Yesterday (3-27), the Obama administration began addressing the fix to what we have called the economic meltdown. That suits me really good! I said a few days ago that somebody needed to start talking of the fix and not just sending more good money after bad; that if we don't do something, the ones who made the mess will just make a bigger one.
So, now, according to Congressional testimony by Treasury Sec. Geithner, they are working to get legislation to enable tighter and broader controls. From what I read, most are amenable to doing something like this -- except for the ones who made it happen.
Read an interesting OP-ED in the New York Times today that talked about where we'd been. I will summarize my understanding of what writer Paul Krugman said: Obama is "not willing to have taxpayers money chase after bad money." That is what I been saying.
Krugman says that financial "wizards" were "lavishly rewarded for overseeing the process" that got us into the mess. "Wizards were made frauds" either knowingly or unknowingly, he said.
"Loans did not stay with lenders - others "sliced and diced and pureed individual debt to synthesize new assets." How about them words! Loans that used to be 4% of GDP came to be 8%.
Anyway, Krugman seemed to put it together - what happened - better than anyone I have read so far. Now, it is a must to fix it so that does not happen again.
The biggest screamers are going to be the ones who made the biggest profit off getting us where we got. That could be even some of our Congressmen, defenders of the people, so called.
Now, it is not just the banks that need regulating, and perhaps being tighter regulated. It now means that the various industries outside banking need it too.
I hope the fix comes before the money sent out evaporates. It would be just like 'em to say, "but, but, this law is after the fact." Wouldn't that be something? Similar to the AIG folks who got the bonuses and claimed the contract they were under provided for lavish bonuses. Hummm.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Fix what?
This is my first post on the topic of the bailout in about a month. So, I guess I ought to say something since I do have something on my mind.
The money has be let. It is supposedly flowing. We do hear that some are using it for the wrong purpose. Some are even paying high bonuses to people who may have caused the problem. Shame on them, I say.
The news now talks about the deficit this will cause in a bunch of years to come. Wow! Where'd they get all that money in the first place?
My concern, and I think this is a real concern, is that I don't hear much if anything about anything being done to keep what happened from happening again. Hummm. Are we just pouring money into a deep hole just to do it again? I sure hope not.
If we don't fix what caused it, it will continue to bite us - again and again. Surely, somebody is fixing that, I hope. Guess I should tune in to C-SPAN and see what the Congress is talking about.
Anyway, that is may latest worry. Sure wish I had some positive things to write on. Maybe next week. Maybe the next time the President appears on Jay Leno he will talk about the fix.
The money has be let. It is supposedly flowing. We do hear that some are using it for the wrong purpose. Some are even paying high bonuses to people who may have caused the problem. Shame on them, I say.
The news now talks about the deficit this will cause in a bunch of years to come. Wow! Where'd they get all that money in the first place?
My concern, and I think this is a real concern, is that I don't hear much if anything about anything being done to keep what happened from happening again. Hummm. Are we just pouring money into a deep hole just to do it again? I sure hope not.
If we don't fix what caused it, it will continue to bite us - again and again. Surely, somebody is fixing that, I hope. Guess I should tune in to C-SPAN and see what the Congress is talking about.
Anyway, that is may latest worry. Sure wish I had some positive things to write on. Maybe next week. Maybe the next time the President appears on Jay Leno he will talk about the fix.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I am concerned about newspapers
Just got via LA Times today the demise of a Seattle newspaper, a paper that's been around, I hear, since the Civil War. That is a long time! The one going down is a Hurst paper, the same as owns the masthead of our local paper. The connection in ownership brings me the concern.
It is not just Seattle. It is all over. Word is that newsprint is in trouble lots of places. Perhaps revenues are down because there are other ways to get the news. Lots of Internet news these days from sources including newsprint uploads to any number of other sources. All this causes folk not to subscribe, which reduces the revenue, which if left unchecked brings the demise.
I might be old fashioned, but I still like to go out in the morning and pick up the paper from the driveway and come back in and scan and read over a hot cup of coffee. I usually start with the front page pictures and headlines and move to the obits and the editorial page. The rest I catch up on later. Never cared much for the funnies. Don't know for sure what I would do if one morning there was no newsprint in the driveway.
I have a friend who writes for a paper up north. He has been doing that for years. Now, he is concerned about his career being a dying breed. He is looking to train in something else that might be more lasting in this age. I am sure that a lot of people who work for newspapers are doing the same thing. Even in my hometown some nearly 100 people are probably a little yancy over what the future might hold for them, too.
Also I do wonder about the coupon clippers, and the advertisers who seem to think advertising via newsprint pays. I think people still watch the paper for sales - on milk, hamburger meat, and other things.
What happens when there is no place to advertise to get the product availability into the hands of the wanting? Well, somebody will invent a better mousetrap, they say. I am just not too sure that anything can do that with the efficiency found in newsprint.
Oh, I know that we have always been adaptable. New ideas come and old ones fade away. Look what happened to the old mimeograph machine! Those makers had to find something else to make. We still have information decimation, but it is not mimeographed anymore. It goes out in the form of e-mail or some such stuff.
While I am concerned, I will get over it. I do think there is a need for local newsprint, a need that it will be hard to replace. Let's just see where this all goes.
It is not just Seattle. It is all over. Word is that newsprint is in trouble lots of places. Perhaps revenues are down because there are other ways to get the news. Lots of Internet news these days from sources including newsprint uploads to any number of other sources. All this causes folk not to subscribe, which reduces the revenue, which if left unchecked brings the demise.
I might be old fashioned, but I still like to go out in the morning and pick up the paper from the driveway and come back in and scan and read over a hot cup of coffee. I usually start with the front page pictures and headlines and move to the obits and the editorial page. The rest I catch up on later. Never cared much for the funnies. Don't know for sure what I would do if one morning there was no newsprint in the driveway.
I have a friend who writes for a paper up north. He has been doing that for years. Now, he is concerned about his career being a dying breed. He is looking to train in something else that might be more lasting in this age. I am sure that a lot of people who work for newspapers are doing the same thing. Even in my hometown some nearly 100 people are probably a little yancy over what the future might hold for them, too.
Also I do wonder about the coupon clippers, and the advertisers who seem to think advertising via newsprint pays. I think people still watch the paper for sales - on milk, hamburger meat, and other things.
What happens when there is no place to advertise to get the product availability into the hands of the wanting? Well, somebody will invent a better mousetrap, they say. I am just not too sure that anything can do that with the efficiency found in newsprint.
Oh, I know that we have always been adaptable. New ideas come and old ones fade away. Look what happened to the old mimeograph machine! Those makers had to find something else to make. We still have information decimation, but it is not mimeographed anymore. It goes out in the form of e-mail or some such stuff.
While I am concerned, I will get over it. I do think there is a need for local newsprint, a need that it will be hard to replace. Let's just see where this all goes.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Technologically adept or challenged?
Just this weekend by daughter paid me a compliment, I think. She said, "Dad, I am so glad you are technologically adept." I took that as a compliment. I think she was saying that most older people are not. That made me feel good, though. But, compared to what?
This morning I was trying to attach a picture to an e-mail I was sending out. I did attach it, but when I got a copy back (I include myself on the addressee list), and tried to open the picture to see what the other addressees were seeing, I got a message that it would not open, that I did not have it associated with @@$%*#. (I say it that way because I still do not know what it said. So, I am not sure my daughter knew what she was talking about when she complimented me.
I do know that I know a lot. I have been working this computer game for a number of years, and I have learned a lot by trial and error. Maybe, soon, I will learn what @@$%*# is, and I will fix that problem. (I did know enough to attach the picture another way, and that did work.)
But everybody has problems. It is not just me and attaching pictures. This morning I went to the doc and, as usual, they asked if I had any medications I needed refilled. I have been going to this doc a long time and he has me on a bunch that have five refills, and then I have to get him to write a new prescription. (You know, some of those meds are a lifetime contract, especially when you get older. These are not cure-the-flu time meds. They are maintenance type meds that lasts a lifetime, however long that is.)
Well, the doc's nurse told me that the pharmacist would have the order before I walked out of that office. Sounded good to me. New technology, you know. My doc does it electronically.
While I was out doing other errands, I called my pharmacy to see if the order was ready. Reponse: "We do not have an order." So, I say, "I will call the doc back and remind them."
I call the doc. They say, "Have them check their 'e-script.' Our record shows they got it." (E-script seems to be a new way of doing things in the medical field. Probably kinda like e-mail to the rest of us.)
So I call the pharmacist back. "The doc says check your 'escript." Silence. I ask if they want me to wait until they verify. The pharmacist says, "That will not be necessary. We probably have a bunch on it." That led me to know they had not checked that, whatever that is. That led me to believe they are not technologically adept but are challenged, for now, at least.
But I do not say all this to complain. I can't properly associate pictures for email. The pharmacist can't remember to check this new fangled machine that doctors use to send med orders, e-scripts. That is just the way it is.
Probalby tomorrow, we will both know a new trick to get along better. Tomorrow we both, in these areas, will be more technologically adept and not challenged. We will know what @@$$%*! is, for sure. We might be slow but we will get it. I am convinced of that.
This morning I was trying to attach a picture to an e-mail I was sending out. I did attach it, but when I got a copy back (I include myself on the addressee list), and tried to open the picture to see what the other addressees were seeing, I got a message that it would not open, that I did not have it associated with @@$%*#. (I say it that way because I still do not know what it said. So, I am not sure my daughter knew what she was talking about when she complimented me.
I do know that I know a lot. I have been working this computer game for a number of years, and I have learned a lot by trial and error. Maybe, soon, I will learn what @@$%*# is, and I will fix that problem. (I did know enough to attach the picture another way, and that did work.)
But everybody has problems. It is not just me and attaching pictures. This morning I went to the doc and, as usual, they asked if I had any medications I needed refilled. I have been going to this doc a long time and he has me on a bunch that have five refills, and then I have to get him to write a new prescription. (You know, some of those meds are a lifetime contract, especially when you get older. These are not cure-the-flu time meds. They are maintenance type meds that lasts a lifetime, however long that is.)
Well, the doc's nurse told me that the pharmacist would have the order before I walked out of that office. Sounded good to me. New technology, you know. My doc does it electronically.
While I was out doing other errands, I called my pharmacy to see if the order was ready. Reponse: "We do not have an order." So, I say, "I will call the doc back and remind them."
I call the doc. They say, "Have them check their 'e-script.' Our record shows they got it." (E-script seems to be a new way of doing things in the medical field. Probably kinda like e-mail to the rest of us.)
So I call the pharmacist back. "The doc says check your 'escript." Silence. I ask if they want me to wait until they verify. The pharmacist says, "That will not be necessary. We probably have a bunch on it." That led me to know they had not checked that, whatever that is. That led me to believe they are not technologically adept but are challenged, for now, at least.
But I do not say all this to complain. I can't properly associate pictures for email. The pharmacist can't remember to check this new fangled machine that doctors use to send med orders, e-scripts. That is just the way it is.
Probalby tomorrow, we will both know a new trick to get along better. Tomorrow we both, in these areas, will be more technologically adept and not challenged. We will know what @@$$%*! is, for sure. We might be slow but we will get it. I am convinced of that.
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