Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Saturday, September 17, 2011

A Robot Stole My Job!

Echoing President Obama's recent assertion that ATMs cause unemployment, MSNBC's Chris Matthews cut loose on the economic devastation caused by "robots". In a Wednesday interview with the self-described Socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Matthews attacked technological prowess with his usual, spittle-drenched grace.

I don't want to skip to your left on this but.... [W]hen I see automation, when I go to a CVS that used to employ a lot of people just above the poverty level, above the minimum wage. And you walk in there now, it's all machines... And by the way, I used to have about seven or eight cameramen. I don't have them anymore. It's all automated, it's all robots.

Everywhere we go is robots!

You used to go to a gas station, you'd have somebody would check your tires, check your oil. There ain't anybody there, there's nobody working at a gas station!

Last month the President also claimed that the Internet is behind the nation's rampant unemployment.

One of the challenges in terms of rebuilding our economy is – businesses have gotten so efficient, that, uh, when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller? Instead of using an ATM. Or, used a travel agent instead of going online. A lot of jobs out that that used to require people now have become automated.

Apparently you have to be an economic illiterate to be a Democrat.

Since the dawn of recorded history, scientific and industrial advances have raised the average standard of living, not lowered it.

• In 1712, the invention of the steam engine touched off the Industrial Revolution, providing an inexpensive mechanical power source to replace manual and animal labor.

• In 1733, the invention of the flying shuttle allowed a weaver to produce a wider band of cloth. This facilitated faster production of textiles for fabric, clothing and other uses.

• In 1769, James Watt added a crank and flywheel to other steam engine improvements, providing efficient rotary motion for a wide variety of industrial uses.

• In the early nineteenth century, the invention of the power loom -- a steam-powered, mechanical cloth-making machine -- allowed women to replace men in many textile manufacturing facilities.

• In 1830, the invention of the sewing machine facilitated the "ready-made clothing" industry.

All of these advances created brand new industries and began to free mankind from routine, manual labor. The sewing machine, for example, required hundreds of parts. These parts, made of many different materials, had to be manufactured and machined, often by dozens of suppliers. New companies arose to source these parts, new industries -- like repair services -- were created, and massive economic value was achieved through the creation of end products.

Such is also the case -- multiplied by orders of magnitude -- with ATMs and the Internet.

It's truly a shame and an outrage that we have leaders in Washington who no more understand general economic principles than they do quantum physics.

Fortunately, the American people know what's going on: a new low of only 26% approve of Obama's handling of the economy.


Related: "The Progressive and the Pencil".

Image hat tips: The Corliss Engine.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Obama’s Demagoguery Another Loser in NY-9 [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Overlooked, or at least given short shrift, in the analysis of the Democrat’s stunning defeat in NY 9 has been the age of the average voter. It’s relatively high and the elderly make up an usually large percentage of the electorate in the district.

The losing Democrat, David Weprin, tried to turn that to his advantage by incessantly “warning” that Republican ogres wanted to gut Social Security/Medicare benefits.

Judging by the results, the tactic "flopped in spectacular fashion." And if it won’t work there, it won’t work anywhere. That’s is more bad news for a floundering president who is using “Mediscare” as one pillar of his reelection strategy. It should also send a message to Republicans that there is a lot to be gained by doing what’s right, as long as they take the time to explain their policies to the American people.


Wednesday, September 14, 2011

More Great News From the Obama Depression: Nearly a Quarter of All Residential Mortgages Are Underwater

Despite HAMP, HEMP, HARP and every other exercise in central planning, the housing market is horrific.

CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released Q2 negative equity data showing that 10.9 million, or 22.5 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the second quarter of 2011...

• Nevada had the highest negative equity percentage with 60 percent of all of its mortgaged properties underwater, followed by Arizona (49 percent), Florida (45 percent), Michigan (36 percent) and California (30 percent)...

• Negative equity significantly limits the ability of borrowers to capture the benefit of the low-rate environment... More than 40 percent of borrowers with 125 percent or higher loan-to-value (LTV) ratios have mortgages with rates at 6 percent or above, compared to only 17 percent for borrowers with positive equity.

I blame racist Tea Party extremists.


Related: Compulsive Intervention Disorder

These are the wistful moments when even the most addled drones realize that Obama's shark has been, like, totally jumped

What do you call it when someone has, like, jumped the shark so thoroughly that the shark actually died and the President Fonz grilled it on the beach? I mean, besides woefully pathetic?

• Obama: "If you love me, ask Congress to pass my jobs bill!"

• Obama campaign sends creeper email with subject "Sometime soon, can we meet for dinner?"

• Bloomberg: Americans Overwhelmingly Reject Obama's So-Called 'Jobs' Plan

• Obama campaign reinstates its snitch squad with AttackWatch.com and instantly becomes the laughingstock of the Internet

• Conservative Congressman nabs 'American Jobs Act' with his own legislation after Dems forget to file it

Say, drones, don't you wistfully look back and wonder what might have been?

Like, if the hope and change and changey-hope and hopey-change had actually come true? I mean, ignoring the fact that progressivism, or whatever you call your brand of Statism, has never worked, in all of world history. You know, if -- despite that -- that Obama's bizarre, job-killing agenda could have actually made America a better country?

Which is kinda like believing in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, but still?

Oh, and a word of advice for you Democrat politicians:

RUN AWAY!!!


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Annenberg School: Obama Jobs Act Really Is Stimulus II, Designed to Funnel Billions to Teachers' Unions and... the Obama Campaign

USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism confirms what we all suspected: President Obama's Jobs Act is yet another money-laundering scheme.

President Barack Obama's new jobs act may be the remedy for California's ailing education system.

California could receive more than $3 billion from the president's American Jobs Act, preventing the layoffs of roughly 30,000 people employed in education across the state, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said Monday.

...Obama announced his plan to send the new jobs proposal to Congress late Monday. His $447 billion jobs proposal allocates $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers nationwide.

For Obama, it's all about the unions. Remember: the public sector unions are funded by you, the American taxpayer. The unions take their members' dues and funnel them back into Democrat politicians' campaigns.

To complete the nefarious circle, the Democrats then use class warfare rhetoric and giveaways to convince enough weak-minded drones that more wealth redistribution -- stealing from the makers to give to the takers -- is both moral and warranted.

It is neither.

We must defeat the Democrat leeches in 2012, before the number of takers overwhelm the makers.


Monday, September 12, 2011

Roll-out of the Obama Jobs Plan Continues Apace: EPA Forces Texas Energy Company To Announce 500 Layoffs

While President Obama reads from his twin teleprompters, trying to convince Americans that he cares about jobs, his out-of-control EPA continues to lay waste to the private sector.

It was sadly ironic that Texas energy company Luminant announced it would lay off 500 employees on the same morning that President Obama unveiled legislation designed to promote job growth. The company said that a new rule from the Environmental Protection Agency will force it to cease operations at two electricity generating plants, and close three coal mines...

...The company cited the EPA’s new cross-state pollution rule as the impetus for the decision, and noted that it had worked to identify other means of reducing emissions, but that “meeting this unrealistic deadline also forces us to take steps that will idle facilities and result in the loss of jobs,” Campbell said.

Campbell also announced that the company has filed a lawsuit against the EPA in an effort “to achieve [EPA emissions] goals without harming critically important Texas jobs and electric reliability.” The suit seeks to block the cross-state pollution rule for Texas companies, and to grant a stay to Texas companies to prevent them from having to comply with sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions standards by the existing January 1, 2012 deadline.

...Even groups generally on the political left have spoken out against those regulations while still noting the importance of environmental concerns. The president of the St. Louis chapter of the AFL-CIO, a member of the Missouri clean coal group, called on the EPA to “consider a balanced approach that gives us cleaner air without sacrificing jobs and increasing energy prices.”

Last month, an official of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce predicted that the EPA's lawless, unscientific and arbitrary regulations would kill thousands of jobs. That prediction is coming true as we speak.

The unelected and unaccountable fourth branch of government is endangering national security and critically wounding America's economy.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

Obama proposes to pay for his jobs plan with $400B in spending cuts. Just kidding--it's paid for with $400B in tax increases

Apparently, America's job creators are under-taxed. At least that's the word from Uncle Ben, who relays this note from his Beltway corporate tax guru.

The White House today is proposing to pay for its new jobs bill entirely with tax increases.

It proposes these tax increases:

--Limiting itemized deductions for incomes above $200,000 and family incomes above $250,000. Total: $400 billion over 10 years;

--Treat carried interest as ordinary income rather than as capital gains. Total: $18 billion;

--Raises taxes on oil and gas. Total: $40 billion

--Increase taxes on corporate jets. Total: $3 billion

Gee, those new taxes should really jump-start hiring!

The Tatler adds several crucial details:

White House Office of Management and BudgetDirector Jack Lew outlined President Barack Obama’s plan to pay for his $447 billion jobs plan... The new tax rules would not take effect until January 2013, Lew said. Obama is not offering any spending cuts to pay for the jobs plan.

Last week, James Lileks wrote the quintessential retort to this sort of insane logic.

A half-century experiment in draping steam­ship anchors around the necks of the productive class and expecting them to run a four-minute mile has ended in failure. The confiscation of rights and property, the moral impoverishment of generations caused by the state’s usurpation of parental obligations, the elevation of a credentialed elite that believes academia’s fashions are a worthy substitute for knowledge of history and human nature, and above all the faith in a weightless cipher whose oratorical panache now consists of looking from one teleprompter screen to the other with the enthusiasm of a man watching someone else’s kids play tennis–it’s over, whether you believe in it or not. It cannot be sustained without reducing everyone to penurious equality, crippling the power of the United States, and subsuming the economy to a no-growth future that rations energy.

The modern Democrat Party is simply a shell, a lifeless husk that was subsumed by the radical Left thanks to tens of millions of dollars from George Soros and other one-world Marxists.

If we don't vote the entire Democrat Party apparatus out of office -- at every level of government -- in 2012, America deserves its fate.


Update: The Cost Of Obama's Stimulus Plan: $312,500 Per Job (Vote) Created Or Saved (And Guess Who Is Paying It)

Related: Mission Accomplished! Did Obama intentionally nuke the economy? (March, 2009)

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Contagion in Europe: Greece Poised to Shatter the Global Financial System

Over the past several years, the phrase "trouble in Greece" was routinely used to explain the occasional market tumble here in the U.S. Lately, though, the broader "European contagion" description is heard more frequently as banks in central Europe try to avoid a seemingly inevitable series of sovereign defaults.

Why should you care?

Put it this way: if immense global banks seize up, even if they are headquartered in Europe, the reverberations will be felt here in America.

...markets are saying that default by Greece is inevitable. Greece is expected to run out of cash within weeks and massive civil unrest may slide into anarchy as protests become increasingly violent. The bailout by the European Union that was supposed to save Greece appears to be on the verge of collapse according to The Wall Street Journal... "Europe’s failure so far to rescue its first patient has had immense consequences for the 17-nation euro zone, despite the fact that Greece’s economy is but a tiny fraction of it."

...Greek citizens have responded to the looming default of their government by withdrawing their money from Greek banks at a record pace. Greek banks have reportedly run out of safety deposit boxes as Greeks withdraw their life savings to put into bank vaults... "In May alone, almost €5bn (£4.4bn) was pulled out of Greek deposits, as part of what analysts describe as a 'silent bank run'... Bags of money in garages, frightened savers fleeing banks and even the country: these aren’t the sort of stories you associate with a comparatively-prosperous European country, but with a developing one facing a life-or-death economic crash.

The problem with a Greek default involves the subsequent and inevitable chain reaction. The troubled country's debt is owned in great part by banks throughout Europe -- especially in France and Germany -- and panicked depositors are unlikely to weigh the solvency of their own personal bank. If hysteria and fear spread, much of Europe could suffer bank runs.

As bond yields spike in Portugal, Spain and Italy, it becomes increasingly clear that the market anticipates a series of defaults on sovereign debt that no one on Earth can backstop.

And, as it turns out, Germany is already preparing for the inevitable Greek default.

Germany's Finance Ministry is studying the potential impact of a Greek debt default, working through scenarios which include Greece abandoning the euro to reintroduce the drachma, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.

Put simply, Germany's preparations involve bulking up banks. An emergency plan discussed within Germany anticipates a 50% haircut (loss) on Greek debt. Some experts believe that's an optimistic estimate.

Greece is “on a knife’s edge,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told lawmakers at a closed-door meeting in Berlin on Sept. 7, a report in parliament’s bulletin showed Thursday. If the government can’t meet the aid terms, “it’s up to Greece to figure out how to get financing without the euro zone’s help,” he later said in a speech to parliament.

Greece has vowed to avoid default, no matter the consequences for its government.

George Papandreou has vowed to fully implement reforms demanded by international lenders so that Greece will be able to avoid default and remain a member of the eurozone.

...Thousands of protesters shouting anti-austerity slogans gathered outside a conference centre in the northern city of Thessaloniki where the premier was making his annual economic policy speech on Saturday... Riot police fired teargas to disperse protesters as a dozen separate groups, including public sector trade unions, university students and supporters of a local football club, staged marches around the city centre.

Mr Papandreou said he was committed to carrying out this week’s cabinet decisions: immediate cuts in civil service salaries and the planned dismissal of 20,000 public sector in the next few weeks – a condition for Greece to receive the next €8bn tranche of its current bail-out loan...

But Greece will default; the markets are predicting that outcome with essentially 100% certitude:

Greece’s historic record bond yields have forced the markets to recognize and read the proverbial financial writing on the wall... Greece ... is set to default.

...The fact that Merkel, and by extension Germany (the final stop between the Greek economy and default), is now prepping the nation’s banks for Greece’s default could not be a clearer economic and political signal to the market that “bad times are coming” for not only Greece, but the entire European Union.

What’s most interesting, however, is the future of the European Union, post -Greece’s-seemingly-inevitable default. For while Greece is today’s “problem Economic child,” its soon-to-be-failed brethren (i.e Italy, Spain, etc.) are close behind, busy elbowing for a place at the default table.

Let’s see what happens once Germany officially steps out of the way of the cliff.

My prediction is that within a month (three at the very outer, outer limit), a default by Greece will touch off the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

2008 will look like a cakewalk in comparison.

An economist interviewed Friday on Bloomberg Radio -- not exactly a hotbed of doom-and-gloom talk -- predicted that gold would hit $7,000/oz. as investors flee to the world's one true reserve currency: a yellow-toned metal.


"The Urgency of Now", a Poem by Barack Hussein Obama

"The Urgency of Now", a Poem by Barack Hussein Obama:

Pass the plan

Pass the bill now

The jobs bill must be passed now

Pass the bill

Pass the jobs bill with no delay

The jobs bill must be passed now so we can read it later

Pass the plan now

The jobs bill must be passed intact now

Pass the jobs bill now

The jobs bill must be passed immediately

The jobs bill must be passed immediately and we will read it later and figure out if we will pay for it some time in the future.

The jobs bill must be rammed through, without delay intact

I need another blank check to spend half a trillion for votes for the election, so pass the jobs bill intact now.

I don't know poetry, but my feet sure are Longfellers.


Hat tip: A commenter at "Obama dragging down Democratic candidates in House special elections."

Friday, September 09, 2011

Cutting brake lines on a train, destroying private property, brutalizing other union members: all in a day's work for the labor movement

LaborNotes, one of the official mouthpieces of the union-environmental-Democrat complex, offers an unusual spin on the labor violence in Washington state.

Longshore Workers Dump Scab Grain to Protect Jobs


The confrontation between West Coast longshore workers and an anti-union exporter exploded as pickets massed on railroad tracks by the hundreds yesterday to block grain shipments.

Police used clubs and pepper spray on protesters in Longview, Washington, as they made 19 arrests.

Early this morning a terminal there was invaded and hoppers holding about 10,000 tons of grain were opened onto railroad tracks... Ports in Washington shut down completely Thursday as hundreds of longshore workers rushed to Longview, in the state’s southwestern corner...

...EGT Development, a consortium of three companies, wants to operate its new $200 million grain terminal in Longview using non-ILWU labor, despite a contract with the port requiring it to do so. When the ILWU protested, the company signed up with an Operating Engineers local... Every other major grain terminal on the West Coast is operated by ILWU labor, and the union asserts that EGT’s goal is to go non-union altogether, ending generations of good jobs.

In a series of protests since July, ILWU members and supporters sat down on train tracks and occupied the new terminal, resulting in 100 arrests. As picketing continued, no trains had attempted to bring in grain shipments since July. But last week a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order at the request of the National Labor Relations Board, which said ILWU pickets had harassed EGT workers.

...Union officers eventually urged the blockaders to let the train through. But while it sat overnight inside the terminal gates, the word went out. Workers in Seattle left their jobs before the shift ended. Proctor reported that members of Local 19 gathered at 2 a.m. to head the two-and-a-half hours to Longview.

...before dawn, 500 people broke down terminal gates, prevented security guards from interfering, and cut the train’s brake lines...

...Ports in Tacoma and Seattle are closed today, though the international said no job action has been called. One worker said work would resume at 3 a.m. Friday—unless it doesn’t.

It's worth noting:

This is (yet another) union vs. another union conflict - the Longshore Workers are "protesting the hiring at a grain terminal by the employer, EGT, of a contractor employing workers belonging to a different union, the Operating Engineers."

Even the far left NLRB has sided against the ILWU - "On August 31, the NLRB issued a complaint accusing the union of taking "violent and aggressive" actions, destroying EGT's property and harassing its employees. In response to an NLRB request, federal Judge Ronald B. Leighton issued a temporary restraining order, which the union has ignored."

Today cargo operations resumed in Seattle and Tacoma after the one-day work stoppage. Perhaps the union's critical mistake of attacking police officers, which resulted in the requisite tear-gas and baton reprisals, convinced them to return to work.


Thursday, September 08, 2011

Solyndra employee: from day one, everyone knew that our solar panels were uncompetitive... including President Obama

The Santa Cruz Sentinel explains:

The collapse Wednesday of Fremont solar panel manufacturer Solyndra was a bad way to kick off the Labor Day weekend and lead up to President Barack Obama's Sept. 8 national address on creating new jobs.

When Solyndra abruptly closed, 1,100 people lost their jobs, without severance and without warning.

For the Obama administration, the failure of the company was particularly embarrassing, since taxpayers were left on the hook for a $535 million stimulus loan guarantee made to Solyndra in 2009. That was followed by a presidential visit in 2010 where Obama touted how his administration was creating new green technology jobs.

The end for Solyndra may have been sudden, but was not entirely unexpected, since House Republicans and government bean counters had been warning the company was on shaky financial ground.
And while the administration has said the loan guarantees were made on merit, critics have pointed out that the biggest private investment in Solyndra came from venture capital funds associated with an Obama fundraiser, George Kaiser.

Solyndra executives blamed the shutdown in part on competition from government-subsidized panel makers in China, saying they couldn't compete on price. But industry analysts said Solyndra's economic and manufacturing model were flawed from the outset and the warning signs had been evident since the loan guarantee was made.

A caller to yesterday's Mark Levin radio broadcast echoed the concerns that Solyndra's offering was uncompetitive from the outset. "Julie" said that she was a relatively low-level employee of the solar panel manufacturer; she asserted that everyone in the company knew their products couldn't compete.

She also stated that the White House was well aware that Solyndra would never be able to sell their products against cheaper, more efficient technologies from China. After all: everyone knew, from the lowest-level employees to top executives, third party industry analysts and financiers.

And despite claims that there were no untoward relationships between Obama and Kaiser, it turns out that Solyndra executives, according to The Daily Caller (via Sad Hill News) were such frequent visitors to the White House they wore out the damn welcome mat.

Solyndra ‘Green’ Executives: $100,000+ In Obama Donations And 20+ White House Trips - According to White House visitor logs, between March 12, 2009, and April 14, 2011, Solyndra officials and investors made no fewer than 20 trips to the West Wing. In the week before the administration awarded Solyndra with the first-ever alternative energy loan guarantee on March 20, four separate visits were logged.

George Kaiser, who has in the past been labeled a major Solyndra investor as well as a Obama donor, made three visits to the White House on March 12, 2009, and one on March 13... Kaiser, in fact, is responsible for 16 of the 20 meetings that showed up on the White House logs.

Once again, I ask of this administration: what did Barack Obama know? And when did he know it?

As an aside, when the full history of the Obama administration is written, I believe its documented, wanton criminality will dwarf all other presidential scandals combined (and multiplied by ten).


Oh, my: even AP fact-checkers eviscerating Obama's speechifying

Unicorn-riding light-workers hardest hit.

President Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions... the plan he presented was conventional Washington rhetoric... It employs sleight-of-hand accounting.

OBAMA: "Everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything."

THE FACTS: Obama did not spell out exactly how he would pay for the measures... White House aides suggested that new deficit spending in the near-term to try to promote job creation would be paid for in the future...

OBAMA: "Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including many who sit here tonight."

THE FACTS: ...But Obama proposes paying for the plan in part with tax increases that have already generated stiff Republican opposition...

OBAMA: "It will not add to the deficit."

THE FACTS: It's hard to see how the program would not raise the deficit...

OBAMA: "The American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away."

THE FACTS: Not all of the president's major proposals are likely to yield quick job growth if adopted...

David Axelrod and the rest of the propagandists calling plays in the White House press room have to be concerned; even the Associated Press -- little more than Pravda to the White House's Politburo -- can't carry water for the President's headlong, Cloward-Piven-eque rush to the fiscal abyss any longer.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

The Record-Setting, Trailblazing Obama Presidency

Uncle Ben points us to "The Obama Presidency by the Numbers", which features a nifty chart:

President Obama inherited a deep recession and financial crisis resulting from problems that had been building for years. Those responsible include borrowers and lenders on Wall Street and Main Street, the Federal Reserve, regulatory agencies, ratings agencies, presidents and Congress... Nearly three years since his election and more than two years since the economic recovery began, Mr. Obama has enacted myriad policies at great expense to American taxpayers and amid political rancor...

President Obama constantly reminds us, with some justification, that he was dealt a difficult hand. But the evidence is overwhelming that he played it poorly. His big government spending, debt and regulation fix has clearly failed. Relative to previous recoveries from deep recessions, the results are disastrous. A considerable fraction of current joblessness, lower living standards, dependency on government and destroyed savings is the result. Worse, his debt explosion will be a drag on economic growth for years to come.

But, Melvin -- I told ya he was historic!


Bonus:



Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Bruce Krasting Blows Obama's Solyndra Scandal Sky High

Gunwalker, Dealergate, Rezko's real estate, Solyndra... the list of outrageous presidential activities continues to expand, any single one of which would have resulted in the impeachment trial of a Republican. Bruce Krasting does the yeoman's work that legacy media refuses to perform in the must-read "Solyndra - The Obama connection."

The backdrop: George Kaiser -- a billionaire fundraiser for Barack Obama -- was involved with Solyndra prior to its bankruptcy. You may recall that President Obama visited Solyndra one short year ago after it received a $535 million loan from the American taxpayer. And now, the American taxpayer is going to get a royal screwing without so much as the courtesy of dinner and roses.

The Tulsa World filed a story Re the Kaiser connection earlier today. (What better place to get the news than a home town paper). Quotes from the TW article:

The bankruptcy filing indicates that Argonaut Ventures, an investment arm of the Tulsa-based foundation, holds almost 39 percent of Solyndra's parent, 360 Solar Degree Holdings Inc.

Okay, so who is behind Argonaut Ventures?

In an emailed statement to the Tulsa World, a representative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation said the organization made the investment through Argonaut.

So the family foundation was the source of the money that got Solyndra going. But George Kaiser tried to distance himself from this very ugly story. A quote from a Kaiser “spokesperson”:

"George Kaiser is not an investor in Solyndra and did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".

Interesting that Kaiser is doing his level best to distance himself from the stink. But it does not work for me:

George Kaiser is chairman of BOK Financial Corp. and owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Argonaut is headed by Steve Mitchell, who also served on Solyndra's board of directors.


So Kaiser wants us to believe that the Family Foundation he runs invested some $300mm of the families “excess cash” and he did not really know about it. The guy who is running the family’s investments (Steve Mitchell) is also sitting on the board at Solyndra. And we are supposed to believe that George Kaiser was just a passive investor? Not a chance.

We have Mr. Kaiser on the record on this. Again, his words:

“George Kaiser did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".


He never spoke to Obama about this? Not even once? Not even when Obama went (twice) to the company’s manufacturing offices in Pa and CA? I don’t believe that denial.

...In February, Solyndra and its lenders reorganized the company’s debts, putting the U.S. loan behind $69.3 million owed to other lenders, including an affiliate of Solyndra’s biggest shareholder, Argonaut Ventures.


This kind of stuff is not supposed to happen. The equity interest of the Kaiser family got a preference as to the right of repayment from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the line. He got in front of the US Government’s $528mm IOU from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the interests of the American taxpayer. There had to be some very serious arm-twisting going on in the background to achieve this feat.

...There are employee claims that come first. Next in line come trade creditors. Then comes the senior unsecured debt owed to Argonaut. The lawyers (There are a ton of big shots already involved) will get their pound of flesh. That leaves next to nothing for Uncle Sam. The taxpayers are going to take it in the ear for $400-500 million.

This story will hound Obama. His campaign got big bucks from a guy who ended up costing the Feds a very big penny. This is a story that could drag Obama down. He either has to step up and explain how this could have happened or he can say nothing. He has to provide some clarity on the George Kaiser connection. If he chooses to keep mum on this mess he will have to face Congressional hearings for the next 18 months. There will be a story in the paper every week or so. The Republicans will see to it. This is a story that could turn an election.

Chicago politics writ large.

We need (yet another) investigation.


Hat tip: Trending Right.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Good news: President spending your tax dollars wisely transporting anti-taxpayer union bosses to Detroit on Air Force One

Reuters' Caren Bohan (via Weasel Zippers) alerts us to another judicious use of taxpayer dollars: employing Air Force One to fly a bunch of overfed union bosses to a Labor Day rally in Detroit. These are the same lugs who feed at the troth of the taxpayer and then declare all-out-war on us "sons-of-bitches".

If I didn't know better, I'd think the unions were actually calling the shots at the White House.


Illinois Unions Vow to Sue Basic Arithmetic

@IowaHawk alerts us to stunning news from Illinois, where a "state entirely controlled by Democrats is somehow having financial difficulties":

A decision made by Gov. Pat Quinn may leave thousands of state workers without a job by the end of the week.

The cuts are coming in the face of a budget deficit that doesn't leave enough money to pay the workers, the governor says. Quinn also plans to close a prison, juvenile detention center and homes for the mentally ill.

If no cuts are made, several agencies will run out of money by spring, Quinn says...

The state's largest government employee union, AFSCME, promises to sue if the layoffs are made, much like they did over blocked pay raises...

Why don't the unions just sue the laws of physics? Or basic arithmetic principles?

Because even if the unions somehow forced the state government to raise taxes to 90%, it still wouldn't be enough to pay for all of their bloated public sector salaries, benefits, pensions and retiree health care programs.

Which is why, I suppose, Mark Levin says that "liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid."


Monday, September 05, 2011

Another Coincidence

Lifted from Cliffs of Insanity*:

I'm sure that the timing of all this is just coincidence. 

  • The big flashmobs in Britain this summer
  • The flashrobs
  • The flashriots in Wisconsin and "urban" rallies elsewhere
  • It's Over in the Eurozone.  You know, when a 9.0 earthquake hits, a tsunami often follows. 
  • Zero private sector jobs added last month
  • Pres__ent Obama waiting to give his "jobs" speech (as if another layer of Simoniz can help the turd to shine better)
  • And Jimmy Hoffa offering up his "Army", ready to march and "take these son of bitches out.
Updated:
  • Project Gunwalker 
  • And now Project Gangwalker - walking guns to criminal gangs inside the US. 
Why . . . it's like it's all building up to something. 


I'm reminded of the words from The Road Warrior:

When it's all said and done, The Road Warrior may look like a happy, sunny memory compared to what we're about to go through.
Their leaders talked and talked and talked but nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled the cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear.

*Hopefully any lawsuit by Cliffs of Insanity will be preempted by global Armageddon.


Hat tip: D&S.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

John Mauldin on Gold

John Mauldin, author and financial advisor, has some interesting thoughts on gold.

The question I am asked the most is some variant on “What do you think about gold?” So, let me deal with that question here, as it has been a while.

First, I do not think of gold as an investment. It is insurance for me. I buy a rather fixed amount of gold nearly every month, no matter the price. I hope the price of gold goes down, because that means I get more coins in the mail to go into the vault. Yes, I take delivery of my gold, and it is near me if I need it.

My fondest dream is that I will give my gold coins to my great-great grandkids some 70-80 years from now, and they will be rather embarrassed that their “Papa John” bought all that much of that barbarous yellow metal instead of more biotech stocks. But as I live in the real world, I buy gold, even though I am optimistic we’ll get through this rough patch; because I simply don’t trust the bas*%*ds who are driving this ship with 100% of my money in dollars, or any fiat currency, for that matter.

Gold to me is a neutral currency. While the metal looks good over the last ten years (and I became bullish on it in 2002 in this letter), over the last 32 years it has not had all that much luster. Bonds have been much better as an investment. It is all about timing.

If I wanted to buy gold for investment or trading, I would simply buy GLD. (It is an excellent vehicle for traders; however, GLD is not what I think of as insurance.) And if I were buying gold as a trade, I would buy it in terms of the euro or yen, which I think are both going down against the US dollar.

For those who want to buy larger sums of gold, there is a program that I like backed/sponsored by the state government of Western Australia, called the Perth Mint. You can buy gold certificates that represent actual bullion in vaults in Perth at reasonable prices. While your gold is stored in Perth, you can take delivery if you want and leave the country with no taxes owed. Or you can sell the gold and get cash. You diversify your country risk, have excellent and safe storage facilities, diversify your currency risk (if, like me, you think of gold as a currency), and have a different asset class than traditional portfolios.

...Where to buy actual bullion? Gold coins are gold coins. ASI is a good choice, but I would shop around. Depending on the amount you are buying, mark-ups can be significant, and there are differences in service and responsiveness. Delivery can be an issue, although I get mine in the mail with insured mail (although we do have to pick it up!).

Do I think gold is at a high? While I hope so, I truly do, I rather think that gold still has some upside because of government policies. When the deficit gets under control and we are on the road to real recovery, I rather think that gold will come back down from whatever highs it makes. I remember in 1980 there were True Believers who thought gold could only go one way.

For the record, I think you should own about 5% of your net worth in gold, as insurance, not as an investment. The “goal” and your hope should be to never have a reason to sell your gold. I trust that tells you where I stand.

Given the ongoing meltdown in Europe -- with a liquidity crunch unfolding at this very moment -- words of caution are warranted.

Banks are seeking to retain their liquidity, making interbank lending more difficult, as funding from money and capital markets becomes harder to obtain, ABN Amro Group NV Chief Executive Officer Gerrit Zalm said.

Interbank borrowing for more than six months is also becoming problematic because banks are reluctant to lend to competitors with “big positions in weaker countries’ debt, for instance,” he said today on Dutch television...

A demise of the euro would have “catastrophic” consequences for the Dutch economy, which sends about three- fourths of its exports to other euro-zone states, and “would cause a recession that would make the 1930s a trifle by comparison,” Zalm said.

No one can say where the price of gold is headed. But the reckless debts run up by big government Marxists and progressives around the world do nothing but demoralize investors in fiat currencies.



Good News: California Bans Styrofoam, Small Businesses Rejoice!*

*If you call rejoicing being really, really pissed off.

As if California hasn't done enough to alienate businesses -- withholding water from farmers, paying government bureaucrats outrageous salaries, enacting a thicket of regulations (said to cost half-a-trillion dollars in 2009), and levying punishing taxes -- its latest brilliant law ought to really help kick-start the economy.

The dangerous, toxic substance known as styrofoam will finally be completely banned in California.

Democratic state Sen. Alan Lowenthal's bill to put a stop to Styrofoam use in grocery stores, restaurants, and food vendors is set to pass in the Senate. It would be the first state-wide ban of Styrofoam in the country...

Many have come to the aid of the ubiquitous containers: restaurant owners say the biodegradable alternatives are more expensive and less effective, while manufacturers like Dart claim they'll have to close two production plants that can't produce anything but Styrofoam.

...environmentalists are pleased to see a ban on the non-compost-able, non-biodegradable, chemical-laden receptacles... It would be interesting to see how this bill affects the rest of the nation, as California is commonly ahead of the curve on environmental law.

And it's working out so well for them, eh?

So, just to be clear: California's government-subsidized scientists have apparently determined that styrofoam is just as dangerous to humans as carbon dioxide.

We may want to count this as reason #18,306 that this bluest of blue states is bankrupt, hemorrhaging businesses and about to tell its pensioners (politely) that they're screwed. Yes, let's all emulate California, shall we?


Completely Unrelated Update: California Employment Level Sinks to Record Low


For wont of $3 billion: the President's Priorities

"I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jump- start job creation and long-term growth ...this plan must begin today, a plan I am confident will save or create at least 3 million jobs over the next few years." --President-Elect Barack Obama, January 8, 2009


With another "jobs speech" scheduled for Thursday, it is worth remembering the speech President-Elect Barack Obama gave at George Mason University the second week of 2009. Obama asserted that only government -- through a massive, $840 billion stimulus package -- could jump-start the stricken economy.

In his 2009 speech, Obama promised to "put people to work repairing crumbling roads, bridges and schools by eliminating the backlog of well-planned, worthy and needed infrastructure projects", i.e., the infamous, "shovel-ready" construction projects that he later confessed didn't really exist.

In fact, only six (6) percent of Stimulus spending went to construction projects; much of the rest redistributed wealth from the private sector to public sector unions.

For wont of $3 billion, NASA loses manned space flight capability...


In the midst of the Stimulus spending spree, President Obama shocked the NASA program with a devastating pronouncement. The Space Shuttle replacement effort, dubbed the Constellation Program, which needed $3 billion in annual funding, would be terminated.

For the first time since the initial manned flight of Project Mercury on April 18, 1961, the United States would not have the ability to put a man into space. In spite of the national security impact of the space program -- and the fact that China has actively tested anti-satellite weaponry, the President felt that $3 billion was too much to spend on a replacement for the Space Shuttle.

...though illegal aliens received $4.2 billion in tax credits


And it wasn't just the fact that the public sector unions were awash with hundreds of billions in taxpayer Stimulus cash: the waste, fraud, and abuse in other federal programs turned out to be equally outrageous.

The IRS sent $4.2 billion in tax credits to illegal aliens
The EPA received an increase of $2.7 billion in funding from 2010 to 2011
Spending on the Food Stamp program has more than doubled since 2009, to $71 billion in 2011

Priorities


The President's priorities are funding his union boss supporters, growing the size of government bureaucracies, ringing up massive deficits, advancing the anti-jobs "green" agenda, and cutting back on strategic national security programs.

Now I want you to imagine what Obama's priorities will be if he were to be reelected in 2012. He would have absolutely nothing to lose in enacting an even more radical agenda: his devastating policies will go from merely stunningly bad to spectacularly worse.

And that is why he must be defeated next November.