‘Le Grand Guignol’ Comes to Town – Political Corruption

By Wallace Bruschweiler and William Palumbo

Grand_Guignol_poster

Promotional poster for a Grand Guignol performance. Courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

Over the last several years, the American people have witnessed one perplexing political shenanigan after another – a never-ending story.  Instead of standing up for principles, for democracy itself, our elected leaders routinely sell-out the same country to which they swore an oath to protect.

The most recent enormous sell-out was the passage of a budget that served only the government, not the country.  It began with the election of a new Speaker, whom many hoped would serve the country better than his predecessor.  Instead of a political savior, we got yet another total political loser.

Once in power, the Speaker raised the curtain on a most appalling political horror, a true grand guignol: a budget that funds a government which is already standing on financial quicksand, and that has an abysmal, out-proportion debt.  So much for “we won’t get fooled again.”

Indeed, many of the men and women whom we once considered true patriots have, in recent years, months, and weeks, shown that their own personal agenda and banks accounts take priority over the safeguarding and destiny of our nation.  Their treachery – their betrayal­ – of the American people is forcing a major geopolitical realignment.  Under rule of the current political establishment, the United States is a leading contender in whatever Oscar equivalent is awarded to banana republics.

How and why did all this happen?  Without access to personal records, such as bank accounts domestically and on an international level, including tax shelters, it is impossible to say with certainty.  But, if past is prologue, then bribery facilitated by a government-entrenched mafia is what greases this political machinery.

Welcome to Our Real World: Today’s Ugly Reality

It is not pleasant at all to think that a mafia-type government runs Washington, D.C.   Yet it exactly explains why, despite widespread disapproval of Barack Hussein Obama and Congress, both parties continue working shamelessly against the interests and well-being of the American electorate.

Take, for example, the so-called Iranian nuclear deal.  By legitimizing Iran, the world’s preeminent sponsor of terrorism, Obama has opened the Iranian markets (especially oil and natural gas) to the western world.  In the long run, this deal has the potential to generate trillions of dollars in international trade.  Companies represented by extremely well-financed and influential lobbyists see Iran as the mother-of-all potential markets.

Despite the overwhelming dangers that emanate from enriching a brutal regime with not-so-veiled nuclear ambitions and a proven worldwide terrorist network, the Republican-led Congress refused to try anything which would have effectively postponed and/or killed the deal.

Again, how and why could this have happened?  The answer is unfortunately obvious: money (and, in the case of the Iranian nuclear deal, close family connections between the negotiating members from both sides).

There are other examples that come to mind: a multi-trillion dollar “stimulus” package, a $700 billion dollar bank bailout, countless “green” energy loans that have ended in bankruptcy, etc.

How likely is it that some of this money has been used to line pockets for political favors on both sides of the aisle?  All of this was paid and financed by the people’s tax dollars.

“A government of the mafia, by the mafia, and for the mafia” – that seems to be today’s motto

Mafia is non-ideological: it does not embrace political ideals.  It cynically espouses ideals from time to time, but ultimately it will not uphold virtues that interfere with the strict pursuit of money and power.  So, when (not if) necessary, ideals and decency are conveniently forgotten.

The public at large calls this process “a bipartisan compromise.”  However, in reality, there is only one party.  It is a political animal which puts your God-given rights on the auction block, to be sold to the highest willing and able bidder.

It’s also indisputably true that politicians, on both sides of the aisle, are taking bribes.  Wherever power accumulates, corruption immediately follows. Widespread corruption is the defining trait of Washington’s establishment today.  There is no principled leader among them.

Politicians, like everyone else, have a price.

Five Housing Market Predictions for 2016

aei housing risk center logoMy predictions for 2016:

  1. The National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), particularly for First-Time Buyers (FTBs), will continue its upward trend that is now nearly 3 years old.
  2. Demand pressure resulting from continuing moderate economic growth combined with increasing leverage and limited housing supply growth will extend the seller’s market that is now over 3 years old.
  3. This will cause home prices to once again grow faster than inflation and incomes; expectation is for nominal home prices to increase about 5% in 2016.
  4. Expect the FHA to further decrease its premium sometime in 2016.
  5. If mortgage rates increase moderately in 2016, debt ratios will grow to accommodate the impact on monthly payments.

Also, the key findings in this month’s National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI) release for Agency purchase loans:

  • Mortgage credit has continued to loosen, especially for first-time buyers
    • The NMRI for first-time buyers hit 15.81%, a new series high; the November level is up 1.0 percentage point from a year earlier and is well above the Repeat Primary Homebuyer NMRI of 9.83%.
  • The pace of homebuying continued to be strong, with loan volume in November up 15% from a year earlier. The overall volume was buoyed by strengthening demand from first-time buyers, driven by looser lending and an improving job market.
    • About 135,000 purchase loans for first-time buyers were added in November, up 19% from a year earlier, bringing the total in the NMRI to 3.6 million since April 2013.
  • Fueled by historically low mortgage rates and high and growing leverage, a seller’s market has now prevailed for 38 straight months.
    • As a result, real home prices are up 14.2 percent since 2012:Q2 trough, far outstripping real income growth and crimping affordability
  • Credit standards for first-time home buyers are not tight.
    • In November, 70% had down payments less than or equal to 5%, 27% had DTIs greater than the QM limit of 43%, and the median FICO score was 706, a bit below the median for all individuals in the U.S.
  • The cut in FHA’s annual insurance premium early this year boosted its market share to 29.3% in November from 22.9% in March.
    • This increase has come largely at the expense of Fannie Mae and the Rural Housing Service.
  • The seismic shift in market share from large banks to nonbanks continued in November, boosting overall risk as nonbanks have a much higher MRI.
    • In November, the large bank share was 27%, down from more than 60% three years earlier.

Link to December 2015 Mortgage Risk Index briefing presentation.

The GOPe Rape of the American Tax Payer — A Political War is brewing!

The Republican Party establishment, a.k.a. GOPe, no longer represents “We the People”.  The GOPe has morphed into a conglomerate symbiotic amoeba joining with the Progressive forces on the radical left, a.k.a. the Democrat Party.

Today there is no difference between the two.  We have one giant Progressive machine grinding down the American working class.

paul ryan leader of gope

Paul Ryan, head of the GOPe.

There is ZERO Republican leadership in Congress and they have just raped the U.S. tax payer in an open park with the flood lights shining down upon them.

The GOPe has just funded over one trillion dollars of discombobulated pork.

Instead of cutting spending and reducing the size of government, eliminating income taxes, eliminating programs and departments to manage this unsustainable debt, they have instead planted more tears in the wheat.

The New World Order Progressive GOPe wishes to destroy our capitalist freedom loving  nation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has the white flag of surrender tucked in is belt loop.  Senator McConnell and  Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) are one in  the same and they both will block every conservative effort to stop this massive spending spree on borrowed Communist Chinese cash.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the process is, “[A]n affront to the Constitution – the very idea of constitutionalism – and an insult to the American people.” The Omnibus Spending Bill:

  1. Increases deficit spending.  It is a disaster for this nations fiscal stability and national survival.
  2. Funds Obama – Romney care.
  3. Funds Planned Parenthood, that will still continue to chop up unborn babies and sell the body parts for “science projects”.
  4. Funds the resettling of Muslim migrants from terrorist nations.  The FBI will soon be kept busy investigating future terrorists attacks on our malls, schools, day car centers, and football games and subways.
  5. Has quadrupled the number of visas Obama  wants for foreign workers.
  6. Fully funds the Green Climate  Fund.
  7. Delays  Obamacare taxes for companies but buries individuals in fines and penalties.

Democrats can now get whatever they want in every budget debate. The GOPe have surrendered. They are weak gutless cowards. Our government needs to shut down until these members of Congress stop spending OUR money.

There were 95 principled Republicans and 18 Democrats who voted against the Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell spending bill, which gave President Obama everything he wanted and raised our national debt by over $1 Trillion. The time has come to  make it very  painful for any Republican who voted for this financial assault on our nation.

Click here for the roll call list of those members of the GOPe who voted for the bill and the 95 Conservative Republicans who voted against the bill. Note that two Florida Republican members of Congress voted for the bill: Rep. Vern Buchanan and Rep. Tom Rooney.

After the primaries and Mr. Trump has secured his nomination as the candidate for the Presidency we will start the process of dismantling the Republican Party and the GOPe.

I know this is hard for some of you but you must change your party affiliation to NPA or Independent.  Join the Libertarian or Constitution Party.  Just remove yourself from the GOPe.  They do not represent you anymore.  You must sign the divorce papers.  Time to go… Its time to leave the GOPe  as it dies a slow death.

Why even Senator Rubio could not even bother to show up to vote on this budget bill.  Another pussy that needs to fired from the tax payer payroll.

His pay check needs  to be docked $10,000 for each vote he misses.  What a joke he is.

So the Republican-Democrat machine has just buried us in another trillion in debt to appease  their lobbyist ass kissing buddies.

left wing muslims100,000 Muslim refugees coming to America on your dime now funded….. they will then be able to bring in a million more family members as sponsors……..Where to build all the mosques ?

To all militia forces across the Republic that get my mail…. arm up.   War is brewing.  Get on point to defend the Republic.

Mr. Trump, I sent a copy of this column to your team in in Washington, D.C. and in Beverly Hills.  Start preparing to fund the removal of all Muslim migrants being brought into this country when you are sworn in as President in 2017.

If you are not angry then you are not informed. If you are not informed you are part of the problem. If you are part of the problem then get on board and get educated on the issues and start preparing to defend this nation from the war that is brewing.

If you fully understand the gravity of this problem and do nothing I will not defend you in the future.

In closing I show below some pictures of a few government offices in Syria which the FBI allegedly contacted to vet Muslim refugees for passage to this Judeo-Christian nation – the United States of America.

Any questions ?

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Technology, Not Politics, Is the Future of Progress by Nima Sanandaji

A branch of Google has recently partnered with medical devices manufacturer Ethicon to form Verb Surgical Inc. The new company aims to develop robotic technology for operating rooms. Robot-assisted surgery is at the cutting edge of technical development, an idea from science fiction that is coming to life.

This is one of several examples of how Google is betting on ideas that have little to do with browsing the Internet. The firm is applying the same bold approach that gave rise to its web browser to new fields such as longevity and automated cars.

But will regulators allow these radical innovations? Information technology is the market which comes closest to the ideal of economic freedom, with little government intervention and limited regulation. When the same approach to innovation is taken to other fields, red tape becomes a much greater concern.

It has only been 20 years since the two PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin began a research project about understanding the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web. Most researchers would have been content with publishing their results in academic journals, letting others reap the fruit of their ideas. Page and Brin chose to realize their vision of a better search engine. Soon the Google search engine reached a global audience, and became quite valuable.

Rather than sticking to the development of search engines, or for that matter related technologies such as browsers, the firm decided to use its funds and pool of talents to push for other innovations. Sergey Brin today not only runs Alphabet — Google’s parent company — together with Larry Page, he also oversees Google[x], a semi-secret research and development facility.

Google[x] aims to find major challenges facing humanity, identify radical proposed solutions to those problems, and attempt to realize them. One example of its ventures is the Google driverless car project. Currently a number of different cars — including the Toyota Prius, Audi TT, and Lexus RX450h —have been fitted with self-driving equipment and the Google Chauffeur program. Google has also developed their own custom vehicle.

However, regulations hinder automated cars. A lot of energy has been spent lobbying legislators to allow this new innovation. Gradually, progress is being made in the US, as well as a number of other countries, including the UK. But much of the global market still remains closed to automated cars, and will likely remain so for years to come.

A more humble innovation launched by Google was to offer coach services to its own workers in San Francisco. Alongside other tech-firms such as Facebook, Genentech and Apple, Google decided to deploy private buses to transport its employees to and from their places of work. This alleviated the traffic problem, by reducing the number of cars on the streets, reduced the strain on public buses, and made it possible to introduce coaches which function as mobile offices.

Critics however accused the private coaches of insulating a privileged class from the plight of the average commuters, which led to the city of San Francisco deciding to tax and regulate Google’s vehicles. Challenging the dominance of public buses proved more policially risky than challenging search engines such as Altavista and Yahoo.

Perhaps the most interesting venture created by Google is Calico, a biotech firm focused on health, wellbeing and longevity. The core idea is to use modern biotechnology to prolong a healthy life span. This, Calico hopes, can be accomplished by enhancing the ability of human cells to regenerate themselves. If successful, such technologies can have a profound impact on how healthy and how long lives we live.

However, the unique freedom under which the Google search engine and other forms of information technology developed under have little to do with pharmaceutical development. In the US it takes an average of 12 years for an experimental drug to travel from the laboratory to the consumer market. Many pharmaceuticals are banned, sometimes arbitrarily. The regulatory issues surrounding robotic surgery have likewise been discussed for many years, and are still awaiting a resolution.

There are, of course, good reasons to regulate new pharmaceuticals, automated cars, and robot surgeries. Indeed, robotics is probably one of the fields where we should be most concerned with the possible future risks of new technologies.

At the same time, it is important that a slow pace of regulatory change, outright bans, and government meddling in markets are not allowed to hinder innovations such as pharmaceuticals that can prolong our healthy life span. There is good reason to draw inspiration from information technology.

Funding of basic and military research have historically played a key role in promoting computer technology and the Internet. In the long run however, computers, computer games and online ventures have become the most innovative markets in the world precisely since regulations and government involvement have been kept at minimal levels.

It is no surprise that a successful Internet firm is aiming to revolutionize also other fields. Hopefully, regulations will not prove too steep from hindering Googles promising moonshot projects.

This piece first appeared at CapX.

Nima SanandajiNima Sanandaji

Nima Sanandaji is a research fellow at CPS,  and the author of Scandinavian Unexceptionalism available from the Institute of Economic Affairs.

An Economist’s 10 Objections to the Minimum Wage by Mark J. Perry

One of the biggest political issues right now nationwide, and one that will likely be an important issue in next year’s presidential election is the minimum wage.

Economists are generally in agreement that increases in the minimum wage, especially large increases to $15 an hour like in Seattle, will reduce employment opportunities for unskilled workers.

Despite the inevitable negative outcomes that will surely result from a $15 minimum wage — we’ve already seen negative effects in Seattle’s restaurant industry — politicians and unions seem intent on engaging in an activity that could be described as an “economic death wish.”

Proponents of a higher minimum wage point to the obvious and visible benefits to some workers — those who may find a job at the higher wage or keep their existing job and get a higher wage.

But that is only part of the story — there are many less obvious downsides to an artificially high minimum wages that take longer to recognize, and it’s those inevitable negative effects that lead economists to generally oppose minimum wage laws.

What are the specific objections of economists to the minimum wage and why do they generally favor market wages instead? Here are ten reasons in favor of market wages over a government-mandated minimum wage:

  1. Proposed minimum wages are almost always arbitrary and never based on sound economic analysis. Why $10.10 an hour and not $9.10? Why $15 an hour and not $16 an hour?
  1. A uniform federal minimum wage may be sub-optimal for many states, and uniform state minimum wages may be sub-optimal for many cities. A one-size-fits-all approach to the minimum wage is really a “one-size-fits-none.”
  1. Minimum wage laws require costly taxpayer-funded monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, whereas market wages don’t.
  1. Minimum wage laws discriminate against unskilled workers in favor of skilled workers, and the greatest amount of discrimination takes place against minority groups, like blacks.
  1. Adjustments to total compensation following minimum wage laws will disadvantage workers in the form of reduced hours, reduced fringe benefits, and reduced on-the-job training.
  1. Many unskilled workers will be unable to find work and will be denied valuable on-the-job training and the opportunity to acquire experience and skills.
  1. Minimum wage laws prevent mutually advantageous, voluntary labor agreements between employers and employees from taking place.
  1. To the extent that higher minimum wages result in lower firm profits and higher retail prices, that’s a form of legal plunder by workers from employers and consumers that is objectionable.
  1. Market-determined wages are efficient, whereas government-mandated wages create distortions in the labor markets that prevent labor markets from clearing.
  1. Like all government price controls, minimum wage laws are distortionary. If you trust government officials and politicians to legislate and enforce a minimum wage for unskilled workers, you should logically trust those same bureaucrats to set all prices, wages and interest rates in the economy. Realistically, if you agree that those economy-wide price controls would be undesirable, then you should also agree that the minimum wage law is also undesirable.

In summary, economists are not unconcerned about unskilled workers, we are actually very concerned about those workers. And it is because of that concern to maximize employment opportunities that economists oppose the minimum wage.

Simply put, we would rather see unskilled workers employed at a market wage — even if that wage is only $5, $6 an hour — that allows them to gain valuable work experience and on-the-job training, than to be unemployed at $0.00 an hour. And unfortunately, a $15 minimum wage maximizes the probability that an unskilled worker will be unemployed at $0.00 an hour instead of being gainfully employed.

This post first appeared at InsideSources. Reprinted with permission.

Mark J. PerryMark J. Perry

Mark J. Perry is a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus.

Why Is Liberty So Important? by Lawrence W. Reed

At this time of the year, all of us at the Foundation for Economic Education take special note of our many friends, both new and old. Though our work is vitally important, we never want to be so absorbed in it that we neglect the people like you who make it possible.

So allow me this moment to express a collective thanks from all of us at FEE to all of you who partner with us as trustees, donors, seminar attendees and alumni, faculty network members, readers of the Freeman and FEE.org, and ambassadors for liberty.

If you’ve never financially supported FEE in the past, I invite you to do so today.

If you’re a past supporter of FEE, I thank you for your generosity and invite you to consider renewing your support.

When you invest in FEE, you invest in life-changing events and publications that will pay dividends for decades.

FEE is focused on cultivating an understanding of the principles of freedom in the minds of young “newcomers” to liberty — particularly those of high school and college age.

Every time I hear a student exclaim “I never heard this before FEE told me about it!” I know we’ve made a difference for the rest of that person’s life.

Why is liberty so important?

  • Liberty is precious, rare, never guaranteed, and always threatened. It can be lost in a single generation if it’s not advanced and defended.
  • Liberty follows from human nature: We are unique individuals, not a blob or an army of robots to be programmed by those with power.
  • To be fully human, all of us must be free to exercise our choices and govern our lives so long as we permit the same of others.
  • Liberty works. Over and over again, it produces a degree of interpersonal cooperation, innovation, and wealth creation that allows human beings to flourish — nothing else even comes close.
  • Liberty is the only social, political, or economic arrangement that requires that we live to high standards of conduct and character and rewards us when we do so. This is a crucial difference between liberty and the soul-crushing, paternalistic snares that are offered as alternatives.
  • Life without liberty is unthinkable. Who wants to live at the end of another’s leash, fearing at every turn what those armed with force and power might do to us, even if they have good intentions?

We wouldn’t expect, even if it were possible, that everyone who supports us will agree with everything they ever see or hear from FEE. We have our own core beliefs, of course, but to a considerable degree we are a forum for differing views among those who broadly share an affinity for liberty.

We don’t take for granted that we’ll earn your support every day, every month or every year. We know we have to earn it all the time. So we are engaged in a non-stop, self-improvement program. We experiment and innovate. Seminar themes, technology, content, and speakers change and improve. We expand and grow what works and drop what doesn’t. We do it all in an effort to be the best-known, most effective “first encounter” for young people with the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society.

I hope this cause in general — and our work at FEE, in particular — excites you as much as it does every member of the team we’ve assembled. We go to work every day with passion for what we do, and with appreciation for you who support us.

Thank you, too, for being an ambassador for liberty. Because of your sharing on social media and your own engagement with our content, FEE is reaching a wider audience than at any time in our 69-year history.

We are experiencing record levels of applications for our seminars. FEE voices are appearing in the international press. And FEE.org itself is being read by over 500,000 people per month (and rising fast!). This is a level of reach that would have delighted FEE’s founders, and the champions of freedom from time immemorial.

However, without the generosity of individuals like you, FEE would not be able to deliver life-changing moments for countless young people. We need your financial support to continue our work for liberty.

Whether you give a little or become a continuing benefactor in substantial amounts, we appreciate it deeply as a vote of confidence in FEE’s message, mission, and work.

Thank you for thinking of FEE in your year-end giving. And, thank you for all that you do to advance liberty in any way!

Best wishes to you and your families for this holiday season and for a blessed and prosperous New Year.

Lawrence W. ReedLawrence W. Reed

Lawrence W. (“Larry”) Reed became president of FEE in 2008 after serving as chairman of its board of trustees in the 1990s and both writing and speaking for FEE since the late 1970s. Follow on Twitter and Like on Facebook.

Galactic Survey: What Are Your Star Wars Politics?

The survey is courtesy of The Freeman.

A Biblical Solution to the Omnibus-Muslim Problem

The Omnibus Budget Bill to be voted Friday, Dec 11, will provide $1.2 Billion for “nearly 700,000 green cards – or lifetime residency cards – to migrants from Muslim nations over the next five years (as we did over the last five years),” said Senator Sessions of AL, re Friday’s vote. Readers should email congressman.

The Muslim problem is about militancy as taught in the Koran. Christ said, “Blessed are the peace-makers.” The Bible covenant with Abraham provided the Middle East for his descendants. That includes Arabic Muslims from Ishmael. Islam’s push into Europe and America is foreseen in Daniel 8, but it ends badly for a militant Muslim ram.

First the Problem from a 2002 UN Report: “More books are translated into Spanish in a single year than have been translated into Arabic in the last thousand, suggesting at the very minimum an extraordinarily closed world.” Mark Steyn.

The PROBLEM is complex; leaders and media can’t seem to identify it. Maybe we could help them?

The Shoe Bomber. the Beltway Snipers, the Boston Marathon Bombers were Muslim. The Fort Hood Shooter was a Muslim. The Underwear Bomber, the U.S.S. Cole Bombers, the 9-11 Hijackers and now the San Bernardino Terrorists–ALL OF THESE (and many edited from this list) WERE MUSLIMS!

More innocent people died on 9-11 than died in Pearl Harbor. We declared war then, but not now; not on Muslims, but we need to declare war on militancy as taught by numerous quotes in the Koran such as, “Make war on the infidels living in your neighborhood.” Koran 9:123.

For hundreds of years, it has been no problem for Hindus to live with Buddhists, Jews or Christians.

Atheists have lived with Buddhists, Jews or Confucians, Christians have lived with Jews, Hindus and Shintos—these religions don’t have a problem being neighbors.

But Muslims have a problem living with Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Atheists, and worst of all, MUSLIMS LIVING WITH MUSLIMS IS A BIG PROBLEM!

MUSLIMS don’t want to live in Muslim countries of Gaza, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Kenya or Sudan.

They want to be in Australia, England, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway, India, Canada, USA—any country that is not Islamic; why is that if it’s a “religion of peace?

When trouble comes, who do they blame? Not their leader. Not themselves, they blame the country and want to change it to be like the countries they left!

Islam likes organizations: Islamic Jihad: an ISLAMIC terror organization, ISIS/ISIL an ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATION; Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Muslim Brotherhood, Palestine Liberation Front. ALL of these and many more are ISLAMIC TERROR ORGANIZATIONS.

Are we so stupid that we can’t figure out how to deal with the problem? At least President Obama and now Attorney General Lynch know it’s not the Muslims and to speak against them may soon be a CRIME! This isn’t “hate speech.” We shouldn’t hate anyone; Christ died for all. We should end our “Stupid problems” with Free Speech while we still have it.

Obama admitted being Muslim and he wants to flood US with Muslim “refugees” Now we come to the biblical solution:

God promised to give Abraham the land between Egypt and the Euphrates River for his descendants in the 15th chapter of Genesis. Five verses later, Abraham agrees with Sarah to have a son by Hagar. The Arab nations are descendants of Ishmael, and they should occupy the area in the covenant for Abraham’s “seed.”

Any other plan, like the pope’s encouragement for Germany to take a million refugees while the Vatican takes two families, [isn’t that interesting?] is against the provision that God made for Abraham’s descendants. When leaders become part of a stupid problem, we need to go back to basics. Dan88

The Bible shows the problem of Muslim militancy will soon be solved “at the time of the end.” A militant Muslim ram gets stomped by a GOAT [Global Organization Against Terror] that flies from the west in Daniel 8 (the book Christ recommended when asked about end-times.)

Leaders should consider the Bible solution, rather than “wait and see”–hoping for an answer in the election next November. Congress has proven they go along to get along with hidden forces and rewards while voting against the Constitution that made us great.

The answer for everyone reading this is to Google their congressman and send him an email SAYING “I WILL CAMPAIGN AGAINST YOU IF YOU DON’T SAY NO TO OMNIBUS DEC 11.” Leaving a message by phone doesn’t work–“mailbox is full.”

IF WE DON’T ACT, WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE, AS PRESIDENT OBAMA PROMISED ON HIS ELECTION NIGHT: “CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA!”

 

VIDEO: Trump’s plan to cut the deficit, balance the budget, and restore fiscal sanity

WASHINGTON, D.C. /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, will discuss his federal budget plans in a live studio interview at 5 p.m. EST ,Dec. 1, as part of Fiscal Fridays, the public affairs television series on the New Hampshire-based NH1 News Network.

Here is a video of the interview:

In the interview, which will also be aired this Friday, Dec. 4, Trump will respond to questions about the growing national debt and the specific fiscal and economic policies he would pursue as president.

The program can be seen and heard live on WBIN-TV, 99.1 NH1 News, and on the NH1 website. A video will be available later on both NH1 and First Budget‘s websites.

Fiscal Fridays — a project of First Budget, a joint nonpartisan initiative of the Campaign to Fix the Debt and The Concord Coalition — gives New Hampshire primary voters and the country at large the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates on the policies they would include in their first budget as president. Other co-sponsors of the series are NH1, the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire, and the Warren B. Rudman Center at the University of New Hampshire’s Law School.

Questions for Trump can be submitted via Twitter to @NH1News or with the hashtag #FiscalFriday.

Paul Steinhauser, political director and anchor for NH1, is conducting the half-hour live television interviews. Videos of previous candidate interviews on Fiscal Fridays can be found here.

“With the federal debt continuing to grow on an unsustainable path, it is essential for the 2016 presidential candidates to clearly explain their budget plans to the public and to ensure that those plans will put the country on a more responsible course,” said Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s executive director. “The Fiscal Fridays interview series is helping voters around the country understand and evaluate the candidates’ proposals.”

ABOUT THE CONCORD COALITION

The Concord Coalition is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to fiscal responsibility. Since 1992,Concord has worked to educate the public about the causes and consequences of the federal deficit and debt, and to develop realistic solutions for sustainable budgets. For more fiscal news and analysis, visit concordcoalition.org and follow us on Twitter: @ConcordC

A Letter to the Next President

To: The 45th President of the United States
From: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Dear 45,

Welcome to the neighborhood! Well, not quite yet, but you’ll have to forgive us for being excited. A new administration represents a potential fresh start for America, and on behalf of the U.S. business community, we’re eager to work with you. After all, there’s a lot of important work ahead.

Dear 45 logo

Of course, we don’t yet know your name, nor do we know what party you represent. But that’s not what’s important. We’re interested in talking policy, not politics, and we hope you are, too. Because if we’ve learned anything over the past century, it’s that entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t think in terms of left and right, liberal and conservative; they’re too busy thinking about their next sale, their next client, their next hire – and they need policies that help them get there.With that in mind, we want to take the opportunity to introduce you to the issues that are most important to the employers, executives and entrepreneurs who will soon call you their president. So over the next year, as you traverse the campaign trail, we’ll be sending letters your way to get you up to speed on some of the most important issues, so that you’re ready to hit the ground running on Day One.

These ideas include bipartisan proposals for streamlining and improving our nation’s unruly regulatory system. This “fourth branch” of government has grown so massive and intrusive that it is driving jobs away, discouraging business investment and stifling small businesses. The good news is that there are ways we can cut through all that red tape without shortchanging the health and safety protections Americans need.

In addition, U.S. businesses will benefit from your leadership abroad. They need a president who is committed to building stronger ties with our partners overseas, paving the way for more exports of American goods around the world – including a portion of our vast energy resources. They also need a president who will stand up for their interests in foreign countries, helping to protect their investments andintellectual property.

On other important issues, you won’t be able to go it alone. You’ll have to work hand-in-hand with Congress, and, as we have seen in recent years, that can be easier said than done. That’s why it’s so important you arrive ready and willing to forge a cooperative relationship with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Only then can we break through the gridlock in Washington.

Working with Congress, it will be up to you to set an agenda that addresses our country’s most important unfinished business, including modernizing our immigration rules while protecting our borders, cementing a long-termtransportation and infrastructure plan, rewriting our tax code, and securing entitlement programs through reasonable, sustainable reforms. Business leaders also will be counting on you and lawmakers to address serious shortcomings in recent efforts to reform our health care and financial services sectors, as well as to promote changes to the U.S. education system that better prepare tomorrow’s workforce for tomorrow’s job market.

These are just a few of the many issues on which our nation’s businesses will look to you for leadership. It won’t be easy, but then, easy isn’t what you signed up for when you announced your candidacy. You signed up to lead the most free and most prosperous nation in the world – a country that celebrates risk, rewards hard work and embodies the spirit of free enterprise.

We may not always agree, but we’ll always be straightforward with our advice and we’ll always strive to work together.

But you’re not alone. We’ll be here to help, and we’re right across the street. We may not always agree, but we’ll always be straightforward with our advice and we’ll always strive to work together. No matter what problems our country may face, we hope you’ll remember that America’s businesses can be a big part of the solution.

So please keep an eye out for more correspondence from us. In the meantime, best of luck out there on the campaign trail. We’re ready to get to work, and we know you are, too.

Until next time,

U.S. Chamber of Commerce signature

 

Thank Capitalism for an Affordable Thanksgiving Feast by Marian L. Tupy

Thanksgiving is almost upon us and the time has come for that most sacred of American traditions: bemoaning the rising cost of living. Per this Bloombergheadline on Thursday, “Thanksgiving Meal Costs Most Ever as Bird Flu Hits Turkeys.”

Well, that’s complete and utter nonsense.

The headline grabbing data comes from the American Farm Bureau Federation, which faithfully records the cost of 12 items (e.g., turkey, pumpkin pie mix, sweet potatoes, etc.) that go into a preparation of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people.

On the face of it, the nominal cost has risen by $0.70 — from $49.41 in 2014 to $50.11 in 2015. Using a BLS inflation calculator, I have adjusted $49.41 in 2014 dollars to $49.64 in 2015 dollars. So, the real increase amounts to mere $0.47.

Now let us see what happens when we adjust the nominal cost of Thanksgiving dinners by the rise in nominal wages.

In October 2014, FRED tells us, the average hourly wage of production and nonsupervisory employees in the private sector (i.e., blue collar workers) was $20.72. In October 2015, it was $21.18.

That means that in 2014, an average worker had to work 2 hours 23 minutes and 5 seconds to procure all the items needed to buy a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people. In 2015, they had to work 2 hours 21 minutes and 57 seconds to do the same. So, in terms of actual work, the price of a Thanksgiving dinner has decreased by 1 minute and 8 seconds between 2014 and 2015.

That may seem like small beans, but consider what happened to the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner since 1986, which was the first year in which the AFBF collected the pertinent data. In 1986, Thanksgiving dinner cost $28.74. In October 1986, an average worker made $8.96 an hour. That means that s/he had to work 3 hours 12 minutes and 27 seconds, or 50 minutes and 30 seconds longer than worker today.

So, enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner and rejoice in knowing that you have worked almost an hour less to earn it than would have been the case in 1986.

This post first appeared at HumanProgress.org.

Marian L. Tupy

Marian L. Tupy

Marian L. Tupy is the editor of HumanProgress.org and a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.

There is Nothing New Under the Sun

King Solomon of Israel is known as the wisest man who ever lived.   So when one observes the struggle between good and evil, liberty and tyranny, communism and capitalism, unalienable rights and sharia law, one thing rings true.  That there is absolutely nothing new under the sun as King Solomon wisely stated.  The current state of affairs in our republic turned mob rule democracy is not unique to America.

The British Empire was once so vast that the sun was always shining on a land possession of that famous nation, whose territories once spanned all the way around the entire globe.  The Roman Empire, whose ancient roads were so well constructed that many of them are still used today influenced the entire known world at the time of her past glory.

The United States of America became the greatest nation in the history of the world.  Not just because great men sought religious freedom, but also because they realized that both freedom and liberty did not come from government, but rather from God, who’s son saves us from Satan’s vow of death and damnation, if we choose it.  One of the common traits of those who reside in great, prosperous and overall blessed nations is a never say die attitude.

For example, it did not matter what life presented to those historic figures who landed at Plymouth Rock and dedicated their new found home to God and regularly sought His wisdom and general guidance.  Those men and women who left the familiar confines of Great Britain refused to be inhibited by so-called limitations.  Against all odds and obstacles they persevered, overcoming the fear of the unknown, natural disasters and disease to plant the seeds of greatness that would later grow into the United States of America.

Another familiar trait of those who achieve greatness is not giving into situations or even naysayers who present themselves as harbingers of hopelessness in the midst of someone’s mission to secure a particular goal.  In prior generations, it did not matter what tragedy the men and women of destiny, there were no mountains too high to climb, oceans to wide to cross, or other impossible odds to overcome and eventually secure what they set out to achieve.

That onetime common trait of never say die or getting tough when the going gets rough has in recent years become less adhered to among the American population of today.  One of the primary reasons has been a multi-generational effort between big government and government schools to dissuade sovereign individuals from their God given unalienable rights and turn them into improperly focused wards of the politically correct state.  That is one of the major reasons why the United States of America has suffered the misfortune of falling like a rock from greatness over the past several years.

Far too many of our fellow countrymen and women have chosen to sit idly by while those who clamor for the power to dismantle the very bedrock of this country forge ahead in their dastardly mission.  One of their main goals is to drive out constitutional guidelines and even God himself from the fabric of society.

The good news is that in recent months, more and more Americans are refusing to be corralled by their real or imagined limitations.  Whether one is in favor of Donald Trump becoming president or not, he has in a sense rekindled a real spark of interest in the affairs of our republic among Americans, who for too long have been cornered by stupid limitations.  Whether the limitations are fear, apathy, indifference or just plain ignorance concerning the times we live in.

The Trump and to a lessening degree, Carson phenomenon is a great first step away from the limitations that have hampered far too many sovereign citizens for much too long.  Both Dr. Carson and Donald Trump are admirable contemporary examples of letting go of their limitations.  They did not allow any possible setbacks to become the standard or roadmap for their lives.

As we Americans refuse to allow our limitations to define us or the direction our republic takes in the coming months and years, we can begin to step out in faith to break off the negative limitations.  Of course, not only in our personal lives but throughout our great republic as well.

Among the premier limitation destroyers is first believing and knowing that you were created by a loving and patient God who endowed you with unalienable rights that government cannot obstruct or dare to take away.

“We the People” can no longer be a direct or indirect part of the problems besetting our republic.  Even by just sitting idly by and doing nothing is a form of approving of the destructive mission of those helping president Obama fundamentally change America.  It is now high time to shake up the status quo of progressivism inspired destruction that has been the decades long mission of far too many misguided victims of government school indoctrination, weak parental instruction and inept church teachings.

Let us put an end to the mind inhibiting practices of common core, agenda 21 etc. etc. not only of individuals, but the republic as a whole.  Just remember, that by the grace and blessings of God, you are limitless in your potential to be all that you can be and so is America, still the greatest nation ever.  Remember there is nothing new under the sun including you God given potential as a great American overcomer.  God Bless You, God Bless America and May America Bless God.

D.C. Is Artificial by Richard Lorenc

As a part of my job, I travel to Washington, DC, fairly often. (More and more, it seems like everyone’s business is centered in that place.)

The monuments and museums are impressive, and the city life is vibrant, but I can never shake the feeling that the nation’s capital is a fake city.

Compare Washington to Chicago, America’s “second city” and my favorite.

It’s not that my trips there are bad. I see a lot of friends and colleagues, meet new people, and usually have pleasant and productive meetings. I’ve enjoyed walking around Georgetown, and I even got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Capitol Building by a friend who works there.

Rather, it’s that, as a city, DC is a place removed from reality. It’s a dream world, where the main economy really is zero-sum, and where people who work for, around, or on government are required to avoid practicing politeness.

Allow me to contrast DC with Chicago along three dimensions: geography, economy, and society.

Chicago exists where it does because it is accessible by water routes. The Chicago River, Lake Michigan, and others made it easier for people and goods to locate to this spot many decades ago.

The District of Columbia, although it too is located on a river, is situated where it is because of a political compromise between the North and the South. It sits between Virginia and Maryland so that no one geographic faction could too easily commandeer the levers of the federal government. DC was not located where it is because that place was the best place to build a city where people wanted to live or make things. It was spawned from contentious political wrangling over issues such as slavery.

Ask yourself whether so many people would live in the DC area were it not for all the power we’ve ceded to the federal government. Chicago, on the other hand, exists because its location offered unique advantages to people engaged in serving their fellow man. Washington is sited through human design; Chicago through human action.

Then there are the cities’ economic differences. Chicago’s economy was based originally on commodities such as fur and meat. It moved to manufacturing, printing, and trading to become the center of finance, banking, and education it is today. Each of these industries emerged locally because people specializing in them here made their services valuable to others. The city’s economy changed because people stopped needing fur so much, meat became cheaper to produce elsewhere, and Chicago was no longer the best place for manufacturing.

Chicago’s economy adapted and evolved according to the demands of others, while Washington’s has not. Its economy has largely remained static, unchanging, and uncreative. That’s not to say its economy hasn’t grown — per capita income in the DC area is now highest among the 50 states, by far. This is because the federal government has amassed more and more power, money, and human capital as the years have passed.

Some time ago, I hadn’t been to DC for a few years, and when I returned, I was shocked at how many ads I saw that aimed to persuade people in power to use your money and mine to fund private energy and agricultural companies. Unlike Chicago, Washington’s economy is not based on creating true value for others. Rather, it is based on redistributing the wealth of the country and skimming some from the top. That skimming represents billions of dollars of wasted resources that might have been used to grow the economic pie had they remained available to those who create value, rather than fueling the ambitions of lobbyists, politicians, and government staffers.

But the most important contrast between Washington and an organic American city: society. Although five of Chicago’s top six employers are government entities, most people and businesses here don’t make their livings by dipping into a Niagara Falls of tax revenues.

That means business dealings are done much more on the basis of voluntary decisions. People expect to receive something valuable when they decide freely whether to exchange their money for something else. Likewise, the seller accepts the buyer’s money because it is worth more to him than what he is peddling. If either condition isn’t met, these people won’t meet again. But when they are met — which is every time you buy a coffee from Starbucks — you have the opportunity to practice politeness with someone with whom you may have never interacted otherwise.

Voluntary exchange gives us the chance to act decently with people of different backgrounds and opinions. Of course, there is voluntary exchange in DC, and there are many opportunities for people to behave civilly outside of their work: concerts, museums, theatre, sports. But given that Washington’s primary industry is government, these opportunities occur with less frequency there.

For example, if I am a staffer who works for Senator Red and you are one who works for Senator Blue, it’s likely we’ll regard the other with suspicion or contempt if we ever meet. Because government can only redistribute wealth created elsewhere, the government-centric economy really is zero-sum: if you win, I lose. Although some of this exists everywhere that government takes from some to give to others, it is most acute in Washington.

I admire the ornate buildings and monuments in Washington as much as anyone else. They’re impressive feats of artistic and architectural expression. They remind us of our history. In those ways, they are valuable. But I am saddened when I think about how they inspire reverence toward government power as the means solve every problem.

DC is an artificial city. Chicago is real.

Richard LorencRichard Lorenc

Richard N. Lorenc is the Chief Operating Officer of FEE and Publisher of the Freeman.

Do Capitalists Manipulate, Deceive, and Cheat? Not as Much as Politicians Do by Michael Makovi

Real-world markets, according to Nobel laureate economist Robert Shiller, are all about manipulation and deception.

So he argues in a New York Times article summarizing his new book, coauthored with fellow Nobel laureate economist George Akerlof: Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception. According to Shiller, merchants and vendors regularly “phish for” ignorant consumers who they can mislead into acting less in their own interests and more in those of the phishermen.

Shiller claims that the theoretical defense of the free market depends on consumers being rational and well informed — a condition that doesn’t hold true in the real world. Drawing on behavioral economics, he argues that consumers are often possessed with cognitive biases that allow them to be systematically deceived by unsavory merchants. For this reason, Shiller argues, consumers need government regulation to protect their interests. The internal forces of the market are not sufficient.

Deux ex Nirvana

But government regulation is not an infallible deus ex machina. The question is not whether the market fails, but whether the government is more likely than the market itself to correct those failures. Economist Harold Demsetz coined the term “nirvana fallacy” to make this point: it is not enough to find flaws in the real world; one must prove that some feasible alternative is likely to be less flawed. James Buchanan, one of the fathers of public choice economics, compared advocates of government regulation to the judges of a singing contest who, after hearing an imperfect performance from the first contestant, immediately award the second contestant, reasoning that he must be better.

No, the market is not perfect, and consumers are often ignorant and manipulable. But the real question is this: Will government do any better?

Just because the first singer offered a less-than-perfect performance is no proof that the second singer will be any better. Ironically, Nudge author and former member of the Obama administration Cass Sunstein, no friend of economic freedom, accidentally makes this very point in his positive review of Shiller and Akerlof’s book.

According to Sunstein,

Bad government is itself a product of phishing and phoolishness, for “we are prone to vote for the person who makes us the most comfortable,” even when that person’s decisions are effectively bought by special interests.

So yes, people behave irrationally in their capacities as market participants, but they are no more rational in how they cast their votes than in how they spend their dollars.

Buying What You Don’t Want

The difference is that in a market, there are feedback signals, however attenuated. If a vendor cheats his customer by holding back information about his product, at least the customer will learn about the product’s faults after he purchases it, and he will buy from someone else next time. He will likely warn others, too. The consumer may have cognitive biases, but he has the opportunity to learn from his mistakes, prevent others from making them, and correct them in the future. The deceptive merchant will develop a bad reputation, and paying customers are motivated to learn about merchants’ reputations — especially as 21st-century technology develops ever-more-robust reputation markets, accessible through anyone’s smartphone.

By contrast, there are fewer feedback signals in politics and even fewer opportunities to act on that feedback. One vote barely counts, and each voter must vote not for specific policies, but for politicians with a range of policies. Electoral politics doesn’t really offer a choice so much as it imposes a bundle. A vote for a particular candidate implies endorsement of all the policies in that bundle, when the truth is more likely that the voter has selected the least bad option. In the market, customers can easily split their “dollar votes” to purchase only the specific products they want.

In Freedom and the Law, Bruno Leoni notes that we are all doubly unrepresented by politics: we vote for A, but B defeats A in the election. Then, when B is sitting in the legislature, he is outvoted on a bill by C. So in the end, a person is governed by politician C who beat B, who in turn beat the voter’s preferred choice, A.

When Phoolishness Is Rational

In such a situation, it makes sense for voters to be rationally ignorant of the effects of government policies they are helpless to affect. Politicians are free to peddle shoddy products when they know voters have few opportunities to learn from their mistakes — and even fewer opportunities to correct them.

Meanwhile, markets tend to concentrate benefits and costs on the consumers who use a specific product. This internalization of costs and benefits promotes learning and feedback. In a market, a person must bear the consequences of his or her own actions.

In politics, benefits are concentrated on those whom the politician wishes to favor — such as financial donors and special interests whose attention is narrowly focused — while costs are dispersed among those whose attention is elsewhere, including many who focus on producing wealth instead of transferring it.

The combination of rationally ignorant voters and informed and motivated special interests encourages rent seeking. Private benefit and social cost diverge as the political process encourages the creation of new externalities. While markets tend to internalize the costs, politics encourages externalities.

So yes, consumers are often “irrational” and deceived and make mistakes. But, as Sunstein himself tells us, this is true in both politics and markets. The question is, Which institutional environment is more likely to promote learning from mistakes? And which institution — the market or politics — maximizes a person’s ability to correct those mistakes? Shiller and Akerlof have failed to prove that government regulation will detect or correct mistakes better than the market itself can.

Michael Makovi
Michael Makovi

Michael Makovi recently graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans, where he majored in economics.

Zombie Pension paid to Dead Man for 20 years by Andrew Walden

Millions worth of taxpayer dollars have been shelled out in the form of payments and benefits to people who aren’t even alive, and few agencies are taking advantage of a low-to-no-cost system that could stop those over-payments sooner.

From pensions to property tax exemptions, even parking placards, payments and benefits that should stop when someone passes away are often passing on to the living….

the state retirement system has been crosschecking state death records monthly since December 2014, with the help of the Department of Health’s vital statistics branch Office of Health Status Monitoring through something they call “death matching.”

We asked what the DOH found when matching up deceased records with the ERS recipient list.

“Initially we found a lot of deaths that we had (still receiving checks),” said state registrar Alvin Onaka, “but on average now we’re finding 10 deaths per month.”

That’s 10 per month that weren’t previously reported to the pension fund by the family or survivors, out of the 1,400 or so retirees who pass away in Hawaii each year. ERS pegs about 150 cases that add up to the half-million overpaid.

“It could be anywhere between a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars,” Machida said….

Last year, the FBI and state Labor Department, using a different approach, caught and prosecuted two people who for years collected hundreds of thousands of their dead parents’ payments: Lynsie Katherine Williams for more than $400,000 of her dad’s workers’ compensation payments, and Steven Splater for more than $200,000 of his mom’s disability checks. They both did time in federal prison.

The Department of Health ran its death match of the state’s retiree health system or “EUTF” and flagged a name that had passed 20 years ago and was still getting benefits. The state attorney general’s office says they have no active criminal case for that one….

In the past couple of years, two were found guilty of theft after state prosecutions for taking thousands of dollars’ worth of dead people’s continuing pension payments: Cynthia Namaka for more than $3,000, and Harold Robertson for more than $5,000. They each had to pay restitution and do community service for punishment….

Sometimes it’s not money out, but too little money being billed to taxpayers who owe, that’s costing the government.

“We worked with real property tax. We started with City and County of Honolulu, and I think on our first run of those who were claiming 65-year-old-and-over exemptions, we found 4,000 of their enrollees had expired.”

”One of our early adopters was the people who issue the (disabled parking) placards,” Onaka added. “They submitted a list and we were able to provide them with those who should not be using those placards because they were dead (and the relatives didn’t turn them back in).”

PDF: ERS pension overpayments to the deceased

Read … State matching program that could catch payments to the dead rarely used