Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Rethink economics to help marginalized people


A politically astute president who understood deeply the economics and politics of corporate tax reform could conceivably muscle Congress toward a reform package that made sense. Trump is not that leader.

Joseph Stiglitz


As 14 million Australians begin pulling together their records for tax time, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is advising people to wait until the end of July before lodging returns, in order to minimise errors.

Tax time is near, but don't lodge too early, ATO warns, as it eyes work-related expenses, rental deductions


As the adrenaline of acute crisis fades, how much real leadership remains in Australia? We're about to find out.

The heads of Australia's governments, state and federal, summoned impressive energy and commitment to defeat the coronavirus. And to support the economy while they did.

A frightened people gave them great trust, and has rewarded their efforts. The Prime Minister, the premiers, the territory chief ministers are basking in the warmth of very high approval ratings. In politics, this is hard currency.









CIO Council report recommends improvements to federal IT hiring - FedScoop – “…More than 80% of the federal IT workforce is older than 40, per federal data cited in the report. Of the remaining population, just over 3% is younger than 30, and agencies continue to struggle to attract and hire younger IT talent to fill in this gap. The “Future of the Federal IT Workforce Update” report has several recommendations for how federal IT hiring can be improved to attract the next generation of tech talent. Namely, it points to “creating common competency-based position descriptions; recruiting through commercial platforms, job fairs, and hackathons; using a [subject matter expert]-based assessment process; and leveraging direct hiring authorities.”

What is to be done about the Chinese in Oz. (Part 1 of 3)

The Chinese Question refuses to go away. It’s testing the inheritors of White Australia.

Continue reading 




US-Chinese relations: why things just keep getting sharper

President Trump’s press conference on the 29th May has set the scene for even more dangerous US-Sino relations. He claimed that China was effectively responsible for the 100,000 American COVID-19 deaths, has ‘ripped off’ the US economy and ‘stolen jobs.’ Continue reading 




Rethink economics to help marginalized people Nature

AFL-CIO Censors Payday Comments on Cop Unions From It’s Twitter FeedPayday Report (LT). Classy!

Uber and Lyft drivers are employees, California regulatory agency finds NBC

Brutality and Spectacle The Baffler

It’s not how you play the game, but how the dice were made Science Daily. From 2018, still germane.


An Indian Outsourcer Begins Bringing Back 150,000 Workers Bloomberg


‘Speaking of Looting…’: Trump Admin. Refuses to Disclose Corporate Recipients of $500 Billion in Coronavirus Bailout Funds Common Dreams

Hedge fund manager stands to profit on ‘flip’ of taxpayer-funded coronavirus drug WaPo

Big Money Bought the Forests. Small Logging Communities Are Paying the Price. ProPublica

Bosses in the US Have Far Too Much Power to Lay Off Workers Whenever They Feel Like It Jacobin

Tim Bray, the senior Amazon engineer who dramatically resigned in protest, just told a union meeting of engineers and workers the company should be broken up Business Insider

KKR asks advisers to ‘share the pain’ amid $18bn spending spree FT

Meet Wikipedia’s Ayn Rand loving founder and Wikemedia Foundation’s regime=change operative CEOGrayzone


How to Spot Police Surveillance ToolsPopular Mechanics 

The hidden detectors looking for guns and knives BBC 

Are you an anarchist? Lawyers say New York police grilled protesters’ politics. Reuters

Did a Government Drone Flight Over a Protest Violate the Fourth Amendment?