The Microstate of Inquista

The Microstate of Inquista is a colossal, cultured nation, ruled by The Archbishop of St Dominico with a fair hand, and renowned for its anti-smoking policies. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 7.078 billion are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

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My bank account's got robbed by European Commission. Over 700k is lost.

The most of circulating assets on our business Current Account are blocked. Over 700k of expropriated money will be used to repay country's debt.  Probably we will get back about 20% of this  amount in 6-7 years. I'm not Russian oligarch, but just European medium size IT business.  Thousands of other companies around Cyprus have the same situation. The business is definitely ruined, all Cypriot workers to be fired. We are moving to small Caribbean country where authorities have  more respect to people's assets. Also we are thinking about using  Bitcoin to pay wages and for payments between our partners. Special thanks to: - Jeroen Dijsselbloem - Angela Merkel - Manuel Barroso - the rest of officials of "European Comission" Source here

Guaranteed income for the unemployed...

The Basic Plan

Using the Paypal and Ebay platforms, the US govt. should establish a Guaranteed Income of $240 per week. Anyone who wants to work registers, receives a Paypal Debit Card, and each Friday at 5PM has their GI deposited.

All GI recipients have their labor weeks auctioned online.

Bidding begins at $40 per week ($1 per hour). Bid increases by .50 cents per hour ($20 increments).

At $40 per week, there’s no able bodied / able minded person that some rational returns bidder won’t find use for.  The 70 yr old woman in a wheelchair who wants to work to keep busy?  Somebody has some work for her to do from home for $1 per hour.

Note: I solve for the criminally lazy.  Identifying and fixing them is one of my plan’s advantages. I’ll get to it a bit later in the What Abouts plan.

So minimum take home cash under GI is $7 per hour or $280.  $240 is the social commitment paid out of taxes and $40 is the winning bid.
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How the Taxman Killed Swing Dance

By Eric Felten
These are strange days, when we are told both that tax incentives can transform technologies yet higher taxes will not drag down the economy. So which is it? Do taxes change behavior or not? Of course they do, but often in ways that policy hands never anticipate, let alone intend. Consider, for example, how federal taxes hobbled Swing music and gave birth to bebop.

With millions of young men coming home from World War II—eager to trade their combat boots for dancing shoes—the postwar years should have been a boom time for the big bands that had been so wildly popular since the 1930s. Yet by 1946 many of the top orchestras—including those of Benny Goodman, Harry James and Tommy Dorsey—had disbanded. Some big names found ways to get going again, but the journeyman bands weren't so lucky. By 1949, the hotel dine-and-dance-room trade was a third of what it had been three years earlier. The Swing Era was over.
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Some euro zone leaders are thieves...

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - The surprise decision by euro zone leaders to part-fund a bailout of Cyprus by taxing bank deposits sent shockwaves through financial markets on Monday, with shares and the bonds of struggling euro zone governments tumbling.

The bloc struck a deal on Saturday to hand Cyprus rescue loans worth 10 billion euros ($13 billion), but defied warnings - including from the European Central Bank - and imposed a levy that would see those with cash in the island's banks lose between 6.75 and 9.9 percent of their money.

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The NZ economy is unsinkable.

Oh it was sad, yes it was sad,

It was sad when NZ went down.
Husbands and wives, 
Their incomes took a dive.
Yes it was sad when  NZ went down.

SUBURBS SECEDE FROM ATLANTA

As Detroit – beset by violence, debt and social woes – prepares to undergo a historic takeover by the Michigan state government, the city of Atlanta could be sliding toward a similar fate.

Some are quietly wondering whether Atlanta is in danger of becoming “the Detroit of the South.”

The city has experienced an ongoing succession of government scandals, ranging from a massive cheating racket to corruption, bribery, school-board incompetence and now the potential loss of accreditation for the local DeKalb County school system.

For several years, problems of this sort have fueled political reforms, including the creation of new cities in northern Atlanta suburbs. Due to the intensification of corruption scandals in DeKalb, some state-level reform proposals could become national news very soon.

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Norway oil wealth fund made big gains in 2012

Norway's oil fund, one of the biggest investors in the world, rose in value by 13.4% last year, its second-best performance ever.

The central bank said the fund's investments in shares jumped by 18.1% in 2012, boosted by soaring equity indexes around the world.

It is now worth 3.8tn krone (£450bn; $670bn), up from 3.3tn krone in 2011.

Norway's fund invests the money from its huge oil industry in the nation's future.

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"Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem

China’s $3.3 Trillion FX Reserves Could Buy All World’s Gold Twice

China’s foreign currency reserves have surged more than 700% since 2004 and are now enough to buy every central bank’s official gold supply -- twice.
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Chickenomics - A Fowl Approach To Economics (1979)

The (Secret) City of London, Part 1: History

Top mathematician backs call to change teaching methods