Tag Archives: debt

U.S. Bailout Foreign Companies, but What Happened to Peace and Prosperity?

Yesterday, Newsmax ran a story about the federal government bailout of overseas banks and other foreign corporations. Part of the reason was attributed to global reach of AIG. Because we are all part of a global economy, a global bailout was to be expected.

I don’t remember hearing the Obama administration, Congressional politicians, or the media ever mentioning that part of $787 billion would help save foreign banks or General Motors, do you?

To save the world, globalists on Capitol Hill seem to believe Americans on Main Street should welcome state approved robbery. The Washington-run Empire, like all past empires, impoverishes millions of its people for the grand cause of power, status, and the flow of wealth. Remember, most of the imperialists on Capitol Hill are millionaires.
Anyone familiar with the history of bailouts funded by the federal government (including the Federal Reserve) knows this has been going on for decades.

In one sense, global economy is just another nice but deceptive phrase for the increasing reach of American economic empire. It appears that the goal of Democrats is to increase the burden of empire to the point of America’s bankruptcy.

That is one important factor that led to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

Are the elites among the Republican Party any different? I doubt it. Can you remember any America president or Congressional majority ever proposing to end the American military presence around the world? Only Ron Paul proposed such a thing. Doing so would put billions of dollars back in the pockets of Americans. A large scale-back of U.S. military’s global presence would also mean leaving America’s global corporation vulnerable to the dictates of foreign governments and the interests of their people. Not that the wealth given to foreign government by American corporations is used to prosper all of their citizens, but its does keep foreign dictators willing to dance to America’s green tunes. Think of how much that would save taxpayers if Congressional politicians were not so willing to travel to all of those subjected nations.

I know; we are the leader of the world. World peace and prosperity is dependent upon our government. Millions at home and certainly abroad are still are wondering when real peace and prosperity will be achieved. Maybe the elite’s utopian vision is flawed. Just consider the achievements of that bastion of global peace, the United Nations–not very impressive. No lasting peace in Israel, genocide in Sudan, massacres in Africa, wars in the Middle East, Europe, Central America and elsewhere, and now terrorism. Don’t misunderstand me, sincere efforts toward peace are honorable, but repeating failed policies and strategies of the past is to demonstrate stupidity.

Again, the lessons of failed empires of the past demonstrate egalitarianism, multiculturalism, moral relativity, immorality, and much debt are all co-factors in what social scientists call structural violence, which includes poverty. The peace waged by all empires has been most won and maintained by the merciless power of their armies. Empires have never been very effective at creating real peace or prosperity for masses of non-elite peasants. America is no exception.

American exceptionalism inherited from its founder’s vision has been fading away for a long time. Maybe it’s not too late to revive it.

Ohio Leads Nation Using Stimulus Funds For Water And Sewer Projects

As reported by the Dayton Daily News, Ohio leads the nation with 274 sewer projects being funded by stimulus dollars. Ohio also ranked third with 62 drinking water projects.

“All told, 700 jobs are being created or retained with the work, officials said. A little more than $279 million in stimulus funds are matched with $196.1 million of low-interest loan money for the projects.”

The inference here is that it takes a little over $678,000 to keep 700 water works and construction workers employed. The report did mention for how long.

At one point, City of Xenia officials thought they might be able to get stimulus funds to repair a retaining wall at Shawnee Park. I’m sure that would also retain a few workers as well.

I must confess the recent repair of the big hole in front of the sewer on my block was appreciated. If it were not for the multi-billion dollar tax bill at the stimulus gold rush I would hope it was paid for by Obama and Company. It’s that bankrupting stimulus repayment that is too frightening to garnish any confidence in a genuine financial recovery.

Ohio government is too big to pay for its employees pensions, taxpayers should pay for no more

By Daniel Downs

Ohio public employee pension fund are suffering the same fate as their employers revenue streams. They are dwindling. Partly to blame is our spend-thrifty government; the other part is the financial industry that was willing to follow the lead of their liberal politicians.

According to an excellent report by the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio public pensions cost taxpayers $4.1 billion annually. Those costs are directly related to the size of government payrolls, which continue to grow. As noted, government employees get higher than average retirement incomes. These are guaranteed by law.

Because 401K and other sources of pension funds are subject to stock market volatility, the Ohio budget is now revealing another part of its budget shortfall.

To make up for the loss, Ohio public employee union-negotiated pension funds are asking taxpayers to foot the bill.

What is wrong with this picture?

As noted at the beginning, the growth of government bureaucracy outpaces the private sector. Socialistic and special interest programs along with related federal mandates drive much unnecessary growth and its costs to taxpayers. The answer is in cutting them. Ohio government should follow their private sector partner and downsize. Cut departments, programs, employees, and cut related expenses. By downsizing, the executive branch the savings would cover most, if not all, of the current budget deficit, which means covering pensions too.

And, what about all of Ohio’s private sector employee who are suffering either declines or loss of their retirement pensions? If taxpayers should maintain retired employee pension because they pour billions of dollars into Ohio’s economy as argued Democrat Rep. Todd Book and the unions, retired private sector employees pour in many more billions. It would be more profitable for the economy if taxpayers funded their retirement funds.

Then, there is the frequent practice of allowing double dippers to burden Ohio taxpayers. As with Xenia Community Schools Supt. Lewis, many government employees receive pension income as well as taxpayer funded paychecks. Why should taxpayers pay double for such employees, and pay double or triple amounts for bailouts, and pay double for levy debts to schools and to investors? Public corruption obviously is very profitable.

Ohio government is just too big and corrupt to pay for its employees’ pensions. That is why taxpayers should refuse to pay more.

Ohio Ranked at 45th on the Happiness Index

On Nov. 6, 2009, the misery index peaked. The cause was attributed to too many Democrats winning elections. Soon after, masses of Ohioans were visiting their doctors asking for tranquilizers or Prozac to numb the cataclysmic consequences of Democratic control of the economy. The misery index didn’t just peak it burst the barometer.

The folks on MainStreet have devised a new barometer to measure our financial misery. Instead of calling a misery index, they have taken a more positive and patriotic approach. They now measure our happiness via our economic misery the supposed lack thereof.

The folks on MainStreet make a reasonable argument for a happiness index.

“We all know that money alone can’t buy happiness, but having a job, home and enough money to cover your basic budgetary needs is a good start.

“The Happiness Index, which looks at household income, debt, employment and foreclosures, is a fresh take on the old and tired Misery Index, made popular in the 1970s. The Misery Index takes into account unemployment and inflation rates and seeks to identify the most financially miserable places to live.

“The Happiness Index, on the other hand, is all about which states are best weathering the current economic storm.”

Who can argue against chucking the Misery Index for one that is not so personal but is rather only about the financial misery or happiness of states. After all, states are only made up of things like individuals and people. Stuff like animals, bugs, plants, stupid buildings, and the like are just colorful ornaments.

Anyway, as the title of this post indicates, the state of Ohio must be feeling pretty unhappy. Out of 50 states–that is those in the U.S.–Ohio’s place in the economic rat race to happiness is almost at the bottom. The folks on MainStreet ranked Ohio at an overwhelmingly depressive 45.

If the trend holds, the government will want to give Ohio doctors and drugs companies a gigantic stimulus package to put Ohioans on Prozac, Ritalin, or some other wonder working drugs to keep Ohioans on-track to happy prosperity.

Lest I become the first patient, let me return to the hard work of the folks on Main Street.com. Their efforts are meant to show us poor Ohioans how a low percent of our portion of the multiple trillions of dollars of debt outside of our loans on home and other property, how a low percentage of unemployed, and how low number of foreclosures per household makes our state a happy one.

Being an analytical ole’ cuss, I see something rather interesting. Most happy state in dis-union is Nebraska. On the “non-mortgage debt as a percent of income” category, the happiest state was at 29.2% while poor miserable Ohio was at 33.9%. That’s a meager difference of only 4.7%. On the “unemployment category, the happy, happy state has an unemployment rate of 4.2% while our depressed state has an unemployment rate of 9.4%. That is a small difference that equates to many thousands times of unhappiness. On the last category called “one foreclosure per number of households,” Nebraska is on a high of about 25,187 while Ohio suffers severe withdrawals of 452. These increasingly troublesome differences can mean only one of three things:
(1) Warren Buffet, a Nebraskan, is paying for these results. (2) The high Nebraskan who sits on a mountain of paper gold is bailing-out his would-be miserable state. Or, (3) Ohio is among the kings of bad mortgage loans to people wanting desperately to participate in the American Dream while still hallucinating on the welfare drug–or something similar.

In my opinion, Ohioans need less stimulants and more real food. Government is not capable of creating or maintaining a healthy diet or a healthy economy for all or even most citizens. That is because too many of state representatives are high on drugs like power, lobby money, and other items of special interest.

Source: MainStreet, April 6, 2009.