What's with Leftist Economics?

Leftist Obamanoids say we are a demand driven economy. They reason the government ought to stimulate demand, darn the deficit, and things will improve.

Since Obama's debt-laden "Stimulus" of 3 years ago didn't work, the Leftists insist Republicans interfered with it, using "trickle down" or voodoo economics. If you question a Leftist closely on this point, they become very vague.

Leftist say Republicans are willing to suffer with a bad economy because they are stupid --- and the Republicans have outwitted Obama's brilliant economics. The Leftists never notice the contradiction.

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You've heard of the economics Law of Supply and Demand. It means Supply must equal Demand or the market is out of whack. If we do as the Leftists insist, and stimulate demand while neglecting supply, the economy will be out of whack.

Minimum wage
The Democrats have complicated the supply side with new rules and regulation. The very first thing the Democrats did when Obama was installed was increase the federal minimum wage. This had the effect of pricing minimally-able workers out of the market. This is the prime cause of the enduring 8-9% unemployment during the last 3 years.

Environmental Protection Thuggery
The Environmental Protection Agency has gone ape, restricting farm supply, paper supply production, guitar production (which doesn't apply to Democrat guitar makers) and more. The EPA is clearly being used for political purposes, not environmental ones.

The "Supply Side"
The supply side of the economy is the productive side. Producers make stuff the demand, or consumption side needs. In a healthy economy, the two sides are the same people. You make something I want, I make something you want, and we exchange those things in the free market. Supply must equal demand.

The supply side is the side which creates jobs. When Obama cheated on this in 2009 , unemployment shot up. Obama and his Democrats exported American jobs to countries which do not protect their workers from working.

Each of Obama's "Jobs bills" has included punishment for the employer. This brings us to another Leftist fable -- somehow employees don't need employers. In fact, the employer organizes the employees time and effort into production. Employer and employees need each other to work.

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More government debt will only break the bank. More government interference will only break the economy. The more the Left sucks around for action plans, the more likely they are to hit upon the scheme of total oppression. America must recover from this attack of big government now. Obama must go.

The Unthinkable Is Coming

The Obama Administration is promulgating regulation for commodities traders in the USA. The USA is the worldwide center of trade for commodities. The commodity doesn't have to originate here or land here; Brazilian coffee destined for Singapore is traded in the USA. Every trade generates tax for the US treasury.

Nevertheless, the Obama Administration will insist on the right to interfere with such trading, to the point of shutting down trades which have nothing to do with the US market. Can you think of a more effective way to piss off foreign traders and send them to more trade friendly country?

Mr Obama's zeal to stick his nose in places it doesn't belong move will cost the US government Billions in taxes.

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By Andy Hecht, Editor, Commodity Trend Alert

Say what you will about the miserable U.S. dollar. No matter how it has declined over the last three decades, the world still considers the U.S. dollar the best reserve currency (for now).

That means central bankers continue to hold dollars in their reserves. It also means the dollar is considered the world’s most convertible currency.

As the most convertible currency, the dollar has the privilege of being the pricing mechanism for most commodities. It also makes the U.S. the unofficial hub of the global commodity markets.

It’s why we have the five biggest commodity future exchanges right here. We have the NYMEX that trades energy. The CBOT and CME trade grains and livestock. The NYBOT trades soft commodities. And the COMEX trades precious metals and copper.

All five future exchanges trade commodities in billions, if not trillions, of U.S. dollars every year. And, these exchanges make money and pay taxes to the U.S. government. It’s a pretty good system for the U.S. government.

Unfortunately, this is all about to change...

Right now, I’m seeing some disturbing new developments in Washington that could ensure global commodity traders will take their business elsewhere, far beyond the U.S. shores.

When that happens, it’s very possible the U.S. could lose one of its biggest assets - the fact that commodities are priced in our own devalued dollars.

It’s all thanks to some new market regulations that most investors will never hear about...
Washington Goes on a Regulation Spree

It’s no secret the U.S. is losing face in the global community. It’s partially due to our currency. The U.S. dollar has lost 42% of its value since 1985.

As nations lose respect for the U.S., our government has tried to blame their shortcomings on the market and speculators. Also, in recent years, Washington has been reacting to a number of scandals and the financial meltdown in 2008.

Washington’s brilliant response to all this: go on a regulation spree!

Now it’s worth noting that the U.S. government has never once been proactive in setting market regulation. It’s always been a knee-jerk response to some market event.

For example, the Glass Steagall Act of 1933 separated commercial and investment banking thanks to the Great Depression (then repealed it in 1999).

The Sarbanes Oxley Act, passed in 2002, set new standards, rules and regulations for publicly traded companies. Congress passed this Act because the world had just endured corporate scandals like Enron, Tyco and WorldCom.

The meltdown of the housing market, the subprime crisis and a massive governmental bailout of the financial community in 2008 resulted in the mother of all regulatory legislation.

It’s called the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Even the name is long, but not as long as the legislation itself.

It’s a 2,300 page document that outlines the rules and regulations of the so-called “free markets.” For the commodity markets, it’s given the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) regulatory powers like never before.

It’s these new regulatory powers that will chase commodity traders away from the U.S. and away from the U.S. dollar.
Say Good-bye to Traders,
and Commodities Priced in Dollars

The policymakers in Washington seem to forget that the commodity markets are global. Commodities may trade in the U.S., but they are often produced and consumed far outside U.S. borders.

For instance, West Africa and Brazil produce cocoa. Russia, South Africa, Canada and Australia all produce gold. Chile produces copper. The Middle East, South America, Asia and Africa all produce oil. The U.S. may produce grains - but so do Australia, Canada and Ukraine.

The entire world consumes these staples. Traders all over the world can get their hands on them outside the U.S. if they have to.

That’s exactly what they will do if our policymakers keep trying to police our free markets.

Mark my words. If our U.S. policymakers want to create onerous regulation like the Dodd-Frank Act, traders will go elsewhere for their commodities.

Any attempt to make the commodity market less than the free market it is, will have dangerous and wide ranging implications.

One of the most devastating is the dollar could lose its privilege of being the pricing mechanism for commodity markets.
The U.S. Winds Up a Big Loser

The U.S. is actually daring the commodity world to move the trading of important commodities away from its shores.

Once that happens, it will be a fast transition to pricing and transacting these commodities in different currencies and locations beyond the U.S. and the dollar.

New free market commodity exchanges will open in jurisdictions that are friendlier to business and support free market capitalism.

I expect that the commodity markets will gravitate away from the U.S. markets in years to come. Free markets operate optimally when governments supervise but do not impose rules to stop business activity.

A Case of Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a nervous system disorder in which the person will suddenly go to sleep. A victim may be walking along the side walk and collapse in sleep.

Ms Cheryl Perich has narcolepsy. She also had a teaching position at Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School. In June of 2004, Ms Perich left her position during her diagnosis. In February of 2005 she wanted the teaching position back, but the school had filled it. Note the dates, June is the end of the school year and February is well after the start of the school year.

Ms Perich sued.

The church refused to rehire her, stating her position had been filled.

The church's position is the matter is protected by the First Amendment's free exercise of religion doctrine. A derivative doctrine, called the ministerial doctrine, explains the right of church autonomy in choice of staff thus: The courts are forbidden to determine cases “involving the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministerial employees.”

The Supreme Court heard the case Wednesday.

The Obama administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is taking Perich side. The EEOC implicitly stated the freedom of religion does not apply. What is at issue, they say, is Ms Perich's First Amendment right to freely associate.

"What?" the Supreme Court Justices said in unison.

The Obama Administration questions who should decide religious matters, the church or the government. Implicit the Administration view is the notion only government can decide whether government should be deciding.

The Obama Administration position, if accepted by the court, would practically eliminate freedom of religion in the United States. If the government wins, a church could be forced into hiring anyone for any position. A church could no longer "discriminate" between a believer and a circus sex act for an vacant pastor position.

The case is Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (10-553). A decision is expected by June.

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There is more to this -- there always is. Here are two views: One from the Big Government side Slate From other from the religious side Jewish World Review

Inflexibility Is Built In

The outmoded thinking of the "Democrats" is to regulate what works until it doesn't work anymore.

Chevron announced the discovery of a giant oil reserve in the Gulf of Mexico in September 2006. The Jack Field is estimated to hold as much as 15 billion barrels of oil. That would increase American proven reserves 50%.

The Obama administration banned further drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. No political move would be more effective to squelch the nascent economic recovery in the US. In response, oil started to nudge upward. Some experts predict $110 per barrel by next summer. That suggests gasoline at about $4.25 per gallon.

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Food "Safety" bill passed the Senate and then derailed for illegally creating new taxes. Which is fine. The Food Safety bill would dramatically expand the power of the Food and Drug Administration in a massive regulatory overreach.

Seriously, why regulate what is not a problem? Why create a problem out of thin air? The evidence is clear the "Democratic" Party was playing a word game to steal our civil rights.

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The Federal Communications Commission, under "Democratic" Party control, has deemed the internet their plaything. There is no federal statute to back up the claim. Nonetheless, the FCC illegally "enacted" a series of regulations to restrict innovation and development of new technologies in the internet. Specifically targeted is the service technique called "prioritizing" (The FCC uses this term).

There is spreading realization that the new internet regulations will be used to enforce a "Fairness Doctrine" style censorship on internet content. The Fairness Doctrine was used to promote endless repetition of the Leftist views in broadcast media until it was revoked in the 1980s.

The net result is innovation and new thinking are dead on the internet. The dead are so much easier to control the Democrats could not resist. Free speech on the internet is at risk. FaultlineUSA also discusses this.

The Democratic Party is clearly looking for push back. To sign an internet petition go to Grassfire's online petition.

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The "Democratic" Party is the lawyer party. Very few Democrats who get elected have real world experience. Most of them are either lawyers or über-rich. Their fantasies run rampant. The rules they concoct have little to do with reality, but we really get to live under those rules.

America is on her away to becoming an irrelevancy in the modern world. All because the Obama Administration Democrats could not restrain themselves. They decided to live out pipe dreams of "making a difference." They threw out the lessons of history because the past showed there was no future in their fantasy. Force is substituted for understanding and we lose.

Emergency Firearms Registration

Ho Ho Ho Here they come to backdoor register your guns! Do you still think Mr Obama will not try to seize your firearms?
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The ATF has proposed to require gun dealers to provide directly to the ATF the names, addresses, and serial numbers for every purchase of two or more semi auto, mag fed rifles within a five day period!! They are trying to force this in by January 5th, without any approval from Congress, calling it a needed "emergency" regulation. This is backdoor registration of guns and gun owners.

Here is a quote from the notice by the National Shooting Sports Foundation ( NSSF ) regarding this burdensome and illegal move:

"The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is moving to require federally licensed firearms retailers to report multiple sales of modern sporting rifles beginning January 5, 2011. Specifically, the ATF requirement calls for firearms retailers to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of two or more .22 caliber or larger semi-automatic rifles that are capable of accepting a detachable magazine and are purchased by the same individual within five consecutive business days."

We are encouraging everyone to contact the relevant officials to protest this move. The office that approves regulation changes like this that bypass Congress is the Office of Information and Regulation affairs of the DOJ and they can be reached at 202-395-6466. You can call your Senator and Representative at the US Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Or see the links page on the left side of this page

The NSSF offers the following points to make when calling"Multiple sales reporting of long guns will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement. Traffickers will go further underground, hiring more people to buy their firearms. This will make it much harder for retailers to identify and report suspicious behavior to law enforcement."

1. "Long guns are rarely used in crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics)."
2. "Imposing multiple sales-reporting requirements for long guns would further add to the already extensive paperwork and record-keeping requirements burdening America’s retailers – where a single mistake could cost them their license and even land them in jail."
3. "Last year, ATF inspected 2,000 retailers in border states and only two licenses were revoked (0.1%). These revocations were for reasons unknown and could have had nothing to do with illicit trafficking of guns; furthermore, no dealers were charged with any criminal wrongdoing."
4. "According to ATF, the average age of a firearm recovered in the United States is 11 years old. In Mexico it’s more than 14 years old. This demonstrates that criminals are not using new guns bought from retailers in the states."
5. "Congress, when it enacted multiple sales reporting for handguns, could have required multiple sales of long guns – it specifically chose not to."

Read the full notice by the NSSF here.

Read the full ATF document proposing this illegal move here (PDF)

report by J&G Sales

“The Swine Line”

Private, Profitable Colleges Are Obama Target of Regulation

The Obama administration has relentlessly pushed a regulation-heavy ideology.

We’ve seen it with the government takeover of healthcare, proposals for a government-controlled energy sector, an attempted overreach into the Internet, and now, most recently, into for-profit colleges, opines Erica Gordon on Citizens Against Government Waste “Swine Line” blog.

President Obama set a goal to achieve the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Proprietary schools can help achieve the President’s goals, as they offer a career-focused education and produce graduates at a more cost-effective rate than public and nonprofit colleges and universities.

Nevertheless, the Department of Education has proposed unfair “gainful employment” rules which call for for-profit schools (and just for-profit schools) to prove their graduates are either paying back loans or are capable of doing so. If not, the schools will lose access to federal student aid.

The Bitter Taste of Sugar

The Democratic Party profits their Big Buddies.

Citizens Against Government Waste issued a report detailing how instead of helping out small U.S. sugar farmers, the program has “concentrated a vast amount of wealth in the hands of a few large individuals and conglomerates.”

The wealthiest 1 percent of sugar farmers receives 60 percent of sugar subsidies, and the program inflates the domestic price of sugar to at least twice the world market price, which has led to the loss of U.S. sugar refining jobs as well as secondary jobs in industries that use sugar, such as candy, cereal, and baked goods manufacturers.

“The sugar program is the epitome of government waste. Taxpayers spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on a program that kills jobs, guarantees an inadequate supply, and puts subsidies in the hands of wealthy corporations. In these tough financial times, President Obama and Congress could begin to exercise fiscal restraint by eliminating corporate welfare programs like this one.” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

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Government waste & other foods

For the second time since 2008, the world is entering the gates of a food crisis. Government micromanagement might starve us.

The prices of just about every crop over the past six months have hit record territory. Wheat is up 23%, soybeans are up 17%, and corn prices are up 40%, compared to 12 months ago.

However, the grain basket pales in comparison to what’s happening in the Breakfast Club, where other “soft” commodities like sugar (+45%), coffee (+40%) and butter (+18%) are rising to their highest levels in more than two decades.

Clearly, agricultural inflation, or "ag-flation," is back…

Lucky us.