Fine Gael: "Go back to your constituencies and prepare for (single party) government..."

A good point in an Irish Times piece on the Fine Gael National Conference by Harry McGee. He writes that:

What the conference dispelled were any doubts over him leading the party into the next election. And in part, he can thank the ghost at the Killarney conference; for George Lee’s name was not uttered once publicly in Killarney.

Isn’t that something? That the man who was most likely to… do something… despite crashing and burning in the most public way possibly could, barely a couple of months later be not merely gone, but…

In February, Lee’s departure could have ended Kenny’s reign. But before the Government parties could make any capital of Fine Gael’s implosion, they themselves were hit by a series of small scandals and resignations that back-footed them. The Lee affair is now almost forgotten.

In a way it provides a testament to the reality that political life is indeed like supertankers, making their way through the water, huge masses that change direction only slowly and with great effort. An individual, no matter how brilliant, or well-known, can deflect them, but usually only marginally. And Lee, hobbled from the start as much by his own expectations as the constraints of the job he took, hasn’t even managed that.

His departure has seen no significant attrition of the FG vote. No ramifications. No aftermath. He’s just… gone.

Although… although, reading Enda Kenny’s speech I couldn’t help but notice the following:

…[Indeed,] in Richard Bruton I know I have the right man to run the Department of Finance at this critical time for this country.

So different from the other fella, good old whatsisname.

And the Conference itself? Well, as has been characteristic of this era of Fine Gael, hardly earthshaking. Quite the opposite. The shambles of the New Era document has done little to dissuade those antagonistic to the Kenny regime of the error of their ways. The list system of last weekend is no more. What we seem to have is a Dáil that will be twenty members smaller… what larks, and a Seanad that will be 100% smaller. This may excite some, but most of us will wonder what the fuss is about, and, as noted last week, ponder on how much of even this will survive a coalition deal with Labour.

Although Kenny was attempting to boost the notion of single party government. That seems unlikely to happen, they’ll be doing well if they lift themselves above 70 TDs. And surely, surely they don’t believe that themselves? Because there’s a fair way yet to run with the current shower.

That said it is interesting to see them veer sharply from the economic consensus… I mean to say, veer even more sharply rightwards. For them, as expressed by Richard Bruton:

“The Government’s plans to take €3 billion out of the economy in 2011, mostly by cutting investment and raising taxes, is the wrong course. It will destroy many jobs and further damage competitiveness.

“Ireland would be better with a reforming budget that takes €2 billion out of the cost of running Government in 2011, €1 billion more than Minister Lenihan is proposing, and sets out a clear path for even greater cost-savings in future years but which avoids further cuts in investment or net tax increases.

Hmmm… so, let’s get this straight, ‘reform’ would see us eschew tax increases and cut further current expenditure? Well, I’m not sure how that’s going to fly. And although the Irish Time editorial is dubious about this from a more right of centre perspective…

Likewise, Fine Gael’s ambitious plans for economic regeneration raise some questions of affordability, at a time when the public finances are the big issue of the day. Much of what Fine Gael has proposed will be welcomed, but the party now needs to convince a sceptical public that its proposals can be financed without further borrowing.

…I’m curious as to what the cuts will be focused on. One thing we do know is that to fund a ’stimulus’ we could be waving farewell to state assets. Kenny himself said as much at the weekend.

This money will be raised from private equity, sale of State assets and investment from the European Investment Bank.

Although the jobs themselves have a familiar ring to them… I can’t help thinking that this list following has been delivered to us from a different source…A greener source.

These jobs will be in renewable energy, water quality and broadband. They will be delivered within Fine Gael’s first term in government and they will provide real opportunities for all people no matter what their age, and no matter what their trade or qualification.

But to be honest, what I find most interesting is his list of priorities…

That’s why, tonight, it’s important that each and every one of you know that my Fine Gael team has a clear plan to get us out of our current crisis of confidence.

THAT PLAN starts from five realities.

That we should never have ended up in this dire situation.

That Ireland’s downturn is more severe than other countries as a direct result of Fianna Fáil’s total failure to plan for the inevitable and for the future.

That international factors are compounding domestic mismanagement.

That Fianna Fáil has turned a manageable problem into a serious crisis.

And that whether it be in banking or politics, the people who got us into this mess will not be, and can not be, the ones to lead us out of it.

If we are going to turn this country around, we need real change. Our plan for that change is based on three pillars: 1. Getting our people back to work; 2. Revolutionising the health service; and 3. Reforming our political system.

That’s it? Those are the three pillars? It’s not that they aren’t in themselves important, but… there’s something a little detached from each other about them all. Reform of the political system is important, no doubt there at all. But somehow that doesn’t particularly seem to gel with health service ‘revolutions’ or dealing with unemployment. Or perhaps it is that there seems no overarching theme that links them together or particular ideological strand that runs through them. Now, for many of us coming from parties with specific ideologies, that’s a problem… but I also think that it’s a problem for Fine Gael.

This seems to be a technocratic approach, that on paper is fine, but in practice? Well, I compare and contrast with Gerry Adams speech a fortnight or so ago, which while no great shakes at least had the concept of the ‘Republic’, however amorphous and inchoate that might be, running through it. By contrast Fine Gael gives us three concepts to chew upon, and subsidiary aspects of each. There’s the New Politics… that’s the one dealing with political change. Then there’s NewERA, that’s the job creation strategy. And then we have health service reform, but no snappy tag or neologism there to assist us. So that’s not ‘New’, at least not in this conceptual stew.

And there’s no ‘New’ anything sitting above them and encompassing them. Perhaps, at one stage, there was a ‘New Republic’ term or something similar used and perhaps the SF Ard Fhéis, or the Irish Times series of articles last week, put paid to that. Or perhaps the decision was taken to use ‘Fine Gael’, mentioned so many times as to become utterly repetitive throughout the speech, and often with the word ‘government’ close at hand, just so we know. Or perhaps Kenny is entirely sincere when he argues that… ‘This country is finished with slogans and repeated photo opportunities.’

Except for the NewERA, and New Politics. Those terms/slogans, they’re clearly okay.

None of this is to say that the ideas are awful, but neither is it to suggest that they’re great. And maybe that’s the point. He may use the word ‘revolution’ in relation to healthcare, but we know that’s not going to happen, at least not in any fundamentally revolutionary fashion. He may talk about stimulus, but it’s not going to be a social democratic stimulus. He may indeed talk about a new sort of politics. But, fingers crossed – on his part, that would sit at the far side of a negotiated programme for government with Labour and a referendum. So no reason to panic yet (and by the by, entertaining to read that ‘Fine Gael is the party that set up the institutions of this State’… It’s not entirely incorrect but neither is it entirely correct)

And even where the language goes up a bit in pitch… well…

And now they want further sacrifices from taxpayers and mortgage borrowers. Unless there is a change of government, the banks will get what they want. There is no limit to what Fianna Fáil will do to protect their powerful friends. Did the Taoiseach not say . . . that whatever cheque is required will be written? Cheques written by Fianna Fáil come out of your pocket.

Fine Gael has a fundamentally different approach. Firstly, we won’t borrow further billions to bail out Anglo Irish Bank. We will use that money to start a new State National Recovery Bank. It will get credit flowing quickly to protect jobs and support business.

And secondly, there will be no whitewash. The current secrecy will not be tolerated. We will carry out a rigorous and open investigation to find out exactly why the banking scandal happened. We will hold people responsible, even if they are Ministers. We will open the books.

THERE MUST be a clear message to bankers. They will never be allowed to destroy our economy and our country again. Those who broke the law in pursuit of greed and reckless lending must face the consequences and, if the courts decide, they must be sent to jail.

Who… though, is seriously arguing otherwise at this point? And I seem to recall the ICC and ACC, both semi-state entities not so long ago, before they were privatised (natch!), fulfilled the function of this ‘new’ State National Recovery Bank. Which again, is not to say it’s a bad idea, it certainly isn’t. But to suggest that nothing terribly radical is being proposed, and if for some it seems like it is they either don’t remember our history, or that the sociopolitical dial has now been wedged so far right of centre that we’re truly in bad trouble.

In fact, there’s something a tad pro forma about all this. We’re a year or more out from an election. Fianna Fáil aren’t going anywhere soon, but neither are Fine Gael. They can afford to play the odd populist card. So why not? Say nothing that will rock the boat and lose some percentiles of the support already gained. And I wouldn’t blame FG or Kenny in the slightest for taking that approach.

[Via http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com]

Democrats backed into a corner or not?

You listen to the Health Care Reform debates and a lot of the logic would be comical if it wasn’t such a serious topic.

One example is this proposed theory that the Democrats are backed into a corner regardless of how they vote.  If they vote “no” on the current legislation, then they are screwed. If they vote “yes” they are screwed, but not as bad.

FACT:  Congressional approval is at nearly record lows, 18%.

FACT:  The American people, whom they represent, are against this bill.

FACT:  Even if this bill passes, it’s far from over with. Numerous lawsuits and Constituional challenges await it.

FACT:  The “far left” base that is for health care reform, at any cost, can not get the Democrats reelected this fall and 2012.

FACT:  The whole debate on this plays hugely to the Republican’s advantage. The more it remains on the news, the more the Republican’s benefit. If passed, long term it plays even more to their advantage. You want to get this off the news and fast, period.

FACT:  Even if it’s passed today, the voters are not going to forget about it by November. That strategy is oblivious to reality. The corrupt process and details will only continue to leak out over the coming months and will only increase the anger of more and more voters. Then numerous lawsuits and legal challenges to the legislation will go on for years. It will be a scar on the Democrats (election wise) that not only will refuse to go away, it will just get uglier over time.

FACT:  If this legislation is signed into law and it hurts jobs and the economy in the slightest demonstrable way….which it will in it’s present form. The Democratic Party will be little short of destroyed, 1994 will look like a pleasant dream. From a strategy standpoint, the Republican leadership couldn’t write this script any more to their favor if they tried.

IMHO there’s a third option for the Democrats that could save their bacon.  They could stop and say:  “Hey we hear you America.  We’re going to stop on this legislation. We’re going to focus on jobs and the economy non-stop till a clear recovery is in place. We will look at this HCR legislation later, break out the parts of the legislation that both sides can agree upon, and work on those reforms. But first and foremost we’re going to focus on getting jobs back. We’re not happy that the “good news” is that we only lost a few thousands of jobs this week/month. We will not rest till the “good news” is that we’re adding jobs at the rate of 5-6 digits each month.”

If they do the above, they quickly put 20-30% back onto their approval ratings and calm a growing powder keg of public sentiment towards them. If they do the above, then November 2010 doesn’t have to be a disaster and November 2012 a catastrophe.

So it’s up to the Democrats. Their fate is in their own hands, yet they seem oblivious to  reality or worse…delusional.  It’s either about ego and arrogance or the American public.  Yeah they’re backed into a corner, but it’s a corner of their own creation. A corner that they can walk out of at any time unless they really are as arrogant and ego driven as we suspect they are.

American’s want Health Care Reform, but not this particular approach. Ignore them at your peril. Yes, it’s really just that simple.

[Via http://wa4zko.wordpress.com]

American health-care reform: Pass the bill

Economist – It is wrong for a country as rich as America to have tens of millions of people without health insurance. Beyond them is the much larger number of people who fear falling into that position through losing their jobs; and the larger number again who cannot get affordable insurance because they have an existing medical condition, or because they are too old, or because they have exhausted the “lifetime caps” imposed by insurance companies.

America’s health-care system is a nightmare of perverse incentives. Because employer-provided health insurance is not considered to be a taxable benefit, people feel insulated from the real cost of their coverage and consequently over-consume. more> http://tinyurl.com/yklmnrp

[Via http://theneteconomy.wordpress.com]

The economy needs to be fixed on a grass roots level.

As a data processor for Experian for I was able to observe from my desktop as the global markets crashed. When Northern Rock started to turn sour, there was a run on the bank. This was in 2007. No one, and everyone could have predicted what was going to happen.

The day I started for Experian, the 15th September 2008, it is the same day that Lehmann Brothers filed for Bankruptcy. Over the following months I witnessed a spectacular failure in the capital markets.

People I knew worked at major banks and told me to withdraw all the money I had as it probably wouldn’t be there at the end of the day.

The government then decided to bail out the banks. It was a necessary and immediate step.

What then happened is what I perceive to be the stupidist thing. Companies started to behave opportunistically, and some started to panic as well. So they then started laying off staff. Now those people who have been laid off, don’t have their money going in to the bank, which causes the bank more problems. Then all the places that those people would spend their money, like pubs, shops, markets, retailers, restaurants and so forth no longer have the money coming in, and so they have to lay off staff. Then the places where those staff would spend money, in the same sorts of establishments, those establishments would close down and the spiral continues.

People feel more detached from the financial world than they do from the political world.

This is why bailouts should have been at a more basic level. Our pubs are dwindling at an unparalelled rate, our markets are now all but gone and other businesses have panicked/been opportunistic. When I say a business has been opportunistic, what I mean is that they have laid off staff,and lowered pay and hours, citing the recession as a cause while many companies such as Experian and JCB have actually increased in size and year on year profits.

If, after the preliminary bailout, the government had instead decided to focus on keeping people in jobs, punishing companies who laid people off without reason, they wouldn’t need to bail the banks out. If they’d focused on aspects of the real economy, helping pubs, local markets and securing jobs in local authorities then they might not have to bail out the banks. Had the government looked after the real economy the banks could look after themselves.

For some reason the present government hasn’t done that. It rewards the bankers with tax payers money, while it will let Mr and Mrs Smith lose their house.

[Via http://benjaminbartonformp.wordpress.com]

Thai Airways : raising capital won't be enough... 50 billions needed

Thai Airways International’s board of directors approved the Bt10 billion capital increase, which needs shareholders’ approval at the April 28 meeting.

THAI President Piyasvasti Amranand said that proceeds from the share offering will be used for general corporate purposes, including to manage its liquidity, finance future aircraft investments, strengthen THAI’s capital base, and repay its debts. (Nation)

And then a few days later:

Thai Airways International must raise Bt50 billion this year and next to repay debts and finance business expansion, president Piyasvasti Amranand said yesterday.

Funding will come from a share offering planned for later this year, bank loans and debenture issues.

Once the debt-to-equity ratio is halved from 4 at present, whatever is left over will be used for business expansion. [...]

THAI recently won board approval to issue up to 1 billion shares, pending shareholder approval on April 28. The airline is now capitalised at Bt16.99 billion. [...]

THAI is due to retire Bt29 billion worth of debts this year. Earlier, it was reported that debentures worth no more than Bt11 billion would be issued, to roll over maturing bonds. (Nation)

10 billions ? 50 billions ? Different tools but only one reality : Thai Airways needs money. Badly.

Not to expand the business (“whatever left…” like says the president) put to face its obligations : to roll over debts.

Healthy ? Of course not.

And don’t be fooled by the so called return to profit in 2009… It’s an illusion. Most of the airlines in the world are badly hurt.

Apparently, the thai government (as main shareholder) has accepted to pay. The thai tax payers will pay.

[Via http://thaicrisis.wordpress.com]

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[Via http://findapodiatrist.wordpress.com]

Casino shares up after CE’s speech

Shares in Macau’s United States casino operators registered a rise after Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On’s maiden Policy Address was announced on Tuesday.

Since Chui Sai On did not introduce any specific caps on numbers of tables or slot machines, Las Vegas Sands stock jumped 7.33 percent, closing at USD 20.06 – the first time in a while that the company’s stock has surpassed the USD 20 mark. MGM Mirage closed at USD 12.30, up 8.08 percent, while Wynn Resorts stock increased 4.48 percent, finishing at USD 73.63.

Chui Sai On pledged his government would control the size and growth rate of the city’s booming gaming industry. However, the new Government’s leader did not announce any specific cap.

> Read the full article at Macau Daily Times

[Via http://wgasia.wordpress.com]

Obama officials: 9.7% jobless rate 'unacceptable'

Obama administration officials urged lawmakers Tuesday to support the president’s budget, saying it will drive job growth.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag and Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer testified before the House Appropriations committee on the administration’s economic outlook and agenda.

In a joint written statement, the officials said that although the stimulus package has helped turn around the economy from when “the threat of a second Great Depression was frighteningly real,” the 9.7% unemployment rate is  “unacceptable by any metric.”

An economic forecast produced by the officials’ three offices estimates that the labor market will add 100,000 jobs per month in 2010. However, they said the unemployment rate may still rise slightly over the next few months.

The trio added that jobs will grow by 200,000 a month in 2011, bringing the unemployment rate down to 8.9%. In 2012, payrolls will improve by 250,000 jobs each month, pushing the jobless rate down to 7.9% by the fourth quarter.

In the near term, they expect to see job gains by the spring based on consistent increases in temporary employment and employers expanding the workweek. Productivity growth has also surged at the fastest pace in nearly 50 years during the last three quarters, and the officials expect more hiring to keep pace.

Read full CNNMoney.com story

[Via http://news.blogs.cnn.com]

Joining the dots...

It’s funny how off the radar, as it were, some issues can be if you restrict your reading/consumption of the media to certain areas. Socio-economic issues loom large in my life, and so does popular culture, so the issue of Johnny Ronan… indeed Ronan as a personality above and beyond his primary employment, didn’t have any traction.

Until, that was this weekend, when following the inevitable creep of his surname into my consciousness through headlines here and there and an – ahem – striking (but frankly, to my mind, not in a good way) cover to The Phoenix last week.

For Ronan it would appear, not merely co-owner of property developers Treasury Holdings, but also handy shorthand for a sort of Celtic Tiger approach writ… writ whatever… has found himself at some sort of media storm, or to put it his way, ‘distracting coverage’ and has therefore taken a break from the day job.

And the nature of this coverage? Well, really who cares, other than to see that shorthand in action… For it appears that Ronan, who, we are told:

…is not going to step down from the boards of the 270-plus companies where he serves as a director. These include Treasury Holdings…

Has been…

No stranger to the social columns, he has been the focus of extensive media coverage of a confrontation with a former girlfriend, former model and TV3 celebrity show presenter Glenda Gilson, outside a pub in Ranelagh, Dublin, a couple of weeks ago.

This was followed the next day by a long lunch at the Ritz-Carlton hotel near his home in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, during which he summoned a private aircraft to fly himself, Rosanna Davison (25) – a model and former Miss World – and a college friend of hers to Morocco.

Which is nice.

Except…and here is where the shorthand becomes more pointed, as it were…

Much of the negative commentary surrounding the trip centred on the fact that Treasury Holdings, a major property firm owned jointly by Mr Ronan and Richard Barrett, with close to €2 billion in assets on its books, is expected to be among the first tranche of companies to have its loans moved to Nama.

The statement issued yesterday is understood to be the result of concerns that the behaviour of Mr Ronan could affect the attitude of Treasury’s bankers and Nama, in relation to the provision of further finance to Treasury.

Among the developments with which Treasury has a connection is the multibillion-euro Battersea power station project in London. Loans associated with this project are expected to be moved to Nama.

But…

A source close to him said the private aircraft he used to fly to Morocco is owned by one of Mr Ronan’s private companies and that none of the expenses incurred in his trip with Ms Davison concerned Treasury. He also said Mr Ronan and Treasury expected to meet all their bank debts.

Although in a colour piece by Kathy Sheridan that analysis was presented somewhat differently…

However, following the deeply unwelcome attention focused on Ronan’s flights of whimsy, it has been made clear by various sources that his public skites are covered by his personal investment assets, which are quite separate from Treasury. And while those assets will also be going into Nama, they are also not in default at this stage.

Oh great. Well that’s a relief – ‘at this stage’. Fantastic.

People who know both men sigh deeply at Ronan’s “deeply inappropriate” behaviour, while arguing that there are worse offenders out there, throwing lavish parties and living in exile on money that rightly belongs to Nama and the taxpayer. “Ronan and Barrett don’t play golf, they don’t own racehorses . . . You won’t see them at the American Ryder Cup and they won’t be going to Cheltenham next week, unlike some others,” says one.

One can readily applaud, while sighing deeply, this paragon of self-restraint and virtue, this eschewer of golf, of racehorses, of almost all worldly pursuits… bar private jets, limousines, vast bills in North African hotels (I mean, how much does one have to drink in an evening to rack up €668.60 – feck me, straight down to ALDI for tins of Beamish, or if you’re really pushing out the boat their own branded Irish Ale which comes in a handy four pack of bottles). Does he not have something better to be doing, like, ah, I don’t know, attempting to claw back some money so we the taxpayer don’t have to shell out til eternity for a private sector gone mad?

And Christ knows, it’s hard to disagree with Kieran Mulvey, chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission and currently overseeing talks between government and unions, who perhaps sighing deeply when he stated this – but with good reason:

…said that public sector workers felt they were bearing the brunt of the government’s cutbacks.

‘‘They are looking at the stupid and nonsensical goings-on of some people in the private sector who believe they live in a playboy world and then are able to offload their toxic debts into Nama, for which every taxpayer is paying,” Mulvey told The Sunday Business Post.

He said that workers were angry about the government’s failure to tackle corporate wrongdoing.

‘‘They read about the level of bonuses and directors’ fees being paid to people in the banks,” he said. ‘‘It is almost a reward for failure, while they experience cutbacks. I think it’s underlined by the fact that, in the US, 52 corporate individuals associated with banking circles have gone to jail. In Ireland nobody has been charged with anything to date. Frustration is building up.”

Johnny Ronan is 52.

[Via http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com]

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

Smacked upside the head with shared delusion

How about ten years ago? Let’s try to make it even easier question: are wage-earners better off than they were 40 years ago? If you’re old enough, you may even have first-hand understanding. Please, think back to those times if you can.

Wage-earners work their tails off for someone else, that’s what wage-earners do. They work to survive and, if they are responsible, they work to better their life and the lives of their family. But being “responsible”, I’m afraid, actually means letting others convince you that what you are doing can make you better off than you were before. It is a con-job. More than half of us are not better off than we were four, ten or 40 years ago; in fact, more than half of our wage-earners are worse off.

The wages paid to the majority of wage-earners has dropped over the years from 1970 to 2010. To counteract a common misunderstanding, do not confuse dollars with buying power. Yes, to be sure, the number of dollars per hour for a minimum wage did increase from $1.60 to $7.25 over this time period.

So, what did $1.60 buy in 1970? One answer is that you could get 4 loaves of bread; food is a good example of purchasing that really matters. In 2010, how many loaves of bread can your hour’s work at minimum wage buy? This time the answer is about 3. See why we now have multiple wage-earners in a household? It’s not to obtain items of luxury; it’s to keep food on the table.

Let’s look over some real numbers concerning the most important meal of the day – breakfast.

Here’s a breakfast menu any mother would be proud of … before we started believing all the informational tripe that try to pull you in so many different and often contradictory directions each day. The following compares a breakfast from 1970 to one from 2008 because accepted historical data is available online.

A couple cups of coffee * A glass of milk * Two eggs * Hash browns * Two slices of toast with butter * Three strips of bacon * An orange

Hungry?

In 1970, the ingredients for this breakfast would have cost about 51 cents. At the then-current minimum wage, this represented about 19 minutes of work.

By 2008, one should expect that modern society had figured how to make work better-paying and the cost of essentials, like breakfast, go down at least somewhat. It didn’t: the ingredients for the same breakfast cost $2.86. Working at the minimum wage now requires you to dedicate 26 minutes of work to pay for that same breakfast.

Get it? After 40 years of so-called economic progress, you now have to work 36% longer to get the same amount of food!

OK, so you don’t want to talk about those who only earn minimum wage (even though the numbers in that group are swelling large). Then, as most statisticians prefer anyway, let’s talk about median income. By definition, half of the entire workforce makes less than this while the other half makes more. It is a much more interesting number than “average” or “mean” which loses it’s usefulness when there are very high or very low wages to consider. The median wage in 1970 was $3.4177 per hour; in 2008 the median wage was $15.5721. Even though the dollar amount of the wage is 3.56 times higher than it was in 1970, your breakfast in 2008 cost 4.58 times as much! You lose, again. In fact, you’ve lost ground every year for 40 years straight … at this rate, breakfast will eventually become an unaffordable luxury. Maybe not for you, but your children and your nephews and nieces are assuredly being set up for tough times as honest wage-earners. Is there any reason for you to accept this state of affairs? Any at all?

Don’t listen to anyone who suggests you should “tighten your belt”, “get a second job”, “convince your spouse to enter the workforce too”, “just get a better paying job” or any other such nonsense. Punch ‘em in the nose, if you want – I sure won’t stop you. Such people want you to continue to be deceived and tricked; they want you to just stop complaining and to get more work from you while paying you wages for your labor that can’t keep up with the cost of living. With or without greedy intent, those people need an education, so to speak. If the folks saying those things aren’t the ones becoming wealthy by your labor, then they are simply deluded fellow wage-earners who fuel this disparate economy by continuing to believe the ubiquitous but false promises.

It has not been the wage-earners who have (directly) been responsible for this decrease in purchasing power. There is no fault, except perhaps ignorant complacency, to ascribe to wage-earners.

It is, however, quite disgusting to notice how the minority in our society – those whose needs are secure – wail about their losses, their challenges to maintain profitability and financial growth, and the assaults on their freedom. Their wealth is actualized only by the continued, slow destruction of those lives who enable the growth of wealth. The fairy-tale story of opportunity, that you too can be rich if only you work hard and do whatever it takes, coupled with opulence paraded by the rich, serve with sad effectiveness to deceive the wage-earners into continued belief in highly improbable results.

As these horrible decades have shown, blind acceptance of that fairy-tale and the witnessing of increasingly spectacular artifacts of wealth have been the machine that allows the very few to continue to take deeply personal advantage of the very many. You can probably guess which side I want to be on when the wage-earners wake up from this poison-apple slumber.

Somehow, we have been deceived into thinking that a home with multiple wage-earners is a sign of actively creating the opportunity to achieve greater prosperity. Mommy AND daddy going to work is what has made our family “better off”. Hogwash. It’s an insidious lie that more than one wage-earner in a household is chosen to increase prosperity in that household. But, really, what value can you put on rearing one’s own children and not be required to hire someone for daycare? What value has preparing meals for one’s family, or even having the opportunity of time to do so? How can we even come to grips with the cost of a perpetually harried existence in the “rat race” if, as for generations now, we accept it as required of us?

Multiple wage-earners in today’s household is a doomed attempt to counteract the lowering of real wages that has marched forward, unabated, for so many decades. That trend is part and parcel of our culture; never-ending growth of businesses and GDP require that real wages always trend down. The fantasy belief that a nation’s economy can grow forever hinges on the corollary that real wages must always be driven lower.

The wage-earner’s productivity has continually and strongly increased over the last forty years. In fact, the productivity of wage-earners has increased an astonishing 75% between 1970 and 2010. This is what has fueled the meteoric increase in our nation’s GDP to the huge number it is now … rising 12 times higher, from about $1 Trillion to over $14 Trillion, over those same four decades.

Are you beginning to see an elephant in the room? Perhaps you are feeling an unidentifiable, nagging question you can’t quite find words for. Here, let me help: If our nation’s economy, our GDP, has grown by such a huge amount, and most of our nation’s wage-earners get paid with less and less buying-power, where did that stupendous increase in wealth go to anyway?

The answer is simple and readily discovered. It went to those who are already rich, and it made them much, much richer.

The wealthiest 1% of Americans who get paid an income (I cannot possibly bring myself to call them wage-earners) received half of the increase in national wealth. One in every one hundred of those rich folks ares in a group by themselves, sometimes called the super-rich. They alone claimed a full one-third of the nation’s increased wealth. So, over the last 40 years, only 50% of the GDP increase was allowed to be shared by 99% of the population of wage-earners who, as most understand, actually performed the work that was necessary to cause the increase i

n the GDP. Wasn’t that nice of them?

Like it or not, wage-earners have been handing over most of the increase of national wealth to the already-rich; the excesses of the rich are being subsidized by the voluntary loss of wealth from the majority of citizens. Yes, it really is that simple. We let the rich take so much that we get left with less every year, year after year. You might think that if we didn’t want to just hand over the lion’s share of the wealth that we the wage-earners create, then we would be really angry.

It is our delusional fantasy that one day, through hard work and doing whatever the boss wants, that we, too, can be obscenely rich. But it doesn’t work that way. Instead, by holding that myth so sacred, we allow ourselves to pay an ever increasing price in mental and physical health in order to keep making the welfare payments for those oh-so-worthy rich folks. There will be no end to this absurdity unless wage-earners come to their senses. This grotesque inequality will continue and the size of the difference will keep growing. The sooner we begin thinking clearly about this situation and rid ourselves of these entitlements given willingly to the rich, the less violent will be the inevitable socio-economic “correction.”

In conclusion, I feel a need to apologize for the tone of this post. My commentary seems unnecessary given the theme of this blog – aligning with those who would simply walk away. However, I feel that these myths are so strong, unrecognized and impactful that I am compelled, for the good of us all, to present these facts in a similarly strong way. My hope is that, after reading this and doing your research, you come to realize the implications of this utterly unsustainable path and find the courage to start walking away from it. With my deepest respect, I leave it to you to find your walking path.

[Via http://turnandwalkaway.wordpress.com]

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

Our Prevaricator in Chief is sending the strongest of signals that he still doesn’t understand what’s going on in this country. Back on February 26, I ran a piece entitled “It’s the Economy Stupid.” To my astonishment, it apparently hasn’t crossed Mr. Obama’s desk yet.

Judging from Barry O’s behavior, I have to presume that, in addition to Rumors, Lies, Innuendo, Fear, Uncertainty, and Despair, his staff also is keeping him away from The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, USA Today, along with The Imperial Valley Press and The Merced News. (I’ll explain these last two below).

Mr. Obama apparently is unaware that the economy is STILL the number one concern of Americans. Well over half of all Americans say the economy is the number one problem in the country. It’s not that they don’t have an opinion on health care, or education, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but all of them, even those with jobs or secure incomes, know that we’re in the midst of an economic crisis.

We are watching Nero fiddle while Rome burns. Mr. Obama came into office with enormous political capital and a country that was facing its worse economic crisis in 80 years. He rode in on a tide of  ‘Hope’ and ‘Change.’ He had the support of a majority of the American public, even many of those who didn’t vote for him. He had firm control of both houses of congress. He had a chance—nay, an obligation—to rescue the country from the excesses of the previous congresses and the Bush administration.

But what did he and congress do? They ignored the elephant in the room and started chasing the cockroaches. With unemployment at 10%, foreclosures on home loans at record levels, and foreign governments expressing serious concern about the status of the dollar as the de facto international reserve currency, Mr. Obama and the ‘leadership’ in congress decided that now was the perfect time to ram enormous and controversial changes in our health care system down our throats.

Together, the president and congress frittered away a year on health care, thus far accomplishing nothing except to further polarize and divide our citizens when we need to be pulling together.

But this guy just doesn’t get it. On Friday, the White House confirmed that Mr. Obama has delayed his visit to Asia by a week. Why? So he can focus on health care for a few more precious days.

Then, on Saturday, in his ‘weekly radio address’ Mr. Obama announced his next grand scheme: reform America’s schools. Another cockroach that needs killing, for sure, but Mr. Obama are you even aware that school districts are shuttering schools and going to four-day weeks? Why? Because they have no money. And why do the schools have no money? Because the taxpayers who support them have no jobs. Is any of this getting through to you?

Earlier I mentioned The Imperial Valley Press and The Merced News. Here’s why: Unemployment nationally is at 9.7% of the work force. In El Centro CA (the Imperial Valley) unemployment is 27.7%. In Merced it is 19.8%.

There are 372 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States. Of those, 145 have unemployment rates above 9.7%.

I don’t really see how the urgency could be any clearer. Are Mr. Obama, Mr. Reid, and Ms. Peolosi really that stupid or do they just not give a shit?

[Via http://rlifud.com]

Democrats' Bizarro World: Doctor Reimbursements NOT Part Of Health Care, But Takeover Of Student Loans IS

Isn’t it amazing that, as far as Democrats are concerned in their way-too-finite wisdom, doctor’s Medicare reimbursements have absolutely nothing to do with health care, but a government student loan takeover suddenly has everything to do with health care?

The $300 billion “doctor fix” has nothing to do with health care because it would explode the totally bogus myth that the Democrats’ health plan is somehow “deficit neutral.”  But now the Democrats are throwing in their student loan takeover to try to sweeten the pot for hesitant Democrats in the House.

Mitch McConnell put what is going on into proper perspective:

“It’s a very bad idea.  We now have the government running banks, insurance companies, car companies, and now [the Democrats] want to take over the student loan business.  I’m not sure the public thinks the current debate is about that issue, and it would show again the lengths they are willing to go to have the government expand its tentacles into absolutely everything.”

So why don’t we go ahead and rename the Democrats “health care” boondoggle for what it really is: the Government Tentacle Expansion Act.

Bill Kristol had this to say when asked about this latest new wrinkle in ObamaCare:

BRETT BAIER: Bill, now Speaker Pelosi has talked about putting in student loans, a change to the student loan program in the vote for health care reform.

What about that? This is the student loan legislation that would end private lender’s involvement in the original student loans and the Department of Education would essentially take over?

BILL KRISTOL: Yes, the government would be the direct loaner to the students. Well that passed the House by a larger margin last year. So they are adding something that they think is more attractive to try to bring home few extra members to the bill.

It shows how unpopular this bill is. It is jaw dropping to step back from the day-to-day thing. A year into president’s top agenda health care is the Democrats favorite issue. They have had 30 point margins on it in polls over the Republicans for the last 15 years basically.

And as this debate has gone along this bill has become so unpopular and toxic that they now can’t pass it through a normal conference committee. They can’t have a normal situation where each house passes its own bill and get together and have a compromise. They have to pass the Senate bill or nothing because they’re terrified to go to conference.

They are now terrified to let the members go home for Easter recess before a vote, so they are going to — the president is delaying his trip so they can jam the vote in at the end of next week, they hope by one or two vote margin. It’s really stunning.

Bottom line: the people – who are now opposed to ObamaCare by a 3-1 margin – don’t want the government to take over our health care system.  And the Democrat leadership is literally afraid to let the Congress go home for Easter recess and hear what their constituents have to say before a vote, lest they respect the will of the people and vote against this monstrosity.  And so, as Obama postpones his foreign trip, the leadership is trying to overcome opposition to ObamaCare by offering as an inducement yet ANOTHER Democrat big government takeover, this time of the student loan system.

President Obama’s approval has sank to an all time low of 46% in the Gallup poll as he has determined to impose his health care boondoggle on the American people who do not want it.  The Hill points out that this “demonstrates that the healthcare debate has taken a toll on Obama’s approval numbers.”

A new poll released by the Associated Press finds that the American people overwhelmingly want the Republicans involved with any health care overhaul, rather than having an ideological Democrat boondoggle rammed down their throats:

More than four in five Americans say it’s important that any health care plan have support from both parties. And 68 percent say the president and congressional Democrats should keep trying to cut a deal with Republicans rather than pass a bill with no GOP support.

And only 27 percent of voters want to see ObamaCare rammed down the nation’s collective throat.

And as for what the Democrats are trying to impose:

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters say the health care reform plan now working its way through Congress will hurt the U.S. economy.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 25% think the plan will help the economy. But only seven percent (7%) say it will have no impact. Twelve percent (12%) aren’t sure.

Two-out-of-three voters (66%) also believe the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats is likely to increase the federal deficit. That’s up six points from late November and comparable to findings just after the contentious August congressional recess. Ten percent (10%) say the plan is more likely to reduce the deficit and 14% say it will have no impact on the deficit.

Underlying this concern is a lack of trust in the government numbers. Eighty-one percent (81%) believe it is at least somewhat likely that the health care reform plan will cost more than official estimates. That number includes 66% who say it is very likely that the official projections understate the true cost of the plan.

Just 10% have confidence in the official estimates and say the actual costs are unlikely to be higher.

Seventy-eight percent (78%) also believe it is at least somewhat likely that taxes will have to be raised on the middle class to cover the cost of health care reform. This includes 65% who say middle-class tax hikes are very likely, a six-point increase from late November.

And yes, ObamaCare will raise taxes.  In fact, for every one family who gets a subsidy to pay for the Democrats’ health care plan – which will cost $2.5 trillion – three middle class families will be taxed more to provide that subsidy.

Meanwhile, Barry Hussein has just broken his own record for the worst deficit in human history.

A few quotations from Ronald Reagan are in order here:

• “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
• “The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.”
• “Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself.”
• “As government expands, liberty contracts.”
• “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
• “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.”
• “Are you entitled to the fruits of your labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?”
• “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

The American people have overwhelmingly shouted – and there have been three big statewide elections in states that voted big for Obama to prove that the polls are correct – that they don’t want a government takeover.  And how do Democrats respond?  By offering another government takeover (of the student loan system) as an inducement for Democrats to vote for the government takeover of health care.

[Via http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com]

What To Watch This Week

A “crisis over” mode is being adopted across markets as worries about Greece wane and economic data provides support to recovery hopes, whilst importantly allaying fears of a “double-dip”. Equities, bonds and currencies are reacting accordingly; equities are close to year highs, bond yields have risen and spreads have narrowed, whilst the USD and JPY are weaker, and conversely risk currencies are stronger. Even EUR/USD pushed higher on its way to 1.3800 as a number of stops were cleared and shorts were squeezed.

The coming weeks will be important to determine whether there is any staying power in the upward move in risk assets. A lot of the February data in the US will likely be obscured by bad weather however, including industrial production figures this week, leaving markets with little to go on. In Europe, the key release is the March German ZEW investor confidence survey, and better news in Greece, will likely prevent a sharper decline in confidence.

After both the Swish National Bank (SNB) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) unsurprisingly left policy unchanged last week this week sees the turn of the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan (BoJ). Neither central bank is likely to shift policy but the Fed statement will be looked upon for guidance on the timing of rate hikes. The comment in the FOMC statement that the Fed Funds rate is expected to remain low for an “extended period” is set to be retained, even if some FOMC members are itching to remove it soon.

The BoJ meeting will be particularly interesting. I have just returned from a week long trip in Japan and on the ground there is plenty of speculation that the BoJ will take extra action to combat deflation and weaken the JPY. Additionally comments by Japan’s Prime Minister and Deputy PM have highlighted the potential for action to weaken the JPY although the usual market hesitation to sell JPY into fiscal year end and repatriation talk may mean a weaker JPY path is not straightforward.

Greece will not move too far from the spotlight, with EU officials likely to give the official stamp of approval on Greece’s deficit cutting measures and plenty of discussion at the Eurogroup Finance Minister’s meeting and Ecofin meeting early in the week. Other topics of conversation will include the possible formation of a European Monetary Fund, though this looks like it will be a non-starter given the many objections to it.

Overall, risk appetite is set to continue its upward trajectory, likely keeping the USD on the back foot. Much will depend on what the FOMC says rather than does. EUR/USD may take a crack at resistance around 1.3840 on improving Greek news but it is difficult to see much upside from current levels. The one to watch will be the JPY, especially if the BoJ embarks on aggressive actions at this week’s meeting, leaving USD/JPY plenty of scope to test resistance around 92.16.

[Via http://econometer.org]

Consumer Spending

Spending growth has since resumed—a source of surprise and widespread skepticism given the steep contraction in consumer credit and the high 9.7% unemployment rate.”

Of course the data doesn’t actually specify precisely what consumers are increasing their PCE on. I would guess an increase in Food & Energy are responsible for a significant portion of the increase. Some commentators, Barry Ritholtz seem to postulate iPods etc.

I prefer to spend counter-cyclically, hence the posts regarding shopping for big ticket items during the recession (more on this later today). Anecdotally, the stores and malls seem busier, as the slowly recovering economy may be returning consumers — and their pent up demand — back to some of the prior consumption.

At least, that is what the data seems to be showing . . .

Really – based on what exactly?

[Via http://leduc998.wordpress.com]

Flying Toilet - Disposable toiltet that can help crops

Flying toilet - Disposable Toilet

In the developing world, an estimated 2.6 billion people, or about 40 percent of the earth’s population, do not have access to a toilet, according to United Nations figures. A Swedish entrepreneur is trying to market and sell a biodegradable plastic bag that acts as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world.

Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces. The bag, called the Peepoo, is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and professor in Stockholm.

After successfully testing it for a year in Kenya and India, he said he planned to mass produce the bag this summer.

Read the full story here…

[Via http://sameerjain.wordpress.com]

"The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society."

The increasing use of coercive measures (regulation and taxation) in our society represents a movement away from social cooperation and civilization*.  It is ironic that this is viewed as progress.  I came across this excellent article by mark Skousen yesterday, in which he quotes from Alfred North Whitehead:

“The creation of the world — said Plato — is the victory of persuasion over force… Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals…

“Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force.”

Professor Whitehead’s vision of civilized society as the triumph of persuasion over force should become paramount in the mind of all civic-minded individuals and government leaders. It should serve as the guideline for the political ideal. Let me suggest, therefore, a new political creed: The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.

I think of William Wilberforce vs. Abraham Lincoln. 

By this standard, we are become less civilized*, not more.  Again, Skousen:

Too often politicians think that new programs requiring new taxes are the only way to pay for citizens’ retirement, health care, education or other social needs. “People just aren’t willing to pay for these services themselves,” they say, so they force others to pay for them instead.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.” But isn’t the opposite really the case? Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.

 *civilize:   To raise from barbarism to an enlightened stage of development; bring out of a primitive or savage state.

[Via http://alltta.wordpress.com]

What an interesting speech that turned out to be at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis...

Although, at first sight, one might have thought it was not the most interesting speech Gerry Adams has ever delivered. Nor was it the most ideological. Was it a left Republican speech? Well… hmmm….I know Garibaldy has some thoughts on the Ard Fheis which he will present in the next few days, but here are my thoughts for what they’re worth.

Sure, there were ideas in it that were leftish. Two mentions of equality, one of the equality agenda, one of equality of opportunity. Stimulus measures. And so on. But the term left wasn’t used once. Nor was the word socialism. We got ’social entitlements’ and ‘common good’. It leaned heavily upon the past as a legitimation, some of it quite pointed indeed:

This summer marks the 40th Anniversary of the IRA appearing on the streets of Belfast when Republicans joined with the people of the Ballymaccarett in the defence of St. Matthews chapel and An Trá Ghearr.

That single act of resistance. This stand against the Orange State marked the beginning of a journey for many activists. That journey has seen struggle and strategies played out on the streets, in the jails and round the negotiating table.

And…

The British army, the heavy gangs, the old Orange regime and slíbhín governments here could not break us. Censorship, the prisons and the death squads could not break us.

And no amount of black propaganda in the Tony O’Reilly press will break us either.

Which is hardly surprising.

It also attracted the eye of the Irish Times editorial writer who opined:

It was as appealing as homemade apple pie. But, in urging people to take a stand against authority, there were hints of a public disobedience campaign.

Well. Perhaps… perhaps when Adams said this…

But let me be clear about this. I am not talking about leaders coming down to us from on high. I am talking about everyone who is prepared to stand against corruption, greed and injustice.

Every woman, every man, every citizen who makes such a stand is a leader.

Every little act of resistance, of rebellion, of protest, makes change possible.

Most struggles aren’t won by single actions. Or by iconic leaders. Though they have their role.

They are won by people, taking individual actions, which accumulate into irreversible change.

It was true of the suffragettes. It was true of the anti-apartheid movement. It was true when Rosa Parks wouldn’t give up her seat and it is true here in Ireland.

… perhaps he was issuing a call to such measures. I’d be a little dubious though.

The vision thing though – what of that? Hard to say. The words about ‘establishment’ parties are fine, but difficult to determine what precisely makes Sinn Féin distinctive by contrast.

Perhaps it was this that led to some intriguing thoughts on the Republic:

Sinn Féin believes in a genuine republic. Not a nominal dictionary republic, but one in which the people are truly sovereign.

The Proclamation of the Republic asserts the need to cherish all the children of the nation equally. It doesn’t say 26 counties of the nation. It speaks of all the nation and all its parts. All 32 counties.

The Proclamation speaks to all the children of the Nation. It doesn’t say – unless you are poor or elderly. Or unless you have autism; or learning difficulties; or disabilities. Or unless you come from a remote rural area. Or from Moyross or Sheriff Street; or Strabane or Ballymena.

The establishment parties, like us, know that republicanism is in many ways the conscience of the Irish people. Little wonder that they wrap themselves in republican rhetoric while avoiding any genuine examination of the real meaning of republicanism.

And an explicit appeal to…

The key to building the new republic, democratically shaped by the people, is to start now. We have to embrace our strengths. Our language. Our unique culture. Our history.

While some parties do indeed wrap themselves in the ‘Republic’, this tends to be to different degrees. The very meaning of the term splinters depending upon which party one chooses to examine and some might be quite leery about the use of it. While Fianna Fáil have taken the term and made it their own – to some extent, neither Fine Gael nor Labour have used it in quite such a whole-hearted fashion and the meaning has been largely detached from the particular usage in an Irish context. One of the more intriguing byways Michael McDowell went down some years back – perhaps mischievously – was his rather public musings on the PDs and Republicanism, in the abstract sense of the word. And it has been that more abstracted sense which has found most favour with FG and Labour, when thought about at all.

Whether there is a position to found that can steer away from that latter definition while simultaneously remaining distinct from the FF usage remains to be seen. For me, and I suspect many others, a clear left Republican stance would make most sense (and by the by I’m entirely aware of the problematical aspects this raises as regards those who would have no truck with any of the above who consider SF insufficiently ‘Republican’ by their lights).

Sinn Féin appear caught in a difficult time. I’ve pointed out previously that talk of their demise is wildly overstated. The increase they saw in their local representation in the 2002 period onwards has positioned them well for elections. Their poll numbers while not delivering the seat gain they might expect remain constant across the past two or three years. They appear to have a disciplined party line and in most instances their rhetoric on various issues is on the progressive side of the fence and in some places by quite some way.

Of course the problem is that straddling a border, and doing so in such a way that they are in government in the North, has generated near unavoidable contradictions. How can they be a party positioned well to the left on the political spectrum of the South while sitting in power implementing centre right political policies across a range of areas? There is the obvious riposte that the situation in Stormont is sui generis, that being representative of Republicanism in the Assembly, and more importantly in government outweighs socio-economic policy at this point in time.

But there’s the problem in starkest outline. As soon as a formation begins to prioritise in this way it must, of necessity, bid farewell, or at the very least become somewhat detached from elements of its support. One could wonder that the remarkable aspect of all this is not that there has been fragmentation but that that fragmentation has been quite well contained.

It’s possible to posit that SF peaked too soon in the North and that the constraints within which they operated meant that they had to enter government with all that that entails at a point which was out of sync with the situation in the South. A year or two later and I wonder if we would have seen the splintering of some of their left support to other formations? And that support might have seen them bring home a number of other seats thereby giving them a greater potential in terms of government formation, a situation that they simply lacked with four TDs in 2007.

And I think that that goes beyond the analysis we keep hearing that somehow North and South are irredeemably different in some qualitative way. Of course, there are differences, but you’d be hard pressed to recognise SF as a party that has had a presence in this state for decades from some of the thoughts expressed by various commentators. And let’s not set too much store in the idea that their only fairly, indeed faintly, constitutional status until recently thereby has locked them off from an ‘understanding’ of the situation. This is a party which while rhetorically of the left has managed the interesting feat of having significant representation in rural constituencies. And I’m not attempting to suggest that the words rural and progressive are in continual opposition to one another, but rather that contemporary SF has managed – granted in small numbers – to represent a radical voice in a rural context. I find that most interesting and worthy of greater examination.

In any case, therefore I do find some of the boilerplate analysis a little hard to accept. Sure Gerry Adams was pretty grim in the debates in 2007, and there’s a strong case that a different figure put front and centre could have done them no harm, and might even have done some good. But note Deaglún de Breádún’s thoughts, again in the IT…

His policy prescriptions caused confusion among some listeners.

He wanted a third rate of tax on earnings over €100,000 but failed to specify whether this would apply to joint as well as individual incomes exceeding that figure. He proposed a “solidarity tax” of 1 per cent on assets over €1 million, excluding farm land, but did not spell out whether ability to pay was a consideration in coming up with the payment of €10,000 to the Revenue.

Not for the first time one had the feeling that the Northerners who make up the dominant force in Sinn Féin really need to do a lot more work to enhance their understanding of politics in the South and the sensitivities of its highly sophisticated electorate.

The idea of a the ‘highly’ sophisticated Southern electorate, and I remember hearing it from a broad range of sometimes unlikely sources over the years, surely has to have taken some bashing over the past decade or so. What looks like a studied ambiguity on the part of SF to pitch their message, and I’m not as it happens being complimentary here, to a Southern audience is taken as read as being evidence of a North/South divide.

Other than that it was good to hear a political party proposing a stimulus package and interesting to hear the reference to a social clause in public contracts contextualised by Minister for Regional Development, Conor Murphy and note taken of Michelle Gildernew’s work as Minister for Agriculture with disadvantaged farmers and rural women. One wonders is it possible that that sort of approach locking policy proposals into the new found experiences in the North might well be no harm for a party whose economic plank in the past, although much less so in recent years, appeared low on their list of priorities.

But this raises an interesting question. Why has Sinn Féin been self-evidently, given the polling data, unable to garner support from Fianna Fáil during the time of FFs greatest travails? Now I don’t want to dismiss the fairly remarkable achievement in getting to a consistent eight to ten per cent of the share in polls, and the not inconsiderable vote they managed to see at the General Election. But look at the graph between 2007 and today and you will see that they sit two or three per cent above their position at the 2007 General Election. Much as they did prior to the 2007 election. Somehow it seems that Labour has been the beneficiary of a portion of the Fianna Fáil vote, and clearly Fine Gael as well. Small reward for positioning themselves as the Republican party. But this speech is crafted not for yesterday but tomorrow and the day after that.

So is that what this rhetoric was about? An appeal to Fianna Fáil voters who have gone to Labour or are staying put? An attempt to redefine themselves as a somewhat more radical version of FF, more public-sector friendly but also able to bridge the urban and the rural comfortably? A rhetoric of Republic and Republicanism that is particularly familiar to those who have consistently voted for one party in this state across decades. A rhetoric that would be calculated to prise away those voters from their historic attachments.

And is that why there is no language of ‘left’ alliances, no explicit language of the left at all? Why remind such people that Labour exists? Why try to link Sinn Féin conceptually with a political terrain, that of the left and further left, that such voters are utterly unaware of and disinterested in. Or if they are aware treat it in many cases with disdain. Furthermore why try to upset the apple cart in terms of potential coalitions by ruling them out?

So, while quite a dull speech it may have been fashioned for relatively subtle ends.

How and where the left fits into all this is an interesting question. And what of explicitly left Republicanism?

Worth watching to see if we see more of this “new” Republicanism from Sinn Féin spokespeople over the next while.

[Via http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com]

Greece And California

The Greek debt crisis is putting enormous strains on the European Union.  Greece is heavily in debt.  Its 2009 budget deficit was projected to reach 13 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.  Greek’s mounting debt problems prompted fears that Greece would default, causing investors to sell Greek debt instruments, which in turn put pressure on the European Union’s common currency, the Euro.  As a result, European financial and political leaders are pressuring the Greek government to impose unpopular austerity measures, and some members of the Greek community have been protesting those cuts.  In the meantime, Greece is appealing to Germany and France, as the financially stronger members of the EU, for support.  The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, says the EU has to support Greece or give up on the idea of a common currency and common political future.  The German government seems to be more on the fence.

The interesting point about this story is not that it has happened — with Greece’s borrowing-oriented, over-the-top welfare state mentality, a budget crisis was inevitable, and other debt-laden EU countries are not far behind — but the cultural and political fissures that have been exposed. In Germany, in particular, citizens and politicians are resisting bailing out the Greek government because they believe they are subsidizing sybaritic, free-spending ways of the Greeks.  In Greece, workers can retire at 63; in Germany, they must work until age 67.  Some Germans believe that the salaries paid to Greek civil servants are too large, that Greeks are too lazy, that the Greek culture is corrupt, and that Greek farmers are swindling the EU.

What the Greek debt crisis really demonstrates is that any political union must be based on trust and equity.  When times get tough, there must be a sense of shared sacrifice and shared values.  Eventually, if enough Germans believe they are being played for saps because they are working hard to support the unsustainable lifestyles of pleasure-loving Greeks (and others), they will refuse to continue to do so and the European Union will fracture and fail.

There is a lesson in all of this for California, which is facing its own version of a serious debt crisis.  Over the long term, California cannot expect the federal government to bail it out of its budget problems.  It won’t take long before hard-working Texans, or North Carolinians, or Ohioans, will object to subsidizing California’s absurdly generous public pension system, its unwillingness to cut programs, or its oppressive regulatory regime that has caused many companies to flee the Golden State for more business-friendly locations.

America is more politically and culturally cohesive than the European Union; Texans have much more in common with California than Germans have in common with Greece.  Still, the pressures that come from the ant subsidizing the grasshopper are the same, and would better be avoided by California getting its budgetary act together.

[Via http://webnerhouse.com]

The Clouds are Gathering and the Second Dip Down Cometh

When the car is headed to a brick wall at 100 mph and is only five feet from the wall, brakes do no good.  That is where we are right now concerning how this financial crises has been managed till now.  Three events this week alone point to this reality graphically.  First, regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Sun American Bank, based in Boca Raton, Fla., with $535.7 million in assets and $443.5 million in deposits. Also seized were Bank of Illinois of Normal, Ill., with $211.7 million in assets and $198.5 million in deposits; Waterfield Bank in Germantown, Md., with $155.6 million in assets and $156.4 million in deposits; and Centennial Bank in Ogden, Utah, with $215.2 million in assets and $205.1 million in deposits.

What was even more telling was for Waterfield Bank, no buyer was found, so the FDIC will set up a new savings institution that will operate until April 5 to allow customers access to their deposits and give them time to open accounts at other banks.  The FDIC was also unable to find a buyer for Centennial Bank, and it approved the payout of the institution’s insured deposits. As a result, checks to the retail depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday. Zions First National Bank in Salt Lake City agreed to accept the failed bank’s direct deposits from the federal government, including Social Security and Veterans’ payments.

Further, unannounced in MSM is the fact that there is nearly 3,000! additional mid and small banks in trouble on the commercial real estate loan portfolios.  What this means in perspective is that 3000 out of the remaining 8000 small and medium banks in America are on the verge of collapse.  The big get bigger and kill all the rest.  If you have been following my blog, I have been warning for months now that this is not just poor management or a twist of economic fate, it is in fact an assault on the monetary backbone of our economy and not just our economy, but the world economy.

When you start putting the pieces together, you can only shake your head at the hubris and greed that is being demonstrated by the PTB in this all out assault.  Right out in front of God and everybody! Amazing really.  Here is another little factoid thanks to Webster G. Tarpley over at GCN Radio to support my assertion.

This is what emerged during the first week of December with a speculative assault or bear raid against Greek and Spanish government bonds as well as the euro itself, accompanied by a scurrilous press campaign targeting the “PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain),” an acronym for the countries just named, coming from inside the bowels of Goldman Sachs. Now comes concrete proof of this conspiracy in the form of a Feb. 8 “idea dinner,” held at the Manhattan townhouse of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co, a boutique investment bank. Among those present were SAC Capital Advisors, David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital (a veteran of the fatal assault on Lehman Brothers in the late summer of 2008), Donald Morgan of Brigade Capital, and, most tellingly, Soros Fund Management. The consensus that emerged that night was that Greek government bonds were the weak flank of the euro, and that once a Greek debt crisis had been detonated, all outcomes would be bad for the euro. The assembled predators agreed that Greece was the first domino in Europe. Donald Morgan was adamant that the Greek contagion could soon infect all sovereign debt in the world, including national, state, municipal and all other forms of government debt. This would mean California, the UK, and the US itself, among many others. The details of this at dinner were revealed in the headline story of the Wall Street Journal on Friday, February 26, 2010. (See article)

Nor was this the only cabal in town intent on attacking the euro through the week Greek flank. The article cited suggests that GlobeOp Financial Services and Paulson & Co. are also piling on. The zombie banks were also heavily engaged. The article reported that Goldman Sachs, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, and Barclays Bank of London were also assisting speculators in placing highly leveraged bearish bets against the euro. Note that these zombie banks are alive today because of US taxpayer money, in Barclay’s case through AIG.

It amounted to a deliberate attempt to create a large-scale world monetary crisis which would certainly bring with it the dreaded second wave of the current world economic depression. The creation of monetary chaos in Europe through the convulsive destruction of the euro under speculative attack would cripple commodity production in western Europe, severely undermining one of the dwindling areas of the world economy which are still functioning. The genocidal implications for humanity ought to be obvious, but the assembled hedge fund hyenas were not concerned with these consequences.

So here we are no jobs, those that are working are seeing decreasing incomes.  No banks are loaning because they need every dime they take in to cover their exposures on commercial loans.  If you can get a loan you are going to pay a much higher interest rate and finally you are facing a much higher tax rate in 2010.  Do you see how hopeless this situation is getting?  I am doing this article though, not because of these situations, but to point to what happens as an end result of these facts.  When the second wave hits, people are going to panic and be angry.  The PTB are counting on it.  As I have also pointed out, everything is in place to contain the social unrest and declare martial law. We are seeing a microcosm of this in Greece today.  The Glenn Becks and Michelle Bachmans of the world are inciting us to revolt.

DON’T DO IT.  Don’t play into that hand as the cards are stacked against us.  The one contingency that the PTB can not counter is an informed and involved voter. If we want to revolutionize our country, it should be at the ballot box.  Throw these bought and paid for politicians out on their ears and let’s allow honest people to once again govern by our consent.  We should insist that anyone going to Washington will do three things.  First, legislate a public campaign finance law.  End this unbalanced influence game.  Secondly, tax derivatives heavily.  End this predator speculation where the banksters win on both ends.  Third, break up these “too big to fail” institutions and segregate banking from investments.  There were reasons for those regulations and we should restore them.  Then maybe we have a chance to come out of this downward spiral.  Maybe.

[Via http://redhawk500.wordpress.com]

ROMANIANS ENTHUSIASTICALLY PARTICIPATE IN ANTI-ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK

Romanians enthusiastically participate in anti-Israeli apartheid week

All across Romania the civil society and important personalities and democrats and peace activist are marking the important event of : Israel Apartheid Week . Universities in over 40 cities across the world have begun to observe Israeli Apartheid Week in condemnation of the Zionist regime’s suppression of the Palestinians.

During Israeli Apartheid Week, the universities will hold protests and host related speeches, cultural performances, and movie screenings.

The people who first proposed holding Israeli Apartheid Week in 2005 say it has become a very important international event for expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, supporting the opponents of Israeli apartheid across the globe, and reinforcing the call for sanctions to be imposed on Israel.

Haaretz reported that Jerusalem Al-Quds-based economic researcher Shir Hever is scheduled to give a series of lectures at the University of Amsterdam entitled “Could the Economic Policies of Israel be Considered a Form of Apartheid?” The daily added that Glasgow University is to host a speech by Jeff Halper, a professor of anthropology based in Israel, who is the co-founder and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He is slated to give a speech on the boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) campaign.In addition, director Shai Carmeli-Pollak will be screening his 2006 documentary “Bil’in Habibti” — which is about the Israel Defense Forces’ violence — at Boston area universities, Haaretz reported. Romania is included in the democratic countries that effectivly sustain the palestinian struggle for freedm and democracy and is proudly to host the Anti-Israeli Apartheid Week celebration in support of liberty. 

[Via http://centruldiplomatic.wordpress.com]

OPINION: What left in this Country?

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother doing this show anymore. Is it really having an impact? Are people really waking up, or are we seeing more of the same crap thrown at us every single day. In all honesty, this has got to be one of the most frustrating time periods in our country. We have a radical progressive movement that is fast tracking the rapid expansion of government and very few republicans in the house to stop it. If that weren’t bad enough, we have these morons on the fringe who think everything they see is a conspiracy threatening our national sovereignty, personal freedoms and individual well-being. In many cases these wing nuts are just as bad if not worse than some of the people on the left.

On a typical news day we have some one like Harry Reid  making some obscure comment about how we should celebrate the fact that we only lost 36,000 jobs in a month, or we have Pelosi dropping a line about how honest and ethical her congress are. These two individuals are examples of some of the most arrogant self-centered agenda-driven individuals in power today. It is an agenda that must be defeated via election before too much damage can be done.

Having to fight the information battle against many on the left would not be so bad if it weren’t for the borderline anarchist separatists that disguise themselves among the independents in our voting demographic. The most recent act of violence was by a man who released a chilling video about his grievances with the establishment before attempting failed attack (fortunately for the pentagon officials). Already the lefty scream machine has tried to paint this guy as a conservative. The problem is, having grievances with government is not an inherently conservative viewpoint and people must understand this. The point is not to rebel against the establishment but to help vote people in with the proper leadership skills to take care of this country.

As conservatives it is paramount that you distance yourselves from anyone calling for revolution and anyone who won’t rebuke violent acts. That is not what we are about and is not a recipe for taking back this country. I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been to sit and listen to people try and come up with an explanation passing blame on the government for why this citizen would have acted in the way he did. It’s unacceptable, yet some people do it.

It’s important to make sure that we keep the overall message in tact and focused. We live in the greatest country in the world, with some of the greatest people the the world that live here. Remember the key to 2010 is getting united. Hang the third party ideas and get out of here if your res presenting a tater wedge self interest. It’s time to restore constitutional principal to this land once again. People do hear you, it may not be as loudly as you may wish, but they do hear you. Every little bit helps and we can all make a difference.

[Via http://conservativetalker.wordpress.com]

Get Ready For $7/Gal Gas To Meet Obama's Target

You may not be smart enough to realize that you voted yourself right out of your car in voting for Obama.  But that’s pretty much what you did:

March 2, 2010, 6:35 pm

Fuel Taxes Must Rise, Harvard Researchers Say

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

To meet the Obama administration’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon.

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the cost of driving must simply increase, according to a forthcoming report by researchers at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

The 14 percent target was set in the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget for fiscal 2010.

In their study, the researchers devised several combinations of steps that United States policymakers might take in trying to address the heat-trapping emissions by the nation’s transportation sector, which consume 70 percent of the oil used in the United States.

Most of their models assumed an economy-wide carbon dioxide tax starting at $30 a ton in 2010 and escalating to $60 a ton in 2030. In some cases researchers also factored in tax credits for electric and hybrid vehicles, taxes on fuel or both.

In the modeling, it turned out that issuing tax credits could backfire, while taxes on fuel proved beneficial.

“Tax credits don’t address how much people use their cars,” said Ross Morrow, one of the report’s authors. “In reverse, they can make people drive more.”

Dr. Morrow, formerly a fellow at the Belfer Center, is a professor of mechanical engineering and economics at Iowa State University

Researchers said that vehicle miles traveled will increase by more than 30 percent between 2010 and 2030 unless policymakers increase fuel taxes.

This insane result of Obama’s policies comes in the wake of the fact that global warming, or climate change, or whatever you want to call it, is a documented fraud based on the worst pseudo-science and demagoguery.  Far from being scientific, the global warming agenda is now being blasted as a blatant danger to the field of science itself by the Institute of Physics.  Just look at their first two points as they confront “ClimateGate” and the collapse of even a facade of scientific legitimacy:

1. The Institute is concerned that, unless the disclosed e-mails are proved to be forgeries or adaptations, worrying implications arise for the integrity of scientific research in this field and for the credibility of the scientific method as practised in this context.

2. The CRU e-mails as published on the internet provide prima facie evidence of determined and co-ordinated refusals to comply with honourable scientific traditions and freedom of information law. The principle that scientists should be willing to expose their ideas and results to independent testing and replication by others, which requires the open exchange of data, procedures and materials, is vital. The lack of compliance has been confirmed by the findings of the Information Commissioner. This extends well beyond the CRU itself – most of the e-mails were exchanged with researchers in a number of other international institutions who are also involved in the formulation of the IPCC’s conclusions on climate change.

The Institute of Physics continues to damn “climate change research” up one side and down the other for a total of 13 points.  Climate change is a sick, twisted joke that has fundamentally eroded trust and credibility of the entire scientific enterprise.  Not that Obama cares.  He is a true believer who will destroy our economy by massively redistributing American wealth to the rest of the world in order to “fix” the planet.

Obama’s irrational energy policies also comes in the wake of the fact that the United States has massively more domestic oil than Democrats previously claimed.  Which is to say that any energy policy that does not include the concept of “drill baby, drill,” simply isn’t rational.  We have abundant oil, natural gas, and coal resources.  In this time of economic difficulty, let us finally use them!!!

Democrats have always dreamed that America would become more like Europe.  And soon it will: we’ll be taking buses because we can’t afford to pay the same skyhigh prices for gasoline that Europeans have to pay because THEY elected socialists.

Nobody should be surprised.  The same guy who said that energy prices would necessarily skyrocket under his agenda has taken position after position that will have us freezing in the dark.

You voted for “change,” America.  So go change out of your nice comfy car to a long, nasty, bumpy bus ride.

Maybe we should start watching Flintstones episodes so we can learn how to build cars in the age of Obama.

[Via http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com]

Surreal

We seem to be in a strange economic environment these days.

On one hand, news paper headlines and the business news channels on TV assure us that the economy is back on tack (well almost) and Quarter on Quarter data shows revival in industrial production. They assure us that the consumer indices are also showing recovery and in-fact growth. Stock markets have rocketed back to 17000 zone and retail investors are back in business. If you go out looking for property to buy, the builders ask for exorbitant amounts and it seems that they are back to the pre-meltdown days. When I weigh it with the prevalent inflation and the real cost of goods viz. fruits, vegetables and other commodities, they seem to be in a severe growth trajectory themselves! Almost everything is exorbitantly expensive. WTF, what’s happening here! So if revival is there and companies are back to making money, and every one wants more for their stuff, then there is a serious problem we are looking at as citizens.

According to me, here’s what is happening:

- Post financial meltdown, a huge amount of money was pumped into the economies by almost every country. Interest rates were lowered, currencies re-adjusted (it continues) and taxes were lowered. This lead to a huge amount of un-earned funds into the basket of too few smart ones.

- There were bailouts galore, mostly in the USA… or were they? Actually, only a very few large financial institutions, infact the most reckless ones, were given majority of this money with riders ofcourse – Cap salaries, no bonuses etc. These institutions, on verge of bankruptcy today have returned/are returning these loans and so it seems that all is well.

What explains the inflation and back to bonuses at these institutions! Well, it is the same money that went around, came back as profits and eaten away! How, well simple, they drove this money into the hedge-funds, stock markets, commodity markets and the first priority was to drive up the indices! This happened at almost all markets and in our own BSE & NSE! Having enough money and no buyers, they kept pumping the exchanges and soon, a semblance of feel good factor came back in.. Valuations began to rise and so did the profitability in the books!

In India, specifically, a Tsunami of this money hit our shores in the last year. It pumped our markets up, feel good returned and a lot of money started chasing the goods. I reckon there are two reasons I would increase cost of my goods and so I am sure it more or less applies to others aswell:

- I buy expensive and so sell expensive. or I have and I sell to the highest bidder (These are two scenarios like the two sides of a coin)

- I have, I need X to survive, I cannot sell all of what I have, so to reach X, I must sell whatever I can at a higher price!

Now, I dont know if it is the former or the latter or a mix of all three, but the fact is that the following can be predicted:

- Governments will soon wake up to tackle inflation which is rampant everywhere.

- This will choke money supply

- Interest rates will rise

- Tax rebates will be rolled back

As a citizen, the so called aam aadmi, do you have more money in your pocket, the answer for most is yes, but does this money stay for the rainy day, the answer is no because we have more money but we spend more to live at the same level as we did before.  India is going through a historic phase in its life and we are a fortunate generation to witness this change. As the country makes a transition from developing to a developed nation, more money in the hands of more people is going to fast become a reality, infact it is already becoming a reality! Financial Inclusion, debt waiver, Nrega, RSBY etc are sending money where it never existed and these citizens are joining the limited few (in %) in chasing goods and services. Food prices spiralling out of control is a symptom of just this and we have to brace for the Rupee becoming stronger, The bottom of the pyramid joinging the party and things becoming even more expensive and when this cycle is in its final phase, we can look forward to very low interest rates as other developed  countries we see today. Is it desirable, I dont know since we are in for some growing up pains and can easily stray the course, but I sure know that if we do stay the course, the quality of life is set to become better …… for everyone.

[Via http://anuragashok.wordpress.com]

Republicans can't read

Republicans can’t read or have a comprehension problem, or they believe the public has either or both of those problems.

On Sunday, John McCain claimed deception on the part of the Bush administration with respect to TARP funds.

In an interview with a Dutch newspaper, Tom Tancredo, former representative from Colorado, seems as confused by TARP as McCain.

After giving a confused definition of socialism, Tancredo was asked about the TARP fund and he responded:

“In September 2008, when I was still in Congress, we voted on the purchase of toxic assets for 700 billion dollar. In my view that was not socialism.’

The interviewer points out that “the government took over AIG, the world’s biggest insurer, with that money,” to which Tancredo responds:

“But there you have the problem: that is not what we voted for. The idea, as they presented it, was to give tax brakes [sic] to companies in trouble. That’s not socialism. And it is not meant to redistribute wealth. That’s the whole thing.”

Maybe he was right about literacy testing. But I would suggest it is potential members of Congress who should be tested and not voters.

There is one area, however, where Tancredo and the rest of the country are in agreement: John McCain would have made “a terrible president”:

“He is nasty, mean; the skin of an onion would look deep compared to his. He has a short fuse, he is almost peculiarly unstable.”

Thanks, Dependable Renegade!

[Via http://knowyourgovernment.wordpress.com]

Watch George Galloway The Real Deal Show on 28 Feb 2010

Watch George Galloway The Real Deal Show on 28 Feb 2010 :

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[Via http://spiderednews.wordpress.com]