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DOJ SENDS TAXPAYER-FUNDED "PROTEST MARSHALS" TO FERGUSON
JOHN TAMNY: When the federal government focuses on race what it usually does is inflame racial tensions. The aggrieved party feels like the federal government is not doing enough, and then the other party feels the federal government is doing too much to placate. I don't like lots of excessive police force, but in this case, the government has got to pull back.
RICK UNGAR: You need to understand this is an organization that's been around for 50 years, it has been used by administrations on both sides and not always a situation that involves racial rioting or what we've seen in Ferguson. So, yeah, unless you've been in their presence and you see that it behaved in a way that's inappropriate. There's nothing to show that they've done anything but what they're supposed to do.
ELIZABETH MACDONALD: Everybody wants peace in Ferguson. The issue is, the officials, what are they saying and doing actually down there? They are quiet most of the time, they wear blue caps and they're supposed to keep quiet. But they're asking pastors to smooth out the situation. One DOJ official organized a meeting between prosecutors and pastors and that came after the prosecutor had hit Zimmerman with second degree murder.
SABRINA SCHAEFFER: I don't think we need more government to come into Ferguson to protest peacefully. Of course, you had a problem with rioting and violence. I understand that we need to quiet things down. The last thing we need more people coming in from the outside, on tax dollar expense, what Ferguson needs is to figure it out on their own.
RICH KARLGAARD: Look, if you want to spend money effectively, what Ferguson should do is look to Los Angeles. Los Angeles had a shooting similar to the one in Ferguson this very week but Los Angeles didn't erupt in violence. Los Angeles has had 22 years to figure out after the Rodney King case how the police could be more effective. I think if you want to have help, I'd be in support of federal help, but it should be educating the police force to do what other communities have done.
NEW SIGNS OBAMACARE IS HOLDING BACK JOB CREATION, RAISING COSTS FOR WORKERS
SABRINA SCAEFFER: It's going to get worse for decades. Health care is simply not effective. The National Small Business Association came out with an analysis of its own said that more than a third of small businesses are putting off hiring because of ObamaCare. 91 percent say costs have gone up. They've gone up sizably from $600 per worker to $1100 per worker.
RICK UNGAR: I didn't have quite the interpretation of the same report you might have. I was surprised at the huge numbers at no impasse, 85 percent to 70 percent. It's odds with improvement over the last quarter when they did the same kind of a survey.
RICH KARLGAARD: This is holding back the economy, for generally small business. Small business has just not really shown up in this economic recovery which is now five years and two months old.
JOHN TAMNY: Let's remember, labor is a cost. So if you raised the cost of hiring workers, you're going to some degree get less of it. Also, ObamaCare is focused on lowering the cost of health care. That means the government is involving itself into the pricing mechanism. When it does that, it blunts price signals and it leads to higher costs for health care. This obviously going to fail. It's going to hurt the economy. The good news is ObamaCare is dying of its myriad of contradictions. In a few years we're not going to see it.
BILL BALDWIN: The worst has already happened. We already have businesses saying we just have to pay the penalty. This is what you're jacking up the premiums on their own.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS: HIKE BEEF PRICES TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING
ELIZABETH MACDONALD: Here's what you do, you tax the fat marbled through government instead. You have the central bank that won't be ignored and then you do a cap and trade on all the cows in New Zealand.
RICK UNGAR: There does seem to be evidence that the methane gas is a problem. You know what, you can probably go a long way to solve that with what you're feeding the cattle.
JOHN TAMNY: Why chase a problem that doesn't exist? What's funny about this, global warming is missing most of them live on the coast. They claim the coasts will be drowned by global warming, yet, they still live there. They're admitting we don't have a problem. Why should we quit hamburgers to fix what isn't there to begin with?
RICH KARLGAARD: You have to admit that beef is subsidized heavily through water subsidies. In the free market, the price of beef would go up.
BILL BALDWIN: If you're going to tax something to save the environment, please make that tax simple. Do not put a tax on beef. Do not put a special tax on pancakes with bacon. Do not put a tax on Frappuccino's. You should just tax carbon and make it simple.
BUILDING YOUR NEST EGG
ELIZABETH MACDONALD: Dodge & Cox Stock (DODGX)
BILL BALDWIN: Cal-Maine Foods (CALM)
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