27 Mar 2004
After May 1, East Europe's 'Haves' May Have More

This is a really depressing story on the pending death of the family farm in Eastern Europe. Note the outrageous subsidies paid to corporate farmers in the rest of the EU, that won't be available to the newly ensconced members in the East, and the characterization of small, family owned farms as "inefficient". This seems to me to be an deliberate falsehood: any enterprise that depends on government handouts for it's survival is certainly less efficient than a small farm that pays it's own way.

As Europe expands, many among its new members in the East fear that hundreds of thousands of people may be left behind in a new underclass.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Kerry Proposes Tax Plan to Address Jobs Moving Overseas

I'm more impressed every day. Sen. Kerry seems to have the cajones to buck the ideologues in his own party:

"Some may be surprised to hear a Democrat calling for lower corporate tax rates," Kerry told an audience at Wayne State University. "The fact is, I don't care about the old debates. I care about getting the job done and creating jobs here in the United States of America."

Senator John Kerry plans to propose a revision of international corporate taxes aimed at promoting investment in the U.S.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Microsoft's aggressive search plans revealed

Looking over this piece, it seems apparent that Microsoft is merely aping what others are innovating ... oh, wait, I guess there's no news here after all./p>

News aggregation for Web logs and a social-networking service are on the table, executives say.

(link) [CNET News.com]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link