Biz and Econ – Page 2 – The R.oB. Opinion

In Ways that Seem Inconsistent

Disturbing allegations of Apple connected with Digitude given Apple’s consistency. Continue reading →

Apple may be using patent troll to do its legal dirty work:

It’s not clear just how complicit Apple is in Digitude’s business, but EFF staff attorney Julie Samuels told TechCrunch that if Apple was deliberately aiding Digitude’s patent trolling, “it would be horrifying.” And even if Apple were somehow coerced into settling with Digitude, Samuels doubts that “Apple didn’t have any other options.”

As we noted recently, Apple has a tendency to use its intellectual property in ways that seem inconsistent. For instance, an Opera developer claims that Apple has a pattern of using patents to slow down the W3C’s open standards process, while promoting open standards when it gives Apple leverage against its competitors. This situation with Digitude seems similar; Apple opposes the tactics of patent trolls when they come after iOS developers, but seems to support them if it aids its ongoing legal battle for dominance of the smartphone market.

(Via arstechnica.com)

Disturbing to say the least!

Obama’s Turn at the Populism Trough

The GOP has nothing to offer even in rebuttal.

Obama channeling Teddy Roosevelt:

UPDATE 3-Obama hits Republicans, Wall St in populist speech | Reuters: “Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules. Well, I’m here to say they are wrong,” he said.

But Republicans said it was another attempt to distract from what they see as Obama’s failed economic record. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell accused the president and his fellow Democrats of resorting to “cheap political theater.”

(Via Reuters.)

Of course being the Party of No, well, that’s expensive political theater. If he resonates with the Occupy movement, the GOP goose is cooked. You heard it here first. Break a leg, Mr. President!

The Fed’s $7 Trillion Secret Loan Program

The Fed has some ‘splainin’ to do! Continue reading →

The Fed’s $7 Trillion Secret Loan Program:

Eliot Spitzer on the aforelinked scandal revealed by Bloomberg:

Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. The bank, based on these representations, extended you the line of credit. Then, three years later, after fighting disclosure all the way, you were forced by a court to tell the truth: At the time you made the statements to the bank, you actually were unemployed, you had a $1 million mortgage on your house on which you had failed to make payments for six months, and you hadn’t paid even the minimum on your credit-card bills for three months. Do you think the bank would just say: Never mind, don’t worry about it? Of course not. Whether or not you had paid back the personal line of credit, three FBI agents would be at your door within hours.

Yet this is exactly what the major American banks have done to the public.

Or, as Jon Stewart asked, “How the f*** is it that Martha Stewart went to jail?”

★

(Via Daring Fireball)

Gruber finds the perfect quote.

The Embarrassment of Riches

9-9-9: The Most Massively Regressive Redistribution of Taxes Ever Seriously Considered

Jared Bernstein (via Mark Thoma):

Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan is Classic Republican agenda.

An Ugly Balance Sheet Indeed

Mark Thoma:

This is What a Balance-Sheet Recession Looks Like, and It’s Not Pretty:

Stephen Gordon says these graphs make him grateful that Canada is not the US:

This is what a balance-sheet recession looks like, and it’s not pretty, Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: I had never heard the expression “balance-sheet recession” before this recent episode, and it’s time I got around a comparison of the household balance sheets of the US and Canada. Of all my “Canada is not the US” posts, this is the one that makes me most grateful.

The quarterly data goes back to 1990, and it’s good to put the last few years in context. I’ve scaled all the series by price (the consumption spending deflator) and population. Here is the net worth series:

There’s been talk of a Japan-like ‘lost decade’ in the US; that seems optimistic. US real per capita net worth is back to what it was back in 1999.

The US problem is on the assets side:

The effect of the recent recession on assets in Canada is similar to that of the demise of the dot-com boom.

Aggregate household liabilities have also fallen in the US, but as can be seen in the net worth data, not by enough:

Few will be surprised to learn that the collapse of US house prices had an important effect on US asset holdings:

Although the fall in US housing assets was more dramatic, other assets lost value as well:

And lastly (although if someone can think of another interesting graph, I may add it), here is real per capita housing equity:

The US data go back to 1952, so I was able to check the last time the real, per capita value of US housing equity was at its current level. Even after looking at all of these graphs, the answer astonished me: 1978. Nineteen seventy-freaking-eight.

(Via Economist’s View (Mark Thoma).)

Category: Biz and Econ

Obama’s Turn at the Populism Trough

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The Embarrassment of Riches

9-9-9: The Most Massively Regressive Redistribution of Taxes Ever Seriously Considered

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An Ugly Balance Sheet Indeed

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9-9-9: The Most Massively Regressive Redistribution of Taxes Ever Seriously Considered

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