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Monday, July 30, 2012

I said this a year ago...and here we sit caught in the frozen years.


Tax reform is the one sure fire thing that could release us from this fettered and festering sewer we are in economically. John Kennedy did it and we had the second longest expansion ever. Ronald Reagan did it and we had the third longest expansion ever. The president assigned a commission, his commission, that told him he should do it too. What did he do? He appointed another commission. Throw in what the NLRB is doing to Boeing and you should not wonder why we are where we are.

I think we should get out the ax and hack to death every deduction you can think of, and I mean every one of them. Corporate jets, sky boxes at the Bears game, three martini lunches, home interest, charitable deductions, and on and on. Then slam the marginal rate as low as we can on both corporate and personal income. Doing something to increase the efficiency of the allocation of resources and the incentive to work and invest on the margin is the best thing we could possibly do at the moment. Instead I hear about temporary tax cuts which are economic nonsense for thinking they will help growth. More targeted spending and unemployment benefits. Why not let people decide for themselves instead of picking winners and losers?

Not interested. And that's why we will be here, same spot, one year from now.

I said in 2008 that I was in for a "lost half decade" of economic growth. I am ready to make my bet for a "lost decade" just like the Japanese. God help us.



http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-much-revenue-from-limiting.html

Sunday, July 22, 2012

I cannot overemphasize the following....


Saratoga and Del Mar are both open now and I am off to a terrible start. Once again time for Professsor Trackman's rules of horse race gambling. I paid for these in blood and somehow have to keep relearning them. I give them to you free:
1. Do your handicapping for yourself.
2. If you can’t take the losses don’t bet.
3. Greed Kills.
4. Winners correct their mistakes next time out. Losers bet bigger trying to cover…which will never cover in the end.
5. Never get too high or too low.
6. Scared money don’t win.
7. Women and booze don’t mix with horses.
8. Don’t bet a beaten favorite coming back trying to do something he has never done before, anything.
9. Exotic bets should supplement straight bets and never supplant them.
10. Eat your betting money...but don't bet your eating money.
11. Every time that gate opens, expect to be humbled.

Bet smart and Good Luck!

Golf anyone?


Saturday, July 21, 2012

Friday, July 20, 2012

The State made you great. The Hammer guts the entitler.

http://www.redding.com/news/2012/jul/20/charles-krauthammer-did-the-state-make-you-great/

And this is our moment of clarity. Obama has now ended work for welfare so he can turn more and more of our citizenry into zombies of the State. And that is exactly what will happen. Look at Detroit. That is the future of our country under this policy path and framework under which this country is being molded. Give up your guns and religion and worship the State because that is who made you into what you are. Your success is because of us not you. You have to say and think that you love Big Brother, just as Orwell wrote. And then they'll suck the life out of your brain and the soul out of your body. And it will be your fault in the end.

Look at Detroit. Watch this video of Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols. He is a ward of the British entitlement state. Look into his eyes....no future indeed. Vote for Obama and that is what you are condemning this country to.

 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

You didn't make that...so the gains are not yours. They are ours.

From the Romney campaign:

President Obama recently said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Comments like that are a slap in the face to the American Dream and reveal the President's naïve view that government, and not the hard work, talent, and initiative of people, is the center of society and the economy. Clearly, this President doesn't understand how our economy works.
 

Monday, July 16, 2012

October 3, 2011 Economic Symposium for ECON 2133

http://winmedia.ecu.edu/cas/economics/lbsmp2.wmv
Here is the link to the economic symposium that we had on October 3, 2011. Sorry about the grainy quality and the power points. However, the power points were provided in an earlier posting right after this event. I start the video off. Jim Butkiewicz begins at 15:40. Jim Fackler is at the 37:00 mark. Bob Carpenter starts at 51:15 and Robert Hetzel finishes off the speakers at 1:22:45.


I hope you enjoy it and thanks to all who came and supported this effort. All monies go toward our Economics Student Scholarship fund.

Thanks again.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

This deserves another look.

http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2012/04/falling-labor-force-participation.html

This is very informative. 46.3% of high school drop outs are in the labor force. What are the other 53.7% doing during the day to pass the time and make life endurable?

Saturday, July 7, 2012

King of the United States.



 And we don't much care for Kings. Vote for him again and you will remain his subject on the road to Serfdom.




http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304141204577506881495497626.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t

Friday, July 6, 2012

Maybe the "Occupy" people are on to something?


Well, well, well...what's a poor banker to do anymore? Why steal and lie of course.

It is a sad testimonial of our times, this banking scandal at Barclay's bank. One wonders how deep it goes? I hope we find out and the bastards that are lying and cheating and stealing don't just get fined but go to jail. But like Charles Barkley has said "we don't put rich white people in jail." Perhaps. But Bernie Madoff is probably lonely about now and the convicted should have some quality time with him.

Whatever, the result will be that all the whining and crying by bankers about regulation and this and that, whether legitimate or not, is now going to be ignored. You lie to me and we have nothing left to talk about. This will now set financial markets back for the next 20 years. And that is too bad. But apparently richly deserved.

The big thing about the American economy and the way we allocate resources is the belief in upward social and economic mobility. If I work hard and strive for excellence I will be rewarded because the game is not stacked against me. The fix is not in. Well thanks a whole bunch scum bags, you just showed that ain't necessarily so.

When the thumb screw gets twisted tighter now in the not too distant future, man up and take the pain. No one wants to listen to the bile coming from your stink'in pie hole any more.

Can you tell I ain't so happy?






http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/lie-more-as-a-business-model/?hp

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Quick thinking......


Nymphomaniac Convention

A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane..
He soon realized she was heading straight towards his seat .. As fate would have it, she took the seat right beside his..
Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out, "Business trip or pleasure?"
She turned, smiled and said, "Business. I'm going to the Annual Nymphomaniacs of America Convention in Boston"

He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen sitting next to him, and she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs.

Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, "What's your business role at this convention?"
"Lecturer," she responded. "I use information that I have learned from my personal experiences to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality."
"Really?" he said. "And what kind of  myths are there?"
"Well," she explained, "one popular myth is that African-American men are the most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait.
Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers, when actually it is men of Jewish descent who are the best.
I have also discovered that the lover with absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck."

Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable and blushed. "I'm sorry," she said, "I shouldn't really be discussing all of this with you. I don't even know your name.."

"Tonto," the man said, "Tonto Goldstein, but my friends call me Bubba."