Welfare-Warfare State

Francois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

"French president François Hollande has bowed to massive pressure for business tax cuts to pull France’s economy out of slump and stave off industrial decline, ditching a core element of his socialist platform. Company taxes will fall by €20bn a year equal to 1pc of GDP, to be phased in gradually by 2015 under a convoluted system of rebates. Spending cuts will plug the revenue gap in order to meet the EU’s 3pc deficit target. Critics call it the most humiliating U-turn in French politics since François Mitterrand abandoned his disastrous experiment of 'Socialism in one country' under a D-Mark currency peg in 1983." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrancois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

Lew Rockwell: The First 30 Years of the Mises Institute, and the Future

"Mises Institutes have been formed – spontaneously, without any direction from us – in countries all over the world, including Brazil, Poland, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Russia, Italy, Estonia, Ecuador, Finland, Israel, Portugal, Ukraine, Romania, Sweden, Belgium, Colombia, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Slovakia. We have accomplished all these things without a billionaire, and without an obsessive eye to mainstream respectability. We have achieved them thanks to you, and thanks to a faculty and staff dedicated to the cause of truth." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLew Rockwell: The First 30 Years of the Mises Institute, and the Future

Karl Denninger: Watch for Market Dislocations

"The big picture is this: We have all lived for the last 30 years in a world where we believe that the price of certain things will always go up – houses being one of them, stocks being another. We have also lived in a time when an insane amount of monetary inflation has taken place. Most people look at the Consumer Price Index or some other government-provided thing, or they look at M1 OR M2, the growth of the money supply, for example. But what you really ought to be looking at for the growth of the monetary base is the total amount of money and credit that is in the system, and add those two together. When you do that, you find a very ugly picture." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKarl Denninger: Watch for Market Dislocations

How Going Over the ”Fiscal Cliff” Will Affect You

"Kahn projects that a kick the can deal will increase taxes by $530 billion. Specifically, he sees strong support for an end to the payroll tax cut, an end to Bush tax cuts, and broad support for short-term 'tax extenders.' On the spending side, no further extensions of unemployment and a cut in Medicare payments (the doc fix). Total spending cuts $170 billion. Got that? Tax increases of $530 billion and cuts of only $170 billion. In other words, the 'kick the can deal' is a huge tax increase. They are set to scare the public and then take more money out of their pockets." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Going Over the ”Fiscal Cliff” Will Affect You

I apologize for what you’re about to read

"Even when I was in Myanmar ten days ago, local pundits were engaged in the Obamney debate. Chile. Spain. Germany. Finland. Hong Kong. Thailand. Singapore. It was inescapable. The entire world seems fixated on this belief that it actually matters who becomes the President of the United States anymore… or that one of these two guys is going to ‘fix’ things. Fact is, it doesn’t matter. Not one bit. And I’ll show you mathematically." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingI apologize for what you’re about to read

Ron Paul: We’re Broke and Already Over Fiscal Cliff – Bloomberg 11/08/2012

"U.S. Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, talks about U.S. fiscal policy, and the prospects of political compromise on the nation's budget defict. Paul speaks to Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's 'In the Loop.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: We’re Broke and Already Over Fiscal Cliff – Bloomberg 11/08/2012

2013 Federal Income Tax (Fiscal Cliff) Calculator

"This U.S. Federal Individual income tax calculator shows the estimated personal taxes owed by both individuals and married couples, whether employed or self-employed. The 2013 income tax calculations are what the law currently specifies will be owed by Americans in the year 2013, unless Congress (beleaguered by the debt ceiling, a Presidential election, and massive looming automatic budget cuts) has the time and wherewithal to change the law." Continue reading →

Continue Reading2013 Federal Income Tax (Fiscal Cliff) Calculator

Obama Won. Now What Will You Do?

"Washington is headed for gridlock. This is good. This is not a dysfunctional government. A dysfunctional government passes lots of laws. The laws are almost always bad laws. Then the federal bureaucracy interprets and implements these laws in the Federal Register. What little that might have been good gets bad. A gridlocked government is the best we can hope for. My suggestion: start making major changes in your life’s plan. Make them in terms of reality: the unfunded present value of future federal liabilities: $222 trillion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama Won. Now What Will You Do?

Gary North: Boehner Has Obama by the Boondoggles.

"I am hoping that the House will do nothing. I think that is the best we can hope for, given the fact that what Obama wants is a tax increase on the rich in order to save the Pentagon's budget. I would rather see the Pentagon have its budget cut than to see taxes, meaning progressive taxes, meaning graduated taxes, imposed on the rich . . . or anyone else. I would rather live with Bill Clinton's taxes than Obama's. Then, in 2016, Republicans can blame both of them." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGary North: Boehner Has Obama by the Boondoggles.

Treasury Quietly Warns: ‘Expect Debt Limit to Be Reached Near End of 2012′

"The U.S. Treasury quietly warned at the end of a statement issued last Wednesday that it expects the federal government to hit its legal debt limit before the end of this year--which means before the new Congress is seated--and that "extraordinary measures" will be needed before then to keep the government fully funded into the early part of 2013. On Aug. 2, 2011, President Obama signed a deal he had negotiated with congressional leaders to increase the debt limit of the federal government by $2.4 trillion. But, now, after only 15 months, almost all of that additional borrowing authority has been exhausted." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTreasury Quietly Warns: ‘Expect Debt Limit to Be Reached Near End of 2012′