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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (620261)	7/20/2011 5:32:05 PM
From: one_less	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575424

What does any of that have to do with the information I posted?

To: tejek who wrote (620261)	8/13/2011 7:21:29 PM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1575424

What Thomas Friedman Wants for America August 11, 2011, 5:41 pm When it comes to high speed rail, the Left tends to have a Santa Clause mentality. They want the rail, but refuse to even discuss its costs vs. benefits, as if it is going to be dropped in place by Santa Clause. I have actually had pro-high-speed rail writers call me a dinosaur for taking a cost-benefit approach. After a reasoned article on why our rail system, with its focus on freight, makes more sense than China and Europe’s focus on high speed passenger rail, Joel Epstein wrote me that I should get out of the country more, as if I am some backwoods rube that would just swoon if I saw a nifty bullet train. For the record, my actual experience on a high-speed rail train in Europe confirmed that it was a nice experience (I knew it would be) and that it was a financial mess, as my son and I were the only passengers in my car. I would be all for HSR if Santa Clause dropped in down from the North Pole, but it costs a lot of real money. How much money? Well take the system in China that Friedman and Epstein and many others have begged the US to emulate: The rail ministry that builds and operates the trains has an incredible 2.1 million employees, more than the number of civilians employed by the entire U.S. government. Moreover, the ministry is in debt to the tune of 2.1 trillion yuan ($326 billion), about 5 percent of the country’s GDP. coyoteblog.com

To: tejek who wrote (620261)	8/14/2011 4:10:32 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575424

California's HSR Boondoggle Now Even More Boondoggly —By Kevin Drum \| Thu Aug. 11, 2011 3:13 PM PDT So how is California's fabulous high-speed rail project between LA and San Francisco going? You know, the one approved by California's fabulous voters as part of California's fabulous initiative process. Well, a new estimate for the nice, easy part between Merced and Bakersfield puts the cost at $10-14 billion, up from earlier estimates of $6.8 billion made a mere three years ago: If the cost of the entire project balloons at the same pace as the Central Valley section, the San Francisco-to-Anaheim railroad would cost from $63 billion to $87 billion, similar to what independent analysts have been predicting. And those figures do not include inflation, which could push the final cost toward a staggering $100 billion. When California voters approved the project in 2008, the state said it would cost $33 billion, but it soared to $43 billion a year later. I'm no engineer, but I'm willing to risk a few C-notes that this project ends up at $100 billion or more in 2011 dollars. Any takers? This is a very long-term bet, of course, since the line isn't scheduled to be finished until 2020 — and I'm willing to put up a few more C-notes that it'll be more like 2025 or 2030. Or never. Look, I'm sorry HSR lovers. I love me some HSR too, but this project is just a fantastic boondoggle. It didn't even make sense with the original cost estimates, and it's now plain that it's going to cost three or four times more than that. What's more, the ridership estimates are still fantasies and it won't be able to compete with air travel without large, permanent subsidies. This is just too much money to spend on something this dumb. It's the kind of thing that could set back HSR for decades. Sacramento needs to pull the plug on this, and they need to pull it now. We have way better uses for this dough. motherjones.com Things I Didn’t Expect to Read, Part 2 August 11, 2011, 4:41 pm Several years ago, I made a bet that California high speed rail would, if built, end up costing over $100 billion. Incredibly, Kevin Drum is making the same bet. The disappointing part is that he is quick to say that this project is an outlier, that certainly he still supports other HSR rail projects. But they all look as bad as the CA project. The CA project has just gotten more attention and scrutiny because of its size. If memory serves, Drum was right there supporting the Tampa to Orlando line, which if possible is even dumber than the California line. In my experience, the difference between a good high speed rail project and a bad one is basically how much one digs into the numbers and challenges the assumptions. With enough leg work, they all look bad. coyoteblog.com