charleso

Aren't most of these 'tax increases' simply an expiration of the huge tax cuts made under the previous administration as a temporary measure?

If I recall correctly, those cuts were strongly criticized at the time as being unsustainable and likely to lead to huge budget deficits. Rather than fix the core financial problems at the time, a tax cut was used to punt unpopular measures into the next administration.

I guess those problems could continue to be ignored for the sake of popularity, but that plan hasn't worked very well so far.

Edit: For the downvote brigade; no, those cuts did not help you: http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2009/01/tax_cuts...

Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo (1947), actually.

For a vague, SPOILER-ish description (the book's cover often gives it away anyhow): A group of teens build a moon rocket, but someone (wonder who?) is there to meet them.

Oh, but it is!

I just viewed a few Google ads sponsored from South Africa, increasing the big G's revenue by some vanishingly small amount.

5BX isn't 'wacky'. It was designed by the RCAF to ensure airmen could remain in top physical condition without the need for fitness equipment.

Consistency is at the core of the program and it ramps up slowly to build good daily habits with deceptively easy exercises. Challenge comes quickly after those habits are in place.

I found it the perfect program while in the startup phase of my company. Taking an hour or two out mid-day to go to a gym was impossible during that time, but going into another room to exercise 11 minutes each day was no trouble at all.

This program is really superb.

I used it for a year or so to get myself up to my target level and then started going to a gym to train on weights.

If you want to start getting in shape but feel too shy to go to a gym just yet, start with this. You will honestly see amazing results if you set aside that 11 minutes a day and eat right along the way.

Clickable links for article on return: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1402

Mission homepage: http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/hayabusa/index.sht...

The rescue plan as of 2007: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/jsp_includes/articlePrint.jsp...

You're right. 'Foolish' was a poor choice of word.

When pairing mineral resources with a chaotic government like Afghanistan's, I can't help but picture kleptocratic scenarios like Nigeria, Congo or the like and that's what brings 'foolish' to mind.

If mining started there today we would certainly enjoy the fruits of the labour, but I'm not sure the people would see anything from it. A few other posters have mentioned 'The Resource Curse' and I think Afghanistan would end up more like Congo than Norway if minerals were extracted in quantity from their soil.

I think starting with agricultural exports and building slowly from there would provide a more stable economic foundation.

The world has a severe shortage of opiate-based pain killers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid#Global_shortage_of_poppy...

Opium poppies grow well in Afghanistan and farmers already know how to cultivate and prepare it for shipping in large quantities.

Potential mineral riches are spiffy and all, but it seems foolish to toss money at projects which require large-scale construction and worker training when an existing high-demand product already exists to productively employ the populace.

These folks don't yet have infrastructure capable of large-scale mineral extraction. Why not build upon useful agricultural exports and start from there?

My first thought was "This is much slower and uglier than Bing". Since Bing's results have been comparable to Google's for the searches I make (so there's really no difference between the two for me) that's where I've been today.

For one day, at least, Google managed to change my ingrained habits and switch to their search competitor. I might even stay there.

Probably not the effect they were looking to have.

If, on top of your mortgage interest, you add in property taxes, property maintenance (2-5% annually?), brokerage fees and the gains foregone in purchasing property rather than bonds, is it still good advice?

I was more-or-less with him up until the "Don't Rent" advice.

By his own admission, purchasing a condo and riding it up to the very top of the largest real estate bubble in history netted him only a 1% return. Any other market at any other time would likely have netted him a loss on that purchase.

In a non-bubble market, I wonder how much more he would have gained by renting that very same condo and investing the difference instead?