Author: bill

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Classic Red Tomato Salsa versus the store bought brands

Recently my son expressed dismay when I bought a large bottle of Chi-Chi’s Salsa from Sam’s Club. I would have preferred Old El Paso but that has not been available for several months. When we lived in Texas Old El Paso was readily available and we could buy it in institutional size quantities at Sam’s. Within a week an America’s Test Kitchen newsletter reviewed the store bought brands and came to same conclusion. Old El Paso was good and Chi-Chi’s Salsa was not. They also said that fresh made salsa beat both of them. So I brought out my America’s Test Kitchen Best Recipe cookbook and gave it a try.

The recipe is pretty simple. It took me about 15 minutes to prepare and an hour to let the flavors blend together.

  • 3 large tomatoes, diced small
  • 1/2 cup tomato juice
  • 1 small jalapeno, minced
  • 1 small red onion, diced small
  • 1 medium garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1/2 cup fresh lime juice, about 6 limes

It was no surprise that both my wife and son really liked this. The recipe lasted two days. I should of taken a picture of the salsa. My wife and son had cleaned it out before I got home. I think it is the cilantro and lime juice that makes this recipe stand head and shoulders above the store bought brands.

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JACK KELLY: The CIA’s Fight With Obama. “Has Barack Obama made an enemy who can sabotage his presidency?

I cannot help but find the irony in the CIA’s present predicament. As one of the primary instigators in the recent regime change in the United States, they find themselves at war with both President Obama and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. As Yogi Berra might say, “It’s déjà vu all over again!”

JACK KELLY: The CIA’s Fight With Obama. “Has Barack Obama made an enemy who can sabotage his presidency? The presidency of George W. Bush began to unravel when some in high positions at the Central Intelligence Agency began waging a covert campaign against him.”

JACK KELLY: The CIA’s Fight With Obama. “Has Barack Obama made an enemy who can sabotage his presi…
Glenn Reynolds
Wed, 06 May 2009 03:03:50 GMT

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Grading Obama’s First 100 Days – Some Different Ideas

Although the pundits finished their grading of President Obama’s 100 days weeks ago I think it interesting what they did not talk about.

Politics

Most political pundits give President Obama an A+ for the politics for pushing through his agenda. If you look at our present political system as a three party system only one party is happy with the results. The left is happy because President Obama ignored his moderate rhetoric promises and lead the government in a significant lurch to the left. The moderates are in the worst shape. They are filled with “buyer’s remorse” since they enabled this administration to take power without a political safeguard. With the rise of the Tea Parties and the rout of the Republican moderates, the political winds seem to be showing that the American people are blaming the moderates for the economic mess. They expected a lot more wisdom from the only adult in the room. In the coming war over reining in government spending I think the moderates have a very difficult position with the lack of voter confidence. I suspect the next election will be especially hard on the moderates. I am not sure how the political pundits can give this administration an A+ when he has alienated the moderates and unified the conservatives. Instead of reducing the political polarization he increased it and the big losers were the moderates.

Economics

Although many people have already debated whether a “New Deal” economic plan is the best plan for a recovery, the most interesting aspect of the Administration’s economic plan is the way the they have alienated the business community. Recently I found myself relating to my wife how political risk plays a huge part in International Finance.  To determine the feasibility of a project in a third world country, you are supposed to factor in the political risk with the financial and operational risk. When I took my International Finance course many years ago, the examples of political risk were Argentina and Nigeria. United States was the example of a place with negligible political risk. Recently polling suggests that the business leaders are considerably more pessimistic about the economy than the general population. The avowed desire to repay the TARP money back as soon as possible is another indicator of the business community angst over government interference and this troubled relationship. I suspect that the business leaders are looking at the United States like a third world country. Considering how poorly I perceive the government/business relationship is, it sure looks like this administration is planning to have a recovery without businesses.

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US to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent (AP)

I was wondering when someone besides the “Tea Party” folks noticed the problem! 

Copies of President Barack Obama's fiscal 2010 federal budget books are seen at the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 7, 20009. After a line-by-line scrub of the federal budget, President Barack Obama has signed off on a roster of 121 budget cuts totaling $17 billion(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)AP – The government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year, exploding the record federal deficit past $1.8 trillion under new White House estimates.

US to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent (AP)
Tue, 12 May 2009 04:08:19 GMT

Recently I have been fascinated by the BizzyBlog coverage of the federal revenue shortfall. Here is the last post on the subject, 
April 2009 Federal Receipts Update: Down 35%, Pending Final Monthly Report. I was not terribly concerned what the administration thought since they are largely irrelevant to the discussion but I was curious what the CBO thought. Last week they publish a report  which said:

The sharpest drop was in corporate receipts; net corporate receipts, largely representing corporations’ first quarterly tax payment for 2009, declined by about $29 billion (or 69 percent). Nonwithheld receipts for individual income and payroll taxes””mainly amounts paid with income tax returns filed in April fell $84 billion (or 36 percent). Refunds of individual income taxes increased by $11 billion (or 24 percent). That change in net receipts associated with income tax filings was roughly in line with CBO’s expectations.

http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=26

Although it was a non-event for most folks, last week the Treasury had a “terrible” auction for the long bonds. I expected the Treasury to find a lot of difficulty selling long bonds since the Obama stimulus plan screams inflation alert and the Chinese said they are not going to finance our mess. So today I see a main stream media article that says the “US to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent”. I think the average person understands the problem now. On May 19th California has several referendums that mainly increase taxes. Once again California will lead the way for the United States. Although I think they are not happy about leading this adventure.

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Hot Air » Blog Archive » Heckuva job, Termy: Californians balk at budget compromise

Following the California budget soap opera is Chinese water torture. Maybe we can get an international court to declare governing this poorly as torture. It sounds like a majority of the voters are frustrated enough to lock the present group of legislators up in Guantanomo. Its a brave new world when you view your politicians as a bigger threat than terrorists.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Heckuva job, Termy: Californians balk at budget compromise

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BizzyBlog » When Will the Press Catch On to Uncle Sam’s Collections Meltdown?

I think the fundamental problem is that the press chooses to tell the the economic story from a top down perspective. The administration would like the press to tell the story this way since it portrays the administration favorably and there is ample historical evidence that the economy will recover on its own. I think the press and the President are hoping we will see an economic rebound similar to the levels we saw before the 2008 meltdown. It is a hopeful story and the press continues to be very accommodating to the President. However there is also ample evidence that the economy will not recover as quickly as hoped for. According to recent polls business leaders see the economy significantly different than the political class. Business leaders view the economy from a bottoms up perspective and they see a lot of problems in their business environment. Several industries are in disaster mode and many of the “healthy” industries are looking at year to year sales drops of over 20%. If consumers continue to increase their the financial prudence and permanently reduce their discretionary spending, there will continue to be large dislocations in the job market as the economy adjusts to reduced consumer demand. In some industries customer demand has completely disappeared. I counted 13 sectors of the economy facing severe to moderate job  losses. The problems in some industries are so severe that they will only be solved by job migration. With so many people looking for jobs in different industries and in different regions of the country, it is likely that it will be a long time before business leaders will see their sales rebound to 2008 levels. It is extremely unlikely we will reach 2008 sales levels until we reach 2008 employment levels. This the blind spot of the Obama administration. The prudent thing for business leaders is to hunker down and look for significant sales increases before hiring back the laid off employees. Until the press turns on the President and starts demanding accountability for job growth policies, it is unlikely the press will pay any attention to the shortfall in tax revenues.

BizzyBlog » When Will the Press Catch On to Uncle Sam’s Collections Meltdown?

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An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country. – By Chris Wilson – Slate Magazine

Slate has a pretty cool dramatization of the unemployment trends in the United States. Click here to go to their site to watch the animated graph. I have an image copy of the last page below. I think the graph does a great job of showing the impact of the collapsing real estate bubble and auto industry.  Too bad the administration appears to be asleep at the wheel.

The economic crisis, which has claimed more than 5 million jobs since the recession began, did not strike the entire country at once. A map of employment gains or losses by county tells the story of how those job losses first struck in the most vulnerable regions and then spread rapidly to the rest of the country. As early as August 2007, for example””several months before the recession officially began””jobs were already on the decline in southwest Florida; Orange County, Calif.; much of New Jersey; and Detroit, while other areas of the country remained on the uptick.

An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country. - By Chris Wilson - Slate Magazine

An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country. – By Chris Wilson – Slate Magazine

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Coming to Grips with the Tea Party Movement

This week I completed the tax returns for my mother-in-law and our family. Due to a variety of maladies we are going to pay very little taxes for 2008. My mother-in-law’s tax return was severely impacted by the capital losses exceeding the capital gains. My return was impacted by closing down a failing business and being gainfully employed for part of the year. At the present tax rate and following the current tax laws I do not have a problem with my tax rate. I got off easy. In fact I do not have a problem with paying a higher amount in 2009 since I should have a lot more income.

What I do have a problem with is how we are going to pay for unnecessarily large deficit spending. Although Bruce Bartlett makes the case that an increase in the tax rates for the middle class would be well within historical norms, we are dealing with a deficit spending package several orders of magnitude outside of all previous norms. I guess if we follow his argument to its natural conclusion, we can pay for a budget deficit several orders larger any deficit in history by returning to the tax rates in the Clinton years. In an interesting faux pas Bruce Bartlett is making the argument that an increased tax on the middle class is justified and reasonable. So in just a few months we have gone from a tax plan based on increased taxes on the rich to a plan that will likely involve increased taxes on the middle class. I believe there is a really good reason why President Obama did not mention this option on the campaign trail. Considering the outlook for the economy and the stock market, I think the “rich” have a better than average chance of not paying as much taxes as they did during the Bush administration. That leaves either the Chinese or the middle class to pick up the bill. Given this scenario it is not surprising that at the grassroots level people are feeling both frustrated by size of the deficit spending and betrayed by the shell game antics with how the administration says it is going to pay for the deficit. If the stimulus package does not stimulate the economy or job growth, I would not be surprised if there are a lot more Tea Parties. There definitely going to be a lot more frustration!

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Zelinsky: Obama Embraces Defined Contribution Paradigm

I find it ironic that the next financial bubble to burst may be the lucrative defined benefit plans for unionized state and local employees. In the 1980’s after we had recovered from our last major bout with inflation and stocks became a viable investment option again, most businesses converted from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. It was a case where the scandals and mistakes concerning defined benefit plans made them very unattractive compared to defined contribution plans. Several of the defined benefit plans were seriously underfunded and there was was little oversight on how fund managers invested. Since I was alive at the time I can say that the average person was pretty sure they could get a better return on their pension using a stock index fund than these fund managers. Another widely held view was that the defined benefit plans of the steel and auto workers were a major cause leading to the demise of those industries. Businesses did not need the distraction that comes with mismanaged pension funds. Defined contribution plans promised financial responsibility by both the companies and the employees. It was a simple choice for businesses but defined contribution plans were the lesser of the two evils.

State and local employees chose to ignore the history surrounding defined benefit plans in return for promises of lucrative benefits. Now we appear to be entering an economic environment in which we will see low return on investments, increasing unemployment, and increasing inflation. This implies that state and local governments will either commit large amounts of their operating budget to fund pension benefits or to cut pension benefits. This is very similar to the situation we saw in the 1970’s in which defined benefit plans ate up operating budgets. Wow! Déjà Vu all over again!

Okay, I know it is easy to be critical of the mistakes made local and state governments. Here is my contribution to improving the situation. How about a federally insured pension benefit corporation to take over the underwater pension funds? Naturally it would have to extract some fiscal responsibility from the participants. I suspect that over the next couple of years the government pension benefits will be rationalized downward to what we may call a national standard. If the pension benefits can be viewed like an employer paid payroll tax we may get better fiscal responsibility by unions and governments. My view is that the pension benefit corporation would not need federal funding but would be able to borrow funds at federal rates. This may be useful as state and local governments make the transition from a seriously unfunded pension liability to solvency. Now if we can get this corporation to invest in treasury inflation protected securities we might have an efficient, workable pension system with low investment risk.

Zelinsky: Obama Embraces Defined Contribution Paradigm
Paul Caron
Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:00:00 GMT