Rebane's Ruminations

About

November 2026
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

ARCHIVES

OUR LINKS

YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog

  • Austerity works (updated 14jun12)

    George Rebane

    RR has been focused on matters economic for some years now as the crises build here and in Europe.  In their efforts to recover, I’ve tried to make the case that Europe and the US have actually been headed in opposite directions.  Cutting to the chase, debt and socialist policies – entitlements, commerce throttling regulations, tax disincentives, and Keynesian theory – have been the culprits.  And the most effective medicine is drastic cuts to spending as opposed to drastic tax increases on the productive sector.

    An example of how this works is being demonstrated by Estonia, a country that is in the eurozone and suffered an 18% contraction of its economy when the Great Recession hit.  Even Greece did not contract that much.  Estonia fought back by putting in place what can only be considered as draconian austerity measures.  One reason it could do that was that the Estonians came together as a nation and backed the very politicians who proposed such stern stuff.  What, of course, helped was the cohesion of Estonian culture, but it is the rapid modification of their social policies and spending that turned the corner.  Estonia is now the 'how to' poster child of European recovery.  More details in this current CNBC summary that was sent to me by a correspondent.

    While there is still a way to go, Estonia has demonstrated what Germany is telling Europe’s profligate economies – austerity works.

    (Full disclosure – I was born in Estonia.  RR has tracked other aspects of Estonian economic policy with respect to its tax code, technology, and monetary policy.  These are available through either google or RR search.)

    [14jun12 update]  The WSJ blogged today, again highlighting the high-tech entrepreneurship of Estonians, and the country's government which is receptive to such economic activity (here).  In short, they seem to understand that economic recovery needs both austerity (cut spending) and growth (start and build enterprises).  What is conspicuously absent from the Estonian regimen is raising taxes to stifle work and risk taking.  H/T to a correspondent for sending the link.

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    39 comments on Austerity works (updated 14jun12)

  • The Liberal Mind – ‘Women are dumb.’

    George Rebane

    ObamaReidPelosiSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid peeled off another liberal bon mot this morning – “Republicans don’t want women to earn equal pay.”  This electioneering stunt is hoisted every couple of years, regular as clockwork in support of the latest Democrat sponsored bill that is a sop to class action lawyers and would kill jobs for women.  BTW, it’s also redundant since the on the books are two wide-ranging laws – the 1963 Equal Pay Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act – that prohibit gender-based pay discrimination.

    The populist ploy is rolled out regularly on the ‘fact’ that women earn ‘only 70% of what men earn’.  That statistic teeters on aggregate payrolls and is intended for an innumerate audience suffering from logical lightheadedness.  Actually, any pay gap that remains is explained away by a handfull of factors ranging from the professions women choose to the hours and years they remain in the workforce (more here).

    All that doesn’t matter to the liberal machine when they decide to pull their populist levers.  The current legislation Reid is showcasing would loosen another blizzard of regulations on businesses with women workers, requiring them to regularly justify to the feds that their women are not being discriminated against.  This makes all the sense in the world to the political class that has no idea how either the economy works or how businesses operate.  Businesses would naturally respond to such a law by minimizing the number of women they hire because the added regulatory burden translates directly into an increased cost of women’s labor in the workplace.  The result is fewer jobs for women.  (The astute reader will recognize that this is just another version of the eternal truth that you get less of what is taxed more.)

    But the point I want to make in this report is that the liberal establishment considers women to be some kind of mental midgets for them to buy this propaganda pap.  The denigration of women’s ability to reason is part and parcel of the standard applied by the Democrats on other social issues they sell to their constituents.  Women are not supposed to be able to figure out what that 70% number means, what damage the latest proposed law would do to their economic wellbeing, and why it is trotted out every two years by the liberal leadership.  To the Reids and Pelosis, women in the large are just a bunch of dumb broads who will swallow anything that comes in a bright emotional wrapper.

    Finally, these Democrat theatrics have really one purpose, and that is to make their case that Republicans purposely seek to keep women as an underclass in America.  Women are supposed to believe that Republicans are so dense as to continue pissing off half the electorate every two years by opposing equal pay legislation, and maintain an unfair work environment in which women are not treated on the merits they bring to the job.  The final joke on Reid’s claim is the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009 about which President Obama bragged in March that it “ensures equal pay for equal work.”  The liberal minds at work.

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    19 comments on The Liberal Mind – ‘Women are dumb.’

  • Lamestream in the Limelight (updated 6jun12)

    George Rebane

    Ramirez_1jun2012
    Ramirez nails the latest.  And did you hear – well, actually it was hard to do that – how the those self-adulating lamestream journalists all went silent the instant that the district attorney released evidence supporting Zimmerman against the hooligan who was pounding his head into the concrete.  Then all the spigots opened again when the judge revoked his bail on misrepresentation of available cash charges.

    And now our President, you know the one who’s not a socialist, has awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom to big time American socialist Dolores Huerta.  “The Heritage Foundation’s Lachlan Markay reported this week that President Obama has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dolores Huerta, a labor activist and honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.  As Markay notes, DSA describes itself as “the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.”  This is a story the mainstream media declined to cover. But Heritage is getting the story out there regardless.”

    Just another verse from the lamestream’s theme song, ‘The Sound of Silence’.  I could go on, but you get the idea …

    [6jun12 update] A more significant item ‘overlooked’ by and in the lamestream is Alabama’s passage of the nation’s first anti-Agenda21 legislation.  This is especially significant because of the chorus of the nation’s useful idiots (especially of the local kind) who claim that Agenda21 is only a figment of fevered rightwing imaginations and has no bearing on America’s property rights and individual freedoms.  On The New American we read from ‘Alabama Adopts First Official State Ban on UN Agenda 21′ –

    The Alabama Senate Bill (SB) 477 legislation, known unofficially among some supporters as the “Due Process for Property Rights” Act, was approved unanimously by both the state House and Senate. After hesitating for a few days, late last month Republican Governor Robert Bentley finally signed into law the wildly popular measure — but only after heavy pressure from activists forced his hand.

    Virtually no mention of the law was made in the establishment press. But analysts said the measure was likely the strongest protection against the UN scheme passed anywhere in America so far. The law, aimed at protecting private property rights, specifically prevents all state agencies and local governments in Alabama from participating in the global scheme in any way.

    “The State of Alabama and all political subdivisions may not adopt or implement policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe or restrict private property rights without due process, as may be required by policy recommendations originating in, or traceable to ‘Agenda 21,’ ” the law states, adding a brief background on the UN plan hatched at the 1992 “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro.


    Posted at

    in

    , , , ,
    29 comments on Lamestream in the Limelight (updated 6jun12)

  • Doing the Haffey Sidestep on PERS

    George Rebane

    Nevada County’s considerable (massive?) unfunded pension liabilities have been downplayed by the county electeds and staff for the last several years.  When this matter has been brought up to the Board of Supervisors by citizens, it has been either dismissed with hubristic silence or called a form of “rural myth” (more here).  This week county CEO Rick Haffey added his contribution by introducing a new version of this dance.  It was published in the 31may12 Union (‘Supes have taken proactive approach to public pensions’), and for those not having access to that newspaper – their website is paywalled – you can download a pdf of it here.

    The bottom line, as Mr Haffey corroborates, is that the county will be $119M in arrears, to make up for the anticipated shortfall that CalPERS (the state employees’ pension fund manager) will require to pay county retirees in the outyears.  There is no plan for making up this amount, and Mr Haffey neither provides one nor states that one is in preparation.  On top of that, there is no indication that the county knows how much and when payments on the $119M will come due.  Such a schedule of dollars and dates, even in estimated form, is required to forge a plan to deal with these unfunded liabilities.

    We can only deduce from this that the county, in its present make-up of electeds and staff, does not intend to address the problem – do they all plan to be gone then?  Instead, in Mr Haffey’s article he goes into some detail to exonerate the current Rood Center crew in having caused the problem or of having added to it.  The presentation focuses on decisions and provisions going forward that should be taken as long overdue but now prudent behavior on the part of state and local officials.  But there is nothing included on the disposition of the $119M overhang facing the county.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    21 comments on Doing the Haffey Sidestep on PERS

  • GMC = General Motors China

    George Rebane

    President Obama bailed out GMC to the tune of billions in order to make sure his union votes stayed bought and paid for.  While doing that he stiffed GMC's bond holders (along with your pension fund?) and lambasted American corporations doing business overseas as part of the overall globalization of trade.  Now we discover that American auto icon GMC is rapidly becoming a predominantly Chinese vehicle manufacturer, giving its American manufacturing and car design technology to the Chinese, and preparing to do the majority of its manufacturing and business there.  All this while leaving a rump stateside manufacturing capability manned by uncompetitive overpaid union workers here to make over-priced cars and trucks for Americans.  It would have been better for the country to allow GMC to go through bankruptcy, letting its creditors dispose of its assets, and simply send every union member a check for votes properly cast.  Maybe next time.

    (cue a distant voice from the past, 'What's good for GM is good for America.')

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    49 comments on GMC = General Motors China

  • The Great Divide – the debate continues

    George Rebane

    RL ‘Bob’ Crabb posted ‘Inept vs Insane: The National Feud’ on his blog which by its title alone invited a heated discussion in its comment stream.  I put in my two cents and started a thread that had Bob worrying that people would “put holes in (his) new blog”.  Points were raised and questions put that are best answered on RR, which already has enough holes in it so that a few more here and there won’t matter.

    GlobalizationObamaBob’s main point seemed to be that the polarized politics of the country have very little basis in reason, and therefore if people just cooled their rhetoric, they could find a nice middle way and all would be well for the country.  He couldn’t see that much difference between the two sides.  Well, I have spent the last five years on RR trying to substantiate the proposition that there is a huge difference between free market capitalism and collectivism in all its forms, many of which are clearly on the rise for reasons discussed in these pages.  Anyway, I commented –

    “The main difference I see in the contending sides is that one says, your way won’t work because it will put all of us in a poorhouse surrounded by barbed wire; therefore let us go do our thing, and you can do your thing. The other side says your way is unfair, and you have to stay and pay us to make our way work (and we’ll use the barbed wire if we have to).”

    Michael Anderson, somewhat incredulously, asked “George, what’s/who’s stopping you from creating a new country where you can “do your thing” within the border of the USA?”

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    128 comments on The Great Divide – the debate continues

  • Racists? – Obama and Holder

    George Rebane

    VoterIDmapIf someone utters purposive and calculated statements to incite and inflame racial antagonism, then calling such people racists would not be out of line with today’s sensibilities.  President Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder clearly fall into that category, most recently in light of the speech the AG delivered to the Council of Black Churches on voter ID.

    The big progressive lie is again dusted off and rolled out to tell America that requiring voters to properly identify themselves as US citizens, as required by a growing number of states, is discriminatory and inhibits minorities from exercising their voting franchise.  The evidence on voter IDs is overwhelmingly the opposite.   The number of minority voters always increases when voter ID laws are passed and enforced.  People want to vote in legitimate elections.

    To suppose that American minorities overwhelmingly support voting by illegal aliens, the dear departed, and ‘early and often’ is to place them into a second class of ignorant and/or rogue citizens on the basis of their race.  But this is now the growing drumbeat of our first black President and his minions, especially when talking to black and Hispanic audiences.  These people play the race card at every opportunity, and leave a trail of it in the public record as wide as the Missouri – latest details here.

    Posted at

    in

    , , , ,
    5 comments on Racists? – Obama and Holder

  • Ruminations – 31may12

    George Rebane

    As a continuous lament on these pages, the country’s lack of technical talent is now reaching new lows.  We hear that “On college campuses these days, the top nerds are getting a taste of what it's like to be star jocks.  Companies big and small are going on school campuses to hire undergraduate tech majors, offering outstanding compensation packages and stock (more here).  Meanwhile tens of thousands of PhDs holding degrees in latino studies and women’s public policy are on the dole, with more arriving daily.  All of this is lost on the country’s liberal contingent.

    Sex selective abortions are giving those feminists who understand things a bit of a problem.  There’s a bill in the House that would prohibit such abortions done for the sole purpose of getting a kid with specified outside plumbing.  It turns out that minority women are in the overwhelming majority who request such government sponsored genocide services.  Since such killings are the most basic form of gender bias, what’s a dyed-in-wool leftwing feminist to do?  Opposing the bill would be blatant hypocrisy, yet supporting it would deny the federal dole to clinics that do this kind of thing.  And it didn’t help that someone made a video of a woman having a very understanding interview with a worker in one of those abortion clinics.

    The descendants of Lenin’s “useful idiots” are still parroting the denial of government worker pensions as the main cause of fiscal failures of local jurisdictions in America.  Now we hear that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has finally seen the brick wall after having gone splat against it in Chicago.  As the WSJ reports, in Illinois “Many teachers don't pay a penny toward pensions but can retire at age 60 with an annuity equal to 65% of their final salary plus a 3% annual compounded cost-of-living increase. The state's pension bill, which has quadrupled in five years, consumes all $7 billion of additional revenue from last year's income and corporate tax hikes. Even so, the pension funds are projected to go bust in a decade.”  So now that he has executive responsibility, the former Obama chief of staff is singing a different song titled “Illinois pensions are breaking my city.”

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    15 comments on Ruminations – 31may12

  • Voting for Sue McGuire and Doug LaMalfa

    George Rebane

    In next Tuesday’s primary I am voting for Sue McGuire for Nevada County’s District #1 supervisor, and State Senator Doug LaMalfa to become our new representative in Congress.

    Sue McGuire has all of the qualifications to become our new supervisor.  I won’t belabor them; you can see them on her website.  She has also come to our home for an extended meeting with us and our neighbors, and we have talked with her numerous times at community meetings.  In this interval we have gotten to know her, and I endorse Sue because she will be a capable, professional, and prudent voice on the Board who is ideologically the closest to my own beliefs about governance.

    But, given those necessary qualifications, perhaps the prime reason I am voting for Sue is that she will be a new face at the Rood Center, a person with no established ties or ‘accounts’ with county staff, the other electeds, and relationships with the various special interest government associations, leagues, commissions, committees, and NGOs that dot California’s public policy landscape.  Today more than ever, for me that has become the necessary add-on in choosing whom to support for public office.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    2 comments on Voting for Sue McGuire and Doug LaMalfa

  • A Look at GDP

    George Rebane

    Gross Domestic Product is constantly in the news.  It is the definitive measure of a country’s annual production of goods and services.  GDP is calculated in several different ways, all are supposed to be compatible.  The most often used and useful way is called the Expenditure Method that relates to the different kinds of spending that go on in an economy.  In this post I will lay down a little background on GDP that will serve as a ready reference when we talk about things economical during this election year, and keep an eye on the indicators that tell us about the world in Depression2.

    GDPfigureAs shown in the above figure, the expenditure method defines GDP as the sum of consumer spending (C), private investments (I), government spending (G), and the net of exports (X) minus imports (M), which is also known as the ‘current account’ of the country’s foreign trade.

    The first thing to notice is that government spending (G), which itself generates no wealth, contributes to GDP.  This is the notorious Keynesian spigot that is supposed to be opened wide during economic hard times to flood the economy with cash and stimulate spending.  The problem comes when we examine the source of G.  It all derives from three sources that can at best only hide the pain temporarily when the spigot is opened, and then after a while the whole thing simply ceases to function.  (Actually, many of the President’s constituents believe that there is fourth and more mysterious yet just as reliable source called ‘Obama’s Stash’)

    G is made up of mainly taxes of several kinds and collected under various guises, and labeled so as to hide their true sum.  But all taxes come out of the wealth creating private sector, with the possible exception of autocratic governments selling their nationalized natural resources to other countries.  When taxes don’t generate enough ‘revenues’ (love their use of business terms like ‘revenues’ and ‘investment’), then an alternative source is to borrow from lenders (foreign and domestic) to make up the shortfall.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    8 comments on A Look at GDP

RR FUNDAMENTALS

About the Bastiat Triangle

Glossary & Semantics

A Conservetarian Credo

Commenting Rules

RECENT POSTS

RECENT COMMENTS

CATEGORIES

39 comments on Austerity works (updated 14jun12)