Summer Reading

[Slimprofits]

Re: Summer Reading

See also the Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets:

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php

CQ Moneyline:

http://moneyline.cq.com/pml/home.do

Political Finance and Public Ethics (global site):

http://www.moneyandpolitics.net/news/news.php

[EJ]

Re: Summer Reading

Note to Rex Tillerson: No wonder Congress likes to regularly beat on you, O'Reilly, Mulva and the others. Wake up!

I spoke to this point at my keynote speech in front of mining industry execs in Las Vegas in 2007. I told them that if they want the price of their products to rise, they need to spend more time lobbying Congress for the kind of government subsidies the real estate industry gets that inflates housing prices. Readers have heard me make this point before. I asked them what they thought might happen to the price of, say, gold if a GSE was created called Goldie Mae that backed loans taken out by investors to buy gold, and if the interest on the loan could be deducted from income every year, and gold were re-classified as a financial asset versus a "collectible." I'd estimate the price might go up 100% virtually overnight. So get cracking, boys!

Of course they looked at me like I had two heads. First of all, everyone who owns a house benefits from government subsidies of housing. There is a high level of complicity. No one even wants to think of it that way, even libertarian minded mining company execs, not a socialist among them. That leads to the second reason why I got the groans from the audience: seeking out government subsidies would be wrong, counter to the small government principles adhered to by the leaders in the industry. Most of their lobbying efforts are spent on trying to get government out of their industry, not into it, especially environmental regulators, and that goes double for oil E&P.

[kartius919]

Re: Summer Reading

It may be nice to see where the money goes, but you also need to know what the money is pushing for. The Israel lobby + defense + oil are all in bed together pushing the war agenda. They are the single largest threat to the nation and are damn more powerful than the FIRE lobby. Look at every defense bill and they are ALWAYS passed with no questions asked. They also tack on exhorbant pork because everyone knows they will be passed without a peep. Republicans, democrats, you name can't get enough of this shit. Even more so than the finance industry, yet over and over again it gets overlooked. If we talk about shear waste and destruction of capital, then we need look no further. At least houses gave us shitty homes. A bomb gives us nothing. Blowing up a stupid village gives us nothing. Yet this goes on and on and on and on. I know Itulip does not address the issue of global politics and the military, but it is so incestuously linked to our corrupt gov't and our economy that it is impossible to keep them separate. Vietnam war, Korean war, gulf wars. War and the shitload of useless buearacracies such as CIA, FBI, etc. are the single biggest cause of inflation and gov't debt. Why can't we wrap our minds around this absurdity. These rankings are useless if it can't see the forest for the trees.

[rabot10]

Re: Summer Reading

I spoke to this point at my keynote speech in front of mining industry execs in Las Vegas in 2007. I told them that if they want the price of their products to rise, they need to spend more time lobbying Congress for the kind of government subsidies the real estate industry gets that inflates housing prices. Readers have heard me make this point before. I asked them what they thought might happen to the price of, say, gold if a GSE was created called Goldie Mae that backed loans taken out by investors to buy gold, and if the interest on the loan could be deducted from income every year, and gold were re-classified as a financial asset versus a "collectible." I'd estimate the price might go up 100% virtually overnight. So get cracking, boys!

Of course they looked at me like I had two heads. First of all, everyone who owns a house benefits from government subsidies of housing. There is a high level of complicity. No one even wants to think of it that way, even libertarian minded mining company execs, not a socialist among them. That leads to the second reason why I got the groans from the audience: seeking out government subsidies would be wrong, counter to the small government principles adhered to by the leaders in the industry. Most of their lobbying efforts are spent on trying to get government out of their industry, not into it, especially environmental regulators, and that goes double for oil E&P.

I love this shit - lets get it on I'm ready lol

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Summer Reading

Outstanding stuff!

Thanks for sharing folks!

[GRG55]

Re: Summer Reading

I'm afraid that would not be the end of the story.

Try this story as surely only more example of the ubiquitous bullshit in DC.

WASHINGTON -- A controversial House proposal to double a Pentagon request to buy executive jets for use by government officials died in chorus of opposition that started with the press, spread to the public and ultimately included President Barack Obama.

The episode, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, offers some insight into the way members of Congress use the budget process to get things they want -- usually in the absence of public uproar.

The Air Force had first proposed replacing of its aging fleet of passenger jets, which are used to ferry government officials and members of Congress around the globe.
Associated Press Rep. John Murtha made no attempt to hide the funding for the planes.



The Air Force has roughly two dozen of the planes based at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. Their original request was for $220 million to purchase four planes: one new Gulfstream V and three larger military versions of Boeing Co.'s 737.

The request was buried as a relatively small line item in a nearly $640 billion funding request for the Department of Defense for the coming fiscal year.

But as the Journal reported last week, the House more than doubled the request to $550 million for a total of eight new passenger planes for use by government VIPs.

The origins of the big order stretch back to early April. Lawmakers from Georgia asked Congress to increase the number of passenger jets to include an additional Gulfstream plane. Their reasoning: The Gulfstream V has "transcontinental range, exceptional performance capabilities" and would best support the Air Force, said Democratic Rep. John Barrow, in a statement requesting the extra funds.

The Gulfstream planes also are built in Mr. Barrow's district at a Savannah, Ga., plant that employs about 5,000 people.

Georgia Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop posted a similar statement on his Web site, to satisfy a new House rule governing disclosure of earmarks.

Continued at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1250...googlenews_wsj

I thought teleconferencing was a time, energy, and money savings technological advance, must not be so.

Having wiped out the domestic business jet manufacturers, after making a public example of Detroit's auto executives, Congress has once again discovered the law of unintended consequences.

"Hey, y'all can fire Rick Waggoner's azz, but that surely was a nice airplane he had. Maybe we should get one 'o those for us'n?"

[My former chairman, who owns a G550, was at the Gulfstream Savannah plant last January. Told me in a telecon at the time that the Gulfstream executives single biggest concern was that Congress would pass into law a restriction on ownership of business jets by firms receiving financial aid from the US Government. Can you imagine the French doing something as stupid as this to Dassault?].