DRUG WAR CHRONICLE: A Rasmussen poll of likely voters released Tuesday found support for legalizing and regulating marijuana at 56% nationwide, a significant increase over a March Rasmussen poll and in line with other recent polls that show legalizing gaining majority support and trending upward.
Month: May 2012
LANCASTER SUNDAY NEWS
Editorial “Whose payday?” opines: “House Bill 2191, sponsored by Rep. Chris Ross, R-Chester County, and co-sponsored by five Lancaster County lawmakers (John Bear, R-97th District, Scott Boyd, R-43rd, Tom Creighton, R-37th, Dave Hickernell, R-98th, and Gordon Denlinger, R-99th), opens the door to payday lenders in Pennsylvania by removing the state’s 24 percent cap on interest charged to borrowers…”
Public Ownership Can Create a More Efficient and Responsive Economy
THE NATION: …The traditional liberal approach calls for more regulation. But, important as it is, this tool for controlling corporate behavior has been increasingly undermined by fierce lobbying. As Senator Dick Durbin observed, “The banks…are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they, frankly, own the place.” Most of those who created the […]
LANCASTER SUNDAY NEWS
In a column “War cost money too, you know”, Associate Editor Gil Smart writes: “If we cannot afford extended unemployment insurance, then we can no longer afford to project power into every nook and cranny of the planet. If food stamps are to be trimmed, we need to accelerate the pullout from Afghanistan, we need […]
Morgan Stanley’s Michael Grimes Draws Some Flak for Facebook’s IPO Flop
WALL STREET JOURNAL…. The 45-year-old Mr. Grimes, co-head of global technology banking at the New York firm, has been a big moneymaker in Silicon Valley since the mid-1990s, helping keep Morgan Stanley at or near the top of the IPO heap. Now, though, Mr. Grimes is getting a chunk of the blame for Facebook’s flop. […]
Spent Fuel Rods Drive Growing Fear Over Plant in Japan
NEW YORK TIMES: …Fourteen months after the accident, a pool brimming with used fuel rods and filled with vast quantities of radioactive cesium still sits on the top floor of a heavily damaged reactor building, covered only with plastic. The public’s fears about the pool have grown in recent months as some scientists have warned […]
LETTER: No exception. The Convention Center has failed.
[In response to “Surprise, surprise…convention center actually doing quite well except…”] The reality here is that there is no “EXCEPT” that applies. The CC project is paid for by hotel taxes. The CC project is supposed to generate hotel rooms. The CC DOES NOT and is therefore a failure in its primary mission.
Bank Regulators Under Scrutiny in JPMorgan Loss
NEW YORK TIMES: ….Scores of federal regulators are stationed inside JPMorgan Chase’s Manhattan headquarters, but none of them were assigned to the powerful unit that recently disclosed a multibillion trading loss. Senior JPMorgan executives assured the bank’s watchdogs after the financial crisis that the chief investment office, with hundreds of billions in investments, was not […]
Market Values ‘Land of Promise’
NEW YORK TIMES Book Review: …. [Michael] Lind, a founder of the New America Foundation in Washington and the author of several political histories, acknowledges from the beginning that his thesis will make some readers uncomfortable. “In the spirit of philosophical bipartisanship, it would be pleasant to conclude that each of these traditions of political […]
Surprise, surprise…Convention Center actually doing quite well except…
According to the Convention Center Authority, the deficit each year amounts to approximately $500,000, largely because of a shortfall in projected revenue from the Hotel Room Sales Tax. (It reportedly has a cumulative short fall of over $2 million.)
Generosity of LCCCA lease to PSP
I just learned that the third and fourth floors of the convention center are leased to Penn Square Properties for 99 years at a cost of $ 100 plus 7.2% of the maintenance costs which anounts to $ 20,000 to $30,000 per year. What a generous lease.
Muslim Brotherhood and military will square off in Egypt
WASHINGTON POST: The initial round of Egypt’s first free presidential election in modern history has delivered a stark choice for next month’s runoff: a conservative Islamist vs. a former air force commander with deep ties to the man whose ouster precipitated this week’s vote… The Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Morsi, has vowed to impose broader application […]
Giant Lender in Spain Asks for Billions to Fend Off Collapse
NEW YORK TIMES: Spain’s banking crisis worsened Friday as the board of Bankia, the country’s biggest mortgage lender, warned that it would need an additional 19 billion euros ($23.88 billion), far beyond what the government estimated when it seized the bank and its portfolio of delinquent real estate loans earlier this month. The government is […]
U.S. consumer confidence highest in 4 1/2 years
USA TODAY: The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment jumped to 79.3 in May, up from 76.4 in the previous month. That’s the best reading since October 2007 — two months before the recession began. A high proportion of consumers say they are hearing about job gains rather than losses. The number of […]