It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession.
Talk about chutzpah when this is what he has unleashed upon us (and this doesn’t count if healthcare destruction passes).
Cross-posted at CMNJ.
Here is a video by Dan Mitchell of the CATO Institute explaining the true costs of government-run healthcare. In fact, Mr. Mitchell makes this so easy to understand, even a liberal can get it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oUx0S6Foss&feature=player_embedded#[/youtube]
Check out some more of Dan Mitchell’s videos here: Why Keynesian economics is wrong, How big government hurts economic growth, How big government hurts economic growth, and Making the case against the Value Added Tax.
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!
A couple of weeks back, I reported on the ‘Buycott’ in support of Whole Foods. The ‘Buycott’ came about after leftists protested Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s op-ed on healthcare in the Wall Street Journal.
Mackey is a true patriot and remains vocal in his support of capitalism. In this brief interview, Mackey talks about his views on capitalism and healthcare. I thought you’d appreciate it. We need more like him.
[youtube sYcFCyZC8Sc]
Last week, our own Richard Ross had a sobering and, well, downright scary post regarding the U.S. dollar. Well, I’ve come across some interesting information which puts this into further perspective.
In a piece in Smart Money magazine, investor Jonathan Hoenig uses the example of Zimbabwe’s economy to explain how a declining currency can render stock market gains meaningless.
From May through October of 2008, Zimbabwean stocks skyrocketed, shooting from 72,000 to almost 400,000 by early November as measured by the S&P/International Finance Zimbabwe Index. For intrepid investors with a world bent, it would appear to be an attractive return of roughly 5,300%.
The only problem is that, while investors had indeed earned more Zimbabwe dollars, the value of those dollars over the same period had nearly evaporated amid the country’s hyperinflation, meaning the “return” was actually a catastrophic loss. One Zimbabwe dollar in May of 2008 had lost 99.99% of its purchasing power by November of that same year. Investors made thousands of percent in stocks and were still wiped out.
We wrote about the specter of government-caused inflation earlier this summer. Since that time, the stock market has soared even as the value of our own currency has collapsed to 14-month lows, a Dow/dollar relationship we also highlighted a few months back.
I’m as delighted as anybody to see the Dow crossing 10,000 and now up sharply for the year. What proponents of increased government stimulus and intervention need to understand is that however, as the saying goes, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Since March, US investors have earned more and more of an increasingly devalued currency — stocks have risen 60% as the dollar has dropped about 15%.
That devaluation is a reality born in Washington, D.C., not from speculators on Wall Street, and exactly the reason why gold continues to knock up against all-time-highs. Official estimates are for the U.S. federal debt to reach $23 trillion by 2019, nearly double current levels. By 2011, the debt and will account for 100% of our GDP.
What does rampant inflation look like? In 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported how a beer in the Zimbabwe capital that cost 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars on July 4 had already risen to 150 billion an hour later. A few months after that, Zimbabwe issued the 100 trillion-dollar banknote, then worth about $30 (U.S.). Apart from being a collector’s item, it’s now completely worthless altogether.
In 1980, the Zimbabwe dollar was actually worth more than the U.S. dollar. What deteriorated over those 29 years wasn’t the weather or the water, but the political philosophy. Once known as Africa’s breadbasket, government destroyed the currency to the point where even “billionaires” were starving in the street.
The point is that having more dollars isn’t the same as having more wealth. As our own government continues to expand the money supply and further intervene in private markets, here’s hoping they understand that basic but essential distinction before we learn the lesson it’s too late for Zimbabwe to correct.
Obama supporters will no doubt begin pointing to the Dow resurgence as evidence that the economy is rebounding. When they do so, be sure to use this evidence to refute them.
More importantly, though, so long as this administration continues to pile up debt and pursue their statist/socialist agenda, our nation’s future prosperity will be in serious jeopardy.
{UPDATE} Larry Kudlow also has a similar article out today which I recommend reading: Storm Clouds Gather as Dow Hits 10,000
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!
Last week, at the Defending The American Dream Summit, we were treated to a sneak preview of the anti-global warming documentary, ‘Not Evil Just Wrong.’ The film, directed by two vocal global warming critics, Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, takes direct aim at Al Gore and debunks many of the myths put forth by the GW alarmists. Here is a synposis of the film from the web site.
Global warming alarmists want Americans to believe that humans are killing the planet. But Not Evil Just Wrong, a new documentary by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, proves that the only threats to America (and the rest of the world) are the flawed science and sky-is-falling rhetoric of Al Gore and his allies in environmental extremism.
The film drives home the realities of that extremism. “Turn off your lights. Turn off your heat when you get cold. Turn off your air when you get hot,” one man on the street says. “And then think about that.”
Not Evil Just Wrong warns Americans that their jobs, modest lifestyles and dreams for their children are at stake. Industries that rely on fossil fuels will be crippled if the government imposes job-killing regulations on an economy already mired in recession. Small towns in the heartland, like Vevay, Ind., will become bastions of unemployment and poverty. Breadwinners like Tim McElhany in Vevay will lose their jobs — and will have to start borrowing money again just to buy bread for their families.
The damage that would be wrought is unjustified by the science. Not Evil Just Wrong exposes the deceptions that experts, politicians, educators and the media have been force-feeding the public for years. Man-made pollution is not melting the polar icecaps. The ocean will not rise 20 feet in a flash. And the only polar bears dying because of man are the ones who try to eat men.
McAleer and McElhinney debunk what for a time was the environmental movement’s most powerful weapon of disinformation, the infamous “hockey stick” graph that attributed a supposedly unique burst of warming in the 20th century to humans. They also shatter the myth that the hottest years in the United States were 1998 and 2006. The hottest year was 1934, and the hottest decade was the 1930s — when there were half as many people and no SUVs or jumbo jets.
But environmentalists like actor Ed Begley Jr. and Leo Murray of Plane Stupid, who appear in the film, won’t tell you that. Instead, Begley sheds phony tears for ex-cons who are offered “green” jobs, and Murray decries air travel as the modern world’s worst indulgence. Their hysterical claims have fooled many people into believing that carbon dioxide, an element that is essential to life, is poison.
Organizations like Greenpeace, whose excesses are roundly condemned in Not Evil Just Wrong by founding member Patrick Moore, persistently push the same kind of propaganda that prompted world leaders to ban DDT. They believed environmentalist Rachel Carson’s doomsday scenarios about the mosquito-killing chemical, and millions of children in the Third World may have been infected by malaria and died as a result.
The documentary notes that the World Health Organization lifted its ban on DDT in 2006, but Al Gore and his allies will not accept that verdict any more than they will accept the science that discounts theories about global warming. They are determined to blame humans for everything.
And here is the trailer for the film.
Al Gore, of course, rarely if ever takes questions when it comes to global warming. But Mr. McAleer had a chance to do just that the other day in Wisconsin, challenging him to respond to a report identifying 9 factual errors in his film ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ To no surprise, Gore dodged the question and McAleer had his microphone cut off.
Suffice it to say, this film could not come at a more appropriate time. The official premiere will be next Sunday, October 18th. If you wish to attend a screening, you can check the website for specific information.
Our friend Jim Poesl, who is running for Assembly in the 19th District, also pointed out to us at yesterday’s Conservative Leadership Breakfast that one screening will be held at the Knights of Columbus in Avenel. The screening will begin at 7:45 with a suggested donation of $10 per adult/$5 per child. The address is 109 Morrissey Avenue in Avenel (Tel: 732-734-0704).
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!
Last week I posted on the G20 protests going on in Pittsburgh, including around my alma mater, Pitt. Well, on Friday Sean Vannity had a segment with a couple of the protesters, 2 Pitt students. Suffice it to say, I can’t help being embarrassed by this to some degree. Watch here as these two students demonstrate their incredible naivete. God only knows where they come up with their ideas, but I fear they are only being reinforced in the halls of *higher learning* at Pitt.
First off, it is amazing to me that neither student can bring themselves to at least condemn the violence. The one girl justified the violence and vandalism as an effort to make ‘their voices heard.’ So, according to this leftist radical, such activity is OK if it means getting your message out. Bill Ayers must be proud.
Michael Moore must also be proud considering that these protesters have come to the twisted conclusion that capitalism is evil. Yes, somehow CEO’s making 6 figures is bad for society and needs to be reined in via taxation and forced wealth redistribution. Capitalism is evil because poor people still exist in society. And, ironically, capitalism is evil because, according to these ’progressives,’ progress resulted in the demise of the city’s steel industry. (As an aside, it should be noted that Pittsburgh has rebounded over time both due to a vibrant healthcare industry – Pittsburgh is known for its hospitals – not to mention the efforts/expansion of the University of Pittsburgh itself, which is the city’s top employer.)
Underlying the protester’s attacks on capitalism is the idea that there is a utopia. That if only there were wealth redistribution to address the ‘inequities’ of capitalism, opportunity and prosperity would abound for all. Of course, such socialistic visions only lead to tyranny and the spread of misery and poverty among the populace.
This segment just underscores the real problem we are facing. Too many people simply do not understand – and have not been taught – the virtues of capitalism and the superiority of its morality. Abraham Lincoln said it best:
“You cannot help the poor, by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak, by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity, by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up, by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man, by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage, by taking away men’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently, by doing for them what they could and should, do for themselves.”
While these protesters are likely lost to this message and the virtues of capitalism and a free market system, it is up to conservatives to deliver it to our fellow citizens and persuade them otherwise.
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!
Last evening, Gov. Haley Barbour hosted an RGA webcast on C(r)ap & Trade. Gov. Barbour, of course, was an instrumental player in the GOP comeback in 1994 in his role as party chairman (personally, I don’t think we’ve had as effective a chairman since he left the post).
The purpose of last night’s webcast was to both provide an update on C(rap) & Trade, as well as to explain the consequences of capping CO2 emissions.
Gov. Barbour began the webcast by providing some perspective on the Democrats’ energy proposals. While the governor is greatly troubled by a potential government-run healthcare system, by contrast, that would only impact 18% of our economy while C(rap) & Trade would impact 100% of our economy. Energy, he said, ‘is the life’s blood of our economy.’ It effects everything we do and produce.
Currently in the U.S., the Governor noted, our energy comes from 3 main sources: Coal (50%), Natural Gas (20%), Nuclear power (20%). The rest is derived from Hydro-electric (7%) and Solar/Wind/Bio-Mass (3%).
This is key to understand because one of the things Democrats are proposing, such as in the Waxman-Markey bill, is a ‘Renewable Energy Standard.’ This would regulate that a certain percentage of energy come from renewable sources which do not produce greenhouse gasses (solar/wind/bio-mass) which currently produce only about 3% of our energy. Importantly, nuclear power -which Gov. Barbour said is ‘the most proven way (to produce energy) without emitting greenhouse gasses’ – would NOT be counted toward the standard.
Moreover, hydro-electric power would not be a feasible alternative because the environmentalist wackos (my term) oppose the creation of dams and threats to the eco-system that they claim would affect things like salmon runs.
In a Waxman-Markey world, the only place to turn would be solar, wind and bio-mass. These sources would have to make up for the loss of production from carbon-emitting sources and nuclear. In Gov. Barbour’s state of Mississippi, he says this would be devastating and that without nuclear power his state would not be able to make up for the loss in energy production.
As an example, Gov. Barbour mentioned that the Tennessee Valley Authority now has 2 wind farms in place. But these wind farms are of little use in the South because wind is simply an unreliable source. The TVA farms, as a consequence are only operable 20% of the time.
Obviously, all of this will mean that energy costs will go up and jobs will be lost. Gov. Barbour mentioned that for every 1% increase in GDP, it would require a 3% increase in energy production. Logically, if energy production can not meet this demand, our economy will suffer. In fact, the Governor cited CBO numbers indicating that C(r)ap & Trade would cost the U.S. 2.5-3.0 million jobs PER YEAR. The average family would be burdened with roughly $1800 more in energy costs per year.
And there’s more.
Gov. Barbour said that C(r)ap & Trade would make industries like steel ‘uncompetitive.’ They would lose business to foreign steel makers in places like China. And, ironically enough, this would actually lead to MORE pollution not less because American steel manufacturers emit 5x less per ton of steel produced than a steel producer in China. This would undermine the whole intent of C(r)ap & trade. And as we all know, so long as countries like China don’t get on board with C(r)ap & Trade, any efforts on our end to postitively impact the environment will be futile.
In fact, Governor Barbour pointed to recent comments by none other than Lisa Jackson. At a recent hearing on energy, Jackson was asked how much less greenhouse gas emissions there would be if the U.S. does everything outlined in Waxman-markey and she said ‘NONE.’
Meanwhile, China is preparing to build 50 coal plants a year. And India has basically told us they have ‘no intention’ of going along with any of this.
It gets better.
Gov. Barbour pointed out that the Waxman-Markey bill actually has a provision in it to – get this – provide special unemployment benefits to people in the energy sector who lose their jobs as a result of this legislation. Quite frankly, I couldn’t believe that when I first heard it. Within the Waxman-Markey bill itself, they are admitting that their own proposal is a job killer!
In closing, the Governor asked: If you were going to come up with a plan to de-industrialize America, could you think of anything better? Well, the answer to this question is a clear and emphatic ‘NO!
Here is some more on C(r)ap & Trade today from The Heritage Foundation.
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!‘
No not that Christie! This one…
The former Governor was interviewed by the National Journal and was asked about, among other things, C(r)ap & Trade. Her answer shows she doesn’t know a ‘whit’ (sorry, couldn’t help it) about it.
I believe cap-and-trade can work. It worked with SO2 reduction. I understand carbon is a very different emission, but it worked there, and there were all the same kind of concerns evidenced in the beginning. As with most things, the devil’s in the details. Depending on where you set the levels, and how quickly people have to meet them, it can work without sending the economy into a tailspin.
I’ve documented some of the problems with C(r)ap & Trade here. The bottom line is C(r)ap & Trade amounts to a tax on just about everything produced in this economy and would negligibly impact global temperatures over the next 4 decades, particularly because nations like India and China won’t sign on.
So, nice try Governor but you are just way off-base on this one.
You can read the rest of the interview here where the former Gov touches on the healthcare debate, Obama and the current governor’s race. Of course, you can decide to put a cap on her emissions by deciding not to read it.
Cross-posted at Red County & Conservatives with Attitude!
Liberals love to talk about widening economic gaps, such as ‘rich vs. poor’ or ‘men vs. women.’ Well, there is a real widening economic gap out there. It’s just not one that liberals would like you to know about. It’s the gap between private sector workers and public sector workers.
Check out these 2 graphs from Cato. If this doesn’t sicken you, I don’t know what will.
A $30,000 gap in wages and a $60,000 gap in wages+benefits. And these workers no doubt retire much earlier than the rest of us private sector saps.
Did I say ’sickening?’ If I didn’t quite say it, I am saying it now.
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!
Barack Obama and the Democrats are spending us into oblivion. Today, the CBO revised their figures and the numbers are downright scary.
WASHINGTON — The federal government will have to borrow $1.6 trillion this year to finance its operations, the highest single-year budget deficit in the post-World War II era, the Congressional Budget Office said in a mid-year update Tuesday.
New spending by Congress since the CBO last updated its projections in March prompted it to raise its estimate of the total deficit from 2010-19 by $2.7 trillion, the CBO said in its update. That 10-year cumulative budget deficit is now expected to reach $7.137 trillion, the CBO said.
Much of that 10-year deficit increase is accounted for by additional appropriations to finance the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. About half of the increase in the 10-year deficit is a result of lowered revenue expectations as the economy continued to struggle, and additional interest costs to finance the national debt.
The U.S. public debt will exceed 61% of gross domestic product by the end of 2010, the CBO said, with that figure rising to 68% of GDP by the end of 2019.
The $1.6 trillion deficit now projected by the CBO for 2009 is $80 billion less than it projected in its March update. That decrease is mostly due to lowered projections of how much the government will spend on its Troubled Asset Relief Program to rescue the banking sector.
The CBO’s estimates are broadly in line with new deficit figures released by the Obama administration Tuesday. The White House Office of Management and Budget also slightly reduced its deficit estimate for 2009, to $1.58 trillion. The White House estimates the 10-year deficit at $9 trillion.
And remember, if Obamacare passes you can add at least another $2 trillion to all of this.
To say this is unsustainable is an understatement. This debt is threatening the very prosperity of our nation. Obama & Co. are destroying us from within.
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!
