ALMOST INCOMPREHENSIBLE MONEY THINGS

HOLY COW, right now click, glance, blink at the National Debt Clock.

Click any item and you'll see another clock with specifics that you can click to see a smaller clock with more specifics. Here's what the numbers were when I started writing this on February 8th.

The Clock is a billboard-sized display which constantly updates to show our current gross national debt and each American family's share of the debt. It's in NYC, on the western side of One Bryant Park, west of Sixth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets.

(Except if you visit my hometown today, you won't see the sign. It's being moved to a fancier new building in that area. I never noticed it; money has never been my cup of tea, but it intrigues my husband, John Cullum whose Dad was hoping John would get into real estate and money lending instead of acting.)  Anyway, here's what I've gathered from various online sources.

WHY DOES OUR COUNTRY OWN SO MUCH?

The federal budget, every year since since 1970 has a deficit. Last year it was $666 billion. Experts say it will be $30 trillion by 2028. Janet Yellen (the retiring Federal Reserve chair) told Congress in November that the debt could become unsustainable -- "It's the type of thing that should keep people awake at night."

WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM
We pay interest on this debt. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is stopping Obama's post recession stimulus campaign, so interest rates will rise steadily in the coming years -- probably it will triple by 2027 when the Government will be spending more on interest payments than on national defense.

IS EVERYONE WORRIED.
No. (Gee, I am.) Economists say deficits and debts are mostly irrelevant. Since the government can print its own money it can pay or not pay off its debts. Other experts tout what's known as the "Modern Monetary Theory," explaining that inflation is the only thing standing in the way of the government printing and spending as much money as it wants.
                                                                                         
WHO OWNS THIS DEBT
About three-quarters is held by investors in treasury securities that are sold by the government to raise money. Some is coming from the government borrowing from trust funds like Social Security and Medicare, which means we (you and I) own most of the debt along with corporations, state and local governments and individual investors who hold treasury bonds in their retirement funds. Our biggest foreign creditor is China, (second biggest is Japan). If the U.S. damaged its credit rating it would be a seriously bad problem but currently "American Debt" is considered a one the world's safest asserts.

HAS THE US ALWAYS BEEN IN DEBT?
President Andrew Jackson briefly paid it off in 1835 with proceeds from land that the government stole which belonged to the Native American Indian tribes. The U.S has been in debt beginning with the cost of the Revolutionary War. The debt peaked in World War II days, sank afterwards. It's been rising since then -- peaked when government spent heavily to avoid economic collapse during young George W Bush's days with his $700 billion bank bailout, and again with Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PAY IT OFF.
Spending less and collecting more in taxes. But voters don't want spending cuts or tax increases, and politicians who want to be elected avoid them.

Dems and Repubs are inconsistent in their views on this. There's a lot of talk about Bill Clinton's debt and what it did to senior Bush's debt, and what his debt did to Bush junior, and what Obama did, but Repubs who now have both houses, embrace the deficits, arguing that their 1.5. trillion tax plan will pay for itself by generating economic grown, (even though economists say that's not realistic.)

Hey guys, even if what to do about the debt inconclusive, irrelevant, unrealistic and you, like me, can't picture  trillions -- you could wrap $1.00 bills around the Earth 81,258 times with the debt amount! If you lay $1.00 bills on top of each other they would make a pile almost $1.5 million high! That's equivalent to 5.93 -- six trips to the Moon!

Yow! In the time it took you to read this page what we owe has gone up, up, up, WOW -- here's the National Debt Clock NOW 

GLORIA STEINEM ON "ME TOO"

Gloria Steinem's affect on our culture is huge.

These questions were asked by NY Times Journalist, Abigail Jones. Gloria Steinem's replies (somewhat cut down by me) reveal that nowadays Steinem doesn't push or sell what she personally stands for. In the 70's Steinem, a journalist herself, became the face of the woman's revolution, founding "Ms," a magazine by and for women, tackling domestic violence, reproductive rights, equal opportunity--all the issues that became known as women's lib. Now, at 83, no longer a revolu-tionary, Steinem's ready, willing, and able to advise us on how to handle what she considers the inevitable change that's happening, glad it's happening, as she tells us: "Be who and what you are."

HOW IS "ME TOO" DOING?
"I see a level of activism that I have never, ever seen. Wherever I go, I see people who weren't voting before and are now running for office, or who didn't know who their congressional representative was, and are now lining up outside their offices to lobby them. (She refers to President Trump awakening people, who were going about their lives without paying attention to the government.)

CAN YOU ELABORATE ON HOW TRUMP HELPED THE MOVEMENT?
"What once was an invisible experience without a phrase, sexual harassment, then was a phrase without a law, and then a law without a national conscious-ness, is now available truth telling, with some possibility of being believed for the first time. We're beginning to see the scope of a system of male dominance that's intertwined with race and class. We're beginning to see how much sex has been distorted by power."

HAS "ME TO" MADE YOU RETHINK YOUR OWN PAST EXPERIENCES WITH MEN?
"I'm remembering when I was 30, sitting on a couch in an office with a (male) acquaintance. The acquaintance reached across and took hold of my wrist to kiss me. I bit him on the cheek drawing blood. I didn't think about it! I'm not suggesting this was a virtue on my part. I still had my instincts. It made me realize to please, to be obedient, to not make trouble hadn't been cultured out of me. We have instincts like my cat. My cat will not put up with anything because she has never had that instinct oppressed out of her."

HOW CAN WE ENCOURAGE THAT INSTINCT IN YOUNG PEOPLE?
"We are most likely to encourage it in girls and boys by listening to them--what are they interested in--what do they like to do? That's how we know they're worth listening to. Encourage them to do it on their own. Not help too much. Provide a community of support. In some ways girls have become dependent because they are not allowed to be independent. It's partly just saying "You like to do that? Do it!"

 WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THAT'S CHANGED YOUR OWN BEHAVIOR?
"At a minimum, you can model the behavior you want to strengthen by not shouting and yelling. I do think that we, as women, trying to please, need to be aware of the problem sometimes. When presented with 500 people ready to do something, and 100 people say no, women will try to persuade the 100 rather than move forward with the 400. Sometimes I can hear myself saying "You don't agree with me? Let me explain it to you  again." Instead, say, "Thank you very much," and move on to something positive.

WHAT'S YOUR BEST ADVICE FOR YOUNG WOMEN, POLITICAL AND OTHERWISE?
"Don't listen to me, listen to yourself. What do you love to do so much that you forget what time it is when you are doing it? Find support for that. Find other people who will know how to do it better, that you can learn from. Don't worry about the shoulds. Get up in the morning and do what you can."

Guys, friends who are reading this, if you want to see the uncut full version of what she said, click Newsweek Article.

I have to say I love Gloria Steinem's tone, and the down-to-earth, marvelously practical advice she's giving us.

(VIDEO) WHATTA DAY!!!

Would you want to change places, and be John Cullum and Emily Frankel in front of a camera making a video?

After a nightmarish morning with many interruptions about things that urgently need fixing, the Cullums find themselves unable to figure out what to discuss.

LIFE LESSON FROM JOE THE SHOELACE GUY

When I put on my sneakers, yank and tug extra hard on the laces, I think of Joe Busby. My latest new pair of sneakers arrived with laces that were way too long.


Click --
visit what I found on the Internet 



I bought two pairs of strong, correct length laces for $1.26 + $3.00 for shipping. I emailed my thanks to the company, asking, "Who's the owner? How do you guys break even?"

Somebody replied immediately in an email, and said:
      "Joe Busby was a manager for ten years, buying and selling. traveling a lot  for Honeywell in Dayton. When he moved to Cincinnati, he started the shoe lace business. He and his wife wanted to raise a family.  Her full time job involved her traveling as well,. Honeywell, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, produces thermostats, security systems, and turbo-chargers for vehicles. He selected shoe laces because it allowed him to create a niche-market for himself where he could  make them and sell them from his home."

Hey, Joe Busby -- I am a blogger, writing short essays -- creating them and promoting them on Twitter and Facebook so that they'll be read. Having written six novels that are selling, (not very well) on Amazon, observing that people are reading less and "blogging" with their photos, expressing their ideas with  "likes" -- it doesn't make sense for me to devote myself to writing a new novel. It takes a year or so, to write a novel -- you can create a post for a blog in five to eight hours.

So I strain my brain every day, figuring out what to blog about... I wonder if Joe Busby felt what I feel -- somewhat frustrated, purposeless, when he was working for Honeywell.

Oh boy, I could write a book about all the things nobody told me about growing older -- like white socks. Years ago, I laughed because my mother, even in the summer wore white socks when she retired for the night. Mom didn't tell me, nobody ever mentioned the leg cramps that we get (my husband gets them too) if we don't wear socks.

Hey, right now, wow, today, right this minute, I could start a non-fiction seventh book -- a big-fat-ever-expanding narration about stuff that nobody warned me about-- fun to research it-- get folks to share what's bugging them and sell it-- like Busby-- 2 cents + postage. Yay yay -- that oughta keep me creatively percolating, for a year or two or ten.

Hey, yay yay yay -- friends, pals, followers, that's my blog today!!