“The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels,” said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington thinktank ithat conducted the analysis." Don't hear much about the Brazil Deforestation any more, huh. AGW money backs "biofuel" craze http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html
Re: LEGISLATURE URGED TO BYPASS UNIONS IN REDUCING SALARIES
Sounds like that will have a great stimulative effect. How brilliant. Just reduce the worker's salaries, and watch the deficit go down. Ignore the elephant in the room - that revenues will also go down as these people will be paying less taxes, and buying less products, which will contract the economy - the important thing is the victory over the unions, obviously.
Schwarzenegger's budget plan envisions a 5 percent payroll cut across the board starting in July that would chop costs by $945 million overall, $530 million of it from the general fund. If the federal government doesn't funnel more money into the state, Schwarzenegger would cut wages another 5 percent.
I just don't get why Republicans, and to a lesser extent, Democrats, don't see the need for a real Progressive tax. I don't know what the average union worker makes in California, but Schwarzenegger is talking about trying to save $945 million. Doesn't it seem reasonable to start getting some of these people [see below] to help out a little more? Or is it only the 'little people' who should sacrifice?
The biggest gainer this year was Kirk Kerkorian, who padded his fortune by $9 billion as shares of his MGM Mirage (nyse: MGM - news - people ) casino outfit rose 135% over the past year. Kerkorian enters the top 10 along with Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) billionaires Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are up$4.4 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively; and brothers Charles and David Koch, who added $5 billion apiece to their fortunes on surging energy and commodities prices. http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/19/forbes-400-introduction-lists-richlist07-cx_mm_0920richintro.html
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