Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Bus Econ 2009 Econ Stimulus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bus Econ 2009 Econ Stimulus. Show all posts

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Wendell Potter: Goldman Sach's Greg Smith Could Just Have Easily Been Telling the Truth About Health Insurers

Goldman Sach's Greg Smith Could Just Have Easily Been Telling the Truth About Health Insurers


Wendell Potter 03/19/2012


As I was reading former Wall Street executive Greg Smith's bombshell of an Op-Ed in the New York Times last week, I mentally inserted the names of the big for-profit health insurers -- two of which I worked for -- in place of Goldman Sachs, where Smith worked until resigning on the day his column was published.

Smith wrote that he decided to leave Goldman-Sachs because it had veered so far from the company he had joined straight out of college that he could no longer say in good conscience "that I identify with what it stands for."

He put the blame squarely on Goldman's current CEO and president. It was during their watch, he wrote, that "the firm changed the very way it thought about leadership."

"Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence." … http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/goldman-sachs-greg-smith_b_1362755.html?ref=politics&ir=Politics





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Kevin Dayhoff - Soundtrack: July 9, 2009 Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone: The Great American Bubble Machine

Kevin Dayhoff - Soundtrack: July 9, 2009 Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone: The Grea...: The Great American Bubble Machine http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405 From tech ...


July 9, 2009 Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone: The Great American Bubble Machine


“… Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid…”

April 5, 2010 This article appeared in the July 9, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available in the online archive.



20090709 Taibbi The Great American Bubble Machine




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Friday, October 28, 2011

More corruption in O-Scamma-land


More corruption in O-Scamma-land

Not sure of the facts here--thought it might be good political fodder if there is any spec of truth.

More corruption in O-Scamma-land

NOBAMA strikes again..............

What is amazing to me that they are so unashamedly blatant in their criminal behavior.

The Solar thing just got a little more interesting.......REALLY!

The Tonopah Solar company in Harry Reid's  Nevada is getting a $737 million loan from Obama's DOE.

The project will produce a 110 megawatt power system and employ  45 permanent workers.

That's costing us just $16 million per job.

One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group  (PCG).

The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi who is the brother to  Nancy 's husband.

Just move along folks.....nuthin goin on here.

*****

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Less Than Half Of Stimulus Jobs Went To Unemployed, Study Finds - By Megan Poinski

Less Than Half Of Stimulus Jobs Went To Unemployed, Study Finds - By Megan Poinski



Only about 43% of all jobs created by projects funded by the $787 billion federal stimulus billwent to people who were unemployed, according to a new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
The rest of the jobs, according to the study, went to people who were already employed elsewhere, were just out of college, or were not part of the labor force. Job-switchers got about 47% of all of the jobs created by the stimulus package, the study states.


[...]

Jones said this shows that the stimulus funds may have targeted some of the wrong kinds of projects. While billions of dollars went to "green" projects, for example, many of the people who can do that kind of work tend not to have problems finding jobs. Meanwhile, people who do not have college educations may have had fewer opportunities to find a stimulus-funded job they qualified for.

[...]


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Monday, August 16, 2010

Frederick News-Post editorial: Politicians' tightrope

Frederick News-Post editorial: Politicians' tightrope

Originally published August 15, 2010

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_editorial.htm?StoryID=108591

Any member of Congress is faced with a dilemma in this age of outrage against government spending.

On the one hand, to be seen as effective, to assure his or her constituency that he or she is doing something, money needs to flow back into the district from federal coffers.

Roads and bridges need to be built, interstates mended, businesses boosted, jobs created.

On the other hand, our lawmakers mustn't be seen to be too greedy; in fact, they must eschew government spending, take a stand against it. In extreme cases, they must reject it altogether.

It's a tightrope walk for most politicians, a delicate dance between conflicting poles.

[…]

We can see both sides of this equation, and it was pointed out rather sharply in reporter Meg Tully's Political Notes column on Friday.

Andrew Duck, a Democrat running in District 6, fired a salvo at U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett after he saw Bartlett's chief of staff, Bud Otis, in attendance at a groundbreaking for the C&O Canal Big Slackwater restoration project in Washington County. That restoration has been paid for with federal stimulus money, and the event attracted representatives of U.S. Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, both of whom voted for the legislation.

Duck pointed out that Bartlett opposed the stimulus plan… http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_editorial.htm?StoryID=108591

20100815 FNPed Politicians tightrope

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2010/08/frederick-news-post-editorial.html

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/ or http://kevindayhoffart.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/ or http://www.westgov.net/ = www.kevindayhoff.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ = www.newbedfordherald.net Explore Carroll: www.explorecarroll.com The Tentacle: www.thetentacle.com

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

July 9, 2009 Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone: The Great American Bubble Machine

The Great American Bubble Machine


From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression -- and they're about to do it again

by: Matt Taibbi

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates… http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405?print=true


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July 9, 2009 Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone: The Great American Bubble Machine


“… Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid…”

April 5, 2010 This article appeared in the July 9, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available in the online archive.



20090709 Taibbi The Great American Bubble Machine

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

News brief: Westminster to get fed stimulus grant, names arts task force

Westminster to get fed stimulus grant names arts task force http://tinyurl.com/ygpgt76

Photo caption: Westminster director of public works Jeff Glass explains
Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/nd594 or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/226742793/westminster-director-of-public-works-jeff-glass

Westminster director of public works, Jeff Glass, explained the Westminster water department water meter replacement initiative at the Monday, October 26, 2009 meeting of the Westminster MD mayor and Common Council meeting at Westminster city hall. October 26, 2009 photo by Kevin Dayhoff [20091026 CowMCC Mtg (11)eGlass]

Westminster to get federal stimulus grant and names arts and culture task force

By Kevin Dayhoff

Westminster announced at last Monday night’s mayor and Common Council meeting, that skillful navigation of a “sea of paperwork” enabled the city to double a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – “ARRA” federal stimulus funds, to replace aging water meters throughout town.

Westminster director of public works, Jeff Glass, explained at the meeting that last May the city applied for a grant 2009 in the amount of $400,000 for water meter replacements.

The grant application process was complicated. “To our credit we met the deadlines… To our credit others did not,” explained Glass. As a result, “the City’s grant was increased to $821,200 which is sufficient to install ‘wireless’ read capable meters for the remainder of the City’s meter inventory and cover all costs associated with the project such as required advertisement etc...,” said Glass with visible pride.

The bidding process was performed in August and September; and the Maryland Department of the Environment signed off on the project on October 13. Glass presented the council with a proposal to approve a winning bid from Ben Franklin/PHS Burgemeister Bell, Inc. in the amount of $817,139.19 to complete the water system upgrade.

Just before the council voted to approve the project, council president Damian Halstad said that the grant will “go a long way in our budget process… It is always nice to ask for $400,000 and get $800,000.”

Under new business councilman Greg Pecoraro gave a detailed six-month status report on the findings of the Tri-Street Advisory Committee.

The committee had been established by the city “on August 25, 2008 to address neighborhood issues and concerns in the area of Pennsylvania Avenue, Union Street and West Main Street, with the objective of creating an action plan for improvement,” explained Pecoraro.

One of the recommendations acted-on by the council at the end of Pecoraro’s report was “under the goal of building economic vitality.

“The report recommended the creation of a task force of representatives from the City, Carroll County Arts Council, Tri-Street Area Advisory Committee, property owners, artisans and others, to be called the ‘Arts and Culture Task Force,’ to develop an ‘arts, culture and small business overlay zone’ for the Tri-Street neighborhood. The report urged the task force to focus on the Carroll Arts Center as a critical anchor in the Tri-Street neighborhood.”

For more, read the Nov. 1 edition of the Carroll Eagle http://www.explorecarroll.com/

Read the Westminster press release on the water meter replacement project pasted below:

MEMORANDUM

TO: The Mayor and Common Council

FROM: Jeffery D. Glass, Director of Public Works

DATE: October 21, 2009

RE: Water Meter Replacement Project- ARRA Stimulus Funds

The Department of Public Works applied for a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Funds) in May 2009 in the amount of $400,000 for water meter replacements.

Due to the complicated nature of requirements and stringent deadlines, a number of applicants were culled from the initial applications. This decrease in applicants provided an increase in available funding available to the City.

As a result, the City’s grant was increased to $821,200 which is sufficient to install “wireless” read capable meters for the remainder of the City’s meter inventory and cover all costs associated with the project such as required advertisement etc.

This project was put out to bid on August 12th, 2009. Three bids were received, opened and read aloud on September 8th, 2009. The bids ranged from $817,139.19 to$1,043,752.00 with one bid disqualification. The apparent low bidder was Benjamin Franklin/PHS Burgemeister Bell, Inc. This bid was reviewed by staff and found to be complete and acceptable for forwarding to MDE for review.

The City received a letter of confirmation from MDE on October 13 2009, which acknowledges the review and approval of the project, which in general terms provides the green light to proceed. The next step is to provide the notice of award to Ben Franklin, the low bidder

I recommend The Mayor and Common Council accept the bid of Ben Franklin/PHS Burgemeister Bell, Inc. in the amount of $817,139.19 to complete the Water meter Replacement Project. This action will allow Notice of Award, and Contractual Documents to be executed.


20091026 sdosm d4 Westminster to get fed stimulus grant
*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/

STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION IMPROVES MD 140 RAMPS TO MD 27 IN CARROLL COUNTY


STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION IMPROVES MD 140 RAMPS TO MD 27 IN CARROLL COUNTY

http://www.sha.state.md.us/pages/release.aspx?newsId=516


Temporary Ramp Closure Will Begin Later This Month For Construction of Dedicated Right-Turn Lane; Project Made Possible Through Stimulus Funding

(October 27, 2009) – On Thursday, Oct. 29, the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration (SHA) will temporarily close the westbound MD 140 (Baltimore Boulevard) ramp to MD 27 (Manchester Road) in Westminster. The closure is a part of an overall American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funded $715,000 project to widen the eastbound and westbound ramps along MD 140 to MD 27 to provide a dedicated right-turn movement. The new right turn lane on the eastbound and westbound MD 140 ramps will provide congestion relief minimizing the current congestion onto MD 140 as motorists access MD 27. The ramp to eastbound MD 140 will not be closed as part of the project. SHA expects to complete the overall project in spring 2010.

Crews will close the ramp beginning overnight on Oct. 29 Wednesday and the ramp will remain closed through mid-December. SHA is closing the ramp temporarily to facilitate construction as the slopes adjacent to the ramp do not provide adequate area for crews to work. During the closure, motorists traveling west on MD 140 will be detoured to Englar Road/Hahn Road to MD 27. Crews will use variable message signs and barrels will be placed in advance of the detour to alert motorists. More than 56,000 vehicles travel along this section of MD 140 each day.

This project is made possible through Governor Martin O’Malley’s aggressive management of the requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, bringing critically needed transportation investments to Maryland. Projects such as these are stimulating Maryland’s economy by supporting hundreds of jobs. Follow the delivery of these projects at www.recovery.maryland.gov, which tracks every category of ARRA spending and provides contract-level details to the public in an effort to achieve new levels of government transparency and efficiency.

SHA awarded the contract to Pessoa Construction, Inc. Citizens who have questions about traffic operations on MD 140, MD 27, or other state numbered routes in Carroll County may call SHA’s District 7 Office at 301-624-8100 or toll free at 1-800-635-5119.
SHA reminds motorists to reduce speeds, stay alert and use caution while driving through work zones. When workers are on the road, THINK ORANGE, which is the color of construction signs, barrels and warning devices. Please slow down, stay alert and expect the unexpected. Choose to make work zone safety your business at www.choosesafetyforlife.com.
# # #

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/ or http://kevindayhoffart.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/ or http://www.westgov.net/ = www.kevindayhoff.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ = www.newbedfordherald.net Explore Carroll: www.explorecarroll.com The Tentacle: www.thetentacle.com

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Krugman Was Huge Advocate of Housing Boom


Krugman Was Huge Advocate of Housing Boom

Busted! Krugman Was Huge Advocate of Housing Boom

Hat Tip: FoxNation


“All day Paul Krugman has been involved in a brouhaha over a 2002 column which seemed to be advocating a housing bubble to get us out of the recession. He says he wasn't calling for a bubble, just that he was just explaining Alan Greenspan was trying to do.”

Read The Full Article, Actually, Krugman Was A Huge Advocate Of The Housing Boom Joe WeisenthalJun. 17, 2009

“… Mark Thornton has gone through Krugman's entire archives and undermined this defense…”

http://www.businessinsider.com/actually-krugman-was-a-huge-advocate-of-the-housing-bubble-2009-6

20090617 SDOSM Krugman Was Huge Advocate of Housing Boom

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

This week in the Tentacle

This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Obamamobile hits a bump
Kevin E. Dayhoff
With the checkered flag in sight, late last Monday afternoon, with only minutes to spare before the 4 o’clock deadline set by Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg caused the fast-tracked Obama economic recovery plan for Chrysler – and GM - to hit a speed bump.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Hypocrisy in Politics! Once More!
Roy Meachum
There goes Donna Kuzemchak again. Reaching for votes in the Democratic primary, Ms. Kuzemchak wants people to believe there was “corruption of implementation of those retirement plan changes.”

'Work To Ride, Ride To Work.'
Nick Diaz
Next Monday, June 15, American roadways will see up to triple the normal number of riders, as beginner-to-expert motorcycle enthusiasts become motorcycle commuters. These commuters will be doing us all a favor by not only commuting via an efficient personal form of transportation, but by doing so on a vehicle with a much smaller footprint than our cars and trucks.

Monday, June 8, 2009
The Summer of Our Political Discontent
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
Looks like it’s shaping up to be a scorcher. No, I don’t mean the summer temperature. I’m talking about the tone of public discourse.

Just Get Over It!
Steven R. Berryman
Finally, some answers to persistent probing questions as to what is apparently the death of the old two-party political system, and the promised bipartisanship of our Messiah-president. As stunningly simple as it sounds, no matter the issue or facts at hand, get used to “We won, you lost; just get over it!”

Friday, June 5, 2009
Obama in Cairo
Roy Meachum
The tone was different but the words were mostly the same we've heard before. The president traveled to Cairo University Thursday for what was billed as his administration's pronouncement on the Middle East. A White House spokesman announced in advance there would be little new; he was right.

Down the Road to…
Joe Charlebois
What H.L. Mencken wrote more than 80 years ago should be flowing from the pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post and, of course, his own Baltimore Sun today. In 1926, Henry Louis Mencken, then a 46-year-old Baltimore native, wrote:

Thursday, June 4, 2009
A Lexicon for Future Reference
Joan McIntyre
Below you'll find numerous links covering the past several weeks noting much of the displeasure with our Frederick County Board of Education. This is more of a keep and reference piece than a quick read. Only if you are truly interested in how Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) is being run and where your tax money is actually going will this interest you.

The Devil in The Details
Chris Cavey
Sunday, as the sun was setting and the speed camera referendum was going down in flames, it was rumored that you could hear music coming from both Government House and the Senate President’s office in Annapolis. Those in attendance, it was said, were reveling in the fact that public referendums in Maryland are almost impossible.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sotomayor – Break Her and You Die
Kevin E. Dayhoff
At 10:13 A.M. on May 26, President Barack Obama introduced to a breathless nation, a fawning audience, and a mesmerized press, his selection to replace retiring U. S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter – Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of New York.

Sunday Dinners
Michael Kurtianyk
Whatever happened to Sunday dinners? Have they gone the way of bowling and hula hoops? You know what I mean – the fixture of a Sunday dinner when, on a day of rest, you spend the day with family and culminate in a big dinner with all the fixings and desserts. Summers would be an outdoor barbecue and winters would be heartier meals like stew, or pot roast, or some such thing.

Telling Time
Tom McLaughlin
Kuching, Indonesia – “A watch beginning at US$10,000!” I exclaimed. “The time piece,” I was corrected, “is an heirloom to be passed down through the generations.”

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Murder in a Church
Roy Meachum
A brand-new U.S. citizen emerges from the courtroom waving his legalizing papers exuberantly. He hits a passerby on the nose. The man knocks him down. The new citizen protests: I am an American and have the right to celebrate. The passerby replies: Your right ends where my nose begins.

A Common Sense Approach to Moderates
Farrell Keough
On a recent radio talk show, I was referred to as a moderate. While the comment was meant as a compliment, being a staunch conservative, I took umbrage toward the implication. This led to a conversation about the meaning of moderate and something that seemed timely for an article.

Monday, June 1, 2009
The Empathetic Activist
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
President Barack Obama has thrown down a political gauntlet with the selection of federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the next United States Supreme Court justice.

Not about Judge Sonia Sotomayor
Steven R. Berryman
Today you will be happy to note that I did not fill this space with the abundant fodder falling out from the nomination of 2nd Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the upcoming vacancy on the United States Supreme Court.


20090610 SDOSM This week in The Tentacle
http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-week-in-tentacle_10.html

Monday, June 08, 2009

Washington Post News Alert 4:05 PM EDT Monday, June 8, 2009

Washington Post News Alert 4:05 PM EDT Monday, June 8, 2009

Supreme Court Stalls Chrysler-Fiat Deal
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled moments ago that Chrysler cannot yet sell most of its assets to Fiat, a move that has been opposed by three Indiana state pension and construction funds. The ruling grants a stay in the sale as the court gathers more data and schedules a hearing on the matter.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com

Monday, June 01, 2009

Speech by Secretary Geithner - The United States and China, Cooperating for Recovery and Growth

Speech by Secretary Geithner - The United States and China, Cooperating for Recovery and Growth

May 31, 2009
TG-152

Speech by Secretary Geithner - The United States and China, Cooperating for Recovery and Growth

The United States and China, Cooperating for Recovery and GrowthTreasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner
Speech at Peking University - Beijing, China
June 1st, 2009

It is a pleasure to be back in China and to join you here today at this great university.

I first came to China, and to Peking University, in the summer of 1981 as a college student studying Mandarin. I was here with a small group of graduate and undergraduate students from across the United States. I returned the next summer to Beijing Normal University.

We studied reasonably hard, and had the privilege of working with many talented professors, some of whom are here today. As we explored this city and traveled through Eastern China, we had the chance not just to understand more about your history and your aspirations, but also to begin to see the United States through your eyes.

Over the decades since, we have seen the beginnings of one of the most extraordinary economic transformations in history. China is thriving. Economic reform has brought exceptionally rapid and sustained growth in incomes. China¡¯s emergence as a major economic force more fully integrated into the world economy has brought substantial benefits to the United States and to economies around the world.

In recognition of our mutual interest in a positive, cooperative, and comprehensive relationship, President Hu Jintao and President Obama agreed in April to establish the Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Secretary Clinton and I will host Vice Premier Wang and State Councilor Dai in Washington this summer for our first meeting. I have the privilege of beginning the economic discussions with a series of meetings in Beijing today and tomorrow.

These meetings will give us a chance to discuss the risks and challenges on the economic front, to examine some of the longer term challenges we both face in laying the foundation for a more balanced and sustainable recovery, and to explore our common interest in international financial reform.

Current Challenges and Risks

The world economy is going through the most challenging economic and financial stress in generations.

The International Monetary Fund predicts that the world economy will shrink this year for the first time in more than six decades. The collapse of world trade is likely to be the worst since the end of World War II. The lost output, compared to the world economy's potential growth in a normal year, could be between three and four trillion dollars.

In the face of this challenge, China and the United States are working together to help shape a strong global strategy to contain the crisis and to lay the foundation for recovery. And these efforts, the combined effect of forceful policy actions here in China, in the United States, and in other major economies, have helped slow the pace of deterioration in growth, repair the financial system, and improve confidence.

In fact, what distinguishes the current crisis is not just its global scale and its acute severity, but the size and speed of the global response.

At the G-20 Leaders meeting in London in April, we agreed on an unprecedented program of coordinated policy actions to support growth, to stabilize and repair the financial system, to restore the flow of credit essential for trade and investment, to mobilize financial resources for emerging market economies through the international financial institutions, and to keep markets open for trade and investment.

That historic accord on a strategy for recovery was made possible in part by the policy actions already begun in China and the United States.

China moved quickly as the crisis intensified with a very forceful program of investments and financial measures to strengthen domestic demand.

In the United States, in the first weeks of the new Administration, we put in place a comprehensive program of tax incentives and investments ¨C the largest peace time recovery effort since World War II - to help arrest the sharp fall in private demand. Alongside these fiscal measures, we acted to ease the housing crisis. And we have put in place a series of initiatives to bring more capital into the banking system and to restart the credit markets.

These actions have been reinforced by similar actions in countries around the world.

In contrast to the global crisis of the 1930s and to the major economic crises of the postwar period, the leaders of the world acted together. They acted quickly. They took steps to provide assistance to the most vulnerable economies, even as they faced exceptional financial needs at home. They worked to keep their markets open, rather than retreating into self-defeating measures of discrimination and protection.

And they have committed to make sure this program of initiatives is sustained until the foundation for recovery is firmly established, a commitment the IMF will monitor closely, and that we will be able to evaluate together when the G-20 Leaders meet again in the United States this fall.

We are starting to see some initial signs of improvement. The global recession seems to be losing force. In the United States, the pace of decline in economic activity has slowed. Households are saving more, but consumer confidence has improved, and spending is starting to recover. House prices are falling at a slower pace and the inventory of unsold homes has come down significantly. Orders for goods and services are somewhat stronger. The pace of deterioration in the labor market has slowed, and new claims for unemployment insurance have started to come down a bit.

The financial system is starting to heal. The clarity and disclosure provided by our capital assessment of major U.S. banks has helped improve market confidence in them, making it possible for banks that needed capital to raise it from private investors and to borrow without guarantees. The securities markets, including the asset backed securities markets that essentially stopped functioning late last year, have started to come back. The cost of credit has fallen substantially for businesses and for families as spreads and risk premia have narrowed.

These are important signs of stability, and assurance that we will succeed in averting financial collapse and global deflation, but they represent only the first steps in laying the foundation for recovery. The process of repair and adjustment is going to take time.

China, despite your own manifest challenges as a developing country, you are in an enviably strong position. But in most economies, the recession is still powerful and dangerous. Business and households in the United States, as in many countries, are still experiencing the most challenging economic and financial pressures in decades.

The plant closures, and company restructurings that the recession is causing are painful, and this process is not yet over. The fallout from these events has been brutally indiscriminant, affecting those with little or no responsibility for the events that now buffet them, as well as on some who played key roles in bringing about our troubles.

The extent of the damage to financial systems entails significant risk that the supply of credit will be constrained for some time. The constraints on banks in many major economies will make it hard for them to compensate fully for the damage done to the basic machinery of the securitization markets, including the loss of confidence in credit ratings. After a long period where financial institutions took on too much risk, we still face the possibility that banks and investors may take too little risk, even as the underlying economic conditions start to improve.

And, after a long period of falling saving and substantial growth in household borrowing relative to GDP, consumer spending in the United States will be restrained for some time relative to what is typically the case in recoveries.

These are necessary adjustments. They will entail a longer, slower process of recovery, with a very different pattern of future growth across countries than we have seen in the past several recoveries.

Laying the Foundation for Future Growth

As we address this immediate financial and economic crisis, it is important that we also lay the foundations for more balanced, sustained growth of the global economy once this recovery is firmly established.

A successful transition to a more balanced and stable global economy will require very substantial changes to economic policy and financial regulation around the world. But some of the most important of those changes will have to come in the United States and China. How successful we are in Washington and Beijing will be critically important to the economic fortunes of the rest of the world. The effectiveness of U.S. policies will depend in part on China's, and the effectiveness of yours on ours.

Although the United States and China start from very different positions, many of our domestic challenges are similar. In the United States, we are working to reform our health care system, to improve the quality of education, to rebuild our infrastructure, and to improve energy efficiency. These reforms are essential to boosting the productive capacity of our economy. These challenges are at the center of your reform priorities, too.

We are both working to reform our financial systems. In the United States, our challenge is to create a more stable and more resilient financial system, with stronger protections for consumer and investors. As we work to strengthen and redesign regulation to achieve these objectives, our challenge is to preserve the core strengths of our financial system, which are its exceptional capacity to adapt and innovate and to channel capital for investment in new technologies and innovative companies. You have the benefit of being able to learn from our shortcomings, which have proved so damaging in the present crisis, as well as from our strengths.

Our common challenge is to recognize that a more balanced and sustainable global recovery will require changes in the composition of growth in our two economies. Because of this, our policies have to be directed at very different outcomes.

In the United States, saving rates will have to increase, and the purchases of U.S. consumers cannot be as dominant a driver of growth as they have been in the past.

In China, as your leadership has recognized, growth that is sustainable growth will require a very substantial shift from external to domestic demand, from an investment and export intensive driven growth, to growth led by consumption. Strengthening domestic demand will also strengthen China's ability to weather fluctuations in global supply and demand.

If we are successful on these respective paths, public and private saving in the United States will increase as recovery strengthens, and as this happens, our current account deficit will come down. And in China, domestic demand will rise at a faster rate than overall GDP, led by a gradual shift to higher rates of consumption.

Globally, recovery will have come more from a shift by high saving economies to stronger domestic demand and less from the American consumer.

The policy framework for a successful transition to this outcome is starting to take shape.

In the United States, we are putting in place the foundations for restoring fiscal sustainability.

The President in his initial budget to Congress made it clear that, as soon as recovery is firmly established, we are going to have to bring our fiscal deficit down to a level that is sustainable over the medium term. This will mean bringing the imbalance between our fiscal resources and expenditures down to the point - roughly three percent of GDP -- where the overall level of public debt to GDP is definitively on a downward path. The temporary investments and tax incentives we put in place in the Recovery Act to strengthen private demand will have to expire, discretionary spending will have to fall back to a more modest level relative to GDP, and we will have to be very disciplined in limiting future commitments through the reintroduction of budget disciplines, such as pay-as-you go rules.

The President also looks forward to working with Congress to further reduce our long-run fiscal deficit.

And, critical to our long-term fiscal health, we have to put in place comprehensive health care reform that will bring down the growth in health care costs, costs that are the principal driver of our long run fiscal deficit.

The President has also proposed steps to encourage private saving, including through automatic enrollment in retirement savings accounts.

Alongside these fiscal actions, we have designed our policies to address the financial crisis to carefully minimize risk to the taxpayer and to allow for an orderly exit or unwinding as soon as conditions permit. Across the various financial facilities put in place by the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC, we have been careful to set the economic terms at a level so that demand for these facilities will fade as conditions normalize and risk premia recede. Banks have a strong incentive to replace public capital with private capital as soon as conditions permit.

Let me be clear - the United States is committed to a strong and stable international financial system. The Obama Administration fully recognizes that the United States has a special responsibility to play in this regard, and we fully appreciate that exercising this special responsibility begins at home. As we recover from this unprecedented crisis, we will cut our fiscal deficit, we will eliminate the extraordinary governmental support that we have put in place to overcome the crisis, we will continue to preserve the openness of our economy, and we will resolutely maintain the policy framework necessary for durable and lasting sustained non-inflationary growth.

In China, the challenge is fundamentally different, and at least as complex.

Critical to the success of your efforts to shift future growth to domestic demand are measures to raise household incomes and to reduce the need that households feel to save large amounts for precautionary reasons or to pay for major expenditures like education. This involves strengthening the social safety net with health care reform and more complete public retirement systems, enacting financial reforms to help expand access to credit for households, and providing products that allow households to insure against risk. These efforts can be funded through the increased collection of dividends from state-owned enterprises.

The structure of the Chinese economy will shift as domestic demand grows in importance, with a larger service sector, more emphasis on light industry, and less emphasis on heavy, capital intensive export and import-competing industries. The resulting growth will generate greater employment, and be less energy-intensive than the current structure of Chinese industry. Allowing the market, interest rates, and other prices to function to encourage the shift in production will be particularly important.

An important part of this strategy is the government's commitment to continue progress toward a more flexible exchange rate regime. Greater exchange rate flexibility will help reinforce the shift in the composition of growth, encourage resource shifts to support domestic demand, and provide greater ability for monetary policy to achieve sustained growth with low inflation in the future.

International Financial Reform

These are some of the most important domestic economic challenge we face, and these issues will be at the core of our agenda for economic cooperation.

But I think it is important to underscore that we also have a very strong interest in working together to strengthen the framework for international economic and financial cooperation.

Let me highlight three important areas.

At the G-20 Leaders meeting, we committed to a series of actions to help reform and strengthen the international financial architecture.

As part of this, we agreed to put in place a stronger framework of standards for supervision and regulation of the financial system. We expanded and strengthened the Financial Stability Forum, now renamed the Financial Stability Board. China and other major emerging economies are now full participants, alongside the major financial centers, in this critical institution for cooperation. We will have the chance together to help redesign global standards for capital requirements, stronger oversight of global markets like derivatives, better tools for resolving future financial crises, and measures to reduce the opportunities for regulatory arbitrage.

We also committed to an ambitious program of reform of the IMF and other international financial institutions. Our common objective is to reform the governance of these institutions to make them more representative of the shifting balance of economic and financial activity in the world, to strengthen their capacity to prevent future crisis, with stronger surveillance of macroeconomic, exchange rate, and financial policies, and to equip them with a stronger financial capacity to respond to future crises. We also committed to mobilize $500 billion in additional finance through the enlargement and membership expansion of the IMF's New Arrangements to Borrow in order to provide an insurance policy for the global financial system.

As part of this process of reform, the United States will fully support having China play a role in the principal cooperative arrangements that help shape the international system, a role that is commensurate with China's importance in the global economy.

I believe that a greater role for China is necessary for China, for the effectiveness of the international financial institutions themselves, and for the world economy.

China is already too important to the global economy not to have a full seat at the international table, helping to define the policies that are critical to the effective functioning of the international financial system.

Second, we must cooperate to assure that the global trade and investment environment remains open, and that opportunities continue to expand. As economies have become more open and more closely integrated, global economic growth has been stronger and more broad-based, bringing increasing numbers out of poverty, and turning developing nations into major emerging markets. The global commitment to trade liberalization and increasingly open investment played a critical role in this process ¨C in the industrialized world, in East Asia, and, since 1978, in China. As we go through the severe stresses of this crisis, we must not turn our backs on open trade and investment - for ourselves and for those who have yet to experience the fruits of growth and development. The United States, China, and the other members of the G20 have committed to not resort to protectionist measures by raising trade and investment barriers and to work toward a successful conclusion to the Doha Development Round.

And third, one of the most critical long-term challenges that we both face is climate change. Individually and collectively, there is an urgent need to ensure that each and every country takes meaningful action to deal with this threat. Reducing land and forest degradation, conserving energy, and using clean technology are important objectives that complement both our efforts to achieve a new, sustainable pattern of growth and our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. China and the United States already are working closely through the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in areas such as clean transportation, clean and efficient production of electricity, and the reduction of air and water pollution. We must continue these efforts for the sake of our natio ns and the planet.

Conclusion

In the last few years the frequency, intensity, and importance of U.S.-China economic engagements have multiplied. The U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that President Obama and President Hu initiated in April is the next stage in that process. I look forward to welcoming Vice Premier Wang, State Councilor Dai and their colleagues to Washington to participate in the first meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

Our engagement should be conducted with mutual respect for the traditions, values, and interests of China and the United States. We will make a joint effort in a concerted way "同心协力". We should understand that we each have a very strong stake in the health and the success of each other's economy.

China and the United States individually, and together, are so important in the global economy and financial system that what we do has a direct impact on the stability and strength of the international economic system. Other nations have a legitimate interest in our policies and the ways in which we work together, and we each have an obligation to ensure that our policies and actions promote the health and stability of the global economy and financial system.

We come together because we have shared interests and responsibilities. We also have our own national interests. I will be a strong advocate for U.S. interests, just as I expect my counterparts to represent China¡¯s. China has benefited hugely from open trade and investment, and the ability to greatly increase its exports to the rest of the world. In turn, we expect increased opportunities to export to and invest in the Chinese economy.

We want China to succeed and prosper. Chinese growth and expanding Chinese demand is a tremendous opportunity for U.S. firms and workers, just as it is in China and the rest of the world.

Global problems will not be solved without U.S.-China cooperation. That goes for the entire range of issues that face our world from economic recovery and financial repair to climate change and energy policy.

I look forward to working with you cooperatively, and in a spirit of mutual respect. 20090531

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Why Krugman Is a Thorn in (Everyone's) Side


Why Krugman Is a Thorn in Obama's Side

May 21, 2009 by Chosun Ilbo columnist Kim Ki-cheon

Newsweek magazine in a cover story entitled "Obama's Nobel Headache" describes the embarrassment to the U.S. president from a series of scathing criticism from last year's Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman. Krugman has slammed the U.S. government's bank bailout plan as paying "cash for trash." He lambasted the so-called "stress test," which gauged the financial health of major financial institutions, as coming close to fraud.

Krugman is a natural rebel…

[…]

Yet Krugman was also the scourge of the Bush administration.

[…]

Some accuse him of being "an economist who died 10 years ago," claiming he has been more interested in inflammatory politics than research ever since he began writing the New York Times column in 1999.

[…]

In an international seminar in Seoul a few days ago, Krugman once again offered a pessimistic view, saying the global economy has just emerged from intensive care. Then when will it end? A hint comes from a comment posted on his blog in the New York Times. "We will know when the economic crisis is over when we no longer see Krugman everywhere."


The entire column is a must quick read. Find it here: Why Krugman Is a Thorn in Obama's Side

By Chosun Ilbo columnist Kim Ki-cheon

englishnews@chosun.com / May 21, 2009 12:00 KST

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/21/2009052100905.html

20090521 Why Krugman Is a Thorn in Obama's Side


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

My recent columns in The Tentacle on the economy by Kevin Dayhoff


My recent columns in The Tentacle on the economy by Kevin Dayhoff

May 13, 2009

On January 24, 2009 I posted “My recent columns in The Tentacle on the economy by Kevin Dayhoff.”

Recently several folks have asked that I update the list. Here you go:

May 6, 2009
Planned obedience…or else
Kevin E. Dayhoff
As of last week it appears that a marriage between Chrysler and Fiat SpA may eventually happen; this in spite of the few reports that surfaced recently that the marriage was off once Fiat realized the extent that Chrysler’s labor contracts were, how shall we say politely, less than helpful. Gee…

April 8, 2009
Thanks, but no thanks
Kevin E. Dayhoff
An opinion piece appeared in The Wall Street Journal last Sunday, relatively unnoticed except by economics geeks, citing the growing trend among banks that accepted Troubled Asset Relief Program –TARP – money who are begging the government to take the money back.

April 1, 2009
And Atlas Wept
Kevin E. Dayhoff
In a move that has given many pause, last Sunday the administration of President Barack Obama ventured boldly into the latest worrisome intrusion into the nation’s private sector by firing Rick Wagoner, General Motors’ chief executive officer.

March 18, 2009
Think Globally, Bank Locally
Kevin E. Dayhoff
If you are banking with any of the ginormous intergalactic financial institutions that are at the center of the current financial crisis, then you are part of the problem.

February 11, 2009
Political Heresy and Unvarnished Truth
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Yesterday, in 1899, the future 31st president of the United States, Herbert Clark Hoover, married Lou Henry in Monterey, CA. Happy anniversary, Mr. President.

February 4, 2009
When Stimulus Ain’t
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed its $819 billion version of the economic stimulus package by a vote of 244 to 188. Not a single Republican voted for the measure – for good reason.

And on January 24, 2009 I posted:

My recent columns in The Tentacle on the economy by Kevin Dayhoff: http://tinyurl.com/c9tqrh

October 3, 2008
Congress and The Rattlesnake – Part 3
Kevin E. Dayhoff
On May 13, 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama compared the current housing crisis in the U.S. to the Great Depression in a campaign stop in Missouri.


October 2, 2008
Congress and The Rattlesnake – Part 2
Kevin E. Dayhoff
For several weeks the nation and the world have been watching the financial news emanating from Washington and Wall Street with that “deer in headlights” look as everyone holds their breath in disbelief and worries another shoe will drop.


October 1, 2008
Congress and the Rattlesnake – Part 1
Kevin E. Dayhoff
In response to the increasing wrath of the American voter, the U.S. House of Representatives came to its senses on Monday and voted 288 to 205 to kill the rash and ill-conceived proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.


November 5, 2008
It’s the Congress, Stupid!
Kevin E. Dayhoff
When historians look back on the 670-day, $2.5 billion 2008 presidential campaign, the observations, analysis, second-guessing, and finger pointing will fill volumes. In the end, it was once again, “the economy, stupid” that ruled the day.


November 19, 2008
Rewarding Bad Behavior
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Instead of tooling down the highway in the fast lane, two months after General Motors celebrated its 100th Birthday on September 16, it found itself huddled over at an intersection with fate, harassing passers-by with a tin pan in hand.


November 26, 2008
“The Eight Years War”
Kevin E. Dayhoff
At high noon on Monday, amid cries of alarm that this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President-elect Barack Obama rolled out his all-star economic team and a call for an economic stimulus package that could cost as much as $1 trillion.

20090124 my recent columns in The Tentacle on the economy

Kevin Dayhoff
E-mail him at: kevindayhoff AT gmail DOT com
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20090513 SDOSM My recent columns in TT on the economy by KED
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