Dose of Clarity

Once Congress reconvenes in the fall, they will soon start pushing the Cap and Trade bill once again in order to fight the Loch Ness monster of our time known as global warming. Many people will swear it exists, but just as many will deny its presence, and there are scientists on both sides of the issue that feel strongly in their positions. Everybody will have their own opinion on the subject which will certainly be shaped by what “experts” they choose to follow and believe. Instead of arguing the issue from an emotional standpoint maybe it would be useful to come at it from another angle. Here is a list of statements that we should seriously think about and determine the believability of each before Cap and Trade is supported.

1. First of all, you would have to believe that global warming actually exists, not just that temperatures have become warmer over recent history which is definitely a measurable item, but that it is absolutely not a naturally occurring process that is repeated throughout the earth’s history. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Hardly an hour goes by over the last few days without hearing about how proud and excited our Government is with the success of the Cash for Clunkers program. They initially appropriated $1 billion of funding for the program and have been completely surprised by the rapid acceptance it has received, and now they are working on additional funding to add another $2 billion to this “wildly successful” program. They are practically breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for successfully giving money away. At the end of the day it is simply just that, a money giveaway program that has members of our Government surprised that the public was so enthusiastically accepting free money, thus they are scrambling to extend the funding so they can continue this manufactured success. Here is a summary of what has happened in a nutshell. [Read the rest of this entry...]

One of the certainties associated within any market over time is that an adverse outcome will inevitably happen that will negatively affect investors as well as the public in varying degrees. Upon this transpiring, the allegations and finger-pointing begin because someone must be held responsible for inflicting such pain and they must be restrained by more simple-minded legislation by our Government. The truth is that someone will be blamed so our political establishment will appear to be doing something, and something is better than nothing regardless of how inane it is on their part. The latest hullabaloo is blaming oil speculators for last year’s run up in oil prices, and it only took them a full year to reach this mindless conclusion. I realize it is popular to point to these traders because it appears that they are a bunch of rich people stealing from common folks so they can [Read the rest of this entry...]

We are living in a very unusual time in our nation, a time where it appears that our people have become a bit too comfortable with the overt intervention of our national Government in the free market. This marketplace should be free to succeed and free to fail thus assuring success through a healthy dose of creative destruction. The reliance on this intrusion is likely to have its roots with the public thinking that capitalism has failed and nothing could be further from the truth. What has failed is our appetite to tolerate the pain associated with a correction that is necessary, however painful it may be. The public appears to have the belief that Government involvement will somehow alleviate the downside agony of this process. How this could be possible is a mystery to me because the Government never [Read the rest of this entry...]

I should not take a genius to realize why Unions have been losing their grip over the last several decades, it just happens to line up nicely with the increase of foreign presence in our markets. This phenomenon has not been a friendly trend for Unions because it has brought inexpensive alternatives courtesy of lower-cost manufacturing. Prior to this happening, our mostly unionized manufacturing base with its embedded high-cost structure was able to pass along their inefficiencies to an unsuspecting market here in America. Now the choices have been greatly expanded thus providing options to consumers resulting in competition that has been exposing the cost structure and quality control issues of U.S. manufacturers. The world has definitely changed in this regard, the paradigm has been shifted and any manufacturer that will not compete with the smallest of competitors from [Read the rest of this entry...]

Our population seems so engrossed with fighting each other that we are not keeping our eye on the true scoundrel which is our Government that is undermining each and every one of us for their own benefit. This is not a rich versus poor, republican versus democrat, conservative versus liberal, old versus young, business versus individuals, or black versus white. It is about our Government officials caring so much more about retaining their offices and all the power involved that they are willing to sell us down the river to preserve their status. Does anyone really think they have any interest in really solving America’s issues and not just appearing to do so while continuing to make us more dependent on them? Subjecting us to dependence is an effective way of building and retaining power because how else would we ever be able to take care of ourselves if not for our benevolent Government? Why would they not keep taking more of our money in taxes to continue perpetuating this dissipation of our individualism and freedom as long as they continue [Read the rest of this entry...]

The political wrangling continues in California while the Legislature fails to tackle its $24 billion deficit, all of their energy seems to be concentrated on circumventing the obvious choice of reducing spending. The voters sent a clear message to state officials with the ballot initiatives they struck down back in May. Their message was for no more tax increases or borrowing of money to continue their wasteful over the top spending. The voters seemed ready to take whatever medicine was needed to bring the lunacy to an end and instill some restraint in the budgetary process. That was about 6 weeks ago and there does not seem to be any progress made on that mandate and their fiscal year ended June 30th. Beginning in the month of July, if some concrete solutions are not presented then the state will be forced to issue IOUs from the treasury to cover expenditures.

IOUs are not a solution to this issue as they are just another way to avoid the difficult choices that must be made. Plus, IOUs are nothing [Read the rest of this entry...]

The so-called Climate Change Bill is currently working its way through Congress having just passed the House by a small margin and now it is off to the Senate for their consideration. Once again, we have another bill that was passed in the House that was not read in its 1500 page entirety including amendments. This is a bill that will issue a cap on carbon emissions by forcing the purchasing of carbon permits which will slowly decrease over the coming years. The idea being sold to the public is the purported intention of creating millions of green energy jobs and combating global warming in the process. Congress is willing to push forward on this issue regardless of any unconvinced opinions that remain or its associated cost. The names that are being used to reference this proposed legislation are the Climate Change Bill, Cap and Trade, or the Energy Bill, but it has become very clear that there is no desire to accept the true descriptive nature of this bill which is [Read the rest of this entry...]

The economic downturn has become a distressing reality for most people around the globe regardless of their socioeconomic status or nation of citizenship. It has been an equal opportunity decline for everyone across the board in one form or another as trillions of dollars have been wiped from the earth as prosperity has faded and appears to be a remnant of the past. As we began to navigate through this unfortunate time we were admonished by our President with his message that stated that there will be a time for profits, but now is not that time. I am not sure what made him share this opinion, but I have an idea. Would he rather see companies not running their businesses effectively thereby intentionally wasting [Read the rest of this entry...]

Another day in the life of Congress leads to another exclusionary discussion regarding an expenditure of somewhere between a trillion or two (who’s counting) in the halls of our illustrious Congress. The absurdity of their ignorance is nothing short of astounding. They are working to saddle the American people with another expense that we simply can not afford through a health care initiative where details are in short supply, but why let that get in the way of a good spending party when there may still be someone out there that has not received Government money yet. The galling part of this is all the assertions about how this will be a bipartisan consensus, yet the Republicans have been shut out of the negotiations, and the lobbyists have been warned that holding any discussions with the GOP will invite retribution. Here we have another initiative that overburdens this country financially, and may yet facilitate our ruin along with all the other ill-conceived, power-grabbing, “We will take care of you” garbage coming out of our capitol. Unless [Read the rest of this entry...]