The Wine Commonsewer

City of the Angels Not Bound By Ruling (Only Taxpayers Are)

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

This kind of stuff may seem especially egregious to you, Gentle Reader, but it is really just the Soup de Jour for most government bureaucracies.

Everything was fine until the city started running out of money in 2007. Suddenly, the city announced that it was going to ignore its own ruling and reclassify us in the higher tax category. Even more incredible is the fact that the new classification was to be imposed retroactively to 2004 with interest and penalties. No explanation was given for the new classification, or for the city's decision to ignore its 1994 ruling.

Their official position is that the city is not bound by past rulings -- only taxpayers are. (emphasis TWC's) This is why we have been forced to file a lawsuit. We will let the courts decide whether it is legal for adverse rulings to apply only to taxpayers and not to the city.

And when LA wins, they lose, because Creator's Syndicate will leave town, taking their jobs, revenue, and tax base with them.

Money quote.....

As long as City Hall operates like a banana republic, why is anyone surprised that jobs have left the city in droves and Los Angeles is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy?

Whole thing here at WSJ.com

As Ever,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Steven D

Putting Tax Funded Bailouts in Perspective

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Without remark. The Man In Black narrates.

If you can't see the vid look here.

As Always,

The Wine Commonsewer

Tip of the glass to Mrs TWC & Erin K

Fifty Bucks For A Pepsi May Be A Bargain

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

The DeLorean leaves the skyway. Sign in the background says.....

Phoenix : Boston : London

and underneath

Local traffic: Hill Valley exit next right.

After leaving the skyway it passes a floating sign.....

Welcome to Hill Valley. Goldie Wilson II Mayor. A Nice Place To Live.

Please fly safely. Ejection Seats Save Lives

The DeLorean descends down into Hill Valley. Cut to an alleyway, where the DeLorean lands. Discarded piles of laser discs and a "Fusion Industries" generator are in the background. Doc opens the DeLorean doors.

Doc: In exactly 2 minutes, you go round the corner into the Cafe 80's.

Marty: Cafe 80's?

Doc: It's one of those nostalgia places, but not done very well. Go in and order a Pepsi.

Doc pulls a $50 note from his trousers.

Doc: (continued) Here's a Fifty. And wait for a guy named Griff.

While Marty's fifty dollar Pepsi Perfect is clever bit of commentary on monetary inflation in 2015, it also may be a bit more prescient than the directors imagined  when the Back to the Future II script was penned back in the late 1980's.

For starters, from Brian S. Wesbury, Chief Economist and Robert Stein, CFA, Senior Economist at First Trust LP, who were recently seen waving a caution flag at the deflationistas at the Fed.....

In the first two months of 2009, consumer prices are up at a 4.1% annual rate while producer prices are up at a 5.8% rate.

Whole piece here.

That should come as no surprise to anyone. Pumping trillions of new dollars into the economy will inflict distortions upon the market, one of which will be rising inflation. The question is not if, but when will we feel it and how much will it be.

 

Payable to the Bearer on Demand

TWC has already noticed upticks in wine prices that don't seem to be connected to rising demand. Several spot checks reveal twenty percent bumps in price just since the fall of 2008. Not Zogby, but instructive nonetheless.

As Always,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Del Mar Dave

What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like?

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...

And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...

Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?

It's pretty surprising.

Go ahead and scroll down.....

Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...

Please Note: Those pallets are double stacked.

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase, a trillion dollars... that's what they're talking about.

As Everett Dirksen used to say, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

As Ever,

TWC

Tip of the glass to SASOB, Del Mar Dave, JC, Stella (maybe), and a coupla other folks

Taxpayer Funded Private Party at the House of Blues Cost One Hundred Grand

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Leaving aside questions of politics, morality, and economics, this is EXACTLY why the government has no business bailing out banks (or anyone else) with money hijacked from the taxpayers under the threat of jail time for non-payment.

The entertainment Web site TMZ broke the story Tuesday that Northern Trust of Chicago, which got $1.5 billion in bailout money and then laid off 450 workers, flew hundreds of clients and employees to Los Angeles last week and treated them to four days of posh hotel rooms, salmon and filet mignon dinners, music concerts, a PGA golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club with Mercedes shuttle rides and Tiffany swag bags.

Aside from that there was the private party at the House of Blues with Sheryl Crow, plus the Chicago and Earth, Wind, & Fire concerts.

And don't think this is just a question of proper oversight. It isn't. This behavior is as predictable as it is appalling. 

Your Tax Dollars At Work

As Ever,

TWC 

Tip of the glass to JC Bowman

Blam! $1,400 for Every Man, Woman, & Child on Earth

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Early this afternoon, just like that, President O'Blama obligates your family for about ten grand. It's for the children you know. That ten grand is just this installment and doesn't include the entire commitment of 9.7 trillion dollars.

More Robert Higgs: on doing nothing:

Our greatest need at present is for the government to go in the opposite direction, to do much less, rather than much more. As recently as the major recession of 1920-21, the government took a hands-off position, and the downturn, though sharp, quickly reversed itself into full recovery. In contrast, Hoover responded to the downturn of 1929 by raising tariffs, propping up wage rates, bailing out farmers, banks, and other businesses, and financing state relief efforts. Roosevelt moved even more vigorously in the same activist direction, and the outcome was a protracted period of depression (and wartime privation) from which complete recovery did not come until 1946.

Yesterday's link to the Walter Williams story was broken. Good link here.

Gentle Reader Husbone & The Professor (Walter Williams)

I've got one of the Hit Babe and Walter Williams somewhere around here too.

As Ever,

TWC

Walter Williams on Stimulating

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

I heard that President O'Blama is flying his corporate jet to Denver to sign the legislation that the CONgress sent to his desk on Friday the 13 (cue Rod Surly theme right here).  The Man's office is in DC, why the heck is he flying to Denver? Last I heard we were in a recession.

In 1893, we had a depression; we got out of it without a stimulus package. A major recession hit the country in 1920-21; though sharp, it quickly reversed itself into what has been call(ed) the Roaring '20s.

In 1929 came an economic downturn, most notably featured by the stock market collapse, after which came massive government intervention — you might call it the nation's first stimulus package.

We all know how well that turned out. Twelve years of folks selling apples on street corners followed by four years of war during which time you couldn't buy gas, meat, cigarettes, tires, or automobiles.

Anybody hear the story of how the IRS seized Mustang Ranch and tried to run it, as prescribed by law, and were famously unsuccessful? The government couldn't turn a profit selling hookers and booze and you want them to solve your economic problems?

The rest of Walter Williams sharp piece at Investors Business Daily here. (link is fixed)

As Ever,

TWC

Enough To Pay Every Living Person On Earth Fourteen Hundred Samolians

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Ron Hart noted that.....

 

It took Bush eight years and two wars to increase the deficit $1.5 trillion. Obama has.....The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act coming at you first thing. He will be able to increase our deficit by $1 trillion in his first month in office. By media standards, that will make Obama better than Bush.

The Senate votes today on how far up your backside they'd like to stick the broomstick. Then the 535 members of CONgress will get together and vote on which yardstick they'll use to measure the broomstick.

In the meantime, keep this in mind from Bloomberg:

The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

What a bunch of Maroons.

As Always,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Doug at Liberty Papers.

Should The US Shut Down The Money Hole?

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

With the economy sliding deeper into a recession, panelists discuss whether it's time to stop throwing our money into a massive pit out in the desert.

Can't see the news clip? Look here.

As Ever,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Chris C

Madoff On The Nature of Ponzi Schemes

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Heard they brought him to court in a bullet proof vest.

As Ever,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Murbach