Dr Sanity: "GREEN JOBLESSNESS"
(...) The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent -- more than double the European Union average -- partly because of spending on such jobs? Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report which, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it.
Calzada says Spain's torrential spending -- no other nation has so aggressively supported production of electricity from renewable sources -- on wind farms and other forms of alternative energy has indeed created jobs. But Calzada's report concludes that they often are temporary and have received $752,000 to $800,000 each in subsidies -- wind industry jobs cost even more, $1.4 million each. And each new job entails the loss of 2.2 other jobs that are either lost or not created in other industries because of the political allocation -- sub-optimum in terms of economic efficiency -- of capital. (European media regularly report "eco-corruption" leaving a "footprint of sleaze" -- gaming the subsidy systems, profiteering from land sales for wind farms, etc.) Calzada says the creation of jobs in alternative energy has subtracted about 110,000 jobs from elsewhere in Spain's economy. (...) >>>
June 29, 2009
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Go, go, go help defeat immoral smoking bans that kill off small businesses without compensation!
Update: Two small cafes have been cleared of breaking the ban - it's for the wrong reasons, but the verdict opens the way for small cafes to claim millions from the state in compensation.
DutchNews: "Tobacco lobby helps bars fight smoking ban"
The tobacco industry is helping small cafes and bars fight the ban on smoking introduced last July, according to research by the NRC newspaper. The treasurer of the small cafe owners lobby group told the paper his organisation has received some €50,000 from tobacco companies. Ton Wurtz also said that he regular meets with the chairman of the tobacco industry federation SSI for strategy talks. "Red de kleine horecaondernemer" (save the small cafe owner) has 1,200 members. (...) >>>
June 22, 2009
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Financial companies were faced with a fundamental change in their balance sheets and profitability on Wednesday as President Barack Obama laid out the biggest regulatory reform since the 1930s.Stringent new capital requirements lie at the heart of a raft of proposals that require the Federal Reserve to watch for systemic dangers emanating from the biggest banks, insurers and, potentially, private equity firms. Remuneration and profits at Wall Street and beyond could be hit by the reforms, which will see the administration attempt to tighten capital and leverage rules at global banks in negotiation with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.The administration sees the new rules as a rejection of the light-touch approach that held sway under Alan Greenspan, former Fed chairman, and previous governments, which Mr Obama and his advisors blame for sparking a debt-fuelled financial crisis. (...) >>>
June 17, 2009
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CNSNews: "Treasury Secretary's Secret Talking Points Reveal That Banks Were Forced to Surrender Ownership Stakes to Government"
Last October, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ordered nine banks that the Treasury Department described as "healthy" financial institutions to surrender ownership interests to the government or else face regulatory action that would force them to surrender ownership interests to the government, according to an internal Treasury Department document. Paulson's extraordinary threat culminated in one of the most sweeping government intrusions into the free-enterprise system in the history of the United States. (...) >>>
June 3, 2009
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Lew Rockwell: "Who, Me? Yes You!", by Peter Schiff
(...) Yet in a speech this Tuesday before the National Association of Realtors, Sir Alan “the-bubble-blower”[ed. Greenspan] claimed that his low interest rate policies in the early and middle years of this decade had no effect on mortgage rates or real estate prices. As a result, he claims no responsibility for the subprime mortgage crisis. But even current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who shared interest rate policy responsibility as governor of the New York Fed during the Greenspan regime, recently admitted that overly accommodative policy helped inflate the bubble. So what does Greenspan know that everyone else doesn’t? (..) >>>
May 17, 2009
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Politeia: "The Coup of State on the Economy in Perspective"
In America the organizations who are helping us getting our human heads around the unprecedented, astronomical figures involving the various economic stimuli, are the Tea Party Movement (sites here and here) and Stop Spending our Future. The latter has published following information in helping us reducing it all to a more or less human scale: fasten seat belts for this one! (video) >>>
May 9, 2009
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The Foundry: "The Outlines of the G-20 Deal Emerge, And They’re Not Good"
In the run-up to the G-20 summit in London on April 2, a curious division has emerged. On one side stand the U.S. and Britain, both sounding like continental Europeans in their enthusiasm for deficit spending. On the other stand France and Germany, rejecting stimulus packages but eager to impose a new system of “global governance” on the world’s markets and nations. (...) Barroso demanded that “Europe must speak with one voice in London.” But his comments later in the interview were more interesting. In an obvious effort to bridge the divide between the two sides, he urged all concerned to:avoid the false choice between fiscal stimulus or improved regulation. The reality is that we need both and I believe we are seeing convergence within Europe and with our international partners on this.
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