February 2012
17 posts
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Back on Twitter again
After our account has been suspended from Twitter without any notice or reason, it was set back again today, after our complain. However, Twitter did not write any explanation for their move.
Update: Twitter wrote an e-mail:
Twitter has automated systems that find and remove multiple automated spam accounts in bulk. Unfortunately, it looks like your account got caught up in one of these spam...
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Switch to identi.ca from Twitter
After our Twitter account has been suspended for unknown reasons, we decided as a first step to switch to the Canadian based service identi.ca.
Please find our account there: http://identi.ca/rottencapital
We are unsure how we will proceed in the future. If you don’t have indenti.ca you can still follow us via Facebook or RSS.
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Twitter account suspended
For unknown reasons, at least to us, our Twitter account has been suspended. We have asked the support for clarification.
This shows us quite plainly the pitfalls, when all the information systems we use and depend on are in the hands of companies. However, we still hope this was an mistake…
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Is USA debt really the problem?
In the face of the huge debt increase as a result of the economic crisis the political right in the US pushes an agenda to cut down social programs such as Medicare and general social security. Furthermore, they push for tax cuts on the rich pretending money would trickle down. Finally, large efforts are undertaken to undermine the unions. Why?
The rational is that the massive governmental...
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WatchIn this excellent debate on AlJazeera a lot can be learned. Of course it is not surprising that Wall St has a huge influence on the election process, especially since the advent of the SuperPACs. What may be however more surprising is that Barack Obama received most of his campaign funding in 2008 from the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Furthermore, compared with previous presidents he had by far...
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US health care: More expensive, but worse
The USA spends similar amounts in percent of GDP on govenment-provided health care. Since the GDP is higher in the US, it even spends more European countries in absolute numbers. According to OECD data, the US government spent $3,800 per citizen on health care. The German government spent $3,242. The French government spent $3,100. Moreover the cost is rising faster. From 2001-2009, US...
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Regulated income inequality
We discussed income inequality in the USA and Toronto already as well as its severe effects on the society. Unexpectedly, this is not only due to liberated markets as one might think, moreover also trade and money policy adds to income inequality.
The free trade policies carried out by the US put a large part of the non-college educated workforce in direct competition with low-paid workers from...
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How job insecurity screws up society
Dean Baker has some very interesting points in his recent free book on the way unemployment in the US works:
The US really stands out that way. Across Europe, just about everywhere you can’t just fire someone who’s been working for you for years. You owe them severance pay, you at least have to give them a warning.
This has huge implications on the life of the people and the...
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Income inequality in Toronto - Still safe?
So far we have mainly focused on the USA when talking about the growing income gap and it’s consequences. A recent post by the Huffington post shows that also Canada experiences a similar phenomenon.
This graph shows the development in Toronto in the last 40 years and the projection into 2025. Short: The poor get poorer, the rich get richer and the middle class disappears. Is this maybe...
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US Income inequality once more
In his recent Opinion on AlJazeera on Mitt Romney Paul Rosenberg made some additional points which we would like to consider here.
Seen through the lens of Romney’s own example, it’s not capitalism per se that’s the problem, but the dramatic shift away from a form of capitalism that benefited almost everyone to a form that only benefits a small handful.
Yes. And this...
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Mitt Romney is a serial killer
In this post we show that Mitt Romney is a serial killer.
First, we quickly have to understand the business model behind private equity and leveraged buyouts. Dean Baker has published a free book: The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive and explains the key facts very well.
It’s standard practice that they buy a firm, they borrow against the firm, so it’s not...
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US "democracy" and other things of the past
With the emerging Super PACs the US democracy oligarchy becomes more flawed every day.
The Economist just reported about Newt Gingrichs funding:
Newt Gingrich, the best funded of his opponents, had only $2.1m left to spend, having raised only $9.8m. […] Mr Gingrich’s one, meanwhile, got $10m from Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate, and his wife.
Wait, 50% of his campaign money comes...
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Do those who pay, have the influence?
In our last post we showed how corporations and those with money can substantially influence the political landscape. Some might argue, that this is they way how capitalism should work: those who have more money should also have more influence, since they also pay more taxes. Right?
But here is the bummer: They don’t! As you can see by the graphic below which we got from this blog post the...
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Why the Facebook IPO is good capitalism
The IPO of Facebook is now all over in the media and with Facebooks valuation going all crazy, we would need to print some new bills if we actually wanted to see the money in cash.
We all know these young guys who invested in the company will be making whooping profits. Is this also rotten capitalism that some individuals can earn these inapprehensible amounts of money? No, its not.
Three...
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