Articles Tagged As “Economy”:
2542.\\ Value Proposition
Mr. Sowell has entered the building. And with him comes an overall elevation of the intellectual discourse of the day.
Best bit:
"Since the only resources that the government has are the resources it takes from the private sector, using those resources to create jobs means reducing the resources available to create jobs in the private sector."
Which is why government is almost never the answer to any problem involving the market.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Insurance, Thomas Sowell
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PERMANENT LINK2530.\\ NY Times in Absolute Denial
Not that this is a shocking or entirely unheard of thing, but the New York Times seems hell bent on protecting the soothing bubble that encloses them in their fictional world. To wit, today's editorial is a verbal dose of head burying.
My favorite bit:
"Mr. Obama has done many important things on the environment, and in foreign affairs, and in preventing the nation's banking system from collapsing in the face of a financial crisis he inherited."
Really? I mean, REALLY NYT??
What are the many important things he's done on the environment? Participate in foisting the ongoing fiction of the climate models on the American people? Threaten to destroy the nation's economy by running industry out of business via taxes and caps? Failing utterly to add anything meaningful to the dialogue at Copenhagen? What exactly has he done except issue diktats of dubious legality via the EPA? Diktats that will undoubtedly be wrapped in Constitutional legal issues for years, I might add. I'm still waiting for the seas to stop rising and the planet to start healing...
Where are all of these foreign policy achievements Mr. Obama is allegedly responsible for? Surely you don't mean the Nobel Peace Prize, that universal joke laughed at by everyone on the planet outside of Scandinavia. Perhaps Iran? Iran where we have made no progress and indeed have regressed over Mr. Obama's tenure? Perhaps you mean North Korea...um, no. Cuba? Or how about our disapproval of Honduran democratic elections and support for the thug dictator the Hondurans threw out? Or how about Mr. Obama's total failure to produce anything positive with China? Seriously, what are these wonderful foreign policy miracles he hath wrought?
But the cake has to be your assertion, NYT, that OBAMA saved the financial system. Aside from historical fiction, it is ideologically incongruous for a liberal paper claiming a leftist President properly saved the banks. A simple Googling of the topic (which seems utterly beyond your editorial research efforts when it doesn't align with your agenda), reveals that the crisis was borne of government interference in the market (specifically the housing market) and the solutions for it were devised and executed in 2008 under George W. Bush. The final piece of the response to the crisis, the 'porkulus' bill of spring 2009, is indeed attributed to Mr. Obama. And this package of spending has been widely ridiculed as a pork-laden equivalent of throwing money into the air and hoping it lands someplace helpful. It didn't create jobs, it didn't help people stay in their homes, it didn't increase business spending, it didn't produce any significant positive benefit of any sort. It failed. In fact, Mr. Obama's only response to the financial crisis has been to nationalize the automotive industry, meddle with private business practices such as how much they pay their employees, nationalize and endlessly back Fannie and Freddie and in the process take over ultimate responsibility for most mortgages in the US, attempt to nationalize the banking industry by forcing solvent banks to take government loans and government diktats, attempt to force employees in the private sector to join labor unions, attempt to nationalize the health insurance industry, attempt to nationalize the student loan industry and yet continue to push the very subprimes types of mortgages that were the primary cause of the meltdown. In effect, Mr. Obama's response to the financial crisis has been to prevent another crisis by eliminating the market altogether and simply creating a socialist system by executive fiat.
There. Now that that's all out, I'll simply close by saying the NYT is out of touch, in an echo-chamber bubble, in denial and has ideological myopia of a colossal degree.
TAGGED AS: Economy, George W Bush, New York Times, Obama
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PERMANENT LINK2529.\\ Henry Liu Makes Krugman His Bitch
Read Krugman's article here first, then read Henry Liu's total smackdown, raw.
The article also happens to be a great historical recounting of monetary policy. Fantastic read for the day. And frankly, any time Paul Krugman is revealed as the fraud that he is it is a good day for me.
TAGGED AS: America, China, Economy, Henry Liu, Paul Krugman, Smackdown
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PERMANENT LINK2528.\\ The Fed and Why it is Awful for America (indeed, the world)
I can't pretend to fully comprehend economic theory. I simply understand enough to have a gut feel of the rest of it. That sounds pretty provincial now that I read it back. But hey, I can't be an expert in everything.
At any rate, The Mises Institute, of which I am a fan, has a great deconstruction of why manipulating the marketplace is a bad idea and simply another form of interventionist social engineering. You may come away agreeing with Ron Paul that the whole damn thing should be dismantled. As it turns out, he mostly quotes von Mises. Which brings me back to the fact that you simply have to read the article.
As a sidenote, I have zero faith that a return to the gold standard is even feasible. Check this out for a very balanced take.
TAGGED AS: Economy, Gold Standard, Libertarian, Mises, Ron Paul
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PERMANENT LINK2525.\\ The Health Bill is a Massive Tax
"The so-called "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" in fact will make access to health insurance more expensive and less useful, and will also render the care provided by insurance less effective, more risky, and more expensive by taxing the production of new capital goods. The taxation approach taken by Senate Democrats is a purely foolish method of funding regulations that are themselves horrible."
Thanks Ludwig von Mises.
Left unsaid: It is a method for funding regulations that establish government control of your health. I've seen this movie before, it was called Logan's Run.
TAGGED AS: Autocracy, Dystopia, Economy, Government, Health Care, Insurance, Logan's Run, Tax
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PERMANENT LINK2509.\\ Economics of Failure
Excellent article in the Journal today. I encourage you to read it. Leave out all the pro-Reagan stuff and take the article on the merit of its central argument: that you do not promote long term, broad based growth by spending so far into debt that you can't get out.
Read it. And think about it when you hear about the tens of trillions of dollars that 'reform' is going to cost us.
TAGGED AS: Congress, Economy, Finance, GDP, Health Care, Ronald Reagan, Spending
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PERMANENT LINK2507.\\ State Suicide
I don't have to say anything at all about this article...but I will anyway. This is exactly what will happen to the entire nation if we continue down the socialist path we seem hell bent on taking. Actually, what's happening on the Federal level is far worse than anything that happened in California. So I suspect the results will be much, much worse. Possibly catastrophic. Maybe apocalyptic.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, California, Disaster, Disgust, Economy, Finance, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2506.\\ Easy Fix For Economic Collapse
It is simple. More Obamanomics. More Government. More socialism. More spreading the wealth around a bit. All you have to do, silly Mayors, is raise taxes to cover the budget deficit.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Finance, Socialism, Taxes
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PERMANENT LINK2501.\\ Total Shit and Getting Worse
The Obama Economy at work. The only solution, is of course, total socialism, astronomic taxes, unending entitlements and nationalization of every industry. Replace the Individual with Unionized collectivization and all will function as it should in the enlightened thinker's model of economics.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Socialism, Unemployment
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PERMANENT LINK2498.\\ The Coming Collapse of China
I've long held the belief, based on my studies at college, that China would one day collapse of its own weight. The forces at work in that part of the world for the past 3000 years aren't likely to change overnight, nor have they changed since the Communists took power 60 years ago. Even more unchanging is human nature. This collapse, brought on by loosening central power, is no different in its dynamics than any other time in China's history when similarly authoritarian control was loosened just enough for the entire thing to come unwound. Add to this loosening of CCP power an immense uptick in the materialism and driven self-interest of the various regions of China and you have the ingredients for a massive splintering of the nation into a modern version of Warring States.
A recent article by Gordon Chang in Forbes detailed how the Chinese Miracle may in fact be totally fraudulent (you should read Gordon if you are remotely interested in the future of Asia). An article in the Politico today backs that up. As does the movements of various hedge fund managers and investors including the one who correctly identified the phoniness of Enron. Now granted, figuring out a company is cooking the books is different than figuring out a secretive nation is cooking the books. But the point is that not all is as it appears to be in the Middle Kingdom.
Which brings me back to my own, long held, prediction. If China collapses or begins to, the leaders will try anything to remain in power. This includes whipping up nationalism by manufacturing a war with America over Taiwan or the South China Sea or imported chicken.
In any event, if China collapses they will stop financing our debt. This will hurt us. If China collapses and tries to take it out on America, this will hurt us. Either way we should prepare for a rough go of it where China is concerned.
Of course, our only concern as a nation at the moment is whether someone is going to give us health care for free, not the imminent collapse of the international order.
TAGGED AS: America, Asia, Capitalism, CCP, China, Communism, Economy, Finance, Forbes, Gordon Chang, Politico, Totalitarianism, War
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PERMANENT LINK2490.\\ Jobless rate tops 10 pct. for first time since '83 - Yahoo! Finance
Oh yeah. The porkulus...er...stimulus really seems to be working well. I mean, why would anyone believe the AP or the Labor Department over the White House? That just downright un-American. I'll have to report you if you believe that unemployment is at 10.2% and/or that it has anything to do with Obama. This is clearly still Bush's fault.
TAGGED AS: Economy, Finance, Propaganda, Socialism, Taxes, Unemployment
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PERMANENT LINK2485.\\ Made Up Metric
I'd love to know how you calculate a 'saved' job. We've known of course that the 'created or saved' metric is total bunk made up of phony estimates and outright lies (as the Wall Street Journal recalls for us today). But I'd like to ask a new question. If the wizardry behind the stimulus created or saved 650k jobs so far this year, what do we call the 4 million jobs lost in the first 9 months of the year? Were those jobs just 'unsavable' ?
They were probably all dissenters and therefore it was determined by the jobs czar that they didn't need jobs.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Jobs, Lies, Unemployment, Wall Street Journal
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PERMANENT LINK2482.\\ $160,000 Per Stimulus Job?
Well that certainly seems worth it. Who could begrudge low-paying blue collar jobs created for $160k a pop on the taxpayer's dime? Surely there was no better way to generate (or save!) all those jobs. Of course, the one example given in the article suggests you should take the number of new jobs with a grain of salt (or perhaps just divide the 'official' number by 4).
Amazing that state-run ABC would dare to publish such a story in the first place. Their dissent is un-American and I'm afraid I'll have to report them so that the White House can reeducate the reporter.
Taken together with this week's fictitious GDP number, we are surely almost par with full-blown propaganda machines like Pravda or the former Iraqi Information Ministry.
Don't worry, your economy is fine! We create jobs all over! There is no recession!
TAGGED AS: Economy, Finance, GDP, Jobs, Lies, Propaganda, State Run Media
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PERMANENT LINK2472.\\ The Smartest Man in America
Every time I read Thomas Sowell I have an increasing admiration and appreciation for his intellect. He's a philosopher in an era of sophists. He's an excellent writer and his knowledge of how the economy really works makes Friedman look like Herbert Hoover.
His latest column, entitled Magic Numbers in Politics, is a devastating critique of the current vogue of political theory that markets are evil and the root cause of the financial crisis was insufficient Statism.
Aside from being a Capitalism 101 lesson that every politician should read, it is a repudiation of the notion that the market caused the financial crisis and that the solution is Barny Frank running your life.
The best bit:
If everything is connected to everything else in a market economy, then it makes no sense to have laws and policies that declare some given goal to be a "good thing," without regard to the repercussions, which spread out in all directions, like waves that spread across a pond when you drop a rock in the water.
Amen. Now, how do we fix it?
TAGGED AS: Capitalism, Communism, Economy, Philosophy, Thomas Friedman, Thomas Sowell
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PERMANENT LINK2467.\\ How's That Economic Philosophy Working Out For You?
I guess taxing the shit out of the rich and small businesses and redistributing it all to the poor isn't working out all that well. Obamanomics in action. Coming soon to a State near you.
TAGGED AS: Economy, Obamanomics, Socialism, Taxes
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PERMANENT LINK2462.\\ Glenn Beck Doesn't Need Defending
I like Glenn Beck a lot. I noticed him first last year when our government stole the next 50 years from us and our children by nationalizing the financial and auto industries and condemning America to decline.
Jonah Goldberg has a good article in today's USA Today that points out how popular he really is and why the right should adopt him and not push him away.
He can be a bit out there, to be honest. I don't agree with many of his arguments. But I like his style. I like his approach to discussing the issues of the day. Other programs take it at face value the a State should be in the business of wealth redistribution. He questions the very foundations of the modern American State and wonders aloud what the founders would think if they were alive today.
His detractors on the left, I just don't understand their hatred for him. He's bombastic, yes. But he isn't unlikable like Keith Olbermann. He isn't haughty and arrogant like Bill Maher. He isn't enamored with his own sense of humor like Jon Stewart. He's to the point, direct, and casual. I also find myself agreeing with him more often than just about any other politico.
TAGGED AS: America, Economy, Glenn Beck, Leftist, Media, Politics, USA Today
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PERMANENT LINK2459.\\ China Warning
I've harped on this for years. Ever since studying China in college, I've harbored the notion that there will be war with them. Read this article and think deep about it. It isn't the rambling of an idiot or a warmonger or a neocon. This is hard evidence and solid analysis that we are indeed revisiting history. I would argue it is 1932 all over again.
My children will have to fight the Chinese because of 20 years of weakness and inept leadership when it comes to the China question.
2457.\\ Well Everything's Going Fine...
Unemployment at nearly 10%, the highest in 26 years. Looks like Obamanomics is going swimmingly. Just like Stalin's, Mao's and Castro's state control of the means of production, our leftist economic policies are doomed to failure (as the French, Germans and British have begun to realize).
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Leftist, Obamanomics, Socialism, Unemployment
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PERMANENT LINK2447.\\ Success No Matter What
John Stossel can be a bit of a prick sometimes. But he's got it bang on with this bit today on RCP.
Best part is his reference to an earlier, quite prescient article he wrote:
Given time, the economy, unless totally crippled by government intervention, will regenerate itself. That's because an economy is not a machine that needs jumpstarting. It is people who have objectives they want to achieve. They will not sit on their hands forever waiting for government to 'fix' things. Instead, they work to overcome obstacles to get what they want. Some banks are struggling, but there are still people who want to lend money and people who want to borrow it. They will find each other without government help
Hear hear. The only thing missing are some hard numbers on the colossal waste of Cash for Clunkers, the various bailouts, the nationalization of GM, etc.
Additionally, I would extend his argument by suggesting that this isn't just the standard WH spin on the economy we always see. No this is worse. This is an actual liberal elitist philosophy, a cynical world view, that says if we lie enough to the morons out there on topics they don't understand, we'll eventually convince them of our words. Provided the lie is big enough and the charisma is strong enough. It extends beyond the economy and into the realm of health care, Iran, international trade, the Unions, taxes, and on and on. It is Obama's governing philosophy and he uses it with everything. Tell them enough times and with the right intonation that everything is great because I'm good looking and charismatic and smarter than you are and you will eventually believe me.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Finance, Jobs, John Stossel
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PERMANENT LINK2446.\\ California Coming Around to Common Sense?
This article in Forbes paints a bleak picture of California's experiment with radically liberal politics. Unemployment in some areas over 20% and a host of other problems have led some to stop and think that perhaps LOWER taxes and LESS government spending might just be the ticket after all.
What is interesting is that the state has often served as a bellweather for economic and social philosophy for much of the rest of the country. If they pull it back from the brink and turn it around using a pro-business, conservative approach, I wonder if the nation will follow?
TAGGED AS: California, Economy, Environazis, Taxes
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PERMANENT LINK2438.\\ Stimula-tastic!
Nice. So let me understand this, 4 million have LOST their jobs since March but the Federal government has GROWN by 25,000?. And you want them to choose and administer your health care? Fuck me.
TAGGED AS: Economy, Government, USA Today
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PERMANENT LINK2433.\\ Disarming the Responsible
In a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece, Bret Stephens lays out why America is doomed. Not just America but all western peace loving nations.
I would differ in my long term predictions, however. Appeasement and weakness in the West historically invites war and turmoil. And so it will again. A nation or group of nations will attempt to exploit our perceived or actual weakness. The war will be long and brutal and ultimately we will prevail. We'll undergo decades of self-flagellation for ever having been so gullible and naive. I'm a historian. Mark my words that it will happen.
The best bit:
"In 1943, Walter Lippmann observed that the disarmament movement had been 'tragically successful in disarming the nations that believed in disarmament.' That ought to have been the final word on the subject."
TAGGED AS: America, Appeasement, Barack Obama, Economy, Wall Street Journal
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PERMANENT LINK2426.\\ Chinese Chicken
The real financial crisis we're facing is the only one no one is talking about.
TAGGED AS: China, Economy, US
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PERMANENT LINK2422.\\ I Told You So...
Facts are stubborn things. So is historical, empirical data.
Take that Paul "Poobah" Krugman!
TAGGED AS: Economy, Keynes, Wall Street Journal
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PERMANENT LINK2414.\\ Seems Like It's Going Well...
If you needed further proof that the current class of clowns has no idea what it is doing, read this story.
Obama's economic philosophy, borne of ivory tower theories and with a heavy dose of idealistic communal flower power, will end up God-Damning America just as his supporters desire.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, The Telegraph
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PERMANENT LINK2412.\\ Most Important Read of The Week (And it's only Monday)
Read this and argue with it. You can't! You can't!
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Nonsense
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PERMANENT LINK2407.\\ Where Are You James Monroe?
He never would have let this happen.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Hugo Chavez, Monroe Doctrine, Russia, Venezuala
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PERMANENT LINK2406.\\ Peter Ferrara: The Keynesians Were Wrong Again - WSJ.com
A ha! In a giant fuck you to the enlightened thought leaders (including Poobah Krugman himself) The Wall Street Journal presents a view opposite to that of the Keynesians and the other Ivory Tower elitists.
Good read.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Keynes
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PERMANENT LINK2404.\\ Liberal Agenda Struggling
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Congress, Economy, Health Care, Liberals
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PERMANENT LINK2401.\\
In a piece penned from Bizarro America, Thomas 'the world is flat' Friedman waxes poetic over the totalitarian state of China and wishes could please have some more wasteful spending in Congress if it means that we can finally impose all that is good and enlightened on the dumb rubes here in America.
Fuck freedom and liberty if it means the electorate (mob) can overrule those intellectuals who are fit to govern them. The unwashed masses shouldn't have a say in their own lives if it means that lifestyle conflicts with the philosophy of the ivory tower.
An American Liberal Democrat advocating totalitarian dictatorship of the enlightened elite. I never thought I'd ever live to see the day.
TAGGED AS: China, Dictatorship, Economy, Leninism, Politics, Thomas Friedman
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PERMANENT LINK2400.\\ Barone Gets it Right (Again)
With his usual direct style, Michael Barone points out the increasing absurdity of the plan(s) to change how health care works in this country.
My favorite part:
"There is an element of convenient fantasy as well in Obama's health care statements to date. We are going to save money by spending money. We are going to solve our fiscal problems with a program that will increase the national debt by $1,000,000,000,000 over a decade. We are going to guarantee you can keep your current insurance with a bill that encourages your employer to stop offering it.
The list goes on. We are going to improve health care for seniors by cutting $500,000,000,000 from Medicare. We aren't going to insure illegal aliens, except that we won't have any verification provisions to see that they can't apply and get benefits."
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Michael Barone, Washington Examiner
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PERMANENT LINK2394.\\ Paul Krugman and the Advance of Madness
Yes it is old. But I didn't do any web surfing on Friday to spot it. So here it is.
In a quick blog post to (his blog? the NY Times Editorial Page? some random website he maintains? I can't figure it out), the Great American Poobah professes disbelief and surprise at the hate mail his political rants have generated.
On the one hand he calmly expresses a desire to not have people react so vehemently, so filled with blind rage, at writings that they may not have even read. And he cleverly weaves into this thread a charge that anyone who disagrees with Obama and the Liberal agenda in general must be retarded.
So we pair a legitimate observation on the temperature of the political discourse in this country with school yard insults from the 6th grade. Nice. Worthy of a Nobel laureate with his prominence.
I commented. But in case my comment is 'moderated' out of existence as routinely happens at the NYTimes.com website (regardless of how polite I am in disagreeing), I've asked some rhetorical questions (and statements) below that I'd love to ask Paul if I ever met him:
Dear Paul,
Why is it "bizarre" to think that the Obama administration is full of socialists, ideologues, angry leftists and others with a penchant for militant elitism? The news is replete with examples on a weekly, if not daily basis. Need I point them out to you?
Why does the intensity of the discourse strike you as amazing and "bizarre"? It is pretty clear that the nation has been divided for quite some time. Or did you think that when Obama was elected that everyone would see the light, swoon, smoke the bong and go into a haze of total agreement?
You were not "questioning Bush's bona fides" during the previous administration, Mr. Krugman. You have called him a liar, a war profiteer, an idiot, an elitist, an ideologue. a fundamentalist, denigrated his religious bent, suggested he inherited the White House and myriad other distateful things
Your articles on innocuous subjects like health care, economics and macro modeling provoke such 'incoherent rage' because they are political and you mean them to be political. And when you invoke your Nobel Prize to make points about politics you appear, and indeed are, elitist. And when those points are decidedly leftist in nature, paint everything on the right as a product of mental deficiency, and fawn over anything on the left, then you will provoke the kind of rage you see in your inbox. Seems pretty straight forward to me and I imagine in reality you truly understand it. Which leads me to my next point
Why are you so mock sincere with your statements? Feigning ignorance on subjects you should clearly have mastery over is the lowest form of intellectual discourse.
Need I point out that if Obama had come in proposing an agenda identical to the last administration, then you would not be supporting him and indeed be writing articles mocking his intelligence? It is totally irrelevant to point out something with is impossible. Why the false, straw man argument? It is beneath you.
Why do you invoke mental acuity to explain why the right doesn't see the absolute, perfect correctness beaming forth from the light of knowledge you've hoisted high?
In fact, involvement in politics is beneath you. Put your brain to work and solve our problems. Stay off the editorial and opinion pages where you simply diminish yourself, your ideas and liberalism in general.
Here's what my comment said:
"Why must there be something 'wrong' with people's mental faculties out there Paul? Is it possible, just possible, that the unwashed masses are right and you are wrong? Why this disdain for the mob when it rejects the light of liberal enlightenment you've bestowed on it?
You're a smart guy. Drop the emotion. Reassess. Quit calling people retarded because they think you're full of crap."
Lastly, does a minor blog post from a week ago warrant this rant? In and of itself, no. But I get pretty worked up at these elitists spewing about how dumb everyone else is and not getting challenged.
TAGGED AS: Economy, Elitist, Leftist, New York Times, Nonsense, Paul Krugman, Politics
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PERMANENT LINK2390.\\ Things Could Be Worse...
You could be one of these people.
Yeah I'm sure going 100 grand into debt for a college degree is totally worth it. Or not.
Shouldn't a degree be free for everyone? Paid for by the rich? Guaranteed even to terrorists in Gitmo?
Or should it be something that you earn and value and leverage and pay for with your own sweat?
Frankly I think a degree and 4 years of college was a complete waste of time and money for me. But hey. I'm not Noble Prize winning economist. Sorry, wrong post.
2389.\\ Rebuttal of Krugman
Turns out, I don't have to write one. Cause it's already been practiced in reality in the State of Michigan where it has failed dramatically.
Bravo Keynes! Hurrah Krugman!
TAGGED AS: Economy, Keynes, Michigan, Paul Krugman
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PERMANENT LINK2388.\\ How Did Krugman Get It So Wrong?
In a must read article of the day, Paul Krugman, self-anointed Economic Grand Pubah of the Republic, exhaustively analyzes the current fiscal crisis and what happened at a macro level of economic theory and philosophy to get us here.
It is a great article that lays out the opposing camps of economic theorists and their general belief systems. He then proceeds to draw the total opposite conclusion from his data than I did. Now granted, I'm not a 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Economic Science, but it seems to me that a simple return to pure Keynesian theory would simply lead us down the path of rehashing the past 60 years of US economic development. My argument is that the 21st Century is a different time and place with totally different challenges than the 20th Century. Keynesian economics failed during the latter half of the 20th, so why on Earth should it work at all in the 21st? It would make sense in a manufacturing economy based on exports with Unions and farmers and goods being exchanged. It seems hopelessly antiquated when dealing with a service based economy where knowledge is bought and sold.
But hey, what do I know. Read the article anyway, cause it is very very interesting.
TAGGED AS: Economy, Keynes, Paul Krugman, Politics, Taxes
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PERMANENT LINK2382.\\ David Brooks and the Silent Majority
In an Opinion piece, (usually) conservative columnist David Brooks surveys the political situation we're in and does his best to say nothing of interest on the matter.
With a discernible sourness, for reasons I can't quite fathom, he rambles on about how much of a mistake Obama's left tilt has been (shocker) and the disaster of health care reform for the Democrats (another shocker).
Despite writing an obvious filler piece (probably Sunday afternoon or something), he can't avoid some gems such as this:
"Amazingly, some liberals are now lashing out at Obama because the entire country doesn't agree with The Huffington Post. Some now argue that the administration should just ignore the ignorant masses and ram health care through..."
Love it.
TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Congress, David Brooks, Deficit, Economy, Harry Reid, Health Care, New York Times
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PERMANENT LINK2381.\\ Canada Whores Itself Out to China
Forbes is reporting on a deal that gives PetroChina a majority controlling interest in one of Canada's largest oil companies that happens to be sitting on 5 billion barrels of oil in the tar sands of Alberta.
Aside from the fact that China now has national security interests in North America and will defend those interests with typical Chinese nationalistic fury, the Chinese environmental record promises to transform western Canada into a massive cesspool.
Way to go Canada! You've sold the goods for a pittance and in return doomed your ecology and chained your foreign policy to the whims of the world's largest, cruelest dictatorship bent on global domination.
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out who in Ottawa thought this was in Canadian national interest. Look for increasing, creeping, Chinese involvement not only in the Canadian economy but in local and national politics to secure and insure their investment in raping Alberta. Canadian politicians will increasingly seek to placate and suck up to their bosses in Beijing and further distance themselves from the United States.
When the showdown inevitably comes, which side will Canada choose?
TAGGED AS: Canada, China, Economy, Foreign Policy, Oil
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PERMANENT LINK2359.\\ Reaganism is Dead... Says The Great Poobah
He also refers to himself as the great "unabashed defender of the welfare state". I don't even know how to comment on that. Krugman The Great speaks
I will say that in no way can the economic success of the 1980s and 1990s be delinked from Reaganomics and I happen to believe that an unregulated market was not the primary reason for our current problems. But whatever. I don't have a Nobel prize in economics.
TAGGED AS: Economy, Liberals, New York Times, Paul Krugman, Reagan
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PERMANENT LINK2353.\\ To My Congressman
Since your online comment submission application is generating error 500's and has an obvious database failure (perhaps it is full of angry comments?), I'm sending my comments to you via my blog.
Dear Mr. Inglis,
I am so enraged by your first vote on the bailout, Congressman, that you've managed to flip me from a supporter to someone who will actively speak out AGAINST you in the next election to prevent you from screwing me and my fellow constituents even further.
You've voted to destroy this country and every one of its founding principles. You've put your political self-interest ahead of the need of the people. You've managed to allow liberalism, dare I say socialism, to substitute its odious philosophy for market capitalism.
You should be ashamed.
You should be alarmed at the pork that this new bill is full of. You should be scrambling to prevent the outright embarrassment you will incur if you vote for this earmarked boondoggle that we cannot afford. It will saddle my children with debt to the Chinese for the rest of their lives and I won't ever let you or my fellow constituents forget it.
And tell the House to get new IT staff to fix that piece of shit website you have.
TAGGED AS: Bob Inglis, Congress, Economy, GOP, Politics
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PERMANENT LINK2352.\\ Maxine Waters is a Liar
She's on America's Newsroom right this minute claiming that people were 'tricked' into signing mortgages. She's also asserting that nobody understands what is in a contract such as a mortgage and so you can't blame people for the housing crisis. Somehow it is because of deregulation, she claims, not Barney Frank and ACORN pushing subprime loans and encouraging people to put zero down that we've had a housing bubble. Deregulation caused a bubble? I think she means that manipulating the housing markets from a Congressional committee caused the bubble. The principle of the market has been working just fine for several hundred years, thank you very much.
She's a liar, a fraud and she has terrible hair. She clearly fits in with her district. But more importantly, this is just one more piece of evidence that she's off her rocker. See this gem from over the summer.
TAGGED AS: Capitalism, Congress, Economy, Liar, Liberals, Maxine Waters, Politics
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PERMANENT LINK2350.\\ John McCain, Hypocrite
I'm seething with rage this morning. The guy I was hoping would come to town and throw out the spenders and ax the special interests has gone down without a fight, and he's not even in office yet!
How can a man spend his entire career fighting lobbyists, special interest groups and pork barrel spending and vote for this bailout bill? How can he rail against earmarks and express such passion about cutting wasteful spending only to go ahead and accept this Christmas tree festooned with waste, earmarks and special interest goodies to the tune of over a trillion dollars?
How can he accept this? How? I was thrilled last week when he suspended his campaign. I thought here is the man of action I'd like to see running the show. He flew to Washington and instead of standing up for what was right, he stood up and was counted for what was easiest. After he flew into town and got the read on the situation, he should have come out in front of the public and denounced this horrific attempt to manipulate the markets and extend bureaucratic control over capitalism as the pile of socialist shit it is. Furthermore, he should have said, there is nothing that could make me vote for this bill in its current form. No goodies, no trinkets, no added features, no extra earmarks, no nothing that would make me, John McCain, vote for something that is so at odds with my political philosophy, my record and my core beliefs.
What would Mr. Reagan think of you now John? You've become a big government stooge supporting a bill that gives away the future of my children and entrusts it to Chinese financiers and Islamic oil producers.
In the end, you've surrendered your principles when the time came to stand up for them. You've sold us down the river John. And what saddens me the most about it is that, while 73 of your colleagues (and it looks now like a majority of the House) also sold us down the river, you were the one guy that I thought could turn us around. So this black mark counts doubly, triply against you. You've ceded the moral high ground and condemned this country to 8 years of liberalism run amok. You've hastened the end of the American era by allowing the Democrats to ride their way to power in all branches of government. Their insidious policies will bring about the final death knell of this once great country.
This is on you, John. You and every other alleged fiscal conservative in the GOP. You and your buddy Lindsay have brought on catastrophe.
TAGGED AS: Congress, Conservative, Constitution, Economy, GOP, John McCain, Liberals, Lindsay Graham, Politics
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PERMANENT LINK2349.\\ Karl Marx: 1, Adam Smith: 0
The Senate has passed Bailout v2.0 (aka Crap Sandwich 2.0) by a vote of 74 to 25.
Are there really only 25 market believers in the US Senate? God help us all if this is true. I'd almost rather believe that the 74 voted Yay in order to devour the billions worth of pork crapola that they've stuffed in this donkey.
I'm sorry to say that my own state apparently has only 1 Senator who places his faith in Adam Smith and not in the greedy, grubby, grabby hand of the United States Government. Well, you say, it must be Mr. McCain's good friend and fellow pork buster Lindsay Graham. Well, says I, you'd be dead wrong. Senator Graham has voted in favor of this steaming pile of shit. It was the junior Senator of the great State of South Carolina, Jim DeMint, who courageously stood up and threw down the bullshit card. I know Jim DeMint. I don't think the man voted against this because his office was inundated with outraged constituents. I honestly think he voted his principles. What a strange, absent concept in today's Congress!
So as this vote represents a victory for Marx, so too it reveals those in our nation's government who firmly believe in the foundational principles of this country as laid down by the founders and will stand up to prove it. Crises have a funny way of bringing forth those principled few and sending the unscrupulous masses scurrying for cover. It's like turning a light on in a grimy kitchen and watching the bugs run.
Weasled out. Beware, Mr. McCain
Stood up and was counted
Nod to Michele for the craptastic references.
TAGGED AS: Congress, Constitution, Economy, Jim DeMint, Lindsay Graham, Politics, Senate
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PERMANENT LINK2348.\\ W.W.A.H.D. ?
The notion that bureaucrats should be involved in manipulating the free market is noxious. That being said, the prospect of economic panic, credit drying up, a domino effect of failing institutions and the rest of the world gloating at our problems compels me to support an effort to extend financial protection at taxpayer expense.
We've done this type of thing before, of course: the Savings & Loan collapse of the late 80s, the collapse of Chrysler in the late 70s, the Home Owner's Loan Corp of the 30s and 40s, the JP Morgan rescue of the 1907, the panics in the 1870s, 1841, 1819 and 1809. Of course, the granddaddy of all rescues was the original one in 1792 engineered by arguably my favorite founder, Mr. Hamilton. You can go read about it if you like.
But would Mr. Hamilton be happy by the current approach? Having studied the man in some detail, I suspect not. Hamilton supported public debt and strong central government in the furtherance of American economic power. He wanted to supplement and complement the principles of Adam Smith, not restrain them or legislate them. He would not have recognized the concept of restrained, third-way market capitalism that seems to be creeping around the globe.
The notion that the Federal government should be involved in the economy was a given to him, as it is to us today. But that involvement was not to function as an economic entity somehow superior to the invisible hand, regulating, restricting, governing it. The role of the Federal government, he would say, is to enable the American worker to start a business, sell his wares, sell his services, produce his product. To the extent that a bailout enables positive economic activities and doesn't restrict the economy through microscopic regulatory control, then it is a good thing. If the Fed presumes to know better how to govern the economy than Capitalism itself, then a bailout is a bad thing.
So where do we sit? To be honest, I don't know. Injecting liquidity into the system in order to prop up otherwise failing institutions seems to be a bad use of taxpayer money. It substitutes the judgment of bureaucrats and legislators (campaigning for re-election) for the judgment of the market. That should scare anyone who has ever seen government judgment in action (i.e. the DMV, FEMA, the IRS). Should we trust the people with a 10% approval rating to legislate a $14 trillion economy? I suspect not. Alexander Hamilton, I can assure you, would be aghast.
At the end of the day, what would Hamilton do? I believe he would look at companies that are failing because of the risk they incurred and suggest that they be allowed to fail and not nationalized or otherwise artificially propped up. He would view Government Sponsored Entities such as Fannie and Freddie with disdain and recoil at the notion that trillions of dollars worth of housing was being exposed to high risk because everyone was overconfident in the unlimited support and blank check guarantee from the Federal Government (aka the American Taxpayer). The government should not be loaning money to credit risks and acting as a mortgage lender and backer, he would say. The government should act as an enabler to allow people to own houses they can afford and not guarantee mortgages to those who cannot.
The very concept of risk-reward, the foundation of capitalism, is threatened with the bill currently being tossed about on Capitol Hill. Restricting market capitalism at this juncture would not be something Mr. Hamilton would favor. It didn't work in 1932 and it won't work now. The solution is to unleash the market forces, not further legislate them.
TAGGED AS: Alexander Hamilton, Capitalism, Congress, Economy, Politics, Socialism
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PERMANENT LINK2338.\\ A Little Gem
I like this. Granted it sort of sounds like it was written by someone in high school, but hey. The sentiment is what I identified with:
Common Sense and Wonder: Bush Resignation Speech
Technorati: ChrisCam, webcam, Weblog, Blog, economy, productivity, GDP, The+Media, George Bush
TAGGED AS: Economy, George Bush, Politics, The Media
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PERMANENT LINK2337.\\ Things Just Keep Getting Worse...
Why are there so few optimists in the world today? I think I'm one. Not a hopeless romantic optimist. But a positive-thinking realist. I guess I just don't go searching for negative news. As a result, I tend to think things in the world are better than does, say, the media.
Chronic Homelessness Down 12%
Productivity Surges by 4.9%
3Q GDP grows at 3.9%
You'll notice that good news about the US economy almost invariably avoids crediting the person who's been the chief executive of the Federal Government for the past 7 years. Not even a minuscule amount of attribution. Not one drop of imputation. Bad things in the world are naturally the result of something George Bush has done. Good things happen mysteriously and without causality.
Technorati: ChrisCam, webcam, Weblog, Blog, economy, productivity, GDP, The+Media, George Bush
TAGGED AS: Economy, George Bush, Optimism, Politics, The Media
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