If I offer to buy your groceries tomorrow, will you buy them with your own money today? Did not think so...-

Analogy:  If you were on your way to the grocery store with $100 to buy food and I stopped you at the door and offered you this deal:  "Postpone your purchase today. Come back tomorrow and I will give you $100 to buy your groceries".  Did I give you an incentive to come back to the store to buy food TOMORROW with my money?  Do you (or anyone) take this deal?  What if I originally borrowed that $100 I am going to give to you and sent the bill for it you your children (born or yet to be born) asking (forcing?) them to pay it back with interest out of their future earnings? So (follow me here)...I borrowed $100 from someone (or country(s)) today, that future taxpayers (children) will have to pay back with interest, to give to you to buy groceries you were already going to purchase in the first place...

Read this story...Substitute "you" with a business on their way to hiring someone.  Subsitute me with "Congress" and Substitute "child, born or unborn", with, well, "child born or unborn"....

Real life example (I have personal knowledge of this)---A local subsidary of a major corporation needs to hire 30 people (NEW JOBS!!)...If they see that Congress may pass this law but not until, say, May, do they have a financial incentive (30 X $5,000 = $150,000) to postpone hiring for a couple of months? They are going to hire these people anyway, why not wait and get the Tax Credit for it?? 

Whether it is "right" for businesses to respond this way is one question.  Congress seems to laying a Moral Hazard trap for businesses to fall into (delay what they were already going to do in exchange for a tax credit)...

In principal I have no problem with Congress trying to incentivize businesses to hire NOW...Seems like this would have potentially been more effective LAST year...The job situation is stabilizing and there are hints that the picture will improve in short order...This kind of indecision/delay on the part of Congress (Dems AND Reps) only slows down the process of recovery.   Borrowing money to pay businesses to do what they were going to do anyway...You be the  judge as to whether this is effective policy...

List of Top Ten "CleanTech" Companies---My Favorites are on the Top of the List...

WSJ: And the Top Cleantech Companies Are...

In class when we talk about economic growth and what is going to be the next industry that shifts our Production Possibilities Frontier outward, hence, increasing our  long run ability to produce goods and services (Long Run Aggregate Supply), I speculate that this will come in the energy sector.  Specifically, in solar power generation.  It seems to be the most logical resource to tap.  Right now the technology is sufficient to meet only a very small percentage of our overall energy requirements.  However, I believe someday (soon(?)) someone will develop the equivalent of the microchip, which produces MUCH more in productivity (and residual value to society) relative to its cost, for the solar power industry.  The suns energy is "free" but the technology to convert it into mass-use power is simply not there yet...
For start-ups that harness the energy of the sun, 2010 looks to be a promising year.

"In The Wall Street Journal's first survey of venture-backed clean technology companies, three makers of solar cells came out on top: Solyndra Inc. of Fremont, Calif.; Suniva Inc. of Norcross, Ga.; and eSolar Inc. of Pasadena, Calif. The rankings, announced Thursday at the Journal's ECO:Nomics Executive Conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., seek to identify those green companies that have the capital, executive experience and investor know-how to succeed in an increasingly crowded field",

Scales of Justice: In Zurich, Even Fish Have a Lawyer

Obviously this is an extreme example, but is the concept of having a "public defender" for animals valid?  Protecting animals from abuse is certainly a worthy pursuit, however, do animals have "rights"? And, if so, how is that right defined? What do you think??

WSJ: Last month, Antoine Goetschel went to court here in defense of an unusual client: a 22-pound pike that had fought a fisherman for 10 minutes before surrendering.  .Mr. Goetschel is the official animal lawyer for the Swiss canton of Zurich, a sort of public defender who represents the interests of pets, farm animals and wildlife. He wound up with the pike as a client when animal-welfare groups filed a complaint alleging animal cruelty in the fish's epic battle with an amateur angler.  The case emerged after a local newspaper photo showed the fisherman proudly showing off the four-foot-long fish—a scene that, to Mr. Goetschel, was reminiscent of a safari hunter with his foot perched on the head of a dead lion. "It is this Hemingway thinking," he says. "Why should this be legal when other animals have to be slaughtered in a humane way?"

How Do You Save the Elephants? One at a time..

Also see my other posts HERE and HERE...Saving endangered species--in the real world...

“Mr President, let me tell you the story of two African countries. In 1978 Kenya banned the hunting of elephants and that decision was followed by an almost total destruction of elephant herds in Kenya. Round about the same time – in 1979 – Rhodesia, as it was still called, made elephants the property of whoever’s land they were roaming on. Result – explosion of elephant numbers.We in this House do not think of the elephant in the way that the African does. We are not threatened by it; it does not trample our crops; it does not destroy our villages; and it does not damage human health. The only way to prevent local populations from doing the logical thing, which is to eliminate a dangerous menace, is by giving them an incentive in treating it as a renewable resource. This, of course, is what Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe – successfully did. Environmental policy should recognise the basic Aristotelian wisdom that that which nobody owns, nobody will care for.”(My emphasis)

Here is the video clip of the Parlimentarian speaking...

Source: MisesBlog

NFL to consider rule change---This is change I can believe in!!

WSJ: "In the NFL, Overtime Needs an Overhaul" .  I hate it when the coin toss winner in overtime kicks a field goal to win the game. It just does not seem right that an exogenous variable, luck, should decide a game...

The league is considering a new rule—if approved by 75% of the owners—that could even out scoring opportunities, says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. The new overtime would still end if the offensive team scored a touchdown, but if it only makes a field goal, the other team would get a possession. If both teams kick field goals, the next team to score would win.  Hold the applause, though. If approved, the rule would be used only in the playoffs.

SchoolHouse Rock Video---From a barter to a money economy

WHERE the Jobs are being "created"---Is this a good trend???

Source: Carpe Diem ...Question: Are these new federal jobs temporary or are they permanent?  If permanent, how do we support these jobs on an ongoing basis.  By all accounts, the labor market is going to recover slowly.  It follows that tax revenue will be reduced for a sustained period of time, unless taxes are raised on (1) everyone, or (2) targeted groups (wealthy, investors, corporations, entrepreneurs, etc). More resouces will be shifted to support the larger bureaucracy.   Bottomline: We will will come out of the recession with a much larger Federal workforce than before the recession. Will our national income (GDP) grow enough to cover this increased expense? If not, will the bureaucracies contract and lay these workers off?

Killing continues, and children pay the price in The Congo---Another day, another tragedy...

The more things change, the more they stay the same---Children are pressed into joining "rebel forces" in the on-going (never-ending?) conflict in The Congo.  I wish the US and the nefarious "international community" (whatever that means) would actually do something to solve this situation, but it won't happen until (1) there are no more people to kill or (2) the perpetrators actually get tired of doing the killing.  Then the diplomats will move in and save the day. Seems like that is usually how these things come to an end...Blahhh!

In the last few months, fighting between the Congolese army and rebels has escalated, and more and more children are being kidnapped to bolster numbers amongst the various militia. Jean Vierre was one of a group of 10 ambushed some two weeks ago. He, his six classmates and three teachers were abducted in what appears to be a well-planned attempt to find new recruits. "When we got to the camps, the rebels told to join the military forces. They took us and threw us in a hole. We were given military outfits and told we had to wear them," explains Jean Claude [not his real name]. The two boys managed to escape after two days but not before they saw many other teenage boys in a similar position.

See complete article HERE...

I Promise to NEVER answer my phone when I am talking to you face to face...can you do the same???

Am I too picky to expect someone to NOT answer their phone when we are talking directly to me??  REALLY frustrates me when a student OR adult does this...It is the epitomy of rudeness, in my opinion...WHAT is so important that one cannot silence the call and return it in a few minutes??...I vow that if this happens again, I will walk away (is THAT rude to do???). Guessin' I was not really needed in the first place...I am with this man...

So, for example, I don’t have a mobile phone turned on because I’m talking to you. I don’t want the outside world to impinge on the conversation we’re having. I don’t carry a BlackBerry. I do my e-mails regularly, but I do it when I have the time on a computer. I don’t want to be sitting here thinking that I’ve got an e-mail message coming here and I’d better look at that while I’m talking to you. Every moment counts, and that moment is lost if you’re not in that moment 100 percent.

Great Link to "Conflict Photos" from noted Photographers...

From Freakonomics Blog:

Images From the Field
Foreign Policy publishes “an exclusive collection of work by the world’s most acclaimed conflict photographers.” The photoessay includes photographs from Iraq, Sudan, Congo, Lebanon, Palestine, and Chechnya. Paul Lowe’s photograph of blood and footprints in the Chechnyan snow is particularly striking. “To me, this is not in itself a picture of violence, but speaks of what violence means,” Lowe says. “You can see traces of each action: first the fresh snow, then a body lain down, and the blood seeps into the snow. Then people running around in chaos.”(0)

What are People Really Buying Online?

Source: What people buy online differs substantially from what they buy in-store. According to a study by the US Census Bureau, the bulk of sales are still in-store. There are, however, several categories in which online sales dominate each product marketplace. These include: books and magazines, clothing, and electronics. Below, we have broken down the sales for each category, to show the percentages of both online and in-store sales as a part of the total marketplace, as well as a comparison of the two in absolute terms.l

Businesses Destroyed in Haiti--not by the Earthquake but by Emergency Aid...HUH???

Global Aid Is No Relief for Small Haitian Businesses (WSJ)
The unintended effect of the massive aid to Haiti has been a negative impact on local businesses that have not been able to sell goods because the same goods they could provide are given away by aid agencies...

Business for Ilia Alsene, one of Haiti's ubiquitous "marchands"—or merchants—who sell food and beverages at curbside stalls here, is a lot worse since the country's devastating earthquake. But Ms. Alsene doesn't blame the quake so much as the international relief effort that followed. "I have fewer customers now because they are handing out free food down the street," says the 52-year-old, pointing to the nearby Champs de Mars plaza where aid organizations regularly hand out food to tens of thousands of people camped there in tents....After the Jan. 12 quake, which killed as many as 300,000 people, the world launched a massive relief effort to bring food, water, medicine and other supplies to needy Haitians. The U.S. alone has spent more than $665 million, official figures show. But only a tiny fraction of that money is being spent in Haiti, buying goods from local businesses. Worse, the aid is having the unintended consequence of making life harder for many businesses here, because of competition from free goods brought in by relief agencies. The damage to Haitian companies is making it harder for them to get back on their feet and create the jobs the country needs for a lasting recovery.

This has been a necessary evil, but can be rectified if purchasing of locally made goods picks up quickly, but historically this is not likely to happen:

In most disaster relief, only a tiny fraction of aid money goes through the local government. And as little as 5% of the budgets of humanitarian agencies is spent locally in the countries they help, according to Peace Dividend Trust, a Canadian nongovernmental organization.

Any rebuilding of Haiti is going to require reform of private property rights to encourage MORE people to be productive and retain the right to gain from their labor.  Encouraging entreprenuership and helping them market their goods will be the best thing we can do for them. Recovery will be much faster and sustainable...

This is what I imagine students do instead of studying Economics...

This is what I imagine students are doing instead of studying for my class (Cafe Hayek)..

Outsourced/"Off-Shored" Jobs Coming Back to the US----What a Concept!!

By way of Carpe Diem,,,,From Detroit News: Mich. firm turns tables on outsourcing:  Burroughs moves call center back to Plymouth from India

Companies that "outsource jobs"(the more accurate term is "Off-Shore", but most recognized the former term) have to be mindful of the wage-to-productivity relationship. Workers in low-wage, developing countries, may be less productive than higher wage employees in developed countries.  Depending on the industry, the explicit savings from paying low wages may be offset by the decreased output from these workers, which may or may not be explicit in the short run.  In the example of call centers, the output fall is due to customer dissatifaction from dealing with customer service agents who may not be fluent in english or be able to adequately answer questions.  Over time, businesses find that they lose customers, or at the minimun, customer satisfaction diminishes...

"...In fact, a part of Burroughs' call center used to be in Bangalore, India, until company officials began to examine the real cost benefit of outsourcing. Burroughs is not the only company starting to question whether the initial cost savings adds up, long term. A small number of businesses and several state government offices are looking to bring jobs back to the United States and to Michigan in particular...While Indian workers were paid less than Burroughs' American workers, other costs were rising when customer calls were routed offshore. The number of machines returned to Burroughs was growing, as was the number of times the company had to send an engineer into the field to fix a problem. CEO Alan Howard began to question whether the up-front cost savings of outsourcing held up over the long haul. So Burroughs, which recently split from Unisys Corp., returned its call center to Plymouth, staffing it with the workers who had actually built the machines...."Our cost savings is greater than 10 times the cost saving we would have achieved offshore," Howard said. Customer satisfaction spiked, according to the company's internal tracking, and fewer units are being returned for repairs. And engineers are less often sent to the field to fix problems. "Customers prefer to talk to people who know what they are talking about," Howard said.''

Olympic Motivational Speech like no other....

In preparation for todays Gold Medal game between the US and Canada you may want to watch this video....A mini-Herbs Brooks (coach of the 1980 Gold Medal team) gives a motivational talk to the team...

Nice source/resource if you need info on Cap and Trade...

Useful site that provides referenced links to the evolution of Cap and Trade from conception to today...This would be an excellent source if you have to research the topic

Capping It Off:  How a concept became an environmental policy catchphrase.

" "Cap and trade" began not as a catchphrase, but as a simple concept: that the market could help curb pollution. Its roots date to the 1960s, when U.S. government scientists came up with a scheme for regulating sulfur dioxide emissions through setting a cap and then trading the right to emit over the limit. By the 1970s, environmentalists -- and their politician allies -- embraced the concept, and it became standard in regulatory legislation. Now, as climate change makes the regulation of carbon emissions crucial, cap and trade may be more necessary than ever, if global wrangling doesn't do it in first. "

Drug Abuse in America---facts, figures, fright...

Click HERE for source