Secure Your Castle

There are a lot of benefits from completing the census every 10 years. Mainly that having accurate data census data helps ensure that the seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned properly and helps decide where more than $400 billion dollars per year is allocated to projects like schools, hospitals, and construction. Over a 10 year period that comes out to $ 4 trillion dollars which is not pocket change, even for the US Government. The question is does it have to be so expensive to collect the census information.

The total bill for the 2010 Census is going to be about $15 billion dollars. Here is how the expenses stack up:

• $4.33 Billion – Other Expenses (Headquarters costs, planning, research, and tests)
• $2.74 Billion – Non-Response Follow Up (Temporary workers visit households that did not mail back the form)
• $2.05 Billion – IT Systems for Collection and Data Assessment (Contracts awarded to Harris Corp, Lockhead Martin, and IBM)
• $1.70 Billion – American Community Survey (Extra socioeconomic, housing data collected annually)
• $1.5 Billion – Regional and Local Offices and Staff
• $654 Million – Other FY 2010 Field Operations
• $500 Million – Master Address File, Mapping
• $341 Million – Vacancy Confirmation – After a failed attempt to follow up, workers verify homes
• classified as vacant or uninhabitable
• $338 Million – Advertising and Communications
• $257 Million – Postage
• $116 Million – Printing

I do not have enough of the details to determine how to lower the cost of collecting census data, just that from a high level it looks very expensive and whenever something costs $15 Billion dollars there is probably room for improvement

The wildly popular Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 for trading in less fuel-efficient cars for ones that were more fuel efficient. The administration set aside $3 billion to pay for the program. 690,000 vehicles were sold under the program.

The White House Administration touts the success of the program stating that it gave the auto industry a much needed boost in the third quarter this year. But was the program as beneficial as it seemed to be. Automotive website Edmunds.com does not think so and released a report this month claiming making their claim http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/press/159446/article.html.

Edmunds claim is that of the 690,000 vehicles sold under the program, all but 125,000 would have been bought anyways in 2009. So far the 4th quarter auto sales numbers seem to back that claim as we are on track for the worst quarter ever in auto sales. Edmunds also states that the government (or the taxpayers) spent $24,000 for each of those 125,000 cars.

This Administration fired back stating that the program provided a much needed boost to the auto industry which was on the brink of collapsing in the 3rd quarter.

It is impossible to tell what would of happened to the auto industry or overall economy had the program not be instituted. My main issues with the program were the government pushing what type of car one should buy as well as the fact that a majority of the money used for the program was taken out of a pool of money that was slated for clean energy initiatives such as Wind, Solar, and other alternative energies.

There was reason to cheer last week after the DOW crossed the 10,000 mark for the first time in over a year. The stock market advanced was fueled by a couple of sources including inflation being under control , less jobless claims than expected, and decent corporate earnings.
Not all things were rosy though as Congress announced that as expected there would be no Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for Social Security recipients. Another area of concern is in the banking industry. Citigroup announced bad mortgages were impacting it’s earnings this quarter. Capital One, JP Morgan, and Citigroup said that they were starting to feel the effects of credit card defaults. A while ago credit card defaults were seen to be the next bubble collapse after the housing industry collapse of last year. When I read this the first thing I thought of was how I used to get a mailing from Capital One every week about opening up a credit card with them and how they probably sent those mailings out to anyone with a pulse. Now it is coming back to bite them.

I am looking forward to next week. Oil prices seem to be on the move upward and there is starting to be chatter about Commercial Real Estate being the next bubble to burst. Lou Young from CBS did an interesting special on local towns losing businesses. http://www.videowired.com/video/?id=1571309631

In Obama’s short time in office we have found that he is definitely a polarizing figure. Conservatives claim that he is the next coming of Karl Marx, while Liberals believe that he is the savior and will fix all of the damage caused by President Bush.

No matter whether you lean to the left or the right, you would have to agree with the message he gave during his September 8th speech to students. Obama didn’t use the forum to push his healthcare plan or discuss any partisan issues. He stressed the importance of education and how important it is to stay in school. Even more important he made each student accountable for their future. How good or how bad you do in school is up to you, not up to your teachers, coaches, or even your parents. Obama showed that he was a leader during the speech and I have no problem with him trying to motivating our students to achieve their goals.

You can read the text of the speech here