Category Archives: Politics: National

Too Big To Fail

Posted on June 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

HBO has the documentary “Too Big To Fail” playing right now.  Ive watched it twice now and I have some thoughts.

  1. The whole “For profit” meme is prevalent.
  2. There is a massive lack of backdrop regarding market incentives.

First, the show is top notch.  The acting is A grade and the quality of the production is excellent.  This is a great movie.

I’m a big believer in incentives.  People tend to look out for their own self interests.  Always have, always will.  And this isn’t bad – wolves and cows and sparrows and gophers do the same thing.  But we NEED to acknowledge that fact.

“Too Big To Fail” does a remarkable job at showing the thinking going on at the time of the failures.  But I get the feeling that the message is wrong.  That the message is “Greed”.

There is certainly enough to go around.  However, I think the message of intervention and policy is underscored.  Not one time in the show is it mentioned WHY these institutions would make these loans.  For sure, there is talk about Fan and Fred being nationalized….but there isn’t a whiff about the impact they had on the market thinking.

The movie is worth watching.  However, understand, it’s got a Left leaning slant.

And does a good job making that case.

 

 

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National

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Liberals And Economics

Posted on June 7, 2011 | 4 comments

Don’t mix.

Recently I posted about an Economics Literacy Test.  The Minneapolis Federal Reserve conducted a survey and asked people to answer 13 economic questions.  Those 404 people didn’t do so well.

While I took the test I wondered who would do well and who would do so well.  It occurred to me that some people will do better just because they want the answer to be something other than what it is.  For example, if asked, I suspect a vast majority of Liberals would say that the oil companies make too much profit.  Indeed, the oil companies rank 114 out of 215 industries in profits.  Hardly gouging, huh?

Then I was reminded of a post I blogged here about a year ago.  It described who did well and who did poorly on questions of economics:

Best to worst, with an average number of incorrect responses from 0 to 8:

Very conservative, 1.30

Libertarian, 1.38

Conservative, 1.67

Moderate, 3.67

Liberal, 4.69

Progressive/very liberal, 5.26.

Not so good if you are Liberal.

4 Comments

Posted in Economics, Education, Politics: National

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A Tale of Two Governors: Wisconsin’s Walker and Carolina’s Purdue

Posted on June 7, 2011 | 5 comments

In Wisconsin, a properly elected Senate passed a bill that a properly elected State Assembly had also passed.  Then, a properly elected Governor signed said properly passed bill into law.

The reaction from the far left at the time:

They are showing that citizenship is rooted in the willingness to listen to one’s opponents and to find shared solutions. The governor’s refusal to do the same shows his aim to rule by executive fiat. He is setting himself up as a notorious adversary of the democratic process.

I love it.  Rule by fiat.  Hardly.  Walker signed a bill into law that was passed by the Senate AND the Assembly.  Adversary of the democratic process?  Hardly.  It’s just that in this case, democracy delivered a solution that doesn’t agree with the hard left wing segment of the Democrat party.

Now, here in Carolina.

A properly elected Senate passes a bill that was also passed by a properly elected House.  Then, a properly elected Governor vetoes the bill.

Said governor complains that life isn’t fair.

Said Governor then signs an executive order to get what she wanted the whole time:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Bev Perdue signed an executive order Friday to extend federal unemployment insurance benefits for thousands of North Carolina residents amid a battle with Republican lawmakers, who tied the extension to the state budget bill.

In April, the Republican majority in the General Assembly passed a bill to extend the federally funded benefits for up to 20 weeks…

The liberal hard left?

Perdue’s press secretary Chris Mackey said the governor gave “Republican leaders the chance to do the right thing and they didn’t. So, she found another solution.”

So, the lesson here, is that when “the right thing” and “other solutions” involve those things held most dear to the Leftist, fiat [using the right definition of the word] is fine; noble.

But, BUT, when a centrist republican follows the rule of law and signs a legally passed bill, he is called a ruler by fiat [using the Leftist’s version of the word].

Funny world, that.

5 Comments

Posted in Government, Politics: National, States Behaving Badly

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Differentiating Characteristic: Open Thread

Posted on June 6, 2011 | 10 comments

What is the difference between this:

And this:

To me, it might be that one guy campaigns on family values and the other doesn’t.  That makes it irony or hypocrisy. Or it might be that one guy actually think that family values are meaningful enough to run on and that what we have is a Tragic story in the failures of mankind.  Or maybe its that one guy knows enough to resign and the other doesn’t.

Open thread- What do YOU think?

10 Comments

Posted in Idiots on Parade, Politics: National

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The Middle Class – Part II

Posted on June 6, 2011 | 4 comments

The middle class. The Great MC.

What is it, how is it defined? Is it growing? Shrinking? Is it, more importantly, being exploited by the rich and the powerful to enable their largess?

Is Obama right? Is it true, in fact, that the folks-the “Us”- are being used and manipulated in some grand game to keep the rich richer?

For me, the rhetoric needs substance; needs some form of validation. There has to be some means by which the idea has a backdrop to judge the truth. There has to be a definition of the middle class that we can use to see if, in fact, what is being said is true. Or not true. And for me, it comes down to two things:

  1. The earnings of the middle class.
  2. The life style, or things, that the middle class can buy.

So, let’s take a look:

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Economy, Liberty, Middle Class, Politics: National

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Too Much Government Regulation

Posted on June 3, 2011 | 8 comments

Think government isn’t broken?

Think government can fix all our problems?

Even if it can’t fix ’em ALL, folks STILL think that government can generally do better than the public sector can do.  Why this is true baffles me.  Some folks claim that corruption reigns supreme in the private sector and is therefore blemished.  Other folks think that profit reigns supreme in the private sector [and I think it does] and THAT makes the system inefficient.

Whatever it is, the idea that government can “do better than the private sector is one of the deepest misguided beliefs in human thinking.  The government CAN’T operate more efficiently than the private sector.

And here is proof via Coyote Blog.

For a few years, Mike Haege’s sister lived in north Minneapolis. He knows the neighborhood at least a little bit, and when a tornado tore through the area on Sunday, May 22, he took notice.

On the news he saw trees strewn about lawns and streets. Then inspiration struck. He wanted to help. His schedule for Monday, May 23, was wide open. And, since he operates Custom Cut, a tree trimming business here, he figured his services could be put to good use.

Now check this out:

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Government, Liberty, Politics: National, States Behaving Badly

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Jobs, Hiring and Uncertainty

Posted on June 3, 2011 | 2 comments

We all know how to mitigate risks.  We do it everyday in our everyday life.

We drive a car to work, or to school or to a bus stop.  Or we walk.  Across a street or next to one.

We swim.

Or buy a gun.

We know, as rational people, what our risks are.  And we are remarkable at acting in such a way, as a group, that our risks are minimized while our rewards are maximized.

We all do this.  All. Of. Us.

So don’t think for a second that business owners don’t do this as well.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in Economics, Government, Politics: National, Rocket Surgery

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Governments Around The World Call For Alternative Forms Of Communication

Posted on June 3, 2011 | 2 comments

Yup.

It’s true.

Man made cancer is here!  And we have to stop it!

Already, Democrat Senators in Washington are crafting legislation that would tax abusive profits that these large corporations are extorting from the public.  All the while, their products are killing us.

A high ranking official in Northern Virginia is quoted as saying, “Unless we get back to 1980 levels, we’re gonna see more and more human death and suffering.  We need legislation to protect the people from this alarming rate of damage!”

New calls for alternative technologies are being sounded.  Taxes are going to have to be raised in order to fund emerging technologies.  Whole new industries are going to have to be created, along with the jobs they drive, in order to fight this global pandemic.

Scientists now all agree, we are going to die!

An international panel of experts says cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing details from dozens of published studies.

The statement was issued in Lyon, France, on Tuesday by the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a weeklong meeting of experts. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar.

The agency is the cancer arm of the World Health Organization and the assessment now goes to WHO and national health agencies for possible guidance on cellphone use.

It’s over.

WHO and France, scientists and studies.

It’s over.

Throw your cell phones away or we will ALL die!

Or…..not.

2 Comments

Posted in Global Warming, Idiots on Parade, Politics: International, Politics: National

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Outliers Versus Trends: Tornadoes And Global Warming

Posted on June 2, 2011 | 9 comments

We are seeing tornadoes across America.

And by the looks of things, it would seem the year is bad.  Really REALLY bad.

But is it?

Well, the guys over at Poison Your Mind seem to think so:

We can’t link any individual event to global warming, but it’s a large-scale pattern that may be increasing the frequency or severity of types of events.

Nickgb creates some very compelling points in his post, I highly recommend reading all of it.  And when you’re done, stop on back and see my critique.

Continue reading →

9 Comments

Posted in Global Warming, Politics: International, Politics: National

Tagged , , ,

Home Values: Government Regulation Doesn’t Work

Posted on June 1, 2011 | 4 comments

Government has no place in the market.  In so much that the government needs to spend money on things that constitute the proper role of government, there is nothing that the State does that is expressly efficient.

The State is unable to address the needs and/or wants of the populace well enough to signal an efficient use of scare resources; resources that have alternative uses.  The government can, by force of gun or sword, dictate where money is spent, to be sure.  But that government has neither the ability or will to intuit that “will of the people who is the mark of a dynamic market.

What does this mean?

It means the government is incapable of spending your money better than you are.

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Economics, Government, Idiots on Parade, Lobby/PAC, Politics: National

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