Mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac said it would send a $1.7 billion payment to the Treasury in March as it reported a higher profit for the fourth quarter….
How much of that will Treasury use to pay down our national debt, rather than send along for current spending?
Anybody?
Enhanced levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are a likely key driver of global dryland greening, according to a paper published [Tuesday] in the journal Scientific Reports.
The positive trend in vegetation greenness has been observed through satellite images, but the reasons for it had been unclear.
After analyzing 45 studies from eight countries, Lixin Wang, assistant professor of earth sciences in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and a PhD student in Wang’s group, Xuefei Lu, concluded the greening likely stems from the impact of rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on plant water savings and consequent increases in available soil water.
Atmospheric CO2 is plant food. Who knew?
Louisiana Democratic Gov John Bel Edwards is suggesting the legendary Louisiana State University football team’s 2016 season might be canceled—and other doomsday consequences—unless the GOP-legislature swiftly passes a package of tax increases to help close a looming $940 million budget shortfall.
The budget deficit is projected to reach $2 billion by the start of the next fiscal year. The Republicans should call him out on his naked extortion threats. And then pass a budget with $2.5 billion in spending cuts and $500 million in tax cuts. Does Edwards want to balance the budget, or is his precious spending and taxing all he cares about?
After all, the state’s economy runs over $250 billion as of 2015. Surely, they can find $2.5 billion just by shaking the state government’s couch cushions.
HSBC (née Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp) was considering moving its headquarters out of London and back to its roots in Hong Kong. Much of the consideration, and much of its decision not to move, were driven by Great Britain’s decision to tax all British banks’ overseas earnings in the aftermath of the Panic of 2008 and Great Britain’s subsequent decision not to tax HSBC so heavily.
However, I think the primary motivation for HSBC’s decision to stay put is buried at the bottom of the linked article.
…concerns about China’s growing influence over Hong Kong had helped make it more likely the bank would stick to London.
Indeed. Other banks should take heed.
On Thursday, the House Committee on Natural Resources released a damning report on the EPA and its handling of the Gold King Mine disaster last August. The report detailed how the EPA and the Department of the Interior were inaccurate and misleading in their conflicting accounts of the wastewater spill, which the EPA said last week released 880,000 pounds of toxic metals.
These are the Federal entities that think they know how to regulate our public lands and our pollutants and pseudo-pollutants.
Chairman Rob Bishop (R, UT):
This report peels back one more layer in what many increasingly view as a pattern of deception on the part of EPA and DOI.
Hmm….