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

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Photo: Michael Moore's Lakeside Mansion Perfectly Illustrates His Empathy With the 99%

No wonder Michael Moore reacted so strongly to a reporter's question about his purported wealth, estimated recently at $50 million.

Because Andrew Breitbart did the heavy lifting old media refuses to do, illustrating the hypocrisy of the morbidly obese faux-Communist:

Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore has been touring Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the country–including some of the most violent, such as Occupy Oakland–urging activists to continue their fight against the wealthy “one percent” of Americans... Through an independent source, Big Hollywood has obtained exclusive photographs of the house matching the address of Moore’s waterfront mansion. It is the kind of luxurious summer home that 99 percent of Americans can only dream of owning.

...Moore’s Torch Lake vacation home is likely worth close to $2 million...

...In addition, according to statistics from 2009, Forest Home Township has no black residents. The township is roughly 98 percent white. Call that 99 percent, and Moore’s claim to be among “the 99 percent” begins to have some basis in reality.

No one begrudges Moore his wealth, but it is deceitful for him to claim poverty while encouraging class warfare among other Americans. It is also purely narcissistic and selfish for Moore to back radical and destructive socialist policies that would deny other Americans the opportunity to become as rich as he is.

If I were a member of the #OWS crowd, I would occupy Moore's house.

Heaven knows he's got enough room for even twenty Moore-sized people in it.


Hat tip: Drudge Report.

Caller to Mark Levin Show Describes How Nancy Pelosi and her Husband Abuse Their Power to Stiff Small Business

According to The New York Daily News, Nancy Pelosi's net worth skyrocketed by a jaw-dropping 62% over the last year of her tenure as Speaker of the House. Her net worth was $22 million in 2009 and is currently reported at $35.2 million.

Which makes her failure to pay her bills all the more outrageous. A caller to the Mark Levin Show (11/9/2011 about 1:32) named "Sharon" (a cover name) described tactics that are probably all too common among the Democrat elite who claim to be for the "little people".

Hi, Mark, I just wanted to call in and let you know a year ago, October 2010, my plumbing company did some work for Ms. Pelosi and her husband in D.C., took care of her problem and billed her accordingly... She chose to ignore payment of that bill and we kept sending her an invoice, pretty much on a routine basis and never heard back from her.

We sent her a nice letter saying, 'Please, this invoice is past due', and she chose not to pay it. She says she's for the common person, but it's ironic.

...I work for the plumbing business... this has been over a year now... [There's no dispute] ...the problem was solved and the thing that bothers me is that we provided materials for the job, the labor was performed, my employer paid the plumber and had to buy the materials, and it just seems very unfair that everything was done in good faith... and nothing reimbursed... [The owner] is a small-business owner and he knows this is going to be the case on an occasional basis, but it seems so unbelievable that somebody in that position -- who can afford to pay her bill for a service that was rendered -- chose not to.

...It was October of 2010 and Mr. Pelosi called the office and I happened to be the one who answered the call. He, it was interesting, we chuckled after we hung up, because he was dropping his name, his wife's name, interjecting it into the conversation... to make clear that I understood who this was...

We showed up, took care of the problem, everything was solved. Just a routine service call... it wasn't a major thing, it had to do with the bathtub in the bathroom, it wasn't draining properly. And she want to be able to use that as a form of relaxation at night; he informed me of that in the call. So we took care of that for her. It was nothing serious or overly complicated.

[The bill wasn't a large amount] ...not at all, absolutely blowing us off.

Levin observes that "this is the sort of thing that happens all the time. The little people are kicked around by the big people who claim to love them. All the time. I've heard stories -- the Kennedy family, other families -- you'd be amazed."

Folks, this is what an oligarchy looks like. And this is why we must flush all Democrats and RINO pretenders from office in 2012. Business as usual needs to come to an end in Washington, and we need to send a message. Let's call it "flush twice to remove the clingers". It's time to re-establish Constitutional government in Washington.


By the numbers: Obama jobs destruction plan to accelerate in 2012

If you do a Google search on President Obama's oft-repeated statement -- "I will not rest until every American has a good job" -- you'll get 6.6 million results.

Yet three years after the mortgage meltdown and the vaunted Obama stimulus program, the real unemployment rate (U-6) actually worsened even if we look at the year of 2011 alone. The U-6 unemployment rate remains over 16% and could actually be far worse because of some of the tricks used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, ShadowStats.com puts unemployment in excess of 22 percent.

Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The job losses we'll see in the coming years will make what we've seen thus far look like a jaunt in the park. A quick review of recent articles describing the impact of the massive regulatory state (the EPA alone has grown 120 percent under Obama) offers some ominous projections for future job losses.

DescriptionJobs DestroyedSource
Delaying the Keystone XL Pipeline until after the 2012 election20,000LA Times
Forcing lignite coal plants in Texas to close (EPA)14,000Heritage
Gulf Drilling Moratorium (Interior)72,000LA Times
EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule1,440,000Daily Caller
EPA's determination that coal ash is a "hazardous waste"250,000Western Caucus
EPA's shutdown of AEP plants5,000CAPPS Online
EPA's commercial and industrial boiler regulations800,000Clatskanie Chief
Interior Department's protection of lizards and smelt fish75,000Human Events
Jobs killed by the Obama environmental machine2,676,000

That's nearly 3,000,000 jobs that President Obama's policies will have un-saved and un-created. Middle-class jobs. Blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Trucking jobs, manufacturing jobs, union jobs.

Liberals, drones, progressives and other anti-American malcontents would be hard-pressed to prove that this President isn't intentionally trying to establish a permanent underclass, whose subsistence is dependent upon the largesse of the federal government.

Because every action this president seems to tack seems to prove that the destruction of the middle class is among his chief goals.

And, further: President Obama is 'historic' only in the sense that he is the most effective job destroyer ever.


Friday, November 11, 2011

Yo, Dems: how many years we gotta wait before Obamacare is a 'living and breathing' law so we can start ignoring it?

Liberals have a fundamentally different perspective on Constitutional interpretation than conservatives. Conservatives believe that there is only one legitimate way to interpret the Constitution: as it was written. This school of thought is called originalism and no less an intellect than the mighty James Madison said the following regarding this approach.

Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government. In effect, the Obama administration.

Eh, okay -- I added that last sentence.

Liberals have invented all sorts of clever schemes for avoiding originalism, even though the Framers studied thousands of years of human history to create a resilient, flexible framework upon which the body politic could grow. They have discovered numerous methods to reject the nation's highest law, upon which they take an oath to uphold when they enter office!

• They reject originalism through the lens of technology: Gee, the framers didn't talk about the Internet, so we've got to create brand new rights from whole cloth!...

• They reject originalism through a fabricated principle called 'Judicial Precedent': Hey, I don't care what unconstitutional decision the Warren Court came up with, it's 'Judicial Precedent'!

• They reject originalism through another fairy tale called 'Judicial Review': Hey, we don't like that legislation, so we'll just dismantle it.

• They reject originalism through social engineering: former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once said, "You guys [i.e., white people] have been practicing discrimination for years. Now it's our [i.e., black people's] turn."

In short, liberals view the Constitution as amorphous and flexible -- "living and breathing", if you will -- in order to advance their agenda.

But I ask you: many laws and contracts are very old (even 99-year leases in Hawaii appear to be commonplace) -- so how many years do we have to wait to call the laws we don't like 'living and breathing'?

Is 50 years enough? 100? 150 years?

Because these laws, contracts and other agreements can't possibly be binding once they hit that limit. They've got to be living and breathing, because the terms could never anticipate all of the changes in technology, transportation and communications... right?

So how many years must we wait before we reject all of the liberals' failed social engineering programs by reinterpreting them under this 'living and breathing' escape hatch?

Not that the country will survive on the spending glide-path we're on right now. But I'm just wondering. Any liberals care to venture an answer?


Meet Bill and Joan, your next door neighbors who are "millionaires and billionaires'

Did I say "millionaires and billionaires"? I meant members of the middle class, who will be paying considerably more in taxes after the 2012 elections.

Meet the Smiths: 26-year-olds Bill and Joan have been married for five years and have two young children. Bill earns about $65,000 a year in sales and Joan has gone back to work and earns about $35,000 annually. Bill owes quite a bit on his college student loans and will pay about $3,000 in interest on them in 2013. With Joan working again, they are paying $3,000 for year-round child care. Joan inherited some AT&T stock from her grandmother, which pays her $1,000 in dividends every year. Finally, counting home mortgage interest, they have about $20,000 in itemized deductions.

The first big change affecting the Smiths will be a combined increase in income tax rates, and a tightening of tax brackets as a result of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. We estimate this will cost them $960 in 2013.

Bill will lose the complete deduction of his student loan interest in 2013, costing about $840. The pair's allowable deduction for child care will drop to $2,400 from $3,000, and they will also see their credit for children drop in half, costing another $1,000.

The marriage tax penalty will come roaring back to hit the Smiths in 2013, costing an estimated $500. The tax on their dividend income will go increase to $280 from $150, adding another $130. Finally, although we did not calculate the effect, without Congressional action to once again "fix" the alternative minimum tax, the Smiths could owe this ugly tax as well!

Luckily for the Smiths — but not for many Americans — other major changes for 2013, which do not personally affect them, include a phase out of itemized deductions and personal exemptions if their income starts to climb.

In summary, because of tax laws expiring this year and next, we estimate that the Smiths will owe $3,598 more in income tax in 2013 than in 2011 with no change in their income.

Joan and Bill will be paying an additional $300 a month thanks to the policies of the Obama Democrats.

They're really looking out for the little guy, eh? So the next time Barack Obama demonizes the wealthy and claims to be protecting the middle class, just remember the bite he's going to be taking out of our paychecks. Cuts which were timed, fortuitously for him, to kick in after the 2012 elections.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

How bad is government spending, really?

Ken from S.F. writes:

Putting specific government spending into context helps point out the insanity.

The latest comparing the postal service budget overruns with the federal tax revenue by state.

Unfortunately, after 20 minutes of searching, I can only find 2007 numbers. Figure they would be pretty easy to get a hold of.

Postal Service expects $6 billion loss this year

Federal Tax Revenue By State

I wonder how the people in these states would feel if asked how they feel that all of the money taxpayers pay to the federal government is equivalent to the budget overrun of the USPS?

Now: I would like you to imagine the day -- in the not too distant future -- when the federal government controls every aspect of health care delivery. Or, roughly, one-sixth of the economy.

Get your surgeries in now, before it's too late.


Ohio's pro-union election results: not quite as bad as they look

While the major networks are trumpeting the unions' big victory in Ohio, the news isn't quite as glum, nor the labor win as large, as it may first appear.

Ohio's Issue 2 was a referendum on repealing SB5, a bill that reduced certain public sector union benefits. The repeal effort passed by a wide margin -- 61-39.

Correspondent Amalaur describes the lay of the land:

Turnout in my conservative area of the city was very light. This wasn't an issue election for most voters I guess... unless they were members of a public sector union. To their credit (or at least to the taxpayers' credit, since they're funding the public sector), the unions swamped the airwaves with messages like "Vote no on 2 or you'll call 9-1-1 and no one will answer" and "if your house catches on fire, it'd be a shame if no one showed up."

Really sleazy and dishonest stuff. And the worst part is, many union members are going to pay for their mistake with their jobs. They were sold down the river by the union bosses. The layoffs are gonna come fast and furious (heh!), because the cities and towns have no way to pay their bills. SB5 would have helped the municipalities employ more cops and firefighters, not less.

What was SB5 all about? Oh, my, it was so onerous:

• Government employees would have to pay at least 15 percent of their health care costs

• Government employees would have to contribute at least something to their pension plans

• It preserved collective bargaining, but reduced the impact of tenure on schools' hiring decisions

But the loss wasn't nearly as bad as it looks. Turnout was relatively low, and the vote to crush Obamacare (Issue 3 - by dismantling the individual mandate) passed by a wider margin than Issue 2 -- 66% to 34%.

That tells me that even Democrats despise Obamacare.

And 2012 will be the ultimate referendum on that particular clusterf***.

Furthermore, unions from around the nation sent $30 million into Ohio to defeat SB5 -- against roughly $7 million to oppose the repeal effort, gathered from a hodgepodge of grassroots groups.

The executive summary: don't be disheartened. Ohio's labor victory was an anomaly, thanks to truly deceptive advertising, a huge spending disadvantage, and low turnout.

2012 will offer only the first of these tactics to Barack Obama. And the electorate will be anything but disinterested.


Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Middleton: Contraction Interruptus

Reggie Middleton of Boom Bust Blog:

I have always been of the contention that the 2008 market crash was cut short by the global machinations of a cadre of central bankers intent on somehow rewriting the rules of economics, investment physics and global finance. They became the buyers of last resort, then consequently the buyers of only resort while at the same time flooding the world with liquidity and guarantees. These central bankers and the countries they allegedly strive to serve took on the debt and nigh worthless assets of the private sector who threw prudence through the window during the “Peak” phase of the circle of economic life, and engaged in rampant speculation.

Central bankers worldwide have interrupted the cycle here under the apparently mistaken impression that they can override the business cycle and skip past the contraction phase. This is most apparent in equity markets where excess liquidity has pushed all equities straight up, as well as bond markets where yields have been suppressed to artificial (ZIRP) levels. The truth cannot be concealed in real asset markets where properties are still dropping. It was the real asset market that kicked off the bust to begin with, and it will probably be the real asset markets that bring us back to reality.

The extended contraction has only been exacerbated by the folly of central economic planners experimenting on a global basis and in concert to defeat the laws of economic mother nature.

Oh, and for those still under the mistaken impression that contagion has been contained, Barclays is here to disabuse you of that quaint notion: Italy Is Finished: "Mathematically Beyond Point Of No Return".

The era of Europe's heavily unionized, social welfare states is drawing to a close. Misery, war and poverty will follow as certainly as night follows day. Pity that Democrats are too stupid to get the message here at home.


Good News: Federal Government Will Now 'Dictate the Actual Design of Trucks, Tractors and other Heavy-Duty Vehicles'

You heard that right. Not satisfied with shutting down 8% of the electric grid starting next year, the EPA will now dictate the design of tractor-trailers and other heavy duty vehicles that represent the lifeblood of American commerce.

Fortunately, someone is fighting back.

A lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration’s greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy- and medium-duty trucks was filed Tuesday by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) on behalf of small businesses and trade organizations whose members the foundation claims would be damaged by the regulations.

The suit charges that federal officials were legally required to submit the regulations for independent scientific scrutiny, but failed to do so.

...The regulations are the first-ever federal restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (such as trucks, tractor-trailers, and RVs). They were promulgated jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA), and were published in the Federal Register on Sept. 15, 2011.

The rules’ negative impact on the economy could be significant, PFL claimed, pointing out that the EPA and NHTSA “themselves admit that from 2014 through 2017, the proposed emissions restrictions will substantially increase costs for everyone involved in transporting goods or people on the nation’s highways, including trucking companies, independent truckers, construction companies, and others.” ...

PFL said the rules are an attempt by government to “micromanage” truck design... “The rules mandate that heavy-duty vehicles increase fuel efficiency while decreasing CO2 emis­sions, thereby requiring the use of new types of fuels and engines, which in turn will require aerodynamic redesign,” PLF senior staff attorney Ted Hadzi-Antich said. “The regulatory requirements will necessarily involve EPA and NHTSA in the redesign of the vehicles because the aerodynamics have a major impact on the amount of work the vehicles can perform to transport freight at common highway speeds. Thus, the federal government now wants to dictate the actual design of trucks, tractors, and other heavy-duty vehicles used throughout the economy.”

For small businesses, it’s an “impossible” price tag, he added.

Pacific Legal Foundation describes itself as a donor-supported watchdog organiza­tion that “litigates for limited government, property rights, free enterprise, and a balanced approach to environmental regulations, in courts across the country.”

If you have a few spare bucks, you can support PLF here.


Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Stratfor Research: Italy has seven days to avoid an "immediate and catastrophic" financial meltdown

Uhm, Stratfor Research is well-known for avoiding alarmist views and overstatements. Which makes this missive all the more foreboding (emphases mine, Paul Krugman hardest hit):

The Italian government eked out a legislative victory today, but the victory was a hollow one. Only 308 of the parliament's 630 MPs voted for the government's budget, eight shy of a majority. The bill only passed because the opposition chose to abstain rather than defeat the budget. Italy has now taken the lead position in the contest of what can unravel the euro.

Greece, which has held that dubious honor for nearly two years, is actually now off the radar. Today the Greeks formed a national unity government that has the political authority to implement deep austerity while compartmentalizing political backlash against the system. It might not work, but it should last at least until the new year.

But today's Italian budget vote - or more specifically the decision of several previously pro-Berlusconi deputies to abstain with the opposition - puts Italy squarely in the crosshairs.

Italy, like Greece, faces an insurmountable debt mountain. Italy, like Greece, has problems with political unity. But Italy, unlike Greece, has a leader who refuses to step aside in favor of a national unity government. Berlusconi has been at or near the top of the Italian political scene for a generation, and his People of Freedom party is his own personal political machine.

Berlusconi now has seven days to repair that machine. If he cannot muster an additional eight votes by Nov. 15, his government will fall in a scheduled confidence vote. That would push Italy into an election at a time when markets are waking up to the fact that it is not Ireland or Spain or even Greece that is the biggest threat to the eurozone. It is Italy.

Even in the worst-case scenario Greece only has about 350 billion euro of debt outstanding, most of which now is held either internally or by the European Central Bank. Italy has nearly 2 trillion euro in outstanding debt. An Italian credit cutoff would trigger a financial meltdown across Europe that would both be immediate and catastrophic.

Avoiding that would require a new Italian government without going through one of Italy's famously destabilizing elections. In the aftermath of today's budget vote, Berlusconi claims that he will resign after a series of austerity laws are adopted, ushering in a new unity government. Votes on those laws, however, are scheduled to be held after the confidence vote, so it's not clear whether this is truly turning the page or simply stalling for time.

Can... meet kick.

And sometime -- in the very near future -- the road for can-kicking will have reached an end.


Monday, November 07, 2011

Occupy Hatred: A Gallery of #OWS Sickness

Click on any of the pictures for the background stories.
















My friends, are you going to let these punks turn America -- the most magnificent society ever seen on the face of the Earth -- into some sort of third-world socialist cesspool? Or are you going to join with me and politically obliterate this insane collaborative of Nazis, Marxists, Democrat politicians, anarchists, union thugs, arsonists, drug addicts, and progressives?

Because 2012 is coming, my friends, and we are going to send a message to these lunatics. America isn't dead quite yet, despite their best efforts. And we are going to shred this traitorous shadow of a once-proud Democrat Party at the polls next November.


Sunday, November 06, 2011

Helpful Chart: Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street #OWS


Update: Looks like the chart needs to include Missing Persons. Penny posts the Occupy movement's first Amber Alert:

Please pass this message on to your contacts in the L.A. area.


Saturday, November 05, 2011

Obamacare-style price controls succeed in New York: 'tens of thousands' to lose their health care coverage

Just call me Kreskin. I foresee tens of thousands of pissed-off New Yorkers when they find out the mantra "if you like your health care plan, you can keep it" was as worthless as every other Obama promise.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Confirms Plan To Drop Most Small Group Plans In NY


Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, the largest health insurer in the region, announced to health insurance brokers on Friday that it will eliminate most of its small group plans in the New York market effective April 1, 2012, and is slashing its financial incentives for brokers to sell those products—a move one industry insider has said would be “catastrophic” for the insurance marketplace.

...Empire’s statement says the insurer is sensitive to the economic challenges facing small businesses and its goal is to offer affordable health insurance plans to New York’s small businesses, but that it has had financial losses in the small group business that it called unsustainable.

...Officers of New York State Association of Health Underwriters sent a letter—of which Mr. Hasday was one of the signers—dated November 2, addressed to the superintendent of the State Department of Financial Services, stating concerns that a major carrier, which it did not mention by name, is withdrawing from the small group market because of rate request denials/reductions in the last five consecutive quarters. Mr. Hasday later confirmed that the letter referred to Empire.

“The major carrier’s pending withdrawal from the small group market is nothing short of catastrophic to small employers in the state ... tens of thousands of employees are going to be left without coverage, as there will be only two to three other carriers left in which brokers may try to place coverage. If the other carriers follow suit, the availability of coverage will dry up entirely.”

Empire is dropping coverage for two reasons, both of which will apply to Obamacare:

• All "insurance companies [must] get approval from the State Insurance Department before changing any rates."

• An "insurance company could only spend a certain percentage of premiums for non-claim costs."

Both of these strictures represent price controls that will drive insurers out of business. This is just one more exhibit demonstrating that Obamacare will be a complete and utter disaster for Americans.

We are on the road to single-payer health care, a system in which government controls your health care; in which it rewards friends and punishes enemies; and in which it rations care for those deemed too expensive.

The oldest and youngest Americans, the handicapped, and those most in need of health care are certain to suffer. Which is the whole point of government-run health care: total control of human lives by the ruling class.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

You could die from excitement at North Korea's Fun Fair

Four words you never expected to see strung together: "North Korean Amusement Park." Journalist Alex Hoban snapped a whole series of pics at what I like to call "Potemkin Park".

How could anyone not love the land that's home to the Mangyongdae fun fair, the world's sh***iest, most depressing quasi-theme park?

...Situated Only 12km from Pyongyang's city center, Mangyongdae is a place for thrill-seeking North Koreans to come to and unwind after a hard week of slave labor, relentless scavenging for food, KGB hide and seek, and trimming the imperial lawns with scissors. My guide for the day insisted that the park is open seven days a week and always very, very busy. Which is funny because when we got there stagnant emptiness lingered in the air like a fart in a graveyard filled with the bodies of political dissidents...

...Confused as to why we weren't immediately allowed to leave the bus, it was only after about 20 minutes and a lot of frantic arm waving from the woman at the gate that another, far sh***ier bus turned up and we realized what was going on...


...These poor schmucks—or lucky schmucks, perhaps?—were wheeled out with strict orders to constantly remain 20 steps ahead of us and look like they were having A+ fun in the otherwise deserted park, lest anyone get suspicious that we weren't in Disneyland after all. Aside from us Western interlopers, they were the only people there. Strange task, but at least they were being paid a fair and decent wage to prop up one man's delusions of dictatorial grandeur, I thought (very quietly) to myself...

...Oh look, a girl on a merry-go-round. Maybe the whole world is wrong about North Korea. Maybe it really is a prosperous, utopian First World funland...

...It's a shame that North Koreans are treated by their rulers as basically an expendable race of people. Before we were allowed on the ride, the guys in charge sent a few terrified farmers on test runs like a shipment of human flour sacks...


In North Korea, a totalitarian, socialist and fascist dictatorship, there are no limits on the government's power over the people.

And that's what is troubling here at home -- because Democrats are both unable to articulate any limits on government and they are unwilling to abide by the Constitution, a document intended to check the government's power over individuals.

Slowly, inexorably, the hard left Democrat Party is turning America into a socialist welfare state that is ripe for "fundamental transformation", in the words of our own Dear Leader.


Related: North Korean Motivational Posters.


Hat tip: Chopper Pilot.

Friday, November 04, 2011

Perfect: Overpaid, Unionized Federal Workers Join #OWS Movement

Based upon these developments, it would seem that the beleaguered private sector isn't doing enough to save public sector union jobs.

...at least four federal labor unions rallied in support of the Occupy movement in a Lafayette Square demonstration Thursday... On the day that a House committee approved legislation that would cut the federal workforce by 10 percent and during a time when federal employees are in a battle to protect their pay, benefits and jobs, federal union members gathered with other labor organizations to back the national Occupy movement’s call for economic justice.

...“Most federal employees consider themselves to be part of the 99 percent,” Saul Schniderman, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Library of Congress Guild, said after the rally. “And many of us believe in the principles of social justice, just like the protesters in Occupy D.C. Everyone needs to pay their fair share, and this includes Wall Street corporations with their record profits and their CEOs with their skyrocketing salaries. I rallied today with other federal workers and unions to protest the influence that today’s modern-day robber barons have on our economy.”

...AFSCME, whose Council 26 represents federal workers, has contributed rain tarps and more than 100 rain ponchos to Occupy D.C. campers in McPherson Square, said Carl Goldman, executive director of the council. IFPTE donated umbrellas on a rainy day last week when Junemann and his legislative director, Matthew Biggs, visited the McPherson occupiers...

...“We’re part of what they are fighting for,” said Lane Bodner, a staff member of the American Postal Workers Union. “We’re not trying to impose our agenda on them, but we do think they overlap.”

These leftist hacks are the poster-children for union abuse of taxpayers.

Consider: without even counting Solyndra, there are at least 100 criminal investigations Of Obama Stimulus Spending, according to the Department of Energy's Inspector General.

But I guess we're not paying enough in taxes. So we'll have to pony up 10% more, because we're deadbeats. The public sector unions deserve even more of our money. Our families don't need it as much as the unions do.

So give 'til it hurts.


The true value of money

What is the true value of money? Perhaps the best way to assess its value is to melt down the coinage and sell the raw metal:

Which reminds Tyler Durden of this story about Kyle Bass, the investor who made millions from the subprime meltdown.

[Bass] still owned stacks of gold and platinum bars that had roughly doubled in value, but he remained on the lookout for hard stores of wealth as a hedge against what he assumed was the coming debasement of fiat currency. Nickels, for instance.

“The value of the metal in a nickel is worth six point eight cents,” he said. “Did you know that?”

I didn’t.

“I just bought a million dollars’ worth of them,” he said, and then, perhaps sensing I couldn’t do the math: “twenty million nickels.”

“You bought twenty million nickels?”

“Uh-huh.”

“How do you buy twenty million nickels?”

“Actually, it’s very difficult,” he said, and then explained that he had to call his bank and talk them into ordering him twenty million nickels. The bank had finally done it, but the Federal Reserve had its own questions. “The Fed apparently called my guy at the bank,” he says.

“They asked him, ‘Why do you want all these nickels?’ So he called me and asked, ‘Why do you want all these nickels?’ And I said, ‘I just like nickels.’”

He pulled out a photograph of his nickels and handed it to me. There they were, piled up on giant wooden pallets in a Brink’s vault in downtown Dallas.

“I’m telling you, in the next two years they’ll change the content of the nickel,” he said. “You really ought to call your bank and buy some now.”

Don't bother asking about the true value of paper bills.

Or the bits in the computer that represent the bulk of your net worth.


Hat tip: Coinflation.


Thursday, November 03, 2011

Time-Space Continuum May Have Warped: Is 60 Minutes Investigating Nancy Pelosi's Financial Skulduggery?

AJC's Jamie Dupree reports on an overheard conversation:

I was working on other stories at the time, but the questions - and answers - caught my ear, as Steve Kroft, the veteran correspondent for the CBS program "60 Minutes" was pressing Pelosi about some of her investments... Kroft is not a regular in the Capitol, so his presence and his questions certainly merit some attention...

Q: Madam Leader, I wanted to ask you why you and your husband back in March of 2008 accepted and participated in a very large IPO deal from Visa at a time there was major legislation affecting the credit card companies making its way through the House. Did you consider that to be a conflict of interest?

Leader Pelosi. I don't know what your point is of your question. Is there some point that you want to make with that?

Q: Well, I guess what I am asking is do you think it is all right for a Speaker to accept a very preferential, favorable stock deal?

Leader Pelosi. Well, we didn't.

Q: At a time when there is major legislation affecting that company in the House?

Leader Pelosi. Well, first of all let me say this. What we are talking about is an industry. What we are talking about is a Congress that passed more protections for credit card holders. The [Credit Cardholder’s Bill of Rights] bill, you know Carolyn Maloney has been our champion on, to the point where the industry spent $3 million to try to defeat her last time.

So the issue that you are talking about, first of all, what you are contending is not true. But second of all, we are very proud of our record of what happened.

Now, what Congressman or Senator Durbin was able to do in the Senate is quite remarkable, and when he was able to achieve that, then it was on this same issue, it was included by our Chairman Barney Frank in the bill.

Q: That was 2 years later though.

Leader Pelosi. But it was when we had a President who could sign the bill, and that is when we passed what Carolyn Maloney had. There was no interest on the part of President Bush to sign such a bill. But the fact is your basic premise is a false one, and it…

Q: I don't understand. Why is it false? You participated in the IPO.

Leader Pelosi. Well, I have many investments.

Q: You were Speaker of the House, and there was a bill very unfavorable to the credit card companies.

Leader Pelosi. Well, I will hold my record in fighting the credit card companies, as a Speaker of the House or as a Member of Congress, up against anyone. We had passed the Credit Cardholder Bill of Rights. I don't know what your point is. You like one bill better than another bill. No, this was the big powerful bill, and in fact we were able to achieve both once we were able to have a Democratic President. That is really all I am saying.

Q: You don't think it was a conflict of interest or have the appearance of a conflict of interest?

Leader Pelosi. No, it only has the appearance if you decide that you are going to elaborate on a false premise. But it is not true, and that is that.

Q: I don't understand what part is not true.

Leader Pelosi. That I would act upon an investment.

Pelosi was also heard to shriek: "Are you serious? Are you serious???"

But I'm sure the curious confluence of events surrounding Pelosi's ascent to the Speakership while her bank accounts rapidly swelled were purely coincidental.


Image hat tip: PoliNation.

The rich fight back: Mercedes bulls over #OccupyOakland punks who blocked it and pounded on hood

Pity Michael Moore wasn't involved:

...Though the Post can’t independently verify what is seen in the video, the cellphone footage appears to show a Mercedes Benz trying to drive through a crowd of protesters at Wednesday night’s Occupy Oakland march. It nudges up to two protesters, one of whom bangs on the hood of the car. The driver then speeds up and plows through the crowd.

The San Francsico Chronicle reports that the police questioned the driver and let him leave the scene. The two people who were hit, a man and a woman, suffered leg and ankle injuries that were not life-threatening, but required hospital treatment.

The protest was largely a peaceful march, though there was a small group of protesters that clashed with police and vandalized property...

Rumor has it that in tomorrow's edition of Politico, Jonathan Martin and Ken Vogel will allege that Herman Cain was the driver.


Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Obama-Friendly GE Building Aircraft Factory in Right-to-Work Alabama; Curiously, Unlike Boeing, NLRB Utterly Silent

Do the math:

1. Alabama is a wonderfully free "right-to-work" state, which simply means it prevents unions from extracting dues from workers who do not wish to join.

2. General Electric's CEO Jeff Immelt is the poster-boy for crony capitalism, having backed Obama's rush to socialized medicine and green energy to benefit various of its business units.

3. It turns out that GE's Aviation division is breaking ground on a new factory in Alabama. And, unlike Boeing, which tried to build a factory in a right-to-work-state, the National Labor Relations Board hasn't uttered a peep. But I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Remember the Boeing case?

[The NRLB] wants to stop the Boeing Corporation from using its new aircraft manufacturing plant in South Carolina. Construction began in November 2009 and is almost complete... [It] has charged that Boeing's decision to build a new plant in [right-to-work] South Carolina-to expand production of its Dreamliner 787-was made in retaliation for strikes at its Everett, Washington plant...

...If Boeing is penalized from locating where costs are lowest and production most reliable, then many other companies will be charged.

The NLRB wants Boeing to build all its Dreamliners in Washington State, which is not a right-to-work state.

If I were a more cynical man, I would think that this is yet another example of crony capitalism and big government at its very worst. Companies rewarded and punished by regulators based upon crass partisan hackery. Somewhere, Richard Nixon is smiling.

The fact that Obama-friendly GE is building a plant in Alabama without a whisper of a complaint from the NLRB while Boeing is challenged at every turn must be a coincidence. It simply must be.


Today's 'Paul Krugman Hoisted On His Own Petard', Self-Beclownment Edition

Is there a more hilarious propagand-conomist than Paul "The Problem with Keynesian Economics Is That We're Not Borrowing Enough" Krugman? I don't mean his looks. Ignore the elf-boy physique, concentrate on his record.

He's got enough face-plant-style failures to shame Milli Vanilli.

Today, Krugman is crying doom-and-gloom for the Euro, predicting bank runs, dogs and cats sleeping together, total fiscal apocalypse -- all thanks to the failed Eurosocialist welfare state. But it wasn't too long ago that Elf-Boy was championing the Eurozone...

• In "The Comeback Continent" (Jan. 2008), Krugman told us that the Eurozone was a bulwark of the world economy, worthy of emulation by the U.S.:

The G.D.P. of the European Union is roughly comparable to that of the United States; the euro is almost as important a global currency as the dollar; and the governance of the world financial system is, for practical purposes, equally shared by the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve.

But there’s another thing: it’s important to get the facts about Europe’s economy right because the alleged woes of that economy play an important role in American political discourse, usually as an excuse for the insecurities and injustices of our own society...

...What European countries definitely haven’t done is dismantle their strong social safety nets. Universal health care is a given. So are a variety of programs that support families in trouble, helping protect Europeans from the extreme poverty all too common in this country. All of this costs money — even though European countries spend far less on health care than we do — and European taxes are very high by U.S. standards.

In short, Europe continues to be a big-government sort of place. And that’s why it’s important to get the real story of the European economy out there.

According to the anti-government ideology that dominates much U.S. political discussion, low taxes and a weak social safety net are essential to prosperity. Try to make the lives of Americans even slightly more secure, we’re told, and the economy will shrivel up — the same way it supposedly has in Europe.

But the next time a politician tries to scare you with the European bogeyman, bear this in mind: Europe’s economy is actually doing O.K. these days, despite a level of taxing and spending beyond the wildest ambitions of American progressives.

• In "Why Oil Isn't Gold" (May 2008), Krugman told us how useless gold is as a store of value and, in "Wingnuts, wingnuts everywhere", he openly mocked gold-bugs.

Based on my analysis, a Ouija Board would do a far better job at predicting macroeconomic events than the embarrassment known as Krugman.