Economy

Rant

U.S. vs Everybody else

Posted 8 months ago|3 comments|512 views
Eve of Depression
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You know, I really wonder why nobody compares US to the rest of the world?

Take Malta. This small country is part of EU and EUROzone so it is no longer a tax heaven. The government there realized that the only way to allow their country to grow and to reboot their economy was not to regulate every little thing but to step out-of-the-way and let businesses thrive on their own… no special programs or spending initiatives required. The result - Malta unemployment rate dropped from 7.1% in 1999 to 6.9% today!

Heck, even Russia has unemployment rate of only 6.5%. Yes, the old backward Russian Empire is thriving at the same time as their government is reducing in size. The Russia had a whooping 1.1 million government employees and they decided to cut that number by 20% starting with 5% cut in 2011. Just to mention, Russia's population is 143 million. If the US decided to have the same inflated number of government apparatchiks as Russia, it would have to lay off some 18 million government employees! I guess that Russians realized that Communism isn't working!

And who the heck said that the jobs were created everywhere but the government had to lay off some 17,000 people? What a cover-up! Read the official reports people!

In August, Health care employment rose by 30,000, mining by 6,000, computer systems design and related services by 8,000! At the same time, information industry declined by 48,000, Manufacturing by 3,000 and yes, the number of government employees declined by 17,000.

Wasn't US supposed to be a leader in service and manufacturing industries? Well... No! The numbers tell a different story.

And how did the Government decided to help Homeland industry? By passing the Dodd-Frank bill that is full of mandatory programs that cost a lot of time and money, yet yield no value for the economy. One provision of this law requires that certain businesses must now file an annual report certifying that their raw materials are 100% free of "conflict minerals" that may have originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. How the heck am I supposed to know where the last drop of gasoline I put in my car came from?

Until the Government realizes that placing unnecessary obligations onto American firms, forcing them to deal with administrative nonsense instead of what actually matters in business - making money, there will be no progress for United States of America…
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COMMENTS
Altruist
Altruist
Eugene, OR
8 months ago: That's right. I should be able to make money any way I can. Diamonds from Africa, drugs from South America, Women for the sex trade, uranium from Uzbekistan, Rocket launchers from Serbia, anti aircraft missiles from North Korea.

Don't want no govmnt interfering with my ability to get rich. We don't want any accountability from Wall Street and the banks should be allowed to screw people with fine print no one can understand.

Every single "unnecessary" rule and regulation is designed to help and protect you and me from fraud and abuse, but the big boys have spent hundreds of millions to fight consumer protection. Here is a summery of Frank Dodd. Why don't you tell me what parts are unnecessary? http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/...
8 months ago: Al.

You will never get it into you thick skull that IT AIN'T YOUR MONEY and FREEDOM beats your socialist world.

DC has NO IDEA how to protect you and me. DC is full of pointy head, pencil eraser chewing, wantabe, tag a longs, who can't make it in the real world and are mad about it.

Capiche?
8 months ago: Oh, the summary is really nice and I would support it wholeheartedly if it could be made into a good law. Well, the aftereffects are something else.

Actually, the government interfered only with your ability to become rich. If you are already rich, the bill is full of provisions that will allow only you to remain rich and keep those darn upstarts away. The only winner is the Wall Street and big banks!

According to the American Bankers Association, in some banks there are now more employees working on compliance with regulations than there are those working on banking. The cost of regulations in US runs to about a $1 Trillion a year. This concentrates industries into those large enough to afford the costs of regulation as a cost of doing business. Goldman Sachs with thousands of employees can manage the 4.870 pages of Dodd-Frank. A small Midwestern bank with 37 employees really can't!

Rather than run the risk of buying any minerals that might have been smuggled from the Congo, many major mining companies are simply refusing to buy minerals from central Africa. And why did the bill include Congo but excluded, lets say, Sierra Leone? Well, the Chinese have no calms about this. Read http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/opinio...

The law itself is full of loopholes that allow only big companies to escape main provisions of the law. There are allowed exceptions for almost every item like, Derivatives Traded on Exchanges, Volcker Rule, Capital Requirements, Executive Pay...

This is highlighted by the fact that major designers of this law went out to work as private consultants to big companies. Dodd retired from the Senate in January to make millions running the Motion Picture Association of America (Lobby shop for Hollywood). Amy Friend, a chief aide in crafting the Dodd-Frank bill, became a managing director at Promontory Financial Group. Daniel Meade, a chief counsel on Barney Frank's Financial Services Committee, went back to K Street Hogan Lovells to help the regulated entities deal with the regulations. SEC official Jordan Thomas cashed out to law firm Labaton Sucharow.

So, if you are working at Capitol Hill, you will definitely want a hand in some major regulation or subsidy bill affecting a deep-pocketed industry. Well, it's one way of creating jobs in private industry but I'm not so sure if it is the best way...

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