Is anyone paying attention?

I was speaking with a client last week. She had no idea that the only institution currently buying US Treasury Bills is the US Federal Reserve Bank. When I mentioned this to her, she instantly understood the ramifications. After all, she is the CFO of a large institution. If someone like her, whose entire career is focused on sophisticated financial matters, is unaware that we are just printing money, then I don't suppose that normal people can be expected to know.

It's too bad, though. We are headed to a financial disaster, and no one seems to care.

Posted with Blogsy

Obama's failed presidency isn't enough

I agree with my conservative friends that this president has done nothing - absolutely nothing - to merit reelection. Staggering deficits. Contempt for the constitution and due process. Stunningly ineffective foreign policy.

When we – on the right – see this record, it gives us hope for a conservative victory in November. But dissatisfaction with Pres. Obama will not necessarily mean victory for Mitt Romney. And the sooner we get out of our own echo chamber, the better off we will be.

Government for sale

Democratic senators comprise 13 of the top 15 recipients of lobbyist cash in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Couple that with the strong likelihood that the same senators will be lobbyists in just a few years, and you have a political climate that is ripe for corruption.

Choosing to make life harder for young workers

Karl Smith is the Assistant Professor of Public Economics at UNC-Charlotte, and he has studied retail employment over the past 20+ years. Given that retail sales have, in real dollars, risen nearly 40% since 1990, he posits that retail employment of teenagers (age 16-19) should be higher than it is.

In his article, What the 'End of Retail' Means for Young Workers, Dr. Smith ignores the fac that the minimum wage has gone up over that same period. Young people first entering the workforce are the least productive and least valuable workers in the world. Yet, the government has made it more and more expensive to hire them. Hiring less of them is a perfectly rational and predictable response by retailers.

The fastest way to get young people int the workforce and contributing to society is to eliminate the minimum wage. But the unions won't allow that to happen.

Obama rewrites history

Pres. Obama has once again attempted to revise history. Here are his remarks to reporters during his meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada and the president of Mexico.

"Ultimately I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented extraordinary event by overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress."

Only in Obama's world does a vote along strictly partisan lines constitute a "strong majority". November can't come soon enough.

This is what we pay the senators to do?

It has been yearly 35 months since the United States Senate has passed a budget. Harry Reid, and other top Democratic senators, refuse to even vote on a budget. And yet, they make the time to hold hearings on possible bounty programs in NFL teams.

Conservatives must make it an absolute priority to win back the Senate in 2012.

Using gas to attack the middle class

Since 2006, the price of gas has increased by more than 55%. That is the effect of a Democrat-controlled Congress and Executive.

The tank of gas that once cost $20 to fill is now $30. To put that in perspective, let's do just a little math...

• In the U.S., the average driver drove 13,476 miles in 2010 (the last year for which data is available)
• The average MPG of a model-year 2007 car in the U.S. is 31.2 (combined)
• These numbers equate to a total of 432 gallons of gas purchased each year.

In 2006, a typical American would have spent about $975 for gas. At current gas prices, a typical American will spend nearly $1,600 for gas this year.

For the wealthy, this difference is trivial. But it matters a lot to a middle-class family. And the Democrats in the Senate and White House simply do not care.

Sources:

• Federal Highway Administration
• Bureau of Transportation Statistics