The managers of state government, facing a major financial downturn, are looking to save dollars in the smallest places. They are laying off student workers, cutting back on travel, dropping newspaper subscriptions and silencing on-hold music on the phone system (an improvement in my book). And they are not spending money they had planned to, by leaving job vacancies unfilled and canceling programs not yet started.
It gets worse in the coming year, when state tax revenues are projected to be 10 percent lower.
At the same time, however, state bureaucrats are drawing up wish lists of billions of dollars in major construction projects that could be underway before summer, including coastal restoration work, hundreds of water and sewer upgrades for local communities and miles of new and improved highways in every corner of the state.
What is wrong, or right, with this picture?
That may be revealed when the new president is sworn in next week and he and the new Congress set to make law of his proposed, though still largely unspecified, economic stimulus package.
The big hole in the state's operating budget--other states have bigger holes--is largely caused by last year's financial crash that might not have hit bottom yet.
Obama's attempt to head off full-scale depression is to do what the federal government did not in 1930: pump billions of dollars into tax cuts and public works projects in order to jolt the economy back to moving and growing again. The question of will it work has been muted by the lack of ideas of what to do instead.
In terms politicians like to use to relate fiscal policy to real life, it's like a family on hard times cutting back on vacations and dining out while also drawing up plans to add a game room and swimming pool, thanks to a gift from Uncle Stimulus, who borrowed the money. It may sound screwy to mom and dad, but what family would not cash the check, especially since Uncle Stim would just give their share to the cousins? Besides, a pool would make everyone feel better about eating beans and rice again tonight.
The president-elect has not shared his vision of how much of the $775 billion package (likely to grow once Congress gets it hands on it) will go to tax cuts, to expanded Medicaid and unemployment benefits and to infrastructure spending. But it's the last part that has states busy assembling detailed lists of public works projects that, according to Obama's conditions, are ready to turn dirt in 180 days, if not 90.
There is no shortage of such endeavors in Louisiana, where scores of major construction projects are designed, with rights-of-way and permits secured, just waiting for funding.
The Department of Transportation and Development alone has submitted a prioritized list of $1.1 billion "shovel-ready" projects. I-49 North tops the list, along with added lanes for Interstate 10s and 12 in Baton Rouge and Slidell, new bridges in Larose and Houma, preservation work on roads across the state and upgrades for transit systems, ports and airports.
Other agencies also have put in their requests, which, in all, amount to billions.
All this wish-list making, however, is disturbingly reminiscent of the state's post-Katrina expectations of Congress, which were largely dashed. The difference this time is that all states are in the same lifeboat, which Washington can't let sink.
Louisiana will not get all of what it seeks, but not for lack of asking or, apparently, readiness. DOTD Secretary William Ankner guesses this state's share of the transportation pool will be less than half of what he's asked for, but that $400 million or so--with no state match required--would be huge.
Whatever is in the stimulus package also might be all that Louisiana stands to get for the balance of this administration and this Congress, given its 39 percent voter support for the new president and its 6-1 Republican split in the House delegation.
All the more reason for the family to enjoy the pool and not ask what's for dinner.
Ah KPF, you cut me to the quick with your premature ejaculation on the keyboard……. You should read a little more carefully to make the proper judgment on what I wrote….. There is nothing about a struggle between classes of men, but rather thoughts on how to create more jobs and increase the standard of living while enhancing the probabilities of heightened export opportunities for U.S. products to abound…. There was nothing implied about ‘reallocating’ lands for the common people which is generally the first move made by a group of people trying to usurp a class they feel is holding dominion over them…... I was merely making an observation which has industrial revolution connotations in the background….. Which of course entailed a greater rate of production, enabling people to move from the farm to the city, and the expansion to settle or occupy distant lands out to the west…..? Now, we have removed the ‘greater rate of production {manufacturing} from the equation, yet the cities are bursting at the seams…. And great deals of those inhabitants are without jobs, and therefore dependent upon a ‘social system’….. But this condition, or problem is not unique to the big city, it is manifesting proportionately {percentages} in greater numbers affecting small towns and rural areas like a plague….. Bobby Jindals great ‘vision’ is all of the people all of a sudden getting really-really smart, and becoming doctors or video game inventors…… What a shallow ideal……. Because its cornerstone is based upon the population being taxed to an even greater extent to support the education and system building that is going to employ all those ‘health care’ rooted vocations which are nullified very easily by people simply eating a proper diet, and exercising more……. And also coming to the understanding that no one really wants to live forever….. Ask any bedridden 85 year old and the only thing that keeps most of them going is the fear of death…. Not the expectation of enjoying a full and active life……. Now, what used to take thousands of people to accomplish is easily accomplished by a few…… To put our nation on the right course where prosperity is to be concerned means causing the cost of living domestically to drop, so that we can (a) produce for ourselves and consume at a lower cost, (b) the surplus can be exported to other lands…… It is in that way we can use disposable income above and beyond that which is needed for our own personal retirement security, and living purposes in order to purchase imports of our choosing from other countries…….. No, everything cannot be even-Steven……. There is always going to be those that have more, and those that have less….. But to address the poverty, the lack of jobs and the suck on the working man’s back via social programs has to be vigorously pursued…. One of the main line items is to reduce the cost of goods and services provided to the Government. Or do you advocate $450 toilet seats on B-52’s and $600 crescent wrenches? I ask you KP, what is the sense in spending $5000.00 per linear foot on a flood wall when it can be had for $1500.00 per linear foot…????? Why build houses that cost $125 per square foot that employees illegal Mexican labor working for $10.00 per hour that simply take that money while they suck on our medical/legal/and education/and social system only to take that money back to Mexico???? Why not produce higher quality homes that only cost $45.00 per square foot while employing people that are sitting around doing nothing for $14.00 per hour and up instead? Oysters is a favorite subject of mine….. Why have two men turning circles on a reef tearing the reef up or literally raping the environment which leads to lower shrimp, crab, and fish production while decreasing water qualities at the same time when 15 to 20 people can also make the same amount of pay per day each harvesting the same amount of oysters using proven aquaculture “oyster farming” techniques? And while we are at it, why not increase our oyster production potential state wide 10,000%? There are plenty of markets, both locally, domestically, AND internationally!!!!!! I have many designs that can cause this into fruition…… And those create hundreds of jobs as well…… Because the facts are; We are going to start aggressively screwing with the way the water flows in the salt marshes, and there are going to be massive collapses of the oyster industry, what’s left of it…. I am not going to pay attention to arguments that would be contrary to the statement I just put down, Chesapeake Bay is an example I will toss out on the table….. And this crap ass VA/LSU facility for how many hundreds of millions? Another waste……. Increase transportation capacity, in the form of high-speed monorail……. There are many viable ways to create jobs, increase exports, lower the costs of living…….. I love seeing Wal Mart shelves getting stocked slower and slower……. It is only through prudent thinking and practical action that we can regain a foothold in the global market place…… This is our last hurrahhhhhhh…….. I don’t know about a disruption of the classes, but if it takes a disruption to the Status Quo that is implementing and effecting policy over the economic concerns of the citizens of Louisiana, and the United States that are obviously failing, THEN I SAY POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!! Written by Because I ain't no Pinko piece of shite
on 1/15/2009
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Take off that pinko suit Smitty - it doesn't look right on you.
I love this defination of the struggle between left and right:
"...simply a tussle between two groups of mass-men, one large and poor, the other small and rich … The object of the tussle was the material gains accruing from control of the State's machinery. It is easier to seize wealth (from the producers) than to produce it; and as long as the State makes the seizure of wealth a matter of legalized privilege, so long will the squabble for that privilege go on."
http://mises.org/story/3009 Written by kpf
on 1/14/2009
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It took two yoke of oxen and three people to plow one acre a day in the mid 1800’s…. In the mid 1700’s they could only do a quarter acre per day….. and in the 1600’s, only a quarter of that acreage could be plowed in a day…… Today, one John Deere 9000 series tractor with one driver can ‘plow’ 300 to 400 acres per day AND plant the seed and fertilizer AT THE SAME TIME as this task is being done!!!!...... And when it came time to HARVEST the wheat or corn in the field back in the 1600’s to the mid to late 1800’s the production was, well, let’s just say ‘it was pretty much equally as labor intensive’…. TODAY? Weeeeeellll, back in those earlier times per acre bushel yield for corn or wheat was around 10 to 15 bushels…… Now bushel averages per acre range from 110 to 135 bushels per acre….. Corn can fetch around 4 bucks a bushel, Wheat, depending on global conditions, 6 to 10 and SoyBeans? Same per acre yields, and generally a little more valuable per bushel than wheat….. And the labor to do so when harvesting? While operating a John Deere 9660 series with a 40’ header I could cover around 100 acres per day (Long day)…. Which equaled around 12,000 bushels of wheat per day…. A bushel of wheat weighs around 59 pounds……. Often, on big spreads up north in places like North Dakota etc., where it is not unusual to see 10,000 acre farms I would work in tandem with 6 other guys operating John Deere 9660 combines…… Our daily harvest would be around 84,000 bushels combined….. @ 59 pounds per bushel that equaled roughly 4,956,000 pounds of wheat….. A loaf of bread weighs how much? Usually 16 oz… (1 pound)….. The population of Louisiana is what? According to a 2006 census it was; 4,287,768 people…. So in other words, 6 other guys and myself harvested enough wheat each day that we were (weather permitting or mud or moisture percentages in the grain), by a weight factor, putting the equivalent of one loaf of bread in the hands of each and every person in the state of Louisiana on a daily basis!!!! AND THEN SOME!!!! In the mid 1800’s it would have required around 16,800 men to harvest the same amount….. In one day…… And that is just for the daily bread…… How many feet of ditch 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep do you suppose a man could dig in one day in the 1800’s? Today one man with some machinery can ‘trench’ over 28,800 feet (a little over 5 miles) in one 8 hour day!!!!!! And they can do this in ‘chirt’!!!!!!! Not just plain old dirt…… (I think you would play hell to get some of these lazy folks to walk 5 miles in one day, let alone dig) And the examples go on and on and on……… How many folks do you think it takes to ‘bake’ over 4 million loaves of bread per day….. I have a clue for you, it is in some applications (artisan breads, etc., etc.,,,) it would require around 20,000 people or more…. Take a bakery located in Minnesota for example; The Franklin Street Bakery produces more than 120 types of bread, mostly fully baked, frozen loaves as well as some par-baked artisan varieties for wholesale distribution in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. The owners predict that the company will have nationwide distribution within the next five years, and are negotiating with new accounts that could double the bakery's current business. In total, Franklin Street Bakery employs about 106 people…. Every day crews work around the clock to produce at least 20,000 loaves (full-size and mini) of bread for the bakery's fully-baked, thaw-and serve sandwich and par-baked artisan bread lines…… To make plain old white bread or wheat bread the production levels increase dramatically, and the amount of workers necessary declines…… Now take oysters….. 2 men can ‘drudge’ several hundred sacks of oysters on a ‘good producing’ oyster bed in a day…… But this destroys the reefs….. And a sack of oysters (300 ct. sack) can bring over $120 wholesale…. Or…… around $24,000 gross based on 200 sacks harvested…. One man can ‘tong’ 10 to 15 sacks of oysters in one day predictably……. Which could mean 13 to 20 ‘tongers’…. Versus 2 men on a boat….. And the high price of the oyster at the market place justifies their employment, and the quality control as well as the conservation measures due to the care and lack of damage tonging does justifies their employment…. And what this means is an industry that focuses on quality coupled with price incentive at the market place almost guarantees perpetual business barring a major catastrophe that also causes more jobs to appear….. On the flip side, there are also all those people that are not working because mechanization causes jobs to be done by fewer people, and the people that are working are supporting those non producers…….. So it would seem that a balance of high end product, and low end product production is desireable…… With the low end products being exported to other countries and the high end products consumed here…….. But there needs to be further reduction in associated costs…. One is housing…. Another is transportation…… But to provide for health care, instead of it being a big suck on the backs of workers, it would seem to me that each state needs to come up with a ‘tax’ system that can be placed on foreign products at the market that will help cover health care costs……… It is all on how you treat the worker and stimulate growth that matters….. And politicians really have no idea on how to do this because they are too busy arguing and keeping good ideas from manifesting………… Written by
on 1/14/2009
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Import/export is not a one way street - in order to "export" the other countries have to have dinero to buy our goods. It still comes down (with the exception of NEEDED infrastructure expendatures by government) to this: the country is better served by "we the people" spending OUR money where WE WANT to spend it. That way, those who provide what WE WANT thrive, while those who do not "die on the vine." That's a "free market" and also "freedom." (it's also "progress" and "the most efficient use of our limited resources - grow success, let failure die - it's right, smart, and inevitably, inevitable). I could care less what some politician "thinks" we should be spending our money on - why? - oh, let's see: 1) he's probably a self-serving egomanic 2) he's probably a crook (even if "he's" a "she") 3) what makes these bozos so smart anyway? 4)I have no trust in them 5)I do not respect them - - -other than all that, yes, our elected officials should simply take-take-take money from the private sector and build ... oh, I dunno, a "green" floodwall or some such BS. What ever they want, I trust them implicitly, don't worry about checks and balances. Give no thought to ALL the corruption in our elected officials that comes to light on a daily basis. Entrust THEM with determining who succeds or fails (bailout-o-rama). Yeah, a new and improved :Master Plan" by those who've brought you 1) the war in Iraq 2) the Community Reinvestment Act, 3) the programs promising to "end poverty', etc. etc. Yes, lets just give them ALL of our money, our souls, our first born.... oh my, 4 minutes to five.... gotta go. Written by kpf
on 1/13/2009
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I find it hard to go along with that tact KP.... To really get to the heart of it one must ask "Where did ALL the MONEY go?" You see, it is still floating around, it is somewhere I am sure.... The question is; "Who has it?".... And once it is found, "What are they going to do with it?"........ It would certainly appear that "We don't have it"...... And I am not interested in becomming a hamburger a day nation..... Sure, I can walk to Mickey D's each afternoon, buy a dollar cheesburger, but what does that do? Nothing, except satisfy a little hunger for a few hours...... Now if money is going to be spent, it needs to be spent on things that will (a) reduce costs, and (b) spur economic growth.... Fresh cadets from some University do not spur economic growth, (unless of course they are allowed to spend someone elses money) but lower costs coupled with increased manufacturing for export does.... Walmart shelves are getting sort of thin, and that is good..... Perhaps we have gotten the import frenzy into a reality box.... Now look at every lack on the shelves, figure out how to make it ourselves, and make it inexpensively so that we can export...... again...... Lot's of policies to pursue, but implementing them? Written by
on 1/13/2009
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"The question of will it work has been muted by the lack of ideas of what to do instead" - well.... there is the thinking that government cannot borrow this country out of debt, and that while limited infrastructure projects may in fact pay both short and long term benefits that our government has a "nack" to spend more than something should cost and keep projects going on long after they have served their usefulness. So... one thing "to do instead" is ..... nothing. Let the market (housing prices, jobs, etc.) make their correction and let the economy grow naturally. The (government) alternative may in fact be a "cure that's worse than the disease." People need confidence in our economy, having the government rail that the sky is falling (economically) and they "need to do something" is not going to get people spending or taking on more debt, even if lenders are willing to make loans. Written by kpf
on 1/13/2009
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The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse..... Written by
on 1/13/2009
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NOW HERE IS SOMETHING FOR OUR GREAT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD TO 'SINK' THEIR TEETH INTO...... Removing cats to protect birds backfires on island - - - - Michael Casey, Ap Environmental Writer – 31 mins ago - - - BANGKOK, Thailand – It seemed like a good idea at the time: Remove all the feral cats from a famous Australian island to save the native seabirds......... But the decision to eradicate the felines from Macquarie island allowed the rabbit population to explode and, in turn, destroy much of its fragile vegetation that birds depend on for cover, researchers said Tuesday........ Removing the cats from Macquarie "caused environmental devastation" that will cost authorities 24 million Australian dollars ($16.2 million) to remedy, Dana Bergstrom of the Australian Antarctic Division and her colleagues wrote in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. - - - - -- - - - Little Bobby should contact all the animal shelters in Louisiana, and appropriate all the cats being housed in them.... Then toss all the cats on a 747, and fly them to Macquarie..... KAJUN BAMMMMMMMM!!!!!! A quick net of 24 million bucks!!!!!! Go Bobby!!!!!!! G0 GET 'EM!!!!!!!!!! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
Written by
on 1/13/2009
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Louisiana can pool all it wants..... How it is applied is the real mustard on the Bolgna sandwich we are being fed............ Oil at $37 bucks per barrel and slipping???? New York Harbor blend gasoline is currently being traded at $1.08 per gallon, slip? .75 cent a gallon on the horizon? Anadarko's total SEC-defined reserves of oil and natural gas, amounts to 2.43 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). This value per barrel of equivalent oil equates to around $11.68, or less than half what a buyer might be willing to spend per barrel of oil in the very near future. Occidental, with an EV per BOE of $17.50, looks more expensive. The difference stems from Oxy's large and profitable chemical operation, which probably inflates the overall valuation. Across the board there are other players, such as; Devon (NYSE: DVN), with an enterprise value per barrel of oil equivalent of $13.36 and Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) (EV per BOE of $12.02). Too small for the crowd? Well there is Exxon's purchase of Mobil and BP's acquisition of Amoco, both in the late 1990s) and points out that on average the purchasers paid an 18% premium over the prevailing stock price, and on average an enterprise value per BOE of $11.19….. With regards to trade off, and $22 at BOE value regardless of the Stragegic Reserves, trading at perhaps $29 per BOE we are still talking a 29% increase in return on the trade……… Yup, oil is going to fluctuate wildly day to day for the next year or so, per BOE cost average for 2009 at the end of December? Peg it perhaps around $24 to $27……….. Of course if things really start to head south in July as is carefully anticipated, look at oil for {shudder} $17 per barrel or less.. Written by
on 1/13/2009
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