America In Realization [12.02.14]

Politics

• Ashton Carter Said to Be Obama’s Choice as Defense Secretary (Bloomberg) 

"Carter, 60, spent more than two years as the Defense Department’s No. 2 civilian leader, under former Secretary Leon Panetta and then Hagel. He also served under Obama’s first Pentagon chief, Robert Gates, as the military’s top weapons buyer.  

Carter has a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He served as chairman of the International and Global Affairs faculty at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government."

• Obama Calls for Policing Standards, Funding in Wake of Ferguson (WSJ)

• Jeb Bush Details Political Vision (Wall Street Journal)

"Overhauling Education, Immigration, Energy and Tax Code Are Among His Priorities"

Ferguson Shooting 

The residents of Ferguson can and should transfer their anger to Politics.

Half of the City Council will be up for election in April.

• Organizing and nominating a set of candidates, 
• Registering voters and 
• Running election campaigns 

would be far more exciting and is surely the best possible way to bring about lasting change.


[Note: Voter turnout in Ferguson has been only 11 percent to 12 percent. For black residents, the number has been even lower.]
 

Let there be increased political awareness and constructive political involvement among American youth.

Hispanics / Latino Americans

• Jorge Ramos Is América’s News Anchor (Time) 

Immigration Reform

• Immigration and the economy : How migrants help (Economist)

"IMMIGRATION is the quintessential supply-side policy. It expands the labour force, encourages investment and provides taxpayers to support America’s growing ranks of the grey-haired.

The reform that passed the Senate last year (but was never taken up by the House of Representatives), besides legalizing millions of illegal immigrants, would have created new entry routes for foreign workers, especially those with skills, experience and education. The Congressional Budget Office reckoned it would boost the population in a decade’s time by 10m, the number of workers by 6m, and the level of GDP by 3.3%.

By contrast, Mr Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers reckons his order will boost GDP in the next decade by between 0.4% and 0.9%, mostly because of provisions unrelated to illegal immigration. These give foreign entrepreneurs more ways to get into America, allow the spouses of skilled visa-holders to work, and let foreign-born science graduates spend more time in America doing their training. 

In theory, the economy should benefit as illegal immigrants, no longer fearing they will be deported, switch to jobs better suited to their skills.

Legal immigration has been around 1m a year for the past decade, and is edging down as a share of the population. Illegal immigration more or less came to a halt in 2007. Since then, the number of illegal immigrants freshly arrived in the country has been roughly balanced, or exceeded, by the number who have left, died or been deported. The longer Congress goes without legislating a change, the costlier it will be for the economy."