I work as a legal assistant in an immigration firm handling H-1B visas (among others) for a number of major companies, and I just wanted to clarify a point about wages you make in your Blog entry for April 16. Legal immigration and illegal immigration have two very different wage scales. Legal immigrants are heavily overseen by the government, and it is very difficult to pay anyone on an H-1B visa a low wage due to the neccessity of meeting prevailing wages. This means that someone working in the Silicon Valley, where standards of living and wages are high, has to be paid much more than someone in working in Colorado. This ensures that companies are therefore paying these people a competitive salary, and that immigrants are not exploited as cheap labor within the U.S.

In addition to this wage, companies must also pay regular filing fees for petitions, as well as legal fees.

Granted, I'm sure the system is not perfect and there are cases that slip through the cracks. And maybe not every law firm is as stringent as the one I work at in regards to ensuring that the wage standards are met. But at least in the three years I've been in the field, I've never seen a wage nearly as low as the wage I make as a legal assistant. I've rarely seen an information technology worker make under $60,000, and in most cases starting salaries are $70k to $80k. Don't forget bonuses, possible stock/sign/relocation bonuses, etc. Please trust me when I say that in the information technology field, employing U.S. immigrants is NOT a way to save money.

Also, just wanted to pass on that I enjoy the site.

Loved today's post regarding food/temptation... ( Garbage In, Garbage Out May 1, 2008) we don't have any of that crap in the house, yet, like you, can't help indulging when out. Just wanted to say that having Tivo has allowed me to collect kids shows without ads and fast forward through shows that my son wants to see that do have ads. I have taught him (he's six) how to fast forward thru these ads. I've told him they just want to hold up your program and sell you something to make you spend your money that you probably don't need. And fortunately, he now fast forwards thru this garbage. It's still hard to keep him off some garbage because of peer pressure, but compared to many of his friends he doesn't eat junk food. He doesn't miss it because he hasn't been tempted. All the best...

While I am not calling a top (in bonds), short and long-term bonds have reached levels at which they are encountering resistance from previous years. The increase in volatility at these levels, especially in the long bonds, usually occurs during tops.

As a rule of thumb tops are complex.

Should bond prices fall thereby causing rates to rise, I wonder what foolishness the Fed will come up with to make things worse/better? (depending on which side of the trade one sits).

On another note, I see Mr. Buffet is doing his part to calm fears of a meltdown. Is he talking his book? If there is no reason to worry why say anything?

People in general are worried but hopeful. Fear and its step-children, loathing and despair, are not running amok just yet.

Is the Super-Cycle over? I don't know. But I believe we are in a transitional phase of what will become a Primary Cycle contraction or secular bear market. On a valuation basis this is happening. The Fed's resorting to Enron style gimmickry is maintaining false appearances. The probabilities are that this too will end as badly.

Sadly the first helicopter drops are hitting mailboxes all across America. But no one is asking their government where the money came from. In fact not many are asking anything remotely pertinent at all.

The rabid blue collar Clintonistas aren't asking what policies enacted by whom, led to their job losses? What administration came up with hedonic adjustments in the CPI and why? What administration came up with "discouraged workers"? Why did Americans agree to higher taxes in the early 1980's to address the Social Security crisis only to find the system hopelessly bankrupt (where, precisely, did all that money go)? Why did immigration reform in 1986 fail so miserably that we have to do it again? Why are our southern borders still wide open during a War on Terror?

How is the US going to pay back all the money that it has borrowed? How are insolvent consumers going to continue to spend. How did housing become the "economy" of the most powerful nation on the planet? With all the think tanks in D.C. how did we totally botch energy policy? With food stores in a long-term down trend and consumption in an uptrend, how could we embark on an ethanol policy?

I could go on but I think you get the picture. For decades the Washington establishment has stopped solving problems and has resorted to shuffling things around. My fellow Americans have become complacent with this because they have been anesthetized with bread and circuses (the wealth effect). But I admonish as did Einstein that problems cannot be solved with the same level of thinking that created them. It's time to throw the bums out but have we the interest, let alone the courage to enact radical change and deal with the discomfort which accompanies it?