Dose of Clarity

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...]

The Government collects a certain amount of revenue in the form of taxes every year to pay for its existence, yet it customarily spends much more than it collects and nonchalantly finances the difference with hardly a headline. This is an astounding occurrence in that the Government can spend anything it desires and any shortfall from raised revenues gets put on credit for Americans to supposedly pay at a later date, and we have become so accustomed to this that we pay it no attention. It almost seems like some imaginary concept that is not real so we go about our lives and ignore it. It appears insignificant as long as the economy is growing faster than the debt is accumulating; however, it tends to remind you of its existence once the economy hits the skids like it is currently. We are finding out more and more that there is a limit to our excesses and we need to implement a more disciplined approach to managing our expenditures as a nation.

If you think about it, our Government is forcing a backdoor tax increase on us without any public or political debate. Instead of embracing this [Read the rest of this entry...]

The Constitution of the United States was a carefully written document that provided for a very limited Federal Government, one that was lightly layered over sovereign state Governments. It provides a firm foundation for strong state powers and a limited Federal power. The Federal Government was basically there to provide for a national defense, foreign relations, immigration, and to issue a common currency, most all remaining functions were reserved for the states to determine in the best interest of their citizens. However, what has happened through our history is the Federal Government has been consistently eroding the power of the states and their citizens for its own benefit and it continues to this day. A very potent tool that was used to accomplish this expansion was the Commerce Clause in the Constitution which permitted the regulation of commerce between the states. The intent of this clause was to give oversight at the Federal level to prevent the states from erecting trade barriers with other states or any other actions that [Read the rest of this entry...]

Another day, another Czar. For every issue we face as Americans it seems the solution resides with our Government appointing yet another Czar as if any of the previous dozen or so appointed have ever been successful, that is unless you consider our car Czar’s recent policy of steamrolling property rights as a successful undertaking. Once again, Americans are going to rely on the Government to provide services that will result in relinquishing more power and control over them as citizens. Ben Franklin said it best by stating that anyone willing to give up a little liberty for a little security will deserve neither and lose both. The initiative will be dressed up as a security issue for the protection of us all, but its implementation will concentrate control of the internet in the hands of a few Government officials, and we shall see if that does not become regrettable on our part.

All of our daily lives are heavily connected with the internet whether we are surfing for information or conducting business, and it is this fact that the Government will use to create the need for their oversight so they can extend [Read the rest of this entry...]