In the recent Trace Engines story, a ChamberMath (tm) figure was thrown out:

"Trace's impact since November 2006 has been $26.5 million with direct and indirect salaries, taxable sales and equipment,"

Traditionally, economic development impacts are estimated using various multipliers. Now, these multipliers vary depending on the industry, so I found a report from Oklahoma that estimates the multiplier for the aircraft manufacturing industry. According to the report, the multiplier for the impact of direct salaries in aircraft manufacturing is 1.725. As an aside, these multipliers come from a company called IMPLAN, which is a commercial interest that sells economic development data to consultants for a fee. The fee to get the Midland County dataset is $265 if anybody is interested.

So, lets see if we can get $26.5 Million!

Trace set up shop in 2007 and according to the reports they have employed about 23 people for all those years and had an average salary of about $60,000. I'll be generous and calculate a whole 3 years and 25 employees:

25 x $60,000 x 3 Years = $4.5 Million * 1.725 = $7,762,500 direct and indirect salary impact

From the Appraisal District equipment and land = $6,918,330

Finally there are the sales. According to Aero-News a Trace Engine goes for around $200,000. The article goes on to say the Midland facility can produce up to 100 engines per year. Many reports suggest multipliers for out of area taxable sales are around 1.4.

Well, I can't very well calculate this number because nobody knows how many engines have been produced, or sold. So, let's see if we can back into the MDC's number with a reasonable number of engine sales.

$26.5 Million Impact - $7.7625 Income Impact - $6.91830 Property & Equipment = $11,819,170

Divide by 1.4 to remove the multiplier gives about $8.4 million in sales or 42 engines.

So, to believe the economic impact of Trace Engines is $26.5 Million dollars you have to believe multipliers developed by companies such as IMPLAN aren't Chamber Faerie Dust Black Boxes running advanced ChamberMath (tm) algorithms and that Trace Engines has sold 42 engines since inception.

def. Loan Credit Default Swap (from Investopedia.com)

A type of credit derivative in which the credit exposure of an underlying loan is swapped between two parties.

The latest story on Trace Engines in the MRT has lots of good information that has not previously been reported, including a PDF of the contract amendment.

When the "letter of credit" was mentioned in previous news reports, the purpose of this instrument was vague, and confusing, since my experience with "letter of credit" instruments follows the traditional definition:

A letter from a bank guaranteeing that a buyer's payment to a seller will be received on time and for the correct amount. In the event that the buyer is unable to make payment on the purchase, the bank will be required to cover the full or remaining amount of the purchase.

When I read the following quote describing the purpose of the "letter of credit" I was surprised:

"...the company's original $400,000 letter of credit was pared to $325,000 more than a year ago in recognition of the recession. "The letter of credit is like a check to MDC that we can cash at anytime if they fall below the job stipulations," he said.

"If they meet those through 2016, the letter of credit will disappear."

I guess using the more accurate "development contract default insurance" isn't proper ChamberSpeak (tm).

So, if I'm reading this right, in the beginning, the MDC made Trace purchase a "letter of credit" in the full amount of the forgivable development loan to insure the MDC against Trace defaulting on the development loan contract.

The MDC can call it a "letter of credit" but it is a hedge against the loan the MDC made to Trace Engines. In a parlance we are all to familiar with after the recent financial collapse, it is a credit default swap that is supposed to mitigate a risky borrower.

Which leaves me with these questions:

• if Trace was such a good investment, why did the MDC require default insurance?


• Has the MDC required default insurance on any other incentees?


• If the contract is going to be amended time and time again to prevent default, why go through the trouble of making an incentee buy a default insurance policy?

Here's one for Walsingham: What is the point of a Clawback when you don't even collect when there is "Clawback Insurance"?

Looking at Drudge this afternoon, I could not help but notice photographs of Elena Kagen, Supreme Court nominee and of Janet Napolitano, who apparently runs the entire federal government security apparatus, minus the military, whatever her actual title may be, and I thought: "Geez...where have we found these two?" So what do we have here? We know they are sisters in their ideology. Does it go beyond that? Did Kagen serve under Napolitano? Serve with? Go to college together? Have the same hairdresser? I mean...really.

Peter Wallsten and Eliza Gray of The Wall Street Journal Online have some interesting facts from a recent WSJ/NBC poll. (I am considering that my liking for the WSJ is enough to balance my distrust and dislike of NBC, ideological puppet of GE, poised to become, perhaps, the world's biggest welfare queen.)

Sixty-two percent of adults in the survey feel the country is on the wrong track, the highest level since before the 2008 election. Just one-third think the economy will get better over the next year, a 7-point drop from a month ago and the low point of Mr. Obama's tenure.

Amid anxiety over the nation's course, support for Mr. Obama and other incumbents is eroding. For the first time, more people disapprove of Mr. Obama's job performance than approve. And 57% of voters would prefer to elect a new person to Congress than re-elect their local representatives, the highest share in 18 years.

The results show "a really ugly mood and an unhappy electorate," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with GOP pollster Bill McInturff. "The voters, I think, are just looking for change, and that means bad news for incumbents and in particular for the Democrats."

Mr. McInturff said voters' feelings, typically set by June in any election year, are being hardened by frustration over the economy and the oil spill. "It would take an enormous and seismic event to change the drift of these powerful forces before November," he said.
...
Some 30% in the poll said they "do not really relate" to Mr. Obama. Only 8% said that at the beginning of his presidency. Fewer than half give him positive marks when asked if he is "honest and straightforward." And 49% rate him positively when asked if he has "strong leadership qualities," down from 70% when Mr. Obama took office and a drop of 8 points since January.

Just 40% rate him positively on his "ability to handle a crisis," an 11-point drop since January. Half disapprove of Mr. Obama's handling of the oil spill, including one in four Democrats.

Continue reading Good news. For us.

Here is more on (moron?) the Dims plan to avoid preparing a budget before the fall elections.

They believe they are morally obligated to bring as much government into being while they can, so it's whatever it takes with getting this stuff into law. The end they want justifies the means, and [the lack of a budget] is just another example.

...so saith Paul Ryan, fast becoming recognized as one of the most principled conservatives in Congress. This NRO Corner post is by Robert Costa.

More here. Shootin's too good fer 'em.

I have a possibly genetic fondness for disco, but even I know that it's not everybody's cup of tea. But at least it had some sort of a beat.

Bach has cadence. Beethoven's rhythms are more complicated than one might think.

And today I finally heard a song which beggared my belief that it was music. A popular artist, Nellie something, and her music sounds for all the world like an out-of-balance washing machine in the spin cycle trying to wring the last moisture out of two angry tomcats.

There's a reason that so many places have piped eighties music. It was the last time that American popular music wasn't dreadful.

Too good to pass up

---

The kids filed back into class Monday morning. They were very excited. Their weekend assignment was to sell something, then give a talk on productive salesmanship.

Little Sally led off: "I sold girl scout cookies and I made $30," she said proudly, "My sales approach was to appeal to the customer's civil spirit and I credit that approach for my obvious success."

"Very good," said the teacher.

Little Jenny was next:

"I sold magazines," she said, "I made $45 and I explained to everyone that magazines would keep them up on current events."

"Very good, Jenny," said the teacher..

Eventually, it was Little Johnny's turn.

The teacher held her breath ...

Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher's desk. "$2,467," he said.

"$2,467!" cried the teacher, "What in the world were you selling"

"Toothbrushes," said Little Johnny.

"Toothbrushes?" echoed the teacher,

"Toothbrushes," repeated Johnny.

"How could you possibly sell enough toothbrushes to make that much money?" asked the Teacher.

"I found the busiest corner in town," said Little Johnny, "I set up a couple of bowls of Chips and Dip and I gave everybody who walked by a free sample. They all said the same thing, 'Hey, this tastes like dog shit!"

Then I would say, "It is dog shit. Wanna buy a toothbrush?"

"I used the progressive approach of giving you something shitty for 'free', and then making you pay to get the shitty taste out of your mouth."

---

This is as good a description of Obamacare as I've heard.

Do you recall Right Said Fred? Here are the lyrics of this growling one-hit wonder:

I'm too sexy for my love too sexy for my love Love's going to leave me

I'm too sexy for my shirt too sexy for my shirt
So sexy it hurts
And I'm too sexy for Milan too sexy for Milan
New York and Japan

And I'm too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
No way I'm disco dancing

I'm a model you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I do my little turn on the catwalk

I'm too sexy for my car too sexy for my car
Too sexy by far
And I'm too sexy for my hat
Too sexy for my hat what do you think about that

I'm a model you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I shake my little touche on the catwalk

I'm too sexy for my too sexy for my too sexy for my

'Cos I'm a model you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I shake my little touche on the catwalk

I'm too sexy for my cat too sexy for my cat
Poor pussy poor pussy cat
I'm too sexy for my love too sexy for my love
Love's going to leave me

And I'm too sexy for this song

Prescient, no?

Last night I was listening to some rabid right-winger on XM, and yes, they exist, just as they do on the left but they tend not to want to murder people, like Mike Malloy, or urge them to commit various felonies, like the thug Ed Schultz.

My right-wing crank was talking about how many days that Obama has been on vacation in his 18 months or so in office, and in particular how many socializing occasions he's enjoyed after the BP oil spill.

I found it refreshing, and reinforcing of one of my beliefs, to find that W quit playing golf after we entered the wars in the Middle East. He didn't need the exercise or enjoyment less, but he thought it unfeeling to play golf with people dying on foreign soil. For America. But then the Bushes are a class act. Which is not something that you can say of a single person in Mr. Obama's history or retinue, who go from resentful to in-your-face crooks.

Continue reading We need a President, not a diva.

It was announced today that an Odessa Economic Development Corporation incentee, the TelVista Call Center on I-20, will close in September, laying off approximately 270 workers.

Upon opening, the Odessa Telvista location had an agreement with the Odessa Economic Development Corporation.

According to Odessa EDC President, Gary Vest, the agreement has run its course and was finished prior to the site closure announcement.

However, Telvista has a separate and ongoing tax abatement agreement with the city of Odessa. Vest says that will require tax recapturing with the dollar amount dependent on the actual closing date.

Well, there is going to be a lot of calculating going on by the various Ector County Taxing Entities. According to this spreadsheet on the Comptroller's Website, TelVista executed a 10-Year, 100% Tax Abatement on property values above $15,938 on 2/4/2004, effective 1/1/2004.

According to the Ector CAD, TelVista had taxable equipment and furniture worth $1,270,755 and taxable property worth $5,899,093. With a good 4 years left on the abatement, the amount of the penalty is really up to the terms of the contract. Even with the terms, it may be months before the settlement is reached, take AT&T/Cingular for example, they've been in abatement default for a while and the penalty still hasn't been figured, assessed and reported.

There is that myth that deaths comes in threes....well there are only two big call centers left in Midland/Odessa.

Monday reading matter: Hugh Hewitt at the Washington Examiner, h/t Insty.

President Obama and his congressional allies expect to be assisted in their casual shuffling off of the most basic of Article I duties by a Manhattan-Beltway media elite, quick to assure their dwindling audiences that the abandonment of budgeting isn't completely without precedent. Lefty pundits can and will point to a year or two where the pressures of business ended the hope of a formal budget.

Read the whole thing.

So the Dims are not even going to TRY to budget their expenditures and their lack of income. I cannot say that I am surprised. On our current path, the drop in tax receipts that D.C. is ingnoring currently will accelerate sharply after the first of the year.

Everyone that I know that has the ability to move income and tax payments to 2010 from 2011 is doing so. Next year will be a federal budget train wreck as Our Ruling Class discover that they can't continue to rachet up taxes on overtaxed businesses and business owners and expect sheep-like compliance.

The opposing party must run on this issue, relentlessly, for November. Keep the Bush tax rates; reduce estate taxes; hold capital gains tax rates where they are currently AND promise to leave them alone. Businesses need to lose the Regime Uncertainty that all corporate economists are dialing into their forecasts. Tax receipts will return when businesses are allowed to.

The alternative is aggressive wealth confiscation by a surviving Dim leadership that won't cut spending in an environment where conventional tax receipts plummet.

I'm a big fan of XM 164--Old Time Radio. They play, of course, the old radio shows. Burns and Allen, The Great Guildersleeve, Johnny Dollar and of course Dragnet and other shows with the incomparable Jack Webb.

"Just the facts, Ma'am," endeared him to me for decades. Instead of the rubbish of root causes and entitlements, people on Webb's programs were good or bad, and did good or bad things. Yes, life is more complicated in some ways but the shows were morality plays and good ones at that.

In one of his characters, Webb says, "I'm an American. You can't push me around!"

Fifty years later Barack Hussein Obama says to the world, and especially to our enemies, "I'm the president of the Americans, and please push me around."

I have these days the attention span of a gnat, and a gnat which was raised by teachers drinking deep of the best advice that the NEA can give. So putting down more than two sentences in a row is hard for me, and aphorisms and pleasantries rule the day.

The Onion, as most know, is a spoof news site although I'm not sure that anything could be stranger than Dan Rather's defense of his being duped by fake W. papers.

Here's a funny commentary on America's obsession with looks.

Incredibly Sexy Firefighter Tragically Dies In Steamy Blaze

People have always been obsessed with looks. How else do you keep from getting killed by dangerous strangers? I find this funny because it's a nice poke at the celebrity culture where looking good is all that matters.

Leaves me out.

When discussing President Obama's handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, comparisons are often made with George W. Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina. Well, the MSM Narrative Version of his handling of Katrina, anyway. The MSM has so distorted what actually happened and when, and has so down-played the culpability of then Louisiana Governor Blanco and then New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in the clusterfark that was Lousiana's repsonse to Katrina that it is of no use as a good comparison.

So let us try this comparison:

Today, June 16, 2010, marks the 57th day since the blowout of BP's Deep Horizon offshore rig and the beginning of the oil spill. I will leave it to you to judge for yourself the effectiveness of the Obama Administration and their handling of this crisis.

But while you do that, keep in mind that it was only 62 days from the day the World Trade Center's twin towers fell to the day Kabul fell.

Spin that.

Looks good, clean lines. Lots of white space. Loads faster.

But something seems to be missing. I can't quite put my finger on it.

Oh, yeah.

Us.

We have been purged. Even from the the Blogs section. Not that they owe us a slot, but still. A rather unceremonious dumping, don't you think?

"I look up at the moon and wonder: 'When will we be going back, and who will that be?'"

Did you ever think for a minute that when Eugene Cernan stepped off of the lunar surface for the last time on December 17, 1972....making him the last man to walk on the face of the moon...that he and all of the astronauts that came before him wouldn't live to see another moon walk?

Me neither. But, alas, it will almost certainly be so.

UPDATE: Just because everyone should know who is on this list....

So elegant.

...for your Saturday.

The West will be victorious because the ideas of life are just far superior to the ideas of death.

Lord, I pray that it will be so.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali in McLean's on the ongoing war with the "jihadist threat." And no one knows the threat better than she. Read the whole thing. Please. H/T Insty.

The internet tubes have been rife with articles discussing a possible bursting of the "higher education bubble"...the idea being that shelling out (and even borrowing) $100,000 to listen to the likes of Peter Singer (see Nat's post below) may not be the best investment.

Case in point in our archives, the student who went into debt to the tune of $97,000 all so she could get a degree from NYU in....wait for it.....Religious and Women's Studies. Smart enough to get into NYU but not smart enough to calculate the likely rate of return on a degree that has zero value in the marketplace. Did I say zero value? I may be wrong about that. It may actually have a negative value in the marketplace because any Human Resources exec doing the hiring will take one look at her major and figure in a 30% probability of a future lawsuit against the company because...let's face it...all workplaces will be perceived as hostile by people like that.

Salman Khan has videotaped over 1,400 lectures on subjects everything from Biology and Chemistry to Money and Banking. Even SAT Prep. And he has posted them all on YouTube.

The whole point is that you don't have to go to college to get an education. Hell, for 80% of the non-technical (and 99% of the "social science" majors), the whole point of going to college is to fake an education.

If there were to be no future generations, there would be nothing for us to feel to guilty about. Is there anything wrong with this scenario?

If you ever wanted to get a handle on how screwed up the mindset is of a New York Times reader then have a look at this New York Times blog post by Professor Peter Singer of Princeton University.

And then start reading through the comments. There are almost one thousand comments at this point and while a decent percentage deliver the proper rebuke to Misanthrope Laureate Singer, a huge percentage of the comments come from people who must be just miserable to be around.

Here is one of my favorites (from "ddyte" in Brooklyn):

"Perhaps it's my depression talking, but I have long maintained that I was done a disservice by being created in the first place. I would not inflict that pain on anyone else."

At the time of this post ddyte's comment was recommended by 363 other readers. And don't you just love how his depression (which to be fair, may be 100% real) was a disservice inflicted upon him by others and not just an unlucky chance happening?

How would you like to have the New York Times' business model? Being made obsolete by technology; hemorrhaging cash and staff.

And, if the comments to Singer's blog post are any indication, sixty percent of the readers that you have left want to kill themselves.

Coincidence? I think not.

Update: Here is another doosy of a comment:

I'm sorry, but when you say "Schopenhauer's pessimism has had few defenders over the past two centuries," you reveal an astounding level of ignorance about Buddhism.

That one was from "Virginia", who no doubt wonders why she is still single.

Here is another from "Fed Up" in Oregon:

"I am so glad that I never had children. I never felt the need to replicate myself. What's the point if there are already millions of adoptable children already on the planet? There is enough strife on earth as is and I am happy that there are no direct descendants of myself to have to subject them to insane turmoil of worldwide greed, famine and endless wars of destruction. When I die I will be totally guilt free."

And all alone, don't forget all alone. Although "Fed Up" is probably getting used to that already.

And here is a guy who actually does want to shoot himself, but who admits he is too cowardly to do it:

Those of us who have not shot ourselves in the head are either delusional or cowards. I am a coward who wonders is everyone else really so delusional? Or are we just telling each other that life is worth living when we all know we remain alive because nature has selected for those who fear death the most, and nobody wants to look scared. To me it seems like saying "I meant to do that...." after a gross error or pretending to enjoy the flogging you are recieving for appearances sake. Does the flogged man live for the spaces between the lash? Or does he live for when the lashing is done and he can finally crawl away and die knowing he made a good show of bravery? Either way the whole thing was just torture.

Wow. If you empaneled a jury just from a pool of these New York Times readers would you be able to convict Adolph Hitler of....well...of anything? Sure, he nearly exterminated an entire race of people, but think of all of the future suffering he spared them.

Check out their respective pages on June 6. Bing's home page (above) shows an aerial photograph of the American Cemetery located in Normandy.

Google? Nothing. Move along. Nothing to see here. Nothing of note ever happened on June 6th.

Actually this is just one of the reasons. The main reason is that I just don't trust Google. Google makes money for one reason and one reason only: They know a bunch of stuff about you and the more they know the more they get paid. If you could break the old Stasi into two separate operating entities, one that ran the informants and the other that did the interrogations and disappearances, Google could run the former.

But not the latter....because their corporate motto is "Don't be evil", you see.

UPDATE: Welcome MichelleMalkin.com and HotAir.com readers!

And now an Instalanche!

This story just pegged all my meters: humor, irony, hypocricy, useful idiocy, all of 'em.

You really can't make this stuff up. The current flock of red-lefty-libs defy satire.

So the MV Rachel Corrie, registered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is one of the ships being used to break the Israeli blockade!

My head spins. We really have to fire up the Wayback Machine, Nat, and dig into those archives for our little friend Rachel. Back to nought 3 or naught 4, I think. Where is Walsingham's pancake graphic?

Wait a minute...maybe I'm being punked...this is really an Onion story, too, right? If not it should have been.

Update: Found it! From the great month of September 2003, 2 years after 9/11, comes this:

Walser's portrait of Rachel Corrie.

In the archives search, I found 2 other things of note. 1. The MDC was in the crosshairs with this from Walsingham. And, 2. We recently missed celebrating J's W's 8th blogaversary.

Of course, it helps to be right. But still.

The question for the day: Does Economic Development happen in Midland without the MDC? The commenter "Business Supporter" and Senator Cornyn (flanked by incentees) might think the answer to this question is No.

I know it might be hard to find real economic development with all the consultant driven marketing of the efforts of the MDC sucking up all the Boosterism oxygen, but you know the company I'm talking about, don't you?

You know, the Company with the *one* story covered by the local media back in April (which wouldn't have been a story if a congressman wasn't making a site visit.)

You know, the company that employees 300 people in Midland, out at the airport, in a targeted industry that isn't oil and gas?

You know, the company that is growing so fast it opened a new facility this past winter in another state and effectively doubled in capacity.

You know, the company that is owned and managed by one of the largest venture capital investment groups in the United States.

You know the company that has partnered with UTPB, Midland College and Odessa College to offer courses that prepare and train their workforce? (Note: MRT Links are dead due to site upgrade)

Come on, You know! It's that company that so exemplifies the ultimate prospect for the MDC that they are listed in their community profiles, showered with glowing press releases and their economic incentive package is legendary!

WAIT! That last part isn't true.

In fact, though this company employees 300 people right here in Midland, Texas, neither of the industry listings maintained by the MDC includes this company. Which is shocking since they are larger than Semperian, AT&T Wireless, Apache and Chevron.

Though they are a stealth success, they really pop on my radar because not only did this company not take any MDC money, when they expanded in North Carolina the local news reports had this to say:

Ameritox said yesterday that it would create 228 jobs in 2010 in establishing its second laboratory in a former RF Micro Devices Inc. testing center off Gallimore Dairy Road.

It will do so without local and state incentives.

I *heart* good economic development stories like this.

UPDATE: Just in case our readers don't click through to the North Carolina Story here are some extra red meat quotes from the article:

Ameritox initially requested $277,500 in incentives from the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and had talks with Greensboro and officials in the N.C. Commerce Department.

"We decided we have the financial wherewithal to get this project done, and we want to get it done sooner than later," Lopes said. "Our goal is to be a good corporate citizen and take care of our customers."

"Having the building, the educational setup for life sciences and the confidence of a trainable local work force essentially sealed the deal," Lynch said. "In this instance, incentives were nowhere close to being the final determinant."

Bob Orr, the executive director of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, said he applauds Ameritox's leadership for committing to the project without incentives.

"It's refreshing to see a company that understands what capitalism is all about and reject the intrusion of government into the marketplace through incentives," Orr said.

I submit to you a New York Times article concerning a woman who racked up $97,000 in student loans to get a degree from prestigious NYU but now finds herself underwater insofar as her ability to pay back her loans. The article goes round and round trying to apportion blame for the predicament that she finds herself in. She can't be solely to blame, right?

I read through the article hoping that I would actually find the information that I suspected was there and as luck would have it, it was:

Cortney could move someplace cheaper than her current home city of San Francisco, but she worries about her job prospects, even with her N.Y.U. diploma.

She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies.

Bingo!

Jessica's Well is beta testing a ChamberSpeakTM to English translation module in order that we may better facilitate the public awareness of activities ongoing at the Midland Development Corporation.

For today's test we will use an article from last Friday's (05/28/2010) edition of MyWestTexas.com regarding the MDC's dealing with a local aircraft powerplant manufacturer.

Chamberspeak:
Caught between an impatient City Council and local investors who put big money into a 3-year-old aircraft engine company, the Midland Development Corp. on Friday voted to table consideration of making its economic development incentives deal with Trace Engines more stringent.

Plain English:
Caught between an impatient City Council and local investors who put big money into a 3-year-old aircraft engine company, the Midland Development Corp. on Friday voted to table consideration of actually enforcing the mutually agreed-upon development contract with Trace Engines.

ChamberSpeak:
Trace Chief Operating Officer David Czarnicki and Midland oilman Buddy Sipes, the firm's first investor, appeared before the MDC board at City Hall to ask that the $400,000 forgiveable loan the company received in 2007 not be converted into a standard loan that must be repaid.

Plain English:
Trace Chief Operating Officer David Czarnicki and Midland oilman Buddy Sipes, the firm's first investor, appeared before the MDC board at City Hall to ask that the $400,000 forgiveable loan the company received in 2007 be considered a gift from the taxpayers of Midland and not a loan of any sort. Especially one of those icky kind of loans that have to be repaid.

ChamberSpeak:
Arguing that the 2008-09 recession had rendered impossible the contract that the company signed in 2007 to create 114 jobs, Czarnicki said, "2007 engine sales are down by 50 percent. "That's had an effect on our ability to get up to speed. I am concerned that the amendment is not in the spirit of the original agreeement."

Plain English:
Arguing that the 2008-09 recession had rendered impossible the contract that the company signed in 2007 to create 114 jobs, Czarnicki said, "2007 engine sales are down by 50 percent. "That's had an effect on our ability to get up to speed and I would like us to rethink what should be the "spirit" of the agreement...because the actual text of the agreement is pretty much kicking our a** right now."

ChamberSpeak:
Czarnicki said afterward that Trace "is already a lean organization" with 23 employees at 3000 W. Interstate 20, but it will probably cut its staff if the MDC follows the council's recent suggestion and makes the loan non-forgiveable.

Plain English:
If the taxpayers aren't going to pay 'em, then nobody is going to be paying them.

ChamberSpeak:
The former councilman revealed that "what we bought as technology was not as (it had been) guaranteed" by the Orenda Recip Co. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and an extra $10 million expenditure was required before a Federal Aviation Administration production certificate could finally be obtained last fall.

Plain English:
We've figured out why Orenda sold us this technology now.

ChamberSpeak:
Sipes said Trace, having paid more than $340,000 in local property taxes, didn't seek tax abatements because the 2007 economy looked like it would remain strong.

Plain English:
Please consider the fact that we didn't ask for even more public subsidies when considering whether or not to gift us that $400,000.

Okay, I am going to stop now for a couple of reasons. First, the translator seems to be working flawlessly. Second, because I am making a bit too light a serious subject.

Trace Engines is a company that is a venture being attempted by several smart, good men, and one that is fraught with risks. The fact that they are having struggles is of no comfort to anyone here. The success or failure of the venture has a real effect on real lives. This we know all too acutely here. What humor that we do find is strictly based upon the complete torture inflicted on the language when describing loans that aren't really loans, and both sides trying to figure out how to get around an agreement that is very plain in its intent and one that they never thought they would have to enforce. That is really kind of funny. But the struggles of a local company is deadly serious stuff.

Having said that....as noble and honorable a venture as these men have undertaken in trying to build a company it is their venture and should remain strictly their venture. There should be no government involvement in it whatsoever save the enforcement of laws (and, ironically, agreements) and the protection of private property rights. There should not be two separate and distinct classes of local businesses. One class either connected to or favored by the local development authorities and therefore eligible for public subsidies in the form of tax breaks and in many cases the outright transfer of funds from public coffers into private hands....and the other class....where individuals or groups of individuals venture into the marketplace with their product or their idea, unsubsidized with cash gifts forcebly taken from their neighbors, to survive or perish based solely upon the value of their product or service to a consuming public free to choose between competing goods.

But then I'm old-fashioned that way.

I wish those behind Trace Engines the best of luck and much success. But it is your venture and you should be risking only your own money and that of any willing investors. Period.

I have hardened a fair amount on this issue over the past couple of years. Before I was sort of of the opinion that if you have a set of people offering up free money (even if is taken from the local taxpayers) that you can't blame a company for taking it, right?

In the face of galloping government spending at every level, and now an absolute crushing amount of public debt set upon us by both elected and non-elected officials at every level.....then, yes, absolutely I can blame them for taking the money.

"An email from Al and Tipper Gore" states that after 40 years of marriage they had decided to split.

"This is very much a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration," the note from Al said.

Tipper's note said, "While I much admire the way that Al has managed to steal nearly a billion dollars from people, all of whom earn a good deal less than we do, and since it's community property and community income, I can live high on the environmentally correct hog and not have to spend another day with a man who is bait for an entire college of proctology."

Sympathy cards to taxpayers.