Tag Archives: ron paul

Barnaby Is Wrong

21 Oct

From the Herald Sun:

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce has backed a plan to double redundancy payouts for politicians, saying job prospects for retiring MPs are limited.

The independent remuneration tribunal is considering doubling the resettlement allowance to $70,455 for federal MPs who lose their seats at elections.

Senator Barnaby Joyce says the idea has merit.

“If you leave parliament you have signed a political card which means the opportunities for a job are limited,” he said.

“They’re limited because people don’t like a partisan political figure in their office. It turns off half the client base.”

If true, then perhaps politicians should have thought about that before climbing on board the taxpayer-funded gravy train that is modern politics.

Barnaby has form for making even bigger calls regarding remuneration for politicians (Sep 2009):

Outspoken Senator Barnaby Joyce has called for Kevin Rudd’s salary to be almost trebled to $1 million as MPs yesterday defended another pay rise.

The Remuneration Tribunal’s decision to boost the base salary of federal politicians next week to $131,000 – an extra 3 per cent – comes just months after the Australian Fair Pay Commission refused to give 1.3 million workers on the lowest wage one cent extra.

But staring down tough economic times and volatile poll results, the Queensland Government yesterday said it would stand by its 2009 election commitment and keep state MPs’ salaries frozen.

Senator Joyce told The Courier-Mail that unless pay was comparable with the private sector, Federal Parliament would be filled with “lords, ladies and lunatics”.

Better that, I would argue, than the Parliament filled with clowns, lawyers, and halfwits we have now.

Your humble blogger would point readers – and Senator Joyce – to the fine example of 2012 US Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who has just given a brilliant speech outlining a Plan To Restore America, in which he set the standard for what politicians’ pay should be.

If it’s good enough for a US Congressman and potential US President, Barnaby, then it’s definitely more than good enough for our mob (from 7:37min):

“I have taken it upon myself that I will not take a salary any higher than the median* income of all Americans, which is $39,000″

Ron Paul is a real leader.

“To lead the people, walk behind them” – Lao Tzu

* For the Australian PM, that means a salary no higher than $44,146 per annum … even less for the rest.

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Barnaby Was Right – U.S. Congressional Budget Office, China Central Bank Confirm

20 Jun

From Bloomberg:

A U.S. government default on its debts would be a “dangerous gamble” that could easily cost taxpayers billions of dollars, the head of the Congressional Budget Office said today.

Doug Elmendorf told reporters that if the investors who buy federal debt begin demanding even modestly higher interest rates, to compensate for additional risk, it could quickly add more than $100 billion to the interest payments the government must make on its debt.

“It is a dangerous gamble because any government that has borrowed as much as ours has borrowed, and will need to borrow as ours will need to borrow, cannot take the views of its creditors lightly,” Elmendorf said today…

Indeed. One certainly can not take one’s creditors views lightly.

And America’s #1 creditor has said the USA is “playing with fire” in even considering a “technical” default on its debts (from Reuters):

Republican lawmakers are “playing with fire” by contemplating even a brief debt default as a means to force deeper government spending cuts, an adviser to China’s central bank said on Wednesday.

The idea of a technical default — essentially delaying interest payments for a few days — has gained backing from a growing number of mainstream Republicans who see it as a price worth paying if it forces the White House to slash spending, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

But any form of default could destabilize the global economy and sour already tense relations with big U.S. creditors such as China, government officials and investors warn.

Li Daokui, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, said a default could undermine the U.S. dollar, and Beijing needed to dissuade Washington from pursuing this course of action.

“I think there is a risk that the U.S. debt default may happen,” Li told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Beijing. “The result will be very serious and I really hope that they would stop playing with fire.”

Of course, the reality is that the USA is already defaulting on its debts.  By printing hundreds of billions of new dollars, they are devaluing the USD … meaning that holders of US Treasury bonds will be repaid in money that cannot buy as much as it used to.  2012 US Presidential candidate, and Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, Congressman Ron Paul has confirmed that this is exactly what is happening:

America is defaulting on its debts.  And the Chinese are not happy.

As a gentle reminder, here is what Senator Barnaby Joyce had to say about the US and its debts, almost 18 months ago (from the Brisbane Times, October 23, 2009):

The Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce is openly canvassing an economic upheaval that would dwarf the current global financial crisis, triggered by the US defaulting on its sovereign debt within the next few years.

In unusually pessimistic comments for a senior political figure, Senator Joyce said the US Government was running such large deficits and building up so much debt that it was in a similar position to Iceland or Germany before World War II.

… Senator Joyce insisted yesterday that the dangers to the global economy from the run-up in US private and public sector debt were real and should be debated.

”It is the elephant in the room,” Senator Joyce said. ”This is a huge risk that Australia faces. What is the game plan, what happens if it comes unstuck?

And from the Sydney Morning Herald, December 11, 2009:

The Opposition finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, believes the United States government could default on its debt, triggering an ”economic Armageddon” which will make the recent global financial crisis pale into insignificance.

Senator Joyce told the Herald yesterday he did not mean to alarm the public but there needed to be a debate about Australia’s ”contingency plan” for a sovereign debt default by the US or even by a local state government.

”A default by the US means complete economic collapse around the world and the question we have got to ask ourselves is where are we in that,” Senator Joyce said.

His warning came as the Rudd Government ramped up its attack on Senator Joyce as an economic extremist…

Senator Joyce said the chances of a US debt default were distant but real and politicians were not doing the electorate a favour by refusing to acknowledge the risk.

Barnaby was right.

100% right.

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2012 U.S. Presidential Candidate Ron Paul Agrees: Barnaby Was Right

10 Jun

U.S. Republican Congressman Ron Paul, the Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, who is again running for President in 2012, confirms that the USA is already defaulting on its debts.

From Think Progress, 6 June 2011:

Paul, who is running for President, claimed we are already in default but that the government was mitigating the effects through inflation.

KEYES: Congressman, there’s been a lot of heated rhetoric about this upcoming debt ceiling fight. Do you think it’s really going to be that bad if a default were to happen come August 2nd?

PAUL: Well, they’re not going to let it happen. They’re going to do it. But I try to tell people, a default is already occurring, it’s just how they do it. Governments always default, but most of the time, they don’t quit paying their bills because they’ll just print the money. They default by giving you money back that doesn’t have as much value and that’s when prices go up. So that’s how they’re defaulting and since there’s inflation back and hurting us, there’s plenty of default going on right now.

Barnaby was ridiculed up hill and down dale in late 2009 / early 2010, for daring to forewarn of the risk that the USA “could” default on its debts. He even lost his job as Shadow Finance spokesman, thanks to the flack he received from smart-arse, all-knowing and all-wise “experts” on all sides.

Not one of whom had the simple commonsense to see and predict the onrushing GFC.

Even I – a humble small businessman, and lowly blogger – was able to see that coming easily. Backed my intuition and commonsense, and put all my super into cash in May 2007, in defiance of “expert” financial advice.  And completely avoided any losses in the global sharemarket crash:

If even I could see that coming, then why – after millions of Aussies lost billions in the GFC – why do we continue to bend our knees and doff our caps to the very same so-called “experts” in the Treasury department, the Reserve Bank, and the financial media, who all completely and utterly failed us?  And, massively overpay them for crappy / wrong / non-existent “advice”?

Barnaby foresaw the risk of a coming US debt default back in late 2009, and had the courage to warn that Australia should have a “contingency plan”.

Now, a highly respected longstanding US congressman and 2012 Presidential candidate has outright conceded the truth … that Barnaby was right.

Perhaps some Australians might now think to heed Barnaby’s most recent warning.

Both of our major political parties are planning to steal our super to pay down ever-rising debts.

Just like the USA, France, Ireland, Poland, and many more have done, and are doing right now.

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