Monsanto GM corn is losing its pest-resistance

Thanks to Dave Roberts and the Tweet machine, we find this, from the Wall Street Journal (emphasis added):

Widely grown corn plants that Monsanto Co. genetically modified to thwart a voracious bug are falling prey to that very pest in a few Iowa fields, the first time a major Midwest scourge has developed resistance to a genetically modified crop.

The discovery raises concerns that the way some farmers are using biotech crops could spawn superbugs.

Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann's discovery that western corn rootworms in four northeast Iowa fields have evolved to resist the natural pesticide made by Monsanto's corn plant could encourage some farmers to switch to insect-proof seeds sold by competitors of the St. Louis crop biotechnology giant, and to return to spraying harsher synthetic insecticides on their fields.

Adds the Journal, with delightful un-self-consciousness:

The discovery comes amid a debate about whether the genetically modified crops that now saturate the Farm Belt are changing how some farmers operate in undesirable ways.

This from Money's favorite morning paper.

But wait, there's already a proposed solution, says Sarah Laskow at grist.org (my emphasis):

Scientists are already working on a new way to make buggies regret they ever thought for a second about eating corn: it's called RNA interference, and it builds genetic code into plants that turns off essential genes of any bugs that eat it. At least, we hope it only applies to bugs.

RNA interference — what could possibly go wrong?

Oh, that.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Former State Dept official: Sludge-carrying Keystone Tar Sands pipeline approval "likely"

It looks like a done-deal, and that Secretary of State Clinton will approve the sludge-bearing pipeline. The Huffington Post:

David L. Goldwyn, who until earlier this year had served as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, said in an interview aired over the weekend that Clinton would likely approve plans for a contentious pipeline to deliver oil from Canada's tar sands to the Texas Gulf Coast.

"I think that balancing jobs, energy security -- a country which has increased production potentially the size of Libya -- I think the case for a pipeline is overwhelming, and she will approve it," Goldwyn said, speaking to Platts Energy Week, an energy-themed television program.

On Friday, the State Department issued its final Environmental Impact Statement, concluding that the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline would have "no significant impact" on the environment and recommending that the project move forward, despite warnings from environmental groups that, among other things, the project would help accelerate the warming of the planet.

The department was quick to say that the EIS did not represent a final decision and that a public comment period -- as well as public meetings to be held in states though which the pipeline would run -- lay ahead.

Maybe so, but the sludge-wheels are greased — with money, no doubt. There are a lot of Canadian dollars at stake, not just American ones, which is likely why the State Dept is point-person on this deal.

And with Clinton's mitts all over this, Obama can pretend to have clean hands when he signs off on this dirty deal.

Just a reminder: The stuff in that pipeline is not oil, it's toxic sludge from tar sands. It will poison any environment it spills into. In addition, the pipeline must be heated the whole way, since the stuff is so thick it doesn't want to flow.

Finally, if the project succeeds in delivering all those tar-sludge oils into the atmosphere, it's "game over" for global warming. Bill McKibben:

Forget the abstract and consider the down-and-dirty instead. You can undoubtedly guess some of the reasons for opposition to such a pipeline. It’s wrecking native lands in Canada, and potential spills from that pipeline could pollute some of the most important ranchlands and aquifers in America. (Last week’s Yellowstone River spill was seen by many as a sign of what to expect.)

There’s an even bigger reason to oppose the pipeline, one that should be on the minds of even those of us who live thousands of miles away: Alberta’s tar sands are the continent’s biggest carbon bomb. Indeed, they’re the second largest pool of carbon on planet Earth, following only Saudi Arabia’s slowly dwindling oilfields.

If you could burn all the oil in those tar sands, you’d run the atmosphere’s concentration of carbon dioxide from its current 390 parts per million (enough to cause the climate havoc we’re currently seeing) to nearly 600 parts per million, which would mean if not hell, then at least a world with a similar temperature. It won’t happen overnight, thank God, but according to the planet’s most important climatologist, James Hansen, burning even a substantial portion of that oil would mean it was “essentially game over” for the climate of this planet.

But why not look on the bright side — a small handful of wealthy power-freaks will have successfully converted a large pool of toxins into money, proving the old adage: Where there's a will, there's a way.

It's a lesson for us all. Seriously.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Perry: US should be run by the military

What's with his odd fascination with a military dictatorship? Who really wants to live in a banana republic besides extremists like Perry? It might be nice if the US could get back to letting civilians run the country instead of the military deciding what's best for the country. We're stuck in two wars that we can't afford because the military is calling the shots. Now might be a good time for the weak-kneed politicians to take back control of the country. We can't afford more wasteful and deadly wars that the military always seems to want.

Rick Perry already said that he wanted to secede from the union and now he wants to throw away our democracy so the military can call the shots. Really, why does Perry hate America?

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry discussed foreign policy Monday, telling the nation's oldest major veterans organization that U.S. forces must be led by American commanders rather than "multilateral debating societies."

Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars' annual convention in San Antonio, the Texas governor urged the United States to renew its commitment "to taking the fight to the enemy before they strike at home," as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches.

He drew sustained applause from the hundreds of veterans in a cavernous, concrete-floored convention hall when he said no one but U.S. brass should be leading American troops in missions abroad.

Read the rest of this post...

Truth and Reconcilliation in Libya?

What next in Lybia? Juan Cole has 10 excellent suggestions. Shorter version: Not what Bush did.

One suggestion that I would add is that I would like to see a truth and reconciliation commission on the South African model.

Getting rid of the dictator is often the easiest part of a revolution. The harder part is preventing a new dictatorship. Libya now faces risks a number of bad outcomes of which the most likely is that the new government breaks down as tribes engage in settling blood vendettas.

Having spent a lot of time following Twitter in the past few weeks I am seeing a lot of people who just don't want to believe that Gaddafi actually committed any atrocities or that he financed, armed and directed terrorist attacks in Europe. And I can't blame them. Bush made the exact same claims about Saddam and they were untrue.

I think it would be a very good thing if all the people responsible for Gaddafi's atrocities were held accountable. I would especially like to see the officers who planned and organized the Lockerbie bombing and the murder of Yvonne Fletcher on trial. But I would much rather have the full truth of what took place be known and put beyond reasonable doubt. Read the rest of this post...

Stiglitz: Obama administration and Fed have demonstrated an "inability to make economic judgements"

I had the pleasure of befriending Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz and his wife Anya a few years back at a small conference we both attended in Greece.  Joe and Anya happened to be in Paris yesterday (where I still am), and he graciously agreed to an on-camera interview for the blog.  I'm going to be posting the interview in small excerpts to make it more easily digestible.  Here is the first excerpt. (For those curious, the interview took place in the Cafe de la Mairie, across from Saint Sulpice church.)

Stiglitz, when asked if the economy is going to get a lot worse this year and next:

"The way I would put it is, the hopes of the 'green shoots' that were expressed in March, 2009 that then turned to brown later in that year, and again woke up earlier this year, have again been dashed.  So that the administration's, and the Fed's, constant referral to the economy 'on the road to recovery' is another demonstration of their inability to make economic judgments.  Just like the Fed totally misjudged the economy in the period leading up to the recession, totally -- even after the bubble broke, they said the crisis was contained.  Once again the Fed has shown that its ability to make judgments about the economy leaves something to be desired."

Read the rest of this post...

#2 GOP in House, Cantor, holding disaster funds for Irene hostage for more budget cuts

So Cantor is insisting that we torpedo the economy with more immediate cuts - something that is insane as many economists are now saying we're heading towards, if not have already entered, a second recession - or he will let people in states across the eastern seaboard suffer.

Despite the devastation caused by Hurricane Irene this weekend, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today stood by his call that no more money be allocated for disaster relief unless it is offset by spending cuts elsewhere. The Washington Post reported this morning that FEMA will need more money than it currently has to deal with the storm’s aftermath and is already diverting funds from other recent disasters to deal with the hurricane, but Cantor’s comments suggest Republicans won’t authorize more funds without a fight.

It's time for our President to start acting like the President.  If he caves on this too - if he's willing to actually help Cantor further torpedo the economy because he's too afraid to actually stand up to the Republicans (or worse, he actually thinks cutting the budget on the precipice of a recession is a good idea) - then maybe we need to start rethinking 2012.  Because I'm not sure I know who Barack Obama is anymore. Nor am I certain that I, my family, or my friends can afford this presidency much longer.

PS It's interesting that Cantor had no problem providing disaster funds, without demanding budget cuts, during the Bush presidency.  Then again, Cantor wasn't interested in torpedoing the economy before the presidential elections.  He is now. Read the rest of this post...

Bachmann: natural disasters warnings from God

She's barking mad, but we knew that already. People like Bachmann and Glenn Beck almost sound happy when these events happen.

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending."

Read the rest of this post...

Rick Perry became a millionaire while in government

Originally posted at AMERICAblog Elections: The Right's Field

Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

When he became the state representative from Haskell in 1985, the married father of two was far from living high on the hog. In 1987, the earliest federal tax return Perry has released, the couple reported total income of $45,224.
...
Since 1996, Perry has put most of his investments into a blind trust. A spokesman for Perry's campaign could not provide the trust's current value. Though the arrangement has shielded most of Perry's investments from public view, his finances again drew sharp attention in 2007 when he reported income of over $1 million.
...
Perry purchased the land from state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, in 2001 for $314,770. Six years later, Perry sold it for $1.1 million, pulling a profit of $823,776. Perry has attributed the gain to a favorable market for Hill Country land.
...
The Perrys have yet to file their 2010 taxes and have requested an extension, according to a spokesperson. In 2009, Perry reported $135,278 in wages as governor. From 2004 to 2009, Anita Perry reported average annual pay of $63,111 from work with the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.

Perry's financial history will provide a contrast to some of his rivals on the national stage. While primary rival Mitt Romney made a fortune in the private sector before jumping into politics, Perry's biggest gains took place while in elected office.

Though Perry has written books, the profits from the books are donated to the Boy Scouts. He's gotten rich as a public official and frankly some of these real estate deals sound like the sort of thing Republicans had a huge problem with when Bill Clinton was running for office and the story was the Whitewater Development Corporation. Read the rest of this post...

The payroll tax cut - are Dems acting too Republican on this one?

Dave Weigel worries that they are:

Something is getting lost in the campaign: Why goad Republicans into supporting tax cuts? It's an irritating short-term strategy. What does it get Democrats in the long term if they say this tax cut can't be undone?

I agree with Dave that Dems risk reinforcing a GOP talking point on tax cuts generally, but I don't agree that the policy has a small benefit. Here's what Dave said:

Bernstein calculates that keeping the tax cut would mean 8.6 percent unemployment by the end of 2012 and that nixing it would mean 8.9 percent.

And I seem to remember other estimates putting the impact of the payroll tax holiday around half a percentage point of GDP growth. Neither of those, the impact on unemployment, or the impact on GDP, are small when faced with the prospect of another 5 or more years of Japanese style stagnation.

That doesn't mean there might be better way to stimulate the economy, as Dave notes (such as an actual stimulus bill). But that also doesn't mean that the payroll tax holiday doesn't have a significant impact, it does. (Though I'm obviously not mentioning the argument that the tax holiday is taking money away from Social Security, another GOP dream. So that should be considered as well.) Read the rest of this post...

"Who rules America? Breaking down the top 1%"

This one is tricky — simple, but tricky. The simple part is that this article breaks down the top 1% of American wealth into strata, and talks about the differences. It's a really instructive piece, and an easy read.

The tricky part is that I'm presenting this not as fodder for your outrage, but for your understanding — and I'm afraid your outrage will get in the way.

For example, when you read something like this ...

I’ve had many discussions in the last few years with clients with “only” $5M or under in assets, those in the 99th to 99.9th percentiles, as to whether they have enough money to retire or stay retired. That may sound strange to the 99% not in this group ... [but] an after-tax income between $6.6k and $8.3k per month today will hardly buy the fantasy lifestyles that Americans see on TV and would consider “rich”. In many areas in California or the East Coast, this positions one squarely in the hard working upper-middle class, and strict budgeting will be essential.

... your adrenalin-fueled anger engine may go into overdrive, especially if you're in the "99% not in this group" and struggling.

But resist, read and try to picture each stratum (singular of strata) as it's described. To defeat this structure, we have to understand it. And there's definitely a structure here — it's not just a chaotic mash-up of money types. There are fractures and stresses within these groups; and only one of the sub-groups has power.

Here's a taste, but the whole thing has to be read. Not to worry; it's very clear. The writer is a high-dollar investment adviser, and the piece was sent anonymously to a UC Santa Cruz professor (more on that below).

I [the investment adviser writer] sit in an interesting chair in the financial services industry. Our clients largely fall into the top 1%, have a net worth of $5,000,000 or above, and if working make over $300,000 per year. My observations on the sources of their wealth and concerns come from my professional and social activities within this group.

Work by various economists and tax experts make it indisputable that the top 1% controls a widely disproportionate share of the income and wealth in the United States. When does one enter that top 1%? (I’ll use “k” for 1,000 and “M” for 1,000,000 as we usually do when communicating with clients or discussing money; thousands and millions take too much time to say.) Available data isn’t exact[,] but a family enters the top 1% or so today with somewhere around $300k to $400k in pre-tax income and over $1.2M in net worth. Compared to the average American family with a pre-tax income in the mid-$50k range and net worth around $120k, this probably seems like a lot of money. But, there are big differences within that top 1%, with the wealth distribution highly skewed towards the top 0.1%.

The Lower Half of the Top 1%

The 99th to 99.5th percentiles largely include physicians, attorneys, upper middle management, and small business people who have done well. Everyone’s tax situation is, of course, a little different. On earned income in this group, we can figure somewhere around 25% to 30% of total pre-tax income will go to Federal, State, and Social Security taxes, leaving them with around $250k to $300k post tax. This group makes extensive use of 401-k’s, SEP-IRA’s, Defined Benefit Plans, and other retirement vehicles, which defer taxes until distribution during retirement. Typical would be yearly contributions in the $50k to $100k range, leaving our elite working group with yearly cash flows of $175k to $250k after taxes, or about $15k to $20k per month.

Until recently, most studies just broke out the top 1% as a group. Data on net worth distributions within the top 1% indicate that one enters the top 0.5% with about $1.8M, the top 0.25% with $3.1M, the top 0.10% with $5.5M and the top 0.01% with $24.4M. Wealth distribution is highly skewed towards the top 0.01%, increasing the overall average for this group. The net worth for those in the lower half of the top 1% is usually achieved after decades of education, hard work, saving and investing as a professional or small business person. While an after-tax income of $175k to $250k and net worth in the $1.2M to $1.8M range may seem like a lot of money to most Americans, it doesn’t really buy freedom from financial worry or access to the true corridors of power and money. That doesn’t become frequent until we reach the top 0.1%. ...

That gets you started. Note that the people above, the "lower half of the top 1%", still work for a living. I would put them at the top level of the "retainer class" — wealthy, but still servants.

In Roman times, these would be the very-well-off top-level administrators and professionals, many of them ex–Greek slaves, who service the real Masters (the emperor and wealthier senatorial families) and oversee the constant flow of peasant wealth upwards, from which they get a hand-me-down share.

For the author, the key American economic super-strata are:

■ 99.0%–99.5%  —  The lower half of the top 1%
■ 99.5%–99.9%  —  Most of the upper half of the top 1%
■ The top 0.1%  —  The Big Boyz (and Girlz, but very few of those)
■ The top 0.01%  —  Where most of the real wealth is concentrated

The first sub-group has a lot of retirement anxiety, as the article makes clear; and the second has some guilt. Guess where the power lies.

I'll be writing about these groups a lot in future, so in that sense, yes, there may be a quiz, or at least quizzical looks from some of my readers. If you're so inclined, please dig in. I found it fascinating.

About the provenance: This was written by an investment adviser with very wealthy clients and sent to UC sociology professor G. William Domhoff, author of the book Who Rules America?, now in its fifth edition. Prof. Domhoff provides a longer intro in the piece itself. The article was published by Domhoff and republished in a number of places, but it's the investment adviser writing, not the professor.

This is the face of the enemy and some of their friends; I hope you find it helpful.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Irene’s economic impact to be less than expected

Financial losses are estimated at only $7 billion. It's always better to be prepared for the worst case scenario so lives can be saved and people prepared. The storm was still deadly and costly but it could have been much worse. As bad as the economy is these days the storm could have easily have wiped out any growth for the quarter.

Hurricane Irene will take a very small bite out of a U.S. economy already struggling with debt and unemployment after businesses across the East Coast closed their doors ahead of the deadly storm.

For rich nations, catastrophes often appear as mere blips in economic growth charts, with rebuilding efforts making up for output lost to disaster.

That should be the case for the United States this year, with the blip tame because Irene weakened as it marched north and failed to cause as much damage as was feared in New York City.

Beyond the economic impact, some of the historic covered bridges in Vermont have been swept away by the storm. Really sad. Read the rest of this post...

I’m apparently now a "young socialist"

I got invited to attend this weekend's French Socialist Party conference that's held every year in beautiful La Rochelle, France.  I'll be writing more about the conference shortly - I just got back and am still a bit exhausted (and I spent Sunday afternoon having coffee with Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz and his wife Anya - Chris and I recorded a half hour video with Stiglitz that I'll be posting over the next few days).

Me and François Hollande, one of
the French Socialist Party
candidates for president.

A funnier moment from the conference, in retrospect, was a very brief photo I took with the lead left-wing presidential candidate, François Hollande.  My friend Frank was the one who snagged Hollande, simply by yelling "Mr. Hollande, there's an American here who wants to meet you." It worked.  (I'm not entirely sure an American presidential candidate would have wanted to take the time to meet a visiting Frenchman who clearly doesn't bring any votes to the table).  Anyway, Hollande was quite nice about it, and as the pic was being taken (and about 100 media cameras were filming us), said to me, "make sure you show the photo to Obama."  I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was perhaps not the best messenger.

Imagine my surprise the next day when I found out my photo with Hollande had made it into one of the largest dailies in France, "Liberation."  An even bigger surprise was the caption.

Liberation's photo of me and Hollande.

Here's what the caption says:

"Hollande, trop occupé a séduire les jeunes socialists, a séché la ceremonie d'ouverture de l'université d'été."

Let me translate:

"Hollande, too busy seducing young socialists, skipped the opening ceremony."

Good thing I shaved and wore the new shirt. Read the rest of this post...

Lockerbie bomber "at death’s door"

We heard this just before he was released two years ago yet somehow he was strong enough to join a number of pro-Gaddafi public events. If his medicine was taken, it may be true and there won't be many tears shed. However, it's disturbing that the rebels categorically refused to turn him - a convicted terrorist - over only yesterday. The Guardian:

The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has been found apparently comatose in a palatial villa in north Tripoli.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is slipping in and out of a coma and only being kept alive with oxygen and an intravenous drip, according to relatives attending him at the property, which they said had been ransacked by looters who plundered all his medicine.

Megrahi, last seen at a televised rally in Tripoli last month alongside Muammar Gaddafi, was tracked down by CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson."He appears to be a shell of the man that he was, far sicker than he appeared before … at death's door," Robertson said.

Read the rest of this post...

EU working on new plan for banks

At the moment, there are quite a few plans in the works including plans to save the euro, plans to save euro countries and now the banks. That's a pretty heavy work load even in the best of times, not to mention a lot of money. CNBC and Financial Times:

Without citing sources, the paper said officials from the European Central Bank and European Commission are considering offering central guarantees over certain types of debt issued by banks.

The paper goes onto say that the move comes after a number of European banks where shut out of international money markets.

The report comes after the head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Saturday that "urgent recapitalization" was needed for Europe’s banking industry.

Read the rest of this post...