Larry Fry's Blog Entries

American teen jobless rate hits 26 percent in worst summer season since 1940s -

In taking a trip through the Boston and Cape Cod areas this summer, I was amazed to see that just about all of the restaurants and bars (and hotels as well) were being manned by eastern European youths.  With our unemployment rate being so high these days (and getting worse), why are we allowing young people from eastern European countries to come in and take away jobs (and training) that traditionally have gone to our American high-school and college aged youths (i.e., who remain unemployed and untrained)?  Either we resolve to train and employee our American youth for these types of jobs, or we should quit all of the complaining about their high unemployment rate and let the folks from overseas continue to come in and run everything in the hotel/restaurant industries, etc.

Click on URL below for link to referenced msnbc.com’s business story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38666248/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/

“I, the undersigned, an American citizen, taxpayer, and voter -

Whereas the U.S. is facing one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression;

Whereas consumer spending and economic activity has contracted causing the downturn and high unemployment;

Whereas the Bush tax cuts, enacted in 2001 and 2003, will fully and automatically expire as of Dec. 31, 2010;

Whereas the expiration of these cuts will cause a massive tax rate increase for almost all working Americans, including those in the:

35% bracket which will increase to 39.6%,

33% bracket which will increase to 36%,

28% bracket which will increase to 31%,

25% bracket which will increase to 28%,

10% and 15% will condense to 15%;

Whereas the capital gains tax will increase from 15% to 20%;

Whereas the tax on dividends will increase from 15% to 39.6%;

We demand that our representatives in Congress fully and completely renew the Bush tax cuts; and do so without delay to ensure public confidence in the markets and economy.”

Make sense?  Then please click on the link below and sign the online petition.  Thanks!

http://leagueofamericanvoters.com/petition.aspx?s=al&promo_code=A746-1&key=7007EX

If the Cuban government (i.e., Castro) is really serious about taking a stab at state capitalism, then let’s offer to close out the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and convert it into a mega-resort and cruise ship terminal complex for Caribbean destined tourists.  The idle Cuban work force could be employed as laborers for the project and then trained as hospitality workers to be employed at the complex once it has been completed.  Cuba has a lot of potential as a Caribbean tourist destination and the Cuban government needs to recognize this fact and start trying to “capitalize” on it in order to pull the nation out of its current state of economic malaise.  The conversion of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (which is no longer needed these days) into a pristine resort complex by a top-flight entrepreneurial group would be a “win-win” proposition for all parties involved. And communist countries such as China (and now Viet Nam) are proving that state capitalism is far better than no capitalism at all, so the Cuban government needs to take heed and take action before it is too late.

The notion that Wall Street keeps its gravy train rolling by lining the pockets of our top-tier politicians with money and other influence-peddling gifts in order to condone the financiers’ actions is quite disturbing. In fact, the financiers’ claims per the paramount importance of their work as an excuse to enable them to get away with whatever they deem appropriate for themselves (e.g., awarding of excessive tax-payer financed bonuses, etc.) is very disturbing as it smacks of greed and self-centered conceit.  But the biggest rub is that these absurd bonuses were largely financed via the billions of dollars in taxpayer-financed funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and trillions in loans from both the Federal Reserve and the FDIC.  These sources of aid money were designed to help the Wall Street financial institutions deemed too big to fail to survive their own terrible misdeeds, not to excessively reward their executives for jobs NOT well-done.  This has got to be perhaps the biggest misappropriation of our hard-earned tax money that has ever transpired in the history of this country. 

Finally, as long as big money talks and remains the primary influence driver in the current socio-political (or cultural) climates across the globe, then people in power will apparently continue to walk in the direction deemed appropriate  by the big money purveyors (e.g., Goldman Sachs, George Soros, et al.).  The condoning by governments of  their large scale market manulation shenanigans for their personal gain at the expense of the taxpayers of the world speaks for itself.  And their latest ploy of shorting the Euro while playing credit default swaps (CDOs) shows that there’s no shame on their part.  Finally, even President Obama is softening up his tone towards the big banking entities and their actions. And speaking of being “too big to fail’, perhaps the US socio-economic system and federal government is falling under this same exact definition.  This splitting up (i.e., per the splitting up of  giant oil corporation Standard Oil over 100 years ago) is becoming a more realistic option over time in terms of gaining more value and growth opportunities from the resulting smaller entities that would result.

Quote of the Day  -
“The case for free markets never was that markets are perfect … [but] that government control of markets, especially asset markets, has always been much worse.”

University of Chicago professor John Cochrane, per criticism from Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and proponent of massive government intervention policies (click on URL below for his full rebuttal).

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/research/Papers/krugman_response.htm