Welfare-Warfare State

Bill Bonner: In Praise of Mr. Putin

"Why would the US do things that make the world worse off? Dear reader, where have you been? It’s got nothing to do with liberal or conservative, hawk or dove, Democrat or Republican, Bush or Obama. And it’s not because we are dumber than we used to be, either. Instead, thinking people are starting to realize that we’re right about this too. America is a victim of creeping zombieism. Bureaucrats at the Fed force down interest rates to support zombies everywhere – from Wall Street to Skid Row. Low rates also help make more money available to the zombies who are besieging the Pentagon." Continue reading →

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United States military deployments – Wikipedia

"The military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with 172,966 of its 1,372,522[1]active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories. Most of these overseas personnel are deployed in combat zones in the Middle east, as part of the War on Terror. The following are countries, listed by region, in which U.S. military personnel are deployed. The most current numbers are based on United States Department of Defense statistics as of December 31, 2012.[1] These numbers do not include any military or civilian contractors or dependents. Countries with fewer than 75 U.S. personnel deployed are omitted." Continue reading →

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Our Huge, Stinking Mountain of Debt: Student Loans

"Notice anything about this chart of student loan debt owed to the Federal government? Direct Federal loans to students have exploded higher, from $93 billion in 2007 to $560 billion in early 2013. This gargantuan sum exceeds the gross domestic product (GDP) of entire nations—for example, Sweden ($538 billion) and Iran ($521 billion). Non-Federal student loans total another $500 billion, bringing the total to over $1 trillion. Does this look remotely sustainable? Does it look remotely healthy for students, society, taxpayers now on the hook for a half-trillion dollars in potential defaults or the U.S. economy?" Continue reading →

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The Best U.S. Metros for Recent College Grads Looking for Work

"Across the nation's 50 largest metro areas, there were 15.8 million jobs in these fast-growing, highly educated fields as of 2013. New York leads with more than 66,000 openings, roughly ten percent of the total. L.A. is second with 39,508. That makes sense: N.Y. and L.A. are America's two largest metros. Together, they in fact account for nearly 3 million of these positions, nearly one in five of these estimated fast-growing, highly-educated jobs across the nation. Once we look beyond these two largest metros, the pattern diverges a bit from the size of a metro's population. Greater Washington, D.C., has the third largest number of estimated openings, 39,259." Continue reading →

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The hustlers and parasites who make up Washington’s establishment

"Washington has always had a permanent establishment of politicians, lobbyists and journalists. But this class has exploded in size in recent decades, and has become more introspective and self-serving. The news media have produced a hydra of talking heads who are forever yelling at each other (debate) or pontificating about who is up and who is down (analysis). The lobbying industry has spent billions greasing the revolving door: in 2009 alone, special interests spent $3.47 billion lobbying the federal government. In 1974 3% of retiring policymakers became lobbyists. Now 50% of senators and 42% of congressmen do." Continue reading →

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Donald Trump’s D.C. Hotel Will Be Luxury Hotel With Bulletproof Windows

"Here's another sign that corrupt and crony Washington D.C. continues to grow, while much of the rest of the country stagnates. Donald Trump is about to build a hotel in Washington D.C. He is leasing the US Post Office building from the government. The hotel is sure to house some of the greatest power freaks the world has ever known. Twenty years ago, Trump would have never considered building in D.C. Power, as opposed to entrepreneurship, is sadly growing in this country. Two 3,000-square-foot Presidential suites will feature fireplaces, two-person showers and bulletproof windows." Continue reading →

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Election won’t prevent pension crash

"The tax gap isn't the deepest divide in America. The deepest gap is the pension divide, between those few who have a guaranteed cushion in the form of defined-benefit pensions, which promise a fixed annuity at retirement, and those who don't. How the candidates address this divide, cultural as well as political, is crucial, far beyond November. To understand the current mindset, it helps to consider the pension culture of the past. In the early 1980s, many companies, as well as governments, offered employees a defined-pension benefit when they retired. Thirty years ago, about 62 percent of American workers were covered by some kind of plan like this." Continue reading →

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Is College A Scam?

"The system is broken, the middle class is disappearing, being carved through the middle by a trillion dollars in student loan debt, and everyone is still raising tuition faster than inflation. And 50% of kids with college degrees now are underemployed. And that one statistic that 'if you go to college you make a million dollars more' is totally flawed and I explained why using basic Statistics 101 knowledge. I talked about the girl who was practically naked while hula hooping so she could make debt payments from a tip jar. I spoke about the two kids who were now clerks in an eyeglass store getting paid by the hour, and they felt they were 'lucky' because their other friends did not have jobs." Continue reading →

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Student Loan Consequences: Real, Costly, and Personal

"Under the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) signed into law as part of ObamaCare in March of 2010, students may borrow money directly from the federal government regardless of their credit score or any other financial 'issues' they may be facing. They are not priced according to any 'individualized measure of risk' nor are there loan limits. They are instead politically determined by Congress with undergraduates receiving lower interest rates than graduate students, but graduate students allowed to borrow more than undergrads. This forced entry by the government into what was once a private market transaction has numerous consequences." Continue reading →

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Feds sending free mobile phones to dead people: congressman

"Dead people don’t need cell phones. That’s the message Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas wants to send Congress, after he says a controversial government-backed program that helps provide phones to low-income Americans ended up sending mobiles to the dead relatives of his constituents. Griffin has introduced a bill that targets the phone hand-out program, which has ballooned into a fiscal headache for the government." Continue reading →

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