Use sufi, policy, education, technology, communications, GlobalVillage School
A traditional book has covers, a table of
contents, chapters so is linear and fixed in time and space. An electric
book has search engines use "wiredbrain" which is not limited in content therefore is non-linear
and not fixed in time or space.
Make PORTALS
your home page and use "wiredbrain" password "synergy" for set-up start
pages.
Continued on - please let me know about errors ! Some of these pages date back up to 10 years ( 1992 ) and have been through many editors and transfers. News about what's happening and for updates use GlobalVillage Excite NewsSearch -
Continued on - please let me know about errors ! Some of these pages date back up to 10 years ( 1992 ) and have been through many editors and transfers. News about what's happening and for updates use GlobalVillage Excite NewsSearch -
There are a couple of big issues that could be debated and move the country forward in preparation for the coming crisis .
The overhang of benefits for the aged - In 1935 less 2.3 million were born and have reached 65 in 2000- in 1950 over four million were born and will reach 65 in 2015 - the current benefit is over $10,000 for Medicare and more for Social Security and going up with inflation and with more medical services the total will climb from the current about $ 400 billion ( $ 215 Medicare) to $ 1.2 trillion - 4.2 % of GNP up from 2 % for Medicare. ( Health care is 14 % of GNP )
The numbers go from 33 million beneficiaries to 60 million or 13 % to 27 %, ( children are 25 % of the population or 75 million ) , workers paying in decline from 130 million ( 45 % ) 5 workers to 1 retired to 120 or 2 to 1 worker to retired.
The cost will be 85 % of the current taxes / budget base and 20 % to 40 % of all earned income at 1.2 Trillion ( $ 1,200,000,000.00 ) or 10 % of the projected 12 trillion GDP rather quickly.
Last month, the CBO released a study that tallies up federal spending on the elderly and children. It shows that, per capita, spending on the elderly towers seven-to-one over spending on kids, and that, overall, it consumes 35 percent of the budget. This is before the age wave even begins to roll in. By 2050, according to the White House, the major senior benefit programs will consume an incredible 84 percent of budget outlays.
It would be hard to deny that the rising cost of senior benefits is one of the biggest challenges facing national policymakers in the twenty-first century. How to control that cost ought to be a central issue in the presidential campaign. But the candidates are apparently more comfortable talking about intangibles like values and leadership than about fundamental resource trade-offs.
And when they do raise concrete policy issues, from school standards to law enforcement, the issues are often ones over which, unlike senior benefits, the federal government can exercise little direct control."[ 25 % children and youth, 55 % labor pool ( 120 million working of 154 or 80 % working others in school, mothers at home and unemployed ) , 16 % elderly and the rest 5 % disabled or in jail etc. to 22 % children, 47 % labor pool, 27 % over 65 - ] Today’s school children could face a very good labor market if they get basic skill and are ready for the knowledge age.
The higher cost of labor should push technology as we become more capital intensive.
Fewer workers creating a larger economy should mean higher wages if the system is not dragged down by benefits. Private saving increase investment and growth - government benefits decrease saving, work, and investment and therefore drag the economy down. Retirement could be shifted to private savings and investment by subsidies of 401 ( k ) and IRA for more and more people.
For the poor 100 % support, declining twice as fast for each higher decile of median income - .i.e.. if you are at the 20 % level of all incomes you get a 60 % subsidy , 30% from the bottom gives is 40 % support level - of $100 in retirement ( or health benefits ) and the government gives you $ 40 toward your retirement.
The support ends at 50 % or the median income, half higher, half lower.
Then additional public benefits could be means tested and budgeted rather than an open check book system.
The Social Security and Medicare Trust fund could be transferred to the Federal Reserve - who would appoint trustees who would invest the funds like any other retirement fund such as the California States Employees fund. Current beneficiaries would be held harmless ( grandfather clause ) - and health benefits would be a fixed amount with choices such as the Federal Employees Health Plan with again a more support for the poor.
Pay more get more is not a new idea, competition and benefit / cost analysis as in every other aspect of life. No free lunch. If health care is not paid for by the client ( but a third party ) and the doctor benefits from services - it will be too expensive.
The trade imbalance is related to investment in that we are importing foreign cash to balance our export of US dollars to buy foreign goods.
Increased local savings will lower interest rates - by increasing the supply of money - and reduce the attraction of foreign investment. This will force an orderly decline in the overpriced dollar - make imports more expensive and exports cheaper. I think Ross Parot could explain it with charts but Protection is not the answer.
The gender gap is because unmarried women ( I will fight for you ) need more outside support including government help and feel ( without fathers or husbands ) more insecure than married women and many men.
They have to feel that paying down the debt, setting social security on a really sound footing, providing medical care, education and other critical public services is safe for them. ( No risky schemes ) and have less concern with tax cuts and ideological motivations.
They have to take care of children, often the elderly or are elderly themselves - they know where the tire hits the road and don't want any fancy machine going too fast on unsafe tires. After the Democratic convention, Al Gore reasserted his lead over Republican George W. Bush among women, with a margin of 15 points or more in some polls, while making the race close
"Most countries continue to face heavy tax burdens and high debt stocks and are ill-prepared to deal with the coming demographic shock from aging populations," the report said.
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000919/09/imf-europe A huge U.S. trade deficit could turn into a serious problem for the American economy if foreigners were to decide suddenly to dump dollar-denominated assets, which could push the U.S. currency down sharply and trigger steep declines in U.S. stock and bond markets http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000919/08/news-world-economy Referring to the various threats, the IMF said, "
The possibility that these imbalances may unwind in a disorderly fashion remains a risk to the global expansion." As for oil, the IMF said oil prices are about 20 percent higher than the IMF had assumed in its economic forecast, an increase of $5 a barrel. It estimated this should add $40 billion over a year's time to the oil import bills of industrial countries and cut their economic growth by 0.2 percentage points.
Of course, market prices are the result of foggy feeling, mass psychology called perceptions. BUT, over the longer run, basic economic principles and the laws of social physics will "correct" the difference between false perceptions and a harder reality.
In the
current context the following will happen - the only question is when:
1.)
The misbalance between American growth and ECU’s struggles, Japan’s and Asia’s problems put pressure on the dollar because of the trade gap:
2.) Raw declines in the dollar forces increases in the interest rates dollar securities have to pay;
3.)
The higher cost of capital slows U.S. growth rates and forces a market "correction" of the irrational exuberance of speculative
We're moving toward a world of 1 billion connected computers
sometime in the next decade," Grove said, saying it would represent
some 20 percent of the world's population and a great opportunity"
for the Pacific Rim.
The theme of "wiredbrain" is that the "new world orders" are global connections between utility network computers.
Like the human brain, the
internet's packets system
can reconfigure itself to work even after portions were destroyed. Using the noise-prone analog circuits of the time, it was impossible to
build the necessary switches. Baran concluded that all the traffic would
have to be digital. Moreover, the digital traffic would have to be broken
into short message blocks now called
"packets," each containing its own
routing information,
like a DNA molecule, and
able to replicate itself correctly whenever a transmission error occurred.
With many additions and permutations, his original design is today termed
the Internet, click here for the emerging history
An astro-physicist has said ‘ there is no reason that people should be ever be able to
understand the universe’. Our biological and intellectual background is so naturally limited by our life experience here on Earth. We have no way of comprehending or visioning space time plasma that behaves in ways impossibly strange to our ways of being and knowing. Atomic physics involves models that are not intuitive - even counter- intuitive.
Most people who have ever lived on this planet, were born and died within a fifty mile range.
Their perceptions are defined within what is called a tribal culture - part real and part superstition. Applied rational knowledge is fairly modern as a cultural style and still not seriously or firmly established as a norm.
The irrational base of human understanding is clearly demonstrated by politics and commercials.
NOW as we enter into a global technical society our social world is as little understood as the physical.
The new world order - lacks a vision or social psychological foundation.
]
The global economy requires new models of thought. It’s not surprising that it is difficult and there is a lot of active and passive resistance.
The leaders and leading institutions often don’t get it. Non-linear, transactional, mutually dependent rapid change appears to many as anarchy and chaos - morally questionable and in conflict with traditional values. That is because global transformations are a real revolution. Serious changes are disruptive of the existing order.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat;
The New York Stock Exchange lifted trading curbs at 1028 EST/1528 GMT
after the Dow pared half of a 50 point loss that brought the curbs on 17
minutes earlier.
After the curbs were lifted, two sell programs took the Dow and the
S&P500 down again, according to Birinyi Associates, a company that
monitors program trading.
Birinyi said the two sell programs took 28.73 points off the Dow and
2.98 points off the S&P500.
Wall St set to open lower, Dow seen at 9000 soon
By Marjorie Olster
NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks were set to open
lower as the market consolidated recent gains but analysts expect another
run for the key 9000 target in the coming days.
The Dow rallied to a new high of 8959 Wednesday but erased the gains
to end lower at 8872.80, dragged down by
disappointment at the failure to break 9000 and weaker bonds.
``I suspect a lower opening and a reversal later in the session,''
said Peter Cardillo, research director at Westfalia Investments.
``Sentiment is still very strong and I do expect the market to top
9000 by end of the quarter, by March 31,'' Cardillo added.
That view was echoed by other analysts on Thursday who expect stock
prices to be boosted from end-of-the-quarter buying by portfolio managers
trying to lighten up on cash.
At 0823 EST/1323 GMT, June S&P stock futures were down 4.90 points
on Globex, indicating a weaker open.
Analysts said a weaker bond market had hurt stocks on Wednesday.
Bonds fell after a stronger-than-expected report on home sales.
The benchmark long bond firmed 4/32 to 102-21/32 in early trade,
yielding 5.93 percent.
The final revision of fourth quarter gross domestic
product came in weaker than expected at up 3.7 percent versus the 3.9 percent
rate forecast.
03/26 06:40 U.S. stocks in London mark time ahead of Q1 ending
LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks in London were mostly
flat on Thursday with the
majority of investors sidelined ahead of the end of the first
quarter for investment funds later today.
08:38 [INTC] INTEL NAMES CRAIG BARRETT CEO, ANDY GROVE
REMAINS CHAIRMAN - CNBC.
announcement by bellwether Intel Corp (INTC - news) that it was increasing
a share buyback
07:30 EUROPEAN STOCKS:
GERMANY, FRANCE FALL 1% EACH. 07:29 DOLLAR DROPS AS LOW AS 128.34 YEN AS SPENDING
REPORTS SPARK DLR SELLING. 07:29 EUROPEAN STOCKS: LONDON DOWN 1.2% NEAR MIDDAY. 07:28 JAPAN STOCKS RALLY ON REPORTS OF $93 BLN STIMULUS
PLAN, NIKKEI UP 1.93%. 07:26 FCC NEW WIRELESS AUCTIONS ROUND NETS $578 MLN,
BELOW ESTIMATES. 07:24 DOLLAR HIGHER VS. YEN AFTER STIMULUS PACKAGE
RELEASE. 07:24 [QWEST] QWEST SEES EUROPEAN DATA MARKET 'EXPLODING'
TO $55 BLN IN 2000. 07:23 [QWEST] QWEST GAINS LEADING EUROPEAN INTERNET SERVICE
PROVIDER IN DEAL. 07:23 S.KOREA FALLS 9 POINTS, OR 1.77%, TO 501.13. 07:22 INDONESIA CLIMBS 28.7 POINTS, OR 5.7%, TO 532.812. 07:22 [MOT] MOTOROLA LANDS $7 MLN WIRELESS MESSAGING CONTRACT
IN CHINA. 07:21 HK HANG SENG FALLS 52.7 POINTS, OR 0.45%, TO
11757. 07:18 JAPAN'S NIKKEI CROSSES 17,000 MARK BEFORE CLOSE. 07:16 JAPAN GOV'T, RULING PARTY AGREE ON 12TRN YEN
ECON PACKAGE. 07:15 WORLD MARKETS MIXED: NIKKEI JUMPS 1.9% TO 16980. 07:13 GOOD MORNING FROM CBS MARKETWATCH.
03/25 15:11 U.S. STOCKS EXTEND SLIDE AMID WAVE OF SELL PROGRAMS,
DOW OFF
100 PTS AT 8804
NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. blue chips extended their
afternoon slide on Wednesday,
after a decline in bonds triggered a wave of profit taking.
Analysts said selling appeared focused in recent market leaders
including financial and drug stocks.
At 1518 EST/2018 EST the Dow was off 72 points, or 0.8 percent,
at 8832 after falling over 100
points.
Birinyi Associates said they had tracked six sell programs
crossing the market.
The NYSE said it set its "sidecar" trading curbs
at 1503 EST/2003 GMT after the S&P 500 futures
fell over 12 points.
"It looks like they're going after the leadership right
now: financials, drugs, telecommunications and
retail (stocks)," said Guy Truicko, equity portfolio manager
at Unity Management.
Among Dow stocks J.P. Morgan & Co Inc. <JPM.N> was
down 2-3/4 to 134-1/8, Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. <WMT.N> tumbled 1-1/6 to 49-1/16, Merck and
Co Inc. <MRK.N> slipped 3-7/8 to 128 and AT&T Corp. <T.N> dropped 3/16 to 67-5/16.
LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - Shares dipped across Europe in early
Thursday trade, consolidating after sharp gains a day earlier and dampened
by a lower close in New York.
The dollar strengthened against the yen despite news of a larger-than-expected
Japanese economic stimulus package because the measures did not contain
the income tax cuts traders deem essential to revive growth.
Traders drove the dollar as low as 128.38 yen overnight after a member
of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party said the measures would be worth
more than 16 trillion yen, the largest such package in the country's history.:
Tuesday:
LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - Stock markets surged across Europe
into new record territory in early Wednesday trade,
spurred by gains in New York and Tokyo and fuelled by strong liquidity.
However, the dollar stalled against the mark, awaiting the release of
reports on European economic convergence.
The mark was little moved in Europe on the European Monetary Institute
(EMI) and Economic Commission reports on
economic convergence which, as expected, recommended 11 states to launch
economic and monetary union (EMU).
However, the dollar was in limbo against the mark early in Europe, awaiting
for direction from the reports on European
economic convergence and the recommendations on which countries should
found the single European currency.
It was stalled against the yen before the release later this week of
Japanese economic stimulus measures. Traders expect the
dollar to claw back overnight losses and resume its climb if these steps
are deemed to be insufficient to revive growth.
The European Commission report recommended that 11 European Union countries
were fit to launch European economic and
monetary union in 1999.
TUESDAY:
08:40 US 30-YR TREASURY BOND DROPS 2/32 TO 103-10,
YIELD AT 5.88%.
Elsewhere, dealers said there was a lack of interest from investors,
with no little news to give the market impetus.
``You may see a little interest in the hi-techs but there is not much
else going on,'' said one dealer.
Dealers said investors were happy to consolidate gains following a rise
of over 300 points by the Dow last week. On Monday,
the blue chip index dropped 90.18 points to 8,816.25 following the futures
and options expiry on Friday.
``Fundamentally, nothing has changed,'' said the dealer, adding,
``I guess we will have a small bounce at the open today after yesterday's
slip.''
London's leading FTSE 100 index rose slightly. Dealers said there were
no major sellers and the market continued to be
underpinned by buying from cash-rich institutions.
``We've seen just about every institution piling cash into the FTSE
and also second-linears, but there is still talk of more bids and
more share buybacks so there's still a lot of cash around,'' said one dealer.
Paris recovered from an opening fall as buyers returned to a lively
market, with investors unwilling to be caught short on
settlement day.
Frankfurt was also stronger in electronic and in floor trading.
New highs were reached in Spain, Sweden and Belgium. In Madrid the Ibex-35
index of leading shares broke through 10,000
for the first time.
The Brussels Bel-20 index pushed through its 3,000,
while Stockholm also hit a record high.
May Brent was down in London after oil futures fell in Asian trade,
giving up some of Monday's sharp gains.
The gains
followed a weekend agreement between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico
to reduce world oil output by up to two million
barrels a day.
07:31 GERMAN DAX UP 57.98 OR $1.2% TO 5029.30.
07:30 SINGAPORE SHARES OFF 1.2% TO 1640.54.
07:23 S. KOREA SHARES FALL 0.7% TO 508.43.
07:23 INDONESIA SHARES FALL 2.8% TO 501.660.
07:23 HONG KONG HANG SENG RISES 51.10 TO 11645.43.
07:17 JAPAN'S NIKKEI OFF 262.44 TO 16606.39.
07:14 ASIAN MARKETS MOSTLY LOWER.
07:13 [WL=K8] CRUDE OIL FUTURES FALL BACK 1.9% TO $16.20.
07:12 JAPAN'S LDP DECIDES AGAINST INCOME TAX CUT.
07:10 NIKKEI FALLS 1.5% ON DISAPPOINTMENT ON TAX CUTS.
Tuesday March 24 5:41 PM EST
3Com Profit From Operations Falls 96 Pct
PALO ALTO, Calif., (Reuters) - 3Com Corp. said on Tuesday its fiscal
third-quarter profit from operations fell 96 percent, a
bigger drop than Wall Street expected, on slower sales of its computer
networking equipment.
07:50 [HAS,MAT] HASBRO, MATTEL WARN ON QUARTERLY EARNINGS.
07:49 [CMB,MER] CHASE MANHATTAN REPORTEDLY INTERESTED IN
BUYING MERRILL.
07:47 NYSE CHIEF GRASSO VISITS CHINA.
07:46 [DELL] DELL: EXPECTS STRONG SALES GROWTH TO CONTINUE
THROUGH 1998.
07:45 [MSFT] MICROSOFT SHARES TRADING $5 HIGHER IN LONDON,
TO $90/SHR.
07:24 US DOLLAR VIRTUALLY UNCHANGED AG
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