Since checking out the news today on this first day of spring is about as boring as watching paint dry, I guess it's up to me to say something interesting. So let me elaborate further on my ideas for the US Economy. I would hike the minimum wage but only about half the way to about $8.75. As you know I view the minimum wage primarily as a safety net for insuring against Below Market wages such as child sweat shops or people brought here from foreign countries in some kind of a slave ring or something. I think right now a 35% hike in the minimum wage would have possible unexpected effects on the economy if done all at once so I'd take a watch and wait attitude. In terms of the Fed I would STOP buying up all of these bad debt instruments and "making them good" and increasing their value and giving the big banks all that free money. And right now our government is actually PAYING banks NOT to lend this money out but to just hang on to it. It's a panacia for the very rich. With the money saved in NOT doing this I would pay down the Chinese debt. Remember they dropped the rate of their currency exchange so if it were lowered thirty percent, that would be an instant thirty percent discount on our debt repayments. I would END ALL tax subsedies in terms of expense write offs for any business locating outside of the United States. This is a big one. I would institute a broad fifty percent investment tax credit for new Capital expenditures to expand businesses in terms of plant and equipment. However I'd do it on a sliding divisor. Businesses of one million in capitalization or less, I would give them the whole fifty percent. Business of ten million in capitalization I'd give five percent, and businesses of one hundred million capitalization I would allow just a half a percent. I would institute a half percent tax on stock trading for the obvious reason. This syphens all sorts of cash out of the economy and only the rich with power program trade computers are able to do this. This would stabalize the stock market and also preserve capital for normal investors, who aren't that rich. I would freeze the assets of all Russian citizens in this country. My moves would tend to increase the value of the dollar and this should attract foreign investment - in terms of loans and such- - from other Europeans and Asians, in our economy, increasing our own capitalization. I would immediately end talks on the Trans Pacific trade agreement. I would do what Romney talked about but I'm not sure if he meant it. I would close these economic loopholes for the rich, and at the same time lower corporate taxes from 35 percent to twenty percent. I would also give a fifty percent tax amnesty for people with accounts here- - in other countries. I would not give total tax amnesty as the tea party wants, and I'd also do it for only six months. If they are serious about wanting to relocate here, I want to see some action and quick. This move isn't a permanent amnesty blanket. I would make personal loses due to "Acts of God" on their property- - tax deductable at the full rate, meaning they can deduct whatever rate they owe at on their highest income bracket. I would extend unemployment benefits. I would revive this idea of an Infrastructure government jobs program like the President wanted in 2011. If you are wondering whether rising interest rates would make the national debt harder to pay off- - I would only keep interest rates elevated for a few years and then check back and assess. The immigration bill would be a net plus for the US economy so I'd push again to pass that. And I think it's time we did that carbon tax they've been talking about discouraging fossel fuel use. At this stage of our economic recovery, the economy can stand the strain. But I would not institute any further direct taxes on gasoline or diesel because truckers are so valuable to commerce. It would ruin me in the polls. And one more thing. I would tax idle money- - that is money in T Bills and CD's and the like at a maximum rate of fifty percent, a dramatic hike from fifteen. I would raise capital gains taxes on property sales to twenty percent. Big changes in capital gains taxes can have a destabelizing effect on the economy. Incidently I would also encourage more metal coins in circulation. And I think it's time we stop production of the penny simply because nobody uses them and they're a nuicence. And I would place a thirty percent tax on Staten drugs, simply because I believe they are dangerous, and the government should tax most what it wants to discourage.
I just want to revisit that motor boat on a lake analogy once more. The reason why at one time it "made sense" is that it explained beautifully the doppler effect on light in the universe as one accelerates to a significant fraction or more, of the speed of light. Where the theory breaks down is that it assumes that "the lake" itself is a fixed and stationary point of reference, which it is not. There is no "stand still point" in Einstein's science, or Newton's for that matter. And as we said it assumes what I now accept as false of the "Jell-O theory of ether- - meaning that it has "viscosity" which is "resistance to movement through it, in case you were wondering. What the theory tried to illustrate was the turbulant water "wake" behind the boat forming a hyperbola- - - would be analogus to the whole universe- - and I mean the expanding one. That is wherever you still saw calm water this would be "outside the universe" in Hyperspace or something. I no longer subscribe to this model of a "speed limited" Universe. Also while the whole waves generated by the boat's motor- - illustrated the wave doppler effect for both in front and behind- - this too is but an optical illusion. One needs to study moving vector geometry to see the point. You see the "waves" of approaching and receding light sources- - are in actually the exact same size. The illusion comes from our relative movement either "with" or "against' the tide of the waves. But it's dinner time right now but maybe I'll look for a good photo for you people.
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