Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, says executives are most concerned with uncertainty. He says the government needs to, “Take the uncertainty out. Businesses can’t invest until they have fewer variables and right now there are just too many variables.”

Companies like Intel continue to invest because their future requires it (technology), but he says, “A lot of companies are sitting on the side lines.”

The economic environment is very uncertain. Otellini asks, “What are the ground rules? Give me some certainty.”

For example there is a significant R&D tax credit that must be renewed every year. Companies don’t do R&D for a year. As Otellini puts it, “You need to know the credit is going to be there if you’re going to make this investment.” Read the rest of this entry »

The government needs somebody to buy their soon to be worthless bonds. Guess what? They’ve decided it’s going to be YOU.

About half of American workers have no employer-provided retirement plan. Less than 10% of workers who don’t have a plan contribute to IRAs. And because Congress cares so much about people (really because they smell money) they’ve decided to force workers to contribute to IRAs. Isn’t that sweet? Read the rest of this entry »

Congress has no contact with reality at all. Congressmen live inside of a giant bubble called Washington, D.C. which keeps any reality at all from reaching them.

Genius Congressman, Chaka Fattah, has proposed the ironically titled bill “The Debt Free America Act,” which would have the effect of putting Americans deeper into debt. Fattah proposes imposing a federal tax of 1% anytime cash, a credit card, a debit card, or a check is used. That’s not all also any sale of stock, bonds, or any other financial instrument or simply transferring money.

Taxes are already too high. If people are going to spend more money, which would help the economy, they need to have more money to spend. Taking money away from people for conducting business definitely isn’t the way to fix the economy. All higher taxes will lead to is a deeper depression. Read the rest of this entry »

Originally the Fed tried to keep the economy going by balancing the books of the failing banks by buying the banks’ toxic assets. Only it didn’t work.

It would have worked, at least for awhile, if the banks had started lending again like they had been. Before being bailed out the banks couldn’t loan more money because they were bankrupt. After they got bailed out they simply chose not to lend more money. They just sat on the bailout money supplied at taxpayer expense.

This “solution” was a total failure. The economy didn’t pick up and none of the toxic debt got wiped out. Read the rest of this entry »

Nevada treats unpaid gambling debt as a criminal matter handled by the District Attorney’s bad-checks unit. Most defendants agree to pay the debt through a payment plan before charges are filed, with around 10% tacked on to fund the D.A. unit. Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, prosecutes roughly 200 cases involving gambling debts a month, says Bernie Zadrowski, who runs the bad-checks unit.

Wow, this is so horrible. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because gambling is where all the employment in the state comes from. You don’t go to jail for not paying your mortgage.

It used to be called Fabian Socialism.

The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized cutbacks around the margins. To make matters worse, government employees—thanks largely to the power of their unions—have carved out special protections that exempt them from many of the rules that other working Americans must live by. California has been on the cutting edge of this dangerous trend, which has essentially turned government employees into a special class of citizens.

Animated Map of US Unemployment by County