Archive for the ‘Editor's Choice’ Category
Thursday, April 28th, 2016 by Al Lewis (alewis)
Their modus operandi is to send mails to researchers and scientists soliciting manuscripts Cheap Authentic Jerseys From China but never mentioning the processing fee charged per “article” published. asics gel lyte 5 Parajumpers Homme Masterpiece Owner Adidas Zx Flux Femme Leopard New Balance 530 homme Nike Air Max 2015 homme nike air max 1 uomo [...]
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Posted in Editor's Choice, poverty alleviation, philanthropy and microfinance | No Comments »
Saturday, March 19th, 2011 by Al Lewis (alewis)
Next to “plastics” the most famous line in The Graduate might have been where Benjamin announced to his father that he was going to marry Elaine Robinson. nike air max 90 soldes Mr. Braddock firsts proposes congratulating the Robinsons (who Benjamin says haven’t been told), then Elaine (ditto) and finally asks: “When [...]
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Posted in Bailouts, Editor's Choice, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Environment, Featured Idea of the Month, Gay marriage, Health Care, Housing Crisis, Ideas, Long-term economic recovery, Nuclear waste disposal, Private Sector, Readers' Choice, government waste, poverty alleviation, philanthropy and microfinance, stimulus economics | 4 Comments »
Monday, April 13th, 2009 by Al Lewis (alewis)
For years Americans spent most of their income largely on the assumption that their increasing home values provided wealth. The entire economy, from retailers to restaurants, builders to banks, expanded to capture this spending. Sustaining the increase in home values which generated this apparent wealth required the reduction of interest rates and the relaxation of [...]
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Tags: methadone economy
Posted in Editor's Choice, Long-term economic recovery | 16 Comments »
Monday, March 9th, 2009 by Al Lewis (alewis)
This Posting sumamrizes the Best of the Ideas from the only website paying $1-million for Yours
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Tags: penny anti protest, real estate brokerage reform, stimulus economics
Posted in Bailouts, Editor's Choice, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Environment, Health Care, Housing Crisis, Long-term economic recovery, government waste, poverty alleviation, philanthropy and microfinance, stimulus economics | 12 Comments »
Monday, February 23rd, 2009 by Al Lewis (alewis)
Food labels have listed ingredients for decades. Some people ignore them while others read them before making a purchase decision. No one questions the value of the information to the consumer, though.
Appliances have been sporting Energy Star labels for two decades too. Once again, some people ignore them while others don’t, but no one questions [...]
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Tags: auto industry bailout, domestic content, free trade, protectionism
Posted in Bailouts, Editor's Choice | 7 Comments »
Friday, February 20th, 2009 by Al Lewis (alewis)
Imagine a way to stimulate the economy and put more money into the hands of both the working poor and small businesses, while reducing both the foreclosure rate and the federal deficit, all without raising taxes.
Economic alchemy, you say? Read on.
Chances are, if you in the demographic which reads these essays, you have never applied for, [...]
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Tags: microfinance, microlending, microloans, payday loans
Posted in Editor's Choice, poverty alleviation, philanthropy and microfinance, stimulus economics | 11 Comments »
Monday, January 26th, 2009 by arttaft
One way to significantly impact overall costs is to insist on ‘broker’ fee transparency. The brokers fees can be as high as 15% (they are often less) of the fees paid to the insurance company and are often not identified to the buying employer. Brokers have on occasion caused the buying employer to spend more [...]
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Tags: Add new tag, decision process, Health Care, health care reform, health expenditures, reducing healthcare spending, savings, transparency
Posted in Editor's Choice, Health Care, Long-term economic recovery, Readers' Choice | 6 Comments »
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 by Al Lewis (alewis)
It does not appear that allowing businesses which “round down” cash purchases to refuse to accept pennies even requires an Act of Congress. It is part of what the Treasury Department is authorized to do under existing legislation. Further there is no negative budget implication so there is no need for a review by the [...]
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Tags: government waste, pennies
Posted in Editor's Choice, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Environment, Ideas, government waste | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 8th, 2009 by Al Lewis (alewis)
Pennies are a complete waste, a tax on consumers and retailers which raises nothing for the government. Yet the zinc lobby always defeats legislation to eliminate them. This post proposes a simple win-win change to current law which even the zinc lobby could not defeat: Allowing businesses which agree to “round down” to refuse to handle pennies. We are also proposing civil disobedience to get there. The civil disobedience would take the form of businesses doing exactly that until the law is changed.
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Tags: concord protest, government waste, pennies, pennies protest, penny anti protest, penny protest, tax cuts
Posted in Editor's Choice, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Environment, Featured Idea of the Month, Ideas, Readers' Choice, government waste | 42 Comments »
Sunday, December 21st, 2008 by Al Lewis (alewis)
The biggest ripoff in consumer lending is the refund anticipation check. Tax preparers offer their clients +/- 90% of the value of the anticiated refund, on the spot, a very high implied APR. This posting shows how the government can replace this with loans at much better terms, get the money into people’s hands faster and — in conjunciton with the Stimulus Gift Card — even ofer MORE than the value of the refund in an immediate gift card. Economic stimulation AND profits for the government AND a windfall for consumers.
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Tags: credit availability, economic stimulus, income tax, refund anticipation loans, usury
Posted in Editor's Choice, Featured Idea of the Month, Ideas, Readers' Choice, poverty alleviation, philanthropy and microfinance, stimulus economics | 14 Comments »