Posts Tagged ‘Financial’
Today, we as Americans will celebrate Labor Day. The origins of the day date back to the 19th century, with the first Labor Day being celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. By 1894, 23 states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
Labor Day was traditionally a day of parades and fun for those who were part of the labor movement that made this country great. The United States evolved into the great nation it is because of the contribution of men and women who toiled under the most severe conditions to produce a bountiful harvest of products that the whole world coveted and at one time, would pay big money for.
I’m old enough to remember the days of the Cold War, when stories were told about Soviet citizens offering big money to western tourists for a pair of Levi’s blue jeans. I remember when our farmers produced the majority of the world’s food supply, our factories built the latest hi-tech gadgets, and our financial sector was the world center of investment and trade.
I’m also wise enough to remember when Chrysler needed a Government bail-out because of poor quality gas guzzlers, Harley-Davidson was on the brink of bankruptcy and needed tariffs to survive, and General Motors thought innovation meant mounting a radio vertically in the dash board(remember the Chevy Citation?). So, what do my memories have to do with anything?
Today, this Labor Day, I challenge you to walk into a Wal-Mart store and find a “Made in the USA” tag on…Anything! I know some readers just love to shop at Wal-Mart, and I have better things to do with my time then bash that monster retail example of all that’s wrong with America. But seriously, look at what Wal-Mart represents and issues it mirrors back at us everyday, issues we seem to ignore.
In order to be competitive (spelled “cheaper”), Wal-Mart has forced it’s suppliers to off-shore production on just about everything. That off-shoring has destroyed millions of good paying jobs. Since those people have been forced to take lesser jobs, they can no longer afford to shop at anyplace other than Wal-Mart. See a pattern here?
Wal-Mart has pulled off one of the biggest magical acts since Satan convinced the liberals he didn’t exist. As the standard of life in our country has eroded due to government waste, greedy politicians entering trade agreements that choke us, and tax laws that don’t favor job creation at home, Wal-Mart has reduced pricing on everything people use in everyday life resulting in the masking of this lifestyle erosion. Think about that for a minute.
If Wal-Mart had not brought pricing to it’s current levels, those people that were falling behind due to lower pay, longer hours, and fewer job opportunities would not have been able to keep buying necessessities such as clothing, groceries, personal care items, and certain luxuries such as entertainment, electronics, and sporting goods. Every Christmas, rather than giving little to their children, people are able to stuff their Christmas trees with Chinese-made toys full of lead paint. People can still revel in the fruits of success, while ignoring the fact that they are only falling farther behind as the once American Dream has now become the American struggle to survive. They fail to see that the same pair of Levi’s that cost $27 in 1984, still cost $27 at Wal-Mart for a reason. That reason is some American lost their job and some slave-wage foreigner took it.
In the bygone days of American success, we exported little other than food. We imported little, other than exotic minerals and oil. We had a manufacturing base that had unions demanding a fair wage and corporations being run by individual stockholders and owners whose only goal was the survival of the corporation. People worked eight hours a day, stores were closed on Sunday and holidays, and one spouse could afford to stay home and give a proper upbringing to the children. It was baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet.
Since then, Wall Street has taken over and the politicians have given them the mandate to do it. We now export little other than our coveted military technology, import more stuff than we can continue to afford paying for, and forgot how to manufacture things. People now work ten or more hours a day, greedy stores cater to anxious shoppers and stay open on Sundays, and both spouses have to work to survive and pay the bills. We now have over-paid prima donna baseball players that spit at umpires, mom doesn’t have time to bake that apple pie, and Chevrolet is owned by the unions and the government that are running it into the ground.
People…voters…have allowed our politicians to sell of America to the highest bidder. What was once a day to celebrate Labor and its accomplishments is now just an excuse for a lazy government worker to have a paid day off. Stores advertise sales, cheap labor is used to work those extended store hours, and Wal-Mart is packed…no available parking space.
So today I say, “Happy Labor Day” America! Look what you’ve allowed yourself to become.
The following was submitted by Kevin Crosby. He is a software engineer, conservative, and independent contributor to ScottFactor.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the administration of ScottFactor.com. He can be reached at crosbyk2@email.com.
Here are some interesting facts that I stole from my friends over at Casey Research this morning.
The national debt is $13.3 trillion today. Based on what these dunderheads are doing in Washington DC, this will be $24 trillion by 2017. Our GDP today is $14.5 trillion. If interest rates in 2017 are 5%, we will be paying $1.2 trillion per year in interest. If they are 10%, we will be paying $2.4 trillion per year in interest. The total revenue of the federal government in FY10 is $2.4 trillion.
A couple of observations. I think that comparing this years government revenue and GDP with what might happen in 2017 is meaningless. If government continues its rampage, the debt will be one hell of lot higher than the projected $24 trillion and the revenue paid to the government beast will be a lot less than the $2.4 trillion of today.
Now I suppose that some of you are wondering why I’m bringing this up. Well, I think that I have figured out how to pay for all of this and there is going to be some fun in this for some of you.
All of you young people need to stop using birth control. Now wait! There is a good reason for this. Somebody will have to pay for all this debt that we are creating and the only way that is going to happen is if you young folks stop having sex for the fun of it. You need to get busy and start pounding out babies like the rabbits in my back yard that are consuming my garden.
In other words we need you to start creating future tax payers so they can grow up and create more tax payers that will be available to satisfy all this debt we are creating. If we are going to continue robbing Peter to pay Paul than you young folks need to start using your peters to create more Peters. Simple as that.
Now don’t worry if you think you might not be able to pay for all the expenses of having children. Not a problem. If you get into debt problems I’m sure that the government will step up to the plate and give you a little hand out. We’ll just add a little to the debt that the tax payers you are creating will have to pay in the future. Not a problem.
There is one problem with all of this that I haven’t figured out yet. I’m afraid that at some point the new tax payers that you are creating might figure out that they are the chumps getting stuck with the bill. I suppose you could try and justify it to them by saying that, “Well, at one point I was the chump that got handed the bill, so now its your turn”. Now that I think about it, that probably won’t work too well. Maybe if the issue comes up it would be wiser to just leave town and let someone else deal with it. Kind of like the national debt.
The long and the short of this is that you young folks growing up in this country hoping to have a future better wake up. You are the chumps. If you can live with that than keep your collective mouths shut and continue to act like sheep. If not, then I would suggest that you wake up to the fact you personally have the ability to change all this at the voting booth. Choose wisely as Paul will always be waiting to be satisfied by some chump named Peter.
The following was submitted by Kevin Crosby. He is a software engineer, conservative, and independent contributor to ScottFactor.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the administration of ScottFactor.com. He can be reached at crosbyk2@email.com.
Good morning everyone and happy Monday! Before I get started on my main subject, I wanted to share something that a friend sent me the other day.
In a bid to stem taxpayer losses for bad loans guaranteed by federal housing agencies Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) proposed that borrowers be required to make a minimum 5% down payment in order to qualify. His proposal was rejected 57-42 on a party-line vote because, as Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) explained, “passage of such a requirement would restrict home ownership to only those who can afford it.”
Now you don’t know how badly I wanted this to be an accurate quote, but as I came to find out, this was written by satirist John Semmens. Damn!!! I thought the Democrats had finally come out and said what their true failings/ feelings are. I did read that the new rule is that 60% of your income can now be used to pay your mortgage on new loans. This is as dumb as requiring as little as 5% down. There is something seriously flawed in the Freddie Mac/ Fannie Mae organizations besides being controlled by the Barry Obama and Congress.
Is it just me or are there others that think these toads are attempting to create another mortgage/banking disaster? What else could it be? I can’t imagine that Barry Obama will use this next disaster to take over the banks, do you? Maybe it’s just that my tin foil hat is on a little too tight this morning. I will adjust that right now, so give me a second here ….. Ok now I think I’m good. Wait, maybe just a little foil over the temples…. There, now that’s better.
Now on to my main subject, but before I get to that, I saw something in the news the other day that I thought was absolutely charming by the Barry Obama. He came out and said that BP has got one week to fix this. Now isn’t that special?
Now what do you think the moron in chief is going to do when that deadline comes and goes? Maybe jump in the motorcade and drive over to the BP headquarters and kick some ass? I don’t know about you but I would pay a couple hundred bucks to watch that tap dance unfold. Or, you know what? Maybe he and the Congress could take over BP and turn it into a government sponsored Amtrak type of company. Now that would be interesting. What a plot for a reality show that would be. It would be just like the promise that Barry made about televising the complete health care debate. Now it occurs to me that with Barry and the Congress running the company, the spill is bound to get much worse, but that wouldn’t matter as they (Barry and the Congress) could do what they always do and that is to blame it all on BP and George Bush. Problem solved. What’s next? Maybe cap and tax trade?
Just one more thing before I dutifully move on to my main topic. Our old friend Iranian President Imanuttcase Inajacket Midget just took a couple more steps into the quick sand pit when it was announced last week that Saudi Arabia had announced that it was giving Israel permission to use its air space.
Now I’m not positive about this but the only thing that I can think of is the Israelis would want to use that airspace for is to turn Iran into a parking lot. This does concern me as I know for a fact there are a lot of good people in Iran that would like to enter “the midget” in a swimming contest that requires the strapping of bricks to the contestants’ ankles. Another note on the subject; The U.N. announced new significant sanctions on Iran. Some of the things on the list are Snickers bars, Band-Aids and microwave popcorn. Ya, that will show them!
Ok, now onto my main topic. I have never been a father, but on occasion I have been referred to as mother. Now I hesitate to bring this up as those who have made that kind of references to my character were of questionable character their own selves. [sic] A couple of note worthy individuals were friends that I went moose hunting with in Alaska a number of years back. I could write a couple of paragraphs about this subject but it will have to suffice to say that just like Sarah Palin, we brought home a lot of moose meat on that trip. I think one of the big reasons for that successful hunting trip and Sarah’s last moose hunting adventure was that we didn’t have John McCain’s presidential campaign handlers involved. You talk about a group of mothers….. Sorry, I couldn’t help that last sentence accidentally squeaking out and I will try and be more careful about going off the handle in the future. Or not!
The following was submitted by Kevin Crosby. He is a software engineer, conservative, and independent contributor to ScottFactor.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the administration of ScottFactor.com. He can be reached at kevin@etherminc.com.
Last Thursday the stock market (DJI) took a thousand point bowel movement. As this started to unfold, I was doing some research on a new stock prospect and I happened to glance at one of my open browsers with streaming quotes and I saw that the market was down 638 points. I was thinking to myself that this couldn’t be correct so I opened up a new window and rechecked to see if it was a fault on the first web page. What I saw was that the Dow was now down 990 points. That bowel movement could best be described as something an elephant, suffering from a very bad case of the trots, left in the parking lot at the local circus! Hard to imagine an elephant trotting but you get the drift.
I immediately turned on the TV to one of the financial channels to watch the insuring pandemonium. To say the least, it was very entertaining. There was lots of hollering, screaming, and general hand wringing. The one thing that I found interesting about all that was the fact that everyone was saying they had no idea why it was happening. Then someone brought up the theory of a fat fingered trader made a mistake and entered too many zeros when executing a trade and the high velocity computer trading platforms reacted to that. I heard someone else comment that this was highly unlikely as most software used for trading was sophisticated enough that it would be difficult to make that kind of mistake and also if that were the case we would know by now, 70 minutes into this crisis, who it was that made that mistake.
Well guess what. We still don’t know how or why this happened. The article below indicates that the exchange chiefs are also set to face Congressional hearings on Tuesday. Well that ought to be enlightening, don’t you think. We have the crafty talking with the stupid and stupid is in charge. And get this; crafty is bringing the dogs and the ponies. Boy I wish I could sell popcorn at that event. Well a guy would be busier than a one-armed paperhanger with a case of the hives. Lordy! Lordy!
Here is my take on this. Someone or some entity did something to make this event occur. To protect the guilty we may never know who that was or what entity caused it to happen. After all the years that I have spent working on large computers and database management applications, I guarantee that the facts of what happened are very well known to a few that have access to the database that holds the trading data for that day. If it was Joe blow over at acme stock services that made a mistake when executing a trade, than we would all know that by now as this is an issue of trust that must be protected at all costs. Investors must have trust that the system is secure. If that is found out not to be true then I would expect there will be a lot of investors running for the doors with me leading the pack.
I also find it very interesting that at the same time this was happening the house and senate are concocting a big financial over haul bill up at the capitol. Now it may just be my lack of good judgment, but it occurs to me that 98% of the members of congress don’t have the smarts it would take to balance a check book let alone craft a bill with this complexity. I don’t know if you remember this, but these toads used to have their own bank up there at the capitol and it went broke and had to be closed. The voters of this country have done a real bang up job so far, haven’t they?
I see the stock market is up about 350 points so far. It’s being reported that it’s up because of the reported bail out of Greece. Well it’s been reported every day for the last 3 weeks that Greece was being bailed out and at the end of the day Greece wasn’t bailed out and we were still waiting for a plan. Well its being reported that now we have a plan that includes about $10 billion dollars of the US taxpayer’s money being flushed down the toilet known as Europe. The way I see it is that we the taxpayers have just been put on the hook to participate monetarily in the bail out of the next European country that fails. I would think that would drive the markets down $350 not up. This leads me to believe that all those people that control the stock market are on the same plain of those noodles I mentioned earlier that control our government.
One last thing, why should I care if those socialistic countries over in Europe fail? Albeit, the financial impact could be dire, but if they do fail maybe the rest of the world will wake up and see proof positive that their form of government doesn’t work. Maybe they could start all over again and attempt to create something that does work. Hell, they could even use our constitution now that we aren’t using it anymore.
