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We talk about the economics and new business models impacting all sorts of industries from software to music to movies to newspapers to video games, but haven’t talked all that much about book publishing. Certainly, we’ve discussed some aspects of ebooks (and the bizarre pricing decisions there), but there’s really been so little that has come across as truly innovative, that I haven’t spent much time digging in. Yes, there are things like Google books and print-on-demand and other such things — but all of those seem mostly focused on just taking the old business and “making it digital,” rather than looking at ways to rethink what the digital world really means for book publishing. There have been some one off cases — with examples of individual authors like Robin Sloan and JC Hutchins doing some interesting experiments as novelists, but nothing larger. And… many people point out that with fiction writers, they just don’t see the same scarcities that we discuss in other industries.

So I’m quite happy to learn about a company that really is experimenting in this space, and doing so in interesting ways. Ross Pruden clued me in to a project called Cursor, started by Richard Nash, that appears to be doing some rather interesting things. The key point is that, rather than just focusing on publishing books, it’s really a community driven platform that produces books as one aspect of the overall experience — and uses a tiered support model, similar to those we’ve discussed in so many other areas:

My business plan is now out with investors–I will spare you the P&L numbers and just offer the broad strokes. Cursor will establish a portfolio of self-reinforcing online membership communities. To start, this includes Red Lemonade, a pop-lit-alt-cult operation, and charmQuark, a sci-fi/fantasy community.

The business will focus on developing the value of the reading and writing ecosystem, including the growth of markets for established authors, as well as engaging readers and supporting emerging writers. Each community will have a publishing imprint, which will make money from authors’ books, sold as digital downloads, conventional print and limited artisanal editions–and will offer authors all the benefits of a digital platform: faster time to market, faster accounting cycles, faster payments to authors. But the greatest opportunity is in the community itself. Each will have tiers of membership, including paid memberships that will offer exclusive access to tools and services, such as rich text editors for members to upload their own writing, peer-to-peer writing groups, recommendation engines, access to established authors online and in person, and editorial or marketing assistance. Members can get both peer-based feedback and professional feedback.

Other revenue opportunities include the provision of electronic distribution services to other publishers; fee-based or revenue-share software modules, especially for online writing workshops or seminars for publishers, literary journals, teaching programs; fee-based linking of writers to suppliers of publishing services, including traditional publishers and agents; corporate sponsorships and site advertising; and events and speaking fees.

Now there are some things in this description that I think are great, and others that I’m not sure will work, but it definitely is a big and interesting vision, that really does seem to get the basic concept of both connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, while also looking to build out complementary scarcities. My main concern are (as usual) the attempts to use infinite goods as if they were scarce, but given so many other smart aspects to this program, I get the feeling that after some experimentation, things will shake out in a way that works well.

But, fundamentally, the fact that this whole thing isn’t even set up as a “publishing house with some community features,” but rather as “communities that also publish,” is a very, very smart way of going about things. It’s a recognition of the power of community, enabled by modern communication technology, that gets so incredibly ignored by so many legacy business lines.

Beyond that, Nash is doing some other interesting things that many in the publishing world will consider horrifying — but which really are extremely forward-looking. The reason Ross pointed this out to me is because Nash has decided that, unlike pretty much every other publisher in the world, to purposely limit the length of the contract away from “life-of-copyright.” As he notes, traditionally, when you sign a publishing deal, the publishing house controls the rights until the work hits the public domain (long after you’re dead). Instead? His deals are three years:

No more life-of-the-copyright contracts.

Instead: three year contracts.

Yup, from a contract that locks you in till seventy years after you’re dead, to a three year contract. Renewable annually thereafter. Which means after three years you can walk. Or stay, but stick it to us for better royalties because there’s gonna be a movie. Or stay with us because with all the additional formats and revenue opportunities we’re creating above and beyond what any publisher has to offer, you’re making more money than ever before.

You see, most publishers have accepted they’re not going to make money publishing your book. They’re publishing your book and a bunch of other books like it so they can have exclusive rights over as much intellectual property as possible. Such that if, three or five or nine years down the road, you win the NBA, or the Orange, or there’s a movie, or an Oprah pick, your whole backlist starts to sell but they don’t have to pay you one single extra red percent in royalties.

That’s where their profits come from, from being able to NOT have to renegotiate royalties when your books start selling better than they expected.

I have no idea if Cursor is “the answer.” In fact, I’d bet that it’s not. But it is one answer that’s experimenting in some very interesting and compelling ways. And that’s the key point. There no longer is just one answer to the business model for any particular industry. Each of these industries is learning that business models change rapidly, and the way to succeed is in smart, focused experimentation that is most focused on providing greater value (rather than looking to limit participants). Who knows if Cursor, as an individual experiment, will work. But succeed or fail, it’s an experiment worth watching closely.

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Virtually the entire world’s press is now focusing on the travails of the euro zone, but continues to draw the wrong lessons from what now afflicts the region. But Americans might be pleased to know that this collective economic insanity is not restricted to the pages of the right wing press or the rantings of Fox News commentators such as Glenn Beck. No America, you can rejoice! This has become a fully fledged global disease. You are not alone.

As I have pointed out before, no euro zone government issues its own currency. Consequently, they have to “finance” every euro they spend. And, as Bill Mitchell notes, if tax revenues do not cover pre-existing spending desires, then all of these countries (including Germany) have to issue debt. The current crisis is manifested by the bond markets’ unwillingness to lend to the PIIGS governments any longer because they are beginning to query the PIIGS’ national solvency.

These funding constraints do not apply to the US government, which is sovereign in the US dollar and can never be revenue constrained.

The same applies to the UK government, although to judge from the comments of the new coalition Conservative-Liberal Democratic Government Cabinet, one would be hard-pressed to discover that fact. Will someone please remind the UK’s new Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, that the UK is not Greece? Osborne attended Eton, one of Britain’s elite private educational institutions, but they clearly didn’t do a good job of teaching him economics out there, if one is to judge by his recent statements: “If anyone doubts the dangers that face our country if we do not, they should look at what is happening today in Greece and in Portugal.”

The UK is a sovereign nation that issues its own currency and freely floats it on foreign exchange markets. Perhaps the keyboard operators have gone on strike (like British Airways), or the country has a paper shortage and can no longer write checks, but given the plethora of comments emanating from virtually all members of the UK commentariat, one has to assume plain ignorance. Just today, the incoming Chief Treasury secretary, David Laws, warned the British electorate that the UK has well and truly “run out of money.” Hold on to those pounds, or you’re doomed.

In defense of the current Greek, Spanish and Portuguese governments, they find themselves in a fiscal straitjacket not of their own making. It is a by-product of the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact. The UK, by contrast, is willingly choosing to commit economic suicide. If the government had some understanding of the characteristics of its monetary system and the position of the currency in that system, they would stop worrying about debt ratios and deficit ratios and focus more on reversing the job loss and doing nothing to undermine the economy’s capacity to recover. The Labour Party opposition ought to be secretly screaming with delight, although the Brown Administration clearly didn’t know any better and therefore fully deserved to lose the last election.

The new UK coalition government has a choice. So do the Baltic nations, where a much more severe, more devastating and downright deadly crisis in the post-Soviet economies is taking place. Somehow the travails of countries such as Latvia and Estonia have escaped widespread press notice. The US and UK would do well to take note, because the Baltic Republics have well and truly imbibed the neo-liberal Kool-Aid peddled by the likes of the IMF.

On June 2009, the newly-appointed Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, made a national public radio address and said that his country had to accept major cuts in the budget because they would allow the country to receive the next installment of its IMF/European Union bail-out loans. He said the country was faced with looming “national bankruptcy” and then proceeded to ensure the validity of that claim by implementing the economic equivalent of carpet bombing. In effect, he turned the Baltic republic into an industrial wasteland via the most virulent form of neo-liberal economics.

Having broken free from the chains of the former Soviet Empire, Latvia promptly surrendered its currency sovereignty by pegging its currency against the Euro. This means it has to use monetary policy to manage this peg. The domestic economy also has to shrink if there are downward pressures on the local currency emerging in the foreign exchange rates. So instead of allowing the currency to make the adjustments necessary, the Latvian government handled the “implied depreciation” by devastating the domestic economy. (Public sector pay has been cut by 40 percent over the last year, while the economy has contracted by almost a third.)

But now, cries the government, there is light at the end of the tunnel! In the first quarter, GDP declined by a mere 6%! Well, when a country experiences a cumulative decline greater than anything sustained by the US during the Great Depression, I suppose a mere 6 per cent contraction seems like positive boom times again. And sure enough, Prime Minister Dombrovski has proclaimed this as “confirmation of the economy’s flexibility” – what is left of it – and “yield from reforms and the fiscal consolidation program, the so-called internal devaluation,” according to The Baltic Course. “Infernal devaluation” is a more appropriate description.

The currency peg is nonsensical, even though devaluation would be severely disruptive given the current nominal contracts held by the Latvian private sector. Around 80 percent of all private borrowing in Latvia is in euros, with the Swedish banks being the most exposed in Latvia. And, of course, the devaluation would undermine Latvia’s ambitions to join the EMU (hardly an exclusive club worth joining these days, as any Greek, Spaniard or Italian would likely tell the Latvians). The debate in Latvia about the EMU is that it will provide financial stability for the country. The fact that membership destroys their fiscal sovereignty is never raised in the public debate, narrowing the range of policy options that the political classes are prepared to discuss, and thereby legitimizing nonsensical ideas that a contraction of a “mere” 6% is something worth celebrating.

All of this pain for an exclusive club — the euro zone – which today looks on the verge of imploding.

And Latvia is not alone. By virtue of its low public debt, and low inflation rate, Estonia has become the new poster boy for the IMF. Its budget deficit was 1.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, well within the 3 percent Maastricht limit, while its government sector debt was the lowest in the EU at 7.2 percent, according to the Statistics Estonia. Estonia could pay off all its public debts and still have reserves left over, which is why the country has been provisionally admitted to join the European Monetary Union in 2011.

So, should Greece, with public deficit of 13% and public debt of 113% (both as percentage of GDP), follow Estonia, bite the bullet and get down to slashing budget and wages? Or Spain? Like all of the euro zone nations, Estonia has no exchange rate policy option because the Kroon is pegged to the euro, so its fiscal policy is similarly externally constrained. The euphoria around Estonia should die rather quickly when one looks at the GDP performance in 2009. It fell nearly 15%; Greece’s GDP contracted just 2%. More recently, according to the Baltic Post, the number of jobs in Estonia is the lowest in almost 25 years. The release of Estonia’s first quarter labor statistics show that the unemployment rate grew by nearly four percentage points in comparison to the end of 2009 and reached nearly 20%. God help the rest of the world if it manages to emulate this “success story.” While their governments seems to think that by joining the EMU they will be “shock-proofed,” they should just get rid of the “proofed” part and realize that they will shock their citizens into a new kind of indentured servitude.

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Marshall Auerback is a market analyst and commentator.

This guest post previously appeared at NewDeal2.0

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It’s hard to know whether the recession will push Americans — especially younger Americans — to the left or the right because generations coming of age during recessions tend to rely on government more but trust it less. We’re seeing this play out today. Automatic spending on jobless benefits, food stamps and Medicaid assistance is way up, but 80 percent of Americans don’t trust government. It’s hard to know which party benefits in the long-term, but easy to predict this doesn’t help incumbents in 2010.

What else can we expect from populations suffering extending joblessness? They tend to grow fond rogue leaders (calling Ms. Palin) and don’t necessarily love democracy:

We find that personal joblessness experience translates into negative
opinions about the effectiveness of democracy and it increases the
desire for a rouge leader. Evidence from people who live in European
countries suggests that being jobless for more than a year is the
source of discontent. We also find that well-educated and wealthier
individuals are less likely to indicate that democracies are
ineffective, regardless of joblessness. People’s beliefs about the
effectiveness of democracy as system of governance are also shaped by
the unemployment rate in countries with low levels of democracy. The
results suggest that periods of high unemployment and joblessness could
hinder the development of democracy or threaten its existence.

The Palm mobile hotspot app has mysteriously appeared in the App Catalog for Sprint and AT&T Pre users, and guessing by the universal experience of "install failed" error messages folks get when they attempt to download the program combined with the lack of any tethering packages for the Pre through either carrier, this is likely nothing more than a mistake on Palm’s part.  Since all of the reviews are in German, this is probably the mobile hotspot app destined for O2 Germany that somehow got published in the wrong catalog(s).

However, by employing the workaround that enabled users to download apps during the App Catalog’s most recent outage (turning network time off and rolling the month back to April), users are reporting that they’re actually able to install the app and launch it.  Once installed, however, users are greeted with a message stating that their carrier doesn’t support data sharing, and the application fails to allow connected devices to access the internet. 

Folks interested in downloading this should be aware that using this or any tethering app without the proper tethering plan violates carrier policy, and by using it, you may very well incur their wrath (or: proceed at your own risk using this as a starting point for tethering).

Update: The hotspot app has been removed from the Catalogs it doesn’t belong in.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

EDF staff recently had the privilege to participate in a university-fishing industry research expedition conducted by graduate students from the University of West Florida, on Captain Gary Jarvis’ boat, the Back Down 2, in Destin, Florida. Underwater surveys explored reef fish populations and their habitat. They were originally scheduled throughout summer, but have been sped-up to serve as baseline samples in case the oil spill spreads as far as Alabama and Florida.

Read the full post »

These are the first photos of two F-35 Lighting II jet fighters flying in formation, just cleared for distribution by the Pentagon. They are so crispy and detailed you can even see the demon helmets inside the cockpit. More »

More oily humor from Dave:

10. Change “BP” from “British Petroleum” to “Bunnies and Puppies.”
9. Scrap the snotty British accents.
8. Cry on “Oprah.”
7. Take a page from AFLAC. New mascot: wise-cranking oil-soaked duck.
6. Find Bin Laden.
5. Start making cookies. Who doesn’t love cookies?
4. What’s wrong with our image?
3. Switch from “Drill Baby Drill” to “Help Daddy Help.”
2. Instead of their image, maybe they can focus on fixing the damn leak!
1. For goodness sakes, get Iron Man to do something! (CBS, 5/17).

Related Posts:

• Top Ten BP Excuses
• Top Ten Surprises at the Senate Oil Spill Hearings
• As seen on David Letterman! (In my defense, this is “Odd day”)

When I first looked at stands for the iPad I was taken by the metal Skadoosh stand by Jadu. What I liked most about this stand was the ability to tilt the iPad in the stand to almost any angle, making for the most desirable viewing angle. The folks at Jadu were paying attention and while the Skadoosh is not shipping yet (it’s getting close) they sent an early prototype for me to give a look.

The stand is solid metal with the exception of the plastic rocker where the iPad is inserted. This rocker can accept the iPad in either portrait or landscape orientation, with a place for the docking cable in portrait. The base is very solid and doesn’t seem like the iPad would be in danger of falling over, but there is an extendable fixture to leave nothing to chance.

Tilting the iPad in the Skadoosh is as simple as pushing the release button on the front of the stand and pushing/pulling the slate. The stand gives a definite click when it is locked at the desired angle and holds firm.

The iPad will only fit in the Skadoosh outside of a case, but Jadu notified me they are making a modification to the plastic rocker so that it will accept the iPad while inside certain cases. This would be perfect, as my iPad is almost never outside the Apple case. The stand should be shipping soon I am told, and pricing is $57.99.

Nuts. That’s the most concise way to describe the alleged specs of the next-gen PSP, according to VG247. Nuts! But sadly, these nuts may not show up in time for E3—or even 2010. More »

Filed under: Motorsports

USF1 may have come and gone with little more than a whimper, but don’t count these United States as gone from the F1 grid for good. At least not just yet. Because another company – at the risk of mixing sports clichés – has picked up the ball and intends to run with it all the way.

Cypher Group is the name of the team, which has announced its formation and intentions but has yet to register a formal application with the FIA. The new outfit insists that it will only go through with it if they can secure the necessary funding to make it viable. Like USF1, Cypher intends to base its operations out of North Carolina and employ many of the staff left twisting in the wind when USF1 shut down. Notably absent, however, are Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, the pair that spearheaded the preceding operation whose demise left us all disappointed and a slot open on the grid for next season.

Word has it that Ken Anderson, for his part, is trying for it again, rebranding the remains of USF1 as Anderson F1. Several other teams are stepping up with potential bids to join the roster for 2011, including previously rejected applicants Epsilon Euskadi, Durango and Stefan GP. Perhaps most intriguing, however, is the entry from ART Grand Prix, the GP2 team run by Nicolas Todt, son of the FIA president, who also manages Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Jules Bianchi.

[Source: ESPN]

USF1, Take Two: Cypher Group among applicants for 2011 Formula One championship originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 17 May 2010 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The amendment-athon on Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill is coming to a close, with staffers saying only five or so more amendments will receive votes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indicated that he plans to file cloture on the bill — ending debate and leading to an up-or-down vote on the measure — tonight.

But he probably does not have the 60 votes to end debate this go-around. Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), a Democrat, has indicated that he might not vote with Reid, who needs all Democrats to stick together to move forward.

The Senate just agreed to Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.V.) amendment preserving certain regulatory authority for the Federal Trade Commission, passing the measure by voice vote. Starting at 5:30 tonight, the Senate will vote on Sen. Mike Crapo’s (R-Idaho) amendment modifying credit-risk requirements for mortgage assets; Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) amendment changing some procedures regarding the International Monetary Fund; and Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-Colo.) amendment increasing ease of access to credit scores.

Materials: Bekvam stool, oilcloth, primer, paint, staple gun

Description: Step one: Use sugarsoap to remove any grease/stains etc.
Step two: Prime it using two coats
Step three: Paint with two coats of paint (here Dulux brilliant white)
Step four: Trim material to fit top (I’ve used Cath Kidston oilcloth)
Step five: Turn stool upside down and staple into place with a heavy duty staple gun.

See more here.

~ Camilla, London, UK

Tenía pendiente comentar la renovación del servicio que utilizo para crear y gestionar facturas, Endeve: exportación a formato XLS, un interfaz muy mejorado respecto al anterior, más información para control de ingresos y gastos y envío de facturas en formato PDF y Facturae (para que las facturas electrónica emitidas tengan validez a ojos de la administración). A eso hay que añadir que Endeve tiene una versión gratuita suficiente para autónomos que no facturen demasiado (como un servidor) y detalles como la posibilidad de emitir el modelo 303 de IVA, redondeando un proyecto con una propuesta con modelo “freemium” muy bien resuelta.

Relacionado: Entrevista a Carlos Hernández de Recrea.es (Endeve, Keyose…)

Más información sobre la nueva versión y las modalidades de Endeve en Tecnología Pyme

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

First San Diego’s Cadence Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CADX), and now, Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO), have encountered troubles resulting from contaminated biomedical products coming from their manufacturing partner, Baxter Healthcare, a unit of Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) of Deerfield, IL.

Today Halozyme and Baxter said they are voluntarily recalling affected lots of a product called Hylenex that is used to treat pediatric dehydration after discovering glass flakes in “a limited number of vials.”

In a statement, Halozyme says no “medical events” associated with glass particles in vials of Hylenex have been reported, and the recall is being taken as a precautionary measure to ensure patient safety. Baxter says the contamination affects some 3,500 vials in distribution.

As Denise reported in February, Cadence suffered a setback in its efforts to win FDA approval for its intravenous form of acetaminophen (the pain reliever used in Tylenol and other products) after an FDA inspection identified numerous deficiencies in a Baxter plant in Cleveland, MS, that was preparing to manufacture the product. After meeting with the FDA in April, and resubmitting its filing for a new drug application for its IV painkiller, called Ofirmev, the FDA said it would act on Nov. 4, according to Cadence.

Halozyme said earlier today it had notified Baxter Health that it had breached the terms of its supply contract. Halozyme said if Baxter is unable to address the contamination issue within 120 days, it may terminate the contract.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

After reading today’s news about yet another study linking pesticides to yet another health issue, in this case ADHD, I thought maybe this time, we’ll pay attention to this dark undercurrent in modern life.

Perhaps now, with 3-7 percent of kids affected by ADHD, and the disorder possibly triggered by pesticide exposure, we’ll finally see that it really is something in the water — and the food — that’s causing this crisis.

Unlike cotton, these man-made chemicals should not be the fabric of our lives, and yet they seem to have networked their way into and onto everything from bug sprays to lawn treatments to the berries, veggies and meat we eat. (Think livestock’s not got pesticides in it? Animals get a dose the same way we do — from the plants they’re fed.) Even cotton gets doused with pesticides, unless it’s grown organically. The t-shirt you’re wearing may have been washed free of the chemicals used to grow the cotton. But then, where did all that malathion go? Into the soil and the water.

With our ever-growing population and its expanding consumer needs, all taking place on a finite piece of real estate called earth, it would stand to reason that our per person chemical exposure could be increasing, like ADHD has been increasing.

Tests by watchdog groups indicate it has been. The Environmental Working Group found that there were 287 chemicals present in the blood of 10 people they tested. In fact, these “10 Americans”, as the EWG titled its study, were among the most vulnerable and least culpable. They hadn’t engaged in any risky behavior nor did they work in a chemical industry. They couldn’t have — they were tested at birth.

(If you’re interested in this topic at all, settle in for talk by EWG founder, which I’ve embedded below.)

Pesticides are a distinct component of this chemical brew. The breakdown of the findings showed that the chemicals could be traced back to consumer products, industrial chemicals and byproducts, including more than 200 chemical and pesticides that had been banned more than 30 years ago, according to EWG.

That’s right. Those chemicals tend to hang around, albeit in small amounts, in the water and the soil.

So EWG’s point is that try as we might — washing our food off, staying away from household pesticides, cleaning up dust — we may not be able to avoid chemical exposure. We live in a polluted world.

And this accumulation has had real health effects. In his presentation, Cook points to the rise in lymphocytic leukemia, which has increased by 84 percent between 1975 and 2002, and the rise in brain cancer and autism among children.

ADHD doesn’t steal lives like some of those dreaded diseases, but it’s prevalence is shockingly high.

EPA records show that the use of organophosphate insecticides actually declined in real numbers, from more than 130 million pounds of “active ingredients” produced a year in 1980 to about 73 million pounds in 2001. (The numbers were taken from Crop Science America, an association representing pesticide makers.)

But the EPA report doesn’t address the bio-accumulation of these products being applied to crops year after year. Nor has the EPA historically taken an aggressive protective stance toward these chemicals, which also turn up in household products. An EPA chart list the top ten organophosphate pesticides in use at the time:  Malathion, chlorpyrifos, terbufos, diazinon, methyl-parathion, phorate, acephate, phosmet, azinphos-methyl, and dimethoate.

I don’t know about you, but I recognize some of these. Malathion as the stuff that governments often turn to for mosquito control, even though there are effective non-toxic ways to kill mosquito larvae. (And with West Nile in the offering, communities often demand a good spray over of chemicals.)

Others from this group, like diazinon, are are used in industrial produce-growing operations. I never use these home products (my grass is green and I’m not worried about what the dogs are getting into). But I do sometimes read the labels and shudder. One I read recently advised that the handler wear goggles and gloves and change clothes and shower afterward. And I need to use this product, why?

The answers to this pervasive problem of chemical exposure? There are two, and neither are completely easy. First, try to minimize your exposure. Wash  those veggies well. Buy organic. Eat the meat (if you eat meat) of grass-fed livestock. Don’t let your pets run around on a chemically treated lawn (and then cuddle up with junior). Better yet, don’t chemically treat your lawn. Put the bug spray down. Try natural mosquito repellents and for camping adventures, use the harsh stuff on clothing instead of skin.

Second, support the proposed Safe Chemicals Act of 2010, which would reform the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA), a law that advocates say has been virtually toothless since inception. (People are already saying this law could get lost amid the higher profile politics of energy and financial bills. So really, send word of your support, if you do support it)

Under the old law, TSCA, most chemicals submitted for approval are considered safe until shown to be dangerous. The new bill would flip that paradigm, requiring chemical makers to show a compound is safe before it is approved.

The “Safe Chemicals Act of 2010” would require safety testing of all industrial chemicals, and “puts the burden on industry to prove that chemicals are safe in order stay on the market,” according to a press released from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, (D-N.J.) author of the proposal.

“Under current policy, the EPA can only call for safety testing after evidence surfaces demonstrating a chemical is dangerous. As a result, EPA has been able to require testing for just 200 of the more than 80,000 chemicals currently registered in the United States and has been able to ban only five dangerous substances,” Lautenberg’s office reports.

The new legislation will give EPA more power to regulate both chemicals in production and those proposed for market.

Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) have co-authored a House version of the bill.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

The gap between the wealth possessed by white and black families grew more than four times larger between 1984 and 2007 — and federal policy is only exacerbating the trend, according to a study released today by researchers at Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy.

Not to be confused with income, wealth is a measure of what you possess minus any debts you owe. In the 23-year span under review, researchers found, the median value of assets among whites jumped from $22,000 to $100,000, while the median value of holdings among blacks rose from $2,000 to just $5,000. And the researchers say that’s no accident.

Instead, they argue, the quickly growing racial wealth gap “reflects public policies, such as tax cuts on investment income and inheritances which benefit the wealthiest, and redistribute wealth and opportunities.

“Tax deductions for home mortgages, retirement accounts, and college savings all disproportionately benefit higher income families,” they write.

And income levels can be deceiving. Indeed, researchers discovered that middle-income white households are much wealthier than upper-income black families.

[B]y 2007, the average middle-income white household had accumulated $74,000 in wealth, an increase of $55,000 over the 23-year period, while the average high-income African-American family owned $18,000, a drop of $7,000 That resulted in a wealth gap of $56,000 for an African-American family that earned more than $50,000 in 1984 compared to a white family earning about $30,000 that same year.

The findings “make it clear that higher income alone will not lead to increased wealth.”

Consumers of color face a gauntlet of barriers — in credit, housing and taxes — that dramatically reduce the chances of economic mobility.

The findings, researchers warn, have real-world repercussions.

“Even when African Americans do everything right — get an education and work hard at well-paying jobs — they cannot achieve the wealth of their white peers in the workforce, and that translates into very different life chances,” IASP Director Thomas Shapiro, author of “The Hidden Costs of Being African American” and the co-author of “Black Wealth/White Wealth,” said in a statement announcing the study.

“A U-turn is needed,” he added. “Public policies have and continue to play a major role in creating and sustaining the racial wealth gap, and they must play a role in closing it.”

Food for thought as Congress considers how strong to make its Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and whether all the Bush tax cuts merit extension.

A 134 page document–manifesto if you must–on the American socialist movement of the early 20th Century is hardly a light read nor must it have been an easy paper for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to write in 1981 as an undergraduate at Princeton University.

Yet she produced “To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933,” as her senior thesis in the hope as she wrote “of clarifying my own political ideals.” Unfortunately, whatever conclusions Kagan reached about her own ideology based on her study of the socialist movement is largely omitted from her final product.

In what has become a rote description of Kagan, she, even as an undergraduate, displays an uncommon brilliance and intellect but leaves the reader with little understanding of her own deeply-held views.

The paper is a graduation requirement for Princeton students who are able to select the topic of their research. Kagan dedicated the work to her parents who are now deceased. She also expressed appreciation to her brother Marc “whose involvement in radical causes led me to explore the history of American radicalism in the hope of clarifying my own political ideals.”

The premise of her paper, dated April 15, 1981, is that previously written accounts of the American Socialist Party largely missed the main reason why the party crumbled in the wake of World War I as a viable political institution. “Historians have looked everywhere but to the American socialist movement itself for explanations of U.S. socialism’s failure,” Kagan wrote.

Internal dissention, Kagan argued, was the main cause of the party’s failure to become a significant political force. Her paper examined the dynamics of the Socialist Party’s New York chapter which was the largest in the country.

“It would be absurd to over-estimate the strength of the early twentieth century socialist movement,” Kagan wrote acknowledging the minimal impact the Socialist Party had on electoral politics a century ago. The party’s most frequent standard-bearer for president, Eugene Debs, never won an electoral vote in his five bids for the presidency and never garnered more than a million popular votes.

Nonetheless, Kagan contends “the specter of socialism haunted Americans to a far greater extent than the SP’s numerical strength might indicate.”

Because Kagan’s paper focuses on the role of New Yorkers in the evolution of the Socialist Party she spends a great deal of time discussing the importance of the participation of Jewish immigrants. Of them Kagan writes, “like many other foreigners, Jews arrived at Ellis Island expecting to find ‘the promised land.’ They found instead the Lower East Side, the most filthy, congested, and unhealthy section of New York.”

Kagan is herself Jewish and born and raised in New York City. It isn’t immediately clear if there is a direct familial connection to this time that might have made the topic of unique interest to her.

In her introduction, Kagan credits the assistance of Sean Wilentz for “painstakingly read[ing] each page of this thesis.” Wilentz is still a professor at Princeton and told Fox News via email that Kagan’s work is still memorable nearly 30 years later. He calls it “a very successful study of futility. In short, I remember thinking it was a mature piece of scholarship coming from a college senior.” Wilentz says the history of early 20th century socialism has long been a subject of interest to scholars and Kagan wanted to take a fresh look at the subject. “It was something of a classic topic in the field,” Wilentz says “and Elena had the intellectual fortitude to take it on.”

Absent from the paper is any overarching sense of personal attachment to the Socialist Party, its views, or the movement itself. There is scant evidence to suggest that Kagan wrote her senior thesis as an opportunity to promote the Socialist Party as a proxy for her political views.

Perhaps the closest she comes in expressing admiration for the Socialist Party, and the spirit of liberalism from someone just a couple of weeks shy of her 21st birthday, is in her conclusion. She called it a sad story “but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism’s decline, still wish to change America.”

Kagan finishes her paper by writing that “radicals have often succumbed to the devastating bane of sectarianism; it is easier, after all, to fight one’s fellows than it is to battle an entrenched and powerful foe.” Thus for Kagan the lesson to be learned was that “American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope.”

What happened to prevention?

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is beginning to get ridiculous. [“Giant oil plumes found in deep waters,” News, May 16.] It has been almost a month since the Deepwater Horizon, a British Petroleum oil rig, sank into the Gulf of Mexico on April 22, and the oil spill is yet to be contained.

Throughout this last month, BP has effectively done nothing to successfully contain this oil spill. The only thing we can rely on is gross underestimations on the actual amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico each day.

Yes, BP has been trying various methods such as drilling relief wells, lowering cofferdams and inserting suction tubes. However, all these methods have never been tested at the depth where the Deepwater Horizon lies. Obviously, none of these methods are working. But has not BP received the message.

Prevention — it is one simple word that could have saved wildlife and millions of dollars in claim fees that need to be paid out to those affected. Couldn’t we just increase our safety standards and protocols? For example, in the United States, only one safety valve is required whereas other countries, such as Brazil require two. This would save millions of dollars in costly cleanup and keep our environment clean.

— William Hwang, Seattle

Murray, Cantwell push bill to ban oil drilling off Washington and Oregon shores

Why are Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell wasting everyone’s time by putting forth a bill to block oil drilling off Washington and Oregon shores? [“Ban sought on Pacific offshore drilling,” NWFriday, May 14.]

My husband has been in the oil business for more than 30 years and says there are no oil reserves off Washington and Oregon shores. Such a ban means nothing.

I also saw a fisherman on last night’s news supporting this legislation because he saw the effect of an oil spill off Washington’s shore a few years ago. That oil spill was from a tanker —not from an offshore well. There are no wells and there never will be.

I suggest our senators do some research before putting forward a needless bill. I know this is an election year and they want to appear proactive. But, in this case, they do not make any sense.

— Jane Bennett, Woodinville