Feds spend at least $890,000 on fees for empty accounts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/feds-spend-at-least-890000-on-fees-for-empty-accounts/2013/04/24/35700728-ac3b-11e2-8559-85e32b44d524_story.html?hpid=z1

It is one of the oddest spending habits in Washington: this year, the government will spend at least $890,000 on service fees for bank accounts that have nothing in them. At last count, Uncle Sam has 13,712 such accounts, each containing zero dollars and zero cents.




These are supposed to be closed. But nobody has done the paperwork.

How Obama Budget Will Affect Retirement Savers

The [Obama] budget proposal would limit an individual’s total retirement account balance including 401(k)s, IRAs, and similar types of tax-preferred accounts to an amount sufficient to finance an annuity of not more than $205,000 per year in retirement, or about $3 million for someone retiring in 2013.

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-retire/2013/04/10/how-obamas-budget-impacts-retirement-savers

Stockton plan cuts bond payment and stiff bondholders of $197.5 million

The City of Stockton is acting like Barack Obama. If you remember, the President stole the bond and stocks of General Motors investors and gave them to the unions.




Stockton wants to steal the bonds bought by investors for pension plans and totally stiff them.



“A Stockton bankruptcy proposal does not cut pensions, but the city wants to eliminate $197.5 million in pension bond payments over the next 25 years, a plan opposed by the bond insurer that would be stuck with the tab.



The bankruptcy proposal would end pension bond payments from the troubled city general fund, which pays for most programs and is deep in the red with a $26 million deficit that could balloon if employee lawsuits overturn emergency pay cuts.”



Actually, this might be a good idea. It will teach those who buy government backed bonds that they are suckers and are the cause of the bankruptcies by funding the excessive spending. After this, who is stupid enough to buy a government bond? Just talking about it should send up a red flag. What do you think?

http://capoliticalnews.com/2012/07/23/stockton-plan-cuts-bond-payment-and-stiff-bondholders-of-197-5-million/

dailybeast - cayman islands tax haven list

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/04/this-is-where-the-world-s-richest-people-hide-their-money.html?obref=obinsite

Concise Encyclopedia of Ecnomics - Minimum Wage Hurts Employment

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MinimumWages.html
In a 1997 response to a request from the Irish National Minimum Wage Commission, economists for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) summarized economic research results on the minimum wage: “If the wage floor set by statutory minimum wages is too high, this may have detrimental effects on employment, especially among young people.”[4] This agreement over the general effect of minimum wages is long-standing. According to a 1978 article in American Economic Review, 90 percent of the economists surveyed agreed that the minimum wage increases unemployment among low-skilled workers.[5]



4. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Submission to the Irish National Minimum Wage Commission, Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers no. 28, 1997, p. 15.


5. Kearl, J. R., et al., “A Confusion of Economists?” American Economic Review 69 (1979): 28–37.

wsj - venezuela - age-old socialist story - market failure and food scarcity

OPINION (Otto Reich) February 11, 2013, 7:11 p.m. ET


.In Venezuela, Plenty of Oil, Not Enough Food

It's the old story: Socialist government interferes with the marketplace, and the result is scarcity..   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324590904578293790195650224.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

pjmedia - tragedy of welfare state

wapo - thiessen - biden on bin laden mission

Let’s see if in Thursday’s vice presidential debate, Biden dares to repeat his now famous line, “GM is alive, and Bin Laden is dead.” If he does, Ryan can simply answer, “Bin Laden wouldn’t be dead if you had your way, Joe.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-bidens-bin-laden-hypocrisy/2012/10/08/990aca7c-114d-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html?wprss=rss_opinions