Podcast 271

Gas Oil Collapse. Energy and Oil and Politics. We may be at the beginning of the end of an era in the energy markets, politics and economic policy but people are never going to figure it out with the terrible job the media is doing reporting on these topics. Gas is below two dollars in 13 states, crude trading at 55 dollars a barrel, with more drops expected. Meanwhile, OPEC refuses to cut production, even refuses to hold a meeting to discuss it. The drop in oil over the last few months of 40 percent so far, most of it in the last two months is beginning to have an effect. OPEC’s price war on Frackers in the US, Canada and Brazil, the international version of a gas war, is beginning to have economic and political effects. When the cheerleaders talk about oil ‘acting like a tax cut’, remember there is a lot more to this story. If energy production in the US is a big piece of the manufacturing boom, what happens when lower prices curtails exploration? Will lower oil and gas prices still act like a tax cut? What about disinflation, or outright deflation in commodity prices? What about dropping demand due to economic slow downs in China, Europe, and Latin America? Do you think the US is ‘decoupled’ from the rest of the world’s economies? On Wall Street, the story is completely different. There, investors are moving money from the market to long term Treasury Bonds, an indication of expected weakness? Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve will be hard pressed to raise interest rates (which its wants, and perhaps needs to do) in the face of declining commodity prices. This isn’t just an international problem. A Minnesota State Legislator wants to reduce farm property taxes, due to the decreased revenues farmers are seeing on their crops. As the sun sets on the Democrat Senate Majority, and rises on a huge Republican majority in the US Congress as well as state legislatures and governor’s mansions, we’re also about to enter a new era in politics, or perhaps close an old one. How will the last two years of the Obama administration differ from the previous 6? Despite the President’s progressive rhetoric, does the budget deal indicate will be a little different when it comes to horse trading with Congress? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating and Depotstar. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:43 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Podcast 253

Eyes On The Prize. Organize! Getting you ready for the week ahead, looking deeper than lazy TV hosts and producers, and talk radio. How much more can be said about Jonathon Gruber, the ‘architect’ of Obama Care, and his comments concerning the stupidity of the American voter? We’ve all seen the video. If not, you can watch this CNN package and all the videos fit to distribute, here. While people decry the mainstream media’s vacuous content, they sure do seem to talk about what the media wants everyone to talk about. Seems like Gruber was worth every penny, for supporters of Obama Care. If Republicans want change, they have to start ‘”no excuse” organizing at the precinct level. Another big surprise, apparently, is the fact that President Obama is not ‘cooperating’ with the ‘mandate’ congressional republicans ‘have been given by the voters’. The President has two more years to serve, and if politically active people in Minnesota want to influence politics after January of 2017, they’d better start working on the 2016 election now. Working on getting votes and money out of precincts. Democrats are doubling down on progressive ideas and populist tactics and if 2014 proved anything, it proved getting Republicans out to vote in larger numbers than Democrats, wins elections for Republicans. Now, the exception to that rule is Minnesota, where consultants, state party officials and other ‘Rasputins’ behind the scenes, do not want so called movement candidates. If Minnesota Republicans want victory, they will have to snatch it for themselves. Keep your eyes on the prize. Organize. The Bob Davis Podcasts continues to be ahead of the news headlines these days. Podcast 252 concentrated on the specter of Deflation, predictive of the G-20 conference this weekend where members pledged to dump another 2 Trillion dollars of cotton candy on the problem economies of the world, which now includes most of Europe (and thus the EU), Russia, China, Brazil and you never know, maybe even the US. With the price of oil and other key commodities dropping, watch Russia, not Ferguson, Missouri. A confrontation is brewing between Russia — now friends with China — the US and NATO over the Ukraine. Do we trust the President to be able to handle such a crisis? The Bob Davis Podcasts was the first to suggest boycotting Black Friday — not because we hate retail but because we think the National Retailers have pressed Black Friday numbers as an economic bellwether for too long. Now suddenly come the stories saying the best deals aren’t on Black Friday … they’re right now! And as Farmers are stuck with grain in elevators, electric companies can’t get coal, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul’s much vaunted Toy Train ‘The Northstar’ is sidelined, statists like Jessie Ventura and Tim Pawlenty can blame Grandpa Warren Buffett’s railroad, hauling ever cheapening oil rather than the farmer’s grain, or the power company’s coal. Building the Keystone XL pipeline would ease some of the pressure on Farmers, as well as lower costs for oil producers, but don’t count on it. Will there be enough votes to override a Presidential Veto of a Pipeline bill? And, ice on the Superior this week does not necessarily mean a cold winter, but with temperatures in the single digits in the Upper Midwest, our bodies are struggling to adjust. Sponsored by Baklund R & D. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:44 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Podcast 230

Gone Girl. “Gone Girl” is the movie everyone is going to see these days. The new movie has an unexpected story line about The Media. Did the writer(s), director and producer(s) know they were making a movie about media’s effects on our society? Or did they think – as many contemporary commentators think – the movie is about rape and murder? In a movie about a crime, you never see the inside of a courtroom, a prosecutor or Grand Jury. Even the lawyer acts like a Public Relations man. The ‘case’ is tried in the court of the media, and the media can be manipulated if you are smart enough and have enough money. It doesn’t matter how you become famous, only that you are. Notoriety can make you enough money to pay smart expensive lawyers and PR people who can ‘manage’, ‘spin’, ‘lie’ and create a story line. What ‘Gone Girl’ really says is there are two realities in our society; two separate spheres. There is a fantasy world created by the media where there is no right or wrong, no up or down, right or left, and no absolutes. Everything can be adjusted, walked back, changed, realigned and consequences are dependent on how savvy the protagonist, or victim is when it comes to media. Then there is in fact, the real world. A world where real things happen to real people. A world where hostages heads are cut off, where people get diseases and die, where policy decisions result in catastrophe, where airstrikes alone don’t stop the enemy, where the economy doesn’t get much better, where real people are worried and afraid. In one world people react to things said on television, magazines, talk radio, newspapers, social media and blogs. In the other world, real people act, and there are real consequences. Which world are you living in? Right now media coverage of the 2014 election cycle clearly illustrates the existence of these two worlds. If you’re running for office you’re supposed to follow the majority party’s playbook. Questioning US Border Security, asking whether there should be some kind of quarantine in place for West African arrivals to the US, questioning whether the President is protected, questioning whether the economy is ‘recovering’ is ‘alarmism’, or spreading ‘fear’. On November 4th, 2014 a very real thing will take place. There will be an election, and real people will go to their polling place and vote. One side will win the right to govern and the other side will lose. As the opposition party in the current US Government, republican candidates have a duty to question the competence and leadership of the president and his party, in any language they choose. In one world questioning the competence of our leaders is not acceptable. In the other, it’s essential. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Depotstar. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:40 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS