Ukraine: "I would take nothing off the table."
Oil and gas: "...it's basically foolish for us to keep buying products and giving profit and giving money to Putin... We have the ability to ratchet up... We're a million barrels short a day right now that we can just ramp up like that. [snaps fingers]"
Reconciliation bill: "We keep talking aspirational things we want to do, whether it's the far left or far right whatever it may be. Forget about the aspiration. We're living in a real world."
Rising inflation is driving up expenses for many large U.S. pension funds that have promised retirees cost-of-living raises.
About half of states link pension benefits for some or all of their retired workers to changes in the consumer-price index, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. With inflation reaching 7% in December, some retirement funds are now looking at increasing pension checks by 3% or more for the first time in a decade. At others, board members or state officials are approving one-time cost-of-living raises.
European governments are scrambling to shore up their natural gas supply if Russia cuts off exports. But one question worth raising: How in the world did Europe leave itself so vulnerable to Vladimir Putin’s energy extortion?
The nearby chart shows how Russian gas exports have increased in tandem with declining European production. A mere 15 years ago, countries in the European Union produced more gas than Russia exported. Yet European production has plunged by more than half over the last decade. Mr. Putin has happily filled the supply gap.
In 2020 Russia exported nearly three times more gas than Europe produced. What’s amazing is that Europe increased its reliance on Russian gas even after Gazprom repeatedly suspended pipeline exports to Ukraine. Germany’s response: Build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to make itself less dependent on gas flowing through Ukraine.
Nobody needs the federal investigation that is under way to grasp the basics of the racket that was being run from the state budget office -- the Office of Policy and Management -- by its deputy secretary, Konstantinos Diamantis, who a few weeks ago was fired by Governor Lamont, not by OPM Secretary Melissa McCaw.
Diamantis, who was in charge of state government's financing of municipal school construction projects, steered no-bid contracts to a construction management company that employed his daughter, Anastasia. Diamantis also facilitated Anastasia's hiring as the $99,000-a-year assistant to the chief state's attorney, Richard Colangelo Jr., while Colangelo was seeking the budget office's approval for raises for prosecutors.
Did McCaw know what her deputy was doing, fixing the job for his daughter in the chief state's attorney's office and steering the school construction contracts to her other employer?
McCaw, who is Black, has insinuated racism, which may be construed as a cheap distraction and evasion of responsibility for the corruption that has exploded right under her nose.
After leaving his victims with shattered dreams and millions in collective financial losses, the legendary con artist Charles Ponzi observed with casual cruelty, “Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price.”
There is something of that same unrepentant sentiment in the unwillingness of woke corporate boards and national media pundits to demand accountability and transparency of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a $90 million organization that publicly promised social justice to its millions of small donors and corporate benefactors.
On January 5, Washington State Attorney General Robert Ferguson issued a “Closure Notice” demanding that BLM “immediately cease” all fundraising activities, because it had failed to file its annual financial disclosure report for tax year 2020, due last November. California Attorney General Rob Bonta followed suit a few weeks later. Despite these clear directives, BLMGNF continued fundraising until reports last week exposed their flagrant violations.
According to those reports, the group’s charity registration is also out of compliance in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia.
Connecticut’s Partnership 2.0 healthcare plan, the basis for a proposed state-run healthcare plan called the Public Option, has been hiding cost overruns through some creative accounting, according to a new study released by Yankee Institute.
The Partnership Plan 2.0 allows local governments to purchase healthcare insurance through the state employee plan. The Public Option legislation pushed by former Comptroller Kevin Lembo would have allowed small businesses, unions and possibly individuals to join the program, as well.
Connecticut is about to undergo a turnover in state employees unprecedented in its history. This presents a challenge in assuring that services are adequately maintained.
Ideally, strategies to manage the anticipated turnover in workers would come in coordination with state employee unions. But realistically, that will be difficult.
Related Content: Gov. Lamont Is in Public (Union) Service
What cannot happen is for this or future administrations to allow the unions to dictate how this plays out. Gov. Lamont and any future governor must push back against attempts to institutionalize inefficiencies through labor contracts.
Beijing has developed a reputation for blocking imports from countries it wants to punish. Australian wine became a target last year. Now China is punching back at Lithuania, which recently allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius.
But here’s the new twist: China is holding up not only Lithuanian imports, but all imports that include Lithuanian parts. The effects are rippling across Europe.
Could this winter’s energy crisis be shocking Europe into climate realism?
Believe it or not, the European Union is set to include nuclear and natural gas on the list of industries eligible for “green” investments.
Related Content: Plotting an American-Style Fracking Revolution in Britain
The draft list released late on New Year’s Eve deems investment in nuclear power sustainable as long as the investment is made before 2045 and a plan is in place to dispose of the waste. The draft also includes natural-gas power plants built by 2030, subject to emissions limits and as long as they replace heavier-emitting plants.
Last week, President Biden outlined new steps to confront the growing spread of Covid-19.
Unfortunately, Biden’s plan failed to include what could be the most important action of all: an all-out effort to make safe and effective anti-viral Covid-19 pills available.
Pfizer’s Paxlovid was authorized by the FDA for emergency use on December 22. But regulatory authorizations are little more than symbolic, if the drugs are unavailable. White House Coronavirus Coordinator Jeffrey Zients said on The News Hour that there would be 10 million courses of Paxlovid available by “late summer” of next year—which is too little, too late.
Related Content: Biden's General Are Fighting the Last COVID War
The White House should immediately act on these potentially transformational drug treatments. The president should invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to speed their production.
