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Friday, February 17, 2012

No 24-Inch Screen For Your Car's Dashboard

SEARCH BLOG: AUTOMOBILES.

When it comes to automobiles, I still favor analog... gauges, dials, controls.  Well, I do like the fact that the radio is digital and gets the frequency dead on.  But whether it is 68° or 69° doesn't really make that much difference to me;  a sliding lever is fine... and easier to locate.

But now you can get whole instrument clusters and center stacks that are more complicated than running Windows Control Panel.  Sometimes you have to run through three layers of a menu to activate a simple function.

Ctrl-Alt-Del

U.S. Department of Transportation Proposes 'Distraction' Guidelines for Automakers

WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced the first-ever federally proposed guidelines to encourage automobile manufacturers to limit the distraction risk for in-vehicle electronic devices. The proposed voluntary guidelines would apply to communications, entertainment, information gathering and navigation devices or functions that are not required to safely operate the vehicle. 
In particular, the Phase I proposed guidelines released today recommend criteria that manufacturers can use to ensure the systems or devices they provide in their vehicles are less likely to distract the driver with tasks not directly relevant to safely operating the vehicle, or cause undue distraction by engaging the driver's eyes or hands for more than a very limited duration while driving. Electronic warning system functions such as forward-collision or lane departure alerts would not be subject to the proposed guidelines, since they are intended to warn a driver of a potential crash and are not considered distracting devices.
It looks as if we won't be getting that next-generation driver "cockpit."  Ah, for the "good old days."  I had a 1946 Plymouth like the one at the left when I was in college.  It even had a transparent magenta visor and a hood vent that actually worked.  It took about 2 minutes to completely familiarize oneself with the vehicle operation.  That's because the starter button was separate from the key.  Had to give it up with only 135,000 miles on it to go into the service.  Bummer.

Now, I can't even get my iPhone to sync with my Sync.  Still, I rigged a holder for my iPad on top of the dashboard in front of me so I can follow the navigation app to see where I'm going... so I'm not totally vehicle computer illiterate.  I hope the Feds don't take that away from me.

2012 IS HERE

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Magic iPad

SEARCH BLOG: COMPUTERS



It's in German, but you will understand it.

H/T Dick Pasky

2012 IS HERE

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China Unethical - They Will Steal Your Product Designs Even If You Don't Do Business There

SEARCH BLOG: AUTOMOBILES

Headline [click to read article] from Carscoop:

China's JAC Does it Again with Ford F-150 Pickup Truck Clone

They even rip off your logo:
Nothing new here.  China's growth is predicated on virtually no research and development costs.

For a lot more....
SATURDAY, MARCH 08, 2008China Unethical? Surprise!
Of course, that's overt theft.  Take a product and build a knock-off.  Then there is covert theft.
Trade Secret Theft 
Couple Conspires to Steal Hybrid Technology 

2012 IS HERE

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Obama To Sell Surplus Nukes To Saudis?

SEARCH BLOG: MIDDLE EAST

From Bloomberg:

... the Saudis strongly believe that if Iran is able to militarize its nuclear program while it remains a signatory to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, this would render the treaty worthless. The likely Saudi response would be to seek a nuclear capability of its own.
It looks like the old saw "a market in everything" has brought an opportunity for President Obama to kill two birds with one stone: while he weakens the U.S. nuclear arsenal with unilateral disarmament, he can create a "nuclear solution" for the Middle East by selling U.S. surplus.

RELATED:

Obama - Unilateral Disarmament??? 

2012 IS HERE

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G.M. Profits - Taxpayers Loss

SEARCH BLOG: AUTOMOBILES

The sting of the GM bailout continues.  From USA Today:

DETROIT (AP) – General Motors earned its largest profit ever in 2011, two years after it nearly collapsed into financial ruin.
  • A General Motors employee works on a van assembly line at GM's plant in Wentzville, Mo. in November. 
By Jeff Roberson, AP

The 103-year-old company (GM) made $7.6 billion in 2011, up 62% from 2010.  Full-year revenue rose 11% to $105 billion.
Good news, right?
At $53 a share, the federal government breaks even on the $50 billion it “loaned” GM, but at the current share price of approximately $30 (well below the $33 IPO price of last November, which raised around $20 billion), taxpayers would lose around $11 billion. [source - 4-19-11] 
Well, that was 10 months ago and with record profits, what is the value of GM stock now?


That's right... down $4.  The share price would have to double for taxpayers to get their money back.

The way the deal with the Obama government was structured, old shareholders and bondholders got nothing.  Unions got money in the bank.

A great company was saved, but everyone except the unions got screwed in the process.  Sound familiar?

2012 IS HERE

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Energy Shortages Are Not Real

SEARCH BLOG: ENERGY

These are current estimates of worldwide shale natural gas resources excluding gray areas. [source]


Similarly, there are known and probable deposits of shale oil around the world. [source]


This is add pretty much in addition to conventional sources of natural gas and oil.  That's not to say there are not naysayers because of high current costs [costs tend to diminish as techniques improve], but some of those same naysayers warn about energy shortages, high prices, and "gold currency" payments for Middle East/OPEC oil because of political instability in those regions.  Roughly translated, that's 
"We shouldn't be counting on shale oil because costs of extraction are too high, but we shouldn't count on Middle East/OPEC oil because of political instability that will lead to high oil prices." 
Nah.  You can pretty much ignore that self-servicing gold-bug claptrap.  Flat screen TVs used to run $5,000 or more for 42" models... and now you can get them for 1/10 that.  I'll repeat: costs tend to diminish as techniques improve.

But then there is the political aspect of drilling for this natural gas and oil.  Most of the objection is based on fear... fear of pollution, fear of contamination, fear of earthquakes, fear of global warming.  That despite the fact that Canadian and North Dakota extraction has been growing vigorously and responsibly.  That despite the occurrences of some very minor earth tremors associated with extraction which have not caused damage... and are not unique to shale extraction.
The vast reserves of gas concealed in shale have long been known about, but until recently there was no economic means to extract them. Over the past five years, however, the situation has changed dramatically, thanks to a method of hydraulically fracturing rock along its seams — or ‘fracking’ for short. While Britain and Europe have been throwing hundreds of billions in subsidies at renewable energy, the US shale gas industry has expanded to account for one quarter of all the country’s gas production — all without subsidies. In doing so it has caught many environmentalists completely unawares. The energy-scarce world of their dreams has been put off for a couple of centuries at least; instead we are staring at a future of potential energy abundance. 
Fracking is not a pretty process: it involves drilling a large well and then pumping large quantities of water and sand down it in order to fracture the appropriate strata of rock. Once the rock is fractured, gas can seep into the well and be forced to the surface. But it isn’t anything like as hazardous as environmentalists — in a repeat of the fantasy and exaggeration which characterised the campaign against GM foods a decade ago — like to claim. 
Another fear is that fracking causes earth tremors. True, a couple of very minor tremors — of the sort that occur in Britain hundreds of times a year — do appear to have been caused by test-drilling near Blackpool, the epicentre of an embryonic British fracking industry which is now temporarily stalled as a result. But then coal-mining also causes minor earth tremors. It is a problem to be managed, not to be used as a reason to close down an entire industry. Mike Stephenson, head of energy science at the British Geological Survey, said that ‘most geologists think this is a pretty safe activity’ because ‘the risk is pretty low and we have the scientific tools to tell if there is a problem’. [source]
Still, there are politicians who believe it is more desirable to have very expensive energy based on shortages and unproven alternatives to natural gas and oil.  These shortages provide the underlying reason for re-distributive government's existence: create a shortage and then claim only government can fix the problem... with rationing, Rube Goldberg alternatives, government payouts for those who can't afford fuel for heating or transportation, and increased regulation from energy production to energy usage.

Sound familiar?  

About that pipeline... that will now supply Canadian oil to China....

2012 IS HERE

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Obama - Unilateral Disarmament???

SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA and MILITARY

You decide.

2012 IS HERE

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Rasmussen Says

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS and ECONOMY


I tend to favor Rasmussen polls over most others... because they are correct most often.  That doesn't mean we can't have a little fun at their expense.  From that website today:


2012 IS HERE

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F-35 Fighter Plane - We Can But We Won't

SEARCH BLOG: MILITARY



Pentagon Takes $1.6 Billion From Lockheed F-35 Jet in Biggest Defense Cut


We will out computer them.

Yes, we're feeling very confident with these decisions.

2012 IS HERE

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Arab Spring, Dignity Revolutions, Or New Tyrannies?

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS

The Obama administration has been quick to jump on the "Arab Spring" PR bandwagon.  It is a convenient way to look as if the President is taking some sort of "peace initiative" and supporting democracy, but the reality is that the U.S. government is not much more than a glassy-eyed spectator caught up in its own rhetoric.

As revolutions and civil wars spread across North Africa and the Middle East, it seems obvious that the old tyrannies are being replaced by popular new leadership... until you begin to question the nature of that leadership.

In Syria, al Qaeda is supporting the "opposition" which in turn is accused of murdering Syrian Christians.  Makes you wonder just who Obama is supporting.  Egypt already looks like a lost cause to radical Islamists.  Tunisia and Libya have taken that same Egyptian road.  Iran, while not part of these Islamist takeovers, would appear to benefit from the changes.

Now, a Huffington Post article says we should think of the turmoil as "Dignity Revolutions" rather than the popularized notion of an "Arab Spring."

There will be very few tears shed in the U.S. for Assad as even fewer were shed for Qaddafi.  But before the U.S. runs wild with optimism about Arab Springs or Dignity Revolutions, it might be better to see if that optimism is justified... or if the "new order" is just the old order with a different cast of characters.

Call me a cynic, but I suspect that many of the protesters on the streets will not be surprised with the final outcomes because they understand the true basis for these uprisings... which has nothing to do with a Western-style democracy.  Give it a year or two.  Democracy is a powerful word that is often used by those whose intentions are diametrically opposed to that concept.

Since its founding in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hizb al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) has profoundly influenced the political life of the Middle East. Its motto is telling: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."


2012 IS HERE

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Forbes Article Declares Hell Has Finally Frozen Over

SEARCH BLOG: GLOBAL WARMING

From Forbes:

Hell has finally frozen over! Fritz Vahrenholt, one of the fathers of Germany’s environmental movement who has headed the renewable energy division of RWE, that country’s second largest utility company, has co-authored a new blockbuster book with geologist/paleontologist Sebastian Luning announcing that the climate catastrophe heralded by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been called off. Titled “The Cold Sun: Why the Climate Disaster Won’t Happen”, it raises a man-made blizzard of icily numbing challenges to IPCC competence in general, and to their exaggerated attributions of CO2 greenhouse warming influence in particular.
 Read full article here.

Whatever will the EPA do if CO2 isn't the bogeyman?


2012 IS HERE

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Swimmer Wins Race Then Wins Girl

SEARCH BLOG: SPORTS


When Matt Grevers jumped into the pool prior to this last weekend's 100-meter backstroke at the Missouri Grand Prix, he had diamond on his mind, not gold.
The two-time gold medalist had concocted an elaborate plan to propose to his longtime girlfriend, fellow national-team swimmer Annie Chandler, atop the medal stand. All he had to do was get there. 
Grevers ended up winning the race. And when organizers asked Chandler to present the medals to the three top finishers, she didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary. When Grevers dropped to a knee, Chandler's reaction says it all

2012 IS HERE

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Where Are The Kind And Generous Syrian Muslims?

SEARCH BLOG: ISLAM

Via Jawa Report.

Ministry of Irony: Abandoned by Arabs Syrian Cleric Begs Israel to Help Treat

2012 IS HERE

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Whooosh - There Goes The Windfarm

SEARCH BLOG: ENERGY

From USA Today:


When an oncoming hurricane curves offshore — as most do — we usually breathe a sigh of relief. But soon, those offshore storms might give us something more to worry about.


Offshore hurricanes could demolish half the turbines in proposed wind farms just off the USA's coastlines, according to a study out Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


Okay, we'll just have offshore solar farms.  Solyndra can work out the details.


RELATED:
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2012Energy Nyet

2012 IS HERE

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We Don't Need No Stinkin' Budget

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS

From The Economist:



Barack Obama's budget
The phony war
Feb 13th 2012, 21:31 by G.I. | WASHINGTON








TAKEN at face value, Barack Obama’s latest budget is a bold combination of fiscal rectitude, populist tax increases and industrial policy-lite: tax breaks for manufacturers, more money for community colleges, and a dollop of money for infrastructure.   Do not take it at face value.  [read more]

2012 IS HERE

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Apple Stock Breaks $500 - Labor Breaks $2 Per Hour

SEARCH BLOG: ECONOMY

Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod... and then those Mac computers.  Can Apple do anything wrong?  The stock market seems to think not as Apple shares closed over $500 yesterday.

Still, the Apple got a few bruises about their labor practices in China.
Apple announced Monday a non-profit labor group has started examining working conditions at some of its suppliers in China, as the company tries to calm a growing storm over how the workers who build iPads and iPhones are treated. [source]
And here we thought sweatshops were vestiges of the 19th century.

Wasn't this old news?
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010Chinese Cost Of Labor - Let's Just Round It To Zero

2012 IS HERE

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Did Whitney Houston Lose Her War With Drugs?

SEARCH BLOG: DRUGS

This was a recent post:

End The War On Drugs
It elicited several comments from one reader who felt it was better to give up efforts to fight drug dealers and criminalize drug use.  I agreed with the comments in theory, but with the caveat that the liberated drug users could not then get public assistance for their "disease."  If someone makes a choice to use drugs, then they take on the responsibility to live ... or die ... with the consequences.

It appears that the famous singer, Whitney Houston, has died with those consequences.  Sad.  A waste in every sense.  She had a voice and face the world loved.  But she did not have a disease.  She made a conscious, if stupid, decision earlier in her life to indulge in drugs. She struggle with trying not to be an addict.  Something that, apparently, millions of people are doing.  They are not victims of a disease either.  Neither are alcoholics.  [image from Tekstovi-Pesama]

It is true that misuse of these substances can cause severe deterioration of the human body... just like any other poison.  The difference between most hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol is that most people can have occasional drinks without jeopardizing their health or lives or become physically and emotionally dependent on those substances.  The same cannot be said about hallucinogenic drug users.

Whitney Houston may not have died from cocaine or heroine, but the dependency on drugs for emotional support was lurking there.  Whatever the public version of the medical examiner's findings shows... and that won't be made public for one or two months... she made a decision decades ago to become a drug user of which consequences rippled through the rest of her life.  Whitney Houston did not simply decide one day to take powerful sedatives or pain medication... possibly with alcohol... and fall asleep in a bathtub and drown.  Doesn't happen; didn't happen.  This was a lifetime coming.
Prescription drugs had been found in the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel room where Houston's lifeless body was discovered Saturday afternoon just hours before a huge Grammy party she was to attend. [source]
I've often wondered about those who want to "end the war on drugs" and "decriminalize drug use."  Are they also pushing [no pun] for prescription only pain medication and sedatives to be sold "over the counter?"  How would they deal [no pun] with that?
20 oz. bottle of oxycodone on special at [name your local] Pharmacy this week for only $19.95 plus tax.
Whitney Houston was not unusual among celebrity drug users.  They may considered themselves to be beautify, talented, and presumably invulnerable to the effects that drugs have on common people.  Do your own Google search.

Like alcohol abusers, drug abusers have to take responsibility for their choices.  The government cannot save them from the results of their choices.  Here is one way they can take responsibility.

From just below the masthead:
Stupidity Has Its Own Rewards 
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.


2012 IS HERE

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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sarah Palin's Passion

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS

From a January Post:

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2012The Ideal Republican CandidateSEARCH BLOG: POLITICS
Judging from the early results of Republican primaries, the ideal Republican candidate looks something like this:
Below are videos that demonstrate that.



Sarah Palin CPAC 2012 Part 1 (video)

Sarah Palin CPAC 2012 Speech (Part 2)


2012 IS HERE

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Investing In Unproven Technologies

SEARCH BLOG: ENERGY

CNN reports that President Obama is not that concerned about a few billion dollars in bad loans to start-up energy technology companies.

"It would be a stunning case of bureaucratic disregard to declare victory because the government is expecting to lose 'just' $3 billion," Michigan Representative Fred Upton and Florida Representative Cliff Stearns, both Republicans, said in a joint statement. "When taxpayers are the ones paying the price, this sort of managerial soul searching should take place before billions of dollars are doled out, not after." 
But President Obama has refused to apologize for the programs, saying the government should support these businesses in their early years so the country can compete with industries in other nations that lavish support on their own clean-tech sector. 
"Some technologies don't pan out; some companies fail," the president said during his State of the Union address. "But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy."
There are alternatives to the government investing in unproven alternative energy products and hoping things work out.  But it would seem that rather than backing pipe dreams, let private investors decide what the market will bear and what risks are worthwhile.  Then let the market reward the successful.  It has worked that way for a long time so why should it have to be different now?  It created the industrial revolution; it can create the energy revolution.
Oh, yes, we have an energy shortage... instigated and perpetuated by government misfits.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012Mandating Green Wastes Green
RELATED:


2012 IS HERE

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Saturday, February 11, 2012

California Gets Almost 3/4 Of Mortgage Bailout

SEARCH BLOG: GOVERNMENT

Got to hand it to the Obama-Pelosi-Boxer triumverate.  They keep the money among close friends... and close by.

From Reuters:

California to get $18 billion under mortgage deal 
California's attorney general said on Thursday her state will receive up to $18 billion in benefits under a federal-state mortgage settlement to be announced later today.
The other 49 states?  $7 billion... or  $140 million or so per state on average.  That's about $300 per person in California and less than $30 per person elsewhere.

Of course, the question is not why is there a disparity.  The question is why is there a redistribution of wealth through the government... once again?


Can you say "electoral votes?"


This is what Rep. Allen West calls the "legalized plunder" by the Federal government.

2012 IS HERE

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Friday, February 10, 2012

Huntsman Settles For Ford Board

SEARCH BLOG: AUTOMOBILES and POLITICS

GM and Chrysler took the government's money.  Ford is content with taking the government's cast-offs.

Ford Names Jon Huntsman to Board of Directors 
Feb-09-2012 9:00 AM ET 
​DEARBORN – Ford Motor Company announced today the election of Jon M. Huntsman Jr. to the company’s Board of Directors effective immediately. 
Huntsman, 51, is chairman of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, a Utah-based cancer charity.  The former Republican candidate for president of the United States has served in numerous public and private positions around the world, most recently as the United States Ambassador to China.
“Jon brings to Ford’s board of directors extensive global knowledge and experience – particularly in Asia with trade issues – and operational experience gained as governor of Utah, a state that has grown jobs even during the economic crisis,” said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford. “Jon understands the importance of strengthening the country’s manufacturing base, which will contribute to our success going forward.”
Huntsman was twice elected Governor of Utah, serving from 2005 to 2009. His public service career began as a White House staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan and has since included appointments as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia, U.S. Ambassador to Singapore and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. 
He is a founding director of the Pacific Council on International Policy and has served on various boards such as the Brookings Institute Asia Policy Board, the Center for Strategic and International Studies Pacific Forum, the Asia Society in New York and the National Bureau of Asian Research.


Huntsman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has six honorary doctorate degrees.
It looks as if Ford is getting serious about making inroads in the Chinese automotive market.  Could it be that Ford is getting a really, really good deal?  You could interpret that to mean that our government might be missing a really, really good leader.  We'll see.

2012 IS HERE

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CO2 Cap and Trade

There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.
Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956)
“The Divine Afflatus,” A Mencken Chrestomathy, chapter 25, p. 443 (1949)
... and one could add "not all human problems really are."
It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.
- O. Henry
... The Government is on course for an embarrassing showdown with the European Union, business groups and environmental charities after refusing to guarantee that billions of pounds of revenue it stands to earn from carbon-permit trading will be spent on combating climate change.
The Independent (UK)

Tracking Interest Rates

Tracking Interest Rates

FEDERAL RESERVE & HOUSING

SEARCH BLOG: FEDERAL RESERVE for full versions... or use the Blog Archive pulldown menu.

February 3, 2006 Go back to 1999-2000 and see what the Fed did. They are following the same pattern for 2005-06. If it ain't broke, the Fed will fix it... and good!
August 29, 2006 The Federal Reserve always acts on old information... and is the only cause of U.S. recessions.
December 5, 2006 Last spring I wrote about what I saw to be a sharp downturn in the economy in the "rustbelt" states, particularly Michigan.
March 28, 2007
The Federal Reserve sees no need to cut interest rates in the light of adverse recent economic data, Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.
The Fed chairman said ”to date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation”.

July 21, 2007 My guess is that if there is an interest rate change, a cut is more likely than an increase. The key variables to be watching at this point are real estate prices and the inventory of unsold homes.
August 11, 2007 I suspect that within 6 months the Federal Reserve will be forced to lower interest rates before housing becomes a black hole.
September 11, 2007 It only means that the overall process has flaws guaranteeing it will be slow in responding to changes in the economy... and tend to over-react as a result.
September 18, 2007 I think a 4% rate is really what is needed to turn the economy back on the right course. The rate may not get there, but more cuts will be needed with employment rates down and foreclosure rates up.
October 25, 2007 How long will it be before I will be able to write: "The Federal Reserve lowered its lending rate to 4% in response to the collapse of the U.S. housing market and massive numbers of foreclosures that threaten the banking and mortgage sectors."
November 28, 2007 FED VICE CHAIRMAN DONALD KOHN
"Should the elevated turbulence persist, it would increase the possibility of further tightening in financial conditions for households and businesses," he said.

"Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now," he said. "These uncertainties require flexible and pragmatic policymaking -- nimble is the adjective I used a few weeks ago."
http://www.reuters.com/

December 11, 2007 Somehow the Fed misses the obvious.
fed_rate_moves_425_small.gif
[Image from: CNNMoney.com]
December 13, 2007 [from The Christian Science Monitor]
"The odds of a recession are now above 50 percent," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "We are right on the edge of a recession in part because of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates more aggressively." [see my comments of September 11]
January 7, 2008 The real problem now is that consumers can't rescue the economy and manufacturing, which is already weakening, will continue to weaken. We've gutted the forces that could avoid a downturn. The question is not whether there will be a recession, but can it be dampened sufficiently so that it is very short.
January 11, 2008 This is death by a thousand cuts.
January 13, 2008 [N.Y. Times]
“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.”
January 17, 2008 A few days ago, Anna Schwartz, nonagenarian economist, implicated the Federal Reserve as the cause of the present lending crisis [from the Telegraph - UK]:
The high priestess of US monetarism - a revered figure at the Fed - says the central bank is itself the chief cause of the credit bubble, and now seems stunned as the consequences of its own actions engulf the financial system. "The new group at the Fed is not equal to the problem that faces it," she says, daring to utter a thought that fellow critics mostly utter sotto voce.
January 22, 2008 The cut has become infected and a limb is in danger. Ben Bernanke is panicking and the Fed has its emergency triage team cutting rates... this time by 3/4%. ...

What should the Federal Reserve do now? Step back... and don't be so anxious to raise rates at the first sign of economic improvement.
Individuals and businesses need stability in their financial cost structures so that they can plan effectively and keep their ships afloat. Wildly fluctuating rates... regardless of what the absolute levels are... create problems. Either too much spending or too much fear. It's just not that difficult to comprehend. Why has it been so difficult for the Fed?

About Me

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Michigan, United States
Air Force (SAC) captain 1968-72. Retired after 35 years of business and logistical planning, including running a small business. Two sons with advanced degrees; one with a business and pre-law degree. Beautiful wife who has put up with me for 4 decades. Education: B.A. (Sociology major; minors in philosopy, English literature, and German) M.S. Operations Management (like a mixture of an MBA with logistical planning)