We are beginning to witness the impact of state taxes on decision making. California’s high taxes led to the San Francisco Giants losing Bryce Harper to the Philadelphia Phillies. The 26-year-old professional baseball star agreed to a 13-year, $330 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies because the bottom line net of what California would take was insane. I know several IT firms that are experiencing the same loss of talent all because California already has the highest state income taxes in the country.
Governments are only looking at their own survival, and to hell with the people. There is a major shift in migration and California now has more people fleeing the state than desiring to move there. Taxes are a major component and they define the bottom line. We witnessed the AOC effect, as she proudly chased Amazon out of New York. Her approval rating took a turn for the worst after chasing 25,000 jobs out of the city.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have won every vote since the party first came to power in 2002, but this time, the party had risked losing Ankara and faced a tough fight in Istanbul. Erdogan’s AKP appeared destined for defeat in the capital Ankara and faced a dead heat in Istanbul after Sunday’s local election delivered a blow to a party in power for a decade and a half. With 99% of the ballot boxes counted, the joint opposition candidate for Ankara mayor was winning with 50.89% of votes and the AKP on 47.06% at last count. Meanwhile, in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and economic capital, the race for mayor was deadlocked with the AKP candidate claiming victory with 48.70% of votes, but his opponent on 48.65% also claimed that he had won.
This is what we are showing in so many elections globally on the docket. We seem to be living in a world that is fed up with governments as is in general, and the disillusionment is growing. The global population appears to be almost evenly divided and this is posing a major problem. Erdogan suffered a severe setback on the weekend as his ruling AK Party was set to lose control of the capital Ankara for the first time in a local election and he appeared to concede defeat in the country’s largest city, Istanbul.
This trend is also associated with civil unrest and it appears that this disenchantment will manifest insofar as neither side will be willing to accept defeat. Indeed, we do live in interesting times. Even when Erdogan won the presidential election in 2018, he did so only by 52.5%. This is indicative of the problem we face. The public is nearly evenly divided no matter what country we look at.
I use to live in London and I was taking some photos in a Royal Park on a Sunday. The police told me if I was going to take one more photo he would confiscate my camera. I thought it was a joke to which he did not take kindly. Apparently, when photography first began the flash was made with an explosive charge. They passed a law that one day a week there must be peace an quiet.
When I moved to Florida, low an behold, one of these antique laws was also the common source of jokes in Sarasota. There was this old law that you cannot leave an elephant at a parking meter without paying the parking meter fee. That seemed really absurd implying that people must have been riding elephants around town instead of horses at the very least. It appears to have existed on the west coast of Florida, in Sarasota.
John Ringling, of Ringling Brothers Circus fame, moved his company’s winter operations to Sarasota in 1927. Before that date, after Ringling purchased St. Armand’s Key in 1917, he enlisted the help of elephants to build the first causeway to St. Armand’s Circle, now a popular tourist destination. There were definitely elephants in use in Florida at that time. Parking meters began sprouting up in the country shortly thereafter, around the mid-1930s as local governments needed cash. The world’s first parking meter, known as Park-O-Meter No. 1, is installed on the southeast corner of what was then First Street and Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on this day in 1935. Other cities quickly stole the idea to make money. It seems that people riding an elephant was not paying the parking fee.
Today, Ringling’s estate is a major attraction with the Ringling Museum. Certainly worth the view
Oh boy, if you’ve been following the Justin Trudeau scandal surrounding the SNC-Lavalin bribery and corruption case, well, things just got more interesting. Former Justice Minister, Canadian Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould, has stated, repeatedly, she felt pressured by Justin Trudeau to interfere in a criminal prosecution to help a business based on politics. [Backstory Here – and Here – and Here]
Obviously Ms. Wilson-Raybould knew Trudeau was putting her in a legally precarious position because she took the unprecedented step of recording a conversation with Trudeau’s aide, Michael Wernick, while he was applying the pressure. LISTEN:
CANADA – […] The recording shows Trudeau aide Michael Wernick telling the Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould that Trudeau “is determined, quite firm,” in finding a way to avoid a prosecution that could put 9,000 jobs at risk.
It also shows Wilson-Raybould, who was also attorney general, saying she regards the pressure as “inappropriate.”
[…] Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle by Trudeau. She has testified that she believes she lost the justice job because she did not give in to “sustained” pressure to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin.
Wilson-Raybould said in a written submission that she took the “extraordinary and otherwise inappropriate step” of secretly recording a phone call with the country’s top public servant in December because she feared the conversation would cross ethical lines and she wanted an exact account.
“This is something that I have never done before this phone call and have not done since,” she wrote. (read more)
Have read the two blogs on the Emerging Markets. Hit like a cold bucket of ice water. Knew something was coming from all your writings and the EMC, but Wow. Right in front of us.
Here is an observation, a thought:
Emerging Markets could turn out to be the Sub-Prime of this new era.
On the periphery. A Liquidity crises. Unplanned for, because Unexpected.
J
REPLY: This is going to be really an interesting WEC. Whatever can go wrong in the world is going wrong. It is becoming the perfect financial storm as we head into the bottom of the Economic Confidence Model. We have politicians only looking at saving their own power blind to the implications of their actions on a global scale. There are even rumors now that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will claim some manipulation of the election by another country in a vast conspiracy if he loses and he will refuse to leave office.
The British Parliament has rejected Prime Minister May’s BREXIT plan for a third time. This now leaves them to come up with a plan that Brussels must accept by April 12th or face a hard exit. On top of that, the phone here is melting down with questions about how “hard” is a “hard-landing” going to be from various political sources. Central banks are shifting already to once again stimulate. This is not looking very good, to say the least. Ten years of stimulation has been a complete failure in Europe. We have major political and banking turmoil and financial chaos looking ever more serious for May.
QUESTION: Re Solution to a new monetary system::
In the “Solution” presented it was suggested that the existing US bonds be required to invest in companies in the USA. Does the govt just print the money for the bond values to give to the companies? If the companies receive the bonds, how are they liquidated otherwise?
KB
ANSWER: It becomes a debt for equity swap. The debt must be retired. It is replaced with just the creation of money. Now people will yell that is hyperinflationary. Not true. Since 1971, government debt is acceptable for collateral when you trade your accounts at a broker. It is simply cash that pays interest. It is already part of the money supply. What you are implying is really old school economics that believe increasing the money supply will be inflationary. This is just not the case. Even after 10 years of Quantitative Easing, we still have deflationary trends in pockets like Europe and Japan.
Some wrongly believe that you are just increasing the money supply. Pre-1971, when bonds were not allowed to be collateral, then yes, it was less inflationary to borrow than to print. However, since the debt is already cash that now pays interest post-1971, it is just a swap. Huge distinction.
Interest expenditures will soon exceed that of the military. This solution will reduce the cost of government, and thereafter, you outlaw any possible right to borrow once again.
While many believe that the off-exchange trading platforms in Bitcoin bypass fiat central banks, there are developments in the legal world that warn of regulation is headed into the field with a vengeance. There were three important recent actions in federal courts that illustrate the interplay among the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) & Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) federal regulators seeking to expand their jurisdiction into the virtual currency world. This movement to expand their jurisdiction does not come from Congress. Instead, they charge people and create legal precedents and this is how most “law” is actually made. Clearly, these actions illustrate that they are moving into the virtual currency arena. The three cases are:
On September 26, 2018, Judge Rya W. Zobel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts handed down an important decision in a case alleging the fraudulent sale of a virtual currency called My Big Coin (MBC).2 In denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss, Judge Zobel confirmed the CFTC’s sweeping assertion of authority to police virtual currency markets under the antifraud and manipulation provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and its implementing regulations.
On September 11, 2018, Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York denied a motion to dismiss the United States’ indictment for fraud under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) in connection with the sale of virtual currencies claimed to be backed by real estate and diamonds.3 In denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss, Judge Dearie found that the virtual currencies at issue could reasonably be considered investment contracts and thus securities
On September 27, 2018, the SEC and the CFTC filed parallel complaints in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against an online trading platform and its CEO offering swaps based on underlying securities and commodities funded with bitcoin, alleging violations of the federal securities and commodities laws.
My biggest concern is that it will be a tiny step for mankind to declare off-exchanges to be illegally operating without registration and it would not be too far behind for they to be criminally prosecuted for also money laundering just like any bank for the failure to report every individual trading on these platforms. I would suspect we will see the further expansion into the virtual currency world by the SEC, CFTC, and DOJ long before we see any real legislation from Congress. They will ALWAYS pick the worse cases to make law and then apply it to everyone.
The left-wing media in Canada is doing everything possible to shape, defend and protect Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from a corruption scandal created by his pressure to stop a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin. {Background Here} and {Update Here}.
The depth of the corruption is evidenced by the level of manipulation deployed by the Canadian state-run media, and yet they are still unable to bury the issue for him.
In the latest development….
OTTAWA (Reuters) – A Canadian cabinet minister, who had quit in protest over the government’s handling of a corruption scandal, said she and others had more to say about the matter, indicating more pain to come for embattled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau has been on the defensive since Feb. 7 over allegations that top officials working for him leaned on former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to ensure that construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoided a corruption trial.
“There’s much more to the story that should be told,” former Treasury Board President Jane Philpott told Macleans’ magazine in an interview released on Thursday. (link)
The interview with liberal Jane Philpott outlines how the far-left within her party are furious that she dare expose criminal conduct by Justin Trudeau. The once lauded and praised Ms. Philpott is now the subject of targeted attacks against her simply because she refused to participate in the cover-up.
The interview is very telling [READ HERE] There’s a full transcript of the interview.
Here’s a broadcast interview with reporter Paul Wells of Maclean’s magazine (the journalist who conducted the recent interview of Ms. Philpott). CBC attempts to water-down the political damage and yet retain the appearance of journalism:
.
Trudeau will not allow Jane Philpott or Jody Wilson-Raybould to give any details on the issues, citing Parliamentary Privilege. As former cabinet members neither lady are permitted to discuss the internal deliberations that would outline the scandal unless they are allowed to do so by Trudeau. Obviously the prime minister’s political interests are best served by keeping them silent. Justin is not going to allow them to talk.
Along with Trudeau’s heavy-handed tactics to silence the former cabinet officials, the liberal party, in majority control of government, have done everything possible to provide cover for Trudeau; including the House of Commons justice committee shutting down its inquiry on Tuesday, saying no more action was needed.
The problem for Trudeau is the pesky truth doesn’t hide easily. The conservative party in Canada is rightly pointing out that if there is nothing to fear, then Trudeau should allow his former officials to testify as to what specifically happened.
The Canadian media are so far out of the mainstream defending their liberal lightbringer, the end political result might be the exact opposite of their desired intent. Quite simply, the Canadian electorate seem to be seeing right through the media and parliamentary manipulation.
With an election in October; and with Justin refusing to allow sunlight to the entirety of what took place; there’s a growing possibility the lack of fulsome inquiry might just backfire politically.
In an effort to keep hiding from the truth, unbelievably Justin Trudeau is now refusing to speak English. The French speaking Canadian’s are more left-leaning; he needs to keep that base of support in order to avoid even worsening political fallout. So Trudeau is now only speaking French to avoid being spotlighted, in social media video captures, as he attempts to cloud, obfuscate and manipulate his way out of the scandal.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The level of manipulative intent is jaw-dropping.
It really is quite stunning to watch. SEE:
Ezra Levant
✔@ezralevant
He panicked, and answered in French for some reason.
His first language is English, so is hers, so is the former attorney general.
The question was in English.
But he panicked and reached for some line he had memorized.
The left-wing media in Canada is doing everything possible to shape, defend and protect Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from a corruption scandal created by his pressure to stop a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin. {Background Here} and {Update Here}.
The depth of the corruption is evidenced by the level of manipulation deployed by the Canadian state-run media, and yet they are still unable to bury the issue for him.
In the latest development….
OTTAWA (Reuters) – A Canadian cabinet minister, who had quit in protest over the government’s handling of a corruption scandal, said she and others had more to say about the matter, indicating more pain to come for embattled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau has been on the defensive since Feb. 7 over allegations that top officials working for him leaned on former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to ensure that construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoided a corruption trial.
“There’s much more to the story that should be told,” former Treasury Board President Jane Philpott told Macleans’ magazine in an interview released on Thursday. (link)
The interview with liberal Jane Philpott outlines how the far-left within her party are furious that she dare expose criminal conduct by Justin Trudeau. The once lauded and praised Ms. Philpott is now the subject of targeted attacks against her simply because she refused to participate in the cover-up.
The interview is very telling [READ HERE] There’s a full transcript of the interview.
Here’s a broadcast interview with reporter Paul Wells of Maclean’s magazine (the journalist who conducted the recent interview of Ms. Philpott). CBC attempts to water-down the political damage and yet retain the appearance of journalism:
.
Trudeau will not allow Jane Philpott or Jody Wilson-Raybould to give any details on the issues, citing Parliamentary Privilege. As former cabinet members neither lady are permitted to discuss the internal deliberations that would outline the scandal unless they are allowed to do so by Trudeau. Obviously the prime minister’s political interests are best served by keeping them silent. Justin is not going to allow them to talk.
Along with Trudeau’s heavy-handed tactics to silence the former cabinet officials, the liberal party, in majority control of government, have done everything possible to provide cover for Trudeau; including the House of Commons justice committee shutting down its inquiry on Tuesday, saying no more action was needed.
The problem for Trudeau is the pesky truth doesn’t hide easily. The conservative party in Canada is rightly pointing out that if there is nothing to fear, then Trudeau should allow his former officials to testify as to what specifically happened.
The Canadian media are so far out of the mainstream defending their liberal lightbringer, the end political result might be the exact opposite of their desired intent. Quite simply, the Canadian electorate seem to be seeing right through the media and parliamentary manipulation.
With an election in October; and with Justin refusing to allow sunlight to the entirety of what took place; there’s a growing possibility the lack of fulsome inquiry might just backfire politically.
In an effort to keep hiding from the truth, unbelievably Justin Trudeau is now refusing to speak English. The French speaking Canadian’s are more left-leaning; he needs to keep that base of support in order to avoid even worsening political fallout. So Trudeau is now only speaking French to avoid being spotlighted, in social media video captures, as he attempts to cloud, obfuscate and manipulate his way out of the scandal.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The level of manipulative intent is jaw-dropping.
It really is quite stunning to watch. SEE:
Ezra Levant
✔@ezralevant
He panicked, and answered in French for some reason.
His first language is English, so is hers, so is the former attorney general.
The question was in English.
But he panicked and reached for some line he had memorized.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 