Comments on: Today’s Headlines

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:38:29 +0000

As noted, the U.S. economy is an a race between a required adjustment — with a higher savings rate, balanced current accounts, and less debt-fueled consumption — and the bankruptcy of the federal government and collapse our our currency.

Cash for clunkers set the adjustment back:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZcN_BCvBsAE

“The U.S. trade deficit widened in July and imports gained by a record 4.7 percent, signaling a revival of commerce as the global recession eased. The gap between imports and exports grew 16 percent, the most in more than a decade.”

“Purchases of auto parts and industrial supplies by companies such as General Motors Co. and Hyundai Motor Corp. got a boost from the ‘cash-for-clunkers’ program and the annual retooling of plants. The gain in auto imports was probably even bigger in August when the trade-in program spurred car sales to 14.1 million units on an annual basis, the most since May 2008.”

We can’t go on buying more than we produce, and going deeper and deeper into debt, forever. Why keep digging the hole you are standing in?

By: P

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:21:29 +0000

It seems a bit unfair to all of your neigbhors to turn your garden into asphalt.

By: Boris

Boris — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:03:57 +0000

“Mr. Avella, who during the debate vowed to drive himself as mayor — if security permitted it — responded that he had proposed legislation barring city residents from paving over their front lawns.”

It’s now required for new construction, but would be illegal for existing houses? Seems a bit unfair.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:01:00 +0000

TennisFan’s idea sounds fine to me. I mean, cripes, it’s like six days a year that this is an issue.

By: TennisFan

TennisFan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:28:12 +0000

I have a very simple idea. Raise the price of parking on overlap days to $30-$40. I bet enough people would leave their cars at home and take the train that there will be no need to use the grass.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:25:31 +0000

Perhaps the garage wouldn’t be so bad if it were used for park and ride, and was paid for entirely out of private funds. It might induce some who live outside walking distance from the train to drive to the lot instead of Manhattan or Long Island City.

Limiting auto use is useful; an outright elimination is at least a century away, perhaps never.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:24:40 +0000

“There is definitely a downside to biking when bikes become a fashion fad,” Wendy Booher, 39, a cycling journalist in Somerville, Mass., wrote in an e-mail message. “If you unleash a herd of teetering, wobbly fashionistas into city streets without any real knowledge of how to ride a bike in traffic, accidents can (and likely will) happen.”

I guess one of the perks of being a ‘cycling journalist’ is that you get to discourage potential bicycle riders by stereotyping everyone who works in a certain industry as naifs with poor balance.