Daily Briefing For Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Ideas For Your Kids' School

Back in September, I shared with you my efforts to help my high school alma mater become prepared for a variety of perils.  A few weeks ago, the school asked me to come up with a suggested monthly check list and scenarios to help keep the prefects trained up and developing in their roles as student responders.

I finished up the documents last night.  I told the school over email that I fully expect they will modify my suggestions to fit their needs. 

Here's my suggestion for you: if you have kids in school, ask the school's leadership if the kids are trained on what to do in case of an emergency.  If the kids are high school age, you might suggest to the school that some of the students be trained to be responders in the event of an emergency at school.  The reality is that our high schools are filled with scouts, outdoor enthusiasts, martial arts practitioners, and sports teams members.  There's a lot of talent from which to build a kick ass response team.

Many schools will no doubt have some reservations about doing so, but I suspect in the future that will change.  As schools continue to migrate towards a more active response for emergencies and away from a passive model, we will see students, faculty and administrators taking more ownership of their safety and being proactive when it comes to stopping threats. 

At a minimum, your kid needs to know what you expect them to do in the event of an emergency.  They need to feel empowered to make decisions.  Have you had that conversation with your child?


So...This Debt Ceiling Thing

I could take up a fair amount of cyberspace sharing info with you on this, but instead I want you to think about a mere three things.

1. "Far more investors think that interest rates will go DOWN in the event of a default than think they will go up." - Business Insider
   
2. "The CEO of credit rating agency Moody's ruled out the chance of a U.S. government default, even if an agreement over raising the debt ceiling is not achieved by mid-October." - CNBC article
   
3. "I say, imagine in your private life, if you decided that I’m not going to pay my mortgage for a month or two—first of all you’re not saving money by not paying your mortgage. You’re just a dead beat." - President Obama, speaking today.

To sum up: it's by no means clear that interest rates will explode over this, or that we will default if we hit the ceiling, or that President Obama is ready to talk without a teleprompter.  (Imagine if George W. Bush had said that.)


I'm not convinced our economy will suddenly implode if we bump up against the debt ceiling, in large part because the government continues to bring in sufficient revenues to pay the interest on the debt along with many other essential services the government provides.  From the article:

In reality, if the debt ceiling is not raised in the next two weeks, the government will actually have to prioritize its expenses and keep its monthly, weekly, and daily spending under the revenue the government collects. In simple terms, the government would have to spend an amount less than or equal to what it earns. Just like ordinary Americans have to do in their everyday lives.

I know this will shock some of you, but there are stories out there you are not getting in the main stream media.  Do you own homework.