You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘business credit’ category.
If I said… “Hey, dude, what happened 100 years ago today?”…. about 4 out of every 25,000 of you, would know and answer back with a question…. “Are you sure you are not talking about 100 years yesterday?” You would be officially right of course… June 28th…. But I would be “politically” right, I guess, (struggling for an adjective to describe the rightness I would be..).
To fill in the rest of the 24,996 of you…. yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the shooting of the Archduke of Ferdnand,,,,
“Who the fvck is that?” say 24,996 people all at once…. (People in Oklahoma hear that rumble as another frack quake..)
Since reality is 100% of reality, I’ll take that on….
In 1914… there were 5 nations that mattered. One of the nations that didn’t matter back then would have been the United States; others: China, and Japan… The 5 nations that were relevant back then actually included Russia, believe it or not…. with Germany, France, Britain, and Austria-Hungary rounding out the full 5… This last nation, I always think of as a joke, and say so sometimes… (“What? Austria’s Hungry? What a joke!”) That is because I tend to ignorant of anything southeast of Germany… I’m an American, you know…
Austria Hungary was called the Dual Kingdom… Can you guess why? One was Austria, the other was Hungary. Austria ran Austria/ Hungary ran Hungary, and a couple of times a year they got together to coordinate… Those episodes resembled today’s divided Congress. Neither side would accept the provisions of the other…. and stalemate meant each could go their own way with little interference from the other… However on security matters they were conjoined… Austria had the military; a standing army of 900,000.. and Hungary bordered Russia from where any major attack would come…
To the south the ancient empire of the Ottoman Turks was decaying from its inside. Recognizing that most of the Empire’s attention had to be focused inside of Turkey proper, all 5 relevant nations begin eyeing the Balkans and Dardanelles and sizing each other up… Significantly, Russia was very nervous over the Dardanelles because the wrong person owning that property, could bottle her navy inside the Black Sea…
Austria had, in just a very few years before, annexed Bosnia, roughly the same size as it is today, by marching in and calling it their own… Serbia, had wanted the same, but was too small to do anything about it and no one came to their aid…. But people inside of Bosnia who had wanted Serbia to control it, had financial resources made available to help make that happen…
The archduke was the next in line to the Austrian emperor, who himself was getting quite old. Both the archduke and emperor were primarily pacifists who didn’t believe that war was profitable. But like any nation, within their cabinet as well as in charge of their military, they had well-spoken ministers who argued that a “shock and awe” first strike was always the best option…
Unfortunately for the world, it was one of those two pacifists who was assassinated 100 years ago today…. along with his wife… killed by what today would be considered a terrorist cell of about 5 people total… working independently… meeting in secret. etc. etc. They botched their previous attempts and by today’s standards were almost comical, until they finally got lucky on number 3…
Some people got the word 100 years yesterday… June 28th. Who these were, were mostly heads of state, many of whom were on summer vacation so telegrams had to jump all over the country, and in some places be put on skiffs and rushed out to meet the heads of states floating in the Baltic…. No one at first predicted what this assassination would preclude… Those who firmly believed in war, thought it precluded war. However most thought that was too unreasonable and assumed everyone would of course get mad first, then settle down and make certain arrangements and life would eventually go on as normal….. After all, worse crises had been settled such….
There were two small problems… One involved the signing of treaties, some secret and some not, that tied promises of reaction to any military invasions of one of the signatories… The other, was the Victorian mode of character which dictated that one dutifully filled out one’s signed obligations, regardless if they had been originally made in error… One filled out ones obligations and damned the torpedoes.
In efforts to preserve a peaceful Europe, (which had been effective for 40+ years, and probably a world record at that time)…. alliances had been made loosely between Britain, France, and Russia… With the two extremes of East and West appearing united, this left vulnerable those who could get crunched in the middle, so they formed an alliance too: Germany and Austria-Hungary….
But no one ever thought they’d be used. Ever! Europe was one chummy place. The heads of England, Germany, Russia were all related, and met for state weddings and funerals regularly. Vienna was one of the playful destinations in Europe, and socialites from all 5 nations frequented there every summer… It and Paris vied for the Art & Music capitols of Europe… Tension was not like during our Cold War at all. Europe was very open and much like international relations today, where one could travel freely, where all the big powers meet occasionally and decided how to deal with each of little tweaks and interruptions….
So 100 years ago today, people woke up to this assassination story …. Today (yesterday) is the real beginning of the count-down-clock because for the first time in European history, the populations inside the nations were to have a profound impact on the upcoming events to come… (even though the structures of the governments were very closed to all but the upper crust of society…) Public opinion primarily through the growth of large metropolitan newspapers, had become an influence that had to be “reckoned with”.
For Austria Hungary was hot! You can imagine if Joe Biden was killed. Though some here love him, and some here make fun of him, … were he assassinated, this entire nation would demand retribution…. So Serbia got blamed…. In Austria-Hungary, with one pacifist dead, and the other now solo against a cabinet calling for an invasion, the call to go to war with Serbia came quickly…
Serbia appealed to their soul mate Russia. There had always been a deep Slavic bond between the two nations… and the head of Russia, when confronted with the fact that his people would rebel against him if he ignored his brother nation’s plea, said Russia would attack Serbia’s attacker if Serbia were attacked by Austria Hungary… Military philosophy at this time dwelt solely on the benefit of a quick attack. All armies were trained to attack, not defend. Simply put, the philosophy was that if you attacked quick enough, you always won… And all nations suffered from this delusion, though reality had showed it certainly hadn’t worked in all the proxy wars (Boer, Sudan, Balkans)…. As Austria began to mobilize her troops towards Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, Russia began mobilization to send it’s troops to the Austria-Hungarian border….
Austria Hungary had the second largest standing army in Europe (Russia had the largest due to its gigantic size relative to European nations) but even still, Austria-Hungary could not both defend its border, and attack/occupy Serbia simultaneously… Therefore they appealed to Kaiser Wilhelm to promise an attack on Russia if Russia attacked The Dual Kingdom… Previous handshakes had sealed the deal long before, and the Kaiser promised he would….
Now this caused a dilemma within Germany’s army. Their plan had long called for first attacking France … France was the more dangerous of the two, so it made great sense to defeat France first and then attack Russia, instead of attacking Russia and have a fit France barge in through the back door… No one had ever considered the option that perhaps a minor limited war with Russia could happen first without French involvement. But plans were plans and the detail in them was so meticulous that there was really no option to opt-out and siphon off troops to the Russian Border…. (all the trains would be tied up and busy carrying soldiers to the West) until after France and fallen and signed their surrender… The surprise Russian build-up now meant it was more imperitive than ever that France surrender before Russia could mobilize to march into Prussia proper….
France was insistent that it would not make the first move. They tried to dissuade Russia to stand down, but Russia’s people felt a personal insult (and a rational fear of internal overthrow) if Serbia fell, so that didn’t happen. The French who were the villains of the last European War( the Franco-Prussian War that ended in 1870… a quick war, which France had lost, and been paying repatriation upon for a long time), were very squeamish about being considered the aggressor again, and so they mobilized defensive forces and fortified their common border with Germany, just in case.
Britain’s Prime Ministe firmly believed in making alliances but also keeping them secret so both his allies and enemies would be left guessing… He was so good at it, that the Kaiser was convinced upon invasion, that Britain would definitely not interfere and that Paris would fall quickly as had long been planned (across twenty years)….
The accidental player in this scenario, turned out to be the tiny little neutral nation of Belgium…… With no real army and a reputation for being a peaceful take-what-comes population, its future role had been dismissed by Germany, France and Britain… Germany simply assumed that it being a neutral nation, it would take the gentlemanly course and let the German’s pass through unopposed to attack France where it lacked defenses. Britain and France had assumed due to its neutrality, Belgium would be off limits for any German advance….
As troop deployments began to show the German’s hand, four nations raced to shore up that area…. Belgium said it would not allow German passage and began to mobilize its defense…. (This infuriated the Kaiser who apoplectically raged how dare that tiny nation not fall in line with Germany’s plans; who did they think they were?)… which shows how reality and clear thinking often had little voice in governments at that time…. Assumptions made by whomever was annointed head of state, tended to always carry the heavier weight.
With everything ready and the impetus on the Axis (Germany/Austria) to strike quickly and the Entente (Britain, France, Russia) to wait and only fight defensively, all pieces were in place for what everyone thought, would be a short little war… Most analysts assumed everyone lacked resources or the will to fight in order for it to carry over 2 months… “By Christmas all the troops would be home” each nation’s people were promised….
What impressed me most upon looking back from a 100 years’ perspective and I guess it is true with any war, was how life went on normally for 99.999% of the world’s population while this crises brewed… Future weddings were planned, meetings between future adversaries were scheduled, treaties and statements of purpose continued to be signed between the future enemies… At any point, if anyone powerful enough had said, “STOP! let’s talk about it”, (as is done so often today it now seems like an extra step), this war would have been prevented… If Russia had not mobilized, this would have remained a local conflict, taking place only on Serbian hillside whose outcome have been very quickly settled. Or if Britain had been forthright, stating that it would come to France’s aid and attack German interests, then the cost of war would have risen to where the Kaiser would have backed down from attacking France first and would have made a deal with Russia… If Germany had not been locked so deep into its own plans, so that once the order was given to mobilize it started everything which precipitated the next step automatically like a line of dominoes. …. if any of these occurred prior to the First World War , history would be far different today; The First World War would not have happened…..
The suddenness is simply mind boggling. How could Europe go from congeniality and peace and prosperity and hope, to an all-out brawl. Like a bar fight that erupts instantly leaving lifelong scars?
It would be like today… if we opened our paper and read the news that one of Putin’s emissaries was assassinated in Sevastopol, Crimea…. And… by this upcoming Saturday (July 5th), Russia had asked China if it will help fight and China agrees. .. and exactly two and a half weeks later on July 23, Putin’s Russia surprises the world with an ultimatum to Ukraine designed to be so harsh that the Ukraines cannot possibly accept it. The world holds its breath, and the 5 day deadline passes, and Russia declares war on the Ukraine…. July 28th, exactly on month from today!
NATO mobilizes, beginning with their declaration… . All NATO units are then put on full reserve and active units are then moved into Turkey, Uzbekistan, Poland, and Finland, positioned along their borders with Russia….
On the last day of this month, July, China calls upon the NATO to stop its mobilization…. NATO says no; it is mobilizing solely against Russia and for only the protection of the Ukraine people…. Then on August 1st, China declares war on NATO, including the US….
The very next day, August 2nd, China bloodlessly rushes in to occupy North Korea … China then demands of South Korea to let them use its seaports to facilitate their landing craft invasion against Japan. They promise that after hostilities are over, all Korea will be free and promise it can under them become one nation again…
The very next day, on August 3rd, China declares that the state of war now exists between it and Japan, Taiwan, North Vietnam, and the Philippines, and moves their navy into blockade those ports… All those nations plea for help from the US and the US promises it….. South Korea to the Chinese surprise, announces despite overwhelming odds, it will NOT grant permission for China to enter peacefully, NOR allow Chinese military hardware into its country…. A brief testing skirmish occurs on the 53 parallel between US and Chinese troops becoming the first engagement of the war…. On this same day unknown to almost everyone, China and most Latin America nations sign a secret treaty…. relating strictly with the US and stating that if China is attacked, Latin America will side with China in order to protect their massive investments there….
The very next day, August 4th. China swiftly invades South Korea and quickly over runs Seoul and commandeers all the ports on the peninsula. China’s massive merchant marine of commercial cargo ships out of nowhere suddenly gather outside all of Korea’s ports. The US protests. calling for China to leave Korea. China flatly says it won’t. The US declares war on China…. The Chinese merchant marine begins loading up the 2 million troops and lands them on the remote undefended section of north-western Japan… Within 7 days, 2 million Chinese are moving towards Tokyo….
The very next day, August 5th… Latin America surprises all and closes shuts down all commerce with the US, closing it’s borders… All US firms have their property confiscated to be nationalized and the Panama Canal is closed to all but Latin American and Chinese traffic…
The very next day, August 6th… Putin’s Russia declares war on the US and NATO….. and for what it is worth, the Ukraine declares war on China….
The very next day, August 7th… The first US troops from Okinawa, land in Japan and rush north to engage the advancing Chinese… Battles ensue and the Chinese throughout the next week, till the 13th, win all of them…
The very next day: August 8th… NATO and the US finally declare war on Russia…
For the next week, all eyes focus on China’s advance to Tokyo. Then one week later, August 15th… Ukraine counter attacks a Russian outpost on its border, and regains control of the entire border area… The Russians run back across the border. It will be the first allied victory of the war…
Two days later… August 17th… The US and NATO forces invade Russia proper upward from Uzbeckistan, and upwards from Turkey through Sochi, and eastward into Belarus from Poland, and towards Leningrad from Finland….
==========
4 years later, 2018, the armistice will be signed, leaving 37 million souls dead…. 93 million wounded for life…. and 34 million people simply missing… never heard from again…. And the borders between most of the big players will primarily remain just as they are… ( Hopefully all parties refrained from nuclear weapons….. or citizen causalities would be uncountable.) Unsettled emotional antagonisms will continue to fester, and won’t be settled until after the next great war beginning in 2039…..
=========
This is how life changing that event was 100 years ago…. Literally it came out of nowhere….. Just take a moment to consider the breathtaking speed with how fast this occurred and stretch your imagination wide enough to take in us being in a full fledged real world war equivalent to WWI in less than one month and 5 days from today, as you read this and the News Journal and fret over Greg Lavelle… ….. Maybe this could happen today, maybe not. You and I need to make sure the “not” wins out…. were such a crises to occur.
The lessons of yesteryear are so lost on us today, as I’m afraid they are on every new generation. I only share interest because of a personal bond with a relative, who was called to France in 1918. So unlike most today, this history to me is something very real. Upon my passing, there will then be no one to remind us of how stupidity can sometimes take over an ruin a world of good… But for the rest of you, 100 years ago today you would be just reading about this life-changing first step in the paper…. (yawn) another assassination in Crimea… possibly thinking “awwww… how sad”… but never dreaming it would within four years time, cause you to lose your entire family in the same amount of time that briefly passes between two World Cups….
Life should never be taken for granted. Lesson. Always be vigilant against war. Always.
China shoots down two B52’s flying through it’s extended air zone.
What now?
The initial reaction would be to retaliate. Strike something of theirs! Expect some nut of the Tea Party to do a stand-up filibuster the Senate and demand nuking Beijing and Shanghai… But they are stupid.
The US is really not in any position to retaliate. We would have to react diplomatically. Pull our staffs, etc, etc,… talk to them through the Russians.
For if we were to launch, we would be launching against a nation smart enough to cybersleath into our NSA, not some dumb Muslim nation locked in the 13th Century. Good chance that not only would we have lost the two planes originally, but our losses would also extend to every single one of our attacking planes. We’d be wiped out. No doubt all our electronic deflections have already been neutralized by the Chinese… Our most effective military retort would be of a submarine at-sea launching of unmanned missiles taking out a minor retaliatory target. But even if that launch was not jammed, once that was over, the extension of airspace would remain, and not be challenged again…..
In any military engagement off its coast, China wins. Pretty much the same way the US would win in enforcing the Monroe Doctrine 2 centuries ago… We have the power here; and you, from way over there, don’t.
So one must use a different perspective.
What is the one thing China most fears… Come on.. you know… It is obvious… Still guessing? Ok, I’ll help you out. China most fears an insurrection of its own people. People who want freedom, privacy, democracy, and those great things we often take for granted. The Chinese willingly let themselves be run by their totalitarian government… At any point, based simply on numbers, ie the number of people in security, and the number of people not, China could rise up, revolt, and rule itself… This scares the Party more than any other threat. They know that whereas the US would certainly not dismember their bodies in a public square, if the revolt got ugly, unlike us the local population would have no qualms in doing so…
Therefore we play to their fear….
The reason China does what it does, is to keep the people happy enough so they don’t revolt. Their economic growth, their development, their capitalism, is all based upon that premise. “If they are happy, we, the Party, stay in control….”
So.
What if we declared economic war? Stopped buying anything from China? China would have to become a consuming nation to survive. Currently China’s wealth is saved and reinvested. Compared to the average US income, which practically buys everything it makes… China buys very little of their own products, those are slated for exports to bring more cash into the country. If the world stops buying Chinese products, then those savings not invested outside of China, need to start buying up the products instead of the other members of the global economy…. That is a short lived proposition. After all, how many shovels will each Chinese buy?
It is further aggravated by China’s demand for raw materials. Food is one. Oil is another. Heavy metals are a third. As each of these become critical, each becomes rationed, the growing restlessness starts whispering that these hardships would never have come to pass, if the regime had not shot down two airplanes that up until a week earlier, had always flown that route with no problem. Now, because of a gross error made by the current regime, millions have to go hungry, aren’t working, and are barely existing… Perhaps the whispering campaign goes, it is time to overthrow the overlords and sue for peace, and get things back to normal?
As China cracks down against this whispering dissent internally, it loses focus externally…
That would be the time to present a show of force. The US then blockaids China. It would take two rings. The outer ring would consist of ships permanently parked outside the range of China’s missiles… Their job would be to impede all international commerce headed to China, boarding and searching every ship… The inner ring would consist of primarily of stealth submarines who would sink or shoot down everything making a mad dash into China…
The Russians would probably take the middle road, most likely benefiting from their proximity to China, but not going as far to alienate the US itself by forming a Sino-Soviet Aggression Pact. It would be impossible to stop all commerce into China. The demand for all goods would make the profit margins of smuggling, impossible to ignore. The Soviets would benefit; Indochina, India, Burma, the Stans, would all benefit, but that amount slipping through, would not compensate for the hurt coming from the Shanghai and Hong Kong docks being empty of commerce….
Sooner or later, a group within the Chinese leadership, would have attracted enough numbers to challenge the military extremists, and something would crack and diplomacy would then become an option….
Point is, the choice to not attack militarily, is not an act of cowardice… it is just so smart. If every American citizen were to follow the Tea Party option and attack China, we would be at a 5 to 1 disadvantage. But if every citizen in China attacked the ruling party and we were on THEIR side, we would have a 20 to 1 advantage….
Attacking China with economic weapons, is no different than surrounding a castle during a Medieval siege and waiting it out….
Super smart. One gets the prize for no cost at all…..
That is why China has erred in its calculations… by thinking only in military terms where it does possess all the cards in its favor…
Unfortunately in war… one does not get to make up all the rules….
Although the year is barely out, we do have our first nomination for the spot to be announced in December 2013. With the Kinder Morgan Deal now on hold semi-permanently, even they are pointing to our hero of the year as the man most responsible for allowing the port to remain state owned….
I can say it was Julius Cephas who was behind almost every move to combat the loss of good jobs at our port. He is being pointed out as the villain by the capitalists at Kinder Morgan. In Delaware’s eyes, that elevates his hero’s stature even more…
In truth, he is no villain and knowing him, he will probably shun the acclimations being made by us common folk as being our hero. In his eyes, he was just doing what needed to be done because no one else was there at that very moment to do it, and as that task swelled, it took a lot out of him….
Capitalists always need a villian. But it was the “truth” which actually is what killed this deal. Kinder Morgan WAS going to cut back on jobs, and their change of heart and blaming Julius instead of others, points exactly to the core of their problem with our port… …
People in Texas, do not understand unions. They simply can’t fathom or understand how there can be an actual law that lets people strike and shut you down, whenever you try to pay them less.. In their eyes, you work for what they want to give you and if it is too little, ..humph. go elsewhere….
The second culprit (after the “truth”), was our office of economic development. We gave Kinder Morgan too many “eager” signals that set us up as being seen as an easy pick. They truly thought they could waltz in, pick up a top notch East Coast Port for a song, and we would eagerly give it up… Again, that was because everything was done in secret. Had a meeting been forthcoming in the very beginning, Kinder Morgan might have moved on earlier when it became readily apparent, that southern Texas practices do not bode well in the Northeast…
Of course, being a corporation, they will blame the whistle blower. (Ironic since the whistle blower of Enron works for them).. Of course. It is not like they find anything immoral in taking a state asset for a song, in firing those skilled dock workers, and replace them with some Spanish speaking Texans who never even heard of a union….
And Julius did blow that whistle. . Like Rose on the Titanic, he took the whistle off of Jack (pun intended), and blew softly at first, then harder, and harder. Gradually the sound registered on others ears….
Without Julius, Bob Marshall would not have pushed through Senate Bill 3. Without Julius, most of the links showing up in everyone’s blog, would have not been found. Without Julius, the case for protecting workers would not have even made the rounds of the Norman Oliver show….
There were many helpers. Bob Marshall, Nancy Willing, Norman Oliver, Norinda, Helene Keeley, Al Mascitti, Liz Allen, John Kowalko, and (an other blogger too shy to be mentioned here). When one looks back through all of them one sees from everywhere, there in the center of the universe, stands a normal human being just like us, known to most … as Julius.
There will come a time when a better deal will arrive. Could even be this year. There will come a time when a suitor who does care about Delaware, who does care about unions, about human beings, about those businesses on the outside, and who will want to upgrade the port for everyone’s interest, not just their own… And that suitor in this day and age, could even come from abroad. Germany is very committed to union labor, to the environment, to being a good neighbor…. There are a great many possibilities out there that are immeasurable…. We definitely dodged a Texas bullet with this one….
When that suitor arrives… Julius’s stature will be set in cement…. For he did nothing really Herculean, except argue the truth… He didn’t lie. He didn’t connive, He didn’t threaten….
That was done by our office of economic development. Instead and unlike them, Julius told the truth. He told the truth to anyone who would listen. He told the truth enough, so many “did” listen….
And that is why, he deserves this nomination as Delaware’s Man of the Year. I know it is early into 2013, but great things just do not wait!!….
You will hear smears that Julius tubed the deal… I saw the letter and it is already out on WDEL and the Delawareonline’s News Journal… But as an impartial blogger, I can tell you exactly what killed this deal.
It was “the truth”. The truth of what this deal would cost us Delawareans….. is what turned the tide and caused the outcry that rose up against it….
If Kinder Morgan really wanted this deal, they could have easily said… “we are expanding and putting 5 new berths out into the river. We are buying the port for the bargain price of $5 billion. We need those businesses outside the fence because the jobs we get, will soon be too big, we can’t do it ourselves. We will keep the union just as it is; Wilmington needs good jobs and we are going to do our part…. We are also going to contribute into an emergency fund to be used for any spill or environmental accident that takes place under our tenure….
Kinder Morgan could have done any of those things, … and didn’t…. The blame doesn’t lie with Julius after all…. Especially when you consider the following…
This Economic Council erred on Fisker Automotive. Then it erred on Bloom Energy. Then it tried to Kinder Morgan us out of our port….. Someone rushed in with a save to make sure that last one didn’t happen.
That person is now hereby nominated for Delaware’s Person of the Year…….
Courtesy of Wikipedia
However, the longer the period between two concessions, the less information the regulator may have on cost and demand conditions. Therefore, there is a trade-off between incentives and information for regulating a concessionaire optimally…..
50 years is a long time. Most people over 50, won’t see the end of the lease. Only 6% of those now between 40 and 50 years old, will be around go see it revert back to the state. An egg, fertilized tonight, will be moving around as a 50 year old when this port lease expires…..
Can a lot change in 50 years? Let’s look back… 50 years ago was 1963… Let that sink in…. If our ancestors had leased the port in 1963, while John F. Kennedy was president, while Lyndon Baines Johnson was Vice President, while Robert Kennedy was Attorney General, it would still be in the lessor’s control…. What would it be? Would it have grown as it did as as public entity? Kinder Morgan is an energy company… How many of these are still around? Amoco, Getty, Esso, Sinclair, Atlantic, Texaco, Gulf, Pure, Phillips 66, ….
A quick reminder of our local refinery may drive home the point. Originally Delaware City refinery was started in 1956 and as of 1963 was owned by Getty… In these 50 years past, it has gone through a progression of Texaco, Star Enterprises, Motiva, Premcor, Valero, and after a brief shut down, it is now run by PBF Enterprises… I wonder how many of the original promises that Getty made to get approval and the refinery built, are still edified in the practices of the current owner?
Kinder Morgan says it has no plans for Liquid Natural Gas… but, what about its third owner, its fourth, its fifth? The only thing constant is change…. When people tell me Kinder Morgan is going to be around a long time, I tell them that early last year, El Paso Gas was saying exactly the same thing….
Bottom line, none of us would lease our house out for 50 years locked at today’s low rent prices, yet that is what we are doing with Kinder Morgan. We are giving them a cut throat bottom rate for 50 years with no renegotiations….. And speaking strictly for myself, if I were Kinder Morgan, … those last 15 years I would put as few pennies as I could into my investment, knowing full well, I’d soon just be turning it over to the state in 2064…
Which means, that after the end of 50 years the State receives an beat down, unmarketable entity, and not the same shining port we are giving up today: the number two largest fruit port of the entire world…..
So, what do other ports lease for?
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/64583/2181seaport.pdf
As one can see, only one port is leased out for 50 years: La Harve in France. The average lease on the chart above, is 23.3 years. Furthermore, in such agreements it is very common to have penalties and fines to guarantee adequate compliance with the terms of a concession agreement… Concession contracts have long lives, and therefore it is important that port authorities are able to establish strong positions from the start of the concession, and be allowed to perform regular inspections to verify assets are being kept in top condition. The potential threat of fines must be written into the contract to ensure compliance.
Bottom line, the excessive length of this contract for this small port is odd, and is definitely laid out in the favor of the renter, who in this case will be Kinder Morgan. At this point, without balance embedded deep within the contract, we are really doing nothing more than selling our first born daughter to the very first man who comes along….
There are thousands of reasons why this union is a bad idea. Some are classified under categories of labor, some under categories of environment, and some under categories of finance. But as much as the Governor’s office is infatuated with this union, when it comes down to it, we are really nothing more than a cocktail waitress who happens to catch George Clooney’s eye at one of many events,and become infatuated with the prospects.
Bottom line, Kinder Morgan bought El Pass Oil for $36 billion. If the Delaware Port deal goes through, they will pay $18 million up front and then a little under $3 million a year after that….
The first purchase was a private company. The second is our public entity. We are being propositioned to give up one of our most prized possessions, for something amounting to only five hundredths of one percent, of what our proposer, just gave another suitor….
All of us would silently scream “NOOOOOOOOO” if cinematically forced to watch a young girl willingly give up her virginity to a famous actor she happens to meet at his own bachelor party….
We can’t sit silently and let Delaware do the same.
Courtesy of New York Times
Here is the sight where you can fix the deficit yourself... Let me know how long it took and what you found to be your biggest surprise?
Indirect link:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=012vn5qj
The standard mantra of any insurance company is to “deny, deny, deny. They can always appeal.”
When taxes are too low, there is great incentive on not paying claims, but instead, keeping that money as profit.
You, the claimant probably pay $300 dollars per month for your medical insurance. Your company probably also pays $300 a month for your medical insurance. (Unless your were grandfathered and now have your employer paying the full $600 per month of your contribution).
$600 a month equals $7200 a year.
Your deductible is probably $2000… meaning you have to spend the first $2000 out of pocket before the insurance kicks in… On that $7200 let’s assume the insurance company probably pays 15% in total taxes, meaning that it keeps $6480 to itself.
If tax rates return to 50% as they were during Ronald Reagan’s term…. The insurance company nets $3600 to itself.
Some may cry (boo, hoo, hoo) that higher taxes cost the insurance company $2880… They will raise their rates….
Probably not. Because a wiser insurance competitor will steal you away without costing you more money.
What will most likely happen, is that the insurance company will approve more claims. If the insurance company by lowering or removing its deductible for example, pays out $2000 more in benefits to its recipients, then of that $7200 it took from you, it will make in after tax (50%)profit , … $2600… or a thousand less than if no claims were processed…
But wait.. They paid out $2000 dollars, but the bottom line cost to them, was only $1000?
Exactly. Which is where high taxes on profits, helps you and me and the rest of the middle class… Why risk losing a paying subscriber by denying his claim, when that denial is only going to the Federal government anyway?
“Aww, go ahead, approve it”, the supervisor chimes.
Now you probably can’t use that $2000 coming back to you from what used to be medical expenses, for anything else in your budget, but I sure could…
It’s about time that all America realizes they were guilty of one gigantic scam these past thirty years… All this crying about no higher taxes…
It has reached the silliness of Republicans parading around naked, (not just showing their body parts on Twitter). Each and every Republican pledged that a 10:1… cuts/tax increase ratio was too high of a tax hike…
Which means, they don’t want that $2000 dollars in paid benefits to hit your pocket. They’d rather you pay your $2000 on top of the $7200 your insurance costs you…..
Higher taxes on corporate profits and on investors, solve a lot of the middle classes problems.
Eric Cantor was tipped off early that the firm of Standard and Poors was going to devalue the dollar, irregardless of whatever deal they came up with.
Prior to the devaluation of America’s Treasury bonds, Eric Cantor had sent a letter (how did he know…), warning the Tea Party Republicans that pressure to raise taxes would be ratcheted up by the upcoming Standard and Poor’s devaluation….
He was right… Thank goodness, after 12 years, with this devaluation, we are finally starting to hear a few of the common sense arguments on the main stream media, that illustrate for all… that raising taxes to “now” be our best economy grower.. .
If you read Standard and Poors correctly, their report implies that the Tea Parties line (the one about NOT raising taxes), IS the primary obstacle that prevents the fixing of America’s debt problems… By implication, that makes the election of Tea Party candidates, the sole reason our bonds were devalued. (On the other hand, according to the ratings agencies, Obama receives high marks for his part in trying to make a better life for all Americans.)
In a secret email, Eric Cantor says…..
“Over the next several months, there will be tremendous pressure on Congress to prove that S&P’s analysis of the inability of the political parties to bridge our differences is wrong. In short, there will be pressure to compromise on tax increases. We will be told that there is no other way forward. I respectfully disagree.” Eric Cantor
He knew well in advance…
He continues….
“We have said from the beginning of the year, the new Republican Majority was elected to change the way Washington does business. We were not elected to raise taxes or take more money out of the pockets of hard working families and business people. People understand Washington can’t keep spending money that it doesn’t have. They want to see less government – not more taxes.
Back up: we were not elected to…. take more money out of the pockets of hard working families and business people……..
No one said anything about more taxes for the 99% on the bottom… At issue is how much to tax the 1% on the top…
Taxing the top 1% at a marginal rate of 40% and increasing capital gains taxes to a rate of 40%…… actually PUTS MORE MONEY BACK INTO THE POCKETS OF HARD WORKING FAMILIES AND THOSE BUSINESS PEOPLE RUNNING THE ESTABLISHMENTS THOSE FAMILIES CHOOSE TO PATRONIZE……..
So you see, Mr. Cantor.. Raising taxes on the top 1% is not a conflict of interest for you… You said so yourself….. We’ll support you in not raising taxes on the bottom 99%…
Raising taxes on just the top 1%, is good.. WHAM!!!!! It jump-starts the economy…. Whereas,….
Cutting taxes for the top 1%, is bad… We all know this is fact. You don’t need me to explain it; you know just from living through the past 12 years of the Bush Tax cuts… The last 12 years have made the Clinton Tax Hike Years in comparison, seem like the true Guilded Age..Gosh, it seems like so, so long ago, when everything was perfect.
The Bush Tax cuts, collapsed the economy…..
Tax Cuts kill jobs. Always have… always will….
(but what is really, truly, profoundly sad, is this exhortation from Eric Cantor) “When given the choice between bettering the American economy, and getting more Republicans in power, you better vote for getting more Republicans in power…Our new motto: F*ck the economy!”)
Definition: Where American spending was brought up to the level where it should be, without the necessary revenue to support it.
(As evidenced by 154,000 private sector jobs being created in July.)
The problem is not with spending. The problem is the lack of taxing of the top 1%. The spending seems to be doing its job.
kavips 
_2011-07-09.jpg){kind=link}