Slouch
by Jim Earle
“This is a new first. He told me he could not make class
because he had to talk to his counselor about how he could
improve his grades.”
Opinion
80s: tough decade
The 1980s begin in a month. Or are they already here?
They might be. Irving Kristol, a conservative, says the
next decade will focus on foreign affairs, not domestic issues
like the ’60s or “me” like the ’70s.
“The 1980s have alreay begun,” he said at a student
conference in Atlanta last week. “They began earlier this
month in Tehran.
America is realizing— the hard way— it does not control
the world, or even the major resources it needs to prosper.
And Kristol says this will force the United States into
drastic action to secure vital energy.
“The U.S. can’t grow in the ’80s without military action
and our policing of world economic order. ”
In other words, Kristol predicts the country will go to war
to protect its gas-guzzling autos and increasing Gross Na
tional Product.
But Kristol is a neo-conservative, and as such paints the
worst picture possible.
“The world is in the process of falling apart,” he glooms.
He ignores the changes Americans, both citizens and
businessmen, can make to redirect the scenario. Certainly,
the country cannot afford to continue importing about half
its oil — 8 million barrels a day.
But we don’t have to go to war to get it, either. A recent
Harvard Business School study showed Americans can
“make” millions of barrels a day through conservation.
Through the 80s we will be forced to adjust our lifestyles
to use less energy, and we must also adjust our national ego.
The rest of the world is catching up, and we can’t tell it what
to do anymore.
The ’80s have begun.
It will be a tough decade, but not an impossible one, Mr.
Kristol.
the small society
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The Battalion
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Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
November 28, 1979
C£
Analysis
We can curb skyrocketing inflation
by lowering home mortgage interei
By JIM BOYLE
Escalating home prices in Texas, cou
pled with soaring mortgage rates, have not
only fueled inflation but have turned the
real estate market into a speculator’s
dream. Investors have been lured into this
market on investments. Yet for the wage
earner looking to invest in a first home, the
hope of home-ownership has just about dis
appeared.
Now Texas mortgage lenders are press
ing for unlimited mortgage rates, a move
that would probably be the most inflation
ary act undertaken this year — even worse
than the severe and unjustified fuel price
hikes dumped on consumers over the last
six months.
Let’s review what is happening.
Jacking up the mortgage rate ceiling
from 10 to 12 percent, as the Legislature
has already done, means that borrowers
must pay an average of $75 more per month
to purchase a home.
Going from 12 to 14 percent will mean an
additional payment of $80 monthly — an
even more staggering burden on the bor-
Over a 30-year period, the jump from 10
to 14 percent will entail adding a $55,000
increase in interest payments to be paid by
the consumer. That’s $55,000 more!
These same lenders who now tell us that
we need higher rates so that money will be
available for home loans will soon be telling
us that we are ineligible for such loans.
Savings and Loans associations and mort
gage bankers require that a borrower pay
no more than one-quarter of his or her
income for mortgage payments. As the us
ury rate goes up from 10 to 12 percent, the
person whose income fails to rise by $300 a
month will be priced out of the market.
Should mortgage rates shoot up to 14
percent, the borrower’s earnings must in
crease by another $320 per month. The
result is surely to be that fewer and fewer
borrowers will qualify for a home loan.
Moreover, when a market heats up, as
the real estate market has, it drains capital
away from other sectors of the economy. As
more and more money is tied up in real
estate, much less money is available for
business and other forms of commerce.
Meanwhile, the increase in mortgage
rates will probably mean either increases in
interest rates throughout the lending in
dustry or the wholesale denial of credit to
other borrowers. Lenders are not going to
make a loan for someone to buy a car or a
washing machine when they can reap high
er profits on a long-term housing loan.
It is often said that deficit spending by
government is a prime cause for inflation.
Every day we hear a call for government to
balance the budget. But few recognize that
consumer deficit spending is a major cause
of inflation. In fact, the increase in consum
er indebtedness this past year surpassed
the government’s $30 billion deficit in
crease with a deficit increase of $40 billion.
u
By G
I A seri
Texas A6
livers it y of
Biscuss v
at the tv
|Presiclen
plie Colh
eeting
This, b
®fhen exi
&M.
Texas i
g off, h<
itrategic
Like a cancer that spreads silently and
unchecked, inflation has gotten out of
hand. By the year 2000, just 20 years from
now, an underpaid school teacher in Texas
presently earning $13,000 will have to pull
down $105,000 to keep even with the rise
in the cost of living.
People who are pushed to the wall with
bills to pay do not make diligent workers. A
state employee, for example, may be under
so much financial pressure that the em
ployee will be totally consumed by the
problem of economic survival. Ill)I
results is moonlighting or a busm« I
side with little attention going to!
highways or solving educational
or doing whatever job is at ham
These economic fears have am
and disruptive effect on the fabriMi
ican life. For example, more
cent of the people who get marrii
end up in divorce court, and
pressure is often a major factor,
families both parents must worl
keep up with rising costs—asiti
is especially trying when young 1
are involved.
It is time that we hold the lines
tion. The housing market, whicl
sents the greatest single expendiia 0 theTe
longest commitment made by ms ion Satu
sinners, is a good place to start.
The disease of inflation isfarw* a m ed
the short term effects ofborrowersu Jjggs.
ing mortgage money available orol
porary decline in housing starts.
Inflation destroys confidence ints )e forma
nomy, family, society and ourselvn
Jim Boyle is the executivedirecte
Texas Consumer Association.
IWf*
TOUKTSINSESSON.
NWHEREGMIIPSE!
Anothi
he Robi
The
ong-timi
he Klebi
Cent
]hairnia:
Cleberg I
Cleberg,
ns Mille
iresidenl
Biggs
tanch fa
reate th
Jniversil
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he hui
N
reseai
Aeror
Amassing oil can prevent foreign blackmd
There are many reasons why amassing of
a Strategic Petroleum Reserve has not gone
along like it should have. There have been
contracting problems, technical difficulties
and cost overruns. Now we re only able to
get enough oil from domestic and imported
sources to fuel current consumption; there
isn’t any left to stockpile.
What we should be concentrating on
now, as the situation in Iran so tragically
reminds us, is finding a way to get the
reserve completed.
The eventual plan is to have a billion
barrels of oil stored away in salt domes in
Louisiana and Texas. That sounds like a lot,
but it would hardly relieve us of our de
pendence on foreign oil; at current rates of
consumption, it would only replace about
four months of imports. But what it would
do is make us less vulnerable to short-term
interruptions of foreign supply, whether by
accident or on purpose.
Filling the reserve isn’t going to happen,
though, if we continue to consume all we
can get our hands on. The 900 million bar
rels we still have to go to fill the stockpile
isn’t going to come from OPEC sources.
Saudi Arabia has already said it will cut
back its current extra production if we put
it into the reserve, and there’s no use get
ting upset about it — we can’t make them
sell us more than they want.
There is only one way to get enough oil to
complete the Strategic Petroleumfe
soon, and that’s to cut down on then
of domestic oil we are nowusinga*
stash some away. That meansatleasl!
sacrifice — doing without someexln
ing or turning our thermostats down
If we don’t do it and OPEC nations!;
to play a little oil blackmail, we’116
what doing without really means.
The Atlanta Journal
Letters
Challenge made to athletic director
to explain non-support of water polo
Editor:
I was very shocked the other evening
when I was informed of a big injustice done
to the Texas A&M water polo team and the
University itself.
A&M has one of the best water polo
programs outside the state of California
(which totally dominates the sport). A&M
regularly beats almost every team that they
play, and they have won many big tourna
ments in the past. This year they went to
New York and literally beat every team that
the East could throw at them. Also, this
year they were ranked 7th in the nation in
the NCAA polls; the top six teams being
from California. Since they are in the top
ten, this automatically gives them an in
vitation to the NCAA water polo champion
ships which are held in California.
The sad thing this year is that they
couldn’t go. Our “beloved” athletic dire
ctor, Marvin Tate, refused to recognize
them.
Because of this nonrecognition as a
NCAA contender, A&M was stripped of its
place in the rankings and denied an invita
tion to the NCAA water polo champion
ships. Because of this, the water polo team
was low in enthusiasum all year and didn’t
play very wholeheartedly because no mat
ter how well they did, they still wouldn’t go
to the NCAA finals.
Despite this fact, they still won the ma
jority of their games. Many of the good
players are considering transfering to other
schools so they can play in the NCAA
ranks. If this happens, water polo at A&M
will literally go down the drain. This whole
situation seems very strange to me because
last year the water polo team did go to the
NCAA championships and they did rather
well.
At that time, Emory Bellard was the
athletic director and he recognized the ta
lent of the A&M water polo team. Bellard
realized that A&M had a serious contender
that would represent and honor our school
well. I guess Mr. Tate obviously thinks in
the opposite direction. So far, he has given
no one any backing for his reasoning either.
Obviously it can’t be money, because send
ing our team to the NCAA Championships
would hardly cost Mr. Tate’s “precious”
athletic budget a penny. The water polo
team cleans Kyle Field after home games
and gets a lot of their travel money from
that. They have all the money they need.
I am making a personal challenge to Mr.
Tate to publicly back his reasoning. I am
also asking him to ponder this question:
“Do you think that the A&M football or
basketball teams would attract top athletes
and national attention if they were in a
conference and not allowed into the presti-
gous Southwest Conference?”
I am neither a scholarship athlete or a
water polo enthusiast. I simply am a stu
dent who hates to see a great sport at A&M
such as water polo go to “nothing” because
of a stubborn athletic director.
— Mike Janney, ’82
Bonfire pyromatin
Editor:
School spirit and tradition arc pf'
see and for the last few weeksalotofl
pie-hours, trees, petroleum, elect*
etc., have been sacrificed forthetrad#*
bonfire.
I guess it is just un-traditionalof®
think some traditions must change)®
believe in resource and energy con*
tion while advocating contractive
munity work instead of pyromania
Anyway, fellow Aggies, Til see you*
game Saturday, but I’m sorry 1 "O)
attending your “weiner roast.”
— Walter Og^
Thotz
By Doug Grahm
Per