By Les Dunaway
With our non-royalty political structure, the term sovereign is not a household word. It is one with which we need to become familiar. The term refers to governments, as in sovereign debt, sovereign default, sovereign bankruptcy and (less frequently) sovereign fiscal responsibility. The following press release tells of an important scholarly work on understanding this critical set of issues:
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the … Read more...
Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
Recently, while watching the political process (democracy) play out in Wisconsin, my mind recalled the words of an ancient king who was in the process of turning his kingdom over to a government ruled ‘by the voice of the people.’
This king’s words pertinent to what is happening in Wisconsin, and to a lesser extent here in Georgia and even here in Cherokee County read: … Read more...
By J. Randolph Evans
What is this all about – really? That has to be the question that many Americans are asking after the United States led military strikes into Libya in a civil war. No one, especially those in the Obama Administration, seems to have a credible answer to that question. Here is the scorecard so far.
Is it about weapons of mass destruction? Nope. There is not even … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
In “The States – America’s PIIGS? ” we talked about the debt / spending problems that various US states and cities face. An insightful look at the underlying cause is found in “What’s Your State’s Deadweight Ratio?” by William Baldwin in the Mar 16, 2011 Forbes.
Mr Baldwin writes
“The structural problem is that government has too many mouths to feed. It’s possible to … Read more...
By John Douglas
Surveying the world situation at this writing, the attacks on Libya are continuing while Japan lurches from telling us that its nuclear power plants are being brought under control to telling us there are new or growing problems. In the Middle East, neighboring countries have sent troops into Bahrain (home of the US 5th Fleet) to save that government from its own people, the US budget deficit … Read more...
NOTE: This Observation Column was published March 17 in the Cherokee Tribune and I received two call that day from ex-service men who were serving in Japan at the same time, one on my base at Matsushima, Japan.
Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
Anyone watching the aftermath of the 9.0 earthquake, followed by many lesser earthquakes, and the 33 foot high tsunami that hit northern Japan last week had to … Read more...
By J. Randolph Evans
Option 1: Do nothing until there is a complete crisis requiring
Draconian measures that include either scrapping the program altogether
or dramatically raising taxes only to delay the next crisis. Of course,
this could easily describe Social Security in the United States. (The
actual name of the program is the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability
Insurance [OASDI program]).
By Les Dunaway
Have you ever had storm damage to your house? If so, your homeowners insurance probably covered most of it but some of it came out of your pocket (or your plastic 😉 What if the plastic was maxed-out? Wow! Maybe that blue tarp needs to stay on the roof for a while? Well, Japan just had some damage and their plastic is waaaaay maxed-out. What does their … Read more...
By J. Randolph Evans
Just 176,627 Georgians elected Justice David Nahmias to the Georgia Supreme Court for a full six-year term. The end result is not so surprising given that he was one of the most qualified candidates for the court in the history of Georgia. Indeed, most lawyers would agree that he is qualified for the United States Supreme Court. His credentials were so impressive that he appeared to … Read more...
Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
Apparently I was born in the wrong generation because I find it hard to comprehend and fully use the internet technology (IT) available today. Yes, I have a computer, and yes, I use the internet, but when my computer goes down, as they all do, I have to turn to a younger generation to restore my computer.
My difficulties today with today’s IT technology, I … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
This week’s column is a commentary, with references, on the “chalk talk” that Paul Ryan (R-WI) Chairman House Budget Committee has been presenting to House Republicans to reach a clear understanding of the crisis our country faces. The presentation does not propose solutions, it is only intended to reach understanding of the problem. Below is the description of the sessions from Politico – Mar 6, 2011, pasted … Read more...
by Les Dunaway
World markets took a hit today with Moody’s downgrade of Spain’s credit rating. This cut followed similar cuts of Greece (on Monday “to B1 from Ba1 with a negative outlook”) and Turkey(last May). The “negative outlook” comment means “we think it will go down more”.
The usual comments came from came from the people responsible for the problems in Greece, … Read more...