William F. Jasper
Remembering Holodomor: The Ukrainian Famine
"Holodomor" is Ukrainian for "death by hunger." During 1932 and1933, between seven and 10 million Ukrainians were murdered through a brutal campaign of mass starvation, under the direct orders of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Freezing the Economy with Global Warming Taxes & Regulation
Will the politicians in Washington succeed in freezing our economy to death under the pretext of saving us from a non-existent global warming crisis? With our national economy and the global economy in the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, common sense and sound economic policy argue in favor of lessening the regulatory and tax burdens on the struggling private sector.
Senate Caves to Fed Pressure, Waters Down Audit
Just before noon on Tuesday, May 11, the U.S. Senate agreed to a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve's emergency actions taken in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The approved audit, which Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) offered in an amendment to the larger financial regulatory reform legislation, is a much watered-down version of the earlier audit proposed by Sanders that mirrored the "Audit the Fed" legislation in the House sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
$Trillion Bailout of Euro, Greece Shows Need to Audit the Fed
The timing of the sellout by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last Thursday, May 6, on legislation to audit the Federal Reserve could not have been more auspicious — or more suspicious. After pledging for months that he was going to offer an amendment in the Senate identical to "Audit the Fed" legislation in the House (H.R. 1207) authored by Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), Sanders caved in to pressures from the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve.
California's Budget Stalls, Bond Ratings Sink
On July 14 California's bond ratings, already the lowest in the nation, took another hit. Moody's Investors Service downgraded $72 billion of the state's general obligation bonds by two steps, from A2 to Baa1. The new rating, just two steps above junk grade, will increase the costs of California's borrowing and deepen the state's financial distress. A few day earlier, Fitch Investors downgraded the state's general obligation bonds from A- to BBB, also two steps above junk grade in its rating system. Dumping the Dollar for Global Currency
Will the Obama spend-a-rama finish off the dollar as the world's reserve currency? It well may, and sooner than most people think. Any day now we may wake up to headlines announcing that the International Monetary Fund's SDR (Special Drawing Rights) is being adopted as the new global currency.
Buck Knives Bucks Trends
“The Buck knife saved my leg and maybe my life at least once when I carelessly caught a pant leg in the anchor winch.” So writes “Old Fool,” the retired aviator and mariner who writes a colorful blog on various and sundry things at www.oldfool.org.
More H-1B Visas, More U.S. Tech Layoffs
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 8 it has received enough H-1B applications to meet the congressionally mandated cap of 85,000 H-1B visas for fiscal year 2009. The H-1B visas are given to foreign workers in “specialty occupations” (science, engineering, law, medicine, computer programming, etc.) where U.S. employers have filed petitions claiming there are not qualified U.S. applicants to fill the jobs.
Federal Reserve Loaned Nearly $2 Trillion
By now everyone knows that Congress and the White House approved an enormous $700-plus billion package a short time ago and that the Treasury Department is rapidly burning through that mountainous sum and asking for more. What wasn't known until the past few days is that the Federal Reserve has been "lending" hundreds of billions of additional dollars to troubled companies and institutions. In fact, the Fed may have already dished out nearly $2 trillion!
China: The New Investment Savior?
The Idaho Statesman in a June 6, 2010 story extolled the efforts of Idaho’s Commerce Secretary Don Dietrich and Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter to lure Chinese investors to their state: “‘The Chinese are looking for a beachhead in the United States,’ said Idaho Commerce Secretary Don Dietrich. Idaho is ready to give them one,” the Statesman reported.
