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Archive for September 19th, 2006

Evangeline Lilly

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

Back again for a second post after the first. Yow.

Gas Prices

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

Weeee! Enjoy it while it lasts because December is probably where we bottom out and swing back around. Hopefully we’ll hit $2.00 per gallon like we did last year.

I think the cheapest gas I found last winter was around $1.89 which is pretty amazing considering I remember paying $1.10 when I was in high school in the early 80’s. Inflation adjusted prices are currently “cheap” by any standard. Is it any wonder why this country doesn’t give a crap about conservation? Conversationalists should be cheering for a quick turn around - the one thing virtually guaranteed to motivate this country to conserve fuel is a solid and prolonged hit to our checkbooks.

Oops

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

“We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress and every man of any mind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them. Our predecessors have endeavored by intricacies of system and shuffling the investigation over from one office to another, to cover everything from detection. I hope we shall go in the contrary direction, and that, by our honest and judicious reformation, we may be able . . . to bring things back to that simple and intelligible system on which they should have been organized at first.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Federal Debt

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

I find it odd that some politicians continually tell us the only way to solve the federal debt problem is to increase taxes. Isn’t that the same as telling a fireman the best way to put out a fire is to toss a can of gasoline on the blaze? A better solution would be to cut taxes even further, and then complain about the debt level even more, forcing the federal government to cut spending. People who feel the government has a responsibility to carry them along in some way, could turn to their respective state governments for help as an alternative.

2006 Elections

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

One of my favorite web sites of all time is back in action just in time for the 2006 midterm elections - www.electoral-vote.com.

The Birth of Web 2.0

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

Found this article interesting over on Business Week detailing how our ‘horrible’ healthcare system is one of the primary buoys of our current economic growth. Unfortunately it’s not sustainable, which will cause cutbacks in spending, forcing the healthcare industry to look for ways to improve efficiency. The government can do a lot in this area as well to help streamline the system.

I also found this little blurb within the article interesting as well -

Perhaps most surprising, information technology, the great electronic promise of the 1990s, has turned into one of the biggest job-growth disappointments of all time. Despite the splashy success of companies such as Google (GOOG ) and Yahoo! (YHOO ), businesses at the core of the information economy — software, semiconductors, telecom, and the whole gamut of Web companies — have lost more than 1.1 million jobs in the past five years. Those businesses employ fewer Americans today than they did in 1998, when the Internet frenzy kicked into high gear.

I would guess the people in Silicon Valley grew tired of sitting around without a job, so they started web 2.0 companies. Most web 2.0 employees are probably considered unemployed. I wonder if we’d be seeing this kind of entrepreneurship if the level of federal and state unemployment benefits was signifigantly higher than it is today?