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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (117615)	1/26/2009 11:36:50 PM
From: Skeeter Bug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Knighty, if you listend to gerald celente, he predicted tax revolts. i believe they happen. CA has 16% unemployment once the lies are removed from the stats. we have the highest gas tax, highest income tax, lowest level where the highest income rate hits, highest sales tax and highest business tax west of the mississippi. iow, we are taxed to the hilt and the government's owners, the public employees' unions want more. they want raises, they want pension increases, they want 0% layoffs, etc. a two class society is turning up. LA county could easily be paying 11.75% in sales tax within a year. with income tax receipts collapsing from the private sector and the public sector demanding more, more, more on top of a $30 billion deficit and no money in the till... CA could face some serious fiscal disruptions. they don't know how to spend less (CA govt has doubled since 1998!), they only know how to spend more. this just won't work with collapsing revenues that will collapse all the more as they continually tighten their fist around the private sector workers and businesses. it is a sith lord thing. the munis may pay off, but there is some real structural risk over the medium to long term. unemployed CA citizens with no job and no home won't like paying for all the goodies the CA union employees (legislature) want to give their owners (the unions). i'm sure there are some good deals, but caveat emptor.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (117615)	1/27/2009 10:13:05 AM
From: Knighty Tin	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Ron Paul was on "Mornin' Joe" today on MSNBC. He was a bit wacky, but no more so than the mainstream Democrats and Republicans who regularly appear on the show. After he was gone, Neocon host Joe Scarborough said, "All Ron Paul proved was that he has no answers to any of our problems." That comment irritated me. Not that I am a big Ron Paul supporter, but he was dismissed as a lightweight, while mainstream politicians never seem to be subjected to Joe's snide editorials after they depart. Generally, I like Scarbourough. He is one of the only, if not THE only, right winger on tv willing to listen to all sides of an argument. But he was kind of snotty on this one. His other whipping boy is "Consumers Reports" for daring to say that Toyota and Honda make more reliable cars than the U.S. automakers. Joe says that CR has not been honest since they were bought out by Swedes. I don't remember that event and can't find news of it. I do know that CR has not been kind to the reliability ratings of Volvos and Saabs. Their reliability ratings are based upon surveys of owners. Apart from that, they also rate cars on other factors, which are not based on surveys. CR has also noted that Mercedes autos are now less reliable than GM autos. Somehow Joe missed that story. I still watch him, but he sometimes gets a wild hair up his patootie and Ron Paul was the victim this time.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (117615)	1/27/2009 10:35:25 AM
From: Knighty Tin	Respond to of 132070

I have long supported the muni bond insurance offered by the Texas Permanent School Fund. Unfortunately, they are not currently issuing any new insurance. This is a good thing, fiscally, as school borrowing has increased while their funding from land and mineral leases has declined. They are better capitalized per bond issued than any other insurance organization (by about 8 times), but they want to keep their super solvent ratio. Which means, the PSF insured bonds are a great buy, but new ones are not available right now. And people rarely sell the old ones.