From the Federalist.com:
Dads, We Need You, Don’t We?
It must be hard for men in today’s feminist-soaked society, or even just living with a really opinionated woman (err, sorry, honey), to show up at the workplace of fatherhood every day, when the media thinks he’s dumb, society thinks he’s replaceable, and the mother of his children doesn’t think he’s “doing it the right way.”
But that doesn’t mean we as a collective society of women, children, and grandchildren don’t need and won’t try to appreciate them.
Good, strong, wise men inherently possess so many valuable traits that even the most accomplished, intelligent, intentional women would struggle to model them.
In a father’s ability to focus on his vocational calling, he shows his sons and daughters the value of hard work and responsibility.
In a father’s sometimes-unemotional and no-nonsense way, he models the power of the calm mind over fluctuating emotions.
This is the design. Why do we fight it?
Do fathers shrink from it because they don’t believe in the virtue of fatherhood, or because they—or loved ones—think they can’t demonstrate it?
It’s time we correct the portrayal of dads, boost their importance, and encourage their natural, God-given traits.
They might even show moms a thing or two about parenting.
----
Link:http://thefederalist.com/2015/06/19/the-virtue-of-fathers/
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Moms, Let Dad Be Dad
What is this from the Wall Street Journal? PB
----
When Kathryn Kerns asked 30 teens and preteens to come to her laboratory and talk about their parents, many of their dads scored low on a standard yardstick her research team was using to evaluate the parent-child bond.
The children described rich, warm relationships with their fathers, however, says Dr. Kerns, a professor of psychological sciences at Kent State University in Ohio. They said things like, “My dad gives me encouragement to do things,” or, “My dad tells me he thinks I can do well.”
To get an accurate assessment of fathers’ contribution, Dr. Kerns revised two assessments in her recently published study, adding questions about whether parents provided encouragement and instilled confidence, and the dads started drawing higher scores.
Dr. Kerns is one of a growing number of researchers creating new tests and techniques to document the father factor.
More than a dozen studies in the past two years are yielding new insights into the nuances, and the value, of the seemingly random, sometimes silly play many dads engage in with their children.
The research could offer dads more leeway in their play with children, suggesting there’s no need for moms or others to worry when fathers stir up or challenge their children—as long as the kids are happy and having fun.
Also, dads sometimes can stop a child’s fussing or crying through joking or physical play.
The ability to form close, trusting bonds with parents early in life predicts the quality of a child’s future friendships, social skills and romantic relationships.
Parents serve as a secure base for exploration and risk-taking and provide a safe haven for a child in times of distress.
Yet many of the standard assessments scientists have used to analyze the parent-child bond underemphasize the importance of exploration and risk-taking and fail to capture dads’ role in encouraging it...
----
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-dads-play-does-for-kids-1434476561?
----
When Kathryn Kerns asked 30 teens and preteens to come to her laboratory and talk about their parents, many of their dads scored low on a standard yardstick her research team was using to evaluate the parent-child bond.
The children described rich, warm relationships with their fathers, however, says Dr. Kerns, a professor of psychological sciences at Kent State University in Ohio. They said things like, “My dad gives me encouragement to do things,” or, “My dad tells me he thinks I can do well.”
To get an accurate assessment of fathers’ contribution, Dr. Kerns revised two assessments in her recently published study, adding questions about whether parents provided encouragement and instilled confidence, and the dads started drawing higher scores.
Dr. Kerns is one of a growing number of researchers creating new tests and techniques to document the father factor.
More than a dozen studies in the past two years are yielding new insights into the nuances, and the value, of the seemingly random, sometimes silly play many dads engage in with their children.
The research could offer dads more leeway in their play with children, suggesting there’s no need for moms or others to worry when fathers stir up or challenge their children—as long as the kids are happy and having fun.
Also, dads sometimes can stop a child’s fussing or crying through joking or physical play.
The ability to form close, trusting bonds with parents early in life predicts the quality of a child’s future friendships, social skills and romantic relationships.
Parents serve as a secure base for exploration and risk-taking and provide a safe haven for a child in times of distress.
Yet many of the standard assessments scientists have used to analyze the parent-child bond underemphasize the importance of exploration and risk-taking and fail to capture dads’ role in encouraging it...
----
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-dads-play-does-for-kids-1434476561?
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Female Entrepreneurs Generate Over $1 Trillion in Revenue
From Fox Business:
Women now own 30% of all businesses in the U.S., according to an American Express (AXP) study including data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Female entrepreneurs are generating about $1.5 trillion in revenue per year - which is a nearly 80% increase since 1997, the study reports...
Women are starting their own companies in southern and western parts of the U.S. in greater numbers - partly due to more state government support and an increasing number of women business centers, added Weeks.
Georgia ranks number one in growth in the amount of women-owned firms that have opened since the late 1990’s - more than 130%.
Compare that with Alaska sitting in last place with about 14%. The national average is 50%, including all businesses.
The diversity of the women who are starting these businesses is also changing, the study shows.
“Back in the 1997 U.S. Census, one out of six women who owned businesses was a woman of color. Now it’s one out of every three. There’s tremendous ethnic diversity,” said Weeks...
----
Link: http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2015/06/18/girl-power-female-entrepreneurs-generate-15-trillion-in-revenue-annually/
Women now own 30% of all businesses in the U.S., according to an American Express (AXP) study including data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Female entrepreneurs are generating about $1.5 trillion in revenue per year - which is a nearly 80% increase since 1997, the study reports...
Women are starting their own companies in southern and western parts of the U.S. in greater numbers - partly due to more state government support and an increasing number of women business centers, added Weeks.
Georgia ranks number one in growth in the amount of women-owned firms that have opened since the late 1990’s - more than 130%.
Compare that with Alaska sitting in last place with about 14%. The national average is 50%, including all businesses.
The diversity of the women who are starting these businesses is also changing, the study shows.
“Back in the 1997 U.S. Census, one out of six women who owned businesses was a woman of color. Now it’s one out of every three. There’s tremendous ethnic diversity,” said Weeks...
----
Link: http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2015/06/18/girl-power-female-entrepreneurs-generate-15-trillion-in-revenue-annually/
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Pension tidal wave to crash down on taxpayers
From Steven Malanga writing at the WashingtonExaminer.com:
Over time, elected officials came to promise workers politically popular new benefits without setting aside the money to pay for them, declared "holidays" from contributions into pension systems and changed their own accounting systems midstream to make the systems seem better funded — all just ways of passing obligations on to future taxpayers.
In the process, government pension systems became one of the chief vehicles that state and local politicians used to massage their budgets.
Now we face the consequences.
Our elected representatives played a deceptive game of chicken with pension funds.
And now the chickens have come home to roost.
Years of gimmicks and politically motivated benefit increases for government workers have left America's states and municipalities with pension funds that are short at least $1.5 trillion — and possibly as much as $4 trillion if the investment returns of these funds don't live up to expectations in coming years.
Just so the word "trillion" does not pass by too quickly, let's put it another way: That shortfall may be $4,000,000,000,000.
Taxpayers are already paying the price.
Since 2007, states and localities have been forced to increase annual contributions into pensions by $43 billion, or 65 percent, and in various places these rising payments are crowding out other government services or driving taxes higher or both.
Retirement debt has even played a crucial role in high-profile government bankruptcies — including in Detroit; Stockton, California; and Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Fixing the problem is proving expensive, and it won't happen quickly in places with the worst debt...
Around the country, taxpayers watching these scenarios unfold began demanding reforms and then electing politicians promising change.
But in many places, reformers woke up to a startling reality: Over the years, legislators and state courts had granted unusually strong protections to government worker pensions, far greater than the kinds of protections that private workers enjoy.
That has made cutting the cost of pensions difficult, if not impossible, in some places with the deepest debts.
In 1974, Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act [ERISA] to provide standards and protections for private sector pensions.
That law, and the way federal courts have interpreted it, protects the pension wealth that a worker has already earned.
But an employer has the right to change the rate at which a worker earns pension benefits in the future.
And so, an employer who is setting aside the equivalent of 10 percent of a worker's salary toward pensions could decide that next year it will contribute only 5 percent. The worker has the right to accept that, or find other employment.
But the ERISA law doesn't apply to state and local pensions...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pension-wave-about-to-crash-on-taxpayers/article/2565965
Over time, elected officials came to promise workers politically popular new benefits without setting aside the money to pay for them, declared "holidays" from contributions into pension systems and changed their own accounting systems midstream to make the systems seem better funded — all just ways of passing obligations on to future taxpayers.
In the process, government pension systems became one of the chief vehicles that state and local politicians used to massage their budgets.
Now we face the consequences.
Our elected representatives played a deceptive game of chicken with pension funds.
And now the chickens have come home to roost.
Years of gimmicks and politically motivated benefit increases for government workers have left America's states and municipalities with pension funds that are short at least $1.5 trillion — and possibly as much as $4 trillion if the investment returns of these funds don't live up to expectations in coming years.
Just so the word "trillion" does not pass by too quickly, let's put it another way: That shortfall may be $4,000,000,000,000.
Taxpayers are already paying the price.
Since 2007, states and localities have been forced to increase annual contributions into pensions by $43 billion, or 65 percent, and in various places these rising payments are crowding out other government services or driving taxes higher or both.
Retirement debt has even played a crucial role in high-profile government bankruptcies — including in Detroit; Stockton, California; and Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Fixing the problem is proving expensive, and it won't happen quickly in places with the worst debt...
Around the country, taxpayers watching these scenarios unfold began demanding reforms and then electing politicians promising change.
But in many places, reformers woke up to a startling reality: Over the years, legislators and state courts had granted unusually strong protections to government worker pensions, far greater than the kinds of protections that private workers enjoy.
That has made cutting the cost of pensions difficult, if not impossible, in some places with the deepest debts.
In 1974, Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act [ERISA] to provide standards and protections for private sector pensions.
That law, and the way federal courts have interpreted it, protects the pension wealth that a worker has already earned.
But an employer has the right to change the rate at which a worker earns pension benefits in the future.
And so, an employer who is setting aside the equivalent of 10 percent of a worker's salary toward pensions could decide that next year it will contribute only 5 percent. The worker has the right to accept that, or find other employment.
But the ERISA law doesn't apply to state and local pensions...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pension-wave-about-to-crash-on-taxpayers/article/2565965
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Got $400? 1/2 of Americans can't get it, or would need to sell something to get it
From the Federal Reserve:
Report on the Economic Well-Being
of U.S. Households in 2014
From Page 9:
Economic Fragility
Although the survey finds that economic hardships are
common, many individuals are ill-prepared for a finan-
cial disruption and would struggle to cover emergency
expenses.
• Forty-seven percent of respondents say they either
could not cover an emergency expense costing
$400, or would cover it by selling something or bor-
rowing money.
----
Link: http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/2014-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201505.pdf
Report on the Economic Well-Being
of U.S. Households in 2014
From Page 9:
Economic Fragility
Although the survey finds that economic hardships are
common, many individuals are ill-prepared for a finan-
cial disruption and would struggle to cover emergency
expenses.
• Forty-seven percent of respondents say they either
could not cover an emergency expense costing
$400, or would cover it by selling something or bor-
rowing money.
----
Link: http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/2014-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201505.pdf
More jobs - less financial security?
More Jobs do not equal Financial Security.
Especially if the jobs are part time, low pay, or involve low skill work.
Who is kidding whom about the economic recovery? PB
----
From the Associated Press online:
The U.S. economy is churning out a lot of jobs these days but not a lot of financial security for many of the people who hold them.
Pay growth, though improving, remains tepid. Many workers have few opportunities to advance.
Others have taken temporary, part-time or freelance jobs, with little chance of landing full-time permanent work with benefits.
As a result, many jobs don't deliver as much economic punch as they used to. Part of the reason is that U.S. workers have grown less efficient in recent months.
When they produce less per hour of work, their earnings power shrinks.
So the economy doesn't fully benefit from the fuel that healthy job growth normally provides.
The result is a disconnect between the high number of job gains and a nagging dissatisfaction among some, both job holders and job seekers...
Nearly half of Americans say they couldn't afford an emergency expense of $400 without borrowing or selling something they own, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve.
A striking 60 percent of those surveyed said they expect to go without a pay raise over the next 12 months...
One reason the number of new jobs has stayed strong despite sluggish economic growth is that workers have grown less efficient.
Lower productivity can force employers to hire more in the short run.
But it also holds down pay. Higher productivity, by contrast, would enable employers to pay more without having to raise prices on their products...
Many of the jobs added since the Great Recession ended in 2009 have been part time in low-paying industries.
Those jobs deliver less economic fuel. Nearly 6.7 million part-timers would prefer full-time work - a figure that's fallen in recent years but remains far above the pre-recession level of 4.6 million.
The number of self-employed has also jumped nearly 1.6 million in the past year to 16.2 million, nearly back to pre-recession levels.
The self-employed include independent construction contractors and high-priced consultants but also freelancers who struggle to get by.
Growth in those areas suggests that more Americans are cobbling together livelihoods from piecemeal work...
----
Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JOB_MARKET_LESS_BANG_FOR_BUCK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-06-11-06-22
Especially if the jobs are part time, low pay, or involve low skill work.
Who is kidding whom about the economic recovery? PB
----
From the Associated Press online:
The U.S. economy is churning out a lot of jobs these days but not a lot of financial security for many of the people who hold them.
Pay growth, though improving, remains tepid. Many workers have few opportunities to advance.
Others have taken temporary, part-time or freelance jobs, with little chance of landing full-time permanent work with benefits.
As a result, many jobs don't deliver as much economic punch as they used to. Part of the reason is that U.S. workers have grown less efficient in recent months.
When they produce less per hour of work, their earnings power shrinks.
So the economy doesn't fully benefit from the fuel that healthy job growth normally provides.
The result is a disconnect between the high number of job gains and a nagging dissatisfaction among some, both job holders and job seekers...
Nearly half of Americans say they couldn't afford an emergency expense of $400 without borrowing or selling something they own, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve.
A striking 60 percent of those surveyed said they expect to go without a pay raise over the next 12 months...
One reason the number of new jobs has stayed strong despite sluggish economic growth is that workers have grown less efficient.
Lower productivity can force employers to hire more in the short run.
But it also holds down pay. Higher productivity, by contrast, would enable employers to pay more without having to raise prices on their products...
Many of the jobs added since the Great Recession ended in 2009 have been part time in low-paying industries.
Those jobs deliver less economic fuel. Nearly 6.7 million part-timers would prefer full-time work - a figure that's fallen in recent years but remains far above the pre-recession level of 4.6 million.
The number of self-employed has also jumped nearly 1.6 million in the past year to 16.2 million, nearly back to pre-recession levels.
The self-employed include independent construction contractors and high-priced consultants but also freelancers who struggle to get by.
Growth in those areas suggests that more Americans are cobbling together livelihoods from piecemeal work...
----
Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JOB_MARKET_LESS_BANG_FOR_BUCK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-06-11-06-22
Friday, June 5, 2015
Mouse Head Transplant: EZ Peezy, Little Cheesy
PB: Here's how this goes according to a Chinese scientist -
1. Take the heads off
2. Connect the pipes
3. Switch the heads real fast
4. Sew the heads back up (or, maybe only one head because the other guy didn't know he was the donor)
5. Take 2 aspirin - call in the morning if you think there is something wrong
From today's Wall Street Journal online:
----
Link: http://www.wsj.com/
1. Take the heads off
2. Connect the pipes
3. Switch the heads real fast
4. Sew the heads back up (or, maybe only one head because the other guy didn't know he was the donor)
5. Take 2 aspirin - call in the morning if you think there is something wrong
From today's Wall Street Journal online:
----
Link: http://www.wsj.com/
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
FIFA Corruption Typical of Unelected Globalist Institutions (including CGI?)
Et tu, Clinton Global Initiative? PB
----
From Max Boot writing at Commentarymagazine.com:
What does FIFA, the international soccer federation, have in common with the United Nations, Formula One, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)?
They’re all international organizations and they’re all notoriously corrupt...
Corruption at the IOC occasionally gets exposed, as during the scandal over bid-rigging for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, but, as this 2014 article in The Nation noted, there is a lot more corruption still out there.
Oh, and over at Formula One, its boss, Bernie Ecclestone, agreed to pay a German court last year $100 million to settle bribery charges.
And then of course there is the United Nations, which, as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies noted, “is a hotbed for corruption and abuse.
"It is opaque, diplomatically immune, largely unaccountable, and has come to regard billions in U.S. tax dollars not as a privilege to be earned, but as an entitlement.”
As the FDD further noted:
“The U.N. has failed to reform. Following the Oil-for-Food scandal, in which the U.N. profited from and covered up for billions in Baghdad kickbacks and corruption, the U.N. in 2006 promised greater transparency, accountability, an end to Peacekeeper rape, the elimination of redundant mandates, and a more ethical culture.
"Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in office in 2007 promising ‘to restore trust’ and calling for a system-wide audit. None of these things has been accomplished.”
What unites all these entities?
While Formula One is an actual multinational corporation owned by investors, the others are all non-profit, multinational institutions that enjoy virtual monopolies in their fields and operate with scant oversight or accountability.
They are, in other words, walking advertisements for how world government works in practice rather than in theory.
Turns out that being liberated from political oversight—especially of the kind provided by voters—is not a recipe for enlightened rule.
Rather it is a formula for massive self-dealing that enriches officials involved at the expense of the public, which, whether through buying tickets to see sporting events, building stadiums, or (as in the case of the UN) paying dues, ultimately picks up the checks...
----
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/06/02/fifa-corruption-scandal-typical
----
From Max Boot writing at Commentarymagazine.com:
What does FIFA, the international soccer federation, have in common with the United Nations, Formula One, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)?
They’re all international organizations and they’re all notoriously corrupt...
Corruption at the IOC occasionally gets exposed, as during the scandal over bid-rigging for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, but, as this 2014 article in The Nation noted, there is a lot more corruption still out there.
Oh, and over at Formula One, its boss, Bernie Ecclestone, agreed to pay a German court last year $100 million to settle bribery charges.
And then of course there is the United Nations, which, as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies noted, “is a hotbed for corruption and abuse.
"It is opaque, diplomatically immune, largely unaccountable, and has come to regard billions in U.S. tax dollars not as a privilege to be earned, but as an entitlement.”
As the FDD further noted:
“The U.N. has failed to reform. Following the Oil-for-Food scandal, in which the U.N. profited from and covered up for billions in Baghdad kickbacks and corruption, the U.N. in 2006 promised greater transparency, accountability, an end to Peacekeeper rape, the elimination of redundant mandates, and a more ethical culture.
"Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in office in 2007 promising ‘to restore trust’ and calling for a system-wide audit. None of these things has been accomplished.”
What unites all these entities?
While Formula One is an actual multinational corporation owned by investors, the others are all non-profit, multinational institutions that enjoy virtual monopolies in their fields and operate with scant oversight or accountability.
They are, in other words, walking advertisements for how world government works in practice rather than in theory.
Turns out that being liberated from political oversight—especially of the kind provided by voters—is not a recipe for enlightened rule.
Rather it is a formula for massive self-dealing that enriches officials involved at the expense of the public, which, whether through buying tickets to see sporting events, building stadiums, or (as in the case of the UN) paying dues, ultimately picks up the checks...
----
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/06/02/fifa-corruption-scandal-typical
Monday, June 1, 2015
Detroit: the Reverse Donut
Detroit is a Global Leader - of shrinking cities losing their populations.
Since the 1990s, I've called it a Reverse Donut: an identifiable center surrounded by a ring of emptiness.
Detroit the Reverse Donut is not alone in this regard: cities world wide are shrinking in size.
The Economist magazine has the story online. PB
----
From the Economist.com:
Shrinking cities can be found in the post-industrial rustbelts of the American Midwest, eastern Europe and northern England...
In 2008 the UN estimated that one in ten emerging-world cities were losing people.
The only part of the world where shrinking cities are almost unknown is sub-Saharan Africa. But that too will change.
A city can lose some people and barely notice.
It might even have to build more homes, since in many countries more people are living alone.
But persistent decline is harmful, especially if the population is ageing as well as shrinking. As factories and homes are abandoned, the local economy can spiral downward.
Detroit, which has lost more than half its population since 1950, provides a terrible warning.
The city filed for bankruptcy in 2013, having failed to raise enough taxes from its diminished workforce to pay its debts and support an army of retired teachers and cops.
It has become a husk, plagued by violence and hopeless schools.
Its once-vibrant shopping streets have been reduced to selling what George Galster, an urbanist at Wayne State University, calls “lotto, liquor and the Lord”...
----
Link: http://www.economist.com/news/international/21652314-growing-number-cities-will-have-plan-drastically-smaller-populations-rus
Since the 1990s, I've called it a Reverse Donut: an identifiable center surrounded by a ring of emptiness.
Detroit the Reverse Donut is not alone in this regard: cities world wide are shrinking in size.
The Economist magazine has the story online. PB
----
From the Economist.com:
Shrinking cities can be found in the post-industrial rustbelts of the American Midwest, eastern Europe and northern England...
In 2008 the UN estimated that one in ten emerging-world cities were losing people.
The only part of the world where shrinking cities are almost unknown is sub-Saharan Africa. But that too will change.
A city can lose some people and barely notice.
It might even have to build more homes, since in many countries more people are living alone.
But persistent decline is harmful, especially if the population is ageing as well as shrinking. As factories and homes are abandoned, the local economy can spiral downward.
Detroit, which has lost more than half its population since 1950, provides a terrible warning.
The city filed for bankruptcy in 2013, having failed to raise enough taxes from its diminished workforce to pay its debts and support an army of retired teachers and cops.
It has become a husk, plagued by violence and hopeless schools.
Its once-vibrant shopping streets have been reduced to selling what George Galster, an urbanist at Wayne State University, calls “lotto, liquor and the Lord”...
----
Link: http://www.economist.com/news/international/21652314-growing-number-cities-will-have-plan-drastically-smaller-populations-rus
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