factsmatter

Notes from Intuit's 2009 Shareholder Meeting

I agree with Lar. Macintosh is a rapidly growing platform. I cannot imagine why Intuit is not releasing a version of Quicken for Intel Macs at least comparable to Quicken 2007. This is an invitation to a competitor.

Who Will Supply the Batteries for Plug-In Cars?

After Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Polosi give Altairnano a 100,000,000 dollar subsidy, there will be a 3 to 5 year payback!!! ; < ).

7 Signs of an Economic Bottom

Get real people, we already pay on a per capita basis the most of any country in the world to educate our children K-12. Needless to say the results are some of the worst in the world. No amount of additional money is going to fix this. The system needs a radical overhaul with some serious feedback loops. The education establishment will not reform itself. That includes the education unions, the teachers colleges and the government bureaucracies. As for retraining programs, want to become a key punch operator, a truck driver or go into the rapidly growing field of criminal justice? Have you not seen these commercials? Do you not know of the countless billions of your tax dollars that go to support these low-octane "retraining programs". The so-called stimulus bill throws ca. 100 billion more at these failures. If you want to "level the playing" field you really should consider educating our children well, particularly in the big cities. Those who cannot read or do basic math do not have much chance of doing well in America. I think a lot of people think well of themselves for putting in a good word for the poor and disadvantaged but they seldom bother to get behind meaningful changes.

After a Beating, Solar Energy Is Ready to Shine

Solar and wind do not produce at consistent levels and require storage, backup and transmission solutions that we do not yet have. There is only so far you can go with them, even with subsidies to overcome their present non-competitiveness.

Bankruptcy Could Reduce GM's Debt by 65%

Actually John D., it was Congress in 1999 during the Clinton Administration that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which separated investment banking and savings/mortgage banking.

Bankruptcy Could Reduce GM's Debt by 65%

The UAW must be divided up into a Ford unit, a GM unit and a Chrysler unit, etc. Each unit will be limited to bargaining with its one company and prohibited from conspiring with another labor unit. The labor cartel is what has brought the American auto industry to its knees and this will be repeated unless we organize more like the Japanese. Unions are fine. Labor cartels across entire industries are not.

Why the Fed Can't Prevent a Deflationary Depression

I don't think I understand the point of this article. Of course it is true that in this banking crisis the money multiplier/velocity of money has collapsed. But the Fed can add as much money to the system as it wants. It doesn't even have to print it, only a few keystrokes are required. Sooner or later the banks will start lending this money out as it starts piling up, even if initially the multiplier is near one. The Fed should in principal be able to always inflate out of a deflationary trend - of course, downstream there will be consequences to pay.

Real GDP Since 1930

Not only is American labor more expensive, it is less well educated. A high school diploma does not connote much competence in reading, writing or basic math. We have a large population that is not employable except for the most menial of tasks.

I have read that an average worker in a Korean auto factory has better math skills than an average college graduate in the U.S.

Obama 'Shines' Natural Gas

Please send some natural gas to New England. This heating with oil is expensive and problematic.

How the Treasury Bubble Will Burst and Why

Who are the gangsters that took us down this path? Would it be the folks that wanted ever more expensive government programs? Or the folks that didn't want to pay for those programs with ever higher taxes? Or the bankers and mortgage companies that made mortgage loans to people that they must have known would never be able to pay them off? Or the members of Congress and "community activists" who forced/intimidated the banks to start down this path in the first place via the Community Reinvestment Act? Or the voters who empowered them? Or Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac who bought and resold the bundles of questionable mortgage-backed securities? Or the folks that ensured those securities (AIG)? Or the companies that incorrectly assessed the risks of those securities and the ensurers thereof? Or the politicians and Wall Street types that worked together to end the separation between investment and savings banks? Or the big-media and Wall-Street types that worked overtime to convince the average American that everything was OK? Or the politicians that claimed that Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac were sound and protected them from audit and proper oversight? Or the regulators who must have fallen asleep at the wheel? This would be only a partial list of the possible malfeasance for which some could be accused of. Is the problem the "system" or the integrity of all the parties working within it?

U.S. Demographics Are in Our Favor

A problem with demographics analyses is that in the US the young population is weighted towards the poor and uneducated whether our urban ghetto minorities or the children of the illegally immigrated. Our public schools refuse to properly educate them no matter how generously they are funded. As adults, it is very unlikely that these people will be big contributors to the American economy.

Europe's Lack of Economic Understanding

uss?: The US government rewards debtors instead of savers because it is the biggest debtor of them all. Also, inflation causes upward creep in real income tax rates ("bracket creep" as well as taxation on "capital gains" which often illusory after inflation) to the benefit of the government.

Who Might Benefit From Detroit's Failings

The Japanese limit their unions to one company. They are not permitted a cartel across an entire industry.


On Dec 04 11:59 AM HBWOW wrote:

> The Japanese have taken the bulk of the electronic business by dumping
> product to eliminate our industry, Zenith, RCA, etc. They have taken
> a lot of other product lines such as lawn equipment, computer chips,
> etc, and continue to make inroads into many product categories, all
> to eliminate our industry which has resulted in our trillion plus
> trade deficit to them. If our auto/truck industry fails, we will
> lose a significant part of our remaining industrial base and be only
> buyers without jobs. There was a old Japanese philosopher who preached
> the way to beat your enemies is via a trade war. WELL. Destroy
> your opponent's industrial base and then their capital base. WELL.

>

Who Might Benefit From Detroit's Failings

The workers of one of the big steel companies bought out the business, but in the end the effort failed. Running a successful business requires discipline and reasonable wage structures. These are not possible when management has to negotiate with a union having monopoly control of labor across an entire industry. Labor has the upper hand in such a situation.


On Dec 04 03:05 AM DollarTalkNet wrote:

> Alright, this is definitely a complicated issue, but it is fairly
> clear that these companies have been mismanaged for decades and that
> the unfunded pension obligations will continue to be a difficult
> burden to bear. What I honestly don't understand is why the UAW doesn't
> just buy GM and Ford. Their combined market cap on 12/3/2008 was
> less than $10 billion. This also begs the question of why the government
> would be loaning them between $25-34 billion (depending on the report).
> What bank would loan any of us double to triple the current value
> of our home in order to help us get out of a tight spot? More on
> my blog.

Who Might Benefit From Detroit's Failings

The management of the "Big Three" American car makers could never manage against an overly powerful UAW, which has monopoly control of labor. The car companies do not have monopoly power and are unable to bargain on a level playing field with the UAW. This imbalance disadvantages the American auto industry which is being destroyed by the competition of the foreign transplants which do not have the major disadvantage of excessively high wages and loss of control as to how labor will be deployed (among other disadvantages). The proper response to this problem is to amend the Wagner Act (1935) to prohibit a cartel of labor across an entire industry. A labor union should be limited to the employees of a single corporation with whom they would be able to bargain. "Anti-trust law" should protect Americans from labor as well as corporate monopolies.

Long term, the American auto industry will not be successful without such a change.