Read This Now - How Rich

James Surowiecki has a nice rundown on some of the issues with our current tax structure and the problems that face arguments in favor of reforming it.

Interestingly he convincingly declares that this is not a case where simpler would be better.  Instead as American incomes have become increasingly stratified, among the rich, very rich, and filthy rich in particular, what we need is more tax brackets at higher levels...

This makes no sense—there’s a yawning chasm between the professional and the plutocratic classes, and the tax system should reflect that. A better tax system would have more brackets, so that the super-rich pay higher rates. (The most obvious bracket to add would be a higher rate at a million dollars a year, but there’s no reason to stop there.) This would make the system fairer, since it would reflect the real stratification among high-income earners. A few extra brackets at the top could also bring in tens of billions of dollars in additional revenue.

Make sure to read the whole thing.  Surowiecki continues to write simple, informative, and entertaining financial columns, you should try to read them all.

(via TMN which has just joined the reader)

Color Me Impressed

Pretty Sure this is about the most ridiculous baseball catch I've ever seen...



(via AC @ Kottke)

The Joy & Terror Of Grad School

Grad School has long been heralded as a refuge from which to wait out economic storms.  But when your time is up and you have to head back out into the real world it can still be a scary place. 

Especially when this is happening...



Nice visual presentation and demonstration of unemployment trends during the current recession.  Latoya Egwuekwe put the video together and has been updating it fairly regularly as new data becomes available.

If we aren't already large scale farmers in the mid-west looks like we might be headed to DC or Burlington, VT.

(via MB on fb)

About That Oil

Welcome back sports fans!

It feels like a lot must have happened while I was off the grid, but it was August after all, so mostly folks were probably lying low and trying to avoid the heat.

I did hear on the radio that the Administration and BP were claiming that most of the oil had already dissipated from the Gulf.  If you're anything like me your reaction was along the lines of  'Yeah, right.  Good luck with that.'

And indeed those claims are proving likely to be too good to be true.  With a group of Gulf based scientists and reasearchers refuting the Administration's claims, and instead reporting that as much as 79% of the leaked oil may still be in the Gulf (not including the oil that has certainly washed into the fragile wetlands of the region).

Check out the Bloomberg story for the details and let us know if you come across the actual memo (I haven't found it yet).

Update:
Kate Sheppard says the Administration's math on the Oil Disaster reporting doesn't add up.

Update II:
The AFS Blog has a bit more from the academic side of the story and links to the actual report and figures.

Read This Now - It's Gonna Be Quiet In Arizona

Rage Against the Machine has organized the Sound Strike, a musical boycott of Arizona in response to it's new immigration law.  Several groups have canceled scheduled shows and hundreds are vowing not to visit the state...

"We have to intervene in order to do whatever we possibly can to limit that state's ability to function and implement the law," Zack de la Rocha, of the band Rage Against the Machine, says in a Web video he's produced. He's organized a boycott of Arizona called The Sound Strike. So far, he's recruited artists ranging from Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails to Latino bands such as Los Tigres del Norte. Jorge Hernandez says Los Tigres del Norte's decision to join the boycott was personal: If the Los Angeles musicians were to come to Arizona, he says, they worry that police could detain them. 

NPR has the story, check it out.

By the way Los Tigres are kind of a big deal. Try to find yourself a copy of the May 24th New Yorker article, it's a good one.

So Long Dan Schorr

Sunday mornings will never be the same without you.

For as long as I've been listening to NPR Dan Schorr has been providing insight and context for whatever the major issues of the moment might be.  He was always straightforward and forthright and he never failed to call it like he saw it.

NPR devotes and anyone who's ever read, listened to, or watched the news lost a friend when he passed away today at 93.

NPR, of course, has the story (listen to the special here).  And many big names in today's news world are remembering him fondly tonight.

Until about an hour ago I had never seen a picture of Dan Schorr, even though I could recognize his voice in an instant...

(this one's from the NPR website)

Read This Now - Larger Context

Eugene Robinson does not, as they say, mince words in putting the Sherrod story in the larger context of attacks on the Obama Administration...

The Sherrod case has fully exposed the right-wing campaign to use racial fear to destroy Obama's presidency, and I hope the effect is to finally stiffen some spines in the administration. The way to deal with bullies is to confront them, not run away. Yet Sherrod was fired before even being allowed to tell her side of the story. She said the official who carried out the execution explained that she had to resign immediately because the story was going to be on Glenn Beck's show that evening. Ironically, Beck was the only Fox host who, upon hearing the rest of Sherrod's speech, promptly called for her to be reinstated. On Wednesday, Vilsack offered to rehire her. 

Shirley Sherrod stuck to her principles and stood her ground. I hope the White House learns a lesson. 

Be sure to read the whole thing.

Someone picked the wrong lady to railroad this time.