IS IT TRUE December 29, 2012

16

The Mole #??

IS IT TRUE that there were numerous schemes developed and implemented by the Obama Administration in its early days that were supposed to jumpstart the economy?…that the program known as cash for clunkers had no positive effect on hiring or corporate profits, destroyed some perfectly good vehicles, and redistributed printed tax money from Prius drivers and other taxpayers into the hands of people who had chosen to keep driving old cars that polluted and got poor mileage?…Cash for Clunkers was one of the most uninformed government programs ever launched?…there was also a program where people could be granted a tax credit for buying a home that was supposed to prop up the housing market?…that program also failed to achieve its goals and only served to redistribute borrowed taxpayer dollars to opportunists who were in the housing market at the right time?

IS IT TRUE that the Obama Administration has finally said something that has inspired vast spending without a government program being put into place and has actually increased profits, hiring, and activity for a single industry?…all of the chest pounding about gun control has set off a Christmas shopping binge for guns and ammunition that this country has never seen?…gun shops all over the country have stopped answering their phones, are low on inventory, and have hired people to assist customers at a level that has not been seen since beanie babies and cabbage patch kids were flying off of the shelves?…the way to a prosperous economy if the rest of the business world responds the way the gun industry has is to get the President of the United States to threaten to ban more products?…if the President threatened to ban basketballs and tennis shoes we expect there would be massive panic buying of those items?…if the President threatened to ban condoms or skittles there would be a rush to hoard every one in sight?…the key to prosperity and recovery seems not to be in STIMULUS PLANS but in THREATENED BANS OF TARGETED PRODUCTS?…the ultimate stimulus for the inspiration of hiring may be a threat to freeze staff levels for the next three years?

IS IT TRUE that some of our readers have added to the list of faux pas that were committed by the City of Evansville in 2012?…these suggestions include the closing of the FREE DENTAL CLINIC, the fiasco thrust upon the EVANSVILLE RESCUE MISSION by overzealous proponents of equal opportunity employment laws where that remedy was not appropriate, the Mesker Amphitheatre unwelcome $100,000 in neglect that turned into over $20 Million in needed repairs, and the flip flop (we made $300,000 oh no we didn’t we lost $500,000) financial results of the Ford Center?…on Monday we will be publishing more details about the fiascos of 2012?

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16 COMMENTS

  1. This President and the idiots advising him don’t know the first thing about economic forces. All they know are the concepts of top-down Statist force taught them by their Marxist professors in college. They lack the capacity to think more than two moves ahead, which is a flaw any chess player understands will only ensure you lose the game…and quickly.

    Cash for Clunkers is a great example of a program that did the exact opposite of its stated purpose. Numerous studies have shown that if the aim is to eliminate greenhouse gasses or conserve energy, destroying perfectly viable automobiles and replacing them with newly manufactured ones, will almost never see a return on the energy, or carbon, investment, or will take many years to do so.

    Here is a great article that breaks it all down into BTUs: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/08/cash-for-clunkers-the-environmental-cost-of-a-new-car/

    C4C had more to do with stimulating the economy and selling new cars for political gain than eliminating GHG. Another unfortunate side effect of doing this is the increased widening of the gap between rich and poor. Poor people buy the cars they can afford, which are usually older cars with a lot of miles on them they can buy for a cheap up front cost. Destroying those cars means removing them from the market and penalizing this sector of society in favor of putting another sector (the middle class) in increased debt when they borrow money to purchase a new vehicle.

    Problem is, if the fundamental base of the economy is stimulus money, not actual savings or capital investment, then this represents yet another bubble that is primed to explode at some later date. This is the only lever these Keynesians know – debt. The whole system is based on it, and without an ever-increasing amount of it, the Keynesian-based economy we’ve known since the 1930s, and particularly since Bretton Woods, would collapse in a spectacular heap overnight, probably resulting in another World War. And that is the sad and scary truth of the matter.

  2. I am not disagreeing with your post, but I would let you know of one additional fact to consider about the C4C program: this was a huge boost at the auto salvage yards and to those who frequent them.

    When these vehicles were “destroyed”, only the vehicles internal engine components were disabled. I frequent salvage yards for parts and I can tell you these vehicles were picked like whale at a buzzard family reunion as soon as they hit the yards. The energy to make all those new parts offset the energy needed to make the parts for those new vehicles sold.

    • I’m not going to dismiss this post out of hand, but that’s not correct according to what I’ve read. While some parts could technically be salvaged, most of the C4C vehicles met the shredders because the engine and drive train were seized up with a liquid glass, rendering them inoperable. The cars were generally more profitable as crushed scrap.

      http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32331992/ns/business-autos/t/scrap-yards-get-busy-crushing-clunkers/#.UN-hruR9KSo

      If you read the above article, a good point is raised there about engines and drive train parts from all these vehicles will no longer be in circulation for use as parts later on to repair other vehicles, which will, as a result, die an early death by artificially inflating the prices of aftermarket parts.

  3. Watch this shocking video of just one lot full of “clunkers” headed for the shredder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0-_ojlNPnw

    It’s just not rational to think that destroying an operating piece of machinery to artificially create demand for a newly created one – regardless of the “climate impact” – was in any way, shape, or form a good idea.

    This reminds me of some of the Federal Government programs in the 1930s that plowed crops under while people starved to prop up the price of commodities. They slaughtered whole herds of cattle and pigs, burying them in mass graves, burned whole fields of wheat and corn and beans, then paid farmers NOT to plant crops or raise new livestock. Absolute madness. Any thinking, reasoning individual can easily see that destruction cannot possibly equal greater prosperity.

    To artificially tweak one parameter of a closed system means the consequences must be felt elsewhere, and it is immoral to think that central economic planning should be used to merely keep people occupied endlessly repeating work like some rock movers in a prison yard, perpetually moving the pile from one end to the other and back with no increase in actual function or prosperity. This is the thinking of those who do not innovate or seek to gain higher prosperity or living standards, or to raise mankind beyond the level of mindless operators of machinery. This is the thinking of people who still believe that WWII, with all its death and destruction was the “cure” for the Great Depression”. This is the thinking of people who just want to hold onto power at any cost, even if it means robbing from the masses to employ the few, or robbing from the few to employ the masses.

  4. It truly is a travesty the way the Free Dental Clinic affair was handled. It seems there are certain well heeled individuals who feel they are more entitled to medical benefits for their parttime county employment than the dental clinic employees or the unfortunate recipients of the clinic’s services.

  5. Here’s to 2013 and the CCO backing off of the Former Controller, the Controller’s Office and the Utilities. Jenny Collins does a fine job and deserves every penny of the 81k that she makes. If the State Board was so good, they would have jobs created for them and be making 81k too. If the CCO wants to do some good, they should investigate the State Board and how the City had to call the Governor’s Office to get audit reports from not being released to the public. One of the auditors has audited for 20+ years in a row which is a SOX violation. Another auditor shouldn’t be there because of the appearance of lack of independence. And how can their regional offices be in the Civic Center and them still being independent?

    • Ms. Collins, why don’t you ask the same questions of the Evansville Courier and Press?

      I personally think that the CCO has done a creditable job in reporting the mess in the Utitiles and city controller departments.

      I’m sure that the CCO are awaiting more information to come to light and will publish it.

      So call the Courier and Press and ask them why they have been silent on these issues!

  6. I agree with you truth seeker that the CCO has done a creditable job in reporting the mess at the city controller office.

    I also would like to know why the Courier and Press hasn’t printed anything about these issues?

  7. Keep up the good work CCO in reporting the real truth about the major accounting problems at the city controller and utitilies offices.

    Shame on you -Evansville Courier and Press for not reporting the bookkeeping problems at the city controllers and utitilies offices.

    • I think the C&P told us today that they will no longer tolerate better reporting in the comments than the articles.

  8. Back to the Cash for Clunkers. It is interesting that the AVERAGE age of vehicles on the road today is ELEVEN years! Those who had money and were driving cars that got under 19 mpg swapped in their cars and bought new. Those who couldn’t are still fixing up what they have.

    Demolishing the trade-ins guaranteed fewer used cars would be available, but did nothing to provide the jobs and income needed to purchase new vehicles. I have noticed auto dealers are advertising more cars and trucks with a sticker price of under $20,000, but seem to still have a lot full of those at the end of the year.

  9. there is alot more problems besides the accounting in the “puzzle palace, missing one piece” that never gets into the courier and press that the CCO picks upon. good job !

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