Economic links
A divorced bride auctioned off in Pakistan.
Nice graphic of the instability among the top 25 corporations (pdf) 1999 to 2009. Non-profits showed far more stability.
Seven out of the top ten non-profits not only stayed in the top ten but increased their share of the market during the decade. So much for competition! And according to Jed Emerson and Paul Carrtar, only 6% of non-profits accounted for four fifths of all revenues in the sector.
Charities sell a sense of virtue and compassion; some sell not much else:
LESS than one cent in every dollar raised by an Australian charity has gone to its intended cause in its first two financial years, documents show.
The Adelaide-based National Cancer Research Foundation last year picked up $387,864 in donations but gave just $4900 away, according to its audited profit and loss statements.
The year before, it raised almost $197,160, giving away only $935.
So far this financial year, one of the foundation's directors says the charity has passed on almost $30,000, but yesterday could not say how much had been raised.
Most of the money raised in the past two financial years went on commissions, management fees, travelling expenses and drivers.
The foundation's director, Neil Menzies, blamed the start-up costs of a charity.
Perhaps it is time to declare “aid” a sick joke that has gone on way too long:
NEARLY $537 million in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over $686 million has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog says.
Berlin-based Transparency International has demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Asian tsunami which hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people.
Bill Easterly reviews Peter Singer’s book The Life You Save. They then discuss the issue on bloggingheadstv. More. A very good question on a case of perhaps over-enthusiastic conceptual mapping. Counterpoint.
Various studies suggest that tax cuts work better than government spending as stimulus:
The results are striking. Successful stimulus relies almost entirely on cuts in business and income taxes. Failed stimulus relies mostly on increases in government spending. …
They report that “both increases in taxes and increases in government spending have a strong negative effect on private investment spending. This effect is difficult to reconcile with Keynesian theory.”
Via notebuyer. It is worth noting that the Rudd Government first-and-quick stimulus was effectively a cash handout, which works somewhat like a tax cut. Some details of the US stimulus:
A total of 56,399 contracts and grants totaling $157,028,362,536 were awarded in this first quarter for which Recovery.gov reports are available. The number of jobs claimed as created or saved is 638,826.54-an average of $245,807.51 per job.
Study finds that banks with political ties got bailouts: clearly, a good return on investment. But there are always “gold bugs” to suggest commodity-backed money is the solution. Unfortunately, I know C19th economic history too well to be impressed.
A green-rival corporate interest coalition is organising to stop use of a new technology in the US to get natural gas from shale. The issues are causing divisions within the environmental movement, (with a significant NIMBY element I notice). There is also a fight over use of California land for solar and wind farms. About housing and environmentalism as profitable support for the “incumbent’s club”. Arguing that environmentalism is used against the developing world.
Wondering how many sovereign bankruptcies the world will be dealing with in the next year or two.
Study finds that Louisiana is the happiest, and New York the unhappiest, States in the United States.
Nice graphic of the instability among the top 25 corporations (pdf) 1999 to 2009. Non-profits showed far more stability.
Seven out of the top ten non-profits not only stayed in the top ten but increased their share of the market during the decade. So much for competition! And according to Jed Emerson and Paul Carrtar, only 6% of non-profits accounted for four fifths of all revenues in the sector.
Charities sell a sense of virtue and compassion; some sell not much else:
LESS than one cent in every dollar raised by an Australian charity has gone to its intended cause in its first two financial years, documents show.
The Adelaide-based National Cancer Research Foundation last year picked up $387,864 in donations but gave just $4900 away, according to its audited profit and loss statements.
The year before, it raised almost $197,160, giving away only $935.
So far this financial year, one of the foundation's directors says the charity has passed on almost $30,000, but yesterday could not say how much had been raised.
Most of the money raised in the past two financial years went on commissions, management fees, travelling expenses and drivers.
The foundation's director, Neil Menzies, blamed the start-up costs of a charity.
Perhaps it is time to declare “aid” a sick joke that has gone on way too long:
NEARLY $537 million in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over $686 million has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog says.
Berlin-based Transparency International has demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Asian tsunami which hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people.
Bill Easterly reviews Peter Singer’s book The Life You Save. They then discuss the issue on bloggingheadstv. More. A very good question on a case of perhaps over-enthusiastic conceptual mapping. Counterpoint.
Various studies suggest that tax cuts work better than government spending as stimulus:
The results are striking. Successful stimulus relies almost entirely on cuts in business and income taxes. Failed stimulus relies mostly on increases in government spending. …
They report that “both increases in taxes and increases in government spending have a strong negative effect on private investment spending. This effect is difficult to reconcile with Keynesian theory.”
Via notebuyer. It is worth noting that the Rudd Government first-and-quick stimulus was effectively a cash handout, which works somewhat like a tax cut. Some details of the US stimulus:
A total of 56,399 contracts and grants totaling $157,028,362,536 were awarded in this first quarter for which Recovery.gov reports are available. The number of jobs claimed as created or saved is 638,826.54-an average of $245,807.51 per job.
Study finds that banks with political ties got bailouts: clearly, a good return on investment. But there are always “gold bugs” to suggest commodity-backed money is the solution. Unfortunately, I know C19th economic history too well to be impressed.
A green-rival corporate interest coalition is organising to stop use of a new technology in the US to get natural gas from shale. The issues are causing divisions within the environmental movement, (with a significant NIMBY element I notice). There is also a fight over use of California land for solar and wind farms. About housing and environmentalism as profitable support for the “incumbent’s club”. Arguing that environmentalism is used against the developing world.
Wondering how many sovereign bankruptcies the world will be dealing with in the next year or two.
Study finds that Louisiana is the happiest, and New York the unhappiest, States in the United States.