I haven’t posted much regarding the Occupy Wall Street before today because we were just getting too much in the way of contradictions and things were so unsettled. But I think we’ve had enough time now to sort it out much of what is happening and I will bring you information as it becomes available. My first listing talks about OWS demands. Most of the talking points here are extreme leftist positions. In addition one of the authors figured out what a ‘just’ salary scale would be like. The second article shows how the demands work in a workers paradise.
We then move on to Democratic jobs ideas. It seems democrats think that adding regulations adds jobs to the economy. We move on to a current look at the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill which increase regulations and again are confronted with the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Our next article is a letter from a former Soviet Central Planner with advice for the DOE and how to avoid future Solyndras. We then go international to look at Healthcare systems in Sweden and the UK. We end today’s newsletter with an update on Obama’s scandals which has a new one coming down the bend.
We are seeing OWS Demands start to appear
…..THE CHARTER IS CHOCK-FULL OF THE SAME FAMILIAR LEFTIST NOSTRUMS SEEN IN GREAT DEPRESSION-ERA EDITIONS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY USA'S DAILY WORKER AND ON COUNTLESS PROTEST SIGNS DURING STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY-LED CAMPUS DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE 1960S. Today, the rants about "American colonialism," "militarism," "people over profit," "living wages" and "economic democracy" are projected against a background of assumptions concerning "the 1 percent versus the 99 percent." No doubt, Marx and Lenin would be astounded that, amid the most prosperous and free society in the history of mankind, so many useful idiots could be convinced to protest against the very individual freedom and economic liberty that made it all possible.
ONE OF THE CHARTER'S CONTRIBUTORS TOOK IT UPON HIMSELF TO CALCULATE IN AN ATTACHMENT WHAT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE SALARY LEVELS -- based on "concepts for economic sustainability and right livelihood" -- for various positions in the coming collectivist Valhalla. Under the new compensation calculus, bankers would be at the bottom of the order with a $20,000 annual salary (an amount equal to that paid to laborers). Realtors would get $25,000, lawyers $27,500, doctors $28,000 and nurses $27,500. Teachers, librarians, train engineers, bridge maintenance, and ship pilots would be paid $35,000. Bureaucrats would receive $28,500, congressmen $30,000 and the president $40,000. If those amounts seem paltry, it must be remembered that everybody will also get free and full health insurance coverage, retirement benefits, and education for children….
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-more-lefts-familiar-flapdoodle#ixzz1aTZJbvlX
With those kinds of wages we would see a number of industries devastated. Tourism, restaurants (not fast food), consumer electronics (if you’re making $30,000 how many of you could afford a $1200 cell phone bill), etc. Quite frankly the more I see and hear about the OWS crowd, I think the schools that spurred them should be forced to repay them for their tuition as it appears they are complete economic ignoramuses.
OWS Demands: A Paradise Ahead?
My most heartfelt wish for the mindless minions currently "Occupy[ing] Wall Street" is that someday, hopefully soon, they get to live in a world based upon their dim-witted delusions. Actually, though, if these collectivist cretins are indeed serious, THAT WORLD IS ALREADY HERE.
It's called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka communist North Korea). IN NORTH KOREA, THERE ARE NO EVIL CORPORATIONS OR BANKS TO RUIN OCCUPIERS' LIVES, because another pair of collectivist cretins, Kim Il-sung and his creepy son Kim Jung-il, got rid of them long ago. In fact, along with ridding North Korea of everything other than the glorious state, the Kim Klan has either already met most of the Occupier's nattering demands or simply made them superfluous.
For demands one (that is not a typo -- there are a lot of demands in demand one), "the restoration of the living wage," NORTH KOREA HAS FOLLOWED THE OCCUPIERS' PROPOSED PLAYBOOK AND ENDED "FREETRADE [SIC]" BY CREATING A TRADE-FREE SOCIETY. Additionally, in North Korea, there is no need to slap "trade tariffs" on imports of "cheap products" to "level the playing field" because the Kims have created an import-free society as well. As for the "twenty dollar an hour minimum wage" demand, life is just too short (literally) in the Kimdom to worry about something so inconsequential when one is privileged to live under the cradle-to-(early-)grave care of the "Dear Leader."
Demand two, "A UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM," WAS INSTITUTED WAY BACK IN 1948. For more than sixty years now, all of North Korea's lucky citizens have received the same horrendous level of medical treatment. The Occupiers will be heartened to know that everyone does his or her "fair share" of suffering. And fear not, dear Occupiers -- because the government is in charge, greedy private insurers cannot take money away from doctors, nurses, and hospitals...because there is no money. But the biggest benefit is that there are no big pharmaceutical companies to stick it to the average North Korean by producing life-saving drugs (or any drugs, for that matter) and selfishly expecting payment for them….
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/the_occupiers_world_awaits.html
The biggest problem the left has is in all the experiments where their ideas have been tried, the states have failed. Their solutions don’t work.
Nobel winners no fans of stimulus
The NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS GOES TO TWO AMERICANS WHO HAVE SEPARATELY EXPOSED THE FLAWS IN GOVERNMENT STIMULUS SPENDING. For a Keynesian president, it's the Anti-Peace Prize.
When President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize during his first year in office, detractors said it was for doing nothing.
That can't be said for Thomas Sargent of New York University and Princeton's Christopher Sims, whose macroeconomics work has been of invaluable help to central bankers and other economic policymakers, and for which they now share this year's economics Nobel.
Sargent's discoveries in particular echo the rationale Republican leaders in Congress have presented in opposing the massive Democratic stimulus spending during the first two years of the Obama administration — that such spending seeks to give the economy nothing more than what House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan over the weekend aptly called a "sugar high."
As the New York Sun pointed out Monday, SARGENT HAS ALSO CRITICIZED OBAMA'S STIMULUS POLICIES SPECIFICALLY. IT POINTED TO AN INTERVIEW A YEAR AGO IN WHICH HE CALLED THE CALCULATIONS OF THE OBAMA COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS "SURPRISINGLY NAIVE FOR 2009."
The timing on this is not good for Obama and his new stimulus, err, jobs bill. Krugman believes in stimulus spending by a paltry ½ a trillion dollars doesn’t make him happy and the newest Nobel winners are against it period.
Dems' Stimulus Idea: More Regulations
Red Tape: Businesses might see the Obama administration's regulations as a millstone around the economy's neck. But Democrats say they've got it all wrong. Regulations create jobs, you see, and we need more of them.
Last week, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., issued a report defending the Environmental Protection Agency from GOP attacks. Not only do EPA rules protect the environment, the report says, they are an engine of economic growth.
After all, somebody has to do the work of complying with the rules, and "industries that provide environmental protection," the report says, have "created more than a million jobs."
And new rules are creating still more jobs, according to the report — issued by Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee — like the 54,000 jobs it says will result from tougher auto fuel economy standards….
I despair when I hear Democratic officials say things like this. If the job was only to create jobs for people, just have the government hire everyone. Of course the government would then have no money to pay anyone as government employees and government regulation don’t create anything. You might as well decide we could create a lot more jobs if you banned earthmovers and hired workers with shovels to do the same work. It would create job even as it destroyed wealth. We all would end up working in a far poorer society.
Dodd Frank Bill Punishes Consumers
Congressional hucksters sold last year’s “Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” AS A PRO-CONSUMER EFFORT TO PREVENT FUTURE BIG BANK BAIL-OUTS. The good news, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, is that DODD-FRANK EXPANDED BIG GOVERNMENT PAYROLLS BY NEARLY 3,000 NEW POSITIONS and seven new agencies. THE BAD NEWS IS THE BILL HAS DESTROYED 130,000 PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS, WILL COST CONSUMERS $11 BILLION IN FEES, and is doing a fine job of creating a new American bank crisis.
The U.S. House and Senate took only 21 days to pass the Dodd-Frank Act. And it was signed into law by the President on July 21, 2010 as the largest overhaul of banking in our nation’s history. THE MASSIVELY COMPLEX ACT IS 2,300 PAGES LONG AND A MASTERFUL PIECE OF CRONY CAPITALISM, WHICH EXPLAINS WHY CONGRESS PASSED THE BILL BEFORE ANYONE COULD ACTUALLY READ IT….
Read the entire article. It shows you how the law of unintended consequence dogs most of what a legislative body can do. One thing is intended and a totally different outcome is experienced.
Here’s a letter to Obama’s DOE Planners from a former Energy Central Planner in the old USSR. He gives some advice such as:
“YOU HAVE FOUND THE RIGHT FORMULA, I see, in at least one area. In your testimony before Congress YOU SAID THAT YOU CAN MAKE “SAFE” LOANS TO WIND AND SOLAR POWER GENERATORS. In fact, you say, electric utilities are prepared to contract for this power even before you make the loan to build the windmills or solar generators. YOU APPEAR TO HAVE LEARNED ANOTHER OLD GOSPLAN TRICK. YOU SIMPLY WRITE A RULE THAT SAYS THAT UTILITIES MUST SUPPLY A CERTAIN PERCENT OF THE MARKET FROM RENEWABLE ENERGY, NO MATTER WHAT THE PRICE. Even if they pay 20 times more than for conventional energy, they still have to buy. You have definitely outwitted the market. IT MAY MAKE LITTLE SENSE FROM AN ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW, BUT BELIEVE ME, FEW WILL NOTICE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.”
I have no idea is the is real or simply made up, but it does present a number of faulty assumptions made by those who want a centrally planned economy. It doesn’t work and never has.
Sweden’s Universal Healthcare has competition
PRIVATE HEALTHCARE INSURANCE PLANS HAVE GROWN A WHOPPING 400 PERCENT IN A DECADE and critics argue that the development could threaten the efficient provision of public healthcare.
Eva-Lisa Krabbe, political secretary at the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (Vårdförbundet), a union for Swedish healthcare workers, is among those DISMAYED BY THE TREND.
"We think healthcare should be available through the public system. If we have a public system that covers people's needs, there's no need for insurance," she argues.
While Sweden has long taken pride in its public healthcare system, LENGTHENING QUEUES AND AT TIMES INCONSISTENT CARE HAVE PROMPTED MANY SWEDES TO OPT FOR PRIVATE HEALTHCARE with many gaining the benefit through insurance policies offered by employers, currently responsible for 80 percent of healthcare insurance market.
Kent Andersson, Nordic manager of healthcare insurance at Swedish insurance giant Trygg-Hansa, argues that while he recognises THE RISK THAT "WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR THE PUBLIC SYSTEM WILL DROP" he said that the trend reflects a change in consumer habits….
http://www.thelocal.se/36648/20111010/
I wrote the headline and didn’t have enough room to add “and they don’t like it.” Kind of like the Public schools in America. It seems the arguments are pretty much the same. And its never a good sign when you have people willing to pay for something that otherwise would be free.
UK Universal Healthcare has flaws
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was devastated — but sure I’d get the best possible treatment.
AFTER 22 YEARS AS A GP, I FELT STRONGLY THAT THE NHS WAS UNBEATABLE WHEN IT CAME TO MAJOR ILLNESSES LIKE THIS.
BUT I WAS WRONG. INSTEAD, THIS WONDERFUL INSTITUTION I DEDICATED MY LIFE TO HAS LET ME DOWN — AND I AM ONLY ALIVE TODAY BECAUSE I BEGGED AND BATTLED FOR DRUGS AND PAID FOR SCANS AND TREATMENTS PRIVATELY.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2047602/Im-alive-I-know-beat-NHS-system.html#ixzz1aRSnAWeN
The British have a dual system with both private and public medicine. Having private insurance is considered one of the best things a company can do if it wants to attract and retain the best people. This story is one that is a warning for those calling for more government involvement in our healthcare system.
Obama scandal Update: Solyndra’s cousin SunPower
HOW DID A FAILING CALIFORNIA SOLAR COMPANY, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits, RECEIVE A $1.2 BILLION FEDERAL LOAN GUARANTEE for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project—three weeks after it announced it was building new manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the project.
The company, SunPower (SPWR-NASDAQ), now carries $820 million in debt, an amount $20 million greater than its market capitalization. If SunPower was a bank, the feds would shut it down. Instead, it received a lifeline twice the size of the money sent down the Solyndra drain.
Two men with insight into the process are SunPower rooter REP. GEORGE R. MILLER III, (D.-CALIF.), THE SENIOR DEMOCRAT ON THE HOUSE EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE COMMITTEE AND THE CO-CHAIRMAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC STEERING AND POLICY COMMITTEE, AND HIS SUNPOWER LOBBYIST SON, GEORGE MILLER IV….
… In his Sept. 26 column for Seekingalpha.com, Stoyan Elitzen LISTS SUNPOWER AS THE NINTH-MOST-SHORTED SOLAR STOCK IN EITHER THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE or NASDAQ markets. Short sellers are betting that a stock price will go down, as opposed to those who buy long, who expect a stock price to up.
According the Elitzen, the size of SUNPOWER'S SHORT POSITION IS EQUAL TO 15 DAYS OF ITS AVERAGE DAILY VOLUME OF 725,000 SHARES PER DAY. By any measure, such pessimism is a banshee screaming in the night for a company's stock price that has already lost 94% of value from its 2007 apex.
ALTHOUGH ITS STOCK HAS RECOVERED FROM ITS ALL-TIME LOW OCT. 4 OF $6.60 PER SHARE TO TRADE BETWEEN $8 AND $9 PER SHARE, IT HAS BEEN A STEEP SLIDE FROM ITS ALL-TIME HIGH DEC. 3, 2007 OF $133. Then, the company was worth $13 billion.
Today, its market capitalization is $800 million, just short of its debt of $820 billion, according to the company's July filings for the second quarter….
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46761
If the company succeeds Obama will be a hero. If it fails we have another scandal with nepotism as part of the plot.
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