Bits Bucket for December 7, 2013
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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I ran across an author named Neil Postman that just might have something interesting/useful to say about us, as a population, that might help explain just why we are where we are in a dumbed-down sense:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman
Never read anything he wrote (yet) but from what Wiki says about him he seems like he might have written some good reads. I am interested in any thoughts you folks in HBB land may have to offer-up about the guy.
I’ve come across the book Amusing Ourselves to Death before but skipped it mostly because it was published so long ago in the 80s and I think the gist is there from the title. Maybe I’ll pick it up at the library.
This says the guy died in 2003. Cripes what would he say about today? Obese prescription drug addled populace endlessly distracting themselves with amusing little tweety bird comments and pictures on their phones all day and night long.
Discipline, will power, and the ability to grind toward a hard goal is the new black.
“This guy died in 2003. Cripes what would he say about today?”
A good book to read is “The Hidden Persuaders” which was written in the mid-Fifties. It’s an oldie but not a moldie in that, in general, what was said then still applies today.
I’m thinking that this may be true for a guy who died in 2003. Human beings haven’t evolved all that much since 2003.
Haven’t evolved much since America’s pioneer days…just face different types of hurdles today than when the West was won…
Don’t know about today, but he wrote “The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School” which was published in 1995. This is an excerpt from the dust cover:
In describing how education may reasonably and creatively respond to — or redefine — these problems of modernity, the author presents useful narratives to help schools recover a sense of purpose, tolerance, and respect for learning. These include the Spaceship Earth (preserving the earth as unifying theme), the Fallen Angel (learning driven not by absolute answers but by an understanding that our knowledge is imperfect), the American Experiment (emphasizing the successes and the failures of our evolving nation), the Law of Diversity (exposure to all cultures in their strengths and weaknesses), and Word Weavers (the fundamental importance of language in forging our common humanity).
And Postman has been standard reading in university Education Departments for, literally, decades. Congratulations on finally discovering him.
standard reading in university Education Departments
Based on what’s happened to education at all levels in the last, literally, decades, maybe I’ll pass.
Obamacare is a Catastrophe That Cannot Be Fixed
December 6, 2013
Obamacare is a catastrophe that cannot be fixed, because it doesn’t fix what’s broken in American healthcare.
I just finished a detailed comparison of my current grandfathered health insurance plan from Kaiser Permanente (kp.org), a respected non-profit healthcare provider, and Kaiser’s Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) options. I reviewed all the information and detailed tables of coverage and then called a Kaiser specialist to clarify a few questions.
First, the context of my analysis: we are self-employed, meaning there is no employer to pay our healthcare insurance. We pay the full market-rate cost of healthcare insurance. We have had a co-pay plan with kp.org for the past 20+ years that we pay in full because there’s nobody else to pay it.
What we pay is pretty much what employers pay. In other words, if I went to work for a company that offered full healthcare coverage, that company would pay what we pay.
Kaiser Permanente (kp.org) is a non-profit. That doesn’t mean it can lose money on providing healthcare; if it loses millions of dollars a year (and some years it does lose millions of dollars), eventually it goes broke. All non-profit means is that kp.org does not have to charge a premium to generate profits that flow to shareholders. But it must generate enough profit to maintain its hospitals, clinics, etc., build reserves against future losses, and have capital to reinvest in plant, equipment, training, etc.
As an employer in the 1980s, a manager in non-profit organizations in the early 1990s and self-employed for 20+ years, I have detailed knowledge of previous healthcare insurance costs and coverage. As an employer in the 1980s, I paid for standard 80/20 deductible healthcare insurance for my employees. The cost was about $50 per month per employee, who were mostly in their 20s and 30s. In today’s money, that equals $108 per month.
In other words, I have 30+ years of knowledgeable experience with the full (real) costs of healthcare insurance and what is covered by that insurance.
Our grandfathered Kaiser Plan costs $1,217 per month. There is no coverage for medications, eyewear or dental. That is $14,604 per year for two 60-year old adults. We pay a $50 co-pay for any office visit and $10 for lab tests. Maximum out-of-pocket costs per person are $3,500, or $7,000 for the two of us.
We pay $500 per day for all hospital stays and related surgery; out-patient surgery has a $250 co-pay.
So if I suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized and required surgery, I would pay a maximum of $3,500 for services that would be billed out at $100,000 or more were Kaiser providing those services to Medicare.
(Yes, I know Medicare wouldn’t pay the full charges, but if Medicare is billed $150,000–not uncommon for a few days in the hospital and surgery– it will pay $80,000+ for a few days in the hospital and related charges. All of this is opaque to the patient, so it’s hard to know what’s actually billed and paid.)
In other words, this plan offers excellent coverage of major catastrophic expenses and relatively affordable co-pays for all services.
The closest equivalent coverage under Obamacare is Kaiser’s Gold Plan. The cost to us is $1,937 per month or $23,244 a year. The Gold Plan covers medications ($50 per prescription for name-brand, $19 for generics) and free preventive-health visits and tests, but otherwise the coverage is inferior: the out-of-pocket limits are $6,350 per person or $12,700 for the two of us. Lab tests are also more expensive, as are X-rays, emergency care co-pays and a host of other typical charges. Specialty doctor’s visits have a $50 co-pay.
The Obamacare Gold Plan would cost us $8,640 more per year. This is a 60% increase. It could be argued that the meds coverage is worth more, but since we don’t have any meds that cost more than $8 per bottle at Costco (i.e. generics), the coverage is meaningless to us.
The real unsubsidized cost of Obamacare for two healthy adults ($23,244 annually) exceeds the cost of rent or a mortgage for the vast majority of Americans. Please ponder this for a moment: buying healthcare insurance under Obamacare costs as much or more as buying a house.
A close examination of lower-cost Obamacare options (Bronze) reveals that they are simulacra of actual healthcare insurance, facsimiles of coverage rather than meaningful insurance. The coverage requires subscribers to pay 40% of costs after the deductible, which is $9,000 per family. Total maximum out-of-pocket expenses are $12,700 per family. This coverage would cost us $1,150 per month, and considerably less for younger people.
How many families in America have $9,000 in cash to pay the deductibles, plus the $13,800 annual insurance fees? That totals $22,800 per year. If some serious health issue arose, the family would have to come up with $12,700 (out-of-pocket maximum) and $13,800 (annual cost of insurance), or $26,500 annually.
Is healthcare that costs $26,500 per year truly “insurance”? I would say it is very expensive catastrophic insurance in a system with runaway costs.
The entire Obamacare scheme depends on somebody paying stupendous fees for coverage which then subsidizes the costs for lower-income families and individuals. How many households can afford $23,244 a year for Gold coverage plus $12,700 out-of-pocket for a total of $35,944 annually? How many can afford $26,500 for Bronze coverage?
Recall that the median household income in the U.S. is around $50,000.
How many companies can afford to pay almost $2,000 a month for healthcare insurance per employee? Even if employees pay a few hundred dollars a month, the employers are still paying $20,000 a year per (older) employee.
If an employer can hire someone in a country with considerably lower social-welfare/healthcare costs to do the same work as an American costing them $2,000 per month for healthcare insurance, they’d be crazy to keep the worker in America, unless the worker was so young that the Obamacare costs were low or the worker was a contract/free-lance employee who has to pay his own healthcare costs.
Uninformed “progressives” have suggested that “Medicare for all” is the answer. Their ignorance of exactly how Medicare functions is appalling; recall that Medicare is the system in which an estimated 40% of all expenditures are fraudulent, unneccessary or counter-productive, where a few days in the hospital is billed at $120,000 (first-hand knowledge) and a one-hour out-patient operation is billed at $12,000, along with a half-hour wait in a room that’s billed at several thousand more dollars for “observation.” (Also first-hand knowledge.)
Medicare is the acme of an out-of-control program that invites profiteering, fraud, billing for phantom services, services that add no value to care, and services designed to game the system’s guidelines for maximum profit. If an evil genius set out to design a system that provided the least effective care for the highest possible cost while incentivizing the most egregious profiteering and fraud, he would come up with Medicare.
Does Medicare look remotely sustainable to you? Strip out inventory builds and adjustments from imports/exports and the real economy is growing at about 1.5% annually. As noted yesterday in What Does It Take To Be Middle Class?, the real income of the bottom 90% hasn’t changed for 40 years, and has declined by 7% since 2000 when adjusted for inflation.
some money has to be raised to be pay for the wall street bailouts. All that FEE money for the folks not having insurance will add up.
Don’t forget money is also needed for wars and domestic spy and Russian (and many others) diplomats’ and their families’ well being.
I like to thank my American comrades for helping my family. Take it from the middle class, give it to the foreigners. That’s where we failed in mother Russia…..it’s all clear now….
Thank you Thank you.
I don’t see where you credited the author of your comment, Charles Hugh Smith…..He wouldn’t mind, but would appreciate attribution from those who cut and paste his writings…
And he certainly deserves it.
If that is the same Charles Hugh Smith whose blogs I read a few years ago, it is a very scathing post, as I recall he leaned to leftist statism.
Yes it was him. I think he had his name at the bottom, but I didn’t copy the chart at the end so I missed it.
Thank you to Mr. Smith, this is a good read.
From here on out I am operating on the premise that there are solutions to our problems. They are relatively simple solutions that do not require huge superstructural programs or vast amounts of money. What they do require is pain and harsh truth. Pain that can be endured towards a goal and a better outcome. But you need to be able to see that better outcome. It needs to be there in your mind at all times.
You got it wrong. As our problems grow larger, so will the solutions. Expect to see 100,000 pages bill in near future.
HYP education comes in handy here…undergraduate English from P and JD from H or Y, these guys will produce 100,000 pages bill in 2 nights.
Oh, so that’s what HYP means. I had wondered..
an estimated 40% of all expenditures are fraudulent, unneccessary or counter-productive,
You know who does that. Doctors, hospitals and lawyers….they are the real reason behind the most expensive health care system in da world.
In other words, the Barber is in charge of who needs a haircut.
tcb,
There are so many aspects of this program that aren’t working that soon the Dems will be voting to rescind the law.
1. The website doesn’t have a method for paying the money/subsidies to the insurance companies. No payment for insurance equals no insurance.
2. The website is so error prone that anywhere from 1/3 to 1/10 of the people that have signed up didn’t go through. This week the Administration said that if you think you bought a policy, you’ll have to call us to verify because the insurance companies aren’t always getting the correct information. This is important. Some people have signed up but he system and the insurance companies don’t know about them.
3. The exchanges don’t have as many doctors and very few specialists. Example, the state of CA has enlisted very few specialist to be a part of their program. In other words, you might not be able to keep your doctor.
4. Payments to doctors are so low that many doctors don’t want to enlist if they’re asked. Ask your doctor if they’re going to be on the ACA insurance plan. I’m going to call mine today
5. The website doesn’t have adequate security against hacking so many people will loose their identity information to the internet thieves.
6.Then, if you actually do buy a policy it is almost always more expensive as you’ve outlined.
In a few weeks we’ll be celebrating a New Year but many people wont be celebrating because they’ll have lost their insurance.
The uproar will cause the Democrats to loose favor with the masses and it’ll take years for them to get that favor back. This will prove for a generation that government can’t be trusted with your healthcare.
The real unsubsidized cost of Obamacare for two healthy adults ($23,244 annually) exceeds the cost of rent or a mortgage for the vast majority of Americans. Please ponder this for a moment: buying healthcare insurance under Obamacare costs as much or more as buying a house.
Someone has to pay for the free health care of 20 million illegals..
Someone has to pay for the free health care of 20 million illegals ??
We could have easily stopped it…Just make it illegal to hire them wether it be from the Home Depot parking lot of in an assembly line…They are here for the money…Eliminate the ability to earn “cash” they would have went home long ago…Now we probably have 10 million+ anchor babies that are protected by a stupid constitutional or legislative law…Not sure which…
Protected by a stupid interpretation of the 14th amendment.
14th Amendment:
” All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. ..”
All persons born in the US are citizens of the US. So, how would YOU re-interpret this — the smart way, I assume — to make the kids of illegals into non-citizens?
“subject to the jurisdiction thereof”
I will put this back into the interpretation. Thus, no child born to a citizen of Mexico or any other country that happened to be in this country legally or illegally would have automatic citizenship. This interpretation was so common for at least 50 years after the passage of the 14th amendment. That it took the passing of a statute to make Native Americans citizens of the U.S. since despite being born with the boundaries of the US. since they were members of their tribes they were not thought to subject to the jurisdiction thereof the United States.
Tax payers are already paying for the 20 million illegal aliens healthcare.
Yes in the least efficient most expensive way possible ie via the ER and after things have gotten really bad.
The answer is not to trash the healthcare system it is to enforce the existing laws and deport the illegals.
it is to enforce the existing laws and deport the illegals ??
Who takes care of the legalized citizen children ??
That is up to the parents. Leave them with legal relatives or take them back to their countries. That argument is like the crack seller saying you can’t put me in prison who will take care of my children.
That argument is like the crack seller saying you can’t put me in prison who will take care of my children ??
Pretty weak argument Adan…Inherently I know you know this…
American citizens (children) have rights…If they cant’s speak for themselves the the State does…In your example above, the crack seller would go to jail and the children would go to protective services and ultimately likely to foster home…
A foster home is where citizen children of illegal immigrant parents would go if their parents were deported and they decided their kids would be better off in the US. Since their kids being better off in the US is one the main reasons they came in the first place, I would guess that a ton of the kids over 12 or 14 would end up in that situation. Or group homes. Or new large scale orphanage system.
Talk about an unfunded mandate for the states…..
I think both of you are wrong. I do not think most would end up in foster care. When a parent is sent to prison we know that the child will end up in some kind of foster care particularly if the child is from a single parent home. There is no legal right to take a child from a parent if the parent is providing for the child and there is no reason to find a dependency just because the parent is being deported.
You don’t have to “take” the kids from them. They will leave older kids here. A 4 year old will go back with the parents, only to return when they are older as US citizen, but without a US education. A 14 year old? They will stay right here. The kids themselves will demand it. The ones who are born here have no desire to go back to a country they don’t know to a future they can’t imagine.
Nothing you have said disproves that you were wrong. They do not automatically go into foster care and it will be the parents that will decide whether they go or don’t go back to their country of origin. Also, go back to my comment about the 14th amendment, we should pass a clear law that says no one that is born to someone that came here illegally gets automatic citizenship which is consistent with how the 14th amendment was interpreted for a decades if not a hundred years. Eisenhower pushed a million Mexicans back across the border and I am sure that many probably were born here.
I just cant fathom why this ohbewaanacare was not designed to be taken out of your paycheck each week?
start at like 7% or 50 cents an hour for min wage walmart workers and at say 2000 hours a year that’s still $1000 a year into the system
Higher paid workers 10,12% and top workers 15%
with options for even higher coverage at higher rates. no fines no penalties ….
He remembered what happened to read my lips no new taxes Bush II. He promised not to raise taxes for people under 250,000 while he violated that with hidden taxes even he knew his pet media could not hide such a direct tax.
I mean Bush I.
Has anyone done a comparison between ohbewannacaer and Hillarycare from 20 years ago?
Just google for “Obamacare vs. Hillarycare” and you’ll get some answers. This is old, but explains that the two are very different.
—–
“The basic shape of the Obama plan is to set up insurance exchanges for the uninsured, people in the individual market today and small businesses that want to join. It also expands Medicaid coverage. “And so the 250 or so million Americans who have either private sector based coverage OR are on a public program like Medicare and Medicaid, are untouched by this,” she emails.
By contrast, the Clintons’ 1993 plan set up regional alliances, “which were sort of like exchanges, but they covered everyone, so people in employer based coverage today would be shifted into regional alliances,” she writes.
“In addition, its mandate was a lot tougher, it did have an employer mandate as well an individual mandate and was based on expanding the employer based system - so everyone was to be covered by their employers. (Hence small business opposition: they would be required to cover, rather than just getting an option). ”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/Obamacare_vs_Clintoncare.html
———
From my initial reading, it looks to me like Hillarycare would not have survived the Supreme Court. The only thing that saved Obamacare is the option to pay an emergency room tax.
[and no, it doesn't really matter if Obama "lied" (again)
and "called" it a tax. Roberts's view was that if it walks like a tax and quacks like a tax, it's a tax.]
Lotta facts in there. Inconvenient facts for the Messiahcare lovers.
In the vein of our discussion the other day about job avalability, specifically in technology:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101244173
“The US continues to have a shortage of IT workers for the positions available in the US,” lamented Jack Cullen, president of Modis IT Staffing, in an email response. “While there may be less of a shift to send more jobs off shore, we have fallen behind in getting enough students to pursue IT related degrees. …I am not surprised by the (PISA) results. The U.S. educational system is in catch-up mode to countries like China, Japan, and India to name just a few.”
Which, of course, is why those in my field can command such high salaries in comparison to the others.
Now, the question I’d like to see answered; why? Why are there so few Americans who pursue technical training/jobs (STEM)? Is it a lack of ability (they just don’t have the IQ to do it)? A lack of ambition (they could do it, but it’s hard)? A perception (which, in many cases, is closer to reality than you’d think) that only geeks (and no women) pursue those fields?
Basically, what I’m asking, is it possible to change the mix of graduates and employees to more math/science fields and less of other majors? And, if so, how? I think that most people know that if you graduate college with decent grades in engineering/comp sci/etc that there are good/high paying jobs out there. And they also know that if you graduate with a degree in English or Psychology that the path to a high paying job is much harder/longer. And yet, we still (arguably) graduate way too many English majors and not nearly enough mechanical engineering..
But it seems like when they say “not enough” what they really mean is that it’s a problem since they only want the top 10%. Sure…get more people to go into it and that will give you a little more cream to skim off the top, but still…what are the rest supposed to do after they get trained but nobody wants them? I’d argue that’s why they can’t get most people to go into it, because they know they still won’t get the job they want. You know…the one that pays a decent middle class income but allows you to work regular hours and sleep in your own bed every night.
“what they really mean is that it’s a problem since they only want the top 10%”
Do you really think that’s true Carl? I don’t; not for the majority of IT jobs out there. Consulting and the “big names” (Cisco, VMware, etc), yes, they only want the top of crust and they ask a lot of their employees (but also pay a lot). However, the vast majority of customers I see, the folks in their IT departments aren’t top 10%, they might not be top 50% of the IT graduates. They are making a good living (likely 60-80K for most mid career IT folks) and my clients are always trying to hire more people for these roles. They are good jobs, particularly if you like a lower stress environment. And the pay, although horrible by consulting standards, is good compared to most other 4 year degrees, particularly when compared to the amount of work required.
I really believe, if you graduate college today with a BS in computer science (the only field I can talk about with any authority, although I’d bet the situation is the same for other STEM degrees) you can pretty much expect to have a job paying 50-70K within a year that doesn’t require a ridiculous amount of work/travel (or a Hunger Games environment like you’re currently dealing with).
I think you and I work in the professions that siphon the top of the barrel from our field, it’s competitive, requires a lot of work, often extensive travel, and a lot of skills in addition to the raw IT talent (sales, presentation, finance, English as a first language, etc). However, in my experience, the vast majority of jobs in our field aren’t like that.
I don’t know…I’m in the storage firmware/test world. I know it was not easy to break into as a more average engineer back in the 90s and I think it’s gotten more difficult since then. And I don’t know where the bottom quartile of engineers gets jobs…but it’s not around here. As far as IT goes, I’ll take your word for it that the average guy can find a job fairly easily. Mostly I just see the attitude that we’d rather leave the job unfilled and complain about the lack of qualified people if we can’t get a top person. And everybody can’t be at the top.
Mostly I just see the attitude that we’d rather leave the job unfilled and complain about the lack of qualified people if we can’t get a top person.
That is exactly what I’m seeing. If you can’t get a walk on water type, who is willing to accept a no pay increase offer, then you don’t fill the job. Heck, I once ran through a grueling interview gauntlet where I was the “last man standing” at the end, and they offered me LESS than my current salary, which I of course rejected. I’m sure that hiring manager was bitching about how “there’s no one to hire”.
And the bar has been raised high, very high. I remember when there really was a shortage of techies. Back then interviews were a breeze, and not the ultra intense day long marathons they are today, where you are drained at the end. Where you are peppered for hours with trick, corner case questions or where you are asked to solve a non trivial problem in an hour. Back in the old days no one cared if you had a degree, now, in my organization all of the Test Engineers have a Masters and more than a few developers have PhDs.
” I once ran through a grueling interview gauntlet where I was the “last man standing” at the end, and they offered me LESS than my current salary, which I of course rejected. I’m sure that hiring manager was bitching about how “there’s no one to hire”. ”
Your story needs to be repeated over and over and over again. Unfortunately most readers of these shortage-of-STEM worker sob stories never read your side of it.
yes agree they only want to hire the best, ones that can teach not have to be trained
Then you need an agreement from everyone in the interview process and then the applicant turns down the offer !!
IT guy currently hunting in Northern Virginia area. It’s still kind of hard to get calls back. And they always seem to immediately ask what are you making now and how much are you looking for. Fair questions but it’s before any other discussion, so I don’t know the right answer. I’ m about to potentially take whatever, relocate there then just start people networking and looking for better gig immediately.
Amazon.com is eating up a bunch of the talent for their CIA cloud stuff so I figure there should be lots of openings.
O’care website problems?
Sorry I misread you.
“IT guy currently hunting in Northern Virginia area. ”
Talk to Verizon/Terremark. They have a very big presence in that area; if you’re an infrastructure guy, I know they are hiring. If you’re in sales, that would also be something you might be able to find with them.
Do you really think that’s true Carl?
I think that what Carl might mean is that within any given niche that employers only want the top 10%. It doesn’t mean that they want to hire guys who write UNIX kernels for sysadmin jobs. But, when they do have an opening for a sysadmin, they want someone who can sysadmin various flavors or Linux and UNIX, as well as the different flavors of Windows servers, and who can also program and manage routers. So, say you are only highly experienced with HP-UX, that’s not good enough. So, since only 10% of sysadmins have the experience you want, you only want the top 10%.
Yeah that describes it pretty well in networking terms I think. And not only do you need all that, but also need to be the guy who lives to do it…not just does his part and goes home at a reasonable hour and forgets about it until tomorrow. Otherwise you’re not wanted.
As a union guy might say, they just keep speeding up the line.
Yep, those geniuses from China and India have truly created paradise in their countries. So awesome: clean fresh air and water, incredible transportation systems that never incur accidents, corruption vanished from their systems of government, happy and healthy populations that would never think of emigrating to a craphole like the US.
And they never, ever cheat on tests or in life.
Oh, and I forgot, one thing they never, ever do is inflate their resumes.
Holy Jeebus, a fellow I know hired an assistant who emigrated from India. There’s no question she works hard, but working well is another matter. She’s in charge of the company’s website, which was pretty much already designed and developed by the corporate HQ of which he’s a franchisee. The refinements and personalization are a bit rough, to say the least.
So I took a gander at her resume on Linked-In and about killed myself laughing. He calls her his assistant, but the resume reads more like an MIT graduate who single handedly saved a couple of major corporations from ruin and developed an entire IT system from scratch. Not to mention being a financial genius who has put together multi-billion dollar deals for his company.
I thought of telling him about the major financial deals when he was complaining about making his monthly nut, but I didn’t have the heart.
With that said, one of my favorite people is an engineer from India who worked for a major multi-national and he really IS a genius and helped me out of a major jam years ago.
“Oh, and I forgot, one thing they never, ever do is inflate their resumes.”
This is going to sound incredibly racist/insular (because it is), but, in my experience, the absolute “best” people I’ve ever worked with have all be American (as in, educated in America). I’ve worked with lots of Indian/Chinese PhDs (from their countries) that couldn’t think their way out of a paper bag. There’s something, IMHO, about American culture or education that lends itself very well to creating people who are very good at the kind of work that I do. Thinking outside the box and coming up with new solutions to problems seems to be something (one of the few?) that our education system really does excel in compared to other countries.
That said, the best “doers” I’ve ever worked with are, almost without exception, all located offshore. Once the idea has been crystallized, and it’s time to start coding/implementing/etc based on a detailed plan, that’s when the American’s seem to fall down and the Chinese/Indians seem to excel.
There’s something, IMHO, about American culture or education that lends itself very well to creating people who are very good at the kind of work that I do.
I tend to agree. People like to complain about American education and the dysfunctional and semi-illiterate people it produces. But other countries also produce their share of mouth breathers. And their systems focus more on rote memorization than creativity, which hurts their “cream of the crop”. As I mentioned once before, a Singaporean I know tells me that they see our STEM grads as being 10 feet tall.
In IT you have no choice but to inflate your resume to get past the HR department.
Maybe for IT folks who have less than fifteen years experience. But I never ever had any desire to lie on my resume. First, you can get away with it for a few months. But if your resume shows too many short term assignments and your LinkedIn profile has no recommendations from supervisors at those short term jobs, don’t complain if you will be required to take aptitude tests everywhere you go.
If you are honest on your resume, under promise and over perform, you will have a solid reputation and some future supervisors might not even look at your resume but hire you on the spot. This happened to me this year.
Ill tell you why I changed off the STEM path and I don’t think it was IQ. The first couple of years of college was very unfocused. First, I was unfocused, but also I never really saw any path to a goal. You had your course work but it seemed rather scattershot. The classes were taught by foreign teaching assistants with heavy accents and no interest in the student learning. I worked for a biochemistry professor for a year helping with lab things and never really having any idea what goal we were working towards. Ultimately he told me the applications for what we were synthesizing was some kind of salad dressing preservative or some thing.
All this at 18-19 years old with no parents with any kind of a background in science or even college degrees to offer some guidance as to where it might lead.
I think the big weakness I saw from my experience that could be addressed is being thrown into a system in college (big state u) that seems to. E set up to crush the love of science out of kids by throwing them to the wolves of foreign grad students who don’t care at all about teaching.
“The classes were taught by foreign teaching assistants with heavy accents and no interest in the student learning.”
STEM classes suck. I was 18 or 19, sitting in Calc 2 (or something like that) for something like 2 classes (4 hours) trying to figure out WTF “et-chee-vex” was. I thought I missed something in my preliminary classes and was too embarrassed to ask for an explanation. Eventually, someone got the guts to ask (apparently I wasn’t the only one who missed that day in Calc 1). “et-chee-vex” was H(x), or “H of X”. Let’s just say, that class was an introduction to the language barrier that persists in most STEM classes in major universities.
I love computer science, but, man, did I hate a lot of my classes. No women, mostly foreign students who were afraid to say their name in front of a crowd, let alone actually interact with the class, professors who’s grasp on English was tenuous (at best). It was awful.
” E set up to crush the love of science out of kids by throwing them to the wolves of foreign grad students who don’t care at all about teaching.”
If I didn’t love the discipline, I never would have finished. Thing is, there’s no reason for it to be like that. I’ve spent many months in classes since then on specialized topics that were engaging, interesting, and really made me look forward to attending. The college system, especially in STEM, want’s researchers, not teachers.
The entire system from the college part that you describe to the companies that use the graduates are all designed around the very best people who can manage themselves and learn it all with no help at college and then manage themselves at the job. If you can’t figure it out for yourself you don’t make the cut.
What I saw last week was guys who weren’t just good at something…which used to be all you needed. They were good at everything whether they had ever been trained in it or not. Software guys taking a quick glance at printed circuit boards and understanding the design and where it could be cost reduced within seconds. Hardware guys who could be shown a software development environment and use it within an hour. And anybody working at a level below that was considered to be just sitting around collecting a paycheck for nothing.
Welcome to the future.
Carl,
Look at the bight side. If these guys aren’t total a-holes, it could be exciting/interesting to work with them. I had a few guys I worked with that I’d put into that category, and, although a very different situation (not in direct competition) it was very interesting to work with people who could make leaps like that.
The good news, despite what it seems like today, those guys have weaknesses. And hopefully they will be your strengths. I’ve never worked with anyone who was “perfect”, or that had the same level of skill that I do in all the same fields. Some are smarter and able to pick it up faster, but, unless they spend years getting your experience, they won’t be able to integrate it as well as you can.
Trust me, nobody is that good. My boss has 2 degrees from Ivy schools. The guy I work with all the time went to MIT on a full scholarship and is pretty keen to tell people how high his IQ is (150s, and, yes, I believe it). The both have really big holes in their skill sets; some of which I can fill nicely despite not being at the same level of raw intellectual HP they are.
The only hole I’ve seen is the ability to go to a customer site and interface well with pasty white Americans. Partly due to language/accent/culture barriers. And the job my friend is trying to get me into is customer facing, which I do have some skills with. But I guess what’s scaring me is that their culture has already spread throughout Silicon Valley. To the point where now I’m the one with the culture barrier. How long before that’s true in the rest of the country as well? Where every city with any tech has an enclave of “them” that takes care of all the tech stuff and the pasty white traditional Americans are on the outside of it because they couldn’t get over the bar that is being set artificially high due to things like the H1B?
The entire system from the college part that you describe to the companies that use the graduates are all designed around the very best people who can manage themselves and learn it all with no help at college and then manage themselves at the job. If you can’t figure it out for yourself you don’t make the cut.
Yup. You have to be able to teach yourself. When I explained this to my late mother, she was stunned. “How do you do that?” she asked. “You read books” I replied. “What if you don’t understand it?” she countered. “Then you’re out of luck. If you need someone to hold your hand while you learn, then you are considered useless.”
What I saw last week was guys who weren’t just good at something…which used to be all you needed. They were good at everything whether they had ever been trained in it or not.
Oh yes. The bar has been raised and very high.
Software guys taking a quick glance at printed circuit boards and understanding the design and where it could be cost reduced within seconds. ‘
Probably they are looking at old designs after working with newer components. Or their friend needs some PCB work ?
This was not the case thirty years ago fortunately.
Salaries for IT workers have been flat for the last 10 years.
If there was a shortgage wages would rise.
Shortage == lack of cheap workers
+1
True. The contract engineering field is saturated. I have firsthand knowledge. Recruiters are low balling as a result. That is one reason why I went as a direct hire now.
But I will try to go back consulting in a few years.
“Now, the question I’d like to see answered; why? Why are there so few Americans who pursue technical training/jobs (STEM)? Is it a lack of ability (they just don’t have the IQ to do it)? A lack of ambition (they could do it, but it’s hard)? A perception (which, in many cases, is closer to reality than you’d think) that only geeks (and no women) pursue those fields?”
I’m in flyover country, and I have an interesting STEM job that I enjoy, and it’s a productive job free of scams. I earn about three times the median income for the area, so our two children have enjoyed the benefits of a “stay at home mom.” Unfortunately I could not afford our modest lifestyle in metro America today [and] save for retirement, and I have a varied skill-set and thrive outside the box. Certainly not wealthy, but we’re comfortable, completely debt-free home owners, and I don’t have to swindle to earn my way.
IT always has to help VP’s out when they can’t get software working !!
while us test engineers just hack in license paths ourselves to get the software to work..
Now when the server goes down then IT is pretty busy round the clock actually..
I would find them sleeping on the floor in the am sometimes.
Just an update…couldn’t sleep this morning after working all those hours this week. Back home, still employed…didn’t get all my questions answered, but apparently it was enough for now. I’m sure my friend’s attempt to get me into his group is what made the difference, but now new VP isn’t sure he wants to give me away. Go figure…
No reason to fret about things you don’t control. There will be other jobs to be had even if you lose this one.
Good for you having a steady nerve. Hopefully the VP isn’t the gift that keeps on giving.
Well done for hanging in there, Carl.
“didn’t get all my questions answered, but apparently it was enough for now.”
At my previous employer, I went for months without a title because they simply couldn’t get the right people to approve the new position. It seems to be the way of the world today that employees have dozens of unanswered questions that are pretty significant, but, nobody in the company seems to be able to correctly address (typically HR or pay related). It sucks, I know where you’re coming from Carl, good luck and happy to hear that you made the “cut” with the insane stuff that’s going on at your work.
I was thinking about your situation yesterday, you should try to get someone else to hire away the “tiger team” that’s giving you all the grief. If they really are that good, there’s probably someone who will pay them more who’s not a total pr*** to work for like your current environment. See if you can find a recruiter and get these guys into their crosshairs.
I was thinking about your situation yesterday, you should try to get someone else to hire away the “tiger team” that’s giving you all the grief. If they really are that good, there’s probably someone who will pay them more who’s not a total pr*** to work for like your current environment. See if you can find a recruiter and get these guys into their crosshairs.
Interesting thought…doesn’t seem likely, though, because of the way they seem to prefer to operate. They like the new VP who brought them in. They all know each other from way back and are friends. It’s only the existing employees that are in the crosshairs and get the high stress treatment. I don’t think they could be hired away from a cleanup project they are on with him.
They like the new VP who brought them in. They all know each other from way back and are friends.
Gotta love cronyism. No matter how hard you work or how well you perform, you aren’t in the “club” and never will be.
I still say what you need is a union or at least some sort of structure of rules that would allow you some rights.
Perhaps the term “union” is tainted and another term should be used instead. Whatever, I believe some sort of contract - whether a union contract or some other contract - is in order, in that a contract sets out a set of employment rules that need to be followed by whomever it is that happens to end up in charge, who ends up in control. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that.
Whatever the case, good luck to you.
“It seems to be the way of the world today that employees have dozens of unanswered questions that are pretty significant, but, nobody in the company seems to be able to correctly address”
It may not be entirely the way of the world (thinking about that very thorough Siemens training program) but rather an aberration unique to US businesses. I’ve experienced it a few times in recent years on the job. No training, no direction, and then you’re left to figure it out and pull it out of your arse. Like it’s some game. Maybe some basic information grudgingly given and then barked orders.
Up until now there have been enough savvy employees to do just that, figure it out and pull it out of their arses. But I fear those will become less and less, as many schools seem to have a similar operating basis in preparing students for the “real world”.
No training, no direction, and then you’re left to figure it out and pull it out of your arse.
Hah hah…yeah. And if that doesn’t go well, you get the speech about we’re all lions that need to hunt for our dinner every day right before they lay you off.
Carl - glad that you got through that one. And from what you have written it seems that you have a good handle on the situation in your company. All this makes me think that it was more than what your friend did - I would say that your boss, who is not a sociopath, recognized that you passed the stress test.
I think it’s pretty ironic that Carl describes cut-throat conditions and constant certification trainings in the IT workforce, and then in the same breath wonders why there aren’t more Americans kids entering the field.
15 years ago, the IT jobs were great. Plentiful, decent pay, not so cut throat. So many kids wanted an IT degree that universities ran out of room and had to close the IT major. Now, after 10 years of outsourcing, H1-B’s and competition, is it any wonder that kids are choosing something else?
I would say that your boss, who is not a sociopath, recognized that you passed the stress test.
That would be the flattering way to take it. I try to be realistic. He really wants open slots to hire more of “his” team. Time will tell…
Carl, I think you have definitely something going for you in that you recognize the challenges with this new group and know what drives this group. You also see that this is a competent bunch. As you briefly mentioned, you have an edge at the customer interfacing with technical skills, which this new bunch does not possess. So as long as you are technically fine then you would be fine.
One other thing I would suggest is that ask your friend if he can get the position that he had in mind for you approved. Then you can apply internally and transfer to his group. If your friend has some clout & the budget he could do that easily - you just have to help him lay the ground work.
Yeah, he’s already working on that. New VP is just trying to decide whether to give him what he wants or not. That was the case all week. But friend is under new VP so that doesn’t help with opening a req.
“No training, no direction, and then you’re left to figure it out and pull it out of your arse. Like it’s some game. Maybe some basic information grudgingly given and then barked orders.”
That’s exactly what it’s like. I changed jobs 6 months ago, and was sent for “training” my first week to the HQ location (I work remotely almost all the time). I get there, nobody has any idea who I am, no spot for me to sit, and no work to do. Gave me some busy work to do and told me to wait for someone to show up who “might be” my boss. Guy shows up 3 days later, also has no work/direction for me.
Then, in the middle of all this, I’m sent to a client to “talk about our products” and help them with an implementation. Ugh, folks. I’ve never even SEEN our products, let alone able to sell them/talk about them. Finally got access to some of the software on the way out the door and spent the plane ride to the customer trying to figure out what exactly it is that we have to sell. No idea on cost structures for the product, no clue as to the “units” its sold in, and being marched in as a high level engineer. Fake it till you make it, right?
“Up until now there have been enough savvy employees to do just that, figure it out and pull it out of their arses.”
It seems this “skill” (better know as “snowing them with BS”) is highly valued in my company today, and the one that I used to work for!
BTW, these aren’t Mom and Pop organizations. My old employer is a Fortune 100 company. My new employee is much smaller, but still 1000+ employees. It’s amazing that this is the way things are done.
Also, I must say, when I was a manager (at the Fortune 100) I made sure that this was not the indocrination for my new employees. I planned out their entire first 2 weeks; where they would be, who they would be meeting with and provided them a schedule. Room numbers, dates, times, roles and what they were supposed to learn. I also tried to be there for as much as I could. But that certainly was NOT the norm at my old company of the new one.
The biggest thing you can do for a new employee, IMHO, is to give them a list of people. Here’s the people you go to for stuff, and here’s all their contact info. Problem with your laptop, talk to Jeff. Need to talk about health insurance, all Martha. Especially for remote employees who have no ability to gain this information from the “grapevine”.
Overtaxed,
At the risk of coming across as an @ss (my apologies if I do -it’s not the intent), but much more of this is to be expected as the rate of “technological” advance continues unabated.
The problem you are facing (just like me and hundreds of millions of others) is that no one knows what the hell is going on.
And you can’t expect them to.
There’s so much tech out there that no one is capable of understanding much of what is out there before something “new” replaces the “old”.
What passes as technical “sophistication” these days is some idiotic hand-held device to play games on and tweet from. IPads are the new idiot-box, replacing televisions.
And it’s that level of technical sophistication most people operate on. Including your HR people.
The rate of change of technological “advancement” far outstrips society’s ability to understand and to make use of the advancements.
(And this is the key flaw of the IT field - developing products that few can use well. You’ve been safe thus far, but as societal wealth continues to be stolen, your field is increasingly at risk).
Overtaxed, you shouldn’t be surprised that few are ready to provide adequate training on products. They don’t UNDERSTAND the products themselves.
How can they possibly teach you how to sell them? How can they possibly know what they want you to do?
I get there, nobody has any idea who I am, no spot for me to sit, and no work to do. Gave me some busy work to do and told me to wait for someone to show up who “might be” my boss. Guy shows up 3 days later, also has no work/direction for me.
IMHO, all walks of life are populated by these types - the sociopath talkers - that have been promoted to their level of incompetency. Guess who pays for this? The end user (a person or a company). All the fat is passed on to the end user. For a corporation, just like govt, they can pull this for decades before going belly up.
What passes as technical “sophistication” these days is some idiotic hand-held device to play games on and tweet from.
Don’t forget GMail. If you don’t use GMail, you’re a Neanderthal.
And this is the key flaw of the IT field - developing products that few can use well.
At the user end most have no choice but to use Windows on their desktops. If you have money to burn, you can buy a Mac.
At the server end there is Linux as well as HP-UX, AIX and Solaris. Fortunately that world isn’t as consumed by “featuritis” as Windoze is.
I like microsoft products, especially Visual studio. For making engineering apps there is no better. Also, the fact these guys pioneered visual basic and made it possible to use in various 3D, 2D cad packages makes it great. The ability to run complied Fortran code via an interface makes it useful to me. Note that I am not a programmer.
I also like Visual Studio. Of course, it isn’t the only IDE out there, but it is a nice one, if you’re developing for Windows.
I also like Visual Studio. Of course, it isn’t the only IDE out there, but it is a nice one, if you’re developing for Windows.
I’ll go out a limb and guess that you have not been forced to “upgrade” to the ugly, user-hostile interface of VS2012.
I’ve experienced it a few times in recent years on the job. No training, no direction, and then you’re left to figure it out and pull it out of your arse. Like it’s some game. Maybe some basic information grudgingly given and then barked orders.
LOL! It would appear that we have worked at the same places.
Of course, we haven’t. The situation you describe has become the “new normal” in the USA. When you find a place that isn’t like that, you find yourself willing to put up with other cr@p.
Sounds like it was a rough week. But maybe you just survived boot camp?
I suggest you think hard about the tradeoff between opportunity and personal cost, assuming opportunity materializes (said by somebody who doesn’t always practice what he preaches…).
This is what is wrong with this whole matter, IMO, this stress of “surviving”. Why should one have to be stressed out about surviving a job? Why should chance - in this case the chance of having a psychopath end up deciding your fate - weigh so heavily on one’s well being?
“Why should one have to be stressed out…”
It’s one of the realities of today’s labor market. Even good people have few alternatives to playing the Hunger Game card.
To push this idea a bit further, what we see in the present labor market is a vast chasm between penury and opulent wealth, which is a natural consequence of a vanishing middle class. On a personal level, it turns into a choice of whether to take the Glengarry Glen Ross challenge of becoming a “closer,” or permanently putting the coffee down.
Take your pick!
what we see in the present labor market is a vast chasm between penury and opulent wealth, which is a natural consequence of a vanishing middle class ??
[H]umanity is experiencing a turning point in its history, as we can see from the advances being made in so many fields. We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas such as health care, education and communications. At the same time, we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity.‚
Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “Thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality.
Pope Francis…..
If you don’t like widening disparity, abolish the fed. Don’t vote for the politicians who promote cheap money. Otherwise, you have no right to complain. YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
“YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.”
Absolutely. It’s my vote for the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America which is the root cause.
Central Bank…. Central Planning and 5 year plans….. it’s all the same price fixing.
Yeah, well I voted against this stuff and I got it anyway.
Might have something to do with being outvoted.
“This is what is wrong with this whole matter, IMO, this stress of “surviving”. Why should one have to be stressed out about surviving a job?”
When a great many people are in hock up to their eyeballs, survival is what it’s all about.
When people have their wealth stripped away from them, survival is what it’s all about.
When people experience continual drops in their standard of living, survival is what it’s all about.
When people recognize their economic future to be dismal, survival is what it’s all about.
It’s my vote for the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America which is the root cause.
There were a few candidates who were promising to remove the president of the Fed, I think.
When people are obsessed with one facet(income) of a two faceted problem(inflated prices), the price-fixing power structures remain in place.
If you don’t like widening disparity, abolish the fed. Don’t vote for the politicians who promote cheap money ??
Really Dude…We have widening disparity “because” of cheap money ?? Kind of a asinine statement IMO…You kept hitting the key board after brain function ceased…
^Spoken like a foolish communist.
You kept hitting the key board after brain function ceased
If you think repeating the same fed policies gonna get you a different result, you have already lost your every brain cell you may have ever had.
^Spoken like a foolish communist.
Spoken like an insane crony capitalist.
The comment wasn’t for you.
“There were a few candidates who were promising to remove the president of the Fed, I think.”
Some of us realized that was pure bullsh!t.
I know. My reply wasn’t for you either.
Communists are somewhat honest…those who cry income disparity while supporting cheap money are the lowest form of life in economic and political discussion.
Pope Francis…..
Fox News called him the “Catholic Obama”
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/04/pope-francis-is-catholic-churchs-obama-god-help-us/
Eliminate the Fed, raise interest rates and problem below is solved right ?? You really think the 1%ers are adversely effected by high interest rates…If you think so, then you did not live through the Volcker days…Volcker “crushed” the middle class business man…The rich got “richer” by parking their cash in 30-year CD’s @ 13% and using the income to gobble up as much distressed assets as possible…
At the same time, we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity.
Decades of cheap money policy ends in tears…..
Of course we need more of it.
Decades of cheap money policy ??
How many decades is it you speak of ??
^
Price fixing communist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Federal_Funds_Rate_1954_thru_2009_effective.svg
See the pattern?
Oh I see the pattern alright…All the way back to 1952…Nice try though using your baseline of Volcker’s 1982 18% prime…Making yourself look like a fool…
Making yourself look like a fool…
You use the F word first so you must know what it looks like because you see one everyday in your mirror. If you can’t even read that chart and draw even a semi intelligent conclusion, then you should just quit blogging.
You put it up there…I will just let the 60 year chart speak for itself…
^
Price fixing communist..
Some of us realized that was pure bullsh!t.
Some of us don’t have the hubris of others, thinking they know the future.
And some just don’t have a nose for BS.
If you think it does, then it does. If you don’t, it doesn’t.
b thankful you have a job, do what you have to do to keep it!
Why should one have to be stressed out about surviving a job?
Because goods and services at a fair profit yield about 6-7% ROI. The bottomless stockholder maw — and the CEO’s who are legally bound to feed the maw, want 10-12% ROI. The middle class, being held hostage by their 401K, are somewhat bound by that ROI too.
That missing 5% is where the job stress comes from. That missing 5% is why banks took the risks that necessitated the bailout, why so many households need two incomes (leading to high unemployment), why nobody can get good health care, why so many people gambled on housing, and why so many people go to food banks.
Well put.
And the bar keeps rising.
Constantly changing fed policies and government laws/regulations is not a good environment for log term planning and staying put for any business. They force the executives to take the cut while the getting is good and run.
Companies have fed the media with complaints about “regulations” and “taxes” and convince the American people fall for it. You know why? Because they’re already cut a lot of expenses from those pesky employees (see cutthroat). So they need to find some other way to make up that 5%. Dumping crap in rivers and not paying taxes is just cutting another expense.
Carl, congrats on surviving your trip into the lion’s den. I hope that things settle out well for you…
Thanks to you and everyone who has expressed similar sentiments. No telling what the future holds…I’m thinking I need to be looking while he’s figuring out how he wants to use me. But I’m glad to still be getting a check during that process. No telling what the future brings…
How about that stock market? It seems to predictably hit a new high level several times a week, no matter what.
Maybe if MSM commentators keep expressing stock market worries, it will be able to climb its “wall of worry” all the way to the moon?
P.S. I did no shopping on Black Friday. If you are in the same boat, it sounds like we may enjoy some good deals going forward, due to “heavy discounting to clear inventory.” Enjoy your holiday shopping!
Nobel Prize Winner Confirms My Concerns of Stock Market Vulnerability
December 6th, 2013 by George Leong, B.Comm.
It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of another year. It seems as though the move into 2013 was just yesterday. I was bullish at the start of the year, but I was not expecting the kind of stock market advances we have seen with the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 up more than 30% and the S&P 500 nearing that level with multiple record-highs.
Recently, I wrote about the need to ride the current market higher, as the signs point to more upside moves ahead. (Read “Why Stocks Likely to Head Higher into the New Year.”) But at the same time, I remain nervous about the vulnerability of the stock market.
The soft results from what was pumped up as a killer Black Friday failed to materialize, as sales on the Thanksgiving weekend fell 2.7% year over year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). The NRF did estimate sales during the next few weeks prior to Christmas could rise 3.9%, but while it may pan out, it will only do so because of heavy discounting to clear inventory.
What continues to linger on my mind is the fact that we have yet to see a correction of 10% or more during this four-year bull market, which began in March 2009. This makes me nervous.
Robert Shiller, who was one of three Americans who just won the 2013 Nobel prize for economics, believes there is a bubble in the U.S. stock market, especially given the run-up in stocks in spite of what has been a fragile economic recovery. (Source: Clinch, M., “Nobel Prize winner warns of US stock market bubble,” CNBC, December 2, 2013.)
While I have also been nervous, saying the stock market is vulnerable to a correction, I continue to advise investors ride the gains but take some profits off the table.
…
I’m still out. there is no value here at these levels. still feel it is rigged just like most everyone else. CNBC viewership is still cratering.
Margin debt is at all time highs.
Like I said all we need is a catalyst and it will have the herd running for the exits at once. Caveat emptor!!!
I’m looking to make some cash on the downside more than anything else.
I thought you were all about “equity gains”? I guess the housing market is different than the stock market in your eyes? (Not really disagreeing with you, but also not sure we see the differences in a similar light…)
I was under the impression that azdude’s posts were tongue in cheek.
$hitHouse Poet’s ruse is similar to yours.
For the last two years, taking profits off the table has kept me from noticing my income cuts. Also taking profits off the table within your 401k is a smart way to rebalance into your asset allocation comfort level without getting taxable gains. For Roth accounts, it is even better. You already were taxed for your Roth conversion or principle, so rebalancing in Roths is an even better idea.
Are stock market investors in denial about what the Fed’s taper will bring? Or is it a matter of not believing the Fed actually will move beyond taper talk, at least any time in the foreseeable future?
Young.Dumb.Money hasn’t entered equities…. yet.
“Young.Dumb.Money”
Is there much of that around these days? Kind of like those real estate investors with buckets of money and boxes of stupid…harder to find these days than in the pre-2008 era.
I correct myself…
Young. Dumb. Borrowed. Money.
I thought you were the dumb money?
You know that money you send to the bank month after month on that rapidly depreciating house?
That dumb money.
Wasn’t 2011 way way back in the day when financial advisers were trying to coral geriatric investors into super-safe Treasury bonds? Meanwhile, it seems the equity premium puzzle is back with a vengeance!
Bloomberg News
Treasury Yield Curve Steepest Since 2011 as Jobs Fuel Taper Bets
By Daniel Kruger and Cordell Eddings December 07, 2013
The difference between yields on two-and 10-year Treasuries widened to the most since 2011 as employment gains reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve is close to slowing bond purchases used to stimulate growth.
Benchmark 10-year notes yielded 255 basis points, or 2.55 percent points, more than two-year debt as investors sought a premium against the risk of inflation that comes from faster growth and the eventual absence of the biggest buyer of Treasuries when the Fed does slow purchases. The U.S. is selling $64 billion of notes and bonds next week, and Fed policy makers will meet Dec. 17-18.
“Every time we get numbers that are better than expected, it’s a curve steepener,” said Kevin Flanagan, a Purchase, New York-based fixed-income strategist at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. The Fed will be able to “take off the training wheels” because this “will be a self-sustaining recovery,” he said.
The yield curve, as the difference is known, widened nine basis points this week as it reached the steepest level on a closing basis since July 2011. It touched 261 basis points yesterday, the steepest intraday level since July 2011. It decreased to 145 basis points the week ended April 26, the narrowest this year.
The benchmark Treasury 10-year note yield rose 11 basis points to 2.86 percent this week in trading in New York in its its third weekly increase, the longest stretch in six months. It was the biggest advance in a month. Two-year (USGG2YR) note yields added two basis points, the most since Oct. 11, to 0.3 percent. They reached 0.32 percent yesterday, the highest level since Nov. 13.
Volatility Climbs
A gauge of Treasuries volatility rose to the highest level in almost two months. The Bank of America Merrill Lynch MOVE index reached 76.1 on Dec. 5, the most since Oct. 11, before declining yesterday to 69.2. The 2013 average is 71.5.
The Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bond Index (BUSY) has dropped 2.8 percent in 2013 as Fed purchases fueled appetite for higher-yielding assets. Stocks have climbed, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index returning 29 percent including reinvested dividends.
…
Did you look at the price?
The problem:
http://newsdaytonabeach.com/illegal-immigrant-charged-with-raping-deaf-mute-woman-in-deland/
How are your Bitcoin investments holding up?
(Hint: KEEERAAAAAAASSSSHHH!!!!!!!!)
http://buttcoin.org/stagesofabubble.png
Buttcoins.. houses… it all applies.
Will the Fed come in to support Bitcoin the way they buttrested the housing market?
Oops…meant to say “buttressed.” My Freudian slip is showing again.
I note this crash was much bigger than Wall Street’s Black Monday crash, albeit for only one asset price. The illusion that Bitcoin is somehow beyond governments’ ability to control it shattered in a heartbeat.
Sure was fun while it lasted, though…
Markets More: Bitcoin
MELTDOWN: BITCOIN CRASHES TO $576
Sam Ro
Dec. 7, 2013, 6:16 AM
Bitcoin fell from a high of $1,079 to a low of $576 today. This is according to data from Mt. Gox. Also, this represents a breathtaking 46% crash.
Currently, Bitcoin is back to the $700 level. This is still down a whopping 35%.
The sharp moves come in the wake of China’s clampdown on the controversial digital currency.
Earlier this week, the People’s Bank of China announced it was barring the country’s banks from handling the Bitcoin. (That Thursday announcement was followed by a 30% intraday crash.)
…
I’m beginning to feel like Frosty The Snowman might have felt on a warm sunny day.
You’re beginning to look like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy “accidentally” spills a bucket of water on her.
The solution to illegal immigration. Interesting the Obama administration says the maximum it can deport is 400,000 per year.
Drudge link from FT:
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6b49c0fa-5d9d-11e3-b3e8-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2mndYZAu6
Teodros Adhanom, the Ethiopian foreign minister, has turned to Twitter almost every night for the last three weeks to tersely report the number of his countrymen expelled from Saudi Arabia.
“Last night arrivals from Saudi reached 100,620,” he wrote on Friday, describing a fraction of one of the largest deportations in recent Middle East history.
Riyadh has said it wants to forcibly expel as many as 2m of the foreign workers, including hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, Somalis, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who make up around a third of the country’s 30m population
Who’s going to serve me my $1.50 super-sized mcdonald? Who’s going to vote for the progressives of left and right?
Did Nazi Germany deport anyone?
Like the communist system the hard part in National Socialistic countries is to keep the people that you want to stay in the country. Self deportations were very common in Nazi Germany.
The point is that they were enslaved.
Hey HA now we know why Lola is such an Obamacare supporter:
http://patdollard.com/2013/03/oh-goody-sex-change-operations-covered-under-obamacare/
Hey HA unlike Rio I do not have George Soros paying for my posts so I have to go. Perhaps you can get him to explain why I need to subsidize someone’s sex change and how an insurance policy that does not cover sex changes is inadequate?
Great. My insurance costs are going to triple to finance Rio’s trans-gender sub culture.
Did Nazi Germany deport anyone?
Technically, YES. And if you can’t figure out what I mean, you can stew.
You’re flailing again Toxide.
In Saudi, working with your hands is looked down on, hence the need for all the foreign workers.
Many in the US have the same view. However, take away the transfer payments and raise the wages by reducing the number of illegals and that will change. The same in true in Saudi Arabia. It was not that long ago that people there do there own work. The oil boom is largely over for them, the government knows the oil is running out.
It was not that long ago that people there do there own work.
Try: It was not that long ago that people there did their own work.
That is bad even for me stream of consciousness typing can burn you.
It’s OK … sometimes our fingers outrun our brains when typing.
“Did you look at the price?”
Well? Did you?
Global-warming ‘proof’ is evaporating
Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to push to reduce supposed global-warming emissions. Last month, the president even signed an executive order establishing a Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience that could dramatically expand government bureaucrats’ ability to restrict Americans’ use of their property, water and energy to reduce so-called “greenhouse gas emissions.”
http://nypost.com/2013/12/05/global-warming-proof-is-evaporating/
Your government wants to control ALL water, up to and including the small rivulet-sized streams running through backyards across the USA.
Imagine that. A government that seeks control of all water. To be “administered” by them.
Totalitarianism? Nah, that’s alarmist nonsense.
While both predictions are outliers, over the next forty years it is much more likely that we will have an ice age than significant global warming. So a few years people were talking about holding trials for “deniers” when people died because of AGW. So if an ice age strikes that kills hundreds of millions due to crop failures, should we hold trials for Gore and Hansen since more co2 emissions might have helped to avoid the ice age?
NYT has a story about how many more snowy owls are in the US this year. About twenty five years ago, I remember all the stories about animals that were migrating north. I wonder if written into their genetic codes there is information which allows them to know when the climate is undergoing a cooling or warming.
We’ve a great deal of snow on the ground already across the United States. And it’s only the 7th of December.
Perhaps the owls know something.
http://www.intellicast.com/Travel/Weather/Snow/Cover.aspx
It was 33 degrees in my part of Phoenix this morning. I never experienced Phoenix temperatures this low in the Fall. January is typically the coldest month. In Phoenix.
Here’s a jetstream view of the U.S.:
http://www.intellicast.com/National/Wind/JetStream.aspx
China’s coal consumption has increased from 1.5 billion tons in 2000 to 3.8 billion tons in 2011.
From wikipedia:
“Due in large part to the emissions caused by burning coal, China is now the number one producer of carbon dioxide, responsible for a full quarter of the world’s CO2 output. According to a recent study, even if American emissions were to suddenly disappear tomorrow, world emissions would be back at the same level within four years as a result of China’s growth alone.”
As I’ve stated before, this planet is going to be a real ecological utopia when it’s populated by 12 billion of God’s little miracles.
And now back to your regularly scheduled Drudge Report links …
Yes and because of that increase in coal production they are rapidly running out of coal and turning to alternative energy both due to that and the pollution levels. But despite all this burning of coal the earth is cooling not warming, c02 is a very weak warming agent and was not responsible for more than 10 to 15% of the warming between 1978 and 1998 and now the natural factors are causing a cooling and if we are unlucky an Ice age.
I had no idea there were 30 million people in Saudi Arabia.
They grown by about 4% per year so it was less than 20 years ago, there was half that. It means that more and more of their oil production goes to their own population at subsidize rates.
But actually they have slowed down their growth rate quite a bit in the last 20 years when I look at the recent numbers so it is now far less than 4 % but still higher than Iran.
Half of them are prolly migrant workers.
Saudi Arabia is rapidly catching up with Iran in population. I guess they want a bigger population for the Shiite vs. Sunni war. Speaking of that when I look at the policies of the Bush II and Obama administrations, we either have two the dumbest administrations on middle east policy or they both have been trying to provoke a Sunni/Shiite conflict.
both have been trying to provoke a Sunni/Shiite conflict.
Not really that hard to do…
No it is shooting fish in a barrel when you have over 1000 years of history on your side.
Perhaps they are born with the hatred:
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/12/01/mice-inherit-specific-memories-because-epigenetics/
So the Jews should really hate the Egyptians and be playing the knock-out game with them?
So how come it doesn’t happen?
IQ.
So the Jews should really hate the Egyptians
Who were the Egyptians back then? I doubt they were the current occupants of the area.
Amnesty Incorporated: DHS Hires Activist Immigration Lawyers
by J. Christian Adams
December 4th, 2013 - 5:20 pm
Despite the sequester, the Department of Homeland Security has just completed a hiring blitz of attorneys to oversee and manage immigration litigation. Almost all of these new civil service attorney hires hail from an activist pro-amnesty and pro-asylum background. Sources within the Department of Homeland Security report that the process for hiring these new career civil service lawyers was unconventional and was conducted by an Obama political appointee within DHS.
The new attorneys have activist backgrounds with a variety of pro-amnesty groups such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the Advancement Project, and open borders groups funded by the Tides Foundation.
PJ Media previously reported on attorney hires within the Justice Department Civil Rights Division in the Every Single One series. That series demonstrated that every single attorney hire had a leftist or Democrat activist pedigree. The Department of Justice Inspector General criticized those DOJ hiring procedures as producing ideological outcomes. PJ Media only obtained the resumes of DOJ hires after this publication was forced to sue Eric Holder in federal court under the Freedom of Information Act.
Now, sources inside DHS have provided PJ Media with the employment history and pro-amnesty backgrounds of the newly hired lawyers who will be enforcing federal immigration laws.
The ideological histories of these new DHS lawyers undermine confidence that the federal government will vigorously enforce federal laws, notwithstanding any congressional “mandates” to do so.
Here are the backgrounds of the new lawyers hired at the DHS in the recent hiring blitz: (here are 5, click link for the other 20 something new hires)
New DHS lawyer Maura Ooi previously worked in militantly activist roles with militantly activist open borders organizations such as the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. Also, prior to joining DHS, Ooi penned a report for the leftist National Immigration Law Center bashing DHS. Titled “DHS Proposes Fantasy Remedies to Cure Fundamental Flaws in the Secure Communities Program” (emphasis mine), Ooi complained about efforts to fingerprint captured illegal aliens. Without collecting biometric data such as fingerprints, deported illegal aliens may repeatedly return to the United States and their prior illegal entries would remain unknown.
New DHS lawyer Liza Shah just completed a stint with the George Soros-funded Advancement Project working to ensure felons get the right to vote in Virginia (with the tragic and politically suicidal aid of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell). As a law student, Shah naturally helped in litigation to keep foreigners in the United States.
Catlin Shay has a history of aiding foreigners seeking to remain in the United States as well as activism against laws prohibiting felons from voting. She wrote “Free But No Liberty: How Florida Contravenes the Voting Rights Act by Preventing Persons Previously Convicted of Felonies from Voting,” and advocated a position wholly rejected by federal courts.
Cara Shewchuk once worked at the pro-amnesty National Immigration Law Center and the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, providing free legal help to illegal aliens.
Lindsay Smith is a graduate of Smith College and Michigan Law, where she was “a Jenny Runkles scholar” for her commitment to public interest law and “diversity.” She also worked at the open borders, pro-amnesty group Americans for Immigrant Justice.
http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/12/04/amnesty-incorporated-dhs-hires-immigration-activist-lawyers/ - 292k -
New DHS lawyer Liza Shah just completed a stint with the George Soros-funded Advancement Project working to ensure felons get the right to vote in Virginia (with the tragic and politically suicidal aid of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell). As a law student, Shah naturally helped in litigation to keep foreigners in the United States.
Yes, and this was the problem with the compromise that Reagan struck with the democrats in 1986 on illegal immigration. He traded an amnesty for provisions that would allow a president the tools to stop future immigration. He was naïve to believe that a future president would take his oath of office and to the constitution seriously and enforce the laws on the book. He probably was the last president to take the oath seriously. This administration in particular only enforces laws it believes in and even ignores laws that it disagree this country cannot last long when the oath of office means nothing. George Soros’ globalist agenda is advanced with such a president. Lying about your uncle is not treason but advancing a global agenda instead of the US constitution is treason.
“Six weeks ago, they got the new numbers: the Greenwoods’ $4,300 annual flood insurance premium would increase by about 900 percent. When their policy comes due next July, they will owe the federal government nearly $44,000, the highest documented flood insurance premium in Pinellas County.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/seminole-couple-hit-with-43000-flood-insurance-premium/2155990
Comment by Muggy
2012-08-10 15:02:31
*For years* I have been advising FL buyers here to wait until the insurance catastrophe plays out, because it may not go back… and that needs to be reflected in the price.
http://www.thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=7301#comment-2071700
So Federal flood insurance is more than private insurance?
It’s the government helping citizens. We need more of these programs.
No, it’s the government “not interfering,” you know, like you free-market people want? The gov offers the high price insurance to encourage people to try to get private insurance first. The gov is the insurer of last resort.
The government is the insurer of last resort because the free market has determined that it is a money losing proposition to offer affordable flood insurance on homes in areas prone to flooding.
In so doing, the government has allowed the expansion of development in flood-prone areas that never should have been developed. Welcome to the tyranny of the real.
I mentioned this the other day. These flood insurance premiums aren’t just increasing in Florida. I have relatives that know of instances in Coastal MA and RI where flood insurance premiums are now completely unaffordable to any but the verywealthy and will prevent those houses from selling, as only cash buyers who self-insure and don’t require a mortgage will be able to purchase them.
“If you don’t like widening disparity, abolish the fed. Don’t vote for the politicians who promote cheap money. Otherwise, you have no right to complain. YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.”
No….. not part of the problem. They ARE the problem.
This is a crucial idea. I’m very happy you posted this, HA.
You are not part of the problem. You are not robbing your fellow citizens of their freedom, money, time and resources. THEY are.
Do NOT assume culpability for something not of your own making.
They are the price fixers.
Ever wonder why prices of everything are inflated when supply is coming out our ears and demand is falling?
Didn’t communism (price fixing) fail?
Ever wonder why prices of everything are inflated when supply is coming out our ears and demand is falling?
Are prices inflating or are fiat currencies devaluing?
Price fixing by any means possible.
Are prices inflating or are fiat currencies devaluing ??
That would be #2….
Hey Communist,
Price are inflated.
Price are inflated.
Would the fact that prices are inflated suggest that we have had some _inflation_?
No. *Learn* what inflation is.
I voted for Ron Paul in the 2012 primary and for Gary Johnson in the general election, and for doing the latter was told by other HBB posters that my vote was “stolen” from Romney.
VIDEO: Homeland Security Searches Vehicles at Ferry Crossing Checkpoint
Fri, 12/06/2013 - 13:23
http://youtu.be/j8fWSqC77v8
A video shows the Department of Homeland Security conducting warrantless searches of vehiclesat a ferry crossing in Galveston, Texas, in yet another example of how the agency is setting up checkpoints across the country.
http://www.dailypaul.com/307098/video-homeland-security-searches-vehicles-at-ferry-
Colonel Who Vowed to Disarm Americans Works With Homeland Security
Oath-violating Bateman also made veiled death threats against blogger
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 6, 2013
Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, the second amendment-hating Army Officer who caused controversy after vowing to “pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers,” works closely with the Department of Homeland Security.
Earlier this week, Bateman, an active military commander, penned a piece for Esquire magazine in which he promised to push for a total ban on all firearms besides muskets, shotguns and rifles, and shut down all gun manufacturers except for those who produced weapons for the federal government and the armed forces (you will be disarmed, the state will have a monopoly on firepower).
Bateman is president and founder of Alliance Defense Marketing Associates LLC, a “global premier risk management” firm that does work for the DHS.
According to the company’s website, part of the services offered by the firm include, “Homeland Security operational initiatives.”
According to Bateman’s official LinkedIn page, he also personally specializes in “Defense/Homeland Security/Law Enforcement operational initiatives.”
That’s ironic given that while Bateman is lecturing the American people about their gun rights, the DHS is simultaneously buying assault rifles and acquiring billions of rounds of ammunition.
Critics contend that Bateman’s revulsion for the second amendment (which he woefully misinterprets) “proves he knows nothing about the Constitution he swore an oath to defend.”
Bateman’s promise to “pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers” was an inflammatory reference to his advocacy for making it illegal for guns on his imaginary blacklist to be inherited. “I am willing to wait until you die, hopefully of natural causes,” wrote Bateman.
Later in the article, Bateman says disarming the American people is all about encouraging “less violence and death,” although such sentiments weren’t evident when he became embroiled in an argument with a blogger which ended up with the Colonel making a thinly veiled death threat.
The argument concerned a former senior female Human Terrain Team (HTT) member who was allegedly subjected to a death threat by an active duty lieutenant at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
After Bateman engaged in “ad hominem attacks” against Maximilian Forte, the blogger who posted the story, and was subsequently banned, he resorted to a veiled death threat of his own.
“And I apologize for the future. Not really my fault. But I am sorry nonetheless,” wrote Bateman.
“You apologize for the future. It was worth approving your message just so that others can see the veiled threat,” responded Forte.
Bateman repeated the threat in a subsequent post when he remarked, “And again, Max, truly, I am sorry for your future.”
Bateman’s thinly veiled death threats reveal him to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, someone who claims to be all about reducing violence yet resorts to barely disguised rhetorical threats of violence against his ideological adversaries.
It seems abundantly clear that it is Bateman who has a problem with violence and is most likely a danger to himself and those around him. It is therefore Bateman, and not the American people, who should be disarmed.
So much for our men and women in uniform “fighting for our freedoms”. Many here have predicted that they will be the first to turn against the citizenry.
There was a great Bill Adama quote in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica:
“There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”
Many here have predicted that they will be the first to turn against the citizenry.
They are not a single entity although they like to think of themselves as one. You can purge the thinkers from the officer ranks but the enlisted still have to come from somewhere. Unless there’s a draft most will come from red states and will not fire on “their own people”. They will disappear into the woods when the time comes, along with their gear. The only possible way around it that I can see is to make sure everybody serves in an area of the country they have no respect for and not near their home state.
Chatted with a fellow on my flight to Phoenix last night. Nice guy. Nice house in Gilbert (he showed me his Thanksgiving pictures of 30 guests - friends and relatives at his house).
I brought up the subject of firearms and why I pay for two roofs only because I can own legal firearms in Arizona that are illegal in California where I work.
He says he is half owner of an AR-15 and owns 1000 rounds of .223s. People such as him are why I feel more comfortable going home to Arizona after three weeks in the nanny state.
It was nice to see in the small beach towns of Oregon there are gun shops and also they have gun shows in such a loony lib state.
Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, the second amendment-hating Army Officer who caused controversy after vowing to “pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers,” works closely with the Department of Homeland Security.
Molan Labe.
David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, another Reagan man telling the truth about 30 years of Reaganomics.
David Stockman bombshell: How my Republican Party destroyed the American economy.
The “debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts.”
Cue the FoxNews denunciations.
David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, has dared to call out his own party for creating our current economic problems. His NYT op-ed, “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse,” begins:
IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.
Given our long-term deficit problem, Stockman said it is “unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase.”
UPDATE: Huffpost reports that in an interview today on NBC’s Meet the Press, “Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the push by congressional Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the costs elsewhere could end up being ‘disastrous’ for the economy.”
Here are some more excerpts from Stockman’s must-read piece:
More fundamentally, Mr. McConnell’s stand puts the lie to the Republican pretense that its new monetarist and supply-side doctrines are rooted in its traditional financial philosophy. Republicans used to believe that prosperity depended upon the regular balancing of accounts “” in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the financial affairs of private households and businesses, too. But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance “” vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.
This approach has not simply made a mockery of traditional party ideals. It has also led to the serial financial bubbles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy. More specifically, the new policy doctrines have caused four great deformations of the national economy, and modern Republicans have turned a blind eye to each one….
The second unhappy change in the American economy has been the extraordinary growth of our public debt. In 1970 it was just 40 percent of gross domestic product, or about $425 billion. When it reaches $18 trillion, it will be 40 times greater than in 1970. This debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/08/01/206517/david-stockman-how-gop-destroyed-the-economy/
Once again a conclusory statement as a fact:
“This debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts.”
When the debt reaches 18 trillion dollars, almost half of the debt will belong to Obama. Facts are stubborn things.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/national-debt-has-increased-more-under-obama-than-under-bush/
Key excerpt:
If Mr. Obama wins re-election, and his budget projections prove accurate, the National Debt will top $20 trillion in 2016, the final year of his second term. That would mean the Debt increased by 87 percent, or $9.34 trillion, during his two terms.
BTW, Rand Paul was just on Fox Business. He talked about his signing up for Obamacare. Website problems and insurance at four times the cost.
30 years of Reaganomics have destroyed the middle-class, our tax base and our jobs base. It is fact now. This is not theory. We did it. You all were there. This is reality. This is not a test.
The ruin of Reaganomics
You should be mad at the successful marketing of Republican ’supply-side’ mythology.
http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/the-ruin-of-reaganomics/Content?oid=1635520
For three decades we have conducted a massive economic experiment, testing a theory known as supply-side economics. The theory goes like this: Lower tax rates will encourage more investment, which in turn will mean more jobs and greater prosperity—so much so that tax revenues will go up, despite lower rates. The late Milton Friedman, the libertarian economist who wanted to shut down public parks because he considered them socialism, promoted this strategy. Ronald Reagan embraced Friedman’s ideas and made them into policy when he was elected president in 1980.
For the past decade, we have doubled down on this theory of supply-side economics with the tax cuts sponsored by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, which President Obama has agreed to continue for two years.
You would think that whether this grand experiment worked would be settled after three decades. You would think the practitioners of the dismal science of economics would look at their demand curves and the data on incomes and taxes and pronounce a verdict, the way Galileo and Copernicus did when they showed that geocentrism was a fantasy because Earth revolves around the sun (known as heliocentrism). But economics is not like that. It is not like physics with its laws and arithmetic with its absolute values.
Tax policy is something the Framers left to politics. And in politics, the facts often matter less then who has the biggest bullhorn.
The Mad Men who once ran campaigns featuring doctors extolling the health benefits of smoking are now busy marketing the dogma that tax cuts mean broad prosperity, no matter what the facts show.
When the debt reaches 18 trillion dollars, almost half of the debt will belong to Obama. Facts are stubborn things.
Obama inherited TheBushTaxCutsForTheRich and 30 years of Reaganomics/Supply side “economics” that gutted the American economy.
Facts:
1. sup·ply-side adj.
Of, relating to, or being an economic theory that increased availability of money for investment, achieved through reduction of taxes especially in the higher tax brackets, will increase productivity, economic activity, and income throughout the economic system.
2. We’ve done it for 30 years.
3. It ruined America’s economy.
4. December 5ths HBB bits bucket proves Albuquerquedan lies by ommission.
We did it. We’re still doing it. It is killing us. It has proven to have failed. These are facts now. There is no rational “debate”.
Reaganomics: A Grand, Failed Experiment
http://www.apj.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=475&Itemid=2
The grand experiment has failed, and we are just beginning to realize the enormous costs of that failure.
June 5, 2007 (crisispapers.org) – On January 20, 1981, in his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan told the nation: “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
Thus began a grand experiment: Release the American economy from the bonds of government regulation. Individual enterprise and initiative, the profit motive, the free market and open competition will usher in a new birth of freedom and a new era of unprecedented prosperity.
“It’s morning in America.”
Twenty-six years later, what do we have? A dismantled and “outsourced” industrial base, an impoverished work force, a nine trillion dollar debt burden upon future generations, and a degradation of education and scientific research, and a captive media that deprives the public of essential news as it issues outright lies. In addition, the Bush administration, the current keeper of the covenant, has accomplished the trashing of the Constitution and its guaranteed Bill of Rights, a seemingly endless war with no prospect (or even definition) of victory, and the contempt of the peoples and governments of the civilized world.
The grand experiment has failed, and we are just beginning to realize the enormous costs of that failure.
How did it happen? It happened because the core dogmas of this so-called “conservatism” – the possibility and desirability of an ungoverned society, the superior “wisdom” of an unconstrained free market, the suitability of simple greed as a driving force of society – were fated from the start to fail the test of “real world” application.
A Fallacy of False Comparison
“The theory is beautiful, but reality is a bitch,”
You know Rio, I’ve sat here and watched you make dozens of posts for 5 days about what you are against. (Flawed as hell, because you support the current President, who is perpetuating what you claim to be against. If it’s been going on for “30 years”, that includes Clinton, twice, and Obama, twice).
So what are you proposing? More socialism? More money printing, more debt? More globalism? More cozy Wall Street-revolving door that Obama has embraced? Bank bail-outs, too big to fail? Maybe Krugman’s space alien solution? Come on, spit it out. You’ve got all the answers, right?
It’s Reagan’s fault that Clinton and Obama carried Reagan’s policies…I doubt they did but for some people it seems that way. If that’s the case why even bother voting democrats, no?
It’s Heritage and Romney’s fault that the O’care is a $hit…..
There have been democratic presidents, there were always democrats in Congress (well represented i might add)…..not sure if we have accomplished anything different by having more democrats….
So what are you proposing? More socialism? More money printing, more debt?
I don’t think those on the right on this blog know what socialism is. What I’m proposing is higher taxes on the very wealthy and corporations to levels they were in the 60s-70’s. Public finance of elections. Much greater financial regulation. Audit the fed. Raise the min wage. Promote private unions and worker’s rights. Supporting heathcare programs. Invest much more in basic research American education and infrastructure and for Americans to stop their blind worshiping of failed Supply Side dogma and practice. It failed.
If it’s been going on for “30 years”, that includes Clinton, twice, and Obama, twice).
Yes. Clinton practiced Reaganomics on the offshoring and financial deregulation issue however bucked it on the CuttingTaxsOnTheRich side. Then Bush ruined America’s budget with his TaxCutsForTheRich. (Reaganomics)
Obama has tried to buck Reaganomics by wanting to raise taxes on the rich, speaking out against wealth inequality, healthcare and slightly “tougher” financial regulations. That’s a main reason why Reagan worshipers hate Obama. Let’s face it. Obama got a lousy hand - a gutted economy due to 30 years of Reaganomics that is still in place.
Obama got a lousy hand
Obama didn’t get a lousy hand…..he got the hand his own party was fully complicit in making.
Obama didn’t get a lousy hand…..he got the hand his own party was fully complicit in making.
Not on the deficit. Clinton had us talking about a surplus. TheBushTaxCutsForTheRich helped ruin us.
TheBushTaxCutsForTheRich, Two wars and a wrecked economy due to 30 years of Reaganomics, foaming at the mouth hating bigots, hate radio and nuts…..Obama got a lousy hand.
‘What I’m proposing is higher taxes on the very wealthy and corporations to levels they were in the 60s-70’s. Public finance of elections. Much greater financial regulation. Audit the fed. Raise the min wage. Promote private unions and worker’s rights. Supporting heathcare programs. Invest much more in basic research American education and infrastructure’
Well there you go. Get out there and find a candidate, or become one, raise money, campaign, and start convincing voters on your agenda. But remember, it’s not easy. You might have to compromise. You might have to settle for less than you want. I know, I’m a libertarian. In that process, you might find some disagree with you. But you have to be alright with that, because you don’t get to make all the decisions. You may find that some of your proposals are unpopular. You may even discover that you need some of the people you call “right wingers” to join you on one issue or another. And you may have to join them here and there.
Most surprisingly, you may find out people in this country are largely capitalists. People who work, or own a business and expect no handout if they fail. They would like to keep as much as they can of what they earn if they succeed. You’d have to be OK with that too, because you need them to advance your agenda. You need their votes, their tax money. You need them to get up tomorrow and got to work again. Somebody has to do that; not all of us can rest on the “safety net.” indefinitely.
Oh, and you demeanor, the words you use. You might have to hold your tongue here and there. We’ve all seem movements or politicians scuttled by words. And you must be very clear when you speak. For instance, I don’t really get all this trickle down, Reagan bahh! stuff. I didn’t support Reagan; never voted for him or a Bush in my life. Most people aren’t interested in your version of political and economic history. (Actually, most people are completely apathetic; another challenge for you).
So you have to speak to what people do want; solutions. You have to engage them, win them over. And maybe, after years of hard work, you will achieve some of your goals.
But you know what they say about first rule when you find yourself in a hole? The first thing you have to do, in my opinion, is to stop alienating people. Otherwise, you will be as effective as the Occupy Movement.
You do want to be effective right? You aren’t here just to argue, right?
What I’m proposing is higher taxes on the very wealthy and corporations to levels they were in the 60s-70’s.
Sorry that it a prescription to the end of America. Whether you like Reaganomics or not, most of the rest of the world embraced it and now we have the highest corporate tax levels in the world which is killing our competiveness. And your cure is to raise them? That is what the left hates the most about Reagan. He not only stopped the movement to socialism in the US, he killed it in the rest of the world. The Asian tigers are successful because of their low taxes and yes the absence of the welfare state. Milton Friedman saw how they would dominate the world when they were a very minor part of the world economy.
The problem in this country is we have too much consumption and too little investment. We actually need supply side economics more now than we needed it in the 1980’s. Since Obama took over business investment has fallen off the cliff just making the situation worse. Creating bubbles with cheap money to create more consumption has been the hallmark of US policy for three different presidents, two democrats and one republican.
Just look at the charts in the link below which show consumption vs. investment and different tax rates. Rio wants more of the problem and not the solution. True supply side tax cuts which are targeted towards investment is exactly what we need, not an intent to artificially prop up housing prices to encourage spending. That policy only benefits Asia over the long term. I have to go again but here is the evidence:
http://taxfoundation.org/article/how-tax-reform-can-address-america-s-diminishing-investment-and-economic-growth
yes the absence of the welfare state ??
Yes…They lack the welfare state in more ways than one…How many aircraft carriers did you say they had ?? One ?? How many do we have ?? Don’t we toss a few “grains” of welfare to the farmers ??
So, Our “Welfare” comes in many colors, not just the blacks down in Louisiana…
Just look at the charts in the link below which show consumption vs. investment and different tax rates.
Those Tax Foundation are the statutory tax rates, not the rates after deductions and loopholes.
“The truth is that, by any measure, U.S. corporate income taxes are very low. And as a share of the economy, they are much lower than are corporate income taxes in almost every other developed country.” Citizens for Tax Justice,
Effective Tax Rates vs. Nominal or Statutory Tax Rates
http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2013/04/bernie_sanders_is_right_and_the_tax_foundation_is_wrong_the_us_has_very_low_corporate_income_taxes.php
The U.S. statutory tax rate of 35 percent is almost entirely irrelevant. The effective corporate tax rate (what corporations actually pay as a percentage of their profits) is what matters, and it’s far lower than the statutory corporate tax rate because of the loopholes that allow corporations to avoid taxes. The U.S. effective corporate tax rate is also far lower than the Tax Foundation claimed in a written response to Senator Sanders.
While the statutory corporate income tax rate for the U.S. may be high compared to those of other countries, the total federal corporate income tax collected in the U.S. in 2010 was equal to just 1.3 percent of our gross domestic product — in other words, 1.3 percent of our total economic output — according to the Treasury Department. The figure is 1.6 percent of GDP when state corporate income taxes are included.[3]
Data from the Organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that the OECD countries other than the U.S. collected corporate tax revenue equal to 2.8 percent of their combined GDPs in 2010. This is another way of saying that the weighted average of corporate tax collected as a percentage of GDP for the countries that are the U.S.’s main trading partners and competitors was 2.8 percent in 2010. (2010 is the most recent year for which the OECD has complete data.)[4]
O.K so lets just look at South Korea which has a significant military and does subsidize farmers. 53% of their economy is consumption compared to 72% of our economy. 29% of their economy consists of investment compared to 16% of ours. Yet Obama favors extended unemployment benefits over tax credits to build factories. Bush II claimed to practice supply side economics but what the country needed was a corporate income tax cut with tax credits for investments not a cut of the tax rate on the 1%. But both of them were following their true and hidden ideology. It is our role in the global economy to be the consumer so the rest of the world can catch up economically. Blaming Reagan for this globalist agenda when he was the last President truly trying to make this country competitive, is a big joke but is probably necessary for the PTB to try to stop someone that rejects the globalists agenda, as Reagan did when he became President, from becoming President. Either Cruz or Paul scares the PTB to death.
Either Cruz or Paul scares the PTB to death ??
Well I could say that Cruz scares the crap out of me but its not so because he has zero chance of winning or making any impact…He has had his day of sunshine…I would not be surprised if he cannot win re-election…
Paul makes a lot of sense but he also gets on the fringe with some idea’s…But, maybe we need some fringe thinking to get the boat headed in the right direction…
Where he steps on his pee-pee is with his position on social issues in particular in how they effect women…Thats his achilles-heal unless he wants to change course…
Like Ben said, you will need to give a little to get a little…Lets see if Paul wises up…
It’s such a shame that the Republicans went and reversed those increases on the corporate tax rates that both Clinton and Messiah enacted.
See Mangoo here is where we have some common ground. Both your Messiah and the Rs work for the same corporate masters. The very wealthy and the big corporations aren’t going to have their taxes raised by anyone, especially not someone from the two major parties.
Even if we disagree about whether it should happen, that’s just a waste of time. It ain’t gonna happen.
You lie by commission. I left a sarcastic statement off. When a person makes a statement and then starts a statement off with a that is why and makes a point opposite to the statement, any reasonable person takes that statement as sarcastic. So if I say something like, Rio is a man’s man, that is why he is wearing a dress. I am being sarcastic about Rio being a man’s man.
I left a sarcastic statement off.
You can try to run but you can’t hide. December 5ths HBB bits bucket proves Albuquerquedan is a liar.
So if I say something like, Rio is a man’s man, that is why he is wearing a dress.
I love it when you foam at the mouth. I really know how to get to you don’t I?
Reagan is already going down in history as the President who started America on its current path to ruin. 30 years of “Reaganomics”…….. we’re “livin’ the dream”.
I am not foaming at the mouth, I am laughing how you are such an ideologue that you cannot think rationally.
So lets start again my main point of the 5th was because the people thought Reagan was successful the country became more conservative. Do you agree or disagree? I think that you disagree on your first post until I pointed out that undercut your entire argument. But one more time do you agree or disagree that the country turned to the right because they believed that Reagan was successful?
So Rio I see you will not give an honest answer to the question.
do you agree or disagree that the country turned to the right because they believed that Reagan was successful?
That was not your original statement. But if they did it was not for long. They voted Clinton 4 years later and booted out a sitting Repub President-Reagans Vice-President. And just how “conservative” was Reagan on deficits? He tripled the debt.
“But if they did it was not for long.”
Thus, you have spent five days posting sh*T because it they did not turn for long to conservatism there is not way we have had thirty years of Reaganomics. You are so much of an ideologue you cannot not even see the inconsistency of your argument. I was right all along your first line that you posted was sarcasm you never believed that Reagan moved the country to the right despite the obvious evidence he did. You only lied about what you meant to try to accuse me of lying by omission. You are incapable of any thought on your own, you just post other people’s conclusions and think they are facts.
I’ve yet to see Lola post an original thought of his own. It’s always a cut and paste from some screwball extremist website.
THANKS OBAMA!
The party has to be paid for Adan…That is unless, you prefer a depression…Funny how people forget circumstances in September 2008….
It is funny how you ignore that the recession had “ended” by the Summer of 2009 before virtually any of the stimulus had began. Recessions are cycles and the panic had ended before the big spending had began. Obama’s policies did not save us from anything.
There is no way that a President that has added, almost, to the national debt as all the President’s before him around 225 years is anything but a complete failure.
Obama will have added almost the same amount of debt as it took all the other presidents together in 225 years epic fail.
Obama will have added almost the same amount of debt as it took all the other presidents together in 225 years epic fail.
30 years of ReaganOmics does not come cheap. People warned something like this would happen 30 years ago. Even Reagan’s vice President.
“It just isn’t going to work, and it’s very interesting that the man who invested this type of what I call a voodoo economic policy...” ―George H. W. Bush
Speech at Carnegie Mellon University April 10,1980 referring to Ronald Reagan
you ignore that the recession had “ended” by the Summer of 2009
Okay lets call it June (summer) of 2009….Here are your unemployment numbers (which we all know are low in reality) for the following 24 months after your so-called end of the recession;
9.5 9.5 9.6 9.8 10.0 9.9 9.9
2010 9.8 9.8 9.9 9.9 9.6 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.8 9.3 9.1 9.0 8.9 9.0 9.0
You call that an end of a recession 24 months later ??
I call that a really crappy recovery due to really crappy economic policies by a community organizer that does not know the first thing about how an economy works. He is just like his ideological daddy, Mugabe and as successful.
Weak come-back Adan….Tell me again who does the budget ??
Actually, no one since the Democratic senate never approves a real budget just a continuing resolution. No one passes the one that Obama proposes since its budget deficit is so high. The Republican led House of Representatives passes a reasonable one but the Senate will not pass it and Obama promises to veto it, even if the Senate would pass it. Since Obama does not know how to negotiate a budget with another party like Clinton and Reagan knew how to do, we have political gridlock.
Ex-Official Says FBI Can Secretly Activate an Individual’s Webcam Without the Indicator Light Turning On
Dec. 7, 2013 9:57am
Oliver Darcy
The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light, a former official revealed to the Washington Post in an article published Friday.
According to the Washington Post’s account of what Marcus Thomas — former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico — said, “The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations.”
An FBI official told the Washington Post they have been able to secretly activate an individual’s webcam for years now.
“Because of encryption and because targets are increasingly using mobile devices, law enforcement is realizing that more and more they’re going to have to be on the device — or in the cloud,” Thomas added, in reference to remote storage services. “There’s the realization out there that they’re going to have to use these types of tools more and more.”
TheBlaze has previously reported on hackers using remote access tools to activate an individual’s webcam and spy on them.
This post has been updated to reflect that Thomas is an ex-FBI official.
DHS ‘Constitution Free’ Zones Inside US Ignored By Media
by Anthony Gucciardi
August 5th, 2013
In what should be front page news blasted out nationwide as a breaking news alert, the DHS has openly established extensive ‘Constitution free zones’ in which your Fourth Amendment does not exist.
It’s not ‘conspiracy’ and it’s not fraud, the DHS has literally created an imaginary ‘border’ within the United States that engulfs 100 miles from every single end of the nation. Within this fabricated ‘border’, the DHS can search your electronic belongings for no reason. We’re talking about no suspicion, no reasonable cause, nothing. No reason whatsoever is required under their own regulations. The DHS is now above the Constitution under their own rules, and even Wired magazine authors were amazed at the level of pure tyranny going on here.
This ‘border’ even includes where the US land meets oceans in addition to legitimate borders with Mexico and Canada. As a result, you have over 197 million citizens suffocated in these 100 mile ‘border zones’ that include major cities like New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Checkout the graphic below for a visual representation, with the orange area representing the Constitution free zone as designated by the DHS:
What’s even more amazing, is that this has been going on since 2008. That’s about 5 years of absolute unconstitutional abuse of power by the Department of Homeland Security that the media fails to even document. That’s 197 million citizens living without a Constitution as far as the DHS is concerned, and apparently the Department of Justice (DOJ) must be pretty content too. Amazingly, no one has challenged this besides the ACLU, which was contacted following the case of a man who was actually detained within the 100 mile ‘border’ area.
Not only was this man’s laptop searched for no reason, as is ‘allowed’ under DHS code now, but they ended up finding pictures designated to be linked up with ‘terrorist’ groups. In response, the man was thrown in a cell while DHS agents went through every piece of data on his entire laptop. The ACLU is now suing over this event, but there’s no telling how the case will go with such limited media exposure. The DHS is literally gutting the Constitution and declaring itself higher than the law of the land by doing this, and it spells out major trouble for the entire Bill of Rights at large.
http://www.storyleak.com/dhs-constitution-free-zones-us/ - 87k -
What part of secure borders do you not like?
“What part of secure borders do you not like?”
The part that strips U.S citizens of their rights, advances the Globalist agenda and doesn’t secure the border.
VIDEO: 14 Illegals in 24 Seconds (Crossing the Border Into Arizona)
By John Hill on April 30, 2013 in Uncategorized
While we are told the border “has never been so secure“, and that there is a ‘zero net migration’ from Mexico, and that the ‘Gang of Eight’ amnesty bill won’t cause a new influx of illegals coming in – the constant, steady, MASSIVE stream of illegal aliens continues across our border…unabated and mostly undefended, as the video below – posted this very morning – demonstrates.
The Administration slashed the number of National Guard troops on the border by 75% last year. There’s been zero progress on the double-layer border fence that Congress mandated since 2006. The Border Patrol has been ordered away from “wilderness” areas to “protect endangered wildlife” – exactly where the largest flows of illegals are taking place.
And they keep on coming. 14 illegals captured in just 24 seconds in the video below – 30 miles North of the border near Tucson – where the Administration won’t let the Border Patrol roam, but hidden cameras have captured these illegals’ unimpeded entries.
While the TSA body scans your toddler, or strip searches your grandma…invaders from who knows where stream across our border unmolested.
Who are those illegals in the video below? Dishwashers, grape pickers? Or perhaps rapists? MS-13? Jihadists?
Did you know that last year alone, 7,518 illegal aliens from terror-sponsoring nations were apprehended after crossing the border? How many did we miss? After all we only catch 40% of illegals who cross the border.
What are they carrying? Pot, meth, heroin? Or perhaps C4? WMDs? Biological toxins?
WE DON’T KNOW. And the ‘Gang of Eight’ bill will do absolutely NOTHING to fix it.
There is no “immigration reform” to discuss. There is nothing else to say.
Secure the border. PERIOD. Then and only then will we discuss what comes next.
http://standwitharizona.com/blog/2013/04/30/video-14-illegals-in-24-seconds-crossing-the-border-into-arizona/ - 33k
and doesn’t secure the border
That’s the biggest insult of all. While American citizens are harassed at airports and now in their own communities, illegals continue to enter the country at will and even have the gall to demand government largesse.
The job market may be gradually improving, but the gains aren’t showing up in worker’s paychecks.
But even as they get back to work, those paychecks have barely budged since the downturn began. The average hourly worker saw their earnings rise by 4 cents—to $24.15 an hour.
“And since more are working part time total take home pay is less” Since there has been massive cost shifting and housing inflation discretionary income is down even more”
from 1978 to 2011, CEO compensation rose more than 725 percent, while pay for the average worker rose just 5.7 percent.
Now we can plainly see that the problem is unions and government workers?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101251025?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=101251025|Yes,%20more%20jobs,%20but%20wage
Job market isn’t improving. Real unemployment rate is at least 11.5% and higher.
Darn those unions, holding down CEO pay like that!
Thank you Obama for widening the gap in your watch.
Thank you Obama for widening the gap in your watch.
Seeing a Repub Supply-sider act like he cares about wealth/income inequality when a Democrat is President is a sight to see.
There is a word for it and it starts with an H.
Ah…someone doesn’t like the truth, huh?
BTW, dude…I agree with your screed on Reagan.
Thank you again for proving a dishonest person that you have always been in this blog.
BTW, dude…I agree with your screed on Reagan.
BTW, maybe I mistook you for someone else. If you keep changing you name, be prepared to live with the confusion it can cause.
Thank you again for proving a dishonest person that you have always been in this blog.
That’s total bullsh(t. I don’t lie. I am not Albuquerquedan.
No Lola..
Clearly you can’t be honest about yourself let alone anything else.
BTW, maybe I mistook you for someone else. If you keep changing you name, be prepared to live with the confusion it can cause ??
Yeah, I got caught in that trap also….Pretty soon he will have so many handles it will take up the entire blog…
I was thinking of changing my screen name to MangooLovesReagan
Posted: 9:00 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013
POST IN DEPTH THE GROWING DRONE BUSINESS
Use of drones in business already taken flight here
Local drone entrepreneurs say Amazon founder’s plans aren’t pie in the sky.
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The camera swoops over the green expanse of the Everglades hundreds of feet below, like many helicopter shots you’ve seen on television. But suddenly it dips and flies through a narrow, shaded canal where kayakers are paddling and a person has to wonder, “How on earth did they fly a chopper in such a tight space?”
The answer is: It isn’t a helicopter, it’s a drone.
But will it be cost effective to have an army of FAA certified pilots flying countless round trips from the distribution center to delivery points? Even if the piloting could be automated (good luck getting that past the FAA) is it energy efficient for a drone to make a 20+ mile round trip to deliver a book? Sure, if it could mimic the brown truck running its route, that could work, but then what? A brown UPS blimp flying around, dropping drones to make deliveries?
And what if they crash and cause bodily harm? Will they be able to deliver during inclement weather?
And what if they crash ??
I chuckled this morning when a talking head said that;
“Those school kids have a lot of free time during the summer and sling shots are cheap”…It would be a kids version of the price is right..”What do you think is in that box Eddie…Wait, Wait let it get a little closer”…
And what if they crash and cause bodily harm? Will they be able to deliver during inclement weather?
Their bought and paid for congressman will certainly include limited liability for such accidents as part of some bill protecting America, or maybe tort reform will have been completed by that point so that it is illegal to bring suits against corporations and to bad mouth them on line.
THE GROWING DRONE BUSINESS
The next big breakthrough will be drone consumers. Robots will buy and consume the entire GDP.
200 miles?, think one semi to multiple distribution sites around the edge of town which launch 1000’s of drone flights each day to deliver packages. Each flight would be at most 10-20 miles. My guess is that hauling a large truck around town in stop and go traffic burns up a lot of gas. Drone batteries contained on each delivery container could be charged over night with cheap off peak electricity or with solar power.
Federal Jury Duty summons… this could be interesting.
It’s fun to watch the free $hit army champions expose themselves for the communists they are.
“Mystery donor gives $50K to Joplin Missouri Salvation Army for 8th year”
Headline on KABC News website (Los Angeles)
That’s wonderful. No notoriety, no celeb glamour shots, just a plain old good deed. Kudos to whomever this is.
You’d have all the networks there.
HA
I ID the source of the “K”.
I for one, don’t know the alphabet soup of the letter to ID the state.
And you’d advertise it all over the net. That’s what you’re about.