Author Archive: Stephen Green
July 11, 2017
HENRY PAYNE: Did Trump Just Save the U.S. Auto Industry?
In condemning the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Accords, media darling and former Obama EPA official Marge Oge told the New York Times that “the rest of the world is moving forward with electric cars. If the Trump administration goes backward, the U.S. won’t be able to compete globally.”
In reality, the opposite is true. Thanks to less-stringent emissions rules and low gas prices, the U.S. is essential to most automakers’ profits, driving as it does the high-margin sales of popular pickup trucks and SUVs that can’t be sold elsewhere in the world. GM, for example, withdrew from the European market this year because its small cars are unprofitable there.
Ford joined the corporate chorus in condemning Trump’s Paris withdrawal saying that “we believe climate change is real, and remain deeply committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our vehicles and our facilities.” Yet the politically correct statement would seem a financial death wish. Some 80 percent of Ford’s profit reportedly comes from U.S. pickup sales. A France-like gas-engine ban to satisfy CO2 targets would destroy the company’s bottom line.
Selling vehicles people want at prices they can afford while earning a healthy profit? Outrageous.
THERE’S A METHOD TO THIS MADNESS: San Francisco And California Take Additional Steps Toward Lawlessness.
Jazz Shaw:
Clearly San Francisco is upping their game when it comes to defying the law here. Some quasi-sanctuary cities have put less official policies in place which allow officers the option of not cooperating with ICE or asking suspects about their immigration status. But San Francisco has chosen to go with an all-out ban, forbidding their police from performing routine actions which would assist in upholding the law and protecting their own citizens from dangerous, criminal illegal aliens. It’s particularly ironic in light of the recent congressional action mentioned above, since their city was the home to Kathryn Steinle at the time of her brutal murder by an illegal alien who had already been deported multiple times.
Meanwhile, back in the state capital, California as a whole was moving in a similar direction. State senator Kevin de Leon has gotten his pet bill out of committee and it’s one which would, if enacted, turn the Golden State into one of the most hostile environments for immigration enforcement in the nation.
Jazz concludes: “Locking federal ICE agents out of law enforcement databases and physically blocking them from entering jails and courthouses is just about as far as one could imagine a state going in terms of lawlessness. That’s no longer just a policy difference… it’s aiding and abetting criminals while gutting the rule of law.”
Well, yes. But you can’t establish the New Feudalism without breaking a few eggs.
PATRICK POOLE: U.S. Soldier Arrested for Supporting the Islamic State.
HITTING A BULLET WITH ANOTHER BULLET: US successfully tests THAAD missile system amid North Korean tensions.
THAAD is used to intercept short and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It does not target intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. has a perfect record on launches, hitting 14 out of 14 targets.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the government and contractor team who executed this flight test today,” said Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves. “This test further demonstrates the capabilities of the THAAD weapon system and its ability to intercept and destroy ballistic missile threats. THAAD continues to protect our citizens, deployed forces and allies from a real and growing threat.”
Fox News was told it will be a few hours before imagery and video are released.
Soldiers from the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade on Kodiak conducted launcher using the same procedures they would use in an actual combat scenario, the statement read. Soldiers operating the equipment were not aware of the actual target launch time.
Well done.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Two years after the bailout, life in Greece has gotten more miserable.
The economy is stagnant, unemployment hovers around 25% and is twice as high for young adults, taxes are rising, and wages are falling. Half of Greek homeowners can’t make their mortgage payments and another quarter can’t afford their property taxes, according to the Bank of Greece.
“All these years, I’ve heard dozens of promises from the current and the previous governments on creating new jobs and bettering conditions in the country, but I never believed anything of what I heard,” said Nikos Theodoridis, 57, who became homeless during the economic crisis that began in 2007.
“Homelessness and the crisis are still here, despite all that politicians are saying,” said Theodoridis, who makes a paltry living hawking magazines on the street.
On July 5, 2015, voters soundly rejected the terms of a proposed bailout with international lenders because the plan demanded too much austerity. Yet, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza Party ignored the referendum results and signed a third bailout deal that would provide nearly $100 billion in loans the country desperately needed to avoid collapse.
Tsipras, whose party gained power on a pledge to resist further austerity requirements, reversed itself and adopted more budget and pension cuts. In June, he negotiated the latest payment of $9.7 billion.
Many Greeks now are resigned to living in poverty under the deal. “It’s our fault,” said Vasiliki Gova, 52, a cleaning woman who gained national attention by staging a two-year protest outside the Ministry of Finance where she had been laid off from her job. “People were looking for hope and put all their hopes on politicians. But no messiah will come save us.”
Greeks spent a lot of money they didn’t have, then the bill came due. Greece has been down this road before, but never so far. Belonging to the eurozone allowed them to borrow at the same low rate as thrifty Germans — like giving dad’s Platinum American Express to a reckless teenager. Needless to say, they ran up some big bills. Even worse, their attachment to the euro means that this time they can’t devalue their way out like they have in previous debt crises.
Another case of “bad luck,” I suppose.
MORNING BRIEF: It’s Liz Sheld versus the New York Times.
THE DYING MIDDLE CLASS: The Number Of Americans That Can’t Afford Their Own Homes Has More Than Doubled.
For years I have been documenting all of the numbers that show that the middle class in America has been steadily shrinking, and we just got another one. According to a report that was produced by researchers at Harvard University, the number of Americans that spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing has more than doubled. In 2001, nearly 16 million Americans couldn’t afford the homes that they were currently living in, but by 2015 that figure had jumped to 38 million.
When I write about “economic collapse”, I am writing about a process that has been unfolding for decades in this country. Back in the early 1970s, well over 60 percent of all Americans were considered to be “middle class”, but now that number has fallen below 50 percent. Never before in our history has the middle class been a minority of the population, but that is where we are at now, and the middle class continues to get even smaller with each passing day.
Michael Snyder argues the main culprit is health insurance premiums rising far faster than mostly stagnant incomes, but the longterm decline in entrepreneurship isn’t exactly helping.
California’s war on affordable housing is undoubtedly another factor.
THEY PLANNED… POORLY: How Energy-Rich Australia Exported Its Way Into an Energy Crisis.
Australia now exports so much liquefied natural gas, or LNG, it may overtake No. 1 exporter Qatar within several years. It exported 62% of its gas production last year, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
Yet its policy makers didn’t ensure enough gas would remain at home. As exports increased from new LNG facilities in eastern Australia, some state governments let aging coal plants close and accelerated a push toward renewable energy for environmental concerns. That left the regions more reliant on gas for power, especially when intermittent sources such as wind and solar weren’t sufficient.
Shortages drove domestic gas prices earlier this year in some markets in eastern Australia to as high as $17 per million British thermal units for smaller gas users such as manufacturers. On the spot market, gas prices have gone from below $1 in 2014 to roughly $7 today—well above the roughly $3 that prevails in the U.S.—causing havoc around the country.
In March, Australia’s largest aluminum smelter cut production and laid off workers because it said it couldn’t secure enough cheap energy.
Bad luck.
CHARLIE MARTIN IS ANGRY. YOU’LL LIKE CHARLIE MARTIN WHEN HE’S ANGRY: And They Claim TRUMP Is Collaborating With Russia?
Golly, folks at WaPo, does no one see the problem here?
The article starts out:
Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried “eyes only” instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides.
Okay, look: if it’s so sensitive that it can’t be in the Presidential Daily Brief but it’s delivered “eyes only” to Obama and three aides, what is it doing in the Washington Post?!
Oh, and just in passing, we have Clapper, Obama and three aides. Which three aides? You’ve just told us that someone revealed that information to you, and it pretty much has to be one of those five people. Unless there’s a secret pardon for them, one of them just violated the Espionage Act.
Read the whole thing.
July 10, 2017
RETAIL BLUES: 33 depressing photos that show Sears is a disaster.
I haven’t been in a Sears in ten years. Even then, getting me there took a dishwasher dying during the second of five Thanksgiving dinner loads — and the difference between then and now is almost unbelievable.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Sen. Al Franken is back in the funny business. Technically.
ARCHEOLOGY: Contents of 25 personal letters written by Romans nearly 2,000 years ago to be revealed after they were found near Hadrian’s Wall. “One of the letters was written by a man called Masclus, who is best known for a previous letter to his Commanding Officers asking for more beer, this time asking for leave from work.”
Soldiering never changes.
BERNIE SANDERS: The Republican Health Care Bill Is Worse Than 9/11.
Will no one on the Left denounce this dangerously inflammatory rhetoric?
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO LICK AND GROPE FELLOW PASSENGERS: In-flight groping aboard Alaska Airlines lands Oregon woman probation.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Even By Keynes’ Standards, Cash For Clunkers Was A Complete Failure.
Three economists (from MIT and Tex A&M) have crunched the numbers and discovered that Obama’s Cash-for-Clunkers scheme back in 2009 was a failure even by Keynesian standards.
The abstract of the study tells you everything you need to know.
The 2009 Cash for Clunkers program aimed to stimulate consumer spending in the new automobile industry, which was experiencing disproportionate reductions in demand and employment during the Great Recession. Exploiting program eligibility criteria in a regression discontinuity design, we show nearly 60 percent of the subsidies went to households who would have purchased during the two-month program anyway; the rest accelerated sales by no more than eight months. Moreover, the program’s fuel efficiency restrictions shifted purchases toward vehicles that cost on average $5,000 less. On net, Cash for Clunkers significantly reduced total new vehicle spending over the ten month period.
This is remarkable. At the time, the most obvious criticism of the scheme was that it would simply alter the timing of purchases.
And scholars the following year confirmed that the program didn’t have any long-run impact.
But now we find out that there was impact, but it was negative.
You don’t create wealth by destroying it, and you don’t alleviate stagnant incomes by making things more expensive — which shouldn’t be news to anyone but the most devoted followers of Keynes.
ROBERT SPENCER: Yes, Linda Sarsour Did Incite Violence Against President Trump.
GOOD LORD: Nearly half of Japanese people are entering their 30s without any sexual experience, leaving the country facing a steep population decline.. “Some men claimed they ‘find women scary’ as a poll found that 43 per cent of people aged 18 to 34 from the island nation say they are virgins.”
From samurai culture to afraid of girls in just three generations.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Compare and contrast: Thousands of randy Scots sign up to ‘Uber for escorts’ sex delivery app.
I SUPPOSE THIS MEANS ANOTHER FIVE OR SIX PIRATES MOVIES: Johnny Depp, Ex-Business Manager Trade Blame for Lost Riches.
A preliminary skirmish is scheduled for Monday in Los Angeles, where Depp’s lawyers will ask a state judge to throw out counterclaims by the Management Group that it isn’t to blame for his extravagant spending. The management company Depp fired last year alleges the actor repeatedly ignored its warnings that his $2-million-a-month lifestyle, including $30,000 just for wine, wasn’t sustainable.
“When Depp was confronted by TMG or any of his other advisers about his spending, he most often engaged in profanity-laced tirades where he abused the professionals surrounding him and claimed that he would work harder to afford whatever new item he wanted to purchase,” the company said in a court filing.
The items Depp wanted — and paid for — included a 45-acre chateau in the South of France, a chain of islands in the Bahamas, a 150-foot luxury yacht, art works by Andy Warhol and Gustav Klimt, 70 collectible guitars, 40 full-time employees around the world and a specially made cannon that he used to blast the ashes of Hunter Thompson over Aspen, Colorado, according to his former business managers.
Nic Cage could not be reached for comment.
BRUCE BAWER: The Terrifying Way Sweden Is Killing Itself.
This is a country where rapes by Muslim men are systematically ignored by the authorities or responded to with minimal punishment. Routinely, Swedish courts refuse to return these monsters – some of whom have repeatedly subjected small boys and girls to violent sexual abuse – to their home countries for fear that they’ll be put in danger. In other words, Swedish judges care more about the safety of foreign rapists than that of Swedish children.
It’s a country where even prominent Swedish feminists – fanatical boosters of multiculturalism – are now moving out of Muslim-heavy neighborhoods not only because of the Muslim rapists but because of the Muslim “morality police,” who are less concerned with monitoring rapists than with controlling women’s conduct. (One such feminist organized “coffee shop meetings” with Muslim male community leaders in an attempt to resolve the situation, but gave up.)
It’s a country where the government rolls out the red carpet for returning ISIS members, giving them special benefits, in hopes that they’ll see the light and put down their weapons.
Read the whole thing.
CORD CUTTERS: Amazon Prime Households On Track To Exceed Cable TV Subs In The U.S. By Next Year.
I wonder if Jeff Bezos is considering expanding AWS into an internet provider, to take on Comcast in more than just content.
FASTER, PLEASE: Obamacare’s Basket Of Insurance Mandates Should Be The First Thing To Go.
Repeal of the mandates in this session, preferably in 2017, is a bottom line. If the mandates are not repealed, it would be a serious betrayal of voters, and grounds for mounting primary challenges to incumbents. DC politicians don’t seem to grasp that the mandates, as originally conceived, are fascistic. Justice John Roberts seemed to understand that in NFIB v. Sebelius when he wrote that the Commerce Clause doesn’t allow Congress to command Americans to buy things. But then he concluded that the command (i.e., mandate) was really an option, and that the penalty was really a tax, thus saving Obamacare (while creating a whole new chapter in American jurisprudential incoherence).
If the mandates are repealed, many young folks will opt to go without health insurance. But that can be a rational decision. A young person wishing to amass funds to buy a house, or start a family or a business might decide that taking the risk of having no health insurance is worth it. Maybe youngsters would decide differently if health insurance weren’t so damned expensive.
And maybe, just maybe, they should be allowed to make that decision for themselves without coercion.