JustThinking.us

The following sign was spotted at a Tea Party tax day rally.

The Cato Institute does a nice job on Mitt Romney here. 

Nothing new.

But it's only about 4 minutes.

A quick and light damnation of the Mitt Romney candidacy.

He was probably brainwashed.

Stratfor Global Intelligence is in my opinion among the better international news sites.

At about $30 a month, it's probably not worth it to most folks.

They have a one week trial deal.

I like it.

From an article titled,

"Mexico a Struggle for Balance"

“…Mexico was nearing the status of a failed state.

A failed state is one in which the central government has lost control over significant areas of the country and the state is unable to function.

In revisiting this issue, it seems to us that the Mexican government has lost control of the northern tier of Mexico to drug-smuggling organizations, which have significantly greater power in that region than government forces.

Moreover, the ability of the central government to assert its will against these organizations has weakened to the point that decisions made by the state against the cartels are not being implemented or are being implemented in a way that would guarantee failure…

“…The United States consumes vast amounts of narcotics, which, while illegal there, make their way in abundance.

Narcotics derive from low-cost agricultural products that become consumable with minimal processing.

With its long, shared border with the United States, Mexico has become a major grower, processor and exporter of narcotics.

Because the drugs are illegal and thus outside normal market processes, their price is determined by their illegality rather than by the cost of production.

This means extraordinary profits can be made by moving narcotics from the Mexican side of the border to markets on the other side…

“…each smuggling organization has an attached paramilitary organization designed to protect its own supply chain and to seize its competitors' supply chains.

The result is ongoing warfare between competing organizations…

Membership in such paramilitary groups offers impoverished young men extraordinary opportunities for making money, far greater than would be available to them in legitimate activities…

“Indeed, what the wars are being fought over in some ways benefits Mexico.

The amount of money pouring into Mexico annually is stunning. It is estimated to be about $35 billion to $40 billion each year…

From Mexico's point of view, interrupting the flow of drugs to the United States is not clearly in the national interest or in that of the economic elite…

The following charts pretty much speak for themselves.

Both are from the Tax Foundation and link to their fine site.

2005 is the freshest analysis that I could find.

DC does good!!! 

Michigan? ..... Not so much! 

"Nearly everybody I read or talk to is convinced that we're in a new bull market -- a primary bull market which they claim started at the March 2009 low.

If the March 2009 was a bear market low, it was unlike any bear market low that I have ever seen.

Where were the "great values" that always present themselves at a bear market bottom?

Where were the juicy Dow dividend yields that we invariably see at true bear market bottoms.

For instance, back in 1981 the Dow dividend yield was 6.42%.

At the bear market low of 1974 the Dow dividend yield was 6.12%.

In 1940 the Dow dividend was 6.84%.

In the dark year 1931, the Dow dividend yield was 10.78%

Where were the fabulous values in March 2009?

The answer, March 2009 was not a true bear market bottom.

The next great bear market low lies ahead!"

I have no idea if the following is true, as I have been unable to find any corroboration.

China Daily makes the following claim in an article titled,

"Life Span of Buildings Creates Huge Waste"

Compared to the less than 30-year average life expectancy of China’s buildings, the average life span of a building in Britain is 132 years and in the United States it is 74 years.

From Congressman John J. Duncan, Republican representing Tennessee's Second District.

We now have approximately 4,000 in the Federal Air Marshals Service, yet they have made an average of just 4.2 arrests a year since 2001.

This comes out to an average of about one arrest a year per 1,000 employees.

Now, let me make that clear. 

Their thousands of employees are not making one arrest per year each.

They are averaging slightly over four arrests each year by the entire agency.

In other words, we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest.

Let me repeat that: we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest.

It gets better.

Since 9/11, more than three dozen Federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct.

Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.''

As those big salaries continue to attract the very best people!!!!!

As far as I'm concerned, Peggy Noonan is one of the finest writers in America.

I make my son read her editorials in the Wall Street Journal (he hates it) ... (I don't care).

Here's her analysis of what went wrong with the mortgage market.

Click anywhere below to get the entire piece.

You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats, finagled the mortgage system so that people who make, like, zero dollars a year were given mortgages for $600,000 houses.

You got to run around and crow about how under your watch everyone became a homeowner.

You shook down the taxpayer and hoped for the best. 

"Democrats did it because they thought it would make everyone Democrats:

'Look what I give you!'

Republicans did it because they thought it would make everyone Republicans:

'I'm a homeowner, I've got a stake, don't raise my property taxes, get off my lawn!'

And Wall Street?

We went to town, baby.

We bundled the mortgages and sold them to fools, or we held them, called them assets, and made believe everyone would pay their mortgage.

As if we cared.

We invented financial instruments so complicated no one, even the people who sold them, understood what they were.

"You're finaglers and we're finaglers.

I play for dollars, you play for votes.

In our own ways we're all thieves.

We would be called desperadoes if we weren't so boring, so utterly banal in our soft-jawed, full-jowled selfishness.

If there were any justice, we'd be forced to duel, with the peasants of America holding our cloaks.

Only we'd both make sure we missed, wouldn't we?"

I think that just about covers it.

Richard Maybury publishes The Early Warning Report and Chaosistan.com

Friends have forwarded the occasional copy or link for a while now.

Membership went on sale recently so I signed up.

As yet, I have no opinion.

The quote below links to the signup page. 

“What Obama and his toadies have repeatedly demonstrated themselves to be is fascist.

Fascism is the most simple-minded of all political philosophies, it boils down to just 16 words:

Power holders should do whatever appears necessary, no exceptions, no limits, and no definition of necessary…

We have no way to know what Obama, Bernanke, Geithner or any of the other kingpins will think is necessary, so there is no way to know what they will do to the economy or investment markets.

They are all loose cannons…

Fascism has no plan, it is 100% pragmatic, a fire fighting mentality, not an agenda mentality.

Its only answer to any problem is, more government...

Let me emphasize, the government’s top people are not constrained by ideology…the comment by the Director of National Intelligence, that US officials have the right to kill — without a trial — American citizens they suspect of terrorism.

If these people will do that, they will do anything. They are already across the final line.

This is why I believe that before the Great Monetary Calamity ends, somewhere between three and ten years from now, we will see gold at $10,000, silver at $100 and platinum at $10,000...

Remember, however, that I am not saying the precious metals will rise this much, I’m saying the dollar will fall this much.”

 Richard Maybury, 04-10

The Canadian Dollar has again achieved achieved parity with the US Dollar.

Closing at $1 Tuesday 4/6/2010.