I walked into my local Barnes and Nobles, which nicely is just across the street, and was looking at the many new offerings when this book caught my eye. I knew there had to be a Saipan section, and sure enough there is. And wouldn't you know it, the principal source on that chapter was none other than persona non grata himself Ron Hodges, who is quoted rather extensively. The overall mood captures the depressed economic state of the CNMI, but some of it, there were several sources, was a bit exaggerated with suggestions that the place is especially violent playing up the Mafia angles and suggested there are hordes of people with broken thumbs and such from gambling debts. The book does a good job of explaining the depressed pricing of Saipan real estate, and it uses the staggering difference in the cost of building the Hotel Nikko and what it just sold for, it might have been hundreds of millions less I can't recall, to illustrate the point.
Showing posts with label Article XII. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Article XII. Show all posts
Sunday, October 19, 2008
In the news again -- Ron Hodges
I walked into my local Barnes and Nobles, which nicely is just across the street, and was looking at the many new offerings when this book caught my eye. I knew there had to be a Saipan section, and sure enough there is. And wouldn't you know it, the principal source on that chapter was none other than persona non grata himself Ron Hodges, who is quoted rather extensively. The overall mood captures the depressed economic state of the CNMI, but some of it, there were several sources, was a bit exaggerated with suggestions that the place is especially violent playing up the Mafia angles and suggested there are hordes of people with broken thumbs and such from gambling debts. The book does a good job of explaining the depressed pricing of Saipan real estate, and it uses the staggering difference in the cost of building the Hotel Nikko and what it just sold for, it might have been hundreds of millions less I can't recall, to illustrate the point.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Energy and the credit market are the keys, MV 27
By Jeffrey C. Turbitt
There are so many economic problems that go unmentioned with the endless and tiring immigration and minimum wage debate that perhaps we should focus on those that get scant attention in comparison.
High on the list of problems is our lack of a viable credit market. One of the factors that has sustained the U.S. economy post 9/11 is easily available credit. The fed is back lowering rates as the economy teeters again, and it lowered rates to the point of absurdity after that event. This cash infusion inflated home prices and weakened the dollar to a noticeable degree. The dollar is likely to get even weaker as rates lower and the supply of dollars continues to increase. People used that money through home equity lines of credit to go out and do what we Americans do best: Spend money like it’s on fire. It’s only now that the effects of a $9 trillion debt and all the easy credit are having a real economic impact, as many people have defaulted on mortgages they shouldn't have gotten in the first place. The situation in the mainland got out of control, but there is a use for a reasonable and judicious exercise of credit via home equity loans that would help things here.
The bizarre Article XII we have here pretty much destroys that credit option. One of the best sources of capital to start a business, buy a new car or take a vacation goes out the window with our ridiculous land ownership rules. Property values are severely depressed because we artificially destroy the demand pool for land and homes. If we only allowed people with blue eyes to purchase King Car Iced Tea, that market would be destroyed as well. Even credit cards are hard to get here, and the most common credit option is the loan sharks at Wells Fargo offering those obscene 29 percent loans. Without a working credit market, it is going to be very difficult to turn around this economy.
Our lack of priority is also an issue. We spent $6 million dollars on a corrupt, incarcerated lobbyist named Jack Abramoff to drag out a few years of our flawed economic model that has kept private sector wages depressed and necessitated our bloated, inefficient, unsustainable bureaucracy. Imagine if just five years ago, when the inflation adjusted oil price was $30, if we invested in alternative energy or at least maintained the power plant we have now. We’d be in far better condition. A few weeks ago oil was at $90 per barrel. Now it’s at $110. It has almost doubled since last year when it was in the $60 per barrel range. What is our energy plan other than the disastrous hope and pray model? There are a few debates about nuclear power in the newspaper, but is there one local official doing anything of substance to get us off a dilapidated, gas fueled power plant as we try to deal with runaway gas prices we can't control.
Every dollar spent on the fixed costs of power and gas takes away discretionary income normally spent in bars, restaurants, hair salons and everything else. These power costs kill businesses with the costs and with the consuming public having less money to spend. We fritter away our time on meaningless resolutions and legislative pet projects as this happens. It's almost hard to fathom that we have delegations going to the states fighting to keep its poorest citizens poor, and one useless bill after another introduced in the legislature, but nothing is being done to fix the biggest problem in our economy: the expensive and unreliable power plant. Fixing this problem should be the laser like focus, but nothing is being done other than talk of privatizing the plant to get that albatross off the necks of the politicians. Just last week another power outage destroyed my computer at school. We have digital projectors that will break quicker because of sudden outages. Every business has a similar issue with its capital, and this leads to capital flight. People don’t want to invest in unstable places. By unstable, I am referring to many facets: power, constantly changing laws, the constant worries about the government meeting payroll and increasing crime. Would you want to invest in a tourism business with the increasing crime against tourists? How about opening a restaurant where diners eat in the dark. I’ve had that happen twice in the last month.
We're fighting "the last war" as they say in military parlance with the minimum wage fight. If any of our leaders are serious about fixing this economy, they should work on something that helps everyone: Fix the power plant and put the policies in place to create a real credit market.
Jeffrey C. Turbitt is the language arts department chairman at Saipan Southern High School, as well as an avid scuba diver and traveler. He offers more thoughts in his blog Hypercritical Thoughts at: www.turbittj.blogspot.com/ He welcomes feedback, tips and story ideas at turbittj@yahoo.com. His column appears regularly on Wednesdays.
There are so many economic problems that go unmentioned with the endless and tiring immigration and minimum wage debate that perhaps we should focus on those that get scant attention in comparison.
High on the list of problems is our lack of a viable credit market. One of the factors that has sustained the U.S. economy post 9/11 is easily available credit. The fed is back lowering rates as the economy teeters again, and it lowered rates to the point of absurdity after that event. This cash infusion inflated home prices and weakened the dollar to a noticeable degree. The dollar is likely to get even weaker as rates lower and the supply of dollars continues to increase. People used that money through home equity lines of credit to go out and do what we Americans do best: Spend money like it’s on fire. It’s only now that the effects of a $9 trillion debt and all the easy credit are having a real economic impact, as many people have defaulted on mortgages they shouldn't have gotten in the first place. The situation in the mainland got out of control, but there is a use for a reasonable and judicious exercise of credit via home equity loans that would help things here.
The bizarre Article XII we have here pretty much destroys that credit option. One of the best sources of capital to start a business, buy a new car or take a vacation goes out the window with our ridiculous land ownership rules. Property values are severely depressed because we artificially destroy the demand pool for land and homes. If we only allowed people with blue eyes to purchase King Car Iced Tea, that market would be destroyed as well. Even credit cards are hard to get here, and the most common credit option is the loan sharks at Wells Fargo offering those obscene 29 percent loans. Without a working credit market, it is going to be very difficult to turn around this economy.
Our lack of priority is also an issue. We spent $6 million dollars on a corrupt, incarcerated lobbyist named Jack Abramoff to drag out a few years of our flawed economic model that has kept private sector wages depressed and necessitated our bloated, inefficient, unsustainable bureaucracy. Imagine if just five years ago, when the inflation adjusted oil price was $30, if we invested in alternative energy or at least maintained the power plant we have now. We’d be in far better condition. A few weeks ago oil was at $90 per barrel. Now it’s at $110. It has almost doubled since last year when it was in the $60 per barrel range. What is our energy plan other than the disastrous hope and pray model? There are a few debates about nuclear power in the newspaper, but is there one local official doing anything of substance to get us off a dilapidated, gas fueled power plant as we try to deal with runaway gas prices we can't control.
Every dollar spent on the fixed costs of power and gas takes away discretionary income normally spent in bars, restaurants, hair salons and everything else. These power costs kill businesses with the costs and with the consuming public having less money to spend. We fritter away our time on meaningless resolutions and legislative pet projects as this happens. It's almost hard to fathom that we have delegations going to the states fighting to keep its poorest citizens poor, and one useless bill after another introduced in the legislature, but nothing is being done to fix the biggest problem in our economy: the expensive and unreliable power plant. Fixing this problem should be the laser like focus, but nothing is being done other than talk of privatizing the plant to get that albatross off the necks of the politicians. Just last week another power outage destroyed my computer at school. We have digital projectors that will break quicker because of sudden outages. Every business has a similar issue with its capital, and this leads to capital flight. People don’t want to invest in unstable places. By unstable, I am referring to many facets: power, constantly changing laws, the constant worries about the government meeting payroll and increasing crime. Would you want to invest in a tourism business with the increasing crime against tourists? How about opening a restaurant where diners eat in the dark. I’ve had that happen twice in the last month.
We're fighting "the last war" as they say in military parlance with the minimum wage fight. If any of our leaders are serious about fixing this economy, they should work on something that helps everyone: Fix the power plant and put the policies in place to create a real credit market.
Jeffrey C. Turbitt is the language arts department chairman at Saipan Southern High School, as well as an avid scuba diver and traveler. He offers more thoughts in his blog Hypercritical Thoughts at: www.turbittj.blogspot.com/ He welcomes feedback, tips and story ideas at turbittj@yahoo.com. His column appears regularly on Wednesdays.
Monday, May 28, 2007
On Article XII, the Chamber and Tina Sablan
Ricky Delgado in his recent letter mentioned the absurdity of Article XII, the law that limits who can own land here, and noted land prices in Hawaii are through the roof and how Saipan would benefit from fee simple real estate. I just read Frank say on Angelo's blog, there's "nothing wrong" with it, which I know is the prevailing view here on that issue. People think they'll get a free house, free land, free sounds good, so keep it. If I didn't have land, and was indigenous, I'd probably like it. If I owned land already, I wouldn't. As someone who generally believes in economic freedom and treating adults as adults, not children who can't handle their own economic affairs, I think it has to go.
There is something very wrong with Article XII. I've heard from multiple good sources that the few local families with money are buying all the land up now on the cheap from the economically desperate. I'll make the prediction that they'll use their political influence to end Article XII and they just created their own personal money machine. It makes good business sense to do this. I'd buy land now, too. It makes sense to buy things when they're cheap. The problem is land is cheap because of Article XII and the lousy economy, so it is practically being given away. Wall Street couldn't create a scheme as good as this one since Wall Street hasn't created a law that upends the first principle of economics: Supply and Demand.
If a business could only legally sell M&M's to people 6'4'' and above with nine toes, would they sell more M&M's? Would there be demand to drive the price up? Do you think the land owners, once they get as much land as they can on the cheap in this cataclysmically poor economy with 46 percent plus in poverty, will leave all that free money just sitting out there uncollected? Do you think these people won't have the influence to change this stupid law? Post Article XII, which will happen, are they going to say to the average Sablan, Villagomez or Babauta, you're Chamorro, I'll give it to you for a discount from the market rate. Haven't the garment factories proven over the last twenty years that it isn't that hard to buy off this government to do the bidding of the few connected people versus the interests of the majority, who live in poverty according to the legal definition. The last count in the U.S. census was 46 percent in 2000, and you can bet the rent that number hasn't gotten better. Someone has to wake up here.
When Article XII ends, the price of land will go up a lot overnight. One of the reasons the U.S. economy hasn't imploded from war, massive budget and trade deficits, income disparities and a Neanderthal in office, is the fact that homes have increased in value dramatically over the last few years, which is now cooling off. People have borrowed against that value via home equity loans to go out and buy ipods, dinners, vacations and whatever else they want, an invaluable economic tool that is non-existent here. Spending money moves an economy, and to spend money you need to have money. How do we get it: Wages (often lousy here), borrowing (virtually impossible and if so, expensive) and spending less on other necessities like gas and power (through the roof here, especially in the last few years).
This lack of a credit market is perhaps the primary reason our economy stinks. A twenty nine percent loan from Tony Soprano, I mean Wells Fargo or the neighborhood loan shark doesn't lead to much borrowing and much spending and much economic activity. But people hold on to those dreams of a free house, so let's just keep Article XII, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it severely limits the value of land, not to mention the racism that discriminates against those even born here. It is a blatant violation to the 14th Amendment and its equal protection clause. I'm not enough of a CNMI constitutional scholar to know how they get away with that. Plus valuable members of the community might actually stay here, where they have a home, instead of leaving as frequently as they do. Dr. Sawer and Dr. George, the two top surgeons at the hospital, just flew the coop. That is an enormous loss for this island. I don't know how many good teachers I've seen leave in the past couple years. They might stay if they had a home here. On top of that, people treat things they own a lot better than things they rent. People care more about their hometown, not their "apartment town." Remember your last rental car?
It would be amazing if something as prone to screw ups as the federal government actually fixes the three things most messed up here: wages, immigration and Article XII. They've finally started to fix one.
***
I've heard and talked to some Chamber members about the wage issue, and I don't think they'll meet and come up with this position, at least I hope, but here is what their president said. Granted there is the caveat, "who spoke as an individual business."
First the prices retailers charge are scandalous. The wages they've been paying are equally scandalous. The implications of those wages are the demoralization of most people in the CNMI and a bloated, unsustainable bureaucracy. The price of most everything has gone up in the last eleven years, especially gas and power, are you telling me businesses can't adjust to paying .50 cents more after a government paid lobbyist earned millions in government money for this free ride all this time. Plus your telling me it destroys businesses, but won't help workers. Cmon.
***
A quick thought on Tina Sablan. I loved her letter, and agreed with most all of it, and supported it publicly on multiple occasions. She is not, however, the only, or even the leading voice of protest on this island, as many letter writers would make people believe. Some people have been doing it a lot longer, a lot more regularly and before it was so trendy. I've also heard that she has not exactly played nice with Beautify CNMI.
There is something very wrong with Article XII. I've heard from multiple good sources that the few local families with money are buying all the land up now on the cheap from the economically desperate. I'll make the prediction that they'll use their political influence to end Article XII and they just created their own personal money machine. It makes good business sense to do this. I'd buy land now, too. It makes sense to buy things when they're cheap. The problem is land is cheap because of Article XII and the lousy economy, so it is practically being given away. Wall Street couldn't create a scheme as good as this one since Wall Street hasn't created a law that upends the first principle of economics: Supply and Demand.
If a business could only legally sell M&M's to people 6'4'' and above with nine toes, would they sell more M&M's? Would there be demand to drive the price up? Do you think the land owners, once they get as much land as they can on the cheap in this cataclysmically poor economy with 46 percent plus in poverty, will leave all that free money just sitting out there uncollected? Do you think these people won't have the influence to change this stupid law? Post Article XII, which will happen, are they going to say to the average Sablan, Villagomez or Babauta, you're Chamorro, I'll give it to you for a discount from the market rate. Haven't the garment factories proven over the last twenty years that it isn't that hard to buy off this government to do the bidding of the few connected people versus the interests of the majority, who live in poverty according to the legal definition. The last count in the U.S. census was 46 percent in 2000, and you can bet the rent that number hasn't gotten better. Someone has to wake up here.
When Article XII ends, the price of land will go up a lot overnight. One of the reasons the U.S. economy hasn't imploded from war, massive budget and trade deficits, income disparities and a Neanderthal in office, is the fact that homes have increased in value dramatically over the last few years, which is now cooling off. People have borrowed against that value via home equity loans to go out and buy ipods, dinners, vacations and whatever else they want, an invaluable economic tool that is non-existent here. Spending money moves an economy, and to spend money you need to have money. How do we get it: Wages (often lousy here), borrowing (virtually impossible and if so, expensive) and spending less on other necessities like gas and power (through the roof here, especially in the last few years).
This lack of a credit market is perhaps the primary reason our economy stinks. A twenty nine percent loan from Tony Soprano, I mean Wells Fargo or the neighborhood loan shark doesn't lead to much borrowing and much spending and much economic activity. But people hold on to those dreams of a free house, so let's just keep Article XII, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it severely limits the value of land, not to mention the racism that discriminates against those even born here. It is a blatant violation to the 14th Amendment and its equal protection clause. I'm not enough of a CNMI constitutional scholar to know how they get away with that. Plus valuable members of the community might actually stay here, where they have a home, instead of leaving as frequently as they do. Dr. Sawer and Dr. George, the two top surgeons at the hospital, just flew the coop. That is an enormous loss for this island. I don't know how many good teachers I've seen leave in the past couple years. They might stay if they had a home here. On top of that, people treat things they own a lot better than things they rent. People care more about their hometown, not their "apartment town." Remember your last rental car?
It would be amazing if something as prone to screw ups as the federal government actually fixes the three things most messed up here: wages, immigration and Article XII. They've finally started to fix one.
***
I've heard and talked to some Chamber members about the wage issue, and I don't think they'll meet and come up with this position, at least I hope, but here is what their president said. Granted there is the caveat, "who spoke as an individual business."
Following this argument, Guerrero said he doubts the increase in the paychecks
of minimum wage earners will be significant enough to spur economic
activity.“Those who will get a raise will continue to save their money for
more important things. They will still be cautious about spending. Besides,
with the increased cost of doing business, prices will go up everywhere
definitely,” he said.
First the prices retailers charge are scandalous. The wages they've been paying are equally scandalous. The implications of those wages are the demoralization of most people in the CNMI and a bloated, unsustainable bureaucracy. The price of most everything has gone up in the last eleven years, especially gas and power, are you telling me businesses can't adjust to paying .50 cents more after a government paid lobbyist earned millions in government money for this free ride all this time. Plus your telling me it destroys businesses, but won't help workers. Cmon.
“The wage increase is good for the employees, but bad for the employers. ThePeople will still buy food and tires and fix their cars and so on and so forth. I'm sure someone can make it work and pay a meager $3.55.
timing, everything is against us. Fifty cents at 80 hours is $40. Not many
businesses will be able to sustain this additional cost. You can expect layoffs,
reduction in work hours to take place,” said Guerrero, who spoke as an
individual business.
***
A quick thought on Tina Sablan. I loved her letter, and agreed with most all of it, and supported it publicly on multiple occasions. She is not, however, the only, or even the leading voice of protest on this island, as many letter writers would make people believe. Some people have been doing it a lot longer, a lot more regularly and before it was so trendy. I've also heard that she has not exactly played nice with Beautify CNMI.
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