Obama's Stimulus Plan of Salvation

When I posted to Facebook the excerpts below, taken from the February 7th Epoch Times story, Obama Greets U.S. Stimulus Deal, Pounds Critics, along with my response, I was unaware of Obama's February 5th Washington Post editorial, The Action Americans Need. After reading Obama's editorial, I think I was really soft on him. We are in a real mess with this Administration's delusions of grandeur.

Excerpt:

"We can't expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place," Obama said.

"We can't rely on a losing formula that offers only tax cuts as the answer to all our problems while ignoring our fundamental economic challenges."

Response:

So, what can we rely on to boost our economy, President Obama? HOPE? Hope that paying off the basest of your political base, handing our condoms, and expanding the killing of the unborn, will CUT COSTS and create jobs? CHANGE? Expecting that you changing back to Clinton administration faces, with special emphasis on tax evaders, will be the salvation of our economy.

Mr. President, Jesus Christ has redemptive power. I know Jesus Christ. I regret that I need to say this, but you're no Jesus Christ. Please repent, and propose a real stimulus plan, hold the condiments and the bacon, and hold out for real bi-partisan support.

Priorities For the Texas Lege

There is a silver lining to that $9 billion hole in the budget that Susan Combs has predicted. Now the Texas lege has more important things to worry about than the phony Global Warming Threat.

It is easy to worry about the economy: "There is no way out of this mess without a reduction in the standard of living for US households." Texas will no escape being a part of the global recession. First, oil prices down mean the oil & gas industry is not going to make the money it made recently, and oil royalties are way down. That in turn will hit Texas Permanent School Fund and other revenue streams. Companies like Dell, TI, IBM, Toyota (making trucks in San Antonio) are cutting back. Construction has dipped. Yet Texas will do better than most states, having a record of stronger job growth than most states during the growth period.

What the Texas lege needs to do about it all is simple enough: Balance the budget without raising taxes or harming prospects for jobs and growth. That means, yes, to saying "No" to any job-killing regulations on CO2. Since 2008 temperatures were colder than 8 of the last 11 years, there has been no real global warming since 1998. Global cooling is happening just in time to save us from very dangerous regulations, and the recession is a reminder of what the real priorities should be: 1. Economic growth 2. Jobs 3. Fiscal responsibility.

Now if only the politicians in Washington were smart enough to figure that out too, we might not have gotten into this mess.

The New Kuomintang (KMT) of Taiwan - Big Goverment Liberals

As conservative Republicans we rightly complain about the excesses of big government liberals, whether they be Democrat or Republican. But the Obama of Taiwan (President Ma Ying-jeou) and his Kuomintang Mandarins are set to make American liberals look like members of the Grace Commission's Citizens Against Government Waste and Ron Paul activists, by comparison.

Government to boost middle class: Liu

LEGISLATIVE REPORT: The premier briefed lawmakers on his agenda, but not until apologizing for the surprise fuel price hike announcement

By Flora Wang
Taipei Times STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, May 31, 2008, Page 3

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday promised to recreate a solid middle class by boosting the econo “Taiwan was renowned for its ‘economic miracle’ in the past. Back then, the economy was vibrant. Taiwan’s wealth was said to be ankle deep, while people had numerous opportunities to become rich,” Liu said in his first administrative report to the legislature.

“The solid middle class became the force to stabilize the society, but over the past several years, the suicide and unemployment rates hit a new high while the gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen,” he said.

So the Cabinet’s main goal was to recreate the prosperity of the middle class by reviving the economy and reducing the unemployment rate so that many people will be able to increase their income, he said.

Liu said he expected the Cabinet to prioritize financial issues in the face of keen international competition as well as take care of other aspect of people’s lives.

Click here to read the full article.

What has Changed Since Upton Sinclair?

Upton Sinclair, in his novels, portrayed an image that corporate monopolies were led by greedy men who used the masses unrelentlessly to make money. The Jungle illustrated inhumane living conditions in the meat-packing industry area in Chicago. The movie There Will be Blood, based on the novel Oil, is based on greedy oil mogols taking land from farmers. Has our country progressed from this time?

These novels, and others like them, pushed the populist movement in America at the turn of the 20th century. The populist movement is responsble for labor unions, anti-trust laws, economic regulations, and Keynsian economic theories. The populist movement in America helped to move America to a more socialist system from a laissez-faire economic system. The populists cried out that the common workers are underprivledged and needed the government and labor unions to intervene to make their living and working conditions better. After almost a century of government intervention and manipulation of the economy, are we better off as a country?

A century ago, there was a poor working class and underclass of Americans. Today, there is still poor underclass of Americans. The difference is that the underclass of today is a result of the economic planning and intervention of the government instead of corporations. Candidates now insist on government intervention to create jobs in places like Michigan where the automakers have moved out because the labor unions made it unprofitable for the corporations to remain. No longer do oil companies take land from individuals, it is the government claiming eminent domain for the vague purpose of "economic development."

Government spending has increased exponentially because John Maynard Keynes convinced a few politicians in the 1930's that the government can spend us into prosperity instead of allowing our corporations and business owners to create jobs. The growth of the government sector is one of the reasons we have an underclass of people. The corporations of America were operated by William Randolph Hearst, Rockefeller, and JP Morgan, men who sought money and power and created jobs and innovations in the process. Now, America is ruled by career politicians who also seek money and power but only work to stifle invotation and stop job creation by regulating the economy.

So, I ask you now, even after Upton Sinclair exposed corporate greed in America a century ago, are we better off as a nation? You must remember that "greedy" enterpreneuers drive the American economy, not greedy politicians that support government spending, but continue to prop up the underclass in an effort to assure themselves of votes. Upton Sinclair fought corporate monopolies in his day. I dare say that he would be just as angry with the government monopoly today as he was with the corporate monopolies of 1905.

By the Numbers

By the Numbers
From Jerry Mikus
(Financial Advisor)

MORE OUTSIDE THAN INSIDE - US stocks comprise 45% of the total capitalization of all equities in the world (source: SmartMoney).

BIG FEET - The US economy is $13.6 trillion in size or 28% of the world's economy (source: Fortune).

EURO HIGH, DOLLAR LOW - As any American traveling in Europe last week painfully witnessed firsthand, the value of the 8 1/2 year-old euro closed at an all-time record high last Friday ($1.3831). The record low value for the euro (83 cents) was set on 10/26/2000 (source: USA Today).

jmikus@choiceami.com

Socialism Doesn't Work

A liberal mis-reading of history courtesy of Minnesota Monitor prompts a response from me. They said:

"A highly socialized system kills initiative, which was proved by the collapse of the Soviet Union. A highly capitalist system doesn't work either, as that can lead to economic stratification, a breakdown of democracy, and ultimately dictatorship, as we saw in fascist Germany and Italy, as well as in numerous Latin American countries in the past."

I said:

Wow. Just wow. This is a mind-blowingly ignorant view of the economic program of Fascist Germany and Italy, and latin America. IN ALL CASES, THEY WERE/ARE NOT CAPITALIST AT ALL.

First, the Nazis were the National SOCIALIST Workers Party. Their economic program was Socialist. government controlled the economy through regulation and bureaucratic controls, while letting industrialist remain as putative owners in a controlled socialist economy. Italy was similar. Mussolini was a socialist (former communist) who evolved fascism as a nationalistic form of socialism. He "made the trains run on time" by controlling both the economy and politics. Alas, Italy's and even Germany's economy really did not fare particularly well, if you look at economic well-being of the people (as opposed to their military output). (source: Shirer's Rise and Fall fo 3rd Reich). Same for USSR. Nazism, fascism and communism were in fact quite similar economic-political systems, with similarly dismal results for economic prosperity.

As for Latin America, these corrupt economies are victims of lack of property rights and mercantilistic controls on the economy that prevent real economic dynamism. They lurched from bad populist socialism (the kind Hugo Chavez is implementing now to the detriment of his country), to corrupt-style authoritarian Governments, who generally do not liberate the economy, but loot it (consider the phillipines version of this style, Marcos).
The exception to this unfortunate trend would be Chile's economic experiment under Pinochet, where significant economic liberalization occured, and as a result significant economic growth occured. Chile succeeded in moving to the top of the heap among latin american countries. (source: "The Other Path" by de Soto)

True property-rights-adhering small-Govt capitalist economies have in the past included Switzerland, Hong Kong, and to lesser extent Japan in the 1960s-1980s and the US for parts of our history (especially 1865-1913). All have had economic growth far above what socialism achieves. From 1865 to 1913 US economic growth averaged 7% per year, fastest in the world at the time, no income tax, strong property rights, and the Federal Govt spent around 2% of our GDP. We became the world's largest economy through that.

Statistics are quite clear. Socialism doesn't work. National socialism doesn't work; Communist Socialist totalitarianism doesn't work; welfare state liberal socialism doesn't work- OECD economies that have higher taxes and more socialism have lower growth rates and lower employment gains.

Half-way between socialism and capitalism is watered-down socialism that deals the economy-deadening impact in smaller doses. But half a dose of poison does not make for a good medicine.