I'm launching my own festival in South Wales. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. It's going to be held at Margam Park because I wanted the venue to be as close to my home as possible.
Increased revenues meaning higher taxes will be a central element of any successful long-term budget plan and President Obama is right to insist that the wealthy - the slice of America that has come through the recession in by far the best financial health - should provide those funds.
Because what happens is as the economy suffers tax revenues go down. But unlike businesses where at least your variable costs go down in government your variable costs go up: unemployment insurance workmen's compensation health care benefits welfare you name it.
People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.
Thrift is of great revenue.
Government does not have a revenue problem government has a spending problem. Government does not have a revenue problem government has a priority problem. It is time that we begin to fine tune our focus and decide what the priority of government ought to be.
We are all used to paying a sales tax when we buy things - almost 9 percent here in New York City. The application of this concept to the financial sector could solve our need for revenue bring some sanity back into the financial sector and give us a way to raise the revenue we need to run the government in a fiscally responsible way.
We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers people that are gainfully employed making money and paying into the tax system. And then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again.
When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues it has three choices: It can raise taxes print money or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians all three options are bad for average Americans.
I think there's a future where the Web and print coexist and they each do things uniquely and complement each other and we have what could be the ultimate and best-yet array of journalistic venues.