Since the 1980’s the financial industry has done a good job lobbying Washington for regulatory and tax changes that have made Wall Street the de facto retirement system for our nation.  Today,fewer and fewer workers have defined benefit pensions (with guaranteed income), and must rely on contributions to 401K’s and IRA’s — and the promises of great returns — to fund their retirement.  People are essentially forced to put their retirement funds into market-based fincial products, even when there are no good investments to be had.  This article from the Center for American Products outlines what has been happening and is titled: The Benefit of Defined Benefits.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/10/dbplans.html

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Jim Douglas reads the polls.  He must realize that as long as the opposition puts up a single competent, and even mildly likeable, opponent there is no way he is going to win another term.  He also has woken up to the fact that he has no chance of winning any Congressional seat from Vermont in the next 20 years.

Kissing up to Obama didn’t get him much.  So, his political career in Vermont (his entire career) is over.  

The guy who always avoided taking any strong leadership positions, making tough decisions, or providing direction is now playing the conservative Republican: take on the state employees’ union, the gay marriage issue, and be the defender of “no new taxes” and coporate welfare . . . and hope it gets you a gig with the RNC or another Republican outfit in DC.  He needs a job.  

So long, Jim.

A quote from Jon Stewart in his explosive interview with Jim Cramer.

If you haven’t seen this yet, it is worth your time.  Jon Stewart takes Cramer to task and does one of the the best jobs to date in taking Wall Street (and the complict MSM corporate media) to task for driving our economy over the cliff.

see link: www.thedailyshow.com videos.

It’s sad that it takes a comedian on a spoof show to do a real journalist’s job.

Looking back, I can’t say that I’m proud about the way I treated my younger brother.  The number of times I made him get me something from the kitchen, forced him to get up off the couch to turn the television channel (this was pre-remote control), or the times I would beat on him as he beat me at basketball (he was the better athlete).  I was older, and stronger.  

I distinctly remember the time I came home from college during break, and gave him a shove because he wasn’t doing something I wanted.  His 6 foot frame gave my 5 foot 10 frame a shove back.  

I was lucky that we were both so surprised by his reaction and strength that it didn’t go any further.  I had earned a reprieve and managed to bluster, “So, watch it,”

However, it didn’t take college level coursework for me to figure out that things had changed.  With one part maturity, and one part self-interest, it clicked that things were not as they always had been.  It was time for our relationship to evolve.

Looking at the birthrates and demographics in the Middle East, the Israelis are on the wrong side of some pretty major trend lines.  They will simply overwhelm the Jewish population.  The Palestinians won’t be willing to do the chores forever, and the day is coming when they’ll be able to shove back.  

It is time for those of European decent living in that part of the world to understand that if they want to remain there, long term, it is time to start working on building a new paradigm.  It is in their self-interest to begin now – before wounds and grievances are even deeper, and irreparable damage is done — to work to develop a new relationship, built on compromise, partnership, and mutual benefit.

Life — the bottom line.  ‘nuf said

Liberty — people released from indentured servitude at employers (or in public assistance) because they have a pre-existing health condition, or they are responsible parents and aren’t willing to put their childrens’ health coverage at risk.  

Pursuit of Happiness — people free to start their own small business, movement to new locations and other states, and take other risks.  

How many people of a certain age are holding onto their job only because of health insurance?  How many would make a change — and open up their jobs to others?

Everbody doesn’t get everything . . . but we define and guarantee a certain level of healthcare and prevention to every individual that unleashes entrepreneuralism and creativity.  Let people rock and roll.

Scalia should like this.

From the Times-Argus:

Looking long-term, Smith said he has ordered several legislative committees to begin reviewing how state government can possibly restructure itself in a sustainable fashion, building on his and Shumlin’s proposal from earlier this month to reorganize the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

Smith said areas of possible restructuring the committees will investigate include health care programs, state corrections, energy efficiency, the court system and the state’s revenue system.

The Democrats’ plan was championed Thursday by the Vermont State Employees Association, the union that represents state workers, in a statement released from Director Jes Kraus.

“VSEA also appreciates that Rep. Smith and Sen. Shumlin are outlining a forward-looking plan to address Vermont’s serious fiscal concerns,” Kraus said. “To date, the governor has still not offered any real plan beyond a body count.”

Good for the Dems . . . they should take a look at public safety in general (including police, fire & EMT), public transportation, and secondary education, too.  We need to plan on a more regional basis.  Not just for service that state employees provide directly, but for all public services we pay for through federal, state and local taxes . . . because they ultimately are interconnected.  

I don’t know the ideal geographic or population base (50,000?)to work from, but we could certainly look at things from a more regional planning perspective and still have greater “local” control than just about anywhere else in the country.  The question is how local do we want it to be, and how much are we willing to pay for?  

Perhaps small counties — like Grand Isle and Essex — could even be aborbed into neighboring counties.  Again, the relative distance has changed tremendously since our state was established in the 1700’s.      

County              Population       Area (sq mi)

Addison (Middlebury)      35,974            770

Bennington (Bennington)   36,994            676

Caledonia (St. J)         29,702            651

Chittenden (Burl)        146,571            539

Essex (Isl. Pond)          6,459            665

Franklin (St.Albans)      45,417            637

Grand Isle (Alburg)        6,901             83

Lamoille (Stowe/Morris)   23,233            461

Orange (Randolph/Bradfo)  28,226            689

Orleans (Newport)         26,277            697

Rutland (Rutland)         63,400            932

Washington(Barre/Mont)    58,039            690

Windham (Brattleboro)     44,216            789

Windsor (WRJ/Spfd)        57,418            971

If we are looking for projects to be done, how about burying Vermont’s electric and telephone wires?  In a state that cares so much about aesthetics — from abolishing billboards to protecting ridge lines — we’ve come to accept the omnipresent jumble of wires and poles that are relics from the 1920’s.  We’re so accustomed to this visual affront (they’ve been there all of our lives) we don’t appreciate what an ugly mess they are.  Next time you look around, imagine the landscape without those cables and poles mucking it up.  It works for Disney World.

The bubble is burst, but who thought it would last?

Our demographics – both state and national – certainly don’t indicate that we should be booming.  How much more junk do 50-somethings need to buy? How many more bathrooms do you actually need?  How many times did you drive around and say, “I know what people make: how can they afford this?”  

Anybody who had lived through something like this before knew that somebody was going to be left without a chair when the music stopped.  

The hangover is painful, but this can also be a time for reflection that can lead to  progress and change.  We already see signs in the current discussions: from Chief Justice Reiber’s address to the Vermont legislature regarding the structure of the judiciary, to the just released report about reshaping law enforcement, from an examination of higher education, to a closer look at secondary school districts.  

These are all issues that would have been brushed aside if times were better.  They are too much of a political risk.  It’s easier to give people a new benefit than to be seen as taking something away.  (You are always losing something in change.)  It’s easier to avoid difficult decision if you can still sweep them under the rug, as we have done for decades.

The decisions we were able to avoid in good times can create crisis in hard times.  However, this crisis can create the forest fire we need to clear the landscape:  to spur people to action and for leaders to step forward and go out on a limb with a new idea or proposal.  

We have the opportunity to examine the status quo and prepare Vermont for the 21st century and beyond.  Much of the staus quo was developed in a time when people got from one town to another on foot, or by horse and buggy.  Going from Montpelier to Burlington, even 40 years ago, took twice as long as it does today.  One hundred years ago, the trip was comparable to going from Montpelier to Boston today.  We need to objectively look at our state infrastructure and see what we need, and what needs to be changed.  As New Englanders, we are proud of our traditions, but we can also be afraid to take a risk.

The restructuring needs to be see as an investment.  An investment of time and energy in our future.  An investment that will create new opportunities we cannot even imagine, flexibility, and will free resources for creative new ideas and growth.   The more we can put our house in order, and set up a flexible structure for future growth, we will liberate human and physical resources for creativity.

We can’t reach the next branch without letting go of the one we are holding onto.  Citizens need to feel secure there are necessary social programs to catch them if they fall during the transition, and confident that the leaders have some idea of where we are going.  

A recession is a temporary lull within the prevailing economic pattern or trend.  This is a full blown reset.  

If you want to make a difference, this could be a lot of fun.

Great piece by Tom Gjelten on NPR.  Adds another dimension to the criminal failure of financial regulators to do their job for the past 8 years.

http://www.npr.org/templates/s…

Highlights:

*  America’s intelligence community has said the global economic crisis is now the top threat to the nation’s security. The downturn could produce political instability and damage the ties that hold countries together. Countries might even be tempted to engage in financial warfare, officials say.

*  The concern now is not the gross size of countries’ economies, but how money moves between countries, and the way those movements can turn into a kind of financial warfare.  

*  The Chinese now hold about $1 trillion worth of U.S. debt, including Treasury notes and other securities. That gives them enormous power over the U.S. economy. Were they to suddenly sell those securities, the U.S. dollar would tank.

*  Another critical area is Eastern Europe. Governments from Poland to Romania are seeing their currencies plummet compared with the dollar and the euro; this means a decline in the standard of living. After the collapse of the Soviet bloc, these countries turned away from socialism and toward free markets and Western democracy. Another danger is that Russia could take advantage of the economic vulnerability of these countries and try to reassert control over them, perhaps by offering new loans – or withholding energy supplies.

*  The other big financial warfare threat involves al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden has made clear how much he would like to bring down the U.S. financial system. But he does not have the tools, expertise or capital to manipulate the U.S. financial markets the way China or other players could.

*  “If you launch a terrorist attack in a prosperous economy, we kind of bounce back,” he said. “If you launch the same attack in a weak and getting weaker economy, there could be a multiplier there that could drive markets down very quickly, very extensively.”

Add it all up, and the financial crisis means the United States finds itself today in an especially precarious situation

Before we look to cut classroom teachers, and increase class sizes, how about looking at the administrative structure of Vermont’s school districts?  The superitendents and school boards certainly aren’t going to come up with this idea on their own.

How much money would be saved in salaries for supertintendents, business managers, staff, office rental, etc.?  How much human energy could be redirected?  Are the students really benefitting from these very small supervisory unions, or do they exist mostly because of inertia, local tradition, pride and ego?  

Below are 20 supervisory unions with less than 1,000 students each (smaller than many high schools).  I’m not talking about closing schools at this point, but with the state picking up an increasing large portion of the tab, I do think we need to consider consolidating these districts and/or merging with neighbors that aren’t much bigger:

Essex North (Canaan)            242

Battenkill Valley (Arlington) 342

Blue Mountain (Wells River) 435

Rutland Windsor (Ludlow) 440

Rivendell (Fairlee)        500

Essex Caledonia (Concord) 590

Windsor Northwest (Bethel/Roch) 615

Washington Northeast (Cabot) 638

Grand Isle                662

Rutland Southwest (Poultney) 663

Caledonia Central (Danville) 673

St. Johnsbury           705

Orange North (Williamstown) 740

Winooski                747

Washington South (Northfield)   781

Windham Southwest (Wilmington) 786

Orange Windsor (Chelsea) 899

Bennington Rutland (Manchester) 945

Montpelier                968

Orange Southwest (Hardwick/Crafts) 998

The 5 largest SU’s are:

Chittenden East        2848

Orleans Essex North 2953

Southwest Vermont 3268

Burlington        3533

Chittenden South 4291