Are you concerned about growing income inequality in America? Are you resentful of all that wealth concentrated in the 1 percent? I’ve got the perfect solution, a modest proposal that involves just a small adjustment in the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policy. Best of all, it will mean that none of us have to work for a living anymore.
For several years now, the Fed has been making money available to the financial sector at near-zero interest rates. Big banks and hedge funds, among others, have taken this cheap money and invested it in securities with high yields. This type of profit-making, called the “carry trade,” has been enormously profitable for them.
So why not let everyone participate?
Yep. Bernanke prints the money. Loans the money to friends at Zero interest. Friends of Ben invest it at a higher interest rate. Then profit. Then repeat, over and over.
In the meantime, any money that you 99% suckers have saved becomes devalued.
Here's Michelle Obama, speaking to some mannequins, clothes-horses and talking heads in Hollywood:
First Lady Michelle Obama cited "remarkable progress" on the economy during a speech for a small crowd of high-profile Hollywood names in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.
"In the last three years, we've worked hard to get out of this mess and we've made some remarkable progress," the first lady told a group of about 135 supporters at a private campaign event for her husband. She listed President Obama's accomplishments on healthcare reform, the removal of troops from Iraq and the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" among other items on the list of "promises kept" touted by Obama's reelection campaign.
When they try to convince you that the economy is getting better, ask them these questions....
If the economy is getting better, then why did new home sales in the United States hit a brand new all-time record low during 2011?
If the economy is getting better, then why are there 6 million less jobs in America today than there were before the recession started?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the average duration of unemployment in this country close to an all-time record high?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of homeless female veterans more than doubled?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by 3 million since this time last year and by more than 14 million since Barack Obama entered the White House?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of children living in poverty in America risen for four years in a row?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the percentage of Americans living in "extreme poverty" at an all-time high?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the Federal Housing Administration on the verge of a financial collapse?
If the economy is getting better, then why do only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012?
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of self-employed Americans fallen by more than 2 million since 2006?
If the economy is getting better, then why did an all-time record low percentage of U.S. teens have a job last summer?
If the economy is getting better, then why does median household income keep declining? Overall, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% since December 2007 once you account for inflation.
If the economy is getting better, then why has the number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by 10 million since 2006?
If the economy is getting better, then why is the average age of a vehicle in America now sitting at an all-time high?
If the economy is getting better, then why are 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida currently sitting vacant?
If the economy is getting better, then why are 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 living with their parents?
If the economy is getting better, then why does the number of "long-term unemployed workers" stay so high?
When Barack Obama first took office, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.
But there is some good news.
When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today, the price of an ounce of gold is over $1700.
The era of great prosperity that America has enjoyed for so long is coming to an end.
In fact, our long-term economic decline is about to accelerate.
So enjoy this "bubble of hope" while you can, because it won't last long.
Lrdy, that was depressing. Go to the Economic collapse blog to read their recommendations for your money, your business, and your stuff.
Here's a compilation of the world's funniest dog videos. I wouldn't want to send you out of here without some kind of mood stabilizer.
Are you irritated by people who were born outside of the lines of latitude and longitude that you think of as your own?
If someone was born on the oppositite side of an insignificant river from you, do you support laws to keep them from working on "your" side of the river?
Do you want to get tough on our nation's onion-pickers, blueberry harvesters (and my forklift drivers) because their mothers birthed them in places that maps paint in a different color from your place?
Do you want to keep Mexicans from doing jobs that you personally would try to avoid?
In short, are you an asshole?
I believe that the governor of Georgia can answer "yes" to all of these questions.
After enactment of House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.
It might almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad. The resulting manpower shortage has forced state farmers to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.
Barely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as he proudly signed HB 87 into law. Two weeks later, with farmers howling, a scrambling Deal was forced to order a hasty investigation into the impact of the law he had just signed, as if all this had come as quite a surprise to him.
Well, if the Massey-Ferguson, Case, Kubota and Ford tractor dealers ever convince some government bureaucrat to outlaw John Deere tractors, we're going to have a tractor shortage. If the bureaucrat is surprised by the "unexpected" shortage, you shouldn't be surprised - they generally have the density of cinderblocks.
(Go here for a glorious compilation of headlines using the word "unexpected" bureaucratic misunderstandings of cause and effect.)
So what solution did Governor Deal propose for those having to deal with his crisis?
“The agriculture industry is the number one economic engine in Georgia and it is my sincere hope to find viable and law-abiding solutions to the current problem our farmers face,” Deal said in announcing the findings. In the meantime, Deal proposes that farmers try to hire the 2,000 unemployed criminal probationers estimated to live in southwest Georgia.
I propose that Governor Deal try out a few of those 2,000 unemployed criminal probationers in his own workforce, and let us all know how that works out for him. 1,500 of them were probably locked up because of his anti-marijuana laws. Trying to solve the farmers' labor problem with the victims of his Drug War problem is nothing but a recipe for another problem.
If you're going to harvest crops like onions and blueberries, you have to be in incredibly good shape.
Governor Deal would probably get better result by putting the ex-cons to work in the Georgia Department Of Motor Vehicles or the Georgia Highway Patrol. Ex-cons, at least the ones who work for me, are usually very polite.
Here's where Jay Bookman goes off the rails:
It’s hard to envision a way out of this. Georgia farmers could try to solve the manpower shortage by offering higher wages, but that would create an entirely different set of problems. If they raise wages by a third to a half, which is probably what it would take, they would drive up their operating costs and put themselves at a severe price disadvantage against competitors in states without such tough immigration laws. That’s one of the major disadvantages of trying to implement immigration reform state by state, rather than all at once.
Bookman is deeply and profoundly wrong. That's not a bug, it's a feature.
New York legalized gay'n'lesbian marriage yesterday. Because of its Southern Baptist infestation, Georgia is unlikely to do so anytime soon. New York companies wanting to hire talented workers who just happen to be born gay or lesbian now have an advantage over Georgia companies. The solution is for Georgia to get rid of its handicaps, not inflict similar disadvantages over New York.
Texas doesn't have immigration laws as "tough" as those in Georgia. Texans wanting to hire talented Canadians or Albanians now have an advantage over their Georgia counterparts.
Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, seems to be mentally stable. Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, doesn't. Indiana now has that advantage over Texas.
Giving states the ability to try things out and experiment with different policies is a good thing. When voters see that their policies have unintended consequences, they can change those policies. But without a "control group" in another state, they can't see the differences.
Bookman gets back on track in his last few paragraphs. His last sentence is brilliant:
The pain this is causing is real. People are going to lose their crops, and in some cases their farms. The small-town businesses that supply those farms with goods and services are going to suffer as well. For economically embattled rural Georgia, this could be a major blow.
In fact, with a federal court challenge filed last week, you have to wonder whether state officials aren’t secretly hoping to be rescued from this mess by the intervention of a judge. But given how the Georgia law is drafted and how the Supreme Court ruled in a recent case out of Arizona, I don’t think that’s likely.
We’re going to reap what we have sown, even if the farmers can’t.
Ok, that's all for today. I have a crew of 30 bad-assed Mexicans to keep busy. They are great, great people. Georgia's loss is my gain.
The picture of the Mexican migrant workers stealing American cucumber-picking jobs came from here. The map showing the arbitrary lines and coastal borders where immigrants aren't welcome came from here. The "No Deal" pic came from this Facebook page. My boss who wants me to work on this beautiful Saturday morning came from Juarez Mexico.
The All Mediany website has uncovered a freakin' outrage. Colored people are using false addresses to get their kids out of the ghetto and into OUR public schools.
Kelley Williams-Bolar of Akron, Ohio, was convicted with a felony for using her father’s address to send her daughters to a different school district than the one her children were zoned for.
Whoever wrote this piece for All Mediany sounds kind of outraged, but that's the way our government schools are supposed to work. You are born into a "zone", and if you can't get by with the crappy education provided in your zone, you die in that zone, surrounded by your own kind. Deal with it.
Four years ago Williams-Bolar decided to use her father’s address, where she lives part-time, to enroll her daughters in a top-performing school in the Copley-Fairlawn School District. Upon discovery of her alleged fraud, the school district accused Williams-Bolar of lying about her address and falsifying official documents. The school district hired a private investigator to follow Williams-Bolar driving her daughters from their home to the school.
Hiring a private detective to follow this lady around might sound like overkill, but think about it.... Do you really want colored people in YOUR public school? What would happen to our segregated enclaves if the government issued some vouchers that let people go to school where they wanted to go to school? Why, the system would crumble ! Our cities would stop creating White Flight Suburbs. Minority kids might be able to compete with our kids. Underperforming public schools, which create hundreds of thousands of jobs for goverment employees, would be shut down ! DAMMIT, IT MIGHT ACTUALLY IMPROVE THINGS ! HOPE ! CHANGE ! AND ALL THAT OTHER B.S. !!!! (Thank God that Barack Obama will never ever let anything like this happen.)
School officials were angered that her daughter received a quality education without paying the taxes needed to fund it. Despite William-Bolar's father living in the neighborhood in question, the district is asking her to pay back the estimated $30,000 it cost to educate her daughters.
And if "Williams-Bolar" (don't you love her pretentious little hyphen in there?) can't pay back the $30,000.00 to the white citizens of that school district, she should be put to work as a household domestic. Too bad Ohio doesn't have any cotton fields to throw her into.
The court sentenced Williams-Bolar to 10 days in jail, 80 hours of community service, and three years of probation. Presiding Judge Patricia Cosgrove made it clear that she was using Williams-Bolar as an example.
“I felt that some punishment or deterrent was needed for other individuals who might think to defraud the various school districts,” she said.
Williams-Bolar, a teacher’s assistant, is working toward a teaching degree and has only one semester left to finish. As a convicted felon, she will face great difficulty getting a job as a teacher. Felons can't receive any government assistance - including financial aid for education -, they can't vote, and they are required by law to inform prospective employers of their felony.
Sheesh.... What are the black folks going to want next? Freedom of movement? Let's hope they got the message that Uncle Sam has sent. Stay in your "place", keep voting for Democrats, and for God's sake, don't support school vouchers.
