Steve's barking at why the budget is like buying a house

There are many economist who I have the utmost respect for who make the claim that the budget can't be compared to what happens in a house budget. Now there are many people who have a degree (maybe even a PHD) in economics whom I have the most contempt fore that claim that we can compare the US budget with a household budget. In my bizarro world, I like to compare the US budget to buying and maintaining a house.
When the average person buys a house they put a percentage down and get a mortgage to pay the rest. In our budget process we have tax receipts to cover our down payment and we borrow the rest, just like one does with a mortgage. In hard economic times generally the interest on the mortgage is low, same is true with government bonds. Now in the in the past wages have gone up in the average American household to more then cover the interest rate and the principle (this is important). Because of the growth of income taxes if stayed the same would more then cover what we borrowed in the past. We have constantly cut taxes there by cutting our chances to pay back our debt. This is kind of like what the average American home owner is up,against now, income is going down and it's harder to keep up the mortgage payments. Now some of us our lucky we have money in the bank which we can use to pay the mortgage, or even better yet we have a rich uncle Fed, I mean Fred who we can borrow from, and because he has us in his will paying back that loan isn't a top priority. Those of us who aren't so lucky can possibly get a second mortgage. Now isn't that what our government does.
Now there are certain things that owning a home needs to be done. The boiler might brake down,
The roof can come off during a wind storm, termites, water damage. The smart homeowner takes care of these problems right away, buy using the surplus income, borrowing from Uncle Fred, or getting a second or third mortgage. Shouldn't our government think the same way.
Now I understand that there are many a person who believes that the government borrows too much, my question to them is, do they tell that to themselves not to buy that summer home with a mortgage and or a new car on time payments?

Steve's barking at NATO troops in Athens

As of 2/25/13 Greece seems calm. It seems that Greece is taking austerity in stride. Now judging from history one can easily say that when work can't be found and it's hard to buy food and keep a roof over one's head revolution isn't far behind, and if not revolt at least riots.
Elections in counties that have dire economic(?) conditions, things like fascism and communism and other crazism happen.
Now will NATO do if there is civil war, or just plain riots in Greece? Why of cause NATO will send troops to Athens, if only to protect the banks money.

Steve's barking the tea party wants us to be vegans

The Tea (Republican) Party wants us to be vegans.
How do I know.
Well I've been reading about this thing called sequester, and how because of of no agreement budget cuts come into being. One of the budget cuts means the department of agriculture will have to furlough meat inspectors. Without meat inspectors meat can't be shipped. Meat can't be shipped we turn into vegetarians for a week(those of us who didn't stock pile meat in the freezer).
The speaker of the house (a republican) claims that it's the presidents fault, though clearly the constitution that all monetary bills comes out of the house not the executive branch of government. Because much of the house is run by the Tea Party branch of the Republican Party, it's not a stretch to say that the Tea Party is making us become vegans for a week.
Oh do I feel the pain of the local resteraunts who may just lose some meat eating customers.

Steve's barking to retire or not to retire, that is the question

I'm retired so that's not the question for me, though I had that question when I hit 62. The question was answered for me when the pregnant lady offered me her seat on the subway. The following week I put in my papers.

The real question is should we retire bad ideas or just let them fester, to knock the life if not the joy in all of us. Deficits are a bad idea, lets retire that one. We live in a deficit world, I don't know many people who bought their homes out right. What would the car industry be like if it wasn't for deficit financing? So lets retire deficit financing is a bad idea.
Let's retire the idea that austerity helps a country pay it's bills. Anybody with any common sense will tell you that taking money away from the people will make them unable to pay there (tax) bills. It also leads to rebellion.
Let's retire the idea raising the retirement age, social security age and medicare age are good ideas. ( See the austerity argument).

One can only guess what life expectancy will be in the future. We can plan that it will go up slightly with a modest increase in taxes. The fact of the matter there might be a great leap in science and the life expectancy will be to 150 or for that matter global temperature change(global warming to some of you) will bring about early death, or for that matter a beguine disease will turn deadly. Lets not think of these economic game changes and just retire the idea that all tax increases are bad for the economy.
(????)     
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Steve's barking at hoarding

My wife screamed at me the other day to throw out my softball bat that I haven't used in 25years.
Your nothing but a hoarder she yelled at me.
That's not the type of hoarding that that I'm barking at.
I'm barking at the those banks that are holding back the money from the victims of Sandy (not the dog from Annie) the Hurricane. Think of all the jobs that would be created with that money. Think of all those home owners and businesses that would save money, if they didn't have to borrow, but had money to rebuild right now. Think of the possible damage that might not happen if
with a little protection from the sea. Now why the banks have the money is a mystery to me, if some of the money is not ready tone distributed, and with a little creative accounting that money wouldn't be counted toward the debt.
Now I don't really hold the humongous corporation for holding on to profits, they could be run by people who taught by their great aunt Tillie who went through hard times during the Depression hold on to your money, stuff it under your mattress, but I do resent anybody who gets government money and puts it in a shoe box (bank account). It's not their money to hoard.

Steve's barking Europe's not close to be out of the woods

Now call me a fool, but the Europeon Union is really in trouble.
Take that stock markets.
If your customers can't afford your products, sorry Charley you'll make no money.
Find other customers, after all there are millions of customer in Asia. The majority of Asians can't afford your products, but if enough can, well maybe the part of Europe known as Germany might not have this gigantic down turn, and the ruling party will continue to rule.  The problem being the other members of the Union, their workers can't afford the life style that they become accustom to, like eating what they like, and living in a place that they like, never mind buy goods and services from their fellow members.
Now it stands to reason if no one is buying the products that are produced in a particular state the unemployment in such state will be high. Now if money is being lent out from lending institutions  as the World Bank or IMF or who ever the lenders of last resorts are to banks that are almost tapped out or governments to help pay it's bond holders you might as well take that money and burn it, for there's no way that the'll get their money back. You can't tax anybody who's not making any money and  has no way to pay their loans back and to pay the new higher taxes. They will not be able to even pay lower taxes. ( You can't get money taxes from thin air).
Now that I've written what some people might call rubbish, I have one question that can be understood, are the financial markets ready for Europe's answer to the Arab spring?

Steve's barking the way of the wig party

No body votes for the wig party anymore.Does anybody know that this country at one time had two major parties called the Wig and the Democratic (Republican, but somehow Republican was taken out of it's name). Now as I recall the abolitionist started something called the Republican party, squashed the wigs who after the presidential election of 1860  were never heard from again. Now this Republican party being subverted by the Tea Party may just go the way of the wigs.

The Tea Party like to call itself the Tea Party Patriots, now my question is are they patriots like the Tories loyal to the crown or do the see themselves as rebels taking up the cause of the every day citizen.
What do I think of the Tea Party? I see them as that James Dean movie rebel(s) with out a (true) cause.
  

Steve barking at a taxing idea

Everyone knows that the more you are taxed the more money is taken away from you.
Everyone knows that reducing taxes is a form of stimulus. (I hope that's understood).
Every one knows that the more a person is taxed the more they will make in the future. Oh no one knows that.
Lets assume that one is taxed to pay off government debt, I doubt that anyone would get more income.
Now lets take the idea that the taxes are given to person to help pay for um lets say medical care. Wouldn't the doctors have more money and wouldn't they spend it, creating more wealth for some one else. Let's say that part of that money is used by hospitals, who use it to buy equipment and pay their staff a higher salary.
Wouldn't the stock of the company go up, creating more wealth for those who have stock in those companies and lets say that those higher salaries allow members of the hospital staff to get better digs there by increasing the money that landlords make. Same is true if this money was used to build roads, buy computers, etc, etc. The computer companies, the construction companies and their workers would have more money with  the possibility (more like a probability) that a lot of people would have more money then before they were taxed.

Now I understand that many a person will not understand this abstract idea, kind of like those people who don't understand what a graduated tax is, and are looking for ways not to make more money thinking that their whole income would be taxed at the higher rate.

Now I have another strange idea, food stamps is a zero sum loss for our government. Think of all those process food companies that make money because of food stamps, the food stores and the farmers. Don't they make money on the food stamps that they would  not have made if not for food stamps? What about their workers who are paid and pay taxes and buy goods and services from others who intern pay taxes on their profits. Gee I know that what I just wrote is hard to understand, a person would have to think instead of react.

Steve's barking Sorry Carly you shouldn't have been a CEO

I was catching up today on some of the Sunday News shows. I just happen top catch a glimpse of ABC's this week and what I saw or more correctly heard was quite disturbing. They had the failed CEO of Hewlett-Packard on claiming that the public sector doesn't create jobs out side of the ones hired and that small business create more peripheral jobs. As one who has seen the devastation of what happens to prison towns when the prison is closed and reading about army towns when the base is closed, plus the fact that I have several family members who own small businesses, the opposite is true. Unless there are hundreds of small businesses in a small area like in them olden times, before the turn of the century, the eighteen century that just isn't true. No wonder Hewlett-Packer is in big trouble, there ex- CEO had no clue who might be the biggest buyer of her product.

Truism of the day, it's not how smart you are, or how hard you work, you only have to convince the right people that your a hard working genius.

Steve's barking at Ground Hog Day

Ground Hog Day just past We should pity the poor ground hog on this day. He has go through the humiliation being woken up, taken out of his burrow in what is usually extreme cold, starred on by complete strangers, to see if he sees his shadow. Now this animal has no idea that he’s suppose to be looking for his shadow. So once a year the media can make up a story that there might or might not be freezing cold. We humans are just too inhumane to animals

Now don’t think all animals are nice to us humans, they could be pretty rotten too. I had a friend who had a dog who was so jealous every time he went out to work, the dog would destroy the curtains, and pee on the carpet. My first wife had a cat every morning on the weekend would smack me in the head while I was sleeping until I got up to feed her. She didn't care how tired I was, she would tell me to get my lazy butt up. Now if I didn't feed her what she wanted to eat she would let me know with the loudest meow, and sometimes she would even hiss at me.

Now my friends dog would greet him at the door, tail wagging, showing him unconditional love, and the cat would jump on my chest and purr the day away. We knew that all is right with the world.