Earmarks Are Out! Hallelujah!

Wow, great news, Congressional earmarks are off the list!  Republicans and Democrats coming together to deal with very real budget problems, fantastic.

Berkshire Hathaway Beats Forecast, Has $20B in the Bank

Warren Buffett continues to light the way for investors, improving financial results in a tough year.  In his annual letter to stockholders, he has an optimistic tone for the coming year. 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a 43 percent jump in fourth-quarter earnings Saturday largely because of strong performance at its railroad business and a paper gain of $1.4 billion on the company's derivative contracts and investments.
Buffett said in his annual letter to shareholders that the purchase of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad was Berkshire's highlight of 2010.
Berkshire reported net income of $4.38 billion, or $2,656 per share of its primary, Class A stock. That's up from the $3.1 billion net income, or $1,969 per Class A share, a year ago. It's also higher than the $1,695 per Class A share expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue grew nearly 20 percent to $36.2 billion from $30.2 billion a year earlier.

Buffett said Berkshire's $26.7 billion acquisition of BNSF last February is working out better than he expected. The railroad added $2.2 billion to Berkshire's net income in 2010.
In his annual letter to investors, Buffett wrote:  "Earlier I explained just how important railroads are to our country’s future. Rail moves 42% of America’s inter-city freight, measured by ton-miles, and BNSF moves more than any other railroad – about 28% of the industry total. A little math will tell you that more than 11% of all inter-city ton-miles of freight in the U.S. is transported by BNSF."


Revenue for the full year was $136.2 billion, up 21 percent from $112.5 billion a year earlier.
Buffett said he's looking for more big acquisitions to boost Berkshire's earnings power.  Berkshire Hathaway continues to bank $20 billion dollars in cash.

Paul Krugman Praises the President

Paul Krugman's recent column blows the smoke of complexity and distraction away from the huge federal budget crisis, and praises President Obama for his actions.  It's about time the President gets some credit, and it's good to see.  As usual, this is a good read.
Paul Krugman's column

David Brooks and the Great Stagnation

David Brooks of the New York Times writes about the book The Great Stagnation by Tyler Cowen.  In the book, the author maintains that the world became a different place in 1974.  He points out the auto industry employes millions of workers, but today, the new economy is eBay, Facebook, etc., where we spend our time but not our money, and these companies employe just a few thousand workers.  Where will the jobs come from in the future?  It's a very interesting read, and I'm going to get a copy of Cowen's book.

David Brooks column

American Public Shows How it Would Cut the Budget Deficit

I  found a new organization and website, one which I agree with wholeheartedly on their view of how citizens have been disenfranchised from their government.  See their website at:
Program for Public Consultation

They completed a study recently on how the public would deal with the federal budget deficit.  Through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, on average, respondents cut the discretionary budget deficit projected for 2015 by seventy percent.  I'll bet you will be surprised at some of the actions those in this study opted to take.  You can also take your shot at how you would reduce the deficit, at their website.

An equally interesting result came from a recent poll of Americans, in which only two in ten said their country is "is run for the benefit of all the people" while eight in ten said the country is "pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves." Other democracies have similar views.


This problem seems to be getting worse. When this question was first asked to Americans in 1964 two thirds said that the country was run for the benefit of all the people, but this number has been descending ever since.

People are also frustrated with the level of partisanship in government decisionmaking. 64% chose the position "The parties fight for their narrow interests, the will of the people is ignored, and the results do not serve the people."

Low trust in government is highly correlated with the perception that government is not responding to the will of the people. Presented the argument that "Government tends to get bogged down in partisan conflict and distorted by the influence of moneyed interests. Thus, it is necessary for the public to have a stronger voice in shaping government decisions," 78% found it convincing.

This does not mean that people think that government should follow public opinion in a lock-step fashion. Asked how much influence the will of the people should have on government decisionmaking on a scale of 0 to 10, the mean response was 7.9--a high level, though well below 10. But asked how much influence the people are having, the mean response just 4.0. More than 8 in 10 said the public should have greater influence.