No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for May 21st, 2009

War on corporations holding back economic recovery – part 2

by @ 19:44. Tags:
Filed under Business, Politics - National.

(H/T – Hot Air Headlines via Flip)

Remember what I relayed from Dad29 in what turned out to be Part 1 of what seems to be an ongoing series? Bloomberg reports that fund managers are now wary of lending money to unionized companies with unfunded pension liabilities because of what happened at Chrysler. Quoting George Schultze, head of Schultze Asset Management, one of the last Chrysler holdouts:

Lenders will have to figure out how to price this risk. The obvious one is: Don’t lend to a company with big legacy liabilities or demand a much higher rate of interest because you may be leapfrogged in a bankruptcy….

It’s terrible precedent. The sad thing is it impacts the manufacturing sector and the companies that have legacy liabilities directly. It will be nearly impossible, or much more expensive, to get secured financing for these type of companies.

I do want you to read the entire article. However, I can’t let the closing paragraph escape notice:

“People are starting to think ‘This is a very activist administration, even more than we counted on,’” said Martin Fridson, CEO of money manager Fridson Investment Advisors in New York. “If it comes down to the interest of creditors or labor unions, the administration is going to override what you thought you could do.”

What’s left of private capital for at-risk companies is about to exit stage left.

How long is that Porkulus supposed to last again?

by @ 16:22. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – Mary Katharine Ham)

Buried at the end of a Washington Post story on the failures of the government version of the Porkulus “watchdog” web presence is a telling quote from Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Department inspector general who has been placed in charge of stimulus oversight:

“We have four and a half years to turn this thing into its final product. My intent is not to have people come once and never come back. I want it to be good enough that the citizens who look at this site become the eyes and ears for the [inspector generals] and see things that normally an IG would have to stumble across.”

And here I thought the money was supposed to be spent this year and next.

Obama’s speech – more questions than answers – UPDATE – And straw men a-plenty

by @ 13:51. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

Fausta has a few questions after President Obama’s speech this morning:

So, does this mean the “war on terror” should be called “the war on al Qaeda”?

And the specific statement, “like other prisoners of war”, raises the issue whether the Obama administration is considering changing the detainees’ status to that of POWs….

Closing Gitmo? Where’s the plan?
Supermax prisons taking Gitmo detainees? Which ones?
“New legal regime to detain terrorists”? Where’s the plan?

Very interesting questions. Do read the entire post.

Revisions/extensions (2:06 pm 5/21/2009) – Karl Rove found 5 different straw men in that speech, which he added to his longer list of 2009 Obama Straw Man Watch. My favorite from today:

“And we will be ill-served by some of the fear-mongering that emerges whenever we discuss this issue. Listening to the recent debate, I’ve heard words that are calculated to scare people rather than educate them; words that have more to do with politics than protecting our country.”

Thursday Midday Read – Rick Moran’s “Not Socialism: Gangsterism”

by @ 12:17. Filed under Business, Politics - National.

It is Thursday, so I’m resting from heavy lifting. Fortunately, Rick Moran isn’t. Rick may average a post a weekday, and he does at times have a bit of contempt for social conservatives, but those posts are must-reads.

This one is no different. Rick runs with a letter from a Dodge dealer getting shut off from the Dodge brand with no assistance from Dodge to relieve him of his soon-to-be-worthless inventory of cars and parts into why Obama is able to get away with what he’s doing, to an explanation of why it’s not merely an extension of what Bush did. I’ll give you a mid-post taste:

It can happen because at the moment, the opposition forces are scattered, dispirited, and engaged in a fruitless quest to determine who is a “real” conservative and who is an Obama loving, free market hating, wimpy, squishy RINO.

It can happen because we are barking up the wrong tree when we accuse the Democrats of practicing socialism. Any Chicagoan recognizes what’s going on as pure gangsterism – the application of power through the use blackmail, threats, and pure muscle and the devil take the Constitution, the rule of law, and simple fairness.

Roll bloat – Howling at the moon

by @ 7:23. Filed under The Blog.

One of the good things about going through the logs is I’m able to find some good places that link here that otherwise would slip through the cracks. Rabbit does some pretty good howling from the park bench over at Moons End.

Daughter of Waxman-Markey even worse

by @ 7:00. Filed under Envirowhackos, Politics - National.

Last Friday, I gave you the original Heritage Foundation estimates of the economic effects of the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade-Tax plan. Because it couldn’t get enough support from rank-and-file ‘Rats, it went back to the drawing board. The Heritage Foundation found that the effects are even worse the second time around:

  • The cumulative GDP reduction through 2035 increases from $7.4 trillion to $9.6 trillion
  • The average yearly job loss increases from 844,000 lost jobs per year to 1,105,000 lost jobs per year
  • The peak yearly job losses increases from 2,000,000 to 2,500,000

Nick Loris explains:

  • Our original economic analysis had the government auctioning off the allowances (rights to emit) carbon dioxide. The auction revenue, the equivalent of tax revenue, went into the hands of the government, which in turn created more government jobs. In the second version of the bill, the government distributed allowances to various businesses in an attempt to mitigate the near-term economic damage done by the bill. As a result, jobs in the private sector fell less than the original but the government jobs decreased more because the government did not receive the allowance revenue from the auction. Overall employment fell.
  • Think of the allowances given away as subsidies to businesses. When these subsidies stop and allowances begin to be auctioned off, the economy is again “shocked” with higher indirect taxes and businesses must make costly adjustments to this new economic condition.
  • Real GDP losses increase an additional $2 trillion from the bill because investment for businesses is worse under the new bill. Again, the government is not auctioning off the rights for businesses to emit carbon dioxide; they are giving them away in the near-term. These giveaways add to the national debt, crowd out private sector investment and drive up interest rates. Increased interest rates further drive up the debt. This creates a vicious cycle in which businesses significantly reduce their investment. The lack of investment (that drives the overall economy) produces higher real GDP losses and lowers the potential of the overall economy.

But wait, it gets even worse. Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) reports that the ‘Rats added, on a party line vote, mandates that all home sales include an energy-efficiency inspection and a study be made in preparation for every product sold in the United States to be labeled as to their CO2 “content” (i.e. how much CO2 is emitted in the manufacture of each product).

Somehow, I think the fine folks at Heritage understated the damage to the economy.

Revisions/extensions (7:42 am 5/21/2009) – (H/T – McQ) I’m suddenly feeling like Billy Mays here. But wait, that’s not all! As part of their Top Ten list, Heritage included this handy graphic showing just how big a bite Cap-and-Trade-Tax will take.

For those of you who missed it, it handily beats food, clothing, furniture, the current cost of household energy, and the average property tax. Of course, those of us in Wisconsin pay a lot more in property tax, but $3,900 even beats that.

Open Thread Thursday – 5/21/2009

by @ 6:22. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

My allergies are knocking me flat, and it’s Thursday, so it’s time for another edition of Open Thread Thursday. Have at it.

Hot Read Thursday part 2 – Kevin McCullough’s “American Idol: sign of the culture war that’s brewing?”

by @ 6:05. Filed under Miscellaneous.

I admit that I’m not one of those that watches “American Idol”. Kevin McCullough, co-host of BMX Radio along with Stephen Baldwin (yes, THAT Stephen Baldwin), does, and he links the results of the final three of this season’s run to the culture wars. Once again, I’ll tease you with the close:

There will be more debate in the days to come. And my rule still generally holds true – originality will usually trump the field.

This year, in the largest vote ever cast, America instead voted for tradition…

Now if we could just get those who focus on public policy to do the same!

Hot Read Thursday – Karl Rove’s “Flip-Flops and Governance”

by @ 6:00. Filed under Politics - National.

Karl Rove lists a whole litany of things that, as Jim Geraghty terms it, reached their expiration date, between the Obama candidacy and the Obama Presidency. I’ll force you over to The Wall Street Journal to read the list, but I will tease you with the close:

Mr. Obama either had very little grasp of what governing would involve or, if he did, he used words meant to mislead the public. Neither option is particularly encouraging. America now has a president quite different from the person who advertised himself for the job last year. Over time, those things can catch up to a politician.

There are two questions:

  • Will those expired statements catch up to Obama before or after 2012?
  • Which group will catch up to him first – the electorate at large or the moonbats that foisted him upon the rest of us?

Cartoon of the day

by @ 1:00. Filed under International relations.

Nate Beeler over at The Washington Examiner nails the Middle East situation…

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