Obama Health Care

Americans demonstrated their concerns over middle eastern energy dependence on fossil fuels and rising gas prices with a landslide defeat of Republican energy policies. These concerns are inextricably linked to fuel efficient cars and cleaner alternative fuels. The Democrats big win was a major bolster to green cars and alternative fuels.

Among the most striking politcal changes is the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Previously it was Republican James Inhofe, who referred to global warming as “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind,”. Now Barbara Boxer is in, a California Democrat who strongly advocates mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

A close second to the most striking changes is in the House Resources Committee. Jerry McNerney, a California Democrat and wind-energy executive, will replace the current Republican chairman, Richard W. Pombo, who fought to open public lands to private interests.

Fuel efficient standards are emerging as a major political topic. Fuel-efficiency has declined during the past decade for nine of the 13 major manufacturers selling vehicles in the United States, according to a new study by the Consumer Federation of America.

Money losing U.S. automakers say that they can’t compete with fuel efficient imports as they suffer from a more than $1,000-per-vehicle disadvantage of higher costs for health insurance and pensions and therefore require government bailouts. This argument is continuing to lose steam though as profitable companies like Honda now produce more than 80% of their vehicles in the US and Canada.

Democrat Edward Markey has proposed raising combined light truck-car standards to an average of 33 miles per gallon by 2016 models. Democrat Barack Obama proposed increasing the average to 40.5 mpg for passenger vehicles and 32.6 mpg for the light-truck category, which includes SUVs, by 2020. Jerry McNerney, who defeated Pombo in California, says he will “dramatically increase the fuel efficiency of new vehicles.”

Fuel efficiency and energy independence is already taking a foothold in the next presedential election as likely Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona and Democrat/Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut both wish to address global warming. This will put even more pressure on the current Bush administration to cooperate with the Democrats as the Republicans look to avoid another blowout.

The future is definitely looking a little greener.

Paul Fezziwig
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/democrats-good-for-fuel-efficient-cars-and-alternative-fuels-74306.html

Having a recap for 2008 took around a full hour for some TV channels and around four full weeks of December, every single day until the New Year for other media channels. But putting it in simpler terms where you do not have to waste your precious time, a precise in-a-nutshell recap of 2008 most important realities that had some type of effect can be resumed in as little as one sentence or a simple article so you consider what you should choose to do in 2009 and what might happen if you elect to do nothing.

Year 2008 for the economy went in precise as: the famous bubble burst is finally out in the media, how much is worth your home right now and how much you owe on it or what’s the appreciated value? Second, everything in regards to or that can be associated with treasury, starts warming up. At this time lies about investing your money on many investing opportunities start jumping in many magazines and sufficient amount of TV channels for people who decided to have a keen eye on patterns for potential economy nightmares. Check some of my interesting articles and predictions back in 2006 and 2007.

Interesting, CDs begin having different set of patterns according to some newsworthy news. You check resources like the Morning Star online and some forums and the correct English term is swaps. Swaps and investments take place to protect the ultra rich and investors with equivalent power to avoid financial pockets of value to personally go bankrupt! Interesting, for some reasons a company called Enron boggled my mind as continue writing. Then, the mortgage collapse!

At this time for your own health you could not turn the TV on. You had from 2 to 100 financial experts or gurus talking about finances. But hey, without being sarcastic – many of say it’s good TV! Around this time, greed hit gas prices. For some reason, not every Arab likes the US! Next in no particular chronological order of historic disaster you have Lehman Brothers and bigger companies flocking into financial disaster.

At this time some international minds light a Cuban tobacco and interesting enough oil prices go record high. At this time, you probably said to yourself: do I need a BMW, Infiniti, Mercedes or a nice car to look or be even hotter? Or perhaps you predicted this much earlier and dump unnecessary luxuries. Then, the amount of corruption, fraud and coercion begins.

A prudent next step begins after, the bailout begins. Some if not all of 2006 and 2007 tax dollars are given to save Wall Street and million dollar parties among those who got richer or saved by the bailout go bigger than previous year as far recording and some TV news channels let us know. Unfortunately, it isn’t wishful thinking! It was and continues to be reality.

Then my next door neighbor boughs a shotgun! An economic freeze began at such times and 401k gets bigger volatile hits in people with such investments. Finally Obama wins and millions of people see him as the savior and winning strategist of the influential or should I say, past irresponsible leader leading America?

In ending review, if you had or already have multiple successful correctly ran businesses running on the internet: you survived or thrived on the worst of those days. If you did not, you learned a powerful lesson that should not ever repeat itself as you gain knowledge and experience. My question would be, what would you do in 2009 and every other year to thrive?

Joaquin Reveron
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/eloquent-reminders-for-planning-your-2009-business-ventures-very-very-hot-713303.html

Now that the government has balied out the auto industry, if that’s what you want to call throwing good money at bad, guess who’s next in line for some of that fake money that seems to make things ru moe smoothly? California and the steel industry. And when I say California, I’m talking all of the fifty states but California is the most critical situation.  <

Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin — all Democrats — said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues. Gov. David Paterson of New York said 43 states now have budget deficits totaling some $100 billion as tax revenues plunge.

Who doesn’t want more money? Then there’s the steel industry.

The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes, and it is now in collapse, so will go the national economy. That maxim once applied to the Big Three car companies. Now they are losing ground in good times and bad, and steel has replaced autos as the industry to watch for an early sign that a severe recession is beginning to lift.

Is there no end to who we don’t hand money out to until the world figures out that the money isn’t worth anything and we have spiraling and deadly inflation?

Ernie Fitzpatrick
http://www.articlesbase.com/economics-articles/steel-states-707490.html

The global recession now underway is the result not only of a financial panic, but also of more basic uncertainty about his future direction of the world economy.

 Consumers are pulling back from home and automobile purchases not only because they have suffered a low to their wealth with declining stock prices and housing values but also because they don’t know where to turn.

 Should they risk buying a new car when gasoline prices might soar again? Will they e able to put food on the table after this year’s terrifying rise in food prices?

Decisions about business investment are even starker. Businesses are reluctant to invest at a time when consumer demand is plummeting and they face unprecedented risk penalties on their borrowing costs.

They are also facing huge uncertainties. What kinds of power plants will be acceptable in the future? Will they be allowed to emit carbon dioxide as in the past?

 Can the United States still afford a suburban lifestyle, with sprawling homes in far-flung communities that require long-distance automobile commutes?

To a large extent, economic recovery will depend on a much clearer sense of the direction of future economic change. That is largely the job of government.

After the confused and misguided leadership of the bush administration, which failed to give any clear path to energy, health, climate and financial policies,

President-elect Barack Obama will have to start charting a course that defines the American economy’s future direction.

The United States is not the only economy in this equation.

We need global vision of sustainable recovery that includes leadership from china, India, Europe, Latin America, and yes, even Africa, long marginalized from the world economy, but very much part of it now.

There are few clear points to have come additional income in these days. First one is,

Gagan Kainth
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/home-based-work-at-home-business-nothing-is-better-than-this-advice-in-these-days-745103.html

The economy of America really dwindled in the era of former president George bush. The war on Iraq is said to have impacted the economy since a lot of funds was used in fighting the Iraqis. He will have to improve the economy.

Job opportunities: Many companies laid off their employees after hard economic times were witnessed since they were unable to pay salaries. This has resulted into many jobless people.

Terrorism: He will have to deal with groups like Taliban and al-Qaida who for a long time have threatened the security of many people.

Middle-east peace-[Israel and Palestine]: The unending war between Palestine and Israel is a major concern. The two countries especially the oppressed will be looking forward to see how he gives a lasting solution to the two, bearing in mind the problem is more of political-religious than crime President Bush had hoped to have an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians by the end of this year but that looks impossible. How far will the USA intervene in the peace process, with their weight? The first stage is the Israeli election set for 10th  February, of which will act as an indication on whether there will be an Israeli government ready to make compromises.

Iran and North Korea: There has been a problem of nuclear problems between the two countries. They want to be viewed as super power countries which can manufacture powerful weapons. Iran and North Korea are hoping for room of negotiations without any preconditions as witnessed with president bush.

Poverty in Africa: African countries have always depended on developed countries for funds. President Obama will be faced with the challenge of providing extra funds to cater for health matters, education policies and long term measures in eradicating poverty.
Energy, Environment and change of climate: Barrack Obama has committed himself to doing more on global warming and wants greenhouse gases reduced by 80% by 2050. This will be one of the most important issues of his presidency, as the Kyoto Protocol is about to expire in 2012 and negotiations about a follow-up or its extension have stalled. He promises to recycle waste to help in reducing pollution.

Russia: President Barrack Obama’s government needs Russian help in dealing with other problems such as Iran and Darfur, where the Security Council is driving policy.  The key issue is whether the US and Russia will negotiate further reductions in nuclear weapons.

Barrack Obama endorsed the call last year by four senior former US diplomats for the US to aim for a nuclear weapons-free world, as it is supposed to be under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

China: China being a permanent member of the Security Council, it holds immense economic influence in the world as a whole. The future of Taiwan always has the potential to divide USA and china on Tibet continues to be an irritant. Over the recent years, China has chosen to concentrate much on domestic economic development; therefore, as long as this continues to be its priority, its relation with the US is likely to remain stable.

Iraq: He has defined this as giving time for the Iraqi government to strengthen its own armed forces and he wants a phased withdrawal of most US troops by the end of May 2010.

However, part of the force would remain to conduct operations against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Jeff
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/obamas-top-challenges-in-administration-756076.html

Markets are in an ugly, bearish mood in 2008. They are down 20% on average across the world. So what are the markets telling us? Is it that we are in a recession, depression or an economic trough? Or is it that monetary, fiscal and trade policies in the major countries, especially the US, are wrong. Count on the latter and discount the former. Markets are telling us some very important lessons.

It is doubtful that with full employment, strong corporate profits; increasing net incomes of 5% per year, and 5% GDP growth world-wide, that the economy – any economy – is in a recession. An economic downturn or less than robust growth certainly, but not a full recession of two subsequent quarters of negative GDP growth. So if the economy is not as bad as the media experts keep telling us that it is, why are markets retreating at a panicked rate?

Markets are sending three important messages. The first has to do with taxation levels. Tax levels across the industrialised world are far too high. Government share of GDP keeps rising, not falling, and in the US and Europe governments now consume 35% and 44% respectively, of the total gross economy. So when it appears that the US Democrats, poised to win the next election, constantly discuss raising taxes, tariffs and putting trade agreements in jeopardy, the markets will sell off.

When politicians in the US and Europe discuss increasing spending to offset economic weakness, the markets send a second important message. Fiscal stimulus which means handing people money and cheques, paid for with deficits and debt and ergo higher taxes, damages the economy. This demand-side Keynesianism has always been a failure.

From ‘Great society’ make-work projects like digging holes or building roads, to mailing cheques to people, fiscal stimulus does nothing to stimulate real private sector business activity. It simply transfers money from one group of people to another, and takes money from the right hand and gives it to the left hand. The end effect is actually negative, and like papering over dirty walls full of holes, fiscal stimuli are ephemeral measures which do nothing to address the real economic problems and threats to longer term economic growth.

The third point the markets are sending is that monetary policy is confused. As the economy slows, which it is surely doing in the US and Europe, two great and opposed ideas come into focus. Inflation as given by record high gold, oil and commodity prices, not to mention rising health, education and food costs, is a threat. High interest rates are needed to tame inflation, but such rates deter economic growth and capital investment.

What markets don’t like is when central banks are indecisive, weak, or contradictory. The US central bank or Federal Reserve is a case in point. For some reason this central bank has decided that it must talk more, provide forecasts and reveal all its details to public scrutiny. The end result is predictable.

Every time the Fed talks it sends markets lower. The very nature of a central bank makes simple forecasting and easy analysis impossible. So they must talk in code and hedges. Markets don’t like uncertainty. In this regard central banks would be better off saying less and doing a little more. In times of an economic slowdown and inflationary risk, the central bank must necessarily lower rates but only to prudent levels. It must also loosen monetary policy and provide some capital stimulus.

Neither the European nor the American central bank is doing what markets expect. The European central bank is concerned about inflation far more than it is about economic growth – which is its single mandate. So rates if they come down in 2008 will come down too little and too late to stimulate the economy. In the US, the central bank has bizarrely loosened money supply; lowered rates to unacceptably low levels thereby deflating the U$ and generating inflation. This plan is not something that any prudent central bank should be doing. US rates must rise to ward off 7% inflation and restore confidence in the US$, but given that the US is in an election year, the earliest rate support for the U$ will come in 2009 – by then inflation will already have destroyed literally trillions of dollars in wealth. Inflation is after all just another tax. The markets view all of this rather dimly. Markets recognise that a US election will offer up cheap populism including spending promises and certainly under Hussein Obama massive tax increases.

The predictable result of poor central bank and fiscal management is a market sell off.

Certainly other factors affect the markets. The 1% or worse of US mortgage debt going bad, along with the associated financial instruments or derivatives, is a good reason for market concern. When the financial and banking system comes under duress the markets will sell off. There is a direct corelation between the health of the financial system and market performance.

Yet when viewed in context these problems are reasonably minor. Of the 10 major economic sectors, 8 are healthy and have posted reasonably strong results in 2008 and are set to have good years in 2009. Corporate and income growth are certainly slowing along with general economic growth, but a massive general recession it is not. We are witnessing another crisis of confidence in central banks and politicians and this is reflected in a pretty mild economic downturn.

One of the signal lessons of the Great Depression was that governments cause economic contractions. The 1929 stock market crash occurred because of massive tax increases, higher tariffs, and more government spending. Investors saw what was going to happen and sold off in anticipation of lower profits and economic growth. Capitalism per-se had nothing to do with the onset of the 1930s Depression. Bad government fiscal and monetary policy and the rigid inflexibility of the Gold Standard caused the Depression.

The same rules apply today. The markets are anticipating a rancorous victory in 2008 by the European socialist party of the United States. When that transpires taxes and tariffs and government spending will rise. Every time an American politician or the US central bank discusses ‘stimulus’ or ‘solving’ economic problems, the market sells off. The message is clear.

What we need are tax cuts on income and investments, lower interest rates and more liquidity. This stimulates economic growth, not government handing out money to people. Populist politics might make good TV with air-head talk about hope, change, renewal, and ‘stimulus’, but it is the anti-thesis of what markets need and expect.

That in summary is why 2008 will be a rough year overall for investors. Simply put – we are in an election cycle and have incompetent central banks to contend with.

C. Read
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/falling-bear-markets-are-sending-some-important-messages-681932.html

Stepping into the world of political prediction is a murky arena for an astrologer. My personal position is that I am for the good of all humanity. I want whoever wins to have a pure heart and intelligent mind, I want the candidate who will uplift and do what is right for the country, for all of humanity, and the planet. I am not a politician, I am simply offering what I see astrologically for the presidential race. Astrology offers insight into the nature of individuals and the planetary energy around us.

When an astrologer is looking to make a prediction he or she looks at the symbols and from there makes a judgment based upon the symbolic language of the planets.

This election is very difficult as there are many mixed messages as to who will win. The greatest symbol for the election is that everyone appears to be surprised in some way. One thing is certain the astrology is saying that election day will be anything but normal and that the results can surprise many people. That in itself would imply that McCain could win as Obama is expected to win. However I do not think that will happen.

            When we look at the day of the election we are looking at the emotional symbols around the candidates for the symbols that would represent victory, achievement, accomplishment and being happy. When a person wins a hard fought fight one would expect a feeling of elation that will accompany that victory, when someone loses we would expect a feeling of being deflated. In very simplistic terms we want to see who looks the happiest.  McCain has a Venus aspect, although minor, getting something he wants, the larger influence points back to the date that he was taken prisoner of war and is indicating he is coming into a time of his life that the decisions he made then come to fruition and completion. McCain’s chart also show that he will have a “date with destiny” by the beginning of December, meaning that he will be taking on something new in his life that will fulfill what he feels he needs to do in this life. This does not mean that he will be president, and it doesn’t mean he won’t:  it is indicating he is about to make major changes in what he has been doing to fulfill a mission he feels is important.

Obama’s chart also shows he will lose something that is precious to him, yet in light of the health of his grandmother, (she is still alive at the time of this article)  it may not be that he loses the presidential race he has been fighting for but his grandmother.

I think the most telling chart is not in the charts of the presidential candidates, but in the chart of Sarah Palin.

There are two reasons why I think that Senator Obama will win the presidential race. 1.) The day of the inauguration he has several indications of being in the public eye. 2.)  In Michelle’s chart it indicates she will be concerned around her children for the next couple of years and their school will be changing, and that they will be moving. 3.) The evening of and following day of the election Sarah Palin chart is indicating that she will be very angry.

All of these influences could be manifested in other occasions, such as Palin being angry does not mean that McCain loses, it could mean her kids do or say something that embarrass her and she is mad at them. When you look at an astrological influence you must make a conclusion about where and how you think the influence will manifest. The simplest and most straight forward way to predict the astrological influence which is present on November 4th 2008 is to say the candidate that is not expected to win will win, however my conclusion is that Obama wins after a day of chaos at the polls.

Whoever wins we know has a very tough job ahead of them, the chart of the USA is in very bad shape, indicating bankruptcy, continued disruption, and economic problems. However the nation seems to come together in June of 2009, that whoever wins can pull together the divisiveness and unite the country in hope and expectation. As difficult as the upcoming charts indicate there is the protection and gift from Jupiter; optimism, hope, and with it the opportunity to learn that will take us to a better future.

Donna Page MS
http://www.articlesbase.com/astrology-articles/astrology-the-presidential-election-obama-vs-mccain-616535.html

If we want to heal the planet then we need to begin working with the positive forces that already exist. Moving away from the current unsustainable guiding principles of strategy or growth, towards health, personal and global isn’t easy, although now that Barack Obama is President elect of the USA, everything seems more possible.

Many of us live in societies that encourage us to believe that the planet’s resources are there to serve ‘limitless’ wants and manufactured needs. Scientist Richard Eckersley explains that we have created these by turning the seven deadly sins, greed, lust, laziness and so on, into the seven marketing imperatives. Despite this, many of us also realise that the planet’s resources are finite and strained and that we have to change our values if we want our civilisation to continue. Becoming a wise global citizen means moving away from a ‘what’s in it for me’ culture to a ‘we’re in this together’ culture based on partnership not domination. This challenges perspectives and values.

As a university teacher, I want to contribute to healthier, healing futures. By chance, I became involved with first year engineering students. The teaching team wanted to improve their communication skills, break down some of the perceived gender and ethnic barriers and introduce principles of sustainability. Communication skills included written and oral skills and interpersonal and cross-cultural communication. As long as engineering discourse continues to denigrate these as ‘soft’ skills, there is little reason for students to respect their importance. Since “soft” is usually a feminine attribute, this also makes it harder for women to become part of this engineering culture.

Most engineering students come from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and, in Australia, include many international students. Although the presence of diversity is widely believed to create better cultural understanding, it doesn’t just happen. It is hard for students to cross gender, age and culture barriers without active support from teachers. By sustainability, we meant moving beyond an add-on, token acknowledgement of the widely accepted Brundtland definition that sustainability means meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 8). It is also unfortunate that sustainability has been welded to words such as ‘growth’, ‘consumption’ and ‘development’, which have caused many of the problems. A more appropriate ethic is what the sustainability scientists call interconnectedness, based on taking responsibility for “the well-being of others, nature and future generations” (Raskin et al., 2002, p. 56).

The initial responses to these topics and the methods, including a reflective journal, were disheartening. Everyone, they assured us, hated the work and couldn’t see why engineers had to engage with such ‘crap’. And yet, when I read the journals of this diverse group of students, mainly male, but from over 30 different ethnic backgrounds and including international and mature age students, signs of growth shone through.

Six years of research helped me to understand what was happening and to improve what I taught and how I taught it (Kelly, 2006). I used student interviews to help me understand what changes took place, what blocked them, what helped students to grow and how they grew. The unit of study was far from perfect and poorly supported by other engineering faculty but still students changed. The data showed that far from “everyone” hating what we did, around 65% accepted it, willingly, “I’m really looking forward to this”, or grudgingly, “I’ll give it a go”. 25% were converts, who hated it at the beginning but understood the benefits at the end. For some of these the change was transformative.

Resisters and ‘resistings’

The problems lay with the disproportionate influence of the around 10% who, for various reasons, resisted all the way. Resisters are so “loud” in their resistance and criticism that we assume “everyone” feels the same way. “Arrogance” and “contempt for non-technical material” have been identified as lingering aspects of engineering culture, but similar attitudes are recognisable in every organization or group. What we and they need to realise is they do not speak for all students (or staff) and that they have to respect others’ right to change.

I moved past seeing these students as “resisters,’ with all the negative connotations of that label. Identifying and understanding the causes behind ‘resistings’ in any situation, can help us to work more effectively. For example, some of the engineering resisters were scared of writing because they had been criticised for poor writing at school. The findings are useful because resistance to challenging the dominant culture is not peculiar to western systems. India, for example, is trying various approaches to improve the participation of women and minority groups in engineering and academic life generally.

I identified the following stages in interviewees who changed, not necessarily in this order. Students first got connected, to the topics and to others; they got respect, for themselves and others; they got insight; they got inspired; they got healing, from damaged self-esteem, from being racists and from feeling victimized by racism; and they got transformation. These were expressed as six qualities that I think mark a wise global citizen:

Empathy with and sensitivity to other ways of being and knowing

Global consciousness

Being capable of trans-generational thinking, past and future;

Having courage;

Being able to contemplate changes to their current way of life;

Working towards healthier futures, from the personal to the spiritual.

Wanting to make a difference

The hopeful message is that so many students wanted to work for a better future, even at the expense of their own privileged way of life, and were relieved to get support to say so. Wanting to make a difference is an emerging, healthy but still muted discourse. Recently I revisited engineering education, looking at an Australian report and a national newspaper advertorial trying to attract students to engineering as a career. The underlying myth of the education report is a ‘business as usual’ future in which the planet is a market place where engineers make it, sell it or fix it. The advertorial’s myth is worse, seeing the planet as an open-cut mine. Engineers are depicted as well-paid cogs in a boom machine which is based on consume now, pay later.

In the face of powerful overt and covert institutionalised resistance and counter-messages we need Globo sapiens’ courage to make conscious and self-conscious efforts to change what we say, write and do. At work and in our personal life, we can use our authentic voice, however small it seems, on behalf of each other and the planet. As Globo sapiens we won’t just be a civilising influence because we are doing better things differently. We will be different.

References

Eckersley, R. (2004). Well and Good: Morality, meaning and happiness. Melbourne, Australia: Text Publishing.
Kelly, P. (2006). Towards Globo sapiens: Using Reflective Journals to prepare engineering students able to engage with sustainable futures, from http://adt.library.qut.edu.au/adt-qut/public/adt-QUT20070403.150024/
Kelly, P. (2008). Towards Globo Sapiens: Transforming learners in Higher Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Raskin, P., Banuri, T., Gallopin, G., Gutman, P., Hammond, A., Kates, R., et al. (2002). Great Transition: the promise and lure of the times ahead. Boston: Stockholm Environment Institute.
WCED, World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Patricia Kelly
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/how-can-engineers-help-me-to-become-a-wise-global-citizen-696366.html

If President Elect Obama has learned anything from studying the past he seems to have learned that the incentive to stimulate the economy must, arguably, start with jobs. After all, if consumers do not have jobs, they have no money and cannot support businesses. The big fear is that President Elect Obama’s grand plans for a ‘New Deal’ type of job stimulus plan is not geared toward a quick fix. It is true that changes will happen slowly and the fact is there probably is no quick fix to an economy that has fallen so heavily into despair. Even in the past with the Great Depression the New Deal did not solve the problems of the economy, it only made it possible for millions of people to once again have hope—it allowed them to survive.

Survival is the key here. Getting through these troubled times without a total collapse of our way of life is the issue only this time it is not merely a U.S. problem it is global. Technology has linked every continent to the economic crisis in ways that while in good times is invigorating; in bad times it is catastrophic. Now more than ever in history the world as a whole has a stake in the well being of each and every nation’s financial health.

Statistics show that a recession usually lasts about a year. We have gone beyond that time span and it is reasonable to assume this is not going to go away by itself. The economy is not going to right itself without a great deal of help and the plan proposed by President Elect Obama is at the very least a lofty goal that shows incentive and desire to provide relief to a scrambling nation. At its best over time it may just divert the scary inevitability of what a prolonged recession leads to—depression. The job stimulus plan attacks the problem at its core. Bailing out industry, shoring up banks, and other methods of salvaging a defunct economy are attempts to bandage the symptoms rather than fight the problem at its root.

Like the New Deal of the past the new stimulus programs are varied and widespread and do indeed include some aide to struggling corporations and banks. Like the New Deal of Roosevelt’s time, however, it focuses on the people and getting the economy working again from the bottom up. Keeping people in their homes, putting food on their table, and giving them jobs so that they can stimulate the industrial world like no stimulus program possibly can is what worked in the past and will work again.

Right now it is hard for anyone to focus on anything other than fixing what is broke. Perhaps once things are working once more we can study our own recent past to see what errors were made to cause such critical failure. Certainly our rosy outlook on credit and spending are the crux of a problem that must not be allowed to happen again. It is common knowledge that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It is time we stopped repeating this particular portion of history. Some day it may be impossible to keep it from becoming total annihilation.

For more information on the job stimulus plan, visit http://www.jobstimulusplan.com.

John Parks
http://www.articlesbase.com/economics-articles/learning-from-the-past-715645.html

For many perennial businesses, managing the administration of seasonal employees is a problem for when it comes to staffing-up for peak business. Managers are often hit hard with the extra tasks involved hiring and screening new employees. Even if you are lucky enough to have an HR department, running a business with seasonal hires gets tricky when it comes to payroll and benefits administration.

This year, not only are you faced with the extra work involved with seasonal hires, but there may be some significant changes with the Obama administration that will affect payroll departments across the country. According to Americanpayroll.org, here are just a few that if enacted into a law would have a big impact on businesses’ payroll departments.

? Increase the minimum wage

? Making Work Pay tax cut

? Tax cut for seniors

? Earned Income Tax Credit expansion

? Family and Medical Leave Act expansion

? Extend paid sick time benefits

? Encourage states to adopt paid leave

? Small Business Health Tax Credit

? Coverage of catastrophic health costs

? American Jobs Tax Credit

? Penalty-free hardship withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k) plans

? Retirement savings incentives

? Increase immigration quotas

? Remove incentives to enter the U.S. illegally

These proposed tax changes will affect you as an employer, your automated payroll systems, and your employees’ paychecks.

If your busy season is just around the corner, you should start thinking about how you can efficiently manage your employee screening, hiring, payroll, and benefits administration efficiently for a smooth transition. Like many other budget-conscious businesses in Atlanta, you need to handle the seasonal hires quickly, correctly, and hopefully avoid the expense of employing additional HR staff. It’s important to advise a payroll professional to make sure that your company is maximizing benefits to taxpayers while minimizing costs to you.

April lentini
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/is-your-hr-department-ready-for-the-busy-season-747707.html