Bicentennial Baby

So, either motivated by the ending of an election that I was all too eager to see come to a conclusion or because of the recent surge in booksales  ( sold two in September according to my recent report and one last week) I have decided to bring the blog back.  I guess I’ve done this a couple of times in the past but I’m hoping this time I can stick with it.  I’ve been lucky to still get 200 unique visitors a month without any real effort on my part and I probably squandered an opportunity to keep them by not having this updated.  I’m really how hard is it to update once a day. 

In any event, with a young American President taking office, the end of the Bushies and an economy on the brink now is as good a time as any to wax poetic on whatever.

This morning I found a Boston Globe article that outlines what a modern day depression would like and it is nothing like your grandfather’s (or great grandfather’s) depression.  In any event, a semi-interesting read that focuses on healthcare and childcare and college among the things we’ll need to give up - we talk about those issues  a lot here.  I would say however, that the first way to avoid the Great Depression II…is to not use the word.  Simple but a to a large extent, true.  After all, our markets are more emotional, than rational it seems. 

Happy Sunday.  Glad to be back with you.  Here is the Globe Article

Can Joe Biden help Gen X or Y with the issues that matter to us, like affordable schooling, new jobs, retirement and bringing us home from Iraq?  Well we might not know yet but Politico invites us to look at what his appointment tells us about Obama

It is easy to overstate the meaning of vice presidential picks. After all, rarely does the selection of a running mate significantly tilt the outcome of an election. But it does provide a unique window into the presidential nominee’s decision-making instincts and his strategy for winning in the fall. 

Here are five things the selection of Joe Biden tells us about Barack Obama:

1. He’s fixing for a fight. Obama has been knocked for being too soft and too enthralled with rhetorical fancy. But the past few weeks provided a glimpse of his tough-guy Chicago side. He went negative the moment his campaign felt wobbly. Biden is a brawler — and the Obama camp is eager to unleash him.
 
2. He’s a lot more conventional than advertised. Obama has promised a different and more consensus-oriented brand of politics but more often than not has done what most politicians do: switched positions to soothe voters, dodged the unpredictability of town hall meetings, and gone for the jugular when he sees it. The Biden pick — the most important choice Obama has made to date in his public career — was safe and traditional. Two male career politicians from the Senate is hardly transformational. 

3. He’s insecure about security. The Georgia-Russia crisis amplified Obama’s shortcomings on national security — both his own experience and the perceptions of voters about his own readiness for command. McCain is making that his calling card and polls show it’s working. Biden offers Obama instant help: He knows this stuff and is more than willing to flaunt it. 

4. He’s more worried about Lunchbox Joe than Bubba. Obama was not persuaded by arguments that Democrats for the past 60 years only win the presidency when they have a Southerner on the ticket. He seems confident he can put a few states in the Old Confederacy in play by stoking African-American turnout. Perhaps. But he also is calculating that his more urgent concern is working-class whites, especially those in the industrial Midwest. Hillary Rodham Clinton clobbered him in these areas — and white men remain very skeptical of him if you believe the polls (and his people do). At the public unveiling of the ticket Saturday at Springfield, Ill., Obama called Biden a “scrappy kid from Scranton.” 

5. He doesn’t hold a grudge — or at least does not let it get in the way. Biden, who pulled out of the Democratic race after finishing fifth in Iowa, raised serious questions about Obama’s readiness to handle national security in the primaries. Biden said things like this a year ago: “If the Democrats think we’re going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person being able to [bring to the] table unimpeachable credentials on national security and foreign policy, I think we’re making a tragic mistake.” That criticism hurt then because it echoed the precise case made by Clinton in the nomination contest. It’s hurting now because Republicans are using Biden’s word against Obama in a new ad. Now Obama has to show he can get over the Clinton grudge.

See the original article here

It looks like Hillary is endorsing Obama rather enthusiastically as she suspends her campaign.  The Y vote forced this to happen in a lot of ways…

Generation Y is off to good start with giving.  Despite drastically lower incomes, Gen Y is giving what they can and Generation X is catching up on the Baby Boomers as far as average yearly contributions go.   

While many fundraisers have been concentrating on how to capture the hearts and wallets of the baby boomer generation, a new US study suggests the not-for-profit sector may be missing out on other opportunities after finding little difference in propensity towards philanthropy between the generations.

Research conducted by Indiana University’s Centre for Philanthropy for the US consultancy, Campbell & Company, has discovered that the Millennials – those born since 1981 – and Generation X – those born between 1964 and 1980 – are an underestimated and untapped resource.

Accounting for factors such as education and income levels, the research found there was essentially no difference in rates of giving between generations. But even before such factors were taken into account, Millennials, often considered less likely to give to charitable causes, had participation rates of 80 per cent, only marginally less than the 86.6 per cent of the baby boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1963).

However, there was a marked difference in the average amount given by Millennials in comparison to older, more affluent generations. The average total donation of a member of the Millennial generation was $1,279 per year, a third less than the $1,985 given by the average baby boomer donor.

Generation X was found to give $1,971 per year per average donor.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE 

Hi all,

the blog has suffered over the past few months as a simply doing what you do everyday tends to take up too much time and energy.  Well, despite a lag in fresh updates I am still garnering nearly 1,000 visitors per month from all of you.  For that, I thank you and am making a commitment.  In light of collapsing economic conditions and a pivotal election that is finally moving past the primary season, I am committing to updating this blog everyday and will bring you the latest information on the issues that matter most to Gen Y.  This year is your opportunity to finally influence the course of events in America and I want to help highlight the issues you care about and drive more and more of us to the polls this year.  I encourage to sign up for the RSS feed and to come back for regular updates.  Summer at last.  A new president at last.