U.S. trade deficit increases in February
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24046611/

Oil imports declined, but imports of foreign automobiles increased. Am I the only who sees a possible correlation?

The ETSU 'Green' Fee
http://www.etsu.edu/environmentalstudies/ice/greenfee.htm

I voted against it.

It is not because I am against cleaner energy or cleaner energy alternatives that I voted against the fee. There is an important distinction that needs to be identified between supporting clean energy and supporting an increase in fees. Rather, I voted as I did simply because it is another move by the Student Government to impose fees on students which they will not likely be good stewards of. For the past three years I have watched SGA use student funds for numerous events which are both wasteful and unnecessary. Considering the fees currently collected from students and allocated to SGA, I propose that if SGA wants to pursue clean energy it should do so from existing funds.

There are other concerns as well. Any kind of new fee or fee increase is subject to misuse and eventually an increase. While the bill states that the fee will never exceed ten dollars for full-time students, there is always the chance that it will be amended or otherwise subverted. Also, if you reference the link above, the projects listed for the green fee money is preceded by the word 'could.' As in, the money could fund these types of projects or it could not.

The bill passed with an overwhelming majority of the 14% of the total student population who actually voted. The vote was Yes 1416 and No 282.

On a side note, after the results of the vote were made public, I was confronted by the argument that since the majority (of the 14%) approved the fee overwhelmingly, then it must be a good thing. I have never and will never acquiesce that the approval of the masses is adequate justification for approving a candidate, course of action, or in this case a 'Green' fee. The majority is often mislead, uninformed and simply wrong. History is replete with examples of the majority will having disastrous consequences. Hence, the concept of representative and Republican government, principles our government were originally founded on.

Also see:
http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=LOCALNEWS&ID=62412

Street Slides To Session Lows
http://www.forbes.com/home/markets/2008/04/09/briefing-citigroup-fed-markets-econ-cx_ss_0409markets14.html

At some point the government either through the Federal Reserve or the Bureau of Labor Statistics, will have to admit that the economy is in a recession. The text book definition of a recession is two or more consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. However, this definition is out of date and useless given the current economic situation of the United States and every other major industrialized nation in the world. Likewise, the classic definition is based on one singular economic indicator and fails to account for the economy as a whole. Gross Domestic Product is typically calculated by adding the following factors: Consumption, Gross Investment, Government Spending, and Exports-Imports. As you can imagine, the trade balance negatively effects the total GDP.

The National Bureau of Economic Research has appropriately altered their definition of a recession to the following:

a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales

The immediate cause of the current economic situation is certainly attributable to the problems with the housing market. However, the underlying concerns of the American economy can not be merely shrugged off on one singular problem. The major long-term economic woes of the United States include: the fiat based money system, massive government spending and subsequent debt, an economy based on consumerism and consumption, and, a corollary cause, the ignorant, wasteful, spending habits of millions of Americans.

There is an argument that the United States, and much of the Western world, has been in a recession for the past twenty years give or take a few. When examining the cost of living, standard of living, growth in income inequality, and the decline of manufacturing and other high wage jobs, one could reasonably argue that the economy has been in a recession. This would broaden what is typically considered a recession beyond pure economic growth to include factors that effect the individual rather than focusing on the economy as a product of business statistics.

http://www.nber.org/cycles/

Fixing finance
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=10966204

Gloomy days in America
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10988516&top_story=1

U.S. sailor held in murder of Japanese cabby
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23931130/

It would appear the trail of misuse of public funds has finally made its way to Ragsdale.

Complaint filed against Ragsdale
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/02/complaint-filed-against-ragsdale/

More on the new, hideous, plan to regulate the American financial markets:
Paulson the plumber
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10947124&top_story=1