Capitalism explained with two cows

Reële huizenprijzen

Huizenprijzen in Nederland, gecorrigeerd voor inflatie,

VS en Nederland,

En de prijzen aan de Herengracht, Amsterdam, in bijna drie eeuwen,

Joss Stone respects file sharing

Nice way of looking at it, if only more artists did so.

The Anti-Social Network

RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism

In this RSA Animate, radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?

RSA animate makes great clips of summaries of lectures held at RSA. More...

Top US Marginal Income Tax Rates

Did you know that the US has had high income tax rates in the 90% range for decades. Up to 1963 it was 91% for all income over $400,000. Now it's at 35%. Somewhat related:

From alternet In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people “earned,” we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers. (They make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That’s some value.

The income from hedge funds is capital gains and only taxed at 15%

The surprising science of motivation

Some of us had a discussion a while ago, about using incentives and bonuses to motivate people to work harder. Here is a TED talk where Daniel Pink makes the case that incentives and bonuses often don't work or can even be counter-productive. (watch this video Douche)

I'd really like to work at a company that applies the alternative organizational structures as some of the companies he mentions.

Opposition newspaper The Zimbabwean ad campaign

The Answer:

more music charts

Greenspan admits 'flaw' in ideology

"Alan Greenspan, the former US Federal Reserve chairman, has publicly admitted that the US free-market ideology that he and others have championed for decades is flawed. Greenspan, who headed the US central bank for more than 18 years, said on Thursday that he had "found a flaw ... in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works". [...] "Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?" Greenspan replied: "Yes I found a flaw. I don't know how significant or permanent it is, but I've been very distressed by that fact." [...] "Gone was the usual deference for the man considered chief architect of America's 80s and 90s boom years. Greenspan said he was shocked at the banks' inability to self-regulate and blamed over-eager investors for the sub-prime housing meltdown that led to the financial crisis, our correspondent said. Greenspan's critics had accused him of leaving interest rates too low in the early part of the decade, spurring an unsustainable housing boom which went largely unregulated."

US debt clock runs out of digits

before:

BBC News: The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiraling figure. The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount. The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989. The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt. Douglas Durst, son of the late Seymour Durst - the clock's inventor - hopes to replace the Manhattan clock with its lengthier replacement early next year. For the time being, the Times Square counter's electronic dollar sign has been replaced with the extra digit required.

after:

Oilprices

How would you spend $3 trillion

The war in Iraq will probably cost at least $3 trillion.

Warren Buffett's Tax Rate is Lower than His Secretary's

Warren Buffet @ wiki

In June 2006, Warren Buffett gave approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately USD 30.7 billion as of June 23 2006) making it the largest charitable donation in history. The foundation will receive 5% of the total donation on an annualized basis each July, beginning in 2006. Buffett will also join the board of directors of the Gates Foundation, although he does not plan to be actively involved in the foundation's investments. Buffett also announced plans to contribute additional Berkshire stock valued at approximately $6.7 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and to other foundations headed by his three children. This is a significant shift from previous statements Buffett has made, having stated that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation. The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went to that foundation when she died in 2004. His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. These actions are consistent with statements he has made in the past indicating his opposition to the transfer of great fortunes from one generation to the next. Buffett once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing".

Subprime Crisis explained

Although this clip is quite satirical, it rings very true (unfortunately).

The poor will always be poor

The Price of Democracy

De kneepjes van de beurshandelaar

Ik vond deze video van een korte NOS journaal reportage die met een korte termijn beurshandelaar meeloopt. Gelukkig bevestigde hij mijn beeld van beurshandelaars als geavanceerde gok verslaafden volledig. Ik ben blij dat ze zelf toegeven dat ze maar wat gokken. Hij begint: "Wat wij doen is pure emotie, er zit geen logica achter". Wow, dat zijn nog eens kneepjes.

De dag van de Dollar

Tegenlicht, een programma van de VPRO zond afgelopen maandag uit van de documentaire "De dag dat de Dollar valt" uit 2005 weer uit. Hier wordt een doemscenario uitgewerkt ddat de Amerikaanse economie instort, een optie die het afgelopen jaar door huizen- en kredietcrisis een stuk dichterbij lijkt gekomen. Centrale banken in VS en EU hebben inmiddels al een paar keer ingegrepen, zoals het scenario uit 2005 al voorspelde. En voor het 'omvallen' van banken in scene 7 hoeven we maar te verwijzen naar Northern Rock en zowat anderen die in de problemen zijn of zwaar moeten afschrijven momenteel. Trailer:

Bekijk hier de volledige uitzending

Om deze documentaire wat te actualiseren is heb ik twee fragmenten in de aanbieding:
Het eerste is een interview met Marc Langeveld over de koers van de dollar t.o.v goud. Is het wel waar dat de Verenigde Staten een 'strong dollar policy' voeren? Langeveld legt uit waarom dat voor de VS eigenlijk helemaal niet zo gunstig is.

Het tweede fragment is een interview met Jim Rogers die een zeer succesvol belegger is. Hij staat bekend om zijn accurate voorspellingen. Zo voorspelde hij de de run op comodities (grondstoffen)van 1999, de val van de dollar en de verschuiving van het financieel-economische accent van het Westen naar het Oosten - het door Rogers tot in den treure herhaalde "teach your children Chinese!"- wordt per dag meer werkelijkheid..

In het interview blikt hij vooruit wat het jaar 2008 zal brengen, en geeft hij zijn visie op de dollar. Bekijk hier het interview

Educational Rap

Over on the Freakonomics blog I read a bit about educational rap music.

Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, LLC was founded in 2006 and is located in Cambridge, MA. We produce supplementary educational music in academic subjects such as mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies. The content-rich lyrics adhere to state and federal curriculum requirements and flow to thumping, original music. People remember song lyrics. When combined with music, lyrics embed themselves into our memory in a fundamentally different—and sometimes more enduring—manner than text alone. Our contemporary twist helps students remember important concepts by transforming them into memorable rap lyrics and combining them with thumping hip-hop tracks. We value the ability of music, specifically hip-hop music, to transcend social contexts.

Demand, Supply

Lyrics here.

Here is one relevant to my study on the water cycle.

Full playlist here...