Is #OccupyWallStreet the Millennial Generation's WTO?

I was at the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999. Other than blocking the entrance to the WTO summit, and a few pre-organized march routes at certain days and times, there wasn't much in the way of plans. So people collected into 'affinity groups' to make their own group decisions about what to do and where to go: Shall we lock arms in front of this door to the convention center and risk some pushing, or just stick to standing and yelling? Shall we sit down in front of this police advance and resign ourselves to being arrested?

It was also a radicalizing experience. At least 1,000 of us eventually gathered in front of the downtown Seattle prison to demand the release of those who'd been arrested. And that thousand-some of us (and eventually many more) started hearing about some pretty terrible things. Protestors in custody being held on police buses and kept there for hours without access to a bathroom. Vegetarian protestors in custody being given nothing to eat for over half a day, or longer, except a baloney sandwich. There was even a story that some protestors, perhaps the more unruly ones, had been stripped and cuffed to floors of their cells. (And I doubt it was lost on anyone that, if this was the way us largely middle-class, educated white folks were being treated, it was surely significantly worse for the countless underprivileged young black men who are thrown into the U.S. prison system daily.)

And of course, there was the policy brutality many of us witnessed first-hand on the street. It still boils my blood when I hear the protests referred to as a "riot." A handful of black-masked kids trashing a few corporate storefronts is not a riot. A squad of heavily armored police rushing a group of sitting, peaceful demonstrators, pepper-spraying them point-blank and hauling them off to vans with bruises and broken bones... that's closer to the definition of a riot in my opinion.

There are now tens of thousands of so-called Millennials who—for likely the first time ever—are having the life-changing experience of standing up and demanding change, of marching in the streets, of getting beat on and pepper-sprayed by the police, of getting misportrayed and vilified by the media,... and of coming back and keeping at it, and seeing their actions pay off.

http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/535288-is-occupywallstreet-the-millennial-generation-s-wto

Want To Talk To Vikram Pandit, CEO Of Citigroup? Here’s His Cell Phone Number

This is a brilliant write-up from Gawker.  And shockingly, Pandit has not changed his number since this was published.  I just called, and it goes directly to voicemail.  Gawker has provided suggestions for discussion material (printed below). 

Source - Gawker

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit told a Fortune conference on Wednesday that he "would be happy to talk to" Occupy Wall Street protesters "any time they want."  That's so cool of him!  Here's his cell phone number.  He's waiting for your call.

Things you might want to ask Pandit: Can I borrow $3.4 billion at no interest if I put up a bunch of my worthless shit as collateral?  I promise to pay it back, because I'm just going to lend it out to a bunch of idiots at like 9% interest and book profits.  Or how about you just buy $27 billion of my worthless shit?  No deal?  How about you just guarantee to eat 90% of the losses on that worthless shit up to $300 billion?

You may be interested to know that, according to the Citizen Media Law Project, New York law permits the recording of phone calls as long as one of the parties consents to the recording. So if you feel like it, record your message to Pandit, or conversation if you get him on the line, and send it to us at The Daily Bail.  We'll post it for all to enjoy.

Oh, and if he doesn't pick up his cell, his office line is(212) 793-1201, and his email address is vikram.pandit@citi.com.  Tell him hello from The Daily Bail.

 

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyBail/~3/34E_rIS_osU/want-to-talk-to-vikram-pandit-ceo-of-citigroup-heres-his-cel.html

A Voice Of Reason from Wall Street: “If We Lose America We Have Nowhere Else to Run for Freedom”

As the Wall Street Protests and those spreading around the country are being systematically bastardized and appropriated by those who promoted the election of President Obama, pushed for corporate lobbying, and the massive unions that claim government is the problem, yet ask for more government intervention into our economic, financial, and political lives, there are still some voices that remain true to the original message and intent of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.

While you will undoubtedly see mainstream media provide airtime for the incoherent messages and talking points of labor leaders, so-called activists for the working man like multi-millionaire Michael Moore, political hacks, debt ridden students looking for handouts, and operatives of the corporate elite, what you won't see is the following video of a young man delivering a passionate speech (sans teleprompter, of course) denouncing the monetary policy of the federal reserve, fractional reserve lending, Washington's involvement in State's rights, and excessive taxation of the citizenry. Additionally, he warns of the serious consequences that will ultimately result from inaction and misguided policy decisions.

The depression will be nothing compared to 1930 when it hits us… If we lose America we have nowhere else to run for freedom. There is no country left that promotes free markets, corporations not in politics… There's no country that has their own sound currency.

There is nowhere left to run.

If we lose America, we lose the world to the elite.

The 1% will continue to get rich, as we all live like slaves.

If you think the way of life is bad now, you will all be living in Projects like Hoovervilles.

We cannot continue to print money. We cannot continue to debase our currency.

…

State's rights. when you minimize government it is easier to control by the people…

…If you don't like the policy in one state, you go to another state. Because that's how America was set up. America was not supposed to be uniform in policy. Each state was supposed to reflect the views and positions of everyone in that state. It is much easier to influence Governors and Mayors than Presidents and Vice-Presidents.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/a-voice-of-reason-from-wall-street-if-we-lose-america-we-have-nowhere-else-to-run-for-freedom_10062011

FDA Is Urged To Toughen Rules on Salt

A consumer group prodded the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to regulate salt as a food additive, arguing that excessive salt consumption by Americans may be responsible for more than 100,000 deaths a year.

The government has long placed salt in a "generally recognized as safe" or GRAS category, which grandfathers in a huge list of familiar food ingredients. But in an FDA hearing yesterday, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) urged the agency to enforce tougher regulations for sodium.

Doing so "lays the foundation for saving tens of thousands of lives per year," said CSPI Director Michael Jacobson in an interview after the hearing. It "just has tremendous potential to health and to cut health-care costs."

The nanny state is picking up steam, seeking to restrict salt from your diet. Silly me. I always thought that if I were eating too much salt, I would be responsible for making decisions to address the issue. I guess that government believes they know better than you do how much salt is too much. Can sweeping regulations apply to everyone, since each individual has different salt needs?

FDA Is Urged To Toughen Rules on Salt

Homeowners Associations and Threats of Violence

 

I'm seeing less and less reasons to continue to maintain a HOA. I'd rather see it change to a voluntary organization, especially in rough economic times. I keep my property clean and well-maintained, so I don't see the point in having anyone tell me to do what I already do, under threat of violence. As for those who fail to maintain and clean their property, I see it as their right, since it's their property and not mine. I believe that most state, city and county ordinances are sufficient in maintaining safety and sanitary situations.

I am here to say, I am not sure of the HOA’s job.  My guess is, it’s an effort to line their pockets, so someone can sit behind a desk and write letters from tattle tailing neighbors, and charge too much for mowing grass, but I could be wrong.  I guess this is the price you pay to live in civilization, and even though I knew about the HOA before moving, I didn’t know about the fluctuating fees, and nosy neighbor clause.  My advice is to get a copy of the HOA guidelines for a neighborhood you are considering, along with several yearly projections of their estimated costs (if it’s an established neighborhood) and see if the fees have changed from year to year, so you can get an idea of how they manage things.  And, if you get the chance, have a chat with the people living there, it will give you a feel for what you are getting into.  We will see if the economy gets better, what kind of surprise fee change we will get!  The HOA=government at its finest.

Home Owners Associations Is it a Dictatorship, Government?

Are HOA dues a form of violent threats?

Extortion: Making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense. This is a common reaction to forced taxation, but can apply to a variety of scenarios, including mandatory owners associations. Threat of legal action up to and including taking away possession of one's home is a threat of violence. This is why I believe that a voluntary owners association is more practical and supports individual property rights and freedoms. I believe that a homeowners association should simply encourage residents to maintain and keep property clean, without that threat of violence. If residents chose to participate and improve or maintain the community beyond their homes, that should be a choice, not a mandate. It is the people that make a community work, not the threat against them, which improves or maintains the community.

Should others have the right to dictate how you live your life?

A Chicago suburbanite has been growing his front yard for food. And it raises a lot of questions about the legality of food independence. So far, the act of growing food for personal use is not illegal; rather, it is left up to neighbors to decide what is best for their neighborhoods. More or less, this is probably the best and most democratic method of neighborhood sustainability for now, except when trouble comes days like ours where a serious economic decline in which unkempt front lawns of abandoned or repossessed houses invite a further plunge in already slumping real estate values.

Urban Agriculture: Chicago Suburb Gives a Yarden the Stinkeye

Most people are not happy with these HOA's and their Communist / Nazi dominating overseeing warlord attitude concerning you as an individual property owner and your rights.
Some states like Arizona now compel builders to have HOA's, which are regulated by a general real estate term called CC&R's (covenants, conditions & restrictions).

Homeowner Association Rant blog

Sign a petition to take some of the bite out of homeowners associations: Permanently Stop Homeowner and Property Owner Association Foreclosures 

A Slow Recovery in the Banking Sector

Banking failures are exactly what we need to move toward a post-bank world. We have been under the thumb of money changers for centuries and it has only led to suffering. It's time for a real change. 

As the banking sector recovers from the financial crisis and the subsequent recession, its recovery has mirrored the slow and fragile recovery of the general economy. Despite the growth in total assets, loans and leases at depository institutions actually fell from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2011.

http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/trends/2011/1011/01banfin.cfm?DCS.nav=RSS-aaa-000-17

Rand Paul: Obama inflaming ‘Occupy Wall Street’ mob

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Fox Business warned Thursday that the "Occupy Wall Street" protest in New York City could become violent thanks, in part, to President Barack Obama.

"As far as this Occupy Wall Street movement goes, you know I see it sort of like a Paris mob," he said. "I see the president's rhetoric of envy inflaming the public."

Sen. Paul said he "hoped" that the "Parisian mob" that Obama was inflaming didn't result in "lawlessness" where protesters looted iPhones, "because rich people don't deserve to have them."

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheRawStory/~3/O5pZIDJ8qvo/

Constituents 101

Taxpaying base decreases, taxpayer benefits increase. You do the math and decide if this is a sustainable system, the look back at pre-collapse USSR. 

September 1995. I had just started working as an aide to a U.S. Senator. A co-worker of mine was sharing some of the ins and outs of the job with me when he pointed out the following:

The thing to remember about constituents is that they want as many government benefits as they can get- without paying for them.

I never forgot that conversation, and was reminded of it while watching the news last night from my family's home in southeast Wisconsin. From Sara Murray yesterday afternoon, writing on the Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog:

Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4% lived households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.

The share of people relying on government benefits has reached a historic high, in large part from the deep recession and meager recovery, but also because of the expansion of government programs over the years…

High unemployment and increased reliance on government programs has also shrunk the nation's share of taxpayers. Some 46.4% of households will pay no federal income tax this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. That's up from 39.9% in 2007, the year the recession began.

(Editor's note: Italics added for emphasis)

48.5% of the population lives in a household that receives some government benefit. 46.4% of households will pay no federal income tax this year. Constituents are getting what they wanted. Or are they?

Source:

Murray, Sara. "Nearly Half of U.S. Lives in Household Receiving Government Benefit." Real Time Economics. 5 Oct. 2011. (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/05/nearly-half-of-households-receive-some-government-benefit/). 6 Oct. 2011.

http://survivalandprosperity.com/2011/10/06/constituents-101/

Ancient Forests are Important to the Ecosystem

Old growth forests are essential to biodiversity and absorbing human carbon emissions, yet "Rare is the forest untouched by man," writes David Biello in Scientific American. "Whether logging or clearing land for agriculture, the bulk of the world's forests have fallen to crops, cattle or younger trees. According to some estimates, less than 10 percent of forests worldwide can be considered old growth, or undisturbed for more than a century."

Bialowieza Forest is the last remaining part of an immense primeval forest which once covered much of Europe and survived largely intact for nearly 600 years, because it was first a royal then a tsar hunting preserve. The forest some photos of Bialowieza Forest here is divided between Poland (40%) and the Soviet Union (now Belarus 60%) and is home to an amazing display of biodiversity, including the wisent (European bison), the largest and the heaviest surviving mammal on the continent.

Why Ancient Forests are Important to the Ecosystem and Why We Need to Protect Them - Planet Green

Two-stroke Engines, Auto-rickshaws, and Carbon Dioxide Pollution

In recent years, auto rickshaws have been a topic of endless controversy in India. Proponents maintain that they are a vital mode of transport in Indian cities, providing low-cost mobility and connecting travelers to mass transit and even directly to their destinations. The auto-rickshaw sector provides a livelihood for some of India’s poorest citizens. On the other hand, the vehicles are responsible for high levels of CO2 emissions and can be unsafe.

Someday, we hopefully will see two-stroke engines phased out completely. They can produce up to 50 times as much pollution in auto-rickshaw applications that modern cars with four-stroke engines and emissions control systems.

new student competition in the Netherlands and India, initiated and organised by Enviu, to develop a kit for Asian auto-rickshaws.

The Role of Auto Rickshaws in Modern Indian Cities | TheCityFix

Big Banks Failing, Occupy Wall Street, Anonymous

The Shrinking Public Sector is a Good Thing

I get hoarse repeating this, but I have yet to see conservatives really grapple with the fact that month after month we see a labor market that's basically treading water primarily because government employment is shrinking rather than keeping pace with population growth. Had we had government employment growing along with the population, this would still be a weakish labor market recovery, but it would be a real recovery with the unemployment rate falling bit by bit each month. Such a scenario might even boost general optimism and spur a greater level of business demand and new housing construction. But even without the optimistic "multiplier" progressive story, simply the direct impact of government hiring would be a slow-but-steady recovery.

I'm at a loss to see how increasing spending to create private sector jobs while the economy fails to produce REAL jobs would be a productive effort...

So what's the conservative story about this? The conservative story about the Obama economy seems to be that an overweening state is holding the private sector back. But the reality is that the public sector is shrinking. This shrinkage is exactly what conservatives claim to believe will spark growth once they bring the era of Kenyan Anticolonialism to an end. But it's already happening in a modest way, and has been happening for a year and a half, and it keeps not delivering any private sector magic.

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/10/07/338851/the-shrinking-public-sector/

I'm not surprised to see people still calling for increases in government spending and public sector jobs. The trouble is that the government can't justify those increases when revenues fall and people demand lower taxes. Keynesian economics always fails to create longterm sustainability in economies. Increasing the tax burden on a constantly decreasing taxpayer base, a result of increasing unemployment, can not support calls for more big government. The country is going bankrupt, many states are already there. Why should the government consume resources that are inefficiently used, while burden increases on private sector jobs continue to suffer under increasing government regulations and taxation...

Seven goals of Occupy DC

OccupyWashington thinks that the US government has been for sale long enough to war profiteers. Photo: takomabibelot via Flickr.

Ten years ago tomorrow, the longest war in U.S. history began.  That's ten years of missiles and bombs, ten years of kicking in doors and disappearing people, ten years of fighting and funding the Taliban, ten years of developing hatred of the United States, ten years of demolishing Afghanistan's natural environment, and ten years of profiteering to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a day.

And there's no end in sight.

That's why I'm writing to you from Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., where thousands of us have just begun an occupation planned months ago and energized in recent weeks by our brothers and sisters at OccupyWallStreet.  We're bringing the occupation to the government that Wall Street corrupts — to the government that launches war without end.  Corporate exploitation abroad depends on the threat of war.  War funding depends on the defunding of human needs.

We aim to shift our public priorities.  These are our goals:

• Tax the rich and corporations
• End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
• Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and institute enhanced Medicare for All
• End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
• Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
• Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
• Get money out of politics

If you share this agenda, as most of the U.S. public does, join us: http://occupywashingtondc.org.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TransitionVoice/~3/comkIEGExGE/

Anything short of ending the Fed and outlawing fractional reserve banking will fail to address root issues. 

JFK vs The Zombie Federal Reserve

On June 4, 1963, a virtually unknown Presidential decree, Executive Order 11110, was signed with the authority to basically strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the United States Federal Government at interest. With the stroke of a pen, President Kennedy declared that the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank would soon be out of business. The Christian Law Fellowship has exhaustively researched this matter through the Federal Register and Library of Congress. We can now safely conclude that this Executive Order has never been repealed, amended, or superceded by any subsequent Executive Order. In simple terms, it is still valid.

JFK Vs The Federal Reserve

So, the Fed has no validity, yet persists. This is likely what resulted in the death of JFK as well. The protests and actions to "End the Fed" seem to be against an organization that has already been declared invalid, but we continue to allow it to exist. Is the Fed a zombie? Why won't it die?

Economic Collapse Considerations

* This is mostly taken from an online conversation I had.

I wonder when we'll realize that being polarized by the two halves of the political machine doesn't bring any real change. Going from one extreme to another, back and forth, doesn't seem to do anything to better the lives of any of us, it only seems that liberty decreases year after year.

There are two candidates from Texas running for president, but only one that doesn't support extremism in politics. Guess which one I'm supporting, still.

Why political polarization has gone wild in America (and what to do about it)

The problem goes way way deeper than whoever the president is or which political party controls congress. 30 years of bad economic policy and allowing wall street to create the internet & housing bubbles that burst and ended up dragging the entire world economy into the crapper is the long & the short of it. There was an enormous systemic failure both of the govt, and the financial system....to think that one president or another is entirely to blame is short-sighted and foolish. Every president since reagan had a hand in this mess and both political parties are just as responsible as the other. No president gets elected without wall street money, and no president in the future is going to do anything other than wall streets bidding. 4 more years of Obama is going to be exactly the same as 4 years with some other dipshit. If you think otherwise, you're not being completely honest with yourself. This mess will take decades to crawl out from under.

  1. Incase you haven't noticed we are in large part still operating this country under W's policies, W's wars, W's tax cuts, W's subscription drug plan, etc. A large majority of our current spending is a result of the Bush administration. And lets no forget the two completely failed stimulus bills that added over 1 trillion dollars to the national debt. All of the above—unpaid for, but I digress

2. There is no comparison to W vs. Obama on spending. Even with projected analysis of Obamas current policy costs by the CBO, W out spends him by a 1: 4 margin. That's not debatable, it's a fact.

3. In 2001, President George W. Bush inherited a modest surplus, with projections by the CBO for increased surpluses with continuations of Bill Clinton’s policies. But every year starting in 2002 and the adoption of the Bush tax cuts, the budget fell into deficit at a rapid pace. In 2009, Obama inherited a $1.2 trillion deficit and more deficits in years to come, based on continuing W's policies and the effects of the recession that W created.

Some see Obama as less of a problem than Bush, but Obama is just getting started. Wait until he has four years behind him (or God forbid, eight). Projections are just fairy tails. I'll wait and see what the actuals look like once he's done his damage.

Want to get to the root of the problems? Fiat currency. Which I guess we can pin on Nixon and Co. Everything after that has been downhill, sometimes polished nice and shiny so we keep buying into it...

Want to fix the financial problems of the world? Crash the banks. Go back to a currency with real value. Invest in gold and silver. Get out and stay out of debt. Dump the 401k. Stay out of the stock market. All of these things support the system of control and wealth redistribution that the government and banks have created to manimpulate our economy.

And some background on why our government was initially restrained from having a heavy hand in economics. Congress has given away the responsibility to coin currency to the Federal Reserve, which is headed by major players from the banking industries, but is not actually a federal agency and has no federal oversight. Anyone who still doesn't see the problem?

History of Fiat Money

And with investments in the US government, devaluation of the dollar results in many of these investments returning near zero profits for investors, but keeps the government floating along, but only just. These systems do little to nothing for those of us at the bottom. It's all just a twisted way to control a population.

The main issue is that the public seems to be in a lull, not really wanting to accept that this is one of the biggest problems we have. This false wealth and market manipulation is not sustainable, but the public seems to want to ignore it as long as they can charge their purchases and get loans for whatever.

We have moved away from an economy based on wealth and production to one based on debt. The only way out of this pit is to kill the Fed, go back to a currency system that can not be controlled, and forgive debt. If we don't work toward changing the way our economy works, it will cease to work.

Endgame: When Debt is Fraud, Debt Forgiveness is the Last and Only Remedy | Truth is Treason

Take a moment and listen to Andrew Gause talk about the real world of money. It will give you a new perspective, or at least reassure you if you already believe anything of what I posted already.

Surviving Collapse: Patrick Timpone, Andrew Gause, Real World of Money Interview

Lewis also wrote the Blind Side and Moneyball, but haven't read any of his work yet.

For a more bleak perspective, look into Dmitry Orlov. He observed the Russian collapse, then moved to the US and started making correlations...

    

Here are a few other resources I follow regularly, more along the lines of collapse. With these groups and movements, the goal is sustainability and localization, the practical opposite of the failure that is globalism.

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

http://www.collapsenet.com/

Back to financial systems, I believe the first steps toward collapse have been met already. The guys over at Half Past Human predicted that the dollar would cease to be the global reserve currency. The Fed keeps printing dollars, China is unloading deflating dollars, so we are past this point already.
http://halfpasthuman.com/

The next stages would be a collapse of the derivatives markets, something that is probably good for anyone who is not a millionaire.
http://www.derivativescollapse.com/

Backdoor bailouts of banks are attempts at keeping the fractional reserve banking system afloat, but it has been on the downhill slide since the umbilical to real wealth (gold standard) was cut in Nixon's reign.
http://lewrockwell.com/rothbard/frb.html

I know I don't paint a pretty picture, but I am just being realistic, and hope to simply help others learn more so that we can gain more support for recognizing what is wrong with US (and global) economics and work toward a replacement system that doesn't defraud the vast majority of people supporting it under threat of violence (taxation = violence).

NYPD Thugs Beat Wall Street Protesters In Baton Wielding Melee, Dozens Arrested

Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District Wednesday for Occupy Wall Street‘s largest rally yet against “corporate greed.”

The march was mostly peaceful – until after nightfall, when scuffles erupted and some of the younger demonstrators were arrested when they tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange.

Witnesses said about 200 people tried to push through barricades and police responded with pepper spray and penned them in with orange netting.

GRAPHIC VIDEO - NYPD Thugs Beat Wall Street Protesters In Baton Wielding Melee, Dozens Arrested - Home - The Daily Bail

Perpetual Debt: Bank of Canada & why we should use it instead of wall st.

Money As Debt-Full Length Documentary

Jeffrey Rubin: Another Bailout for the Banks?

You might have thought things had changed in world financial markets since the U.S. subprime mortgage disaster. Funny that only three years later, the global financial system seems once again to be teetering on the brink.
Read More...
More on The Recession

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-rubin/another-bailout-for-the-b_b_997960.html

Why not? Might as well bail out the banks again. They run the Federal Reserve, so we can't let that fail. Can't allow corporate fascism to fail in corrupting the entire nation. 

True Cost of Coal Power - Muller, Mendelsohn, and Nordhaus

Skeptical Science previously examined the fact that the market price of coal power is artificially low because we do not directly pay for all of its impacts, particularly on air quality and climate change.  People who feel these effects do pay them indirectly (i.e. through increased health care costs), but since their costs are not reflected in the market price of coal power, economists call them "externalities," and view them as a major failing of the free market.  As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman put it,

"consumers are paying much too low a price for coal-generated electricity, because the price they pay does not take account of the very large external costs associated with generation. If consumers did have to pay the full cost, they would use much less electricity from coal — maybe none, but that would depend on the alternatives.

At one level, this is all textbook economics. Externalities like pollution are one of the classic forms of market failure, and Econ 101 says that this failure should be remedied through pollution taxes or tradable emissions permits that get the price right."

In short, if the people paying for coal power aren't aware of its full costs, then they can't take those costs into account when making decisions regarding how much to consume.  A new paper published in American Economic Review (a very prominent economics journal) from well-known (and somewhat conservative) economists Nicholas Muller, Robert Mendelsohn, and William Norhaus (MMN11) seeks to quantify these externalities.  Krugman provides his analysis of the paper in the link above, and our analysis follows.

Gross External Damages (GED)

MMN11 present a framework to include the externalities associated with air pollution into a system of national accounts.  They estimate air pollution damages for each industry in the USA by quantifying the damages caused by air pollution, and multiplying those damages by the emissions per industry, which they call "gross external damages" (GED).  MMN11 propose that "air pollution becomes another cost of doing business," as is the case for some pollutants.

The paper also compares GED to the value added (VA) by a given industry "to determine whether correcting for external costs has a substantial effect on the net economic impact of different industries."  MMN11 describe their modeling methodology to estimate GED:

"This paper uses the Air Pollution Emission Experiments and Policy (APEEP) analysis model, which is an integrated assessment economic model of air pollution for the United States (Muller and Mendelsohn 2007). The APEEP model connects emissions of six major pollutants (sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ammonia (NH3), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and coarse particulate matter (PM10 –PM2.5)) to the physical and economic consequences of these discharges on society. The effects included in the model calculations are adverse consequences for human health, decreased timber and agriculture yields, reduced visibility, accelerated depreciation of materials, and reductions in recreation services. In addition, for the electric power generation sector, we include the damages from carbon dioxide emissions."

MMN11 provides an estimate of GED costs for various sectors in Table 1.  The largest GED/VA ratio comes from agriculture/forestry and utilities.

MMN11 break down the GED/VA ratio by industry, and show the 17 industries for which the ratio is at least 45%, or GED is greater than $4 billion per year in Table 2.  Petroleum-fired and coal-fired power generation have the second- and fourth-highest GED/VA ratios, respectively.  Note that the GED estimates in Tables 1 and 2 do not include CO2 emissions and their associated impacts on climate change.  We will examine those costs later.

What Does a High GED/VA Ratio Mean?

In short, the cost of the damage not accounted for in the market price from industries with GED/VA ratios greater than one (including petroleum and coal power generation) exceed the value they add through their products/services.  However, that doesn't mean we would benefit from getting rid of them altogether, because if we internalized the external costs associated with their air pollution, then their GED would decrease.  As MMN11 put it (emphasis added),

"if the external costs were fully internalized, prices would change, so the results do not imply that the US economy would be better off not having these industries at all...On a formal level, it signifies that a one-unit increase in output of that industry has additional social costs that are higher than the incremental revenues. At an intuitive level, it indicates that the regulated levels of emissions from the industry are too high."

MMN11 suggest a possible interpretation of the high GED/VA ratios is that these industries are not efficiently regulated - the damages associated with their pollution exceed the costs of abatement (through some form of emissions pricing).  Another possibility is that 'VA' doesn't fully account for the value added from a given industry.

Breaking Down Coal Damages

MMN11 delve into more detail regarding the GED associated with coal power generation.  They find that SO2 emissions are responsible for 87% of the damages associated with coal power emissions (excluding climate change), and 94% of the damages come in the form of increased mortality.  For those who claim that burning coal is safe and harmless, the numbers tell a very different story, even without including the effects associated with climate change.

The study also compares the figures for coal, petroleum, and natural gas power plants.  They find that coal accounts for 95% of GED in this sector (though it also accounts for the largest percentage of total power generation), and coal power has the highest GED per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated (though as noted in Table 2, petroleum has a higher GED/VA ratio).  The GED per kWh for natural gas is 20 to 30 times lower than for oil and coal, respectively, because its (non-carbon) emissions are so much lower (Table 5).

Climate Change Costs

MMN11 note that CO2 emissions are not yet available for all industries, but are available from electric power generation from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).  As Skeptical Science has discussed, the costs associated with climate change impacts are calculated through the "social cost of carbon" (SCC), which is a very difficult value to estimate.  Estimates generally range from $19 to $68 per ton of CO2 emitted, but some "skeptic" economists put the value lower.  MMN11 use $27 per ton (from a previous study by Nordhaus, which is a rather conservative estimate) as their central SCC estimate, and also use $6 and $65 per ton as lower and upper bound estimates.

MMN11 incorporate climate change costs into GED for power plants, which they call "GED*" (Table 5).

Using the Nordhaus SCC best estimate ($27 per ton of CO2 emitted) increases the GED for coal power from 2.8 to 3.6 cents per kWh (29%), for example.  This means that CO2 emissions are responsible for approximately one-fourth of total air pollution damages from coal (and petroleum) power generation.  For coal, CO2 emissions cause an additional $15 billion in external damages per year which are not reflected in its market price.  The total GED for coal power ranges from $57 to 90 billion per year, depending on the SCC value (central estimate of $69 billion).  MMN11 note how these values relate to electricity prices:

"In 2002, residential consumers of electricity faced an average market price of 8.4 cents per kwh. Hence, the GED*/kwh associated with electric power generation using coal, oil, and natural gas represents 43, 33, and 7 percent of the average residential retail price of electricity in 2002. Note that residential electricity prices vary by the primary fuel type used in electricity production. In states that primarily rely on coal-fired power, residential electricity prices averaged 6 cents per kwh. The average GED*/kwh of coal-generated electricity is 60 percent of the average residential retail price of electricity in a state relying entirely on coal."

Uncertainties

MMN11 note some of the largest sources of uncertainty in their cost estimates:

"we note that the uncertainties are particularly large for four elements: the value of mortality risks, the relationship of this value to age, the mortality effect of fine particulates, and the social cost of CO2 emissions.  Sensitivity analyses using alternative values for these parameters change the magnitude of the results significantly."

Skeptical Science previously examined Epstein et al. (2011), which arrived at a much higher estimate of the external costs of coal combustion, mainly due to a higher estimate of (non-CO2) air pollution damages.  Their median estimate was 18 cents per kWh, as opposed to the median MMN11 estimate of 3.6 cents per kWh - obviously a very large difference. 

Epstein et al. also accounted for several factors not included in the MMN11 analysis, such as public health in Appalachia related to mining, which by itself accounted for approximately 4 cents per kWh in their estimate.  However, the estimates of air pollution externalities varied greatly in the two studies, from 2.8 cents per kWh in MMN11 to approximately 10 cents per kWh in Epstein.  The median climate change impact estimate in Epstein (3 cents per kWh) was also larger than in MMN11 (0.8 cents per kWh) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Average US coal electricity price vs. MMN11 and Epstein 2011 best estimate coal external costs (added to the Skeptical Science graphics page)

So there are clearly significant uncertainties in these estimates.  However, it's important to bear in mind that uncertainties are expected in a Pigovian tax (a tax levied to address a market externality).  Finding the exact emissions price is not necessary, because once the external cost is internalized, the emissions price can be adjusted accordingly.  First we have to take the first step in attempting to internalize the GED.

Take-Home Messages

There are some very important points to take home from these economic studies.  The first is that while these assessments involve significant uncertainties, they agree that the true cost of coal is not accurately reflected in its market price.  In fact, the true cost lies somewhere between ~50% and 300% more than Americans are currently paying.  The two largest contributors to this discrepancy are SO2 emissions (impacting air quality and public health) and CO2 emissions (impacting climate change).  Therefore, regulating SO2 emissions more strictly, and putting a price on CO2 emissions, would benefit the US economy.  As Paul Krugman put it, it's "Econ 101."

There is one final, very big message to get from this economic research.  Most, if not all of the candidates running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination  (and in fact most Republican politicians in general) have been arguing that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations are too stringent and harming the economy.  Texas governor and current Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Perry has been the most vocal in these attacks on the EPA, but even relatively moderate Republicans like Senator Susan Collins of Maine have joined in the attacks on "EPA over-regulation."

These studies show that this is exactly the wrong approach.  Air pollution emissions (especially SO2 and CO2) are under-regulated, and increased environmental regulation of these pollutants would benefit the US economy (not to mention public health, both nationally and internationally).  Unfortunately, as we've seen time and time again in recent years, scientific and economic research has little influence over today's Republican politicians.

NOTE: the findings of MMN11 have been added to the rebuttal to the myths Renewable Energy is Too Expensive and CO2 limits will harm the economy

http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=1042

US Vice President Biden Still Paying Attention

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The spreading protests against Wall Street show that the American people are angry about worsening economic disparities, Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~3/-DQuDFmwJ50/us-usa-biden-protests-idUSTRE7954JT20111006

Thank you mister vice president for pointing out the blatantly obvious. Yes, most Americans see the current economic control system as a bad thing, full of corruption and for the benefit of those playing the game. The root cause is the Federal Reserve, with Wall Street playing a key role in the wealth redistribution sham. 

Senator Bernie Sanders: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ has touched a nerve

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Tuesday night that the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" protest may have an impact on Congress. "I think they are touching a nerve," he told MSNBC host Ed Schultz. "I think the average American understands that there is...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheRawStory/~3/kEI41YrpBTc/

CollapseNet: Bernanke Getting Cold Feet On European Bank Bail Out? http://t.co/t5pt2laR #peakoil #tr

CollapseNet: Bernanke Getting Cold Feet On European Bank Bail Out? http://t.co/t5pt2laR #peakoil #transition

http://twitter.com/CollapseNet/statuses/120965049987776512

Watch Collapse Online Free

If you're part of the 99%, you may want to watch and share this film.
"COLLAPSE" addresses the predicament which brought on these tumultuous times more clearly than any other film.
We can change things for the better, but only if we get to the ROOTS of the problem:
*Fiat Currency
*Fractional Reserve Banking
*Central Banks
*Corporatism
*Consumerism (of which we're all guilty to some extent)
and
*RESOURCE DEPLETION: notably OIL and FRESHWATER.
Check it out...

OilFreeFun: COLLAPSE: Watch the Documentary Online Free!

Can a Million Tons of Sulfur Dioxide Combat Climate Change?

Many climate specialists see so-called geoengineering techniques as a way to bring down global temperatures if other attempts to combat global warming fail. One approach is to inject sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, where it reacts to form particles that block sunlight.

Can a Million Tons of Sulfur Dioxide Combat Climate Change?

End The Left-Right Delusion, Corporatism Is The TRUE Enemy

Excellent short clip with comments from leaders across the political spectrum. Interesting that in the past week, Ralph Nader has announced his support for Ron Paul, who himself announced in a recent speech that he would consider Kucinich for his cabinet as Secretary of Peace. The brightest and best thinkers are starting to understand that corporate control over Washington and both parties is the real enemy, a point which Dylan Ratigan has been making for months.

We should all begin to wake up as the world collapses around us, recognizing that those that are digging their heels in and have the most to gain from continuing on this failed path are the enemy of all, regardless of what our political tilt might be. We all live in the middle, we are all the 99%. Big government, controlling capitalism, politics pitting Left against Right. These are the problems, but collapse is the result. We each need to insulate ourselves from the failed paradigm and begin to create a new localized way of life while we still have the means to do so. We are all the same.

Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Kucinich & Chomsky: "End The Left-Right Delusion, Corporatism Is The TRUE Enemy" - Home - The Daily Bail

JP Morgan Gives $4.6 Million To NYPD

New York City Police Foundation — New York

JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD's main data center.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon a note expressing "profound gratitude" for the company's donation.

"These officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe," Dimon said. "We're incredibly proud to help them build this program and let them know how much we value their hard work."

This garbage is why I have been making every effort I can to extract any of my money that JPM is clutching to still. These crooks throw up every barrier the can to helping the small investor. I'm done investing. I'm done supporting a corrupt system that manipulates our economy for the benefit of the big players. I'm done contributing the results of my hard work to gamblers and thieves. Like Mike Ruppert says; at this point, anyone still supporting these systems is the enemy.

Perfect timing too, with the Occupy Wall Street Protests threatening to undermine banks' stranglehold on the failing economy, they are throwing money at law enforcement in hopes that their assets will be protected. The trouble I see is that law enforcement are generally one step away from unemployment and homelessness, just like the rest of the nation. After a few officers get foreclosure notices from JPM and similar banks, that's when their support will end. Law enforcement and military enlistees are in the 99% with the rest of us, it's just a matter of helping them recognize it, waking them up.

JP Morgan Gives $4.6 Million To NYPD

Source - The Daily Bail

Is the Whole World Going Into a Recession at the Same Time?

As the third quarter comes to an end, strategists and investors are beginning to prep their clients and portfolios for the chance that the whole globe slides into a recession at the same time. The worse news is that with uncertainty in Europe, the U.S. and China as high as when the quarter began, they can’t find much to do about it.

 

Yes... and then some. The word "recession" is inadequate. -- MCR

Click here to read more at cnbc.com

Source

Occupy Wall Street Issues First Official Statement

The Teamsters and the Transit Workers Union have endorsed "Occupy Wall Street". Something is changing very quickly. Most gratifying to me is that the movement appears to be taking the high, moral road by steadfastly adhering to non-violence. As King and Gandhi would have told us, this is where the power is. -- MCR

Read more here at digitaljournal.com

Also..Wall Street protesters arrested on Brooklyn Bridge  

"Scores held – including NYT journalist – after attempted march across bridge ends in chaos."

According to some accounts, the cops' actions would confirm Mike's belief that they're doing everything they can to stoke the fires; according to others, of course, the protesters started it. - Jenna Orkin

And...Wall Street Protest Starting to Look Like Egypt

Until Occupy Wall Street makes a clear statement on the way money works and ending infinite growth it will be leading people into a cul de sac and betraying their hopes. There is no other problem that needs to be identified because until you change the way money works, you change nothing. Every grievance they list arises from the mandate for infinite growth. Fiat currency, fractional reserve banking, and compound interest will always recreate the same end results, no matter how much enthusiasm is mustered or how exciting it may be to see people uniting. The Powers That Be know this. That's why they can sip champagne from balconies and watch the demonstrations with laughter. "Sure, let them have their little venting fest!"

So, I would have to say that the leaders of the movement are misinformed and naive at best, or intellectual and moral cowards at worst, until they name, challenge and focus on the only real issue there is. Half measures do not avail 50% benefits. They avail nothing and we no have five decades of protest history to prove that. Not one progressive or populist movement has changed the world. The world we live in is living proof of that. Human beings have neither the energy or the ability to participate in something like this that will ultimately leave them hungry, beaten, defeated and poorer.

It is simple arithmetic that cannot be challenged. That is why until I see a clear commitment and vision to something that will produce change I can applaud the non-violent power that is being exercised, but I cannot tell our readers with confidence that this will produce anything more than millions of people in the street protesting the invasion of Iraq did. We either get what the issue is or the slow campers will have expended precious energy on nothing... And this may be the last window of opportunity that comes along. -- MCR

Click here to read more at dangerousminds.net

Occupy Wall Street Issues First Official Statement | COLLAPSENET

This was unanimously voted on by all members of Occupy Wall Street last night, around 8pm, Sept 29. It is our first official document for release. We have three more underway, that will likely be released in the upcoming days: 1) A declaration of demands. 2) Principles of Solidarity 3) Documentation on how to form your own Direct Democracy Occupation Group. This is a living document. you can receive an official press copy of the latest version by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

Via reddit

China Is Quietly Unraveling as the World Frets Over Europe

The headline leads to a very disappointing video with an expert talking about China maybe slowing to 8% growth. But the story itself is much closer to the reality we've been documenting here.

"On the equity side, September has been brutal for China. As the world worried about Europe, the benchmark Shenzhen Index quietly shed 12% and is now wallowing at a 14-month low. Compare that to a 3% haircut for the STOXX50 in Europe this month and the trouble-ahead story starts to gain traction."

Click here to read more and see video at finance.yahoo.com

Also...Economic Slump Hits China in Earnest

And finally...China hard-landing fears hit high-end retailers

Again, the timing of all this is just flabbergasting to me. -- MCR

China Is Quietly Unraveling as the World Frets Over Europe | COLLAPSENET

The Lifeboat Hour - Progressive Radio Network

The latest Lifeboat Hour has been posted online.

The Lifeboat Hour - Progressive Radio Network

United Steelworkers announce support for ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest

The United Steelworkers, North America's largest industrial union, announced on Friday that it supported the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" protest that began in lower Manhattan and has slowly spread to other cities across the United States. The protesters have pledged to occupy...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheRawStory/~3/yhlk5iGcynw/

It's awesome to see hardworking americans stepping up in support of their peers. We are all the 99%.