TEA PARTY ECONOMIST

The TEA PARTY ECONOMIST Ron Paul's original staff economist, Dr. Gary North! Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Marco Rubio’s Fabulous Judy Garland Routine “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby.” The tax increases and the deficit spending you propose will hurt middle class families. It will cost them their raises. It will cost them their benefits. It may even cost some of them their jobs. And it... READ MORE New Housing Boom: Duplexes, Triplexes, and Quads We have heard the good news. The housing new home market is booming. It is, indeed: for rental units. But what about single-family homes to sell to the middle class? Not so much. Home ownership is lower now than it was in 2007. This means that the construction boom is targeting renters. Why? Because the... ... READ MORE TARP Still Drains the Treasury TARP was shoved down the throats of voters in 2008. They opposed the bailouts of corporations, but to no avail. They have forgotten. John Boehner, who was the the man who rammed the program through the House Republicans, is still Speaker of the House. The TARP bills still mount up. The government bought a stake... READ MORE Allegheny Airlines Has the Last Laugh. “Thanks, Uncle Sam!” Older Americans recall the jokes made at the expense of Allegheny Airlines in the 1960s and 1970s. Then it became U.S. Airways in 1979. It went bankrupt in 2002. It was able to stiff its 6,000 pilots by canceling its pension obligations in 2003. American taxpayers became responsible through ERISA. It came out of bankruptcy... READ MORE Benedict XVI and Barzillai: Time to Bow Out Gracefully When King David was on the run from his revolutionary son Absalom, Barzillai helped him (II Sam. 17:28). After Absalom’s death, King David returned to Jerusalem. On the way, he met Barzillai. Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim, and he went on with the king to the Jordan, to escort him over... READ MORE FED Vice Chairman Paints a Grim Verbal Picture, Then Ends on a Cheery Note. Janet Yellin is the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors, a government agency. She recently gave a speech on how bad the unemployment situation has been, is, and will remain. But she ended on a note of optimism. It was an optimism that was not supported anywhere in her speech. Let... ... READ MORE Americans Are Tapping into Their Home Equity for Loans. Americans are borrowing against home equity once again. These loans were up by almost 20% in 2012. Some of these ignorant people are converting their home mortgages into personal loans. If they live in states where mortgages are non-recourse loans, where the lender cannot come after them if they default, they lose this legal protection... READ MORE Erroneous Credit Reports: Are You a Victim? The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report on credit reports. About 20% of them are inaccurate. The FTC did not have to conduct a study. Anyone with a statistical background knew that 20% are erroneous. It’s Pareto’s law. About 20% of the worst examples of anything provide 80% of the problems. What if your... READ MORE Gold Will Fall to $750 in a Year, Says Rodney Johnson. (Who?) I had never heard of Rodney Johnson a week ago. But then I came across an advertisement link: “Gold will fall to $750.” I am always interested in ads. Financial ads sell either greed or fear. This was a classic fear headline. I clicked. Here is what I read. Gold Up or Gold Down? Why... READ MORE Gold Is Not Money. This Video Shows Why. Mark Dice says that hardly anyone knows the price of gold. To prove this, he went out on a pier at the beach in southern California. He stopped people and told them they could have a free gold coin if they guessed the price of gold within 25%. He showed them the coin. No risk. ... ... READ MORE