Summing Up

As summer is upon us, I thought that reiterating some of my more controverisal views might be fun. And might cause some trouble, too !

1. No recession has or will occur. This is a mid-cycle slowdown.
2. A rich man's panic did occur, which also brought to light some amazing cupidity and stupidity in Wall Street.
3. The housing bottom is upon us.
4. There is too much money sloshing in hedge funds.
5. Hedge funds should be regulated like mutual funds or banks, as appropriate.
6. Pension funds should be prohibited from speculating in futures markets. If they want to buy oil, buy oil in the ground or buy physical oil & store it.
7. All derivatives should be regulated and required to be traded on exchanges with pure right of set off.
8. There is no significant general inflation. Oil & some energy prices have risen hugely, mostly due to lack of new supply and increased demand. Everything else is just painful adjustments to that pressure.
9. The Fed needs to increase the monetary base more; money growth is too slow.
10. The US should declare victory in the cold war over totalitarianism and other conflicts and pull back from foreign entanglements and stop trying to unduly influence other nations' actions.
11. All earmarks are payoffs or bribes and all must be abolished.
12. Congressional terms should be limited to 12 years total service. No further office holding permitted. Cabinet-level government service should be included in this limit. Only Presidential or Vice-Presidential service is excluded.
13. Supreme Court justices and all Federal judges should be required to retire and leave office at age 80. The Senate should be required to hold votes on nominees within 90 days of submission or the candidate is deemed approved..
14. Congressional gerrymandering should be prohibited. Districts should be required to be composed on whole counties, towns, etc.
15. Former public officials should be prohibited from engaging in lobbying. Spouses, "partners", etc. should be prohibited from engaging in lobbying.
16. CEO and top corporate pay should be limited, except to stock awards - not options - voted by shareholders.
17. Hedge fund, private equity, etc. managers should pay ordinary income taxes on all compensation, including social security and Medicare taxes. If a fund manager receives pay and pays taxes on it, he can invest the net amount in the fund and then be treated as any other partner.
18. All municipal bond income should be subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax.
19. All private foundations should be required to liquidate in full within 50 years.
20. The 99 year rule against perpetuities should be strictly applied to any private trust.

That's enough for now.

"Populist libertarianism" means maximum freedom with limits to prevent the ruling classes from (1) attaining too much power & wealth, (2) creating a new aristocracy, and (3) from using their wealth and power to affect the lives of the common man. All limits are imposed on the ruling classes only, not on the lives of the common man.

PS: Item #10 does not mean cut military spending. As George Washington knew and said, one must prepare for war to ensure peace. I'm not sure what the limit under #16 should be. Maybe $3 million per year. That's enough cash ... let them get stock for the rest.

PPS: I am not using ruling classes in any Marxist sense. It's a literal, yet colorful term for the rich & powerful & a few others who connive in DC (or Brussels) to increase their power, wealth and / or to mold us into beings of their design. "Connive" ... a fine word ... reminds me of "knave".

Word of the Day

"Antimetabole" - noun [$1000 !] Rhetoric
Antimetabole means a figure [of speech] in which the same words or ideas are repeated in inverse order.
Sentence: (A) Shakespeare's sonnet #129 uses frequent antimetabole, a Greek term that denotes the rhetoric of reversal. An example is line 2, "Is lust in action; and till action, lust".
(B) Bunkerman's frequent musing about the best label for his political philosophy uses antimetabole, viz., he's a populist libertarian, or is that a libertarian populist ?