Daily Archives: 4 December 2012

As we approach financial Armageddon, economic ignorance dominates the press

open quoteThat’s how things often work in America. Half-a-century of tax cuts focused on the wealthiest Americans leave us with third-rate public services, leading the wealthy to develop inefficient private workarounds. close quote (Read more)

The latest propaganda meme seems to revolve around the 90% top income tax bracket of the 1950’s (which nobody paid b/c there were so many loop holes). Regardless, the true measure of how much money the gov’t is stealing is not taxes, but spending. What they don’t steal immediately, they’ll take from your children through debt, or stealthily through inflation.

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open quoteSTUDY: Every $1 Of Infrastructure Spending Boosts The Economy By $2

Read more: www.businessinsider.com/infrastructure-economic-multiplier-2012-11#ixzz2DqgS19ci
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I say we spend a HUNDRED THOUSAND BAZILLION dollars on infrastructure! That way, we’ll make TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND BAZILLION dollars!

U.S. to spend up to $100 million in order to build the Israelis an Air Force complex near Tel Aviv

open quoteThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is receiving bids to build a five-story complex for the Israeli Air Force, or IAF, near Tel Aviv.

The facility, mysteriously dubbed “site 911,” will be built under the auspices of the Foreign Military Sales program and is expected to cost the U.S. between $25 million and $100 million, according to a solicitation for bids posted on a U.S. government website.

. . . .

The architectural plans, drawn up by prominent Israeli firm Ada Karmi-Melamede Architects, pays close attention to the aesthetics of the design as well as the functional parameters outlined in the solicitation. For example, three picnic tables are planned for the exterior.close quote (Read more)

“Raisin” Hell at the Supreme Court

open quoteTis the season to give thanks. And for the last 80 years, the federal government has required raisin producers to “give thanks” for the privilege of selling their raisins nationally by requiring them to fork over up to half of their raisins – for free. A lawsuit raising a constitutional challenge to the program has now made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is Horne v. Department of Agriculture.

The program, operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has a rather Orwellian-sounding name – the “Raisin Marketing Order.” In a nutshell, under this program, every year, as a condition for “letting” farmers sell their raisin crops in interstate commerce, the federal government has taken up to 47% of the farmers’ raisins – often for no payment at all, or below the cost of producing the raisins. The program has its origins in Great Depression efforts to fix the prices of agricultural crops.close quote (Read more)