Saturday, June 26, 2010

More disasters ahead

You couldn't pick two people least qualified to write a bill to regulate the financial institutions than Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. Yet, they are the authors.
No one has been able to read it, of course. Liberals don't produce their sausage in the sunshine.
But from news accounts we can learn that it does nothing to prevent another housing crisis.
Anyone who wants to understand the last crisis should read "The Housing Crisis" by Thomas Sowell, an economist who deals in facts instead of fancy.
It was Frank who assured everyone than Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in great shape as those two government agencies were failing. Even the New York Times editorial page saw it coming!
Dodd is on record as saying they don't know what the bill will do or whether it will "work."
The chances are that the banks and others who fall under this regulation will be able to find ways to operate, but apparently there is nothing in the bill to help the situation, so why bother?
Because it's what liberals do. Tinker and meddle, and hope everything will come out right.

Obama's Last Stand

So, General Obama is taking over the war in Afghanistan.
This is a Democrat war. It is "the right war," they said (not that thing in Iraq).
They voted for it and they own it.
But will they win it?
Obama announced a while back that he would send additional troops, in a "surge" just like the one he opposed in Iraq. At the same time, he announced that, win or lose, the troops would pull out in July 2011.
Even the barbarians in the Afghan mountains understood that one. Lay low, inflict maximum casualties, husband and expand resources, exploit the American media and wait. Victory comes next year.
Obama has fired the general running the war and put in charge a general the liberals have lambasted as a traitor. That means that for all practical purposes, Obama is in charge.
Meanwhile, suffering Afghans don't trust their corrupt and ineffective government (showing that they have something in common with Americans) and know the Taliban will ruthlessly murder anyone who has opposed them after the Americans leave.
Pity our poor troops who are going to die in vain.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Cause and effect

Headline on First Coast News: "Home Prices Dip But Sales Up."
This reminds me of the headlines many papers were writing a while back: "Prisons are full even though crime is down."
In liberal newsrooms, they are astounded to find that when you lock up criminals, the crime rate goes down. They can't see the connection.
The folks at Channel 12 also don't know much about economics if they think it is an anomaly that homes sell well when the prices are lower, as the headline indicates.
Homes are selling here because sellers are lowering their prices to match the market.
When the housing bubble burst many people thought they could still get the inflated price when they sold. Doesn't work that way.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Watch out for 2011

Art Laffer's piece in today's Wall Street Journal is a must-read, especially for those who expect the usual rebound from a recession.
As Laffer explains, the tax-and-spend crowd this time has done it's work well. It has set out to destroy the economy -- and, many think, this country -- and is having some success.
The private sector always recovers from the occasional business cycle downturn. It would have in the 1930s as it did in the 1920s had it not been for the New Deal, which turned it into a depression.
That could happen again.
Debt soon will equal GDP and this year the largest tax increase in history will take place when the liberal Congress fails to extend the Bush tax relief. That, Laffer says, will kill all hope of recovery.
Ronald Reagan stuck to his guns and started a 25 year period of unparalleled growth. If Obama sticks to his, a policy the direct opposite of Reagan's, it could have exactly the opposite effect.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Let's all hate BP

Remember the novel 1984? Regularly, the brainwashed masses were required to face the TV and actively hate the political enemies of Big Brother.
And here we are. Each night the masses mass to glare at the TV screens and hate the corporation British Petroleum. An "enraged" president leads the throng.
This carefully orchestrated hate-in is in keeping with this president's all-out assault on free enterprise and individual freedom. He is out to reshape America in his own vision, as a socialist state.
He is aided by the media, which blamed President George Bush for the Hurricane Katrina disaster immediately but has yet to fault Barack Obama.
Now they have fixed on a comment by a BP press flack, who allegedly said there are other places to get shrimp besides Louisiana.
This is being portrayed as a Marie Antoinette-style remark when it could as easily be regarded as a simple statement of fact, in answer to concerns about shrimp not being available.
Rational people understand that the Gulf oil spill was an accident, not a deliberate act by BP. It isn't even clear that it was the result of gross negligence or incompetence. BP, which has been a politically correct corporation seeking government blessing and a donor to liberal causes, deserves no sympathy, just the benefit of doubt.
Oil companies would not be drilling for oil in 5,000 feet of water where an accident is difficult to fix if it were not for liberal politicians who refuse to let them drill in shallow water or on land, where there would be less risk.
They would not be drilling at all if it were not for the billions of people who drive cars and use electricity.
Those blessed with perfect hindsight now insist we should be using windmills and the sun instead of oil, forgetting perhaps the billions that have been spent unsuccessfully trying to develop those sources into a reliable and efficient means of delivering electricity.
The fact is that oil is necessary to modern life and until the private sector finds something better, it must be used.
Don't hold your breath waiting for politicians to invent a replacement. All they know how to do is order other people around: "Mr. Edison, invent that electric light right now!"
As long as they are doing everything they can to quench the entrepreneurial spirit, progressives will delay progress.
Meanwhile, they seek to deflect blame, as they did in the housing crisis, from themselves to the people who are our only hope for better solutions and a higher standard of living.