Another hat in the ring?

Sounds like Starbucks founder Howard Schultz is seriously contemplating running for president as an independent.  Although he has never held public office, he obviously doesn't consider that a detriment.  With a personal fortune estimated at north of $3 billion, he has the key requirement to make a run:cash!

His background and achievements are also assets.  He grew up in Brooklyn in a poor family, well acquainted with the precarious situation many average Americans find themselves in today.  While no big (in fact enormous) company can escape controversy, Starbucks is a popular employer which has made a notable effort  to help  employees interested in furthering their educations,  and has programs to help veterans and legal refugees seeking employment.

It's hard to say exactly where he is politically.  He supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election but is very concerned about the national debt, while giving the current administration some credit for improving the economy.  There is "draft Howard Schultz" PAC (ReadyForSchultz) already up and running and it seems certain that the guy who built Starbucks from scratch could certainly put together a national political campaign a-la Ross Perot if he chooses.

This appears to be most threatening to the Democrats as noted by commentators at The Atlantic and CNN.  So far, crickets from the Republicans. 

When a man like Howard Schultz is prepared to take a run at the presidency, he obviously senses both a need and an opportunity.  With the Democrats tacking hard left and the Republicans in lockstep with the President but unsure of where they're going, the average moderate American has no political home.  Howard Schultz senses that need and the sheer size of this constituency.  The problem is, without a party, he has no hope of delivering the change he feels Americans want.

Politics is a team sport and no one - regardless of their exceptional achievements and capabilities - is capable of fixing our nations problems on their own.   True progress will only be made when Americans join together seeking common ground at the state and local level to thrash out issues and find home-grown candidates - not self-selected superstars.   The two major parties are in the thrall of oligarchs and special interest groups.   Only a home grown, grass roots movement has a chance of  breaking the deadlock and building a really new third party in America.

The Alliance Party -  built from the ground up.     

-- Mike Power

Government shutdown: Month two

You know how this might end don't you?  It's just a matter of time before there's some incident - terror attack, plane crash, bad batch of romaine lettuce and all of a sudden there's going to be one quick rush to reopen the Federal Government and point fingers.  If it wasn't so pathetic, it would be funny.  

Both major parties agree - in principal - that border security is an issue.   Both the Democrats and the Republicans want a DACA deal on the dreamers.  So what's do difficult about this?  Get in a room, hammer out a deal and both sides can get something and declare victory.  Negotiating 101 - what you learned in play school not business school.    

In the meantime, 800,000 Federal workers are without pay.  The lucky ones on furlough can at least look for some kind of paying work in the interim.   The rest aren't even that lucky; they're on payday loans at 24% if they can get them.

 

If there ever was an argument for ditching both parties and getting out of this game of prisoner's dilemma - this is it. 

THE ALLIANCE PARTY - WE WON'T SHUT YOU DOWN.

-- Mike Power

Time to stand up & sign up.

TIRED OF WASHINGTON GRIDLOCK?  WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?

 JOIN THE ALLIANCE PARTY OF NEVADA!

If you're a registered Nevada voter, here's how you can:

If you have a Nevada Driver's License or DMV issued ID card:

1. Go here: https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/elections/voters 
2. Either click "Register to Vote" or "Update your Registration" (under "Voter Registration")
3. Click Continue / fill out info a few forms
4. Under Page "Review and Update Miscellaneous Information" change Party Registration to "Alliance Party of Nevada"  [Type it in if not shown as a selection]

If you don't:

1. Go here for instructions: https://www.registertovotenv.gov/SOSVoterServices/Registration/Step0.aspx
2. Fill out the form, listing your Party Registration as Alliance Party of Nevada.
3. Submit the form to your county official. 

With your help, we'll put common sense back on the ballot.  Thanks!

Fairness & the American Dream

Did you catch Tucker Carlson's video last week?  It's well worth watching.

He calls out the establishments in both the Republican and Democratic Parties, pointing out how they've failed the average American and have us on the road to ruin. He takes particular aim at the economic oligarchy on both left and right that damaged our economy to the detriment of average working Americans.  Some highlights:

What kind of country do you want to live in?  Well a fair country, a decent country, a cohesive country, a country where leaders don't accelerate the forces of change purely for their own profit and amusement.  A country you might recognize when you're old.... A country where you can make a solid living outside of the big city.... Above all a country where normal people with an average education who grew up no place special can get married and have happy kids and repeat unto the generations.

But our leaders have let us down:

If you care about Americans you should oppose their exploitation whether it's happening in the inner city or on Wall Street... They don't care about us.  When you care about people you do your best to treat them fairly.  Our leaders don't even try.

Market capitalism is not a religion.  Market capitalism is a tool like a staple gun or a toaster.  You'd have to be a fool to worship it.  Our system was created by human beings for the benefit of human beings.... We do not exist to serve markets; just the opposite. Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having.  A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society.

On predatory financial activity:

They (our leaders) should also speak out about the ugliest parts of our financial system: Not all commerce is good.

He covers a range of businesses including private equity:

Take over an existing company, keep it for a short period of time, cut costs by firing employees, run up the debt, extract the wealth and move on - sometimes leaving retirees without their earned pensions.  This is the private equity model; our ruling class sees nothing wrong with it - it's how they run the country.

Finally, he has a warning for the oligarchs and the rest of us:

Libertarians are certain to call any deviation from market fundamentalism a form of socialism.
That's a lie.  But socialism is exactly what we're going to get and very soon unless a group of
responsible people in our political system reforms the American economy in a way that protects normal people.

Fairness is perhaps the central challenge facing American society.  Abraham Lincoln spoke about "equality of opportunity" and it's a goal we can all support.  It's woven throughout The Alliance Party Platform.  

But maybe it's time to make it the central focus and rallying point for the Alliance Party.

What do you think?

- Mike Power

The Debt Bomb

During the holiday season, generosity rather than parsimony prevails.  After Christmas comes the bills but for the moment they can wait.   And in Washington too, generosity is the watchword as both major parties have now clearly abandoned any pretense to be concerned with the deficit, our mounting public debt and other obligations.  Any responsible American should be very concerned however....

As I began writing this evening, US national debt was $21,855,143,508,172 and growing by $1,000,000 every 37 seconds ( USdebtclock.org ).  Average debt per taxpayer was $178,960.  How did we get here?

Public debt in America has exploded since 1980 with the slope steepening with every recession.  Additional contribution factors include the War on Terror together with unfunded pension and entitlement obligations ( www.thebalance.com ).   Add to that new concerns that the recent tax cuts will not pay for themselves with increased government revenue in other areas.

But surely we can afford this since we have such a large economy, no?  Well if we look at  the critical debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio we're among the worst in the world.

The numbers for China are wrong in this map; since the economy is largely state owned and financed, they should be up with Japan at  more than 250% debt-to-GDP.   We can take only small comfort however, sitting at 108% debt-to-GDP.    Unfortunately, this situation is only going to get worse:

The International Monetary Fund and Deutsche Bank have pointed out that American debt-to-GDP is set to grow by another 10% in the next five years - assuming we don't have a serious economic slowdown in that period which would make it even worse.  In their definitive study of financial crises over the past 800 years, Reinhart & Rogoff (2010) pointed out that the tipping point where debts get unmanageable and disaster can strike is debt-to-GDP greater than 90%.   We're well into the danger zone.

We have enjoyed historically low interest rates over the past 18 years but they are about to revert to the longer term mean.  Historical average long term interest rates have generally stayed above 5%.  Interest rates are increasing and as they do, the debt service burden (interest) will skyrocket - eating up an increasingly large share of our taxes and the Federal budget.

There are only four ways a country can get out from crippling debt:

1. Increase tax revenue to pay down the principal.  Who's up for a big tax hike?
2. Inflate your currency (a lot!) and pay your debts with inflated, worthless money. Weimar Germany tried it and more recently so did Zimbabwe.
3. Write-off debt: this happened in the Great Depression and the Great Recession. 
4. Grow your economy rapidly and use increased tax revenues to pay down the principal.  A political favorite, this is a bit of a moon-shot and our currently elected politicians have proven incapable of doing it now with GDP growing at nearly 4%.

So, the first three ways are painful and the fourth unlikely.   We're in a mess.  We have broken the contract with our descendants to leave them a better country and future than we received.

Only one major American political party is committed to dealing with the debt bomb - The Alliance Party.   The first plank in the party's platform is:

We believe the national debt is one of the most serious crises facing our country and must be remedied through fiscal responsibility, transparency and balanced budgets.

Join us to make sure this issue gets tackled in the next general election.  

- Mike Power


PS. It's been an hour or so since I started this post and $100,000,000 has been added to the national debt.

We are now the Alliance Party of Nevada!

On Monday December 10 we became the Alliance Party of Nevada - the old Nevada Modern Whig Party with some new supporters joining the campaign. 

Now as a larger group we can move on to tackle the gridlock in Washington and build an effective voice for moderate Nevadans fed up with the status quo.

State's rights & wrongs

Until the Civil War, we commonly referred to ourselves as "These United States" and loyalty to state was more powerful than loyalty to America as a whole.  In the early years of our country, transportation and communications were slow and difficult and the Federal Government was feeble and distant by modern standards.  When seeking to create a stronger Federal Government, the Founders were very cognizant that the Union they were seeking to perfect was composed of sovereign states - states which were suspicions of ceding powers to the new Federal Government.  The Tenth Amendment seems like an obvious restatement of the principles in the Constitution describing limited Federal Government (as the Supreme Court famously asserted).  The fact that it was drafted at all arose from a fear that ultimately the states stood to lose power to the Federal Government.  As it turns out, these fears were well grounded.

Since 1789, states rights have been steadily whittled away, circumscribed, limited and in some cases defined out of existence as one crisis after another led Americans to demand action by a stronger Federal government.   Nullification, the Civil War, the Progressive Era, World War I, the New Deal, World War II and the Cold War marked significant milestones on the road to expanding federal powers at the expense of those customarily exercised by the states.   The Commerce Clause in particular has been used to justify legislation, regulation and enforcement over a wide range of issues.   Some of these such as gun control, growing home gardens or the personal use of medicinal cannabis would seem to be far removed from Congress's mandate to regulate interstate commerce.

Beginning in the 1980's - for the first time - the Supreme Court began to define the limits of federal encroachment on remaining states rights.   In Nevada this was paralleled by grass-roots citizen action such as the Sagebrush Rebellion.  The push-back continues to this day with parts of the Affordable Care Act being struck down in 2012 with reference to states rights.

While the national Modern Whig Party has no platform plank relating to the preservation of states rights there might be several sound reasons why this should be a concern to Nevadans:

1. Political decisions made at the state or county level produce legislation and administration best tailored to Nevada's needs and conditions.  Decisions made by a distant federal government in general do not.    
2. Concentration of power in any branch of government is a danger to our personal liberty.  Much as the separation of federal powers built into our Constitution protects our liberty so too does the separation of powers between the Federal Government and the States.  Preserving states rights and autonomy indirectly preserves our freedoms. 
3. The states serve as political incubators - devising solutions through trial and error to local problems.  The results of these experiments are important guides to designing effective national legislation.  The states led the way toward effective national welfare reform during the 1990's and are now devising changes to drug legislation and criminal sentencing to address pressing local social needs.  Without the benefit of these experiments, Congress would be working in the dark, imposing one-size-fits-all legislation that in many cases wouldn't work. 

What do you think?  Should we have a plank in our state platform on this issue?  If you think so, what should it look like? 

- Mike Power