Crisis Averted? Hardly...

Been reading a lot recently on the "What Would Jesus Do?" string, primarily aimed at how the budget crisis in Washington (and yeah, it's still a crisis when you spend $1.40 for every dollar taken in) impact those who need the help the most.

It's a very legitimate question, with two driving forces:

• Unless you want to wind up like Czar Nicholas II of Imperial Russia or King Louis XVI of France, it's helpful to make sure most people have the basics;
• It's also the right thing to do. The measure of a society isn't always found in the grand monuments it builds. The true, enduring legacy is how it treats those in the underclass, and their ability to find opportunity to improve their lot in life.

It's the latter point most use to describe America; this idea that regardless of political, social or economic station anyone, from any family, can lift themselves to achieve greatness. This romantic version of the individual winning through hard work and dedication is a beacon that still attracts millions from around the world who seek a better life.

King Louis XVI oversaw the demise of the bloated French aristocracy because the government spent like there was no tomorrow -- and the payday for the upper class was not pretty, thanks to Monsieur Guillotine. Nicholas II and his family didn't realize their royalty also made them responsible for the peasant class, when when there was no bread left the fires of October 1917 consumed them to the point where they were wiped off the face of the earth.

On a recent trip to New York, I had a great conversation with a cab driver. Not a surprise -- New York cabbies say the most interesting things -- but this talk came with a man from Liberia who fled that nation's civil war, landed in Dallas, won a green card, moved to New York and drove it's streets to make ends meet. Why, he wondered, did he have this opportunity as a mere immigrant and why weren't ordinary Americans taking advantage of this opportunity to earn for their families? He says it's why so many taxi drivers, hotel maids, construction workers and service employees experience the American dream thanks to a green card. Here, he can work. And save. And raise a family without worrying about his children pressed into an army at gunpoint to kill their cousins.

In all the talk the past weeks, we've missed the point this is still a great country, with a great message. We've let what passes for leadership in America portray the 2011 version of the dream. We've become paralyzed by the divisive politics the power-brokers and their consultants practice on a daily basis on talk radio, talk television, and op/ed pieces. We seem more interested in what divides because, like reality shows so cheap to produce, it's the most efficient way to draw ratings.

America's public leadership is turning into "The Amazing Race" only with our money and our futures tied into the outcome.

The numbers are so daunting; the public journalism site ProPublica recently posted a by the numbers piece titled Our Sputtering Economy and it isn't pretty:

• Annual rate at which the GDP grew this year: 1.3 percent between April and June, 0.4 percent between January and March
• Average annual GDP growth from 1998-2007: 3.02 percent
• Total jobs lost since January 2008: 8.7 million
• Total jobs recovered since January 2008: 1.8 million
• Recession technically ended: over two years ago, in June 2009
• Current unemployment rate: 9.2 percent
• The "natural unemployment rate": 5 percent
• Months that the unemployment rate has been around 9 percent or more: 28
• Number of unemployed people in June 2011: 14.1 million
• Growth in number of unemployed people since March 2011: 545,000
• Number of long-term unemployed people in June 2011: 6.3 million, or 44.4 percent of the unemployed
• Pace at which jobs were added throughout the late 1990s: 350,00 per month
• Jobs that were added in June: 18,000
• Jobs the U.S. needs to create to 5 percent unemployment rate: 6.8 million, as of January 2011
• Years it will take to get back to an unemployment rate of 5 percent: four years if we're adding jobs at 350,000 per month; 11 years if we're adding jobs at the 2005 rate of 210,000 per month
• Unemployed workers per job opening: 4.98
• Number of people who weren't in the labor force, but wanted work, as of June 2011: 2.7 million
• The last time the labor force participation rate was lower than it is now: 1984
• The amount of state budget spending that comes from the federal government: about 1/3, or $478 billion in 2010
• Increase in before-tax corporate profits in the first quarter of 2011: $140.3 billion
• Percentage of Americans' total personal income that comes from federal funds: almost 20 percent
• Spending cuts in the proposed budget: at least $2.3 trillion over a decade from 2012-2021
• How long you can currently receive unemployment benefits: up to 99 weeks
• The number of those weeks funded to some extent by federal aid: up to 73
• People currently relying on federal unemployment benefits: 3.8 million
• How long you'll be able to receive unemployment benefits if you lose your job after July 1, 2011: 20 to 26 weeks, depending on your state
• Recovery-funded jobs reported by recipients, according to recovery.gov: 550,621
• Amount of stimulus money left to be spent: $122.8 billion of the original $787 billion

To break this all down to simple math you use everyday when running your own house, here's the state of the United States on a balance sheet the bank would ask for:

• Annual spending (est.) for 2011 $3,800,000,000.00
• Annual revenues (est.) for 2011 2,173,700,000.00
• Total: -1,626,300,000.00

Let's add in the estimated federal debt: $15,476,000,000.00

Making it easier to relate to, drop all those zeros and imagine it's the kind of money you make. Your annual salary is $21,737 a year. That might be what you would make in your first job, fresh out of high school. But you are spending $38,000 a year. You're already $16,263 in the hole.

But wait, there's more.

In addition to already being in the hole, you are already in debt and owe lenders $154,760.

How much of that salary do you think will go to paying the debt more than seven times what you make each year? During the height of the easy housing money craze, banks were lending money to folks who no way, no how could make those kind of payments back. They didn't care. In the short-term, it looked like there was a lot of business in moving houses. Lots of bonuses, too. And the housing bubble burst and left millions in foreclosure, or in homes they can't afford, and the rest bailing out the ones who lent the money or created the government programs to begin with.

When President Obama talks about balance, he's absolutely right: we all know, deep down, that a system bailing out managers so ready to take risks with other people's money is crazy. Too big to fail, however, changed the equation on private businesses paying for their own mistakes. But the answer is not in the type of class warfare that paints the rich as ripe for the taking. That's the type of thinking that left blood on the streets of Paris and Moscow, those grand revolutions.

I'd prefer the revolution of an America where the tired and huddled masses came to build a new future.

The question shouldn't be how to fix this budget mess as cold accountants would suggest, because those decisions have no heart and have no justice. The bottom line doesn't care who it hurts, only that the bottom line finishes in the black rather than red. Conversely, truly helping build an opportunity society that can lift people out of poverty without bankrupting those making the social investment also means respecting those paying the bills. And at this rate, Washington has demonstrated it has little respect for those it expects to pay for it's mistakes.

Recent studies have noted poverty rates haven't budged much since the Great Society's War on Poverty started in the 1960s. It enables a society to expect someone to provide the fish dinner rather than encourage, in the biblical, to teach one how to fish. Our leadership talks innovation, but in the long run they are as dependent on the vicious infighting over pennies when arguing over tax policy than the dollars found in encouraging growth.

Our leaders need to stop thinking small. They need to show the testicular fortitude to think big and risk going home when we voters, consumed by self-interest, punish them for seeing a larger picture. This is only going to get worse as the swell of the Me Generation baby boomers hit Social Security and Medicaid age, and if politicians thought the AARP lobby was powerful now wait until they get a load of the constituency expecting their payday the next 15 years.

Thinking Missouri...

The ankle bone's connected to the leg bone. The leg bone's connected to the thigh bone. What's this got to do with Ohio?

A timely reminder from two fronts on how actions in one part of the country have such a big impact on another part of the country, and how flood waters and environmental laws spilling inside one set of borders is only part of a bigger picture.

"The Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District began increasing reservoir water releases today after actions taken in the flood-stricken lower Ohio River region were successful in reducing water levels.

Water levels on the Monongahela, Allegheny, Beaver and Ohio rivers will begin to rise gradually today and the public should expect higher than normal flows for weeks depending on the forecasted weather. Anyone going in or near the water should consult river and weather conditions and show caution during these high flow times.

The Corps plans to lower water levels at its 16 upper Ohio River Basin reservoirs to normal summer pools by the Memorial Day weekend. Current high water levels are impacting some recreation areas."

Read carefully, it just stands to reason all those submerged fields, towns, cities and farmlands along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers would have an impact at some point up the Ohio. It is so bad in Missouri that levees were blown up, flooding hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, rather than washing out towns, villages and cities under threat.

What we send downstream eventually winds up in New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico or, at worst, overflowing all over Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. Hence the complicated systems of dams and locks to control these mighty fluid highways so people and commerce flourish instead of seeing their future flushed downriver every time there's a hard rain.

Really not much different when it comes to laws and tax policies states find themselves coming to terms with these days.

Michigan's GOP is under fire for approval of a new law that would tie that state's environmental laws to federal standards. Supporters say it would essentially provide a level playing field for businesses navigating EPA requirements, setting a common bar between state and feds. Critics say it would take away from unique needs in Michigan the federal rules don't address, in a state with more freshwater coastline than any other.

The same argument goes for tax laws. AkronNewsNow's Chris Keppler is working on a story detailing some of the very impressive and exciting economic prospects coming from local colleges and Universities. He says those folks in charge of developing our intellectual capital point out the muscle making those products isn't here in Ohio, or even the United States. Tax policies have a lot to do with it: starting up a business in the Buckeye State means less in the pockets of the risk-takers than in some other states.

That "less in the pocket" may sound like they're all greedy bastards, keeping profit for their own personal use. But most job creation comes from small business just like these start-ups, and it's those companies providing the true engine for the recovery fueled by their imagination, their hard work, and their smarts. Those profits make them rich; they also pay for the people, products and services that make up economic prosperity.

We have advance warning this spring that river levels will be high because of concern over what all the water will do to our neighbors, friends and fellow Americans down river. The same applies to the river of the economy, except it's the stream of cash that matters.

In Ohio's case, it would be nice to figure out how to keep more of it here rather than continuing to send it flowing there.

VIDEO Why They Leave

Nothing like the voice of reason from out-of-town friends to help spur the thinking post-Decision. With all the outrage over LeBron's call to go MIA to play with his friends and win some titles, where's the angst over every other 20-something viewing northeast Ohio in a rear-view mirror?

I'm just as PO'd as the next Cavaliers fan. Not at The Decision itself -- LeBron's got every right to decide where he wants to play. That's what "free agent" means. More on that in a moment.

It was the set up, the way it was done -- breaking away on national television with the entire world watching, relegating "always home" to the same status we've become accustomed to watching "The Bachelor" make up his mind on true love. Didn't expect him to stay, but didn't expect him to be so manipulative about it.

That said, the more I hear the hate talk the more I wonder just where that passion is when talking about the hundreds of thousands of young people who've left Ohio in droves, especially northeast Ohio, the past decades. Between 2000 and 2007, Ohio's own Department of Development reports Ohio added only 114,000 people. Our population grew 1%; the national population grew 7.2%, and it shows as school systems (such as those in Akron) scramble to figure out how to keep the doors open for fewer and fewer students.

This is the free market, folks. We Americans vote with our feet. Ohio's future has been voting no.

We've seen Cleveland continue to fall from a titan of industry and prime example of American manufacturing might to a national joke, the lowest of the worst, almost a third-world country within the most powerful nation on earth. Like Detroit, we used to make what everyone bought; now it seems we can't even buy into ourselves enough to provide opportunity to keep our kids here at home. This video from Reason.tv spells it out in plain English: we're not sick anymore, we're dying.




The same public debate so obsessed with where LeBron went, driving hours upon hours serving up LeBron fare for consumption, won't get the same time or attention targeting northeast Ohio's brain drain. So much talk on things that matter so little, because it distracts us from the reality. Karl Marx described religion as "the opiate of the people," but today's environment proves him wrong. It's sports.

The 2010 Census figures are likely to show what all of us know: Ohio's great cities aren't so great anymore, our beautiful suburbs are just a little tarnished, rural Ohio has no hold on it's people. We act powerless to halt the outflow of talented, resourceful and energetic young people seeking opportunity outside the state's borders.

The answers from our political leadership, both sides of the aisle? Bet on it.

It is ironic the same owner of the team LeBron left -- the same owner who flames the player he so desired to keep in the fold -- sees Ohio salvation in the form of slot machines and casino games designed to take, not make. More attention, time and money spent convincing voters to be like Erie, or Wheeling, or even Detroit and build our future on fleecing those desperate enough to turn dreams into cash fed into machines earning the title "one-armed bandits."

Where's today's John D. Rockefeller wanna-be who built the first billion-dollar fortune? Reading Ron Chernow's Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. offers a lesson; it isn't the titan who built an empire, but the industrialist who also left Cleveland because it just wasn't big enough to handle his business anymore. He left in 1914 dogged by tax collectors who went after this son of Cleveland, challenging his residency in New York, because his wife lay dying over the deadline.

What a great irony; Rockefeller was, in part, hounded for taxes from an opportunistic city and LeBron will benefit from tax advantages from an opportunistic team. Both leave behind where it all started because it just isn't big enough to handle their dreams. They see legacy and dollars; we see moments and pennies.

An economy that once made and exported prosperity now stands in line to be made poorer one spin at a time. This is hope for our future? Colleges and universities willing to make tuition more expensive while bemoaning low college graduation rates? Industry seeing the other side of the fence really is greener? Workers and families going mobile, trading comforts of home for chances to grow?

LeBron James leaving isn't the problem we think it is; it's the template we've built. Sports is a mirror that should make us take a hard look at the story line we're really living.

Northeast Ohio sports fans continue to cry about the Sabathia, Thome, Lee and Ramirez's who leave but don't seem to grasp the loss of businesses who buy those suites and stadium ads means team owners don't have money to land top talent, much less keep them here. Browns fans still hate Art Modell for moving the team, even though public policy (and his own miscalculations) left him isolated to the point where there was no hope at home.

It's ridiculous to think one of the poorest cities in America, where the easiest thing to do is find a view defining us as "rust belt", can afford to attract the kind of talent to build something great again. We can't even do that with our own children much less someone like LeBron. He was a two-time MVP on a team that led the league in wins but still couldn't convince his BFF Chris Bosh to sign and play here. We landed Shaq because of the chance to win a ring for the King; will other world-class players look at Cleveland as opportunity now, or will they take the view the rest of the nation has: poor, poor Cleveland. Great fans, great facilities, but...always but not enough to sign if there's a better deal in a place that dreams big.

It's past time to blame the weather, or some sports curse, or supposedly selfish athletes for our woes. Ask your sons, daughters, nieces and nephews if the plus is really worth missing out on the opportunities elsewhere. Remember for thousands of Ohio families that simple conversation comes with a one in front of the area code because that chat won't be held in their living rooms. They'll be talking on long-distance using the family plan in Texas, and Atlanta, and Carolina because that's where the jobs went.

The future has already left the building.

On the subject of LeBron's decision:

In few other occupations do workers have to start their careers in a city not of their choice, but the choice of others based on the drop of a lottery ball. What other professions have workers prohibited from looking for work with the company they choose? The "free agent" window was opened when Curt Flood argued that athletes were not slaves.

LeBron, Wade, Bosh and the rest of last week's NBA crop exercised this most basic of America values; to work for those we want to work for, to grab the best opportunity we can find, to control our own destiny. This was a schooling in the free market, the American way. The NBA owners built a system where their control lasted only as long as the contract, and these players were smart enough to play the system as well as the game on the court.

The method of the move leaves a bad taste, and will for a long time. But The Chosen One did just that -- choose -- when he had the chance.

As a fan of LeBron, I'd like to see him win his rings, but as a Cavs fan not before we get ours. I'd like him to do well and be happy, but think at some point he'll wish he'd stayed and accomplished his dream here at home. I'd like this experience to serve as a teachable moment to a truly talented guy in his mid-20s as well as the posse of friends he keeps around him that there are better ways to realize a goal than the way this played out.

Most importantly, though, I'd like to see us refocus our energies on the things that truly matter: rebuilding this place we call home into a place where people want to live, work and prosper by their choice and not just because of the way a lottery ball falls.

LeBron, Best Places & Why The Healthcare Rush?

Not quite the dog days of summer yet -- those pop up in August -- but there are some interesting stories making the rounds beyond the Heaven Can Wait saga and attacks in Firestone Park.

The celebrity-watching site TMZ.com is at it again, this time with promises of a video coming later today that will be sure to have Akron watching.

The website that broke the Michael Jackson story -- and seems to continue to "own" the latest revelations, giving traditional media bigwigs fits -- says it has landed what we were led to believe didn't exist.

Video of LeBron James getting dunked on at his basketball camp.

By now you should know the story: LeBron holds a camp for up-and-coming players, and Jordan Crawford of Xavier University does the unthinkable during the LeBron James Skills Academy and slams one home over LBJ. Nike reps, thinking as fast as their shoes can carry then, proceed to scour the arena for anyone with video and point out this isn't acceptable and confiscate the video.

One apparently got away.

It isn't posted yet; TMZ's too smart for that, knowing this is a golden opportunity to showcase their TV show to get the first taste of the video with all the traffic to the web site to follow. Smart marketing...especially with advance notice it'll be posted after 9:45 p.m. tonight.

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Seen the latest edition of Money Magazine featuring a list of the 100 Best Places to Live -- Small Towns version? Not really surprising to note Ohio towns didn't make the top ten, we've become accustomed to getting dissed. But what is interesting is noting how well Ohio communities placed among the towns cracking the top 100.

Westerville (15), Highland Heights (18), Solon (23), Twinsburg (30), Medina (40), Springboro (41) placed well. In fact, Medina was one of two small towns with "A" ratings in all but one category (the other was Plymouth Township, Michigan) ranging from housing affordability, safety, education and leisure/arts.

Guess what's dragging down the top performers?

The economy. Medina earned a C, the same as the other near-perfect. Otherwise northeast Ohio looks like the best location in the nation with Solon, Twinsburg and Highland Heights joining Medina to stake their claim to four of the top 40 rankings.

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Tonight President Obama holds a news conference where the dominant questioning is likely to be over health care. No wonder, since the White House determines when it holds news conferences and right now that's all Washington is talking about. Tomorrow, Mr. Obama brings the health care road show to Shaker Heights for a Town Hall meeting.

The debate now seems to be over which version making its way through Congress is the best, what parts are the worst, and how much/who gets hurt/how long we wait in line for care on the minds of the little people who wind up paying for all this. There is another question, however.

Why the rush to get this done in the next couple weeks?

We've seen just how well managed going trillions of dollars in debt has been so far with the bailouts/recovery many members of Congress approved without reading. If health care truly impacts one-sixth of the economy, isn't this time to keep the heat on public debate without an artificial political deadline?

The Democrats running Congress seem to forget the lesson the Republicans ignored in the rush to war: talk may be cheap, but real debate and actual deliberation is the cornerstone of America's legislative process. It's designed to be clunky and time-consuming because more than 130 years ago a group of rebellious wise dudes decided the wisdom of bringing diverse opinion together and forcing them to talk was a better idea than turning America into a juggernaut dominated by "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" political strategy.

It would be wise to remember this when talking about policy that will either fix the problem or turn us into a nation with even less money in our wallets to harden the longer wait for a doctor.

Gettin' With The Times

Summit County Executive Russ Pry ought to get a nice round of applause for helping to drag local government into the late 20th century by updating collection practices to include credit cards. Going plastic is more than just everyday; it's the way the world does business.


Pry's publicity machine reminded the news media of this in a news release today, noting Summit County's Animal Control and Building departments were the latest to go MasterCard, AMEX and Discover ( I'm not sure what happened to VISA; there's the follow-up) in giving taxpayers the same opportunity to pay public bills as they use to pay private.


With the explosion of digital payments -- not just using a credit or debit card, but also using e-banking to serve your e-commerce needs -- it was long overdue, and surprising that it didn't come sooner than the March 2009 vote from County Council on Pry's bid to modernize government billing.


You DO pay a convenience fee for this; the company managing the payments charges 2.5%, a heck of a lot cheaper than many businesses enjoy (and pass along to their customers) and considerably less than what it costs to buy a ticket to a concert or sporting event with all their consumer-unfriendly add-on fees. But in the long run it's worth in, allowing the government to more track with more accuracy their payments and cash flow. Ditto the consumer: the end-of-the year statement most credit cards provide is a gold mine when figuring out taxes and tracking our own payments.


If you've been tagged with a traffic ticket recently (count me among the nailed) then you know you can do the same thing through the court systems on the most routine violations, saving considerable time and trouble.


There is always great discussion on the impact of the web on government information, most recently the "costs" of opening city records to critics of the Plusquellic Administration. But the growing use of web-based payment and electronic billing shows another side to making government records more available online; it includes the system of billing that no longer ties us to remembering to send the check or taking time out of the day to drive down to the courthouse to make a payment. And unless the mainframe computer has a serious case of e-digestion, there's always a record of it.

During a recent trip overseas, I was struck how restaurants and cafes in even the smallest of towns used wireless credit card processing (such as the unit, at left) and servers and hosts didn't have to take the card away from customer view to process, they would tally up the bill and slide the card right in front of you. It addresses a security concern while also standardizing the use of wireless technology, which provides great opportunity for growth in other ways as well.

Welcome to the new way of doing things. It is a great reminder of how far we've come -- and how far we still have to go in taming technology to work for the end user: us.

A Sure Thing: No Longer Postal

Time was there were few things as reliable and solid as the post office; they brought it rain, shine, snow, gloom of night -- and for those looking for a lifetime of stability the U.S. Postal Service was the gold standard of getting a job for life.

My, how times have changed.

Across the newsdesk comes this note:

"The Postal Service now projects a loss of more than $6 billion this fiscal year. The losses are the result of dramatic mail volume declines caused primarily by the economic downturn but also reflective of electronic diversion '“ online bill paying and electronic correspondence.

In Fiscal year 2008, these factors resulted in a mail volume decline of 9.5 billion pieces, or 4.5 percent, the largest in Postal history. Projections for this year are no more encouraging; it now appears volume decline for this year may exceed 20 billion pieces. From a peak of 213 billion pieces in 2006, the Postal Service may handle only 180 billion pieces this year.

To improve efficiencies, the Postal Service has offered early retirements, adjusted delivery routes, adjusted Post Office hours of operation, reduced hours of operation in mail processing facilities, suspended new post office construction, consolidated mail processing operations, removed underused blue collection boxes, cut travel budgets, and reduced administrative staffing by 15%, among many actions taken.

Because the options and choices customers have been given to conduct their postal business has increased exponentially '” many of those choices and options do not involve physical post offices '“ the Postal Service is now reviewing its retail network to determine if operations in some branch offices could be consolidated with other offices. Nationally, more than 3,000 stations and branches are being reviewed.

In the greater Akron area, the following offices will be reviewed:

Chapel Hill Station, 2000 Brittain Rd.
Downtown Akron Station, 209 S. Main St.
Maple Valley Station, 1518 Copley Rd.
East Akron Branch, 1763 Goodyear Blvd.

'No determination has been made to close any stations or branch office,' stresses Akron Postmaster Rose Spraggins, 'but we have an obligation to pursue strategies and solutions that will mitigate the impact of the economy and electronic diversion.' Factors such as impact on employees, service standards, cost savings, customer access, environmental impact, real estate values and long-term Post Service needs will be taken into account during the review process, said Spraggins."

Never thought I'd see something like this, but then again I never would have imagined the postal service advertising "if it fits, it ships" in my lifetime. Then again, my lifetime has seen the rise of UPS, FedEx and a host of other delivery services taking away from the people's mail service followed by the explosion of email, texting and other social networking replacing social mail.

It's The Economy, Stupid

Consider this an Akron version of the old TV game show "Family Feud," complete with host Richard Dawson's famous "survey says....!"

Most of us in Summit County apparently think having a job is pretty important; in fact, more than 46% of the 1,067 adults surveyed by the Center for Marketing and Opinion Research agreed employment is the top issue when it comes to quality of life here, pacing a big increase in all economic issues over the past three years. Taxes and money issues finished a strong second with crime and safety a distant third; education then government/political issues wrap up the top five.

Even with a national and state economy providing plenty of angst, over three quarters of those surveyed by phone still think Summit County is either an excellent or good to live. Fewer than one in twenty four think life stinks.

But again, the economy looms large with less than 16% holding the opinion the local economy is excellent or good, and half of that number thought Summit County offered a positive outlook for finding a job.

What to make of these numbers?

No big surprise but confirmation folks really do pay attention to the pocketbook issues. While the rest of the nation calls what is happening a recession, it's been life in Ohio for years now and provides what should be the biggest wake-up call to political and business leaders. In 2007, more than 21% of those surveyed had some confidence in their ability to find a job in Summit County; that number dipped to 11.3% in 2008 pre-Wall Street bubble burst and is now 8.1%.

Statistically, fewer people think this is a good place to find a job than the number of people on unemployment benefits. That spells big trouble for politicians who talk a good game about creating an environment of opportunity for young people to stay here on graduation. This spiral goes by many names, including "brain drain" which is the latest catch phrase to describe what parents and grandparents have been talking about for decades in describing a future northeast Ohio -- a place where the kids come back for holidays with tales of opportunity found elsewhere.

We are at a point in time where it is tough to find an oasis of opportunity; that used to be the Carolinas, or Las Vegas, or Florida but now those states are hard-hit by the national economy. But when things swing back, as they inevitably do -- remember, every boom has a bust and vice-versa -- will Ohio be better positioned for the recovery or will we still be trapped in that spiral given lip service by the regardless-of-which party leadership?

Is Uncle Sam Turning Into Big Brother?

President Obama went public today with what leaked out Sunday; the boot of the CEO of General Motors came by leg extension all the way from Washington, D.C.

I'm of an age where it worked the other way around; the engineer of the Vietnam War during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations was Robert McNamara, Defense Secretary via Ford. When President Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex taking over the business of the nation it was the big corporate giants such as GM he had in mind; companies with deep ties in the government and big business where the line was easily blurred.

Now, thanks to the devil's bargain of taking bailout money from Uncle Sam, the once-mighty General Motors now finds itself at the mercy of a government that can't seem to rein in it's own spending, enforcing it's view of how to run a business. The top government official helping to make this call is an investment banker, not a manufacturer. How did those investment banks do recently?

Only in America?

There are reasons to worry about this development, going far beyond the expected cheers of Michael Moore-types who are only satisfied to see executive blood run in the hallways of corporate power to make good for the blue-collar lives left on the sidelines of plant closings. It was interesting to see union leaders and rank and file take note they are troubled when the government decides who runs a private company -- even when it comes with boatloads of public dollars.

The Ford strategy of keeping arms length away from those billions seems to be a good decision for the managers and owners of Ford, and maybe the taxpayers too since GM and Chrysler now appear headed to where they should have gone in the first place: the protection of bankruptcy to reorganize and reinvent themselves.

This is all early enough to trigger warnings and bad feelings among those with a more libertarian bent but is fed by the populist notion that any business now becomes the people's business. When it is executives at AIG (even those who worked for a buck understanding they would see a bonus for millions that were generated in profitable divisions) it is popular to bang the drum for heads to sit on a pike at the city gates, a warning to all of those who ignore the bonfires inside the walls. But at some point the "them" becomes the "us" -- and who is left to root for what's right when we've all given up the power to address what's wrong to a handful of bureaucrats in Washington who seem to be better at singing songs of blame that orchestrating solutions?

AIG, Loopholes & Defending Dodd

What short straw did Akron/Youngstown area Congressman Tim Ryan draw in doing TV duty defending Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd's handpicked language allowing the AIG bonuses?

Ryan was front and center on Fox Business Channel talking about the AIG bonuses which have sparked such widespread outrage, from the White House to your house.

He says Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) is in a position to fix the problem as head of the Senate Banking Committee. Fox's Stuart Varney is quick to point out the very loophole that lawyers say not only allows the bonuses to be paid but stymied plans to stop them came from Dodd -- who ranked #1 in the AIG political contribution hit parade.

The Fox Business Report is likely to get plenty of web hits today thanks to feature posting on the Drudge Report as well -- fodder for the Republicans, who we should point out were also asleep at the switch when President Bush and then-Treasury Secretary Paulson were busy handing out billions in bailout money last fall.

Plenty of finger-pointing and blame all around, yet amid all the positioning, posturing and promoting (including Barney Frank saying he found all of this "disgusting", despite also writing all of these bailout bills) there's still damn little real accountability.

The Breakfast Buffett

No, not another pancake war -- although our retirement accounts look more like pancakes these days after another round of drops in the markets.

Talk about must-see TV, and it started at six in the morning Monday on CNBC with Berkshire Hathaway icon Warren Buffett, live from the home furniture base in Omaha, Nebraska, chatting over the economy and taking questions.

This is the guy both sides would have liked to have had as Treasury Secretary but opted instead to play advisor to Obama, helper to others and overall sage for our times. In a nutshell, it's far from over; we'll be OK years from now but not right now; there are plenty of good values out there and even spectacular opportunities if you have the stomach for the roller coaster ride and the political bashing of people who work hard to make great amounts of money is foolish.

Worth a look...


CNBC may have already yanked the video feed; if so a transcript is available at www.cnbc.com to read his remarks.

Property Tax Time Bomb

Heading down the stretch with a month and a week left to go in 2008 and I'm thinking the big story of the year won't be historic elections, perceived weaknesses in Mayor Plusquellic's political armour or even the crime blotter's sensational trials such as the Bobby Cutts, Jr. case.

2008 should be remembered as the start of America's major come-to-Jesus money moment.

In the past 90 days we've basically seen wealth in the wealthiest nation on earth take deep slices, with the market more than 40% down and confidence in our major institutions -- banking and homegrown automotive -- in the toilet. Banks won't lend to banks and Americans have clearly shown American cars are their top choice for wheels.

Today President-elect Obama unveiled his economic team, but there are still many, many questions to be answered on what to do. The existing Congress -- the same body that returns in power in 2009 -- seems impotent when it comes to forcing the outgoing Treasury Secretary to do what he said he was going to do with $700 billion dollars in bailout money. The housing bubble burst continues, banks say they aren't even sure what their complicated portfolios are really worth, charges are traded over backroom decisions that kill one institution to benefit another and the country looks divided over whether clueless Detroit CEO's (not only management but also union bosses) should be given a chance to manage their way out of this mess they've created.

But we aren't seeing the worst, yet. Just today, Ohio's Association of Realtors noted Ohio's average housing values (the total amount of residential real estate sold divided by the number of units) declined in value by 7.4% through October 2008 when compared to the same point last year. The Ohio average declined from $150,800 to $139,571. In real dollars, that amount actually declined by 19.7%, from $17 billion a year ago to $13.7 billion. OAR's member Realtors sold nearly a fifth less real estate and while that stinks for real estate agents living on a commission, it doesn't bode well for the local governments living off property taxes either.

Long-range thinkers are taking hard looks at how property taxes are figured -- an odd mix of economic formulas and the art of appraisers in determining what your house is worth. So much of government is tied to your property and this hits you whether you own or rent; after all, how do you think landlords pay their property taxes? When property values decline, those locked-in tax percentages are impacted, too. It hits schools (toss aside the talk of how its unconstitutional; the Ohio Supreme Court didn't provide a penalty for still using property taxes so the DeRolph decision remains toothless) as well as social service agencies, libraries, zoos, police, fire, ambulance and even road repairs and improvements.

Taxpayers are likely to take a dim view of appraisals that charged more in property taxes when values were going up but what about when those values are heading south -- does the County start reducing tax bills in comparison wholesale when those housing values drop just like your 401k portfolio? Government is used to adjusting up, not down, but with the value of what we own continuing to decline thanks to market conditions it can't control do tax collectors have little choice but to respond in kind?

In turn, will we see a rush to the ballot box by every agency receiving a penny of property tax revenue to help shore up those revenues? School districts have long known just how hard it is to go to the well again and again and again. ,With the property tax values of entire communities taking a hit, that whirlpool drags even more quasi-governmental groups into the swirl.

Why No Isn't The End

Wall Street is taking another tumble this afternoon, down more than seven hundred points (still figuring it at the closing bell) after the big vote. It isn't the largest percentage drop but it is the biggest single number dump, almost as bad as post 9-11. The bailout pushed by the Bush Administration, Senate and House Democrat leaders led by Reid, Pelosi, Frank and Dodd, GOP leaders on the flip side including Boehner isn't even close to a yes from the House. Why, then, is this actually a sign Congress is working?

This is going to hurt. Hurt bad. Anyone trying to get credit now will find bankers saying no, and it isn't just us little people, it's companies like Goodyear told they can't access their own credit lines. The pain is unavoidable and the push to get something moving to free up the flow of money is undeniable, but Wall Street still hasn't convinced Main Street yet the fix from the boys and girls in suits in D.C. is the right answer.

We made a big mistake the past ten days, assuming just because the Secretary of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Chairman worked past midnight, joined by respective House and Senate leaders trading behind closed doors, that this was work on the people's behalf. Please forgive Americans from thinking ill of something called a "deal" since it was the "dealing" that got us into the mess to start with.

After watching the bulk of speeches from the U.S. House this morning and afternoon it's clear the work shouldn't have included behind-the-scenes deal or no deal to begin with. The Democrats say it's the Republicans fault for not getting 12 more votes to fall in line, the Republicans will note the Democrats had 94 members voting no, too, and the commentary will reflect the spin that none of the key players did what they had to.

The finger pointing is already underway with Democrats scrapping the GOP for not delivering; the GOP says they might have had a better chance if Nancy Pelosi hadn't made it a partisan fight during her comments on the floor blaming the whole mess on the Bush Administration. Did she really have to do that? Was this opportunity to play mechanic blown by what seems to be the inability for either side to just fix something without trying to inflict political harm? Listening to her speech (thanks to C-SPAN where you can still catch the entire address) I don't understand why she decided to make a Jefferson-Jackson day talk on the floor of Congress instead of showing the leadership to make the point for her bill rather than lecturing. Nice way to move forward -- by wallowing in the same old arguments of the past.

I'm just curious as to how things work in your neighborhood; how willing are you to lend a hand to the neighborhood watch folks when they start our saying you're a jerk? This just seems to be personal politics 101: what was the point of her speech, trying to convince people to vote for this bailout or setting the table for the finger-pointing we're going to watch next?

The usual suspects will come in for the usual ripping on the 15-second interview clips on CNN, FOX, CNBC, MSNBC and the networks.

This credit collapse mess our economy is in didn't happen overnight and while it's important to find a fix the wrong fix without the support of the real bankers who have to pay for it was the wrong policy. We're the bankers now, and when the systems (financial and government) who sold us a flim-flam bill of goods our Depression-area grandparents wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot pole wanted to do it again political labels meant nothing.

It was liberal Democrat and conservative Republican united to force the dealers to return to work and make something happen that makes sense for the very people who stand to suffer most. The unfortunate side of an economic collapse is that those who made the most during the boom years of easy credit and giveaway mortgage plans haven't felt the pain yet because they're still living off the billions they reaped while shooing a compliant public eager for have-it-all into foreclosure and bankruptcy. We rubes back on Main Street understand that; there are enough folks in Washington who hear what the real bosses back home were saying about all of this to go along after less than two weeks of talk.

Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, summed it up in the post-vote comments noting it was important for the greatest deliberative body in the world to give more thought to the actions of government. That's the real job of both the Senate and the House; to deliberate, to weigh and consider alternatives. Washington operates too easily these days on the assumption of must-act without oversight as shown by a budget that has ballooned to put our children's future in jeopardy, put ownership of our country in the pockets of our rivals and enemies, and put our sons and daughters in harm's way overseas.

We find ourselves with an unusual situation after watching today's debate: the very same folks ripping this President for his rush to war (a rush many joined him in with a quick vote) now seem hell-bent on a rush to fix an economy that teeters on the big freeze without asking questions. The same Reid-Pelosi crowd that surged to power two years ago in Washington by riding a wave of disbelief of direction from the White House now seem only too willing to go along with the Administration they don't trust. The GOP crowd that marched in lockstep with the White House now sparks condemnation by doing something we expect our Representative to do: finally listen to their constituents.

The crap-shoot of Wall Street will continue to yo-yo while the politicians go back to work, maybe with even more urgency since they're up for a vote in five weeks. Enough of the partisan sound bites after tonight: listen to each other, listen to the economic experts who were blown off in a rush to vote, and above all listen to the people in fly-over land outside the Beltway who have to pay for this in the long run.

Just Do The Job!

McCain wants to postpone Friday night's Presidential debate because there's this thing called the American Economy meltdown going on; Obama wants to press forward because we all want to hear what both have to say about it. What's missing in the back-and-forth spin is: why don't both of 'em do the jobs they're supposed to be doing right now?

If I were living in Arizona. Illinois or Delaware at this point I'd want a refund of the weekly salaries from both of 'em -- Biden, too -- over the past couple weeks for spending time looking for other work while still on my payroll.

Toss in Alaska, too...

We used to have an air personality here at WQMX with a salty way of expressing the one basic every workplace has: why can't some people just do their jobs? It is the dynamic of every office, factory, shop or field where people work together. Some work harder with their eyes on the ball, others don't -- and it's usually the "work harder" ones who help carry the day overall.

This past week we've been treated to the foursome seeking to become Masters of the American Universe doing whatever it takes to get a new job while ignoring the old job they're still getting paid for.

Obama's right -- Americans should hear what both sides say about the economy. But McCain is right, too -- does it really need to be in Oxford, Mississippi on Friday night?

They have their own private planes, for goodness sake...THEY can present their talking points, spin and viewpoints anytime. Air Obama and Mac Airlines just need a call from the good Senators to get off the ground and wing south. I'm sure the hotels where they'll spend the night after the exhausting process of talking with, at, and to each other will hold the rooms, unless there's a mid-week wedding that has all the rooms booked. Too early for Ole Miss Homecoming? What's the problem with changing the date: does the University of Mississippi have a tractor pull scheduled all next week in the debate hall? Is that a conflict for Jim Lehrer's bridge night?

The time for them to be in Washington, working out of their offices or on the Senate floor, is now. Setting up a debate takes a couple days; both sides already agreed to the format, moderator, etc. It really is as simple as noting the business of the people requires even U.S. Senators to show up for work, on occasion, especially when the health and welfare of the nation depend on it.

The Paucity of Leadership

UPDATE 5:08 p.m. Wow...the past couple hours show just how big the problem is with both campaigns now stepping up to the plate, actually talking with each other -- McCain wants to postpone Friday's debate, Obama wants joint statements.

The Presidential candidates and their campaigns must be apoplectic by now; the "most exciting election in generations" has been pushed to the back pages, supplanted by the credit meltdown, scramble to save America's economy and, in election-rich Ohio, just how to fix the Browns and the Bengals.

Maybe they should be asking themselves why Obama/McCain have been marginalized by the ery events calling for their leadership.

My pal Matt Agnesi in Orlando, Florida forwards the following bit of wisdom to chew on as Congress finally wakes up and remembers they have a role to play in the snafu called Wall Street's mortgage meltdown:

"The great Brazilian economist Celso Furtado said we must not allow speculators' profits always to be privatized, while their losses are invariably socialized. We must not allow the burden of the boundless greed of a few to be shouldered by all. The economy is too serious an undertaking to be left in the hands of speculators. Ethics must also apply to the economy."

What is sad is this quote isn't new; Furtado died in 2004.

Looking over events of the past week:

Obama/McCain won't commit to returning to Washington from the campaign trail to attend hearings on the crisis, and may not even make it back under the dome to vote on a bailout bill. But they have a plan.

Obama/McCain won't specifically address how they will vote or what they consider deal breakers in the bailout bill. But they have a plan.

Doesn't it strike anyone else as odd the two men vying to become the decision makers can't even be counted on to reveal the decision breakers or even if they will show up in person to do their jobs?

Here's a thought: both sides agree to suspend their personal campaigning for three days and return to Washington and earn their paychecks. Let the surrogates continue to spin bull with the public, who increasingly tune this all out anyway because the public is now worried on what is happening, not what the campaigns say is happening.

Start with the agreement that both sides have the stench of greed on them; the original kick to Wall Street's mismanagement of the American dream came in 1998 under both GOP and Democrat leadership; CEO pay skyrocketed the most under the Clinton years (see Economic Policy Insitute/NY Times graphic at left) but CEO corner-cutting skyrocketed the most under the Bush years; the defacto CEO of the world economy used to be Alan Greenspan but now his name is mud for creating this environment; Bernanke and Paulson are painted as the little dutch boys plugging the holes in the dike but it was on their watch this system imploded; the very congressional pontificates promising a fix now were the ones too willing to belly up to the Freddie/Fannie/Countrywide/AIG/Lehman buffet when the feedbag was on; the banks crying about bad debt now are the same who sold the debt to the investment banks in complicated economic schemes few even understood; we as voters allowed society to forget the basics of WHY it's important to own a home (self-investment, self-responsibility) and settle for the goal of EVERYBODY owning a home, even if they can't afford it; the easy money to be made by real estate speculation that allows people to own multiple homes in the hope of cashing in big.

The list is endless, but the real leadership to face up, take responsibility, and chart the course is limited. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown's exchange with Ben Bernanke asking if Wall Street should apologize was good to listen to from an emotional point but from the point of problem solving it's like asking the UN Secretary to apologize for all the pain in the world: Wall Street is an abstract of the hunger by CEO's, companies, pension investment funds, speculators, and every one of us looking to get more for less.

Padding our pockets is not a truly CEO experience, they just have more commas before the decimal point.

Akron's New World of Politics

Everybody has an opinion. Why not share it?

The experiment continues on Ohio.com's The Point political blog which raises questions on just what the role of blogging is and what should it be this election cycle? Even though half of the team is operating under editorial restrictions because of "old media" ethical considerations, just when does the "new media" part kick in?

Mind you, I freely admit on my blog I hate the term "new media"...because I don't consider blogging "new" by any stretch, and much of what's new comes out of "old media", AKA mainstream media. The field of commenting on politics is hardly new; Thomas Paine figured it out hundreds of years ago. Thank Gutenberg for the first giant leap toward making the media the business we can all share in.

The only thing remotely fresh here is the use of a new platform (the Web) in spreading the ideas and words to a broader audience.

LINK to the AkronNewsNow blog with audio of this morning's interview

When we were setting up this morning's interview segments with Ben Keeler and Kyle Kutuchief on WAKR's Ray Horner Show part of the fun was the ongoing discussion with both Ben and Kyle on just what's going on here; do we consider the Web and projects such as The Point and even Cleveland.com's defunct Wide Open competitors?

My response: no. As noted before, you don't add to a discussion by subtracting voices and ideas. Adding alternate viewpoints to the political mix in Akron can only be healthy, especially given the one-party rule of the City and what looks increasingly like one-party rule of the County as well with the exception of a handful of offices.

What I find fascinating is the simple power of blogs to stimulate thinking; even with the restrictions posed by Ben's candidacy for the Summit GOP Central Committee, Alex Arshinkoff's objections and Ohio.com's ground rules after the flap he's still able to articulate his views on his own website The Keeler Report; Kyle certainly has the same opportunity to handle his opinions both on Ohio.com as well as his own independent website The Chief Source he administers with six others. It's the free flow of information that drives the American political process, and what the web had clearly done is to take the flow from the fingers of the few and expanded the reach more democratically.

It powers Senator Kevin Coughlin's attempt to unseat Arshinkoff with his New Summit Republicans site, allowing him and his supporters greater reach. Arshinkoff supporters have the same opportunity with their Keep Summit County Republicans Strong site but now instead of limiting the debate to those who can finance the printing presses and broadcast transmitters anyone can utilize the technology to make a difference, no matter what their perspective may be.

Feeding The Habit

The litany of "thanks to me" releases are making their way into the newsroom as anyone who's anyone in Congress (the House, at least) trumpets their support of the economic stimulus package. Maybe this should also be called the "feeding the crack addict more crack" bill.

I know it's probably un-American to say this but this rush to give taxpayers $600 of their own money -- borrowed from their own tax refunds next year -- is exactly one of the reasons why the perception of the economy is trouble, trouble, and more trouble.

Just why are we tanking? The subprime mortgage crisis is a big reason, say the experts, with a half-million Americans losing their homes to foreclosure and more to come in 2008. What we're paying lip service to is that banks didn't do their jobs making sure the loans were repayable and the borrowers (that'd be us, folks) didn't quite grasp the American Dream actually had to be paid back. The lenders were the crack dealers and the consumers were the crack addicts.


Whatever happened to "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is?" or is that just the postscript on Better Business Bureau news releases?

The answer from Washington doesn't really ding the lenders and the scores of high-paid subprime geniuses who likely cashed in on huge bonuses during the greed-glory years, although the sinking stock prices are a nice reminder that stockholders still hold the bag. The answer isn't a call for a financial come-to-Jesus for consumers to wake up and realize adults do have to pay attention to the fine print and you really shouldn't expect to get something for nothing. The solution marked bipartisan: borrow from next year's taxes so people think they're getting a gift this year. You are likely excited at the prospect of hundreds of dollars by summer but as that check lands in the mailbox remember it's your money, so a couple of ideas ahead of the splurge:

YES, America is now a consumer and service economy but the health and welfare of Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Sears and Macy's really isn't more important than your own economic health. Instead of making the plasma screen your top priority (thereby increasing the trade deficit) how about making your personal deficit a higher priority and paying down some debt? Not sexy, not as much fun but a better way to improve your personal finances in the long run.

SURE, consumer spending is important to jump start the economy but consider for a moment going to the grocery store, paying utility bills, making needed home improvements to improve the value of your home and maybe even taking those college classes you've thought of but couldn't afford are also "consumer spending", but a far better investment in you than in Sony, Panasonic, and Toshiba.

SPENDING isn't a bad thing as long as you use smart think; would you buy that big-ticket item if you didn't get the $600 bucks and more importantly is it a question of want or is it a question of need? We've gotten to the point where American society is being defined by what we're buying instead of what we're doing and that's a step toward the Pax Americana signaling the beginning of the demise of the U.S. era.

It won't be a sudden overnight event; it'll take time, and the slide will be in cents rather than dollars until we wake up and find the banks all run by someone else overseas. Buy into the dealer's argument that we need the drug to keep the neighborhood alive and the only one who prospers is the dealer, and even then without the customers in the long run he won't have much of a future. Blowing our own money in a gigantic consumer spending orgasm this summer is a down payment not on a stronger economy but just a momentary fix until the next pangs of hunger strike.