When you want to test the depths of a stream, don't use both feet.
Chinese Proverb
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From Washpo at an Iowa political event:
O’Malley.. said that his party “must not allow another Wall Street meltdown to bring down hard-working families.” In a speech broadcast live on C-SPAN, he called for tougher sanctions on banks that break the law and for reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era measure that separated commercial and investment banking.
During O'Malley's appearance at the Scott County Democrats' “Red, White and Blue Dinner,” he offered a prescription for “making the dream true again” that includes raising the minimum wage, expanding Social Security benefits, making pre-kindergarten universally available and ensuring equal pay for women. “Sing it with me people,” O’Malley said. “When women succeed, America succeeds.”I never lived in the City of Baltimore (thank God!), so I never had an opportunity to vote against O'Malley for mayor when I moved to Maryland in 2004. (I really wanted to move to Virginia, where my new company was headquartered but they convinced me the commutes to the north Beltway clients were a nightmare). I did, however, vote twice against him for governor. I knew Maryland was deep blue, although like Massachusetts has been known to vote in an occasional GOP governor like Ehrlich (and more recently, Hogan to succeed term-limited O'Malley). The partisan nature of the state was clear when Ehrlich, with majority public approval, lost his reelection to the Baltimore major in the 2006 midterms, a national rebuke to George W. Bush. Marylqnd's political agenda under the state-majority Dems was predictable: class-warfare economics, the wisdom of government "investment" in the economy, etc. The dysfunctional aspects of the "progressive"agenda are well-known and I'm not going to debate the policies here.
The idea that lapse of Glass-Steagall was responsible for the 2008 tsunami is patently absurd except for economically illiterate populist "progressives"; the banking industry has been the most heavily regulated over American history; none of the principal actors in 2008 involved a conglomerate of commercial and investment banking, other banks (e.g., European) have been stable over decades without Glass-Steagall-like restrictions, banking failures in US history have been largely a function of bad public policy, e.g., unit banking, reserve requirements, etc. We had a housing bubble largely overextended by the GSE's buying high-risk loans with government guarantees and cheap financing, government incentives and regulations promoting homeownership to people with little skin in the game, etc. The Fed also maintained easy money policies; it was manifestly obvious with an anemic economy and struggling household incomes that housing gains were unsustainable in the long run.
It looks like on other issues that O'Malley is trying to use the Clintons' Wall Street connections as a competitive weapon, trying to co-opt Cherokee Lizzie Warren's populism. The 77-cent'ers feminist agenda has been discredited so many times; when you control for factors like hours worked, experience, etc., almost all variance of the observed difference goes away; in fact, in many cities, more college-educated single young women are edging out single young men in income. I really don't think that O'Malley is going to out-feminist potentially the first female President, anyway. Universal early education--the last thing we need is more federal involvement in education. Other federal programs have not led to sustainable advantages. Raising the minimum wage does nothing but permanently exclude the younger and/or low-skilled/experienced from gainful employment. Social security has been inadequately funded for decades and is due to exhaust its reserves in less than a generation already; expanding it, given its already unsustainable basis, is sheerly delusional. The last thing we need is for this piece of work do to America what he did to Maryland.
Facebook Corner
(LFC). It's over. We're liberals now.
The problem with sarcasm is that this piece will be cited by innumerable "progressives" at face value as yet another convert to the cause of Statism.
(The Libertarian Catholic). "Pope Francis makes clear that justice can never be done by killing another human being and he stresses there can be no humane way of carrying out a death sentence."
"Let every soul be subject to higher powers. For there is no power but from God: and those that are ordained of God. Therefore, he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist purchase to themselves damnation. For princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good: and thou shalt have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to thee, for good. But if thou do that which is evil, fear: for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is God's minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil" (Romans 13:1-4).
Why is it every Statist trots out Roman 13? They don't even understand what it means. What about Acts 5:29? What about Jesus' multiple distinctions between the kingdoms of man and God? Was the Roman execution of Christ Himself a good thing? Jesus Himself during the Passion basically acknowledged that God permits evil--this is different from condoning evil.
Free the Forests!
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| Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall |
John Denver, "Poems, Prayers and Promises"
