Lots of stories today.....
1/ It's the New Year...yeay!!!! What's going to happen this next year you wonder. Well Robert Reich, one of my favourite economists, has a prediction.....more of the same!!! Good things for corporations and the rich, hunkering down for the middle class.....
What will happen to the US economy in 2011? If you're referring to profits of big corporations and Wall Street, next year is likely to be a good one. But if you're referring to average American workers, far from good.
The two American economies -- the Big Money economy and the Average Working Family economy -- will continue to diverge. Corporate profits will continue to rise, as will the stock market. But typical wages will go nowhere, joblessness will remain high, the ranks of the long-term unemployed will continue to rise, the housing recovery will remain stalled, and consumer confidence will sag.
The big disconnect between corporate profits and jobs is likely to continue because America's big businesses are depending less and less on U.S. sales and U.S. workers. Their big profits are coming from two sources: (1) growing sales in China, India, and other fast-growing countries, and (2) slimmed-down US payrolls.
In a typical recovery, profits lead to more hiring. That's because in a typical recovery, American consumers head back to the malls -- and their buying justifies more hires. Not this time. All the hype about Christmas sales over the last few weeks masked the fact that American consumers demanded bargain-basement prices. And the price-cutting dramatically reduced sellers' margins. In short, profits aren't coming from American consumers -- and profits won't be coming from American consumers in 2011.
2/ Everyone loves a quiz - let's see how well you do! If you've been reading DDD faithfully you'll get all of these political questions right.....except maybe the first one....
II. Finish the quote:
1) After the lame-duck session, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said: “When it’s all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has
A) brought us together.”
B) eaten our lunch.”
C) eaten a lot of late-night pizza.”
3/ Corruption
Fascinating article from the 14th Banker, a blog from an insider in the banking industry.....his theme for this story - corruption.
If you are even half awake you will see we have an incredibly compromised system of government, and it's everywhere. Top to bottom. Federal, State and local. Most, not all, but most of our "leaders" are in the system to bleed it dry.....more on this theme in the months to come, but in this article the 14th Banker focuses on the Pentagon, banking and economists......
Here are some of the worthy stories of the last 10 days.
First off, on the theme of corruption, it would be silly to assume that they corruption we see in the financial system is anything other than a reflection of the corruption of power more generally. Here are two examples. In this first, it is reported that the revolving door between government and industry is as active in the realm of the military as in the financial realm. The Boston Globe highlights that the normal path for retiring senior military officers, whose pensions are already generous, is to go to work in influential and non-transparent ways for defense contractors.
The Globe analyzed the career paths of 750 of the highest ranking generals and admirals who retired during the last two decades and found that, for most, moving into what many in Washington call the “rent-a-general’’ business is all but irresistible.From 2004 through 2008, 80 percent of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work as consultants or defense executives, according to the Globe analysis.
The article goes on to illustrate how these retiring officers have inside tracks into the Pentagon and wield influence without disclosure of their financial conflicts of interests. This does remind me of one aspect of the banking business, which is that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is much more than a policy regarding gays in the military. It is the practice of people who know that there are ethical issues or conflicts of interest and consciously choose to do nothing about them because of mutual benefit.
A second example of corruption generally is in relation to academia and industry. This is a video interview so I can’t quote it here, but the gist is that economists that opine on regulatory matters, have undisclosed financial conflicts of interest with the companies that would be affected by regulation
Corruption......article from the Washington Post about how the drive for contributions has completely compromised our Government, and how every bit of legislation is riddled with loopholes for big political donors....just disgusting......
Numerous times this year, members of Congress have held fundraisers and collected big checks while they are taking critical steps to write new laws, despite warnings that such actions could create ethics problems. The campaign donations often came from contributors with major stakes riding on the lawmakers' actions.
4/ A DDD favourite music video
BT and Andrew Bayer - "I love you".....great video, looks like it was shot in South Florida, and an amazing song......and probably the sexiest.......
5/ More on the two sisters who were sentenced to life terms in a Mississippi prison for a robbery totalling $11.00 where noone was hurt....a disgraceful confirmation of the blatant racism that still exists in the south. But the real eyeopener is the deal the Governor Haley Barbour made with these sisters as a requirement for letting them out of prison - one sister had to donate a kidney to the other. And Governor Barbour is being touted as a serious contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2012.......words fail me on this one......
But I couldn’t help thinking that right up until the present moment she and Jamie have been treated coldly and disrespectfully by the governor and other state officials. It’s as if the authorities have found it impossible to hide their disdain, their contempt, for the two women.
The prison terms were suspended — not commuted — on the condition that Gladys donate a kidney to Jamie, who is seriously ill with diabetes and high blood pressure and receives dialysis at least three times a week. Gladys had long expressed a desire to donate a kidney to her sister, but to make that a condition of her release was unnecessary, mean-spirited, inhumane and potentially coercive. It was a low thing to do.
Governor Barbour did not offer any expression of concern for Jamie’s health in his statement announcing the sentence suspension.
He said of the sisters: “Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the state of Mississippi.”
By all means, get those medical costs off the books if you can.
6/ Sarah Palin - the butt of jokes, the delight of comedians everywhere and a complete media whore. However.....she may be a serious candidate for 2012. Here is an intelligent, logical and reasoned analysis of her chances and some frank assessments of the rest of the players. Good article for political junkies of either party....
In light of the developments of the last 13 months, it is probably worthwhile to revisit that assessment. Do these reasons still hold? Assuming that she runs, are her chances at becoming the Republican nominee stronger or weaker than they were a year ago? Let’s examine each of my original arguments in some detail.
1. Enthusiasm. People tend to see the electorate through a one-dimensional lens, in which a fixed number of voters are trying to decide between two or more candidates. But that’s not really how politics works, especially in primaries. Rather, the playing field is (at least) two-dimensional: people are not merely trying to decide whom to vote for, but also whether to vote at all. Because of the reach of her brand, Palin has the ability to engage the sorts of voters who might ordinarily stay at home. In the general election, that will include some voters who turn out to vote against her — but that’s less of a concern in the primaries.
7/ A really depressing story about how families are suffering with adult kids moving back to their parents, parents moving in with their kids and generally middle class families under severe pressure.....
In February, after being evicted from their Gainesville apartment, Holly, James, Madison and their good-natured pit bull, Caley, moved into a cramped bedroom in the house where Holly grew up. Neither of Madison’s parents had been able to find work for more than a year.
Of the myriad ways the Great Recession has altered the country’s social fabric, the surge in households like the Maggis’, where relatives and friends have moved in together as a last resort, is one of the most concrete, yet underexplored, demographic shifts.
Census Bureau data released in September showed that the number of multifamily households jumped 11.7 percent from 2008 to 2010, reaching 15.5 million, or 13.2 percent of all households. It is the highest proportion since at least 1968, accounting for 54 million people.
Even that figure, however, is undoubtedly an undercount of the phenomenon social service providers call “doubling up,” which has ballooned in the recession and anemic recovery. The census’ multifamily household figures, for example, do not include such situations as when a single brother and a single sister move in together, or when a childless adult goes to live with his or her parents.
For many, the arrangements represent their last best option, the only way to stave off entering a homeless shelter or sleeping in their cars. In fact, nearly half of the people in shelters in 2009 who had not previously been homeless had been staying with family members or friends, according to a recent report, making clear that the arrangements are frequently a final way station on the way to homelessness.
8/ Economics....the big stuff. You think - what has this to do with me?
Think trickle down, only with a human trickle in your face. Whatever the big banking oligarchs decide will affect us all in one way or another......
At the end of the day, the Europeans will save themselves, with the measures outlined above – only because there will be no other way to avoid wasting 60 years of political unification. But this action won’t “save” everyone; one or more countries will be forced out of full eurozone membership (although they will likely keep the euro as the means of exchange). And the costs to everyone involved will be large and largely unnecessary.
And remember, when the financial markets are done with Europe, they will come to test our fiscal resolve. All the indications so far are that our politicians will also struggle to get ahead of financial market pressure.
There are plenty of places in Europe where you can find an easy political consensus is to cut taxes and increase budget deficits. Sadly, this no longer pacifies markets. The American political elite – right and left – believes that we are different from the Europeans because we issue the dollar and therefore have some special privileges for ever.
But this is not the 1950s. Asia has risen. Europe will sort itself out and become more fiscally Germanic. The Age of American Predominance is over.
Our leading bankers looted the state, plunged the world into deep recession, and cost us 8 million jobs. And now many of them stand by with sharpened knives and enhanced bonuses – also most willing to suggest how the salaries and jobs of others can be further cut. Think about the morality of that one.
Will no one think hard about what this means for our budget and our political system until it is too late?
9/ Ah, Florida.......populated with idiots, governed by crooks.....
Another half-asssed idea from our intrepid Governor - cut electricity rates for businesses, and spread the cost of it to all residents. So you and I will be paying for large corporations electric bills. Brilliant!!! This jerk will bankrupt us all......
TALLAHASSEE - With Gov.-elect Rick Scott promising to save businesses a stunning $3.2 billion on their electric bills, consumer groups are bracing for a fight, fearing his plan will push higher costs onto residential customers.
Scott's advisers are floating the idea of an "economic development rate" for corporations that agree to relocate to Florida or expand businesses within the state. The level of utility cost savings would be tied to job creation, under the plan.
But Florida's four big investor-owned utilities would not have to absorb the rate reduction -- or ask investors to pick up the tab, said those familiar with the proposal. Instead, rate reductions given these companies would be offset by higher charges imposed on a utility's overall rate base -- with residential customers shouldering most of the costs.
Time magazine article on how high stakes poker is expanding in Florida......story focuses on the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Ft. Lauderdale, but Tampa has a huge full scale casino as well.....
It's just 7:30 on a Saturday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., just north of Miami, and cars are clogging State Road 7 below the Seminole Hard Rock's glowing towers, ready to disgorge even more players.
But there's an added reason the Seminole Hard Rock complex is drawing such a horde of gamers these days: poker. Really high-stakes poker. Last spring, the Florida legislature changed the state's gambling laws to allow casinos and other gambling sites to eliminate the maximum bet a player can place to "buy in" to a poker game — a limit that just a few years ago was a paltry $2.
More on our Governor.......acting like he's got a real agenda........
Rick Scott's transition team is issuing stacks of proposals that are nothing if not bold.
Just the kind of ambitious agenda you'd expect from a governor with a big electoral mandate, an experienced political team, a loyal Legislature, and a cooperative judiciary in a state with a powerful chief executive.
Unfortunately, Scott has none of those things.
He is only the second Florida governor to be elected with less than 50 percent of the vote. (The other was Prohibitionist Party Gov. Sidney Catts, elected in 1916.) And in the last Quinnipiac University poll before the election, 50 percent of Florida voters and 20 percent of Republicans viewed him unfavorably.
Elections have consequences, but this falls a little short of a clear-the-halls mandate. This guy still has some selling to do.
Florida has a relatively weak governor's office that became a little stronger under Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist. But although the Legislature has a solid Republican majority, it won't necessarily line up behind Scott as earlier Legislatures did for Bush. Its leadership has its own agenda. An agenda that includes getting Senate President Mike Haridopolos into the U.S. Senate.
This is nice for residents of western Broward County - your levees are below standard, so your insurance rates will be going up......
New flood control concerns are surfacing about the 60-year-old, earthen levee that keeps the Everglades from swamping South Florida communities spread across former wetlands.
The Broward County portion of the East Coast Protective Levee fails to meet certification standards for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to a new engineering assessment of that 38-mile section of the levee.
That could trigger costly repairs to get the levee certified or risk increased flood insurance rates for Broward residents who live in Weston, Coral Springs and other western communities.
10/ Amusing - how conferences in hotels and convention centers can't get enough wi-fi for the attendees.....wonderful example is a tech conference where people want to watch the streaming video instead of looking up at the stage...
Amazing society we live in......
Technology conferences are an anomaly. Some regulars joke, perhaps accurately, that the events are host to more Internet devices per square foot than anywhere in the world. All too often, the network freezes after becoming overwhelmed with all the nonstop streaming, downloading and social networking.
That was what happened this year at the RailsConf, a software conference in Baltimore, when attendees caused Wi-Fi gridlock by tuning in to a webcast of an unrelated event across the country. Nearly everyone, it turned out, wanted to watch Apple’s live unveiling of the iPhone 4, the very one that fell victim to a Wi-Fi crash.
Adding more Wi-Fi access points does not necessarily fix the problem, Mr. Mariette said. In fact, doing so may make the situation worse by creating more interference.
11/ A little boy uses his dad's gun to shoot a burglar.......a hero, but there's a darker side to this story.....satire from Onion News.....hmmm....is this satire in Texas, or just the nightly news?
12/ Everyone - read this one, it's short, vital and relevant for your life. Your techie life. Yes you have one - you own a cellphone and because you are reading this you own a computer.
Ten things you should be doing with your tech life.......save money, be smarter. Easy and quick, and mostly free......
13/ Boomers in trouble.
Are you a boomer? Do you have enough capital to retire? If you do, good for you and move on to the jokes.
If not, read this one.....
"The situation is extremely serious because baby boomers have not saved very effectively for retirement and are still retiring too early," says Olivia Mitchell, director of the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
There are several reasons to be concerned:
- The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
- Reliance on stocks in retirement plans is greater than ever; 42 percent of those workers now have 401(k)s. But the past decade has been a lost one for stocks, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index posting total returns of just 4 percent since the beginning of 2000.
- Many retirees banked on their homes as their retirement fund. But the crash in housing prices has slashed almost a third of a typical home's value. Now 22 percent of homeowners, or nearly 11 million people, owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. Many are boomers.
There are several reasons to be concerned:
- The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
- Reliance on stocks in retirement plans is greater than ever; 42 percent of those workers now have 401(k)s. But the past decade has been a lost one for stocks, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index posting total returns of just 4 percent since the beginning of 2000.
- Many retirees banked on their homes as their retirement fund. But the crash in housing prices has slashed almost a third of a typical home's value. Now 22 percent of homeowners, or nearly 11 million people, owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. Many are boomers.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/
14/ Entertainment Weekly picks for the 10 best TV series of the year......so how many didyou watch? Your scribe TIVO'd #2, #3, #6
Todays video - great salmon commercial........
Todays romantic joke
Romance Novel
|
1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead.
Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow.
Do not walk beside me either.
Just pretty much leave me alone.
2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt.
3. I t's always darkest before dawn.
So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.
4. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced,You can't be promoted.
5. Always remember that you're unique.Just like everyone else.
6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
7. If you think nobody cares if you are alive,Try missing a couple of car payments.
8. Before you criticize someone,You should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you criticize them,You're a mile away and you have their shoes.
9 . If at first you don't succeed,Skydiving is probably not for you.
10 . Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
11. I f you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably a wise investment.
12 . If you tell the truth,You don't have to remember anything.
13. Some days you're the bug;Some days you're the windshield.
14. Everyone seems normalUntil you get to know them.
15. The quickest way to double your money is
To fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.
17. Duct tape is like 'The Force'. It has a light side and a dark side,
And it holds the universe together.
18. T here are two theories to arguing with women.
Neither one works.
19 . G enerally speaking, you aren't learning much
When your lips are moving.
20. Experience is something you don't getUntil just after you need it.
21 . N ever miss a good chance to shut up.
AND
22 . N ever, under any circumstances,
Take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
Todays blonde joke
A blond decides to do something she's never done before - rent a dirty movie. She drives to the local Video Warehouse and makes here way to the adult section in the back. After looking around at titles, she selects a something that sounds very stimulating.
She drives home, lights some candles, slips into something comfortable, and puts the tape in the VCR. To her disappointment there's nothing but static on the screen. She calls the store to complain and says, "I just rented an adult movie from you and there's nothing on the tape, but static."
The clerk apologized about the defective video and asked, "Which title did you rent?" The blond replied, "It's called 'Head Cleaner.'"
She drives home, lights some candles, slips into something comfortable, and puts the tape in the VCR. To her disappointment there's nothing but static on the screen. She calls the store to complain and says, "I just rented an adult movie from you and there's nothing on the tape, but static."
The clerk apologized about the defective video and asked, "Which title did you rent?" The blond replied, "It's called 'Head Cleaner.'"
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