Sedona AZ (June 10, 2013) – In an open letter to the Sedona City Council and the SedonaEye.com, city resident Jean Jenks writes the following:
Americans have only recovered 45% of money lost in the recession by end 2012 reports Federal Reserve.
Dear Editor,
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s 2012 Annual Report released May 30, 2013:
*Aggregate household net-worth data aren’t adjusted for inflation, population growth or the nature of the wealth.”
“A lot of the recovery in net worth has been tied to the stock market, thus is concentrated in holdings of wealthy families.”
“Considering the uneven recovery of wealth across households, a conclusion that the financial damage of the crisis and recession largely has been repaired is not justified.”
Additionally, it’s no surprise the St. Louis Fed’s analysts found Americans have recovered only 45% of the money they lost during the recession. The stock and bond markets are high because the Federal Reserve System keeps pursuing quantitative easing and printing dollars. The U.S. still employs more than 2.4 million fewer people than when the recession began, with millions of working-age Americans having left the labor force due to lack of jobs. The buying power of the dollar has eroded considerably. And housing would still be in the doldrums without the influx of billions from large Wall Street investment firms.
It is troubling to read the “Dear Mayor and City Council” form letter proposing “to increase the City sales tax by .5% and to increase the bed tax by .5%,” for which the Lodging Council, dissolved by the AZ Corporation Commission in 2011, is busy gathering signatures in support from businesses and their employees. Replacing a regressive, temporary 1% state sales tax by a permanent .5% City sales tax and claiming “the timing is right and the current situation is a win-win scenario” is ludicrous. A permanent regressive sales tax will only serve to prolong the recession’s damage to Sedona’s economy, perhaps even worsen it.
Unfortunately, business failures in Sedona are continuing and vacancies are everywhere. Recently we have seen the Dollar Store, Angel’s, Bodacious Burgers, Studio Live and the flower shop go out of business. Small business under siege and going broke, low wages, unemployment, dollar erosion, a decrease in savings of seniors on fixed incomes and the poor, the population drop to approximately 10,000, sequestration, and Sedona’s cost of living — 26.30% higher than the U.S. average — are all signs Sedona needs a sales tax decrease.
Sincerely,
* http://www.bestplaces.net/city/arizona/Sedona reports “Compared to the rest of the country, Sedona’s cost of living is 26.30% higher than the U.S. average.”
For the best in Arizona news and views, read www.SedonaEye.com daily!
Liked this article on Facebook.
Can they do anything else to surprise us? Check this out!
Feinsteins’s office “strongly denied the charges”… a lot of “strongly denying” going on in Washington this week.
The US has entered into a contract with a real estate firm to sell 56 buildings that currently house U.S. Post Offices.. The government has decided it no longer needs these buildings, many of which are located on prime land in towns and cities across the country.
The sale of these properties will fetch billions of dollars and a handsome 6% commission to the company handling the sales. That company belongs to a man named Richard Blum. Who is Richard Blum you ask?
Why the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein, that’s who. What a bunch of crooks we have running this country!
Senator Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, stand to make a fortune. His firm, C.R. I., is the sole real estate company offering these properties for sale. Of course, C.R.I. will be making a 6% commission on the sale of each and every one of these postal properties.
All of these properties that are being sold are all fully paid for.
They were purchased with U.S. taxpayers dollars, and they are allowed free and clear by the U.S.P.S.
The only cost to keep them is the cost to actually keep the doors open and the heat and lights on.
The United States Postal Service doesn’t even have to pay property taxes on these subject properties. Would you sell your house just because you couldn’t afford to pay the electric bill?
Well, the Post Office is.
How does a powerful U.S. Senator from San Francisco manage to get away with such a sweet deal?
A powerful United States Senator’s husband is standing by, all ready to make millions from a U.S. taxpayer funded enterprise.
No one in the mainstream media is even raising an eyebrow over his 6% commission on the sale of hundreds of millions of dollar’s worth of quasi-public assets.
Pass this info on before it’s pulled from the internet.
True on Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/blum.asp