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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 8:49:48 GMT -8
I never finish anything. I have a black belt in partial arts.
What If It Never Had My Trust?
With multiple big crypto firms collapsing in recent months, the sector that promised an alternative to the traditional global financial model now faces existential questions. In May last year, the TerraUSD and Luna coins crashed, losing almost all of their value overnight and wiping out $45bn from the crypto market in a day. Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital abruptly shut down. Crypto lenders Voyager Digital and Celsius Network – which had both loaned money to Three Arrows Capital – soon filed for bankruptcy.
And in November, FTX – the popular crypto trading platform in the Super Bowl advertisement – imploded. Its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in December and has been charged with fraud. Bitcoin, the world’s best-known cryptocurrency, is today worth only a third of what it was at its peak in October 2021.
So is crypto about to go extinct?
The short answer: As a concept, cryptocurrencies will probably survive, experts told Al Jazeera. But the sector will likely face increased regulation and an extended period of uncertainty. Many firms and currencies will perish. To stay alive, companies will face one challenge above all else: winning back customer trust.
Will It Die, Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper?
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 8:53:01 GMT -8
Why Russia Should Feel Sadly About the Arrival of the Bradley
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 8:58:13 GMT -8
Is McCarthy a Man or a Mouse?
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is still dodging questions about Republican Rep. George Santos and his many, many lies—but being McCarthy, he’s not dodging very effectively. “I never knew all about his resume or not, but I always had a few questions about it,” he told reporters on Monday.
The follow-up question about a Santos staffer impersonating McCarthy’s chief of staff on calls with donors. To that, McCarthy claimed, “You know, I didn’t know about that. It happened—I know they corrected it, but I was not notified about that until a later date.”
Squeaker McCarthy Sounds Like the Husband
"I've suspected that my husband has been fooling around, and when confronted with the evidence, he denied everything and said it would never happen again."
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:01:09 GMT -8
QOP Math: It's Not New Math. It's Not Old Math. It's Just Wrong.
As a condition for agreeing to Kevin McCarthy’s accession to the speakership, House rightists secured a commitment for a floor vote on a ludicrous proposal they call the Fair Tax Act.
The legislation would replace the current income tax, payroll tax and estate tax with a 30% national sales tax. Except to make it sound better, Fair Tax proponents call it a 23% tax. Their logic is that if something sells for $100 plus $30 in tax, then it’s a 23% tax — because $30 is 23% of $130.
That’s not how calculations of tax rates work. The reason for this dodgy math is that they are trying to obscure the reality that this plan would make most people worse off. According to the Tax Policy Center, in 2018 the middle quintile of the income distribution paid 8.9% of federal taxes while earning 15.2% of national income. Switching that to a flat consumption-based rate would be a tax increase on those middle-income households and an even larger one on the bottom 40%.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:02:44 GMT -8
This May Be Why the QOP Wants to Destroy the World Economy Over the Debt Ceiling
If the midterm elections could be rerun this month, Democrats would probably end up in full control of Congress. President Biden’s approval ratings are rising. Inflation is down, and consumers are feeling more optimistic. And Americans are getting a better look at the G.O.P.’s actual policy agenda, which is deeply unpopular.
OK, we don’t give politicians who lost an election the opportunity for a mulligan, even when they falsely claim that the election was stolen. But it is, I think, worth noting just how much the economic and hence political environment has shifted in the past few months, and to start thinking seriously about the possibility that Democrats might be in a startlingly strong position next year.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:04:07 GMT -8
When Losing Once Isn't Enough for a Loser
The authorities in Albuquerque said on Monday that a former Republican candidate who lost his bid for a State House seat in November had been arrested in connection with a series of recent shootings at the homes of four Democratic elected officials.
Chief Harold Medina of the Albuquerque Police Department said at a news conference that the former candidate, Solomon Peña, was “the mastermind” behind a conspiracy in which four other men were paid to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators.
Mr. Peña, 39, lost the election on Nov. 8 in a landslide to an incumbent Democrat, Miguel P. Garcia. Days later, Mr. Peña went on Twitter to express support for former President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and to say that he had not conceded his own State House race.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:07:14 GMT -8
And Lauren Stands Shoulder-Deep in Muck
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:12:12 GMT -8
It's Going to Take a Long Time Before Fewer Births Affects Labor Costs.
China's birth rate declines for first time in decades. It could have global impact.
China's birth rate declined for the first time in decades, China's National Bureau of Statistics reported Tuesday, in a shift that experts say could impact the global economy.
The world's most populous country had 1.41175 billion people in it in 2022, a drop of 850,000 compared to 2021. The birth rate was 6.77 births per 1,000 people, a fall from 7.52 births per 1,000 people in 2021, according to the statistics agency.
Why China's falling population matters
Researchers think the lower population growth rate could mean higher labor costs in China because of a smaller pool of available workers. A shrinking labor force could make it harder for China's government to fund its public health and welfare costs, suppressing China's economy. "Fewer births in China will lead to economic slowdown, manufacturing recession, university bankruptcy, and will also lead to high prices and high inflation in the US and EU," Yi Fuxian, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on Chinese demographics, wrote on Twitter.
China's National Bureau of Statistics released separate data Tuesday that showed the country's economy grew by 3% in 2022, well below its 5.5% growth target. China's zero-COVID policy had a major impact on its economic activity in 2022.
That Drop in the Birth Rate is 0.04% of the Population. Global Impact? Give Me a Break!
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:17:47 GMT -8
Our "Justice" System in ActionFour times, Keith Davis Jr has climbed the Baltimore court steps to face a verdict for the 2015 killing of Kevin Jones. And four times he has left that courthouse shackled, to return to prison. After seven-and-a-half years behind bars, and four murder trials, he is now a free man after prosecutors agreed to drop all charges. He was first arrested in 2015, after he was shot by police following an alleged robbery at a race track that left Jones, a security guard, dead. Police said they shot him because he was fleeing. He said he ran because he was afraid. In 2018, a Civilian Review Board found police used excessive force by firing on him. He was acquitted of robbery, but found guilty of being a prohibited person in possession of a handgun. A week later prosecutor Marilyn Mosby, charged Mr Davis with second degree murder, saying the bullets found at the crime scene matched a gun that police said belonged to Mr Davis. Over the next seven-and-a-half years, she would prosecute him four times for the same second-degree murder charge. Mr Davis maintained his innocence, and said he the gun found at the scene did not belong to him. He faced four trials for the same murder - now he is free
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:22:41 GMT -8
"Conner High School Remains a Safe School."
Parents in a suburban Kentucky school district have sent a clear message to administrators: They don’t want a teenager who allegedly created a “kill list” of students back in the classroom with their children.
The worried parents spoke out last week after learning that the Boone County Board of Education had allowed the 14-year-old suspect to return to school despite having been charged with second-degree terroristic threats. On Friday, Boone County School District Superintendent Matthew Turner said in a letter to parents, "I can assure you all appropriate safety measures have been taken and are in place. Conner High School remains a safe school."
As Safe As Sandy Hook Elementary, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 17, 2023 9:24:42 GMT -8
Maybe I Should Stop Posting on FridayA real-world experiment just proved that we should all shift to a four-day workweek The results are in: It's time for your company to stop working on Fridays (or Mondays). The latest, perhaps most convincing evidence yet for the shift to a four-day workweek comes from a six-month trial which began in February 2022 in which 33 companies with employees in six countries decreased their employees' workload to four days, or 32 hours, a week. Organized by 4 Day Week Global, the real-world experiment sought to see whether the employees could be just as productive in 80% of the time — all for the same pay. The results were overwhelmingly positive: Companies in the program reported increased revenue and improved employee health and well-being, and had a positive impact on the environment. And after the success, a hundred more companies that together employ thousands of people are considering or are already implementing the same approach. In the largest-ever experiment of its kind, 33 companies adopted a four-day workweek. The results were conclusive: It's time for everyone to take Fridays off.
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Post by sagobob on Jan 17, 2023 15:50:15 GMT -8
Why Russia Should Feel Sadly About the Arrival of the Bradley What got my attention in this video is that 500 Ukrainian soldiers per month are receiving Combined Arms Training in Germany. This is proactive preparation for the deployment of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. One would hope that under cover somewhere Ukrainian soldiers are also receiving training in the operation and maintenance of the Bradley. I would assume that our Bradley crews are or will be involved in that training.
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