Dear James, Daniel and Emily,
1. Light weekend ahead
No swim lessons tomorrow due to Spring break so really no plans for the weekend. Hope to relax, sleep in a little (which for me means 7 or 8 instead of 6). Keep the house picked up while simultaneously keeping the kids entertained. Kind of a lull before the storm of next weekend with Daniel's birthday. But no major projects planned.
2. Digging out from the storm
Figuratively of course, no real digging required. It was a nasty storm, but not nearly a bad as it could have been. I was able to get home last night and get to work today no problem. Feel a little sorry for the kids: the only really good storm worthy of a snow day all year, and it's Spring Break.
3. More political insanity
So the House Republicans proposed their budget, calling for lowering the upper tax bracket even more. Plus I saw one of those putrid Big Energy commercials last night asking for the public to oppose any taxes on them. I don't know what ticks me off more: that these people expect the voters to take this seriously or that there are people out there who really think these are good ideas. An article in Salon nailed it today: more debt has been piled up in the last 3 Republican administrations than in the rest of US history, and then they have the nerve to complain about deficit spending.
4. Interesting thought
Came across an interesting article yesterday, the author argues that the real culprit in all of this mess was a Supreme Court decision in the 70's which effectively ended usury laws in this country. Prior to that no one ever charged more than 8 or 9% on any loan, it just wasn't legal. But when this decision was passed it opened the door to crazy rates of 15-20% credit cards, 30% balloon mortgages, 200-300% payday loans. Which resulted in the huge expansion in the financial markets. And what is it that has caused this current mess? Financial market trading in securities derived from all of the high interest rate loans. And there is no incentive to end this because the financial companies: banks, finance companies etc. are making money hand over foot on all of this high interest. Just disgusting.
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