Posted by admin on Oct 28, 2008 in
Financial Rants Kudos to New York’s AG Andrew Cuomo. Finally someone in governmnet has the spine to stand up and say “Enough”! The New York AG office sent a cease and desist letter to AIG telling them not to spend any more taxpayer money on lavish retreats, partridge hunts and the like. And, he indicates that he is going to recover all “past unreasonable expedentures.”
Needless to say, I’ll be watching this one.
For more information, see the ABC news article.
Tags: AIG, Bailout, Corruption, Fraud, Greed, Waste
Posted by admin on Oct 16, 2008 in
Education Rants Standardized tests are the backbone of tracking student progress. Each year, students in certain grades are subject to a variety of tests to determine their progress. Schools and teachers are also measured with the scores of their students. Schools and teachers do need to be held to a high standard when they have such a stong influence on the future of our country. However, the standards must be fair.
Is the current testing accurately reflecting a teacher’s ability and a school’s success?
The current testing procedure does not track individual student progress, instead, it takes a look at the scores in the same grade level year over year. Any educator can tell you that there is a distinct generational difference between, say, this year’s 6th grade and last year’s 6th grade. Each year of students having their own unique needs. You end up comparing apples to oranges.
Instead of tracking entire grades of students, we need to focus more on tracking individual student progress. Instead of looking at the entire 6th grade and concluding that 85% the students pass this year instead of the 90% who passed last year constitutes a failure on the teacher and/or school, we need to look at the students individually.
If in the 5th grade, little Johnny was reading on a grade 3 level, but now in the 6th grade, he is reading on a grade 5 level, then he’s made great progress and that should reflect on the teacher and the school as a positive. True, he’s still below grade level, but it is not only difficult, but unfair to expect a teacher or a student to improve 3 grade levels in just one year. Especially when you have at least 20 other students on different levels and different aptitudes.
It’s true that teachers and schools must be able to serve students who range from very low to very high, and most do this very well. However, the current standard of testing does not take into account that the majority of last year’s class were high-level students, but the majority of this year’s class are lower-level students. Each year, the individual student may have made adequate progress, but the class as a whole, when compare to last year’s class, did not. So, which is the more accurate picture?
By tracking an individual student’s progress, educators can target lessons to address weaknesses and challenge strengths.
If we truly want to leave no child behind, then we need to update our evaluation systems.
Tags: Education, Students, Teachers, Testing
Posted by admin on Oct 16, 2008 in
Travel Rants We constantly see news reports of new threats and steps that the Transportation Security Administration are supposedly taking to mitigate these risks.
We also see reports where the TSA makes huge mistakes, trying to make their agents immune to security measures, or just plain not doing their job.
Aside from the pain in the rear end of having to take shoes off, I really haven’t had any problems directly with any of the TSOs or checkpoint procedures. The longest I’ve had to wait was in Seattle and that was about 10 minutes. But there are plenty of horror stories out there.
A few interesting blogs I’ve found:
Trollkiller’s World
Official TSA Blog
Tags: Air Travel, Safety, Security, Travel, TSA
Posted by admin on Oct 16, 2008 in
Financial Rants When a company is in trouble and requires the Federal Government to bail them out, maybe the fluff should be the first to go. Executives of companies bailed out by the feds, and ultimately the taxpayers, should be living under a microscope.
Days after AIG received $85 billion from the Federal Reserve, AIG spent $440,000 entertaining executives. Now, they’ve paid $86,000 for a hunting trip in England just after they recieved another $37.8 billion in taxpayer funded loans. According to AIG execs, though, these trips were already planned months before any bailout or loans and therefore were necessary and allowable.
Big Deal. How many families have had to put their vacations on hold just to make the mortgage payment, put gas in the car and food on the table? How many of these families have seen the main breadwinner suddenly unemployed. I’m sure the mortgage company didn’t say “Go ahead and take your vacation. By the way, here’s a loan to help you fuel your car and buy groceries, use it in Hawaii. Pay it back when and if you can.”
This is just another example of how these huge companies are laughing at Main Street America.
Maybe a different kind of retreat is in order. I’m thinking a bit of time as guests of the federal or New York penal systems may help out. I understand they have an excellent fitness program as well as massages (if you find the right roommate).
An interesting Fox News article can be read at Fox News.
Tags: AIG, Bailout, Corruption, Fraud, Waste
Posted by admin on Oct 11, 2008 in
Energy Rants Well, according to news sources, the last time oil was at $87.00/barrel, gasoline was averaging $2.77 nationally. It is averaging about $3.40 per gallon now. So, why the disparity? I guess I can’t complain too much, I bought gas at $2.73/gallon yesterday. But it always seems that when oil prices go up, gasoline prices follow closely, however, when oil prices go down, gasoline is slow to follow.
I’m assuming that the reason the national average is still hanging in there is because of the ultra-high prices in the Southeast. If that’s the case, then the average should drop like a rock sometime next week.
Anyway, according to oil-price.net, the price for oil is down to a little less than $80.00/barrel. Of course, the experts who were all doom and gloom about high oil prices are down doom and gloom about them falling and how it will hurt the economy. Um, in case they haven’t noticed, the economy is already in a big hurt…
But, I’m thinking lower gasoline prices, while may be bad for the oil companies (who, by-the-way, raked in BILLIONS of extra profits over the past few years) would be good for the overall economy. Lower fuel prices will encourage those who’ve been staying close to home to travel a bit more. This also means staying in hotels, eating out, and spending money that Americans have been a bit reluctant to spend. It should also mean that all other prices (groceries, dry goods, etc.) that went up because fuel went up should start coming down. But, that probably will be feather-like, too.
Tags: economy, gasoline, oil
Posted by admin on Oct 7, 2008 in
Financial Rants The bailout has been approved, but Wall Street is still anxious. Apparently, this anxiety has spread world-wide as foreign markets are now taking a similar beating. Other markets are blaming America (what’s new) for their problems. Congress is taking a closer look at CEOs of some failed financial institutions. But, who’s really to blame?
In my opinion, the blame cannot settle on any one person or entity. Let’s take a closer look.
The home buyer: Many want to put the blame solely on the home buyer who took a mortgage for a house they should have known they couldn’t afford. I don’t put all the blame there, but I think it’s fair to share the blame here.
A responsible buyer would have known that if they earn $40k/year, they can not afford a $200k house. They should have looked elsewhere for a more affordable home, or continue to rent. I know that, at least in Oklahoma, there are still plenty of nice homes for $50-$100k.
The Mortgage Company: Mortgage companies share a part of this blame because they gave false hope to the buyers looking at this $200k home. The buyer may have known it was out of range, but the mortgage company says different. Adjustable-rates that stay low for the first few years (you’ll be getting raises, right?) but then start adjusting or interest-only mortgages that give the buyer no equity in their home and, in fact, will easily cause them to be upside-down not if, but when, home prices adjust downward after the balloon pops.
Some of these companies not only deceived the buyer, but also deceived the underwriter by falsifying incomes, credit scores, etc.
Financial Institutions: Financial institutions who underwrite the mortgage companies offering incentives to the mortgage companies to push as many people through as they can. They forgot to actually verify that the information the mortgage companies were sending through and verifying that they buyer actually only makes $40k instead of the $60k on the application. So, now they are stuck with bad paper and the cost of foreclosing. Not to mention, stuck with a house that they cannot sell.
The Feds: Where are the watchdogs? After the Great Depression, our banking and financial systems went through unprecedented changes to keep what happened from ever happening again. Safeguards were put in place, laws were written, committees and federal intities were created. All of this seemed to be working well. However, like the person who stops taking their lithium because they “feel better”, the government relaxed some of their rules and laws and safeguards for a few companies that we’ve come to know and love, Lehman Brothers being one of them.
Citizens: Ouch! That hurt. We as citizens, and I’m no exception, have become complacent and lazy. We allow the government (supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people) to grow stronger in our lives and tell us what to do. That is not the way the founding fathers foresaw it. We the people are to be in charge of our government and telling THEM what to do – as a whole people, the citizens of the United States. We should be involved in our government and know what is going on. If we don’t like it, we have the right to petition, the right to be heard, and the right to change it. VOTE! I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote as an informed citizen. It doesn’t matter if your spouse is voting opposite of you, both of you should VOTE!
So, I blame everyone to some degree. Our economy will bounce back. It always has. Even with its problems, I believe the US is the best place to live in the world. Let’s all work together to make it even better.
Tags: Banks, Blame, Credit, Finance, Government, Money, Mortgage
Posted by admin on Oct 7, 2008 in
Uncategorized Well, now that I’ve fixed the main link to my blog, I can finally start posting some meaningful stuff in it. OK, well meaningful to me, but I hope that at least some of you find it meaningful, or at least entertaining.
So, I should actually be posting in the next day or so now that someone might actually find this.
Ciao for now!