What was hard to bear is sweet to remember.
Portuguese proverb
Reflections on the GOP National Convention Day 2
In yesterday's post I included an official version of Neil Boyd's version of "God Bless the USA"; I finally found a Youtube video of his dynamic performance last night:
The Republican Party did a wonderful thing tonight: tonight's invocation was given by Ishwar Singh. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is from a Sikh family; her father referred the party, which contacted him in the aftermath of the Sikh tragedy in Wisconsin, to Ishwar Singh, the head of the Sikh Society of Central Florida. Ishwar Singh, who wore a turban and beard and is an engineer by profession, leads a 300-family gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Orlando, delivered the first Sikh invocation of either party in the 100 years of Sikhs in America. American Sikhs are a blessing; I welcome immigrants of all races and creeds, each one with an unalienable right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and celebrate the achievement of their dreams. Any assault against our fellow citizens is fundamentally violence against the very foundation of this republic.
Sen. Scott Brown's (MA) beautiful 6-foot daughter Ayla Brown, a Top 16 finalist in American Idol 2006 who played basketball for Boston College until her 2010 graduation, sang the national anthem. I believe that her latest album is oriented to the country music audience. I was sorry to see her leave American Idol.
Both John McCain and Condoleezza Rice focused on a proactive foreign policy. Any familiar reader knows that I've become increasingly skeptical of our role in the Middle East and Gulf region. We have been in Afghanistan now for past a decade. My guess is that there are many other countries where human rights are not recognized or protected. Enough American blood and treasure already; we can't afford it with a nearly $16T debt. I see our efforts as morally hazardous: it's time for regional neighbors to step in--after all, instability will result in refugees throughout the region.
There was one telling quote that I, as a free trader, immediately noticed in Dr. Rice's speech, an implicit criticism on the Obama Administration for doing almost zero on the free trade front, only recently having moved on free trade pacts negotiated by the Bush Administration. Here is the same observation I found in a recent op-ed Dr. Rice published on FT.com:
But consider this: China has signed free-trade agreements with 15 nations over the past eight years and has explored FTAs with some 20 others; since 2009 the US has ratified three FTAs negotiated during the Bush administration and it has continued – but not concluded – talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which began in 2008.Paul Ryan gave a great speech, but I really loved his tribute to his beaming Mom, which I thought was a truly wonderful moment in the speech:
My Mom started a small business, and I’ve seen what it takes. Mom was 50 when my Dad died. She got on a bus every weekday for years, and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison. She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business. It wasn’t just a new livelihood. It was a new life. And it transformed my Mom from a widow in grief to a small businesswoman whose happiness wasn’t just in the past. Her work gave her hope. It made our family proud. And to this day, my Mom is my role model.
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| Paul Ryan's 78-year-old mom Betty Ryan Douglas at a Florida campaign event courtesy of the Blaze |
President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made. He said, well, “I haven’t communicated enough.” He said his job is to “tell a story to the American people” – as if that’s the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners?
Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What’s missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago – isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?
Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.
He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.
Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing – nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.
So here we are, $16 trillion in debt and still he does nothing.
So here is our pledge.
We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead.Finally, on the lighter side:
We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.
We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.
We’re a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I. And, in some ways, we’re a little different. There are the songs on his iPod, which I’ve heard on the campaign bus and on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies. I said, I hope it’s not a deal-breaker Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC, and ends with Zeppelin.
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| Romney's Spotify List via Huffington Post |
- Pretty Amazing Grace - Neil Diamond
- I Want to Know What Love Is - Mariah Carey
- Hands - Jewel
- Like a Prayer - Madonna
- Dreams to Dream - Linda Ronstadt
- I Hope You Dance - Lee Ann Womack
- One Good Woman - Peter Cetera
- Something Inside - from "August Rush"
- Annie's Song - John Denver
- Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love - BJ Thomas
- Mary, Did You Know? - Christ Church Choir
- I Was Made for Loving You - Kiss
- I am America - Krista Branch
- Marry Me - Neil Diamond
- All My Love - Led Zeppelin
- When the Night Comes - Joe Cocker
- Annie's Song - John Denver
- The Way You Look Tonight - Bay City Rollers
- Midnight Wind - John Stewart
- Amazed - Lonestar
- Love of My Life - Jim Brickman/Michael W. Smith
- Perhaps Love - John Denver
- Harmon Killebrew - Jeff Arundel
- If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind - Agnetha Fattskog
- Glory of Love - Peter Cetera
- Your Wildest Dreams - Moody Blues
- I Only Have Eyes for You - Art Garfunkel
- St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) - John Parr
- Two Out of Three Ain't Bad - Meat Loaf
- All I Know - Art Garfunkel
- I'll Stand By You - Pretenders
- I Know You're Out There Somewhere - Moody Blues
- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow - Dave Mason
- Story of My Life - Neil Diamond
As for Mitt, wow, it looks like a cross between early 60's rock and later country music. Yes to "Good Vibrations", "Runaway", "Ring of Fire", and "Crying". Mitt, Mitt, Mitt: Willie Nelson for "Over the Rainbow"? Really? Oh, come on!
Rothbard and the Origins of Progressive Regulation
When I went on my first UH Catholic Newman retreat (ironically my first nephew was born that weekend), it was an amazing personal experience, and it's where I met my liberal friend Tim, now an accounting professor at a southern California Catholic college. (Poor Tim; he remembers me from a time when I stood up for Ted Kennedy at my local Democratic precinct caucus. I took my first economics course that semester I met Tim, and it changed my politics. (The course was totally nonpartisan, but I started questioning my political assumptions.))
As I recall, the retreat included meals, except for Friday evening when the retreat started. We were expected to have eaten dinner before we arrived. The retreat was several miles away from campus in the east Texas woods. I went in a car with retreat veterans, and they decided to stop at this diner just within a mile or so of the retreat location. Now I have to admit here even today, when I eat out, I prefer diners; I have to watch my diet, but I love Texas staples like chicken fried steak or deep-fried jumbo shrimp, chicken, etc. I love Grandy's, although I don't think I've eaten at one since I worked on a State of Oklahoma project while with Oracle Consulting (you spread a packet of honey on a split fresh oven-baked roll, and I swear it's like heaven on earth). The point of the story is that I loved the country cooking at this little diner and for the remaining retreats I attended, going to the diner became part of my ritual, and I would sing the praises of this little diner. I'll never forget the time we left the diner; one of the new retreat attendees told me that he thought I had oversold the diner: he expected better and it was ordinary as far as diners go. As far as I was concerned my dinner was great, but I understand people have different tastes.
As I write, I have only sampled some of the works of Rothbard, and I had not reviewed any videos of his work. But I found this video lecture snippet absolutely riveting (the point of the little story above is that others may think it's just a part of a boring lecture...) Rothbard is really setting the stage here for explaining the anti-trust era. (In fact, Mises has a Rothbard excerpt titled "Abolish Anti-Trust Laws") One of the most persistent myths underlying minimum prices (established or enforced by the government) is that predatory firms (with more resources) will undercut the competition below market and drive them out of business. Once the competition is driven out, the predatory firm sets prices over the former market price and enjoys windfall profits at the expense of the consumer.
I will simply point out that general price fixing in a dynamic market by government is almost always wrong from the get-go: as I've quoted Heraclitus before: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." Over time, technology improves and the cost per unit widget declines; in a competitive economy, this means prices decline over time. There can also be creative destruction where cost structure can dramatically altered by innovation: consider, for instance, emails in contrast to the substitute use of USPS mail. Emails can be sent almost instanteously, more reliably and for negligible cost. There are various scenarios where almost any revenue goes straight to the bottom line: e.g., empty plane seats; an empty truck heading back to its home or branch location (before trucking deregulation). The brokerage industry was deregulated in 1975; artificially high fees had been maintained for trading stocks; Schwab, an online brokerage, dropped fees by 75% from 1998 to 2006.
Then there are the notorious browser wars that started out between Netscape and Microsoft. (Note: I have no direct financial interest in Microsoft.) Netscape used to charge non-academic users up to $40-50/copy of its browser; Microsoft distributed its freely. Whereas much has been made of Microsoft's dominance on the PC platform, comparably featured operating system alternatives often cost significantly more than Microsoft's $40-60 license per PC. Microsoft has a history of supporting a number of software vendors for its platforms, including alternatives to its own application software products. Netscape also ported its version to multiple operating systems. I should point out that Microsoft had approached Netscape for licensing its software: it saw browser technology as key innovation for its operating system. Netscape was well aware of Microsoft's resources, status as a competitive threat, and the likely outcome of spurning a licensing deal: recall that Microsoft's dominant Office Suite emerged under Windows, not DOS. And let me point out Microsoft did not suddenly start charging for Internet Explorer after Netscape decided to make its browser open-source (now currently evolved into Mozilla Firefox); in fact, I've installed multiple other free browsers (Chrome, Opera and Safari) on my PC's. I should point out that, just as in the case of the misguided government delay of the Sirius/XM merger, the anti-trust deliberations against Microsoft were similarly misguided. As in the case of satellite radio (e.g., wireless, high definition radio, etc.), there is competition to PC's in Internet access (e.g., for tablets/mobile, iOS (Apple) has a 66% share, and Android (Google) has a 20% share). While Apple and Google stock prices have soared over the past decade, Microsoft's has barely treaded water. Whereas I didn't like some of Microsoft's hardball tactics at the time, there can be little doubt that the misguided actions of government meddling have been pushing on a string and are fundamentally anti-competitive. Government is used as a competitive weapon by companies which have made bad business decisions or have failing business models. This can result in analysis paralysis in the American crown jewels of high technology companies and impede introduction of innovative products and services. This following excerpt is somewhat dated, from an open letter to then President Clinton, signed by hundreds of economists, but I think the argument and insights are still relevant today:
The current spate of heightened antitrust activism seems to suggest that anti-competitive business practices abound. Headline-grabbing cases against Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems, Visa and MasterCard, along with a flurry of merger investigations now under way, would appear to demonstrate the need for a vigorously enforced antitrust policy that will create checks and balances to eliminate consumer harm.
However, consumers did not ask for these antitrust actions — rival business firms did. Consumers of high technology have enjoyed falling prices, expanding outputs, and a breathtaking array of new products and innovations. High technology markets are among the most dynamic and competitive in the world, and it is a tribute to open markets and entrepreneurial genius that American firms lead in so many of these industries. But, these same developments place heavy pressures on rival businesses, which must keep pace or lose their competitive races. Rivals can legitimately respond by improving their own products or by lowering prices. Increasingly, however, some firms have sought to handicap their rivals’ races by turning to government for protectionDominant companies must rely on both efficiency and innovation; low prices and margins discourage competition. New technology, materials or methods may introduce radically lower cost structures. Government interference in the market, whether imposing price floors on limo competition to taxis or California power companies are required to generate a certain percentage of high-cost renewal energy (with rates accommodating capture of increased costs to the consumer), is never in the interest of the consumer.
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Where antitrust authorities respond to these protectionist demands, the workings of markets are short-circuited. Antitrust protectionism means that market decisions about how to compete for consumers’ favor are displaced by bureaucratic and political decisions. Many of the proposed
interventions will weaken successful U.S. firms and impede their competitiveness abroad.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Toto, "Pamela". This is the last of my Toto series; tomorrow I'll start a very brief series on Janis Joplin/Big Brother & the Holding Company (just a couple of songs). Just in case you're wondering: over the years I've bought a large number of greatest hits albums for a number of artists; in my musical interlude series, I'm generally listing artists with one or more albums in my personal collection.
