A Real Stimulus: Part 2

Further to what I said recently about a real stimulus to revive a depressed economy:

A stimulus ought to be a genuine job generator. Experience shows it should work quickly and be practical, not effective after the eventual, normal recovery would have occurred. After all, there are frequent normal cycles in an economy.

Moreover, a real stimulus will not change the country’s political and social infrastructure. To many politicians, a stimulus is the hope of political opportunity.

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

A Real Stimulus Vs The Bogus

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

Any government really fully aware of how to stimulate a morbid economy would institute a quick tax cut on all types of income; that always works, Tax cuts on interest and capital gains.

Corporate tax cuts are tremendous boosts to an overall depressed economy especially when most foreign country rates are much lower than those in America.

College Tuition Can be Cheaper

There’s no reason college cannot be cheaper; that is, if colleges were under pressure to really try to reduce costs.

Take a recent study done by Christopher Matgouranis, Jonathan Robe, and Richard Vedder, a Professor of Economics at Ohio University, and the director of the Center College Affordability and Productivity group.

Reporting data at the main campus, at Austin of the University of Texas, the study says tuition fees could be cut in about half by asking 80% of the faculty with the lowest teaching loads to teach half as much as the 20% with the biggest loads. The top 20% now cover 57% of the teaching.

Many professors simply do not teach but spend time on research, much of questionable utility. Also, student-teacher ratio standards make little sense, while college bureaucracies are in need of major cost-saving overhauls and streamlining which can reduce tuition levels even more.

Loss Reimbursement for Securities-Adviser Litigants?

I have no sympathy for advisers who often charge clients for services the clients may well do themselves. But why sue such advisers who have no crystal ball and who cannot see if an investment will turn down?

And yet many pension funds do sue advisers who could not see a downturn in the mortgage markets a few years back.

This lacks common sense on the part of the funds’ clients, other than a ruse to collect money from any source available. So why not sue, hoping a judge and jury will not be conversant with how legitimate securities markets work in real life?

The Important Job Interview

I started and helped operate a profitable major employee- contracting business for 17 years. The work varied from ordinary clerical to nurses and physicians. Lots of suggestions get thrown about on this important subject of securing a job.

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

Try this job interview technique with 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?

That helps get into any problems that may be about to stymie your efforts..

Suggestion A Six Month Moratorium on All federal Regulations

An important suggestion that the vast majority of Americans are not thinking of: There should be a year’s moratorium, or a period until the next presidential election, on all new federal regulations until an independent audit can be arranged to evaluate what we now have.

I can guarantee the U.S. economy and political system will not spin out of control. But we will get a handle on duplications and such inanities as spilled milk on farms being treated as “oil spills.”

And while we’re at it, an audit of the massive Federal Register, to reduce it’s ridiculous size.

State Budgets and Political Influence

The media often gets aroused over Wall Street’s salaries and bonuses. Government salaries get only slight attention.

While we know about Uncle Sam’s spending these days, state and local outlays are also beginning to get commentary because severe budget problems are a tremendous source of problems for all states and cities as well.

I am referring to exorbitant pensions held by millions of active and retired state and local public employees. These include city managers, teachers, cops. garbage collectors, guards and others. They represent at least three quarters of public employees who have what is called defined-benefit retirement plans.

They have the ability, unfortunately, to organize voters and thus control politicians who keep adding to taxpayer burdens until there are not enough taxpayer funds to go around for the feeding frenzy to persist.