Steve's barking;My experience with the 529 plan

When NYS came out offered the saving plan for college ( 529 plan) my wife  and I signed up deducting $25 from each of our pay. We were payed every other week. For those who are math challenged that's $1,300 a year. My wife saved for 5 years and I for 7. ( My wife retired early).
When my daughter went to a city university it paid for the first year. She was excepted to a state university and the 529 paid for the first one and half semester including room and board with books.
The 529 certainly helped this lower middle income ( middle class ) family. My family income when my daughter started college was $80,000 a year.
With my daughter an RA and working while at school her debt was negligible when she graduated.

A 529 program forced  my family to save for college was like my IRA, I couldn't use it for anything else but it's intended purpose.

If my daughter had stayed at the city university the whole four years including books would have been payed for.

Steve's barking; Who's going to pay for free Junior College (Community College)

Question of the day, or possibly the week, who's going to pay for free Junior College, other wise known as Community College. I'm not writing about who's going to pay for tuition, under the proposed plan government will.
Let's assume that because it's free enrollment doubles or triples. Who's going to pay for the new space that is needed?  What about the added faculty that's needed? Labs, computer rooms, ect.
Will the cost of going to a two year college be four years because all the courses needed to go on to a regular college are filled up? Will the student who needs to learn job skills become second class students?

What do I really believe in? I'm old fart from New York City, we're if a person was smart enough or in cases prior to the baby boomers not so smart could go to college for free. I defiantly see the benefits of a free college, we might not have a cure for Polio (Salk, and Sabin) went to a free college in the city as did the our great leader During the Gulf War General Powell. Those are the people that I thought  of at the top of my head.

I also believe that it's government duty to help businesses to train workers in the sciences that are needed for employment. Not necessary having them take courses that will not help them in their future endeavors.

Steve's barking; who benifits from a balance budget, and a decrease deficit

Who benefit's from a balance budget. If governments are in the black with their government spending many a person believes that this is a good thing. After all the less government borrows the cheaper it is for private enterprise to borrow. Good thing right?
Question why should private enterprise need the money to borrow, after all those who depend on government for some type of monetary assistance will have less money.  Less money for Defence contractors, why would they need more money to borrow. Less money for government workers, and or less workers. If they have the same money or less they have less inclination to buy good or services from those private companies. If you can't sell your product why would a company feel the need to borrow at a low rate.
What about those poor banks that will make less money. Would all those investors sell their stocks in the banks after all those banks would not be making a lot of money if they make money at all.
What about all those government bond holders that need to roll their bonds over, they would not be to pleased that they can't get new ones to replace them, or the interest rate might even be in the negative territory?

Steve's barking ; retail were down in December because........

The media reported that retail sales were down in December and this is a cause of concern.
The weather in the pacific coast was horrendous, now if was the East Coast the media would state well what do your expect, the weather was frightful.

Steve's barking; Russian out of sanction.

With recession getting worse in the European Union, the counties of Europe will have to find a way to sell their manufactured goods. Of cause they could have a Marshall Plan for Southern Europe, but that would be too intelligent, and would go against it's smug and self-righteous attitude.

What to do, pretend that Russia cleaned up it's act, and is no longer a threat to the Ukraine, thus ending the sanctions.

It won't work in ending their looming recession, but you can't fault the fools for trying.

You can't sell goods to those who can't pay for them.

Steve's barking; why socialism lite is important to the free market system

 While the the free market system needs capitalism, it needs a form of socialism just as much.
First things first, the capitalist system doesn't need the free market system to exist. Capitalism could very well exist in a system were every form off business is a part of a monopoly, and as every school person should know, competition is..... none existent. Now the free market system is predicated on da ta da completion.
Now getting back to socialism lite, regulation by the government has an effect of helping small businesses fight against big ones. The more businesses the more competion  there is. The more competion there is the better t is for the consumer.

There are many who complain that the so called welfare state is bad for business. Putting a bottom or as I like to call, putting capital in to the hands of some people is actually good for business. Taking a way that extra capital is bad for business, just ask the people at Walmart and Kraft foods when congress reduced food stamps.
Wouldn't business be better off if it didn't pay the Heath insurance of it's employees but the government did.

Steve's barking; understanding economics easy, understanding economist hard

it's not hard to understand supply and demand. It's not hard to understand money.
It's hard to understand terms that economist use. It's very hard to follow their charts better known as graphs. It's so hard even economist have s hard time following one another.
Sometimes I think they have s language all their own as to confuse us layman.
Now don't get me wrong if was the strawman in the Wizard of Oz as would love to have Paul Krugman's brain ( if not Neil Degrasso Tyson, but not Stephen Hawkins ) .



Now this is one of my more senseless blogs.