Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (58111)	1/2/2005 9:24:37 PM
From: arun gera	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

>Tradable citizenship? Hahahahahaha!! Oh man that's a giggle.> I believe in some states in India, a groom with a Green Card could command a dowry in 1,000s of dollars. I recall reading a newspaper article that mentioned that illegal immigrants pay in 10s of 1000s of dollars to get smuggled to USA. A US company hiring a foreign employee on a work visa ends up paying about $10,000 just to get started. So some data points are already available...

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (58111)	1/2/2005 9:56:56 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Sometimes people get the idea (eventually). Where I am, building is prohibited on land with excessive slope. Of course, it took numerous landslides before that ban was put in place, but it happened. Flood insurance used to be private. Then, after numerous floods, private companies wouldn't issue it. So the feds went into the flood insurance business, issuing it on any land and buildings anywhere. Including known hazardous flood plains. Even federal bureaucrats are educable. Now there are areas where even the feds won't issue flood insurance. You build there, you take the chance. BUT you think having the gov't continue to extract money from you for bridges you've already paid for is a GOOD idea? Why not outlaw bridges? Then they won't be crowded.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (58111)	1/4/2005 6:32:46 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 74559

Bingo! Speak of the devil. Prime Minister Helen of Helengrad belatedly figures out that tsunamis are a danger. Duh! Now the government is, belatedly, going to get warnings sorted out. nzherald.co.nz <Prime Minister Helen Clark gave New Zealand its own tsunami warning yesterday as she increased the amount of aid going to stricken Asia. She said New Zealand’s tsunami warning coverage was inadequate and needed upgrading. Back from a ski holiday in Norway, Helen Clark announced a doubling in aid to $10 million. Cash contributions were just the "tip of the iceberg" in the biggest relief operation since World War II, she said. She leaves today for an Asean summit of world leaders in Jakarta tomorrow to discuss ways to co-ordinate the international relief effort. She said New Zealand’s tsunami warning system needed work. "Obviously the tsunami’s generated a lot of thinking around Wellington about this," she told the Herald. "We have been part of the Pacific warning system for tsunamis for 40 years ... it’s mainly focused on the north-east and the west coast of South America. "The system is not focused on the south-west area of New Zealand going into the Southern Ocean." She had been advised that New Zealand could be better covered from the south if the proposed Indian Ocean tsunami warning system - being discussed by Asian countries after last week’s catastrophe - was linked to the Pacific system. An earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale occurred near Macquarie Island in the south Tasman Sea days before the Boxing Day force 9 earthquake off Indonesia that sparked the tsunamis. "In that area, undoubtedly we and Australia could have better systems," she said. Tsunami readiness will be a key subject of the Jakarta meeting which Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Phill Goff will attend. ... > Now they are going to do something. She has been too busy having holidays and doing important things like legalizing homosexual marriage to worry about umpty thousand New Zealanders in danger of imminent death. <Believe it or not, people are still building houses around Lake Taupo [enormous caldera], and at Pauanui, Papamoa, Mount Maunganui, Whakatane ... never a dull moment. There's no government warning about the hazards. AFTER the disaster, bossy bureaucrats will ban building houses around Taupo or near the beach. > Notice that she hasn't mentioned volcanoes as a threat. Her imagination is limited to what she sees on TV. Mqurice