Hmmm…a scientifically tracked and computer predicted event that turns out not to happen at the appointed time, and certainly not to the predicted degree.
Much huffing, puffing, trauma, wall-t-wall TV coverage and then…
Nothing?
Or, at least nothing much.
Where have I heard this before?
And we are thinking, thinking….
The Hawaii Inundation Warning and tsunami alerts have been canceled.
Hilo, which was scientifically predicted to be as much as seven feet was considerably less than that “computer predicted’ number. We will await the actual MEASUREMENT.
I have previously stated that MEASURMENTS are science – computer predictions are Ouija Boards.
Case closed.
(My friends are aware of my background as a machine language programmer, head of R&D in computers at the Naval Electronics Center, Core Adjunct Prof. of Computer Science — 14 years, etc)
Yoram Bauman (PhD), “the world’s first and only stand-up economist,” will be in Minnesota next week.
His Schedule:
* Mar 02: University of South Dakota. At 8pm at the Business School Auditorium at USD. Free and open to the public!
* Mar 03: St Olaf College. At 8pm in Holland Hall room 501. Open to folks at St Olaf College and neighbor Carleton College.
* Mar 04: St. Cloud State University. Part of the Winter Institute. I’ll be speaking at 7:15pm, after dinner.
* Mar 05, 2pm: St. Croix Preparatory Academy (Stillwater MN). Open only to folks at this public charter school, and congrats to Rebecca Wahl and students for getting this gig via my free show Google map!
* Mar 05: Macalester College. I believe this is at 4:30pm in the JBD lecture hall, but check google as the date approaches for confirmation. Macalester folks only, sorry.
The retailer notified the state of Ohio that it would be terminating 314 employees as part of the closings.
Kmart to close five more Ohio stores Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:36:00 GMT
Well here’s a bad mood waiting to happen. I live in one of the toughest a sections of Cleveland, which is actually the poorest section of the entire city, and is called, the stockyards. So, when I see that Kmart is basically going to lay off most of its work force that depend on Kmart to survive, like I said, here is a bad mood just waiting to happen. I’ll say it again. Cleveland needs some sort of brokerage personality. Cleveland needs the kind of personality that can sit across the table from someone who has 30 or $40 billion and be able to schmooze that person into investing perhaps 20 or $30 million in Cleveland. Unfortunately, Cleveland doesn’t have a personality like that. I mean, there’s nobody that I know of that has that kind of moxie in Cleveland. And until Cleveland can actually draw people here to want to invest in the city, Cleveland is just not going to grow.
The reality is, which most people don’t realize is that the Maschke family and their friends, meaning, the Hana’s, and the other families who were friends of the Maschke’s, actually built most of what Cleveland was. But as generations what on and Cleveland lost a lot of its brokerage talent, Cleveland also lost personalities who could actually schmooze or represent the city of Cleveland in such a positive way as to be able to draw businesses to Cleveland.
And so for those who don’t know, Cleveland Ohio in the space of approximately 6 months saw the population drop from 1,500,000 people down to just 400,000 people. So now Cleveland is basically struggling economically so badly that it is hard for people to realize how Cleveland is suffering. For example, the residents of Cleveland have been informed that as of January 1, 2010, the city of Cleveland will begin charging approximately 9 dollars per month just to pick up our trash.
That’s how bad it’s getting.
Now, the reality also is something that someone urged me to share. When I say that Cleveland is in my blood, it’s the truth. In 1968, when I was being operated on at University hospitals of Cleveland, I began to bleed to death shortly after I was opened up on the operating table. The blood loss was so huge that I basically went through all the blood in University hospital within a matter of minutes. As a result, my family and the station manager of Channel 3, then with the call letters of KYW TV, in Cleveland, went on the air and begged people to please come to University Hospitals to rescue me and to save my life. My father was in tears as he pleaded on the air for his fellow Clevelanders, to please come and save the life of his son. The plea was broadcast over three counties.
According to my family and other people who were there at the time, the brave and wonderful people of Cleveland, rushed to the hospital. And when all was said and done, 5000 people, 5000 of my fellow Clevelanders, from 3 counties, had come to rescue me and to save my life, by giving blood so that the doctors could continue their life saving surgery on my spine, that. was taking place on September 1, 1968. And so the reality is that when I say that I have Cleveland in my blood, I’m really telling a true story of a single moment in time, from so long ago, when I literally was in the cross hairs of death, and my fellow Clevelanders, with their courageous and compassionate effort said, with their actions… NOT ON MY WATCH!
I could not love any city more than I love Cleveland Ohio. All my life I have struggled with so many different issues, both physical and psychological, that I have worked as hard as I could to try to always do something positive with m life, because I always felt that I was a burden to society as a result of my physical disabilities and then subsequently my mental disabilities. So as a result of my being in the position where I am moving towards 60 years old, and basically dealing with some rather serious and not very pleasant physical terminal disabilities, I am always prepared, at almost every given second to give up my life, in defense of various issues I have supported all through my life. Like I am prepared to die in defense of the Constitution or in defense of women’s rights or children’s rights or gay rights or equal rights for all Americans and people throughout the world. But I’m also prepared to die in any given second to help my beloved Cleveland, If I could, I would give my life to help people around the world to realize the courage and the bravery of the people who live here in Cleveland Ohio. For having lived here for over 59 years, I can tell you that not only is Cleveland, we Clevelanders love to say, , the best location in the nation, but I have always looked upon Cleveland as being what I have always called it, which is in fact, a diamond on a sea of glass.
The Terminal Tower Of Cleveland, Ohio – taken in the 1960’s from the top of the Erieview Plaza building
Now, I took this picture when Vernon Stouffer, the founder and owner of Stouffer foods, requested me to take a picture of the terminal tower for his personal office. The picture was taken in the 1960s when I was running a professional darkroom. And this is simply the proof of that picture. Meaning it was a proof shot. And a proof shot is a picture of what you are going to do for your clients. But that is taken with not the camera that you’re actually going to do the shooting with but is in fact taken by another camera simply to get your perspective to make sure that your position and other things are correct, for when you actually take the shot.
I kept this picture all these years. And like I said, it’s easy for people to discount Cleveland and to make fun of our city, But that’s because most people don’t really understand the huge courage and the unlimited kindness that are literally the hallmarks of our great city, Cleveland, Ohio. So, I must admit that I DO love the phrase, the best location in the nation. But due to a single moment in time, when I had no idea that there were any friends about, and yet they came by the thousands, for just one purpose. To save the life of an unknown fellow Clevelander, a young boy of just 17 years of age, who lay dying on an operating table, and who desperately needed their help. And as I said, their courage has lived in my heart all these years. So, on that account, in my heart, Cleveland has always truly been, for me, … a diamond on a sea of glass.
Economic Fact Sheet (Current as of Jan. 2010)
1. The United States currently has a national debt in excess of $12 trillion.
2. The interest on the national debt is now in excess of $11 trillion.
3. The operating budget for the United States government is now in excess of $43 trillion.
4. The members of the United States Congress stole $200 million from the Medicare fund, which was going to go for cost-of-living increases to Medicare recipients, so that the members of Congress could have their paper medical records converted to computerized medical records. The attitude by the members of Congress was that they didn’t care if they murdered American citizens as long as they get the medical protection they wanted.
5. The Christian conservatives and the Republican Party are taking the stand that they do not want American citizens to have any kind of healthcare the of healthcare is extended to anyone that the Christian conservatives or the Republican Party does not like. And this is based not on constitutional law or the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party being patriots. It’s based upon the Christian conservatives Republican Party demanding that the American government understand that no Christian conservative or Republican Party member will in any way ever support the US Constitution above their Christian religion and above their Christian Bible. And so as a result, their Christian Bible and Christian religion says that healthcare should not go to Hispanic Americans or black Americans or Jews or Muslims or gay Americans or Native Americans or anyone who is an immigrant that the Christian conservatives Republican Party just doesn’t happen to like.
And so as a result, the Christian conservatives Republican Party members are trying to commit mass murder in United States by denying health care to millions of American citizens who are in desperate need of medical attention. But the Christian conservatives Republican Party doesn’t really care about that because as far as they’re concerned if they have to walk through rivers of blood to make sure that their Christian religion and their Christian faith is supported more than the Constitution of these United States and the Christian conservatives will do just that.
6. The current level of unemployment in the United States is now over 10%.
7. The current cost for liquidating the national debt is now in excess of $39,000 per person, which means that every man woman and child in the United States would have to pay at least $39,000 to be able to liquidate the national debt.
8. When you look at the history of United States from the American Civil War until present day you find that the Republican Party and Christian conservatives were in total and complete control of the United States government every single time there was a financial crisis from the American Civil War to present day. And that basically means that all the policy decisions that were being made by the American government during these times when these financial catastrophes were taking place were being made strictly by Christian conservatives and the Republican Party . And of course that’s all public record.
9. As my financial analysis of the global economic system , in my see also section below, clearly shows, it was the Republican Party and the Christian conservatives under President Bush who gave the American banking industry $400 billion of taxpayer money and simply told the banking industry to use the money anyway they wanted to. And the banking industry did just that they use the money to pay for expensive gifts and presents and take vacations.
10. To date, the banking industry has only paid back $30 billion out of the over $500 billion that was given to them by the American taxpayers.
11. The issues of profitability indexing, pursuant to profit margins and per unit costs and customer bases as they relate to compensation packages throughout the entire corporate sector have not been resolved. That basically means that most businesses are being held hostage by upper level management and executive employees in their own companies who are demanding more and more for their compensation packages. As a result of this most companies are having to readjust their per unit costs for their goods and services in such a way so that what they are doing is pricing their services and their products. So that mostly the upper class and the wealthy will be able to afford them. And this is being done so these companies and corporations can get as much money into their company as possible.
But they are in fact forgetting one of the major factors which is that while most of the money that any company gets comes from the wealthy are customers most of their day-to-day cash flow actually comes from the middle and lower income customers. This is true regardless of where that company exists. So as a result of this most of the companies in the corporate sector are operating on what is known as a cash poor basis. And this basically means that since they are pricing their goods and services in order to get the most money possible they are foregoing pricing their goods and services so they will be more affordable to the middle and lower income customers, which actually provide these companies with their day-to-day cash flow. And so as a result, these companies don’t have enough money to pay for employees or many of the other day-to-day costs that come up.
This factor has not been dealt with in any country in the world at this time. Furthermore, these companies are refusing to be honest about their financial reporting. They are constantly using and accounting,/statistical variance, which is .5%. And .5% variance is such a large variance pursuant to statistical and financial analysis that you can basically drive a moving van through the space. That is allocated for plus or minus error correction in the statistical analyses and financial analyses that are in fact done with .5% variance. This is why I have never used that level of variance statistically or financially. I’ve always used .05% variance because it is such a small variance that the statistical analysis of the profitability analysis cannot be falsified. It is true that using .05% variance does require an additional 100,000 to 200,000 calculations in order to be able to complete the analysis. But when you consider that the final product is incredibly more honest and reliable. It’s worth it.
12. The banking industry has turned cruel. For example here in Cleveland Ohio Keycorp is taking a lot of pride and threatening senior citizens and kicking them out of their homes so that they can foreclose on the property. This is happening all over Cleveland Ohio and KeyCorp actually is one of the most hated banks in the entire state of Ohio. But KeyCorp is not the only one who’s doing this practice. Because was really happening is that banks all over the United States are basically threatening senior citizens with foreclosure to the point where suicides are now escalating and accelerating at an alarming rate. So badly that the medical community is swamped by the number of suicide calls they are getting. And this is all happening because KeyCorp and other banks like KeyCorp are basically taking the attitude that they don’t care how many men and women and children they have to murder. They just want their money.
When you consider these kinds of factors are going on in the banking industry you realized that the other thing that’s happening is that senior citizens and homeowners are becoming incredibly sick. Do becoming physically ill as a result of the horrible attitude that KeyCorp in other banks like KeyCorp are pushing on the citizens. And there is no help for this at all.
13. Additionally, the medical community is helping with this because we have a hospital here in Cleveland Ohio called MetroHealth that basically is working hard. Just like KeyCorp to threaten senior citizens and have them thrown out of their homes. So that they can foreclose on the property. And basically kill the individuals. I have been personally threatened by KeyBank and MetroHealth and have recorded conversations proving that.
So MetroHealth does all these commercials where they’re talking about how good a hospital they are and yet they have been sued a number of times for Medicare fraud. They have also been sued by their own employees for unfair business practices. And they have lost doctors so badly because they don’t treat their doctors very well either. Nobody likes MetroHealth.
And for the record, it needs to be understood that my grandfather’s brother, Dr. ally Maschke, was the director of medicine at mount Sinai medical center here in Cleveland Ohio until his death. And my cousin, Dr. Victor Vertese, was also the director of medicine at mount Sinai medical center until his death. Additionally, my grandfather, Maurice Maschke, and his business partner, Mark Hanna, who founded the Hana mining company, which became the 3M company, basically built mount Sinai medical center in Cleveland. And in addition to that, my father, Maurice Maschke Junior, was on the Board of Trustees at Case Western Reserve University, University hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland clinic, and mount Sinai medical center until his death. And in addition to that, my father, Maurice Maschke Junior, and I., were partners and co-owners of pioneer linen supply company of Cleveland Ohio for 25 years until 1975 when we sold the company.
14. So given all of the foregoing as actual facts. The only reason that the accelerated growth has taken place is because certain industries in the United States have in fact been making money. Only because their industries are addressing sections of the population who are otherwise disenfranchised by most of the business sector. For example Tyco International is a business that specializes and fire prevention and warning systems and security systems. And of course they’ve done a really good job because people are scared to death and living in their homes and there are so many foreclosures going on that people are having to protect their homes because in most cities the number of police has dropped so badly because most cities are in a huge budget crisis. In Cleveland, Ohio, for example, the city went from 1,500,000 people down to approximately 400,000 people in only a matter of months. And conditions are so bad in Cleveland that Cleveland is now charging nine dollars a month just pick up our garbage.
So given those facts Tyco International for one example is making a lot of money because people are having to protect their homes because they can’t really, the police that much because the number of police has dropped so the greatly because of the budget crisis going on throughout the world and throughout the United States.
15. Additionally, when you look at a company like Microsoft, who reported a huge profit. This is because Microsoft isn’t doing really well. Because they’re not the only reason Microsoft made this huge profit was because their previous product, Microsoft Windows Vista was actually one of the worst programs and products Microsoft ever created. And so since it did so terribly in the market naturally Microsoft’s increased now is looking fantastic, which is not because if you analyze the overall productivity and effectiveness of Microsoft you will see that they are basically floundering under Steve Ballmer’s direction.
So again, it’s really easy for people to talk about how well the market is doing that the foregoing represents the actual facts of what’s going on in business.
And as I said before, I have been studying the stock market since I was six years old. At age 6 I started studied the stock market at Prescott ball and turban here in Cleveland Ohio. With one of the partner broker’s, Bernie Towell, who was a personal friend of mine. And so every day for four hours every day and age 6 until age 16 I studied the stock market and learned economics and financial analysis . At age 16, while working and being a partner and co-owner of pioneer linen spy company in Cleveland, I did my first financial analysis and profitability analysis . It was done on the linen supply company’s of Cleveland Ohio. The analysis was so good that the results were used to program some computers at the time. And in 42 years and having been a financial analyst I’ve never once been wrong in any financial projection I’ve ever done. Not once. Just like I’m not wrong now.
In my financial analysis of the global economic system in my see also section below, I clearly show that the American market system was going to lose $800 trillion of market value in the third business quarter of 2009. I further substantiated this claim last January in January of 2009. When I explained that the American market system was going to take a huge hit in the third quarter and that it would come out to about $800 trillion of market loss. And that this was in fact in line with the Kondratieff wave . And in fact that’s exactly what did happen. Which means the analysts were wrong. And I was right.
So again, if you go ahead and look at all these factors without looking at all of the peripheral details than you are going to be responding to the information in a very symptomatic, or symptomatically oriented manner whereby you will behave to the information in an extremely reactionary way. By the like term, if you look at all of the information regarding economics throughout the entire global economic system in a problematically oriented manner you will be looking at the financial information in a more anticipatory manner. And much more pervasive rather than in a stereotypical or linear manner. And as a result, you will begin to understand that all of these different factors that I have brought forth in this article right now. Actually do justify what I’m saying that the American market system is on the verge of collapse. And that the economic system for Greece is about to go under. And that unemployment in Spain and France and England is running at almost 30%.
These do not make things look like they’re going good in the United States is basically doing nothing but lying about the economic they I went to school with most of the people who run a lot of these companies in the United States and who are working on Wall Street either went to school with them at Case Western Reserve why went to school with them at Fort Lewis college board went to school with them at southern Arizona school in Tucson Arizona. Or, I did business with them throughout my life.
So again, this is a reality check. And all I can say is, if you don’t believe what I’m saying that’s not a problem. Because you haven’t believe me, for 40 years, what I’ve been talking about all of these issues facing the economic system in the United States and the global economic system. So why would you believe me now?
But the fact is that just because you may not believe what I’m saying doesn’t mean that what I’m saying is not true. Simply means you are refusing or are not able to see the veracity in what I’m saying and that’s all it means.
See Also:
The American Civil War
Slavery
The Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth
The Christian Conservatives
World War I
Prohibition
The Great Depression
The Battle of Washington
World War II
The Korean War
The Vietnam War
Richard Nixon
Oliver North
The Iran-Contra Affair
The Gulf War
The Savings-And-Loan Crisis
Bill Clinton
The Balanced Budget Amendment
The Iraq War
The Kondratieff Wave
Profitability Analysis
Financial Analysis
Vance Packard
Laissez-Faire
Better Business Bureau
Department Of Justice
DirecTV
Wal-Mart
KeyCorp
Dell Computers
Lawsuits Against Dell
Capital Punishment
Homophobia
Xenophobia
Racism
Prejudice
Bigotry
Fascism
Eugenics
White Supremacy
Mein Kampf
Adolf Hitler
The Ku Klux Klan
The Army of God
US Domestic Violence Statistics
US Child Abuse Statistics
US Child Mortality Statistics
US Religious Demographic Statistics
US Obesity Statistics
US Caesarean Statistics
US Uninsured Americans Statistics
Insurers Overcharge Medicare
Medicare Ponzi Scheme
US Food Recall Statistics
US Suicide Statistics
Medical Malpractice
Medical Mistakes
Gay-Rights
Transgenderism
Women’s Rights
Children’s Rights
Human Rights
Pro-Choice
NRA
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The US Constitution
The Bill Of Rights
Recording Telephone Conversations
Treason
Sedition
How The Republicans Use The Constitution To Lie (article 1, section 6, subsection b) of The US Constitution
For the record, I pro-life. I do not support violence against, or the killing of any human being under any circumstances! And the only way that I ever deviate from that stand is that I do not believe that the Almighty, and/or God has ever given any human the right to dictate to any woman how she is to arbitrate her life with the Almighty, and/or God . Therefore, I am also pro-choice, in that I believe that all women deserve the right to choose for themselves the fate of their souls, and their own bodies, pursuant to their relationship with the Almighty, and/or God . For an expanded explanation please see my article entitled, “Second Gear “
BERLIN – Germany’s Deutsche Telekom reported Thursday that its fourth quarter loss narrowed to euro3 million ($4.1 million) on improved revenue in its domestic market but said the financial crisis in Greece had cost its operations there euro500 million.
The German provider of high-speed Internet access and home and cell phone service said the quarterly loss compared with a euro730 million loss a year earlier, when the global credit crunch was most intense.
Revenue was up more than half a percent in the final three months of 2009 to euro16.2 billion, a sign of improvement in its critical home market. The figure compared with euro16.1 billion a year earlier.
The company was hurt, however, by the ongoing financial turbulence in Greece through its acquisition of Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA, or OTE, in 2008.
For the year, the company earned euro353 million in net profit, down 76 percent from nearly euro1.5 billion in 2008 business card. Revenue, however, managed to rise nearly 5 percent to euro64.6 billion compared with euro61.6 billion the year before.
“After a bumpy start, we rounded 2009 off with good results,” said Chief Executive Rene Obermann. “Cost discipline was key to getting through economically challenging times. However, we did not save at the expense of the future, but continued to invest heavily.”
Late Wednesday, the company committed itself to paying dividends from this year through 2012, and proposed a dividend of 78 euro cents a share for 2009. From this year to 2012 it said it planned to pay at least a 70 euro cent per share dividend and pledged to buy back shares, a move that it said was worth around euro3.4 billion.
___
On the Net:
http://www.deutschetelekom.com
Deutsche Telekom loss narrows despite Greek costs
Hot News: Deal Seen for Stake in China Investment Bank
“According to the US Census Bureau, the US population in 2000 was 281,421,906. Of that, 194,552,774 (69.1%) were white; 33,947,837 (12.1%) were black; and 35,305,818 (12.5%) were of Hispanic origin. Additionally, 2,068,883 (0.7%) were Native American, and 10,123,169 (3.8%) were Asian.”
Source: US Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, Census 2000 Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) Summary File for states, Population by Race and Hispanic or Latino Origin for the United States: 2000 (PHC-T-a) Table 1.http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t1/tab01.txt
“Most drug offenders are white. Five times as many whites use drugs as blacks. Yet blacks comprise the great majority of drug offenders sent to prison. The solution to this racial inequity is not to incarcerate more whites, but to reduce the use of prison for low-level drug offenders and to increase the availability of substance abuse treatment.”
Source: Human Rights Watch, “Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs” (Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch, 2000), from their website at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/drugs/war/key-facts.htm
—
“Because of their extraordinary rate of incarceration, one in every 20 black men over the age of 18 is in a state or federal prison, compared to one in every 180 whites.” In five states, between one in 13 and one in 14 black men are in prison.
Source: Human Rights Watch, “Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs” (Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch, 2000). http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-01.htm#P149_24292
—
“When incarceration rates by State (excluding Federal inmates) are estimated separately by gender, race, and Hispanic origin, male rates are found to be 10 times higher than female rates; black rates 5-1/2 times higher than white rates; and Hispanic rates nearly 2 times higher than white rates.” Source: Harrison, Paige M., & Beck, Allen J., PhD, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005 (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, May 2006) (NCJ213133), p. 10.
(2005) Of the 253,300 state prison inmates serving time for drug offenses at yearend 2005, 113,500 (44.8%) were black, 51,100 (20.2%) were Hispanic, and 72,300 (28.5%) were white.
Source: Sabol, William J., PhD, and West, Heather C., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2007 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 2008), NCJ224280, p. 21, Appendix Table 10.http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/p07.pdf
—
“At the start of the 1990s, the U.S. had more Black men (between the ages of 20 and 29) under the control of the nation’s criminal justice system than the total number in college. This and other factors have led some scholars to conclude that, “crime control policies are a major contributor to the disruption of the family, the prevalence of single parent families, and children raised without a father in the ghetto, and the ‘inability of people to get the jobs still available.’”
Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., “The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment,” American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 716.http://www.csdp.org/research/haney_apa.pdf
—
“The racially disproportionate nature of the war on drugs is not just devastating to black Americans. It contradicts faith in the principles of justice and equal protection of the laws that should be the bedrock of any constitutional democracy; it exposes and deepens the racial fault lines that continue to weaken the country and belies its promise as a land of equal opportunity; and it undermines faith among all races in the fairness and efficacy of the criminal justice system. Urgent action is needed, at both the state and federal level, to address this crisis for the American nation.”
Source: Summary and Recommendations from “Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs” (Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch, June 2000)
“In 2001, the chances of going to prison were highest among black males (32.2%) and Hispanic males (17.2%) and lowest among white males (5.9%). The lifetime chances of going to prison among black females (5.6%) were nearly as high as for white males. Hispanic females (2.2%) and white females (0.9%) had much lower chances of going to prison.”
Source: Bonczar, Thomas P., US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Prevalence of Imprisonment in the US Population, 1974-2001,” NCJ197976 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, August 2003), p. 8.
—
“Due to harsh new sentencing guidelines, such as ‘three-strikes, you’re out,’ “a disproportionate number of young Black and Hispanic men are likely to be imprisoned for life under scenarios in which they are guilty of little more than a history of untreated addiction and several prior drug-related offenses… States will absorb the staggering cost of not only constructing additional prisons to accommodate increasing numbers of prisoners who will never be released but also warehousing them into old age.”
Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., “The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment,” American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 718.
February 17, 2010 marked the anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) implemented by the Obama administration to boost employment and lead us out of the economic recession of 2008 and 2009. RESI, also, held an important event on this day, our Annual Economic Outlook Conference. Ok, maybe, I exaggerate when I compare a national event to our event but it was still important to us. During the conference, three panelists provided us with some excellent opinions on the effects of ARRA on the economy. In particular, two Towson University economists, Dr. Dorn and Dr. Rhoads, were especially knowledgeable and gave us two differing opinions.
Dr. Dorn and Dr. Rhoads
Professor Dorn opinioned that ARRA has not been an efficient policy and American taxpayers will have to pay the bill through higher taxes in the following years. In his view, the government sector is not as efficient as the private sector and increasing public sector spending does not provide as many jobs as the private sector. He also questioned the assertion by some people that the US had many “shovel ready” projects that needed investment from the federal government. Few of the allotted dollars have been spent on public infrastructure projects so far and maybe there were not as many “shovel ready” projects as portrayed. In his opinion, the problem was the supply side of the economy. Instead, the Federal government should have given more tax breaks to businesses and eliminated corporate taxes for example. Also, the ARRA money would have been more efficient if the government would have given it to the private sector to spend and manage public infrastructures.
Professor Rhoads had a different take on the efficiency of ARRA. He reminded us that in extremely difficult times, the government needs to provide short term economic relief and has a legal obligation to create policies leading to full employment. In his opinion, the private sector does not have the ability to lead us out of one of the most difficult economic times facing the US economy. Many economists participated in the craft of ARRA and found this policy necessary. According to Dr. Rhoads, another positive aspect of ARRA was that the government made sure that it did not put all its eggs in the same basket. Seemingly, the government had learned from past policy mistakes. Therefore, spending for ARRA was rightly divided in several different areas; tax breaks to businesses, extended financial support to unemployed people or people in dire economic situations, and investment in public infrastructures. In addition, the use of monetary policy could have not been as successful. The federal interest rate has been kept at almost zero percent since 2000, which meant that it was not as effective as before.
These two distinguished experts made some excellent arguments regarding the efficiency of ARRA. And I left with so many questions of my own.
Was the policy crafted efficiently?
Will American taxpayers pay higher rates of tax in the future?
Should the Obama administration have implemented more tax breaks for the private sector?
Will more tax breaks on businesses create more jobs?
Etc… All in all the RESI conference displayed TU’s expertise at providing varied solutions to complex problems while also giving the audience food for thought going forward.
Where “are” stereotypes? We all recognize certain stereotypes as real stereotypes (perhaps African-Americans’ love of fried chicken or the poor driving skills of Asians) and reject others as simply made up (such as African-Americans’ fear of ceiling fans or the fact that every Asian man can do like a thousand push-ups) — even though we simultaneously believe that stereotypes are themselves untrue.
What’s more, very few people will admit to holding a stereotype, though they recognize them when they hear them. Indeed, when pressed even people who seem to be hardened racists will most often admit that of course not all black people are like that, etc. — calling into question whether racists, as stereotype-believers par excellence, really “believe” in stereotypes in some straightforward way. And even if we imagine that some people believe certain stereotypes to be at least grounded in truth — and indeed, it may be difficult to tell a stereotype from a genuine cultural difference — it is difficult to imagine that there is anyone out there who believes all of them, especially since they are so often contradictory (such as stereotypes of Mexicans as both lazy and absolutely desperate to work).
If no one (or almost no one, or no one who counts) believe in stereotypes, if they aren’t beliefs in a critical mass of heads, then where are they? Some might claim that they are in those heads, but as unconscious beliefs — but where else does the unconscious manifest itself but in what we do? That, I suggest, is where stereotypes abide, or at least the broader images that the stereotypes point toward.
For instance, one might say that the idea that black people like fried chicken — a food that surely every meat-eater enjoys, just as I know very few people of any race who don’t like watermelon — points toward the idea that black people just naturally enjoy cheaper food (not beef, but chicken; not fruit juice, but Kool-Aid) and therefore that the dominance of fast food outlets and convenience stores (rather than good restaurants and grocery stores) in black neighborhoods simply reflects the way black people are and is therefore “okay” — and so you don’t see the mayor of Chicago trying to get more grocery stores into black neighborhoods, for instance.
The dominance of cheap, unhealthy food in black neighborhoods is where all the stereotypes about black food and drink preferences “are.” And one could perform this exercise for all kinds of stereotypes that of course no one “believes” — we don’t have to believe them, because the very physical terrain of our society believes them for us. Where we go and what we do every day believes them for us.
