You may have a fresh start any moment you choose,
for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down,
but the staying down.
Mary Pickford
You Heard It Here First
In yesterday's commentary:
Have I Mentioned How Much I HATE FDR?
I DESPISE FDR with a passion. It is amazing to see the parallels between Hoover/FDR and Bush/Obama... DiLorenzo does a great job here explaining how the lack of free market principles on the parts of both Hoover and FDR made a recession much worse.
DiLorenzo points out that other countries in the global economic slump started recovering well before the US; this seems to suggest that FDR's policies were responsible for a delayed recovery
The Keynesians had ominous predictions when the federal budget more than halved after the end of WWII. In fact, wartime spending (including a zero-sum with the consumer economy in terms of rationing) was suppressing growth in the private sector.
From the Hill this evening:
President Obama will argue he’s led the country through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression when he accepts his party’s nomination Thursday night and asks voters for a second term.
Obama will invoke Franklin Roosevelt — the last sitting president to win reelection with employment over 8 percent — as he argues his path is not “quick or easy” but is the right one for the country.
He also will portray himself as a president who — like Roosevelt — has led the country through tough times and not shied away from hard choices and decisions.
During those 10 months Ditherer-in-Chief Obama waited before pulling the trigger, what if UBL had been tipped off? It would have taken President Guillemette all of a split second to ask, "Do we have a cruise missile locked on the mansion?"
More seriously, the nature of the operation would have depended on an assessment of the scenario, including movements in and out of the compound, the likelihood of usable intelligence at the compound, our relationship with the Pakistan government, and the possibility of collateral damage. But the question is not whether I or any of the GOP Presidential candidates or nominee would have made the decision--but how much sooner than later. Was there a possibility an operation could go wrong and men lose their lives? Of course. But public safety officers do the same everyday.
Hard choices and decisions? When? Ramming the stimulus, ObamaCare and Dodd N. Frankenstein down the throats of opposition legislators which at times didn't have the votes to mount a filibuster? Not even submitting your own plan, but cheering from the sidelines as the Democratic legislative leadership engaged in noxious sausage making? Not supporting the majority-supported recommendations of his bipartisan deficit reduction committee? Making an unrealistic budget plan that got unanimously rejected by the Senate, including the Democrats? Having the "courage" to come out for "gay marriage" when he OPPOSED the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, which provides protection for the traditional definition of marriage at the state and federal level, and made repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' (i.e., openly gay military) a legislative priority? After his last-minute "concession" to extend ALL the Bush tax cuts in order to save the 75% going to the middle class he needed?
Yes, let's focus on those hard choices/decisions he made: like closing Gitmo (wait...that didn't happen), against the Iraq and Afghanistan engagements (he followed Bush's exit plan from Iraq, and his troop fatalities in Afghanistan greatly outnumber the number accumulated under Bush's 2 terms), immigration, climate change, his opposition to the Patriot Act (at minimum, during his Senate run), etc. Yes, and remember how he voted against a raise of the debt ceiling and his harsh criticism of Bush's deficits and borrowing on the credit card of China?
Jim Rogers for President
No, not really; this blog still favors Romney over The (Incompetent) One, the Pied Piper of Failed Liberalism, the Empty Suit. Imagine if Romney had given THIS address instead. Romney still doesn't get it: you cannot finesse the evil of bloated Progressive government with rasps or rifflers: you need a point chisel or a pitching tool.
Just listen to Rogers' fix--ALL of which I've repeatedly pressed in this blog: DEEP CUTS IN SPENDING, radically simplified and smaller taxes, stop the income tax and taxing savings and investments--move towards consumption taxes, stop being America's policeman, make people responsible (for their golden age), eliminate teacher tenure. (I'm uncertain about his point about medical facilities needing to be more responsible; I believe that he's talking about the fact that the federal government dominates almost half the sector, and he thinks the government meddling in the sector is counterproductive.)
Campaign for Liberty (one of favorite libertarian-conservative portals, now in my blogroll) had a past conversation with Rogers which I'll excerpt in part here:
C4L: [What do you make of the new financial reform law?]
Rogers: Well, it's part of the trend where the US for whatever reason, both consciously and unconsciously, is driving the business out of the US. There's a transition now from the US to Asia in the financial world and the economic world. The largest creditor nations in the world are now in Asia: China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, you know who the largest debtor nations in the world are.
C4L: [What do other, more prudent countries do?]
Rogers: They're leaving the market alone. In America, the government and the central bank especially, have interfered with the market several times. Every time something happened [Greenspan and then Bernanke] came in, interfered with the market, and would not let the market do its fundamental work, which is to sort itself out. Unfortunately, we are all now paying the price.
C4L: Well, if you were the President of the United States today, do you think that there are any practical steps that you could take immediately to fix the economy, and what would they be?
Rogers: I would abolish the Federal Reserve. I would cut taxes. I would cut spending in a draconian manner.You let the people who go bankrupt go bankrupt. People say, "Oh, our poor grandchildren! Look at all this debt!" No, no, no, it's not our poor grandchildren; it's us! This is a current problem!
Bernanke has said recently that he will take more measures. Well, Bernanke doesn't know much about finance, he doesn't know much about economics, or currencies, or markets. I mean it's staggering to go back and read his statements. You realize the man knows nothing about what he's doing. All he knows is printing money.
Throughout history, when people have printed money, it's led to debasing of currencies. The Pound Sterling gave way to the US dollar. The US dollar is already giving way. The US dollar is a terribly flawed currency. The US is not just the larger debtor nation in the world, it's the largest debtor nation in the history of the world.
No, I Won't Cry for You, Argentina...
Maybe for the citizens whom didn't vote for its current President. This is important for understanding what is already starting to take place in America with the government trying to track every move of your assets. It's no small coincidence that the morally corrupt progressives are lusting after your bulge (in the back pocket) : they actually think they have the moral standing to
Here's an op-ed from an investment website, which I've edited here:
Argentina long held promise. In 1900, it was the world’s sixth-richest country – richer than the U.S. Just over a decade ago, Argentina spectacularly unraveled with the biggest default in history – $100 billion. Today, Argentina is back in a bind. The streets of Buenos Aires have recently seen the return of the backstreet currency exchange.According to the official exchange rate, which is subject to capital controls, 4.4 pesos buys you a dollar. But on the street, people are happy to pay up to 6.7. Inflation runs at 25%. The government claims inflation is 9.9% and has outlawed calculating or quoting any other inflation rate. Forty percent of dollar deposits have been withdrawn from Argentina since last October. Now there are capital controls. You need special permission to move your dollars overseas. To take a foreign vacation, Argentines have to apply to a bureaucrat for permission and explain where they got the money for the trip. If you pay in dollars, you could get 25% off the price of property. The government has outlawed this.
And the harder the Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner, tries to keep assets in the country, the more they’ll be siphoned out. Expropriating your citizens’ savings or international companies like YPF (a subsidiary of Spanish oil company Repsol), which President Kirchner nationalized last April,might buy you some time. Two years ago, President Kirchner seized private pension accounts. Now she is going to lend $4.4 billion of this money, at a rate of one-tenth the inflation rate, to new home buyers. A lottery will decide who gets the loans – not capacity to repay.I think I've finally managed to find a President even worse than Barack Obama (of course, Obama hasn't prosecuted and imprisoned Josie and the Pussycats)--let's hope that she doesn't give him any ideas. And feminist ideologues can point out with pride that certain governments led by female politicians can be just as inept and corrupt as those run by men...
Of course, Obama has his own variation of lotteries: picking winners and losers in the economy or implementing a minimum wage, which suppresses low-skill employment, critical when the low-skilled work force has trouble finding work; the winners of the "wage lotteries" get above-market wages at the expense of other members of the labor force.
Megalomaniac, anti-liberty politicians like Kirchner and Obama fail to comprehend that the foundation of a prosperous economy is necessarily based on pursuing free market and free trade principles, not by meddling with the rights of individuals and businesses.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Cheap Trick, "The Flame". Has anyone NOT sung this song in his shower? Pop masterpiece.
