Tag: rich states poor states

14-06 Why Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics | Mainstream Media is Lying

14-06 Why Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics | Mainstream Media is Lying

Show 14-06 Summary: This week, it’s all about cutting through the mainstream media propaganda about the economy. Especially the lies about Bidenomics. Because it’s more Bidumbnomics than anything. Bidumbnomics is a good way to kill the economy, interfere with markets, and promote products and ideas that don’t work and cost more. Bidumbnomics are dumb economics policies that require dumb people in the media to not ask questions and keep people misinformed about how bad things really are. Like not questioning the miracle January 2024 jobs report. Or looking at the failure of 100s of billions wasted on “green energy.” (It’s not green.) Plus, Oregon is not immune. Oregon democrats also love Bidumbnomics. Spend more. Tax more. Ignore reality. Like Oregon democrats’ plan to raise statewide property taxes and do away with the current caps on property tax increases.

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Original Air Dates: February 10th & 11th, 2024 | Guest: Jonathan Williams

This Week – Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics

All you need for dumb economics policies like Bidumbnomics to be perceived as “working” is to have a willing media to spread government propaganda. And the media needs to be dumb enough about economics to not ask any questions about what they’re told. And certainly not do any kind of even simple analysis.

That way, the media keeps people uninformed. Because if people really knew how bad things were, they would be demanding answers. And politicians never want that. They want compliant sheep people who stay out of the way. Miserable peasants.

Dumb economic policies like Bidumbnomics depends on people staying quiet. But EU farmers won by speaking up.
Public outcry works! (click image for full-size)

Why? Because when people do know what their politicians are actually doing, and the actual outcomes of their schemes, people tend to revolt. And, yes, public outcry really does work.

Take a look at the win in the EU when farmers had had enough. The public joined them. And now the EU gave in to their demands.

Farmers win! “Why Europe’s green plan balked on farming

Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics Examples

Look no further than the boondoggle of Biden’s dream of a wind farm in every pot. Bidumbnomics sank several 10s of billions of your money into expensive wind farms. Especially very expensive offshore wind farms. But these expensive Bidumbnomics boondoggles have done so poorly, despite all that free cash from U.S. taxpayers, that multiple wind farm companies have cancelled contracts. And they were willing to do so because the economics of it was so poor that unless they get free cash it was a better deal to cancel the deal.

Think of that. Companies willing to take a loss of 100s of millions rather than go through with it and lose even more. And in the case of one company, they took a 4 billion loss.

Now that is Bidumbnomicsat work. Waste companies’ money, waste taxpayer money, and all for products that are less effective and more expensive to ratepayers.

Wow.

An Actual Economist Breaks Examines Bidumbnomics

We welcome back Jonathan Williams, the executive vice president of ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council. Jonathan is also their chief economist. And we walk through the truth about that blockbuster January jobs report. It turns out, it is more fantasy than fantastic. See this great analysis from ZeroHedge: “Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History“.) And we all know this fantasy will be corrected downward in a month or two after they got their useful idiots in the media to repeat their headline to the point where most people will think Bidenomics is working.

But to be fair, not all economic news in the mainstream media is propaganda to prop up Bidumbnomics. Sometimes, it’s more of a confession. Like Jerome Powell appearing on 60 Minutes. Who told America that we just can’t spending like we are.

But other times, it is definitely propaganda. We take a look at the slumping EV (electric vehicle) sales. After spending, yet again, 100s of billions of taxpayer dollars on the EV boondoggle, including mandating sales quotas, Bidumbnomics strikes again. EVs sales are way down.

Don’t miss the terrific article mentioned during the show about the impact of government interference in a normal market. “The West’s Humiliating Electric Car Climbdown has Begun

And even in Oregon, they are nowhere near their lofty goals of 250,000 EVs by 2025.

Oregon Democrats Embrace Bidumbnomics

Speaking of Oregon, the democrat governor and democrat-controlled house and senate want their own version of dumb economics. Like ignoring people’s economic reality to impose their ideology. And mainly, that’s more spending of taxpayer dollars to reward the political allies. There is never enough money to spend all they want on everything they want.

The answer? Raise taxes. And not just a little. They want $3 billion in more taxes. And, as if they haven’t driven enough people away, they want to eliminate and caps on statewide property taxes.

The only reason why even more Oregonians haven’t driven away is their EV must have run out of charge. Maybe that’s why Oregon wants to mandate even more of them.

But wait, it gets worse. Not only do Oregon elected democrats want to spend more, Tobias Read, the democrat in charge of Oregon’s Treasury wants Oregon’s PERS to make less money. By forcing Oregon’s investment into “Net Zero.” Uh, Toby, in case you missed it due to Bidumbnomics government propaganda media, but Net Zero funds are losing money by the day. Intelligent investors are getting out of Net Zero funds, not in. Perhaps Oregon’s PERS being in the hole by a mere $28 billion just isn’t enough?

Tune in to get the info you need. to be better informed on economics and real economic policies. So when your legislator wants to go full Bidumbnomics, you have the info you need to convince them otherwise.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Jonathan’s organization is ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council. Find out more at ALEC.org.
    • Encourage your representatives to join ALEC! There are state and city memberships. Help elected officials understand economic problems and the real solutions available to get out of them! Send them this link: https://alec.org/membership/.
    • And you too can join as a private-sector member!
  • You can follow Jonathan on Twitter at @TaxEconomist.
  • Farmers win! “Why Europe’s green plan balked on farming” (Semafor, via Yahoo News, Feb 7, 2024)
  • Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History (ZeroHedge, Feb 03, 2024)
    • All job gains in the past year have been part-time workers (+870,000). Full time have decreased by 97,000
    • Native vs Foreign-Born workers . All job creation in the past 4 years has been for foreigners. Zero job creation for native since 2018
  • The West’s humiliating electric car climbdown has begun” (The Telegraph, via Yahoo News, Feb 2, 2024)
  • Bidumbnomics in Oregon: “PGE and why the EV revolution is stalling” (Oregon Catalyst, Feb 4, 2024)
    • “In 2019, Senate Bill 1044 set a target of 250,000 registered Zero Emission Vehicles on Oregon roads by 2025. … [But] the number of Oregon-registered zero emission vehicles on Oregon roads as of September 2023 (with less than a year and a half to go) was just 70,000. … The likelihood that this number will grow to 250,000 over the next 12 months is nil.”
  • Plan to make Oregon retirement fund carbon neutral relies on industry, Wall Street doing the same (OPB, Feb 7, 2024)
  • HJR 201 is a Statewide Property Tax (Taxpayer Assoc, Feb 5, 2024)
  • “1,287 testify against Statewide Property Tax (HJR 201)” (Taxpayer Association of Oregon, February 14, 2024).

For further reading on Bidumbnomics

 

Economics: Rich States, Poor States — Guess Where Oregon is

Economics: Rich States, Poor States — Guess Where Oregon is

Show Summary: It’s true economics isn’t the most exciting topic in the world — that is, until everything starts blowing up. Then you’ll wish you’d paid attention.

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Five Different Times, on Seven Different Stations. Listen anywhere! All stations stream live!

Saturdays
10a – 11a: KFIR 720AM (entire Willamette Valley) | Direct Link to KFIR Live Stream
11a – noon: KLBM 1450AM (Union County) | Direct Link to KLBM Live Stream
11a – noon: KBKR 1490AM (Baker County) | Direct Link to SuperTalk Live Stream
7p – 8p: KWRO 630AM (Oregon Coast & Southeastern Oregon) | Direct Link to KWRO Live Stream

Sundays
8a – 9a: KWVR 1340AM (Wallowa County) | Direct Link: KWVR Live Stream
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Mondays
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Original Air Dates: May 15 & 16, 2021 | Jonathan Williams

This Week: Economics isn’t always exciting — unless things are blowing up. Or it’s a horse race.

We welcome back Jonathan Williams, Chief Economist and Executive Vice President of Policy of the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC has just released their 2021 Rich States, Poor States guide for 2021, an annual guide to the 50 states’ economic outlook. Talk about good, bad, and ugly. Look no further than how the states are competing with one another.

The Overall U.S. Economy & Economics

Before we narrow down to the states, we first look at the overall economy. This is a bit of a continuation of the last time Jonathan was on, when we talked about the democrats’ shift to what we call “non-reality economics.” The democrats’ plans are an explosion of taxes and spending sprees (what did we just say about exploding economics…?).

That discussion, was about the radical shift we’re seeing the democrats trying desperately to push on the U.S. Which, sadly, takes a hard left turn away from what has made America successful. It’s a fantasy land where debt has no meaning, money is infinite, and all we need to do is print money and borrow until every there’s a unicorn in every garage and a leprechaun in every pot.

But the problem democrats always run into is simple one. Reality. And there’s proof, thanks to the 50 test tubes of democracy that make up America.

Good Economies: How NOT to do it

Sometimes, to know what to do, it helps to know what not to do. And look no further than New York State, which had the worst response to covid and lost a congressional seat due to people fleeing the Empire State. And now new York will punish the people and businesses that for some reason haven’t left. Yet.

We talk with Jonathan about his terrific article in the National Review, “The Fallout from ‘Progressive’ Budgets in New York.” There has been a massive shift in who pays for things. Now, instead of New York being in debt to cover its debt, everyone else gets to go in debt to cover New York’s debts.

And that’s the direction we as a nation are headed. Where there is a fundamental shift in who pays for things: everyone is paying for everyone else. That’s socialism. Marxist ideology pushed onto America.

Socialism only survives as long as it is able to feed off the success of capitalism
– Mark Anderson

Rich States, Poor States

Why and how economies and economic policies work is sometimes beyond people’s wheelhouse. But everyone understands competition, right? Who’s best. Who’s worst. And who’s on the way up and who’s on the way down.

Oregon's economic performance 2009 - 2019. Courtesy of Rich States, Poor States
Courtesy Rich States, Poor States, 2021 Edition. (Click image for full size.)

That’s where Rich States, Poor States comes in. (You can download your own copy right here.) RSPS is a look back at the states’ economic performances over the last 10 years—of available data. This year, its’ a look at 2009–2019.

The backward-looking economic performance ranking examines how well states did. Oregon, from 2009–2019, really didn’t do too bad. This ranking looks at three variables: a state’s gross domestic product, their absolute domestic migration, and non-farm payroll.

Take a look at Oregon’s charts. And look at how well they’re correlated. As the state did better and better, culminating in 2015, people moved in (especially in 2016). Payrolls went up. And then, as Oregon’s GDP declined, there went the people. And payrolls dropped.

See? Economics isn’t too hard.

Oregon’s Economic Outlook

When it comes to Oregon’s economic outlook ranking, every year we’re like “please don’t embarrass us, please don’t embarrass us…” And then there we are. Near the bottom. Again. But it’s even worse this year.

You’ll have to tune in to hear just how bad. (Or, you could cheat and go right to Rich States Poor States to find out.) But here’s a hint. We beat even our idiot neighbor to the south in some categories. In fact, in the worst possible category. And we’re worse than New York State in some categories. You know, the one state we just mentioned. How not to run an economy.

Although at least the beat us to the bottom for the worst outlook. Hey. You gotta look for the positive right?

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Links Mentioned

Did You Know…?

  • The Fed has been pumping (printing) money into the economy. But something new happened in 2020. Now, they are buying corporate bonds. This is a direct investment into select corporations. Here’s a hint. It’s not mom-and-pop shops. It’s gigantic companies that don’t need the money, but the Fed is rewarding them anyway.
  • The Fed says it is going to start buying individual corporate bonds (CNBC, June 15, 2020)
  • The Fed begins purchases of up to $250 billion in individual corporate bonds (Markets Insider, June 15, 2020)
  • Why the Fed’s new index approach to buying U.S. corporate debt ‘changes everything’ (MarketWatch, June 18, 2020)
  • Fed Makes Initial Purchases in Its First Corporate Debt Buying Program (New York Times, May 12, 2020)
  • Is the Federal Reserve Printing Money? (The Balance, May 11, 2021)
  • Why is the Fed buying up mortgages? At $40 billion per month. Is this why the housing market keeps exploding? “Understanding the Federal Reserve Balance Sheet” (Investopedia, Mar 19, 2021)

Related Links

  • The Fed Should Get Out of the Mortgage Market: Even central bankers are starting to wonder why they’re adding $40 billion of housing debt every month. (Bloomberg Opinion, May 11, 2021)
    • “Why exactly is the Fed still increasing its holdings of mortgage-backed securities by $40 billion a month when Chair Jerome Powell himself has said that “the housing sector has more than fully recovered from the downturn”?* “The Fed has gobbled up almost $2 trillion of MBS since March 2020, which is more than its total aggregate purchases in any of its previous quantitative easing episodes.”
    • At an average home mortgage price of $250,000, the fed backs the mortgage on some 8 million homes. Yikes!
  • In 2010, The Fed answers FAQs on Mortgage Backed Securities
  • What Is An Agency MBS And How Does The Federal Reserve’s Purchase Of MBS Affect Mortgage Rates? (Quicken Loans, Feb 19, 2021)
    • “A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is a pool of home loans, often packaged by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae, sold on the open bond market to investors. The investors who buy the securities then receive the payback on a monthly basis when homeowners make their principal and interest payments.”
  • Difference Between Agency and Non-Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities (The Balance, Jul 15  2020) – “Agency” simply means an dept of the federal govt, or MBS that become backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S.
Oregon’s Economic Outlook: Math meets Imaginary

Oregon’s Economic Outlook: Math meets Imaginary

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Show Summary: Do you have an unlimited amount of money? Or time?  If not, then welcome to the world of economics—where math meets reality. Or, if you’re you’re talking about Oregon Democrats in charge of Oregon’s economic outlook, where math meets imaginary.

Original Air Dates: June 8 & 9, 2019 | Guest(s): Jonathan Williams

When it comes to economic outlook, there’s no better organization to turn to than ALEC — American Legislative Exchange Council, the nation’s premiere economic forecaster for the 50 states. And when it comes to Oregon’s economic outlook, they know what can make Oregon successful.

If only Oregon Democrats did.

Oregon’s Economic Outlook

Governor Kate Brown and Oregon's Economy: where math meets imaginary
Those two kids in the front look like they’re running the numbers on how much all this is gonna cost their generation…

We’ve said often that Oregon is the Petri dish for all things Left, except the Petri dish is no longer needed to prove what works or doesn’t work in economics.  States across the U.S. are demonstrating how increased taxes are not the way to economic recovery.  And even though the proof is in the pudding our Democrat legislators refuse to take heed.

Now ranked a very dismal 44th in ALEC’s survey of economic outlook among the states, Oregon may soon find their economic coffers emptying as businesses leave to move to much more friendly taxed states.  It’s already happening. Stimson Lumber announced this last week that they were packing up, closing their operations in Forest Grove, and heading out of state.

Oddly, with all its spending, Oregon may soon be one of the biggest cheerleaders of the Trump economy. Because what do you think will happen if suddenly the economy retreats when Oregon just decided to raise billions in new taxes?

Jonathan Williams from ALEC

To bring clarity to the problems of high taxed states we bring on Jonathan Williams, co-author of Rich States Poor States to give us the good and bad news of how states are dealing with Trump’s booming economy.  He discusses Oregon’s problems and why it was ranked so low—and that was before the new multi-billion-dollar business tax was passed.

We also get to look at what states like Idaho, Texas, Tennessee and others are doing not only enjoying Trump’s tax cuts but jumping on and cutting their own state taxes that highly benefits their citizens. (Like and support your people? What a concept!)

Listen to find out how Oregon is starting down the path of socialism by the D’s desire for centralized planning.  Hear what one Democrat Senator had to say while standing on the senate floor about businesses that could no longer afford to stay in Oregon. And listen to hear how Democrats are using the tax codes to only allow the “right” kind of business to operate in Oregon. Is this a new trend in national politics?

If nothing else, Oregon Democrats are proving the importance of borders. If the D’s get too destructive you can vote with your feet.

Podcast Version

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Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of November, 2018
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Five different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere! All stations stream live!

Saturdays
10a – 11a: KFIR 720AM (entire Willamette Valley) | Direct Link to KFIR Live Stream
11a – noon: KLBM 1450AM (Union County) | Direct Link to KLBM Live Stream
11a – noon: KBKR 1490AM (Baker County) | Direct Link to SuperTalk Live Stream
7p – 8p: KWRO 630AM (Oregon Coast & Southeastern Oregon) | Direct Link to KWRO Live Stream

Sundays
8a – 9a: KWVR 1340AM (Wallowa County) | Direct Link: KWVR Live Stream
7p – 8p: KAJO 1270AM or 99.7FM (Grants Pass/Medford) | Direct Link: KAJO Live Stream

Links Mentioned