Working and hungry: a challenge to conservative dogma

In this morning’s (Sunday) NYT, the following article runs–

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?_r=1&hp

Full of pathos appeals, coupled with some interesting statistics, the article tracks increasing use of food stamps across the country.  In and of itself, that’s not terribly surprising.  In a difficult economy, people need help buying food.

What I found surprising and worth mulling over are a couple of facts–

1.  Growth in food stamp use is about the same in the 600 counties where it’s historically been highest, and the 600 counties where it’s historically been lowest.  That is, use of foodstamps is increasing rapidly in places where it hasn’t before.  The article isn’t terribly precise about this next point, but suggests a couple of times that the second batch of counties tend to more conservative than the first, which means that reliance on government support is (again) penetrating into places where conservative dogma says it shouldn’t.

2.  It’s not just poor people who are using food stamps.  The article makes very clear that working people and families at many levels of the economic hierarchy need support–job losses, housing bust, medical expenses, etc, are all contributing to hunger.  At the very least, the data challenges the conservative wisdom that only lazy people rely on government support.  Of course, anybody who’s paid a lick of attention for the last 30 years has known that’s crap, a fabrication of the Reagan campaign in order to fan poor white people’s indignation, while at the same time keeping them from doing much to help themselves.

3.  Notable are a couple of interviews with self-identified conservatives who are accepting government support for (what sounds like) the first time, although depending on how you define “government support,” you could argue that they’ve been accepting it their entire lives.  It’s good to see at least one of the interviewees acknowledge that food stamps aren’t just for poor, lazy people.  One of them says something like, “These are people I could be having lunch with.”  The classism of that aside, at least she recognizes something of value.  Somebody makes the point that poor people are often just as resistant to government aid as others, which was helpful to see.  But the one that really gets me is the guy who, with one hand reaches out to grab the money, and with the other slaps people who take it.  Hypocrite.  And the guy from the Heritage Foundation who (shockingly) pulls out the example of the person who lives in an expensive home and drives a Mercedez, and generalizes from her to the entire world.

If one person abusing a system were enough to call for the destruction of the system, then the Bush administration would be responsible for having smoked the Constitution; Blackwater’s rapes and murders in Iraq would be enough to destroy the US military.  And on and on.  The double-standard here is so Orwellian that it’s hard to address (thank you, John Birch, for legitimizing this kind of political discourse).

At the end of the day, what this article demonstrates is that everything conservatives say about government aid is wrong.  The system isn’t fraught with people abusing it–that’s nothing but a lie.  The system doesn’t enable laziness–it feeds working people who can’t feed themselves because our pro-corporate, anti-worker economic policies have utterly failed them.  Self-righteousness shouldn’t dictate accepting hunger as a condition of living in the wealthiest nation in the world. And conservatives who scream bloody murder about government support at the same time they accept it need to think a little harder about what they’re screaming.  I won’t argue, as some others do, that they should refuse to accept help.  It’s not the government’s job to decide who’s worthy of care based on how they exercise their First Amendment rights.  It is, however, deeply troubling that some of these folks really seem not to understand the problem here–that if they win their arguments at Tea Parties, the very support they rely on for survival will go away.

[Via http://sethkahn.wordpress.com]

A Unique Adventure

I’m a big fan of thrift store shopping.  The bargain-hunter in me is so pleased with the world when I leave a store having spent a total of $75 on clothes that, purchased retail, would’ve cost me ten times that amount.  The environmentalist feels good about not purchasing new things and about re-using the things that are already waiting for a good home.  The historian is fascinated by the past that thrifted clothes might once have inhabited and the people who, in that past, might have inhabited them.  And the consumer in me- the one I try to keep tamped down!- glories in the fact that I get to be a total greedy pants and not break the bank or my rules about financial and ethical limits.

To indulge our thrifting love, my roommates and I took our first big trip to Unique Thrift Store a few weeks ago.  Unique is famous in Chicago for its massive amounts of clothing, accessories, toys, furniture, and books.  It’s basically a one-stop thrifter’s heaven.  The Unique at 51st and Kedzie is particularly massive, and I ended up spending most of my time in the blazers and coats sections, with just a few minutes left over to wander around the skirts and dresses.  I took along my camera, so included are some photos of us playing in the store and of some of the pieces I acquired during our trip and the second one we took a week later (I know, it’s crazy, but we couldn’t resist, and this time our friend Katie China came along).  A number of my favorites have already shown up in recent posts because I couldn’t wait to wear them!

Among my most prized finds were a knee length suede BCBG coat for $8, a black wool overcoat with a fur collar (shown below) for $10, bottle green JCrew corduroys for $13.99, a red and black skit pencil skirt for $2.49, a Dooney and Bourke vintage satchel bag for $11.99, and a silk scarf by Coach for $1.99.

Kelli in leapord print faux-fur. I actually seriously contemplated getting this coat, but decided that being neither a stick figure nor a startlet in rehab meant it wasn't quite for me.

My love of Amelia Earhart continues with this mid-calf length leather and fur coat. Alas, it was too big!

Yes, it's a leapord-print turtleneck sweater dress. And yes, I love it. I've decided my prohibition of animal prints must end! And for $2.98, who can complain?

A faux-fur vest doesn't offend my non-meat eating self, and the price ($3) doesn't offend my wallet, either.

This skirt was $1.99 and I've already found five or six things I want to wear with it. Woohoo!

I'm straight Peggy Olson in this dress, but I wore it to school and not to the offices of Sterling-Cooper.

One of my favorite purchases- a vintage floral bag in orange, cream, and gold. It looks like the couch of someone's very cool grandmother. And it only cost $2!

White and gold clutch ($2.99), Dooney and Bourke mini-satchel (a steal, I think, at $11.99)

Blue and White Striped Sweater, $2.99

Black wool overcoat with fur collar, $10

Red and black knit pencil skirt (or if fits like a pencil on me, anyway!): $2.49.

[Via http://sartoriography.wordpress.com]

New Labour should resign NOW

The crisis affecting the UK is becoming too serious for Gordon Brown to keep trying to justify himself by trying to fix the problems he has caused.

The facts are clear. Brown and Blair inherited a fantastic economy. The term ‘golden inheritance’ has been used for years to refer to the sound economic economy that New Labour inherited from the Conservatives.

But the UK is now close to bankruptcy. Our economy is sinking fast. The fear is growing by the day that we will need to call in the IMF.

The UK is rapidly going the way of Iceland!!

Question: Who is to blame?

Answer: Gordon Brown and New Labour.

But the whole situation is being made worse by this failed government hanging on to power for the next six months.

If they had any care for the UK then they would resign now!

We need a government that is competent enough to get us out of recession and we need it in place now!

[Via http://itsmyview.me.uk]

Is The GOP Ready To Step Up?

Does The Republican Leadership Have Conservative Values?

The largest voting bloc in America today is the Independents. America today doesn’t want Democrat light or RINO’s. Over 40% of Americans consider themselves conservative. Does the republican leadership have conservative values?continued…

Also join us at MomsAndDadsBeHeard.org a new forum for you to express your views and concerns.

[Via http://conservativeamerica2009.wordpress.com]

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OC man gives 10,000 to South LA church

November 20, 2009 |  4:02 pm Los Angeles Times-Ruben Vives

An Orange County businessman donated $10,000 today to Pilgrim Community Church in South Los Angeles, where gusty winds blew a 90-foot pine tree onto the roof of the small church, destroying the building.

The donation was delivered about 11 a.m. by Pastor Matt Olthoff of the Mariners Church in Newport Beach. A church member made the donation but requested anonymity, Olthoff said.

Pilgrim church member Lorraine Cook-Curry, whose grandfather the Rev. Henry Cook founded the small, white church, accepted the money.

Some great news!

[Via http://covenantlifechristianchurchyas.wordpress.com]

'cereal republics'

You remember the Banana Republics? The original being Honduras?

Well, now there are Cereal Republics…

From Food First:

Ethiopia’s recent history is punctuated by famine. Severe droughts, on-going conflicts and stagnating agricultural growth have been reproducing widespread food insecurities for decades. Compounded by cereal prices doubling over the last year, many people are struggling to meet even their most basic food needs. Concurrently the World Food Programme has had to reduce emergency food rations due to the high global food prices. Right now, at least 6.2 million people in Ethiopia are seriously threatened by hunger and malnutrition, and require urgent food assistance.

At the same time Esaya Kebede, Director of the Ethiopian Agricultural Investment Agency, revealed that the Ethiopian government has so far designated a total of 3 million hectares of agricultural land, an area around the size of Belgium, to be leased to incoming foreign investors. For a country on the constant brink of famine, this is a perplexing move. What is behind such massive land giveaways?

The land deals are part of a wider global trend, dubbed by many as neo-colonial land grabs. Shocked by the price spikes and distribution bottlenecks during the global food price crisis, wealthy food-importing countries from the Middle-East, India and China are scrambling to buy up enormous tracts of arable land on the African continent in order to long-distance farm for their own domestic markets. Similar to the Central American banana republics of the early twentieth century, foreign agri-businesses are working in close collaboration with their own governments to establish enormous agricultural plantations in African countries. Exploitative labor conditions, peasant land dispossessions and environmentally destructive industrial farming methods spring to mind. The only difference is that the target crops now are not cash crops like bananas, rubber or cocoa, but basic food staples, such as wheat, maize, barley and rice. Are we facing the emergence of neo-colonial ‘cereal republics’ throughout the developing world?

Read the article in full here

[Via http://greenresistance.wordpress.com]

Campaign Promises

Unequivocal campaign promises are useful in an election campaign, but usually nuisances once elected. In 1988 President George H. B. Bush clearly announced, “Read my lips. No new taxes.” After being pressured by a Democratic Congress while trying to garner support for the first Gulf War, Bush acquiesced on taxes. Never mind that Democrats wanted to increase taxes, they were able to effectively bludgeon Bush with his inability to keep a clear promise. It is rhetorically difficult to go back on a campaign promise.

President Barack Obama was not particularly consistent, but seems to have promised to “save or create” 3.5 million new jobs by 2011. Let’s engage in a little sentence parsing. We can assume that he is speaking about jobs created by the entire economy whole not just by the government, so he can claim jobs created in the private sector towards fulfilling the promise. Let us further assume that he is promising 3.5 million “net” jobs saved or created. If 3.5 million jobs are create, but 4 million lost, it would hardly be a boast that Obama would be proud of.

Unfortunately, the economy has been hemorrhaging net jobs, and its is getting less and less probable that 3.5 million net jobs will be created by 2011. However, he apparently hopes to use creative accounting to at least claim some job creation. Unfortunately, the recovery.gov web site where these jobs are documented as proved to be an inflated embarrassment. Sometimes, cost of living increases are counted as jobs created and in some other instances jobs were created in non-existent Congressional districts. Moreover, created jobs are counted but there is no opposite side of the ledger where jobs lost to government policies are counted.

At the beginning of the year, the Obama Administration promised that if the stimulus package were quickly passed, the unemployment rate would never rise above 8%. At last count, it was 10.2% and still on the increase. Given the ability to calculate and predict economic statistics, people are entitled to be very skeptical of the administrations computation of 650,000 jobs saved.

The figure below shows the total employment since last year in blue. Employment is clearly dropping systematically. The red line is what the administration claims the job level would have been without the stimulus package. The stimulus seem rather ineffectual in the face of falling employment thus far, even if taken at face value. At best, if you believe the Administration’s numbers and if you believe that, without evidence, that the 650,000 represents net jobs not one half of the ledger, the stimulus is only a 0.4% effect on total employment. This seems like a modest benefit for which we raised the deficit to GDP ratio to the highest it has been since the World War II era.

It is understandable that Obama wishes not to be saddled with an unkept campaign promise. But it is preferable and perhaps even better political strategy to not be ridiculed for ludicrous claims or dishonesty than to face problems square on. The electorate can deal more effectively with honest efforts that have failed than dishonesty and denial.

[Via http://fmonaldo.wordpress.com]

Hell In A Ham Casket, a short story by Corby Anderson

On a perfectly brisk November Thursday morning, I wheeled the awkward plastic garbage cans down the short slope of the driveway towards their arranged rendezvous site down on the Brookside Place curb. Grogged and yet unsure how to organize my latest sheath of free time, I paused to pick up a soggy, half-walloped firework mortar shell that lay in the gutter. The dead rocket was left over from a hasty street celebration upon my return to the coast from elk camp in the Rockies earlier in the week.

I was stooped over, considering the fate of black ants, the potency of blended charcoal, potassium, and sulfer, and the design of modern sewage transport systems when I heard a voice cackling at me from across the street. It was the unmistakable patter of my neighbor, Tex, and like a supersonic jet, as soon as I heard his voice to the rear, I looked up and he was standing right next to me.

“That’s a neat trick,” I said, my mind still bogged down in a pastiche of minutia.

“Trick? Hell! This aint no time for tricks!” he urged in his trademark drawl. Tex is appropriately named. He hails from somewhere called Guerne, Texas. This I know from an oversized bumper sticker which takes up the majority of his already elongated bumper whose sole purpose, other than to serve as a ladder rung to the precipitous roof cage atop the Suburban, protects his 44” mud tires and impressive array of suspension components from the offending intrusion of a slow-braking sedan.

“No? I asked, half-sincerely. “Well, shoot, Tex. What’s on your mind?”

“Huh?” he asked distractedly. He now stared transfixed on the exploded ordinance that sat harmless in my hand.

“Jesus, I thought that I was the space cadet! What’s got you so…so.. stealthily mobile today?

“Oh! What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the shell.

“Mortar canister. I believe it is officially called a Class A Multi-Break Shell.”

“Class A? Where’d ya get that?”

“Indians. Out near Vegas they sell all sorts of goodies like this. Moapa’s. You can bet craps, get duty free liquor, discount smokes, and explosives – everything from Black Panthers to Stingers.”

I turned to go back to the house, but Tex stopped me with a mumble and a shift in his eyes. Something was amiss. Usually he is at work by this time. It is rare that anyone other than myself, the fat shut-in’s down by the mailbox, or the old black lady down the street are out on Brookside past 9 am, and I think that the emphasema finally took her a few months back.

“Alright buddy. What’s got you all in an uproar today?”

“Goldamn Rusty, I thought that you’d never ask!” he almost shouted, regaining his wits. He scratched his thick jaw. It has been at least three days since he shaved. I know because I typically see him on Fridays, when he starts letting his corporation face go to seed, and Mondays, when he’s back to toeing the line. “It’s everything really…A regular smores-board of crap’s been buggin’ me. Got so bad I had to call in sick today just to sort it all out. Wanna beer?”

I considered his offer and then thought better of it. “Can’t. Gotta get some work done. And besides, it’s not even 10 o’clock!” I replied. Tex happily nodded and pulled two cans of Coors Light out of the front pocket of his hooded sweatshirt, offering me one with a steady hand. “Well, I suppose that one cant hurt,” I smiled. Besides, it’s Thursday! What the hell…”

He cracked the seals on the cans and handed me a beer. The first sip held within its tiny golden bubbles the sudden, energetic kick of a whole pot of coffee.

“There’s nothing quite like that first taste of beer in the morning,” he said.

“Steinbeck said that,” I said, surprised at Tex’s literary nod. ‘Well…Ed Ricketts said it. Steinbeck wrote it. Hell, who knows though. Maybe Steinbeck made it all up anyways…” I continued.

Tex got still for a second as he downed his beer. He drank the whole thing in one great chug, then went over to my recycling can and dropped the can in on top of the rest of the boxes, plastic bits and dead soldiers. As he did so, he reached deep into his cargo pants and pulled out several wads of paper, which he quickly shoved into my trash bin. I saw this and cocked my head a bit, but Tex just waved me off. “Old bills and whatnot. Idda put ‘em in my own can, but the driver already took our trash,” he grinned.

“Oh yeah?” I questioned, how is that? Same guy takes both our trash…”

“Never mind all of that, Rusty. It’s not important. Now, I know that you’ve got this trial hanging over your head and all…”

“It’s over. And it’s not like it was me on trial, I was a juror. I just had to sit there and look like I was paying attention,” I interjected.

“Right, well as I was saying. There’s just so much going on out there in the world. It’s got me…say, you said it was over?”

“Yep.”

“What the hell happened? Thought that was supposed to take a week?”

‘Well, the DA couldn’t prove that his guy got beat up, and so we acquitted the other guy. No evidence.”

“It was a fight?”

“I guess.”

“Over a chick? Its always over a chick. Least that’s what started every brawl I ever got into!” he said.

“Well, no. This one was about a dog. Anderson Cooper was the dogs name. They called him AC.”

“Anderson Cooper? Like the news guy?”

“Yep.”

“What a thing to name your dog! Why not Marlboro, or Tank, or Dingo or something?”

“I don’t think it was that kind of dog. And these weren’t those kind of guys.”

“Well, what happened?”

I shuffeled in my spot. The cold concrete was starting to seep through the thin layer of rubber of my old, worn flip flops. “Don’t you have a crisis to worry about? Something that you wanted to discuss?” I asked. I would have been tempted to go inside and work, but I had nothing desperate for me to work on. As a writer, there are times in life where I have to accept that conversations like these are my work.

“Yeah…but hell, yours sounds more interesting right now. I’ve never been in a trial. Every time I get jury duty, they cancel the trial before I even have to go to court,” he said proudly.

“Nice. Not my luck this time.”

“So what happened. Who punched who?”

“Well, that’s just the nut. There was no punch, at least as far as we could tell. It was two guys – both queers, ex-boyfriends – who were wrestling over the dog, and the one guy – they were both named Steve, as it turns out, said his ex punched and scratched him to get the dog away from him. Then he said that he was on methamphetamines at the time, that the guy he accused was a chronic liar…all kinds of stuff.”

“Only in California.”

“Yep.” I looked down the street, and about a hundred yards towards the coast an extremely large man dressed in a dingy looking red velvet sweat suit waddled shyly out to the curb with a letter in this teeth. He looked transparent, like he hadn’t seen the sun in a month or more. I wondered why he had the letter in his teeth, until he angled towards Tex and I and I could see that he was using both of his short arms to save his pants from the whim of gravity. “…turns out Steve the alleged beatee was a major exaggerator. I hesitate to use the word drama queen, but there is really no other way to describe him. And he was actually dog-napping AC in the first place. It was a real mess…”

Tex fished around in the ass pocket of his pants and pulled out a shiny silver flask. The flask had a black leather piece stretched across the middle, with the words “PROPERTY OF TEX” stamped in. “Burbin?”

I shook off his offer, reaching into my own pants, producing a half-charred joint. “I’ll take it slow, if you don’t mind. Go right ahead though,” I said, shielding the lighter from the constant coastal breeze. It had picked up in just the short time that I had been out since taking the cans to the curb. Out at sea, there was a big winter storm marching in, or at least that’s what they said last night. By the looks of it, the angry beast that they had predicted for this afternoon was starting to sharpen its fangs. I hoped that it would bring some rain. It don’t feel like November unless the weather kicks your ass a little.

Tex unscrewed the cap and braced himself with the liquor, and in one smooth motion took the joint from my fingers. He double hit the malformed cigarette, drawing a startling cloud of smoke out of it’s tiny furnace and down into his lungs, and then back out of his lungs and into the atmosphere in a series of choking coughs that doubled my neighbor over at the waist.

“Careful there buddy. Your libel to call in some Elephant Seals over the dune with that cough. I don’t think I could save you from a horny bull seal with just this joint.” He continued coughing, now confused and exacerbated with equal doses of laughter. He rattled on and I kept up the warnings. “Yeah! I hear that when they get aroused, they can outrun a quarter horse in a sprint, you know.” Tex kept laughing and coughing. It sounded like he was trying to say something. Every time that I thought that he was pulling it together, he would look up the street towards the dune and start into another fit. Occasionally he pointed while he laughed. “Those bulls will have a field day with your wrecked ass. Get it together or we’re both fucked!” I said. Now he stomped his foot on the pavement like some hillbilly at a contra dance. He glanced over my shoulder and his red eyes grew exponentially as he returned to hysterics.

“HEY!” Came a nearby voice, gasping and warbling through the atmosphere as if in a marathonian struggle. “You two are smoking cannibas reefers!”

TO BE CONTINUED…

[Via http://corbyanderson.wordpress.com]

Senator Mary "I can be Bribed" Landrieu

BRIBE [brahyb] noun, verb, bribed, brib-ing

-noun

1. money or any other valuable consideration given or promised with a view to corrupting the behavior of a person, esp. in that person’s performance as an athlete, public official, etc.: The president offered the senator a $100 million bribe she could use to buy votes in her state if she would vote for the health care bill.
2. anything given or serving to persuade or induce: The senator was given $100 million as a bribe to vote for the health care bill.

Senator Landrieu,

You may not realize that at this point in history you can’t continue the corrupt liberal and democrat way of playing politics without severe consequences to the country and to yourself.

America is on the edge of the abyss.  Our financial system is in ruin, our dollar is worthless, nations around the world are dumping the dollar, and the nations to which we are debtors are beginning to balk at buying more of our debt.

We simply do not have the money to spend on this health care bill.  Should it pass, it will seal our fate, and nail the coffin shut on America.  We will be in a depression.

Anarchy and chaos will result, and no one, including you, will be unaffected.

Americans know what you are doing to them, and they will remember.

When enough Americans have their freedom, liberty, and way of life stripped from them, don’t think for a moment they won’t remember who stripped it from them, and don’t think for a moment they’ll allow you to continue to live in the crystal palace on the hill while they suffer.

Will you serve yourself and the democrats, or will you serve America and your constituents?

Choose now whom you will serve.

[Via http://texan2driver.wordpress.com]

Hacked Emails Fuel Global Warming Debate & The NWO's Conspiracy

Kim Zetter / Wired – November 20, 2009

An online debate over global warming science has broken out after an unknown hacker broke into the e-mail server at a prominent, British climate-research center, stole more than a thousand e-mails about global warming research and posted them online.

Global warming skeptics are seizing on portions of the messages as evidence that scientists are colluding and warping data to fit the theory of global warming, but researchers say the e-mails are being taken out of context and just show scientists engaged in frank discussion.

The Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia is one of the United Kingdom’s leading climate research centers and has been a strong proponent of the position that global warming is real and has human causes. The center confirmed the hack occurred in an e-mail statement to Threat Level.

“We are aware that information from a server in one area of the university has been made available on public websites,” the statement read. “We are extremely concerned that personal information about individuals may have been compromised. Because of the volume of this information we cannot currently confirm what proportion of this material is genuine.”

The stolen cache includes more than 1,000 e-mails and more than 3,000 documents, some containing code. They were posted anonymously to an FTP server in Russia. The hacker then posted a link to the 61-MB file of data on the blog Air Vent.

The hacker’s message that accompanied the link read: “We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code and documents.”

The e-mails, which cover a decade of correspondence, are getting a lot of attention among bloggers who point to statements in them that they say suggest the scientists colluded and manipulated data to support their global warming viewpoints. The bloggers highlight a statement in one 1999 e-mail from Phil Jones, director of the research center:

The Tonka Report Editor’s Note: BUSTED! – SJH 

Link to entire article below…

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/climate-hack

A bipartisan push is needed to tame ballooning national debt

Evan Bayh
Special to CNN

America’s national debt cannot grow beyond a limit imposed by Congress known as the “debt ceiling.”

In 1919, just after World War I, the limit on U.S. borrowing was $43 billion.

By 2001, it had grown to $5.9 trillion.

Today, the debt ceiling is at an all-time high of $12.1 trillion.

When President George W. Bush took office in 2001, our public debt amounted to 33 percent of our economy. Today, it is 60 percent of our gross domestic product. If we do nothing, our debt is projected to swell to over 70 percent by 2019.

To put those numbers in perspective: If you divided the debt equally among all Americans, every man, woman and child living in the United States today would owe more than $39,000.

Keep Reading…

Homeco. Ĉu estas aplikaĵo por tio? (Humanity. Is there an app for that?)

The following article is in Esperanto.  If you don’t know Esperanto, but would like to know what the article says, you can copy and past it at http://traduku.net/ .  Then click the EO ➔ EN button.  It isn’t a perfect translation, but it will let you sus out the meaning.

Vivas ni dum interesaj tempoj, en la ĉina senco.  Ĉiutage legas mi, ke la tutmonda ekonomio aĉas.   Kial?  Oni povas kulpigi aŭ liberalismon aŭ konservatismon aŭ tutmondan varmigon aŭ la benzinomilitojn ktp.  Tamen, estas memklare ke ni usonanoj daŭras sendi la monon al Ĉinio, tiam prunteprenas ĝin por fari militon kontraŭ homoj, kiuj uzas religion por batali nin.

Kial ni sendas la monon al Ĉinio?  Ĉar ni haltis esti nacio de senripozaj produktantoj kaj iĝis nacio de sobraj konsumantoj.  La nuntempa esenco de ĉi tiu estas spegulita en la debato temante “aŭ iPhone aŭ Droid?”

Ĉu vi kredas vere, ke tiuj uzaĵoj kaŭzus, ke vi estu pliproduktema?   Kial?  Ĉu vi ne nun estas produktema?  Ĉu via nuntempa poŝtelefono ne bone funkcias?  Kial vi postulas novan?  Eble vi kredas, ke por plibonigi la ekonomio, vi devas have plian ŝuldon.

Ĉu la iPhone kaǔzus, ke vi estu plibona homo?  Ĉu estas aplikaĵo por tio?

Aliflanke, mi aŭdas per la radio reklamojn por pezperdadaj mirakloj, sekretoj por gajni junecon kaj belecon, planoj por rapide gajni riĉecon, metodoj por facile lerni lingvojn, kaj aliaj neeblaĵoj.  Versajnas, ke homoj intencas preni nian monon kaj doni preskaŭ nenion.

Faru liston.  Dek Metodoj por iĝi plibonan homon.  Vetos mi, ke tiu listo ne enhavos la erojn, “Aĉetu ilon Droid” aŭ “plijuniĝu” aŭ “vendu nenion por multe da mono.”

La nuntempa tutmonda ekonomio funkcias per fumo kaj speguloj, kaj tio helpas nur malmutle da homoj.  Kio okazos kiam la fumo iras for?

 

 

WSJ : Too big to fail as national policy?

The Wall Street Journal has a nice piece on how the Dodd and Frank bills would efficiently put the US economy in a perpetual state of TARP payments. Or, in other words – too big to fail as a national policy. How can people say with a straight face that Wall Street isn’t running the US government when they are soon to have pushed through legislation that bans the largest players from going bankrupt?? FDIC will not only cover deposits, it will cover everything. The US government will insure the entire US economy.

….want to care to guess what this will do, besides the moral hazard problem? The US government will BE the entire US economy.

When trying to get my mind around this, I can come up with no conclusion besides this one : It’s fucked. Completely.

The US economy is going to look like that of a 3rd world country within a decade. This is the toilet-shaped recovery.

The Springfield Job Outlook 2 - military, healthcare + IT

Let me talk about six major shifts of job growth, demand, and “security” that I think the data in the PowerPoint and links in the first Springfield Job Outlook post presented.  Here are the first three that I see.

Manufacturing –> Military

I did a separate post on the changes with BRAC to the Dayton/Springfield region (http://bit.ly/sebrac).  10,000 new jobs in the military, while manufacturing, whose jobs declined in number 46/47% (around 7,000) for Springfield (more than any other metro in Ohio), looks to continue that trend both in Ohio (17.7% decline projected) and in the Dayton area (24.6% decline projected) through 2016.  No, manufacturing is not dead, and indeed, I work with manufacturers that are growing, but there is more than enough current workforce to meet the demand.  Manufacturing nationally is expected to decline by 10.6%.  In Ohio, the decline is projected higher, at 17.7%.  Some industries that are expected to lose more than 25% include iron and steel mills (40% decline projected), rubber products, metals, foundries, motor vehicle parts, household appliances, and glass.  Total manufacturing job losses predicted for Ohio by 2016 =  140,000.

Doctors –> Healthcare

I remember when being a doctor was one of the most prized professions, but today the stress in job growth is not on MDs, but on a wide variety of areas in the very broad area of healthcare, including personal and home care aides (increasing 40%), home health aids (increasing 37%), medical assistants (increasing 30%), mental health + substance abuse social work (27%), occupational therapist assistants (27%), physical therapy assistants (27%), pharmacy technicians (26%), physician assistants (25%), cardiovascular technologists and technicians (25%), dental hygenists (24%), substance abuse counselors (23%), dental assistants (22%), mentaal health counselors (22%), and respiratory therapists (22%).  Don’t forget vet technologists + technicians (42% increase), vets (39%), and vet assistants and lab animal caretakers (22%).  These percentage increases are all for the Dayton MSA.  In fact, of the 30 fastest growing occupations in the Dayton MSA (2006-2016), more than half (17) are healthcare related.  For Ohio as a whole, the same is also true: “Of the 10 industries that are projected to have a large number of new jobs and a growth rate of at least 25% over ten years, half are in the health service industry.”

International –> Information Technology

This one comes from my own personal experience.  When I was going to college in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the mantra of “learn a language” was omnipresent.  Knowing German or French, Russian, then later Japanese, then later Chinese was the way to go.  It would go with whatever you were doing and make you more marketable.  Well, the reality is that information technology had a similar popular appeal, but its demand has only increased.  If you look at strictly IT positions in Dayton’s top 30, the following are noteworthy: Network Systems & Data Communication Analyst (#1 with 53% growth); Computer Software Engineers and Application Designers (#2 with 43% growth); Database Administrators (26%).  Every profession benefits from strong IT skills as well.  What I am doing here is a great example.

>> 2016 Job Outlook – Dayton MSA (.pdf)

>> 2016 Job Outlook – Ohio (.pdf)

>> Career Opportunities – Ohio (.pdf)

>> Buckeye Top 50 Jobs for the future (.pdf)

>> Employment Projections by Major Industry (.pdf)

>> Ohio LMI Site for projections

Mother Teresa.

We can do no great things – only small things with great love.

Born Agnes Gonxha Bojarhiu, Mother Teresa is revered for her lifelong dedication to the poor, most notably the destitute masses of India.

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.

Moved by utter poverty, suffering and misery of a large  number of people in India she decided to dedicate her whole life for the welfare of the poor and took Indian citizenship in 1948. Mother Teresa began her work by teaching street children. Her selfless commitment to helping the poor saved the lives of nearly 8,000 people in Calcutta alone. Mother Teresa’s compassion and devotion to the destitute earned her the Nobel Prize in 1979.

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Joy is a net by which you catch souls.

Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.

To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

True holiness consist in doing God’s will with a smile.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is a beauty, admire it. Life is a bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a dutu, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is a sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious,  do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.

The World Will Go Full Circle With Or Without You Are You Prepared And Focused On A Better Life

One Must Believe In What One Can Do And Only One Can Make The Choices That Could Change Our Lives Forever

Make a difference in your life go and at least take the time to look at this website over it will be the best few minutes of your life.

 I’ve often been asked what makes one person succeed, get rich,

and live a good life, while another person with the same knowledge

and information gets nowhere… Or takes forever. Go here and take a look that is all I ask take a look and leave me your comments.

http://www.tviexpress.com/santini1

What is life people that is a question I get asked every day and what I say life is what you  as an individual. Life and choices are what we make but the choices we make is what will make the person . Life bring challenges into our lives because of the choices we make daily. Sometimes we can make some awful choices and then the consequences that come next are but the aftermath of the previous choices we made. I tell people that one must take a look at what and who we are really closely and control our thoughts and not let our thoughts control us.

From The New York Times; Here some important news on the cost of health reform.

Editorial

Reform and Medical Costs

Americans are deeply concerned about the relentless rise in health care costs and health insurance premiums. They need to know if reform will help solve the problem. The answer is that no one has an easy fix for rising medical costs. The fundamental fix — reshaping how care is delivered and how doctors are paid in a wasteful, dysfunctional system — is likely to be achieved only through trial and error and incremental gains.

The good news is that the bill just approved by the House and a bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee would implement or test many reforms that should help slow the rise in medical costs over the long term. As a report in The New England Journal of Medicine concluded, “Pretty much every proposed innovation found in the health policy literature these days is encapsulated in these measures.”

Medical spending, which typically rises faster than wages and the overall economy, is propelled by two things: the high prices charged for medical services in this country and the volume of unnecessary care delivered by doctors and hospitals, which often perform a lot more tests and treatments than a patient really needs.

Here are some of the important proposals in the House and Senate bills to try to address those problems, and why it is hard to know how well they will work:

FORCED PRODUCTIVITY GAINS Both bills would reduce the rate of growth in annual Medicare payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other providers by amounts comparable to the productivity savings routinely made in other industries with the help of new technologies and new ways to organize work. This proposal could save Medicare more than $100 billion over the next decade. If private plans demanded similar productivity savings from providers, and refused to let providers shift additional costs to them, the savings could be much larger.

Critics say Congress will give in to lobbyists and let inefficient providers off the hook. That is far less likely to happen if Congress also adopts strong “pay-go” rules requiring that any increase in payments to providers be offset by new taxes or budget cuts.

CADILLAC COVERAGE The Senate Finance bill would impose an excise tax on health insurance plans that cost more than $8,000 for an individual or $21,000 for a family. It would most likely cause insurers to redesign plans to fall beneath the threshold. Enrollees would have to pay more money for many services out of their own pockets, and that would encourage them to think twice about whether an expensive or redundant test was worth it. Economists project that most employers would shift money from expensive health benefits into wages. The House bill has no similar tax. The final legislation should.

SIMPLIFIED FORMS Any doctor who has wrestled with multiple forms from different insurers, or patients who have tried to understand their own parade of statements, know that simplification ought to save money. When the health insurance industry was still cooperating in reform efforts, its trade group offered to provide standardized forms for automated processing. It estimated that step would save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. The bills would lock that pledge into law.

ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS The stimulus package provided money to convert the inefficient, paper-driven medical system to electronic records that can be easily viewed and transmitted. This requires upfront investments to help doctors convert. In time it should help restrain costs by eliminating redundant tests, preventing drug interactions, and helping doctors find the best treatments.

REFORM OF THE DELIVERY SYSTEM Virtually all experts agree that the fee-for-service system — doctors are rewarded for the quantity of care rather than its quality or effectiveness — is a primary reason that the cost of care is so high. Most agree that the solution is to push doctors to accept fixed payments to care for a particular illness or for a patient’s needs over a year. No one knows how to make that happen quickly.

The bills in both houses would start pilot projects within Medicare. They include such measures as accountable care organizations to take charge of a patient’s needs with an eye on both cost and quality, and chronic disease management to make sure the seriously ill, who are responsible for the bulk of all health care costs, are treated properly. For the most part, these experiments rely on incentive payments to get doctors to try them.

INDEPENDENT COMMISSION Testing innovations do no good unless the good experiments are identified and expanded and the bad ones are dropped. The Senate bill would create an independent commission to monitor the pilot programs and recommend changes in Medicare’s payment policies to prod providers to adopt reforms that work. The changes would have to be approved or rejected as a whole by Congress, making it hard for narrow- interest lobbies to bend lawmakers to their will.

MANAGED COMPETITION The bills in both chambers would create health insurance exchanges on which small businesses and individuals could choose from an array of private plans and possibly a public option. All the plans would have to provide standard benefit packages that would be easy to compare. To get access to millions of new customers, insurers would have a strong incentive to sell on the exchange. And the head-to-head competition might give them a strong incentive to lower their prices, perhaps by accepting slimmer profit margins or demanding better deals from providers.

A PUBLIC PLAN The final legislation might throw a public plan into the competition, but thanks to the fierce opposition of the insurance industry and Republican critics, it might not save much money. The one in the House bill would have to negotiate rates with providers, rather than using Medicare rates, as many reformers wanted.

COMPARING TREATMENTS The president’s stimulus package is pumping money into research to compare how well various treatments work. Is surgery, radiation or careful monitoring best for prostate cancer? Is the latest and most expensive cholesterol-lowering drug any better than its generic competitors? The pending bills would spend additional money to accelerate this effort.

Critics have charged that this sensible idea would lead to rationing of care. (That would be true only if you believed that patients should have an unbridled right to treatments proven to be inferior.) As a result, the bills do not require, as they should, that the results of these studies be used to set payment rates in Medicare.

Congress needs to find the courage to allow Medicare to pay preferentially for treatments proven to be superior. Sometimes the best treatment might be the most expensive. But over all, we suspect that spending would come down through elimination of a lot of unnecessary or even dangerous tests and treatments.

NEGOTIATING DRUG PRICES The House bill would authorize the secretary of health and human services to negotiate drug prices in Medicare and Medicaid. Some authoritative analysts doubt that the secretary would get better deals than private insurers already get. We believe negotiation could work. It does in other countries.

MALPRACTICE REFORM Missing from these bills is any serious attempt to rein in malpractice costs. (Trial lawyers, major supporters of the Democratic Party, have seen to that.) Malpractice awards do drive up insurance premiums for doctors in high-risk specialties, and there is some evidence that doctors engage in “defensive medicine” by performing tests and treatments primarily to prove they are not negligent should they get sued.

Patients who are injured because of a doctor’s or a hospital’s negligence must have recourse. We favor reforms that would try to compensate injured people fairly and promptly — perhaps through mediation or expert tribunals — but would not prevent them from filing suit as a last resort or cap the awards they could receive. Even then, the savings might be modest. Doctors mostly perform high-cost tests because they want to help their patients and get paid handsomely for doing so.

Republican critics say, correctly, that the health care bills would saddle the government with large new costs to cover the uninsured by expanding Medicaid and providing subsidies to help low- and middle-income people buy insurance. And they say, incorrectly, that the effort should not move ahead until a sure-fire way is found to rein in rising health care costs.

Their arguments overlook the fact that the government is already paying many of these costs, through special payments to hospitals, each time a person without insurance, and with no means to pay, goes to an expensive emergency room for treatment. It also overlooks the fact that both bills are designed to keep deficits from increasing over the next decade or two.

It would be unfair, and unnecessary, to leave tens of millions of people uninsured while we wait to figure out ways to hold down the rise in health care costs.

This editorial is a part of a continuing series by The Times that is providing a comprehensive examination of the policy challenges and politics behind the debate over health care reform.

Go here and take a look that is all I ask take a look and leave me your comments.

http://www.tviexpress.com/santini1

A thought is an actual physical thing – a tangible energy – and every thought, every intention, every judgment has the power to take physical form. As you set forth positive intentions, you focus Energy and magnetize the circumstances that will bring about the reality you desire. As you focus your thoughts intentionally, you are in creative control of your life. The process of setting intentions is a powerful way to design and create your life in exact accord with your desires.

Science is providing evidence of the miraculous power you have to consciously create your life with your thoughts. As you employ the Magic of Intention, focusing on what you do want rather than what you don’t want, you powerfully focus the Energy to magnetize into your life all that you desire. So, think big – knowing there is nothing you cannot be or do or have – and direct your life with the Magic of Intention.

Discover The Greatest Secrets Of The Mind And Reality That Will Get You Anything You Desire, Almost Like Magic! If you want to FINALLY experience the COMPLETE Manifestation of All the Miracles, Success, Wealth, Health, Love and Happiness that you have always dreamed of… then register as member of Mind Reality now!

Go here now to discover how to become a Mind Reality Member:
==> http://www.MindReality.com/specialoffer.html

Visualization: The Secret Key  From Evolution Ezine

You have within you an amazing power that can bring  about miraculous outcomes. The power that you have has been known to cure incurable diseases, build billion dollar empires, paint masterpieces, create great sports dynasties, and build lifestyles with abundance, great friends and loving families.

The light switch that turns all this power on is visualization. We all use visualization either consciously or unconsciously. The people who systematically and consciously use visualization in their daily lives create amazing success. While many successes are more wonderful than big, some accomplishments are so great the individuals with the vision seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of us. They are the super athletes like Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods, businessmen like Walt Disney, the super rich, top entertainers and almost anyone you can think of who has created an exceptional life. Visualization is such a powerful tool it really pays to exercise the skill to visualize as part of our daily routine.

Visualization is a process of giving directions to the unconscious mind. It is estimated that 90 percent of our minds are unconscious. When we visualize we say to the unconscious “Here is what I want to happen”. The unconscious then sends back to our consciousness ideas and inspirations necessary to make our instructions a reality.

It seems like magic, when your visualization, like prayer, activates the Law Of Attraction. In totally unexplained, seemingly accidental, or coincidental ways you attract the right situation, people, and any needed resources. Most really successful people will tell you they worked hard but they were very lucky or fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

How do you get started?

You can just start where you are, but first let’s look at some do’s and do not’s.  Visualization of your dreams should be fun and never a chore. It should not be a routine or emotionally bland. This is a feeling universe, and the more emotion you can put into the experience the better. It is a very a light hearted, peaceful and happy exercise. After all it is your dream and you can make it whatever you like. Remember the more you practice the easier it gets.

Keep in mind that visualization is very powerful and you should never visualize what you do not want, because you will get whatever you focus on: good or bad.

While you are visualizing your dreams keep it light and playful. Practice using all your emotions during each session. As you run your mind movie, just jump into it and be there in the present as you feel the breeze or temperature, smell the flowers or salty air, hear the sounds, feel the warm sun, see the people enjoying themselves etc. etc.

The reason I get excited about this topic has everything to do with living because of it. I am going to share with you an example of how visualization worked in a real live health goal.

I had two usually fatal diseases and my goal was to get well. My guide asked me to imagine what my problem looked like. (If you have a health problem just let your imagination run wild, you might think you have a pac man character that is eating your problem or see sharks swimming in your bloodstreams and eating the bad stuff.)

At first I just couldn’t see what my problems look like. Then it just came to me that I had been fighting a great, fire breathing, flying, dragon. Once I knew how it looked, I decided I needed a weapon to fight with. In my movie, I imagined a light saber from the star wars movie as my weapon. As I would start my visualization the dragon would swoop down and I would just leap on its back and imagine I had a harness holding me on. It would be a wild ride and sometimes the dragon would land on a mountain top and I would realize if I killed it there I would have a long walk home. It was usually wild fighting, serious but fun.

I could feel the wind when we flew and the heat when he breathed fire. Of course after a few fights I saw myself killing the dragon. It was an intense fight and killing the dragon gave me a real emotional charge and in my heart I just knew the diseases were gone and my body was now healing itself.

Visualizations after the kill involved friends and me raking the ground that was kicked up during the fight. This was my vision and after I killed the dragon I felt I needed to tell everyone that I had fought and won.

I bought toy dragons and cut their heads off and put them all over the house and everyone joined in and we all knew I had killed my dragon. Everyone in my family always pointed out the headless dragons to visitors.

Deciding what you want to visualize.

This process is not limited to getting healthy. It works on weight loss, finding your truth love, creating wealth, getting promoted, etc. Once you realize that whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve is really true, what you desire is at your fingertips.

Make a difference in your life go and at least take the time to look at this website over it will be the best few minutes of your life.

 I’ve often been asked what makes one person succeed, get rich,

and live a good life, while another person with the same knowledge

and information gets nowhere… Or takes forever. Go here and take a look that is all I ask take a look and leave me your comments.

http://www.tviexpress.com/santini1

Satisfaction with Lenders Declines

Customer satisfaction with their mortgage lender has declined as the time between between application and closing has increased, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 study of mortgage lender satisfaction.

Overall satisfaction among mortgage customers fell to 739 on a 1,000-point scale, down 18 points from 757 in 2008. The decline appeared to be a response to tighter underwriting standards and extended turnaround times.

The study found that the average time required to approve and close a loan has increased to nearly 47 days in 2009, compared with 30 days in 2008. The increased time is a reflection of tighter scrutiny and the rising volume of applications to refinance, lenders say. Borrowers also report that requests for increased documentation have increased from 33 percent of applicants to 45 percent.

Lenders with better-than-average customer satisfaction were:

BB&T (Branch Banking and Trust, 783 out of 1,000
Wachovia, 781
National City Mortgage, 769
SunTrust Mortgage, 769
Wells Fargo, 754
Flagstar Bank, 744
GMAC Mortgage, 744
Bank of America, 741

Source: J.D. Power (11/12/2009)

MediaMatters: Living a fantasy.

MediaMatters continues to deny the facts about the subprime crisis.

A November 13 Wall Street Journal op-ed claimed that loans made “under the pressure of” the Community Reinvestment Act helped to “fuel the greatest housing bubble our nation has ever seen.” The claim that affordable housing initiatives were responsible for the housing crisis is a widely discredited myth.

Widely discredited? By who?

Bernanke: Experience “runs counter to the charge that CRA was at the root of, or otherwise contributed in any substantive way to, the current mortgage difficulties.” In a November 25, 2008, letter, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke stated: “Our own experience with CRA over more than 30 years and recent analysis of available data, including data on subprime loan performance, runs counter to the charge that CRA was at the root of, or otherwise contributed in any substantive way to, the current mortgage difficulties.”

SF Reserve Bank’s Yellen: “[S]tudies have shown that the CRA has increased the volume of responsible lending to low- and moderate-income households.” Janet Yellen, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, stated in a March 2008 speech that “studies have shown that the CRA has increased the volume of responsible lending to low- and moderate-income households.”

Oh, liberals. Gotcha’.
So Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen comments constitute a widely discredited claim, apparently. A man who is trying to push trillions of inflated dollars out the door and a woman whose own speech contradicts MediaMatters assertions.

Perhaps the most notable change, however, is that in the last 25 years, consumer credit markets have shifted dramatically, moving from a credit rationing approach to a risk-based pricing system. In other words, today, far fewer applicants are denied credit—rather, they are offered credit at higher prices intended to reflect the greater risk posed by these loans. This shift, coupled with other innovations in the financial markets, has significantly increased access to credit, with both positive and negative effects.

On the positive side, expanded access to credit has greatly increased the ability of low- and moderate-income households of all races and ethnicities to become homeowners. None of us would want to turn back the clock to the days when the prospects of being approved for a loan were more limited in certain neighborhoods and for certain classes of borrowers. But, as has become apparent over the past year with the rise in mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, the risks associated with the changes in the consumer credit markets were greatly underestimated, and we are now grappling with the consequences.

I guess MediaMatters didn’t want people actually reading the speech which is the reason for the cropped quotes. maybe they were just hiding something….like the Democrats complete ignorance of all things concerning the subprime crisis.

BARNEY FRANK: “Those who argue that housing prices are now at a point of a bubble seem to me to be missing a very important point. Unlike previous examples we have had when substantial excessive inflation of prices later caused problems we are talking here about an entity, home ownership, homes where there is not the degree of leverage where we have seen elsewhere. This is not the dot-com situation. We had problems with people having invested in business plans of which there was no reality; people building fiber optic cables for which there was no need. Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level. But you’re not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble and so those of us on our committee in particular will continue to push for home ownership.”

OK, so that just proves Barney Frank is an idiot.

Nope…certainly there was nothing wrong with Fannie and Freddie buying billions in bad loans.

Neither Fannie nor Freddie has turned a profit in the past year, accumulating $14.9 billion in combined quarterly losses, largely related to bad subprime and Alt-A mortgage assets.

Yeah, got that MediaMatters? All this is directly tied to the CRA.

On top of that MediaMatters also ignores the fact that Obama and ACORN have repeatedly coerced banks to make bad loans as well and when the loans were defaulted on those same banks were accused of predatory lending.

Obama’s mendacity continues to amaze me in, among other things, his framing of the economic situation and sub-prime mortgage crisis as a failure of Republican policy, neglecting his own involvement as attorney for and subsequent association with ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now); the donations he received from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; and the sequelae of “affirmative action” credit initiatives by the Carter and Clinton administrations in context of the Community Reinvestment Act, forcing banks to “distribute risk more broadly” by extending high-risk loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers “who would not have gotten credit otherwise”

ACORN: While not all subprime loans are predatory, predatory lending is concentrated in the subprime loan market. There is a place for responsible subprime loans, where somewhat higher interest rates balance the genuinely higher risk of lending to borrowers with past credit problems. Today, however, too many subprime loans include abusive terms or conditions, too many have rates and fees much higher than can reasonably be justified by the credit records of the borrowers, and too many are going to borrowers who could and should qualify for loans at significantly lower rates. A Freddie Mac study suggested that about one third of the borrowers who have received subprime loans could have qualified for prime loans, while Fannie Mae Chairman Franklin Raines estimated that as many as half could have.

What about the rest of those subprime loans? I guess we are to assume they were clean legitimate loans to low risk people.

Sorry MediaMatters, but Edward Pinto’s article was right on target. The part MediaMatters edited out of their cropped quote:

The 1992 GSE Act was the fuse, and the trillions of dollars in subsequent CRA and GSE affordable-housing loans would fuel the greatest housing bubble our nation has ever seen. But who lit the fuse?

The previous year, as Allen Fishbein, currently an adviser for consumer policy at the Federal Reserve, has noted, Acorn and other community groups were informally deputized by then House Banking Chairman Henry Gonzalez to draft statutory language setting the law’s affordable-housing mandates. Interim goals were set at 30% of the single-family mortgages purchased by Fannie and Freddie, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has increased that percentage over time. The goal of the community groups was to force Fannie and Freddie to loosen their underwriting standards, in order to facilitate the purchase of loans made under the CRA.

Thus a provision was inserted into the law whereby Congress signaled to the GSEs that they should accept down payments of 5% or less, ignore impaired credit if the blot was over one year old, and otherwise loosen their lending guidelines.

The proposals of Acorn and other affordable-housing advocacy groups were acceptable to Fannie. Fannie had been planning to use the carrot of affordable-housing lending to maintain its hold over Congress and stave off its efforts to impose a strong safety and soundness regulator to oversee the company. (It was not until 2008 that a strong regulator was created for Fannie and Freddie. A little over a month later both GSEs were placed into conservatorship; they have requested a combined $112 billion in assistance from the federal government, and much more will be needed over the next few years.)

The result of loosened credit standards and a mandate to facilitate affordable-housing loans was a tsunami of high risk lending that sank the GSEs, overwhelmed the housing finance system, and caused an expected $1 trillion in mortgage loan losses by the GSEs, banks, and other investors and guarantors, and most tragically an expected 10 million or more home foreclosures.

As a result of congressional and regulatory actions, the percentage of conventional first mortgages (not guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration or the Veteran’s Administration) used to purchase a home with the borrower putting 5% or less down tripled from 9% in 1991 to 27% in 1995, eventually reaching 29% in 2007.

Fannie and Freddie acquired $1.2 trillion of loans from banks and other lenders from 1993 to 2007. This amounted to 62% of all such conventional home purchase loans with a down payment of 5% or less that were originated nationwide over the same period.

Fannie and Freddie also acquired $2.2 trillion in subprime loans and private securities backed by subprime loans from 1997 to 2007. Acorn and the other advocacy groups succeeded at getting Congress to mandate “innovative and flexible” lending practices such as higher debt ratios and creative definitions of income. And the serious delinquency rate on Fannie and Freddie’s $1.5 trillion in high-risk loans was 10.3% as of Sept. 30, 2009.

This is about seven times the delinquency rate on the GSEs’ traditional loans. Fifty percent of the high-risk loans are estimated to be CRA loans, with much of the remainder useful to the GSEs in meeting their affordable-housing goals.

I guess the actual facts and figures weren’t important enough to mention to your readers. All that was necessary was to continue the defense of the embattled ACORN. Priorities, people. Get your head out of Soros’ ass.

Current Conditions Dictate Lifestyle Changes For Many

According to a recent study by Ernst & Young LLP, nearly three out of five middle class retirees will outlive their financial assets. The report, conducted on behalf of Americans for Secure Retirement, found that of those who have only Social Security as a guaranteed retirement income, over 90 percent will outlive their financial assets. That’s a frightening statistic for Baby Boomers who are now beginning to retire.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, on average, American saved about 10 percent of their income. Beginning in the mid 1980s the saving rate began a slow decline that dipped into the negative by 2005. The 2006 savings rate continued the negative trend and produced back-to-back years of negative savings for the first time since the Great Depression. During this period, our standard of living has been soaring, but at what cost? Has this better lifestyle been the result of a growing economy or because we are spending money we used to save?

Spending more than one earns is like a farmer eating his seed corn. When planting season comes back around and he has nothing to plant, he has to turn to others for help. Today, more and more people and industries are turning to the government for help. The problem is, the only way government can help one person is to take from another. The more government takes from people who produce the less incentive they have to keep producing. It’s a vicious cycle where the more government helps, the more they have to take in order to do so.

This may sound a bit crass, but getting from birth to death has a cost to it. That’s a fact of life. What we spend today pays for the days from birth up until the present. It’s what we save and invest today that pays for the days from death back toward the present. When investments are sufficient to provide for the rest of your life, you can retire and not have to work and earn anymore. That doesn’t mean you can’t work if you want to, it just means that when you get up each morning, you get to choose what you will do and not be forced to do what someone else wants so you can earn a living. It’s called financial independence.

A recent story that was broadcast on ABC’s Good Morning America pointed out that on average; retiring Boomers are going to have to reduce their standard of living by at least 25 percent in order to keep from outliving their assets. When I heard that story, I couldn’t help but think about the impact the Baby Boom Generation has had on politics for the past thirty years. It brought back memories of President Gerald Ford saying, “A government big enough to do everything for you is big enough to take everything from you.” When Boomers start having to reduce their standard of living and workers begin feeling the bite the growing number of retirees will put on government, it may produce some significant and hard fought political changes.

As a nation, we have grown fat and lazy. An economy propped up with trillions of dollars of debt can only expand so much before it becomes top heavy and topples. Many factors are in play that could change the way we live forever. Real estate sales are in the tank, oil prices are soaring and the economy is growing increasingly sluggish. T. Boone Pickens is absolutely correct when he says we are seeing the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.

We send hard earned dollars to other countries to buy oil to make our lives more comfortable. The countries that sell us the oil get our hard earned dollars, but once we consume the oil, we are left with nothing but a craving for more. It’s a disaster looking for a place to happen. We have become a nation addicted to a standard of living we can’t support and we currently lack the will make changes unless they are forced upon us.

President Ford’s focus on long term economic growth was to put more resources toward saving and investments, the crux of long term growth, and less toward consumption. Congress didn’t allow that to happen. Consumption spending ballooned in both the private sector and government programs and gave us a false sense of economic prosperity. Now we are about to get a dose of reality. Unless we are willing to rein in consumption, become more frugal with our money and start planning for the future, we’re going to be in big trouble. As I said earlier, what we spend today pays for today. What we save and invest pays for tomorrow.

All signs point to tougher times ahead for the economy. The real estate crisis is far from over, government economic stimulus checks have done little other than add to the public debt and inflation is beginning to rear its ugly head. About the only good news, is bad news for many consumers, credit is becoming harder to obtain.

Here’s a tip! Unless you’re independently wealthy, you may want to start making some lifestyle adjustments. Look for little ways you trim expenses; eat out less, car pool, keep the house or apartment cooler, stay out of the stores unless you actually need something and then buy only what you need when you do go. Little cuts here and there can add up to a big saving. Whatever you do, don’t add to your credit card balances.

Current economic conditions will eventually improve, but until they do, don’t keep living like things are still booming. They aren’t! We are entering times when a little common sense and frugality can go a long way.

Original text from article for Asheville Citizen-Times, 31st week of 2008

Gold fragments discovered in Nesebar tombs

An excavation of a necropolis in the Bulgarian town of Nesebar has yielded particles of gold and a variety of household objects.The site has seen 650 artefacts from various periods found by archaeologists over the last year, with 950 tombs examined in total, Balkan Travellers reports.Experts said they have not yet dated the latest finds, but will do so after a thorough examination.Nesebar – which is located on the Black Sea – is over 3,000 years old and was originally a Thracian settlement before becoming a Greek colony.Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the town still features the remains of buildings from the Hellenistic period – including an acropolis and a temple of Apollo – and has minted gold coins since the third century BC loose diamonds.A wine vessel that dates back to the fourth century and features scenes from Greek mythology is the most valuable item found in Nesebar’s necropolis to date.

 

Gold fragments discovered in Nesebar tombs

8 fishermen arrested ,one trawler seized in national sentury

Rajesh Kumar Behera in Kendrapara, Orissa

Trawler seized and 8 fishermen arrested by forest officials for catching fish illegally inside the prohibited area of Gahirmath Marine Sanctuary The Bhitarkanika forest officials ,on Monday , arrested 8 fishermen and seized a mechanized fishingt vessel from their possession while they were catching fish illegally by entering unlawfully into the prohibited zone under Gahirmatha Marine sanctuary near Ekakaula,said P.K.Behera, the DFO of Bhitarkanika National Park. According to Behera ,While the forest officials were patrolling in the sea coast at Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary ,they found that ta fishing vessel was catching fish illegally by entering into the prohibited zone of the sanctuary. Later ,the forest officials intercepted the fishing trawler and arrested the fishermen. The arrested fishermen were the residence of Dhamara area and they used to eke out their livelihood by fishing in the Bay of Bengal. On Monday evening , the Bhitarkanika Forest officials produced 8 arrested fishermen under Wildlife Protection Act,1972 before the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class Court of Pattamundai where they were remanded into jail custody after their bail petitions were rejected ,informed DFO of Rajnagar Mangrove Forest and wildlife Division , Prasanna Kumar Behera. Notably, the State Forest Department has imposed ban on fishing around 20 km off the shore from 1st November to 31st May , as to protect the endangered marine turtles, which come en mass for laying eggs at Gahirmatha Marine sanctuary. This is the first seizure of fishing vessels intercepted for unlawful intrusion into water territory prohibited for fishing operation this year after the prohibition imposed on the water of Gahirmatha in Bay of Bengal on last November 1, added DFO . According to official sources, the turtles have either been killed when they are mangled by fishing trawler propellers or suffocated in fishermen’s nets in mechanized fishing vessels during the turtle mating and nesting season. If the Gahirmatha rookery is stated to be the largest rookery it also appears to be the biggest graveyard in recent years .The beaches instead of being beacons of new life have turned into mass graveyard due to illegal fishing by the fishermen ,who come in giant trawlers for catching fish , alleged turtle conservationists. The turtle mortality rate in one year is estimated at more than 10,000 per year. The last decade and a half has seen between 10,000 to 15,000 dead Olive Ridley sea turtles washed ashore every year along the coast of Orissa , largely victims of illegal trawling in near shore waters

<i>A New Green Youth Movement</i> by Senator John Kerry

Posted by Audiegrl

Senator John Kerry—I know the difference a generation of young Americans in motion can make.

I was in college at a time of great political ferment and fundamental changes to our social fabric: the Civil Rights Act, the beginning of the counterculture and the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that set us on a disastrous path of deepening involvement in Vietnam.

When I came home from war disillusioned, I joined with millions of young people who marched against Richard Nixon’s Vietnam policy, against racial bigotry, against gender bias, and we changed our country for the better. We read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” and our generation formed the bedrock of the activism that gave America its first Earth Day and the modern environmental movement.

Now, it’s time for a new generation of Americans to get in motion — because the very survival of our planet depends on them.

Now is the time for young people who learned to flex their political muscle last November to shift into high-gear and get Washington to take on our historic legislation to combat global climate change.

Starting today I am challenging young Americans throughout the country to make their voices heard on this urgent matter. I am doing this through the Organize to be Heard Challenge.

Please visit http://consequence09.org/challenge for more information on the campaign.

I need you to help America seize control of our energy, economic and security future, and the future of generations to come.

Don’t think you can’t make a difference? You already have. In the last election, more than 24 million 18-to-29 year-olds went to the polls because it was time for a change. This critical mass of young people — the Millennial generation — changed the direction of our country in a profound way on education, the economy, foreign policy and, of course, global warming.

But you can’t stop now. We face a threat to the very existence of our planet. Rising sea levels, drought and famine will not stop without action — action now.

We can put America back in charge of its energy future. We can invest in our economy and create clean energy jobs. We can strengthen our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. And we can secure our future by eliminating harmful pollution that threatens us all.

We can do all of this. We can do it together. And that, I can assure you, is what we’ve always done in America and what we can do again.

Follow John Kerry on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnKerry
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Taiwan Firm Positioned for E-Reader Takeoff

TAIPEI — With the market for electronic book readers set to take off, things are looking up for a little-known Taiwanese company that will probably supply most of the “e-paper” they use.

The company, Prime View International, said this summer that it would pay about $215 million to acquire E-Ink, which owns the technology for displaying text in the most popular readers, including Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader.

Prime View, often referred to as P.V.I., recently sweetened its offer and says it hopes to close the deal by the end of the year. It already manufactures e-reader display modules for the Kindle and the Reader.

“E-Ink is by far the leader” in the field, said John Chen, director of the display technology center at ITRI, a government-financed technology incubator in Taiwan. “P.V.I. is going to strengthen its leadership in the next year or two, before anyone else can catch up.”

Demand for e-paper is expected to rise, with Amazon expanding the availability of the Kindle to Europe and the U.S. book retailer Barnes & Noble creating its own e-reader to compete with Amazon and Sony.

The availability of more content and the ability to download material wirelessly has fueled demand for the devices.

DisplaySearch, a market researcher based in Austin, Texas, forecasts the global market for e-paper, including e-paper used in e-books, to hit $5.9 billion by 2015, from $400 million this year.

This is not the first time Prime View has jumped into a growing market early. It became the first Taiwanese maker of flat-panel screens in 1994. Ten years later, in a crowded market dominated by the likes of Samsung and LG Display, it decided to focus on specialty products like custom displays for medical devices.

In 2005, it acquired Philips Electronics’ e-paper display unit, in an early bet on the industry.

“All the big companies like Samsung weren’t so interested in this market,” said David Hsieh, president of DisplaySearch’s Taiwan branch. “So Prime View found a good niche.”

It was also a good fit considering Prime View’s pedigree. The company is a subsidiary of Yuen Foong Yu Group, a Taiwanese paper and pulp company. The group started making toilet paper and paperboard as early as 1939 and began producing coated paper in the 1950s with Japanese technology, according to its Web site no faxing payday loan.

Now, one of Taiwan’s first mass producers of paper looks set, through a subsidiary, to become the world’s first mass producer of e-paper.

Analysts say Prime View’s production capacity, which includes factories in South Korea it acquired in 2007, make it the only e-paper company with the scale to meet booming global demand. And the ownership of E-Ink will mean they have no intellectual property issues to overcome and can make e-paper “from head to toe,” Mr. Hsieh said.

The company has its critics. Jeff Pu, an expert on the flat-panel industry in Taiwan, says Prime View has too much exposure in conventional liquid crystal displays. Prime View says that about half of its business concerns e-paper products.

A demand dip could be punishing, said Mr. Pu, who currently analyzes the mobile industry at Fubon Securities in Taipei. For example, he said, Prime View executives told analysts in April that its Korean factories were operating at 30 percent of capacity in the first quarter of this year, and that 65 percent was “break-even level.”

Mr. Pu also sees a price war coming, as AU Optronics, LG Display and others enter the e-paper market. AU Optronics has the most promising e-paper technology after E-Ink, the “microcups” technology owned by its subsidiary Sipix. Prime View will have to cut its prices after it loses its first-mover advantage, Mr. Pu said.

For now, Prime View is shrugging off such predictions. A company spokesman, Stephen Chen, conceded that capacity was low at the company’s Korean factories early this year but said that was because of the unusually bad economic downturn.

Mr. Chen said the company did not plan to license the E-ink technology to others and declined to comment on whether it might make its own e-reader.

“So far, for mass production and quality, E-Ink is the first priority for customers,” Mr. Chen said. “So I think we’ll keep the leading edge for some time — a few years is certain.”

Taiwan Firm Positioned for E-Reader Takeoff

Marri[gay]age

 

Your biweekly Kerdle from wordle.net.

You know, sometimes I think her wordles open windows into her real obsessions. Click to read her actual post at your own peril, or just take my word for it that this Tom Toles ‘toon covers everything she has to say and then some.

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A Day in the Life: Who is Minnesota? Look online at some blogs to find out.

A long hed from Alleen Brown but her story contains a list of links to Minnesota blogs, of which I am one.

Interesting list filled with blogs I did not know about. Here’s the screenshot they took of some atypical content from me:

As well as a companion piece: Why do you blog? I did not make the cut on this one, but I dug out my email and this is what I sent Brown:

“I blog because I’m dissatisfied with the news media we have today”

or

“Because it’s become a habit.”

Use whichever works best for you.

[Note to self: try not to say fuck today.]

[Self to note: too late!]

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Frank Rich writes about NY23. More from Eric Boehlert and related content from Phoenix Woman.

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PZ has text to go with, but mostly I’m in awe of this visual:

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Anyone who thinks you should tax land instead of property doesn’t know any farmers.

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An adjustable chart that lets you see how many people like you are unemployed right now.

This is me:

People like me usually do better than me.

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Gov. BridgeFail hasn’t hit rock bottom yet, but he’s getting there fast enough:

[Pawlenty] asked if they were tired of having “Democrats shove health care down your throats,” begging China to pay America’s debts and having the French president “lecturing us on the danger of appeasement.”

Each time, the crowd shouted, “Yes!”

Because healthcare is a scary big French dick of the sort you encounter in Chinese bankdellos.

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Honduras.

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I think the fact that Michele Bachmann voted at all is more noteworthy than her nay vote on health care for non-seniors (over the summer Bachmann racked up a 31% absentee rate on roll call votes). She was joined by Eric Paulsen, John Kline and Collin fucking Peterson.

Nice map, btw.

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The coloring book sounds nice.

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No Vikings today but Timberwolves tonight and in the meantime access to my kitchen sink has been obstructed by dishes.

 

Obama's Frightening Disconnect Following Ft. Hood Massacre

This is something.  And, for the record, it’s not the evil Fox News, but the evil NBC telling us that something is seriously wrong with our president:

Obama’s Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting
A bad week for Democrats compounded by an awful moment for Barack Obama.
By ROBERT A. GEORGE
Updated 9:18 AM CST, Fri, Nov 6, 2009

Updated 9:18 AM CST, Fri, Nov 6, 2009

Getty Images

President Obama didn’t wait long after Tuesday’s devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships.

After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.

But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a “shout-out” to “Dr. Joe Medicine Crow — that Congressional Medal of Honor winner.”  Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That’s the least that should occur.

Indeed, an argument could be made that Obama should have canceled the Indian event, out of respect for people having been murdered at an Army post a few hours before. That would have prevented any sort of jarring emotional switch at the event.

Did the president’s team not realize what sort of image they were presenting to the country at this moment? The disconnect between what Americans at home knew had been going on — and the initial words coming out of their president’s mouth was jolting, if not disturbing.

[Continue reading]

The NBC article concludes by saying:

“Democrats across the country have real reason to panic.”

Well, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have any reason to panic.  But then again, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have any reason.  Period.

When Obama was elected, unemployment was at 6.6%.  His adminstration promised that his stimulus would prevent unemployment from reaching 8%.  And now it’s 10.2%.  That’s a huge problem.  And their only answer seems to be 1) blame Bush – as though the American people wanted a demagogue rather than a president who would man-up and start actually taking responsibility for the country’s problems – and 2) present a ton of false statistics to “prove” the unprovable (that his stimulus “saved” jobs).

Last Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” David Gregory pointed out that little fact during his interview with Turbo Tax Tim Geithner:

GREGORY:  OK.  What is a saved job?  How do you measure that?

SEC’Y GEITHNER:  A, a saved–well…

GREGORY:  It’s not something an economist recognizes as an actual fact.

Note to Gregory: “Actual facts don’t matter to the Obama administration.”

David Gregory had previously put up a quote from an economist at Carnegie Mellon University:

“One can search economic textbooks forever without finding a concept called `jobs saved.’ It doesn’t exist for good reason:  how can anyone know that his or her job has been saved?”

Reality isn’t important to the Obama administration, and neither is history.  What matters is rhetoric, demagoguery, and propaganda.

The giant $3.27 trillion porkulus was every bit the abject failure that conservatives predicted it would be.

And analyst Meredith Whitney – who was one of the few voices predicting the catastrophe we suffered last year – is saying that our joblessness is nowhere NEAR over.  She is predicting that unemployment will rise to 13% OR HIGHER.  Because NOTHING Obama has done has even come close to dealing with the REAL problems that are dragging down our economy.

Get behind that, America.  Obama’s “solution” for Afghanistan is his solution for America: namely, dithering is “change.”

But let us get back to Obama’s bizarre behavior.  First he chose to ignore what was going on in the country, how the people were expressing their mood and their views, and instead narcissistically decided to spend election night watching HIMSELF.

The Obama White House can’t acknowledge the obvious fact that we just suffered the second successful jihadist terrorist attack on our soil since he became our commander-in-chief.  And if even our soldiers on their secure base aren’t safe from these people, just who the hell is?

And now he’s just plain whackjob inappropriate giving “shout outs” only a short time after a dozen of our soldiers are murdered and over 30 more are wounded in that aforementioned terrorist attack.

Obama’s behavior seems to continue the trend with other socialist demagogues: seize power, showing a rare level of understanding of popular demagoguery, and then sink into bizarre behavior as his incompetence to lead becomes increasingly apparent.

The tragic thing is that it isn’t just Democrats who have cause to worry.  Americans have cause to worry that this inexperienced radical is nowhere even CLOSE to being the person we needed to lead us back to prosperity.

Declassified FBI File Alleges an Israeli Intelligence Agent Worked at AIPAC

Via: Reuters.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — An agent of the Israeli
intelligence service worked on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) according to a newly declassified FBI file.

An August 13, 1984 secret communication from the FBI Washington Field Office
(WFO) to the FBI director states, “WFO files disclose that AIPAC is a powerful
pro-Israel lobbying group staffed by U.S. citizens. WFO files contain an
unsubstantiated allegation that a member of the Israeli Intelligence Service
was a staff member of AIPAC.” The newly declassified document may be
downloaded from the Israel Lobby Archive at:
http://www.irmep.org/ILA/economy/08131984_WFO_DFBI_REPORT.pdf

The secret FBI file was declassified and released to the Institute for
Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) under a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request. IRmep sought the FBI files to file a third amicus brief urging
Judge T.S. Ellis not to dismiss charges against two AIPAC staffers under the
1917 Espionage Act. The DOJ dropped espionage charges against former AIPAC
staffers Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman on May 1, 2009.

According to the newly released IRmep book “Spy Trade: How Israel’s Lobby
Undermines America’s Economy,” the 1984 and 2005 espionage incidents were not
isolated events. Using declassified documents, “Spy Trade” documents Israeli
covert actions against US military and industrial targets from the 1940s
through the present.

“Spy Trade” also presents a damage assessment for the 1984 AIPAC industrial
espionage incident: US $71 billion in lost exports, equivalent to 100,000 jobs
over the last decade. “Spy Trade” may be purchased at MiddleEastBooks.com,
Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores.

The Israel Lobby Archive, http://IRmep.org/ila, is a unit of the Institute for
Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington. The Archive digitizes
declassified documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act filings
with law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The Archive facilitates
permanent direct citizen access to critical records that briefly enter the
public domain but vanish for lack of warranted mainstream media coverage.

SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy

Grant Smith of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy,
+1-202-342-7325

The Future of Ohio in the Hands of Our Youth

In recent years, Ohio has experienced a problematic ‘brain drain’ as our young talent leave the state after graduating from college. According to a report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, nearly six out of ten Ohio college students plan to leave the state upon graduation. The group polled a random sampling of students from seven Ohio universities on their post-college futures and important factors that impact their decision about where they live and work.

With consideration to Ohio as a place to live after college, students cited the lack of available career options as the main reason for choosing to explore opportunities in other states. Here in the Ohio House, job creation is the number one priority for my colleagues and me, which is why last month we revealed the ‘Future of Ohio’ plan. This package of ten bills was created with the intent to reenergize Ohio’s economy and prepare our state to become a global competitor in a 21st century economy.

According to the Fordham study, 65 percent of the students stated that they would consider staying in Ohio if they were offered tax credits. With this in mind, several pieces of legislation have been drafted and introduced to provide incentives that will attract and retain students after graduation.

House Bill 144 would provide income tax credits for college graduates, and another bill currently being drafted focuses on those who have reached journeyman status or its equivalent within their trades. Additionally, House Bill 123 proposes tax breaks for students majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Each of these bills seek to encourage the growth of Ohio’s college-educated and  technological skill base by attracting and retaining these graduates who plan to live and work in Ohio for at least five years.

Sixty percent of surveyed students expressed interest in a state-funded program that awards graduates with cash grants toward down payments on homes. Here in the Statehouse, the state operating budget recently passed with such a program included. Originally proposed as Senate Bill 5, the Grants for Grads program was created to provide  college graduates with down payment and closing cost assistance for the purchase of their first homes in Ohio.

Details on the program are still being finalized since the passage of the budget, but the original bill stated that grant recipients must intent to live and work in Ohio for at least five years after graduation. The Ohio Housing Finance Agency has announced that all information on the program is available by visiting www.ohiohome.org or calling toll-free 888-362-6432.

By purchasing a home in Ohio, graduates are building loyalties and connections to the communities in which they live. The Fordham study suggests that the more a student becomes involved in the surrounding communities through local attractions like museums and concerts, the more likely they are to establish permanent roots to work and raise a family in that community.

The future generations of Ohio are leaving and becoming the engineers and scientists of tomorrow in other states. the future of Ohio is sure to be promising if we can retain out college graduates and continue to reenergize the economy of our great state.