Source: delong
America, meet your “fiscal cliff.”
Peter Coy has an apocalyptic warning about the instant austerity that is set to be unleashed on America unless Congress acts this year. Much more here at the web version of the Counterparties email.
Source: businessweek.com
America, meet your “fiscal cliff.”
Peter Coy has an apocalyptic warning about the instant austerity that is set to be unleashed on America unless Congress acts this year. Much more here at the web version of the Counterparties email.
Source: businessweek.com
Just a few weeks ago, this landed in my inbox after Felix Salmon (who since the golden days of Gawker has made a habit of asserting every time I sneeze that I must be intentionally spreading Ebola) not surprisingly criticized my fitness as the editor of the Observer. Felix issues—and creepy obsessiveness—notwithstanding, I was a bit surprised at the DM because I hadn’t seen or talked to Breitbart in over a year, and the whole thread seemed too small potatoes to even be on his radar.
But it made me think about the last time we had a substantial conversation and it was a lengthy discussion about being adopted (we both are) and we were sitting in a booth at the Box. It was a party and it was loud, but we sat for over an hour talking about it. He was thoughtful and introspective—two qualities that probably wouldn’t be associated with his public persona, which sometimes seemed like a bit of an alter ego to me.
I met him in 2003 while in LA and taking the obligatory potshots at LA for Gawker (back when the Gawker worldview was New York Is the Center of the Universe) and it didn’t go over very well with some of the LA readership. Andrew was a good sport about it, got the joke, wasn’t offended. I’d run into him occasionally at events and I don’t remember ever talking to him about politics, though like every one else, I knew what his politics were. But even when I thought he was wrong-headed about things, I never thought it was in bad faith. I didn’t think he was a nihilist. When he signed on to co-found the Huffington Post, I was surprised—and then not surprised when he left. But I think you have to have a certain courage of your convictions to join forces with someone you fundamentally disagree with in order to create something that you believe will create more dialogue, siphon through the mess to get to the facts and create a new model for how journalism is conducted. I don’t think HuffPo necessarily did that, but it was a noble aim.
Andrew was a smart provocateur—and in some ways reminds me of another smart provocateur I know. And whatever I thought about his politics, I respected the fact that he was willing to scrap with people, make enemies and fight to present his ideas and promote what he believed in.
A Breitbart / Felix fight would have been epic! Sad we’ll never get to see it.
Disagreed with most of Andrew’s politics but respected how he confronted his enemies directly and was not afraid to meet them face to face rather than hide behind a keyboard.
He was also a web pioneer, with a large hand in the formation of The Huffington Post and Drudge Report.
I’ll miss having someone with this much passion (though misguided as I think it was) around.
Source: spiers
Indeed, and I’m working for a gigantic, immensely profitable company. Or for the staffing company that works for that company, anyway. Which is a nice arrangement, because temporary-staffing agencies keep the stink of unacceptable labor conditions off the companies whose names you know. When temps working at a Walmart warehouse sued for not getting paid for all their hours, and for then getting sent home without pay for complaining, Walmart—not technically their employer—wasn’t named as a defendant. (Though Amazon has been named in a similar suit.) Temporary staffers aren’t legally entitled to decent health care because they are just short-term “contractors” no matter how long they keep the same job. They aren’t entitled to raises, either, and they don’t get vacation and they’d have a hell of a time unionizing and they don’t have the privilege of knowing if they’ll have work on a particular day or for how long they’ll have a job. And that is how you slash prices and deliver products superfast and offer free shipping and still post profits in the millions or billions.
Source: Mother Jones
The Wall Street Journal Is Fucking Bullshit
Earlier today, I broke some news.
I don’t typically do this anymore given my new job. But from time to time this will happen. But if you read The Wall Street Journal, you’d never know. Why’s that? Because they’re fuckheads who don’t credit actual sources of information.
I know, I know. I’m ranting again. But indulge me for a few minutes.
I broke the news that Apple acquired the app search/discovery platform Chomp at 4:01 PM today. At 6:06 PM — over two hours later — WSJ reported the story as well. But oddly, with no mention of my original story.
This was odd both because, again, I reported the same information two hours earlier. And because it was at the top of Techmeme, which everyone in the industry reads. And every single other publication linked to my story.
Source: parislemon
…for the most part the only people who gain materially by an unexpected improvement in the Greek economy are the Greeks. And they are no longer the ones making decisions on things like austerity, payment schedules, etc. So it should not be surprising if those decisions are made to maximize – within a limited range of options – the chance of repayment of the modified debt, rather than to maximize – again, from a set of bad choices – Greece’s chances of an economic recovery.
Dealbreaker’s Matt Levine has with of the best things we’ve read on the tortuous Greek bailout discussions, and the incentives that are very much working against the Greek citizenry and its economy .
Which begs the question: would the Troika be so insistent on austerity if it had some clear upside to the Greek economy? Matt makes an offhand mention of something like GDP warrants. We’re intrigued.
Source: dealbreaker.com
Everything you ever wanted to know about The Simpsons, in a single infographic! (Click to read it close-up.)
(via theweekmagazine)
Source: thedaily.com
