This blog again finds me in Coronado. Barbara and I wanted to survey the damage from the Easter morning earthquake that hit Mexicali and parts of California including San Diego. The damage here was a cracked mirror and pieces of material from the ceiling and breaks in the wall paper. We are happy that it was not worse.

      Now that the government health care bill is a fait accompli, our great Leader and his entourage are leading this nation into this unpopular bill, despite the following: The majority of the people did not want it; doctors do not want it; half the Congress doesn’t want it, polls show that people are satisfied with their existing health care; insurance premiums will rise and not decline; the doctor patient relationship will be compromised; rationing of health care will occur and private health insurers will be ruined. There are many other negatives in the health care bill.

      Morgan Stanley used to provide subscriptions to Business Week for some of us who were considered large producers and I enjoyed the magazine. After I retired in February of 2002, I continued my subscription at my expense. After a time, the subscription was cancelled by me because in my opinion the magazine became agenda driven and more liberal than I cared to read. I note that Bloomberg L.R. bought the magazine in December. The magazine had been unprofitable. I now subscribe to Forbes because of their very competent writers. Of course the internet has cut into income of most magazines. It is a strange coincidence that liberal leaning newspapers and magazines are suffering from lower readership and subscriptions.

      Energy secretary Steven Chu wants to keep our fossil fuels in the ground but is a great supporter of funding wind and solar research. According to an IBD editorial citing a study about the administration’s energy policy: the U.S. economy will suffer $2.3 trillion in lost opportunity costs over the next two decades and those monies could go a long way in reining in runaway deficits and creating economic growth.

      This just in: The Governor of California, because of the British Pete’s oil spill off of Louisiana said that he can’t understand why we ever would want to drill offshore. He is giving up and letting other nations drill for us, thus increasing our costs of energy even further.

      The prevailing opinion on climate change is the following: That the climate is warming due to man’s emissions of carbon dioxide and continued emissions will lead to catastrophe. Professor Richard S. Lindzen is a professor of meterology at M.I.T. and does not agree with the statement above and has discussed “climategate” in detail.

      My past tirades about the need to reform state and city defined benefit plans is paying off. You now cannot pick up a newspaper and find a story that is not about the need for reform and even the need to switch to (401(K) plans.

      The current battle by the state of Arizona to defend its borders has turned into a ridiculous contest by the citizens of Arizona who know the issues and the so-called liberals from San Francisco and Santa Cruz and other professional pickets and rioters. Arizona alone spends $3 billion a year to educate, medicate, and incarcerate illegal aliens. The federal govt has done nothing to stop this influx of illegals. Obama and his liberals are claiming racism and profiling. Arizona is just trying to enforce existing law. Arizona has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants and is the state with the most illegal border crossings. One way to shut up San Francisco, Santa Cruz and L.A. might be to provide busses for the illegals to find new abodes, sources of food and health benefits in the afore mentioned cities and perhaps they will take a different viewpoint. One caveat that I see is that the Democrats will blame all of this on the Republicans in an attempt to capture potential votes. The Republicans had better have an alternate plan and show that they are not mean spirited but are looking for solutions like the old Bracero Program. A guest worker program allowing those looking for work to enter legally to fill jobs and provide a means to become citizens in an organized way.

      In the April 5 / April 12, 2010 edition of the Weekly Standard, the battle between the supply side economists and the demand side Keynesians is discussed in a understandable way (at least from my perspective) and may the best side win. Laffer had made the case for cutting tax rates and Cheney was worried that such cuts would diminish govt revenues. Laffer argued that tax rate cuts would actually bring in more recvenues. Here begins the Laffer curve as Laffer drew a chart showing the relationship between tax rates and revenue. As for the Keynsians, their solution was more spending, printing money, raising taxes, more inflation and "bracket creep”. To supply-siders, the policy mix was just the opposite. Stabilize the dollar, cut tax rates. Loosen fiscal policy and strong monetary policy would create jobs and capital. Reagan’s victory over Carter elevated supply-siders to more than a theory. Reagan began a 30% cut in the marginal income tax rate. As the Reagan tax cuts were enacted and the”seven fat years” followed as supply side economics became law. Between 1982 and 2007, the USA experienced the greatest period of stable growth in its history. Does the current Obama economic strategy and its Keynesian economics in any way expect to surpass the 1982-2007 exper

Gary E. Marsella

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