The Coming Storm

This video is a Ron Paul political advertisement but I think that it is still relevant. Baby boomers will start to retire in great numbers, they will begin to tap into Social Security and Medicare. Bottom line--The U.S. can not afford these liabilities AND all of the ponzi schemes Obama and the Democrats are proposing for our economy.

A lesson from Milton Friedman

The lessons of the Fannie and Freddie bailout are going to be very expensive for Americans. When a corporation is singled out by government for special favors and incentives in the name of the public good, in the case of Fannie and Freddie it was housing for the masses, the situation quickly becomes prey to crony-capitalism. Here is a clip from Milton Friedman on this very subject.

HT: Liberty Pen

The House passes the farm bill

Cha-Ching!! Congratulations my fellow Americans! We get to subsidize big agricultural companies and millionaires for another five years! Woo-hooo!

They passed it with a veto proof majority, 318-106

HT: Andrew Roth

How I spent my stimulus package!

Well, I haven’t received mine yet. But it looks like someone started up a website for people who have received their check and have already done some spending. My favorite one is the guy who went out and bought a sack of marijuana. Ah, our tax dollars at work.

HT: Andrew Roth

Federal budget deficit spurs back 1 year T-Bill

Since our federal government can’t seem to balance the budget, the feds have decided to bring back the one year Treasury bill. I wish I could say that this is a good thing.

Raising Taxes on a Weak Economy.

In the last presidential debate (you know, the now infamous “Stephanopoulos” debate on ABC that has caused so much wailing and howling from Democrats), Charlie Gibson asked, Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, very good and revealing questions regarding taxes. Aside from letting Bush’s tax cuts lapse, we all know that both senators have plans to raise capital gains taxes, and in Obama’s case, he also has his sights set at lifting the cap on wages. Now, here is what I was thinking when I was watching this debate and particularly the subject of raising taxes. If the American economy is still weak and sluggish in 2009 and one of these two is president, are they still going to go ahead and raise taxes? From all that I have heard for months from Hillary and Obama, I think that this is very likely scenario. If the economy is still in the doldrums come 2009, raising taxes when the economy is hardly growing in order to satisfy an ideological dogma would be a sure-fire way to sink the American economy. I commented on a liberal blog about this very likely scenario just last week and I didn’t get a straight response from anyone.

The next president is going to have a very difficult time putting our fiscal house in order: The federal budget deficit is at about $9 trillion and that doesn’t include unfunded entitlement obligations (Social Security and Medicare) that total up to about $73 trillion. This brings me to the other pair of questions that goes unanswered on liberal blogs when I ask them: When baby boomers start to retire en masse and they start using the services that were promised to them, how are we going to pay for them AND for the universal health care for every citizen in America that liberal Democrats pine for? How high are taxes going to have to go? I have never gotten a satisfactory answer to those two questions.

In U.S. News, James Pathokoukis noted the plethora of government programs that Obama wants to implement if he becomes president. Obama, “wants to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent through a cap-and-trade system, proposes creating a ‘credit card Bill of Rights,’ advocates expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act, and, of course, touts a healthcare plan that would get the government involved in the sector as never before.” I don’t know about you but that long expensive list doesn’t seem like its going to fit Obama’s well known promise of not wanting to increase the deficit.This all seems like a lot of false promise and lot's of "hope."

If one of the Democrats do indeed get into the oval office in 2009 and they raise taxes on a weak or slow economy, they are going to find that all of their pet progressive programs are going to go up in smoke: There is a danger that raising taxes while the economy is in a slump may not only reduce revenue, but also kick start the sort of dreaded stagflation that haunted our country during the 1970's. There is one thing that was well illustrated by Bill Clinton in 1997--He cut capital gains taxes from 28% to 20% and he ended up with a budget surplus. It seems that the current crop of Democratic candidates have forgotten that bit of his presidency. Why? Are they so consumed to pander to populist sentiment in their zeal to get elected that they will say and do anything? Even populist politicians can become unpopular when their big government works projects don't work out as planned. They would do well to remind themselves of this well worn fact.

The U.S. ranks 164th in account balances.

From one of my favorite blogs by Mark J. Perry - Carpe Diem

The CIA has compiled a list of countries and where they rank as far as account balances are concerned. I noticed that on this list, there are some large and rich economies towards the bottom of the list.

Americans In Debt

From CNN Money

"I was a mortgage banker for about 20 years and while it had always been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, it also had some added perks in that I set my own schedules. This gave me time for what I really love to do: Surf."

And then Mr. MacQuarrie, like many working in the mortgage industry, was out of a job and deep in debt until finally, at the age of 62, he had to declare bankruptcy.