Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Portland Sucks
The May primary elections had a hand full of measures on the ballot for Portlanders. Once again, the People's Republic of Portland decided to keep feeding the libraries and to help rebuild a crumbling school system.
David Douglas School District needs some improvements, but instead of managing a tight budget they just take the easy way out and tax property owners. The politicians in Portland know they can play the sympathy card and claim its "for the children". Oh, yeah, we have to make sure to give the teachers their raises as well. We all know how much they deserve it. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/05/david_douglas_school_district_2.html
The Multnomah County Libraries will be kept on life support as well. We need to make sure that all the pan handlers have a place to access the internet in order to get the required paperwork for their food stamp cards. I swear, every time I've ever entered the county libraries in the last ten years it has been a surplus of lower income people waiting to use the internet. As we see paper books becoming obsolete and being replaced by blogs and kindles, of course it is the government that takes its time catching up to speed. Just like the outdated post office.http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/05/multnomah_county_library_measu.html
I wonder how many voters who voted to tax property owners actually own property? The economy has some dependence on the housing market. These measures will depress the potential for growth.
Side note: Homeless people in Portland are not hungry. With 39 places in the city that serve 24 hr food to homeless, Portland has become a safe haven for them. We are actually seeing an obesity problem among homeless. This news came to me from a homeless shelter manager.
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Oh, I hadn't seen that the library tax passed. Well, we Multnomah County-ites love our taxes.
ReplyDeleteI think giving bums access to internet is just about the only real purpose for libraries any more.
The good news is your good buddy, who may be the most fiscally responsible candidate for mayor (not saying much), is still in the running.
Where there is a constituency composed of people that are getting free stuff from the government there will always be a demand from these people for bigger government and will fight for their "right" to suck at the government teat.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-how-us-dollar-will-be-replaced
ReplyDelete"There is only one factor that shields the dollar from implosion, and that is its position as the world reserve currency. Without this exalted status, the currency’s value vanishes. Backed by nothing but massive and unpayable debt, it sits frighteningly idle, like a time bomb, waiting for the moment of ignition.
The horrifying nature of the dollar is that it is only valuable so long as foreign investors believe that we will pay back the considerable debts that we (the American taxpayer at the behest of our criminally run Treasury) owe, and that we will not hyperinflate in the process. If they EVER begin to see their purchases of dollars and treasuries as a gamble instead of an investment, the façade falls away. Yet again this year Congress and the Executive Branch are “at odds” over the expansion of the debt ceiling, which has been raised to levels beyond the 100% of GDP mark:"
"To those people who consistently claim that the dollar will never be dropped, my response is, it already has been dropped! China, in tandem with other BRIC nations, has been covertly removing the greenback as the primary trade unit through bilateral deals since 2010. First with Russia, and now with the whole of the ASEAN trading bloc and numerous other markets, including Japan. China in particular has been preparing for this eventuality since 2005, when they introduced the first Yuan denominated bonds. The bonds were considered a strange novelty back then, especially because China had so much surplus savings that it seemed outlandish for them to take on treasury debt. Today, the move makes a whole lot more sense. China and the BRIC nations today openly call for a worldwide shift away from the dollar:"
"My next favorite argument in defense of the Greenback is the assertion that there is “no currency in a position to take the dollar’s place if it falls”.[...]Though, to be fair, and to educate those unaware, there IS a replacement already conveniently ready to roll forward. The IMF has for a couple of years now openly called for the retirement of the dollar as the world reserve currency, to be supplanted by the elitist organization’s very own “Special Drawing Rights” (SDR’s):"
"At bottom, men who promote the philosophies of globalization greatly desire the exaltation of a global currency. The dollar, though a creation of a central bank, is still a semi-sovereign monetary unit. It is an element that is getting in the way of the application of the global currency dynamic. I find it rather convenient (at least for those who subscribe too globalism) that the dollar is now in the midst of a perfect storm of decline just as the IMF is ready to introduce its latest fiat concoction in the form of the SDR. I find the blind faith in the dollar’s lifespan to be rife with delusion. It is not a matter of opinion or desire, but a matter of fact that currencies in such tenuous positions fall, and are in the end replaced. I believe that the evidence shows that this is not random chance, but a deliberate process, leading towards the globalist ideal; total centralization of the world under an unaccountable governing body which operates a global monetary system utterly devoid of transparency and responsibility."
Looks like the IMF is living up to its intellectual founding father's goal of becoming a world central bank issuing a global currency.