More awareness about one of the deadliest "reality" shows that could hit American life: ISIS coming to America.
A Marine general, talking about battlefield conditions, says someone can get a drone by going "down to Sam's Club and buy [it] for $400."
No kidding. Think about all the people who hate America coming openly and anonymously into our country.
15 years ago very bad people, who had visas, stayed in the U.S. and did what they intended to do: they hijacked airplanes and flew them into buildings and killed thousands of Americans. By the way, our media never show those images anymore.
So, yes, the general is rightly concerned about drones affecting our soldiers in war.
This same awareness about the deadly capability of drones operating in the U.S. by enemies who hate America is something else for all of us to take very seriously. That is, we need to worry about it today.
Imagine a drone in your neighborhood dropping a bomb at a school event, a mall, a football game in the fall at an outdoor stadium, a festival at a church, or anywhere where we live, work and pray.
How do we really know ISIS hasn't already inserted hundreds of future killers into our country?
Just an oblique reference to our November elections: Is occasional bad language in a political campaign worse than the real potential of deadly drones dropping bombs or toxic material throughout all the places we live, shop, gather, play or pray? What is more important to pay attention to? PB
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From Bloomberg.com:
They’re cheap, they’re light, and they can carry a small bomb: The commercial drone is essentially a new terror gadget for organizations such as Hezbollah, Islamic State, or anyone else looking to wreak havoc on a budget.
“That’s the same quad copter you can get on Groupon or go down to Sam’s Club and buy for $400,” U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller said last week at a Washington forum on future warfare.
The elusive nature of small drones is one reason the federal government has designated the District of Columbia a “national defense airspace” and prohibited drone flights there. A recent spate of drone-related incidents, including one last year in which a drone crashed on the White House lawn, probably didn’t help, either.
But the problem is no longer about enthusiasts with a bad sense of direction.
Weaponized to various degrees of sophistication, such unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are now being used in the Syrian civil war and along parts of Lebanese and Syrian borders with Israel, where Hezbollah holds sway.
“There has been an increasing concern in the military and a wider acceptance of how pernicious this problem is going to be, moving forward,” says Andrew Metrick, an intelligence security analyst at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. “From a U.S. and allies perspective, we haven’t had to think about how to fight where we don’t have total aerial supremacy....”
...A Marine or soldier who spots a drone overhead would typically shoot it down, but smaller drones can operate surreptitiously and elude radar since they are barely larger than a bird.
Their small motors make acoustic detection enormously hard, and while wide-area camera sensors deployed on the ground might detect a drone, they usually require large computational resources in the field.
One solution is an electronic signal jammer to prevent a drone’s operator from flying within a certain vicinity, an approach that U.S. forces have studied....
“When was the last time an American military force worried about being bombed by enemy air? World War II?” Neller said. “So what capabilities do we have to defend ourselves from enemy air or enemy unmanned air?”
Such drones also represent only one facet of a future battlefield on which the U.S. military will no longer enjoy complete dominance, the general said. Technology has given potential adversaries new advantages, especially as the U.S. has “developed a system of war fighting that is very dependent upon the internet, the network, and space.”
All three are vulnerable because they establish an electronic signature as they operate. Mobile phones, for example, put soldiers in harm's way in the new digital conflict zone, because a drone might home in on them and explode...
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-23/the-pentagon-takes-aim-at-bomb-carrying-consumer-drones
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Thursday, August 11, 2016
WSJ: It's true. China has hurt the working class.
What animates the 2016 campaign? I mean, what is important to voters?
Trade with China has hurt - and continues to hurt - the American working class. PB
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From the Wall Street Journal online:
As import competition surged and displaced manufacturing workers, the U.S. labor force itself was becoming less adaptable, and political blowback was brewing.
Here is a summary of some of the most important new research in these areas:
Less Flexible Labor Markets
U.S. workers and firms have long been known among scholars and policy makers for being flexible and able to adapt to shocks and changes in the economy.
But some researchers suggest that labor markets have become less dynamic since 2000, and even more so since 2007, making them less adaptable just as the shock of trade with China hit and then worsened...
China Shock
The shock of trade with China was different than the shock of U.S. trade with other countries such as Mexico, Japan and Asian “tiger” economies such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, research shows.
The scale of import competition from China was immense, dislocating millions of U.S. manufacturing workers, who had trouble adjusting and finding new work...
Political Blowback
The shock of trade with China also has had political repercussions. Those include polarizing congressional districts, increasing voter turnout and possibly helping Democrats...
In the past, Democrats benefited from taking positions that restrict trade and offer assistance to people exposed to trade shocks.
The researchers’ analysis didn’t include the results of the 2016 presidential primaries, which resulted in Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee.
Mr. Trump has taken tough-on-trade positions.
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Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/08/11/why-china-trade-hit-u-s-workers-unexpectedly-hard/
Trade with China has hurt - and continues to hurt - the American working class. PB
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
Why China Trade Hit U.S. Workers Unexpectedly Hard
A growing body of academic research shows the U.S. workforce was hit harder than expected by trade with China and was potentially unprepared for the shock.
As import competition surged and displaced manufacturing workers, the U.S. labor force itself was becoming less adaptable, and political blowback was brewing.
Here is a summary of some of the most important new research in these areas:
Less Flexible Labor Markets
U.S. workers and firms have long been known among scholars and policy makers for being flexible and able to adapt to shocks and changes in the economy.
But some researchers suggest that labor markets have become less dynamic since 2000, and even more so since 2007, making them less adaptable just as the shock of trade with China hit and then worsened...
China Shock
The shock of trade with China was different than the shock of U.S. trade with other countries such as Mexico, Japan and Asian “tiger” economies such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, research shows.
The scale of import competition from China was immense, dislocating millions of U.S. manufacturing workers, who had trouble adjusting and finding new work...
Political Blowback
The shock of trade with China also has had political repercussions. Those include polarizing congressional districts, increasing voter turnout and possibly helping Democrats...
In the past, Democrats benefited from taking positions that restrict trade and offer assistance to people exposed to trade shocks.
The researchers’ analysis didn’t include the results of the 2016 presidential primaries, which resulted in Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee.
Mr. Trump has taken tough-on-trade positions.
------
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/08/11/why-china-trade-hit-u-s-workers-unexpectedly-hard/
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
WSJ: Lopsided Housing Rebound Leaves Millions of People Out in the Cold
It's good if you already got it; otherwise, not so promising if you got stuck during the Great Recession. That appears to be the case with home ownership.
The Haves and the Have Nots appear to be a permanent condition in our society. The underperformance of the economy for the broad middle class has done long term damage to millions of Americans. Recent news about home ownership confirms this damage.
Something is deeply wrong in America. Working class Americans struggle and few seem to notice in Washington D.C., the east and left coasts, and most of the media.
But, the low interest rate environment is a good thing for people who can afford to buy a new home, or sell their existing home. Low interest rates have benefitted the billionaires, high wage earners, and corporations. Good for them.
However, has the train left with a quarter of the cars in the back detached and stuck at the station? It looks like it. If you are still attached to the train, the ride seems great. Those stuck hearing a fading clickety clack have a different understanding and feeling. The overall feeling is isolation. PB
The following excerpt is from today's Wall Street Journal.
------
From www.WSJ.com:
The housing recovery that began in 2012 has lifted the overall market but left behind a broad swath of the middle class, threatening to create a generation of permanent renters and sowing economic anxiety and frustration for millions of Americans.
...Overall prices are now just 2% below the peak reached in July 2006, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.
But most of the price gains, economists said, stem from a lack of fresh supply rather than a surge of buyers.
The pace of new home construction remains at levels typically associated with recessions, while the homeownership rate in the second quarter was at its lowest point since the Census Bureau began tracking quarterly data in 1965 and the share of first-time home purchases remains mired near three-decade lows.
The lopsided recovery has shut out millions of aspiring homeowners who have been forced to rent because of damaged credit, swelling student loans, tough credit standards and a dearth of affordable homes, economists said.
In all, some 200,000 to 300,000 fewer U.S. households are purchasing a new home each year than would during normal market conditions, estimates Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California at Berkeley...
Anxiety about missed economic opportunities is a key driver of the anti-incumbent anger on both sides of the political spectrum that has shaken up the 2016 election season, helping fuel the insurgent presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
“You have these people who can’t get housing, and it’s turning into this rage,” said Kevin Finkel, executive vice president at Philadelphia-based Resource Real Estate, which owns or manages 25,550 apartments around the U.S.
After peaking in July 2006, the Case-Shiller index plunged 27% over the next six years...
While economists expected the homeownership rate to begin edging up this year, the rate fell to a 51-year low of 62.9% in the second quarter from 63.4% in the same quarter last year.
The rate could fall to 58% or lower by 2050, according to a recent prediction by housing experts Arthur Acolin of the University of Southern California, Laurie Goodman of the Urban Institute and Susan Wachter of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
The main reason, they say: mortgage availability.
Lenders chastened by the financial crisis have been fearful of making loans to borrowers with dings on their credit, student debt or credit-card bills, or younger buyers with shorter credit histories.
“I’m not sure that we’ll see some of those conditions change in any material way in the foreseeable future,” said Tim Mayopoulos, the president and chief executive officer of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, in an interview last week.
“Right now our mortgage finance system is still not working well for lower- and middle-income households and first-time buyers,” added Mr. Rosen.
A dearth of home construction, especially at the lower end, is taking a toll.
Nationally, the inventory of homes for sale has dropped more than 37% since 2011, according to Zillow, a real estate information firm. Some of that reflects the clearing away of distressed inventory, but economists said the pendulum has swung toward a housing shortage.
An estimated 1 million new households were formed last year, but only 620,000 new housing units were built, according to the Urban Institute.
An analysis of census data by the Urban Institute showed that all of the net new households formed between 2006 and 2014 were renters rather than owners...
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/lopsided-housing-rebound-leaves-millions-of-people-out-in-the-cold-1470852996
The Haves and the Have Nots appear to be a permanent condition in our society. The underperformance of the economy for the broad middle class has done long term damage to millions of Americans. Recent news about home ownership confirms this damage.
Something is deeply wrong in America. Working class Americans struggle and few seem to notice in Washington D.C., the east and left coasts, and most of the media.
But, the low interest rate environment is a good thing for people who can afford to buy a new home, or sell their existing home. Low interest rates have benefitted the billionaires, high wage earners, and corporations. Good for them.
However, has the train left with a quarter of the cars in the back detached and stuck at the station? It looks like it. If you are still attached to the train, the ride seems great. Those stuck hearing a fading clickety clack have a different understanding and feeling. The overall feeling is isolation. PB
The following excerpt is from today's Wall Street Journal.
------
From www.WSJ.com:
The housing recovery that began in 2012 has lifted the overall market but left behind a broad swath of the middle class, threatening to create a generation of permanent renters and sowing economic anxiety and frustration for millions of Americans.
...Overall prices are now just 2% below the peak reached in July 2006, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.
But most of the price gains, economists said, stem from a lack of fresh supply rather than a surge of buyers.
The pace of new home construction remains at levels typically associated with recessions, while the homeownership rate in the second quarter was at its lowest point since the Census Bureau began tracking quarterly data in 1965 and the share of first-time home purchases remains mired near three-decade lows.
The lopsided recovery has shut out millions of aspiring homeowners who have been forced to rent because of damaged credit, swelling student loans, tough credit standards and a dearth of affordable homes, economists said.
In all, some 200,000 to 300,000 fewer U.S. households are purchasing a new home each year than would during normal market conditions, estimates Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California at Berkeley...
Anxiety about missed economic opportunities is a key driver of the anti-incumbent anger on both sides of the political spectrum that has shaken up the 2016 election season, helping fuel the insurgent presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
“You have these people who can’t get housing, and it’s turning into this rage,” said Kevin Finkel, executive vice president at Philadelphia-based Resource Real Estate, which owns or manages 25,550 apartments around the U.S.
After peaking in July 2006, the Case-Shiller index plunged 27% over the next six years...
While economists expected the homeownership rate to begin edging up this year, the rate fell to a 51-year low of 62.9% in the second quarter from 63.4% in the same quarter last year.
The rate could fall to 58% or lower by 2050, according to a recent prediction by housing experts Arthur Acolin of the University of Southern California, Laurie Goodman of the Urban Institute and Susan Wachter of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
The main reason, they say: mortgage availability.
Lenders chastened by the financial crisis have been fearful of making loans to borrowers with dings on their credit, student debt or credit-card bills, or younger buyers with shorter credit histories.
“I’m not sure that we’ll see some of those conditions change in any material way in the foreseeable future,” said Tim Mayopoulos, the president and chief executive officer of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, in an interview last week.
“Right now our mortgage finance system is still not working well for lower- and middle-income households and first-time buyers,” added Mr. Rosen.
A dearth of home construction, especially at the lower end, is taking a toll.
Nationally, the inventory of homes for sale has dropped more than 37% since 2011, according to Zillow, a real estate information firm. Some of that reflects the clearing away of distressed inventory, but economists said the pendulum has swung toward a housing shortage.
An estimated 1 million new households were formed last year, but only 620,000 new housing units were built, according to the Urban Institute.
An analysis of census data by the Urban Institute showed that all of the net new households formed between 2006 and 2014 were renters rather than owners...
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/lopsided-housing-rebound-leaves-millions-of-people-out-in-the-cold-1470852996
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