New Minimum wage - $5.35/hour

Kramer's union's demands are met 12 years after the bagel shop workers went on strike. are met...

Only the 'Good' guys should have guns

In what comes to no surprise for those living in Rahmaland, the city's top cop has come out proclaiming the only way to stop all this maddening violence is less guns.  So the only state that does not have a conceal and carry law, which has a city with one of the highest murder rates in the country, feels like making it harder to get a gun will lead to less murders...

McCarthy during a Rainbow/Push Coalition dialogue:

“When people say concealed carry, I say Trayvon Martin,” McCarthy said, referring to the unarmed 17-year-old who was shot and killed last February by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida, sparking controversy across the country. 

When I hear this man's logic, I think of Melinda Herman:

Melinda Herman grabbed a handgun and hid in a crawl space with her two children when a man broke in last week and approached the family at their home northeast of Atlanta, police said. Herman called her husband on the phone, and with him reminding her of the lessons she recently learned at a shooting range, Herman opened fire, seriously wounding the burglary suspect.

I wonder if Melinda asked the intruder to place down his gun (if he had one) so she could see he has all the proper permit and paperwork in place.

What laws really should be repealed in Chicago are the laws that hurt the poor: Minimum wage laws that prevent the unskilled from getting jobs, inflation induced by the Federal Reserve who actually targets a % of inflation for every year (making your money worth less), and the war on drugs that has failed miserably.

$20 Everyday McValue menu

It used to bother me that CEOs made lot$ of money.  "They don't deserve that!"  "How much money does one man deserve?"  "He should pay more taxes!".  Sadly, this is what I used to say with my beloved Pro-Union Grandpa shaking his head in the background.  How silly of me.  The reasons CEOs get paid what they get paid is because they take on huge responsibility leading global companies.  This is not the same as the CEOs of Bankster companies that get bailed out by the government *cough AIG, B of A, GM * cough.  Those CEOs don't deserve the chairs they sit in.

Which brings us to a Bloomberg article that claims the whoa is me mantra of a lower wage earner.  I am not attacking this man's character.  He appears to work hard.  But his wage is determined by the marginal revenue product of his labor skills.  See Labor follows the law of supply and demand just like any other aspect of the economy.  This worker's skills are easily replaceable with another worker, thus his wages are lower.  I like these quotes:

Johnson would need about a million hours of work -- or more than a century on the clock -- to earn the $8.75 million that McDonald’s, based in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, paid then- CEO Jim Skinner last year.

And he would need two million hours of work to double the CEOs salary!  This is great math.  Here is what I propose, pay everyone equal amount.  From the french fry cook to the CEO.  See how long the company stays in business, and what people want to buy their shares.

Employers are doing more to keep workers from organizing, said Dorothy Sue Cobble, labor professor and historian at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “The numbers of people who get fired for joining a union or trying to organize one has increased dramatically over the last 30 years,” she said.

There is a reason.  Business' don't want to deal with Unions.  They do not (in just about every case) add value to a business or shareholders.

If McDonald's paid its lowest wage earners the same as the CEO, we would all be enjoying the $20 Everyday McValue menu, not the $1 menu that is currently being assaulted by our fearsome President of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Ben "Hellicopter" Bernanke

 

Should cities (especially ones like Parma) own golf courses?

It will likely be the third year in a row that Ridgewood spends more than it earns.

Now if Ridgewood was a private company, usually you go out of business when you spend more than it earns.  But not in fantasy world of government owned entities!  

This brings up a valid question, why does a city, Parma no less, own a golf course?  Is it mentioned in the city charter..."there shall be one golf course and one ice cream parlor owned by the city at all times' (sarcasm)

Constantly, Government 'leaders' feel the Government should own business', land, assets...when the exact opposite should  be the case.

If Ridgewood was a viable business, it could function without a $52,000 loan from the city.  Or, it could go to a bank and ask for a loan.  People of Parma, beware...your city council is inhabited by idiots.

Read full article here.

A plea to end the War in Afghanistan

How long should we as a nation continue to sacrifice blood and treasure for what is clearly a losing proposition?

 The War in Afghanistan has been going on for over 10 years now.  Think about that for a minute...Think of what has happened in 10 years... Shows that were in the top 20 of TV ratings included such darlings as 'Becker', 'Inside Schwartz', and 'Judging Amy'.  Smart phones were phones with caller IDs.  I could go on and on, but remember, everyday over the past 10 years we have been at war with a country, and no one can really tell us why.  There is no end in sight.  There is no truce.  It's a war that can not be won and was never declared an official war by Congress.  Instead, we just keep wasting BILLION$ on 'promoting democracy' and 'freeing the people', yet in the process, create more enemies.

There are still about 67,000 U.S. soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines deployed in Afghanistan, alongside 37,000 military personnel from other coalition member nations. The White House has said it intends to keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan more or less indefinitely, both to help train Afghan forces and to carry out counter-terrorism operations, long after NATO's mission in Afghanistan formally concludes at the end of 2014.

67,000 of our fellow Americans are putting their lives at risk, for what?

About five years ago, I read a book by an Islamic scholar, Rory Stewart, who decided he'd become the first tourist to walk across a post-Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Relying on his wits, knowledge of Muslim customs and the kindnesses of strangers, Stewart trekked for a month from village to village. His "The Places in Between" proved a remarkable travelogue, if for no other reason than it underscored just how primitive and disconnected much of Afghanistan really is. Loyalties rarely extend beyond the village, the tribe and Allah. Given those realities, the idea of instilling in the Afghan people anything resembling American-style, flag-waving, defend-the-homeland nationalism is almost laughable. It would be laughable were it not for the fact that more than 2,000 brave Americans have died trying to change things. How many more have to die before enough is enough?

I need to read this book!  Or rather, I need our Government 'Leaders' to read this book!

I don't want him to go back to Afghanistan. I don't want anyone's son or daughter to have to go back. It's no longer worth it.

This sums it up.

Please read David Freed's entire letter here.

Merry Christmas, and God Bless.
Countryboy

 

 

Mr. Greenspan - 25 years ago

"Gold will impose discipline not just Monetary Policy, but Federal Budget Policy as well."

"If you can not finance deficits, you can not create them or sustain them."

- Alan Greenspan

Check out Mr. Greenspan give testimony on CPI:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Pric

Our ex-Fed Chairman Mr. Greenspan talked a mere 25 years ago about creating a CPI that accurately reflects changes to commodity prices.  You know those commodity prices that follow the time-tested idea of supply and demand.  Damn you rising prices!  The Fed has a mandate for stable prices!  How dare you not have a centrally planned index that takes into affect droughts, competition, wars, tariffs...

So how does CPI look...hmm....courtesy of St. Louis Fed:

Mr. Greenspan made this speech in 1987.  If you follow this graph, to purchase $120 of goods in 1987 would cost you close to $230 today.  Thats your dollar at work people!

Looks like inflation has done very well for those that benefit from Inflation: Those that have access to Money first, and the Government that can use cheaper dollars to pay off their debts.

Remember, Inflation is never good when it is Fed induced.  Never.

Unions: Oh how I love thee...

It's always comical to me when 'Labor' supporters wage hell on any employer or state when there is Right to Work legislation.  You have to love this quote from where else, a Detroit Democrat:

"You will forever remember the day when you thought you could conquer labor," Sen. Coleman Young II, a Detroit Democrat and son of the city's fiery late mayor, boomed during floor debate Thursday. "Be prepared to engage in the fight of your life."

This coming from the poignantly titled 'Unions vow political payback for right to work law' Huffington Post article

Disclaimer: My Grandpa, whom I love and admire very much, is hardcore pro-Union.  He feels there should be a Living Wage, Management is always out to get employees, and that Unions/Government help grow this country.

As I have grown older and studied on more economic issues, I realize how wrong of a view my Grandpa possesses.  Who creates jobs?  Government doesn't create jobs.  Why, if I was an employer, why would I want to open a business in a non-right to work state?

Unions prevent employers hiring more workers by requiring a higher wage for the work done, Seniority rules that prevent employers from promoting or rewarding hard working employees, and rules that prevent employers from removing non-productive workers from its workforce.

I used to be a huge Union supporter.  Than I realized where the real problem lies.