Home2015May

Bernie Sanders’ Socialism In One Lesson

May 31, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Taxes & Spending Bernie Sanders, Capitalism, Cuba, Free Market, Freedom, North Korea, Socialism

By Michael J Hurd – Re-Blogged From Capitalism Magaine

Socialist and Democratic candidate for President Bernie Sanders:

You can’t just continue growth for the sake of growth in a world in which we are struggling with climate change and all kinds of environmental problems. All right? You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country. I don’t think the media appreciates the kind of stress that ordinary Americans are working on. [Source: cnbc.com 5/26/15]

Do you like Sanders’ statement, or do you find it foolish and absurd? If you find it foolish and absurd, can you say why?

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The bad and the bad of US corporate income taxes

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Taxes & Spending Business Profits, Corporate Tax Rates, Corporate Taxes, Employment, GDP, Investment, OECD, Tax Rates

By Aparna Mathur – Re-Blogged From The American Enterprise Institute

There are many good reasons to undertake corporate tax reform this year. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have declared support for cutting the headline corporate tax rate and recouping the lost revenue through a broadening of the tax base. President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2016 calls for a cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 to 28 percent (with a special rate of 25 percent for manufacturing). Former Ways and Means Chairman David Camp’s tax reform proposal from last year called for a cut in the rate to 25 percent. The recent Rubio-Lee proposal would similarly cut the rate to 25 percent. There is even speculation that Paul Ryan and President Obama may be working on a deal to cut headline rates this year. Here’s why we need to get this done.

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Investing’s Great Struggle

May 30, 2015May 30, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Contrarian, Gold, interest rate, Momentum Investing, S&P 500, S&P500, Silver, Stock Market, the FED

By Adam Hamilton – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

The great endeavor of investing can be distilled down into four simple words, buy low sell high. They are so basic, so resoundingly clear, that even a child can understand this principle. Yet still the great majority of investors never achieve significant success. Even while full-well knowing the core idea of investing, they end up buying high and selling low. That treacherous struggle of investing must be overcome.

It’s funny, as life is full of simple ideas that are incredibly challenging to put into practice. Investing is certainly not unique in this regard. Americans’ expanding waistlines are a great example. The only way to lean up is some combination of eating less and exercising more. We all know this basic truth, we all know what we ought to be doing on both fronts, yet it’s still really hard to execute. Emotions are the reason.

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More Outlets Are Suggesting A Carry Tax On Physical Cash

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 usissuescom Foreign Policy, Monetary Policy Cash Carry Tax, central banks, Negative Interest Rates, Negative Rates, QE, the FED, War on Cash

By Graham Summers – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

A Carry Tax… or tax on physical currency… is coming.

The Fed and other Central Banks literally took the nuclear option in dealing with the 2008 bust. Collectively, they’ve printed over $11 trillion and have cut interest rates to zero for nearly six years.

All of these efforts were focused on driving in trashing cash and forcing investors/ depositors into risk assets.

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EPA Busted for Ideology

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 usissuescom Uncategorized CAGW, Carbon Capture and Storage, CCS, Climate Change, Coal, Coal Power, Electricity, global warming

By James Sawhill – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

The EPA’s attempt to harness new coal-fired power plant constructions has been exposed as ideological rather than legal. The EPA further ignored the Department of Energy’s (DOE) earlier conclusion that carbon capture and storage (CCS) has not been “adequately demonstrated.”

Thanks to commentary from The Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) the EPA has been forced to retreat from their draft rule. That rule would mandate the use of CCS, a process that would inter carbon dioxide underground which has so far proved to be little more than a thought experiment.

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Soros Warns On “Threshold Of A Third World War”

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 usissuescom Foreign Policy China, Currency War, EU, Europe, George Soros, Germany, Gold, Japan, NATO, Nuclear War, Russia, Silver, South China Sea, Ukraine, US, War Games

By Mark O’Byrne – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

– War “inevitable” if U.S. meddles in South China Sea – Global Times
– Senior NATO official warns that “we’ll probably be at war this summer”
– Soros warns of ‘New World Order’ and war with China
– Soros warns could be “on the threshold of a Third World War”
– Many countries in Pacific lay claim to strategically important and mineral rich islands
– Tensions between U.S. and China and Russia escalating
– War would have many facets including cyber-warfare and currency wars

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The green plan to make Capitalism cruel

May 28, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism CAGW, Capitalism, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Emissions, global warming, Socialism

By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

A regular green claim is that, for the sake of the planet, we can’t afford any more economic growth. How many times have you heard something like the following:

The other tough reality demanding more honest business reflection is the incompatibility of further, orthodox economic growth in the OECD with the 2C target. The structure of markets relying on the shareholder model also demands that companies must grow. But the best analysis available suggests that growth in OECD countries cannot be squared with halting warming at 2C, 3C or even 4C.

Where are the companies brave enough to even ask the question of what the optimal size of a company might be, after which it should grow no further, and how that company should be governed and function with regard to investors?

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It’s SO2, Not CO2

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism Aerosols, CAGW, Climate Change, CO2, global warming, SO2, Stratosphere, Troposphere

By Buel Henry – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

In 2007, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to Albert Gore and the IPCC for their work in promoting the theory that global warming was caused by green-house gasses, and that, based upon computer simulations, increasing amounts of these gasses in the atmosphere would cause runaway warming, with disastrous consequences for the planet.

At the time, this appeared to be a plausible explanation for the warming, since CO2 levels in the atmosphere were clearly rising. However, for the past 15 years or so, there has been a “Pause” (no statistically significant warming) in the warming trend, leaving scientists around the world scratching their heads for an explanation, since this was not predicted by any of their models.

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Suicidal Credit-Based Money System

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015 usissuescom Entitlements, GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy, Taxes & Spending Central Bank, Gold, Interest Rates, Money Supply, QE, quantitative easing, Silver, the FED, War on Poverty, Welfare, ZIRP

By GE Christenson – Re-Bloged From http://www.Silver-Phoenix500.com

Bill Bonner wrote a hypothetical college graduation speech which he did not present. What he would have said included:

“You are heirs to claptrap, nonsense, bogus theories, and trillions of dollars in debt.

The systems, programs, and institutions your parents set up are mostly worthless scams. Worse, they produce outcomes contrary to their stated goals.

Welfare programs do not help people escape poverty; they keep them mired in it.

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Winters Not Summers Increase Mortality and Stress the Economy

May 25, 2015May 25, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism CAGW, Climate Change, Cold Deaths, England, Excess Winter Deaths, global warming, Heat Deaths

By Joseph D’Aleo and Allan MacRae – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Global warming alarmists continue to over-emphasize the danger of heat and ignore cold in their papers and in stories for the media. The danger associated with this misdirection is that cold weather kills many more people that hot weather.

This conclusion is clearly supported by many studies of populations in a wide range of climates. Examples are provided below from a study of thirteen countries, as well as national studies from the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada and Australia.

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‘Titanic’ Global Economy May “Collapse” Warn HSBC – Gold Is Lifeboat

May 24, 2015 usissuescom Foreign Policy, GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Central Bank, China, Debt, Depression, Dollar, Equity Bubble, Euro, France, Germany, Greece, HSBC, Recession, Stock Market Crash, the FED, Titanic

By Mark O’Byrne – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

-“The world economy is like an ocean liner without lifeboats …” – HSBC
– Four areas of high risk identified by HSBC
– Risk of stock market crash
– Pension funds and insurers may not meet obligations
– Chinese recession may drag U.S. into recession or depression
– Premature rate rise would expose very fragile global economy
– “There aren’t enough lifeboats to go round”
– Gold vital lifeboat when global ship strikes iceberg

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The Ethics of Climate Change

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, GDP & Employment Africa, Biofuel, Biomass, CAGW, Climate Change, Coal, Electricity, Energy Poverty, Europe, Germany, global warming, IEA, poverty, The Ethics of Climate Change, UK

By Bob Lyman – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Calls for massive reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions ignore the impacts on the poor.

People who believe in the theory of catastrophic human-induced global warming claim that they want to “save the planet” and that this is the moral thing to do. They insist, however, that saving the planet requires stringent reductions in people’s use of fossil fuel energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They never talk about what that means to the poor. I think that, before people decide on the ethics of the debate, they need to consider what the impact would be of sharply reducing energy consumption on the wellbeing of world’s population, and especially on the poor.

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Does the ‘Leader’ of the Free World Really Know So Little About Climate?

May 23, 2015May 23, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism Adjusting Surface Temperature, Antarctica, Arctic, CAGW, Climate Change, Climate Models, Climate Pause, Glacier Retreat, global warming, Greenland, Hiatus, Ocean Warming, Pause, President Obama, Sea Ice

By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Mr. Obama’s remarks at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s Commencement May 20 demonstrate the extent to which his advisors are keeping him divorced from the facts.

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International Study Reveals That Cold Weather Kills Far More People Than Hot Weather

May 22, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism CAGW, Climae Change, Extreme Cold, Extreme Heat, global warming, Mortality, Weather

Re-Blogged From The Lancet

Cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, according to an international study analysing over 74 million deaths in 384 locations across 13 countries [1]. The findings, published in The Lancet, also reveal that deaths due to moderately hot or cold weather substantially exceed those resulting from extreme heat waves or cold spells.

“It’s often assumed that extreme weather causes the majority of deaths, with most previous research focusing on the effects of extreme heat waves,” says lead author Dr Antonio Gasparrini from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK. “Our findings, from an analysis of the largest dataset of temperature-related deaths ever collected, show that the majority of these deaths actually happen on moderately hot and cold days, with most deaths caused by moderately cold temperatures.” [2]

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Inaccurate Statistics And The Threat To Bonds

May 22, 2015May 22, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Bonds, Chapwood Index, Cost of Living, CPI, Depression, Economic Distortion, GDP, Inflation, Recession, Shadow Stats, ShadowStats

By Alasdair Macleod – Re-Blogged From http://www.Silver-Phoenix500.com

Statistics have become very misleading: in particular we are being badly misled into believing that the US is teetering on the edge of price deflation, because the US official rate of inflation is barely positive, a level that US bonds and therefore all other financial markets have priced in without accepting it is actually significantly higher.

There are two possible approaches to assessing the true rate of price inflation. You can either reverse all the tweaks government statisticians have implemented over the decades to reduce the apparent rate, or you can collect a statistically significant sample of price data independently and turn that into an index. John Williams of Shadowstats.com is well known for his work on the former approach, but until recently I was unaware that anyone was attempting the latter. That is until Simon Hunt of Simon Hunt Strategic Services drew my attention to the Chapwood Index, which deserves wider publicity.

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Tenth International Conference on Climate Change

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism CAGW, Climate Change, global warming, Heartland Institute, ICCC

By Bob Shapiro

The Heartland Institute is sponsoring its 10th Annual International Conference on Climate Change, in Washington DC, next month. I’ve followed some links and found that videos of previous sessions are available at no charge for online viewing. Below is a 1 minute one from Dr Tim Ball from last year, to give you a sense of what they’re about. You may view others at: http://climateconferences.heartland.org/

Do Climate Projections Have Any Physical Meaning?

May 21, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism CAGW, Climate Change, Climate Models, CMPIS, global warming, Multi-Model Average, Perturbed Physics

By Pat Frank – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

This essay expands on a point made in a previous post here at WUWT, that climate models do not produce a unique solution to the energy state of the climate. Unique solutions are the source of physical meaning in science, and make a physical theory both predictive and falsifiable.

Predictive because a unique solution is a derived and highly specific statement about how physical reality behaves. It allows that only one possibility, among an infinite number of possibilities, will occur. A unique solution asserts an extreme improbability; making it vulnerable to disproof by observation.

Falsifiable because if the prediction is wrong, the physical theory is refuted.

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Switzerland: Ultimate Safe Haven For Liberty, Wealth And Gold

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 usissuescom Foreign Policy, Monetary Policy Bank Secrecy, Cash, Cashless Society, Central Bank, Dollar, Euro, Gold, Gold and Silver, interest rate, Silver, Switzerlnd, the FED

Re-Blogged From Gold Silver Worlds

I am often asked what we would do if, for example, the US comes out with a confiscation order. My reply is: We would do nothing whatsoever! Why? Quite simply, because no one in Switzerland has the political power to execute such an order! Even if Swiss politicians would support such a confiscation order, the Swiss people would likely have the final vote. I am confident that any such confiscation order wouldn’t have any chance to reach a majority in Switzerland, especially when it concerns assets held outside the banking system such as physical precious metals. Even in the unlikely case that it would be accepted, the vote would take at least twelve months, thereby giving the persons affected enough time to move their assets. In my view, this is the main advantage of a direct democracy, it assures that the people and not the politicians in power have sovereignty. The federalist structure of Switzerland additionally guarantees that political power is reduced to a minimum. “Confederation Helvetica” might be the old name for Switzerland, but it is just as valid today as it was in the past.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #180

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, GDP & Employment Antarctic sea ice, CAGW, Climate Alarmism, Climate Change, Climate Models, global warming, Lyme Disease, Malaria, Mark Twain, USGCRP, West Nile Virus

The Week That Was: May 16, 2015 Brought to You by www.SEPP.org

By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Science and Scientism: One of the chosen ones for the political witch hunt, Steven Hayward wrote a short essay differentiating between the practice of science, which can be described as objectively examining empirical evidence to test a hypothesis, and scientism, which can have many of the trappings of science, but put to other ends. Hayward begins by discussing a 1952 book by Austrian economist Friedrich August von Hayek. According to Hayward, Hayek “concludes that science of all kinds has a tendency to become what he calls ‘scientism,’ in which the claims of scientific superiority amount to yet another destructive and dogmatic authoritarian ideology.

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At the Mercy of the Climate Jihadists

May 19, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, GDP & Employment, Regulation CAGW, California, Climate Change, CO2, global warming, greenhouse gases, Nevada, Oregon, Texas

By Joel Kotkin – Re-Blogged From The Orange County Register

Years ago, I heard the Jewish comedian Jackie Mason performing in Beverly Hills, riffing on the primary motivation of wealthy liberals. They do things, he suggested, not because they actually accomplished anything, but because “I have to look at myself in the mirror.”

Mason was prophetic, particularly regarding here in California, where progressive politics – outside of promoting race and gender grievances – has boiled down to a single-minded attachment to slowing climate change.

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IS OUR ACCOUNTING SYSTEM FLAWED?

May 19, 2015May 19, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Accounting Standards, Bankruptcy, Interest Rates, Law of Assets, Law of Liabilities, Luca Pacioli, Rennaisance, The Book-Keeper’s Dilemma, the FED

By Bob Shapiro

I have come across a readable, though scholarly, article explaining why government / central bank tinkering with interest rates – either raising rates above market or lowering them below market rates – is destructive to an economy. Dr. Antal Fekete outlines the accounting laws of Assets and of Liabilities, which were abandoned with the creation of the FED in 1913.

His piece is in pdf form, so it couldn’t be pasted here. I strongly suggest you follow the link to the online file: http://www.professorfekete.com/articles%5CAEFIsOurAccountingSystemFlawed.pdf

Falling Yields, Rising Asset Prices

May 19, 2015May 19, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy CPI, Gold Standard, Paper Currency, paper money, Price Inceases, Purchaasing Power, Yield Purchasing Power

By Keith Weiner – Re-Blogged From http://snbchf.com/gold-standard/

Our monetary system is failing, but explaining that isn’t easy. The most popular argument is that the dollar has falling purchasing power and rising inflation. The problem with this argument is that consumer prices aren’t skyrocketing now. So, of course, people remain skeptical.

Yields across all markets were falling worldwide. This causes the income generated from assets to fall. I wrote about this serious problem last time, introducing the concept of yield purchasing power—which is how much you can buy with the interest on your savings.

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A Financial “Perfect Storm” May Be Brewing

May 17, 2015May 17, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy asset prices, Bond ETF, Bond Funds, central banks, government bonds, Interest Rates, Liquidity Crunch, Market Stability, the FED

By Daniel R. Amerman, CFA – Re-Blogged From http://danielamerman.com

The “Perfect Storm” of 1991, as described in the best-selling book by Sebastian Junger, resulted from massive weather systems converging to create the storm of a century.

In the financial world at this very moment, we have eight different “weather systems” that are all developing in real time. While the defenses in place may be able to easily withstand any one or two of these concerns in isolation – the danger is the increased power of a “storm” that can result from the merging of multiple systems together.

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Job Growth Twice as High in Red States

May 17, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Taxes & Spending Blue States, California, Florida, Hawaia, Income Tax, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Red States, Texas, Toyota

Re-Blogged From http://www.Newsmax.com

Each day between 2003 and 2013, an average of 830 Americans relocated to one of the nine U.S. states with no state income tax, while 944 people moved out of the nine states with the highest personal income tax rates.

That’s one of the findings disclosed in a new report from The Heritage Foundation, “1,000 People a Day: Why Red States Are Getting Richer and Blue States Poorer.”

States in recent years have divided into two camps, which the report’s authors call the “red state model” and the “blue state model.”

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In the Climate Debate, Hear Both Sides

May 16, 2015May 16, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism CAGW, Central England Temperature Record, Climate Change, CO2, EPA, global warming, Holocene, Interglacial, IPCC, Sea Ice, Warmist Year on Record

By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

In May 2015, the Pennant, a biannual magazine for retired UK armed forces personnel, carried an article entitled The Earth’s Climate by Rob Varley, chief executive of the Met Office, the world’s oldest national weather bureau.

The Met Office article does not represent a fair or balanced summary of the science on the climate question. This detailed response, prepared at the suggestion of a reader of the Pennant, is illustrated with some 50 well-sourced graphs that are intended to be clear at a glance. The key facts that restore balance to the discussion may be gained from these graphs in five minutes.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #179

May 15, 2015May 15, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism CAGW, Climate Change, Climate Models, climate variability, CO2, EPA, Fracking, global warming, GMOs, IPCC, Judith Curry, Keystone, Peak Oil

The Week That Was: May 9, 2015 Brought to You by www.SEPP.org

By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Controversial Points: On her web site, Climate Etc., Judith Curry explores what she considers the most controversial points in climate science. The points must be agreed upon in order to resolve the controversies. To her, the two general issues are: 1) whether the warming since 1950 has been dominated by human causes and 2) how much the planet will warm in the 21st century?

From these general issues she develops the specific technical issues that need to be resolved, including:

“Causes of the 1900-1940 warming; the cooling from 1940-1976; and the recent hiatus in warming since 1998. How are these explained in context of AGW being the dominant influence since 1950?
Solar impacts on climate (including indirect effects). What are the magnitudes and nature of the range of physical mechanisms?
Nature and mechanisms of multi-decadal and century scale natural internal variability. How do these modes of internal variability interact with external forcing, and to what extent are these modes separable from externally forced climate change?
Deep ocean heat content variations and mechanisms of vertical heat transfer between the surface and deep-ocean.
Sensitivity of the climate system to external forcing, including fast thermodynamic feedbacks (water vapor, clouds, lapse rate).
Climate dynamics of clouds: Could changes in cloud distribution or optical properties contribute to the global surface temperature hiatus? How do cloud patterns (and TOA and surface radiative fluxes) change with shifts in atmospheric circulation and teleconnection regimes (e.g. AO, NAO, PDO)? How do feedbacks between clouds, surface temperature, and atmospheric thermodynamics/circulations interact with global warming and the atmospheric circulation and teleconnection regimes?”

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See No Evil: What We Chose to Ignore in the April Jobs Report

May 14, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Economic Growth, Economic Stimulus, Full Time, GDP, Interest Rates, Jobs, jobs Report, Lost Jobs, Part Time, QE, Recession, the FED, Unemployment

By Peter Schiff – Re-Blogged From http://www.europac.com

We live in an age where bad economic news is not only unwelcome, but it is routinely overlooked or excused. On the other hand, good news is spotted and trumpeted even when it doesn’t exist. An ideal illustration of this dangerous tendency towards collective selectivity came last week when the markets and the media somehow turned an awful employment report into an ideal data set that confirmed all optimism and contained nothing but good news for investors. In truth, it was anything but.

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Forecasting Climate Change Is A Very Complex Process

May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism Alarmism, CAGW, Climate Alarmism, Climate Change, Climate Models, CO2, global warming, IPCC, temperature

By Howard Lowe – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Mother Earth is a dynamic place, constantly changing and evolving. Although it operates in a cyclical manner, the major cycles are not short, falling into a time frame of thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of years. We know that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west on a regular 24-hour cycle, but times vary depending on the season of the year. The Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Moon around the Earth, all in a cyclical predictable manner. These phenomena have always intrigued man leading him to seek more knowledge about his surroundings, about the star-filled skies, about his origin, about the future.

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Is federal funding biasing climate research?

May 13, 2015May 13, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, Taxes & Spending Biased Funding, Buonocore and Schwartz, CAGW, CATO, Climate Change, EPA, global warming, Harvard, Nature Climate Change, RFP

By Judith Curry – Re-Blogged From http://judithcurry.com

Does biased funding skew research in a preferred direction, one that supports an agency mission, policy or paradigm?

There is much angst in the scientific and policy communities over Congressional Republicans’ efforts to cut NASA’s Earth Science Budget, and also the NSF Geosciences budget. Marshall Shepherd has a WaPo editorial defending the NASA Earth Science Budget.

Congressional Republicans are being decried as ‘anti-science’. However, since they are targeting Earth Science budgets and reallocating the funds to other areas of science, anti-science does not seem to be an apt description. I suspect that an element contributing to these cuts is Congressional concern about political bias being interjected in the the NASA and NSF geosciences and social science research programs, notably related to climate change.

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US Constitution vs Laws and Regulations

May 12, 2015 usissuescom Regulation Asset Seizure, Civil Asset Seizure, Conflict of Law, Nuremberg, Police, the Constitution, Unreasonable Search and Seizure, US Constitution

By Bob Shapiro

Law students are required to take a course in Conflicts of Law. What the course boils down to is, when two laws disagree in what they say, how do the courts decide which law takes precedent.

The US Constitution is the highest Law of the Land. If there is a conflict between a law, made by Congress, and the US Constitution, then the Constitution wins, and the law is Null and Void.

If a regulation, made by an Agency of the government, conflicts with either a Law or with the US Constitution, then the Regulation loses.

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What You Need to Know About the EPA/Corps Water Rule: It’s a Power Grab and an Attack on Property Rights

May 12, 2015May 12, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, Regulation Army Corps of Engineers, Constitution, Eminent Domain, EPA, Property Rights, Supreme Court, Unlawful Taking, US Constitution, Waters of the US

By Daren Bakst – Re-Blogged From http://www.Heritage.org

Abstract

In April 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers published a proposed rule—“Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’ Under the Clean Water Act”—that defines what waters are covered under the Clean Water Act (CWA). This rule, often referred to as the “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, could cover almost any type of water, giving the two agencies far greater power than authorized under the CWA. The proposed rule is complicated and vague, with little clarity coming from the agencies. There are four key points that should be known about the proposed rule: (1) it is extremely broad; (2) it is an attack on property rights; (3) it exceeds the broadest interpretation of Supreme Court precedent on CWA jurisdiction; and (4) it was developed through a flawed process. Unless Congress acts, this proposed power grab could soon become a reality—the two agencies recently sent their final rule to the Office of Management and Budget for its approval. Congress should require that the agencies withdraw the rule, and then Congress must define what is meant by “waters of the United States.”

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Responding to King v. Burwell: Congress’s First Step Should Be to Remove Costly Mandates Driving Up Premiums

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 usissuescom Regulation ACA, ACA Benefit Mandates, ACA Insurance Mandate, Affordable Care Act, Age Rating Restiction, Health Insurance, ObamaCare, Premium

By Edmund F. Haislmaier and Drew Gonshorowski – Re-Blogged From http://www.heritage.org

The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision in King v. Burwell before the end of June. Should the Court reject the Obama Administration’s regulatory interpretation of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) at issue in the case, the Treasury would be barred from paying health insurance subsidies to individuals who obtained coverage thorough Healthcare.gov, the federally run exchange for the 34 states that have not established their own state-based exchanges.

In considering its response, Congress should keep in mind both that a fundamental flaw of the ACA was its imposition of new regulations that made health insurance more expensive for millions of Americans and that, in large part, the ACA’s health insurance subsidies are intended to mask this effect.

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The Iceman Cometh?

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism Alarmists, CAGW, Climate Change, Crop Failure, Dalton Minimum, Global Cooling, global warming, Grand Maximum, Grand Minmum, Hypothermia, Little Ice Age, Maunder Minimum, Sunspots

By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Could a quiescent sun portend a new little ice age: a chilly era for humanity and agriculture?

President Obama, Al Gore and other alarmists continue to prophesy manmade global warming crises, brought on by our “unsustainable” reliance on fossil fuels. Modelers like Mike Mann and Gavin Schmidt conjure up illusory crisis “scenarios” based on the assumption that carbon dioxide emissions now drive climate change. A trillion-dollar Climate Crisis industry self-servingly echoes their claims.

But what if these merchants of fear are wrong? What if the sun refuses to cooperate with the alarmists?

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Anthropogenic Global Warming and Its Causes

May 10, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism Biomass, CAGW, Climate Change, Climate Models, CO2, fossil fuel, GCMs, global warming

By Clyde Spencer – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Unless you have been in cryogenic suspended animation for several decades, you are aware of the extreme polarization about the role that CO₂, particularly from burning fossil fuels, assertedly plays in warming the planet. I will attempt to provide a fresh perspective on the issue below.

It seems that many people think of global circulation models (GCMs) as being a virtual reality, or at least some kind of scientific ‘truth.’ What is generally unappreciated is that the GCMs are, instead, complex and convoluted working hypotheses. As such, they are a part of the Scientific Method. However, they should be subject to careful scrutiny, evaluated against reality, and modified as appropriate to conform to reality. That is the essence of the Scientific Method! Any hypothesis that does not have utility as an explanation, or have reliable predictive powers, does not achieve the purpose of scientific theories.

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The Problem Isn’t Overproduction — It’s Malinvestment.

May 10, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Austrian Economics, Free Market, GDP, Interest Rates, Malinvestment, Prices, Socialism, the FED

By Patrick Barron – Re-Blogged From http://www.mises.org

Mr. Max Ehrendfreund, writing in the Washington Post’s Wonkblog, believes that he has discovered something new: that the world is producing too much and doesn’t know what to do with it. His solution, of course, is to confiscate the overproduced products, such as oil and cotton, from its rightful owners and give it to the people who need it. This phony problem and its statist solution goes back at least as far at the 1930’s socialist calls for “production for use” vs. the hated capitalist concept of “production for profit“.

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Repatriation of Gold from Fed Vaults Is Historic Vote of No Confidence

May 9, 2015 usissuescom Foreign Policy, Monetary Policy BEA, ECRI, France, Germany, Gold, Gold Prices, Gold Repatriation, Greece, Greenspan, Janet Yellen, the FED, the Netherlands

By Seth Mason – Re-Blogged From https://www.soundmoneydefense.org

Since 2012, there’s been an unprecedented call from foreign nations to repatriate their gold from Federal Reserve vaults in the U.S. This is an incredible development given many countries’ 71-year reliance on the Fed as a custodian for their bullion.



	Foreign nations are demanding their gold back from Janet Yellen’s Federal Reserve.

Over the last few years, countries including, but not limited to, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Ecuador, Finland, Switzerland, Venezuela, and Romania have either formally requested repatriation of their gold or are in discussions with the Fed about it.

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UN: We Should Switch to Eating Insects

May 9, 2015May 9, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, Regulation CAGW, Cattle, Climate Change, CO2, global warming, greenhouse gases, Insects, Methane, Protein, UN

By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan has suggested in an interview with The Guardian, that people should switch to eating insects, to reduce the need for traditional cattle farming.

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Financial Warfare and the Declining Dollar

May 9, 2015May 9, 2015 usissuescom Foreign Policy, Monetary Policy AIIB, China, Debt, Egypt, England, France, Great Britain, IMF, Russia, Suez Canal, Treasury Bonds, UK

By Ryan McMaken – Re-Blogged From http://www.mises.org

With the creation of the BRICS bank and now the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the major economies of the world are hoping to lay the foundation for a multi-polar financial world beyond the unilateral control of the United States. Due to the enormous size of the US economy, coupled with the reserve status of the US dollar, the United States government has long been able to achieve strategic and military goals through flexing its financial power. This power has long allowed the US government to buy allies and friends among foreign regimes, to finance proxy wars, and to threaten the growth potential of foreign economies whenever the US government deemed it necessary.

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The Wound in West Baltimore: How City Planners Killed a Community

May 8, 2015May 8, 2015 usissuescom Taxes & Spending Baltimore, Franklin-Mulberry, Freeway, Harlem Park, HL Mencken, Robert Moses, Rosemont, Urban Development, West Baltimore

By Jesse Walker – Re-Blogged From http://www.reason.com

A six-lane ditch of a highway runs through West Baltimore. You can enter it heading east on Mulberry Street or going west on Franklin; then you drive a little less than a mile and a half before you have to get off again. You end up on the same street you entered from, just a bit further up the road. People call it the Highway to Nowhere.

Before that scrap of a freeway was built, the Franklin-Mulberry corridor contained a stable and vibrant black neighborhood. But in the 1960s and ’70s, the government made room for the road by destroying 971 homes and 62 business. In the process, it displaced around 1,500 people—and destroyed far more property than was burned in Baltimore’s riot of 1968.

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Credit Crunch All Over Again!

May 7, 2015 usissuescom Foreign Policy, GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Business Inventories, Credit Rejection, Crude Oil, GDP, Interest Rates, Loan Applications, the FED, Unemployment

By Bill Holter – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

It smells like crunch time to me, the markets have flattened or begun to even roll over on continuously decreasing volume. The economy has also turned down all over the world including in China. Europe is contracting, Britain has finally figured out their finances are FUBAR and the U.S. would not show growth if not for the biggest inventory build in history. Oil tankers are sitting idle (and full) all over the world, is this a sign of “recovery” or of stagnation. The Baltic Dry index is plumbing news, this would be a sign of what? When I wrote crunch time above, I should have clarified, it looks “credit” crunch time and this time there is no white knight to save the day.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #178

May 7, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, Energy Policy, GDP & Employment CAGW, Clean Energy Plan, Climate Change, EPA, global warming, IPCC, Obama, Oklahoma, UNFCCC

The Week That Was: May 2, 2015 – Brought to You by www.SEPP.org

By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Uncertainty: On her web site, Climate Etc., Judith Curry posted her notes on her latest presentation of what she calls the Uncertainty Monster. The presentation was a keynote talk at the “2nd International Workshop on Econometric Applications in Climatology.” Linked in the post are the slides in her presentation, which are very useful in understanding the presentation.

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Talking Truth to the Climate Consensus

Link May 6, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, Energy Policy Antarctica, Arctic, CAGW, Climate Attribution, Climate Change, Climate Models, global warming, IPCC, Pause, Polar Bears, RSS, sea level rise, UAH

A sound bite summary*

By Rud Istvan – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

The climate consensus has two levels of derogation for those who disagree. Climate ‘contrarians’ like Bjørn Lomborg disagree about mitigation policies. Climate ‘deniers’ like Judith Curry disagree about the underlying climatology. The consensus does not want disagreement, since the ‘science is settled’. They decline to engage (Schmidt/Spencer), disappear comments (Real Climate, the Guardian), refuse to host comments (LATimes), and loudly allege a fossil fuel funded ‘denier’ conspiracy (Grijalva). But they cannot avoid the occasional personal encounter. Following are some possible ‘silver bullets’.

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Silencing Skeptics, Conservatives and Free Speech

May 6, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism, Energy Policy, Foreign Policy, Regulation CAGW, Censorship, Climate Change, Climate Models, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Free Speech, global warming, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Pope Francis, Secret Science Reform Act, Sen Markey, United Nations, Vatican

Congressional Democrats and Vatican join White House and Leftist assaults on basic rights

By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Our scientific method and traditions of free speech and open debate are under assault as never before, by intolerant inquisitors in our media, universities, government agencies, and even Congress and the Vatican.

They threaten our most basic rights and freedoms, our political and scientific processes – and ultimately our continued innovation and invention, energy reliability and affordability, job creation and economic growth, and modern living standards, health and welfare.

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The Sun Is Almost Completely Blank

May 5, 2015May 5, 2015 usissuescom CAGW Alarmism AP Index, CAGW, Climate Change, global warming, NOAA, Solar Cycle, Solar Maximum, Solar Minimum, Sunspot Number, Sunspots

By Anthony Watts – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

Weakest Solar Cycle In More Than A Century

The sun is almost completely blank. The main driver of all weather and climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar system, the great ball of fire in the sky has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. The sun’s X-ray output has flatlined in recent days and NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 1% chance of strong flares in the next 24 hours. Not since cycle 14 peaked in February 1906 has there been a solar cycle with fewer sunspots. –Paul Dorian, Vencore Weather, 30 April 2015

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This Financial “Seismograph” Signals A Monetary Earthquake

May 5, 2015May 5, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Black Swan, Commodities, Economic Indicators, GDP, Germany, Gold, Gold and Silver, Japan, S&P 500, S&P500, Silver, US Economy

Re-Blogged From http://secularinvestor.com

Stock markets in the U.S. are trading approximately 2% from their all-time highs, the German DAX has slightly retraced from its all-time highs, the Nikkei index in Japan has almost surpassed its 2000 highs in recent days, the Shanghai stock index used to be a laggard but is making up at an incredible pace (currently trading at 7-year highs). Indeed, it feels like nothing can go wrong.

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End Energy Intervention

May 4, 2015May 4, 2015 usissuescom Energy Policy, Foreign Policy, GDP & Employment Alternative Energy, Coal, Col to Liquidds, Conservation, Crude Oil, Energy, Energy Reserves, Exxon, Gas, Gasoline, National Security, Natural Gas, Oil, Terrorism, Unconventional Oil

By Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren – Re-Blogged From http://www.downsizinggovernment.org

Large-scale federal intervention into America’s energy markets began in the 1930s and lasted for four decades. Many rules were imposed to control prices, restrict imports, and distort markets in various other ways. The shortcomings of this heavy regulatory climate became apparent during the energy crises of the 1970s, prompting policymakers to reverse course and begin deregulating oil, natural gas, and coal markets.

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It’s Ugly If You Look Under The Hood

May 4, 2015May 4, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Business Inventories, GDP, Gold, Gold and Silver, Interest Rates, QE, QE3, quantitative easing, Recession, Silver, Stock Market

Bill Holter – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

My plan for today was to write a very basic piece hitched to the one written yesterday “the money has to go somewhere”. The plan was to point out that gold (and silver) will be the final destination for monies dislodged from crashing markets all over the world. Along came the Q1 figures for U.S. GDP, a disaster on many levels. So switching gears, let’s look at the first quarter, how quickly the economy has deteriorated and what it means in the future and in relation to the past. I do plan to tie this together at the end because no matter how you look at it, gold is a magnet for what will be shaken loose.

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War on Cash vs Bail In

May 3, 2015May 3, 2015 usissuescom Monetary Policy, Regulation, Taxes & Spending Asset Seizure, Bail In, Bail Out, Civil Asset Forfeiture, Constitution, Debt, Subprime, US Constitution, US Economy

By Bob Shapiro

There is a pair of troubling items which have been appearing repeatedly in the news lately:

There is a War on the use of Cash, and
Several banks which have been insolvent (bankrupt in fact) are being given the legal go-ahead to Bail In depositors’ money.

In case you’ve missed these items, or if you don’t understand why they are important, let me explain.

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End Energy Regulation

May 2, 2015May 2, 2015 usissuescom Energy Policy, Regulation Coal, Congress, Constitution, Crude Oil, Department of Energy, EPAA, FERC, Ford, Johnson, Natural Gas, Supreme Court

By Peter Van Doren – Re-Blogged From http://www.downsizinggovernment.org

Large-scale federal intervention into America’s energy markets began in the 1930s and continued through the 1970s. A series of major laws and executive actions sought to control energy prices, regulate electric and gas utilities, and limit imports. Competition was stifled and domestic investment was suppressed.

By the 1970s, the Middle East oil embargoes and other upheavals began making the failure of federal energy interventions clear to policymakers. They reversed course, and took major deregulatory steps in the 1970s and 1980s to free up energy markets, to the ultimate benefit of consumers and the overall economy.

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Thinking Differently About Purchasing Power

May 1, 2015 usissuescom GDP & Employment, Monetary Policy Capital Asset, CPI, Efficiency, interest rate, purchasing power, the FED, Yield Purchasing Power

By Keith Weiner – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

The dollar is always losing value. To measure the decline, people turn to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), or various alternative measures such as Shadow Stats or Billion Prices Project. They measure a basket of goods, and we can see how it changes every year.

However, companies are constantly cutting costs. If we see nominal—i.e. dollar—prices rising, it’s despite this relentless increase in efficiency.

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