I was looking for the grave of my great great grandmother named Ruth Greer. I knew her son (actually a stepson, William Greer) was buried in Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn and so I looked there. They have an online database of burials which makes it easy to check.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a Ruth Greer buried there (section 4, lot 21072) about the time we thought our Ruth may have died. So that was the easy part. The hard stuff would be actually finding the grave, reading the stone if it existed and was still readable, maybe finding out more, and then making an educated guess. To make a long story short, I did not find the stone but the information obtained from the Green-wood genealogist leads me to believe that the Ruth Greer buried there is probably not our Ruth.
Although we never found Ruth’s grave we did find another Greer in the lot. (Public Lots can have hundreds of burials so this does not suggest a relationship. But then I didn’t know that at the time so at least for that day I thought there might be a tie with our family.)

The stone was worn and flat on ground with just the front surface visible in grass. Stone near-by looked fallen over so I assume same happened to this one.

I read: Charlie E Greer (unclear writing above name); Youngest son of T. F. Greer, Esq ; born Rhone Hill Moy, Ireland (Rh was worn); [unclear word] July 30, 1887; aged 21 years; inscription – “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.”

Later found a couple NY Times articles about this death being a murder and it then seemed obvious that what I called an unclear word was “assassinated”.

• Murder and Suicide in Broadwy Hotel
• Why Greer was Killed

And this from ThePeerage.com:
“ Charles Edward Greer was born on 16 May 1866.1 He was the son of Thomas Fergus Greer and Elizabeth Sarah Carter.2 He died on 30 July 1887 at age 21, at New York, USA, unmarried.”

So this turned out to be just an interesting aside. There is nothing in these stories or what I know to tie these Greers with mine. It is probably just a coincidence that a Ruth Greer ( who I later learned is probably not the Ruth Greer I was looking for) was buried in the same Lot in Green-wood and same year. The times articles are a rather interesting bit of history featuring a wayward noble’s son who worked as a night porter in an NYC hotel, a love triangle (but the story is somewhat vague on this), jealousy, and a murder –suicide.

Mr. Huntsman has again addressed the issue of Too-Big-To-Fail Wall Street banks. He seems to be one of the very few politicians who is willing to take on Wall Street banks which threaten our country’s economy. I had written about this last month (see my post – Jon Huntsman and Too Big to Fail.

It would seem that many in the Republican and business communities are opposed to the regulation of financial institutions passed by Congress (Dodd-Frank) But if the government is responsible for the debts of the big banks, does it not make sense to regulate? Certainly, it can be argued whether Dodd-Frank got it right. But if there are no too big to fail institutions, a lighter regulatory hand is appropriate.

Trudy Rubin, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote about our failure to let in Iraqi’s who helped the US and now face death because our system has failed them :
Shame on U.S.: Iraqi allies betrayed

President Obama is failing these folks. Would any of the candidates do better? They are quick to jump on other perceived failures but I’ve heard no mention of this or a suggestion that any of them would do better.

Then I read an interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor today: Deported teen returns to US. How many Americans are mistakenly banished?

This case certainly has aspects would make me assign partial blame to both the authorities and the teen (and family) but the larger question concerns safeguards against deporting U.S. citizens.

The Osawatomie speech sounded like what you’d expect to hear in Caracas or Buenos Aires. As in: “The free market has never been a license to take whatever you can from whomever you can.” (Applause.)…

My Wall Street Journal Question: What does this mean?

Does the author object to the President’s tone or the suggestion that maybe some do believe this? Or does the writer believe that this is what the free market should be about?

In the financial sector, it certainly could be combined the Jon Huntsman’s ideas on Too Big to Fail and the repeal of Dodd-Frank which were recently highlighted here.

The idea to simplify regulations while still regulating is an interesting idea. The author gives several examples of over complex regulations and how they could be simplified. The discussion anticipates many objections. This is a good starting point for further discussions.

First, it never made any sense to me to have financial institutions so large that they would be considered too big to fail. That is they are so large that if they were to fail the entire US economy would be in danger. Indeed, I had writen about this over 2 years ago.. Jon Huntsman presents a plan to eliminate this risk by the simplest means possible: not have too big to fail institutions.

Second, he proposes the repeal of Dodd-Frank. This was our government’s regulatory response to the 2008 crisis. I read quite a few newspapers (including both the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal) and I know this regulatory reform is opposed by many in the business community but it seems to me if the goverment is ultimately reponsible for the debts of the big banks, there is a need for extensive regulation. It is an arguable point whether Dodd-Frank got it right. But if there are no too big to fail institutions, a lighter regulatory hand is appropriate.

There are several other aspects to Jon Huntsman’s plan but I just wanted to highlight these. Although Jon Huntsman is way back in the pack seeking the GOP nomination for President, he may be the most qualified and thoughtful in the group.

This got me to thinking about my brother and his family business. They sell made in America art online and works by a large number of artists. The business is Best American Arts and the website is http://www.bestamericanarts.com/. Items include jewelry, various items of home decor, ceramics, fiber,glass, leather, metal, and wood. All of these are handcrafted in America. And shipping is free within the United States.

So if you think you might be interested in giving some American art this year, check out http://www.bestamericanarts.com/. And I’ve saved even more good news for last. Because his brother Jack sent you, there is a discount. Just use the code JackReidy at checkout and the discount will be applied. (No spaces in the discount code.)

Let’s buy at least 1 American gift this year. The recepient will love the quality of the artwork and the United States economy will benefit. Support American art and this family business.

All numbers are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor. The month to month change was calculated and graphed with Excel.

The graph clearly shows accelerating job loss in 2008 hitting over 800, 0000 jobs lost in January 2009, staying in that area for several months, followed by a decreasing job loss, and emerging into positive job growth in April 2010. The job growth is too small bring down our stubbornly high unemployment rate but it is moving in the right direction. We need to create more jobs to keep up with the constantly growing labor force. We have had 17 straight months of job gains in the private sector. (The August figures are often reported as zero but that was because the number of jobs in the public sector shrank.)

There are quite a few things that could influence the economy in this time. The slow-down in job decline in early 2009 seems to suggest that stimulus plan seems to have worked but is now slowing down. The TARP program passed in late 2008 may have helped this recovery. And one could argue that things would be better or worse if we had followed a different plan.

The present jobs bill being promoted by President Obama should also stimulate job creation the same way. And there is a focus on fixing infrastructure, things we need to do anyway. One could argue certain aspects of the plan could be improved but many critics think this plan is a waste of time and money since the first stimulus didn’t work. It looks to me like it probably worked but may not have been enough so it is well worth trying something similar.

They say the government can only create government jobs. While it is true that government creates government jobs directly, it also plays a large role in creating private-sector jobs, say by contacting with a construction company to build a road or repair a school. Also those government workers and private-sector workers paid to do the work that the government funds, spend their money and that will further stimulate the private sector.

Why do I say this? Let’s look at the data. To make my point I’ll just look at private employment. Government employment is useless according to the critics. I disagree but I’ll leave that point alone right now. But it complicates the picture and gets into an argument that just distracts from my point. So private-sector only.

Monthly job numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor from January 2008 to as close to present as we can get are plotted here.

I downloaded the numbers from BLS and ran the numbers myself and produced a similar graph. My graph did not look nearly as nice as this one so I went ahead and used the one already published on the internet.

There are quite a few things the would influence the ecomomy beside that change in Presdential administrations. And one could argue that things would be better or worse if we had followed a different plan. Or one could argue that the TARP program passed in late 2008 was a part of this recovery. But the slow-down in job decline in early 2009 seem to suggest that stimulus plan seems to have worked but is now slowing down. Jobs are being added but at a slow pace.

The present jobs bill being promoted by President Obama should also stimulate job creation the same way. And there is a focus on fixing infrastrucure, things we need to do anyway. Some critics think this plan is a waste of time and money since the first stimulus didn’t work. It look to me like it probably worked but may not have been enough so it is well worth trying something similar.

Let us hope more of the candidates come out with plans like this so we can have a debate on some ideas. I was a bit disappointed that parts of Huntsman’s plan were vague but I’m sure these points will be more fully explained in the near future.