The Demise of Newspapers

The San Francisco Chronicle is the latest newspaper faced with the possibility of expiring.

I haven't subscribed to a newspaper in years. I got tired of their liberal biases while claiming to be neutral news reporters. There is no way an editor, judge, jury, or TV news producer can keep their biases from slanting what they decide to present.

I never liked the major newspapers' endorsements of candidates or referendums. To their undecided and uninformed readers it seemed to give an air of authenticity to those endorsements and saved the unsophisticated voters the trouble of studying the candidates and issues.

I can't wait to see the demise of TV news the way newspapers are fading away. This is already starting. No longer do network anchors draw millions of viewers the way Walter Cronkite did. Competition for TV news is on the Internet. Internet news and Twitter news is available to people that are not near a TV.

Twenty four hour TV news is desperate for content. They show hours of boring news, repeated. They show hours of the new religion, The State, and the State's enforcers. The recent sermonizing before Congress by President Obama was an orgiastic event by the State rulers that was covered by a dozen TV channels.

Technology changes us more than government policies change us.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke

Charles Tolleson

China, Debt, and Housing

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Beijing encouraging the Chinese government to buy United States' debt.

Translated, this means the U.S. wants China to keep loaning us money for our empire and we will continue to buy goods made in China.

Human rights groups lamented the lack of admonition by the U.S. to China about human rights violations. When one country needs credit and money they do not have the financial strength to make demands of their creditors.

As an aside, many white business owners hire minorities from Asia to produce their goods. This shows capitalism is not racist. Capitalism will seek the lowest cost of production. It does not care about the race or gender of the producers. The cheapest cost of production now is in some Asian countries and that is where the production goes. American labor unions and government regulations, such as the minimum wage, have driven up the cost of production. If women get paid less than men for the same work then businesses would be hiring only women, if the government would get out of the way.

It is confusing that Secretary of State Clinton would want to support China's production to sell us goods while our politicians and others complain about our manufacturing jobs going overseas.

You do desperate things when you are burdened with debt, as is the U.S.

California Budget-

When CA has an over supply of houses, why would the CA government offer a $10,000 tax credit (to buy a NEW house) that will encourage the building of more homes that are not needed? Ah, the wisdom of government tied in with the lobbying of the home builders.

Charles Tolleson
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http://activerain.com/blogsview/945742/California-New-Home-Credit-10000
Here is the summary of California's $10,000 Tax Credit for New Home Buyers:
The actual credit is 5% of the purchase price, up to $10,000.
"New" literally means new. It has to be new construction - never lived in before. (The rationale is that new homes are more advantageous to California's economy)
This must be your principal residence
The credit is spread over 3 years ($3,333) per year, starting in the year of purchase.
You must live in the house at least two years
California has only budgeted $100 million, once the money is gone, so is the credit (The credit officially starts March 1, 2009 and ends December 31, 2009)
If you qualify for the $8,000 federal credit, you can use both and receive a total of $18,000! See our blog at http://activerain.com/blogsview/935253/8000-Tax-Credit-10-Things-You-Should-Know
As always, tax laws evolve over time and there are always more details, so be sure to consult with your tax advisor and realtor before buying or selling real estate.
Nancy Moeller, CPA, Real Estate Broker
Seven Gables Real Estate
Direct: 714 276-7006

Rewarding credit and punishing savings

"There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second." -Logan Pearsall Smith, essayist (1865-1946)

The federal government just cannot help meddling in the market and the affairs between buyers and sellers.

"WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to give a tax break to new car buyers, setting aside bipartisan concerns over the size of an economic stimulus bill with a price tag approaching $900 billion. The vote was 71-26 to allow many car buyers to claim an income tax deduction for the cost of automobile sales taxes and interest payments on car loans."

And then the Senate wants this to stimulate home purchases, purchases of homes whose prices are still high from previous credit rewards by the government; "Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., is pressing for a tax credit of up to $15,000 for everyone who buys a home this year, at a cost of $18.5 billion. The pending measure would award a $7,500 tax credit only to first-time homebuyers."

What this bill will do is the same things that got us into a credit crisis. It will reward borrowing by giving buyers a tax deduction on loan interest while punishing savers by taxing interest earned. This is the same government policies that caused people to consume instead of save.

Savings is a good thing for the economy. It does not hurt the economy. It gives the banks a stronger balance sheet. The more savings in the banks, the more they have to lend, and the lower the lending rates. Savings only hurts the economy if someone puts their cash under their
mattress.

Congress is pandering to the lobbyists. Congress wants the consumer to spend because it raises sales taxes. Congress wants home prices to rise so the state and local governments can have more property tax revenues. The realtors want house prices to rise so they can get better commissions.

Consumer borrowing and spending does creates jobs, but at what costs? What are the unseen consequences of credit? History is filled with examples, but who learns from history?

The pilot profession

If pilots had a union with the power of nurses unions, they could limit the supply of pilots. The nursing schools have state laws that require certain standards and attendance. These schools, like barber colleges http://www.newrain.com/barbercollege/ make it difficult for someone to open a barber shop, restrict the supply of nurses.

Yes, there are pilot schools, but they are not organized. Nor is there a cartel of private pilots to restrict the supply.

Once a private pilot gets an Instructor's Rating they will train more pilots in an attempt to get enough experience to get a job with an airline. The pilots keep training more competition for the same jobs. I used to say that ALPA should organize all civilian flight instructors.

Unlike nurses, the military nation has grown and continues to supply a bumper crop of pilots to compete with each other for the better paying airline jobs. Once deregulation happened it was only a matter of time with startup airlines until pilot pay reached parity with the supply. The free market, if allowed to operate, which is rare, will work to set pay based upon the supply of labor.

I talked to a military pilot, 12 years military, who was anti union. He thought the pilots should be promoted based on merit instead of seniority. I asked him why he got out of the military since their promotions were based on merit. No answer.

I take issue with Kolker's intimation that military pilots are better than civilian pilots. Many civilian pilots simply could not pass a physical to enter the military. Many of the regional pilots had less than 20/20 vision. I know a pilot with UA who was a civilian pilot before UA. He had one of the earliest radial keratotomy procedures in order to pass a first class physical.

During my career I flew with both military and civilian trained pilots. I could not see any significant difference in their performance based upon their training, military vs. civilian. Their experiences did matter. One of my sharpest First Officers had ten years experience flying for Rocky Mountain Airways, but no military experience. He was an excellent pilot and a valuable resource on an irregular flight we had.

Early military pilots were not required to have any college. Then the navy started requiring 2 years of college. Now the military requires a college degree. The military pilots are highly educated and better trained than civilian pilots who do not require a college degree. Not even a high school diploma is required to be an airline captain. http://www.gleim.com/aviation/airline_transport/atpreqs.php Most airlines however require a college degree simply because there are plenty of pilots with degrees.

Kolker says the pilot profession has become less glamorous, which is true. I knew that the day females became commercial pilots. Planes used to have manual cable controls, powered by hydraulics. When hydraulics were lost it required considerable effort to control an airplane. Remember the loss of hydraulics emergency procedure, E-13, on the DC-8. After females were hired they did away with that procedure. Technology has made it possible for a small female weighing 100 pounds to fly a big airplane with the slightest effort.

Feel free to disagree with my assertions. I no longer have the need to be right in subjective matters.

Charles Tolleson
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"My Aircraft"Why Sully may be the last of his kind

By Robert Kolker Published Feb 1, 2009
http://nymag.com/news/features/53788/

"Pilots are being treated as a commodity," says Gary Hummel, training committee chairman for the U.S. Airline Pilots Association. "Until you need them to park a plane in the Hudson. Then you say, "Hey, there might be more to this job."

Pilots and pilot advocates worry that great aviators may be being bred out of the system. "I have a son who is 27 and a software engineer," says Hummel. "I have a daughter who is 25 and is a professional nurse. They both graduated from good colleges. Both of them have flown an airplane, but I told them, Find another profession, because you won't be able to feed your family or have a retirement in this one. My daughter earned more in her first year as a nurse than Jeff Skiles, Sully's first officer on Flight 1549, earns after eighteen years of dedicated service with US Airways. Why would I encourage them to be a professional pilot?"