The government revised upward its initial reading of third quarter GDP from 2 percent to 2.7 percent in a move that was widely expected by economists.
And everyone said “yawn.”
That’s because the GDP growth was more government puffery. The increase was borrowed or freshly minted money. The government merely accelerated spending, filing one hole, while digging another- deeper- hole, in Obama’s latest 60-year-same-as-cash financing offer.
At least that’s what the markets have felt apparently- reacting with shrug to another wave of “good” news coming out of the government about how great things are for the folks back home.
Home sales, or least contracts for home sales, have risen to a six-year high, unemployment claims fell again, although still high. Obama has promised that he’s gonna finally make the rich “pay”; and Warren Buffett tells us that those punitive measures will boost the morale of the middle class.
And the miasma of economic data and lavish discourse on it serves as further proof that whatever else may be happening, the economic numbers are disconnected from the everyday lives of ordinary persons as are the people who run Washington, London and Paris
Because you are kidding yourself if you think that anything coming out of any of the Western capitals- and the mouths of so-called Western billionaire capitalists- are about any “class” besides the “ruling” class.
If Warren Buffett wants to boost the morale of middle class so badly, he should:
1) Pay his own taxes; and 2) boost the paychecks of his middle class workers, not their taxes.
Or he could do us all a favor and just die, like he should have ten years ago.
It would have been fun to watch the government confiscate his wealth and do all the things Buffett advocates for. You know? Like NOT building the Keystone Pipeline. But you see, Buffett’s private railroad has the contract to haul the oil that the Keystone Pipeline would haul for a fraction of the price.
And in dying the Carbuncle of Omaha would have been able to leave his considerable fortune to the government before he implemented his newest, spiffy tax-avoidance plan that makes sure little of his fortune goes for taxes.
No death tax for King Warren!
And since Buffett has already started transferring his wealth to private charity instead of the government, one might be tempted to ask why.
Maybe it’s because Buffett, as the icon billionaire of the technocrat class, doesn’t want follow the rules that he metes out for the rest of us. Man, what a congressman he would make for the left side of the aisle.
But if the guy had any of the “fairness” fortitude that he preaches for everyone else, then as the number one cheerleader for taxing the rich he would be handing over his money to the benevolent government for which he pimps.
“I was wired at birth to allocate capital,” Buffett told Fortune Magazine, “and was lucky enough to have people around me early on - my parents and teachers and [his wife] Susie - who helped me to make the most of that.”
Yeah; and a cooperative, fawning government.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m tired of sanctimonious billionaires who lecture the rest us that we need to change the system that made them billionaires so that you and I can’t become billionaires- sanctimonious or otherwise.
Because, the Warren Buffett story was made possible by the very tax policies and investment-friendly environment advocated by supply-siders since the Reagan Revolution that Buffett now opposes.
Buffett has also benefited from the generous growth of the federal government, which he still supports. It’s no coincidence that one of Buffett’s most successful holdings remains Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO), a company that was modeled on the stability and growth of the federal workforce.
So, of course Buffett feels that it’s his birthright to allocate capital for the rest of us.
“I told Susie I was going to be rich,” Buffett also confessed to Fortune. “That wasn't going to be because of any special virtues of mine or even because of hard work, but simply because I was born with the right skills in the right place at the right time.”
And after him, the deluge.
Thanks a lot, Warren.
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