Thursday January 13th 2011
hedgefundguy's comments
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- Tragedy in Tucson: Are words to blame?
- Charlemagne: Baltic bet
- Return of the caption competition: Caption Competition 3
- The United States, Israel and the Arabs: Please, not again
- A picture of Orbán: Viktor Orbán and Hír TV
- Banyan: The indispensable incarnation
- The public sector unions: The battle ahead
- China and the Nobel peace prize: The empty chair
- Spinning Tucson: Krugman's toxic rhetoric
- Abortion and contraception: What ought to be settled
Over the past five days
Most recommended
- Doctoral degrees: The disposable academic
- Business in China and the West: A tale of two expats
- Tragedy in Tucson: Are words to blame?
- The United States, Israel and the Arabs: Please, not again
- A picture of Orbán: Viktor Orbán and Hír TV
- The public sector unions: The battle ahead
- Abortion and birth control: Crazy sexy stupid
- Pakistan: Death of a liberal
- Conservatives and liberals: The empty middle
- GDP forecasts: Grounded PIIGS
Over the past seven days
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fundy wrote,
"Texas has little debt because it taxes individuals at fairly high rates. "
You didn't notice the link I posted about Texas' debt?
Regards
Massage instrument strangles a woman?
The police are going with that one huh? (wink, wink)
How about banning white males with shaved heads from
public places? (just kidding)
Regards
"Kids, tomorrow we will have a visitor from a world-wide newspaper in our class room. I expect you to be on your best behavior."
C.H., we've tried pouring money down that black hole and end up with similar results as the black hole we call defense.
What day will you write about the parents you meet, as that is just as important.
Regards
LexHumana,
I believe that as part of GM's bankruptcy plan the control of pension was given to the union and the union got a chunk of GM
stock after the bankruptcy as a way of squaring the shortfall.
Regards
LexHumana,
You have to factor in learning a new language when one moves
to Texas or Missouri.
Been to a Dallas Cowboy football game lately?
http://teammarketing.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/News/nf...
I don't want to live near a refinery.
And I don't want to go to the Ozarks.
There was a story on PBS's "Need to Know" about all of the
unmarked pipelines throughout Texas, and every once in a while
they get a good explosion and a few people killed.
Regards
NotAGenius,
Point taken. I'm not sure if it is 1 or 2 years, the article makes a similar point, but tries a "best guess."
This is what we get with non-transparent government.
Of course another way of looking at it is per taxpayer capita.
As the taxpayer will have to make up the money if cuts are not made.
And remember, whether a 1 or 2 year budget, the hole has to be filled when the budget is passed (usually by June 30th for most states.)
In my state, we are looking at a $4-$10 Billion hole over a 2 year budget (more non-transparency), yet the "smartest men in the room" in our House just passed a repeal of estate taxes.
Go figure!
Regards
fundy,
Tax cuts or other forms of corporate welfare just lowers the business sector debt and raises gov't debt.
Also, there is no guarantee that it will produce jobs.
On Tuesday January 11, 2011, 6:13 pm EST
BOSTON (AP) -- A solar panel manufacturer that received $58 million in state aid in 2007 to open a factory at a former Massachusetts military base is closing the plant and laying off 800 workers.
Evergreen CEO Michael El-Hillow said dropping prices and competition from heavily subsidized solar manufacturers in China made the plant "no longer economically feasible." Evergreen will continue to run facilities in China and Midland, Mich.
--
More layoffs...
On Tuesday January 11, 2011, 8:28 pm EST
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Struggling entertainment site MySpace said Tuesday that it is cutting nearly half of its staff worldwide, or about 500 people, after an extensive revamp in October overhauled its look and allowed it to be run with fewer people. The cuts, part of a two-stage layoff plan, better position the site for a possible sale or spin-off by parent News Corp.
The previous layoffs eliminated about 420 jobs in the U.S. and 300 jobs overseas, and shut several offices abroad.
Tuesday January 11, 2011, 7:04 pm EST
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Gannett Co. will lay off nearly half its editorial staff at three New Jersey community newspapers by next month and will restructure the remaining positions, according to several staffers.
The affected newspapers are the Courier News of Bridgewater, Daily Record of Parsippany and Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, where a combined 99 staff members will have to apply for 53 remaining positions. Those not kept will be cut loose by Feb. 4.
---
WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' REGULATION
Default on you mortgage before we will refinance it!
Tuesday January 11, 2011, 3:42 pm EST
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A Senate committee is looking for ways to help slow down Florida's runaway home foreclosures problem that is hampering the state's growth and prosperity.
Distressed Florida homeowners began complaining more than two years ago about problems they were having to get banks to help with loan modifications. Some mortgage companies even told homeowners they had to become delinquent before they would be considered for a loan modification.
--
Speaking of regulation and taxes, perhaps you might want to team up with the smokers?
A friend complains that he can't have a smoke in a bar or restaurant anymore, and the price of smokes have skyrocketed due to hefty tax increases.
Regards
Governments would like employees to have greater private resources. But they face the awkward problem that encouraging more pension saving would eat into consumer demand, at a time of still-sluggish growth, and might require more generous tax subsidies, at a time of huge fiscal deficits.
Now I understand why the gov't taxes the interest I earn on my savings. It is to penalize me for not consuming all of my income.
It's policies like this that leads our country to consume and not save.
Two things to remember Buttonwood.
1) When those 401(k)s are tapped, taxes will have to be paid.
(Do the models that people use to determine the future debt of the US take this into account?)
2) People can still borrow to the hilt in order to consume, file for bankruptcy, and still enjoy a great retirement.
Bankruptcy courts cannot touch a person's 401(k).
Regards
- if you're gonna play the game, you gotta know the rules.
They say things are bigger in Texas.
Thier budget deficit is bigger than my state, and rivals California.
http://www.texasobserver.org/contrarian/texas-budget-mess-now-as-bad-as-...
Regards
Didn't Pakistan raise and then withdraw the raise in oil prices due to protests?
I think they wanted to do that by reducing the subsidy.
Something else Pakistani people can wrongly blame on America.
Regards
Cassandra,
Did you see the Charlie Rose on the CES and "Social Networking"
the other night?
It might be of interest to the other blog writers here.
The interesting part is the discussion of the state vs. the internet (think China vs. Google) over the control of information.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11395
Regards
Travelling in time backwards is something both Democrats and Republicans would abhor.
Democrats - no Medicare/Medicaid (pre mid-1960's)
Republicans - higher taxes
Regards
This is why I haven't posted anything on this tragic incident.
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
Regards
I don't have a Facebook page, so excuse me if I get things wrong.
Has Cassandra taken the time to look at all of his friend's pages?
How often does Cassandra do this?
What would be the course of Cassandra's action if one of his friends he checked up on had images/wording of violent acts accompanied by extreme political views? That is, is there a cyber police station to report the "friend" to?
Regards
- still trying to figure out the Hula-hoop, pet rock, and mood ring
R.A.,
Thanks for the write-up of the presentations and the
followup pro/cons along with your insights.
Do keep up the good work.
It blog entries like these that attract a much better audience than most of the other blogs.
Regards
Seems we didn't have a Link Exchange Thursday.
I'd like to go off-topic in order to say
Congratulations jouris!!
jouris won the FDIC Friday! contest, holding on against Doug.
FDIC Friday!
FINAL Scoreboard
------------------------------
jouris 4
Doug 3
Tzimisces 2
HFGuy 2
OneAegis 1
AnterraCon 0
Jer_X 0
NotAGenius 0
Thanks to all who played!
Congrats again jouris!
Regards
Just a some more data from the Household Survey
Household Data
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.b.htm
Employed +297,000
People seeking jobs -566,000
Net change in people looking for work ~269,000, expressed
by the drop in the labor force of 260,000.
More employed and more people gave up looking, hence the rate dropped
of 0.4%
More Household Data
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t09.htm
Full/Part time jobs
+554,000 full-time jobs
-155,000 part-time jobs
By Age +297,000
16-19 yrs -95,000 jobs
20-24 yrs -61,000 jobs
25-34 yrs +131,000 jobs
35-44 yrs -80,000 jobs
45-54 yrs +188,000 jobs
55-over +213,000 jobs
Men +263,000
16-19 declined
35-44 declined
all others rose
Women +33,000
25-34 rose
45-54 rose
55+ rose
all others declined
The over age 55 of +213k jobs seems odd.
Good to see the number of full-time jobs rose significantly.
Regards
Wow!
Gates is going to cut 1% of the defense budget over a period of 5 years. Nevermind that the defense budget will still grow.
We spend roughly 4% of GDP on Defense.
We defend Japan, S.Korea, the Gulf States, among other countries and keep the sea lanes clear and open so they can sell us stuff.
Nevermind the fact that those countries spend about 1-2% of thier GDP on defense.
Nevermind the fact that those countries export goods to us and use the profits to lend back to us so we can spend more on defense which results in:
A) A cheaper currency for them.
B) Importation of our jobs.
C) Huge debt for our federal gov't.
We need to cut our defense spending to 2% of GDP and worry about protecting our own nation.
If those nations want us to spend more on defense - so they don't have to - we can raise the money by slapping an import tax on thier goods. (It's called PAYGO, pay as you go.)
The prices of thier goods would rise, making US workers more competitive. It would give the inflationary boost that Bernanke seeks.
Years ago, the British fell victim to what is occuring now.
"Britannia Rules the Waves!!"
The British pound was the reserve currency until thier debt in the early 1900's forced them to relinquish.
Free trade or free riders?
I'll let you decide.
Regards
On the NFL...
The other night I watched part of a DVD of the 2003 New Patriots.
During one regular season game they showed the stadium crew shovelling about 6-8" off of each seat before the game.
(Haven't gotten to the snowy N.E./Oakland playoff game yet, that was the tuck rule game.)
A few years back wasn't there a game that was played in a blizzard?
NY Giants or Chicago Bears?
As for sex education...
The best thing to do is to stop using Medicaid to pay for
child births and then Welfare for raising them.
(in my state, 1 in 3 child births are paid for with Medicaid funds, that is, 1 in 3 are born into poverty.)
If people want to have sex, no problem. But don't bill the general public for the results. Let the "rational men and women" who made that choice pay for the results.
Regards
In the late 70's there was an American slang expression of asking
how are things, or what is going on.
"What's shaking?"
The German equivalent was "Was is los",
"What is loose?"
Der hund ist los in der bundespost.
Regards