Wednesday 3 November 2010

US Mid terms, some observations




Still trying to get my head around the near revolution going on south of the border, but it looks like a caning for the Incumbent from the electorate at Congressional level. The Republicans have taken the Senate, and what looks like a slim majority in the Governor's Mansions.

No doubt the minions of the various spinmeisters will be out in force, trying to put their stamp on the results. Lamestream media pundits will be out trying to tell everyone what to think; i.e. that this is either Racist, or in some other way challenges the supremacy of their God.

The Tea Partiers have, no matter what claims to the contrary, had significant impact on these elections, and from their beginnings back in 2007, have come a very long way in a very short time. In spite of considerable lamestream propaganda, one might be forgiven for adding. In some ways the clumsy assaults on their credibility have had limited effectiveness, in others totally counter productive. Because one neither needs to be a towering intellect to see where the blinkered ego's who think the world owes them their living have tried to take the USA, nor an Economic mastermind to see the damage done. Yet this is where the self-declared towering intellects have brought the West.

To recap; the current crisis has it's roots in Carter's Community Reinvestment act, extended under Clinton, and when the Banks sold on the ever expanding poor risks, it only took a modest downturn to create the current situation. The current Democrat led administration has done what the previous Republican one did, which was throw money at the problem because they were prevented from staunching the flow by a congress hooked on buying votes. The fallout is as we see. The bailouts essentially failed, with the irony that the Chinese, once cold war enemies opposed to capitalism, now virtually own America.

The road back to US prosperity will be a long hard one, and the only way Government can stimulate a 'recovery' is to do some infrastructure projects on the scale of the Interstate highways or Hoover Dam to provide some sort of demand. Failing that, get the hell out of the way and cut taxes and regulation to the point where the middle income bracket can afford to spend on consumer goods, and give tax breaks to small and medium sized companies willing to invest. It's what I'd recommend. Not that anyone is going to ask of course.

Up here in the not quite frozen north, the Provincial Premier sent cheques for CAD$154.00 to young people, funded from the highly unpopular HST. Considering it probably took something like double that to actually collect the tax, possibly more, the extra money gained for the exchequer might as well have stayed in people's pockets. As is well established; government is an horrendously inefficient means of transferring money around.

Hi-ho. Better log off and go and do some work. TTFN.

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