Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
Josh Billings
Guest Quotation for the Day
"The more corrupt a State, the more it legislates." -TacitusObamaLand is all regulation (i.e., government manipulation of the economy for the benefit of parasitic and/or economic rent-seeking special interests), but no rule of law. "There were 22,771 pages of federal rules and regulations in 2007. Today, there are 27,274 pages of rules for you to follow – 20% more rules in only six years." HT The Libertarian Republic.
An Anecdote That Perfectly Encapsulates the Government Experience
From National Journal
It was just a cockroach, one of millions around the world. But this one had a White House address.."It was the size of a small drone," said Martha Joynt Kumar, professor of political science at Towson University, who led the effort Wednesday to capture the bug....
It is, of course, not the first time bugs or vermin have done battle with the humans who work in the 213-year-old building. None was more frustrated than Jimmy Carter, who battled mice from the start of his administration. To his dismay, he found the bureaucracy unresponsive. GSA, responsible for inside the White House, insisted it had eliminated all "inside" mice and contended any new mice must have come from the outside, meaning, the New York Times reported at the time, they were "the responsibility of the Interior Department." But Interior, wrote the Times, "demurred" because the mice were now inside the White House. To make matters worse, GSA and Interior refused to use traps, claiming humane groups had protested that in the past. ..Mice started scampering across his office in daylight and [Carter's] meeting with the Italian prime minister was conducted amid the distinct smell of a dead mouse..."For two or three months now I've been telling them to get rid of the mice," Carter wrote [in his diary]. "They still seem to be growing in numbers, and I am determined either to fire somebody or get the mice cleared out – or both."...According to the Associated Press, daily battle updates were sent to the highest levels of the White House, complete with body counts and descriptions of the weapons being deployed.Of course, it took 4 years to get rid of the biggest rat...Bureaucratic finger-pointing, lack of initiative and taking responsibility for public goods and services, absurd, amateurish micromanagement (the idea of our nation's chief executive, say, for instance, approving who had access to White House facilities, like a swimming pool)...
Let's mess with Obama's mind. Start a rumor that the mini-drone cockroach is the KGB's new iRoach...
Putting in a Plug for Tom Woods' New Talk Show
Familiar readers are aware of the Austrian school historian whom has been on my blogroll for some time; I've featured him in some segments (like me, he is also a more traditional Catholic whom has had to deal with "progressive Catholics" with their economically-perverse/ignorant notions of "social justice"). He has been a frequent guest host on Austrian School economist/investor Peter Schiff's show; his new talk show, starting Monday 11 AM CDT, appears to be a Schiff network spin-off and the webpage includes plugs by Schiff and Ron Paul
Centralizing Education (Common Core), and Thuggish Suppression of Dissident Views: A Typical Example Why I Loathe Maryland
Towson is where my loser former physician is/was based. This was a rigged hearing where the superintendent allowed input only in the form of written questions (which obviously he would control as gatekeeper). This was no doubt deliberate policy to spin Common Core propaganda, to prevent taxpayer dissent and spontaneous debate. The Libertarian Republic has a good overview, including this excerpt:
Robert Small was arrested for not following an official format to ask questions at a public forum in Towson, Maryland yesterday. He faces charges of second-degree assault of a police officer when he was arrested for protesting the common core curriculum that will dumb down our education system and increase costs to the states. Some estimates show that the State of Washington will pay an extra $300 million, while California will be forced to pay $759 million to implement the nationalized standards.
A Good Opinion By O'Reilly on the Bankrupt "Progressive" State
In referencing the original video/transcript, FNC apparently has a rolling calendar on the right side of the archive webpage to click. As I write, the opinion is still on the home webpage but should post to the archive, say, by the posting of next Monday's video.
Bad Elephant of the Year Nomination: Congressman Charles Boustany
Then there was this question from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA): “Can you assure me that the Jones Act will not be diluted in any trade agreements that are negotiated during your tenure?”This question presumes the legitimacy of protectionist prohibition against foreign shippers operating among US ports. Boustany here shows that he is little different than Democrats protecting politically favored unions and industries. I expect Republicans to back free market and free trade ideals, not to back policies that promote artificially higher shipping costs passed onto consumers. More on the Jones Act below.
Buffett, Squanderville and Thriftville
This seems to be Bashing Buffett weekend. I tried to find a copy of the Fortune piece and as of the date of this post, I have found an archived version here. It's interesting here how Buffett tries to dress up his rhetoric as consistent with free trade, but I think Bob Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek rightly criticizes Buffett here with confounding a trade deficit with debt.
I think, though, Buffett needs a broader critique. We've basically had an artificially cheap credit economy which has been enabled by easy money by the Fed Reserve--which has also penalized savers, whom have their meager interest income, less than core inflation, taxed by the government, rubbing salt in the wound. The federal government subsidizes mortgage interest and other related expenses (e.g., solar paneling). We don't have a VAT, which could lessen reliance on income accounting rules, not to mention the counter-economic growth policy effects of progressive tax schemes. A consumption tax, applied equally against domestic or foreign goods and services, would provide more of an incentive to save/defer consumption and our current policy to rob Peter (the future) to pay Paul (the present). Tapped-out consumers with exhausted savings cannot drive the future economy.
The point is that government policies have been part of the problem, not the solution. Buffett wants to introduce public policy gimmicks instead of long-overdue policy reform. We didn't need gimmicks in the post-Civil War boom of rapid economic growth. Instead of asking what drove past economic growth--and recognizing why anti-competitive state banking regulations exacerbated bank failures, Buffett wants to increase federal meddling with the economy. Some "champion" of the free market....
But the US does a good job shooting itself in the foot with bad trade policies. The Keystone pipeline is an obvious example, but look at the difficulty in exporting natural resources, like oil and natural gas products (we've finally seen a third port approved for LNG exports, but it has been like pulling teeth.
One very notorious is the anti-consumer Jones Act (briefly discussed above, which should be repealed. Ikenson of Reason summarizes the point nicely:
How much more economically self-destructive can policy be than a federal law that consigns U.S. businesses to inefficient production and transportation options, deters investment in U.S. manufacturing and distribution operations, and gives carte blanche to shipbuilders to be as unresponsive to customer needs as they and their unions desire?
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez and Investors.com |
HT Gary North
Musical Interlude: Motown
Stevie Wonder, "Superstitious"
