Charles Payne is Bill Handel and KFI's personal economist. I never really paid much attention to that fact and more or less assumed that he had credibility on the subject. It turns out that Charles Payne is about as credible on economics as Dr. Levy. What he said in that ten minute segment of KFI was about ten percent economics and ninety percent tea party politics. He said that higher common stock prices didn't matter because "everybody got out of the stock market during the past five years, so the topic is irrelivent". Payne who is 180 degrees out of phase with ANYBODY in the know in finance, says that stock prices are only relevent when you're getting stock tips from the local Cab driver. He claimed that the Federal Reserve chairman is goosing up the money supply to "cause inflation" which emphatically not true. That Vernanke wants "Higher stock prices, higher gold prices, and higher energy prices". I have a news flash for you. These prices are already up. He goes on to say "Everyone sold real estate and put their money into safer T bills". Who's dumb-ass idea was that?? The tea party? T bills won't give you squat these days. Judy convinced my Mom to sell her home at the bottom of the Real Estate market bu coming up with stuff about "She fall twice while alone in the past six months. There is no telling how long she'll last". Of course since moving my Mom has never "fallen" again despite using the stairs (which the other house didn't even have) all the time- alone. Nobody with any sense would have sold stocks in the early months of the Obama Administration except a tea party member debotee. Then there is the idea that China's economy is inherently a lot more stable than ours. No. The reason why Vernanke is raising the money supply is the same as always, which is to encourage banks to lend to poor people, which they haven't done. And if poor working class people have the money they will invest and spend it, and put that money into circulation to help other people and stimulate their business and prompt THEM to hire, and so the positive cycle will carry forward. Hopefully a few of you reading this will be a bit more Educated now.
Interestingly the 2000 election could have swung on one event. If Illian Gonsolez mother had lived, history might have been different. This was the six year old boy who made it from Cuba to the United States drifting on a life ramp accross the Gulf of Mexico in a ninety mile trek. We all saw all those pig-like Clinton FBI agents carting Illian Gonsolez out of his home and forcing him to go back to Cuban communism. Just think how the Cubans in Florida might have voted differently had Ilian Gonsolez's mother lived. Of course in my case the election of 2004 swong in my mind on a few major issues. One was that the economy had "taken off" in the past few months. Another was that fake memo that got Dan Rather fired that alledged President Bush dodged the draft. Another was the Bin Laden video, which was like a George Bush campaign commercial in its effect. The other was the swift boat people who had served with John Kerry and said that Kerry was a fraud and never fought in Cambodia even though Kerry said the events were "siered into my memory". Also there was a woman here named Helen who died a few days after the 2004 election, who reminded us that "all those people were just pot smoking draft dodging cowards" and the like. Also they kept raising the Alert level to Orange. Again this is me and MY vote we are talking about. Prior to this- - I was seriously considering the claims of the liberal democrats like Howard Dean, who made an interesting case that we should withdraw our troops from Iraq. Prompting this whole line of thought was a guest Stephanie Miller had on her program this morning who said that all of the Romney gaffs - - as many as there have been- - has not significantly impacted the voter profile of America and that "The race has been and continues to be very Close, as it has been for many months". You can't argue the veracity of his Logic. As BIG as the events of recent weeks have been it still isn't the 'Ilian Gonsolez knock out punch" that will turn this election to our side. As such Romney's donors have not pulled out. He points out that if the race were becomming "one sided" it would be a case where "the media smells blood" and gangs up on whoever is behind and finishes him off. Romney still has a lot of defenders in the guise of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O Riley, and our old friend Charles Payne- - who is to economics like that female star on FOX in "Mob Doctor" is to legatimate Doctors.
A single payer medical plan is inherently more efficient. Many people are "put on Salary" when the people who hire you don't care about your immediate productivity. I learned this distinction back in Criss Business college. I remember thinking "Gosh, people on Salary have it pretty cushy- - don't they?" So if you put a Doctor on Salary he gets paid no matter how many "procedures" he does or does not perform on the Patient. If the patient doesn't die, the argument goes, then he's doing his job OK kind of like Dr. Saran, who is kind of one of those "laid back" kind of doctors I like. It's really called common sense or "horse sense" - - a sense Doctors used to have about their patients. Clearly this "Fee for Service" bit is kind of a racket. Because it encourages these "procedures" whether they are needed or not, and cutting out or short circuiting the whole "fee for service" system- - would dramatically bend the Cost curve. People in France and other places figured this out long ago. And the sooner we do here, the better. I believe "single payer" indeed is the wave of the future.
All you math people should know that 8 x 19 is one fifth of 40 x 19. This is for those of you who have read relevent portions of the past two posts. 8 x 19 would bring you to 152 or the year 1860 if you subtract it out. This would take you to the Civil War. Back then James Buchannon did NOT have forty seven percent of the people lined up already to reelect him. You had in fact four people running for President that year including John C Breckenridge- - - and also a representative of the "Know Nothing" party which I believe put up retired General Winfield Scott. And of course this other guy from Illinois was running- - who had had little political experiance. Ronald Reagan. No. It was Abraham Lincoln. Then as now Race was at the forefront of the national dialog. Those people had John Brown. Today there is Travon Martin. Back then a recent court decision said that People were Property. Today we have a recent Court decision that says that Property has equal rights and "personhood". Interesting, huh? Now they say that Mitt Romney is so frazzled he has "bad hair days" and is not looking quite as neat and "buttoned down" as he used to in Public. Back in 1960 you had a President in power who believed you could "kick the race issue can down the road". Some would argue that like Buchannon on race- - President Obama doesn't want to really tackle the "hard decisions" that must be made about this Economy but would rather just "reinflate the wall street bubble' and kick that can a little more and hope the M 80 inside of it explodes on someone elses' watch. President Clinton warned us that "We should tend to the debt now, while interest rates are still relatively low, because it will be a lot harder later on". My point, exactly. Paul Ryan's whole plan is based on kicking the can down the road and sticking it to the next generation. But 1860 was also a time of consciousness raising. And I believe today we are all too jaded and numbed out. We have stopped thinking. Fifty years ago we had a far more liberal climate in the intellectual and news media than we have today. Just think about that. How can we have retrogressed in fifty years. The same thing happened on the race issue in those days. Slave territorial issues that were "Settled' in 1820 were reopened again by the Courts - - like an old wound that never really healed. I don't believe Either presidential candidate has adequately grappled with the really vexing issues of this era.
No comments:
Post a Comment