THE TEA PARTY ECONOMIST 12/27/2013

Obama’s Phony Free Trade Treaty That He Won’t Let Congress See My cousin has been asking me if I’m up to speed on the dangers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I explained to him that Paul Krugman had just declared that the TPP was no big deal, so I assumed it must be awful, but no–I didn’t really know much about it. After reading some of […] READ MORE Last Week’s Mortgage Applications Were at a 13-Year Low A large number of Americans have decided not to borrow to buy a home. Last week, applications fell 6.3%. These figures are seasonally adjusted. This is in response to rising mortgage rates, which began in May. Since then, home sales have begun to fall. Mortgage applications had been rising for 18 months. The Federal Reserve’s […] READ MORE Support for ObamaCare Falls to 35%. The latest CNN poll indicates that support for Obamacare has fallen from 40% in November to 35% today. This is what we can legitimately call a death spiral. As a symbolic gesture, President Obama has signed up for ObamaCare — a bronze plan. He signed up on the Washington, D.C. site. He did not try […] READ MORE A Christmas Message from “Rev. Duck” What does Phil Robertson say when he is on the road? This. It is what Christmas is really all about. READ MORE Does Your Favorite Charity Meet These Standards? Here is an interview with Ken Berger, who runs the Charity Navigator rating service. I recommended using Charity Navigator in my Tip of the Week last Saturday. You can read it here. KEN BERGER: We think there are three critical things to consider. One is the finances of the organization. Is it managed well financially? […] READ MORE Are You an ObamaCare Loser? Check here. Experts consider health insurance unaffordable once it exceeds 10 percent of annual income. By that measure, a 50-year-old making $50,000 a year, or just above the qualifying limit for assistance, would find the cheapest available plan to be unaffordable in more than 170 counties around the country, ranging from Anchorage to Jackson, Miss. A 60-year-old […] READ MORE “Faith. Family. Ducks.” — West Monroe, Louisiana WEST MONROE, La. — “Faith. Family. Ducks.” It’s the unofficial motto for the family featured in the TV reality show Duck Dynasty and that homespun philosophy permeates nearly everything in this small north Louisiana town. It’s perhaps most on display at the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, where the Robertson family […] READ MORE Duck Dynasty: A&E Commits an Act of Symbolic Bestiality What A&E has done was best described by astronaut Gus Grissom half a century ago, as recorded for posterity in The Right Stuff. It has committed a deviant act: symbolic bestiality. A&E has screwed the pooch. A&E has just lost a franchise that generates almost half a billion dollars a year in product sales. Can […] READ MORE Bitnapping: A New Marketing Program for Bitcoins. It’s Ransomware. The secret to success in marketing is rapid penetration of a new market. A group of Bitcoins users has found a way to do this. They hijack people’s computers, encrypt the files, and then demand payment in Bitcoins. If the victims refuse to pay, their files are locked permanently. No access. This way, people who […] READ MORE How Police Use Gun Registration Data in “No-Knock” Raids Do you think exercising your Second Amendment right of legal gun ownership could be used by the State as a means to infringe upon privacy rights afforded by the Fourth Amendment? Absolutely, Yes! The State could and already has used their knowledge and databases of legal gun owners in order to justify “No-Knock” police raids […] READ MORE