Miscellany: 9/26/12

Quote of the Day
A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.
William Arthur Ward

Privatize  It!

The Postal Service last month failed to pay $5.5 billion for its fiscal 2011 prepayment obligation, which originally was due in September 2011 but was deferred by Congress until Aug. 1. That was the first time it ever defaulted on a payment to the Treasury Department. The $5.6 billion due this week, on Sept. 30, represents this fiscal year’s obligation.

The Panderer-in-Chief

From the Washington Post:

After President Obama pledged in March to create up to 15 manufacturing centers nationwide, the first federal grant went to a place at the heart of his affections: Ohio.

 When the Obama administration awarded tax credits to promote clean energy, the $125 million taken home by Ohio companies was nearly four times the average that went to other states.

And when a Cleveland dairy owner wanted to make more ricotta cheese, he won what was then the largest loan in the history of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Either Obama or Vice President Biden has popped up in the Buckeye State every three weeks on average since they took office.

Andrew Morris' review of a Couch-Shughart scholarly review of the Depression notes a few salient points:

• make a point of noting that the Roosevelt administration’s approach in the “first New Deal” (1933-1935) was built around an “anti-market ideology” that “placed much hope in the central government’s ability to produce favorable results” and attributed the Depression to the market.
• provide extensive historical evidence to show that New Deal legislation lacked the checks and balances necessary to restrain political use of the programs.
• conclude that “political self-interest was perhaps the most important motive underlying the administration’s spending decisions. A state’s popular vote for FDR in the 1932 election and its importance to the President’s electoral college strategy are consistently [statistically] significant determinants of the amount of federal aid it received.”

Barack Obama is just an FDR wannabe without gubernatorial experience.

Bernanke Learns to Play Golf:
Tries To Chip In From Moral Hazard

Economist Lawrence Lindsey said that with the Fed purchasing at least $40 billion a month in mortgage debt through QE3, “they are buying the entire deficit.”

The central bank's recently announced bid to stimulate the economy has also taken the pressure off politicians to deal with the U.S. fiscal cliff, Lindsay argued, which could result in destabilizing tax hikes and spending cuts automatically taking effect early next year.

“The Fed, maybe because it can't do otherwise, has told the Congress: 'We're going to buy your bonds no matter what."

Great Moments in Regulation 

Remember Upton Sinclair, sausages and rat feces? Guess what the USDA doesn't check? I'm sure this1997 US News excerpt will whet your appetite for your next burger or steak:

Agriculture experts say a slew of new and questionable methods of fattening cattle are being employed by farmers. To trim costs, many farmers add a variety of waste substances to their livestock and poultry feed and no one is making sure they are doing so safely. Chicken manure in particular, which costs from $15 to $45 a ton in comparison with up to $125 a ton for alfalfa, is increasingly used as feed by cattle farmers despite possible health risks to consumers.Chicken manure often contains campylobacter and salmonella bacteria, which can cause disease in humans, as wellas intestinal parasites, veterinary drug residues, and toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. These bacteria and toxins are passed on to the cattle and can be cycled to humans who eat beef contaminated by feces during slaughter.Agricultural refuse such as corncobs, rice hulls, fruit and vegetable peelings, along with grain byproducts from retail production of baked goods, cereals, and beer, have long been used to fatten cattle. In addition, some 40 billion pounds a year of slaughterhouse wastes like blood, bone, and viscera, as well as the remains of millions of euthanized cats and dogs passed along by veterinarians and animal shelters, are rendered annually into livestock feed in the process turning cattle and hogs, which are natural herbivores, into unwitting carnivores.

No wonder the Obama's like their steak with arugula:"takes me back: a little hint of Rin Tin Tin".

Remember a few months back when I missed some daily posts because a bad power outage. This excerpt comes from a relevant rant called "Dumb Government"

Here's the first paragraph of a Washington Examiner article printed Monday:

Eliminating the surcharge that allows electric companies to charge customers for power during an outage could make it harder for the utilities to prevent future outages, company officials told the Maryland Public Service Commission, or PSC, on Monday.

In other words, the local power company is working to persuade the dumb government to keep charging customers even when they are too inept to provide the juice they promised. Any economist will tell you the lack of revenues during a blackout should provide a natural incentive for the company to prevent blackouts.

Fortunately, the government is there to squash any sense of a natural economy. Why fix the problem, it says, when we can paper it over with other people's money?

But wait, dear reader, our story gets better (the emphasis is mine):

The surcharge is intended to help utilities earn the revenue they are legally entitled to in months when customers use less electricity than expected, like if a summer month is cooler than usual. This usually amounts to a small sum on an individual customer's bill -- sometimes less than a dollar -- though it means a difference of millions of dollars for utilities. The battle in Washington this week stems from a late-June storm that left thousands of folks near the nation's capital without electricity for more than a week. Without power, these folks lost hundreds of dollars' worth of groceries. They were forced to stay in hotels. And many businesses lost a week's worth of revenues.

Will the power company reimburse them? Oh no... maybe in a free market, but not in this rigged economy. Instead, the customers are forced to pay up. The power companies need that revenue, you know what's next? Will I have to write a check to BP when my truck is in the garage? Big Oil depends on my cash to keep the wells flowing, right? Again, if the government stepped out of the way, the power industry would be forced to fend for itself. Most of today's providers would be out of business in a month.

And yet (see above} Obama is bragging about bailing out failing auto companies and their unions...An end to "too big to fail".

Hall of Shame

From a great investment website rant:  {I had condemned the Houston killing in an earlier post) legalized thuggery and its defenders are unconscionable:

I ask: Would the freest nation on earth publicly execute a wheelchair-bound double amputee at a home for the mentally ill?

It happened last week in Houston. The [two]courageous men in blue there opened fire on the man who was wielding a pen after he demanded a cigarette and a soda.

This guy had one arm and one leg and was mentally ill. Houston cops shot him in the head.

Six Michigan police fired 46 bullets at a mentally ill homeless man in July.

Michigan's finest, well-trained, and noble officers hit the man 11 times — with fewer than 25% of their shots.

Two of those fine Michigan men have been reprimanded; one has been demoted. Their names were not released.

Where is Chuck Norris when you  need him? I bet he could disarm a mentally ill mam wielding a pen or a knife without blowing him away. Other non-lethal options, e.g., mace, tear gas, sedatives, batons, tasers, etc,


Political Humor

Clint Eastwood’s new movie, “Trouble with the Curve,” opened in third place this weekend after making only $12 million. Of course, when he saw a movie theater had so many empty seats, Eastwood was like, “Look at these crowds!” - Jimmy Fallon

[Barack Obama and his doubles are all Clint Eastwood fans. The  gate is understated: because BO said that he would gladly pay him Tuesday for movie admission today. What bothered Clint more was  the President's review of Clint's performance and suggestions, which Clint insisted he couldn't do. And then they talked about the movie.]

Last night the replacement refs made a very controversial call that many people felt cost Green Bay the game. Well, thank God fans in Green Bay don't take their football that seriously. - Jay Leno

[Chief  field justice John Roberts insisted his call was a tax, not a penalty. but he didn't like the Cheeseheads replacing his penalty flag.]

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups

ZZ Top, "Tush"