(From Wikipedia) - The One Percent is a 2006 documentary about the growing wealth gap between America's wealthy elite and the citizenry on the whole. It was created by Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, and produced by Jamie Johnson and Nick Kurzon. The film's title refers to the top one percent of Americans in terms of wealth, who controlled 38% of the nation's wealth in 2001.[1]
The film premiered on April 29, 2006, at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was reported to have been purchased by HBO and a revised version of the film, substantially re-edited and incorporating footage shot since the 2006 festival screening, premiered on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 6:30pm ET/PT on HBO's Cinemax.
It was stated in the Page Six column of the New York Post that Warren Buffett had written a letter to Nicole Buffett, daughter of his son Peter'sex-wife from another marriage. In response to her participation in the film, distancing himself from her, he wrote "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin."[2]
2/3rds of US Corporations Pay Zero Federal Taxes: US Uncut Movement Builds to Make Them Pay Up - The Nation - Alison Kilkenny - March 31, 2011 - “I’m tired of people calling for shared sacrifice and it’s all coming from the workers and nothing’s coming from the top,” says protester Dave Sonenberg. “I’m sick of companies like Bank of America not paying their taxes.”.... Real estate crash catches up to cities as property taxes slide - Bloomberg - By William Selway and Henry Goldman - March 29, 2011 - Local officials are now facing the consequences. Property- tax revenue dropped in the last three months of 2010 at the fastest pace since home prices slipped from their peak more than four years ago, the Census Bureau said yesterday. The decline may continue as values fall further, adding strains to cash- strapped localities that already fired workers, halted projects and cut spending because of the recession that began in 2007. Foreign Banks Tapped Fed’s Secret Lifeline Most at Crisis Peak - Bloomberg - April 1, 2011 - “What in the world are we doing thinking we can pass out tens of billions of dollars to banks that are overseas?” said Paul, who has advocated abolishing the Fed. “We have problems here at home with people not being able to pay their mortgages, and they’re losing their homes.” ...
Fed's Rules Let Brokers Turn Junk Into Cash at Height of Financial Crisis - Bloomberg - By Matthew Leising - Mar 31, 2011 - At the height of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve allowed the world’s largest banks to turn more than $118 billion in junk bonds, defaulted debt, securities of unknown ratings and stocks into cash.... Collateral of those asset types made up 72 percent of the total $164.3 billion in market-rate securities pledged to the Fed on Sept. 29, 2008, two weeks after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to documents released yesterday. The collateral backed $155.7 billion in loans on the largest day of borrowing from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, which was created in March 2008 to provide loans to brokers as Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed....
Gross Echoes Buffett Saying Treasuries Have ‘Little Value’ on Debt, Dollar - Bloomberg - By Wes Goodman - Mar 30, 2011 - By Wes Goodman - Mar 30, 2011 - The U.S. has unrecorded debt of $75 trillion, or close to 500 percent of gross domestic product, counting what it owes on its bonds plus obligations for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Gross wrote in his monthly investment outlook. The U.S. will experience inflation, currency devaluation and low-to- negative interest rates after accounting for consumer-price gains if it doesn’t reform its entitlement programs, he said... Pimco “has been selling Treasuries because they have little value within the context of a $75 trillion total debt burden,” ... President Barack Obama’s government has increased the U.S. publicly traded debt to a record $9.05 trillion, leading Gross to compare the nation to Greece, which had its credit ratings cut two steps by Standard & Poor’s on March 29... “We are out-Greeking the Greeks,” he wrote.
Underemployment Rises to 20.3% in March- Gallup - April 1, 2011 - Jenny Marlar - Despite the Obama administration's March 16 announcement that unemployment would remain high or increase in coming months, the underemployed in March became neither more nor less hopeful about finding work soon. Six in 10 underemployed Americans are not hopeful they will find work or move from part-time to full-time work in the next four weeks. That translates to 12% of the workforce that is both underemployed and not hopeful they will find their desired amount of work. The lack of change suggests that underemployed Americans anticipated long-term difficulties in finding work well before the administration's formal announcement was made...
Here is a proposed Bill to regulate surcharges and fees by convenience stores and other merchants in North Carolina. NC House Representative Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke-Valdese) has created this Bill, which has not yet been introduced. Hopefully consumers will embrace this as a means of paying exactly what they should and not paying additional fees and charges to use a debit or credit card in North Carolina. Please help me get the word out to the public so they will ask their local congressman or senator to support this legislation.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED:
AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE CHARGING OF A SURCHARGE ON PERSONS WHO ELECT TO USE A CREDIT CARD, OR DEBIT CARD IN LIEU OF PAYMENT BY CASH, CHECK, OR SIMILAR MEANS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. Article 1 of Chapter 75 of the General Statutes is amended by addinga new section to read:
" 75-43. Surcharge for payment by credit card prohibited.
(a) Prohibition. - A person who sells or leases goods or services in this State shall not impose a surcharge on a person who elects to use a credit card, charge card, or debit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means. As used in this section, the term 'surcharge' means any additional amount imposed at the time of the sales or lease transaction that increases the charge to the buyer or lessee for the privilege of using credit, charge card, or debit card.
(b) Exception. - A person may offer discounts for the purpose of inducing payment by cash, check or other means not involving the use of a credit card, charge card, or debit card, provided that the discount is offered to all prospective buyers.
(c) Violation an Unfair Trade Practice. - A violation of this section shall be an unfair and deceptive trade practice under G.S. 75-1.1."
SECTION 2. G.S. 159-32.1 reads as rewritten:
" 159-32.1. Electronic payment.
Notwithstanding G.S. 75-43, a unit of local government, public hospital, or public authority may in lieu of payment by cash or check, accept payment by electronic payment as defined in G.S. 147-86.20 for any tax, assessment, rate, fee, charge, rent, interest, penalty, or other receivable owed to it. A unit of local government, public hospital, or public authority may pay any negotiated discount, processing fee, transaction fee, or other charge imposed by a credit card, charge card, or debit card company, or by a third-party merchant bank, as a condition of contracting for the unit's or the authority's acceptance of electronic payment. A unit of local government, public hospital, or public authority may impose the fee or charge as a surcharge on the amount paid by the person using electronic payment."
SECTION 3. This act becomes effective October 1, 2011.
E-mail from Ben Willis of the Woogle Initiative, which was the consultant team that worked together to put together the Request For Information, in Hickory and Lenoir's effort to "Woo Google" to bring Gigabit High Speed Broadband to the area:
Kim Hudson just passed this info on to me. It looks like Google is getting ready to do a press conference about the Gigabit project in Kansas City. They may offer it to other cities but I thought the info was worth passing along to the group. Regardless, we still have a ton of useful information that both cities can use to encourage the development of a similar type of infrastructure. I hope we all continue to move forward and work to initiate such a project.
Kansas City is the lucky winner of a 1Gbit-per-second broadband network that Google plans to build.
The search giant, which last year said it would choose a city in which to build such an ultra-high-speed network, hopes to start offering the service in 2012.
Google chose Kansas City for a number of reasons, it said. "In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and develop relationships with local government and community organizations. We've found this in Kansas City," Milo Medin, vice president, Access Services for Google, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
The plan must still be approved by the city's Board of Commissioners, he said.
Google has said the network would serve 50,000 to 500,000 people with connectivity offered at what it called a competitive price. It initially planned to make a choice by the end of last year and said it might choose a number of locations.
Almost 1,100 cities responded to Google. The interest was so great that one city, Topeka, Kansas, changed its name to Google for one month.
Google has said that its goal in building the network is to experiment with next generation applications, new deployment techniques and open access.
The search giant has a press conference scheduled in Kansas City shortly.
Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com
Here are other News sources in regards to Google's initiative:
New York Times - Google Picks Kansas City, Kan., for Its Fast Network- March 30, 2011 - KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — After seeing Facebook pleas and flash mobs, and even cities temporarily renaming themselves “Google,” the search engine giant said on Wednesday that it had chosen Kansas City, Kan., as the first place that will get its ultra-fast broadband network...
Los Angeles Times - Google picks Kansas City, Kan., to debut its super fast Internet service - Nathan Olivarez-Giles - March 30, 2011 - Google Inc. picked Kansas City, Kan., for its super high-speed Internet service, which when deployed promises to be 100 times faster than what is available for many users today... More than 1,100 cities entered Google's contest, which the company launched with much fanfare early last year. Google said it would build and pay for a fiber-optic network capable of 1 gigabit speeds in the winning community. Most U.S. homes paying for high-speed Internet connections receivedata at less than 10 megabits a second.
National Business Review - Google to build experimental ultra-fast broadband network in Kansas - Alex Walls - March 31, 2011 - Google has announced that it will build its trial ultra-fast broadband network in Kansas City, Kansas, an experiment the company said followed on from urging the Federal Communication Commission to look at new and creative ways of providing universal, ultra high-speed Internet access through its National Broadband Plan... (Hint: watch the video to hear the Google CFO describe low speed access as "sucky")...
Wired News - Google Chooses Kansas City, Kansas, as Broadband Mecca - By Ryan Singel - March 30, 2011 - There’s no place like home — especially if you live Kansas City, Kansas, where houses will soon be connected to the net via fiber optic cables that Google promises will deliver 1 gigabit per second internet connections — roughly a hundred times faster than a typical 10 Mbps cable connection... With that fast a connection, it becomes possible to download a full-length feature film from iTunes in seconds... More than 1,100 cities and town across the country applied to be the testbed, highlighting the dismal state of broadband connections around the country. The Tuesday announcement came after more than a year of deliberations and a change of leadership in the project.
The Hound wants to say that it was always a longshot that we would land this deal. On the positive side it was great to see the communities of Lenoir and Hickory work together in a positive unified effort to land something that would have moved the community forward in a wonderful way and in a manner that most of our citizens cannot presently comprehend. I think there was a lot of hard work put forward by the people associated with this effort. The only criticism I had involving the effort was the backwoods hillbillyish colloquialism "Google Holler." Such a term is not endearing and does not and never would have, in my estimation, looked good to people associated with High Tech Industry. People in decision making positions need to understand that cutesy never works in high stakes, dead serious business, especially when it isn't very cute.
I hope that the efforts, energies, and synergies put behind this project can be put to use towards other efforts in the future and hopefully through perseverance those efforts will be fruitful. Thank You everyone for trying.
The following is a video presentation of The "Innovation 2010" conference that was held on November 10, 2010. It is hoped that this conference will be the first of many annual innovation events over the years to come. It is believed that the introduction of these new ideas to our local culture will help lay a foundation for the development of entrepreneurial opportunities in the future.
In the upcoming year, the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce will introduce an entrepreneurial competition called "The Edison Project," in which the winner will receive a cash prize along with pro bono assistance with business guidance, legal, and financial administrative needs to help move their efforts forward. This will not only help the contest winner. It will also help those who participate in the contest by helping them promote their personal ideas and objectives. This can help those people gain attention and help network with experienced individuals who can assist them in turning these innovative processes into fruitful endeavors.
The idea of this Innovation conference was first discussed in meetings of the Future Economy Council of Catawba County and was a thought that I broached here on the Hickory Hound back in September 2009 - (HoundVision: A frank discussion about Jobs, Ingenuity, and Blight).
The Keynote Speaker for this event was Dr. Andrew Hargadon; who is a Professor of Management, Director of the Technology Management Programs, and a Faculty Director at the University of California at Davis Center for Entrepreneurship. I wrote about his presentation at this conference in an article entitled - Innovation 2010 - Andrew Hargadon - Creating a Network of Innovation.
If you want to get excited about something positive and tangible happening in our area, then please watch this video:
And I would like to give a kudos to the Hickory Daily Recordfor their article about the work and adaptation of technological capacities by our Catawba County Government. I will link to the article detailing how the Chief Information Officer of Catawba County Terry Bledsoe is utilizing Social media and other Internet Assets to help residence and others associated with Catawba County stay in tune with the happenings of our local county government: Technology rapidly changing the way citizens access public information
Terry Bledsoe is the Chairman of the Future Economy Council of Catawba County and his blog is linked at the bottom right corner of this page. Catawba County Technology Department
I was awoken at 8:45am this morning by a call from someone who stated that Hal Row was addressing the article on this blog entitled WOW!!! - Greater Hickory Rated as the 6th Saddest Metro Area in the United States. I only was able to listen to the last few minutes of the show, so I didn't have a full understanding of the context of the discussion and I wasn't going to race in to the last few minutes of the show to explain what the article was about, what my mission is about, the trends of our area, and what needs to be done to address the challenges that we face.
I won't be picking apart what people said, but I will address the context of this morning's discussion. I do believe that Hal is a cheerleader for the area and I have no problem with that. People need to understand his job is more than just to be a presenter or entertainer on his radio program. He has to sell advertising for the spots that run on his program and other WHKY programs. So Hal is a salesman and from what I have heard he is a very good salesman. Salesmen are inherently optimistic. That comes with the job.
Most people look to me as being a concerned citizen. I am definitely not just complaining. There are things that can be done to move the area forward and I want to address those issues. Some are being done and some aren't being done. We don't need to focus on the positives. We need to focus on what needs to be done and do it!
I disagree with Hal on the point that what I am doing is not Journalism. It is what Journalism used to be. It is what Gerald Celente calls Journalism 2.0. Old School Journalism is not working, because of the marriage of these resources with the Government and those conflicts of interest. The media now acts as partners with the Government, instead of asking critical questions that need to be asked, investigating what needs to be investigated, and researching what needs to be researched. I am one person. I don't have multiple departments to cover this and that. I have to do it all myself, but I am asking and addressing tough questions that need to be asked.
I was born and raised here. I know this area very well. I don't know or understand every perspective of every individual in the area. I associate with many people who have a completely different perspective than Hal. They are positive complainers. They aren't stewing in their mess. They are addressing it.
I had lunch with a very prominent person in our area, the other day, who stated to me that when they moved here a decade ago that they cried every day the first year that they were here. They said that they decided one day that it was time to stop being depressed and make the best of the situation and move forward. This person stated that even if they wanted to move (locate out of the area), that with the real estate depression we are in, that it would be nearly impossible to sell their house and they couldn't afford to take a bath on it. This person stated that their spouse and themself would have difficulty if they lost their job and they would not be able to make close to the kind of income that they were presently making. This person stated that they come home a lot of days and speak with their spouse and are like, "Whew, I've still got a job as of today -- hahaha..."
I know people from every demographic of this community. I have had long conversations and deep dialogue with people that work for the City of Hickory, Catawba County, people that have worked in Washington and Raleigh, Elected Officials, people from Downtown, people from every quadrant of Hickory, people from Ridgeview, people from other parts of the area who are movers and shakers and people who are just your Average Joe (or Jill). I believe I represent most everyone. Not when I express an opinion, but when I address the issues facing our area.
One lady called in to Hal's show and spoke about God and Family vs Money and Prestige. I completely understand what she is saying and is that not what I talk about on this Blog, is it not? I am certainly not talking about attainment of materialistic needs. I am talking about the quality of people's lives. We can get the most bang for the buck by investing in areas that might not be fruitful today, but they will yield benefits tomorrow. That is what I see when it comes to the aquatic recreation issue or building an amphitheater or revitalizing the economic deadzones in our city. There is no magic bullet to solve these issues. It will take a lot of hard work. There will be a lot of losses to go along with wins, but not doing anything or waiting for some easy solution is not going to solve the problems and will guarantee failure. And the longer we don't address these issues, the worse the problems will be, and the harder it will be to solve them.
We have good things going on in this area. I have never said that we didn't. Look at the increased educational attainment options with L-R growing, the Appalachian State University Partnership, and Catawba Valley Community College. Look at the economic opportunities involving the Manufacturing Solutions Center and the Conover Station. Anyone can see that there are some good things happening in our area, but we need to see a lot more of this and we need our local elected officials to be proactive about making things happen.
What people need to get in their noggin is that our community's health depends upon the welfare of all of its citizens. Marketplaces are about people. It is all about people. Economics depend upon the marketplace and the marketplace is about people. When people are doing well, then you have a positive, dynamic marketplace and when they aren't doing well, then you have a lackluster, ineffective marketplace. Attitude is but a small part of market forces and there are way too many people trying to push the notion that all we need is a good attitude and the marketplace will correct itself.
No, what we need are people who are intellectually proactive and critical thinkers who can help to create an environment in our area that is more resilient to economic cycles. That means that when times get bad, we don't fall off the cliff like we have in the last decade. There are people putting efforts forward that are making a difference here, but there are also people just resting on their laurels and standing in the way of progress, because they are shortsighted and they can only see how issues will effect their personal finances today. We have to look at trends and think about how we fit into the future in order to keep from being blindsided.
Hal did not address the dynamics of the survey and you really need to in order to understand the big picture of what this survey is detailing. This survey was not my opinion and the other surveys that have ranked us so poorly have not been my opinion. And can somebody tell me why they think that these surveys would be picking on poor ole Hickory. Does that even make sense?
I had nothing to do with the statistical input of all of these surveys. As far as the dynamics of the "Happiness Survey," Life Evaluation is based upon how you feel about your life today and where you see yourself being 5 years from now. Physical health deals with such factors as whether they had any health issues that prevented them from doing any age-appropriate stuff. Healthy Behavior deals with smoking, drinking, working out properly, and eating right. Emotional Questions included such factors as "Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?" Work questions include, "Are you satisfied/dissatisfied with your job?" Basic Access includes Medical-related questions such as had you been to a dentist in the past year, do you have a personal doctor, and/or have health insurance. It also included questions about the general satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the region.
When it comes down to discussing the relevant issues and the status of the general welfare of this community, I know that there are a lot of fine individuals associated with the City of Hickory. I have had several that have personally expressed to me an appreciation for what I do. You might think wow or that is a load of bull, but I have had several people tell me that they could not get their message out, if it weren't for the Hickory Hound. People have expressly told me that my newsletters about the City Council are so thorough that it is the only way that they can keep up with what is going on in the City of Hickory. They don't always agree with my analysis, but they appreciate the point of view. I do understand that this is not true of everyone though. There are some people who literally hate this blog and constantly try to diminish its relevance.
The people who are angry about the existence of this blog try and limit the participation of those that they have control over. I can assure you that if the workers speak out in a manner that their bosses disagree with, then they will lose their job. And I am not talking about anyone going maverick. I am talking about a employees taking a different viewpoint that does not toe the company line. I have been expressly told this by some people; that they agree with what I am presenting, but they fear reprisal, if they publicly support the Hound's viewpoint. Couple that with how much income some of these people earn and you can see where the silence come from. They have a lot to lose!
When it comes to my life, my glass is completely full of everything except income and material possessions and although I would like to be financially secure, it is not my top priority at the moment. I want to have a better Economic and Quality of Life Environment in my community. My glass is running over with things to do. That is the reason why I was asleep this AM. I was up late last night dealing with tasks. I know that one of my top priorities is getting the message out about the goings on in this area. Occasionally that means that I must say things that I really don't want to say about the leaders of this community, but it is necessary to address these critical issues and to get this community moving forward again.
To summarize, Hal basically stated that the community has a lot to offer, but outside forces are playing a dominant role in these negative feelings that people have in the area. What about the ambivalence of the overwhelming majority of the people in our area? The people who only care about the ball game on their big screen... the comfort of their recliner... the cheapness, availability, and speed of service of their fast food... and the case of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the fridge. When those things aren't available is when they will be ready to revolt. Then they will lose it and we will all be living in Holy Hell, because they will be ready to aim and fire.
Why did only 2,300 people vote in that last City Council election? If the people were happy with those members of City Council and the Mayor, then why didn't they stand up and roundly and robustly reaffirm their support? 8.5% of the people in Hickory voted. In my book that is not much support for what the City of Hickory is doing.
What will it take to wake people up and get them to participate in their governance? I have tried to use Hal's show as a platform before to wake people up. In general, if we look at the demographic of Hal's audience, it is mostly people that are older and settled. I bet most of them are seniors. Most of them have money in the bank, a pension coming in, a small part time job, and a Social Security check. They aren't hurting like the people who are in the middle of life, but they are probably having to help subsidize the income of their kids and/or their grandkids. They understand that the economy is bad, but they have a cushion to fall back on and that gives them a different perspective.
You know, this is the kind of compartmentalizing that I address. These people are making ends meet, so they don't have much to complain about, but what about the future? Think 5, 10, 20 years... Like most of us in the middle of life and younger are looking at. What is this going to mean to us and what do the trends show? It does not look good and that is what this survey is addressing.
Will the people, who listen to Hal's show that seem to be content, continue to make ends meet if inflation continues to surge? Their kids are going to continue to need money, because they aren't going to be able to have gainful long term employment under current economic conditions and realities. Times will continue to get worse if we don't assess the reality of the challenges we face and address those issues head on.
I am here to try to wake people up before the freight train hits, so that we don't have to deal with the chaos of the aftermath. We keep getting punched over and over and over again. We need to start punching back. We have to endure and I think that we have done that, but we also have to take productive, proactive measures to move forward. Yes, their are some of us doing that, but there are others standing in the way of this needed progress.
Dan St. Louis is a member of the Future Economy Council of Catawba County and the head of the Manufacturing Solutions Center (MSC). He, along with Donald Duncan, Conover's City Manager, gave a presentation about the relocation of the MSC to the Conover station Development on February 17, 2011 to the Future Economy Council.
Both of these developments in the past here on this blog, but this is a thorough presentation, in which Dan and Donald describe what the mission of the MSC is and what future goals of the MSC will be. The MSC is a public-private partnership that enables business and government to come together and share costs of expensive testing, which reduces costs to do business and allows these businesses to put out a better product at a lower cost. This will help create jobs for our region.
The mission of the Manufacturing Solutions Center (MSC) is to help US manufacturers increase sales, improve quality and improve efficiency to create or retain jobs.
This is accomplished by:
* Enhancing and improving products through research and development * Assisting in creating prototypes for new, innovative offerings * Analyzing new materials to enhance structure and programs * Testing products for reliable content and quality * Training personnel for lean manufacturing processes and supply chain efficiencies * Providing a forum for rollout of new 21st century technologies * Providing hands-on guidance for international marketing, sales and military procurement * Providing photo-realistic renderings and visualizations * Creating 3-Dimensional rapid prototypes in a variety of materials * Industry advocacy
Bringing manufacturing into the NEW ERA of changing technologies, global marketing and production innovations.
The following is Dan's presentation in a slide show format:
