Thursday, January 29, 2009

Pork

Pork disguised as stimulus
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George F. Will: Republicans rightly oppose pork disguised as stimulus



Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009

....Frightened people are receptive to his pleas for large and quick action: Just do it – we'll count the cost later. As Emerson said, when skating on thin ice, safety lies in speed, and the administration's confidence in what it is doing should be – this is not its fault – thin.

Economic policymaking in turbulent times is a science of single instances, meaning no science at all. When economic theories matter most – when the economy is in uncharted waters – all theories are necessarily untested. Hence attempts to derive prescriptions from the New Deal are somewhat surreal.

Furthermore, our language is bewitching our intelligence. Long ago – a year ago – Russell Roberts, economics professor at George Mason University, deplored terms that suggest that economics is a science akin to medicine. With a "stimulus," of a sort that makes the legs of a dead frog twitch, the government will "inject" money as a doctor gives a blood transfusion. Or as a "jolt" from a defibrillator.

Sensible people are queasy about throwing trillions of dollars at barely understood problems on the basis of untested theories. For Republicans, the question is: What are the duties of the opposition at a moment like this? The answer has three components, beginning with elementary political arithmetic:

Having received near 53 percent of the popular vote – better than Ronald Reagan's 50.7 percent in 1980 – Barack Obama won 100 percent of the presidency, and almost that much of the nation's leadership expectations now that the public, which really should diversify its investments, invests such extravagant hopes in presidents. To govern is to choose, always on the basis of imperfect information, and the president may never have more public support than he has now. He deserves some deference. Some.

Second, congressional Democrats have turned the 647-page stimulus legislation into an excuse for an excuse for wretched excess. They have forfeited some of the president's claim to deference.------------------

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01/29/2009
Although a lot of those poor countries are burdened with billions of Dollars in debt, all those countries put together still do not owe as much money as the United States does! The only reason the U.S. is managing to get by at all is because of their high salaries.--Ridiculous salaries where they're paying $75-an-hour to auto workers & that sort of thing. That can't last. It's just not going to last because they can't sell enough cars to keep paying such exorbitant wages!
They have been grossly overpaying their workers. The workers think they're underpaid, but they've been overpaid for years now, several times the salary for the same job in other auto-making countries such as poor Korea, where they get about $12-an-hour. Even in Japan they only get about $15-17-an-hour.--At least those are the last stats that I recall. Whereas they're getting three-to-five times as much in the United States for the same job, & sloppy work at that!
Ted Rudow III,MA

Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934


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Thursday, January 29, 2009


Obama, Katy Perry and McDonald's gift cards: A whole bunch of crazy

Abstract:
Those looking for deep, meaningful and possibly insightful words should know that they are currently in the wrong place. I wish only to make fleeting and discombobulated points, so don't get upset when you read the last word and still are not enlightened.

Now that I've scared away all the fuddy-duddies, I'd like to point out that since last November, the word "change" has been on the edge of the minds of most Americans....


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Ted Rudow III,MA

1/27/09 National Debt: It is not new for our government or any other to borrow money. Most governments do so when in a crisis, such as a war. What is unique today is that our government borrows during good times and bad, during war and peace alike. But what makes our government's debt so dangerous is that we are in debt beyond our total asset value. In other words, we are broke. Unfortunately, there seems to be no thought of ever trying to repay the debt. In truth, our government cannot even pay the interest on its debt, unless it does so through additional borrowing.
Ted Rudow III,MA
Class of 1996

Fool's gold

Stanford Daily

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Front » News • Top Headlines

Endowment faces losses





By: Devin Banerjee :
January 23, 2009
University funds experience record decline

Stanford is expecting an “unprecedented” endowment decline of between 20 and 30 percent, Provost John Etchemendy told the Faculty Senate yesterday afternoon. Since 1964, only eight fiscal years have had negative nominal returns, the largest of which was an eight percent decline in 1974.

Still, the provost emphasized that this endowment decline only puts Stanford back approximately three years.

“We were a strong university then,” he noted, “and we will emerge from this a strong university.”


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Federal reserve banks: These are the result of the Federal reserve act and are theoretically owned by the Federal Government. Each bank in the country that joins this system must deposit a certain percentage of their reserves in a central fund on which they receive a small interest. This fund, along with the Federal Government’s portion, form the master pool to cover the temporary cash shortages that were mentioned earlier. These funds are held in 12 banks spread throughout the U.S. These 12 banks, in effect, operate the Federal Reserve System and make enormous profits in the process.No one really knows who actually owns these banks as they are private, and in 70 years they have never published a government-audited financial statement. What they are doing is, in effect, as illegal as robbing a bank, but no one can stop them. It is in the process of creating these huge profits that they are destroying the country. The way that they are doing it is as follows: As the Federal Reserve has the right to print money (at a cost of $1.50 per $1,000), they can easily print money whenever they want to, and then loan it to other banks at an interest.This is as counterfeit and as valueless as if it was printed in a gangster’s basement, except that they have a license, and the gangster doesn’t. But the result on the economy is the same, as this money is not backed by gold. Originally, the Federal Reserve System (FRS) was not allowed to print more than four paper dollars for each dollar of gold that the government possessed, but as the government kept spending more, they had to borrow from the Federal Reserve who had to print more!

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