Revealed: The Secret of Sears Failure, the Secret of HP’s Failures, the Secret Republican Plan to Raise Taxes on the Low Income Groups . . .

And shorter comments on the News, Cause Everyone is on Vacation

The great retailer Sears reported that they lost a fair amount of money this past quarter.  Now the logical thing to do is blame this on the economy, on the internet, on the economy, on the summer heat, on the economy etc, but The Dismal Political Economist thinks he knows where the blame lies.  In fact, here is the explanation directly from Sears



SEARS - NO SERVICE, NO SALES

Terrorist Enclose Sears Tower in Red Jello
Not to Worry Sears, You have Enough Red Ink
to do the job



During the second quarter, the company said it saved $48 million as . . . it closed seven product repair center locations, among other actions.

There is no real reason for Sears to exist, it doesn’t sell anything anyone cannot get elsewhere, and it does not sell at the lowest price.  But for decades Sears was buoyed by its well deserved reputation for service. 

 So the great business minds at Sears will soon have totally destroyed that reputation, and when it is totally gone, the company will be totally gone



Ms. Fiorina Doing for John McCain
What She Did for HP



Remember Carly Fiorina?  She was the former head of Hewlett Packard who recently ran for the U. S. senate in California, touting her qualifications as a successful business person.  Well one of her major accomplishments at HP was to purchase Compaq, the personal computer maker.  Let’s see how that is working out.

The deal faced skepticism from Wall Streeters and investors, some of whom saw it as an expensive boondoggle. The son of one of the company's founders called it a "$25 billion mistake."

So now HP is  dumping the whole PC business.  Why

He's jettisoning major businesses that are no longer profitable," said technology writer Michael S. Malone, the author of "Bill and Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company

So nice going California voters, you did a great job in preventing Ms. Fiorina from making the same stupid decisions in government that she made in business.

Remember all that Republican rhetoric about not raising taxes.  Well it seems they didn’t mean not raising them on everyone.  More and more Republicans are coming around to the raising taxes, but only on those whose income is so low that they are not currently paying taxes. 

So we have a

2012 election campaign that has featured vows against raising taxes also has produced the parallel critique that too many Americans pay no income tax at all, a point made by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in July and more recently by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

"We're approaching nearly half of the United States population that doesn't pay any income taxes," Mr. Perry said in Iowa, when asked about combating an "entitlement culture" in the U.S. "And I think one of the ways is to let everybody, as many people as possible...be able to be helping pay for the government that we have in this country

Now we know the help that Mr. Perry and the other Conservatives plan for low income people, they are going to let them help pay for government.  The response from low income people, "Gee thanks Conservatives".



EXCEPT ON LOW INCOME PEOPLE
BESIDES, THEY VOTE DEMOCRATICS ANYWAY



The Dismal Political Economist does pay taxes, but he thinks he can speak for most if not all of the people who are not paying taxes because of low income and tell Mr. Perry that if he wants some folks to ”help pay for government” maybe he should look at the folks that have enough income so that paying for government will not be a major hardship.

The Republican tax policy position is now set.  Lower taxes for the wealthy, lower taxes for corporations, lower taxes on capital gains, lower estate taxes, lower taxes on interest income, lower taxes on dividend income, and higher taxes on the lower income groups.  A winning position as long as voters do not find out about it, and given the status of the press today, it will remain a well kept secret.  Aw come on, it wouldn't be fair to tell the voters what the Conservatives really want to do, would it?

Conservatives Stop Fighting Eminent Domain for Private Use.  New London, Connecticut won a Supreme Court case that allowed it to force owners of private property to sell to the city, who would then turn the property over for private development.  Conservatives were outraged at this expansion of government authority.

In the private marketplace, a private buyer cannot force people to sell, no matter what the price that is being offered. As the ancient adage goes, a man’s home is his castle. Where is the morality in permitting a prospective buyer to accomplish an immoral end through the use of the government’s power of eminent domain?

Now The Dismal Political Economist has learned, to his great amazement that in the highly conservative state of Texas, private companies have the right of eminent domain.  Really, they do. 



A Pipeline Improving the Value of the Farm



Pipeline companies, under Texas law, wield the power of eminent domain and can use it to acquire an easement even if the property owner opposes it. But landowners can negotiate for compensation

So now that this is public knowledge, The Dismal Political Economist is waiting for the outrage from Gov. Perry and the rest of the Conservative establishment.  Waiting….waiting… waiting…

And how is that just compensation thing working out.  The story cites a farmer who was offered $26,200 for the easement, then the offer was lowered to $19,500.  A Special Commissioner awarded fair compensation, $143,000.  Gosh, maybe you cannot trust oil pipeline companies to use this power fairly?