BerkAdvisory

Why government spending destroys value...from the EVA pitchman: Joel Stern

Mortgage Rates Continue to Plummet - 30 year fixed at 3.32%!

BERK: Refinance or buy now - I mean right now...the government has bailed out big banks, public and private unions, delinquent homeowners and others --- now's your chance to get a bailout too - borrow money...it's all the rage and the housing market looks poised to breakout...look at this chart on thirty year mortgages.  Wow!

 

 

 

Line up at bank and buy a house...now...borrow money NOW!

At that outstanding, almost unimaginable level, everyone who doesn't own a home should be willing to stand in line outside a bank for however long it takes to qualify for a mortgage, and then turn around and buy just about any home on the market. The Fed has succeeded in creating the housing market's biggest "blue plate special" of all time. Come and get it! A once in a lifetime opportunity to lock up unbelievably low fixed-rate financing and buy a home at a price that's not going to last much longer.

Scott Grannis,  Calafia Beach Pundit

Free Enterprise Strikes Again - Manufacturing Jobs Coming Back to the U.S.

Energy Costs & Reshoring in the USA

No one is talking about “peak oil” anymore. Instead, the buzz is all about the technological revolution in the energy industry, which is dramatically boosting the proven reserves of oil and natural gas. The epicenter of this revolution is the United States. However, the new technologies are being introduced around the world in France, Poland, China, and other countries that might be suitable candidates. The plunge in the price of natural gas in the United States is likely to lead a global decline in energy costs. The price differential between crude oil and natural gas may be starting to decline after having spiked at a record high earlier this year. Cheap natural gas prices at home and rapidly rising labor costs in China should boost US manufacturing. A new study by the Hackett Group found that US companies are exploring reshoring as an option for nearly 20% of their offshore manufacturing capacity between 2012 and 2014. “This repatriated capacity could roughly offset the jobs that will otherwise move offshore, indicating that the great migration of manufacturing offshore over the past several decades is stabilizing.” The Hackett Group's research found that the cost gap between the US and China has shrunk by nearly 50% over the past eight years, and is expected to stand at just 16% by 2013. This trend is largely driven by rising labor costs in China and falling energy costs in the US. Last Thursday, Reuters reported: “Vast reserves of natural gas and oil unlocked from underground shale deposits have slashed the price of U.S. natural gas to a fraction of costs in Europe and Asia, making it some of the cheapest energy in the world. That is cutting production costs at U.S. factories, making 'Made in America' a more attractive option and driving investment in everything from foundries to chemical plants. The shale energy revolution could also turn the United States into a net exporter of many fuels in little more than a decade, transforming energy from the economy's Achilles' heel to a source of strength.” If environmental concerns raised by new drilling techniques don’t lead to regulations that snuff out the boom, America will become a net energy exporter in just over a decade. Truck stops around the nation are adding tanks of LNG because it is substantially cheaper than diesel. Trucks transport roughly three-quarters of American freight, so low

via blog.yardeni.com

Why So Many Intellectuals Sound Good But Are Often "Wrong By Miles"

 

Democratic Economic Policies - They Don't Work Except in the Minds of Intellectuals

Obama administration hides policy decisions behind science.

 

BERK: The "professionalization of the Federal Government" with a bunch of intellectuals that are just now finally getting to make policy decisions are not used to being accountable to anything but the opinions of the other intellectuals.

And with the creation of all these Czars and intellectuals who are "world famous scientists, Nobel winners, etc" the centralization of the US government advances - economic liberlization suffers, prosperity declines. 

 

 

 

The Courage to Undo Will Create Jobs and a Boom: Why Government Spending Can't Create Jobs

Government spending cannot create jobs because any spending with the objective of creating jobs, not surplus value (sometimes called wealth or the expanding pie) will destroy "unseen" jobs - that's what we are witnessing. 

Watch the short video to see why all this bluster out of Washington is nonsensical but dangerous.  The President and the Republicans need the courage to undo the mess they have made over the past decade.

1. Immediately cut government spending by 20% (It's up 30% just since 2008!)

2. Pleadge no new taxes on capital or labor

3. Freeze regulations

 

 

The Scariest Jobs Chart is not Funny Anymore: It’s Time for Washington to Shut Up… and Put Up Some Jobs

he Daunting Task Ahead

Forget slow. Glaciers move faster than the recovery in the jobs market following the Great Recession.

Granted, the depth of the decline in job losses was much worse than any other recession since World War II. But the latest employment info reveals that the pace of recovery is flat lining.

via www.wallstreetdaily.com

The President’s Do-Over; He Does Not Deserve One Because He's Wrong

To Republicans, this agenda holds out the possibility that a second Obama term might feature more opportunities for compromise and common ground. But to voters pondering whether to make that second term happen, it amounts to a request for a presidential do-over — a tacit admission that the White House’s first-term agenda has been less than successful, and a plea for a second chance to get things right.

via www.nytimes.com