Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category
Avoiding debt
“We contend that for a nation to try
to tax itself into prosperity is like a
man standing in a bucket and trying
to lift himself up by the handle.”
- Sir Winston Churchill
I’m entitled
“Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions – it only guarantees equality of opportunity.”
Irving Kristol, 1920-2009
American columnist
“Other people’s money”
“Socialist governments do traditionally make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.”
Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister, 1979 – 1990
Government economics and free markets
Can our free market economy survive the federal government? The president and Congress may get to learn what C.S. Lewis meant when he defined experience as “that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”
Free market economy?
Discussing the economy, the President said the private sector is “still nervous about whether they want to go ahead and take the risks that are inherent in a free market system.” But, the private sector is not afraid of free markets, it is afraid of continued government interference and fears how much more it will interfere. The government’s job is to regulate the “playing field” of the markets, not to control and manipulate them.
The damnpolitician and the farmer
They assumed people like you and me would give time to our country and return home to live as everyone else, rather than staying in Washington becoming a member of the political aristocracy, becoming a career politician. Perhaps one of the greatest failures of the Founding Fathers was not anticipating the career politician.
Spending the people’s money
“Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal
with a big appetite at one end and no sense of
responsibility at the other.”
− Ronald Reagan
The entitled generation
Last week I watched a news report on a new type of life crisis. Well, sort of. A young reporter discussed the many difficulties facing the 25-year-olds as they finish college. Wait a minute? Why are 25-year-olds just finishing college? Did they take a few years off along the way? How did they do that?
More jobs, larger tax base, fewer entitlements
The government continues wasting our money, leading us further into socialism and worse. Our leaders refuse to understand that the free market economy works, but only if the government stops trying to help. Nonetheless, government continues handing out “free” money, people little noticing that they are becoming dependent on those monies and losing the incentive to be self-sufficient.
Is the government the new “company store?”
How well does the government manage our money? Do our elected leaders spend it responsibly and frugally, as they should? Sen. Charles Schumer answered these questions saying, “Let me say this to all the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments: ‘the American people really don’t care.’” He was speaking about the wasted spending, the pork, in the $787 billion stimulus package. How much of the $787 billion actually stimulates the economy? According to the Wall Street Journal, only 12 percent “is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus.”
Roosevelt or Reagan?
Our country’s leaders believe President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal ended the Great Depression and saved the economy. Are they right? Did his New Deal end the depression or even shorten it? Take a moment and consider the Roosevelt logic Congress is using with our current situation. They believe they can fix the economy if they interfere with market forces and spend unprecedented sums of money. But, if all that is needed to end a recession is government meddling and spending, how could we ever get into a recession in the first place?
California’s latest budget crisis
Experts projected California would have budget deficits of more than $35 billion, requiring massive budget cuts and tax increases. The Governor proposed $17 billion in program cuts and $8.3 billion in tax increases. Education programs faced over $2.7 billion in cuts with proposed additional cuts of $5.2 billion.
You’re Beulah’s son, aren’t you?
Several years ago my wife and I were in Arrick’s Fly Shop in West Yellowstone, Montana. She was wearing a sweatshirt from the Bolder Boulder 10k Memorial Day Road Race, which my brother founded in Boulder, Colorado, in 1978. An older man working in the shop came over to my wife and asked about her sweatshirt saying he used to live in Boulder. When he learned that Steve Bosley was my brother he wanted to tell me a story about his mother and the Bank of Boulder, where Steve was president for over 25 years before his retirement. The story reminded me of why I admire my “big” brother and some of the things he’s done that are absolutely one-of-a-kind, like the Bolder Boulder race.
Is FDR’s New Deal the answer?
Did President Franklin Roosevelt and his “New Deal” shorten the recovery from the Great Depression? Was government intervention in the economy helpful or hurtful or both? Some economists suggest the government manipulated market forces too much and actually prolonged the recovery.
