image toon - 1st mny fnn = kid dumps last week's lemonaid as toxic asset
Thursday, March 26, 2009
It's Time for a Greed Czar
With the recent passage of the "TARP bonus" bill, it's obvious that our politicians are finally serious about tackling the problem of greed. It's about time, too. We've long had "hate crime" laws, so one had to wonder when the next deadly sin would make it on the legislative agenda.
This bill targets people at certain companies -- most visibly the much-maligned AIG -- taxing any bonus pay pushing one's income over the $250,000 threshold to the tune of 90 percent.
Yet the popular conception of the legislation sells our enlightened overlords short, as their vision entails far more than bringing a handful of rapacious Gordon Geckos to heel.
Henry Blodget explains writing at Yahoo! Finance:If the "TARP bonus" bill the House passed yesterday becomes law, any of the hundreds of thousands of people who work for Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG, and nine other major US corporations will have to fork over 90 cents of every bonus dollar that puts their household income over $250,000.
That's household income, not individual income. If you're married and filing singly, you'll have to surrender anything over $125,000.
Indefinitely.
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image toon - 1st mny sclm bbro libs - Congress = lucky for Capitalists they don't torture
Most Americans Support Government Control of Executive Pay Only If Taxpayer Money Is Involved
American attitudes about regulating executive compensation are very clear: If taxpayers help a company stay in business, the government should regulate executive pay and bonuses. But if no taxpayer money is involved, the government should keep its hands off.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of adults say the government should regulate the level of pay and bonuses for executives of a company that receives government funding, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty-seven percent (27%) disagree.
At the same time, just 23% of Americans believe the government should regulate executive pay and bonuses for banks and finance companies that do not receive government funding to continue operations. Sixty-four percent (64%) say that if not taxpayer money is involved, executive compensation is none of the government’s business.
Moving beyond the bank and finance industry, just 21% say the federal government should regulate the level of pay and bonuses for all publicly traded companies in every industry. Two-thirds (66%) reject this idea.
Government workers are far more supportive of regulating executive pay and bonuses for companies that receive taxpayer monies than are those who work in the private sector. Those on the public payroll also are more sympathetic to regulation of companies that do not receive government funding than are those who work outside of government.
A SMOOT-HAWLEY MOMENT?
When does a single policy blunder herald much larger economic damage? Sometimes it's hard to know ahead of time. Few in Congress thought the Smoot-Hawley tariff -- which raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels -- was a disaster in 1930, but it led to retaliation and a collapse of world trade.
The question amid Washington's AIG bonus panic is whether Congress's war on private contracts and the financial system is a similarly destructive moment, says the Wall Street Journal.
In certainly one of the more amazing and senseless acts of political retribution in American history, the House saw it fit recently to slap employees of AIG's Financial Products unit with a 90 percent tax on the bonuses of anyone at every bank receiving $5 billion of TARP money who earns more than $250,000 a year:
- With such a sweeping assault on contracts and punitive taxation, Congress is introducing an element of political risk to economic decisions that is typical of Argentina or Russia.
- The sanctity of U.S. contracts has long been one of America's competitive advantages in luring capital, a counterpoint to our lottery tort system and costly regulation.
- Meanwhile, the 90 percent tax rate marks a return to the pre-Reagan era when Congress and the political class behaved as if taxes didn't matter to growth or incentives.
It is a revival of the philosophy of redistributionist "justice" of the 1930s, when capital went on strike for an entire decade...
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US-Russia relations prompt NATO warning
Relations between the US and Russia were entering a period of ''uncertainty'' as Moscow appeared determined to sow discord within Europe and undermine US influence, the top commander of NATO has warned.
Citing Russia's military action in supporting breakaway regions in Georgia last August and disputes over gas supplies to Europe in January, he wrote that Moscow's actions"The relationship with Russia is likely to be more difficult to manage in coming years than any time since the end of the Cold War,"
The stark warning comes as the Obama Administration seeks to reduce tensions, offering Moscow possible concessions on missile defence weaponry in Central Europe in exchange for 'diplomatic' support over Iran's nuclear program.
While Washington has planned to reduce the size of US forces stationed in Europe, General Craddock recommended army brigades designated to return in coming years should remain, saying they contribute to "deterrence efforts"...
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Defense-on-the-cheap won’t protect America
[HT:MD]
The DC Examiner has an excellent editorial today on the Administration's hacking away at defense needs in their monstrosity of a $3.6 trillion budget. It isn't the amount of cuts that is the main problem; it's where the president intends to realize his "savings:"
Gutting the Air Force and Navy is stupid, short sighted, and dangerous. Our ability to project power to the far flung corners of the earth is wholly dependent on getting our troops to the battle zone as quickly as possible. For Desert Storm, we moved the equivalent of a small city thousands of miles to the middle of the Kuwaiti desert in less than 4 months. No other nation can come close to that kind of capability.
Compromising that ability will cause the thugs of the world to breathe a little easier and our friends to get a little nervous. But it appears that regardless of the threats we face, the Obama Administration is bound and determined to slash at programs vital to the future of our military - all so that he can have more money to enact his far left agenda.
A poor trade off if you ask me.
[Recommended > ]
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What I Learned at Duke University's 'Gaza Teach-In'
As I entered the lecture hall, I saw a stack of blank Amnesty International petitions, asking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to support a U.N. investigation into the commission of war crimes by the Israel during the recent Gaza conflict. [snip]
The two main speakers were young pro-Palestinian activists: Laila El-Haddad, a former Al-Jazeera 'journalist', and Duke graduate student Rann Bar-On. I particularly expected Bar-On, who has been active in such organizations as the International Solidarity Movement, which used foreign college students to disrupt anti-terror activities in Israel, to make inflammatory statements.
Bar-On did not disappoint: [snip]
I have also seen Palestinian babies dressed up as suicide bombers, and schoolchildren dressed in camouflage and holding guns, performing military exercises at school. And I have seen a Mickey Mouse-like character on Al-Aqsa, the Hamas-run television station, sing songs about AK-47s and exhort children to devote their lives to holy war. I have heard children profess their desire to kill all the Jews, and to call the Jews "animals."
But none of this was taught at the teach-in.
So what I really learned at the teach-in is that universities like Duke are creating potential incubators of jihad on American soil while posturing as open-minded and morally superior centers of disinterested learning.
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EU presidency: US stimulus is 'the road to hell'
BRUSSELS -- The head of the European Union slammed President Barack Obama's plan to spend nearly $2 trillion to push the U.S. economy out of recession as "the road to hell" that EU governments must avoid.
The blunt comments by Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to the European Parliament on Wednesday highlighted simmering European differences with Washington ahead of a key summit next week on fixing the world economy.
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The American counter revolution
The question posed by social scientist Charles Murray at the American Enterprise Institute's annual dinner this month could hardly have been simpler: Do Americans want the United States to be like Europe?
He asked as someone who admires Europe and Europeans. He asked also because it is becoming increasingly apparent that re-structuring the United States along the lines of the European social democratic model is the change many in the new administration --perhaps including President Obama himself -- believe in.
Murray is convinced that Europeanizing America is a bad idea, and not only because the European model creates chronically "sclerotic economies." More significant, he says, is the fact that embracing the European model means discarding the Founders' revolutionary re-invention of government, and of the relationship between the state and the citizen.
Murray argues this would inevitably "enfeeble" the habits and institutions that have been singularly responsible for making America "robust and vital" -- an exceptional" nation. [snip]
Do a sufficient number of Americans still believe that? More to the point, are we willing to fight for it? There may be no questions of greater consequence asked and answered over the years ahead.
[Highly Recommended > ]
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INCREASING NATIONAL DEBT POSITIONED TO DROWN NEXT GENERATION
We are beginning to drown in our national debt. Many people don't understand the implications of our debt, but it will drastically impact the lives of all Americans in the near future, says the Lariat (Baylor University).
- By 2012, the government will not have the tax revenue to perform 10 percent of what it is doing now.
- By 2030, the government will have only enough taxes to perform 50 percent of what it's doing now.
- In 2050, when we get ready to retire, the government will no longer be able to afford anything but paying back debt to foreign countries.
Our economy is beginning to show the early signs of a catastrophic meltdown. Our representatives in Congress need to tighten their belts and so do we.
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THE MYTHICAL "$2 TRILLION IN SAVINGS"
The President's budget:
- Increases spending by $1 trillion over the next decade, which he attempts to offset by reclassifying as "savings" $1.4 trillion in tax increases and $1.5 trillion in reduced spending in Iraq.
- However, government savings have previously always referred to spending cuts that save taxpayer dollars - not tax increases that feed the government.
- Furthermore, the Iraq "sav ings" are measured against an implausible spending baseline that assumes a permanent $180 billion bud get for the global war on terrorism, without any troop withdrawals through 2019.
- This is the equiv alent of a family deciding to "save" $10,000 by first assuming an expensive vacation and then not taking it.
- Without these false savings, only the $1 trillion spending hike remains, and that does not account for the extra $250 billion proposed for another round of financial bailouts in the current fiscal year.
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Geithner Remarks on IMF Roil Foreign-Exchange Market
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sent the dollar tumbling with comments about China’s ideas for overhauling the global monetary system, only to drive it back up by affirming that it should remain the world’s reserve currency.
He said while he had not read Zhou’s proposal, he understood it as a plan“designed to increase the use of the IMF’s special drawing rights. And we’re actually quite open to that.”
[It may be prudent to have an adult explain to the kids in the White frat House that when they speak the entire world is listening. Just a thought.]
[yes I know that was snobbish - but for crying out loud...]
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67% Say Politicians Should Give Back AIG Contributions, Political Class Disagrees
Two-out-of-three Americans (67%) believe that politicians who received campaign contributions from American International Group (AIG) should return the money. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 21% disagree and 13% are not sure.
The belief that the politicians should give back the money is shared by a solid majority of every measured demographic group except one - America’s Political Class. In that elite group, just 29% think the contributions should be returned while 63% reject that idea.
The gap between Mainstream America and the nation’s Political Class is far bigger than the divide between Republicans and Democrats within those groups. Among Mainstream Americans, 74% of Democrats believe the campaign cash should be returned. So do 78% of Republicans and 78% of those not affiliated with either major party.
Lack of logic in those who claim to be logical
Those articles focus on the political motive but only touch briefly on the philosophical context and that needs further understanding.
The dogmatism of believers in human caused climate change, despite overwhelming contradictory evidence, is religious in its fervor. It is similar to the adoption of environmentalism as a religion by many for whom climate change is simply a subset.
The question is how has this occurred? To get the answer you need to consider a series of events that at first seem unrelated...
[Recommended > ]
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Council uses spy plane with thermal imaging camera to snoop on homes wasting energy
Local authorities are putting spy planes in the air to snoop on homeowners who are wasting too much energy.
The data is being used to create colour-coded maps which will enable council officers to identify offenders and pay them a visit to educate them about the harm to the environment and measures they can take.
A scheme is already underway in Broadland District Council in Norfolk, which has spent £30,000 hiring a plane with a thermal imaging camera.
The council's head of environmental services, Andy Jarvis, said the original plan was to target businesses but it was realised the scope could be extended to include residental properties...
[The Green religion: a mechanism to control everything.]
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CAP-AND-TRADE IN THE WEST
[Separate from Obama's Washington efforts]
Reviewing the three cap-and-trade recommendations made by the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), the authors identified several flaws made by the seven-state consortium, consisting of Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Thus, calling into question the so-called cost savings of $11.4 billion to $23.5 billion heralded by WCI.
Under a scenario in which 25 percent of greenhouse gas emission permits would be auctioned off to emitters in a cap-and-trade scheme, BHI determined that the seven states:
- Would lose between 35,177 to 165,397 private sector jobs, while the permit revenue would allow the states to hire up to 19,710 state employees.
- Would put investment by firms at serious risk by slowing investment in the region by $1.6 billion to $4.5 billion.
- Would diminish total personal income, which would fall by $10.2 billion to $47.71 billion per year.
The proposals' negative economic effects stem from the price and tax increases the states would impose on the energy and transportation sectors.
Because a cap on carbon emissions is effectively a tax on energy production that is passed to industry, businesses and consumers, the effect is likely to drive commerce and jobs to other states or countries...
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2007 U.S. BIRTHS BREAK BABY BOOM RECORD
More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than in any other year in American history, according to preliminary data reported by the National Center for Health Statistics.
- The 4,317,000 births in 2007 just edged out the figure for 1957, at the height of the baby boom.
- The increase reflected a slight rise in childbearing by women of all ages, including those in their 30s and 40s, and a record share of births to unmarried women.
Racial and ethnic differences remain large: 28 percent of white babies were born to unmarried mothers in 2007, compared with 51 percent of Hispanic babies and 72 percent of black babies.
[*The usual subterfuge: a lengthy report I read disputes the perpetual "2.1 children" birth rate for 'American women', saying that while it's routinely reported that way, immigration, legal and non, contributes from 2 to possibly 4 tenths of that figure. I.e., American women are not reproducing at replacement rate - but good luck getting the MSM to elaborate on that statistic.]
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The Culture of Entitlement
.... problem at the college level, noting that more college students today expect high grades for simply showing-up ...
The origins of this sense of entitlement to good grades are not difficult to trace. Students preparing for college now often find themselves in classrooms where self esteem is valued more than results. This mindset is perpetuated at the collegiate level as institutions increasingly forsake legitimate measures of scholarly merit in favor of unclear and shifting policies designed to permit social engineering, both in terms of admission to college and assessments of performance within it.
Just last month, the University of California Board of Regents voted to eliminate SAT Subject Tests as an admissions requirement, opting instead for a costly "entitled to review" system. The stated reason for dropping the tests: Some students did not know they had to take them, thus creating a "barrier" to admission.
The American economy today is under stress because of a recession. Recessions ebb and flow over time, but a failure to provide the highest caliber education and demand excellence from those who seek it poses a far larger threat. Students may receive higher grades by simply demanding them, but America will not succeed economically just because we want rewards without results. It's time to align our education priorities with economic realities.
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Calls for Obama's FCC to Silence the Right
In today's Huffington Post is Joseph A. Palermo's "Cheney, Rove, and Fleischer and the Importance of Net Neutrality." Net neutrality, you see, is yet another way the Left hopes to silence their opposition -- and Palermo calls on Obama's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do exactly that.
"The Huffington Post and other progressive news and information sites, along with MoveOn.org and other Internet organizing networks, played a key role in this dramatic shift in communications technology away from the Right and toward progressive social change. We need to lock in this advantage.
"...With Democratic majorities in Congress and a liberal Democratic administration we can blunt the political influence of media conglomerates and the Right.... We have a very rare opportunity right now to lock in a progressive advantage in Internet communications, information sharing, and Netroots mobilizing."
What's so "neutral" about "lock(ing) in a progressive advantage" via regulatory fiat from Obama's FCC?
Palermo so loathes the free market and the First Amendment free speech rights of his opponents that he wants to rig the rules to establish a permanent progressive advantage in all things media.
The Censorship Doctrine isn't one particular regulatory beast, it is a state of mind. One that compels liberals -- in fact makes them feel entitled -- to silence the opposition by any means necessary.
All in the interest of "neutrality" and "fairness," of course.
['net neutrality' ... First; control the language... ]
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