The Cynical Economist

 Welcome to our brave new world, where we will live in  a repressive and controlled state, where the authority will be monitoring our every move, where nowhere is going to be safe from the big brother’s eye, where the thought police can treat us as a criminals…

 FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists - 

 Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.

These extremists, sometimes known as “sovereign citizens,” believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.

The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste: Holder Uses Fast And Furious To Push Congress For Stricter Gun Control Laws… - 

Attorney General Eric Holder attributed the difficulty preventing gun-trafficking into Mexico to weak gun controls laws, when he blamed on the U.S. House, with particular reference to the House investigators asking him about Operation Fast and Furious.

Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress - 

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congresspassed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace.

“There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities,” said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also is “concerned about the implications for surveillance by government agencies,” said attorneyJennifer Lynch.

The provision in the legislation is the fruit of “a huge push by lawmakers and the defense sector to expand the use of drones” in American airspace, she added.

According to some estimates, the commercial drone market in the United States could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars once the FAA clears their use.

The agency projects that 30,000 drones could be in the nation’s skies by 2020.

LONDON MAN OBSERVED BY CCTV & WARNED BY LOUDSPEAKER

Spying on Europe’s farms with satellites and drones - 

Farmers who claim more EU subsidies than they should, or who break Common Agricultural Policy rules, are now more likely to be caught out by a camera in the sky than an inspector calling with a clipboard. How do they feel about being watched from above?

Imagine a perfect walk in the country, a few years from now – tranquillity, clean air, birdsong in the trees and hedgerows, growing crops swaying in the breeze.

Suddenly a model plane swoops overhead.

But there is no-one around manipulating radio controls. This is not a toy, but a drone on a photographic mission.

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometres up in space, the same patch of land is being photographed by a satellite, which clearly pinpoints individual trees and animals.

What is there to spy on here? No secret military installations, just farmland.

Dependency Index Surges 23% Under President Obama - Soon the government will own us…

The American public’s dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.

The conservative think tank’s annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and other federal programs that were “traditionally provided to needy people by local organizations and families.”

The two-year increase under Obama is the biggest two-year jump since Jimmy Carter was president, the data show.

The rise was driven mainly by increases in housing subsidies, an expansion in Medicaid and changes to the welfare system, along with a sharp rise in food stamps, the study found.

Apple and Foxconn: Who made your iPhone? -  In China the Government already owns the citizens

1984 George Orwell Movie Trailer - “A nation at war, where terrorism is exploited by the state, where media is controlled, a total surveillance society and every citizen is a property of the state…”

Equilibrium – Citizen:”You can”t do this, you can not do this”….

Government Agent(cleric): “There is nothing, that we can not do”

Demolition Man - Citizen Edgar  Friendly: “I am the enemy, cause I like to think, I like to read, I am in for freedom of speech and for freedom of choice…”

Iron maiden - Brave new world - 

Dying swans twisted wings, beauty not needed here
Lost my love, lost my life, in this garden of fear
I have seen many things, in a lifetime alone
Mother love is no more, bring this savage back home

Wilderness house of pain, makes no sense of it all
Close this mind dull this brain, Messiah before his fall
What you see is not real, those who know will not tell
All is lost sold your souls to this brave new world

A brave new world, in a brave new world
A brave new world, in a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world

Dragon kings dying queens, where is salvation now
Lost my life lost my dreams, rip the bones from my flesh
Silent screams laughing here, dying to tell you the truth
You are planned and you are damned in this brave new world

Motörhead - Brave New World - 

So this a new beginning, as the new century dawns
The world’s a better place for you and me
Shouldn’t smoke or drink or watch that evil filthy porn.
Be Christian and God will set you free.
But being poor is worse than having AIDS,
The homeless live in boxes at our feet
Living in a constant state of dull frustrated rage,
The innocent shot daily in the street

Brave new world, brave new world, brave new world

The government has always been your pal, as you well know
Absolute corrupted power play,
If we all wipe each other out, it only goes to show
While the bureaucrats get richer by the day,
Smoking dope will get you more than murder one,
And even worse than statutory rape,
Don’t understand your children, so you send them all to jail,
Believe me, you will never make a worse mistake.

The government is coming and it wants to be your friend,
It wants to show you how to be a snitch
Inform upon your children, the inevitable end,
Is everyone’s a victim but the filthy fucking rich,
And religion, like the monster that it is
Keeps telling you to turn the other cheek
God is on your side, but I don’t think that you’re on his,
If Jesus showed up now he’d be in jail by next week.

LOL…

Cop chases himself after being mistaken for burglar by CCTV operator

AN undercover cop “chased himself round the streets” for 20 minutes in a town in southern England after a surveillance camera operator wrongly identified him as a suspect.

I Got 15 Kids & 3 Babydaddys-SOMEONE’S GONNA PAY FOR ME & MY KIDS!!! - Let others pay for my mistakes mentality…

Will “Generation Gimme” Ever Work For The American Dream? - Jaw dropping!

Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas And Mortgage!!! - That was in 2008. Is she better now than 3 years ago? I bet she is in worst position now, but she probably blaming other people for that.

And what the top Elite thinks about the future….

Is it bright and rosy?

For them it is, but not for the rest of us

Barack Obama: My Kids Will Succeed… Even if USA Doesn’t - At the very end of his campaign speech in New York…

Our kids are going to be fine.  And I always tell Malia and Sasha, look, you guys, I don’t worry about you — I mean, I worry the way parents worry — but they’re on a path that is going to be successful, even if the country as a whole is not successful. But that’s not our vision of America.  I don’t want an America where my kids are living behind walls and gates, and can’t feel a part of a country that is giving everybody a shot.

And that’s what we’re fighting for.  That’s what 2012 is going to be all about.  And I’m going to need your help to do it. (Applause.)

So, thank you, very much.  (Applause.)

That speech was given at fundraiser with a price tag of $35 000 a head

Now my question is why Obama is not campaigning at the Occupy Wall Street camp, since he loves them and they love him back?

May be that he is afraid they will ask him to give them something, instead of him asking them to give him something…

Oh, here is another one: What would Occupyers think of the prospects of their future compared to Obama’s daughters future?

Just saying…

Education Vs. Bureaucracy -

How can a 375% education spending increase over four decades result in flat-lined reading, math and science scores? Because all that largesse feeds a bureaucratic monster sheltered from competition.

OBAMA URGES HIRING MORE TEACHERS AS SOLUTION TO UNEMPLOYMENT –

Video…

Hire more teachers so our kids be more competitive? The rest of the worlds is more competitive, because their kids actually learn from the teachers math and science. Pupils here learn how to put condoms on cucumbers and the money really goes to the bureaucrats.

The other problem – The TV has become a parent of today’s kids. The cable is the one that is taking the imagination and logical thinking of Americans from very young age…

Parents Urged Again to Limit TV for Youngest –

The new report strongly warns parents against putting a TV in a very young child’s room and advises them to be mindful of how much their own use of media is distracting from playtime. In some surveys between 40 and 60 percent of households report having a TV on for much of the day — which distracts both children and adults, research suggests.

What are one of the smartest parents in the world that live in The Silicon Valley doing? Putting their children in schools where there are no TV’s, computers or phones, but only plain paper and pencils…

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute –

The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard.

But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.

Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.

End here it is Dr. Michio Kaku summarize in what trouble America is in, if we continue to graduate people with diplomas, but with no education comparable to the world standards. It is a must watch video from the begging to the very end…

At the end his opponent Michael Schrage then says how colleges in the U.S. are using science classes as “flunk out operations”. He states that in the way the educational system is set up now, we have a distorted incentives that undermine the ability of America to have home grown science and technology centers…which results ultimately in lesser economic growth and less jobs.

And why do you think an overpaid teacher will care for your kid education?

Public-School Teachers are Overpaid, Heritage/AEI Study Finds –

A new study conducted by the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) finds that, contrary to popular belief, public-school teachers receive total compensation more than 50 percent greater than that of private sector employees – if you take into account benefits, job security, summer vacations and other factors.

Study Concludes Public School Teacher Salaries $120 Billion Over Market Value –

Teacher pay nationally is about $120 billion over market value, and teachers who switch to teaching from other jobs get a 9 percent pay rise, while people who leave teaching typically take a 3 percent pay cut.

From NYT

Michael Ellsberg is the author of “The Education of Millionaires: It’s Not What You Think and It’s Not Too Late.”

I TYPED these words on a computer designed by Apple, co-founded by the college dropout Steve Jobs. The program I used to write it was created by Microsoft, started by the college dropouts Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

And as soon as it is published, I will share it with my friends via Twitter, co-founded by the college dropouts Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams and Biz Stone, and Facebook — invented, among others, by the college dropouts Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, and nurtured by the degreeless Sean Parker.

American academia is good at producing writers, literary critics and historians. It is also good at producing professionals with degrees. But we don’t have a shortage of lawyers and professors. America has a shortage of job creators. And the people who create jobs aren’t traditional professionals, but start-up entrepreneurs.

Read the rest here…

From Reuters
By Alina Selyukh

In college, Matthew Bergh was ahead of the curve, working part-time at a local Starbucks and setting aside a few thousand dollars a year to do what his parents taught him to do — invest.

n 2008 the markets crashed and the recession interrupted his financial dreams. “As of right now, I can’t invest,” Bergh said. “I’m saving.”

Eighteen- to 30-year olds, known as “Generation Y,” have taken a more conservative approach to managing their money — stashing it in a savings account or under the proverbial mattress.

This generation of investors came of age during a succession of economic earthquakes. They witnessed the dot-com implosion of 2000 and the more recent onslaught of plunging housing prices, the credit crisis, recession, double-digit unemployment and an annihilation of investor wealth.

“The younger generation has not seen a good stock market over their adulthood,” said Gordon Fowler, chief executive of Glenmede, a Philadelphia-based wealth manager for rich people. “That had to have some impact on the psychology of younger investors.”

Bergh, 22, started looking for a job in January, and sent out more than 200 applications. After graduating in May, he did what thousands of young Americans have been forced to do: he moved back in with his parents and took an internship with Microsoft Corp. His job search continues.

Among his other ways to conserve cash, he has postponed his investments.

Leslie Barrie, a 26-year-old journalist in New York, followed a similar path. After graduating from college in California, she moved in with her parents and pursued low-paying internships before she went to graduate school.

“I try to save as much as possible,” Barrie said. She wants to invest for her retirement, but the markets have discouraged her from doing anything other than keeping a savings account.

Even those who work in capital markets are leery.

One 28-year-old man who declined to be named because he is a hedge fund vice president said five years ago he kept about 10 percent of his finances in cash. Now, he keeps 70 percent.

LEARNING GRANDPARENTS’ LESSONS

Generation Y’s views on money echo that of another generation — their grandparents. Many of those people learned the value of saving and frugality because they grew up in the wake of the 1929 market crash and the Great Depression.

By contrast, their parents — the Baby Boomers — were buoyed by several major bull markets, soaring home values and the proliferation of easy consumer credit.

“Our parents lived it up on debt and then many of them saw their houses get foreclosed, and that was kind of a shock to us,” said Robert Eubank, a 20-year-old senior finance major and equity portfolio manager at a student-run investment group at Towson University in Maryland.

read the rest here

When University of Central Florida professor Richard Quinn suspected that some students had cheated on his exam, he gave a lecture on ethics to his class that he then put on YouTube.

In the lecture, Prof Quinn told the class he had enough evidence from statistical analysis and other investigatory techniques to identify most cheats, but instead of handing the list over to the university authorities for discipling, he proposed a deal. He said: “I don’t want to have to explain to your parents why you didn’t graduate, so I went to the Dean and I made a deal. The deal is you can either wait it out and hope that we don’t identify you, or you can identify yourself to your lab instructor and you can complete the rest of the course and the grade you get in the course is the grade you earned in the course.” Prof Quinn also added a requirement for those who came forward complete a four hour course in ethics. In return there would be no permanent record of the cheating.

He ended up uncovering over 200 students that had cheated on the exam out of about 700.

From SLATE
By Annie Lowrey

Law schools are manufacturing more lawyers than America needs, and law students aren’t happy about it.

During the recession, the logic was ubiquitous:The economy is terrible—better to wait it out! It is a three-year fast track to a remunerative, respectable career! It’s not just learning a subject—it’s learning how to think! Law school, always the safe choice, became a more popular choice. Between 2007 and 2009, the number of LSAT takers climbed 20.5 percent. Law school applications increased in turn.

But now a number of recent or current law students are saying—or screaming—that they made a mistake. They went to law school, they say, and now they’re underemployed or jobless, in debt, and three years older. And statistics show that the evidence is more than anecdotal.

One Boston College Law School third-year—miraculously, still anonymous—begged for his tuition back in exchange for a promise to drop out without a degree, in an open letter to his dean published earlier this month. “This will benefit both of us,” he argues. “On the one hand, I will be free to return to the teaching career I left to come here. I’ll be able to provide for my family without the crushing weight of my law school loans. On the other hand, this will help BC Law go up in the rankings, since you will not have to report my unemployment at graduation to US News. This will present no loss to me, only gain: in today’s job market, a J.D. seems to be more of a liability than an asset.”

He is one of dozens of law students who have gone public, very public, to chastise the schools they elected to attend for leaving them older and poorer. One popular medium is the “scam blog,” where indebted,unemployed attorneys accuse law schools of being little better than tuition-sucking diploma mills. (Sample blog title: Shilling Me Softly.) The author of one popular, if histrionic, such blog describes his law school as a Ponzi scheme.

Others have taken, perhaps inevitably, to the courts. Kenneth Desornes, for instance, named his law school in his bankruptcy filing. He asks the school to “[a]dmit that your business knew or should have known that Plaintiff would be in no position to repay those loans.”

The students might be litigious—no surprise there—and overwrought. But they’ve got a point. The demand for lawyers has fallen off a cliff, both due to the short-term crisis of the recession and long-term changes to the industry, and is only starting to rebound. The lawyers that do have jobs are making less than they used to. At the same time, universities seeking revenue have tacked on law schools, minting more lawyers every year.

read the rest here