Category Archives: Economy

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DOES ‘GM’ STAND FOR ‘GOVERNMENT MANDATE’?

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by: Brent Smith for World Net Daily:

By her own admission, the CEO of General Motors wants to further her pursuit into crony-corporatism to achieve her vision of an all-electric, zero-emissions future.

There is something inherently wrong with the term crony-corporatism – although most use the term crony-capitalism.

There really isn’t anything capitalistic about cronyism. And there isn’t anything inherently wrong with corporatism. In both cases, the problem is “crony.”

For those unfamiliar, crony-corporatism is when a private-sector corporation gets in bed with the government. It may be federal or state, but in either case (or both), the corporation curries favor with the government, seeking special carve-outs and regulations that effectively lock out their competition. It’s an insidious relationship that benefits none but the corporation and government special interests. The consumer always suffers in the end. read more

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You Have to Pass Medicare for All to See How Bad it Is

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from IBD:

Dems Won’t Tell Voters How Radical ‘Medicare For All’ Is

Remember when Republicans said that ObamaCare was designed to fail so Democrats could push “single payer?” That was called conspiracy mongering. But guess what? ObamaCare is failing. And Democrats are now pushing “Medicare for All” as the solution.

Trouble is, Democrats aren’t telling voters anything about what “Medicare for All” means. Probably because the plan would be the most radical socialization of health care on the planet.

Everyone from New York socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke has called for “Medicare for All.” So far, 123 congressional Democrats and 16 Democratic Senators have co-sponsored “Medicare for All” bills. read more

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Bernie Sanders is a Wealth of Bad Ideas

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from IBD:

Bernie Sanders Wants Jeff Bezos To Pay For The Welfare State — What Could Go Wrong?

Bernie Sanders, who never held a steady job until he started getting paid by taxpayers, thinks Amazon should pay its workers more. And if it doesn’t, he wants to tax Amazon for each “underpaid” employee, to finance government benefits. Even Bernie’s friends think he’s off the rails.

Sanders, never one for subtlety, calls his new bill the “Stop BEZOS Act.” It would impose a tax on each worker employed by any company that hires more than 500 people. The tax would cover 100% of the cost of whatever federal benefits those workers or their families might also be getting. read more

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WND Exclusive – California’s Next Stupid Idea: 100% Clean Energy

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Let’s pass a federal law to end all poverty by the year 2040. That will fix everything.

Oh wait – we already have hundreds of laws attempting to eradicate poverty that were instituted several decades ago. Funny thing – we still have poverty, and at about the same percentage as when the war on poverty began over a half a century ago.

It’s a clear example of the fact just because the government passes a law, it doesn’t magically make it so.

But that’s what leftists do. They see a perceived problem, which usually isn’t, and then set about to pass a law or regulatory mandate to “fix” a problem that isn’t. read more

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So Labor Day is Not a Full-Blown Communist Holiday

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From: National Review

Red Monday

There isn’t much good to say about Labor Day, except maybe that it could be worse — it could be on May 1, which would make it a full-on Communist holiday instead of a merely crypto-Communist one. For that we can thank Grover Cleveland, the last pretty-good Democrat (seriously: gold standard, anti-tariff, vetoed twice as many bills as all of his predecessors combined — Rand Paul is a fan), who pushed for the creation of a labor festival in September as cultural competition to the international workers’ celebration in May, sort of the reverse of the strategy of the early Church fathers’ choosing the dates of heathen festivals for the new Christian holidays.

So, from the two out of three working-age Americans who are gainfully employed, a round of applause for President Cleveland. But crypto-Communist holidays are not so great, either.

Labor Day, like Obamacare and much else that is distasteful about American public life today, is a product of American liberals’ desire to be Canadians. The ’Nucks started celebrating labor on the first Monday in September in the 1880s; this holiday grew out of a parade celebrating a typographical workers’ strike in 1872. Soon, U.S. labor bosses, especially the Marxist Central Labor Union, wanted a holiday of their own. read more

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Let us Praise the Hawaiian Price Gougers

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This is another lesson in Economics 101. And one that the government should meddle in. I discussed this very topic last year in a video podcast. You may view it here. It’s in segment 2 which begins at about minute 19:25. Or you read my article regarding the same here.

from IBD:

‘Price Gouging’ In Hawaii Should Be Thanked, Not Cursed

Hawaii has taken a hit from Hurricane Lane, with an estimated 40 inches of rain and flooding in several areas. It’s an old story: Already, claims of price gouging for everything from propane to airline tickets have emerged. Should Hawaiians curse the gougers? No, they should thank them.

That might seem strange, but it’s true.

First off, let’s concede there are no doubt businesses that are technically breaking Hawaii’s anti-emergency gouging laws, which forbid stores from raising prices on food, water, ice, gasoline, cooking fuel, batteries and generators, chemicals or building materials during a declared disaster or emergency. read more

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Video Podcast – You can put a Price on a Human Life

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by: Brent Smith at the Common Constitutionalist

And that price is not nearly as much as you might think.

Last Saturday, lil-Chelsea Clinton spoke at a #RiseUpforRoe event in New York, where she and other pro-abortion leftist women rallied against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Today I discuss what she said and why it is just so absurd, and frankly just wrong. read more

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Turns Out, Free Stuff is Really Expensive

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from IBD:

Democratic Socialism: Who Knew That ‘Free’ Could Cost So Much?

Since the Democratic Party took a turn for the worse toward so-called democratic socialism, the party’s leading lights have laid the promises on pretty thick. Free Medicare for all! Guaranteed income! Guaranteed jobs! Subsidized housing! Free college! Universal pre-school! Wow, and all for free.

Well, not exactly. In a devastating piece that appeared on the left-of-center web site Vox (to its credit), Manhattan Institute fellow Brian Riedl went through the simple math of what free actually costs. It’s a lot.

It’s not just the free aspect, but the fact that the democratic socialists have made so many promises that must be paid for that will make it so tough to swallow for most voters. read more

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Even the EPA Admits Ethanol is no Good

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from IBD:

EPA Says Ethanol Damages The Environment — Isn’t It Time To Kill The Program?

Amid all the media hoo-ha over President Trump’s latest tweets, tariffs and the Russia investigation, you might have missed a significant report — the Environmental Protection Agency says ethanol made from corn and soybeans and added to our gasoline has become an environmental disaster. So why do we continue to make it?

The devastating report — based on, yes, actual “science” — shows that the forced addition of ethanol to the nation’s gasoline is making our air dirtier.

The irony, of course, is that ethanol’s entire rationale is that it would make our air cleaner. read more

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Savings from Imprisoning Illegals will Pay for the Border Wall

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by: Brent Smith at the Common Constitutionalist

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Obviously the majority of people crossing the border aren’t criminals or even bad people. And by criminals, I mean committing a crime beyond crossing our border illegally.

But we hear stories all the time about criminals who commit violence of one sort or another. And the story is always the same. So and so illegal immigrant, attacked, raped, murdered someone. The umpteen times deported illegal was arrested for, fill in the blank. read more