March 15th, 2009 by drs
Here is a very interesting video on the Federal Reserve, Money and Banking in America. It was produced by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
The complete transcript of the video is available here: Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve: the Complete Transcript
Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood “The Monster”. But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates.
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March 15th, 2009 by drs
Here’s an old (2000) article about the effects of the Community Reinvestment Act on Cities: “The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities”
The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation’s banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their own striving, is the key to their well-being.
The CRA’s premise sounds unassailable: helping the poor buy and keep homes will stabilize and rebuild city neighborhoods. As enforced today, though, the law portends just the opposite, threatening to undermine the efforts of the upwardly mobile poor by saddling them with neighbors more than usually likely to depress property values by not maintaining their homes adequately or by losing them to foreclosure. The CRA’s logic also helps to ensure that inner-city neighborhoods stay poor by discouraging the kinds of investment that might make them better off.
Read more here: “The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities”
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March 15th, 2009 by drs
Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal piece The Obama Rosetta Stone
The piece refers to “A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America’s Promise. The President’s Budget and Fiscal Preview” This is the U.S. budget for laymen, and it’s a must read.
Mr. Obama made clear in the campaign his intention to raise taxes on this income class by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. What is becoming clearer as his presidency unfolds is that something deeper is underway here than merely using higher taxes to fund his policy goals in health, education and energy.
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March 8th, 2009 by drs
I’ve been using TweetDeck to search for mentions of “Galt” in all the posts on Twitter. Coming up with some interesting stuff such as this post on the Motly Moose.
What, haven’t you heard? It’s the new thing. Thanks to Obama‘s crushing tax policies, America is now punishing awesomeness and success! What the hell are they thinking?? This is Econ 101 people, punish success and people will stop being successful. More specifically, I, and dozens of my brethren will stop being successful, on purpose, to prove how foolish these policies are!
See, this visionary, Ayn Rand, wrote a really prophetic book, where the brilliant, creative awesome overclass just got tired of carrying the “looters and moochers” (technical terms folks, shrug it off). These wunderkinds move away to a sort of uber-creative Shangri-La, and ROFL lustily while the leaderless, idea-strapped society crumbles behind them.
Check it out: turns out that some completely nonpartisan think tank, the Tax Foundation, figured out a way to tell who the moochers were, and summarized it in this brilliant chart:
Holy Grover Norquist, Batman! In a nutshell, anyone above about 60k is “carrying” anyone below 60k.
Read more at Motley Moose – gettin’ my Galt on
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March 8th, 2009 by drs
Here’s a completely different scenario that may help you understand the sub-prime fiasco, from the The Disciplined Investor website.
Ruth is the proprietor of a bar in Chicago. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers – most of whom are unemployed alcoholics – to drink now but pay later.
She has the good sense to keep track of the drinks consumed, with the help of an expensive point-sale-software program paid for by an SBA loan. These are carried on the books as “customer loans”.
Word gets around, and new customers flood into Ruth’s bar. (more…)
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February 22nd, 2009 by drs
The Community Reinvestment Act has been a topic of discussion as a cause for the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the subsequent financial problems of recent history.
Howard Husock’s article The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities published in the City Journal‘s Winter 2000 issue explains CRA’s history and the politics behind it.
The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation’s banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, (more…)
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February 12th, 2009 by drs
This stuff makes so much sense to me! Why is our government punishing our workers and our economy by keeping our corporate rates so high?
A video by CF&P Foundation explaining why the U.S. needs to cut its corporate tax rate to stay competitive with the rest of the world.
Read the article at The Tax Foundation to learn how our states rate as compared to countries around the world. (see Excel worksheet)
Many states impose state corporate income taxes at rates above the national average of 6.6 percent. Iowa, for example, imposes the highest corporate tax rate of 12 percent, followed by Pennsylvania’s 9.99 percent rate and Minnesota’s 9.8 percent rate. When added to the federal rate, these states tax their businesses at rates far in excess of all other OECD countries.
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February 12th, 2009 by drs
This video reviews real-world evidence showing that changes in marginal tax rates can have a significant impact on taxable income, thus leading to substantial amounts of revenue feedback. In a few cases, tax-rate reductions even “pay for themselves,” though the key lesson is the more modest point that pro-growth changes in tax policy will have a positive impact on economic performance and that good tax cuts therefore do not “cost” the government much in terms of foregone tax revenue.
This video is second installment of a three-part series. Part I reviews theoretical relationship between tax rates, taxable income, and tax revenue. Part III discusses how the revenue-estimating process in Washington can be improved. For more information please visit the Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s web site: www.freedomandprosperity.org.
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February 11th, 2009 by drs
In his book “Capitalism and Freedom” (1962) Milton Friedman (1912-2006) advocated minimizing the role of government in a free market as a means of creating political and social freedom.
An excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue in 1979.
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February 10th, 2009 by drs
What is the Laffer Curve? I’m sure you’ve probably heard it mentioned in the news. The following video the the Center for Freedom and Prosperity does a great job explaining the Laffer Curve.
The Laffer Curve charts a relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. While the theory behind the Laffer Curve is widely accepted, the concept has become very controversial because politicians on both sides of the debate exaggerate. This video shows the middle ground between those who claim “all tax cuts pay for themselves” and those who claim tax policy has no impact on economic performance. This video, focusing on the theory of the Laffer Curve, is Part I of a three-part series. Part II reviews evidence of Laffer-Curve responses. Part III discusses how the revenue-estimating process in Washington can be improved. For more information please visit the Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s web site: www.freedomandprosperity.org.
For more information: www.freedomandprosperity.org
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