Musings, Commentaries, Photos and Reviews

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I was happy to see that our state was able to get the relatively cheap $500 signs for our local American Recovery and Reinvestment Act paving project, unlike some of the other states. On my ride to Peterborough, I was greeted with this. At least half of my ride was smooth sailing. The signs cost $500 apiece in Maryland and New Hampshire, $1,700 in Georgia, $2,000 in Pennsylvania and New York, and $3,000 per project in New Jersey. Our Senator Judd Gregg railed on a bit about this on a ABC News Video spot in spite of getting bargain priced signage. Geez! I love the smell of fresh asphalt in the morning… it smells like “Recovery”.

A.I.G. planning Huge Bonuses after $170 Billion Bailout This was a headline story in the New York Times. I wonder what folks who have lost their jobs and savings feel about these clowns. I have a problem understanding how you can get a bonus for running your business into bankruptcy (why didn’t that happen?). In my opinion the most ironic part of the article is the letter that Edward M. Liddy (the government appointed chairman of A.I.G.) wrote to Timothy F. Geithner: “We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses — which are now being operated principally on behalf of American taxpayers — if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury,” he wrote Mr. Geithner on Saturday. Let’s file that statement under “Pay for Performance”

I really wanted to blame George Bush for all our financial woes, but I was sent an article from 1999 that hints at the seeds of our current crisis: Link is here!