Vote for FairTax

Change.org is running a program called Ideas for Change in America.

Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven effort to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies. You can help by submitting an idea for how you would change America, discussing ideas with others, and/or voting for your favorites.

FairTax is already listed there, but more people need to vote on it. Go out and vote for FairTax at: https://www.change.org/ideas/view/fair_tax

What I'd Like to Give My Son for Christmas

Lincoln's Cannots

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

- Rev. William J. H. Boetcker

A Crisp November Morning

There's nothing like fall. The crisp, damp morning air makes each breath even more noticeable. Going for a short walk in this air reminds me what a blessing my life is.

As I walked in this early morning air, I enjoyed the right to go out to the polls and cast my ballot. This right is not taken lightly by me, and for all our country's problems, the solutions lie in our people. Today is just one step out of many, and we're allowed to make mistakes -- but they're our mistakes. This is where democracy starts.

Take this one step today, and go out and vote.

The "Rescue" Plan, in Plain English

From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

To stimulate lending, the bailout plan will attempt to recapitalize banks. The method of recapitalization is best described as robbing Taxpayer Pete to pay Wall Street Paul. In essence, money is taken from the poor (via taxes, printing, and weakening of the dollar) and given to the wealthy so the wealthy supposedly will have enough money to lend back (at interest) to those who have just been robbed.

If you prefer comics, then you'll like this one from Sinfest:

Yes, Virginia, there is Pork in the Bailout

As I've been striving to learn Congressional process, after being very annoyed at the pork hiding in the Bailout bill, I stumbled across the Wikipedia entry for H.R. 1424.

I should have known better, but wanted to struggle through the raw text myself. All 3 divisions were indeed passed as the same law, so all that pork is sent to the pit. I still have a lot to learn, as this practice is common. Most of this is just disgusting to me, as the three Acts in this bill have nothing in common with each other.

No wonder our government spends so much.

::sigh::

"Pray for our republic," intoned Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, a leading opponent of the measure. "She's being placed in very uncaring and greedy hands."

Historic bailout bill passes Congress; Bush signs - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081003/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

Now, I have to vote everyone out of office that voted for this thing. Thankfully, my Representative, Michael McCaul, voted against this bill. Unfortunately, Senators Cornyn and Hutchison now must go.

A Letter from Joe Biden

In my quest to spread The Common Sense Fix I've exposed myself to probably far to many mailing lists. This was pretty evident this morning when I received an email from Joe Biden.

Ryan --

If you saw tonight's debate, you saw Governor Sarah Palin give a spirited defense of the same disastrous policies that have failed us for the past eight years.

She couldn't identify a single area where she or John McCain would change George W. Bush's economic or foreign policy positions.

If you want something different, Barack and I need your help.

Make a donation of $5 or more right now to bring about the change we need.

The change we need is fixing this broken economy from the bottom up -- not tax breaks for the wealthy and huge corporations that ship U.S. jobs overseas. We need to focus on defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and restoring America's standing in the world -- not an unending commitment in Iraq.

Let's be clear: Governor Palin and Senator McCain are offering nothing but more of the same failed Bush policies at home and abroad, trying to disguise them in the rhetoric of change.

Americans need real solutions and real change.

We're in this together and there's a lot to do before Election Day. Please make a donation of $5 or more right now to support this campaign for change:

https://donate.barackobama.com/changeweneed

This is the most important presidential election you'll be part of in your life.

Thank you for all that you're doing.

Now let's get to work and change this country,

Joe

Here's my reply, which I'm sure will go nowhere.

Ah, Joe, more of the same. I watched the debate and saw very little of consequence for the average American. All I saw is the same politics as usual -- from both sides. You're right, we need real change in this country.

I'm tired of the same old class warfare arguments that tell me to start making one group or another pay more of the burden of running this country. It's time we got back to "All Men Are Create Equal", and started believing in it again. Punishing successful Americans for their income is not the answer, it just creates a disincentive to build wealth and become better.

Corporations are wealth distribution machines, as a company does not amass 'wealth'. Corporations build jobs. Heavily taxing corporations just gives less incentive for them to build them here. It is about time we started making America compete in the world marketplace, and give corporations a reason to create jobs here.

Think for a minute how companies pay taxes. Any income a corporation creates has to be divided up among the employees, the investors, suppliers, debts incurred, growing the business, and the government. A corporation doesn't amass wealth -- it distributes it, so any taxes a corporation pays is taken away from creating wealth for everyone else on that list.

The only way we're going to get out of this mess is to grow this economy. It's time for real change. We need to stop taking so much money away from the American people to give to a bloated government that spends far more than it takes in. Government needs to focus on creating incentives for businesses to start up and thrive in these United States.

It's time for real change. Let's get to work. Three initiatives to get us on track are The Common Sense Fix, change-congress.org, and fairtax.org. It's time for change that can make a difference.

Ryan

I'm not sure if any of this will make a difference, but it feels far better than doing nothing, or whining about it around the water cooler.

I'm Tired... of Election Year Politics

I'm tired of all the same old rhetoric, the same politicking, the same class warfare, and the same corruption. It's time for real change in our government, not more of the same. That's why I've had several politically directed posts in the past several months. I think it's time to enumerate just what I'm tired of.

Class Warfare

Whenever I hear the words rich, poor, greedy, or redistribution of wealth, I know that the person talking is just trying to get us to fight amongst ourselves so they can walk off with the money, power, or whatever it is they set out to take. It's a tactic to deflect from real issues.

Fairness comes from equality, not placing different standards on any particular class of people. Anyone who talks differently is just trying to play one group against another. It is time to stop playing that game. This is one of the reasons I started supporting FairTax, which would take away the inequities in the current tax code and make taxes fair.

Evil Corporations

This mostly involves talk about taxing the excessive profits that a company makes. On the surface, companies appear to pay many taxes -- taxes against their profits, taxes against the income they are providing employees, and taxes on investments they make. Over the water cooler, I heard recently about the tax benefits of employing a workforce in India (I am not kidding).

Now, think for a minute how companies pay taxes. Any income a corporation creates has to be divided up among the employees, the investors, suppliers, debts incurred, growing the business, and the government. A corporation doesn't amass wealth -- it distributes it, so any taxes a corporation pays is taken away from creating wealth for everyone else on that list.

It all sounds good when the evil corporation being taxed isn't identified as you, but in some way or another, you are on that list. That's what makes corporate taxes such an effective way at hiding the true nature of a tax. Again, that's another reason I'm supporting FairTax.

Corruption

The whole process has become corrupt. Money invades and distorts at every level of politics. Earmarks are a staple of the modern political arsenal.

Take a gander at the latest atrocity coming out of government, know as The $700 Billion Bailout. It's 451 pages long!!! For something that has been deemed so critical to our economy, I would have thought they'd be brief and expedient (for reference, The Common Sense Fix is only a single page long, though it might grow to 5 pages it it was formatted like the current bill).

If you bother to scan through that document, you'd find juicy provisions for Energy, Mental Health, Disaster Relief, Film and Television Production, a Motorsports Racing Track Facility, Railroad Track Maintenance, Mine Rescue Team Training, Economic Development for Samoa, and I'm not even covering half of it. Who doesn't have their hand in the till for this one? Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up.

[Note: In reexamining the text, I found that E.E.S.A. is part of Division A, and most of the other troubling stuff I've noted above come from Divisions B & C. I've found a better link for E.E.S.A. here. All these Divisions appear to be part of HR 1424 (which comes from the Senate website), but it's not clear to me if they all are voted on at once. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.]

I'd recommend reading the bill for entertainment value as well. The name given for the bill is E.E.S.A. (Emergency Economic Stabilization Act) and it's main provision is for a T.A.R.P. (Troubled Assets Relief Program), apparently to cover their backsides. It sounds like stuff out of an old comic book!

This is just normal business in Congress. This bill is an ordinary knitting together of all the wants and needs of various constituents, tying together various parts of other legislation, nipping here, extending there -- such that most of the bill is illegible. It makes for a great opportunity to sneak things in.

I would guess that most elected officials don't read the whole bill, and instead read something like this summary of the bailout, which conveniently leaves out all the earmarks hiding in that little bill. Heck, I don't think even journalists read this stuff, because I've certainly never seen it on CNN.

This is why I'm supporting the Change Congress movement. We've got to demand real change out of our system, and vigilantly defend our government from the corruption that has infected it.

The Common Sense Fix

I love Dave Ramsey. He's the guy out there giving financial advice that my grandmother would give. Since my grandparents lived through the Great Depression, I trust them. He has a plan that makes sense, and we should pass this, instead of incurring more national debt.

Here's a quick and dirty summary of the plan:

1. Insure the subprime mortgages
2. Remove mark-to-market accounting rules for 2 years
3. Eliminate capital gains taxes

Go read it at daveramsey.com, and send it to your congress representatives. Congress needs to hear from us that we know what we want.

Bringing our Country Back from the Brink

Who can escape the news of the proposed $700 billion bailout program? Well, not I, and it has been bothering me. I can't support this kind of action, it just seems ill-advised for our government to grow this much -- not matter what kind of oversight there is. So, I wrote this letter to my Senators and Congressmen.

There is another plan out there that can help this situation, and let the market fix itself. One of the biggest reasons for this problem we're in is because of government regulation in the form of Sarbanes-Oxley. While that law isn't without merit (it did have good intentions), it's heavily contributed to this problem with sub-prime mortgages because the market hasn't adjusted to this way of thinking.

I usually hate regurgitating other material, but Dave Ramsey has posted a very good explanation of the current situation. I'd recommend you read the full text here, but I'll requote what Dave learned from economist Simon Wesbury:

"... if we change ... one rule and don't force [companies] to mark [sub-primes] down to market value and just let them hold on to all the stuff ... for [a fixed] period of time ... -- a temporary change -- that'll free the market up."

The cost is also far less be much simpler to implement. We need to make smart decisions about our country, and be prudent with taxpayers' money.

Speaking of taxpayers' money, I've also read recently about FairTax (www.fairtax.org). Coming from Texas, I understand how an economy can be boosted by the lack of an income tax. We've had things far better in this part of the country in recent years, and I believe that has something to do with our lack of an income tax. It is a simpler tax system to implement, and encourages businesses to grow. The research that has gone into this proposal is amazing, and it addresses all the concerns I had about such a drastic change. We need to start growing this economy, and putting money back into taxpayers and investors hands is a great start, but it also brings the added bonus of making America more attractive for businesses to come here -- bringing jobs back home. This is all in a plan that keeps the same level of government funding. Please consider this plan as a way to help the United States of America compete in a global economy.

Building a Better Light Bulb

I just read about an interesting new technology for light bulbs, being developed by a company out of Seattle.

Vu1 has developed a new technology called ESL - Electron Stimulated Luminescence. Essentially, they are claiming to have developed a light bulb that has all the qualities I care about as a consumer.

• Perfect light quality
• Instant-on
• Fully dimmable
• As efficient as CFLs, if not better
• No Mercury
• The same cost as current dimmable CFLs

I can't wait to get my hands on one to try it out. I recently tried one of the dimmable CFLs in my office, only to be sorely disappointed because it only was able to dim about 10%... still leaving me with 90% of the light. Hopefully, these new bulbs will be just what I need for spotlight replacements.

Beware the Logic of Congress

So, we all know inflation is kicking us right now... I'll have to write another post to dig into that, but let's just take that as fact here. Inflation is caused by a basic devaluing of currency. What gives our currency value? The U.S. Government.

So, when the U.S. Government wants to back our currency with mortgage securities, you just have to wonder -- are they paying attention?

via Housing Bill

Proof the Europeans Get Better Cars

This is proof to me that Ford builds better cars abroad: Ford Kuga.

Can someone tell me why we will have to wait/beg to get the next generation Escape to be this?

It does at least look like they will bring it here.

The Story of Stuff

This is an amazing story of the modern consumer industrial system. Very entertaining. And don't forget, Earth Day is April 22nd.

Here's a teaser:

Will Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen Use Be Considered Doping?

A study by the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University seems to indicate that taking ibuprofen (Advil) or acetaminophen (Tylenol)for regular weight lifters increases muscle mass and strength, when compared to a control group.

Is this to be the new doping scandal in professional sports, or perhaps the upcoming Olympics?

See more about the study at Scientific American.

Change Congress

This is a fresh idea. Larry Lessig is spearheading this movement to change the way our government works. The general idea is to remove the influence of money on legislators, so that they can focus more on representing the people.

See more at change-congress.org

Recession (e.g. We're Not in One)

Recession... what does that mean? According to Wikipedia it means:

...a recession is a decline in a country's real gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year.

Wikipedia further references the National Bureau of Economic Research's Recession Dating Procedure:

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion. Expansion is the normal state of the economy; most recessions are brief and they have been rare in recent decades.

Hmmm... How does an amateur economist measure this? I'm going to pick GDP for starters, because that's easier to find. I like the NBER's definition, though, as it clarifies "real economic growth" into the specifics of income, employment, production, and retail.

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes a bunch of statistics about the GDP, so I'm going to start there. Since the NBER dates the end of the last recession in November of 2001, I'm going to start with the quarterly GDP from Q42001 to present to see how our economy is really doing. I've prepared a chart with the BEA's data that shows the percentage change in US GDP, adjusted for inflation.

Notice how the chart never dips below zero? That means we haven't even had a quarter where the GDP didn't grow, let alone two of them in a row. That doesn't mean that growth isn't low, just not negative. The GDP in the 4th quarter of 2007 only grew 0.6%. Such swings are necessary to a healthy economy, though... look at what happened in 2003 after the GDP growth dipped lower than what we just had (0.2%).

The BEA is full of useful data, but it looks like it takes awhile to compile, so I'm not sure how real-time you can get with it. I'm going to have to start paying attention to where the news get their information... it looks like they'd be reporting on past events if they are taking this data when it is released -- the 4Q2007 results were reported almost a whole quarter after it ended, on March 27th.

This data is adjusted for inflation, and I wonder now how this would look compared to what actions the Fed takes with monetary policy. Perhaps I'll dig into that and tackle that next.

Learning Economic Theories

Already a couple of days in, and I'm learning that there is a lot more to learn. I've been focusing on the article of The Great Depression in Wikipedia to kind of give me an overview. This also is a big area that economists have spent a lot of time researching.

The article also tries to educate on the various theories of economics such as Keynesian, Classical, and Neoclassical. These are all academically created theories, but it is interesting to see how they have influenced government policy.

The Great Depression spurred governments to make drastic changes in policy, in particular the US government. The adoption of new policies in the United States seems to have dramatically changed our culture over the past 75 years or so. This is going to be worth exploring further for me, but I'll try to highlight a few points here.

Keynesian economics advocates active fiscal policy, which means the government gets involved in trying to smooth out normal business cycles in the economy. We see this in government deficit spending today during times when the economy is slowing.

Monetary policy also changed dramatically, by moving away from the gold standard in currency. Essentially, we moved to a system where a 'dollar' is measured on it's own and not in relation to gold. This allows the government to control what the value of a dollar is. I have a lot more to read here, but we essentially see this today with the Federal Reserve when they change their interest rates.

Clearly, I have a lot more to read to get a grasp on this stuff. I remember a bit of it from high school history, but just a bit. These are just the basics that I'll have to build on, so I'm not going to be able to jump into big stuff right away. I'm looking at the theories right now, but I think I'd like to tackle the topic of Debt first -- and understand how it's used today, and how that has changed over the years.

Economics

All the hubbub about the economy lately has reignited my interest in economics. I'm probably paying too close attention in an election year, but the media keeps yammering on and my head keeps trying to make sense of everything coming my way. So, I've decided to take a foray into history and try and see if there are any correlations with current events. I'll probably be relying heavily on Wikipedia for this endeavor, but I may bring in a few other sources as I have time. Here's a rough outline of what I'd like to look at over the next few weeks:

• Current Trends and Policy
  • Consumer Debt
  • Government Debt
  • Government Budgets
  • Trade Deficit
  • Immigration / Outsourcing / Non-Immigrant Work Visas
  • Effect of an Election on the Economy
• Past Causes of Economic Downturn (including the Great Depression)
  • Debt
  • Inequality of Wealth and Income
  • Business
  • Deficit spending
  • Trade decline
  • US Federal Reserve
• Causes and Effects of Inflation

The goal of all of this is to connect the dots, envision what could happen today, and what to do about it. Ambitious, I know, but at the very least I'll be clearing the cobwebs out of those old high school history and economics knowledge.

Omnivore's Dilemma

I recently just finished this book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which I found very interesting, so I had to share it.

One passage in the book just stood out to me, about Polyface Farms, and how they have created a farm that produces food by allowing the animals to do what they do best, yet they all work in a symphony that creates a better environment for everyone. Food production is not a zero-sum game. I found a video, up on TED, where the author goes through this exact passage.

This pastoral view of the world reminds me of my preferred view of the future, which I derived from a poster I saw in the fourth grade. If I ever find a picture of that poster, I'll put that up here...

Also, the passage above with the chickens reminds me of some friends and their stories of chickens in their garden.

What Do I Want To Do When I Grow Up?

I come back to this question, now and again, when things are tough; when I find that I want to break out of the mold that I'm in, and head in a different direction. Springing from all the latest MacWorld speculation, I re-read an old posting on Daring Fireball about Apple's culture.

[W]hat gets chalked up as devotion to/obsession with Apple is, in fact, devotion to/obsession with great design, and there’s an utter dearth of rival PC or handheld gadget makers that value design as Apple does. The last time I was truly interested in an operating system that wasn’t from Apple was BeOS, and that was over 10 years ago...

[M]any ... companies see Apple’s success this decade as an aberration — that the Apple bubble will soon pop and mediocre jumbles will return to the top of the technology heap. But what if it’s the other way around, and the aberration was Apple’s tepid success in the 1990s?

I sure hope that many more companies follow the Apple path. It's that kind of attention to detail that I want to see out of products, and what I like to put into my work. Being in an environment where others don't value going that extra mile is usually what makes things tough for me. That's when I start asking the question again.

Electoral Compass

Here's an interesting site. It gives you a survey, and plots your opinion against the other presidential candidates out there.

No wonder I'm having a hard time with this -- I'm nearly exactly in the middle between all the candidates, with no others sharing the same views. Ah... the compromises one must make to live in a republic.

End of the American Empire

Deep thoughts for today, but this has been bugging me for awhile. Via Richard Florida I found this article from the Financial Times. It provides an apropos warning from the Ottoman Empire.

[T]he upshot of this debt crisis is the sale of assets and revenue streams to foreign creditors. This time, however, creditors are buying bank shares not canal shares. And the resulting shift of power is from west to east.

Disturbing, isn't it?

Money is power, and we will become indebted to foreign nations that do not share our ideals. Sooner or later that will lead to a geopolitical shift, if it hasn't already. Just like any financially responsible individual, we should be wary of who we take money from, and for what reasons. I hope we take the advice of another blog posting I read recently.

It is this generation’s task to renew the tree of liberty and keep the American experiment going – to remain true to the ideals that made America and have driven it since 1776.

Perhaps Shakespeare had it right:

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

I am glad to understand this, but sad that I feel powerless to prevent it.