Welfare-Warfare State

Fannie To Allow Mortgage Walkaways by On-Time Borrowers

"Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac will let some borrowers who kept up payments as their homes lost value erase their debts by giving up the properties, helping Americans escape underwater loans while adding to losses at the mortgage giants bailed out with $190 billion of taxpayer money. Non-delinquent borrowers with illness, job changes or other reasons they need to move will become eligible in March to apply for a so-called deed-in-lieu transaction that erases the shortfall between a property’s value and the size of its mortgage." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFannie To Allow Mortgage Walkaways by On-Time Borrowers

Many 2011 federal budget cuts had little real-world effect

"In the real world, in fact, many of their 'cuts' cut nothing at all. The Transportation Department got credit for 'cutting' a $280 million tunnel that had been canceled six months earlier. It also 'cut' a $375,000 road project that had been created by a legislative typo, on a road that did not exist. At the Census Bureau, officials got credit for a whopping $6 billion cut, simply for obeying the calendar. They promised not to hold the expensive 2010 census again in 2011. Today, an examination of 12 of the largest cuts shows that, thanks in part to these gimmicks, federal agencies absorbed $23 billion in reductions without losing a single employee." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMany 2011 federal budget cuts had little real-world effect

Karl Hess: Tools to Dismantle the State

"Karl Hess was a noted speechwriter (for Barry Goldwater among others) and author, and later in his life became known as a tax resister and market anarchist. In this video from a Libertarian International conference in Stockholm in 1986, Hess speaks about everything from his time as a speechwriter for Barry Goldwater to Euclid, the impending collapse of global communism, children's education in America, the dawn of the personal computer, new management styles in business (he somewhat accurately predicts the way Google treats its employees based on Cray Supercomputers' management style at the time), and several other fascinating topics." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKarl Hess: Tools to Dismantle the State

Bereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

"The bill for $780.85 stems from Ford’s call to DC Fire & EMS (DCFEMS) on New Year’s Eve when his father, 71-year-old Durand Ford Sr., began having problems breathing. Records show the younger Ford called 911 at 1:25 a.m. that night. But while the fire department dispatched a vehicle to his house nine minutes later, no ambulances were available. DCFEMS officials called for assistance from Prince George County, more than seven miles away, 22 minutes later. A medical unit from Prince George County arrived at Ford’s home at 1:58 a.m., by which point the elder Ford had died." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

Bereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

"The bill for $780.85 stems from Ford’s call to DC Fire & EMS (DCFEMS) on New Year’s Eve when his father, 71-year-old Durand Ford Sr., began having problems breathing. Records show the younger Ford called 911 at 1:25 a.m. that night. But while the fire department dispatched a vehicle to his house nine minutes later, no ambulances were available. DCFEMS officials called for assistance from Prince George County, more than seven miles away, 22 minutes later. A medical unit from Prince George County arrived at Ford’s home at 1:58 a.m., by which point the elder Ford had died." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

School districts pay dearly for bonds

"Napa is one of at least 1,350 school districts and government agencies across the nation that have turned to a controversial form of borrowing called capital appreciation bonds to finance major projects, a California Watch analysis shows. Relying on these bonds has allowed districts to borrow billions of dollars while postponing payments, in some cases for decades. This form of borrowing has created billions of dollars in debt for taxpayers and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for financial advisers and underwriters. Voters are usually unaware of the bonds' high interest. At least one state, Michigan, has banned their use." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSchool districts pay dearly for bonds

America’s Baby Bust

"For more than three decades, Chinese women have been subjected to their country's brutal one-child policy. Those who try to have more children have been subjected to fines and forced abortions. Their houses have been razed and their husbands fired from their jobs. As a result, Chinese women have a fertility rate of 1.54. Here in America, white, college-educated women—a good proxy for the middle class—have a fertility rate of 1.6. America has its very own one-child policy. And we have chosen it for ourselves. Forget the fiscal cliff, the sequestration cliff and the entitlement cliff. Those are all just symptoms. What America really faces is a demographic cliff." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s Baby Bust

Oil and Water: An Armed Citizenry and a Police State

"So, it is the worst of times and it is the best of times. It is the worst of times in terms of the expansion of federal administrative law. It is the best of times in terms of the inability of central governments to impose their plans on their populations apart from a vast expansion of the money supply, which is going to lead to the undermining of the welfare state and the destruction of federal legitimacy in the eyes of the people. It is more of a train wreck than it is a tipping point. It is more of a collision between assertions on paper in Washington versus the expansion of monetary digits, which is also taking place in Washington." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOil and Water: An Armed Citizenry and a Police State

Peter Schiff: Messing with the Bull

"In retaliation for the unpardonable sin of questioning the U.S. Treasury's credit worthiness, the Obama Administration is sending a loud and clear message to Wall Street: mess with the bull and get the horns. Shockingly, the blatant selectivity of the prosecution, however, has failed to ignite a backlash. But as the move violates both the spirit of the Constitution and the letter of the law in so many ways, I can't help but look at it as a sea change in the nature of our governance. Call it Lincoln with a heavy dose of Putin." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: Messing with the Bull

Peter Schiff: Messing with the Bull

"In retaliation for the unpardonable sin of questioning the U.S. Treasury's credit worthiness, the Obama Administration is sending a loud and clear message to Wall Street: mess with the bull and get the horns. Shockingly, the blatant selectivity of the prosecution, however, has failed to ignite a backlash. But as the move violates both the spirit of the Constitution and the letter of the law in so many ways, I can't help but look at it as a sea change in the nature of our governance. Call it Lincoln with a heavy dose of Putin." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: Messing with the Bull