“Lobsters were so abundant in the early days—residents in the Massachusetts Bay Colony found they washed up on the beach in two-foot-high piles—that people thought of them as trash food. It was fit only for the poor and served to servants or prisoners. In 1622, the governor of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford, was embarrassed to admit to newly arrived colonists that the only food they ‘could presente their friends with was a lobster … without bread or anyhting else but a cupp of fair water’ (original spelling preserved). Later, rumor has it, some in Massachusetts revolted and the colony was forced to sign contracts promising that indentured servants wouldn’t be fed lobster more than three times a week.”
“Niall Ferguson, the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, on Saturday released an apology for comments he made about John Maynard Keynes. Ferguson said that Keynes didn’t care about future generations because he was gay and did not have children. In a statement posted on his blog, Ferguson said that his comments were off-the-cuff and ‘as stupid as they were insensitive.’”
–”Harvard Prof Apologizes for Comments on Keynes,” Inside Higher Ed
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced employment figures for April 2013: 165,000 new jobs. No one knows exactly what that means, but one thing is certain: This number will certainly change. Does that indicate government ineptitude or political manipulation? No.
“Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.” Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, February 12, 2013
“I’ve been dealing with the minimum wage issue for the last 28 years that I’ve been in elected office, and when you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it.” House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH-8).
“Economists: A $9 minimum wage won’t hurt jobs,” Natasha Lennard, Salon
“A history of the minimum wage since 1938 [chart],” Annalyn Kurtz, CNN Money
“Obama proposes $9/hour minimum wage. OK, says business owner,” Elizabeth Fuller-Wright, Christian Science Monitor
“The rankings are based on predictions made last January about how inflation, unemployment, interest rates and economic output would fare over the course of the year.” – ”Ranking Economists’ 2012 Predictions: The Best and Worst,” Phil Izzo, Wall Street Journal blog
“As the old saying goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.” “Show me a forecaster who comes close to the figures year after year, in recessions and booms, and I’ll agree he or she may offer value to investors and executives. Until then, you’ll do just as well guessing the numbers yourself as guessing which forecaster would do better.” – “Why Do Economic Forecasters Still Have Jobs?” Daniel Altman, Big Think
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Image (after a WPA photo) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
“Remember when the Icelandics did the unthinkable and, unlike Ireland, told bank creditors to take a hike? They also imposed capital controls and allowed the value of their currency to fall – the Icelandic krona has lost almost half of its value against the euro over the past five years.
The ‘experts’ queued up to assure us that these latter-day Vikings would be severely punished for their impertinence. While no one forecast that a hole would open up in the North Atlantic and swallow Iceland whole, some of the predictions came pretty darned close.”
“It is not unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”
– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776
Related:
“Let the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Expire Already,” Senator Bernie Sanders, Truthdig
“How to raise taxes on the rich,” Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money
“Tax hike for wealthy won’t kill growth, CBO says,” Reuters via NBC News
“The Great Capitalist Heist: How Paris Hilton’s Dogs Ended Up Better Off Than You,” Gerald Friedman, Naked Capitalism [caution: numbers n' stuff]
Yesterday, on “Black Friday,” millions of Americans spent billions of dollars with the multi-national corporations that sell imported products in U.S. shopping malls. Some of us resisted this retail feeding frenzy and bought nothing. Today people from both camps will buy local, shopping with neighborhood shops on Small Business Saturday.
$100 spent with local businesses returns $68 to the community vs. $43 spent at big box stores. So think outside the big box and shop local.
More:
“Gift buyers like local mom-and-pop shops’ unique choices,” Erin Kutz and Jayne O’Donnell, USA Today
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Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-f0G
Image (“Small Business Saturday, after Edward Hopper”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Save big today. Don’t buy a single thing. If you want to spend something, spend the day with friends and family. Spend time at the library; borrow a book and spend time reading it. Spend time making something. You’re not what you buy. You’re not a “consumer.” You’re a human being.
Related:
“A Brief History of Black Friday,” Ethan Trex, Mental Floss
“Black Friday In 41 Absolutely Horrifying Photos,” Scott Lamb, BuzzFeed
