Archive for February 1st, 2010

Why unemployment will stay high … at least until after the 2010 elections.

February 1, 2010

Quick & to the point. 

Excerpted from WSJ: Bonfire of the Populists , Jan. 28, 2010

The president’s anti-Wall Street rhetoric is not good for the economy, and may hurt his party politically.

FDR was re-elected in 1936 for many reasons, but among them was his fiery denunciations of “economic royalists,” “economic tyranny,” and “economic slavery.”

Business knew it was in the president’s crosshairs and put its capital on strike. The economy didn’t recover until the war.Team Obama is already witnessing a is already witnessing a repeat.

A venture capitalist recently remarked to me that the uncertainty the administration has created is “nothing short of paralyzing.”

Nobody will invest in an industry that might be the next to be overtaxed, overregulated, or publicly disemboweled.

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704878904575031640091592622.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

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Ken’s Take:

Real business guys tell me that they are, in fact, holding off hiring until “things settle down”. Further, they fear draconian reprisals from Team O if they show any resistance to the anti-business initiatives or rhetoric.

So how can businesses fight back?

Easy.  Just ‘recast’ each potential new hire as a vote for Obama’s policies … and refuse to pull the lever.

It’s called passive aggressive behavior.

Posted in Employment - Jobs | 2 Comments »

Tax dollars at work: DOJ shifts focus from KSM to BCS … again.

February 1, 2010

I may be an outlier, but I like gridlock in Congress and frivolous DOJ investigations … keeps the government from doing serious damage.  So, I’m an advocate of BCS and steroid investigations.

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Excerpted from The Hill: Obama administration contemplating probe into college football, 01/29/10

The Department of Justice is contemplating a wide variety of actions intended to reform the current college football championship system and is still determining whether or not to open a formal investigation into the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said “Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football post-season.”

Weich laid out a variety of options the administration and Congress could take to reform or break apart the BCS. He also opened the possibility of commissioning a study of the costs and benefits of the BCS and asking the Federal Trade Commission to examine the legality of the BCS.

Opponents of the BCS, a group that includes several members of Congress, say that the system is unfair to the five smaller BCS conferences that receive less bowl revenue and automatic bids to the four BCS bowls.

They say that because of this, it is almost impossible for “mid-major” colleges to play for the national championship (a group that has included several undefeated teams over the past several years. Thus, opponents contend that the BCS is a oligopoly intended to benefit large athletic conferences.

Supporters of the BCS say that smaller conferences still get sizable portions of the bowl revenue pool. Overall the five mid-major conferences received $24 million in revenue. By comparison, the six larger conferences received at least $17 million each.

BCS proponents also argue that the system matches up the first and second ranked teams in the national championship (though opponents question the complex ranking system to determine the contenders) and say that the system allows historic bowl games to continue to operate and thrive.

Full article:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/78849-obama-administration-contemplating-action-against-bcs

Posted in Laws - Very Strange | 1 Comment »