Compare and Contrast

Wall Street Bonuses Flood NYC’s Economy

Bonuses are expected to generate $1.6 billion in tax revenues for New York state and another $500 million for New York City. For every job created on Wall Street, three other jobs are created in the city and suburbs.

“Wall Street jobs create jobs,” said Ken Bleiwas, deputy comptroller. “Why? Because they are pumping money into the economy. They’re going out to restaurants, they are purchasing all kinds of consumer goods.”

vs.

Nothing New Here — And That’s the Point In California, 10 Friends Eschew Consumer Culture to Live Secondhand

Attention holiday shoppers! These people haven’t bought anything new in 352 days — and counting. These 10 friends vowed last year not to purchase a single new thing in 2006 — except food, the bare necessities for health and safety (toilet paper, brake fluid) and, thankfully, underwear, and maybe socks (they’re still debating whether new socks are okay).

House Passes Major Rewrite of Bankruptcy Code

I think that there should be some bankruptcy reform, because the system as it currently stands isn’t that sustainable. However, not letting identity theft victims be exempt sounds pretty stupid. I’m not down with all my parliamentary procedures (queensbury’s rules?) so I don’t know if all those parliamentary tactics were uncalled for or not.
New York Times > House Passes Major Rewrite of Bankruptcy Code user/pass , try cypherphunk/cypherphunk or bugmenot