Economics 101?

How did Mitt Romney get Rich?


Is Romney the Wrong Kind of Rich?
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"Unless something is free, with no strings attached, 50% off still means you're paying 100% of the sales price." ~ Self

Government Regulations?

Instead of accepting political talking points at face value, this blogger usually fact checks the raw numbers behind an issue or subject. One of the central themes of this election cycle is the negative impact of government regulations on job growth. Looking at the numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on February 3, 2012, considering the financial meltdown in 2008 was directly connected to the housing sector (subprime mortgage lending), it's no surprise the overall employment numbers in the construction industry remains one of the weakest segments of the economy. Read More...

The most interesting numbers released in this latest report are on page 6. If government environmental regulations are killing jobs, it's a bit curious that the overall employment numbers for the mining and logging industry are at the highest levels in more than 12 years:

"Since a low in October 2009, mining employment has expanded by 172,000, with 10,000 jobs being added in January (2012)."
~ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Additionally, since reaching a peak of 455,595 barrels in August 2006, how do Republicans explain the continued downward trend in U.S. imported crude oil and petroleum products under the Obama Administration?
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US licenses first nuclear reactors since 1978?
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Undoubtedly, there are too many government regulations. It would be refreshing for this blogger if the politicians, particularly the Republicans, would throw this avid blogger a bone and specifically pinpoint which regulations needs to be changed, dramatically altered or thrown out with the bureaucratic bath water.

When it comes to the rising price of gasoline, Americans need to understand that the emerging markets in China and India will continue to impact global oil supplies.
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"A country, like a car, is the sum total of all its parts. Remove the tires or the spark plugs and see how far a driver gets down the road." ~ Self

CBS News
The Big Three's dramatic U-turn?
In 2011, "Ford was up 11 percent. General Motors: up 13 percent. And Chrysler was up a whopping 26 percent."
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Update: Superbowl XLVI Commercial
"This country can't be knocked down by one punch. We get right back up again and when we do the world is gonna hear the roar of our engines." 
~ Clint Eastwood


Karl Rove ‘offended’ by Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler ad?
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Clint Eastwood’s Manager: Chrysler Ad ‘Not a Political Thing’?
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Why discover a new economic truth when it's politically more comfortable to continue to wrap oneself in the rhetorical status quo?
Can you say," Cost-benefit analysis"?
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Campaign Slogan of the Week:
"Bin Laden is dead
and General Motors
is alive."
~ Vice President Joe Biden
Can you say "Bumper Sticker"?

#Occupy Facebook Graphic

Wal-Mart goes GREEN?

In January 2003, for various political and economic reasons, this blogger decided to boycott shopping at Wal-Mart. Five years later, in February 2008, I walked back into a store in Beijing.

I believed corporations actually respond to the purchasing power of consumers. For example, if Americans demand more products "Made in the USA", eventually, retailers will respond by stocking more locally manufactured items. It's really not that complicated. It's called "give the people what they want" economics.

CNN Money
Wal-Mart returns to 'Buy American' roots. Really?
May 12, 2011
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Another case in point is Wal-Mart's recent business decision to install solar panels on 130 of its California stores by 2013:

PC Magazine
Walmart Goes Solar In California
September 23, 2011
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I've always found that if something is important, people, governments & corporations always find the time, energy & money to pay for IT (whatever it is).
Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart's Green Revolution (Hardcover)

Corporation Update: Shortly after I wrote this POST, Wal-Mart announced it would cut health care benefits for some part-time workers. Read More...
*Derivative photograph of marketing montage, Wal-Mart Visitor's Center, Bentonville, Arkansas (May 2010).
*Wal-Mart Store Entrance, Beijing, PRC (February 2008)

Stimulated Numbers?

Compare: This FY (fiscal year), DoD will receive approximately $126 billion for sustaining military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. How does this dollar amount compare to added domestic spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009?

Contrast: It included $53.6 billion in direct financial aid for local school districts to prevent massive layoffs & cutbacks, with the flexibility to use Stimulus Funds for school modernization and repairs (State Fiscal Stabilization Fund). Basically, it was the Federal Government's 50 State BAIL OUT in order to keep PUBLIC SCHOOLS across this country OPEN for business.
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In 2009, while GOP candidates hammered the Obama administration on the auto industry bail out, ZIP was said regarding the school district BAIL OUT. IF you're a school teacher or auto worker, ask yourself, "does the GOP really care about protecting my job?"
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Economics 101
Until Americans start voting with their wallets, it'll be almost impossible to create new manufacturing jobs in a tight global marketplace.

Toyota BUILT a billion dollar Tundra assembly plant in San Antonio, Texas because market research shows a large segment of the American truck buying public actually values where a product is manufactured.

Corporations like IBM, Microsoft, GE, Apple, GM, BP & Exxon-Mobil ONLY salute one flag: PROFITS!

Americans need to start making informed decisions about the products they buy. IF consumers value products "Made in the USA", corporations like Target & Wal-Mart will respond to the economic benefits of stocking more home grown products. Small changes in individual buying habits will eventually send a loud dollars & cents message to the world's multi-national corporations.

Once again, in case this blogger failed to hit home the central message of this particular post, IF American consumers don't value the country of origin of a product or service, why should a corporation? Free Market? What Free Market? Read More...

Photo of Portable Toilet by Peter Rimar, Baghdad, Iraq (March 2004).

A Year Without "Made in China":

One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy (Paperback)

Dear Governor Rick Perry

This POST is NOT about your rather poor grades as a student at Texas A&M. Yes, that D in the Principals of Economics is a bit alarming, but then again, it was the summer of 1970. Love was in the air. The United States had just pulled the troops out of Cambodia, President Richard Nixon lowered the voting age to 18 and Casey Kasem made his debut as the host of American Top 40.

Report cards are overrated. Just ask Glenn Beck about his DAY at Yale. Heck, Albert Einstein was a bad student. But then again, he did win the Noble Prize in Physics and helped change the whole 20th Century (but that story is for another day).

Additionally, I'm not going to waste your time writing about the 21,000 Texas wildfires (which burned 3.7 million acres of land and destroyed 1,915 homes valued at $100 million dollars). Nobody can control Mother Nature. Not even the Prophet Ron Paul. Indeed, the best time to CUT state funding for the Texas Forest Service and assistance grants for volunteer fire departments is during a drought. It makes perfect sense. Why prevent a crisis when you can look like a leader during a crisis? Why waste oil revenue on land management or funding local fire departments when the Federal Government can ride into Austin and write the state a big fat FEMA check. Just look at how much money Louisiana made by not improving the levee system around New Orleans. Why spend 30 million dollars for levees (or fire prevention) when you can milk billions of dollars from FEMA?

To be honest, when I sat down to write this commentary, I was extremely tempted to bring up your cozy business relationship with the Koch Brothers. It's expensive to run for public office. Power is crack and money buys crack. It's tough breaking the political addiction to special interest cash. IF you ever decide to seek help, Buddy Roemer has just organized a support group for Presidential Candidates (see previous Buddy post).

Anyhow, this POST is only about Social Security. Enough educated folks have written about your incorrect usage of the words Ponzi Scheme, so I won't bore you with another silly classroom lecture.


This POST has only one simple message: Wall Street will NEVER get its hands on Social Security. It is NOT a 401K investment plan. Period. So, no matter how much 527 money the Koch Brothers pump into their private Libertarian crusade, Social Security will survive. And do you know why? It's simple. This country will NEVER allow millions of senior citizens to become homeless. Even Minister Michele Bachmann took the time to read Ronald Reagan's Presidential Memo regarding Social Security.

After the Wall Street Meltdown in 2008, do you really think a majority of Americans trust the financial markets to provide a retirement safety net? Social Security is NOT broken. Who fixes low air in a tire by driving the car off a cliff? Unless of course the real political prize is to completely privatize Social Security. Am I "Fed Up"? No.

Joke of the Week:
"Dick Cheney's memoir, 'Eat, Pray, Waterboard,' has a lot of revelations. For instance, Dick Cheney was actually born in a hut in Kenya. His first heart attack occurred when he accidentally saw himself naked. He also admits to fathering Beyonce's baby." 
~ David Letterman

The Battle for Social Security:
From FDR's Vision To Bush's Gamble (Hardcover)

"Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction."
~ Warren Buffett

Minuteman III Launch Control

Oscar Zero Missile Alert Facility

Cooperstown, North Dakota (May 2010)

Dear Mitt Romney

First, if you're going to use a visual prop to roll out a 59 point jobs plan, it's a good idea to think about where that product is actually made. Apple iPhones & iPads are assembled in the People's Republic of China via Foxcomm (a Taiwanese-based company).

Additionally, at the end of July, Apple ($76 billion) was sitting on more CASH than the U.S. Treasury ($74 billion). Which means the second largest American company in the world in market value (after Exxon-Mobil) has the financial means to help create new manufacturing jobs in this country. 

Why didn't you put Apple's feet to the fire for outsourcing American jobs?

But then again, why should a multi-national corporation pay health insurance, provide its workers with decent wages or adhere to basic environmental standards when the Chinese government is ready, willing and able to undercut the competition. America is getting its butt kicked in the global economy. There's an ARMY of migrant workers (somewhere between 170 to 200 million indentured men, women & children) who work 350 days a year for $150s a month (along with basic room & board). IF a Chinese worker complains about the health & safety in a factory, the CCP's Public Security Bureau offers that worker a FREE, all-expense paid vacation to a lovely re-education camp in Inner Mongolia.

While the Tea Party screams about the Federal Budget Deficit, I wonder why this conservative movement has avoided discussing this country's continued unbalanced trade relationship with the People's Republic of China. It's rather curious that a so-called grass roots movements (bankrolled by the Koch Brothers) advocates Free Trade instead of Fair Trade.
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Second, during this Press Conference, you discussed holding the Chinese government accountable for its unfair trade practices and manipulation of its currency.

"I will not stand by while China pursues an economic development policy that relies on the unfair treatment of U.S. companies and the theft of their intellectual property. I have no interest in starting a trade war with China, but I cannot accept our current trade surrender."

You're right. No debate. However, maintaining peace in Asia has reached a critical juncture. You need to understand that the DPRK is a proxy of the CCP and PLA. Period. Also, American corporations, which over the last ten years happily relocated part of this country's industrial-capacity to Asia, share some of the economic blame.

Could you please sit down and have a conversation with Jon Huntsman about how things work in the real world?

One problem the West has with dealing with the People's Republic of China involves how the Chinese people generally view their own society. The country's vast educational system feeds its students a steady diet of historic, foreign victimization (i.e. the Opium Wars). 

Unfortunately, its created an US vs. THEM mentality which borders on xenophobic cultural nationalism. It shares some of the same political characteristics of Islamic Fundamentalism without the theologically based underpinnings.


Instead of painting the Chinese people as the enemy, your campaign message should be BUY Made in the USA. How hard can it be to turn a negative message into a positive one? Once again, IF American consumers don't value the country of origin of a product or service, why should a corporation? IF you're elected President, you'll have to confront the Chinese government on Human Rights, state-sponsored cyber-attacks, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Rare Earth Minerals and the DPRK. The best way to keep the CCP off-balanced is to speak about freedom of expression and human rights.

"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot."
~ Thomas Paine

Prior to 1979, the CCP spent 30 years trying to erase Chinese history & culture. Today, it's a different story. The only way to counter this political, social, economic and cultural linkage is to address the Chinese People and the Communist Party as separate institutions.

A global trade war targeting poor Chinese workers will only feed the Communist Party's vast propaganda machine. Many folks forget that during the Cold War, leaders in this country linked trade with the Soviet Union with the ideals of freedom of expression and a respect for human rights. It's a bit curious that today's crop of leaders don't hold foreign governments (along with American corporations) to ANY political, economic, social or environmental standards of conduct.

China Watch Update :
(9/27/11)
Taiwanese Officer arrested for spying for the CCP
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Power, Trade, and War (Paperback)

Romney Foreign Policy Update:
(10/7/11)
This blogger actually sat down and watched this candidate's televised speech from the Citadel. Afterwards, I questioned whether this man actually understood the global implications of his remarks. Evidently, I was not alone.
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...perspective...

Beijing, PRC (May 2008).

Apple Update:
(1/29/2012)
When this blogger originally posted the above commentary about this technology giant, it was to point out that if you're running for President (a.k.a. Mitt Romney), and you're concerned about turning around the economy (which is slowly recovering after the worse economic downturn since the Great Depression), Apple is the WRONG so-called American company (?) to use as a Made in the USA economic model for creating new manufacturing opportunities (i.e. jobs) in this country.

In 2008, this blogger lived in Shenzhen, China for six weeks. The information and analysis contained in the following CBS News report highlighting Apple's manufacturing operations in this Chinese city is both factual and accurate:

CBS News
The dark side of shiny Apple products
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Photos by Peter Rimar.

Economics 101?

Mirror in a tattoo shop, San Antonio, Texas (October 2009)

IF you buy a home, a new car & max out your credit card on clothes & food, at some point, you have to pay your bills. How you pay those bills directly impacts your credit rating. It's not complicated.

Debt is debt. As a person, you have several choices. You can attempt get a second job to meet your financial obligations (i.e. raise revenue), cut back on spending (i.e. reduce the size of the government), do a mix of the two methods or just give up & file for bankruptcy (DEFAULT). Your individual credit rating depends on HOW you, as an individual, respond to paying off your bills. Ignoring phone calls from the bank & the credit card companies WILL NOT solve the long term DEBT problem.

When a Presidential candidate (i.e. Michele Bachmann) gets on Face the Nation & tells the reporter that the Treasury Department can just move around money to avoid a crisis, well, that way of thinking is just plain wrong (as well as stupid).



It's NOT 1773, 1776 or 1789. 

It's 2011 and ALL of us live in a Global economy. The sooner folks recognize that reality, the sooner this country will start doing what it needs to do to COMPETE in a GLOBAL MARKETPLACE. And oh by the way, the whole Boston Tea Party thing was NOT about paying taxes. It was about "TAXATION Without Representation". Walking away from the table (on EVERY ISSUE) is NOT Representation.

All financial markets (Bond, Stock, Currency & Commodity) are built on the foundation of "confidence". Don't fool yourself. The GOP's goal is the WHITE HOUSE & NOT fixing the budget mess or the overall economy. Guys like Karl Rove & the Koch Brothers know egg-xactly what they're doing.

Once a factory closes, it's closed. Those jobs may or may not ever return. What folks don't understand is that once a manufacturing job leaves our shores, it's only a matter of time before a corporation starts to trim its white collar staff (i.e. folks who were originally hired to support a larger blue collar workforce). This delayed process of corporate contraction causes a negative, slow moving, ripple effect on the entire economy. Simply put, like it or not, in the short term, there is NO quick fix (or voodoo magic) for turning around this economy.

Anyhow, driving the global economy off a cliff to pander to the narrow whims of the Liberatarian Wing of the Republican Party is just plain NUTS! Unless of course, that's the REAL economic & political END GAME. IF that's the case, then maybe it's indeed a good time for all of us to start praying.

The Wealth of Nations (Paperback)

The lifestyles of the 'not-so-rich' and will never be famous?

Speaking of baggage, with all the political gridlock facing the 112th Congress, should I put off buying that Corporate Jet?


Does anybody have any worthwhile suggestions for the rolls of pennies, nickles and dimes I've saved?

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence?

When your house is on FIRE, it's absurd to argue with your wife about how to rearrange the furniture.

IF the American consumer doesn't value the country of origin of a product or service, why should international corporations?
Until Americans start voting with their wallets, it'll be almost impossible to create new jobs in a tight global marketplace.

"We need conservative ideas to modernize the U.S. economy and reform American government. But what we have instead are policies that don't reform but just cut and starve government — a strategy that pays little attention to history or best practices from around the world and is based instead on a theory. It turns out that conservatives are the woolly-headed professors after all." ~ Fareed Zakaria 
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Tea Party Bus

Fargo, North Dakota

(August 20th, 2010)

A "Made in Canada" bus rolling down the highway on "Spanish Tires" so American Voters could sign it with "Made In China" markers, then departing Fargo to drink even more IMPORTED OIL definitely sent a powerful political message. A Hollywood script writer couldn't even make this stuff up.

Zippo "Made In USA" Pocket Lighter