Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Brooks Brothers, Beecher on Broadway
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
In these days of downsizing, offshoring and restructuring it is a great pleasure to find that two major retailers have come to settle in our old treasured buildings in the Union Square area. They are Brooks Brothers, opening at 901 Broadway, on the SW corner of 20th Street, and Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, across the avenue at 896-900 Broadway.
Both stores occupy memorable spaces in landmarked buildings, in the Ladies’ Mile District, designated in 1989. Brooks Brothers, founded 1818 in downtown New York, at the crossing of Catherine and Cherry Streets, has returned to the area of its second home (in the 1880s it had moved to Broadway and 22nd Street). The new Flatiron branch is ensconced in the famous Lord & Taylor building, designed 1869 in the Second Empire style by James H. Giles, with a long mansard roof and dormers. Large main windows are bordered by narrow ones and low railing balconies, interesting mullions and lintels abound, all miracles made possible by cast iron features from Daniel Badger’s Architectural Iron Works. As L&T expanded, identical additional buildings were built westward, toward 5th Avenue. Peter Goelet, owner of several Broadway properties in the area, demanded that his buildings’ styles and heights be matched, and L&T had 16-foot tall store front windows, magnificently decorated, which attracted visitors from all over the world. It is the oldest cast iron commercial building in the city, per critic Montgomery Schuyler, and subsequent renovators have retained its original structure. The BB people have honored the historic location, with most interior walls dedicated to city maps, lithographs and photos of old time staff, ballplayers on the store teams and meaningful etchings of old symbols. An open red fire brick wall of book shelves holding mostly xix Century volumes and sets adorns a major open area, and souvenirs abound. Deeper in the room is a wooden bar left by a former restaurant tenant, now equipped as a teller’s desk.
This may be a good time to review the history of our big department and specialty chains affecting our areas of NYC. The original downtown BB at Catherine and Cherry Streets founded by the family’s ancestor as Brooks in 1818 and renamed BB by his heirs, moved to Broadway’s very busy Ladies’ Mile area late in the XIX Century, eventually winding up at the present flagship midtown 346 Madison Avenue site. BB, by now a chain operation countrywide, was sold to Garfinckel’s, the Washington DC department store’s conglomerate in 1946, joined by De Pinna’s, then Ann Taylor’s, then merged into Allied Stores in 1981, then, in 1986, with Federated Stores, into Robert Campeau’s empire. He promptly sold BB to Marks & Spencer’s, and the stores were run from London for a decade plus, until the British owners passed the firm in 2001 to the Claudio dell Vecchio’s Retail Brand Alliance (RBA also owns Carolee jewelry and Adrienne Vittadini fashions chains).Now there are 210 BB stores worldwide, China to Dubai to Paris and everywhere else. The new Flatiron branch can call on several NYC branches for supplies within hours, should a size be missing, and they do, successfully. This is a far cry from my first BB foray in 1949, in the Grand Concourse and Fordham Road area, in my old sweet Bronx, to buy a grey flannel three-button business suit (the model converted to two buttons years ago).. The suit jackets were then stacked on tables turned out with the linings showing, and cash traveled in pneumatic tubes to the teller’s cage.
The 900 Broadway building on the NE corner of 20th Street , across from BB, is the East Coast home of Seattle’s Beecher’s Homemade Cheese – a factory, retail store , café and a downstairs bistro called The Cellar – all in one huge elegant space. The factory is a huge glass cage inside the main floor, looking like a neat swimming pool, and currently operating three days a week. Weekday cheese tastings introduce the chase flavors. It is a fascinating and interesting enterprise that has attracted a fair following since its June opening.
The building is equally fascinating, an 1886 McKim, Mead and White fantasy confected for Peter and Ogden Goelet of the patrician hardware baron family. It was built as a five story structure with double height ground floor and tall, arched Romanesque windows curved over by reddish brick and terracotta masonry Beaux-Arts domed lintels. The masonry is in several tones, from orange to dark, and patterns abound. The two walls (four giant windows on 20th, three on Broadway) join in a round entrance, which was originally topped by a turret. The fifth floor was torn down, eliminating the corner tower, when in 1905 the building was extended to ten stories, designed by Maynicke and Franke, carefully following the McKim firm’s original form. The building held, over the years, a gas fixture manufacturing firm, a carpet house, real estate operator offices, and, to my memory, a Bombay furniture dealership.
These are two flagship structures of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. A trip up Broadway, 14th to 23rd Streets, then back on Sixth Avenue, keeping your eyes upwards, will show you building beauties that are hard to match anywhere.
Wally Dobelis thanks Jack Taylor of Ladies’ Mile, Christopher Gray of NYTimes and internet sources. He and the staff of T&V wish our readers a Happy Thanksgiving.
In these days of downsizing, offshoring and restructuring it is a great pleasure to find that two major retailers have come to settle in our old treasured buildings in the Union Square area. They are Brooks Brothers, opening at 901 Broadway, on the SW corner of 20th Street, and Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, across the avenue at 896-900 Broadway.
Both stores occupy memorable spaces in landmarked buildings, in the Ladies’ Mile District, designated in 1989. Brooks Brothers, founded 1818 in downtown New York, at the crossing of Catherine and Cherry Streets, has returned to the area of its second home (in the 1880s it had moved to Broadway and 22nd Street). The new Flatiron branch is ensconced in the famous Lord & Taylor building, designed 1869 in the Second Empire style by James H. Giles, with a long mansard roof and dormers. Large main windows are bordered by narrow ones and low railing balconies, interesting mullions and lintels abound, all miracles made possible by cast iron features from Daniel Badger’s Architectural Iron Works. As L&T expanded, identical additional buildings were built westward, toward 5th Avenue. Peter Goelet, owner of several Broadway properties in the area, demanded that his buildings’ styles and heights be matched, and L&T had 16-foot tall store front windows, magnificently decorated, which attracted visitors from all over the world. It is the oldest cast iron commercial building in the city, per critic Montgomery Schuyler, and subsequent renovators have retained its original structure. The BB people have honored the historic location, with most interior walls dedicated to city maps, lithographs and photos of old time staff, ballplayers on the store teams and meaningful etchings of old symbols. An open red fire brick wall of book shelves holding mostly xix Century volumes and sets adorns a major open area, and souvenirs abound. Deeper in the room is a wooden bar left by a former restaurant tenant, now equipped as a teller’s desk.
This may be a good time to review the history of our big department and specialty chains affecting our areas of NYC. The original downtown BB at Catherine and Cherry Streets founded by the family’s ancestor as Brooks in 1818 and renamed BB by his heirs, moved to Broadway’s very busy Ladies’ Mile area late in the XIX Century, eventually winding up at the present flagship midtown 346 Madison Avenue site. BB, by now a chain operation countrywide, was sold to Garfinckel’s, the Washington DC department store’s conglomerate in 1946, joined by De Pinna’s, then Ann Taylor’s, then merged into Allied Stores in 1981, then, in 1986, with Federated Stores, into Robert Campeau’s empire. He promptly sold BB to Marks & Spencer’s, and the stores were run from London for a decade plus, until the British owners passed the firm in 2001 to the Claudio dell Vecchio’s Retail Brand Alliance (RBA also owns Carolee jewelry and Adrienne Vittadini fashions chains).Now there are 210 BB stores worldwide, China to Dubai to Paris and everywhere else. The new Flatiron branch can call on several NYC branches for supplies within hours, should a size be missing, and they do, successfully. This is a far cry from my first BB foray in 1949, in the Grand Concourse and Fordham Road area, in my old sweet Bronx, to buy a grey flannel three-button business suit (the model converted to two buttons years ago).. The suit jackets were then stacked on tables turned out with the linings showing, and cash traveled in pneumatic tubes to the teller’s cage.
The 900 Broadway building on the NE corner of 20th Street , across from BB, is the East Coast home of Seattle’s Beecher’s Homemade Cheese – a factory, retail store , café and a downstairs bistro called The Cellar – all in one huge elegant space. The factory is a huge glass cage inside the main floor, looking like a neat swimming pool, and currently operating three days a week. Weekday cheese tastings introduce the chase flavors. It is a fascinating and interesting enterprise that has attracted a fair following since its June opening.
The building is equally fascinating, an 1886 McKim, Mead and White fantasy confected for Peter and Ogden Goelet of the patrician hardware baron family. It was built as a five story structure with double height ground floor and tall, arched Romanesque windows curved over by reddish brick and terracotta masonry Beaux-Arts domed lintels. The masonry is in several tones, from orange to dark, and patterns abound. The two walls (four giant windows on 20th, three on Broadway) join in a round entrance, which was originally topped by a turret. The fifth floor was torn down, eliminating the corner tower, when in 1905 the building was extended to ten stories, designed by Maynicke and Franke, carefully following the McKim firm’s original form. The building held, over the years, a gas fixture manufacturing firm, a carpet house, real estate operator offices, and, to my memory, a Bombay furniture dealership.
These are two flagship structures of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. A trip up Broadway, 14th to 23rd Streets, then back on Sixth Avenue, keeping your eyes upwards, will show you building beauties that are hard to match anywhere.
Wally Dobelis thanks Jack Taylor of Ladies’ Mile, Christopher Gray of NYTimes and internet sources. He and the staff of T&V wish our readers a Happy Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
We can beat the recession and reduce the deficit
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis.
Good news from Gramercy Park trustees: the Asian Longhorn beetle is not attacking our London planes, buckeyes, elms, maples, mimosas and golden rain, per USDA surveyors; however, if the US budget cutter Supercommittee does not reach an agreement by Nov. 23, the trigger mechanism, cutting non-mandated services mercilessly, may eliminate this USDA sub-section.
The bad news, continued. Recently this column discussed the US as the highest debtor nation, with federal debt amounting to $49,000 per US inhabitant, well over the per capita debt for Greece, currently the country most in need for huge austerity programs to qualify for EU/IMF bailouts (Italy is also worrisome). My data showed that the US GDP is nearly $15 Trillion, and the deficit is a few billion dollars more. Federal, state, and local spending is $6.9 T, with large item budgeting at $823 B for Medicare/Medicaid, $722 B for Social Security, $700 B for defense/wars, $217 B for net interest on debt, $407 B for income security and $212 B for federal pensions, with the revenue at $4.53 T covering only about two thirds of the expenditures.
To explain the revenue, the federal tax income is $2.3 T ($1,067 T in income tax, $823 B payroll tax, $191 B corporate tax), and the state tax revenue is at $1.18 T, vs. debt of $1.2 T, and local tax revenue and debt balance is at $1.15 T vs. $1.7 T.
Greece’s problem is that no bank will give it credit, because the people revolt against the necessary austerity methods. US gets credit to help it maintain a reliable world base monetary system, the dollar, and also because withdrawing credit would ruin the market for such nations as China, India and Japan, and put their economies in severe distress. But the US must show progress in coping with its deficit, a project that the new angry and jobless groups, Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, can wreck with their single-minded demonizing.
This column will discuss the rational cures for repairing the budget, for which there are currently three major group efforts, aiming for saving $4 Trillion in 10 or 12 years, plus the bipartisan Supercommittee, due to report out by November 23, unless they cannot agree and the mandated trigger actions take over.
The President’s own bipartisan blue-ribbon Deficit Reduction Committee, led by Erskine Bowles, former Clinton official, and Alan Simpson, retired Senator (R, WY), recommends a tax reform, reductions in the entitlement programs, also in domestic spending, and in defense spending. Business is expected to accept some hits, e.g. taxes and loopholes.
President Obama’s own plan recommends cuts in military spending, higher taxes for the wealthy, and trimming spending on Medicare. This is not related to Jobs program, which envisions infrastructure WPA-type regional activity, payroll tax cuts for small businesses that take on and retain employees, which the GOP rejects, and counters by reference to an old US Chamber of Commerce plan that asks for less government controls, to foster business.
The plan submitted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI), recently adopted by the House, requires overhauling Medicare/Medicaid (M/M) enough to keep tax increases off the table, basically by issuing vouchers to enable seniors to buy private insurance. He would drop individual and corporate tax maximums from 35% down to 25%.
The US Congress Select Committee (Supercommittee), of 6 Dems and 6 Reps, half Senators and half Congresspeople, has been charged by the Congress to develop an equitable method for curing the deficit, 1.2 T in 10 years. By Thanksgiving, Nov 23.2011. As expected, they do not touch the entitlements but SS and M/Mthey are stuck between “no tax increase" and "do not destroy government" positions. If they cannot agree, an automatic trigger will cut 8.7% of non-defense discretionary finds, a threat to Dems, and equal defense funds, a threat to GOP. The Dems will cut 12,000 prison terms, eliminate prison guards and border guards, cut airport searches and luggage screening, not enforce Clean Air Act and food inspections (600 jobs), cut NOAA weather report timing. You get the drift. The GOP loss will be ion defense, giving up the high priority op F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and such. The trigger spares mandated SS and M/M expense, killers that would spur voters, and taxes ( any increase will bring down the wrath of Ayatollah Grover Norquist of Americans For Tax Reform, whose pledge is threatening signers who give in with extinction –or is it only Rush Limbaugh’s wrath?) Jokes aside, the trigger product would be disastrous to the US credit rating. At this last minute, a desperate $300 B revenue increase is in the air, as is a suspension of defense cuts.
Where to compromise, in the long run?
The President’s Bowles/Simpson Committee (18 members including 12 Congresspeople) had mostly good recommendations, all discussed below, in at least three versions, unidentified here as to percent acceptability by committee members (sorry!).
To start, SS funds will turn negative in 2023, and a 2% annual increase is proposed, as is an acceleration in increasing full eligibility age (currently only to age 67). Since full benefits were designed in 1930s when median mortality was around age 65, it does not fit our current mortality pattern at ages 80 plus.
Next, cut Medicare/Medicaid expenses. Some say the Ryan method of turning over coverage and claim administration to insurers will cut unnecessary procedures and frauds; however the extra commissions to agents and office expenses (35% of premium) will eat up the savings> Insurers a re bound to follow the existing therapy protocols. It is more important to cut at the source, eliminating unnecessary protocols, and changing laws regarding tort, to cut legal expense overhead.
Use of hospital emergency rooms for basic care by indigent Medicaid patients should be revised, by putting more burden on family doctor based community clinics in WalMarts, Walgreens, and pharmacy centers and malls already existing throughout US.
Tax reform is essential, and a three- tier personal tax of 12, 15 and 27% was suggested. with capital gains taxed as ordinary income, This scale is not acceptable (e.g. it will stifle recovery, per Paul Krugman; and will cost 1.9 M government jobs, per Economic Policy Institute). Alternative: the Bush income tax cuts should be let expire at end 2012 (favored by Simpson, Alan Greenspan, Mayor Bloomberg).
More suggested savings, briefly : revise tax deductions, farm subsidies, student loans, employee contributions to health and retirement costs Charity donations are to be restructured, AMT to be eliminated. Interestingly. 70% of millionaires (however define) would not object to paying higher tax.
Interest on mortgage payment – should be reviewed, cutting unreasonable amounts and special interests.
Defense –cut 15%. with severe reductions in project development. Also, returned troops cost less maintenance in US than abroad. And, increase gasoline taxes by 15%.
There’s more to come. Wally Dobelis thanks the Third Way, and internet sources. Have faith, the trigger will be avoided.
Good news from Gramercy Park trustees: the Asian Longhorn beetle is not attacking our London planes, buckeyes, elms, maples, mimosas and golden rain, per USDA surveyors; however, if the US budget cutter Supercommittee does not reach an agreement by Nov. 23, the trigger mechanism, cutting non-mandated services mercilessly, may eliminate this USDA sub-section.
The bad news, continued. Recently this column discussed the US as the highest debtor nation, with federal debt amounting to $49,000 per US inhabitant, well over the per capita debt for Greece, currently the country most in need for huge austerity programs to qualify for EU/IMF bailouts (Italy is also worrisome). My data showed that the US GDP is nearly $15 Trillion, and the deficit is a few billion dollars more. Federal, state, and local spending is $6.9 T, with large item budgeting at $823 B for Medicare/Medicaid, $722 B for Social Security, $700 B for defense/wars, $217 B for net interest on debt, $407 B for income security and $212 B for federal pensions, with the revenue at $4.53 T covering only about two thirds of the expenditures.
To explain the revenue, the federal tax income is $2.3 T ($1,067 T in income tax, $823 B payroll tax, $191 B corporate tax), and the state tax revenue is at $1.18 T, vs. debt of $1.2 T, and local tax revenue and debt balance is at $1.15 T vs. $1.7 T.
Greece’s problem is that no bank will give it credit, because the people revolt against the necessary austerity methods. US gets credit to help it maintain a reliable world base monetary system, the dollar, and also because withdrawing credit would ruin the market for such nations as China, India and Japan, and put their economies in severe distress. But the US must show progress in coping with its deficit, a project that the new angry and jobless groups, Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, can wreck with their single-minded demonizing.
This column will discuss the rational cures for repairing the budget, for which there are currently three major group efforts, aiming for saving $4 Trillion in 10 or 12 years, plus the bipartisan Supercommittee, due to report out by November 23, unless they cannot agree and the mandated trigger actions take over.
The President’s own bipartisan blue-ribbon Deficit Reduction Committee, led by Erskine Bowles, former Clinton official, and Alan Simpson, retired Senator (R, WY), recommends a tax reform, reductions in the entitlement programs, also in domestic spending, and in defense spending. Business is expected to accept some hits, e.g. taxes and loopholes.
President Obama’s own plan recommends cuts in military spending, higher taxes for the wealthy, and trimming spending on Medicare. This is not related to Jobs program, which envisions infrastructure WPA-type regional activity, payroll tax cuts for small businesses that take on and retain employees, which the GOP rejects, and counters by reference to an old US Chamber of Commerce plan that asks for less government controls, to foster business.
The plan submitted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI), recently adopted by the House, requires overhauling Medicare/Medicaid (M/M) enough to keep tax increases off the table, basically by issuing vouchers to enable seniors to buy private insurance. He would drop individual and corporate tax maximums from 35% down to 25%.
The US Congress Select Committee (Supercommittee), of 6 Dems and 6 Reps, half Senators and half Congresspeople, has been charged by the Congress to develop an equitable method for curing the deficit, 1.2 T in 10 years. By Thanksgiving, Nov 23.2011. As expected, they do not touch the entitlements but SS and M/Mthey are stuck between “no tax increase" and "do not destroy government" positions. If they cannot agree, an automatic trigger will cut 8.7% of non-defense discretionary finds, a threat to Dems, and equal defense funds, a threat to GOP. The Dems will cut 12,000 prison terms, eliminate prison guards and border guards, cut airport searches and luggage screening, not enforce Clean Air Act and food inspections (600 jobs), cut NOAA weather report timing. You get the drift. The GOP loss will be ion defense, giving up the high priority op F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and such. The trigger spares mandated SS and M/M expense, killers that would spur voters, and taxes ( any increase will bring down the wrath of Ayatollah Grover Norquist of Americans For Tax Reform, whose pledge is threatening signers who give in with extinction –or is it only Rush Limbaugh’s wrath?) Jokes aside, the trigger product would be disastrous to the US credit rating. At this last minute, a desperate $300 B revenue increase is in the air, as is a suspension of defense cuts.
Where to compromise, in the long run?
The President’s Bowles/Simpson Committee (18 members including 12 Congresspeople) had mostly good recommendations, all discussed below, in at least three versions, unidentified here as to percent acceptability by committee members (sorry!).
To start, SS funds will turn negative in 2023, and a 2% annual increase is proposed, as is an acceleration in increasing full eligibility age (currently only to age 67). Since full benefits were designed in 1930s when median mortality was around age 65, it does not fit our current mortality pattern at ages 80 plus.
Next, cut Medicare/Medicaid expenses. Some say the Ryan method of turning over coverage and claim administration to insurers will cut unnecessary procedures and frauds; however the extra commissions to agents and office expenses (35% of premium) will eat up the savings> Insurers a re bound to follow the existing therapy protocols. It is more important to cut at the source, eliminating unnecessary protocols, and changing laws regarding tort, to cut legal expense overhead.
Use of hospital emergency rooms for basic care by indigent Medicaid patients should be revised, by putting more burden on family doctor based community clinics in WalMarts, Walgreens, and pharmacy centers and malls already existing throughout US.
Tax reform is essential, and a three- tier personal tax of 12, 15 and 27% was suggested. with capital gains taxed as ordinary income, This scale is not acceptable (e.g. it will stifle recovery, per Paul Krugman; and will cost 1.9 M government jobs, per Economic Policy Institute). Alternative: the Bush income tax cuts should be let expire at end 2012 (favored by Simpson, Alan Greenspan, Mayor Bloomberg).
More suggested savings, briefly : revise tax deductions, farm subsidies, student loans, employee contributions to health and retirement costs Charity donations are to be restructured, AMT to be eliminated. Interestingly. 70% of millionaires (however define) would not object to paying higher tax.
Interest on mortgage payment – should be reviewed, cutting unreasonable amounts and special interests.
Defense –cut 15%. with severe reductions in project development. Also, returned troops cost less maintenance in US than abroad. And, increase gasoline taxes by 15%.
There’s more to come. Wally Dobelis thanks the Third Way, and internet sources. Have faith, the trigger will be avoided.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Some scary figures, but a happy ending is in sight
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
It is quite evident that the holiday season is getting nearer; the daily mail delivery grows. L. L. Bean sends new catalogs practically every day, and so does Neiman Marcus from Dallas. The latter used to be most fun, particularly their big Christmas Book, which always had an inane His and Her gift – not just twin Porsches, bur also pairs of sports airplanes, camels and hot air balloons. Now more modest, they are still selling hard, consequently strengthening our consumerism/antirecession/job boosting image, as is Vogue with its 758 page Fall Fashions issue. This column was prompted by the fact that the recession persists, and some coffee cup people are back on Third Avenue and on 14th Street, and some local retailers and restaurants close. But we have cures, read on.
Speaking of job boosting, earlier in 2011 Governor Andrew Cuomo reached a deal with the State’s largest union, the Civil Service Employees Union (CSEA), 66K members strong, to suspend pay increases, permit pay saving furloughs and increase member contributions. The second largest, Public Employees Federation (PEA), 55K members, voted against the terms, forcing the Governor to prepare for 3,500 layoffs. Now PEA has revoted, accepting less stringent terms, and saving the jobs.
To consider the NYS budget deficit that Cuomo is trying to balance, please note that with 19.5 million inhabitants the state has 717,000 unemployed and 3.17M food stamp recipients. Our GDP is $1.138 Trillion, with a debt of $282 Billion, a 25% ratio (Cuomo needed to make up $450M from the unions.) Per capita income is at nearly 47,000 and it comes from an employment distribution of 20% in education and health, 18% in government service. 17% trade, 12% professional and service. Manufacturing, agriculture, finance, leisure and hospitality re between 10 and 5 %, and our products are pharmaceuticals, chemicals, auto parts, electronics, and, in agriculture, vegetables and apples, a far cry from our rich Erie Canal days. Without Wall Street’s 25% share in the GDP, we sink altogether, and Occupy Wall Street cannot afford to eject the plutocrats, for the sake of the state, as well as that of the nation and of the entire world.
Those are strong words, so look at my numbers carefully. These people who tinker with the direction and survival of the universe, whether the government haters in the Tea Party disguise or the profiteer haters in Occupy Wall Street name, should go easy and know that, proportionately viewed, economically the US of America is more broke than the sad and corrupt country of the Greeks.
Greece, with a population of 11.2 Million, progeny of philosophers, inventors of alphabet, conquerors and opportunists, has abused the Euro, the welfare state and their loose tax system to the point of owing a state debt of $329 B, $28 ,000 per inhabitant, or 145% of their GDP. It may come to you as a shock to discover, that every American, native or immigrant, legal or illegal, owes $49,000 of the federal debt of over $15 Trillion, nearly twice as much as each citizen of Greece.
How come? Well, the US GDP is nearly $15 Trillion, as is the debt, and federal, state, and local spending is $6.9 T, with large item budgeting at $823 B for Medicare/Medicaid, $722 B for Social Security, $700 B for defense/wars, $217 for net interest on debt, $407 for income security and $212B for federal pensions, and the revenue at $4.63 T covers only about two two thirds.
To explain, the federal tax revenue is $2.3 T ($1,067 T in income tax, $823 B payroll tax, $191 B corporate tax) and the state tax revenue is at $1.18 T, vs. debt of $1.2 T, and local tax revenue/debt balance at $1.15 T/ $1.7 T.
Now, look at our population. USA has 312 million inhabitants, 13.9 M officially and 24 M unofficially unemployed. The work force is 140 M strong. By category, 15.7 M are state and local government employees, 4.3 M federal employees. Further, 66 M are retirees (remember SS was built in 1930s when median life expectancy hovered around 65 years) and 46 M are on food stamps.
As to funds, Federal Reserve monetary base is at $2.5 T, M2 money supply at $9.5 T, Treasury securities at $1.4T and that horrid figure, currency and credit derivatives, gifted to us by bank and real estate greed, at $616 Trillion!!!!
Our debt held by foreign countries is $4.8 T, our trade deficit is $725 B (336 B to China) oil imports $432 B (to OPEC 172 B).
At this point you may well ask, how come is it that only Greece is the invalid, when the US is in debt even more? Note that EU and IMF had offered Greece a $189 B bailout subject to accepting deep austerity, but PM George Papandreou, covering his back, called for a referendum, now conditionally cancelled, to the world’s relief. Although the US is also broke, the world trusts us because we maintain the only stable base currency. Creditors give US, the world’s largest economy ( our GDP tops the sum of those of China , India and Russia) more leeway, while Greece has lost its credit . Our creditors such as China and Japan must protect US, their chief marketplace, else their own economies will collapse. Meanwhile, the US must remain constant and show signs of working towards recovery, real positives . We must counter the types of anarchism that the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street people put forth, e. g. the Oakland general strike. We have better resources than those of destroying the US political system. As to cures. the SS, Med, defense and retirement mandates have to budge (more later), new products (e.g. energy storage) , and progressive taxation has to ensue. We should not panic, US can handle it (much more positive details to come.)
Wally Dobelis thanks Infobase Learning, the Debt Clock, internet sources and the people. Annual amounts come from varied resources, are rounded, and dates range from current to approximately 2009.
It is quite evident that the holiday season is getting nearer; the daily mail delivery grows. L. L. Bean sends new catalogs practically every day, and so does Neiman Marcus from Dallas. The latter used to be most fun, particularly their big Christmas Book, which always had an inane His and Her gift – not just twin Porsches, bur also pairs of sports airplanes, camels and hot air balloons. Now more modest, they are still selling hard, consequently strengthening our consumerism/antirecession/job boosting image, as is Vogue with its 758 page Fall Fashions issue. This column was prompted by the fact that the recession persists, and some coffee cup people are back on Third Avenue and on 14th Street, and some local retailers and restaurants close. But we have cures, read on.
Speaking of job boosting, earlier in 2011 Governor Andrew Cuomo reached a deal with the State’s largest union, the Civil Service Employees Union (CSEA), 66K members strong, to suspend pay increases, permit pay saving furloughs and increase member contributions. The second largest, Public Employees Federation (PEA), 55K members, voted against the terms, forcing the Governor to prepare for 3,500 layoffs. Now PEA has revoted, accepting less stringent terms, and saving the jobs.
To consider the NYS budget deficit that Cuomo is trying to balance, please note that with 19.5 million inhabitants the state has 717,000 unemployed and 3.17M food stamp recipients. Our GDP is $1.138 Trillion, with a debt of $282 Billion, a 25% ratio (Cuomo needed to make up $450M from the unions.) Per capita income is at nearly 47,000 and it comes from an employment distribution of 20% in education and health, 18% in government service. 17% trade, 12% professional and service. Manufacturing, agriculture, finance, leisure and hospitality re between 10 and 5 %, and our products are pharmaceuticals, chemicals, auto parts, electronics, and, in agriculture, vegetables and apples, a far cry from our rich Erie Canal days. Without Wall Street’s 25% share in the GDP, we sink altogether, and Occupy Wall Street cannot afford to eject the plutocrats, for the sake of the state, as well as that of the nation and of the entire world.
Those are strong words, so look at my numbers carefully. These people who tinker with the direction and survival of the universe, whether the government haters in the Tea Party disguise or the profiteer haters in Occupy Wall Street name, should go easy and know that, proportionately viewed, economically the US of America is more broke than the sad and corrupt country of the Greeks.
Greece, with a population of 11.2 Million, progeny of philosophers, inventors of alphabet, conquerors and opportunists, has abused the Euro, the welfare state and their loose tax system to the point of owing a state debt of $329 B, $28 ,000 per inhabitant, or 145% of their GDP. It may come to you as a shock to discover, that every American, native or immigrant, legal or illegal, owes $49,000 of the federal debt of over $15 Trillion, nearly twice as much as each citizen of Greece.
How come? Well, the US GDP is nearly $15 Trillion, as is the debt, and federal, state, and local spending is $6.9 T, with large item budgeting at $823 B for Medicare/Medicaid, $722 B for Social Security, $700 B for defense/wars, $217 for net interest on debt, $407 for income security and $212B for federal pensions, and the revenue at $4.63 T covers only about two two thirds.
To explain, the federal tax revenue is $2.3 T ($1,067 T in income tax, $823 B payroll tax, $191 B corporate tax) and the state tax revenue is at $1.18 T, vs. debt of $1.2 T, and local tax revenue/debt balance at $1.15 T/ $1.7 T.
Now, look at our population. USA has 312 million inhabitants, 13.9 M officially and 24 M unofficially unemployed. The work force is 140 M strong. By category, 15.7 M are state and local government employees, 4.3 M federal employees. Further, 66 M are retirees (remember SS was built in 1930s when median life expectancy hovered around 65 years) and 46 M are on food stamps.
As to funds, Federal Reserve monetary base is at $2.5 T, M2 money supply at $9.5 T, Treasury securities at $1.4T and that horrid figure, currency and credit derivatives, gifted to us by bank and real estate greed, at $616 Trillion!!!!
Our debt held by foreign countries is $4.8 T, our trade deficit is $725 B (336 B to China) oil imports $432 B (to OPEC 172 B).
At this point you may well ask, how come is it that only Greece is the invalid, when the US is in debt even more? Note that EU and IMF had offered Greece a $189 B bailout subject to accepting deep austerity, but PM George Papandreou, covering his back, called for a referendum, now conditionally cancelled, to the world’s relief. Although the US is also broke, the world trusts us because we maintain the only stable base currency. Creditors give US, the world’s largest economy ( our GDP tops the sum of those of China , India and Russia) more leeway, while Greece has lost its credit . Our creditors such as China and Japan must protect US, their chief marketplace, else their own economies will collapse. Meanwhile, the US must remain constant and show signs of working towards recovery, real positives . We must counter the types of anarchism that the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street people put forth, e. g. the Oakland general strike. We have better resources than those of destroying the US political system. As to cures. the SS, Med, defense and retirement mandates have to budge (more later), new products (e.g. energy storage) , and progressive taxation has to ensue. We should not panic, US can handle it (much more positive details to come.)
Wally Dobelis thanks Infobase Learning, the Debt Clock, internet sources and the people. Annual amounts come from varied resources, are rounded, and dates range from current to approximately 2009.
