uvAggravator2.0

Score another one for Bob McDonnell. Virginia's governor officially received the backing of the Virginia Retail Merchants Association for his plan to privatize the state's liquor system hours after he got the same from Fairfax Chamber of Commerce. The news wasn't exactly surprising. The group has supported privatization for years, but it was still welcome news for McDonnell, whose proposal has received a somewhat cool reception this week. "VRMA believes that the retail sale of all products is best served by the private sector, which will allow the government to focus on other core services,'' the group said in a statement. "It is clear that the government sale of alcohol is a decades-old policy that needs to change...We also support the dedication of up-front revenue to transportation. While this initiative is only one piece of a long-term solution to transportation funding, we should not turn our backs on $500 million


Bob McDonnell - Virginia - Privatization - Alcoholic beverage - Government

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D) will announce that he has tapped well-known Richmond lobbyist David Hallock for a key vacancy on his staff. Hallock will serve as Warner's state director as the junior senator tries to elevate the job and connect with constituents back home. Hallock, a vice president with Kemper Consulting, served as Warner's deputy director of policy and deputy counselor when he was governor. He also has served as an adviser to Democratic lawmakers, including former Gov. Tim Kaine and last year's gubernatorial nominee, state Sen. Creigh Deeds. (You may remember that Hallock has played his share of Republican politicians -- Jerry Kilgore, Jim Gilmore and Bob McDonnell -- as he helped Democrats prepare for debates over the last few years.) The state director oversees offices in Fairfax, Richmond, Abingdon, Norfolk and Roanoke and works with local and state government officials.


Bob McDonnell - Tim Kaine - Jim Gilmore - United States - Mark Warner

The Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce has come out in support of Gov. Bob McDonnell's plan to privatize the state's liquor system. The group wrote a letter to McDonnell Thursday expressing support because of its "long-standing policy position of encouraging privatization of government services whenever possible" and the money the plan would produce for transportation. McDonnell wants to auction off 1,000 licenses to sell liquor. The plan would provide a one-time windfall of $458 million for transportation and recurring revenue of $229 million a year through a series of fees. "Although $400-$500 million -- estimated in your proposal and possibly only a one time infusion -- does not address the total monetary need to alleviate the Commonwealth's transportation crisis, we believe it is a reasonable option for consideration in building a plan to fully fund the transportation needs for Virginia,'' wrote Jim Corcoran, the chamber's president. Read the full letter.


Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Privatization - Jim Corcoran - Chamber of commerce

This doesn’t sound good:

Secretary Sean T. Connaughton says the results of a months-long audit will soon be announced, showing serious mismanagement within VDOT.

“I will just tell you that in two weeks when we announce (the audit), it will make national news as to what we found,” Connaughton said during a business event in Northern Virginia Wednesday.

A while back I thought calls by General Assembly Republicans for a VDOT audit were no more than the the usual waste-fraud-and-abuse posturing. Perhaps I was wrong.

Damn. That would be—let’s see —a grand total of TWICE now. Embarrassing!

From today’s inbox, courtesy of what-in-God’s-name???!!—

The Center for North American Herpetology is pleased to announce that the recipient of

THE JOSEPH B. SLOWINSKI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SNAKE SYSTEMATICS for 2010 is

CHRISTOPHER M. R. KELLY
Molecular Ecology & Systematics Group
Rhodes University
Grahamstown, South Africa

Good to know!

Not that we didn’t know it before, but this piece provides a nice recap of how president Obama has adopted George W. Bush’s GWOT tactics, from indefinite detention to extraordinary rendition, pretty much wholesale.

Nothing could do more good for Israel than for the U.S. to declare war on it, as today’s column explains.

This video of NJ Gov Chris Christie is better than an MMA cage match.

Gov. Bob McDonnell sent a letter (pdf) to Education Secretary Arne Duncan asking for $249 million in stimulus money from a $26 billion bill that President Obama signed last month. McDonnell had been urged by Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) not to apply for any funds from the bill and to "stand firm against this maneuver of the Obama Administration to increase states' dependency on the federal government." The bill, signed Aug. 11, provides governors with an additional six months of federal assistance: $10 billion for education and about $16 billion for Medicaid.


Barack Obama - Government - Bob McDonnell - Federal government of the United States - United States

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) said that he will start trying to persuade legislators that his proposal to privatize the state's liquor system is the "right business model" for Virginia and a "good proposition for our citizens." McDonnell told reporters at a news conference late Wednesday that he does not know how many votes he has for the proposal in the divided General Assembly, but that his plan, unveiled hours earlier, addresses most lawmakers' concerns. "There are some legislators that will oppose it because they aren't really concerned about transportation,'' he said. "There are some legislators that will oppose it because they don't want to see my administration succeed -- some of the Democratic party. ... But I think legislators are smart and they're fair-minded. They don't believe everything they read in the paper, they don't believe everything they may have heard in chatter." McDonnell wants to auction off 1,000 licenses


Bob McDonnell - Privatization - Democratic - Virginia - United States

The United States, once regarded as the most economically competitive nation in the world, has fallen to 4th place, according to the 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum, the folks who organize the prestigious Davos wonk fests.

Only two years ago, the U.S. ranked No. 1 in the comprehensive assessment of the competitive strengths of all the world’s nations. In last year’s report, the U.S. fell to No. 2, surpassed by Switzerland. This year, the world’s largest economy was humbled yet again, falling behind Sweden and Singapore, with Germany nipping on its heels.

While the U.S. still possesses great strengths, in particular the size of its domestic economy, the flexibility of its labor markets and its capacity for innovation, major weaknesses have intensified. The report cites growing distrust of politicians, questions about the government’s ability to maintain arms-length relationships with the private sector, and the wastefulness of government spending. But dysfunctional macroeconomic policy ranks as the biggest concern of all. States the report:

A lack of macroeconomic stability continues to be the United States’ greatest area of weakness (ranked 87th). Prior to the crisis, the United States had been building up large macroeconomic imbalances, with repeated fiscal deficits leading to burgeoning levels of public indebtedness; this has been exacerbated by significant stimulus spending.

How does public indebtedness impact national competitiveness? First, it is necessary to understand what the Global Competitiveness Report means by competitiveness: “We define competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.” The level of productivity dictates the level of prosperity that a country can sustain, as well as the rates of return on investments in physical plant, human capital and technology. A more competitive economy will likely grow faster in the medium- to long-run.

Continued budget deficits and high public debt crimp productivity in several ways. First, they reduce fiscal flexibility. Government has fewer resources to invest in productivity-enhancing infrastructure, education and public health, or to apply as fiscal stimulus during downturns. Second, as governments borrow more, interest rates will tend to rise, thus driving up the cost of capital for private business.

Also, the report notes, these effects can be exacerbated by consumer and business expectations. “Because taxes will most likely have to be raised in order to repay debt, economic agents will adapt their growth expectations, investing less and saving more. Taken together those factors may lower growth, making it even more difficult to repay debt in the future and potentially leading to a vicious cycle.”

For those appraising the long-term fiscal viability of the federal government, here is the takeaway: There is a feedback loop between deficits/debt and economic competitiveness. Growing deficits reduce a nation’s productivity and competitiveness over time. Lagging productivity/competitiveness translates into slower economic growth, weaker tax revenues and even more deficits.

That feedback loop is masked right now because interest rates are so low. But it will kick in full force later this decade as the global capital glut turns to global capital scarcity and interest rates begin to climb.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and members of Virginia's congressional delegation vowed Thursday to fight Defense Secretary Robert Gates's decision to shutter the Joint Forces Command, a military installation in Hampton Roads, and to slash the Pentagon's military contracting budget by 10 percent a year for the next three years. "The decision by Secretary Gates...is one that is very shortsightened and is one that has not gone about anywhere near the documentation that would be needed in order to make a colossal change of this kind,'' McDonnell said. "I think the concern most of us have is that this was done in a very hasty way with no demonstrable savings to the United States or to the Department of Defense." At the first meeting of McDonnell's statewide military commission, members focused on Gates's Aug. 9 decision which McDonnell said could cost Virginia thousands of jobs and have a devastating impact on


United States - Robert Gates - Virginia - Defense Department - Hampton Roads

All analogies are inexact, and there are some obvious problems with the parallels Ann Coulter draws in her latest column. But she’s got a point, doesn’t she?

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will headline a pair of fundraisers Thursday and Friday for fellow Republican Tom Corbett, the Pennsylvania attorney general who is running for governor. He will attend a Thursday afternoon event at the St. Clair Club Country Club in Upper St. Clair, Pa. The next morning, he will attend a Republican Governors Association event at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, where proceeds will be given to Corbett's campaign. The RGA event is expected to bring in $430,000, according to Phil Cox, McDonnell's senior political adviser, but figures were not yet available for the other fundraiser. Corbett held a fundraiser in Philadelphia for McDonnell when he was running for governor last year. This year, McDonnell has been assigned to Corbett through the RGA's mentoring program. McDonnell held his first fundraiser for Corbett this summer at the home of Fred Malek, a major Republican donor who served as a


Bob McDonnell - Republican - Pennsylvania - Tom Corbett - Philadelphia

Gov. Bob McDonnell's staff unveiled a proposal to nearly triple the number of establishments that sell hard liquor in the state -- to 1,000 -- though the majority of new licenses would go to establishments where Virginians can already buy beer and wine, such as grocery and convenience stores. McDonnell's staff, now briefing members of his government reform commission, argue their plan raises money for state roads, almost fully replaces revenue Virginia now receives from its ABC stores, expands the shelf space devoted to distilled spirits in the state while avoiding a proliferation of new liquor stores and does not raise taxes. That last point will be key for a Republican who ran for governor on a platform of improving roads without new taxes. McDonnell will have to persuade legislators new fees on parts of the industry involved with his complex proposal do not represent tax increases. That persuasion campaign


Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Distilled beverage - Alcoholic beverage control state - Government

It’s plain enough why the governor’s privatization plan includes disappointing elements such as these:

·      1,000 retail licenses will be auctioned off to the highest bidders

·      The licenses will be broken into three categories: 600 licenses for large establishments such as grocery stores; 150 for smaller establishments such as package stores and wine and beer shops; 250 for convenience stores/retail pharmacies

·      No one company will be allowed more than 25% of licenses within each level

·      1,000 licenses will still give Virginia 1.8 outlets per 10,000 adults, far below the private state average of 3.8 per 10,000 adults

·      Majority of new license holders will be existing stores; Virginians will primarily see new shelves in retail establishments, not new establishments.

·      332 licenses will be guaranteed for areas currently served by an existing ABC outlet

·      The additional 668 licenses will be granted based on population density

They hardly add up to a laissez-faire approach, do they? Of course, McDonnell never promised a laissez-faire approach. He promised a privatized system, and even turning the ABC stores over to a private-sector monopoly technically would qualify under those terms. Still, it would have been nice to see a plan that imposed no such caps and conditions on the licenses, and didn’t fetishize the revenue angle.

FYI, the governor will have his say on the matter in a guest column on tomorrow’s Op/Ed Page.

 

Gov. Bob McDonnell's staff unveiled a proposal to nearly triple the number of establishments that sell hard liquor in the state -- to 1,000 -- though the majority of new licenses would go to establishments where Virginians can already buy beer and wine, such as grocery and convenience stores. McDonnell's staff, now briefing members of his government reform commission, argue their plan raises money for state roads, almost fully replaces revenue Virginia now receives from its ABC stores, expands the shelf space devoted to distilled spirits in the state while avoiding a proliferation of new liquor stores and does not raise taxes. That last point will be key for a Republican who ran for governor on a platform of improving roads without new taxes. McDonnell will have to persuade legislators new fees on parts of the industry involved with his complex proposal do not represent tax increases. That persuasion campaign


Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Distilled beverage - Alcoholic beverage control state - Government

Is there a Koch connection to Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's 31-member commission on government streamlining?
The Kochs are brothers David H. and Charles who run Wichita-based Koch Industries, a petroleum-based conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the United States. They are hard-right political activists with a libertarian, anti-Obama bent, who, according to a recent New Yorker profile, "believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry -- especially environmental regulation."
Among the Kochs' many donations are millions of dollars for the Arlington-based Mercatus Center, a "market-oriented" think tank tied to George Mason University. One Democratic strategist has described Mercatus as "ground zero for deregulation policy in Washington."
Maurice McTigue, a former New Zealand politician and a vice president at Mercatus is on McDonnell's commission. McTigue, who was known as a government streamliner in New Zealand, has advised states such as Louisiana on cutting state functions.
A spokeswoman for Mercatus says that, except for McTigue, there is no direct tie between the McDonnell commission and the think tank. A source close to the commission reports that McTigue sits in on meetings of subcommittees other than his own. Also, correspondence from a McDonnell staffer that was supplied to me by a source suggests that Mercatus is playing a bigger role by helping the commission "flesh out potential recommendations and ideas."
The governor's goal is to cut back on state spending, privatize as many entities as seem appropriate, end redundancies and make state government more transparent. These may seem like worthy goals to some. But one wonders if it really means having the state throttle the poor and sick and let companies have their way with the state's rivers, lakes and air, along with the Chesapeake Bay. Will consumers be protected from predatory firms? Or would that be off-limits for state regulators?
Other questions have been raised about the makeup of McDonnell's commission. It is being chaired by Fred Malek, a former Army Green Beret and Nixon administration staffer who was involved in President Richard Nixon's efforts to identify Jews at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Malek has said he did so reluctantly and later apologized.
Besides Malek, the rest of the McDonnell commission is very lopsided -- to the right. Among its members:

• Alexandra Liddy Bourne, executive director of American Energy Freedom Center, a Northern Virginia outfit that also employs former Republican Gov. George Allen. The conservative energy lobby pushes for oil drilling off of Virginia's coast and runs through the usual laundry list of opposition to global warming legislation.
• Commission member Geoff Segal is a vice president of Macquarie Capital, an Australian firm that is very big into privatized road projects -- another McDonnell favorite.
• "Special advisor" is Mike Thompson, chairman and president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a right-wing, libertarian outfit that unfortunately took over the old Bacon's Rebellion e-zine and turned it into an e-rag for Northern Virginia-based lobbyists pushing privatization and limited government.It isn't exactly the place to turn to to see a wide spectrum of opinion.

The Kochs however, are much bigger fish and, according to the New Yorker, they have pumped millions to stymie Barack Obama whom they consider a socialist. The conservative movement has had more than its share of Southwestern or Midwestern oil billionaires, such as the Hunt brothers of Texas, who have the deep pockets for their favorite political charities. These are the kinds of people who attacked John F. Kennedy because he was a Catholic and backed Curtis Lemay, the neo-fascist retired Air Force general, for office. The New Yorker says the Kochs are covertly funding the Tea Party movement, which is a curiosity given the Tea Party's supposed populism.
But money, especially oil money, talks.
Peter Galuszka

Former Gov. Doug Wilder (D), a strong proponent of privatizing state-run liquor stores, is predicting a tough -- though not insurmountable -- road for Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal to end Virginia's spirits monopoly. "He's in a difficult situation," Wilder said. "Can it be done? Yes. Will it be done tomorrow? No." Wilder, who chaired a government reform commission that recommended ABC privatization and periodically discusses the idea with McDonnell, said he senses organized opposition to the concept and but little organized support. "I have not identified nor seen the supporters -- the people who would be called upon to pass this thing," Wilder said. "But there's organization for the opposition. It's pretty apparent, and you don't have to go far for it."


Virginia - Privatization - Bob McDonnell - Government - Distilled beverage

The Huffington Post asks. . .

While at the very same moment, TPM reports. . .

This essay settles, once and for all, the question as to whether God exists.

Okay, not really. But it’s still worth the three minutes it will take you to read it.

The bitter fight between Rep. Tom Perriello (D) and state Sen. Robert Hurt (R) in Virginia's 5th congressional district took a personal turn on Twitter Tuesday, when Perriello's campaign called Hurt's spokeswoman a "carpetbagger" and a national GOP operative responded by tweeting the home addresses of several Perriello staffers. The spat comes as the race between Perriello and Hurt has grown increasingly negative, and attracted national attention to the question of whether Democrats might decide to withhold financial support for Perriello's bid in favor of other, more winnable races. Using his hefty campaign war chest, Perriello went on the air in recent days with a tough new ad calling Hurt "lobbyists' best friend." On Tuesday, Hurt spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg wrote on her Twitter feed: "Important to note that it was the Incumbent in this race @tomperriello that first went up with a negative ad #desperate." The Perriello campaign begged to


Virginia - Tom Perriello - Robert Hurt - Democratic Party - United States

Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal to privatize the state's liquor system had been expected to face its first vote Wednesday afternoon, but the vote was postponed late Tuesday. A committee of McDonnell's government reform commission will meet at 1 p.m. to receive the proposal, but chairman Del. G. Glenn Oder (R-Newport News) delayed the vote because members did not receive details about the plan far enough in advance of the meeting. Oder did not return a call seeking comment. "It's a very sensible thing,'' said Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington), a member of the committee who had said last week it would be "virtually impossible" to vote for the proposal if she did not receive details before the meeting. Richmond lawyer Howard Estes, who also serves on the committee, said he would have been surprised if the panel had been forced to vote on the proposal. He said the committee typically


Bob McDonnell - Mary Margaret Whipple - Privatization - Government - Gov. Bob McDonnell

More bad news for the guv:

“Before we heard any details, the idea of privatization was appealing,” said Randy Norton, chairman of Great American Restaurants, about to open its 11th eatery in Northern Virginia. “Our minds only went to what good could come out of it. . . . But if our taxes are going to be raised at all, we’re going to fight this thing very hard.”

By trying to buy off a tax-happy legislature, McDonnell seems to have put his plan in the middle of the road. . . . where it can get creamed from both sides.

Virginia will no longer allow federal employment authorization cards to be used to obtain driver's licenses or identification cards after a fatal crash involving Benedictine nuns and a drunk Bolivian national facing deportation stoked concerns over the document's reliability in determining someone's immigration status. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles changed its policy Tuesday to disallow the federal government's I-766 employment authorization card from being used as a primary document to determine "proof of legal presence" in the United States. Melanie Stokes, a spokeswoman for the agency, called the Aug. 1 death of Sister Denise Mosier, 66, the "catalyst" for the law change. A drunken driver, Carlos A. Martinelly-Montano, 23, swerved into the path of a vehicle carrying Mosier and two other nuns on their way to a retreat in Prince William County. Martinelly-Montano, who had entered the United States illegally at age 8 with his parents and sister, had


United States - Virginia - Prince William County Virginia - Law - Carlos Martinelly-Montano

Today’s column is about the OED going online-only.

As we reported over the weekend, Virginia probably should not expect expect either a financial windfall or a level of income that matches what state-run liquor stores currently add to Richmond's bottom line, according to a Washington Post analysis of other states that have privatized at least part of their alcohol sales. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) said he expects to make $500 million upfront while retaining nearly $250 million in taxes and profits to the state each year by doing what no control state has done -- privatizing the wholesale, distribution and retail. He will announce his proposal Wednesday. Iowa and West Virginia, the only two states that have fully privatized their retail stores in the last two decades, each made less than $20 million upfront when they privatized. Officials there say the change helped them become more efficient and saved overhead costs, but never produced the anticipated windfall. In


West Virginia - Washington Post - United States - Privatization - Alcoholic beverage

Profits and tax revenues at state-run liquor stores grew by 4.4 percent in fiscal year 2010 over fiscal year 2009, and total $258.6 million, according to a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has promised his plan for privatizing state-run liquor stores, scheduled to be unveiled Wednesday, will fully replace the annual revenue Virginia now receives from the sale of hard liquor. But just how much does Virginia get from its ABC stores? As discussions have unfolded on the topic over the summer, the most cited numbers have been from fiscal year 2009, which ended June 30, 2009 and have been the most current numbers available. In 2009, Virginia received $109.6 million in excise taxes on liquor, $26.2 million in sales taxes and $111.8 million in profits from ABC stores, for a total of $247.6 million. But fiscal year 2010 ended June 30


Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control - Alcoholic beverage control state - Alcoholic beverage

A while back I wrote about the usefulness of online games in providing music loops that drown out background noise without invading your thoughts.

Here’s another good one.

Updated 1:15 p.m. Democrats released a new poll Tuesday that showed U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) in a dead heat with state Sen. Robert Hurt (R) as Perriello and his party seek to combat the perception that his reelection might be slipping out of reach. With the media focused on whether the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has decided to cut off financial support from Perriello and some other endangered lawmakers, the DCCC released a survey Tuesday by Global Strategy Group showing Hurt leading Perriello in the 5th district, 44 percent to 42 percent, well within the poll's 4.9 percent margin of error. Independent candidate Jeffrey Clark drew 6 percent. "These results confirm what every reputable pollster has shown -- this race is neck and neck," said DCCC spokesman Jesse Ferguson. Surveys of the race have been all over the map, but the new one is definitely the closest. Two different


Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - Tom Perriello - Robert Hurt - Democratic - Global Strategy Group

Following this brilliant strategy, I hereby call on voters in the Fifth District to vote against Tom Periello. . . . Come Nov., you’ll see just how powerful I am. . . .

The Economist says cheaper lighting could mean more lighting, not lower bills.

That’s how Democratic strategists plan to leave Tom Periello.

7 September 2010

Editor, The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

To the Editor:

EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy explains that her agency is designing a new and improved fuel-economy label for (mandated) placement on all new cars sold in the U.S. (Letters, Sept. 7).

Taking Ms. McCarthy’s advice, I visited the EPA’s website and examined each of the proposed new labels.  I was disappointed to find that a vital piece of information related to fuel economy is missing from both labels - namely, the increased risk of traffic fatalities that result from higher fuel “economy.”  To raise fuel economy, automakers often reduce the weight of their cars, which typically means making cars’ bodies and structural supports out of lighter-weight, weaker metal.  So a car that is more “fuel efficient” will likely also be one that is less “health efficient.”

Because Ms. McCarthy is right that it is “imperative that consumers have more information,” I propose that the new label also explains the magnitude of the increased health risks suffered by automobile occupants as a consequence of government-mandated fuel-efficiency standards.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

Peter posted a very good Labor Day statement concerning The Wealth Gap and here is another transect through that same frightening territory.

The current administration is proposing a $100 Billion tax break for Enterprise R&D.

There are four BIG problems here:

First: The obvious one that Jim Bacon will focus on: It drives the federal deficit even higher. Boomergeddon sooner!

Second: It puts more big and mid-sized firms on the dole and generates more political contributions for the existing political Clans.

Third: It will not provide jobs that the folks who Accurate correctly points out are not contributing their fair share of effort and are the ones who NEED jobs.

Fourth: R&D, if it is ‘successful,’ will drive Mass OverConsumption, not REAL conservatism – aka, conservation.

The Enterprises that are large enough to qualify to have an R&D program and have cash flow large enough that make tax breaks attractive are NOT the Enterprises needed to get Main Street to work. Picking up on TMT’s point, getting the tax break will justify even higher CEO compensation.

The US does not need Garmeen Foundation-scale micro loans but it does need Community Supported Enterprise loans. Bacon has done a nice job of pointing out that banks are using the past rounds of 'incentives' to improve their bottom line, not make loans.

Get citizens involved. Investments should be in activities and Enterprises that investors can see and understand, not in Gambling Venues.

There are a plethora of ideas that we have uncovered while preparing a series of talks on the application of Regional Metrics to Community prosperity. One is that the CSA idea is spreading from Agriculture to Enterprises. But that news is drowned in the Labor Day ads about discounts on goods made in China.

Time is short and getting out useful information is critical. The Administration is also proposing $50 Billion in new ‘infrastructure’ programs. There is a better way to spend some of that money:

Take the infrastructure money that would otherwise go to subsidize dysfunctional human settlement patterns – most of it outside the logical locations of The Clear Edges – and provide it to qualifying Community Colleges for education and information on Community support ideas and programs like CSE.

What is needed are investments in start-up Neighborhood, Village and Community scale Enterprises.

Want to support a sustainable economy in your Community, your SubRegion, your Region and by extension in the US?

Stop reading INC., The Wall Street Journal and The Earth is Flat. Start reading YES, and The Small Mart Revolution.

Start a study circle in your Cluster around Cheap, The High Cost of Discount Culture and The Story of Stuff. Read The Great Reset but focus on how to make Florida’s view of change benefit, not pillage, your Village and your Community.

Small is beautiful.

Happy Labor Day.

EMR

In "Matewan," the 1987 film about organizing West Virginia coal miners, union activist Joe Keenehan, played by Chris Cooper, tells a group of dubious miners: "There's two types of people. Them that work and them that don't. You work. They don't."
With that as a Labor Day message, let's consider some very important structural changes in our economy and on that some economists believe is a major reason why we're not seeing very much of a recovery from recession.
Wage inequality is a rising phenomenon that has not been dealt with, according to Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor. Despite the entry of women into the labor force in a big way and two wage earners per family in many cases, the purchasing power of average wage-earners has been decreasing over the past several decades. One result is that the middle class no longer has as much dollar clout to buy enough goods to facilitate more production and more jobs. Hence, our unemployment rate hovers at about 9 percent or so without much change.
How come? One reason is that many of the economic gains over the past several decades have gone to the richest people. Reich writes:
"In the late 1970s, 1 percent of American families took in about 9 percent of the nation's income; by 2007, the top 1 percent took in 23.5 percent of total income."
Okay. So, the rich are getting a lot richer. But if we believe in trickle down economics a la Arthur Laffer and Ronald Reagan, this is a good thing since everyone will share in the benefit, lower taxes on the rich will generate more wealth and we'll be very happy.
Well, not exactly, as Reich notes, the new rich do not spend all that much of what they have. And these days, if they do invest, their money is just as likely to go to the Cayman Island, China, the Isle of Man, Cyprus or anywhere but the U.S.
The data about the income flows at the top comes from Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two Berkeley professors, who have studied income tax returns since the taxes were first levied. Income patterns were fairly similar among the rich of various countries until the 1970s. After that they remained stable in Europe and Japan, but "increased enormously in the United States and other English-speaking countries."
The chief reason, they say, is that the pay for top corporate managers suddenly rose exponentially. In fact, According to BusinessWeek (my alma mater), in 1980, the average CEO of a major firm made 42 times the average worker's pay. That rose to 85 times by 1990. By 2000, it had reached an incredible 531 times that of the average hourly worker.
Reasons given for this anomaly, according to Saez and Picketty, are that being top boss is a lot harder, but they note it doesn't explain why CEO pay did not rise by the same rate in countries such as Japan where one might assume running Toyota or Sony is not much easier. A second reason could be that labor unions have been beaten down so much that they no longer can act as a reasonable brake on CEO greed. A third reason could be that CEOs have been allowed to set their own pay terms and "extract rents at the expense of shareholders."
The same pattern can be seen on university campuses where being president has gradually become enormously lucrative. John Casteen, the former president of the University of Virginia made $797,048 in 2008 while the median pay for a public university was $427,400. Eugene Trani, former head of Virginia Commonwealth University made $532,000, but that doesn't include perks such as directorships of corporations. He made $159,000 this year as a director of tobacco firm Universal Corporation.
This kind of largess has made London's Economist magazine question if America's colleges are going the way of car companies. Against a backdrop of such big salaries for top administrators, college fees have soared beyond the ability of many Americans to pay for them. Between 1993 and 2007, administrative costs at Harvard have gone up 300 percent. Does this mean schools are hiring superstar professors? Not really. They tend to spend more on the president's office or on luxurious dorms or fancy sports stadiums than on actual teaching.
The libertarians who dominate this blog stick their heads in the sand and choose not to see these harmful trends. Instead, they want more tax cuts for the rich or they want to keep George W. Bush's tax cuts, which, in a big contradiction, have led to the budget deficits they have recently discovered and despise. If you raise any of these issues, they scream, "income redistribution!" as if it were the Bolshevik Revolution.
But if you've ever visited the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg you might realize that the Bolshies had a point.
Peter Galuszka

Kerry Dougherty makes some excellent points in her blog, again.

My latest column from the Washington Times:

The big three credit-rating agencies that totally missed the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market - Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch - still give the United States a AAA credit rating. But there's a newcomer in the credit-rating game - Dagong Global Credit Rating - which has a very different view of the strength of U.S. finances.
Beijing-headquartered Dagong, the dominant credit agency in China, is pushing into international markets. This summer, it rated the sovereign debt of 50 nations making up 90 percent of the world's economy. While Americans still tend to regard U.S. Treasuries as the "safest investment in the world," Dagong gave our debt a mere AA - lower than that of 11 other countries (including China, which it awarded an AA+). To add insult to injury, the firm declared the U.S. outlook to be "negative."
Dagong has set off something of a hissy fit in the credit-rating world. "The Western rating agencies are politicized and highly ideological, and they do not adhere to objective standards," Chairman Guan Jianzhong told the Financial Times in July. The company also accused U.S. agencies, which share an oligopoly enforced by government fiat, of contributing to the 2007-08 financial crisis by applying the coveted AAA rating to loads of junk subprime mortgage debt.
The chairman of McGraw-Hill, owner of Standard and Poor's, accused Dagong of pandering to popular prejudice, insisting that S&P and the other agencies have been unfairly targeted by politicians, pundits and competitors. Also, he countered that Dagong lacks transparency in its policies and procedures.
We can debate forever whether the U.S. agencies employ more analytical rigor in the rating of their sovereign debt than Dagong, but let's be clear about one thing: Dagong is not a chump outfit. The company boasts of more than 500 employees, including more than 200 analysts with master's degrees or doctorates and 50 with postdoctorates. The Chinese finance ministry has directed the company to "participate in the construction of [the] Asian bond market." Read more.
Bacon bottom line: Major global investors upon whom the United States depends to continue buying our Treasuries have a far less sanguine idea of our fiscal health than we ourselves do. I'm not saying that Dagong is correct and the U.S. rating agencies are wrong, only that the U.S. agencies do not reflect global opinion. I would be interested to know how Dagong might evaluate Virginia's AAA debt, if it were allowed to participate in the U.S. debt-rating market. I wonder how they might view a state economy so overwhelmingly dependent upon federal government expenditures.

Note to pre-Boomers:For those who you who miss the allusion to 1970s-era "The Gong Show" edify yourself by clicking here.

The Department of Motor Vehicles is sending letters requesting 4,240 driver's license and ID card applicants get their photos taken again after an Aug.25 computer outage left their original photos unrecoverable. "Unfortunately, all photographs taken that day for credentials could not be recovered, therefore no credentials were mailed to these customers,'' the DMV said in a press release. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) warned Thursday that some data may have been lost due to the outage that left 26 state agencies, including the DMV, scrambling to serve Virginians. The Virginia Information Technologies Agency returned the data to DMV after the outage, but advised that the database did not include 12,000 to 16,000 photos, including those taken Aug. 25. DMV staff is evaluating the database to determine if other photos are not recoverable. The DMV is open this weekend, including Labor Day, and next weekend to process applicants.


Department of Motor Vehicles - Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Driver's license - Identity document