Tag: Economy

Video: Robert Welch 'Solutions to problems in the Government'

The last time I posted anything related to the John Birch Society on this Blog; my hits just about went off the charts. My servers had smoke rolling out of them and I could have sworn that I heard that said server yelping a bit in agony. Okay, the second part was not true. Nevertheless, there were a good deal of people, that were very highly interested in that video; and this was before this blog really even took off.

This is Robert Welch, he was the founder of the John Birch Society. Contrary to what people like, Rachel Maddow might think; the JBS is not what the liberals and some Conservatives like to think that it is. Here is Mr. Welch giving a speech in 1974 telling of the goals of the Society. Now, honestly, where have you heard this stuff before? If you said Ron Paul in 2008, you get a gold star, if you say the majority of Conservatives TODAY; you get another big gold star. As old as this video is; its contents are timely, considering the mess that we are in today.

The second group of videos are a reposting of some videos that I have posted here before and a few new ones. The first is the actual story John Birch, the second is the founder of the JBS giving a outline of what the JBS is truly all about. The rest are various related to the subject at hand. Some are dated, some, are quite timely.

Editor & Publisher to Cease Publication

This is sad story and I do mean that in quite the big way. It appears that Editor & Publisher, which has been in business since 1884 is going out of business; that is unless someone steps forward, buys the magazine, and begins to sell it. There are a number of things, which one could blame — bad economy, changing times, and so forth. I guess some of you might think that I am delighted to see this happening. Well, let me publicly say that nothing and I mean nothing could be further from the truth. As a Conservative, I believe in the first amendment — even when I do not agree with those who do not share my political stance and views. Editor & Publisher has fought for the first amendment right of publishers for years, and I commend them for the service to the media community.

It is has been said by those in the establishment and corporate media world, that bloggers like me do not respect those in the mainstream media. This, in my case, at least is not true at all. Truth is folks, if it were not for the Fourth Estate; we bloggers would have nothing to write about, at all. Therefore, it does bring me great sadness to hear that one of the trade publications for the old media is closing its doors for good. I am very hopeful that someone out there, who is in a position to buy this trade publication out and enable it to continue for many years to come. Because allowing E & P to slip into the sundry bounds of historic memory would be, I feel with the greatest of convictions, a grave tragedy.

I wish all of the editors and staff of E & P all of the very best and I hope that somehow, someway that E & P is able to remain with us.

College Student to Obama "Hey, Why not legalize drugs and Prostitution to help the economy?"

A pretty funny follow up to my last posting. (and now for my next magical trick.. *chuckle* *snicker *grin*)

Here’s the video, which comes via AllahPundit:

Of course, if the United States was Governed by Libertarians; this would already be the case. But as long as we have the nazi fascist religious right running things, there will always be drug laws. But eh, those are the breaks I suppose. Got to give the kid credit, he does have guts, I would have never asked anything like that to a teacher — much less the President! 😯

Memo to General Motors: Good Going Douche Nozzles!

Ed Morrissey and I have not agreed much on G.M. and the status of the bail outs that they received from the Government. But it appears, that for a change, I agree with Ed; mark your calendars, because this does not happen often.  Ed reports over on HotAir, that General Motors has taken the money, that was funded by taxpayers; like Ed, Me, and yes, you and has spent it —- overseas.  Needless to say, there some lawmakers that are not very happy about it either.

ABC NEWS Reports:

Specifically, at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate has soared to levels not seen in decades and GM is cutting thousands of U.S. jobs, the company’s CEO is considering spending millions from its U.S. coffers — fattened by $50 billion in taxpayer aid — on its overseas operations, a possibility that has outraged critics and lawmakers.

“I don’t think most Americans believe that when the taxpayer bailouts were happening it was intended for that purpose,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. “It was intended to protect the American economy — not take the money overseas.”

GM’s Chief Executive Fritz Henderson recently announced that the bailed-out automaker might use its U.S. funds to help restructure its European unit Opel, noting that the financing agreements with the Treasury for the $34 billion of bailout funds already spent allow GM to spend any subsequently earned funds as its executives see fit. Some $16 billion remaining after its bankruptcy has strings attached.

[…]

GM has other plans to expand its business abroad. In August, GM China announced a $293 million venture, while last month GM South Korea announced a new infusion of more than $400 million. The automaker also recently inaugurated a $300 million transmission plant in Mexico.

So, is General Motors making money here in America? Uh, No.

General Motors Co. says it lost $1.2 billion from the time it left bankruptcy protection through Sept. 30, far better than previous quarters and a sign that the auto giant is starting to turn around.

….and how’s that account going?:

Chief Financial Officer Ray Young cautioned that the second- and third-quarter figures don’t comply with U.S. accounting standards and shouldn’t be compared with previous earnings.

GM says it is re-valuing its assets and liabilities and should comply with accounting standards next year.

Ouch.

While I was at the doctors with my Dad earlier today; I happened to mention this to him and another gentleman that worked at the same plant as my Father. Needless to say, their reaction to this was less than, um, shall we say, happy? My Dad replied in terms that I cannot write on this blog. To say that both of those guys were a bit ticked, would be an understatement.

Ed Morrissey cracks:

Let’s get this straight.  GM gets tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money and gets an Obama-managed bankruptcy — and stops complying with accounting standards?  My goodness, they really are Government Motors!

In the past, I have given Ed Morrissey a bit of a hassle when he would criticize the auto workers and to an extent the Auto Companies. However, I feel this criticism is much warranted.  Call it a hunch, but I tend to believe that the U.A.W. and the workers at the various G.M. plants, especially the one’s here in Michigan; are not going to be too thrilled that the company is taking it’s money and investing overseas; instead of investing it here, where the jobs are actually needed.  No matter how you slice it; this was an extremely boneheaded move on the part of General Motors and it deserves the criticism it receives from ALL quarters.

Hey America, Welcome to my World!

Just wanted to be nice about it.

Welcome to my World!

Via The Old Grey Lady:

The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September, the Department of Labor said Friday in its monthly economic appraisal.

While the pace of job losses has slowed significantly since the peak of the recession last winter, the unemployment rate, which measures the number of people actively seeking work, continues to climb, and economists do not foresee relief until well into next year.

“There’s no doubt that the slashing and burning of jobs has abated quite a lot,” said Allen L. Sinai, the founder of Decision Economics, a research firm. “The economy is recovering, but it is a very soft recovery.”

The biggest losses came in the construction, manufacturing and retailing sectors. Health care companies added 29,000 jobs to their payrolls, and the number of temporary workers increased by 34,000 — a significant gain that could indicate employers are beginning to expand their businesses again.

The Labor Department also revised September’s losses to 219,000 from 263,000.

Dean Baker, a director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said he did not expect declining unemployment rates until next spring. “We may be looking at very high levels,” Mr. Baker said, “barring a policy response, for several years into the future.”

Um, Why should there be any policy response? I believe that we are already tapping our resources to the limit now.

On Thursday, in anticipation of the unemployment report, Congress overwhelmingly voted to extend benefits for jobless workers for up to 20 weeks. That will soothe the short-term financial pain of many families, but demands for a new wave of government relief may intensify if companies continue to cut back.

Yes, let’s encourage people NOT to look for a job and continue to spend ourselves into a hole; by being a nanny state.

So far, the federal stimulus package has injected billions into local economies, giving states money, for instance, to finance construction projects or retain teachers. The housing and auto sectors have been propped up with government credits meant to encourage spending. But weak consumer demand and hefty labor costs are still forcing many employers to cut positions and reduce hours to survive.

So much for Hope and change!

The article goes on trying to defend President Obama, which is so typical for the New York Times, but it is quite obvious, this President has failed on all fronts, the stimulus, the bailouts —- everything. He is, in fact, a black Jimmy Carter.

Ed Morrissey says:

This is now Obama’s economy.  He owns the double-digit unemployment level, having bought it with the $787 billion stimulus plan that he promised would keep unemployment no higher than 8%.

I agree with that. Obama simply continued the bailouts that President Bush started, which was a huge mistake.

The AP Reports:

But the loss of jobs last month exceeded economists’ estimates. It’s the 22nd straight month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating back 70 years.

Counting those who have settled for part-time jobs or stopped looking for work, the unemployment rate would be 17.5 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.

Now, if I were a partisan Blogger, I would simply sit here and blame Obama for it all. However, I am a bit more smarter than this. This all goes to Carter and then to Clinton. This video from the Wayne County Republicans will explain:

These unemployment numbers are just a ripple effect of all of this. Bush had a hand in it, as well as Obama. This is what happens when you elect faux Conservatives as Republicans and it is what happens when you elect Socialists.


Think all this spending and Healthcare won't raise your Taxes?

Think again…

This comes via the Tax Prof:

taxes1

taxes2

Q & O chimes in:

So when you hear that all this new spending, which will indeed raise the deficit, won’t raise your taxes by a single “dime”, you can believe it if you wish. But that doesn’t mean it is true.  And it certainly doesn’t mean Democrats can keep that promise.  Because if they do, they’re simply kicking the same can down the road that Republicans have for years (and no, I’m not advocating massive tax increases, I’m just providing a little reality check to counter the nonsense the politicians continue to spout).   The alternative to the tax rates above is to cut spending – drastically.  If you see that on the horizon you’re the only one because Congress just raised the debt ceiling – again.

Where this means anything to me, is this. Not only would they have to raise taxes on the very wealthy. They would have to raise on people who are middle class and poor as well. So, as many Conservative Bloggers have pointed out in the past; when a Nation engages in statism and enacts those sort of policies —- everyone pays. From the very wealthy, to the extremely poor. You also pay with the loss of your liberty; what which is something that the statist socialist liberal Democrats find to be a quaint idea, that needs to be modernized.

A text book example of why Keynesian economics does not work

I have said it a thousand times on this blog. Pumping excessive currency into the money supply results in a devalued currency.

Well, this is the fall out from our President pumping currency into the money supply. Now those who trade oil want to stop using the dollar as their currency.

The Story Via the U.K. Independent:

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China’s former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. “Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable,” he told the Asia and Africa Review. “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.”

Ron Paul, of whom I have some disagreements on Foreign policy, has said since he was running for President and even prior to that; that what we are doing to our Economy is the moral equivalent of economic Jones-town massacre mass suicide —- and it turns out that the man was and still is absolutely correct.

Of course, the oil traders are denying that this is taking place; but of course! The last thing that they want is a mass panic by market investors!

Via Fox News:

The world’s oil producers will continue using the U.S. dollar as the currency for buying and selling crude, high-ranking oil and finance officials in the Gulf said on Tuesday, denying a report in a British newspaper.

Earlier, The Independent reported that Gulf Arab states, as well as China, Russia, Japan and France, are in secret talks to end the use of the U.S. dollar to trade oil, causing the American currency to fall in overseas trading Tuesday.

Qatar’s oil minister, Kuwait’s finance minister and sources in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi central banks all denied the report.

The Independent report is “absolutely incorrect” and there has been “absolutely nothing” of that nature discussed between Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and other countries, Saudi Central Bank Governor Muhammad al-Jasser told reporters in Istanbul.

We did not discuss this at all,” Russia’s deputy finance minister Dmitry Pankin said on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund meeting.

The newspaper report said, “Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.”

Lew Rockwell‘s Reaction to the story was not entirely surprising at all:

Though conservatives call this important story “Arabs Plot to Drop the Dollar,” it’s simply self-defense. Or are other peoples just supposed to be kicked in the teeth by the Fed and like it? China, Russia, Japan, France, and Gulf Arab states seek to substitute for the dollar in oil transactions a basket of currencies including the yen, the yuan, the euro, and gold. Heroic. I’d like to use that myself. In fact, why isn’t the Fed’s crazed monetary expansion called a plot to harm others and regular Americans, to the benefit of the US state and its bankster and corporate allies? And if it does indicate another step in “The Demise of the Dollar,” all the fault is in Washington, DC–as usual.

UPDATE From Ryan Cowles:

In light of this, see Ron Paul’s 2006 article on Dollar Hegemony

I could not have said it better myself. 🙂

A funny reaction from Vinnie over at the Jawa Report:

Oh well, I’m good. It takes me 3 minutes to drive to work in traffic. If they go off the dollar in the Scotch industry though, I’m taking up arms.

Heh. In my case, if they go off the dollar in steaks or in coffee; it’s on baby. You can ream my butt for Gas… Hell, I usually just put in five or so bucks to get me around town. Considering the fact, that I drive a piece of crap clunker. But we start fiddling around with my caffeine jolt, or my monthly or so splurge on a good steak; there will be war.

Sammy over at Yid with A Lid quips:

But wait a second this cant happen, don’t they know that Barack Obama is our president, they love him.

Yeah, They love him alright; with that knife behind their backs. If ol’ Big “O” thinks because he’s black and got a funny middle name, is going to stop the Arab Nations from royally screwing America. The President has another thing coming. The Arab nations have hated us; for taking their resources for decades, that goes back to before the President; and myself for that matter, were even born. So, the socialist liberals cannot scream BOOOOSH on this one. This even predates him too.

William Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection writes:

I would like to think someone in the Obama administration would be concerned, but honest reflection leads only to the conclusion that the lowering of U.S. international power will be music to Obama’s ears. He never misses an opportunity to lecture the world about the evils of domination by any one country, by which he means the United States.

A fiddler who is not oblivious to the fire, by any means.

So true, I mean, I have followed politics with some sort of interest since I started voting when I was 18 and I never, ever heard a President apologize for America, Ever. In another time period, President Obama would have been impeached for treason for saying something like that in another Country. But in this day of socialistic rule; nothing happens at all.

I guess time will tell on this one; if it happens, the results will be devastating to our economy. Let us home, for the sake of America, that this is nothing more than poorly sourced rumor story.

The Round Up: Fox News, The Moderate Voice, Guardian, Left Coast Rebel, Credit Writedowns, naked capitalism, Another Black Conservative, ParaPundit, Mish’s Global Economic …, YID With LID, RedState, Townhall.com, The Jawa Report, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and LewRockwell.com Blog (via Memeorandum)

Does President Obama want to impose a VAT tax?

Great, that is all we need. 🙄

(H/T to Reason)

Does President Obama have a secret plan to raise taxes on middle-class Americans — and,well, pretty much everybody else — with a European-style, value-added tax? Actually, it’s not such a big secret. Connect the dots:

1) The joint statement from the just-concluded G20 Summit in Pittsburgh called for balanced global growth — which means Americans must spend less and save more and reduce its budget deficit.

2) That same weekend, John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama’s presidential transition team and an outside White House adviser, tells a Bloomberg reporter that a value-added tax is “more plausible today” than ever, adding that “there’s going to have to be revenue in this budget.” A VAT is a kind of consumption tax.

3) Yesterday, the Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank with close White House ties, holds a conference on the rising national debt. While speaker after speaker — Paul Krugman, Roger Altman, CAP President Podesta (again), Laura Tyson — admits entitlement spending must be reduced, they also agree that taxes must be raised. Altman suggests $400 billion in new tax revenue is needed almost immediately to calm financial market fears, and a VAT would be a great way of doing it. That’s $400 billion a year, by the way, not over ten years.

4) Also, yesterday was the first meeting of President Obama’s tax reform panel led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. In a two-part interview with Charlie Rose airing yesterday and today, Volcker says that if Washington can’t get spending under control, either a VAT or a carbon tax would be effective revenue raisers. “Those are two big ones,” he says.

5) As they used to say in the Soviet Union, “It’s no coincidence.” This is also the conclusion of one Washington insider with ties to the White House economic team: “Does this all add up to a trial balloon? Of course, it’s a trial balloon. And I expect the administration will propose major tax reform, including a VAT.”

via James Pethokoukis – Obama’s not-so-secret plan to raise taxes

Terrific. First Obama wants to shove healthcare down our throats and then he wants to tax the living hell out of us; to pay for it. Fantastic. 🙄

Somewhere, John McCain is smiling. Because he warned America, that if they elected Obama to be President; that this would be the result. Did America listen? Of course not. Because of mean ol’ Bush; people wanted change. While I can understand the desire for change. But did America want this sort of change? Of course not. However, elections have consequences; and this is one of them.

Realistically however, I doubt that the White House would be able to get something of this nature. It just does not seem feasible. The reason being that Congress knows that they are on borrowed time.  The midterms are coming; and I highly doubt that anyone in Congress would be that crazy to try and pass anything of this nature. Heck, there already is great infighting over the “Public Option” in that healthcare bill. So, this would even lead to more that.

So, while it would not hurt to be vigil for something of this nature. I highly doubt that the Democrats are going to attempt to do something this hair-brained.

Ron Paul on the Fed

(H/T to the Daily Paul)

Okay, I will be the first to admit it; I do NOT agree with Ron Paul on Foreign Policy.

But he sure makes a hell of a great deal of sense; when it comes to economic policy.

Here he is on Bloomberg TV:

While I personally believe some of his followers are a bit goofy. The man himself, is another story.

…and let me give this fair warning. First idiot that comes in here and leaves a stupid comment about me being a damn Neo-Conservative will get sent to the damn twit filter so fast, it will make your head swim. 😡