Archive for the ‘Waste and Fraud’ Category
Friday, December 21st, 2012
I hope you’ve been enjoying your mythical Mayan Apocalypse.
But there’s a real, slow motion apocalypse that’s been going on all around you, and nobody is panicking about it, at least not in the open. I’m not talking specifically about the fiscal cliff, which is only a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself.
The real apocalypse is out-of-control federal spending, and the tsunami of debt it’s creating. And I don’t feel “apocalypse” is too strong a word. Excessive debt destroys economies. When the money printing presses run unchecked for years on end, hyperinflation is the inevitable result.
The only reason we’re not suffering from hyperinflation right now is that Europe is sucking worse than we are. The Spanish economy is failing. The Greek economy has already failed. Were it not for that, it’s likely our huge budget deficits and the Fed’s printing presses would have already caused the Euro to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. And, as Mark Steyn is fond of pointing out, Germany’s economy is big enough to bail out Greece and Spain. No one’s economy is big enough to bail us out.
Obama and the Democratic Party has wagered our future on the proposition that they can run trillion dollar deficits for years on end without destroying the value of the American dollar. If they’re right, they deserve to win, since everything we know about economics is wrong, and we can just print dollars until we’re all rich.
But the fundamental laws of economics haven’t been repealed. A reckoning is coming, and it’s going to destroy savings, economies and lives. And professional politicians, the Democratic Party, lobbyists and their mainstream media enablers would prefer to talk about anything else but the looming catastrophe. No wonder they want to talk about gun control and “the war on women.” Anything to keep the con game going until they’ve sucked the body politics dry. Just keep that deficit spending heroin coming.
The only question about that reckoning is exactly when it’s coming, and exactly how bad it will be. If we’re lucky, it will only be as bad as Argentina 2001. If we’re not, then we’re talking Weimer Germany 1921-23.
Get ready.
Tags:Budget, debt, deficits, fraud, hyperinflation, Mark Steyn, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 13th, 2012
This was supposed to go up last night, but there was a glitch. Ten hours late sounds about right for California…
California leads the nation in outrageous pay and benefits for unionized state employees. Including $822,302 a year for a single prison psychiatrist.
Calpers to taxpayers and bond-holders: DROP DEAD. We’re getting ours, jack.
Since California has hiked tax rates tax revenues have decline. Those unwilling to learn from the Laffer Curve are doomed to live through it.
Living in California means not being able to afford police.
The bankrupt California city of San Bernardino has had 45 murders this year.
Bankrupt Stockton has had 68.
And Los Angeles is shuttering courthouses because they can’t afford them.
The Blue State Suicide Pact.
Movie and TV production is leaving California.
“Why would you leave $25 million on the table?” Oh gee, I don’t know, but maybe because you have to pay back $34 million on your risky $2.5 million loan? Math, liberal! Do you speak it?
California Blue Shield wants to hikes rates as much as 20%. How’s that ObamaCare working out for you?
People are still leaving California…and Texas is the most popular destination.
Texas was once again the destination of choice for more people moving within the United States as a whole, with some 515,000 people moving here in 2012. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Mario Loyola talks about how unions become sanctioned government cartels.
Speaking of TPPF, they linked to this Dallas Fed report, which shows that the Texas economy continues to hum along. “Texas added 22,900 jobs in October, lowering its unemployment rate in October to 6.6 percent, down from 6.8 percent in September and 1.3 percent below the national average of 7.9 percent.”
Tags:Budget, California, CalPERs, Crime, fraud, Laffer Curve, Los Angeles, ObamaCare, San Bernardino, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
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Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
With the election less than two weeks away, time for a roundup of how the champions of their respective political models (Texas for Red States and California for Blue States) are doing:
Why is gasoline so expensive in California? Because Californian politicians have made it that expensive. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
California is getting ready to shovel more benefits to public employee union members. Because retiring at age 50 with 90% of their salary just wasn’t enough.
Bankrupt San Bernadino stops paying into the CalPERS pension fund. (Previously.
Moody’s: “we expect…more bankruptcy filings and bond defaults among California cities, reflecting the increased risk to bondholders as investors are asked to contribute to plans for closing budget gaps.”
It’s all part of California’s Fifty Shades of Golden electoral masochism. “Not surprising, the most productive of California’s citizens are leaving in droves. For those who want to prosper, the safeword is “Texas.'”
The guy from California who under-reported unemployment to make the numbers look better? Obama donor. This is my shocked face.
California has actually carried out some pension reforms (like capping annual benefits at $132,000), but its pension plans are still underfunded by $165 billion.
California got $411 million in the National Mortgage Settlement. So how much of that actually went to help people with their mortgages? None of it. “Think of California’s persistent budget deficit as a great white shark devouring every source of cash in its path.”
Might California voters finally be reaching a tipping point against big government? Answer cloudy, ask again later.
Texas continues to add jobs.
Moreover, they’re not low wage jobs either:
The total personal income (TPI) in Texas reached $1.07 trillion dollars in the second quarter of this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s an increase of 71 percent from the state’s corresponding total 10 years earlier, $626.7 billion.
Here’s another way of looking at it: Texas accounted for 8.02 percent of the nation’s TPI this year, up 1.10 percentage points from 6.92 percent in 2002.
That’s nearly five times larger than the runner-up, Florida, which increased its share of national TPI by 0.23 points in a decade. Just four other states registered gains better than a tenth of a point.
Texas has the best unemployment rate among the five biggest states, at 6.8%. California, at 10.2%, has the worst.
Texas’ tort reform has attracted medical specialists to the state at a rate outstripping population growth.
Texas added 262,700 private sector jobs over the last year.
And Dwight, as usual, has more on the goings-ons in Golden State locales like Oakland and Bell.
(Hat tips for many Texas items: WILLisms’ Twitter feed.)
Tags:2012 Election, Blue State, Budget, California, CalPERs, Democrats, Elections, fraud, gas prices, Oakland, San Bernardino, Texas, waste, Welfare State
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Monday, August 27th, 2012
It’s late August, and California’s slide toward insolvency continues apace.
How badly underwater is CalPERS? Try $884 billion.
Speaking of California unions, here’s how they’re trying to block reform.
California’s recovery is much slower than the already slow pace of the rest of the nation.
Things have gotten so bad that Moody’s is rexamining the outlook on all California cities.
What California should learn from Wisconsin.
CalTrans spends $22.5 million on unneeded home repairs, with a hefty side-helping of graft. (Hat tip: Dwight)
So what happened to all those Solyndra glass tubes? Can you say modern art?
Texas snags it’s lowest bond interest rate ever at 0.225%. That makes sense. Broke ass California getting a 0.43% rating doesn’t.
Texas has five of the ten fastest growing counties (including Williamson).
California’s “urban forest” offset scam.
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, environmentalism, Obama Scandals, Red State, Solyndra, Texas, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Global Warming, Obama Scandals, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Thursday, August 16th, 2012
Looks like California has done such a good dog of screwing the pooch that I may have to start doing these roundups weekly:
Although bankrupt, California is about to add another outrageous benefit to its already bloated pension plan.
The Road Warrior‘s future as California’s present.
Creditor demands that Stockton reduce it’s outrageous pension plans.
In deed, CalPERs and state and local governments have combined to screw both taxpayers and bond-holders.
Hermosa Beach meter maids make make nearly $100,000 a year.
Could Fresno be the next California city to declare bankruptcy?
That is, unless the next California city to declare bankruptcy is Los Angeles.
Tags:bankruptcy, Blue State, Budget, California, CalPERs, fraud, Fresno, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, Red State, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
Back in 2008, this sort of news would probably get my dander up. The upshot is that the federal Highway Bridge Program is going to force various levels of Texas government to pay for replacing little-used bridges rather than repairing them, even if some only get 25 cars a day and there are alternate routes available, in order to keep getting federal funds.
There’s lots wrong with the program: Taxpayer money wasted for one, and the principles of Federalism violated for another; there’s absolutely no reason for the federal government to take money from taxpayers in the various states, put it in a big pot, rake off their bureaucratic maintenance fees, and then redistribute it to states, counties, etc. Let counties and states repair their own bridges, and decide which ones to repair and how to pay for them.
But even given all that, my outrage meter is barely quivering. Unlike so many Obama-era boondoggles, at least we’re getting something tangible and useful. At least it didn’t line some corrupt solar power company CEO’s pockets before his firm went bankrupt. At least it didn’t screw non-union pensioners to line the coffers of the UAW. At least it’s not a multibillion dollar high speed train boondoggle that will never be finished. At least here’s a public works project that’s actually shovel ready. And, as long as you think that there should be public roads in the first place (there’s a libertarian case for completely private roads, but that ship sailed a long, long time ago), then at least we’re getting something at least vaguely within the purvey of some government entity.
And at least the program didn’t end up killing a border patrol agent and 300+ Mexican civilians.
So corrupt, incompetent and scandal-ridden is the Obama Administration that I have a hard time working up indignation over the fact that a significant fraction of $150 million will probably be wasted on bridges we don’t really need, mainly because I’m sure Obama or his cronies will find a brand new way to waste ten times that one something completely useless sometime over the next week…
Tags:bridges, fraud, highways, Obama, ObamaMotors, roads, Texas, unions, waste
Posted in Budget, Obama Scandals, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Spent most of the day checking things off my list and web-surfing Creepy Pasta. So here’s a quick roundup of Texas vs. California tidbits:
A ballot initiative could derail the union stranglehold over California.
Among all states, Texas has the most adequately funded pension plan.
Endemic corruption in California cities.
California tosses another $4.7 billion down the high speed rail rathole. Hell, even Mother Jones says that it’s a money-wasting boondoggle.
Texas has a market that works just fine for electricity when government lets it: “California pretended to have a deregulated electricity market, but it was really a poorly designed, government-controlled system that eventually collapsed under its own weight. Texas’ economy is outperforming the rest of the country because we put fewer burdens on markets. This is why Texas has the most competitive and successful electricity market in the United States, if not the world. If we let it work, the world-class Texas electricity market will power Texas’ future.”
You know, if I were looking to save money, eliminating the state’s open meeting law is about the last thing I would cut. California at every level government needs more transparency, not less. (That probably true for the other 56 49 states as well.)
Obama continues his efforts to harsh California’s buzz by shutting down the state’s largest marijuana dispensary.
Finally, I want to note that Dwight has created a tag to track all mentions of the No Longer Golden State on his blog, so you can read his roundups on police incompetence, municipal corruption, and bankrupt locales such as Vernon, Bell, San Bernardino, Cudahy, Maywood, and Zalgo.
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Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, Crime, Economics, fraud, Texas, unions, War on Drugs, waste, Welfare State
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Monday, June 4th, 2012
Sometimes you know there’s a big, juicy story swimming just under the threshold of public consciousness, but don’t have the tools, sources or knowledge to bring it to the surface. Such is the case with the FBI’s ongoing investigation of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, a powerful, long-serving fixture in the Dallas black political power structure. Right now the story involves current Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and money that may have improperly made it’s way from Rawlings’ campaign chest to Price’s pocket via political consultant Kathy Nealy. The FBI raided Price’s office last year.
The lefty Dallas Observer is more blunt in what the FBI is alleging: “The affidavit claims a pay-for-play scheme existed in which businesses would pay handsome consulting fees to Nealy’s company at about the time they were seeking to win a contract with Dallas County. A portion of that money would be funneled to Price, who would steer the favored contractor through the Commissioner’s Court.”
Not living in Dallas, the first time I ran across John Wiley Price’s name was in connection to the previous mayor of Dallas, then-aspiring Senate candidate Tom Leppert. Leppert and Price seem to have cooperated in killing Richard Allen’s Inland Port project, Leppert allegedly because it competed with a similar project by backer Ross Perot, Price allegedly because Allen wouldn’t pay Price and his cronies $1 million in shakedown money. I should hasten to add that Price, who has been a fixture on the Dallas political scene long before Leppert even moved there, is to the best of my knowledge not one of Leppert’s cronies, or even particularly close to him. However, Willis Johnson, who was allegedly part of the shakedown effort, is one of Leppert’s cronies, and was (along with the late Lynn Flint Shaw) one of Leppert’s conduits into the Dallas black community.
Price has an, ahem, interesting history. He was arrested for felony assault charges, of which he was acquitted just after the Rodney King riots. And his protege Aaron McCarthy is a member of the New Black Panther Party.
But if Price committed the crimes alleged in the FBI affidavit, the question is: How deep does the corruption go? How many other Dallas political players were paying off Price, and in exchange for what? Price has been in office a long, long time. It’s quite possible he has enough skeletons in his closet to make it an ossuary.
I don’t have the answers, and I don’t even have the knowledge or connections to properly dig for those answers. But I suspect we’re going to find out in the near future anyway…
Tags:Crime, Dallas, Democrats, FBI, John Wiley Price, Lynn Flint Shaw, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert, Willis Johnson
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Texas, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2012
How about a nice slice of EuroDoom to ease you into the weekend?
With all the post-primary news, the European Debt Crises news has been chugging along for a while now. let’s look at some, shall we?
Heh. “The Euro cannot be destroyed by any craft that we here possess. It was made in the fires of Frankfurt. Only there can it be unmade. It must be taken deep into the heart of the European Central Bank, and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came!”
If the Leftists win the next round of voting in Greece, they promise to cancel the EU-sponsored bail-out and re-nationalize banks and companies. Way to calm the markets, dude! Not to mention reenacting Clevon Little’s famous scene from Blazing Saddles. “Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn from no other.”
“It is no longer a question of if, but how, Greece will leave the euro.”
The money flight from Greek banks continues.
And there’s this: “I can see only one mechanism that could force a collapse of the eurozone: a generalised bank run in several countries.”
In the showdown between Greece and the IMF, both sides deserve to lose.
NEIN! “Almost 80% of Germans reject eurobonds and 60% are against Greece remaining in the euro.”
Germany and Greece play chicken over the euro. That’s like a Mercedes playing chicken with a [ERROR: NO GREEK AUTOMAKER FOUND. ANALOGY ABORTED.]
Ireland votes yes on the Fiscal treaty, and then turns around with an implied “Now fork it over, Otto.”
Why Germany is great and Spain is totally screwed.
It’s a winner-take-all world. Countries that do well have to do a few things extremely well. Germany makes the world’s best machine tools, some of the best heavy engineering equipment, not to mention autos. German manufacturing dominates innumerable key niches. The Spanish don’t do anything well. They haven’t done anything well since the Spanish Empire outsourced its manufacturing to Flanders in the 16th century.
And Spain is really screwed.
Which is why the Germans seem inclined to let them have more rope.
Though at least one source says reports of Spanish bank runs are exaggerated.
But even Germans are getting nervous. Also this:
As a journalist told me yesterday, he worries whether the money in his pocket will be worth anything a year from now. Others worry about Germany’s increasingly negative image among recession-hit southern and eastern Europeans. Americans will understand this feeling well: you pay and pay to help others, only to have them turn on you in hatred and wrath, accusing you of horrible hidden motives and denouncing your selfishness.
Eurobills instead of Eurobonds?
Tags:Euro, Europe, European Debt Crisis, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 24th, 2012
Are the Greeks already printing Drachmas? So says a completely unverified tweet from a random Twitter user. Really, what better source could you possibly ask for?
The Internet is alive with buzz on Greece exiting the Euro (see #grexit for a sip from the firehose). Sadly, there seems to be no buzz at all on reigning in the cradle-to-grave European welfare state that caused the crises in the first place.
More Grext/European debt crises news:
The Fraud of Austerity.
The European debt crises as the world’s longest root canal with the world’s dullest dental drill.
How lovely: diseases unknown to Europe are making a comeback thanks to the Greek government’s colossal mismanagement.
Problem: Greece’s government will seize their citizens’ Euros to forcibly convert them into Drachmas. Solution: Withdraw your cash in Euros. Problem: Burgler’s have figured this out too.
Spain’s Prime Minster: Screw the long term Euro plans, I need the European Central Bank’s sweet low rates right now.
Maybe because his government just pumped €9 billion into failing banks.
Who’s most exposed to the grexit? Italian and Spanish insurers.
There’s no conflict between real austerity and pro-growth polices. Too bad no one in Europe is willing to try them.
Wait, The Guardian actually printed an editorial by John Bolton? (“And the moon became as blood…”) It’s a good one, too:
“Growth” to social democrats means growth in government’s size and reach, not growth in the real economy. This approach directly contributed to our current predicament; and more of the same will only exacerbate it.
Tags:Euro, Europe, European Central Bank, European Debt Crisis, Greece, grexit, Italy, John Bolton, Spain, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Foreign Policy, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »