As expensive pro Spaceport Gross Receipts Tax signs pop up on First and Maryland Streets we have yet another taxpayer funded mailer in favor of the Spaceport Gross Receipts Tax. This one features Mayor Brockett and Doug Moore. There is something very Orwellian about using our money to sell us something that will take away more of our money.
According to the Daily News Gov. Richardson will be at the Senior Center on Puerto Rico and Indian Wells regarding the Spaceport, Monday, September 29, 5:30-7:00 pm. Expect to see the full cast of supporters.
Click on the title for an Albuquerque Journal story addressing the Spaceport, the Railrunner and Sandia Science and Technology Park. Messrs. Brockett and Moore would do well to consider the advice of an economic consultant such as Kenneth M Brown. He and Greg LeRoy, author of the Great American Jobs Scam have done their due diligence.
I have been addressing front end bailouts or rescues - economic development. Now, here is a history lesson on politicians trying to help:
The Coming 'Lost Decade' in America?
By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud
September 26, 2008
Historically, when the government meddles in the markets, things don't turn out well...
The most recent example is Japan in the 1990s, and that ended with the "Lost Decade." Here's what happened:
Japan had a huge real estate bubble.
Banks overlent on a massive scale, making risky loans that were almost doomed from the start.
The stock market and the real estate market started to fall.
To save the economy, the Japanese Central Bank took extraordinary measures... lowering interest rates to unprecedented levels. But it wasn't enough.
Once the crisis was in full swing, the troubled banks hoarded cash instead of lending money. The economy gummed up. Asset prices went down. And people froze... They wouldn't invest in stocks or real estate.
Sound familiar?
The next steps sound familiar, too...
Instead of allowing bad banks to fail... instead of allowing the system to "clear"... the government pumped in cash to prop them up. The result was hundreds of banks and businesses existing in a sort of purgatory... neither private nor public... neither alive nor dead... They were known as "zombies."
The result? Japan's Lost Decade. Real estate prices plummeted. Japan's main stock index, the Nikkei, dropped from a peak near 40,000 to a low of about 7,500 in 2003.
Japan's government, of course, was trying to help.
Full story at Contrarian Investment News:
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