Miscellany: 6/06/14

Quote of the Day

If there are no stupid questions, 
then what sort of questions do stupid people ask?
Dogbert

Hall of Shame

From Reason:

One week ago, Hope and Russell Lane's home security alarm was accidentally triggered when their granddaughter departed for school and left the front door ajar. What followed, the Lanes say, just doesn't make sense. Although Russell deactivated the alarm, the police of Round Rock, Texas came and killed the family's dog.Round Rock authorities say when they came upon the 120-pound Rottweiler named Bullet, the dog became aggressive toward them and made threatening actions.The police fired at the dog seven times, hitting him five. Furthermore, the Lanes believe it would have been physically difficult for Bullet to lunge at the law enforcement agents. Not only was Bullet "not an aggressive dog," explains Hope, but he also had hip dysplasia.The department launched an internal investigation, which yesterday concluded that the "the officers acted in a reasonable manner and followed protocol,"

A GOP Voice of Reason in the Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Kerfuffle

I have not been explicitly commenting, except in my FB Corner segment, the Bergdahl situation. I believe that negotating for POW releases falls within the President's mandate (this is one of the few times I've publicly supported an Obama decision, while the GOP has played up the angle of negotiating with terrorists and violating the law requiring Congressional notice of Gitmo prisoner release. (I should note that Obama at the time wrote a side statement disclaimer, taking exception of related constraints as unconstitutional.) However, I've been less understanding of allegations of Bergdahl's desertion leading to the Taliban capture, although I've always opposed our intervention in Afghanistan.

From Reason:

Labrador, however, who has been described as having "libertarian tendencies," broke ranks with his party on this matter. He said:
I'm a little bit disturbed by some of the Republicans out there who keep saying this has never happened before.
That is not entirely true. If you look historically, at the end of any conflict, you have a swap of prisoners, and that happens. Usually our side will release people that are less than desirable in order to get some of our people back in these swaps. So I would suggest that anybody who's being hyper-critical about this, they should look at the history. This has happened before.
Indeed, numerous policy experts have corroborated Labrador's claim, citing the Iranian Hostage Crisis during the Carter administration, the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration, and so on.

Image of the Day

Via Drudge Report

Email Rant of the Day: Central Banks and Their Mischief

I just don’t get this need of Central Banks to intervene, and mess up things so badly that it takes years to unwind… Look at Japan… They are the poster child for Central Bank intervention that mess things up for years to come! Then we have the U.S. Fed messing things up… Let’s see they started QE in March of 2009… 5 years later, where’s the economy? Where’s the growth? Where’s the strong labor markets? That’s right, they are nowhere to be seen, after 5 years of the Fed’s intervening in the economy…

So, now the ECB joins the other two large Central Banks…
- See more at: http://www.dailypfennig.com/2014/06/05/ecb-today/#sthash.8fjuqZzX.dpuf

I just don’t get this need of Central Banks to intervene, and mess up things so badly that it takes years to unwind… Look at Japan… They are the poster child for Central Bank intervention that mess things up for years to come! Then we have the U.S. Fed messing things up… Let’s see they started QE in March of 2009… 5 years later, where’s the economy? Where’s the growth? Where’s the strong labor markets? That’s right, they are nowhere to be seen, after 5 years of the Fed’s intervening in the economy…
So, now the ECB joins the other two large Central Banks…
- See more at: http://www.dailypfennig.com/2014/06/05/ecb-today/#sthash.8fjuqZzX.dpuf

I just don’t get this need of Central Banks to intervene, and mess up things so badly that it takes years to unwind… Look at Japan… They are the poster child for Central Bank intervention that mess things up for years to come! Then we have the U.S. Fed messing things up… Let’s see they started QE in March of 2009… 5 years later, where’s the economy? Where’s the growth? Where’s the strong labor markets? That’s right, they are nowhere to be seen, after 5 years of the Fed’s intervening in the economy… So, now the ECB joins the other two large Central Banks...

…So, do you think that this [adverse trade deficit] report was enough to raise the warning flag at the Fed and Treasury that tells them when they need to “do something” to weaken the dollar again? They can’t have this strong dollar stuff… not now, not when they need inflation to go higher, and stop the bleeding in the Trade Deficit…/sarcasm

I just don’t get this need of Central Banks to intervene, and mess up things so badly that it takes years to unwind… Look at Japan… They are the poster child for Central Bank intervention that mess things up for years to come! Then we have the U.S. Fed messing things up… Let’s see they started QE in March of 2009… 5 years later, where’s the economy? Where’s the growth? Where’s the strong labor markets? That’s right, they are nowhere to be seen, after 5 years of the Fed’s intervening in the economy…
So, now the ECB joins the other two large Central Banks…
- See more at: http://www.dailypfennig.com/2014/06/05/ecb-today/#sthash.8fjuqZzX.dpuf

I just don’t get this need of Central Banks to intervene, and mess up things so badly that it takes years to unwind… Look at Japan… They are the poster child for Central Bank intervention that mess things up for years to come! Then we have the U.S. Fed messing things up… Let’s see they started QE in March of 2009… 5 years later, where’s the economy? Where’s the growth? Where’s the strong labor markets? That’s right, they are nowhere to be seen, after 5 years of the Fed’s intervening in the economy…
So, now the ECB joins the other two large Central Banks…
- See more at: http://www.dailypfennig.com/2014/06/05/ecb-today/#sthash.8fjuqZzX.dpuf

I just don’t get this need of Central Banks to intervene, and mess up things so badly that it takes years to unwind… Look at Japan… They are the poster child for Central Bank intervention that mess things up for years to come! Then we have the U.S. Fed messing things up… Let’s see they started QE in March of 2009… 5 years later, where’s the economy? Where’s the growth? Where’s the strong labor markets? That’s right, they are nowhere to be seen, after 5 years of the Fed’s intervening in the economy…
So, now the ECB joins the other two large Central Banks…
- See more at: http://www.dailypfennig.com/2014/06/05/ecb-today/#sthash.8fjuqZzX.dpuf

I went on and on yesterday about Central Banks messing around with economies, and I just kept singing to myself, when will they ever learn? When, will, they, ever, learn?    But it's a done deal in the Eurozone now... here's Dave Gonigam at "the 5" on China:

"For years, we've chronicled the deals China has struck with its trade partners to do business using each other's currencies. China and Russia, China and Brazil, China and Australia, even China and its old/new enemy Japan -- they all have currency swaps and other arrangements in place to bypass the dollar.

Now it's... China and major U.S. corporations, according to new figures from the international payments system SWIFT. "The value of renminbi payments between the U.S. and the rest of the world rose by 327% in April this year from the same month a year ago," says the Financial Times, "as more U.S. corporations switched to using the Chinese currency to pay for imports from China."

Paying in renminbi can trim the costs of imports, the salmon-colored rag explains. And it's made easier by new renminbi-denominated vehicles in the financial markets.

HSBC estimates 18% of China's trade worldwide is now settled in renminbi -- a percentage set to double by the end of next year." - Daily Pfennig, 6/6/14

Mario Draghi, the ECB chief, put a new wrinkle on things--a negative rate on overnight loans, i.e., --which he hopes will motivate bankers to start lending and hopefully spark inflation in the broader economy (i.e., central banker fears of deflation).  Have no fear: the US and Japanese central bankers will not let the euro devalue at their expense; don't think that the Fed hasn't noticed the recent hike in the trade deficit at the expense of exports. Every demagogue alive wants to "beggar his neighbor": a devalued currency makes exported goods cheaper and imported goods more expensive, making domestic goods more price competitive. This is all lose-lose from a consumer perspective. As for Draghi's hope for inflation: be really careful of what you wish for ...

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?                  - Pete Seeger

While We're on the Topic of China...

Nice email reflection from Ryan Cole on "Why I Don't Like China" (economic model) (my edits):

Here's something you don't hear very often – Joe Biden is absolutely right. In the recent tiff between America and China, Biden chided The Middle Kingdom for cyber-espionage and said the country just doesn't innovate...As a student of economics, I'm more concerned with Biden's more damning declaration: China doesn't innovate. Yes, China is tremendous at assimilating the tech of others, and doing it well. Sometimes they do it better. But, in almost every case, they aren't doing anything new. They aren't bringing new ideas and technology to the world. They're just piggybacking on what's been done before. When going from a poor nation to a developed one, innovation is the last step. For China, there are a number of roadblocks: the demographic bomb;the education gap; the political gap.

Exactly. In fact, in terms of the kerfuffle of if and when China surpasses the US in terms of GDP, I think the Chinese unprincipled fusion of socialism (a number of state-owned enterprises) and fascism (government domination of the private sector) is intrinsically deficient to the mixed economies of the US, Europe, Japan, and other developed economies. I do worry about a heavily-regulated economy has innumerable hurdles to innovation, whether we are talking FDA approval queues, patent trolls, etc. Far too many parasitic lawyers... We need to drastically cut back the regulatory empire...

May Follies and the Jobs Report

The economy added 217,000 jobs in May, the U.S. Department of Labor said today. Meanwhile, unemployment in May held steady at 6.3%. The strong report, following good results in recent months, is another milestone indicating the jobs market is turning a corner. Still, it has been the longest jobs recovery on record, and it will take millions more jobs to achieve the kind of healthy labor market the U.S. had before the recession. - CNN

Part of the reason I've republished the excerpt is to show how the mainstream media is hyping an abysmal economy; whereas I agree that there is a sobering closing statement, keep in mind that we only reached a 6-plus official unemployment rate at the closing months of Bush's 2 terms in office, Obama has had ZIRP, several rounds of quantitative easing, bargain basement mortgage rates in 5.5 years in office--but he's engaged with job-repressive hyper-regulatory regimes in the energy, financial and healthcare sectors, growth-inhibiting tax increases and business mandates (e.g., minimum wage increases) while shifting up to 40% of his spending to future generations. I've only got personal anecdotal experiences in considering other opportunities, and I've seen the same old same old of canceled or on-hold job requisitions, delayed feedback to interviews, cattle calls for bargain-basement rates, gold-plated requisitions, etc. It's still an employers' market, a lot of new jobs are part-time or suboptimal employment to cover basic living expenses. We really need ro see double or triple the numbers CNN is reporting to make a dent in the structurally long unemployed. Obama has almost consistently done the reverse of what he should have done in almost every single domestic policy over the entirety of his Presidency. It's not just an opinion, but cold, hard fact. A lot of what he's done is purely ideological--e.g., his irrational obsession with the well-to-do. Instead of growing the pie, he's obsessed with cutting the pie....

Facebook Corner

(Reason). Make them bake cake!
I notice that are a number of self-anointed politically correct thugs in this thread whom have no shame in promoting fascist control of local shops and businesses--you may nominally own the business but they think they have the "right" to dictate business policy--a judicial invented penumbra, It was an anti-liberty concept then and still remains.

For those people who don't understand the difference between public and private policy: the government has a prevailing concept of equality under the law; it is paid for and provides common services to all the people. 

Unlike the private sector, the State has a monopoly of force. If and when the State discriminates as a matter of policy, those violated do not have an alternative. Even the President recognizes that our Constitution is based on protection of negative liberties/rights--that is, government or other parties are refrained from imposing on our rights (including economic liberty and the freedom to transact with whomever we choose, for any or no reason). That's different from positive liberties or rights--things government or others must do on your behalf. When the State requires you to provide goods and services for others, including baking a cake, it is fundamentally a violation of our fundamental rights and a form of slavery. If and when discrimination occurs in the private sector, your money is just as green to a competitor. Personally, I think it's a business mistake to turn away paying customers. But if someone decides to give away his prized Babe Ruth baseball card to his grandson vs. sell it to me as a high bidder, that's his right.

(Reason). If the government wants to regulate breasts, then it should at least be equitable about it: Give large men with big tits tickets, too.
To Reason: are you saying only large ladies with big tits get tickets?

I do think that community standards involving public displays of nudity fall within traditional police powers governing safety, health and morals. However, I question the judgment in enforcing these standards on isolated stretches of beach, which seem as pointless as ticketing someone for running a red light at night with no other traffic around.


More Proposals









Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Bob Gorrell via Townhall

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Neil Diamond, "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show"