Noah Millman with a very interesting liberal perspective on immigration and wages over at The American Conservative. Best passage:[I]f we’re going to argue that mass immigration isn’t going to create a fiscal problem so long as we don’t allow class divisions to deepen and fester, then shouldn’t we be doing something to make sure class divisions don’t deepen and fester? Like, make sure wages, even for relatively low-skill manual labor, are high enough to allow a semblance of a middle class existence? If you believe that low IQs are partly caused by growing up poor, then isn’t a low-wage policy even more pernicious than it would otherwise appear, as it hobbles a substantial portion of the next generation as well? Wouldn’t a low-wage policy wind up making it seem like Richwine was right after all?

EPA, via Landov

Sucks to be Venezuelan: the country has run out of toilet paper, thanks to price controls straight out of a Woody Allen movie. Daniel Gross on Bolívar’s backward business legacy.

Venezuela is out of toilet paper. To combat a chronic shortage, the government said this week it would import badly needed supplies of the consumer staple. In a scene reminiscent of Woody Allen’s Bananas, Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming proclaimed this week that “the revolution will bring the country the equivalent of 50 million rolls of toilet paper."How does a country—an entire country of 28 million people—run short of toilet paper? Absent a sudden, um, run on the product, it shouldn’t happen.

Could be stripped of chairman role.

They love me, they love me not. Jamie Dimon, the once heralded chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, will find out next Tuesday whether shareholders will slap him by taking away his dual role as chairman and CEO. Votes from investors in the roughly 3.45 billion shares of the bank are beginning to come in, and sources tell CNBC that those in favor of splitting the roles are less than a majority at this point. The major votes, large index funds like BlackRock or State Street, are unlikely to cast their votes until within the last 48 hours.

Read it at CNBC

Fails to pay little guys for five years.

This has not been the best week for federal government agencies. The House Small Business Committee has announced the results of its investigation into the General Services Administration, which revealed the agency failed to pay 1,334 small federal contractors over the past five years for a total of $3 million. The reason for the oversight? The GSA failed to complete a “guaranteed minimum payment” clause in its contracts. The GSA says it will begin to make good on payments dating back to 2007. 

Read it at The Washington Post

Drip painting by Jackson Pollock. (Christie's/AP)

Raking in $495M in one night.

A contemporary art auction at Christie’s shattered the record for the highest sales figure at an art auction Wednesday night, raking in a massive $495 million. Among the 12 pieces that brought in the big bucks were works by Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The top seller, a famous painting by Pollock titled No. 19, 1948 brought in $58.3 million. An impressive 66 out of the 70 works in the auction found new homes, leaving just four unsold.

Read it at The New York Times

Stem cells on screen in Farmington, Conn. (Spencer Platt/Getty)

Study is “significant step forward” for stem cell research.

In a groundbreaking announcement for stem cell research, scientists at Oregon State University reported that they have discovered a way to turn human skin cells into embryonic cells. The successful experiment—the first to date—involves transplanting human DNA into an egg cell where all genetic material has been removed. A senior scientist in the study, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, called the breakthrough a “significant step forward…in regenerative medicine.” The news is of vital importance to the stem cell research community as it would allow the creation of the type of stem cell capable of transforming into any other type of human cell, without the use of an embryo.

Read it at AFP

Paul Sakuma/AP

It was an innocent story about the art market, that happened to include a nude image of everyone’s favorite Golden Girl. Facebook disagreed. Brian Ries on an unjust ban.

In the end, I was done in by Bea Arthur’s boobs.As the social media editor for The Daily Beast, I have posted countless potentially offensive stories on our Facebook page, from the sexual proclivities of porn stars to purported cannibalism in Syria. But not until we linked to a piece about the Golden Girl’s breasts did Facebook shut us down.For a crime that wasn’t a crime. For a so-called offensive image that was an actual piece of art valued at roughly $2 million.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Monsanto’s soybean patent is a victory for the protection of intellectual property, writes Paul Campos.

A strange aspect of human psychology, at least in this culture, is that many people who would never dream of shoplifting a CD or stealing a car feel no compunction at all about stealing intellectual property.An example of this moral incongruity is provided by a new Supreme Court decision dealing with patent law. On Monday, the court ruled that a farmer in Indiana was breaking the law by replanting seeds harvested from a crop of genetically modified soybean plants, which were originally the invention of Monsanto.

Paul Sakuma/AP

The electric sports car maker is using a debt offering to repay a $465 million government loan – nine years before it is due.

Tesla Motors, the electric sports car start-up, and its founder, Elon Musk, are on something of a roll.The company just turned its first (small) quarterly profit, and the stock has been soaring. On Wednesday, the company moved to cash in on the momentum – by issuing some $830 million in stock and debt. The company announced it would sell 2.7 million shares of common stock, plus $450 million of debt, in the former of senior notes.There are a few interesting things going on here.

Don Ryan/AP

The technology company is joining other venture capitalists investing in Airware, which makes operating systems for commercial drones.

By Leo Mirani Drones have a terrible reputation, mostly because they have become a byword for death and destruction. But drones can be used for nonlethal means as well, such as this project to protect rhinos from poachers in India.Many expect those nonlethal uses to spread—but Google’s venture-capital arm believes it more than most (even if Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, might disagree). Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture firms, and Google Ventures are investing $10.