Category: Business

  • The Rich Are Getting Poorer

    Trouble for those “Tax the Rich!” folks:

    For the first time in history, rich people are actually getting poorer, and luxury retailers are freaking out about it.  …

    “Because these same consumers are significantly invested in their high-end lifestyle with income committed to a wide-range of fixed expenses to maintain that lifestyle, it’s in discretionary spending where they are going to take their cuts. So that translates into less money to spend each month for clothes, shoes and handbags, jewelry and home decorative accessories. These folks have plenty of all that stuff already, so it is the easiest, most painless way to adjust one’s budget when there is less money coming in each month.”

    via Business Insider.

    Intelligent people already know that government budgets at the city, state, and federal level are so out of whack that even if we EAT THE RICH it’s still not going to make a dent in the deficits.

    Our only hope out of this mess is economic growth… and a little inflation.

    Ugh.

  • Double-Dipping Payments from the “G”

    As many as 117,000 Americans simultaneously collect unemployment benefits and federal disability each year, a form of double-dipping that investigators say costs taxpayers $850 million annually and should be ended.

    To understand why such “double-dipping” constitutes fraud, please note the following general requirements for each program: To receive unemployment insurance benefit payments, claimants must state that they are able to work. To receive disability insurance benefit payments, claimants must state that they are unable to work.

    via Townhall.

    The article actually points out that because of the significant increase in the number of people on disability the “current projections indicate that the Social Security trust fund for disability will be fully depleted in 2016, just four years from the present.”

    The data appears solid.  Where is the MSM on this story.  Is this not a significant issue in this election cycle?

     

  • Big Money in Freon Smuggling

    I love stories like this; Government run amok.

    The chief executive of the century-old company from America’s heartland shifted nervously on the witness stand here as he tried to explain how a trusted senior vice president had been caught on a wiretap buying half a million dollars in smuggled merchandise, much of it from China.

    But the contraband purchased by Marcone, a St. Louis-based company that claims to be the nation’s largest authorized source for appliance parts, was not counterfeit handbags or fake medicines. It was a colorless gas that provides the chill for air-conditioners from Miami to Mumbai, from Bogotá to Beijing.

    Under an international treaty, the gas, HCFC-22, has been phased out of new equipment in the industrialized world because it damages the earth’s ozone layer and contributes to global warming. There are strict limits on how much can be imported or sold in the United States by American manufacturers.

    But the gas is still produced in enormous volumes and sold cheaply in China, India and Mexico, among other places in the developing world, making it a profitable if unlikely commodity for international smugglers.

    So in 2009, Carlos Garcia, the Marcone vice president, generated big business for his company’s growing air-conditioning operation by selling smuggled foreign gas to repairmen at rock bottom prices in a promotion called Freaky Freon Fridays, drawing on a brand name that many use as a synonym for coolants.

    via NYTimes.com.

    Two great quotes:

    International efforts to curb the use of HCFC-22 are faltering for dozens of reasons, from loopholes in environmental treaties to the reluctance of manufacturers to step up development of more environmentally friendly machines.

    and,

    Many air-conditioning manufacturers have even figured out how to sidestep the 2010 ban on selling new machines containing HCFC-22, by offering unfilled air-conditioning compressors that service workers swap into existing units and then fill with the gas, creating refurbished machines that are as good as new.

    Ya, kinda like the war on drugs.  Big brother steps in and basically screws up the entire marketplace.  Businesses position themselves around the law and the only result is products are now more expensive to the consumer… slowing the whole economy.

    This notion the folks in the U.S. are rich and can afford the more expensive machine while folks in Mexico get to use HCFC-22 because they’re poor creates conditions ripe for a black market.  Same goes for the carbon credit swap in the Kyoto Treaty.  It’ll never work.

    None of these kinds of restrictions ever work.

  • Illinois – 4th Worst Legal Climate for Business

    Illinois, along with California, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia, are among the worst states in the country for businesses because of their legal climates, according to survey of corporate attorneys released Monday.

    Two Illinois counties did not fare well in the survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s institute for legal reform, either. Cook County was named the most unfair and unreasonable jurisdiction, and Madison County was named the sixth most unfair county.  …

    Illinois’ ranking this year, 46th among the 50 states in terms of the fairness of its litigation environment, compares with previous rankings of the 45th worst state in 2010 and the 46th worst in 2008.via Chicago Tribune.

    So we’ve been terrible; no one’s done anything about it so we’re still terrible.  I see.  Hey Gov. Quinn, Anybody home down there?

    We have the worst pensions in the country and and a unfair and unreasonable legal environment.  It’s no wonder that businesses don’t want to be here.

    Add to that mess that fact that:

    Chicago, the city that brought us deep-dish pizza, Oprah and “da Bears,” is also home to the nation’s highest tax burden for travelers.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    So if you’re a business here you know that it hard to do business with other businesses because it’s expensive to travel here.  This is also a huge burden on tourists… who used to come here in droves until downtown wildlings become common-place.

    Rahm has a full plate.  Maybe he should get busy trying to solve a few of these problems instead of non-stop fundraising for Obama.

  • The Unemployment Farce: Only 42% of People Working

    Worst news ever!!

    The number of Americans whom the U.S. Department of Labor counted as “not in the civilian labor force” in August hit a record high of 88,921,000.  …

    In July, there were 155,013,000 in the U.S. civilian labor force. In August that dropped to 154,645,000—meaning that on net 368,000 people simply dropped out of the labor force last month and did not even look for a job.There were also 119,000 fewer Americans employed in August than there were in July. In July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 142,220,000 Americans working. But, in August, there were only 142,101,000 Americans working.

    Despite the fact that fewer Americans were employed in August than July, the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.3 in July to 8.1. That is because so many people dropped out of the labor force and stopped looking for work. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force (meaning they had a job or were actively looking for one) who did not have a job.

    The Bureau of Labor Statistic also reported that in August the labor force participation rate (the percentage of the people in the civilian non-institutionalized population who either had a job or were actively looking for one) dropped to a 30-year low of 63.5 percent, down from 63.7 percent in July. The last time the labor force participation rate was as low as 63.5 percent was in September 1981.

    via cnsnews.

    Think about that.  In August the U.S. civilian labor force was 154,645,000 people.  The unemployment rate among those people was 8.1%.  So of those 154M who could/should be working 12,526,245 were not.  These 12.5M are on unemployment.  That means that 142,118,755 people are working; hooray for them!!

    We are a country of 314,330,000 people.  That means that only 42% of the people in this country are working.

    Forty-Two Percent of people in this country are working.

    Just think about that for a little bit.

  • New Govt Laser Reads You At Molecular Level

    The Department of Homeland Security will soon be using a laser at airports that can detect everything about you from over 160-feet away.

    Gizmodo reports a scanner that could read people at the molecular level has been invented. This laser-based scanner – which can be used 164-feet away — could read everything from a person’s adrenaline levels, to traces of gun powder on a person’s clothes, to illegal substances — and it can all be done without a physical search. It also could be used on multiple people at a time, eliminating random searches at airports.

    The laser-based scanner is expected to be used in airports as soon as 2013, Gizmodo reports.

    via CBS DC.

    Really?!  Is this what we’ve come to?

    I wonder what the ACLU’s position is going to be on this.  At the airport I kinda understand; you are giving your consent to be searched.  That’s the bargain for what is supposed to be a safe flight.

    But how long before Mayor Bloomberg decides that he wants to use this on people just walking down the street?

    1984 here we come!!

  • OxyContin Redesigned: Users Switching to Heroin

    This is a story about how smart people are stupid.

    In the past, OxyContin was designed to be released into the body’s system slowly, over the course of many hours, meaning each pill contained a large reservoir of oxycodone. Drug users soon discovered by crushing the pills and inhaling them, or dissolving the pills in water and injecting them, they could bypass the slow-release mechanism and get an immediate ‘high.’  …

    But in 2010, Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin, changed the formula of the opioid drug to make it more difficult to crush and much slower to dissolve, which appears to have made the drug less attractive to users, according Cicero and his colleagues.
    The researchers … found that while the new formula has successfully stopped many users from abusing OxyContin, they aren’t abandoning drugs entirely. A significant percentage of former OxyContin users are instead turning to harder drugs, such as heroin and other, stronger opioids.  addicts

    via Fox News.

    Well what did you think was going to happen?  Let me guess, a bunch of guys in suits (the “C” level suite) and bespectacled scientists (the drug researchers) and — THE GOVERNMENT — think they’re going to stop drug addiction by making it so people cannot get high?

    You don’t need a MBA from Booth or a Phd in organic chemistry to know that drugs addicts will move from one drug to another.  So why would Purdue Pharma do this?  Surely they’re selling less Oxy now with the abusers demand subsided.  They spent good R&D money on redesigning the drug to have lower sales.  Why?!

    It’s not in this story but I’m willing to gamble dollars to navy beans that Purdue Pharma did this because of a request from the FDA.  Big brother getting into everyone’s business.

  • New Chemical Makes Teeth ‘Cavity Proof’

    A new chemical could make human teeth ‘cavity proof’ – and do away with the need for visits to the dentists forever.

    The molecule has been called ‘Keep 32’ – after the 32 teeth in a human mouth.

    The chemical was designed by dentists in Chile, and wipes out all the bacteria that cause cavities in just 60 seconds in tests.

    Cool huh?

    Now comes the creepy part.

    The chemical could be added to any current dental care product, turning toothpaste, mouthwash and chewing gum into ‘super cleansers’ that could get rid of the underlying cause of tooth decay.

    via Mail Online.

    Eww.

  • Eat the Rich vs. Obama

    I was reading this story:

    President Barack Obama will officially launch the battle over the impending fiscal cliff this morning, announcing a plan to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for people earning under $250,000, while letting the rest of the tax cuts expire.

    via Business Insider.

    This got me thinking about how much money will really flow into the Treasury from “the rich”?  I remember this from awhile back.

    If you have not seen… it’s just plain excellent.
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661pi6K-8WQ?rel=0]

  • John Kerry = Inside Trader and Profiteer

    Another oldie but goodie:

    For years, Kerry has invested millions in a number of green energy companies that have benefitted from the president’s efforts to aggressively subsidize the industry with taxpayer dollars.

    These companies include Exelon, which received a $646 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan in 2011 to build a solar facility in California and created only 20 permanent jobs, as well as Fisker Automotive, the fledgling electric car company that offshored its manufacturing operation to Finland after receiving a $529 million federal loan guarantee in 2010.

    The loan guarantees, approved by the Department of Energy, were made possible by funding allocated in the 2009 stimulus bill, which Kerry supported. According to Kerry’s own office, the Senator “played a key role” in crafting the portions of the legislation designed to offer federal support for green energy projects.

    Additionally, Kerry co-authored the controversial cap-and-trade legislation that would have effectively imposed a tax on carbon-dioxide emissions. Though the bill ultimately failed, the New York Times noted that Exelon and companies like it “would emerge as financial winners” if the legislation was enacted.

    Kerry has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a venture capital firm run by John Doerr, a prominent Obama donor who served on the president’s Economy Recovery Advisory Board.

    The firm, where former vice president Al Gore is a partner, invests heavily in alternative energy companies such as Fisker Automotive and Amonix Inc., a Nevada-based solar panel manufacturer that laid off two-thirds of its workforce earlier this year despite receiving nearly $6 million in federal tax credits.

    Amonix was one of 16 companies (out of 27 overall) listed in Doerr’s “green-tech” portfolio to receive some form of federal support under Obama.

    via Washington Free Beacon.

    People — the problem in NOT in Washington.  The problem in on Main Street.  The goofballs in Massachusetts keep voting for this guy (the Lord knows we have our own corrupt politicians.)  That said, how is the not a crime? And, where is the MSM on this story?