Jim in Virginia

Stimulus, Recovery and the Problem with Politicians

Our schools have left many without the ability to think things through. As an example, the single payer health system. The single payer system has failed in Maine, Mass, Tenn and others. Canada, England and others are rethinking their system. People should be asking their leaders who seem to be a pompous and arrogant group why this new system is different from those that have been tried and why we should expect a different outcome than that which the other plans have failed. Since we are not likely going to be able to pay down our national debt, I think it is highly likely that we will devalue the dollar to the point where inflation will eat away at the standard of living for the average American.

If a Boom Is Coming, Will a Bust Follow?

I think that until we start seeing job growth we will have to rely on the crystal ball. If the health care bill passes, how many employers will elect to drop their support for health care coverage in favor of the cheaper 8% penalty? How many employers will elect to purchase automation which is subsidized by the government in tax law rather than rehire the old employees back under as yet unknown penalties? What effect will the cap and tax bill have on job growth. I think in some situations there are just too many varibles to make a good judgment call.

Healthcare: The Myth of Consumer Choice

43% of Americans do not pay any income tax. The other 57% that do carry the 43%. We have 8000 new people cross our porous borders daily adding to the 43 percentile that do not pay income taxes and have their health care paid for by the people that do pay taxes and also by those that pay their own health care cost shifted inflated premiums. At some point in our near future, only a third of our population will be working and those few will find it harder and harder to pay their own health care premiums while supporting the large and ever growing burden of the needy

GDP Numbers Coming Friday: Expect Surprises

If you have to put lipstick on the pig and it is the same pig, change the baseline or turn out the lights.

How $30/Barrel Oil Could Save the World

The history of price controls tends to be rather poor. We can change the leverage requirements and that might help. Converting to natural gas cars, building more LNG plants and exporting our excess natural gas would seem to me to be a better idea. I beleive changing the supply side dynamic would be a better way to go.

Ken Lewis and BAC's Shareholders Got Hosed by the Feds

The era of gangster government started under Bush in September 2008 and has now escalated into the Chicago gangster government under Obama. Add the secured bondholders for the automotive industry to the victims list and the confiscation getting ready to happen under cap and trade tax being voted on today and you end up with a very dour outlook for our country.

The Post Office, FedEx and UPS Model for Health Insurance

There are many doctors who no longer take new medicare patients thus creating a two tier system of care which in my view is a negative. The quasi government entity Freddie Mac has had to be infused with taxpayer funds in order to stay alive many times. Government health care will likely have the same option whereas the private sector must raise prices or go out of business. Rationing of health care will happen whether private or public systems are employed. The wealthy will have the best care and the poor will have the worst care.

Freedom of Information Act Disclosure Busts Paulson, Geithner, Bair

Well done piece. For those that believe that we now have change in Washington should now understand that the only change was of the baton from one group of gangsters to the new group of Chicago gangsters. We have evolved from a nation of law to a nation of man.

Obama's New Wall Street

Whatever the process, the idea of write me a check and I will tell you how I spent it after I have cashed it and this is so important that it has to be done so fast that our representatives in congress don't even read the bill could have been dreamed up by PT Barnum is scary to me. The kid has the credit card and is heading to the mall.

Can We Please Do Something About Rising Oil Prices?

It is interesting that the folks that want to raise taxes are usually the same people that oppose using natural gas for vehicles and optimizing the resources currently available to us now such as nuclear and drilling offshore for new supplies of energy.

Big Banks: Pulling Off the Ultimate Bait and Switch

We were informed this past week that C and B of A were buying toxic mortgages on the secondary market. I think it is highly likely that someone at the banks has some inside information as to how much discount the assets will be bought for by the government and is scurrying around buying assets a deeper discount in order to have plenty of product to sell the taxpayers when the government steps up with the taxpayer checkbook in hand.

Will the Geithner Plan Work? Let's Hope Not!

We have a bunch of folks in charge that have never run a business, worked for no employer other than the government or read the United states Constitution. Even though not one of them can point to the place in the constitution that would authorize being able to decide which businesses are marginal and thus be taken over by the government, President Obama asked for this power last night. In a former life he taught the constitution but it may have been in Russia. The banks headed by greedy but intelligent people should be allowed to fail. Banks that survive will be stronger. Solving a debt problem with a newer and larger debt problem is simply a stupid option..

This Recession Is a Reset to a New Normal

This was great. I think this guy would make a great asset to the current administration though he might be over qualified due to having paid his taxes.

Current Popular Argument Against AIG Bonuses Takes the Wrong Viewpoint

All of this is well and good but had they let the whole thing come tumbling down as bad as it would have been with a bankruptcy and the following fallout, we would not have been put in the position of the government (not a court) retroactively breaking a legally binding contract. We are a nation of laws or we are not. If any contract can be broken whenever public sentiment deems it necessary, we are in much deeper trouble than we are right now.

Not the Tax Clawback I Had in Mind

Whiles these fools that swore to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this country pander to public sentiment, it covers up the BILLIONS of taxpayer's dollars that was laundered through AIG to foreign banks. I have about the same opinion of this gang of incompetents that passes bills without reading them and then tries to retroactively fix their ineptness with tax law modifications as Bernie Madoff.