Why Infrastructure Projects are a hit and miss proposition when it comes to Stimulating the economy.

Yes, infrastructure projects are a necessary part of government. The problem is, we can't use the acceleration of infrastructure projects to help the economy, unless something else is also done. I'll get to that something else momentarily.

Infrastructure projects should be a constant, steady part of the budgeting process on a yearly basis. To suddenly say we need massive infrastructure projects wrapped inside of a stimulus package means we either are creating busy work, or government skimps on infrastructure projects year after year.

Creating busy work is ok, but NOT when it uses too many resources that could be used to create new job streams and new technologies.

As for our government not spending the proper infrastructure budget on a yearly basis, that means the money that was supposed to be spent on infrastructure every year, has already been spent elsewhere.

So now we are paying TWICE for the same infrastructure project, and therein lies the problem. Paying twice for the same infrastructure project, the first time the money was reallocated elsewhere, is not a good deal and DOES NOT stimulate anything that would help the economy.

There is a solution to avoid paying twice for the same infrastructure project. Any infrastructure project that was previously delayed so money could be reallocated elsewhere, CAN ONLY BE DONE NOW IF IT IS COMBINED with a NEW, PROGRESSIVE, INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT that is generally regarded as helping save energy or resources, or create new products that save energy and or resources.

So if there is bridge that needs to be refurbished, FIND SOMETHING that creates energy efficiency that the refurbished bridge connects to.

Will the refurbished bridge support other types of transportation besides automobiles?

If the refurbishing of the bridge will also create an improved route for other forms of transportation, such as electric bicycles, joggers, and pedestrians, then it becomes an infrastructure project with an obvious purpose other than just trickling down money to us minions on projects that don't make us feel connected to improving our countries method of operating.

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The Billion Dollar Stimulus Man.

For those who want to learn who Barack Obama's right hand man is when it comes to doling out all of that stimulus money, click and learn.

I just hope that Mr. Ed DeSeve is not pronounced "deceive".  

Huffington Post AGAIN takes a Swipe at Wall Street, Bankers, and Barack Obama's Bailout Stimulus Package.

Sorry Arianna, you can't undo last year's election, and you can't change Barack Obama's mind. Anybody who abdicates their power to Barack Obama becomes an ally of Barack Obama, even if they are about to crash and burn whatever it is they do for a living.

Link to Andy Kroll's column appears on Huffington Post and he lets Wall Street and the Barack Obama Administration have it when it comes to the bailout, stimulus package, and anything to do with artificially stimulating the economy while ignoring the backbone of america, the actual citizens.

Link to the time Huffington Post called Barack Obama the "Bankcentric Kid".

Federal Judge orders Los Angeles City to Allow REALLY HUGE, OBNOXIOUS BILLBOARD ADVERTISING that Covers Entire Sides of Huge Hotels.

Photo from PSFK.com  (photo removed for copyright reasons)

It looks like World Wide Rush LLC and Sky Tag Inc., will get to blight the city of Los Angeles with huge billboards that hang from the side of really large buildings. 

 

I think Judge Audrey B. Collins erred in allowing World Wide Rush to basically get their way when it comes to hanging HUGE billboards from the sides of Hotels that can be seen from Los Angeles freeways and that are visible from freeway off ramps and freeway interchanges. It is kind of freakish to think that when I am driving a car I have to actually avert my eyes from distractions that are designed to, distract me into looking. 

 

Maybe Judge Collins assumed that the huge billboards will cause the drivers to look back up at the road from their text messaging and pay attention, sort of like, two wrongs, looking into one laps while text messaging, and looking into the skyline at huge billboard ads will cancel each other out and cause the driver to actually just look at the road directly ahead. There are other issues to consider, that is for sure. 

 

A hotel that is barely making it financially might find the revenue they receive from the billboard advertising to be the difference maker in being able to pay their California state and local taxes, oh the irony of that one. 

 

If the judge is forcing the city of Los Angeles to comply to the whims of "free speech bill board entrepreneurs", can a driver who is distracted by the huge billboards and causes a severe accident then sue the city of Los Angeles as well? 

 

Can the judge make a motion to deny all such lawsuits in advance? Or at least protect the city of Los Angeles from such lawsuits? Will car insurance companies raise their rates to those who drive by these huge billboards, thereby once again making it JOE citizen the one who ultimately subsidizes these ads? 

 

Or has the judge basically said that L.A. must allow huge, distracting billboards, and then allow citizens of L.A. to sue when those signs cause an accident, while also allowing insurance companies to raise their rates in these areas. Now that is one heck of a stimulus package. 

 

Or should we call it a scrumulous package? What if the ads are for fraud driven products? Is there a psychological ploy at work in which seeing something so ostentatiously presented must mean it is either ethical or truthful? Will politicians be on these huge billboards in the not too distant future? 

 

Big Brother Consumerism towers over U.S.

Link to Photo that was removed for copyright reasons.

Daily PUMA releases its own PUMA STIMULUS PACKAGE and Daily PUMA readers are the beneficiaries!

After watching Congress effortlessly add money to the United States economy, Daily PUMA wondered if extra width could be added to the two, far right PUMA Blog columns. After playing with column width numbers, Daily PUMA is pleased to announce its very own PUMA STIMULUS PACKAGE! If you look to the right you will notice BOTH PUMA COLUMNS ARE NOW WIDER!

DailyPUMA hasn't quite mastered the art of creating column width out of non-existent space with the same ease that congress creates wealth out of thin air. It appears that when the right two PUMA columns were widened, the center, main column shrank by an equal amount.

In an effort to appease all points of view, the left column of the blog, the non PUMA blog column, was also widened just a tad, resulting in even more shrinkage (aka tax cut) of the center column.

For some reason, DailyPUMA can't seem to master the concept of increasing all the columns that demand increases while also maintaining the original size of the center column.

The Bailout Noise and Stimulus Package Succeeds in Obfuscating the Real Heart of the Matter.

Click here for most recent DailyPUMA article.

Barack Obama wants to reprise the role of the Grinch as he throws 1/2 trillion dollars from his sleigh (not counting tax cuts), back to the very people who were robbed in the first place.

Oh wait a minute, the Grinch did a much better job of returning the stolen goods to those who actually were robbed. I suppose one could say that the robbery happened under George Bush, and that Barack Obama is just picking up the pieces and "redistributing" the lost wealth as best he can.

Whatever your view of the sub-prime mortgages that first fueled, then fooled, then unspooled the economy, the one thing that stands out, and that is conveniently ignored by the elite of our society is...overnight increases in home mortgage payments that rise more than 10% are unethical, will, and did crash & burn the economy.

Instead of sub prime mortgage programs that wildly spike at the five year mark, what if the homeowners monthly payment started going up at the five year mark by just one percent (not the interest rate, but the monthly payment plus one percent, then the next month the monthly payment plus 2 percent) each month when the subprime loans vested after five years? What would have happened? Customers would have had their own built in "bailout plan" in the form of TIME.

If subprime loans SLOWLY ESCALATED the customer would have had PLENTY of TIME to sell their home if they found they could not keep up with the increasing payments.

Rather than force homeowners out of their home practically overnight, the homeowner could easily have had another six months to five years to sell their home WHILE STILL MAKING THEIR MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO THE BANKS!

Sub-prime borrowers would have made educated guesses as to how long they could afford their slowly escalating mortgages, and would have been much more likely to sell their homes in a timely fashion without being desperate when they did it. Just as importantly, the homeowner would have continued making their payments. Instead, as structured, the sub prime mortgage five year spike resulted in many homeowners simply giving up and even walking away from the home.

A SLOW ESCALATION in the monthly mortgage payment would have been a more responsible method for both stimulating the economy without it collapsing almost overnight. I believe somebody should go on trial over the design of the sub-prime mortgage program. Millions of consumers in the US and elsewhere had their sub-prime loans converted to foreclosure simply because the overnight price escalation was an abomination they could not afford.

Homeowners who bought into sub prime loans, in many instances were lured there by bankers and other money people who told them they would be foolish to not invest in a home purchase if the cost to own was not that much higher than renting. Add in the lure of rising home property values, and in most instances this was no different than entrapment.

Yes, it is possible that the sub prime mortgage industry was a plot to first falsely escalate both the economy and real estate values, and then cause the almost immediate foreclosure and LOSS of EQUITY to practically everybody in the country. Meanwhile, Credit Card Debt now remains at a record all time high as a ratio of credit card debt to total home equity in the United States. The banks appear to have won every which way even as they clamored for more bailout money.

The banks have really made out a lot better than the media tends to report. There seems to be a latent desire to scarlet letter law abiding citizens so they can be taxed and charged excessively in the future,because of past sub-prime mortgage failures. "Oh, you had a subprime loan that turned into a foreclosure? Well, you'll have to pay a penalty in the future for our fraudulent and unfair subprime loan scam that heavily contributed to your practically overnight foreclosure in the past".

Will anybody enact a law that limits how quickly a home mortgage payment can escalate from one month to the next? The sub prime loan swindlers not only got away with the past sub prime mortgage scam, they also have been given bailout money for the next great swindle as well, and the consumers that were victimized by the sub-prime loan received a scarlet letter stamped on their forehead that will cost them dearly the next time they attempt to purchase a home or buy a car.

Taking all the fun out of Stimulation, even when we're still paying for it anyways.

It just dawned on me what bugs me most about the stimulus package. I would much rather see congress give out 300, three billion dollar stimulus checks over a years time, then do it all at once. Suddenly the flaw of the stimulus program is exposed.

300, three billion dollar stimulus checks would be the equivalent of two a day if we factor in how many days a year congress is actually in session. Um, maybe even three a day! Clearly it would take congress a week to two weeks to approve each 3 billion dollar check, and if one factors in that some bills won't be approved right away, we see that congress can only give away so much money, so fast, and do it in a responsible fashion.

Why can't all the stimulee's out there make a case as to why their program deserves immediate attention. and money? Why can't all the projects that might be eligible for funding get their project in order in a coherent, realistic and rapid manner as soon as possible so they can get their cut? Why can't stimulus equal incentive?

Are we possibly headed for a situation where the government will be so anxious to hand out money that they will practically be begging organizations to take the money and run? We should be grateful that car sales are down 40%. Why do we want people buying old school gasoline technology when we should be spending money fast tracking lighter weight transportation that also converts the suns rays to battery power?

I am intrigued by the UCLA plastics / photovoltaic research currently going on. The UCLA photo voltaic plastics research program could actually be a cornerstone towards any new breakthrough in weaning americans off of gasoline.

People need to survive on less money right now so that science and industry can maneuver society towards superior modes of transportation. This is why allocating all of that stimulus money all at once is not the way to go. Let society come forward with their proposals. Governments need to call a time out when it comes to taxation and interest rate charges being assessed on their own citizens.

Instead of figuring out ways to loan citizens more money, lets figure out ways to get people to reduce the debt they already owe without just writing it off as a bad debt. Let the people of this country help guard the stimulus package money. Calling a credit card interest rate time out for all americans interested in paying down their debt would require that bankers sit on their assets and not continue to charge outrageous interest rates on the one trillion in credit card debt.

Perhaps UCLA comes forward and asks for 250 million dollars in research for their photo voltaic plastics research projects. Would it be so bad to hire two hundred and fifty out of work people, pay them a stipend of 3,000 a month, and have their job be to monitor how that 250 million dollars is being spent? Some may say, well that's only one new job per million dollars. Wrong, that is just one job to help supervise the spending of each million dollars.

UCLA would be spending to purchase materials, conduct tests, have prototypes made, etc. The end result could be closer to one new job for every 100,000 dollars spent. That is probably an acceptable ratio, and the end result will then feed Michigan with entire new types of vehicles to build.

This is the type of cross pollination that needs to be going on. Use the Western Sun to accelerate plastic photovoltaic research, then use that technology in Michigan to create jobs for the new age of cars. Trying to revive a tired old economic system all at once will reduce money that could be going towards real progess.