Cheers to the 131.2 million people who voted this year. that's 63% of eligible voters. Congratulations to The People's President.

Hey all! it's been a while. We're doing good on the house, I plan to post some more pictures soon, but first a bit of politics.

If you're looking for the economy, you'll find it in the crapper. We've got lots of unemployment, less credit, less spending, less confidence, and less consumption.

Everyone agrees that something needs to be done to boost the economy before it gets worse. So what will get us the "most bang for our buck"? Is it tax cuts, spending on public works projects, aid to the states? What is the most effective use of dollars. We already have a trillion dollar deficit, so it'd be nice if we could avoid simply throwing money at the thing, like we did with the banks. We should be making targeted investments, and we should be able to see exactly where that money is going.

Tax cuts work different for different groups. For the working class it's supposed to encourage us to buy stuff. Pay down our debt, and get a new laptop or something. It's real similar to the rebate checks we got last time around, except it comes out of our payroll taxes instead.

Tax cuts on the upper classes, that's where we expect tax cuts to do the most good, because if they have more money it inspires them to go ahead and create more jobs for us poor working stiffs... right? I doubt it, if people aren't buying their product they're not hiring. If you sell fewer cars this year, why hire new people? And when people don't have decent jobs, then they can't buy your cars... we're still broke.

I think tax cuts are the equivalent of throwing money at the thing... "Here, everyone have a little cash, go spend it, and this will probably work itself out." Sounds like a faith based economic philosophy to me. I don't have any confidence that the invisible hand of the market will save us. I'd rather a more practical approach.

You know what inspires companies to create jobs? Better sales!!!! Increase demand, and guess what, they'll increase the size of their workforce.

If we want this recovery package to work, the government needs to buy stuff, lots of it, because that creates demand. Buy new computers for the schools, fix roads and bridges, make government buildings more energy efficient, buy some hybrid cars for the postal service, modernize some hospitals...

There are a million things in this country that have been neglected because of an anti-spending attitude in Washington. We live in Buffalo right, we've got a hundred plans and a hundred projects that are ready to go, if we just had the cash to go ahead and build. You don't even have to be creative just give states, counties and cities the money they've been waiting for. But remember, local governments can be just as corrupt as the Feds, make sure that we know exactly where the money is being spent. I love Obama's idea of making all this information public online. Transparency in government is so important.


Article supporting tax cuts


US News article


NY times roundup

I got a bum middle finger on my left hand doing some house repair. We opened up the window seat this weekend, and I poked the tip of my finger pretty bad.

I want to write about the senate elections in Minnesota and Georgia, cause I think it proves my point about Instant Runoff Voting. it'll take a lot of words though, so I'll have to wait.

Happy shoveling everyone.

In relation to my last post: "Bailout ignores homeowners"

Home Foreclosures have officially been suspended through the holidays.


Merry Christmas everybody. Fannie and Freddie don't want to ruin the Christmas Shopping Spirit by throwing you out on your ass.

I'm a little cynical here, because this type of action was not hard. The government Owns Fannie and Freddie now, and it costs zero dollars to issue a moratorium on foreclosures. The only excuse for waiting a month is confusion, incompetence and ignorance to the problems average people face.

I know not everybody can afford their mortgages, I'm sure some did get in over their head. But 279,561 people lost their homes this past month, that's 25% higher than last October, that's an increase of 70,000 people, I'll bet some were victims of adjustable rates, predatory schemes, crappy real estate markets, etc.

I guess I'm glad they're doing something.