Saturday, February 28, 2009

Recovery.gov / A Primer on Socialism doublespeak

I spent an hour or two this afternoon crawling around the website, recovery.gov that President Obama announced in his speech to Congress this week. This is the new website that will allow Americans to see where their money is being spent. Ahem.

On this website, Americans are invited to provide feedback in a section called Share your Recovery Story. "Tell us how the Recovery Act is affecting you. What's working? What isn't? We want to hear from you." So I clicked on the link and submitted the following:

The "economic crisis" hasn't impacted me, but the government's response to it has. I am one of the few Americans who has met my responsibilities (reference para 7 of your 2/24 speech)...graduated high school though coming from a broken family having worked in the tobacco fields when I was 15 and in a restaurant kitchen my last two years of HS; graduated in the top 10% of my class at the United States Naval Academy; served my country as an F-14 RIO during the 80's during which time our Operations tempo broke the back of the USSR; left the service in 1990; put myself through an MBA program while working full time and raising a family and now looking forward to my older child graduating from Boston University in May '09 and my younger child graduating from UConn in May '11.

My pay has increased each year since I’ve worked because I produce and my results have been valued by my employer.

My family now finds itself approaching that now-dreaded annual income of $250,000. Of the $220,000 I earned last year, $71,000 will go to some taxing authority, $70,000 went to my children’s college tuition, $20,000 went to pay my mortgage honorably, leaving my family of four $59,000 for other expenses.

I have worked my butt off since I was a child and have achieved some level of prosperity, but have never been a pay-check or two away from hard-times. I don't have much in the bank, yet because of what I earn NOW, you view me as "wealthy" as if I inherited money from a rich uncle. What I have I have earned. I have invested in private schools for my children because the public schools are a failure. I live in the same small house I bought when I left the Navy and have never missed a mortgage payment. I paid full-price for college for my children because our government said I "earned too much". I could not even deduct any portion of the $70,000 I paid last year in tuition payments because I "earned too much". I have never asked for a hand-out and am not now, but your "recovery" plan will make many Americans beggars - begging for whatever scraps you throw them. I am sickened by the damage you have done to the fiber of this once-great nation by your systemic, comprehensive creation of a welfare state.

When I hear your oratory that you “fighting for the middle class” I sense that you are fighting me. Why? Aside from playing by the rules and having never asked for a hand-out, what have I done to incur the wrath of my government? Why is my example not the one that you want to show-case? Instead, you have waged war on me and are poised to tax me into chains.

I also left a note asking if the feedback this site receives from Americans will be made public, ya know, in the interest of transparency. I mentioned that failure to do so would further expose the new Administration to the legitimate claim of hypocrisy regarding transparency.

While exploring this shallow, Potemkin Village of a website, I stumbled upon Vice President Joe "nobody messes with Joe" Biden's website for his Middle Class Task Force. I provided feedback to this website asking what this task force uses as its definition of "middle class". Is it an upper and lower income level based on a certain family size, an education level, an age bracket? I also left feedback asking about another term used on this website and in all of the stump speeches - ah, you guessed it, "Working American Families".... I work 60 - 70 hours per week, have never drawn a penny of unemployment relief and am an American and I have a family. Does that qualify me? Oh, by the way, I made over $200K last year...does that disqualify me? Am I a non-working American who works 60-70 hours / week? Hmmm.

Fortunately, this website has offered transparency as well as the socialism.gov website - I mean, recovery.gov website, so I'm sure I'll get an answer real soon - right about the time that we see the first wave of the 3-4 million jobs being created (approximately two weeks after NEVER!)
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Kimberley Strassel wrote a great piece in Friday's Wall Street Journal entitled Obama: The CliffsNotes Decoding the President, which I encourage you all to read. Building on the shtick she used in Friday's piece, here are my contributions to cutting through the doublespeak of socialism.

"We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than ever." Translation: We will create non-value-adding make-work jobs and extort more money from the productive sectors of the economy to pay for these sham jobs, we will win in the 2010 mid-term elections and we will exterminate any vestiges of independence, liberty or freedom by emasculating the nation's producers, enfeebling the minds of our school-age children and crippling all in-between with every conceivable form of welfare handout.

"A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future." Translation: Productive Americans created wealth and were allowed to keep more of it than they had prior to the Bush Tax cuts. Inadequate confiscation means during this time period prevented the seizing of this wealth by the government and the distribution of this looted wealth to prospective Democratic voters.

"put people back to work and put money in their pockets." Translation: Take an otherwise healthy young man and pay him 40 hours a week to dig holes from 7:30 am - 4:00 pm each day. Take another otherwise healthy young man and pay him 40 hours a week to fill-in holes from 4:00 pm - 12:30 am each evening. Pay them each a "living wage". Assign a local government supervisor and a bureau in Washington to report on the job growth.

"...as we make hard choices" Translation: Hmmm. Some choices are good for Americans but difficult for politicians and there are some choices which are hard on Americans but are good for politicians. Which do you think we're looking at?

"This plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs" Hey, hey, hey, what happened to just "create" 3.5 million jobs? And wasn't it north of 4 million jobs, too? Translation: When this pig of a spending bill bill flops over on its side and starts bloating in the summer heat, I can claim that millions and millions of - perhaps even a gazillion - jobs were saved even if not a single meaningful, productive, sustainable job was created.

"There are 57 police officer who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make." Translation: Producers from cities and towns nowhere near Minneapolis were forcibly required to empty their pockets and send the fruit of their labor to Minneapolis because the people of Minneapolis could find NO GOVERNMENT SPENDING - NONE that was less important than cops on the street. So instead, a baker in Manchester, NH, a plumber in Saratoga, NY and a manufacturing forman in Louisville, KY have less money to share with their families because of this bill.

"95% of the working households in America will receive a tax cut" Translation: If you make more than $250,000 then you can not number yourselves among the "working households" in America. If you are among the referenced 95% of the population, you will receive "a" tax cut (what was it, $13 / week?) but then you will be taxed in every conceivable manner. We will raise your electric bills through a CO2 cap and trade scheme, we will raise your gas tax, we will increase taxes on cigarettes, capital gains taxes on the few stocks you might sell...we will tax everything you do, BUT, because of this bill we will be able to claim that we provided you "a" tax cut. Enjoy it. Don't spend it all at once.

"The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins." Translation: Yea, yea, yea so the Community Reinvestment Act encouraged (oh alright, coerced) banks into making loans to people they knew couldn't repay them, but that is sooooo 20th century... this time we'll do the same thing but we'll have super-duper government oversite so, what could possibly go wrong?

"These banks are now fearful of lending out any more money to households, to businesses, or to each other." Translation: The banks are calcified with fear that the government will, again, force them to make loans that are BAD loans, all under the banner of "the common good". When allowed to enter into only those loans that the bankers view as advantageous, there is NO fear. The fear is that the great unwashed Democratic base will not get "free" money loaned to it because the racist bankers actually insist on a down-payment for a mortgage and evidence that the mortgagee can pay-back the loan.

"We will act with the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times." Translation: We will send in auditors with rectal-scopes for as long as is required for banks to display "confidence". If they don't willingly display that confidence, we will make them an offer that they cannot refuse. [Note to young readers: If you're wondering, "But, gee, Mr. Powers, I thought in a free society one conducts business transactions only by free will with the assumption of gain from such transaction. This doesn't sound like the bankers are being given a choice. Where is the freedom and liberty there?"]

"But I also know that in a time of a crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment." Translation: If you don't have a crisis, keep telling the media that there IS a crisis. This way one can use emergency measures and everyone will think the President is brave, courageous, bold and decisive. It is the perfect storm needed to seize and consolidate power. It's also the excuse to tell Republicans, "Talk to the hand. La laa laa". Take a peak at Dick Morris' piece from The Hill on 2/24, "
It’s Obama spreading panic".

"It's about helping people" Translation: It's not about getting out of people's way and letting their future be limited only by there aptitude and inclinations. Noooo. It's about identifying your potential voting base and giving them stuff and identifying your potential enemies and eviscerating them. If you can do the latter in order to accomplish the former, then you have created the perfect solution.

"We will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years." Translation: We will extract a gazillion dollars from producers' wallets to fund renewable energy science fairs across the country and increase the amount of renewable energy from zilch to insignificant.

"We will invest... " Translation: We will take from producers and spread this loot to our political base. We will force industries to make products that no one will buy.

"We can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold." Translation: If you thought health care was expensive now, wait until it is free. Health care is a commodity like shoes or automobiles for which there is a producer (your doctors, nurses, etc) and a consumer (the patient). Simply directing that everyone will have shoes ("Universal foot coverage") will not increase the supply of shoes. Now if we go beyond universal foot coverage and tell the shoe makers how much they can sell their shoes for, do we think we will have more shoes in the market or less? Hmmm... If you think free health care is a right that must be given to everyone, what does this say of the value we place in those who produce the commodity called health care? And why stop at health care? Why not say that every American has the right to a certain amount of money per hour of work regardless of its value? Ohh... right, we already have that... Read the great article from The Objective Standard entitled "
Mandatory Health Insurance: Wrong for Massachusetts, Wrong for America" by Paul Hseih

Stayed tuned for next week's lesson...

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Before you go, you've got to read the great Review and Outlook piece from Friday's WSJ, entitled "The 2% Illusion - Take everything they earn and it still won't be enough". Summary: If the Administration is going to wage class warfare against those making over $250,000 per year, then why stop at 39% or 42% - take every penny above $250K... a marginal tax rate 0f 100%. Outlaw annual earnings above $250,000 - got the picture? So, take all of that loot and...it's still not enough to pay for the Obama spend-a-thon. So, 95%-of-Americans-who-will-get-a-tax-cut where do YOU think this money is going to come from? Even after taking ALL of the money earned above $250K, it's not enough... what will the government do when it can't soak the rich any further?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Contradictions?

"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." - Ayn Rand

If the idea that the remedy to being $50,000 in debt is to go on a massive shopping spree seems contradictory to the nature of reality, you are not alone. Many Americans (but, not enough, regrettably) are trying to reconcile the apparent contradiction in the government's commitment of $787 billion of our money and its stated goal of creating jobs and enabling growth of the economy.

The long list of wasteful projects on which this money was committed can not be honestly defended by its advocates, not that many are actually trying (see video below of the cynical, pompous senior Senator from New York).



Today, our Blessed Leader, with the ink still wet on the Great Intergenerational Confiscation Act of 2009, stated that NOW we need to get serious about reining-in spending. And this time, he means it...

"If we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road," ... We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences."

Huh? If nothing else, you need to admire Obama for his utter brazenness and ability to lie with such a straight face. His oratory today sounded like his oratory from the campaign trail. Hmmm, perhaps he always sounds like that when he's lying.

So, back to the contradiction. We take Obama at his word that he has just saddled the current and next generation with a trillion dollars of debt for no benefit that honest people would recognize. Paying someone a day's wage to dig a hole and then paying another person to fill-in that same hole certainly creates two jobs (on his way to, was it three million jobs?) but does it create wealth? The answer, of course is "no".

How does the systemic and government-enforced taking of money from our most productive workers and giving it to our least productive workers (or lay-abouts) create wealth? Have you ever worked for a person who made less money than you? No, I didn't think so. Me, neither.

If wealth is created through the vision and courage of bold men and women, willing to "make a better mousetrap" why would we think we could create more wealth faster by taking money from a business leader and giving it to someone who doesn't know how a mousetrap works?

Therein lay the contradiction. There is no data - none - to suggest that this pornographic plunder of America's wealth by the current ruling class will do anything that it claims it will. "Keynsian economics" has as solid a scientific foundation as does the debunked Global Warming theory spun by Gore. Both policies are the darlings of the Liberals because each enables a "fact" based policy that advances the destructive anti-life policies of the Left.

It is only when you check the premise of the contradiction with the Liberal spending platform and change the prism by which one views their actions does the contradiction disappear.

First of all, the Democrats want to cripple enough Americans, and make them dependent on the government, to enable a comfortable 53-47 win in every election from this point forward. Democrats wish to cripple Americans intellectually and economically. Democrats have destroyed the process by which our children are taught in our heavily-funded schools. By every objective standard our schools have failed our children and we are feeling the result of this systemic assault on our children in lower test scores and our competitiveness in industry.

Democrats loath the most productive among us and tax us, villify us, and parade us in front of kangaroo courts called Congressional hearings and then hand-over the ill-gotten wealth, obtained at the point of a gun, to the least productive among us for one purpose - to but their vote.

Democrats (and too many Republicans) favor opening the floodgates on the border with Mexico enabling the influx of millions and millions of future voters (all of whom will vote Democrat because the Democrats promise to take "give them stuff".)

Obama and his crowd don't want the "crisis" to go away. It is only under times of emergency that one can take emergency measures, after all. And if the current times aren't of an emergency nature, well, then tell the American people that we are in an emergency and keep repeating until enough believe the president.

What is so particularly perverse about the recent "stimulus" package is that, by any objective standard, it will fail to produce the favorable economic conditions presumably justifying its imposition and will delay the recovery of the economy. Obama is generating the winds that are creating the perfect storm that will result in "regrettable by necessary emergency measures necessary to address the temporary crisis facing every American."

This lie will justify in the next 18 months:

1. The confiscation of money in 401K plans with a promise of a guaranteed government pension,
2. The nationalization of the former "Big Three" auto makers,
3. The nationalization of domestic airlines,
4. The nationalization of all domestic banks and what is left of the investment-banking industry,
5. A tax on private schools that will result in the closure of over half of the private schools in America,
6. The passage of a national gun-registration law that will all but deny the availability of free American's to enjoy their 2nd Amendment rights,
7. The freeze on wages - first, this will start with those "bad" executives and then, in the dark of the night, will trickle-down to impact every American
8. Nationalized medical care - everyone will be entitled to free health care, meaning that the health care will be neither free, nor available to anyone.
9. The mandatory requirement that all teenagers "volunteer" to help people either unable or, more likely, unwilling to help themselves, and
10. The entry of the United States of America into the New Order of Global Partnership.

Viewed through the prism of the Democratic moral standard, I see no contradiction in the events of the first 30 days of Obama's presidency. His actions and those of his supplicants in the House and Senate are consistent with the book written in 1917 by Lenin and Trotsky. To seize power, lie to enough people to legitimize your power. To consolidate power, emasculate and eventually exterminate those people of talent and wealth who pose a risk to the cabal. To sustain power starve your people, deprive them of hope and live off their helpless consent.

Seem over the top? Seem unfair? OK. Show me another explanation that does not contain a contradiction...

Monday, February 9, 2009

1959 Interview by Mike Wallace with Ayn Rand

In this engaging 1959 interview, her first on television, Ayn Rand capsulizes her philosophy for CBS's Mike Wallace. The discussion ranges from the nature of morality to the economic and historical distortions disseminated about the "robber barons." She also comments on her relationship with Frank O'Connor, provides some autobiographical information and gives her perspective on the future of America.





What! Treasurys are tanking?

NEW YORK -- Prices of most Treasury securities fell Monday as investors demanded higher interest rates to absorb the whopping $67 billion in government debt supply coming this week.

The yield on the 10-year note touched 3.056% on an intraday basis while the 30-year bond's yield hit 3.764%. Both are the highest levels seen since late November, according to data provider CQG. The two-year note's yield rose back above 1%.

We talked about this yesterday... stand-by for Treasurys to tank as the USG tries to pimp-out more bonds to fund the Inter-Generational Wealth Confiscation Act of 2009 coursing its way through the bowels of Congress like so much bad sausage.

On 12/19/08 , the 30-year Treasury closed at a yield of 2.55%. Less than two months later the yield on the long bond has skyrocketed to 3.754% and is just getting started. ThinkTr the stock market is swimming against a stiff current now? Wait until investors can get 6-7% in a 30 year bond and they pull money out of stocks for the "security" of a 30-year Treasury. Does anyone think, with all of the new Reserve Notes flooding the Money Supply, that we couldn't revisit 1981 which saw 15+% 30-year bond yields?

I forget who it was but a pithy market pundit recently said that before we hit bottom, the price of gold and the DJIA will merge.... Will gold rise to $8,000 an ounce? Will the DJIA drop to 950? The answer to both questions? Yes

Other noteworthy tidbits in todays news:

Obama's Missile Test

How Government Created the Financial Crisis

There Is Room for Rate Cuts

Sunday, February 8, 2009

"Check, please."

Last Wednesday, the Treasury announced that it is bringing back the seven-year note and would be doubling the number of times it auctions 30-year bonds. So, instead of auctioning-off 30-year bonds to the Chinese - I mean, to investors - four times annually, Treasury now plans to do this eight-times a year.

This coming week, the government will auction $67 billion next week in three-year, 10-year and 30-year Treasury securities, a record amount at a quarterly refunding. (For those keeping score at home that is 1.5 million pounds of $100 bills)

So, if your eyes haven't glazed over yet, and you're still able to ask, "Who cares? What is the significance of this news?''

It's really simple. Our printing presses have been running 24-7, doubling the amount of Reserve Notes in the economy, in anticipation of the passage of the biggest government spending spree in the history of the planet. No cabal of power has ever gotten away with such an incredible plundering of private wealth as will the Obama-Pelosi-Reid clan. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Brezhnev, Castro? Rank amateurs in the profession of plundering compared to the OPR gang.

This spending spree will need cash. When the US Government goes to transfer $3 billion to ACORN as a payoff - I mean, as part of a job creation package - it will need to give cash to ACORN. While the presses have been printing money non-stop, the government needs to vacuum-up that money , in $20's and $100's. It does so by selling promises to investors that if they hand over one form of worthless paper (Treasury notes, green backs, cash!), the government will give them a different form of worthless paper (a 30-year bond or a 7-year bond) with a promise to confiscate the wealth of future generations to pay off the bond in years to come.

So, we're going to flood the market with bonds - the largest offering at a quarterly refunding in history. And what do we think will happen? Do we think the Chinese or the oil states will line up dutifully, and accept our junk bonds as compensation for the mountains of cash they are sitting on?

They might. And they might not. They've got buckets of US dollars, the value of which is diminishing hourly as we flood the market with more Treasury Notes, so they may bet that a future dollar plus interest might be worth more than a current dollar. But, honestly, I don't know how any investor could reach such a conclusion, unless the interest premium gets jacked. This will be classic supply and demand (with of course back-room deals thrown in to encourage the Chinese to play along).

And that is what we are going to see next week... the story, that the yield that these bonds will need to pay to entice the Chinese and Middle Eastern investors will skyrocket, won't get any coverage in the news... If mentioned at all, it will be spun to show how dire our situation is and why, "this Congress needs to act now."

There aren't that many Micky Mantle rookie cards to be found on e-Bay and for that reason, a Mickey Mantle rookie card in mint condition charges a predictable premium. So, what would happen if we saw printing presses flooding the market with "brand new" Mickey Mantle rookie cards? The price would plummet. We would lose trust and faith that the card for which we were exchanging our cash was genuine. We would lose trust and faith that that card represented a value.

By printing money, we are not creating wealth....we are eroding the trust and faith in the currency that served as the communication of value. Our money used to represent the wealth that was created by us which we freely exchanged with others who, too, had created wealth as evidenced by their possession of wealth coupons (cash). Not so any more. We print money, forgetting what money really is. If money no longer serves as a representation of created-wealth, why do we think anyone will place a value in it?

Next week we will see how badly we have violated the trust that was once found in the sign of the dollar. $

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Voices of the Apocalypse

"I didn't come here to be partisan, I didn't come here to be bipartisan. I came here, as did my colleagues, to be non-partisan, to work for the American people, to do what is in their interest."

-- Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Speaker of the House, 1/29/09

"When you can't win on policy, you always turn to process, and then you turn to personalities."

-- Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Speaker of the House, 1/29/09

"There's a pattern here of Republican economic mismanagement and Democrats stepping up to do what's needed for the good of the country while Republicans acted in a partisan and irresponsible manner."

-- Brendan Daly, Speaker Pelosi's top spokesman, in a memo handed to reporters 1/29/09

"And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."

-- President Barrack Obama in an Op Ed in the Washington Post, 2/5/09

"So then you get the argument, well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill. What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point. No, seriously. That's the point."

-- President Barack Obama, 2/5/09 speaking to a House democratic retreat

"...if we don't move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe. Millions of Americans will lose their jobs, their homes, and their health care. Millions more will have to put their dreams on hold."


-- President Barack Obama, 2/7/09

"But at the end of the day, we are passing a bold and responsible plan that will help our economy get back on its feet, put people to work ad put more money in their pockets."

-- Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) Senate Majority Leader 2/7/09

"Legislation of such magnitude deserves the scrutiny that it's received over the last month, and it will receive more in the days to come. But we can't afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary. The scale and scope of this plan is right. And the time for action is now."

-- President Barack Obama, 2/7/09

Obama ratchets up the rhetoric on stimulus plan, AP, 2/6/09

One Cannot Compromise with Evil

To live and love life, one must live rationally. Lies and deception are the enemies of life. Lies and deception are the stock of death. Life cannot compromise with death. Nectar cannot compromise with poison.

The "porkulus" package that Obama is pushing, like a five year old holding his breath until he gets his way, is evil. It is the most singular violation of that which we hold dear as Americans - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans in general, and Republicans in particular, would do well to continue to their resistance to this offensive redistribution of wealth. They should resist not because of their assessment of its utter lack of efficacy, although that is a sufficient argument. Instead, Americans should resist this bill because it is evil. We should never compromise with evil. We should never compromise with death.

Some good reading around the web... enjoy and keep fighting.

The Stimulus Tragedy, The Wall Street Journal 2/6/09 Review & Outlook

Bracing Ourselves, Peggy Noonan, 2/6/09

Pelosi dismisses bipartisanship calls, Politico, 2/6/09

Capitalism Should Return to Its Roots, Carl Icahn, 2/7/09

The What and How of Obama, Kimberley Strassel 2/6/09



Harry Reid Admits Stimulus Bill "Approaching A Trillion Dollars"