Tracking the Government’s Plans to Save the Economy
Tracking the Government’s Plans to Save the Economy
Last week ended with a whimper and a bang. Stock markets whimpered. Investors didn’t know what to think. And nothing happened last week to help them figure it out.
On the other hand, Black Friday was a bang. It showed retailers that if they wanted to bring shoppers out, they would have to cut prices a lot more than usual.
Conversation overheard in the check-out line at local grocery store:
“It’s crazy the way they carry on…I mean this Black Friday thing.”
“Yeah…it’s crazy.”
“If they could make money selling things so cheaply, why don’t they just cut the prices all year ’round…instead of making us crazy on one day of the year?”
“Yeah…it’s crazy…”
“You know what I think… I think they’re messing with us. That’s what I think. They know that if they give you some real discounts you’ll come to the store…and then you’ll buy something you didn’t intend to buy…and you’ll pay a lot for it. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. How can they sell a cotton sheet for $12 one day and then sell it for $10 the next day? Doesn’t make sense. I heard they lose money on everything they sell today. But I guess if they sell enough stuff…”
Supercommittee Fails; Now Let’s Talk Specific Cuts
Posted by Chris Edwards
It looks like the congressional supercommittee has failed to agree on a deficit-reduction plan. That’s probably a good thing because it sets up an automatic sequester to trim spending by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.If the supercommittee had agreed to a deal, it might have paired phony spending cuts with real tax increases. For example, while Republicans had offered to raise taxes by $400 billion, there had been talk of adopting smoke-and-mirrors savings of $700 billion for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Also, one of the tax increases that Republicans were apparently offering was to change the indexing of income tax brackets. That would have been the worst kind of tax hike, as it would have been a hidden way of steadily increasing marginal tax rates over time.
Beware the Balanced Approach. by Michael D. Tanner
There is an old story of a man who offers a woman a million dollars to sleep with him. When she agrees, he offers her $20 for the same thing. "What do you think I am?" the woman asks indignantly.
"We've already established that," the man replies. "Now we are just haggling over price."Republican members of the debt-reduction supercommittee now find themselves in the same position as the woman in the story. Having agreed to give up their "no new taxes" stance, they are left with nothing to do but haggle over the final price.
Big government's appetite for taxes is insatiable.Last week, supercommittee Republicans offered a $1.2 trillion debt-reduction proposal that would include roughly $300 billion in new tax revenues. Most of the new revenue would come from closing some of the tax code's more notorious loopholes and by phasing out tax deductions for high-income earners. At the same time, the top marginal tax rate would be reduced to 28 percent, with commensurate reductions for other brackets.
Supercommittee Tax Fight Is About Increasing Spending, not Reducing Deficits
Posted by Daniel J. Mitchell
Some people have asked why I’m so agitated about the possibility that Republicans may acquiesce to tax increases as part of the Supercommittee negotiations.Rather than get into a lengthy discourse about the proper role of the federal government or an analysis of how the Bush-Obama spending binge worsened America’s fiscal situation, I think this chart from a previous post says it all.
Republicans are considering a surrender on taxes because they are afraid that a deadlock will lead to a sequester, which would mean automatic budget savings. And the sequester, according to these politicians, would “cut” the budget too severely.
But as the chart illustrates, that is utter nonsense.
There are only budget cuts if you use dishonest Washington budget math, which magically turns spending increases into spending cuts simply because the burden of government isn’t expanding even faster.
If we use honest math, we can see what this debate is really about. Should we raise taxes so that government spending can grow by more than $2 trillion over the next 10 years?
Or should we have a sequester so that the burden of federal spending climbs by “only” $2 trillion?
The fact that this is even an issue tells us a lot about whether the GOP has purged itself of the big-government virus of the Bush years.
A few Republicans say that a sellout on tax hikes is necessary to protect the defense budget from being gutted, but this post shows that defense spending will climb by about $100 billion over the next 10 years under a sequester. And that doesn’t even count all the supplemental funding bills that doubtlessly will be enacted.
In other words, anyone who says we need to raise taxes instead of taking a sequester is really saying that we need to expand the burden of government spending.
So even though Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge are two of my heroes, now you know why I don’t consider myself a Republican.
The Roads To War And Economic Collapse
Standing Up to Tyranny
The day before the Thanksgiving holiday brought three extraordinary news items. One was the report on the Republican presidential campaign debate. One was the Russian President’s statement about his country’s response to Washington’s missile bases surrounding his country. And one was the failure of a German government bond auction.
As the presstitute media will not inform us of what any of this means, let me try.
With the exception of Ron Paul, the only candidate in either party qualified to be the president of the US, the rest of the Republican candidates are even worst than Obama, a president who had the country behind him but sold out the American people to the special interests.
No newly elected president in memory, neither John F. Kennedy nor Ronald Reagan, had the extraordinary response to his election as Barak Obama. A record-breaking number of people braved the cold to witness his swearing in ceremony. The mall was filled with Americans who could not see the ceremony except as televised on giant screens.
As the presstitute media will not inform us of what any of this means, let me try.
With the exception of Ron Paul, the only candidate in either party qualified to be the president of the US, the rest of the Republican candidates are even worst than Obama, a president who had the country behind him but sold out the American people to the special interests.
No newly elected president in memory, neither John F. Kennedy nor Ronald Reagan, had the extraordinary response to his election as Barak Obama. A record-breaking number of people braved the cold to witness his swearing in ceremony. The mall was filled with Americans who could not see the ceremony except as televised on giant screens.
The Iron Heel and the Resistance
CounterPunch Diary
Three years of President Obama, as of today. Count and weep. Just over a year from now Americans will be deciding whether to reelect Barack Obama or… probably Mitt Romney. In the latter case this is to assume that that Mitt, a Mormon and family man – both danger flares — doesn’t get caught up in the minefield known as “charges of sexual harassment,” as has Herman Cain, one of his rivals for the Republican nomination. Study recent photographs of a broken Frenchman named Dominique Strauss-Kahn if you want to be reminded of what such charges can do to a candidate for high office.
Do any of the present candidates, Obama included, offer an answer to America’s crisis – one accelerated by forty years of neo-liberal onslaught? No they don’t, because there is no answer available within the terms and boundaries of the present political system.
Do any of the present candidates, Obama included, offer an answer to America’s crisis – one accelerated by forty years of neo-liberal onslaught? No they don’t, because there is no answer available within the terms and boundaries of the present political system.
Living in a Delusional World
Facts Don't Count
I have come to the conclusion that Big Brother’s subjects in George Orwell’s 1984 are better informed than Americans.
Americans have no idea why they have been at war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for a decade. They don’t realize that their liberties have been supplanted by a Gestapo Police State. Few understand that hard economic times are here to stay.
On October 27, 2011, the US government announced some routine economic statistics, and the president of the European Council announced a new approach to the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The result of these funny numbers and mere words sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its largest monthly rally since 1974, erasing its 2011 yearly loss. The euro rose, putting the European currency again 40% above its initial parity with the US dollar when the euro was introduced.
Americans have no idea why they have been at war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for a decade. They don’t realize that their liberties have been supplanted by a Gestapo Police State. Few understand that hard economic times are here to stay.
On October 27, 2011, the US government announced some routine economic statistics, and the president of the European Council announced a new approach to the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The result of these funny numbers and mere words sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its largest monthly rally since 1974, erasing its 2011 yearly loss. The euro rose, putting the European currency again 40% above its initial parity with the US dollar when the euro was introduced.
Just Another Goldman Sachs Take Over
Bankers Seize Europe
On November 25, two days after a failed German government bond auction in which Germany was unable to sell 35 per cent of its offerings of 10-year bonds, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Germany might retreat from its demands that the private banks that hold the troubled sovereign debt from Greece, Italy, and Spain must accept part of the cost of their bailout by writing off some of the debt. The private banks want to avoid any losses, either by forcing the Greek, Italian, and Spanish governments to make good on the bonds by imposing extreme austerity on their citizens, or by having the European Central Bank print euros with which to buy the sovereign debt from the private banks. Printing money to make good on debt is contrary to the ECB’s charter and especially frightens Germans, because of the Weimar experience with hyperinflation.I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday For a Tax Increase Today
by Ann Coulter
Bored with the Penn State scandal because it didn't implicate any prominent Republicans, the mainstream media have suddenly become obsessed with Grover Norquist's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge." They are monomaniacally fixated on luring Republicans into raising taxes.
If Democrats could balance the budget tomorrow and quadruple government spending, they'd refuse the deal unless they could also make Republicans break their tax pledge. That is their single-minded goal.
But the media are trying to turn it around and say that it's Republicans who are crazy for refusing to consider raising taxes no matter how much they get in spending cuts.
At Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate on foreign policy, for example, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates for the one-millionth time if they would agree to raise taxes in exchange for spending cuts 10 times larger than the tax hikes.
If Democrats could balance the budget tomorrow and quadruple government spending, they'd refuse the deal unless they could also make Republicans break their tax pledge. That is their single-minded goal.
But the media are trying to turn it around and say that it's Republicans who are crazy for refusing to consider raising taxes no matter how much they get in spending cuts.
At Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate on foreign policy, for example, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates for the one-millionth time if they would agree to raise taxes in exchange for spending cuts 10 times larger than the tax hikes.
Barney Frank Cashes Out
America loses its poster boy for term limits.
by John Hayward
After sixteen terms in the House, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) has announced he won’t run for re-election. The Boston Globe says redistricting had a lot to do with his decision:A top adviser told the Globe that the new district in which Frank would have had to run next year was a major factor in his decision. While it retained his Newton stronghold, it was revised to encompass more conservative towns like Walpole while losing New Bedford, a blue-collar city where the Democrat had invested a lot of time and become a leading figure in the region’s fisheries debate.
Frank’s campaign manager last year said his withering 2010 re-election effort spurred the congressman to think seriously about retirement, even saying a few days after the election that it would be his last one.
Frank is also 71 years old, and his congressional career has allowed him to, shall we say, “amass” a sizable fortune. This was a good time to call it quits, especially as Democrat hopes of retaking the House in 2012 have grown dimmer.
Confucius Institutes Coming to a Campus Near You?
More precisely, these are Chinese-funded programs that are sprouting up around our nation’s colleges and universities. As Brett Decker explains in his new book, Bowing to Beijing, while these “Confucius Institutes” are being dubbed as a way to increase diversity and multicultural awareness (you know, leftist speak), the reality is that the Chinese government bankrolls them to ensure that students are given a steady dose of Red Army propaganda. Since the Chi-Coms fund these “cultural exchanges,” they get to pick the professors who teach the courses.
World history from a Chinese-approved perspective! What could go wrong?
In Part Two of our interview, Brett Decker explains:
To watch part one, click here.
World history from a Chinese-approved perspective! What could go wrong?
In Part Two of our interview, Brett Decker explains:
To watch part one, click here.
Getting Serious About Ron Paul
I can't forgive myself for voting for Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor during the 2003 recall. I selected a "winnable" loser rather than Tom McClintock, a principled conservative who knew what policies to pursue to right California's sinking fiscal ship. If everyone who voted for Schwarzenegger under the belief that McClintock couldn't win had voted for McClintock, who's now a congressman, perhaps he would have won the governorship.
The Schwarzenegger v. McClintock race springs to mind as Ron Paul, the quirky Texas congressman with unwavering libertarian principles, pursues the GOP nomination for the presidency. Paul is not a dynamic personality, but he has a firm grasp of the issues. Currently, he is near the top of polls for the Iowa caucuses, and his national support has remained strong.
The Schwarzenegger v. McClintock race springs to mind as Ron Paul, the quirky Texas congressman with unwavering libertarian principles, pursues the GOP nomination for the presidency. Paul is not a dynamic personality, but he has a firm grasp of the issues. Currently, he is near the top of polls for the Iowa caucuses, and his national support has remained strong.
Romney Vs. Gingrich on Jihad and Sharia: A Yawning, if Unappreciated Gap
Romney Vs. Gingrich on Jihad and Sharia: A Yawning, if Unappreciated Gap
Early and volatile, the Republican Presidential nomination race—at least for now—appears to be settling into a contest between consistent front runner Mitt Romney, and the latest surging, “non-Romney alternative”, former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich.Unfortunately the CNN/Heritage Foundation/American Enterprise televised debate of last week did not highlight the yawning gap between these front running contenders’ views on the existential threat doctrine of our Islamic enemies: jihad and its motivational, sacralized religio-political “law”, Sharia.
Dems Come Out in Droves to Oust Wisconsin Gov. Walker
Dems Come Out in Droves to Oust Wisconsin Gov. Walker
by John Gizzi
As the labor-lubricated drive for signatures on petitions to recall Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker gains momentum, Democrats are starting to line up for a challenge to the conservative Republican chief executive next summer.But with Jan. 17 the closing date for submission of the 540,208 signatures needed to place Walker on the Badger State ballot and a special election likely to be held in June, Democrats may be facing what they desperately don’t want or need: a contested primary for the gubernatorial nomination, which would be held March 27, or at the latest, April 24 (depending on whether there is a court order to extend the Government Accountability Board’s deadline of Feb. 17 for certification of the signatures 31 more days, as state election law provides).
Peru: President’s Brother Gets Reduced Sentence – VOA
Peru’s Supreme Court has reduced the prison sentence of President Ollanta Humala’s brother who led a failed rebellion six year ago.The court on Wednesday trimmed former Antauro Humala’s sentence from 25 to 19 years.
Antauro Humala was sentenced for leading a 2005 armed uprising against then President Alejandro Toledo that killed six people, including four police officers.
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