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

Sunday, August 04, 2013

Assembling the Puzzle Pieces: an Interesting Letter from FEMA

Courtesy of Donald Sensing:

This email was received by a company that sells preparedness and survival food stocks.


What is the urgency of being able to supply rations within 24 hours? Details here.

Not to worry, friends. Rest assured that despite "Civilian National Security Forces", a massive effort to collect data on the citizenry, all of your most personal health care records in the hands of the IRS, and a Constitution that is routinely mocked and ignored by the President, Congress, the Judiciary and the media, we have nothing to fear.

After all, this is standard fare for a country descending from first- to third-world status.


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.

Friday, August 02, 2013

Let's Play "Spot the Recovery"!

The White House says yesterday's unemployment "report provides further confirmation that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression."

Those outlets dutifully churning out "news" reports based upon the White House press release included Bloomberg, State-Run News/PBS (now reduced to blaming Baby Boomer retirements for the malaise), Newsweek, and US News & World Report, to name but a few. But the real picture is decidedly grim.

...this chart plots the employment-population ratio for the same period — that is, the percentage of Americans above age 16 who work for a living:


...You can see the downturn, of course, but where’s the recovery? We’re not “restoring” or “recovering” anything here. We have a working age population that’s growing too fast to employ at the levels we enjoyed for the last two decades.

The charts reflect an ever-greater number of people who would work in better times, but who are instead collecting disability or other government benefits, living in their parents’ basements, or borrowing money to earn extra, unnecessary degrees in hopes that the job market will have improved by the time they get out of grad school.

One of these days, perhaps vintage media could honestly answer the question: why is this recovery the worst since the Great Depression?


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.

THE CLIMATE LIARS: Why would anyone believe a single word out of their mouths?

A brilliant post by Pointman:

Georges Clemenceau, the prime minister of France during WWI, famously remarked after yet another military disaster that war is too important to be left to the generals. In an analogous fashion, when a branch of science is being used to justify the complete restructuring of the global economy, it’s no longer a scientific issue but a political one.

More importantly, it’s the ordinary person who’s being asked to finance initiatives, which will lower their standard of living and significantly increase their tax burden for the coming decades. If you’re the one actually doing the paying, you very definitely want a say, even if you’re not a rocket scientist. He who pays the piper, gets to call the tune.

So, if global warming is too important to be left to the scientists, how can the ordinary person arrive at a reasonable judgement as to its validity? We all have our own way of getting to understand something and personally being a from first principles type of person, asking basic questions about it has always been mine. When it comes to people, meaning the climate scientists in this particular instance, I find the most revealing questions to ask usually begin with why, so let’s take that approach. The seemingly simple but difficult trick is to ask the blindingly obvious questions.

Why is it that every one of the cockups and blunders we uncover in their papers always err towards a warmer global climate?

Why do they persistently withhold the data on which their conclusions are based?

Why do they, in their own words, hide behind Freedom of Information laws, as a reason to keep such data hidden?

Why do they, in their own words again, hide behind Non-disclosure Agreements, as a reason to keep the data hidden?

Why are they so vague about the exact methods used on the data to derive their results?

Why do all their computer climate models run hot?

Why have they consistently overestimated the climate’s sensitivity to CO2?

Why don’t they ever design experiments attempting to disprove their theories?

Why do the Climategate emails reveal their deep private doubts about the science, which they’ve publically reassured everyone was settled?

If the science was so solid, why’d one of their number feel they had to resort to identity theft to discredit the opposition?

Why are they telling each other to delete emails to circumvent Freedom of Information requests?

Why do they feel they’ve got to “redefine the peer review process” to prevent dissenting science papers being published?

Why do they need to get science journal editors removed from their jobs because they dared to publish a dissenting paper?

Why, after being the beneficiary of billions of dollars of research funding in the last two decades, haven’t they by now proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt?

Why is anyone who simply questions the science being equated with a holocaust denier?

The list goes on and on and on.

Global warming is a massive fraud orchestrated by crony profiteers like Al Gore and One-World Government Marxists like -- well, his name rhymes with Robama.

Global warming is a massive fraud designed to redistribute wealth from you to them.

Global warming is a massive fraud, the scale of which has never before been seen on Earth.


Hat tip: James Delingpole.

Thursday, August 01, 2013

DREW JOHNSON: "Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President"

Guest post by Drew Johnson

Chattanooga Times Free Press opinion page editor Drew Johnson was apparently fired for writing a scathing article to Barack Obama, telling him to “Take your jobs plan and shove it...” It was reportedly the paper’s most-read article ever. In honor of Johnson's willingness to Speak Truth To Power (once considered a valued trait in the days when we had a free press), we reproduce his op-ed here.

President Obama,

Welcome to Chattanooga, one of hundreds of cities throughout this great nation struggling to succeed in spite of your foolish policies that limit job creation, stifle economic growth and suffocate the entrepreneurial spirit.

Forgive us if you are not greeted with the same level of Southern hospitality that our area usually bestows on its distinguished guests. You see, we understand you are in town to share your umpteenth different job creation plan during your time in office. If it works as well as your other job creation programs, then thanks, but no thanks. We’d prefer you keep it to yourself.

That’s because your jobs creation plans so far have included a ridiculous government spending spree and punitive tax increase on job creators that were passed, as well as a minimum wage increase that, thankfully, was not. Economists — and regular folks with a basic understanding of math — understand that these are three of the most damaging policies imaginable when a country is mired in unemployment and starving for job growth.

Even though 64 percent of Chattanooga respondents said they would rather you hadn’t chosen to visit our fair city, according to a survey on the Times Free Press website, it’s probably good that you’re here. It will give you an opportunity to see the failure of your most comprehensive jobs plan to date, the disastrous stimulus scheme, up close and personal.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 helped fund the Gig to Nowhere project, a $552 million socialist-style experiment in government-owned Internet, cable and phone services orchestrated by EPB — Chattanooga’s government-owned electric monopoly.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The High Price of Ignorance

Guest post by Daniel Greenfield


It's an iron law of nature as certain as the one about an angel getting its wings every time a bell rings or a snowstorm blanketing the area every time Al Gore comes to town to remind the carbon puffing infidels about Global Warming; every time Obama gives a speech, a thousand businesses go out of business.

On July 24th, to celebrate Venezuela's Simon Bolivar Day, Obama delivered yet another economic speech in which he castigated Republicans in Congress for the sequester that he proposed, promised big economic benefits for the entire country from Green Energy and Illegal Immigration and promised to spend every one of his remaining days trying to help working people; at least those days when he isn't on the golf course, on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard or delivering useless speeches.

An Obama speech is a familiar quality that even the scribblers whose limbs once tingled at the touch of the teleprompter have developed a callous contempt for its reflexively dishonest "Let me be clears" and the infinite "I's" that roll off its assembly line speechmakers.

An economics speech, a creature that Barack Obama has been unleashing from his political zoo on the taxpayers, lawmakers and layabouts since his post-election days in 2008 of pretending to be president complete with an imaginary seal with the motto "Vero Possumus” (which can be translated very loosely as "God Help Us All"), is an entirely familiar breed.

It's an FDR-on-crack assemblage of crackpot social plans masquerading as economic plans and homey testaments to American exceptionalism wrapped around bankrupt Euro ideas about how to run a country into the ground. And in the year 2013, the whole thing smells like last year's leftovers.

TRANSCRIPT: Mark Levin on Cavuto -- Obama's Scandals are Real, It's His Rhetoric That's Phony

Mark Levin, appearing today on Your World With Neil Cavuto:


This President could give a damn about serious investigations regarding the scandals swirling around his administration. And then his lackeys go on TV, including Fox News Sunday, and tell us there's no evidence? Their people plead the Fifth. The Attorney General doesn't conduct investigations.

And what's necessary is for the Republicans in the House to get their act together.

We don't need five separate House committees investigating Benghazi. We need one Special Investigative Commitee -- with former U.S. assistant attorneys and other types of prosecutors, who are serious people and have the resources necessary full-time to pursue these matters -- and put the information out on the table.

Same with the Internal Revenue Service investigation. We've got committees tripping over one another, claiming jurisdiction. Once again, we need experts, we need to pursue these things with a Special Investigative Committee.


And then the pressure builds for a Special Prosecutor. Even though Holder won't want to appoint one, over time enough information will come out where it will become necessary.

The President of the United States -- it's been almost a year -- will still not tell the American people what he was doing for eight-and-a-half hours after our consulate was attacked in Benghazi...

The President uses his word phony [to describe his scandals]. It's actually a perfect word for him, because his speeches are phony, his promises are phony, his economy is phony, the whole damn thing is phony.

Let me tell you something... from my point of view, once more, the Speaker of the House, he's in charge of organizing these investigations... and he won't. They're flopping around, they're navel-gazing... because they don't think there's anything political in this. They're playing rope-a-dope, they're playing it safe, they want to push through the next election.

Boehner wants to remain Speaker, Cantor Majority Leader... the point is, the fact is, if they'd been running effective investigations, one committee -- a joint committee -- with some of the sharpest, toughest individuals we know investigating Benghazi, we'd be to the bottom of this already.

Same with the IRS scandal. The president should be served with an interrogatory. It's been done before...

What is everybody talking about? Weiner's weiner, for God's sakes... The Trayvon Martin case, that went on for a month.

Meanwhile, we have an Internal Revenue Service that was illegally attacking United States citizens because of their politics, because of their political viewpoints, because of their religion. I mean, for crying out loud, if that doesn't raise an uproar... we have four Americans dead and the President of the United States is running all over the country and refuses to tell the American people what the hell he was doing for eight-and-a-half hours. I think he was sleeping. But he won't say.

We have this NSA -- massive gathering of telephone numbers -- basically nationalizing the phone companies' records as if that's going to fight terrorism...

[On Christie's support of the NSA program and attacks on Rand Paul] ...Maybe this Chris Christie can get in front of these 9/11 families and tell us how this NSA program would have saved a single life or prevented a single terrorist attack. You know how these terrorists got into this country? The border wasn't secure and they overstayed their visas. What is Chris Christie's position on that?

Christie's weak on Amnesty. So I think it's a mistake for him to use 9/11 to attack who he believes will be his political opponents in a Republican primary...

We conservatives have been fighting against the Republican establishment for half a century, whether they take the form of Chris Christie, or Romney... or Gerald Ford or Richard Nixon.

This country needs to move in a new direction, economically, Constitutionally, when it comes to our Bill of Rights.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Public Service for Small Businesses: Free Obamacare Pink Slip Notice

As a public service for businesses impacted by Obamacare's Byzantine maze of penalties, fees, taxes, mandates and other regulations that will require you to shed workers, our enterprising Cub Reporter Biff Spackle offers the following Semi-Official Obamacare Pink Slip.


Feel free to reproduce anywhere, anytime as a reminder to the drones that they may want to think before they vote next time around. That is, if there is a next time.


The Progressive and the Pencil

This is a pencil. There isn't a single person in the world who could make this pencil.

The wood from which it was made came from a tree cut down in the state of Washington.

To cut down that tree, it took a saw.

To make that saw, it took steel.

To make that steel, it took iron ore.

The black center of the pencil, which we call 'lead', is actually made from compressed graphite.

It comes from mines in South America.

The eraser, made from rubber, likely comes from Malaysia.

The rubber tree wasn't native to Malaysia. It was imported from South America by businessmen with the help of the British government.

The brass fairing that holds the eraser probably came from the Midwestern United States, where computerized machine tools stamp, roll, finish and convey them.

The yellow paint, the glue that holds it together... literally thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil.

People who don't speak the same language. Who practice different religions. Who might hate one another if they ever met. When you visit a store and buy this pencil, you are -- in effect -- trading a few minutes of your time for a few seconds of time from all those thousands of people.

What brought them together and induced them to cooperate to make this pencil?

There was no "Pencil Czar" sending out orders from Washington. It was the magic of the free market. The impersonal operation of a market system that brought them together and got them to cooperate to make this pencil, so that you could have it for a few pennies.

That is why the free market system is so important to our society. It fosters harmony, cooperation and peaceful interactions between the peoples of the world.

How many of the Democrats' despised "millionaires and billionaires" were created as this pencil came into existence? Do the employees of the steel mill care? The saw manufacturer? The buyer of the pencil? Of course not.

In the formulation of the hard left Democrat party, the manufacture and distribution of pencils would be administered by a "Czar" and a centralized, federal agency. A few masterminds, like Obamacare's health advisory board, would try to manage and control thousands of voluntary, individual interactions. And we know from history that it simply can't be done.

We must call Obama and the Democrats' incessant drive for centralized government -- and their class-warfare rhetoric -- what it is: a new branding of the old Marxist philosophies, i.e., "Progressivism". It's just a different name for the same failed ideology that spreads misery and poverty where ever it is implemented.

The modern Democrat Party should be called what it is: the party of Marx. The Party of Unconstitutionality. The Party of Economic Misery and Failure. And it must be stopped -- quickly -- if this Republic is to survive.


Based upon: Milton Friedman's 'Power of the Market'. Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Apocalypse In One Picture

Guest post by Monty Pelerin

It is nearly impossible to convince people that an economic collapse is likely, perhaps inevitable. It is beyond anything they have seen or can imagine. I attribute that to a normalcy bias, an inherent weakness of experiential learners. For many, accepting something that has not occurred during their time on the planet is not possible. The laws of economics and mathematics may shape history but they are not controlled by history.

The form of cataclysm and its timing is indeterminable. Political decisions continue to shape both. The madmen who are responsible for the coming disaster continue to behave as if they can manage to avoid it. Violating Einstein’s definition of insanity, they continue to apply the same poison that caused the problem. These fools believe they can manage complexities they do not understand. We are bigger fools for providing them the authority to indulge their hubris and wreak such damage.

Apocalypse In One Picture

James Quinn provided the following graph. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this graph is worth millions. The route to economic demise is depicted below:

Saturday, July 27, 2013

DOOMED: Top 9 Big Cities That Will Soon Be Following Detroit Down the Black Hole of Democrat-Union Bankruptcy

Because math always trumps politics.

In April, Moody’s Investors Service, a bond rating agency, issued a report identifying 29 municipalities selected for review over concerns of credit-worthiness... Their chief concern: Some municipalities are underreporting pension liabilities; the ways in which those large costs are reported can vary widely from place to place.

...Cities on the list for review aren’t necessarily facing imminent downgrade, though their mere presence on that list makes it more likely... Moody’s, as we speak, is re-examining these nine largest cities...

9. Chicago: ...Moody’s downgraded The Windy City’s credit rating by three notches last week, as a result of $19 billion in unfunded pension debt... [and] mayor Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s former chief of staff, [told] city employees they should sign up for the federal health insurance exchanges. It’s almost as if he might have known the city was running out of money to fund employee health care.

Sure enough, Pew reports Chicago’s retiree health benefits are exactly 0 percent funded. As in, not a single dollar against a $1 billion liability.

8. Portland, Ore.: Moody’s is reviewing the city’s credit rating for its general obligation bonds, but also for Portland’s tax obligation bonds, housing bonds and redevelopment bonds. The city has more than $453 million in unfunded pension debt... Pew notes Portland “had virtually no asset” to offset unfunded liabilities of $2.3 billion in fiscal 2009 for its pension and disability plan for police and firefighters.

7. Omaha, Neb.: ...has managed to ring up more than $1.4 billion in pension liabilities, and it has only enough cash saved to pay about 43 percent of those costs...

6. Minneapolis: Minneapolis has piled up more than $700 million in unfunded pension liabilities, prompting the ratings agency to take another look at the city...

5. Cincinnati: Moody’s downgraded Cincinnati just last week, after it was placed on the list of possible downgrades in April... The city’s unfunded pension liability tops $700 million.

4. Providence, R.I.: With a funding ratio — the percentage of pension debt versus current assets to pay — of 42 percent, Providence’s pension mess, per capita, is even worse than Chicago’s... But Pew notes Providence has taken some steps in the right direction. The city suspended annual cost-of-living adjustments for retirees and now requires all former workers olden than 65 to switch to Medicare instead of receiving health benefits from the city.

3. Trenton, N.J.: Moody’s is reviewing general obligation bonds issued by Trenton’s public school system. A downgrade on those bonds would follow fast in the footsteps of a citywide downgrade in 2011.

2. Santa Fe, N.M.: In putting Santa Fe “on notice” a few months ago, Moody’s noted the severity of the city’s pension problems. Moody’s ranked the city of Santa Fe as the worst in the country, saying it has net pension liabilities equal to six times its operating revenue.

1. Charleston, W.Va.: ...Charleston has the worst-funded pension system of any major city in the United States, with only 24 percent of the necessary funds to cover more than $337 million in pension debt...

What do all of these cities -- and many, many more -- have in common? The infernal alliance of the Democrat Party and public sector unions.


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News

HHS whines: we don't have enough of your money to secure your health care records from prying eyes!

Rule of Thumb: No matter how much money you give the federal government, it's never enough. California Healthline has the "unexpected" story:

HHS Office of Inspector General officials say the agency will be significantly restricted in its ability to monitor and address Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse within the nation's health care system in the coming years, citing budget and staffing cuts and hiring freezes, according to an internal document obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

The document states, "As OIG's budget resources decline, so do our enforcement and oversight activities," adding that it "will not be able to keep pace" with the expected jump in taxpayer-subsidized health care under the Affordable Care Act, "maintain/expand our highly successful Medicare Fraud Strike Forces, or keep pace with the expected need for growth to combat ongoing health care fraud."


...Other projects that HHS OIG planned for 2013 but have been canceled include:

An audit of computer systems security for the ACA insurance exchanges;
• An investigation of nursing homes to determine possible overuse of controversial antipsychotic treatments;
• An analysis of efforts by state governments and Medicaid managed care groups to uncover fraud and abuse;
• A probe of pharmaceutical drugs that are being marketed under the Medicare Part D program without FDA's clearance for safety and effectiveness; and
• An investigation into fraudulent suppliers of high-cost durable medical equipment.

The chart above comes to us from the HHS itself (PDF). Its spending goes up every year and includes incredible waste and fraud. The official numbers say the HHS is spending half a billion dollars on "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control" (up more than double), $289 million on its "headquarters" building and administrative staff (up 50 percent), and another half a billion on a separate "Center for Tobacco Products" (up more than double).

But there's not enough money to secure the private health care information of the American people.

It's never enough. Never. And don't ask how many of these billions of dollars are going into the pockets of public sector union employees who vote overwhelmingly Democrat. Put simply, the federal government is the Democrat Party. They are one and the same. And no amount of taxpayer money will ever be enough.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

Surprise: Republican White Guy Beats Hispanic Female Progressive in Mostly Latino California District

How many elections does Karl Rove have to lose before he and the rest of the Beltway elites learn that pandering to different ethnic groups is a losing proposition? That liberty, private property rights, low taxes, and economic opportunity resonate with all people, regardless of race, color or religion?

A Republican in California won a state Senate seat on Wednesday in a District in which Democrats have a 22-point advantage and that is 60% Hispanic...

Andy Vidak, the Republican farmer, won the special election runoff for the 16th District Senate seat when his opponent, Democrat Leticia Perez, a Kern County Supervisor, conceded on Wednesday ... Vidak, a working class candidate, resonated with working class Hispanics in the district who also saw how coastal California elites were not putting their bread-and-butter interests first...


Vidak ran broadly on "the bifurcation of California: the coastal liberal elites versus the Valley folks." On a more local level, Vidak's theme of "fish versus farmer" resonated with Democrats in a District where the unemployment rate is 15% and as high as 30% in some communities in the District. Vidak reminded voters that liberal environmentalists, in order to protect fish, only allowed farmers to receive 20% of their water allocation, crippling the region's economy. He also stressed that Perez supported the the state's high-speed rail project that would have razed business, farms, and homes in the District. Because she supported the agenda of coastal elites and Democrat interest groups, Perez was able to raise twice as much money as Vidak, but 16th District voters ultimately rejected her liberal policies.

It is often said that California is a harbinger of things to come for the country. For Republicans looking at California, there has not been much of hope of late, but Vidak's victory could be a sign that areas that have traditionally voted for Democrats may give the right kind of Republican a chance as they see unemployment rates increase and opportunities for upward mobility decrease in their communities.

But apparently this lesson is too difficult for Karl Rove and the rest of the K Street consultant class to grasp.


Hat tip: Mark Levin Show

SOMEONE TELL JOHN BOEHNER AND KARL ROVE: The Case for Stopping ObamaCare is at an All-Time High

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Health Overhaul: Republicans are fighting over a government shutdown when they should be telling a receptive public that if ObamaCare takes effect, the result will be massive taxpayer fraud and privacy violations.

News accounts have focused on GOP threats to block any ObamaCare implementation funds in next year's spending bills, even if that risks a presidential veto and a government shutdown.

That, naturally, has sparked a public debate among Republicans not over the merits of stopping ObamaCare, but over the political fallout of such a high-stakes face-off. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., called it "the dumbest idea I've ever heard."

But while the political risks of such a strategy are no doubt real, the risks to the public should the law go forward are even greater. Put simply: If ObamaCare goes into effect on Oct. 1, the result will be fraud and abuse on a monumental scale. Here's why:

In its rush to meet ObamaCare's deadlines, the administration gutted the law's verification requirements. The ObamaCare exchanges are supposed to verify eligibility and income information provided by applicants before handing out billions in taxpayer subsidies.

Not anymore. Instead, the exchanges can just take the applicant's word for it, creating an open invitation for people to abuse the system by fudging those facts.

Nor is the ObamaCare data hub, which will connect seven other huge federal databases, anywhere near ready. More than a dozen GOP lawmakers complained in a letter to HHS that the hub "has not been tested" and that it's unclear whether it will be "able to protect sensitive health and taxpayer information."

Friday, July 26, 2013

ILLINOIS: If it floats, it's taxed

Look up "death spiral" in the dictionary and there's a picture of Chicago's skyline.

It now costs $6 to kayak, canoe or tube in Illinois


As of July 1, non-motorized watercraft, such as canoes, kayaks, even inner tubes, are required to have a valid "Water Usage Stamp" to float on Illinois lakes, streams and rivers.


State vendors, any business which offers hunting and fishing licenses, will sell the $6 stamp — also referred to as a "Paddle Pass" — plus a 50 cent service fee. Failure to buy one can result in a $120 fine, but it won't be imposed right away. Owners buying stamps for more than three boats at the same time will only be charged $3 for the fourth and subsequent stamps.

The new fee is part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources sustainability bill, which also included the $2 annual auto license plate fee hike added to help restore $18 to $20 million per year of the $50 million per year the agency had lost to recent state budget cuts.

The requirement is new for inner tube floaters, but for other non-powered watercraft like row boats and kayaks, this stamp replaces the need to apply for titles and registration in the state. The fee and sticker also are mandatory for out-of-state floating watercraft.

Not having a stamp could result in a $120 fine.

Chicago, meet Detroit. Detroit, Chicago.


THE OBAMA DEPRESSION: Two People Added to Food Stamp Rolls For Every Job POTUS Claims He Created

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Welfare: SNAP, the U.S. food stamp program, has become a conduit for redistributing wealth and fundamentally transforming America, as welfare recipients now send food overseas and the White House markets to illegals.

While the administration laments the distraction of "phony" scandals like Benghazi and Fast and Furious that leave real Americans dead, it trots out phony statistics about how well the economy is doing.

"And what is absolutely true is that we have come a long way since the depths of the Great Recession," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at a recent press briefing. "We've created over 7.2 million private-sector jobs." How many of those jobs are part-time is one of the many things Carney left out.

Since February 2009, the first full month of Obama's presidency, 9.5 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force. Nearly 90 million working-age Americans are not working today. Doing the math, 1.3 Americans have dropped out of the labor force for every job the administration claims to have created.

At the end of January 2009, 32.2 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aid. As of April 2013, there were 47.5 million Americans on food stamps. Using the White House's job growth number, the 15 million increase in recipients means more than two people went on food stamps for each job the administration says it has created.

That's not the only statistic Carney won't recite.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Gold and the Shabby Secret of the Welfare State

Guest post by Justin Bieber


An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense — perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire — that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.

In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society.

Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions. It is that commodity which serves as a medium of exchange, is universally acceptable to all participants in an exchange economy as payment for their goods or services, and can, therefore, be used as a standard of market value and as a store of value, i.e., as a means of saving.

The existence of such a commodity is a precondition of a division of labor economy. If men did not have some commodity of objective value which was generally acceptable as money, they would have to resort to primitive barter or be forced to live on self-sufficient farms and forgo the inestimable advantages of specialization. If men had no means to store value, i.e., to save, neither long-range planning nor exchange would be possible.

What medium of exchange will be acceptable to all participants in an economy is not determined arbitrarily. First, the medium of exchange should be durable. In a primitive society of meager wealth, wheat might be sufficiently durable to serve as a medium, since all exchanges would occur only during and immediately after the harvest, leaving no value-surplus to store. But where store-of-value considerations are important, as they are in richer, more civilized societies, the medium of exchange must be a durable commodity, usually a metal. A metal is generally chosen because it is homogeneous and divisible: every unit is the same as every other and it can be blended or formed in any quantity. Precious jewels, for example, are neither homogeneous nor divisible. More important, the commodity chosen as a medium must be a luxury. Human desires for luxuries are unlimited and, therefore, luxury goods are always in demand and will always be acceptable. Wheat is a luxury in underfed civilizations, but not in a prosperous society. Cigarettes ordinarily would not serve as money, but they did in post-World War II Europe where they were considered a luxury. The term "luxury good" implies scarcity and high unit value. Having a high unit value, such a good is easily portable; for instance, an ounce of gold is worth a half-ton of pig iron.

In the early stages of a developing money economy, several media of exchange might be used, since a wide variety of commodities would fulfill the foregoing conditions. However, one of the commodities will gradually displace all others, by being more widely acceptable. Preferences on what to hold as a store of value will shift to the most widely acceptable commodity, which, in turn, will make it still more acceptable. The shift is progressive until that commodity becomes the sole medium of exchange. The use of a single medium is highly advantageous for the same reasons that a money economy is superior to a barter economy: it makes exchanges possible on an incalculably wider scale.

Cruz: Hey, Mr. President: You Say You Want to Fix the Economy? Then Defund Obamacare

Guest post by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)


Yesterday President Obama rehashed essentially the same economic speech we’ve heard for years: more government programs, more taxes. He's out of ideas to fix the economy, and unwilling to do what it takes to remedy the harm his policies are inflicting.

Since the President took office, the average rate of annual economic growth has been a paltry 0.9 percent, compared to the historically normal rate of 3.3 percent. If President Obama truly cared about sparking economic growth and bringing opportunity to the American people, he would join the growing chorus of elected leaders calling for full defund of Obamacare – the single strongest step government can take to unshackle jobs, investment, and growth again in America. As James Hoffa of the Teamsters Union put it, Obamacare “will… destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

I am working hard to help lead the effort to defund Obamacare in the next 68 days as part of the next Continuing Resolution, and I would urge the President and his party to join us in a real agenda for jobs and growth.


Hat tip: The Right Scoop.

Mark Levin Transcript: It Would Appear That Boehner "Cut Some Kind Of Deal With Obama" On Benghazi

The peerless Mark Levin weighs in on the weakest House Speaker in decades:

You know, ladies and gentlemen, I hate to say this, but it's right in front of our faces. Obviously, John Boehner does not want to get to the bottom of what took place in Benghazi. It's obvious. He's been asked over and over again by a majority of the Republicans in the House to set up a special investigative committee as is the tradition in these types of investigations. So you concentrate expertise and resources and time in one special committee rather than multiple committees that are also investigating other matters and overseeing other matters and handling bills and so forth.

So, it's as if the Speaker of the House, the Republican Speaker of the House, doesn't want to get to the bottom of this. And I suppose his brain trust, Eric Cantor -- by the way, Eric Cantor is on this "Lecture America Tour" about why illegal immigration is a wonderful thing for this country. Is he stopping in anybody's neighborhood? I haven't heard anything about it, have you Mr. Producer? He such a voice out there -- in the wilderness, where he belongs. But, anyway, it's obvious at this point, ladies and gentlemen, that we have to draw a very sad conclusion: John Boehner does not want to know what took place in Benghazi on that horrific day. And I'm honestly starting to think that he's cut some kind of deal with Obama, because why else would he do this?

Obama has never answered for approximately eight-and-a-half hours of inaction, and I contend that he went to sleep. He's never answered for this. And it goes on and it goes on. It's preposterous that we can't find out from the president of the United States, the Commander in Chief, whose going to be running all around the country lecturing us, telling us why our economic system sucks, why we should replace it with a top-down tyrannical-type of economic system, why we have to listen to his spokesidiot, this guy Carney, dismiss any serious questions that are asked. I mean, what the hell is this? Is this a joke? I feel like we're living through a nightmare here.

So the greatest secret on the planet right now is what Obama was doing during eight-and-a-half hours when our consulate was under attack, our ambassador being slaughtered, two ex-SEALs coming to his rescue being slaughtered, and the security/information individual, gentlemen, being slaughtered. And we can't get an answer. And John Boehner doesn't want an answer, because John Boehner is what stands between setting up a special investigative committee and not.

And God bless this Frank Wolf from Virginia who will not take 'no' for an answer. He just continues to press and press and press, and Wolf is not some kind of rebel. He wants to get to the bottom of this. And why should this be partisan? Why should it be political? And why the hell should the Republican Speaker of the House obstruct the investigation? So the time for mincing words -- not that I do, but others do -- the time for mincing words is over.

John Boehner does not want to get to what's going on in Benghazi, or what took place, and he simply doesn't give a damn. And he's very, very busy, ladies and gentlemen, scheming in the shadows trying to figure out how to give tens of millions of illegal aliens a 'pathway to citizenship' so that they can vote 8-to-1 Democrat. This is the kind of insanity that we're dealing with. And believe me, it is insanity.

What can we do about Boehner? Well, here's one proposal.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

SKIN IN THE GAME: Obama Will Veto Defense Appropriations Bill Unless Health Premiums for Vets are Hiked

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Politics: A veto of the defense authorization bill is threatened unless the president gets his way. He wants health care insurance premiums and co-pays increased for troops and scheduled military pay raises to be reduced.

Being used as photo-ops for presidential speeches and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for your country apparently does not exempt our troops from the rising health care premiums that President Obama said, along with sea levels, would not rise under his administration. The next time a soldier hears "give me 50," it might be dollars and not push-ups.

The White House has threatened to veto the 2014 Defense Appropriations Act in part because it does not increase premiums and co-pays associated with Tricare, the Pentagon's in-house health system, and because it proposes a 1.8% pay increase instead of the 1% the administration demands.

Tricare, according to its website, "is the health care program serving Uniformed Service members, retirees and their families worldwide." As the administration pushes for higher health care costs for military personnel, the benefits of unionized civilian defense workers remain unscathed.

Who's up for giving free cell phones to illegals?

I think you can guess the answer to that question: why, the federal government, of course! After all, it ain't their money:

Are you an undocumented immigrant who needs a cell phone? Here’s good news. We’ve just published The Undocumented Immigrant’s Guide to Free Government Cell Phones.
Much to our surprise, there are no regulations that prohibit undocumented immigrants from getting these phones.

In fact, based on our research we assume many undocumented immigrants are already using the free government cell phone program to help land jobs, to keep in touch with doctors and other medical professionals, to stay in touch with their family, and to reach 911 in emergency situations.

The Undocumented Immigrant’s Guide to Free Government Cell Phones will teach you everything you need to know to get your own free cell phone, thanks to the generous U.S. government. It’s not illegal. You just have to know the rules.

This administration makes Nixon look like an Eagle Scout.


Hat tip: Dan.