Star Trek alert: Shatner's "The Captains"

I can recommend heartily a documentary by William Shatner from 2011 entitled "The Captains."  I took some time recently to watch it in a couple sittings on Netflix, and it's extremely worthwhile.  If you've always wondered how much fun it would be to be a big-time movie star, this will set you straight.  Also, if you've never been to a Star Trek convention there are some shots of several of those as well. 

Shatner interviews Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Scott Bakula and Kate Mulgrew (the other captains from subsequent series in the ST universe) and talks a few moments with his friend and mentor Christopher Plummer as well.  It's very interesting to hear consummate professionals talk about their work, how they approached it, how they got their breaks, and how it impacted their personal and professional lives to have a successful Star Trek series.  Sure, it's about Star Trek, but it's also about some folks who have become living legends by being part of one of the most influential popular culture phenomena of all time.  It's worth a watch.

Causality versus Association, Lesson 467: Gun Control

In a recent article in USA Today about NFL-related violence, we get another lesson on how "journalists" understand science.  In reporting about the prevalence of guns in NFL households, the article states that:

Because Belcher was a gun owner, a person in his home would have been three times more likely to be involved in a homicide, and five times more likely to have killed himself, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

No... homes with guns are associated with these things (link goes to NEJM article on this from 2008, there's a more recent one here).  Being a gun owner doesn't cause these things to happen.  In fact, you have to associate this with household wealth, violent crime in a particular geographic area, demographic information and anything else that might increase an individual's risk of gun violence.  In addition, these studies almost never acknowledge the value of guns as a preventative or safety measure, which seems to be a focus in the NFL article, at least among the players they talked to about it.


John Lott and others have successfully integrated politics with science and shown some real links between gun ownership and declines in violent crime and gun violence in certain areas of the country.  Virginia's recent history is probably one of the best examples of how guns in the hands of private citizens can be seen as having a positive impact on crime rates.

What's the lesson?  Don't leave it to journalists to explain scientific results - do your own investigation of the sources.  Unfortunately, that may be the only way we have of getting to the truth in this era of Internet "journalism."

Tax Fairness, Part 728

From the Washington Examiner, another look at the hard facts about who pays taxes in our economy.  Enjoy.

The demise of the Twinkie: a good case study in what's wrong with union representation

I want to post this for our class to read this semester, but it's behind a paywall.  I'm posting an excerpt, instead of a link.  I tried to keep the important parts.

From Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday Nov. 17-18 2012, page A16.

The Twinkie, a Suicide

"Perhaps it says something about America - though we're not sure what - that iconic junk foods like Twinkies, Devil Dogs, Ho Hos snack cakes and Wonder bread have endured since the 1930s despite changing consumer health and eating habits.  It does say something about institutions that can't - or refuse to - adapt to new economic times that the company behind those products has chosen to go out of business overnight.

Hostess's owners have decided to liquidate rather than ride out a nationwide strike by one of the largest of its dozen unions, the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.  The Texas-based company owned by the private-equity shop Ripplewood Holdings and other hedge funds essentially gave up.  On Friday it shut down its 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers and prepared to fire nearly 18,500 employees en masse and auction off its brand and recipe portfolio.

Hostess posted sales of $2.5B in 2011 but lost $341 million and lacked the cash flow to hold out through the bakers union work stoppage that had only lost a few days of production so far.  One reason is a labor-rule burden that by comparison makes Detroit look like Hong Kong.

The snack giant endured $52 million in workers' comp claims in 2011, according to its bankruptcy filing this January.  Hostess's 372 collective-bargaining agreements required the company to maintain 80 different health and benefit plans, 40 pension plans and mandated a $31 million increase in wages and health care and other benefits for 2012.

Union work rules usually required cake and bread products to be delivered to ... a single retail location using two separate trucks.  Drivers weren't allowed to load their own vehicles, and the workers who loaded bread weren't allowed to load cake.  On most delivery routes, another "pull up" employee moved products from back rooms to shelves.

This year management negotiated concessions from some of the unions, including the Teamsters, but the bakers rejected a last and best offer in September.  Then the courts gave Hostess unilateral authority to modify collective-bargaining contracts, prompting the strike.  So now it will liquidate, instead of attempting to emerge from Chapter 11 intact.

The 18,500 layoffs are equal to about 11% of the net new jobs the entire U.S. economy created in October.  The unions are blaming private equity, or Bain Capital, or capitalism, but the election is over.  And so is Hostess."

Some key numbers:  18,500; 372; 80; 40.  Insane.  Featherbedding.  

Now the assets will be turned over and someone else will hire the most qualified folks and get things rolling again.  The trademarks and intellectual properties will go to the highest bidder.

We'll hear all about how executives got their pay increases, and bonuses, etc. and how private equity is the culprit.  Really?  Does it look like it?

Regardless of who's at fault, the fact is that 18,500 peoples' lives are in limbo today.

UPDATE:  A link to the union web site.  Best prepare your tinfoil hat before digging too deep there.

Because, you know, campuses are all about free speech

Article from the weekend WSJ about how "free speech" has been twisted on college campuses to me "speech we agree with."  It's free so far, but with the WSJ who knows how long it will be? .Enjoy.

Ben Stein's 3 Top Ways to Mess Up your Financial Life

Author, actor and economist Ben Stein gives three good tips for investors, and talks about how much he likes Warren Buffett here.

CNBC talks about the end-of-the-year purge, with massive asset sales before the capital gains tax changes here.

When Jack Welch explains how things work, I listen

I don't know about you, but when Jack Welch has questions about things, I listen to what he's asking.  After all, the guy's not just some hack on the Intarweb.  He probably knows a few things, and a few people, and he's done some amazing things in this lifetime.  And some stupid ones (involving women).  But in this case, I'm willing to bet that he's onto something.

So here he explains what he was talking about when he tweeted about a conspiracy in the jobs numbers last week.  What's remarkable here is that we've come to accept this kind of statistical hoohaa as normal.  Of course the jobs numbers didn't improve last month, but who's to say???????

Nope, you can have your own opinion, but you can't have your own facts.  Once we dig down on these numbers, it appears that the bias shows through easily.

Enjoy.

UPDATE:  As of 10/17/12 or even earlier, it turns out that revisions were announced to the "low" numbers.  It seems that some folks hadn't reported all of their numbers for new job claims or something that week.  Surprised?  No.

Politics can't be ignored, unfortunately

I hate to get too political here, but it's been on my mind lately, and it probably should be on yours, too.

It's very easy to become complacent, or, worse yet, paralyzingly cynical about politics.  But the truth of the matter is that if you don't engage in politics you are going to be subjected to the whims of those who do.  Whether you're scared of the Tea Party or Sheila Jackson Lee, you need to figure out where you stand on things and have a political stand figured out.

Why?  Because it's your responsibility to the rest of us.  It's part of being a good citizen.  Being able to choose a candidate or party platform based on informed judgement is one of the rights that borders on being a hard obligation in our society.

I promise that if you don't assert your views, and know what they are, and why you have them, there are plenty of folks out there (on either side) who are just waiting to either help you with that, or who will just assume that one or two characteristics of your life can speak for your politics.

Even if you refuse to engage politics, sooner or later it will engage you.  Figure out where you stand on things and stand there.  

Don't ever bother arguing with zealots, but when someone asks for your opinion you should make it known.  That takes some preparation.

For example:  I attach far more importance to monetary & spending issues, and gun rights, than I do to social agenda items such as gay marriage.

In fact, I've long suggested that our LGBTQIA friends should be socially pressured into marrying, just like the rest of us.  Why should breeders have all the fun?  Then they can learn about the politics of divorce and in-laws and all that crap we need to deal with, just like the stereotype.

Why is this relevant?  Because when someone on the Right makes this a huge agenda item and says that "gay rights" are destroying America, I call B.S. on it.  I'm a Christian, I have a family, and I don't care what people do in their bedrooms.  I only care what they do in the political realm.  And I try to say so whenever I can.  And when someone on the Left portrays Christians as unworthy of their opinions, I call B.S. on that, too.

So even though this isn't a pet issue of mine, I have a reasoned opinion on it.  I can defend my opinion without resorting to logical loop-de-loops or Biblical passages.

To have an opinion, you must be able to defend it.  As a member of society, we're required to have opinions or we're not really doing our jobs.

Again, pick a stand.  Find some things that will motivate you to engage and stand on those things and your reasoned opinions.  Be sure to keep up with those things that are most important to you.

 

Corn + ethanol mandate + drought = government purchase of meat?

President Obama recently spoke in Iowa about how the USDA is now acting to buy meat and boost meat prices here.  To quote the Prez and the article:

"Today the Department of Agriculture announced that it will buy up to $100 million worth of pork products, $50 million worth of chicken, and $20 million worth of lamb and farm-raised catfish," Obama explained to reporters in front of a drought-stricken cornfield.
 
"Prices are low, farmers and ranchers need help, so it makes sense," Obama explained. "It makes sense for farmers who get to sell more of their product, and it makes sense for taxpayers who will save money because we're getting food we would have bought anyway at a better price."

This can only "just make sense" to someone who presumes that the government's role is the most clearly defined here.  I would agree that the government role has become the most prominent, as the article does: ethanol requirements drive this whole picture.

The author says it plainer than I could.

Most of us have already figured out that ethanol isn't a long-term solution.  I hope the Prez figures it out sometime too.  And before he cripples the oil and gas industry altogether. 

Dr. Laffer on stimulus spending

Art Laffer has a WSJ piece explaining the efficacy of "stimulus" spending here.  I'm sure there's something he's missing, but the part about taking a dollar from a producer and redistributing it to a non-producer rings true.

If you're wondering where you've heard the name before, he's the guy who suggested that there's a tax rate that maximizes tax revenues, and above that rate folks hide income or quit working (revenues go down regardless).

Where is the money coming from, exactly?

Dr. Greg Mankiw of that conservative thinktank that is the Harvard economics department. He has a neat little piece today outlining why we're seeing a retreat from reason in this country (and proving d'Toqueville right).

Here.

Great site for iPad users

I just found a terrific site for iPad users who want to learn about annotating research and writing, etc. on the iPad.  http://academicipad.stevendkrause.com/

I'll never advocate the iPad as a writing tool (typing tool) but it's the ultimate organizing tool.  And as I've mentioned before, iAnnotate makes it the ultimate research tool.  Dr. Krause seems to "get it" with most things iPad.

Plus, you gotta admire someone who wrote their dissertation on a PowerBook 100.

Hard to believe: Congress was/is on the take! Countrywide paid off Congresscritters

There are several good articles about this one out there today, but the correction at the top of USA Today's page was priceless. Here.

Turns out Congressional types (staffers included) were on the take from Countrywide Financial for years and years and years.  Turns out Fannie was in the middle of it.  Faithful readers of this space won't be shocked.

CIO article on job-hunting tips

This article is for IT types, but most of this stuff applies to all of us.

Take a look here.

WashPo on new immigration stance, job market

The Washington Post has a good article on the ramifications of amnesty after yesterday's announcement from the Rose Garden.  Print link is here.

Online cheating? No way! From Chronicle of Higher Ed

Chronicle of Higher Ed had a piece the other day illustrating the huge risk of cheating in online courses.  It talks about students rotating 5 through a sequence of testing over a semester, with a shallow test bank and with weekly tests.  And using Google Docs to save the exams.

Isn't that an intellectual property issue?  Shouldn't the university be protecting the professors' intellectual property better than that?  That may be a good way to fight this kind of stuff with school administrators I guess.

We all know that there are a bunch of games attempted in online classes.  The obvious one is to just have someone else take the class for you.  [Search "The Shadow Scholar" on Google.]  Many online programs have no way to verify the identity of the test taker, with or without some type of proctoring system in place.  What is this doing to our overall reputation over time?

I get worked up over this because cheating hurts everyone.  The stuff we have to do to attempt to control cheating makes it harder for those students who don't plan to cheat.  Time spent on preventing cheating is time not spent on other more productive class items such as revising podcasts and notes, and working on current events with students.  Cheating takes value away from the better students, and research has shown time and again that leaving courses open to cheating tempts even the best students into cheating behavior at times.  Cheating makes a mockery of the whole system, and diminishes the hard work that 99% of our students are doing in order to better themselves.

I've never subscribed to the "bus" theory, or the idea that eventually a cheater's karmic reward will come in the form of getting hit by a bus.  But I have plenty of colleagues for whom that serves as the ultimate justification of their inaction with respect to academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, etc.).  My other favorite is "the market will sort it out" - which suggests that employers have the ability to tell WHICH undergraduates cheated their way through online classes and which ones didn't - the market doesn't work that way.  Instead, the market lumps all questionable programs together, and punishes everyone equally.  It exists as a "pooling" equilibrium, in the econ lingo.

Chinese acquisitions represent a first

The Hill is reporting that Chinese interests are taking over bank branches in this country after the Fed cleared the decks to make that possible. 

In other news, most lawmakers are strangely silent on this issue.

Should be fun to watch.

Bureaucracy at its finest, Part 1 of many

I know things are tough.  It's the end of the semester and you've spent all your time making the world a better place a few people at a time.  You're tired, probably suffering from end-of-the-semester catchup fatigue, and you just want some time to get your work done and turn it in.

Yet, no matter how hard you try, the weak of mind keep getting in your way. 

So it's three days before grades are due (not really, they're due at NOON on Monday) and those of us who teach online rely on BlackBoard to get to our tests and papers and SafeAssign to be able to assign grades.  Many of these things were turned in over the past three days, because we're generous and let our students turn things in late.

I go online this morning to work on grading and POOF - no BlackBoard. 

It gets better.

Not only isn't there a BlackBoard, but the Help Desk at school is closed for the weekend because of "Semester Break."

That's priceless.  Seems that someone forgot to figure out when "Semester Break" actually starts.

The problem:  UCT doesn't have anything due on Monday.  In general, UCT doesn't rely on BlackBoard to get work done.  They don't send email through Messages (with no attachments on Reply's, for example).  It's what we call an AGENCY PROBLEM.  Unfortunately in this case, we can monitor service levels almost perfectly and without cost, but the lack of incentives becomes the obvious problem.

The rest of the world is disappointed with President Obama

Actually, this one hacks me off on so many levels.  I thought the level of entitlement thinking in the US was bad, but evidently it's nothing compared to the rest of the world.  According to this AP article, there are some serious cry-babies out there. 

Whatever your opinion of our Prez is, you should be hacked off at the folks around the world who expect miracles from the US while alternatively cursing us for our lifestyle.  They hate our freedom, I think.

In Atlas Shrugged, Hank Reardon's family was dependent on him for everything while outwardly criticizing and mocking him, and relied on his sense of duty and obligation for their living.  He finally woke up.  I wish the US could wake up, too: Dr. Paul may be kooky on some things, but his isolationist tendencies have their attraction.

Aren't we all kooky on some things, after all?

I have faith that this article is politically motivated.

Well, that would fit with this article from the LA Times.

France's real enemy is "the financier," well, and spiders

The new chief of France, Inc. is Francois Hollande, who declares that his "real enemy" is the world of finance.

Maybe he can preemptively surrender and just save everyone the drama.  I'd suggest that France's real enemy is a little thing called "reality."  Sooner or later every social regime runs aground on the shoals of reality.  The wealth of the producers (or their heirs) runs out because there isn't enough money to allocate everything to everyone all the time.  This is especially true with the huge fiscal obligations to social programs in governments in such places as France and Greece.

As Gerald Ford said:  A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

I think Franky should call up all those former execs from Freddie and Fannie and find out how they did it - and turn the "world of finance" (whatever that means) into his oyster.

M. Hollande is the first socialist leader of France in 17 years, evidently not counting all the other socialist leaders of France.

I other news, the markets are going nuts today.  Wonder why.

iPod sound quality, I knew it!

Turns out that older iPods DO have better sound quality.  I thought so.  I've been listening to a lot of music in the car, every day, and it seems that my old iPod 3rd Gen (with buttons) sounds much better than my 4th Gen. iTouch that's so much faster.

I recently replaced the battery in the old 15Gbyte iPod and it runs great.  Ifixit.com still sells stuff for those models, and they even through in the tools for free. 

After listening to the same old playlists for a few days, I noticed that the sound was so much richer, the bass was bassier, and I was hearing a lot more 3D and cross-channel dimension.  These old audiophile ears don't lie, especially when it's pumped into a car system.  Thank goodness I found this site b/c I didn't want to have to get out SoundForge and do the analysis myself.

It gets better, part 1

This post is for those of you out there who've never really felt like you fit in among your school peers.  You know who you are - when everyone else was worrying about who was who on "Survivor" you were reading manuals for computers or learning how to make your Palm Pilot say "Hello World."  You were the one who had all the answers in science class, but you were afraid to raise your hand more than twice per day.

It was always just assumed that, of course, you would do well in school and go as high and far as you could, because, you know, somebody had to.  Maybe you got the nickname "perfesser" at a young age because folks could come to you for wisdom.

Well I'm here to tell you that "it gets better."  One day in the not-so-distant future, your years of persistance and self-reliance and reliability will pay off with job offers and career-making opportunities that none of those folks who mocked you will have.  You'll make more friends than you can imagine, because there are lots of folks out here just like you!  What you'll find is that successful people everywhere study JUST LIKE YOU, and work hard JUST LIKE YOU, and keep their promises JUST LIKE YOU DO.  Successful people understand their limitations, and plan for the future, and keep a good, healthy attitude each and every day, JUST LIKE YOU.

Once you get away from the tyranny of the illiterate masses you'll be able to release your gifts and achieve whatever you'd like to - without apologizing for being SMART.  You're already on your way, and trust me

It gets better.

Unfortunately, there is one big drawback to being smart that you can't outrun.  The harder you work, the more work you'll have to do.  And along with this will be responsibility, because you'll be more dependable than others, and those folks will look to you to "do something" in times of need.  No getting around it, this is a big drawback, and I'm convinced this is one reason that so many otherwise smart people really just play dumb most of the time.

[To be continued]

The next debacle: student debt

Sorry for the hiatus, but I've been really busy fixing some things around here.  It seems there are a whole bunch of folks who don't know what they're supposed to be about, and that makes it tougher on those of us who DO know what we're supposed to be about.  It's all about MISSION, people!!!!!

Back to current events:

We've seen it coming for a while now, and it's nothing new.  Government pours money into education (via Pell grants, other federal $); tuition goes up; student debt goes up; folks start screaming for bailouts.  We hear cries that "everyone" should go to college, and that it's a "national crisis" if they can't.  In the meantime, all those new dollars (regardless of performance and/or outcomes) are used to build up a huge administrative infrastructure in higher ed that can't be stopped.

Article today points out some of the info surrounding this.

Detroit: Nuff said.

An $11M grant to help jobseekers has turned out to serve exactly 2 people, according to an audit in Detroit.

You can't make this stuff up.

First year without a new bank in decades - FT.com

Financial Times (the orange one) is reporting that last year was the first without a de novo bank since at least 1984.

I can certainly understand why nobody is opening banks - from what I read on teh IntarWebs, bankerz is leet eeeevil. Haven't you heard? All those Occupy folks were protesting - banks!!!!! So bankerz must be minions of Satan or something.

What we're finding is that political shenanigans have economic consequences. I'm sure there are solid economic reasons for no new banks, but there's also the pogrom being conducting against those evil "bankerz" one and all.

Goodbye Davy

Monkees singer (I would never say lead singer here) Davy Jones passed away this week of heart trouble. His fans will miss him. I saw the group several times in my misspent yute, and am a huge fan of everything Monkee.

My profile pic (on the right) was taken at Epcot's American Pavilion while listening to Mr. Jones a couple of years ago (that's as close as we could get-bench seats outside).

His show that evening was mostly a narrative about his fame and life, with a few musical moments thrown in. But it was SRO, as was the next one. He could still pack them in and entertain.

I just hope he will be remembered for his talents and not for appearing as Marsha Brady's prom date.

Good interview here.

Update: I got a few comments offline about my lead singer remark. There's no doubt that Davy was a huge part of The Monkees' appeal - heck, Star Trek had to add Walter Koenig to compete! (See Koenig's autobiography for THAT reference). But calling him "lead singer" seems a bit much. Yes, he sang on many of their hits, but so did Micky, and Mike did his share of B-sides and wrote them too. So although I loved the guy's work, and thought him a real talent, let's not tarnish his life by making stuff up.

Example - MSNBC headline: Monkee frontman dead at 66. Okay... he sang, played maracas (red ones), and occasionally the tambourine. I seem to remember the piano (what that the pilot episode?) But FRONTMAN? I guess that's OK.

But at least we keep the administrative & support jobs

News from the higher ed front: Colleges closing STEM programs, nursing, etc. in response to budget cuts. It's all about priorities, folks.

Meanwhile, there's a renewed push for vo-ed these days. Goody.

I wonder if those folks will have to worry about student loans, too.

So we buy cars for the tax breaks now? Volt flops and plant shuts down

GM announces closure of Volt line due to low demand. No doubt they'll fire it back up to fill all those orders for GE.

The best part: they blame the car's slow burn on the ",

Who should we believe? To be, or not to be (in equities)

Link to Buffett here. (buy stocks, worry about inflation)

Link to Stockman here. (hold cash, bubble will burst)

Job growth highest in states with lowest bidness taxes. Yawn.

Who could have guessed, but IBD has actually found that job growth increases when taxes are lower.

Doh!

Crowding out in financial aid

Article on how increased financial aid from government crowds out private aid and also raises tuition, with references.

Here.

JP Morgan Chase discusses cost structure vs regulation

Check this out: some numbers for profitability by customer. Very interesting.

Some serious food for thought on the NASA plate

Check out this article about the host of the updated Cosmos series and his views on the value of space exploration and the implausibility of privatization's success.

Federal aid drives up tuition for everyone? No way!

SmartMoney has a report today about several studies that find that Pell Grants, etc. drive up the cost of tuition for everyone. Which is exactly the economic outcome you'd expect, similar to Freddie and Fannie's subsidies of subprime lending and securitizations driving up the cost of housing in some otherwise undistinguished markets.

It seems that bubbles driven by federal spending are all the rage. I read yesterday that a GE unit was requiring their folks to drive Chevy Volts instead of real cars. I wonder when that deal was cut. From Google, it looks like it was cut way back in 2010.

I wonder if government involvement in rescues of GM and Chrysler have artificially inflated salaries of line workers there? That's another question that should be asked I guess. We certainly didn't see that effect on Wall Street, where layoff after layoff has occurred in the last three years.

Trouble in DC

It appears that 2012 is a watershed year for violent crime in the nation's capital (note that we have to distinguish violent crime from good old fashioned crime, which goes on every time Congress is in session. But I digress...)

The best part of the article is this quote

“People are beginning to not feel safe,” Ms. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, said last week after a news conference at 2nd District headquarters to discuss the increase in robberies.

Bwah-hahaha. Lady, people have felt "not safe" since I can remember in most of DC, that's the problem. Wow.

If you wonder how the recent court ruling regarding individual ownership of guns is working out, you can read all about it starting here, although it gets really fun about here. Turns out there's only one source for guns in DC (approved guns, that is). The journalist reviews her steps to ownership (legal ownership) here.

No wonder violent crime abounds there.

Long-term unemployment is now a disability

I've heard rumors of this in the past few years, but this is the first I've seen it in print that I recall. Turns out that folks are rolling off of the unemployment rolls and into the arms of Social Security disability.

It certainly sounds like a short-term political solution to a long-term economic problem.

John Stossel on the deficit: Common sense isn't common

I remember growing up when Stossel was the consumer reporter for ABC's 20/20. I was always amazed at how he and Hugh Downs put up with Babba WaWa - they never even flinched.

Stossel has a piece on his show blog, a promo for his show, that discusses the current federal debt and deficit in responsible, easy-to-understand terms (which, as we all know, is important).

Imagine this situation (from his numbers):

Family Budget

Income $24,700

Expenses $37,900

New Credit Card Debt $13,300

Existing Credit Card Debt $153,500

Recent belt-tightening $385

Add 8 zeros to the end of these figures and you have the national situation.

This is what's wrong, folks. To follow up from yesterday, we're spending a whole lot more than we're taking in. Something's got to change fundamentally in this country, and it probably doesn't involve the government getting BIGGER.

Before I get any comments asking "What do you MEAN? You're suggesting that (Group X or Y) must feel the pain because they take the most from government spending!" Nope, I'm just pointing out that we're approaching a tipping point on taxes - those of us who earn and pay taxes are less and less able to keep up with the folks who don't earn and don't pay net taxes. And if productivity tanks, we're all in trouble again.

As I mentioned yesterday, the excess purchasing power to repay the gov'mint debt must come from somewhere, and must be taken from someone. It's who gets "taken" that's important.

Here's another Stossel piece along the same lines. "The Road to Bankruptcy" echos the title of Hayek's book "The Road to Serfdom."

Finally, a link to a story about the Food Police, where the actual food police are not identified - they took a 4-year-old girl's lunch away (the lunch Mommy made for her) and made her eat (and pay for) chicken nuggets. Be afraid, be very afraid...

Meanwhile, the deficit continues to grow

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they used to say in the Saturday morning Western serials, the deficit continues to be ignored by Corporate Media. The Wall Street Journal has a wonderful opinion piece discussing just that here.

The problem seems to be pretty simple: federal taxes bring in approximately 16% of GDP every year, and the federal government seems to spend about 24% of GDP every year (and it's increasing over time, while tax receipts are decreasing over time - I refuse to call them "tax revenues," as that sounds wildly inaccurate). So we have a "structural" problem, obviously. Either taxes have to go up more and more, and soon, or spending has to go down more and more, and soon.

You can bet which one I'm voting for.

When you factor in the huge number of folks in this country who pay no taxes, or even NEGATIVE taxes, that means that repayment of the existing national debt, as well as the repayment of the FUTURE national debt, falls on fewer and fewer people every year. It's hard to see how this turns out good for those folks who pay taxes.

We're always hearing how the national debt ($15.3 Trillion in total) is something like $40k+ for each citizen in the country. That's misleading - when we look at that number for each taxpayer that's currently funding the government, it goes up to something like $140k each. That's a liability that's in addition to their credit cards and mortgage and their retirement savings and sending the kids to college, etc. Where does the purchasing power come from to do all of our personal things and THEN pay off the government debt over the next generations? I can't see it.

There's no doubt that quality of life is going to have to equalize some of this disparity, and it's hard to see how this trend will reverse or reduce in the short-term. One thing seems clear, however; regardless of your political persuasion, those budget numbers don't work.

I may not have made the case as well as I could, here, but those numbers aren't all that complicated. And there's only so much help that "growth" can give.

Administration pushes for higher taxes on the "rich"

I guess "rich" means different things to different people, but the Wall Street Journal has a story about how the new budget means new recommended tax rates on things at the federal level.

Let's see: politicians tax smoking because that reduces smoking, and they tax drinking because that reduces drinking.

How does that logic fit with taxing capital gains (or, for that matter, taxing individual estates)? Does that mean that we WANT investment to go down, as represented by the ever-present effort to increase taxes on those of us who try to invest?

Gingrich won't debate if media moderates

OK, I hate linking from MSNBC, but maybe they're onto something.

Mr. Gingrich hints that he won't participate in debates that are hosted by the mainstream media because of media bias. Can't blame him for that opinion, but it causes a little problem when you're hoping to be a candidate on the national ticket.

Last I checked, all presidential debates (not primary debates) were formal, media-moderated, no-applause or hooting & hollering events. All of them.

So if Newton becomes the nominee for the Republicans, he won't debate the sitting president. That should work out well.

Someone needs to sort that out before Speaker Gingrich gets much farther, I think

One more thing

If you haven't had a chance to see the IBM film "They Were There" you should take the opportunity. It's amazing.

It shows what having long-term stability can allow a company to do. A benefit of "monopoly"? Maybe.

More about Steve Jobs

Start here.

Don't forget to watch Pirates of Silicon Valley.

And the Stanford speech (link for text of the speech). You can see it here if you haven't.

Walter Isaacson (the guy who wrote the book) spoke at University of South Carolina in December. There's a link to a video of his presentation here. Fascinating.

He was a remarkable guy, and a jerk by the account of many. But sometimes it takes a jerk I guess.

Finally, here's a Forbes link that discusses Peggy Noonan's comparison of Jobs to Obama, but also talks about the life cycle of big companies. Really interesting.

If George is scared, I'm scared!

George Soros says we're on the edge of a class war in this country.

And he should know: he's been a silent sponsor of class warfare for years and years. Not just by supporting media groups such as NPR, either; he's brought down economies all by himself. Creating an national class war is probably like a walk in the park for him. A lite snack.

For those of you who are Tom Clancy fans, his latest book features a behind-the-scenes character (Lasko) who plays the same kind of games but gets tangled up with terrorists as well as political intrigue. No similarities, none.

If George says that riots and violence are coming, that must mean he's already made up his mind about it and gotten the word out. The only issue left is timing.

As with all things, we should seek out the folks who stand to gain by strife and the suffering of others to understand where their motives lie. George Soros gains when economies are in turmoil, either monetarily or politically. He's spent a lot of money to create an economy in this country that is much more favorable to his type of influence and control. He's spent a lifetime advocating a particular brand of free markets that aren't really free, but are instead controlled by cronies, so it isn't surprising to find that he's "worried" now.

I point this out to aspiring business leaders in order to illustrate how easily one's ethics can be compromised. It starts out as a few favors here and there, and before you know it there's an entire international network of influence, information and corruption ready to swing into action when politics doesn't go your way, or when you decide that chaos is good for your business.

I'm sure Mr. Soros would say that's he's working toward a better tomorrow for everyone.

Ok, so I have been neglecting the Blog...

Houston is best economy in Norf Merikuh! Who knew?

See the Chronicle.

Most of us here in TX take this for granted, but we are, indeed, the healthiest city in the healthiest state in the healthiest country in the world, economy-wise, with maybe only a few small, isolated exceptions such as Switzerland.