Author: Henry Barnard

I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.

Bearish

I’m bearish on the economy because I think this coming Democratic administration is guided by ideology and much of what they believe undermines business development and kills off jobs, so we will get what we got from Obama — a federal government that’s neutral to hostile to business with policies that unintentionally limit or even reduce jobs growth. Exactly what a stalled economy doesn’t need. At some point, this will show up as a sharp decline in the stock market, perhaps even a prolonged recession.

It may well be a good idea to start to invest elsewhere than in the US, as the US, so deeply divided politically and so disrupted economically, may well be a country in serious long-term decline. And add to that that asset prices like the stock market and the housing sector are seriously overvalued.

Biden’s Dumb Stimulus Plan

Keystone

Canceling the pipeline is another jobs-killing measure by our new president. This at a time when the unemployment rate has not recovered, but may be getting worse again. Fairy tale economics from this Democrat. Raising the minimum wage another jobs-killing measure, especially in states with lower cost of living.

These Democrats are ideologues. Reality isn’t an issue for them. They do what their ideology dictates — whatever the consequences.

Biden’s Dumb Stimulus Plan

Biden’s Dumb Stimulus Plan

Biden’s stimulus plan that raises the minimum wage, of course, undermines jobs by making employers pay more for their least expensive employees, so naturally what these employers will do is cut some of those jobs to protect their profit margins — this is especially true in states with a lower cost of living, as in many of the states in the South. This at a time when it is crucial to stimulate job growth. What’s the word for that. “Dumb” comes to mind.

The bulk of the program is this big giveaway to state government with deplorable finances — think New York and California. In other words, it rewards bad financial behavior by state governments with the most spendthrift mindsets. Another dumb.

Finally, it gives a huge amount of money to colleges and public schools, i.e., financing an education system that is already way overdeveloped to begin with. Another dumb.

And again we have this practice of giving money to people, which is part of the program which actually does address the immediate problem, but I ask you, is it smart for the federal government to be giving money to everyone — is that a smart practice in the long run? I think not.

Put another way, is it wise for the federal government, which is already so deeply in debt, to take on such an unprecedented amount of new debt? That’s what the big giveaway comes down to — an enormous expansion of federal government debt, which is already well beyond anyone’s real understanding before this stimulus plan is even put into effect. It mortgages our children’s future and their children’s future…and their children’s future.

What would make sense here is a massive infrastructure program by the federal government. What should have been done way back in the 2008 crisis but wasn’t. Are we about to repeat history?

Benign Protest

Uncertainty

What happens after you have a fraudulent election.

The canary in the coal mine on the election for me was Arizona — that Arizona would side with a Democrat. That’s Goldwater Arizona siding with a Democrat. Yeah, right. And pigs can fly.

Even many of the Democrats think the election was rigged.

In addition to uncertainty, you pretty much destroy any faith in future elections being at all honest, which means your sacred vote doesn’t actually matter very much. The edifice of American democracy gets rocked. Thus the new and cloying uncertainty.

Today’s Fascists

Benign Protest

The Antifa riots and incidents during the summer and fall were a lot more serious than this rather benign takeover of the Capitol building, but the Antifa rioters were given a pass, while the identified protesters of the Capitol building are being prosecuted rigorously. What a disparity! Clearly shows who controls the media. Making Antifa legit means that political violence is now the norm in American politics.

Storming the Capitol