Obamanomics vs. Reaganomics: Destroying the lies about trickle …

dancingczars.wordpress.com2/7/12

This entry was posted in Obamanomics vs. Reaganomics: Destroying the lies about trickle down economics and tagged conservative blog netowrk, Progressives are economic morons, Socialism doesn't, Trickle down works.

Another Record for Obamanomics | Wizbang

wizbangblog.com2/3/12

Another Record for Obamanomics. February 3, 2012 | Filed under Economics,Employment | Posted by Rodney Graves. And like all such records, it's not one that's doing the nation a damn bit of good.

President Obama has frequently justified his policies and judged their outcomes in terms of equity, justice and fairness.

All of which begs an obvious question,

How does our existing system and his own policy record stack up according to those criteria?

1) Is it fair that the richest 1% of Americans pay nearly 40% of all federal income taxes, and the richest 10% pay two-thirds of the tax?

2) Is it fair that the richest 10% of Americans shoulder a higher share of their country’s income tax burden than do the richest 10% in every other industrialized nation, including socialist Sweden?

3) Is it fair that American corporations pay the highest statutory corporate tax rate of all other industrialized nations but Japan, which cuts its rate on April 1?

4) Is it fair that President Obama sends his two daughters to elite private schools that are safer, better-run, and produce higher test scores than public schools in Washington, D.C. while millions of other families across America are denied that free choice and are forced to send their kids to second-rate schools?

5) Is it fair that Americans who build a family business, hire workers, reinvest and save their money—paying a lifetime of federal, state and local taxes often climbing into the millions of dollars must then pay an additional estate tax of 35% (and up to 55% when the law changes next year) when they die, rather than passing that money onto their loved ones?

6) Is it fair that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel and other leading Democrats who preach tax fairness underpaid their own taxes?

7) Is it fair that after the first three years of Obamanomics that the poor are poorer, that the poverty rate is rising, that the middle class is losing income, and some 5.5 million fewer Americans have jobs today than in 2007?

8) Is it fair that roughly 88% of political contributions from supposedly impartial network television reporters, producers and other employees in 2008 went to Democrats?

9) Is it fair that the three counties with America’s highest median family income just happen to be located in the Washington, D.C., metro area?

10) Is it fair that wind, solar and ethanol producers get billions of dollars of subsidies each year and pay virtually no taxes, while the oil and gas industry which provides at least 10 times as much energy pays tens of billions of dollars of taxes while the president complains that it is "subsidized"?

11) Is it fair that those who work full-time jobs, and sometimes more than one in order to make ends meet have to pay taxes to support up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits for those who don’t work?

12 Is it fair that those who took out responsible mortgages and pay them each month have to see their tax dollars used to subsidize those who acted recklessly, greedily and sometimes deceitfully in taking out mortgages they now can’t afford to repay?

13) Is it fair that thousands of workers won’t have jobs because the president sided with environmentalists and blocked the shovel-ready Keystone XL oil pipeline?

14) Is it fair that some of Mr. Obama’s largest campaign contributors received federal loan guarantees on their investments in renewable energy projects that went bust?

15) Is it fair that federal employees receive benefits that are nearly 50% higher than those of private-sector workers whose taxes pay their salaries, according to the Congressional Budget Office?

16) Is it fair that soon almost half the federal budget will take income from young working people and redistribute it to old non-working people, even though those over age 65 are already among the wealthiest Americans?

17) Is it fair that in 27 states workers can be compelled to join a union in order to keep their jobs?

18) Is it fair that nearly four out of 10 American households now pay no federal income tax at all, and is a number that has risen every year under Mr. Obama?

19) Is it fair that Boeing, which is a private company, was threatened by a federal agency when it sought to add jobs in a right-to-work state rather than in a forced-union state?

20) Is it fair that our kids and grandstands and great-grand-kids who never voted for Mr. Obama will have to pay off the $5 trillion of debt accumulated over the past four years, without any benefits to them?

What do you think? Was it fair?

Related posts:

1. Obama Owns The Economy Now
2. What’s The Tax Debate All About?
3. Would Cain’s 999 Have Beeen A Good Thing?

Economic Terrorism: Was the 2008 Collapse Intentional …

conservativebyte.com1/20/12

Economic jihad perhaps. Reply. Big Ugly, Wyoming says: January 20, 2012 at 10:32 am. There is no doubt in my mind that the “Crash of 2008″ was intentional …. orchestrated by Obama's handlers ….. headed by George …

Ireland may be the first EU state to sell Islamic bonds – Jihad Watch

www.jihadwatch.org1/20/12

McCormick Foundation: Shariah, Law and 'Financial Jihad' and How Should America Respond? 1. Recommendation: Enforce and prosecute violations of current laws on disclosure, racketeering, anti-trust, material support for …

Glen Beck talks to Kevin Freeman, the author of the book "Secret Weapon", about economic terror.

I edited the interview because the sound was so low as to be almost inaudible, and the clip was very long.

It seems like economic terror is now an official part of Jihad and its intent is to cause a collapse of the US economy!

Frightening stuff!

If you can’t destroy the US militarily then destroy it economy!

Both the Arabs and George Soros (seems like he’s involved too) have lots of money at their disposal, and their motivation to destroy the US economy is sky-high.

The bottom line is that the dollar and America’s credit rating are under attack, and the attack is very very serious!

So what can be done?

Please post your thoughts and suggestions.

Related posts:

1. The U.S. And The E.U. Are On An Economic Collision Course.
2. The Economic News Is Both Good And Bad
3. Do Socialist Countries Fare Better In An Economic Crisis?

Prison Planet.com » Rick Perry Would Back Israeli Attack On Iran

www.prisonplanet.com11/4/11

29 Responses to “Rick Perry Would Back Israeli Attack On Iran”. Quantummonkeybutt says: November 4, 2011 at 10:24 am. Nobel Peace Prize Winning Barack Obama (a.k.a. 'Baraq 'u Vama'): “War!!!” Perry: “War!!!” …

In Rick Perry's Speeches, a Growing Anti-Washington Theme …

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com11/4/11

As the Cain controversy explodes, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is sticking to economic themes.

The somewhat obvious answer is, most likely, "Yes" to both questions.

But Why?

Dan Henninger categorically says what he thinks the U.S. can learn from Texas

The Texas Economy Is Huge

Rick Perry says that Texas is the most successful state in America and he’s right because Texas’ economic output even exceeds Mexico’s and Australia’s and is close to that of India’s.

Rick Perry has been governor of Texas for nearly eleven years, but does the logic of politics lead us to conclude that the governor of the nation’s most successful state is, ipso facto, the best man to be president of the economically gasping United States?

Texas, unlike California, isn’t America’s most beautiful state, and through October this year parts of Texas had 90 days of 100+ temperatures, yet companies and people keep moving into the high heat of Texas.

From Dan Henniger’s Wonderland

In a preview of his "Wonderland" column, Dan Henninger discusses what he thinks the U.S. can learn from Texas.

In 1990, one of the world’s biggest companies, Exxon Mobil, left New York City for Dallas. Exxon’s former CEO, Lee Raymond, says the move in part was indeed about costs and New York State’s notoriously overbearing tax authority. But it was also about working amid a culture of competence.

"It’s just the attitude in Texas of getting things done and doing them well".

This is about something beyond low taxes and no unions:

"In Texas the people tend to be farmers or individual businessmen, and they have this attitude".

"We have to make do with what we have and work together to get things done and survive".

"It’s can-do and that attitude permeates everything there".

Alan Boeckmann, until recently CEO of Fluor Corp., which is an engineering and construction firm, says:

"Regulatory and legal hassles pushed Fluor out of California. Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley. California had its own version. There were constant class-action suits over Fluor’s benefits. It could have been settled, but not in California. That’s how the game is played there".

And when word of the 2006 move got out.

"California made no attempt to keep us. In Texas, things started to happen quickly, without us initiating them. The Irving Chamber of Commerce did orientation sessions for employees and spouses, even helping with new-house searches, and a street was renamed a street ‘Fluor Drive’, which in California or the Northeast would be laughable".

Smaller Fish Too

Ed Trevis, who is a smaller fish, is also happy.

Ed is a California-educated Brazilian immigrant and tech entrepreneur who operated in Silicon Valley for 25 years and moved Corvalent Corp. to Austin for similar reasons.

He had to hire a firm just to do California’s compliance.

"In California you are always doing something wrong".

"What I found in Texas is that from the standpoint of running a business, cost of living, education, the labor pool, quality of life, it just blew other states out of the water. I heard this constantly. People enjoy being in business in Texas".

More Points Of View

Technology consultant Bob Barker says while taking a visitor around the nearby hills,

"Austin may have more Ph.Ds driving taxis than any city in the country".

Austin’s famed population of big and small technology companies has suffered layoffs.

But Barker says:

"No one wants to leave. They stay, plugging into Austin’s numerous business-support networks. In Austin you discover a primary reason beneath Texas’ success. It’s about competition plus collaboration. It seems everyone in Texas high-tech knows everyone, and if they can help each other, they will".

David Booth, who moved Dimensional Fund Advisors’s headquarters to Austin from Santa Monica in 2008, puts Rick Perry’s role in perspective:

"He understands his job isn’t to get in the middle of everything".

Fluor’s Alan Boeckmann seconded that, and Mr. Booth and others said this is also true of the Texas lieutenant governor, its attorney general and the comptroller.

"They are very supportive of business",

says Lee Raymond,

"In the sense of moving things along. If there is a rock in the road, they want to know what they can do to move it out of the way".

Mr. Booth says:

"This isn’t merely the ‘pro-business’ bias of a Rick Perry or any other governor. Texas’ pro-business bias goes back about 175 years and never died. It’s just that they believe in the whole Horatio Alger myth down here. It’s hard to understand if you haven’t lived here".

Texas Or California?

Obama chose the California model and not the Texas one and look where America’s at!

The Texas mentality would be the same with or without Perry but he gave it free rein rather than bridling it, and it worked.

So This much Should Be Obvious

Texas, not California had better be the American future.

And somewhere inside of him, Rick Perry of Texas understands this distinction.

Related posts:

1. Would Perry Have Been A Good President?
2. What Does Obama Fear The Most?
3. Rick Perry Believes in American Exceptionalism

Herman Cain's 999 Plan Draws Praise, Skepticism – Finance – CBN …

Cain's 999 plan is part of what's propelled him to the front of the GOP field. Although the plan is resonating with voters, it's drawing criticism from economists.

Publish Date: 10/15/2011 2:00

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2011/October/Herman-Cains-999-Plan-Draws-Praise-Skepticism/

Why I Support Herman Cain For President – Forbes

Neon Tommy

Why I Support Herman Cain For President Forbes The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. I have decided to support Herman Cain for president of the United States, and have joined his team of economic advisors. Central to my support are Cain's pro-growth … Cain's 999 Plan A Payoff For Koch SupportLez Get Real Interview with Presidential Candidate Herman CainRealClearPolitics Cain's 9-9-9 Plan: A Step In The Right DirectionNeon Tommy Patch.com -Daily Beast -OpEdNews all 5,377 news articles »

Herman Cain Wants To Kill Our Tax Code!

Herman Caine is the only GOP presidential candidate that wants to do it, and he’s rising super fast in the opinion polls!

The 999 Plan Isn’t Perfect

But like they say,

"Good should never be the enemy of the perfect" – Voltaire

and Rep. Paul Ryan just gave the plan a thumbs-up!

Art Laffer agrees and says,

"It would be far, far better than the current system".

*Arthur Betz Laffer is an American economist who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981–1989).

And Chris Chocola, the president of the free-market Club for Growth, calls it,

"A truly revolutionary tax reform that would amount to a massive job-creating tax cut on investments, savings and income".

What Is Caine’s 999 Plan?

A 9% income-tax rate.

A 9% value-added net sales tax rate on business.

And a 9% national sales tax overall.

The sales tax part has come under attack from both sides of the political spectrum with many conservatives worrying that it will start at 9% and gradually get raised, whilst a good number of Liberals oppose it because they say its regressivity will hurt middle- and low-income people.

* A regressive tax imposes a greater burden, relative to resources, on the poor than on the rich because there is an inverse relationship between the tax rate and the taxpayer’s ability to pay as measured by assets, consumption, or income.

Cain’s Rebuttal Of Sales Tax Criticism

Everybody below the poverty line will be exempt from the sales-tax and the sales of existing goods will be exempt.

The sales tax will pick up revenue and help to lower the rate for everybody, especially the middle class.

And Caine’s economic adviser, Rich Lowrie says that.

"The sales tax is a replacement tax, not an add-on tax like you’d find at the state level. This is a key point. All we are doing is pulling out taxes that are invisible. We’re cutting the rates. We’re putting them back in at lower rates".

Lowrie is referring to the payroll tax, which in the Cain plan will go from 15% to 9% which constitutes a net tax cut and a good deal more transparency regarding costs and prices that are embedded in the current code.

"The 9-9-9 plan will add $2 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product, create 6 million jobs, increase business investment by a third and lift wages by 10%. And if you fold all that growth together, federal revenues go up by 15%", said Lowrie,

Would It Work?

Such a gigantic drop in marginal tax rates for individuals, 35 to 9%, or to 18% including the sales tax, and for businesses also from 35 to 9% would supply an incredibly strong economy-wide growth incentive, and if you’re looking for proof, then you need go no further than the Harding-Coolidge-Mellon tax cuts of the 1920s, the John F. Kennedy tax cuts of the 1960s and the Ronald Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s.

Remember, too, that the Cain tax plan would eliminate the double-tax on saving and investment by removing capital gains, estates and dividends from the tax code.

Given the current economic malaise, which in large part can be traced to the weakened balance sheets and net worths of families suffering from the multi-year slump in stock prices and home values, increasing returns to saving and investment through a much lower marginal tax rate should boost asset values, and might be just what the doctor ordered.

As for businesses, not only would they get a globally super-competitive 9% tax rate, but they’d receive 100% expenses for new purchases of capital equipment.

Gary and Aldona Robbins who once worked at the treasury priced out the Cain plan on a static basis and discovered it to be revenue neutral.

And the models suggests a $26 trillion tax base yielding $2.3 trillion in revenue for a 9.1% overall rate.

No Federal Or State Tax But Just A Sales Tax

I’ve personally yet to have anybody to explain to me why simply having a sales tax instead of ALL the other taxes wouldn’t be fairer.

The rich would spend more than the poor and therefore pay more tax, and what could be simpler than that?!

Tax preparers understandably hate the idea of course because simply having just a sales tax would put around 100,000 out of work.

Related posts:

1. Obama Owns The Economy Now
2. Twenty Questions Obama Needs To Answer
3. Will Youths Blacks And Hispanics Desert Obama?

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Breaks Silence in First Interview Since His …

The former chief of the IMF admitted to a "moral mistake," but denied any violent acts in his interview with France's TF1.

Publish Date: 09/18/2011 23:28

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dominique-strauss-kahn-gives-first-236848

Lawyer for Accuser Calls Strauss-Kahn's Interview a 'Publicity Stunt …

Kenneth Thompson, who represents the housekeeper who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, questioned why the appearance on French TV never covered what happened in the hotel room.

Publish Date: 09/19/2011 23:32

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/lawyer-for-accuser-calls-strauss-kahns-interview-a-publicity-stunt/

The story about Strauss-Kahn being arrested on charges that he sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a hotel housekeeper is interesting in more ways than one.

The legal side of the story was explained here:

A second reason is the effect that it’s having on French politics!

Stauss-Kahn was leading Sarkozy by several points in most opinion polls and may well have become the president of France next year!

Which is perhaps why he is said to have told the hotel maid several times:

"Do you know who I am?"

And a third reason that the story is compelling is that it’s brought to light the sexual predatory behavior that is or was apparently rampant at the IMF.

The I.M.F., was created in 1945, and presently has 2,400 employees who evaluate the economic health of nations from a pair of huge Washington buildings, and on regular trips abroad, and it might best be described as an international island ruled by alpha male economists, in the midst of the American capital.

When nations borrow money from the fund, they typically must agree to adopt economic reforms, and employees are sent to watch their progress.

The days are long, and its employees are regularly pressed together for weeks on end during overseas “missions”, which creates a climate in which romances often flourish, and lines are often crossed.

Some women are even said to avoid wearing skirts for fear of attracting unwanted attention, whilst others trade whispered gossip or facts about overly forward bosses.

A somewhat shocking 2008 internal review found few restraints on the conduct of senior managers, and concluded that “the absence of public ethics scandals seems to be more a consequence of luck than good planning and action”.

But with Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s arrest earlier this week and his indictment on Thursday on charges that he tried to rape a New York hotel housekeeper, a new spotlight has been cast on the culture of the institution, and questions have been revived about a 2008 episode in which the I.M.F. decided that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had not broken any rules in sleeping with a female employee.

And until earlier this month the I.M.F.’s own rules contained an unusual provision that some experts and former officials say had encouraged managers to pursue the women who work for them: “Intimate personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates do not, in themselves, constitute harassment”.

The new relationship policy is a response to the 2008 case in which a Hungarian economist, Piroska M. Nagy, had a relationship with Mr. Strauss-Kahn.

An independent investigation found that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had not abused his power, and although he apologized publicly, many women at the I.M.F. were dismayed by the outcome.

Ms. Nagy described herself in a letter to investigators as “damned if I did and damned if I didn’t”.

And another event which will draw even more attention to the fund is the revelation of an affair involving a potential successor to Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as managing director on Wednesday.

Kemal Dervis of Turkey had a liaison while working at the World Bank years ago with a woman who now works at the I.M.F., according to a person with direct knowledge of the relationship.

Interviews and documents paint a picture of the fund as an institution whose sexual norms and customs are markedly different from those of Washington, leaving its female employees vulnerable to harassment, because the laws of the United States do not apply inside its walls.

“Culturally, there are a lot of people thrown together”, said Susan Schadler, who spent 32 years at the fund, rising to deputy director of the European department before leaving in 2007. “There’s a lot of scope for misunderstanding, and for misreading signals. I think that’s a particular vulnerability for the fund”.

“What are we supposed to make of this when we go into Strauss-Kahn’s office?”, Ms. Schadler said, recounting conversations with former colleagues, “Do we sit there and think, ‘He’s sizing me up as a potential sexual object?’, There’s this implicit culture that this wasn’t really seen as something that the fund is going to worry about”, she said, “and I think that’s what bothered women”.

And Carmen M. Reinhart, who’s a prominent female economist who served as the I.M.F.’s deputy director for research from 2001 to 2003 said, “It’s sort of like the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, and the rules are more like guidelines, that set the stage, I think, for more risk-taking”.

In 2007, officials at the fund declined to investigate a complaint by an administrative assistant who had slept with her supervisor, and who charged that he had given her poor performance reviews to pressure her to continue the relationship.

Officials told the woman that the supervisor planned to retire soon, and therefore there was no point in investigating the charges, according to findings by the I.M.F.’s internal court.

The official, who is not named in the records, told investigators that he also had a sexual relationship with a second employee, and that he did not believe he had acted improperly.

In another case, a young woman who has since left the I.M.F. said that in 2009, a senior manager in her department started sending her increasingly explicit e-mails seeking a relationship, and added that although she complained to her boss, he took no action.

“They said they took it seriously, but two minutes later they were turning around and acting like everything was O. K. to the person who had done it to me. He wasn’t punished. Not at all”, said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she still works in the international development community.

Virginia R. Canter, who joined the I.M.F. last year with responsibility for investigating harassment claims, said the institution recently took a series of strong steps to protect employees, and added that a new code of conduct adopted on May 6 specifies that, “intimate relationships with subordinates, are likely to result in conflicts of interest, and must be disclosed to the proper authorities”.

“It’s recognizing that sometimes relationships grow in the workplace”, Ms. Canter said, “,but it doesn’t mean we’re not sensitive to this issue and we will investigate if there is evidence to suggest harassment”.

She also said that the fund would never again brush aside an employee complaint like the one from the assistant who was sleeping with her boss.

“Absolutely that wouldn’t have happened today”, she said, “We would investigate the matter”.

Related posts:

1. The Economic News Is Both Good And Bad
2. Finally! ABC Asks Some Tough Questions About ObamaCare!

The EU, US and UK Are Going Bankrupt, Not China | Culture of Life …

emsnews.wordpress.com11/17/11

But it didn't shift in the US favor, it shifted in favor of Asia! Now, Europe is seeing individual countries going bankrupt, one after another, in rapid succession. Greece already is bankrupt when they announced a 50% haircut on …

The Dollar Today Is Dead, The U.S. Bankrupt | Laitman.com

www.laitman.com10/30/11

Opinion: (Giulietto Chiesa, former Italian Politician and Member of the European Parliament): “We are at the beginning of the transition period, which has no.

You Don’t Believe The US Is Headed For Bankruptcy?

So Let’s put the debt into perspective!

And now take a look at President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget!

It shows a massive fiscal gap over the next seventy five years, the closure of which requires immediate tax increases, spending cuts, or some combination of both totaling 8% of gross domestic product, and to put 8% of America’s GDP in perspective, this year’s employee and employer payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare will amount to just 5% of GDP.

And why are we only projecting seventy five years ahead? Probably because over the full long-term, we’ll need an extra 12%, not 8%, of GDP annually.

Seventy-five years might seem like a long enough time to plan ahead but it’s not, and if the Greenspan Commission, which “fixed” Social Security back in 1983, had focused on the true long term we wouldn’t be sitting here now with Social Security 26% under funded.

The Social Security trustees, at least learned a lesson and the 26% figure is now based on their infinite horizon fiscal-gap calculation.

And another reason we shouldn’t look just seventy five years ahead, is that the government’s cash flows, which are the difference between its annual taxes and non-interest spending, over any period of time, including the next seventy five years, aren’t well defined.

If you use different words to describe the receipts taken in and paid out each year by the government, you produce entirely different cash flows and an entirely different fiscal gap measured over any finite horizon.

Take this year’s payroll tax contributions.

Let’s call these transfers from workers to Uncle Sam “borrowing” by the government, rather than “payroll taxes”, since the money will be paid back as future benefits.

If the future payback isn’t in full however, meaning equal to principal plus interest, then we can call the difference a “retirement tax”.

And abracadabra!

With this change of words, our 2011 deficit of about 10% of GDP is boosted another five points to 15%.

The bottom line then, is that we need to look at the infinite-horizon fiscal gap not just for Social Security, but for the entire federal government and that analysis, based on the CBO’s (Congressional Budget Office’s) long-term alternative fiscal scenario, shows a mind numbing fiscal gap of $202 trillion!

And covering this gap requires coming up with the aforementioned 12% of GDP, forever.

But the Obama administration budget has seemingly fixed the problem!

The president’s 2012 budget, shows that most of our long- term fiscal problem has miraculously disappeared and the fiscal gap isn’t 12% of annual GDP or even 8%, it’s 1.8%.

How does it work?

In 2014 an Independent Payment Advisory Board will be established and will be charged with recommending cuts to Medicare and Medicaid providers when their costs grow too fast.

Hardly anyone expects the cuts to actually happen of course, because until now they’ve always been repealed, and Richard Foster, who is Medicare’s chief actuary certainly doesn’t believe they’ll happen.

Foster added this statement to the end of the report:

“The financial projections shown in this report for Medicare do not represent a reasonable expectation in either the short range, or the long range”.

I’m not sure whether censoring the fiscal gap is more dishonorable than fudging it, but what is sure, is that if nobody starts getting honest about it real soon, then it will be cheaper to light cigars with dollar bills than with matches.

Related posts:

1. Can America Survive This Administration?
2. Will China Cause America’s Next Financial Crisis?
3. The U.S. And The E.U. Are On An Economic Collision Course.

If you’re considered middle-class,

then it’s almost certain that Obama will soon break the promise that he made you,

when he wanted to get elected.

Taxes, The Stimulus Package And Unemployment

Higher Taxes

The projected deficit for 2010 is already $1.8 trillion, and a further $1+ trillion will be added to that, if the 10-year health care reform program gets added.

And even if it doesn’t get approved, then higher taxes still look inevitable.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently warned that even if the deficit-neutral plan that is presently being peddled by Democrats to fund government-run health insurance program were somehow passed, that it wouldn’t be enough to prevent higher taxes.

Speaking of the baby boomers that are currently signing up for Medicare he said, “We have to attack both the original shortfall and make sure we fund whatever new initiatives that occur in the health care area. It’s not adequate to be strictly revenue-neutral, because there’s a lot more to be done”.

And Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner agrees, “We will not get this economy back on track and the recovery will be not be strong and sustained, unless we can convince the American people that we’re going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established”.

When asked if it was, “a matter of when, and not if, taxes would be raised, Geithner responded, “That is absolutely right”.

The Stimulus Package

Administration officials say they hope to see positive economic growth before the end of the year, and they credit the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was passed in February with preventing recession from going into a deeper depression.

Mike Pence, who is the No. 3 Republican in the House, insists however that the economy is recovering in spite of the stimulus plan, and not because of it, and he is adamant that to get out of the recession, that it is the American people that need to be spending money and not the Government.

“Borrowing a trillion dollars from future generations of Americans and spreading it around the economy is going to have some catalytic effect in the economy in the short term, but again, it’s no substitute for fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C. This piecemeal approach of government handouts through a government bureaucracy, is no substitute for broad-based tax relief and fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C.”.

Unemployment

The Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus package) which was opposed by all but three Republicans in the House and Senate, was intended to help save, and/or even create between 3-4 million jobs, but unemployment which is now averaging 9.5% and is between 10-14% in some states, is now expected to keep rising for at least another six months.

Expressing the administration’s hopes, National Economic Council President Larry Summers said, “Jobs are a lagging indicator, and once output increases, jobs will start to pick up. I think we have a ways to go. I want to emphasize the basic realities. Unemployment is still very high in this country”, and he went on to add that it wouldn’t be a good idea to rule out future taxes.

"There is a lot that can happen over time, but what the president has been completely clear on is that he is not going to pursue any of his priorities, not health care, not energy, nothing . In ways that are primarily burdening middle-class families.

That is something that is not going to happen".

P.S.

A few hours after writing the above, the following was published;

Just 16% of U.S. voters believe that tax increases help the economy.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds most voters (54%) say tax increases hurt the economy, a number that has been fairly consistent for more than a decade.

Fourteen percent (14%) say tax increases have no impact, and 16% are not sure.

Related posts:

1. Will Youths Blacks And Hispanics Desert Obama?
2. New Poll Says Obama’s Base Is Crumbling
3. More Than Eighty Reasons Why Obama Shouldn’t Be Reelected!

China and US Try to Make Trade Progress to Save Global Economy …

dgriffith401.wordpress.com12/16/11

“The one thing that we can be certain of, among all the uncertainties, is that the global economic recession caused by the international financial crisis will be chronic,” he was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news …

How The U.S. Is Quickly Becoming A Third World Country (Part 1 …

seekingalpha.com11/22/11

… 3rd world status. Economic data indicate a harsh reality that obviates mainstream political debate. The evidence suggests that, without fundamental reforms, the U.S. will become a post industrial neo-3rd-world country by 2032. … According to the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. trade deficit with China alone caused a loss of 2.8 million U.S. jobs since 2001. Falling Real Wages and Household Incomes. Workers earning more dollars are actually poorer in terms of …

Major financial crises have occurred many times in the United States, and the one in 1929 wasn’t the first, and the present one won’t be the last.

The earliest one on record was in 1792, and there were several crises in the 19th century and also in the 1980′s

In short, recession cycles should be understood to be a normal part of living in a world of inexact balances, one in which there is an attempt to balance supply and demand.

The present world-wide economic crisis, which was caused by the United States wasn’t simply a result of unexpectedly large losses in subprime mortgages or because many of those loans were securitized in complex bonds.

In retrospect, it would seem that the major contributor to the collapse, was what are known as repurchase agreements, which are commonly known as repos.

A repo is a form of short-term borrowing for dealers in government securities. The dealer sells government securities to investors, usually on an overnight basis, and buys them back the following day.

For the party selling the security, and agreeing to repurchase it in the future it is a repo, and for the party on the other end of the transaction, the one who is buying the security and agreeing to sell in the future, it is a reverse repurchase agreement.

Repos are classified as a money-market instrument and they are usually used to raise short-term capital and the Fed uses repos to manage the aggregate reserves of the banking system.

The size of the repo market continually varies so it’s impossible to state its actual size, but it’s generally thought to hover around the $10 trillion mark at any given time.

Banks rely heavily on repro loans, and what caused the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, was that the repo market panicked because of rising doubts about subprime securities, and loans suddenly became more expensive, or totally unavailable.

So What Can Be Done?

The Obama administration has a plan to protect the country and the world from the next financial crisis, and it can basically be divided into three parts.

1) Stiffer Capital Requirements

Some banks and other financial institutions would be considered too important to fail, because their collapse would pose a threat to the country’s financial stability.

Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and similar institutions would I imagine, be on the government’s most protected species list.

The companies on the list would face stiffer capital requirements in the form of shareholders’ investment, with the idea being that greater capital would provide a larger buffer against losses and a crises.

It might be of interest to note however, that at the time of writing that none of America’s biggest banks are any longer in the top three world-wide.

The top three banks in the world by market capitalization are;

1) Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
2) China Construction Bank
3) Bank of China

Citibank and Bank of America are not even on the list of the top twenty.

Two Canadian banks, Royal Bank of Canada (RY) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) have recently made it to the list.

Australia also has two banks listed, and in addition to the Chinese banks, the importance of emerging markets is confirmed by the presence of Itau Unibanco Banco Multiplo (ITU) and Banco Bradesco (BBD).

The problem with the administration’s protected species plan, is that the very largest financial institutions in America, would effectively become protected and pampered wards of the state and they would most likely squeeze out the smallest ones and lenders would compensate by raising their interest rates or by only lending to the safest borrowers.

2) The Policing Of Unethical Lending Practices

The administration foresees the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would police what appear to be unethical lending practices, and ensure that loan documents for mortgages, auto loans and other types of consumer credit are comprehensible.

* The Securities and Exchange Commission would still retain power over the stock markets.

3) Changing The Rules

Financial firms that issue securitized bonds such as bundles of mortgages, auto loans and other credits, would be required to hold 5% of the bonds themselves, the thinking being that this would cause sellers to examine loans more carefully.

In early 2007, when the problems of subprime mortgages and repos first emerged, few if any regulators foresaw the coming meltdown, so the question needs to be asked, “should we trust government regulators instead of bankers, traders and money managers?”.

Due to their past failings, it would seem that we shouldn’t.

The dangers of overregulation should generally not be ignored or minimalized, but especially so in the U.S. whose economy is anchored on risk-taking and expansion.

We don’t yet know exactly what will cause the next financial crisis in the U.S. but its roots are already clearly foreseeable.

By 2019, the U.S. federal debt is expected to be $11 trillion and right now, the Chinese, who are presently supporting the U.S. economy are already preparing a retreat from the dollar.

China has now called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world’s standard, and is proposing, if not demanding, a sweeping overhaul of global finance that truly reflects the developing nations’ growing unhappiness with America’s role in the world economy.

If China decides to pull the plug, which is increasingly likely, we will soon understand what caused America’s upcoming financial collapse, but many will say that they didn’t see it coming.

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What’s more, the present economic crisis and administration have added superchargers to the process, and much as this government might wish to believe the contrary, the country won’t economically be able to survive the continued deficit spending.

According to estimates, by 2012, the federal debt will be more than $15 trillion, and the annual interest will probably be between $1 trillion and $1.7 trillion!

The reason that there is such a big gap between the above figures is that the predictions depend on whether long bonds return to about 3.5% or remain at around recent rates of 6-7%.

Deficits are expected to average about $1 trillion a year, which would mean about $22 trillion by 2019!

Yearly interest payments would then be more than $2 trillion!

OK, that was horrible news, so let’s have the better news.

That was the good news, and perhaps the most optimistic news!

The above numbers assume the world, and China in particular, will continue to buy our Treasury notes at ‘reasonable’ rates.

Just last week however, we got a little glimpse of what the future might hold …

Ten-year U.S. Treasury bond yields shot up by sixty basis points, because of soft demand, and Standard & Poor’s warned of a possible ratings downgrade of British bonds.

The predicted $22 trillion in debt, supported by purchasable bonds, that was mentioned above, also assumes that our economy will recover this year, and that we will then have continued steady economic growth.

Who believes that?

If however the government continues to borrow huge amounts of money, and the administration’s health plans will supposedly add a currently unfunded $1.5 trillion per decade, then there will be less and less money available to the private sector, which will mean less investment.

Less investment equals less growth, or perhaps even negative growth.

The optimistic figures also assume that defense spending will decrease as a percentage of the federal budget, and if you believe that then you probably believe in Santa Claus too!

Do you believe, that if America’s overall budget grows by 75% that its defense budget will only grow by 17% ?

If “yes”, then you believe in peace on earth, and good will to all men, and that would indeed be wonderful.

How will the shrinking number of workers support the growing number of retirees?

Higher taxes of course!

Eight years from now, that’s in 2017, the Medicare trust fund will be depleted!

Is there a solution?

Possibly, but it would require the opposite of deficit spending, bail-outs and government funded healthcare.

Professor Alexander Fraser Tyler, a Scottish historian who in 1787, writing about the decline and fall of the Athenian Republic over two thousand years before, said:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back again into bondage”.

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Question for Ron Paul: Why Do the Most Socialist Countries Have …

my.firedoglake.com1/21/12

Also, the debate on war within these socialist style political regimes was much more intellectual because of the socialist nature of the government. These countries use smart tariffs, to protect their standard of living.Their model …

What “Classical America” Are You Talking About Newt? | FDL Action

fdlaction.firedoglake.com1/23/12

Only with a lot more people doing it. reply Login to Reply … Some of the “Socialist” countries, have done as well if not better, just as with the comparison between our predatory healthcare system and theirs. “…People are …

Results just published by the Swiss business school IMD, not only suggest that socialist countries are weathering the present recession better than outright capitalist ones like the US, but they also indicate that they are likely to recover much faster too.

The rankings are based on twenty criteria, then divided into four categories:

Economy Forecast/Perspectives – Government – Business – Society

Economic forecasts.

Government stability.

Which society is better equipped to weather the present global financial crisis.

The stability of the business sector.

Denmark achieved the highest overall score of 100 and is followed by Singapore, Qatar, Norway, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Sweden.

The United States finished a fairly shocking, overall 28th, due in part to its perceived weakness of resistance to the financial crisis.

Perhaps surprisingly, Israel (20) not only precedes the US, Germany and Britain on the list, but also leads Taiwan (21), Germany (24), Japan (26), South Korea (29) and Britain (34).

In spite of Britain’s poor score it still fared better than France (44), Italy (47) and Spain (50).

Singapore led the ranking of governmental steps taken in order to eradicate the crisis, while Italy came in last.

Russia ranked 51st and was followed only by Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, Argentina, and Venezuela, which finished last.

You can download the report directly from IMD at Stress Test Rankings or if their link goes bad for some reason you can get it here,

Our Changing Globe, Stress Test Rankings.

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