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Yashi

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

Link to The Big Picture

How Does Google AdWords Work?

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 01:00 PM PST

Click to enlarge:

Source: How Does Google AdWords Work?
Search Engine Land Infographics


From destination social to dispersed social: 10 trends in social media

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 01:00 PM PST

Amazon May Soon Become a ‘Top 10′ Retailer

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 12:00 PM PST

Isabel Cavill, an analyst at Planet Retail, talks about the outlook for consumer spending and online retailers including Amazon.com Inc. She speaks with Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.”


Bloomberg, Nov. 24


Twitter And Facebook: The Political Agenda

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 11:30 AM PST

Click for ginormous chart:

Source:
Twitter And Facebook: The Political Agenda
Media Bistro, November 22, 2011


10 Turkey Day Reads

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST

Some Turkey articles for your Thanksgiving reading pleasures:

• Black Friday 2011 deals: How about 20 percent off a new car? (CS Monitor)
Diary: “The Greeks are getting what they deserve”  (London Review of Books)
• No College Degree Will Buy Your Way Into The Top 1% (Businessweek)
• The butterfly effect: spotted in the financial industry (Alphaville)
• Japan 'May Be' Close to a Downgrade: S&P  (Bloomberg)
• Robin Wells: We Are Greg Mankiw… or Not? (INet)
• WTF is Cyber Monday? (Wikipedia)
Anil Dash: Facebook is now a “badware: site (boingboing)
Leonardo da Vinci’s earth-shattering insights about geology (Guardian)
• Murdoch’s News Corp accused of trying to bribe Australian senator (Guradian)

What are you reading?

>


Prof William K Black: Occupy LA Teach In

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 08:52 AM PST

A Libertarian Ron Paul supporter brought this to my attention (Thanks James!):


Time Machine: FDR, 1933

Posted: 24 Nov 2011 06:30 AM PST

Regular readers of TBP know that I spend some time rooting around in the excellent American Presidency Project, a remarkable resource.  Sometimes I’m looking for something specific, other times I’m just getting a feel, a flavor, for the message coming from our leadership, specifically the president.  The latter was the case when I undertook a search to see how the phrase “home ownership” has been used by presidents over time.

Herewith, FDR’s Message to Congress, April 13, 1933.  Spooky stuff.

To the Congress:

As further and urgently necessary step in the program to promote economic recovery, I ask the Congress for legislation to protect small home owners from foreclosure and to relieve them of a portion of the burden of excessive interest and principal payments incurred during the period of higher values and higher earning power.

Implicit in the legislation which I am suggesting to you is a declaration of national policy. This policy is that the broad interests of the Nation require that special safeguards should be thrown around home ownership as a guarantee of social and economic stability, and that to protect home owners from inequitable enforced liquidation in a time of general distress is a proper concern of the Government.

The legislation I propose follows the general lines of the farm mortgage refinancing bill. The terms are such as to impose the least possible charge upon the National Treasury consistent with the objects sought. It provides machinery through which existing mortgage debts on small homes may be adjusted to a sound basis of values without injustice to investors, at substantially lower interest rates and with provision for postponing both interest and principal payments in cases of extreme need. The resources to be made available through a bond issue to be guaranteed as to interest only by the Treasury, will, it is thought, be sufficient to meet the needs of those to whom other methods of financing are not available. At the same time the plan of settlement will provide a standard which should put an end to present uncertain and chaotic conditions that create fear and despair among both home owners and investors.

Legislation of this character is a subject that demands our most earnest, thoughtful and prompt consideration.

Source:
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Message to Congress on Small Home Mortgage Foreclosures.
40 – Message to Congress on Small Home Mortgage Foreclosures.
American Presidency Project, April 13, 1933

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14618

Adding: Did not know when BR was going to run this piece, but since he slated it for Thanksgiving, I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe holiday.  Enjoy friends and family.


A Majority of Americans (Including Both OWS and the Tea Party) AGREE on the Most Important Issues … We Just Don’t Realize It

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 10:30 PM PST

I have repeatedly demonstrated that – despite the false divide-and-conquer tactics of the mainstream parties and mainstream media – the overwhelming majority of Americans agree on the most important issues facing our country. See this.

NO MORE BAILOUTS!

As I've noted since 2008, Americans are united in their overwhelming disapproval for bailouts to the big banks.

This has remained true right up to today.

As Rassmussen found only last month (as summarized by KXLF news):

Today'sRasmussen Reports survey finds that most Americans don't like bailouts for financial institutions.

60% Oppose Financial Bailouts; 74% Say Wall Street Benefited Most

Survey of 1,000 American Adults

***

• Just 20% think it was a good idea for the government to provide bailout funding to banks and other financial institutions, but 60% say otherwise.

• While many activists try to link the Republican Party and Wall Street, Republicans think the bailouts were a bad idea by an eight-to-one margin.

• Those not affiliated with either major party think they were a bad idea by a four-to-one margin. Democrats are much more evenly divided. Thirty-four percent (34%) of those in the president's party say the bailouts were a good idea while 42% disagree.

• Overall, 68% believe that most of the bailout money went to the very people who created the nation's ongoing economic crisis, but 12% disagree and 21% aren't sure.

As the Washington Post's Greg Sargent notes, the recent proposal from lobbyists to the American Bankers Association recommending ways to co-opt the Occupy movement accurately stated:

Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism. Both the radical left and the radical right are channeling broader frustration about the state of the economy and share a mutual anger over TARP and other perceived bailouts. This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.

(Except that it is the majority of Americans – not "extremists" on either side of the aisle – that share this anger).

The "Tea Party" movement was centered on the protesting government bailouts of the giant banks, before it was hijacked by the mainstream Republican party, Sarah Palin, Neocons and others. See this, this, this, this and this.

Ron Paul said last month at a GOP debate:

Bailouts came from both parties…. If you have to give money out, you should give it to people losing their mortgages, not to the banks.

And one of the most common sayings of Occupy Wall Street protesters is:

Banks got bailed out. We got sold out

(See this and this.)

END CRONY CAPITALISM!

I noted last year:

A Rassmussen poll conducted in February found:

70% [of all voters] believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.

(and see this).

Remember that the government helped and encouraged the giant banks to get even bigger, and then has hidden their insolvency and shielded them from the free market, and helped them grow even during the severe downturn.

In return, the big banks and giant corporations have literally bought and paid for the politicians.

Conservatives might call it "socialism" and liberals might call it "fascism" – they are the same thing economically.

But all Americans – conservatives and liberals alike – can agree that it is not capitalism, and it is not American.

PROSECUTE WALL STREET FRAUD!

I pointed out a year ago:

Liberals tend to believe that the public should be protected against harm, while conservatives tend to believe that people should be left free to buy what they want.

Too far apart to ever agree?

No. Conservatives believe that people must be held responsible for their actions and punished for their transgressions. Indeed, some 82% of the American public wants tougher regulation of Wall Street.

Moreover, even for those who don't like the government sticking its nose in our business, liberals and conservatives agree that if a company chooses to make a representation about something, it can be sued if it is a lie. In other words, all Americans agree that fraud laws should be enforced against everyone from the homeowner who fills out a mortgage application on a small house to the head of a giant bank who makes false statements about the bank's balance sheets and the quality of it's investments.

Everyone agrees that financial scammers must be tried and put in prison.

Indeed, Rasmussen found last month:

Two-out-of-three Americans (66%) believe the federal government has not been aggressive enough in pursuing possible criminal behavior by some Wall Street bankers, but 10% don't feel that's true and 25% are not sure.

Economists agree.

END – OR AT LEAST REIN IN – THE FEDERAL RESERVE!

As I pointed out last month, Americans are not happy with the Federal Reserve:

CNN notes:

"We are seeing a level of enthusiasm for Ron Paul that can be compared with President Obama in 2008″, said Eric Brakey, Media Coordinator for NYC Liberty HQ, the grassroots organization hosting the rally for the candidate. "Congressman Paul's youth support is different now than it was during his last presidential campaign. It's more organized and it's picking up steam and continues to grow".

As the longtime congressman from Texas stepped onto the stage, the crowd screamed with enthusiasm. The audience's biggest reaction came when he spoke about ending the Federal Reserve. "The country has changed in the last four years, but my message hasn't changed" Paul said. "The country is ripe for a true revolution".

At least 75% of the American people want a full audit of the Fed, and most were against reconfirming Bernanke.

Indeed, as Bloomberg noted last December:

A majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation's independent central bank, saying the U.S. Federal Reserve should either be brought under tighter political control or abolished outright, a poll shows.

***

Americans across the political spectrum say the Fed shouldn't retain its current structure of independence. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39 percent said it should be held more accountable and 16 percent that it should be abolished. Only 37 percent favor the status quo.

Economists agree.

RESPECT THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR LIBERTY!

As I noted in September, Americans want our freedom back:

Americans have become much less tolerant of the wholesale destruction of our constitutional freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism.

As Talking Points Memo notes:

On the eve of the ten year anniversary of 9/11, the Pew Research Center has released new data on Americans' reaction to the attacks, and the foreign and national security policies pursued in the post 9/11 era. They show a country with views that have evolved on the relationship between civil liberties and the tools given to government to fight terrorism, and a disbelief that the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan helped to lessen the chance there will be another terrorist attack on the United States.

The Pew survey showed a large shift in the number of Americans who are willing to see some of their civil liberties go out the window in the name of fighting terrorism. Directly after 9/11, Americans were willing to make the deal, as 55 percent thought it was necessary, against 35 percent who felt the opposite. Now, only 40 percent felt that giving up some civil liberties is necessary to curb terrorism, with 54 percent against.

END PERPETUAL WAR!

Americans want to put a stop to perpetual warfare:

Ron Paul is [partly] gaining popularity because he is against the never-ending War On Terror, and wants to bring the troops home. Americans are sick of the never-ending, ever-creeping war. See this, this and this.

As Talking Points Memo reported earlier this month:

"…Only about a quarter say the wars in Iraq (26%) and Afghanistan (25%) have lessened the chances of terrorist attacks in the United States," the Pew report reads. "In both cases majorities say the wars either have increased the risk of terrorism in this country or made no difference."

Top American military leaders agree, saying that the war on terror has weakened our national security.

And a CBS News poll from November 11th found:

  • Three-quarters of Americans support US withdrawal from Iraq.
  • Two-thirds of Americans believe the Iraq War was not worth fighting.
  • Half of Americans oppose US involvement in Libya.
  • More than half of Americans want to end the war in Afghanistan.
  • Seventy per cent of Americans do not support military intervention to change dictatorships into democracies.
  • 55% of Americans say Iran can be contained via diplomacy.
  • Only 15% of Americans support military intervention in Iran.

MAKE ELECTIONS FAIR!

I noted last year that Americans want fair elections:

All Americans agree that … there should be free and fair elections. That is why – according to ABC News and the Washington Post – 80 percent of all Americans oppose the Supreme Court's recent decision allowing unlimited campaign contributions. Americans understand that – unless we take the flood of money out of elections – Washington will represent special interests, and not us.

And we all agree on publicly verifiable, automatically audited paper ballot elections with reasonable ID requirements, so that we assured that no party can manipulate electronic voting results.

KEEP POISON OUT OF OUR FOOD AND WATER!

I noted last year that Americans want safe food and water:

Americans want to be free to live our lives without being poisoned. We agree on safe food, clean water and a healthy environment.

For example, polls show:

IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AGREE ON THESE CORE ISSUES, WHY AREN'T OUR DEMANDS BEING HEARD?

If Americans from across the spectrum agree, why aren't these desires being implemented by our politicians?

Because our politicians are bought and paid for … lock, stock and barrel.

And the powers-that-be are good at using the age-old divide and conquer trick to keep us weak, divided and fighting at each others' throat … instead of for what we actually want.

But ultimately, the main reason that we are impotent is that we don't realize that the overwhelming majority of Americans want the same things we do.

Indeed, most Americans – conservatives and liberals – are fed up with both the mainstream Republican and Democratic parties. This is not surprising, given that neither party is addressing the core demands of the American people as a whole.

Sure, liberals and conservatives will always disagree on some things. But if we realized how many core beliefs we share, we would unite to take our country back from those who disagree with fundamental American values.


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