8 Headwinds For Economy, Housing and Mortgage Markets

The US economy is straying further and further away from a free-market model and towards a government-controlled, crony economy. We can see the results of the move to government control of the economy in the headwinds. Like in the movie “Idiocracy” where the government orders Brawndo, a green liquid that resembles Gatorade, be used instead of water for crops, the government’s solution to all problems is more government, more regulation, more taxes, etc. Government is what statists crave.
Here is a partial list (the actual list is way too long) of headwinds facing the economy, the housing market and the mortgage market.
1. Declining Labor Force Participation Rate. Labor force participation has been declining since the 2001 recession and has fallen back to mid-1970s levels. Partly it is the effect of an aging population where more and more Americans retire and drop out of the labor force. Partly it is the effect of corporations moving out of the US to benefit from reduced labor costs and reduced regulations. Whichever explanation you choose (both is the correct answer), it is a troubling trend.

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/brawndo-recovery-8-headwinds-for-economy-housing-and-mortgage/

Climate science alarming, irrefutable: Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the evidence for climate change was beyond dispute but it was not too late for international action to prevent its worst impacts.
"The science is clear. It is irrefutable and it is alarming," Kerry told a climate conference in Majuro in the Marshall Islands in a video address from Washington.
"If we continue down our current path, the impacts of climate change will only get worse."
Kerry said without strong, immediate action, the world would experience threats to critical infrastructure, regional stability, public health, economic vitality, and the long-term viability of some states.
Washington's top diplomat was addressing climate experts meeting on the eve of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in the Marshall Islands, a low-lying nation where rising seas threaten to swamp many atolls.

http://news.yahoo.com/climate-science-alarming-irrefutable-kerry-093106799.html 

Calling it Treason

We stand on the brink of an illegal exercise of military power in a part of the world we have no need to be in, except that we have a president who purposefully keeps us there by suppressing our own development of energy resources and embroiling us in their internecine warfare. We could have walked away from the Middle East already and left them to their own savagery, but the president insists that we remain inextricably tied to their historical need to kill each other so that we can overpay for oil, both monetarily and with American lives. Thus, as technology enables us to break free of dependence upon Middle East oil, our president bends over backwards to ensure that never happens. What sort of leader purposefully compels his country and its people to participate in practices and policies that are detrimental to their safety and survival?
Even worse, when he can be shown to have chosen sides, his allegiance rests with terrorists and psychopaths.  His affinity for Islam and its practitioners, as seen in the influence he grants them in the formation and direction of U.S. policy, is well known. Outspoken detractors of the United States and proponents of worldwide Sharia are welcome guests at the White House. They have infiltrated the highest levels of our government. They direct the content of discourse and training about who and what they are. Our blindness toward their hatred and objectives, and perhaps our administration's shared stake in that hatred of the United States, was manifested in the obscene spectacle of a Muslim cleric insulting and damning our dead special forces troops at their own memorial service. That event was a natural consequence of the sort of brainless political correctness that pervades the left. So too was what Nidal Hasan did at Fort Hood. Such "tolerance" is a top-down phenomena.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/09/calling_it_treason.html#ixzz2dk6qhaWs
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Even Scandinavian Welfare States Realize Too Much Dependency and Too Many Handouts Are Destructive

We’re making a tiny bit of progress in the battle against the welfare state. No, policy hasn’t changed yet, but at least there’s growing recognition that maybe, just maybe, it’s not a good idea to pay people not to work. Particularly when you trap them in lives of dependency and despair and undermine progress in the fight against poverty.
This chart shows that various handouts discourage low-income people from earning more money, and a recent blockbuster study from a couple of my colleagues at the Cato Institute revealed that welfare pays more than entry-level employment in dozens of states.
And a growing number of people are now aware that there’s been an explosion of food stamp dependency, so one hopes that all this knowledge eventually will translate into a new round of welfare reform.
Why am I optimistic? Well, because awareness already is leading to change in some very unexpected places. Even Scandinavian nations are realizing that there has to be a limit to incentive-killing and taxpayer-sapping redistribution.

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2013/09/02/even-scandinavian-welfare-states-realize-too-much-dependency-and-too-many-handouts-are-destructive-n1689202?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl 

Obama and Congress: ‘Rolling the dice’ (Leading from Behind)

The stakes of the Syria vote couldn’t be higher for President Barack Obama: If Congress doesn’t back him up, his already troubled second term would be dealt another blow in the twin arenas of domestic and foreign politics.
That’s why some Republicans and Democrats think the president risked too much in asking Congress to authorize strikes on Syria that Obama believes are within his power to order unilaterally. And it’s why the White House is going into overdrive this week to try to sway a skeptical Congress into the war column.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/obama-congress-syria-rolling-the-dice-96148.html#ixzz2dk60j1xx

Subverting The Nation

Over the past 100 years or so a variety of actions taken by government have slowly but surely contributed to the decline of our nation's overall health and welfare.  There are too many examples to cover.  And most were aimed at doing "good" as seen by contemporary leaders/actors in all three branches of government.  Some however were, I suspect, actions intended to enhance the image of respective leaders or for the benefit of their respective political party or constituency rather than for the good of the nation. Others were for ideological reasons. In any case, I have captured a few recent examples that I think make the point.

1.  This one highlights the constitutional tightrope presidents have been walking when engaging in overseas military operations.  The implications are that too much power has shitted from the people's representatives (congress) to a single, fallible president.   http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2013/08/a-long-history-of-constitutional-war-power-violations/

2.  This item illustrates how the current administration through its myriads of bureaucracies has taken laws passed by congress and then interpreted them as they please resulting in expansive regulations imposed on the nation's citizens and economy.   http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/administration/318599-regulation-nation-obama-pins-climate-hopes-on-bypassing-congress   To emphasize the real and potential dangers inherent in federal administrative bureaucracies, agencies and commissions consider this quote from from page 9 of Administrative Law Attorney, Jonathan W. Emord's book "The Rise of Tyranny".  "Collectively, the federal agencies and commissions regulate every important aspect of commerce in the United States.  They are ruled by individuals who are appointed rather than elected.  The Federal agencies and commissions have the power to create law through regulation without obtaining the consent of the people's elected representatives.  They have the power to prosecute those whom they charge with violating their regulations.  They often possess the power to judge the parties they prosecute without having to present the charges in the first instance to an independent and impartial court of Law.  Throughout history that combination of powers (legislative, executive, and judicial) in single hands has been defined as tyrannical and despotic."  

3.  This item is but one more example of a government bureaucracy having gotten too enamored with its power and authority.   http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_33785.php

4.  This item refers to our current President's unilateral determination of which laws he will enforce.  In this one example among a number of others he has chosen to in effect rewrite the law to conform to "his" satisfaction - to heck with Congress.  As we all know, the Constitution assigns legislative responsibility to the Congress and enforcement responsibility to the administrative branch of government.  The current as well as past presidents have abused this constitutional division of labor.  And, the Supreme Court has been complicit by allowing both Congress and the Administration to expand their power.   http://www.fairus.org/legislative-updates/fair-legislative-update-august-28-2013   Abuse of the Constitution can be nothing less than the erosion of its primacy respecting our nation's governance.

5.  The appointment discussed at this link is a true indication of the dishonesty and questionable ethics of our sitting president and how such appointments serve to erode the people's trust in government.  It is a case of the fox guarding the hen house.  The purpose the appointment is to assure the public is provided with the administration's pre-determined outcome.  Note also that the appointee's wife serves as ambassador to the UN.  Keeps things neat and tidy within the broader goverment family.  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/26/cass-sunsteins-new-presidential-appointment-is-almost-hard-to-believe-especially-considering-a-paper-he-once-wrote/

6.  This example illustrates how our government views those of us who differ with them on important policy matters.  It should concern you no matter your political affiliation - the party in power today can be out of power tomorrow.  A couple of quotes will whet your appetite for more insight.  Consider this:  "Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch recently obtained a Department of Defense training manual which lists people who embrace 'individual liberties' and honor 'states’ rights,' among other characteristics, as potential 'extremists' who are likely to be members of 'hate groups.'  The current administration seems to not recognize that the Constitution enumerates both individual liberties and states rights - they are not subject to the whims elites within government.  Today's power brokers/elitists and many of their predecessors also seem to have forgotten that at its founding, our nation's government was duly constituted by the states/the people.  Incredibly, they now claim that those who adhere to these Constitutionally enumerated rights are "extremists" or members of "hate groups"?  How is that even possible?  Think about that.  Here is the second quote:  "In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements. The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule and the Confederate states who sought to secede from the Northern states are just two examples, according to the training guide."  So those who today think similarly as did our nation's founders are now considered by our government elites to be enemies of the very nation founded on such thinking.  Huh?  This is not a joke.  This is our current government's official policy.  http://www.infowars.com/dod-training-manual-suggests-extremist-founding-fathers-would-not-be-welcome-in-todays-military/   Regarding the notion of secession mentioned in the link, I offer four thoughts:  1)  The United States was founded by people "seceding" from Great Britain.  So, as a matter of first principles it is probable that the founders understood secession to be a future possibility.  2)  While the founders did not specifically cover the topic in the Constitution neither did they forbid it.  3)  The Constitution would not exist were it not ratified by the states.  It was after all the states as representatives of the people who created the union - the union did not create itself or the states.  The states preceded and founded the union.  Using that logic if so desired the states have the power to collectively undo the union.  4)  We need also to remember that the Declaration of Independence specifically states that "...when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."  Consequently, the Declaration of Independence was, in fact, a declaration by the American colonies stating their intent to secede from Great Britain.  So, it seems to me that if it was legal then it is legal now.  Saying that does not mean I advocate any state taking such action at this time.  I'm just saying...

These few examples suggest that we cannot trust our government to do the right things for the right reasons.  For some time our nation has been drifting in the direction of becoming a totalitarian state.  It is not a new phenomenon.  Our current president is not the cause.  He is just the latest iteration in a trend which has persisted for the last 100 plus years.  It is just that the last two administrations have aggressively pushed the envelope and have successfully centralized more and more authority in the hands of a very few.  That does not bode well for the long term survival of our individual freedoms which are subject to ever increasing controls/restrictions imposed by a power hungry centralized governmental authority in Washington, DC.

George Burns

Subverting the Nation II

Subverting the Nation II

Recall earlier today I sent a note entitled "Subverting the Nation" wherein I mentioned that for more than 100 years the US has been migrating towards a totalitarian government and the the culprits were/are elitists in government.  This article affirms that claim and cites presidents starting with Woodrow Wilson who have either lied to or purposely misled the public as they pursue their desire to ignore or misrepresent facts regarding the Warpowers Act or dangers to US or international interests.  In effect each one violated the Constitution in pursuit of their own objectives.  In short they willingly and for their own purposes subverted the Constitution of the United States.  Both Congress and the Supreme Court let them get away with it.  So, here we are today in the mess we are in.  These examples are symptomatic of the problems that MUST be corrected if we are ever get our nation back on track.

 http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-century-of-lies-the-rationales-for-in-foreign-wars-a-century-old-white-house-tradition/5347442   

George Burns