TEA PARTY ECONOMIST

The TEA PARTY ECONOMIST Ron Paul's original staff economist, Dr. Gary North! Thursday, February 14, 2013

Downton Abbey: Soap Opera for Property Rights Gary North’s Reality Check I am not a big Downton Abbey fan. I watched the first half a dozen episodes, but then I realized that the thing was turning into a very expensive soap opera. I stopped watching. I am a Foyle’s War fan. I prefer period piece murder mysteries to period piece soap operas. ... READ MORE War Games in Your City: Preparing for Civil Unrest The military continues to run war games in American cities. Why? The optimists say that the military needs training for urban crowd control in foreign nations. The pessimists say that the military expects riots in the USA. I think it’s both. The military wants to keep its options open. This means preparing for 21st century... ... READ MORE 3% Down Payments: The Government Wants Another Housing Bubble The government is pushing for loosened rules governing down payments. The idea that a borrower should pay 20% down is anathema. What about 10%? Too high. I think 3% will satisfy legislators. Maybe 5%. But not much over 5%. They want another bubble. Without government subsidies, the housing market would be very different. But voters... READ MORE Two Years of Gridlock The President is not going to get an increase in minimum wages. He is not going to get gun control. This is pretty clear today. Will he get a revision in the immigration laws? That looks more likely. But it’s not a sure thing. So, by the time Congressional elections bring in a new Congress,... READ MORE 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