My mom and I were talking this morning about the latest news on health care reform. I told her that Sherman is pretty much on board with the idea that health care should be a right, like education or clean air. He’s not sure about how it should be implemented but he doesn’t feel it should be completely left up to free markets, like say, the restaurant business. My mom was talking about conversations with her friends and their fear of Medicare cuts. She had her facts down cold but Baseline Scenario has a well-written post about this very issue. Basically, Medicare spending HAS to be reduced or we will plunge deeper into fiscal chaos. Seniors need to take control of the reform debate now so they don’t face draconian cuts later. And if you want some fun (but true) reading, follow the link to A ‘Common Sense’ American Health Reform Plan.

The current proposals I see out there don’t have any fundamental changes to the way we approach health care. I’m afraid if we do see reform come out of Washington this year, it will be a bonanza for the insurance companies by adding millions to their insured rolls. What I don’t see is a way to save costs, LOTS of costs. Dr. Mark Hyman wrote a wonderful piece over at HuffPo that really captures the essence of this concept. We in America pay more for less (less quality, I mean).

I challenge everyone who believes in real healthcare reform, and not just health insurance expansion, to really try to engage people in this debate. What qualities would their ideal system possess? What would it avoid? Why do we need reform; why isn’t the status quo acceptable? What are they afraid of if the system changes? I will be glad to provide research to address specific questions. No system is perfect, but ours is not the shining star we like to profess. Even the oft-maligned (by American conservatives, at least) NHS in the U.K. has many fans, including the brilliant Stephen Hawking. But I’m sure he’s just been influenced by the liberal media.

Ever since I left my teenage years, my mom has been getting smarter and smarter. She recently suggested that due to the repeated borking of my blog, that maybe I should post pictures on Facebook. Who knew my mom would be so au courant? Okay mom, I posted some pics from our visit to the Kangaroo Conservation Center. I’m on Facebook under the ever-so-witty name of Kim Alderman. Same goes for Twitter. I’m so clever with the pseudonyms.

Dave & Dan have a more, well, let’s call it a more cynical view of business and capitalism than I do. But I do agree with them on some facets. A recent op ed by Paul Krugman summarizes some of these issues in a much more well-stated piece that I could ever write. Guys, read this and use it when people blather on about capitalism and for-profit being the cure for everything. Nothing like having a little backup from a Nobel-prize winner.

Stacey, sorry I never got you that little paper I wrote for Sherman addressing his fears about a single-payer health system. Here you go!!

We are on the last week of summer vacation here. I think I got all of Devin’s back to school supplies together — it was quite a list. The only thing I still need is hand sanitizer. I read a recent article about all the toxic crap in our household cleaners, so I’m going to pick up some CleanWell sanitizer. Once Devin is back in school, I think I’m going on a purge mission under our cabinets. Yuck, we put tons of crap in the air and on our household surfaces all in the name of being clean.

Just got back from Spring Break in Florida with my son, and who knew? Other people like to go there for Spring Break too. Lordy, nine hours between Atlanta and Tampa is just not fun times, trust me. But it was worth it! We got to see all my family and all my husband’s family in the area; quite a feat, I tell ya. And being away does make you appreciate home even more. A special thanks to my Mom and Richard for playing such fantastic hosts — love you guys! Side note: Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D is totally worth it. I didn’t realize a full-length 3D movie would look that good.

Something dawned on me today. I have a lot of women in my life that are amazing. Some are family, some are friends, and some are even strangers that have enriched my life. In no particular order, I am very appreciative of the following women:

My mom, for being a raging Democrat who is always in the know about current affairs. She definitely keeps me on my toes.

My sister, for her envy-producing self-growth. She is constantly pushing herself to new goals.

My aunt, for her strength and perseverance. She is willing to move mountain and oceans to help her family; lord help the mountains and oceans.

My friend Sharon Linne Faulk, for her understanding and support. She tolerates my crappy attentiveness, and always welcomes me back when I’m ready.

My brother’s friend, Tracy Winter, for her talent and work ethic. She is a fabulous artist and graphic designer, and is probably one of the hardest workers I know.

My guild co-leader, Jen, for her patience and kind nature. She has tackled a difficult job with grace and humor.

My favorite blogger, Janet Phillips, for creating an amazing website and resource for digital scrapping. She saw a need and has exceeded all my expectations.

My favorite media personality, Rachel Maddow, for her intelligence and insight. She makes the hardest subject seem interesting, and actually makes news enjoyable.

I’m sure there are more, but those came immediately to mind. Phew! I’m lucky to have all these ladies adding to my life.

Is it possible that fair and balanced reporting results in an unbalanced presentation of reality? Bear with me here as I go through this little exercise. I think *most* legit news sources try to present multiple views of important issues. However, by giving air time to opinions that are marginally held (at best) do they give weight and strength to those opinions? For instance, while it is true that a small percentage of scientists disagree with mainstream beliefs related to global warming and the human-impact, does mentioning these few outliers give the nay-sayers something to latch onto? “See? I told you! Those scientists agree with me!” I’m not sure what the solution is, but I was just wondering if this bothers anyone else.

Next ramble: education. It seems everyone and his brother feels U.S. public education is in dire straits. But how to fix it? There is no shortage of ideas, but nary a consensus. Presentation Zen has a great entry with links to TED presentations on education. This is truly high-level stuff, but don’t we want to get to a higher level?

Despite all the doom-and-gloom about the state of education, I feel truly blessed. Devin’s school and teachers are wonderful, and I am amazed at what they are learning in kindergarten. This week they learned about U.S. symbols, like the flag, Statue of Liberty, bald eagle, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. Devin was excited each day to tell me the facts he learned, and last night at homework I was happy to find out that he knew the Pledge (every word correct, not just the general sound, lol) and who was our 1st and 16th Presidents. He knew many of the places that President Obama had lived. Today was Arts in Education day, and professionals artists were at the school to share their passion with the students, from painting to puppetry, from song to dance. His favorite was dancing like different animals to music. I guess there is hope after all.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the excessive compensation that was rampant in Wall Street. The stories of million dollar bonuses and extravagant office remodels, in the midst of an acute financial crisis and government intervention, seem to point to an industry severely out-of-touch with average-America and demonstrating an inability to self-regulate. But I’m not naive enough to think there is only one side to this story, so I’ve been trying to read opinion pieces that tell a little more of the story. Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial about this subject. They noted that the New York comptroller’s estimate of $18 billion dollars of Wall Street bonuses in 2008 included everyone, from secretaries to CEOs. They further stated this represented a decrease of 44% from the previous year, “the largest percentage decline in 30 years.” Well, they satisfied me a little bit, until I realized that most executives weren’t seeing a 44% decrease. Guess that means the little guys got hit the hardest.

This weekend, Roy Smith had a piece in the WSJ entitled “Greed is Good.” While I don’t like the title, he made some good points about the pay for performance model that was originally implemented among Wall Street firms back in the day of partnerships. He wove an interesting tale of changes that occurred as private partnerships became public corporations, and as strict performance-based bonuses became guarantees in order to attract the stars. Both of these pieces are well-written and provide additional facts that paint a more robust picture of the capital-markets industry, and the necessity for a compensation model that may seem unusual in other industries. I guess I’ve had a few points reinforced here:

1. Perception is very important. I don’t care what the reason, but a million dollar office remodel in this environment is CLUELESS. Seriously. I wouldn’t trust Mr. Thaine with my son’s piggy bank.

2. Luring a top-performer by offering obscene incentives does not guarantee you will see the same performance. This goes in sports and well as corporate life. There will always be star performers but they aren’t always the same from year to year.

3. Getting mad and trying to impose restrictions against an industry that no longer exists is fruitless. By the same token, let the light shine on those who make horrendous decisions and then don’t reward them further.

And on a totally different note, here is another of the old photographs I am scrapping for Sherman:

Good lord, I’m bad at sticking to this blogging thing. Anyway, on to more pressing issues. For example, I really like the new Diet Pepsi can redesign. Kudos to their design team; great use of white space. Oh, I guess I really should have more substantive issues to discuss. Okay, so why is the US rate of incarceration so much higher than that of other Western nations? Or other first-world nations for that matter? We are around 751  per 100,000 adults in jail. The world-wide median is 125. From 1925 to 1975, the US stayed relatively constant at around 110. The reason for the uptick? Change in policy (predominantly regarding drug use & possession) and length of sentence. Is this good? Are we safer, happier, better? Don’t even get me started on the rates for minorities, although we aren’t the only country with a wide discrepancy there. Some fun articles for your reading:

International Herald Tribune

Wikipedia- Incarceration in the US

Comparative International Rates (great report BTW; highly recommended)

Do I have solutions? No, but I think this rapid rise in incarceration rate warrants our study at the very least. This reminds me that I also owe some research to my sister, particularly on the issue of gun control and allowing permitted concealed weapons in national parks. I think she was also going to do some research on the US health system compared to other first-world countries; I should post some links for that. Any other pending research projects?

A couple of months ago, my sister asked me how the financial markets could have imploded so quickly and who, if anyone, we should blame. I tried to explain my understanding of the situation, but even then I sensed I was only scratching the surface. Since then I have had conversations with people with different perspectives and assessments of what went wrong. I have read articles, listened to analysis, even watched decades-old episodes of 60 Minutes. Am I at the point where I know one thing was a pivotal cause? Hardly. But I am seeing a lot of things which had to be in place to set up this financial self-destruction.

The year is 1989 and a book called Liar’s Poker is released, in which the author describes his tenure at Salomon Brothers in 1984 and through the crash of 1987.  The author, Michael Lewis, recently wrote a follow-up piece for Portfolio.com, The End of Wall Street’s Boom,  which is quite an enjoyable if distressing read. Don’t be scared away by the length of the article; it is completely worth the time to read and digest. After getting an overall view like that we should also dig into some specific factors in this debacle.

Derivatives:  My quick definition would be “a financial product made from a mathematical formula.” Sound silly? It didn’t start out that way with options and futures, which are both types of derivatives. But with the advent of computers and instantaneous calculations of very complex formulas, more exotic varieties entered the market. 60 Minutes did a fantastic piece on this in 1995 (yep, over 10 years ago!). If you prefer your information in text, Wikipedia has a great entry on derivatives. One particular type of derivative deserves specific discussion, so….

Credit Default Swaps (CDS): Like buying insurance on something you don’t even own or have a direct interest in; oops, but it isn’t insurance and is under no insurance regulation. They aren’t traded on any exchange, so there goes that regulation. Cool; free market heaven. Or hell. Once again I’ll refer you to a 60 Minutes episode, this one from October 2008, about Credit Default Swaps.

Why were all these people throwing so much money at all these exotic financial products? They were looking for reasonable returns on safe investments. This pool of fixed-asset money is HUGE, literally dwarfing the equity market (e.g. the stock market). The best info I found on this was a May 2008 NPR piece, The Giant Pool of Money. A definite must-listen. Now, almost simultaneously, you have a push within US politics to get more people into homes, particularly minorities and low-/middle-income families. Read a September 1999 New York Times article about Fannie Mae easing credit requirements and you begin to see how the ball started rolling. And I guess any finger-pointing wouldn’t be complete without looking at a bit of human nature.

Mob mentality: Well, they’re doing it so why can’t I? There were a few individuals who spoke up about the house of cards, but by and large, the masses continued their march to the precipice. And now here we are are. I don’t know where we are headed next, but I think it is ESSENTIAL that we understand how we got here. In my studying, it became apparent that I know much less about the Great Depression (GD I?) than I thought did. Let’s try not to make the same mistakes again. Geez, I didn’t even get into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and how it overturned a prohibition against bucket shops for financial activities allowed by the Act. Hmmm, guess they thought some state Attorney Generals might not take too kindly to that kind of activity, eh?

That kind of points out my problem though. Every time I think I have a handle on it, another piece of the puzzle shows up and I have to try to fit it in. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

and I couldn’t be happier about it. I kept telling my mom that there was no way Obama would choose Joe Biden as a running mate. He was too “boring”, too smart, from a tiny state…but I always hoped deep inside that someone so immensely qualified would be considered. Sen. Biden has the national security and foreign policy experience that Obama is lacking, and he also speaks his mind. In recent days, I thought the VP spot was going to go to Evan Byah or Jack Reed. Both gentlemen would have brought something to the ticket, but neither has as much foreign policy experience as Biden.

Sometimes it feels GREAT to be wrong.

My mom brought me some recent copies of Kiplingers and Money magazines last time she was up here. I try to read them all cover to cover, and make notes of things I want to try or information I want to share. Here are some recent snippets:

• If grandparents want to contribute to college funds, they should keep the 529 in their names. Not only does this give them full control, it also eliminates those funds from federal aid formulas. Funds held by parents or the student will be assessed at 5.64% for aid calculations. Every little bit helps!
• Those of you still working full time may want to consider upping your social networking, particularly at sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. If your not on it, your out of it.
• Want the freshest veggies but don’t want to plant a garden? Join a community-supported agriculture farm; find one at localharvest.org/csa.
• Do you like the reusable shopping bags but don’t want to pay $8-$10 for each? Walmart has one for a buck! If you would prefer a non-store specific bag, try chicobag.com and pick up a set of five for $20.
• In the market for a top-notch all-in-one (printer, copier, scanner, fax)? Money magazine rated the HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 ($377) as top.

And here is a tip from a recent acquaintance: if you are tired of the crap that is served as news by mainstream media, visit freepress.org.

It has been difficult for me to choose the best candidate for President. We Democrats are lucky to have two fantastic choices. Somewhere along the way, I missed Obama’s New Hampshire speech. I was not the only one who found it inspiring.

Yes We Can song

If you aren’t moved, check your pulse. This country needs more than a great politician or manager; we deserve a leader that can unite and motivate and encourage us the do the hard things. The right things. Yes, we can.