Affordable Housing

Posted on 21 September 2021 by eehines

People’s Republic of China style.

The PRC is cracking down on excessive debt in the country’s housing industry, or so it claims. The government also claims it wants

to lower inequality and keep housing affordable for the masses.

But it just blew up 15 high rise apartment buildings. Those were already built, their cost sunk. Those complexes could have been at the core of the Communist Chinese Party’s claim of affordable housing.

Oh, wait—nobody wanted to live there.

That’s centrally planned economics in action. And a lesson for us, were our politicians interested in learning.

This is a preview of Affordable Housing. Read the full post (153 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Inflation

Posted on 19 September 2021 by eehines

The subheadline on a recent wall Street Journal editorial claimed

Voters know how much prices are rising even if politicians don’t.

As some might expect, I have a couple things to say about that.

One thing is that politicians certainly do know prices are rising, and they know the rate of rise; they just don’t care.

The other thing is that there is a world of difference between price rise, inflation, and price level, what we actually pay.

This is a preview of Inflation. Read the full post (190 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)

More Taxing Foolishness

Posted on 12 September 2021 by eehines

This time, it’s on plastics and plastic production. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D, RI) each have their schemes for generating a national tax on plastic production as part of their $3.5 trillion reconciliation spend- and tax-a-thon.

Such a tax would be intended to discourage plastic production and sale as part of the Progressive-Democrats’ move to eliminate carbon from our economy.

Here are some uses to which plastics are put, though, products of which Progressive-Democrats’ move would greatly increase the cost for average Americans.

piping
plumbing
vinyl siding
gutters

This is a preview of More Taxing Foolishness. Read the full post (205 words, estimated 49 secs reading time)

Lies of the Progressive-Democrats

Posted on 11 September 2021 by eehines

Another in the interminable series. This time, it’s Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) demanding Republicans support raising the debt ceiling during this Congressional session:

We’re paying the Trump credit card with what we would do to lift the debt ceiling[.]

Not at all. What she—and her Progressive-Democrat syndicate family—want to do is raise the debt ceiling so they can borrow an additional $3.5 trillion for their reconciliation spend-a-thon.

This is a preview of Lies of the Progressive-Democrats. Read the full post (129 words, estimated 31 secs reading time)

Because

Posted on 9 September 2021 by eehines

Here’s a short list of the ways President Joe Biden (D) and his Progressive-Democrat syndicate in Congress intend to take your money away from you.

Raise the top individual income tax rate to 39.6%

This applicable to the group of Americans at the top of our economic ladder: single individuals with taxable income of more than $452,700 and married couples with joint taxable income of $509,300. Never mind that these folks, far from just sitting on their money, (re)invest it, which facilitates innovation and job support and creation. Notice, too, that this tax restores the marriage penalty to our tax code.

This is a preview of Because. Read the full post (720 words, estimated 2:53 mins reading time)

California’s Regulations

Posted on 8 September 2021 by eehines

Do they impact other States?

One regulation, in particular, concerns California’s potential regulation, under the upcoming Proposition 12, which seeks to control the amount of space hog farmers devote to each hog.

Nominally, Prop 12 is causing non-California hog farmers (and, presumably, the two or three California hog farmers) confusion, according to Tasha Bunting, the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Assistant Director of Commodities & Livestock Programs:

Prop 12 really doesn’t have all of their rules implemented yet. What exactly it is going to look like hasn’t been finalized. It is really putting our producers behind the eight ball from the get-go[.]

This is a preview of California’s Regulations. Read the full post (224 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

This Move Suits Me

Posted on 8 September 2021 by eehines

Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler and his City Council are upset with Texas and our heartbeat law.

Portland City Council is to consider an emergency resolution this week to ban future travel, goods and services from the state of Texas in protest of the state’s new abortion law.
In statement released Friday, Mayor Ted Wheeler said City Council will hold a vote on the resolution on Wednesday, Sept 8, with the intent to ban Portland’s “future procurement of goods and services from, and City employee business travel to, the state of Texas.”

This is a preview of This Move Suits Me. Read the full post (260 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

Foolishness

Posted on 7 September 2021 by eehines

It interlaces with other foolishness, especially when it comes to government. For instance, in August 2021’s 7500 pages of regulatory bidness:

The Fish and Wildlife Service issued a plan to protect the majestic White Bluffs bladderpod, a subspecies of scruffy plant that grows on a row of hills in one county of Washington state. Another subspecies is more common. The most distinctive difference, a state fact sheet says, is that one bladderpod has “stalked hairs,” while the other has “sessile, appressed hairs.”
The Federal Highway Administration, with happier news for Washington state, approved a plan to expand Interstate 405…between milepost 21.79 and milepost 27.06. Why does it take more than a year to approve 5.27 miles of road construction? The 2,269-page environmental review was published last July, and it conclusively showed that the new roadway will not pave over bladderpods.

This is a preview of Foolishness. Read the full post (218 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

This Pretty Much Says It All

Posted on 7 September 2021 by eehines

At a Pennsylvania State House Consumer Affairs Committee hearing, solar industry representatives decried the level of State interest in solar energy production relative to more traditional sources of energy production.

[T]he potential for the industry to flourish still exists, said the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), if only the state revamped some of its policies to incentivize more investment.

And this from SEIA’s Mid-Atlantic Senior Manager of State Affairs, Scott Elias:

Some states have more aggressive goals. Even 2.5% by 2030 would increase the demand in Pennsylvania.

This is a preview of This Pretty Much Says It All. Read the full post (194 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)

Debt Ceilings and Spend-Thriftiness

Posted on 2 September 2021 by eehines

One hundred and three House Republicans have signed a letter committing themselves to never vote for a debt ceiling increase under any circumstances. Forty-six Senate Republicans have signed a substantially similar letter. (Aside: the nine Republican Representatives and four Republican Senators should be asked why they’re not signing on.) The signatories

will not vote to increase the debt ceiling, whether that increase comes through a stand-alone bill, a continuing resolution, or any other vehicle.

Of course, Congressional Progressive-Democrats are in a snit over that. Their beef centers, amorally, on “You guys are spendthrifts, too!”

This is a preview of Debt Ceilings and Spend-Thriftiness. Read the full post (312 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

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Category Archives: political economy

Affordable Housing

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Inflation

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More Taxing Foolishness

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Lies of the Progressive-Democrats

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Because

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California’s Regulations

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This Move Suits Me

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Foolishness

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This Pretty Much Says It All

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