There are those who claim that terrorists are streaming in across our southern border along with illegal Hispanics. But where are all these terrorists? The "underwear bomber" was flying in. Even the 9/11 terrorists were in the country legally or at least had entered the country legally. Other examples are the the Boston Bombers, the failed NY City bombing, and the VPI massacre. All in this country legally.
But nearly all the terrorists in this country are home grown beginning with McVey and the Oklahoma City bombing, and including Columbine High School, Aurora movie theater, and the latest Charleston, SC, massacre. Speaking of the latest one, the terrorist is a felon who could not legally buy a gun. Did he steal one? No, his father gave him a 45 caliber pistol for his 21st birthday! The father might be prosecuted giving a gun to a felon.
As bad as these mass murders are, they are but a small part of the murders committed each year in the U.S. (about 11,000*). There are also around 18,000 suicide deaths yearly by guns. Just like we accept around 30,000 deaths yearly by automobile in this country, it seems as if we have become used to a similar number of gun deaths also. Only mass murders make the news, and then we dwell on them for awhile before going back to normal. Illegal immigration of terrorists does not seem to be a problem in spite of wrrries by some people.
* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2012/12/in-aftermath-of-firearm-newton-ct.html
Monday, June 22, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
ECONOMY AND WAGES
A Wall Street Journal article in Real Time Economics (June 11) begins with the sentence: The U.S. Economy contracted 0.7% in the first quarter [of 2015]. Or did it?*
Not surprisingly there is a problem in collecting the appropriate information in a large and complex economy, and, apparently, consumers spent more at retailers and on medical care than previously thought. Even the revised numbers are not very exciting. J.P Morgan Chase thinks the economy "only" went down 0.2%. A group called Macroeconomic Advisers thinks the quarter was flat. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis will give its estimate on June24. Each estimate may be more accurate than the last one because of the time to accumulate more information.
At the same time, a Wall Street Journal blog says that wages and benefits may be growing faster than we think.**
*http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/11/reports-of-the-u-s-economys-contraction-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/?mod=djemRTE
**
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/10/are-wages-and-benefits-growing-faster-than-we-think/?mod=djemRTE_h
Not surprisingly there is a problem in collecting the appropriate information in a large and complex economy, and, apparently, consumers spent more at retailers and on medical care than previously thought. Even the revised numbers are not very exciting. J.P Morgan Chase thinks the economy "only" went down 0.2%. A group called Macroeconomic Advisers thinks the quarter was flat. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis will give its estimate on June24. Each estimate may be more accurate than the last one because of the time to accumulate more information.
At the same time, a Wall Street Journal blog says that wages and benefits may be growing faster than we think.**
**
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/10/are-wages-and-benefits-growing-faster-than-we-think/?mod=djemRTE_h
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
CONSUMER SPENDING INCREASES
Consumer spending is having a hard time recovering in spite of the gasoline price bonus; however, it picked up 2.7% in May.* Note in the figure that consumer spending was dropping for years before the Great Recession. and is about where it was in the first half of 2007.
* http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/11/where-did-americans-spend-their-money-in-may/?mod=djemRTE_h
* http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/11/where-did-americans-spend-their-money-in-may/?mod=djemRTE_h
Monday, June 15, 2015
ATTACK YOUR OPPONENT'S STRENGTH
Carl Rove in 2004 developed what seemed to be a strange and self defeating strategy in the 2004 reelection bid of President George W. Bush against Democratic hopeful John Kerry. that is, attack your opponent at his strength. In Kerry's case it was to demean the value of military medals in what became known as Swift Boating. The approach seemed to be effective though it annihilated military honors as being worthless.
So with Hillary Clinton we see the attack on the Clinton Foundation, an organization developed to try to do good. To what extent this procedure will have on the value of non-profit organizations remains to be seen, but I hope it does not annihilate non-profits as being self service organizations.
This attack seemed to be too much for even some conservatives who came to the defense of the Clinton Foundation.*
By Christopher Ruddy,* founder of the conservative Newsmax: I was drawn to him largely for the very same reason he and his wife are being criticized today: the Clinton Foundation. Over time, I was impressed enough with its work that I even became a donor.
...........................................................
After watching the Fox program, it became clear to me the only thing "tangled" and "blurred" are the numerous unsubstantiated, unconnected, and baseless allegations being made about them.
...........................................................
But let’s get back to the matter of the Clintons and their foundation. I have been involved with the foundation for over seven years now. During that time, I have always found it nonpartisan. I have never felt the whiff of politics from either its staff or any of its activities.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/clinton-foundation-cash-controversy/2015/04/27/id/640856/
So with Hillary Clinton we see the attack on the Clinton Foundation, an organization developed to try to do good. To what extent this procedure will have on the value of non-profit organizations remains to be seen, but I hope it does not annihilate non-profits as being self service organizations.
This attack seemed to be too much for even some conservatives who came to the defense of the Clinton Foundation.*
By Christopher Ruddy,* founder of the conservative Newsmax: I was drawn to him largely for the very same reason he and his wife are being criticized today: the Clinton Foundation. Over time, I was impressed enough with its work that I even became a donor.
...........................................................
After watching the Fox program, it became clear to me the only thing "tangled" and "blurred" are the numerous unsubstantiated, unconnected, and baseless allegations being made about them.
...........................................................
But let’s get back to the matter of the Clintons and their foundation. I have been involved with the foundation for over seven years now. During that time, I have always found it nonpartisan. I have never felt the whiff of politics from either its staff or any of its activities.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/clinton-foundation-cash-controversy/2015/04/27/id/640856/
Sunday, June 14, 2015
RICK SANTORUM FOR PRESIDENT - 2016
[Disclosure: Rick Santorum is probably my least favorite politician.]
So Rick Santorum is running for president again. By emphasizing his religious extremism, he managed to win a number of states in the Republican primaries of 2012. Now he has presumably decided to cater to the American worker (he says) as well. If I was an American worker, I would watch that hand under the table. He says that he would somehow increase wages for the American worker. Strange how Republicans discover the American worker every four years, but tromp on them in the intervening years (Get rid of the minimum wage or at least not increase it. This would supposedly increase the number of jobs but make all workers even poorer than now.). The predominant Republican opinion seems to be that the American worker is overpaid. Santorum doesn't say how he is going to increase the wages of the American worker, but, to be sure, it is early days in this political process with the election still 14 months away!
Mitt Romney did say how he would approach this problem. He would make things favorable to starting more small businesses. The trouble with this is, that early in his work life, he did work on promoting start-ups and did create some jobs, but he found he could make more money faster by manipulating money and abandoned start-ups. That is a problem. The average start-up lasts about 5 or 6 years so the jobs are really rather temporary but can the number of start-ups even be increased enough in order to employ all the unemployed and minimally employed?
A problem with capitalism is that companies must sell ever more and preferably more expensive goods. There are a couple of ways to do this: one is to get the domestic people to buy (want) ever more goods. Here advertising plays a role. Another is to export goods to people in other lands who need more goods. This works well for exports to some foreign countries, though exchange rates do not always favor American companies. Also most people in foreign countries cannot afford to buy our goods. Encouraging more start-ups certainly will help with the employment problem but probably is not the total solution to the employment problem. How are more start-ups to be encouraged: through government assistance or tax advantages (which is government assistance by a different name.)?
The American worker faces a number of problems that I have mentioned before.* One is that the wages of the American worker have to be less than the cost of automation. Another, of course, is that the wages must be competitive with the wages of low cost labor in other countries, tempered by the costs of transportation, increased costs of fuel in other countries, etc. Then there is the problem that many, many jobs have just disappeared, such as telephone operators, gas station attendants, clerk typists, grocery store clerks, etc. Even grocery store clerk jobs are being minimized by automated check out.
The point is that the drag on workers wages and number of jobs are many, and I doubt these problems are amenable to simple solutions.
* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-race-to-bottom.html; http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2014/05/plight-of-american-workers.html:
So Rick Santorum is running for president again. By emphasizing his religious extremism, he managed to win a number of states in the Republican primaries of 2012. Now he has presumably decided to cater to the American worker (he says) as well. If I was an American worker, I would watch that hand under the table. He says that he would somehow increase wages for the American worker. Strange how Republicans discover the American worker every four years, but tromp on them in the intervening years (Get rid of the minimum wage or at least not increase it. This would supposedly increase the number of jobs but make all workers even poorer than now.). The predominant Republican opinion seems to be that the American worker is overpaid. Santorum doesn't say how he is going to increase the wages of the American worker, but, to be sure, it is early days in this political process with the election still 14 months away!
Mitt Romney did say how he would approach this problem. He would make things favorable to starting more small businesses. The trouble with this is, that early in his work life, he did work on promoting start-ups and did create some jobs, but he found he could make more money faster by manipulating money and abandoned start-ups. That is a problem. The average start-up lasts about 5 or 6 years so the jobs are really rather temporary but can the number of start-ups even be increased enough in order to employ all the unemployed and minimally employed?
A problem with capitalism is that companies must sell ever more and preferably more expensive goods. There are a couple of ways to do this: one is to get the domestic people to buy (want) ever more goods. Here advertising plays a role. Another is to export goods to people in other lands who need more goods. This works well for exports to some foreign countries, though exchange rates do not always favor American companies. Also most people in foreign countries cannot afford to buy our goods. Encouraging more start-ups certainly will help with the employment problem but probably is not the total solution to the employment problem. How are more start-ups to be encouraged: through government assistance or tax advantages (which is government assistance by a different name.)?
The American worker faces a number of problems that I have mentioned before.* One is that the wages of the American worker have to be less than the cost of automation. Another, of course, is that the wages must be competitive with the wages of low cost labor in other countries, tempered by the costs of transportation, increased costs of fuel in other countries, etc. Then there is the problem that many, many jobs have just disappeared, such as telephone operators, gas station attendants, clerk typists, grocery store clerks, etc. Even grocery store clerk jobs are being minimized by automated check out.
The point is that the drag on workers wages and number of jobs are many, and I doubt these problems are amenable to simple solutions.
* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-race-to-bottom.html; http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2014/05/plight-of-american-workers.html:
Friday, June 12, 2015
IRAQ: TIME FOR THE 'STANS
Actually it is past time for Iraq to be allowed to breakup into three 'stans - Kurdistan, Sunnistan, and Shiastan. Why do we keep on trying to force a whole Iraq? It was designed to be unstable and it surely is. The only thing that could keep it together is a brutal dictator like Saddam and we didn't like him either. Perhaps there is some way that a loose confederation of the three could be kept, but I don't know about that. It seems as if President Obama doesn't want to preside over the breakup of Iraq. Would a breakup benefit or harm his legacy? I would think that in the end it would help it, but he doesn't seem to think so.
I believe that if we allowed this, the Sunni tribal leaders would rise up against the ISIS (which is a brutal dictator). I might take some cash and armaments for the tribal leaders to do this, but that would be less costly than what we are doing now with our mission creep another group of around 450 to be sent to Iraq in addition to the 3,000 already there.). The idea is for this latest group to be located in Sunnistan to train Sunni troops, presumably favorable to a central government. Maybe that will succeed but I doubt it.
Nor doubt Turkey wouldn't like a Kudistan, and we would have to deal with that. I'm sure there would be disputes over the boundaries, but that is probably more solvable than trying to keep Iraq whole. And would Iran try to take over Shiastan? I don't know if Shiastan would like to be incorporated into Iran, but my guess is that it would like to be pretty independent.
I believe that if we allowed this, the Sunni tribal leaders would rise up against the ISIS (which is a brutal dictator). I might take some cash and armaments for the tribal leaders to do this, but that would be less costly than what we are doing now with our mission creep another group of around 450 to be sent to Iraq in addition to the 3,000 already there.). The idea is for this latest group to be located in Sunnistan to train Sunni troops, presumably favorable to a central government. Maybe that will succeed but I doubt it.
Nor doubt Turkey wouldn't like a Kudistan, and we would have to deal with that. I'm sure there would be disputes over the boundaries, but that is probably more solvable than trying to keep Iraq whole. And would Iran try to take over Shiastan? I don't know if Shiastan would like to be incorporated into Iran, but my guess is that it would like to be pretty independent.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
EMPLOYMENT PICTURE CONTINUES IMPROVIING IN MAY
The biggest increase occurred in Silicon Valley’s San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area, where payrolls grew 6%. That was followed by the areas surrounding Orlando, Fla., where payrolls grew 4.3%, and Riverside, Calif., which saw 4.1% payroll growth. Employment in New Orleans-Metrairie—the only metro area without an increase—held steady in April from a year ago.
Expanding payrolls also helped push down the unemployment rate in the vast majority of big U.S. cities. Austin-Round Rock, Texas had the lowest rate in April, at 3%, followed by Salt Lake City, Utah, at 3.1%. The Las Vegas area had the highest jobless rate at 7.*
................................................................................
Only two big cities had higher jobless rates in April than a year earlier: New Orleans-Metrairie, where more people have returned to the workforce, and Kansas City.
Of all the 387 metropolitan areas, payrolls grew in 85.3% of them from a year earlier, and nearly nine out of 10 had lower jobless rates.*
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 8,000 to 276,000 in the week ended May 30th from the previous week. The 4-week moving average increased while continuing claims reached the lowest since late 2000.**
* http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/03/all-but-one-of-americas-big-metro-areas-added-jobs-in-april/?mod=djemRTE_h
** http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/jobless-claims
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