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He's not a politician.
Hallelujah!
It's no surprise to us, but Florida Gov. Rick Scott demonstrated emphatically Feb. 16 that he is who he said he is — a businessman — and he's going to do what he said he would do — run Florida government like a business.
Floridians should hail Scott for his bold decision to reject $2.4 billion of federal money to build a high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando.
And Floridians should hail Scott for not succumbing to all of the political and special-interest leeches anxious to be the financial beneficiaries of such a project.
As he demonstrated in his comments and letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood, Scott carefully analyzed the pros and cons of the high-speed rail. And in the same fashion that he has always done as a CEO, he examined both sides of the coin — what the return on investment would be if Florida did the rail versus what the return on investment would be if Florida did something else.
Most logical thinkers already knew there would be and could be no other conclusion than the one Scott reached — that is, there is no economic or moral justification whatsoever for the high-speed rail line.
We've reported it before, and Scott found out for himself what the California-based Reason Foundation has reported for many years: In the history of high-speed and light-rail projects around the world, all of them have cost more to build than projected and all but one or two has produced the ridership the promoters projected.
Scott is likely to hear a lot of carping from the political class, the global-warming greenies, mainstream media editorialists, Euro-trainistas and big-business contractor types for passing up a huge job stimulus and environmental savior. And indeed, within hours of Scott's decision to reject the federal money, three of Tampa's mayoral candidates ripped away at Scott in interviews with the St. Petersburg Times.
Ed Turanchik, a big rail promoter: “This ranks up there as one of the worst decisions I've ever seen.”
Bob Buckhorn: “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move this state forward. Instead, it looks like we aspire to mediocrity, and we're going to get there ... To say we're ... going to rely solely on automobiles as the transportation of the future is ludicrous.”
But read the full text of the accompanying Scott press release explaining his decision, along with the excerpt below of Scott's letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. You will see Scott makes far more sense than does the idea of a high-speed train between Orlando and Tampa.
Last week in Naples, Scott told attendees at a Cato Institute luncheon he intends to “stay the course” of what he outlined during his campaign — cut government spending, create a climate that fosters economic growth, reduce taxes and improve education.
“We are going to be a model for America,” he said.
This was one big step toward delivering on his promise. Run it like a business.
Inflation is already here. Price inflation is gaining momentum.
Every day you're hearing reports from around the world of skyrocketing food prices in foreign countries.
And more and more economists are talking about price inflation spreading — as many of them predicted when the Federal Reserve Bank began printing more money to fund the nation's debt. Indeed, that's inflation — printing more dollars.
Noted U.S. economist Dr. Ken Mayland of Cleveland told a group of CEOs in Tampa recently:
“The Fed says inflation is too low. But corn is $7 a bushel. I'm seeing all these big increases in commodity prices. What is the Fed looking at?
With the Fed continuing to print money to fund the U.S. debt — i.e. the Federal Reserve now owns more in U.S. debt than does China — Mayland says Americans should be wary of Washington politicians and Federal Reserve bankers who want to use inflation to solve the nation's debt problems.
“If we try to inflate our way out of this problem, it will wipe out the wealth of most Americans,” Mayland said.
Don't kid yourself. Inflation is moving this way. It's now running at 3.7% in the United Kingdom and rising.
Mayland warns: To protect yourself, invest in hard assets and energy commodities. Now really is a great time to buy real estate.
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