Bittersweet Experience

The passage of 'James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010', the so-called 9/11 First Responders Bill has been a bittersweet experience for me.

It's a pretty much exposed how Republicans will block anything which wouldn't cater to their base, top 2% of income earners. 9/11 has been a catch phrase for the republicans for last 10 years and they dragged country into an unnecessary war using that. But they don't want to help 9/11 first responders when they became sick 'cause of the work they did at Ground Zero.

Republican's excuse for blocking this bill is that they didn't want to vote for any bill until and unless Bush Tax cuts are extended for all including the top 2% income earners. And they don't want to close a tax loophole that "allows companies to incorporate in tax havens and avoid paying taxes on business they conduct in the U.S."

As always, Democrats failed to capitalize on this Republicans blockade. Whoever is running or devising the ad campaign for Democrats should be fired. The thing about Republicans is the conviction with which they do their thing. Even if it means pissing on the middle class or the public servants who served the nation.

Jon Stewart came to the rescue and brought this issue back to the Nation's attention. Except for few, no major media talked about this. Jon ranted about the injustice and invited 4 first responders to his show. After this outrage and media shitstorm, republicans broke ranks and voted along with Democrats to pass the bill. Jon Stewart was compared to Murrow and Cronkite by New York Times. Big praises, but well deserved by Jon and his team.

The bitter part is how they fund this bill. As I said above, Republicans refused to vote to close the tax loophole. Here comes the rescue!! Create another type of fee on companies that rely on H-1B and L-1 visas. I searched so much to find the literature of his bill, but i didn't find anything. I want to see how this new fee would be. H1 visa holders has been taking a beating for a while. Back in summer, Obama administration proposed to pay for Border Security force with a $2000 filing fee increase on H1B visas. Interesting part of this is NY Senior Senator Chuck Schumer is behind both of these bills. I used to think Chuck Grassley of Iowa is the most hostile person to H1-B visa, but publicity maniac Schumer doesn't want to be left behind.

How exactly 9/11 responders and H1B visas are related? House and Senate keep sucking money out of this visa holders whenever they need some funds for bill which doesn't have budget provisions. I understand that democrats tried, but in the end they always give in.

When would this stop? Only if Non immigrant tech workers have some voice like Hispanic communities...

Peace

Comedy Central video

Manufacturing Jobs, a novice idea.

Today our unemployment rate is 9.5. But as per National Bureau of Economic Research, recession ended in June'09 itself. Nation isn't feeling that yet, at least I'm not feeling that confident.

During depression era, FDR tried to lift country out of depression with New deal, TVA, PWA et al. Those employed many young men and it took the country out of depression. World War 2 also helped. There're so many orders for planes, tankers etc. There're new factories and construction jobs every where and created a new middle class.

In this recession also, Obama tried the same trick with Recovery act (the infamous stimulus). It didn't help much, there're opposition from conservatives for any new spending. I saw only few signs on free ways, indicating that recovery act funded that construction.

It's a proven thing that manufacturing jobs are the jobs which will lift any country from recession. One thing which I find amusing and saddening is that everything around is made in China. Is there a way, we can bring back at least few of those jobs. Electronic devices manufacturing comes to mind as I spend most of my time with them or thinking about them

Let's look at Foxconn, which many of you might not heard of. It's a huge Contract Manunfacturer in Asia with global workforce of 920K+ (mostly in China, Taiwan) and revenue of 60B USD for the financial year of 2010.

If government can construct and operate a contract manufacturing complex like that here in USA, we can create thousands of new jobs. All the consumer devices giants can pitch in and make it a Universal Manufacturing complex. HP, Apple, Dell, Motorola, Seagate, Cisco, Juniper, BestBuy should all join. No need to worry about confidentiality of designs et al. Foxconn serves so many western giants with very good track record of secrecy.

Of course all the devices prices will jump in. Govt can jump in and create a no tax zone, give exemption from regulation. (Health Insurance exemption, if you will!) The USP of Foxconn is it's cheap manufacturing costs. That's because, it's just a sweat shop where there's practically no regulation about employee conditions. If manufactured in USA, a basic iPad can cost 700 to 900 USD, which costs 500 now. But if private enterprise and govt can bite the bullet for some time and sell that product for less price for some time, this venture can be made profitable. With rhetoric so high in country now, it shouldn't be that tough to convince consumers to buy a slightly expensive product with a sticker 'Proudly made in USA'. Phobia that China is going to cross USA as super power will also help.

Now if we've to bring back outsourced software jobs from India and other countries, we need more college educated people which wouldn't happen overnight. These assembly line manufacturing jobs wouldn't require rocket scientists or college grads. We still need people with knowledge in engineering, logistics, operations and govt policy and people who can act as liaison between government and private sector.

Make no mistake, Foxconn didn't become this huge overnight. It was started in 1974. But private enterprise have money and potential to sponsor this kind of complex. Look at Manhattan Project, US developed Atom Bomb in 6 years. All we need is will and help from government. This will also reduce our trade deficit, which is at alarming high.

I'm also afraid that these min. wage salaries will become baseline for the next generations. But it's good to have people employed rather than spending tax payer's money for unemployment wages. Govt. can also include a clause on how wages should rise along with profitability. If this project get's profitable govt can slowly roll of the Tax benefits. Treasury proved that ,even TARP bailouts are profitable.

If this hypothetical scenario is ever implemented, USA will face strong opposition from China on global arena. But USA should act tough and twist few arms. Diplomacy shouldn't cost a nation's economy. If 10% of workforce remains unemployed, it's a lie to say it's out of recession.

Peace.

(I understand that this post might've sounded very presumptive, but couldn't resist posting it)

Update: 12/21/10
This is from the latest issue of BusinessWeek
http://bit.ly/dNiun0
In 2010 US 937K (non-farm) jobs .
Foxconn itself added 300K+ jobs.

Right here we can see, how many jobs foxconn is creating which can be created here in US with some effort.

ఈనాడు పాఠకులకు తెలుగు నిఘంటువు

తెలుగు బాషని నిలబెట్టాలని, కొన్ని పదాలు మరుగున పడకుండా చూడాలని ఈనాడు దినపత్రిక కంకణం కట్టుకుంది. మంచి ఆలోచనే కాని వాడుక లో లేని పదాలని వాడి, క్రొత్త పదాలని సృష్టించి అందరిని ఇబ్బంది పెడుతుంది.

మచ్చుకి కొన్ని ..

ఈనాడు	వాడుక
హజం	పొగరు
వణిక్	వాణిజ్యం
అంతర్జాలం	ఇంటర్నెట్
సామాజిక నెట్వర్కింగ్	సోషల్ నెట్వర్కింగ్
గుత్తేదార్లు	కాంట్రాక్టర్స్
సంయుక్త సంచాలకుడు	జాయింట్ సెక్రటరీ
వూబకాయం	ఓబెసిటీ
ప్రాంగణ నియామకాలు	క్యాంపస్ ప్లేస్మెంట్స్
దృశ్య మాధ్యమ	visual media
నిర్లవణీకరణము	desalination
సమావేశ మందిరము	conference room
ఖనిజ జలం	mineral water

నా స్నేహితులలో కొంత మందికి తెలుగు చదవటమే రాదు. మరి చదవగలిగిన వాళ్ళకి బాష మీద మక్కువ పెంచాలన్నదే ఈనాడు ధ్యేయమా లేక బాష ని అభివృద్ది చేయాలనే భాద్యతను తన భుజస్కంధాల పైన తనే వేసుకున్నదా?

మరి ఇన్ని తెలుగు పదాలని వాడుతున్నవాళ్ళు దవాఖానా అనే పదాన్ని వాడారు! దవాఖానా అంటే ఆస్పత్రి. మరి దానికి ఉర్దూ బాష నుంచి వచ్చిన పదాన్నిఎందుకు వాడారో?

ఇంకొన్ని పదాలు గ్యాపకం లేవు. క్రొత్తవి ఏమైనా తారసపడినా, పాతవి గ్యాపకం వచ్చినా ఇక్కడ చేరుస్తాను. పాఠకులు, ఇక్కడ తప్పులు ఏమైన ఉంటే మన్నించి తమ సలహాలను కామెంట్స్ లొ తెలువలసినదిగా మనవి.

స్ఫూర్తి: http://apmediakaburlu.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post_3601.html
addendum : 05/15/2011 - ఖనిజ జలంని సూచించిన అశోక్ కి ధన్యవాదములుupdate

The girl who identified Qasab

It's been 2 years since Mumbai got attacked by Pak sponsored Islamic Terrorists. Justice isn't served yet. Qasab is still alive, living off Indian Tax Payer's money .

Just like any other Indian, I'm also frustrated and angry. Many articles has been written, but this is the story of the brave young girl Devika Rotawan who testified against Qasab. I didn't know this aspect of the trial until now.

In India where rape victims and Bollywood artists are afraid of testifying, this girl deserves all the respect and fame. I'm glad to see that she got some support from local politicians but more can be done.

Let's pray for all the fallen Heroes.
Jai Hind

P.S. To keep things in perspective, I was highly critical of this author once in my earlier posts. I started reading his column and developed respect for his choice of subjects and the style of presentation.

Few things I worry about..

People who know me personally can definitely tell that I'm saddened by midterm poll results cause of my liberal leanings. The verdict isn't a surprise and in a way it didn't hurt as much as I expected. Politics aside, looking at the demographic and landscape there're few things which are really detrimental for America's progress and prosperity in the next decade.

Contempt of educated people
One trend among voting demographic which I think disturbing is the contempt of educated people. They call them and deride them as elitists. As per this demographic, a common man with common sense will be a better legislator than a college educated person. I've a message for people with no High school diploma or GEDs. If you had completed your education, then you 'd have better judgment of people. You might also have learnt about evolution, climate change and also realized that medicare is a govt run organization. Yes, your legislator might be a corrupt man, but sending a person who dropped out of college or high school wouldn't do any better. Sarah Palin serves a good example for this.

Lack of Science and Math Education
When I first came to this country, one of the things which astonished me is the choice of majors available for college students which do not exist in India. Apart from Science, Engineering, Medicine, Business and Law there're so many liberal arts majors like advanced communications, linguistics, anthropology, sports medicine, event management et al. In a good economy, all these graduates landed in a job. But now there're no jobs. Don't get me wrong, schools need teachers with liberal art degrees to teach languages, history et al. But in this economy who exactly needs a fresh Graduate with 'Advanced Communications' major.

Mean while India and other countries are producing engineering graduates like an assembly line All of them might not make quality tech employees, but US is loosing a competitive edge which made it a superior power.

There's a facebook group by name '87x/59(1+x)=(18*7x)*(67-x)...fuck this, I'm going to be a stripper'. This shows how many kids are afraid of math and hate it. The way these kids are taught at school should change. Math and science can be made interesting and these two are vital for nations' supremacy in the knowledge based economy.

Xenophobia
SB 1070 bill of Arizona was partially blocked by federal judge luckily. If not it would've became mandatory for AZ police stop any person for a 'reasonable doubt' and ask for proof of residence. With that Jan Brewer got elected as governor in this election. I wonder how many of AZ citizens saw her only debate on TV. And how many people might realize that this SB 1070 draft was first written at a prison industry conference.

Yes illegal immigration is a problem, no body denied it. Republicans enjoyed the cheap labor for two decades and now they're crying foul. US is a land of immigrants and they contributed to country's prosperity as much a citizens. Remember how many European scientists immigrated to USA and put the Science and Technology on fast track. Problem with this anti immigrant rhetoric is that legal and aspiring immigrants like me are suffering with excess scrutiny and constant visa hassles. I'm not gonna quote any numbers but it's fact that legal immigrants contribute to the economy like any other citizen.

As I mentioned above, not enough US students are graduating with Science and Tech majors. If country drive away smart immigrants, it's a loss for country and gain for India and China. But myopic senators like Grassley are on a mission to pass bills to drive away non-immigrant tech workers from the country.

Welfare
Last week I read this new article about black women with 72% unwed rate. It seems that black women couldn't find a ideal black man to marry and settle down.

To quote a line from the article 'The drug epidemic sent disproportionate numbers of black men to prison, and crushed the job opportunities for those who served their time. Women don't want to marry men who can't provide for their families, and welfare laws created a financial incentive for poor mothers to stay single.'

This welfare should stop. I don't want to pick any race but this is a menace. Again from the article 'Children of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely to perform poorly in school, go to prison, use drugs, be poor as adults, and have their own children out of wedlock.' As you can see, this is a vicious cycle and it should be stopped. If not, this changes the social fabric of the whole next generation.

Women's perception should be changed about two things.
-->It's OK to live on welfare.
-->It's necessary to have kids to even if you don't have means to support them.

Homophobia
By any measure, US respects it's fallen soldiers than any other in the world irrespective of their religion and color. The other day I saw a news report about a hate group 'Westboro Baptist Church' who protest at soldiers funerals. They say, God is killing U.S. troops because our country tolerates homosexuals. This just blew my mind. I'm not sure, how exactly these groups come to these conclusions and where they get funding. Their home page is 'godhatesfags.com'

There's another story of this creepy Asst Attorney General of Michigan who just got fired. Andrew Shirvell stalked and bullied Chris Armstrong, student body president of Univ of Michigan. Andrew started a blog by chrisarmstrong-watch.com. To his defense, this tool says that he's just exercising his first amendment rights. Attorney General Cox didn't fire him for a while as he's a afraid of alienating his conservative base and donors. Just think about it for a second, a state's asst Attorney General bullying a college kid just cause he happened to be gay. As I see it, I think it's just matter of time when Shirvell comes out of his closet.

People like Sarah Palin
Apart from posting (who's the actual writer) fear mongering and mind numbing notes on her facebook page Sarah Palin is also good at throwing red meat to her base. Last week I saw Sarah addressing a christian school on TV. It's pretty much usual fare with her power dressing (read seductive), DWTS with Bristol Palin, inauguration (not necessarily her) yawn... Then she started talking about a state legislation which bans sweets at school and how that law is a totalitarian. As per Sarah, parents should decide what kids should eat and not the government.

I'm no fan of government, but in this case government knows better than many oblivious parents. I've seen parents smoking inside their car with kids and I can assume that what happens at their homes. Obese parents who weigh 450 lbs and get drunk in the morning don't know better than government.

Sarah if you'd known better, your under age daughter wouldn't have got knocked up. It could be a reason that you might've taught her 'abstinence only education' rather than safe sex. And we would've been saved from this on and off wedding drama from Alaskan soap opera.

Women like michele bachmann, christine o'donnell and sharron angle (who didn't get elected fortunately) are other examples of leaders on wrong path with huge following. Their base thinks that these women represent them, the common people of America.

With all these tea party candidates in Senate and house, it's interesting and frightening to see what kind of bills they'll legislate.

Peace

అతి సర్వత్ర వర్జయేత్

ఆంధ్రులు ఆరంభ శూరులు అంటారు. అలాగే ప్రస్తుతం మన రాష్ట్రంలో ఉన్న వేలం వెర్రి ధోరణిని ఎలా వర్ణించాలో తెలియట్లేదు. గత ఐదారు ఏళ్ళల్లో నల్ల ధనం కొకల్లలుగా పెరిగింది, దానికి కారణలు ఏవైనా కావచ్చు. ఆ నల్ల ధనాన్ని పెట్టుబడి పెట్టే మార్గాలు చాలా తక్కువ ఉన్నట్టు ఉన్నాయి.

పూర్వపు రోజుల్లో పెద్దలు సంపాదించిన ఆస్తులు కరగదియ్యటానికి భూస్వాములు మద్రాసు వెళ్లి సినిమాలు నిర్మించే వాళ్ళు. రోజులు మారాయి, 20 ఏళ్ళ క్రితం ఊహించలేనన్ని వ్యాపారాలు, పరిశ్రమలు ఇప్పుడు ఉన్నాయి. కాని ధనికులు, నల్ల ధనం మెండుగా ఉన్నవాళ్లు కేవలం ఇంజినీరింగ్ కళాశాలలు, న్యూస్ చానల్స్ , రియల్ ఎస్టేట్ వ్యాపారాలు మీదే మక్కువ చూపిస్తున్నారు!

నేడు రాష్ట్రం లో 656 ఇంజినీరింగ్ కళాశాలలు ఉన్నాయి, కొత్తగా అనుమతి ఇచ్చిన వాటితో కలిపి 700 కి చేరుకోనుంది. మొత్తం సీట్ల సంఖ్య రెండున్నర లక్షలు. వీటిలో ఎంత మంది నిజమైన ఇంజినీర్లుగా తయారు అవుతారు అనేది ఆలోచించాలి. అసలు ఇన్ని కళాశాలలు లో అధ్యాపకులు ఎక్కడ నుంచి వస్తున్నారు, వాళ్ళ కున్న అర్హతలు ఏంటి అనేది AICTE వాళ్ళకి పడుతున్నట్టుగా లేదు. సెక్యూరిటీ డిపాజిట్ తీస్కుని అనుమతులిచేస్తున్నారు. ఇక్కడ విశేషం ఏంటంటే కొత్త కళాశాలలు వద్దని రాష్ట్ర ప్రభుత్వం వారిస్తుంది. కాని AICTE ఇస్తూపోతుంది.

దేశం మొత్తం లో 3200 కళాశాలలు ఉండగా 700 మన రాష్ట్రం లోనే ఉన్నాయి. ఈ కళాశాలలు అన్ని దివాలా తీయకుండా ఉండాలంటే ఈ సీట్లు అన్ని నిండాలి. అందుకే ఎంసెట్ పరీక్షలో సున్నా మార్కులు వచ్చిన వాళ్ళకి కూడా సీట్లు ఉన్నాయి. (ఈ సున్నా మార్కులకి సీట్ కధ విని మన గవర్నర్ నరసింహన్ గారు నిశ్రేష్టులు అయ్యారు). అంత దిగాజారినా అన్ని సీట్లు నిండట్లేదు.

ఈ కళాశాలలు నుంచి పట్టభద్రులు అవుతున్న వాళ్ళల్లో ఎంత మంది ఉద్యోగానికి పనికొస్తారు అన్నది ప్రస్నార్ధకమే. అందుకే విప్రో, ఇన్ఫోసిస్ లాంటి సంస్థలు కొత్త ఉద్యోగులని ట్రైనింగ్ కి పంపిస్తుంది. కొంత మంది పట్టభధ్రులకి అసలు ఉధ్యొగార్హతలు లేవని ఈ కంపెనీలు తేల్చి చెప్తున్నాయి. వీటి వలన ఇంజినీరింగ్ పట్టా విలువ తగ్గిపోతుంది. స్తాపించిన ప్రతి కళాశాలలో రిజర్వేషన్లు అమలు చేయాలి. ప్రతి రిజర్వేషన్ విద్యార్ధి ఫీజు ప్రభుత్వమే చెల్లించాలి. కాని వీళ్ళల్లో ఎంత మంది నాలుగేళ్ళల్లో పట్టభద్రులు అవుతున్నారు అనే ప్రశ్నకు జవాబు లేదు. ఈ విద్యార్థులు ఎన్నాళ్ళు చదివితే కళాశాలలకు అంత లాభం. కొన్ని కళాశాలలు ఈ ఫీజులు, nri కోటా సీట్లు వేలం తొనే నేట్తుకొస్తున్నాయి.

నేడు ఆంధ్ర దేశం లో 13 న్యూస్ చానల్స్ ఉన్నాయి. 50 కోట్లు ఉంటే ఎవరైనా కొత్త ఛానల్ ప్రారంభించవచ్చు. కాని వాటిలో ప్రసారం చేస్తున్నవి అయితే వార్తలు కావు. పుకార్లు, పక్షపాత కబుర్లు, చర్చల పేరుతో ఏ మాత్రం అర్హత లేని వాళ్ళ మధ్య అరుపులు కేకలు. వీటి వలన ప్రజలకి వార్తల మీద ఉన్న నమ్మకం పోతుంది/పోయింది. tv9 బెదిరింపులు, అక్రమాలు అందరికి తెల్సినవే. ysr మరణం వెనుక అంబానీల హస్తం ఉందని రెండు చానల్స్ ప్రసారం చేసిన పుకార్లు విని ఆయన 'అభిమానులు' రేలైన్సు షాపులని, పనిలో పనిగా పోలీసు వాహనాలని ద్వంసం చేసారు. ఇక స్వామిజీల లీలలు అనే పేరుతో ఆ స్వామిజీల శృంగార కార్యకలాపాలను విచ్చల విడిగా ప్రసారం చేస్తూనే ఉంటారు.

ఇక వీటన్నిటికన్నా ముందు మొగ్గ తొడిగిన వ్యాపారం రియల్ ఎస్టేట్. 2005 -07 కాలం లో భాగ్యనగరం లో ప్రతి ముగ్గురు యువకుల్లో ఒకళ్ళు రియల్ ఎస్టేట్ కొనడం అమ్మడం లోనే ఉన్నారు అనేది అతిశయోక్తి కాకపోవచ్చు. చాల మంది యువకులు, వ్యాపారులు వాళ్ళ ఉద్యోగాలు, వ్యాపారాలు మానేసి రియల్ ఎస్టేట్ దళారులుగా మారారు. స్థలాల ధరలు 3 ,4 వారాల్లో రెండింతలు అయ్యేవి. కోటానుకోట్లు పెట్టుబడులు ప్రవాస భారతీయుల నుంచి వచ్చాయి. బహుళ జాతి సంస్థలు వచ్చాయి. వారి వెంటే ఆక్రమణదారులు, రాజకీయనేతలు వచ్చారు. 2007 లో మాంద్యం మొదలు ధరల పెరుగుదల నిలిచిపోయింది. అప్పటి నుంచి క్రయ విక్రయాలు ఆగిపోయాయి. వేల కోట్లు రూపాయులు ఇలా ఈ స్థలాలు, భవనాల రూపంలో ఆగిపోయాయి. చిన్న చిన్న వ్యాపారులు ఎప్పుడో దివాలా తీసారు. ఒకరికి లాభం వచ్చిందని వంద మంది ఈ వ్యాపారం లోకి వచ్చి చేతులు కాల్చుకున్నారు.

గుడ్డిలో మెల్ల లాగ పైన చెప్పిన మూడు అంశాల్లో సంతోషించదగ్గ విశేషం ఏమిటంటే, ఈ మూడు రంగాలు చాల మంది నిరుద్యోగులకి జీవనోపాధిని కల్పిస్తున్నాయి. కాని ఈ మూడు రంగాల్లో ఎన్ని సంస్థలు లాభసాటిగా ఉంటాయి, అసలు ఎన్ని నిలదొక్కుకుంటాయి అన్నది కాలమే చెప్తుంది.

మన రాష్ట్ర ప్రజలు ఈ వేలం వెర్రి ధోరణిని ఎంత త్వరగా వీడితే అంత మంచిది.

Art Laffer strikes back

Folks, the snake oil salesman is back. Art Laffer wrote this brilliant op-ed (not!) in WSJ on 06/06 how the economy is gonna collapse if Bush Tax cuts expire this year. Yes, it's bunch of misrepresented facts and twisted logic. Bloggers and other columnists blasted him aptly. I'm not surprised that WSJ published this op-ed. Lately that paper looks like propaganda page for right wingers and tea party. Links at the end of blog.

I've one question about this 'Tax cuts for the wealthy' theory. Conservatives argue that less tax on the corporate profits and rich stimulates economy and create more jobs. Actually it's a good theory. But only on paper. Post great depression and Milton Friedman era, this might've made sense as the jobs are created in Manufacturing sector. Corporate profits might've created more jobs.

Now, how many Manufacturing jobs exist in USA? Everything was moved to china and third world countries by 80s. Automotive jobs moved to Canada and Mexico. 80s and 90s experienced boom of tech jobs and call center jobs. But by the start of new millennium all the possible tech jobs're moved to India and other countries.

Where exactly are these new jobs are created, and it's pretty much a fact that Bush tax cuts only helped rich people. Bush inherited a 236Bil surplus budget from Clinton, implemented tax cuts and he blessed the country with 400Bil deficit. He also threw in a depression as a good measure. And two wars, oh I digressed!

Most of the income tax paid in USA is paid on Capital gains. It's not on income. So an average guy on street making 100G per annum will pay somewhere between 25 to 35% tax based on his location, martial status, kids and other factors. But if a millionaire makes that 100G in capital market, he'll only pay 15%(long term). You see the disparity. Now Obama wants to increase it to 20%, conservatives are crying foul.

Corporate profits, it's a different game altogether. Creative accounting will be in full throttle here and there're off shore tax havens. Exxon Mobil didn't pay a single penny as income tax as they paid taxes in different countries. See this Frontline Story to learn more about tax havens.

Before I finish my rant, I want to say few things about Laffer's greatest contribution to the world, 'Laffer curve'

Quoting wikipedia, 'the Laffer curve is a theoretical representation of the relationship between government revenue raised by taxation and all possible rates of taxation'. So it shows that, if tax rate is 0, tax revenue will be zero and if tax rate is 100% the tax revenue will be zero. What it wouldn't tell you is what's that sweet spot what's the win-win tax rate for tax payer and government.

But I couldn't comprehend, what's that Laffer discovered which I didn't know already. Any tax payer with an Economics 101 class can guess that. Sometimes a liberal arts degree and right connections makes a mediocre person a great economist.

Peace

Media Matters fact check on Laffer's commentary

Barry Ritholtz, dissection of Laffer's op-ed

Asha Banglore's commentary

My previous blog about Art Laffer

Image from wikipedia commons

The new face of BP

The situation in Gulf is getting worse day by day. It might take few years to clean the whole mess. But it might take at least a decade for the local economy to recover from this. It's like another Katrina sans Bush.

Public is outraged at BP, and many of them are venting out in different creative ways. Folks at logomyway.com started a contest, asked people on interwebs to create a new BP logo. As expected they didn't disappoint. Here're the contributions. Of all the submissions this one caught my attention. I'm gonna vote for this

For the starters, this is a mashup of an iconic picture from Vietnam war. Read about it here.


I see that BP engineers are trying hard to fix this. All the outraged people have to understand that high level C suite people makes decision that screw up safety and preparedness. But now the technical and engineering staff are under spotlight fixing this. Media and boneheaded pundits jump in and picture them as borderline incompetent.

But with the kind of remarks BP CEO is making, this criticism and public outrage is not unwarranted. He should really STFU and let his staff do the thing. It really makes me angry whenever BP executives say 'legitimate claims'.

Kids, if you're reading this..I'm sorry to break it to you. I'm afraid that Spongebob might not make it.

pic courtesy sir mitchell

Jokes aside, my condolences to the families of 11 BP employees who lost their lives in this explosion.
Peace.

మనసు కవి ఆత్రేయ

I really want to take a break from my endless rants about society and injustice and share my thoughts about my other favorite pastime - listening to music.

In Telugu music, Aathreya is my fav lyricist. I might not've listened to all his lyrics but I remember many lyrics which makes us think or leave us in awe with his words. He was aptly titled as మనసు కవి (Manasu Kavi)

Whenever I read or see anything about Aathreya, the first thing I remember is Prem Nagar movie. All the songs from that movie are really awesome in all the possible genres. Romance, pathos, promiscuity, metaphor, alcoholism. You name it, he got it. My personal favorites are మనసు గతి ఇంతే, ఎవరి కోసం, ఎవరో రావాలి..

Few of my other favorites are from maro charitra, aakali rajyam et al

My new fav songs are from Abhinandana. I listened to them since my, childhood but never paid attention to the charanams. (As a kid, I was only interested in action movies. I didn't have enough maturity to understand these lines either). Lately abhinandhana songs started popping up on my random playlist more often. So I paid more attention to charanams and I'm really amazed.

Here're few lines from 'ఎదుటా నీవే' lyric which really mesmerized me
స్వప్నాలన్నీ క్షణికాలేగా
సత్యాలన్నీ నరకాలేగా..

స్వప్నం సత్యం అయితే వింత
సత్యం స్వప్నం అయ్యేదుందా..


For one thing, every bit of those lines are true. And the other thing is his amazing play on words. Of course, I'm short of words in Telugu and English to describe this.

Abhinandana's music is one of the greatest albums in Telugu. It wouldn't have attained that kinda immortality without the contribution of Ilayaraja and SPB. Either Ilayaraja's melodious music or SPB's soulful rendering of the songs , we can't praise them enough.

All the three deserve claim for this gem of Telugu music.

Peace.

I started practicing Telugu writing through Lekhini.org and gmail. One of these days, I want to write a whole blog in telugu, but I'm not skilled enough yet. And I'm highly doubtful of my ability to use Telugu words aptly.

Attractive Blonde Lady

Here's an SNL opening sketch spoofing faux news Greta Van Susteren. I don't know the exact airing date, but I guess it's from the last few months.



The video is spot on about Don't ask, don't tell. As ironical as it can be, I found this video on the webpage of the news pundit S.E.Cupp, who might be the subject of 'Attractive Blond Lady' character. I try to restrain from taking shots at the easy targets, but I couldn't resist.

In retrospect I blogged too much about Sarah Palin, but retrospect always makes me feel dumb.

This Woman S.E.Cupp is a atheist conservative. Yes, you read that right. Atheist Conservative, isn't that an oxymoron. But hey, she has to sell some books to middle America and get some bookings on Cable news shows .

This is about her atheism beliefs on Wikipedia "I like to think I adhere to the same Judeo-Christian values that most of religious America does. It's an understanding of and a respect for these values that keeps me moral." And then she wrote a book by name Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity. And also she stated that she does not believe in God today, but is open to possible conversion in the future.

If you fail to read between the lines, it's a marketing ploy and carefully built image. Gullible people will be interested to read an atheist point of view. Oh, and she also has a masters degree in Religion. Really?! I thought I read enough already, but she's an atheist Conservative with master's degree in Religion. My head will blow away if she starts telling how Darwin was wrong?

I respect both Christianity and Atheism. But what I fail to comprehend is an atheist writing about supposedly liberal media's attack on Christianity. Isn't that self contradictory. Most probably her next book would be How an atheist found her God. (Quoting Bill Maher)

Here's another video of this woman on Hannity show. She's outraged that Letterman made fun of Sarah Palin. S.E.Cupp mentioned that Obama and his campaign is behind this. Letterman made jokes almost 8 months after Obama won the election. Why would she even pull Obama into this. Oh yeah, she has to feign anger (In her own words)



The point I want to raise is how annoying these cable news shows became. 90% of these news pundits have neither credibility nor knowledge. And no body in the media calls out these people except people like Jon Stewart. And it's a whole new game if you're young female with good looks. Look at her website. (I've to say good Search Engine Optimization though) She got everything for an aspiring news pundit. A new book with good head shot, Check! Fake reading glasses, check! Lots of pictures in revealing outfits. check! Oh yes, lots and lots of videos from Faux News.

This post is very similar to my last post. It almost feels like redundant. But the mediocrity of the television news and the end less self promotion of these narcissist TV people made me do this.

Peace.

P.S. I wish she comes on Jon Stewart show to promote her book. Few times, he'll be merciless to these kool-aid people. But it'll be a delight.

Supply Side Economist or a Snakeoil Salesman

Here's a video from CNN dated Aug 04, 2009. It's an old video, but it's never too old for a good laugh.



Here's a Supply side economist Arthur Laffer, talking about how bad Medicare and Medicaid will be if they're run by Government. Say what? For starters Medicare and Medicaid are govt run programs. They're started like that and they remain the same.

We see all these fake pundits on TV every day, particularly on CNN, Faux news and MSNBC. No body questions their credibility or what makes them knowledgeable on any topic. No example stands out like Sarah Palin.

And of course the same thing goes with TV news anchors. This woman here in this video didn't even correct him that medicare is indeed a govt run program. I wouldn't be surprised if she's also ignorant of that fact. And faux news, you'll be confused whether you're a watching a news channel or a bimbo parade.

I want to take this opportunity to write about Supply Side Economics. I didn't study economics in college, so I'm no authority on economics to write opinions. But still I'm gonna voice my opinions about it. Supply side economics states that lower taxes for rich and capital gain tax cuts spurs economic growth. That's an over-simplified statement, but again there's not much actual economics in that. Whenever some one says Supply Side Economics, I'll break into laughter. I want to show them Larry Kudlow on CNBC and ask them why he's such an epic fail. Trickle down economics is one of the greatest lies ever told to America. Still there're so many people out there drinking that kool aid.


W implemented few of these supply side economics theories. Tax cuts for rich and lower taxes on capital gain taxes. Federal Deficit increased and (not surprising for a 'Fiscally conservative') Federal spending also increased. Rich became richer and wealth didn't really trickle down. Even now, once in a while I see few conservative boneheads on TV telling how tax cuts and limited government are the silver bullets for every issue.

And you know, Obama is the cause for all the bad things...

Peace

See the actual media matters article here

Catholic Church Sex Abuse; why is church getting away with it ..?

Is it just me or did the whole society lost all its sanity and stopped worrying about catholic church sex abuse victims.

Imagine a registered sex offender moving into your community. And think about it from a parent's perspective. Yeah, we'll be worried. There are many laws restricting the housing opportunities for these sex offenders. It's understandable that there're laws restricting their location, movement et al.

What's really bothering me or making me angry is, why's not society treating these child molesting priests with the same law. Why didn't District Attorneys arrest these priests yet? Why's is Catholic church is getting away with this? Is it cause of the religion? We don't even let an average sex offender move into your community, how can you let these priests get away who had molested many kids for many years at multiple churches.

Could you imagine any other Business establishment get away with this kind of child abuse and sexual abuse? No. Any person who had attended HR training about Sexual Harassment would know how law can be used against them even if they're not guilty. But why can't the same law be used on these child molesting priests and church Cardinals who had failed to report them to police?

Here's a hypothetical scenario. Few kids're abused at a Day care center and once the news goes out, Police and Human Services will crack down on the facility and close it down. I don't anticipate that kids will be sent back to that school unless it's run by different people. But after all these years of child abuse, these churches are in operation and no arrests were made. (as much as I recall from reading)

I understand that all these victims who came out for justice in the last decade were kids when sex abuse happened. These abuse complaints go back to 1950s also. what I failed to understand is, why're these not reported to police at that time? Why're chruch bishops and cardinals looking for Vatican approval or action to move forward on these issues. You don't need to hear from God or superior voice to tell you that any sexual act committed on a child is a grave sin and heinous crime. And when the job you took is to pass the God's message to the people, aren't you committing crimes by not stopping these crimes?

Putting the Law Enforcement part aside, catholic church didn't take any action to prevent these repeat offender priest from interacting with kids. If a priest was get caught abusing kids he was sent to some therapy program and wasn't posted near to kids. But that's just for time being. Umpteen times these priest were sent to another archdiocese where they started interacting with kids again.

Now to the role of Vatican. Forget about punishing these Priests or reporting them to local authorities. Vatican even refused to defrock few accused priests. Vatican mostly remained silent about all the allegations that present Pope didn't act on complaints from churches in USA. Pope isn't responding to the issue. I'd short stop of advising Vatican on this. But if the whole catholic faith in the world looks for his word on religion, he better stand up to it and clean up this mess.

If you're not feeling angry and disturbed yet, read about this priest from Wisconsin who got away. He sexually abused deaf kids for almost 25 years. And he died as a priest. How heinous human being are you, if you had abused innocent deaf children for 25 years. And I wonder how did his superiors sleep every night with knowledge of him being around children.

Being a theist, this is a very uncomfortable position to be in. All these priests and fake Sadhus in India are escaping. This ain't good for Society or religion.

Here's wikipedia article.

Peace.

P.S
It's a strange society, we live in today. Circa Feb'09 whole USA got outraged and angered that Chris Brown assaulted and wounded his girl friend Rihanna. Facebook and social media decided. "Chris Brown is a douchebag". But every day hundreds of domestic violence incidents happen all around us. Hundreds of ordinary females get assaulted by abusive partners. No body gives shit about them. Most likely, society wouldn't really care about this scandal until a child celebrity come out as a victim or something similar happens. I hope I'm wrong.

Warning went unheeded

The more we look back into our lack of oversight and regulation, it becomes more clear how many warnings we missed and how much our leaders, economists pushed us into this turmoil. After all, hindsight is 20 20.

I watched this Frontline Documentary, and it clearly showed us a whistleblower who wanted to regulate derivatives trading. Like many whistleblowers, she was crushed. She got pummeled in senate hearings. Since she couldn't pass the reform she resigned from her office. Exactly after 10 years, wall street crashed burning away the savings and retirement money of millions of Americans.



for those who couldn't watch the whole 55 mins, here's the overview.

Brooksley Born was the chairwoman of CFTC in Clinton administration. In 1998 she looked at the lack of regulation on OTC derivative trading and tried to put a leash on it. She was pushed back by the trio of Alan Greenspan, Robin Rubin and Larry Summers. After senate and congress committee hearings Free market proponents prevailed. Brooksley left her job.

Soon, a big Hedgefund LTCM went under and Fed orchestrated a bailout with the help of big banks. This is the exact scenario which Broosley warned the congress about. Policy makers missed this big warning. And we all know the rest of the story.

But if we had acted on this warning we could've avoided (wishful thinking) this implosion. But trio didn't want our free markets hindered by regulation just for the sake of regulation.

Actually, except the tail end of last decade, Laissez-faire worked flawlessly. Atleast seemingly. Greenspan's low interest rates, Housing bubble kept everybody happy. Larry kudlow said that there's no such thing called hosuing bubble. (He's an Epic failure, I wonder why he's still employed) And then the Bear Sterns bankruptcy, Lehman's brothers bankruptcy. Financial system fell into fear and Panic. I wonder, what's the Free Market's proponent's response for this.

Being a fan boy of Frontline, I can go on and on about their Journalistic virtues and how they're the torch bearers' of the Fair journalism. But I've to appreciate their story telling style one more time. I liked the way they end their story.

Robin Ruben went to lead Citibank and it got 100Billion Tax payer money as a bailout. Alan Greenspan is every where from Senate hearings and Think tank meetings defending his tenure as Fed chairman. Some how people are not buying it.

What bothers me is the same people who caused this meltdown are in Obama administration. Larry summers is chief advisor for Obama and Tim Geithner is the Treasury secretary. These two are the proteges of Robin Ruben and now these are the people who're gonna protect us from another meltdown. Hmm, I guess this isn't the Change we're expecting.

Alan Greenspan got too much credit for the last two decades. He's called as wizard, maestro, rockstar for the booming 90s and 2000s. Bush even presented him with Presidential Medal of honor. But now truth is slowly emerging and his legacy is at risk now. He agreed that he's partly to blame for this meltdown but also blamed greed of bankers for this. But hey, Regulation is used to control greed and prevent people from doing stupid things.

I have some beef with Ayn Rand philosophy which I'm dying to write for the last few months. I didn't read any of her books yet but I got the gist of her work. She's a libertarian and wouldn't want a bit of regulation on Market. For all those ardent worshipers of Ayn Rand, this is my question. Last two decades of US Market is what Ayn Rand asked for, and we ended up in this Abyss. How exactly are they gonna defend her objectivism.

Ayn Rand's work gained popularity and creed cause of the times she lived. Fear of communism made Libertarianism glamorous. But all good things will come to an end, same with the Ayn Rand's Libertarianism influence. No follower of'er is more powerful/influential than Alan Greenspan. And he couldn't prove that her principles actually work.

Anything is moderation is good, either free market or Regulation.

Now, how can we prevent another turmoil? Even today Wall st is minting billions with derivatives trading. And here's the kicker. This time they're using TARP funds for that. That's tax payers money. Some thing is seriously wrong.

Chris Dodd, since you decided not to run for another term of senate, please pay back to American public at least once. Try to pass a real financial regulation reform. Not a toothless one which is before Congress now.

And yes, please bring back Glass-Steagall act.

Peace.

P.S. As economists and historians are questioning Greenspan's Legacy now, could they also question Milton Friedman's theories. It wouldn't hurt.

New Yorker magazine vindicated my blog post

Well not exactly my blog, but the subject of my blog post.

In Nov 2007, I published a blog post about Hedge fund managers paying only 15% tax.

Today I read this article in New Yorker magazine about the same subject, how Hedge Fund managers are using a loophole to pay only 15% tax. I feel good now, seeing that a influential magazine choose to publish an article about the same topic. The irony here is, most of the subscribers of New yorker magazine are very upscale people and many of them use this loophole.

I don't have any more to add here, I pretty much vented it all in my last blog post. And things didn't change much even after wall st. meltdown.

I'll let you read it for yourself.

Peace

Creative genius of M.F.Husaain and honor of Hinduism

While browsing aimlessly at work, I stumbled upon this gem of journalism

This BBC journalist got concerned India is loosing a creative genius like M.F.Hussain, 'cause of Hindu fundamentalists. Let's get the facts straight. M.F.Hussain drew nude portraits of Hindu Goddesses and Bharat mata and he's unapologetic about it. He got death threats and he fled abroad. Now he took citizenship of Qatar so that Indian courts can't arraign him. So along with the some secular people of India, this journalist is also saddened and outraged.

Let's give benefit of doubt to Hussain's art and assume that he draws all the feminine form without clothes. Wrong, he only drew Hindu Goddesses and Bharat Mata in nude form. He drew his mother's pictures with clothes only. Now, that's hypocrite.

Ok just for a second, let's buy this bull crap 'Freedom of expression' argument. He drew another painting by name 'Rape of India' in response to Mumbai terrorist attacks. He's a repeat offender. Along with Freedom of Expression, there's a personal responsibility also.

Let's recall how many death threats did the Danish cartoonist receive for depicting mohammed prophet as terrorist. Remember Taslima Nasreen fleeing to Sweden. and who'd forget Salman Rushdie. But I don't recall many Indian journalists outraged about freedom of expression with all those previous instances. All they saw was minorities defending their religion and honor.

The point I'm trying to make here is every body loves their religion and defends it. I don't condone Danish cartoons. I can't speak about Rushdie's and Taslima's works as I didn't read'em. It's natural that people get outraged and issue Fatwas and all that clerical shit. But, I've to say that Islam fundamentalists go overboard on this. I don't see a problem with Hussain taking Qatar citizenship either.

But I've problem with political correctness of media in India and elsewhere. Even if the author doesn't believe in religion, this article is biased. Please stop publishing this kinda BS just to prove your journalistic mettle. And the politicians of India, how much more dignity we've to loose so that you gain muslim vote. Chidambaram offered security for M.F.Hussain also. Please end this religion vote politics. For once, stand up for your country and religion's honor.

As if my words are heard here.

So to answer this journalist's Question, does India deserve M.F.Hussain. Straight answer is NO. Honest answer is fuck M.F.Hussain's art. We'll never understand it and India isn't gaining anything cause of him. I'd rather keep my religion's and country's honor rather than secular label.

Jai Hind

P.S. My friend Karun pointed me to a telugu article published by Telugu movie actor Gollapudi Maruthi Rao about this. If you can read Telugu, please take a moment to read that. Unlike me, he wouldn't curse and his write up is more balanced.

Broadcast censorship?!

The past few weeks in AP have been disgusting. It almost makes us wonder why we needed independence from the British in the first place. We imitate the west in almost everything we do, except we cannot think like them or do things like them. With all the stuff going on in India and especially in AP and with a gazillion news channels, news is no longer news. Media, unfortunately is the culprit here.

While Telangana issue is one thing, they way various channels have been covering issues is disappointing. Whether it is N.D.Tiwari's sex scandal (ABN) or the reliance issue (TV5,NTV,Sakshi) or the recent PRP candidates sex scandal (ABN) in vizag, media should be restraint in the way they show the news. While I do not beleive we should censor honest news, with the way things are being broadcast in India, I think we should re-think the whole policy of censorship. One think that is missing from this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_India) is "broadcast censorship".

Ideally, we would not need censorship, but when TV channels lack ethics and don't know the limits, we probably do! If journalism and media or the whole TV model is based on TRP ratings and profit, then its hard to really depend on the 24/7 news channels for news. Its also a pity that people can hardly think independently anymore. We blindly depend on TV and politicians and act out of ego and emotion rather than think over any issues.