Rapid development in the past two wks.

1. Steel Mills announced rapid price increases and have made the price increases retroactive. The mills have taken so many orders the past few wks that they have closed the orders books and are advising that they need the dust to settle b4 accepting any more orders. Watch this situation very closely. This is a world wide event. The US used to be the major Steel producer in the world but no more. Many of our mills drowned in pyramid pay schemes (aggressive retirement packages) that they could no longer be competitive nor have money for plant improvements.

2. Caterpillar just bought Bucyrus. This is a big deal. I suspect caterpillar is buying on the low side and anticipating paying it off with cheap dollars and pending upside.

3. How about a good time to short gold??

4. Farm Land has reached a all time high 2010. and the prices are still going up. the last few wks have seen absurd prices at auction for farm land here in Nebraska.

Just Like during the great depression the great recession will go on for some time. to get what needs to get done we need to have faith in our government is free from corruption and is serving its people and not special interests.

Points to ponder:

1. Just like the great depression the key to resolve the great recession is how to change the widening gpa between middle class and upper class. Today 1% of the top income earners control 23% of the wealth. in 1975 it was 9%. Wealth need to be in the hands of the middle class.

2. Estate/death tax need to come back to keep the accumulation of assets into fewer hands. Maybe allowing the first x dollars/assets to be exempt from estate tax. Maybe equivalent to the first 1000 acres of land. Enough for a small business to remain in the family.

3. Substantially increase the income tax on the wealthiest 1 -2% of the populace.. maybe back to the 70% range

4. Nafta has to go. Nafta is a key contributor to the accumulation of wealth into fewer and few hands. To be competitive in a fully global economy the consolidation of wealth is paramount. Nafta and its aftermath was by design and not by accident. We need to return to the domination of local economies

5. Increase states rights to look after its people. limit the federal governments influence on regulation and oversight. let states encourage the entrepreneurial development of its industries without the intimate involvement of the Alphabet government. FDA,EPA,IRS, ect....

6. Eliminate federal income tax and force the federal government to figure out how to support itself through estate tax, corporate tax, medical tax, sales tax on imported goods? i like a sales tax on imported goods!!!! this is the way it used to be done.

7. Schools need to recognize the paradigm shift. We can no longer spend large % of school budget on non-school activities such as: sports, breakfast, lunch and dinner, buses, etc... currently the average cost to 'educate' a child in the US is $120,000. This can not be sustained. When i lived in Austria as a child i recall being in school by 7:30 +/- and done with school between 12:30 and 1:00. no lunches, no sports, no bus,no PE class etc... We did have a 'town' hockey team etc.. but it was not tied to 'education'.

8. Drug test needs to be administered prior to distribution of welfare and other social service checks. Many of us have to take a drug test before we are employed and receiving income. Why should this be any different that a a tax payer subsidy check?

9. Re-work disability payment program. 5% of our population receives a disability check. Even afflictions such as over weight and drug use are considered conditions that can allow a person to collect disability.

10. eliminate the federal income tax other than the top 1-2% of earners. put more income in peoples pockets and let the people decide how to spend it.. with a sales tax on all imported products i would think we would make an effort to buy domestic. Sales tax on imported goods would go along ways to encourage the development of industries in the US and put people back to good work.

11. Term limits, and reduce the federal and other government employees pay scale to match the current private sector pay/benefit scale. such as 401 k's rather than 'retirement' payments. and pay scale closer to the private sectors pay scale. current government/public pay scale is about double that of the private sector. this can not continue. This might be trouble to turn around. For many years the contracts have been a never ending income stream. anything the unions wanted they recvd and it was thought that the tax pool was never ending and could handle just about anything that was built into the system.

12. Tort reform. we need to end the lawyers role in our economy. currently the US employees 70% of the worlds attorneys' something is desperately wrong.

13. Empty our prisons through legalizing drugs. Government can sell them at unattractive places. Tax revenue once the federal income tax is dropped. Why not let the sin be a tax since it is a burden on our society rather than the margin going to a few very wealthy people in this world? this will remove the margin for the trafficking so no more pushing, crime reduction and 70% of the prisons are empty. In the Netherlands the legalizing of drugs did just this. No trafficking, empty jails, reduced crime or controlled crime, and 50% reduction in drug use.

14. no more farm subsidy payments

15. no more UN payments

16. No more foreign aid payments

17. No more military bases overseas

18. wall street and banking reforms. no more bailouts, force pay back on all bail outs of wall street and bankers. and force the firms that recvd the bailouts to limit the compensation packages given to the top 10% of the companies earners. Repeal the 'wall street' reforms of 1999 that were largely responsible for deepening our current plight.

19. too big to fail then too big to be allowed to continue. time to break up the company into smaller units. spread wealth around!

For this great recession to turn around we will all have to give and be willing to work. Some will have to work for less. Some will have to pay more for this or that, some will have to pay more tax.

Categories: Dave's Rants