College Professor Politics

Surveys at major colleges showed that close to 80% of faculty voted for Democrat John Kerry In 2004, About 1% voted for Ralph Nader, and only 20% voted for President George W. Bush. Social science professors, gave Ralph Nader about 20% of the 2004 vote, as large as that for President George W. Bush.

This indicates the imbalance you get from those teaching college kids. But it gets more slanted when the study delves into specific areas.

Liberals outnumber conservatives by 11-1 among social scientists and 13-1 among humanities professors. As many as 25% of those who teach sociology actually consider themselves Marxist.

At major graduate schools offering Ph.Ds, over 60% of faculty are Democrats, 30.% are independents and 10% are Republicans.

This demonstrates the problems in attempting to educate college students, particularly those who become our future teachers, community leaders, and members of the media.

A further surprise to many: Business school professors who are believed to be primarily conservative, actually voted 2-1 for Kerry. Though, my experience on Wall Street indicates that many there tend to be liberal today. This is, of course, contrary to what the media tries to impress on the general public.

Consultant Insurance

Why do companies with experienced staff, having experts with years of background in their business’ intricacies, hire consultants, whose staffs are rife with youngsters just out of business school?

Companies already have their own experts who know their business intimately. They invariably study their operations from every angle, on an ongoing basis.

My conclusion has always been that these wet-behind-the-ears, often newly-minted consultants have always been a form of business insurance. Even though their ”fresh look” can be amateurish.

It’s much the way investment bankers are called on for advice. They, too, are often relatively inexperienced. They may know Wall Street lingo, but have little knowledge of the business in which they poke.

The business insurance rationale? When confronted by plaintiff lawyers, you can say you tried. You have taken adequate precautions in your duties as a manager by using consultants.

Mall Medical Offices

It’s not too late for real health care reform.

A company I started ran a successful multi-office nursing service in the past and thus I have a practical observation.

Mall medical services are designed to accommodate everyday, urgent medical problems that may arise, where patients want to immediately know how serious their illness may be. The idea is to avoid overcrowded conditions in hospital emergency facilities. ERs are there for specific purposes, other than routine health evaluations.

Such medical offices can be made adjuncts to other types of retail facilities. Many already are in operation. They are supervised on staff by licensed nurses, while overseen by licensed physicians. Doctor referrals are made by those nurses.

Different states have varying regulations, depending on pressure groups, who would prefer not to have this form of competition.

Results? A form of reliable, private choice, low-cost, health care coverage.

Get a Temporary Job

Here is advice for those just out of school with a brand new diploma but with no job offers in their chosen profession. Plus a suggestion for those of you who have no idea what it is, exactly, you would like to work at, once you graduate.

Look for a temporary job. Or a variety of temporary positions. Each one may be in a different industry or cover a variety of activities.

You will be surprised at the experiences you may get on the job, though menial many of them will probably be. Few may relate in any way to what you studied in formal courses at school. You may even wait tables in some instances.

But they will all add to your essential, practical education. And, importantly, to your pocketbook, at the same time.

The Climate Control Business

The booming climate control industry gets little publicity. If it did, the public would be more aware of the intent of many of its participants.

There are its true adherents who treat climate control as a religion and therefore have no doubt the earth is warming.

To others it’s a political cause that creates a road to office and helps to keep them there.

To yet others in government, it’s a subterfuge for quietly and indirectly raising taxes on consumers, as well as industry.

And for still others, it’s Big Business in which you can buy and sell so-called cap and trade credits.

Or you can market Green Philosophy in any variety of industrial and consumer products that you choose to develop for profit.

How do you stop this movement, made up of marketing dreamers and fantasists, when an ignorant media is on their side?

It’s difficult. But eventually the now-gullible public will find out the climate promoters can be grouped with the types who used to tell us the world would come to an end by a certain date. When that never occurred we just forgot about the quacks.

So-Called Non-Profit Companies

I like to hear government-operation fanatics get enthusiastic about non-profits. They rant about profit-making businesses. The so-called non-profits can lose fortunes for their backers, while the for-profits can make pennies-on-the-dollar of sales. Yet, the government-operation fanatics remain committed to their left-wing deception.

It is impossible for private business to compete for long, whether it be the insurance business, health care, energy production, etc., if taxpayer funds are grabbed by government for capital and operating capital needs.

Unfair Government Competition

Whenever the government proposes a function that is now done by private industry, remember, you, the taxpayer, will be contributing the necessary capital and operating funds.

And you will be taking all the risks that is taken on by the stockholders of private industry.

In addition, you will also be responsible for the losses, which are bound to happen under government operation.

Be wary of any government attempt to”cut” costs by competing with private enterprise. Want proof? Think Post Office as a starter.

Permanent European Unemployment

Our politicians often want us to be more like Europe.

Like what? Like Europe on the edge of bankruptcy? Or its permanent 10%-Plus unemployment? Or its vast experience with younger workers, who do not even get counted because they give up early on?

Many of whom, in fact, are permanently on the dole the moment they are more or less expelled from the confines of schooling in their teens. If they excel at something, it’s in their demand for funds from their neighbors' taxes. Those who work.

This is the society many of our politicians fail to point to, when they sell us on government-supervised health care and other services the Europeans get so “cheaply.”

The Lack of Free Market Media Observers

Few reporters, columnists and editors in the general media have free market views pertaining to schools, transportation, highways, and certainly financial subjects.

Certainly not if they have been trained in journalism schools.

In addition to what generalities journalists are taught, they receive a modicum of economic and financial training. And little, if any, free market economics.

Not theory from economists such as Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, among others.

Thus you get left-leaning slants in many financial articles.

Unlimited Government Spending

Americans who pride themselves as being enlightened should think seriously about politicians who tell them that government “experts” know all about spending and deficit control.

Any politician or bureaucrat with a short-term horizon that consists of his or her next term in office is never reliable on this score.

Especially politicians unfriendly to, or unfamiliar with the true understanding of capitalism.

Our tremendous deficit will spell enormous inflation. Or a loss of currency value. Perhaps not very soon, but eventually.

And the loss of the eminence of America. As an economic and, therefore, a political and military entity.

The loss of the dollar as a reserve international currency is now underway. The ability to protect U.S. global interests in the future will be diminished in this process.

Do not treat unlimited government spending lightly. The repercussions can be extremely serious in matters of our economic and national security.

Post Office Competition

The Post Office will not give up its first class mail handling privilege. It knows it cannot compete if it has competition.

Other forms of non-first class package shipping are handled by private shippers efficiently and at low cost. While private carriers would love to carry first class mail, the Post Office continues to maintain its monopoly.

The Post Office says it provides service to areas no private carrier will want to service. Not true, as evidenced by cutbacks the Post Office constantly imposes. And destinations to which private carriers now go.

Everything the government has done, including its health care under Medicaid, have been inefficient with equally poor service, comparable to that of the Post Office.

Government never fosters competition. It can cut out competition when it is permitted to write rules to have taxpayer money undercut the pricing of products or services of potential private producers.

How Independent Are European Central Banks?

Central banks are supposed to be completely independent, The European Central Bank or ECB diligently took this position as the hallmark of its system.

Thanks to the Greek and related European Union bailout, the central bank in control of the Euro is no longer the independent vehicle it set out to be. It’s now buying government bonds. This monetizes debt and adds to inflation the ECB is supposed to curtail.

In Great Britain, the Bank of England is a centuries older counterpart. The BOE, too, has always been entrusted with being an independent, non-political, overseer of the British pound.

The BOE, however, now is “suggesting” budget manipulations by the new Chancellor of the U.K.’s Exchequer. This is definitely a no-no, if the British central bank is to remain independent.

Americans have little to crow about. The Federal Reserve in the U.S. has slowly been losing its independence as well, as I have commented over the past year.

Health Insurance Malpractice Courts

It’s not too late for a change in the existing health coverage law.

We have special courts for bankruptcies. Judges handle creditor and debtor claims, tax liens, workers compensation, etc.

One of the complications that requires change, and proves costly with health care, is malpractice cost. The problem is attributed primarily to the outrageous amounts of lawsuits against providers. And the fraud that permeates the system.

The result: The high outlays due to defensive medicine and doctor malpractice insurance premiums.

The practical solution: Arbitration courts made up of judges who are trained in science and medicine. That would eliminate awards because of “junk science.”

The courts would also eliminate attorney’s cuts of the award proceeds and put a cap on out-sized sums that ordinarily come from ignorant jurists. While seeing that patients are compensated for actual malpractice. The courts would be financed from doctor insurance premiums.

Government Spending and Economic Growth

There is a major difference between a dollar “invested” by government and a dollar invested by private industry.

State control enthusiasts believe that they’re the same. That in fact, it’s better if government makes the decision to spend. Or as the Obama administration says, “invest,” as opposed to private enterprise doing the function.

In one instance, the allocation is made by a political decision. That is often subject to pressures which have nothing to do with supply and demand. Rationing and corruption invariably follow. The other, privately imposed decision is, however, more likely to conform to what the public wants.

Moreover, private industry investment has a multiplier effect; government spending does not. Government jobs have no leverage impact on the economy. Their purpose often has political, social and environmental intentions.

Governments do not innovate and create new companies and multiples of jobs. Nor do they enervate the needed psychology of a booming economy. Psychological effect is most important.

Remember: Socialist countries have never been satisfactory consumer societies.

Beware of Union Pension Estimates

One of the reasons state budgets are extremely out of control are pensions of their unionized public employees. There have been lots of publicity about this of late, and I have often commented on the subject.

Unfortunately, the unions involved still feel optimistic about the ability of their pension funding to accommodate the coming obligations.

It is easy to be optimistic if you feel the future return on investments will be higher than what most market observers consider is possible. That is: If you feel our budget deficits will have no effect on investment markets. And if you feel there will be no future inflation.

That requires a lot of false optimism.

Government Business Mismanagement

Leftists insist that governments outperform corrupt “capitalists.” Here is one example of how government manages when politicians get involved.

General Motors decided to close dealerships after the government takeover. Closed dealers contacted their congressmen and senators to stop the orders, which were then promptly rescinded.

Thus, valid business become arbitrary political decisions. The exact opposite the Obama administration promised would never happen, when it took over GM control.

Politicians need voters; they must cater to voter pressures. That means private industry employees will lose jobs to political influences over time. Not pick and shovel jobs. Not sit-on-chair-and move-paper government jobs.

Business people need profits and do what they must to get them, or they go bankrupt. Bankruptcy resolves problems. Otherwise those difficulties fester for years at taxpayer cost, as they do under government auspices.

Graduate School Emphasis on Ethics

The fancy graduate schools, the ones who specialize in high-priced MBAs, are going out of their way to be politically correct and thus fashionable.

And what is PC as well as fashionable these days? To gang up on the finance “crooks” that the scandal-free politicians and the ethical media love to savage.

So the MBA schools are going out of their way to teach ethics in return for the obscenely, unconscionably high tuition they charge.

Why not teach the subject in high school and undergraduate college?

Why Not Let Greece Go Bankrupt?

A Greek bankruptcy at this time would probably have been the best solution for that country and its general population, along with the rest of Europe and the United States.

It would have been the best medicine for Greece and all of us. The pain would have been severe but short lived. Not much more than what is still festering after the current temporary bailout.

The result would have been the lesson Greece, Europe and the U. S. desperately need; that there is really no free lunch and that you cannot avoid living forever on air or the productive energy of taxpayers. They would learn to tighten their belts TODAY, not manana.

Bailouts always fail except for politicians in office who, to use an apt metaphor, keep kicking the solution can down the road.

Media Responsibility and Economic Cycles

Media do have some responsibility for economic cycles because they affect public knowledge and all-important public sentiment.

We know media influence in print, as one example. The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator, for instance, tries to gauge the U.S. economy by weighing the balance of sentiment in articles published by fifteen major American newspapers. The Indicator analyzes published stories. They look for key words that indicate changes in economic sentiment.

Journalism schools do not teach enough economics. If they have any real economic study at all. Because that would entail a balance of conservative as well as liberal thinking on the subject. The results of the work of their graduates show a deficiency.

There are about 50,000 newspaper journalists in the U.S., with thousands of published articles daily, Economics are integral to the news, particularly finance and its relation to politics.

Unfortunately, schools do not teach news balance. Thus, journalists do not know enough to screen what has worked and not worked economically in the past. Or to avoid passing along political nonsense without critical oversight.

Odd Illegal Immigrant Factors

I looked at a map of the concentration of illegal or undocumented workers. You naturally find them in border states. That is understandable.

But you also find them in states such as New York and New Jersey and Illinois, yet not heavily in states that surround them. Such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and Michigan, for example. You do not find them heavily concentrated in Mississippi. But next door in Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas, there are larger percentages of the undocumented. Nor are they heavily populated in North and South Dakota or Montana.

I have covered all varieties of farming and manufacturing states and climates.

Would it be social benefits or schooling or legislation? There must be a particular combination of reasons in those states.

Business Men Vs Stock Certificate Pushers

The media has glorified many rich folks, placing them on pedestals as business gurus because they happened to have made multi-millions, even billions in business. Yet these men have never really operated, rather than supervised a business.

They may have started a business and received stock certificates which have become very valuable. But they have never truly run a business. The public can be easily duped by the difference simply because they see lots of wealth.

I find there is a difference. There are some who actually have run businesses. Sam Walton who originated Walmart was one.. People who open up and close the premises, and who do the hiring and make up the payroll.

I know the effort and expertise involved as I started and operated a one office enterprise that expanded to 74. There were stock certificates involved because it became a profitable public company. But that takes other expertise as well.

If you oversee just the stock price and merge companies and buy others, you are a different sort of business person. The public too often makes no distinction and hands out the same plaudits.

Questionable Job Numbers

Be careful of monthly job announcements. They often have little to do with reality, as I have often noted here.

The media emphasis usually places a spin on what you are supposed to make of the raw figures, depending on which political party they favor.

For the perfect illustration of this, you have the Obama administration’s creation of the “jobs saved” number to report. When actual “job lost” numbers are the norm. Jobs saved were merely estimates of the “coulda, shoulda, and if” variety, that could not be truly measured.

It was a brilliant concept because such figures cannot be proven wrong and are believable if you are dumb enough to take them as statistically bonafide.

The Truth About Government Meddling

Steve Forbes, on Forbes.com, April 21, 2010, wrote a marvelous piece of basic economics for the laymen, which ought to be repeated over and over for the public to learn and remember.

The media generally does a poor educational job, but Mr. Forbes sums up a bit of Education 101 for all, including those whose parents. as I say, have bankrupted themselves to send kids to college.

I would suggest you get directly to Steve Forbes’ source article.

To sum up, Mr. Forbes reflects on the erroneous supposition that there are always ”wise” men around who try to manipulate economic problems and fine-tune the necessary financial remedies necessary to mitigate and rectify them.

In actuality, these experts usually fail.

Why College is so Unnecessary

In 1950, 60% of jobs did not require special skills. According to ETS, Educational Testing Services, there were plenty of jobs for those seeking work with no special abilities needed.

Now about 80% of jobs are considered skilled and require training, not all of which are available to high school graduates.

This I feel is a fault of high schools. You do not need a college degree for most non technical work positions, And would not, if K-12 standards in English and mathematics were adequate.

We keep sending kids to expensive college where they become useless graduates. All we have to do is train them for useful, profitable work while in high school. They can go on to master good paying jobs once they have the basics.

Medicaid and Medicare: Examples of Mismanagement

If you want an example of poorly operated government, look at Medicare and Medicaid.

Congress created both in 1965, Politicians kept expanding benefits, while talking about controlling costs. But costs keep skyrocketing.

This cannot happen in private business because of the specter of bankruptcy. But government intervention prolongs losses and makes matters much worse and expensive. As long as taxpayers continue to pay the bills. Eventually enormous amounts have to be paid.

This same government failure, as we see with fraud-infested Medicare and Medicaid, is on the menu for the U. S. with ObamaCare.

Give Tax Breaks for Health Insurance

It’s not too late for sensible health care coverage.

Tax employer-provided health-care benefits but return this money to employees in the form of tax deductions, to buy their medical insurance as they buy their home and auto insurance.

That will make insurance transferable and keep workers on their jobs with coverage. You will then have health-insurance security and portability, along with personal independence. And even more competition among about 1500 insurance carriers. With certain lower health insurance costs.

ObamaCare health insurance never will. Nothing the government does is truly cheap, except quality, when you total up the direct and indirect costs.

Institutional Influence on Corporations

You often hear critiques of large investors such as pension funds, foundations and major mutual fund managements, who supposedly do bad jobs in overseeing the management of companies in which they invest.

There are two schools of thought on this subject. The main idea has always been that you do not buy or retain ownership of securities in firms whose management you do not like.

Investors who actively promote their influence in making managerial changes often have another motive. They are often more interested in takeovers and active management acquisitions.

Furthermore, it takes a lot of gumption for outside investors who think they can micromanage because they have a large stake in a company. They may make better use of their time elsewhere.

Yes, they may want to look for over=zealous salaries and bonuses and for fraud, but that should be all. Good corporate performance is what they should seek.

Overspending is Dangerous

Overspending is more than a waste of lots of money.

The upshot of all excess spending: We will suffer an even deeper recession than we have. To now, only a small fraction of stimulus funds have been spent, with most earmarked a year or two down the road. What we get will be late and only add to upcoming inflation.

In fact, I have repeatedly reported that the so-called stimulus has actually been a political slush fund, doled out to “friendly” recipients.

Remember the Soviet Union with its periodic Five Year Plan Stimulus efforts? When did they ever work?

But budget overspending will do to us in the future what it is doing to Greece and several other European nations today.

A Real Stimulus Vs The Bogus

A stimulus planned during a recession is supposed to stimulate the economy with minimal cost. It must do so quickly, if it is to be practical.

That is why a quick tax cut on all income always works, Why tax cuts on capital gains always works. And why corporate tax cuts are tremendous boosts to an overall depressed economy.

All are genuine job generators. Experience shows they work quickly and are thus practical, not effective after the eventual, normal recovery would have occurred. After all, there are frequent cycles in an economy. They are normal.

In addition, a real stimulus will not change the country’s political and social infrastructure.

The stimulus should not be an excuse to provide political payoffs. A stimulus is not supposed to promote voter turnout in future years or change the form of government. And it certainly should not cause inflation for our children and grandchildren to bear in the distant future.

To some politicians, a stimulus is merely the hope of political opportunity.

Your Job Interview

I have seen a lot of advice on how to go about job interviews to best advantage. I started and helped operate a profitable major employee- contracting business for 17 years. The work varied from ordinary clerical, to nurses and even physicians. Lots of suggestions get thrown about on this important subject of securing a job, especially nowadays..

Let me tell you one that makes more sense than others I see being professed in the media as the best .

Try this on a prospective employer after the interview: Now that we have had our discussion, do you have any reservations about me that you would like to have me explain or answer?

Inflation’s Effects on the Economy

A rule of thumb on what can happen to future interest rates.

This is due to the probability of runaway inflation due to huge, ongoing government deficits.

In a 2003 report by the Federal Reserve, calculating the effects of government debt and its impact on long-term interest rates, done before the current deep recession and the efforts of the Obama Administration:

The report concluded: "A percentage point increase in the projected deficit-to-GDP ratio raises the 10-year bond rate expected to prevail five years into the future by 20 to 40 basis points. Similarly, a percentage point increase in the projected debt-to-GDP ratio raises future interest rates by about 4 to 5 basis points."

In other words, the effect of inflation in the form of higher interest costs.

Inflation induced by heavy deficits does not arise rapidly during a recession, but it jump-starts once recovery gets going. Then it quickly gets out of hand.

Remember: All the theory economists use as remedies get stymied by politicians who know the medicine will cause economic belt-tightening. Those remedies will be thus be over-ruled by political considerations.

The present Greek debacle is the perfect example of what happens when belt-tightening is avoided too long.