Econ 101: October 11, 2011

Welcome to ThinkProgress Economy?s morning link roundup. This is what we?re reading. Have you seen any interesting news? Let us know in the comments section. You can also follow ThinkProgress Economy on Twitter.

• Mega-bank Goldman Sachs “may report its lowest quarterly profit since the 2008 financial crisis,” while Wells Fargo “is headed for record earnings.” [Washington Post]

• In a new draft plan, President Obama’s jobs council “is recommending an initiative to attract $1 trillion in foreign direct investment within five years and upgrade the nation?s transportation and energy infrastructure.” [Bloomberg]

• According to the latest figures from the National Employment Law Project, “more than 6 million Americans are set to lose federal unemployment benefits in 2012, with 1.8 million running out in January alone.” [CNN Money]

• Congressional Democrats “are pushing back aggressively against Republican attacks on the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and Washington,” saying “the conservative criticism of the rallies is evidence that Republicans are out of touch with working-class Americans.” [The Hill]

• The Volcker Rule, a key part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, “will begin to take shape this week.” [New York Times]

• Thomas Sargent of New York University and Christopher Sims of Princeton University won the Nobel Prize in Economics yesterday for helping to “rewrite the models that central bankers and other economic policy makers use to analyze the likely effects of measures from tax increases to interest-rate cuts.” [Wall Street Journal]

• Wall Street banks “have become full-time headhunters for some of their biggest hedge fund clients, a role that is rife with potential conflicts.” [New York Times]

• The Obama administration’s Race to the Top program would become a permanent part of the nation’s education laws under a Senate draft proposal. [Education Week]

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Breakfast Links: October 11, 2011

? All eyes on Slovakia this morning as we wait to see if their parliament will approve the expansion of the EFSF.

? For the record, Slovakia is the one that used to be part of Czechoslovakia.

? Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia, is located near Italy, and has better food.

? Harry Reid’s op-ed on Senate procedure.

? Robert Samuelson is a tenured newspaper columnist: “I do not own an iPad, an iPhone, an iPod or a Mac. I abandoned my typewriter only recently. In short, I have not enlisted in the digital revolution?.”

? Sims & Sargent’s statistical techniques.

? Market reports are bad news.

? Rick Perry’s fighting chance.

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The Morning Pride: October 11, 2011

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT?s 8:45 AM round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here?s what we?re reading this morning, but let us know what you?re checking out too. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.

- Today is National Coming Out Day! Queerty highlights the day by noting eight important coming out stories we’ve heard this year.

- A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center examines the epic role the Family Research Council and American Family Association have played in the “demonization of LGBT people.”

- The Obama administration may be allowing a same-sex binational couple to be separated by deportation.

- California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has signed several new LGBT laws into effect, including one that clarifies nondiscrimination protections for transgender people, one that makes it easier for transgender people to update their gender documentation, and Seth’s Law, which calls for better training and guidelines for schools to respond to bullying. Equality California points out that 10 of the 12 bills it has sponsored passed this year.

- Thirty LGBT publications are commemorating Gay History Month by breaking down the closet door on American history.

- Read the New York Times obituary for gay rights leader Paula Ettelbrick.

- Michigan Senator John Gleason (D) is protesting the failure of several anti-bullying laws ? and the proud laughter of the Republicans who defeated them ? with a sit-in.

- VIDEOS: Anderson Cooper hosted a townhall on bullying at Rutgers University.

- The Washington Post calls for DC to pass better anti-bullying legislation.

- LGBTPOV points out how skewed ABC’s 20/20 report on Brandon McInerney’s trial was.

- North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue says she supports marriage between a man and a woman, but will oppose the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

- The 2012 Democratic National Convention will take steps to include the LGBT community when it comes to Charlotte, North Carolina next year.

- The head of the North Carolina Family Policy Council says that banning same-sex marriage will create a “more orderly civil society.”

- The National Organization for Marriage’s presidential pledge has been scrubbed to eliminate a call for “investigations” into the lives of LGBT Americans.

- A Fort Drum soldier tells his story about what it’s like to be gay in the military.

- Great Britain plans to cut aid to African countries that persecute gays.

- A new survey shows that the British judiciary is still plagued by homophobia.

- Glasgow’s Catholic Archbishop, Mario Conti, has suggested that marriage equality would lead to “gross discrimination” against Christians.

- A leader in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has suggested (“observed”) that homosexuality is largely caused by poverty and unemployment.

- Betty White says she thinks the LGBT community embraces her for the racy characters she plays and her love of animals.

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October 11 News: Solar-Thermal Power “Will
Compete on Price” with Coal and Gas by 2020, Torresol Says

A round-up of the top climate and energy news. Please post additional links below.

Eurofighter Helps Solar Mirrors Compete With Gas, Torresol Says

Solar-thermal power plants using technology from the Eurofighter jet will compete on price with natural gas- or coal-fired generation within a decade, according to a Spanish company that?s spending $1.3 billion on the gear.Torresol Energy Investments SA opened a prototype plant this month near Seville in southern Spain that uses an alloy developed for the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-18 Super Hornet engines. The metal is used to hold molten salts heated to 565 degrees centigrade (1,050 degrees Fahrenheit), hotter than an atomic plant?s fluid. The main heat receiver is made by a venture of Spanish manufacturer Sener SA and Rolls-Royce Plc.

Torresol, majority-owned by Sener, plans to use the 19.9- megawatt ?tower?-style generator as a model for learning how to slash future costs by standardizing components, refining plant operations and building generators side-by-side, Chairman Enrique Sendagorta said.

?With our next tower plant, we?ll be able to reduce the cost of power rather significantly,? Sendagorta said Oct. 7 in an interview in Madrid.

The test plant, known as Gemasolar, is profitable with Spain?s 29 euro cent (40 U.S. cent) a kilowatt- hour power rate, he said, declining to provide more details.

Spain has the most electricity production in the world employing solar thermal, a technology that?s increasingly being questioned in the U.S. for failing to match the cost reductions of photovoltaic panels, the main solar-power alternative.

Gemasolar is the first using sunlight to directly heat salts to power its conventional steam turbine. It employs 2,650 mirrors to bounce light at a receiver through which the salt flows. The device, similar to a giant, circular car radiator, sits atop a 140-meter (460-foot) tower and generates electricity….

Solar-thermal energy from tower plants costs about $233 a megawatt-hour to produce compared with about $172 for photovoltaic power and $63 for electricity from a natural gas- fired plant, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Nations Heading to Durban Climate Talks Remain Deeply Divided

U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres lauded a climate change meeting in Panama as “good progress” this weekend, even as environmental activists warned that the world’s only structure for curbing greenhouse gas emissions appears about to crumble.

The next time diplomats meet, it will be in Durban, South Africa, in December for the year’s final climate change summit. There, countries must finally decide what they have put off for several years: the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

“South Africa is the tipping point in terms of the future of the climate regime,” said Tasneem Essop, international climate policy advocate for the World Wildlife Fund in South Africa.

The 1997 treaty requires carbon emission cuts from industrialized countries, and the first phase of the agreement ends in 2012. Developing countries are adamant that a second commitment period is non-negotiable. Moreover, they insist any follow-up should closely hew to the original agreement: Wealthy countries must agree unilaterally to cut steeper emissions, and poorer ones would cut carbon voluntarily after financial assistance from the rich.

UN May Seek to Extend Kyoto Pact Without Canada, Japan, Russia

United Nations emission-reduction negotiators in Durban, South Africa, next month may seek to extend the Kyoto Protocol, excluding Canada, Japan and Russia, said Christiana Figueres, the UN?s top climate diplomat.

The European Union?s conditional willingness to extend ?has been exceedingly helpful by building a bridge? between developed and developing nations, Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change, said yesterday in London.

Government envoys will gather in Durban in November to work out a way to extend or replace Kyoto, a treaty capping greenhouse gases whose targets lapse in 2012. Canada, Russia and China have all said they won?t accept new binding targets under Kyoto unless all major economies are bound.

An extended Kyoto would be different from the existing agreement, Figueres said at a seminar held by the Carbon Markets & Investors Association, a lobby group, and DLA Piper LLP, a Chicago-based law firm. ?For a start we will have three countries less,? she said.

Any extension of Kyoto would still require agreement from about 200 nations at the talks, which would be a challenge to negotiate, Figueres said in an interview after her speech. ?Nothing is easy to get. Nothing is impossible.?

Buried Antarctic lake could hold vital climate clues

An ancient lake hidden deep beneath West Antarctica’s Ice Sheet may reveal vital clues about climate change and future sea level rises, and uncover new forms of life, according to a group of UK engineers and scientist.

This month a British engineering team will travel to one of the most remote and hostile environments on Earth — Lake Ellsworth, which is buried under 3 kilometers of ice — in the first stage of a project costing over 7 million pounds.

The ice sheet covering the lake has trapped the Earth’s geothermal heat, preventing it from freezing.

The team will prepare for a challenging drilling operation starting next November to collect water and sediment samples from the lake’s floor, which will help scientists assess the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and future sea level rises.

“If we can find out if or when the ice sheet retreated or collapsed, it could tell us what kind of conditions would lead to a West Antarctic retreat in the future,” Mike Bentley, glacial geologist at Durham University, told reporters at a briefing on Monday.

Eurofighter Helps Solar Mirrors Compete With Gas, Torresol Says

Solar-thermal power plants using technology from the Eurofighter jet will compete on price with natural gas- or coal-fired generation within a decade, according to a Spanish company that?s spending $1.3 billion on the gear.

Torresol Energy Investments SA opened a prototype plant this month near Seville in southern Spain that uses an alloy developed for the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-18 Super Hornet engines. The metal is used to hold molten salts heated to 565 degrees centigrade (1,050 degrees Fahrenheit), hotter than an atomic plant?s fluid. The main heat receiver is made by a venture of Spanish manufacturer Sener SA and Rolls-Royce Plc.

Torresol, majority-owned by Sener, plans to use the 19.9- megawatt ?tower?-style generator as a model for learning how to slash future costs by standardizing components, refining plant operations and building generators side-by-side, Chairman Enrique Sendagorta said.

?With our next tower plant, we?ll be able to reduce the cost of power rather significantly,? Sendagorta said Oct. 7 in an interview in Madrid. The test plant, known as Gemasolar, is profitable with Spain?s 29 euro cent (40 U.S. cent) a kilowatt- hour power rate, he said, declining to provide more details.

Climate Activist Visits Wilderness Before Prison Term

This summer, a federal judge in Salt Lake City sentenced a climate activist named Tim DeChristopher to two years in prison. His crime: disrupting an auction of government, oil and gas leases. DeChristopher was a 27-year-old college student in the closing days of the Bush administration when he bid for and won almost two-dozen parcels that he knew he couldn’t pay for. He called it an act of climate civil disobedience.

A couple of months ago, a jury found him guilty of two felonies. Now, before his sentencing, the activist set out on a last wilderness adventure – the descent of a river in Utah.

An old friend of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, reporter Alex Chadwick, was along.

China imposes nationwide tax on energy, resources

China is imposing a nationwide tax on production of oil and other resources to raise money for poor areas and possibly ease public anger at the wealth of state energy and mining companies.

The measure announced Monday is aimed at generating revenue for poor areas that produce much of China’s oil and other resources but receive little of the wealth. That imbalance has fueled ethnic tensions in Tibet and the northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang.

The tax takes effect Nov. 1 and applies to crude oil, natural gas, rare earths, salt and metals, the Cabinet said on its website. Oil and gas will be taxed at 5 to 10 percent of sales value while other resources will be taxed at different levels.

An experimental version of the tax was imposed last year on oil production in Xinjiang and President Hu Jintao said at that time that revenues “should be focused on improving local people’s lives.”

The announcement gave no indication how much money Beijing expected the new tax to raise but the official Xinhua News Agency said last year the oil tax in Xinjiang could bring in 4 to 5 billion yuan ($615 million to $770 million) a year.

That could help local governments pay for costly obligations imposed by Beijing to provide additional education, health and other services.

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Meet Your Guest-Bloggers

I promised you an all-star team, and here they are!

Jess Zimmeran, author of last week’s awesome Doctor Who post, an editor at Grist.com, and contributor to xoJane.com.

Tyler Lewis, a Washington, DC-based writer who has written for PopMatters, an international pop culture online magazine, and blogs at …on whatever crosses my mind.

Kate Cox writes about games, gaming, and gamer culture at yyour-critic.com. Her background is in film studies and in being a geek-at-large. A gamer since 1986 and a blogger since 2010, she now lives in the DC area with her husband and their cat, Guybrush.

Kay Steiger is the online managing editor at Washingtonian magazine. She’s written for a bunch of places, like Jezebel, The Atlantic, AlterNet, The American Prospect, Campus Progress, and some others. She blogs pretty much daily here. And you should buy a book of essays called Triumph of The Walking Dead, which features her work and will be out in November.

Various and sundry other ThinkProgress staffers will also be helping out. It goes without saying, but be especially nice to these people who are helping me keep you entertained while I’m running around conference centers in Washington and New York! I’ll still be answering emails and tweets and things, so contact away if you need anything.

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On This Day In History October 11

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow GazetteFind the past "On This Day in History" here.October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 81 days remaining until the end of the year.On this day in 1982, The[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/q91kfa_BXbQ/on-this-day-in-history-o
ctober-11

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Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE?

Your Lease on My Soul Has Expired.

Over the weekend I sent my annual email to Kos, asking if he'd mind if C&J squatted here for another year. The message I got back was unequivocal:

554 delivery error

Yeah! It's a go!

Just one minor detail: [Rattle Rattle] My freedom cup of liberty has been depleted by the economic forces of tyranny known as "living expenses."

For those of you who are new'ish here: four years ago I got fuckin' fired over the phone parted ways amicably with my former employer. I posted a "Ta Ta for Now" update, the Daily Kos community blogswarmed, took up a collection and, in Kos's words, "bought my soul." (I believe he also said, "Bwoohaha.") Every year since---even in the midst of the most horrific economy since Herbert Bagless Hoover---you've allowed me to continue writing this column because of your financial support.

But even more important, you've become a job creator. Namely, mine. And for that I thank you from the bottom of my cubicle, which is situated at the precise midway point between the kitchen and the bathroom. (I know what you're thinking and, yes, I can both grab a beer and take a leak without getting up from my chair. I think they call that feng shui.)

Of course, it's only right and proper for you to ask: "Bill, what exactly is in it for me for if I donate to the 2011-2012 C&J season?" I'm not sure how to answer that, exactly, since it depends on what the meaning of "is" is. But I can tell you this: you'll continue getting all those features that you've come to faithfully skim before you dive into the Pulitzer-winning comments: the daily puppy pic, the weekly Rapture Index, the Thursday "Molly Ivins Moment," the Friday "Who Won the Week" poll, the five-year flashbacks that remind us that Bush was even worse than we remember, interviews with your favorite Kossacks and all the other legendary stuff that makes you feel warm all over, knowing that I'm not out on the street terrorizing the tourists. ("What do you mean you don't wanna buy a lobster hat??!! Everybody buys a lobster hat. WHAT KIND OF SICK FAMILY ARE YOU!!???") So, yeah, stuff like that.

Also in my defense: I took zero sick days again this year, and only one mental health day to mourn the passing of the guy who invented Doritos. Plus we co-sponsored Netroots for the Troops, raised money for Netroots Nation and progressive candidates and causes, served as a welcome cabana for new Kossacks getting their webbed bloggerfeet wet, ensured public tranquility during the switchover to DK4, provided sanctuary from the pie fights, and continued mocking the people who put greed and stupidity and dishonesty above country.

If you're in the mood to keep C&J going for another year, I'd be honored to slip a fresh diaper on my head and fresh ribbons in my 50 chain-smoking monkeys' typewriters.

Four years ago Kos set up PayPal accounts for both one-time donations and recurring monthly donations. (If you're already a monthly subscriber through PayPal and you want to continue, you don?t have to do anything.) Here's the linkies:

One time contribution: click here.

$5 monthly contribution: click here

$10 monthly contribution: click here

$20 monthly contribution: click here

To send a check via snail mail, the address is: Bill Harnsberger, 16 Pitt Street, Portland, ME, 04103.

The goal, like last year, is $25k in contributions. I'll give you fundraising progress reports daily. Hopefully we can hit the goal by Friday and I'll stop pestering you for an entire year. But...only donate if you're able.

In all seriousness: Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting this weird thing. And if it doesn?t work out this time (always a possibility), I'll refund your money and in all likelihood go back to making ads for male enhancement pills, colon cleansers, and subliminal hypnosis CDs that grow your breasts up to one cup size larger while you sleep. (One small hitch: they shrink to their original size when you wake up. We're working on a fix with some test sheep.)

Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

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Free trade pacts and the American Jobs Act: Today
in Congress

Recapping yesterday's action:

Ha ha! Were you at work yesterday? Congress wasn't! It was Columbus Day! But more than a few of them were probably getting their ears bent somewhere in their districts, possibly by some of you. If so, good work!

Looking ahead to today:

A very unusual-looking schedule in the House today. A typical post-weekend late start, with six suspension bills on tap (which is not at all unusual) and partial consideration of four trade and tariff bills (which is). Sandwiched in between will be the completion of work on the "EPA Regulatory Relief Act."  But it seems very unusual to hold general debate on four separate (though similar) bills, and postpone completion of all of them for another day, rather than finishing them one at a time. It's not likely to make any particular difference in the outcome, but it seems... worth mentioning, somehow. Maybe it'll become clear why they did it as events unfold.

By the way, I wonder if there will be any objection to H.R. 1025, the last of the suspensions scheduled for the day. According to the title, the bill purports to "recognize the service in the reserve components of certain persons by honoring them with status as veterans under law." That sounds like a nice thing to do, but recall that not long ago there was objection to a bill that would have awarded U.S. flags to the families of federal civilian employees who die from injuries in connection with their service. This is slightly different, of course. But you never know.

The Senate also starts work late today, passing the time in "morning business" until 5:30, and then proceeding to three votes in quick succession: a judicial confirmation, passage of the anti-currency manipulation bill, and a vote on cloture (the 32nd such motion this year), this time on the motion to proceed to the American Jobs Act. If it passes, that means up to 30 more hours of debate on whether or not to begin debate on the bill, even though they'll already have decided to begin.

In case you haven't pieced it together yet from the dozens of times I've explained this ridiculous situation, there's really no reason in the world why there ought to be post-cloture time on motions to proceed. If you've decided to proceed, then proceed. Post-cloture time on bills can make sense, allowing additional time for amendments that might still be pending. But on motions to proceed? Or for that matter, executive or judicial nominations? What's the point of post-cloture time on those? There isn't any.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

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The Road to Hell

.....is paved with merger signs. I've often said the rich are now eating their own, another sign of the apocalypse. Its a culling of the herd, a winnowing, an attempt to gamble down to the big prize of who gets it all. I've thrown hundreds of thousands[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/CZyYEY9g300/the-road-to-hell

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Marijuana Crackdown By Obama Admin

Federal prosecutors in the Obama Administration are planning on going after medical marijuana dispensaries. How are pharmaceutical companies involved?   [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mydd/~3/zVqcrGd50Ao/marijuana-crackdown-by-obama-a
dmin

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