By: J. Randolph Evans
ONE BILLION DOLLARS. That is how much the State of Georgia spends every year on corrections. According to the Report of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians, “[d]uring the past two decades, the prison population in Georgia has more than doubled to nearly 56,000. …If current policies remain in place, analysis indicates that Georgia’s prison population will rise by another 8 percent to … Read more...
By: Les Dunaway
Today’s excellent Forbes article “Tim Geithner Covers for Corruption On Pennsylvania Avenue” by Charles Kadlec inspired me to dig into my pile of “Why the Crash?” writings. Mr Kradlec does an excellent job of summarizing the various crimes that led to the crash, so what I’ve collected here is, mostly, for detail and a clearer look at the perpetrators.
The top line summary of the … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
This past week, the 18th Annual Index of Economic Freedom was published. It shows that our country has slipped to 10th in this critical ranking. The 15th Index published in January of 2009 ranked the US at 6th. So, in the three years since, we’ve dropped 4 places.
If you haven’t been following this Index, I suggest you watch the short video at … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
In Nov 2011 I wrote about the DOL jobs report and discussed how those numbers had been cooked to make the job situation look better. Well, as has been said “You ain’t seen nothin yet”. We can expect bogus numbers month by month leading up to November.
Last weeks report has an even more tenuous relation to reality. First, let’s talk about what … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By Les Dunaway
On Wed, the 14th, Reuters published an excellent summary of the situation in Italy. From my reading, you can apply the same lessons to Greece, Portugal, Spain, France and (possibly) England.
When I read it, I got chills because all that’s required for it to describe our country, in a few years, is to change some names. We are not as far … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
The announcement by major world banks that they’ll funnel money to European banks is the latest step in the saga of “Let’s borrow more money so we can keep spending”. Only, this time it’s “Let’s print money we don’t have and loan it to people who won’t pay it back at cheap rates so they can keep spending.” [read] [read… Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By Les Dunaway
Well the suspense is over – what little suspense there was.
“Super Committee Says It’s Unable to Agree on Debt Reduction Deal“
We all knew that Boehner got rolled on the debt limit deal. [read] [read] [read] He should have asked Bush I about trusting Democrats. At least, he called Obama out … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
The monthly unemployment numbers came out from the DOL this week. They were summarized in the media as a drop from 9.1 to 9.0. Many people reacted with surprise as such a drop was counter-intuitive, especially when the reported jobs-created was 80,000 – somewhere between a third and a half of what’s needed to reduce unemployment.
I’m happy to report that the confusion was simply government book-cooking, … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
This morning about 6am, as I do each week day, I read the Financial Times “Asia: AM” which looks at what’s happening in the Asian and European markets. The top story was “EU reaches agreement on Greek bonds”.
The top line on the “agreement”, which has not been agreed-to by anyone at this point, is that all holders of Greek-debt bonds will get new bonds – whose … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
I’ve read the Wall Street Journal most every weekday for 20+ years. Being a money junky, I also read Forbes, Financial Times, … Over the past few weeks, when we’ve had some of the worst market swings in memory, the discussion has recognized that the world, not just the US, is hanging on the edge of a really nasty depression. That’s to be expected and isn’t news … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have brought up a subject that needs more scrutiny. A member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, who dissented from the report, summarizes what happened in the Oct 12th Wall Street Journal.
Judging from the squealing from the left, below, he struck a nerve. Take a look a these videos, in light of what we know now, and see if … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
In a debate co-sponsored by NYSE and Corporate Responsibility (CR) magazine’s COMMIT!Forum the Agenda 21 people made clear their agenda – the destruction of capitalism. Of course, anyone who has looked at the website wasn’t surprised.
[Reuters report] [Advisor One report] … Read more...