A couple of hours before the council meeting in the same room, they attended a presentation about the City of Madison Comprehensive Plan. This plan, mandated by state law, and a work in progress over the last couple of years, will serve as a long-term roadmap for the city’s infrastructural future. It is also up for a vote on Tuesday, Dec. 13 by the full council, though it is likely to be referred to a subsequent meeting in early January.
Daily Archives: December 14, 2005
Ag Subsidies Revealed
For now, however, these subsidies are here — but who, exactly, gets them?
For that answer, I encourage you to check out the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database. Through many, many FOIA requests, they have produced. an interactive website chock full of interesting facts. For example:
Half of all subsidies go to only 5% of Congressional districts. Four commodities —corn, wheat, rice and cotton— account for 78 percent of all ag subsidies. EWG also has an interesting proposal to reallocate the ag money away from subsidies but towards rural areas where farmers actually generate high value-added goods already.
Calculated Risk: GDP Growth With and Without Mortgage Extraction
Calculated Risk:
The recent Flow of Funds report showed that household mortgages increased a record $289.5 Billion in Q3 2005. Using a simple formulation for Mortgage Equity Withdrawal (MEW), MEW was $171 Billion in Q3.
Tommy Thompson Delays Getting ID Chip Implanted
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson seems to be in no rush to be implanted with an ID chip, as he told interviewers he would in July.
A TV network recently interviewed Thompson, a former U.S. secretary of health and human services, after he was named to the board of directors of VeriChip, which sells a radio-frequency ID chip that can be implanted under the skin. The chips alarms privacy advocates who worry whether government and corporations will abuse the technology.