Steve Wynn on Fox News Sunday

I don't own a TV so I listen to Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace online. If it's a really good show, I'll watch later on Fox News Sunday's Hulu channel. This was a really good show.

Steve Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts, was on discussing jobs with Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm...

Wynn: Government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization's history. For some reason that simple truth has evaded everybody. The only thing that creates an increased standard of living is giving someone a job, the demand for their labor -- whether it's you and I, Chris, or anybody else. The people that are paying the price for this juggernaut of federal spending are the middle class and the working class of America.

…soaring rhetoric and great speeches with or without a teleprompter aren't going to change the truth, and the truth is the biggest enemy, the biggest obstacle that working middle-class America has is government spending.

Granholm: It's just so simplistic to say that! With all due respect, I mean, to say that government has never created a job or increased the standard of living. You know, I mean there -- there are a lot of people who are grateful that in this country we have a minimum wage. There are a lot of people who are grateful that they have access to Medicare and Medicaid. And I hope that we get access further to additional health care for those who are uninsured. I mean, there is a balance here. To say that government is all evil... This is a democracy. It's the greatest country in the world.

Wynn: I didn't say that at all. I'm saying that the source of government revenue, the source of well-being in this country is employment. That allows companies to pay taxes, employees to pay taxes. That's the source here and it's gotten out of focus.

Granholm: I agree with you.

Wynn: Okay. That's my point, Governor. I'm not making any other point. And, believe me, ma'am, I've got 20,000 employees. I've had as many as 150,000 families that I've been self-insuring. There's nothing "simplistic" about my approach to this problem.

Wow, he really handed it to her -- nothing against governor Granholm; if any other statist had been in that chair the results would have been the same.

Steve Wynn is my new hero and, I think, radio listeners everywhere will agree that he has a great voice. If you missed it, catch it. If you saw it, it's worth seeing again.

Watch: Hulu - FOX News Sunday
Rush Limbaugh: Wynn Schools Granholm on Jobs

Pravda: The Death of American Capitalism

American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper
By Stanislav Mishin For Pravda.Ru

Here's part of a recent article from Russia's on-line newspaper Pravda. The word is out, American capitalism is dead.

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

[...]

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American tax dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin warned Obama not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

The last sentence is, for me, the saddest.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is - the world will only snicker.

Read More: American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper

World Record Radio Interviews

TJ Walker and Jess Todtfeld are on their way to setting a new Guinness World Record for doing the most radio interviews in 24 hours. The old record is 72 and they're shooting for 120. They started a 6 a.m. eastern time today and they won't quit until 6 a.m tomorrow. They're promoting their new book "TJ Walker's Secret to Foolproof Presentations" by doing a presentation marathon - genius.

You can watch live at the FOXNews.com Strategy Room and, for 24 hours only, download a free PDF of the new book at TJWalker.com.

I've been watching all morning and it's been fun and quite an education, not only in public speaking, but also in talk radio and grace under pressure. TJ and Jess are both pretty entertaining fellows with very different styles. Jess was a stand up comedian and TJ is an ex-radio talk show host. This could get very interesting... I'd say around 3 a.m. or so. They're getting better and funnier as the day wears on. You really should check them out.

Good Luck Guys. I'm rootin' for ya.

Update: Record Broken at about 4.02 p.m. eastern time with well over 13 hours to spare! How long will they keep going? Will Jess change into his shorts? Will TJ take off his tie? Stay tuned to find out.

What Progressives Want

From American Thinker

Progressives divide the world into victims and exploiters, and see themselves as saviors of the underdogs who are incapable of fending for themselves. And that requires greater government power in their hands, to vanquish the exploiters. This perspective explains much of what President Obama is doing with the vast powers at his disposal.

This administration has big business in its sights. While there are a couple of corporations like G.E. who are court favorites because they do the Progressives' bidding...the current government's attitude toward commerce is that they exploit the masses as labor or consumer, are run by fat-cats who don't pay their "fair share", and should be regulated by the government which is working in "the best interests of the People".

Only one thing matters to the Progressives-in the Oval Office and in Congress-and that is growing the central government and its power.

Read More: What the Progressives Want

Obama's War On Capital

From National Review Online

Obama’s first 100 days have occasioned a number of dispiriting moments, but yesterday’s attack on Chrysler’s bond holders represented a new low. In a speech announcing the company’s bankruptcy filing, President Obama blasted “a group of investment firms and hedge funds [that] decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” That is nothing short of a lie. The consortium wasn’t holding out for a bailout. It was holding out for a bankruptcy.

The administration tried desperately to keep Chrysler out of bankruptcy court; in the process, it demonstrated exactly why that institution is so valuable. Obama’s auto task force attempted to browbeat Chrysler’s creditors into taking a terrible deal in order to spare the United Auto Workers union as much pain as possible. The large banks, which owe their continued existence to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), caved and agreed to take a massive haircut on their secured Chrysler debt. But a group of smaller firms, calling themselves “The Committee of Chrysler Non-TARP lenders,” refused to play ball.

In a statement released yesterday, the firms pointed out that they would be shirking their fiduciary duty to their investors if they did not hold out for the best possible deal. For them, the best deal is bankruptcy. In bankruptcy court, secured debtholders (bond holders) take priority over other creditors. The administration’s plan called for secured lenders to get in line behind the UAW.

For resisting this expropriation and following the law, the non-TARP lenders were publicly denounced as vicious Benedict Arnolds by a sitting American president. “I stand with Chrysler’s employees and their families and communities,” Obama said - not “those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices.” He stands, he said, “with the millions of Americans who own and want to buy Chrysler cars.” If millions of Americans wanted to buy Chrysler cars, the company wouldn’t need the president of the United States to be its pitchman.

Read More: Obama Declares War on Capital
Related: White House Thuggery

Obama Administration to Regulate Pay

From The New York Times

The Obama administration has plans to cap the pay of corporate executives even if they're not receiving federal bailout money.

The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said.

Officials said the proposal would seek a broad new role for the Federal Reserve to oversee large companies whose problems could pose risks to the entire financial system.

The administration has been considering increased oversight of executive pay for some time, but the issue was heightened in recent days as public fury over bonuses spilled into the regulatory effort.

The officials said that the administration was still debating the details of its plan, including how broadly it should be applied and how far it could go beyond simple reporting requirements. Depending on the outcome of the discussions, the administration could seek to put the changes into effect through regulations rather than through legislation.

One proposal could impose greater requirements on company boards to tie executive compensation more closely to corporate performance and to take other steps to ensure that compensation was aligned with the financial interest of the company.

The new rules will cover all financial institutions, including those not now covered by any pay rules because they are not receiving federal bailout money. Officials say the rules could also be applied more broadly to publicly traded companies, which already report about some executive pay practices to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Long before he became Treasury secretary, Mr. Geithner sought broader authority for the government to resolve problems at financial institutions not under bank regulators’ supervision.

France and Germany especially have suggested that the better response is not more government spending but tighter regulation.

Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the Financial Services Committee, said he believed giving the government new authority to take over troubled companies could be adopted by the House relatively quickly, particularly after the furor over the A.I.G. bonuses.

“This would give the government the same powers that you would get as if the company were in bankruptcy,” Mr. Frank said in an interview shortly after meeting with Mr. Geithner on the plan.

But Mr. Frank and other lawmakers said other elements of the plan could take more time, like expanding the authority of the Federal Reserve to become a systemic regulator.

Read More...

Next?... oil companies, drug companies, your company. I'm afraid that if this kind of regulation and taxation continues corporations will abandon The Peoples Republic Of America and move to more capitalist friendly nations - like China.

"Never allow a crisis to go to waste, they're opportunities to do big things” - White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel

AIG Bailout, Bonuses and Bullsh!t

The Treasury (Timothy Geithner's) Department knew about the impending AIG bonuses for months.

Lawmakers outraged at bailed-out American International Group's move to pay $165 million in executive bonuses are turning their fire on the Obama administration, asking why top officials didn't act to prevent the pay-out earlier.

"It seems like they are an administration in disarray," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Tuesday.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., suggested Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner does not have a handle on the AIG matter.

"We need to find out when these bonuses were approved and more than that, when they were contracted for. And who knew this?" said the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. "Did Secretary Geithner know and look the other way?"

The senator, a harsh critic of the Treasury's bailout program known by its acronym "TARP," or Troubled Assets Relief Program, said members who voted for the program bear some blame, but he put much of the fault at Geithner's feet.

Read More...

President Obama Gets Choked Up With Phony Anger...

Update! (More BS)
After denying having anything to do with crafting language in the stimulus bill that allowed bailed-out insurance giant American International Group to keep its bonuses, Sen. Christopher Dodd admitted that he and the Treasury Department were responsible for the loophole. See Here...

Dodd blames the administration for making him do it. See Here...

There's a whole lot of Phony Anger going on out there.

Obama's Bear Market

There are many commentators and bloggers that have noted the precipitous drop in the markets since President Obama's November 4th 2008 election. the DOW has lost approximatily 3,000 points - that's a beating of over 30%. A loss of 20% is what most investors define as a bear market.

I'd say Obama owns this bear. On a side note, Michelle spent yesterday telling Americans how good the food is at soup kitchens. Thanks Michelle.

Corporate Taxes

According to The Tax Foundation U.S. corporate tax rates, at 39.25%, are the second highest in the world. Here's the chart worth a thousand words. I'm about to offer a few dozen words anyway - just to try and explain why you should care.

Cost: The first reason is that any cost of doing business is passed on to you and me in the form of higher prices. Corporate taxes really do trickle down and are eventually absorbed by the consumer.

Just think how much cheaper that loaf of bread or jar of peanut butter would be if those companies weren't paying 39.25% in corporate taxes. It's not just the individual companies either. Those companies also hire other companies for things like accounting, shipping, advertising, maintanence... the list could continue. It adds up, and it all comes out of your wallet.

Jobs: The second reason you should care is that our corporate tax rates make it cheaper to incorporate in other countries. It also makes it expensive for foreign companies to come to America. Why would a business come here when they can set up shop in Mexico and Canada and still have access to our vast consumer base? We lose jobs to countries with lower tax rates.

The globalized economy has put the American worker in competition with countries that have much lower wage rates. No American I know is willing to lower their salary to the level of Mexico's or China's. Lowering corporate taxes would provide the incentive for businesses to come to America - and bring jobs with them.

Lower prices on everything, more jobs for everybody, sounds like just the kind of economic stimulus we need to me.

Capitalism Magazine: Who Pays Corporate Taxes?