The new British government announced that it will be reviewing (read delaying) a decision to build a nuclear power plant financed by the Chinese to be located at Hinkley Point, England. The strangest part of the brief article in the Wall St Journal was the price. The plant is estimated to cost $23 billion to build. Wow. The going price for brand new nuclear plant is "only" $5 or $6 billion dollars for a 1 Gigawatt plant. $23 billion sounds like a rip off to me.
Another odd detail about this deal, the Brits promised to pay double the going electric rate for juice from this Chinese financed plant. Does this sound like crony capitalism?
You have to wonder why the Chinese are dickering to spend (invest?) so much money in the utility electric power business, which is not noted for high returns. And to spend all that money in England, where the power helps the British economy rather than the Chinese economy.
Anyhow I can see why the new British government is "reviewing" this high price project.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Get the US economy growing again
Gross National Product (GNP) is a count (or perhaps estimate) of the value of all the goods and services produced in one year. At least that's what they called it when I took economics in college. Now that PC has slipped in thru out the land, "national" has become a bad word. So all the PC MSM call it Gross Domestic Product (GDP) now a days.
Ever since WWII the US GNP has increased by about 3% a year. This means that the number of jobs increases at 3% a year, which is enough to offer jobs to each year's crop of high school and college grads, as well as jobs to a lot of immigrants.
But, since Obama took office in 2008, the US economy has only grown at 1% a year. Which is why young people are having a tough time finding jobs, and all that anti immigrant talk. What can we do to get economic growth back on track?
1. Repeal Obamacare. Obamacare lays heavy costs upon business. Businesses larger than 50 employees get hit harder. So a lot of businesses have decided not to grow beyond 50 employees. All businesses get levied for a lot of costs and the levy is on a per employee basis. So businesses have stopped hiring, except when it is absolutely necessary.
2. Reform the income tax. The current tax code is just a vast fabric of loopholes. If you hire clever and expensive tax lawyers, they can find ( or create) loopholes for your company. Loopholes create a lot of pure tax dodge companies, like "hedge funds". Hedge funds enjoy a giant loophole called "carried interest". I'm convinced that many hedge funds are in business solely to take advantage of "carried interest", not because they are serving any real need.
3. Get the cost of health care down. The US pays 19% of GNP for health care. That is twice the amount paid by any other country in the world. And US health, while good, is not the best, there are a dozen countries with better health than the US and they are doing it on half the money. If they can do it, so can we. Right now all US goods cost 19% more than they ought to, just to pay the worker's healthcare.
To do this, we ought to make health insurance good anywhere in the US. Any licensed health insurer ought to be free to offer policies in all 50 states. Right now, an insurer has to be licensed in the state in which it is selling the policies. Needless to say, the necessary licenses require the insurer to do a ton of paperwork and in a lot of cases, they decide it's just too much trouble. Which is why we only have two companies selling health insurance up here. And we ought to allow duty free import of any drugs from any reasonable first world country, places like Canada, England, Germany and others. If the authorities of a reasonable first world country allow the sale of the drug in their country, it is plenty safe enough for Americans.
4. Straighten out the patent office. Right now, if a company introduces a new product, it gets sued by a patent troll. We ought to outlaw patents on "business methods" and software, and common standards like the ASCII code, the QWERTY typewriter layout, TCPIP, and the like.
5. Get Uncle out of the home mortgage business. Close down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which triggered off Great Depression 2.0 and then went broke, costing the taxpayers billions. Home mortgages are the safest and most profitable investments out there, and private businesses can raise all the mortgage money needed.
That's enough to get started on.
Ever since WWII the US GNP has increased by about 3% a year. This means that the number of jobs increases at 3% a year, which is enough to offer jobs to each year's crop of high school and college grads, as well as jobs to a lot of immigrants.
But, since Obama took office in 2008, the US economy has only grown at 1% a year. Which is why young people are having a tough time finding jobs, and all that anti immigrant talk. What can we do to get economic growth back on track?
1. Repeal Obamacare. Obamacare lays heavy costs upon business. Businesses larger than 50 employees get hit harder. So a lot of businesses have decided not to grow beyond 50 employees. All businesses get levied for a lot of costs and the levy is on a per employee basis. So businesses have stopped hiring, except when it is absolutely necessary.
2. Reform the income tax. The current tax code is just a vast fabric of loopholes. If you hire clever and expensive tax lawyers, they can find ( or create) loopholes for your company. Loopholes create a lot of pure tax dodge companies, like "hedge funds". Hedge funds enjoy a giant loophole called "carried interest". I'm convinced that many hedge funds are in business solely to take advantage of "carried interest", not because they are serving any real need.
3. Get the cost of health care down. The US pays 19% of GNP for health care. That is twice the amount paid by any other country in the world. And US health, while good, is not the best, there are a dozen countries with better health than the US and they are doing it on half the money. If they can do it, so can we. Right now all US goods cost 19% more than they ought to, just to pay the worker's healthcare.
To do this, we ought to make health insurance good anywhere in the US. Any licensed health insurer ought to be free to offer policies in all 50 states. Right now, an insurer has to be licensed in the state in which it is selling the policies. Needless to say, the necessary licenses require the insurer to do a ton of paperwork and in a lot of cases, they decide it's just too much trouble. Which is why we only have two companies selling health insurance up here. And we ought to allow duty free import of any drugs from any reasonable first world country, places like Canada, England, Germany and others. If the authorities of a reasonable first world country allow the sale of the drug in their country, it is plenty safe enough for Americans.
4. Straighten out the patent office. Right now, if a company introduces a new product, it gets sued by a patent troll. We ought to outlaw patents on "business methods" and software, and common standards like the ASCII code, the QWERTY typewriter layout, TCPIP, and the like.
5. Get Uncle out of the home mortgage business. Close down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which triggered off Great Depression 2.0 and then went broke, costing the taxpayers billions. Home mortgages are the safest and most profitable investments out there, and private businesses can raise all the mortgage money needed.
That's enough to get started on.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
President Trump vs President Hillary
If elected,
President Hillary will raise our taxes. She said that on live TV to huge applause yesterday,
She will try to take our guns away,
She will pack the Supreme Court (and the lower federal courts) with lefties, who will persist and continue to do harm for decades.
She will do more payoffs to foreign scumbags, and she will take up her disasterous foreign policy where she left off when she turned the secretary of state office over to John "Swiftboat" Kerry.
President Trump might do some real and badly needed income tax reform.
He won't press for more gun "control" aka taking our guns away.
He will appoint decent law abiding judges to the Supreme Court. He has published a long list of names.
We aren't too sure of his foreign policy, he hasn't said much, but it cannot be worse than Hillary's. I know he could have gotten four hostages back for less than $100 mil a head.
President Hillary will raise our taxes. She said that on live TV to huge applause yesterday,
She will try to take our guns away,
She will pack the Supreme Court (and the lower federal courts) with lefties, who will persist and continue to do harm for decades.
She will do more payoffs to foreign scumbags, and she will take up her disasterous foreign policy where she left off when she turned the secretary of state office over to John "Swiftboat" Kerry.
President Trump might do some real and badly needed income tax reform.
He won't press for more gun "control" aka taking our guns away.
He will appoint decent law abiding judges to the Supreme Court. He has published a long list of names.
We aren't too sure of his foreign policy, he hasn't said much, but it cannot be worse than Hillary's. I know he could have gotten four hostages back for less than $100 mil a head.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Two Party system
This morning NPR was touting third party candidates for President. Couple of guys whose names are new to me, couple of parties, Libertarian, Green. Then they segued into a pro third party pitch, and denounced various state laws making it hard for poor old third parties to get on the ballot. Sounded dreadful.
In real life, the two party system is a good thing that makes legislation possible. In a two party system, if you have the votes, you can pass your legislation. Once we let more parties into the game it becomes difficult to impossible to get anything done. On any political issue there are always six of seven different courses of action. If you have six or seven parties, each one of them will pick one of the possible courses of action, but none of the parties will have the votes to push it thru. France, going all the way back to the Third Republic, worked like this. The French had half a dozen parties, all going there own way, and they could never get anything done. This pattern of French politics persists to this day. It brought France invasion and defeat in 1940, Diem Bien Foo, the Algerian civil war, and overall weakness and confusion for nearly a century.
In a two party system, the six or seven courses of action get whittled down to two, one for each party, by internal party negotiations and log rolling. Then the party with the votes gets it's program passed. With only two partie, one of 'em will have the votes to pass its legislation. If, like today, the country is evenly split on a lot of issues, nothing happens, neither party has the votes. When the country is evenly split, it's probably best not to do anything.
And, consider this. The last third party candidate to win the presidency was Abraham Lincoln and that was a long time ago. To my way of thinking, casting your vote for a third party candidate is same as throwing it away, or not voting at all.
In real life, the two party system is a good thing that makes legislation possible. In a two party system, if you have the votes, you can pass your legislation. Once we let more parties into the game it becomes difficult to impossible to get anything done. On any political issue there are always six of seven different courses of action. If you have six or seven parties, each one of them will pick one of the possible courses of action, but none of the parties will have the votes to push it thru. France, going all the way back to the Third Republic, worked like this. The French had half a dozen parties, all going there own way, and they could never get anything done. This pattern of French politics persists to this day. It brought France invasion and defeat in 1940, Diem Bien Foo, the Algerian civil war, and overall weakness and confusion for nearly a century.
In a two party system, the six or seven courses of action get whittled down to two, one for each party, by internal party negotiations and log rolling. Then the party with the votes gets it's program passed. With only two partie, one of 'em will have the votes to pass its legislation. If, like today, the country is evenly split on a lot of issues, nothing happens, neither party has the votes. When the country is evenly split, it's probably best not to do anything.
And, consider this. The last third party candidate to win the presidency was Abraham Lincoln and that was a long time ago. To my way of thinking, casting your vote for a third party candidate is same as throwing it away, or not voting at all.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
We need some Cruel and Unusual Punishments
For robo callers who ring my phone and don't answer when I pick up.
Monday, August 1, 2016
Military in Politics???
I am hearing some chat on TV about how retired military officers should not engage in politics. I beg to differ. Once retired, a military officer is just an American citizen, with all the rights and privileges thereto, such as shooting his mouth off in public, or even at the Democratic convention.
Active duty military is another kettle of fish. On active duty an officer commands the armed forces of the United States, under the direction of the commander in chief (the president). On active duty, criticizing the political leadership is criticizing your military superior, a big no-no, and a court martial offense in the US armed forces.
But after retirement, a military officers is just another civilian, and if he wants to politick, that is his right and privilege. General Washington, General Jackson, General Grant, and General Eisenhower all made first class presidents. In fact I'd be happy to trade our current crop of presidential candidates for any one of them. Too bad they are all dead.
Active duty military is another kettle of fish. On active duty an officer commands the armed forces of the United States, under the direction of the commander in chief (the president). On active duty, criticizing the political leadership is criticizing your military superior, a big no-no, and a court martial offense in the US armed forces.
But after retirement, a military officers is just another civilian, and if he wants to politick, that is his right and privilege. General Washington, General Jackson, General Grant, and General Eisenhower all made first class presidents. In fact I'd be happy to trade our current crop of presidential candidates for any one of them. Too bad they are all dead.
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