The Fairly Decent Communicator

Who is John Galt? Perhaps the question should be "Where is John Galt?"

2009-03-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Given the economic situation as it is, it should come as no surprise that Ayn Rand's classic, Atlas Shrugged has enjoyed a significant boost in sales of late, because the fictional setting of the book dovetails somewhat with no only what is going on in our own economy, but also the proposed "solutions" offered by the Obama administration.

The memorable phrase from the book, "Who is John Galt?" In the context of the book's parallels with our current situation, I've wondered if perhaps the question should be rephrased to, "Where is John Galt?" It's a valid question.

If you are of the same mind, and would like to ask that question publicly, now you can. ~~"Who~~ Where is John Galt?" T-shirts and bumper stickers can by found at CafePress.com.

Everything's Amazing and Getting Better All of the Time, But Nobody's Happy and Everybody's Whining

2008-11-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

This puts things in perspective, and points out how we take our comfortable lives for granted.

Hat tip: Carpe Diem

Wall Street Journal video: A Liberal Super Majority

2008-10-21T23:07:00.000-07:00

A video version of The Journal's editorial of the same title published in the past week. We can only pray that these predictions do not come to pass.

Video: Rare Julian Simon interview (last of 6 parts)

2008-10-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

From The PRC Forum.

Video: Rare Julian Simon interview (Part 5 of 6)

2008-10-14T03:00:00.000-07:00

From the PRC Forum. Check back here tomorrow for the last part in this series.

Video: Rare Julian Simon interview (Part 4 of 6)

2008-10-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

From the PRC Forum. Check back here each day for another video in this series.

Video: Rare Julian Simon interview (Part 3 of 6)

2008-10-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

From the PRC Forum. Check back each day for another in this six-part series.

Video: Rare Julian Simon interview (Part 2 of 6)

2008-10-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

From the PRC Forum. Check back daily for the next video in the series.

Video: Rare Julian Simon interview (Part 1 of 6)

2008-10-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

From the PRC Forum. Check back daily for the rest of this series.

Why the bailout is bad for America

2008-10-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

My sentiments exactly. From Dan Mitchell at Cato via Don Boudreaux via Carpe Diem:

The bailout is bad for the economy.

The bailout repeats the mistakes Japan made in the 1990s.
The bailout will increase corruption in Washington.

It rewards executives and companies that made poor choices.

The bailout will encourage imprudent risk in the future.

Bottom Line: When government tries to redistribute wealth from rich people to poor people, it causes economic damage by discouraging productive activity by the most successful and by discouraging productive activity from those who are lured into government dependency. The proposed bailout is even more pernicious. It would redistribute wealth from poor people to rich people, and simultaneously encourage reckless behavior by recipients and impose an immoral burden on those that behaved responsibly.

I don't doubt that there will be a bitter pill to swallow if there is no "bailout", but the country will be better off in the long run with the preservation of a somewhat purer market economy.

WSJ video: What the Democrats said about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

2008-10-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

Video: The financial crisis in the Democrat's own words

2008-10-02T08:04:00.001-07:00

Another instant classic.

Video: Burning down the house

2008-10-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

An instant classic.

The Spoiled Children of Capitalism

2008-08-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Jonah Goldberg writes one of the best explanations capitalism, i.e. free market economies, since Milton Friedman - warts and all.

Goldberg:

"Capitalism is the greatest system ever created for alleviating general human misery, and yet it breeds ingratitude."

Global Warming Pop Quiz

2008-07-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

Reporting of global warming by the MSM seems to often reach the absurd. Sometimes, the headlines are much like the parody you'd expect to see from America's Finest New Source.

GORE LIED has a quiz that will likely leave you scratching your head, unless you've followed the news pretty closely of late.

Arthur Laffer quotes JFK

2008-06-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

As quoted in the Wall Steet Journal's Notable & Quotable, Arthur Laffer (of Laffer Curve fame) speaking last month to graduates of Mercer University:

Pursuing your dream of prospering will benefit everyone . . . When I graduated from Yale University, we had a serious commencement speaker not like the one you are stuck with today. The commencement speaker was President John F. Kennedy. And the point I'm making today is the same point he made all those years ago. He said, "No American is ever made better off by pulling a fellow American down, and all of us are made better off whenever any one of us is made better off." He concluded by using the analogy that "a rising tide raises all boats."
Never forget or be ashamed of the fact that pursuing your own self interest furthers everyone's interest. Without you, the poor would be poorer.

3 must read columns/editorials on gas prices and energy policy by The Journal

2008-06-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page continues to be one the best (if not the best) sources for clear, coherent, free market solutions to what troubles us. These three are must reads:

#1: $4 Gasbags

Money quote:

...the U.S. remains one of the only countries in the world that chooses as a matter of policy to lock up its natural resources. The Chinese think we're insane and self-destructive, while the Saudis laugh all the way to the bank.

#2: Drill, drill, drill! by Daniel Henninger

Henninger hits on a lot of the same notes, such as:

At this point in time, is there another country on the face of the earth that would possess the oil and gas reserves held by the United States and refuse to exploit them? Only technical incompetence, as in Mexico, would hold anyone back.

But not us. We won't drill.

#3: The coming oil investment boom by Holman Jenkins

Money quote:

If today's towering price of oil reflects some speculator's bet on a long-term scarcity of liquid motor fuels, this will prove the misguided bet of a lifetime. Hydrocarbons are abundant and can be extracted from living plant matter as well as from their fossil remains. Many oil fields under current technology are considered depleted when they're still 50% full. But technology advances, doesn't it?

Yes, they do Mr. Jenkins. As Julian Simon would say about any commodity:

More people, and increased income, cause resources to become more scarce in the short run. Heightened scarcity causes prices to rise. The higher prices present opportunity, and prompt inventors and entrepreneurs to search for solutions. Many fail in the search, at cost to themselves. But in a free society, solutions are eventually found. And in the long run the new developments leave us better off than if the problems had not arisen. That is, prices eventually become lower than before the increased scarcity occurred.

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less

2008-05-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less. It's pretty simple and The FDC urges you to sign the petition here.

H/T: Global Warming: A Worn-Out Hoax

Free-Trade Paradox: Poor Benefit More Than Rich

2008-05-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

It’s safe to say that the main burden of trade-related job losses and wage declines has fallen on middle- and lower-income Americans. So standing up to China seems like a logical way to help ordinary Americans do better. But there’s a problem with this approach: the very people who suffer most from free trade are often, paradoxically, among its biggest beneficiaries.

The reason for this is simple: free trade with poorer countries has a huge positive impact on the buying power of middle- and lower-income consumers—a much bigger impact than it does on the buying power of wealthier consumers. The less you make, the bigger the percentage of your spending that goes to manufactured goods—clothes, shoes, and the like—whose prices are often directly affected by free trade. The wealthier you are, the more you tend to spend on services—education, leisure, and so on—that are less subject to competition from abroad.

In a recent paper on the effect of trade with China, the University of Chicago economists Christian Broda and John Romalis estimate that poor Americans devote around forty per cent more of their spending to “non-durable goods” than rich Americans do. That means that lower-income Americans get a much bigger benefit from the lower prices that trade with China has brought.

From The New Yorker via Greg Mankiw via Carpe Diem

"It's about...basically...taking over and the government running all of your companies"

2008-05-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

Link: sevenload.com

The FDC has told you before that Gore's lies are not about the science of global warming, are the means to an end - and we got a glimpse of that end today.

Maxine Waters, while grilling the Big Oil executives today, stated:

What this liberal will be all about, this liberal will be all about socializing...would be about...basically...the government...taking over and running all of your companies.p>

As is stated at the end of the video, she's taking a page from Hugo Chavez.

The Death of Conservatism is Greatly Exaggerated

2008-05-22T22:59:00.000-07:00

While lamenting that some conservatives are fearing the "liberalization" of America in the near future, Senator Fred Thompson, writing in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal:

...there is still a way to revive the conservative cause. Doing so will require avoiding the traps of pessimism or election-year quick fixes. Conservatives need to stand back for a moment and think about our philosophical first principles.

Conservatives value the lessons of history and respect faith and tradition. They are skeptical of mass movements, perfect solutions and what often passes for "progress." At the same time, they recognize that change is inevitable. They also know that while man is prone to err, he is capable of great things and is meant to be free in an unfettered market of ideas, not subjugated by a too-powerful government.

These were the principles relied upon by our Founding Fathers, and which paved the way for a Constitution that delineated the powers of the central government, established checks and balances among its branches, and further diffused its power through a system of federalism. These principles led to a market economy, the primacy of the rule of law and the abolition of slavery. They also helped to establish liberal trade policies and to meld idealism and realism in our foreign and military policies.

The power of conservative principles is borne out in the most strong, prosperous and free country in the history of the world. In the U.S., basic constitutional government has been preserved, foreign tyrannies have been defeated, our failed welfare system was reformed, and the confiscatory income tax rates of a few decades ago have been substantially reduced. This may be why the party where most conservatives reside, the Republican Party, has won seven of the last 10 presidential elections....

Sen. Thompson concludes:

It's not that conservatives today no longer believe in the validity of these principles. They just find it difficult to stand strong when the political winds are blowing so hard against them. To be sure, standing by conservative principles does not always guarantee success at the ballot box – it did for Ronald Reagan, but not for Barry Goldwater. But abandoning these principles doesn't ensure victory either. Circumstances often play the deciding role. Is there any doubt that the Carter administration's misery index and the Iranian hostage crises allowed Reagan to prevail in 1980?

In this unpredictable world, conservatives should adhere to their fundamental ideals. These ideals have brought our country much success, and may well win the day again. Conservatives must have faith that, more often than not, Americans will make the sacrifices necessary to preserve national security and prosperity.

A political party that adheres to conservative principles should have continuing success – especially if its leadership believes in those principles and is able to articulate them.

Senator Thompson is communicating very eloquently the values that conservatives hold dearly. These values need to be communicated with passion as often as possible to inspire the next generation of conservatives - just as The Great Communicator inspired yours truly.

Senator Thompson would have made an outstanding President.

The hamstringing of America

2008-05-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

You could call it a hamstringing. You could call it a neutering. What ever you call it, the road this great country is heading down to combat the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American public, i.e. anthropogenic global warming, will result in a mother lode of unintended consequences - or at least the largest set of UC's since President Johnson's Great Society.

Monday was the day that fate became apparent - when John McCain gave his speech here in Oregon on his planned global warming initiatives if he were President. So, now it can be known that whether we have a President McCain, a President Obama, or a President Clinton the country will be neutered, hamstrung, and the results will not be pretty.

Chris Horner over at Planet Gore gives excellent commentary of McCain's proposals:

McCain is wrong on temperatures, wrong on sea level rise (if the implication is that SLR has accelerated; surely he doesn’t mean we can stop the interglacial SLR), and anecdotal about the rest. And throughout his speech, the anecdotes are either exaggerated, inaccurate, or countered by equal and opposite anecdotal evidence.

Anthropogenic global warming will be proven to be a hoax over time, and indeed it already has - some just haven't gotten or refuse to receive that message. But, no matter. It wasn't about solving the so-called problem of anthropogenic global warming. That was just a means to an end. The end? Putting America and other bastions of free markets in their place. Kick them down a few notches. It was the triumph of guilt over common sense. It was about realizing the dream of a planned economy that dictates to its citizens how to live their lives.

Many who have drank this Kool-Aid will live to regret it. They will realize that Al Gore and his surrogates succeeded in snookering them into sacrificing their livelihood for.........what?

Commencement advice you're unlikely to hear elsewhere

2008-05-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

I wish P.J. O'Rourke had spoke at my commmencement. This is the type of advice that would have been productive - and would have got my attention:

1. Go out and make a bunch of money!Here we are living in the world's most prosperous country, surrounded by all the comforts, conveniences and security that money can provide. Yet no American political, intellectual or cultural leader ever says to young people, "Go out and make a bunch of money." Instead, they tell you that money can't buy happiness. Maybe, but money can rent it.There's nothing the matter with honest moneymaking. Wealth is not a pizza, where if I have too many slices you have to eat the Domino's box. In a free society, with the rule of law and property rights, no one loses when someone else gets rich.

The whole article is here.

H/T Carpe Diem

Exxon Paid Almost $3 in Taxes for Every $1 Profit

2008-05-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

For all of the uproar about Exxon Mobil's "obscene" profits, it's the government that is making out like bandits - and the government doesn't make a drop of gasoline.

For regular readers of the blog, Exxon Mobil is much revered here for providing the fuel for the engine of freedom. See FDC posts here and here.

H/T: Prof. Mark Perry at Carpe Diem.

Wal-Mart and Costco rationing rice?

2008-04-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

But why? Raising the price is the answer. Technically all products are rationed. By the price. Prices convey information - and consumers get the message loud and clear. As a result consumers are forced to make choices. If the price is artificially low when demand is high, consumers will hoard the product (in this case, rice). If the price were higher:

1. Consumers would replace their rice with an alternate product, thereby reducing demand and helping to alleviate the underlying problem.

2. Have an incentive to buy less rice than they normally would, thereby increasing supply for other consumers, and again - alleviating the underlying problem. Think of it as self-rationing.

3. Farmer would have more incentive to grow more rice (and they will), which would increase the supply and thus - all together now - alleviate the underlying problem.

Rationing might help the "right now" problem, but it does nothing to fix the problem in the future. The FDC is bewildered why Wal-Mart and Costco would find it necessary to use a typically governmental solution that is doomed to failure.

Free markets and the invisible hand created companies like Wal-Mart and Costco - why would they abandon the same economic principles that made them what they are today? Methinks it's a public relations move so as not to look like they are "price gouging" the poor. There is no such thing as price gouging, but that is another post for another day.