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Daily Digest 6/25 - Keeping The American Dream Alive, AZ Town Fights For Its Water
by Daily Digest
Monday, June 25, 2012, 8:36 AM
Economy
Keeping The Dream Alive (jdargis)
What was new was the specific phrase Adams was using: the American Dream. From John Winthrop and the Puritan search for an earthly "city upon a hill" in the New World to Benjamin Franklin's "The Way to Wealth" aphorisms to Horatio Alger and the drama of the upwardly mobile, Adams' phrase had — and has — the deepest of roots in the American experience. For reasons ranging from geography to market capitalism to Jeffersonian ideas of liberty, we may well be the only people on the planet who tend to believe without irony that Thomas Paine was right when he declared that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again."
Michael J. Burry: Failed Ideologues are Writing Reality out of the History of the Economic Crisis (Jaime)
Michael J. Burry, in the video below, delivers the keynote address at the 2012 UCLA Department of Economics Commencement. In it, he describes the process he undertook in determining that the credit bubble would pop, the housing sector would crash, and that the financial world's blindness to the obvious would, if property harnessed, vault him into the 1%. All of it t was 100% foreseeable. There was no "black swan". Yet, our most esteemed economic leaders were completely blind to it.
David Walker, Former U.S. Comptroller General: Correcting America's Fiscal Imbalances (woodman)
Through his efforts with Comeback America Initiative, Walker aims to remain a non-partisan voice for lawmakers in the hopes of correcting America’s federal, state and local fiscal imbalances.
Greece’s New Leaders to Miss Crucial Meeting (jdargis)
In the interim, a billion euros, or $1.26 billion, in financing that the European Union withheld from Greece until a government was installed is scheduled to be released by the end of the month. The release may avert the possibility of Greece defaulting on some debt — at least for now. But Athens will get to keep only about 100 million euros, or about $125 million; the rest will go toward paying Greece’s contribution to the European Stability Mechanism.
Pressure for Action at Brussels Meeting (jdargis)
Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister who is known as an advocate of a stronger European central government, said in an interview published Sunday that Germany may need to hold a referendum on a new constitution within several years, to make it easier for the country to cede budgetary authority. “In some important political areas we need to transfer more jurisdiction to Brussels, so that not every decision can be blocked by any member state,” Mr. Schäuble told the magazine Der Spiegel.
Greece's New Centrality - and Dilemmas - in Energy (OPA)
In addition, the Greek Ministry of Energy recently approved the acquisition by Ægean Energy of a 70 percent interest in the Sea of Thrace offshore concession license. This offshore field, located in the north-eastern Ægean near Turkey, comprises an area covering a total of 1,600 square kilometers. Further, in 2009 Energean also acquired a 2,000 sq.km. 2D Seismic survey for offshore Greece identifying new exploration targets, currently being evaluated. This seismic survey is a geological research product and it shows the indications for hydrocarbon reserves in the specified area.
Norwegian Oil Workers Threaten to go on Strike if Negotiations Fail (OPA)
Gro Losvik, an official at Industri Energi, the largest Union taking part in the negotiations, admitted that “at this time I would assess the risk for a strike as 50/50. We have a plan for expanding the strike if we have to, but we are hoping to avoid this through negotiations.”
With Wild West Spirit, Tombstone Fights for Its Water (jdargis)
Tombstone’s water system is as old as the city itself, and most of the parts that are functioning, which are few, were damaged last year by rocks and trees dragged downhill by runoff from the summer monsoons. The city set out to repair the system’s connections to three of the 25 springs to which it claims to have a right; connections to the other springs are inoperable or nonexistent.
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