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Journalism and other myths.
The Minnesota state budget forecast came out with more bad news – a deficit of $1.1B for the biennium (2 year) cycle of 2014-2015. How can we have these deficits year after year?
The answer is a short and simple one: it’s actually worse than what they are telling us. But a new DFL controlled legislature will be able to work with Governor Dayton to take care of it, once and for all, without an awful lot of pain. The longer answer is that we can expect even more fundamental reform in the works.
What’s the worst that can happen? As the deadline approaches for the Fiscal Cliff later this month, a lot of people are asking this question. It’s becoming common on both the left and the right to question whether or not we should just “go over” the edge and see what happens.
No matter where it comes from, this is a dumb idea. Let’s examine why.
The election is over. The Sunday morning gab shows suddenly found a purpose, interviewing serious Senators and other concerned about the work that the new (and first old!) Congress will face – particularly the “Fiscal Cliff”. A tremendous amount of movement on the Republican side shows that tax increases, particularly coming as reform in the deductions allowable, is definitely on the table.
Grover Norquist now knows what it’s like to be in a position where you can’t deliver the votes. Must be a shocker.
The question remains, however, as to how much of the roughly $1.1 Trillion deficit will be tackled in year 2013, and how much will be spun out into the future. No one expects the gap to close overnight, but instead are looking for serious progress towards balance. More to the point, they want to assure markets that it won’t grow from here. How much can they raise get us down the path right away? Here is a short guide to some of the ways to look at it.
Black Friday is well named. The term seems to originate with the Philadelphia Police, who in 1966 started to dread the massive disruption in traffic that put them all on overtime the day after Thanksgiving. The massive public expense for the benefit of retailers was given the dark moniker because it was something that the city wanted to dissuade.
It’s worth noting that this was the first holiday retail season after the debut screening of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in December 1965, which also decried how commercialism has destroyed Christmas.
From this simpler time, things have only gotten worse. After a few decades of tacit acceptance of the dark day, the hours have been pushed back from a 6AM start time to before midnight. This year, Wal-Mart plans to open at 8PM on Thanksgiving Day and workers are organizing a strike that may shut the whole operation down. The issue? Over work, under pay – and much of the cost of low, low prices ultimately born by the public. It’s time to put a stop to Black Friday as we know it.
It’s been a long time since I wrote about Europe. How many ways can a humble blogger say, “Nothing has really changed”? Nothing has. Currency union has turned into a straightjacket of austerity and the European Union is plunging into a deep recession. The only true news has been a day of protest across Europe, fueled in part by the now 25% unemployment rate in Spain and other nations. It has become a full meltdown.
But so far, no banks have failed. Isn’t that wonderful?
There are several potential problems for the US as this continues, but the most important is its effect on our trade. Yet, for all the trouble in Europe, it may not affect us at all. Can Europe burn while the US stands by? The short answer is sure, why not. Here’s why:
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 