blockhead's Blog

The future of Social Security is a dead end and United States Government has mismanaged Social Security to the point of absurdity. If you are within 23 years of retirement you can forget Social Security because you are not going to get a penny unless the entire system is fixed and it would have to be fixed quickly due to this ever increasing dead-end street.

The politicians are so busy pandering to special interest groups and retired folks that they are afraid they will lose favor and not be reelected if they say one word against Social Security. The biggest point made by the outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan before leaving his post for retirement was; we need to do something right now about Social Security. And the President of the United States set forth a plan to fix Social Security, but it never got off the ground because too many politicians were to afraid to address the issue.

But this is nothing new and Washington D.C. as we also see the legal immigration issue where lawmakers are so afraid to touch a hot potato that they go on vacation without producing a single relevant new policy to fix United States of America?s illegal immigration problem. But it is not just now, for the last three decades nothing significant has been done with the legal immigration and the problem now is so severe that it is impossible for us even to enforce our current laws and deport the over 24 million illegal aliens currently our country.

If our elected representatives and United States Senate and United States Congress cannot come to terms with enforcing our laws and serving the we all of the American people then they are no longer needed in all should be voted out of office as soon as possible and that my friends would be the best for all concerned. That goes for illegal immigration, social security and any other pressing issue of our present period, because if we do not fix such things there will be no worthy future period in the US for our children. Please consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

In the last 2 weeks, there have been a number of reports, articles and interviews in the Asian Media about the creation of Asian currency unit (ACU), a single Asian currency. By going through these articles, I could understand one thing that ACU will not take place anytime soon, not even in the next 5 years- the earliest time I see is 2015. ASEAN+3 group of countries are behind the idea of ACU and soon these countries are going to start a research project about ACU.

Well, I am not in favor of calling it as 'Asian Currency Unit' as it is mainly limited to some East Asian countries and all the countries of South Asia, Central Asia, Middle East and West Asia are left out in it. However, the same goes for Euro too as most of the European countries are still not included.

Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and China belong to ASEAN+3. I do not know why they are leaving the rest of Asia behind. No doubt, that Japan. Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have the best economies in Asia and China is now a huge economic giant. So, this may be one reason of leaving alone the rest of Asia as most of the countries in the rest of Asia do not have modern economic system. Well, on the other hand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia have weak economies.

The road to ACU will be surely of an economic reforms and adjustment for these 13 countries. The European countries who took the initiative of forming a single currency (Euro) had more or less similar backgrounds- they were rich industrial countries that followed free market economic system. On the other hand, in AEAN+3 group of countries, Japan and Korea are rich industrial countries. Malaysia can be included in this category and even now China is here. But courtiers like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have hardly any significant industry and they have still agriculture based economy. The economic prosperity of Brunei is based on its selling of gas to Japan.

More than economic diversity, political diversity is the major cause of concern. During the Second World War, Japan occupied many of the countries in this region and war time memories still create very bitter passion in China and Korea about Japanese occupation during the Second World War. So, I really like to see how these countries can adjust to a common currency. And, I also like to observe the political leaders and common people about the tough adjustments they have to make for ACU. Especially, the tragic memories the 1997 financial crisis are still fresh in the mind of the people.

It seems that too much expectation is in the air among ASEAN+3 countries about ACU. However, the ground reality is completely different and there is hardly anything now to feel optimistic about the creation of ACU in near future.

Related Article
http://www.southasiabiz.com/
2006/05/asian_currency_unit_acu_what_a.html

Razib Ahmed is a professional blogger and freelance writer. He mainly writes on Asian economy. You can read his articles in the website http://www.southasiabiz.com/

Some believe if the American Consumer stops spending money that the American Economy will collapse. This line of reasoning is utter hokum indeed. We can self sustain if we would slow the monetary outflows from our nation to foreign lands which do not reciprocate in kind and buy our goods.

For instance we have nations like Mexico who charge me 50% import taxes on the equipment I sell there, yet they have no taxes on products coming this way, while we put factories there and hire them and pump money into their economy. Additionally each week billions are sent back to families of workers who are hear both legally and illegally. If our money circulates within our borders or flows out and comes back and circulates around the world, we will be fine. But the issues of trade deficits with Mexico is only part of the over all widespread problem. Indeed we have such issues in Middle East (oil) although to their credit they do reciprocate more than the Chinese and just think how much.

Recently in an intellectual conversation a gentleman stated: ?Americans are the consumers of the world we buy more we waste more we are addicted to this kind of stupid behavior, but there will be a time when they just won't do it anymore.?

Indeed but this does not mean that it will collapse our economy. And as far as America Consumers and their obvious consumerism; I would like to point out that Americans are great people. They have strong genes and are a cut above the rest of the world. I know I have traveled it. Additionally our national psyche is strong in that people believe and often live without limits. Our economy is much stronger than you might think and so in 2006 please consider this.

Lance Winslow

Politicians create catchy names and word pictures to undermine economic ideas they dislike.

Jesse Jackson disliked ?Reaganomics.? Ross Perot described the relocation of jobs to Mexico as ?the giant sucking sound.?

America?s insane spending policies of both major political parties have been renamed by me as ?Newmanomics? in honor of ?Mad Magazine? way too cool cover guy Alfred E. Newman.

His mantra: ?what, me worry??

Not only do many American people, companies, and government officials spend like drunken sailors, some blame ?foreigners? for our plight.

Having some alcoholic relatives, I understand how denial works. Denial is simply self-deception.

Can?t we blame China? After all, they consume 382 million tons of grain compared to 278 million tons in America annually. China uses twice as much steel as we do. China uses 800 million tons of coal to our 574 million tons annually. China oil imports are up 34%.

Since China has 1.3 billion people, and we have about 300 million, China consumes less on a per person basis than us. Moreover, China is rapidly transforming itself into a modern superpower. We can?t blame China for our woes.

Our problem is not China, India, Japan, South Korea or any Asian bogeyman.

As Pogo says, ?we have met the enemy, and he is us.? The USA is not a victim of anything or anyone external.

We?ve bought Washington's ?Newmanomics? bunk hook, line and sinker.

Therefore, ?what, me worry?? is our vote-producing, bipartisan, nonsensical consensus economic philosophy.

You see, as disciples of ?Newmanomics,? we can always print more money, sell more debt to Asian nations and banks, increase taxes on the ?rich? (anyone making a dollar a year more than we do), and give tax breaks to industries contributing to last year's elections.

Excessive debt?public and private--is weakening the US Dollar and the American economy.

US Government debt stands at $ 8.00 trillion, which increases a mere $1.76 billion daily. That works out to $26,222 of federal government debt per American man, woman and child.

At least $2.0 trillion of our U.S. government debt is held by persons and institutions in other countries.

If they begin to perceive the US Dollar as weakened, they can refuse of buy more US debt instruments and/or demand higher rates of return, possibly setting off a spiral of inflation here at home.

American corporate debt increased by $1.0 trillion in the last five years to $5.2 trillion.

$453 billion of Ford and General Motors corporate bonds (a form of debt)have been downgraded as ?junk bonds.? Their value is likely to erode speedily and sink like a heavy rock.

This $453 billion is 15 times more than the bonds involved in the WorldCom meltdown.

Personal household debt averages $101,445 per American family.

Finally, these debts do not include those of states and municipalities, underfunded private pensions, government pensions, and totally unquantified, underfunded, almost eternal liabilities of Social Security and Medicare.

Americans have always risen to the challenge and found new ways to make more money as circumstances change and new opportunities arise.

Alfred E. Newman is right. Worry is useless. In a shaky economy, build your own business and manage your own money.

John J. Alquist is a professional speaker, author and business consultant. He is a strong champion of almost universal self-employment. He and his wife own and operate Alquist Enterprises. Visit his website at: http://www.tell-it-well.com

One thing is certain if you look at the illegal immigration and undocumented worker problems in America there is a bright side. Indeed, that is that we must be doing something right, otherwise everyone would not be coming here in the first place to either live or work. Additionally is speaks also to our economy as unemployment is so low many businesses scramble to get more labor anyway they can.

Without judging that issue, let?s just say it is a tribute to all we are and all we have built that people are coming here in the first place you see my point? Now then, I would like to make another observation of sorts and that is that many of America?s downtown districts are run down and in a state of disrepair.

Many cities have given up as businesses have moved out, fewer jobs, less tax revenue to keep up city services and thus we have some crime and drug issues that we must address. We must take note of this now, as the economy is strong and robust and rebuild our inner cities and small town downtown areas while we have the funding available and the businesses looking to expand more outlets and grow their businesses. Now then here is a quick thought for you today in my;

Accelerating Abandoned Down Town Rebuilding in America Plan

Let us allow some of the illegal aliens to accelerate their path to citizenship by helping us rebuild our downtowns and then maybe they will consider who this is done and pass the word on and the know how for those back home in their nations so they can rebuild their towns too.

We would be doing everyone a favor and also as local volunteers joined; undocumented workers in a common cause they would indeed feel some camaraderie after doing so and it would help blend cultures and dismiss some of the unhealthy racial issues which unfortunately are there whether we address them or not. Just because everyone is PC does not mean their thoughts are as genuine, after all they are humans you know. And humans have always been able to unite in a common cause. So, consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow