Are Jobs Waiting For University Graduates? [View article]
Well stated. A far too many degrees have limited usefulness in the marketplace. It is nice to get a degree in a field that is fun. It is far nicer to get a degree that can fund your true passions. As an owner of an engineering business we look for kids that can translate the book knowledge and apply it to the real world; a skill as you noted. The best acquire multiple skills making them more successful
How Much Will Elderly Austerity Affect Consumer Spending And The Economy [View article]
It is all about medical costs. Medical cost, principally the hospitals, is ridiculous . The government is requiring universal health care, but doing little, if anything, about the 800 pound gorilla, the costs. The health care lobbyists are certainly earning their money. I pay 20k per year for my wife and I for crappy coverage. I won't retire until I can get Medicare which may not be worth a crap by then. What a mess we are in !
Little Evidence That The Economy Is Improving [View article]
Your congestion theory has merit and may be superior to those out of Washington While you are stalled in traffic maybe you can do a poll of the other drivers. Maybe they are driving across town to work part time or collect their unemployment check or find cheaper gas. That, of course, would skew data and require you to seasonally adjust the data to reflect what you think it should reflect. Oppps... kinda like what the feds are doing.
Suppressing Economic Growth By Taxation [View article]
If the bar chart is correct then I am getting screwed. I would be hiring and expanding my business like a house afire if I only paid 7% income and SSA tax. Best I can tell I am paying about 50% for those items. That doesn't count the local sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes, etc which bring the total up to about 75%. Either the chart is BS or somebody isn't paying their fair share.
You certainly make a good case. I do agree that it is human nature to blame when things go astray. However, there may be little or ineffective manipulation in the general markets, but there is certainly manipulation in equities. Happens at the end of every quarter. The length of time an equity can be manipulated varies with the size of the player and the float. It can last minutes or months.
Government Revenue Shortfall Caused By The Middle Class? [View article]
The tax base definitely needs to widen. I am currently paying far less taxes than I did 20 years ago. Back then I was taking everything as income or short term capital gains. Now I have a good CPA and use every legal loophole the government allows. Could I pay more? Yes. Will I pay more? Nope. I might feel differently if the government was heading the right direction. My sister is at the other end. She is a teacher making 50k a year working 7 months. She has paid no federal taxes for several years. Should she pay something? Yes. Will she pay more? Nope. She is like most middle classers, strung out on credit card debt. At some point the rhetoric has to stop and the government needs to start solving the problems.
Are Student Loans Destroying Consumption? [View article]
The real question is why kids take out loans at all. The average student load is about 12 hours. If they have an hour of study for every hour of class that still leaves a lot of hours to work. It seems that the current college students, as a rule, are enjoying the college life at the expense of their future . This has been compounded by the lack of decent jobs to pay for these loans once they graduate. Certainly there are exceptions, medical students, for example. How many history or english literature majors are going to able to pay off a $100k loan? Maybe 10%. With the brain not being fully developed till age 25 should these kids be able to sign for these loans?
Who in their right mind would risk their retirement savings for 2%. A market downturn would ruin such a portfolio . Cash on the sidelines is what most investors deem conservative. Certainly you bleed, but you bleed slowly. That is much better than getting ripped again.
Productivity tends to come in spurts. In a given industry technical innovation can carry a long way. As the results of each technical innovation diminish stagnation sets in. That is when we ship the work offshore resulting in more productivity gains. That too will mature. Unfortunately, that is where we are today. Further technical innovation is required to abate an inflationary spiral .
Fiscal Cliff: Let's Call Their Bluff [View article]
Why don't we phase out social security? We lived for generations without it. Saving your own money for retirement isn't a bad idea. If the government would simply write me a check for what I paid in I would go away. No interest, just the money. Unfortunately, the government has given my SSA payments out to others and has little real money left. Certainly there are exceptions, but why should we folks that planned ahead be burdened with taking care of those that spent their entire paycheck every week? We are rewarding bad behavior . Tell everyone under 30 that their retirement is their own responsibility and have a means test for the rest of us.
The Fiscal Cliff Will Destroy The Economy? [View article]
Rarely are the doomsayers correct . So why would they be correct now about the dire consequences of going over the fiscal cliff? Certainly it would be better to have a logical approach to solving the financial dilemma, but much of the press may be just echoing the special interests that stand to lose money. Perhaps we should look at the way we create laws. Congress simply modifies existing laws over and over until you have what we have now, a complicated morass. Then the regulators ar a myriad of rules interpreting those. We have ended up with thousands of rules on originally simplistic situations. That certainly is a business inhibitor. How about sun setting all of the tax code? Require single issue laws? Of course, we would need to ban lobbyists.
Management ran out of time to resolve the issues. Certainly, both sides are to blame. The end result will be that the brands will be sold to more efficient non union shops. The union guys will receive their pay for 2 years so it isn't likely that they will ever miss a meal. Unions can be useful where apprentice training is important, but how much training is required to be a baker. Maybe 15 minutes.
Australia was living large on the huge raw material exports to China. Not so much now that China is cooling. The example that we can learn from Australia is sell it hard when you can, but know that a rainy day is coming.
Going without insurance is good until you have a big problem. Then you have a choice of paying the million dollar charges for your couple of weeks of stay. Obamacare doesn't address these ridiculous costs. As you noted the theory of adding people to the system could reduce individual costs, but won't because the hogs will find a way to scam the system.
Are Jobs Waiting For University Graduates? [View article]
How Much Will Elderly Austerity Affect Consumer Spending And The Economy [View article]
Do More Gold ETF Outflows Mean Even Lower Gold Prices Ahead? [View article]
Little Evidence That The Economy Is Improving [View article]
Suppressing Economic Growth By Taxation [View article]
Should You Short Silver Now? [View article]
Government Revenue Shortfall Caused By The Middle Class? [View article]
Are Student Loans Destroying Consumption? [View article]
Seniors Screwed By Fed Policies [View article]
Productivity Bad, Economy Bad [View article]
Fiscal Cliff: Let's Call Their Bluff [View article]
The Fiscal Cliff Will Destroy The Economy? [View article]
Perhaps we should look at the way we create laws. Congress simply modifies existing laws over and over until you have what we have now, a complicated morass. Then the regulators ar a myriad of rules interpreting those. We have ended up with thousands of rules on originally simplistic situations. That certainly is a business inhibitor. How about sun setting all of the tax code? Require single issue laws? Of course, we would need to ban lobbyists.
Twinkies And Employment [View article]
The Economy Is Killing Joe Sixpack [View article]
Effects Of Obamacare On Employment [View article]