Starting Over In Defense Acquisition Programs

The Defense Advanced Research Products Agency (DARPA) announced last week that they were starting a program to develop a foliage penetrating radar. This is somewhat amusing in that my first job in the defense business I worked for a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who had spent a few years in the early Seventies working on the same sort of project.

I guess it didn't work out to well then and they need to do the same thing thirty years later.

Lefty Bloggers Need To Get Their Stories Straight On Stimulus

At this post Steven Benen is decrying the fact that $40 billion in state aid was cut out of the stimulus so states had to lay people off. In this article there is criticism of the states for using stimulus money to just keep the status quo.

So which is it? Was the stimulus just to keep bureaucrats employed at the cost of the U.S. taxpayer or to actually do something different? Here in AL the legislature used the stimulus money to just balance the budget. That will work out well next year.

The problem the states are facing is due to the collapse in the economy there has been a massive decline in tax revenue of all kinds. The state and local governments were pretty fat and now they have to trim down. That means people are losing their jobs. Maybe when the economy recovers and Americans get private jobs they can go back to subsidizing the government.

Perish The Thought, Huntsville City Council Being Short Sighted

Mayor Battle of Huntsville presented his budget to the City Council. As part of his plan he would like to recommend eliminating step and COLA raises for a couple of years for city employees. The Council does not like the idea. They want to continue them. Heck, the Federal Government intends to not give COLA's to Social Security recipients for the next two years.

While raises are nice the other option is layoffs. This has happened in other parts of the U.S. due to the recession. Counties and states have recommended furloughs or not increasing pay and the unions have run to courts to not allow these. Then there are layoffs. Mayor Battle's proposal seems fairly reasonable. At least it could be done for one year. Maybe next year the economy will recover and raises could happen?

The other interesting thing about the article is that I thought the City bought the Rescue Mission to tear it down to build a new road. Now they are saying city offices are moving into it. Maybe the road won't take up the whole thing?

Who Knew Obama Controls All Funding For Liberal Groups?

Via Riehl World View we come to understand that Firedoglake the angry liberal site is claiming that President Obama is stabbing the left in the back.

The anger is caused by the Van Jones resignation. Some on the left are claiming that Obama should have supported Jones through thick-and-thin. Now Firedoglake is saying that if you do not support Obama you lose all of your "institutional funding". I am not sure what that is but assume it is Democratic party or non-profits that fund liberal groups.

Anyway I did not know that the President was so powerful that he could cut funding to a blog or group overnight. If only the Republicans could get so organized.

Using Posterous

In a desperate search for traffic to my actual real blogs I have set up google reader to allow me to push stuff to Posterous. Then I have Posterous push it to my Twitter feed. We will see what this accomplishes.

Of course it is yet another account to remember.

Newport News Advertising

Since I write for three different blogs now (real ones not vanity sites like this) I spend a great deal of time browsing around at various newspaper and news sites. I also go to many political blogs researching things and getting edumacated. The Newport News bikini ads are everywhere. They must have one heck of a budget or just place them on sites I go to.

Here I am also giving them free advertising just by talking about them.

Huntsville Mirrors The U.S. On Housing Sales

This subscriber only article at The Wall Street Journal reports that the recovery to date in the U.S. housing market has been focused on the low end of the market. If you have a high end home it is still hard to sell. This is what was reported in The Huntsville Times as well about the local market. There has been an uptick but it has only been in the low-to-moderate price.

Unfortunately I cannot find the article on their website www.al.com.

It is probably for the reasons that large mortgages are hard to get and people do not want to borrow several hundred thousand dollars anyway with the uncertainty in the job market and economy overall.

Fed Admits Modifying Mortgages Doesn't Work

The Boston Fed did a study looking at Obama's premier program to fix the mortgage crisis by providing financial incentives for lenders to modify delinquent loans. Its conclusion is it doesn't work as most mortgage companies are hesitant to modify the loans. The reason is simply they lose money on the deals.

Part of this is that a lot of borrowers end up delinquent again anyway and another large group fix the problem themselves. The Fed says one simpler solution would be to just give the cash to homeowners and use it to pay the mortgages. Just as I predicted the government will end up using my tax dollars to keep people in their overpriced homes.

Why do I pay my mortgage every month?

Boston Globe To Pass Gently Into The Good Night

Well, sort of. I guess that one billion dollars the New York Times threw at the The Boston Globe a few years ago didn't get them much. Reportedly now the Times is looking to sell the Globe. Maybe the Union will buy it and we will see how long it lasts.

It is also reported that Pinch told the Union to take the twenty-three percent pay cut despite their begging that he be a "mensch". Hey, if that doesn't illustrate how out-of-touch those Union writers with the non-firing clause are then nothing really will.

So here is a song for the Globe.

Supreme Court Not Allowed To Rule On TARP?

I have studied a bit on the Constitution and Bill of Rights but I am no legal expert but I find it hard to believe that the Supreme Court does not have the right to review and judge the TARP legislation and its implementation by the Executive Branch. That is what the Obama Administration argued unsuccessfully today in trying to prevent the hold place on the sale of Chrysler to Fiat as part of its bankruptcy.

The argument was that not only did the Pension Funds who were creditors not have standing but the fact that the TARP was used to give money to car companies rather then banks couldn't be reviewed either. The argument made was that move was in the national interest to protect against "disrupting the stability of the Nation’s economy and financial markets.”

I guess Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn't buy it.

Failed US Mayor Quarantined In China

The soon to be unelected Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, has been quarantined in China due to Swine Flue suspicions. How his trip to China with his wife will help develop the economy of New Orleans I am not sure.

On top of this whenever he is allowed to leave China he will be heading to Australia to make a speech. Why is it politicians across the world treat each other like Royalty?

Sounds like a boondoggle trip to me and probably at the New Orleans' population expense as well.

Twitter and Revenue

Personally I have a hard time seeing how Twitter will be monetized. Obviously the founders of the company do too. They were quoted at a recent conference as stating "We don't know." when asked when the company will make money.

That is cool as long as they are not going out and trying to get money invested in them. If I were investing in a company and their business plan, at least in public, was "I don't know" I think I would hesitate a few moments before writing the cheque.

Oh, you can follow me at Twitter here.

American Housing Boom & Bust Illustrated

I pulled the assessment records for my house in Bristow, VA. This area was part of the far suburbs of Washington D.C. and experienced the full effect of this market crash. The County of Prince William now has a large amount of foreclosures and has suffered from a massive decline in assessed values. This of course makes it hard for people to sell their houses. Here are the assessments on my house:

2002 -- $237,400
2003 -- $276,900
2004 -- $311,300, I sold the house in August of that year for $370,000
2005 -- $384,100
2006 -- $470,400, the market peaked that year with someone paying $500,000 for a house on my street
2007 -- $421,100
2008 -- $343,600
2009 -- $266,600

I paid $203,000 in 1999 for the house so by 2006 it had increased 113% in price and by 2009 it had decreased 43% from its high. I expect the 2010 value to be lower as there are houses for sale now for around $260,000.

Obama Subsidizes Failure To Keep People In Their Homes

According to this article at CNNMoney.com, Obama expands foreclosure fix, the Federal government is expanding the FDIC run mortgage modification program to cover both first and SECOND mortgages. This program is supposed to get the lender to adjust the payments down to 31% of people's income. Not many people have used it and it hasn't really worked as those who are delinquent quickly get delinquent again. Now in a bid to get more to use it the government is allowing the second mortgage people took out to pay their down payment to be included.

The interest rates will be reduced to 1 or 2%. Next it will be home equity loans, or vacation homes, or just give people money. Why do I pay my mortgage every month?

Stupid Article in Newsweek About Textron and Defense Spending

This article was published today at Newsweek.com. I don't know if it will be in their print edition as I last read a copy of this magazine sometime in the Nineties. It is about Textron and the future of the company I guess during the Obama Administration. Somehow it links the downturn in the economy to the rise of Obama on the national stage, but I haven't figured out that relationship. One of the statements in the article is especially egregious -- "Money was cheap, the defense budget was growing, and your customers didn't particularly care how much anything cost." The Pentagon and the U.S. Government care very deeply how much things cost especially for military hardware. Bell, a unit of Textron, lost the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) contract because cost and schedule spiraled upwards. The AH-1Z and UH-1Y programs came close to ending for the same reason. The Pentagon though is often hamstrung in these cases as they have made a commitment to a program, a needed program, and have to deal with the cost increases over time. In many cases the Services contribute to the cost increases because requirements change after the contracts are awarded. Believe me though based on experience cost is a deep concern with these kind of programs.

Interesting Tax Proposals from The Strata-Sphere

One of the blogs I read regularly is The Strata-Sphere. Today he has some interesting proposals on taxes and sharing the pain of the current economic conditions. They make too much common sense, like cutting the capital gains and business tax, to ever be implemented. They are though worth reading and thinking about. He proposes that nobody under 18, or 25 if in college, pay medicare or social security taxes. These people if they get a better education will make up the few years of non-payment and their extra income will help pay for school as well as put money in the economy. He also proposes that all people pay some sort of income tax, even if it is a moderate amount. We have a constant fight about that in Alabama as basically the system has been updated so that the highest tax bracket starts at about 18K. I never have been a fan of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and this would probably be one way to end it. Anyway, read his post here and see what you think.

Newsweek Pulls A Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap on their tour in the movie moved to smaller venues over the big arenas because their manager said they had become more exclusive. Newsweek is using the same excuse. I guess the same old liberal claptrap is more exclusive now.

The Growing Divide Between the State and the Public

The San Jose Mercury News has an interesting article about how regular Californians are reacting to the furlough twice a month of state employees. Let's just say that most people would prefer to have a job even though you miss two days a month without pay. The interesting thing it does is compare the average salary of a state worker, $63 K a year, with the average resident, $56 K. It also points out that the state pays $25 K a year in benefits for the average state worker. These are just averages as there are plenty of people in both groups who make a lot more then this. It does highlight though that if the downturn continues there might be more schisms between those without jobs and those with "gummermint" ones.

Someone in the UK Gets It - The Government Has Decided What You Want for Too Long

This article at The Daily Telegraph describes the different responses of EU countries to the world's economic downturn. The point is that due to EU rules on labor movement there is little a country can do to protect native jobs from being undercut by the importation of cheaper labor. One of the arguments of the conservative side in the U.S. at least is that if you let Government take responsibility for everything they will then end up deciding everything for you. You want cheeseburger? Not good for you, sorry, have a carrot instead. A commentator to this article, geoffthereff, writes:

"Has the day finally arrived when the politicians discover that what they thought the people needed is not what they actually want." (sic).

Unfortunately, I doubt it in the U.K. or in the U.S. The ruling, political elite thinks they know what is best in the U.S. but then doesn't live by the rules they want to force on the people. See Al Gore, Tom Daschle, President Obama, and so on for recent examples.

This Used to Be A Good Thing..

For as long as I can remember the media and politicians have complained about the low savings rate of Americans. Now that the economy has collapsed and requires spending to save it the more we put in our bank accounts hurts the economy. Why doesn't the Federal government spend $800 billion by giving everyone a credit card with $2500 on it and let them by useless electronics items.