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I’ve seen a couple articles today where the Republicans are trying to politicize the concept of network neutrality, comparing it in one case to “a Fairness Doctrine for the Internet“.

Well, it’s not that. And I could spend several paragraphs excoriating Republicans for yet-another weak attempt to convince uninformed voters that Obama’s going to [fill-in-the-blank], but I won’t. Instead, I will simply present you with What Net Neutrality Is, and What Net Neutrality Isn’t. Continue reading…

After his Ayn Rand-worshiping, bankster-babying, free-love-for-free-markets ass spent the entire 1990’s shooing the government out of regulating the financial services and banking industries to the greatest extent possible, it appears that Alan Greenspan has had a change of heart, and is now advocating the breakup of so-called “too-large-to-fail” banks.

Gee, Al, ya think?

I mean, after all, we gave ‘em everything they wanted in the 90’s, and they just treated us like a shotgun bride, getting drunk on their own excess and holding the gun of economic meltdown against our heads until we ponied up their bail. What does the banking industry say to a body politic with two black eyes? Nothin’ it ain’t already told it twice.

On the Rush Limbaugh program the other day, casino mogul Steve Wynn unburdened himself of the claim that with $800-$900 billion of tax savings, (somehow supposed to all come from the state of Michigan, not sure how that works) private industry could create “four or five million jobs”.

Notwithstanding the problems with where that money would actually come from, there’s just a little problem here with the math: At the low end, dividing $800 billion by four million jobs means that Wynn is claiming that the magical wonders of private industry would be creating $200,000-per-year jobs. At the high end, dividing $900 billion by five million, it’d still mean $180,000-per-year jobs.

Does anyone seriously think that “Mr. Market” would be so magnanimous? Does anybody believe that, coming from the mouth of a guy whose entire raison d’etre is the liberation of money from consumers’ wallets in as efficient a manner as he can devise? Continue reading…