Saturday, September 29, 2012

Cab Thoughts 9/29/12

I'm not sure if there could be a dumber way to focus in on candidates than debating. The best presidential debater was Nixon. Maybe competitive juggling would be worse.

Are all jobs valuable? Should a business be supported simply because it employs people? Or are there more important criteria?

I've always liked Damon but his participation in "Promised Land", the stupid anti-fracking movie financed by United Arab Emerites, makes me rethink him. One terrible problem the democracy faces is that there is so much money at stake in America's decisions that American politics and production might be influenced by people who do not have the United States' well being at heart. Natural gas could truly make this country energy independent but, despite the promise of the stimulus, no money was allocated the way of natural gas and now propaganda-type movies (Gasland, Promised Land) are appearing.

It used to be that you were in the labor force if you had been looking for work sometime in the last four years, but that was changed to one year in the latter Clinton years. So if you had been unemployed for more than a year but had not looked for a job in 12 months, you are not counted among the unemployed.

Romney is running as if he thinks he is ahead.

From "Resilience" by Andrew Zolli:
"From its inception as a U.S. military funded project in the 1960s, the Internet was designed to solve a particular problem above all else: to ensure the continuity of communications in the face of disaster. Military leaders at the time were concerned that a preemp­tive nuclear attack by the Soviets on U.S. telecommunications hubs could disrupt the chain of command -- and that their own counterstrike orders might never make it from their command bunkers to their in­tended recipients in the missile silos of North Dakota. So they asked the Internet's original engineers to design a system that could sense and automatically divert traffic around the inevitable equipment failures that would accompany any such attack."

An interesting problem has arisen in what is called the Jobs Act. A sliver of the law allows for the open solicitation for funds by start-ups but, then, requires the start-up to verify the investor is qualified but does not say how. The effect of course will be to discourage any start-up from taking the risk.

Carnegie Mellon University has developed a first-of-its-kind traffic signal control technology that automatically adjusts and coordinates signal timing to accommodate varying traffic volumes and has shown strong promise for reducing commuting times and vehicle emissions during a pilot trial at nine intersections in East Liberty.

For every soldier killed in combat, 25 veterans are dying by suicide.

In 2010 Somali pirates seized 47 vessels. This year they've taken five. The reason seems to be that the ships are beginning to hire armed men to protect them. This is harder than one might think because many countries refuse to allow commercial ships with armed men in their ports.

American wages are currently at a 50-year low as a percentage of GDP.

Toyota just announced the cancellation of it planned launch of a new all-electric minicar, the eQ, and clarified that it only plans to sell 2,600 RAV4 EVs over the next three years. That's not 2,600 a year. It's 2,600 in total.
Question of the day. Who said this and when? "In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God too many of us now tend to wor­ship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."--Jimmy Carter in has famous "Malaise" speech.

Ronnie Cedeno has two more RBI's than Jason Bay.

George P. Shultz, Michael J. Boskin, John F. Cogan, Allan H. Meltzer and John B. Taylor recently authored a piece in the WSJ about the nation's debt, deficit, debt interest and the Fed. This was their conclusion: "Economic theory, empirical studies and historical experience teach that the solutions are the lowest possible tax rates on the broadest base, sufficient to fund the necessary functions of government on balance over the business cycle; sound monetary policy; trade liberalization; spending control and entitlement reform; and regulatory, litigation and education reform."
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Headline: "Chrysler Yanks Plug-In Hybrid Test Fleet Off Roads, Will Replace Batteries" The reason? Because of explosions.

Bernacki is said to be stimulating the economy in part to create a wealth effect. This year's is the 4th major intervention from the Fed since 2009, each one apparently inflating asset prices without having a definitive impact on the economy other than, most importantly, preventing a lethal debt-deflation spiral. But maybe there is no direct cause and effect, maybe the rise in asset price is the result of inflation. But any wealth effect, if it exists at all, is limited to a small group of people. Last year, the top 20% of households took in 51.1% of all income in 2011, up from 50.2% in 2010 and the highest share since at least 1967, according to the Census Bureau, and US house values remain 30% below their 2006 peak level and now match their 2003 level.

 Research into American death statistics showed a decrease in fatal car accidents with increases in deaths from falls (71%), poisoning (128%) and suicide (15%).  In 2009, 37,000 Americans took their own lives, more deaths than car accidents.
And a graph:
Chart of the Day

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