Over the last several years, while our local economy has suffered from a multitude of issues, this blog has pointed out areas of concern and outright problems that are economic, social, and cultural in nature that not only take root locally, but are the result of global initiatives and governance. Although I have been frustrated and perplexed by the intellectual laziness and lack of desire on the part of my fellow man/woman to understand and take interest in the issues facing our ecosystem, I have not lost faith in the nature of the greater power in this life to bring the forces of good together to repel the darkness that attempts to control and manipulate paradigms towards the personal interests of elitism.
If you don't understand the above paragraph, then please read it again and if you don't understand, then I'll try to break it down, but it loses the gravity of its magnitude when I do so -- and I am not attempting to be arrogant. I am just a regular person trying to figure out life and convey what I have learned and am learning to the people who read this material in hopes that we can become an atomic lifeforce spreading the energy of true openness and love.
We have people who have bastardized the terms capitalism and entrepreneur. They have taken these market principles and contorted them into a perverse notion of I'll get mine whatever way I can, by hook or by crook and you can attempt to do the same; but while you are doing that I'm going to try to keep you from getting yours by erecting barriers and I'm also going to try to steal your livelihood and your assets.
Over the years of this blog and prior, I have been told by local public figures that we need to look on the bright side... we need to be positive. It is easy to talk about problems, but we need to focus on solutions. What these people don't understand is that we can't focus on solutions until we are willing to get beneath the surface and look at what has caused the illness related to those economic, social, and cultural issues. If you have a wound that is oozing puss, then you need to figure out what is causing the underlying issue.
Whether people like it or not, part of the solution is pointing out these problems/issues we face. These issues are not static. They did not come about overnight and as time has rolled on, these issues have evolved into negative issues even bigger in nature. By failing to take action, the problems we have faced have grown even more intensely -- near an exponential level.
When we face down issues head on, in the beginning it might look daunting, but as we gain fortitude through experience, you become adept at adapting. That is what we are talking about when we talk about resiliency. We are always going to struggle, but it is how quickly and nimbly you adapt that separates successful from unsuccessful endeavors, whether on a personal or community level. The biggest negative issues that we face in this community are fear and excessive control to the point of manipulation.
I understand the fear that individuals have in relation to current issues involving personal economics and finance. I freely admit that I have struggled for a long time. It beats you down. It is depressing. I have not struggled to the point that I have seen many others go through, but I am not progressing as well as a person my age should. and cannot afford luxuries. People are worried about the future and this causes them to pull back. This is part of behavioral economic theory. When the population hits a critical mass of people pulling back financially, then on whatever level (local, national, international) we see the economy as a whole regress. That is where we are today.
People and communities grow desperate. Instead of trying to find ways to address issues that will create value, they become obsessed with cutting costs. While keeping tight reins and accountability built into a budget is critical, cost cutting does not create wealth and cutting costs can lead to the destruction of wealth.
Chrysler Corporation learned this in the mid to late 1970s. In college, studying management in the late 1980s, we had this vivid message honed into our minds. Chrysler cut costs to the point that they virtually eliminated the Research and Development program. The book entitled "Behind the Wheel at Chrysler," takes a look at how Chrysler's research
and development was constrained while the company invested in ventures that had little to do with the corporate mission; how many of Chrysler's new models were simply
redesigned chassis on existing platforms; how internal rivalries
undermined the company's productivity; and more.
In my opinion, we have seen a similar dynamic on the local level. Egos and marking territories has no doubt been an issue. That does not mean that there aren't really good government employees on the local level. I think the majority take pride in their work and truly do represent the public well. But, we do see a lot of turf protection when it comes to the openness of governance and pushing agendas, protecting friends and allies, and trying to control outcomes towards personal interests. What this does is limit the public's choices in the marketplace.
If you have limited choices, it leads to a deterioration in the quality of products, the marketplace, and ultimately the quality of life in a community. Why? Because this is what happens with controlled economic outcomes. Let's say that a town deems that there will only be one bakery in town and an ordinance is created that says no one else is allowed to bake or sell bread. That bakery has a captive audience. If you want bread, you have to buy it from them. They can choose what products they offer. They can set whatever price they want. Sure, the residents might choose to not buy bread or even create a black market, but what incentive does the bakery have to create good products at a good price and what incentive do they have to provide an excellent customer service? In looking at similar metaphors, how does a community benefit from a controlled marketplace?
You see, the solutions will take care of themselves if you have a responsive marketplace. The government can take a positive approach by helping to create a dynamic marketplace. Solutions are derived from the assessment of problems.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- February 5, 2012
What’s Important in the Financial World (2/3/2012) Battle Among Fed Members, $100 Oil - 24/7 Wall St.com - Douglas A. McIntyre - February 3, 2012 - Fed Discord - The debate among Fed members about the future of the American economy, and how long rates should be kept low, has become ugly and public. Dallas Fed chief Richard Fisher said in a speech that “the economic forecasts and interest-rate projections of the FOMC are ultimately pure guesses.” Put another way, some of the greatest experts about the American economy have not a single clue about what the economy will be like in 2014. The Fed said it will keep rates near zero until then to protect the expansion. Fisher probably wonders what will happen if U.S. GDP begins to grow at 3% or 4% later this year or in 2013. He would argue that there is no way to put odds on that. And his vote against the validity of long-term forecasts has gained more support since the Fed issued its official numbers last week.
Congress’s Absurd Insider Trading Bill - 24/7 Wall St.com - Douglas A. McIntyre - February 3, 2012 - This has been said before, but it is worth saying again. The idea that Congress needs to pass a bill to keep members of Congress and their staffs from insider trading is the reason Americans have no confidence in the institution. It is tantamount to passing a bill that says members of Congress cannot sell illegal drugs on the floor of the House or Senate. Congress members and their staffs know better, too. They receive mounds of information about decisions and data that could affect the values of public companies. The rule, even if it is not put down in law for them to follow, is that if you can make money that people without the information cannot, it is illegal and unethical. And it is also one of the roots of the national confidence in the federal legislative institutions.
Unemployed College Graduates As Vulnerable As High School Dropouts To Long-Term Unemployment: Report - Huffington Post - Bonnie Cavoussi - February 2, 2012 - College graduates and advanced degree holders, once they are unemployed, are as vulnerable as high school dropouts to long-term joblessness, a new study has found. Thirty five percent of unemployed college graduates and those with advanced degrees have been without a job for more than a year, the same rate as unemployed high school dropouts, according to a Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative study published Wednesday. In fact, the long-term unemployment rate, for those 25 and older without a job, is nearly the same across all levels of educational attainment, the report says..... The long-term unemployed also often face job discrimination, as many employers prefer to hire workers with fresh experience. A number of employers require job applicants to be "currently employed" in order to be considered for a position.
Long-Term Unemployment Remains High, Millions Leave Labor Force - CNSNews.com through the Blog The Destructionist - Matt Cover - February 3, 2012 - Despite a January jobs report that saw slightly stronger private sector job growth than in recent months, long-term unemployment remains at record high levels and revised statistics show that another 1.2 million [in just one month] have left the labor force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of long-term unemployed – those out of work for 27 weeks or more, was unchanged at 5.5 million in January, near its record of 6.7 million in April 2010. That number has been at historic highs of 5-6 million since August 2009. BLS figures also reveal that the number of people who have left the labor force entirely was much higher than previously thought – 1.2 million higher.
Deconstructing The “Massive Beat” in Employment Data- Corrected - The Wall Street Examiner - Lee Adler - February 3, 2012 - I like to look behind the headlines at the real unadjusted, unmassaged, unmanipulated numbers to get some idea of what’s really going on. Here’s where things get strange. Total reported employment and full time employment plunged in January, as is normal for that month. So the Gummit survey data doesn’t square with the tax collections. Had we based our forecast for the headlines (which is the only thing that matters to the market in the short run) on the withholding data, we would have gotten it right, but for the wrong reasons. It’s a head scratcher that suggests that the Gummit’s employment numbers shouldn’t be trusted, which isn’t news. What we do know for sure is that there was a gigantic surge in withholding taxes from late December to mid January, and that surge disappeared completely in the last week...... Meanwhile, the government’s own survey data show that 7.4 million fewer people have full time jobs today than was the case 4 years ago. Those 7 million jobs were the fake jobs spawned by the housing and credit bubbles. Those jobs were vaporized when the bubble economy collapsed. They are NEVER coming back. The “new normal” is just the old normal without the added froth. What we are left with is the bitter reality of fewer people carrying the tax load and more people needing government assistance. We have yet to see any real proof that the trends are improving enough to ameliorate those burdens on the economy.
House prices hit post-bubble low - Washington Post - Peter Whoriskey - January 31, 2012 - Data released Tuesday showed that seasonally adjusted housing prices have reached a post-bubble low, as the minor surge that began in 2009 fizzled, to be followed by the almost continuous slide of the past 18 months. The housing bust, in other words, appears to be even worse than it was at the nadir of the recession. For millions of homeowners, that’s an unsettling reality, and potentially an issue in the presidential campaign. But the damage may be far more widespread........
“The trend is down and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand,” said David M. Blitzer of S&P Indices. “I spent the weekend scratching my head and saying, ‘Isn’t there some good number in here?’ ” The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller seasonally adjusted housing index for 20 cities dropped again in November, the last month for which data were available, falling to a level not seen since 2003....... “Housing starts have been at 60-year lows for 38 months — it’s incredible,” said Karl E. Case, emeritus professor of economics at Wellesley College and co-founder of the housing price index. “It’s a complete depression.” Case noted, for example, the slump’s profound effect on the residential construction industry: Annual housing starts in the United States peaked at 2.37 million and have fallen to fewer than 700,000. “Eighty percent of a major industry in the United States just disappeared,” he said.... The recent white paper from the Fed noted, for example, that housing prices have fallen an average of about 33 percent from their peak, erasing $7 trillion in household wealth. With that, according to the paper, comes a “ratcheting down” of what people buy.
Bank of America Would Spare Only Two Headquarters in Plan to Sell Offices - Bloomberg - Hugh Son - February 3, 2012 - Bank of America Corp., the second- largest U.S. lender by assets, may sell all its offices as part of the company’s effort to cut costs, sparing only its headquarters in North Carolina and New York City. “We are currently reviewing all of our properties across our portfolio, with the exception of Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte and Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park” in Manhattan, Kelli Raulerson, a spokeswoman, said today. The lender owned or leased about 120 million square feet in 26,910 locations at the end of 2010, mostly in the U.S., according to its last annual report. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan, 52, is reevaluating the bank’s real estate needs as he eliminates at least 30,000 positions and seeks to trim as much as $8 billion in annual expenses. If Bank of America sells buildings, it will lease back space for operations, avoiding impact on employees, the company said in a statement provided by Raulerson.
How US Fascism Comes Out on Top Via 'Too-Big-to-Fail'? - The Daily Bell - Thursday, February 02, 2012 - Too-big-to-fail legislation is toxic on every level. It marries government to private industry, drains competition from the marketplace and ensures that the most important elements of the modern financial system are further constrained by regulatory fiat. Of course, one could argue that the modern system – one that has been built on the monetary fraud of central banking – is not worth saving anyway. We would agree with that, in fact. The current financial system not only deserves to collapse, it DID collapse three years ago. The dollar reserve system, from our point of view, is already dead. From what we can tell, central banks – at the behest of their controlling power elite – have injected some US$50 TRILLION into the system worldwide. These horrible numbers are actually incomprehensible. The larger financial system is effectively frozen. It has not been allowed to shed its failing elements, and one could argue, in fact, that these failing facilities have been enshrined at the heart of the system's decisive economic dysfunction. In other words, the very entities that are the most important to the system's current operation are the ones that should be allowed to fail. They exist only because the system – worldwide – is a kind of elite command-and-control operation that has little or nothing to do with free markets. But as the current central banking system becomes more and more dysfunctional, the costs of keeping it going are rising exponentially. As we have pointed out, the current environment has a manifest logic, and it's not a pleasant one. There is no economic justification for "too-big-to-fail" except the brutal logic that government funds must compensate for private failures. This will work for a while, but not forever. Eventually, the dysfunction will be too big even for governments' large pockets. In the meantime, we will have "isms" – specifically, growing fascism in the US. Europe, we would argue, is headed in the same direction. Remove competition from the marketplace and you end up with a collection of enterprises that perform inconsequential functions incompetently. More importantly, you end up with a federalized private sector and a series of disastrous "public-private" partnerships. The result is ruin – ruin of every kind. Militarism thrives in a fascist environment. So does a certain kind of ignorance, civic dysfunction and increasingly poverty and civil violence. Chaos looms. Of course, out of chaos ... order. A New World Order. That's obviously the plan. But as we often point out, we would tend to believe that what we call the Internet Reformation will make the elite's main dream rather hard to achieve. The more that the powers-that-be plot to increase the dysfunction of the Western world and especially America, the more push back is generated, in our view. It may turn out that ordinary people in the Internet era are far more resistant to fascism – statism – than elites currently believe. Conclusion: Will the world-spanning plans of the Anglosphere be realized? Just as too-big-too-fail is ultimately an insupportable concept, so is the idea of world government. They are both based on enormous economic fallacies and carry within their implementation the seeds of their own destruction.
Usury - I personally have problems with Bill Mahers personality, but this is a good interview thanks to Elizabeth Warren. Yeah I know, she's a Democrat, but what she says here makes sense.
Congress’s Absurd Insider Trading Bill - 24/7 Wall St.com - Douglas A. McIntyre - February 3, 2012 - This has been said before, but it is worth saying again. The idea that Congress needs to pass a bill to keep members of Congress and their staffs from insider trading is the reason Americans have no confidence in the institution. It is tantamount to passing a bill that says members of Congress cannot sell illegal drugs on the floor of the House or Senate. Congress members and their staffs know better, too. They receive mounds of information about decisions and data that could affect the values of public companies. The rule, even if it is not put down in law for them to follow, is that if you can make money that people without the information cannot, it is illegal and unethical. And it is also one of the roots of the national confidence in the federal legislative institutions.
Unemployed College Graduates As Vulnerable As High School Dropouts To Long-Term Unemployment: Report - Huffington Post - Bonnie Cavoussi - February 2, 2012 - College graduates and advanced degree holders, once they are unemployed, are as vulnerable as high school dropouts to long-term joblessness, a new study has found. Thirty five percent of unemployed college graduates and those with advanced degrees have been without a job for more than a year, the same rate as unemployed high school dropouts, according to a Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative study published Wednesday. In fact, the long-term unemployment rate, for those 25 and older without a job, is nearly the same across all levels of educational attainment, the report says..... The long-term unemployed also often face job discrimination, as many employers prefer to hire workers with fresh experience. A number of employers require job applicants to be "currently employed" in order to be considered for a position.
Long-Term Unemployment Remains High, Millions Leave Labor Force - CNSNews.com through the Blog The Destructionist - Matt Cover - February 3, 2012 - Despite a January jobs report that saw slightly stronger private sector job growth than in recent months, long-term unemployment remains at record high levels and revised statistics show that another 1.2 million [in just one month] have left the labor force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of long-term unemployed – those out of work for 27 weeks or more, was unchanged at 5.5 million in January, near its record of 6.7 million in April 2010. That number has been at historic highs of 5-6 million since August 2009. BLS figures also reveal that the number of people who have left the labor force entirely was much higher than previously thought – 1.2 million higher.
Deconstructing The “Massive Beat” in Employment Data- Corrected - The Wall Street Examiner - Lee Adler - February 3, 2012 - I like to look behind the headlines at the real unadjusted, unmassaged, unmanipulated numbers to get some idea of what’s really going on. Here’s where things get strange. Total reported employment and full time employment plunged in January, as is normal for that month. So the Gummit survey data doesn’t square with the tax collections. Had we based our forecast for the headlines (which is the only thing that matters to the market in the short run) on the withholding data, we would have gotten it right, but for the wrong reasons. It’s a head scratcher that suggests that the Gummit’s employment numbers shouldn’t be trusted, which isn’t news. What we do know for sure is that there was a gigantic surge in withholding taxes from late December to mid January, and that surge disappeared completely in the last week...... Meanwhile, the government’s own survey data show that 7.4 million fewer people have full time jobs today than was the case 4 years ago. Those 7 million jobs were the fake jobs spawned by the housing and credit bubbles. Those jobs were vaporized when the bubble economy collapsed. They are NEVER coming back. The “new normal” is just the old normal without the added froth. What we are left with is the bitter reality of fewer people carrying the tax load and more people needing government assistance. We have yet to see any real proof that the trends are improving enough to ameliorate those burdens on the economy.
House prices hit post-bubble low - Washington Post - Peter Whoriskey - January 31, 2012 - Data released Tuesday showed that seasonally adjusted housing prices have reached a post-bubble low, as the minor surge that began in 2009 fizzled, to be followed by the almost continuous slide of the past 18 months. The housing bust, in other words, appears to be even worse than it was at the nadir of the recession. For millions of homeowners, that’s an unsettling reality, and potentially an issue in the presidential campaign. But the damage may be far more widespread........
“The trend is down and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand,” said David M. Blitzer of S&P Indices. “I spent the weekend scratching my head and saying, ‘Isn’t there some good number in here?’ ” The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller seasonally adjusted housing index for 20 cities dropped again in November, the last month for which data were available, falling to a level not seen since 2003....... “Housing starts have been at 60-year lows for 38 months — it’s incredible,” said Karl E. Case, emeritus professor of economics at Wellesley College and co-founder of the housing price index. “It’s a complete depression.” Case noted, for example, the slump’s profound effect on the residential construction industry: Annual housing starts in the United States peaked at 2.37 million and have fallen to fewer than 700,000. “Eighty percent of a major industry in the United States just disappeared,” he said.... The recent white paper from the Fed noted, for example, that housing prices have fallen an average of about 33 percent from their peak, erasing $7 trillion in household wealth. With that, according to the paper, comes a “ratcheting down” of what people buy.
Bank of America Would Spare Only Two Headquarters in Plan to Sell Offices - Bloomberg - Hugh Son - February 3, 2012 - Bank of America Corp., the second- largest U.S. lender by assets, may sell all its offices as part of the company’s effort to cut costs, sparing only its headquarters in North Carolina and New York City. “We are currently reviewing all of our properties across our portfolio, with the exception of Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte and Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park” in Manhattan, Kelli Raulerson, a spokeswoman, said today. The lender owned or leased about 120 million square feet in 26,910 locations at the end of 2010, mostly in the U.S., according to its last annual report. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan, 52, is reevaluating the bank’s real estate needs as he eliminates at least 30,000 positions and seeks to trim as much as $8 billion in annual expenses. If Bank of America sells buildings, it will lease back space for operations, avoiding impact on employees, the company said in a statement provided by Raulerson.
How US Fascism Comes Out on Top Via 'Too-Big-to-Fail'? - The Daily Bell - Thursday, February 02, 2012 - Too-big-to-fail legislation is toxic on every level. It marries government to private industry, drains competition from the marketplace and ensures that the most important elements of the modern financial system are further constrained by regulatory fiat. Of course, one could argue that the modern system – one that has been built on the monetary fraud of central banking – is not worth saving anyway. We would agree with that, in fact. The current financial system not only deserves to collapse, it DID collapse three years ago. The dollar reserve system, from our point of view, is already dead. From what we can tell, central banks – at the behest of their controlling power elite – have injected some US$50 TRILLION into the system worldwide. These horrible numbers are actually incomprehensible. The larger financial system is effectively frozen. It has not been allowed to shed its failing elements, and one could argue, in fact, that these failing facilities have been enshrined at the heart of the system's decisive economic dysfunction. In other words, the very entities that are the most important to the system's current operation are the ones that should be allowed to fail. They exist only because the system – worldwide – is a kind of elite command-and-control operation that has little or nothing to do with free markets. But as the current central banking system becomes more and more dysfunctional, the costs of keeping it going are rising exponentially. As we have pointed out, the current environment has a manifest logic, and it's not a pleasant one. There is no economic justification for "too-big-to-fail" except the brutal logic that government funds must compensate for private failures. This will work for a while, but not forever. Eventually, the dysfunction will be too big even for governments' large pockets. In the meantime, we will have "isms" – specifically, growing fascism in the US. Europe, we would argue, is headed in the same direction. Remove competition from the marketplace and you end up with a collection of enterprises that perform inconsequential functions incompetently. More importantly, you end up with a federalized private sector and a series of disastrous "public-private" partnerships. The result is ruin – ruin of every kind. Militarism thrives in a fascist environment. So does a certain kind of ignorance, civic dysfunction and increasingly poverty and civil violence. Chaos looms. Of course, out of chaos ... order. A New World Order. That's obviously the plan. But as we often point out, we would tend to believe that what we call the Internet Reformation will make the elite's main dream rather hard to achieve. The more that the powers-that-be plot to increase the dysfunction of the Western world and especially America, the more push back is generated, in our view. It may turn out that ordinary people in the Internet era are far more resistant to fascism – statism – than elites currently believe. Conclusion: Will the world-spanning plans of the Anglosphere be realized? Just as too-big-too-fail is ultimately an insupportable concept, so is the idea of world government. They are both based on enormous economic fallacies and carry within their implementation the seeds of their own destruction.
Usury - I personally have problems with Bill Mahers personality, but this is a good interview thanks to Elizabeth Warren. Yeah I know, she's a Democrat, but what she says here makes sense.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
City of Hickory Bits and Pieces - February 4, 2012
This was provided by one of the followers to the Hickory Hound:
A friend who is a chef in Atlanta, who is from here, left me a note when I asked about his thoughts on this issue.
I asked Harry about his thoughts
The Hound thinks this shows that we aren't focusing the farmer's market on local farmers per se, as some have (mis)led us to believe. In December, when a couple of threads were devoted to this issue, we were led on communicative ramblings that insinuated that the market was being limited in size and scope to help maintain price levels to make the marketplace function profitably for the local farmer/vendors. I don't know exactly how much of what Harry is stating about reselling from corporate purveyors is going on, but it would most definitely be interesting to have that proven and quantified. But aren't most of these purveyors going around a regional circuit? Going to 4 (or more) sites a week to sell their goods.
What our friend from Atlanta endorses is exactly what we have talked about on this very blog. And when we see the geography of where these vendors are homebased, then it shows that what we are discussing/proposing is already reality to a great extent. The only thing inhibiting the possibility of growth of this marketplace are the usual forces that have determined that everything must revolve around Union Square and their personal interests.
Take the leash off and Hickory will grow. This is the 10,000 pound gorilla. This is what is killing our local economy. And very few say anything about it and even fewer do anything about it.
Speaking of which, In an article on WHKY's website entitled Five City Tennis Courts to Close for Repair - 2/3/2012
The City will have a Dog and Pony show about the YMCA swimming initiative at this week's City Council meeting. The Mayor talks about this issue of kids learning how to swim. That's great, but the bigger issue is a focused program of Aquatic Recreation, Leisure, Sports, Exercise, and Rehabilitation. Where are these kids going to swim? Their toilet bowl?
If you want to hear the propaganda, then I suggest you be there, because if they don't address any relevant issues relating to getting an aquatic center built in Hickory, then I won't be writing about it on this blog. The YMCA is a good place for people who can afford it and don't talk to me about scholarships, that isn't affording it and the YMCA is already overcrowded. I'm going to be at the City Council meeting to report on happenings that impact your life. I'm not a subservient mindnumbed trick pony programmed to regurgitate nonsense.
I was curious and asked myself: how many of these farmers grow in Catawba County? Out of 38 vendors listed on the HFM website, I confirmed 8 of them (21%) grow or prepare products in Catawba County.
Anna’s Sweet Treats - ?
John H. Bigelow Photography - Mt. Pleasant, NC
Beam Family Farm - Lawndale, NC
Bluebird Farm - Morganton, NC
Blue Ridge Apiaries - Hudson, NC
Childers Farm - Whittier, NC
Coto Family Farms - Vale, NC
Crane/Herbville Farm - Granite Falls and Lenoir, NC
Crowe’s Produce - Morganton, NC
Daphine & Sons Asparagus Farm - ?
Davis and Son Orchard - Lawndale, NC
Diane’s Bakery - Hickory, NC
The Dog House - ?
Donna Wood - ?
Farmer's Daughter - Taylorsville, NC
Gayle’s Gardens - Caser, NC
Hoffman Farms - Lincolnton, NC
Ed Huss - ?
Interior's by Betsy - ?
Jerry Harris - ?
Richard Hill Farm - Lawndale, NC
Keller's Gourd Barn Crafts - Cornelius, NC
Lisa’s Baked Goods - Hickory, NC
Living Greener Days - Hickory, NC
Mills Garden Herb Farm - Statesville, NC
Muddy Creek Mushroom Farm - Morganton, NC
Nancy Jaeger - ?
O My Soap! - Newton, NC
Open Hearts Bakery - Morganton, NC
Raby’s Greenhouse - Hickory, NC
Ripshin Goat Dairy - Lenoir, NC
Rock House Farm - Morganton, NC
Setzer’s Nursery - Claremont, NC
Sipe Angus Farm - Claremont, NC
Snyder Family Farm - Granite Falls, NC
Summer Fresh Flowers - Newton, NC
Tumbling Shoals Farm - Millers Creek, NC
Whippoorville Farms - Hickory, NC
I was unable to find addresses for the other 8 (21%) of vendors.
A friend who is a chef in Atlanta, who is from here, left me a note when I asked about his thoughts on this issue.
This is a HUGE movement here in Atlanta too. Many of the more upscale restaurants buy from local, state, and regional growers, dairies, and farms. I would support anyone that offers a quality product or service that is produced as close as the ones you have listed here. Hickory's business community in general could try this as common practice and enjoy numerous benefits.
I asked Harry about his thoughts
Personally, if these folks are in our "region" I wouldn't quibble too much about, though Mt Pleasant and Whittier seem a bit far. My beef is with folks that farm at MDI then sell it. By the way, it seems that we didn't have too much trouble finding $140K to fix up 5 tennis courts. I have no problem with tennis courts, they aren't pools after all - (sic). HH
What our friend from Atlanta endorses is exactly what we have talked about on this very blog. And when we see the geography of where these vendors are homebased, then it shows that what we are discussing/proposing is already reality to a great extent. The only thing inhibiting the possibility of growth of this marketplace are the usual forces that have determined that everything must revolve around Union Square and their personal interests.
Take the leash off and Hickory will grow. This is the 10,000 pound gorilla. This is what is killing our local economy. And very few say anything about it and even fewer do anything about it.
Speaking of which, In an article on WHKY's website entitled Five City Tennis Courts to Close for Repair - 2/3/2012
Five City of Hickory tennis courts will close on Monday, February 6, while the courts are rebuilt over the next few months.
Tennis courts one through five at Hickory City Park, 1515 12th Street Drive N.W., will be closed, but the lower courts (six through eight) will remain open throughout the construction process. Construction is expected to continue through April.
The tennis courts designated for repair were built in the late 1970s and have severe cracks and splits. The cost to rebuild the courts is $140,000 and will include a new asphalt surface, along with new posts and nets.
The City has a total of 17 tennis courts. The remaining 12 will continue to be open for play.
The City will have a Dog and Pony show about the YMCA swimming initiative at this week's City Council meeting. The Mayor talks about this issue of kids learning how to swim. That's great, but the bigger issue is a focused program of Aquatic Recreation, Leisure, Sports, Exercise, and Rehabilitation. Where are these kids going to swim? Their toilet bowl?
If you want to hear the propaganda, then I suggest you be there, because if they don't address any relevant issues relating to getting an aquatic center built in Hickory, then I won't be writing about it on this blog. The YMCA is a good place for people who can afford it and don't talk to me about scholarships, that isn't affording it and the YMCA is already overcrowded. I'm going to be at the City Council meeting to report on happenings that impact your life. I'm not a subservient mindnumbed trick pony programmed to regurgitate nonsense.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Reality and the 2012 Presidential Election
For those of you who aren't afraid of the real current events watch the information above. You rob a convenience store and they put you in prison for 7 years plus. You see the man, reported on locally, who has fenced maybe a million dollars in goods on Craig's list etc. Yet, John Corzine has swindled billions of dollars through MF Global and he isn't even being questioned. We have a Congress that is allowed to insider trade and we have a Senator here in North Carolina who voted against legislation that would move forward ending this. And don't think this makes the Democrats better, because they are in on it too. As I showed in the Economic Stories of Relevance (1/15/2012) a few weeks ago, Goldman Sachs was the largest campaign contributor to Obama in 2008 and so far in 2012 they are the largest contributor to the Romney Campaign.
News on Quantitative Easing 3
This is what happens in Third World Nations. The United States is way down the list on most world rankings in relation to education, healthcare, quality of life, human rights... This is what happens in an imploding economy. This is what happens under the auspices of austerity.
Most of Newt Gingrich’s Twitter Followers Are Fake - gawker.com - August 1, 2012 - Newt employs a variety of agencies whose sole purpose is to procure Twitter followers for people who are shallow/insecure/unpopular enough to pay for them. As you might guess, Newt is most decidedly one of the people to which these agencies cater.What you are going to find out next year is that whoever is elected is not any different than the other when it comes to Obama, Romney, and/or Gingrich. I know that is going to upset the Republicans that think that Obama is the only Marxist. When you look at Massachusetts healthcare plan and compare it to Obamacare, you see that it's the exact same plan. Hey, that plan was instituted under Romney. You look at what has happened with MF Global and it is the same buy it up and strip it out Corporatism that Romney headed up at Bain Capital.
About 80 percent of those accounts are inactive or are dummy accounts created by various "follow agencies," another 10 percent are real people who are part of a network of folks who follow others back and are paying for followers themselves (Newt's profile just happens to be a part of these networks because he uses them, although he doesn't follow back), and the remaining 10 percent may, in fact, be real, sentient people who happen to like Newt Gingrich. If you simply scroll through his list of followers you'll see that most of them have odd usernames and no profile photos, which has to do with the fact that they were mass generated. Pathetic, isn't it?
Oh, so if Romney is so bad and Obama is so bad, then that must mean that you endorse Gingrinch. Look at the dishonesty of his campaign. He is completely in it up to his eyeballs with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (from Real Estate Depression fame):
And yet, over a span of eight years, according to Bloomberg News, The Gingrich Group was paid between $1.6 and $1.8 million by the Freddie Mac. At the same time, Freddie Mac was engaged in massive fraud. Gingrich suggested he was a “historian” for Freddie Mac. But the evidence clearly shows he was “throwing his weight” behind the two Government Sponsored Enterprises to prop them up, saying in one interview that Fannie and Freddie provided a more “liquid and stable housing finance system than we would have” without them. Ironically, President Obama, the man who Gingrich is seeking to oust from office, is keeping secret each and every Freddie Mac (and Fannie Mae) document, including those that could shed light on Gingrich’s relationship with Freddie.
Gingrich also has claimed, “I have never done lobbying of any kind.” However, as documented by the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney, Gingrich was a hired gun for the drug lobby who “worked hard to persuade Republican congressmen to vote for the Medicare drug subsidy that the industry favored.” Carney reports that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America confirmed that they paid Gingrich. Bloomberg News “cited sources from leading drug companies AstraZeneca and Pfizer saying that those companies had also hired Gingrich.”
I don't agree with everything that Ron Paul says, but I trust him. I also don't think that he is a fruitcake. If you listen, then you will understand where I am coming from and where he is coming from. Where I disagree with him is in relation to a laissez faire philosophy towards foreign policy and domestic corporate regulation. I think the mega-corporations need to be reined in and while I agree that the endless wars need to be curtailed, we need to ensure that any cease fire related to current hostilities is recognized by all parties. The problem with the current U.S. foreign policy is that we do not expedite missions, we draw them out with no defined mission or conclusion.
I am tired of voting for the lesser of evils. I don't expect anyone to fulfill all of my desires related to philosophy. I just don't want a Flip Flopper or a Hypocrite or Obfuscator as the leader of this nation. If we are going to turn this country around, then we are going to have to have a straight shooter with convictions who at the same time is able to build consensus. Unfortunately, I just don't see that happening in this election cycle.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
No Gloom, No Despair, No Agony -- A Solution oriented Challenge
I went to a meeting at church tonight in which we talked about reality. There are children in local schools who are dependent on schools to provide their meals. Many of the children aren't eating when they go home at night. They aren't eating on the weekends. They aren't eating when school is out on break. One school administrator says the hardest thing he has to do is order the schools closed, because of inclement weather, because he knows that some of the children that depend on the schools aren't going to have any of the comfort of a heated building or anything to eat that day. That certainly gives one who enjoyed every snow day pause for perspective.
This is the reality of what is going on in this country. This isn't about ideology or self-reliance. This is about survival. In the land of plenty that are these United States, we should not have this. I know that some people that I have heard in this community think that this is a story of make believe, but I can assure you that it is not. It isn't about tugging on ones heart strings. It is about innocent people trying to survive.
Survival is the word of the day.. We have always had people struggling in this world. We have all faced adversity, but what I heard tonight is that we have an elementary school here in Hickory where over 92% of the children in that school are on the school meal program and this is the school where kids are falling through the cracks. Their families don't qualify for food stamps, but also don't have food in the house, because they don't have money. There are currently over 46 million people in the U.S. receiving Food Stamps according to the USDA.
This is a community problem and my church is looking for ways to address this issue. We are open to suggestions and possible solutions. We have ideas of our own that we are looking to move forward with in the very near future. The Church I attend is Mt. Olive Lutheran ELCA here in Hickory on Highway 127 in Viewmont.
Leave a comment below or send me an e-mail at hickoryhound@gmail.com or you can visit our Mt. Olive facebook page, if you have suggestions that may be helpful.
I will conclude that this is not about gloom, despair, or agony relating to the plight of these people who are in dire straights or our feelings related thereof. People want to talk about being solutions oriented. Well, here is their opportunity to put their money where their mouth is. There were thirteen people in that room tonight that feel a calling to embrace this challenge. We are humbled by this challenge and the journey that lies ahead. In some ways it seems daunting and in many other ways it is a wonderful challenge that allows us to glorify God.
In our mission, we aren't attempting to displace or change the other wonderful charitable endeavors that shape this community. What we are attempting to do is fulfill a niche. The Cooperative Christian Ministry (CCM), the Hickory Soup Kitchen, and other benevolent ministries fulfill overall invaluable missions. We realize that there is such need in the community, in this economy, that it isn't going to be easy to procure the food and other items needed to fulfill every deficiency, but we are going to start out small and take this process one step at a time. And we will keep you updated every step of the way.
May God help those in need in our community.
Micah's Cupboard
Mount Olive Evangelical Lutheran Church
2780 North Center Street
Hickory, NC 28601-1341
828.324.6198
This is the reality of what is going on in this country. This isn't about ideology or self-reliance. This is about survival. In the land of plenty that are these United States, we should not have this. I know that some people that I have heard in this community think that this is a story of make believe, but I can assure you that it is not. It isn't about tugging on ones heart strings. It is about innocent people trying to survive.
Survival is the word of the day.. We have always had people struggling in this world. We have all faced adversity, but what I heard tonight is that we have an elementary school here in Hickory where over 92% of the children in that school are on the school meal program and this is the school where kids are falling through the cracks. Their families don't qualify for food stamps, but also don't have food in the house, because they don't have money. There are currently over 46 million people in the U.S. receiving Food Stamps according to the USDA.
This is a community problem and my church is looking for ways to address this issue. We are open to suggestions and possible solutions. We have ideas of our own that we are looking to move forward with in the very near future. The Church I attend is Mt. Olive Lutheran ELCA here in Hickory on Highway 127 in Viewmont.
Leave a comment below or send me an e-mail at hickoryhound@gmail.com or you can visit our Mt. Olive facebook page, if you have suggestions that may be helpful.
I will conclude that this is not about gloom, despair, or agony relating to the plight of these people who are in dire straights or our feelings related thereof. People want to talk about being solutions oriented. Well, here is their opportunity to put their money where their mouth is. There were thirteen people in that room tonight that feel a calling to embrace this challenge. We are humbled by this challenge and the journey that lies ahead. In some ways it seems daunting and in many other ways it is a wonderful challenge that allows us to glorify God.
In our mission, we aren't attempting to displace or change the other wonderful charitable endeavors that shape this community. What we are attempting to do is fulfill a niche. The Cooperative Christian Ministry (CCM), the Hickory Soup Kitchen, and other benevolent ministries fulfill overall invaluable missions. We realize that there is such need in the community, in this economy, that it isn't going to be easy to procure the food and other items needed to fulfill every deficiency, but we are going to start out small and take this process one step at a time. And we will keep you updated every step of the way.
May God help those in need in our community.
Micah's Cupboard
Mount Olive Evangelical Lutheran Church
2780 North Center Street
Hickory, NC 28601-1341
828.324.6198
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