George Soros - Crony Capitalist - Obama Insider

Perhaps the best investment a hedge fund can make these days is not in a financial wizard but a politician. Hedge funds and financiers are becoming more political than ever before. And political figures and government appointees with no background in finance (former Vice Presidents Dan Quayle and Al Gore, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, for example) have launched their own investment funds.

“The former politician/investment guru fraternity appears to be growing,” noted one industry observer. And former politicians are finding a career that can be even more lucrative than lobbying: providing “political intelligence” to investment funds, based on private conversations with congressional staffers and sitting senators.

In the world of investment finance it is increasingly important to be well connected politically. These hedge funds, one’s that hired lobbyists and made campaign contributions, had a much better rate of return than those which were not. One study explained that “connected funds possess an informational advantage in trading politically sensitive stocks.” The study also found that when a given hedge fund switched from being apolitical to getting into the political game, it’s performance increased by an impressive average of 2% to 2.9% per month. Economists also discovered that the more hedge funds gave to political candidates and the more they hired lobbyists, the more they tended to invest in politically sensitive stocks that were influenced by government actions.

“Connected fund managers exhibit a bias towards politically sensitive stocks (both in terms of trading and holdings) and they outperform significantly in these political stocks.”

The simple fact is that politically connected hedge fund managers and billionaire financiers can make a lot of money based on information gleaned from politicians and government officials. And it is not illegal for a politician to share this information. If an official gets paid directly for it, however, he risks a bribery charge. Former Congressman Brian Baird warned that the financial states are so high, “the possibility of direct kickbacks [is] enormous.” So the payback must be subtle.

Elliott Portnoy, a lobbyist in Washington, says that the biggest field of growth for lobbyists is not in influencing legislation but in obtaining “political intelligence” for hedge funds and large investors.

“There are a lot of savvy investors who have realized that there is a lot of money to be made from what Congress does,” Portnoy said.

One congressional staffer was even more blunt when he told the Wall Street Journal,

“The amount of insider trading going on in these halls is incredible.”

Access to government information is critical. And being on good terms with the gatekeepers of that information – elected officials, political appointees, and bureaucrats – can make all the difference between getting rich and getting hammered in the market.

George Soros is perhaps the most visible investor in the world after Warren Buffett. He is famous for his currency trades as for his outspoken political views. And in a world where government actions and policies have such a huge effect on the world of finance, the two spheres are not so separate as one might think.

But as a review of the many ways in which he [Soros] made smart stimulus bets reveals, the lesson is clear: if you are a big investor, you are a sucker if you don’t play the Washington game. The symbiosis of politics and markets has become so blatant, the two realms have become so intertwined, that Washington is essentially putting its thumb on the scale of a massive portion of the American economy – and elite insiders are the ones who benefit most.

Source: Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer – How Politicians and their friends get rich off insider stock tips, land deals, and cronyism that would send the rest of us to prison.

Buy it, read it, then fight Congressional Insider Trading!

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I have always thought the relationship of Barack Obama and Warren Buffett was more like the odd couple than anything genuine and serious. How wrong I was. As time moved on we have discovered, from reading Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer, that hitching a ride on the Obama express was very serious, and very corrupt.

As more and more has been exposed concerning “Crony Capitalism” and the bailouts of banks and financial institutions we begin to know the “inside” players of “legal” insider trading from outside to the inside surrounding the halls of the US Congress. It’s a sad and corrupt tale of the political forces and so-called financial geniuses who’ve gotten rich and richer over the years.

This is not me complaining about the wealthy, its certainly not class warfare on my part, but the cheating at the taxpayers expense and political decisions, not on promised job creation or saving the nation, merely when the political elite tell us things must be done for the sake of the country we really better start paying attention.

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Early on in the 2008 financial crisis, candidate and Senator Barack Obama had been cautious and lukewarm about a possible bailout. But in the days that followed Buffett’s multibillion-dollar play for Goldman Sachs, and with a mounting fear of economic collapse, Obama became a powerful champion of the government rescue. As a top Democrat in the country, he had an important vote. The New York Times reported that Senator Obama had “intensified” his efforts to “rally support for the $700 billion financial bailout package” after September 28, 2008. The plan was necessary said Obama, “to safeguard the economy.”

Publicly, Buffett struck a posture of political disinterest.

“I’m not brave enough to try to influence the Congress,” he told the New York Times.

But his actions directly contradicted his words. Days later, Buffett held a conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats during which he pushed them to pass the bill.

We faced “the biggest financial meltdown in American history,” he warned wavering Democrats.

The stakes were high for Buffett personally. If the bailout went through, it would be a windfall for Goldman. If it failed, it would be disastrous for Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett had large investment stakes in Wells Fargo and US Bancorp, banks that were suffering in the crisis.

The first vote failed, as Washington faced enormous heat from voters angry about the prospect of bailing out Wall Street. On the eve of the second TARP vote in the House, Buffett moved toward the fire again when he bought a $3 billion stake in corporate giant General Electric. Again, as with Goldman, he was able to negotiate advantageous terms, receiving a 10% dividend on his shares. He could also buy $3 billion in stock at discounted terms if he wanted. GE was in even worse shape than Goldman, thanks to its financial arm, GE Capital. Eventually it would need $140 billion in taxpayer capital to stay afloat.

 Buffett is a genius at public relations. He said he had “confidence in Congress to do the right thing.” He appeared to be a savior of Goldman Sachs and GE. He gave members of Congress more reason to join by supporting such firms.

Robert Wilmers, the chairman and CEO of M&T Bank, said at the time:

“The pattern is clear, the bailout money and the perks are concentrated among the big banks, the ones who pay the lobbyists and make the campaign contributions, while the healthy banks pay the freight.”

Buffett needed the TARP bailout more than most. In all, Berkshire Hathaway firms received $95 billion in bailout cash from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Berkshire held stock in Wells Fargo, Bank of America, American Express, and Goldman Sachs, which received not only TARP money but also $130 billion in FDIC backing for their debt. All told, TARP-assisted companies constituted a whopping 30% of his entire publicly disclosed stock portfolio. As one investigation by the House Chronicle put it, Buffett was “one of the top beneficiaries of the banking bailout.

Had the bailout not gone through, and had Goldman not been given such generous terms under TARP, things would have been very different for Buffett. As it stood, the arrangement with Goldman earned Berkshire about $500 million a year in dividends.

“We love the investment!” he exclaimed later to Berkshire investors.

His stake in General Electric was also profitable. As Rolfe Winkler of Reuters bluntly put it:

“Were it not for government bailouts, for which Buffett lobbied hard, many of his company’s stock holdings would have been wiped out.”

By April 2009, share prices for Goldman had more than doubled. By July 2009, it was reported that Buffett had already yielded a return of $2.5 billion for his investment.

After the bailout passed, Warren Buffett sat down and wrote Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a four-page private letter proposing a larger solution to the financial crisis that would clean up the toxic assets that were plaguing so many financial institutions. He proposed that for every $10 billion put up by the private sector, the federal government would kick in $40 billion. As Paulson put it in his memoir:

“I knew, of course, that as an investor in financial institutions, including Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs, Warren had a vested interest in the idea.”

In the fall of 2010, Buffett wrote:

“Thank You, Uncle Sam,” in an op-ed in the New York Times in which he praised the role that government played in stabilizing the markets throughout the crisis. There was no disclaimer or disclosure of how he personally benefited from TARP or the Public-Private Investment Program.  At the bottom of the article he was identified in a short biography:

“Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified holding company.”

With tongue sarcastically in cheek, journalist Ira Stoll, the former managing editor of the New York Sun, suggested the bio might have been more accurate with a bit of rewriting: (Emphasis LCs)

“Warren Buffett, the largest crony capitalist in the world, shareholder of GE, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, US Bankcorp, M&T Bank, and American Express, as well as competitor of private equity and hedge fund firms that have been threatened with new taxes and regulations, and behind the scenes, insider adviser to most of the government officials mentioned above.”

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Warren Buffet, the so-called genius investor playing the the “legal” insider trading, lobbying to save his own skin and telling Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy and super-rich while he places the bulk of his money in private foundations to skirt the payment of his fair share of tax payments. Imagine that!

Warren Buffet or “Warren’s Buffet” dining at the public trough on our dime!

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Late last month I wrote about I wrote about Congressional Insider Trading and later I discovered some legislation to make this practice illegal. Of course they start the procedure with hearings but when the fox is guarding the hen house the result might end poorly for the chickens.

Not exactly front page news I happened upon a tiny blip on the news screen in the Wall Street Journal that one day after scheduling a vote on legislation banning insider trading in Congress Rep. Spencer Bachus (R- AL), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, postponed the vote after meeting with senior House Republicans.

A recently published book by Peter Schweizer, Throw Them All Out, exposing insider trading by politicians singled out Mr. Bachus as a very active options trader, a risky practice, but made easier when you have inside information.

“A significant number of members of the committee on both sides of the aisle have indicated a desire for additional time to study this issue before the committee moves forward with the markup that was announced for Dec. 14,” Mr. Bachus said in a statement Wednesday evening.

If they need some help with the subject matter they only need to contact Mr. Schweizer who has volumes of substantiated evidence even naming names. That would be too easy. How about some public hearings to expose the inside traders and the practice as a whole?

So we have a Republican blowing the chance to do the right thing but pushing a bill down the road that was sponsored by an extremely liberal Rep. Louis Slaughter (D- NY), and had garnered the support of more than 180 lawmakers. Some lawmakers said the bill was too broad and others claimed it was too narrow. Maybe they can meet in the middle and expose themselves.

Another Republican, Rep. Judy Biggert of Illinois (the State soon to have 4 out of their last 5 governors in prison) said the legislation could lead to a “witch hunt” for lawmakers improperly trading stocks.

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-W)) said the bill should go further by requiring lawmakers to put all their investments in blind trusts. Many members of Congress already put their assets in so-called blind trusts, which aren’t necessarily so blind. These trusts aren’t above suspicion and don’t work either.

Senator Robert Toracelli (D-NJ) had a blind trust, and by picking a political acolyte and longtime friend as his trustee, Toracelli made a killing on illegally manipulated stocks. Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) had a blind trust where he held, among other things, shares of Hospital Corporation of America, a company started by his father. This didn’t prevent the trust from making some well-timed stock sales, which set off an eighteen-month SEC investigation.

Rules of a blind trust are simple. You must select a trustee (it cannot be a family member) to direct the trust and deal with the investments. You cannot have conversations with the trustee about the portfolio, and you cannot direct or suggest trades.

Of course, what a politician can do is share nonpublic information, the kind that hedge funds pay a substantial amount of money for, and then let the trustee make his own decision about how to react. As law professor Megan Ballard puts it:

The rules for these trusts do not include sufficient incentives to maintain blindness. Indeed, blind trusts can mislead the public into believing that policymakers are avoiding conflicts, when they may not be doing so.

Ballard points out, the first elected official to use a blind trust was Lyndon Johnson, who was notorious for using his position to benefit his businesses. LBJ named two business associates and a family friend as his trustees. And he continued as usual, with his trustees handling specific details.

Also, according to Senate rules, once you establish a blind trust you are no longer required to disclose your assets annually, so it creates less transparency than before.

In 1995 Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa said:

I hold the strong belief that we, in Congress, are merely representatives of the people. We are not better than the people we represent and we are not, by definition and determination, different from the people we represent. We are, as representative government intends, the people themselves.

 Mr. Grassley’s comments are quite noble but we know better don’t we? The politicians simply have too much trouble following the same laws we simple represented mortals must abide by. The political class can’t bring itself to level the playing field, they continue to find and make excuses to clean up their mess.

It’s time for the Grassley argument to be applied to crony capitalism on both Capitol Hill and in the White House. The whispering going on in the halls of Congress is deafening. The elitists in the Beltway continue to hedge their bets that this problem will simply go away. It’s up to use to ensure it does not!

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Barack Obama’s biggest union pal was former SEIU president Andy Stern, now teaching at a bastion for radical left-wing thought, Columbia University who graduated such stars as Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

Stern was responsible for dumping up to $40 million dollars into the Obama 2008 campaign and had plenty to do with getting Harry Reid reelection to the Senate. Stern is bad news but of course so is the union mindset and the agenda of Obama and his ilk.

Recently, in the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Stern wrote “China’s Superior Economic Model: The free-market fundamentalist economic model is being thrown onto the trash heap of history.”

Stern begins his article quoting Intel founder and chairman Andy Grove:

“Our fundamental economic beliefs, which we have elevated from a conviction based on observation to an unquestioned truism, is that the free market is the best of all economic systems—the freer the better. Our generation has seen the decisive victory of free-market principles over planned economies. So we stick with this belief largely oblivious to emerging evidence that while free markets beat planned economies, there may be room for a modification that is even better.”

Notice that Mr. Grove discusses capitalism in a good light and only mentions modification to an already very good and proven system. He admits that free markets beat planned economies. But Mr. Stern prefers to take someone else’s words and twist them to fit is red beliefs.

Out of one side of Stern’s mouth comes a complaint that the “super committee” didn’t address China’s currency manipulation and adds Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney to the mix as protesting China’s ways. Out of the other side of Stern’s mouth he discusses a trip he made to China with a leftist group Center for American Progress (as in Progressive) where he touts a 12-year Chinese plan:

The aims: a 7% annual economic growth rate; a $640 billion investment in renewable energy; construction of six million homes; and expanding next-generation IT, clean-energy vehicles, biotechnology, high-end manufacturing and environmental protection—all while promoting social equity and rural development.

We have a chorus singing for massive government spending for green energy, building millions of homes, forcing clean vehicles upon the people and of course the center of all Communist thinking – social equity. Sound familiar? Sound like Barack Obama and his policies of renewable energy and a forced level playing field called “shared sacrifice?”

Andy Stern spends plenty of WSJ space quoting others that fit his Communist thinking. He invokes Orville Schell, who directed the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, as saying:

“I think we have come to realize the ability to plan is exactly what is missing in America.”

However, Schell has been visiting China since 1974 when he bragged about the efforts of Mao Zedong but complained about his methods. It’s nice that Mr. “Schell didn’t approve of the barbarian Mao as a person but he certainly liked the central planning thought process.

“There isn’t much I’d recommend anybody imitate in China now, because China is becoming an imitation of us… Now among the young there’s enormous amounts of crime and disaffection and skepticism and cynicism, along with disillusionment, and its analogue, a greed for money. People always reach for money when everything else fails.”

Schell is complaining about capitalism – “reaching for money.” Schell prefers living in an open society but like Stern he speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He supports the false thinking of global warming/climate change and he suggests the Chinese form of democracy may be more adaptive because it is not encumbered by the special/single-interest power blocks found in the US, and appears to be able to act more decisively to deal with the complexities of the world of today. He calls this “autocratic democracy.” That’s an oxymoron if I ever saw one. How do you have an open society and central planning?

Schell also gets quoted from interviews with other left-wing sources such as Whole Earth Review, Mother Jones, NPR with Teri Gross – places where his thinking is welcome and he will be made to feel comfortable. Communists are only comfortable around people who have the same mindset, where this can lean on each other.

Mr. Stern doesn’t seem capable of articulating his own thoughts so he runs back to Mr. Grove of Intel: (Emphasis LCs)

As Andy Grove so presciently articulated in the July 1, 2010, issue of Businessweek, the economies of China, Singapore, Germany, Brazil and India have demonstrated “that a plan for job creation must be the number-one objective of state economic policy; and that the government must play a strategic role in setting the priorities and arraying the forces of organization necessary to achieve this goal.”

Here is a man in Andy Grove who used free markets and capitalism along with great thought and engineering proposing big government, central planning and a strategic goal brought on by politicians who never, for the most part, did anything successful in the private sector. Did Mr. Grove have a failed lobotomy along the way?

Mr. Stern chimes in (this is his article afterall) and sounds exactly like the losers at the “Occupy Wall Street” events, complaining about so-called inequities and invoking class warfare. He really doesn’t like Conservatives or that original American model the US Constitution.

The conservative-preferred, free-market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model—so successful in the 20th century—is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century. In an era when countries need to become economic teams, Team USA’s results—a jobless decade, 30 years of flat median wages, a trade deficit, a shrinking middle class and phenomenal gains in wealth but only for the top 1%—are pathetic.

So free markets are “pathetic.” Mr. Stern and Mr. Obama are the biggest part of the current failure in the United States. Their economic thinking is to share the wealth, redistribute the wealth, community organizing through unions who hold private businesses hostage and complain about how unfair society is.

I’m an equities investor, a shareholder in a number of companies. I add and delete stocks monthly but I always maintain a small share of a diverse group of companies of my choosing. I am free to choose what to do with my money and if  I choose to become a shareholder that is my choice in a free America. Anyone can do it. Instead of buying those expensive trinkets, spending money on cigarettes you can invest and become a shareholder too. Andy Stern and his Communist friends may not agree but that’s your choice not theirs until they take it away. Didn’t Ben Franklin tel us “A penny saved is a penny earned?” Of course he did and Mr. Franklin was a man of wisdom and free choice.

But Mr. Stern isn’t quite finished bragging about his Communist friends:

While we debate, Team China rolls on. Our delegation witnessed China’s people-oriented development in Chongqing, a city of 32 million in Western China, which is led by an aggressive and popular Communist Party leader—Bo Xilai. A skyline of cranes are building roughly 1.5 million square feet of usable floor space daily—including, our delegation was told, 700,000 units of public housing annually.

America needs to embrace a plan for growth and innovation, with a streamlined government as a partner with the private sector. Economic revolutions require institutions to change and maybe make history, because if they stick to the status quo they soon become history. Our great country, which sparked and wants to lead this global revolution, needs a forward looking, long-term economic plan.

Popular Communist leader? Do the Chinese have a free choice? Public housing? This is what Andy Stern and his Communist/Marxist friend Barack Obama want for you, the American citizen. Andy Stern doesn’t want to “streamline government” he wants to grow it as the controlling force over your life. Free thinking entrepreneurs succeed in creating jobs and economy when government gets out of the way. Regulations stop growth. Taxes stop investment. Government stops innovation. America is buried in trillions of dollars of red ink because of the policies of government.

Andy Stern is embracing the Chinese model which cannot succeed over the long-term. Communism cannot work over the long-term and it doesn’t mix well with capitalism. People who start to make money and begin to gain freedom to make their own decisions will never be satisfied with government intrusion. The Chinese who are experiencing wealth are becoming a problem for the Communist leaders who are living high on the money hog. This dissatisfaction will eventually lead to the Chinese people demanding less government and more freedom but Andy Stern is a union man, a community organizer who is impressed with repressive thoughts and policy.

Mr. Stern sees a Communist model for America. Like Barack Obama and the Communist ilk inside the halls of American government they want change, a fundamental transformation of America as Mr. Obama has promised.

Andy Stern, Barack Obama and a huge portion of the US government are seeing red, Communist Red, while the average citizen is being held back by the red ink of the national debt caused by the same people who propose Chinese Communist models for us.

If Mr. Stern really wants a plan he only needs to visit Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s  website A Roadmap for America’s Future. Now there’s a plan, one invoking more capitalism, free markets, less government, the American entrepreneurial spirit.

You see, Mr. Stern doesn’t want the type of freedom Mr. Ryan is proposing. Mr. Stern and his friends embrace the Chinese model – the Communist Model.

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However, if you’re an elected official in Washington DC or even connected to one insider trading is legal. If you’re sitting in the proverbial catbird seat for information on potentially very high profits how easy it is to cash in. All because you have no ethics and you happen to be an elected official presumably working for the people.

Steve Kroft of 60 minutes and CBS is reporting that members of Congress can legally trade stock based on non-public information from Capitol Hill. Nice information if you can get it. Following is a 15 minute exclusive clip from 60 minutes in case you missed it: (also watch Kroft question an indignant Nancy Pelosi)

(CBS News) Washington, D.C. is a town that runs on inside information – but should our elected officials be able to use that information to pad their own pockets? As Steve Kroft reports, members of Congress and their aides have regular access to powerful political intelligence, and many have made well-timed stock market trades in the very industries they regulate. For now, the practice is perfectly legal, but some say it’s time for the law to change.

Time for a change indeed. If you want to help clean up the corruption in DC this would be a start. You say corruption, no, it’s legal. It’s legal only because the elected officials in DC like the system as it stands and don’t want it changed. If you didn’t watch the clip from 60 minutes you’re staying uninformed about an important issue that must be addressed.

Insider trading – only legal for the fat cats in Washington DC.

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Mr. Reagan approved the largest tax cut in history, along with a strategy regarding deregulation, fiscal discipline and spending controls. Mr. Obama, needless to say, provided us a $1 trillion spending stimulus.

Towards the end of the summer season of Reagan’s 3rd year in office, the US overall economy was zooming. GDP rate of growth had been 5% plus was speeding on the way to 7%, in fact 8% growth. In 1983 as well as ’84 productivity had been expanding so quick the greatest fear could be that the economic system might “overheat.” During the summer of 2011 we now have an economic climate limping around at scarcely 1% growth and from a number of signals on course towards a “double-dip” recession. At the end of Reagan’s 1st term in office, it was indeed Morning in America. Currently there’s dismal discussion of America in its twilight.

My personal objective isn’t additional Reagan idolatry, although my respect for the Gipper is immense, but to indicate the indisputable fact: A single plan for economic recovery was successful, while the other has not.

The actual Reagan school of thought would be to incentivize production – “supply side” of the economy – through minimizing restraints upon business enterprise expansion as well as investment. This had been accomplished by cutting marginal income tax rates, removing regulatory road blocks, and also reining in inflation which includes a more restrictive monetary strategy.

Keynesians during the early 1980s guaranteed the Reagan business expansion wouldn’t and couldn’t take place. Rapid development together with brand new jobs and dropping rates of inflation (4% during 1983 from 13% during 1980) happens to be an unfeasibility within Keynesian textbooks. When you boost demand, costs increase. Should you increase supply, just as Reagan did, costs decrease.

The Godfather belonging to the neo-Keynesians, Paul Samuelson, had been the head critic regarding the assumed follies of Reaganomics. He had written in a 1980 Newsweek publication that to kill the inflation beast would probably require “five to ten years of austerity,” together with unemployment of 8 or 9 percent as well as actual output of “barely 1 or 2 percent.”

Reaganomics had been regularly made fun of in the news, particularly during the 1982 economic downturn. That had been the year MIT economist Lester Thurow notoriously stated, “The engines of economic growth have shut down here and across the globe, and they are likely to stay that way for years to come.”

The overall economy would quickly take off for longer than eighty successive months. After that the Reagan naysayers announced the things they once believed could hardly succeed was really a textbook Keynesian business expansion powered through budget deficits of $200 billion annually, or perhaps around 4%-5% of Gross Domestic Product.

Robert Reich, currently with the University of California, at Berkeley, stated that “The recession of 1981-82 was so severe that the bounce back has been vigorous.” Paul Krugman authored in 2004 that the Reagan period was actually absolutely nothing unique due to the fact: “You see, rapid growth is normal when an economy is bouncing back from a deep slump.”

Mr. Krugman of Enron “fame” ended up being, finally, at the very least partially correct. Just how might Reagan not stand out following 4 years of Jimmy Carter’s personal economic malfeasance?

Speed ahead to the present and the erstwhile Barack Obama is managing deficits of $1.3 trillion, as well as 8%-9% of GDP. In the event the Reagan deficits pushed the ’1980s expansion, the Obama deficits, two times as large, ought to currently have the United States racing at Olympic momentum.

The left has currently accepted a fresh concept to elucidate exactly why Obama spending has not been effective. The resolution is actually included in the book “This Time Is Different,” by economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. Released in ’09, this book investigates generations of recessions as well as depressions throughout the world. The writers determine that it requires nations significantly longer, half a dozen years or more, in order to endure economic downturns and also the bursting of asset bubbles compared to normal recessions.

Regardless, exactly what Reagan inherited had been most likely a far more serious economic crisis compared to what was initially confronting Obama. It’s not necessary to accept is as fact, however, from 1967 thorugh 1982 securities dropped two-thirds of their worth compared to inflation, based on a brand new review from Laffer Associates. This huge liquidation regarding wealth had been a first-class economic disaster. In addition to 20 percent mortgage loan rates of interest, evident during the 1970s, were an indication of a economic policy disaster.

You will discover something definitely distinct this time around. It isn’t really the type of turmoil Mr. Obama got, yet the dynamics associated with his policy solutions. Reagan utilized tax reductions along with other guidelines that sent the deficit to unknown peacetime heights.

However this borrowing funded an extraordinary as well as extended economic development plus a triumph versus the Evil Empire during the Cold War. Precisely what have Mr. Obama’s deficits achieved for the American people?

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Those so-called American’s are Marxists, Bolsheviks who are constantly playing the race card, the class warfare game, the anti-rich, anti-prosperous, anti-successful bunch who want redistribution of wealth, they want the so-called rich to pay up with their sweat equity.

Barack Obama was to be the left’s hero but many don’t like the fact that he hasn’t totally transformed America into a banana republic, third world afterthought. These people want hardcore socialism and the don’t want Conservatives getting in the way. Afterall, the Conservatives are radical, extremists, bent on destroying the America the Marxist have desired for decades.

Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, would change all that. Rick Perry isn’t a Beltway, status quo, DC parrot. Rick Perry has contempt for the politico’s in Washington and his record is one of success in Texas that hopefully would translate into success in all 50 states.

From the UK Telegraph:

It is a pocket of rural America that has changed little in a century and is about as far removed from the bustle and marble monuments of Washington DC as one could imagine.

But Paint Creek, where ranches and wooden homes, some now abandoned, are dotted beside cotton and wheat fields, is the place that defines the man who some Republicans believe could unseat President Barack Obama next November.

Governor Rick Perry was part of the fifth generation to work the land at Paint Creek, some 200 miles west of Dallas on the flat expanse of plains known as “the Big Empty”.

It was here that he was imbued with the country values of church, family, neighbourliness, thrift and hard work that now seem part of a bygone America beyond places like West Texas.

Back in the late 1950s, he was known as Ricky Perry, a mischievous boy, always smiling, who lived with his parents and older sister Milla in a rented wooden house that lacked indoor plumbing. He wore a cowboy shirt hand sewn by his mother, a locally renowned quilter, and his highest ambition seemed to be to become an Eagle Scout.

You won’t read positive stories about Gov. Perry in the United States press. They fear Rick Perry like they fear Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin.

“There were three things to do in Paint Creek: school, church, and Boy Scouts,” Mr Perry said last year, looking back on the late 1950s.

“That’s it. And it was plenty.” Paint Creek was “one of the most beautiful places or it could be one of the most desolate” depending on the weather. As a child, he ventured, it was the home of “some of the most principled, disciplined people in the world, and faithful”.

America needs principled people, faithful people, the kind that believe in the can do American spirit of exceptionalism. Ronald Reagan was principled and we need a principled leader in the White House who will faithfully abide by the US Constitution, shrink the federal government, bring back optimism and pride in America the way President Reagan did. We need someone to reverse course in American and a leader who will, to paraphrase Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), “compromise means going along with my plan.”

Rick Perry will cross the aisle to inform the Leftist opposition that he won’t compromise his principles, he won’t compromise the Constitution and he won’t compromise American exceptionalism. Rick Perry won’t compromise our freedom and liberty.

Mr. Perry, who has championed Israel and called for a muscular foreign policy, has the ability to appeal to all five elements of the party – fiscal, social and national security conservatives plus the Tea Party. However, the “establishment” isn’t real crazy about Rick Perry and that’s a good thing. If you want change with plenty of real hope thrown in for good measure than Rick Perry is your man, your candidate.

Mr. Perry’s friends believe he never intended to run for president but now feels he has to move beyond his beloved Texas because his country is in peril. The coming months will tell whether the boy from Paint Creek could be hailed by voters as a potential national saviour.

I believe Rick Perry is the antidote for Marxism and Barack Obama. I now have my candidate for President of the United States.

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Previously I had written two articles on Alliance, Ohio in reference to economics not attacks on people. Believe me – I’m not picking on anyone. I have years of business experience in accounting, finance, economics, technology, real estate including renovations, sales and appraisal. In addition to my experience I have an education to back it all up. I’m not bragging I’m simply qualifying myself for those who might say I don’t know what I’m talking about. That’s poppycock on their part.

Last evening I was searching some information on the Ohio area government, blight, economics, taxes and I ran into an article at the Canton Repository, a local rag that leans left and endorses the same type of candidates who have sold Ohio and the US down the rabbit hole all in the name of feckless liberalism. I’m still deciding if more and more people are either bleeding heart liberals or closet Communists or if they just like government freebies and a nanny state.

Now Liberals have a way with words that always seem to put a smiley face on what they say while hiding the true meaning. For instance, Nancy Pelosi and her ilk like to be called “Progressive.” Forward thinking might come to mind but the end of the Pelosi road is scattered with bread lines, junk vehicles, and blighted neighborhoods with crying, hungry children. That’s if the child gets past an abortion funded by the taxpayer or doesn’t live in a fatherless home sanctioned by the US welfare laws.

Now we have an “art” district as proclaimed in Alliance, Ohio by the renowned (in their own minds) city council. We also have a mayoral candidate, most likely the next mayor, the head of the Stark County Ohio arts group known as ArtinStark and the head of the Alliance Chamber of Commerce. All leaders one would think, progressive thinkers, forward moving people who understand economics and have complete knowledge of what it takes to move a community from blight to economic bliss.

These people believe in higher taxes, government funding to move forward and plenty of grant money flowing in from the federal government, the same government busy printing money backed by cow dung instead of that old commodity known as gold.

This all brings us back to that Repository article and some quotes that set my head spinning and brought it close to a mass explosion. (All emphasis below is by LC/DA and all links open in new windows.)

Cups of coffee, a troll doll display and an art gallery designed to appeal to Alzheimer’s patients are all part of a vision to stimulate this city’s downtown.

Sherry Groom, a Summit County woman who operates Villa Maria Dementia Care residential facility, is buying and upgrading neglected downtown structures.

The plans for the two buildings on E. Main Street are a coffee shop and troll doll display. The art gallery is planned for the complex on N. Arch Avenue. The Grooms plan to hold art therapy there.

For much more on that troll hole business you can visit my original article here.

This is not the first puff piece written about the troll hole in local papers and I did a case study concerning Alliance and the Cat Fanciers Association here. Please keep in mind – I’m not questioning art therapy for dementia patients or anyone’s capacity to conduct such work.

Here is the first quote that had my eyes glazing over.

“We have vision, and we saw economic opportunities because property values are so low,” Sherry Groom said. “We see a tourist destination that has something so unique that word of mouth will publicize it for us. If we just opened up one building, our chances of being successful there would be pretty slim.”

So Mrs. Groom sees economic opportunity in low value property. Opportunity for whom I ask – the Groom’s or the community or is this is a win-win because they will make Alliance a tourist destination? Will this compete with the Football Hall of Fame in Canton for tourist dollars? Unlikely. The location does not proclaim “tourist destination” nor does downtown Alliance, Ohio.

The Repository article tells us the Groom’s are from Cuyahoga Falls, about 39 miles northwest of Alliance. If you’re so interested in Alliance why not live in Alliance? You have a dementia center in Alliance, some very nice homes in Alliance, you wish to expand that “economic opportunity” in Alliance but you don’t even live in Alliance. Isn’t it really about that cheap property and “investment”, all to promote tourism and art in Alliance, Ohio?

I’m all for investment and capitalism but I call it what it is and I don’t paint lipstick on a pig and proclaim I now have prince charming.

The article also states that the new legislation for the art district “allows property owners to seek city loans to help cover acquisition and renovation expenses but so far, the Grooms have not asked for city assistance.”

However, the Grooms did acquire over $1,000 from ArtinStark, a small sum but how do you call something “Groom Family Investment, Inc.” and receive grant money? Maybe I should consult Bernie Madoff or review not-for-profit tax laws at IRS.com to find the answer.

Next we have the so-called “leaders” chime in concerning the “investment” by the Grooms. Now my head begins pounding at the indirect insults to other individuals who have invested real money, real time, created jobs and work contracts to really renovate and stand out as examples of community enhancement and reinvestment.

First we have City Councilman Steve Okey, D-at large, and current mayoral candidate. Mr. Okey went through the building and saw the plans:

“This is a well-thought-out plan they are undertaking,” City Councilman Steve Okey, D-at large, said. “The arts has the ability to inspire people, to make them feel good about downtown. I have been through their buildings and seen their plans. It is hands-down the best plan I have seen for revitalizing downtown.”

“Hands down” Mr. Okey that was, at best, a backhanded slap at the face of people who have spent thousands of dollars of private money renovating old buildings that brought them back to effective ages of new and you claim this project is the best plan you’ve seen? Do you need a seeing eye dog or a visit to economics class 101? Have you checked the progress to see if it fits the original plan? Have you looked around and noticed the other renovated and restored buildings up and down Main St., less than a stones throw from this great plan, “hands down”?

Next we have the president of the Alliance Chamber of Commerce commenting about “buildings in the project are time-worn and have obvious signs of neglect.”

Some of them have been occupied recently, but not well taken care of, said R. Mark Locke, president of the Alliance Area Chamber of Commerce. It is probably the most (renovation) I have seen in downtown. We have a lot of people that have done small projects downtown. This is the most concerted effort of multiple buildings. We haven’t seen that in a long time.

Next up we have Robb Hankins, president and COO of ArtinStark:

The idea of revitalizing downtown Alliance through the arts we have been talking to leaders of Alliance for a while. It is a downtown revitalization strategy based on arts rather than retail. Retail doesn’t work anymore. I would call Alliance the most challenged downtown in Stark County.

If Alliance is the most “challenged downtown in Stark County” than Mr. Hankins is the most intellectually challenged person in this group if he thinks retail doesn’t work. Why is Kohl’s moving into Alliance if retail “doesn’t work anymore”? Why is retail sales one of the leading economic indicators if it “doesn’t work anymore?”

Now let’s examine real number for that retail that doesn’t work anymore. From Marketbeat at the Wall Street Journal:

June swoon? Not for the retailers.Karen Talley at Dow Jones Newswires reports that retailers posted an aggregate 6.5% gain in same-store sales in June 2011, the best month since February 2004, according to Thomson Reuters. (That doesn’t include March-April because of how Easter slides around in the calendar.)

In addition, Karen reports that 87% of retailers topped same-store sales expectations, the best performance since Thomson Reuters began tracking the sales data.

Hmmm, seems to be a slight conflict between the real numbers, the experts and the art and leadership crowd.

Are these people really kidding me? I’m very, very familiar with downtown Alliance. I’m a CPA, MBA in Managerial Finance and Economics from Northwestern University and schooled by and a member of the Appraisal Institute in Chicago. Even smaller shops are having good sales because they work at it. The economy is tough and for small business it’s tougher but the economic slowdown is from government growth at the national level and local government dependence on taxpayer dollars that stream in from the state via the Feds. Government is the problem and never the solution unless they get out of the way and let private enterprise go to work with less regulation and less red tape and fewer restrictions that don’t serve the public good. Small businesses that open each day would be gone if it didn’t work anymore and that’s not the case in every situation in downtown Alliance. You simply need to walk around and open your eyes, not take the word from  people of special interest groups, leaders that don’t lead but only believe in the endless stream of  grant money,  government growth and control.

These comments are disingenuous at best and designed to fit a nice puff piece by the Canton Repository and an author who doesn’t know enough to ask pertinent and tough questions. Maybe Malcolm Hall simply needs an article filled with quotes but no facts and substance while he’s busy making his print deadline.  Colleagues and acquaintances of mine have discussed this building and determined we would have torn it down. It is absolutely not as advertised despite Mr. Groom’s testimony in my previous article. Would it be too difficult for Mr. Hall to go beyond quotes, dig a little deeper and show all sides?

Mr. Okey who’s running for Mayor in Alliance, certainly was rewarded for his comments as Mr. Groom is happy to post a giant banner for his election prospects  on a bus owned by a business. If you know anything about economics and business you don’t mix political ads and promotions with viable businesses if you’re serious about enterprise. Let’s face it; this is not about business trade or economic development. If you don’t vote in Alliance but you’re promoting a candidate for mayor than you do, indeed, have an ulterior motive which in most cases is self-serving.

Maybe it’s the building across the street from the Groom’s second hand clothing shop and future gallery which stands to gain when the building across the street is demolished. A nice parking lot, an abandoned building gone – this is good for Alliance and we thank the taxpayers from across the nation for this gift. But why this building, why not another building? When this building drops the value on the Groom’s building may very well go up. Nice work if you can get it. I can feel the denial seeping through my Internet connection. This could be coincidence but I couldn’t help but point that out in conjunction with that giant sign wheeling around town attached to that “magic bus” declaring “Okey for Mayor”. This is how Sen. Harry Reid came into wealth in Nevada with real estate while hanging out in the US Senate screwing America. A little shift in zoning laws, a reappraisal, reconfigure a location and boom – values go up in less than one-year of the property acquisition.

Mr. Hankins declares that retail doesn’t work anymore but art does. I beg to differ and Fort Wayne, Indiana would be a great example to see how a downtown is revitalized. It’s a model of how to do it albeit on a larger scale which only means a smaller city could creatively figure out how to do it correctly for less.

Alliance is one more example, along with Stark County in general, who was more than willing to jump on the Barack Obama “shovel ready” stimulus that cost taxpayers $787 billion and did nothing to stimulate the economy but was a canard to pay off unions and other politically connected lackeys who always have their hands outstretched with palms pointing to the sky.  Some of that “stimulus” money was for the  MLK Viaduct rehabilitation from Liberty Ave to Patterson St., $548,450 worth, creating 15 shovel ready jobs (these are temporary jobs by the way), a project reliable sources told me wasn’t needed as it was only a memorial project to Dr. Martin Luther King using federal tax money but not really enhancing downtown Alliance.

I’m sure many will tell you this was a much needed project but it’s only a “feel good” project supposedly aimed at making people feel pride in their community. Doesn’t real pride come from having a job from a place open for business selling retail or services where you get paid and can afford to buy food, clothes and other items? Doesn’t it feel good not to be on the government dole, hanging out on the corner, or street bench earning and paying your own way? Not for some people.

All the fine folks that brought Stark County that taxpayer money have been voted out of office including former Governor Ted Strickland and Obama lap dog Rep. John Boccieri. This site is fact filled with articles, fully substantiated and backed up, concerning how the liberals spend like drunken sailors. As the late, great President Ronald Reagan said:

“At least the sailors were spending their own money.”

Buildings across from and adjacent to the Groom buildings are examples of how to renovate or restore a building and Mr. Groom isn’t even close. By the looks of things months later revitalizing anything in downtown Alliance would be an overstatement but these people have a vision while peering through rose colored glasses.

Mr. Locke should come out of his office and walk a short distance to see real renovation. And guess what? More is about to take place with personal money, not government grants – never money from the government and only for businesses and projects that inject money back into the community so it can grow. This is how private enterprise works. This is how private business creates jobs, and enhances a community. As a side note Mr. Locke might have the peeling paint on the side of his building fixed as part of that Alliance revitalization.

Retail doesn’t work anymore? Have the arts folks never heard of ‘Starving Artists’??? Mr. and Mrs. Groom recently started ‘Art in the Parking Lot’ which was nothing more than a sized down garage sale. As of early July what is left of that idea moved onto Main St. No ‘art’ was to be found. The Grooms were feeding off the Alliance Farmer’s Market for traffic and actually encroaching on parking and storefronts of other businesses.

And then we have Jupiter Studio’s advertised as this:

Imagine a place where you could go to immerse yourself in art, music, and culture. Where you could go not only to see great performances by world class artists and musicians, but where you and your family can discover your own hidden talents for art and music. I know it sounds like some faraway theme park in some place like Orlando, but this is real, and it’s here in Alliance, Ohio.

If you can find your way past all the young folks tattooed, pierced, and depicting a scene reminiscent of the Star Wars bar we might call it art but please, this isn’t really art by any stretch of the imagination, it actually hurts the retail trade and your eyesight. None of the crowd milling around on a Saturday afternoon or late evening could pass through a metal detector. I’m not sure if there is really art inside as a view through the window only had a display of stacked garbage. Maybe the art was the body art, multi-colored hair and creative piercings demonstrating a configuration of mobile art not to be confused with a mobile you might place over a child’s crib or bed lest you give them nightmares and permanent emotional instability. And don’t mind those male trouser hovering around the kneecaps displaying colorful boxer shorts. Maybe that’s the art they’re talking about.

The Grooms have successfully garnered praise from people who should be in the know but their comments only depict why downtown Alliance is in trouble. If the Grooms are visionaries and the people quoted above really believe this then downtown Alliance will remain hopeless.

Some will say, ‘You’re entitled to your opinion, at least they’re trying.’ Yes, but let’s be honest. I have given you a highly professional opinion and stated real facts about who has renovated, received little credit for the thousands of dollars of personal income spent, only to see the free publicity for something that is not economically viable in an area that desperately needs sound economics applied. Downtown Alliance needs to promote more retail and wholesale.

I would ask the so-called leaders in Alliance and Stark County to at least be honest, look at the facts and open your mind before you place credit where it isn’t deserved. That’s not too much to ask from people who are called leaders but lack the qualities to provide the economic leadership required to make a city really work.

These leaders are busy looking for the next government funded stimulus  and more taxpayer money to create “shovel ready” jobs that never appear but those signs on the highway give you a Chris Mathews tingle up your leg while you travel.

Government steals your money, they use nice terms like “Progressive” and “Art” and “For the Children” as ploys to make you think you will receive some benefit or this is absolutely necessary or the world will end soon. Government mismanages and misappropriates millions and billions dollars and I call that radical waste and criminal. We now have trillions of dollars of waste but as former Speaker of the House Tip O’ Neill stated:

“All politics is local.”

I’m from Chicago and that large scale corrupt local patronage politics fans out across the country from Bell, California, to Alliance, Ohio, to Baltimore, Maryland. They like to say in Chicago, “politics ain’t beanbag”, but it grows corruption through favors, greed, lies and disinformation. A key word in local and national politics is patronage as practiced by the Community-Organizer-in-Chief in the White House and local honchos and private citizens who use that system to enhance their own wealth. That’s patronage.

This is not a direct accusation of the people I mentioned here but something that seems too good usually is. Constantly feeding off the trough is constantly feeding off your neighbor. Czars creating regulations and increasing taxes at the national level that eventually trickles down to the local level but many people in Washington have all trickled up to their current positions from local government.

Many, like Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin went to Washington to teach real economics, not as a politician but as a successful business owner who has created jobs and wealth as a benefit to his community using private funds and borrowed funds, paid back timely, based on a real business plan with pro-forma income statements, balance sheets and substantiated financial forecasts geared to growing a business and directly growing an economy. Mr. Johnson is also a model for how the private sector works and the government does not.

So don’t tell me retail doesn’t work anymore. Don’t tell the readers in Ohio and on the Internet that a band-aid on an open chest wound is progress; don’t ignore the viable businesses and renovated storefronts and buildings – the work of private citizens from your chair at the Chamber of Commerce. Don’t tell me art is the answer and retail shops are dead or don’t work anymore from your grant driven not for profit. Don’t tell us how great a revitalization plan is only to have your political campaign promoted.

Get with the real world and quit lying to the public you supposedly serve. Give credit where credit is due and quit trying to tell the average citizen that economic revitalization is a not-for-profit endeavor. Retail works, wholesale works, private business works and capitalism works!

The bottom line is the bottom line. Business is a profit center and promotes real transfer of goods and services. We need galleries, we need museums and we need privately funded arts. But call a pig a pig and a prince a prince and don’t blur the truth or intentionally alter the facts.

Maybe every business owner in downtown Alliance should be interviewed and promoted by the Canton Repository and Alliance Review for free. Maybe the run of articles about troll holes, enchanted forests, and art could also include sections about real businesses, retail businesses owned in the private sector that are profit oriented and create real economy to local communities and serve the community in a manner that enhances economically. Where is the equal time Liberals always complain about when they discuss the “Fairness Doctrine”?

When I’m told the garbage cans on Main Street have been removed because the City of Alliance can’t maintain them but they use thousands of dollars on a memorial bridge from nowhere it seems the priorities are out of sync.

When I’m told an eyesore is major revitalization and restoration under the guise of art the question in my head asks – How stupid do they all think we are?

Well I guess we’re pretty stupid since the guy in the White House, heavily promoted by the Alliance Democrats and many independents voted him into office, intend to support him again and hope the money train from Tim Geithner’s money express  flows into Ohio and into local communities for art not viable business that enhances the economy.

Shovel ready only comes to a community when the fools in government stand aside and allow private businesses to start, grow and enhance  a community, raising its profile through economic strength. Art has its place but don’t ever tell me it will replace private business. That is the biggest lie ever.

All you local leaders, get out of your office chairs and start making note of what is properly renovated and restored and what is not. For once, be honest with yourself and with the public. At least show the community some respect even  if you prefer not to have any for  yourself.

One last note. For all the readers and the businesses in Alliance – wake up and vote to rid the politicians in power. They helped create the blight and stagnant environment in downtown Alliance. They are, indeed, part of the problem although they will deny it. If you support Democrats who despise the balanced budget created by Governor Kasich, and the economy of Barack Obama then you too are part of the problem. If you support Republican’s in name only than it’s time you vote them out to. See out Conservative leadership where you can find it and demand the elected officials start serving you.

If you want real hope and change then don’t support the status quo, demand change, stand up, voice your opinion and vote accordingly.

Viable Economics and Small Business Renovation in Alliance Ohio

Art Renovation and Patronage in Alliance Ohio

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I’m not in favor of private sector business breaking the law nor am I in favor of politicians doing the same. The Democrats and Obama favor regulation that will lead them to their promised land of government control over private business.

Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Barney Frank (D-MA) have now completed their House and Senate versions of financial regulation that Barack Obama wants on his desk by Independence Day. How appropriate, lose more independence on the day we celebrate what is now become fleeting liberty and independence.

A 2,000-page monstrosity, the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill is short on specifics, giving regulators significant power to determine its impact. This law is going to be continually rewritten by federal bureaucrats for years to come.

Here is a small breakdown of the faulty Dodd-Frank financial industry takeover:

Permanent Bailout Authority: Dodd-Frank creates an “orderly liquidation” process empowering regulators to seize financial institutions they deem failing. The bill allows regulators to takeover and sell off a private business without judicial review. Seizing private property doesn’t pass the Constitutional smell test.

Trusting the Same Regulators that Failed Last Time: Dodd-Frank establishes a new 10-member Financial Stability Oversight Council composed of regulators that would be responsible for monitoring and addressing system-wide risks to the financial system. This group will have unlimited powers to draft financial firms into the regulatory system and even force them to sell off or close pieces of themselves.

Brand New Innovation Killing Regulators: Dodd-Frank establishes a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection with broad powers to regulate the financial products and services that can be offered to consumers.

Micromanaging the Market: Dodd-Frank creates a form of the “Volcker rule” which would largely prohibit any bank or other institution with FDIC-insured deposits from undertaking proprietary trading or from owning or sponsoring hedge funds or private equity funds.

Fannie and Freddie Forever: Dodd-Frank does nothing to address Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac both government pets who have received much of the Federal bailout money. Both government sponsored failures are now in receivership and played an enormous part in the housing bubble, despite complete denial by Dodd and Frank.

As someone who donated to Scott Brown’s campaign to win a Senate seat in Massachusetts he has been on record as cutting a deal to help his state institutions with language that may exempt them from some of this mess. I call it a vote for a favor and screw the rest of the nation. I also wrote and called the Brown reelection offices to call out previous votes for stimulus money and the so-called jobs bill as disingenuous.

However, Brown is now reconsidering his original vote in favor of the measure. Scott released a statement explaining:

“My fear is that these costs would be passed onto consumers in the form of higher bank, ATM and credit card fees and put a strain on lending at the worst possible time for our economy. I’ve said repeatedly that I cannot support any bill that raises taxes.”

Had Brown not figured this out before his initial vote? Are other Republicans on board with this mess? Where are the erstwhile Maine “RINO” twins Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins?

This bill will retard economic growth,  cost taxpayers billions and further retard job growth. Pick your poison but any member of the GOP cutting a side deal for this enormously flawed legislation is beyond a RINO and should never confuse themselves as Conservative.

The devil is in the details and drilling down into Dodd-Frank and voting for it is climbing in bed with the Devil. Indeed!

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