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Political Information

No Child Left Behind needs to go Virtual


The No Child Left Behind can work if the Federal Government will put up content on the website and allow for those who are; Behind in studies, about to miss a grade level advancement, perform poorly on general tests, at home schooling students (when parents have no knowledge in subject matter), are in Juvenile Hall, live in areas very rural, have disorders, or have injuries which prevent attendance or need Summer School catch up work.

Treasury Department Falls Short on Blocked Persons List


I would like to discuss the blocked persons list of the United States Treasury and condemn the treasury for being somewhat out to lunch on the realities of the business world and how things work. First if you will check out this site with the lists of blocked people who may be involved in such activities you will see the format is impossible to utilize quickly. Blocked peoples list;

US Trade Deficit with Bordering Neighbors


The trade deficit with Canada is now 50 Billion per year. The amount of money sent back Mexico each week from migrant labor and/or illegal aliens is estimated at 8 billion per week. That is 416 Billion per year, not all that comes back here, over half moves to other lands including Cuba a non-trading partner and China which already have incredibly huge trade deficits with. As we trade with other nations and uplift their economies it provides us too with benefits. Peaceful and successful neighbors and trading partners makes for smooth relationships. We must worry however that if we are paying interest on the money, which is no longer in our economy much of which will not come back, then in fact we are fueling their economies and paying the interest too. Is the US the world?s co-signer and if so, shouldn?t we have a few guarantees and a level playing field? One could say by increasing their economies, we develop a middle class there and their citizens will then be able to afford what we sell, this is good. However if for instance Mexico trades and buys most of their consumables from China, then the money will flow to their shores instead of ours. However if we (our businesses and citizens) invest in China then we will get back some of this in growth. One could conclude that although there is a trade deficit in consumables those who of us who own mutual funds, which have emerging markets strategies, we will receive benefit and return of those dollars. When simply looking at the trade deficits, one might conclude we are in dire straights, that of course being a factual short-term view, but on further review one might also see the long-term strategy and see that as the world comes closer together everyone wins.

For they know not what they do; Federal Regulators destroying business


Federal Regulations on Business Destroy America, these regulations are a tax passed onto the every American. How much does Federal Regulations Cost each year to our society. You are not going to like these figures. It is estimated that Federal Rules and Regulations cost in excess of 788 Billion per year. Our entire federal tax contribution to our government is 829 Billion. Think of it this way every cost to a business is passed on to the consumers and in some respects that is a tax as well. It means you pay extra for nearly everything. Did you know the entire GNP of Canada is only 595 Billion total. Think of this, every time our company sells a franchise or our franchisees wash a car a large part of that price is due to over government regulation. If 788 Billion is the total cost of regulations and many of the things that are required may actually be approved by the public and only half of the regulations are legitimate to ?Protect the People? our governments ONLY real job, then 394 Billion dollars is passed onto the consumer as a HIDDEN TAX. Of course there are many names for these taxes we pass on to our consumers and not by desire.

Entrepreneur Lashes Out at Linear Thinking Government Regulators


I am personally calling for a total disbanding of the regulatory agencies as we know it immediately. This needs to be done from the inside out. We need an immediate cut of 1/3 of all regulatory personal. They need to be fired without any benefits. Those who have enough brains to understand my comments should immediately quit the agencies because they are destroying America from the inside out, like a plague, a cancer, disease, SARS or AIDS. By quitting their positions they can show America they are with us, and leave the International Terroristic Regulatory Agencies out to destroy us for their own personal fame and gain. It appears to be runaway abuse of power in a Virtual Reality Blue Goo Blob which has a mind of its own and could care less about those it is suppose to serve, us, the ones who created it and for the most part are suppose to own it. The regulatory agencies have obviously run out of targets and are attacking and over regulating good companies. I am also calling for a fight in the courts and that every company fight the agencies on every single issue brought forth and to hang tough spend the money and draw swords to fight these evil monsters back to the gates of Hell. (colorful comment? But has some truth to it, cannot fight with soft spoken words any longer, nor would such soft words do justice).

Bosnia - An Economy in Search of a State


Bosnia-Herzegovina (heretofore "Bosnia") is an artificial polity with four, tangentially interacting, economies. Serbs, Croats and their nominal allies, the Bosniaks each maintain their own economy. The bloated, fractured, turf conscious, inefficient, and often corrupt presence of the international community, in the form of the Office of the High Representative, among others, constitutes the fourth - and most dominant - parallel economy. The divergence of the economies of these components of Bosnia is so high that the inflation differential between them amounts to 13%. The Bosniak-Croat Federation experienced deflation in 1999 - while the Republika Srpska (RS) was in the throes of 14% inflation. The real effective exchange rate in RS appreciated by 13% and depreciated by 6% in the Federation between 1998-2000. Wages in the Federation are higher by 30% compared to the RS.

Slovenia - The Star Pupil


The most exciting event in Slovenia last week was when a group of young army recruits spat on the national flag and sang the anthem of the now defunct former Yugoslavia. They were sent to a military psychiatrist for observation. Indeed, economically speaking, a preference for any other part of the late Federation over Slovenia would indicate mental deformity.

The Second Coming in Albania


Blessed with Chinese GDP growth rates (7-8% annually in each of the last 3 years) and German inflation (4%, down from 32% in 1997, mostly attributable to increases in energy and housing costs), it is easy to forget Albania's Somali recent past.

Monitoring Macedonia


Close to 500,000 people - one in four - live under the poverty line in a country where the average monthly salary is less than 150 US dollars. More than one in three members of the workforce are chronically unemployed. With inflation up 5.5% in the last 12 months and taxes - borne disproportionately by the poor and the working class - at 37% of GDP, life is tough in this small, landlocked country. When faced with the choice between raising VAT from 5% to 19% on bare necessities (such as bread and milk), or extending the "temporary" "war" tax (0.5% on all financial transactions) - the finance minister of Macedonia, after an emotional all-night consultation involving the Prime Minister, chose the latter. The "war" tax brought in the equivalent of 2% of GDP (on an annualized basis) since it was introduced in July this year and helped to contain a dangerously soaring budget deficit, now at 9% (and rising) of a shrinking GDP. Yet, the controversial decision to extend it brought on sharp rebukes by local tax experts. The finance ministry also plans to cut expenditures by a further 50 million US dollars.

Hawala, or The Bank That Never Was


I. OVERVIEW

The Macedonian Lottery


Every conflict has its economic moments and dimensions. The current conflict in Macedonia perhaps even more so.

The European Bank for the Retardation of Development


In typical bureaucratese, the pensive EBRD analyst ventures with the appearance of compunction: "A number of projects have fallen short of acceptable standards (notice the passive, exculpating voice - SV) and have put the reputation of the bank at risk". If so, very little was risked. The outlandish lavishness of its City headquarters, the apotheosis of the inevitable narcissism of its first French Chairman (sliding marble slabs, motion sensitive lighting and designer furniture) - is, at this stage, its only tangible achievement. In the territories of its constituencies and shareholders it is known equally for its logy pomposity, the irrelevance of its projects, its lack of perspicacity and its Kafkaesque procedures. And where the IMF sometimes indulges in oblique malice and corrupt opaqueness, the EBRD wallows merely in avuncular inefficacy. Both are havens of insouciant third rate economists and bankers beyond rating.

Economic Free Zones in Macedonia


Question: Dr. Vaknin ? is it true that you are the father of the Law of Free Economic Zones?

Public Sector Economies in Transition


In the previous article, we described the various methods developed in the West to cope with the ever-burgeoning public sector.

The Criminality of Transition


Lecture given at the Netherlands Economic Institute (NEI) on 18/4/2001

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