Personal Business

The case for American optimism

2011-11-05T15:59:00.000-04:00

Mr. Podhorest makes the case for optimism in the face of a stagnant economy by framing the events of the last years. I can agree on his perspective in general. But I disagree in particular on one paragraph. After describing the increasing turn-over of federal governments in the last decade, from Democrat to Republican and back again, Mr. Podherest offers this explanation: Voters were not being

Inside unending education subsidy

2011-11-05T15:14:00.000-04:00

After giving us publicly available facts and their citations, the author offers this picture: Among the 221 graduates of the 2010 class of Thomas Jefferson, only 73 obtained jobs as lawyers. According to information provided by the school, the highest earners worked in private law firms, with a 75th percentile salary of $77,500 (only 12 of 55 graduates in private firms reported their

Mr. Carter meets Mr. Obama

2011-10-26T15:28:00.000-04:00

Whoever made this video has talent.

The Vatican calls for a solution to global finance

2011-10-24T15:45:00.000-04:00

Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a global public authority and a central world bank to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican's Justice and Peace department should please the Occupy

Group think on steroids

2011-10-10T20:14:00.000-04:00

This video will go viral. It was taken from Occupy Atlanta. These people equate democracy with a group voice. If you do not think this video is bat shit crazy, if you are attracted to the crowd methodology as an interesting exercise of group expression, please consider that you have been so warped by your education that you no longer understand the human experience.

Durbin: The new definition of Irony

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

Is Senator Dick Durbin sane? He was in lock step with Barney Frank in encouraging the big banks and the GSE's to soften mortgage requirements. He was all-in on the bank bail-outs when they over-extended themselves in the real estate market. He was excited by the Dodd-Frank bill that among other things, restricted credit card fees. And yet he is surprised and disappointed when the big banks,

Where the Obama job plan falls short

2011-09-29T12:26:00.000-04:00

Fareed Zakaria critiques the Obama 'job' bill and then suggests his own solution. He begins with this reasoning: President Obama’s jobs bill is better than doing nothing in the face of a national crisis, but it won’t have much impact on unemployment. Many of the measures are short-term tax breaks and benefits that are unlikely to affect demand for products and services — business’s

Why we need permanent larger government

2011-09-28T03:00:00.000-04:00

Mr. Sachs begins in an interesting place regarding truly guargantuan government: One of the common errors of our recent policy debate has been the belief that various studies of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) "prove" that the stimulus measures have raised employment and output. Careful readers of the CBO reports know that the CBO has proved nothing of the sort. The CBO reports have

Putin and Russia

2011-09-27T10:21:00.001-04:00

I view Russia as a mafia run economy. Ralph Peters views it as czarist dictatorship. Maybe the only difference is scale. In any event, he has imprisoned or killed his detractors and successfully quelled any opposition. On the international front, he has also positioned himself to extreme advantage: It’s worth noting how much Putin has achieved: Like his hero, Peter the Great, he tamed the new

The Tea Party carricature

2011-09-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

Jonah Goldberg resurrects a weak but recurrent theme in his LA Times article; that the silent conservative majority has awakened. He borrows a bear analogy: In March 2010, liberal columnist Peter Beinart argued that, for decades, Democratic politicians treated America's innate conservatism like a slumbering bear: If you make no sudden moves and talk quietly, you can get a lot done. But if you

Green jobs and Solyndra

2011-09-17T18:26:00.000-04:00

The theoretical argument for government's terrible track record in research and development, evidenced by the gob smacking Solyndra failure, is attractive and simple. Unfortunately when we look into the details, we never find a practical example of the theory. The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cThat Custom-Tailored Obama Scandal You Ordered Is Finally

Bones and Progressives

2011-09-15T11:51:00.000-04:00

On the TV show Bones, the main character is often referred to as a genius given her standing as the best forensic anthropologist in the nation. Perhaps. I think of her more as an idiot savant. Certainly her social skills, ability to work with others, her ego, lack of empathy and general abilities to reason in any field other than skeletons is on par with a Down's Syndrome child. Bones'

The bankruptcy of economics

2011-09-14T17:41:00.001-04:00

I read a comment on the Atlantic today which I consider priceless and speaks for itself: If you want evidence of the intellectual bankruptcy present in much economic "thinking" look to the excerpt of Professor McElvaine, which echoes comments made by Swedish medal models Krugman and Stiglitz, in which the bursting of a credit bubble, which was the end result of a deliberate decades long effort

Democrats lose NY-9. What does that mean?

2011-09-14T13:28:00.000-04:00

Lest Republicans and Sean Hannity become too enamored with the first Republican win in district NY-9 since 1922, let us remember that the election was a referendum on one, and only one, issue. Obama's anti-Israel policies. It was a not a general dissatisfaction with Obama, or Democrats, or Obamanomics. Dan Senor wrote the conclusive article: A Public Policy Poll taken days before the election

Popper. The open society and its enemies

2011-09-14T10:13:00.000-04:00

"I see now more clearly than ever before that even our greatest troubles spring from something that is as admirable and sound as it is dangerous—from our impatience to better the lot of our fellows. For these troubles are the by-products of what is perhaps the greatest of all moral and spiritual revolutions of history, a movement which began three centuries ago. It is the longing of uncounted

Greece default and the Eurozone

2011-09-14T09:57:00.003-04:00

Consider this scenario. What would it matter to the American dollar if Los Angeles (Greece and LA both have about 10m people) went bankrupt? Why then, is the EU so involved in protecting bankers' loans with taxpayer dollars? After all, there is no inherent reason why Greece default should significantly impair the Euro over the long run. The Eurozone is an interesting case study on European class

Al Gore and global warming and invasion of privacy

2011-09-11T08:53:00.000-04:00

Al Gore wants you to donate your Facebook account in the battle against global warming. Would you trust someone else with your Facebook account, giving them enough access to post status updates on your behalf? What if that person was Al Gore and it was all for a good cause Yes, the latest frontier in online activism has been breached by Gore and the kids over at the Climate Reality Project,

The sounds and smells of the economy

2011-09-10T10:58:00.000-04:00

Steven King writes one of the best articles of the week: I accepted Martin Wolf’s invitation to “listen to what bond markets are telling us” (Financial Times, September 7). Unfortunately, I was unable to detect the call to “borrow and spend, please” so audible to Mr Wolf. I took a deep breath and immediately realised what was going on. I might not have been able to hear anything. But I could

Obama's job plan

2011-09-09T18:51:00.001-04:00

The key to Obama's job plan are cuts to social security taxes. If you needed any more evidence that SS is a Ponzi scheme, you just got it; if there was any ROI on social security, Obama would not dare touch people's retirement money. Meanwhile, 'experts' have modeled the stimulus of his proposal: Cutting taxes is a time-honored strategy for stimulating growth. The formula is simple: Workers

How taxes are regressive

2011-09-09T08:05:00.000-04:00

While we're talking about regressive taxes, including social security, Milton Friedman talks about a number of programs that should be changed. The only services that are rising in price are government programs. Because they are Ponzi schemes, which are also generally regressive in the name of 'equality.' What is worse, they are bankrupting us.

Friedman, Social security and Ponzi schemes

2011-09-09T07:55:00.003-04:00

Mr. Friedman will not answer the simple question: Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme? The answer is that of course it is. If I stop paying into my life insurance plan, I am still eligible for the rewards accrued. Because insurance companies invest my money to create an ROI. If people stopped paying into SS, it would immediately be bankrupt. Because it is a Ponzi scheme. There is no investment

Has Obama failed by his own standards?

2011-09-07T10:03:00.000-04:00

The conservative Jay Cost believes Obama has failed by his own standards, which he paraphrases as follows: Obama’s purpose was to “excavate” the lost nobility of American politics, emphasizing the public good over special interests. In Obama’s estimation, it is the dominance of such interests – be it partisan absolutists, lobbying groups, or whatever – that has driven us apart, and eroded the

The Fed considers more stimulus

2011-09-07T09:45:00.001-04:00

The Fed has already promised to keep interest rates low until 2013, transfering money from fixed income earners and savers (read Grandma's retirement cash flow) to bank Balance Sheets. Now they are considering additional alternatives, including QEIII. You know, the policy where they devalue the currency. At their meeting on Sept. 20 and 21, the central bank’s policy makers will consider next

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-28T06:34:00.000-04:00

I've been through two hurricanes now; Isabella and Irene, both while living near the coast in Virginia. Isabella was far worse where I live. Besides the flooding and fallen trees, many folks (including me) went without power for over a week. Irene did not even taken my power out at all, and I have not looked around too far, but I have not seen any downed trees. There is a sure sign when the

Iowa straw poll results: Bachmann and Paul win

2011-08-13T20:54:00.000-04:00

Bachmann and Paul win. Michele Bachmann wins with 4,823 votes. Ron Paul 2nd with 4,671. Tim Pawlenty 3rd with 2,293. Rick Santorum 4th with 1,657. Herman Cain 5th with 1,456. Rick Perry (write-in) 6th with 718. Mitt Romney 7th with 567. Newt Gingrich 8th with 385. Jon Huntsman 9th with 69. And Thaddeus McCotter had 35 votes. Michelle Malkin » Iowa Straw Poll Winner Announced Sun, 14 Aug 2011