Clever: Keystone XL Proposal; The Sequester and the Market; Cronies Parking Corporate Money Overseas

Isn't this interesting?

I always find it fascinating how statesmen can find ways to work around very, very difficult issues.

House Republicans have co-sponsored a bill with friends across the aisle which would "argue" that former SecState Hillary Clinton's "approval" of the Keystone XL is sufficient to allow TransCanada to complete the controversial pipeline. The link takes you to an Oil & Gas Journal article.

One could even go so far as to make it veto-proof, with the president's approval, so he could say he vetoed it, but Congress over-ruled him. It would all be done with a blink of an eye (or the simultaneous blink of many eyes) and life would go on. If the price of gasoline hits new records on Memorial Day (having just set new records in February), all sides might feel this is not a bad outcome. Even John Kerry would be able to remain aloof of this very difficult dilemma.

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On a completely different, the stock market has been hitting new highs, almost every day since the sequester went into effect, starting back on Monday, March 4, 2013, the first full day of business follow the date the sequester went into effect.

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The President's economic adviser "parks" $108 billion of the company's money overseas to avoid taxes.  [GE is referred to as the Jedi master of US tax avoidance.] That would be true of many other companies whose CEOs have publicly supported this president. Sort of like Warren Buffett who advocates higher taxes but then fights the IRS on disallowed write-offs. Whatever. Most investors don't mind, as long as their investments do well for them. From the linked article:

Microsoft Corporation  increased its stockpile to $61 billion, up 36 percent from 2011 and up from $30 billion in 2010. 

Apple Inc. raised its ante to $40 billion, up 73 percent from 2011. Sixty of the country’s largest nonfinancial corporations kept $166 billion in cash outside of the U.S. last year, shielding more than 40 percent of their profits from taxes, according to a report in Monday’s Wall Street Journal.

And that’s from total overseas earnings of $1.3 trillion, up 15 percent from 2011. A separate analysis of 83 of the largest nonfinancial corporations found that companies increased by $183 billion their foreign-based cash accumulations, representing a 14.4 percent rise from 2011, according to Bloomberg.

Microsoft, Apple and Google Inc. together hold $134.5 billion in cash abroad.

I believe the CEOs of all three companies vigorously supported the re-election of the president.