Tag Archives: Crony Capitalism

WTC security failures prompt additional $60 million for contractors

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“Security has been a focus of concern since a New Jersey teenager sneaked onto the top of 1 World Trade Center in March and climbed the 1,776-foot building’s spire. Last month it was revealed that three parachutists jumped from the top of the building last fall and recorded it.  Allied Barton’s four-year, $221 million contract signed last year will be expanded by about $60 million, the Port Authority said in a statement. The firm had been hired to replace FJC Security Services after several incidents, including one in which a supervisor at Newark Liberty Airport was found to have been in the country illegally for years and using the identity of a murdered man.”

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/world_trade_center_security_to_be_altered_following_breaches.html

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Bill Bonner, To the Class of 2014: You’re “Screwed”

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Bill-Bonner2

“Government is merely a way one group of people – the insiders – take advantage of other people – the outsiders.  You can call it democracy or dictatorship; it hardly matters. It can be gentle and broadly tolerable… or brutal and widely detested. What makes it a government is it has a monopoly on the use of violence; ultimately, the insiders use it to get what they want. [..]  When everything is rigged, the riggers have the money and the power. Lobbyists, lawyers, accountants, administrators: Whether you want to take a business public… or just build a house… you come face to face with someone who can stop you, with paperwork, legal razzmatazz and nauseating administration.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/to-the-class-of-2014-youre-screwed/

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Bill Bonner: College is a con

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Bill-Bonner2

“Gradually, making things in the US became less and less profitable. So, if you wanted to earn a good salary you had to go somewhere else. Finance, administration, accounting, law, education, or health care. The good jobs in these industries required college. That’s why you’re here.  But wait, there’s more to the story. Unlimited credit also made it easier to support zombies and parasites. Government connived with industry to create quasi-monopolies, cartels, subsidies, guarantees and price supports. And the feds could add bureaucracy, controls, rules and regulations.  For example, the education industry added few teachers, but lots of ‘educators’ and policy coordinators.”

http://moneyweek.com/college-is-a-con/

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Hong Kong Brokers Drive Cabs as Competition Forces Locals Out [2013]

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“Fees have dropped since bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. in 2003 removed a brokerage commission floor of 0.25 percent of the value of transactions, squeezing profits for brokers as mainland Chinese rivals expand operations.  Eleven brokerages have ceased trading this year, according to filings posted on the website of the Hong Kong stock exchange.  The number of local broking firms may decline to 300 from about 400 in the next five years, Mofiz Chan, a spokesman of the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Professionals Association, said. ‘There are many people taking part-time jobs or completely moving out of the industry,” Chan said.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-22/hong-kong-brokers-drive-cabs-as-competition-forces-locals-out.html

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States Ask Feds for Bigger Budgets to Fix Obamacare Exchanges

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“Few states have embraced the ideas behind the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with more enthusiasm than Maryland and Massachusetts, which adopted many of them years before the passage of the federal law. But the two now find themselves trying to fix their malfunctioning health insurance exchanges and seeking federal approval to spend more money to do so.  When states first applied for what are called Establishment Grants to build their online marketplaces, they had to predict the costs. Going over those costs requires them to resubmit plans to spend money that would have either returned to the federal government or gone to future changes.”

http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/gov-maryland-massachusetts-exchange-repair-plans.html

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Inside Oklahoma’s Quest To Dominate The American Drone Industry

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“Oklahoma businesspeople, academics, and politicians are collaborating through an organization named USA-OK, which aims to make the heartland state the focal point of American UAV development. A quasi-affiliated group, the Governor’s Unmanned Aerial Systems Council (PDF), was formed via an executive order from Governor Mary Fallin in 2011. Both organizations are lobbying for commercial drone test sites in Oklahoma and increased government assistance in luring more large military contractors to the state.  15 companies already operating within the state fulfill duties as diverse as assembling payloads for military drones and creating low-cost retail UAVs for the hobbyist market.”

http://www.fastcompany.com/3007504/tech-forecast/inside-oklahomas-quest-dominate-american-drone-industry

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The Lie of Moral Mercantilism

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Anthony-Wile1

“The use and the abuse of the force of the state to advance personal and corporate agendas is perhaps the most significant challenge the West faces in the 21st century. Every other abuse can be seen as flowing from it.  Under the guise of democratic activism, an agenda is surely being advanced that inevitably and consistently supports an ever more centralized sociopolitical and economic environment worldwide. What we call mercantilism is constantly used to advance this agenda, and the objective for the most part is to drain away freedom of choice.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35334/Anthony-Wile-The-Lie-of-Moral-Mercantilism/

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Bill Bonner: Middle Class? What Middle Class?

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Bill-Bonner2

“Want a middle-class lifestyle… with middle-class finances… and middle-class attitudes?  Forget it. Trying to enter the middle class is like trying to get a job as a galley slave. You get chained to an oar. You sit. You row… until you drop dead.  The middle class, as Smith tells it, is desperate to continue its ‘aspirational consumption financed by debt.’ It’s a trap – set for you by the oligarchs and ‘poligarchs’ (people whose votes can be bought cheaply) who control Washington and its major industries.  And if you’re young, you face a lifetime of backache… trying to keep up the pace.  These heavy burdens didn’t ‘just happen.’ They are the result of dirty dealing by America’s goons and poltroons.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/middle-class-what-middle-class/

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Elon Musk Might Not Be Too Unhappy About Russia’s Space Station Ban

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“One person unlikely to be worried about the bans is Elon Musk, who recently said ULA – a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing – has an unfair monopoly on U.S. Air Force rocket launches and could save the Air Force $1bn if the process was opened up to privateers.  Musk’s space venture SpaceX is also pursuing the possibility of private human transport to low orbit using its Dragon spacecraft.  Currently, the US pays Russia $60m per person to fly astronauts to the ISS, according to the UK Telegraph.  Rogozin claimed Russia could still use the ISS for its own purposes.  ‘The Russian segment can exist independently from the American one,’ he said.  ‘The US one cannot.'”

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/russia-banned-the-us-from-using-the-iss-and-elon-musk-might-not-be-too-unhappy-about-that-2014-5

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Elon Musk Wins Suit Against Boeing Venture, On Basis Of Russia Sanctions

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“A federal claims judge granted late Wednesday an injunction sought by SpaceX’s Elon Musk that prohibits the Air Force from granting a contract to an American group planning on purchasing Russian rockets.  In his suit, Musk contended that the government’s contract to a joint Boeing-Lockheed venture was not competitive, and that the venture’s plan to purchase Russian rockets went against the spirit of new U.S. sanctions against that country for its incursion into Ukraine.”

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/elon-musk-gets-a-win-against-russian-rocket-companies-2014-5

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