Right Pundits

On July 10th, the IRS held a press conference to formally apologize for elements and/or individuals within the organization who they now admit were specifically targeting conservative organizations during the 2012 election season for additional scrutiny. Any organization using the title “tea” or “patriot” was flagged for a review of their tax returns. Of the 300 organizations flagged for scrutiny in Cincinnati, 75 of them were conservative organizations identifying with the tea party movement.

But this is not the worst part of the problem. There’s good evidence that, across multiple states, conservative organizations were targeted by the IRS in numerous ways. From unusually long questionnaires demanding membership rosters and donor lists, to warning letters sent out to donors suggesting that their contributions to 501(c) groups could be retroactively taxed. And all this right as the 2012 election season began to heat up.

Could this be seen by some as an attempt to chill political speech? Of course. Even liberal NY Time opinion columnist Maureen Dowd agrees with this!

How did the White House respond to this revelation? How do you think? They blamed Bush of course!
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Japan′s Nikkei ends with a weekly gain of 7% while the Japanese Yen collapses. In the race to the bottom, the Bank of Japan has been printing so much Yen that it has now passed the 100 Yen to one U.S. Dollar. Once more, we see how massive currency manipulation by central banks spell wonder for stock markets while average citizens succumb to more financial insecurity. Just as with the U.S. Federal Reserve and its policy of quantitative easing, very few benefit from currency debasement.

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Banks on the island nation of Cyprus reopened today after being closed for some two weeks. As part of the European Union bailout plan, the Cypriot Parliament passed some heavy restrictions on banking to prevent a chaotic run on the banks. Most customers will only be able to withdraw 300 Euros per day from their savings accounts. No check cashing is allowed and use of credit cards outside Cyprus is limited to 5,000 Euros per month. This is part of the European Commission requirements allowing for the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to bailout the tiny country. The two largest banks, the Bank of Cyprus and the Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, have tougher limits, allowing only withdrawals of 100 Euros per day. They will also be forced to merge as the Bank of Cyprus, as both financial institutions were the worst hit by the Greek bond debacle of last year.

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The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has proposed a plan to bailout the island nation of Cyprus by levying a tax on the bank accounts of citizens. This bailout plan has caused a bank run as depositors empty their savings accounts. The original deal was to impose a 9.9% tax on accounts with more than 100,000 Euros and a 6.75% tax on those with less. Another proposal calls for those with less than 100,000 Euros to pay a 3% tax on their savings. Those with 100,000 to 500,000 Euros would be taxed at a 10% rate and those with more than 500,000 at a 15% tax rate. Cyprus has attracted much foreign investments, particularly from Russia. Needless to say nobody likes either plan and one can only imagine how Obama and the Democrats are drooling over doing a similar tax here in the USA.

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Since World War II, America has been the world’s biggest trading nation. Last year, according to official figures, China has surpassed the United States by one measurement, the exports and imports of goods. China has reported that its total combined trade in goods with other nations is $3.87 trillion; according to the US Commerce Department, America‘s numbers for the same thing was slightly less at $3.82 trillion.

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Sitting and reading through investor calls and business forecasts for 2013, certain trends are emerging. What are those trends? Before we outline those, let’s take a quick look at Q4 of 2012.

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The U.S. Commerce Department numbers are in and the nation′s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, shrank 0.1% in the Fourth Quarter of 2012. A lack of consumer spending was blamed due to Hurricane Sandy as the Conference Board shows a decline in confidence, resulting in slower growth. The Barack Obama White House went on the defense, blaming Republicans for stirring up more uncertainty during the Fiscal Cliff debate. The Left-Wing Media also tried to spin a happy face citing other economic data, such as house sales. Some experts, like former Enron economist Paul Krugman, point to less government spending as the main culprit for the decline in GDP. But the bitter reality is that the Obama Recovery never happened. What little GDP growth there has been over the past four years of the Obama administration is by and large due to monetary policy from the Federal Reserve Bank which is pumping cheap money into the economy, causing more inflation than GDP growth. Since taking office, the nation′s GDP has been shrinking consistently in value.

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On occasion, I like to share useful information about a product I have tried and so today I will do a product review of the Soda Stream system. I bought one, the Jet model, from HSN after hemming and hawing over the purchase for a month or so. The Home Shopping Network had a decent deal, $79.95 with free shipping, for the Jet model which came with both a regular and diet cola syrup bottles, plus a total of 18, 1-liter samplers and two half-liter bottles in addition to the standard one-liter bottle. Imagine my surprise when the lovely Angela Tantaros, one of the regular hosts on the Fox News Channel hit show, ′The Five′, raved about getting a Soda Stream for Christmas.

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