“Wisconsin’s school systems should teach money management”

Wisconsin Rep. Scott Newcomer had an piece last week in the Waukesha Freeman.

The concerns he raises are valid.

Possessing an understanding of how to manage any purchase that is financed, invest money, budget properly and responsibly use a credit card is vital to a person’s well-being and is a key component of our country’s economic future.

[snip]

In a survey by Visa in 2007, only 5 percent of adults reported learning about money management in elementary or high school. More than 40 percent of people were self-educated about money management or had learned the hard way.

[snip]

By teaching the public financial responsibility we improve the economy as a whole. Such a large focus is placed on the housing, credit and financial market slumps, but how are these problems accounted for? An educated public could have made more intelligent investment decisions and behaved more responsibly when looking for a loan or home mortgage.

In spite of the good points, it also demonstrates how conservatives can get into a “government should do something” mentality.

Taking the tack that “parents can’t/don’t do it” is used to justify many things being taught in public schools today. Instead of requiring that schools stick to subjects that would benefit kids, math (and this is where economics could be taught without more “overhead”), science, civics (do they teach this anymore, or am I just showing my age again?), and other essentials, schools have gone into psychology, sociology, black history, women’s studies, etc.

What’s the answer? I believe it’s getting back to basics and ridding schools of “fluff” that should properly be taken care of in extracurricular activities.

What recession?

Texas looking at $10.7 billion surplus (from the Houston Chronicle via Stateline.org).

Oil and gas employment in Texas grew by 7.5 percent between March 2007 and March 2008, leading an overall increase of 214,000 Texas jobs, comptroller’s spokesman R.J. DeSilva said.

Consequently, sales tax revenue, a major source of state government income, also continues to grow.

And, DeSilva added, Texas has been insulated more than other states from the sub-prime mortgage lending crisis. Texas, he said, avoided the housing price bubbles that hurt states like California and Florida.

At least some folks are doing OK.

BTW, is there a recession yet?

Why gas prices are high

Fox Head lets us know why gas prices are up (briefly),

One, supply is down and demand is up.

Two, we are dependent on foreign oil because we choose to be dependant.

Three, there have been no new refineries built, oil companies have been at capacity, which helps to drive the profit margins we are seeing.

Dad29 notes another reason we have here in Wisconsin, and links to Counterterrorism Blog which lists a few more.

OPEC Oligarchy practices, intensified international competition for secure access to essential commodities, increased reliance on middlemen for oil lifting, profit-motive purchasing policies and upstream practices of major oil companies, the falling dollar, and intense speculative upward bidding of oil futures on the world’s merchantile exchanges.

A gas tax holiday is not going to solve that.

Geez. I hate agreeing with Obama.

Government numbers - can they be trusted?

Dad29 last week posted a chart from the San Diego Union-Tribune showing inflation rates using different measures.

[Well, I was going to put the chart here, too, to save y'all some clicks, but WordPress is acting up a little with the media loads, so I guess you'll have to go to Dad29 or the Union-Tribune charts.]

While the article connected with the chart tells part of the story, this one from the St. Pete Times tells more. I summarize below:

1961, implemented a few years later, was that out-of-work Americans who had stopped looking for jobs — even if this was because none could be found — were labeled “discouraged workers” and excluded from the ranks of the unemployed, where many, if not most, of them had been previously classified.

1969, Lyndon Johnson orchestrated a “unified budget” that combined Social Security with the rest of the federal outlays.

Richard Nixon, asked his second Federal Reserve chairman, Arthur Burns, to develop what became an ultimately famous division between “core” inflation and headline inflation.

1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) decided that housing, too, was overstating the Consumer Price Index.

1990, “reoriented” U.S. economic statistics principally to reduce the measured rate of inflation. His stated grand ambition was to move the calculus away from old industrial-era methodologies toward the emerging services economy and the expanding retail and financial sectors.

1994, the Bureau of Labor Statistics redefined the work force to include only that small percentage of “discouraged workers” who had been seeking work for less than a year. The longer-term discouraged — some 4-million U.S. adults — fell out of the main monthly tally.

For its last four years, the Clinton administration also thinned the monthly household economic sampling by one sixth, from 60,000 to 50,000, and a disproportionate number of the dropped households were in the inner cities.

2002, the administration did introduce an “experimental” new CPI calculation (the C-CPI-U), which shaved another 0.3 percent off the official CPI.

2006 it stopped publishing the M-3 money supply numbers, which captured rising inflationary impetus from bank credit activity.

Would a gas-tax holiday help, or hurt?

From The Week magazine’s website

The gas tax holiday is a “stupid idea,” no matter who’s pushing it, said the San Jose Mercury News in an editorial (free registration). McCain and Clinton know that; they’re just “fishing for votes” by pitching a “bad policy” that sounds good to voters who are sick of watching pump prices rise. “The typical motorist might save $25 in gas tax during a summer, but have worse roads to drive on as a consequence.” Only in an election year would anybody think that’s a good idea.

Hey, I’d like to pay as few taxes as the next guy, but isn’t this largely cosmetic? Of course, one could argue that about many political proposals.

Twenty-five bucks is only $25, but it is $25. I might save more because I’m going to be driving extensively this summer (Yes, the loan is already approved).

And I haven’t seen a cost of how much this would cost and it’s probably not going to happen anyway, at least, not this summer.

How much of a dent would it really put into the Highway Trust Fund?

It’s still, most likely, a dumb idea.

But just like the Stimulus Rebate checks, I’d still take it.

A technically correct though misleading headline

Wal-Mart limits rice purchases.

Well it is Wal-Mart but not the whole chain.

The two biggest U.S. warehouse retail chains are limiting how much rice customers can buy because of what Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, called “recent supply and demand trends.”

Demand from developing countries and poor crop yields have pushed rice prices up 70 percent so far this year.

The broader chain of Wal-Mart stores has no plans to limit food purchases, however [emphasis mine].

The move comes as U.S. rice futures hit a record high amid global food inflation, although one rice expert said the warehouse chains may be reacting less to any shortages than to stockpiling by restaurants and small stores. [emphasis again mine]

So is Costco although the one in Grafton has not instituted this policy.

The real reason is, most likely, people seeing rising prices and lower supplies and wanting to load up before further prices rises or shorter supplies.

Sorta like Y2K?

Cap tips all around to Badger Blog Alliance sent me to Nick’s post where steveegg had linked in the comments.

Well, I had read it earlier elsewhere, but wasn’t that more fun?

Quick hits

The Titanic exhibit is great, if it’s anything like the one I saw it a couple of years back in Ohio.

The downsized Waukesha county board had its first meeting to elect leadership positions.

At the Waukesha Common Council meeting, Mayor Nelson gave his state of the city speech (PDF, link via Darryl Enriquez more coverage here). My outgoing alderman, Charles Betker, was also honored (and see the fine article by Laurel Walker last Sunday). The new alderman, Chris Hernandez has big shoes to fill.

Dead cougar’s DNA to be tested. He’s a suspect in a bank job in Minnesota.

Foreclosures are up, gas prices are up, wholesale prices are up, food costs are up, but don’t use the “R” word.

McCain Wisconsin Economic Summit

Cindy Kilkenny is covering this. Start with the link and move forward for the chronological sequence of posts.

Actually haggling in a strong one is OK, too

Haggling in a weak economy is OK, really

There are four keys to haggling.

1. You have to arm yourself with knowledge
2. You have to ask
3. You have to avoid impulse buying
4. You have to be willing to walk away.

And you can haggle just about everything, not just tech goodies.

“Don’t leave.”

“Don’t leave. We need you. We want you.”

Never mind. We don’t need you after all.

Something seems to be wrong

From the front page of the business section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,

Corporate parent to close Stark Candy factory
Manufacturer shuts doors with no notice to workers
Joy Global is building 2 factories in China to join plant that opened in ‘07

Something seems to be wrong with this picture.

There’s more.

Jobs plunge by 63,000, worst since 2003; Fed steps in

What? The Fed is hiring?

Universal Savings Bank being liquidated

Bush adviser: Economic growth could dip

Ya think?

And finally, Waukesha’s Signature Lighting gets hit by the housing crunch. It is owned by Waukesha Chamber of Commerce chairman, Lyn Schulz.

The above list took me less than five minutes.

Wow.

More evidence of a sluggish economy

Because, you know, no one wants to use the “r” word.

Fed Cuts Key Rate as Stimulus Plan Advances

The Federal Reserve cut short-term interest rates on Wednesday for the second time in eight days, meeting Wall Street hopes for cheaper money. At the same time, the Senate pushed ahead on a $161 billion plan to prop up Main Street with tax rebates and temporary tax cuts.

And then

President Bush pressed Congress to pass an economic rescue package, saying Friday’s labor report marking the end of a 52-month streak of national job growth was another “troubling” sign that the economy is sputtering.

Starbucks to Close Stores and End Sandwich Sales

Yes, Virginia, we are in a recession.

Starbucks will

close 100 underperforming locations in the United States while scaling back the rate of store openings domestically. At the same time, Starbucks will move more aggressively to open stores overseas, where business remains robust.

Starbucks reported anemic sales growth of 1 percent at stores open at least a year, the worst three-month performance in the company’s history. United States sales have been battered by a weak economy and increased competition from the likes of McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Same-store sales for American stores declined 1 percent.

Can there now be any doubt?

When a Rebate Isn’t a Rebate

Lance Burri tells us.

Since only about 50% of wage earners in this country actually pay federal income taxes, much of this – maybe most of it – is a transfer, not a rebate. We – myself included – will receive money we never paid in.

Read all of it.

Recession?

Seems like everyone is convinced we are in a recession or headed for one. And the talk isn’t new. Democrats basically have thought the U.S. has been in one since Clinton left the White House.

Why?

There’s a technical definition of a recession–a decline in the GDP for two consecutive quarters. That hasn’t happened yet. There’s also an ambiguous definition by the National Bureau of Economic Research, but it doesn’t become evident until many months after it happens.

According to those two definitions, we aren’t in a recession. Yet.

Many argue with those definitions. Dad29 often points out indices that better show what shape the economy is in.

Others are much more subjective, pointing to people who are not doing well.

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.

A depression is when you lose your job.

I think the standard should be objective rather than subjective. But perhaps more data than just the GDP should be included.

Nice website for informercial information

Get the other side of those informercials.

A tip of the conservative cap to Fuzz Martin.

Nongovernmental regulatory authority?

Learn something new everyday, even when you’re an old coot like me.

From the Waukesha Freeman,

Robert W. Baird & Co. was one of 19 securities dealers fined by a nongovernmental regulatory authority for overstating their trade volume, the organization announced Tuesday.

The Milwaukee-based firm was fined $200,000 for telling private service providers it performed a higher number of trades for three securities than they actually executed. The event occurred in August 2006.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority [ed.- link added by me], the organization that levied the fine, said service providers used the inaccurate trading volume to compile rankings and reports. [emphasis mine]

Very interesting. More from Wikipedia.

I have no opinion one way or the other, cuz I don’t know anything. I just never seen one before and thought it was interesting.

Review of Bible and Government - part 1

Written by Dr. John M. Cobin, an investment adviser and Visiting Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Bible and Government(subtitled Public Policy from a Christian Perspective) gives a view of government from a Christian perspective most Christians would probably be surprised to read.

This is not Mike Huckabee government, folks.

And he doesn’t wait till chapter one to get started. In the introduction he asks four basic questions (p. 5):

1. What kind of government should Bible-believing Christians support?
2. What public policy must be obeyed?
3. When, if ever, should Christians revolt?
4. To what extent is the Christian’s submission to the state qualified?

These questions Dr. Cobin seeks to answer in his book.

He then discusses three dominant philosophies of biblical public policy that have emerged (p. 7-9).

…theonomists (or Christian Reconstruction) would tend to allow civil government action that assists in the establishment of the postmillennial golden age. …Anabaptists… advocate non-participation in most civil government offices. [ed.-in some cases, this leads them to pacifism]. …Still a third perspective,…seems to offer a revitalized vision of the divine right of kings….if God ordains the state, then nearly all of what it decrees must be obeyed as if God Himself had issued the order.

Reformed Christians (like Huckabee) see civil government as “a redeemable and, hence, potentially useful institution that may be placed in the service of God’s kingdom as a restraint against evil.” This is what most evangelicals mean by Cobin proposes that at least part of civil government is beyond the pale of transformation.

What might surprise some Christians is Dr. Cobin’s interpretation of 1 Samuel 8:4-20. Israel is asking for a king and Samuel is trying to tell them what a king will mean, especially in the area of taxation.

Another of Cobin’s premises is that civil government is, in fact, a lethal institution. He quotes extensively from a speech that includes data that can be found on this website.

Well, that’s the introduction, there’s more to come.

What’s driving the increase?

TIME magazine asks (Scroll a bit, it’s there) this about oil prices in its latest issue. The answers?

It’s the supply.

It’s the demand.

It’s the weak dollar.

Wait, wait. There’s something missing, isn’t there?

Where is Big Oil?

And we wonder why government debt rises

Unpaid credit cards bedevil Americans