My Blog

Category: Business

  • Spanish Miners Fire Rockets at Police

    Spanish Miners Fire Rockets at Police in Austerity Protest, Strike | 7 Injured | Video | TheBlaze.com

    In a scene that looks more like Gaza than Spain, striking coal miners armed with homemade rockets and slingshots clashed with police Friday, leaving seven people injured– two of them seriously– the Interior Ministry said.

    The strike is the latest and the most violent of many in Spain in reaction to harsh austerity measures aimed at digging the debt-burdened country out of its financial crisis.

    via TheBlaze.com.

    Where’s the MSM on this?

    And what do you think it will be like when it’s our turn?  When we have to make the tough decisions and begin cutting programs?  Will there be violence?

  • Teens Employment Lowest Since WWII – Obama Not Helping

    This article was published yesterday about the same time that Obama was in the Rose Garden making the situation worse:

    Fewer than 3 in 10 American teenagers now hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16-to-19-year olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.  …

    The drop in teen employment, steeper than for other age groups, is partly a cultural shift. More youths are spending summer months in school, at music or learning camps or in other activities geared for college. But the decline is especially troubling for teens for whom college may be out of reach, leaving them increasingly idle and with few options to earn wages and job experience.Older workers, immigrants and debt-laden college graduates are taking away lower-skill work as they struggle to find their own jobs in the weak economy. Upper-income white teens are three times as likely to have summer jobs as poor black teens, sometimes capitalizing on their parents’ social networks for help.

    Overall, more than 44 percent of teens who want summer jobs don’t get them or work fewer hours than they prefer.

    via HeraldNet.com.

    Holy Cow!!  Three passages worth repeating:

    [T]he decline is especially troubling for teens for whom college may be out of reach,
    leaving them increasingly idle and with few options to earn wages and job experience.

    Just who are these kids who are now left with few options?  My guess is urban city kids.  In the country there’s always work on the farm.  But in the city & suburbs we have thousands and thousands of idle kids.  Hanging around with noth’n to do; just look’n for trouble.

    Older workers, immigrants and debt-laden college graduates are taking away
    lower-skill work as they struggle to find their own jobs in the weak economy.

    Isn’t this the truth.  Have you ever been to a Wal-Mart where the greeter was under 50?  And now everywhere you go, every single stinking fast food place, sit-down restaurant, Target, Wal-Mart, grocery store, and nearly everywhere else has adult immigrants working there.  In the ’70s and ’80s these jobs were good (great) jobs for kids to get.  Two people I know very well worked at Jewel when they were in high school.  One put herself through college; the other bought a Camaro.

    With the new (unconstitutional) Obama plan on immigration the job market will now have another few million young people who are eligible to work … but will struggle to find decent employment.  It serves no one when you just set people up to fail.

    Upper-income white teens are three times as likely to have summer jobs as poor black teens….

    This is what I wrote yesterday; inner city kids are going to be one of the biggest losers in the immigration debacle.  Contrary to what some people believe, one cannot just walk into a job that pays $100,000 per year.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  Usually that means that kids bus tables at a local restaurant, caddie, work retail, mow lawns, wash cars, whatever.  These jobs are important because they teach critical lessons necessary to move up in the world: show-up on time, look nice, smile, how to deal with conflict, how to deal with a boss, etc.  You can’t just wake-up one day and think you’re going to get a job as a banker without having decent people skills.

    Obama is dooming generations of inner city kids to lives of and on government sustenance.  These kids will never reach their full potential because they have so many factors stacked against them: poor educational systems, uneducated parents, no access to jobs, and a president who’s bargained their futures for political gain.

  • City Hall’s New TIF Troubles

    This story is actually from early April:

    According to a report issued today by Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson, a fluke of state law means that many neighboring business districts that collect an extra property tax to pay for security, advertising and the like actually have had to pay twice — once for security, et al., and once to the TIF.

    The report specifically deals with Special Service Areas: little neighborhood shopping districts such as Lincoln/Belmont/Ashland, South Shore, Greektown and Wicker Park/Bucktown in which the shop owners agree to impose an extra tax on themselves to pay for things of mutual interest. …

    The problem is that 80 percent of the city’s more than 60 SSAs also overlap wholly or partially with TIF districts.

    The way a TIF district works is that property taxes are frozen at a current level, with the TIF getting the growth over the next 23 years — known as increment — to spend on TIF projects. But when an SSA levies an additional tax for its needs, the amount of the levy is imposed both on the old base levy and the increment.

    In other words, to help themselves, merchants have to pay twice. And that’s amounted to an extra $7.5 million to TIFs last year and about $7 million in preceding years, according to Mr. Ferguson.

    via Crain’s Chicago Business.

    Man I really hate TIFs.

  • Strange Pelican Brewery Coming to the West Side

    For my local Chicago readers:

    Under the name Strange Pelican Brewing Company, McNeil will brew about 3,000 barrels a year in a 10,000-square-foot space near the intersection of Damen Avenue and Fulton Street. Strange Pelican’s philosophy evokes maritime history – in other words, strong beers that were made to travel. While McNeil is still experimenting with recipes, he’s planning to start with two flagship beers a citrusy rye IPA and an imperial oatmeal stout brewed with a specialty roast from Bow Truss that will be available in four- or six-packs, as well as two different 22-ounce bottles and a rotating seasonal selection inspired by local grains, herbs and other ingredients.

    via redeyechicago.com.

  • Drivers Get Creative to Avoid High Toll Fees

    Drivers fed up with New York City’s expensive toll roads are carpooling to save a few dollars on the George Washington Bridge, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    Bridge commuters can save $6 a vehicle by using the “carpooling” lane. Because of this, some rogue drivers have started picking up hitchhikers determined to save money (and help others save money, too).

    According to the WSJ, the George Washington Bridge’s toll booths bring in $625 million for the city. Toll cheats like this cost the city $7 million.

    Port Authority police have caught on to the carpooling scheme. Officers patrolling the bridge have started issuing citations to drivers who pick up passengers near the toll booths. Picking up a hitchhiker isn’t illegal, so the police nab these drivers through tickets for an illegal lane change or stopping at a bus stop (a bus stop near the bridge is popular place for these drivers to pick up passengers).

    via Business Insider.

    Before I took a little break, I wrote about Cook County raising cigarette taxes and have revenue plummet.  This is just another fine example of people changing their behavior in order to avoid taxes.

    The more you tax something the less you get of it.

  • Raise Taxes — Lose Revenue

    The current taxes on a pack of cigarettes in Chicago include $2 from Cook County, 98 cents from Illinois and 68 cents from the city. If Quinn signs the latest increase, the taxes in Chicago will be $4.66 per pack, compared with 99 cents in East Chicago.

    On Monday, a pack of Marlboros at a 7-Eleven on North Wells Street in downtown Chicago ran $9.69, before the state tax increase. At a 7-Eleven on Hohman Avenue in Hammond, the same smokes went for $6.20.  …

    “The cigarette tax increase passed the Senate last week. Quinn has said the hike is necessary to generate about $350 million for the Medicaid program.  …

    In 2006, the Cook County tax doubled to $2 per pack.  …

    But even as taxes on cigarettes climbed, the revenue in Cook County dropped. In 2006, the county garnered more than $200 million in cigarette taxes. That number plummeted to $131 million in 2010, according to annual reports.

    Let’s stop here for a second and think about that.  In 2006 the Cook County Government DOUBLED the cigarette tax in order to RAISE REVENUE.  What was the result?  Revenue fell by a third!!

    Legislators and experts agree some drop-off can be expected as tax increases price people out of the market or alter smoker behavior. The percentage of U.S. adults who smoke declined from nearly 21 percent to 19.3 percent between 2005 and 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  …

    So during roughly the same period smokers (albeit nationally) kicked the habit to the tune of 8%.  But Cook County revenue off by 34.5%.

    Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has said he thought most of the revenue dip was due to fraud.

    Dart and County Board President Toni Preckwinkle joined forces in September to add more staff to the county’s Revenue Department to investigate fraud claims. Within three weeks, investigators seized more than $353,000 in unstamped cigarettes and imposed more than $400,000 in fines, Dart said.  …

    Well Mr. Dart, if your own statement is true then you completely suck at your job.  Your missing $69 million and you find $400,000.  You’ve located 0.58% of the missing money.  Less that one percent.

    So what’s really happening here?  We know that the double the tax, yet revenues off by a third, only 8% quit, and Tom Dart can’t find the missing money.  So where’s the money?

    Larry DeBoer, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, noted that Indiana benefits as taxes spike in neighboring states.”There’s no doubt that commerce goes back and forth across the borders,” DeBoer said. “If Illinois increases its tax by $1, we’ll realize about $10 million more in cigarette tax revenue.”

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Aaaah.  There’s the money!

    In Illinois we’re governed by complete morons.  The Laffer Curve is a real thing.  People will change their behavior to engage in tax avoidance.  In this case is primarily involves not buying cigarettes in the City and County but in the collar counties and in Indiana.

    More to the point, wouldn’t you think that when you double the tax and see revenue falling and falling and falling that someone would have stood-up and said, “Maybe we should roll-back that tax before we lose any more money?”  But not in this county.

    Stupid Quinn and his ilk are going to keep raising taxes until there’s no one left to tax.

  • Illinois 3rd in Foreclosures Nationally

    This is embarrassing:

    Foreclosures starts in Illinois are on par with those in other areas but the state’s court-supervised foreclosure system continues to bog down properties in the process.

    Almost 7.5 percent of all one-to-four-unit mortgage loans in Illinois were in foreclosure in the first quarter, compared with a national average of 4.39 percent, according to data released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

    “Illinois and New Jersey trail only Florida as being the worst in the country, and they’re getting worse,” said Jay Brinkmann, the association’s chief economist “The rate in Illinois more than twice that of California. In the judicial states the problem continues to get worse in terms of the backlog of loans in the foreclosure process.”

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Perhaps if we had a government that was at least minimally friendly to business more people would be working.  That would certainly help.  But you cannot crush every businesses’ ability to efficiently function in the city and then wonder why more people don’t have good jobs.

    Jobs will come when businesses come.  When people are working again mortgages will get paid.

  • Gov. Red Tape Kills Another Biz, Jobs

    Last month when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced his streamlining of city business licensing procedures, he chose Logan Square Kitchen as the location to herald this new day in better relations between the city and small businesses.

    And so it’s more than a little ironic that today LSK owner Zina Murray annouced on her website that her shared kitchen is closing at the end of June due to continued red tape from the city. The city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

    Here’s an excerpt from and link to her full post:

    It’s a sad time when our government kills the very things that can heal our City. Logan Square Kitchen was designed to heal the local economy, environment and food system all at once. It was an innovative, bold idea that never had its chance. The Dept of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) began hammering nails in its coffin before we even opened our doors in 2009 and hasn’t stopped. Unfortunately, we see no end to regulatory burdens, which will continue to block our ability to grow a healthy business.

    Murray says that the 20 businesses operating in her shared kitchen–which rents hourly cooking space to artisanal food entrepreneurs–will have to find new kithens by June 28.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Very sad.

    A government overrun with power.  Harassing the very people who create jobs and pay the bills.  This is why Illinois is doing poorly and other states (Wisconsin, Indiana) are recovering.

  • Stripping Chicago Spending, Bare Down

    “What do a Chicago strip club
    and the President’s campaign fund have in common?    ”

    ANSWER:  BOTH were paid- with public funds- as “VENDORS” to the City of Chicago.
    _______________________________________

    Yesterday, OpenTheBooks.com upgraded it’s transparency portal to include the City of Chicago checkbook from 2002-2011.

    It contains $74 billion in vendor payments. Last year 69,800 entities received checks.

    Here’s what I found while scanning the data…

    The City of Chicago approved checks to both The Admiral Theatre Inc, a Chicago strip club, and Obama For America, the president’s campaign organization. According to data received, both share the same “vendor code.”  Yet, neither organization exists in Chicago’s current transparency portal: click here and here.

     

    The Admiral Theatre strip club received $5,197.78 in City of Chicago checks. Sixteen checks range from $1.20 to $1,900. A buck twenty?

    See a database of City payments to The Admiral here.

     

    The check to Obama for America raises more questions. The campaign received a $1,000 check on August 28th, 2007. For some reason, theydidn’t disclose this to the Federal Election Commission: click here, and Open Secrets- here.

    Click here for my Freedom of Information Act Request seeking more information. See the detailed accounting data surrounding the check: vendor code, transaction id, PO#, fund, department, amount, check number, and date.

     

    Surely, the City will have some sort of explanation. Because, public funds used for campaign purposes violates federal and state law. And, we know that no Illinois or city worker would ever violate those laws, right?

     

    The City has five days to respond to our request for additional information. I can barely wait for the naked truth.

    You can search for yourself at www.openthebooks.com

    Sincerely,

    ADAM ANDRZEJEWSKI
    Chairman | For The Good of Illinois PAC

     

  • Wealthy Flee France (Shhh, don’t tell the U.S. Media)

    For those that don’t know, France recently had an election and voted for the most socialist guy on the ballot.  The guy who’s promising to raise taxes on the rich and increase the transfer payments to the poor.  The result?  The rich are leaving…  in droves.

    France’s high earners feel increasingly unwelcome in a country now led by a man who has admitted: “I don’t like the rich.” So where are they looking? London. It comes as no surprise – while Hollande prepares to raise taxes, over here David Cameron is cutting the 50pc tax rate for income above £150,000 to 45pc. “I have already worked in London and lived in South Kensington,” said one French banker who expects to return to the UK over the next three months. “The question is how much of Hollande’s rhetoric will materialise into policy.”

    Few are keen to find out. Private equity firms and American banks in Paris have already begun making arrangements for their top executives to set up office in London, amid widespread concern about changes to the French income tax regime.

    via Telegraph.

    This story is told over and over again in the European press, particularly earlier this week (I realize I’m late to the story.)  But the U.S. press is just getting to the story; mostly in the business press.  Neither the Chicago Tribune nor the sun-Times has not written a single word about it.

    While it can be shown that the rich are generally willing to pay their fair share, i.e. remain in places with high taxes, it is only when they feel that the quality of life issues make paying the high taxes worthwhile.  There can be no doubt that ever higher and higher taxes will drive the wealthy away; the Laffer Curve is real.

    The net result of this is that higher taxes impose a disproportionate burden on the middle class and the poor.  States like Illinois need to move to a more progressive tax structure; however they must do so very carefully in order to assure that the rich are not incentivized to relocate to Indiana.