Essential Economics for Politicians

Obama is meeting with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (Greece) as part of his final foreign trip. Obama says he considered it important to visit the birthplace of democracy.

As they begin their meeting, Pavlopoulos is telling Obama that the U.S. has every reason to look forward to a strong and prosperous Europe, and that Greece is committed to the European Union.http://townhall.com/news/politics-e...ves-in-greece-for-final-foreign-tour-n2245904
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Germany's Duetsche Bank and the Italian banks have a large number of loans that are non-performing at the moment. Italy is at 17% of loans non-performing! Who does the ECB save? Italy or continue Greece's experimental "Bail In" in which all bond holders and depositors (savings) have seen their "safe money" turn in to equity or stock positions in defunct banks.
 
California's Dubious Decision

https://fee.org/articles/california-set-a-tax-trap-for-both-smokers-and-quitters/

The only sensible interpretation of California’s ballot initiative is a highly cynical one: California wants its tobacco tax to be a lucrative source of revenue, but economics gets in the way. Policymakers are therefore willing to trap smokers into their bad habits by instituting similar taxes on safer alternatives to tobacco such as e-cigarettes.

This is irresponsible. States should pursue broad-based taxes to raise revenue, and only use narrow-based taxes to achieve specific social ends, such as reducing cigarette use. California hardly needs the money—it ran a $4.9 billion surplus in the 2015 fiscal year, and Governor Jerry Brown signed a $167 billion budget into law earlier this year without making any cuts. The long term is a different story—the state has hefty pension liabilities that appear to grow by the day—but a revenue source as unreliable as tobacco taxes would hardly put a dent in that problem.

Poor tax policy is not unique to California, and the tobacco tax increase may come to be repealed. But in three out of four states, at least, the voters appear to be smarter than the politicians.
 
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Thanksgiving Was a Triumph of Capitalism over Collectivism

https://fee.org/articles/thanksgiving-was-a-triumph-of-capitalism-over-collectivism/


Hard experience had taught the Plymouth colonists the fallacy and error in the ideas of that since the time of the ancient Greeks had promised paradise through collectivism rather than individualism. As Governor Bradford expressed it:

The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years, and that amongst the Godly and sober men, may well convince of the vanity and conceit of Plato’s and other ancients; -- that the taking away of property, and bringing into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.
 
Bruddah IZ said:
Thanksgiving Was a Triumph of Capitalism over Collectivism

https://fee.org/articles/thanksgiving-was-a-triumph-of-capitalism-over-collectivism/


Hard experience had taught the Plymouth colonists the fallacy and error in the ideas of that since the time of the ancient Greeks had promised paradise through collectivism rather than individualism. As Governor Bradford expressed it:

The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years, and that amongst the Godly and sober men, may well convince of the vanity and conceit of Plato’s and other ancients; -- that the taking away of property, and bringing into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.
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Didn't the colonists survive because of a Native bail out?
 
Welfare by Government Contradicts Welfare

https://fee.org/articles/welfare-by-government-contradicts-welfare/

In 1959, prior to the War on Poverty, the poverty rate in the United States was 22.4%. The rate precipitously decreased to 12.1% in 1969, after the declaration of the War on Poverty. As of 2015, the poverty rate is 13.5%. It is important to mention the government spends 16 times more on welfare and anti-poverty programs than it did in 1965, with very little to show for it. The stagnation of the poverty rate was caused by governmental disincentives to productivity and work.

Only 33% of heads of households currently in poverty have earned income versus unearned income, compared to the estimated 66% in 1960.
 
Wez said:
I hope Greece does get some debt relief. I have some money in the GREK ETF.
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10 year avg. annl. return for the Greek stock market is -29%. It's due for some mean reversion for those contrarians out there...
 
Tax Avoidance Is an American Tradition

One wonders how the schoolbook mentions of “taxation without representation,” are so easily forgotten, or why they are never applied to the IRS, a vehicle that makes regulations governing taxation without the representation of the people. Then one realizes that tax-financed schools are unlikely to criticize taxes. Dear reader, you are entitled to some plain speech.--W. Sabot

https://fee.org/articles/tax-avoidance-is-an-american-tradition/
 
Observe that both “socialism” and “fascism” involve the issue of property rights. The right to property is the right of use and disposal. Observe the difference in those two theories: socialism negates private property rights altogether, and advocates “the vesting of ownership and control” in the community as a whole, i.e., in the state; fascism leaves ownership in the hands of private individuals, but transfers control of the property to the government.

Ownership without control is a contradiction in terms: it means “property,” without the right to use it or to dispose of it. It means that the citizens retain the responsibility of holding property, without any of its advantages, while the government acquires all the advantages without any of the responsibility.

In this respect, socialism is the more honest of the two theories. I say “more honest,” not “better”—because, in practice, there is no difference between them: both come from the same collectivist-statist principle, both negate individual rights and subordinate the individual to the collective, both deliver the livelihood and the lives of the citizens into the power of an omnipotent government —and the differences between them are only a matter of time, degree, and superficial detail, such as the choice of slogans by which the rulers delude their enslaved subjects.--Ayn Rand
 
(Those who mistakenly dub Rand a “conservative” should read “Conservatism: An Obituary” [CUI, Chapter 19], a scathing critique in which she accused conservative leaders of “moral treason.” In some respects Rand detested modern conservatives more than she did modern liberals. She was especially contemptuous of those conservatives who attempted to justify capitalism by appealing to religion or to tradition.) Rand illustrated her point in “The Fascist New Frontier,” a polemical tour de force aimed at President Kennedy and his administration.
 
I shall conclude this essay on a personal note. Before I began preparing for this essay, I had not read some of the articles quoted above for many, many years. In fact, I had not read some of the material since my college days 45 years ago. I therefore approached my new readings with a certain amount of trepidation. I liked the articles when I first read them, but would they stand the test of time? Would Rand’s insights and arguments appear commonplace, even hackneyed, with the passage of so much time? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Rand was exactly on point on many issues. Indeed, if we substitute “President Obama,” for “President Kennedy” or “President Johnson” many of her points would be even more pertinent today than they were during the 1960s. Unfortunately, the ideological sewer of American politics has become even more foul today than it was in Rand’s day, but Rand did what she could to reverse the trend, and one person can only do so much. And no one can say that she didn’t warn us.

https://fee.org/articles/ayn-rand-predicted-an-american-slide-toward-fascism/
 
Bruddah IZ said:
I shall conclude this essay on a personal note. Before I began preparing for this essay, I had not read some of the articles quoted above for many, many years. In fact, I had not read some of the material since my college days 45 years ago. I therefore approached my new readings with a certain amount of trepidation. I liked the articles when I first read them, but would they stand the test of time? Would Rand’s insights and arguments appear commonplace, even hackneyed, with the passage of so much time? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Rand was exactly on point on many issues. Indeed, if we substitute “President Obama,” for “President Kennedy” or “President Johnson” many of her points would be even more pertinent today than they were during the 1960s. Unfortunately, the ideological sewer of American politics has become even more foul today than it was in Rand’s day, but Rand did what she could to reverse the trend, and one person can only do so much. And no one can say that she didn’t warn us.

https://fee.org/articles/ayn-rand-predicted-an-american-slide-toward-fascism/
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Hey haole boy, do real Hawaiians celebrate Thanksgiving?
 
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