Senate approves Sanders Amendment, 96-0

It’s no real surprise that an avowed Socialist, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would want an unfettered central bank. That’s been a key tenet of bloody-handed power-centralizers such as Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln. So Bernie introduced a much weaker amendment to audit the Federal Reserve as a means of undercutting the Vitter Amendment (rejected 62-37). The status quo is maintained, while allowing senators and corporate shills like McClatchy to crow about “transparency.”

California Attorney General Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr. has filed civil charges against two former California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) officials, accusing them of engaging in a kickback scheme involving $48 billion in investments and $47 million in commissions. CalPERS is the nation’s largest pension fund. Click here for the full story.

Meanwhile, graduate students at Stanford University’s graduate Public Policy Program have found that CalPERS, California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), and the University of California Retirement System (UCRS), which together administer pensions for approximately 2.6 million Californians, are broke:

‘The simulation shows that the state would need to invest more than $200 billion, and possibly as much as $350 billion, today to return the fund to a minimum responsible level of funding,’ said Bornstein, who noted that the figure is approximately four times the current state budget.

I’ll note that the current state budget deficit is approximately $20 billion, with another $11 billion deficit in the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

For the 18-page policy brief (.pdf), click on the Stanford University News sidebar entry, Going for Broke: Reforming California’s Public Employee Pension Systems.

Downright creepy, but at least the tax collectors in Pennsylvania have abandoned all the usual, benevolent pretense.

(Hat tip: Lew Rockwell)

California state pension funds going broke, Stanford study finds. The good folks at CalPERS dispute the findings and say everything is fine. They said everything was fine right up to the point their portfolio tanked nearly 24% at the beginning of the Greater Depression too, so I have to go with my alma mater on this one. Get the Policy Brief of the study here.

Part of the problem is that the government pension funds are defined benefit plans. If returns on the portfolio are not sufficient to cover obligations, the difference must be made up from the state’s General Fund. California’s General Fund deficit for FY 2010-2011 is projected to be $21 billion; the state’s Unemployment Insurance Fund also is in the red, to the tune of $11 billion.

The price of bravery. Gavin McInnes looks at NY firefighters (N.B.: Some bad language). Higher payouts and younger retirement ages for police and firefighters are justified on the basis of their lower life expectancy. The only problem is, it isn’t true.

In their latest effort to keep Americans from paying any attention to the man behind the curtain, the Democrats blame the economic meltdown on insufficient Federal regulation while the Republicans blame porn-surfing Federal regulators.

President Obama demands a new era of transparency and accountability. Curiously, though, he has not thrown his support behind legislation to audit the Fed. Purely an oversight on the Great One’s part, I’m sure.

OK, I think I have this whole Health Reform thing figured out now.

1. Congress passes massive new entitlement program;
2. Program is funded by increased taxes on interest and dividends;
3. Reduced incentive to save and invest leads to reduced capital formation;
4. Less capital leads to higher unemployment;
5. Lather, rinse, repeat, as increase in entitlement mentality and decrease in employment opportunities combine to drive more people into dependency on Big Government.

Now some people may view this prospect with trepidation. I confess I did, until I realized the true genius of The New Economy 2.0:

1. Under Obamanable economics, no one will need a job since the government will provide everything. The American economy will enter an era of unprecedented prosperity;
2. Money to fund the new Jobless Economy will come from China. As Paul Krugman recently explained, the Chinese will keep lending to the US, ad infinitum, even as the US Government launches a currency war against them.

How could I ever have doubted?

If you are a regular shooter, you already know that ammunition supplies are low relative to demand, resulting in scarcity and high prices. Over at the National Association for Gun Rights Blog, M.L. McPherson has written a piece on the economics of the current situation.

Unfortunately, Mr. McPherson places the blame entirely too much on the election of Barack Obama. It is true that His Peacefulness’s elevation to the throne office of POTUS did send people scurrying to gun shops in record numbers: at the time, I worked part-time in a gun shop and witnessed the phenomenon at first hand. The coronation of Emperor Barack I actually began the third phase of our ammo woes.

Phase I was caused by increased industrialization, particularly in China and India, which increased demand for industrial commodities like lead, copper, and tin. I recommend the book Hot Commodities by Jim Rogers if you want the full picture of of the commodities shortage (BTW, food supplies also are at record lows). Ammo was still readily available, we just had to pay more for it.

Phase II began with Dubya’s Grand South Asian Conquest. Ammo disappeared from store shelves as the manufacturers switched over production to satisfy the feral federal government’s demands. Police departments were forced to cancel firearms training and qualification due to uncertain ammo supply. Prices increased sharply.

Phase III, of course, began the day after the 2008 federal elections. Prices skyrocketed, and still stores and ranges had to resort to rationing ammunition sales.

Phase IV will commence soon, as O-BOMB-A! attempts to play Alexander to Dubya’s Philip. “I am Yeswecanias, King of Kings! Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and tremble!” I’d stock up now if I were you (and I am).

The Independent (UK) reports that Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading.

Dear America,

We could not help but notice your peevishness at Saddam Hussein’s 2000 decision to denominate Iraqi oil in EUROS, and your, shall we say, enthusiastic response to that decision.

We would like to take this opportunity, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of our nation, to respectfully remind you that we are bigger and stronger than Iraq. Let’s keep things civil, shall we?

Love,
China

Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers agree that inflation is coming and the place to invest is in gold and commodities. Schiff feels that the dollar is going to continue to get weaker which will only strengthen the value of commodities. In a recent interview with CNBC Schiff said, “I don’t know when [the dollar] is going to strengthen. The dollar isn’t the new yen, it’s unfortunately the new peso.” Rogers agrees as he told CNBC, “The true inflation rate in America? It’s certainly at least 6 or 7 percent, the US government lies about it, as you know, everybody who shops knows that prices are up, everybody except the US government, and I wish we knew where they shopped so we can shop there too and get good prices.”

Read the full article here.

We got the “public option” for money in 1913, with the creation of the Federal Reserve. On April 5, 1933, FDR turned our money into a single-payer system with Executive Order 6102 “forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates” by U.S. citizens: he gave us “universal coverage” at the price of universal submission.

Go to the Inflation Calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and see for yourself what’s happened to your money since government took it over. Then ask yourself if you want the same thing to happen to your health care.