New Year's Eve

Happy Arbitrary Annual Orbital Marker!

Here's hoping our next collective trip around the sun is a bit less trying and a lot more fun that the one just passing.

Peace!

Chicago Economics

I have to admit to a twinge of anxiety when I remember that Obama's go to guy in economics teaches at the University of Chicago (even though he apparently isn't a spawn of Milton Friedman) because stuff like this shows up from UC Professor John Cochrane: “We should have a recession...people who spend their lives pounding nails in Nevada need something else to do.”

Then there's the newest NYT econ blogger, Casey Mulligan, also at Chicago, who maintains that the employment rate is down not because of a recession but because some people are facing “ financial incentives” not to work. It doesn't appear that Prof. Mulligan is referring to unemployed Nevada nail pounders or folks on the dole but suggests “as people adjust to the reality of depleted retirement accounts and vanished home equity, many of them will decide to make up for some of the shortfall by working more and retiring later.” You people with AARP memberships – its up to you to turn the employment situation around. Lazy slugs.

Mulligan promises more on this later. Can't wait, I need more humor in my life.

To complete the trifecta, Steve Levitt believes people are no longer buying SUVs because they're “uncool.” Unlike pickup trucks which apparently are still cool although not fuel efficient.

As Brad DeLong puts it: “...Chicago has nothing coherent or useful or constructive to say about our current situation.”

Just what the world needs....

Now there's hope for the eyelash challenged among us, thanks to Allergan Inc.

Merry Christmas to all...

Happy Festivus!

It's Festivus...time to celebrate and engage in one of the many traditions of the holiday: the Airing of Grievances (aka blogging).

So in the spirit of the season...

-- People in the checkout line who appear to be shocked when the clerk asks them to actually pay for their purchases. This is usually followed by the agonizing decision of what credit card to use or hunting for exact change.
-- Flinging of cigarette butts out the window. Keep them to yourself.
-- SUV sized baby strollers maneuvered down the narrowest aisles.
-- Talking to your three year old as if the kid was capable of higher order logic. The torrent of words goes on until either the child or the parent is screaming.
-- Using "time out" as punishment ("if you don't behave you're gonna get a time out").
-- Asserting that government should be run more like a business (no doubt like Lehman Brothers, Madoff Investments, AIG, GM, Chrysler, etc.).
-- Any attempt at serious political discussion making mention of Sarah Palin, the War on Christmas, socialism or Rick Warren.

Holding out no more?

A couple of stories on the Globe's website point to the seriousness of the financial situation. Sal DiMasi is actually talking about maybe, just maybe, allowing towns to tax telecommunications facilities and meals. This may not seem like a seismic event but the legislature is very protective of its ability to raise funds and historically reluctant to share that with municipalities. Even if the legislature moves forward with both, there are a lot of towns that won't benefit. It's also likely that they'll make these local options, forcing Selectboards to call town meetings and fight it out.

DiMasi is also considering allowing town's to join the Group Insurance Commmission without having to negotiate with unions. Very few cities and towns have jumped into the GIC and being forced to deal with multiple bargaining units is certainly part of the problem – Claire Higgens in little NoHo has some fourteen to deal with. There are other hooks that make the GIC a non-starter. For a lot of towns, employees (and retirees) pay a greater share of the premiums than the GIC mandates, so joining might actually increase costs. Once a town is in the plan its experience rating gets mixed in with the larger group, so leaving after the five year minimum stay becomes real difficult, if not impossible. Many towns side step the requirement of offering an indemnity plan by using a PPO but the GIC doesn't – it offers a (more expensive) indemnity plan.

Bottom line: Mayor Higgens has it right, give municipalities the same authority over plan design that the Commonwealth reserves for itself. Those of us who've been trying to control costs through organizations like the Hampshire Insurance Trust need to be recognized as well. So when you offer incentives to join the GIC, extend them to other non-profit insurance collaboratives with proven track records.

In search of revenues Tommy Menino is looking for ways to get Boston's tax exempt non-profits to start making payments to the city. This is good news, since Boston is the big dog in such matters (and often carved out as an exception) so if the mayor can make some headway against the behemoths in the Hub, that holds out some hope for the rest of us who live in towns with a significant number of tax exempts. There are lots of arguments, many of them very good, concerning the positive financial impacts a variety to tax exempt organizations have on towns but there are costs as well. Contrary to the op-ed piece in last Friday's Bulletin, you can measure the impacts a facility like Amherst College has on a community. Larry Schaffer's pointed out that New Hampshire (where folks live free or die but do pay property taxes) manages to extract some revenue from colleges. My own modest proposal is to tariff non-profits for the costs of public safety and infrastructure maintenance.

The major tax exempts are well organized and have plenty of lobbying clout, so none of Menino's (or anyone else's) efforts will come easy.

In time for holiday giving!

Mudflats pointed this out. Amazon is selling the Sarah Palin biography (at a 45% discount) paired with a novel called “Terror Occulta.” The novel is descibed as:

In a classic tale of good and evil, in Terror Occulta, author Victor F. Paletta goes to an eerie and wicked place that is wholly unusual and utterly fascinating. His is a distant future where life on earth has taken a turn for the worst. An enemy that once hid from a more technologically advanced people turns the tide, and is now on a relentless hunt for humans. Corporal 1412 is thrown into a world of sadistic inhuman predators, but not without a few savage weapons of his own. Ironically, his love for another is his most formidable weapon, but will it be enough to foil the fray of monsters, robots, and cyborgs that want blood? In a rush of action, Corporal 1412 will be put to the test until he can do no more and fate will step in to decide if he is, indeed, man enough to fight an evil that threatens to exterminate his people. Desperate and unyielding, this gruesome epic is harrowing, shocking, and all too realistic.

Bailout!

Listening to the Hudson River Sampler last Saturday we were treated to the original version of Tom Paxton's “I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler” – his take on the 1979 bailout of that company. This is one of Paxton's “short shelf life” songs that manages to resonate today. Nonetheless, Paxton's updated the tune to “Changing My Name to Fannie Mae.” Give a listen while your watching the overpaid execs of the Big Three roll out the business plans they should have brought in the first place.

Rumor has it they've car pooled to DC – in a Prius.

Sic transit gloria...

The Rev. George M. Docherty, who started the effort to get “under God” inserted in the Pledge of Allegance passed away recently. His obit states that, being from Scotland, he had never heard the Pledge until his kid recited it. Docherty thought that God merited mention and so preached, once with Eisenhower present. Legislation adding it was introduced by a one term repub congressman from Michigan. The repub senator from Michigan, who introduced the bill in that chamber lost his re-election bid that year but a blow against godless communisim was struck.