, claiming it was not in its 'best interests' to decide yet whether the armed overthrow of the country’s elected president amounted to a coup or not. US law prevents any administration providing support to the leaders of a military coup, but the White House announced it will not suspend foreign aid to Egypt for now, pending further review. 'We have had a long relationship with Egypt and the Egyptian people and it would not be wise to abruptly change our assistance programme,' said spokesman Jay Carney." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhite House dodges questions of Egyptian ‘coup’ as military aid continues

Italy Denies Risk to Public Finances From Debt Derivative Deals

"Italy's treasury denied on Wednesday its use of derivatives as a hedge on its huge debt pile posed any risk to public finances, following reports the country faced billions of euros in potential losses from one set of contracts. The Financial Times and La Repubblica said the eight contracts, restructured at the height of the euro zone crisis in 2012, could result in combined losses of around 8 billion euros ($10.5 billion) based on market prices on June 20. The newspapers, which quoted a report from the treasury, said the contracts had been taken out in the 1990s, some while European Central Bank president Mario Draghi was director general of the Italian treasury." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingItaly Denies Risk to Public Finances From Debt Derivative Deals

CDC Report Fatally Shoots Obama’s Theory of Gun Violence

"Obama earlier this year issued an executive order commanding the Centers for Disease Control to do a study of gun violence in America — as if gun violence is caused by a disease. The CDC did what it was told. It has issued a report. It shoots down Obama. 'Between the years 2000-2010 firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States.' This creates a major problem for Obama. It’s difficult for the government to prosecute users of unregistered handguns who kill themselves." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCDC Report Fatally Shoots Obama’s Theory of Gun Violence

Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me [2008]

"For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and 'wiretaps without warrants,' he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans' phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.) In our own Technology Voters' Guide, when asked whether he supports shielding telecommunications and Internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of illegal spying, Obama gave us a one-word response: 'No.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me [2008]