Want to Figure It Out? Here's a Good Place to Begin.

Thanks to my show, I get a lot of advance copies of books for review. This one has me glued to my seat.

Hoodwinked: It's by a former self-described "Economic Hit Man" who had an epiphany and now talks about how he and others helped create the current financial meltdown.

It's a fascinating education in basic economics, contrasting Keynesian economics, which were the principles of American business pre-Reagan, versus the profit-driven, deregulation-happy economics of Milton Friedman which Reagan and his successors have espoused.

Bottom line, he describes a global economy ruled by major corporations. It's an entirely different take on what's happened in the Middle East than what you'll hear from the media or our politicians. And it rings true.

I'm still reading, looking forward to his ideas for reform but I'm betting it's got something to do with John Maynard Keynes.

Highly recommended.

If You Thought This Year Was Bad In NY - Wait for 2011.

The 2010 budgets aren't official yet in most counties across New York, but it is not too soon to talk about 2011. In fact, the county leaders I'm talking to say it's essential that we start talking about it now.

Counties in New York have mostly managed to avoid large tax increases by cutting staff, cutting corners where they can, raiding fund balances (those rainy day accounts they all try to maintain) and raising taxes as little as possible.

All the padding will be gone in 2011. The federal stimulus dollars will be gone. Fund balances will be smaller. Costs probably won't go down and revenues are unlikely to increase. In fact, people and businesses are leaving New York, not arriving. That means even if expenses stayed exactly the same, a smaller pool of taxpayers will be paying them.

Officials in several counties say Albany has to wake up and wake up now. 2011 will be, according to the New York Public Interest Research Group, "disastrous".

Despite lip service to cost cutting and consolidation, state government spending hasn't been really cut and has, in fact, increased. The state continues to pass on its costs to local and county governments - those are the same people who pay the state taxes, too...so any savings on the state level are just smoke and mirrors.

The heartening thing is that if taxpayers start talking now, they have the opportunity to make huge changes. Every state office is up for grabs in 2010. Remind your representatives of that fact and you're likely to get their attention; particularly if you organize a series of phone calls, emails or letters.

New York government has been a mess for years and New Yorkers put up with it. If New Yorkers are so spunky, so outspoken, why aren't they screaming yet? Better yet, why aren't they supporting viable alternatives to the 'business as usual' Democrats and Republicans?

Run for office and bring your pencil - there are a lot of budget items to be reconsidered.

We Are The Working Poor

A New York woman who worked three jobs to pay for her kids' education was found dead on the job - where she'd been sleeping.

48 year old Anna May Harting of Wappingers Falls had been warned before about sleeping in the closet at her janitorial office at SUNY Purchase. But a friend said he'd helped her bring a mattress to the office because she said the long commute and the cost of gas made it worth the risk. Harting had been supervising the custodial staff at the Performing Arts Center for 13 years, and a housemate said she was working extra jobs to pay for her daughter's college and to support her son. Her children lived about an hour away.

Friends said she'd sounded sick when they'd last spoken with her. Her daughter said her mother had been recovering from bronchitis, but was getting better.

The Westchester County Medical Examiners office said the death was not suspicious.

Bringing a mattress to your job so you can sleep in the closet. What else are people doing to try to make ends meet?

EPA Doesn't Want You To See This

Follow this link to a great blog showing a video by two EPA lawyers discussing flaws of Climate Change legislation...a video they've been ordered to remove after EPA's initial approval.


http://www.twilightearth.com/politics/epa-orders-employees-to-remove-youtube-climate-video/

Cat Diplomacy

This is not a photo of our cats. I wish it was. We live in a carefully patrolled territory claimed by two warring factions. We're working on detente.

Here's what happened. I have a fat gray cat that the shelter assured me was a Lynx Point Siamese. Somewhere beneath his blubber I guess it's possible. I'd say his ancestry has a healthy dose of Tabby, but he is a lovely silvery color with wide set ice blue eyes. His previous owner declawed his front paws. So he's fat, neutered, he's good natured, he's arthritic and he has no front claws.

On the other side of the gate, joining us in this new place more than two years ago, are KB's two best friends. One is an equally tubby Ayrshire colored cat with scimitars on his paws and a distinctly doggish personality. He's willing to make nice if you just don't get between him and his food bowl. His companion is a tiny slip of a black cat with the most charming personality on the planet and issues with strangers of the feline persuasion. Both Dog Boy and the Queen are neutered as well. At least we're not dealing with that nonsense.

Here's how it was described to me: "They get along most of the time. But if the Queen sees another cat go by the window outside, she attacks her brother. He used to just look confused while she beat him up, but now he fights back. And it sounds like they're trying to kill each other. So I don't know what will happen when we try to put them all together."

We tried. We read the books, we kept them separated and let them smell each other and check out the enemy through a gate. We waited. But it all went to hell when our little Royal jumped onto a chair and found my fat gray friend sleeping there. He screamed (in total terror, no doubt), she screamed (in complete shock, more than likely) and then proceeded to kick his ass. It was horrific and I completely freaked out, trying to break it up by beating on them with a pillow. (Yes, I know. Not a good move. But adrenalin kicked in as did self-preservation.) The Queen relented, I scooped up my guy and the doors shut. We both shook for awhile.

Months passed. We put up gates between them and let them reintroduce themselves. On rare occasions, somebody got past the gate and there were no problems in the few minutes it took us to discover the breakout. We began to hope.

We tried letting my guy, known lovingly as the Monsignor, waddle into the room to watch TV and sit in my lap. But the Queen sidled up below him and he screamed like a girl. Really. He did.

Back to the other side of the gate.

So we're trying again. Last night, Her Highness was nowhere to be found and the Monsignor was banging on the gate. The big white Dog/Cat was sleeping on a hassock. Okay, then...another try. The Monsignor waddled past Dog Boy. Dog Boy quirked an eyebrow but said nothing. Neither did the Monsignor. Then Dog Boy hopped down and walked by him. BY him. The Monsignor revved up for one of his intimidating growls (if only he really was as tough as he sounds!) but I leaned over and petted them both. Dog Boy kept strolling and the Monsignor shut up, watching him go by with a very nervous look on his rather wide and somewhat vacant but good natured face. He quickly waddled back to the gate, begging for the security of his isolation. Dog Boy didn't even watch him go.

Diplomacy. It's just exhausting.

School Lockdown

Photo courtesy Poughkeepsie Journal

Little Pine Plains, New York was the lead story on most New York newscasts today; a father townpeople described as 'troubled' brought a gun into the local middle school, assembled it in a boy's bathroom and burst into the principal's office. He held the principal there for two hours as police and SWAT teams surrounded the building.

A twelve year old kid was in the guidance office, phoning his mom to bring in his homework.

He told reporters he hid under a desk for two hours, then spotted police outside the window and made a sign telling them the gunman was there and how many people were in the office. They wrote a sign in response, telling him to jump out the window. He did.

There was plenty of speculation about what led to the incident, but what struck me was that kid.

"How did you know what to do?" I asked him.

"Boy Scouts," he said. "And I have a brother in the Army so I know some things."

I wouldn't have been surprised had he said "TV" or even "video games."

Maybe that could be the one upside to the torrent of crime shows we call entertainment. This boy kept his head, even though he acknowledged he was scared to death. He figured out how to get help and he even thought to empty the change out his pockets as he snuck to that window so no one would hear him.

What was his mom's reaction, besides the obvious relief and a bit of pride?

"I wish he did that well with his schoolwork."

A Little Perspective

After seeing "Capitalism: A Love Story" I needed a little space, a little breathing room. I spent the day on top of Overlook Mountain in the Catskills.
I thought I'd share it with you.