Yearly Archives: 2013

Why Should Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion a Year?

"Banks have a powerful incentive to get big and unwieldy. The larger they are, the more disastrous their failure would be and the more certain they can be of a government bailout in an emergency. The result is an implicit subsidy: The banks that are potentially the most dangerous can borrow at lower rates, because creditors perceive them as too big to fail. Economists have tried to pin down exactly how much the subsidy lowers big banks’ borrowing costs. In one relatively thorough effort, researchers put the number at about 0.8%. Multiplied by the total liabilities of the 10 largest U.S. banks by assets, it amounts to a taxpayer subsidy of $83 billion a year." Continue reading →

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Airlines made windfall profits after EU freeze on carbon taxes

"Airlines made up to half a billion euros in windfall profits last year by passing on a carbon surcharge to travellers despite an EU decision to freeze its controversial carbon tax, environmentalists said on Tuesday. Green group Transport and Environment said airlines chalked up extra revenues estimated at 486 million euros ($650 million) even though EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard in November decided to 'stop the clock' on an EU carbon tax angering the global aviation industry." Continue reading →

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Airlines Merger: Competition vs. the Great Trusts

"The new American Airlines resulting from the deal would boast revenues of close to $40 billion and offer nearly 7,000 flights per day. Interested observers should ask what makes such mergers possible and whether they are the results of legitimate, free market competition, or something else entirely. Airlines epitomize a system of big business cartelization that grows up out of huge cost barriers to potential market challengers created by legal and regulatory requirements. Contrary to the rhetoric of 'unbridled' markets, airlines are among the corporations most entangled in federal regulatory structures — and that’s just the way they like it." Continue reading →

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Homeland Security training TSA workers to save themselves in shooting?

"Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint screeners are [reportedly] receiving training to prepare them for the possibility of a mass shooting at one of the agency’s airport checkpoints, and those TSA personnel are being instructed to 'save themselves' should a shooting occur. It is unclear whether the TSA is conducting the reported mass shooting scenario training at airports around the nation or only at the airport where our source, a veteran of the TSA, is assigned." Continue reading →

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Pelosian Economics: Medicaid Expansion as Fiscal Stimulus

Supporters of LB577, the bill that would expand Medicaid in Nebraska, argue that expansion will result in an economic boom due to the infusion of approximately $3.5 billion in “free” federal tax dollars. Specifically, they predict at least $700 million annually in new economic activity, which could finance at least [...]

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How To Get Kicked Off Your Flight

"Have you ever given some thought to how easily you can be removed from an airline flight, told to gather your belongings and leave the plane immediately because you've been deemed a 'risk to the flight?' It's easier than you might think for it to occur. Flight attendants have the power to have you removed at will, specifically their will." Continue reading →

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Always a One-Way Street–Er, Flight

"Kansas is treading ground Texas did in 2011, with 21 members of its legislature introducing a bill that would prohibit the TSA’s sexual assault at airports. And 'experts' once again predict problems arising from such courage, chief among them that 'the U.S. Constitution bars states from regulating the actions of the federal government.' Why do we never hear a peep from these 'experts' about the Fourth Amendment’s ban of unreasonable search and seizure?" Continue reading →

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