How do you create wealth?

There was a post on another site on how wealth is created.

Well, let's try MY explanation:

Wealth = Money x Time x Effort x Knowledge

Now the neat thing about Money, Time, Effort and Knowledge is that it does not have to be yours!

A business owner makes money off the effort of others. A stock broker uses knowledge to make money for others. Someone who inherits money and invests it over time also can become wealthy.

The problem that I see is what if people don't have access to the basic formula. If someone does not have access to knowledge then they cannot develop wealth. Or if some one has special access to money, they are ahead of the game. Too much of today's economic war is keeping people from the tools to create wealth, rather than improving your own situation.

The old saw that money makes money is probably truer today than ever before. The question is how do we restore the balance so everyone at least has access to the formula. If we admit that is not possible, where do we go from here?

ChrisZ

The NPR Story

Maybe you have heard about Juan Williams being fired from NPR. Maybe you are wondering what the fuss is or maybe you are infuriated about it. Maybe a little background would help.

But first, a quiz:

1. How much money does NPR get directly from the Government?
a. 100%
b. 60 %
c. 20 %
d. 2 %
2. How many companies was Juan Williams working for?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. More than 3
3. NPR does not allow it's workers to criticize the government?
a. Yes
b. No
4. Fox News never fires anyone for what they say.
a. Yes
b. No

Okay, a little background on NPR. It was created in 1970 after the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. It is a both privately and publicly funded although the majority of it's funding now comes from members and corporate donations. Federal monies comes to about 2% of NPR's direct annual budget. Because member stations pay a fee to NPR, and they are sometimes funded through government grants, this figure is debated. More information can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Radio

Now Juan Williams was a contract worker, although he was not solely employed by NPR. He also worked for FOX, wrote newspaper columns and also was an author. Under his contract, NPR could fire him if they felt he breached their code of ethics, and since he had been warned before about statements on FOX, it seems that this was legal.

Now, people are calling for the government to cut all funding to NPR. As above, there is very little direct funding. Indirect funding would be harder to stop, without affecting many small community radio stations. It might be interesting to know that in recent years, NPR has come under fire for being too conservative, based on money flowing in from corporate sponsors. Here is a peak at their 2008 sponsors. Note that Fox Broadcasting was a donor in the $50 - $99 thousand dollar range.

Of course Fox has had some firings also, but not so famous. They fired one of their on air staff , E.D. Hill, after comments about the President and his wife. Also fired as another commentator who might have protested too much against another FOX commentator. Mark Lamont Hill got in a "dispute" with David Horowitz and was soon gone. Guess to be on FOX your name cannot be Hill!

So, in the end, what is the result?
1. Juan Williams gets fired for something he was warned about. (my personal opinion was it was overdue)
2. NPR gets a lot of bad press at a time they are doing fund-raising.
3. Juan Williams gets $2 million dollars to stay at FOX. (I wonder how long this will last not that he does not have Liberal ties)
4. His First Amendment Rights are certainly not violated, and considering NPR's budget, he will be paid only a little less than the government money that goes directly to NPR.

What a Country!

Oh, the answers to the quiz?
1. d
2. d. (counting himself as author)
3. a. Actually a trick question - they are not to give any comment based on the section" VIII. Politics, community and outside activities" in the ethics code.
4. b.

ChrisZ

Up is down and black is white

The new economic report came in and the job numbers were not good. Private business created 64,000 jobs and the feeling is that over 200,000 are needed each month to keep the economy going. But the interesting news is that government CUT jobs, buy over 100,000, so there was a net loss for the month. Now on one hand, some are saying what a terrible job the Democrats are doing, while calling for MORE job cuts in government. You can't have it both ways. Either cutting jobs in government is cutting spending and is a good thing; or cutting jobs is a bad thing - period.

So if you take the government jobs out - the economy gained 64,000 jobs - good.

BTW - the Stock Market was so depressed by the news that the Dow broke 11,000.......

What do I have to do?

I am tired of repeating the mantra:

"The President did not say that passing the stimulus would keep the level of unemployment under 8 percent!"

I keep hearing it left and right. For the record. The 8 percent figure came from a report his economic advisers released in January 2009, BEFORE he was elected.

If you want more info on this - check out:

Politifact - George Will

I would not even give it a "Barely True" - I would give it a false.

The unemployment rate in February, when the stimulus passed was already at 8%

So how can the stimulus hold the rate to something lower than it already is???!!!

Is the Recession over?

Today on a Fox News Roundtable - Bill Kristol kept saying that it would be wrong to raise taxes during a recession. Well Bill, I have news for you, the recession is over:

Is the Recession Over?

Technically it was over last year (2009). The problem is that people feel that since unemployment is still high, that the recession is no over. Actually, lots of companies are making profits and lots of people are making insane amounts of money again. They are doing okay while many are still fighting for the few jobs out there.

Now, I am not saying that there are not problems. The concept of a jobless recovery, but its own definition is a problem. But let us not say that we can't raise taxes because we are in a recession, because that is technically not correct.

ChrisZ

Questions for New Yorkers

1. How far does ground zero extend - 1 block? 2 blocks? 10 blocks? 100 blocks? The entire city?

2. The people we are fighting to free in Iraq and Afghanistan - what religion are they?

Thanks

The story of the economy

I will give a simple view of the current economy.

Supply and demand - with very few exceptions (fads like iPhones and Beanie Babies) supply follows demand.

For the last 20 years, the American consumer has been on a buying spree, fueled by artificially low interest rates and availability of cheap credit.

Cars, houses, consumer electronics, vacations; all purchased on credit, without a corresponding savings to back them up, led us to this economic bubble.

As we overspent the economy went into overdrive and incomes, home values, government, health care all spiralled up as no one cared about the end of free money.

Well the end has come. Jobs have been cut, salaries are frozen if not going down, home values have crashed, and next; government jobs, salaries and benefits will have to be cut to bring things back into balance.

Once that happens, and people get their savings and lifestyle back into balance, then the economy will start to properly grow.

There are new factors that will affect this however. Technology will create a problem as it displaces traditional jobs. Education and especially mathematical and scientific knowledge will be necessary for the worker of the future.

The question is, what to do about the person who cannot work and will not continue to learn.

That is for another post.

ChrisZ (10 min)

Paul Ryan Lies

I don't think I can express my feelings. It is one thing to go on Sean Hannity's show and agree with a nod and a wink, but to blatantly tell lies, or deliberately confuse people with numbers, when you are accusing others of doing the same thing is unbelievable. I guess Congressman Paul Ryan decided that if you can't educate people with logic and facts, then the only way to go is to fabrications to get them excited.

From this date on he is totally worthless in my book.

ChrisZ

Keep Geithner away from the press

Timothy Geithner is a very smart man. I believe he has worked very hard to keep the financial system afloat. Maybe in later years we will find how close we really came to a complete financial breakdown but for now I will assume that everything we did was necessary for the country.

Having said that the man should not be on TV, the radio, or quoted in the papers. He has no concept of public speaking. I just watched an interview with him on one of the Sunday shows and he either did not hear any of the questions, or he avoided them. He was very self congratulatory (which might be true - maybe he did all those things) when he needed to be more humble. He needed to give confidence and hope and what he gave was a technical dissertation.

He needs a good speech coach.

Chris Z
5 min

Checking in

Too little time, too many thoughts.

Random thoughts

Research, research, research - people keep sending me things that are easy to research and rebut. Don't just forward something unless you check it out first.

Government cannot create jobs - unless they are government jobs. Tax cuts don't create jobs - unless they are targeted to specific industry. So how do you create jobs? You get the economy moving by inspiring hope, trust and a purpose. When people share these feelings then jobs will come out of the woodwork.

I like term limits, I like restricted benefits for elected government service (no big pensions), I like government funded web sites for candidates (they can spend all the money they want on their own) and I would love a portable lie detector on all politicians and talk show hosts!

ChrisZ

5 min