I concur with this author on both the importance of this particular renouncing of citizenship – something 1,780 wealthy Americans did in 2011(with an even greater number on track to do it in 2012) – that we need to shift entirely away from our silly income tax to a consumption based tax.

The author of this article keep calling him a “controversial investor,” yet he has had spectacularly consistent record of being correct, while the consensus investor class has been equally wrong, over the last 20 years. Unlike the Keynesian consensus, he focuses on the core economic fundamentals. I wouldn’t dismiss his predictions lightly.

This is a delightfully wonkish article outlining the major differences in the economics underlying both the Democrat and Republican policies.

GENERAL INTEREST
Bill Frezza goes all-in on “obesogenic environmental forces” and the Nanny-State that spawns such nonsense, in one of the best short pieces I’ve read all year.

Here’s a spectacular idea for local governments.

For all those Republican’s who seem afraid of Ron Paul, you need to read this article. I’m not convinced that the good Dr. ever intended to be President, but he certainly wanted to change the direction of the Republican Party, holding it accountable to its fiscally conservative roots. I predict when he gets to Tampa he’ll have racked-up enough delegates to stop an out-right Romney win on the first ballot; at which time he will be able to elicit concessions which should be enough to change the trajectory of politics for decades, much like Barry Goldwater did.

A well written article by Representative Nan Hayworth of New York on what the “real” women’s issue are.

The MN Senate race gets a mention on that mainstay of Right-wing cyberspace Townhall.com

LOCAL Letters-to-the Editor
David Anderson in the Northfield News, 11 MAY 12

Doug Jones in the Owatonna Peoples Press, 10 MAY 12

Enjoy,
Stephen Kallestad
Northfield

Copyright © 2012 Rice County Republicans
Copyright Statement
Note: If you’re reading this article on a Web site other than Chip.Cuccio.US, and there is no attribution, please contact me – because if it was republished without attribution, it violates my Copyright.

Here’s an economist’s look at the importance of the Scott Walker election to the economy.

GENERAL INTEREST
I’m a “process” kind of guy and this article explains why the caucus process is important to selecting a political nominee. When co-workers and friends ask me why I’m so involved, I tell them, “By the time you vote in November, everything has been decided for you. Everyone on that ballot is a person that I and my Party have told you that you can vote for or that people in the other party have told you that you can vote for. When you walk into the voting booth you don’t have much of a choice, the real choices were made over the course of the previous two years.”

Some say the West Virginia Democratic primary vote is a reflection of Obama’s low popularity. Maybe it’s just voters finding it refreshing to have someone admit he’s a crook before he runs for office.

“With this newer group (Republican majority of 2010), they will not compromise, it would go against principles,” he (retiring Legislator Keith Langseth) said. I find it very heartening that we finally sent a group to the State House willing to stand on principle! But this Viking Stadium debacle unfortunately shows that the house cleaning within the GOP may not yet be finished.

 
This letter does the probably the best job I’ve seen of framing the choice down in CD1.

LOCAL Letters-to-the Editor
Helen Munger in the Faribault Daily News 3MAY 12

Doug Jones in the Faribault Daily News 3MAY 12

Brian Paukert in the Faribault Daily News 1 MAY 12

Enjoy,
Stephen Kallestad
Northfield

Copyright © 2012 Rice County Republicans
Copyright Statement
Note: If you’re reading this article on a Web site other than Chip.Cuccio.US, and there is no attribution, please contact me – because if it was republished without attribution, it violates my Copyright.

The NYT unsurprisingly prints a stupid headline.   Price controls ALWAYS create shortages and black markets.  Sellers will rarely be willing to part with their valuable commodities for less than they are worth and there is always someone who will pay more because they need the product.

“History has shown that a structurally weak economy combined with a fiscally irresponsible government propped up by accommodative central-bank lending always ends badly.” Superbly said! There is no doubt there is a bond bubble; the only question is how violently it deflates.

GENERAL INTEREST
Author Doug Wead highlights the split in the Romney Republican camp in Alaska over how to deal with Ron Paul supporters. I am firmly in agreement with the this group, “Cooler heads in the Romney camp are concerned that Romney Hawks are driving young people, Hispanics and Independents to a Third Party or a “sit at home” attitude in the general election.” I am very concerned that if we do not embrace and welcome the Ron Paul movement within the GOP, the risk to state parties which actively disenfranchise delegates is cannibalizing their organization and losing not just one election, but an entire generation of activists.

A couple months ago the Catholic Bishops threw down the gauntlet over contraception in ObamaCare. They are not backing down or looking for a deal. They have just doubled-down!

”Many considerations, besides those suggested on a former occasion, seem to place it beyond doubt that the first and most natural attachment of the people will be to the governments of their respective States.”  – James Madison, Federalist #46

Here’s some interesting survey results from Pew.

I love sarcasm, especially when they’re making a valid point…and the unflinching look at the same issue.

Enjoy,
Stephen N. Kallestad
Northfield

Copyright © 2012 Rice County Republicans
Copyright Statement
Note: If you’re reading this article on a Web site other than Chip.Cuccio.US, and there is no attribution, please contact me – because if it was republished without attribution, it violates my Copyright.

This is very well written article from Walter Russell Mead , revisiting a problem I’ve written about and posted articles on before.

Here’s a topic I’ve written about numerous times. I’m glad to see someone else making this argument against the lack of robustness created by “one-size-fits-all” regulations.

Dr. Mankiw writes an absolutely superb piece for the NY Times. I would highly recommend that all Republicans read it, because it makes the economic argument for the importance of Federalism in our Country.

Any news column that mentions Grisham’s Law is probably worth posting for no other reason that to increase the understanding of this fundamental Law of economics. It’s doubly useful here, as it serves as good advise for managing your portfolio in light of it’s implications.

Long ago, in College, I remember reading “Equalities” (by Douglas Rae, et.al, 1981) which was one of those real eye–opening kind of works. They find over 700 different types of equality and come to the realization that if you try to make things more equal by one measure, you often make things less equal by another. For a very simplistic example, let’s say you wanted to divide a group of people by hair color. As you divide them you realize that you are also inadvertently dividing them by age, those with white or gray hair are disproportionately senior citizens. Likewise as many blond children’s hair turns brown as they age, the blonds may be skewed to the very young. You will also find an ethnic component as most of the people of Asian and African decent end up with the dark haired groups, etc. Things like “economic equality” are equally as arbitrary, and you run the risk of punishing certain demographics when you focus so narrowly. In this article, for example, they explore the unintended disproportional effect on senior citizens that the application of the rather arbitrary “Buffet Rule” would have.

GENERAL INTEREST
“An avalanche of paperwork as well as reduced employment for the unskilled and semi-skilled swell the cost of regulation suffered by the regulated. The trade-off indicates the optimum intensity of regulation, which may actually be zero or very limited. However, what is true for the regulated is not true for the regulator, for he suffers none of its costs, but could be severely sanctioned if “too little” regulation resulted in damage. Thus, has incentives never hold him back. For him, regulation is not too costly so long as it eliminates some risk, no matter how low the probability of the risk may be. Safety First is always the dominant rule to obey.” I do so like the writing of Anthony de Jasay.

This is an informative, yet sarcastically funny, article on the Left’s problem with selling ObamaCare.

There’s a movement afoot to restore fiscal sanity to Washington, using the power in the Constitution delegated to the States. I believe it is a worthy cause.

I find this somewhat funny on many levels. 1) President Obama has no influence over U.S. monetary policy so they’re talking to the wrong guy, they should be setting their sights on Ben Bernanke and the Fed board of governors. 2) A bunch of mercantilists making protectionist noises over a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of trade. 3) As commodities, including food, are priced in dollars on international dollars; the poorest people in these countries are starving based on inflationary food prices caused by quantitative easing, yet they don’t seem to care about that. Ridiculous.

“Patrick J. Kennedy (son of the late Ted Kennedy), the former representative from Rhode Island, who donated $35,800 to an Obama re-election fund last fall while seeking administration support for a nonprofit venture, said contributions were simply a part of “how this business works. ‘If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to make sure I do my part.’ ” President Obama seems to be flaunting his own Executive Order signed January 21, 2009.

Phil Krinkie writes an editorial about Gov. Dayton which includes one of the greatest lines of all time: “If more debt and higher taxes were the answer to job creation, America would be at full employment.”

Here are two articles on gender and the economy. The first is from CNN uses the extreme Leftist Center for American Progress as its source.  and the second is published by The Atlantic Magazine and is written by a Lefty Berkeley College Professor.

MN SENATE RACE
Just 3 weeks into his run for Senate, Kurt Bills raises $50,000 almost all of it from small donors.

Severson raises $53,000 and Pete Hegseth, reported $160,000 in first three months of 2012 for the U.S. Senate race. But Klobuchar is starting with $5.2 million in campaign cash on hand.

A massive show of support from fellow Legislators.

Enjoy,
Stephen Kallestad
Northfield

Copyright © 2012 Rice County Republicans
Copyright Statement
Note: If you’re reading this article on a Web site other than Chip.Cuccio.US, and there is no attribution, please contact me – because if it was republished without attribution, it violates my Copyright.

Here’s an article which recommends a sensible policy solution, essentially reverse the very misguided “Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act,” which in 1978 gave the Fed it’s 2nd, contradictory, mandate and destroyed any hope that the Fed could be an effective institution.

Finally good news on the economy! Last week I only saw the non-farm payroll numbers (which have predictably sent the markets into a tailspin), but this week I finally saw the household survey which showed impressive gains. The reason I posted this article is because the author correctly explains why the Household Survey leading the Establishment Non-Farm payroll numbers is an important indicator of growth. To create a visual perspective to put this in context: in the industrial park my place of work is located there is one or two large facilities on each block, the rest of the businesses are small mom-and-pop shops clustered in small buildings or suites of small buildings. These are the real job generators. If business picks up for my location and I hire a couple people, that’s great. But when these small little shops get busy, and each hire one person either part or full time, that’s hundreds of jobs. It’s the later that will have a real and lasting impact, not a large company like mine hiring a hundred people across the country, but tens of thousands of small shops each hiring one person; suddenly you have some real numbers.
Now the bad news, these are the businesses that are most susceptible to a weak dollar policy. The low interest rates that are causing commodity rates to remain stubbornly high cause the inputs into these small operators (especially energy) to cut deeply into the bottom line and are a potential bust for a little shop with a thin profit margin and relatively modest revenues. I’m hoping that high fuel prices do not cause these numbers to reverse in the near future.

It’s long been predicted that the Dodd-Frank regulation’s ultimate and unintended effect would drive money out of equities and other heavily regulated classes into those that aren’t. Many are saying this is happening now. The stock market’s primary purpose is as an engine of liquidity, a slowdown in that function bodes extremely ill for the functioning of the overall economy.

GENERAL INTEREST
Here’s a white paper that’s title says it all, “The American Welfare State: How We Spend Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty–And Fail”

Former astronauts and NASA scientists speak out against the “global warming” stance taken by NASA, which they fear will damage the reputation of the agency and destroy its credibility.

A pretty good poll on the list of priorities of the voters. Legislators and those seeking office had better focus on at least a 1/2 dozen of them or face the prospect of losing.

Many of the same problems are everywhere. Governor Dayton favoring the Teachers Union over students in opposing GOP efforts to make it easier to fire bad teachers is playing out elsewhere too.

It is always foolish to make large extrapolations from a from very limited set of data points about large dynamic systems which defy measurement. One such example is the Arctic ecosystem, where empirical evidence is contradicting some very popular models.

Finally someone is standing-up and saying (or at least being reported by the Washington Post) that the emperor has no clothes. Latest figures from a trustee for Medicare and Social Security which shows that ObamaCare will explode the budget with a $340 billion budget deficit, once the Medicare double counting and premium from the now suspended CLASS Act are removed.

Here’s a worthy bill.

Enjoy,

Stephen N. Kallestad
Northfield

Copyright © 2012 Rice County Republicans
Copyright Statement
Note: If you’re reading this article on a Web site other than Chip.Cuccio.US, and there is no attribution, please contact me – because if it was republished without attribution, it violates my Copyright.