October, 2015, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: Mismanaging the Economy At Epically Bad Levels

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity post we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history

Today and tomorrow we will focus on economic insanity and incompetence from the American political class. Keep in mind the following realities when reading about the economic insanity and low performance generated by our Washington politicians:

• This Presidential administration spent a whopping $800 billion in a so-called economic stimulus package.
• This Presidential administration had the benefit of an energy revolution that significantly reduced the energy costs of businesses and households, freeing up money to be spent throughout the economy.
• This Presidential administration had the benefit of the Federal Reserve Board printing trillions and trillions of dollars and putting them in play to jumpstart the economy.

Despite these tailwinds of almost a trillion dollars in Federal government stimulus spending, a once in a generation energy revolution, and trillions of dollars of Fed money stimulus, the Washington political class in general and this administration in particular produced a record anemic economic recovery. It is a recovery so weak that annual GDP growth never attained its long term average and in fact never broke 3%, household income and wage growth has stagnated, and so many people got discouraged by the horrible job market that the workforce participation rate is at a 40 year low.

That is insanely poor economic planning, strategy, and knowledge. And as a result, we are stuck with the following economic insanity:

1) Although Barack Obama is the first African-American President, someone who supposed would provide hope and change to the African-American community, that promise is not working out so well, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau announced that unemployment among African-American teenagers is more than six times higher than the national unemployment average, 31.5% vs. 5.1%.

This is also about double the unemployment rate for all teenagers, 31.5% vs. 16.3%. Given that that the 16.3% includes the 31.5% number, the unemployment rate for non-African-American teenagers is substantially less than 16.3%. 

And it is not just African-American teenagers that are suffering in this job deficient economy. The total African-American unemployment rate is 9.5%, just under double the national unemployment rate of 5.1%. Conclusions: black President or white President, no one in Washington has found a way to fix the job problem for most of America but especially for African-Americans. General economic incompetence from the American political class knows no skin color.

2) Additional data from the latest report from the BLS revealed that:

• The economy added only 142,000 jobs last month, a rate not even enough to cover the growth in population.
• The labor force participation rate hit its lowest level since 1977 with a record 94.6 million American adults NOT working.

Tough to believe that an economy can be managed so poorly when there was the help of an energy revolution. a massive economic stimulus program, and trillions of Fed paper dollars circulated. Pathetic.

3) Bloomberg recently reviewed the latest economic results and summed up their findings via an accurate quote from Thomas Simons, a money-market economist at Jefferies LLC in New York: "When you look through all the details of the data, there just isn't anything good to hang your hat on. It's been years since we've seen such an unambiguously bad report.":

• Job creation was less than expected, or needed, at 142,000.
• Previous job creation estimates from July and August were downward revised.
• Average hourly earnings fell a penny on average.
• Factory payrolls unexpectedly fell by 9,000 jobs:

• The number of full-time employees dropped in September.
• The labor force participation rate decreased to its lowest level since October 1977. 

4) Part of the problem with the anemic job creation numbers in September was that corporations had 59,000 in job reductions in September with a whopping 50% of those cuts coming just from Hewlett Packard. This 59,000 number was a 43% increase over the August results and 93% higher than the September, 2014 layoffs.

However, worse than the September results is the reality that for the entire third quarter there were almost 206,000 announced layoffs, this is the highest level since the third quarter of 2009. On a year to date basis, U.S. employers have already announced almost half a million layoffs for 2015 vs. only 363,000 for the same period last year.

5) Another recent Bloomberg article added some additional insights on how poorly the economy is doing:

• A survey of 96 economists estimated that job creation would be 201,000 vs. the actual number of 142,000, indicating that the economy is softer than even what the experts expected.
• Previous two months job creation estimates were reduced by a total of 59,000.
• The good news is that retailers increased payrolls by 23,700 and employment in leisure and hospitality rose 35,000. The bad news is that these positions are usually lower paying jobs.
• Average hourly earnings for the 12 months ending in September were up 2.2%, barely keeping up with inflation.
• The underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who would rather have a full-time position and people who want to work but have given up looking, dropped to a still whopping 10%, the lowest since May 2008, from 10.3%.

That’s enough economic policy insanity for today, more to follow tomorrow. But all of this depressing news does prove that we are being served by the worst set of politicians ever in this country today. Despite an $800 billion economic stimulus program, dropping energy costs, and a Federal Reserve printing press inserting trillions of dollars into the economy, the Washington political class cannot manage wage growth, robust hiring, and not even average economic growth. Pathetic.


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

August, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 4: Biden Jets Off For A $2 Million Soccer Game, Gallup Says No Confidence But Lots Of Corruption, and More

This is our fourth and not likely last update to our monthly series on political class insanity. Our current set of politicians continue to amaze us with their greed, inability to operate an efficient and effective government, their economic ignorance, their lack of problem solving ability, wasteful spending and generally uselessness. They are so bad at so many things it makes you wonder how we continually trust them and continually reelect them, something, somewhere in our election processes has to be broken.

Don’t believe me? Let’s see what you think after reading today’s dose of insanity:

1) Economic ignorance is a specialty of this current set of politicians. They spent over $800 billion on a so-called economic stimulus package a few years ago. They gave trillions of taxpayer dollars to banks and car companies in an effort to stimulate the economy and create a healthy job creation process. 

What did we get for these trillions and trillions of dollars? Consider the following graph:

Corporations got rich off of our tax dollars. Those with large stock holdings got rich off of our tax dollars. The tens of millions of Americans who are currently under employed or unemployed? 

Hardly anything, if you consider the fact from this graph that the percentage of employed adults in the country is at the lowest levels in at least thirty years, despite the trillions of dollar spent. Pathetic economic performance, all focused on the most likely contributors to politicians’ elections campaigns, wealthy Americans and corporations.

2) Things are economically rough for many, many Americans. Unemployment in general and long term unemployment remain stubbornly high. More and more jobs are devolving to part time work as a result of Obama care and other government missteps.

But at least one American is recently had a good time at taxpayer expense despite general taxpayer suffering. Vice President Joe Biden recently jetted down to Brazil for two days to watch some World Cup soccer games. Biden, whom Obama appointed to head the Campaign to Cut Waste to root out wasteful government spending last summer racked up a taxpayer tab of $2,245,343, spread over all four hotels. For his one night stand. Over $2 million for the VP to watch a soccer game or two. Insulting to all of those that are paying a heavy tax burden or who cannot find a decent job.

But this should not come as an unexpected expense relative to how freely Biden spends taxpayer money in other ways, according to a recent article in the Independent Journal Review:

• Every weekend Biden gets a lift from D.C. to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, via Air Force Two, the V.P.’s airplane, and Marine Two, the V.P.’s helicopter. 
• And he often gets a mid-weekend lift back to the Andrews Air Force Base for a round of golf with the President.
• Estimating $22,000 an hour cost for the airtime, that works out to about $1 million per year in Biden’s commuting costs between D.C. and Wilmington. 
• That cost excludes the cost of the 20 condominiums that the Secret Service rents in Wilmington nor the cost of Air Force Two sitting and waiting for him while he plays 18 holes of golf.

So out of touch with those that support his golf and travel habits.

3) Given that it is pretty obvious that most, if not all, Washington politicians have no idea how an economy works or how to put forth sound economic policies to make that economy grow, one would have hoped that those over at the Federal Reserve Board would have a good grasp on what makes an economy tick and how to keep it tuned and humming.

You would hope but you would be wrong. In recent Congressional testimony, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen testified that she was not isn't sure what's gone wrong with the U.S. housing comeback: "I have to say that I'm somewhat surprised. Frankly, it continues to be sluggish. And I can't give you a precise reason why that's occurred." 

To prove her point, the day after her testimony, Federal agencies reported that the number of new houses under construction came in well below expectations in June, at 893,000 rather than the expected million-plus, level that would have represented gradual improvement in the housing market.

So, the Obama administration has no clue on how the economy works or falters, Congress has no clue on how the economy works or falters, and at least for a major, major piece of the economy, housing, the head of the most powerful central bank in the history of mankind has no idea how that market is functioning. What did rock musician Steve Miller once sing: "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…” Sounds about right for the abysmal level of economic sense in all facets of Washington, D.C.

4) But the Washington political class is not just bad on economics, if you believe some recent Gallup polling regarding corruption and dishonesty in the Washington political class:

An amazing chart:

• Almost four out of five Americans believe corruption is widespread throughout the government in the U.S.
• This level of perceived corruption is up 13 points or almost 20% (from 66% to 70%) since Obama came into office.
• It is up 20 points or about 34% in just seven years.
• Given the high perception of corruption, I have to think that across the political spectrum, Republicans to Democrats to Independents, the majority of Americans within those sub groups agree that government and the politicians who operate it are corrupt.

These results are bad enough but not only do we think that the political class is operating a corrupt government, we have very little confidence in their effectiveness to govern, according another recent Gallup poll:

This lack of confidence has cratered since Obama came into office but has been on a general downward trend since the early 1970s. Corrupt and ineffective, a lethal combination.

That will do it for today. Let’s review:

1. Despite spending trillions of dollars, the Washington political class has been unable to put forth a coherent and effective economic strategy to grow jobs for the millions of Americans looking for jobs.
2. At least Joe Biden is having a good time in these harsh economic times by jetting down to Brazil to watch some soccer games at a cost of over $2 million of taxpayer wealth.
3. Even the high powered and expensive bankers at the Federal reserve seem to have no clue on what is happening in a major economic segment in this country.
4. As a result of all the Keystone Kop antics of Washington, we are left with the perception that our politicians are both corrupt and ineffective.

More insanity, waste, and other political class shenanigans tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

May, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 5: Tapxayers Pay For A Congressman's Crimes, Making Tanks Nobody Wants,The Illinois Fiscal Cliff and More

This is our fifth post this month in our monthly series nonpolitical class insanity. Every month we spend more and more time trying to keep up with the wasteful spending, idiotic programs and laws, and general ineptness of the American political class. This is a task that seems to get harder and harder to do every month as their incompetence seems to be growing exponentially.

1) There are still over twenty million Americans who are either unemployed or under employed throughout this nation. One reason might be because of what the following graph illustrates, as presented in a recent Independent Journal Review article:



Since 1978, the percentages of businesses being created every year (‘firm entry” rate) has generally been declining while the percentage of businesses being terminated every year (“firm exit” rate) has recently been increasing. These two trends crossed over in 2008 when the rate of business creation fell below the rate of business termination.

One could try and fine tune the data to their own political views and by blame patterns. However, the bottom line is that over the past 36 years, a time period when Democrats and Republicans controlled Congress and the Presidency at different times, no one in the political class was able to reverse the two negative trends illustrated in this graph.

Their economic incompetence as created a death spiral of business the business failure rate increasing and the business creation rate decreasing, getting us into the position where over 20 million Americans can not find a good job for themselves and their families. 

Einstein once said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Our political class has been doing the same lame economic dance for 36 years, raising existing taxes and creating new business taxes, expecting different results but proving Einstein right after all: pure insanity. 

2) All parts of the Federal government are big wasters of taxpayer wealth but the Pentagon has to be one of the biggest black holes of waste. Recall in past posts that we have discussed the fact that government auditors have thrown up their hands trying to get their arms around the wasteful spending in the Pentagon and actually gave up, contending that Pentagon spending is so out of control that it is not possible to even audit and document the waste.

A recent example of how bad and insane Pentagon spending is concerns the production of the Abrams tank, a tank that is only made in one location in Ohio:

• The Army currently has more than 2,300 in active use around the world to serve its needs.
• Unbelievably, it also has another 3,000 in storage that it does not need or use.
• In the most recent budget agreement in Congress, another $181 m illion was authorized to continue production of more tanks that the Army does not need into the next year or so.
• Even those in the actual Army do not want more unused and unneeded tanks: “If we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, told the Associated Press in April.
• Even the Pentagon’s assessments estimate that holding off on tank production and refurbishment for just three years would save the taxpayers $3 billion.
• But there are Ohio jobs and political careers at stake along with the financial results of General Dynamics who makes the tanks so the combination of corny capitalism and political cowardice in thousands of tanks being produced but never used.

So rather than restore the reductions in military benefit packages that Congress and the White House recently approved, rather than divert some of this wealth back to the taxpayer wallets or some other worthy cause such as job training, feeding the hungry, treating the addicted, housing the homeless, etc., our political class in Washington would rather just continue making unused and unneeded tanks. Pathetic.

3) Now this is a nice racket if you can get it. Unfortunately, you have to be a card carrying member of the Washington political class so god luck with that. Jess Jackson. Jr. was convicted of a number of financial felonies in connection with and his wife’s misuse and abuse of campaign contributions he was sentenced to two and half years in jail for his crimes. Remember those two words: “convicted” and “crimes.”

Despite having no mental problems for his entire life and his seventeen years in Congress, the former Congressman has suddenly developed a “mood disorder,“ allegedly happening as the Feds started closing in and examining his crimes. As a result of this sudden trauma to his odd, he has somehow been approved to receive a whopping $8,700 MONTHLY payment in Federal government disability pay. Remember those words, convicted and crimes, but still eligible to get $8,700 a month of taxpayer wealth for his mental state.

But it gets better. Despite him being “convicted” for his “crimes,” he is somehow still elibigle for an annual Federal pension of $450,000 a year. Thus, between his monthly $8,700 in disability payments and his annual $45,000 Congressional pension, he will be earning almost $150,000 a year despite having been :convicted for felonious “crimes.“ Again, great work if you can get it.

Thus, for doing nothing in the future, he will earn almost as much as if he was still a Congressman ($150,000 in pension and disability vs. a Congressional salary of about $170,000.) Even worse, at $150,000, he will be making about three times as much as what the median U.S. household earns in a year even though the members of that household have to go to a job everyday to get one third of what this convicted politician will earn. It does not get much more insane that this.

4) But it is not just rich Washington politicians that stick it to working Americans and taxpayers. Consider a recent, in-depth analysis done by the Taxpayer Union of America (TUA) relative to the horrid financial condition of the state government of Illinois:

• Just the pension liabilities for government workers in Illinois is an unreal $187 billion.
• This means that every Illinois household would have to write a check for over $35,000 just to pay for the current liability of the Illinois pension system.
• And that $187 billion is the estimate today, but given that the state political class and state government has not put any true reforms into place, that number is highly likely to grow in the coming years.
• The real insult is when you get underneath the $187 billion number and find 11,054 Illinois state pensioners now get more than $100,000 per year in pension payments, twice what the median U.S. household income level is. 
• By the year 2020, number will more than double to 25,000. 
• There are over 78,526 state pensioners receiving annual pension payments over $50,000. The TUA pointed out in their analysis that these robust pensions are funded by taxpayers who get an average Social Security pension of about $15,000.
• Funding those impossible pension liabilities is even more difficult since Illinois has the second highest unemployment rates at 8.4%, the second highest property taxes in the country, and the lowest rating in the country for its general operating bonds, making it difficult to raise more taxes when taxes are already so high and so many citizens are unemployed and contributing nothing to the tax revenue.
• Getting even further down into the TUA analysis on finds that someone named Tapas das Gupta has annual pension of $452,843, about nine times more than what the typical U.S. household earns in a year. 
• His estimated lifetime pension payout of $5,276,384 makes him a millionaire five times over.
• Edward Abraham has an Illinois state annual pension of $439,965, or $9,073,587 in estimated lifetime payouts according to the TUA. 
• Larry K. Fleming retired from Lincolnshire-Prairie View District 103 at the age of 55 and is now receiving $258,163 per year while only paying in $326,507 into the system during his career. In other words, he recoup his payments into the system in less than 16 months of pensions payouts. Disgraceful.

Again, nice work if you can get it as long as you and your union keep supporting the same crooked politicians in office.

Something has to break at some point. You cannot keep rewarding Washington politicians for non-performance and criminal performance and expect no consequences. 

You cannot keep having exorbitant pension payouts to your union supporters and not expect the entire Illinois financial system to crash at some point in time. 

You cannot keep building Army tanks that never get used and which contribute nothing to society except any ever increasing national debt burden without the Federal government eventually crashing under that burden.

And you cannot keep increasing the tax burden on businesses, both existing and new, and expect them to continue creating jobs and economic vitality as they did in the past.

Our politicians are taking us to the edge of a very steep cliff in so many ways and one day, probably sooner than later, we are all or some going over that steep cliff for a nasty fall. That is why we call it insanity, going over a cliff even though we see it ahead of us in so many ways.

To avoid that cliff, please consider joining our term limits effort at:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

May, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 2: Obama Approval Dips To An All Time Low, Bad Harry Reid Priorities, Failing To Educate Our Kids, and More

This is our second post this month on our continuing monthly series on political class insanity. Seems there are endless ways in which American politicians continue to insult our intelligence, waste our wealth, prove themselves ignorant of reality, and fail to efficiently and effectively execute any kind of government operation. Their sad saga continues again today with insanity from just the past month or so.

1) I have always loved the old line of wisdom that goes as follows: “It is better to remain silent and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt.” This came to mind recently when a Congresswoman did not obey this adage when Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton stated that "perhaps the most catastrophic war of the 20th Century - invasion by the United States of America" in Iraq. How ignorant is this statement:

• First of all, the invasion occurred in the 21st century, not the 20th century.
• Although it is impossible to accurately estimate the number of humans killed in World War II most reputable sources put the death toll at between 70 and 80 million people, certainly more catastrophic than the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
• These 70 to 80 million deaths included 700,000 British military casualties and 60,000 civilian deaths, Soviet Union deaths of 26.6 million people, about 5.7 million Polish deaths, 5.3 total German deaths, and over 400,000 U.S. military deaths (source: www,worldwar2.org).
• In World War I there were about 16 million deaths and 20 million other casualties, making this war also far more catastrophic than Iraq.

Idiot speech from a Congress person, insane. Her actual ignorance is on display at the following website:

http://m.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/matt-vespa/dc-democrat-iraq-most-catastrophic-war-20th-century

2) As a country we spend a lot of money on educating our kids. Unfortunately, spending money and getting good education attainment results on our investment are usually not related. Our kids always end up behind the kids of dozens of our countries on standardized tests.

This dichotomy of high spending and low results is nicely illustrated by the following graph from the U.S. Department of Education and other reputable sources:



While we are spending almost 200% more on public schools than we spent in 1970, far above the rate of inflation, and the staffing growth in public schooling is up almost 100% since 1970, math, reading, and science performance has barely moved since 1970. 

In no other aspect of our lives would we tolerate this sort of incompetence. For some reason, though, we seem to think nothing of handing over massive resources to the political class, hoping they would improve the lot of our kids, and then sit idly by for over forty years during which no improvements are made.

Given that the current Presidential administration has been in place for more than five years and there is no sign that they have any plans or strategies to fix this four decade old problem, it is highly unlikely that this situation will change in the remaining years of this administration. Thus, we would have wasted another eight years and hundreds of billions of dollars to allow this graph to remain unchanged. 

No plans, no strategies, no changes, just massive spending for minimal results. Are we starting to see why we need term limits? Forty years of incompetence should not be rewarded with continued employment in Washington.

3) Speaking of more costs, consider the following graphs that recently appeared in a Washington Examiner article, based on data form the Bureau of Economic Analysis:

Over the past five years, quarterly growth in the nation’s health care spending has gone up between 2% and 4% on average with quarters being above 4% and some quarters being below 2%.

However, over the past two quarters, we have seen the growth rate break out of this range, so much so that in the fourth quarter of last year the quarterly growth in health care spending in this country was almost 6% and in the first quarter of this year the quarterly growth was an unprecedented 10%. It just so happens that those two quarters, which had the highest growth rate in the past five years, corresponded with the rollout of Obama Care, a piece of legislation that was supposed to reduce health care costs and spending, not increase them.

Now, the Examiner article correctly points out that these figures will likely be revised in the future as more data becomes available. However, that means they also could be higher than currently estimated. It is looking like just another case where legislation coming out of Washington is doing the exact OPPOSITE of what it was supposed to do, raising costs rather than lowering them. Only in the American political class can you get the exact opposite result of what you intended to do.

4) There are over twenty million Americans who are unemployed or under employed. The economic growth from the latest quarter is almost nothing. People are dying and homeless in the Midwest from tornados. The Ukraine is being torn apart from within and without. Wasteful government spending is out of control, our kids are not getting educating, and health care costs are going up.

So what does Senate Majority Harry Reid give a speech about on the Senate floor recently? He wants the National Football League to pressure the Washington Redskins owner to change the name of the team since in Mr. Reid’s opinion it is racist. 

No new economic policies, no strategic planning to contain the Russian threat in eastern Europe, no overhaul of our public education system, nothing of consequence to the majority of Americans. Just the name of a football team that has been around for 80 years.

Now, I am not saying the name is not racist. I am saying that a Senator from Nevada should really shut up and work on the major issues affecting all Americans vs. worrying about the name of a football team that resides almost three thousand miles away form his home state. A pathetic set of priorities.

5) One last piece of insanity today. An ABC News poll recently found that President Obama’s approval rating has sunk to 41%, the lowest level of his Presidency. This is about five years and four months into his administration. [The fact that ABC television news hardly mentioned the dire poll results is a topic of another blog on media prejudice.]

On March 7, 2006, an ABC News poll showed that President Bush’s approval rating had fallen in the same range, a 42% approval rating. Thus, it would appear that we are not much better off with this President than the previous President, especially when you consider that Obama hit the same low point in his Presidency about one year sooner than Bush hit the same level in his Presidency. 

The more things change the more they stay the same with political class failures across the board in education, war on drugs, foreign affairs, wasteful spending, and Americans’ disapproval of the job the Washington political class is doing. Term limits anyone:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

More insanity tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 5, September, 2013 Political Class Insanity: Dodd-Frank Is a Disaster, Paying For Palestinian Mortgages With American Money, and Nancy Pelosi Thinks She Has Dignity

After a short diversion to cover the latest crises in Syria and Obama Care, this our fifth post this month covering the latest stupidity, insanity, and antics of the American political class. You do enough of these posts and the associated research and it makes you realize why these politicians have never resolved a major issue facing Americans over the past few decades. They are either unwilling, unable, or to wrapped up in their own personal careers and personal enrichment to care if an issue ever gets resolved.

The continuing saga of political class incompetency and embarrassments starts here:

1) According to a New York Times article that was summarized in the August 30, 2013 issue of The Week magazine, banks, insurers, and other financial institutions have ponied up $10 million to members of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. Pretty disgraceful show of business cronies supporting their political cronies for favorable government treatment.

The really embarrassing part of this bribery scheme is that there are a whopping 61 Congressmen and women that actually sit on this committee. 61 members is about 14% of the entire House of Representatives. These 61 obviously know where to go to get the money they need to stay in office. You can bet if this committee had something to do with an insignificant part of the economy, unlike financial services, there would NOT be 61 members clamoring to get on the committee. Disgraceful.

2) In a related set of insanity involving the financial services industry, consider an article from the latest edition of Business Week. The Dodd-Frank legislation that was supposed to fix all of the problems in the financial services industry so that another “Great Recession” never happened again, was passed into law three years ago. We have shown numerous times how the tenets of this law are already proving inadequate to stop financial services misdeeds with the collapse of MF Global being just one glaring example.

However, according to the article, one reason why this legislation may not be working, besides the fact that is was a horrible piece of legislation, is the fact that less than 40% of the processes and regulations that are needed to implement Dodd-Frank have not yet been written. At this rate, it will take at least 7-8 years to implement the legislation, a time length that will likely render anything positive in the law, if there is anything positive, obsolete, as the world moves on.

How poorly is a piece of legislation written if it takes years and years to make it operational> In 7-8 years, the country will likely have gone through at least two more recessions, given historical patterns, any one of which could be caused by the same factors that caused the Great Recession.

Obama recently called a meeting to find out what the problem is and the attendees at the meeting are a good indication of why this is a snail-like process. At the meeting were people representing the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Bureau, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National Credit Union administration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nine Federal bureaucracies are working on operationalizing Dodd-Frank and they cannot get out of their own way. 

Nine Federal entities and less than 40% of the way there after three years. And many of these entities were the very ones that should have seen the Great Recession coming and were asleep at the wheel until the recession hit them in the face. What are the odds they can even operationalize the legislation, given their history of ineptness?

Thus, we have legislation written by people that probably never read it or understood what was in it which was then handed off to massive Federal bureaucracies that have to make it work even though they have not done their watchdog jobs in the past. Oh yeah, this is going to work out fine. Just like Obama Care, this is what happens when politicians pass bills that are well over a thousand pages long.

3) Staying with the financial services industry again, a recent article in Business Week reported on a Federal Reserve analysis and conclusion that five years after the Great Recession began, major U.S. banks are still not fully ready for the next economic disaster. 

The Fed found that although these banks have increased their capital levels, recent financial stress tests indicate the banks have not done enough to test for and anticipate major changes and trends in the economy. This puts them on a par with the Washington political class and the nine Federal bureaucracies listed above who are also not prepared to protect Americans from the next economic blow up. Failure all around.

4) Over 20 million Americans are either unemployed or under employed. This pathetic situation has resulted in many, many Americans defaulting on their mortgages and losing their homes or putting them under intense financial pressure to make their house payments. A very sad situation as the dream of home ownership is shot down by the economy.

But, that has not stopped the Obama administration from spending $313 million of taxpayer wealth on mortgages …for Palestinian homeowners. Yes, American taxpayers are paying for the funding of $313 million in home mortgages for Palestinians living in the West Bank, according to a recently released  Government Accountability Office report .

And to add insult to injury, the U.S. will also guarantee $110 million in loans to small- and medium-sized businesses located on the West Bank. The mortgage and business-loan activities will be managed by the Federal Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). “OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution,” says OPIC’s website. “OPIC provides financial products, such as loans and guaranties; political risk insurance; and support for investment funds, all of which help American businesses expand into emerging markets.”

Home mortgages for Palestinians, the same people that hate us for our support of Israel? Small business funding for Palestinian businesses when small businesses in America are being smothered and stamped out by Obama Care and other onerous government regulations? Hundreds of millions of dollars going to the one of the most corrupt government entities in the world? Ridiculous. 

These wastes of money could have helped some struggling American families and small businesses. These wastes of money could have helped pay down the debt or provided tax relief to American taxpayers. These wastes of money could have kept White House tours operational for over 400 hundred years. But no, it will be sent half way around the world to people that hate us and our country. Pathetic.

5) Former Speaker of the House and current Congressional member, Nancy Pelosi is estimated to be worth in excess of $35 million according to the website, Celebrity Worth. In a “60 Minutes” report that we reviewed in this blog:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/07/washington-corruption-train-keeps-on.html

 it was shown that she participated in up to nine different corporate IPOs, getting special insider financial advantage not available to ordinary Americans. In the space of a few days, she made over $100,000 by participating in the VISA credit card IPO. According to the Celebrity Wealth website, including in her wealth of $35 million is a multimillion dollar winery in California.

Her husband is very active and very wealthy in the California real estate market. Her Congressional salary is less than .5% of her family’s net worth. In other words, Nancy Pelosi is rich beyond most Americans’ dreams.

But ask her to take a pay cut for the good of the country and she goes ballistic. Earlier in the year when the sequester was requiring the Federal government to reduce the overall Federal budget by a nominal amount, Ms. Pelosi had this to say:  “I don’t think we should do it [cut the pay of Congressional members, people who earn more than three times the average U.S. household income]; I think we should respect the work we do. I think it’s necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded.”

Rather than cut their salaries, at least this member of Congress thinks it would be a blow to their so-called dignity. Apparently it is better, as a result of the sequester, to terminate White House tours, cut air traffic controller resources to inconvenience millions of America travelers, cut educational aid to native American schools, etc. than it is to ask a Congressional member worth over $35 million to give back a few thousand dollars to the American taxpayer in these times of economic stress.

Given the low performance of the current set of Washington politicians in Washington, there are many other words that I would use to describe their performance and results and none of them include the words dignity, respect, and reward. If these people were paid for the work they do in a merit based system, they would starve to death. The arrogance of these politicians is beyond disgraceful.

So, let’s review. Politicians that fight to be on the best Congressional committee to extort money for reelection purposes. Politicians that write cumbersome, inane laws that cannot be put into effect three years after they are passed. Politicians that fund home mortgage loans and small business loans for foreigners halfway around the world while American families and businesses suffer. And at least one politicians that thinks she is too valuable to have a pay cut despite being worth over $35 million. Pathetic is too kind of a word to describe these people. 

And we are still not done for their insanity this month, more to follow at least through tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w 

December, 2012, Economic and Financial Review, Part 2: The Economic Struggles of Young Americans, Rich Members Of Congress, More Pessimism, Teetering Europe

This is the second in a two part series we do every month where we review the latest economic and financial trends and statistics. Unfortunately, as we have done this each month this past year, we have found very little good news in the economic arena. Yesterday’s first post for this month discussed the continuing high unemployment situation, the growing pessimism of the American public and consumers, our probable drive off of the fiscal cliff, a still sluggish housing market, and lower than average overall economic growth.

Today’s post is not much more optimistic. In fact, it extends the pessimism discussion we reviewed yesterday.

1) The opinion polls reflecting the growing economic pessimism in the country reflected a gut feeling, an overall sense things are not going well in the economy. But an article from Moneynews from November 26, 2012 adds some solid statistics to this feeling of pessimism:

• In 1970, the average annual household income was $9,350, the average home cost $23,400, a gallon of gas cost 36 cents and the average car cost $3,900.
• In 2012 the average median income is $50,964, between a five and six fold increase over the past forty two years.
• This sounds like good news until we realize that the average home now costs $146,000 (over a six fold increase since 1970), we now pay an average of $3.43 for a gallon of gas (more than a nine fold increase), and the average car now costs $30,303 (an almost eight fold increase).

Thus, our feeling of doom and pessimism is not unfounded. It has become harder and harder to enjoy the simple things in life that previous Americans took for granted: a home for their family, a nice car, and the financial resources to enjoy the freedom that affordable gas and that nice car could create for Americans.

Given that we have previously reviewed how household income and household wealth has decreased dramatically over the past four years or so, the trend in this area is not good.

2) But the trend is even worse for younger Americans. Consider some statistics from a front page article in the November 18, 2012 edition of the Tampa Bay Times:

• 53.6% of college graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed or under employed.
• This compares to an unemployment/under employment figure of just under 15% for all Americans.
• 49% of 18 to 34 year old Americans have taken a job they don’t want just to be able to pay their bills.
• 24% of these younger Americans have taken an unpaid job just to get experience.
• 35% of younger Americans have gone back to school to combat their unemployment situation.
• 24% have moved back to live with their parents after living on their own
• Given these statistics, we have a whole generation of Americans, America’s future, that might be permanently stuck in the pessimism mode.

3) And the political class and Federal government have not made these young Americans’ plight any easier to overcome. Over the next year or so, severe and heavy Obama Care tax burdens will crush business expansion as businesses cut back on other expenses, including personnel expenses, to meet their increased Obama Care tax requirements.

The idiotic pronouncement from the Federal government that a full time worker is now any American who works more than thirty hours a week (vs. the standard, universally accepted 40 hour work week) will force the youngest Americans workers to, on average, lose work hours, earning power, and the chance to improve their lives.

Going over the fiscal cliff will take hundreds of billions of disposable income out of the economy, handing it over to the inefficient, crony infested Federal government and inept/corrupt political class. This will depress consumer and business spending and send the economy into another deep recession, restricting economic expansion and opportunity, especially harmful to younger Americans.

4) While younger Americans are struggling financially, members of Congress are doing quite well, especially Democrats. According to a recent Newsmax article, based on an analysis by Roll Call:

• Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas is the richest member of Congress, with an estimated net worth of $305 million, the first time a Washington lawmaker has gone over the $300 million mark.
• Roll Call’s annual list of the 50 richest members of Congress reveals that seven of the top 10 are Democrats — and four of the 10 owe their fortunes to wealthy spouses.
• McCaul reported in 2010 that his wife had received assets as gifts from her parents, boosting his net worth from some $73 million to at least $294 million that year. His wife Linda is the daughter of Clear Channel Communications Inc. and founder Lowry Mays.
• Second on the 2012 list of wealthiest members of Congress is Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., up from No. 3 last year with a net worth of $199 million. His wife Teresa Heinz Kerry is the widow of the late Sen. H. John Heinz III of the Heinz ketchup fortune.
• At No. 3, down one place this year, is Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., at $141 million. Issa is the founder of Directed Electronics Inc., which makes car alarms.
• Next on the list is Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., at $86 million. He made his fortune as co-founder of Nextel Communications Inc.
• Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., is No. 5, with $83 million. He is the great-grandson of Standard Oil Co. founder John D. Rockefeller.
• He is followed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., at $79 million. His wife Cynthia Blumenthal is the daughter of New York real estate mogul Peter Malkin.
• Another Democrat, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, is No. 7 with a net worth of $72 million. Much of his wealth comes from Blue Mountain Arts, his family’s greeting card and publishing business.
• Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, yet another Democrat, is No. 8 at $57 million. He is co-founder of Automatic Data Processing, a payroll processing company.
• Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., No. 9 on the list, owes her fortune to her husband Richard Blum, president and CEO of the private equity firm Blum Capital Partners LP. Her net worth is estimated at $42 million.
• Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio, is No. 10 with a net worth of $37 million. He has significant investments in fast-food chains, electronics companies, pharmaceutical companies, and oil giants, according to Roll Call.
• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California is at No. 13, with a net worth of $26 million, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is at No. 37 with $9 million.

I do not begrudge these people their wealth and assets, I do not envy their wealth. I have no knowledge that they gathered their wealth in an illegal or immoral mode (unless you consider marrying for money to be immoral!).

What I do worry about is that these folks have been very rich and in power in Washington for a very long time. Given that they have been responsible for the dire economic state of the country, especially the plight of younger Americans, I do believe that they are not capable of understanding the difficult economic times most Americans are going through and either do not know how or do not have the desire to fix the economy since there is no sense of urgency in their lives.

Another reason for term limits (Step 39 from “Love my Country, Loathe My Government”), incompetence.

5) And although we have not discussed the financial mess in Europe for a while, that does not mean it has improved. According to a Moneynews article form November 20, 2012, France recently had its government bonds’ ratings downgraded, the eurozone in total is moving further into a recession with the worst still to come and France and Germany are expected to show negative growth of 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, in the fourth quarter, according to Deutsche Bank Research.

The European Commission estimates the economy will grow just 0.1% in 2013 and the chances of another downgrade for France in 2013 are growing. Given that Europe is a major user of U.S. exports, a softening of demand and economic conditions there will have serious economic downsides for our economy.

6) U.S. domestic manufacturing activity unexpectedly shrunk in November to its lowest level in more than three years. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in a Reuters article on December 3, 2012 that its index of national factory activity fell to 49.5 in November from 51.7 the month before:

• The index was shy of expectations of 51.3, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
• It was also the lowest since July 2009 when the U.S. economy was struggling in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
• When the index falls below 50 it indicates an eocnomic contraction is underway.
• "Since May the index has been very close to 50 and I think what we are seeing is that manufacturing has stalled and has yet to recover," said Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York.
• "Overall, today's report suggests that the manufacturing sector is likely to remain a weak point in the recovery for a few months yet," said Jeremy Lawson, an economist at BNP Paribas in a research note.

So, housing is still stalled, consumer attitudes are sinking into pessimism, and now it appears that manufacturing is stalling also.

  Sorry for the bad news over the past two days. But reality is what it is. And the reality is that over the past few decades, trusting established, or entrenched, politicians in Washington, has been to our economic detriment, not our benefit. Enjoy the view as we go over the fiscal cliff by the time we review the economic trends next month.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

A Thanksgiving Wish: Helping Each Other and Undoing The Damage and Hatred That Washington Politicians Have Wrought

I hope that today finds you, your family and your friends healthy and well and hopefully together, sharing this Thanksgiving with each other in the way you see fit. I hope that there is good cheer around your dinner table, lots of laughs, and plenty of food.

However, if you are fortunate enough to be in such a situation, may I suggest that you take a minute out of your Thanksgiving day to think about others that may not be so fortunate as yourselves. As you may or may not know, there are about 12 million Americans who are currently unable to find work and may not be having as wonderful a Thanksgiving as you.

There are about 23 million Americans who are unemployed or under employed, including many young Americans who are struggling to find a job and establishing a career for themselves.

Every week, hundreds of thousands of Americans find the need to apply for first time unemployment benefits as the economy continues to struggle and economic growth is not enough to provide employment to all those who need it.

News stories have been circulating the past few days on how these hard economic times and high travel costs are keeping families apart this holiday season, something that should never happen in America.

As you sit down to eat, remember that almost 50 million Americans are eating today, through no fault of their own, only because they are receiving food aid from the Federal government.

May I suggest that as a result of the above economic hardships that you take a little time or a little money, only what you can afford, and make the upcoming Christmas holidays a little easier, a little brighter for these million of fellow citizens.

Throw some change into the Salvation Army bell ringer on the street corner. Next time you go shopping, buy a few extra things for the local food bank. Or better yet, volunteer your time in whatever way possible.

Write a check to your favorite charity or buy that gift for the child that may not get one this holiday season. If you see a member of our armed forces waiting in line for a coffee or a lunch, step up up and treat him or her, thanking them for their sacrifices and service.

You see, unless we help each other, it is unlikely the political class will help them. Many of the economic hardships these folks are going through are a direct result of the inability or unwillingness of our Washington politicians to do the right thing. If they were willing or had the ability to do the right thing, 23 million Americans would not be hurting for employment this Thanksgiving day.

Thus, we need to each individually step forward and help our neighbors, waiting for Washington to do the right thing is a no win proposition. These overpaid, under performing politicians have left us and our neighbors with the following dire economic situation today (data and commentary courtesy of the Bankrupting America website):

This season, we are thankful for our friends, and family, and that we live in a nation that can endure a contentious election and still have peace. (Even if the discussion around your Thanksgiving table is not always so serene.) While we are grateful for the things we have, we are mindful of the work we – especially our federal government – has ahead, especially when it comes to repairing the nation’s balance sheet and economy. To that end, here are the five budget- and economic-related events that we are not thankful for this year:

1) No Budget. Congress failed to pass a budget once again this year. The House passed an outline, but the Senate did not. It looks like this trend could continue: according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is likely to take over the Senate Budget Committee, her panel may not even consider one for next year. Disgraceful.

2) $1 Trillion Deficit. For the fourth year in a row the federal government spent $1 trillion more than it took in. Deficits over the last four years totaled nearly $5.1 trillion.

3) Nearly $16.3 Trillion Debt. As of Nov. 15, the national debt totaled $16.278 trillion, about $142,300 for every household in the country. That figure is nearly triple the average household income in 2011 ($50,054).

4) Overspending, High Unemployment, Low Growth. On average since World War II, federal government spending has totaled 19.8 percent of the economy. In FY 2011, it was 24.1 percent and for FY 2012 it was estimated to come in at 24.3 percent. What have been the results? An unemployment rate of 7.9 percent (average since 1948: 5.8 percent) and a two percent economic growth rate in the third quarter(quarterly average since World War II: 3.1 percent).

5) Coming Fiscal Cliff. After last year’s debt supercommittee failed to agree on a long-term plan to tackle the nation’s persistent deficits, billions of dollars of spending cuts kicked in. Congress is now trying to undo many of these cuts and figure out how to deal with trillions of coming tax increases. Together these policies have led to great uncertainty.

A Reuters survey found 42 of 50 economists believe there is a significant chance fiscal cliff negotiations would reduce consumer and investor confidence. Additionally, The Wall Street Journal revealed at least 40 of the nation’s top companies are planning to cut capital spending because of fiscal uncertainty. Reduced spending by the private sector, combined with lower confidence from consumers and investors, will eventually result in even higher unemployment and worsening growth.

So yes, be thankful for what you have today, whether it is a job, a healthy family, good friends, the ability to come together, and have enough to eat. But also be thankful if you can help others also get through these tough economic times. Our politicians, the ones who created these tough economic times, are seemingly incapable of doing such a noble deed.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is available direclty online at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w