Glass-Steagall

After the Great Depression was kicked off by the 1929 stock market crash Congress passed some laws intended to prevent a recurrance, ever again.  One of the contributing factors to the 1929 crash was big banks playing the stock market, with depositors money.   And in the 1930's Congress passed a law preventing banks for buying and selling stocks.  This was the Glass-Steagall act and it remained the law of the land for 60 years. Banks hated Glass-Steagall 'cause there is a lot of easy money to be made in the stock market, particularly if you have a lot of money to invest. It took the banks 60 years of solid lobbying and "campaign contributions" to finally repeal Glass-Steagall some time during the Clinton administration. 
   And now after Great Depression 2.0, kicked off by banks making dumb ass mortgages, people are calling for some regulation to curb big and brain dead banks from crashing the economy.  Bernie Sanders is calling for reinstatement of Glass-Steagall.   Actually this is a fairly good idea.  Banks primary purpose is to finance construction and house sales, and finance business activity.  Buying and selling stocks just soaks up bank assets and does not contribute to economic growth. 
   The other thing banking needs is some incentives to write decent mortgages.  The "Ninja" mortgages (No income, No job or assets)  caused the crash of 2007.  A mortgage must not exceed the real market value of the property, in fact the buyer ought to put up 10% or so of his own money to buy the place.  And the bank needs to see that the borrower is gainfully employed and is making enough to make his monthly mortgage payments.
   One way to make this happen is to require that the bank that issues the mortgage must hold that mortgage to maturity.  If the bank knows that it will b holding the bad should the borrower default, they will be fairly careful not to write mortgages for untrustworthy borrowers. 

Where was their air cover??

Two US Navy small craft some where in the Persian Gulf (the Obama administration won't say exactly where) where captured by the Iranians.  Where was US air cover?  There were two boats, each one ought to have had a working radio.  The Gulf isn't very big.  Jet aircraft can be anywhere in the Gulf in a matter of minutes.  Some aircraft ought to be on five minute alert in such a near-to-war zone.  My fighter unit kept two fighters on five minute alert 24/7, and that was back in heart of the US, namely the state of Minnesota. 
   Those two boats should have radioed for air cover as soon as the Iranians hove into sight, and they should have had air cover within 15-20 minutes of making the radio call. 
   Let's guess, Obama didn't want to upset the Iranians and he refused to allow the jets to take off. 

Nevada wises up

Nevada state government decided to cut back on the goodies offered to the home solar cell freeloaders.  About time, and NH ought to follow suit.  The current deal offers to buy all the electricity the home owner produces, at full retail rate, for ever.  Home owners use their sales earning to pay their electric bills.  Since solar cells produce no electricity after sunset, all solar cell owners are connected to the regular electric grid and use utility provided juice to keep their lights on, their TV's playing, and their oil burners burning.   Up here a practical sized home solar panel can reduce the home owner's electric bill to zero in the summer, and make a worthwhile dent in it in the winter. 
   Net result, solar cell owners get a free ride from the ordinary rate payers.  The cost of providing grid power is mostly in paying off the generators, the transmission lines, the local wires and poles.  The  utility workers spend most of their time fixing stuff that storms tear down. Very little money goes to fuel.  Compared to paying off the enormous loans that built the system, the cost of fuel is negligible.  All the home solar cells do for the utility is save a little bit of fuel.  The utility still has to build and maintain a physical plant big enough to serve all the customers at night and on cloudy days.  Home solar cells don't save the utility a nickel when it comes to their major costs. 
Which is why all solar installations require subsidy from rate payers and tax payers.
   Anyhow, the two solar cell companies operating in Nevada are crying and threatening to hold their breath (actually to stop selling solar in Nevada).

Cannon Mountain Ski Weather

We got three inches of powder snow last night.  Not all that much, but better than nothing.  It's cold, 16F, good for snow making. 

Power grows out of the chimney of a factory

To paraphrase Mao TseTung.  The pollsters (they telephone me every day) are asking about the most important issue in the upcoming election.  "Jobs and the economy" and "national security" are the two serious choices.   I say that if we have jobs and the economy then we can build or buy all the national security we need.  A thriving economy pays taxes that the government can spend on troops, rations, ammunition, uniforms, fuel, fancy $200 helmets for the troops, outrageously expensive warplanes and warships.  It will pay for overseas missionary efforts, foreign aid, bribes to friendly governments, propaganda, Doctors without Borders.  It will pay for US imports which are life to third world countries. It will pay for research and development efforts that result in better weapons for our forces.  A good  economy allows us to take in immigrants who will grow the economy even further.

Cannon Mountain Ski weather

We got a dusting of snow yesterday, not enough to stick a ruler in to measure, but better than rain.  It's cold again, 17F this morning, so the mountain is making snow.   The weatherman is promising one to three inches this afternoon. 

Gallup says 43% of voters are registered independents

And registered Democrats slightly out number registered Republicans. 29 to 23 per cent. 
Which means the Republican candidate needs better than HALF of the independent votes to win.  Which means we in the stupid party MUST nominate someone acceptable to independents.  Else we get Hillary keeping all of Obama's stuff in place for another four years, maybe eight. 
Is The Donald the man to attract better then half of the independents???