Author: Serkadis

By Catherine Brahic

(New Scientist, February 24, 2010) In the movie Avatar, the Na’vi people of Pandora plug themselves into a network that links all elements of the biosphere, from phosphorescent plants to pterodactyl-like birds. It turns out that Pandora’s interconnected ecosystem may have a parallel back on Earth: sulphur-eating bacteria that live in muddy sediments beneath the sea floor.  Some researchers believe that bacteria in ocean sediments are connected by a network of microbial nanowires. These fine protein filaments could shuttle electrons back and forth, allowing communities of bacteria to act as one super-organism. Now Lars Peter Nielsen of Aarhus University in Denmark and his team have found tantalising evidence to support this controversial theory. Click here to read more…

About 250 companies set up spring show booths Friday and Saturday at the Peoria Civic Center, with the hope of attracting people in a tough economy.

The 2010 Official Spring Home Show usually sees local home construction, remodeling and decor companies at the Civic Center this time of the year to sell their products to a variety of people.

Lisa Scott, an executive director with the Home Builders Association of Greater Peoria, the organizer, said that a lot of local companies sign up for this event, and mostly they repeat every year.

This year, Scott said, “we are hoping spring remodeling and building will see a good start.”

Most of the companies that set up booths are local, with fewer than 10 out of the city. The total number of booths is about 500.

Donna Jones, a new construction agent with Jim Maloof Realtor, said Friday was a good start.

“Lot of traffic, lot of people. I think it is a great weekend,” said Jones.

Jones said this year is better than last year and the financial market is getting better. Another reason, she pointed out, is the pleasant weather that got people out of their homes.

For Michael Troesser, owner of Bathrooms Plus, the show was about meeting a lot of new customers and seeing some old ones.

Troesser, who has been putting up booths for the last five years, said that in 2009 Bathrooms Plus had seven booths but this year had just four. The total cost of putting up four booths was between $12,000 to $18,000, Troesser said.

But customers, who pay $6.50 for the show, do benefit from a large variety of booths.

Marie Green, 48, of Wyoming said she and her husband have been to the show in the past, and this time they were there to get some remodeling ideas.

Green, who was looking at room additions, spoke with a few people.

With such shows, she said, “we get to see a variety, then pick and choose what you want.”

Riya V. Anandwala can be reached at 686-3194 or [email protected].

Read the original article from Journal Star.

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By Leia Parker

(Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2010) It’s a tall order, but scientists at an English industrial complex near Oxford are attempting to develop an energy source that replicates the sun.  The problem isn’t whether fusion can work: It does. Scientists have successfully released energy from light atoms by fusing their nuclei together. The special reactor at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in England holds the world record for most fusion power produced.  The problem is turning fusion into a viable large-scale energy source—one that is economical, clean and safe. That is still somewhere over the horizon. After decades of research and billions of dollars in public financing, no fusion experiment yet has been able to generate more energy than it consumed in the process.  Click here to read more…

MILWAUKEE — Police said a 6-week-old boy whom they feared was in danger was found abandoned but safe outside a church Friday afternoon after his mother and two young brothers were found dead following a suspicious fire in their home.

Hours later, the body of a 19-year-old woman who lived in the family’s home — and who police called a “person of interest” in the case — was found dead on the city’s northwest side.

The infant, Maurice Visor Jr., was found about 1:45 p.m. in good condition in a baby carrier on a sidewalk outside the church, Police Chief Ed Flynn said at a news conference.

“Our investigation into how the baby went missing continues,” Flynn said. He added that police had a “working theory” in the case.

Investigators were treating the deaths of Maurice’s mother, 24-year-old Rachel Thompson, and brothers — 4-year-old Torian Thompson-Carter and 3-year-old Jaden Thompson-Carter — as homicides, police Capt. Kurt Leibold said.

Flynn said he wouldn’t discuss how they died because doing so could jeopardize the investigation.

Police also had been looking for 19-year-old Brittney Robertson. When asked whether Robertson was a suspect, Flynn said she was a missing person whose safety was in question. Robertson’s body was found about 6:15 p.m., according to police spokeswoman Anne Schwartz, who said she could not offer any further details about how Robertson died or where she was discovered.

Firefighters had found the dead family members on the second floor of their duplex while battling a blaze at the home earlier Friday.

Three people who lived downstairs from the family escaped the fire.

Terry Visor, who identified himself as Maurice’s grandfather, said he was “elated” when he learned his grandson had been found. Flynn said police found the baby after receiving a telephone call about his location.

“After hearing about Rachel and her kids being killed I didn’t know what to expect,” he told The Associated Press by telephone. “I was ecstatic when I heard Maurice Jr. was safe. Just to hold him again will be awesome.”

The infant’s father, Maurice Visor Sr., is jailed on a probation violation, Terry Visor said.

Terry Visor said he only knew Robertson in passing and had no idea why she was living with Thompson. He also said he had no idea who could have killed Thompson or why.

Torian’s grandmother, Tondalia Massey, said her grandson was a wonderful, loving boy.

“I just want to know why they took my grandbaby’s life. Why?” she told AP. “As I know it Rachel didn’t have any enemies. She’s a loving person just as well as my grandchild was a loving person.”

She too said she didn’t know Robertson well and didn’t know why Robertson lived in Thompson’s home.

Online court records show police have been searching for Robertson since September. That’s when an arrest warrant was issued for her after she failed to appear in court on a felony charge of possessing prescription drugs with intent to deliver. The records didn’t list a defense attorney.

Earlier Friday, officers strung yellow police tape to cordon off a one-block radius around Thompson’s duplex. Several neighbors watched the investigators through the windows of their homes but declined to come out and speak with reporters.

Diana Baldwin, 58, who lived next door to Thompson for about a year, said she’d never heard any disturbances or loud noises from Thompson’s home.

“They were quiet,” Baldwin said. “They mainly kept to themselves.”

Across the street, three red roses lay near a stop sign under the police tape.

One passer-by stopped outside the tape and stood silently for a few moments. When a reporter approached him he said quietly, “If you talk to the family, tell them the whole neighborhood is hurting. Tell them we all offer our condolences.”

Then he turned aand walked away, declining to give his name.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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TACOMA, Wash. — A man who appeared to have an intense but intermittent obsession with a special education teacher shot and killed her as she walked into her elementary school Friday, shortly before classes were to begin.

The suspect was killed in a shootout with a deputy a short time later about 10 miles away, said Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer.

The man had posted bail Monday, a few days after he was arrested for violating a protective order the teacher, Jennifer Paulson, obtained in September 2008.

“She was a very kind, merciful, loving person,” said her father, Ken Paulson. “That’s probably why she was a special education teacher — because she loved so much.”

He described the 30-year-old as a devout Christian, and said she had been pestered by the shooter, Jed Waits, of Ellensburg, for years.

The two had known each other since she was in college, when they worked together at a cafeteria at Seattle Pacific University.

In her petition for the anti-harassment order filed in Pierce County District Court, Paulson said she and Waits occasionally socialized with co-workers and friends outside of work as a group but “never had any sort of romantic involvement.”

She said heard from Waits about once a year since she graduated from college in 2003 — and on that annual occasion he sometimes called her 10 to 15 times in one day.

Things became more intense in spring 2008, when he showed up her school, walked into the building and passed the office, where he was stopped by a secretary. Later that year, she saw him sitting in his car near the school.

“I never told him where I work and do not know how he found out,” Paulson wrote.

He also sent roses and a bear to her at the school. Paulson’s principal called Waits’ commander in the National Guard to inform him of the harassment, she wrote.

Keith Kosik, a spokesman for the Guard, said Waits was repeatedly disciplined during his tenure with the service and was less-than-honorably discharged in April 2009. He deployed to Kuwait with his unit in 2007.

The anti-harassment order banned Waits from going within 1,000 feet of Paulson’s home or school. But she saw him as she was leaving work last Friday, so she called 911 from her car. Waits was arrested that night, and after he made bail, Paulson stopped staying at her home, her father said.

Tacoma Police spokesman Mark Fulghum said there had been no indication that Waits had a weapon or had threatened Paulson with a weapon, but it appeared he had a serious infatuation.

The shooting happened at Birney Elementary, which has about 400 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Classes were canceled for the day, and officials had not made a decision about Monday’s schedule.

The shooter was waiting for the teacher when she arrived at 7:35 a.m. and shot her multiple times as she was trying to enter the school, Fulghum said.

“I heard a teacher screaming at the top of her lungs — just screaming,” said Omar Moreno, 22, who lives across the street from the school, adding he heard three gunshots. “I looked out my window and I saw the guy. He started running down the middle of the street and got in his car.”

A deputy pulled over the suspect’s car in the parking lot of a daycare, and he came out firing a handgun, Troyer said. The deputy returned fire and killed the man.

“We’re lucky our guy’s OK. The guy did have semiautomatic and did fire a round,” Troyer told KCPQ-TV.

School district spokesman Dan Voelpel said Paulson worked in the language resource center helping students one-on-one with reading problems. She had been with the district since 2004 and at the school since 2007.

Paulson’s death “knocked everyone flat,” Voelpel said. “It’s going to hit this community hard.”

The shooting occurred three days after a 32-year-old man with a history of mental illness opened fire in a middle school parking lot in Colorado, wounding two students.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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WASHINGTON — With the dramatic crash of an iceberg against a glacier that dislodged a massive new chunk of ice, the mysterious continent of Antarctica once again did the unexpected.

A big chunk of ice, slightly smaller than Oahu, broke off from a place it wasn’t supposed to and in a way that wasn’t quite anticipated, scientists reported Friday.

The new iceberg broke off from the cooler eastern end of Antarctica, the result of tidal forces that caused a longer but thinner iceberg that stretches for 60 miles to hammer it free. The new chunk broke off a long tongue of ice that had been building for decades, but will unlikely cause future ice loss problems on the continent, scientists said.

This happened as researchers have focused attention on the western side of Antactica, a continent about 1 1/2 times larger than the United States. Concern has grown over warmer temperatures there and especially the region’s shrinking peninsula, which sticks out into the water like a broken pinky finger.

Remarkably, that peninsula, where last year one ice shelf was said to be hanging by a thread, has had an unusually cool summer. It’s hit pause on ice loss, said Ted Scambos, senior scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

In a satellite phone interview this week from the western peninsula where he’s working, Scambos predicted no major ice calving. His comments were made Thursday.

The next day Australian researchers alerted the world to the iceberg crash with the Mertz Glacier on the other side of the continent. They said it had probably occurred around Feb. 12 or 13.

“There are some crazy things going down in Antarctica,” said Mark Serreze, director of the snow and ice data center, based in Boulder, Colo. “It seems kind of weird, but weird things happen.”

Scientists have been tracking global warming’s influence in Antarctica, a place more complicated than the Arctic. Scambos was placing instruments on the dwindling Larsen ice shelf in the peninsula to measure its disintegration in a scientific version of a deathwatch.

The ice loss that happened a couple of weeks ago was not due to global warming, but a natural process taking place in a region that has been relatively stable over the years.

For decades the tongue of the Mertz Glacier in the eastern part of the continent has grown further out into the water until it was about 60 miles long by 18 miles wide, said Benoit Legresy, a researcher with the LEGOS laboratory for geophysical studies in Toulouse, France.

Then an iceberg called B9B, which had broken off from another part of Antarctica in 1987, came by and “gave it a pretty big nudge,” said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young.

“It was a slow process,” Legresy said. He said B9B was “sitting there, it must have been pushed and pulled by the current every day and used as a hammer to bang on the other one by the ocean currents.”

The dislodging occurred because of the iceberg’s latest location and water that had warmed during Antarctica’s summer, leaving less sea ice, Legresy said.

This happened “behind our backs,” said NASA glaciologist Robert Bindschadler. “It’s a good thing to be reminded that it’s not all about west Antarctica.”

Tongues like the one on the Mertz “ultimately are going to have to break off, making some big pieces of ice, and the ocean moves them around and occasionally they get in each other’s way,” Bindschadler said.

A couple scientists worried that this region around the Antarctic coast could fill with sea ice, which would disrupt the sinking ability of the dense and cold water. This sinking water is what spills into ocean basins and feeds the global ocean currents with oxygen, said Steve Rintoul, an oceanographer at Australia’s national science agency. The fear is that it could starve areas of oxygen.

But other scientists from NASA, Penn State and the British Antarctic Survey said that’s not a very likely scenario and not to worry.

“Icebergs whacking each other has happened for millions of years and life is still down there and pretty robust,” NASA’s Bindschandler said.

More than anything, it’s a shift from the usual worries about Antarctic ice.

Data and new detailed maps from the U.S. Geological Survey, the British Survey and the snow and ice data center show that the western Antarctic peninsula has been shrinking noticeably. Since the first measurements were made more than 50 years ago, the peninsula has lost about 8,000 square miles of ice — slightly less than the size of New Jersey — said USGS scientist Jane Ferrigno. The peninsula itself is about the size of Montana.

And every ice shelf on that peninsula has shrunk, with the losses accelerating since the 1990s, Ferrigno said.

“It may be a red flag about what may be happening in the future if this warming continues,” Ferrigno said. “This is way beyond anything we’ve seen before” in centuries of ice core data.

With that in mind, snow and ice data center’s Scambos and a team of researchers put measuring devices all over the threatened Larsen ice shelf, where he said “it does look like it’s an ice shelf that’s really in its last years of existence.”

But it won’t disappear this year, he said.

Cooler-than-normal temperatures have paused the melt, Scambos said, a development he views as only temporary. “There’s no big recovery in progress.”

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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Looking for some classic games to load up on your DS? Well why don’t you try Smileynator’s version of the classic Duck Hunt game for the Nintendo DS.
 
 
Download: Duckhunt NDS v0.15 (http://dl.qj.net/nintendo-ds/homebrew-games/duckhunt-nds.html)
 

Cook County Board members next week will consider renaming a forest preserve in honor of former Commissioner Carl R. Hansen.

Timothy Schneider, the 15th District Commissioner, said that during Wednesday’s Cook County Forest Preserve District meeting he’ll ask members to vote on renaming the Shoe Factory Road Woods the Carl R. Hansen Woods. That area lies southwest of the corner of Shoe Factory Road and Rte. 59 near Elgin.

“I thought it was an appropriate way to commend Carl,” Schneider said.

Hansen, a longtime Mount Prospect resident, died on Feb. 2. He was 83.

Schneider incidentally defeated Hansen in the Republican Primary in 2006, ending Hansen’s 32-year tenure as the Northwest suburban representative on the Chicago- and Democratic-dominated county board.

Hansen battled for years in the 1980s to block the creation of a landfill at the Poplar Creek Forest Preserve, eventually drafting and passing a resolution banning sanitary landfills in the preserves. The victory became one of Hansen’s proudest memories, saving 600 acres of forest preserve land.

“Carl was a major factor in opposing landfills in the forest preserve district; it was one of the things he claimed he was most proud of in his service to the people of Cook County,” Schneider said.

In addition, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is listed as the chief sponsor of a proclamation scheduled to be read during Tuesday’s county board meeting honoring Hansen. The resolution mentions Hansen kept every board document going back to 1970 “in perfect order, complete with his notes and backup material.” The archive was donated to the county.

“Be it resolved, that the president and the Cook County Board of Commissioners, on behalf of the more than five million residents of Cook County, do hereby honor the memory of Carl R. Hansen, celebrate his extraordinary life, and herby express the gratitude of the residents of Cook County for his many years of distinguished service,” the proclamation reads.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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The economy grew in the fourth quarter by 5.9%, the most in years. The adjusted monetary base is exploding. Bank reserves are literally through the roof. The Fed is flooding money into the system in an effort to get banks to lend.

An historically normal response by banks (to increase lending) would have been massively inflationary, causing the Fed to stomp on the brakes. Despite raising the almost meaningless discount rate (as who uses it?), this week Ben Bernanke assured Congress of an easy monetary policy, with rates remaining low for a long time. Many ask, how can this not be inflationary?

This week we look at some fundamentals of money supply and the economy. If you understand this, you won’t get misled by people selling investments, telling you to buy this or that based on some chart that shows whatever they are selling to be what you absolutely have to have to protect your portfolio and/or make massive profits. And we touch on a few odds and ends. And yes, I can’t resist, a few more thoughts on Greece. It will make for an interesting letter, as I’m writing on a plane to San Jose. And it will print a bit longer than usual, because there are a lot of charts.

Before we get into the meat of the letter, I want to give you a chance to register for my 7th (where do the years go?!) annual Strategic Investment Conference, cosponsored with my friends at Altegris Investments. The conference will be held April 22-24 and, as always, in La Jolla, California. The speaker lineup is powerful. Already committed are Dr. Gary Shilling, David Rosenberg, Dr. Lacy Hunt, Dr. Niall Ferguson, and George Friedman, as well as your humble analyst. We are talking with several other equally exciting speakers and expect those to firm up shortly.

Look at that lineup. These are the guys who got the calls right over the past few years. They called the housing crisis, the credit bubble, and the recession. And, in my opinion, these are some of the best in the world at giving us ideas about where we are headed.

Comments from those who attend the annual affair generally run along the lines of, “This is the best conference we have ever been to.” And each year it seems to get better. This year we are going to focus on “The End Game,” that is, on the paths the various nations are likely to take as they try to solve their various deficit problems, and how that will affect the world and local economies and our investments. We make sure you have access to our speakers and get your questions answered, and you’ll come away with excellent, practical investment ideas.

This conference sells out every year, and it looks like it will do so this year. You do not want to miss it. There is a physical limit to the space. Every year I have to tell people, including good friends, that there is no more room. Don’t wait to sign up. There is still an early-registration discount. And while it pains me to say it, you must be an accredited investor to attend the conference, as there are regulations we must follow in order to offer specific advice and ideas. Click on the link and sign up now. https://hedge-fund-conference.com/2010/invitation.aspx?ref=mauldin

Where Is All that Greek Gold?

Last week I mentioned the (what seemed to me and much of the world) odd incident of Greek politicians talking about the need for Germany to pay its debts to Greece. I got this response from a Greek reader. Comments afterword.

“Dear Mr. Mauldin,

I am an avid reader and I just wanted to correct you about a comment in one of your articles, “The Pain in Spain”, specifically:

‘Somehow they forgot about the German government paying 115 million deutschmarks in 1960 — not a small sum back then.’

This repayment of 1960 is undeniable. but the total amount owed was $10 billion ($3.5 billion for the return of the gold stolen and the repayment of the war loans Greece was forced into giving Germany, and $7 billion in war reparations awarded to Greece in 1946). As the DM/$ parity was then four for one, this means they gave Greece $29 million out of the $10 billion owed.

Germany also proclaims that they have given Greece over the years, in one form or another, €16.5 billion. But the fact of the matter is that despite these alleged payments, the issue of the war loans and gold is still not settled.

Greece has never stopped asking for the money to be paid back … it is estimated that this sum owed now totals $70 billion [I assume the Greeks want interest – JM]. So even taking into account the €16.5 billion, more than $50 billion is still owed.

Helmut Kohl refused to even discuss the repayment, presenting as an excuse that this amount was owed by the whole of Germany and until Germany is unified the issue could not be discussed.

Guess what, Germany is unified….

Best Regards,

Anthony Kioussopoulos

P.S. Do not take my e-mail as a refusal to acknowledge the fault of successive Greek governments in creating this mess; just take it as a correction for a specific issue.”

+++++

The point here is not that Anthony is 100% right, though his statements have the ring of authenticity. The point is that the Greeks believe it. And thus my lack of surprise last week when I noted that leading Greek politicians of both the conservative and liberal parties were talking the same line. This is an issue that runs across the Greek political spectrum. And that makes the situation all the more intractable, as emotional responses are not the stuff of rational debates.

(I should note that if the US demanded payment from Europe of all the money we loaned them after the war, at full interest, our national balance would be a lot better. But I doubt that ever gets brought up, nor should it at a remove of 65 years.)

This week saw riots and a national strike as Greek unions demonstrated against budget cuts. Yet polls seem to indicate a majority of Greeks recognize the need for rather serious austerity measures. As I have documented, they really have no good choices, only very bad and disastrous choices. The austerity measures that will be forced on them by market realities if they default will be far worse than those they can self-impose over time. In fact, yesterday EU inspectors visiting Athens told authorities they see a deeper than expected recession.

Two very condensed reports from European media:

1. After the German magazine Focus ran an issue with a Photoshopped picture of Venus de Milo giving the middle finger to “Greek con artists” (referring to the fraud the Greeks perpetrated when they joined the EU by hiding debt), street protests demanding the boycott of German goods were organized in Athens and endorsed by the Greek administration. There was also name calling by the Greek administration, blaming Germany for all of Greece’s economic and financial problems because the Nazis stole all of Greece’s gold in World War II. In general, the Greek public believes that all this is just excuse-making on the part of the Government, but a boycott is loudly supported by members of all the public workers’ unions. (Reuters report)  

The situation is exacerbated by news today that Greece needs to refinance $27bn of bonds in March, vs. the statements JUST TWO DAYS AGO that only half that amount was coming due, and then not until April and May.

2. Financial Times Deutschland reported the results of a poll of German banks that was conducted yesterday. No German bank polled said it would make any further investments in Greek sovereign debt. The following banks and building societies are at risk of collapse due to excessive Greek bond holdings: Hypo Real Estate ($13 billion exposure), Commerzbank ($7 billion exposure, and the bank was bailed out last year by the German government), LBBW ($4 billion), Bayern Landesbank ($2.2 billion). It should be pointed out that Greece is a small country, with 11 million people and a GDP of $313 billion that is running a trade deficit of $11bn. Banking experts generally stated that any private purchases of Greek bonds are now completely out of the question. Any future aid will have to be government to government, and that will exclude Germany, as Angela Merkel stated earlier in the week. Within the eurozone, there are no other countries outside of Germany that have, or can raise, any capital to invest in Greece.  (Hat tip to Steve Stough for the above points.)

For what it’s worth, I do not see Germany bailing out Greece in the current climate. If Germany were to force Greece to undertake the severe measures they would be required to take for a bailout, the streets of Greece would be full of demonstrators denouncing Germany. I just don’t see it happening.

If not Germany, who? France? Spain? Italy? They all have their own very real problems. Everyone else is too small. The US will not. Neither will China.

My guess is that at the end of the day (which will come soon) the IMF is going to have to step in. It will be a blow to European pride, but what else is there?

The Euro and a Conspiracy of Hedge Funds

The lead story in this morning’s Wall Street Journal is that hedge funds are holding “idea meetings” and deciding that shorting the euro is a good bet. Der Spiegel called them “secret meetings,” as if somehow a cabal of hedge funds is conspiring to push the euro down.  A few points for the writers of Der Spiegel:

1. There is no secret about the problems with the euro. Let’s see, when the head of Germany’s leading debt-management agency warned this week that the euro would collapse if any member defaulted on its debt, was he part of a secret conspiracy? If he is right, do you want to bet that Greece will behave, and go long the euro?
2. The currency market is a $2 trillion dollar a DAY market. That’s over $50 trillion a month. Even with 20:1 leverage, $50 billion in hedge funds shorting the euro is a drop in the bucket, and I seriously doubt anywhere close to that much is at risk. George Soros won his bet against the pound sterling because the pound was fundamentally flawed and overvalued, and he put his money where his mouth was.
3. If a hedge fund is betting against the euro, someone has to be on the other side of that trade. Are those guys (on the other side) conspiring in secret to drive the euro up and the dollar down? Are they in “secret” meetings to take advantage of the poor, dumb, misinformed hedge funds? Who are they? The world needs to know who is conspiring against the dollar and other currencies! Whatever. One side will be wrong. Fundamentals will out.
4. I get invited to “idea dinners” from time to time. They are indeed private, but they don’t rise to the level of “secret.” I do very little trading, but these meetings help to hone my ideas, and I hope that helps make this letter a better source for you.

The Journal wrote that these hedge-fund managers expect the euro to go to parity with the dollar, as if that is some novel idea. I made that prediction in 2002 when the euro was at $.88, suggesting that it would rise to $1.50 and then fall back to parity by the middle of the next decade. Maybe it will get there a little faster than I thought. Stay tuned, and I do NOT suggest making 20:1 bets on currency moves. A lot of those hedge funds will lose a lot of money if the market moves against them.

So Where’s the Inflation?

Now for a series of graphs. First, let’s look at the Adjusted Monetary Base (or M0). This is the one monetary aggregate that the Federal Reserve actually controls. Notice that it exploded in the middle of 2008, as the Fed started quantitative easing and pushed rates to zero. They were desperate to try and thaw out the credit markets that had frozen.

That in turn caused M1 to increase.

But the broader measure on money that is M2 rose into 2009 and has then gone sideways. Normally the stimulus of such raw money growth in M0 would have M2 exploding upward, as you get a money multiplier effect.

We all know that a US bank can lend out about nine times the deposits it has on hand. When the Fed puts money into the system, it can be multiplied rather quickly if banks choose to lend. This is called the money multiplier.

“Restated, increases in central bank money may not result in commercial bank money because the money is not required to be lent out – it may instead result in a growth of unlent reserves (excess reserves). This situation is referred to as ‘pushing on a string’: withdrawal of central bank money compels commercial banks to curtail lending (one can pull money via this mechanism), but input of central bank money does not compel commercial banks to lend (one cannot push via this mechanism).” (Wikipedia)

This described growth in excess reserves has indeed occurred in the financial crisis of 2007–2010, with US bank excess reserves growing over 500-fold, from under $2 billion in August 2008 to over $1,000 billion recently. Look at the chart below. This is what has all the gold bugs salivating. Where else has this happened without hyperinflation?

Now let’s turn to our old friend Paul Samuelson and his textbook that we all read in Econ 101 to learn about the money multiplier:

“By increasing the volume of their government securities and loans and by lowering Member Bank legal reserve requirements, the Reserve Banks can encourage an increase in the supply of money and bank deposits. They can encourage but, without taking drastic action, they cannot compel. For in the middle of a deep depression just when we want Reserve policy to be most effective, the Member Banks are likely to be timid about buying new investments or making loans. If the Reserve authorities buy government bonds in the open market and thereby swell bank reserves, the banks will not put these funds to work but will simply hold reserves. Result: no 5 for 1, ‘no nothing,’ simply a substitution on the bank’s balance sheet of idle cash for old government bonds.”

–(Samuelson 1948, pp. 353–354)

And that is what has happened. And all those mortgage bonds and other assets the Federal Reserve has purchased? They have been put right back into the Fed by the banks. There has been no money multiplier. In fact, the money multiplier, as measured by the ratio of MO to M1 growth is at its lowest level ever. Look at the graph below:

What this graph shows, astonishingly, is that a dollar added to the monetary base now has a NEGATIVE multiplier effect. Without showing yet another chart, bank lending has fallen percentagewise the most in 67 years. The actual amount of bank loans is falling each and every quarter, with no signs of a bottom. Consumers are reducing their debt and leverage. Bank loans are being written off at staggering rates. Over 700 banks (I think that is the figure I saw) are officially on watch by the FDIC, with more banks being closed each week.

There is at least $300-400 billion in losses on commercial real estate waiting to be written down. Housing foreclosures are rising and hundreds of billions have yet to be written off. As more families fall into unemployment or underemployment, there will be more writedowns. Is it any wonder that banks are having to shore up their balance sheets and make fewer loans?

With capacity utilization just off all-time lows, why should we expect businesses to borrow to increase capacity? Inventory levels are much lower than two years ago. Businesses no longer need to finance as much inventory. They simply need less.

Dennis Gartman writes:

“Effectively the Fed had become a cash machine rather than a monetary expansion machine. At the end of last year, the multiplier had actually fallen to less than 1.0 and the trend remains downward. If anyone had told us five years ago that the money multiplier would be down to 1.0 we would have laughed. The laugh, however, would have been upon us, for it is there and it is still falling. Hard it shall be to sponsor strong economic growth when no one really wants to take a loan or when few banks want to make a loan. The “game” of banking has been turned upon its head, and the strength of the economy suffers while inflationary pressures (at least for now) remain virtually non-existent.”

Next week (or within a few weeks) we will review the velocity of money, as the normal, accustomed relationships about money supply and inflation are proving to be wrong. We live in extraordinary times. We are coming to the End Game of the debt supercycle that has lasted for 70 years. Everything is changing in front of our eyes. It compels us to understand the basics of how economies function, and what is both different and not different about the times we are in.

No Help for Homebuilders

Before we close, this note from Mark Hanson about the home-building market:

“In January, builders sold a whopping 1000 houses per day nationally. During the same month, Foreclosures rang up at 4300 and Notice-of-Defaults at 5100 per day nationally. What a mess. I really thought earlier in the year with massive mortgage rate and tax stimuli — and the purposeful lack of distressed inventory due to HAMP and other mortgage mod and foreclosure prevention initiatives — that builders had a shot at some volume.

“But their window of opportunity has now passed. With HAFA coming on line and foreclosures, short sales and deeds-in-lieu about to dump significantly more distressed inventory on the market throughout 2010, the odds that of any meaningful pickup in builder output or sales is significantly decreasing daily.”

The Singularity, San Antonio, Home, and Addictions

It is time to hit the send button. In order to have some mercy on you, gentle reader, I am saving the last 8 pages of this letter for another time. All things in moderation.

As noted above, I am on a plane to San Jose, where I will take a short ride to NASA Ames to spend the next 9 days listening to experts talk about how various technologies will change over the next 10 years, and how that will impact business, society – well, everything. I am really pumped about it. 12 hours a day of lectures and some local tours, with a small group that appears to include some very bright attendees (from their bios). Your humble analyst will speak for just an hour on the future of the world economy. Sadly, my assessment will not be as optimistic as theirs, at least with regard to the next 5 years. If I am allowed, I am going to publish my abbreviated notes in next week’s letter, assuming I can take notes and keep up at the same time.

Then I must miss the final day, as I fly to San Antonio for a speech on Saturday morning to the top level of Cambridge brokers, then back home for a month! A whole month! Maybe I can catch up on my writing and emails.

I met with George Friedman of Stratfor this Tuesday. (Tiffani went with me, her first trip away from my granddaughter Lively. Ryan got to play Mr. Mom.) I was sitting in George’s office at the end of the day, waiting for everyone else to show up so we could go to dinner. I had been busy trying to coordinate meetings and keep up with my reading and research, emails, and phone calls.

“George, I have a problem. I feel like I am drinking information through a fire hose. I am addicted to information. It is beginning to interfere with my productivity, as I get so much high-quality material from the best sources that I feel I need to absorb. Each bit of information becomes a clue to the larger puzzle. But I have to write more. I am going to have to start randomly deleting things every now and then if I am going to stay on top of it all, and get some of these books that are in me done.”

I am determined to have a life outside of work (family and friends are important), and am for the most part successful at that, but I am not getting done all that I wish I could do when I’m at work. And there are books piled on my desk that simply scream for attention.

I thought George would understand. He has some 90 analysts all over the world feeding him up-to-the-minute analysis on country and issue situations. Surely, he must have an idea for me on how to handle the “download” problem.

“John,” he replied quietly, sighing heavily, “I know what you mean. But if I started randomly deleting, I’d be afraid I would miss something important. What else can you do but keep at it?”

It is the conundrum of our age. I hope, gentle reader, that I help you in some ways to keep up and stay informed without overloading you! Have a great week, and learn something new!

Your really ready to think about the future analyst,

John Mauldin
[email protected]

Copyright 2010 John Mauldin. All Rights Reserved

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See Also:

• The Euro Isn’t Going To Dissolve, It’s Just Got A Long, Long Way To Fall
• Between Dire And Disastrous
• We Are So Screwed

How to play Starcraft 2 beta offline
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HUGE UPDATE! Starcraft 2 beta has been cracked to play against AI! follow this link AFTER you do the steps below to play against the AI : How […]

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For nearly a quarter of a century, on most Saturday mornings in March, many in central Illinois would tune in to WEEK-TV to watch the different rounds of the Journal Star Spelling Bee.

They would see the ever-present grin and hear the calming voice of Jeff Hawkinson, host and pronouncer of the local spelling bee that sent its champion to the national contest.

That ended in 2002 when a rare brain disease began taking the voice of a man who made his living as a communicator.

On Friday, that disease – frontotemporal dementia – claimed Hawkinson’s life at the age of 63. He died at home, with his wife, Cathi, and his children at his side.

“He was holding my hand,” Cathi Hawkinson said, describing Jeff’s final moments. “He was a class act all the way to the end, and he died with dignity.”

Frontotemporal dementia is a rare, untreatable and fatal syndrome – often mistaken for Alzheimer’s disease – that is caused by damage to the portion of the brain responsible for behavior, emotions and language skills.

The illness began in January 2000 and gradually took Hawkinson’s ability to read, write and speak, and eventually to walk or swallow. It took several years, however, before a final diagnosis was made.

Because so little is known about frontotemporal dementia, Hawkinson will donate his brain to Northwestern University for research, Cathi Hawkinson said.

Friends and former colleagues spoke about Hawkinson on Friday.

Mike Dimmick, news anchor at WEEK-TV who was hired by Hawkinson in September 1982 as a weekend sports anchor when Hawkinson was the news director, said Hawkinson’s demeanor and steady hand set the standard for news directors at WEEK. “His calm as a leader became a major part of our newsroom culture. It has become a kind of News 25 tradition.”

Dimmick replaced Hawkinson as pronouncer of the Spelling Bee.

“It means a lot to me because Jeff asked me to do it. It was his pride and joy, and I want to preserve his legacy when I’m doing it,” he said.

Before television, Hawkinson worked in local radio, including at WMBD-FM (now known as Big Oldies 93.3). He got his broadcasting start at Bradley University, where he worked on the student radio station while majoring in communications. During his senior year at Bradley, he was student senate president.

He taught broadcast news at Illinois State University for a while and founded TV-10, the student-run television station, in 1973. The university in 2004 named the TV-10 Founders Award after Hawkinson.

Hawkinson joined Caterpillar Inc. in 1986 and became the company’s national spokesman. Later, he anchored Caterpillar’s in-house televised news, which was broadcast daily to Caterpillar facilities around the world.

“We are saddened to hear of the death of Jeff Hawkinson, and we extend our thoughts, prayers and well wishes to Jeff’s family and friends,” said Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan. “Jeff leaves behind a legacy of professionalism in his work at Caterpillar, particularly in the area of video communications, where he developed and pioneered some of the company’s early video communications vehicles.”

Hawkinson mentored other Caterpillar employees, said John Disharoon, manager of sustainable development at Caterpillar.

“He was the consummate professional. He taught by example. As a communications professional, I can’t even begin to state what kind of impact he had in Peoria,” he said.

Disharoon said Hawkinson was always willing to help others improve their communications skills. “He was so even-keeled. I never heard him talk down to anybody, rather he would encourage them. Everybody who knew Jeff has a fond memory.”

Cathi Hawkinson said that’s because his friends and colleagues meant so much to him. “Jeff never sought a pat on the back for himself, but he truly loved it when his friends or colleagues succeeded.”

There will be no conventional funeral. Rather, abiding by his wishes, the family will host friends with what it is calling “Jeff’s Happy Hour” from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 6, at the Peoria Art Guild.

Paul Gordon can be reached at 686-3288 or [email protected].

Read the original article from Journal Star.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Princeville High School junior Scott Donsbach described his drive to school Friday morning as “cold and slow.”

The about four-mile-long drive was especially challenging because the tractor he chose to navigate the chilly weather and icy roads for the annual Future Farmers of America Drive Your Tractor to School Day was a vintage AC WD-40 cabless tractor.

“I had planned to take a different tractor and (that tractor) started up fine this morning. But the tractor parked in front of that one wouldn’t start, and I couldn’t move that one to get the right tractor out to drive,” Donsbach explained, adding, “So, I had to take this one.”

Donsbach arrived at school a bit chilled, but still enthused, as he parked his little red tractor beside nearly a dozen mostly larger John Deere tractors lined up in the school’s back parking lot.

FFA students at Princeville have been driving their tractors to school the last day of national Future Farmers of America Week every year for more than three decades, said Joe House, who has been agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at the school for 33 years.

Many years there are more than the 12 tractors that participated this year, but the cold weather this week caused many of the students to leave their diesel tractors at home, House said.

“Diesel tractors don’t do so well in the cold. A lot of the kids are worried their diesels wouldn’t start to get home at the end of the day,” he said, adding that the school’s early release, at 11:20 a.m., made driving the tractors a bit more practical.

“If we’d have had a full day at school, with the tractors sitting in the cold that long, we’d have been in trouble.”

Driving to school Friday was “no big deal” for Dylan Endress, 17, a junior at Princeville High, who drives a tractor on a regular basis for his employer, Wes Sloan, a local farmer.

“The heater wasn’t working so well, and I was freezing to death, but it wasn’t too bad,” Endress said, after climbing out of his John Deere 4450 at the school’s parking lot.

Miles Smith, 15, a freshman at the school, said he had a lot of fun cruising through town in his family’s John Deere 8420.

“Driving to school was a lot of fun because I’m a farmer and I like to show off the tractor. It’s probably the biggest one here so far,” he said.

It took Jacob Ely, 16, about 20 minutes to drive his grandpa’s John Deere 4440 tractor from the family farm outside Brimfield to the school. The Ely family farms about 800 acres, and Jacob plans to run the farm someday, when his grandpa, Gene Ely, and Jacob’s dad, John Ely, choose to retire.

“Farming is what I really want to do. It’s in my family, it’s in my blood; there’s nothing I’d rather do,” he said.

In addition to driving tractors to school this week, Princeville High’s 75 FFA members took part in several FFA activities throughout the week. Participation in the various activities earned students points good toward participation in an annual canoeing trip along the Current River in Missouri with House at the end of the school year.

Although Kendra Knoblack, 16, a junior at Princeville High, didn’t ride a tractor to school Friday – it was much too cold for that, she said – she did earn points for wearing a tractor logo hat to school. However, it took a bit of creativity on her part, and on the part of her grandpa, Ed Ehnle, to earn those points, because Kendra didn’t own any shirts or hats with company imprinted logos.

Kendra’s hat was a green baseball cap, with a small toy John Deere tractor glued to the front.

“My grandpa glued it on for me,” she admitted sheepishly.

Kendra’s family owns about 20 acres of farmland, where the family raises Clydesdale horses. She said she loves farming and she enjoyed taking part in the week of FFA activities, just as she does in most of the class projects throughout the year in House’s classes.

“This is my funnest class,” she said. “You do work, but you get to have fun, too.”

Ruth Longoria Kingsland can be reached at 686-3196 or [email protected].

Read the original article from Journal Star.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

ATU Attorney Joe Pass says CTA management is “untrustworthy,” considers additional action

At a news conference Wednesday at ATU Local 241 headquarters, Local 241 attorney Joe Pass stated the union’s intent to file a series of lawsuits against the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to be completed by end of this week.

Those filings are now complete.

The lawsuits, which range from a class-action grievance aimed at CTA employee relations, a federal suit for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and a state lawsuit filed in Cook County to enforce 10 contract agreements, the Union claims the CTA has refused to honor and abide.

Pass noted that the CTA could resolve the grievance portion by hiring back at least 50 operators.

In response to CTA spokesperson Noelle Gaffney’s claims that employees signed a workbook to work overtime, and that the Union was “going to court instead violates the terms of the contract,” Pass retorted, “If the current situation was not so serious, Ms. Gaffney’s comments regarding Local 241’s lawsuits would be laughable.

Her suggestion that the Union must use the “grievance” procedure to resolve disputes demonstrates her ignorance to reality at the CTA, as well as the law.”

”If her comments are directed toward the federal lawsuit, certainly the CTA must be aware the law permits any employee denied his or her rights under federal statutes to seek redress in federal court,” Pass continued.

“Furthermore we shall continue to press our cases in the appropriate state and federal jurisdictions and are considering additional actions if the CTA continues on its ways.”

Pass also said CTA management has conspicuously not mentioned the huge union givebacks of recent years.

Local 241 gave back the CTA $1.3 billion, he noted, ranging from relieving CTA of retiree healthcare that they are no longer liable and bond money relief more than two years ago.

Additionally, Pass said, the union’s 2007, 3 percent wage increase went directly to the pension fund and not in the pockets of workers.

Moreover, in 2008, 3 percent of wages went to the retiree health care, and this year 2.3 percent of scheduled pay raises again went to the pension fund to bail out the CTA of their financial calamity.

Darrell Jefferson, president of ATU Local 241 made it clear that “We are not here to hurt the riding public. Some members may call for a possible strike vote as early as Monday, but I will be advising against it.”

With more CTA lay-offs scheduled for Sunday, Jefferson warned. “The longer waits and the longer lines are yet to come.”

Jefferson also reinforced his commitment to work with CTA to help find a permanent funding solution for mass transit in Chicago.

“I will work with CTA to get to any type of positive conclusion, whatever it takes,” Jefferson said.

“I’ll go to the state, to the feds, to Mercury, to Mars, I’ll go there with them if it’s going to bring funding back for mass transit in the city of Chicago. But, if we’re not going to try to get something permanent, I don’t want to be a part of it.”

ATU Local 241 is the voice of working people employed in the transportation industry.

It is the largest local within the ATU in the United States with nearly 11,000 members.

MEDIA CONTACT:

A. C. McLean, 312-341-1733
[email protected]
First Trace Communications

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

When we talk about the various new business models that work well for content creators, one of the complaints that some of our regular critics have pointed out is that if most of the people are getting the content for free, and only a small group of superfans are paying, aren’t those who pay getting “ripped off” somehow — leading to them eventually jumping on the free-rider bandwagon and leaving no one to pay? Reader JJ sent over a well-articulated version of this argument by a self-described cynical musician in a Polish hard rock band. He describes this as: The Hunt For The Big Dope.

Tragically, this is a total misunderstanding of the economic arguments people make. In fact, it’s a gross distortion of the argument to make it easy to dismiss, rather than taking the time to understand it. In fact, what we’re really arguing is the opposite of finding the big dope. It’s about using content to create fewer dopes, replacing them with people who are willingly buying something of value that they actually want. It’s the old system that was focused on getting big dopes to pay for things they didn’t need or want. The new business models that we talk about — focused on giving people a reason to buy — are about just that: offering scarce value, above and beyond the content, that is worth buying — and that helps fund the content creation. There’s no big dope in this scenario, because the people who are buying get a lot more than just the content, and they’re thrilled with the transaction. Everyone comes out of the transaction better off.

If you believe in the “big dope” theory put forth by this guy, then anyone who buys a car is a “big dope,” because they’re financing all of those commercials, which they get to see on TV without paying for them. The percentage of people who buy a car that they saw in a TV commercial compared to the number of people who actually see the commercial is a tiny, tiny number. But does that make those buyers “big dopes?” Of course not. They got something they wanted (a car). Yes, that’s a more extreme example, but when you recognize that the content is acting as an advertisement for the bigger reasons to buy, making them more valuable, the analogy fits perfectly. A large percentage of people will never buy products they find out about via an advertisement. But some do. And if enough do, and the product they’re driven to buy is scarce and valuable enough, the company makes money. Same thing for content creators.

They’re not looking for “big dopes.” They’re looking for people who want to make an informed decision, in which they get something of additional scarce value, well beyond the content. That sure beats the old system, which appeared to be focused on hiding the content to force a bunch of dopes to pay without knowing what they’d get — leading them to be disappointed all too often. No offense to this particular musician, but I’d rather have the system I describe, with no dopes at all, than the old one he appears to pine for, in which all your fans are considered dopes.

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High school senior Kodi McMullen is considering a career in teaching, so what better way to test the waters (and her patience) than by taking a class that puts her face to face with her future.

Beginning Tuesday, East Peoria Community High School will once again open its doors to a small group of children who will attend free preschool services at its Children’s Learning Center.

The center is run by six female students taking this semester’s vocational child care class, with help from class teacher Jo Moore.

“I took the class because I love kids,” said McMullen, 18. “I want to be a preschool teacher, and taking this class will help me get a look in on what teachers have to do during their job. Especially with little kids, you have to keep them entertained.”

The center has been integrated into the high school’s curriculum for more than 35 years. This is the first year Moore has headed the center and taught the class.

“We have repeat customers,” Moore said of the preschoolers. “The parents say they really like the program and feel their children are learning. In fact, they wish it was longer.”

McMullen said the past few weeks have been hectic with planning for the children.

“It has really shown me what teachers go through for us, to get ready for us to help us learn,” she said of the experience so far. “It’s so much.”

Since class started in January, the girls have been busy decorating the preschool room with the alphabet, colors, shapes and numbers, in English and Spanish. They will incorporate those wall displays into daily lessons.

“It’s been really, really fun,” McMullen said. “We’re all really excited.”

Using props and posters, the teachers-in-training will try their luck at keeping their little students interested for 70 minutes a day, four times a week. Six children already are enrolled in the seven-week preschool class, which serves ages 3 to 5. Several more spots remain open.

Planned lessons include zoo animals, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, how to express feelings and identifying the 50 states.

Student teachers’ lessons have to focus activities, including arts and crafts, science, English and math. Their pupils’ writing, speaking, social, emotional and cognitive learning skills must be put to the test.

“In this class, (the high school students) are learning to teach. This gives them the opportunity to practice what skills they’ll need,” Moore said. “I think it’s beneficial and will give them a head start when they go out to do their student teaching.”

Leslie Williams can be reached at 686-3188 or [email protected]

Read the original article from Journal Star.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Glendale Heights police don’t know much more about the abduction of one of their residents except that he’s been found unharmed.

Jose J. Gomez, 30, was abducted from his car while driving west on North Brandon Drive Thursday morning, police said. Witnesses saw two unidentified Hispanic men with dark, hooded coats exit a white Plymouth Voyager with a thin red stripe down the side. The two men then told Gomez they were the police, ordered him out of the vehicle, placed him in handcuffs and drove away. No weapon was displayed or implied in the abduction, police said.

On Friday, police issued a statement saying Gomez was located unharmed. They offered no information about how long Gomez was missing or what occurred during the course of his abduction. Police did not respond to an interview request for more information.

The only other new development in the investigation to become public is that police now believe the vehicle registration number of the Plymouth Voyager they initially made public was incorrect. Police now say they only have a partial registration of K109. That leaves three missing characters.

The investigation will continue. Anyone with information on the case should call the police at (630) 260-6070.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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For years we’ve tried to explain the difference between ideas and execution, and how lots of people have ideas (in fact, many have the same ideas entirely independently), but without good execution, those ideas aren’t really worth much at all. This point comes up a lot in the debates we have over the patent system — with patent system supporters often overvaluing the idea part, and grossly underestimating the importance of execution. Often this is because they’ve never built a real business, and don’t realize how little an initial idea plays into the final product. The two are often oceans apart. But stopping others from executing well (or forcing them to fork over a ton of money) just because they executed well where you did not? That doesn’t seem like encouraging innovation or promoting progress at all.

DSchneider points us to an excellent recent Jeff Attwood post about the differences between the idea and the execution. It’s well worth reading as it covers a bunch of different things, including a common refrain made against those who successfully execute: that they were only able to do so because they were “well-connected.” As he notes, being well connected may get you an initial head start, but if you can’t execute well, no one will come back. The idea, alone, is almost meaningless.

Attwood highlights this by pointing to a recent letter to a mailing list from one of the guys who started a crowdfunding operation called Fundable a while back, which failed miserably (and very spectacularly in public, with an open letter posted to its website laying out all the dirty laundry). There were all sorts of problems with the execution, which the guy even admits:

Yes, Fundable had some technical and customer service problems. That’s because we had no money to revise it. I had plans to scrap the entire CMS and start from scratch with a new design. We were just so burned out that motivation was hard to come by. What was the point if we weren’t making enough money to live on after 4 years?

The “technical and customer service problems” underplayed how significant some of those problems were. And yet… now that other crowdfunding platforms are getting attention, such as Kickstarter, this guy is crazy upset that they “stole his idea.”

I feel that this story is important to tell you because Kickstarter.com copied us. I tried for 4 years to get people to take Fundable seriously, traveling across the country, even giving a presentation to FBFund, Facebook’s fund to stimulate development of new apps. It was a series of rejections for 4 years. I really felt that I presented myself professionally in every business situation and I dressed appropriately and practiced my presentations. That was not enough. The idiots wanted us to show them charts with massive profits and widespread public acceptance so that they didn’t have to take any risks….

I cannot tell you how painful it is to watch 5 assholes take your idea
and run with it and not even give you credit. I hate all 5 of them
for that. If I see them, I may punch each one of them in the face.
If you have never started your own company and then had someone else
steal the credit for what you worked hard to develop, you don’t
understand.

Now, I have started my own company, and I’ve had lots of other people either come up with the same idea separately, or even blatantly decide to do something similar to various aspects of our business. So I do know how it feels. And, certainly when you first hear about it, it may be annoying, but it’s really just a challenge. I’ll be honest, there are times when others have done a better job executing on ideas than I have in the past, and in the end you either compete, or you tip your hat and move on. Competition breeds innovation and better execution since you know you need to do more. And that means not screwing up your technology and customer service and not lashing out and blaming others when someone else executes better.

And, the thing is, given what we write about, and all the business model examples we’ve see over the years, we’re pretty damn familiar with many of the players in the whole “crowdfunding space.” There have been lots of players who have come and gone, and there are at least a dozen players in the space today. And it’s not because they all “took” the idea from this guy, but because lots of people recognized that it’s an idea that makes sense. Kickstarter is certainly getting a ton of press these days, but that’s mostly because of some top notch execution on its part.

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Jeff Hawkinson, who for 24 years gave his smooth and calming voice to the Journal Star Spelling Bee, died Friday after battling a rare brain disorder for more than a decade.

Hawkinson, 63, died at 9:50 a.m. Friday at his Peoria home surrounded by family, said his wife Cathi Hawkinson.

“He was a class act all the way to the end and he died with dignity,” Cathi Hawkinson said.

Hawkinson had frontotemporal dementia, a rare, untreatable and ultimately fatal syndrome — often mistaken for Alzheimer’s disease — that is caused by damage to the portion of the brain responsible for behavior, emotions and language skills.

The illness gradually took his ability to read, write and speak and eventually his ability to walk or swallow.

Hawkinson became known in the Peoria area as the moderator for the Journal Star Spelling Bee every year for 24 years. The Bee has three segments that are all televised on WEEK-TV on Saturday mornings in March.

He had to give up the Spelling Bee in 2002 when the illness began affecting his speech.

A Bradley University graduate and national speech champion, Hawkinson founded the student television station at Illinois State University, TV-10 when he taught there.

He later was news director at WEEK, then later a spokesman for Caterpillar Inc., including anchoring its in-house television news that is broadcast to Caterpillar facilities around the world.

Hawkinson is donating his brain to Northwestern University for research.

Paul Gordon can be reached at 686-3288 or [email protected]
 

Read the original article from Journal Star.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Parents not informed of instructors’ suspensions at Bloom Trail

Parents of students at Bloom Trail High School in Steger are upset about not being alerted about two ROTC instructors who were suspended for allegedly sending inappropriate e-mails to some students.

Bloom Township High School District 206 Supt. Glen Gianetti said Daniel Walsh and Robert Lamacki were suspended with pay Feb. 18 pending an investigation into improprieties through e-mail dealing with ROTC students.

He would not go into any details of what the improprieties were.

Some parents are upset not only at the allegations, but about the lack of communication from the school.

“As a parent of an ROTC student who has these two instructors, my husband and I should have been sent a letter or informed in some way that they’ve been removed from the school,” said Theresa Kilmowski, of Steger, whose son is a sophomore in ROTC at the high school.

“I don’t need to know all the sordid details, but let us know what’s going on.”

Gianetti said he was told by Frank Kuzniewski, principal at Bloom Trail High School, that he had informed parents of the allegations and the suspensions.

Carla Anderson, of Sauk Village, said her son told her about the situation after he went to meet with Walsh and was told by students that Walsh had been suspended.

“They didn’t let parents know about this, as usual,” Anderson said. “They bury things over there.”

Read the original article from SouthTown Star.

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