Will we be able to have a serious conversation

One of the things I truly admire about Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Chris Christie is that all three men speak to their audiences as adults. They assume that the listener is thoughtful & intelligent and will therefore ignore sweeping cliches.

I don't know that we can count on that assumption, especially with CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS looking for ways to distort the serious ideas these men have put forth.

The start of the religious war

One of the comments that got under my skin after the Ryan announcement was that it was the first time that there wasn't a Protestant at all on the ticket. The guys at Ricochet said that we're going to know everything about Mormonism by the time the election rolls around.

I suspect that somewhere along the line, a black "Christian" commentator is going to make an issue out of religion. It can't be a white man or woman; and it certainly won't be a Jew or Muslim. My gut says it will happen in mid to late September.

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.