Real numbers are the sacred language of a win-win economy. They allow us to quantify, measure, and compare everything from time to the price of tomatoes.
Speaking of numbers I've seen that the ratio of the salaries of CEOs to the average worker has gone from 20-1 in 1970 to 350-1 in 2024. Have the CEOs improved their abilities to run companies 18x since 1970?
I had a summer job at a chemical plant in Philadelphia in 1974 - a few of my coworkers were guys in their 30s making around $10 an hour with their wives at home raising children. They could afford a decent life on one paycheck. Perhaps if the ratio of CEO-worker pay had stayed the same we'd be in a better place.
Me too, just a few years later than you, we were a family of four, one paycheck, wife at home. Yet over night in the mid-80’s something changed. Suddenly, the one paycheck didn’t go as far. I wonder what happened; “heem.” And another thing, my divorced mom, raised three boys in the 60’s, worked for several years at low-paying jobs, no welfare, no public assistance, no food stamps. She didn’t ask for help, didn’t demonstrate, rarely complained. She was hardworking, self-reliant, slowly developed a career. We weren’t poor. If we needed something, we worked at whatever jobs we could find, selling spudnuts door to door, pulling weeds, stuff like that.
Yup. The numbers I saw during my working career were 30-1 to 300-1. Pretty similar. And that’s why trickle-down isn’t working anymore. The big guys weren’t happy just being wealthy. Suddenly they needed to be WEALTHY. And most of them aren’t worth it. In most cases if one died, there’d be another in his place within a week, just as greedy and just as worthless.
There’s a lot more to it but it’s likely not worth the time to type.
"compare everything from time to the price of tomatoes"
Unfortunately (and this is NOT the fault of Mr. Bonner) there is nothing to which to compare. Most of what passes for tomatoes these days is not worth any price, not even a nickel. My tomatoes are coming along nicely. I grow three kinds: miniature, sauce type, and slicing/eating type. I learned the love of tomatoes from my Grandmother Essie. I can still see her in her pedal pushers and hair tied up in a bandana, on her knees, staking, weeding, watering, and lovingly tending the vines. I get real tomatoes for maybe 2 months out of the year, and they are priceless. We process what we can't eat, and then grit our teeth for the next 10 months. Best always. PM
As a kid aged 10 I dug up a couple of garden beds in the backyard, bought tomato seeds from the corner shop and planted them. Not that scientifically. In a cold part of Australia they had to be covered at night in Spring to spare them from late frosts.
Picked a bit early ( green to starting to ripen, onto the ‘ conveyor belt ‘ kitchen window sill. Warmest part of the house.
They were that beautiful taste of sweetness with traces of sour and tang.
I wondered why they tasted so much better than ‘shop’ tomatoes’
Thanks for the time warp Paul.
At the same time the Remembrance Day March and Service ( Anzac Day) with returned soldiers and service people from WW 1 and WW. 2 - and the Korean War . Just before Vietnam.
All from the memory of the taste of a home grown tomato .
And , as before, newer War Lords arming to the teeth but assuring everyone of peace and righteous intention. Regards.
Gomer Pyle would say, Surprise, Surprise, Surprise..more of the same sham, different day, different guy bringing the smoke and mirrors just slowing the trip to the train station (per Yellowstone). What a damn shame and I voted for this. Shame on me for thinking Washington DC can change.
In business you may add more people to increase productivity and stimulate growth,but at the same time you must remove people who are not producing and don’t fit your business plan. Something the government rarely does with people or failed programs.😎
I am tired of hearing, incessantly, that government is the problem.
PEOPLE ARE THE PROBLEM!
The government of the United States was created as our government, BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE.
It was stolen by a few evil people whom work for “THE FATHER OF ALL LIES.”
They are liars, they cook the numbers, they cook everything and when they die they will be cooked.
We, Americans are stupid, we believe the lies.
“The truth shall set you free.”
Christ is the way and the truth, anything that deviates from the word of God is a lie. “If you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.
We live in the age of illusion, reality has seemed to be regulated to the ash heap. Realty, no matter the lies or self deception, does not get altered; it bites you in the ass long term. Most of us don’t have long term, we are a passing fragility.
God is real, Christ is real, and probably hell is real. Judgement is a sublime concept and it will occur. We will answer for the greed and suffering, the acclaimed “Shock and Awe.”
Our government has been stolen, we must get it back! We must recognize and defeat the vile people.
Mr. Narutowicz, So true. And I might add that financial illiteracy is also a major problem in the U.S. So many Americans have bought into this debt-for-jobs fantasy that has been going on in the 21st Century. Billionaire Bill wants to slash the debt, fully aware that do so in a short amount of time would lead to cutting tens of millions of middle-class jobs. And thus the GOP would be wiped out in 2026 & 2028 by a depression. But Billionaire Bill, his family, and friends (like most of his affluent readers) would be able to easily survive it. My wife and I could survive it, but we don't want to see this kind of suffering during a terrible transition period. And the backlash would put the lunatic left right back in to reopen the borders, immediately reverse the debt reduction, and greatly increase it, while pushing nonsense like transgenderism and unelected judicial activism to new heights.
For example, the Pentagon's $1T in annual borrowing & spending does not go just to the top folks. Yes, they skim many billions off the top. But the lion's share (at least 90%) goes to contracted employees and sub-contracted employees. Estimates I've seen are anywhere from 10M to 20M good-paying jobs with good benefits. Just like slashing Medicaid and Medicare spending, which if done, would result in many more millions of good-paying jobs disappearing among physicians, NPs, nurses, medical techs, health admin.'s, etc.
So realistically, cuts have to be done GRADUALLY over a lengthy period. And it is the fault of the folks for allowing this debt-for-jobs business to get out of hand this century. As long as the Fed could swoop in and keep jobs propped up, most folks were just fine with it because of their staggering ignorance of how a modern economy works. (And by the way, Argentina Pres. Milei has had to slow down his cutting because of lost jobs and a transitory increase to the cost of living. So he is facing a harsh political reality as well. I do like that he is trying to still hang in there and do some cutting, but more gradually. He is facing political reality, so I am still an admirer. But the belief that he is still taking a chainsaw to everything is just not true.)
Interestingly, the Republicans argued, bickered, and argued some more. But they came together to get something done. That’s how a (Republic) Democracy works. The Founding Fathers did the same thing. I’m commenting on the process, not the resulting bill. We will see the results of this bill over the next several years.
I expect most of it will be good.
The Democrats simply line up like lemmings and March off the cliff.
Look, your Founding Fathers didn’t sit around braiding each other’s hair. They argued like nobody’s business—power, rights, the works. But those weren’t just pub brawls; they were hammering out a government that could survive all the squabbling. That’s why you’ve got checks and balances: to stop any one crew from bulldozing the rest. Fast forward to today, and what’s the deal? A system less about real debate and more about stacking the deck for the big shots. Both your parties are in on it, and the average Joe’s getting hosed.
Your Republicans love their public dust-ups. They’ll bicker over budgets or tax cuts like it’s a reality show. Sure, that can churn out better ideas, but let’s not kid ourselves—most of it’s for the cameras. The real deals go down behind closed doors, where donors and corporate lobbyists call the shots. OpenSecrets says lobbying hit $4.2 billion in 2024. That kind of cash doesn’t buy silence—it buys votes. Democrats, on the other hand, get roasted for moving in lockstep like robots. It’s not quite that tidy—they slug it out privately, then roll out looking unified. It’s party discipline, not a cult. Less chaos, more efficient, but it can feel like they’re hiding the sausage-making.
Here’s the real problem: both your teams are racing toward a financial cliff. Your national debt’s at $36 trillion, 130% of GDP, with interest payments on track to hit $1 trillion a year by 2030, according to the CBO. Every year, you pile on more—tax cuts, defense budgets over $800 billion, social programs, the lot. That 2017 tax cut? Added $1.9 trillion to the deficit. Recent spending bills? Trillions more. Republicans whine about “entitlements” but clutch their tax breaks; Democrats gripe about corporate greed but push big-ticket plans. Nobody’s serious about fixing it—just finger-pointing and hoping the crash doesn’t hit their term.
Forget cheering the process, whether it’s messy or polished. Focus on what it delivers.
𝗪𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻? Same old crowd: your wealthy households, big corporations, defense contractors. The 2017 tax cuts handed high earners $20,000 on average, says the Tax Policy Center. Corporate rates dropped to 21%, fattening profits. Lockheed Martin and Boeing pocket billions from deals like the $428 billion F-35 program. Subsidies for oil and agribusiness? $20 billion a year, mostly to giants, per the USDA. Regular folks get scraps—temporary credits with more fine print than a phone contract.
𝗪𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹? The usual: your middle-class taxpayers and small businesses, coughing up 30% of income taxes, per the IRS, while corporations skate with loopholes (Apple’s effective rate: ~15%). Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP—$150 billion proposed over a decade, per the CBO—shove costs onto families, hospitals, and states already stretched thin. Your kids and grandkids? They’re on the hook for today’s borrowing spree.
𝗪𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗴? Everybody, but especially your students, retirees, workers, and sick. If interest rates spike (Fed’s at ~5% now) or faith in your debt tanks, you’re looking at higher taxes, gutted services, or a market crash. Social Security’s trust fund dries up by 2035, per the SSA. Students are choking on $30,000 average loan debt. The elite? They’ve got tax havens and offshore accounts. The rest of you get the wreckage.
This isn’t a bug in your system—it’s the feature. The numbers don’t lie: $2 trillion deficits yearly through 2035, unchecked lobbying, policies rigged for the top dogs. Without a serious shake-up—fixing entitlements, cleaning up taxes, capping spending, and kicking donors to the curb—you’re on a collision course. Your politicians know it but keep playing the game. Stop clapping for the circus and demand a system that doesn’t fleece the many to fatten the few.
Nope, it’s not enough that the administration is purposely and right in front of our eyes doing the exact opposite of the peace and prosperity (MAGA) agenda it promised, but it wants to redefine our entire language a la “Animal Farm”, “1984” and post-WWII Soviet Union to make its war/poverty agenda acceptable. This cannot end well.
I don't know, the Israelis and Iranians aren't shooting rockets and dropping bombs on each other and Hamas is at the negotiation table with Israel. We didn't put a single soldier in harms way except for a few flight crews that all returned without a scratch.
The economic numbers are coming in stronger than forecasted and the BBB will put more money into the working middle class' pockets. All this sounds a lot like what was promised. There would be a lot more progress on his promises if a bunch of lawyers in black robes would follow the law and Constitution and stop throwing banana peels in the Administration's path. That's something you would have a legitimate complaint about.
What right does the U.S.—or any nation, for that matter—have to drop bombs on another country? Are we really living in "𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁" territory now, punishing nations for what they *might* do?
Back in 2001, the U.S. was already spending over $𝟯𝟬𝟬 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 annually on its military—with no active war at the time. But peace doesn’t pay defense contractors, so the Military-Industrial Complex made sure that didn’t last. Fast-forward 24 years: Trump isn't scaling any of that back—he's feeding it. And we’re not just watching a buildup of arms; we’re watching the emergence of an Orwellian state, where endless war justifies everything from surveillance to censorship to the slow erasure of truth. 𝟭𝟵𝟴𝟰 isn’t fiction anymore—it’s strategy.
He’s not removing red tape—he’s constructing a bureaucratic prison for 350 million people. Border walls, economic restrictions, and loyalty tests disguised as policy. It's not “America First”—it’s 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. Just like in Huxley’s "𝗕𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱", where the population is kept compliant not by fear, but by distraction and comfort. Numbed by spectacle. Hypnotized by consumerism. Sound familiar?
The rot didn’t start with Trump. It stretches all the way back to Kennedy. Each administration promised change, and each one simply rotated the faces at the table. Just like in Orwell’s "𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗮𝗿𝗺", where the pigs who led the revolution eventually became indistinguishable from the humans they replaced. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"—except now, he tweets.
Trump lied his way into power, baiting people like Musk with libertarian promises while continuing to fuel the same centralized machine he pretended to oppose. Without their support, he'd be back in courtrooms trying to sneak through the side door of power. Jail would be too kind—though let’s be honest, he’s not even in charge. He’s a mouthpiece. A pawn. The real architects—call them MIT, Wall Street, defense contractors, or technocrats—pull the strings. They’ve simply found a better frontman. As Machiavelli wrote in "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲," rulers don’t need to be good—only appear good. And as long as the crowd sees a strongman on stage, they rarely bother to ask who’s writing the script.
And that’s the true crisis. As Hayek warned in "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗱𝗼𝗺", centralized control doesn't lead to utopia—it leads to tyranny, disguised as order. We’ve got no one left in Washington willing to push back. No one in MIT with the backbone to say, “𝙀𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝.” No one willing to bite the hand that feeds. And now? We're looking to Elon Musk and some theoretical “new party” as our last hope? That’s not a solution—it’s a symptom. A sign of how far we’ve fallen.
Even "𝗔𝘁𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗱" predicted this: the innovators walking away, the competent crushed under the weight of parasites, and the bureaucrats feeding off a system they can’t even operate. But maybe Hoffer said it best in "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿"—people don’t want freedom anymore. They want a cause. A flag. A leader to follow so they don’t have to think. That’s how mass movements rise. That’s how empires fall.
Though I really like your reading list (particularly Orwell and Rand), your analysis is shallow. The Trump administration is trying to decentralize power. Unfortunately, the judicial branch isn't having it. Attempting to eliminate the Department of Education and sending control of public education back to the states, county and municipal governments is just one example. Rolling back federal regulations, and more importantly, eliminating the bureaucrats that enforce them is another example.
Trump didn't lie his way into anything. He is playing the hand he's been dealt and making slow, but sure progress. Until the Marxists/Leftists that dress themselves up as Democrats are defeated and powerless it's going to take time to right the ship. Patience will be key. The corruption and decay didn't happen overnight, and they aren't going to be rooted out in one presidential term. As Dan Bongino famously said, "Republicans aren't the solution to all of our problems but Democrats are the root cause of all our problems."
Ah, I see we’ve entered the “Trump is the reluctant hero fighting the Deep State with a broken lightsaber” chapter of the fantasy novel. Love the imagination—shame about the facts.
Let’s start where I started: bombs.
You remember that opening line, right? “What right does the U.S.—or any nation—have to drop bombs on another country?”
Kind of a big deal. Preemptive violence? Sovereignty violations? Civilian deaths?
Yet you completely skipped it. Not even a “yeah, that’s troubling, but…”
Instead, you went straight to the Department of Education like it’s some kind of villainous cabal. Relax, it’s not the Illuminati—it just tries to teach kids how to read.
Next up: the myth of “decentralization.”
Trump talked about draining the swamp. But then he hired Wall Street lifeguards to supervise it.
He said he’d reduce spending.
He increased it.
He said he’d end the wars.
He escalated drone strikes—and just for fun, bumped the Pentagon budget by $100 billion.
You know, the same Pentagon that hasn’t passed an audit since audits were invented?
Call me crazy, but that doesn't sound like decentralization. That sounds like adding more floors to the prison.
And then there’s your grand finale:
> “Democrats are the root cause of all our problems.”
Right. Because Mitch McConnell, Lockheed Martin, Exxon, and Zuckerberg are clearly sipping matcha in Portland with AOC and planning the downfall of America.
Let’s be honest: if you really think all of America’s problems are caused by Democrats, you’ve stopped thinking and started chanting. You’re not a citizen—you’re a fanboy. Wearing the jersey, waving the foam finger, and yelling “Go team!” while Rome burns.
Here’s the thing:
The system is broken.
Not just blue. Not just red.
It’s rigged, bought, and designed to distract you with team sports while both sides shovel cash to the war machine, the surveillance state, and corporate donors.
But hey, keep quoting Dan Bongino like he’s Aristotle. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be over here, asking why the richest nation in history still thinks blowing up brown people is a viable foreign policy.
And yes—Trump lied.
He lied about the deficit.
He lied about ending wars.
He lied about draining the swamp.
Hell, he even lied about having a health care plan “in two weeks.”
Two weeks later? Golf. Two years later? Still no plan.
So no, I won’t be holding my breath while he “slowly fixes things.”
Because last time I checked, you don’t fix a burning house by pouring gasoline on it and blaming the thermostat.
Sigh . . . forgive me if I don't buy into your very narrow minded/naive view of the world. The better question is why would we sit idly by while Iran is enriching uranium way beyond any peaceful purpose? There was no other reason for them to have the facilities, equipment and materiel other than to build a bomb. And please, don't lecture us about other nations having nuclear weapons. Those countries are deterred by mutual mass destruction. The mullahs in Iran aspire only to their 72 virgins, the extermination of Israel, and then the U.S.
The system is broken? No sh!t, and the only guy trying to make a dent in solving the problems you want to sharp shoot and ridicule. He had a plan for healthcare, apparently you have a short memory and forgot that John McCain torpedoed it.
And that whole "brown people" shtick you are so fond of, Americans aren't buying it anymore. That's why more black, brown, yellow, green, and purple (sarcasm) people voted for a Republican than they have in many decades or in some cases ever. You remind me a lot of our editor, long on identifying problems and real short on specifying solutions. It's very easy to say, "cut spending!" . . . "balance the budget!" . . . "No more wars!". They're nice bumper sticker slogans, but the real world is real complicated. If you think things would be better with Heels Up Harris in charge I've got some beachfront property in Nevada I'll sell you at a great price.
Sigh... Forgive me if I don’t buy into your very retro view of global politics—complete with Cold War clichés and Saturday morning cartoon villains.
Let’s start with Iran.
Yes, they’re enriching uranium.
Yes, they’re antagonistic.
But here’s a better question: Why wouldn’t they want a nuke?
Ask Ukraine what happens when you don’t have one.
They gave up their nukes in exchange for a promise from the U.S., U.K., and Russia that they’d be protected.
Fast forward: They’re being carved up like a roast while everyone sends “thoughts and prayers” and ammo.
North Korea? Starving population. 50s-era tech. But still standing.
Why? Nukes.
You don’t mess with someone who can melt your capital city in 30 minutes.
It’s not “naïve” to recognize that nuclear weapons are a deterrent—it’s literally why they were built.
And then there’s your “72 virgins” line.
That hasn’t been edgy since 2004.
You might want to retire that one—somewhere between “freedom fries” and “Mission Accomplished.”
Now, about Trump:
Yes, the system’s broken.
No, Trump isn’t fixing it—he’s monetizing it.
Trump NFTs?
$399 gold sneakers?
Dinner auctions with corporate donors and convicted cronies? That’s not leadership. That’s a garage sale with Secret Service.
Let’s not pretend he was some anti-establishment warrior. He raised the defense budget by $100B, expanded drone warfare, and signed off on trillions in corporate tax cuts without closing a single loophole.
That’s not draining the swamp—that’s pumping in fresh alligators.
And please, spare me the “he had a health care plan” myth. Yes, McCain gave the final thumbs-down. But here’s the part you skipped:
There was no actual plan.
Trump kept promising a “beautiful” replacement—but never revealed it.
You can’t torpedo a ghost ship.
As for voters of all colors turning to the GOP? Sure. Some did. Many because they’re disillusioned with both parties. That’s not a mandate—it’s a rejection letter.
The U.S. doesn’t need more red vs. blue rage—it needs a third party that isn’t owned by defense contractors, Wall Street, or geriatric billionaires.
Maybe Elon builds that. Or maybe he just builds more flamethrowers. Either way, it’s looking better than “Team Blue vs. Team Red” endlessly blaming each other while Rome burns and Raytheon profits.
So yeah, the real world is complicated.
Which is exactly why we shouldn’t keep electing guys who think it's a reality show.
Oh, shame on me. I should feel much better about our starving 2 million people to death, blowing up children’s cell phones and disabling them (the children), bombing a city the size of Los Angeles, leveling Iraq and North Korea, experimenting nuclear weapons on a country attempting to surrender, etc, etc, etc, since I was able to fill my pockets! After all, my Western “VALUES” (haha) allow me to level the playing field by merely being going to church and asking for forgiveness! If 22 God-fearing ‘mericans have asked forgiveness for the 22,000,000 human lives our sick “values” (the actual “Holy” Judeo-Christian “values”) have caused to be extinguished since WWII, it would be a surprise. Incidentally, Chinese don’t have this easy “out” due to their adherence to karma and the forever fortunate failure of the Catholic Church to convince the emperor to convert a few centuries ago. These basic beliefs explain, I believe, how and why China has “only” invaded ONE country since WWII (Vietnam for 16 days in 1979) resulting in a handful of deaths vs. 22M slaughtered by us True Believers! A whole new level of claptrap.
Peter Schiff ....92% of the 147K jobs supposedly created in June were in government, health care, or social services. Manufacturing continued to lose jobs. These non-productive jobs raise our trade deficits, and lead to more government debt and higher inflation. Investors won't be fooled forever.
BB is quite correct about the sketchiness of "official measures", whether publicly or privately generated and reported. Several decades of grappling with the gnarly data we generated internally and purchased elsewhere to develop our insurance risk and pricing models convinced me of the low precision and limited reliability of "economic data" whatever the source, even if the providers are doing their best to deliver "clean numbers". When there are political or commercial incentives to skew the numbers, all bets are off, given human nature. The Old and New Testimonies are replete with warnings and complaints about "honest" vs "dishonest" weights used in trade, so this is not a new problem. Modern technology has simply elaborated the ways "crooked measures" can be developed and applied (e.g. MMT).
And the problem of using such data even extends to what BB refers to as "real numbers". At least part of the reason for the Wright Brothers' success in producing a working heavier-than-air flying machine was the pains they took to replicate the reports of other investigators pursuing the same goal, finding that many could NOT be replicated, and relying on their own measures and determinations of what needed to be measured in order to develop the eventually successful prototypes.
Reagan was an actor, some years big money, some years nothing. He hated the tax laws. He changed them; lowered the top rate for the rich. What was in the 90 percentile became 30.
I took an H&R Block tax course in those days, 1980.
Everyone complained about taxes, mostly the rich.
Actually, the tax laws were a thing of beauty, they made you earn money the old fashion way, “You had to earn it” by building something, hiring people, making a company grow. You couldn’t just give yourself an exorbitant salary .
Then they started buying companies with cash and value and dissipating them with the salaries they paid themselves.
Remember the Savings and Loan crisis, they stole all the money.
They wrecked insurance, stole all the escrow accounts, made it reinsurance, a Ponzi Scheme.
Reagan, Saintly, Reagan and Republicans made greed legal; it’s one of the deadly sins; it destroyed everything.
How can you put Humpty Dumpty back together again?
You can’t; not only is government ludicrous what is left of the American economy is controlled by gangsters, corporations that have destroyed everything good.
You have the MICC, the medical complex, the educational complex.
Americans are immoral bastards living large, those that engineered the suffering catastrophe, on the backs of “The least among us.”
Bill, it seems that your use of the word "Feds" in relation to some of california's problems is appropriate but the vast majority of their problems are the result of liberal, elitest and their democratic party leadership. We are all aware of politicians shortcomings (irregardless of party affiliation). But, when those three groups gain power and/or "big" money they can't just enjoy their wealth and live their own lives. No, they want to make the middle class and poor live according to their whims and rules, common sense be damned. Happy July 4th, youngsters.
I read it as just referring to a prior review of California craziness and saying that similar craziness is found in Federal Gov spending projects, perhaps not AS crazy, but similar enough.
"GDP measures activity...not improvement, not betterment, not an increase in wealth. .......... Government spending (including state and local) is around 30% of GDP."
Perhaps the most striking historical example of this point was Mao's "GREAT LEAP FORWARD", in which his utopian enforced "rapid industrialization".
In summary, the Great Leap Forward was launched as an ambitious attempt to force rapid modernization through collectivization and mass mobilization but resulted in economic collapse, widespread famine, and millions of deaths, profoundly shaping China’s subsequent political and economic trajectory.
I hope someone reads this: I. Paid for wine from your organization in January or February and again in June 2025. I have not received either shipment. I do not know if out was shipped to the wrong address or not shipped period. I have tried email the email account but no result the mail isn’t received. I would appreciate a phone call, text, or email. I most definitely want to an answer from or a refund. Gary Sherlock: phone660-582-1431. Address 2327 Parkdale Road Maryville Missouri 64468. Shipping address 2336 South Main Maryville, M0. 64468.
Speaking of numbers I've seen that the ratio of the salaries of CEOs to the average worker has gone from 20-1 in 1970 to 350-1 in 2024. Have the CEOs improved their abilities to run companies 18x since 1970?
I had a summer job at a chemical plant in Philadelphia in 1974 - a few of my coworkers were guys in their 30s making around $10 an hour with their wives at home raising children. They could afford a decent life on one paycheck. Perhaps if the ratio of CEO-worker pay had stayed the same we'd be in a better place.
Me too, just a few years later than you, we were a family of four, one paycheck, wife at home. Yet over night in the mid-80’s something changed. Suddenly, the one paycheck didn’t go as far. I wonder what happened; “heem.” And another thing, my divorced mom, raised three boys in the 60’s, worked for several years at low-paying jobs, no welfare, no public assistance, no food stamps. She didn’t ask for help, didn’t demonstrate, rarely complained. She was hardworking, self-reliant, slowly developed a career. We weren’t poor. If we needed something, we worked at whatever jobs we could find, selling spudnuts door to door, pulling weeds, stuff like that.
Yup. The numbers I saw during my working career were 30-1 to 300-1. Pretty similar. And that’s why trickle-down isn’t working anymore. The big guys weren’t happy just being wealthy. Suddenly they needed to be WEALTHY. And most of them aren’t worth it. In most cases if one died, there’d be another in his place within a week, just as greedy and just as worthless.
There’s a lot more to it but it’s likely not worth the time to type.
Have a great day.
"compare everything from time to the price of tomatoes"
Unfortunately (and this is NOT the fault of Mr. Bonner) there is nothing to which to compare. Most of what passes for tomatoes these days is not worth any price, not even a nickel. My tomatoes are coming along nicely. I grow three kinds: miniature, sauce type, and slicing/eating type. I learned the love of tomatoes from my Grandmother Essie. I can still see her in her pedal pushers and hair tied up in a bandana, on her knees, staking, weeding, watering, and lovingly tending the vines. I get real tomatoes for maybe 2 months out of the year, and they are priceless. We process what we can't eat, and then grit our teeth for the next 10 months. Best always. PM
As a kid aged 10 I dug up a couple of garden beds in the backyard, bought tomato seeds from the corner shop and planted them. Not that scientifically. In a cold part of Australia they had to be covered at night in Spring to spare them from late frosts.
Picked a bit early ( green to starting to ripen, onto the ‘ conveyor belt ‘ kitchen window sill. Warmest part of the house.
They were that beautiful taste of sweetness with traces of sour and tang.
I wondered why they tasted so much better than ‘shop’ tomatoes’
Thanks for the time warp Paul.
At the same time the Remembrance Day March and Service ( Anzac Day) with returned soldiers and service people from WW 1 and WW. 2 - and the Korean War . Just before Vietnam.
All from the memory of the taste of a home grown tomato .
And , as before, newer War Lords arming to the teeth but assuring everyone of peace and righteous intention. Regards.
Thanks for sharing. Best always. PM
Gomer Pyle would say, Surprise, Surprise, Surprise..more of the same sham, different day, different guy bringing the smoke and mirrors just slowing the trip to the train station (per Yellowstone). What a damn shame and I voted for this. Shame on me for thinking Washington DC can change.
Not your fault. He "seemed" like the better of two evils. The same thing most voters are faced with around the world.
Except (so far), in Argentina.
In business you may add more people to increase productivity and stimulate growth,but at the same time you must remove people who are not producing and don’t fit your business plan. Something the government rarely does with people or failed programs.😎
I am tired of hearing, incessantly, that government is the problem.
PEOPLE ARE THE PROBLEM!
The government of the United States was created as our government, BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE.
It was stolen by a few evil people whom work for “THE FATHER OF ALL LIES.”
They are liars, they cook the numbers, they cook everything and when they die they will be cooked.
We, Americans are stupid, we believe the lies.
“The truth shall set you free.”
Christ is the way and the truth, anything that deviates from the word of God is a lie. “If you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.
We live in the age of illusion, reality has seemed to be regulated to the ash heap. Realty, no matter the lies or self deception, does not get altered; it bites you in the ass long term. Most of us don’t have long term, we are a passing fragility.
God is real, Christ is real, and probably hell is real. Judgement is a sublime concept and it will occur. We will answer for the greed and suffering, the acclaimed “Shock and Awe.”
Our government has been stolen, we must get it back! We must recognize and defeat the vile people.
Mr. Narutowicz, So true. And I might add that financial illiteracy is also a major problem in the U.S. So many Americans have bought into this debt-for-jobs fantasy that has been going on in the 21st Century. Billionaire Bill wants to slash the debt, fully aware that do so in a short amount of time would lead to cutting tens of millions of middle-class jobs. And thus the GOP would be wiped out in 2026 & 2028 by a depression. But Billionaire Bill, his family, and friends (like most of his affluent readers) would be able to easily survive it. My wife and I could survive it, but we don't want to see this kind of suffering during a terrible transition period. And the backlash would put the lunatic left right back in to reopen the borders, immediately reverse the debt reduction, and greatly increase it, while pushing nonsense like transgenderism and unelected judicial activism to new heights.
For example, the Pentagon's $1T in annual borrowing & spending does not go just to the top folks. Yes, they skim many billions off the top. But the lion's share (at least 90%) goes to contracted employees and sub-contracted employees. Estimates I've seen are anywhere from 10M to 20M good-paying jobs with good benefits. Just like slashing Medicaid and Medicare spending, which if done, would result in many more millions of good-paying jobs disappearing among physicians, NPs, nurses, medical techs, health admin.'s, etc.
So realistically, cuts have to be done GRADUALLY over a lengthy period. And it is the fault of the folks for allowing this debt-for-jobs business to get out of hand this century. As long as the Fed could swoop in and keep jobs propped up, most folks were just fine with it because of their staggering ignorance of how a modern economy works. (And by the way, Argentina Pres. Milei has had to slow down his cutting because of lost jobs and a transitory increase to the cost of living. So he is facing a harsh political reality as well. I do like that he is trying to still hang in there and do some cutting, but more gradually. He is facing political reality, so I am still an admirer. But the belief that he is still taking a chainsaw to everything is just not true.)
Yea, it’s a complicated spiders web that has caught us all.
I remember a college professor that studied with Keynes, “We can control the business cycle.”
Capitalism has to be many entrepreneurs and when things crash much goes on because it is necessary and in past times 50% of Americans were farmers.
The age of corporations, economy of scale, makes a collapse 1929.
It all needs moral men following “The Invisible Hand”, God.
We need, for the salt and yeast, a spiritual awakening.
Enjoy your point of view.
The bill has passed.
Interestingly, the Republicans argued, bickered, and argued some more. But they came together to get something done. That’s how a (Republic) Democracy works. The Founding Fathers did the same thing. I’m commenting on the process, not the resulting bill. We will see the results of this bill over the next several years.
I expect most of it will be good.
The Democrats simply line up like lemmings and March off the cliff.
Look, your Founding Fathers didn’t sit around braiding each other’s hair. They argued like nobody’s business—power, rights, the works. But those weren’t just pub brawls; they were hammering out a government that could survive all the squabbling. That’s why you’ve got checks and balances: to stop any one crew from bulldozing the rest. Fast forward to today, and what’s the deal? A system less about real debate and more about stacking the deck for the big shots. Both your parties are in on it, and the average Joe’s getting hosed.
Your Republicans love their public dust-ups. They’ll bicker over budgets or tax cuts like it’s a reality show. Sure, that can churn out better ideas, but let’s not kid ourselves—most of it’s for the cameras. The real deals go down behind closed doors, where donors and corporate lobbyists call the shots. OpenSecrets says lobbying hit $4.2 billion in 2024. That kind of cash doesn’t buy silence—it buys votes. Democrats, on the other hand, get roasted for moving in lockstep like robots. It’s not quite that tidy—they slug it out privately, then roll out looking unified. It’s party discipline, not a cult. Less chaos, more efficient, but it can feel like they’re hiding the sausage-making.
Here’s the real problem: both your teams are racing toward a financial cliff. Your national debt’s at $36 trillion, 130% of GDP, with interest payments on track to hit $1 trillion a year by 2030, according to the CBO. Every year, you pile on more—tax cuts, defense budgets over $800 billion, social programs, the lot. That 2017 tax cut? Added $1.9 trillion to the deficit. Recent spending bills? Trillions more. Republicans whine about “entitlements” but clutch their tax breaks; Democrats gripe about corporate greed but push big-ticket plans. Nobody’s serious about fixing it—just finger-pointing and hoping the crash doesn’t hit their term.
Forget cheering the process, whether it’s messy or polished. Focus on what it delivers.
𝗪𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻? Same old crowd: your wealthy households, big corporations, defense contractors. The 2017 tax cuts handed high earners $20,000 on average, says the Tax Policy Center. Corporate rates dropped to 21%, fattening profits. Lockheed Martin and Boeing pocket billions from deals like the $428 billion F-35 program. Subsidies for oil and agribusiness? $20 billion a year, mostly to giants, per the USDA. Regular folks get scraps—temporary credits with more fine print than a phone contract.
𝗪𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹? The usual: your middle-class taxpayers and small businesses, coughing up 30% of income taxes, per the IRS, while corporations skate with loopholes (Apple’s effective rate: ~15%). Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP—$150 billion proposed over a decade, per the CBO—shove costs onto families, hospitals, and states already stretched thin. Your kids and grandkids? They’re on the hook for today’s borrowing spree.
𝗪𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗴? Everybody, but especially your students, retirees, workers, and sick. If interest rates spike (Fed’s at ~5% now) or faith in your debt tanks, you’re looking at higher taxes, gutted services, or a market crash. Social Security’s trust fund dries up by 2035, per the SSA. Students are choking on $30,000 average loan debt. The elite? They’ve got tax havens and offshore accounts. The rest of you get the wreckage.
This isn’t a bug in your system—it’s the feature. The numbers don’t lie: $2 trillion deficits yearly through 2035, unchecked lobbying, policies rigged for the top dogs. Without a serious shake-up—fixing entitlements, cleaning up taxes, capping spending, and kicking donors to the curb—you’re on a collision course. Your politicians know it but keep playing the game. Stop clapping for the circus and demand a system that doesn’t fleece the many to fatten the few.
Thanks for all that but as with BB there’s nothing in your diatribe that we don’t already know.
And none of them are ‘mine’ or ‘ours’ if you mean everyone here.
Have a nice day.
Having a great day. Hope you are too!
Nope, it’s not enough that the administration is purposely and right in front of our eyes doing the exact opposite of the peace and prosperity (MAGA) agenda it promised, but it wants to redefine our entire language a la “Animal Farm”, “1984” and post-WWII Soviet Union to make its war/poverty agenda acceptable. This cannot end well.
I don't know, the Israelis and Iranians aren't shooting rockets and dropping bombs on each other and Hamas is at the negotiation table with Israel. We didn't put a single soldier in harms way except for a few flight crews that all returned without a scratch.
The economic numbers are coming in stronger than forecasted and the BBB will put more money into the working middle class' pockets. All this sounds a lot like what was promised. There would be a lot more progress on his promises if a bunch of lawyers in black robes would follow the law and Constitution and stop throwing banana peels in the Administration's path. That's something you would have a legitimate complaint about.
If Trump settled all the wars, cured cancer, and created a successful fusion plant, there are people here who would just keep bitching.
Good employment numbers…again…doesn’t matter.
And BB’s write up today is pretty much right on but we all knew that stuff 50 years ago.
My sub is renewing soon and I’m gone. I hope you all have a great day and a nice life.
Sorry to see that, your takes will be missed.
What right does the U.S.—or any nation, for that matter—have to drop bombs on another country? Are we really living in "𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁" territory now, punishing nations for what they *might* do?
Back in 2001, the U.S. was already spending over $𝟯𝟬𝟬 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 annually on its military—with no active war at the time. But peace doesn’t pay defense contractors, so the Military-Industrial Complex made sure that didn’t last. Fast-forward 24 years: Trump isn't scaling any of that back—he's feeding it. And we’re not just watching a buildup of arms; we’re watching the emergence of an Orwellian state, where endless war justifies everything from surveillance to censorship to the slow erasure of truth. 𝟭𝟵𝟴𝟰 isn’t fiction anymore—it’s strategy.
He’s not removing red tape—he’s constructing a bureaucratic prison for 350 million people. Border walls, economic restrictions, and loyalty tests disguised as policy. It's not “America First”—it’s 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. Just like in Huxley’s "𝗕𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱", where the population is kept compliant not by fear, but by distraction and comfort. Numbed by spectacle. Hypnotized by consumerism. Sound familiar?
The rot didn’t start with Trump. It stretches all the way back to Kennedy. Each administration promised change, and each one simply rotated the faces at the table. Just like in Orwell’s "𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗮𝗿𝗺", where the pigs who led the revolution eventually became indistinguishable from the humans they replaced. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"—except now, he tweets.
Trump lied his way into power, baiting people like Musk with libertarian promises while continuing to fuel the same centralized machine he pretended to oppose. Without their support, he'd be back in courtrooms trying to sneak through the side door of power. Jail would be too kind—though let’s be honest, he’s not even in charge. He’s a mouthpiece. A pawn. The real architects—call them MIT, Wall Street, defense contractors, or technocrats—pull the strings. They’ve simply found a better frontman. As Machiavelli wrote in "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲," rulers don’t need to be good—only appear good. And as long as the crowd sees a strongman on stage, they rarely bother to ask who’s writing the script.
And that’s the true crisis. As Hayek warned in "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗱𝗼𝗺", centralized control doesn't lead to utopia—it leads to tyranny, disguised as order. We’ve got no one left in Washington willing to push back. No one in MIT with the backbone to say, “𝙀𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝.” No one willing to bite the hand that feeds. And now? We're looking to Elon Musk and some theoretical “new party” as our last hope? That’s not a solution—it’s a symptom. A sign of how far we’ve fallen.
Even "𝗔𝘁𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗱" predicted this: the innovators walking away, the competent crushed under the weight of parasites, and the bureaucrats feeding off a system they can’t even operate. But maybe Hoffer said it best in "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿"—people don’t want freedom anymore. They want a cause. A flag. A leader to follow so they don’t have to think. That’s how mass movements rise. That’s how empires fall.
Though I really like your reading list (particularly Orwell and Rand), your analysis is shallow. The Trump administration is trying to decentralize power. Unfortunately, the judicial branch isn't having it. Attempting to eliminate the Department of Education and sending control of public education back to the states, county and municipal governments is just one example. Rolling back federal regulations, and more importantly, eliminating the bureaucrats that enforce them is another example.
Trump didn't lie his way into anything. He is playing the hand he's been dealt and making slow, but sure progress. Until the Marxists/Leftists that dress themselves up as Democrats are defeated and powerless it's going to take time to right the ship. Patience will be key. The corruption and decay didn't happen overnight, and they aren't going to be rooted out in one presidential term. As Dan Bongino famously said, "Republicans aren't the solution to all of our problems but Democrats are the root cause of all our problems."
Ah, I see we’ve entered the “Trump is the reluctant hero fighting the Deep State with a broken lightsaber” chapter of the fantasy novel. Love the imagination—shame about the facts.
Let’s start where I started: bombs.
You remember that opening line, right? “What right does the U.S.—or any nation—have to drop bombs on another country?”
Kind of a big deal. Preemptive violence? Sovereignty violations? Civilian deaths?
Yet you completely skipped it. Not even a “yeah, that’s troubling, but…”
Instead, you went straight to the Department of Education like it’s some kind of villainous cabal. Relax, it’s not the Illuminati—it just tries to teach kids how to read.
Next up: the myth of “decentralization.”
Trump talked about draining the swamp. But then he hired Wall Street lifeguards to supervise it.
He said he’d reduce spending.
He increased it.
He said he’d end the wars.
He escalated drone strikes—and just for fun, bumped the Pentagon budget by $100 billion.
You know, the same Pentagon that hasn’t passed an audit since audits were invented?
Call me crazy, but that doesn't sound like decentralization. That sounds like adding more floors to the prison.
And then there’s your grand finale:
> “Democrats are the root cause of all our problems.”
Right. Because Mitch McConnell, Lockheed Martin, Exxon, and Zuckerberg are clearly sipping matcha in Portland with AOC and planning the downfall of America.
Let’s be honest: if you really think all of America’s problems are caused by Democrats, you’ve stopped thinking and started chanting. You’re not a citizen—you’re a fanboy. Wearing the jersey, waving the foam finger, and yelling “Go team!” while Rome burns.
Here’s the thing:
The system is broken.
Not just blue. Not just red.
It’s rigged, bought, and designed to distract you with team sports while both sides shovel cash to the war machine, the surveillance state, and corporate donors.
But hey, keep quoting Dan Bongino like he’s Aristotle. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be over here, asking why the richest nation in history still thinks blowing up brown people is a viable foreign policy.
And yes—Trump lied.
He lied about the deficit.
He lied about ending wars.
He lied about draining the swamp.
Hell, he even lied about having a health care plan “in two weeks.”
Two weeks later? Golf. Two years later? Still no plan.
So no, I won’t be holding my breath while he “slowly fixes things.”
Because last time I checked, you don’t fix a burning house by pouring gasoline on it and blaming the thermostat.
Sigh . . . forgive me if I don't buy into your very narrow minded/naive view of the world. The better question is why would we sit idly by while Iran is enriching uranium way beyond any peaceful purpose? There was no other reason for them to have the facilities, equipment and materiel other than to build a bomb. And please, don't lecture us about other nations having nuclear weapons. Those countries are deterred by mutual mass destruction. The mullahs in Iran aspire only to their 72 virgins, the extermination of Israel, and then the U.S.
The system is broken? No sh!t, and the only guy trying to make a dent in solving the problems you want to sharp shoot and ridicule. He had a plan for healthcare, apparently you have a short memory and forgot that John McCain torpedoed it.
And that whole "brown people" shtick you are so fond of, Americans aren't buying it anymore. That's why more black, brown, yellow, green, and purple (sarcasm) people voted for a Republican than they have in many decades or in some cases ever. You remind me a lot of our editor, long on identifying problems and real short on specifying solutions. It's very easy to say, "cut spending!" . . . "balance the budget!" . . . "No more wars!". They're nice bumper sticker slogans, but the real world is real complicated. If you think things would be better with Heels Up Harris in charge I've got some beachfront property in Nevada I'll sell you at a great price.
Sigh... Forgive me if I don’t buy into your very retro view of global politics—complete with Cold War clichés and Saturday morning cartoon villains.
Let’s start with Iran.
Yes, they’re enriching uranium.
Yes, they’re antagonistic.
But here’s a better question: Why wouldn’t they want a nuke?
Ask Ukraine what happens when you don’t have one.
They gave up their nukes in exchange for a promise from the U.S., U.K., and Russia that they’d be protected.
Fast forward: They’re being carved up like a roast while everyone sends “thoughts and prayers” and ammo.
North Korea? Starving population. 50s-era tech. But still standing.
Why? Nukes.
You don’t mess with someone who can melt your capital city in 30 minutes.
It’s not “naïve” to recognize that nuclear weapons are a deterrent—it’s literally why they were built.
And then there’s your “72 virgins” line.
That hasn’t been edgy since 2004.
You might want to retire that one—somewhere between “freedom fries” and “Mission Accomplished.”
Now, about Trump:
Yes, the system’s broken.
No, Trump isn’t fixing it—he’s monetizing it.
Trump NFTs?
$399 gold sneakers?
Dinner auctions with corporate donors and convicted cronies? That’s not leadership. That’s a garage sale with Secret Service.
Let’s not pretend he was some anti-establishment warrior. He raised the defense budget by $100B, expanded drone warfare, and signed off on trillions in corporate tax cuts without closing a single loophole.
That’s not draining the swamp—that’s pumping in fresh alligators.
And please, spare me the “he had a health care plan” myth. Yes, McCain gave the final thumbs-down. But here’s the part you skipped:
There was no actual plan.
Trump kept promising a “beautiful” replacement—but never revealed it.
You can’t torpedo a ghost ship.
As for voters of all colors turning to the GOP? Sure. Some did. Many because they’re disillusioned with both parties. That’s not a mandate—it’s a rejection letter.
The U.S. doesn’t need more red vs. blue rage—it needs a third party that isn’t owned by defense contractors, Wall Street, or geriatric billionaires.
Maybe Elon builds that. Or maybe he just builds more flamethrowers. Either way, it’s looking better than “Team Blue vs. Team Red” endlessly blaming each other while Rome burns and Raytheon profits.
So yeah, the real world is complicated.
Which is exactly why we shouldn’t keep electing guys who think it's a reality show.
Dave
AMEN to you
I feel the same way
Abe
Oh, shame on me. I should feel much better about our starving 2 million people to death, blowing up children’s cell phones and disabling them (the children), bombing a city the size of Los Angeles, leveling Iraq and North Korea, experimenting nuclear weapons on a country attempting to surrender, etc, etc, etc, since I was able to fill my pockets! After all, my Western “VALUES” (haha) allow me to level the playing field by merely being going to church and asking for forgiveness! If 22 God-fearing ‘mericans have asked forgiveness for the 22,000,000 human lives our sick “values” (the actual “Holy” Judeo-Christian “values”) have caused to be extinguished since WWII, it would be a surprise. Incidentally, Chinese don’t have this easy “out” due to their adherence to karma and the forever fortunate failure of the Catholic Church to convince the emperor to convert a few centuries ago. These basic beliefs explain, I believe, how and why China has “only” invaded ONE country since WWII (Vietnam for 16 days in 1979) resulting in a handful of deaths vs. 22M slaughtered by us True Believers! A whole new level of claptrap.
Peter Schiff ....92% of the 147K jobs supposedly created in June were in government, health care, or social services. Manufacturing continued to lose jobs. These non-productive jobs raise our trade deficits, and lead to more government debt and higher inflation. Investors won't be fooled forever.
BB is quite correct about the sketchiness of "official measures", whether publicly or privately generated and reported. Several decades of grappling with the gnarly data we generated internally and purchased elsewhere to develop our insurance risk and pricing models convinced me of the low precision and limited reliability of "economic data" whatever the source, even if the providers are doing their best to deliver "clean numbers". When there are political or commercial incentives to skew the numbers, all bets are off, given human nature. The Old and New Testimonies are replete with warnings and complaints about "honest" vs "dishonest" weights used in trade, so this is not a new problem. Modern technology has simply elaborated the ways "crooked measures" can be developed and applied (e.g. MMT).
And the problem of using such data even extends to what BB refers to as "real numbers". At least part of the reason for the Wright Brothers' success in producing a working heavier-than-air flying machine was the pains they took to replicate the reports of other investigators pursuing the same goal, finding that many could NOT be replicated, and relying on their own measures and determinations of what needed to be measured in order to develop the eventually successful prototypes.
What happened in the 80’s was the “Age of Greed”.
Reagan was an actor, some years big money, some years nothing. He hated the tax laws. He changed them; lowered the top rate for the rich. What was in the 90 percentile became 30.
I took an H&R Block tax course in those days, 1980.
Everyone complained about taxes, mostly the rich.
Actually, the tax laws were a thing of beauty, they made you earn money the old fashion way, “You had to earn it” by building something, hiring people, making a company grow. You couldn’t just give yourself an exorbitant salary .
Then they started buying companies with cash and value and dissipating them with the salaries they paid themselves.
Remember the Savings and Loan crisis, they stole all the money.
They wrecked insurance, stole all the escrow accounts, made it reinsurance, a Ponzi Scheme.
Reagan, Saintly, Reagan and Republicans made greed legal; it’s one of the deadly sins; it destroyed everything.
How can you put Humpty Dumpty back together again?
You can’t; not only is government ludicrous what is left of the American economy is controlled by gangsters, corporations that have destroyed everything good.
You have the MICC, the medical complex, the educational complex.
Americans are immoral bastards living large, those that engineered the suffering catastrophe, on the backs of “The least among us.”
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘸𝘪𝘯-𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺, 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘦𝘴. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 — 𝘢 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘺— 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴...𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘥...𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙚..
You forgot "equivocate."
"𝙐𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙨𝙤 𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛."
So, if I pay my employees 15$ an hour and tip them 25$ , heem
Bill, it seems that your use of the word "Feds" in relation to some of california's problems is appropriate but the vast majority of their problems are the result of liberal, elitest and their democratic party leadership. We are all aware of politicians shortcomings (irregardless of party affiliation). But, when those three groups gain power and/or "big" money they can't just enjoy their wealth and live their own lives. No, they want to make the middle class and poor live according to their whims and rules, common sense be damned. Happy July 4th, youngsters.
...is it my ignorance, or did Mr. Bonner cite (near the last paragraph) the feds for what to me is clearly a Sacramento lack of discipline?
I read it as just referring to a prior review of California craziness and saying that similar craziness is found in Federal Gov spending projects, perhaps not AS crazy, but similar enough.
Yes, he did.
“But like model airplane glue in the hands of a teenager,…”….and I picked a bad week to stop sniffing that glue ;-)
"GDP measures activity...not improvement, not betterment, not an increase in wealth. .......... Government spending (including state and local) is around 30% of GDP."
Perhaps the most striking historical example of this point was Mao's "GREAT LEAP FORWARD", in which his utopian enforced "rapid industrialization".
In summary, the Great Leap Forward was launched as an ambitious attempt to force rapid modernization through collectivization and mass mobilization but resulted in economic collapse, widespread famine, and millions of deaths, profoundly shaping China’s subsequent political and economic trajectory.
https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/chinas-great-leap-forward/
I hope someone reads this: I. Paid for wine from your organization in January or February and again in June 2025. I have not received either shipment. I do not know if out was shipped to the wrong address or not shipped period. I have tried email the email account but no result the mail isn’t received. I would appreciate a phone call, text, or email. I most definitely want to an answer from or a refund. Gary Sherlock: phone660-582-1431. Address 2327 Parkdale Road Maryville Missouri 64468. Shipping address 2336 South Main Maryville, M0. 64468.
I had a similar issue. Amelia Edwards at: Contact@bonnerprivatewines.com
Helped me.