take for example, the bailout bills written under both bush and obama’s administration.  both of these bills are inherently useless as they don’t center upon the main cause of people not lending.  of course, they sell these bills to the american public as a means to an end.  my solution, however, would save all of us a lot of trouble, money, and political rhetoric.

1) back up to 100% of all bank loans issued

2) cut corporate taxes, especially focusing on small and medium-sized businesses

3) never, ever, ever, lend money to the auto industry

regarding 1, this is lending 101.  in my (real life) position as a commercial lender, if a prospective client applies for a loan and their credit is very weak to marginal, they would likely be declined outright–especially in the current market.  now, if an agency (in this case the fed) were to guaranty the loan anywhere from 75-100%, i would feel more comfortable lending to the prospective client because my risk is eliminated.  of course, this backing of loans is conditional upon those loans being made.  the cost would be at a minimum to the taxpayer as the guaranty is not triggered until the loan defaults.  so let’s say my institution made 100 million dollars in loans this year and 5% defaulted, it would only cost the government 500 thousand dollars in guaranteed money.  now, if the government were to cut me a check for my non-earning assets, i would stock pile that in a reserve account to guard against further losses and with a nominal interest rate there is no incentive to lend the money.   

additionally, this would ensure that the risky loans currently on the books would remain with the banks to liquidate as necessary.  while banks are a scape goat these days, they are the best people to deal with troubled assets when compared to the us government.

on 2, corporate tax cuts are necessary to improve the economy.  while larger institutions bear the brunt of criticism, they also employ hundreds of thousands of employees.  smaller institutions also pay taxes and are hurt by the bill every year.  look at it this way, if a company employing 1,000 people makes 100,000 to 335,000, they are taxed 38% on the profits.  that is 38,000 to 127,300 on those profits yielding an after tax profit of 62,000 and 207700, respectively.  the payments on taxes could yield annual salary and benefits for 1-3 employees to be hired the following year.  however, most companies will reserve for taxes and hold back money otherwise spent on hiring new employees.  this wouldn’t actually hurt the revenue stream as the new hires would then pay their income tax share and the company would likely increase profits given the new hires and productivity.  it would balance out.  you want to improve the economy and put more workers in jobs?  cut corporate taxes. 

it should be noted that corporate taxes are rarely paid in full.  most companies make sizeable charitable contributions over the course of the year which make their payment of taxes minimal and subsequently the tax code relatively useless.  beyond matching gifts, though, these donations really don’t reach the people most in need of the tax benefit.  they donate to the symphony, the municipal stadium, and other self-benefitting organizations.  rarely do these gifts make it to homeless shelters, unemployment services, and children.  employed americans, however, are more likely to contribute and are more likely to subsidize these less glamourous organizations through their income tax.

three is a no-brainer.  the us auto industry has been in trouble for decades now and the current markets are of little impact on something which has been long dying.  it flat out costs too much to make their cars which lack efficiency and innovation.  even this year’s auto shows demonstrated that they continue to lack these attributes while foreign automakers are thriving.  the us auto industry needs to renegotiate all union contracts (unlikely to happen) and improve their process efficiency (lost cause) in order to survive.  the loans make to the big 3 will ultimately default and their liquidation is imminent.  the us has seen many industries come and go, textiles come to mind immediately.  a nimble company, or economy for that matter is able to recognize a dead business and allocate its workforce properly into other industries. 

in one short blog post, i was able to save the government billions of dollars.  on the jobs front, this would create nearly 3,000,000 jobs (a).  this, however, is not a favorable decision for democrats and republicans because their security in being re-elected hinges on eachother’s bad decisions.  in a way, both parties are teammates in a game which ultimately steals your money and undermines your intelligence. 

(a) using 2002 census data, there were rougly 5 million firms employing 100 people or less.  using the 1-3 jobs created and using a weighted average to account for the 2.7 million firms with less than 4 employees, the result is the opportunity for 3 million jobs using money gained from not having to pay taxes.

over the past few months there have been significant developments regarding same-sex marriage in the united states.  this is an issue which is at the core of my political beliefs which,  at a high level, involve the limitations on government control of personal freedom.  i do not at all subscribe to the oligarchy of political parties which form our government.  instead, i choose to think for myself which is more than i can say for our representatives in government, both republican and democrat, who oppose this legislation.

for months the issue of same-sex marriage has been reported throughout the united states as individual states have passed legislation approving these marriages, the most recent of which is vermont.  currently massachusetts, connecticut, iowa, and vermont have legalized this type of marriage to the joyous reception of its supporters and the chagrin of those in disapproval.  there is also speculation of future approvals in many states bills in 2009.

following each vote, staunch opponents of the bill immediately respond that they will appeal the bill to vote it down.  in some cases the bill has been approved only to be rejected by state legislatures.  in some cases these bills have been passed with only the smallest extension of rights bestowed upon those in a same-sex marriage.

simply put, the government, whether local, state, or federal, does not have the right to intervene in the union of two individuals consensually entering into the contract of marriage.  on an extended argument, the requirement of obtaining a state-issued marriage license is one of the most egregious forms of organized robbery which our governments have forced upon its citizens.  it should be said that the lack of the government’s right to accept or reject these marriages does not necessarily imply that churches, as constitutionally separate entities from the state, should be mandated by the state to accept these marriages as government should not have influence on private enterprise, including religious enterprises.  our world is filled with abuses of heterosexual marriage, whether by short-term marriages, arranged marriages, or “shotgun” weddings, doesn’t this undermine the validity of heterosexual marriage?  have you ever sat at a wedding wondering if the people getting married will last?  ever see specialized attorneys devoting their practice and livelihood to the fact that people will divorce in enough volume to guaranty a stream of income and to rationalize the specialty?  i saw a billboard the other day which touted the ability to render a divorce online.  what say you to these facts?  how do these nuances to heterosexual marriage mesh with the rights of others to wed in a contractual marriage?

the observation of opponents to these bills vowing to have them overturned is both alarming and disrespectful.  these bills, provided that they are passing under legal and non-coercive means, are affecting the lives and dreams of many people.  some have waited their whole relationship with their significant other to be officially recognized as married.  to approve and then repeal these bills is a horrible thing to do to someone affected.  we are not talking about a local-option sales tax or whether to build a road.  this directly affects people’s lives.  what have these people done besides request the same rights of which the opposition is entitled?  this legislation is not mandating your view of same-sex marriage insomuch as any other legislation which is passed daily.  nothing in these bills requests the population to graciously accept same-sex marriages as right.  these are merely two people, in love, who are seeking the same rights as those in a heterosexual marriage.  they seek the right to visitation should their partner have to be hospitalized, they seek the comingling of benefits should one partner’s benefits be better than those of the others.  they have not ever sought your individual acceptance of this legislation or that you will have dinner and be best friends no more than your marriage does not imply your intention to be accepted by everyone else in your community.  people seeking same-sex marriage are just seeking the ability to be recognized as married—that’s all. 

my advice to those in opposition who are harboring sour grapes is to accept the votes for what they are and move on with your life.  please also explain to me how this legislation passed today will affect your life tomorrow or next year or in five, ten, or twenty years.  face the facts, your argument is invalid, your motives are damaging and preposterous, and you are misguided in your implied belief that people in heterosexual marriages are better than those in same-sex marriages which is predicated upon your acceptance of state recognition of one type of union and disapproval of another. 

in any event, opponents should be on notice that no matter the result of the vote, the love of these people seeking the recognition of same-sex marriage will outshine your hatred for these people every day of the week.

veuillez ne pas parlent pas et ne se cassent pas plus cent ans de tranquilite

regardant par vos clients, comme si il n’etait pas

vos yeux regardaient quelque chose, detache.

je dois savoir une chose, il est tres important

comment vous appelez-vous?

where was i going yesterday

my past has been lost amidst a flurry of fuck

stirring and blurring the lines between reality and imaginary

the imaginary has become a scary reality and reality becomes intangible 

tired, strung-out, and numb

surprises have become tragedies, numb becomes comfort

like chicken soup or an old movie

events become lost amidst quickly building recent memories

tomorrow seems like an eternity away, yet arrives so soon 

houses with frosted windows and lights blurred by raindrops of tears

an antique picture of fake smiles

emotion is lost

memories become crumpled like paper notes.tucked in a shoe box and reviewed on occasion

where the hell is yesterday

tomorrow seems too far from today

rainy days leave things unexplained i saw your face.it made me wonder

how could i?

how could you?

what were we thinking?

or i? 

i used to care

love seemed real

now it is spent, a cig floating in a mud puddle on the street

i am here

televisions talk about the news they want me to know, papers write about the same.  but in the end it’s not news, it’s story.  stories handed down through history, maneuvered, exaggerated, diminished from their true meaning from what it is supposed to mean to feel the story on the page because sales are up and the news doesn’t sell–fiction is always sells better than non-fiction.  it removes what is real and scatters it onto a new plain far away from the hurt and pain of what is real.  insects hitting the same light until they die by way of fire and thus why would we experience reality when what is real is so sad, mad, crazy, painful that it then becomes surreal.  pop stars on covers of magazines, air brushed, fed lines to boost their intellectual view on the latest big hit that involves something meaningless with what is now considered humor.  living in an airbrushed world of surreal beings but in the end these are just that-things.  they too will be forgotten and a new trend will develop to further our detachment from what is real because reality curiously becomes it’s own opposite by not acknowledging itself.  if an event happens in the forest with noone around to hear it, then it becomes its own story.  a fish story of an amazing gilled creature swimming freely and snagged by someone with a pole and then its life changes.  and thus becomes the account of our press and its way of making everything that happened, everything it’s not.  but we can feel comfortable in our homes with our shutters and brick and lanterns and neighborhood associations because they say all is well tonight.  spend less, spend more, eat red meat, don’t eat fish.  it’s a flavor of the day.  the published story is sadly not the story and the truth lies somewhere other than where the story was heard.  evaluating both sides of the issue, determining the substance of the issue is paramount to declaring an educated opinion.

collectively it amounts to what could have been but no bank will accept this change, so it accumulates to the point of oblivion.   year-after-year it fills with wasted time and missed opportunity.

anxiety builds, the seconds tick away on the clock.  a year has now passed us by, a new year is about to unfold.  what to do?  compensate for wasted time in the previous year in the remaining twelve hours.  call everyone in my phone, i miss them, yes, but…

but years are merely an arbitrary definition, time is continuous.  it doesn’t wait.

each second-past is a new update on the rss feed of life.  it’s a missed opportunity for history to be made, for a difference to be made, for life to be lived and not watched.

seconds accumulate to minutes, to hours, to days, weeks, months years, decades.

the bucket has overflowed.

soul to paper, paper to voice, scream out on the highest mountain the deepest of feelings.

no seconds wasted, no time goes without some meaningful expression, action, event.

take everything that provides comfort and set it on fire among shouts of the most inner thoughts that come to mind.  break a glass, let the crashing sound resonate in the ear and in the heart.  scream from the mountain. 

relationships are not a given.  recreate relationships everyday.  the past is just a crutch and the events of right now will make the past of tomorrow.  today is the greatest day, right now is the greatest moment.

with each inch that the ball drops this evening, the seconds tick down.

tomorrow will be the greatest today ever.

in and out of my jagged and treacherous layout

caress me with your presence, become a part of me when you are here

water knows one destination

downward, swiftly, you run the course of my mind

(i think too much, over-analyze, a heartbeat is like an eternity to me)

and then, as you came in, you are gone

parted ways, gone forever?

you were moving so quickly, motion stopped, bell rung

and you were gone

empty halls, the overwhelming sound of silence.  an empty train platform.  concert over, the eeriness of a concert after completion.  it makes you feel like something was there, or able to be there, or might be there.  cracked, fragmented echoes of memories.  laughter, carelessness, and youth.

it is not there.

scrapbooked ticket stubs fade over time.  paper ages, it colors showing the effects of age.  they fly through the wind, are crumpled into back pockets, thrown in the garbage.

lost.

but this all seemed so real to me.  for some reason i thought you’d be there.  it’s like we missed tracks or stations or gates. 

tracks take people in opposite directions.  a once familiar space now made miles apart by track and land.  back to the arena and i can still hear your voice.  or was it the subway station?  the resonance of your voice fills this hall-resonating acoustical amazement to on-lookers.  oh, they hear it.

but cannot place it.

i can still hear your voice.  but this all seemed so real to me.  for some reason i thought you’d be there.

minarets and ballerinas, everything on perfect note and then my eyes open and you aren’t there.  i am nowhere.  seven years.  connection missed.  you were here.  i am here.  bridge the gap of time.  time changes constantly.  drip of the bottle.  heart run dry.  empty arena.  echoes fill the silence but the sounds are of something else.  is it you?

sharp rays of sun injecting happiness, passion, hope, and life into those below.  those who need it most.

writing is not the cure.  the convenience of the enter key and a regular twitch demands more than pen and paper.  thoughts running wild, in and out, throughout the brain and the body.  nothing can keep it away. 

the rythmic beat of trance music, the blanket of acid jazz.  music running through the ear to the soul, it touches, it captivates and paralyzes in the thick of the night. 

questions, questions.  unanswered now.  now is not the time.  other things take precedent.  move from questions to statements, let the questions form to the statements.  let the statements come from the heart, let the heart guide me.  where to?

is it possible to care so much that it turns into apathy out of despair?  with questions like those flooding through the mind, in the middle of conversations, a shower, a walk, a phone call, sleep, wake.  wake to the noise of a new day. information, more questions come flooding in.  traffic-jam. 

get out of the car.  stand on the hood and try to make sense of these thoughts.  could it be possible that i am headed in the wrong direction?  is this it?  what am i missing?  do i need to get cigarettes?

which way am i walking?  does it matter?

walking in the night is the epitome of solitude.  the dark sky provides borders, allows introspective thought, the absence of blue sky causes this, the stars effect it.  meditative and

where is the past?  how much is present?  crumpled receipts in back pockets, washed and dried, receiving the test of time. ink washes away and so does the feeling.  i am near here or have been here.  possible but not seeming tangible.

absent of sensation without response to stimuli, upon a shelf, dusty and motionless.  nothing.  looking in from the outside, snow dusted windows and fog separating what is real from where i stand, the door is nowhere to be found and its impolite to break glass, not here, not now.

love seems so futile right now, an overused phrase uttered in drunken or irrational moments to the wrong person for fear of them leaving, not for the sake of them staying.  a word that can command people at the dropping of its name.  for some reason everything seems more important when love is the topic.  the problem is that the basis, the supporting evidence, usually turns into ashes and dies.  smoked-out and expired with just the brown stained filter of one’s heart that remains. 

forget love.  not tonight. 

i will put that on my to do list. 

lists.  many lists, it gets longer.  i like 31 flavors, 6-degrees of separation, 99 red baloons.  add them to the list too.  it gets longer, life and the days get shorter, but the nights feel like forever.

sidewalks in front of me, avoiding the cracks like when i was young, careless, happy, ignorant. the blocks of cement just a bit smaller than my stride, studder-step thinking of my last great kiss, the moonlight, and if the yankees will trade a-rod.  i used to jump across these blocks as a kid.  an accomplishment.  now onlookers paint me as a lunatic or drunk.  funny how times change.  when people get older, their heart hardens and turns to stone.  joy and carelessness extracted from their soul making them seem like the walking dead to me. 

the spins of alcohol pouring in waves across my vision.  its just car sickness without the car.  motion sickness i guess.  being transported to a different world, a clearer vision absent of the restraints that go along with poise.  but that is just it, poise, does it reflect a restrained society or are people really that cold?   

around the block finds me in a different area, park bench, inviting, need my computer, blackberry won’t due for the fluidity, or otherwise.  pen and notebook suffice.

governments, economies, civilizations–no, too broad of a topic, and trendy too.  like chipotle, it seems like everything has chipotle pepper something involved with it.  music, songs running through my ears like echoes.  long hallway.  ending somewhere.  not here.  onward.

move on, past closed storefront, occasional passer-by, ominous characters about in the night.  different destinations or different reasons for not having a destination.  silence is maintained because the destination becomes secret at this hour, like classified orders from moneypenny, mum is the word but the unspoken is known all too well each person that i pass.  we will meet again, somewhere.  not here.

the container of red wine is the most primitive of clocks.  dripping blood by the pour until its color fades to green, the bottle is dry and so is the night. 

as the night comes to a close and the new day reveals itself (it has been in hiding for the past few hours), a refreshed feeling comes across my body.

meditative pose.  again the harmony of the spheres. 

the pink, blue, and orange curtain falls on tonight’s show.  the roamers have disappeared.  unclear who among them found their destination and who will search again tomorrow. 

the night’s emptiness washes away, tidings of the day roll in. 

night.