Show 14-18 Summary: Does anyone remember when the media objectively covered economics. After all, so much of it revolves around data. And yet the mainstream media does everything it can to attack good economies, like we had under Trump, while providing cover for lame economies, driven primarily by government and government spending, like what we have under Joe Biden. So how do you know what to trust and whom to trust? On this week’s show we talk to an economist to help you think like an economist.
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The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.
Original Air Dates: May 4th & 5th, 2024 | Guest: Jonathan Williams
This Week – Despite the mainstream media doing their best to run cover for Biden and his economic policies, there are some troubling signs about Bidenomics. And some of it really troubling. Which is why you’re not hearing those kinds of stories in the mainstream media.
When it comes to the economy, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is Biden’s DEI hiring-equivalent of “Baghdad Bob.”
GDP for the first quarter was half of normal growth and less than half of the previous quarter. Unemployment for April rose with one of the indicators the worst it’s been since November 2021. And yet all we ever hear out of the White House is how great things are. Including a rather startling comment from KJP. According to her, prices are too low. That woman is Biden’s DEI hiring equivalent of “Baghdad Bob.”
But because economic reporting has become so politicized how can an everyday person tell whether or not the economy is doing well — aside from their own subjective experiences? Because their experiences may not be what everyone else is going through.
Think Like an Economist
So this week we talk to an economist—Jonathan Williams, Executive Vice President of the American Legislative Exchange Council, and their chief economist—to help people learn to think a little more like an economist.
What are some of the trigger points to look for? What are some of the more reliable measurements that indicate a good or a bad economy? And what economic levers can they pull to turn an economy around or to keep a good economy going?
And all of that to help people pick the right people to put them in charge to get the economy on the right track
The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version
Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. Mondays, after our network of radio stations have aired the show, I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite podcasting platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.
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.
The Daily Signal reported that under new federal guidelines — released on Monday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — an employer would be guilty of harassment by requiring someone to use a restroom that corresponds with their biological sex or if someone “misgenders” them.
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.
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.
The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version
Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.
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.
“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)
Show 13-46 Summary: A blast from Oregon’s past, the national debt continues to blow up, and story from right here in Oregon about how bureaucrats are throwing themselves on the grenade of success. Plus, environmentalists have traded saving whales to killing them – as long as they get their billions of dollars. And those offshore windmills may not be as green as they’re made out to be.
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.
The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.
Original Air Dates: November 18th & 19th, 2023 | Guests: Jonathan Williams & Terry Johnson
This Week – Economics and Wind Farms
We start off this week’s show with a look back to Oregon’s “Exploding Whale” story. It’s as good a metaphor as anything for the state we find ourselves in. As in the general state of affairs but, yes, state of Oregon too.
Why? Because the exploding whale is a great example of bad ideas by government officials that make a bad situation even worse. And, yet still worse, government officials with those bad ideas don’t get fired. They get promoted up the ladder.
Where in reality does this make sense?
Bidenomics
We welcome back a good friend of I Spy, ALEC’s chief economist Jonathan Williams. With the US House once again passing a continuing resolution or “CR” to keep the government open, we see our national debt soar. Jonathan discusses the deficit and debt and why there’s a lot of hope of finally getting our government’s spending addiction under control with the new House Speaker, Mike Johnson, who is a former member of ALEC from when he served in the Louisiana House. There is also the matter of Moody’s downgrading the U.S. credit rating with our treasury sales taking a big hit. And a story from right here in Oregon of government throwing itself in the way of prosperity.
Because in Lane County, a factory originally built for $1.6 billion by Hynix, a chip maker, has been sitting idle for 15 years. Now, Stratacache wants to open it to make micro-LED screens (the kind you see as menu boards in fast-food restaurants) and will hire 100s of employees. They were even given a $19 million from the State of Oregon to get going. But Lane County is blocking them. Because they are demanding $2 million property taxes.
Can you believe this? (Well, it’s Oregon, so yes. Yes we can.) Three hundred workers at an average of $40,000 each is $12 million dollars of taxable income. Every year. But that bureaucratic whale-exploding mindset has taken over and they’d rather blow up the deal. Sacrifice $12 million to get $2 million. That’s government.
Hint: empty buildings produce nothing.
CFACT: Save the Whales
Who had “conservative organizations sue the government to protect endangered whales” on their 2023 bingo card? Anyone?
Decades ago, environmentalists — the real ones, not today’s latte crop — fought to save the whales. They would risk their lives to put their boats and rafts between whales and the harpoons of whaling vessels.
But that was then. Now there is 100s of billions of free taxpayer cash to be had. What’s a few endangered whale deaths when you can be given billions. If you support the green agenda. And offshore windmills that aren’t green.
What’s that you say? Windmills not green?
We talk with Collister Terry Johnson, a senior policy advisor about their fight to stop offshore wind farms. CFACT sent the government a 60-day notice of intent to sue. This is a legal requirement, giving the federal government time to correct a mistake or rule violation. In this case, violating the endangered species act by plopping all these wind farms off shore. Right in the middle of whale migration areas. Including the Right Whale, which is highly endangered with only about 350 of them left.
If the government fails to take action within the 60-day window, CFACT and The Heartland Institute, will sue. And this lawsuit could have far-reaching implications. Not just stop the Virginia offshore wind, which it’s aimed at. But even shut down existing wind farms.
These wind farms that only exist because of billions of those taxpayer dollars. But, it turns out, a new study has been released that shows that these offshore wind farms may not be “carbon neutral” after all. In fact, they may be putting more CO2 into the air than they help prevent.
Whoops. There goes the whole point of their existence in the green energy sphere.
Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.
Show Notes: Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info
That exploding whale story: “A whale exploded in Oregon in 1970, and the story will blow your mind” (That Oregon Life, Feb 21, 2017)
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!
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Demonic’ off-shore wind farms are blamed for New Jersey whale deaths: Former SNL star reveals ‘green energy companies’ are sending ultra-loud blasts into water every 10 seconds that make mammals think predators are chasing them (UK Daily Mail, Nov 15, 2023)
Uh oh. Moody’s turns negative on US credit rating, draws Washington ire (Reuters, Nov 10, 2023)
Moody’s downgrades US debt rating outlook to negative (The Economic Times, Nov 11, 2023)*“Due to interest rate hikes by the US central bank to curb inflation, the cost of debt for the United States has ballooned, with Washington paying $162 billion more for interest in the last fiscal year compared to 2022.”
Worst Bond Market: Fewer Buyers Willing to Buy US Debt
2022 was the worst-ever year for U.S. bonds. How to position your portfolio for 2023 (CNBC, Jan 7, 2023)
2022: “The Worst Bond Market Ever: By history’s standards, stocks have not performed too badly, but bonds certainly have.” (Morningstar, Nov 21, 2022)
“Although most of our national debt was issued when interest rates were low, that debt is quickly rolling over into a high-rate debt environment, and further borrowing continues. Without corrective action, interest costs could total more than $13 trillion over the next decade and $1.9 trillion per year by 2033.”
The collapse in Treasury bonds now ranks among the worst market crashes in history (Markets Insider, Oct 5, 2023)
Since March 2020, Treasury bonds with maturities of 10 years or more have plummeted 46%, while the 30-year bond had plunged 53%.
“The 30-year Treasury auction on Nov. 9 was horrific. It saw one of the widest high-yield to median yield spreads since 1990 as the indirect acceptance rate plunged.”
“Primary dealers, big banks who are obligated to finance whatever portion of a Treasury auction isn’t purchased by other investors, bought nearly a quarter of the issuance. [That’s] more than double their average in recent 30-year auctions.”
13-44 Green Hydrogen Can Work – Just Ignore Economics and Common Sense
Show 13-44 Summary: People have been chasing the elusive dream of hydrogen as a fuel source for decades and decades. Billions have been poured into it before now. But there’s no such thing as a bad idea as long as the government is willing to pour even more billions into it. But now it’s even worse as they chase “green hydrogen.” Tune in to hear why hydrogen isn’t viable as a mass production “fuel,” how it isn’t even a fuel, and even far more expensive than it already is if we try to make it the way the Greenies want. And remember how CO2 is the enemy? Yeah not so much, apparently.
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.
The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.
Original Air Dates: November 4th & 5th, 2023 | Guest: Frank Lasee
This Week – Why Green Hydrogen Doesn’t Make Sense
Hydrogen has been the elusive clean energy society has been chasing for decades. Well before G.W. Bush threw nearly $2 billion at (which went nowhere), scientists were trying to use hydrogen back into FDR’s days and even before then. (The Hindenburg largely derailed the whole idea.) But if clean hydrogen was a pipe dream, green hydrogen is a fanciful nightmare. Especially if you don’t care about things like economics or common sense.
The Hindenburg derailed hydrogen. Rightly so.
In a nutshell, green hydrogen costs 5–6 times more than current methods and does not return as much energy as it costs to produce.
But why let a few dozen billions of narrow-minded taxpayer dollars stand in your way of your grand vision? Especially when states like Oregon and Washington just got handed a billion dollars each of free taxpayer dollars to create hydrogen hubs.
But First: A Big Win!
Thanks to public outcry, which CFACT helped mobilize, Orsted has cancelled its two planned offshore wind farms in New Jersey waters. The Danish company our American taxpayer dollars was funding, pulled the plug. Despite a $100 million penalty for failing to complete delivery. And wrote off a $4 billion loss. Amazing how these “green energy” schemes cannot work without massive government subsidies.
Public outcry works. Don’t be silent. And let’s do that here in Oregon. See Show 13-42 for more information.
Green Hydrogen Defined
We welcome first-time guest, Frank Lasee, a former Wisconsin state senator, president of Truth in Energy and Climate, and a senior policy advisor to CFACT. As you might be able to tell from the name of his organization, there’s not a lot of truth out there in either climate or energy. And nowhere is that more true than green hydrogen.
First off, hydrogen is itself not really a fuel. It’s more akin to a battery because while it has energy, it first has to be created. It would be a bit like creating oil out of various elements first before drilling for it.
What is green hydrogen? The label “green hydrogen” is all about how the hydrogen is made. There are several ways to make hydrogen. One is a simple electrolysis method, applying a current to water that splits the molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Your high school science teacher might have demonstrated this. Another is gasification that extracts hydrogen (and other elements) from natural gas with high-temperature steam.
Green hydrogen is extracted from whatever source but must use “renewable” energy to do so. The most common being pushed right now is to use solar and wind as the energy source.
How Green Hydrogen is Made
Except there’s a major problem with “green” wind and solar. They do not produce energy 70% of the time. Barely any wind. No wind. Not enough sun. Darkness. But to make clean, green hydrogen at scale takes enormous amounts of electricity. And water. Lots of water.
To make one kilogram of hydrogen (which has roughly the same potential energy as a gallon of gas), you need 13 kg of water to split. The water is heated to 2,000 degrees. That’s a lot of electricity. And then after it’s split, it has to be superchilled to near absolute zero so it can be pressurized and stored. And that takes another 40 kg of water to cool it.
So for every 1 kg of hydrogen produced, it takes 53 kg of water — and a massive amount of electricity.
What happens if the wind’s not blowing? Or it’s night time? You don’t have to be a paid TV scientist to realize this is not a process you can start and stop because of the unreliability of your “green” power sources. Gosh. You’ll have to supplement all intermittent green energy with coal. Or have massive batteries.
The Green Hydrogen Dilemma
One notion to get past the unreliability of so-called green energy and its unreliability is to tap into hydroelectric dams. Which the Pacific Northwest has plenty of. Except for the last decade, the environmentalists have been busily trying to yank them all out. To “save the salmon.”
Now what? Save the salmon or have green hydrogen?
In fact, the hypnotic allure of billions free taxpayer dollars has put a halt on at least one lawsuit to force the government to pull out dams on the Snake River.
Whoops.
But it’s not just the dams. You’ve got California, which on Thursday emptied 7 billion gallons (7,559,743,200 gallons to be precise) of fresh water from its reservoirs into the ocean. Why? To adjust the salinity levels in a delta to “save the fish.” The Delta Smelt. Of which a grand total of zero Delta Smelt have been seen in annual Fall Surveys since 2017.
Well there goes 142,636,664 gallons of hydrogen they could have made.
Fish or dams for hydrogen? What to do, what to do…
Green Energy: It’s All About Money
Tune in to hear how “green energy” is not green. And it’s not really about energy. What it’s really all about is the money.
And it’s not about “Climate Change” either. Why? Because while we’ve been shrieked at about CO2 emissions for two decades, it turns out they will not only sacrifice fish to get those billions. They’re also willing to emit more CO2 to get those billions.
Just like wearing the inappropriate “green” label for green hydrogen, to get the label “clean hydrogen” all you have to do is not emit more than 2 kg of carbon dioxide per hydrogen produced.
Read it for yourself: The National Clean Hydrogen Standard is 2 kg CO2e/kg H2. That’s 2x the amount of CO2 for every one Hydrogen (H2). See page 75 of the H2IQ Presentation from the U.S. Dept of Energy.
Yes. You can emit twice the CO2 you get of hydrogen. So much for CO2 as the enemy.
Don’t miss the show. That’s just one of much of the green hydrogen nonsense.
The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version
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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info
Articles/Info Mentioned During the Show
Frank Lasee’s website is TruthinClimateandEnergy.com. Be sure to check out this website for great articles and information.
Major wind energy developer scraps two big offshore projects (NBC News, Nov 1, 2023)
The move by Orsted, a Danish company, adds fresh uncertainty to an industry supporters see as a way to help end the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels.
Read it for yourself! Page 75 of the H2IQ Presentation (Dec 2021) from the U.S. Department of Energy states “clean hydrogen” allows for twice the amount of CO2 emissions as the hydrogen produced.
Great example of replacing a gasoline car with a solar cars. Now you’re paying for 3 cars to get the same reliability you had in one.
Hydrogen – Will this Green dream prove an expensive nightmare? – (CFACT, Oct 26, 2023)
Hydrogen embrittles nearly every metal it comes in contact with.
Needs 13x more water than hydrogen made, 40x to cool it
The hydrogen lobby duped Congress into $9.5 billion for hydrogen hubs and $100s of billions more for subsidies to make it. These hydrogen jobs will last only as long as the subsidies do.
“The fact that the world is desperately short of lithium and cobalt for electric vehicle batteries, at the scale they want to force, is dawning on them”
“Wind and solar produce little or no energy 70% of the time.”
Frank Lasee: Joe Biden’s Hydrogen Slush Fund Means More Dollars Wasted On The Green Energy Boondoggle (ShoreNews Network, Feb 26, 2023)
Show 13-29 Summary: This week, we’re looking into Bidenomics and what’s happening in the wider economy, what’s supposedly real (allegedly booming) and what’s real (it’s not booming). We also take a look at the hand-in-glove relationship between Big Government and Big Business — as they partner to make each other stronger, bigger, and more powerful. Meanwhile, there’s small businesses and the taxpayer but government’s relationship with them is more hand-in-pocket. And, as one might expect, Oregon dropped two spots in the latest Rich States/Poor States ranking of state economies. We discuss why.
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.
The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.
Original Air Dates: July 22nd & 23rd, 2023 | Guest: Jonathan Williams
This Week – Bidenomics Killing Capitalism
It’s no secret that socialists hate real capitalism and the free market system because it means government is not in control. People are. And it makes the little guy wealthy and independent of government. And that’s the mortal enemy of socialism.
Enter Bidenomics. Which is the perfect (for socialism) answer to capitalism. Bidenomics marries Big Government with Big Business providing the socialist kill shot for capitalism.
Under Bidenomics, Big Business flourishes. Why? Because Big Government squeezes out Big Business’s competitors by using regulations to choke smaller companies’ profits while Big Business plays by different rules. In a regulation-heavy market, guess who wins? The ones who can afford the most lawyers and lobbyists.
Take a listen to this brief video mentioned during the show to see how Bidenism is causing a lurch toward monopolies in the banking sector. To squeeze out their smaller competitors. (The original tweet is from Dr. Peter St. Onge.)
Jonathan Williams of ALEC
We talk Bidenomics with Jonathan Williams, the Executive Vice President of Policy and Chief Economist for ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is the nation’s leading economic policy think tank, working directly with state legislators to pass free-market solutions to Big Government’s constant overreach.
Jonathan discusses what’s really happening with Bidenomics. No surprise, the Biden admin is on full spin mode trying to make people disbelieve the evidence of their own eyes. Inflation, high prices that keep getting higher, and more. But we’re told but the Bidenomics priesthood this is all a good thing.
And we talk about the corruption happening now in Washington, D.C., which Jonathan likes to call, the Land of Make Believe. Did anyone ever expect to see this much corruption and no one do anything about it? Not even pretend to be interested?
And what about that lurch away from capitalism to monopolism — where Big Government works hand-in-glove with Big Business to kill off their competitors.
Finally, we talk about ALEC’s latest Rich States, Poor States edition, which came out in April 2023. Oregon dropped a couple of spots. Which probably surprises no one who lives in Oregon. But find out why.
The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version
Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.
Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info
Visit Jonathan Williams’ terrific organization, American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. And urge your state representatives and senators to get become part of ALEC.
Disney CEO Bob Iger in ‘damage control’ mode over possible sale of ABC, ESPN (NY Post, July 19, 2023)
Millions of U.S. Jobs Are at Risk From Climate Policy: Joe Trotter in Delaware Valley Journal – American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC, June 22, 2023)
Kotek doles out 22% raises, $1500 inflation bonus (Oregon Catalyst, July 19, 2023)*The end result is the latest agreement for these Oregon government employees which includes a 6 point 5 percent raise this December and another 6 point 5 percent raise in 13 months. Other employees will be getting between 13 and 22 percent raises. It also includes a one-time $15 hundred dollar bonus to handle inflation.
Not Mentioned but Related
Field Office, Defaults on $73.8 Million Loan (Willamette Week, July 17, 2023)*Field Office, a 2 hundred 90 thousand-square-foot office complex near the Willamette River, have defaulted on their $74 million dollar loan. It’s due to being unable to find enough tenants.
Oregon Doctors seek to form a union (Oregon Catalyst, July 17, 2023)*Doctors seek unions due to being pressured and negatively impacted as they’re forced to accept more patients. More and more doctors are being forced into consolidation and away from smaller, family care environments. Along with more rules and legal requirements. A result from heavy handed taxes, fees, red tape, and legal impositions imposed by governments.As Oregon hospitals lost nearly half billion dollars in just a half year.
Lebanon considers asking voters for new tax (Democrat Herald, July 17, 2023)*Lebanon elected officials are considering raising taxes to avoid depleting the city’s general fund by 2024 and operate at a deficit by 2026. The city was up against a $1 point 2 million dollar shortfall when its fiscal year started this July.
