Archive for July, 2010
Gingrich on the Islamic Terrorist Threat
Posted by Tom in Defense, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Military Policy, Terrorism on July 23, 2010
MSM-Corrupt to the Core
Journal-Gate Big Time: Investors Business Daily posted a hot editorial yesterday, The Smoking Gun For Media Bias. It exposes the secret list of main stream media conspirators maintained by the Washington Post. The conspiracy is to distort the news, protect and promote leftist progressive agendas and advocates, like Hussein Obama.
“Some of its media members and participants: WaPo’s Ezra Klein and David Weigel. Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent. Ryan Donmoyer of Bloomberg. Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon, and the New Republic. In all there are about 400 members, a veritable who’s who of the left-wing journalistic pseudo intellectuals!
They plotted to protect Hussein from the ill effects of Reverend Wright’s preaching hatred for America. They plotted to characterize the Tea Party as Nazi. They continually plot to push socialism and leftists causes.
“Some comments are just plain hateful. Sarah Spitz, a National Public Radio producer, wrote about what she’d do if she saw conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh stricken with a heart attack: “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out.”. Nice, And remember, you pay part of her salary through taxes.”
“When the debate turns to Fox TV, Journolisters become positively unhinged, recommending that the full power and force of the federal government be used to shut up the one network that dares to present center-right viewpoints in its programming.
“UCLA law professor Jonathan Zasloff asked on Journolist: “I hate to open this can of worms, but is there any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?”
“Yes, “professor,” there is a reason: It’s the First Amendment.”
As the editorial points out, truth is abandon in favor of political activism. This expose’ is a must read.
July Hayek Dinner: State of the Economy
Posted by Tom in Centrally Managed Economy, Deficit, Economics, Employment, Financial Crisis, Financial Policy, Government Regulation, Individual Freedom, Monetary Policy, National Character, National Debt, Statism, Yucca Mountain on July 21, 2010
Our thanks to Tom Cargill for the excellent presentation last evening and to Jerry O’Driscoll for arranging the meeting in my absence.
Jerry opened with a snapshot on employment trends from selected countries since 2008. The US is at the bottom of the pile and trending down!
Tom picked it up from there with a quick look back on the first decade of this century focusing on four remarkable points: 1. US homeland is vulnerable to attack since 911; the first since the war of 1812. 2. Critics of the market are strong despite the increase in standard of living in the last quarter century. 3. Failures of the welfare state notwithstanding, the US is moving toward socialism. And, 4. the political force toward socialism can be traced to our current great recession.
Technically, the recession is still in full force. The question is what kind of recovery will come, weak flat “U” or “J,” or a double dip. Ten key points are apparent:
- the US has not seen more economic, financial, and political distress since the Great Depression.
- our recession was not caused by market failure but mainly by government failure, both monetary with low rates too long and fiscally with housing policies of Fannie-Freddie.
- yet, the public hypnotized by Obama rhetoric believes market failure was the cause.
- admittedly, the $700 billion financial bailout was necessary to prevent a liquidity crisis.
- but the five “stimulus” packages ignored history and had a negative effect, negative Keynesian multiplier, on the GDP. Wasteful spending directed to leftist programs.
- while we now see some GDP growth, the private sector is not creating jobs and budget pressures will force a decline in public sector employment.
- the private market is not creating jobs due to the great uncertainty of the rules of the game; we are going to state directed allocation of resources not market directed allocation.
- Adam Smith calls man an economic animal, “truck, barter, and exchange” but the uncertainty of the rules creates inefficiencies that lower growth potential.
- the economic game becomes even more uncertain because of the greater role of government; what happens to the chess game if it is announced in the middle of the game that there will be a rule change; Obama is regularly announcing rule changes to come!
- QED, the most likely “recovery” is a flat “J” over the next several years with a chance of a double dip.
Tom now thinks the chance of a double dip is 50/50, an increase from his earlier thinking. Potential economic shocks which will push toward a double dip are: the dramatic increase in taxes next year, and the questionable stability of the European Union. The current divergence in fiscal policy between the overspending US and the rapid austerity in Europe may well be a third negative shock. Tom concluded saying that only a change in the US congress and administration will offer hope of a solid recovery.
We thank Beth Powers and her crew for her comments and patriotic efforts with LibertyInAmerica.org. Please consider a donation to help continue the fine bus treck.
John Dunn provided a positive report on Yucca mountain efforts, see NV4CFE.org.
Finally, our thanks to Mike Herring for treating the group to dinner and drinks, this an an inducement to make contributions to Sharron Angle’s campaign to retire Dirty Harry.
Steve Wynn on the Leftist Democrats Killing the Economy
Posted by Tom in Business, Centrally Managed Economy, Congress, Democrats, Economics, Government Regulation, National Debt, Statism on July 21, 2010
This CNBC interview with Steve Wynn is well worth your time:
Nevada-Just Fell Off the Turnip Truck
Nevada is the sucker state, the dummy state that gets conned by every one else. But it’s the Democrats and Harry Reid’s one of the worst, who promote the con artist and take advantage of the poor constituents in Nevada. Here are a few examples:
- Nevada is ranked at or near the botton of all states in federal spending in the state. For every one dollar in federal taxes sent to Washington, Nevada gets only 65 cents in federal spending. Thanks Harry, you’re doing a bang up job.
- Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 13.7%, higher than Michigan the home of Government Motors! I guess Nevada taxpayers should be happy that Obama and Reid purchased a car company for them in Michigan.
- Of course, old Harry does his best to kill jobs in Nevada. Besides supporting the Community Organizer in Chief while the latter slams gaming in Las Vegas, Harry has done his best to kill Yucca Mountain along with all the storage, reprocessing, electrical production and research jobs that could bring new industry to this state. Way to go Reid.
- And this, as if the Nevada world isn’t upside down enough, Nevada Tops the List on Federal Lobbyist Spending, Near the Bottom On Returns, a Sean Whaley post showing how really stupid our politicians are. Seems that state agencies spent $1.7 million in taxpayer money last year and got virtually nothing for it. Nevada ranked number 7 of the 900 government entities lobbying in DC. Given the fact that your senior senator is doing nothing for you but killing jobs, an argument can be made for such gross extravagance.
The worst thing about Harry though is that he is stealing from my children and grandchildren, stealing their future by crushing them in unsustainable debt, Obamacare and Multi-Stimulus bills being prime examples. This is the height of inter-generational immorality.
Ya know, Harry has done more for Nebraska with the “Cornhusker Kickback” than he has for Nevada!
The sooner we rid ourselves of this pond scum, the better off we will be.
Paul Ryan: Fork in Road
Posted by Tom in Business, Centrally Managed Economy, Economics, National Character, Statism on July 16, 2010
You can’t say it any better than Paul Ryan.
Hussein’s Manipulation of Justice
The Department of Justice is supposed to be the most independent of all cabinet offices. Rightly so, since it has the power to investigate, to indict, and to prosecute. It is an awesome power, a power of trust, discretion and justice. It alone is the power not to prosecute after investigation, to nol pros. It is as close to the judicial power as power can get. It has traditionally been independent.
Enter Hussein and Eric Holder, gofer to Hussein. In the face of uncontroverted evidence of voter intimidation and against the advice of local, career Justice Department attorneys, Holder refuses to take a default, that’s uncontested, judgement against the Black Panthers. Why? Political motivation in Justice? Oh, are the Black Panthers black?
As bad, Hussein Obama ordered Holder to file a lawsuit against Arizona for its law enforcing federal law. Legally most experts agree that the lawsuit has no merit. No matter, it’s politics. Hussein while not having read the Arizona law, and refusing to enforce the federal law, is currying favor with the illegals who he hopes will vote, yes vote, for his leftists Democrats, excuse me, progressive Democrats!
Kris Kobach in his NY Post piece today, Behind US v. Arizona: pure politics, tells it like it is.
What a horrible degradation of justice in this country. It is easy to forecast trials like those in Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Nazi Germany coming here soon. Speak against Hussein at your own risk! His misuse of justice for political purposes knows no bounds.
Pray that we will be rid of this ilk in the next election.
America’s Twilight? Or, Is There Anyway Out?
Posted by Tom in Defense, Economics, Foreign Policy, Military Policy on July 8, 2010
Niall Ferguson’s discussion of the Future of America’s Economy was recently given at the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival. It is brilliant and I would embed it here but am unable to do so, thus I link it and strongly commend it. As a financial historian teaching at Harvard, he asks whether the Western Ascendency is finished. He reviews the empirical evidence supporting that proposition. And, it is strong.
“My working assumption is that the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007…has accelerated a fundamental shift in the economic balance of power. Even before the crisis, Jim O’Neill and his team at Goldman Sachs were forecasting that China’s gross domestic product would exceed that of the United States in 2027 at half past four on October the 15th, which is just a little pinch of salt to remind you that all such projections need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Still, whether it’s 2027, ’28, ’29 or ’30, the interesting thing is the first time they made that projection, they thought it would be 2040. Every time I see Jim, I say, “Have you moved the date forward yet?” because he made that 2027 call before the financial crisis.
“The financial crisis unquestionably has hit the United States much harder than China. Their stimulus worked much better than ours…The first point I just want to put out there is: it’s hard to believe, under these circumstances, that the acceleration, the shift, if you’d like, from West to East hasn’t been speeded up by this crisis.
“The second point is: Of course, power is not just about GDP. It’s not just about the economy. Power is also about the ability to project hard power through military means. And some people in Washington like to comfort themselves by saying, “We can still do that way more than they can. Count their aircraft carriers, count ours.”
“But one point that follows from the financial crisis which is terribly, terribly important is that by combating our crisis of private debt with an extraordinary expansion of public debt, we inevitably are going to reduce the resources available for national security in the years ahead. Because as the debt grows, so the interest payments you have to make on it grow, even if interest rates stay low. And on current projections, the federal debt is going to be absorbing around 20 percent, a fifth of all the taxes you pay, within just a few years. The item of discretionary federal expenditure most likely to be squeezed is, of course, defense. And there are lots of historic precedents for that. So, I fear that the financial crisis doesn’t just impact on the economy. It actually impacts on American power in the hardest sense.”
This is just a taste, and he does offer some hope, so I won’t spoil his offering but suggest you link to the talk.
Art Laffer’s Lesson in Economics
Posted by Tom in Centrally Managed Economy, Deficit, Economics, Entitlements, National Debt, Stimulus/Bailout on July 8, 2010
Hussein Obama wants to borrow another $50 Billion on the backs of our grandchildren to extend unemployment benefits. Hasn’t worked so far but Obama wants to keep trying! Art Laffer says it reduces incentives to find work.
In a well-reasoned WSJ op ed, Unemployment Benefits Aren’t Stimulus, Laffer shows that welfare makes work less attractive. Historically he charts the unemployment rate against the unemployment benefits:
“While the unemployed may spend more as a result of higher unemployment benefits, those people from whom the resources are taken will spend less. In an economy, the income effects from a transfer payment always sum to zero. Quite simply, there is no stimulus from higher unemployment benefits.
“Given the massive inefficiencies the government creates in securing resources from the private sector, there may also be a large negative income effect over wide ranges of stimulus spending. This is the proverbial “toll for the troll.” These massive inefficiencies could lead to lower output.
“To see these effects clearly, imagine a two person economy in which one of the two people is paid for being unemployed. From whom do you think the unemployment benefits are taken? The other person obviously. While the one person who is unemployed may “buy” more as a result of unemployment benefits, the other person from whom the unemployment sums are taken will “buy” less. There is no stimulus for the economy.”
Art concludes by saying the $3.6 Trillion already spent would have better been used as an 18 month tax holiday! I disagree with this, time limited tax relief begets time distorted economic activity. Permanent entitlement cuts along with permanent tax cuts are what’s needed to restore economic and fiscal sanity.
A Vet Slams Kagan’s Treatment of Military at Harvard
Posted by Tom in Military Policy, Supreme Court on July 7, 2010
Capt. Pete Hegseth Testifies about Kegan’s intellectual, moral and patriotic dishonesty. She is Hussein Obama’s perfect soulmaate!