Politics, Business, Culture

Modern society, needless to say, is in the grip of wireless technology. All you have to do to understand this is step outside your door. “It just so happens,” [Allan] Frey had told me, “that the frequencies and modulations of our cell phones seem to be the frequencies that humans are particularly sensitive to. If we had looked into it a little more, if we had done the real science, we could have allocated spectrums that the body can’t feel. The public should know if they are taking a risk with cell phones. What we’re doing is a grand world experiment without informed consent.”

via Warning, Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous To Your Health: Gear + Gadgets: GQ. by Christopher Ketcham

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Greek tax collectors and customs officers walked off the job on Thursday, kicking off a spate of strikes against government austerity cuts designed to halt a financial crisis caused by massive debt.

Both groups embarked on a two-day walkout ahead of industrial action called by civil servants, doctors and Communist-backed workers on February 10 and a general strike called by Greece’s main umbrella union on February 24.

“We have already made sacrifices and will accept no more cuts,” the chairman of the customs officers’ union Argyris Sakellaropoulos told Flash Radio.

The unions are on the warpath over a government austerity programme that they say has progressively become harsher under pressure from the European Union and market speculation that has hurt Greek finances and rattled the euro.

via Greece faces strike barrage over austerity cuts – Glock Talk.

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Secretary Geithner can keep repeating his assertion he has worked in public service his whole life… How does he define working in the public service?

Geithner’s last job, as the President of the New York Fed highlights that question.

The New York Fed is not government-owned. Most people fail to recognize this fact. Simply, the Federal Reserve Board (responsible for monetary policy, with a dual mandate of full employment and price stability) is an independent part of the federal government, while the New York Fed is a shareholder-owned or private corporation...

Historically, the New York Fed has been among the most profitable shareholder-owned corporations in the world. Yet it keeps the details of its shareholders’ ownership information private. What we do know is that its owners include precisely those institutions it is tasked to regulate and supervise and those is has obviously failed to adequately supervise. Unlike the other District Banks of the Federal Reserve system, which have overseen their banks quite well, the New York Fed’s concentration of the largest banks, coupled with its unique role of managing the market operations of the entire Fed system, has built a culture where it sees itself as a market participant and peer to those firms it regulates.

via Has the New York Fed been serving the public trust? Has Geithner? » New Deal 2.0.

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You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. …this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.  via President Obama Finances Offshore Drilling in Brazil – WSJ.com.

And so it goes here in the United States of America during its fin de siecle, where NIMBY knows no bounds, where we will no longer build factories here but will contract to build them in China, and we will no longer drill for oil, but will contract with third-world states to do the drilling for us instead.

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For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That’s $2,200 a day – more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment.

via Congress Went to Denmark, You Got the Bill – CBS News.

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After the Jan. 19 Republican upset in the U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, Bayh said Democrats who control Congress should pursue a more limited health-care overhaul measure that could achieve bipartisan consensus.

Such legislation might include proposals to let insurance companies compete across state lines, insurance-market changes including a ban on coverage exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and subsidies that would encourage more small businesses to cover their workers.

via Bayh Says Obama May Call for Freeze on Discretionary Spending – Bloomberg.com.

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“I haven’t seen Rahm Emanuel except on television,” Jim Pascrell, a Democratic lawmaker from New Jersey, told Politico, the news website, on Friday. “We used to see him a lot; I’d like him to come out from behind his desk and meet with the common folk.”

via FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy – White House nightmare persists.

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Air America has announced it will end all broadcast operations and file for bankruptcy protection.

In a memorandum posted on the progressive talk radio network’s Web site Thursday, chairman Charlie Kireker said, “the very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America’ business,” forcing it to cease “its live programming operations as of this afternoon.”

Air America was founded in 2004 and filed for bankruptcy protection two years later. It managed to remain on the air but continued to struggle to find an audience and advertisers.

Two liberal MSNBC commentators, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz, once hosted programs on Air America. Minnesota Sen. Al Franken had his own show on the network from 2004 to 2007.

via Progressive Radio Network Air America Goes Under — Politics Daily.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed some skepticism behind closed doors about the broad bank limits proposed on Thursday by his boss, President Barack Obama, according to financial industry sources.

The sources, speaking anonymously because Geithner has not spoken publicly about his reservations, said the Treasury chief is concerned the proposed limits on big banks' trading and size could impact U.S. firms’ global competitiveness.

He also has concerns that limits on proprietary trading do not necessarily get at the root of the problems and excesses that fueled the recent financial meltdown, the sources said.

via UPDATE 3-Geithner aired concern on bank limits-sources | Markets | US Markets | Reuters.

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Others accused the White House of adopting a populist message to divert attention away from the blow delivered by the Democrats’ defeat in the Senate race in Massachusetts.

The measures, which require congressional approval, hark back to the response to the 1929 stock market crash that ushered in the Glass-Steagall Act, separating commercial and investment banking, which remained in law until 1999.

via FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy – Obama hammers Wall Street banks.

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