What's amazing -- and, for the Democrats, terrifying -- isn't just that 57 percent of Americans are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about making their next mortgage payment. It's that two years ago, when the macroeconomy was in worse shape, that number was a comparatively modest 37 percent. Most Americans, in other words, have gotten more insecure over that period, at least on this metric.
There are all sorts of ways to explain this, of course. Unemployment drives foreclosures, and it's a lagging indicator. The financial crisis was driven by the expectation of this housing insecurity, not just the foreclosures that had happened in late-2007. Financial crises always take a long time to work through, and if you're a Reinhart and Reinhart fan, you know that housing crises and credit bubbles take years, not months, to work through.
But that's all cold comfort to the 57 percent of Americans who walk around with a knot in their stomach. They're hurting now. And they're about to vote.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
With outside groups included, this election cycle's cost could hit $4 billion, reports Dan Eggen: "There are three general tides of money swamping this year's elections, according to CRP's data: House and Senate candidates, who have reported raising $1.7 billion; the political parties, with about $1.1 billion; and outside interest groups, which have raised at least $400 million. That adds up to $3.2 billion, but the numbers are incomplete amid the frenzy of ad buys and other activity in the week before the election...Donations from Wall Street, medical and insurance firms, energy conglomerates and other corporations have shifted decisively toward Republicans over the past year because of policy disputes with Democrats and anticipation of a possible GOP takeover in Congress."
Democrats are amping up their secret campaign spending: http://wapo.st/bAq5ju
Most Americans say they worry about making mortgage or rent payments, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jon Cohen: "In all, 53 percent said they are 'very concerned' or 'somewhat concerned' about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and among African Americans... there's now even more unease about making next month's rent or mortgage payment than there was two years ago. Back then, 37 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about their monthly housing costs. Since that time, the economy has modestly improved."
To triangulate or not to triangulate, that is the White House's question, report Laura Meckler and Peter Wallsten: "Strategists in both parties see two options for President Barack Obama. He could seek deals on issues including trade, taxes and spending, following the model of President Bill Clinton, who after losing Congress in 1994, compromised with the GOP to overhaul welfare...Mr. Obama could also follow the model of Harry Truman, who dug in and successfully portrayed an opposition Congress as obstructionist. That would lay the foundation for a 2012 reelection campaign where the president could draw contrasts with his opponents... White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, in investigating the various options, is consulting with people who worked for Mr. Clinton in the mid-1990s."
Special guest interlude: Belle & Sebastian and Jenny Lewis play "Lazy Line Painter Jane".
Still to come: Sen. Kent Conrad is sticking up for TARP and the stimulus; Matthew Yglesias thinks Obama's biggest economic mistakes came in neglecting the Fed; Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing; and There Will Be Blood as a Super Nintendo game.
Economy/FinReg
Kent Conrad is leading a defense of TARP and the stimulus, reports Lori Montgomery: "Over the past week, Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, has crisscrossed the state, delivering speeches to college economics classes and lecturing skeptical editorial boards, in addition to making his pitch on national television. On Thursday morning, thousands of North Dakota newspaper subscribers awoke to a full-page ad with colorful charts and graphs about the improving economy, alongside a vigorous defense of the bailout and the equally reviled 2009 economic stimulus package. The ad describes the perilous economic conditions that prompted a terrified Congress to approve the $700 billion bailout - officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP - just before the 2008 presidential election."
The administration is concerned that the foreclosure mess will hike up home prices, reports Sewell Chan: "Revelations about paperwork shortcuts and so-called robo-signed affidavits, as well as the likelihood of protracted legal battles by homeowners and inquiries by state and federal officials, will hinder foreclosure proceedings and discourage prospective buyers, a Treasury Department official said. 'Together, these two factors may exert downward pressure on overall housing prices both in the short and long run,' said the official, Phyllis R. Caldwell, chief of the homeownership preservation office at the Treasury."
Obama praised Larry Summers' tenure on The Daily Show: http://bit.ly/bhHqP0
Opponents of higher taxes for the rich are fewer, but care more, writes Larry Bartels: "The sizable minority of people who want the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers renewed seem to attach much more weight to this issue than the slim majority who want them to expire. In a statistical analysis taking separate account of prospective voters’ broader partisan attachments, those who support President Obama’s position on the tax cuts are only 6% more likely than those who are unsure about the issue to say they will vote for a Democratic House candidate. Even those who want to let all the tax cuts expire are only 9% more likely to vote Democratic. By comparison, those who want to keep the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers in place are 22% more likely to say they will vote for a Republican House candidate."
Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing, writes David Wessel: http://bit.ly/97KggH
The Obama administration is suffering because it paid the economy too little attention, writes Matthew Yglesias: "A party whose leaders realized that economic results were the most important driver of public opinion wouldn't have renominated a conservative Republican to head the Federal Reserve. Even more astoundingly, having given Ben Bernanke a second term in office, the Obama administration didn't get around to nominating anyone to fill the other vacant posts on the Federal Reserve Board until April 2010...Similarly, the extent of stimulus possible in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was famously limited by the need to gain Republican support. Given that, shouldn't someone have put reconciliation instructions into the budget resolution that would have allowed for additional stimulus to be undertaken by majority vote?"
Obama's economic agenda works for women, writes Neera Tanden: http://bit.ly/clCoxH
British austerity measures are incoherent, writes Brad DeLong: "Cameron’s government used to claim that its policies would produce a boom by bringing a visit from the Confidence Fairy that would greatly reduce long-term interest rates and cause a huge surge of private investment spending. Now it appears to have abandoned that claim in favor of the message that failure to cut will produce disaster...But if you ask the government’s supporters why there is no alternative to mammoth cuts in government spending and increases in taxes, they sound confused and incoherent. Or perhaps they are merely parroting talking points backed by little thought."
Athletics interlude: The world's most awesome sports montage clip.
Energy
The White House is defending the choice to push health care reform before climate change legislation, reports Darren Samuelsohn: "'We really felt like it was a walk and talk, walk and chew gum' situation, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes said the White House believes the country can still tackle climate change without Congress passing legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions, noting the push for executive agencies to curb emissions, coupled with efforts at the state and local government levels...'We’ve been absolutely thinking about this at every level,' Barnes said, citing the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department programs, as well as federal grants to help local governments build more sidewalks, light rail lines and street trolleys."
The inventor of SuperSoakers is revolutionizing solar power: http://bit.ly/a7QWh6
Action on climate change could require a cultural shift analogous to the turn against smoking, reports John Broder: "Professor Hoffman likened the widespread skepticism about the reality of climate change to the gradual acceptance of the link between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases. It was only when the public accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus on the dangers of tobacco use did policy tools like the banning of indoor smoking become socially and politically possible, he said...He said that the development of a feasible, low-cost alternative energy source to fossil fuels could also change the economic and public opinion equation relatively quickly."
Nanotech could stop electronics not in use from hogging electricity: http://bit.ly/cGgdbU
There are more politically viable alternatives to a carbon tax, writes Jeffrey Sachs: "A feed-in tariff subsidizes the low-carbon energy source rather than taxing the high-carbon energy source. In our example, the government would pay a subsidy of $0.10/kilowatt-hour to the solar-power plant to make up the difference between the consumer price of $0.06 and the production cost of $0.16. The consumer price remains unchanged, but the government must somehow pay for the subsidy. Here is another way. Suppose that we levy a small tax on existing coal power plants in order to pay for the solar subsidy, and then gradually raise consumers’ electricity bills as more and more solar plants are phased in."
16 bit interlude: There Will Be Blood, the SNES game.
Domestic Policy
The FTC is backing off its privacy probe of Google, report Cecilia Kang: "The federal government has ended an inquiry into a privacy breach involving Google's Street View service, satisfied with the company's pledge to stop gathering e-mail, passwords and other information from residential WiFi networks as it rolls through neighborhoods. Wednesday's decision by the Federal Trade Commission is a sharp contrast with the reaction of regulators in Europe. The United Kingdom has launched a new investigation into Google's collection of unencrypted WiFi data, exposing the company to potential fines. Germany told Google to mark its Street View cars that take pictures of neighborhoods and homes. The Czech Republic banned Google from expanding its mapping software program."
Cuts in federal building costs could save billions: http://wapo.st/cAFFFl
College tuition is rising in tandem with Pell Grants, reports Stephanie Banchero: "The average price of tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year institutions is $7,605 this school year, a 7.9% increase over last year. At private nonprofit colleges and universities, the average price is $27,293, a 4.5% rise. Two-year state colleges saw a 6% rise to $2,713. But the federal government gave out $28.2 billion in Pell grants to students in the 2009-10 school year, almost $10 billion more than the previous year. Pell grant numbers for the current school year are not yet available, but are expected to rise."
Citizens United helps unions more than corporations, writes Daniel Henninger: http://bit.ly/aVfNS8
The National Archives are failing to keep government records properly, reports Lisa Rein: "Four out of five federal agencies are also at risk of illegally destroying public records, and the Archives has a huge backlog of documents that need to be preserved, the Government Accountability Office found. Two reports by Congress' watchdog arm found that many agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records as they assess whether to preserve or destroy them. And the Archives, as it preserves records electronically, has also left itself open to hackers. Among the findings of the year-long audits are that the Archives did not protect its computer networks with a strong firewall to keep out unauthorized users."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams.
Even after last year's service cuts and a 17 percent fare increase on 30-day MetroCards, the nation's largest mass transit system is still imperiled by chronic budget problems. A $500 million deficit is project for next year and in four years deficits will grow to $1.5 billion.
It's every-day New Yorkers that usually bear the burden of these budget gaps. Naturally, voters want to know: which candidate for governor will finally bring the MTA's finances under control?
Unfortunately, all they've heard from the Democratic and Republican candidates is outdated rhetoric. Cuomo has said he would roll back the mobility tax, a source of $1.5 billion in annual transit revenue, while Paladino has pledged to "take apart" the transit authority "piece by piece." But does anyone have a plan to put the MTA back together again?
Both Cuomo and Paladino have made reform of Albany the central message of their campaigns. When it comes to transit, Albany certainly needs reform, but it shouldn't come via baseball bat. And threatening to end the mobility tax tells voters that racking up political points matters more than making the tough choices necessary to save mass transit.
The last thing New York needs is a continuation of the policies that have led to the MTA's grim situation: starving the transit system of vital revenue and then blaming MTA executives and MTA employees for service cuts. The fact is, the governor and state legislature are most responsible for the MTA's finances.
Recently the state legislature has gone so far as to take $160 million in dedicated revenue from transit, a decision that led to last year's service cuts. For the sake of New York's economy, and for the 2.3 million New Yorkers that rely on mass transit every day to get to work, Albany's neglect of mass transit must end.
Real reform means making smart investments in the transit system that will drive economic growth, create good jobs, boost the state's competitiveness, and save taxpayers money in the long-term. Albany's mismanagement of MTA finances has saddled the authority with a $31 billion debt burden. This excessive borrowing comes at a cost. This year the MTA will pay $1.8 billion just for past borrowing, and this figure will grow to $2.7 billion a year by 2017.
Earlier this month, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and Transportation Alternatives released a five-step plan to help the next governor put the MTA on sound financial footing. One recommended step in the plan is fully embracing congestion pricing or bridge tolls to fund mass transit. After all, drivers greatly benefit from the congestion reduction that transit provides. Without transit, there would be 8.5 million more car trips on the region's roads every day.
Another recommended step for the next governor is to partner with New York's congressional delegation to secure more federal funding for transit. Transit is a top priority for the Obama administration and an important new transportation bill will be introduced next year. After vigorous campaigning by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles will receive a $540 million federal loan for transit. The next governor of New York should make a case in Washington for more federal funds for state transit projects. After all, the New York City metro region produces $1.2 trillion in economic activity every year. But there is no indication yet that the candidates would expend as much energy on transit as other national leaders.
Instead, there is a knee-jerk fixation on cost-cutting to solve the MTA's budget mess. It won't work. MTA chief Jay Walder has already found $700 million in annual savings through cost-cutting and other efficiencies and has plans to find more. But no amount of cost cutting will fill the $9 billion hole in the MTA's capital budget, or pay down the $31 billion in debt.
There will be no easy answers. But one thing is clear: The state's greatest revenue generator, New York City, depends on transit. And communities upstate will look for new transit options as gasoline gets more expensive. Other cities across the globe are ambitiously building transit systems with the intent of supplanting New York's dominance. The next governor cannot create a competitive twenty-first century transit system via cuts and quick fixes. Reinvestment is crucial.
John Petro is an urban policy analyst at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. Noah Budnick is deputy director at Transportation Alternatives.
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
What's amazing -- and, for the Democrats, terrifying -- isn't just that 57 percent of Americans are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about making their next mortgage payment. It's that two years ago, when the macroeconomy was in worse shape, that number was a comparatively modest 37 percent. Most Americans, in other words, have gotten more insecure over that period, at least on this metric.
There are all sorts of ways to explain this, of course. Unemployment drives foreclosures, and it's a lagging indicator. The financial crisis was driven by the expectation of this housing insecurity, not just the foreclosures that had happened in late-2007. Financial crises always take a long time to work through, and if you're a Reinhart and Reinhart fan, you know that housing crises and credit bubbles take years, not months, to work through.
But that's all cold comfort to the 57 percent of Americans who walk around with a knot in their stomach. They're hurting now. And they're about to vote.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
With outside groups included, this election cycle's cost could hit $4 billion, reports Dan Eggen: "There are three general tides of money swamping this year's elections, according to CRP's data: House and Senate candidates, who have reported raising $1.7 billion; the political parties, with about $1.1 billion; and outside interest groups, which have raised at least $400 million. That adds up to $3.2 billion, but the numbers are incomplete amid the frenzy of ad buys and other activity in the week before the election...Donations from Wall Street, medical and insurance firms, energy conglomerates and other corporations have shifted decisively toward Republicans over the past year because of policy disputes with Democrats and anticipation of a possible GOP takeover in Congress."
Democrats are amping up their secret campaign spending: http://wapo.st/bAq5ju
Most Americans say they worry about making mortgage or rent payments, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jon Cohen: "In all, 53 percent said they are 'very concerned' or 'somewhat concerned' about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and among African Americans... there's now even more unease about making next month's rent or mortgage payment than there was two years ago. Back then, 37 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about their monthly housing costs. Since that time, the economy has modestly improved."
To triangulate or not to triangulate, that is the White House's question, report Laura Meckler and Peter Wallsten: "Strategists in both parties see two options for President Barack Obama. He could seek deals on issues including trade, taxes and spending, following the model of President Bill Clinton, who after losing Congress in 1994, compromised with the GOP to overhaul welfare...Mr. Obama could also follow the model of Harry Truman, who dug in and successfully portrayed an opposition Congress as obstructionist. That would lay the foundation for a 2012 reelection campaign where the president could draw contrasts with his opponents... White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, in investigating the various options, is consulting with people who worked for Mr. Clinton in the mid-1990s."
Special guest interlude: Belle & Sebastian and Jenny Lewis play "Lazy Line Painter Jane".
Still to come: Sen. Kent Conrad is sticking up for TARP and the stimulus; Matthew Yglesias thinks Obama's biggest economic mistakes came in neglecting the Fed; Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing; and There Will Be Blood as a Super Nintendo game.
Economy/FinReg
Kent Conrad is leading a defense of TARP and the stimulus, reports Lori Montgomery: "Over the past week, Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, has crisscrossed the state, delivering speeches to college economics classes and lecturing skeptical editorial boards, in addition to making his pitch on national television. On Thursday morning, thousands of North Dakota newspaper subscribers awoke to a full-page ad with colorful charts and graphs about the improving economy, alongside a vigorous defense of the bailout and the equally reviled 2009 economic stimulus package. The ad describes the perilous economic conditions that prompted a terrified Congress to approve the $700 billion bailout - officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP - just before the 2008 presidential election."
The administration is concerned that the foreclosure mess will hike up home prices, reports Sewell Chan: "Revelations about paperwork shortcuts and so-called robo-signed affidavits, as well as the likelihood of protracted legal battles by homeowners and inquiries by state and federal officials, will hinder foreclosure proceedings and discourage prospective buyers, a Treasury Department official said. 'Together, these two factors may exert downward pressure on overall housing prices both in the short and long run,' said the official, Phyllis R. Caldwell, chief of the homeownership preservation office at the Treasury."
Obama praised Larry Summers' tenure on The Daily Show: http://bit.ly/bhHqP0
Opponents of higher taxes for the rich are fewer, but care more, writes Larry Bartels: "The sizable minority of people who want the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers renewed seem to attach much more weight to this issue than the slim majority who want them to expire. In a statistical analysis taking separate account of prospective voters’ broader partisan attachments, those who support President Obama’s position on the tax cuts are only 6% more likely than those who are unsure about the issue to say they will vote for a Democratic House candidate. Even those who want to let all the tax cuts expire are only 9% more likely to vote Democratic. By comparison, those who want to keep the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers in place are 22% more likely to say they will vote for a Republican House candidate."
Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing, writes David Wessel: http://bit.ly/97KggH
The Obama administration is suffering because it paid the economy too little attention, writes Matthew Yglesias: "A party whose leaders realized that economic results were the most important driver of public opinion wouldn't have renominated a conservative Republican to head the Federal Reserve. Even more astoundingly, having given Ben Bernanke a second term in office, the Obama administration didn't get around to nominating anyone to fill the other vacant posts on the Federal Reserve Board until April 2010...Similarly, the extent of stimulus possible in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was famously limited by the need to gain Republican support. Given that, shouldn't someone have put reconciliation instructions into the budget resolution that would have allowed for additional stimulus to be undertaken by majority vote?"
Obama's economic agenda works for women, writes Neera Tanden: http://bit.ly/clCoxH
British austerity measures are incoherent, writes Brad DeLong: "Cameron’s government used to claim that its policies would produce a boom by bringing a visit from the Confidence Fairy that would greatly reduce long-term interest rates and cause a huge surge of private investment spending. Now it appears to have abandoned that claim in favor of the message that failure to cut will produce disaster...But if you ask the government’s supporters why there is no alternative to mammoth cuts in government spending and increases in taxes, they sound confused and incoherent. Or perhaps they are merely parroting talking points backed by little thought."
Athletics interlude: The world's most awesome sports montage clip.
Energy
The White House is defending the choice to push health care reform before climate change legislation, reports Darren Samuelsohn: "'We really felt like it was a walk and talk, walk and chew gum' situation, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes said the White House believes the country can still tackle climate change without Congress passing legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions, noting the push for executive agencies to curb emissions, coupled with efforts at the state and local government levels...'We’ve been absolutely thinking about this at every level,' Barnes said, citing the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department programs, as well as federal grants to help local governments build more sidewalks, light rail lines and street trolleys."
The inventor of SuperSoakers is revolutionizing solar power: http://bit.ly/a7QWh6
Action on climate change could require a cultural shift analogous to the turn against smoking, reports John Broder: "Professor Hoffman likened the widespread skepticism about the reality of climate change to the gradual acceptance of the link between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases. It was only when the public accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus on the dangers of tobacco use did policy tools like the banning of indoor smoking become socially and politically possible, he said...He said that the development of a feasible, low-cost alternative energy source to fossil fuels could also change the economic and public opinion equation relatively quickly."
Nanotech could stop electronics not in use from hogging electricity: http://bit.ly/cGgdbU
There are more politically viable alternatives to a carbon tax, writes Jeffrey Sachs: "A feed-in tariff subsidizes the low-carbon energy source rather than taxing the high-carbon energy source. In our example, the government would pay a subsidy of $0.10/kilowatt-hour to the solar-power plant to make up the difference between the consumer price of $0.06 and the production cost of $0.16. The consumer price remains unchanged, but the government must somehow pay for the subsidy. Here is another way. Suppose that we levy a small tax on existing coal power plants in order to pay for the solar subsidy, and then gradually raise consumers’ electricity bills as more and more solar plants are phased in."
16 bit interlude: There Will Be Blood, the SNES game.
Domestic Policy
The FTC is backing off its privacy probe of Google, report Cecilia Kang: "The federal government has ended an inquiry into a privacy breach involving Google's Street View service, satisfied with the company's pledge to stop gathering e-mail, passwords and other information from residential WiFi networks as it rolls through neighborhoods. Wednesday's decision by the Federal Trade Commission is a sharp contrast with the reaction of regulators in Europe. The United Kingdom has launched a new investigation into Google's collection of unencrypted WiFi data, exposing the company to potential fines. Germany told Google to mark its Street View cars that take pictures of neighborhoods and homes. The Czech Republic banned Google from expanding its mapping software program."
Cuts in federal building costs could save billions: http://wapo.st/cAFFFl
College tuition is rising in tandem with Pell Grants, reports Stephanie Banchero: "The average price of tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year institutions is $7,605 this school year, a 7.9% increase over last year. At private nonprofit colleges and universities, the average price is $27,293, a 4.5% rise. Two-year state colleges saw a 6% rise to $2,713. But the federal government gave out $28.2 billion in Pell grants to students in the 2009-10 school year, almost $10 billion more than the previous year. Pell grant numbers for the current school year are not yet available, but are expected to rise."
Citizens United helps unions more than corporations, writes Daniel Henninger: http://bit.ly/aVfNS8
The National Archives are failing to keep government records properly, reports Lisa Rein: "Four out of five federal agencies are also at risk of illegally destroying public records, and the Archives has a huge backlog of documents that need to be preserved, the Government Accountability Office found. Two reports by Congress' watchdog arm found that many agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records as they assess whether to preserve or destroy them. And the Archives, as it preserves records electronically, has also left itself open to hackers. Among the findings of the year-long audits are that the Archives did not protect its computer networks with a strong firewall to keep out unauthorized users."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams.
Even after last year's service cuts and a 17 percent fare increase on 30-day MetroCards, the nation's largest mass transit system is still imperiled by chronic budget problems. A $500 million deficit is project for next year and in four years deficits will grow to $1.5 billion.
It's every-day New Yorkers that usually bear the burden of these budget gaps. Naturally, voters want to know: which candidate for governor will finally bring the MTA's finances under control?
Unfortunately, all they've heard from the Democratic and Republican candidates is outdated rhetoric. Cuomo has said he would roll back the mobility tax, a source of $1.5 billion in annual transit revenue, while Paladino has pledged to "take apart" the transit authority "piece by piece." But does anyone have a plan to put the MTA back together again?
Both Cuomo and Paladino have made reform of Albany the central message of their campaigns. When it comes to transit, Albany certainly needs reform, but it shouldn't come via baseball bat. And threatening to end the mobility tax tells voters that racking up political points matters more than making the tough choices necessary to save mass transit.
The last thing New York needs is a continuation of the policies that have led to the MTA's grim situation: starving the transit system of vital revenue and then blaming MTA executives and MTA employees for service cuts. The fact is, the governor and state legislature are most responsible for the MTA's finances.
Recently the state legislature has gone so far as to take $160 million in dedicated revenue from transit, a decision that led to last year's service cuts. For the sake of New York's economy, and for the 2.3 million New Yorkers that rely on mass transit every day to get to work, Albany's neglect of mass transit must end.
Real reform means making smart investments in the transit system that will drive economic growth, create good jobs, boost the state's competitiveness, and save taxpayers money in the long-term. Albany's mismanagement of MTA finances has saddled the authority with a $31 billion debt burden. This excessive borrowing comes at a cost. This year the MTA will pay $1.8 billion just for past borrowing, and this figure will grow to $2.7 billion a year by 2017.
Earlier this month, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and Transportation Alternatives released a five-step plan to help the next governor put the MTA on sound financial footing. One recommended step in the plan is fully embracing congestion pricing or bridge tolls to fund mass transit. After all, drivers greatly benefit from the congestion reduction that transit provides. Without transit, there would be 8.5 million more car trips on the region's roads every day.
Another recommended step for the next governor is to partner with New York's congressional delegation to secure more federal funding for transit. Transit is a top priority for the Obama administration and an important new transportation bill will be introduced next year. After vigorous campaigning by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles will receive a $540 million federal loan for transit. The next governor of New York should make a case in Washington for more federal funds for state transit projects. After all, the New York City metro region produces $1.2 trillion in economic activity every year. But there is no indication yet that the candidates would expend as much energy on transit as other national leaders.
Instead, there is a knee-jerk fixation on cost-cutting to solve the MTA's budget mess. It won't work. MTA chief Jay Walder has already found $700 million in annual savings through cost-cutting and other efficiencies and has plans to find more. But no amount of cost cutting will fill the $9 billion hole in the MTA's capital budget, or pay down the $31 billion in debt.
There will be no easy answers. But one thing is clear: The state's greatest revenue generator, New York City, depends on transit. And communities upstate will look for new transit options as gasoline gets more expensive. Other cities across the globe are ambitiously building transit systems with the intent of supplanting New York's dominance. The next governor cannot create a competitive twenty-first century transit system via cuts and quick fixes. Reinvestment is crucial.
John Petro is an urban policy analyst at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. Noah Budnick is deputy director at Transportation Alternatives.
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
What's amazing -- and, for the Democrats, terrifying -- isn't just that 57 percent of Americans are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about making their next mortgage payment. It's that two years ago, when the macroeconomy was in worse shape, that number was a comparatively modest 37 percent. Most Americans, in other words, have gotten more insecure over that period, at least on this metric.
There are all sorts of ways to explain this, of course. Unemployment drives foreclosures, and it's a lagging indicator. The financial crisis was driven by the expectation of this housing insecurity, not just the foreclosures that had happened in late-2007. Financial crises always take a long time to work through, and if you're a Reinhart and Reinhart fan, you know that housing crises and credit bubbles take years, not months, to work through.
But that's all cold comfort to the 57 percent of Americans who walk around with a knot in their stomach. They're hurting now. And they're about to vote.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
With outside groups included, this election cycle's cost could hit $4 billion, reports Dan Eggen: "There are three general tides of money swamping this year's elections, according to CRP's data: House and Senate candidates, who have reported raising $1.7 billion; the political parties, with about $1.1 billion; and outside interest groups, which have raised at least $400 million. That adds up to $3.2 billion, but the numbers are incomplete amid the frenzy of ad buys and other activity in the week before the election...Donations from Wall Street, medical and insurance firms, energy conglomerates and other corporations have shifted decisively toward Republicans over the past year because of policy disputes with Democrats and anticipation of a possible GOP takeover in Congress."
Democrats are amping up their secret campaign spending: http://wapo.st/bAq5ju
Most Americans say they worry about making mortgage or rent payments, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jon Cohen: "In all, 53 percent said they are 'very concerned' or 'somewhat concerned' about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and among African Americans... there's now even more unease about making next month's rent or mortgage payment than there was two years ago. Back then, 37 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about their monthly housing costs. Since that time, the economy has modestly improved."
To triangulate or not to triangulate, that is the White House's question, report Laura Meckler and Peter Wallsten: "Strategists in both parties see two options for President Barack Obama. He could seek deals on issues including trade, taxes and spending, following the model of President Bill Clinton, who after losing Congress in 1994, compromised with the GOP to overhaul welfare...Mr. Obama could also follow the model of Harry Truman, who dug in and successfully portrayed an opposition Congress as obstructionist. That would lay the foundation for a 2012 reelection campaign where the president could draw contrasts with his opponents... White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, in investigating the various options, is consulting with people who worked for Mr. Clinton in the mid-1990s."
Special guest interlude: Belle & Sebastian and Jenny Lewis play "Lazy Line Painter Jane".
Still to come: Sen. Kent Conrad is sticking up for TARP and the stimulus; Matthew Yglesias thinks Obama's biggest economic mistakes came in neglecting the Fed; Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing; and There Will Be Blood as a Super Nintendo game.
Economy/FinReg
Kent Conrad is leading a defense of TARP and the stimulus, reports Lori Montgomery: "Over the past week, Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, has crisscrossed the state, delivering speeches to college economics classes and lecturing skeptical editorial boards, in addition to making his pitch on national television. On Thursday morning, thousands of North Dakota newspaper subscribers awoke to a full-page ad with colorful charts and graphs about the improving economy, alongside a vigorous defense of the bailout and the equally reviled 2009 economic stimulus package. The ad describes the perilous economic conditions that prompted a terrified Congress to approve the $700 billion bailout - officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP - just before the 2008 presidential election."
The administration is concerned that the foreclosure mess will hike up home prices, reports Sewell Chan: "Revelations about paperwork shortcuts and so-called robo-signed affidavits, as well as the likelihood of protracted legal battles by homeowners and inquiries by state and federal officials, will hinder foreclosure proceedings and discourage prospective buyers, a Treasury Department official said. 'Together, these two factors may exert downward pressure on overall housing prices both in the short and long run,' said the official, Phyllis R. Caldwell, chief of the homeownership preservation office at the Treasury."
Obama praised Larry Summers' tenure on The Daily Show: http://bit.ly/bhHqP0
Opponents of higher taxes for the rich are fewer, but care more, writes Larry Bartels: "The sizable minority of people who want the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers renewed seem to attach much more weight to this issue than the slim majority who want them to expire. In a statistical analysis taking separate account of prospective voters’ broader partisan attachments, those who support President Obama’s position on the tax cuts are only 6% more likely than those who are unsure about the issue to say they will vote for a Democratic House candidate. Even those who want to let all the tax cuts expire are only 9% more likely to vote Democratic. By comparison, those who want to keep the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers in place are 22% more likely to say they will vote for a Republican House candidate."
Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing, writes David Wessel: http://bit.ly/97KggH
The Obama administration is suffering because it paid the economy too little attention, writes Matthew Yglesias: "A party whose leaders realized that economic results were the most important driver of public opinion wouldn't have renominated a conservative Republican to head the Federal Reserve. Even more astoundingly, having given Ben Bernanke a second term in office, the Obama administration didn't get around to nominating anyone to fill the other vacant posts on the Federal Reserve Board until April 2010...Similarly, the extent of stimulus possible in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was famously limited by the need to gain Republican support. Given that, shouldn't someone have put reconciliation instructions into the budget resolution that would have allowed for additional stimulus to be undertaken by majority vote?"
Obama's economic agenda works for women, writes Neera Tanden: http://bit.ly/clCoxH
British austerity measures are incoherent, writes Brad DeLong: "Cameron’s government used to claim that its policies would produce a boom by bringing a visit from the Confidence Fairy that would greatly reduce long-term interest rates and cause a huge surge of private investment spending. Now it appears to have abandoned that claim in favor of the message that failure to cut will produce disaster...But if you ask the government’s supporters why there is no alternative to mammoth cuts in government spending and increases in taxes, they sound confused and incoherent. Or perhaps they are merely parroting talking points backed by little thought."
Athletics interlude: The world's most awesome sports montage clip.
Energy
The White House is defending the choice to push health care reform before climate change legislation, reports Darren Samuelsohn: "'We really felt like it was a walk and talk, walk and chew gum' situation, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes said the White House believes the country can still tackle climate change without Congress passing legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions, noting the push for executive agencies to curb emissions, coupled with efforts at the state and local government levels...'We’ve been absolutely thinking about this at every level,' Barnes said, citing the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department programs, as well as federal grants to help local governments build more sidewalks, light rail lines and street trolleys."
The inventor of SuperSoakers is revolutionizing solar power: http://bit.ly/a7QWh6
Action on climate change could require a cultural shift analogous to the turn against smoking, reports John Broder: "Professor Hoffman likened the widespread skepticism about the reality of climate change to the gradual acceptance of the link between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases. It was only when the public accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus on the dangers of tobacco use did policy tools like the banning of indoor smoking become socially and politically possible, he said...He said that the development of a feasible, low-cost alternative energy source to fossil fuels could also change the economic and public opinion equation relatively quickly."
Nanotech could stop electronics not in use from hogging electricity: http://bit.ly/cGgdbU
There are more politically viable alternatives to a carbon tax, writes Jeffrey Sachs: "A feed-in tariff subsidizes the low-carbon energy source rather than taxing the high-carbon energy source. In our example, the government would pay a subsidy of $0.10/kilowatt-hour to the solar-power plant to make up the difference between the consumer price of $0.06 and the production cost of $0.16. The consumer price remains unchanged, but the government must somehow pay for the subsidy. Here is another way. Suppose that we levy a small tax on existing coal power plants in order to pay for the solar subsidy, and then gradually raise consumers’ electricity bills as more and more solar plants are phased in."
16 bit interlude: There Will Be Blood, the SNES game.
Domestic Policy
The FTC is backing off its privacy probe of Google, report Cecilia Kang: "The federal government has ended an inquiry into a privacy breach involving Google's Street View service, satisfied with the company's pledge to stop gathering e-mail, passwords and other information from residential WiFi networks as it rolls through neighborhoods. Wednesday's decision by the Federal Trade Commission is a sharp contrast with the reaction of regulators in Europe. The United Kingdom has launched a new investigation into Google's collection of unencrypted WiFi data, exposing the company to potential fines. Germany told Google to mark its Street View cars that take pictures of neighborhoods and homes. The Czech Republic banned Google from expanding its mapping software program."
Cuts in federal building costs could save billions: http://wapo.st/cAFFFl
College tuition is rising in tandem with Pell Grants, reports Stephanie Banchero: "The average price of tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year institutions is $7,605 this school year, a 7.9% increase over last year. At private nonprofit colleges and universities, the average price is $27,293, a 4.5% rise. Two-year state colleges saw a 6% rise to $2,713. But the federal government gave out $28.2 billion in Pell grants to students in the 2009-10 school year, almost $10 billion more than the previous year. Pell grant numbers for the current school year are not yet available, but are expected to rise."
Citizens United helps unions more than corporations, writes Daniel Henninger: http://bit.ly/aVfNS8
The National Archives are failing to keep government records properly, reports Lisa Rein: "Four out of five federal agencies are also at risk of illegally destroying public records, and the Archives has a huge backlog of documents that need to be preserved, the Government Accountability Office found. Two reports by Congress' watchdog arm found that many agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records as they assess whether to preserve or destroy them. And the Archives, as it preserves records electronically, has also left itself open to hackers. Among the findings of the year-long audits are that the Archives did not protect its computer networks with a strong firewall to keep out unauthorized users."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams.
Even after last year's service cuts and a 17 percent fare increase on 30-day MetroCards, the nation's largest mass transit system is still imperiled by chronic budget problems. A $500 million deficit is project for next year and in four years deficits will grow to $1.5 billion.
It's every-day New Yorkers that usually bear the burden of these budget gaps. Naturally, voters want to know: which candidate for governor will finally bring the MTA's finances under control?
Unfortunately, all they've heard from the Democratic and Republican candidates is outdated rhetoric. Cuomo has said he would roll back the mobility tax, a source of $1.5 billion in annual transit revenue, while Paladino has pledged to "take apart" the transit authority "piece by piece." But does anyone have a plan to put the MTA back together again?
Both Cuomo and Paladino have made reform of Albany the central message of their campaigns. When it comes to transit, Albany certainly needs reform, but it shouldn't come via baseball bat. And threatening to end the mobility tax tells voters that racking up political points matters more than making the tough choices necessary to save mass transit.
The last thing New York needs is a continuation of the policies that have led to the MTA's grim situation: starving the transit system of vital revenue and then blaming MTA executives and MTA employees for service cuts. The fact is, the governor and state legislature are most responsible for the MTA's finances.
Recently the state legislature has gone so far as to take $160 million in dedicated revenue from transit, a decision that led to last year's service cuts. For the sake of New York's economy, and for the 2.3 million New Yorkers that rely on mass transit every day to get to work, Albany's neglect of mass transit must end.
Real reform means making smart investments in the transit system that will drive economic growth, create good jobs, boost the state's competitiveness, and save taxpayers money in the long-term. Albany's mismanagement of MTA finances has saddled the authority with a $31 billion debt burden. This excessive borrowing comes at a cost. This year the MTA will pay $1.8 billion just for past borrowing, and this figure will grow to $2.7 billion a year by 2017.
Earlier this month, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and Transportation Alternatives released a five-step plan to help the next governor put the MTA on sound financial footing. One recommended step in the plan is fully embracing congestion pricing or bridge tolls to fund mass transit. After all, drivers greatly benefit from the congestion reduction that transit provides. Without transit, there would be 8.5 million more car trips on the region's roads every day.
Another recommended step for the next governor is to partner with New York's congressional delegation to secure more federal funding for transit. Transit is a top priority for the Obama administration and an important new transportation bill will be introduced next year. After vigorous campaigning by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles will receive a $540 million federal loan for transit. The next governor of New York should make a case in Washington for more federal funds for state transit projects. After all, the New York City metro region produces $1.2 trillion in economic activity every year. But there is no indication yet that the candidates would expend as much energy on transit as other national leaders.
Instead, there is a knee-jerk fixation on cost-cutting to solve the MTA's budget mess. It won't work. MTA chief Jay Walder has already found $700 million in annual savings through cost-cutting and other efficiencies and has plans to find more. But no amount of cost cutting will fill the $9 billion hole in the MTA's capital budget, or pay down the $31 billion in debt.
There will be no easy answers. But one thing is clear: The state's greatest revenue generator, New York City, depends on transit. And communities upstate will look for new transit options as gasoline gets more expensive. Other cities across the globe are ambitiously building transit systems with the intent of supplanting New York's dominance. The next governor cannot create a competitive twenty-first century transit system via cuts and quick fixes. Reinvestment is crucial.
John Petro is an urban policy analyst at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. Noah Budnick is deputy director at Transportation Alternatives.
eric seiger
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
I have been on a hunt to find ways to make money online. I wasn't after a get rich quick scheme or "easy" money, I was willing to work hard for my money. This is when I came across Helium.
Helium.com is a knowledge for the people by the people type of website. You write what you know (hopefully, though it appears that not all do this) and the idea behind it is you build Helium and it's article database while at the same time making money through revenue sharing. The idea was instantly appealing to me. I figured I could do that! Well, here is the full scoop on Helium.com, how it works, how you make money, features, and potential.
Write
First, Helium has you write. There are thousands of topics to choose from. It is easy to find something to write on. You just pick a title in a category that interests you and write. Write what you know, write what you want to research about, write it all. Their site is easy to use, easy to navigate, and their system is easy to write into. Click the publish button and you are published. Here is the big thing you need to know. There are often several people who write under the same title (sometimes even dozens or hundreds depending on the title popularity). Therefore the member rating becomes very important to you.
Rate.
After you publish your article you will be sent to a rate page. This gives you two articles side by side to compare. You choose which of the two is better and by how much. Then you compare another article to the one you choose as best. Through this process Helium rates the articles from one to how many ever there are in the title. What this means to the writer is, the higher up you are on the list the more views you are likely to get. There is some belief that you have to rate in order for your articles to be rated. I don't know if this is true, but it often feels like it is true.
Getting Paid.
Making money with Helium isn't that easy. You are given what Helium calls a "significant amount" of the advertising money that Helium makes. You are paid according to how many views, how highly your article is rated, and how much money Helium brings in. However, Helium never tells you how many views you have, nor how much money they are making. You have no real way of knowing which articles will make money and when they will do that (since you have so little data to work with). However, you will begin to see money added to your account, penny by penny. It is a very slow trickle. Some articles will make a dollar in one month, others one penny, and still others, nothing.
Once you have reached twenty five dollars you can request a payment. Payment is sent via PayPal at the beginning of the following month. A few claim that Helium has been kicking people off who have been accused of plagiarism right before they were going to get large sums of money. I have seen no real evidence of that and figure that if they did get kicked off without payment due to plagiarism, they probably did the horrible deed and paid the price.
Other Features of Interest.
Making money on Helium is often a slow process. However they have two options that can make it faster (three if you are a college student). There are contests that run. You write on the topics that they suggest. Get rated. Get positive points when you are in the top 50%, and negative points for the bottom 50%. Your points for the contest are then added up and the top six get money. This changes every now and again to mix things up. But each contest usually has 25 articles. One strategy is to write as much as you can and see how it does for you. This seems to be a strategy many people employ and many do well with. If you are a college student (with a college e-mail address that ends with .edu) then you can also participate in their college writing contests which have some very large rewards.
The other interesting feature is the marketplace. This is where you can submit your articles to topics that magazines and or other publishers are seeking articles for. This has the potential to make you money and get you published. I haven't found a topic that I would like to write on here, but it is growing each month and appears to be gaining popularity among publishers.
The Add Up
Pennies don't make much, so in order to make a lot of money you have to have a ton of articles. However, this is possible. In theory once you had a lot of articles it could be a semi-passive income (you would make money with little work and little effort). Your articles make you money as long as you have an active account (which is done by posting one or more articles every 180 days). So, you could make money while writing one article a month (or every six months). This is appealing, and in theory can be done. I have not yet reached a large enough base of articles to do this, however each month I have made more money (though just pennies) then the month before.
If participating in the market place or the contests you could make a decent sum of money now and still continue to get pennies from your articles in the future. I won second place on one contest ($25) and those articles continue adding to my pennies each month.
Helium.com isn't an easy way to make money, however there is some money to be made if you have the desire to work at it, enjoy writing (and with the titles prompting you to write they make easy warm ups!), or you are looking for a simple way to grow a semi-passive income over the years ahead it looks like this is a great way to go. Helium has been around for a year now and show no signs of going or even slowing. If it sounds good to you, get on board and start your pennies rolling in today!
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
Joel Klein to <b>News</b> Corp; Cathie Black to Head NYC Schools
Joel Klein, who's been the head of the New York City school system since 2002, is stepping down—to take a job at News Corp. One insane job to another! His replacement: Hearst chairman Cathie Black.
Craig Crawford: NBC '<b>News</b>' Is What Fox Says It Is
Cool, NBC's mere slap on the wrist for an anchor who gave thousands to Democratic candidates simply confirms that one of our major news organizations has made a partisan choice. Lord knows we need a counterpoint to the Republican ...
<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com
NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...
eric seiger
No comments:
Post a Comment