How Donald Trump Understands Economics

Economics is a concept often misunderstood by many. There are key concepts that aren’t easily understood and often mistaken for something else. In layman’s term, economics is simply the study of how we all use our various resources. Topics like finances, wealth, and banking are often discussed when we talk about economics. And world leader’s need to have a good grasp of how an economy works or how to run a country when running the different affairs of the estate.

As one of the biggest and most powerful nations in the world, virtually everyone is interested in any news about the US. The unprecedented win of Donald Trump during the last presidential election surprised the whole world and it’s no wonder we are all curious as to how we will run America despite being a total novice in the field of politics himself. They even coined the term “Trumponomics” pertaining to Trump’s economic policies during his reign.

President Donald Trump attempted to explain economics to The Economist, saying that if his tax plan doesn't increase the budget deficit, “you’re never going to bring your taxes down”. 

Mr Trump called the proposal “priming the pump”, which he described as “having to put something in before you can get something out.” 

The phrase “priming the pump” dates back to the early 19th century, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and has been used to refer to government expenditure programmes.

Also speaking to The Economist, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin elaborated that economic growth under the Trump administration could “increase revenues as much as $2trn over the ten-year period of time.”

(Via: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-economics-the-economist-interview-priming-the-pump-a7731516.html)

President Trump believes that offering tax cuts will help him realize his economic goals for the country rationalizing that it will encourage businesses to stay in the country and not take their business elsewhere. Unfortunately, experts think that this economic policy will likely only benefit the wealthy elite in America and not everybody else that matters.

In Mr. Trump’s mind the most important path to better jobs and faster growth is through fairer trade deals. Though he claims he is a free-trader, provided the rules are fair, his outlook is squarely that of an economic nationalist. Trade is fair when trade flows are balanced. Firms should be rewarded for investing at home and punished for investing abroad.

The second and third strands of Trumponomics, tax cuts and deregulation, will encourage that domestic investment. Lower taxes and fewer rules will fire up entrepreneurs, leading to faster growth and better jobs. This is standard supply-side economics, but to see Trumponomics as a rehash of Republican orthodoxy is a mistake—and not only because its economic nationalism is a departure for a party that has championed free trade.

The real difference is that Trumponomics (unlike, say, Reaganomics) is not an economic doctrine at all. It is best seen as a set of proposals put together by businessmen courtiers for their king. Mr Trump has listened to scores of executives, but there are barely any economists in the White House. His approach to the economy is born of a mindset where deals have winners and losers and where canny negotiators confound abstract principles. Call it boardroom capitalism.

(Via: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721904-impulsiveness-and-shallowness-americas-president-threaten-economy-well-rule)

You can safely assume that Trumponomics is business-friendly (meaning big business owners can benefit from it). Confidence in businesses has increased and the stock market is likewise doing well too. However, there are some major flaws to President Trump’s economic agenda. The trade deficits won’t actually deliver the results he wanted and focusing on manufacturing jobs isn’t a practical choice as well.

He won’t be able to secure long-term economic security for the US considering how things are these days. Many have actually been pointing out how hilarious it was for him to explain economics to the Economist during one of his more recent interviews. Today, a lot of Americans are now wondering whether he is indeed getting the right information about the nation’s economy and it is a cause of worry for many of his constituents right now.

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source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/how-donald-trump-understands-economics/

The Dangers Of Alcohol

Daily life is a grind for some. Life is not always easy. It may be full of drama, confusion, arguments, questions, and challenges that are just too much to handle for an ordinary person. It also has its humor, meanwhile. While it’s great that only a handful succumbs to depression or insanity, many resorts to coping mechanisms that have to do with drugs, smoking, and alcohol.

Among the three, people often think of alcohol as the least dangerous when it comes to the health risks involved. But the truth is, they all pose the same health risks. Alcohol is bad for your health especially for the liver and it is also an addiction that is just as hard to quit from like smoking and drugs.

Alcohol is a topic you should definitely discuss with your child. You should warn him or her that they will be around it at least once, if not multiple times during their high school experience, so they should learn about the negative effects drinking alcohol before their 21st birthday can have on them.

Despite it being a violation of the law, it can lead to other bad decisions. Under the influence teens crash cars, get into physical fights, put themselves into situations where they can be taken advantage of and often drink too much without realizing it, giving themselves alcohol poisoning; all very dangerous and life-changing situations teens could find themselves in.

Though, all it takes is one night, one bottle and one mistake. To protect your child from this, you should remind him or her that if they fall under the influence of alcohol, they put themselves at risk for all of the things listed above.

(Via: http://www.thenewsherald.com/opinion/don-t-avoid-talking-to-teens-about-dangers-of-alcohol/article_007a9106-80df-5e42-b515-7297de2164a8.html)

People nowadays take alcoholic drinking lightly. Most teens and young adults make it a habit of drinking whenever there are occasions or even every weekend. It has become a cool thing to do that the more people are told it is bad, the more they actually drink.

The abuse of alcohol makes a you do things you would not normally do when sober, such as acts of public indecency and general bad behaviour.

Alcohol takes away your conscience and inhibitions.

More often than not, you are so ashamed the day after that you go and drink more so that you can face those that you wronged.

This is a flimsy excuse and is not the solution.

Many people binge drink over the weekends.

But when you cannot get through a weekend without drinking yourself into a stupor, you are actually an alcoholic.

It becomes such a lifestyle that many women continue to drink even when they are pregnant.

It could be that they are not aware of the dangers, or sometimes they are not aware that they are pregnant.

(Via: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Local/Express-News/alcohol-puts-our-future-in-danger-20170314)

The dangers of alcohol not only affect your health but your safety and security too. Millions of lives have been lost due to drunk driving. Drunk drivers are a death trap on the road but why is it that their menace continues.

The failure to help children of hard-drinking parents is putting lives in danger, MPs will say on Wednesday.

The warning comes as a cross-party alliance launches its manifesto to help the 2.6million children being brought up by alcoholic parents.

The blueprint calls for a national strategy for children of alcoholics, action to curtail the promotion of booze, better funding and more education about the dangers of heavy drinking.

It also says the government should bring in a minimum price for alcohol and introduce a new legal obligation on councils and NHS to identify the scale of the problem in their area and report every year on what they are doing to help the children of hard-drinking parents.

(Via: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/lives-26m-children-alcoholic-parents-9818007)

Just like any other addiction, saying goodbye to alcohol is easier said than done. If it was, nobody would struggle to go to every Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or suffer from the associated withdrawal symptoms. And we haven’t even started yet on the topic of blackouts – lapses in memory during drunken episodes. Crimes were committed at this time without the drunk person knowing of ever committing them. So, think twice about gulping that bottle of beer or those shots of tequila and think about all these dangers too much alcohol consumption poses to your health and to everybody else.

The blog post The Dangers Of Alcohol See more on: OCBG

source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/the-dangers-of-alcohol/

SOS: Planet Earth Is Dying

Skyscrapers keep sprouting everywhere. While we all should be happy for seeing the bustling and sprawling urbanscape as a sign of progress and prosperity, it is taking a big toll on our planet. As if we are not facing enough problems in our lives, environmental issues here and there are simply hard to ignore.

This planet is our only home and we should do our part to protecting it from further harm, lest we all end up dead. Seeing the world we live in now be consumed by urban living, pollution, violence, deteriorating Mother Nature, and so much more, it is scary to think what is waiting for us in the years to come.

Our world is dying and we are too self-absorbed with our own life dramas that we fail to give it the attention it deserves. After all, every effort counts – big or small – so let’s all put our differences aside and unite for a common cause. Who knows, you may even start to see the world in a different light.

Unnecessary lighting is also a drain on the economies and environmental wellness of cities. According to data sourced from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2011, 13 percent of residential electricity use in the United States is for outdoor lighting. Bad outdoor lighting wastes 0.5 kilowatt-hours of energy per house, per night, which equates to enough energy to power a 50-inch plasma TV for one hour. In addition, the International Dark-Sky Association believes that at least 30 percent of all outdoor lighting in the United States is wasted thanks to unshielded light on streets and in parking lots.

Even in cities, dark sky policies could cut energy use, save money, and reduce carbon emissions. While Laurin acknowledges that completely retrofitting large urban areas like Chicago or New York City to fit dark sky accreditation would be a “daunting task”—if not impossible—the “simple difference in putting a shield over the light, pointing the light down, and putting the light lower to the ground” would reduce light waste. Illuminating only the places that need it and turning off unnecessary lights would also help preserve darkness.

(Via: http://www.curbed.com/2017/3/30/15097154/light-pollution-dark-sky-community-colorado)

And the fact that the planet is dying is not a joke. Mankind has managed to incur some serious damage to Mother Nature and the extent of the damage is incomprehensible.

Some 80 percent of cauliflower corals are dead off West Hawaii. Gigantic colonies of mounding coral have succumbed — to the tune of 93 percent. As these structures disintegrate in slow motion, scientists worry the dead masses of calcium carbonate will break off and roll around, pulverizing the surviving corals.

But in the immediate aftermath of the bleaching — if you don’t look too hard at the devastation sleeping under the algae — you could almost pretend things are back to normal. Once bleached like bone, some 50 percent of the coral has recovered off West Hawaii, the state Division of Aquatic Resources determined last year.

(Via: http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/03/bret-yager-scientists-race-to-help-hawaii-corals-survive/)

Now the question is, what is the government doing about it? Environmental conservation should be at the top of their list because nothing else matters if the planet becomes unlivable for all of us.

As Trump’s sputtering political bulldozer takes aim at public lands, the environment and the climate, conservation advocates are preparing to throw up a few legal roadblocks that could delay for years implementation of the administration’s anti-environmental agenda. The battles Trump has unleashed will begin a new era of uncertainty for American energy companies, even as the market-driven shift to renewable energy continues.

The first lawsuit against the Trump administration’s attack on the environment has already been filed in U.S. District Court in Montana, where Earthjustice attorneys, on behalf of citizen conservation groups and communities, including Native Americans, are seeking to block Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision to repeal a coal mining moratorium on public lands.

Under former President Obama, the Interior Department adopted the moratorium to give experts a chance to review the coal leasing program, both for its climate impacts, as well as for financial implications to the American people.  In a draft review released in January, the Bureau of Land Management found that more than 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, come from coal developed on federal lands. 

(Via: https://summitcountyvoice.com/2017/03/30/conservation-advocates-start-building-legal-resistance-to-trumps-environmental-wrecking-crew/)

It’s hard to tell what the next four years will be like when the new administration barely understands what is important and what is not. Our environmental issues like climate change and global warming need immediate action or risk inflicting more irreparable damage that can’t be undone in the years to come.

Earth is our only home. Although we can no longer undo the mistakes of the past, there is something we can do now. We can correct our evil ways and show it that we care through conservation efforts, recycling trash, conserving electricity, finding other energy sources, planting more trees etc. A little good deed each day can go a long way in preserving the environment as well as the wildlife that thrives in it.

SOS: Planet Earth Is Dying is available on The HD Business Blog

source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/sos-planet-earth-is-dying/

The Man Who Invented The World Wide Web Not Happy With It

Most of us are just average people living our ordinary (and probably boring) lives but there are some destined for greatness. These geniuses have great contributions to the world at large that will be remembered for years to come. Whatever we have in this world, we owe it all to these innovators who defied conventional wisdom and took a risk to make a difference in everyone’s lives.

Everything we have now has been invented by someone, right – the telephone, the airplane, the air conditioner, the car, and so on and so forth. Even the technology we have now all came from scratch. But wouldn’t it be cool to be the person to invent something we now use and can’t live without – the World Wide Web. How does he feel after seeing his life-changing invention shape the world we now live in? Let us all meet Tim Berners-Lee.

In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, a programmer at the physics laboratory CERN, proposed a system that would allow computers to publish and access linked documents and multimedia over the Internet. Today, the world runs on the Web. Berners-Lee was recently given the ACM Turing Award, considered something like the Nobel of computer science. He talked with MIT Technology Review’s Tom Simonite about why he invented the Web, why Web access is a human right, and how his creation could be improved.

(Via: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604069/the-man-who-invented-the-world-wide-web/)

Who would’ve thought that his simple idea would blow out of proportion and fuel everything that we now have on the planet? Businesses need technology to reach people and make sales (profits). Even ordinary people use it on their day-to-day to access their social media accounts and connect with the people who matters to them the most. You no longer need to go to the movies to watch a good film because Youtube got you covered. Even tech staples like smartphones and tablets have all been inspired by the web, not to mention that computers and laptops that are now selling like hot pancakes.

MIT Professor Tim Berners-Lee, the researcher who invented the World Wide Web and is one of the world’s most influential voices for online privacy and government transparency, has won the most prestigious honor in computer science, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) A.M. Turing Award. Often referred to as “the Nobel Prize of computing,” the award comes with a $1 million prize provided by Google.

In its announcement today, ACM cited Berners-Lee for “inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the fundamental protocols and algorithms allowing the web to scale.” This year marks the 50th anniversary of the award.

A principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Berners-Lee conceived of the web in 1989 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) as a way to allow scientists around the world to share information with each other on the internet. He introduced a naming scheme (URIs), a communications protocol (HTTP), and a language for creating webpages (HTML). His open-source approach to coding the first browser and server is often credited with helping catalyzing the web’s rapid growth.

(Via: http://news.mit.edu/2017/tim-berners-lee-wins-turing-award-0404)

It is only but expected to recognize the contribution of Berners-Lee in the creation of the Internet. His humble invention made global interconnectivity possible and so much more. But is he as thrilled as all of us to see how we make use of the web in our daily lives? How does he feel about cyber criminals taking advantage of his creation? Why did he create the web in the first place? The questions are endless.

Berners-Lee created the Web in 1989 as a way for researchers to share information with each other on the Internet. He conceived of the idea while he was working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN). At that time, Berners-Lee says, scientists were using many different kinds of computers — Macs, PCs, minicomputers, etc. — and there was no way for these computers to talk to each other.

"It was designed to be universal. The whole point was breaking apart silos," he says.

He wanted to make communication easier. And he believed deeply in the power of a connected world to help us all work more efficiently and collaboratively across cultural boundaries.

"The idea was that it could put anything on it. I never imagined that it would kind of have everything on it," Berners-Lee says.

Everything has a good and bad side. And it must have been disheartening for him to witness all the negativity that surrounds the web now.

Berners-Lee initially imagined the Web as a beautiful platform that could help us overcome national and cultural boundaries. He envisioned it would break down silos, but many people today believe the Web has created silos.

And he still largely sees the potential of the Web, but it has not turned out to be the complete cyber Utopian dream he had hoped. He's particularly worried about the dark side of social media — places where he says anonymity is being used by "misogynist bullies, by nasty people who just get a kick out of being nasty."

(Via: http://mainepublic.org/post/father-web-worried-about-how-ugly-its-become#stream/0)

He remains to be an optimist and believes that everything will fall into place as the web evolves. While we can’t always prevent people from abusing any form of technology, the potential from the Internet far outweighs any possible danger lurking in the dark corners of the web. Berners-Lee has good reason to be worried about all these things because they are a reality in our world today. People’s identities are stolen, data thefts abound and cyber criminals of all sorts are always on the lookout for a vulnerable victim.

What we just need to remember is that in a platform as open and at the same time as mysterious as the Internet, eternal vigilance can go a long way in protecting yourself from criminals that even the founder of the Internet has not prepared everyone for.

The article The Man Who Invented The World Wide Web Not Happy With It is available on HDBizBlog.com

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What’s Hot and What’s Not When It Comes To Videos

The modern world has always been full of color but that wasn’t always the case. At the turn of the century, moving pictures were just in its infancy. Even still photos were taken in black and white. But over the years, technological advancements allowed us to enjoy a diverse spectrum of colors and it also made our photos more alive. Then, videos experienced a technological major overhaul from VHS to Betamax to CDs and DVDs, the potential is limitless.

As our technology progresses, videos still play a major role in our lives, whether for leisure, study, work, or just about anything under the sun. Video sharing remains to be a constant favorite in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Youtubers make lots of money by making amateur do-it-yourself videos that apparently appeals to the public and more so to the advertisers. Even social media sites allow the public to go on a live broadcast, something unheard of in the distant past. So, what else is still in store for video technology?

Pardon the pun, but video is a medium that keeps on moving. It’s not only the channel with the highest audience growth for magazine media brands (up 44% in unique viewers YoY, per the February 2017 Magazine Media 360º Brand Audience Report) but its formats remain in flux. In the last year, we’ve seen the impulsive Facebook fall in (and sometimes out) of love with distributed video clips, live streaming and now long-form media with ad inserts 20-seconds into play. Meanwhile, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat have gone all in on their own streaming formats. On connected TV sets, OTT has been the growth catalyst for lean-back viewing as prime-time viewing shrinks. But how are well-established magazine branded video programs maintaining business and editorial strategies as many of the major distribution points morph at will? To find out we checked in with TEN: The Enthusiast Network, Condé Nast Entertainment and Time Inc.’s People Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN) to learn how they’re adjusting and maintaining focus on growth in the face of relentless change.

(Via: http://www.minonline.com/as-video-evolves-media-companies-scramble-to-adapt/)

From mainstream media to movie outfits, videos have gone more public. And because we are all inborn narcissists, we revel in the opportunity of capturing and sharing our videos on the web, where millions can see it and give it a like or even a heart. But while we support video-sharing sites like Youtube that allows everyone to be stars of their own making, the site now imposes stricter guidelines in its latest update.

Five years ago, YouTube opened their partner program to everyone. This was a really big deal: it meant anyone could sign up for the service, start uploading videos, and immediately begin making money. This model helped YouTube grow into the web’s biggest video platform, but it has also led to some problems. People were creating accounts that uploaded content owned by other people, sometimes big record labels or movie studios, sometimes other popular YouTube creators.

In an effort to combat these bad actors, YouTube has announced a change to its partner program today. From now on, creators won’t be able to turn on monetization until they hit 10,000 lifetime views on their channel. YouTube believes that this threshold will give them a chance to gather enough information on a channel to know if it’s legit. And it won’t be so high as to discourage new independent creators from signing up for the service.

(Via: http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/6/15209220/youtube-partner-program-rule-change-monetize-ads-10000-views)

This news does not affect the majority of Youtube viewers but it is a cause of alarm for those who use this platform to make a living or scrape some money off it.

YouTube said Thursday that video channels on its site must now have more than 10,000 total views before the company will place ads on their videos, a major shift in policy the company said is designed to punish rule breakers.

The move by YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG, +0.00% GOOGL, +0.04%    Google, comes amid a backlash from advertisers over the company’s placement of ads on objectionable videos. The change is likely to reassure some advertisers, though it could also upset many of its millions of creators.

YouTube said the policy has been in the works since November and is designed to block channels that steal others’ content for revenue.

(Via: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/youtube-to-require-10000-views-before-videos-can-get-ads-2017-04-06)

As we speak, changes big or small take place on the web. Websites improve and the very system they use also gets better. Policies and guidelines by popular sites and social media also change in response to user behaviors and to improve cybersecurity measures.

With this in mind, let us always be prepared for whatever these changes may be and make sure you always backup your data. Be careful on the content you post online as you may never know who can see them and exploit you without you knowing. Videos, for instance, are more telling than just photos. We can spend hours and hours on the web watching videos of all sorts depending on our likes and interests. There would always be that element of surprise on what new, viral and trending video will hit the web and capture our attention.

The following post What’s Hot and What’s Not When It Comes To Videos is courtesy of HDBizBlog.com

source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/whats-hot-and-whats-not-when-it-comes-to-videos/