Working for the Greater Share

type="html" xml:lang="en-US" xml:base="http://www.financialarmageddon.com/">

Many people still don't realize that at least some of the developments they took for granted during the good times were not self-sustaining and would only carry on for as long as the apparent economic nirvana that ended with the arrival of the global financial crisis.

Once it became apparent that there wasn't enough pie to go around, the spirit of cooperation that had over the course of six decades boosted cross-border trade to an unprecedented degree and stimulated ever-increasing globalization would quickly turn sour.

Instead of working together for the greater good, which is relatively easy during times of plenty, individuals, businesses and governments around the world have felt a survival instinct kick in, and they have naturally become more focused on making sure they -- and those who matter to them most -- garner a greater share of the goods.

That has spawned a protective, inward-oriented political, social, and geopolitical response, which helps explain why, as ABC News reports in "More States Use Purchasing Power to 'Buy American,' Create Jobs," there is growing support for incentives and barriers that ensure priority is given to the needs and interests of friends, neighbors, and others based nearby.

Local Governments Adopt Preference Laws for Spending, Target U.S. Manufacturers

State and local governments, which spend close to $2 trillion annually on goods and services, are increasingly trying to leverage their purchasing power to favor American businesses and create jobs.

Twenty-one states had "Buy American" laws through 2009, according to the National Association of State Procurement Officials, and nearly every state has implemented preference statutes for buying from in-state producers, many added since the recession began.

In Minnesota, law enforcement agencies must buy uniforms and protective gear that's made in the USA, and natural resources officers can only ride all-terrain vehicles built in the state.

Illinois agencies in the market for plastic goods must favor companies that use by-products of Illinois corn. State contracts for printing services are given out first to companies that use ink derived from Illinois-grown soybeans.

North Dakota mandates that state office buildings can only fly American flags that were sewn together on American soil.

"They all are aiming to achieve the same thing: get that economic value out of public spending," said Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Most states provide exceptions to their rules, allowing purchasers to get their goods elsewhere if similar items aren't available in the U.S. And there's little indication the laws are rigorously enforced.

But Mitchell said the measures can make a difference, particularly as states broaden the use of preferences for state contracts, favoring local businesses even if their prices aren't the lowest.

"A pretty large share of dollars the state spends with local businesses go into local wages. The business is also sourcing some of the stuff it needs to operate from other local businesses. And so there's just more economic activity, more income, and that means more tax revenue," she said.

View the original article here

Working for the CIA... Libyan Rebels Securing Oil Installations Ahead of US Invasion!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Benefits of Working for the Government

03/03/11 Tampa, Florida – It looks like American people are getting tired of government employees making about twice – twice!  – as much in wages and benefits as we taxpayers make, and there are movements to strip government-employee unions of their collective-bargaining authority, which only makes sense since there is obviously nobody on the other side (the taxpayer side) of the bargaining table!

I mean, would sober, intelligent taxpayers, negotiating on their own behalf, really say, “OK! We agree to give you wages that exceed ours, and a benefit package that is so generous that it is literally unknown in the private sector”? Hahaha! Don’t make me laugh!

I laugh, even though I asked you not to make me laugh, because it is humorous, just as humorous as some bizarre “Save The American Dream” rallies being organized by unions, MoveOn and similarly-disposed groups, all dedicated to pressure governments to ignore governmental insolvency in order to continue the lavish gravy train of making a lot of money and a carload of benefits, but without, apparently, any accountability at all, while half – half! – the employees in the Whole Freaking Country (WFC) already have some stupid job that makes no profit because he, or she, works for a local, state or federal government, a non-profit organization, a tax-supported private agency, or the education system!  Half!

The funny part is that this “American dream” crap is not “American” at all. It is old, old stuff.  In fact, it predates America, probably going back to the time of the Cro-Magnon era, where all the cavemen wanted to be supported by all the rest of the cavemen, and so they invented central banking and fiat currency so that they could constantly create more and more money to give to people so that they could hire someone to bring them bananas and groom their fur for parasites, which was supposed to grow the banana and grooming economy, but did not, and the fiat currency went to zero value due to its over-creation, causing  the social structure to disintegrate, which is probably why there are no Cro-Magnon people still alive, although I am not sure, and, unfortunately, proving it would entail me doing actual work, so it ain’t a-gonna happen.

However, because I am a generous man, I can take you back to the years before the Civil War, back to the famous economist and statesman Frederic Bastiat, 1801-1850, who observed that, according to brainyquote.com, “Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state.  They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.”

I assume it was later when he combined them into “The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”

And so, it is not surprising that government employees are upset, as they have grown accustomed to realizing Bastiat’s Dream that was only made temporarily possible by the enormous increases in credit (and thus debt and thus money) provided by the satanic Federal Reserve so that the government could grow enough on the monetary inflation to provide these huge legions of people with unbelievable incomes and benefit packages.

In fact, there are now millions of people everywhere who “lived large” as pieces of this “Federal Reserve Money Giveaway” action rolled around and around, producing bubbles in stock markets, bubbles in bond markets, bubbles in housing markets, bubbles in derivatives markets, and huge, cancerous bubbles in the size of governments.

And a lot of the money went to bubbles in the financial services industry, as Doug Noland, in his Credit Bubble Bulletin at Prudentbear.com, notes that Bloomberg reported that Wall Street handed out $20.8 billion in bonuses to themselves in 2010, which was actually down 8% from the year before, when financial firms disbursed “$22.5 billion in 2009…”

Note that three-dot ellipsis as the end of that last sentence, as if Mr. Noland’s voice kind of trailed off when he started to realize, to his horror, that Mogambo The Magnificent (MTM) was right after all, and dividing $21 billion in bonuses by 300 million men, women and children in the Whole Freaking Country (WFC) country means that the financial services industry got $70 for every one of those aforementioned men, women and children!

And when money like that is being created to reward people who basically function as accountants and middlemen, and yet the financial services industry produced 70% of the profits of the WFC, you must know intuitively that you should be buying gold, silver and oil stocks against the roaring inflation in prices that must, because it always does, result from the evil Federal Reserve creating so much money.

And while they say that nobody rings a bell to signal time to get in or get out of markets, this is all a series of huge gongs, going “BONG! BONG! BONG!” to signal that it is time to get into gold, silver and oil!

And with that kind of warning, man! This investing stuff could not get any easier! Whee!

The Mogambo Guru
for The Daily Reckoning

Richard Daughty (Mogambo Guru) is general partner and COO for Smith Consultant Group, serving the financial and medical communities, and the writer/publisher of the Mogambo Guru economic newsletter, an avocational exercise to better heap disrespect on those who desperately deserve it. The Mogambo Guru is quoted frequently in Barron's, The Daily Reckoning , and other fine publications.

View articles by The Mogambo Guru

The articles and commentary featured on the Daily Reckoning are presented by Agora Financial.

Sign Up for The Daily Reckoning e-letter and receive a copy of our newest report How to Survive the Fall of Social Security… at NO CHARGE.

We Will Not Share Your Email.
We Value Your Privacy.

View the original article here