Monthly Archives: July 2011

Archive of posts published in the specified Month

How to Make a Problem Worse

As a result of the depressed economy the difference in income between whites and minorities have widened. While the most shrill will find this to be clear testament to the inherent racism in the GOP, the reality is that both

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Over Their Head and Still Digging

In the 1970’s the delinking of the dollar from gold under Nixon ushered in  a decade of inflation.  The wealthy and other investors sought refuge in tangible assets and foreign currencies.  Tangible assets had the advantage of not generating 1099

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Exxon Profits

Exxon Mobil’s first quarter profit was $10.3 billion. Of that $2.6 billion was earned on U.S. operations. Exxon Mobil paid $3.1 billion in taxes; $500 million more than they earned on domestic business. Profit per gallon runs between 6 and

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This is Rich

George Soros is closing his hedge fund to outside investors because of the new financial regulations.  He will be returning investor’s money. Excerpt from Soros to close Quantum fund to outsiders by Dan McCrum: Quantum, which will continue to manage

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A Sign of Leadership Failure

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend

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My Two Cents on the Debt Ceiling

Here is my two cents on the debt ceiling negotiations: It is a spending problem and it is a growth problem. Past solutions have delivered on tax increases but failed to deliver on spending cuts.  It is clear that increasing

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Job Creation Myths and Facts

in the June 21 Wall Street Journal Online- Alan Binder takes exception to the GOP claim that government deficits kills jobs in The GOP Myth of ‘Job Killing’ Spending. My retort is in The American Thinker on the same day

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The Era of Low Hanging Fruit

For the last forty years, most Americans have been expecting more than their government is capable of delivering.  That mistake is at the root of why our government is functioning poorly.  Instead of admitting its limitations, or trying to manage

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Reading Through the Polls

In James Taranto’s Best of the Web in Today’s Wall Street Journal online  (7/22/11) Consider the two most controversial legislative initiatives of George W. Bush’s first half-term: the 2001 tax cut and the 2002 authorization to use military force against

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Three Days a Week

If there is one place that would seem obvious to cut it should be the six day per week service of the Post Office.  Cutting to three deliveries per week would cut the need for their fleet in half immediately.

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The Need for Intellectual Heat

A map of the world that does not include Utopia, said Oscar Wilde, is not worth glancing at. A noble sentiment, and a good thrust at the Gradgrinds and utilitarians.  Bear in mind that Utopia itself was a tyranny and

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The Victims of the Post Prejudice Era

Those that have identified themselves in their fight against racism, sexism, and prejudice have become victims of their own success. Young blacks are better educated and getting better jobs and have not grown up to news reels of black protesters

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Finally- The Truth About Social Security

Investors’ Business Daily has justly pointed out that Obama’s threat to Social Security in the current budget / debt ceiling talk is more than just another arrow in his class warfare quiver; it is a frank admission of what a

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An Elephant in the Room

Scott Grannis, one of my daily go-to economic bloggers, write in his Calafia Beach Pundit–  The Failure of Keynesian pump-priming 6/30/11 Excerpt: Spending is the elephant in the living room, and it needs to be cut back sharply. Government spending doesn’t

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The Resource Curse

The great historian and Middle East expert Bernard Lewis quotes a telling statistic: “According to a World Bank estimate, the total exports of the Arab world other than fossil fuels amount to less than those of Finland, a country of

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A Third Way

I confess that I do not fully understand the possible impacts of this giant game of financial chicken that is being played with the debt ceiling, but the insistence on raising taxes further is infuriating and ideologically blind. We should

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On the June Unemployment Shock

A few PhD economic bloggers I respect have forecasted a slow recovery but an improvement in employment numbers.  Based on my view from my small corner of the world I have remained skeptical.  Many small business people have remained reluctant

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Becoming Responsible

The hard core Obamaphiles still claim he is solving a problem not of his own making, and they are largely correct. To be sure, the mortgage meltdown did not happen on his watch. But the mortgage market was largely wrecked

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How and Where Investments are Allocated

Unemployment remains stubbornly high and new company startups remain stubbornly low.  New regulations and laws, whose only clarity seems to be that it will burden business and hiring in many ways yet unseen, combined with a record deficit and fear

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Tort Respect

I just saw HBO’s “Hot Coffee”.  It is a 90 minute in depth analysis of individual cases on how we have compromised the effectiveness of our legal system. The lead story was about the elderly woman who was severely burned

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