China Builds A One Million Person City - Sadly, Nobody Lives There

This is phenomenal. We complain about a bridge to nowhere, well how about a city of nobody.

This video - from Al Jazeera of all places - highlights a city built in China from scratch in the last few years that has virtually no citizenry.

This is China's GDP.

Stimulus? No.

This is clear wealth destruction in the guise of jobs. It would have been a much better use of capital to just send the money back to citizens in cash.

The Investment Linebacker Just Saved Or Created 491 Jobs

We stand by that 491 number until we are otherwise proven wrong.

Oops, it turns out someone is actually going around trying to verify these bogus jobs "saved or created" numbers and discovering that the numbers are exactly what we all inherently already knew: they are a fantasy.

"I am shocked, shocked that gambling is going on here."

Specifically, The Sacramento Bee has been busy researching the 26,156 that the Cal State University system claims to have created or saved with their share of Federal stimulus money. Only one problem: it seems only a fraction of those were actually ever at risk - so how can they be saved or created if they never would have been lost?

So what?

TILB guaran-damn-tees you that nobody cares that The Administration has no ability to prove the accuracy of its claims. Yet that does not seem to matter.

So what if the whole number is a fraud? So what if those jobs that actually are "saved or created" are really stolen or destroyed in other areas of the global economy*? Who even cares? Our president gives great speeches, after all. What else could you realistically hope for in a leader? Hint: see video below for an answer - then visit www.schiffforsenate.com.

Anyway, here's a link to the Sac Bee's article on the Cal State reporting debacle.

* Just think about it, the capital used for the stimulus program comes from three primary sources: 1) explicit tax dollars; 2) borrowed money via Treasuries (e.g., China lending us money); or 3) freshly printed money (which is simply the theft of some value from all pre-existing money). The implication of this three source limit means that in order to "stimulate" the economy, we are actually taking money or wealth from other parts of the economy.

Who is more likely to productively deploy wealth into job creation: private citizens or 500 odd horse trading politicians inside the beltway? The answer is obvious on its face. Thus we know that stimulus is actually the opposite: it is the suction of capital/wealth out of generally productive hands and redeployed by generally non-productive hands.

It is nearly universal that stimulus programs cost jobs always and everywhere.


We can do better than the status quo.

Obama Offers Senior Citizens Some Backdoor Stimulus

...no, not that kind of backdoor stimulus, you sick bastards.

I guess $13 billion doesn't mean anything these days. Unfortunately, the more that money doesn't mean anything means the more that money won't mean anything. Beware.

Anyway, despite the White House saying they aren't even contemplating contemplating a new stimulus package, this clearly is a backdoor stimulus.

Nobody cares though, so, whatever. What's $13 billion of wealth transfer among friends anyway? What's mine is your's and what's your's is...well, no, somehow we at TILB always seem to be on the "giving" rather than the "receiving" end. Now, if somehow we can loop that last sentence back into the double entendre from this post's title...

Here's the link to some more excellent reporting by the Wall Street Journal. Highlights from the article follow, but I highly recommend reading the whole thing and supporting the online -WSJ. [emphasis added]

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said he will press Congress to provide $250 payments to 57 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities next year, a $13 billion effort to offset an expected announcement this week that there will be no cost-of-living increase in Social Security payments.

The proposed $250 payment is equivalent to a 2% increase for the average retiree receiving Social Security benefits, the White House said. Notably, it would act as additional economic stimulus at a time when the government is concerned about rising joblessness.

A decline in the rate of inflation precluded any cost-of-living increase next year.

"These payments will provide aid to more than 50 million people in the coming year, relief that will not only make a difference for them, but for our economy as a whole," Mr. Obama said.

Administration officials said in a briefing that they had no plan to offset the $13 billion cost [TILB - of course not, why would they, just ask The Helicopter to turn those machines back on]

...

The new proposal comes as the Senate prepares to introduce legislation that would extend existing unemployment insurance benefits by 14 weeks for unemployed people in all 50 states, and by an additional six weeks in the 27 states with three-month unemployment rates running higher than 8.5%. [TILB - hell, that sounds awesome. If I you can clear $21k per year after taxes without working vs. maybe $30k before taxes with working, why work?]

People who receive the $250 payments proposed by Mr. Obama would be prohibited from receiving money from other stimulus-related programs next year. [HA! Fucking laugh line, that one. Drew Carey, is that you?]The White House said the cost of the proposal wouldn't damage the solvency of Social Security or other social insurance programs.[TILB - you can't damage what doesn't exist...]

...

[Hat Tip: LB]