Hey Barry:
Now that another Texas governor wants to be in charge, it's worth looking at his record in his home state.
Y'all know I'm not against socialism or government owned businesses on principle, but I am surprised that a Conservative Republican would be proud of a program that invests taxpayer money into business start-ups.
It's called the 'The Texas Certified Capital Company Program' and it acts as a VC firm, but is uses taxpayer money instead of private money.
Read it here: http://www.window.state.tx.us/capco/overview.html
Lord knows there is a LOT of private money around for good and not-so-good ideas these days; there is so much money around that no real good idea will lack for money. So, what's left over is crooks, dogs and Ponzi schemes - apologies to Ponzi.
History buffs will recall that Germany and Italy both had Fascist regimes in the 1930's and 1940's wherein the state funded private companies to work on government contracts. It did not work out so well for them.
The trouble I see as an economist is that such a scheme can become simply a 'crony capitalist' program where politician's friends get the contracts instead of letting contracts on a bidding process.
Lo and behold, it turns out that has already happened in good ol Texas.
Surprise, surprise.
Charles Dameron of the WSJ calls it out here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576428262897285614.html
Nobody can make up this stuff.
Holy cow.
Your pal,
Monday, August 15, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
How To Really Create Jobs
Hey Barry:
There was a news article saying that you were taking a few days off to think about how to approach economic issues.
That's a good idea, but Barry, y'all gotta be real careful.
Here's why: conventional economic thinking is wrong. Flat wrong.
Worse, it actually harms American people - real Americans, the ones who pay taxes and vote.
See, I'm one of those guys, and you know what, we all get it.
We all get that DC Beltway economics just screws us. It's been bought and paid for by the Big Money Bastards.
And, we are not happy about it.
So, that means y'all gonna have to go outside the box and color outside the lines. That's IF you really want to help the good ol U S of A and also get re-elected.
Now, much as I hate to sound like a paranoid wing-nut, there are some real issues here.
The central issue in real simple: the shadow forces of Big Money will not allow Congress to pass ANY policy which will actually help us real folks make more money and get a job.
That's because the shadows make their money by taking it from us. That's why there are no jobs: we don't have any money to spend. And, since consumer spending is still 70% of the economy, no spending means no jobs. The Big Money Bastards who own Congress would rather send the country down the drain than give up any of their cash.
In order to save our sorry a-- and save the country, you, Barry Obama, are gonna have to figure out how to get us more money so we can buy stuff.
Plain and simple - that's it.
Now, you can scratch any economist, or Democratic Congressperson and get a list of job creating policies. And, none of those policy ideas are gonna hurt anything. And, it's downright sad, but you cannot get a policy list from any Rep.
But, none of their policies will actually solve the problem.
To really solve the problem, we have to do some big things. Things the Big Money won't like.
Here they are again, the list of things we gotta do:
1. Pass laws which make it easier for unions to organize workers, this will increase demand by raising wages.
2. Hire more Justice Department regulators so we can prosecute companies which break laws which encourage workers to form unions.
3. Enforce all anti-monopoly laws and pass more.
4. Hire more regulators to enforce existing anti-monopoly laws.
5. Make oil, gas, electricity, water, sewer and telephone services into Public Utilities and regulate them with a Public Utility Commission.
6. Cancel all Free Trade agreements: they destroy American jobs. And, leave the WTO, NAFTA and other agreements.
7. Create a national industrial policy which identifies those industries we want in the future and then encourages those industries with tariffs, subsidies and government contracts.
8. Tax away the great fortunes.
9. Tax away the great incomes.
10. Restore Glass-Stegal so that commercial banks can NOT buy assets.
11. Keep Social Security and Medicare as high as possible so that we do not reduce demand among the elderly and handicapped. Besides, it's the right thing to do.
12. Manage our debt so that we borrow when we need stimulus and pay down when we don't need it.
13. Eliminate paid political ads - require that broadcasters provide free access to qualified political parties as a condition of their FCC license.
So there you are Barry. Those are the things we gotta do. Nothing wrong with the other things - WPA style work, more stimulus and so on - but those other things won't get the job done. Best we can hope for from those is a delay of more catastrophe.
To solve the real problem, we gotta get radical.
On August 28, Robert Reich called for some policies in his column titled President Obama needs a bold jobs plan. [http://www.sfgate.com/columns/reich/]
It's worth reading, but I don't think those ideas are bold enough. They won't hurt anything, but I don't think they'll get the job done.
We are hoping that you put us on the bold track, Barry.
If you give in to the Reps, we are goners.
Your pal,
There was a news article saying that you were taking a few days off to think about how to approach economic issues.
That's a good idea, but Barry, y'all gotta be real careful.
Here's why: conventional economic thinking is wrong. Flat wrong.
Worse, it actually harms American people - real Americans, the ones who pay taxes and vote.
See, I'm one of those guys, and you know what, we all get it.
We all get that DC Beltway economics just screws us. It's been bought and paid for by the Big Money Bastards.
And, we are not happy about it.
So, that means y'all gonna have to go outside the box and color outside the lines. That's IF you really want to help the good ol U S of A and also get re-elected.
Now, much as I hate to sound like a paranoid wing-nut, there are some real issues here.
The central issue in real simple: the shadow forces of Big Money will not allow Congress to pass ANY policy which will actually help us real folks make more money and get a job.
That's because the shadows make their money by taking it from us. That's why there are no jobs: we don't have any money to spend. And, since consumer spending is still 70% of the economy, no spending means no jobs. The Big Money Bastards who own Congress would rather send the country down the drain than give up any of their cash.
In order to save our sorry a-- and save the country, you, Barry Obama, are gonna have to figure out how to get us more money so we can buy stuff.
Plain and simple - that's it.
Now, you can scratch any economist, or Democratic Congressperson and get a list of job creating policies. And, none of those policy ideas are gonna hurt anything. And, it's downright sad, but you cannot get a policy list from any Rep.
But, none of their policies will actually solve the problem.
To really solve the problem, we have to do some big things. Things the Big Money won't like.
Here they are again, the list of things we gotta do:
1. Pass laws which make it easier for unions to organize workers, this will increase demand by raising wages.
2. Hire more Justice Department regulators so we can prosecute companies which break laws which encourage workers to form unions.
3. Enforce all anti-monopoly laws and pass more.
4. Hire more regulators to enforce existing anti-monopoly laws.
5. Make oil, gas, electricity, water, sewer and telephone services into Public Utilities and regulate them with a Public Utility Commission.
6. Cancel all Free Trade agreements: they destroy American jobs. And, leave the WTO, NAFTA and other agreements.
7. Create a national industrial policy which identifies those industries we want in the future and then encourages those industries with tariffs, subsidies and government contracts.
8. Tax away the great fortunes.
9. Tax away the great incomes.
10. Restore Glass-Stegal so that commercial banks can NOT buy assets.
11. Keep Social Security and Medicare as high as possible so that we do not reduce demand among the elderly and handicapped. Besides, it's the right thing to do.
12. Manage our debt so that we borrow when we need stimulus and pay down when we don't need it.
13. Eliminate paid political ads - require that broadcasters provide free access to qualified political parties as a condition of their FCC license.
So there you are Barry. Those are the things we gotta do. Nothing wrong with the other things - WPA style work, more stimulus and so on - but those other things won't get the job done. Best we can hope for from those is a delay of more catastrophe.
To solve the real problem, we gotta get radical.
On August 28, Robert Reich called for some policies in his column titled President Obama needs a bold jobs plan. [http://www.sfgate.com/columns/reich/]
It's worth reading, but I don't think those ideas are bold enough. They won't hurt anything, but I don't think they'll get the job done.
We are hoping that you put us on the bold track, Barry.
If you give in to the Reps, we are goners.
Your pal,
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