Auto Bailout

In 2008 President Bush arranged (from TARP funds) for a $13 billion bail out of Chrysler and GM. Then President Obama's added funding, bringing the total to over $50 billion. Then and now the moral hazard* argument is raised by opponents of government intervention in spite of the apparent success of the action.

Within two years Chrysler had repaid it's smaller loan of $6 billion and the company under new ownership has prospered.

It took two more years for GM to regain it's financial footing and repay the bulk of its loan. The government will have to absorb a $10 billion loss from the deal that included concessions from unions, creditors, suppliers and dealers.

Was it worth it? Some people maintain that the companies might have survived in some other form arising out of bankruptcy. The operative words are might have.

What is fact is that GM currently has 88,000 directly employed workers as well as causing their suppliers to create or maintain hundreds of thousands of jobs. The annual government revenue from the wages of these workers have probably far exceeded the $10 billion loss.

Precedent: In 1983, Chrysler paid off the loans that had been guaranteed by US taxpayers in 1979 and the Treasury was also $350 million richer. http://uspolitics.about.com/od/economy/a/chryslerBailout.htm

*The expectation that a company will make risky decisions if it feels that the government, in this case, will rescue them. 

The Amateur Economist

Don't throw Keynes* out with the bath water of failed economic systems. 

*John Maynard Keynes, 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946) was a British economist whose ideas have fundamentally affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, and informed the economic policies of governments. He built on and greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and is widely considered to be one of the founders of modern macroeconomics and the most influential economist of the 20th century His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics and its various offshoots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States

List of economic panics* and depressions throughout U. S. History

1807; 1815; 1857; 1873; 1893; 1896; 1907; 1910; 1920; 1929. Enter Keynesian economics and 60 years of controlled buisness cycles, In the year 2000 exit Keynesianism, and the resulting great recession of 2007

*panic, crisis in financial and economic conditions, marked by public loss of confidence in the financial structure. Panics are characterized by a general rush of investors to convert their assets into cash, with runs on banks and a rapid fall of the securities market. Bank failures and bankruptcies naturally follow.

In my opinion Keynes would have approved of the recession prompted tax cuts in in 2001 and 2003 to increase consumption and prime the economic pump. The cuts emulated the successful policies of John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. The problem with the Bush cuts were, that unlike previous stimulative cuts that they were untargeted and untimed. The economy recovered and the reduced tax revenue caused an increase in budget deficits.

The Bush administration was also the first modern one to wage not one but two wars without increasing government revenue to pay for them. This further exacerbated the deficits and national debt problems.

When the inevitable recession hit the economy, there was no room for tax cuts to be applied and a growing deficit and debt problem mandated that the only approach was to unleash monetary and fiscal stimulus measures that helped bring about a recovery but added to the debt problem.

In hind sight if the Bush administration had ended the tax cuts at the peak of the recovery and increased taxes to cover the cost of the wars, a lower cost of recession recovery could have been employed.

Business cycles and resultant recessions are an integral part of any capitalist economic system. The time tested and proven way to reduce the severity the cycles is to increase consumption via temporary and targeted tax cuts and deficit spending. The Clinton tax increases during the highs of the 1990s handed Bush a tool that was squandered,

If we tax the economic highs and spend in the lows the cycle can be controlled in a less severe way.

Any good farmer knows that one good season with good profits is not a reliable indicator of future years. The farmer will save a portion of one years earnings to use in the bad years when the weather and prices are down.

Paul Hunter paulhunter45177@gmail.com

Stop Individual Mandates Now!

If a poor uninsured driver T bones you at an intersection, that's just the luck of the draw. Pay for your own repair and medical costs. That's the American way. Don't tread on me.

If you do decide to drive illegally you can lose your driving privileges and pay a reinstatement fee. Drivers’ fees range from less than $200 in some cases to thousands of dollars as costly penalties increase for repeat offenders, making it harder for them to pay their totals and become a legal driver, BMV administrator Tim Fisher said.(see below for details)

If a poor uninsured Ohio resident breaks a leg or catches pneumonia and goes to the ER your insurance premiums and taxes will pay for his or her care. That's the American way. Don't tread on me.

The minimum tax/fee/fine for being without health insurance in 2014. will be $95.

Section 4509.101 of the Ohio Revised Code prohibits an individual from operating a motor vehicle in Ohio without maintaining proof of FR continuously throughout the registration period with respect to that vehicle, or in the case of a driver who is not the owner, with respect to that driver's operation of that vehicle. The law requires financial responsibility in the minimum amount of $25,000 for bodily injury to or death of one individual in any one accident, $50,000 for bodily injury to or death of two or more individuals in any one accident, and $25,000 for injury to the property of others in any one accident.

Coverage set to double: In 2014 Ohio drivers who carry the minimum amount of insurance will have to boost their coverage the next time they renew their policies, to $25,000 per person, $50,000 for a multiperson accident and $25,000 for property damage.

Average annual cost for minimum coverage in Oho s over $600.

If you decide to forgo insurance and still be legal: A certificate issued by the BMV, after proper application and approval, indicating that money or government bonds in the amount of $30,000 is on deposit with the office of the Treasurer of the State of Ohio.

Pay Now Or Pay Later

Ohio’s minimum wage going up

Ohio’s 330,000 minimum wage workers will see their pay climb 10 cents to $7.95 an hour beginning Jan. 1 when the automatic hike takes effect.

http://www.epi.org/publication/wage-workers-older-88-percent-workers-benefit/

Exposing a myth. Low-wage Workers Are Older Than You Think

88 Percent of Workers Who Would Benefit From a Higher Minimum Wage Are Older Than 20, One Third OR 110,000 in Ohio Are Over 40

The Economist a free market centered magazine offers that “some studies indicate no harm to employment from federal or state minimum wages, other studies see a small effect. None of the studies find any serious damage.

Compiled by Paul Hunter

On Freedom of Speech

Freedom is not free:

...Sarah Palin, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and droves of fans among his [Robertson] supporters.….......Palin took to facebook Wednesday night in defense of the Duck Dynasty star. “Free speech is an endangered species,” she wrote............ ….......a statement from Gov. Jindal, who discussed First Amendment rights when defending Robertson’s comments. “Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana.............
On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said those who believe in freedom of speech and religious freedom should be "dismayed" over the indefinite suspension of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson.In my opinion:These vote chasers should be ashamed of themselves. Freedom is not free. Too many of our citizens have paid with life and limb to protect our freedom. In comparison, losing a part time job is a small price to pay. Speak to your heart's content but don't pretend that your words will not have consequences.
Paul Hunter paulhunter45177@gmail.com

Jobs Ohio Update

Ohio lagging behind the nation.

A report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that Ohio continued to fall behind the other states in November.

All those jobs Kasich promised to create by privatizing Ohio’s business development activities under Jobs Ohio, and giving billions of state dollars to the secret, non-transparent, unaccountable organization?

Last month Ohio lost 12,000 jobs. The most of any state in the country.

Level the Retail Playing Field

When Governor Kasich vetoed the Ohio internet sales tax this past June, part of the rationale included, “This item attempts to mandatorily apply the collection of Ohio sales and use tax to transactions between out-of-state internet retailers and Ohio residents. Similar items enacted in other states have resulted in extensive litigation 

Since that veto, the playing field has been changed by the U. S. Supreme Court's rejection of Amazon's appeal to overturn a New York state law. That law requires internet sales to New York residents to be taxed. In effect the litigation issue has been addressed.

The fallout from this decision could result, if acted on by the state legislature, in a significant increase in Ohio's sales tax receipts. Hard pressed counties would also gain from a change in tax law. Clinton County, for example, receives 1.5 cents from each dollar of sales.

The court's decision will be of increasing importance as internet commerce increases its sales while sales from brick and mortar stores decline, resulting in less tax revenue. Small local businesses are, anfd have been at a disadvantage because of having to add sales taxes to their prices.

Ask Representative Cliff Rosenberger and Senator Peterson for their view on this matter

Paul Hunter paulhunter45177@gmail.com

Health Care Update

National Health Rankings

Is Ohio becoming a deep south state?

http://www.americashealthrankings.org/rankings

See web site for criteria

Mississippi 50

*Arkansas 49

Louisiana 48

Alabama 47

W. Virginia 46

*Kentucky 45

Oklahoma 44

S. Carolina 43

Tennessee 42

Indiana 41

                       *Ohio 40 (Down from 38 last year)

*Accepting Medicaid expansion for 2014

Wealth Distribution Revisited

Although the term, Wealth Distribution has a bad political connotation, the impact of a faulty distribution system on a consumer economy is a real life issue. If the consumer has little or no discretionary income, who will consume the products and in turn produce a return on investment in manufacturing and services?

Henry Ford instinctively realized the importance of wealth distribution on consumption in the early 20^th century. He posited that,” Workers are paid higher "living" wages, so they can afford to purchase the products they make”.

At base this is not a fairness issue. That subject can be taken up by social system designers.

Globalization and multinational business has taken it's toll on the U. S. working class's standard of living (reduced non credit consumption) in recent years. A much bigger challenge to the conventional model awaits in the near to mid term time frame.

Item: Amazon is within a few years of connecting automated distribution centers with automated delivery vehicles. Where will the money come from to purchase the services and products that now comes from the wages of warehouse and delivery workers.

Item: Google is making a huge investment in automation, concentrating on machines that replace humans in the manufacturing process and “replacing people that walk around factories, pick up and sort goods in distribution centers and work in the back rooms of grocery stores.

To quote a Google founder,”technology should be deployed wherever possible to free humans from drudgery and repetitive tasks”. That's a noble concept but what will those drudges do for financial resources?

Paul Hunter paulhunter45177@gmail.com

Electric Aggregation Update

DP&L Energy Resources, the electricity provider for aggregation customers in Wilmington, the unincorporated portion of Clinton County and the village of Midland, gave a presentation to the Clinton County Commissioners recently. The provider gave a similar briefing to Wilmington City Council a few months ago.

Some highlights follow:

Number of county enrollments = 4,483

Estimated annual customer savings based of first six moth experience = $1,594,659

Wilmington customer savings = $1,156,000

City owned buildings = $70,000

Street light operating costs = $55,000

Total Savings city and county = 2,875,659

Midland data unavailable,

I'm proud to say that I played a major roll in bringing this program to both the city and county.

Paul Hunter paulhunter45177@gmail.com

The Amateur Economist

Lesson unlearned

http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his2341/tragic.html
….............President Hoover's confidence campaign,[during the depression] while well intentioned, simply did not work. The economy continued its downward spiral-workers cut back on consumption, more workers were laid off, workers cut back further on consumption, etc., etc.
A fiscal conservative, he fought desperately to maintain a balanced federal budget. This was extremely difficult given the demands placed on the government to launch various relief programs and a shrinking revenue base because of unprecedented deflation. Hoover however said: "The course of unbalanced budgets is the road to ruin". The logic of this position was that the business community would be discouraged and delay reinvestment if the government were unable to operate in the black. As McElvaine points out: "The President therefore devoted much of his energies in 1931 and 1932 to the goal of a balanced budget, which was hopeless under the circumstances. Yet, as Hoover himself had recognized in less frantic times, cutting spending and raising taxes diminished purchasing and made the situation worse".
In the name of restoring business confidence, President Hoover also rejected ever-louder demands by Americans that the currency system be inflated. Many Americans reasoned that since the economic disease the country suffered from was unprecedented deflation (as hundreds of millions of dollars were withdrawn from circulation and investment) then the appropriate prescription was inflation. They urged the government to abandon the gold standard and flood the economy with printed currency. Hoover rejected such demands arguing that a stable or "hard" currency system had always been a prerequisite for business investment. If the currency system was inflated by the government, businessmen would refuse to reinvest their funds in the economy. This would simply delay the day when economic recovery could begin. Thus, Hoover refused to give in to the demands for inflation.

Paul Hunter writes:
Enter Lord Maynard Keynes and 50 years of growing prosperity, uninterrupted by major economic down turns.
Given that the body politic often suffers from historical amnesia it should not surprise us that the economic nation went astray in the new millennium. The government's untimed and untargeted tax reductions meant to temper a recession in 2000 was maintained after the recovery and during revenue sapping wartime spending. The result was growing government debt and budget deficits leading up to the financial sector collapse.
Fortunately the lessons learned the had way in the1930s were applied and a great depression was avoided*. The recovery was hampered by the deficits and debt at the time of the crisis.



*Unemployment rate 23.6% in1932 9.6 in 2010

City Council Election

What do the recent council election results tell us?

In this single party controlled city council, members cannot say in all honesty that the people have spoken or that they represent the majority of the residents. They can only say their party has spoken and even saying that is ambiguous when eighty two percent of registered voters stayed home. One incumbent member was reelected by winning less than 14% of his wards possible votes. That is hardly a mandate. This being the case, a special burden is placed on the elected members. In my opinion they should reach beyond personal and political beliefs when considering legislation affecting all of the people.

In any case it is what is.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Council members of the more conservative wing of the ruling party have often stated that the city has a spending problem and not a revenue problem I would posit that we had both back in 2010 but through much budget cutting and trimming the spending part has been pretty much solved. That leaves the revenue problem that has been exacerbated by significant reductions in revenue sharing from the state, loss of the estate tax, stagnant income and property tax receipts. Another threat to revenue is looming in the state legislature as they plan to force de facto income tax reductions on the cities.

The problem with focusing only on the spending side is that we are forcing the city work force to carry the majority of the burden of austerity while we residents get a short term free ride.

A couple of examples:

Who are the hardest working city employees that toil in the early hours of rainy, windy and wintery days? If you think it's our trash collectors you are right. We set out trash, yard waste, tree limbs, recyclables and even bedding in the evening and voila, the next morning it's gone. Every week of the year.

Tell the collector that was hired in 2008 for $13.63 an hour and now makes an adjusted $12 an hour that he is responsible the city's budget woes.

Michelle Horner who works in the building and zoning department was hired as an assistant in 2009 for $13.66 per hour. Since that time she has taken over many of the duties of the former building official who was making almost $40.00 per hour. Michelle is now making an adjusted 12.30 per hour for her part in making a significant reduction in the spending side.

As I have opined on several occasions, the voters should be given a choice in the revenue issue. The best measure of the voters thinking is for the council to offer a non partisan – non council sponsored property tax levy choice in next spring's primary.

I ask the conservative wing of council, what possible objection could they have to letting the underrepresented residents make the decision to tax themselves a few dollars a month to prevent an exodus of experienced city workers as the economy recovers.

Is This The Ohio Miracle?

USA Today: October unemployment rates fall in 28 states.

Ohio’s unemployment rate in October rose slightly to 7.5 percent, even though the state says it added jobs in the past two months, according to data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The Columbus area’s strong growth in employment since the recession ended might be showing signs of dimming. The region has lost 8,000 jobs over the past three months, including 6,100 in October, according to data compiled by Bill LaFayette, owner of the economic-consulting firm Regionomics, based on state figures released yesterday.

In spite of more than a billion dollars of tax dollars* being transferred to the quasi private and unaccountable Jobs Ohio organization, new jobs don't seem to be happening.

*The long-awaited transfer of Ohio’s wholesale liquor franchise to JobsOhio was completed Friday along with sale of $1.5 billion in bonds to finance the acquisition.

The transfer means Jobs Ohio, the state’s private, nonprofit economic development, can begin tapping about $100 million in annual liquor profits to fund its job-creation efforts.

Added to this news our state government attack on local governments and public education.:

Reducing or eliminating the return of tax revenue to local governments and schools.

According to Shttp://www.policymattersohio.org/4percent-oct2013 Senate bill 210 would take the savings from Medicaid expansion and use it for an across-the-board income-tax cut that might buy a cup of coffee for low-income Ohioans but would give the average top earner enough for a trip to Paris.

“The proposed income-tax cut would further tilt the tax system in favor of affluent Ohioans,” said Zach Schiller, research director at Policy Matters Ohio. “Ohioans would be better served if we rehired police and firefighters, put teachers back in our classrooms, and invested more to protect vulnerable elderly from neglect and abuse.”  A Policy Matters Ohio policy brief last week identified some of the ways that savings from the Medicaid expansion could be used.

Under Senate Bill 210 as it is now, libraries and local governments would see additional annual reductions of millions of dollars a year, since each receives 1.66 percent of tax revenues. It is also far from clear that the anticipated savings from Medicaid expansion will match the size of the tax cut that has been proposed.- See more at: http://www.policymattersohio.org/4percent-oct2013#sthash.AZzvJZOa.dpuf

Paul Hunter

In My Opinion

If the right wing, a supposed defender of capitalism, is unable to accept guidance from the epitome of entrepreneurial capitalism, they are phonies, using immigration as a political stick with which to beat on centrist proponents of reform.

Paul Hunter

Two months after going to Capitol Hill to fight for immigration reform, 29-year-old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is continuing his push.

ZUCKERBERG: "They really don't know any other country besides that, but they don't have the opportunities that we all enjoy. It's really heartbreaking. It seems it's one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time." (ViaABC)

During his interview with ABC 'This Week,' Zuckerberg said there are a lot of misconceptions about undocumented immigrants — including children of illegal immigrants who face being deported from the U.S. once they're adults. (Via WABC)

It's such a big issue for Zuckerberg, he has co-founded a group with 12 others, including Bill Gates, called FWD.us.

According to the site, supporters include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. Its goal is to push for immigration reform. But Zuckerberg and his supporters might be facing an uphill battle....................

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/national/zuckerberg-calls-immigration-major-civil-rights-is/nb4Sf/

The Trolley Problem 

There is a runaway trolley barrelling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. Unfortunately, you notice that there is one person on the side track. You have two options: (1) Do nothing, and the trolley kills the five people on the main track. (2) Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person. Which is the correct choice?

My view, aided by the accelerating advancements in genome and neuroscience, is that there is no free choice available. People's actions are dictated by genetic inheritance and past and present environmental circumstances.

Those conditioned for survival of the species will not pull the lever while the person concerned only with personal survival may just walk away from the problem because it doesn’t affect them. After all they are not tied to the tracks and they don't want to get involved.

See Murder of Kitty Genovese @  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese
.

Paul Hunter

Council Meeting

November 21 Wilmington City Council Meeting 

Council approved the expenditure of $79,000 of 'Sugartree St. Corridor” grant money to acquire three Dupree properties on the east side of S. Mulberry bordering the old railroad tracks. The plan is to connect the existing trail to the newly created Xidas park on the former site of the Manhattan Lounge on South St.

I'm not convinced that the purchase price was a sound use of the funds. The auditor's appraised value for the three properties, totaling three quarters of an acre, is only $57,600 and that may be high considering the location and condition of the real estate. It's very difficult to accept that any lots in the city are worth $105,000 per acre.

In contrast the city does not think a similar property at 142 N. Mulberry is worth $12,000.

PaulHunter

By Any Other Name

Abatement:

When Airborne's parent company ATSG applied for a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) scheme, a form of tax abatement, for its new $15 million maintenance and paint, (JUMP) hangar. A senior representative of the company maintained that the TIF was not a tax abatement and that local governments were not putting any money into the project.

The representative did not mention that the City, County and CIC donated more than half a million dollars to get this project started. The financially troubled Port Authority is also chipping in $212,000 per year in lease reductions to ATSG.

While the TIF agreements are not considered abatement schemes like Enterprise Zones (EZ) or CRAs the effect is still the same.

ATSG will make service payments in lieu of taxes to the city. The city, in turn, will redirect that money, minus a small portion going to the schools, to help pay down ASTG’s 23 year loan obligation. It’s as if ATSG paid no property taxes (abatement) and paid down the loan with that money. Airborne Express used taxabatements to pay for the development of the airport. DHL also used abatements to support the construction of the huge sort “F” building that now sits empty.

While the TIF resembles an EZ the 25 year term of the TIF makes the 7 year EZ and CRA look like a bargain for the taxpayers.

The property tax revenue recipients will be sacrificing the same amount of dollars under TIF as they would have under other forms of abatement.

Assuming that the new hangar will be valued at $15 million, its construction cost, the following $273,000 annual tax distribution losses will be as affected as follows.

a. Schools net loss $106,000

b. County connected $60,000

c. City $44,000

d. Miscellaneous, including Laurel Oaks, Library and Senior citizens $22,000Multiply these values times 25 years to obtain the total loss.

Ff it looks like an abatement and it smells like an abatement it must be an abatement. We can only for the jobs that could generate $92,000 in annual city income tax revenue minus 33% for the schools, unknowable increase in school income taxes and county sales taxes.

Paul Hunter

Hospital money 'perfect' for new YMCA

The Hospital sale money belongs to all of the people.

http://wnewsj.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=156&ArticleID=207940

A plan has been put together to build a new $8.1 million recreational and health facility near Wilmington High School - if Clinton County Commissioners are willing to pay half the cost with proceeds from the sale of Clinton Memorial Hospital.

The YMCA would serve as a tenant and manager in the facility, said Greg Law, executive director of the Clinton County Community Family YMCA during a meeting with commissioners Wednesday. About 60 various community members attended the meeting, held in the county's juvenile/probate courtroom.

My opinion:

The Hospital sale money belongs to all of the people of Clinton County. This proposition raises some questions.

1. Do to its location would all, or even most county residents, be able to take advantage of the facility?

2. Would the quasi religious nature of the prospective operator be an obstacle to the process?

3. Would county wide emergency services be a better use of the money?

4. Would all county residents have free membership and privileges at the center?

Paul Hunter

REALITY CHECK

It's time to join other States 

From the beginning of recorded history humans have made and consumed mood altering substances including alcohol and plant products. Periodically well intended but futile efforts have been made to make the sale and use of such items illegal.

The best example of the unintended consequences resulting from such efforts was the enactment of the prohibition of alcohol in the 1919

The result was an increased and untaxed manufacture and consumption of whiskey, wine and beer. The rise of a national organized crime problem led by the fabled Al Capone. The money made by those syndicates during prohibition was used to finance criminal operations that we are still dealing with today. After several years of futile enforcement efforts and a rising lawlessness the amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933. The cause may have been noble but the reality was worse.

Today alcohol sales are regulated and taxed. For example, in 2005 Ohio collected $57.7 million for beer and wine alone and does not include hard liquor taxes.

For the last twenty years or so the country has found itself in a similar situation as regards marijuana use and associated crime. The outright banning of the sale and use of this relatively mild mood altering substance has created Mexican billionaires and an unknown trail of dead bodies strewn along the trade routes. Our jails are overflowing with non-violent minor sellers and users. The war on marijuana, much like the war on alcohol, has been lost.

A marijuana use cost benefit analysis indicates that it costs the tax payer while it benefits the criminal smugglers, dealers and jailers.

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/news/i-team-investigates-cost-marijuana-searches/nbpSf/

The statewide cost for the eradication program amounts to $500,000 a year. Most of that goes to pay for the helicopter and pilot. Much additional money is spent by local law enforcement in coordination with the state effort. The Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA figures show there were only 27 arrests in Ohio last year.

That works out to a taxpayer cost of about $18 thousand per arrest and $6 per plant destroyed.

In my opinion Ohio should change law and policy to: (a) Decriminalize marijuana use and. (b.)Regulate and tax the sales of the product. Some of the revenue should be spent in an anti-smoking like ad campaign describing the bad effects of habitual use.

Legal availability of marijuana might even reduce the proliferation of methlabs

Some of us have an occasional beer, glass of wine or a cocktail without dire consequences and recreational use of a natural occurring herb is little different.

Paul Hunter paulhunter45177@gmail.com

45177 Jobs

45177 Jobs 

The Mayor's “new jobs” reporting is not a net job list. When enterprises like Staples close their doors the employee loss is not calculated.

A better indicator of quality job growth is in the monthly city income tax report. One $50,000 new hire is worth more than several part time j0bs.

As of October 31^st income tax receipts for 2013 were around $100,000 less than 2012.

The big hope is that in 2014 the Port Authority’s JUMP hangar project will produce the promised quality jobs.

Paul Hunter

Nature-Nurture Revisited

Nature and Nurture II 8/21/13

At some point in the not to distant future the time tested economic model of investors forming corporation and hiring worker to produce goods that the workers, in turn, consume will have to be revised.

As discussed in Part I the need for a mass class of low and semi skilled manufacturing workers is rapidly disappearing. Low paying retail sales and service employment will not support a prospering consumption based economy.

I posit that a new wealth distribution system must evolve as the need for manufacturing labor declines.

There are trillions of dollars worth of basic public infrastructure creation and maintenance needs that are not now being accomplished.

Where will the money come from to pay for this public work as the labor tax base declines.

1. Tax the machines that have replaced the tax paying workers or 2. Corporations can assume responsibility for infrastructure in their area of interest and operation, using the huge stockpile of cash earned from reduced labor costs.

These are just two of many possible ideas and the details are too complex to be dealt with in this forum.

Maybe this is a beginning of a much needed political and social conversation.

After all “what's a society to do with the under-natured and under-nurtued demographic as low skilled manufacturing jobs disappear.

Send me your thoughts

3-D manufacturing next Industrial Revolution?

• http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/3-d-manufacturing-seen-to-be-next-industrial-revol/nbdcb/

.............The cost of producing the complex fuel nozzle part with the additive process is 20 percent less than a conventionally made nozzle, Liechty said.

“The biggest part of the savings is the direct labor that goes into assembling and inspecting the parts. That in fact speaks to additive being the next Industrial Revolution as well and how it will impact jobs in Ohio, as well as the U.S., and that’s because what really drives cost with additive is the technology itself,” Liechty said.

“Because of that technology, when we look at our production sites and doing our cost

The Ohio Miracle

In my opinion

Poor John, darned if he does and darned if he don't.

Ohio income drops; 1 in 6 live in poverty

From 2007 to 2012 — a span that covered the start of the Great Recession and a supposed economic recovery — the median income for Ohio’s 4.6 million households fell by almost $4,800, after adjustment for inflation.

http://www.examiner.com/article/jobs-report-argues-kasich-s-ohio-miracle-more-like-ohio-mirage

Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich has another 14 months until voters decide whether to rehire him or not. The former nine-term congressman, Fox TV political talk show host and Wall Street banker turned governor, who won by a small margin in 2010 with the help of Tea Party activists who have since abandoned him, appears to not only have lost support of this key group in his voter base as Republican activists find fault with him on issues from budgets to Medicaid to right-to-work legislation, but appears to have lost his self-proclaimed powers to create the number and quality of jobs he said only his "moving at the speed of business" policies and programs could produce at the hands of JobsOhio, his pet but private job-creation group.

Paul Hunter

Methamphetamine Lab Busts

What Can Be Done ?

Would the number of meth makers change much if nothing was done by law enforcement? It's sorta like whack-a-mole. Shut one down and another pops up. Fear of the law appears to have little effect on the need to use and produce. One thing for sure, from investigation to incarceration, enforcement is very expensive.

Ohio BCI thinks meth is the drug of choice in rural areas. Could it also be true rural areas are a good place to manufacture the drug for state wide distribution?

Would decriminalizing marijuana, be a step in the right direction?

Paul Hunter

http://timesgazette.com/main.asp?SectionID=18&SubSectionID=175&ArticleID=189814

Of the 881 methamphetamine lab busts in Ohio this year, almost 9 percent have been found in Highland County.

The total figure is a 45 percent jump over 2012.

The Highland County Sheriff's Officetotal of 76 so far is the most it's ever found in a year, while there are more than two months left on the calendar. And that figure doesn't include the meth labs found by the Hillsboro or Greenfield police departments, or other municipalities in the county.

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation numbers Tuesday, noting that meth is becoming a drug of choice in the rural parts of the state.

No Matter Who Is President

When The Majority Doesn't Rule 

The Hastert Rule, also known as the "majority of the majority" rule, is an informal governing principle used by Republican Speakers of the House of Representatives since the mid-1990s to maintain their speakerships[1] and limit the power of the minority party to bringbills up for a vote on the floor of the House. Under the doctrine, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives will not allow a vote on a bill unless a majority of the majority party supports the bill. Its introduction is widely credited to former Speaker Dennis Hastert (1999–2007); however, Newt Gingrich, who directly preceded Hastert as Speaker (1995–1999), followed the same rule. Hastert was vocal in his support of the rule stating that his job was "to please the majority of the majority",though years after his speakership ended, he distanced himself from the rule, saying, "The Hastert Rule never really existed. It’s a non-entity as far as I’m concerned

Even if the majority of the members of the House would vote to pass it. The rule keeps the minority party from passing bills with the assistance of a small number of majority party members.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule

It’s called the McConnell rule, and it’s time to make it permanent before the current agreement runs out on Feb. 7.

This rule, which was used in last week’s settlement and other agreements for the last two years, allows the president to raise the debt ceiling and then gives Congress a chance to disapprove it. If Congress passes a disapproval measure, the president can veto the legislation. The two chambers would then each need a two-thirds majority to override the veto and prevent the debt limit from rising, which is politically unattainable and is likely to remain so.

Opinion

It’s a World War I-era contrivance that was never used to extract concessions until the Tea Party got hold of it in 2011, and it ought to be formally abolished. It doesn’t limit the debt, which is determined only by the amount Congress spends and takes in. Its only purpose is to give voters the illusion that Congress is acting as a responsible steward over borrowing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/opinion/how-to-disarm-the-debt-ceiling-threat-for-good.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20131022

Paul Hunter paulhunter45177@gmail.com