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Milton J. Madison - An American Refugee Now Living in China, Where Liberty is Ascending

Federalism, Free Markets and the Liberty To Let One's Mind Wander. I Am Very Worried About the Fate of Liberty in the USA, Where Government is Taking people's Lives ____________________________________________________________________________________________ "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue." -Barry Goldwater-

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Moody’s Sees U.S. Rating Cut to Aa On Default - Bloomberg

But the treat of a rating downgrade is just a sideshow. In fact, over the past several decades, Moody's and S&P have worked tirelessly to reduce the value of their ratings since the true arbitrageur of value is the marketplace itself and the price of this risk is already priced into the securities....
A default stemming from “the debt limit and the political configuration would indicate that, well, this might happen again,” according to Moody’s Steve Hess. “That risk is perhaps not compatible with Aaa,” Hess said at Bloomberg headquarters in New York on June 21.

S&P put the U.S. government on notice in April that it risks losing its top AAA rating unless policy makers agree on and implement a plan by 2013 to reduce budget deficits and the national debt.
But critical to this rating is that its not just avoiding a technical default but also to implement a plan by 2013 to reduce budget deficits and the national debt. Fat chance that this will happen, I see so little future for the leviathan in Washington that is in process of consuming itself in wildly irresponsible spending spree that will eventually bankrupt the central government.

Even if the tough work is somehow remarkable done in Washington (it will not), concern that should revolve around that though that we may already be too far down the slippery slope. As Lawrence Lindsey writes (here), there are 3 issues that will probably bust the budget.
First: a normalization of interest rates would upend any budgetary deal if and when one should occur. At present, the average cost of Treasury borrowing is 2.5%. The average over the last two decades was 5.7%. Should we ramp up to the higher number, annual interest expenses would be roughly $420 billion higher in 2014 and $700 billion higher in 2020.

Secon:But the president's budget of February 2011 projects economic growth of 4% in 2012, 4.5% in 2013, and 4.2% in 2014. That budget also estimates that the 10-year budget cost of missing the growth estimate by just one point for one year is $750 billion. So, if we just grow at trend those three years, we will miss the president's forecast by a cumulative 5.2 percentage points and—using the numbers provided in his budget—incur additional debt of $4 trillion.

Thir: it is increasingly clear that the long-run cost estimates of ObamaCare were well short of the mark because of the incentive that employers will have under that plan to end private coverage and put employees on the public system. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has already issued 1,400 waivers from the act's regulations for employers as large as McDonald's to stop them from dumping their employees' coverage.

But a recent McKinsey survey, for example, found that 30% of employers with plans will likely take advantage of the system, with half of the more knowledgeable ones planning to do so. If this survey proves correct, the extra bill for taxpayers would be roughly $74 billion in 2014 rising to $85 billion in 2019, thanks to the subsidies provided to individuals and families purchasing coverage in the government's insurance exchanges.
Decades of irresponsibility where met by the Obamessiah with a maelstrom of irresponsible spending that did not have the impact that was promised. But the beauty of this irresponsibility and failure of government to effect the economy is that finally, maybe just finally, we can bury the monster of Roosevelt's New Deal and people come to realize that government is toothless in its ability to create value. Governments cannot create value, they can only rearrange the economic incentives and change the mix of economic output through changing incentives or to divert resources through borrowing or taxing from one economic group to another. It is difficult to prove that these central government actions do or ever had the promised or intended impacts and common sense tells us that we maybe actually doing long-term harm to the productive economy.

The bottom line is that inevitably, governments fail. The one in Washington is going through its final phase, originally this experiment in creating a nation based on individual liberty that was transformed to a socialist central planned economy will either transform back to its original form of being a federal amalgamation of free states or become a state where the people become serfs to the government. I do not think that Americans will accept becoming servants of the states and this will create massive social and economic dislocations. We have a choice, we can fight back both within the system and outside. We can resist government and citizen should be engaging in resistance now.

Moody’s Sees U.S. Rating Cut to Aa On Default - Bloomberg

Vodkapundit » It’s Delightful, It’s Delicious, It’s Default

Scary quote of the day...
That leaves us with three possible outs: Cut the budget to the bone, hyperinflate away our debts, or default.
I am going with default. I suspect that this will happen sooner rather than later. Market will just not extend credit at the magnitude that the crazed government is going to demand over the next couple of years.

Vodkapundit » It’s Delightful, It’s Delicious, It’s Default

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Works and Days » There Are No Socialists

Never a socialist but always a caring involved individual (but of course with someone's product of THEIR labor)....
Once the individual develops a dependency on food stamps, free medical care, subsidized housing, all sorts of disability or unemployment compensation, education credits, grants, and zero-interest loans — the entire American version of the European socialist breadbasket — then expectations for far more always keep rising, with a commensurate plethora of new justifications, usually in the realm of someone else having more than the recipient, always unjustly so. The endangered aid recipient is always seen as being pushed off a cliff in a wheel chair — therefore, “they” can afford to give “me” more; things are not “fair”; there is no “equality.”

Cutting back $2,500 a month in combined benefits and subsidies to $2300 a month is always seen as far more heartless and cruel than not in the first place giving someone without subsidies a mere $200 a month. For every dollar taken, two are demanded. And that creates a powerful constituency for whom the shrillest rhetoric of oppression is, well, never too shrill. Revolutions are not fueled by the very poor seeking their daily bread, but by those on entitlements that revolt at the thought of less to come. A rioting Greek today is far better off than his parents in 1973 when I first arrived in the country; and he would remain far better off even under an “austerity” plan. But his expectations have soared geometrically with each euro received, and he now has convinced himself that not to have more is to have nothing.
Never one to say no to the 'needy' the high moralist that advocates technocratic socialism feels justified in taking what they determine is fair. But for those Christians that support this socialism it is shameless that you have placed yourselves squarely into the jaws of the leviathan. Forcing others to do 'good works' is NOT doing good works. This is not a valid path or a 'means to an end' but will only be the means to THE end.

Works and Days » There Are No Socialists

Great movie line.....

Monday, June 27, 2011

Should American Taxpayers Finance another Big Fat Greek Bailout? « International Liberty

Or how about we think like moral human beings, and ask the real question: Should we take money from people who earned it and give it to people who think they are entitled to live at the expense of others?
This question holds truth at many levels of thinking. The bar to transfer , divert or subsidize resources has be set at a very very high level. Otherwise, there will be many many with similar needs that also become deserving at the lowest levels.

Should American Taxpayers Finance another Big Fat Greek Bailout? « International Liberty

Came to me today. Why Washington has become the albatross around the necks of Americans.....



No longer for the people, its government that rules the people. As Washington spirals out of control and is promising to be all things to all people, it is also actively demonizing sections of the population since these juvenile people need to steal their money to give it to others as they are promising. Its gotten so sickening, I do not hold out hope even for sensible people like Mr. Keely....
I’m trying to understand the criticism of Mr. Ryan’s budget from the side that didn’t even have the courage to pass a budget. To sit there now and rail about Mr. Ryan’s budget, about how it’s so ineffective and how it doesn’t work is, to me, the greatest, most hypocritical statement I’ve heard since coming here. And I’ve got to tell you something… I’m not speaking as a Republican here, I’m speaking as an American. You want to know why the public opinion of Congress is so low? It’s because we don’t listen.

If you want to start the reelection campaign and the strategy for 2012 now, that’s fine. But how about we just fix what’s broken? Instead of standing here pointing fingers at each other, let’s quit spending money we don’t have, let’s not keep borrowing money and using our kids and our grandkids as note signers.

Let’s stop railing against the really wealthy, because I’ve got to tell you something. As a guy who has had to pay his own way his whole life I am greatly offended by the idea that somehow somebody in Washington knows how to spend my money better than I do. That somebody in Washington knows how to regulate me to the point where I can’t even borrow money any more. You want to talk about people who are afraid? The small banks. They’re scared to death to do anything. Why? Because their government has such onerous regulations on them anymore that they don’t know about the rules and the regulations that have been put through or haven’t even been written.

So when you want to sit back and talk about these wealthy, evil people… you want them to spend money? Make their future certain.
Personally, I think that it is time to get pitchforks and torches and to go to Washington to kill the Frankenstein monster.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Yikes, don't tussle with the fatman.....



A little harsh for my blood, but unfortunately true. There is so much to chew on here, it makes sense to to listen to it a couple of times. The question is, do we have the liberty of choice? Teacher unions argue that the best plan is to not allow choice but this gives them much too power since they become a monopoly. So, real choice in public education is reserved for the rich an privileged and the rest of us being held hostage by unions.

How did Obamacare get so screwed up? - Right Turn - The Washington Post

Socialism does not work and never has worked. Eventually centralized economic decision making breaks down and fails to adjust to changes in technology, demographics and people's needs and desires. The American healthcare law, that moves this economic sector squarely towards if not into the complete control of the central government promises to be one of the worst errors of the modern American government ever.....
Those who drafted and now tout it have a shaky understanding of how markets operate and a built-in preference for top-down management. But it turns out that millions of people making individual health-care decisions are a lot smarter than the bureaucrats who constructed such a massive structure that no one can be expected to understand it and its consequences.
The ultimate arrogance of socialists and Democrats is that their centralized decision making process is somehow superior to the millions of decisions made by normal everyday Americans. Yes, in the millions of decisions, there will be some gross errors, but the problem with communist central planning is that no one knows what the demand will be at any price so its impossible to price the product so there will be huge errors that will necessarily create gross misallocations of resources. Life is an exercise in making decisions in a world of limited resources. Governments pretend that these resources are unlimited and when we allow them to allocate these economic goods, we will live in less fair and less productive world. Anyone that believes otherwise believes in myths.

How did Obamacare get so screwed up? - Right Turn - The Washington Post

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Geeks of the world, rise up!!!!

Bakc to the future......

Socialism, 1930's style. The beginning of the problem. When government was asked to solve an economic problem, it tried back in the 1930's. Unfortunately, the effect was underwhelming and failed miserably as the nation suffered a decade of high unemployment before WWII pulled the world out of the malaise....

The Grinch even took the last can of Who Hash.....

And God said; "Let There Be Light"

The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis 1: The Creation
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
God said let there be light and then the US Government through its timeless and infinite wisdom implemented the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Pub.L. 110-140 originally named the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007)that restricts the light sources where we get our light.

Idiotic governments think that by disallowing certain kinds of bulbs, that they can somehow force the populace to live a more energy efficient life. Well, if in fact that by buying these new kinds of bulbs, people could actually save energy, then people would surely do this. The investment in the new higher priced bulbs are returned in lower energy costs. But changes in people's behavior will take time. Maybe the manufacturers of the new 'energy efficient' bulbs need to invest more on making them more efficiently and cheaper so that the prices of these items can be delivered cheaper to the consumer. But now that they have a locked market where they no longer have to compete with traditional incandescent bulbs, they will not be as compelled to increase efficiency. Why make investments in technology or production efficiency if the consumer will be forced to buy the bulbs at the higher price anyway?

Lets defund this kind of government. Lets get them out of the business of mandating what we use or do 'for our own good.' If we allow them to continue to tell us what we can or cannot buy, they will continue to make these kinds of idiotic decisions.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Pajamas Media » ATMs and Other Machines are Exempt from ObamaCare

The completely oblivious Obamessiah, that blames ATM teller machines and other automation for the sickly employment during his Marxist administration may have to consider some facts of life. First, when one makes labor more expensive, naturally, a business or an individual can replace labor with other inputs. Second when one raises taxes, the after tax returns fall despite the same amount of risk depressing overall investment. These decisions take place at the margin where the last few decisions flip the other way. But we are dealing with labor vs.machines now....
If you are running a business, you structure it and design your future plans based not only on the world as it is today, but also on what it may look like in the reasonably near future. You must prepare yourself for likely worst-case scenarios. The one relating to employment is that ObamaCare will survive legal and electoral challenges. Facing that possibility, you avoid hiring people. When looking at “man vs. machine” decisions, you choose the machine if it’s at all affordable. You do everything you can to squeeze productivity out of your current crew, even larding on extra duties and overtime if they can handle it.
This is high-school logic. Even 1960's Russian and Chinese economists understood these issues.

Pajamas Media » ATMs and Other Machines are Exempt from ObamaCare

10 Poorest Cities in America.....

And how did it happen??

City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level

1. Detroit, MI 32.5%
2. Buffalo, NY 29.9%
3. Cincinnati, OH 27.8%
4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%
5. Miami , FL 26.9%
5. St. Louis , MO 26.8%
7. El Paso , TX 26.4%
8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%
9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%
10. Newark , NJ 24.2%
U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007

What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common?
-Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961
-Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn't elected one since 1954
-Cincinnati, OH - (3rd) since 1984
-Cleveland, OH - (4th) since 1989
-Miami, FL - (5th) has never had a Republican mayor
-St. Louis, MO - (6th) since 1949
-El Paso, TX - (7th) has never had a Republican mayor
-Milwaukee , WI - (8th) since 1908
-Philadelphia, PA -(9th) since 1952
-Newark, NJ - (10th) since 1907.
Einstein once said,
'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'
It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats ....yet they are still POOR.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up
by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man
by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage
by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them,
what they could and should do for themselves."
-Often attributed to Abraham Lincoln but the quotes were actually published in 1942 by William J. H. Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister. He released a pamphlet titled Lincoln On Limitations, which did include a Lincoln quote, but also added 10 statements written by Boetcker himself-

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Obama Blames ATMs for High Unemployment - Unemployment - Fox Nation

The Obamessiah descends in juvenile silliness......
President Obama explained to NBC News that the reason companies aren't hiring is not because of his policies, it's because the economy is so automated. ... "There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don't go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you're using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate."
This would be so much funnier if it wasn't so sad. Imagine if we completely deconstructed modern life how many jobs could be created. He should just eliminate computers and this will create a huge number of jobs in bookkeeping a host of other mundane jobs.

Obama Blames ATMs for High Unemployment - Unemployment - Fox Nation

Asia Times Online :: SPENGLER : Zombinomics and volatility

Leftist driven Zombinomics has grabbed hold in the United States. This is where through government support or investment targeting, bad or underperforming industries are supported or bailed out so that markets are unable to deploy assets to their most efficient and effective uses. This is what has been going on in Europe of the past decade or two.

Asia Times Online :: SPENGLER : Zombinomics and volatility

Obama's Economic Experiment Has Failed -- Time to Get Back to What Works - FoxNews.com

The president and his party’s leaders have made it their mission to test the hypothesis that more government spending and greater government control over the economy can jump-start a recovery better than the private sector can.

That experiment has failed. The stimulus spending spree failed to create jobs. Massive overhauls of the financial sector and health-care sector are fueling uncertainty and hindering our recovery.
Yes, the experiment has failed but one has to only look at other teetering nations to see that a central Marxist control of an economy, despite not being properly defined as Communist, just has not and will not work. One only has to look at the festering problems in Europe to see that the demographic indulgence of socialism's time has come and gone. Socialist transfer payments to retirees and the promises of healthcare are destine to fail miserably as this wealth has been transferred from younger people to those consuming these goods and services today and in recent decades. This will happen in the US too.

But when one defends socialism as justice or as needed assistance for the poor, these people are deceiving themselves. Government is not only woefully inadequate at meeting and achieving these modest goals but these openings to intervention have allowed and encouraged government to do much more unnecessary intervention. Take Social Security for example, this is a transfer payment system from working people to the wealthiest demographic group on the planet. Why is government doing this? Because, as I have written before, it was a demographic indulgence of historic proportions. A relatively young healthy population was able to support a much smaller demographic group at the time. It was so easy and seemed to be painless. But as the favorable demographics change it will prove to be excessively painful when it unravels.

Getting back to the unmet needs of the unfortunate or unhealthy, I am convinced that these institutions; communities, churches, families and real grassroots organizations will be much better at meeting these kinds of local needs however, currently the leviathan government has effectively crowded them out. This will leave an even bigger gap when the central government fails and these institutions will not be there and be incapable to meet the growing needs at that time.

Obama's Economic Experiment Has Failed -- Time to Get Back to What Works - FoxNews.com

1.9 Million Fewer Americans Have Jobs Today Than When Obama Signed Stimulus | CNSnews.com

The folly of central government economic intervention is now thankfully much more apparent. Despite, $800+ billion of stimulus that was supposed to support the American job market, the number of jobs since that piece of Democratic pork has fallen by 1.9 million jobs. And this weakness does not even take into account the natural growth of labor market where new entrants to the labor force and legal immigration have increased the number of employable people.
As both Summers and the BLS data make clear, the economy is not creating new jobs fast enough to make up for layoffs and new graduates, calling into question Obama’s oft-repeated claim that the economy is recovering and creating jobs.
Governments cannot create jobs by taking money from people through borrowing or taxes and deploying them into the political party in power favored sectors. Its complete folly and frankly stupid to think that a bunch of bureaucrats can deploy capital more efficiency than millions of people making choices and decisions every day. Its amazingly arrogant to even consider that a handful of people are even remotely qualified to spend others money.

A long as the nation continues down the path of centralized economic planning and decision making, the nation will economically under-perform. And this is compeltely the fault of a central government that neither understands it role nor appreciates the wisdom of everyday people to make well informed and intelligent economic decisions for themselves.

1.9 Million Fewer Americans Have Jobs Today Than When Obama Signed Stimulus | CNSnews.com

Quip of the day.....

"I was calling him a psycho before it was fashionable."

-Donald Trump on Anthony Weiner-

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Pajamas Media » Dude, Where’s My Freedom?

When governments overstep their boundaries and end up trampling on individual liberties we create the tyranny that will suffocate everyone. As Ben Franklin once said, “they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.” The government is and has offered the false promise of greater security but all that one has to trade are one's and those of your neighbor's liberty. The opiate offered by the leviathan such as retirement security through Social Security and medicare, health security through the mess that Obamacare will create, and a host of other offerings to the something-for-nothing crowd that are more than willing to trade their neighbor's liberty for their own illusionary gains.

Pajamas Media » Dude, Where’s My Freedom?

What are the fundamental differentiators for the long-term success of a nation?

According to the World Bank, there are several indicators for long-term success....
Reviewing the economic performance—good and bad—of more than 100 countries over the past 30 years, this paper finds new empirical evidence supporting the idea that economic freedom and civil and political liberties are the root causes of why some countries achieve and sustain better economic outcomes. For instance, a one unit change in the initial level of economic freedom between two countries (on a scale of 1 to 10) is associated with an almost 1 percentage point differential in their average long-run economic growth rates. In the case of civil and political liberties, the long-term effect is also positive and significant with a differential of 0.3 percentage point. In addition to the initial conditions, the expansion of conditions over time (economic, civil, and political) also positively influences long-run economic growth. In contrast, no evidence was found that the initial level of entitlement rights or their change over time had any significant effects on long-term per capita income, except for a negative effect in some specifications of the model. These results tend to support earlier findings that beyond core functions of government responsibility—including the protection of liberty itself—the expansion of the state to provide for various entitlements, including so-called economic, social, and cultural rights, may not make people richer in the long run and may even make them poorer.
From here. The last line or two, is the most critical thought here. There is a link between state entitlement spending and economic underperformance and that the evidence supports that the freer economies are the best long term performers. Who would have thought this? Maybe Milton Friedman????

MASTIO: Dead bodies demand organic food moratorium - Washington Times

Since the news media supports and promotes those policies, programs and positions that are near and dear to the political left, the story on the horrible e-coli deaths suffered by 23 people with over 1,000 people hospitalized is being met with almost complete silence. Just in case you didn't know.......
The scale of the danger we ignore by pretending organic food isn’t a business like every other is nearly unimaginable. According to World Health Organization statistics on E. coli deaths, in just the past two years, more people have been killed by the disease than all fission-related events since the dawn of the nuclear age - even if you include the use of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Of course, as we know, Europeans have been hostile to farming as it relates to genetically modified farming since some people fear that maybe, just maybe, these interventions in the natural world could cause some kind of unexplained or not-yet-understood health problem. However, we now know that organic farming too can be very dangerous since this one specific incident has killed dozens. So, are we going to hears calls for government intervention? For some kind of ban on organic farming? The Germans have just announced that they will no longer be building any new nuclear plants supposedly for safety reasons. So, will there be a similar ban on organic farming?

As this writer notes here.....
Yet, 23 deaths and more than 1,000 hospitalizations caused by an industrial accident at an organic farm in northern Germany have caused no such newfound caution toward the expansion of that industry. It is easy to understand why. Organic farming has a reputation for being the domain of small-scale family businesses focused on caring for the Earth more than profits. Every organic-produce customer I interviewed at three supermarkets since the German outbreak began have cited better health as a key reason for buying organic food.
Better health? These people are crazy. They have shirked God and religion and this animist 'earth' belief has overtaken their human spirituality. As a note, I think that Europeans are stupid and selfish people. They have proven to be completely irresponsible and have shirked their global responsibilities and have instead relied almost exclusively on the USA to handle these things. All the while, being highly critical critical of what America has done. These people have been poisoned by more than than just bad bacteria, they have been infected by selfish nihilism that makes them completely worthless to the rest of the world.

MASTIO: Dead bodies demand organic food moratorium - Washington Times

Friday, June 10, 2011

This guy and his comments make him a hero in my eyes....

More great comments by Prince Philip of England.....
"if it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and flies but is not an aeroplane and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."

-1986, where he said this during a World Wildlife Fund meeting-


Prince Philip's opinion of Beijing, during a tour of China in 1986, was simply: "Ghastly."

Quote of the Day......

“Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed."

-Prince Philip of England, 1981 mused during a recession-
Sounds like something that the Obamessiah would say.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

President Obama’s phony accounting on the auto industry bailout - The Fact Checker - The Washington Post

Our completely shameless lying President. Sleazy is too nice a word.

President Obama’s phony accounting on the auto industry bailout - The Fact Checker - The Washington Post

Martin Feldstein: The Economy Is Worse Than You Think - WSJ.com

Recent subpar economic growth falls squarely on the shoulders of the Marxist Obamessiah. Fanatical leftist Democrats have continuously attacked the people and organizations that generate growth, allocate resources and employ people. Through a hostile cocktail of hot sauce of a whacky 'stimulus' program that did little to stimulate since it was largely transfer payments to Democratic friends and support groups to continuous threats of confiscatory higher taxes, coupled with an impossibly difficult to decipher socialization of the nation's healthcare, the nation has been unable to stabilize its former market economy to this new government controlled environment.

Feldstein argues these points here without the observations of the philosophical and hostile nature of the Democrats attacks on success to the supposed benefit of the needy. Good luck USA, you will regret this embrace of socialism.

Martin Feldstein: The Economy Is Worse Than You Think - WSJ.com

Quotes by John Stossel,the American treasure....

I started out by viewing the marketplace as a cruel place, where you need intervention by government and lawyers to protect people. But after watching the regulators work, I have come to believe that markets are magical and the best protectors of the consumer. It is my job to explain the beauties of the free market.

-The Oregonian, 26 October 1994-

I'm a little embarrassed about how long it took me to see the folly of most government intervention. It was probably 15 years before I really woke up to the fact that almost everything government attempts to do, it makes worse.

"John Stossel: Not Afraid to Tell the Truth". NewsMax. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

True cost of Fannie/Freddie bailout more than twice Obama administration claim « Hot Air

The US government is on a mission to completely bury the taxpayer in obligations. Its truly shameless.....
The calculation is then rather simple. The GSEs have a fair-value deficit between assets and liabilities that total to $187 billion. Combined with the $130 billion in cash infusions given by the federal government to Fannie and Freddie, the taxpayer is on the hook now for $317 billion. The CBO predicts that the liability will increase each year by slightly more than $4 billion over the next ten years as well.
So, this supposed government sponsored enterprise, that was designed and promoted as an institution to assist and promote private home ownership is costing hundreds of billions just to keep afloat. Eventually, a true market economic response will have be developed in order to replace the ability that these institutions had to issue long-term fixed rate mortgages. This free market response could take decades to adjust since

As I written before, the US government have created these Potemkin enterprises that somehow both serve the market and public policy. At the end, they served no one except the politicians that gain short-term benefit from the largesse that these Potemkin enterprises generate. However, the cost of these follies is now been shifted onto others, people paying taxes today, diverting important resources from other productive uses to these dead enterprises, too homeowners whose home values are destined to be lower and to our children that will have to foot the bulk of the bill.

This is what socialism brings you. Despite good intentions, government intervention in markets can sometimes destroy markets and severely injure the very people that they are trying to benefit. I hope that this is a lesson learned but I am not that hopeful.

True cost of Fannie/Freddie bailout more than twice Obama administration claim « Hot Air

Monday, June 06, 2011

Thought of the day....

Undoubtedly, Mundell understands that government efforts to improve upon markets are counterproductive, sometimes fatal—suboptimal under the best of circumstances, disastrous if the interventionist policies persist.
Governments intervention in markets can take 2 paths; One is to regulate markets the second is to actually divert resources from one part of the economy to another. Governments can only divert resources, they cannot permanently create value. So when governments spend money, they need to get it from somewhere. So they can only take it by borrowing or through taxes. This means that the people that the government borrow from or they tax will not have the money to spend or invest. So the government now will spend it instead. So its a very difficult argument to make that government is more efficient at spending or investing then the people that they take it from.

Mundell’s Dollar/Euro Fix Doesn’t Fix Our Currency Mess - Lawrence Hunter - Back on the Margin - Forbes

Robert Doll: The Bullish Case for the U.S. Economy - WSJ.com

Very interesting commentary by this American optimist. He still thinks that the US will somewhat outperform the rest of the world, particularity the developed nations but more due to being the best in a bad group. Although he does not come out and say that socialism is what has hurt the economies of the developed nations he does make comments like this on....
What about the impact of ObamaCare, the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and the president's continuing advocacy of tax increases? "All three of them are retardants to growth," says Mr. Doll.
Over-the-top interference in the American economy has definitely reduced the robustness of the nations economy. And what has all of this interference done for us? It has created structural problems.....
He also concedes that "we face formidable long-term structural problems that make the U.S. less attractive than it otherwise might be," and yet he has written in these pages about America remaining a "city upon a hill" in the vision of Puritan John Winthrop. Mr. Doll could be making the least inspiring case for American exceptionalism in the history of the republic. "You might say we win by default, which is not a fun way to win," he says.
He is also optimistic on what is going on in Washington whereas, I am not.....
Also, it should be noted that his outlook is premised on meaningful spending reductions in Washington. "I think we are moving in an austerity direction," he says. "Six months ago, no one had a plan that said, 'I'm going to be able to cut the deficit by X trillion over Y years." Now, with House passage of a bill by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and the looming vote on the nation's debt limit, he hopefully notes that all sides are at least talking about "trillions over years."
I think that the US will continue own a path of continuous intervention in the economy with the stated goals being social justice and protecting poor people but in reality, as it has always been, these government programs benefit the politically connected and crony business partners of politicians. The only way that Americans can extract their nation from the jaws of the leviathan is to forcibly take it back. Some will try to do it through traditional means but I am a believer that Americans should not be coerced by their government to do things that they normally would not consider doing and that civil disobedience is the correct path to take. One cannot govern without the consent of the governed.

Robert Doll: The Bullish Case for the U.S. Economy - WSJ.com

The dangers of bone-headed beliefs

Climate change freaks are definitely smarter than the rest of us.

The dangers of bone-headed beliefs

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Line of the day.........

I PREFER MINE AGED IN OAK BARRELS: Company that transforms garbage into ethanol attracts big investors.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » I PREFER MINE AGED IN OAK BARRELS: Company that transforms garbage into ethanol attracts big invest…

Friday, June 03, 2011

Remembering Leslie Nielsen.....

Humor is eternal too.....




Of course, we remember....

Nice Beaver.....



And don't call me Shirley....

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Palin Bus Vandalized: Sarah Palin's One Nation Tour Bus Vandalized In New York - WPIX

Of course, in one the most Liberal Democratic places in the United States, Sarah Palin, a person whose political and economic philosophy does not conform to the hard left thinking of the Democrats, is branded a whore. Of course, the reason for this is that Democrats cannot allow one of their own important groups, that they go to such great lengths to protect and have granted virtual abortion-on-demand to, to be tainted by a woman that does not kowtow to their leftist hegemony. However, this kind of treatment of conservative woman as well as conservative Blacks and Hispanics is allowed and even encouraged to keep these people in line by the righteous left. Democrats are nothing but a bunch of shameless commies that neither deserve our time nor our respect.

Palin Bus Vandalized: Sarah Palin's One Nation Tour Bus Vandalized In New York - WPIX

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Instapundit » Blog Archive » WILL AMERICA SEE EUROPE-STYLE RIOTS? Newsweek sounds hopeful, but in America, unlike Europe, it’s u…

Line of the day....
WILL AMERICA SEE EUROPE-STYLE RIOTS? Newsweek sounds hopeful, but in America, unlike Europe, it’s usually the taxpayers who are behind the revolutions, not the parasites.
The current POTUS looks to Europe for his intellectual center. Its a place that will prove to be a socialist failure, so why do it?

Instapundit » Blog Archive » WILL AMERICA SEE EUROPE-STYLE RIOTS? Newsweek sounds hopeful, but in America, unlike Europe, it’s u…