Obama’s Stimulus is working!*

Bernanke is a God! …where would we be had the government not intervened?! (!?!?!?!!)

One doesn’t usually turn to old TV shows for economic insights. Yet the best way to put the Fed’s role in the recent crisis in perspective is by recalling an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies — the one in which Granny convinces everyone that a spoonful of her medicine can cure the common cold. Sure enough, it can: It just takes between a week and 10 days.

Things are awesome, save the fact (or should I say “selective amnesia” Mr. President?) that unemployment is still rising.

Unemployment rose in 27 U.S. states in August, with California and Nevada reaching record levels of joblessness.

Rhode Island rounded out the list of states with the highest level of unemployment since data began in 1976, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. California’s unemployment rate reached 12.2 percent and Nevada’s climbed to 13.2 percent.

Ah, 1976. The last time we had a President so utterly incapable of understanding economics, banking, markets, business management, money, or math.

*No, it aint.

A couple of weeks back we noted Chef Lenny Russo’s urgent complaint about an impending Saint Paul city ordinance related to restaurants. Russo was so alarmed by the ordinance that he announced plans to move his restaurant out of the city.

This weekend, Russo posted an update.

A lot of people in both Minneapolis and St. Paul have been watching as those of us in the St. Paul hospitality industry have been working toward defeating a proposal by St. Paul City Council Person Melvin Carter III that would, among other things, require all restaurants and caterers to maintain and provide for their guests upon demand an allergen handbook listing all of the ingredients in each and every dish they serve.

Some weeks back, I blogged about this and about how such an ordinance would inevitably drive our restaurant, Heartland, from the environs of St. Paul. I also gave an interview on that topic to Patrick Reusse for his KSTP AM radio show. Soon thereafter, I received an email from Council Person Carter requesting a meeting. We had that meeting at Heartland last Tuesday.

Four or five years ago this might be spun as a “David versus Goliath” victory for the humble little blogosphere, what with a simple little blog post doing what the city’s paid media failed to do in bringing visibility and response to this issue. But we’re really past that point. Russo’s blog is part of the Star Tribune website, for gosh sake. David and Goliath are no longer so easy to distinguish.

In any case, the gist of the story is that they all sat down at a table and talked out Russo’s objection… at which point Councilman Carter had a metaphorical “D’oh!” moment a la Homer Simpson.

As our conversation progressed, I found him to be quite receptive to understanding how restaurants of Heartland’s ilk operate and how his proposal would stifle our ability to succeed in St. Paul while actually making people less safe. He expressed that his intention was not to do so. In addition, it rapidly became clear to him that an allergen handbook such as the one he put forth in his most recent draft was not the best way to address his concerns. … Consequently, it took Melvin about forty five minutes to declare that the idea of an allergen handbook is off the table.

Whether you own a restaurant in Saint Paul or eat in one (guilty! – ed.) that’s good news. And there’s a lot more about it in Russo’s post which I would encourage you to read – especially if you read his previous post on the topic.

When I was getting into the voice-over business, I encountered an “agent” who said that for a small fee – I think it was $100 – they’d start representing me to potential clients.

Fortunately I went to Don Vogel, who was a highly-experienced V/O guy, and whose show I’d been producing for a while. 

He chuckled.  “Mitch, run, don’t walk, away from anyone who says they’ll represent you for a fee”.

I’ve followed that advice, in and out of the broadcast industry, ever since. 

And I’m grimly gladdened to note the number of scandals I’ve seen over the decades with “head-hunters” and “employment agencies” that charge fees to, supposedly, find people jobs.  It’s especially common when times are hard.  I remember back in the early nineties, when things in the Twin Cities were slow, and I had two kids and another on the way, and a company in Minneapolis was advertising all kinds of decent jobs, for a $95 fee.  I thought about it…

…and declined.  And sure enough, the WCCO “I-Team” busted them.  It was a scam; hundreds paid in, almost nobody got a job.

Some things never change.  And it seems that every example of a company that tries this results in rampant weaselry, and there really don’t seem to be any exceptions:

A Minneapolis headhunting firm has closed its doors and shut down its website, leaving a trail of questions and disgruntled customers who say they shelled out thousands of dollars to land a job but never got results.

A paper sign taped to the locked glass door of the company’s 12th-floor office in the Baker Building in downtown Minneapolis says: “Arthur Group Executive Search.” On it, someone scribbled, “Fraud! I want my money back!”

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) said Thursday that it began investigating the company about three weeks ago and was moving to yank its accreditation but the firm’s closing beat them to it.

“I think they were preying on middle- to high-level executives who were at their weakest moment,” said Dana Badgerow, president and CEO of the local BBB, adding that she feels many were embarrassed to even file a report. She said the company flew under the BBB’s radar for a long time by resolving complaints right away, often by paying out a settlement.

A common theme among those who claim they were scammed: They felt the service would give them an edge looking for a high-level position in a tough job market. They say the company’s owner, Barry Trimble, was a smooth salesman who didn’t follow through on promises. While the company provided some services, the clients say, it often did a less-than-adequate job. And they question whether the jobs and connections the company touted existed at all.

In a phone interview Thursday, Trimble, 46, of Dellwood, denied misleading clients, saying it’s clear in the company’s agreements that it does not make any guarantees. He also said that the jobs did exist. “We had numerous jobs right up until the end. They were real jobs.”

A real agency, or agent, gets their money from either a finders fee or a percentage of your cut.  And that’s what makes a real agency or agent actually go out and work to represent you; if you don’t get a gig, they don’t get paid.

What is the impetus for someone who’s already been paid to go out and beat the bushes to get you hired, even in the unlikely event they are on the up-and-up?

I do understand that desperate feeling, and the lengths someone will go to when things are looking ugly. 

But some things never change.  Vogel told it to me; I’ll tell it to you:  If someone asks you to pay up front for job leads, run.  Don’t walk.  Get away.  Save your money for something that’ll work.

Yeesh. 

One of the best restaurants in the city of Saint Paul is Heartland. That’s a true statement by popular and critical affirmation as well as from personal experience. Heartland’s chef-owner, Lenny Russo, writes one of the “community voice” blogs at the Star Tribune website, via which he delivered a bombshell today:

Heartland to St. Paul: “So long. It was great while it lasted.”

Another victim of the wretched economy, you might think. Just another casualty in the cut-throat restaurant industry which has seen so many closings already this year, perhaps you assume.

But that’s not the story here. Heartland is doing fine. Saint Paul, however, might be broken.
(more…)

The Obama administration has been without a clue as to economic policy and in the vacuum they have fallen back on tried-but-failed liberal policies such as “spending our way” out of The Great Recession.

Yesterday Brack O’Bomba interrupted his uninterruptable vacation to re-appoint Ben Bernanke.

Despite word from the White House that “nobody is looking to make any news” this week, President Obama on Tuesday took a break from vacationing to announce his plans to nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as head of the Federal Reserve.

While it is not unprecedented for a US President to reappoint the former office-holder’s Federal Reserve head, the fact that Obama didn’t announce this before or after his “off-limits” vacation, coupled with his inability to fill out his cabinet, are subtle clues to his cluelessness and may indicate that he simply has no one of his ilk that will take the job under his watch.

Or maybe he just spaced it? Either way, I’m not going to get all “wee-weed” up about it.

I was biking on a Three Rivers bike trail in and around my home in Hennepin County today and came upon some young workers building a little area of stairs onto the biking/walking trail from a park.

They had arrived in an official Hennepin County van, so I would have to assume that they were county workers.

Posted proudly near their little project was a sign:

“Your Stimulus Dollars at Work”

Government workers, working on government land, on a government project. Dare I say an unnecessary one at that.
Riddle me this: Just exactly what stimulus was this project providing?

How many sustainable private sector jobs, the only source of true economic growth, were created?

It good to know I’m not the only one drawing this conclusion these days….

What we’re seeing in Washington these days is beginning to look like Jimmy Carter II.

Carter, like Barack Obama, started out with the idea of stimulating the economy.

His plan was to give every taxpayer $50, then throw in a few billion for tax cuts and public works programs. Simple, right? Wrong: In Washington, this soon became very complicated. Within a month, the package grew from $20 billion to more than $31 billion — a significant amount in the 1970s.

Ah, those were the days. Elitist liberal miscreants like Obama pissed away mere billions instead of trillions.

Obama is losing momentum and spending political capital as fast as stimulus dollars. Will he change course?

In April of his first year in office, Carter finally threw up his hands and scrapped the whole idea. He had dithered for four months. He had nothing to show for the effort. By then he was fatally diminished, his authority substantially eroded.

With the Obama administration, a similar unraveling is well under way and gathering momentum. Voters are increasingly restive. The country is souring on Obama’s gargantuan policy ambitions. The sense is growing that he has grossly overplayed his hand.

Regrettably, I think Obama is more committed than Carter was to government engorgement of the private sector. Let’s not underestimate of the damage Obama, Reid, Pelosi and their posse are prepared to perpetrate on America.

Like Carter, Obama looks increasingly like a president out of step with the times. Like Carter, there is a large gap between what voters expected based on the measured and moderate tone of his campaign and what began unfolding after his inauguration. Obama ran as a centrist, but he is governing from the left.

Surprise! (not)

In an NPR poll, a plurality of Americans opposed Obama’s health care efforts. In a recent Rasmussen poll, those who strongly disapproved of the president’s performance outnumbered those who strongly supported him by 11 percentage points.

Immaterial. Obama is smarter than we are and knows what’s best for us. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Many legitimately fear that if not stopped, Obama and the Democratic Congress will take this country well beyond the point where the public sector starts to “squeeze the life” out of the economy.

Too late. I believe we’re calling it the Great Recession.

It’s not too late for Obama to make a major adjustment. Bill Clinton’s initial months were equally turbulent. He was savvy enough to make a mid-course correction — but it came only after the election of a Republican Congress. On his present course, Obama is making that eventuality increasingly likely.

Then again, Bill Clinton was a fiscal conservative, compared to Obama and Bush.

Obama and his ilk are selling the July economic numbers, telling us the stimulus is working, the recession is ending and the economy is on the mend.

Businesses shed “just” 247,000 jobs in July, far fewer than the 330,000 most economists and Wall Street analysts were looking for. As bad as that still sounds, July’s toll was only two-thirds the monthly average since December 2007, when the recession began.

So your carotid is still gushing blood, but it’s coming out more slowly now.

It’s not that there isn’t good news to be had, it’s that politicians are connecting dots that shouldn’t be connected.

Americans are desperate for some good news, and this recession will someday be behind us, but our recovery will have nothing to do with wasteful government borrowing and spending. A recovery will come from small businesses and free enterprise, finding ways to succeed despite the government’s increased burden in the form of inflation and ultimately, higher taxes on everyone.

As such, we’re bracing for the inevitable self-congratulatory back pats from the White House and Congress, lauding their own economic stewardship for pulling us back from the abyss. On Friday, President Obama said his policies “rescued our economy from catastrophe” while building “a new foundation for growth.”

Don’t believe it. Claims that higher taxes and a total of $2 trillion in stimulus, TARP and bailout spending this year have turned the economy around are unconvincing. Indeed, they’re farcical.

As economist Casey Mulligan noted on the New York Times blog after dissecting second-quarter GDP data, total stimulus at the state and federal levels amounted to about $12 per person. That’s stimulus?

Suggesting that government is responsible for what looks to be a rather weak recovery is an insult to all the small private companies and millions of laid-off workers who bore the brunt of bad government policies over the past two years.

I will put my party hat on when banks start lending, businesses start hiring and consumers start spending. On that day we’ll have a true recovery. At the same time, I will be watching the beach for the inflation title wave that will be the unavoidable result of “Stimulus,” “Cash for Clunkers,” corporate bailouts and “pedal to the metal” fed monetary policy.

In the mean time, whatever Obama says about the economy from now on, you can pretty much disregard.

One of the biggest whacks upside the head of the local blogging/trivia community this past year was the Met Council’s ruling that bars that’d established “smoking patios” outside their premises had to pay fees on that extra square footage as if it was indoor, year-round revenue-generating space.  This has forced Twin Cities’ bars to shut down the practice of having special patios for smokers, especially cigar buffs.

Of course, it’s been a bigger whack upside the head for the bar owners themselves.  Already on the ropes from the smoking ban, the extra smack to their summer revenue (summer is already a slow time for most bars) has pushed many Twin Cites establishments up to and in some cases over the edge.

And in a rare move for a bureaucracy, the Met Council seems to be considering responding to the pressure from bar owners and their patrons.  There’ll be a hearing this coming Tuesday afternoon to reconsider the fee structure.  I’m not sure if there’s time to salvage the summer (or if the provision will be lifted in time to set up a patio for the MOB party)…

…but I am sure that the region’s anti-smoking gestapo will take a break from whinging about the “orchestration” of town-hall meeting outrage over healthcare to organize plenty of people to come to the meeting to bitch about secondhand smoke.

This is where you come in.

Bureaucrats take phone calls seriously.  They – the smart ones, anyway – know that every phone call represents 100 people who didn’t call them.  One call represents 100 like-minded people; it’s public relations truism.

And so it’d be great if you could take a moment to contact the members of the Met Council.   Here they are.  Please take a moment and leave them polite, reasoned messages asking them to reconsider their policy; it’s killing bars, putting people out of work, and playing into the hands of chain restaurants and establishments.  Phone is better than email, but either is vastly better than letting the other guys have the stage to themselves.

Of course if you are free on Tuesday, here are the details:

Proposed Changes to the Service Availability Charge (SAC)Rules Regarding Outdoor Spaces Public Information Meeting: 1 p.m., Chambers

I might…just…be able to make it.  Fingers crossed.

Yesterday, I noted that all that talk about companies leaving Minnesota for lower-tax states like the Dakotas is not, in fact, wind in sails.

Over on Twitter, someone thought he had me cornered:

Except taxes didn’t go up & they are still expanding in ND

That’s true, but for purposes of business, irrelevant.  Businesspeople – smart ones, anyway, especially in capital-intensive businesses like the one I highlighted yesterday – don’t plan based on the current year.  They plan ahead.

And what does someone who plans ahead see in Minnesota’s not-too-distant future?

1. Tim Pawlenty – the state’s sole bulwark against a DFL whose economic philosophy is “spend other peoples’ money like we’re one of those Sweet Sixteen contestants” – is leaving office at the end of this term.
2. The Ventura “Independence” Party – which, in soaking away center-left votes from the DFL, likely kept Pawlenty in power, added a few points of padding to Paulsen’s winning margin, and arguably helped keep Bachmann there – is going to lose major-party status one of these next go-arounds.
3. The Minnesota GOP hasn’t inspired confidence in the past three cycles; the new regime on Park Street (including my friend Michael Brodkorb) has to earn their spurs by winning some elections.  There is hope – I suspect Obama is going to melt down and take a lot of Dems with him, sooner than later – but if you’re a businessman, hope isn’t a plan.
4. If 1 through 3 are true, then the DFL will very possibly seize un-fettered (or barely-fettered) control of this state in the next few years.  The GOP will likely register gains – but eight years of Republican governors, even good years with an excellent governor, could very easily lead to a “backlash” among the same horde of bovines who thought Jesse Ventura would be a good idea, and whose votes count as much as those of smart people.
5. And if/when that happens (heaven forfend), all hell will break loose in this state.  A DFL-controlled legislature with a DFL government will treat Cy Thao’s classic quip (“when you win, you keep your money; when we win, we take your money!”) as gospel; you will be Happy To Pay For A Better Minnesota, or the Minnesota Department of Revenue will do to you what the NYPD did to Abner Louima.

Given that forecast – complete control, over the next 2-4 years, of state government by a party that is less responsible at spending than The Real Housewives of Orange County – where would you put your business?

Pawlenty’s holding of the line on taxes is just the calm before the storm grinds the levees into cat litter.

Ford ad, featuring today’s official media “regular guy”, Mike Rowe:

ROWE: “Why Ford?  Because Ford has a plan that is actually working…”.

Heh.

Minneapolis company expands – in North Dakota:

An aviation manufacturing company could create about 100 jobs in Minot the next two years if a proposed loan is approved by the city council.Administrators of a fund that provides incentives to new and existing businesses in Minot wants to loan $500,000 to Heliplane of Minneapolis.

While 100 more manufacturing jobs would have been pretty useful here in the Twin Cities, I suspect our happiness at paying for the better Minnesota.

The Teleprompter in Chief^™ defies reality, regurgitating well-worn propaganda that flies in the face of reality as revealed in real numbers.

President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.

“It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession”

…which is a good thing, and probably all the “Stimuless” spending package should been enacted to do; provide a safety net. The rest of the plan is a combination of deferred liberal agendas and political payback.

Meanwhile, unemployment continues to rise, oil prices are falling (which believe it or not is bad), and the stock market has fallen four weeks in a row in anticipation of an extended worldwide recession as global government borrowing digs an ever-deepening crevasse.

Oil prices and the stock market are accepted leading indicators. Obama’s rhetoric has no substantive or predictive value whatsoever.

In asking for public patience, Obama said the recovery act “wasn’t designed to restore the economy to full health on its own, but to provide the boost necessary to stop the free fall.”

This is what you call backpedaling – where are even some of our 2-3 Million New Jobs? – a number Barack Obama pulled from his backside some time ago – why is unemployment above 8% and still rising? If this is not a free fall….

…the bill “was designed to spur demand and get people spending again and cushion those who had borne the brunt of the crisis,” the president said.

Both missions: Unaccomplished.

Obama said the measure “was not designed to work in four months — it was designed to work over two years.”

“Remember, we’re only 140 days into this deal,” Biden said in a speech in Cincinnati. “It’s supposed to take 18 months.”

Well, at least you guys have your stories straight.

“Viagra and Candy.”

Warren Buffet:

The Legendary Investor Is Critical of the First Stimulus Package, Comparing It to Viagra and Candy.

…and yet he condones another stimulus package, as if the same people that designed the first one will get it right next time.

Warren: stick to picking stocks. You’ve not been so great at that either of late.

Last month our Supreme Leader was quoted as saying “I’m not naive,” words that history will make famous some day. His advisors, being liberals, have only one lever to pull. Having pulled it harder than its ever been pulled before and to no avail, their advice?

The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an adviser to President Barack Obama.

“A bit too small.” Who are these people? Should it have had an “eency weency bit more pork?” Doubling it would not incent businesses to hire new employees right now or convince consumers to stop saving and start spending (hey, they’re smarter than the people they elected – maybe there is Hope^®).

The Obama stimulus already is the New Larger Size version of the failed Bush stimulus. Remember?

Hmm, what sort of policy would have incented hiring and spending? That’s a tough one. Anyone?

“The economy is worse than we forecast on which the stimulus program was based,” Tyson, who is a member of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory board, told the Nomura Equity Forum. “We probably have already 2.5 million more job losses than anticipated.”

Let me tweak that comment for you Ms. Tyson: “The economy is worse than we forecast because of the stimulus program.” Washington D.C. should be renamed “Ground Zero.”

The stimulus program will result in higher inflation and will require higher taxes. The anticipation of both is already putting pressure on businesses, who will continue to run as lean as they can for a long, long time. In fact, business owners are in fear of the government’s next move. Employees know this. The trickle-down effect is that even those that have jobs are hoarding cash and cutting expenditures.

Not very stimulating.

Maybe we should follow the MAC’s proposed signage plan and apply it to the economy. Let’s put up $2 Million signs everywhere “Be Happy. Spend Money.”

Tyson, 62, later told reporters that the U.S. can afford to pay for a second package, even as the fiscal deficit soars. She said the budget shortfall is “likely to be worse” than the equivalent of 12 percent of gross domestic product that the administration forecast for 2009 and the 8 percent to 9 percent it projected for next year.

We can “afford to pay” is an egregious choice of words given the fact that no one is “paying” – we are borrowing. I suppose her assessment is based on the fact that China hasn’t canceled our Visa card yet.

Tyson said the U.S. should shift away from its dependence on consumption to grow, and promote expansion through investment and exports. The dollar will need to weaken in the longer term to promote export-led growth, she said.

So, we shouldn’t consume, but let’s hope the rest of the world does? Remember kids what liberals mean when they say “investment?” I wonder how my Social Security “investments” are doing?

I think you’ve done enough to weaken the dollar in the long term Ms. Tyson. Thank you.

The Obama administration and its advisors are not naive; they know exactly what they are doing. They are holding the economy hostage until they get their way, executing an agenda despite its effects on the economy and leaving the “fixing” to the next administration.

President BHO enlisted the support of our forefathers against their will in his 4th of July radio address.

He said the same “unyielding spirit” that drove the pioneers and Depression-era workers was needed now to push for a national health care overhaul, make major energy policy changes, and deal with a struggling economy, he said in his weekly address.

“We are not a people who fear the future. We are a people who make it,” he said. “And on this July 4th, we need to summon that spirit once more. We need to summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall two hundred and thirty-three years ago today.”

Yeah, I am pretty sure our forefathers, having fled tyranny, taxation without representation, and the plundering and ravaging of Great Britain were thinking big government, a huge national debt, unfair and burdensome tax codes, an administration seeking to usurp “checks and balances,” post-modern moral relativity, and “dialogue” with the enemies of freedom and human rights. That’s not what drove them to endure the hardships of an oceanic voyage and a revolutionary war.

That is the spirit we are called to show once more. We are facing an array of challenges on a scale unseen in our time. We are waging two wars. We are battling a deep recession. And our economy – and our nation itself – are endangered by festering problems we have kicked down the road for far too long: spiraling health care costs; inadequate schools; and a dependence on foreign oil.

Meeting these extraordinary challenges will require an extraordinary effort on the part of every American. And that is an effort we cannot defer any longer.

…so let’s borrow 800 Billion Dollars. If that’s not a deferral, I don’t know what is. Oh, and not every American. Just the 40% or so that actually pay taxes. True to form, there is no mention of the federal government’s part in our current malaise.

Now is the time to reform an unsustainable health care system that is imposing crushing costs on families, businesses, large and small, and state and federal budgets. We need to protect what works, fix what’s broken, and bring down costs for all Americans. No more talk. (No more talk? Then what do we need Obama for?-JR) No more delay. Health care reform must happen this year.

…because dagnabbit, only 80% of Americans are satisfied with the current system.

One can imagine the disgust John F. Kennedy (“Ask not…”) would have, let alone our forefathers, if they could see rugged individualism replaced by a nanny state, the enabling of bad personal decisions, the welfare rolls both individually and coporate, IOU’s issued by states, the US Federal Government  becoming one of the largest employers in the world, the interpretation or utter disregard for our Constitution by our courts; and more recently what the Obama administration and our liberal congress have proposed in the name of “Progress” in America.

They might have stayed home.

Its easy for the rest of America to disassociate with the fiscal crisis in California. After all, it represents a bigger-than-life culture of Hollywood, celebrities, extreme lifestyles and a Bush-era “conservative” Guvernator. Even more so in Minnesota where our culture and demographics make us an unlikely analog.

Nonetheless, we are subject to national policies now mirroring those of California and to think the results will somehow be different on an national scale is a predictable exercise of liberal insanity.

California, too, spent lavishly in the fat years and issued bonds when state revenues did not cover the costs, bringing its once-sterling credit rating down to the nation’s lowest. So, too, U.S. Treasury bonds, T-bills and the American dollar are now increasingly suspect.

California, like Minnesota has a mandatory budget-balancing provision in force and watching California comply is going to be a lesson in fiscal responsibility – the hard way.

with the state under a constitutional mandate to balance its budget, yet facing a $24 billion deficit this July, a chainsaw is about to be taken to state government.

At arms length (a 2000-mile arm that is), California’s issues hold little import for Minnesotans, and probably won’t have an immediate effect on us here. We should count ourselves fortunate that our Governor is willing to take the heat by refusing to hike taxes and un-allotting what our legislature wouldn’t un-budget. What is troubling is California’s microcosmic prognostication for the rest of the country.

California and it’s economy are faced with the fallout of massive over-spending, immigration, health care and arbitrary and burdensome emissions regulations – which have failed by the way. Sound familiar?

Some 38,000 of 168,000 state prisoners may be released. As Barack Obama is pushing universal health insurance, California will cut Medi-Cal for the poor. Education will be slashed, resulting in a shortened school year, thousands of laid-off teachers, school closings and an end to summer programs in a system that has plummeted from the nation’s best to one of its worst, as measured by dropout rates and academic achievement.

The Obama administration represents the worst of fiscal liberalism as evidenced by the climate bill passed by the House, massive bailouts and a stimulus package that is nothing more than a veiled attempt to enlarge the federal government. Obama is making all the wrong moves, belying the lesson California’s fiscal train wreck offers the rest of us, and deservedly drawing comparisons to Jimmy Carter.

Under George W. Bush and Obama, the U.S. government has undertaken huge new responsibilities: No Child Left Behind, Medicare prescription drug benefits, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the takeovers of banks and auto companies, bailouts without end and national health insurance.

The “We Inherited it from Bush” plea will provide little cover as the Obama administration and virtually the same Congress that was in place during much of the Bush administration continue to ignore the signs. In six months they have done more damage to our nation’s solvency than Bush and Company did in eight years.

Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan carried California nine times. But the state is now a fiefdom of liberalism. John McCain’s share of the vote was smaller than Barry Goldwater’s. California today believes in Big Government, open borders, diversity, multiculturalism and the politics of compassion. But what liberalism has wrought in California, its native-born are fleeing.

The rest of us have nowhere to flee. We can’t all move to Florida.

I watched TresSec Geithner on Jim Lehrer the other night (the video is available in the link below as well) and thought the following interchange (emphasis mine) said so much about the elitist arrogance and stupefying lack of practical experience that the Obama administration represents, from the very top down.

TIMOTHY GEITHNER: In the financial sector, the financial markets require well-designed regulation. We did not have well-designed regulation. We had the worst financial crisis in generations because of basic failures in the design of regulation.

…

JIM LEHRER: Finally, President Obama said yesterday that the real cause of all of this was a culture of irresponsibility. You’ve worked in and around the financial industry for years. How would you describe that, what that culture was? What caused it?

TIMOTHY GEITHNER: I’ve never worked in the financial industry, just to say. I’ve always worked in public service and the government.

That’s okay, Timmy. Your boss hasn’t even done that. But there are some really well-organized communities in Chicago now.

Silly Mr. Lehrer for thinking the man charged with regulating our nation’s financial system might actually have worked in it (or paid his taxes for that matter – he must have skipped that chapter whilst basking in academia).

How unremarkable is it that a man who has spent his entire life working in government fails to see that in fact government overreach was the cause of this crisis, and is now the root of it’s persistence.

His prescription? More of the same. Just “designed” better.

Here’s a unique unique visualization of the 46 states (plus the DC) that are running budget deficits this year.

California’s is not only disproportionally huge, but works out to around $1.000 per capita.  Minnesota’s is a little lighter – about $600 per person (before the Governor’s unallotment, not included in the graphic, takes hold). 

The four states missing from the graph?  The low-tax, low-“service” states run by conservatives (whose education systems generally keep pace with Minnesota’s vaunted system, and clobber the bejeebers out of California, New York, New Jersey and Massachussetts’): North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Alaska; South Dakota’s deficit comes to around $60 per South Dakotan, so it’s close.

Joe Biden opens his mouth and out comes humor, drivel or drool.

“Everyone guessed wrong,” Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday, on the impact of stimulus legislation.

Not everyone. And by the way, they weren’t guessing – they were siezing an opportunity to not unwaste a crisis and transport America quickly to the left under the cover fire of Obama’s Doom and Gloom speech.

Some 330 economists signed a statement last winter saying that President Obama’s claim — that “there is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jump-start the economy” — simply “is not true.”

The economists were not crackpots but respected scholars, including Nobelists James Buchanan, Vernon Smith and Edward Prescott, as well as Reagan Office and Management of Budget Director James Miller, Walter Williams and John Lott.

Also opposed to the stimulus are the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and a core of U.S. representatives and senators, too small unfortunately to change the outcome, who saw through the smoke and weren’t fooled by the mirrors.

The result is now a soon-to-be total debt per American household of several hundred thousand dollars, the result of which will soon weigh heavily on the shoulders of liberal Democrats and our facist President when Republicans ask in 2012 “are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

Years ago I visited Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan on a business trip, just after their purchase by Daimler Benz. I noticed a Mercedes Benz C-Class sedan in the expansive reception area and asked my executive host “What do your employees think of a Mercedes in your headquarters?”

“It’s not so bad.” He replied. “…we’re probably handling it better than the German’s who now have a minivan in theirs.”

Alas, the Germans were not able to make a go of Chrysler and sold them for a loss to Cerberus some time ago.

Now the Italians, not known for their domination of the business world, let along the automotive industry, are quickly taking charge and striking fear into executives at Fiat’s new American arm, Chrysler.

When Chrysler’s crisis-weary staff gathered in their Michigan headquarters this week to hear an address from their new leader, Fiat’s chain-smoking Sergio Marchionne, the atmosphere was far from ebullient.

“Numb” was the word one Chrysler manager used to describe the mood.

The American automotive industry’s woe’s can not be tied to a sole cause. A combination of management’s short-sightedness, government over-regulation and a union bent on an unsustainable model of “work less, make more” all conspired to gut an industry, once a source of national pride.

“The Cadillac of…(fill in the blank)” is now a sad anachronism in a era of Cimarron’s and rebadged Tahoes and Suburbans – not that Fiats are known for their excellence in craftsmanship, design or durability.

But apparently, unlike many American’s in the sector, the Italian’s know how to work.

Chrysler’s employees have some reason to be wary. At Fiat, where Mr Marchionne is both respected and feared, he has shunted aside underperforming managers and expects underlings to join him working nights and weekends.

Discounting the blow to national and corporate pride among the ranks of Chrysler workers, this isn’t so bad in light of the alternative. Had the deal with Fiat not closed this month, Chrysler would have almost surely been liquidated. An 80-hour work week seems a fair alternative to a zero-hour one.

…and an apt prescription, in contrast to our President’s socialistic policies, for the relief of the Great Recession.

How ironic is it that we find ourselves schooled on capitalism by the Italians?

Pass me the Chianti Classico.

One little factoid about the New Deal – buried in seventy years of media and education-establishment myths on the subject – was that it likely prolonged the Great Depression.

Getting a straight number out of economists is like getting a convincing “go ahead, punk, make my day” out of Clay Aiken – the best way to get thirty opinions about an economic issue is to put ten of them in a room together – but I’ve seen convincing cases that had the government kept their mitts completely off the economy, the Big One would have ended by sometime in the late thirties.  As it was, the New Deal and all the other government interventions pushed the Great Depression well into World War II, when the “Draft the Unemployed” program finally got everyone working and all the remaining factories humming.

As Bogus Doug notes, history repeats:

Of course reactionary cynics may note that it seems odd for the Obama administration to follow their prior attempt in “creating or saving” jobs by more of the same, when the economy actually shed 17% more jobs than said administration forecast would be lost if they did absolutely nothing to try to save them. This graph from Geoff at Innocent Bystanders illustrates this insolent observation of actual measurable employment numbers, rooted in the failed politics of the past which our Great Leader has promised to transcend:But happy members of Obama-nation know this ignores the important foundational work going on in delivering us into a new era of Hopeyness. Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, as the saying goes, and you can’t “create or save” a few hundred thousand jobs without “collateral damage” to a few hundred thousand other jobs. That should just go without saying. I mean really people, does he have to spell everything out for you?

Read the whole cynical thing.

GM should have been allowed to go bankrupt months if not years ago, and without the “help” of Congress or the Obama administration. Now that it has finally come, an analysis of the distribution of the spoils reveals both method and motive.

GM’s bankruptcy pushes bondholders aside in favor of the U.S. government and the UAW. Though bondholders hold $27 billion in debt, they’ll get just 10% of stock.

How’s that compare with the other “stakeholders?” For spending $50 billion to bail out GM, the government will get 60% of the equity in the new GM; the UAW, which along with other unions gave millions to Democrats, will be repaid for its loyalty with 17.5% of the stock for $10 billion of unsecured debts.

Not unlike our nation’s financial crisis, those that caused the crisis employ more of the same and escape with the plunder.

They call it “restructuring.” We call it theft. Never in our memory has there been a more thorough, systematic effort to disenfranchise the shareholders and bondholders of a major American firm.

Has this happened before? Yes – well, almost. But these are different times – and a different judicial climate.

…in 1952, when President Harry S. Truman tried to seize control of the U.S. steel industry during a debilitating strike, the Supreme Court made him back down. And Truman had a real emergency on his hands: the Korean War.

By what authority is the Obama administration orchestrating this expedited bankruptcy and government takeover of a global corporate enterprise?

We pored over Article II of the Constitution, known as the Executive Powers Clause. Nowhere is the White House granted the right to override the time-tested bankruptcy process, to use Treasury money raised by taxing Americans to buy or bail out companies, to fire CEOs, to micromanage corporate policy, or to abrogate lawful contracts made by private parties.

Arrogance and incompetence have taken the place of justice and precedent. Where’s the outrage now?

How bad our country’s balance sheet must be that we are sending our Secretary of State and Treasury Secretary to China…to beg…to promise…we’ll behave?

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrived in Beijing with a pledge that the Obama administration will control its borrowing, seeking to reassure China that its Treasury holdings are safe.

“No one is going to be more concerned about future deficits than we are,” Geithner told reporters en route to two days of meetings that start tomorrow in China’s capital.

Interesting word choice: “No one is going to be more concerned about future deficits than we are.” In the mean time, being liberals, the only thing this administration knows how to do is spend more and tax more – under the guise of economic “rescue” this time.

The Chinese however, who hold more of our debt than anyone else, can do math, and they too have noticed that every time Brack O. Bomba opens his mouth, another trillion dollars is stolen from our children.

A Chinese state media report today said that 17 out of 23 Chinese economists polled in connection with Geithner’s visit said that holdings of Treasuries are a “great risk” for the nation’s economy.

Let me pause to underscore the notion that the Chinese feel our economy poses a great risk to theirs.

Geithner needs to show how the U.S. can prevent the value of China’s debt holdings being eroded by a weaker dollar or by inflation driven by the stimulus money being pumped into the U.S. economy, according to Yu.

“It will be helpful if Geithner can show us some arithmetic,” he said.

Uh oh. That’s trouble. Math is no friend of the Obama administration.

There aren’t arithmetic or historic data depicting successful outcomes of huge government borrowing to fund huge government spending to counter a crisis caused by huge government, corporate and consumer borrowing. Rather, the arithmetic will show catastrophic devaluation of the dollar – the very inflation the Chinese are fearful of.

How do you say “Oops” in Chinese?

A select few Conservatives and even fewer media pundits have labeled the takeover and bailouts of several American corporate icons as Socialism manifest.

The first months of the Obama Administration have given rise to abundant talk about a U.S. drift into socialism. “We Are All Socialists Now,” a Newsweek cover declared in February. On May 20 the Republican National Committee approved a resolution calling on Democrats to “stop pushing our country toward socialism.”

Socialists in America say however that it isn’t so.

They say if the Obama Administration were establishing a true socialist state, we’d have at least a $15-an-hour minimum wage (instead of the current $6.55 federal minimum) and 30-hour workweeks. Every American would be guaranteed employment and health-care coverage. Oh, and homeless people would be occupying vacant office buildings in cities and vacant McMansions in the suburbs.

…as if Socialism exists on one side of a hash line but not on the other.

So apparently we’re not there yet.

Guaranteed employment, health-care and housing will come in Obama’s reelection campaign.

But that’s not really the point, is it?

Conservative Americans concerned for our future as a nation, as an economic power, fear the direction our country is headed and even more the lack of concern among our citizenry for what is quickly happening right under their noses. You can’t unbake a cake and so it is with big government and entitlements.

As our esteemed governor knows, reductions in either are historically very hard to come by. As the saying goes, a luxury becomes a necessity twenty four hours later not unlike new layers of government spending and regulation. Once in place, they tend to stay in place.

Socialists say the policies Obama has pursued are hallmarks of “democratic capitalist” states, not socialist ones. “None of the societies of Western Europe are socialist, but the political influence of their strong Labor, Social Democratic, and Socialist parties make their form of capitalism much more humane than our own,” says Frank Llewellyn, national director of the New York-based Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest U.S. Socialist party.

I don’t know how “humane” delaying the inevitable was to UAW workers at GM; thousands of which are soon to lose their jobs as GM declares bankruptcy under the weight of years of artificially-high labor costs and government over-regulation, despite an infusion of billions of taxpayer dollars and an inept CEO being fired by an even more inept President.

In the end, auto workers will discover their rightful economic value hard and fast. Taxpayers will own 70% of a corporation that should have been absorbed by the system. Capitalism should have been allowed to do what capitalism does – efficiently redistribute capital and talent to it’s highest and best use.

Something quite opposite capitalism has instead been deliberately and opportunistically brought to bear. Call it Socialism or Obamunism – labels don’t matter – the point is our government is violating domain it has historically been denied (and in many cases by law is prohibited) to venture.

Socialists say…the Obama team is…scrambling to rescue and preserve capitalism.

Deflection. Nice try. Capitalism can take care of itself, thank you very much.

If Socialism were to come to America, would it come quick like a thief in the night…or real…slow…like…so as to stay under the radar; take capitalism by surprise?

How do you cook a frog? In a pot of cool water; turn up the heat real slow.

By the time he realizes he’s cooked, it’s too late to jump out.