Speaking on Our Feet

The inability to speak on our feet has brought about a term I have called Telepromt-torical.

President Obama has much to do these days with the state of our business and financial climate. He appears to be vying with the status of those ancient Roman senators who stood around in togas making speeches. Interestingly, they did so without the use of teleprompters.

He, however, has changed things in this country, even the world. You might say, his speeches are very teleprompt-torical.

I would think that schools today ought to include courses on debating, in addition to their regular curricula. The ability to think on your feet without having something to read from in front of you, other than note outlines, would be a benefit to all.

And not just for those who hope to become president.

MBAs for Environmental Studies

By now. there is enough evidence to show that the entire scientific evidence behind global warning is suspect.

Environmental studies programs depend to a great extent on the premise of global warming. Cap and Trade legislation is actually a ruse to create taxation, based on dubious global warming science.

So why start off on a career with a new MBA degree in this specialty? It is either a marketing ruse to get a job that defies science or your own credibility as an MBA has become tainted by scientific doubt.

Just another marketing scam our vaunted institutions of higher learning have developed.

Government Regulation and Bubbles

Politicians are having a heyday on how they intend to stop future financial bubbles. They succeeded with enacting Dodd-Frank.

Bubbles are man-made, enforced by government policy and regulation. They breed on human psychological extremes. And they feed on panic.

The onus and guilt may be thrust on private parties for political purposes, but bubbles exist only if government agencies permit them to do so.

Actually, it’s far better that the powers-that-be in government sit on their hands than “do something” in the way of remedies. The long-term in a bubble event often takes care of problems better than short-term panaceas.

Apart from those called in to do the short-term patchwork remedies, If there has to be basic blame for recent bubbles in the U. S., it can be placed on the heads of the governors of the Federal Reserve. They are the guilty, who have made money too cheap. That is always the fuel for a bubble.

Bubbles can be dampened when the availability of currency is tightened. However, the opposite monetary policy has been the story in U. S. bubble experience.

America a Corporate State?

Liberals will fight you to the death, should you accuse them of any fascistic offense. Yet they are, nevertheless, guilty of corporate state politics, right here in America.

Their argument is that super financial regulation, such as Dodd-Frank, is the answer to stopping bubbles and financial risk. More regulation, they say, will reduce financial meltdowns. That same financial risk that past regulation failed to catch.

And if large companies “too big to fail” look ready to do so, the U. S. ought to be the employer of last resort, to bail them out. While government, in effect, operates them. In the past, the bankruptcy laws remedied the problem without political input.

Well, that is corporate statism, pure and simple. That was the road taken by the Obama administration with autos and banks and insurance in 2009, and it is now a permanent fixture.

There were alternatives.. Actions that would have been better solutions and less destructive to our long-term economy.

College Kids Are Getting Their Money’s Worth?

There is a disconnect somewhere. More kids go to college. More get into debt. More of their parents are going broke financing their education.

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates’ ability in literacy had declined from 40% to 31% in the past decade. About 20% of college seniors did not have the ability to estimate whether their car had enough fuel to get to a gas station.

But more kids and parents can show those fancy diplomas to friends and relatives. So I guess all is not lost after all.

Why Waste Fortunes on Useless Degrees?

Some people look down on vocational schools. A degree from a four-year college is considered first class. A vocational-school degree is not. That should be a prejudice we must overcome. Because maybe that is what many students would be better off at.

Those who have employable skills will earn top dollar at jobs that employers want, even in deep recessions. Others, with their fancy-school diplomas sit around depressed for the lack of opportunity, despite all their effort toward those impressive but impractical and useless degrees. It’s rough spending a fortune to get through college, only get a degree that does not enable you to find a viable job.

It is worse when that career puts you in extreme debt.

Earning Good Money Without College

You don't really need a four-year college degree to be successful. Vocational education does pay off better for many of those who have lost jobs or are seeking entry-level positions in trades.

Even lower-level electricians today make on average $48,000 a year. Plumbers make $47,000. That's much more than the average American earns. And those jobs may be more plentiful.

According to a Wall Street Journal 2010 survey, accountants and engineers thought that the schools played an important role in employer consideration but the numbers were not that overwhelming. For business and marketing majors, the survey appeared to show that the schools were not that important, especially when cost was considered.

That going-to-college myth is slowly shrinking with the Great Recession.