I have been a REALTOR for over 34 years now. The National Association of REALTORS is our membership body. You have to be a member of NAR to be a member of the state associations (MAR), the local real estate boards (in my case, North Oakland County Board of REALTORS), and most importantly the multiple listing service (MLS).

In the October issue of REALTOR Magazine, the Editor in Chief, Stacey Moncrieff opined of her belief in government and how it basically takes care of us: clean water, air, safety, and other things. My email response:

Where to start? The problem with most pro-government people is that you assume that without government nothing gets done and people can't or won't take care of themselves, or will DIE. What arrogance. Clean drinking water? I'm pretty sure that I would have clean water sources, like my well, without governmental help. Clean air? Supposedly its so bad now WITH government that pollution and climate change is going to kill us all. Combat poverty? You mean the nearly $5 trillion dollars that has been confiscated from the haves and thrown at the have-nots (well, the have-not's bureaucracy anyway) since Johnson's administration isn't doing the job? That's government at work. Keep us safe? Been to Chicago lately or the southern border, or want to have some home protection that the 2nd Amendment guarantees but the Obama administration is doing its best to get rid of? That's government at work right now, too. Smart policies? The law requiring landlords to go through testing and licensing before they can remodel a home is totally preposterous. Where was NAR on that one?

Every time Washington, Lansing or the local village council passes something they tout as a positive the negatives outweigh those same positives. Every law they pass is another restriction on some one or some thing. Does Cash for Clunkers ring a bell? Go check out the prices and availability of used cars. Bailouts? Stimulus packages? Rousing successes. Obama's joke of a jobs bill? Designed to a) retain the teacher and union vote that we non-union independent contractors pay for, and b) a tool to blame Republicans for even though its his own Senate Democrats who won't bring the bill forward. A joke - and this is your faith in the current government.

The biggest NAR critics take issue with NAR's present and past policies because with almost every issue NAR has come down on the side of more government. In the past NAR has cheered every lowered interest rate (artificially low thanks to the Fed), which led to ever increasing up-tick in sales and prices which led to the bubble not just bursting but exploding, made sure the MID stays in place (subsidized by non-homeowner tax payers), and fought anything meaningful in the tax reform area (flat tax). NAR now has joined the 35,000 other lobbyists (influence peddlers and buyers) to help the politicians (moochers, looters, and crooks) make the "right" decisions (passing laws that help those who contribute the most to their campaign).

Not once, in my memory, and during my 34-year membership, has NAR pushed for ANY type of governmental reform that wasn't replaced with more and bigger government.

Ms. Moncrieff, you give your own views away - clearly - by stating you were "insulted" by Reagan's nine words. Now you laugh. But there are many people who get up at 6:30 every day to get an early start at work - to pay up to half of their hard-earned income to pay taxes to a corrupt and over-reaching government. A government that has grown way beyond its useful scope.

I guess the biggest irony of all is that NAR has forever been in bed with government, far too intrusive at all levels, while representing one of the biggest groups of rugged individuals who are hard-working, with no benefits, few demands, and only a desire to be left alone to pursue their goals and dreams on their own terms, make our own decisions of where and on what we spend our 16 hour workday commissions on, and keep the government out of our pockets.

If NAR wants to do something for real estate AND the country they should begin to back sound fiscal policies, not this big-government Keynesian crap, and lead us to a much-needed overhaul of the bloated, corrupt and ready to explode bubble that is the U.S. Federal government.

Yup, the great Socialist State of Oregon got bonus from the Feds for signing up more food stamp "clients". Jesus....

Read the article here

Ya think? Well, let's have the government take care of us even more then... moron
Here

The pussification of America has been going on a long time, led by the leftists, so we can all be a part of the great socialist experiment - you know, the one that has failed everywhere its been tried

Just read the totally off-base comments of the union thugs and supporters in this report. Of all the things that jumped out at me, Wisconsin educators currently pay 0.2 percent for their pensions and 4 to 6 percent of their health care costs.

POINT 2 PERCENT!?!?! So you can retire from the public trough TO the public trough and buy time-shares in Hawaii courtesy of your fellow taxpayers. Its probably similar in the Peoples State of Michigan...

And Obama... God, can't you just go to Kenya or some other socialist country that you love? What a tool...

Here's the article "Police Search for Senate Democrats Who Skipped Vote to Curtail Union Rights in Wisconsin"

"White House Budget Director Jack Lew hit the news shows early to defend the president's proposal, saying the budget makes "real cuts" while investing in priority programs.

"You've got to start somewhere," Lew told Fox News. He said the long-term plan is to draw down the deficit to a point that can stabilize the debt. According to officials, the goal is to make sure the debt stops increasing as a share of the economy by the middle of the decade.

"By the middle of the decade, we're paying our bills," Lew said."

Hey, Lew, can I not pay my bills until the middle of the decade?

Obama, that great fiscal genius, sends a $3.7 TRILLION dollar budget to Congress. Proclaiming a $1.1 trillion savings over 10 years. But accumulating $7.21 trillion in cumulative deficits over that period.

Not 3 months after you got your ass KICKED in elections you send this crap up. What is wrong with you statists? You have friends, grandchildren, etc. whose ass you are gonna kick back to the stone age with debt. For what? Your ideology. MORONS

LISTEN TO RON AND RAND PAUL!!!

Article

UPDATE:
Takeaway sentence from ABC News’s description of the Obama budget unveiled today:

“At no point in the president’s 10-year projection would the U.S. government spend less than it’s taking in.”

$3.73 trillion. $1.6 trillion deficit this year alone. $7 trillion in deficits over 10 years

UPDATE II:
"President Obama projects that the gross federal debt will top $15 trillion this year, officially equalling the size of the entire U.S. economy, and will jump to nearly $21 trillion in five years’ time."

Article

UPDATE III:
"President Obama released his budget this morning.  Rather than focusing on Washington’s over-spending problem, the budget calls for higher taxes on families and small businesses to pay for even more government spending.  Under the Obama budget, tax revenues will grow from 14.4% of GDP in 2011 to 20% of GDP in 2021.  By comparison, the historical average is only 18% of GDP."

Article

From Murray Rothbard via LewRockwell.com... he wrote the article "Why the war? The Kuwait Connection in May '91. His concluding two paragraphs:

"Bechtel, the Rockefellers, and the Saudi royal family have long had an intimate connection. After the Saudis granted the Rockefeller dominated Aramco oil consortium the monopoly of oil in Saudi Arabia, the Rockefellers brought their pals at Bechtel in on the construction contracts. The Bechtel Corporation, of course, has also contributed George Shultz and Cap Weinberger to high office in Republican administrations. To complete the circle, KA director Simon's former boss Suliman Olayan was, in 1988, the largest shareholder in the Chase Manhattan Bank after David Rockefeller himself.

The pattern is clear. An old New Left slogan held that "you don't need a weatherman to tell you how the wind is blowing." In the same way, you don't need to be a "conspiracy theorist" to see what's going on here. All you have to do is be willing to use your eyes."

Here's the permalink to the article.

You DON'T have to be a conspiracy theorist to see the connections in all the government circles. Hell, you can't even think of doing anything at Treasury without having been at Goldman Sachs... hundreds of circles...

The people in Washington, including the President, are supposed to be so smart, smarter than all of us. That is, of course, bullshit. But for the sake of argument, let's pretend they are smart. If that is so, how come their economic policy is moronic?

Its the ideology, stupid.

Speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce he said all the things a good socialist says:
 "But as we work with you to make America a better place to do business, ask yourselves what you can do for America. Ask yourselves what you can do to hire American workers, to support the American economy, and to invest in this nation. That’s what I want to talk about today – the responsibilities we all have to secure the future we all share"...

"Of course, your responsibility goes beyond recognizing the need for certain standards and safeguards. If we’re fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports to help you compete, the benefits can’t just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They should be shared by American workers, who need to know that expanding trade and opening markets will lift their standard of living as well as your bottom line."

You know, I get real tired of hearing about "working men and women" with the definition only applying to union workers and their thugs running the unions.

Mr. President, you continue to be full of shit. Here's the proper answer to you and all the non-experienced Ivy League idiots who can't run your own lemonade stand who think they can run the world economy:

Bruce Josten, the chamber's chief lobbyist, said, "Companies first, unlike a government, have to sustain their operation, and that requires being able to pay your employees, vendors, suppliers and bondholders.

"Bottom line, the most patriotic thing a company can do is ensure it is in business and take steps to stay in business; otherwise, everyone loses and more people lose their jobs."

Business leaders afterward said they were skeptical, at best.

Scott Holman, the CEO of Bay Cast Inc., a steel foundry in Bay City, said it was really all about demand.

"As a small business owner, I don't, and can't, go out and hire people just to hire people," he said.

"A real discussion about the budget must begin now—our economy cannot wait any longer. For 19 months, unemployment has hovered over 9%. After a nearly $1 trillion government stimulus and $2 trillion in Federal Reserve stimulus, the Washington establishment still believes that we can solve this problem with more federal spending and the printing of more money.

That's ridiculous, and the American people have had enough."

Here's the whole article.

The Fed and Job Creation     
    
Unemployment continues to plague our economy.  In spite of constant claims that we have just turned the corner into recovery, the jobs reports remain grim with no real signs of improvement.  While Keynesian economists and big government apologists scratch their heads about persistent unemployment in spite of unprecedented government “investment” in the economy, free market economists understand the problem perfectly well.  In short, they understand that we are looking to the Federal Reserve to solve an unemployment crisis that the Fed itself largely created.

For example, the Fed is supposed to maintain full employment as half of its “dual mandate”.  But the Fed simply has the wrong tools to do this.  In fact, its credit expansion and manipulation of interest rates cause harm when they are applied to “help” the economy.  As we saw with the housing boom and bust, Fed-created inflation cannot be sustained without harmful consequences.  The Fed’s artificial boom led to the unemployment we’re suffering today.  The Fed is not a small business or a manufacturer that creates value or increases productivity to sustain real job growth.  It literally destroys value by printing more money, and distributing it through sweetheart deals to well connected banks and corporations (including foreign banks!).  The only success the Fed has had in maintaining full employment has been on Wall Street where it props up crony banks and investment houses to prevent them from going bankrupt as they should.  Instead, they survive to malinvest another day while their executives enjoy jackpot bonuses.  

The Fed also pumped up employment in the housing industry with artificially low interest rates that created an unsustainable demand for housing.  Millions jumped into this sector when the money was loose and the bubble inflating.  Besides the many who bought houses they could not afford and now face foreclosure, there were also those who became employed in housing related fields.  These people invested time and money in training and spent years establishing careers in real estate, mortgage lending, construction and contracting, careers that all vanished into thin air with the burst of the bubble.  Now they face considerable disruption in their lives as they struggle with unemployment, underemployment and decisions about retraining for different careers.  This amounts to a tremendous amount of unnecessary waste that would not have occurred had the housing industry been allowed to develop naturally according to market demands.  

Jobs are properly created by entrepreneurs who are willing to work hard and take calculated risks.  Jobs are also created through real increases in productivity, resulting from re-invested profits or conservative borrowing at market interest rates.  But the Fed has made those risks impossible to calculate, and made borrowing money artificially cheap.  As a result, economic growth has been chilled while unemployment skyrockets.

Until those in power understand the harm they do with central economic planning, we will continue to slide backwards and lose jobs.  The Fed needs to stay out of the job creating business altogether and the federal government needs to focus on its constitutional duties.  Just when we need government to back off, we hear about more government intervention in the economy in the form of more spending, only they call it “investment”.  It is more properly called “malinvestment”, and the resources that are funneled into industries by government policies will only hurt employment more in the long run.

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