Twinkies Are Back, Union Jobs Are NOT

It seems that Hostess Twinkies are back.

Hostess jobs are back.+

Hostess union jobs are NOT back!

The total of jobs is fewer than before – about 1,700 compared to 2,500 before and none of the 1,700 are union jobs.

The new Hostess corporation has been taken over by the same hedge fund that had previously turned around Log Cabin syrup, and Aunt Jemima, The company has reorganized the delivery system, and the sales outlets as well. These are things that they could not have previously done under union rules.

It almost is enough to get me to buy Twinkies!

Economics Versus Ideology

Earlier I mis-stated the situation in Washington, D,C. When I misstated the situation regarding Wal-Mart: The City Council specifically target Wal-Mart and their three currently constructed stores (in various stages of completion), and three planned stores, by forcing them to pay  a $12.50 “Living Wage.

What I misstated was that the rules by which they targeted Wal-Mart. I stated that it covered stores of more than 75,000 square feet, which was true, but it also excluded stores that were UNION, and stores with less than $1 billion in sales. In effect it excludes EVERYONE except Wal-Mart.

The next move is up to the D.C, Mayor Gray, who can veto the ordinance. He is in a hot spot because he personally went to the CEO of  Wal-Mart to lobby him to build the stores on the one hand, but he is strongly supported by labor on the other hand.

If the Mayor vetoes the measure, then the Council COULD override him, and if they do, Wal-Mart the must decide whether to build the final three stores, and even to finish the two almost finished. Further, Wal-Mart is not just a store, it is an anchor tenant. Many stores build next to and near Wal-Mart, and without completed anchor tenants, they will look elsewhere. One large mid-west grocery chain has announced that in one of the locations where they were to build, they are watching the proceedings carefully.

Still, one City Council member says they no longer have to “beg” stores to come to the Washington inner city.

This could be a “teaching moment.”

Reward Your Supporters, Punish Your Opponents

I’ll just bet that, like me, you have wondered whatever happened to those striking Hostess Corporation workers who, unwilling to take half a loaf, drove the company into bankruptcy.

And, I’ll just bet that you, just like me didn’t think a Democratic administration would allow workers to suffer for their stupidity.

And we would both be right! The administration found that the loss of their jobs was the result of foreign competition, and therefore the workers were eligible for 130 weeks of benefits and training according to Reason Magazine, despite the fact that foreign competition had nothing to do with their circumstances.

Rand Paul Is Making a Mark

Rand Paul must be making a mark.

I was watching Bill O’Reilly discuss Paul, and when FOX cut to an advertisement I switched to MSNBC and they were talking about Rand Paul.

(I love Rand Paul.)

What turned out to be news to me is that Paul has a budget — or more appropriately, a Budget. Even more news to me is that the Progressive House Conference has a Budget. (It calls for a top tax rate of 49%, and a Trillion and a half dollar increase in overall taxes.

Those two budgets join the Senate Democratic Budget, and the House Republican Budget.

It seems everyone in Washington has a Budget except the president who is required bylaw to submit a budget between the first week in January and the first week in February. Obviously, he has not done that and when he does that means five Budgets.

Rand Paul’s budget calls for a 17% flat tax. I still await the time when that idea’s time has come, but right now the nation is in punishing the successful.

 

 

And, In Other Big City News…

I read that 47% of the property taxable homes in Detroit do not pay their property tax.

Then they complain that the services don’t exist, so why pay property taxes!

Of course you see the conundrum, and, to be fair, probably they do also. The report says that looking at 77 city blocks, as an example, on average just one person in each block pays their property tax.

I thought that the Obama administration had solved the auto industry problem, and since General Motors is headquartered in Detroit!

Apparently, not. Reports are that the unfunded liability of the city is so high that the Governor of the state cannot find anyone to take it over for a turnaround. Just as a side note, Forbes Magazine just listed the 20 Most Miserable Cities in the US, and unsurprisingly, Detroit stands number ONE! Flint, Michigan stands number two!

(The state has taken over Flint, Michigan among other smaller cities.)

In other Detroit news about which you may not care except in the abstract, the former Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, has missed paying his court required restitution to the city, so his Mother has paid the required $500 for the second month:

(He owes $854,000. You do the math as to how long it will take at $500 a month…)

“Kilpatrick, officials said, has had trouble earning money in recent months for two reasons: One, he’s on trial in federal court in Detroit for alleged public corruption; Secondly, he’s got a tether on his ankle for a parole violation and can’t leave the state.

Still, he managed to get his restitution payment in on time this month, thanks to his mother, the former Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, who made the $500 payment on Wednesday.”

http://www.freep.com/article/20130222/NEWS0102/130222067/Kwame-Kilpatrick-s-mom-makes-his-500-monthly-restitution-payment-to-Detroit

 

 

 

 

“Hold Still While I Hit You Again” (Part Two)

My friend Richard Rider, who was a Financial Manager before becoming the head of San Diego Tax Fighters, has an excellent Letter to the Editor in a recent Wall Street Journal.

(Just as an aside, he sued the State of California a few years back, won, and saved the California taxpayers BILLIONS in taxes!)

• LETTERS
• February 7, 2013

State Taxes Provide Big Incentives, One Way or Another

Regarding your editorial “The State Tax Reformers” (Jan. 30): Here’s what everyone has missed concerning state income taxes. For the really rich (people with over $2 million income), in 2013 the deductibility of state and local taxes (income, property and other taxes) is 80% disallowed. The effect can be dramatic.

Consider the recent flap concerning the hapless Phil Mickelson who spoke out about the new, higher taxes. Between the 29% California income-tax increase on millionaires (to 13.3%) and the loss of the deductibility on federal returns, his 2013 net California income tax rate will be 12.3%. In 2011, it was 6.7%. That’s an astonishing 83.6% increase.

When you make that much income and have relatively few deductions (even when deductions were allowed before 2013), you seldom if ever trigger the Alternative Minimum Tax. Mr. Mickelson earns income with relatively few deductions, tax credits, etc., so he’s probably been paying the full rate for many years. It’s only the returns where special income (some municipal-bond income, for instance) or massive deductions are used that the AMT is triggered—ironically, mostly for incomes below $1 million.

In 2005, the maximum California tax went up from 9.3% to 10.3% for those with over a million-dollar income. At the time, the state income tax was fully deductible. With a 35% maximum federal tax bracket, that meant that the increase cost the rich a net 0.65%.

With the changes I’ve discussed, the 2013 net California income-tax increase is 5.6 percentage points—8.6 times higher than the 2005 increase. Only a fool would think that such a massive increase would not motivate many of the wealthy to depart California.

Richard Rider

Chairman

San Diego Tax Fighters

San Diego

Homeless! (Again!)

There was a letter to the VoiceofSan Diego claiming that the people have become desensitized to the homeless problem, to which I replied:

Desensitized? Hardly. There is more printer ink and pixels applied to the problem each Winter than any other single subject.

My problem, so often expressed as to be seen as a common scold, is that the problem can be solved easily by 8 am tomorrow.

This past week I attended a Memorial Service at a Mega church in Carlsbad along wit HUNDREDS of fellow attendees. We entered the facility past an unused kitchen, flanked by multiple bathroom facilities, also unused, into a  heated and air conditioned facility so large that it housed a full court  basketball facility whose baskets folded into the enormous ceiling.

That facility, multiplied by double and possibly triple digit numbers, dot San Diego County — and they all sit unused tonight as I write.

Their leader, a man called Jesus, ordered his followers to  help the helpless, the poor and the downtrodden, but the Churches built to worship his message sit empty while the homeless shiver.

The congregations of these churches, congregations that listen to his message every week, include Doctors, nurses, Psychiatrists,  Social Workers, employers, beauticians, clothiers, etc. — exactly the people needed to minister to those in the homeless populations.

This is a solvable problem. Tonight. If 100 ministers would simply do that which their leader told them to do.

Will this be discussed at the VOSD discussion on homelessness? Of course not. No one wants to challenge the orthodoxy of religion by pointing out this obvious hypocrisy.

Heat, air conditioning, bathrooms, space, food preparation facilities, and professional help, all without a dime of taxpayer money. All sitting empty tonight, every night.

‘What would Jesus do?”

Hold Still While I Punch You!

The news that Phil Nicholson is considering leaving California because of his total tax burden of more than 62% should not be a surprise. If he moved to Texas, he would reduce his taxes by 14%.

There is some pushback to him making that announcement. Apparently he is supposed to stand still while being financially hurt.

Tiger Woods moved from California to Florida one day before he signed his multi-million dollar contract with Nike.

I know of a high tech North County firm that left for Utah over the Christmas holidays, leaving an empty building and a dozen workers on unemployment, and taking business  taxes, and persona taxes of the owner and more than a dozen highly skilled employees who agreed to relocate (moving expenses paid by the owner.)

People will not stand still to be injured, either physically or financially, and with modern transportation they can go where they are wanted, and away from the pain.

Once inertia is overcome, movements gain speed.

Europe?

I do not understand liberal infatuation with Europe, now officially in the second dip of recession. They are in WORSE shape than we are (higher Debt and higher unemployment rates –by far) because of the very policies that liberals ask the US to emulate!

This from today’s WaPo:

“Confronting the reality of deep budget cuts, higher taxes and piles of debt that have hindered any prospect of recovery, Italy, Spain and Greece are battling what economists predict will be yet another year of brutal recession. Spain, in fact, may face a downturn even worse than the one seen in 2012, with its still-troubled regions and banks potentially prompting a bid for fresh bailout assistance. Even mighty Germany and France, the anchors of the 17-nation euro zone, potentially face weaker growth or stagnation this year.

Economists say those issues are set to once again make Europe the largest drag on the fragile global economy, dampening, for instance, demand for U.S. exports in the world’s single-largest trading bloc and home to 500 million consumers.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/european-leaders-hail-breakthrough-in-debt-crisis/2013/01/04/7e32429c-55a0-11e2-89de-76c1c54b1418_story.html?tid=wp_ipad

This is the liberal model?

Spare me! It’ s like asking the Padres to use the Chicago Cubs or Washington Nationals as their model.

Buffett Fires — But He Is O.K.

The Warren Buffett owned newspaper, The Manassas News & Messenger closed today after 143 years of publication, letting go the entire staff plus 72 other employees from a company his corporation bought just last June.

And you thought that was what those slimy, capricious, evil private equity firms like Bain Capital –private equity firms — operated like that.

Will the liberals criticize this?

No enemies on the left.