Just finished up on Fox. Disappointing. Obama called upon reporters by name, and was able to get a series of softball questions from the likes of the New York Times, ABC, NBC, and Reuters. Each question resulted in several minutes of meaningless blather from the President. "millionaires and billionaires", "Good of the American People", "Fair share", "economists agree that my jobs bill will create jobs" (without naming any of these economists). "Solyndria was one one of many green jobs companies financied by the Federal government" (without naming any of the others).
Never a number. Never a substantive statement. Obama, like most US pols, has mastered a language of vague nice sounding phrases, and he can just open his mouth and they spill forth, as meaningless this time as they were the last time. Arrgh.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
We are going to miss Steve Jobs
It was with sorrow that I heard of Steve's death last night. Steve was the man who conceived and brought to market, Apple II, Macintosh, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad. Today tens of thousands of people are gainfully employed making, selling and servicing these revolutionary products. Without Steve, all those people might well be out of work today.
We need more new products guys. The way out of Great Depression 2.0 lies thru new product introduction.
We need more new products guys. The way out of Great Depression 2.0 lies thru new product introduction.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for quasicrystals
NHPR announced the Nobel prize in chemistry was given to Daniel Schechtman of Technion in Israel for the discovery of quasicrystals.
I never heard of quasi crystals before so I did some research. Far as I can tell, quasi crystals are a form of solid matter in between regular crystals and glasses. Glass lacks any kind of order on the molecular level; glasses are more like a supercooled liquid than a crystalline solid.
Quasi crystals are somehow less ordered than ordinary crystals. When they refract X rays they don't show some of the symmetries that regular crystals do. Just what those symmetries are, and what they mean was not clear to me.
Since most of what we know about the crystal structure of matter comes from X ray diffraction experiments, discovery of a new structure is clearly very important in the field of X ray crystallography. Applications outside that field are less obvious right now, although we can expect it to lead to better insight into strength of materials, and possibly lead to stronger building materials or stronger metal alloys.
I never heard of quasi crystals before so I did some research. Far as I can tell, quasi crystals are a form of solid matter in between regular crystals and glasses. Glass lacks any kind of order on the molecular level; glasses are more like a supercooled liquid than a crystalline solid.
Quasi crystals are somehow less ordered than ordinary crystals. When they refract X rays they don't show some of the symmetries that regular crystals do. Just what those symmetries are, and what they mean was not clear to me.
Since most of what we know about the crystal structure of matter comes from X ray diffraction experiments, discovery of a new structure is clearly very important in the field of X ray crystallography. Applications outside that field are less obvious right now, although we can expect it to lead to better insight into strength of materials, and possibly lead to stronger building materials or stronger metal alloys.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
NH revenues improving
After all the sturm and drang over the NH budget this spring, things are looking up. Tax receipts are up and we might even turn a slight surplus. If you remember back in June the MSM were wailing and gnashing their teeth over "cuts" to all sorts of worthy programs.
Looks like the fiscal blood letting has done some good. Tax revenue is up, estimated tax payments are up, and tax refunds are down. Maybe the New Hampshire Advantage is kicking in again.
Looks like the fiscal blood letting has done some good. Tax revenue is up, estimated tax payments are up, and tax refunds are down. Maybe the New Hampshire Advantage is kicking in again.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Economic recovery means defeat Obama
After three years of Obama the private sector is shell shocked. They plan to dig deep holes and hibernate until Obama is gone. For example.
1. Shutting down oil exploration and voiding oil leases.
2. Repeated Federal financial crisis and lack of Federal budget.
3. Obamacare
4. Dodd Frank
5. Taking over GM and Chrysler
6. Calling for punitive taxes against oil companies and corporate aircraft. And against "the wealthy" who don't sound very wealthy, they sound like pretty much everyone.
7. Threatening Boeing's new North Carolina plant for 787 production
8. FCC taking over the internet via "net neutrality" regulations, despite a court order not to.
9. EPA running amok and trying to shut down everything that burns anything.
10.Gun running into Mexico (Fast and Furious)
11.$14 trillion federal debt.
12. 54 mpg CAFE.
13. Killing off Gibson Guitar. Obama's Feds have put Gibson out of business and thrown all the workers out on the street for no reason (other than Gibson has contributed money to Republicans.
After all this anti business action by the Obama administration, investors of all sizes have decided to bury their money in the backyard and wait for safer times. At this point there is nothing Obama can do to overcome the fear that the last three years reign of terror has created in the business community. With luck he will be gone in 2012. Too bad we have to wait that long to start putting people back to work.
1. Shutting down oil exploration and voiding oil leases.
2. Repeated Federal financial crisis and lack of Federal budget.
3. Obamacare
4. Dodd Frank
5. Taking over GM and Chrysler
6. Calling for punitive taxes against oil companies and corporate aircraft. And against "the wealthy" who don't sound very wealthy, they sound like pretty much everyone.
7. Threatening Boeing's new North Carolina plant for 787 production
8. FCC taking over the internet via "net neutrality" regulations, despite a court order not to.
9. EPA running amok and trying to shut down everything that burns anything.
10.Gun running into Mexico (Fast and Furious)
11.$14 trillion federal debt.
12. 54 mpg CAFE.
13. Killing off Gibson Guitar. Obama's Feds have put Gibson out of business and thrown all the workers out on the street for no reason (other than Gibson has contributed money to Republicans.
After all this anti business action by the Obama administration, investors of all sizes have decided to bury their money in the backyard and wait for safer times. At this point there is nothing Obama can do to overcome the fear that the last three years reign of terror has created in the business community. With luck he will be gone in 2012. Too bad we have to wait that long to start putting people back to work.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Bashing the Tea Party
The Tea Party has spread fear and panic among professional politicians nationwide. Tea Party has a huge number of supporters, and last year showed some teeth in the elections. Some RINO's were slain in the primaries, and that was really scary.
Tea Party is so scary that the North Grafton DEMOCRATS have rented the Colonial Theater in Bethlehem and will put on an anti-Tea Party program this coming Thursday evening. Message of the show will be "The Tea Party is just AstroTurf, bought and paid for by the millionaire Koch brothers".
I have some association with the Tea Party, and the people are all New Hampshire citizens of long standing. They wish there were outside money (or inside money or any kind of money) to support them, but there isn't.
The Tea Party is more idea than Party. It stands for lower taxes, and lower spending to permit those lower taxes, less borrowing, and the limited Federal government that the US Constitution calls for. Those ideas are shared by all Americans. The Tea Party lacks ballot access, candidates, dues, membership cards, elected officers, regular meetings, and all those things that mark an ordinary political party.
But it does have a compelling idea and lots and lots of believers in that idea.
Tea Party is so scary that the North Grafton DEMOCRATS have rented the Colonial Theater in Bethlehem and will put on an anti-Tea Party program this coming Thursday evening. Message of the show will be "The Tea Party is just AstroTurf, bought and paid for by the millionaire Koch brothers".
I have some association with the Tea Party, and the people are all New Hampshire citizens of long standing. They wish there were outside money (or inside money or any kind of money) to support them, but there isn't.
The Tea Party is more idea than Party. It stands for lower taxes, and lower spending to permit those lower taxes, less borrowing, and the limited Federal government that the US Constitution calls for. Those ideas are shared by all Americans. The Tea Party lacks ballot access, candidates, dues, membership cards, elected officers, regular meetings, and all those things that mark an ordinary political party.
But it does have a compelling idea and lots and lots of believers in that idea.
Is the Euro really doomed?
Probably not. The "United States of Europe" people want a more tightly integrated EU. They can get this by setting up a European Common Bank empowered to borrow money on the credit of the EU and use it to bail out Greece. So they are using the Greek debt crisis to push their pet hobbyhorse. Turning the EU into a United States of Europe would turn a lot of lack luster Brussels bureaucrats into officials of something big and powerful. And so they talk up economic doomsday scenarios to scare people into putting up the money.
The holdup of this plan is the German taxpayers. They correctly observe that an EU bailout of Greece will be done with their tax money, and under the control of Eurocrats rather than reliable German government officials and they see no reason to pony up that kind of money.
So sooner or later the Greeks will run out of other people's money and default. This will be tough on some stupid banks in Europe who loaned the Greeks wads and wads of Euros. Those banks won't get their money back. Some of them will probably go out of business on account of the humungous loss. Those banks are talking to their governments, and to the ECB, and saying "oh please don't make us loose all that money. Save us." And so, the EU keeps doling out money to Greece, and the Greeks give most of it back to the banks.
When the Germans cut off the money, Greece will default, and tell all those banks "Tough luck". Ought to happen inside of 6 months.
Question: Is this the end of the Euro? Probably not. It will be tough on Greece who will have to cut spending down to whatever they can raise by taxation. Or, Greece can drop the Euro, start up their own currency, and cover their deficit by printing fresh money.
But the biggies, France and Germany, want to stick with the Euro and so they will. All the other smaller countries on the Euro like Belgium and Holland will stick to enjoy the benefits of doing business with the biggies without the hassle and risk of currency swaps.
If they let three of four of the stupider banks go out of business, it will improve the competitiveness of the entire continent. Having stupid banks pour valuable capital down Greek drains does bad things for your economic growth.
The holdup of this plan is the German taxpayers. They correctly observe that an EU bailout of Greece will be done with their tax money, and under the control of Eurocrats rather than reliable German government officials and they see no reason to pony up that kind of money.
So sooner or later the Greeks will run out of other people's money and default. This will be tough on some stupid banks in Europe who loaned the Greeks wads and wads of Euros. Those banks won't get their money back. Some of them will probably go out of business on account of the humungous loss. Those banks are talking to their governments, and to the ECB, and saying "oh please don't make us loose all that money. Save us." And so, the EU keeps doling out money to Greece, and the Greeks give most of it back to the banks.
When the Germans cut off the money, Greece will default, and tell all those banks "Tough luck". Ought to happen inside of 6 months.
Question: Is this the end of the Euro? Probably not. It will be tough on Greece who will have to cut spending down to whatever they can raise by taxation. Or, Greece can drop the Euro, start up their own currency, and cover their deficit by printing fresh money.
But the biggies, France and Germany, want to stick with the Euro and so they will. All the other smaller countries on the Euro like Belgium and Holland will stick to enjoy the benefits of doing business with the biggies without the hassle and risk of currency swaps.
If they let three of four of the stupider banks go out of business, it will improve the competitiveness of the entire continent. Having stupid banks pour valuable capital down Greek drains does bad things for your economic growth.
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