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January 6th, 2012 · Posted by Lion King · Economy, Humor, Politics
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Real Reasons for Economic Depression
September 8th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Culture, Economy
A new report from Derek Thompson of The Atlantic.
“Before the Great Recession, there was a greater recession for the American worker. And it’s been much worse than most of us thought.
Here’s what we thought we knew. In the last three decades, gross domestic product doubled but the typical worker’s real wages barely increased. For those with only a high school degree, salaries fell slightly. Some economists called this period of lazy wage growth the “Great Stagnation.”
It turns out that “stagnation” was too optimistic.
In fact, real wages for middle class men have declined by 28 percent since 1969, according to a report from the Hamilton Project. For men without a high school degree, they’ve fallen by a whopping 66 percent. “Stagnation is too weak a word,” said Michael Greenstone, author of the report. “This is decline.”
Economists got it wrong, Greenstone said, because they compared wages among all working men rather than among all “working-age” men. That distinction is key, because fewer and fewer working-age men are actually working. Since 2009, one in five has been idle. When you factor in millions of men without weekly salaries, male wages sink to their lowest level since the 1950s.
“This decline in the earnings opportunities for men has had profound influences on American society,” Greenstone said. “It upends families. It increases our demands from government, even as it increases our aversion to taxes and our distrust of government. It shakes the very core of the American Dream.”
This finding has deep implications. It means that wages have been falling since before the credit crisis, the housing bubble, the Bush tax cuts, the Clinton boom, the wave of deregulation, the Reagan recovery, and the Nixon years. Something older and bigger than all of these things is at work. Before the Great Recession, there was a greater recession for the American worker. And its origin might surprise you. [Read more →]
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Transparent Fish – Lepthocephalus
August 7th, 2011 · Posted by Kelapiso Tenzamisheka · Travel
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Obama’s Agenda: Overwhelm The System
August 6th, 2011 · Posted by Kelapiso Tenzamisheka · Economy, Politics
By Wayne Allyn Root 
“Rahm Emanuel cynically said, “You never want a crisis to go to waste.” It is now becoming clear that the crisis he was referring to is Barack Obama’s presidency.
Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos — thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.Â
Barack Obama is my college classmate (Columbia University, class of ’83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University. They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they’re alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival … and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
– Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn’t care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?
– Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama’s biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama “spread the wealth around.” [Read more →]
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Is The New GM Same As The Old GM?
August 3rd, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Culture, Economy, Politics
By Marc Modica:
“Sales of the much-hyped Chevy Volt fell to new lows as did GM share price as July auto sales figures came in. Only 125 Volts were sold during the month of July. Recent reports attributed the slump to supply constraints as GM spokeswoman, Michelle Bunker, was quoted as saying that the Volt was “virtually sold out” and only a “few” were available nationwide. I have confirmed that this statement is not entirely truthful and have gotten clarification from GM through Director of Communications, Greg Martin.
A search of cars.com site showed nearly 500 Chevy Volts listed for sale. I had originally assumed that GM dealers were advertising vehicles that were not actually available for sale, since GM has stated that there were only a “few” Volts available. I decided to call a few dealers within 75 miles of my location to determine what the true situation was. I stopped my research after finding that five of the first six dealers I called had Volts in inventory available for immediate sale. Two of the five dealers even had two each in stock. I can now safely assume that GM is, once again, not being entirely honest with its facts. The demand for the Chevy Volt is not as strong as GM would have us believe.
Martin confirmed that there are Volts available at dealerships. According to Martin, there are 116 new Chevy Volts available for sale to the public at dealerships, plus demo units that can be sold. 
While I was discussing the situation, I also questioned recent comments from GM CEO, Dan Akerson, who stated on a CNN interview that GM had 35 to 40 billion dollars of cash on its balance sheets. The latest SEC reports listed current cash and cash equivalents at about 20 billion. Martin suggested waiting until Thursday’s GM quarterly earnings report to see what the number looks like. I find it hard to believe that 15 to 20 billion dollars has materialized since the last earnings report. It is more likely that Mr. Akerson is either being dishonest regarding the true figure or totally uninformed about the financials of the company he manages. Judging from GM’s modus operandi, I would guess that he is not being totally truthful.
Another question that arises is why the media is so gullible when it comes to reporting statements made by GM. The Chevy Volt comments are very easy to verify. It was not hard to get to the truth about the number of Volts available, why does the media spread the unfounded hype for the Chevy Volt? Why would the comment by GM on balance sheet cash go unchecked?
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iPhone 5 Features – Amazing
July 29th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Economy, Humor
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Photos of the new highspeed train from Shanghai to Beijing are coming in.
July 21st, 2011 · Posted by Kelapiso Tenzamisheka · Culture, Economy, Travel
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Kelapiso Tenzamisheka – Guest Author
July 21st, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Politics
From time to time, I’ll have posts from Kelapiso Tenzamisheka – Guest Author
He’s an old friend of mine, but a very knowledgeable and thoughtful writer. we don’t always agree on things, but he is always intriguing and entertaining.
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Laura Ingraham’s New Book – Cutural Eye-Cons
July 15th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Culture, Humor, Travel
Laura Ingraham’s new book is out – “Off Thee I Zing”. And it looks to be a great read. I’m sure every generation has gone through a cultural change, but Laura manages to capture the shocking yet hilarious aspects of our new cultural landscape. From a book review by NBC Today’s Book, Here are a few excerpts:
“If you want to see evidence of America’s cratering culture, just stop by your local shopping mall.
I had never experienced vertigo before. But as I was riding down an escalator last September at a Northern Virginia shopping mall, I became so dizzy I almost careened over the railing. It had been a while since I had braved the mall scene alone. Rushing toward me were some of the most horrifying, unsettling images I had seen since Rosie O’Donnell posted her 9/11 video blog. Below me, on the left, was a group of six young girls wearing jeans so tight, Jacques Cousteau could have worn them on his last undersea expedition. And if he were alive today, he’d be shocked to know that humpback whales can not only survive on land, but text, snap gum, and suck down thirty-two-ounce milk shakes masquerading as coffee drinks. Then to my right, two adolescents were leaning up against a store window, shaking back their floppy bangs and fiddling with the waistbands of their jeans. Upon closer inspection, I saw they were pulling their pants 
down, not up, so as to showcase their pastel-colored boxer shorts. They paused briefly from their hair/underwear routine to venerate the cleavage of a model in the Victoria’s Secret window display. Whatever Vicki’s secret was, it appeared to be a secret no more.”
“‘Overwhelmed by the visuals, I fled into a nearby coffee shop. I took a seat between a senior citizen playing FarmVille on his iPad and two teens texting in trances. They didn’t even look up. Sipping my “skinny” latte, I suddenly thought, “I hate foam. I distinctly told the barista no foam.” Tossing the cup aside, I stared in disbelief at the tragic panorama on all sides. “Is this it?” I wondered. “Is this what our forefathers fought for? What my parents struggled for? Is this the American culture the Greatest Generation had in mind when they stormed the beaches at Normandy? So we could aspire to be like the Kardashians or land a role on “The Housewives of Miami”?
Our manners are shot. We dress like homeless prostitutes and derelict drug addicts. We spend countless hours social networking and end up becoming less social. Our pop culture has popped. In areas as broad as personal grooming, recreation, education, parenting, faith, and even the way we travel, the verdict is in: we have fallen faster than a discount facelift. We’re going to hell in a handbasket (and the handbasket was made in China). Even if our economic and national security challenges disappeared overnight, we’d still have to climb out of the cultural abyss into which we’ve tumbled.
Look around you. Do you even recognize what passes for American “culture” these days? If Thomas Jefferson were penning a Declaration of Independence for America today, he might write: “When in a coarse state of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bonds between themselves and the cultural blight degrading the Republic . . . they should declare the causes which impel them to separation . . .”
What follows are “the causes” that compel us to sever ties with this culture, halt its decline, and find a better way. It is a patriotic intervention. When you love something you fight for it—and I can’t bear to see America go down like this.
The first step toward recovery is admitting we have a problem. Since others are either incapable or too distracted to identify the cultural threats afflicting America, I take the patriotic duty upon myself. Herein I will point out the cell phone barkers; the four telltale signs you are in a lousy restaurant; our penchant for inane exercise fads; the worst children’s names in American history; our idiotic fixation with high-end cupcakes; each fraudulent holiday created by the card industry; and the young people who, like, speak in grunts, not full sentences.”
Should be good reading for anyone looking to get a smile and a laugh as we’ve all seen the mall scene and wondered, “what in the world?” or as my six year old boy says “Oh My.”
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Unions to Bust Taxpayers Over Next 30 Years
June 22nd, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Economy, Politics
New studies are out and the picture looks very bleak for me and my kids. Basically what it comes down to is the unions and their pension and benefit plans costing billions of dollars and bankrupting city and state governments. The bigger news is how unions thuggery is used at it’s worst.
NY Times of all the places is even reporting on this. Now that’s a surprise coming from a liberal rag like that.
Talking about the city of Costa Mesa: “The city was on the road to insolvency, he warned, because public employee unions had pressured politicians into handing over generous salaries and pensions. The police chief received $298,000 a year in total compensation, Mr. Righeimer noted. The deputy fire chief had retired with a pension of more than $182,000 a year.”
More from the article: “But now, with the expenses of past promises coming due, the cost of deferred decision-making is mounting. California alone needs to begin devoting an additional $28 billion a year to state and local public pensions to remedy an existing shortfall, according to one nonpartisan study — and nationwide, estimates of such deficits reach into the trillions over the next few decades.
“We had no idea what we were doing,” said Tony Oliveira, who as a supervisor in Kings County, in central California, voted to increase employees’ benefits, and now is on the board of the state’s enormous pension fund. “This was probably the worst public policy decision in the state’s history. But everyone kept saying there was plenty of money. And no one wants to be responsible if all the cops quit to get paid more in the next town.”
Picture looks daunting over the next 30 years. When the money runs out, then what? Salary of my children’s children will be fully used to pay for these expenses. “U.S. state and local governments will need to raise taxes by $1,398 per household every year for the next 30 years if they are to fully fund their pension systems, a study released on Wednesday said.
Here is the full study if anyone has the heart to read it. Public Unions have now become a cancer on American society. No doubt about it.
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Chinese Officials Stole Over $120 Billion
June 17th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Culture, Economy
According to an investigation by Chinese central bank, thousands of Chinese officials have stolen over $120 billion and fled oversees including USA and Canada.
I have seen many reports of Chinese buying houses in the US for cash. Also, Canada has had a surge in Chinese moving in and buying luxury houses for cash.
This reports just confirms the suspicion about the flow of easy money coming in to prop up the housing market.
“The study says the officials smuggled money into the U.S., Australia, Canada and Holland, using offshore bank accounts or investments 
such as real estate or collectibles. Officials masked the thefts as business transactions by setting up private companies to receive the money transfers, according to the report.”
As Chinese workers struggle to make a living, the government officials are living it up in luxury with billions of dollars in stolen money. Apparently the Communist government does not have such tight controls over their officials as we thought.
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Socialism Lesson – Fail
June 14th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Culture, Economy, Politics
Saw this on another forum, so I’m publishing it here. Not sure about origin so I can’t give full credit.
“Excellent Lesson In Economics
An economics professor at a University said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.”
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Foreign Aid a Waste
May 19th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Economy, Politics, Terrorism
President Obama just gave a “big” speech on Arab (Muslim) relations and how America can help. In doing so, he is promising more aid in billions of dollars to an unstable region of the world. Apparently he hasn’t learned anything from our billions of dollars in foreign aid to Pakistan. Not only is the money a big waste for America, but eventually it goes to the corrupt officials who in turn fund terrorists to continue to hold power. This has been shown to continue throughout the history.
Here is an example of where even an African wonders why Americans continue to waste money on foreign aid. This is not the only example. Take a look at Pakistan, Afghanistan, Middle East and African countries. Most of these governments are corrupt. Money does not go to help the people that actually need help. Money goes in the pockets of the corrupt officials. Yet we continue to pour money down this sink. 
And why do we continue to provide military equipment to regimes like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Most of the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia. Is this the kind of return we expect from the military aid? Pakistan was hiding Osama Bin Laden. Do we need any more proof that all this aid money is a total waste and in fact is used against us in the long run? Aid to Afghanistan has been a total waste. Corrupt government is pocketing all the money and everyone knows this.
Fifty or sixty years ago, foreign aid was looked at as a humanitarian gesture towards third world countries. However, that day has long come and gone. In this day and age, where developing countries (BRICs) have progressed so far, and Middle East is fertile ground for terrorists, all foreign aid should be cut off immediately and redirected towards deficit reductions.
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Orange County Lifeguards Making $200K
May 11th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Economy, Politics
Here is the latest news on the OC lifeguards, making a great living. Not only that, but they can retire at 50 and start collecting a huge pension for life, giving the term “lifeguard” a new meaning.
” According to a city report on lifeguard pay for the calendar year 2010, of the 14 full-time lifeguards, 13 collected more than $120,000 in total compensation; one lifeguard collected $98,160.65. More than half the lifeguards collected more than $150,000 for 2010 with the two highest-paid collecting $211,451 and $203,481 in total compensation respectively. Even excluding benefits like health care and pension, more than half the lifeguards receive a total salary, including overtime pay, exceeding $100,000. And they also receive an annual allowance of $400 for “Sun Protection.” Many work four days a week, 10 hours a day.”
Now we don’t need to wonder why our taxes need to keep going up. Taxes need to keep up with the government salaries. I may have to counsel my kids not to go into any medical or technology field. Just get a government job. You’ll be all set for life.
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Black Chamber of Commerce Blasts Obama
April 29th, 2011 · Posted by Lion King · Economy, Politics
Here is something I didn’t expect. Liberal blacks criticizing Obama. Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, hammered President Obama on his anti-business policies. In fact, he said Obama is actually hurting many blacks along with other minorities. He literally called him Marxist and destructive for America. This is any amazing turnaround for someone who voted for Obama in 2008.
In fact, he predicted that black voters will not support Obama in 2012. We shall see.
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