JustFactsDaily.com released some new IRS data showing in 2013 there was $159 Billion in unpaid federal taxes. Here is what they found:
Per the IRS’s Fiscal Year 2013 Financial Statement, 78% of unpaid taxes that taxpayers have agreed they owe or courts have ruled they owe are “estimated to be uncollectible due primarily because of the economic situations of the taxpayers.”
In the past few weeks the United States military launched action against ISIS in the middle east. Part of the strategy in killing the Jihadist group was launching Tomahawk cruise missiles on them. The fully burdened cost of a new Tomahawk cruise missile is roughly $1.6 million.
No matter what “great” numbers the federal government puts out about unemployment, one indicator clear thinking investors look at in the health of a nation is labor force participation. Graph is courtesy ZeroHedge.
While by now everyone should know the answer, for those curious why the US unemployment rate just slid once more to a meager 5.9%, the lowest print since the summer of 2008, the answer is the same one we have shown every month since 2010: the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which in September slide from an already three decade low 62.8% to 62.7% – the lowest in over 36 years, matching the February 1978 lows. And while according to the Household Survey, 232K people found jobs, what is more disturbing is that the people not in the labor force, rose to a new record high, increasing by 315,000 to 92.6 million!
The United States federal government starts a new fiscal year today. The President proposed a budget in March but has not worked with the Senate or House in finalizing an actual budget. U.S. federal government spending will occur through later appropriations legislation that is signed into law.
Here’s a snapshot of 2015 proposed spending and tax revenues from the President. Deficits and debt still accumulate at an historical rate.
January 28th, the Sioux Falls Argus Lead newspaper won a case against the USDA in trying to get data on food stamps handed out in the United States.
For almost three years, the USDA, which runs the food stamp program, tenaciously fought to keep this information secret. They refused to hand it over when the newspaper made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. They refused again when the newspaper filed an administrative appeal. And they fought hard and won when the newspaper brought them to federal court in South Dakota.
But that all changed on January 28 when another federal court ordered the USDA to hand over the information. The U.S. Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, struck down the South Dakota judge’s ruling, and held that the public and the newspaper are entitled to this information. The court brought a little sunlight to the USDA bureaucracy, and even quoted Justice Brandeis who said that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
This is a major victory for many groups who have been wanting to see where the $80 Billion/year program gets spent. Food stamps for some reason have turned into a taboo topic but the mounting reports of fraud and waste are too hard to ignore like this one.
Nona Clark operates a small Oregon convenience store. “In order to take food stamps, we have items like can meat, fruits and vegetables. No one buys this stuff and we have to throw it away because it expires,” she said.
“All your food stamp customers ever buy is candy; chips and cokes, then turn around and buy beer and cigarettes with cash,”
$80 Billion/year also promotes cronyism where businesses who accept food stamps do not want it to go away.
Retail chains that accept food stamps are fighting a regulatory initiative to make public store-by-store data on their participation in the $80 billion government program.
The 30-day comment period closed Sept. 10, and the 539 responses it generated included dozens from corporate retailers and food industry trade groups ardently opposing transparency on food stamp transactions, as well as small convenience store owners making the same case.
The best indicator of inflation is the prices you pay for everyday goods. I have a saying, the best economist is the consumer. Most consumers will self monitor the prices paid on goods they frequent. The picture below is a 2012 menu from Five Guys Burgers. The address is listed on top of the store location and the date of print is lower right hand corner.
I decided to go to the store website of the same address online to compare prices. You can view it yourself here at this link. Here are the price comparisons of 2014 and 2012.
Hamburger $5.79/$5.19 14.4% increase
Cheeseburger $6.49/$5.89 10% increase
Bacon Burger $6.69/$5.99 11.6% increase
Bacon Cheeseburger $7.29/$6.49 12.3% increase
Not all price have gone up. Drinks and fries have stayed the same. Hot dogs and Sandwiches have also increased.
Data is coming in for public pensions carried by local and state governments in reference to debt held.
The 25 largest U.S. public pension systems face about $2 trillion in unfunded liabilities, showing that investment returns can’t keep up with ballooning obligations, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
The 25 biggest systems by assets averaged a 7.45 percent return from 2004 to 2013, close to the expected 7.65 percent rate, Moody’s said in a report released Thursday. Yet the New York-based credit rater’s calculation of liabilities tripled in the eight years through 2012, according to the report.
Public supporters of government pensions have always maintained the workers have properly foot the bill but the report says otherwise.
“Despite the robust investment returns since 2004, annual growth in unfunded pension liabilities has outstripped these returns,” Moody’s said. “This growth is due to inadequate pension contributions, stemming from a variety of actuarial and funding practices, as well as the sheer growth of pension liabilities as benefit accruals accelerate with the passage of time, salary increases and additional years of service.”
Read the rest here at Money News
Local Indiana butchers have been informed pork prices will increase by Christmas. Ham will be up by almost $1/lb. More data has come out supporting the jump in price on beef. Beef herds at their lowest in decades going below 30 million. That is a 11.8% decline since 2007.
College enrollment declined by close to half a million (463,000) between 2012 and 2013, marking the second year in a row that a drop of this magnitude has occurred. The cumulative two-year drop of 930,000 was larger than any college enrollment drop before the recent recession, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from the Current Population Survey released today. The Census Bureau began collecting data on college enrollment in this survey in 1966.
Read the rest here
I am about to finish up the book pictured above. Peter Schweizer does a good analysis of how politicians are not just some innocent group of people corrupted by money but actually prey upon business by threatening to use their power on them unless some cash is thrown their way. Schweizer also touches on the people connected to politicians who help write legislation that then “Cash In” after a law is passed with big lobbying firms because the legislation is so complex. Their services can go for up to $1,000 an hour at some places. Here is a passage from the book, pages 129-130 describing studies covering political contributions.
Hoosier Econ 