Well some sort of deal passed through Congress and was signed by the President. I don't know what it says as I have not had time to read anything much about it. However, I do know from the rhetoric in the news that it was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! In order to, you know, stop the markets from panicking (i.e. going down).
Well well well..."unexpectedly" the markets went down today, the day the deal was past/signed (GASP!). The DJIA was off almost 266 points and basically all gains for the year are gone.
I am well aware that correlation does not always mean causation, but this whole "debt-ceiling" debate has been ridiculously immature and nonsensical.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Debt talks
Oh man, all these debt talks are sure boring. Why don't we just print a bunch more money pay for everything?
...It's like when a board of directors authorizes a stock dividend: you're not really getting anything and each share you own is now worth less! Hooray!
(hopefully any readers caught the sarcasm in my initial question)
...It's like when a board of directors authorizes a stock dividend: you're not really getting anything and each share you own is now worth less! Hooray!
(hopefully any readers caught the sarcasm in my initial question)
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Education Reform (part 1 of several)
I have been giving thought to how I would approach education reform for a long time. It was, however, the recent budget battles here in Wisconsin and elsewhere across the country that have really brought this issue to the foreground of my mind again. To reduce the arguments to the bare essentials on both sides it always seems to come down to the money (no matter how much you dress it up with 'For the Children' slogans). Speaking generally, those on the Right think we're spending too much on public education and those on the Left think we are spending too little.
I would argue that we're spending too much because we're not spending the money we have efficiently. National mandates remove almost all, real local control and failing districts are sinkholes for cash and have no way to usher in reform. The issue of teacher salaries is another big factor in this argument on spending, but I'm going to avoid making any blanket statements about teachers being paid too much or too little. To say that really trivializes the issue because there are definitely cases that could be found to go either way. To be completely honest, however, I just don't really know what a teacher would be worth. There is essentially no market evaluation for a teacher's salary. By that I mean that the government holds an effective monopoly on education. Teacher pay and benefits are closely tied to what various legislative bodies decide should be the norms. A freer system based more on the merits of teachers, rather than seniority or other mandated factors, would do a better job separating the teachers worth their salaries from those returning less value for the money spent.
I would argue that we're spending too much because we're not spending the money we have efficiently. National mandates remove almost all, real local control and failing districts are sinkholes for cash and have no way to usher in reform. The issue of teacher salaries is another big factor in this argument on spending, but I'm going to avoid making any blanket statements about teachers being paid too much or too little. To say that really trivializes the issue because there are definitely cases that could be found to go either way. To be completely honest, however, I just don't really know what a teacher would be worth. There is essentially no market evaluation for a teacher's salary. By that I mean that the government holds an effective monopoly on education. Teacher pay and benefits are closely tied to what various legislative bodies decide should be the norms. A freer system based more on the merits of teachers, rather than seniority or other mandated factors, would do a better job separating the teachers worth their salaries from those returning less value for the money spent.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Walkerville
Since I now live on the west side of Madison I miss out on a lot of the goings on downtown. Case in point, the new tent city of protesters, dubbed "Walkerville." From what I gather this stunt is meant to bring attention to the real issues and hearken back to the days when people were really poor and had to live in not much better than cardboard boxes...
What I see, however, http://www.facebook.com/walkerville are a bunch of really nice, new tents. The kind people take on fun, outdoorsy trips (i.e. expensive tents). sigh...I guess will never understand how the hypocrisy goes right over some people's heads.
To be fair, I haven't really been following the whole recent budget battle as closely as I should. Even with that admission I can say that both sides did really poor jobs in making their arguments going all the way back to Jan/Feb when this whole thing started. I've essentially given up on all, but a few politicians to be real statesmen who can govern justly.
What I see, however, http://www.facebook.com/walkerville are a bunch of really nice, new tents. The kind people take on fun, outdoorsy trips (i.e. expensive tents). sigh...I guess will never understand how the hypocrisy goes right over some people's heads.
To be fair, I haven't really been following the whole recent budget battle as closely as I should. Even with that admission I can say that both sides did really poor jobs in making their arguments going all the way back to Jan/Feb when this whole thing started. I've essentially given up on all, but a few politicians to be real statesmen who can govern justly.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Link!
Still trying to get settled in the new place/deal with projects at work so not a lot of time to really put together a decent post. Therefore, I will link to this bit of awesomeness...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc&feature=player_embedded
New Apartment
Finally all moved in to my new apartment with interwebs and everything. New posts soonish.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Unacceptable to Cut
So public opinion polls show it is "unacceptable" to cut social security, medicare, and medicaid. Fine. How about we introduce transitional programs to let people who want to opt out do so. We wouldn't fully cut the programs right away by any means. No one wants the poor and elderly just put out on the streets as proponents of these programs say would happen if they didn't exist. As a young professional I'm looking at my paycheck and cringing at having to pay taxes into programs that will probably not be round for me to even use in the future. I would rather be in charge of myself. Or at the very least, I want to pay into a privatized, personal account (look to Chile's example for good guidance).
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