April « 2011 « POWIP

26Apr/113

Mountains of Public Finance, Pensions, and Unions DOOOOOM 26April2011

For all that Monty has been doing his fiscal DOOM posts at AoS (and check them out, they're good and depressing), I still claim I've been doing them longer (albeit focusing on the pensions stuff mainly).

But there's plenty of room for more people with sandwich boards proclaiming THE END IS NIGH. So it's all good.

GENERAL PENSIONS STUFF

The people who brought us the classic Trillion Dollar Gap report last year now follow up with an even bigger gap:

The gap between the promises states have made for public employees’ retirement benefits and the money set aside to pay for them grew to at least $1.26 trillion in fiscal year 2009—a 26 percent increase in one year—according to a Pew report.

The Widening Gap: The Great Recession’s Impact on State Pension and Retiree Health Care Costs analyzes 2009 and 2010 data on states' funding of pensions and retiree health care. The report shows how states’ retirement systems—many of them already on shaky ground—were affected by the Great Recession:

-Pension funding shortfalls accounted for $660 billion of the $1.26 trillion gap, and unfunded retiree health care costs accounted for the remaining $635 billion.

-States had only about $31 billion, or 5 percent, saved toward their obligations for retiree health care benefits.

-State pension plans were 78 percent funded, declining from 84 percent in 2008.

Use our interactive map below to see state-specific data on funding for public sector pensions and retiree health care.

If Dan can yank that Flash-enabled interactive map at the link and embed it here, that would be great. If not, hie ye over to the Pew site and play with it yourself. What's really annoying, of course, is the huge lag in info -- they're telling you the balance sheet position as of 2009 -- but given how long-term these liabilities are, 2 years really isn't that huge of a lag.

Of course, 2009 was the last time the pensioners of Prichard, Alabama got paid. Ask them if two years is a long time or not.

And I want you to note how much money has been stashed away for retiree health care -- basically none. Up until recently, government entities could account for these liabilities on a pay-as-you-go basis, without figuring in any future costs. As you can imagine, given former demographics, this understated the liability. GASB (the Government Accounting Standards Board) changed this only a few years ago... and states are playing catch-up now. But you'll see many still aren't putting by any provision for this.

Luckily, many states don't have a constitutional provision protecting retiree health care. So guess what? The moment it really becomes unsustainable, it will be dropped. I think that may fix all those too-early-retirement ages (unless some idiot listens to Robert Reich and drops the Medicare eligibility age below 65).

Here's P&I's coverage of the Pew Report from above.

Here's some government group trying to talk happy. Yes, it's propaganda. Please, mister, don't take away our DB pensions!

Speaking of, Michael Barone asks if the U.S. can afford DB pensions at all (public or private). I think we can, actually, but it requires more modest benefits. At the very least, I think some longevity risk can be diversified away.

Unless Aubrey de Grey is successful. Work til you're 200! Talk to Lazarus Long...

Andrew Biggs explains valuation rates and how the value of a liability does not decrease simply because one funds it with riskier assets. More on valuation rates.

Oh look, the once untouchable current pensions are very touchable (NYT link).

Conventional wisdom and the laws and constitutions of many states have long held that the pensions being earned by current government workers are untouchable. But as the fiscal crisis has lingered, officials in strapped states from California to Illinois have begun to take a second look, to see whether there might be loopholes allowing them to cut the pension benefits of current employees. Now the move in Detroit — made possible, lawyers said, because Michigan’s constitutional protections are weaker — could spur other places to try to follow suit.
....
Pension funds can run out of money. In Prichard, Ala., a small city outside of Mobile, the fund ran out in 2009. The city stopped sending pension checks to its 150 retired workers, defying a state law that requires it to pay what it has promised. In the 19 months since the checks stopped, 18 retirees have died while waiting for their money.

GENERAL UNION SHENANIGANS

Gov. Haley of South Carolina challenges Obama and the NLRB for yanking prospective jobs from her state over union issues.

More on the NLRB complaint against Boeing.

Union of federal workers urging their members not to vacation in "anti-union" states. Guys, the high gas prices will prevent your members from vacationing at all. Win-win.

ALABAMA

Bill to require employees to contribute more to their pensions, to take effect May 1.

ARIZONA

Pension bill headed to governor's desk (presumably signed by now) - modifies benefits down.

CALIFORNIA

Jerry Brown whines at GOP.

Marin county seeing rising pension costs

More on SF pension reform proposals: Adachi finalizes his proposal for ballot; unions have a competing proposal...watch for the fireworks. Adachi pleads his case.

Bell, Calif., trying to claw back some money from its corrupt officials
via their pension funds.

The evil conservative California population looking kindly upon capping public pensions.

CONNECTICUT

A review of pension spiking

FLORIDA

Fire chief resigns before his pension changes.

GEORGIA

Atlanta mayor details pension reform proposal, threatens service cuts without benefit cuts.

Atlanta firefighters make their own proposal.

ILLINOIS

State employee union bitches that it may be asked to contribute to its own pension fund. More bitchery on same.

Editorial: it's going to go through the courts at some point, so just pass the laws, start amending the state constitution, and do it you weenies.

KANSAS

At least 10 years of pension pain projected for Kansas.

MASSACHUSETTS

Corrupt official gets his pension back, while he's still in the slammer.

MICHIGAN

An argument for the pension tax, conveniently ignoring that people would just leave Michigan to not pay the tax. Idiot.

And yet another pension tax variation. Dude, give it up. Taxes aren't your salvation.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Alderman notes the obvious: as cuts are proposed, people will retire to avoid proposed cuts.

NEW JERSEY

Pension talks being somewhat quiet... after the very public warning of what may happen if nothing is done (i.e., current retirees will see payments lower)

Mr. Bingley's own little slice of DOOM: salaries go down 2%, benefits go up 20%.

NORTH DAKOTA

Negotiations with ND teachers pension fund ongoing...they need to increase payments to the fund in the short term.

OKLAHOMA

Looking into ending unfunded pension mandates - to wit, cost-of-living increases. Evidently, they didn't have a minimum retirement age stated, either...so they raised it to the oh-so-high age of 60 for new hires.

RHODE ISLAND

Benefit growth is getting to Cranston police and firefighter plans.

The unfunded liability in RI climbs 27 percent. William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection reviews the situation.

EUROPE

Greek pensions loaded with Greek sovereign debt.

UK teachers told they need a reality check. They're suing and striking.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

Tagged as: public finance, public pensions, public unions, retirement age 3 Comments

25Apr/112

Stossel’s variation on the question, “What if Bush did [X]“

Comes in the form of the question, "Where did all the Anti-War Protesters Go?":

The anti-war movement was all over the news before President Obama was elected. But apparently they weren’t really anti-war ... they were just anti-President Bush. Two college professors just released a study of national protests between 2007 and 2009.

… After January 2007, the attendance at antiwar rallies [measured in] roughly the tens of thousands, or thousands, through the end of 2008.

… After the election of Barack Obama as president, the order of magnitude of antiwar protests dropped [...] Organizers were hard pressed to stage a rally with participation in the thousands, or even in the hundreds. For example, we counted exactly 107 participants at a Chicago rally on October 7, 2009.

Amazing. Especially because the war in Afghanistan ramped up after Obama was elected. American fatalities shot up in 2009 and 2010.

The protesters have remained silent over Libya.

And I’m struck by the hypocrisy of the supposedly “anti-war” politicians who voted against Iraq, like Nancy Pelosi. Since Obama was elected, she has voted to continue the war in Afghanistan … and supported the attack on Libya.

Now, full disclosure; these are my fave-oh-rite kind of questions to ask when trying to bring out, in a Socratic fashion, full-throated liberal hypocrisy. Especially here in New York City. Ever since the ascendancy of Captain Kickazz I've been exploding heads at cocktail parties and backyard barbeques whenever the subject turns to national politics, and one of my usual questions is "where have all the code-Pinkos gone?"; although I generally don't stoop to the exact term of derision.

Contra their demonstrative claims of opposition based on principle, this phenomenon, or lack thereof, underscores the cynical use of the issue for cheap political gain by the Democrats since 2004. Indeed, it was most shamefully demonstrated during the run-up to the 2008 election, when now VP Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama never missed an opportunity to proclaim that, "The War! is Lost!" and "The Surge isn't working!", all while our warriors were in the field.

The now almost non-existent protests and nightly hand-wringing session provided by the MBM prove that, like any most of their other "causes", the port side of the American political spectrum was more than willing to utilize any group and demagogue any issue in order to vilify their political opponents. In the great tradition of Ted Kennedy and his attempts to ally with the Soviets against Reagan, and the Vietnam war, they were willing to lose the fight and set back American foreign policy in order to win an election. By.Any.Means.Necessary...

In Our Next Installment: How suddenly the MBM is convinced that the President has no control over gas prices, now that W. Bush is once again a private citizen.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

Rocketman

Filed under: Hypocrisy, Politicas Desnudas!, Rants 2 Comments

25Apr/110

The Suicide of San Antonio

Via Ace via Insty:

A popular Princeton professor who mysteriously stabbed himself to death last month did so because he was abruptly dismissed from his job and faced deportation to his homeland, Spain.

Antonio Calvo, 45, who was called St Antonio by students due to his kind heartedness and generosity, stabbed himself to death in his Manhattan apartment on April 12.

Less than a week before, a security guard escorted the Spanish instructor from the building after an unblemished ten-year career that should have culminated in tenure.

Devastated colleagues and students are blaming a campaign by another lecturer and several students for his death, saying they launched a hate campaign against him to get him ousted from his job.

On the Princeton campus where he worked, private grieving has erupted into public recrimination, with a tight community of scholars and students demanding the university take responsibility for his death.

What kinds of behavior got the professor fired?

According to the New York Times, several graduate students and a lecturer mounted a campaign to block the renewal of his contract as a senior lecturer of Spanish and Portuguese.

As director of the university’s Spanish language programme, Dr Calvo supervised graduate students, most of whom teach undergraduates. The graduate students, his friends said, criticized his management style and singled out comments that they felt were inappropriately harsh.

In one episode earlier this academic year, Dr Calvo told a graduate student that she deserved a slap on the face, and slapped his own hands together.

In another, he jokingly referred to a male student’s genitalia in an e-mail, saying: 'You're spending too much time touching your balls. Why don't you go to work?' which is said to be a common Spanish expression.

I don't know why Ace decided to take this off in the direction of Jared Loughner, when there's so much more ready to hand. For example, I wonder whether any of those Duke 88 was punished in any way for the way they treated the lacrosse players who were accused by now alleged murderess Crystal Mangum. Does anyone recall how difficult it was to remove fake Native American and serial plagiarist Ward Churchill? Yes, he had tenure, but how the hell did he get it? What about the Northwestern prof who thought it would be a good idea to have a couple demonstrate kinky sex after class? What about these "educators" preaching terrorism and sabotage?

And these people oppose ROTC on campus, because . . . ? Deportation . . . because he played by the rules and actually had a visa?

Well, I'll tell you what: if you're at Princeton and you know more about this, I hope you'll post in comments and invite others who know things to post in comments as well. It's outrageous that a university would put a gag order on its students and faculty this way.

Vicious, cowardly and self-righteous is no way to go through life, son. And stop touching your balls.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize No Comments

25Apr/116

I Got Mail.

Yeah, I'm doing a post. I hope nobody dies from the shock. :)

I got a very interesting piece of junk mail today. It's from a mobile phone company called CREDO Mobile. You can find them online Here

There is a picture of Sarah Palin carrying a Tea Party sign with the line "If you agree with her politics, please don't open this envelope.". Well, I do agree with Sarah on most things, but, you know me, I rarely do what I'm told, so I opened it.

There's a little flyer with the same pic of Sarah, larger and in color with the headline: Does Your Phone Company Fight the Right?

On the back is the following mission statement:

Sarah Palin, John Boehner, Rand Paul, the Tea Party crow, and the Fox News gang all play on the same team--a team that certain phone companies have no qualms about funding. AT&T gave a whopping $426,000 to House and Senate Tea Party Caucus members in 2009-2010.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless pumped thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Mike Lee, all Tea Party-back Senators.

At CREDO, we're fighting the right wing--with an activist network thats 1.9 million strong and growing, and with millions of dollars raised annually for nonprofits like ACLU, Earthjustice, Democracy Now! and Color of Change to name a few.

Join the fight. Join CREDO Mobile.

Now I've never heard of CREDO mobile before today and had no idea of AT&T or Verizon's donation habits. Perhaps you had not either.

This mailing made me ask a couple of questions.. First, how the hell did some left wing nut job phone company get my name and address? I wouldn't have joined any websites that lean that way and I haven't filled out any surveys or anything. Weird. Next, if Sarah Palin and the Tea Party are so freakin' irrelevant, why does anyone care what they do or who donates to them? And lastly, why aren't AT&T and Verizon ..etc... sending out mail like this?

Oooh, I heard a little blog called Wonkette was looking for new advertisers, perhaps I could steer CREDO their way.

Okay...I"m done. No rant...just a little FYI. :)

Have a lovely day.

UPDATE: I called Credo to find out where they got my address. Turns out it was "donated" to them by a charity I donated to called Falling Whistles. I started laughing and asked the operator "so, based on a single charitable donation, your company assumed I agreed with your political agenda. So, what you're really saying is, that since I do not believe that it is cool traffic in human beings....I couldn't possibly be a Republican?" He said "no ma'am that's not what we're saying at all."

Um, yeah little man it is, since that's where you got my name from, you made a GIANT leap in the wrong direction.

So I told him I did not expect to get another piece of mail from his company no matter what charities I choose to donate my money too.

Dede

Sometimes stuff rumbles around in my brain that's longer than 140 characters and, well......twitlonger just seems like cheating. :)

Tagged as: at&t, conservative, credo mobile, left wing, Liberal, right wing, Sarah Palin, verizon wireless 6 Comments

25Apr/113

Sarah Palin vs. Rainy Days and Mondays

It's well nigh impossible to add anything to Peter Ingemi's (DaTechGuy) precise take on how Sarah Palin has consistently been proven right on matters of national importance, such as Obamacare and how the Fed's quantitative easing program would provide zero genuine relief for the economy. So I won't. Instead, I'll take a different tack.

A topic guaranteed to turn me into an instant rant machine is how people, desperately seeking attention and acclaim, will often treat others who are in no position to further their ambitions like so much snail trail. This stands in stark contrast to many who have achieved genuine success, not the illusion of same via celebrated status in the phonebooth kingdom that is the online community. For these individuals, a minute with another individual spent focusing solely on them is a natural part of their being. Bear in mind these are people with insane demands on their time. Yet they find the time to serve God by serving others not via words or even deeds from on high, this while often holding places of genuine power, but rather through genuine, personal action.

A story I didn't tell in the afterword to my book about the artists who created Christian alternative rock, telling in their own words the story of their lives then and now, took place in 1994. It was the last night of the Gospel Music Association convention in Nashville, meaning it was Dove Awards night (the Christian music industry's version of the Grammys).

Following the event, people scattered to different after parties. For whatever reason, I wound up in front of the restaurant where Word Records, at that time the Big Kahuna of labels, was having their self-congratulatory bash. I believe I had an invitation, being at the time kind of a big deal music journalist. However, going in was something I didn't see happening. The editor of the magazine I did the majority of my writing for had been fired the day earlier, and because of that, plus other reasons I did include in the book, I knew my tenure covering the music I so deeply loved was coming to an end. In short, I was one unhappy camper.

A group of assorted powers that be from the label walked by into the restaurant. Among them was Mark Lowry, a comedian who was at the time on the label. He looked over in my direction, told the rest of the group to go on ahead, and walked over to where I was standing.

We had never met before that moment. He told me one look at my face awakened the Spirit within him, letting him know something was wrong. I told him the entire story. He pulled out a notepad, wrote down my name, and said he would keep me in his prayers. Only then did he go rejoin his party, which had remained just outside the restaurant entrance.

That meant a great deal to me.

On this rainy Monday morning, with me facing the uncertain future mention in my previous post here, reading Peter's post reminded me of a far more recent moment. The circumstances were quite different from the one above, although it did involve the book. However, it was a moment of person-to-person contact. No, I'm not going into details.

Yes, it was with Sarah Palin.

Something most all Palin detractors, and not a few people who are ambivalent about her, rail against is what they perceive as a cultish adoration of her by her devotees, one where not even a whiff of criticism is tolerated. I can't and won't deny this element exists. However, it does not define all who hold her in high esteem. In fact, it is a very small portion of her supporters. The vast majority of us support Palin because, as Peter's post states, she is right on the major issues confronting our nation.

That said, there is a fortunate group among us who have an additional reason for belonging to the Palin posse.

We've learned firsthand she is a wonderful person.

As long as there's hope she will in the very near future be our President, there is hope indeed.

I'm not going to let this rainy day Monday get me down.

Jerry Wilson

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Filed under: Politicas Desnudas! 3 Comments

25Apr/115

Breaking: SCOTUS won’t fast-track Obamacare challenges

Coming across the wires just now is news that the Supreme Court has rejected a request by Virginia's AG to directly take up the case of Obamacare's constitutionality. Via NBC:

The Supreme Court has rejected a request from the state of Virginia to take up a challenge to the Obama health care law on a fast track.

The court's decision means the issue will continue working its way through the federal appeals courts. Several cases are pending, including challenges to the law from Virginia, Florida, and 25 other states.

The cases are moving quickly through the appeals courts. The two Virginia cases will be heard by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on May 10th. The Michigan case will be heard by the 6th Circuit on June 1st, and the case from Florida, with the challenges from over half the states, will be argued before the 11th Circuit appeals court on June 8th.

Well, that's, er, interesting eh? So it seems that unless all decisions rendered in these appeals are in agreement, definitive, and go unchallenged by the involved parties (fat chance!), the SCOTUS will probably take up the issue next fall; just in time for the 2012 election cycle to get into full swing. But really, that's neither here nor there-so to speak, since only in fantasy-land would informed voters not think that Obamacare would be part of the campaign 2012 debate.

As an aside, the NBC article notes that the press release didn't indicate that any of the justices would be recusing themselves from hearing the case. I personally don't think that it is as a definitive a reading-between-the-lines as NBC's Pete Williams took it to be; after all, the case hasn't actually made it to their docket yet. And while I ultimately don't expect Justice Kagan to recuse herself based on her service as Solicitor General, that bridge will be crossed when SCOTUS actually takes up the case. Regardless, forces on the port side of the political spectrum have been occasionally pre-emptively arguing that should Kagan have to sit this one out, then so too should Thomas based on his wife's past employment and activism.

As always, that's a specious apples-to-oranges rhetorical comparison, but, hey, some things never change...

Your thoughts,comments, and insight are always appreciated.

Rocketman

Tagged as: 2012 election, Obamacare, SCOTUS 5 Comments

25Apr/114

Gas Company Profits, Taxes, and Google Search News Slanting

A very good example of Google slanting the coverage of an issue through their search is provided by the terms "oil company profits and taxes" for the past week. It's not until one gets to page 13 of the results that one encounters the first article pointing out that, at least according to the latest available data, the feds and states profit more on a gallon of gas than do the companies. Before that, you wade through screeds about how little in taxes oil companies pay, Obama railing on subsidies and speculators, and how oil companies ought to pay a windfall tax--none of which will result in any reduction in prices at the pump.

The first post or article about who benefits more from higher fuel prices belongs to Power Line. One could wish that there were more information in that piece about state and federal revenues from gasoline, but one wishes more that Google were not so interested in slanting the search.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize 4 Comments

25Apr/111

A Front Row Seat for Slander

Jim Hoft:

Obama didn’t just misrepresent one or two things. Obama lied throughout his critique of the Ryan Plan. And, he did this after he invited Rep. Paul Ryan to sit up front for the speech.

No wonder Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) was so upset after Obama’s horrible attacks and lies.

At American Spectator:

If hysteria and hyperbole could balance the budget, we would be running record surpluses right now. In that parallel universe, the Democratic reaction to Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget proposal would wash away the red ink much faster than Ryan himself.

Consider this brainstorm by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the new head of the Democratic National Committee: "This Republican path to poverty passes like a tornado through seniors' nursing homes." Schultz isn't the only siren screeching out a warning to take refuge in the storm cellar. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is conducting an air raid drill.

"Make no mistake about it, the Ryan budget is a war on seniors," she said in a press conference organized by the Congressional Task Force on Seniors. "Newt Gingrich has said Medicare should wither on the vine. Well, this Republican budget would chop it down." The new civility didn't stop there: "Republicans are literally trying to kill Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Democrats will stand of the way of their war on seniors."

You assholes didn't even propose a budget, for which you ought to be thrown out of your seats forthwith. Your President has now proposed two of them, both consisting in pure rhetoric.

You're about to have a very bad summer. You deserve it.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize 1 Comment

25Apr/111

Gastastrophe

From Point of a Gun, which also posts video of Obama saying in 2008 that the result of his policies will be that gas prices will necessarily skyrocket, this chart:

So, Mission Accomplished!

Here's some nice doom from a guest post at Zero Hedge:

Energy Inflation Overdrive

Here’s how to tell when inflation is about to run out of control in your country; wait for the politicians and bankers to begin making excuses for its consequences instead of pretending it doesn’t exist! Remember after the initial 2008 spike in oil prices when we talked about the prospect of “speculation” as the culprit? Remember also that I have pointed out for the past three years at Neithercorp Press that when the dollar eventually began to crumble, and the price of crude began to spike again, the government would try to blame speculators as the scapegoat hoping that Americans would assume the situation today was the same as it was in 2008?

http://neithercorp.us/npress/2010/12/oil-juggernaut-unleashed/

Well, guess what? The Obama Administration has just initiated the first volley of “speculation” propaganda talking points by tapping the Department Of Justice among others to “investigate” possible trader fraud and speculation in the price destabilization of oil:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-21/obama-says-u-s-team-to-study-whether-speculators-driving-up-pump-prices.html

Ah! So it’s those devious “traders” and “speculators” out there in the ether that are driving up the price of oil, and don’t worry folks, ole’ Barry is on the case! Little mention of OPEC’s general distaste for current U.S. activities in the Middle East. And certainly, no mention of the dollar’s continuous sharp decline over the past two months from the White House as being even remotely responsible for you being robbed at the gas pump. The dollar, despite intervention by G7 countries, continues to depreciate against the Japanese Yen, and has also slid to a 15 month low against the Euro:

http://www.rttnews.com/content/CurrencyMarket.aspx?Id=1597070&SimRec=2&Node=

At the publishing of this article, the Nymex crude index is at around $113 a barrel, while the Brent crude index stands at $124 a barrel. Gasoline prices across the country are averaging $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon. Now, some crazy individuals out there may question any overt concerns towards $120 or even $150-a-barrel crude. We survived it back in 2008, right? Why not today? However, this fuzzy logic depends greatly on a very unfortunate premise; that the economic atmosphere of today is the same as it was in 2008. Not even close…

The crude explosion in 2008 lasted for around six months, peaked at around $4 a gallon, and then ended with a deflationary-like plunge precisely because that price spike WAS (for the most part) caused by speculation. This time, expect no peak. Only an endless steady climb as the summer months progress. We have been calling for an increase in oil costs far exceeding the $150 a barrel achieved in 2008 and we stand by that prediction.

Negative aspects of energy inflation will take hold much faster than in 2008, primarily because our economic foundations are even weaker than they were three years ago. Today, we not only have a massive and unsustainable national debt, and a credit crisis still unresolved, but also a privately controlled Federal Reserve with no oversight running amok, printing non-stop since the derivatives bubble first popped. Not even the dollar’s fake reputation as a safe haven investment can stall the collapse now.

High energy costs hit every conceivable sector of the economy, from freight, to food, to vacations, to housing. People drive less when it costs them twice as much to do so, which means less shopping, fewer trips to Disney World, and second thoughts about moving to a new home in a new state. The cost of producing goods hits wholesale prices, which eventually hit retail prices when corporate chains are no longer able to absorb the increases. Your electric and heating bills take a bite right out of your tender behind. All of these factors will snap the thin thread our system is clinging to. America, as we know it, WILL NOT survive $5-$10 gas. Period.

Read the whole thing, which is chock full of doominess.

Of course, it must be speculators who've destabilized the markets, because stuff like this doesn't produce uncertainty:

Boeing’s lobbyists include some of Obama’s closest allies. The Podesta Group, co-founded by Obama’s transition director and John Podesta, represents the jet maker, with Democratic fundraiser Tony Podesta and former Obama campaign aide and administration official Oscar Ramirez as two of the lobbyists on the account. Linda Daschle, wife of Obama confidant Tom Daschle, is a longtime Boeing lobbyist.

When Obama began his export initiative, he named Boeing CEO Jim McNerney chairman of the President’s Export Council.

And Boeing has pocketed even more taxpayer loot under Obama than it did under George W. Bush. Obama’s export initiative has included ramping up subsidies from Ex-Im, and Boeing has reaped the benefits. In fiscal 2009, Ex-Im guaranteed $8.4 billion of loans to benefit Boeing, an astounding 90 percent of all of Ex-Im’s loan guarantees. This past fiscal year, according to a recent annual report, Boeing won $6.4 billion in Ex-Im loan guarantees, 63 percent of the total.

In fiscal 2009, 2010 and 2011 so far, Boeing has received more than $45 million in government contracts. Documents made public by Wikileaks showed how much work U.S. diplomats do to persuade foreign leaders to buy Boeing jets for their state-owned airlines.

So now when the Obama administration kneecaps Boeing, bending labor law in order to benefit a labor union that gives more than 95 percent of its money to Democrats, Boeing is vulnerable. Can Boeing believably use free-market arguments to defend its right to build planes in whichever factory it wants?

Will Boeing executives fear the loss of some goodies if they fight too hard? Could McNerney lose his perch in the administration? Could Boeing lose a contract? Maybe its billions in Ex-Im subsidies would dry up.

If you think the Obama administration wouldn’t play that sort of hardball, you haven’t been paying attention. My Examiner colleague David Freddoso filled his new book, “Gangster Government,” with example after example of this administration “us[ing] public office to make winners into losers and losers into winners” and ‘bend[ing], break[ing] and mak[ing[ the law to help their friends and punish their enemies.”

The Chrysler bailout provides the template.

This isn't speculation; it's peculation.

Insty:

GAS PRICES TOO HIGH? Buy a new car! Food-price inflation cutting into your budget? Get a better job!

Who said there were no easy answers?

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize 1 Comment

25Apr/111

The Iowa Connections in Pigford Fraud

At Patterico's on Saturday, Lee Stranahan posted about the numerous connections among Iowa politicians to the Pigford fraud, including pro-Pigford Chuck Grassley (R-INO) in the Senate, anti-Pigford King in the House, and Tom Vilsack at Agriculture, originally responsible for the firing of Shirley Sherrod, whose wife is forming an exploratory committee to run against Congressman King. Given that the population of Iowa is about 95% white, he asks the commonsensical question, why there?

Part of it, obviously, is that Iowa is a largely agricultural state. More, though, if you scratch the surface of Pigford, you're likely to find an ethanol quid pro quo. I say this not on the basis of any evidence, but because it would seem to explain why the White House would be considering pushing for 15% ethanol blends in gasoline at the really most politically inauspicious time possible, given the skyrocketing of gas prices, and just when it's begun to recognize what that means for them and begin the desperate search for scapegoats.

At the same time, Professor Jacobson analyzes Breitbart's motion for dismissal of Sherrod's leaky lawsuit against him, which she has attempted to bring in a DC court, though it is clearly venue shopping.

Particularly if you're an Iowan, I hope you'll express your support for Congressman King and ask Grassley to back off of the trough.

I'm sure that you're all shocked to discover:

Rock Island and Mercer counties are two of 14 Illinois counties with more registered voters than actual eligible voters, according to a study by the State Board of Elections.

Unfortunately for Illinois, which has featured prominently in practically all of meep's Doom Round-Ups, it's unlikely they'll stumble across any buried treasure. Dick Durbin wants to tax the internet, because . . . well, he wants to tax everything, but mostly because it levels the playing field a little for Illinois, which raised their state income taxes 66% in the January lame duck session. Not that any of these revenue schemes is inflationary, mind you. I'm sure it's just speculators.

A Triduum miracle at . . . a Gaga concert?

Manbatpig.