Facing the Facts of Financial Doom

Our politicians’ appetite to spend money they don’t have will never be satisfied.  There’s always a boondoggle or meritless program in need of pork.  Likewise, there’s always a politician or representative in need of votes.

Spending other people’s money brings a senator flattery from their constituents.  The voters reward congressmen that deliver federal funds with another term in office.  For the voter believes that, through the ballot box, they can get something for nothing.

Take this whole fiscal cliff debate.  From what we can tell the debate is limited to how much taxes will increase and who will pay them.  We’ve yet to hear much in the way of real spending cuts…the type that would take federal spending from 25 percent of GDP, where it is today, back to 18 percent of GDP, where it was in the 1990s.

But even that seems too high.  Why not cut government down to just 5 percent of GDP?  No doubt, there’d be a lot less paperwork to contend with.

The point is government spending is the real problem.  That’s why raising taxes is not the solution. Continue reading

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Jerry’s Definitive Moonshot

Southern California has wonderful weather.  Within the coastal zone it’s especially wonderful.  The sun shines bright every day, there’s low humidity, and a cool breeze wafts off the Pacific Ocean making things perfectly pleasant.  You just can’t beat it.

But for every sweet smelling rose there’s a stem full of jagged thorns…for every yang there’s always a yin.  Whether we like it or not, that’s how the world works.  In Southern California, the traffic, cost of living, and the large swaths of urban blight fall far short of perfection.

Still, it really isn’t all that bad…there are plenty of things that are plenty worse.  The state government, state taxes, and the collective will of the voter, for example, are categorically abysmal.  They penalize the financial rewards of hard work by taking money from those who’ve earned it.  Then they spend it on money losing enterprises – like bullet trains and public pensions – that vaporize wealth from existence.

There’s no place in the world we can think of, with the possible exception of France, where the scum suckers’ suck with such voracious frenzy. Continue reading

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Obama: The Carbon Tax Hero

Is a Carbon Tax a Done Deal for the US?
By Marin Katusa, Casey Research

We know Obamarama is going to tax the rich, but I bet many didn’t think he would weasel in the carbon tax as quickly as he is going to now.  A Romney win would have been bullish for coal producers in the US – but Romney lost, and now so has coal, at least in the near term.  The biggest winner from Obamarama?  Natural gas.

Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM) is now supporting Obama in bringing a carbon tax to the US.

Why would Exxon – and other big energy companies – join forces to bring on the carbon tax?

The answer is simple: profits.

Exxon has made significant purchases, buying unconventional North American gas companies.  For example, it recent bought Canadian firm Celtic Exploration for over C$2.5 billion.  Let’s not forget that a couple of years back, Exxon bought out XTO Energy for over US$30 billion. Continue reading

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Grateful People Are Happy People

Searching for ordinary ideals of Americana is like looking for consistency in the Internal Revenue Service’s tax code.  It’s virtually nonexistent.  The stimulating conviction of one American vastly differs from that of another.

One may celebrate adventures in mysticisms.  Another may find inspiration from the bleacher seats of a college football game.  While a third struggles to free himself of the orthodox hobgoblins that suffocate his soul.

In the more reputable papers, the story of the national struggle is told with feeble symmetry.  The news seems to be reported from the position that the two party political system filters out any ideas to the contrary.  We’re told a Marxian tale of the evil rich exploiting the noble poor.  Even worse, we’re led to believe that buffoons like Ben Bernanke know exactly what the heck they’re doing.

We find this ongoing codswallop to be woefully different from the America we see and experience when we step out our front door each morning.  Moreover, we find the abundance of thought polluting newspeak and commonsense destroying political correctness to be insulting and intolerable. Continue reading

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