ARTICLES and ANSWERS 2020

By Patricia L Johnson

Do you believe everything you read in the papers?  I think most people do – they consider certain members of our news media to be ‘experts’ of sorts and have a tendency to listen very closely to what they say.

The two places in this country where individuals can earn enough money overnight to be considered ‘wealthy’ is in real estate and the stock market. 

Did you ever wonder why certain items are released to the public and others are not?   When you think about it what does the average Jane/Joe who is going to work every day trying to support their family care about how many houses were sold last month or the month before?

Unless Jane or Joe are planning on selling their house in the near future, it has basically little impact on them, so why fill up the newspapers with report details?

My answer is the market – the reports are ‘key’ to investors that earn their living playing the stock market.  Reports, depending upon whether the news is positive or negative trigger market sales – yesterday was a prime example.  The New Housing sales report came out indicating only 834,000 homes were sold in the U.S. during the month of June 2007, which is a 6.6 percent drop from the prior month and a 22.3 percent drop from June of 2006.

The DJIA dropped 311 points and the newspapers will now be filled with doom and gloom reports of how the sky is falling. 

The sky may be falling, but probably not over housing – the way I see it the new housing market is doing pretty good and my opinion is based on a couple factors:

At the end of December 2006 there were 535,000 new houses for sale in the U.S.  At the end of March 2007 there were 548,000 new houses for sale in the U.S. and at the end of June 2007 there were 537,000 new houses for sale. 

The numbers tell me the new housing market is remaining pretty stable.

In 2005, there were 1, 283,000 houses sold per month. We already know that many, many of these homes were financed by banks and mortgage companies to individuals and/or families with poor credit.  These people were offered mortgage deals they couldn’t possibly afford which have resulted  in thousands upon thousands of sub-prime mortgage failures.  This trend will continue until such time as the housing market has been adjusted for these poor decisions.

As with everything else this administration presents; the methodology used for calculating new home sales has been tweaked and twisted so it’s very difficult to make month to month or year to year comparisons and receive percentages that are accurate representations of the facts.

By Patricia L Johnson

The following paragraph was recently written by you.

Consumers don’t understand supply and demand.  They control demand, but that fact just doesn’t register on them.  Prices of gasoline will start to fall when consumers start using less of it.  Drive less, use less, buy less.

It seems to me that economists look at "what should be", while accountants look at what is…

Perhaps years ago, when United States production of oil was close to consumption of oil, consumers did ‘control demand’ and the supply and demand would fall into place if consumers purchased less, but consumers no longer control demand.  When it comes to oil U.S. consumers control zip, zero, nada! 

The following figures are from March 2007 – Source – U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Petroleum Consumption

20,802,000 barrels/day

U.S. Crude Oil Production

5,178,000 barrels/day

U.S. Crude Oil Imports

10,126,000 barrels/day

Dependence on Net Petroleum Imports

60.3%

U.S. Motor Gasoline Consumption

9,159,000 barrels/day (384.7 million gallons/day)

Total World Oil Supply (2006)  

84,511,000 barrels/day

Total World Petroleum Consumption (2005)  

84,538,000 barrels/day

By Richard Walrath

Refineries understand supply and demand.  More gasoline from ethanol increases the supply. 

What to do?  Don’t refine as much gasoline. 

Consumers don’t understand supply and demand.  They control demand, but that fact just doesn’t register on them.  Prices of gasoline will start to fall when consumers start using less of it.  Drive less, use less, buy less.

Remember the two egg theory — refuse to buy eggs by the dozen, just buy one or two at a time.  And, in a short time, the price of eggs will go down to where you can afford to buy a dozen.

By Richard Walrath

I just don’t get that excited about all the shoe bombers and dirty bombs. 

 What is really dangerous to this country is in the White House.  WE are stuck with a man who thumbs his nose at Congress and is going to do whatever he feels like, and it appears that nothing can stop him. 

Contempt of Congress means nothing.  If it goes to court, some right-wing judge Bush has appointed will rule in his favor.  If he should somehow lose, the case will end up in the Supreme Court, and everybody knows how that will turn out. 

Dirty bombs?  I’m much more worried about a dirty White House.

Bush, bu**sh** and botulism.   Now, there’s a slogan that will easily fit on your bumper.  You can even add the words, "We’ve had enough of.."

By Richard Walrath

What does a national sales tax mean to somebody who can go anywhere in the world to buy anything he/she wants?  Tell me, how do you tax something that is bought in another country?  If you’re going to do it through customs, you’d have to hire hundreds of thousands of people.  How can they tax me for something if I just have it shipped to me from overseas?  How would the government even know about it?

Just a couple of problems with that for those of us who can’t afford to shop in other countries.  As the dollar cheapens, we need more and more of them to buy less and less.  How are y’all doing trying to accumulate more and more of them?  If a cheaper dollar makes our goods easier for foreign countries to buy, why does our trade deficit remain so high?   A cheaper dollar ought to mean an increase in tourism from other countries.  It’s not happening.  That may be because nobody likes us, but it’s not helping this country. 

Even the cheap stuff from China is getting expensive.

Shall we continue to debate over gas prices and the energy crises, or should we start looking deeper beyond the custom arguments?

http://deliberatecoincidences.blogspot.com/2007/07/running-on-fumes.html

By Patricia L Johnson

MSNBC ran a story from washingtonpost.com about James Michael Helms, a civilian employee of the U.S. Army as follows:   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19946071/

Helms, a civilian counterintelligence expert, went to Iraq where he lived and worked with the U.S. Military.  On June 16, 2004 Helms suffered shrapnel wounds to his left arm and traumatic brain injury when a bomb hit his Humvee.

Upon his return to the states he was denied care at Walter Reed and other military hospitals due to his civilian status.

However, as a civilian, Helms has workers’ compensation insurance through his employer, the U.S. Government, and did receive medical treatment through civilian providers.

Due to his civilian status, he was also paid differently than members of the U.S. Military, receiving a 70 percent increase over his regular pay, plus overtime while in the war zone.   Unlike members of the U.S. Military, civilian employees can refuse to deploy to a war zone.

The article makes it appear as if this gentlemen is somehow getting the shaft, because he’s not eligible for medical care at facilities set aside for our military and former military.

Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems pretty clear to me – if you want to a member of the military and receive free medical care, quit your job and enlist in a branch of the service. 

If you want to play war games and receive big bucks for doing so, then work as a civilian employee; but don’t whine when it’s over and done with and you have to shell out some bucks for medical treatment for your wounds.

You weren’t forced to go, you volunteered.

By Patricia L Johnson

Today our Commander in Chief through Executive Order  reaffirmed his February 2, 2007 decision that "members of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces are unlawful enemy combatants who are not entitled to the protections that the Third Geneva Convention provides to prisoners of war."

There’s only one problem with this picture – we can’t seem to get it right.  We don’t seem to be able to tell the good guys/gals from the bad ones – and as always, the numbers speak louder than words.  The March 2007 DoD release indicates we’re keeping 385 at Guantanamo, yet 80 of that number are already designated for release or transfer which means we’ve already released and/or transferred more than we’ve held as 390 have been released or transferred since 2002.

"In 2006, 111 detainees were either released or transferred from Guantanamo resulting in a cumulative total of approximately 390 releases and transfers since 2002. The number of detainees currently at Guantanamo is approximately 385, of which more than 80 have been designated for release or transfer, pending discussions with other nations or pending resolution of litigation in U.S. courts." 

Just out of curiosity – how would you feel if you were one of the 390 detainees that had been held at our southern hospitality suite for a period of 2,3,4 or 5 years without being entitled to the protections that the Third Geneva Convention provides to prisoners of war?

Would you be a happy camper? 

Or, when you returned home to your family and native country, would you do everything humanely possible to seek revenge upon those that made your life miserable and kept you from your family and friends for that period of time?

Lock your doors and bar your windows because they will be coming – maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week or next month, but sooner or later they will be here and they will seek revenge from the people that stood by and allowed their families to live under despicable conditions while they were held prisoners of war.

WASHINGTON (July 17, 2007) — Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Jim Nicholson announced today he has tendered his resignation to President George W. Bush, effective no later than October 1, 2007.

WhiteHouseTapes.org: Secret White House Tapes

http://www.whitehousetapes.org/

Between 1940 and 1973, six American presidents from both political parties secretly recorded just under 5,000 hours of conversations. This site is designed as a service to the research community by making freely available all of the presidential recordings, along with relevant research materials, so that scholars, teachers, students, and the public can hear and use these remarkable tapes for themselves. The site is hosted and maintained by the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.
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Feeling the Pain at the Pump

By Patricia L Johnson

A few days ago I made the mistake of taking the empty lawn mower gas tanks with me when I went to fill up my car – talk about sticker shock at the gas pump. 

Without a doubt, all of us are feeling the pain of increased prices and wondering just how much longer we’re going to have to choose between driving and eating, since food prices are also rising, due in part to the increased price of distribution.  

The answer might be to buy a horse and grow a garden because the price of gasoline is probably not going to decrease significantly anytime soon due to the number of factors involved in the price. 

The U.S. Department of Energy breaks the cost of gasoline components (for 2005) into four parts as follows:

• Distribution and Marketing – 9%
• Refining costs and profits – 19%
• Federal and State Taxes – 19%
• Crude Oil – 53%

In 2005 the average price of crude oil was $50.23 barrel and the average retail price of gasoline was $2.27/gallon [remember the good ‘ol days when gas averaged $1.85 gallon back in 2004 – the price of crude oil averaged $36.98 a barrel that year].

Since the price of crude oil is the single biggest factor (at 53%) in the cost of a gallon of gas it’s pretty easy to determine the rises and falls at the gas pump, based on the rises and falls in the price of a barrel of crude oil.

The price of a barrel of crude oil hit a record high on July 13, 2006 closing at $76.70 on the NYME.  We’re not that high yet, but definitely closing in on it.

Every once in a while we’ll receive one, or more, e-mails to pass around stating the way to hit the oil companies in their pocket books is to limit the amount of gasoline you purchase, the theory being, that lost revenues will force the oil companies to reduce prices, and there won’t be any room in your gas tank for lower priced gas, if it’s already filled with the high price stuff.

Due to worldwide snafus in oil production and distribution, a wiser choice might be to keep your tanks filled at all times.

7/14/2007 9:55 AM

By Richard E Walrath   

I thought I’d thrown it away, but I looked around and there was the September 25, 2006 BusinessWeek staring me in the face with the headline,

"What’s Really Propping Up the Economy?" 

"Health care has added 1.7 million jobs since 2001.  The rest of the private sector?  None.  By Michael Mandel (P. 54)"

So says BusinessWeek. 

But it’s profit AND jobs.  Insurance companies have been beefing up on claim deniers–people trained to deny claims.  Even as insurance companies hire more people, they pay fewer claims.

The article is now almost a year old, but things and times haven’t changed except to get worse.

By Patricia L Johnson

Friday, the 13^th (July) turned out to be a lucky day for those on Wall Street as the DJIA, after jumping 283.86 points yesterday, picked up another 45.52 points today to set a new milestone closing at 13,907.25.

This milestone was hit the same day retail sales fell an unexpected 0.9% for June. The retail sales report is prepared once a month by the U.S. Census Bureau, and their summary follows:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for June, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $373.9 billion, a decrease of 0.9 percent (±0.7%) from the previous month, but 3.8 percent (±0.7%) above June 2006.

Unfortunately, what the summary doesn’t tell is what needs to be looked at – the fact that nearly all the advance percentages are down for the month of June 2007.

• Motor vehicles and parts sales – down 2.9%
• Auto and other motor veh. dealers – down 3.1%
• Furniture and home furn. stores – down 3.0%
• Electronics and appliance stores – down 1.4%
• Building material and garden equip – down 2.3%
• Even gasoline stations were down (any chance you’re using less gas?) 1.1%
• Clothing and clothing accessories stores – down 1.4%
• Department stores – down 1.0%
• Miscellaneous store retailers – down 1.6%

The only two NAICS codes that showed a significant increase during the month of June were Health and personal care stores (had any prescriptions filled lately?) – up 1.2%  and, nonstore retailers up 1.2%

© 2007 Patricia L Johnson