Romney Makes Appeal to Voters Disappointed in Obama: ‘The Time Has Come to Turn the Page’ – Yahoo  “‘Tonight I’d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama?’ Romney said. ‘You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had, was the day you voted for him.’  He said Americans ‘deserved’ the ‘hope and change’ that Obama had promised, but because he has failed to keep his promises, he doesn’t deserve a second term.’”

Clint Eastwood: “We Own This Country!” – NBC  “The Hollywood icon carried out an extended, imaginary conversation with the president. … Eastwood’s speech was defined by an imaginary conversation with President Obama, symbolized by an empty chair to his left. Throughout, Eastwood mixed jokes with tough talk to the delight of the crowd.”   His speech was very effective, and should resonate with a number of undecided voters!

US Drought Heading From Croplands to a Meat Counter Near You – Reuters  “The worst drought to hit U.S. cropland in more than half a century could soon leave Americans reaching deeper into their pockets to fund a luxury that people in few other countries enjoy: affordable meat.Drought-decimated fields have pushed grain prices sky high, and the rising feed costs have prompted some livestock producers to liquidate their herds. This is expected to shrink the long-term U.S. supply of meat and force up prices at the meat counter.”

At Pivotal Moment, Bernanke Low on Economic Ammo – Washington Post  “On Friday, he returns to the yearly economic conference still facing huge economic challenges, but now he’s far more constrained by both politics and limitations on what the Fed can do to help the economy. …Bernanke himself says the country’s main economic decisions are Congress’s to make. He also wants to make sure the Fed doesn’t act in a way that sparks inflation, which can erode incomes.”

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By Andy Sutton

It wouldn’t be a normal day in the life of the 24-hour news cycle if there weren’t some type of campaign against gold and its proper role as money. True to form, The Financial Times stepped to the plate to launch a rather hilarious attack on gold in the context of an article which discusses the idea that one half of our Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi political system is contemplating adding Read More »

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California Leaders Strike Public Pension Reform Deal – Reuters  “California Governor Jerry Brown and lawmakers have reached a deal to raise public employees’ retirement ages, have them pay more into their pension accounts, and cap retirement payments in a vast overhaul of the state’s pension system that he says will save $30 billion. ‘We have lived beyond our means,’ he said. ‘The chickens are coming home to roost and this is just one in a series of countermeasures that will be required over the next decade.’”

Jobless Claims in U.S. Unchanged Last Week at One-Month High – Bloomberg  “Companies will probably remain concerned about the possibility that taxes will rise and government spending will be cut unless lawmakers act by January. The debt crisis in the 17-member euro area and a slowdown in China may also prompt employers to keeping payrolls lean.”

Even Talk of a Gold Standard Would Boost the Price – MarketWatch  “Current monetary system is breaking down. What would it take to break the gold price out of the $1,600 to $1,700 an ounce range in which it has been trading for the past year? Another massive blast of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve? A final breakdown of the euro? A war between Israel and Iran? They are all possibilities, of course. But the most likely candidate is a serious debate about a return to some form of the gold standard.”

What Is It About a Stable Dollar That Paul Krugman Doesn’t Understand? – Forbes  “It’s not surprising that liberals are apoplectic over a provision in the draft Republican Party platform calling for the establishment of a commission to study ‘possible ways to set a fixed value for the dollar’. After all, this amounts to a ‘right to life’ plank for the dollar, the economy, and the American middle class. … Get a grip, liberal economists, and get out of the way. ‘A fixed value for the dollar’ has become a matter of economic life and death for the American middle class.”

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By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. for The American Spectator

It has been a very rough patch for Our President, and I do believe it is going to get rougher still. Do not be surprised, as the month goes on and August runs into September, that his campaign budget becomes tighter. President Barack Obama is spending more money than he is raising. It will get worse. A president who mismanages the federal budget the Read More »

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By William Sullivan

Commenting on her speech at the RNC on Tuesday night, Juan Williams said he thought that Ann Romney came off as a “corporate wife” whose “husband takes care of her.”  You know- a wholly privileged gal who’s never worked, never suffered (besides that whole “having multiple sclerosis and cancer” thing), so everyday American women, like single moms, just can’t relate to her. 

First of all, this is funny Read More »

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It’s the Ideology, Stupid – National Journal  “Romney has brought entitlements, American exceptionalism and other issues to the forefront. … But by running on charged ideological issues, he has the potential to fit the missing piece of the puzzle — connecting voters’ vague dissatisfaction with the president’s performance with a series of unpopular policies he’s pursued.”

Republicans Vow to Transform Obama’s U.S. With Low Tax, Freedom – Bloomberg  “The Republican Party platform promises to replace what it criticizes as President Barack Obama’s debt-swollen entitlement society with ‘a roaring job market to match a roaring economy.’ The platform reflects the influence of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, offering as the remedy for the nation’s economic ills a familiar recipe of low taxes, light regulation, expanded oil drilling and free enterprise. It vows to reduce personal and corporate taxes, repeal Obama’s health-care law, promote small businesses and avoid taxpayer bailouts of troubled financial institutions.”

Another Obama  Broken Promise to the SEALs – AP/AmericanThinker  “One thing that angered the SEALs was President Obama’s promise to invite them back to the residence for a beer and never following through. After listening to Obama’s speech and enduring Biden’s “lame jokes that no one got (He seemed like a nice guy, but he reminded me of someone’s drunken uncle at Christmas dinner)” the president invited the team to return to his residence later for a beer.  But Owen writes a few weeks later: ‘We never got the call to have a beer at the White House.’ Joking with a fellow SEAL, ‘Hey, did you ever hear anything about that beer?’ Walt cracks:  ‘You believed that s**t. I bet you voted for change too, sucker.’”

Draghi: ECB Needs ‘Exceptional Measures’ for Stability – Reuters  “The European Central Bank must employ ‘exceptional measures’ at times to fulfil its mandate of delivering stable prices, ECB President Mario Draghi wrote in an opinion piece on Wednesday aimed at calming German angst about the bank’s policy course.  “We have to fix such blockages to ensure a single monetary policy and therefore price stability for all euro area citizens. This may at times require exceptional measures,’ Draghi wrote in the article, released in English by the ECB under the title: ‘The future of the euro: stability through change.’”

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EDITOR’S COMMENT: Here is another of John Rubino’s series entitled “Welcome to the Third World.” This time he focuses on some of the issues that are dramatically changing and confronting academia, with the result being “the end of higher education as a means to prosperity, and the severing of opportunity to all but the most privileged.”  Importantly, he reminds us that the major cause of all this is debt, the high debt Read More »

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SEAL Book Raises Questions about bin Laden’s Death – AP/Yahoo  “A firsthand account of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden contradicts previous accounts by administration officials, raising questions as to whether the terror mastermind presented a clear threat when SEALs first fired upon him. … Bissonnette writes disparagingly that none of the SEALs were fans of President Barack Obama and knew that his administration would take credit for ordering the May 2011 raid. One of the SEALs said after the mission that they had just gotten Obama re-elected by carrying out the raid.”

Taxes Continue to Move U.S. Firms Abroad – Wall Street Journal  “More big U.S. companies are reincorporating abroad despite a 2004 federal law that sought to curb the practice. One big reason: Taxes. Companies cite various reasons for moving, including expanding their operations and their geographic reach. But tax bills remain a primary concern. A few cite worries that U.S. taxes will rise in the future, especially if Washington revamps the tax code next year to shrink the federal budget deficit.”

Obama Honored Fallen SEALs By Sending Their Parents a Form Letter Signed By Electric Pen – Gateway Pundit  “After the deadliest single loss of US forces in Afghanistan, Barack Obama sent out form letters to the parents.”

The Biggest Reason Why California Is Bankrupt – Atlantic  “California’s state government had 9.3 percent more employees in 2011 than it did 10 years earlier – closely tracking overall population growth – but its payroll costs had jumped by 42.4 percent, according to a new Census Bureau report.”

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By Alasdair Macleod

Interventions in markets by governments and central banks are routine and we take them for granted. No one questions them, but they can create dangerous distortions. Their reason for intervening is to take price determination away from markets and consumers.

The authorities and big business do not like leaving prices to free markets because prices are subjective: in other words, prices are decided by the desires of the consumer and not Read More »

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