Bad News for the Unemployed

Businesses Use of More Automation means Fewer Workers

CBS Evening News featured a news item this past week about a Georgia factory, Impulse Manufacturing, that uses robots to do much of the welding, lasers to cut through sheets of steel, and computers to track productivity. The owner, Ron Baysden, says a laser can churn out one part in 30 seconds — work that used to take 18 men and 30 minutes to complete. He went on to say “A lot of my competitors did not survive 2009. We survived because we spent a lot of money and investments in technology.”

Newsweek also had an article this week titled “Who Needs Humans?” The article offered the same message. The magazine provided these five situations that are humorous but ominous.

Librarian
A new library at the University of Chicago boasts a robotic system that can find and fetch books faster than humans can.

Bartender
Ohio’s Motoman Robotics sells a robot bartender called RoboBar that mixes drinks in less time than humans-and can crack lame jokes, too.

Taxi Driver Google has been working on a car that can drive itself, and is asking the city of Las Vegas for permission to try it out as a taxi service.

Call Girl Why hire an “escort” when you can buy Roxxxy, a sex robot by Bell Labs, who comes with lifelike skin and artificial intelligence?

Soldiers
The Pentagon is making a big push into robotic fighting systems, like the MULE, Lockheed Martin’s robotic truck that can fire missiles at an enemy.

Then there are the maquiladoras. They are the manufacturing plants in Mexico located near the United States border. They are located in many of the towns and cities from Tijuana to Reynosa and Rio Bravo. Maquiladoras are owned by U.S., Japanese, and European countries and some could be considered “sweatshops” composed of young women working for as little as 50 cents an hour, for up to ten hours a day, six days a week. Courtesy of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), taxes and custom fees are almost nonexistent, which benefit the profits of corporations.

What is even more astonishing is that the Obama administration along with Republicans is planning to pass free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. They will create jobs. The jobs happen to be in those countries, not the United States. The explanation for this is simple. Our elected officials want to be re-elected. It’s big business that give the big donations.

After the Revolution

Pat Buchanan

After the Revolution

3/11/2011 | Email Pat Buchanan Columnist’s Archive

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“Democracy … arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects,” said Aristotle.

But if the Philosopher disliked the form of government that arose out of the fallacy of human equality, the Founding Fathers detested it.

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule,” said Thomas Jefferson, “where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.” James Madison agreed, “Democracy is the most vile form of government.” Their Federalist rivals concurred.

“Democracy,” said John Adams, “never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

“You people, sir, is a great beast,” Alexander Hamilton is said to have remarked. If he did not, it was not far from his view.

Said John Winthrop, the Pilgrim father whose vision of a “city on a hall” so inspired Ronald Reagan, “A democracy is … accounted the meanest and worst form of government.”

But did not the fathers create modernity’s first democracy?

No. They created “a republic, if you can keep it,” as Ben Franklin said, when asked in Philadelphia what kind of government they had given us. A constitutional republic, to protect and defend God-given rights that antedated the establishment of that government.

We used to know that. Growing up, we daily pledged allegiance “to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,” not some democracy. As Walter Williams writes, Julia Ward Howe did not write the “Battle Hymn of the Democracy.”

Today, we are taught to worship what our fathers abhorred to such an extent that politicians and ideologues believe America was put on Earth to advance a worldwide revolution to ensure that all nations are democratic.

Only then, said George W. Bush, can America be secure.

The National Endowment for Democracy was established for this quintessentially neoconservative end and meddles endlessly in the internal affairs of nations in a fashion Americans would never tolerate.

The democratists are now celebrating the revolutions across the Islamic world in the same spirit, if in less exalted language, as William Wordsworth celebrated the French Revolution, “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/But to be young was very heaven!”

After 1789 ushered in Robespierre and Saint-Just, the Terror, the dictatorship and the Napoleonic wars, enthusiasm cooled. But with the Lenin-Trotsky revolution of 1917, Mao’s revolution of 1949, and Castro’s revolution of 1959, the exhilaration returned, only to see the bright hopes dashed again in blood and terror.

Last month, the Egyptian revolution enraptured us, with “pro-democracy” demonstrators effecting, through the agency of the Egyptian army, the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, a friend and ally for three decades.

In the exhilaration of their democratic triumph, some of the boys in Tahrir Square celebrated with serial sexual assaults on American journalist Lara Logan. A week after the triumph, returned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi addressed a crowd estimated at 1 million in Tahrir Square.

In January 2009, Qaradawi had declared that “throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the (Jews) people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. … Allah willing, the next time will be in the hand of the believers.”

“Qaradawi is very much in the mainstream of Egyptian society,” wrote the Christian Science Monitor.

In 2004, this centrist was apparently offered the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Today, we read that, liberated from Mubarak, Muslims set fire to a Christian church in Sol, south of Cairo, then attacked it with hammers.

When enraged Christians set up roadblocks in Cairo demanding the government rebuild the church, they were set upon by Muslims as soldiers stood by. Thirteen people, most of them Coptic Christians, were shot to death on Tuesday, and more than a hundred were wounded in the worst religious violence in years.

Revolutions liberate people from tyranny, but also free them up to indulge old hates, settle old scores and give vent to their passions.

What are the passions that will be unleashed by the revolution that has the Arab nation of 300 million aflame?

Surely, one is for greater freedom, good jobs and prosperity, such as the West and East Asia have been able to produce for their people.

Yet if even European nations like Greece, Ireland and Spain, which used to deliver this, no longer seem able to do so, how will these Arab nations, which have never produced freedom, prosperity or progress on a large scale, succeed in the short time they will have?

Answer: They will not. The great Arab revolution will likely fail.

And when it does, those other passions coursing through the region will rise to dominance. And what are they but ethnonationalism, tribalism and Islamic fundamentalism?

What will eventually unite this turbulent region — when its peoples fail to achieve what they are yearning for — is who and what they are all against.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls.

Riding the Boehner and Obama Roller Coaster

The New York Times is reporting that “Boehner and Obama Nearing Deal on Cuts and Taxes.” We can only hope this is accurate.

It is difficult to understand the debate in Washington over the debt ceiling. After all the debts that are being debated are those that have already been created. Congress made the commitments and now wants to renege on their promise to pay back the money owed. At the same time the country is continuing to borrow more money even though there is little chance that the nation can repay the money already borrowed. It’s mystery why anyone would continue to buy bonds and treasury notes when the country cannot live within its means. Still they do buy those bonds and at interest rates that are remarkably low.

So President Obama says he is agreeable to cutting government spending by $4 trillion over the next decade but the Republicans are saying no to that deal because they do not want to raise the debt ceiling. The president looks like the reasonable guy in the room and the Republicans look foolish. Perhaps it’s the gadfly, Grover Norquest, who has them in knots. After all he has not been elected to any office. Perhaps it was the promises of new GOP members of congress that has them tied in knots. At the end of the day those new members along with other conservative congressmen seem to prefer putting the nation’s AAA financial rating in jeopardy than living up to the government’s commitments.

In a way this foolish debate is like the scariest roller coaster I have ever ridden. Every once in a while someone does fall off. Is that what is going to happen to the United States? I am gripping the bar they bring down as I seat myself on the coaster. I am asking, why did I choose this ride? Wasn’t there another more fun thing to do in the carnival?

Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting for Muni Armageddon

From MorningstarAdvisor

by Russel Kinnel | 07-18-11

What happened to the muni catastrophe? Meredith Whitney ended 2010 scaring the daylights out of municipal-bond investors by predicting “hundreds of billions” in municipal-bond defaults in the coming year. No doubt her prediction on “60 Minutes” played a part in the net redemptions seen in municipal-bond funds for most of this year.

Yet here we are at the halfway point, and defaults are running at a trickle. Rather than the $200 billion or more of defaults Whitney predicted, we’ve had $746 million according to Income Securities Advisor. DWS estimates that, at that rate, we’ll have about $1.7 billion in defaults for the year. In fact, DWS and Income Securities Advisor’s Distressed Debt Securities newsletter say defaults have dropped significantly from the prior three years. The market peaked at about $8 billion in defaults in 2008, so this year could be one fourth of that or less.

For those scoring at home, that means we’ve only reached 1% of Whitney’s predicted default level.

You’ve no doubt read about the problems in Illinois, Florida, and California, where deficits have grown and governments have been forced to make cuts. But there are good reasons why the system is strained but not breaking. Governments can raise taxes and cut spending to get themselves out of their messes, and that’s what they are doing. Moreover, they need to come back to municipal markets to continue to borrow so they have strong incentives to treat bondholders well.

In addition, an improving economy has meant rising tax revenues. Municipalities’ tax revenues started rising in late 2010 and have continued to do so. Income tax and sales-tax revenues naturally rise as the economy improves.

This means that, if you own a well-run muni-bond fund, you’re in pretty good shape. These funds usually have bonds from a hundred or more issuers, so one default won’t have much impact. And, of course, they do thorough credit research to steer clear of most, though not all, defaults. With some munis paying better tax-free yields than many high-quality taxable bonds, this isn’t a bad time to get in. In fact, some taxable-bond managers are even buying munis because they look attractive even without the tax break factored in. That said, fewer new munis have been issued so far in 2011, so additional waves of new debt could drive prices lower in the short term.

Investors may have noticed the divergence between dire predictions and reality as muni-fund flows turned positive in June after fairly steady redemptions. The $980 million flowing into munis isn’t a huge amount but it does indicate that the fear level is dropping. I don’t expect this to turn into really big inflows soon, but it may mean a market headwind is going away.

Jokes that can be told in Church

Attending a wedding for the first time, a little

girl whispered to her mother, ‘Why is the

bride dressed in white?”The mother replied,

‘Because white is the color of happiness,

and today is the happiest day of her life..’
The child thought about this for a moment

then said, ‘So why is the groom wearing black?’
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three boys are in the school yard bragging

about their fathers. The first boy says,

‘My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece

of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50..’
The second boy says, ‘That’s nothing. My Dad

scribbles a few words on piece of paper, he calls

it a song, they give him $100.’
The third boy says, ‘I got you both beat.

My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of

paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes eight

people to collect all the money!’
~~~~~~~~~~~~

An elderly woman died last month. Having

never married , she requested no male

pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions

for her memorial service, she wrote,

‘They wouldn’t take me out while I was

alive, I don’t want them to take me

out when I’m dead.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~

A police recruit was asked during the

exam, ‘What would you do if you had

to arrest your own mother?’

He answered, ‘Call for backup.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Sunday School teacher asked her

class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus

with them to Jerusalem …

A small child replied,

‘They couldn’t get a baby-sitter. ‘
~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Sunday school teacher was discussing

the Ten Commandments with her five

and six year olds. After explaining the

commandment to

‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’

she asked, ‘Isn’t there a commandment

that teaches us how to treat our brothers

and sisters?’ Without missing a beat,

one little boy answered, ‘Thou shall not kill.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~

At Sunday School they were teaching

how God created everything, including

human beings. Little Johnny seemed

especially intent when they told him

how Eve was created out of one of

Adam’s ribs..Later in the week his

mother noticed him lying down as

though he were ill, and she said,

‘Johnny, what is the matter?’

Little Johnny responded,

‘I have pain in my side.

I think I’m going to have a wife.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two boys were walking home from

Sunday school after hearing a strong

preaching on the devil. One said to the other,

‘What do you think about all this Satan stuff?’
The other boy replied, ‘Well, you know how

Santa Claus turned out.

It’s probably just your Dad.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You don’t stop laughing because you grow old.

You grow old because you stop laughing!

Take heed and pass these along to people

who need a laugh. I thought you would enjoy this

…times are tough right now…for all of us…so

we need something to make the day a happy

place. “They” haven’t found a way to tax

you for laughing yet.

A Love Affair with Detroit

Bob Lutz, the recently retired General Motors vice chairman, has had a continuing love affair with Detroit. He recently wrote an article about America’s renewed love affair with Detroit. He contends in the Reuters column that while it’s true that Detroit’s Big Three have been afforded a “historic window of opportunity” by the tragedy of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, it is a mistake to believe Detroit’s resurgence will be reversed when Japanese car supplies build up again. He says domestic carmakers are now producing the most competitive products in their history. Japanese brands have suddenly developed “a curious inability to produce winning designs.” One reason is the Japanese yen’s new strength against the U.S. dollar, which makes Japanese cars more expensive to sell in the United States. To compete on price,Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are cutting back on features. Gone are “the Hondas that scream ‘buy me’ thanks to their lovely proportions and superb interior.”

I do wonder if he ever reads anything that is contrary to his views. My favorite car review magazine is Consumers Reports. Unlike other car magazines it takes no advertising and so can provide honest evaluations.

The entire Chrysler line was reviewed in the just published August 2011 edition of Consumers Reports. In every category from family sedans to SUVs their vehicles rated at the bottom of the scale with the exception a Chevrolet Tahoe that rated even lower. Consumers says, “Chrysler is on the right path but still has a long way to go.” This is sad when you consider that Chrysler was the originator of the minivan.

In every vehicle type American made cars rated lower than those manufactured in Japan and South Korea. One exception was the Chevrolet Traverse rating higher than a Honda Pilot.

Many foreign brands are actually assembled in the U.S.A. That includes my 2004 Toyota Camry.

Sorry Bob, you may love Detroit but my next car is not likely to be a domestic brand.

Do NOT Increase the Debt Ceiling – the Tea Party Opinion

This is the views of the Tea Party. Grover Norquist has successfully convinced many conservative congressmen to sign on to this position. My view is there needs to be a compromise.

Cut = Yes

Cap = Yes

Balance = Yes

Increase Debt Ceiling = NO!

Virtuosity

The stunning use of words that few of us understand drives me nuts! Just because you graduated from a college or university (and I did) does not give you a license to keep lording your brightness over the rest of us.

I am particularly annoyed by the people who tell me they have just read another 300 page book in the last three days or less. Then they go on to tell me they read three books a week.

I was interested in reading The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged until I found that those books each have more than 1,000 pages. I started reading David McCullough’s John Adams until I learned of the HBO mini-series. The film version might have lacked some of the descriptive detail but I most certainly learned a considerable amount about John Adams and his life.

Why must people use the word “ludicrous” when “ridiculous” or “stupid” will convey the same meaning? Another word I cannot stand is “plethora.” It sounds so scholarly, but “erudite” sounds even more scholarly than “scholarly.”

This brings me to “Virtuosity.” In this week’s Newsweek there is an article about Bernard Arnault, the owner of Christian Dior and other well known clothing brands. Robin Givhan, the author of the article, wrote: “Haute couture, the craft of handmade garments, is supposed to be the pinnacle of fashion-the concept car of the garment business. This show was meant to be an expression of a couturier’s most dazzling, singular vision-clothes as they could be. But such virtuosity was missing.

What the heck is Virtuosity? The American Heritage Dictionary definition is “1. The Technical skill, fluency, or style exhibited by a virtuoso. 2. An appreciation for or an interest in fine objects of art. Why didn’t Ms. Givhan simply say the show was disappointing or lacked the level of skill or ability she had expected? Well because “Virtuosity” says it all and besides most people don’t know the meaning of the word but recognize that it is a criticism and says it with one empathic word.

Moreover, it may make you sound smarter than the rest of us.