IS IT TRUE that Mole #23 tells us there is a move afoot to privatize the Evansville Housing Authority?…it will be interesting to see who wants to  becomes a candidate for ownership of this often controversial agency?…as will be shown in later parts of today’s IS IT TRUE the ability of the private sector to perform when there is a profit motive at stake absolutely destroys the performance of government entities?
IS IT TRUE we have it on good authority that the Evansville Courier and Press laid off 12 people?…we also have strong information that 4 of those people were in the advertising department?…that should be the best revenue producing department that any paper has?
IS IT TRUE it was reported yesterday that the City of Evansville has declared the long suffering McCurdy Hotel to be a public nuisance?…such declarations typically are used by municipalities to get owners to accelerate any refurbishment efforts that they may be contemplating?…the City of Evansville even expressed the opinion that the old hotel us unsafe to occupy?…the City of Evansville unfortunately is quite complicit in the fall from grace that the McCurdy has gone through in the last 5 years since a smiling former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel announced a deal for a Carmel based business  to turn it into 96 apartments?…it is highly probable that between the parking lot purchase and an advance on some incentives that the people of Evansville will be out $1.4 Million for the city’s meddling into what was and should have stayed a private venture?…if the McCurdy eventually is demolished due to negligence and declaration THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AND THE WEINZAPFEL ADMINISTRATION ARE CLEARLY TO BLAME?…it has been over 2,000 days since the faux triumphant announcement was made by former Mayor Weinzapfel during the same summer he claimed to have a deal to “build a 4 Star Hotel in downtown Evansville without public funding if only we would build an arena?”…the legacy of deal making continues to crumble?
IS IT TRUE that New Jersey has just legalized Internet gambling?… each of Atlantic City’s twelve casinos can operate up to five gambling websites so long as they screen out customers from out of state?…Peggy Holloway, senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service, says the new sites will “appeal to a younger, more Internet-savvy demographic that might lack the discretionary budget to travel to one of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos?â€â€¦fifty thousand people signed up online for New Jersey’s gambling sites in the first week?…that compares with 741 who signed up for Obamacare during all of October in New Jersey?.. the Obamacare website has been plagued with problems, but the disparity between the two programs is still eye-popping?…it should enrage the American people that after 3 years and $640 Million the federal government could not make a retail insurance website work but in a matter of weeks and likely under $1 Million, 12 New Jersey casinos could accomplish a similarly complex task?…if you want to understand why governments appear wasteful and broke you need look no further than this contrast in performance when there is a profit motive as opposed to burocrats gone mad?
IS IT TRUE in spite of the heartfelt speech that President Obama made on income inequality in America, the greatest elevator of people from lower class to middle class life is an intact household?…having two married parents in the home reduces the probability of child poverty by 82%?…71% of poor families with children are headed by single or unmarried parents?…income inequality is not primarily an economic problem. It is a problem of societal decline and the breakdown of family structures, accelerated by government but not solely by government?… the utter failure of Obama’s trickle-down-government approach is perhaps best captured by two contrasting statistics?… when he took office, we were a full year into a major recession?…economically, there was almost nowhere to go but up and, indeed, that’s what the Dow Jones Industrial Average has done?… in January 2009, the Dow was at about 8,000. It’s now at about 16,000 essentially doubling on Obama’s watch?
IS IT TRUE according to Census Bureau figures compiled by Sentier Research, the median American household income when the Obama household took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2009 was $55,972 (in 2013 dollars)?… five years later, the median American household income is just $52,529, a decrease of $3,443 – or more than 6 percent?… that’s during what most government economists are calling a “recoveryâ€!?…if Americans’ median income were now merely the same (in real dollars) as during the recession, that would mark Obama’s tenure as a miserable economic failure, instead, Americans’ median income has noticeably dropped?…t’s important to note that these median-income figures include government payments, such as unemployment?
IS IT TRUE President Obama is describing inequality as “the defining challenge of our timeâ€?… his agenda for the second term has been about everything but that?… his second term has seen payroll taxes go up for all working Americans and a prioritization of immigration reform, gun control, climate change and a host of environmental issues which – while they might appeal to his allies on Wall Street and in Hollywood – have nothing to do with income inequality?…in many cases, these policies are actually negatives for the working class, driving up the costs of goods and negatively impacting wages and working hours?…coming from a single parent home one would have thought that if income inequality were anywhere near the top of the President’s list that he would have brought this up 4 years ago?…the biggest way to help a family or a young person is to find a way to cultivate an economy where jobs are plentiful?…if one wants to see McDonald’s paying $15 per hour the way to do that is to have full employment so that competition for burger flipping talent will drive the wage up?…there are plenty of McDonald’s that do pay well over $10 per hour and some even above $15 per hour?…this happens in places where unemployment is very low and wages in competing businesses are high?
On the subject of minimum wage… All we do by instituting minimum wages is ensure that people whose skills do not justify that wage remain or become unemployed. Unions love it because it protects them from up and coming youths into the job market.
A $15 minimum wage would more than double our unemployment levels overnight and cause a tidal wave of business failures. The big guys who can afford to mechanize will find a way, but the little guys will suffer. Wal-Mart would mechanize shelf stocking to cut jobs and lay off greeters altogether. Things like cart returns would be revolutionized to cut jobs.
Anyone thinking this would hurt Wal-Mart or McDonalds is a fool. Prices will rise for everyone in part, but the biggest change would be layoffs, lower service standards, lower competition, and mechanization.
The same old tired arguments, Brad. Big business uses scare tactics to fatten their wallets and you lap their voodoo economics up like a dog. You ought to read a transcript of the David Koch fake call to Gov Scott Walker and you’ll get a small glimpse into the brandy sipping, cigar smoking, ultra elite class and how they view we peasants.
Your class warfare BS doesn’t fly with me; I read economics books for fun.
“I read economic books for fun.” I read a lot of books. Mostly on business and leadership. I value the knowledge that I gain from them, but I don’t think I could ever describe it as fun. You need to lighten up a little, Brad. Enjoy life while you can. Every moment in life shouldn’t be dedicated to gaining information for a response on a message board. Just sayin’.
I educate myself because I love knowledge and I value reason and its practical application. I also love the arts and consider myself a musician of some modest accomplishment. I’m also a bit of a literary dabbler. It has nothing to do with impressing people on the intarwebs and everything to do with being the kind of human being who never loses curiosity.
Here, everyone wanting to debate about the merits of wage and price controls with me must first watch this: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QLGof3bOQn0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQLGof3bOQn0
If you have rebuttals or questions after watching Milton Friedman’s excellent commentary, feel free to post it here and we can discuss further. There is plenty of non-political economics material available. Lets avoid political distractions and focus on reason. The study of economics is largely a study of incentives and human behavior. There are plenty of historical examples of different economic models, so it’s relatively easy for the critical thinker willing to question what he was taught in history class to ascertain the truth.
I agree with you 100%. In my experience of managing a business, the easiest line to manipulate on a P&L is personnel expenses. The incoming workload may not change as quickly as what goes out, so we find a way to do more work with less spending on wages.
All minimum wage does is raise the cost of being poor. It makes low wage earners minimum wage earners.
The private sector is not always better at performing a task. Certain things shouldn’t be for a profit. Watch the movie “Idiocracy” and you’ll see a good example of what happens when the dirty dollar is the end all be all. As for income inequality, it’s a damn shame how bad the greed has gotten.
TJ’s Ghost,–And your plan for defeating Greed is?
Really? A Sci-Fi movie about time travel, hookers, and the dumbin’ down of humanity is your example of how government does a better job, you do know movies are fantasy..? The only part about the movie that is relevant is our continual decline in intelligence which of course is our government sponsored education system.
JMHO
In the movie I recalled a corporation buying the FDA for example. I’m using it as one example where the private sector would certainly not be appropriate, yet killing people with your product is acceptable to corporations.
Sir or Ma’am it’s a movie, it isn’t real! It has absolutely nothing to do with the real world other than real people conceiving, writing, acting, filming, and getting paid to make the movie…it is fantasy and about as relevant as a Star Trek tribble.
JMHO
Can you not just see my point? You are thick!
Good Luck Blanger !
“You Can Lead a Horse to Water But You Can’t Make it Drink”
I mean good god, it’s just a fictional example. Did I say it was real, moron? I’m aure there are lots out there that would like to see the FDA done away with. Ever used a story when explaining something? Jesus Christ.
Yo Blanger, your “thick” and a “moron” because you disagree with the freedom from want crowd mentality.
I think as young adults we all pass through that stage but some never figure out the con.
Talk about a hypocrite country boy. You’re the first to attack anyone who disagrees with you and throws around derogatory terms.
It really isn’t necessary to resort to name calling, I meant no offense to you and was just trying to point out the obvious facts between fantasy and real life.
Sorry if I offended you.
JMHO
Really Ghost ! Hows about you copy and paste an example of me being derogatory to anybody without provocation.
“Ignorance and Stubborn Equal Stupid”
Country boy, if anyone even hints they lean left, you resort to calling them a bum or welfare leach or something of that nature.
And blanger, you’re hopeless. Of course it’s just a movie, but it provokes thought of what capitlism run amok would really look like if unchecked. Think of it like Aqua Buddha stealing movie lines for speeches.
Idiocracy is a funny film. You seem to have missed the point… It’s a satire lampooning idiots. Idiots exist in such large numbers because the public school system in this country has failed people. Who runs the public school system? Is it McDonalds and Wal-Mart? Is it sports drink manufacturers selling you electrolytes?
I’ll be over here ‘batin while I wait for your answer.
The Trouble with Tribbles; One of the few episodes that I remember watching as a child. I was happy to see that they had an appearance in one of the latest Star Trek films.
Brad, what’s your fix for education? All kids home schooled? Go back to one room school houses? Religious indoctrination like our current voucher system? Education needs to be fixed, but just simply doing away with it isnt fixing it. Most first world countries see the concept as paying for college as barbaric and backwards. Oh, and Rick Santorum let the cat out of the bag about how Republicans feel about the educated.
I don’t know who Ghost is, but he/she is a pistol. Way to bring the anger! Who is Tom Joad and why does his ghost has internet access. I do not support internet access for ghosts. It’s a slippery slope.
Yo Ghost,
I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the “right” and Liberals are called the “leftâ€
By chance I stumbled upon this verse in the Bible:
“The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.” Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)
Thus sayeth the Lord. Amen.
Can’t get any simpler than that.
Remember, November is to be set aside as rodent removal month.
Oh please country boy. A quick Google search would reveal that something like 65-70% of people with at least a bachelor’s degree vote Democrat. Rick Santorum really let the cat out of the bag when he said they realized they can’t get the educated vote. Maybe that’s why we see the Republicans trying to gut education? Oh, and let me preempt the rhetoric about liberal professors. That’s a load of crap.
There you go spouting incorrect claims as though they were facts again. Stick this in your crack pipe and smoke it. The reality of Democratic politics is that the minority voters are the ones who vote in block for Democrats. Even John Brown’s ghost knows that minorities as a whole are the least college educated groups in America. Here is a quote from an article based on real numbers. ROMNEY WON AMONG COLLEGE GRADS. OBAMA CARRIED HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS BY A 64 – 35 MARGIN.
“Despite liberal snarkiness about low-education voters voting Republican, it’s long been the case that the least-educated voters lean Democratic and voters with college degrees lean Republican, though voters with graduate degrees lean Democratic. In 2012, Obama won voters without a high school education by a 64-35 margin and voters with graduate degrees 55-42, while Romney narrowly won four-year college graduates.”
http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/25/not-a-total-loss-gop-picked-up-college-educated-voters-in-2012/
Phyllip, Tom Joad is a Steinbeck character. He’s a rabble rousing Okie in Grapes of Wrath. Union supporters hold him up as a sort of rallying cry against “the man”. He’s also the subject of a Rage Against the Machine song.
College grads lean Democrat not because they are smarter, but because college professors and their departments often thrive on government spending.
The “right” and “left” monickers derive from the left and right banks of the Seine River that runs through Paris. On the “left” were the bourgeois; on the “right” were the rich.
Rick Santorum does not speak for all Republicans. In fact, I considered him probably the most odious and unpalatable of all the 2012 candidates.
That said, homeschooling has nurtured some very bright minds, by my observation. Some of the most well-spoken and respectful young people I’ve met were homeschooled. Most of the literary, artistic, and philosophical geniuses in pre-20th Century history were educated in ways we would now consider “primitive”. You are reflecting your ignorance and presuppositions on the subject more than you are contributing to the furtherance of intellectual discourse.
I know of no world class Universities that subsist entirely on donors or charity. All are in the education business.
Correction: Ghost of Tom Joad is a Springsteen song. The guitarist from Rage played it live with Springsteen. My bad.
Indeed, says Spock,while flipping out his “now obsolete flip communicator” for transport “Back To the Future”……
Bio-Molecular Transporter…lets see what an idea! And a cool and peiceful solution to the settling of an argument or conflict of opinion….. advantages,unique destinations and travel opportunities,adversarial adjustments per locations offered “In a League of their own.”
“Stilwell,something has important just happened,I was in the toilet reading my contract,and it turns out I get a bonus when we get to the world series,So,lets play hard,lets play smart,lets us our heads.” (Jimmy Dugan)
[quoting him] “That’s the lump three feet above you ass,right.’ (Doris Murphy) [laughter].
Yeah movies. 🙂
Please name one case outside of war where it is either acceptable or legal in this country to kill someone with a product. I actually agree with you on the FDA but your second sentence is straight out of a paranoid nut case place in your mind. You sound like the T Partiest of Tea Partiers.
How about sugar (in all its forms), grains, and tobacco? Not to mention all the chemicals that are put in our edible food type products.
…all of which are government approved. In many cases government remains complicit in the covering up of the harmful effects of a product despite studies suggesting a danger. FDA approval provides a trump card against litigation.
Brad, I completely agree with your statements below. The government is the bitch of big pharma, big agriculture, and big food.
I can watch an idiocracy play out daily on any news channel. It is the never ending story of the roll-out of ObamaCare. The fact that the roll out was an amateurish train wreck is the only thing that Fox and MSNBC have completely agreed on in 5 years. They spin it different but the conclusions are pretty much identical.
The private sector is almost ALWAYS better at performing task’s because of consequences, meaning poor performance equals no profit.
Greed for the most part is human nature, our instinctual need for food, you can’t legislate that away no more than you can legislate away stupidity.
You dont use an apostrophe to pluralize a word. I make mistakes, but that one’s a pet peeve of mine. The private sector has mucked up countless things and our private health insurers piss away way more on frivolous crap than single payer systems. Also, the private sector has no regard for safety of the public or any ethics whatsoever. Your unregulated dream world would be complete chaos.
+1 For your education on pluralization. It bothers me but not to a point of correcting someone.
I don’t mind, I proudly admit to not being an educated imbecile.
countryboy, I don’t assume that someone is less intelligent for grammar, spelling or punctuation errors. That’s why I would never bother to correct anyone.
I’m going to have jump on your using a movie as a way to make a factual point. you would be better to use real life as examples for us “thick heads.”
What makes you think poor people aren’t greedy? They’re just not as good at it.
The poor may not be very good a greedy but they are the world’s leaders in ENVY.
That’s a big assumption. I think all they’re asking is to not be exploited and to actually be accurately compensated if they’re to work hard. I’ve never been on any type of assistance just to clarify.
I would be interested in your opinion on what accurate compensation is. Market driven demand softened by a minimum wage and a progressive tax rate is what we have. I accept that these floors and caps were put in place to attempt to redistribute and to some extent equalize. Do you really want the government to decide what a painter, janitor, lawyer, or doctor are worth? Even within these professions there are vast differences in the best to worst of each. What constitutes exploitation? Is paying someone $10 an hour to paint exploitation or does it help the painter feed their family? Would $15 per hour be less exploitative? The same argument goes for all professions. What about the engineering team that developed the iPhone? The average wage at Apple is about $150k for engineers but these guys created a product that brings in billions. Are they not being exploited by your calculation?
By the way, the Congress of the United States works very hard but gets little done. Should they be paid for how hard they work or for their results? Are they the exploited or the exploiters? How about the President? This is an interesting topic that I for one do not have an answer to.
Don’t get dragged into that fool’s errand. The people in the streets howling for a raise to $15 an hour to flip burgers are for the most part disfunctional when it comes to money. At $7.50 they spend all their extra money on lottery tickets and cheap thrills. Giving them $15 per hour will not change that. They will still be broke because they have a habit of pissing their money away. Hell man, if you raise them to $30 or $40 an hour they will piss that away and be broke too. When will people just accept that there is a permanent underclass that will be broke by Monday no matter what they are paid. Every family has a couple of them. This is nothing new.
Such a pessimist. How sad for you.
The “Private Sector” you refer to, is that populated by Humans?
What magical transformation takes place when those same humans are employed, or hold office in government, that changes them, in your mind, into pious regulators, driven solely by unquestionable ethics, and principal, that you apparently do not believe exists in the “Private Sector”?
Enlightened us please.
Wow, you really believe everybody who wants to sell you something really cares about whether or not that product can harm you? No, only the bottom line matters. Human decency goes out the window with capitalism. Sure, if enough died and word got out people would stop buying it. Is that type of pure free market model really what we want?
I would say that consumer safety is on of the highest concerns for most businesses. It may be for self-serving reasons, but one wrongful death lawsuit can sink a company. Companies are much better off investing in R&D to make sure that their products are safe than risking the exposure to the lawsuit and the subsequent money spent on marketing to try to repair their reputation. A reputable company with smart leadership knows that the money saved on the front end is not worth the risk.
Phyllip, they also would love to get rid of the ability of the consumer to sue for damages. That’s hindering “job creation” ya know.
Stop using straw man! It is the worst of all of the rhetoric devices. Who is they? Show me proof of one person that has intentionally introduced a harmful product into the market. Right now, I have access to products from over 100 manufacturers. I know for a fact that if I were to call any one of them and told them that there were safety concerns with their products, they would take my concerns seriously. Nothing hinders job creation more than a class-action suit.
I dont say this often, but Phyllip is correct. Fear of litigation from fraud or endangerment is a potent regulator. That mechanism does not require superfluous backups.
Wow, it must be nearly Christmas.
You’ve more than held ’em off. Reading it evokes a good Okie, an Evokie, slogging through the grapes of wrath or a slurry made of the walking (brain) dead. Good luck arguing with those three, two outright trolls and an advisor. Be assured the advisor will be liberal in sharing the lessons he has been told he learned and feels others should be made to live by.
Minimum wage and other laws instructing businesses as to what they must do happened because of the unconscionable way employers tend to treat their employees. They didn’t just occur to make it rough on those ‘job creators’. Time for it to go up. If some fast food joints have to take a smaller profit or shutter their doors, so be it.
Outside of slavery, I know of no system under which men are required to give more than they are ultimately willing to give of themselves. Exploitation can only occur with the complicity of the exploited. The reactions of workers organizing – done within the law and eschewing violence, force, or coercion – is actually part of the free market operating as it should.
Your beef isn’t with free market capitalism, it’s with slavery, which in this day and age is an all but forgotten phantom. Face it, what you’re REALLY asking for is a government intrusion to give you something you feel you’ve earned but in reality haven’t. You’re looking for legalized theft.
Slavery still exists, we just don’t call it that and it isn’t limited to blacks. Wal Mart and friends are the modern plantation. You do realize they fed and housed the slaves, right? You can’t even afford that on min wage. Michelle Bachmann in the most recent primary tried to justify slavery because they were “paid” in food and shelter.
That’s interesting. I know of not a single Wal-Mart employee who works involuntarily and without pay. Saying the stupid shite you say just confirms to me you aren’t interested in a serious discussion, you’re only interested in regurgitating MSNBC talking points. You are uninspiring, predictable, and unimaginitive. Did I mention boring?
“Human Decency goes out the window with Capitalism”?
Wow!
Maybe the ” Communist” Leader of North Korea would appreciate your take on “Capitalism”, and –“Decency”,—You should text him.
In my forty years in the work force the minimum wage went from $2 to $7. Not one employer ever got rid of an employee because it was raised. No employer ever went out of business because of it. At least where I worked. I find very little evidence this is or has ever had any effect on unemployment.
As for what should be the minimum wage be. Our government not only sets the minimum wage in this country it sets the poverty level. If we as a nation say we will help you if your income is below this level and then tell employers they do not have to pay above this level we as a nation must except the consequences. I would prefer people get paid a fair wage based on the poverty level. We as a nation should not have to support people who work 40 hours a week.
Exactly. Their scare tactics always include raising prices if the min. wage was raised. Let me ask this: if we suddenly dropped the win. wage to $1, would prices go down? I think not. A certain amount of income gap is necessary, but is the CEO any smarter than the grunt worker than they were 50 years ago? By the mammoth proportions that the salaries have moved apart?
I believe The Ghost is an undergrad at USI without any real world experience sitting at his computer in the dorm (or parent’s basement) listening to the Jersey Jerk on his headphones.
This perception is derived from his posts of thoughtless emotion.
Wrong, but thanks for trying.
What the hell’s the “jersey jerk?”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there three raises to minimum wage directly before and during the economic crisis of 2008? It never was mentioned because the focus was on sub-prime mortgages, but who is to say that this did not exacerbate the situation?
You are correct. The minimum wage increases of the past have been gradual and planned. I remember when I was young and got a raise from $1.60 to $2.00 per hour. We knew it was coming for a long time and employers planned for it by raising prices. The mob in the street yesterday demanding a 100% immediate increase is a different situation. If we awoke tomorrow to a $15 minimum wage there would be massive immediate layoffs. Things have to be done in a sane manner to minimize negative impact.
By the way when the minimum wage was $2, I could by about 2 gallons of gas for an hours work. Today at $7.50 you can buy about 2 gallons of gas for an hours work. Other basic commodities like milk and Big Macs follow the same pricing pattern. Whatever the minimum wage happens to be, it will never be enough to raise low skill workers out of borderline poverty.
Obama’s speeches are just another of his attempts to pit the poor against the middle class by blaming the rich for their plight. His solutions will fail. His deliberate attempts to pit Americans against each other succeeds. Under Obama income disparity has increased and the poor hate the rich even more. The middle class is as always caught in the vise between the two.
Australia is a great example of a high min wage and low unemployment. They also don’t have daily mass murders and consider that acceptable. It’s really difficult to get citizenship though.
Actually they do have mass murders and it looks like arson is the weapon of choice since they adopted gun control laws. The numbers are lower than ours but there are only 23 Million people on the whole continent. That is less that either the NYC or LA metro areas.
Where was our mass murder yesterday? I think we have a couple of episodes a year as opposed to your incorrect claim of daily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Australia
You might want to check out the history of Australia’s immigration policy and compare that with the immigration, both legal and otherwise, of the United States.
__
I have, and I don’t necessarily agree with the way we handle or have handled immigration.
1976, min. wage was $2.65-85 range. Enough for 5 gallons of gasoline at low 50 cent range, At $3.30 a gallon, looks like $16.50 should be min. wage based off of fuel cost.
Correction: should read 1978 instead of 1976.
Inflation calculator puts min rate at $9.50 in today dollars today.
1974 rate was $2 that bought five gallons of gas. Gas did not spike to a dollar until late 1980.
Why base it on gasoline? It’s just a commodity like any other. Gold has a history of monetary use, do let’s look at gold…
At the end of 1978, gold was about $230/oz.
Minimum wage was $2.65.
Spot gold price today is $1225/oz.
X/2.65=1225/230
230x=3246.25
X=$14.11
If you’re really and truly interested in stopping the transfer of wealth from the middle class and poor to the crony insiders of the ruling elite, you will advocate a return to a gold standard or at least a commodity backed currency, an end to the Federal Reserve and its debt-based fiat currency, an end to the thievery of the IRS, an end to government bailouts, an end to the welfare state, and an end to the unnecessary wars. Anything else is just chopping at the branches, rather than the root, of the brambles.
Brad, sorry “you” missed the point!
Previous poster try to tied min. wage at two dollars when gas was a dollar. Two to one ratio to justify $7.50 min wage and $3.50 gas!
Nothing more, nothing less in my post!
Besides, gold has no use for a person/family who are relying on “wages” to live. U.S. government in 1933 took us off the gold standard which took those coins out of the wage earners hands.
Refresh my memory, what caused the housing bubble to burst. Did the balloon payments for all of the ARMs come due in a relatively short period? Maybe the raise in minimum wage had an effect on the overall economy? Why is it that the DJIA is a record levels and our dollar is still weak? Maybe because the increase in minimum wage is making things cost more? I’d like to see a study on this. I think it’s been widely ignored because there are/were poltical agendas that are working to blame other things for our economical struggles.
Refresher:
http://www.policymic.com/articles/64605/was-it-the-lehman-brothers-crash-here-s-what-really-caused-the-great-recession
_
You should be asking what created the bubble. All bubbles eventually burst, the perceived reasons of which will be symptomatic, not causative, and will always be tracable to the prevailing political mood of the time. To truly know what caused the bubble to burst, you have to look at what created it.
I know there’s beeen some debate about it, but I believe the first domino was changes to the Community Reinvestment Act. If it weren’t for that, there would not have been a bull market for housing. If it weren’t for that, there would not have been a need for sub-prime mortgages to people that were not credit-worthy. If it weren’t for that, there would not have been the bundles that caused the eventual failure of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and hundreds of other banks. If it weren’t for that, there would not been the payouts on the credit default swaps that caused AIG to file for bankruptcy. I understand the cause of the bubble and its eventual demise. I bet you’re looking for someone to point out the government’s involvement in the housing market. I’m questioning whether the minimum wage increases also had some effect on the depth and length of the depression.
The causes of the boom and bust business cycle is well known by the Austrian School economists like Von Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard. The causes are central economic planning and artificial increase in the money supply coupled with easy credit policies. This imbalance can only occur in the presence of a central bank with the ability to manipulate the money supply.
This stuff has been written about, and sadly swept under the rug, for a long time.
The changes were championed by Barney Frank and the other Democrats and signed into law by William Jefferson Clinton.
…and by the way, Ron Paul predicted the creation and collapse of the housing bubble in 2001: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kFd8YluIVG4
Prepare to be blown away by that video.
Actually, the origins go back to the creation of Fannie Mae by FDR and the Community Reinvestment Act was Jimmy Carter era nonsense, but George W. Bush is culpable as well: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqQx7sjoS8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkNqQx7sjoS8
The common thread in all of it is the Federal Reserve, quietly creating the conditions ripe for the malinvestment to occur on a massive scale.
Good Factual Stuff you Guys. Thanks for Shedding Light.
What caused the bubble was Freddie and Fannie buying mortgages because there was so much excess liquidty as a result of Reagan and GH Bush winning the cold war, that Clinton, instead of investing in something productive that would create wealth so one could afford a home, decided to forgo the productive investment and just finance everyone, no matter if they could afford it or not. Heaven help you if as a bank you did not do this, because the regulators hammer your CRA and destroy your ability as a bank to grow. Of course the investment banks made money because they were packaging the MBS to meet goverment demand and support with donations Mr Frank and Mr Dodd; just one big circle of follow the money. Just like with the ACA this was a crisis created by Washington for them to solve and obtain more power.
That is because it was true min wage..it is not meant to live on…if you set it so high that it exceeds productivity, then you see its negative impact..take a look at France for instance.
In their never ending effort to achieve their agenda the left has recognized the need to avoid certain words like Socialism and Communism. Nowadays they use the much more sanitized: Equality of Outcome.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WIKIPEDIA
EQUALITY OF OUTCOME
Equality of outcome, equality of condition, or equality of results is a political concept which is central to some political ideologies and is used regularly in political discourse, often in contrast to the term equality of opportunity.[2] It describes a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or in which the general economic conditions of their lives are similar. Achieving equal results generally entails reducing or eliminating material inequalities between individuals or households in a society, and usually involves a transfer of income or wealth from wealthier to poorer individuals, or adopting other measures to promote equality of condition. A related way of defining equality of outcome is to think of it as “equality in the central and valuable things in life.”[3] One account in the Journal of Political Philosophy suggested that the term meant “equalising where people end up rather than where or how they begin” but described this sense of the term as “simplistic” since it failed to identify what was supposed to be made equal.[4] There is widespread agreement that the term is controversial.
* * * * * * WAKE UP CALL FOR EVANSVILLE * * * * * *
State of California
Debt Affordability Report (October, 2013)
[State Specific Factors]
In recent years, the State has enacted signi cant
structural reforms.
These changes include: the elimination of redevelopment agencies, which ended the involuntary redirection of tax revenues from schools and local governments and reduced the State General Fund’s burden to back all schools’ loss of money; and especially voters’ enactment in 2010 of Proposition 25, the initiative which reinstated the majority vote for legislative approval of the State budget.
Together, these and other statutory changes have helped
rationalize State-local governance and better allocate the
State’s revenues.
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The use of the word “involuntary” here is laughable. It was anything but involuntary and the same thing is STILL going on right here in Evansville.
This is precisely why citizens, whose residential property taxes were not supposed to exceed 1% last year, are paying an actual increase of 14% or more. Just look at the difference in what you paid in 2012 compared to what you paid this year (2013). One percent my ass.
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Gee, I miss the days of reading 15 posts responding to an IIT column instead of 80. Dang, Courier-Press!
Amen to that, Sam. I miss the civil tone and discourse of the “old days” on this site. Seems that some of the “haters” that were (and still are) on the C&P site have gravitated over here as well. There is a place for disagreement but the current C&P site has taken “disagreement” to a new level lately and some of that is becoming the norm here as well.
Just my $.02
What happened to the Dec. 4 Is It True? I don’t see one. What’s up there, EDITOR?
Never mind. FOUND IT!
Had to catch up on my reading on this snow day!
Excellent CCO Editorial on the demise of the historic McCurdy Hotel. I fear the “public nuisance” designation is the first step toward demolition of the historic landmark. Next, the City will probably declare Mesker Amphitheater to be a “public nuisance” as the result of the City’s unconscionable lack of maintenance. Very sad and shameful chapter in our City’s history.
The back story of the McCurdy’s namesake is what we have forgotten and why we do not value the old hotel. Where are the Benjamin Bosse’s and William McCurdy’s of this generation?
They moved out of here when this became a workers paradise .
Snow plows anyone?
“…having two married parents in the home reduces the probability of child poverty by 82%?…71% of poor families with children are headed by single or unmarried parents?”
That’s one reason among others why God sanctified marriage between a man and woman.
Birth control should be made much more available. The sequester cuts have hurt that in a big way. It has nothing to do with what any supposed god wants. I propose any dollar cut from social programs is matched evenly in an increase in funding for sex ed and free/reduced cost birth control. To oppose both, which is the position of most conservatives, is hypocrisy at it’s finest.
What’s hurting people is the government printing money. It is the most sinister way that a government steals wealth, and it affects everyone.
Ha! One thing I am sure of is that gay couples have exactly ZERO children in their household whether they are married or not.
Okay, what’s your point?
I know gay couples married and unmarried that have children in their household. Haven’t you ever heard of divorce, adoption or children from a previous relationship?
We’re waiting? You’ve got an opportunity to get out the rest of your hate. You’re in the perfect forum for it too.
I don’t hate anyone or anything. What the hell are you talking about?
Can’t get the mole hotline to work..
As all business have a no smoking ban, at the Ford Center you are NOT allowed to go out and smoke and come back in..but last night as I was driving by I saw one of the higher up in management smoking out side the employees door..I guest if you high up the ladder the law don’t apply to you…the employees down low on the ladder can’t go out and smoke…I guest I was in the right place at he right time..
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