As I understand it, the idea for an Oregon State Bank modeled on the Bank of North Dakota is under serious discussion in the Oregon legislature, with support from members of both major parties. It started last year with a proposal from an alternative ("third") party called the Oregon Working Families Party. It's probably not getting any play in major media, I don't suppose, but the idea seems to be working its way around the interested public.
For sure, none of the above for reasons stated by Robert Oak. Except there is this one candidate who maybe .... could this guy be real? .... nah!
But still, I'm thinking this Buddy Roemer down in Louisiana could be worth registering Republican just to vote in the primary ....
And he won't even consider taking more than $100 from any one of us .... so, as long shots go, against all odds, you know .... $100 gets what? .... remote possibility of shaking up the two-ring presidential circus ....
Well, I thought, for an economics blog, something like buying junk bonds on the off chance .... more of a gamble than an investment .... but what else is there in this day and age?
What will the next slogan be from the exponent of "Change We Can Believe In" how about to "I Got It Made, Too Bad 'Bout You Liberals" or "We Just Made Some Cake, Would You Like Some"? or
Sounds from the White House:
"My corporate boys from Wall Street are coming so please exit by the back door you progressives. We wouldn't want them seeing you raggety, maggety liberals begging in our American White House."
Ironies! Who knew. I didn't; we were pretty stupid, weren't we? If he gets a second term, what more damage can he do? Will he be the end of our liberal species? Is it too soon to write our demise? I don't know, but it sure don't look good for the home team.
TOKYO (AP) — Workers began pumping more than 3 million gallons of contaminated water from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, freeing storage space for even more highly radioactive water that has hampered efforts to stabilize the reactors.
It will take about two days to pump most of the less-radioactive water out of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, whose cooling systems were knocked out by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
Radioactivity is quickly diluted in the ocean, and government officials said the dump should not affect the safety of seafood in the area. ...
"This is an industry that's had an extremely safe track record for more than 40 years," [Jeff} Immelt [GE CEO] said. "We have had more than 1,000 engineers working around the clock since the incident began and we will continue in the short, medium and long term working with TEPCO due to this horrific natural disaster."
-----------
The magical cleansing power of the sea, it seems, makes this dumping all right.
The GE CEO Immelt has to call this a natural disaster. Here's why.
Three of the six reactors at Fukushima are from GE and two of those that have moved into meltdown are GE.
With all this talk of being the first presidential candidate to raise $1 billion, with almost all of it coming from the Money Party and little of it from individual donors, Obama must be counting on the need to pay people to staff his ground operation since volunteers won't be showing up. It'll be like the Census Bureau program of temporary employment, capable of putting a positive blip on the employment data until the campaign is over. A twofer if you will: the President is personally putting people to work, while also staffing a campaign sorely in need of physical bodies to man the telephones and show up at rallies. His new campaign motto should be: GE brings good things to life!
The large corporations are a different matter but many small manufacturers want to stay and produce in the US. Before thinking about increasing taxes on companies that produce in the the US, taxes should be imposed on imports from countries that manipulate their currencies and are protectionist like requiring technology to be transferred overseas to sell there. Does it make sense to be taxed to produce and create jobs in the US when products from protectionist countries come in for free?
If you count short term and long term discouraged workers which haven't been counted since 1994 then unemployment in reality is really much higher.
Unemployment is still high in large areas of the US because the money printing stimulus packages from the FED went into funding the outsourcing of US jobs, factories, technology transfers overseas, military bases and intrastructure spending abroad, speculation into financial assets that is pushing up commodity prices and artificial consumption with debt. While Germany and Japan create new money to fund to production the US creates new money out of thin air to fund outsourcing.
I think other States and the FED could learn a lot from North Dakota. Currently the State has the lowest rate of unemployment, one of the highest State GDP growth rates, highest rate of job growth, stable housing market, low crime rates, lowest credit card default rates, and has a budget surplus. Yes North Dakota is rich in oil, but then again some other US States are also rich in oil and other natural resources but do not have an economy booming like North Dakota. What North Dakota does differently is that they have a State Bank that can credit to fund production and industry.
The Bank of North Dakota is an example of a model to follow. It places State tax funds into their own State bank that they can recycle to fund projects and industrial development within the State. Additionally they work with other private banks in the state, also hold deposits of other private banks and individuals. Instead of having to depend entirely on issuing state bonds, they can create credit to fund development within the State. The state of North Dakota has been successful at regularly maintaining low unemployment and budget surpluses with it's state bank because they encourage savings and can create credit to fund development. Also, the deposits with the Bank of North Dakota are not FDIC insured but insured by the State which prevents high over leverage on the Bank balance sheet because the State Bank knows it doesn't have a printing press that it can use to create unlimited amounts of new money. So money is not created to fund much speculation.
I tend to ignore Obama because he sounds like a cross between a broken record and the talking Abe Lincoln at Disney World. However, he is announcing for 2012 tomorrow. This would be a nice welcome to the real world notice. This is the key line, imho:
This is a political crime of deception, an enormous bait and switch, in which liberals and quite a few independents were misled by a serial liar who purposely characterized himself as a reformer… Numerian
Special thanks to artist Lucy White - lucywhite.com (& facebook) - for permission to use her remix of the guys.
In the last thirty years the Republicans have not been correct on much, not taxes, see income inequality and the deficit, not energy policy, see the three wars. The meltdown in Japan and problems in the Middle East have not driven prices as high as the speculators did in 2008. Didn't get it right on Free Trade, see the unemployment rate, didn't get it right on repealing Glass Steagal, see bank bailouts, didn't get it right on welfare to work, see poverty rate. War on drugs: failure.
Maybe the only thing Republicans have been correct about in the last thirty years?...That Clinton was "stealing" their ideas and like Obama, Clinton could be a "better" republican than even an actual republican, able to dismantle Social Security and Welfare, while serving everyone up to the insurance Co's. The Republicans already have their men. This is why they ran old Bob Dole who had no chance and will field candidates this election who have no chance, Obama has earned the endorsement of the oligarchs. We have not had a democrat in the White House since Kennedy.
and that would do that regardless of the taxes in a particular state.
That said, it sure seems the illegal immigrant lobby gets special favors carte blanche, such as Chicago, LA, is where the taxes are also going through the roof. I'm sorry folks, but this really does drive a lot of social underclass costs and is another example of lobbying vs. common sense practicality.
For a moment, maybe just seconds, I had a slight smile when I heard Trump was running. Then the doubts set in and Trump made the "birther" remark about the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate. At that point, any benefit Trump might have offered evaporated by his alliance with the entirety of that screwed up notion.
But your point is key. I got a great three day package at the Taj Mahal when Trump was on the ropes. They were literally removing the Taj towers off of the roof as we arrived. Trump was saved by the banks and, I'm sure, he can never forget. He's a hobbyist anyway. Perot was a real candidate.
This is the best and one of the earliest critiques of the "brand Obama" hypocrisy. Obama may not be worse than Bush (or he may), but the fact that he has a) lied so cravenly to the public and b) implemented disastrous policies at a point where we simply can't afford them makes contempt and ridicule mandatory. Ignoring him won't make him go away (which would be my preference).
The polling analysis is first rate. Don't bother with anyone else for now, imho. Obama struggles against a generic candidate but wins against specific Republicans. The wisdom of the people prevails! He's a loser and phoney and people see that. But when one of the crazies is put in place of "Republican," he wins. That's not something to be proud of. But the Democrat Money party boys will beat their chests (they've already started) by ignoring this analysis.
False Flag Obama
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. Wikipedia
Obama campaigned as Mr. Positive, a new beath of air, the changemeister. But even before he was inaugurated, he appoited Tim Geithner and Larry Summers. That was the point at which the false flag of the people came down and the real flag of The Money Party was hoisted. He should be ashamed but he won't. He and the top 1% who ruin the country on a perpetual basis are doing exactly what they want to do; stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
We are not tax serfs. The govt is ours, we do not belong to the govt. Illinois and especially Chicago have driven most of their large corporations out of state or out of business. "Only" 7% corporate tax, along with fees, fines, rules and regulations, have made Illinois the #1 most expensive state to do business in. Meanwhile Chicago has about bankrupted itself with it's populist gimmies, and has famously run out of "other peoples money," which they have given to their friends in return for votes and campaign donation kickbacks.
It is Chicago that needs to find another way of doing business, not Caterpillar.
He just can't say no to Wall St campaign contribution .... as well as future support for retirement tours, speeches, etc. A real leader would have tackled the financial reform issues etc even if he had to bypass any future campaign contributions and settle for one effective term
Great piece. Unfortunately this can only get worse with now (Citizens United decision) no holds corporate (essentially) purchase of campaigns and politicians (and to continue to choose words carefully, everyone should form their own judgment/opinion re some members of the Supreme Court eg with family ties to the Koch Bros and alleged direct acceptance of eg "conference" expenses)
Trump is free to say some things that other candidates with political careers and a little less personal money would not be able to utter (I'm leaving out Ron Paul for the moment, who until recently didn't have much of a political career).
Exactly how hard Trump would be on business if he were in office is altogether another matter. His real estate empire was bankrupt in the 80s and was saved only by some extend and pretend games by the banks, for which Trump has always been grateful (especially to JPM Chase). That is one industry he would not to see under pressure, at least when it comes to their very serious commercial real estate problems of the moment.
Ignoring the "birther" thing of recent, (see the Sunday Morning Comics for a good take on that one from the Lewis Black), Donald Trump has really called cash on China and trade, I mean it's astounding and surprising that Mr. Hair, reality show, womanizer, bankrupt casino owner (although he has managed to land of his feet which in that game, many didn't)....
could say something that should be coming out of the mouth of a Democratic candidate, really got a lot of people's attention.
That said, this campaign is pretty much only going to help jobs by filling the coffers of TV ad space and campaign staff with assuredly billions...
so that's the only purpose I see is in an indirect way corporations will be spending a lot of dough to get their representatives into the White House and Congress.
The Economic Populist is officially non-partisan, since we are an economics blog, primarily. That said, I'm fairly certain almost all site readers would choose none of the above since we cannot get policy for the U.S. worker, U.S. middle class and in the national interest.
As I understand it, the idea for an Oregon State Bank modeled on the Bank of North Dakota is under serious discussion in the Oregon legislature, with support from members of both major parties. It started last year with a proposal from an alternative ("third") party called the Oregon Working Families Party. It's probably not getting any play in major media, I don't suppose, but the idea seems to be working its way around the interested public.
OregonLive blog discussion of the proposal
For sure, none of the above for reasons stated by Robert Oak. Except there is this one candidate who maybe .... could this guy be real? .... nah!
But still, I'm thinking this Buddy Roemer down in Louisiana could be worth registering Republican just to vote in the primary ....
And he won't even consider taking more than $100 from any one of us .... so, as long shots go, against all odds, you know .... $100 gets what? .... remote possibility of shaking up the two-ring presidential circus ....
Well, I thought, for an economics blog, something like buying junk bonds on the off chance .... more of a gamble than an investment .... but what else is there in this day and age?
Link to Roemer's very brief statement
While some economic reports are more credible and useful than others, I find the ISM pretty useful and wanted to catch up.
Q1 2010 advance GDP will be out April 28th, so we'll see if the above ISM predictive aspects correlate.
I sure have a hard time believing it will, but as noted, they do have a good track record.
I kid you not, a fish was found to have 7.5 million times more radiation past the legal limit in Japan.
Gives new meaning to the term glo-fish.
radioactive fish.
What will the next slogan be from the exponent of "Change We Can Believe In" how about to "I Got It Made, Too Bad 'Bout You Liberals" or "We Just Made Some Cake, Would You Like Some"? or
Sounds from the White House:
"My corporate boys from Wall Street are coming so please exit by the back door you progressives. We wouldn't want them seeing you raggety, maggety liberals begging in our American White House."
Ironies! Who knew. I didn't; we were pretty stupid, weren't we? If he gets a second term, what more damage can he do? Will he be the end of our liberal species? Is it too soon to write our demise? I don't know, but it sure don't look good for the home team.
Japan nuke plant dumps radioactive water into sea
(AP) – 5 hours ago
TOKYO (AP) — Workers began pumping more than 3 million gallons of contaminated water from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, freeing storage space for even more highly radioactive water that has hampered efforts to stabilize the reactors.
It will take about two days to pump most of the less-radioactive water out of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, whose cooling systems were knocked out by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
Radioactivity is quickly diluted in the ocean, and government officials said the dump should not affect the safety of seafood in the area. ...
"This is an industry that's had an extremely safe track record for more than 40 years," [Jeff} Immelt [GE CEO] said. "We have had more than 1,000 engineers working around the clock since the incident began and we will continue in the short, medium and long term working with TEPCO due to this horrific natural disaster."
-----------
The magical cleansing power of the sea, it seems, makes this dumping all right.
The GE CEO Immelt has to call this a natural disaster. Here's why.
Three of the six reactors at Fukushima are from GE and two of those that have moved into meltdown are GE.
With all this talk of being the first presidential candidate to raise $1 billion, with almost all of it coming from the Money Party and little of it from individual donors, Obama must be counting on the need to pay people to staff his ground operation since volunteers won't be showing up. It'll be like the Census Bureau program of temporary employment, capable of putting a positive blip on the employment data until the campaign is over. A twofer if you will: the President is personally putting people to work, while also staffing a campaign sorely in need of physical bodies to man the telephones and show up at rallies. His new campaign motto should be: GE brings good things to life!
The large corporations are a different matter but many small manufacturers want to stay and produce in the US. Before thinking about increasing taxes on companies that produce in the the US, taxes should be imposed on imports from countries that manipulate their currencies and are protectionist like requiring technology to be transferred overseas to sell there. Does it make sense to be taxed to produce and create jobs in the US when products from protectionist countries come in for free?
If you count short term and long term discouraged workers which haven't been counted since 1994 then unemployment in reality is really much higher.
Unemployment is still high in large areas of the US because the money printing stimulus packages from the FED went into funding the outsourcing of US jobs, factories, technology transfers overseas, military bases and intrastructure spending abroad, speculation into financial assets that is pushing up commodity prices and artificial consumption with debt. While Germany and Japan create new money to fund to production the US creates new money out of thin air to fund outsourcing.
I think other States and the FED could learn a lot from North Dakota. Currently the State has the lowest rate of unemployment, one of the highest State GDP growth rates, highest rate of job growth, stable housing market, low crime rates, lowest credit card default rates, and has a budget surplus. Yes North Dakota is rich in oil, but then again some other US States are also rich in oil and other natural resources but do not have an economy booming like North Dakota. What North Dakota does differently is that they have a State Bank that can credit to fund production and industry.
The Bank of North Dakota is an example of a model to follow. It places State tax funds into their own State bank that they can recycle to fund projects and industrial development within the State. Additionally they work with other private banks in the state, also hold deposits of other private banks and individuals. Instead of having to depend entirely on issuing state bonds, they can create credit to fund development within the State. The state of North Dakota has been successful at regularly maintaining low unemployment and budget surpluses with it's state bank because they encourage savings and can create credit to fund development. Also, the deposits with the Bank of North Dakota are not FDIC insured but insured by the State which prevents high over leverage on the Bank balance sheet because the State Bank knows it doesn't have a printing press that it can use to create unlimited amounts of new money. So money is not created to fund much speculation.
I tend to ignore Obama because he sounds like a cross between a broken record and the talking Abe Lincoln at Disney World. However, he is announcing for 2012 tomorrow. This would be a nice welcome to the real world notice. This is the key line, imho:
This is a political crime of deception, an enormous bait and switch, in which liberals and quite a few independents were misled by a serial liar who purposely characterized himself as a reformer… Numerian
Special thanks to artist Lucy White - lucywhite.com (& facebook) - for permission to use her remix of the guys.
And here we go again, Obama's big money donors are lining up Wash Post
In the last thirty years the Republicans have not been correct on much, not taxes, see income inequality and the deficit, not energy policy, see the three wars. The meltdown in Japan and problems in the Middle East have not driven prices as high as the speculators did in 2008. Didn't get it right on Free Trade, see the unemployment rate, didn't get it right on repealing Glass Steagal, see bank bailouts, didn't get it right on welfare to work, see poverty rate. War on drugs: failure.
Maybe the only thing Republicans have been correct about in the last thirty years?...That Clinton was "stealing" their ideas and like Obama, Clinton could be a "better" republican than even an actual republican, able to dismantle Social Security and Welfare, while serving everyone up to the insurance Co's. The Republicans already have their men. This is why they ran old Bob Dole who had no chance and will field candidates this election who have no chance, Obama has earned the endorsement of the oligarchs. We have not had a democrat in the White House since Kennedy.
and that would do that regardless of the taxes in a particular state.
That said, it sure seems the illegal immigrant lobby gets special favors carte blanche, such as Chicago, LA, is where the taxes are also going through the roof. I'm sorry folks, but this really does drive a lot of social underclass costs and is another example of lobbying vs. common sense practicality.
For a moment, maybe just seconds, I had a slight smile when I heard Trump was running. Then the doubts set in and Trump made the "birther" remark about the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate. At that point, any benefit Trump might have offered evaporated by his alliance with the entirety of that screwed up notion.
But your point is key. I got a great three day package at the Taj Mahal when Trump was on the ropes. They were literally removing the Taj towers off of the roof as we arrived. Trump was saved by the banks and, I'm sure, he can never forget. He's a hobbyist anyway. Perot was a real candidate.
This is the best and one of the earliest critiques of the "brand Obama" hypocrisy. Obama may not be worse than Bush (or he may), but the fact that he has a) lied so cravenly to the public and b) implemented disastrous policies at a point where we simply can't afford them makes contempt and ridicule mandatory. Ignoring him won't make him go away (which would be my preference).
The polling analysis is first rate. Don't bother with anyone else for now, imho. Obama struggles against a generic candidate but wins against specific Republicans. The wisdom of the people prevails! He's a loser and phoney and people see that. But when one of the crazies is put in place of "Republican," he wins. That's not something to be proud of. But the Democrat Money party boys will beat their chests (they've already started) by ignoring this analysis.
False Flag Obama
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. Wikipedia
Obama campaigned as Mr. Positive, a new beath of air, the changemeister. But even before he was inaugurated, he appoited Tim Geithner and Larry Summers. That was the point at which the false flag of the people came down and the real flag of The Money Party was hoisted. He should be ashamed but he won't. He and the top 1% who ruin the country on a perpetual basis are doing exactly what they want to do; stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
Fine statement of fact and reality Numerian!
We are not tax serfs. The govt is ours, we do not belong to the govt. Illinois and especially Chicago have driven most of their large corporations out of state or out of business. "Only" 7% corporate tax, along with fees, fines, rules and regulations, have made Illinois the #1 most expensive state to do business in. Meanwhile Chicago has about bankrupted itself with it's populist gimmies, and has famously run out of "other peoples money," which they have given to their friends in return for votes and campaign donation kickbacks.
It is Chicago that needs to find another way of doing business, not Caterpillar.
He just can't say no to Wall St campaign contribution .... as well as future support for retirement tours, speeches, etc. A real leader would have tackled the financial reform issues etc even if he had to bypass any future campaign contributions and settle for one effective term
Great piece. Unfortunately this can only get worse with now (Citizens United decision) no holds corporate (essentially) purchase of campaigns and politicians (and to continue to choose words carefully, everyone should form their own judgment/opinion re some members of the Supreme Court eg with family ties to the Koch Bros and alleged direct acceptance of eg "conference" expenses)
Trump is free to say some things that other candidates with political careers and a little less personal money would not be able to utter (I'm leaving out Ron Paul for the moment, who until recently didn't have much of a political career).
Exactly how hard Trump would be on business if he were in office is altogether another matter. His real estate empire was bankrupt in the 80s and was saved only by some extend and pretend games by the banks, for which Trump has always been grateful (especially to JPM Chase). That is one industry he would not to see under pressure, at least when it comes to their very serious commercial real estate problems of the moment.
Ignoring the "birther" thing of recent, (see the Sunday Morning Comics for a good take on that one from the Lewis Black), Donald Trump has really called cash on China and trade, I mean it's astounding and surprising that Mr. Hair, reality show, womanizer, bankrupt casino owner (although he has managed to land of his feet which in that game, many didn't)....
could say something that should be coming out of the mouth of a Democratic candidate, really got a lot of people's attention.
That said, this campaign is pretty much only going to help jobs by filling the coffers of TV ad space and campaign staff with assuredly billions...
so that's the only purpose I see is in an indirect way corporations will be spending a lot of dough to get their representatives into the White House and Congress.
The Economic Populist is officially non-partisan, since we are an economics blog, primarily. That said, I'm fairly certain almost all site readers would choose none of the above since we cannot get policy for the U.S. worker, U.S. middle class and in the national interest.
It's just battle of the lobbyists.
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