Get Paulson out of it
A recent article in Financial Sense, titled
”
Hell, Meet Handbasket,
”
described the history leading to our current financial crises
and the dismal prognosis. It covers the Glass-Steagall Act (1933)
which, among other things, created a wall separating commercial
banks and investment banks. Congress had been chipping away at this
act for 50 years or more. Finally, in 1999, the Financial
Modernization Act was passed. This act removed the wall between
commercial banks and investment banks.
It took less than a decade for the abuses similar to those of
the 1920s, with modern improvements, to be repeated. This time, the
financial meltdown has extended around the world in just a few
weeks.
The recent $700 billion bailout of the financial institutions
was going to save all. It does not appear to be doing what was
intended. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Kashkari, who is
supposed to administer the distribution of the first half of the
$700 billion, testified before congress the week of Nov. 14. He
made the statement to the effect that it was not a good move to
continue to give money to companies that will probably fail anyway.
That is, Kashkari said we should not throw good money after
bad.
What happened to the right to fail? What happened to Chapter 11
bankruptcy? Chapter 11 allows companies time to reorganize and
either survive or die without breaking the federal bank or making a
shambles of the Constitution of the United States.
President Bush should fire Henry Paulson and appoint
President-Elect Obama’s nominee Tim Geithner. He cannot do any
worse than Secretary Paulson.
Marvin L. Jones
Hollister
Welcome to Washington’s Twilight Zone
Welcome to the Twilight Zone! As I watch Barney Frank, Maxine Waters and others on the House Financial Services Committee grill the Secretary of the Treasury and leader of the Federal Reserve, I keep expecting to hear Rod Serling announce the end of the show.
The plot starts during the Carter administration in 1977 with Congress passing the Community Reinvestment Act, which had the well intended but naïve goal of encouraging more home ownership. In the 1990s the Clinton administration mandated aggressive politically versus economically correct mortgage lending by directing Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) to buy subprime mortgages. In parallel the ACORN community activists were systematically intimidating bankers to ignore prudent loan qualification standards. To protect themselves, the GSE’s bundled these high risk mortgages and sold them to Wall Street investment banks as collateralized debt obligations. In turn Wall Street did what it does best. It morphed these potentially toxic assets into derivative products and sold them to financial institutions all over the world. In the 2000 decade, while these same democrats in congress were repeatedly resisting any effort for greater oversight of the GSEs, these toxic assets spread like an influenza virus to balance sheets all over the world, waiting to erupt.
This fall the financial pandemic erupted with fury. In response, these same legislators and the Bush administration rushed approval of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which in the fine print grants virtually unlimited control to the secretary of the treasury on how the borrowed $700 billion is spent. Now, six weeks later, the same legislators act surprised that the secretary is doing what he believes is correct, rather than what they want.
Simultaneously, the country has gone through another election cycle. All of the congressional architects who enabled this self-inflicted global financial meltdown were re-elected. Where is the voter outrage at trillions of dollars lost in savings, retirement accounts and housing, all due to decades of malfeasance by liberal democrats shilling for “affordable housing?” Am I the only one angry? The founding fathers tried to assure this country a free press via the First Amendment. However, they assumed that the majority of the media would always be curious, intellectually honest and report on the important issues of the day. Sadly, there has been more media attention on Gov. Sarah Palin’s campaign wardrobe than on investigating and exposing the underlying causes of this financial crisis and the continuing conflicts of interest, VIP treatment, cronyism and incompetence among key players such as Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters and their cohorts, and the GSEs for which they have oversight. Where is the accountability? Is it any wonder that the approval rating of Congress is so low?
Unfortunately, this is not an episode of the Twilight Zone. This is the real world and it will take years, perhaps a decade or more, to recover from this self-inflicted financial hangover. In the meantime, voters have committed financial suicide by entrusting the same legislators who enabled the current situation to now repair their damage! Financial markets do not function well when there is no confidence or predictability in their operating environment. Don’t count on a quick recovery.
Larry Cattran
Hollister
Get Paulson out of it
A recent article in Financial Sense, titled “Hell, Meet Handbasket,” described the history leading to our current financial crises and the dismal prognosis. It covers the Glass-Steagall Act (1933) which, among other things, created a wall separating commercial banks and investment banks. Congress had been chipping away at this act for 50 years or more. Finally, in 1999, the Financial Modernization Act was passed. This act removed the wall between commercial banks and investment banks.
It took less than a decade for the abuses similar to those of the 1920s, with modern improvements, to be repeated. This time, the financial meltdown has extended around the world in just a few weeks.
The recent $700 billion bailout of the financial institutions was going to save all. It does not appear to be doing what was intended. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Kashkari, who is supposed to administer the distribution of the first half of the $700 billion, testified before congress the week of Nov. 14. He made the statement to the effect that it was not a good move to continue to give money to companies that will probably fail anyway. That is, Kashkari said we should not throw good money after bad.
What happened to the right to fail? What happened to Chapter 11 bankruptcy? Chapter 11 allows companies time to reorganize and either survive or die without breaking the federal bank or making a shambles of the Constitution of the United States.
President Bush should fire Henry Paulson and appoint President-Elect Obama’s nominee Tim Geithner. He cannot do any worse than Secretary Paulson.
Marvin L. Jones
Hollister
Thanks to volunteers
San Benito County Health and Human Services Agency, Public Health Division would like to thank the many county and community volunteers, and the Gavilan College nursing students and medical assistant students, who assisted with the Free Flu Clinic event on November 6, 2008.
The Clinic, planned as a timed county emergency preparedness drill, provided over 2,050 San Benito County residents, ages six months through seniors with free vaccinations. Thanks to the efforts of these volunteers, the event proved extremely successful.
These volunteers gave their time and energy to making our community a healthier place to live. Thank you!
Samela Perez
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for
San Benito County Public Health Division
We’re trying to be good neighbors
In response to Henry and Charlene Petersen’s letter to the editor concerning the new hospital projects, please note the hospital building projects associated with the campaign for Measure L in May of 2005 were all listed in the ballot measure. Following the passage of Measure L, as planning of the specific buildings was taking place, a letter was sent to all the residents on Memorial Drive. Every attempt was made to get input from the residents, with only one resident expressing a concern.
When we were completing the application to the city for approval of the projects, we went before the Hollister Planning Commission and a hearing was held. The hearing was open to the public and was publicized well in advance in both the Free Lance and Pinnacle newspapers. No one came forward with any concerns. In addition, two separate letters were mailed to the individual residents by the planning department advising them of the project scope and requesting input. Every action has been carefully considered and taken to coordinate this project design and construction to address our neighbors’ concerns.
As to the selection of trees and roadways throughout the grounds of the hospital, the city opted to take those two items as their decision; therefore, we changed our original planning in order to have city approval. The project is approved for work from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday. There is no work performed or trucks delivering materials outside that schedule.
This will be a very nice building when completed. Unfortunately, construction is always noisy and dirty, and not much can be done to alter that problem. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience during this project work.
Please bear with us as we are making these necessary changes to our campus in an effort to better fulfill our mission of providing quality healthcare in a safe and compassionate environment.
Ken Underwood
Chief Executive Officer
Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital
We must depend on ourselves
It is sad to know that the Free Lance will only be published once a week. I feel it will be missed. It’s going to be weeks that somebody will have passed away and be buried before we know about it.
Things turn bad in businesses. Four years ago I thought that our city and county would be in better shape than we are four years later. I attend many board meetings and sometimes they might think that I am asleep, but I am very aware of what is going on. I got acquainted with this administration wishing they would succeed. Many times in these four years I felt like making things public that I thought were bad decisions, but my respect for this administration kept me from doing that. We know that things have been out of hand, not only in San Benito County, but in the whole world. Bad economy, high unemployment, everybody is taking the pinch.
We can’t give up! There is an old saying, “misery is addicted to misery.” It takes everybody with the right attitude to save the sip. It seems like everything is going backwards. The lack of rain is very serious to the farmers, ranchers, water level, trees, bushes and flowers are all suffering. Guess is forbidden. If we could all guess then everybody would be rich. Now with a new president, a new administration, and some luck we might see things moving in the right direction. It would be very welcomed.
We must depend on ourselves. When the government coffers are getting empty it will be too late because I feel that our county and city should have done a better job in the past four years. I am sure that some of the leaders feel the same way that I do. We must stop dragging our feet. This is only my opinion.
Amadeu Lima
Hollister
Know when to butt out
The Hollister radicals strike again on Veterans Day. I read both letters from Ms. Wist and Ms. Zanger about their attendance at the Veterans Day ceremony. You people are nothing but a bunch of bullies. There is only one reason for you to show up there with your signs and pictures, and that is to intimidate and disrupt.
Do you really think you are going to change someone’s beliefs by being there with your signs and pictures? We all know what you believe; you are anti-military, anti-government and anti-American. You despise anything or anyone with authority.
When the coordinator asked you to leave, stating that you were disrupting the ceremony, you should have respected his request. You radicals love to disrupt and have no respect, hoping for a confrontation so you can cry victim. Your refusing to leave has nothing to do with free speech. You only want free speech when it is speech that you agree with. You radicals are such hypocrites. You show photos of war and killing and call our country and our military murderers and rapists. But where is your compassion and sympathy for the thousands of babies that are aborted in this country every year? You don’t have any problem with that.
You don’t want to kill terrorists who kill thousands of innocent people but you have no problem killing babies through abortions. You even allow some of them to die alone in a cold, dark closet after a botched abortion they survived. Your president-elect Obama is behind you on that one, too.
Why can’t you just let people attend a ceremony for our military, our veterans and our country without you showing up with your disruptions, your photos and your signs?
Steve Collins
Hollister
Keep TPWD solvent
I have owned a home in Tres Pinos for 35 years and have lived in Tres Pinos for 25 of those years. I have been a resident of San Benito County my entire life.
I served on the water board in the 1980s and early 1990s and again from 2003 to 2006. I was unanimously appointed in April of this year by the county Board of Supervisors to complete the term held by Director Dee Ann Brown.
My concerns regarding the district included water and sewer services for the residents and future improvements, developments and annexations. The water district is currently in compliance with all state and local regulatory requirements for both our sewer ponds and well water. It is necessary to stay in compliance to ensure we are not fined by any water or sewer agencies or, worse, shut down. Our office manager, bookkeeper and secretary Pam Alavardo and our wastewater consultant, William Markum from Sterling Environment, have worked diligently together to bring the district up to and keep the district in compliance.
In June 2007 the water board members put together a detailed Prop. 218 measure and presented it to the township with the acceptance of grants and a 3½ percent pre-approved loan. Phase 1 would have increased our monthly bill by about $10. There would have been two more phases with small increases that might not have had to be used. A protest (led by Tres Pinos residents) was successful. The district lost the chance to improve our old system. In March 2008, a second Prop. 218 measure to save the district from financial ruin was presented to the township. Unfortunately, this proposal was also protested (again led by Tres Pinos residents) and again defeated. The cost to each household would have again been only $10 with each household having control over any amount over the $10. There were defined categories the monies would have been allotted to as the state and local agencies dictate where this type of fee can be used.
There are several requests with the district for additional water and sewer hookups, also other landowners interested in annexing into the district that the water board members should review for consideration. I know we must have progress to continue to sustain the district and keep it in the hands of Tres Pinos residents. Growth promotes income to keep the district alive. Without rate increases (which were voted down) the district has no other revenue except monthly billings.
We need additional water storage for fire protection within the district to be compliant with the fire marshal. A second well for backup is required for emergencies should our existing well fail.
Our well is at 38-40 feet. It has been monitored for the past several months and the depth has not changed. While providing Stonegate with water daily, the depth did not change but we did generate limited revenue.
Our engineer from San Benito Engineering investigated the well depth in the Tres Pinos aquifer. There have not been any notable changes since 1968. Records from San Benito County Water District reflected in the Groundwater Report for Water, performed in 2001, show that the Tres Pinos aquifer has been relatively stable since 1913.
Currently, the sewer capacity is about 65,000 gallons per day. We have been at 20,000 to 25,000 per day. We have approximately 100 users. We are able to accommodate up to 200 users and be at 70 percent of capacity. Board members must address the future disposal of wastewater from existing ponds or add new ponds. More expense and no revenue.
I encourage everyone from the Tres Pinos Water District to attend monthly meetings and provide input to keep the district operating. Our current fees for water and sewer are less than the surrounding areas and because many people in our community are on fixed incomes, any increase would hurt some households. The Prop. 218’s that failed would have increased monthly bills by about $10. The board members have yet to agree on a method to generate revenue to keep the district operating in Tres Pinos.
Alternatives may include bankruptcy, selling the district to someone or to have the State or County take us over. If any of these happen, the increase would be much more than $10.
I had no hidden agenda while on the board. There is no pay and the politics can get dirty, but as a citizen of the community I had hoped to keep any fee increases to a minimum and look to the future, out 20 to 25 years so those coming behind us would be better prepared than the existing board.
Thanks to all who voted for me. Again, I stress the importance for citizens of the community to attend meetings and be aware of what is to come in the future.
Janie Lausten
Tres Pinos
