Category Archives: Politics

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, March 18, 2019: 

The results of the survey on American CEO (chief executive officer) compensation released on Sunday by the Wall Street Journal aren’t likely to please progressives and socialists such as Bernie [Sanders] and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).

The Journal looked at total compensation being paid to the CEOs of 132 of the 500 companies making up the S&P 500 Index and reported that it reached $12.4 million in 2018, up from $11.7 million a year earlier.

Much of the compensation was driven by improved corporate profits and strong stock market performance that enhanced the value of their stock options. The Journal also reported that not every CEO got a raise: “Pay fell for 47 [of them], or about a third … and more than 10% for 22 of them.”

This isn’t likely to impress socialists and social-justice warriors who will likely use the Journal’s results to focus on some kind of “parity” calculation: comparing CEO compensation to the average guy driving a truck or working a line in a factory. Expect outrage over the disparity, and legislation to “fix” the “inequity.”

How does one justify anyone making a million dollars a month?

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, March 18, 2019:

Every year the Wall Street Journal conducts a survey of top CEOs’ compensation packages. And every year progressives and socialists use the occasion to complain about injustice, inequality, and lack of parity with their workers.

This year the news is even worse for the likes of Bernie and AOC: now the median income of the 132 CEOs the Journal analyzed is a million dollars a month, an increase of 6.4 percent over last year. Expect to hear the whining from these two, among others, that the average worker driving a truck or working a line only saw his or her wages rise by three percent, and that therefore it’s unfair, unjust, etc., etc.

Let’s remember just how successful AOC and Bernie have been in running their own businesses. For example, take AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), the House freshman (woman) from the Bronx. Upon graduation from college in 2011 she took jobs as a bartender and waitress to help her mother (who was working as a house cleaner and a bus driver) pay the bills.

She started a business – Brook Avenue Express (BAP) – which published children’s books, but the business failed. New York State closed it down when it failed to file a tax return or pay its corporate taxes. As of March 2019, BAP still owes the state $1,870.36.

AOC now receives $174,000 a year as a member of the House of Representatives, plus benefits. Who’s to say that she’s worth that?

Or take Bernie Sanders. Politico took the time and trouble to explore his business background and then reported on what they found in 2015: He lived hand-to-mouth, stealing electricity from his landlord when he couldn’t pay his electric bill. From Politico:

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, March 13, 2019: 

The slapstick comedy the Punch and Judy show is loved by British audiences, many of whom pay the puppeteer to bring the show into their homes for parties and celebrations. Mr. Punch is abused by his wife Judy during brief sketches, with the audience cheering her on or warning Mr. Punch of what is coming.

On Monday, Mr. Trump was the master puppeteer, bringing his Punch and Judy show to millions in the guise of a serious discussion over government spending. He called it “A Budget for a Better America – Promises Kept. Taxpayers First.”

If his preliminary budget proposal was designed to bait Democrats, it worked.

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, March 12, 2019: 

In his preliminary budget proposal for Congress released on Monday, President Trump touted his accomplishments during his first two years in office — five million new jobs, five million off food stamps, lowest unemployment in 50 years, etc. — and then expressed, with breathtaking hubris, his plan: “[It] provides a clear roadmap for the Congress to bring Federal spending and debt under control. We must protect future generations from Washington’s habitual deficit spending.”

This was addressed to precisely those habitual spenders who are increasingly ignoring not only budgetary constraints but practical real-world concerns about massive deficits and a growing national debt.

Russell Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), touted the plan as

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, March 5, 2019:

A popular online meme perfectly expresses where China’s economy is headed: “The year 2019 may be the worst year in this decade, but it will be the best year in the next decade.”

China’s economy is decelerating so rapidly that the super-rich are getting out while the getting is good. One of them is Chen Tianyong, a real estate developer in Shanghai, who posted this on the Internet: “China’s economy is like a giant ship heading to the precipice. Without fundamental changes, it’s inevitable that the ship will be wrecked and the passengers will die. My friends, if you can leave, please make arrangements as early as possible.”

As the New York Times noted,

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, February 21, 2019: 

The national debt clock just clicked over $20 trillion. But according to the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), wait ‘til 2029! That clock will be approaching $36 trillion. And that’s under the assumption that laws now in place stay in place. Add in the Green New Deal and the clock will have to add another digit: $100 trillion.

But not to worry. The new math — Modern Monetary Theory — will take care of everything.

Behind the headlines, the CBO adds details, clarifying who has loaned the $20 trillion to the federal government. Seventy-three percent has been loaned by

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, February 18, 2019: 

Stephanie Kelton, professor of public policy and economics at Stony Brook University, served as an advisor to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. She gave similar advice to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as she was preparing to be sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives: You can have it all!

Writing in the Huffington Post last November, Kelton said:

We have the outline of a plan. We need a mass mobilization of people and resources, something not unlike the U.S. involvement in World War II or the Apollo moon missions — but even bigger. We must transform our energy system, transportation, housing, agriculture and more.

 

What we don’t (yet) have is the final, vital ingredient — a critical mass of politicians prepared to unleash the enormous power of the public purse to save the planet.

To Kelton’s way of thinking, the only thing standing in the way of spending billions the government doesn’t have to solve problems many think don’t exist, is to change just how we think about the federal budget: “To save the planet and fix historical inequities … we must change the way we approach the federal budget. We must give up our obsession with trying to ‘pay for’ everything with new revenue or spending cuts.”

It starts with discarding that old canard about how inflation