Things to get done

[Bethere]

Please Doc! You are going to actually resort to math?

A desperate appeal to intelligence!

[stjames1_53]

In the world of Trump, the motto is; "It's not how much money you have, it's how much you can borrow."

Since we all agree we've been running a deficit and many express concern over the debt, it seems odd that we'd be on a spending spree right out of the gate, especially in the light of "massive" tax cuts coming our way.

We're building a 21 billion dollar wall (of sorts) not including the cost of increased security, proposing a 54 billion dollar increase in military spending and throw in another 10 billion a year in infrastructure investment. Sounds like "funny math" to believe the debt is headed anywhere but up. That 3%-4% GDP growth isn't happening anytime soon. Remember also, this is the longest financial expansion in modern times and a recession of some degree is long overdue. Throw in a great amount of uncertainty regarding the potential trade war and you've got the perfect brew for a rocky road.

he also knows about smart money. Money spent correctly will yield positive results. WE don't need anymore politicians running the show right now. ANY politician. no Republican die-hard ol' boy network, no die-hard socialist with a personal agenda, where graft and corruption are the deal makers.
He's also smart by using tweets. At least there is the "apparent" transparency. Something we never had with Obama, or probably wouldn't have had with Clinton. Clinton did like filtering her news.......
this nation is a f'ing financial disaster. The whispers in the rumor mill say something is coming, financially. Just a rumor. If the government were to stop borrowing today, interest still ticking, it would take close to 100 years times the wealth of the nation 10 times. it isn't the debt that's killing the economy, it is the interest on loans. We absolutely need business men handling things for a bit. It would sure provide a change up from lawyers.

[Docthehun]

Buy American!

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/k...202439247.html

[Docthehun]

The "Great Wall" - At this juncture, I'd have to say he's well on his way, with perhaps an asterisk. It appears that in the category of; "Who's going to pay for it?", that we'll be picking up the tab, using Mexican cement (and workers), with steel from who knows where, all of which may be subject to a 20% border tax. Too early to do the math on this one, but the early advice is to bend over.

"The Keystone" pipeline - "See above"

Don't go spending your share of "Make America Great Again" just yet.

Wall Training 101

[Bethere]

he also knows about smart money. Money spent correctly will yield positive results. WE don't need anymore politicians running the show right now. ANY politician. no Republican die-hard ol' boy network, no die-hard socialist with a personal agenda, where graft and corruption are the deal makers.
He's also smart by using tweets. At least there is the "apparent" transparency. Something we never had with Obama, or probably wouldn't have had with Clinton. Clinton did like filtering her news.......
this nation is a f'ing financial disaster. The whispers in the rumor mill say something is coming, financially. Just a rumor. If the government were to stop borrowing today, interest still ticking, it would take close to 100 years times the wealth of the nation 10 times. it isn't the debt that's killing the economy, it is the interest on loans. We absolutely need business men handling things for a bit. It would sure provide a change up from lawyers.

The interest on those loans is so low that it wouldn't be in our best interests to retire most of those bonds. That's because American debt is the safest investment in the history of man.

[Docthehun]

Coal country reality

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-ohio...bite-the-dust/

[DGUtley]

Coal country reality. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-ohio...bite-the-dust/

I have friends in the industry. High up in the industry. They tell me that Obama did, in fact, kill the coal industry and it isn't coming back. They cannot compete with subsidized solar or wind farms; and, the regulations are killing them. They put the water and air back into the environment cleaner than they take it out. Trump's intentions are political for sure but it's gamesmanship -- they aren't coming back. Obama killed it.

[Common Sense]

I have friends in the industry. High up in the industry. They tell me that Obama did, in fact, kill the coal industry and it isn't coming back. They cannot compete with subsidized solar or wind farms; and, the regulations are killing them. They put the water and air back into the environment cleaner than they take it out. Trump's intentions are political for sure but it's gamesmanship -- they aren't coming back. Obama killed it.

Coal was dying before Obama came along. What really killed coal was natural gas.

We don't use coal at all in Ontario. It has nothing to do with Obama. It has to do with coal and its alternatives.

[del]

The president's regulatory push has left him and his party deeply unpopular across the region: Bill Clinton won Kentucky and West Virginia in both of his presidential elections; Obama lost both states, twice, in landslides.
But for all the rage over Obama's environmental agenda, mining jobs began disappearing in the region long before he entered the White House, for reasons that have nothing to do with regulations now coming out of Washington.
In fact, coal mining jobs in Appalachia fared far worse under the Reagan, Clinton, and George H.W. Bush administrations than they have under Obama.
According to employment counts from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, from 1983 — the earliest year for which MSHA had data — to 1989, combined coal jobs in West Virginia and Kentucky fell from 79,000 to 64,000.
In the following four years under the first President Bush, coal jobs in the two states fell to 56,000. And by the final year of the Clinton administration, the states' combined total of mining jobs had fallen to a nadir of 33,000.
By comparison, West Virginia and Kentucky coal-mining payrolls have been relatively stable during Obama's first four years in office: In 2009, there were just under 43,000 coal miners in the two states combined. In 2012, the latest year for which MSHA has final data, the count totaled just over 41,000.
So what's driving the decline? First and foremost: changes in the industry.
Despite mining employment being cut nearly in half since 1983, the two states' combined coal output has basically held steady, dropping from 245 million short tons in 1983 to 240 million short tons in 2011.
Advances in mining technology have made miners more efficient.
Indeed, the traditional images of coal mines — dark holes filled with men swinging pickaxes and pushing carts — are no more. Today, it is machines that are ripping coal from the mines' walls, and then automatic conveyor belts whipping the fuel back to the surface.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...istory/453144/

[DGUtley]

Coal was dying before Obama came along. What really killed coal was natural gas. We don't use coal at all in Ontario. It has nothing to do with Obama. It has to do with coal and its alternatives.

My friends at two large publically-owned power companies would respectfully disagree. Personally, I have a tendency to agree with you -- though I'm not sure whether it'd have taken longer. I think, though, that you would agree that it's much harder to compete with an industry that receives subsidies from Mordor on the Potomac for its very existence?