Tag: economy

Punitive Trade Sanctions by Kamala’s Team Have Created an Alternate World Economy and Stolen American Jobs

One benefit of being the World Reserve Currency and the largest economy is the ability to emplace sanctions or control measures on uncooperative nations.  This has worked for many years, but China and Russia can work out complex scenarios to avoid American sanctions faster than the U.S. Government and its Allies can emplace new measures.

In May 2024, President Putin conducted a visit to China to meet President Xi.  Out of this visit came a Chinese/Russia language statement that was filled with six references to a “New Era” in the word.  The real meaning of the term “New Era” from the statement is a world environment without the dominance of the American led, world economic system.  In June, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Russia’s VTB Bank, the Russian bank with a major Shanghai, China branch to help restrict the flow of war material to Russia.

But in May since Putin’s visit to China and pre-dating the U.S. Treasury move, specially authorized new banks were already being set up in Chinese border regions which allowed Russian firms to open non-resident accounts (NRA) with Chinese banks, a financial ju-jitsu that largely nullified the new American Sanctions when they were emplaced in June.  A brilliant tactical maneuver by China and Russia that anticipated the American targeting of VTB Bank.  More evidence that plodding and laborious US control measures were being neutralized before they were even in place.

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Why Did America Give Away Its Manufacturing Jobs?

Not long ago a couple of publishers asked about my memoirs. I told them I had no interest. Memoirs are an enormous undertaking, especially when your files haven’t been organized for the purpose. Moreover, many of mine have been discarded in moves. When you have lived as long as I have and been involved in so many major issues, files are a voluminous collection. Moreover, I have always had a jaundiced eye toward memoirs, being unsure whether they are an exercise in egotism.

In past times I think memoirs, even if they were attempts to control the narrative, something done for us today by the CIA and woke media and universities, still made information available that otherwise would have died with the person. I find this a bit sobering as there is a great deal of information that is going to die with me.

Despite all the winnowing of my files, I still have 25 crates that if I did nothing else for one year I might get through. To organize the information, I would need at least two assistants. I have barely touched the crates, and already I have found important matters long forgotten.

In 2004 NY Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer and I opened a New Year with a jointly authored column in the New York Times. We raised the offshoring issue. American manufacturing jobs and the tech jobs of American professionals were being sent to Asia. We posed the question that if jobs offshoring was free trade, as economists claimed, was free trade any longer in America’s interest? My position was that jobs offshoring is a contradiction of free trade–more later–and Schumer was still in his idealistic period when he was concerned about the displacement of American labor by foreign labor in the production of goods and services that Americans consumed.

Our article caused a firestorm. The Brookings Institution in Washington called a conference and asked us to come and defend our position. C-Span broadcast the conference live and rebroadcast it a number of times. Schumer and I carried the day.

Delighted with the publicity, Schumer suggested a follow-up article. The NY Times was eager. We began a draft, and then it went cold. My explanation is that Wall Street, which was committed to jobs offshoring, got to Schumer and explained campaign contributions to him.

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Socialism, Not US Sanctions, Ruined the Venezuelan Economy

US sanctions against Venezuela are barbaric and immoral. But, they are not responsible for the economic collapse that has transpired in Venezuela over the past twenty years. Yes, the sanctions have further reduced the standard of living in Venezuela, and the burden of relative impoverishment caused by the sanctions has fallen hardest on those at the lowest end of the socio-economic ladder.

However, the effects of these US-imposed sanctions have not been nearly broad enough to be responsible for the general collapse of economic conditions that we now see in that country.

It is important to make this distinction because defenders of Venezuela’s socialist economic policies have repeatedly attempted to claim that sanctions are the primary reason for the country’s economic collapse.

Why do the socialist apologists claim this? It’s so they can make the case—as socialists are always eager to do—that socialism would be a boon for everyone’s standard of living if only it weren’t for the interference of foreign states like the US.

The truth, however, is that socialist policies like those practiced in Venezuela—widespread expropriation of private businesses coupled with vast wealth redistribution and government dominance of major industry sectors—are more than enough to destroy any polity’s economy. It is not necessary for Washington to intervene.

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Car Repos Rise 23% YoY

The private debt crisis is becoming apparent in America after car repossessions jumped 23% during the first half of 2024. Data shows that 1.6 million Americans will have their car repossessed by the bank before the end of the year, a slight increase from the 1.5 million autos repossessed in 2023 and a drastic upturn from the 1.1 million in 2021.

Obviously, the cost of purchasing a car have drastically risen with inflation, interest hikes, and supply chain shortages. Americans simply cannot afford new autos and car dealerships can do nothing to entice purchases. New car inventory in the US rose 36% this year, close to February 2021 levels before the supply chain crisis put a dent in imports. Yet, the average list price of a new car is $49,096 and far more than the average American can afford. The average new vehicle will sit in a dealer’s lot for 65 days, a 41% annual increase.

Dealerships are hardly asking for a downpayment these days unless someone has horrid credit. Even putting a few grand down will only take off about $20 per monthly payment. The average new car costs about $735 monthly based on data from Experian, and $523 monthly on used models. The average American simply is not educated in finance. Autos are behind mortgages in the largest share of personal household debt and there is a portion of the population who do not understand what they can actually afford.

The average American now borrows around $40,634 for new vehicles and $26,073 for used vehicles. About 9.2% of all consumer debt is through autos alone.

There was that viral story from April of a woman purchasing a Chevy Tahoe for $80,000 – without factoring in the interest on all household vehicles. Her husband purchased 2020 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4 for $78,000 in August 2022 and she simply could not understand why the payments on the truck were more than on the Tahoe. Well, the husband’s 14% rate on the vehicle placed their monthly payment or the truck $1,600. I recalled reading comments suggesting the family simply let the bank repo one of the cars as if that could be a valid option for personal finance.

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The Trigger For WWIII Just Arrived – What Are The Implications For Americans?

If the year of 2024 has proven anything so far, it’s that our worries about the potential outbreak of WWIII are absolutely reasonable. The skeptics making accusations of “conspiracy theory” and “doom and gloom” have been proven wrong yet again. The geopolitical atmosphere is turning sour fast.

I still don’t think a lot of people realize how truly volatile the situation is globally right now. From my point of view, WWIII has already begun, at least in economic terms.

Let’s not forget the fact that Ukraine is essentially a proxy for all of NATO against Russia. And, the situation in the Middle East is about to become much worse. Because of the alliances involved and the fragile nature of global energy exports there is a danger of systemic collapse should a wider war break out between Israel and multiple Arab nations. It appears that such a war is imminent.

But why should Americans care? It’s pretty simple – War spurs shortages, and shortages in the middle of a stagflationary crisis are a very bad thing.

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Law and State Coercion: The Liberating Effects of Free Markets

Many who support state regulation of free markets claim that they are not against free markets, just against unregulated free markets. They argue that regulation is needed to mitigate the harm that may be suffered during market participation, such as people working long hours for low wages or suffering racial discrimination. As Ronald Hamowy explains in his introduction to Friedrich von Hayek’s “The Constitution of Liberty,” these arguments were influential in the rise of both welfare socialism and national socialism:

“It was generally thought that only through vigorous government intervention was it possible to forestall the more destructive aspects of unbridled capitalism, which, if left unchecked, would bring privation and misery to the great mass of people. Equally important, only government direction could galvanize and coordinate the productive facilities of a nation so as to minimize waste and maximize wealth creation.”

The premise that free markets require some form of regulation, so that the debate only concerns how much regulation is needed, strikes many people as superficially reasonable: This premise seems to call merely for moderation, balance, mitigation of harm and the absence of excess. This is usually seen as the basic role of law and regulation. Walter Williams explains that “people have always sought to use laws to accomplish what they cannot accomplish through voluntary, peaceable exchange” in the belief that if free markets do not yield their preferred outcomes, they can achieve those outcomes through law and regulation.

Politicians of all stripes uphold this premise, debating only what types of interventions are required and which should take priority. There is widespread consensus among social scientists on the need for a welfare state, with debate only concerning the precise form of welfare schemes. As Hamowy observes, many intellectuals gave Hayek’s “Constitution of Liberty” a frosty reception because it challenged their belief in the importance of the welfare state and market regulation: “Intellectuals in both Europe and the United States appear to have remained wedded to the view that an extensive welfare state was necessary to insure economic stability and the public’s social welfare and that any defense of free markets bordered on the crackpot, unworthy of comment.”

In the field of labor market regulation, interventions are not limited to protecting workers from privation and misery. Regulations may also be designed to protect vested interests, such as preventing entry into the market by participants who enjoy what is seen as an unfair competitive advantage, or designed for racial protectionism, to prevent demographic encroachment by other races.

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Kamala will Expand Destructive Biden Economic Policies

The Kamala Harris administration is expected to continue the policies of the Biden administration, building on and perpetuating Bidenomics with an added infusion of Marxist principles.

The critical flaw of Bidenomics, which will be even more pronounced in Kamalnomics, is the failure to recognize that real wealth gains in an economy require entrepreneurs. The profit motive drives entrepreneurs to innovate, create new products, and find more efficient ways to satisfy people’s needs and wants, making life easier. Government transfers, welfare, soft loans, and DEI initiatives cannot achieve this goal. Worst of all, under the White House’s national industrial policy, the government will attempt to engage in entrepreneurship, gambling with taxpayer money.

President Joe Biden is the first U.S. president to establish a comprehensive national industrial policy document, a move reminiscent of strategies used by China and other communist countries. In these countries, the central government opens its own companies and provides soft loans and other benefits to favored companies or demographics that align with its vision for the economy.

Biden’s policy aims to address issues like climate change and economic inequality, which are not profit-driven goals. Private companies operate with the primary aim of making a profit, and even then, many still face bankruptcy. A company with any other primary goal is unlikely to succeed. However, a government company doesn’t face the same risk of bankruptcy; when it runs out of taxpayer money, it can simply request more from the central government.

The industrial policy will also focus on creating “good, union jobs.” How can Biden know in advance that the workers will choose to unionize?

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21 Facts That Joe Biden Doesn’t Want You To Know

It takes a lot of gumption to go on television and repeatedly lie to more than 300 million Americans.  I honestly don’t know how Joe Biden does it.  I suppose that after you have been lying for your entire career, lying comes as naturally as breathing does.  Sadly, there are still millions of Americans that are falling for his lies after all this time.  Biden would like for us all to believe that the economy is “booming”, that the southern border is under control, that our communities are safe, and that Ukraine is going to win their war against Russia.  Our entire society is literally crumbling all around us, and Biden and his minions have brought us to the brink of global war.  I am entirely convinced that he has been the worst president in U.S. history, and that is really saying something.

Ultimately, Joe Biden is just another slimy politician that is trying to save his job.

I get that.

But come on man, how can anyone actually believe the nonsense that he is shoveling?

There are a few numbers that Biden can cherry pick to try to make himself look good, but here are 21 facts that Joe Biden doesn’t want you to know…

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The Percentage Of Americans Who Worry They Won’t Be Able To Pay Their Bills Is Higher Than It Was During The Great Recession

Do you remember how painful the Great Recession was?  2008 and the years immediately following were definitely a very dark chapter in our history, but a new study has actually found that the percentage of Americans that worry they won’t be able to pay their bills is actually higher today than it was back then.  Slowly but surely, our economic strength has been fading and our standard of living has been falling.  Unfortunately, now we have reached a point where a very large portion of the U.S. population is really struggling.  According to a CNN poll that was just released, almost 40 percent of all U.S. adults “say they worry most or all of the time that their family’s income won’t be enough to meet expenses”…

Many Americans regularly worry they won’t be able to make ends meet.

Nearly four in ten (39%) of US adults say they worry most or all of the time that their family’s income won’t be enough to meet expenses, according to a new CNN poll. That’s up from 28% who expressed those concerns in December 2021, and it’s similar to the numbers seen during the Great Recession (37%).

To cope, significant shares of Americans said they are adding side jobs, cutting down on driving and putting more expenses on credit cards.

If you would have asked me before I saw the results, I would have been quite confident that the number during the Great Recession would have been higher than the number in 2024.

Just like everyone else, I remember the Great Recession as such a painful time.

Sadly, the economic pain that we are experiencing now is just beginning.

Ordinary Americans from coast to coast are being absolutely crushed by rising prices, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

In an article that CNN posted about this new survey, one woman that works for the CDC admitted that she was recently forced to move because costs have risen so aggressively…

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The Economic Folly of a Carbon Tax

The push for a carbon tax has regained popularity as the fiscal storm in 2025 and climate change debates intensify. Advocates claim it’s a solution to pay for spending excesses while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But a carbon tax is a misguided, costly policy that must be rejected.

A carbon tax functions more like an income tax than a consumption tax, capturing all forms of work, including capital goods production and building construction. These sectors are heavy on carbon emissions, meaning the tax disproportionately burdens them, stifling investment and innovation — much like a progressive income tax, but with broader economic repercussions.

For example, in the US, the construction sector alone accounts for about 40 percent of carbon emissions. A carbon tax would heavily penalize this industry, reducing its capacity to grow, generate new housing, and create jobs. Moreover, implementing a carbon tax involves massive administrative costs. The federal tax code is already complex and costly; a carbon tax would exacerbate these issues.

Determining net carbon emissions is a nuanced process subject to ever-changing and arbitrary federal definitions, increasing compliance costs for businesses and consumers.

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