EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
The Cricket World Cup is full swing right now. Four teams have now reached the semi-finals. They are India, South Africa, England and Afghanistan. The defending World Cup champion Australia did not even reach the semis. This is like Novak Djokovic being defeated in the first round at the Australian Open in January. Now, India will face England on Thursday and Afghanistan will face South Africa on Wednesday. On June 24, Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh to secure the last spot in the semifinals.
Best of luck to all the teams. It will be interested to see all four teams play their best cricket to reach the finals on Saturday June 29, 2024. The finals will be played at Kensington Oval in Barbados. They have also a reserve day on Sunday in case of rain or a disruption of any kind.
“When I become governor…” will we become governors? Is that the slogan for the candidate for governor? That statement reminded me about Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s claim in his first election for mayor of Newark. Until today, no one knows who “we” is.
President Biden invested $7.5 billion on electric charging stations two years ago, but has only built 7 stations so far with taxpayers’ money. He announced they would build 500,000 electric charging stations with that proposed money. I don’t know what he is doing with our money. One of Biden’s supporters said that the federal government drafted the project and with the laws they must sign the deal for the approved money from the state to the county to the city and to the non-profit organization. The project must be finished within the deadline. Most times, they do extend the deadline. However, with the extended deadline, if city/organization does not finish the project, the money goes back to the federal government and that money will be diverted to someone else or on a different project. So, the supporter said that it was not his fault. I countered him that he is taking credit for the projects when he authorizes the projects. When the project is not finished, he should take the discredit or blame. Also, it is the management’s responsibility to oversee the projects. If this happens in a private company, management will immediately ask the concerned departments and officers. The same way, the government should have oversight as well.
SBA’s COVID disaster loan (30-year loan with 3.75% interest for businesses and 2.75% interest for nonprofits) was to help people, not hurt people. I found out on June 25 that the installments taken out so far is against the full term of interest. However, the SBA is charging interest payments only for the first three years as per my understanding. If anyone has more details, please let me know, so I can inform our small businesses who had no other alternative but to take loans at the time of COVID. I don’t think it’s a good tactic to invite everyone for the loan. Yes, it is a great way to let people take loans to save their businesses. But once we are back on our feet, it feels like we have been cheated by the government in the name of helping us. Usually, all 30 year home loans have some interest and some principal. But for the first three years, there are no principal payments.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
