IRAQ & SYRIA...THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS REVISITED AGAIN...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2013)

North Korea was on the front pages just a few months ago.  Obviously the Chinese, who are the major suppliers of everything to North Korea, told them in strong terms to cease and desist.  There is no possible way the North Korea leadership would or could stand up to the Chinese.
Crisis resolved, off the front pageS, on to the next thing...

As Russia is the major supplier to Syria, you would suspect that they could have very significant influence on the Syrians behavior.

Russia's economy is extremely dependent on energy prices.  Crisis in the Mideast causes prices of oil and related commodities to rise.  Russia's economy is able to sustain itself on the higher energy prices.

As a general rule, the United States doesn't like energy prices this high and would like to see the chaos in Syria come to a halt.

President Obama goes to the Russians and says; "Hey you can bring a stop to this so please do it".  The Russians know the Americans can't stand confrontation.  They foresee the chaos in that part of the world potentially leading to increased influence of the Russians over the entire Mideastern oil supplies.

Here is the "real story";  what we are witnessing in Syria has little to do with the sociopathic Assad and the rebel terrorist organizations.  It is totally a confrontation between the United States and Russia and has the potential to move in the direction of the Cuban Missile crisis, not just a Mideast conflict.

Russia could easily bring an end to what we see going on in Syria by joining with the US and western nations.  They see little need to do that because so far President Obama is neither President Kennedy, President Reagan, President Roosevelt or Churchill.  He is hiding behind his "bodyguards", the "CONGRESS", and is afraid to confront the real perpetrators of the catastrophe in Syria.  

THE TERRORISTS OF THE IRS...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 5/17/13)

It was during the Abraham Lincoln administration that the first federal income tax program was legislated.

It was also the beginning of the progressive tax, where the more you made the higher percentage you paid.  In effect, if you made more you were TARGETED to pay a higher percentage of your income.

Since then each political party has targeted one thing or another to benefit one constituency or another.  We have special tax programs homeowners, investors, municipalities, charities, stocks, solar energy, education, natural resource discovery, etc. etc. etc. Its the American way to use the tax system for both political and economic purposes.

Consequently, as repulsive as it is, it should not be surprising that people in the current administration may have been involved in targeting groups that they may have wanted to penalize.  The IRS does not have a random lottery system approach to its auditing program.  It targets based on specific criteria, which in many cases have nothing to do with breaking any laws.

We really don't want to get into a long dialogue about the IRS. Unfortunately the question now is; has a rogue group of left wing politicians, so hell bent on destroying political forces that do not support agendas other than theirs, been able to use the office and powers of the IRS to achieve their goals.

Some very evil people have come to power world wide using the force of corrupt government to wipe out opposing views.

GAS ATTACKS & SYRIA.."400,000 DEAD"...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/29/13)

When the Syrian insurgency began President Obama was given a "one time only" opportunity to quickly prevent escalation.  Inaction was followed by inaction and well over 100,000 people have been killed, wounded or misplaced.

The complexity of facilitating an end to the carnage now, creates a much more difficult, expensive. risky and limited set of options.

As we wrote in an earlier blog, the cost of ending atrocities early would have been much less than the cost is today and the longer term implications of inaction are not any clearer.

The character of any President is most tested when issues of life and death for many take over the landscape.

TRUMP-DOES HE REALLY HAVE IT CORRECT? RUSIA & UKRAINE - A COUNTRY THAT WAS ONCE ONE...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9/11/14)

Sometimes common wisdom is way off the mark.  Over the last few years we have pointed out that the PC wasn't going to disappear, the price of gold  was overblown, the pundits of gloom were mostly not worth listening to, the occupiers had little case, the deficit was substantially media hype, and the appeasement of enemies is generally not a winning strategy.

What I am going to say now seems absurd on its face, even to me who is writing it, but here I go.

My parents were born in Russia. Their citizenship papers say they were born in Russia.  Specifically they were born in Ukraine, Russia.  In my family it was taken as a statement of fact that they were from Russia. I took a look at Wikipedia and it was obvious, for several hundred years, Ukraine was considered Russia.

Somehow or other the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the name Russia was called by, ceded Ukraine to its own independence.  Now there is man by the name of Mr. Putin who thinks that breaking up the union was a very negative development for his country.

The Civil War in the United States was initially about maintaining the union between the North and the South, it was not initially fought over slavery.  I'm not sure that maintaining the Russian union is not as important to them as it was to us during the Civil War.

What am I missing?

OBAMA, CLINTON & SOROS - THEIR ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW AMERICA (ORIG. PUBLISHED JUNE 2012)

Saul Alinsky pontificated in his Rules for Radicals that to destroy the American system that a realistic radical is completely unconcerned about the verification of facts and that they are only interested in their agenda. He states that the purpose of radicals is to sew discontent and to seek to create an environment so they can influence the generally ignorant population to support political goals that would otherwise be unsupportable in the face of the facts. 

"CUT THE BULL" MOST OF THE MEDIA IS OUT FOR RATINGS NOT AMERICA...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/2011)

It's time to cut the bullshit. People like Paul Krugman win Nobel prizes and generally don't know what they are talking about. The Tom Friedmans of the world, write books forever, make tons of money and make no contribution to peace in the Middle East, just a bunch of words and high fluting explanations that lead to nowhere constructive.

Who in their right mind would give good G'D what the S & P says considering their historic track record. Who are the people in S&P who pontificated this one notch reduction in the rating of U.S. government debt? How many jobs have they had in their lifetime, how much money have they made individually, who is this committee, S&P is nothing but a company.

The atrocity that we have created of the journalistic talking heads on the TV that if a compilation was ever made of what they have said, they would be the laughing stock of the worlds.

Why doesn't our government inform the populous that the talking heads are just trying to get you to listen to them so they can get ratings and advertising and line their pockets with the total inaccuracies of a lot of what they say.

We have become a hodge podge of radicals on both sides of the political equation. That might have worked 100 years ago but we've given away our leadership under  President Obama in many respects.

The country's supposed to not require great leaders because the strength is its ability is to function within the diversity of problems and opinions. But when a NY Times Editorial Writer and Nobel Prize Winner, by the name of Paul Krugman, can spew one incomplete sentence after another the question has to be asked again, "What if Stocks become like Houses?" Even low interest rates, which probably have done more harm than good, show you the depth of the problem.

President Obama has been a destroyer of confidence, a creator of class warfare, and instituting his important "change, change change" in anything.  God willing, whether you believe in God or not, (I do) a Leader will emerge that believes America has to be the Leader not in nation building, but in raising the standard of education and living among our own citizens.

I close with the following; I attended PS73 in the Bronx. I am now 74 years old. The same crummy old building is educating a bunch of black and Hispanic children and according to public releases they are failing on almost all levels. I call that a failure. It has to change...instead of fighting about abortion, gun control, gay rights and Don't ask don't tell.

A lot of you may hate me for writing this but it's like cancer, you got to get it right or you die. 

UNION DESTRUCTION STARTS AGAIN...(ORIG. PUBLISHED 9/17/12)

We are reprinting our blog of January 11, 2011. It was titled "Are Votes Worth It?" It should have been titled "Are Destructive Union Votes Worth It?"
Tuesday, January 11, 2011ARE VOTES WORTH IT?
On August 27, 2010, we said in a blog that "Almost every significant unionized industry in America has failed. Now the largest unionized segment in America is government."
In the January 8, 2011 issue of the Economist magazine the lead story is titled "The battle ahead - Confronting the public-sector unions."
If you accept the thesis that I'm even partially correct about the negative effect of unions and their inflexible total compensation costs being responsible for destroying the competitive condition of significant industries, you will be well advised to ask "Are unions likely to destroy the government?"
Isn't it only a matter of time before some union representing the fire department, police department or the post office, goes on strike? Obviously it will happen. It's tough to change people. Note carefully the behavior of certain union members during the recent New York City snowfall.
During the ongoing turmoil in Wisconsin, a prominent Democrat exhorted the public to "stick by their friends." This may have been true a few decades ago when people took government jobs based on their security, retirement benefits and often a lack of complexity.
Today we have evolved a system where the unionized government sector indirectly threatens to strike and withhold their votes from the government politicians who don't give them what they want.
Government gets its money from taxes; so what these unions are saying to their so called "friends" is give us more of your tax dollars or we will take away your services.
During the formative years of our republic, there was serious debate about what functions the central governments would serve, both at the local and the federal levels. After Hamilton's persuasive arguments for a collective defense among the states, it was also agreed that government would stay close to the people by providing all types of services, and thereby make it easier for existing members to get reelected.
Think carefully about what some of the things the government does for us. We go to a post office, they hand you your mail. You go to a motor vehicle office, they hand you a license. You apply for a passport, they mail you a passport. They send you social security checks. These are simplistic functions that can just as easily be done by the private sector, for profit, save money, and reduce the deficit significantly.
Functions that don't have to be done by government should be taken out of the hands of government. It's time for a more introspective America, especially in some of our big cities where people think that the sharing of ideas around water coolers actually adds merit to the city.

"LEAVE IVANKA ALONE"...

When individual companies start targeting a child of the President it hard to imagine the panic that they feel by being uncovered as ignorant.

Go buy an Ivanka accessory - say no to corporate executives abusing their power  by not representing all their shareholders.  

TRUMP IS PROBABLY RIGHT BUT NO ONE WANTS TO FACE THE MUSIC...

Consider the following very carefully.  Here is the real reason many tech companies are upset over  Trump's immigration policies.  Tech companies have saved hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, by importing labor at cheaper prices than American workers.

Conversely, the amount of money made by tech executives is generally out of proportion to their real individual contributions to the firms. These top corporate executives could have stood the test of greatness by allocating larger amounts of monies to training American workers.  

THINK WHAT YOU WANT BUT IS THIS THE REAL STORY?...

Presidents come and Presidents go. Bloggers come and bloggers go.   Protests come protests go.  Some have mojo and some just blow. Yet everyday things ebb and flow.

What's not going to come and go is going to be the continual belly aching of the Democratic party against the recent election.  Why is that so?

Its similar to the "plan of phases" that's been carried out by the segments of  the Arab community against the nation of Israel.  The basic premise being Islam will never accept the existence of the Israeli state.  I believe the Democratic party won't accept the existence of the Trump presidency.  President Trump has discovered the long term democratic plan to undermine capitalism and institute a more and more socialistic population. 

TRUMP? (THE FOLLOWING BLOG WAS COPIED FROM ANOTHER SITE)

The President-elect won the election with less than 40% of the popular vote but had the majority of electoral votes. The Republican Party had put forth a candidate to win several crucial states that could swing the electoral college. The election was a bitter one with the Democratic Party fractured between two candidates.

The incoming President received so many death threats that he chose to arrive in Washington in secrecy. The security for the inauguration was the tightest ever with troops stationed on buildings throughout the day. This was an unprecedented amount of protection for any PresIdent-elect. Many members of Congress chose not to attend the ceremony.

Despite all this Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as our 16th president on March 4, 1861.

WITHOUT CALIFORNIA HILLARY WON NOTHING...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 10/11/12)

The issue of race in America is well above my pay grade.  In a perfect world race, religion, gender, etc. would have little to do with most of society's decisions.  The Supreme Court is weighing race as a factor in college admissions.  Before you know it, colleges will be required to have a certain number of union members, a certain number of gun advocates, etc. etc. etc. It looks like its becoming a matter of whether you fit into a group so the college can say it fits some type of diversity standard.  Most of these attributes seem to be totally unrelated to the purpose of education.

Here is the point of the prior paragraph.  Ninety Five Percent of  Blacks voted for President Obama in the last election and are estimated to have the same voting pattern this November in spite of the fact that Obama has done little to help his own race.  There is no way that this percentage of the black voting population felt that Obama was the strongest candidate, maybe 75% or 85% did, but not 95%.  In my opinion, a significant portion of this vote is based on race.

It is true that some White voters probably vote on race also, but not nearly to such an overwhelming extent.  If White voters were to have a racist attitude and vote 95% based on color, it would be a long time before any minority group would be voted into positions of government power.  As long as the government perpetuates a policy of race related decisions, the same rules should be acceptable in individual decision making and then all these discriminating descriptions of people will never be eliminated.

Decisions based on race, religion, gender etc. are not the road to prosperity, equality or stronger feelings of self esteem in individuals.  Selections based on one's color, not one's achievements and skills, is only working to separate our society further. Politics, religion, and education should be color blind.  

GANDHI, OBAMA AND CHURCHILL...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3/2012)

President Obama at a fundraiser yesterday spoke about how difficult it was to bring "change" in politics.  In his speech he drew attention to himself within the context of Gandhi and Mandela. 

It is quite astonishing to see our President bring himself into the company of these two men.  He obviously was attempting to point out their greatness and even they needed time to attempt to bring change.

It just so happens within the last year I had reread a book by Arthur Herman named "Gandhi & Churchill".  Those of you who are ardent supporters of our President will unfortunately not appreciate the paragraphs I am extracting from that book. If you want to stand within the world with these unique people you must stand on pedestals with multiple sides.

From the book Gandhi & Churchill:
In 1938, Gandhi urged the Czechs to use non violence against the Germans instead of bullets.  He urged the German Jews to do the same.  "The Jews of Germany can offer satyagraha under infinitely better auspices than Indians in South Africa." Gandhi actually said that the German Jews were more gifted than the Indians of South Africa.  Gandhi said a passive attitude would win the world's admiration and perhaps even that of the German people.  "The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German gentiles..." Gandhi even urged the Jews to disarm their persecutors by praying for Hitler.  "If even one Jew acted thus he said confidently it would save the whole of Jewry".  Gandhi even felt that "the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife..."  In 1939, he wrote a letter to Hitler begging him to renounce violence and telling a friend that Hitler is "not a bad man".  He said that future generations would "honor Hitler as a genius, as a brave man, a matchless organizer and much more".  In 1941, Gandhi praised Hitler's bravery and devotion to his fatherland and stated that we don't believe that you are the monster described by your opponents, namely Winston Churchill.

And so ends Gandhi's Pro-Hitler missives as the war picked up its momentum and surrender was no longer an option. 

I'm sure we all agree that the importance of avoiding war cannot even be put into words that would adequately express the horrors of such events.  But woe to the Israelites and to those who have been brought into slavery by the tyrants throughout history. As a Harvard graduate, if Obama wants to stand with Gandhi, I presume he is aware of the full picture. 

DEMOCRATS..SNAKE OIL SALESMEN AND MUCH, MUCH WORSE...

One thing about the Democrats and Obama is they know how to stir the pot by using false and malicious accusations.

For an example, if you like the possibility of charter schools you are a bigot.  If you are against abortion, you are a destroyer of women's rights.  If you stand against appeasement, you are a war monger.  If you believe in the Second Amendment, you're a racist.   If you believe in not disgracing the American flag, at best you are against free speech.  If you are not a major supporter of welfare without being vetted for a job, you are not appreciative of people with needs or people who may not be as well off as you.  If you believe that raising the minimum wage does more harm than good, you are a heartless jerk.  If you believe students that borrow money to go to school should pay back their debts, you are a capitalist when you should be a socialist.  If you don't believe that men made into women and vice versa should be allowed to use whatever bathroom they want, you are a bigot. 

The Democrats make thoughtless attacks on any views but their own. 

P.S. Just remember the "reason" the German populous couldn't fight Hitler even if they wanted to, is because they didn't have guns. Sixty million people died. Let that sink in.

"DELUSIONS" OF THE AMERICAN JEW...

The great majority of Jews in the election voted for Hillary.  The delusional thinking that peace with Palestine would change the Mid East situation is not only ridiculous, but to Israel it's down right dangerous.

Israel is surrounded by millions of people who want their destruction, whether there is peace with the Palestinians or not.  There can not be peace with religious fundamentalists as long as they think they are winning. 

GOLD BUBBLE ("WHEN INTEREST RATES RISE, GOLD WILL CRASH") ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2010

A friend of mine bought a home for $300,000 ten years ago. By 2007, the price of similar homes in their neighborhood had tripled in value.
During the period when the price of housing was rising so rapidly, banks were criticized for collecting deposits in one impoverished area of the country and lending it out in other more prosperous regions. The quality of the loans was not a factor, the equitable distribution of loans seemed more important. People all over the country were ecstatic over their increase of wealth through home ownership.
The government, in spite of everything, had created Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and everything possible to increase home ownership. Practically no one was telling homeowners to liquidate their homes. Construction of homes was booming, millions of people were employed in the sector and no one dared to stop this lucrative bubble.
When the house I mentioned above was purchased in 1999, it would have taken approximately 1000 ounces of gold to pay for the home. Today, it would take only 250 ounces of gold to buy the same $300,000 house. Housing prices have “crashed” and gold has soared. In effect, gold has gone from $350 per ounce in 1999 to $1300 per ounce today.
Gold is basically a useless commodity. The price is a “bubble” that may sustain itself forever and ever, but it is a bubble. You can’t eat gold, it’s hard to carry, it earns you no money and its industrial uses are limited. Again, no one dares to tell people to sell their gold even though you can now buy it in vending machines. No one dares to tell the mining industry to stop the production of gold, for fear of destroying yet another industry that is responsible for the economic livelihood in many struggling countries.
Keynes said that in the end investing is nothing more than a game of musical chairs and that when the music stops; we don’t want to be the ones without a chair.  When interest rates rise, gold will crash.

UNIONS..THE REAL REASON COMPANIES LEAVE THE US (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/1/11)

The bottom line is the following, a two trillion dollar cut in projected expenditures over ten years, for the Federal Government,for all intense purposes, is not a cut at all. It's too far out, totally unforecastable and too small to have any real meaning. We have written about this before and explained the folly of the politicians rhetoric directed toward the economically naive portion of the population, emphasizing budgetary balance.

The fact is that the federal government, minus defense, is significantly a unionized workforce. In spite of constraints on the federal unions to strike, some problematic events seem almost certain to occur if nothing is done to recognize this issue.

These unionized employees have become accustomed to regular raises and continually improving retirement benefits from the tax paying portion of the population.

But the tax base is not growing at a fast enough clip. As time passes, unless things change, the raises will be forced to stop which will lead to illegal work stoppage threats. History suggests that most unions want what they want when they want it, with little concern for reality.

As the number of people in government, both federal and local, reaches record highs, the ability to provide raises will end and strikes and slowdowns will become one of the next crises that the nation will face.

Only increasing profits, personal income, capital gains, dividends and interest will provide stability.

TRUMP PROTESTERS SAME AS THE OCCUPIERS.. (ORIGINALY PUBLISHED 1/24/12)

The same affliction to our sanity involves the media abuse of the slogan "top one percenters". Recently the median salary of the public university presidents place them all in the top one percenters.

The Presidents of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Michigan, Amherst, Williams, Stanford are all in the top one percenters. The same is true for hundreds if not thousands of University Professors.

Okay, so is the head of the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the President of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Herman Cain, Jesse Jackson, Jeb Bush, Michael Bloomberg, lots of Senators and Congressman and the head of the AARP (a real disaster). NBA and NFL's top players such as Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Dan Marino, Tom Brady, Michael Vick,; Musicians and Artists like Beyonce, JayZ, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Janet Jackson, Taylor Swift, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Jennifer Lopez, Hank Williams Jr., Mariah Carey, Harry Belafonte, Barbara Streisand Actors, Actresses and Media celebrities such as Angela Jolie, Steven Spielberg, Justin Bieber, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Jerry Seinfeld, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman, Tyra Banks, Kim Kardashian, Larry King, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Ariana Huffington, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Friedman, Jim Cramer, Eddie Murphy, and top people that run hundreds of thousands of employees and many of those like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Steve Jobs who created unbelievable changes in society and millions of jobs, are in the one percenters club. I could keep listing people...the media lies...look at the truth.

I was in Austin recently and there was an Occupy Wall Street group. I decided to sit down on the lawn with some of them and found out from about 15 different conversations that everyone of these "Occupiers" knew absolutely nothing about salary levels and economics. One young woman was telling another young woman how much she loved her. They really didn't know each other. Maybe I overstepped my bounds but we were kind of chatting and I said to the better dressed young lady; "Why don't you give this woman you love your hat - she seems to be getting sunburned". That went about as far as I could throw an elephant. For some strange reason the media hypes and the police in this situation were busy placating the group as they trashed a substantial piece of property. None of the people I spoke with knew anything at all about who the "one percenters" were.

A LEFT WING OF GANGSTERS...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISED 11/4/11)

When you talk about sleaze its almost impossible to beat the lying hypocrisy of the fat man, Michael Moore and his stupid cap. But if you want more hypocrisy think about the fact that Jon Corzine was so greedy that he acted as if the financial crises of 2008 took place a hundred years ago. Solyndra was an example of amateurs working for the government with the power to give out $600 million dollars for what was ostensibly a start up. Obama knows that our problem is cars not electrical generation. The one thing these three groups have in common is their attachment to the Democratic party and the "culture of corruption" along with the deception that lies deep within our President's soul. It just isn't coincidence that these three situations all exist at the same time. Look within the Celestine Prophecy to grasp the intimidation of the weak by the democratic party's desire for power at almost any cost.

THE FORGOTTEN MAN IS AMERICA - NOT THE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9/6/12)

It's almost impossible to convince the "forgotten man" that increased taxes on the so called rich is a bad idea. The environment is one of very high unemployment, declining standards of living and interest rates for treasuries which are close to zero.

There was a day when the politicians of America sought individual votes but then they learned that it was easier to group the electorate into "special interest groups" and convince groups rather than individuals to vote for them.

That was the beginning. In a fabulous book written by Amity Shlaes called the "The Forgotten Man" we can see the historical development of how the mass of the population has been forgotten. There are tens of millions of people who go to work in this country, pay their mortgages, educate their children, don't end up in jail, pay their bills, don't require welfare and live their lives with no representation in the government.

If you are part of a special interest or minority group you have representation. If you are just a plain old "forgotten man", the backbone of the country, you have very little representation if any. The politicians have actually made the forgotten man feel guilty. Why in the world should anyone pay their mortgage or their debt if so many people are allowed not to? This is one of the coming crises of rewarding those who fail and penalizing those that succeed.

It's time for the forgotten man to stand up in a concerted way without riot and revolution and say enough is enough. You are responsible if you bought a house even if you didn't know what you were doing. More and more people will "opt out" of the system as they realize if you succeed you are the enemy.

BLOG OF THE DAY...

There probably is no  major media company that has failed as miserably as the New York Times.
The CEO takes at least 7 million in compensation and probably lives in an apartment worth 10 or 20 million dollars.

Today's article about the failures of Donald Trump totally leaves out his fabulous recovery from near bankruptcy and the fact that he is a billionaire several times over.  His company is private.  There are probably not 10 individually owned companies as successful as the Trump empire.

Take a look at Trumps children and use that as a measure of success.

BEFORE YOU VOTE...

Before you vote you may want to know who was really responsible for the housing crisis.

Then you must read a book called "Reckless Endangerment".  It is written by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner.

BUBBLES A NECESSARY EVIL? (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11/18/10)

I looked at the tax receipts and expenditures for the federal government for the past twenty years. This period covers Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. There was a surplus for a few years in the late 1990’s.

A U.S. Treasury report of May 2008 stated that “Much of the growth during the late 1990s can be attributed to the extraordinary performance of the stock market and its effects on individual income tax receipts”. It further stated that “Capital gains income more than quadrupled between 1994 and 2000. Tax receipts from capital gains realization more than tripled during this period, even though the tax rate on capital gains was reduced beginning in 1997”. As to the increase of taxable income the report stated “Taxable personal income grew faster than GDP during this period. Much of the rise in wages was related to the exercise of stock options and bonus income".

On July 17, 1995 the NASDAQ stock index closed above the 1,000. On March 10, 2000 the index reached a high of 5,132. The NASDAQ bubble of this period under a Democratic President Clinton and a Republican controlled congress contributed significantly to creating a budget surplus. Unfortunately the NASDAQ (DOT.COM) which kept strong receipts flowing into the treasury was destructed by the crash of Bubble Number One. A surplus of any significance was only achieved for a couple of years.

When President Bush took office the budget surplus was already declining. Then the staggering September 11 attacks took place. President Bush and the Congress enacted an emergency tax relief program to attempt to stop the slide in economic activity. The results of those tax cuts are best described in the same Department of Treasury report. The report states: “After 2004, tax revenues again grew faster than the economy. Between 2004 and 2006, capital gains realizations grew by approximately 60 percent. Growth in corporate income tax receipts was especially strong recently, nearly doubling in levels between 2004 and 2007”.

As the economy began to recover bubble number two, the housing market got completely out of control. When this bubble burst the economy was in a free fall. The very large deficit of 2009 and 2010 were caused by a response to Bubble Number Two. Again both Presidents Bush and Obama and the Congress along with the Fed responded very effectively.

Where we sit today our country is still facing double digit unemployment in many areas. Increasing taxes is not supported by official U.S. Treasury commentary. The deficit is not a partisan problem.

Requiring two bubbles to keep this economy in a prosperous state for the last two decades is an unfortunate state of circumstances. The problem is that it’s almost impossible to stop bubbles in free economic democracy. Stay tuned…

WHAT TRUMP (ORIG. ROMNEY) NEEDS TO SAY TO GET ELECTED..(ORIG. PUBLISHED 8/13/12)

I am personally against abortion but if you want an abortion you should be able to get one without any problems. 

Gun Control is like the problem we face with illegal drug use.  It's impossible to keep guns out of the wrong hands completely just like its impossible to believe that illegal drug use will ever go away completely. We should continue to maintain laws that protect the innocent and persecute the guilty in both matters. 

I am not in favor of rich people, poor people or any other particular group, I am only in favor of economic policies that work to make our country better for as many people as possible. 

I am not against Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, but I am in favor of policies that will make them last permanently.

I won't appease any particular group or interest in order to be elected. 

I am in favor of an education system that raises the accomplishment of a much larger segment of our school populations.  I will find a way to sit down with the top school union representatives and work out a mutually agreeable plan that will get this well on the road during my administration. 

My administration will be color blind, religion blind, gender blind, handicapped blind, minority blind and sexuality blind.  

I will pick people who will do their jobs for all Americans even when decisions create controversy.

I will not run the traditional political play game of buying votes.

I will do the best I can even if I am not elected to a second term if I win the first.

I will not allow Israel or any of our allies to be scapegoated by politics. 

TRUMP -DOES HE HAVE IT CORRECT? ( ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 5/2/14)

It will be easy to criticize me for taking a serious matter and trivializing it.  The Russians are holding some Germans as prisoners.  They obviously don't care what Germany thinks.

Any further discussion of Crimea seems to be over and the Russians have walked off with many millions of people.  Europe has no military clout. It is obvious if Russia decides to reclaim Ukraine there won't be anybody to stop them.  We haven't been able to stop the Syrian situation, the Cuban situation, the Iranian situation, the Venezuelan situation and on and on.

The issue is not about Ukraine; it is does Russia have designs on further incursion into Europe?  If it does, no combination of forces in Europe can stop them.  Putin sees that underneath recovering economies and strong stock markets lies a broad undertone of socialist and populist voting positions.

Russia needs a bigger population and its clear they intend to get one, one way or another. Trade trumps threats.  We lose, they win and the long term is unknown.

Welcome to a Putin's Russia instead of a Gorbachev one.

JOBS...THIS IS A LOSING ROAD (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11/29/11)

There is nothing new about this. It's old hat, it's sad, it's destructive but it's the real story.

On November 22nd we titled a blog "Stop worrying about Globalization...Start Worrying about Ourself". We can't reiterate the importance of that blog except maybe a bit through the following vignette.

We had to make a change in one of our computer programs. We asked the two young people at the American company's service office operating in the Philippines a number of questions. We knew the answers, but we wanted an update.

Some of the questions were: Did you go to college...yes. How old are you...27. Do you like your job...yes. Is there room for advancement...yes. Would you consider yourself upper, lower or middle class...middle.

These young people remotely scurried through our computers with the agility and talent of a computer PhD which they were not. They spent an hour assisting us on the phone, they were extremely polite and the overall experience, from our point of view, was top notch.

THESE PEOPLE WERE PAID THE EQUIVALENT OF $11,0000 USD PER YEAR. If an American college graduate wanted to do this job they would probably earn $50,000 plus per year. This would be an additional $40,000 paid for the same service. It is one of the main reasons why jobs available to Americans has struggled.

Furthermore, as we have stated over and over again, the largest blocks of the unemployed would have no ability to do these jobs. We can create all the technology jobs we want but the minorities unemployed in this country will not be helped for an awful long time. Not only have we lost our manufacturing ability but we have lost the labor cost differential and its not going to change for a long time.

Just remember if you are a foreign company, the probability of giving these types of jobs to Americans is an extremely low number.

We need a government who will support our people's call for the equalization of unfair cost and currency advantages.

WE WILL ALL BE DEAD BY THE TIME THINGS CHANGE.(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11/23/11)

Anyone who is against profiling is just plain wrong. If you are looking for a woman you don't stop men. If you are looking for someone who is 7ft. tall and is male you don't stop a 5ft. tall grandmother. If you are looking for blacks, you don't stop whites, and vice versa. Profiling is necessary, prejudice and bias are not. Period, end of subject.
Guns are bad. I'm a registered member of the NRA and have a concealed weapons license, but guns are bad. If we didn't need them they should be outlawed, but we do need them. When the underlying fears of crime, etc. go away, guns will go away. Period, end of subject.
A fetus is a baby the second it's conceived, not three months later. Abortion, equal to the killing of a baby, is obviously a bad thing. Unfortunately, babies are conceived into all kinds of circumstances where they are not wanted by the carrying Mother. Which is worse, forcing a Mother to term or terminating an unwanted baby? This question will never be agreed upon by the opposing opinions. Both sides should choose their own path and moral order. Period, end of subject.
Obviously war and fighting are horrendously bad things but letting your guard down by appeasement or weakness can be even worse. Period, end of subject.
People should be able to practice any sexual activity they want to as long as its between consenting mentally able adults where abuse of either parties is not taking place. Period, end of subject.
Illegal immigrants is another subject that has to be put to rest. Obviously illegal immigration should be stopped or why have the law. If we want these people coming into the country it should be done legally. Aren't we still a country of laws? If we don't want them coming here and doing what they do then we should just face the consequences of higher labor cost especially in food production. Period, end of subject.
The reason I'm writing this is because these are some of the important issues clouding the political agenda. We have more than enough to focus on within education, poverty, sickness, crime and terrorism. Period, end of subject.
When the Democrats talk of special interest groups they forget that the biggest perpetrator of group thinking is our current President followed nose to nose by his Republican opponents. It's time to stop all the baloney as we slide backwards. Period, end of subject.

THE PEOPLE HAVE DECIDED PHASE I - DONALD TRUMP - A MESSENGER OF REALITY OR A RACIST? - YOU DECIDE...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/8/15)

The "Merciless Indian Savages" so says the Declaration of Independence.  Hard to find words but in the Declaration, nonetheless.  Were they Savages?  We certainly don't think of the American Indians as 'Savages' today.  If one were to call the current Indian population, "descendants of  savages', immediately the media would outcry that the "speaker" was a racist or a bigot.

All Indians obviously were not "savages", maybe some were.  Maybe even alot were, but not all.

Today the buzz word is immigrants.  We know that there is a vast difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants.

Why would it not be obvious that illegal immigration should not be allowed.  If we want illegal immigration just take down the immigration laws.

Change the word immigrants to people.  Change the word immigrants to poor people.

Now the question becomes not  who the people are that are coming to the country illegally but do we want the illegal people.  It's hard for me to believe that Donald Trump is a racist.  It shouldn't matter if the people coming into this country illegally are black, white, yellow,purple or green.  It should matter if we want a country of laws.

I wrote a while ago that PS 73, where I went to school in the Bronx, would act as my anchor for whether significant improvement is occurring in the poorer sections of our country.  A review of the test scores at my old school indicates abject failure among the primarily Black and Hispanic children attending the school. A blight on the system, not the children.

That subject is buried, never really brought out as an unacceptable failure, similar to our inability to deal with the illegal immigration situation effectively.  Seventy years after I left that school, the same old building is where the current children attend.  Donald Trump may have presented very inadequately on the illegal people in and coming into this country.  He certainly has presented us with a challenge to decide if we are a nation that fixes problems or accepts the status quo because of political expediency.

WHEN GETTING RE-ELECTED IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN DOING GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 10/5/11)

In any dialog among or between people, especially in debate or argument, name calling is considered inappropriate. Consequently, although I would like to call our President a liar, I will refrain.

He uses the "inciting" words of let's close the tax loophole. The choice of the word loophole attempts to rally the economically uneducated. There are no loopholes in the tax code.

Charitable deductions are the government's attempt to incentivize contributions to charity. The interest on mortgage deduction is an attempt to incentivize the purchase of homes. (Could you imagine advocating the reduction of an incentive for home purchase under current economic conditions?) The lower rate on capital gains is another incentive for us to invest our savings for the longer term.

There may be a few so called tax incentives (loopholes) that don't serve an economic purpose. These are few and far between. President Obama recently quoted Ronald Reagan. He completely took out of context what President Reagan said. Watch out for Obama. Most of his advocacy is self serving and destructive.

Buzz words like loophole are meant to rally your spirit to vote for him. Look more closely at the impact of his suggestions.

THE LIES POLITICIANS TELL (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/11/11)

Public corporations prepare financial statements. One of these statements is generally called an income statement or profit and loss statement.

Simply put, a company first reports revenues, then subtracts its expenses that created those revenues and then reports whats left as pretax profit.

From the pretax profit federal taxes are subtracted. What's left is called Income after government taxes.

This income is generally used for three or four things. One is to pay dividends, since the majority of shares in America are owned by pension funds, mutual funds and individuals, the dividends are paid to the American public. The second thing the money is often used for is to buy back company shares. When this happens the money is paid to selling shareholders who then deposit it in their bank, reinvest it or spend it. Thirdly the money is spent on capital expenditure; putting up plants and buying equipment. Whatever little is left is retained in the corporation in order to maintain more employment and stability for the company.

NOW THE GOVERNMENT COMES ALONG AND SAYS "WE WANT MORE TAXES". TAXES ARE AN EXPENSE LIKE ANY OTHER EXPENSE OF RUNNING A BUSINESS. THE IMMEDIATE REACTION OF THE COMPANY IS TO THINK ABOUT RAISING PRICES OR REDUCING EXPENSES TO OFFSET THE TAX INCREASE, THEREBY REDUCING CONSUMPTION.

THE NEXT THING THAT HAPPENS IS THAT THE MUTUAL FUNDS, THE PENSION FUNDS AND OTHER SHAREHOLDERS RECEIVE LESS, CAPITAL EXPENDITURES ARE REDUCED, EMPLOYMENT IS REDUCED, AND A TAX INCREASE GENERALLY DOES NOTHING BUT ATTEMPT TO TRANSFER MORE MONEY TO THE GOVERNMENT. THE GOVERNMENT CAN THEN HIRE MORE PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM MORE BEHOLDEN AND THEREFORE VOTE FOR THE PARTY THAT RAISED THE TAXES AND PRODUCED NON-GROWTH GOVERNMENT JOBS.

THIS IS CALLED A NEGATIVE CAPITAL FORMATION ENVIRONMENT. IT'S SOMEWHAT MORE COMPLICATED THAN THIS SIMPLISTIC EXPLANATION AND ALTHOUGH IT MAY MAKE THE FINANCIALLY UNEDUCATED FEEL THEY ARE GETTING A FAIR SHAKE, IN REALITY IT DOES THEM MORE HARM THAN GOOD.

THE STANDARD OF LIVING MUST GO UP (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/18/11)

Charlie Rose was interviewing Larry Summers. He asked him what steps have to be taken in order to get growth to accelerate.

Mr. Summers listed five points. I thought they were all smart. Then Charlie asked Mr. Summers "What about the social compact the government has with the people?"

It never hit me so clearly as it did that moment, the government is like a corporation, it's just a piece of paper.

So who was he talking about that had this social compact with the people? He couldn't be talking about the government because the government is just a provider of services for which it taxes the people.

BUT IN TODAY'S WORLD, MOST AMERICANS DON'T PAY ANY FEDERAL INCOME TAXES OR PRACTICALLY NONE. THAT LEAVES A SELECT VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE MONEY AND NOW ARE THE ONES BEING ASKED TO HAVE THIS SOCIAL COMPACT WITH THE PEOPLE.

In other words, if you are successful in American, you are a charity machine to everyone else. The democratic party argued that this approach prevents revolution and allows some people to succeed. The implications of this kind of a society are negative for the masses. A standard of living that hasn't increased for ten or twenty years won't until there is a system where everyone is taxed for those services received thru their "compact with the government". That is one of the things that has to be done to create growth.

BLOG FOR THE DAY...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/14/12)

I said in an earlier blog that the political rhetoric, name calling and class warfare commentaries would inhibit the solving of the problems that exist in our society.

To make this discussion even clearer if someone makes a lot of money they either spend it or invest it. If they build a huge house, their money is transferred to the contractors, brokers, furniture manufacturers, plumbers and everyone else. If they buy stock the money is transferred to the seller, it’s not put under pillows. The same is true for money left to heirs, it circulates through the economic system.

The poorer among us don't want to hear about creating more wealth.  Unfortunately a dynamic, growing, thriving business community is exactly the recipe that will assure an increasing percentage of the population achieve the so called "American Dream".

DISTORTION OF THE TRUTH (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9/23/11)

There's another crazy article in the New York newspaper where a "ultra liberal" professor, who is very good with words, pontificates about the so called "wealthy Americans pay remarkably little in taxes". He doesn't point out that one of the main reasons may be that they have invested their money in tax free bonds. The tax free nature of the bonds is federal government policy in order to provide lower interest rates to states and municipalities. The low capital gains rate is government policy to increase investments in capital assets and to protect the savings in mutual funds, pension funds, 401ks, etc.

The writer then maliciously claims that Representative Ryan (who I often don't agree with) wants to exempt the very rich from bearing the burdens of taxes. No matter how you slice it, most of the taxes in this country are paid by the successful. In any case, so few people are in the "rich" category one has to ask, why not spend your time figuring out how to make more people rich.

Let's get it straight. No matter who you tax it takes money away from them, reduces their consumption of goods and services and drives the country further downward. Basically the attack on the few rich people increases unemployment and reduces economic activity. The silly writer talks about the top 100th of 1 percent of income distribution and how much their supposed income rose. That number can easily be affected by just a handful of people and is of no consequence. Who cares about the top 100th of 1 percent anyway?

The writer also talks about a sustained attack on organized labor. Its too bad the writer doesn't point out that almost every major industry that's been unionized has been a total catastrophe. The last time I looked organized labor was already causing dysfunction in the auto industry even before it can really recover.

As regards financial deregulation, it had very little to do with the economic disaster of 2008. Government policy, greed and a bubble were more responsible for what occurred.

I won't comment on the rest of this politically, left wing and inaccurate editorial except to tell Elizabeth Warren and the writer of this article that you should both go live in another country, in one bedroom with a shared bathroom. Then you should give the rest of what you have away, so you can pay your share to "fulfill the social contract" that you don't understand in the slightest.

PROFILING IS SMART...PREJUDICE IS DUMB...

Its obvious we can't live without profiling. Get over it.  Profiling is used in every aspect of our life from building an investment portfolio, to picking a mate, a car or anything else.  Prejudice is DUMB.  Profiling is SMART.

SOLYNDRA SCANDAL - ORIG. PUBLISHED 9/26/11

We first published our blog below about the Solyndra scandal on September 26, 2011.

There's an incredibly misleading editorial about the Solyndra scandal in a leading New York newspaper. A simple review of the company's prospectus immediately highlights the following:

1. Several executives had compensation approaching a million dollars.
2. There were at least 25 million stock options made available to various parties.
3. Large hedge funds were significant owners of the company's shares.

The editorial blames the bankruptcy on a "stunning collapse in the price of solar panels".

It is obvious that before an investment of $500 million occurred analytical reports should have been written forecasting the trend of solar panel prices (if the company did not have enough big commercial customers that should have been easily detectable to anyone that took the time to review the company's position in the marketplace).

To compare the financial crises with the solar panel market is patently absurd. Home prices have risen for many years whereas solar panel prices were really a commodity product.

The idea that risking is what its all about is a joke on its face. Its easy to take risks that are totally wrong, but success is determined by wise decisions. The outlook for solar panel pricing in the United States was obviously negative since the number of companies that have been started in just a few years indicates relatively simple ease of entry and requires no particular technological advantages.

Another disadvantage the solar companies faced is the fact that oil producing countries want to keep any alternative sources of energy out of the picture even though most oil is used for cars and trucks, not power generation. Coal is the only true competitive alternative to solar energy and reducing the demand during the next decade would cause serious additions to unemployment. Unfortunately most of the coal miners could probably not be working in the solar industry.

The relationship between the hedge funds, all sorts of people in government and whether there were unions involved in the Solyandra workforce is only the tip of what seems to be a huge potential scandal of political power with our money.

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T GET ANYWHERE - "STILL" ORIG. PUBLISHED 9/27/11

Its not considered acceptable to tell the masses of the people that they are economically uneducated and their own worst enemy. The rule is one man, one vote. The Democratic party has figured out how to tell the economically ignorant a lie about how our system works. They get way with it because the average man struggles to make a living. Its easier to have a scape goat than to seek the truth.

The government did not bail out the banks. That is a total lie. The financial system of this country was falling apart. The impact on the "common man" (which is all of us), would have been so devastating that the resulting unemployment, loss of pension funds, etc. could have overwhelmed everyone. The government did not save the "rich banks"; it saved those of us who are the depositors of the banks, the receivers of their loans and dependent on them for millions of jobs. The Democratic party finds it expedient to outright lie to the people.

The second lie is that the rich, whomever that is, have benefited far in proportion to the rest of the population. I reiterate again why is the government so worried about any particular class of people rather than working together to solve our problems without promoting class warfare.

Lets get something clear between us. Lets say I have $1 million dollars. If I take that money and rip it up then $1 million dollars disappears from the economy. But if I take that money and spend it, give it to the plumber, the car manufacturer, to the restaurants and some to the government. then the $1 million dollars is circulated throughout the economy. What I don't spend I invest. Lets say I buy stock with my $1 million dollars. I get the stock but someone else gets the $1 million dollars and no matter who it is, they take that money, spend it, invest it and it keeps on circulating. But its still only $1 million dollars. The only question of any relevance is how to turn the $1 million into more money, plant, equipment and capital and have it circulating through the economy.

The only thing the Democratic party wants to do is keep you uneducated. The more of you who become more economically educated the less of you will agree with the Democrat's self-serving, power preserving, education diminishing, democratic policies.

Warren Buffett is looking out for his own A-S. He is more concerned with you buying his own product, like Geico, (which is the worst insurance company I have ever dealt with) than helping you become educated.

Just remember what Warren Buffett wrote on June 26, 2006, "The only condition to this committment is that the Foundation must continue to satisfy legal requirements qualifying my gift as charitable and not subject to gift or other taxes."

TRUMP, CLINTON, RUBIO, BUSH - AMERICA...GET THE RIGHT CONDUCTOR...(ORIG. PUBLISHED 1/24/12)

There could be 100 instruments in a symphony orchestra. Be as it may, classical music is not mainstream. Many orchestras have gone out of business for lack of public support.

Now think of these 100 instruments with 100 players and hundreds if not thousands of note combinations that are played at any particular symphony. In the front stands the music conductor, generally knowledgeable about all the pieces in the orchestra and having the job of bringing them together into symphonic harmony so that an audience may enjoy the outpouring of the music. Thousands of notes, just a hundred people and a conductor pulling it all together. It's no wonder so many conductors never make it big time. Think of the genius of Beethoven, Bach or Mozart writing the music for each and every piece. Complex, yes and generally unappreciated by society.

We are all managers of something, whether its our family, a job, our business, from a small corporation or a gigantic one, from an island, to a city, to a state and on upwards.

Whether the most powerful force in our government or not, the President stands as the conductor of an awful large orchestra. One of the major questions we are faced with in an election year is which future President will "conduct" the pieces of this ultra large orchestral phenomenon called the United States as to bring out the great music that our founding fathers would have hoped for without over blowing majority rule or undermining minority rights.

We must ask the question of whether a republic democracy can ever play harmonious music when the various players can't agree on the notes to be played. As long as the dissension of voter views stays so wide spread we may feel we are this great democracy. That might even be true if the standard of living hadn't stop increasing 20 years ago. Politicians in general don't want to conduct, they want to build power bases.

TRUMP VS. CLINTON - THE SAME AS OBAMA VS. ROMNEY (ORIG. PUBLISHED 9/28/12)

Everyone expects President Obama to win the first debate.  If Candidate Romney has the wisdom to present the facts clearly and strongly, he should win the debate easily.

1. The socialistic policies of Europe have resulted in an 20% plus unemployment rate in Spain and Greece. Italy and Portugal are heading in the same direction.
2. Japan has become a no growth economy for over a decade because it too followed the wrong policies.
3. The chaos in the Middle East is as bad as it's ever been, if not worse.
4. The domestic coal industry has collapsed.
5. The price of natural gas is so low that no one will make much money producing it.
6. Only 25% of the people in Afghanistan can read after all this time.
7. There is no sound reason the Ambassador in Libya should have not been protected.
8. The economy has been buoyed by only Federal Reserve policies of "zero" percent interest rates.  
9. The head of the Federal Reserve was originally appointed by President Bush and only reappointed by President Obama because he had little choice at the time.
10. The democratic political rhetoric about the plight about the middle class is bogus because all the places the middle class work can only provide them with more income if the economy has stable, steady, faster growth.
11. The use of labels like "middle-class' and "ultra-wealthy" can be turned on the President by pointing out economic truths.
12. The Democratic solar and wind power initiatives are failing and even have included malfeasance and misfeasance - "Solyndra".
13. The economy is at a standstill  - real unemployment is well above the reported unemployment figures.
14. Democrat Pelosi's son worked for the largest purveyor of subprime mortgages.
15. Barney Frank drove Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into bankruptcy with his political agenda.
16. Although well hidden, President Clinton was a major perpetrator of the housing fiasco.
17. Obama's head of the SEC, Shapiro, was involved with Bernie Madoff.
18. The President's agenda called for the demise of "Don't ask, Don't tell" when everybody's sexuality should be their own business.
19. Under Obama, killing babies is not even questioned as long as the pro-abortion position gets votes.  
20. The constant attack on the top one percent never points out that they pay most of the taxes anyhow and that President Obama never hesitates to take large political donations from them. 
21. The Democrats never have the courage to claim that federal income taxes should be paid by everyone as a citizen of this country.
22. The President never points out that low tax rates are usually from charitable deductions and tax free municipal bonds which are both perfectly legal government tax policies.

The argument is not about who care about the middle class because both candidates do.  It's about whose policies will give the middle class and all class policies more.  

LAFAYETTE -"PSYCHOPATHS AMONG US"...IT'S NOT GOING AWAY...(ORIGINALLY PUBLSIHED JUNE 2015)

Drugs, alcohol and schizophrenia or other mental illnesses have been involved in most mass murders from Dahner to Bundy to the South Carolina atrocity, etc. etc.

Major mental institutions have been closed. We don't treat mental illness with any degree of intensity.  The South Carolina murderer wanted to kill Blacks, Hispanics and Jews (who are both considered primarily white).

The belief the South Carolina murderer had of "Blacks taking over" was a delusion.  Other sick people have expressed their psychotic, schizophrenic tendencies thru believing they were the Messiah or some other mental derangement.

You take alcohol your mind can become confused. You take certain drugs your mind can become confused. Confused minds do strange things including shooting people in fits of mental breakdown.

Our society does not get rid of tobacco, alcohol, drugs, etc.

Columbine, Sandy Hook, Dahmer, Bundy, were all users of these mind altering products.  When sick minds use these substances, especially at the average age of about twenty when first psychotic breaks are likely to occur, unfathomable tragedies are likely.  

CHICAGO - ANOTHER OBAMA FAILURE...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/21/13)

This will be the last comment on Chicago.

The number of Chicago shootings in the last week, including both killed and wounded, is astounding.  The sociological and demographic implications will become clearer as the number of safe places in the city shrinks.  There is no outrage proportionate to the problem. The results will clearly  not be good.

CHICAGO...GUNS, MURDER AND POLITICS....(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 2/15/13)

If a certain segment of the population was removed from the murder statistics, the number of deaths per capita of the total population would be significant lower.  Although these statistics are posted on the Internet, as a nation we are not allowed to talk about this segment that has a very high gun death rate.

We focus on the horrible mass murders seemingly perpetrated by the segment of the population with much lower murders per capita.   This is appropriate as all these outrageous acts can not be explained with just simple words.

The nation doesn't have the backbone to face up to the statistics.  We look back over our history and we are convinced to blame ourselves for the murder rate.

Until we face the truth of which groups are committing a disproportionate number of murders in America, we will never fix the problem.

Politics in this nation has turned out to be all about groups, you go after the Christian vote, the Jewish vote, the Gay vote, the Union vote, the Women's vote, etc.  Grouping people together is commonplace.

When it comes to facing the gun issue, an "inconvenient  truth" is shoveled under the rug and everybody loses especially the poor.  On this issue, grouping is called prejudice.  

WHY HILLARY CLINTON SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED PRESIDENT...

Hillary Clinton recently claimed that prosperity is not just for CEOs and Hedge Fund managers.  She conveniently forgot that prosperity may not just be for Ex Presidents either.  

Furthermore, she doesn't bother to point out that if state governments, university endowments, unions and others did not give hedge funds their assets to manage, hedge fund managers would be making a lot less.

She said that democracy is not just for corporations. She left out almost everyone works for "corporations". Corporations are the basis of how we organize together for a substantial part of our lives. 

She conveniently left out that the entertainers and Hollywood people that support her are billionaires and millionaires  and CEOs.  To be more precise, she forgot to point out that almost the entire retirement and pension system is funded in one respect or another by our corporations.  She also left out that a significant portion of the wealth of the country is invested for the benefit of millions and millions of future retirees in the stocks and bonds of these corporations for which "most of us" work.  She also doesn't seem to care or know how the economy functions (for another time).

She should not be running for President because her campaign will be based on these kinds of deceptions and outright belief that the electorate is "stupid".

 

FIFA SUIT IS DUE TO RUSSIA, OIL AND GOOGLE..(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9/22/11)...

If you want to be really disgusted with the functioning of the Justice Department, take a look at the extensive list of antitrust cases filed under the Department's website.

The Justice Department has brought cases against Alcoa; a company that's gone nowhere, Eastman Kodak; a company that is virtually out of business, Microsoft; as it came under intense competition, IBM; still around but not really ever growing, etc. Now they are finally attacking Google, as it's primacy in the Internet market comes under fierce attack.

I decided to just pull a case at random. It's hard to believe but in 1993 our Justice Department, yours and mine, actually filed a case against a company for attempting to maintain the retail price of HOCKEY SKATES WITH V2 BLADES. There is no more inept view of our country than the destruction brought to the business community by the insanity of having an antitrust case over hockey skates.

Another example of a government department that's overzealous, over sized and out of control.

THE BLOG IS BACK

I decided to put the website back up because so many people reached out and requested I do so.  Thank you to all of our loyal followers. 

OBAMA'S DEMOCRATIC DECEIT...

It may have been going on for a long time but there's a serious flaw in the Democrat's political stance.

When President Obama says he is for the middle class and not the rich cats of Wall Street it makes me disgusted because it's a big lie.

Millions of people work for his so called "Wall Street". Pension funds, mutual funds, banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, real estate companies, payroll processors, consultants, accountants, lawyers and the list could go on and on.

Does President Obama mean that his supporters, George Soros,  Bruce Springsteen, Barbara Streisand, George Clooney, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Beyonce and Jay Z are the rich cats of Wall Street.  These people are multi-millionaires or billionaires.

The Democratic party should be held to explaining who exactly they are referring to.  Do we want to keep the majority of our people ignorant of economic realities?

Does he mean if a middle class person is invested in the stock market that they are rich cats of Wall Street? His whole political equation is so stupid that its not worth writing about anymore.

I've written hundreds of blogs.  Some were significantly correct and a few were somewhat wrong.  I tried my best to be objective and fair and for the most part I think I did a good job.

This will be my last blog and want to thank all the people who have followed the Osherow Institute.  May all be healthy and happy.

OIL IS NOT HOUSING - BLOG OF THE DAY...

The pundits of doom are reappearing.  This time it concerns the negative effect of the substantial and rapid decline in crude oil prices.  If the price of oil remains in the $70 dollar area it will cause the need for certain economic adjustments.  Some pundits are comparing the oil price decline to the housing crisis.

This is totally wrong.  The comparison is little or none.   The reason is that there were no real beneficiaries from the substantial decline in home prices.  There are countless beneficiaries from the substantial decline in crude.  That is the vast difference.  It will work out that way.  

OBAMA NEEDS A FREUDIAN ANALYST...

Since our President seems unable to effectively gain the respect of Putin, he's busy directing his manliness towards battles with the Congress.

Wouldn't it be better if he projected an agenda aimed at working together to improve the American experience?

OBAMA - IT'S FINALLY TIME TO SAY IT...

There seems to be so many negative headlines lately, Ebola, ISIS, Russia/Ukraine, Hong Kong Riots, Stock Market volatility, Destructive corporate policies, Secret Service scandals, Veterans Administration, IRS, Obamacare website fiasco and on and on.  All of these situations can be traced back to President Obama if only because he is the CEO of the nation.

His lack of action, his wrong actions, his inability to select experienced leaders, his inability to retain qualified leaders, his passivity, and his basic lack of experience is obvious.

He was elected on the premise of change. The reality is he has changed little for the better.

JONATHAN TISCH - THE STORY OF "I"

In a recent edition of a well know NY newspaper, there was an interview with the head of Loews
Corporation, Jonathan Tisch.  In my opinion, this executive sits in his position of power due to the fact he had a brilliant grandfather, not the results his company has generated since his grandfather's passing.

What made the article worthy of comment, was an absurd last paragraph where the executive is quoted with saying " I was taught never start a paragraph with the word I.  It sends a message that "I" am more important than the people reading the article."  The insanity of the article is that there were about forty "I's" referring to himself in the very short interview.  In my opinion, I have never seen such an egocentric interview ever.

Watch out for interviews in this newspaper.  

RUSSIA EXERTS POWERS WHILE OBAMA COWERS..(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/31/14)

Russia will begin to cut back on natural  gas supplies to Europe and an invasion of Ukraine is probably not far off.

ISRAEL - A GAME WITH ZERO PROBABILITY OF AN END?

In a baseball game there are players at all different positions.  If you remove one player at a time from the field, each removal will weaken the defense against the opposition.  The same thing is true in other sports.  In a chess game the objective is to take pieces from the opposing player in order to ultimately capture the king.

It has become obvious to me, that there is at this time no possible way to settle the Palestinian question.  Years ago associates of mine tried to involve me in an organization called "Peace Now".  It was one of many groups that sought to provide a specific methodology for bringing peace to the Israel/Palestinian confusion.  I didn't agree with the "Peace Now" plan then, and up until now it seems to have been totally wrong.  

ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban, Fatah, Muslim Brotherhood, etc. appear to be different groups  with various positions on one issue or another.  Yet each one of these groups are acting collectively as one team, prepared to take on whomever chooses to challenge them.  If one group (player) withdraws from the field by settling differences with Israel, United States, etc. the entire group (team) is weakened. 

Consequently it is becoming obvious that a settlement from any single terrorist related group will not occur in any time frame relevant to current attempts.  

BLOG OF THE DAY

In the old days every army had people who were arrow makers.  They made an endless supply of arrows.  In addition, most battles were always...

LATEST BLOG OF THE DAY...

Israel is fighting for its survival.   CNN keeps putting up the United Nations representatives as the protectors of the Palestinians and not keeping the context of civilian casualties honest and unbiased.

BLOG OF THE DAY

In the old days every army had people who were arrow makers.  They made an endless supply of arrows.  In addition, most battles were always fought with a certain number of troops being kept in reserve.  Reserves have often been the difference between winning and losing.  Obviously, if you didn't have arrows you lost.

It's incomprehensible for Israel to not have an endless supply of ammunition. Their reserves are limited, but not to have ammunition suggests that this generation of Israelis generals don't fully grasp what happened to the French in Vietnam. Limited reserves, limited ammunition and confused leadership.  Very scary...

WAR SUCKS...BUT LOSING IS WORSE...

There are very few words to describe war.  People die horrible deaths.

In World war II 25 million civilians died.  In the continuing turmoil in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 250 thousand civilians have died.

Whether the four little Palestinian boys on the beach in Gaza were just playing or placed there is irrelevant. They are unfortunate civilian casualties of war.  No nation has made the effort to avoid civilian casualties more than what we see being made by  the Israeli government.

Most news media sources distort the news when they don't present the full picture of why civilians die in wars.

Israel and Hamas are at war.  Unfortunately civilians will die.  The news media has to totally stop "psychologically" trying to place the blame on Israel.

If Hamas doesn't want its civilians to die, all they have to do is stop fighting.

LAUGH OF THE DAY

The New York Times has the audacity to keep on telling everyone else how to live their lives, yet they can't recognize their own inability to manage their own house.  Today the New York Times reported another miserable business quarter.

Beware of about anything you read in this paper...

RUSSIA - REAGAN OVERTURNED...

If you accept the thesis that Putin views the Russian population as too small to contend with the huge populations of Pakistan, Indonesia, India and China, etc. then you begin to see the reality of what is truly taking place.

If you accept another  thesis that there is a long term plan, most significantly by Russia and several Islamic terrorist groups, to diminish the European and American alliance then you are seeing  the real picture.

No one even talks about Crimea anymore.  We have absolutely no power to sanction Russia in any meaningful way.  The Europeans will not join with us for fear of losing their energy resources.  If Russia chose to cut them off, the hardship in the European nations will far exceed the drop of Russian oil revenues.  In any case, Russia is a country  on a mission and Europe would freeze before Russia gave in.

Putin realizes that no threats, from anyone, have any substance behind them. No one is prepared to go to war over any action that Russia takes.  What would we or Europe do if Russia decided to reclaim Poland, etc.?  Putin theorizes that there is absolutely nothing we would do.

We can't even stop the French from sending advanced weapons to Russia; even under the current circumstances.

There have been long periods history where fear of consequences trumped evil actions.

Because of the political mistakes made by the U.S., and Europe choosing to put its security into Russian hands, Putin now indirectly controls more oil outside of Russia than he ever could dream of.

Russia also knows no civilized nation is going to use atomic weapons.  It is only a question of how far Putin is willing to go to achieve the "Renaissance of the Motherland".

OBAMA ...NO COMMENT!!!(ORIGINALLY POSTED 7/23/12)

The Taliban continue to thrive in Afghanistan.  Al Qaeda is still a problem throughout the world.  Iraq  continues in a semi-state of war.  Socialists have taken over in France.  Russia refuses to cooperate with the Obama administration in the Mideast.  Its seems if no progress has been made on the Iranian situation.  Egypt has elected fundamentalists similar to the Iranian government.   Syria borders on the unbelievable in this day and age. Obama was elected with little or no foreign policy experience.  

America's a democracy, we get what we vote for.  

THE PC BUSINESS IS COMING BACK TO LIFE...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 4/29/13)

Exactly at the point where everything is changing, pessimism runs deep in the personal computer space.

Practically no one who goes into an office or classroom setting uses a tablet to prepare their spreadsheets, letters, term papers, etc. etc.  We wrote a blog in April 2011 (A Retailer Making Computers) about the destructive nature of the tablet to the PC business.

Now we are pointing out that PC business is at the beginning of a resurgence of significance.

RUSSIA - THE PROBLEM IS WE REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3/19/14)

Russia provides arms to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Taliban, Syrians, Al Qaeda, and almost every other anti-western military organization.

President Obama has actually believed that our "disengagement" would cause the opposition to retreat.  Thousands of years of world history has shown retreat becomes an endless process, where at best you are left with the choices of the aggressor.

A recent New York City newspaper editorial wrote about weakening the Russian expansion by building our energy independence.  This editorial actually talked in some whimsical way about President Obama capturing the moment by setting us on a decades long rebirth of our nation.

Russia has slowly but surely cemented an increasing share of the energy supply.  As I wrote in a blog a while back, it would have been alot easier to solve the Syrian situation if we would have done what had to be done at the beginning of this murderous catastrophe.

It has been forgotten in the press that up until recently a Russian battleship was stationed in Cuba. As far I know, it may still be there.  If Russia will not back down when we stand up to them, its only a matter of time when we reach the point that they will never back down and guess what, we will.

Just as the IPad changed the outlook for the PC Industry, Russia's long term plan seems to be the resurrection of the Russian Empire, especially under the Obama administration.

RUSSIA AND OBAMA'S UNDER PERFORMING PORTFOLIO....

The first thing that really has to be understood, in order to have clarity of insight,  is to determine whose in charge.

In the money management industry people sometime change from one manager to another.  When they do their existing portfolios consist of stocks and bonds.

The new money management firm takes on responsibility for managing the client's portfolio; meaning they have responsibility of the clients assets from the day they receive the new client's portfolio.

It is close to impossible to be able to blame the prior portfolio management firm for performance under the new manager's aegis.  The new manager is responsible for the performance from day one and can't blame poor performance on who managed the money before them.

This exact same concept is true about foreign policy. President Obama and his team have been responsible since they got elected.  They made their choices, they could have made different ones.

The dominoes are falling in the Middle East and potentially in alot of other places around the world.  As the Polish foreign minister just implied, relying on president Obama for protection is ludicrous.

Blaming George Bush or Cheney is politics and is the rhetoric of self interested and dangerous people.  It was Obama's portfolio from the day he was elected. 

OBAMA IS NO ABRAHAM LINCOLN...

We continue to watch the ineptitude of the Obama administration.

President Obama blackmailed Israel into supporting the joining of Hamas with the Palestinian government.  The weakness of our foreign policy is allowing the Middle Eastern dominoes to fall.  Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will be next.  Unfortunately I don't believe you can stop terrorist organizations with fancy words and appeasement.

We may be getting close to a tipping point, with Kerry and Obama totally incapable of handling the situation.  

ISRAEL'S DISGRACE...

Human nature may be human nature.  The atrocity in Israel of six Israeli Jews murdering an innocent Palestinian boy reaches beyond what diaspora  Jews expect Israel to be.

I have written about the black murders in Chicago extensively.  The fact that a disproportionate number of murders were committed by black people meant little.  The color of their skin was irrelevant, it was the murder rate that was and still is atrocious.

As a Jew, continuously supportive of the plight facing Israelis, I now find myself disgusted. There is no excuse or explanation any more so than applies to any other group of people.  A friend of mine once told me that if Jews don't support each other, no one else will.  If this is what the circumstances have brought Israeli's society to, they are no better than any other crime ridden group.

The fact is, just as there are significant problems in minority segments of our population, there is a big problem in Israel.  Explanations don't cut it.

RACIAL ANIMUS...

The Democrats don't like attacks on their policies.  They often turn to the "race card" in order to divert attention from the issues.

An Attorney General is supposed to bring  peace and healing to the national agenda, instead he brings race.

If I've ever seen "racial animus" in action it's when 95 percent of the black people vote for a man just because of his color.  Take a look in your own closet and stop bringing hatred, instead of peace.

There's animus everywhere, always has been, always will be.

VA - IRS - UNIONS...

I was interested in what went wrong at the VA and I looked to see if their work force was highly unionized. It was only logical to look and see if the IRS is unionized also.  Guess what...they are both highly unionized.

I've written several blogs about the unionization of government.  We are republishing just one below that was originally published in January 2011.


 "Are Destructive Union Votes Worth It?"
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 ARE VOTES WORTH IT?
On August 27, 2010, we said in a blog that "Almost every significant unionized industry in America has failed. Now the largest unionized segment in America is government."
In the January 8, 2011 issue of the Economist magazine the lead story is titled "The battle ahead - Confronting the public-sector unions."
If you accept the thesis that I'm even partially correct about the negative effect of unions and their inflexible total compensation costs being responsible for destroying the competitive condition of significant industries, you will be well advised to ask "Are unions likely to destroy the government?"
Isn't it only a matter of time before some union representing the fire department, police department or the post office, goes on strike? Obviously it will happen. It's tough to change people. Note carefully the behavior of certain union members during the recent New York City snowfall.
During the ongoing turmoil in Wisconsin, a prominent Democrat exhorted the public to "stick by their friends." This may have been true a few decades ago when people took government jobs based on their security, retirement benefits and often a lack of complexity.
Today we have evolved a system where the unionized government sector indirectly threatens to strike and withhold their votes from the government politicians who don't give them what they want.
Government gets its money from taxes; so what these unions are saying to their so called "friends" is give us more of your tax dollars or we will take away your services.
During the formative years of our republic, there was serious debate about what functions the central governments would serve, both at the local and the federal levels. After Hamilton's persuasive arguments for a collective defense among the states, it was also agreed that government would stay close to the people by providing all types of services, and thereby make it easier for existing members to get reelected.
Think carefully about what some of the things the government does for us. We go to a post office, they hand you your mail. You go to a motor vehicle office, they hand you a license. You apply for a passport, they mail you a passport. They send you social security checks. These are simplistic functions that can just as easily be done by the private sector, for profit, save money, and reduce the deficit significantly.
Functions that don't have to be done by government should be taken out of the hands of government. It's time for a more introspective America, especially in some of our big cities where people think that the sharing of ideas around water coolers actually adds merit to the city.

RUSSIA SCORES ANOTHER GOAL

President Obama would never have been elected if he wasn't black. The color of his skin should have been of as little value to a voter as gender, sexuality, etc.  In a perfect world, one's view of the competence of the candidate should have been the most important factor to consider.

I don't find any pleasure in criticizing the President of the United States.

For whatever my humble opinion is worth, I'm hard pressed to find in history many Presidents who have done the country so much harm.  It is crystal clear to other countries that the primary foreign policy that we are following is one of isolation.  Obama seems to be talking about building coalitions without any comprehension that the coalitions on the other side are rapidly escalating in size and power.

At first Congressman Cantor's election loss seemed like a passing event. Cantor's views on the economy, health care, education or immigration didn't play the part in the outcome as common wisdom suggests.  It seems more likely that it was the voter's reaction to Cantor's  past negotiations with President Obama. His constituents wanted him to hold the party line and not concede, so as to show  the value of conviction.

Not holding the line in the face of an attempt to gain at our expense in the world political equation won't work either.

OIL, RUSSIA AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3/28/14)

Its been said by some psychologists that opposites attract.  Its been said by others that common interests attract.

Is it possible that what we are seeing in international relations is a "tipping point"?

Those countries that have oil will be entering into an era of diminishing common interests with the oil consuming nations.  In its place will begin a second OPEC, more concerned about maintaining the price of a barrel of oil than their fear of having their governments replaced by radical elements within their own societies.  Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, Brazil, etc. will strengthen their connections and alliances.

The message that will be sent is that you will not force the price of oil substantially lower by rhetoric of climate change and the need for alternative energies.

This will incrementally increase the reliance on oil suppliers.  We are in no position to have the revenues of oil supplying nations substantially reduced by policies of reducing oil consumption.

Too much tax revenue is collected from oil consumption, too many people feed their families due to oil production and the simplistic appeasement of Russia will reduce the loyalty of several significant producers towards the United States.

JILL ABRAMSON-HARD WORKING WOMAN VS. NEW YORK TIMES (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11/18/10)

The New York Times often writes articles about the inequality of wealth. Without further comment, I looked at the total compensation of the top executive at the New York Times. This is a very poorly run company and in my opinion has done almost everything wrong. The total compensation of the top executive at the New York Times was approximately $6,000,000.00 in 2009. (Same now in 2014) Enough said for now. Stay tuned...

HIGH FREQUENCY TRADING...UNINTENDED LONG TERM CONSEQUENCES.

Back in the day brokerage firms were owned by partners. If the firm lost money, the partners were personally liable. Commission charges to buy and sell stocks and bonds were extremely high but no one forced anyone to buy and sell stocks and pay those fees. When I was originally a broker at E.F. Hutton and Company and I wanted to get a quote on a stock, I walked up to the front of the room, stood in a long line, picked up the phone and was able to request one quote and only one. I then had to find my way back to the desk through the throngs of other brokers, I would give my customer the quote which really wasn't current anymore, I would write out the order on what was called a trade ticket, I would put it in a vacuum tube, it would travel a long distance and about an hour later I would know if we bought the stock or not. Times have changed.

Somewheres along the line the powers that be decided that fixed and high commission rates were not the way to grow a hearty participation in American Capitalism among the people. Rates were then lowered, then lowered, then lowered, and then lowered. It also came to pass that "money management for a fee" began its monumental growth. We now can trade billions of shares a day explained by the cult of the necessity for a liquid market. The liquidity is well out of balance with the actual need and has turned stocks into the semblance of a gambling casino with all the rules and regulations of such activity very much in place within our markets. Research is superficial and shoddy at best, but thinking, fortunately, keeps evolving through higher and higher levels.

About the same time,Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette found a way to pierce the wall of the New York Stock Exchange prohibition requiring all member firms to be private. The cry became "the road to growth requires public capital and we as partners can no longer foresee having enough capital to sustain significant growth". The members of the exchange tried to maintain their historical rules of private companies but the opportunity for making the existing partners wealthy men controlled the outcome. So the door was opened and privately owned firms were able to create great wealth for their owners by selling shares in their privately owned companies. There is no question that I personally benefited from this "time in history". The combination of much lower commissions and the loss of the future money management asset growth, made the traditional brokerage business a heck of lot less profitable, even with the ancillary interest income.

This is the story of what really led to the breakdown of the investment arena into a gambling casino.