Populism is alive and well – the economy and the Constitution
September 30, 2008
Let’s discuss the conservative viewpoint of the populist nightmare. Listen to any stump speech by your local, state and national politicians who are running for office and count the number of times he or she makes a promise to deliver something of value to you.
What should be the role of the federal government – or any government agency – be when it comes to ‘driving’ the economy? The preamble of the Constitution tasks government with promoting the general welfare, not providing the general welfare. Pull out a dictionary and look up the difference.
Emotion will not help you understand fuel prices
September 16, 2008
Gas prices go up. Gas prices go down. Those of you who think there is a daily 7 a.m. ET conference call where the executives from ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and Sunoco decide what the price of gas should be that day are wrong. Fuel prices, just like any other world commodity, are driven by the market. Primarily this would be the laws of supply and demand.
During the past couple of weeks, there has been plenty of discussion concerning price gouging, the evil act of gas station owners taking advantage of you during your time of need. This post will convince you that a quick rise in prices during a supply crisis can be a good thing.
That’s right, I’m going to buck the trend, got out on a limb and be politically incorrect; then you’re going to agree with me and use the E-mail This Post feature to send it to everyone you know.
New York Times fails math and basic tax collecting courses
August 14, 2008
On Tuesday, I saw a headline at the New York Times Web site, Study tallies corporations not paying income tax. This type of story is right up our ally since our readers know that corporations don’t pay taxes; people do. I didn’t get to research the story on Tuesday, but Power Line just provided a kick in the head tonight and reminded me about it.
It turns out that Lynnley Browning and editors at the Times can’t understand basic logic. They figured since two out of three corporations in the study did not pay any taxes, they might as well take the total gross receipts of two-thirds of the companies and assume that 35 percent of that should be tax going to the feds.
They calculated that the government was being cheated out of $875 billion. Idiots. Read more
Confirmed? Raising minimum wage increases unemployment
August 2, 2008
Here’s another great new learning opportunity for readers. If you owned a small business that employed 10 teenagers, how important is the payroll line in your budget? A majority of teens make minimum wage while they scoop ice cream, mow lawns and work at fast food joints.
Many of these employees are paid more than minimum wage depending on the going rate in the area, but this morning I was reminded of the minimum wage increase that Congress passed and the president signed a few years ago. The minimum (federal) wage went from $5.15 to $6.55 per hour in two years, and you may be curious if that change could be related to the unemployment rate of teenagers. Of course it is. Read more
How to lower oil prices right now – Yes. We. Can.
July 2, 2008
Barack Obama does not have any answers. All that he and his Democrat followers can do is blame the increase in gas prices on Big Oil, the war in Iraq, and Republicans that refuse to “invest” in new technology so we can “get off” our addiction to oil.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Dick Cheney used to be the CEO of Halliburton and George W. Bush has all of those buddies that are in the oil industry; but why mix fiction with fiction.
So what can be done today so we start seeing a reduction in fuel prices tomorrow? Read more
