The long awaited Kerry-Lieberman climate and energy bill was finally unveiled today without a Republican co-sponsor after Lindsey Graham withdrew his support. Still, the American Power Act reflects most of the promises that had been made by the trio over the past months; both good and bad. A strong push by electric, coal, and gas [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Economy’
April 10, 2010
Graph of the Day: Income Inequity
Business Insider has some pretty telling charts on income inequity in the United States. It is definitely worth spending a few minutes of your time. The chart above shows the wealth distribution in the United States. 70% of the wealth is held by the top 10% of the population while half of the population only [...]
February 9, 2010
The Search for Workable Climate Legislation: Cap-and-Dividend
Robert N. Stavins, a climate economics expert at Harvard, expressed yesterday his hope for an effective climate bill that can please both sides of the aisle. His solution rests on a system of “upstream” cap-and-trade, in which all carbon allowances are sold to carbon emitters and a large portion is then returned to American households [...]
February 5, 2010
Graph of the Day: Economic Recovery
From the Office of the Speaker, this graph reflect the new Department of Labor January jobs report and shows how the economy is recovering using the monthly numbers of jobs lost. // //
January 26, 2010
Map of the Day: Congressional Districts
Neil Freeman at fakeisthenewreal.org has this interesting map of what the United States would look like if states were divided equally by population. He has all populations equal populations of 5,617,000. He lists his advantages below: Ends overrepresentation of small states and underrepresention of large states in presidental voting and in the US Senate. [...]
January 19, 2010
Bad Day for Massachusetts, Bad Day for America
Martha Coakley lost the special election to replace Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts today. This leaves not only the future of health care reform up in the air, but the future of other progressive ideas and movements. It’s time to dig in the heels, roll up the sleeves, and work even harder and learn from Kennedy [...]
December 13, 2009
Copenhagen Week One: A Long Way to Go
Copenhagen Watch: Part One After a week of tumultuous protests, controversy, and political sparring, the UN Climate talks in Copenhagen have produced a an official negotiating text from which world leaders will continue to negotiate next week. The ”long-term action plan text” commits developed countries to emissions cuts of 25-45% by 2020. This broad range is [...]
December 5, 2009
Massachusetts Senate Race Approaches; Few Notice
Part 3 of our state politics series. You can read our California posts about Arnold’s taxes and the Divorce Ban. You can’t turn on a television for more than five minutes in Boston this weekend without seeing the face of an aspiring candidate for Ted Kennedy’s vacated Senate seat. Front-runners Michael Capuano and Martha Coakley, along with [...]
November 28, 2009
2010 Isn’t Soon Enough for California
Today a prominent celebrity news site, TMZ, reported that one of the world’s most well known movie stars failed to pay his taxes in 2004 and 2005 and now owes the government nearly $80,000 in back taxes. This celebrity also happens to be the governor of the state of California.
November 20, 2009
Hunger Affects 1 Billion Worldwide
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization held its World Food Security Summit this week in Rome, Italy, to address the approximately 1 billion people who are malnourished worldwide. At the talks, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf pointed out the primary causes for rising global hunger, including a decline in agricultural investment and unfair international trade conditions. [...]
