The White House, The Economy, and Why We Should Be Concerned

from Forbes:

I always took comfort in the idea that who’s elected president didn’t really affect our direction  much — that America was simply too sprawling, de-centralized and muscular for us to be moved very far one way or the other by the policies of a president and his administration. But I’m starting to conclude that idea was wrong, at least during a period of profound  economic restructuring like the one we’re living through right now.

To try to understand how presidents think through their economic policy and how a given administration would know if something truly extraordinary and world-changing was hitting the nation’s economy, I spoke at length with Keith Hennessey.

Hennessey served in the George W. Bush Administration as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the U.S. National Economic Council. Today, he is a Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and lectures at Stanford’s Business and Law Schools. He also is the proprietor of KeithHennessey.com, quite possibly the finest, most insightful blog on government finance there is.

For full article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/economaney/2013/05/28/why-whos-president-matters-so-much-for-our-economic-future-and-why-you-should-be-worried-about-it/?partner=yahootix

You Don’t Have a Facebook Account: Our Government thinks You’re “Suspicious”

from Forbes:

“I am writing with some words of caution. I used to say that “if
you’re not on Facebook, it’s possible you don’t actually exist.” I think
it’s time to update that, courtesy of Slashdot: Facebook
abstainers will be labeled suspicious.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-tech-abandoners-people-without-facebook-accounts-are-suspicious/

Let me be clear, from the very start, I thought the idea of Facebook was a “Very Bad Idea”, and I do not have one. Of course, I keep gettingtold that I should put this blog to a Facebook link, but I am still resisting.

The Scrubbing of the Media: The Prophecy From George Orwell’s “1984″

“As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of the Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in it’s stead. This process of continuation alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound tracks, cartoons, photographs–to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to be correct; nor was any item of news, or expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to be on record.”…George Orwell, “1984″

A CHRISTMAS TREE TAX—– Are You Kidding Me?????

from Forbes:

I like a fresh-cut tree at Christmastime. Yes, I know all the arguments against buying fresh-cut Christmas trees and we do it anyway. It happens to be one of my favorite things about the holidays and now that I live in the snowy northeast, there’s something ridiculously gratifying about heading out in mittens and hats with my kids to choose a Christmas tree. If you’ve done it before, you know the drill: finding one that’s not too tall, not too short, not too fat, not too skinny. It’s all part of the fun. (For the record, before you shoot off a nasty email, you should know that when we take our tree down in January, we cut it up and re-use the branches in the backyard which makes the birds and my garden happy – apparently 93% of all folks with live trees recycle or reuse them in a similar manner.) We’re not the only family that makes the National Lampoon-like trip to get a tree. There are approximately 25-30 million live Christmas trees sold in the U.S. each year. Of course, all of those trees generate quite a bit of revenue for retailers, growers and marketers. But it’s clearly not enough. This week, the Department of Agriculture announced a new 15-cent fee/tax on the sales of fresh-cut Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (the plan has been in the works since last year). The idea is to raise money to support a newfederal program to – wait for it – improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees. Apparently, we don’t think about Christmas trees as positively as the feds – and the lobbyists – would like for us to. So, government did what government likes to do: created a committee and raised fees/taxes to pay for it. And since we’re working on improving the image and marketing of Christmas trees (by charging more for them), we might as well define what it is. For your information, the official definition for this purpose is:

Christmas tree means any tree of the coniferous species, that is severed or cut from its roots and marketed as a Christmas tree for holiday use.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Scrooge-Comes-Early-This-Year-xfoftp-2269159842.html

Failed Climate Exchange was a “Who’s Who” of the Liberal Elitists

Click the Forbes link to read the incestuous and corrupt details.  

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2647749/posts

 

“All these chance associations show that it’s truly a small world after all–they surely shouldn’t be taken to reflect poorly upon Chicago’s clean reputation. Sadly, with such an intriguing club guest list, it had all the makings of a really swell holiday party. After arrangements were canceled for Uncle Sam to appear dressed as Santa, Sen. John Kerry has a notably long face, even for him. But alas, the merriment was not to be.”

The Coming College Education Bubble

“Numerous authors have minutely detailed the dangers to college consumers: the price tag is too high; the lending is too lax; the product is too low-quality; the socialization process is too coarsening; the parents are kept too much in the dark; the earning advantages are too aggressively touted; the alternatives are too cheap.”

For full article:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/12/16/education-college-bubble-opinions-contributors-jerry-bowyer.html?boxes=opinionschannellatest

 

WikiLeaks Already Announces Next “Dump”: A Major Bank/Financial Institution

The next Wikileaks will be about a major U.S. Bank. 

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told Forbes that early next year, a major U.S. bank will suddenly find itself turned inside out.

And now everyone’s clamoring to find out which bank will be the subject of the massive data breach.

Will it be the biggest US bank? Asked Forbes’ Andy Greenberg, who interviewed Assange.

“No comment,” said Assange.

The one clue we get is this:

“With regard to these corporate leaks, I should say: There’s an overlap between corporate and government leaks.”

Perhaps that means it’s a bailed out bank. But really, no one has a clue.

Here’s the bulk of what Assange did say:

Tens of thousands of its internal documents will be exposed on Wikileaks.org with no polite requests for executives’ response or other forewarnings.

The data dump will lay bare the finance firm’s secrets on the Web for every customer, every competitor, every regulator to examine and pass judgment on.

Early next year, the Wikileaks document, which Assange compares to containing the damning e-mails that poured out of the Enron trial, will hit. 

Obviously this is huge news. We’ll have to wait for more information.

Click here to read the full interview in Forbes >
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-next-wikileaks-will-be-about-a-major-bank-2010-11#ixzz16jDM4fpL