My condolences to the families of the men killed in the Afghanistan chopper crash over the weekend. They gave their lives defending the country and deserve all honor.
We learned in Viet Nam that landing a chopper under enemy fire is very dangerous, helicopters are not bullet proof. Ordinary rifle fire will penetrate every part of the fuselage, and every part of passengers and crew. According to the TV news, the Chinook was hit with an anti-tank rocket. Such a rocket can kill an armored tank. An all aluminum chopper is no contest.
Helicopter air assault is very dangerous. We should be thankful to have soldiers brave enough to take part in it.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Federal regulation cost enhancement
Aviation Week reports that Boeing has made 1200 test flights with five aircraft to meet 1700 FAA certification requirements. This is for a new version of the venerable 747, which has been flying passengers for nearly 40 years.
1200 flights is one hell of a lot of flying. My old Air Force fighter squadron needed a year to rack up that many sorties. And this is a minor modification of a well proven and highly reliable aircraft with a magnificent safety record.
Could this be yet another case of government desk weenies making a company jump thru expensive hoops just because they can?
Each test flight burns up $40,000 worth of jet fuel. To say nothing of paying the flight crew, and the maintenance effect.
1200 flights is one hell of a lot of flying. My old Air Force fighter squadron needed a year to rack up that many sorties. And this is a minor modification of a well proven and highly reliable aircraft with a magnificent safety record.
Could this be yet another case of government desk weenies making a company jump thru expensive hoops just because they can?
Each test flight burns up $40,000 worth of jet fuel. To say nothing of paying the flight crew, and the maintenance effect.
Gold now priced like Platinum
The price of gold has risen so much that it is now as costly as platinum.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Lots of hand wringing, but no calls for action
Fox news and the WSJ have been wringing their hands over the debt down grade from AAA to AA+. Lots of unhappy talk about who is to blame, how bad or not bad it will be. No calls to do something about it. Let's get the economy growing again, that will put people back to work, paying taxes rather than collecting unemployment, companies making money, that's what will fix the debt crises.
If half the hot air devoted to finger pointing and post morteming would go into advocating fixes we would be home free.
By the way, it ain't the Tea Party's fault. We have been spending more than we take in taxes for a long time, digging a deep hole. The Tea Party understands the first rule of holes. When you are in a hole, stop digging.
If half the hot air devoted to finger pointing and post morteming would go into advocating fixes we would be home free.
By the way, it ain't the Tea Party's fault. We have been spending more than we take in taxes for a long time, digging a deep hole. The Tea Party understands the first rule of holes. When you are in a hole, stop digging.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Dems don't compromise either
The Dems, who complain about lack of compromise from Tea Partiers and Republicans, have shown how intransigent they can be. They shut down the FAA, furloughing 4000 bureaucrats, shutting down airport construction projects, laying off a bunch of construction workers, all over a measly $16.5 million in pork which the Republicans wanted to trim.
To be fair, there was one other issue. The Obama appointed FAA had issued a rule making it easier to unionize a company and the Republicans wanted to repeal it, putting things back the way they have been since the 1930's. But still, it was a minor issue, abet one dear to the hearts of labor unions.
As an observer on the side lines, it is incredible that the dems refused to give the Republicans $16.5 million in cuts and a union issue. $16.5 million is chicken feed and any company under FAA jurisdiction that isn't union now is unlikely to go union under any rule. But the dems dug in their heels and refused to compromise (aka give the Republicans what they wanted in return for keeping all those good democratic voting bureaucrats on the payroll).
To be fair, there was one other issue. The Obama appointed FAA had issued a rule making it easier to unionize a company and the Republicans wanted to repeal it, putting things back the way they have been since the 1930's. But still, it was a minor issue, abet one dear to the hearts of labor unions.
As an observer on the side lines, it is incredible that the dems refused to give the Republicans $16.5 million in cuts and a union issue. $16.5 million is chicken feed and any company under FAA jurisdiction that isn't union now is unlikely to go union under any rule. But the dems dug in their heels and refused to compromise (aka give the Republicans what they wanted in return for keeping all those good democratic voting bureaucrats on the payroll).
Money Grows on Trees
Or at least that's what graduates of journalism school seem to think. The Economist, a London based weekly newsmag, castigates "European leaders" (without naming them) for failing to raise the EU bailout fund to 1 trillion Euros to bail out Italy.
Sounds good, but not a word about where those Euros will come from. Italy's government is spending more than it takes in by way of taxes. They have been skating by and borrowing the money. The sucker banks are wising up and refusing to lend to Italy except at 6 percent interest, and going higher real soon now. When the loans dry up the Italians will be unable to roll their debt over and bond holders will loose money, perhaps all their money. This is a bad thing, but who wants to spend their good money to bail the Italians out?
The J-school grads who write for The Economist don't even recognize raising money as a difficulty. Brussels bureaucrats can wave their hands and the money will appear.
The real long term fix is to balance the Italian budget, so that taxes pay for spending. This may take both time and a big hammer. Like not being able to borrow any more money. J school grads don't write about this either.
We should pay attention because this will happen to us, unless we cut the big money sinks, medicare, medicaid, and social security.
Sounds good, but not a word about where those Euros will come from. Italy's government is spending more than it takes in by way of taxes. They have been skating by and borrowing the money. The sucker banks are wising up and refusing to lend to Italy except at 6 percent interest, and going higher real soon now. When the loans dry up the Italians will be unable to roll their debt over and bond holders will loose money, perhaps all their money. This is a bad thing, but who wants to spend their good money to bail the Italians out?
The J-school grads who write for The Economist don't even recognize raising money as a difficulty. Brussels bureaucrats can wave their hands and the money will appear.
The real long term fix is to balance the Italian budget, so that taxes pay for spending. This may take both time and a big hammer. Like not being able to borrow any more money. J school grads don't write about this either.
We should pay attention because this will happen to us, unless we cut the big money sinks, medicare, medicaid, and social security.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Other shoe dropped. S & P drops US to AA+
They have been threatening to do this for months now. The shoe dropped last night after the market closed, and it was all over NPR this morning. Fox has talked about little else all day.
There are two angles to this, financial and political. Financial means effect on saleability of US treasury bonds and the interest rate there of. We won't know much until the markets open on Monday. Political means its effect upon Obama's re election campaign. That's already started, and we can expect Republicans to make a big deal of this thruout the 2012 elections. At a guess, the financial effects will be small, especially compared to the stock market fall Thursday and Friday.
There are two angles to this, financial and political. Financial means effect on saleability of US treasury bonds and the interest rate there of. We won't know much until the markets open on Monday. Political means its effect upon Obama's re election campaign. That's already started, and we can expect Republicans to make a big deal of this thruout the 2012 elections. At a guess, the financial effects will be small, especially compared to the stock market fall Thursday and Friday.
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