Effor.com

Here’s a bit of an update on the G20 meeting.  It appears that China is getting serious about the US economy, because they want to eventually get the money back that they’ve loaned us.

According to a story on KnoxNews.com

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called on the United States to remain “a credible nation” and not weaken the U.S. dollar with endless government spending on bailouts and stimulus packages.

China gets it.  The US doesn’t.  Government spending – when the government doesn’t have money to spend – causes the currency to weaken relative to other currencies.  (Side note – it doesn’t not cause inflation.  Only increases in the money supply can do that.  But of course we’re doing that too…)

Here’s what Wen said:  “Of course, we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I’m a little bit worried,” Wen said at a news conference Friday after the closing of China’s annual legislative session.

The story goes on to give a little background by saying Chinese investment in U.S. Treasuries for years has helped finance U.S. budget deficits, keep interest rates low and buoy the dollar. It is all the more important as the U.S. takes on a deficit in excess of $1 trillion to fight its recession.

As I’ve said many times before, if China doesn’t loan us money, the US is quickly screwed.  Of course if China does loan us money, we’re still screwed – but the ultimate collapse will be delayed.

China appears to fear that overspending on stimulus by the United States could ignite inflation and send interest rates climbing.

It doesn’t look like Chinese Premier Wen believes in Keynesian policies.  At least one member of the G20 is not lacking in common sense.  Isn’t it ironic that a communist country understands economics better than we do?

gk

Share on Facebook

According to the Christian Science Monitor, At least six governors have said they may refuse money. CNN also has some a decent story on it.

“We’re concerned that we’re just going to be doling out million dollar hugs,” says Jon Hanian, Governor Otter’s press secretary. “It really comes down to the proper role of government, and that is a soul-searching question we’re engaged in here in Idaho right now.”

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have joined Otter’s revolt.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has also raised concerns about future state obligations especially for education, welfare, and healthcare spending, which make up the bulk of the $787 billion package.

“Some school systems will see a gusher of money the like of which no one has seen before,” said Governor Daniels at a press conference last week. “When federal funds stop coming, there will not be any way to replace all of that.”

And a bit further down the story says But Jindal, who called the stimulus debate “a great opportunity” to offer conservative-based solutions, countered, “We should be unafraid to stand up on principles and point out alternative solutions.”

This could be the first step in removing federal government interference in what should constitutionally be a state issue.  Just imagine if we could get more states to “stand up on principles” and refuse federal money – and the strings that are always attached to that money.

Mississippi’s Governor Barbour objects to a provision that extends unemployment benefits to people who have turned down full-time employment. Similarly, South Carolina’s Governor Sanford thinks extending unemployment benefits to part-time workers will bankrupt the state’s unemployment trust.

“The only strings attached to this money is if you have a community that for the last 30 years has had persistent poverty rates … then you must direct 10 percent of this money to those communities,” says Rep. Clyburn. “If you don’t want this pot of money because that string is attached, what am I to conclude from that?”

Representative Clyburn – you may safely conclude that they don’t want money with strings attached.  Ideally, they wouldn’t want your money, because they know it’s really their money anyway, but that’s probably too much to hope for at this point.  I’m taking it one step at a time, trying to undo this mess the same way it was created, one step at a time.

The underlying cause for the resistance has to do with state sovereignty, says Byron Schlomach at the conservative Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Will a short-term federal government intervention weaken states’ rights by making them more financially beholden to Washington?

That’s an issue that is particularly relevant as the revolt is largely coming from states such as Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alaska, whose residents currently receive some of the highest shares of federal subsidies in the country. These states, argues Mr. Schlomach, know the price that comes with federal largess. “We’re giving up our sovereignty and putting the federal government even more in the driver’s seat,” he says.

Highway funding, HUD funding, etc. all come with caveats, and maybe this will be the straw that broke the camels’ back.  I’m not optimistic that this will be the case, but at least it’s cause for hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.

What’s my alternative plan?  Do nothing.  Let the bad companies go broke.  Let the people who bought more house than they could afford go broke.  Let them live with relatives or at a church run charity.

gk

Share on Facebook

Another excellent post at FEE.org.  Here’s a snip to give you a taste of it.

This is a sign of neither strong character nor a sustainable economy. It reeks of the same moral cowardice and fiscal insanity that doomed great civilizations of the past. The bread and circuses that helped mightily to bankrupt ancient Rome come to mind. Where are the men and women of courage and integrity who will keep their hands in their own pockets?

Good stuff!

gk

Share on Facebook

I’m continuing to read the stimulus bill, I’ll add stuff here that I think is stupid.  Stupid as in it doesn’t do a damn thing to stimulate the economy and doesn’t actually help people who are out of work.  Keep in mind that is you simply gave each taxpayer an equal portion of the $787 billion stimulus bill, each person would get $5702.90 to blow to stimulate the economy.

Of course, each taxpayer actually owes $5702.90 simply to pay for their portion of the bill, so if we gave each of them that much money, we’d all be even.  Therein lies the flaw in the stimulus bill.  Governemnt doesn’t create anything – it simply takes money from one group and gives it to another group.  Minus their cut of course.

In other words, they’d actually acheive a higher stimulus rate by simply letting each of us taxpayers keep our own damn money – but then they wouldn’t be seen as “doing something” and they wouldn’t get re-elected.

Back to the bill.  As before, comment in [these brackets] are mine.  An ellipsis (…) means I cut out some text to make it readable, and text in italics is a 100% accurate quote.

Picking up where I left off yesterday on page 17 of the PDF version of the actual bill:

• $2.5 billion to the National Science Foundation for ‘‘Research and Related Activities’’
• $1,474,525,000 to improve, repair and modernize Department of Defense facilities, restore and modernize real property to include barracks, and invest in the energy efficiency of Department of Defense facilities. [WTF does installing CFL's have to do with getting the economy moving?]
• $657,051,000 [to the Navy, for the same crap as the Army got just above.]
• $113,865,000 [Gotta get some CFL's for the Marines too - even though they're on Navy ships...]
• $1,095,959,000 [Crap! we forgot to give money to the Air Force for CFL's!]
• $98,269,000 [Army Reserve needs lights too.]
• $55,083,000 [Don't forget the Navy Reserve!]
• $39,909,000 [Or the Marine Reserve - can you guess what's coming next?]
• $13,187,000 [Yup, gotta give the Air Force Reserve CFL's too.]
• $266,304,000 [Crap, are we done yet?  This is for the Army National Guard "energy efficiencies"]
• $25,848,000 [Guess not - Air National Guard gets new lights too.]
• $75,000,000 [Times 4, each branch gets this for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation. Of what?]
• $400,000,000 to improve, repair and modernize military medical facilities, and invest in the energy efficiency of military medical facilities. [Didn't we just do this above?]
• $25 million for the Corps of Engineers for ‘‘Investigations’’ [Quotes are original.  No I don't know what it means either, but they get $25 million to do it with.]
• $375 million For an additional amount for ‘‘Mississippi River and Tributaries’’
• $2.075 billion For an additional amount for ‘‘Operation and Maintenance’’ [Of what?  Why?  how's this gonna create jobs? They don't say.]
• $100 million For an additional amount for ‘‘Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program’’ [$100 million to pay for crap we aren't using anymore?]
• $1 billion (say it like Austin Powers) For an additional amount for ‘‘Water and Related Resources’’
• $16.8 billion For an additional amount for ‘‘Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’’ [I thought we covered this with the defense department CFL crap above, but it looks like the DOE got their hand in the cookie jar too.]
• $2 billion in grants to manufacturers of advanced battery systems and vehicle batteries [Don't forget, italics are 1005 quoted text, no changes.]
• $4.5 billion for expenses necessary for electricity delivery and energy reliability activities to modernize the electric grid [Aren't expenses for utility companies part of our electric bills?  Who cares?  Here's $4.5 billion to utility companies!]
• $3.4 billion For an additional amount for ‘‘Fossil Energy Research and Development’’ [ WTF?  I thought we we trying to get rid of fossil fuels, here we're giving out billions to do more research on them!]

I swear I’m not making any of this up.  And I’m skipping lots of stuff that either bores me or might – and I mean MIGHT actually makes sense.  Here’s one that just kills me:  $1.6 billion For an additional amount for ‘‘Science’’.  That’s it.  No explanation.  Just “Science”.  And the quotes are original.  It could be going for political science.  No one knows because it isn’t defined in the bill.

Back to the fun….

• $5.127 billion For an additional amount for ‘‘Defense Environmental Cleanup,’’
• $3.25 billion For the purposes of providing funds to assist in financing the construction, acquisition, and replacement of the transmission system of the Bonneville Power Administration [Doesn't the Bonneville Power Administration have paying customers?  Why are we giving them tax dollars?]

I’m hoping everyone reading this realizes what a pain it is to scroll through page after page of deliberate obfuscation in order to find the actual spending appropriations.  I’m talking about crap like this: ‘‘(F) OPEN PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS.—The Secretary shall require as a condition of receiving funding under this subsection that demonstration projects utilize open protocols and standards (including Internet-based protocols and standards) if available and appropriate.’’.
(4) By amending paragraph (2) of section 1304(c) to read as follows:
‘‘(2) to carry out subsection (b), such sums as may be necessary.’’.
(5) By amending subsection (a) of section 1306 by striking ‘‘reimbursement of one-fifth (20 percent)’’ and inserting ‘‘grants of up to one-half (50 percent)’’.
(6) By striking the last sentence of subsection (b)(9) of section 1306.
(7) By striking ‘‘are eligible for’’ in subsection (c)(1) of section 1306 and inserting ‘‘utilize’’.

That’s a direct quote.  Damn, someone should pay me to read through this.  I don’t know why, cause I’m doing it anyway, but it should be worth something. 

• $8 million for financial assistance, technical assistance, training and outreach programs designed to benefit Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaskan Native communities
• $5.55 billion For an additional amount to be deposited in the Federal Buildings Fund
• $300 million For capital expenditures and necessary expenses of acquiring motor vehicles with higher fuel economy, including: hybrid vehicles; electric vehicles; and commercially-available, plug-in hybrid vehicles [Didn't we already have an auto industry bailout?]

That’s it for tonight  I’ve been up too late too many nights in a row.  Gotta get some sleep.  Let me know if you see anything on here that looks like it could possible be stimulating. 

gk

Share on Facebook

In perusing the Recovery.gov site, I found some interesting things.  It doesn’t say anything, but it has a link, to a link where you can read the whole text of the bill.  You can click 4 times through the various websites and messages to get there, but eventually you wind up here. (One click, I promise.)

The short title of the bill is the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009″.  I’m reading through it, and I’ll copy some important stuff later.  Here are a few choice quotes from the recovery.gov FAQ:

Q: How will the Recovery Act work?
A: Very soon, the different agencies — such as the Departments of Education; Health and Human Services; and Energy — will decide who will receive award grants and contracts. Sometimes the money will go to a state government; other times, the funds will go directly to a school, hospital, contractor, or other organization. Agencies will then deliver that information to the Recovery.gov team. We will subsequently make the information available on Recovery.gov, and you will be able to track where the money is going. You’ll be able to search by state or even by Congressional district; you’ll be able to look up names of Federal contractors or other recipients of Federal dollars; and you’ll be able to send in comments, thoughts, ideas, questions, and any responses you have to what you find.

So these agencies will decide who gets our money.  Neither the President nor Congress knows right now.  Which means there’s no way Congress knew when they voted to spend the money.  Which means they voted for a “pig in a poke“.

And when they say “you’ll be able to look up names of Federal contractors or other recipients of Federal dollars”, I hope they mean it.  I want to see who, by name, got my money to help pay their mortgage.

Q: I heard I’d be able to track recovery funds. Why can’t I do that?
A: You aren’t able to track funds yet because we have not yet started receiving information from Federal agencies on how they are going to allocate the money.

Same as above.  They’re basically saying that “we gave these agencies a boatload of your money – and we don’t have a clue what they’re going to do with it”.

Ok, on to the actual bill.  This is going to be basically random copy and paste portions of the bill as I read things that I think are stupid.  Or that have absolutely nothing to do with economic stimulus or recovery.  In other words, things that are a bunch of crap that shouldn’t be receiving our tax money under any circumstances – especially under the guise of a stimulus package to create jobs.

The parts in italics are direct quotes.  I’ve cut a lot of verbiage.  When you see “….” that means that I edited a chunk of text that merely makes it unreadable.  You are welcome to read the bill yourself if you think I changed the meaning of the text by this editing.  I don’t think I did, but you can read it and make your own decision if you’d like.   Any text [inside of these brackets] are my comments.

• $1.38 billion for direct loans and grants for the rural water, waste water, and waste disposal programs
• $2.5 billion for the cost of broadband loans and loan guarantees
  
• $290 million for ‘‘Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations’’
• $100 million for National School Lunch Program equipment
• $500 million for the special supplemental nutrition program
• $150 million For an additional amount for the emergency food assistance program
• Section 101 doesn’t provide a dollar amount, but it states the value of benefits ….  for Puerto Rico and American Samoa …. shall be calculated using 113.6 percent of the June 2008 value….
• Another one with no cost listed.  ….the Secretary of Agriculture may not reduce the value of the maximum allotments, minimum allotments or consolidated block grants for Puerto Rico and American Samoa.… [WTF?]
• $5 million For the costs relating to facility improvements and equipment upgrades associated with the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservation [Side note - this section also contains one of the many loopholes big enough to drive a supertanker through - it states]  (f) FUNDING.—There are appropriated to the Secretary out of funds of the Treasury not otherwise appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this section. [In other words, they are saying that "if we didn't actually give you enough money, we hereby give you the right to take as much money as you think you need to do the bullshit that we asked you to do.]
• Dozens of items relating to farm programs with absofuckinglutely no numbers given, but where Congress authorized them to spend our money.  Crap that gives agencies a blank check like this one (E) AUTHORITY OF THE SECRETARY.—The Secretary may provide such additional assistance as the Secretary considers appropriate to provide equitable treatment for eligible producers on a farm that suffered production losses in the 2008 crop year that result in multiyear production losses, as determined by the Secretary. [Bullshit.  With a capital B.]
• $50 million to assist eligible aquaculture producers for losses associated with high feed input costs
• $1 billion For an additional amount for Periodic Censuses and Programs [WTF are we giving the Census Bureau an additional $1 billion for?]
• $4.7 billion for Broadband Technology Opportunities Program [We already gave them $2.5 billion - why a separate line giving them another $4.7 billion?]
• $650 million for Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Program [Ummm, that was already supposed to be over with - just like the bailout goes on longer and costs more money, the DTV conversion is also dragging on and getting more expensive.]
• $360 million for Construction of Research Facilities
• $225 million for Violence Against Women Prevention and Prosecution Programs
• $2 billion for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program
• $225 million for assistance to Indian tribes
• $1 billion For an additional amount for ‘‘Community Oriented Policing Services’’
• $10 million For an additional amount, not elsewhere specified in this title, for management and administration and oversight of programs within the Office on Violence Against Women, the Office of Justice Programs, and the Community Oriented Policing Services Office [We gave them billions just above - this is an additional $10 million to administer the programs we gave them the money for!]

Believe it or not, I’m skipping billions of dollars of spending – either because it didn’t make for an easy copy and paste, or I thought it might actually create a few jobs.

Here’s something else you won’t believe – I’m only on page 16 of the bill!  ALL of the above spending is in the first few pages, I haven’t gotten anywhere near the good stuff yet.  For example, here’s how page 17 starts out:

SCIENCE
For an additional amount for ‘‘Science’’, $400,000,000.
AERONAUTICS
For an additional amount for ‘‘Aeronautics’’, $150,000,000.
EXPLORATION
For an additional amount for ‘‘Exploration’’, $400,000,000.
CROSS AGENCY SUPPORT
For an additional amount for ‘‘Cross Agency Support’’,
$50,000,000.
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
For an additional amount for ‘‘Office of Inspector General’’,
$2,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2013

That’s over $1 billion in just a few lines at the top of the page – and that’s just NASA’s portion of it.  Just below that the National Science Foundation gets $2.5 billion for Research and Related Activities.

Someone tell me how any of the stuff above is supposed to stimulate the economy.  How does it create jobs – other than paying bureaucrats to administer the programs.  We’d create more jobs by paying a group of people to dig holes on even numbered days – then fill them in on odd numbered days.  And we’d accomplish just as much.

It’s midnight and I’m going to bed.  I’ll probably add to this or post another article later when I read more of this crappy waste of our money.

gk

Share on Facebook

Thanks to a reader comment, I learned of a great blog tonight.  It’s called Save Capitalism, and there are some great posts on it.  Here’s one I particularly enjoyed – Why Obama shouldn’t play Roosevelt, and the crucial detail Bernanke missed

Be sure to check out the “Selected Posts” sidebar on the right side of the page.  Almost every one is interesting and thought provoking.

Enjoy!

gk

Share on Facebook

A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money….

I just read a Yahoo news story (taken from Reuters I think) which outlines the new bank bailout presented today by U.S. Treasury chief Tim Geithner.  In case you didn’t notice, the stock market didn’t take kindly to it, dropping almost 400 points today.   You’d think they’d learn – stocks also tanked back when the original bailout plan was passed in October 08.  Obviously, doing the same thing again isn’t going to work.

The story is short on details and – while I’m perfectly capable of doing simple math – I don’t see how they came up with the $2 trillion number.  I’ll investigate more later, but here’s part of the story.

A centerpiece of the renamed “Financial Stability Plan” is a proposal to set up a public-private investment fund, in partnership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a bank watchdog, and the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank.

Seeded with public money, it would leverage up to $500 billion — and possibly as much as $1 trillion — so that toxic assets can be purged from a weakened banking system.

Geithner told an invited audience at the U.S. Treasury that $50 billion in federal rescue funds will be used to try to stem home foreclosures and soften the crushing impact of the deep housing crisis now afflicting the entire economy.

The plan would also expand a Fed program aimed at expanding credit card, student, auto and small business lending.

The facility will grow from its current $200-billion limit to up to $1 trillion, thanks to a jump in Treasury funding to $100 billion from $20 billion. The lending program would be extended to cover a range of mortgage-related assets.

The Senate also passed a massive $838 billion stimulus package today – you can “stimulate” a lot of  “massive packages” for $838 trillion!  (I know it’s lame, but someone had to say it because we’re all getting screwed.)

Buy gold and silver.

More to come when I find more details.

gk

Share on Facebook

According to FoxNews.com, Republican Senators Specter and Collins have defected from the other Republicans and signed onto the latest pork-filled stimulus bill.  Take a look at the picture – which I copied from the FoxNews.com story.

Don’t they look happy?  I don’t normally make fun of the way others look, but these two look like they just took turns sucking off a lemon.  Maybe two lemons.  Covered with something nasty.  If you had just signed off on the largest spending bill in the history of the country would you at least try to force a smile?

The story on FoxNews says:

The House passed a economic stimulus package of a little more than $800 billion last month with Republicans unified against the measure. In Senate deliberations, the price tag had risen higher than $900 billion, prompting Senate Republicans to complain that it contained too much spending and not enough tax relief.

Even Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California voiced opposition to the bill on Friday, saying it wouldn’t do enough to stimulate the economy. But after news broke Friday night that a deal had been reached, Feinstein said, “This is as good a compromise as we are going to get.”

Wow, even the Democrats thought it was a bad bill – but they are voting for it anyway because the new President said they had to.  Get a brain people!  This bill won’t do anything except spend money we don’t have, trying to fix a problem caused by stupid people.  And as Ron White would say “you can’t fix stupid!”

gk

Share on Facebook

Ron Paul knows economics.  He knows how the free market system is supposed to work.  I say “supposed to” because we haven’t had a free market system in the US for almost 100 years.

And yet people say the dumbest things, like “this proves the free market system doesn’t work without regulation” and “we need more regulation of the banks” like they have a clue what they’re talking about.

Yes, this rant has a point.  I’ll get there.

As a country, we have now spent over $3 trillion on bailing out idiots – both individual and corporate – with absolutely nothing to show for it.  Now Obama is saying that any delay in passing his almost $900,000,000,000 bailout plan is “inexcusable and irresponsible“.

Please look at the balloon tags on the right of this web page.  By far the largest (which shows that it’s been used more than any other tag) is “Bush is an idiot”.  I’ve made dozens of posts where I detail why Bush sucked as President.  I wanted to mention that before I get flamed by Obamaniacs saying that I’m a pissed off Republican.

I’m not.  I’m a pissed off US Citizen who can’t believe that this is the path that people of our country want to go down.  I wonder whatever happened to individual responsibility.  I wonder whatever happened to the free market economy.  I wonder if we can ever eliminate the thousands of areas of government interference in our daily lives.  I wonder if we can ever again have a federal government that governs within the rules set forth in the Constitution – no more, no less.

I wonder all this because I happened upon the text of a speech tonight.  It’s a speech that Ron Paul made on the floor of the US House of Representatives on February 3rd, just 3 short days ago.  None of it is new – Dr. Paul has been talking about it for years – but I think it speaks to the problems we are facing today (Feb 6th, 2009) better than any blatant pandering by Obama or the Republicans.

His speech is available online here, but I’m going to quote it in it’s entirety because it’s part of the public record, and I support what he says 100%.   I fear that it’ll be a cold day in hell before anything Ron Paul proposes is adopted into law, but who knows – maybe one day the people of this country will wake up and demand a real solution – not simply rhectoric and irresponsible spending.

Here’s the speech.  Enjoy!

gk

Statement of Congressman Ron Paul

United States House of Representatives

Statement on Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act February 3, 2009

Madame Speaker, I rise to introduce legislation to restore financial stability to America’s economy by abolishing the Federal Reserve. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people.

From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the current economic crisis caused by the housing bubble, every economic downturn suffered by this country over the past century can be traced to Federal Reserve policy. The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the economy with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an artificial “boom” followed by a recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble bursts.

With a stable currency, American exporters will no longer be held hostage to an erratic monetary policy. Stabilizing the currency will also give Americans new incentives to save as they will no longer have to fear inflation eroding their savings. Those members concerned about increasing America’s exports or the low rate of savings should be enthusiastic supporters of this legislation.

Though the Federal Reserve policy harms the average American, it benefits those in a position to take advantage of the cycles in monetary policy. The main beneficiaries are those who receive access to artificially inflated money and/or credit before the inflationary effects of the policy impact the entire economy. Federal Reserve policies also benefit big spending politicians who use the inflated currency created by the Fed to hide the true costs of the welfare-warfare state. It is time for Congress to put the interests of the American people ahead of special interests and their own appetite for big government.

Abolishing the Federal Reserve will allow Congress to reassert its constitutional authority over monetary policy. The United States Constitution grants to Congress the authority to coin money and regulate the value of the currency. The Constitution does not give Congress the authority to delegate control over monetary policy to a central bank. Furthermore, the Constitution certainly does not empower the federal government to erode the American standard of living via an inflationary monetary policy.

In fact, Congress’ constitutional mandate regarding monetary policy should only permit currency backed by stable commodities such as silver and gold to be used as legal tender. Therefore, abolishing the Federal Reserve and returning to a constitutional system will enable America to return to the type of monetary system envisioned by our nation’s founders: one where the value of money is consistent because it is tied to a commodity such as gold. Such a monetary system is the basis of a true freemarket economy.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand up for working Americans by putting an end to the manipulation of the money supply which erodes Americans’ standard of living, enlarges big government, and enriches well-connected elites, by cosponsoring my legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve.

Share on Facebook