1) Is This the Greatest Corporate Welfare Scam in American History?
This headline in the WSJ just made us sick to our stomachs.
$10 billion!! To one company. Ninety percent of its profits – to the extent there are any – come from taxpayer handouts.
We’d like it much better if the executives at First Solar had to knock on doors with tin cups in hand begging for money. We'd all slam the door in their faces.
No president in American history has passed out more corporate welfare checks than Joe Biden. Not even Obama. By the way: $10 billion is TWENTY times more money than Solyndra received from Uncle Sam. Solyndra’s bankruptcy looks like a bargain today.
Let’s hope First Solar goes bankrupt quickly so we don’t spend decades padding their pockets to produce electric power that is multiple times more expensive than coal or natural gas.
2) Why Does ANYONE Listen to Credit Rating Agencies?
There are no more incompetent financial institutions in America today than credit rating agencies. These were the goofballs who gave AAA ratings to mortgage-backed securities on the eve of the catastrophic real estate collapse of 2008. These were the agencies that were pleading to Republicans in Congress to pass a "clean" debt ceiling bill and just let the debt climb automatically by another $10 trillion over the next decade.
These are agencies that almost always downgrade bonds of states and national governments when the politicians cut taxes and reward them for raising taxes.
So now out of the blue, Fitch, has gained headlines by downgrading US Treasury securities to AA from AAA.
Why? First Fitch claims that there has been an "erosion of governance," meaning too many debt limit standoffs and last-minute resolutions. That’s a stab at Republicans for insisting on a debt deal that would at least partially reduce the debt burden of the future. Why is this a bad thing?
Then they add:
Medium-term Fiscal Challenges Unaddressed: Over the next decade, higher interest rates and the rising debt stock will increase the interest service burden, while an aging population and rising healthcare costs will raise spending on the elderly absent fiscal policy reforms. The CBO projects that interest costs will double by 2033 to 3.6% of GDP. The CBO projects that the Social Security fund will be depleted by 2033 and the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (used to pay for benefits under Medicare Part A) will be depleted by 2035 under current laws, posing additional challenges for the fiscal trajectory unless timely corrective measures are implemented.
These are all truisms, but Fitch is just discovering this NOW?? Where have they been for the last 20 years?
There is no one who has been more critical than we have at CTUP for the financial recklessness of Biden - who has spent $6 trillion over the baseline in the last three years.
But the idea that the United States government will default on its debt is even less likely than Joe Biden winning the Boston Marathon.
If US Treasuries are downgraded to AA then what, pray tell, is a AAA security? A Eurobond?
If US Treasury securities are so risky, then why is it that when a crisis hits everyone in the world rushes to buy them? There’s a reason US Treasuries are the first flight to safety. The full faith and credit of the United States government stands behind our bonds. Period.
It’s been a miserable year for Bud Light. The backlash against its absurd woke marketing campaigns has dethroned its status as America's No. 1 beer in favor of the Mexican brand Modelo. More than $20 billion in market cap has been wiped away. Now parent company Anheuser-Busch is laying off 350 employees.
But two firms have reached out to help laid-off Bud workers by finding them jobs in their “network of non-woke businesses.”
RedBalloon, an online job board, and Public Square have sent out a public letter telling Bud workers they will help get their resumes to firms that will not jeopardize their livelihoods by advancing woke ideologies.
“We want to help workers find jobs with companies that value hard-working Americans. The hundreds of employees laid off by Bud Light paid for the poor, woke business decision-making, while the C-suite remains untouched,” RedBalloon’s Isaac Lopez says.
RedBalloon requires that any employer in its database sign a pledge that says it will “not discriminate against my company’s employees’ personal beliefs, nor infringe on their constitutional rights, nor invade their medical privacy.”
4) Britain Continues Its Retreat From Energy Insanity
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has finally woken up to the need for jolting Britain’s economy into action. Just this week, the London Times noted that Poland has grown so rapidly that in six years its people are on track to earn more than Britons. Poles richer than Brits? Time to panic.
Sunak has decided to turn back on the spigots of energy production. He just announced hundreds of new oil and gas drilling permits in an effort to make Britain more energy independent and bring down the current high gas prices. The opposition Labor Party wants to ban new oil and gas licenses, setting up a real debate for next year’s election.
Sunak says his new plan will create jobs, shield people from big cost swings and allow Britain not to rely on foreign dictators for energy. He insists he still supports a plan to go to Net Zero carbon emissions in 2050, but at the same time has also signaled a delay in the planned 2030 ban on new fossil-fuel-powered cars.
“As we transition to Net Zero, it makes no sense not to use the resources that we have got here at home.”
Hey, we have a crazy idea. Why not do that here in America?
5) Free Markets REDUCE Income Inequality and Pollution Levels
Most leftists have by now conceded the indisputable fact that free markets create the most wealth and highest living standards. But the retort of the socialists is that more government intervention will reduce inequality and will produce a cleaner environment.
One of our favorite publications is the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom and the 2023 version proves statistically that economic freedom leads to better environmental outcomes and more equality of incomes. There is no trade-off. Free markets create a better environment, better health outcomes, and more equality.
