December 22: Daily Contrarian Reads

Donald Trump Doesn’t Take Prisoners—-Why He Should Ruthlessly Clean House at The CIA For It’s Attempted Coup

On Wednesday night, NBC released a report, in collusion with a myriad of anonymous sources reputed to be inside the CIA and other intelligence agencies, claiming that Vladimir Putin personally directed the destruction of Hillary Clinton via hacking hers and the DNC’s servers before the US presidential election…..On Wednesday night, NBC released a report, in collusion with a myriad of anonymous sources reputed to be inside the CIA and other intelligence agencies, claiming that Vladimir Putin personally directed the destruction of Hillary Clinton via hacking hers and the DNC’s servers before the US presidential election.

More Federal Spending &  Borrowing And Unfinanced Tax Cuts Will Not Fix What’s Broken

The short answer: if tax cuts and more federal borrowing/ spending were the cure for what ails the economy, we’d have reached Paradise long ago. Stripped of partisan politics and rah-rah, tax cuts and more federal borrowing/ spending–on infrastructure, education, defense, healthcare, you name it–have been the de facto status quo policies of both parties for the past 70 years. Despite decades of these centralized, standard-issue Keynesian “fixes,” the economy’s structural ills are only getting worse. I outlined five of the most critical issues in What Have the “Experts” Gotten Right? In the Real Economy, They’re 0 for 5 (December 20, 2016).

“Green Shoots—Seven Years Of Massive Fed “Stimulus” And Nothing To Show

It has always been this way. Economists talking about recovery are forced into just these kinds of soft non-specifics. A true recovery needs no actual prodding, no innuendo or nebulous bombast. Aside from the dubious unemployment rate, there just isn’t anything concrete. And we know because the unemployment rate is so often deployed with these empty rhetorical devices, that it, too, isn’t what it should be….We have to ask “what are these “indications?”, for they are very difficult to find except in the colored interpretation of officials who have consistently so colored every bit of what has only been interpretation. As noted last week, Yellen in 2014 was actually specific about wages, a difference that can only be attributed to the fact that in that year economists and policymakers (redundant) really did believe, for the briefest moment, their own fantasies. Even though they were finally confident, they did know, as Yellen did, that wage growth was still only then “indicated.”

Senator McCain Is Wrong About the Russia Hack And Almost Everything Else

For all of the sturm und drang generated by the alleged Russian hack, it appears to have been rather modest. Some doubts remain that the Russians even were responsible. Nor was there any attack on the American electoral system. No voting machines were broken into. No votes were changed. Donald Trump won because a majority of Americans in critical states preferred him to his badly compromised opponent, whose failings have been on display publicly for a quarter century. Neither Moscow nor anyone else changed the outcome.

The EPA’s Science Deniers—Fake Evidence On Fracking

Speaking of fake news, the political scientists at the EPA have rewritten the conclusion of a report in order to cast doubt on the safety of hydraulic fracturing. Consider this EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s parting gift to Donald Trump….After being barraged by plaintiff attorneys and Hollywood celebrities, the EPA in its final report substituted its determination of no “widespread, systemic impact” with the hypothetical that fracking “can impact drinking water resources under some circumstances” and that “impacts can range in frequency and severity” depending on the circumstances.

Warning From The GM Dealer Lots—-Inventories At 9-year High, Factory Shutdowns Pending

Automotive News reported Dec. 12 that GM’s inventories had surged 28 percent between Aug. 1 and Dec. 1 to the highest level in nearly nine years and that more production cuts might be needed. GM entered this month with a 111-day supply of the CT6, which went into production in February, and 168-day supply of the LaCrosse, which was redesigned earlier this year….Before cutting the second shift, GM plans to stop work at the plant for three weeks in January. It also is scheduling three weeks of downtime at Fairfax Assembly in Kansas City, Kan., two weeks at the Lansing Grand River plant in Michigan and one week in Lordstown, Ohio, and Bowling Green, Ky. In November, GM announced the layoff of about 2,000 workers with the suspension of third shifts at the Lordstown and Lansing Grand River plants, also in January.

The Ten Fundamental Laws Of Economics

In the midst of so many economic fallacies being repeatedly seemingly without end, it may be helpful to return to some of the most basic laws of economics. Here are ten of them that bear repeating again and again. 

Cradle-To-Grave Debt: Boomers Increasingly Having Social Security Checks Garnished To Cover Student Loan Payment

The federal government is increasingly taking money out of recipients’ Social Security checks to recover millions in unpaid student debt, leaving thousands of retired and disabled Americans with below-poverty incomes, according to a report set to be released Tuesday. The government has collected about $1.1 billion since 2001 from Social Security recipients of all ages over unpaid student loans, the Government Accountability Office reported. That includes $171 million in Social Security benefits in fiscal 2015 alone.