Link the Dollar's Value to this College Class List

In Garage Logic, a popular radio show here in the Twin Cities, the host Joe Soucheray likes to link things to one another. It is a sociological version of "for every force there is an equal and opposite force." Therefore one thing will inevitably affect the other.

However, in economics, just like a car engine starting, there are many different individual actions and movements of car parts that occur between turning the key on and the engine actually igniting. So to the layperson, they may not understand why increasing property taxes may turn Minneapolis into a cold Detroit because they don't understand how higher property taxes, lower property values, lower profits and drive capital and labor away.

So I shall test all you junior, deputy and aspiring economics. Link this:



to the value of the dollar.

Many thanks to Elizabeth for the link!

GDP Growth vs. Government Spending

GDP growth is chaotic.



Therefore to see if there's any kind of trend you need to average it out over longer periods of time. I did this on a 10 and 20 year trailing average, where I simply took the past 10 and 20 years worth of economic growth and averaged it out into a "rolling average."


I like to call this figure, especially the 20 year rolling average RGDP growth, "Generational RGDP Growth" because the 20 years spans a generation, economic booms and busts included, and shows their overall economic productive capacity over those years.

Now what I'm going to do is very simple, because that's what economics is. It's very simple (plus i don't want to confuse any leftists and socialists).

I took Generational RGDP growth and compared it to government spending (state and federal) as a percent of GDP. And wonders upon wonder, guess what? The relationship is inverted.



What this means is that as government spending has gone up, economic growth has gone down.

This simple chart has many economic ramifications, most of my readers already intuitively understand. But, for those of you who vote for your presidents based on their pecs, let me spell it out for you.

1. This is why the stimulus and by large Keynesian economics won't work. Understand the government DOES NOT PRODUCE ANYTHING. It does NOT PRODUCE WEALTH. It doesn't make X-Boxes. It doesn't make food. It merely TRANSFERS WEALTH FROM ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE TO ANOTHER. Now there are some genuine services that the government provides that helps society and does show up on GDP. BUT STIMULUS MONEY TO ART INSTITUTES, ACADEMIA AND WHATEVER OTHER FLOWERS AND PUPPIES POPPYCOCK HAVE YOU DOES NOT PRODUCE ANYTHING. The reason why is that even if an Obama-fanatic sculptor produces a worthless and sinfully ugly government piece of art for the local building, the money used to pay him came from somebody else, ergo a net production increase of ZERO.

2. The government is less efficient than the private sector.

Do you want growth?

Do you want jobs?

Do you want food on the table?

Then you better let the people have the majority of the money and not put it into the government. History has shown you this via this chart. Your eyes are not deceiving you. Look at the chart again. And no, I'm not Michael Mann or Phil Jones. The data has not been tainted and comes directly from the FRED Database at the St. Louis Fed. You can recreate this very same chart on your own, whereas I cannot recreate the hockey stick chart, so if you believe in global warming, you better damn well believe this chart.

3. No, majoring in sociology or planning on becoming a government worker will not help this situation.

See, I know what a lot of you are thinking. "I want to help people because it sounds like an easier job than engineering...errr....I mean, because I am noble and moral. Ergo I will go and work for the government as a social worker, a professor or run for public office."

The problem is none of these jobs PRODUCE ANYTHING THE POPULATION NEEDS NOR REALLY WANTS. And as a higher and higher percentage of the population goes and majors in worthless subjects in the hopes of a cushy job that doesn't produce anything, but merely transfers wealth, you can expect GDP to drop further.

4. If growth keeps dropping, then where precisely are you people going to come up with the money to pay for...

social security
medicare
nationalized health care
the Obama-corps
the stimulus
education
government financed day care

not to mention the extra money we'll need to pay back the national debt?

You see, the governments combined (state, local and federal) already spend about 45% of GDP, leaving only 55% left to be taxed (difference in revenue vs. spending duly noted), how much more do you think the economy will take before people just stop working altogether?

Is everybody supposed to work in government?

Who, might I ask, is going to produce the I-Pod you want?

Who, might I ask, is going to produce the Wii you want?

Who, might I ask, is going to produce the computer networking system so you can e-mail your friends, let alone put the food on your table?

Or are we supposed to be like the Pelosi's, the Bush's and the Gore's. Generation after generation of losers who never worked a real job in the private sector?

Of course, I know all of my regular readers understand this. My regular readers get this simple logic. Not to mention before they form opinions, they get the facts first. Not form opinions and then find facts.

But good lord, to the 60% of the population who voted for Obama, when does reality sink in? What does it take to get you people to grow the hell up, drop it with your naive, college-age thinking and idealism, and intellectually and honestly admit you have no FREAKING clue how the real world and economy works. LET ALONE take the time to study the federal effing budget and do some simple mathematical calculations much like you would your own personal finances to see if any of this socialism BS is even affordable, let alone feasible. Let alone (and this group really confuses me) for those of you with children, start to stop and really think about what you're doing to your childrens' financial future? When do you wake up?

Alas, what can I do aside from make a record of it here on this blog so that a thousand years from now historians will look back and say, "Wow, look how insane the population was. There was this one guy over here that saw it coming, but the rest of them were all doped up on REality TV, Obama's pecks, bread and circuses, they couldn't even understand how everybody working as a social worker and nobody farming the fields would result in a collapse of society!"

I'll be long dead by that time, and I'm supremely confident I'll be proven right, but in the meantime, good lord, why would anybody invest in America?

Barbara Boxer

I got another name for her.

And it's one syllable.

Congratulations, feminism, you have won.

The Christmas Present Game

The irony is that though I loathe children and find them more or less the root of most problems that plague society today, I do actually remember being one and come to bat for them more often than not. For while I think they may bring in communicable diseases from day care to the home, and while I think they cost roughly $500,000 to bring up, and while I think too many children too early in life is the primary cause of poverty, they are human beings. And not just human beings, but INNOCENT human beings that are all too often the victim of parents who forgot what it was like to be a child.

Ergo, a lesson in the “Christmas Present Game.”

Since the beginning of time, it has been a tradition where the children and parents battle it out over the determining of “what am I going to get for Christmas.” The parents, on the side of patience and discipline would say, “No, you must wait till Christmas,” while the children just being plain children would take whatever means was necessary to find out what they got for Christmas BEFORE the 25^th (unless of course you were one of those cheating Catholic types that open their gifts on the 24^th) This entailed a whole host of tactics including simple things such as shaking and studying the box, to sly, coy interrogative tactics used to coax valuable clues unconsciously from the parent opposition, to night-time clandestine operations with a Swiss Army knife to surgically cut key pieces of tape and grab a peek of what lay underneath the wrapping paper, only to reseal the presents with identical lengths of tape to cover one’s tracks (none of which I ever engaged in).

This time-honored battle has been a cornerstone of parent-child relationships and should be a much-looked-forward to event during the month of December.

However, as peers in my generation start breeding, I am sad to hear what some of them are doing. And that is

DENYING THEIR CHILDREN THEIR GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO FIND OUT WHAT THEY GOT FOR CHRISTMAS BEFORE THE 25TH!

They actually refuse to let their children try to guess what they got for Christmas!

How do their cold, callous, oppressor parents do this?

By threatening their children that if they catch them trying to sneak a peak of their Christmas gifts then they will TAKE THE GIFTS BACK TO THE STORE!

I had thought we defeated nazi Germany, but obviously there are still some ideological remnants left.

Now what is really going on here is half-hearted parenting. Parents who are either too lazy or just plain don’t have enough of the Christmas spirit to realize just how important the Christmas Present Game is.

First you must realize that half the fun of gifts is the receiver not just trying to guess what they are, but the giver doing all in their power to confuse and throw off the receiver. My mom inevitably had to resort to the dirty underhanded tactic of wrapping my gifts in multiple boxes with styrafoam and papers. This game, the constant battle between the parent and the child, the child scheming and crafting ways to identify his gifts, the parent always keeping a watchful eye over their shoulder is what makes the Christmas gifts all that more exciting. And for you just to not participate in it is throwing all this fun away.

Second, come on, don’t be a sore loser. If you’re so bad at hiding gifts, lying about the gifts, or crafting a propaganda campaign to mislead your 4 year old into what he got for Christmas, then you just have to up your game. I know it’s embarrassing that a little toddler has outdone you, but that doesn’t give you the right to end the game. You must be a gracious loser and look forward to next year’s battle.

Third, if you’re too damn lazy to play the game, well then shoot, why did you have kids then in the first place? Why don’t you just store the gifts offsite and then truck them in Christmas Day? Heck, why even do that, just get the little varmints gift cards then. Better yet, become one of those people that makes a donation to a charity in their honor. Or even better still, just cut them a check the day of. That takes the least effort. Of course if you fall into this category you no doubt buy your children sweaters for Christmas instead of toys which is a violation of the game. Regardless, if you can’t play the game, then don’t even rile them up in the first place with presents.

The larger point is that if you have children and you are going to put gifts in plain site, then there IS going to be a battle regardless. Kids are kids and they will be curious and the Christmas Present Game is on. And you have a choice. You can either have fun and play this game, counter-scheming their schemes. Wrapping fake gifts and hiding the real ones. Or going so far as to tie off the gifts with a perimeter of fishing wire tied to a bell (it has been done). OR you can be a party pooper and never play the game in the first place and tell them if they find out what they got for Christmas BEFORE the 25^th then you take the gifts back home.

Which one has more Christmas cheer?

My Thanks to the Democrats

This should help all my short positions against the dollar.

Thank you very much for your destruction of the dollar.

Though, I wistfully acknowledge that it really isn't the other currencies going up in value as much as it is the dollar just tanking. Ergo, no real gains.

Minneapolis Fires Cops/Denies Recruits

Minneapolis is laying off some cops and denying new recruits positions.

But hey, at least we have "walk ambassadors."

And don't forget those $50,000 drinking fountains!

Now let's do the math. 10 $50,000 drinking fountains is $500,000.

Would Minneapolis been able to keep those 7 officers on the payroll with $500,000?

Liberals? Leftists? Repsonse please? Rationale? Explanation?

The British Have Better Teeth Than Americans

I was shocked myself.

Capital Flight

Today's term, boys and girls, is called "Capital Flight."

What is so hard for leftists to understand this concept?

Recession Medicine - Humphrey Hop

Actually reminds me of all my male friends when our female friends cook for us.

"Science"

ht

Naughty or Nice

Correct.

Costs of Global Warming

Heh, if only it were only going to cost 1% of GDP.


Though, permit me a cynical question or two;

1. What percentage of the Americans that were asked this even know what GDP stands for? and
2. What percentage of them even know what percent of GDP is left after government taxes?

Boy, Russia with a flat tax and what are presumably sane people is starting to look more and more attractive every day.

Ahhhh...Canada Kate

It's a scam people!

Please Stop It with the "Think of the Children" Nonsense

I do try to listen to the other side and the reason is to maintain some level of intellectual honesty. I listen to Air American every once in a while out of the fear that I may have missed something and that I might be wrong, only to find out in about 2 minutes that no, people really are that ignorant and, no, I wasn't wrong, and yes, I am infinitely and more reliably informed than my leftist counterparts.

However, what I cannot abide is when people who believe in global warming use the "Won't somebody PUH-leeeeeeze think of the chilllllldren!?" schtick. That our future generations will be swimming in a Water World and dying of future global-warming induced diseases. That our "children" will suffer due to our greed and inability to deal with global warming today.

The reason I cannot abide this, is these are the same people who voted to do something much worse and MUCH more real;

Indebt their children and grandchildren to the tune of 300% GDP when you include household and government debt.

Man-caused global warming, for whatever side you're on, is at MINIMUM not an established fact. And in light of the e-mails showing the fraudsters hidding data and manipulating data, at MINIMUM we should launch investigations that determine precisely what is happening in the scientific community and the climate BEFORE we go ahead and implement law or taxation based on the assumption man made global warming is real.

However, there is no debate that we've just enslaved our children to the tune of another $10 trillion (depending on whose estimates you want to use). That's not a theory, that's a fact. But the intellectual dishonesty or perhaps, just the complete inability of these people to link or see their hypocrisy makes my stomach churn.

You're so worried about your children and grandchildren?

Fine, how about you start rallying against the much more real and guaranteed threat of economic collapse instead of a theory that the globe is warming based on human activities? How about you voluntarily vote to increase the retirement age to 80 to shore up social security and medicare. How about you make it a constitutional amendment to have a balanced budget except for times of war?

Stewards of the environment???

My sweet, little perfectly sculpted Irish ass that you can bounce frozen peas off of with a pinging noise.

How about being stewards of the economy?

But then again, I know, I know. You all know me to be even more cynical than that. That I can't really believe that people are that dumb.

Sadly my honest opinion or actually fear is that these people care more about ideology than their own children. The "children" are just a chess piece to advance and implement an ideology. I seriously wonder whether parents who advocate cap and trade, but have no problems indebting the country to the tune of $10 trillion even care what happens to their children after they're dead.

Because Oil and Gas Aren't "Real Jobs"

There is the jobs summit. A bunch of spoiled brat elitists who never worked a real job in their lives, nor ever created a job in their lives are somehow going to create jobs (cripes, they couldn't even keep unemployment down with $1.4 trillion in deficit spending).

No doubt the jobs summit will fail because I doubt;

1. They're going to lower corporate taxes



2. The jobs they want to create must adhere to their socialist, leftist ideology, which by it's nature prevents jobs from being created. The jobs come SECOND to their politics.

And if you think their ideology doesn't supercede Americans' desire to have jobs, think again.

Penn State

I love this;

Penn State, an academic institution, which by default makes it part of the world of the left, will investigate Michael Mann.

It's like saying Himmler will investigate allegations of wrong doing by Hitler.

Holiday Spending

I shorted the US dollar against an unnamed currency before Thanksgiving because my economic spidey senses started tingling, saying that "Black Friday" sales were going to be disappointing. I then saw this chart over at my ex-flame's place;

The title was "Happier Spenders" claiming online sales have gone up, suggesting this is somehow good news.

But now you see why The Economist is my ex-flame. The chart does not show that. Matter of fact, all it shows to me is that there is a natural progression to people buying more stuff online and that little blip in 2009 over 2008 is not a sign of happiness or recovery.

Methinks me shorting of the US will prove wise.

Recession Medicine - Senioriter

Bugs Bunny - The Rabbit Of Seville @ Yahoo! Video

I Spy With My Little Eye

The family is facing foreclosure.

Do you spy what I spy as to why they're hanging dry?

The World Owes James Delingpole a Living

James Delingpole has been at the forefront of exposing the global climate scam for what it is and is doing the job of what the MSM should have been doing for the past 20 years.

At his website he has all the articles and information about "Climatgate" you need and if you really want to make a difference and convince the brainwashed zealots of the western world that this is indeed a scam and they better get their heads out of their asses, his web site is indispensible. Liberals and leftists may not agree now, but when their children grow up not having to fork over 10% of their income while suffering a house "warmed" to 40 degrees due to government mandated temperature control, they will inevitably, though reluctantly, thank him.

Of course, Downfall parodies always are fun to send to leftists, but regardless the entire blogosphere owes a hat tip to James.