Ohio Gets Major Dollars For High Speed Rail

This is in no way a comprehensive report, but it seems Ohio will be getting $400 million federal dollars towards creating high speed rail connections on a planned route linking Cincinnati,Dayton,Columbus and Cleveland. The route is somewhat suprising but perhaps wise, providing it's a start.

If you think about it a bit, one grasps that that one of the Midwest's greatest assets is the gently rolling or flat land that makes transport easy. Chicago was the city of broad shoulders because it acted as the central rail head for a vast,rich and flat area of the country. Like it or not, geographic realities place us practically closer to the cities of the Midwest than to most in the east.

As far as I can tell, other funding will be granted to make a link from Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac, a route that honestly seems to make little but political sense. No progress will be made so far on the logical historic rail link between Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

I will try to follow this and remain optimistic. The whole thing feels weird. On the one hand, almost all logic and common sense points to the need to revive a great rail system. But, should the government--the same entity that used so much cash and power to destroy our cities and create such a misguided free road system be in this game? How's it done taking care of our highways?

Even more disturbing is that, no real break as far as I can tell has been made with past mistakes. We just don't have money to continue supporting most of our road infrastructure while building a new rail system at the same time. Real goals and choices have to be made. The wisest one being to systematically cut off most federal interstate highway dollars while leaving the market to quickly start creating alternatives, which almost certainly would revolve around rail. (The idea everything must be really high speed is a wasteful fetish. All that's really needed is to be significantly faster than driving.)

By the way, if you haven't noticed it, one of the primary reasons given for Federal Highways was as emergency urban evacuation routes-- a concept proven wrong on numerous occassions like the 2005 failed evacuation of New Orleans. (When the Federally "guaranteed" levee system broke)

Monthly Truth Break October 2009

Sorry folks but the truth hurts.

Remember that the above figure does not include state and local liabilities and unfunded costs.

Feds Upset At Funny Money Surge-- So Is China

As folks face hard times,many are turning to modern printing technologies to just create counterfeit money out of thin air to purchase the things they need and want.

"The evidence is only anecdotal at this point, but law enforcement officials and business owners across the country say they have seen a significant spike in the circulation of counterfeit currency since the economy started to sour more than a year and a half ago:

More than $1,500 in counterfeit bills found its way into the cash registers of businesses in South Strabane Township, Pa., last weekend.
A counterfeiting ring passed at least 10 fake $100 bills in Collier County, Fla., before three people were arrested last month.
At least 17 victims were swindled with counterfeit bills over the Fourth of July weekend in Elkhart, Ind., where police recovered roughly $1,500 in fake cash. One of the victims was the City of Elkhart itself, which took in at least 200 phony dollars at municipal installations."

The combination of a poor economy and ever more sophisticated and cheap computer technology fueling the surge.

Warning--------- Printing Fake Money Out Of Thin Air Is A Destructive Form Of Theft Best Handled By Experts. You can't just print money cause you need it and want to spend more than you are producing.

That's Ben Bernanke's Job

Keeping America's Failing Road System Alive

Taking the train to NY on Pittsburgh's original rail link to the world takes more than 9 long hours which gives one plenty of time to think about the decline of America's rail infrastructure and the coming decline of it's competitor-- the government funded highway system.

People already worried about the woes of the housing bubble, the cost of the Fed's bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac and the city of Pittsburgh's debt might not be happy about finding out there are a lot more liabilities and unbacked promises still under the torn up rug. The word "Trust Fund" is usually a good clue that a big unfunded liability lies under your feet.

The LA Times has a nice story on a funny situation the government is in as people start to drive less and move towards fuel efficient cars.

"The result: The principal source of funding for highway projects will soon hit a big financial pothole. The federal highway trust fund could be in the red by $3.2 billion or more next year.

The fund, set to finance about $40 billion in transportation projects next year, is increasingly strained. And the problem has taken on greater urgency as lawmakers face a backlog of projects to maintain the nation's aging interstate highway system and ease traffic congestion.

"The situation has only been exacerbated by rising fuel prices, which are causing motorists to drive less and resulting in less revenue for transportation improvements," said David Bauer, senior vice president for government relations at the American Road and Transportation Builders Assn."

One is reminded of the situation the government is in as a major player in the cigarette business. Allegedly, they want people to stop smoking but at the same time they rely heavily on cigarette tax revenues.

President Bush had a particularly bizarre plan to fill the hole in road funding by actually cutting Mass Transit subsidies at a time when use of this far more efficient mode of transportation is exploding. Of course this is why we need the government to be involved in the first place. Projects that make financial sense will be paid for by private investors, but we need the government to sustain those that make no sense.