Jul 21 2008

When there’s a financial crisis, look to the government as the cause

Category: corruption,diversity,economy,election 2008,politics — harmonicminer @ 10:27 pm

Thomas Sowell on the financial markets meltdown: here’s a taste, but read it all

It was government intervention in the financial markets, which is now supposed to save the situation, that created the problem in the first place.

Laws and regulations pressured lending institutions to lend to people that they were not lending to, given the economic realities. The Community Reinvestment Act forced them to lend in places where they did not want to send their money, and where neither they nor the politicians wanted to walk.

Now that this whole situation has blown up in everybody’s face, the government intervention that brought on this disaster in is supposed to save the day.

Sowell is not the first person to make this observation, though his very prominent voice is a strong confirmation.

Jul 19 2008

Wait: I thought the debate was over!

Category: Al Gore,economy,global warming — harmonicminer @ 2:08 pm

JustOneMinute: How Green Was My Scientific Consensus?

From Daily Tech:

The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science.

Wow. From the APS editors comments (emphasis added):

With this issue of Physics & Society, we kick off a debate concerning one of the main conclusions of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body which, together with Al Gore, recently won the Nobel Prize for its work concerning climate change research. There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution. Since the correctness or fallacy of that conclusion has immense implications for public policy and for the future of the biosphere, we thought it appropriate to present a debate within the pages of P&S concerning that conclusion.

UPDATE: lots more conversation about trying to stop the conversation here

Jul 14 2008

Blogging from a cell……. phone, that is

Category: Congress,economy,election 2008,energy,McCain,middle east,Obama,oil prices,politics — harmonicminer @ 8:10 pm

This is largely an experiment in blogging from a Palm Treo 700W. I don’t expect to do a lot of this.

But I couldn’t resist the temptation to blog from a rest stop in AZ w/out an aircard equipped laptop.

All of which leaves me thinking about how much has changed in a few years, and how critical it is that we give ourselves the economic breathing space to develop new energy sources over the coming decades by DRILLING NOW. Send a letter to your senator and congressional rep saying so. A PAPER LETTER.
Some of those dinosaurs pay more attention to those.

Jul 09 2008

“Unaccountable Corporations”, or “Unaccountable Government”?

Category: capitalism,corporations,corruption,economy — harmonicminer @ 12:00 pm

It’s popular on the Left to bash corporations, and, by extension, capitalism, for just about every evil under the sun. When you dig a little deeper into most corporate abuses (the really big ones, that is), you tend to find that the real problem was government, which is the only way corporations can get enough power to do really bad things. Regulations, set-asides, sweetheart deals, mandated monopolies (it isn’t a monopoly if the government gives it to you), etc., are only possible when government sticks out its hand to corporations and says, “If you pay me now, I’ll pay you later.” True capitalism, which does NOT include giveaways by government to large corporations (or anyone else) would not include things like this.

Continue reading ““Unaccountable Corporations”, or “Unaccountable Government”?”

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Jul 07 2008

Why did the housing meltdown happen NOW?

Category: economy,housing,Uncategorized — harmonicminer @ 4:03 pm

The usual suspicion, held by those of us who expect bad results from government meddling in the market, is that the housing/sub-prime meltdown is somehow a result of new factors entering the marketplace by government action. That is, the meltdown happened at this time, not 5 years ago, and the question in these matters is usually, why now? The main player with enough power to distort the market so as to create a fast moving set of bad circumstances is, you guessed it, the government. That is, why were all the sub-prime loans made recently, not ten years ago? In other words, what changed?

Steve Sailer details an important factor not considered by many, and not widely explained, or even mentioned, in the media:

Uncovering
the roots of the disastrous home mortgage bubble that popped last year
will keep economic historians busy for decades. Yet, one factor has so
far been largely overlooked: the bipartisan social engineering crusade
to drive up the rate of homeownership by handing out more mortgages to
minorities.

More than a negligible amount of the blame for the
mortgage meltdown can be traced back to multiculturalism:
government-mandated affirmative-action lending, demographic change,
illegal immigration, and the mind-numbing effects of political
correctness.

The chickens have finally come home to roost.


If you find this a provocative thesis, he has made a very convincing argument, that, like it or not, is worth a read.

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