Whatever happened to?
Hoover Vacuum Cleaners
Singer Sewing machines
Friden Calculators
HP 65 calculator
Gestetner Duplicating Machines
Agfa
Minolta
Polaroid
Kodak Brownie cameras
Kodacolor
Kodachrome
Oldsmobile
Pontiac
Plymouth
Rambler
Air Stream
Indian Motorcycles
Burma Shave
Admiral
Bendix
Dumont
Emerson
Heath Kit
Muntz
Philco
Magnavox
Motorola
Sylvania
Frigidaire
Kelvinator
Zenith
Westinghouse
RCA
LP’s
Discount Records
Tower Records
Turntables
Tape Decks
Betamax
8 Tracks
Cassettes
Transistor Radios
VHS Tapes
Osborne
Packard Bell
Visicalc
Princess Phones
Schwinn
Carte Blanche
Life
Look
Saturday Evening Post
Police Gazette
Pan Am
Eastern
Braniff
Mohawk
North Central
Ozark
Peoples Express
Piedmont
PSA
TWA
Western
STP
Gimbel’s
Ames department Stores
Bradlees
Caldors
Kings
Montgomery Wards
W. T. Grant
E.J. Korvette
Zayres
FedMart
Pace Club
F. W. Woolworth
S.S. Kresge
S.H. Kress
S & H Green Stamps
Builders Emporium
Burger Chef
Howard Johnsons
Horn & Hardart
Sambos
Schraftt’s
Fred Harvey
Match Box
Getty
Tidewater
Wilshire
Sohio
Amoco
Bethlehem Steel
Inland Steel
National Steel
Republic Steel
National Steel
Jones & Laughlin
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel
Youngstown Steel
Armco
Carte Blanche
Blatz
Hamms
Olympia
Stroths
Rheingold
Schaeffers
Falstaff
Thunderbird
Boone’s Farm
Funk & Wagnalls
American Flyer
Lincoln Logs
Tinker Toys
Slide Rules
Fridan calculators
Remington typewriters
Smith-Carona-Marchant
Gestetner
Tire tubes
Detroit
Michigan
California
Buggy whips
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Joseph Schumpeter and the Creative Destruction of Capitalism Should Be Taught in College
Schumpeter Should Be Taught in College
Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) is one of the greatest economists of the 20th century.
Born in Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, educated in Austria, he was a Professor of Economics at Harvard from 1932-1950.
As a conservative economist during the Depression, he was overshadowed first by the flamboyant John Maynard Keynes at Cambridge. Keynes gave us the theory of priming the pump to get us out of the Depression. It failed, as did all the subsequent pump primings in recessions, as it is now in Greece, Spain, and Portugal..
The Obama Administration has practiced Keynesian economics and pump priming to the extreme with disastrous results. Prime Ministers Merkel of Germany and Cameron on Great Britain have just told President Obama “No more internationally you won’t.”
The past two years should finally inter Keynes.
Schumpeter also had a famous colleague at Harvard, John Kenneth Galbraith, who was the oracle for the New Industrial State. If only Galbraith had lived just a little longer to see his views fully implemented by President Obama, and again with disastrous consequences.
Joseph Schumpeter was the apostle of capitalism, but the reluctant prophet of the rise of the social welfare state.
Schumpeter’s first contribution to capitalism was to coin the word “entrepreneur” and praise the role of the entrepreneur in the rise and success of capitalism. The successes and innovations of entrepreneurs fuel economic growth. Without entrepreneurs and innovation, an economy will, at best, stagnate and be stationary.
Like Keynes, Schumpeter was a student of business cycles, which we also sometime refer to as a boom and bust cycle. He credited the entrepreneur for much of the business cycle.
For example, millions of Americans have replaced their older TV’s with HD TV’s, but at some point retailers will be flooded with unsellable HD inventories.
The corollary of the innovative entrepreneur and creative capitalism is the creative destruction of capitalism: “Creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.” The new innovations, the new industries, the new products would result in the demise of older industries. A quick example is the rise of desktops and laptops with typewriters becoming antiques. So too with the old calculators and slide rules. The HP 65 doomed them.
In essence, capitalism reallocates resources to the new, growing industries from the aging ones. It’s Darwinian.
Thus, society and government should encourage the entrepreneur.
And yet, Joseph Schumpeter also predicted the rise of the social welfare state and the ultimate collapse of capitalism. He foresaw the rise of the intellectuals with their jealously and opposition to capitalism. Think of how liberal, especially in the humanities and social sciences, that the universities are. In turn, the professional classes, lawyers, doctors, and the like, also become hostile to capitalism. Again, think of the Obama Administration.
As the entrepreneurial and capitalistic class begins to shrink in size, politicians increasingly reap votes by giving out governmental favors, such as entitlements. Social Democrats in Europe, and Democrats in the United States, become the favorite political class and the party of the welfare state and government.
The restrictions, regulations and limitations on business grow, thereby restricting economic growth. Think of the 2,409 page Health Reform Act, which quasi-nationalizes the health industry, and imposes onerous restrictions and taxes on 1/6 of the nation’s economy, as well as the 2,000 page, give or take, Financial Reform Bill, the details of which Senator Dodd has told us we will not know how it works until after it’s enacted. Speaker Pelosi said we had to enact the Health reform Bill to learn what’s in it. Actually, we will not know what’s in the bills until after the new and expanded bureaucracies issue their rules and regulations, followed by years of litigation.
Business does not invest with these Swords of Damocles hanging over their heads.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Schumpeter unfortunately is not taught in many economic programs, which helps to explain how so many economists get it wrong.
Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) is one of the greatest economists of the 20th century.
Born in Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, educated in Austria, he was a Professor of Economics at Harvard from 1932-1950.
As a conservative economist during the Depression, he was overshadowed first by the flamboyant John Maynard Keynes at Cambridge. Keynes gave us the theory of priming the pump to get us out of the Depression. It failed, as did all the subsequent pump primings in recessions, as it is now in Greece, Spain, and Portugal..
The Obama Administration has practiced Keynesian economics and pump priming to the extreme with disastrous results. Prime Ministers Merkel of Germany and Cameron on Great Britain have just told President Obama “No more internationally you won’t.”
The past two years should finally inter Keynes.
Schumpeter also had a famous colleague at Harvard, John Kenneth Galbraith, who was the oracle for the New Industrial State. If only Galbraith had lived just a little longer to see his views fully implemented by President Obama, and again with disastrous consequences.
Joseph Schumpeter was the apostle of capitalism, but the reluctant prophet of the rise of the social welfare state.
Schumpeter’s first contribution to capitalism was to coin the word “entrepreneur” and praise the role of the entrepreneur in the rise and success of capitalism. The successes and innovations of entrepreneurs fuel economic growth. Without entrepreneurs and innovation, an economy will, at best, stagnate and be stationary.
Like Keynes, Schumpeter was a student of business cycles, which we also sometime refer to as a boom and bust cycle. He credited the entrepreneur for much of the business cycle.
For example, millions of Americans have replaced their older TV’s with HD TV’s, but at some point retailers will be flooded with unsellable HD inventories.
The corollary of the innovative entrepreneur and creative capitalism is the creative destruction of capitalism: “Creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.” The new innovations, the new industries, the new products would result in the demise of older industries. A quick example is the rise of desktops and laptops with typewriters becoming antiques. So too with the old calculators and slide rules. The HP 65 doomed them.
In essence, capitalism reallocates resources to the new, growing industries from the aging ones. It’s Darwinian.
Thus, society and government should encourage the entrepreneur.
And yet, Joseph Schumpeter also predicted the rise of the social welfare state and the ultimate collapse of capitalism. He foresaw the rise of the intellectuals with their jealously and opposition to capitalism. Think of how liberal, especially in the humanities and social sciences, that the universities are. In turn, the professional classes, lawyers, doctors, and the like, also become hostile to capitalism. Again, think of the Obama Administration.
As the entrepreneurial and capitalistic class begins to shrink in size, politicians increasingly reap votes by giving out governmental favors, such as entitlements. Social Democrats in Europe, and Democrats in the United States, become the favorite political class and the party of the welfare state and government.
The restrictions, regulations and limitations on business grow, thereby restricting economic growth. Think of the 2,409 page Health Reform Act, which quasi-nationalizes the health industry, and imposes onerous restrictions and taxes on 1/6 of the nation’s economy, as well as the 2,000 page, give or take, Financial Reform Bill, the details of which Senator Dodd has told us we will not know how it works until after it’s enacted. Speaker Pelosi said we had to enact the Health reform Bill to learn what’s in it. Actually, we will not know what’s in the bills until after the new and expanded bureaucracies issue their rules and regulations, followed by years of litigation.
Business does not invest with these Swords of Damocles hanging over their heads.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Schumpeter unfortunately is not taught in many economic programs, which helps to explain how so many economists get it wrong.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
California Bureaucrats Fight Earthworm Dung
Farming comprises a myriad of products. We have beef, and apples, and pork, and oranges, lemons and wheat, corn, potatoes and rice, nuts and berries, melons, poultry, and soybeans.
And then there are earthworms, which can be sold in bulk as bait or to farmers, professional and DYI’ers.
George Hahn is an entrepreneur. He harvests the earthworm dung, the droppings, the feces, the excrement, packages it, and sells it as Worm Gold, a natural, organic fertilizer.
As we know, going back to the studies of Charles Darwin, earthworms are a rich, natural fertilizer. They can strengthen the natural resistance of plants to bugs.
They also aerate the soil. Earthworms and their droppings do not kill bugs. They have no direct effect on the bugs.
Hahn seized upon these virtues of earthworm dung to market it as a natural fertilizer, reaping $1.6 million in sales from April 2003 to June 2005. That’s a pile of worm dung. I have no idea what the price per gross is. He has registered his products with the state of California as “fertilizer.”
And then the bureaucrats, in the form of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation pulled a stinker in 2007. It accused Hahn of marketing a pesticide and levied a $100,000 fine last fall for not submitting his product to the Department for years of extensive, scientific testing.
As I understand the suffix “cide,” it means to kill, such as homicide, pesticide, rodenticide, herbicide, spermicide, or suicide.
The State Department of Pesticide Regulation though claims an expansive definition of “pesticide” to include anything that’s promoted to help a plant resist or repel any pest. That definition, of course, would include water and sunlight, and perhaps throwing a few geckos into the garden..
These are bureaucrats. The United Farm Workers contend their sons and daughters are dying in the Central Valley because of pesticide poisoning. The Department is not doing anything about the real victims of pesticides. Instead, they flyspeck worm crap at a tremendous waste of state money and resources.
A state, which is going bankrupt, is obsessed with worm dung, making a mountain of dung out of a mound.
How symbolic!
Maybe the agency thought Hahn would roll over when confronted with the full weight of the state. A worm dung farmer should stand little chance against the colossus of the state.
Instead, he enlisted the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which exists to vindicate the rights, especially property rights, of landowners and others against expansive state and federal intrusions.
Represented by Chapman’s alum, Tim Sandefur, Hahn filed suit against the agency, stopping the fines, at least for now. Tim has publicly airated the agency's dip into the dung.
Here's hoping Tim wins one for the wormer.
And then there are earthworms, which can be sold in bulk as bait or to farmers, professional and DYI’ers.
George Hahn is an entrepreneur. He harvests the earthworm dung, the droppings, the feces, the excrement, packages it, and sells it as Worm Gold, a natural, organic fertilizer.
As we know, going back to the studies of Charles Darwin, earthworms are a rich, natural fertilizer. They can strengthen the natural resistance of plants to bugs.
They also aerate the soil. Earthworms and their droppings do not kill bugs. They have no direct effect on the bugs.
Hahn seized upon these virtues of earthworm dung to market it as a natural fertilizer, reaping $1.6 million in sales from April 2003 to June 2005. That’s a pile of worm dung. I have no idea what the price per gross is. He has registered his products with the state of California as “fertilizer.”
And then the bureaucrats, in the form of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation pulled a stinker in 2007. It accused Hahn of marketing a pesticide and levied a $100,000 fine last fall for not submitting his product to the Department for years of extensive, scientific testing.
As I understand the suffix “cide,” it means to kill, such as homicide, pesticide, rodenticide, herbicide, spermicide, or suicide.
The State Department of Pesticide Regulation though claims an expansive definition of “pesticide” to include anything that’s promoted to help a plant resist or repel any pest. That definition, of course, would include water and sunlight, and perhaps throwing a few geckos into the garden..
These are bureaucrats. The United Farm Workers contend their sons and daughters are dying in the Central Valley because of pesticide poisoning. The Department is not doing anything about the real victims of pesticides. Instead, they flyspeck worm crap at a tremendous waste of state money and resources.
A state, which is going bankrupt, is obsessed with worm dung, making a mountain of dung out of a mound.
How symbolic!
Maybe the agency thought Hahn would roll over when confronted with the full weight of the state. A worm dung farmer should stand little chance against the colossus of the state.
Instead, he enlisted the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which exists to vindicate the rights, especially property rights, of landowners and others against expansive state and federal intrusions.
Represented by Chapman’s alum, Tim Sandefur, Hahn filed suit against the agency, stopping the fines, at least for now. Tim has publicly airated the agency's dip into the dung.
Here's hoping Tim wins one for the wormer.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
A Day in the Life of Tony Hayward
Tony Hayward got his life back yesterday, and was excoriated for it. The CEO of BP just can’t catch a break.
After 2 months of public penances, press conferences, Presidential demands, administration threats, Congressional hearings, and PR gaffes, two days after his Congressional inquisition, one day after (maybe) being replaced as the day to day manager of the response efforts, the haggered Hayward earned, indeed needed, a day off.
So he flew to England to watch his 52’ American built yacht, Bob, race off the Isle of Wright.
What must he have been thinking while at sea? Could he escape the Gulf? Did he perceive the irony of escaping from the sea to the sea? What was his advice to his son?
Was he texting? How about updates on the response?
Did he hear on the BBC that John Lennon's original lyric notes for A Day in the Life sold for $1.2 million?
And did he think of the “small people” in the Gulf, who lack the luxury of taking a day off on a yacht as they struggle to save their beaches and businesses, as he inhaled the refreshing, clean sea air?
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel took a cheap shot at Hayward, stating that this is “part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes” made by Hayward. Emanuel continued “I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting.”
Rahm Emanuel forgot to mention that as he was attacking Hayward for taking a day off at the races, his bosses, President Obama and Vice President Biden, were golfing. Indeed, President Obama has played many rounds of golf, attended a concert, skipped Memorial Day at Arlington, and engaged in political fundraisers, such as for Senator Boxer in California, in the past 60 days while concerned every morning about the blowout and the jobless.
Remember, President Obama is in charge.
At least Rahm Emanuel did not call Tony Haywood a “f…ing retard.”
The Congressional hearings on Thursday required Hayward to sit there and incur the Congressional abuse, led by the Grand Inquisitor, Congressman Henry Waxman. With the exception of Texas Congressman Joe Barton, every Committee member, Democrat and Republican, was going to score points at the expense of the hapless Hayward in the Congressional kabuki of “Rope a Dope.”
The cry two years ago was “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Now it’s “Grill, Tony, Grill.”
Hayward was pilloried for being evasive, non-responsive, and denying responsibility for the drilling decisions on the rig, but displayed an exemplar of being lawyered up. BP is facing criminal indictments. Hayward was undoubtedly counseled not to commit perjury or admit to charges that could disadvantage BP legally.
Thus, he was non-responsive, just as Solicitor General Elena Kagen will follow the precedence of the recent Supreme Court appointees in their Senate Judiciary Committee hearings of being non-responsive to the Senators’ queries.
BP may be the largest oil and gas producer in the United States, but neither BP nor Tony Hayward understand Americans. Hayward cannot relax while the Gulf is hurting.
Tony Hayward is the public face of BP. He cannot return to private life until he
resigns, is terminated, or the hole is capped.
Tony Hayward has no private life, and that is his fate every day in his life.
After 2 months of public penances, press conferences, Presidential demands, administration threats, Congressional hearings, and PR gaffes, two days after his Congressional inquisition, one day after (maybe) being replaced as the day to day manager of the response efforts, the haggered Hayward earned, indeed needed, a day off.
So he flew to England to watch his 52’ American built yacht, Bob, race off the Isle of Wright.
What must he have been thinking while at sea? Could he escape the Gulf? Did he perceive the irony of escaping from the sea to the sea? What was his advice to his son?
Was he texting? How about updates on the response?
Did he hear on the BBC that John Lennon's original lyric notes for A Day in the Life sold for $1.2 million?
And did he think of the “small people” in the Gulf, who lack the luxury of taking a day off on a yacht as they struggle to save their beaches and businesses, as he inhaled the refreshing, clean sea air?
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel took a cheap shot at Hayward, stating that this is “part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes” made by Hayward. Emanuel continued “I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting.”
Rahm Emanuel forgot to mention that as he was attacking Hayward for taking a day off at the races, his bosses, President Obama and Vice President Biden, were golfing. Indeed, President Obama has played many rounds of golf, attended a concert, skipped Memorial Day at Arlington, and engaged in political fundraisers, such as for Senator Boxer in California, in the past 60 days while concerned every morning about the blowout and the jobless.
Remember, President Obama is in charge.
At least Rahm Emanuel did not call Tony Haywood a “f…ing retard.”
The Congressional hearings on Thursday required Hayward to sit there and incur the Congressional abuse, led by the Grand Inquisitor, Congressman Henry Waxman. With the exception of Texas Congressman Joe Barton, every Committee member, Democrat and Republican, was going to score points at the expense of the hapless Hayward in the Congressional kabuki of “Rope a Dope.”
The cry two years ago was “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Now it’s “Grill, Tony, Grill.”
Hayward was pilloried for being evasive, non-responsive, and denying responsibility for the drilling decisions on the rig, but displayed an exemplar of being lawyered up. BP is facing criminal indictments. Hayward was undoubtedly counseled not to commit perjury or admit to charges that could disadvantage BP legally.
Thus, he was non-responsive, just as Solicitor General Elena Kagen will follow the precedence of the recent Supreme Court appointees in their Senate Judiciary Committee hearings of being non-responsive to the Senators’ queries.
BP may be the largest oil and gas producer in the United States, but neither BP nor Tony Hayward understand Americans. Hayward cannot relax while the Gulf is hurting.
Tony Hayward is the public face of BP. He cannot return to private life until he
resigns, is terminated, or the hole is capped.
Tony Hayward has no private life, and that is his fate every day in his life.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Does BP Get Due Process?
Does British Petroleum get due process?
Absolutely not
IS BP constitutionally entitled to due process?
Yes
Is President Obama acting outside the law?
Definitely yes.
Is President Obama denying BP due process of law?
Yes.
Will BP receive due process?
Only if it litigates.
This is too good an opportunity for the President, the Green Movement, and the anti-oil Democrats.
BP is to be pilloried and skewered with cash being pumped out of the British company to distribute throughout the depressed Gulf region.
Don’t get me wrong. BP screwed up royally and should be liable for its negligence or gross negligence. The liability will be great, perhaps exceeding BP’s assets.
I have no sympathy for BP, but great respect for the Constitution and due process.
Ours is a nation of law, and not individuals or executive fiat. BP is
constitutionally entitled to due process before being liable.
We have three branches of government under our constitution: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.
The legislative enacts the laws which are administered and implemented by the executive, while the judiciary interprets the laws and adjudicates the rights and liabilities of parties in accordance with the law.
The executive branch, the President, can only act pursuant to powers delegated to it by the Constitution or Congress.
The President may have the Bully Pulpit, but he lacks legislative authority.
The President of the United States, a Constitutional Law Professor, is unilaterally imposing a compensation regime on BP, something for which he lacks legal authority.
In demanding reparations and the establishment of an escrow fund, President Obama is acting as judge, jury and executioner by executive fiat without any statutory authority to do so. As a constitutional Law Professor, he should know better.
President Truman during the Korean War claimed national security as the justification to seize the nation’s steel mills during a threatened strike. The United States Supreme Court held the President’s action unconstitutional in the famous 1952 Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer case, a case which the Constitutional Law Professor is undoubtedly familiar with. The President lacked statutory authority to seize private property.
A President who is willing to trash the American debt holders of Chrysler and General Motors to advantage the United Auto Workers so as to save their medical plans, will have no qualms about any injuries done to British investors in BP, or even the American holders of 50% of BP’s stocks. British pensioners don’t vote in U.S. elections.
No legal authority exists, even in Tort law, for a defendant to be liable for remote economic losses, such as layoffs or reduced tax revenues. The farther out the chain of causation one goes, the more infinite the number of possible claimants, the more diffuse their claims, and the greater the opportunity for fraudulent claims.
The claims become infinite, but the defendant’s resources remain finite.
Congress or state legislatures can certainly enact statutes which provide for such a remedy, but for now BP’s legal liability under the Oil Pollution Control Act of 1991, enacted by a Democratic Congress, is limited to a paltry $75 million. BP has pledged to pay all “legitimate claims,’ whatever that means, but is not yet legally liable to do so.
We are witnessing another version of Chicago rules – legalized extortion. Congressman Joe Barton was right about this fund being extortion.
BP has little choice but to comply with the request for a $20 billion compensation fund. Hanging over BP are the public statements and threats by the President and Attorney General of criminal prosecutions of BP. The possible criminal penalties are in the billions, not to mention prison time. That is quite a sword of Damocles hanging over BP, or, if you will, the government's boot on BP's throat. BP dares not fight too hard on the civil for fear of the criminal.
BP and the rest of the oil and gas industry also face the threat that the President could extend and expand his current 6 month ban on new drilling. As illustrated by his Oval Office speech, he is in favor of shifting away from fossil fuels.
BP made a strategic, economic, and business decision to set up the escrow fund. The more claims it can resolve without going through litigation will save it money. The $20 billion will buy it some goodwill for awhile, but it is only a down payment.
The real interesting feature of the escrow plan is that BP has voluntarily contributed, without admitting liability, to a $100 million fund for the rig workers laid off by the President’s order.
The final cost to BP will far exceed $20 billion, all the current executives will be cashiered, and BP will lose its independence, probably becoming part of the China National Oil Company.
The British Government, of which the old Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was an integral of its foreign policy, will be unable to save England’s largest corporation.
The fund, to which BP will contribute $5 billion annually for 4 years, will be 40% financed by the elimination of the $2 billion annual dividend. The dividend was history once the magnitude of the disaster became clear.
BP may have earned $16.8 billion last year on revenues of $250 billion, truly impressive numbers, but except for the dividends the remaining income was reinvested in the company for exploration, drilling, and environmental and safety improvements at its facilities. The company claims to have spent over $1.6 billion to date in fighting the blowout and cleaning up.
The $1.6 billion and $20 billion are but down payments on an unknown liability.
The unanswered question about the fund is:
Where are the lawyers?
Absolutely not
IS BP constitutionally entitled to due process?
Yes
Is President Obama acting outside the law?
Definitely yes.
Is President Obama denying BP due process of law?
Yes.
Will BP receive due process?
Only if it litigates.
This is too good an opportunity for the President, the Green Movement, and the anti-oil Democrats.
BP is to be pilloried and skewered with cash being pumped out of the British company to distribute throughout the depressed Gulf region.
Don’t get me wrong. BP screwed up royally and should be liable for its negligence or gross negligence. The liability will be great, perhaps exceeding BP’s assets.
I have no sympathy for BP, but great respect for the Constitution and due process.
Ours is a nation of law, and not individuals or executive fiat. BP is
constitutionally entitled to due process before being liable.
We have three branches of government under our constitution: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.
The legislative enacts the laws which are administered and implemented by the executive, while the judiciary interprets the laws and adjudicates the rights and liabilities of parties in accordance with the law.
The executive branch, the President, can only act pursuant to powers delegated to it by the Constitution or Congress.
The President may have the Bully Pulpit, but he lacks legislative authority.
The President of the United States, a Constitutional Law Professor, is unilaterally imposing a compensation regime on BP, something for which he lacks legal authority.
In demanding reparations and the establishment of an escrow fund, President Obama is acting as judge, jury and executioner by executive fiat without any statutory authority to do so. As a constitutional Law Professor, he should know better.
President Truman during the Korean War claimed national security as the justification to seize the nation’s steel mills during a threatened strike. The United States Supreme Court held the President’s action unconstitutional in the famous 1952 Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer case, a case which the Constitutional Law Professor is undoubtedly familiar with. The President lacked statutory authority to seize private property.
A President who is willing to trash the American debt holders of Chrysler and General Motors to advantage the United Auto Workers so as to save their medical plans, will have no qualms about any injuries done to British investors in BP, or even the American holders of 50% of BP’s stocks. British pensioners don’t vote in U.S. elections.
No legal authority exists, even in Tort law, for a defendant to be liable for remote economic losses, such as layoffs or reduced tax revenues. The farther out the chain of causation one goes, the more infinite the number of possible claimants, the more diffuse their claims, and the greater the opportunity for fraudulent claims.
The claims become infinite, but the defendant’s resources remain finite.
Congress or state legislatures can certainly enact statutes which provide for such a remedy, but for now BP’s legal liability under the Oil Pollution Control Act of 1991, enacted by a Democratic Congress, is limited to a paltry $75 million. BP has pledged to pay all “legitimate claims,’ whatever that means, but is not yet legally liable to do so.
We are witnessing another version of Chicago rules – legalized extortion. Congressman Joe Barton was right about this fund being extortion.
BP has little choice but to comply with the request for a $20 billion compensation fund. Hanging over BP are the public statements and threats by the President and Attorney General of criminal prosecutions of BP. The possible criminal penalties are in the billions, not to mention prison time. That is quite a sword of Damocles hanging over BP, or, if you will, the government's boot on BP's throat. BP dares not fight too hard on the civil for fear of the criminal.
BP and the rest of the oil and gas industry also face the threat that the President could extend and expand his current 6 month ban on new drilling. As illustrated by his Oval Office speech, he is in favor of shifting away from fossil fuels.
BP made a strategic, economic, and business decision to set up the escrow fund. The more claims it can resolve without going through litigation will save it money. The $20 billion will buy it some goodwill for awhile, but it is only a down payment.
The real interesting feature of the escrow plan is that BP has voluntarily contributed, without admitting liability, to a $100 million fund for the rig workers laid off by the President’s order.
The final cost to BP will far exceed $20 billion, all the current executives will be cashiered, and BP will lose its independence, probably becoming part of the China National Oil Company.
The British Government, of which the old Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was an integral of its foreign policy, will be unable to save England’s largest corporation.
The fund, to which BP will contribute $5 billion annually for 4 years, will be 40% financed by the elimination of the $2 billion annual dividend. The dividend was history once the magnitude of the disaster became clear.
BP may have earned $16.8 billion last year on revenues of $250 billion, truly impressive numbers, but except for the dividends the remaining income was reinvested in the company for exploration, drilling, and environmental and safety improvements at its facilities. The company claims to have spent over $1.6 billion to date in fighting the blowout and cleaning up.
The $1.6 billion and $20 billion are but down payments on an unknown liability.
The unanswered question about the fund is:
Where are the lawyers?
Monday, June 14, 2010
Elmer Fudd is Hunting Wabbit in Mission Viejo
Elmer Fudd has been dispatched to “kiww the wabbit” in Mission Viejo, California.
The cry is up; “Shoot the wabbit.” Follow Elmer on his quixotic, Sisyphean quest to “Kiww the wabbit.”
Rabbits are prolific little critters, threatening, in the eyes of Mission Viejo residents, to do to their fair city what billions of invasive rabbits have done to the continent of Australia - inundate it with rabbit dung.
Mission Viejo, the affluent Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo, the safest city in California, the Mission Viejo that is only 22 years young, has a solution to the alleged rabbit infestation.
We don’t know if there is a problem or not, since no one has conducted a rabbit census in Mission Viejo. If we did hire temporary rabbit census workers, we could further reduce the unemployment rate.
Apparently the rabbits did not acquire squatters rights or adverse possession by being there first. No defense of coming to the nuisance against Mission Viejo.
Clearly no due process in Mission Viejo for Roger Rabbit, who may be framed rather than befriended.
The Palmia Homeowners Association, representing a gated community of 901 homes in Mission Viejo, applied to the Council for a permit to kill the rabbits. The community of seniors was upset by the rabbit infestation that chewed their lawns to the ground, devoured flower beds, and left their droppings and urine behind. They did not appreciate the natural bunny fertilizer. The seniors are set in their ways.
Mission Viejo is not thinking outside the rabbit box, warren or pen. Five years ago they issued a similar permit to another HOA, Casta del Sol, which was spending $50,000 annually to replace the flora. Casta del Sol, unwilling to be renamed Casta del Rabbit, now reports the rabbit problem is under control.
Long Beach Community College is also overrun with Thumpers. The college’s humanitarian solution is to trap the rabbits, neuter them, and then release them.
Mission Viejo could Tazer the rabbits, neuter them, and then relocate them into Silverado Canyon or the Cleveland National Forest.
But no, Mission Viejo follows the lore of the West that “The only good rabbit is a dead rabbit.” Mission Viejo's new city motto is "Hare today; gone tomorrow."
Rabbits, like prairie dogs are to be exterminated. No more Mission Viejo Velveteen Rabbits.
If they make a success out of it, then they could mount an annual “Kill the Wabbit Festival,” like the annual Rattlesnake Roundup & Cookout in Sweetwater, Texas. Make a carnival out of it.
Orange County already has the Tustin Tillerdays, Garden Grove’s Strawberry Festival, Little Saigon’s Tet, Dana Point’s Festival of the Whale, San Juan Capistrano’s Return of the Swallows (who apparently are moving on to nicer accommodations), and Newport Beach’s Annual Christmas Boat Parade. La Habra double dips with a Spring Citrus Fair and also a Corn Festival. Orange has its International Festival and Huntington Beach Oktoberfest, both of which are excuses to drink outdoors between sunrise and sunset, but no one celebrates hunting in the Orange Curtain.
Mission Viejo has a Festival of the Arts, but it is greatly overshadowed by Laguna Beach’s Sawdust Festival and Festival of the Arts.
Mission Viejo needs something to distinguish it from all the other O.C. planned communities. A “Shoot the Rabbits Festival” could be the trick.
Let us also not forget Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm, for sheer entertainment.
The conditions imposed on the permit are almost Mickey Mouse, which is appropriate to Orange County.
Only pellet guns can be used.
The hunting is only allowed 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise;
A professional company must be hired to do the hunting
The hunt must be conducted in open space
No people can be present
The hunters must put their guns down when people are present;
The hunter must notify the Sheriff’s Office on huntng days.
Ask yourself two questions:
What self-respecting hunter hunts rabbits?
Make a sport out of it. Have the hunters lasso the rabbits in the grass. Rancho Mission Viejo already hosts a rodeo. What better time for rabbit hunting?
Second, if you shoot rabbits with pellets, do rabbit pellets come out the other end?
Mission Viejo has overlooked some natural solutions to the rabbit infestation.
They could, for example, bring in a pair of coyotes. They feast on rabbit. Also a wild cat, or mountain lion, could serve the purpose.
Coyotes though can’t tell the difference between rabbits, alley cats, and miniature schnauzers.
They could import the rabbit killing myxo virus from Australia.
Apparently Mission Viejo does not wish to traumatize the children by watching rabbits being killed. But this is a seniors community.
An unanswered question is what to do with the stiff rabbits:
Cremate them, and scatter the ashes over the artificial Lake Mission Viejo.
Inter them with a proper burial and a head stone under an immaculate lawn;
“Her lies Muffy;
2010-2010: Pellet Poisoning”
Preserve the rabbit family in a crypt
Throw Bunnykins into the trash
Throw The White Rabbit out as carrion to be recycled by nature.
Raccoons and crows could clean the Miffy in a jiffy.
Stew the rabbit
Harvest the organs.
Donate Peter Cottontail's lucky rabbit tail to a deserving Pateadore.
Mission Viejo is being very shortsighted.
Elmer Fudd is out to kiww the warbbit, and we know how too well that worked out in Looney Toons. Elmer could never pull a rabbit out of the hat, much less the grass.
The cry is up; “Shoot the wabbit.” Follow Elmer on his quixotic, Sisyphean quest to “Kiww the wabbit.”
Rabbits are prolific little critters, threatening, in the eyes of Mission Viejo residents, to do to their fair city what billions of invasive rabbits have done to the continent of Australia - inundate it with rabbit dung.
Mission Viejo, the affluent Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo, the safest city in California, the Mission Viejo that is only 22 years young, has a solution to the alleged rabbit infestation.
We don’t know if there is a problem or not, since no one has conducted a rabbit census in Mission Viejo. If we did hire temporary rabbit census workers, we could further reduce the unemployment rate.
Apparently the rabbits did not acquire squatters rights or adverse possession by being there first. No defense of coming to the nuisance against Mission Viejo.
Clearly no due process in Mission Viejo for Roger Rabbit, who may be framed rather than befriended.
The Palmia Homeowners Association, representing a gated community of 901 homes in Mission Viejo, applied to the Council for a permit to kill the rabbits. The community of seniors was upset by the rabbit infestation that chewed their lawns to the ground, devoured flower beds, and left their droppings and urine behind. They did not appreciate the natural bunny fertilizer. The seniors are set in their ways.
Mission Viejo is not thinking outside the rabbit box, warren or pen. Five years ago they issued a similar permit to another HOA, Casta del Sol, which was spending $50,000 annually to replace the flora. Casta del Sol, unwilling to be renamed Casta del Rabbit, now reports the rabbit problem is under control.
Long Beach Community College is also overrun with Thumpers. The college’s humanitarian solution is to trap the rabbits, neuter them, and then release them.
Mission Viejo could Tazer the rabbits, neuter them, and then relocate them into Silverado Canyon or the Cleveland National Forest.
But no, Mission Viejo follows the lore of the West that “The only good rabbit is a dead rabbit.” Mission Viejo's new city motto is "Hare today; gone tomorrow."
Rabbits, like prairie dogs are to be exterminated. No more Mission Viejo Velveteen Rabbits.
If they make a success out of it, then they could mount an annual “Kill the Wabbit Festival,” like the annual Rattlesnake Roundup & Cookout in Sweetwater, Texas. Make a carnival out of it.
Orange County already has the Tustin Tillerdays, Garden Grove’s Strawberry Festival, Little Saigon’s Tet, Dana Point’s Festival of the Whale, San Juan Capistrano’s Return of the Swallows (who apparently are moving on to nicer accommodations), and Newport Beach’s Annual Christmas Boat Parade. La Habra double dips with a Spring Citrus Fair and also a Corn Festival. Orange has its International Festival and Huntington Beach Oktoberfest, both of which are excuses to drink outdoors between sunrise and sunset, but no one celebrates hunting in the Orange Curtain.
Mission Viejo has a Festival of the Arts, but it is greatly overshadowed by Laguna Beach’s Sawdust Festival and Festival of the Arts.
Mission Viejo needs something to distinguish it from all the other O.C. planned communities. A “Shoot the Rabbits Festival” could be the trick.
Let us also not forget Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm, for sheer entertainment.
The conditions imposed on the permit are almost Mickey Mouse, which is appropriate to Orange County.
Only pellet guns can be used.
The hunting is only allowed 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise;
A professional company must be hired to do the hunting
The hunt must be conducted in open space
No people can be present
The hunters must put their guns down when people are present;
The hunter must notify the Sheriff’s Office on huntng days.
Ask yourself two questions:
What self-respecting hunter hunts rabbits?
Make a sport out of it. Have the hunters lasso the rabbits in the grass. Rancho Mission Viejo already hosts a rodeo. What better time for rabbit hunting?
Second, if you shoot rabbits with pellets, do rabbit pellets come out the other end?
Mission Viejo has overlooked some natural solutions to the rabbit infestation.
They could, for example, bring in a pair of coyotes. They feast on rabbit. Also a wild cat, or mountain lion, could serve the purpose.
Coyotes though can’t tell the difference between rabbits, alley cats, and miniature schnauzers.
They could import the rabbit killing myxo virus from Australia.
Apparently Mission Viejo does not wish to traumatize the children by watching rabbits being killed. But this is a seniors community.
An unanswered question is what to do with the stiff rabbits:
Cremate them, and scatter the ashes over the artificial Lake Mission Viejo.
Inter them with a proper burial and a head stone under an immaculate lawn;
“Her lies Muffy;
2010-2010: Pellet Poisoning”
Preserve the rabbit family in a crypt
Throw Bunnykins into the trash
Throw The White Rabbit out as carrion to be recycled by nature.
Raccoons and crows could clean the Miffy in a jiffy.
Stew the rabbit
Harvest the organs.
Donate Peter Cottontail's lucky rabbit tail to a deserving Pateadore.
Mission Viejo is being very shortsighted.
Elmer Fudd is out to kiww the warbbit, and we know how too well that worked out in Looney Toons. Elmer could never pull a rabbit out of the hat, much less the grass.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Karen Bass, Speaker Emeritus and Congresswoman in Waiting Does It Again
President Kennedy in his stirring Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961 challenged Americans:
“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Karen Bass, Speaker Emeritus of the California Assembly and soon to be Congresswoman from Los Angeles, is of the class, the growing class, which looks to the government as their primary funding source.
Speaker Bass’ background includes a B.S. in Health Sciences from Cal State Dominquez Hills, followed by a Physician Assistant Certificate from USC. She’s worked as a Physician Assistant and taught at USC, and then became a community organizer, founding the Community Coalition.
Community organizers are of the class, which do not view public funds as a public trust, but as a trough upon which to draw upon whenever personally or politically convenient. For the Karen Basses of the world, upon election to office, the question is how much can they divert to themselves and allocate to their voters. The government fisc in essence becomes a slush fund.
When the trough is running dry, they are blinded by the mirage of increased taxes and fees to fill and grow the catch basin. They tax the producers, neither understanding basic economics nor even Aesop’s fables. The California Legislature and the Obama Administration are exercising Herculean efforts to kill the goose, private enterprise, which lays the golden egg.
They do not understand that the more you tax, the less you get; basic economics was not part of their education.
The Laffer Curve is a foreign language to them.
Of course, they avoid the word “tax.” Instead, revenue and revenue enhancements are
the words of choice.
Last year, as the state was plunging into a record deficit, and had to issue script to pay its bills, the Speaker announced 5% salary increases for several legislative aides. Taxpayers may have to sacrifice, but not the legislative aides. The raises were rescinded on April 22, 2009 after a great public outcry, and also because of the negative reaction before the May referendum s proposing to extend the newly enacted tax increases.
In the same press statement, available on YouTube, she said in a straight face that “One of my top priorities is making sure I manage the people’s institution effectively.”
However, when she stepped aside in March this year as Speaker, she double-downed by giving an average 10% pay increase to 20 aides, while the legislature was otherwise under a salary freeze, and many state employees are taking furloughs amounting to a 15% pay cut. George Orwell and Animal House come to mind.
Then came the public revolt against the large tax increases enacted to unsuccessfully resolve the state budget crisis. Two of the six Republicans who voted for the increases were the Senate and Assembly minority leaders. They had signed the no-tax pledge. They were stripped of their leadership positions. Another of the six was confronted with a recall campaign.
Speaker Bass was asked in a Los Angeles Times interview: “How do you think talk radio has affected the Legislature’s work?”
She responded:
“The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now (some) are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: ‘You vote for revenue and your career is over’ I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.”
Somehow I do not feel public responses to politicians, who violate their promises, constitute terrorism. It’s democracy in action.
Let us remember that President George H. W. Bush lost reelection because he broke his “No new taxes” pledge. Conservative voters cast their ballots in protest for H. R. Perot, giving a plurality victory to Bill Clinton.
Her ‘terrorists” were undoubtedly the famous John and Ken on KFI.
Speaker Bass had another interesting reaction when the voters rejected the second half of the tax increases. She explained the defeat because the voters thpught the proposals were too complicated for them, that they were fatigued with voting on too many special elections, and they wanted the legislature to do it.
Not one word that the voters were opposed to the tax increases, which made California the highest taxing state in the country.
Karen Bass’ most recent antic does not involve a substantial sum of money, but is illustrative of her attitude to the taxpayer’s monies. California allows legislators to collect a per diem of $141.80 for attending sessions in Sacramento. The purpose is to compensate them for their costs in traveling to Sacramento and back. Of course, the legislators also receive a substantial car allowance.
The Los Angeles Times reported on June 5 that the Speaker Emeritus, who remains a legislator, has missed over 60% of the assembly sessions, but continues to collect the per diem, 29 days@141.80 =$4112.20. She claims that the per diem, designed to compensate for the rigors of Sacramento, also applies to “on official legislative business” in her Assembly District.
In other words, no matter how you spin it, she’s collecting the tax free per diem while campaigning for Congress.
And soon, her hands will be on the federal printing presses, unrestrained by any state balanced budget requirement!
“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Karen Bass, Speaker Emeritus of the California Assembly and soon to be Congresswoman from Los Angeles, is of the class, the growing class, which looks to the government as their primary funding source.
Speaker Bass’ background includes a B.S. in Health Sciences from Cal State Dominquez Hills, followed by a Physician Assistant Certificate from USC. She’s worked as a Physician Assistant and taught at USC, and then became a community organizer, founding the Community Coalition.
Community organizers are of the class, which do not view public funds as a public trust, but as a trough upon which to draw upon whenever personally or politically convenient. For the Karen Basses of the world, upon election to office, the question is how much can they divert to themselves and allocate to their voters. The government fisc in essence becomes a slush fund.
When the trough is running dry, they are blinded by the mirage of increased taxes and fees to fill and grow the catch basin. They tax the producers, neither understanding basic economics nor even Aesop’s fables. The California Legislature and the Obama Administration are exercising Herculean efforts to kill the goose, private enterprise, which lays the golden egg.
They do not understand that the more you tax, the less you get; basic economics was not part of their education.
The Laffer Curve is a foreign language to them.
Of course, they avoid the word “tax.” Instead, revenue and revenue enhancements are
the words of choice.
Last year, as the state was plunging into a record deficit, and had to issue script to pay its bills, the Speaker announced 5% salary increases for several legislative aides. Taxpayers may have to sacrifice, but not the legislative aides. The raises were rescinded on April 22, 2009 after a great public outcry, and also because of the negative reaction before the May referendum s proposing to extend the newly enacted tax increases.
In the same press statement, available on YouTube, she said in a straight face that “One of my top priorities is making sure I manage the people’s institution effectively.”
However, when she stepped aside in March this year as Speaker, she double-downed by giving an average 10% pay increase to 20 aides, while the legislature was otherwise under a salary freeze, and many state employees are taking furloughs amounting to a 15% pay cut. George Orwell and Animal House come to mind.
Then came the public revolt against the large tax increases enacted to unsuccessfully resolve the state budget crisis. Two of the six Republicans who voted for the increases were the Senate and Assembly minority leaders. They had signed the no-tax pledge. They were stripped of their leadership positions. Another of the six was confronted with a recall campaign.
Speaker Bass was asked in a Los Angeles Times interview: “How do you think talk radio has affected the Legislature’s work?”
She responded:
“The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now (some) are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: ‘You vote for revenue and your career is over’ I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.”
Somehow I do not feel public responses to politicians, who violate their promises, constitute terrorism. It’s democracy in action.
Let us remember that President George H. W. Bush lost reelection because he broke his “No new taxes” pledge. Conservative voters cast their ballots in protest for H. R. Perot, giving a plurality victory to Bill Clinton.
Her ‘terrorists” were undoubtedly the famous John and Ken on KFI.
Speaker Bass had another interesting reaction when the voters rejected the second half of the tax increases. She explained the defeat because the voters thpught the proposals were too complicated for them, that they were fatigued with voting on too many special elections, and they wanted the legislature to do it.
Not one word that the voters were opposed to the tax increases, which made California the highest taxing state in the country.
Karen Bass’ most recent antic does not involve a substantial sum of money, but is illustrative of her attitude to the taxpayer’s monies. California allows legislators to collect a per diem of $141.80 for attending sessions in Sacramento. The purpose is to compensate them for their costs in traveling to Sacramento and back. Of course, the legislators also receive a substantial car allowance.
The Los Angeles Times reported on June 5 that the Speaker Emeritus, who remains a legislator, has missed over 60% of the assembly sessions, but continues to collect the per diem, 29 days@141.80 =$4112.20. She claims that the per diem, designed to compensate for the rigors of Sacramento, also applies to “on official legislative business” in her Assembly District.
In other words, no matter how you spin it, she’s collecting the tax free per diem while campaigning for Congress.
And soon, her hands will be on the federal printing presses, unrestrained by any state balanced budget requirement!
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