Chicagoania
Gangs of Chicago
There are the Vice Lords, and the Gangster Disciples, and the Black Disciples, and the Four Corner Hustlers. But the gang that does the most harm to the Chicago public schools is–in the view of State Senator James Meeks–the Chicago Teachers Union.
via Joanne Jacobs
Recession and Recovery
One of the broad assumptions behind recessions and recoveries is that during the “boom”, excess capacity is built into the system as manufacturers & service providers expand to meet increasing needs (today, and in the future). During the recession, manufacturers & service providers pare back, leaving capacity idle.
Part of the reason that the recovery (typically) gains steam is that bringing back this idle capacity (both in physical and human capital) is cheaper than building (or training) new, and it allows the economy to “roar” back into high gear. In some high level sense WW2 leveraged all of the physical and human capital that was idled by the great depression; while huge plants were built and millions of workers mobilized much of the initial lift was caused by leveraging what we had that was unused at the time.
When I look at this “boom” and recession, however, from the point of view of the USA, it doesn’t seem that we over-invested in productive capacity. Much of the investment was in residential real estate and commercial real estate for distribution, retail and services.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Assessments
I recently was walking down LaSalle avenue in River North and saw some new construction. Aside from the usual accoutrements such as more bathrooms than bedrooms and everything made of granite, one item REALLY caught my eye:
Low assessments – $200 / 2009
IOC to Chicago: Pound Sand!
Very surprised that Chicago is out. Amazed that Obama would go to Copenhagen and get punked like this. It makes him look like a chump. I wrongly assumed he had it fixed or he would not have gone. Wow.
I know a lot of people will be sad about it, and for them I am sorry. But I have always been against having the Olympics here. I think we dodged a bullet. The taxpayers of Illinois, Cook County and Chicago were going to get clobbered, with a huge amount of inconvenience on top of it.
The whole thing makes Obama look like a dope. What was he thinking? I could not believe he would go and put himself at the mercy of these guys. That was too stupid to believe. I speculate that the IOC wanted to show the USA it could not be pushed around. In other words, going in person backfired.
I am repeatedly amazed at the way Obama mishandles things. I keep thinking, “oh, ah ha, I see, he must have something up his sleeve!” And then he never does! He’s always just winging it! A smile and a shoe shine will just get you so far, pal.
As Bugs Bunny used to say, “what a maroon!”
We are truly screwed with this guy as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief.
UPDATE: Michael Barone weighs in.
UPDATE II: Baseball Crank weighs in:
… you don’t publicly stake your prestige on something that’s not (1) hugely important (2) a done deal or (3) ideally, both. All presidents suffer defeats and embarrassments, but you generally don’t walk right into one on an issue of purely local importance to your home city. Obama’s and the nation’s standing in the world can’t help but be chipped away by this; the next time he goes jetting off to a summit or some other international event, people won’t be so quick to assume that he has all figured out in advance how he’s going to get what he wants. That aura, that mystique is a thing of value that the President is supposed to husband carefully for when the nation really needs it. Bush was impotent by the end of his presidency because he’d burned that up, but he had it for the better part of five years. Obama’s losing it already.
What a waste.
Via Vodkapundit.
UPDATE III: Does this remind anyone else of the Crowley/Gates matter? Another case where Obama really did not need to get himself involved. Yet he waded into it, made ti about himself, when it did not have to be about him, and did no one any good by doing it, and squandered credibility in doing so?
How come he does not instinctively avoid high risk / low return plays? Why does he have such a poor gut on this stuff?
It’s weird.