Space Shuttle Update (49)

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Space Shuttle Discovery Flown Over the U.S. Capitol
NASA – Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, is seen as it flies near the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, April 17, 2012, in Washington. Discovery, the first orbiter retired from NASA’s shuttle fleet, completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles. NASA will transfer Discovery to the National Air and Space Museum to begin its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space and to educate and inspire future generations of explorers. Image Credit: NASA/Smithsonian Institution/Harold Dorwin

Why America’s Public, Not Its Parties, Are the Key to Fixing the Deficit

By William A. Galston – The publication of the latest tick-tock story on the collapse of last summer’s Obama-Boehner budget talks has triggered a new round of dueling interpretations. Who really killed the grand bargain? Was it a speaker out of touch with his caucus, or a president who couldn’t make up his mind? There’s no doubt that both leaders have made mistakes, but all these breathless sagas suffer from the same flaw: They divert us from the structural facts that shape political outcomes. Barack Obama and John Boehner weren’t free agents; they were acting as representatives of their respective political parties, neither of which was prepared to do what it took to make a deal.

But while party polarization plays a large part in legislative stalemates, the problem goes deeper. Neither political party has been willing to conduct a sustained conversation with the American people about the real choices we face over the next generation. If large political decisions are to be sustainable, they need to obtain the consent of the people—and it’s hard to see how the current discussion can generate that consent, or even contribute to public education. more> http://tinyurl.com/clpdz2v

related>

• Obama’s evolution: Behind the failed ‘grand bargain’ on the debt

European governments fail to learn from history

BOOK REVIEW

Financial Fiasco, Author: Johan Norberg.

By Johan Norberg – Every politician, central bank, and regulator in the developed world spent 2008 and 2009 saying, “This must never happen again.” “This” was the financial meltdown that almost took down the world economy. They differed in their proposed solutions but held one demand in common: Banks must never again take the kind of highly leveraged risks in exotic securities that were widespread at the tail end of the housing bubble.

In the last chapter of my 2009 book Financial Fiasco, I wrote: “If the government’s capital requirements favor certain ways of holding assets, all banks will hold their assets in those ways, and they will all be struck by the same type of problems at the same time.…After each crisis, the authorities investigate what worked better and then force market players to conform to this ‘best practice.’ All these attempts to make the system as safe as possible really make it extremely sensitive to small blows and changes.”

The problem is not faulty valuations of particular securities; those have been wrong before, and they will be wrong again. The problem is the false conceit that regulators can protect financial markets from risk simply by deciding what is less risky, then getting everybody to march in that one direction. This approach just gives every bank the same weakness. If the defense is breached, everybody will tumble to the ground together. more> http://tinyurl.com/7hybuny

Related articles

• U.S. ‘too-big-to-fail’ banks bigger than ever before (business.financialpost.com)
• Spain bailout only a matter of time, experts say (business.financialpost.com)
• Debate Grows as Europe Fears Return of a Crisis, Nicholas Kulish, NYTimes
• How Germans Get The Euro Crisis Wrong, Matthew Yglesias, Slate
• The President Of Iceland Tells Us How He Had The Balls To Stand Up To Britain, Adam Taylor, Business Insider

Hitachi Zaxis 180LC-5 excavator

Construction Equipment – ZX180LC-5 excavator from Hitachi has a boom/arm configuration that provides greater lift capacity than its smaller sibling, the ZX160LC-5, and it has a wider undercarriage for more stability. The ZX180LC-5 has a Tier 4-Interim Isuzu AI-4JJ1 diesel that generates 121 horsepower. Hitachi says the DPF will go 4,500 hours before dealer replacement. Three work modes are available:

• High Productivity (HP) delivers more power and faster hydraulic response
• Power (P) delivers a balance of power, speed, and fuel economy for normal operation, and
• Economy (E) maximizes fuel efficiency while delivering an enhanced level of productivity.

more> http://tinyurl.com/7ho8ewk

Verizon asserts broadband commitments have been met despite complaints

By Lauren T. Taniguchi – On Thursday (Apr 12, 2012), Verizon New Jersey answered the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Show Cause Order pertaining to the company’s alleged failure to comply with its service commitments through the Opportunity New Jersey (ONJ) program.

“Verizon met its commitment, investing more than $13 billion — billions more than was contemplated by ONJ — equipping 100% of its central offices with broadband capability and building out infrastructure that Board Staff acknowledges enables Verizon to offer broadband service to customers in more than 99% of the census blocks in New Jersey,” wrote attorneys on behalf of Verizon New Jersey in the company’s answer to the BPU Show Cause Order.

“…That a tiny fraction of individual households in the State are not realistically reachable for broadband service does not mean that Verizon failed to fully deploy in the State,” the answer document goes on to state. more> http://tinyurl.com/cs4ryxz

related>

• Verizon Stops Selling Standalone DSL to New Users
• Occupy protesters target Verizon in Redding, Joe Szydlowski, redding.com