Re: Who's pulling who's wheight?
Well, if you swap "US" and "Mexican", what I would do is call it Texas!
:lol::lol::lol:
And if that doesn't fit perfectly, then I would call it California.
JR, I guess I used the figures 5% and 12% in relation to unemployment because those are my local numbers. We're privileged here in Northern California to expect 5% unemployment in normal times, and currently it's 12%. You are correct with the national figures, and your other points are well taken. My opinion is that the missteps in the TARP funding and implementation are typical loopholes, and a bit of overspending. But I take those shortcomings with a dose of realism -- government solutions are always imperfect solutions, but at best they get the job done. And that's what I see, fundamentally, in the handling of the economic crisis.
Speaking of the things that governments spend money on, I'll finish with a kinda funny story. At my club tonight was a French band I really like, but the turnout was less than half of what I expected. Surprise -- they have a tour bus (which seems a little ambitious for this level of tour), also an engineer who I recognized has mixed our room a couple of times before. (But I couldn't remember which acts he had toured with before.)
Had a great gig, despite the low atendance, and as the load-out was beginning, I said to the band engineer, 'hey, it's a pretty well-funded tour here, with the tour bus and all.' He replied, 'oh yeah, well last time I was here with F_____ (UK act) and before that with N_____ (DK act). I only tour with European acts since they get government subsidies which pay for things like busses.'
So do I wish our government spent money on subsidizing live music and not on invading Iraq? You bet. We'd all be getting rich in that case!
waldo
