Bob Morris @ Aug 21st 2008 20:29 - Category: Immigrant rights ;
From Steve Earle’s City of Immigrants
Livin’ in a city where the streets are paved
With good intentions and a people’s faith
In the sacred promise a statue made
Livin’ in a city of immigrantsAll of us are immigrants
Every daughter, every son
Everyone is everyone
All of us are immigrants
Everyone
Bob Morris @ Aug 21st 2008 16:10 - Category: Unfiled Tags: high speed rail;
High speed rail is becoming a worldwide trend. Rail gets goods to market faster and cheaper than trucks and uses way less fuel. It’s an idea whose time has come. Plus, it’s an excellent solution to crowded freeways during commuting hours.
California High Speed Rail Blog has been chronicling the twists and turns towards getting high speed rail initiatives on the ballot in November. The ongoing, er, train wreck over the budget isn’t helping matters, but one, maybe two initiatives should be on the ballot. The official governmental website, California High Speed Rail Authority, has maps, plans, and details on what needs to be done.
Let’s hope Californians, cash-crunched as they are, will vote for the high speed rail that California needs.
Bob Morris @ Aug 21st 2008 13:31 - Category: Unfiled ;
California state workers will get full pay for August!
California State Controller John Chiang blocked The Terminator from mangling the financial lives of state employees (who have zilch to do with the budget deadlock) by refusing to implement the pay cuts. He says he is legally mandated to issue state employees their full pay plus the ancient payroll system can’t be updated that fast anyway. The Schwarzenegger administration sued, but the hearing won’t be until Sept. 12, so state employees get full pay for August.
Bob Morris @ Aug 21st 2008 12:57 - Category: Unfiled Tags: fuel cells, railroads;
Fuel-cell powered railroads make sense. They would drastically cut down on the amount of oil used and reduce carbon emissions as well. Plus, they would be easy to refuel, as hydrogen tanks just need to be accessible to the rail lines and not on roads everywhere, as is true with fuel cell cars.
Hydrail has a wealth of information on this promising new use of fuel cells, including reports from their various conferences.
Bob Morris @ Aug 21st 2008 06:15 - Category: Credit crisis ;
Gross, founder of Pimco (they manage hundreds of billions in bonds) is one of those big dogs we blogged about yesterday. Secretary Paulson apparently thought he could play chicken with the bond market on bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But they don’t get bluffed easily, if at all. Gross sees the coming government bailout being $40 billion rather than previous estimates of $5-10 billion. As for the common stock, it’ll be worth zero. Soon.
Lots of pension funds own Fannie and Freddie. They were supposed to be the safest of the safe investments too. Not any more. More than a few retirement funds will take a big hit on this. Maybe yours.
(Pimco has been buying Fannie and Freddie preferred stock and bonds. Those probably won’t get wiped out and thus holders will make a tidy profit.)
Bob Morris @ Aug 21st 2008 01:50 - Category: Credit crisis ;
Some collection agencies are now buying debt for 4 cents on the dollar. So, if they get 12 cents on the dollar back, they’ve tripled their money.
Collection agencies generally get a fixed percentage of whatever they collect, but with large institutions jettisoning bad debt as fast as possible to get it off their books, some collection agencies are simply buying the debt outright because it’s so cheap.
Definitely a sign of the times.
Bob Morris @ Aug 21st 2008 01:18 - Category: Unfiled Tags: San Andreas fault;
We recently moved to the S.F. pennisula and I just discovered we are now living 2 miles from the San Andreas fault. Yikes.
(Image from the excellent interactive map at Geology.com)
Subscribe
