From the WALL STREET JOURNAL: …After a week of fruitless negotiations, Greece’s political parties couldn’t agree on a governing coalition, leaving the country in political limbo until new elections next month. The delay could deprive Athens of badly needed international aid and deepen Greece’s economic depression.
Tag: featured
Higher education linked to longer life, CDC report shows
From USA TODAY: Education may not only improve a person’s finances, it is also linked to better health habits and a longer life… The study found that in 2010, 31% of adults ages 25 to 64 with a high school diploma or less were currently smoking, compared with 24% of those who had some college and 9% with a bachelor’s degree…
Budget deficit could cost Harrisburg School District its kindergarten program
From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT NEWS: …To help close next year’s budget gap, school officials are looking to cut Harrisburg’s kindergarten program and other programs the district is not lawfully required to provide. Even after implementing these cuts, the district still would face a multimillion dollar budget deficit next year.
NEW YORK TIMES
Syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman notes in “Selling our birthright” quotes Michael Sandel’s new book “What Money Can’t Buy” as follows: “…when we have separate, shorter lines for airport security for those whocan afford them, the result is that the affluent and those of modest means live increasingly separate lives, and the class-mixing institutions and public spaces that forge a sense of common experience and shared citizenship get eroded….
From Manhattan to Monaco, the world’s wealthiest people are disconnecting into a class of stateless transients.
From OTHER WORDS: …Just how many potential stateless super rich are currently roaming the world? Late last year, the Singapore-based Wealth-X consulting firm put the overall global number of people worth at least $500 million at about 4,650. These super rich together hold an estimated $6.25 trillion in assets.
Comments re “Greece’s economic woes may hurt US”
An Associated Press article carried on the front page of the Intelligencer Journal New Era treats in some depth the potential ramifications of Greece leaving the Eurozone but hardly in a definitive manner. We are knowledgeable but not expert on the subject. Below are comments concerning certain of the questionable assertions from the article:
As European Austerity Ends, So Could the Euro
EDITOR: This article explores the implications of the voters in Greece, Portugal, Spain and others of the weaker Eurozone nations rejecting austerity and, as a result, the European Central Bank needing to turn to an expansionary monetary policy that would likely lead to inflation. It should be noted that such an approach in the USA has not led to serious inflation and higher interest rates. Furthermore, some economists and the editor believe that a rate of real inflation of 2% is essential for the USA and other nations to be able to deal with the massive soverign (governmental) and consumer debt. We encourage that the article be read in its entirety.
We search for solid information concerning the repercussions of Greece leaving the Eurozone (which is separate and distinct from the European Union.) To date all we encounter is talk suggesting ‘The sky is falling.’ Intuitively we doubt it.
Harrisburg Ex-Mayor Left Pennsylvania City Near Bankrupt
BLOOMBERG: Stephen Reed, Harrisburg’s mayor for 28 years, pushed Pennsylvania’s capital into insolvency as the more than $500 million in bond deals he oversaw to finance community development drained city coffers…
Borrowing for one of his earliest plans, the Susquehanna River dam, opened the door to bankers seeking lucrative financing fees, said John Brinjac, a former Reed campaign manager and chief executive officer of Harrisburg-based Brinjac Engineering Inc. The company has worked for the city.
Even Joe Scarborough finally gets it
In concluding a segment of MSNBC’s “Good Morning Joe” concerning the looming national debt disaster, Joe Scarborough opined that the ‘grand compromise’that Congress needs to reach is two years of fiscal stimulus followed by budgetary constraints that would significantly but gradually reduce the annual budget deficit.
Sunday News: “LGH surplus down, but healthy at $63.2 million”
Lancaster General Health has published its annual 990 federal financial report and the results are described in an unbiased first page article of the Sunday News. Below are excerpts with comments:
Gov. Corbett’s pick as Harrisburg receivor
“From July 2006 through July 2007 (Gen. William Lynch) served as Chief of Staff, Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (IRMO), according to his bio on the C2 Associates web site. “Google ‘Mismanagement’ + ‘Iraq Reconstruction’ and you will see it was such a fiasco (around $9B to $10B unaccounted for)…
Harrisburg Incinerator, Lancaster Convention Center, Lancaster General: We’re All Greeks Now
The following is from an article appearing “Counter Punch” under the heading “The Austerity Theft, Applied Around the World to Weak Countries, Now Used Against Europeans and Americans.”
Shocking inauguration of Vladimir Putin
On the morning of the May 7th Russians could see on their TV screens a black armored Mercedes flanked by motorcycle outriders gliding down Moscow’s streets caring its single passenger: Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin. Russians expected the Moscow streets to be crowded with thousands of happy Moscovites greeting the Leader of the Nation. But the streets were dead and empty.
Plan for community, schools and library to provide free books to students
The Lancaster Public Library is seeking donations to enable children from School District of Lancaster elementary schools to purchase discounted books at the Friends of Lancaster Public Library Annual Big Book Sale on May 21-23, 2012.