Tuesday, November 10, 2009

David Horowitz, of all people, emails me:

Is America losing its mind?

Labels:

posted by Matthew @ 11/10/2009 05:31:00 PM Comments: 0

Friday, February 06, 2009

Guantanamo and Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson, not the Minister and Trade Unionist but the Professor at Edge Hill University, lays down a challenge to the 'left'.

It seems some facts can never come into focus for the left. Gitmo recidivism is currently running at 11%.


Some people have suggested that the 'left' can't focus on these figures because they are untrue, and point to a report by the Seton Hall Law Department (press release here) as undermining both Johnson's 11% figure and Johnson's recidivism claim .

It is possible that Johnson was unaware of the report, but another, which I suggest might be closer to the truth, is that he is directly challenging its findings. This is why he says 'some facts can never come into focus' before asserting a figure in which he believes, and explains the timing of his article (the report came out last month). Unfortunately, and something that will come as a surprise to readers of his authoritative journal, Democratiya, he provides no footnotes or backing for his claim, or counter-claim, whichever it is.

I will email him to ask for more details.

Labels: , , ,

posted by Matthew @ 2/06/2009 10:36:00 AM Comments: 5

Friday, October 12, 2007

What % of Americans are richer than you?

Well you have to go back to 2005, as that's the last available data.

To be in the top 1% of income tax payers you need to earn (individually) $365k, whcih is about £180k or I guess £200k back then. To be in the top 5% you need $145k, or about £70-80k, and the top 10%, $104k, which his £50k or a bit more.

Labels: ,

posted by Matthew @ 10/12/2007 07:29:00 PM Comments: 0

Monday, September 24, 2007

46 out of 60 on US politics

At this quiz. I was quite pleased with that score. I think if I had not been rushing (ie about 10 seconds per question) I might have got 50, as (for example) I misread the Fed buying bonds one as having the answer 'lower interest rate'. On the other hand I guessed quite a few, and might not be so lucky another time.

Labels:

posted by Matthew @ 9/24/2007 01:08:00 PM Comments: 0

Thursday, August 09, 2007

US Treasuries

Over here, rather inconclusively, I've been arguing whether the US would be able to renege on its public debt (US Treasuries) held by China in the event of a war between the two countries. I'm not sure how practical it is, as in whether the Treasury knows which bonds are held by China (although it must know where to send the coupon payments) and of course what the impact would be on the reputation of Treasuries as a safe asset.

There must have been something similar, if one a much smaller scale (gold was stil the reserve asset of choice) during World War II, but I can't find anything on the internet about it. I've just bought a book about the Nazi economy in WWII so maybe that will mention it.

You can get too bogged down in financialmarketism here, and forget the basic problem, which is the US Treasury would be paying large amounts of money (if it's 5% p.a on $500bn that's $2bn a month) to a country it was fighting a war against. I can't see how that would be allowed to happen.

Labels: , ,

posted by Matthew @ 8/09/2007 02:01:00 PM Comments: 3