Peace Through Profits? Inside The Secret Tech Ventures That Are Reshaping The Israeli-Arab-Palestinian World

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2013/07/24/peace-through-profits-a-private-sector-detente-is-drawing-israelis-palestinians-closer/

My Brother in Law in the WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323393804578559583374805870.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

It's been a nice break...

It's been a nice break from public service the past 18 months.  But all good things must come to an end:

www.votepaulcutler.com

Why I support Dan Liljenquist

Friends, I'd like to share with you why I support Dan Liljenquist. My decision to support Dan is based on my interaction with both Orrin and Dan before they started their campaigns -- not on anything that they have said or done as part of the campaign process.

My Experience with Dan the past 5 years:  

• Dan is not afraid to take on the big issues, like entitlement reform. As a freshman Utah State Senator, Dan told me he was going to take on state pension reform. I told him I thought he was crazy -- that he needed more time and "seniority" to put together such important legislation. Dan proved me wrong, and was successful at working with others to make structural reforms to the system, saving Utah Taxpayers billions over the coming years.
• Dan has real analytical "skills". As a former Bain consultant, he is not afraid to dive deep into the data and numbers on a specific issue. Dan does his research, gathers the facts, prepares his case well, and makes a clear logical, fact based argument for needed legislation. Like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, he has the financial and business skills necessary to help craft the reforms that are needed to get entitlement growth under control.  
• Dan an incredibly effective and persuasive communicator -- which is a skill needed to be a good consensus builder for important legislation. Dan has helped me to change my mind on issues, by presenting good data, and persuasively communicating his viewpoint.  
• People like working with Dan. When given a chance, people would rather work with positive, energetic, forward thinking people. If we are going to make the structural reforms that are needed in this country, it will come from the positive thinking, idea generating, risk taking legislators, like Paul Ryan and Dan Liljenquist -- not from long time Washington insiders.  
• He is a good listener and meets with stakeholders before finalizing legislation. When working on Utah State pension reform issues, he met repeatedly with UEA and other representatives of state employees. He talked upfront, openly and fairly with others about the needed changes, and made modifications to his ideas based on feedback and arguments from his critics.  
• Dan is committed to fair, feasible, and sustainable entitlement reform -- not to a long political career. He will get the job done, then move on to something else. He has committed to term limit himself. You can learn more at Dan's web-site at www.danforutah.com

My Experience with Orrin the past 8 years:

 I like Orrin Hatch and believe he has done many many good things for Utah over the years. He has provided good service to the citizens of Utah. As a former City Councilman, there were times when we tried to fight the bureaucracy of Washington on issues that impacted our city. Senator Hatch and his staff were willing to listen to concerns that were brought to their attention. I observed that Senator Hatch and his staff were not always willing to use his seniority or position to rattle cages or make changes unless it was politically advantageous for his office. If there was any chance that helping local cities on a specific issue might impact him negatively from a political perspective, my perception was that he was generally not willing to go very far out on a limb for us. I am not convinced that it is in Orrin's nature to make the unpopular choices that are going to have to be made to reform entitlement growth.

 Please take the time to vote on Tuesday June 26.
Polls are open 7AM to 8PM -- look up where to vote here: http://vote.utah.gov/

Respectfully,
Paul Cutler

Noonan: America's Crisis of Character - The Wall Street Journal.

Noonan: America's Crisis of Character

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303513404577354221282508372.html

Sixteen Concerned Scientists: No Need to Panic About Global Warming - The Wall Street Journal.

I thought you would be interested in the following story on WSJ.com.

Sixteen Concerned Scientists: No Need to Panic About Global Warming

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html

Dan is officially running for the Senate!

Jalen Rose: From the Fab Five to the Three Rs - The Wall Street Journal.

I thought you would be interested in the following story on WSJ.com.

Jalen Rose: From the Fab Five to the Three Rs

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203413304577088270404438882.html

Excellent Video from Jim Ferrell of the Arbinger Institure

Jon Huntsman: Our Current Time for Choosing - The Wall Street Journal.

M

Jon Huntsman: Our Current Time for Choosing

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576357450908758760.html

Davis County Clipper - Short stacks for a tall cause

Davis County Clipper - Short stacks for a tall cause

Clayton Christensen -- Healthcare Reform

> http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0314/features-clayton-christensen-health-care-cancer-survivor_11.html

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey: A Predictable Tragedy in Arizona

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey: A Predictable Tragedy in Arizona

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Dave Barry’s 2010 Year in Review - Dave Barry - MiamiHerald.com

Dave Barry’s 2010 Year in Review - Dave Barry - MiamiHerald.com

$3 billion wasn’t enough?

Thomas Friedman: $3 billion wasn’t enough?

By thomas l. friedman

The New York Times  Published: December 14, 2010 01:01AM

The failed attempt by the United States to bribe Israel with a $3 billion security assistance package, diplomatic cover and advanced F-35 fighter aircraft — if Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu would simply agree to a 90-day settlements freeze to resume talks with the Palestinians — has been enormously clarifying. It demonstrates just how disconnected from reality both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships have become.

Oil is to Saudi Arabia what unconditional American aid and affection are to Israel — and what unconditional Arab and European aid and affection are to the Palestinians: a hallucinogenic drug that enables them each to think they can defy the laws of history, geography and demography. It is long past time that we stop being their crack dealers.

At a time of nearly 10 percent unemployment in America, we have the Israelis and the Palestinians sitting over there with their arms folded, waiting for more U.S. assurances or money to persuade them to do what is manifestly in their own interest: negotiate a two-state deal. Shame on them, and shame on us. You can’t want peace more than the parties themselves, and that is exactly where America is today. The people running Israel and Palestine have other priorities. It is time we left them alone to pursue them — and to live with the consequences.

They just don’t get it: We’re not their grandfather’s America anymore. We have bigger problems.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators should take a minute and put the following five words into Google: “budget cuts and fire departments.” Here’s what they’ll find: American city after city — Phoenix, Cincinnati, Austin, Washington, Jacksonville, Sacramento, Philadelphia — all having to cut their fire departments. Then put in these four words: “schools and budget cuts.”I guarantee you, if someone came to these cities and said, “We have $3 billion we’d like to give to your schools and fire departments if you’ll just do what is manifestly in your own interest,” their only answer would be: “Where do we sign?” And so it should have been with Israel.

Israel, when America, a country that has lavished billions on you over the last 50 years and taken up your defense in countless international forums, asks you to halt settlements for three months to get peace talks going, there is only one right answer, and it is not “How much?” It is: “Yes, whatever you want, because you’re our only true friend in the world.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, what are you thinking? Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, offered you a great two-state deal, including East Jerusalem — and you let it fritter away. Now, instead of chasing after Obama and telling him you’ll show up for negotiations anywhere under any conditions that the president asks, you’re also setting your own terms. Here’s some free advice: When America goes weak, if you think the Chinese will deliver Israel for you, you’re wrong. I know China well. It will sell you out for a boatload of Israeli software, drones and microchips so fast that your head will spin.

I understand the problem. Israeli and Palestinian leaders cannot end the conflict between each other without having a civil war within their respective communities. Netanyahu would have to take on the settlers, and Abbas would have to take on Hamas and the Fatah radicals. Both men have silent majorities that would back them if they did, but neither man feels so uncomfortable with his present situation to risk that civil war inside to make peace outside. There are no Abe Lincolns out there.

What this means, argues the Hebrew University philosopher Moshe Halbertal, is that the window for a two-state solution is rapidly closing. Israel will end up permanently occupying the West Bank with its 2.5 million Palestinians. We will have a one-state solution. Israel will have inside its belly 2.5 million Palestinians without the rights of citizenship, along with 1.5 million Israeli Arabs. “Then the only question will be what will be the nature of this one state — it will either be apartheid or Lebanon,” said Halbertal. “We will be confronted by two horrors.”

The most valuable thing that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton could do now is just get out of the picture — so both leaders and both peoples have an unimpeded view of their horrible future together in one state, if they can’t separate.

It’s all a fraud. America must get out of the way so Israelis and Palestinians can see clearly, without any obstructions, what reckless choices their leaders are making.

Make no mistake, I am for the most active U.S. mediation effort possible to promote peace, but the initiative has to come from them. The Middle East only puts a smile on your face when it starts with them.

The Overseas Profits Elephant in the Room

There's a trillion dollars waiting to be repatriated if tax policy is right.

By JOHN CHAMBERS AND SAFRA CATZ

During last year's "Jobs Summit," President Obama said he was open to any good idea to get the economy moving again. Today he should be especially so, since Washington's many monetary and fiscal policy decisions have not been able to spur the robust growth or job expansion that we all would like. And yet there is a simple idea—the trillion-dollar elephant in the room—that has apparently been dismissed for no good reason.
One trillion dollars is roughly the amount of earnings that American companies have in their foreign operations—and that they could repatriate to the United States. That money, in turn, could be invested in U.S. jobs, capital assets, research and development, and more.
But for U.S companies such repatriation of earnings carries a significant penalty: a federal tax of up to 35%. This means that U.S. companies can, without significant consequence, use their foreign earnings to invest in any country in the world—except here.
The U.S. government's treatment of repatriated foreign earnings stands in marked contrast to the tax practices of almost every major developed economy, including Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Australia and Canada, to name a few. Companies headquartered in any of these countries can repatriate foreign earnings to their home countries at a tax rate of 0%-2%. That's because those countries realize that choking off foreign capital from their economies is decidedly against their national interests.

Many commentators have pointed to the large cash balances sitting on U.S. corporate books as evidence that the economy is still stalled because companies aren't spending. That analysis misses the point. Large cash balances remain on U.S. corporate books because U.S. companies can't spend their foreign-held cash in the U.S. without incurring a prohibitive tax liability.

Especially with corporate bond rates falling below 4%, it's hard to imagine any responsible corporation repatriating foreign earnings at a combined federal and state tax rate approaching 40%.
By permitting companies to repatriate foreign earnings at a low tax rate—say, 5%—Congress and the president could create a privately funded stimulus of up to a trillion dollars. They could also raise up to $50 billion in federal tax revenue. That's money the economy would not otherwise receive.
The amount of corporate cash that would come flooding into the country could be larger than the entire federal stimulus package, and it could be used for creating jobs, investing in research, building plants, purchasing equipment, and other uses. It could also provide needed stability for the equity markets because companies would expand their activity in mergers and acquisitions, and would pay dividends or buy back stock. And when markets go up, confidence increases and businesses and consumers begin to spend.
The $50 billion boost in federal tax revenue, meanwhile, could be used to help put America back to work. For example, Congress could use it to give employers—large or small—a refundable tax credit for hiring previously unemployed workers (including recent graduates). The tax credit could equal up to 50% of a worker's first-year and second-year wages, capped at $12,500 per year (or $25,000 total per new hire).
Such a program could help put more than two million Americans back to work at no cost to the government or American taxpayers. How's that for a good idea?
Mr. Chambers is chairman and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems. Ms. Catz is president of Oracle Corporation.

Peter Berkowitz: The Death of Conservatism Was Greatly Exaggerated - The Wall Street Journal.

Peter Berkowitz: The Death of Conservatism Was Greatly Exaggerated

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704147804575455090270186082.html

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Public Pensions and Our Fiscal Future - The Wall Street Journal.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Public Pensions and Our Fiscal Future

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449813071709510.html

Arthur Laffer: The Soak-the-Rich Catch-22 - The Wall Street Journal.

Arthur Laffer: The Soak-the-Rich Catch-22

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703977004575393882112674598.html

Go Dan Go -- States Shift to Hybrid Pensions

States Shift to Hybrid Pensions

Facing Shortfalls, Some Combine Guaranteed Plans With 401(k)-Like Options

By JEANNETTE NEUMANN

State governments, one of the last bastions of guaranteed pensions, are increasingly taking a page from the 401(k) plans that dominate the private sector.

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Ramin Rahimian for The Wall Street Journal

Utah state Sen. Dan Liljenquist pushed his state to move toward a pension plan more similar to those used in the private sector.

Some new state workers in Michigan and Utah will soon begin to receive part of their retirement benefits from a 401(k)-type plan, after lawmakers there recently voted to adopt plans that combine a 401(k) component with a guaranteed benefit.

These hybrid plans are a cost-cutting measure for states seeking to pare back the guaranteed-retirement payments considered a bedrock benefit for government workers. The new plans shift more responsibility for funding retirement benefits to employees and, some say, could make government jobs less attractive. In down markets, the plans could mean less-generous benefits for these workers, who have sidestepped the market volatility many of their private-sector counterparts endured in recent years.

Utah and Michigan join six other states that have some form of hybrid plans for public workers. Most of those states, including Oregon and Washington, created hybrid plans within the past 15 years.

A number of other states, facing looming pension-fund liabilities, have expressed interest in hybrid plans, industry participants say. Some officials in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, for instance, are contemplating a move to a hybrid plan.

"Reality is not negotiable," says Utah state Sen. Dan Liljenquist, a Republican who was instrumental in crafting the legislation for the state's pension changes. "The fact is somebody bears the risk. Ultimately, the state is bearing more risk than it can."

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Total unfunded public-pension liabilities in the U.S. increased to $457.8 billion in fiscal year 2008 from $368.5 billion in 2007, according to a June report by Standard & Poor's. States have taken various measures to bridge that funding gap, including scaling back cost-of-living adjustments, increasing monthly contributions from employees toward their pensions or extending the retirement age. Often the changes only affect new hires.

Governments trying to rein in pension costs hope these hybrid plans can represent a middle ground. Since they maintain a defined-benefit plan for workers, the hybrid plans can help lawmakers skirt the political backlash that could accompany any threat to a pension, while they move some of the investment risk to employees.

Though not a booming trend, "hybrids are being looked at now more than ever before," said Cathie Eitelberg, senior vice president and public-sector practice leader at the Segal Co., whose clients include government pension funds.

In Utah, most current employees are in a pension where the state in 2010 contributes 16% of an employee's monthly income. Workers do not contribute. Faced with rising contribution rates, lawmakers voted to have new workers as of July 1, 2011 choose to enroll in a defined-contribution plan—like a 401(k)—or a hybrid plan.

In the hybrid plan, workers can invest in a 401(k)-type fund. State and employee contributions to the defined-benefit portion of the hybrid plan fluctuate based on the financing of the pension fund. The state contribution is capped at 10% across both parts of the plan.

In Michigan, new school employees as of July 1 contribute 2% of monthly income to a 401(k)-type fund, with state employers matching up to 1% of pay. Employees are automatically enrolled in the fund but can choose to opt out or choose to contribute more.

There is still a defined-benefit component, but it will cost the state less: Public employers will contribute on average 2.5% of an employee's monthly income toward retirement, down from an average base of 4%. There is no longer a cost-of-living adjustment in retirement.

Retirement officials hope that most new employees will contribute to the 401(k)-type fund to try to maximize their retirement benefits by taking advantage of the employer match, said Phil Stoddard, director of Michigan's Office of Retirement Services.

"We hope to create a culture of savings" with the defined-contribution component, Mr. Stoddard said. The 401(k) component becomes portable, which he said can make the benefit plan attractive for younger workers who are unlikely to remain in one job for 30 years, Mr. Stoddard said.

Some workers aren't enthralled. "It's less benefit overall because of the variability of that 401(k) component," said Doug Pratt, director of communications for the Michigan Education Association, a union representing 130,000 school employees.

The reduced benefits mean "we're going to lose some good people" who will find the benefits package less attractive, he said. But a hybrid plan is "certainly a better alternative than ditching pensions all together."

The vast majority of public sector employees have a defined-benefit plan-79% in 2008, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit research institute in Washington. In comparison, 33% of private-sector employees were enrolled in a pension plan in the same period.

Eighteen percent of state workers had a defined-contribution plan in 2008, compared with 55% of private-sector workers enrolled in a defined-contribution plan.

The heightened interest in hybrid plans doesn't appear to foreshadow a swift change toward defined-contribution plans. Though defined-contribution plans are often on legislative agendas, they rarely have been adopted in the public sector, says Ron Snell, director of the state-services division for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Only Alaska and the District of Columbia have mandatory defined-contribution plans for all workers, according to a June report by Mr. Snell.

Woot vs Amazon?

http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=13390

Why Obamanomics Has Failed - The Wall Street Journal.

Allan Meltzer: Why Obamanomics Has Failed

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Manute Bol's Radical Christianity - The Wall Street Journal.

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Andy Kessler: The iPhone, Net Neutrality and the FCC - The Wall Street Journal.

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Arthur C. Brooks: Slouching Towards Athens - The Wall Street Journal.

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Why America Needs a National Broadband Plan -- John Chambers

Why America Needs a National Broadband Plan

Business' ability to compete—and Americans' well-being—depend on fast Internet access. Washington can help push the U.S. ahead, says Cisco's Chambers

By John Chambers

If the U.S. military ranked 17th in the world, you can bet that as a nation we would make strengthening our armed forces a national priority. Yet that's just how the U.S. stacks up against the rest of the world in terms of access to high-speed Internet connections. The vital communications systems that make our economy work and serve as a platform for business innovation and social interactions are second-class. Sadly, many of us have accepted that.
It's time to overcome our broadband complacency. The national broadband plan sent to Congress on Mar. 16 by the Federal Communications Commission is critical to our economic and national security. Without a plan, we simply cannot compete.
Some pundits have suggested that businesses are against the national broadband plan. A Mar. 15 editorial in The Wall Street Journal said the plan is "opposed by industry." It's true that some will reject the effort, saying it's not up the government to set industrial policy. Generally, I agree with that sentiment. But we should remember that government leadership can point our nation in a direction that businesses and citizens can follow. We need not look any further than President John F. Kennedy's call to put a man on the moon in the 1960s or the very creation of the Internet, which started as a government project until businesses seized on it as an economic and social platform.
Making broadband a national priority will help us become more competitive globally and help us see firsthand how new jobs, businesses, and even new business models can be enabled by access to faster Web connectivity.

Personal Success and Job Creation

Broadband empowers our citizens and businesses. It helps homeowners and business operators understand, control, and even manage their carbon emissions. Through smart highways, it lets workers take control of their commute. Through connected systems, it helps people manage the information they need to be successful in an office, at home, or while traveling. It will enable citizens to get the health assistance they need virtually—whether the doctor is sitting next door or a thousand miles away. And it eliminates barriers to quality education for all Americans.
As we gain access to ever faster broadband speeds, the relationship between businesses and their employees, customers, and partners is dramatically altered. More than 80% of 18- to 24-year-olds participate in some form of social networking. Organizational models are being rethought as global leaders face the imperative of bringing teams together across businesses and functions as well as regions, cultures, and languages. The very question of how businesses interact with customers and suppliers is now open to debate, thanks in part to the new platforms presented by broadband and video technologies.
Our world is increasingly defined by data and video, balanced by our ability to act upon it. We see it in our daily lives, whether it's the decisions we make at work, home, or on the move, on any topic such as health, education, or entertainment. To put it in perspective, by 2015 the yearly amount of U.S. traffic on the Internet will reach the equivalent of the contents of 50 million Libraries of Congress. Our ability to access that information, analyze it, and make decisions will determine not only our personal success but also the future of our job creation within businesses, industries, and ultimately countries.

A Critical Stage for Digital Networks

At Cisco, our core business is networking and providing bandwidth, so ultimately we should benefit from this plan. However, because of broadband's impact on the larger economy, and on health care and education in particular, we would be supportive even if we did not stand to benefit.
As profound an impact as the Internet has made so far, we are still at the early stages. Electricity was a game-changer at the start of the 20th century, but for everyone to benefit the government had to get involved. So we are at a similar inflection point with our digital networks.
It may take years for us to grasp either the speed or the magnitude of the changes happening globally. For example, in the next three years the number of Internet users will increase by 500 million, most of them from Asia, and the number of Internet-enabled devices will nearly double, creating new business and social dynamics.
Here is what we do know: We are only as strong as the systems and infrastructure we have. A world that used to be defined by who ruled the High Seas is now defined by who delivers the best network connections. The FCC has shown leadership by pointing us in a direction. Now it's time for the rest of us to build the systems that are vital to the economic and social future of every nation.

Chambers is Chief Executive Officer of Cisco Systems, the world's largest maker of networking equipment .

Letter to UTA on Proposed Centerville Streetcars

UTA & Consultants,

I appreciate the professional manner in which UTA and their consultants have shared information on the South Davis Transit Study with citizens and residents in our community.  The open house at Centerville Jr. High School on March 2nd was very well attended.  Despite a lot of emotional responses from the public, the UTA team was able to stay completely professional, as far as I could observe.  Thank you for your efforts in that regard.

As a Main Street resident, I have no desire to ever see a streetcar line built on Main Street in Centerville.  However, the planning that has been done is valuable, and I can understand that someday in the future, the population density of Centerville, and of South Davis County may increase, and change demographically in such a way that a more upscale mass transit system, such as streetcar system, could benefit many.  

At the current time I see absolutely no economic justification for spending the estimated $400M+  required to build the system, or the increased maintenance costs.  Currently there is very little public support for the streetcar system, and significant opposition.  I suspect there would also be overwhelming opposition to the tax increases that would be required to build the proposed streetcar system at this time.   I am also opposed to the current design of the system in Centerville with a final stop near Center street.  It would like require condemnation of portions outside the right of way, which the City Council has opposed.  The business owners in this area have expressed opposition to the stop, and this area does not seem a logical location for a transit stop.  In my opinion, a better design would be to have the system stop at Pages lane as the final stop, or continue on to Parish, with a final stop nearer to the commercial and entertainment district on Parish Lane and 400 West.


Out of the choices available in the study, my personal opinion and recommendation is to favor the "no build" option.  I believe that Centerville served relatively cost effectively with the bus program in place.   I would like to see two major improvements to mass transit in Centerville that are not mentioned in the study, and would have a much better cost/benefit impact for residents and visitors than the streetcar system:

1.  Bus Stop Shelters on Main Street in Centerville.  There are Main Street bus stops in Centerville that are frequently used, where riders would benefit significantly from simple bus stop Shelters.   I frequently see potential riders in the rain or snow waiting near Parish and Main St and at other busy stops between Pages Lane and Parish Lane.  For a relatively small amount of money, shelters could improve the transit experience in Centerville significantly, and would likely boost ridership.
2. Frontrunner Stop at the planned Legacy Crossing development.  A frontrunner stop integrated into the proposed Larry H. Miller Theater entertainment center and multi-family residential development near I-15 and Parish Lane would be very attractive to our community and would likely be used significantly more than a streetcar system.   There is a great opportunity to plan now for the possibility of a Front Runner stop that would serve substantial commercial & residential traffic.  A stop in this area would likely cost less than Centerville's portion of the streetcar system, and would attract riders.

Thank you again for the opportunity to share my comments.

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Cogan, Hubbard, and Kessler: A Better Way to Reform Health Care - The Wall Street Journal.

: A Better Way to Reform Health Care

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Did I Get Married Too Young? - The Wall Street Journal.

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Paul D. Ryan: A GOP Road Map for America's Future - The Wall Street Journal.

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Nigel Lawson: Time for a Climate Change Plan B - The Wall Street Journal.

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Interview with Meb Keflezighi: Running Man

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The No-Cost Path to Cheaper Health Care - The Wall Street Journal.

The No-Cost Path to Cheaper Health Care

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013004574517961189341646.html

Charles Gasparino: Three Decades of Subsidized Risk - The Wall Street Journal.

Charles Gasparino: Three Decades of Subsidized Risk

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703363704574503404180541392.html

Strassel: The Chicago Way - The Wall Street Journal.

Strassel: The Chicago Way

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704224004574489563238177126.html

Job Creation 10

Job Creation 101

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459341050610398.html

The Nobel Hope Prize

The Nobel Hope Prize

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574463142879190358.html

Paul Cutler

801-390-3444

The Meaning of Nummi

Jenkins: The Meaning of Nummi

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574457242497429898.html

Fwd: How Teachers Unions Lost the Media - The Wall Street Journal.

How Teachers Unions Lost the Media

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574426991456414888.html

WSJ archive on Obamacare

(for reference)

A real life hero who influence millions of lives

If you want to make a real difference in this world....don't become an environmentalist or a politician. Become an agriculturalist like Norman Borlaug.

The Man Who Defused the 'Population Bomb' -- One of America's greatest heroes remains little known in his home country.

If you believe hard enough....you can overcome reality, right?

A nice bit of Comedy on our Friends in Washington DC. If you believe hard enough....you can overcome reality, right?

How Bad is the Economy Really?

Here is a snippet from this interesting article:

Employment
The indicator that has been garnering a lot of attention recently is the national jobs count. The 3.57 million jobs that have been lost since the recession started in December 2007 are a significant number. However, at 2.6% of the total jobs in the U.S., these losses are not as large as have been seen in previous recessions. Figure 1 compares job losses in each recession since 1945.

Figure 1: Recessions and U.S. Job Losses-A Historical Perspective 1945-Present
Recession	Number of Months	Peak Employment	Month Peak Employment Obtained	Number of Jobs Lost During Downturn	Lost Jobs as a Percent of Total Jobs	Number of Months to Return to Pre-Recession Employment
Feb-Oct 1945	9	41,903,000	Feb-45	3,305,000	7.9%	9 (Jul-46)
Nov 48-Oct 1949	12	45,194,000	Nov-48	2,244,000	5.0%	9 (Jul-50)
Jul 53-May 1954*	11	50,536,000	Jul-53	1,571,000	3.1%	13 (Jun-55)
Aug 57-April 1958	9	53,128,000	Aug-57	2,102,000	4.0%	12 (Apr-59)
Apr 60-Feb 1961	11	54,812,000	Apr-60	1,256,000	2.3%	10 (Dec-61)
Dec 69-Nov 1970	12	71,453,000	Mar-70	1,044,000	1.5%	10 (Sep-71)
Nov 73-Mar 1975*	17	78,634,000	Jul-74	2,115,000	2.7%	11 (Feb-76)
Jan 80-Jul 1980	7	90,991,000	Mar-80	1,159,000	1.3%	6 (Jan-81)
Jul 81-Nov 1982*	17	91,594,000	Jul-81	2,838,000	3.1%	11 (Nov-83)
Jul 90-Mar 1991*	9	109,775,000	Jul-90	1,579,000	1.4%	23 (Feb-93)
Mar 01-Nov 2001*	9	132,500,000	Mar-01	2,678,000	2.0%	39 (Feb-05)
Dec 07-Present	14	138,152,000	Dec-07	3,572,000	2.6%	TBD
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Series (CES), Seasonally Adjusted Data and National Bureau of Economic & Business Research, Business Cycle Dating Committee
*Jobs in these recessions hit their low point after the recession was official declared over. For most, this low point was within a few months. The 2001 recession is the exception--jobs did not reach the trough until August 2003, when total nonfarm jobs reached a low of 129,882,000.

As the chart shows, the current recession is now one of the longest since 1945—exceeded only by the downturns of 1973 and 1981. The current jobs losses are not nearly as severe as those experienced during five previous recessions, when measured as a percent of total jobs.

WSJ: America and the new financial world

A very thoughtful article that our Senators and Congressman should be forced to read.

NY Times op ed on Bandwidth Cartel

This is a little two left wing for me, but the author raises some very good points that it is poor policy that is partially to blame for both the Oil and Bandwidth problems in America.

--------------------------------------

Op-Ed Contributor

OPEC 2.0

By TIM WU

Published: July 30, 2008

AMERICANS today spend almost as much on bandwidth — the capacity to move information — as we do on energy. A family of four likely spends several hundred dollars a month on cellphones, cable television and Internet connections, which is about what we spend on gas and heating oil.

Just as the industrial revolution depended on oil and other energy sources, the information revolution is fueled by bandwidth. If we aren’t careful, we’re going to repeat the history of the oil industry by creating a bandwidth cartel.

Like energy, bandwidth is an essential economic input. You can’t run an engine without gas, or a cellphone without bandwidth. Both are also resources controlled by a tight group of producers, whether oil companies and Middle Eastern nations or communications companies like AT&T, Comcast and Vodafone. That’s why, as with energy, we need to develop alternative sources of bandwidth.

Wired connections to the home — cable and telephone lines — are the major way that Americans move information. In the United States and in most of the world, a monopoly or duopoly controls the pipes that supply homes with information. These companies, primarily phone and cable companies, have a natural interest in controlling supply to maintain price levels and extract maximum profit from their investments — similar to how OPEC sets production quotas to guarantee high prices.

But just as with oil, there are alternatives. Amsterdam and some cities in Utah have deployed their own fiber to carry bandwidth as a public utility. A future possibility is to buy your own fiber, the way you might buy a solar panel for your home.

Encouraging competition is another path, though not an easy one: most of the much-hyped competitors from earlier this decade, like businesses that would provide broadband Internet over power lines, are dead or moribund. But alternatives are important. Relying on monopoly producers for the transmission of information is a dangerous path.

After physical wires, the other major way to move information is through the airwaves, a natural resource with enormous potential. But that potential is untapped because of a false scarcity created by bad government policy.

Our current approach is a command and control system dating from the 1920s. The federal government dictates exactly what licensees of the airwaves may do with their part of the spectrum. These Soviet-style rules create waste that is worthy of Brezhnev.

Many “owners” of spectrum either hardly use the stuff or use it in highly inefficient ways. At any given moment, more than 90 percent of the nation’s airwaves are empty.

The solution is to relax the overregulation of the airwaves and allow use of the wasted spaces. Anyone, so long as he or she complies with a few basic rules to avoid interference, could try to build a better Wi-Fi and become a broadband billionaire. These wireless entrepreneurs could one day liberate us from wires, cables and rising prices.

Such technologies would not work perfectly right away, but over time clever entrepreneurs would find a way, if we gave them the chance. The Federal Communications Commission promised this kind of reform nearly a decade ago, but it continues to drag its heels.

In an information economy, the supply and price of bandwidth matters, in the way that oil prices matter: not just for gas stations, but for the whole economy.

And that’s why there is a pressing need to explore all alternative supplies of bandwidth before it is too late. Americans are as addicted to bandwidth as they are to oil. The first step is facing the problem.

Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School and the co-author of “Who Controls the Internet?”

Romney's Brain

I thought this article was interesting....

LaVarr Webb on Vouchers

I can appreciate the opinions of both sides -- and I'll continue to send my kids to public schools. Personally, I support a limited experiment with vouchers like the one proposed and I like LaVarr's article.

UDOT officials to assess traffic patterns after Wal-Mart opens

Centerville has spent a lot of time and effort planning ahead. While UDOT has been responsive and expedited the work on the I-15 Overpass, we wish they could have been more flexible in planning ahead on this turn signal.

Two new Clipper articles on UTOPIA

The Clipper did a pretty decent job of research on these two articles.

UTOPIA delays keep vision from reality
Jenniffer Wardell 05.JUL.07

UTOPIA: Is the grand vision worth the wait?
Jenniffer Wardell 10.JUL.07


Look for a press release on R.U.S. funding soon.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!
7 min 7 sec - Dec 23, 2006
Description: We hope you are having a great holiday season.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5208689324261922235&pr=goog-sl

Porcupine Ridge Pipeline

Just to set the record straight (there is an error in the desnews article)-- Centerville City has no agreement with Holly EP. While City Officials are negotiating a potenial franchise agreement, the City may still decide not to enter into an agreement and may force Holly to make a decision on condemning property.

Where do politicians get the crazy idea that the world needs yet another convention center? From the experts, of course.

I have written a letter to the county commissioners on my opposition to the expansion -- I may publish that at a later time.

This is a Forbes Article that I find useful when considering the expansion of the County Convention Center.

The Answer Is Always Yes
Victoria Murphy, 02.28.05

Where do politicians get the crazy idea that the world needs yet another convention center? From the experts, of course.

Portland, Ore.'s trade show business was thriving back in 1997, when the city hatched plans to double the size of its Oregon Convention Center to 368,000 square feet, the largest in the Northwest.

Today, $116 million in bricks, mortar and carpeting later, Portland's trade hall is struggling. It lost $5.5 million last year on $15.3 million in revenue. Occupancy since the expansion has fallen from 71% to 43%. The Wood Technology Showcase, a Portland event for 34 years and one that expansion boosters cited as needing the enlarged venue, has been postponed because of lagging attendance. The same run-down buildings and third-rate restaurants that always surrounded the center, like Burgerville and a deli that sells sushi and Beanie Babies, are still there.

"We haven't set our sights on being profitable," says Oregon Convention Center's executive director, Jeffrey Blosser. "These are challenging times in our industry."

Challenging? The business is a mess, plagued by a taxpayer-funded burst of expansion and a continuing dearth of customers. Over the last decade cities' annual capital spending on centers has doubled to $2.4 billion, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. The projects are frequently backed by expensive feasibility studies from consultants that rarely give a thumbs-down. Forty-four new or expanded halls are in the works, in hot spots such as Las Vegas and not-so-hot spots like Albany, N.Y. Seven million square feet will be built in the next few years, adding to the 64 million square feet now standing.

Unmentioned at ribbon-cutting ceremonies is that the space will be impossible to fill. The biggest 200 shows, a rolling list measured by Tradeshow Week, are using the same amount of space they did in 1992. Attendance has fallen at most centers, even those with new space such as in Indianapolis, Chicago and Atlanta. The thriving destinations, Orlando, Fla. and Las Vegas (which just announced a $400 million expansion), are stealing smaller shows away from other cities, stuffing in several at a time. The smaller trade halls are discounting, even giving space away.

A common excuse of the convention center builders is that Sept. 11 cut travel. But trade show attendance peaked in the mid-1990s. Something more fundamental is going on: Shows in general are far less relevant. Consolidation in industries like manufacturing, retail and technology has left a smaller pool of exhibitors. And far more trade now gets done in China, which is rapidly adding shows and square footage of its own.

Newell Rubbermaid pulled out of the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago in 2001 to target retailers more directly. It opened a sales office near Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Ark. Since 2001 the Nike Swoosh hasn't appeared on booths at any of the big retail shows like Magic Marketplace or the Super Show. Oracle no longer spends big bucks on trade show booths.

So why is the concrete getting poured in Jackson, Miss., Peoria, Ill. and Spokane, Wash.? Politicians, playing local hero, are incapable of finding reasons not to build. Even when voters reject new taxes, as in Portland, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, new space goes up anyway, backed by hotel taxes or bond issues.

Portland's story is particularly telling. Prior to the 1998 city election Portland's visitors association estimated the center had missed out on $17 million in convention business over six months because the center was too small. The regional tricounty government proposed an $82 million general obligation bond to pay for the expansion, but taxpayers overwhelmingly nixed it. So Multnomah County floated a separate bond backed by higher taxes on hotel rooms and car rentals, allowing the expansion to proceed. In the meantime new, rival centers were going up all along the West Coast.

The expansion was completed in 2003, with eco-friendly touches like an outdoor "rain garden." City fathers boasted of landing the 2005 National Square Dance Convention and its 10,000 high-steppers.

The euphoria was short-lived. Apart from big auto and gardening shows, last year's schedule was packed with what the industry dubs "smerfs," which stands for social, military, educational, religious and fraternal groups. These visitors typically pack four travelers in a hotel room and don't have corporate credit cards to blow on expensive meals.

By the end of 2004 the center's finances were in bad shape. To get 34 decent-size shows, the center had to indirectly waive rental fees for the organizers of 10 of them. The building would have lost $15,000 a day if not for $6 million in tax subsidies. Hotels are 60% occupied, as fewer than 30% of convention-goers last year came from outside Portland.

The fix, says center director Blosser, is a new 600-room convention hotel, backed by the city. "We lose a lot of shows because we don't have a big hotel. But it doesn't pencil out for a private company; a hotel here would need help," he says. Blosser commissioned Strategic Advisory Group, an Atlanta consultancy that specializes in convention center and hotel studies, to assess the idea. SAG says the new hotel will bring in annual spending of $116,000 per room.

Maybe Blosser should run those numbers past the folks in St. Louis. In 2003 St. Louis followed a $270 million convention expansion with a 1,081-room, $265 million adjacent hotel, paid for with public and private money. Hospitality Consulting Services projected 800,000 room-nights per year citywide with the addition of the Renaissance hotel. Instead St. Louis is getting only 400,000. A nearby McDonald's closed shop. The neighborhood remains lackluster, punctuated by a store peddling gold chains and a discount sneaker outlet.

In August Moody's downgraded the city's $50 million hotel bonds even deeper into junk. The development group will likely have to drain the $5.7 million left in its reserve fund to service the debt and come up with additional money from stakeholders like Kimberly-Clark. "The assumptions that go into feasibility studies are the problem," says Anne Van Praagh of Moody's. "The outside firms have no financial stake in the business."

Robert Canton, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers' convention and tourism practice, offers this defense: "We don't recommend to build or not to build. We're just being asked if there is a potential demand."

The answer is almost always yes. Out of 75 potential projects reviewed by the firm that Oregon hired, only 4 were deemed completely unfit. SAG partner Jeffrey Sachs says that is evidence of his shop's "objectivity." "You lose clients if you shoot down projects. They've already made up their minds by the time they come to us," he says.

Where do the experts get their rosy predictions? "We have to make a lot of assumptions. This industry isn't tracked very well," says Sachs. The most oft-cited data come from Tradeshow Week, which is owned by Reed Elsevier, a British company that also produces 430 trade shows. Its primary measure of the industry's health is its annual list of the 200 best-attended shows, making for a convenient survivor bias, and based solely on data from show managers who have an interest in masking serious declines.

Advisers' conclusions often fly in the face of logic. Consulting firm Convention, Sports & Leisure was hired by Cincinnati in 1999 to ask meeting planners what they thought of the city as a show destination. Only 39% answered positively, trailing perceptions of Kansas City (60%), Boston (56%) and Nashville (62%). CSL subtly encouraged construction by suggesting the city could improve its image. Cincinnati is under way with a $160 million expansion. A study for Minneapolis done by Coopers & Lybrand in 1994 went so far as to suggest that obvious obstacles to success like frigid temperatures and location could be overcome by "specific marketing efforts."

The slump is good news only for show managers. The Quilts Market show is getting space at Kansas City's soon-to- be-expanded center for no cost, and hotels are paying for the show setup. "I definitely had the upper hand in negotiating," says Quilts Market opera

Mystery 2nd Place Finisher

Can you identify the famous politician (wearing the nice pinstripes) that is about to be the 2nd place finisher in this State Track 800m race photo? (Hint, it's not Part Time Politician)

Convention Center Expansion is a Bad Idea

In my humble opinion, putting more taxpayer dollars into the money losing convention center is a bad idea. Convention Centers don't make money for anyone but the local hotels around them. If the Davis Center expands, it will soon have to compete with larger venues like the Salt Palace and South Towne Convention Center--which means bigger losses.

I can understand the argument of increased economic growth to the surrounding area (restraunts & hotels), but it's not like Layton is really hurting for new restraunts. Rather than concentrating the efforts in one part of Layton, I suggest we put efforts into developing other parts of the county.

If we are going to have to put taxpayer money (tourist tax) into another money losing project -- let's get something good out of it. A regional theater and performing arts center in South Davis County would benifit the overall community a lot more than adding a few more hotel rooms to Layton.

This is why the public thinks the Utah Legislature has no ethics

In my opinion, Senate President John Valentine has crossed the line by joing the Zion's Bank Board of Directors. While he has always been a strong bank supporter -- it's clear that he was only offered the prestigious Board Seat because of his leadership position in the Senate.

The President of the Senate and Speaker of the House should not be joining outside boards while they are in a leadership position--especially such a controversial position as a major bank board.

I can understand a politician continueing to serve on a board, if he had been on the board before his election, but to join the board after being elected Senate President--just doesn't give the public a lot of confidence in our elected officials.

Baseless Confidence -- WSJ Opinion

Baseless Confidence -- It may take a defeat in November for the GOP to unlearn the lessons of power.

I am afraid the Peggy Noonan may be right again. People are tired of the Republicans in Washington saying one thing, but doing another. I think she summed it up well with: "One party has beliefs it doesn't act on. The other doesn't seem to have beliefs, only impulses."

Cities finding getting wired pricey, passe ???

Below is my response to Jay Evenson's article in the Deseret Morning News last Sunday.

Dear Editor Evenson,

I would like to respectfully offer a different opinion than the one presented in your Sunday editorial titled Cities finding getting wired pricey, passé.

I thought it ironic that you mentioned Nobel Economist Milton Friedman. Mr. Friedman taught that competition and choice was good for consumers and for the economy. One of the goals of the UTOPIA project is to provide a network platform for increased competition and choice for residential and business consumers. I suggest that Mr. Friedman would also agree that the municipal open infrastructure model is both economically and technically more efficient than the monopolistic infrastructure models of our current telecommunications infrastructure that the lobbyists in Washington are working so hard to protect.

Modern economists teach that competition lowers prices and improves quality. Thousands of Utahans in UTOPIA cities have benefited from competition as Comcast & Qwest have lowered their rates significantly in response to UTOPIA service providers coming to their neighborhood. Thousands of households are now getting more services and saving hundreds of dollars a year in real money as service providers compete for their business.

The Deseret News still seems to be under the impression that UTOPIA is only about high speed internet. Internet access is just one of the many applications on the network. Currently, along with thousands of users enjoying high speed internet, UTOPIA services providers are providing Voice (phone) and Video (TV) services to satisfied customers.

Your comments about wireless internet are what motivated me to write you. By profession, I am an RF engineer and have spent the last decade designing mobile, fixed and wi-fi wireless networks for a living. I currently manage the Wireless Consulting Practice for Cisco Systems, a company which sells hundreds of millions of dollars of wireless infrastructure and services to large businesses, service providers and many of the cities mentioned in your article.

Wireless technology is becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous every year. Wireless provides mobility--the ability to communicate using the same device in many places. But as a wireless network designer, I have to plan ahead, because each wireless base station or wireless access point eventually connects to the WIRED infrastructure, which must be able to support the increased traffic from wireless applications. Just as freeways and collector roads must be built to support rapid residential growth, we must have a strong wired infrastructure to support the kind of wireless services that will be coming in the next few years.

The growing trend of Municipal Wireless networks is real and is expanding rapidly -- but Municipal Wireless networks also have some real limitations. Despite the recent media hype, just because Google is mentioned in the same article as a planned wireless network, the laws of physics do not change. Radio channels are crowded, interference is common, and scalability is a challenge. Municipal wireless hotspots are not yet reliable for high quality voice and definitely not yet capable of streaming high quality HDTV into every home.

Your editorial infers that communities must choose either wireless or fiber as their choice for next generation infrastructure. I see “fiber to the home” and wireless deployments as complementary in most cases. Consumers will not choose mobility over bandwidth -- they will choose both. They will want high quality video conferencing at work, HDTV on the big screen at home, AND mobile internet when they walk out the door. The key is to build infrastructure that will enable whatever applications come to the market--regardless of the bandwidth demand. As wireless applications grow, so does the demand on the wired infrastructure.

If you remember back two years ago at this time, Qwest tried to scare us all into believing that Wi-Max was going to make fiber deployments obsolete. Since that time, Qwest has yet to deploy Wi-Max, but they have quietly been deploying fiber to the home in new developments where they can guarantee there will be no competition from other service providers.

About three years ago, I read in the Deseret Morning News about the ridiculous idea of a group of cities trying to band together to build a fiber optic network. I thought to myself -- this is a recipe for disaster. The government messes up everything -- how could Government ever build or operate effectively something as complicated as a modern optical network?

Instead of taking the DesNews opinion as fact, I decided to investigate further myself. I found that while it was easy to criticize the idea at a high level, when I dug deeper and studied the project in detail, the concepts and design had merit. I went from a vocal critic of UTOPIA to a cautious supporter and now serve on the Board of UTOPIA in an effort to do my part to try help UTOPIA execute correctly and make this project a success.

Our federal regulatory environment has discouraged the market from investment in telecommunications infrastructure, especially in underserved areas. As local leaders and citizens, we have the choice to continue to complain about Washington, or take action and do something about it. Rather than sit back and criticize, leaders should choose to take action and try to improve the situation.

The jury is still out on the financial success of the UTOPIA project, so let's not call the case before all the facts are known.

Are there risks with the UTOPIA project? Absolutely yes! Are the risks worth taking? Absolutely yes!

I would gladly accept an invitation to meet with you or the Deseret News Editorial Board to provide an update on the exciting progress of the UTOPIA project , or an invitation to write a guest editorial.

Respectfully,

Paul Cutler
Centerville City Council

UTOPIA Board of Directors