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.

City of Hickory Bits and Pieces - February 4, 2012

This was provided by one of the followers to the Hickory Hound:

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- January 29, 2012

(The Hound): You can follow the themes and see what is being addressed and what is dying on the vines. What was said three years ago still has relevance today and I believe that what was said three years ago and today will have relevance three years from now. We will keep moving forward.


The State of Hickory 2012



The State of Hickory 2011



The State of Hickory 2010



The State of Hickory 2009



U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms - ABC News - 9/23/2011 - Cities hire Chinese instead of American workers for building projects.


Mitt Romney's Bain Capital 'earned' $342 million by bankrupting a company and firing 850 Floridians - The Jed Report  - Jed Lewis - January 23, 2012 - Mitt Romney's Bain Capital 'earned' $342 million by bankrupting a company and firing 850 Floridians. In addition to the $242 million, Bain took $100 million in management fees for running the company. But despite their $342 million payday, Bain led Dade directly into bankruptcy.              
Bain ultimately relinquished its ownership claim, but it had already taken $342 million out of company, an 11-fold return on its $30 million investment in less than eight years. Fortunately, the bankruptcy didn't destroy the company, which emerged from bankruptcy and has prospered since Bain gave up its ownership stake. But even though Dade is now a successful company, its success comes despite Bain Capital—not because of it.                              Obviously, the story is timely because of the upcoming Florida primary and the fact that nearly one thousand Floridians lost their jobs as Bain bankrupted the firm, but if Romney gets the nomination, it won't simply fade away. Perhaps he can convince Republicans that questioning how he managed to "earn" $342 million while bankrupting a company is the same thing as assaulting free enterprise, but he won't be able to convince Americans of that. And given that Mitt Romney cites his private sector experience as the number one reason why he should be president, that's a big problem for Mitt Romney to have.


Drowning In Hypocrisy - Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org - January 24, 2012 -
The US government is so full of self-righteousness that it has become a caricature of hypocrisy. Leon Panetta, a former congressman who Obama appointed CIA director and now head of the Pentagon, just told the sailors on the USS Enterprise, an aircraft carrier, that the US is maintaining a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers in order to project sea power against Iran and to convince Iran that “it’s better for them to try to deal with us through diplomacy.” http://ap.stripes.com/dynamic/stories/U/US_PANETTA_AIRCRAFT_CARRIER?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-21-19-22-34 .....                      If it requires 11 aircraft carriers to deal with Iran, how many will Panetta need to project power against Russia and China? But to get on with the main point, Iran has been trying “to deal with us through diplomacy.” The response from Washington has been belligerent threats of military attack, unfounded and irresponsible accusations that Iran is making a nuclear weapon, sanctions and an oil embargo. Washington’s accusations echo Israel’s and are contradicted by Washington’s own intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Why doesn’t Washington respond to Iran in a civilized manner with diplomacy? Really, which of the two countries is the greatest threat to peace? ........                                Washington sends the FBI to raid the homes of peace activists and puts a grand jury to work to create a case against them for aiding a nebulous enemy by protesting Washington’s wars. The Department of Homeland Security unleashes goon cop thugs to brutalize peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. Washington fabricates cases against Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and Tarek Mehanna that negate the First Amendment by equating free speech with terrorism and spying. Chicago mayor and former Obama White House chief-of-staff, Rahm Israel Emanuel, pushes an ordinance that outlaws public protests in the City of Chicago. The list goes on. And in the midst of it all Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other Washington hypocrites accuse Russia and China of stifling dissent.



Sales of U.S. New Homes Unexpectedly Decline in December - Bloomberg - Alex Kowalski - January 26, 2012 - ... Purchases of single-family properties decreased 2.2 percent to a 307,000 annual pace, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists called for a rate of 321,000 home sales. Last year marked the worst year for the industry in records going back to 1963.             “Builders continue to contend with a number of existing homes that are deeply discounted,” said Anika Khan, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We’re expecting a bit of a pickup in 2012, but we won’t see a meaningful increase as long as new homes are competing with those existing homes.”

Warren Pollock on This Week in Money

The State Of Hickory 2012

Skin in the Game

This is the fourth year in which I will attempt to define where Hickory and its surrounding area presently stand here in the year 2012, where we have been over the past few years, and where trends show us to be headed. As always, I have tried to take into account opinions from across the socioeconomic strata and the demographics of this area. The Hound has become an entity that leads the local area in the discussion of the economic, social, and cultural issues that face us all. We drive the news! We have developed relationships with many of the structures of governance in our area and developed legitimacy and credibility through the relevance of what is discussed here. We have awoken the local media to the point where submissions from this blog become part of their thought process and we believe this is a very good development.

Though I talk about the Hound's relevance above, I would like to reiterate that this mission is not about any endeavor of personal ego or esteem. This mission is as stated about the vitality, growth, and future of this area we live in. We want to make every part of this city and metro area relevant. We truly believe that everyone has a role to play, unlike the actions of most of the leadership of this area has shown. In the past year, it has been unfortunate that we have not progressed much and much of this has been due to the misguided priorities and the impediments that certain power brokers and elected leaders have created.

Certainly there are significant achievements that we can be proud of. Over the last year, we have seen the unelected structure of governance continue to gain ground on positions that they have staked out in trying to resurrect the local economy back to steady growth, but the elected bodies have struggled to say the least. The Catawba County Chamber of Commerce has formulated several initiatives in conjunction with the educational bodies and the Economic Development Corporation that are bearing fruit. These associations have continued to carry out actions related to creating new economic realities. We can look to several positives created by CVCC, which include the on-campus practice hospital. We can look at tangible gains made by the Economic Development Corporation, which include the Turbo Coating Manufacturing facility. We can look to the steady progress made by the Appalachian State Partnership, Lenoir-Rhyne University, and the entities associated with the Champions of Education. What we have not seen is a game changer. When it comes to the creation of a game changing event and/or entity, it is the opinion of most that it is going to take the hands on guidance of community leadership, most importantly elected leadership, to make it happen. I don't want to include the Catawba County leaders or Conover in with this, because both of these entities have been very responsive to input by independent entities in the area.

The most exciting event that took place in 2011 was the Edison event sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Small Business and Technology Development Center. This is the reason why the Catawba County commission should not be thrown under the bus, because they have been very supportive of initiatives such as this and a couple of the members of the Commission were present for the final event and the Commission Chair Kitty Barnes even was a presenter for the award. People talk about optimism, yet don't seem to understand that they have to put skin in the game and everything isn't about politics. I don't understand why local politicos would be anything other than supportive of initiatives such as the Edison Project.

Conover put skin in the game with the Conover Station Project. While the City of Hickory has touted the Brownfield grants as a way to revitalize unused, blighted properties, Conover has already taken action with the revitalization of the Warlong building by retrofitting this old building towards modern realities and concerns. This building looks to be a new, modern center of economic activity in Conover. In my opinion this will end up being Conover's new Downtown with several new sites of Economic Commerce, like the Manufacturing Solutions Center, surrounding this building. Where the City of Hickory and its power brokers have demanded that Union Square must be Hickory's Downtown, Conover has decided to take a more realistic and open minded approach towards the realities of the future.

Stagnation through Economic Uncertainty

For most of the area, 2011 seemed to be a year of staleness. A year of going through the motions and plodding along. What most would define as being in a rut. There has to be a lot more happen than what I describe above in order to turn the local economy around. Risks are going to have to be taken in order to regain the ground that has been lost since the turn of the century. Certainly these need to be informed, educated, and calculated risks, but they most certainly will be endeavors that may create economic exposure due to the uncertainty in every aspect of modern economic realities. The deal is that we are exposed right now. We have been exposed for a decade. The problem is that many of the people in decision making positions in this community have not been pushed to make the necessary changes and seem to be waiting for something perfect to fall into their laps before a complete collapse takes place. What they can't seem to mentally grasp is that the hour has grown late and the chances of winning the lottery are slim. We have to create our future.

I have never understood why local officials want to attack national surveys that measure local economic conditions. It is like a kid that doesn't want to acknowledge their school report card. It is what it is. Man up! I especially can't understand it, because I am sure that most of these people made good grades when they were in school. These surveys are impartial statistical assessments that measure predefined categories of interest. They are created to help people, governments, and businesses understand where communities are succeeding and failing. They aren't contouring the survey to ensure our community fails. We need to face the fact that we are failing. They aren't going to change the methodology of the survey to curry favor with us. We are going to have to change our economic realities to climb the ladder of success. Communities have arisen from just as bad of circumstances as we find ourselves in today, but they had to take action to move forward.

If it were one or two surveys, then we might be able to legitimately ignore the data, but the problem is that we are at the bottom of just about every national economic survey and have been in the bottom 10% of these surveys for years. This past year we were listed as the 6th saddest metropolitan area in the United States in a Gallup-Healthway study... Forbes listed this metro as the 189th (out of 200) Best Places to do Business in the U.S.... And the Milken Group listed the Hickory Metro as the 189th (out of 200) Best performing Cities in the U.S.

Those that want to say that we are destined to plod back to economic growth can look at several cities in the Milken Survey that climbed several notches in the past year. You see 15 metro areas that have climbed at least 50 positions in 2011 and these cities aren't region specific. We all know that a lot of this is due to the problems with the manufacturing predicament we found ourselves in over the last decade, but we have failed to take action to evolve rapidly towards new economic paradigms and realities, when the writing was on the wall over a decade ago. We have faced the issues related to the uncertainty related to globalization of industry since 2001 and local officials didn't even acknowledge the problems were structural issues until 2008. We were constantly told that about the feeling that "this is gonna be our year." We needed a lot more than feelings then and we need more than feelings now. We need action.

Action speaks louder than words

I hear it constantly that we need to quit talking about issues and take action on the issues. That we need to quit talking about problems and start taking action towards solutions. I have listened to fellow participants during brainstorming meetings that I have attended say that we are just talking in circles. I understand the frustrations, but we must all understand the need for good communication in a Democracy. And what these people, who complain about the lack of action, need to realize is that in the end they are just talking also. They haven't committed to any action.

What is the desire of many of the people who create the impediments towards progress? Many of these same people who constantly complain about too much talk and too little action are the same people who are quick on the trigger telling us what we as a community cannot do. They think we can tweek around the edges and rearrange the the deck chairs on the Titanic and everything will be just fine. They like the way things used to be and think they can take us back to some mind warped nostalgic era that they have dreamed of from their youth. What they won't admit to when they talk about how great Hickory was in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is that Hickory was segregated and we aren't going back there. We have to enable ourselves to prosper under the modern realities associated with inclusiveness.

I agree that we have to take action. That action requires capital procurement. The Hickory City leadership went to Chattanooga, Tennessee in December and the leadership of Chattanooga flat out told the Hickory City leaders that they turned the city around through private contributions from businesses in the area, major individual benefactors, and public-private partnerships. Where have we seen major investments by such entities in this area?

We need leadership to have a heart-to-heart with local businessmen and tell them that they are going to have to put a little extra skin in the game, if they want to stop the implosion of this community. I can hear the vast majority of those businessmen saying, "How dare you. I do enough. I pay taxes, hire people, and work hard." Folks, we are in a hole and we are going to have to do some extraordinary things to get out of that hole. We don't need local elected officials to act as enablers for a certain segment of the business population who only want leadership to support their narrow personal interests and fail to take responsibility to ensure the vitality of this community's ecosystem. In the long run, if this community fails so will the long term viability of their business within the community.

We have to start looking at the big picture. I look to initiatives like Hickory By Choice 2030. The problem is that while the document serves a purpose, it doesn't create a mechanism to help institute an agenda big enough or specific enough to have meaning. Look what China does. They create very specific plans that have forward visions of 50 to 100 years. That doesn't mean that they are going to achieve 100% of those particular objectives. It means that they are forcing themselves to have a vision of the future through an implemented structural process. It is easier to set goals and tweak them than to try and piecemeal a future together haphazardly. Look at the way Hickory is laid out. Look at its old manufacturing structures. Hickory has not been strategically designed. It is a mess the way that Hickory has been laid out and there are people who want to keep moving forward in such a fashion. That is unreasonable. As we heard at the entrepreneurial summit a few weeks ago, there has never been a normal. We have to create the future. If we do not create the future, it will be created for us by external forces. We have so much to gain by joining together in a process of structured goals and development. Sure, these plans should be able to be reassessed, but to not have plans is to set yourself up to have others determine your future!

We need leaders who know how to lead

One of the biggest issues that we face in this community is the loss of confidence. Where does that come from? I believe that it comes from the lack of leadership in this community and the lack of vision. Some think that it is the duty of citizens to ask local leadership what they can do to help. I think that local leadership ought to be able to convey a vision to citizens and tell them how they can help implement that vision. That would create confidence.

Think about being on a battlefield. You don't have the Sergeant telling the Corporals and Privates that it is their duty to figure out how to implement the plan of attack. The Sergeant is handed a battle plan and he informs the soldiers of what is expected of them. If anything goes wrong, then the highest ranking officer improvises tactics and communicates the plan to the soldiers. If the Sergeant cannot fulfill this important obligation, then he is removed and the next highest ranking officer makes the decisions.

As citizens of this community our input should be expected and appreciated, but in the end we must understand that elected leaders will be the decision makers. If they abdicate their responsibility, then it is incumbent upon the citizens to remove those who are not fulfilling their responsibility. Our elected leaders are paid a salary, benefits, and receive perks, privileges, and stature that regular citizens are not afforded. I have heard these benefits of office belittled many times as a stipend. These elected officials should realize that we have citizens in this community that are living on less than what this compensation affords. Many of our local citizens are doing without health insurance in these times. No, these elected officials are handsomely rewarded and if they don't think the job is worth their time, then they should step aside for someone who appreciates what is mentioned above.

Think about the issue of creating an economic entertainment dynamic within our community. As an example of the juxtaposition that those associated with the Hickory Hound find themselves in versus Hickory City Officials. We have talked about an amphitheater that would accommodate 3,000 people minimum with the possibility of 5,000. We believe this could bring value by bringing people from other communities into our area to attend concerts and spend money while visiting the area. Instead, the City decides to put up a tent on Union Square as a multi-purpose facility for the farmer's market and they say it can be used as an amphitheater. It is all about semantics. Mayor Wright says on the radio that he understands that some people in the community want a 5,000 seat amphitheater... well if he had his wish we would have a 17,500 seat arena for sports. You see the difference is that we aren't touting this idea, because we want a personal amusement. We are talking about an economic driver, while the Mayor is belittling our idea by personalizing it around himself.

If community leaders would get behind an effort such as Visionaire Jets and help them get Financing by whatever means and tie the economic incentives that we see being offered to other outside entities to job creation by Visionaire in our area, then you would see immediate excitement take root. I believe if we saw a Microlending function as an economic incentives package tied to paybacks and clawbacks, then we would see entrepreneurial development in our area.

Burke County, with an “entrepreneurial certified” effort, now has $378,000 of microlending in place with over 14 clients. This started several years ago with a very successful effort in Valdese led by their City Manager, Jeff Morse. The initial funding was from “One North Carolina”. This program was so effective that it was followed by a roll out to the entire county with additional funding from the "Gold Leaf Foundation" fund. The same mechanism and board that had learned in Valdese was left in place for the county wide effort.

We need to lose the egos. We need for local leaders to stop looking to themselves as politicians first. We don't need this "Bring it to me mentality," that breeds a sense of entitlement that everything has to be filtered through some absurd closed and arbitrary system. Leaders should not be waiting for ideas to be brought to them. They should be actively seeking ideas and fleshing them out. And decisions should not be manipulated to fit personal agendas. This is America, we don't need or deserve a King.

People are looking for signs of hope that the area is turning around and I think if we did have some local initiatives instituted by the people we elect and brought to fruition, then you would start seeing excitement build up and people in the community talking about how we are turning it around. If economic optimism were achievable through political platitudes and propaganda, then we would already have achieved it.

Its time to get Real

In hearing this week that we were the eighth worst metropolitan area to find a job, we found a local media that was trying to find a way to not be so negative about the circumstance. The message from the media is that we are going to take this bad news and turn it around. The unfortunate reality is that we have already been down this path umpteen times over the last several years. As I pointed out previously, we have bounced around the dregs of these surveys for the better part of a decade. Until 2008 no one admitted that we had structural issues, and since admitting that we do have structural issues it has been a constant drumbeat that we are going to turn it around. What makes you think that this is the time when we have bottomed out and are going to start addressing the issues that will start us towards turning the situation around?

When looking at that U.S. News and World Reports survey, the reporter states that the problems with the California cities that make up much of that bottom 10 list are related to the Real Estate bust and its lingering Depression. Our local officials and media have glommed onto this factoid and stated that our problem has nothing to do with the Real Estate Depression. I think they are missing something here also. Yes, our property values did not spike the way that they did in California, Florida, or Nevada; but haven't you seen the same issues they face with houses for sale and/or that have been foreclosed upon in this area. Have you seen the statistics related to people being underwater on their mortgages. This means that residential homes in our community are overvalued. This makes it easier for those who are deeply in the hole to walk away from their home. It also means that it is harder for those who don't want to take the hit on their credit to leave the community to seek employment elsewhere. And most all of us know people who are paying two mortgages. Eventually, if the economic momentum is not turned around, you will see housing prices and property values fall drastically in our area. What does that portend for those who have built significant equity in their property?

One problem that many of us see is that we have a local media that has been quick on the trigger to blame Washington and Raleigh, but refuse to make critical comments about what is happening here in this area. Many of us ascertain that this is because no one in Raleigh or Washington is listening to/reading what they have to say, but they will be getting a phone call or the cold shoulder if they ask questions deemed to be hostile towards community leaders. So what we have seen is that they basically hand the local leaders the microphone and let them have an open platform to direct their own interview or in the case of the print media submit whatever material they want unfettered.

Several Million dollars have been spent to compensate local leaders over the past decade. Criticism is naturally a part of accepting a public position. Think about a Professional Football team. You have a coach and a quarterback. If you have a terrible record, 4-12 or worse for several years, how long do they keep their positions? Does the media go around talking about how they are doing the best they can? Most of you have seen what happens. Do you keep doling out millions of dollars in compensation waiting for circumstances to change or do you aggressively demand accountability or seek to change circumstances. Who is in charge? The players or the owners?

In Conclusion

The things that are said on this blog are not presented lightly. I don't take joy in bluntly communicating this message to you. We are in a dead serious situation in dead serious times. The time is long past due for a put up or shut up agenda. It is time for accountability. The theme of 2012 is that we need to implement strategies that promote and exhibit decisive meaningful action... not padding your buddy's pocket... not moving forward your personal agenda... not making decisions based upon personal whims and fancies... Community First! We need to see actions this year that aren't related to low hanging fruit. We need some of that beautiful fruit that we have to climb the tree to obtain.

How long are we supposed to be patient? How long are we supposed to wait?

May God Bless this Community in the Upcoming Year!

The Corporate Media and the Control of Information - Silence DoGood

“What is to be done?” If you’ve read any amount of political or social science material, you’ve no doubt run across those words. Vladimir Lenin began a treatise with them long before the October Revolution in order to solidify the party core to foment revolution. Nah, I’m not advocating a revolution, I think it’s on its way without my words, pro or con. But that is for the individual him or herself to decide based on what they know, what they see, and in the end, what they believe.

Many have talked about the quality of information we receive today. How it is rife and loaded with political correctness, how it is slanted and skewed to portray and lead one to draw a particular conclusion, a desirable opinion, a favorable point of view, all for the favor or benefit of the one who is providing that information or favored by them. News and information is loaded with bias and it is very difficult today to find just the facts of any situation, regardless of your personal bias, as to what the truth is. But we are inundated with news carrying a particular message, from a specific perspective, that seeks to match our own view of the world. So habitually sourcing one source for information can lend itself to a rather obtuse, irrelevant, and narrow point of view of the world, regardless of what side of the fence you happen to reside on. Fox, MSNBC, CNN, and all of the main stream networks are slaves to advertising and the dollars that are invested in them. Each of those has their own particular view to push and want you, the viewer to embrace it as well. The print media is no different. Sure the press is free. They are free to tell us about or more importantly, not tell us about, what they see fit to edit in or out of their particular medium, be it print or broadcast. And if the editor or publisher, or the director or producer is a bit too zealous with providing that information, those advertising dollars dry up.

The control of information in order to dominate is contrary to our society and any freedom you may hope to salvage in the ensuing years. But that is exactly what is happening in the United States of today. Information and situations are controlled, spun, told in half-truth, double speak, and contra-indicated in order to confuse, befuddle, twist, and in the end, influence. But that is not their job, nor, in the sense of what the framers of the Constitution had in mind with the 1st amendment, their purpose. The empowerment of the media via the Constitution was meant to allow the media to be the watchdogs of government and to inform the people of what was going on. To keep the people informed of the facts of what government is doing, going to do, or has done. The purpose of that is so that the people can make informed decisions regarding their representatives and know how they are being represented. That isn’t happening today nor has it for quite some time. From the original intent to the current end product seems to have undergone its metamorphosis shortly after the beginnings of the industrial revolution in the late 1800’s. The publishers and owners saw the kind of empire to be made with railroads, coal, steel, and all the trappings of a modern industrial society and decided that they too could apply those principles to their particular vocation and thus grow and prosper much to the detriment of the truth, the facts, or what is truly going on at any one particular point in time.

Does that mean that anything and everything should be made public? Certainly not, at least not in such a timely fashion that it would aid an enemy or thwart a truly favorable outcome for the United States. But the truth of the Kennedy assassination, the Martin Luther King assassination, Area 51, and any other governmental action or investigation that has taken place and for which the statute of limitations has expired, should be made public and not redacted. The truth, the cold hard facts of the issue is what is at stake and what the people deserve. It is often said that the people are stupid, the person is smart. In that regard, we are informing persons, not people. And if you care to notice, all of the major politicians are quite quick to foment what it is the “American People” want, expect, demand, deserve, or are looking for. Notice how often they use that word ‘people’, now that you know the context within which it is being used, since I just provided you a common maxim among those in politics and political science. And reports should not be sensationalized for the sake of entertainment. The news is not nor should it be entertaining. If you want to be entertained, watch “Survivor” or any of those shows of the same mindless ilk. News is, after all, news. Right or wrong, good or bad, mundane or sensational, it should be reported without colorful prose, fanciful words, or what anyone associated with the broadcasting of the story thinks. We don’t need to be told what we just saw in that regard. We just saw it, let it sink in. No one needs to be nostalgic about a State of the Union address or Presidential candidate debate that just ended. In the same regard, keep your so-called experts and send them packing. Apparently media outlets think that lending the word ‘expert’ to any number of commentators appearing ex post facto of a story to, again, tell us what we just saw and interpret what you just saw is somehow, empowering. No it isn’t. They are trying to influence and tell you what it is you need to think about what you just saw.

On the local level, politicians should not be allowed to enter into closed session to discuss anything other than those things which are strictly limited to closed session. And legal counsel should offer that advice as a matter of course prior to the closed session as a means of due diligence and as a precautionary measure to their client bodies’ politic. Local politicians should not be allowed to continue a policy or practice that is known to be wrong or illegal, despite what the historical premise is behind it.

And yet, knowing with relative certainty that there are those that read this blog with regularity that can bring that sort of information to the fore, refuse to do so, opting instead to be a member of the status quo and the laissez faire attitudes that comprise the conditions under which the vast majority of us now reside. On the basis of profit and as a wage slave, those same people have elected to succumb rather than do what is right.

You, me, us need quality information and all of the information concerning any issue in order to make a valid decision. The quantifiability of the decision is to the individual but the information should not influence the decision rendered. It needs to be whole, complete, unabridged, and factual in its entirety. We should expect and demand no less of the press and of government. Everywhere we look it has gotten to the point that the trust of either is dismal. It’s time we held both to a higher standard for the sake of all.