Support Occupy Wall Street Through Blog-Bombing

What is Blog-Bombing?

The term is inspired by the concept of Tweet-Bombing, in which many Tweeters engage en masse in tweeting a particular message in order to fill the Tweetosphere with the message. In the case of Blog-Bombing, the idea is for bloggers to make regular (e.g., daily, every few days) quick blog posts in support of Occupy Wall Street so that such posts continually appearing on community blog feed programs such as those run by the major blog platforms – e.g., WordPress. These posts can contain short messages, pictures, videos, links, etc.

My first OWS Blog-Bomb contribution (Note: Posts need not be this long or detailed; the point is to get the word out – JUST POST):

I Support Occupy Wall Street Because…

• I don’t want wealthy, well-connected individuals, corporations and lobbies buying politicians;

• I believe that having a large and secure middle class is vital to a democracy, and that massive gaps between haves and have-nots creates vast political inequality and exploitation;

• I believe that America could simultaneously lower its taxes while also improving its financial stability, healthcare, education and social security systems, domestic and international security and international reputation by countering the costly influence of corporate/industry lobbies (e.g., insurance, pharmaceuticals, defense, private prisons).

• Crony Capitalism is not Capitalism.

• I want America to be this:

and not this:

- Signed, a Canadian in solidarity with OWS.

Why Obama and Democrats are Less Trustworthy than Bush and Republicans

It might seem hyperbolic or facetious that a left-leaning blogger would argue that Obama and the Democrats are less trustworthy than Bush and the Republicans. Part of this impression can be done away by me immediately disabusing you of what your first impression may quite reasonably be: I am not saying that Bush or Republicans make better, more desirable leaders than Obama or the Dems. What I am arguing is that Republicans can generally be trusted more than Democrats to do what they say they are going to do. In a nutshell, the reason is that interests of the stakeholders and influencers of the Republican Party (i.e., voters, donors, lobbyists, and party elites) are far more aligned than those of the Democratic Party. As a result, it is far easier for Republicans to walk their talk than it is for Democrats.

Why Japanese Healthcare is More Efficient Than Canadian and US Healthcare

A recently published report by the Conference Board of Canada, a not-for-profit economics and policy research organization, indicates that Canadians are spending more on their healthcare and getting less than most advanced nations. Canada spend more annually per capita on healthcare – $4100/person, or 10% of GDP – than all but three advanced nations, but ranked 10th according to the Conference Board’s quality of medicine metrics. By comparison, Japan spent only $2,729 per capita annually while ranking first in life expectancy and infant mortality rates. The United States healthcare system, on the other hand, performed abysmally. While the US spends astronomically more per capita on healthcare than any other nation – $7,500 annually – the Conference Board rated the quality of American healthcare to be among the worst in the 17-country study.

Why are the Japanese paying so much less to receive so much more?

The Wall Street Triple-Penetration

The Young Turks have ran a number of stories on how major investment banks have gamed the US and global economic systems. In the video presented below, they discuss how major investment bankers (e.g., Goldman Sachs) have effectively triple penetrated their investors and the global oil market, which affects all of us by driving up the price of the gas that gets us around town, to work, and gets the products and services that we buy to us.

Here’s a brief summary of how the scam works:

Step 1: Investment bank buys up lots of stock in oil. In finance lingo, this is called taking the long position (i.e., betting that the value of the stock will go up).

Step 2: Investment bank insures the stocks it purchased with a type of derivative called a “credit default swap”. The way a credit default swap (CDS) works is that if the value of the insured stock or financial instrument decreases by a certain pre-determined amount within a pre-determined time frame, the insurer (i.e., the person/organization who sold the credit default swap to the investment bank) pays out a large pre-determined sum of money to the holder of the CDS. This is comparable to buying home insurance and then receiving a payout from the insurer if your house burns down. Buying a CDS is a type of short position, in finance lingo; when one takes a short position, they are betting that the value of the tracked commodity/stock will drop.

Step 3: Investment bank encourages its clients, who could be individuals or groups of individuals (e.g., a pension fund) of varying degrees of wealth, to buy stock in oil, telling them that the market is set to boom. This increased demand and excitement over oil increases the value of the stock that the bank previously purchased. The investment bank also receives transaction fees for processing the oil stock acquisitions.

Step 4: SELL, SELL, SELL! The investment bank sells off its stocks in the oil market, making a killing because of the increased price/demand for oil stocks that it had been fomenting.

Step 5: By selling off its oil stocks, the value of the stocks takes a hit. The investment bank then builds on this by spreading word of an ensuing drop in oil price. In short order, the trading price of oil drops below the set-point for redemption of the credit default swap, entitling the investment bank to a major insurance payoff.

To recap, the investment bank has profited at 3 points: 1. The receipt of transaction fees for processing oil stock acquisitions for its trusting customers; 2. Selling the inflated oil stocks that it had ginned up excitement and prices over; and 3. Redeeming its stock insurance policy when the oil stock price drop it had orchestrated had come to fruition. That’s three serious money shots into the wallets of the investment bank. Meanwhile, their investors and the consumers in the global oil markets are left feeling used, confused and economically bruised.

Huge Slant On The Young Turks

For a few years I have been a HUGE fan of The Young Turks, a progressive online news commentary program. However, in recent months my enthusiasm has abated significantly. The leading reason is a perceived one-sidedness in the show’s coverage of certain issues, most notably tax cuts for the wealthy.

A Progressive Case For Paying Women Less Than Men

Considerations of equality and social justice are central pillars of progressivism. Thus, “a progressive case for paying women less than men” may sound like an oxymoron. However, a very reasonable argument that, I think, many progressives can get behind has been in existence for some time. What is more, by enforcing equal pay, the people most likely to suffer may well be women.

A Liberal/Progressive Case Against Minimum Wage

A person truly concerned with helping others have a duty to make sure that their plans actually help them.

- Alonzo Fyfe

Alonzo Fyfe is doing thoughtful writing about issues at the heart of disputes between progressives and conservatives. In this article he argues that minimum wage policies intended to help low wage earners actually hurts them in a number of ways, such as by:

• Forcing companies on the edge of viability into closure, leading to layoffs;
• Forcing companies to increase their prices which, in turn, will result in them losing customers and subsequently laying off staff. I would add that this will also increase the cost of living, which could have a disproportionate effect on people near the bottom of the income distribution;
• Incentivizing investment in automation. Low-wage positions are often the ones most amenable to automation. By increasing the cost of hiring a person to do a job, a minimum wage policy inadvertently supports the case for investment in automation.
• Attracting more people to the labour market, thereby increasing competition for jobs.
• Disincentizing education, as artificially high wages can be earned without education. Of course, minimum wage is far from high, but a teenager living at his parents’ home making $8/hr may feel less need to pursue educational career advancement than if they were making $5/hr. Relatedly, one alternative to minimum wage offered by Fyfe was to provide educational funding assistance such as loans to those making below a certain amount, thereby incentivizing and aiding them in acquiring skills that will benefit them and the broader society.

Fyfe’s line of reasoning is not intrinsically liberal or progressive, as the title of this post might have implied. But it’s the kind of reasoning capable of speaking to those who want a society that lends a helping hand to those on the edge of subsistence.

What do  you think?

University Education: Why The Lack of Accountability?

I had the BEST day a few months ago! First, I went to the movies and the theatre decided to do the viewers a favour by stopping the movie twenty minutes early. SCORE! With all the extra time my friends and I had, we decided to go grab a beer. Well it must have been one of our birthdays or something because the bartender decided to fill our glasses only halfway! AMAZING! Why can’t everyday be like this? I wish that just once – JUST ONCE – I could get a nice sandwich maker at Subway who would brighten my day by only giving me 9 inches of the 12 inch sub I order… Alas, to live in a perfect world.

It’s not all bad, though. At least I and my fellow students are fortunate enough to have instructors who sometimes do us the favour of ending class early, canceling the odd lecture here and there, and maybe even going on strike (faculty at my school, the University of Western Ontario, are teetering on the brink of a walkout/lockout)! That last one is a rarity, but it’s one of those things where you just kind of feel good when it happens, even if it doesn’t happen at your school. It’s good to know that good things still happen, y’know?

This all sounds ridiculous, of course. If theatres started cutting movies short, or if a food/beverage establishment only gave you a portion of what you ordered and paid for, you wouldn’t be happy. You’d be shocked and rightfully pissed off. You did not get what you paid for and you’d have a good mind to ask for at least a partial refund.

Contrast this with the situation in university education, where paying students (including me) are apparently universally pleased to be let out of class early or have a class canceled, and are sometimes even welcoming of a short lived academic strike. Lets use a little bit of folk behavioural economics to speculate as to why so many students love to get less than what they paid for when it comes to school.

There Will Be War.

“I believe in world peace. I believe it is possible.”

- Every politician or beauty pageant contestant ever.

Highly unlikely. That’s not to say that it wouldn’t be desirable. It’s just not going to happen. Even in an idealistic world where everyone had enough food, followed the Golden Rule, did not covet status, wealth or luxury, politicians weren’t corrupt, organized religions did not divide us, and everyone was perfectly honest, rational and considerate of the opinions of everyone else, and moreover, everyone knew that everyone else was being as morally upstanding as they could be, world peace would not happen.

Why not? In short, a lack of resources tomorrow, and irreconcilable disagreements on what is moral and best for society.