Hugo Chavez has hoodwinked Venezuela for good. Following suit with Putin and getting his wildest dreams, Hugo has achieved god status. He has successfully, and legally removed term limits to being president of Venezuela. Good ol' Hugo can run for president for as many times as he wants, and so can any public official.
I don't think I have to talk long for anyone to get why this is significant. Hugo is the bane to the US oil addiction. The drug dealer if you will, for a good portion.
There is also a significance in the fact that every government and civilization has come to terms that every political leader needs a time limit. It promotes a change of pace, and allows for fair and just competition.
As all of you know by now, the Senate finally passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 yesterday (10 Feb 09), 61 to 37 . They needed 50% of the Senate to pass. Are you glad or mad? Find out who voted for it here.
I think it is necessary at this point. I would be worried about the dollar tumbling in value, but every other major economy is or has allocated more money themselves. For that reason I think everyones value will continue to drop, but at nearly equal levels or worse compared to the US dollar.
What does the public think of this bill? Well, on the opencongress page of this bill, there are over 300 votes and the Nays win.
So what is going on with the vote on a site (the opencongress bill details) with over 12,000 views just this week? Most probably voted before the introduction of President Obama talking of executive caps, and in general just shaking in their boots about 800 billion dollars. But really, 350 billion was from Bush's bailout plan being released. (probably because they had to print it, and needed time...lol)
A big worry: Executive Compensation
Executive compensation has been a biggie since President Obama brought that to everyone's attention in Washington. How can these big dogs getting bailout money still earn 7-8 figures? Not anymore! The proposal included a limit to 500k, but some people realized that ALL of them would quit, so for companies who want to pay more than that?
There will be review boards for the highest paid employees who will meet 2x a year, at least. Next, was to allow stockholders to have oversight on the executive compensation. They will be presented with the compensation, and allowed to vote.
What else can't the execs buy?
(1) entertainment or events; (2) office and facility renovations; (3) aviation or other transportation services
More tomorrow! Visit the link below to find out exactly where all the money is going!
This weeks video is a hopeful president that is banking on the Senate passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 this weekend. Hopeful because the weekly address is released in the early AM of Saturday and the Senate wasn't to meet until 12PM the same day. The Senate did meet yesterday at noon and didn't leave until after 10PM and yet, they still couldn't pass this bill. In fact, they didn't even vote. What is this? Week 3 of watching the bill while American jobs drop like flies? Bahumbug! See you all next week.
In continuing my popular Series Friday blog, Russian Aggression I am to draw a larger picture of how the ex-communist state, over the last few years, has been coming out of their post Cold War shell and has stepped into the world power waters again. In the first blog in this series I simply drew a timeline of events over the last, almost, two decades that point out interesting aggressive moves Russia has made to isolate itself. This isolation and passive aggressiveness is typical soviet bloc strategy to quietly, well until recently, gain momentum and regain super power respect. My second blog on this topic was over the US Missile Shield to be installed in Europe that will protect European countries and the eastern half of the US which Russia adamantly despises and promises to deploy short range ballistic missiles if the US follows through.
This week I will give some little known information that the media hasn't stressed enough, in the US, on the strategic move Russia has made to modernize their military. That move is the a breath of a 25% increase (40 billion to 50 billion) over one year in military spending. In other words, daddy's got some cash and needs to buy some new toys. Except in the case of Russia that actually means keeping the arms they already produce rather than selling them in the worlds pawn shop.
There isn't a problem with making upgrades on a military that once couldn't keep track of nuclear arms, but Russia's commitment of a 25% increase so late in the year a few months back has been taken as a response to the US missile defense planning. And then to top that off around the same time, Russia went to target practice in Georgia in August when Georgia 'attacked Russian citizens.' (Another blog coming later) Not only will Russia be spending 25% more money this year in the military, but they will also be increasing funding further in the following two years as well. So where is all the money coming from? Russia is exploiting their natural resources such as oil, natural gas, wood and metals, etc. Durring 2003-07 time frame, the massive hike in oil costs spiked Russia's GDP. And now, in a move probably to regain this influx of energy money since oil prices have dropped off a bit, Russia is calling to create an OPEC for natural oil, claiming the era of cheap gas is over. A sort of union for gas exporting countries, if you will. We have already seen the moves on this with the recent gas disputes between the Ukraine, Russia and the EU. That fiasco ended with Russia increasing gas prices for European countries. (That will also come in another series friday)
All of this raw energy money has created a Russian vortex which caused a demand for housing and living in producing cities in Russia for all the new jobs and developers/contractors. That money gave money to the Russian public to practice western rituals of a morning espresso, cell phone crazes, and even IKEA. Stir that all together and you get an increase in Russia's GDP, which they then shifted to military funding in mass proportion.
The good news or the bad news, first? Well, any time I see someone being asked, the answer seems to be the bad news first. That way, the good news ices over the bad and just maybe we forget or can't see the bad.
The bad news is that initial unemployment claims have shot up during January 09, with a total of 626k initial claims. Initial unemployment claims is one measurement of the health of the job market because it is the 'initial' claim: the first time a person requests unemployment insurance. The feds will release the unemployment numbers for January next week and some are expecting 525,000 jobs lost. I'm not an expert yet, but I am guessing by the 626,000 initial claims in January as an indicator, that more than 525k jobs were lost in January.
So what can possibly be the good news? We if you recall over the last 5-7 years (well hell, every year), employers complain about productivity and they are always concerned with the internet, among other things, lowering the effectiveness of their workers. You always read those stats about how 75% of employees shop on ebay at work, or something else. I'll have you know that in 2007, American workers increased productivity by 1.4% and in 2008, 2.8%.
So why is the good news also actually bad news? Well, what actually happened is that so many people were laid off and hours were cut back. So...for those lucky enough to keep jobs were forced to, in the words of the great movie Office Space, 'play catch up.' mmmm, k?
First thing I thought when I read this....mwahahahahahaha. Sorry, but it's true. President Obama is suggesting that an executive pay cap be inserted into the bailout legislation to be voted on by the senate soon. Get this:
$500,000 Executive Salary Cap
Aw. Can you live with that? A mere 500k a year. I think it is a great idea, and what is sad, is that this is only in response to Obama finding out about the executives that still made off with millions in 2008 bonuses, even after the government bailing them out. So what is the average of the S&P 500 company CEOs yearly compensation? Over 14 million.
Some companies worry that they will lose their executives if they are only paid 500,000k. Do they not feel obligated to get their business out of the muck? Probably not, right? It's all about the money. So what will happen if this was enforced, and they all quit? Someone probably in the company, who wouldn't mind 500,000k, would take the job and maybe even do a better than the previous chump.
I think if you are going to take a bailout, then the tax payers should have a right to cap salaries. On the flip side, Obama is also suggesting that if a business can still support a higher compensation, the company can pay an executive more money, so long as they disclose the reasoning and the amount to their shareholders and the government. Good idea, but I still think that if you receive any bailout, you should have to disclose compensation and get a salary cap!
Today was the first time it snowed where I live in England since I moved here seven months ago :)
World economic turmoil has caused tens of thousands, and now a few million to be without jobs in Europe and the US. If the west has less money to spend and is trying to make every dollar stretch, then are we putting people who get paid dirt to make our happy meal toys out of jobs? The answer is yes. Let's think about this. Where is everything made? McDonald's happy meal toys? Cars and car parts, steel, electronics, TVs, home appliances, shoes, clothes, food products, sea food, body jewelry, kitchen wares, etc.
So what is the scoop? Thousands of Chinese factories have cut back or even closed because there isn't a demand for all those basic products.
The good thing about this is that just maybe while we are not getting the Chinese goods, we can break our addiction to cheap, unsafe products. Over the last 10 years, think about how many products made in China that you own have broken due to cheap manufacturing. Not only does China provide cheap labor, it also provides cheap manufacturing techniques. Lets bring some of those jobs home when we start buying again.
Seed Newsvine
