Robert Reich's Blog: Are We Heading Toward Depression (Part 3)?

Robert Reich's Blog: Are We Heading Toward Depression (Part 3)?: "Marriner S. Eccles, who served as Franklin D. Roosevelt's Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934 to 1948, noted this in his memoir 'Beckoning Frontiers':

'As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery. Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.'"

Burgeoning prison populations strain state budgets

Burgeoning prison populations strain state budgets: "Since 1987, spending on corrections outpaced that for higher education in every state except Alabama and Virginia."

There is something fundamentally wrong with our priorities when we are willing to spend more money on prisons than schools.

Jews Are The Genetic Brothers Of Palestinians, Syrians, And Lebanese

"Jewish men shared a common set of genetic signatures with non-Jews from the Middle East, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, and these signatures diverged significantly from non-Jewish men outside of this region. Consequently, Jews and Arabs share a common ancestor and are more closely related to one another than to non-Jews from other areas of the world."

Quote

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
- Blaise Pascal

Warren Buffet at Emory's Goizueta Business School

I had nothing to do with my own success. My father was a securities broker and after the Great Crash, he had no one to call. Consequently, I was born in 1930 in the United States during the time of one of the greatest capital markets. I was born with the wiring for capital asset allocation. I had the right wiring at the right time. Temperament is a large part of my wiring. I was naturally good at it, and I used some feedback to develop it better. There is nothing to be arrogant about. Gates says if I had been born earlier, I would’ve been some animal’s lunch. I can’t run, I can’t climb. I’d be talking about allocating capital and the animal would think, “Those are the kind that taste the best.” You have all won the ovarian lottery. There is no reason to feel guilty about it.

I have never given away a dime that has any meaning on how I live. There are people that go to church and they put money in the offering plate that truly makes a difference in how they will live their lives, what they will eat, what presents they will buy for their children. There’s no reason to get puffed up over things you didn’t control.

Positive Atheism

Join the Struggle Against Anti-Atheist Bigotry!: "It is difficult, none the less, for the ordinary man to cast off orthodox beliefs, for he is seldom allowed to hear the other side.... Whereas the Christian view is pressed on him day in and day out."

ColoradoPols.com:: Friday Open Thread

"'Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.'

--Oscar Ameringer"