George Rebane
- Obama gets an 'A' from me
- Nigerian bomber underlines the government employee
- Washington’s double taxation of investment gains
Never mind the fruitless foreign policy escapades and stimulus packages that have not stimulated. Candidate Obama promised one and all a “fundamental transformation” of the country into European type redistributionist socialism. Many people didn’t pay attention or thought he was joking – he was not. When Obama gets this healthcare bill on his desk, no matter how mollified it may appear, he will become the most effective American president since Reagan, and maybe even more effective when it comes to implementing his political ideology. This will earn him an ‘A’ in my book. And if he succeeds making Cap and Tax (aka Waxman-Markey) into the law of the land, I believe that he will become, hands down, the most effective president in our history. We will then become such an economical and geo-political basket case, that there will be nothing left for us to do but sue the international community to launch a global order and accept us as a charter member. Total success.
That government is the employer of last resort has been a longstanding theme in these posts. This was again verified when Mr Abdulmutallab of Nigeria tried unsuccessfully to blow his balls off along with the left wing of the Northwest airliner in which he was a passenger. Now can you imagine the Homeland Security and TSA workers who already had the guy on a watchlist, persona non grata in Great Britain, and were in receipt of the fact that in Amsterdam he had bought a one-way ticket for cash and checked no baggage. Since 9/11 data on all passengers departing for the US is transmitted to our people before the plane takes off. But that is only effective if there is someone with the appropriate skill set to read and react to such information. Apparently the TSA gives ‘equal opportunity employer’ a new level of meaning.
Not to worry, the SEIU will guarantee that these people will do a much better job administering nationalized healthcare and enforcing the new CO2 regulations. In the interval the TSA is placing another layer of loonie-tunes strictures on the rest of us in the vain hope to convince everyone that they are on the job.
Today’s WSJ highlights the poor performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the last decade when inflation is taken into account (here). Now, as students of economics, we all know that inflation is a monetary phenomenon in the hands of those who control the supply of our fiat money. And we also know that inflation is a purposive tax on dollar-based assets. The bottom line here is that we are not supposed to notice that we are taxed once by inflation, that reduces the real gains of our investments, and then taxed again on the nominal (not real) profits as we attempt to dig ourselves out of the current slump. Cynical is no longer the appropriate word for it.
[29dec09 update] President Obama has upgraded his assessment of HSA's performance to "catastrophic breach". Well OK, perhaps I was a bit too reserved in my comment above. However, the tack they are now taking is classic government CYA (not California Youth Authority). When ignoring or incompetently applying an existing law occurs, the event is used to pass new laws that more comprehensively restrict a broader population. Recall Rahm Emanuel's comment about not 'wasting a serious crisis'. With the new 'hands in the lap for the last hour of flight' rule now in effect, one can look forward to a not too distant tomorrow when all passengers will be required to strap on a diaper, and sit in new seats fitted with wrist and ankle shackles for the duration of the flight. Your government in peace and war.
Check out American Banking News. Fed wants to set up an interest earning deposit program for banks only to deposit any excess funds they have on hand. Imagine a TARP recipient bank depositing funds with the Fed to allow them to earn interest and thereby reduce the effective interest rate of their TARP loan(s).
Article here: http://www.americanbankingnews.com/2009/12/28/federal-reserve-considers-term-deposits-to-help-reign-in-excess-bank-reserves/
Posted by: Dave C | 28 December 2009 at 02:50 PM
Better than loaning it to a potenial default
Posted by: Dixon Cruickshank | 30 December 2009 at 01:04 AM