Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Tuesday's Treat

I’m really beginning to wonder about C-SPAN. One of Washington Journal’s first guests today was Nomi Prins, a former managing director of Goldman Sachs, brought on to discuss the appointment of Henry Paulson as Treasury Secretary. Mr. Paulson begins his Senate confirmation hearings today. Here’s Ms. Prins on Paulson’s appointment:

What first struck me upon news of Paulson's possible appointment was that he's too smart to take on this task, with Bush's approval ratings for his economic policies hovering around 40 percent. Then, I got it. Paulson is Bush's last hurrah--and his last chance. Known as a pragmatic and decisive leader, Paulson will likely be more proactive than Snow, whose sole job essentially was traipsing up to Congress once a year and urging lawmakers to raise the US debt cap by another trillion dollars so we wouldn't default on our interest payments to China.

Bush's economic legacy is a weak dollar (who wants to invest in a country teetering on the brink of default?) and tax cuts for the super-wealthy that have created an outrageous deficit and debt. And that legacy benefits men like Paulson at the expense of middle-class Americans and the working poor. It will be a stretch for him to argue for prudent budgeting, while facing the country's highest national debt ever, without cutting social programs to get there.

Wanna guess where that screed appeared? It’s an excerpt from an editorial in The Nation magazine. Young Ms. Prins has been pontificating on the idiocy of the President’s economic policies for the better part of half an hour as I write and the callers on WJ’s “Democrats” line have been falling all over themselves ooh-ing and ah-ing over this woman’s opinions. I’ll be interested in seeing if WJ’s next guest presents the conservative point of view. (Whoops! Guess not. The next guest is Senator Orrin Hatch, but he’s on to defend and discuss the proposed constitutional amendment to prevent flag desecration , not to discuss Mr. Paulson’s nomination.)

One guest on one program, however, is not indicative of editorial bias. I honestly don’t know what Brian Lamb’s (CEO of and founder of C-SPAN) politics are, and Mr. Lamb takes great pains to keep his personal views hidden. But, as I said upon opening this can of worms, I’m beginning to wonder. Just scan this past weekend’s C-SPAN2 (Book TV) schedule and tell me there’s “balance” in the points of views being broadcast. Yes, there are programs on conservative topics, but to my way of thinking, the liberal POV is over-represented. And I say this as someone who watched about half of this weekend’s offered fare.

The world’s most expensive cities…Mercer Human Resources has released the 2006 edition of its annual “Most Expensive Cities List.” Tops on the list? Moscow. Yep, that Moscow.

Moscow has replaced Tokyo as the world's most expensive city, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the global leader for HR and related financial advice. Seoul is in second place, climbing three places since last year. Tokyo moves down two positions in the rankings to take third place, followed by Hong Kong. Asuncion in Paraguay remains the least expensive city in the survey.

New York remains the most expensive city in North America and climbs three places to 10th position (score 100). Currency appreciation is the main reason for this, although price increases in fuel and certain consumer goods have also contributed to New York's rise in the rankings. Other high-ranking cities include Los Angeles in position 29 (86.7), San Francisco in 34th place (85) and Chicago in 38th position (84.1). Washington DC takes 83rd place (77). Winston Salem is the cheapest US city surveyed, ranked 124th (66.7).

The news release is here, download a list of the Top 50 here (pdf file). Did you catch the reason why New York is more expensive this year? “Currency appreciation,” or code for “good economy.” Imagine that, Ms. Prins.

Sexist automotive commentary? One would think so, simply by reading the title to this op-ed in the WSJ: Why the New Camaro Will Fail; The war on macho takes its toll.” (Read it quick, it’s old and on it’s way off the “free” pages!) There are pieces and parts of this article that bemoan the loss of automotive “testosterone,” but there’s also a lot more. Excerpt:

Unlike the Mustang--which has always managed to appeal to a broad base of buyers ranging from young women to old men and everyone in between--the Camaro is and always has been a strutting muscle machine. A car for drive-throughs, Friday night cruising, and teenage boys.

That works fine when it's 1969--and young, single guys can still afford to buy (and insure) such a car. It doesn't work so well in today's hamstrung, hyper-regulated and cost-inflated world. Part of what killed the latter-day GTO was its $30k price point. The young (under 30) guys who might want such a car couldn't afford it--and the older guys who could had grown up. They wanted something less goofy. So did their wives. The same problem will surely beset the coming Camaro--unless GM, by some miracle of Enron-esque accounting, figures out a way to sell the thing for less than $25,000.

Allow me a personal observation. SN2 has a vintage Camaro. It’s his Hobby Car and is truly a fire-breathing, testosterone-infused, great beast of an asphalt-ripper, what with its GM crate-motor that puts out 450+ horsepower, plus other after-market mods. I also have a 16 year-old granddaughter who is running SN2 hard to let her make that Camaro her “daily driver.” My granddaughter Amanda, while not exactly a “girly-girl,” isn’t butch, either. She’s pretty much your average 16 year-old young lady. And she wants SN2’s Camaro, and wants it badly. I don’t think that will happen, as SN2 won’t turn a relatively inexperienced young driver loose on the highways with that much brute-force power. A likely alternative is Amanda will get a more modestly-powered used Camaro with, say, a V-6. But the point remains: I know of at least one young lady that would probably buy that new Camaro (could she afford it), in a heartbeat. Hell, I wouldn’t mind driving one, either!

8 comments:

  1. I mentioned Toby's 74 cream colored Camaro on today's blog. It was soooo nice - one of the reasons I married him :) Before the Camaro, he had a RoadRunner that got him into lots of trouble. Our daughter wanted a car with lots of power, but she also wanted good gas milage since she has to buy her own gas. Her Scion TC was a good choice.

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  2. I was just over at your place, Lou.

    HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

    29 years is quite an accomplishment, and I envy you. I use the word "envy" in its most positive aspect...

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  3. Cars never impressed me much. Usually the guys with the nicest cars were the biggest jerks. Around here anyway. My ex had a Trans Am before I met him, then when we were married, he bought it back from the person he had sold it to. More than half the time it didn't run, but for awhile there I was driving it. It was okay. But it was also a bit of a thorn in the side, because it got priority seating in the garage even when the thing wasn't running for years, when I could have been using the garage. On days when there was a foot of snow I had to clean off my car, it was a real sore spot. Of course, now I have a better handle on the psychology thing and know that guys and their toys is sort of like women and their skinny clothes from years past.... they hang on to them and think "some day again" or it's somehow a momento of the past.

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  4. Hello Buck and all,

    You may not initially agree with everything I reveal, but please be a little patient with my long-winded presentation of what I have waited a very long time to be able to say. I promise to amaze and enlighten.

    Now for the worst part of this horrendous equation.

    Bush, Cheney, and the NeoCons are Vatican operatives hell bent on impoverishing and indebting the USA. Looks like their plans have worked like a charm while the brain-dead American public remains deluded and addicted to money, religion, and politics. Who says you can't fool most of the people, most of the time...

    Pay close attention, profundity knocks at the door, listen for the key. Be Aware! Scoffing causes blindness...

    Humanity has long been deceived and deluded into thinking that money is a positive means to manage life, societies and civilizations. Chapter 2 of Revelations from the Apocalypse, Volume 1: Here is Wisdom thoroughly exposes the foundational deceptions associated with the concept of money and how it is actually a severe hardship on every aspect of life and every endeavor that must bear the burden of its unnecessary overhead and resulting stifling complexity. Money severely impedes the quality of life, society, and civilization by spawning myriad horrendous side effects (poverty, crime, wars, pollution, waste, greed, stress, etc.) which are all traced directly to its presence, purposeful shortage, and imposed requirement.

    Here's a real hot potato! Eat it up, digest it, and then feed it's bones to the hungry...

    Money was conceived millennia ago by the priesthood of ancient Babylon to subvert the resources and energies of entire populations for the benefit of a rich and powerful few. Chapter 2 further pierces the ages-old smoke and mirrors surrounding the scourge of money, banking and credit (usury) by exposing their core logic and common denominator math. It exposes the purposeful and well-sculpted math and logic trap imposed upon humanity by the Vatican, its ancient predecessors, and their secret-society cohorts.

    It is abundantly clear that imposing money upon the entire world and then forcing people to participate in usury, pay taxes, compounding interest on national debts, and then to struggle their lives away for the sake of money, is extortion and great injustice on a grand scale. To cause suffering and despair for profit on such a grand scale can only be described as abominably evil. The time has finally arrived to demand a full accounting from the Papacy, Vatican, and all of their cohorts and chief supporters. They have no right to cause such overwhelming despair and suffering for millennia. They have no right to deceive practically everyone on such a grand scale. Why do our national leaders conspire with them and participate in such great evil while pretending to serve the Creator? Why do people still have blind faith in such obvious deceivers and their deceptions while they continue perpetrating such widespread and horrendous evil and abominations?

    The time has come to wake-up and prove to these duplicitous scoundrels that you are only temporary marks and dupes.

    Money: The Greatest Lie Ever Told

    Peace...

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  5. Bush, Cheney, and the NeoCons are Vatican operatives hell bent on impoverishing and indebting the USA.

    Wrong. I have it on absolute authority they're all Jewish operatives, in thrall to Tel Aviv and the international Zionist conspiracy. Unless, of course, the Pope is part of it, too.

    Very well written, though.

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  6. Laurie sez: ...because it got priority seating in the garage even when the thing wasn't running for years, when I could have been using the garage. On days when there was a foot of snow I had to clean off my car, it was a real sore spot.

    Grounds for divorce right there, pure, simple, and non-negotiable. Even as an admitted gear-head, I can see your point. You know how I feel about snow!

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  7. Heehee, well there was also other emotional baggage that came along with that car, that I won't go into in detail here. Suffice it to say, it represented a whole other past to him, including other people.

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  8. Oh, and.... the Pope and Vatican? I vote with Buck, Zionist instead. And that is exactly how it should be. ;)

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.