patrick.net

Taxes and regulations were raised. This hinders GDP growth.

Cash for Clunkers was always stupid. As for the rest of the stuff, there are plenty of counterarguments (and cherry-picking quotes without context doesn't count as an argument). Higher taxes on well-off people doesn't have to hinder GDP growth (see Clinton). Some regulations also create jobs (and you can't really name specific ones that have hindered GDP growth, I'm guessing).

Solyndra, this was doomed before the plans were even drawn up. Green jobs another bunch of baloney. But this didn't really matter in the big picture since we all knew it was bullshit.

Obama wants to sic the EPA on people creating jobs and energy.

This is utter nonsense. Solyndra was part of a portfolio, and the rest of the portfolio is doing well. But keep saying "Solyndra" to identify yourself as clueless about that.

In addition, green energy jobs are growing quite quickly -- don't know why you'd want to shoot them down if you care about economic growth.

he chose health care as the #1 priority while millions of people were out of work. He used the opportunity to further a political agenda to change health care rather than focus on the actual problem that most Americans were concerned about.

You think a lot of Americans don't care about healthcare? I'm pretty sure I can find a lot of evidence to the contrary. Last I checked, *Congress* passed the Affordable Care Act, and Obama played almost no role in its composition (which is something I would criticize -- I think the White House should have taken a larger hand in crafting the legislation). The Obama administration did play a role in implementing it, but that's what the executive branch does, last I checked.

The reality is that presidents have very little control over the course of the world economy and the US economy, and the constitution ensures that. Otherwise, you're asking for what HydroCabron said.

46150 corntrollio 2014 May 9, 5:49am

Behzad says

Just released the report on the housing market which shows the active listings inventory for Single Family Homes in Marin increased 14% to a season high in the month of April. Sales continue to be strong with the number of sold listings increasing by 28% month-over-month...

Why would we care about month-over-month numbers? They are useless because used-house sales are seasonal. It's quite obvious that sales and inventory in certain months are typically higher than other months.

46151 clambo 2014 May 9, 6:06am

Solyndra was dead before they built it and spent $500 million of our money.

The reality is Obama focused on an issue that was secondary rather than help job creators who are small business entrepreneurs.

These people know that their taxes were raised, their paperwork increased, Obamacare raises their regulations and costs.

Obama of course was involved in Obamacare, he ran on it in 2008.

I don't believe that a president can do much to help an economy without congress and the only way to do that is to encourage production.

Regulations, siccing EPA on people, Siccing guys on Gibson Guitar, Obamacare, Cap and tax (defeated by the house republicans), new taxes, fees, car mileage requirements, all combine to depress economic growth.

If Ford and GM decided that they make their best profits on large vehicles, e.g. Ford F-150, why is Obama meddling and saying they need to make small cars? "Why can't GM make a Corolla?"

How about Ford can choose which market segment they want to sell most in? How about freedom to conduct your business the way you want to?

46152

Paralithodes 2014 May 9, 7:13am

You are being disingenuous. There are no 100k medical device makers or anywhere even close. I doubt there are very many if any less than 10 million dollar medical device makers. A 90k fee isn't holding anyone back from entering the field.

It is you who is disingenuous, or blind. Aside from any small manufacturers, which do exist at that very level, you fail to acknowledge what impact this can happen on startups... Unless you simply think that any small business (a sole proprietorship with one product, maybe operating part time even) is just not worth the time.... A $90K fee isn't holding anyone back? That's pretty amazing!

Your point is big corporations use taxes and regulations to restrict competition. Very true. My point is you picked a very bad example where there is a legitimate reason for the fees. Industry should pay for fees for government services needed in order conduct their business. Surely you are not going to say that medical devices should be self regulated and will be safe because of the high levels of civic responsiblity of medical device makers?

You say it's a bad example because you deny that there are any manufacturers operating at $100K per year at all, and are probably none operating under $10M per year. If that were true, or relevant, then you would have a point. Of course, your entire assertion begs another big question: WHY are there only manufacturers operating at $10M or more per year? Certainly the "free market" would not be the only reason given how highly regulated the medical industry is.

But, you are wrong in the first place. There are small companies - startups and long-existing ones - who create smaller devices, etc. The large corporations, with government assistance, haven't killed them all yet. A little bit of Google and you can find plenty of examples of small companies.

Bottom line: The fee was yet another thing added in the last decades, and even at 38% of the full charge, has a significantly greater impact on a startup or small business than it does on a GE Medical. I didn't even address the ACA tax, which is right out of an Ayn Rand novel (taxing revenues, not profits). Regardless of whether one believes is good or bad, it is still indisputably another higher cost.

Increasing compliance costs affect small business more than large corporations, as do increasing rents, labor costs, material costs, transportation costs, etc. etc etc.. Small business are more nimble and are free from large amounts of organizational overhead. It's all part of the game. Large business have used government to stifle competition since the dawn of time. You haven't discovered anything new here.

It's nothing new.... Therefore no one should bother complaining about it or pointing it out? OK, give your own advice a try when you discuss the "rich," wealth, taxes, etc., on all of the so-called "liberal" positions....

Increasing compliance costs, etc., make small businesses less nimble - THAT is the effect of the game that you say exists. A large business may support (or even help write) legislation that increases its own overhead costs because they know that the smaller competitors simply cannot absorb it, while they can.

Perhaps small business creation, entrepreneurship, etc., is simply not important to many of the posters here... Wonder why... perhaps because they might not be as easy to control...

46153

Paralithodes 2014 May 9, 7:19am

Call it Crazy says

Nope, don't think so... You posted in #22 above: Summary of the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act of 2002

The one I posted was instituted as part of the ACA as an Excise Tax, not a user fee...

Bob was referring to the right one. He dismissed the argument by making the false assertion that there are no small businesses in the medical industry that are ~$100K per year, or even under $10M. If his assertion was correct, which it is, I would be forced to agree with him. Because it is not, he did not refute my example at all. He could continue to argue this particular example all that he wants, but what would be the point since he already acknowledges the very core of the issue.

46154 corntrollio 2014 May 9, 7:23am

Solyndra was dead before they built it and spent $500 million of our money.

I knew people who work there who would disagree, but the economy did change during the time period. The rest of the portfolio has done quite well, as you still ignore -- Solyndra was one of several businesses in the portfolio. In any case, Solyndra is almost completely irrelevant to why *Obama* did anything because most of the groundwork that resulted in the approval was under Bush. But keep saying Solyndra, you'll keep sounding ignorant.

http://econweb.umd.edu/~haltiwan/size_age_paper_R&R_Aug_16_2011.pdf

rather than help job creators who are small business entrepreneurs.

More complex than that, actually -- that's just a sound bite that politicians like, but it's more nuanced than that in reality. Small business are also huge job destroyers because they frequently fail.

Siccing guys on Gibson Guitar

Gibson admitted to violating the law. End of story. You are okay with selectively enforcing federal law, I take it?

"Why can't GM make a Corolla?"

I don't know if you were making a joke, but GM *did* make a Corolla in Numi. They just called it a Chevy Nova, and then they called it a Geo Prizm (and later a Chevy Prizm).

Cap and tax (defeated by the house republicans)

Last I checked, Republicans wanted cap and trade as an alternative to a carbon tax until Democrats said they wanted it.

Obamacare

Last I checked, Republicans wanted Obamacare as an alternative to HillaryCare until Democrats said they wanted it. See also, the Heritage Foundation which was for Obamacare before it was against Obamacare. Also, last I checked, *Congress* passed the Affordable Care Act, and the Obama administration had almost no hand in writing it (a strategy which I disagree with).

Note that both of the above items require an act of Congress, not a president.

You can keep saying regulations all you want, but Congress passes laws that allow agencies to make regulations under the authority of those laws. They may not exceed the authority of that law, and if Congress wishes to reverse those regulations than an agency is permitted to make, then Congress can do so. This has nothing to do with presidents regulating the economy through some command structure.

You're not really making a coherent argument here. You're hand-waving at "regulations" basically. The overall magnitude of an act of Congress is far larger than anything a president can do.

46155

Paralithodes 2014 May 9, 7:54am

http://www.city-journal.org/2014/cjc0509mm.html

Call it Crazy says

The one I posted was instituted as part of the ACA as an Excise Tax, not a user fee...

Go back further, I talked about ACA excise tax. Affects everyone the same anyway. It's a tax not a regulation.

Does it affect an existing profitable company in the same way that it affects a startup which may not be profitable for several years? By "affects" I mean, is it applied exactly the same: a company would pay the tax on the revenue regardless of profit?
This is a sincere question - not rhetorical - because I don't know the answer.

46156 Robert Sproul 2014 May 10, 12:38am

Interesting commentary by Charles Hugh Smith on this chart and subject:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay14/small-biz5-14.html

"1. Barriers erected by cartels and the government. Cartels prosper by eliminating competition, and the easiest, cheapest way to restrict competition is to influence government to create regulatory barriers that raise the cost to levels no small business can afford. There are dozens of examples of regulations that do little to "protect the public" (the usual rationalization) whose primary intent and effect is to suppress competition."

46157

indigenous 2014 May 10, 12:50am

Robert Sproul says

Cartels prosper by eliminating competition

Good point, a NY taxi license is 500k for one taxi.

46158

indigenous 2014 May 10, 12:50am

"The Obama administration last week released a long-anticipated policy paper with an innocuous title: â€œBig Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values.â€ Valley executives, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs should read it for insight into why and how big government plans to engage the once-dynamic and lightly regulated high-tech industry. â€œIt is the responsibility of government,â€ the report declares, â€œto ensure that transformative technologies are used fairly and employed in all areas where they can achieve public good.â€ That statement is a portent for increasing collisions between West Coast entrepreneurs and East Coast regulators."

46159

indigenous 2014 May 10, 2:23am

"This is in fact the reason why no amount of data mining and statistical analysis will ever settle disputes in the field of economics. Keynesian economists will forever quote historical data from around the Great Depression as evidence of their crisis theories and policy recommendations, just as those who subscribe to monetary explanations of the business cycle (as we â€œAustriansâ€ do) will forever cite the same or similar data in support of their theories. It is a common complaint that anything can be proven with statistics, and in the field of economic debate this seems to be true to a large degree. (I subscribe to the â€œAustrianâ€ explanation of economic crises not because it fits the data better but because it fits the principles of economics, the laws of economics that allow us to analyse the cycle in the first place. A detailed analysis of Keynesian theories leads to conflicts and mismatches with some key economic principles. This makes this theory much less convincing.)"

46160

indigenous 2014 May 10, 2:25am

"In the 1990s, Paul Krugman was known as a free-trade Keynesian. When financier Sir James Goldsmith published his anti-free trade pamphlet â€œThe Trapâ€ in 1994, Krugman criticized it and Krugman correctly pointed out that Sir James failed to grasp even the basics of trade. Appropriately, Krugman referred Goldsmith to Ricardoâ€™s work and the great economistsâ€™ essential a priori insights as to the benefits of trade, benefits that must even accrue to allegedly â€œinferiorâ€ (less productive) trading partners (see my earlier point on Ricardoâ€™s theorem). Ricardo, who had then already been dead for 170 years, did not have the better data but the better theory, as Krugman rightly acknowledged."

46161

indigenous 2014 May 10, 2:34am

"Economic science versus natural science: The fundamental difference

â€œâ€™All daffodils I have seen have been yellow, so the ones I have still to see will probably also be yellowâ€™; refinements apart, the generalizations of natural science all rest on reasoning of this type, and none of them are certain, in the sense that we can see them to be necessarily true.â€ (Brand Blanshard, Reason and Analysis, 1962).

Natural scientists observe that A always coincides with B and make inferences from this â€œcoincidenceâ€. In analyzing inanimate objects and instinct-driven non-human animals, this has been a very powerful technique. Why? â€“ Because in the â€œnatural worldâ€ there appear to be many regularities and reasonably stable relationships that allow us to make these inferences. Or, to put it differently, the natural world does not know valuing, purposeful behavior, or â€œfree willâ€. This changes fundamentally when we introduce human action."

46162

indigenous 2014 May 10, 2:36am

"Humans appear to be unique in that they consciously act, that is, evaluate a situation, make choices, purposefully interfere with their surroundings, and consciously re-shape part of their environment. At the core of this process is the act of valuation, of preferring one thing to another. None of this is observable in non-human affairs. It is the unique feature of human action, and human action itself (not the consequences of it in the physical world) is the subject matter of economics. As Mises pointed out, one day we may be able to determine which chemical or physical processes cause a person to prefer A to B in a specific situation, but until we have done so there remains an unbridgeable gap between natural phenomena and the phenomena of human action, and they require fundamentally different techniques (this is called methodological dualism). When dealing with humans we have to assume an element of â€œfree willâ€."

46163

Tenpoundbass 2014 May 10, 2:50am

OK let's all pretend that it's NOT Obama's fault.

But now you REALLY have to ask your self...

"What in the fuck is he doing to fix it?"

Especially when he's so hell bent on having the middle class finance his grandiose visions of socialism. One would think, that he would recognize he needs a shit load more of entrepreneurs so he could tax more.

46164

indigenous 2014 May 10, 2:56am

CaptainShuddup says

"What in the fuck is he doing to fix it?"

That is the problem, it's like FDR all over again.

46165

indigenous 2014 May 10, 3:23am

â€œâ€¦the sciences of human action differ radically from the natural sciences. All authors eager to construct an epistemological system of the sciences of human action according to the pattern of the natural sciences err lamentably.

46166

Tenpoundbass 2014 May 10, 3:24am

indigenous says

CaptainShuddup says

"What in the fuck is he doing to fix it?"

That is the problem, it's like FDR all over again.

Sometime the problem with what someone did, was what they didn't do.

When I say "what is he going to do" I don't mean give small businesses incentives or any unfair advantage.

All I expect is our government to make sure that large corporations
A)aren't given an unfair advantage over small busieness or any business for that matter.
B)make sure that large corporations aren't using their money, might and power to give them an ufair advantage that is detrimental to small business growth.

NOw please don't play stupid, it's only the very same fucking considerartion that OBama's hand picked Greenie bastard's got, when our Government stepped in and interviened when China tried to give us Cheap solar panels.

Well guess what?

We fucking GOT Chinese solar panels, OH YES WE DID.
Our Obama funded Solar panel companies CEO's raided their Tax funded company and drove them into bankrupcy, then formed new corporations that took full advantage of those cheap Chinese solar panels. Who now buys them, for pennies on the dollar over what they made them for. Then mark them up to the point. That now you can buy Solar panels for less than half of what they cost in 2008-2012. When we were making them. But still double over what the Chinese were offering them to the American public.

Large corporations who are in the FIX, got the savings, and passed the fucking on to the consumer.

That's what I mean when I say our government should "Do something".

Quit being obtuse.

46167

indigenous 2014 May 10, 3:41am

CaptainShuddup says

When I say "what is he doing to" I don't mean give small busienss incintives or any unfair advantage.

That is small potatoes, I'm talking about the ACA, Frank Dodd, and TBTF

All this shit is a gargantuan yoke to the economy, directly and indirectly.

Fuck the small shit, I'm talking about nation ending shit.

46168

Bellingham Bill 2014 May 10, 4:13am

indigenous says

Fuck the small shit, I'm talking about nation ending shit.

ACA is the first step of the transition from our truly disastrously rapacious national health system to one more like the rest of the world, with cost controls and more -- at least more effective, since prior to ACA gov't -per-capita expenditure on health was already more than many other nation's total expenditure -- government intervention.

ACA is far from "nation ending". Stop watching Fox, get out in the world, grow a fucking brain, and learn how to use it.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=Ak2

Gov't expense on health care / GDP.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=Ak4

private expense / GDP, showing it go from 9% in the 1990s to 11% when the economy tanked and the denominator melted away.

UK and Germany have 40% tax-to-GDP, many other eurosocialist states are pushing 50%. The US is down at 27%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP

the bottom line is simply we've given ourselves too many tax cuts and allowed the 1% and 0.1% to accumulate too much economic and political power now, power that conservatives are apparently honor-bound to defend to their dying breath.

We've also made colossal malinvestments in empire-building, conservative enterprises the GOP are trying to slow-walk from today, or at least not pay for via the higher taxes necessary to retire these trillion dollar debts run up since 2001.

We can argue bullshit all day and all week, but the bottom line is health care, education, real estate, legal services, finance, transportation -- all higher-order functionality of our economy -- has become rather completely fucked over by rent-seeking "professional" class and legislative partisan gridlock.

Compounding matters is our colossal trade deficit that is making our national fisc increasing unstable, as we are not even able to fully support ourselves, unlike the more successful export-oriented eurosocialist states.

Hell, even Greece is running a trade surplus now.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303775504579392520969915920

46169

RWSGFY 2014 May 10, 4:22am

I will decide whether I'm pro or against this when I learn the details of the implementation. ;)

46170

indigenous 2014 May 10, 4:24am

t least more effective, since prior to ACA gov't -per-capita expenditure on health was already more than many other nation's total expenditure -- government intervention.

What makes you think that gov't intervention did not cause the high per capita health care costs in the first place?

-- has become rather completely fucked over by rent-seeking.

The rent seeking is as much by public unions as by cronies.

http://www.biv.com/article/20140508/BIV0111/140509925/vancouver-sees-the-country-8217-s-biggest-drop-in-new-home-prices

Compounding matters is our colossal trade deficit that is making our national fisc increasing unstable, as we are not even able to fully support ourselves, unlike the more successful export-oriented eurosocialist states.

The trade deficit is not of too much consequence albeit when it runs too long in one direction, as with China as industries are lost, mercantilism is too much of a benefit to the government as with Germany and China at the expense of their people.

46171

indigenous 2014 May 10, 5:03am

I might add that one of the problems with the trade deficit is that Milton Friedman created a floating exchange rate that automatically adds to the money supply. The target amount is 3%, imagine what that looks like compounded over 40 years. This means that there is plenty of inflated money to buy Chinese goods.

46172

epitaph 2014 May 10, 5:30am

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet...

46173 Entitlemented 2014 May 10, 7:18am

Tax Oxygen, Sunlight, Time, Space, and every element on the periodic table.

Trust me when I say that Tax and Spend and Outsourcing is going to work if we just give it enough time. Another couple of years, decades, centuries and Millenia will prove this soon enough.

46174

Vicente 2014 May 10, 7:22am

justme says

Senator Mark DeSaulnier is a fool. What a royally stupid idea. The correct solution is HIGHER GASOLINE TAX.

The point is road financing, not punishing or promoting particular behaviors.

Everyone wants a free lunch, nobody wants to pay for it.

46175

John Bailo 2014 May 10, 7:22am

Vicente says

If you cut that stream drastically by driving hybrids or electrics

If the electrics use hydrogen in a fuel cell, then standard fuel taxes would apply.

If they use batteries, then aren't utilities already charging taxes?

Hybrids still use both gasoline and (taxed?) electricity (if they are plugins).

In all cases, it would seem that the idea of a per mile tax already exists by virtual of fuel consumption. Unless someone is running his car in neutral all day.

46176

John Bailo 2014 May 10, 7:27am

Vancouver sees the countryâ€™s biggest drop in new home prices

The price of new homes dipped in the twelve months to March, according to the New Housing Price index released by Statistics Canada May 8.

Year-over-year, prices were 1.1% lower than a year ago. This represents the biggest drop in the country compared with all other major cities. Ottawa-Gatineau came in second place with a decrease of 1.0%.

Victoria (down 0.9%), Edmonton (down 0.1%) and Charlottetown (down 0.4%) were the only other cities where prices dropped over the year.

Vancouver is the canary on the tar sands.

46177

Bellingham Bill 2014 May 10, 7:36am

Heraclitusstudent says

Is this the decline of standards of living, or is this deliberately organized scarcity?

The best land is always claimed first.

Land value comes from more than the natural amenity of location or just its natural productivity (ag or mineral), it is largely driven by what commercial, governmental, and cultural amenities are accessible in the local community.

Canada, on the top half of the continent but with less population than California, has 60 acres per capita, but most of these acres have minimal community amenities.

shows ~6 major metro areas. That's where the land value is.

A very similar story applies for Australia, alas.

Tons of land, but you've always got to outbid somebody else for the good locations that are accessible to and thus provide a modern, 21st century standard of living.

This is the basic thesis of Henry George's Progress and Poverty. Discovering it last decade was a real a ha! moment, LOL.

46178

Vicente 2014 May 10, 7:38am

John Bailo says

If they use batteries, then aren't utilities already charging taxes?

That isn't earmarked for ROADS. You want to tinker with the structure fine, but to data it's been fairly simple, tax the fuel to pay for the roads. Now it's getting complicated.

46179

Eman 2014 May 10, 10:32am

edvard2 says

There's a big difference between having 5.5 million 'worth' in assets versus being actually worth 5.5 million bucks. Nevertheless, different people have different things they invest in because they feel they are either safer, better, or more likely to generate income. ALL are risks. Real Estate is perhaps a bigger risk since its value is heavily tied to the overall job market and in particular the success of the middle class. Seeing as how the middle class has been stagnate for years with little evidence in any meaningful change, that is a consideration.

Yes, all are risks. I know you're biased toward stock while I'm biased toward real estate. Our debate will likely go no where so we will have to agree to disagree.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.

46180 Entitlemented 2014 May 10, 10:37am

Share of Stimulus going to banks and lawyers, FOO = 100%.

Share of stimulus going to firms that can have ROI=0%.

Any questions?

46181

Eman 2014 May 10, 10:38am

Gotta love my partner. He rents that 4-bedroom house in Brazil for $1,150/month, and he's charging the visitors an average $100/night/room. He's almost fully booked. The "Beautiful and Spacious Suite" is his own bedroom. LOL! He's truly a business man.

https://www.airbnb.com/s?host_id=10133644

46182

Bellingham Bill 2014 May 10, 10:59am

edvard2 says

Real Estate is perhaps a bigger risk since its value is heavily tied to the overall job market and in particular the success of the middle clas

Demographics is going to drive a lot. Unlike smartphones, we can't import land, and we're not building near enough new housing at any rate.

is the basic lay of the land, demographically from now to 2060. Blue is age 22-79, red is age 22-39, showing the induction of Gen Y (the echo boom) along with the original boomers, who are still going to occupy if not consume housing for the next few decades.

Our economy is a battle between rent-seekers, and landlords still have a very strong whip hand, even compared to ~~doctors~~ hospitals and corporate america overall.

If Coke raises prices, you can skip a week of Coke consumption or go store brand. You can't skip a week of paying the man for housing. Try it sometime at least.

46183

John Bailo 2014 May 10, 11:09am