My Blog

Category: Business

  • Pete’s Update – 09/27/2012

    A couple of new things to report on the situation with Pete’s Fresh Market.

    As most readers know, the story has now made the local papers and WGN TV News.  Here’s what’s new — and what you won’t read in those papers:

    #1
    My original story stated that “the ring-leader of the group of thugs who showed up at Pete’s is known acquaintance of Ald. Burnett’s chief of staff.”  I’ve now been told that may or may not be correct.  There was some confusion as to who exactly it was from Ald. Burnett’s office.

    What we now know is that it was Ald. Burnett’s assistant chief of staff who was actually on-site and fully participated in the shakedown.  There is a rumor that one of the construction workers actually captured the event on video with his/her cell phone.  It is for this reason that Ald. Burnett has had to come out and acknowledge that his staff was there.

    #2
    Local community organization HOW United has announced that they will be having a community meeting to discuss the situation with Pete’s.

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    HOW UNITED
    announces a public meeting on
    PETE’S FRESH MARKET

    Wednesday
    October 03, 2012
    6:00 PM – 7:00PM

    St. Malachy Church
    2248 West Washington Boulevard
    Chicago, Illinois 60612

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    Everyone who cares about removing corruption from the system should plan to attend.  A packed house will show the rest of the world that at least there are some people who will stand up to corrupt politicians.

  • Corruption “Widespread” in Illinois

    A new poll finds that a whopping majority of state residents believe that not only state government but Illinois business is plagued by serious misconduct.

    According to the survey of 1,271 registered voters by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, 76.8 percent agree that “corruption in Illinois government is widespread.”

    via Crain’s Chicago Business.

    Awhile back there was a long article about why Illinois is so corrupt.  The bottom-line is that the people tolerate it.

    Most people won’t tolerate someone stealing from them.  But in Illinois the people do.  My guess is that the school system is so bad that most folks don’t even realize that all the corruption costs them a boat-load of money.

    People get what they vote.

  • Federal Reserve Funding the Entire US Deficit

    [Lawrence] Lindsey said that with the Fed purchasing at least $40 billion a month in mortgage debt through QE3, “they are buying the entire deficit.”  …

    The central bank’s recently announced bid to stimulate the economy has also taken the pressure off politicians to deal with the U.S. fiscal cliff, Lindsay argued, which could result in destabilizing tax hikes and spending cuts automatically taking effect early next year.

    “The Fed, maybe because it can’t do otherwise, has told the Congress: ‘We’re going to buy your bonds no matter what,’” Lindsey said. “I think that’s keeping the pressure off the president, off the Congress.”

    The effective of QE3 on interest rates may also keep Congress from reining in borrowing.

    “If the (Fed) chairman’s estimates of the effectiveness of QE3 on interest rates come true, we’re going to be down to an average cost of borrowing for the government of 0.6 of a percentage point,” Lindsey said. “Why would any Congress not borrow and spend if they could borrow at 60 basis points?”

    via CNBC.

    This is all going to come to a screeching halt… and not in a nice way.  The Federal Reserve simply may not exist in 5 or 10 years.  It will have failed.  Congress with throw the Fed under the bus and create a new central bank.

    Of course years of financial chaos will ensue and the value of the dollar will collapse.  (Note to self: move all the money you can offshore.)

  • Pete’s — Update 09/26/2012

    “If we don’t work then nobody work.”

    via. WGN.

    Dude on camera telling the world he’s going to shut-down construction.

    This is insanity.

  • East Coast Liberals: Smartest Students in CPS are the Gang Leaders

    …  Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker and former New York Gov. David Paterson — who spoke Tuesday morning about recidivism and racism at a panel hosted by Stroock law firm — say.

    During the talk, Paterson observed the smartest students in the Chicago Public School system are the gang leaders because they’re giving kids what they need — structure, a way to make money, and some sense of belonging.

    Until society steps up and gives those kids that same sense of security, according to Paterson, this non-stop cycle of people going to prison on nonviolent drug offenses is never going to end.

    via Business Insider.

    These two guys are real pieces of work.  Newark is quite likely the only city in America worst off than Detroit and East St. Louis.  Why doesn’t he fix his own damn problems before telling us who our smart kids are?

    Doesn’t he have any gang leaders smart kids in Newark he can talk about?  Why drag us down to Newark’s standards?

    What a jerk.

  • Pete’s — 09/25/12 Update

    The Sun-Times joins the discussion:

    The West Side is one of Chicago’s “food deserts,” so named because it lacks full-service grocery stores. Cheers went up from people in the neighborhood when the city sealed a deal two years ago to bring one to Madison and Western.

    Pete’s Fresh Market, a South Side-based chain, got the authority to buy city-owned land at the southeast corner and build there. It was hung up in the city bureaucracy for a while, and work on the site, a half-mile from the United Center, finally started this month.

    That’s when real trouble started. Two weeks ago, according to Pete’s attorney and other sources, a large group of people arrived at the construction site and threatened the crews. One person allegedly showed a gun.

    The grocer’s lawyer, Endy Zemenides, said it was a clear shakedown. “What I would characterize as professional agitators stormed the site and made some very open threats to our construction crew,” he said.

    via Sun-Times.

    Quick Update:

    Something fishy about Ald. Burnett’s story here.

    Burnett said he had a staff member on site for one of the incidents because Pete’s called and requested his help. While Burnett backs the development, he said he’s deferring to Fioretti on matters pertaining to the city.

    His staff was on site b/c Pete’s asked for help. That makes no sense whatsoever. Pete’s would call the police; how could Ald. Burnett’s guy get there before the police? And Ald. Fioretti was dealing with Pete’s for years… if they needed help they would have called Fioretti’s office, not Burnett’s.

    I’m guessing that Burnett’s guy was there as part of the shakedown crew. I’m curious if there’s video of this event on someone’s cell phone. That would be something. Assist in telling what really happened and why Ald. Burnett’s guy was really there.

    I will not hold my breath for all those who said I was lying to apologize.

  • Anti-Austerity Protests in Spain; U.S. Media Not Reporting

    Police are trying to clear out the massive anti-austerity demonstration that engulfed Spain’s federal district this evening.

    via Business Insider.

    Follow the link for photos.  This is us in a few years.  There’s no other way.

  • Embarassing Americans — And These People Vote

    I received this via email this morning.  I thought it was timely because just yesterday Howard Stern played audio of his producers in Harlem interviewing Obama supporters.

    There is something very very wrong with the educational system in this country whereas so many can be so ignorant of the most basic facts.  There is no way that these people can understand anything about finance, economics, job creation, tax theory, or any other subject that would make them an informed intelligent voter.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE?rel=0]

    These people do not possess the requisite base of knowledge and analytical skills necessary to determine the implications of their vote.  They ought go into the voting booth and flip a coin.

    This is the result of 60 years of modern liberalism governing our schools.  Modern liberalism has created legions of undereducated men and women who can barely take care of themselves.  We’ve told them that they’re “special” and deserving when they are not even average or in fact normal.  They’re unique only in their ability to articulate idiocy and not be even slightly embarrassed.

    They are the poster children proving that ignorance is bliss.

    This is what the modern unionized public school system has given us.

  • 50,000 New Jobs!! Seasonal… at Wal-Mart

    Wal-Mart Stores said on Friday that it plans to give current workers the chance to work more hours and will hire more than 50,000 seasonal employees as it gets ready for the winter holiday season, its busiest time of year.

    via Fox Business.

    [Insert cheap joke here.]

  • Legislative Change Means $670 million More for Teachers’ Pensions

    The state will have to come up with another $670 million for the teacher pension system in the next budget after a retirement fund panel crunched the numbers and adjusted its assumptions.

    The Teachers’ Retirement System lowered what it expects from investments from 8.5 percent to 8 percent. The pension fund’s leadership also increased a variety of other assumptions, including how long it expects retired teachers to live. The fund covers teachers outside Chicago.  …

    The state is paying $2.7 billion into the fund in its current budget. Without any adjustments, the state would have owed about $2.89 billion in the new budget year that begins next July 1.But the changes approved Friday increased that price tag to $3.37 billion. All told, the state will have to pay $670 million more than this year.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Consider, we’re going to pay $3.3 billion into the teachers pensions and another $3 billion on debt service.  That’s $6 billion next year that could have gone to pay for services for the poor and the elderly but instead are going to the politically connected and union members (… I realize that’s redundant.)

    But this may be the best line of all:

    Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan, both Chicago Democrats, recently suggested that changes to the pension system would have to get done in January at the earliest. That’s a post-election period when more lame ducks are freer to take politically risky votes, and the bar to pass legislation with an immediate effective date drops from three-fifths to a simple majority.

    Allow me to translate:  Fixing the pensions is going to be very unpopular and thankfully our experience is that voters have short memories.  We also don’t care how much more money this costs the state (after all, all the bond holders and the teachers unions are our buddies.) We’re also not sure that we can get all the Democrats to go along.  So we to avoid any embarrassment — and to make sure the unions make the campaign donations they promised before the election — we’re going to put this off until next year.

    The Machine is like a casino… the house never loses.