The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Air Date: 
November 20, 2012

Photo, above: Virginia earthquake, 2011: Cracks in Washington Monument A detail photograph of the north side of the Washington Monument on the National Mall August 24, 2011, in Washington, D.C. It was announced that the Washington Monument would be closed "indefinitely" in the wake of the earthquake due to cracks near the top of the 555-foot-tall obelisk.)

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Tuesday 905P Eastern Time:  Larry Kudlow, in re: Ben Bernanke spoke today at the Economics Club of New York  Fed still buying Treasurys, as far as the eye can see.  Capital goods – businesses are not investing in capital improvements, no long-term investments: profits are iffy; Wall St is speculating. Also, fear about a possible Washington fiscal bankruptcy – will bz have to pay more? Obama Administration has a list of business loopholes to close. Yikes, say bz owners.  Let's say they get through Jan 1, and get not a $500bil tax hike, only $100bil; nonetheless, this is the worst recovery in modern times going back to 1947. If it were going to work, it would already have worked. 

Tuesday 920P Eastern Time:  James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, in re: "Maybe peace would have broken out with a different White House – one that'd see a 51 to 48 victory as a [cause for humility]." –Barack Obama about G W Bush.  Unless  House and Senate and White House agree, all the tax rates go back up. If he lets everything expire, we're heading into a recession.  If al the taxes go up, Pres Obama will blame Republicans

Tuesday 935P Eastern Time:  David M Drucker, Roll Call, in re: What are the factions in the Senate for solvingt he fiscal cliff: why does Harry Reid want tax hikes for the rich?

Tuesday 950P Eastern Time:  Larry Kudlow, in re: compromise for fiscal cliff, and will it signify, why doesn't QE1,2,3 move the economy?

Tuesday 1005P (705P Pacific Time): Richard Epstein, senior Fellow at Hoover and NYU Law and Chicago Law, in re: how taxing the rich doesn’t happen to work.  If you think about only the first responses and not the adaptive consequences, feels good. However the only way to  ___ is to shrink the pie; tax on everybody. Cannot sustain redistribution ______. 1. Battle over who pays how much and why; 2. Redistribution games increase power of pols, leading to economic uncertainty. Fiscal cliff is too optimistic; more like a 100-meter dash with a high hurdle very few meters.

Flat tax: we don’t want political discretion because it leads to [underhandedness]; fiscal ______ from a flat tax. Less to the govt and more to private sector, which [improves] the economy.  Can stimulate occasionally with a progressive tax.  Obama program looks only at the first generation of transfers, ignore the adaptive consequences. Now, the only hope we have is technology improvements; may be able to [wring some benefit form it] before the govt wrecks it. Consumption tax smaller base, needs higher rate; makes distinction between salaries and capital gain.   Estate tax is too low; Big Pharma cuts a deal with the Administration while smaller firms, such as medical [  ], have to pay more.

Tuesday 1020P (720P Pacific Time): Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index,  in re: carbon credits in California. held auction: raise $280 mil. Jerry Brown's budget included its earning a billion. Oops.  We're losing 3,000 citizens a week and masses of businesses.

Jeff Tedford, football coach at UC Berkeley, fired; earns $2.3 mil per year, is still owed $6.9 mil on remaining contract.  His contribution: he instills pride in alumni, who donate. Supposed to win against Stanford, which he's failed ot do recently. Meanwhile the stadium sits directly on an earthquake fault, began to disintegrate, needed coach's rah-rah to help raise repair funding.

Tuesday 1035P (735P Pacific Time): Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, in re: Turkey in the Middle East, and in Gaza crisis.  Erdogan is not a strategist; even were he, Turkey wdn't be a power in the Middle East because of the turbulence and tribulation in Turkey.  Erdogan in Gaza: inspiring to Turks to find themselves on the world stage. They have a memory of having been so for many centuries, but have been sidelined since WWI.    Can apply to NATO for assistance; can say to Egypt: were democratic brothers and we can lend a hand.    Erdogan is comfy with Morsi of Egypt and Hamad of Qatar.  Qatar give support to Syrian resistance, to Muslim Brothers, to Libyan rebels. Have dealt themselves into the game in a way that Saudis have not; suspicion that Saudis have Qatar as front men.  Turkey countervailing Iran: Iran has become a hegemon to the alarm of Sunni, who invite Turkey to become more active. Iran has Shia Crescent from Iran through Iraq through Syria to Lebanon and the Med.  Russia sympathetic to this bloc.  Erdogan's solution to the Kurdish situation is not comprehensive; each country uses Kurds against other nations.

Tuesday 1050P (750P Pacific Time): Adam Nossiter, NYT, in re:  Senegalese troubles with murder and religion and a change of leadership in Dakar

Tuesday 1105P (805P Pacific Time): Aaron Klein WABC, in re: trouble in Gaza pending ceasefire; what does Hamas want, what does Morsi want?

Tuesday 1120P (820P Pacific Time): John Bolton AEI, Obama Foreign Policy, Trouble in Gaza; what of the Arab Spring; what of Southeast Asia and China, of the Syria mess?

Tuesday 1135P (835P Pacific Time): Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com,  in re: on ISS; on trouble in Russian program; NASA budget failure, and success ahead for Space X -private space.

Tuesday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Curiosity and dust devils; pumpkin pie on Mercury; and greenhouse gas is up, temperature is not on Earth, why?

Tuesday/Wed 1205A (905 Pacific Time): Larry Kudlow, in re: Ben Bernanke spoke today at the Economics Club of New York  Fed still buying Treasurys, as far as the eye can see.  Capital goods – businesses are not investing in capital improvements, no long-term investments: profits are iffy; Wall St is speculating. Also, fear about a possible Washington fiscal bankruptcy – will bz have to pay more? Obama Administration has a list of business loopholes to close. Yikes, say bz owners.  Let's say they get through Jan 1, and get not a $500bil tax hike, only $100bil; nonetheless, this is the worst recovery in modern times going back to 1947. If it were going to work, it would already have worked. 

Tuesday/Wed  1220A (920 Pacific Time): James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, in re: "Maybe peace would have broken out with a different White House – one that'd see a 51 to 48 victory as a [cause for humility]." –Barack Obama about G W Bush.  Unless  House and Senate and White House agree, all the tax rates go back up. If he lets everything expire, we're heading into a recession.  If al the taxes go up, Pres Obama will blame Republicans

In Vienna, Virginia, west of Washington D.C., a wall collapses and damages nearby cars during the earthquake on August 23, 2011.

Tuesday/Wed  1235A (935P Pacific Time): Ken Croswell, Science, in re: unusual facts of planetary evolutions; rogue planets, rogue suns

Tuesday/Wed  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Sid Perkins, Science, in re: tectonics; the Virginia earthquake of 2011: how big, why felt so widely, what does it mean?

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Music (using New York City broadcast times)  

9:00 hour:     Knight and Day.

10:00 hour:    The Raid; 10,000 BC.

11:00 hour:      Burn after Reading; Star Trek.

midnight hour:   Knight and Day.  

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