XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 09/06/11

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Economist Calls Entitlements A Massive Ponzi Scheme And Says US Is Actually $211 Trillion In Debt -

In an interview with NPR, former Reagan economic adviser Laurence Kotlikoff said the U.S.'s "true indebtedness" amounts to $211 trillion.

That's more than 15 times the $14 trillion official figure.

"We're focused just on the official debt, so we're trying to balance the wrong books," Kotlikoff said, naming Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for the skyrocketing unofficial figure.

If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That's the fiscal gap...

Why are these guys thinking about balancing the budget?...They should try and think about our long-term fiscal problems.

His comments were reminiscent of a Bloomberg editorial he wrote last year, where he called entitlements "a massive Ponzi scheme."

Ron Paul is taking on Rick Perry in a new television ad blasting the Texas governor for for supporting Al Gore -

Ron Paul is taking on Rick Perry in a new television ad blasting the Texas governor for for supporting Al Gore’s 1988 presidential campaign, POLITICO has learned.

The 60-second spot, backed by a six-figure ad buy — the first negative ad attacking Perry to come directly out of a Republican campaign this primary season — contrasts Paul’s endorsement of Ronald Reagan in 1980 with Perry’s role as the Texas chairman for Gore’s first presidential campaign.

“The establishment called him extreme and unelectable, they said he was the wrong man for the job. It’s why a young Texan named Ron Paul was one of only four congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan’s campaign for president, believing in Reagan’s message of smaller government and lower taxes,” the ad says. “After Reagan, Senator Al Gore ran for president, pledging to raise taxes and increase spending, pushing his liberal values. And Al Gore found a cheerleader in Texas named Rick Perry. Rick Perry helped lead Al Gore’s campaign to undo the Reagan revolution, fighting to elect Al Gore President of the United States.”

The ad, which Paul’s campaign is also trying to place during Wednesday’s POLITICO/MSNBC presidential debate, comes as Paul has increasingly focused his fire on his fellow Texan. The two have never had much of a relationship, and Paul’s repeatedly tried to paint Perry as an establishment candidate no different from the rest, and dismissed him Friday as just a “candidate of the week.”

Mom accidentally bakes office colleagues with pot brownies -

Three Canadian office workers got "more than a caffeine buzz" after nibbling on some brownies brought in by a colleague, the Vancouver Sun reports.

The employees of an office in Victoria, British Columbia, went to the hospital after feeling dizzy, disoriented and numb in the limbs after snacking on brownies brought in to share by their coworker.

Victoria police said they were called in to investigate a possible mass poisoning at a downtown office building.

An investigation led to the discovery of marijuana-laden brownies in the staff room refrigerator. All three ill workers had eaten the pot brownies.

The woman who brought them in said she had discovered the brownies in her freezer at home. Her son told police that he baked the brownies a year ago, and had forgotten about them in the freezer.

While a criminal charge of possession of a controlled substance or administering a noxious substance could have been laid, police took no action because they found no criminal intent, the Sun reports. However, it is expected

Bear drives off with family car - the police reported the incident as auto theft -

The McCarthy family awoke inside their Lake Tahoe cabin to thrashing sounds and found a black bear stuck inside their Toyota Prius.

The family remarked, “It’s amazing how strong that bear was. Yeah, it’s wreckage; it’s the metal shell of what was once our car.”

Frustrated at being unable to escape for more than 30 minutes, the bear tore the interior of the car to pieces and somehow managed to put the car in gear. Driving backwards, the car and bear went down the driveway over some boulders and ended up crashing into the neighbor’s front porch.