Fomenting panic (UPDATED)
You know... I'm sick and tired of blogging about economics! I live, eat and breathe economics every day of my life here at the office, so blogging used to be my escape into other subjects, such as authoritarianism, nanny statism, gun control, etc. Unfortunately every day when I turn on the news, I hear another piece of asshattery being spewed by the ignorant, power-hungry morons this nation has put in power, and I'm compelled to write about economics yet again.
Listening to a replay of Bush's speech this morning on Fox News, as he tried to convince the nation that if we don't fork over a trillion dollars to reward idiots for making idiot decisions, we'd all wind up destitute and begging on the streets for a sandwich, made me want to hurl! The speech could be boiled down to one simple concept: "If you don't shell out your tax dollars, the nation is doomed! DOOMED, I tell ya!" The only piece of rhetoric missing was a tie-in to terrorism and national security, and I'm waiting for that!
In explaining how we got to this mess in the first place, he never ONCE placed blame where blame was due. He spoke of piss poor decisions without acknowledging the real culprit - GOVERNMENT REGULATION and lack of personal responsibility. "Many mortgage lenders approved loans for borrowers without carefully examining their ability to pay. Many borrowers took out loans larger than they could afford, assuming that they could sell or refinance their homes at a higher price later on." What he didn't tell you was that government subsidized and regulated the housing market since the inception of Fannie and Freddie, which were created to ensure that more "minorities" got a chance to own homes. They were CREATED to monkey with the free market and provide loans to people who would not have otherwise received them due to poor credit ratings or the inability to pay. They were designed by governments to engineer a Brave New World - and yes, I AM referring to Huxley's dystopia, where humans were engineered to desire specific products to ensure that manufacturers remained in business. Instead of letting the market check prospective borrowers to ensure that they were an acceptable risk, the government engineered two entities to hand out money willy nilly to practically any crackhead on the street, in order to create an "equitable" society, where everyone is somehow ENTITLED to home ownership!
Is it ANY wonder that this particular house of cards is collapsing? And is it any wonder that politicians are now scrambling to cover up the mess they have created over the decades?
McCain's solution? You guessed it - create yet ANOTHER layer of bureaucracy to regulate a problem that was caused by regulation and governmental social engineering. McCain wants to create something called a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust "To ensure that people are able to stay in their homes and safeguard the life savings of Americans by protecting our financial system and capital markets." And no, I'm not even kidding! The "Maverick" who claims to want to change things, simply wants to add another layer of what will no doubt be an expensive bureaucracy to regulate problems created by government in the first place. Oh, and did I mention that McCain's idea of a free market is to ensure that this particular new bureaucracy has the authority to PURCHASE bad loans (at taxpayer expense, of course) should piss poor financial decisions once again cause a panic (fomented, of course, by politicians wanting to gain power).
Yeah, McCain is my guy! NOT! Not even Palin can rescue this pig, no matter how much lipstick you put on it. And if you're wondering if I'm calling McCain a pig - DAMN STRAIGHT I AM! A statist pig, at that!
Bush claimed that this "crisis" is just too large, and these companies too important to the economy to be "allowed" to fail. Let me give you a clue: NO company is too important and too large to be allowed to fail. If its executives make piss poor decisions, they certainly shouldn't be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and allowed to continue running the company into the ground with poor fiscal policies while the government continues to reward them with billions in cash stolen from the taxpayers!
No. Friggin'. Way!
National emergencies, crises, panic... they're all best friends of the statist swine whom we reward with our votes election season after election season. Emergencies allow them to show "leadership," and when the market invariably corrects itself, which is something it would do with or without political interference, they can take credit and continue milking the tragedy and horror.
In his column yesterday, Dr. Walter Williams quoted H.L. Mencken. "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Sound familiar? If not, let your eyes wander up and re-read Bush's words again.
Guess what, folks! I'm going to tell you exactly what Dr. Williams and other prominent economists have said, and I'm going to back it up with expert testimony from Dr. W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. We are NOT facing a crisis!
So when I tell you that things aren't all that bad, despite the spoiled and the ignorant whining about a marked decline in their purchasing power or the fact that they can't seem to make payments for that 72-inch LCD TV their kid wanted for his room, I point you to the experts' analysis:
What are we seeing here? We're seeing that the prevalence of items that were once considered "luxury" items has spread to more households now than ever. We are purchasing more and living better than ever before. Hell, even snot-nosed kids working at McDonalds after high school are toting around cell phones! Let's gain a little perspective, shall we?
Yes, food prices have risen, as have fuel prices. This is a global phenomenon, not a national one. And, as Cox and Alm point out, we're doing much better than we were, despite these cost increases. "For example," they write, "in terms of time worked at the average pay rate, the real cost of a 12-item basket of basic foods has hardly budged. And while the work-time price of gasoline doubled in recent years, a gallon of gasoline still goes for less than 11 minutes of work. At 20 miles per gallon, an hour of work will get you 110 miles down the road; at 30 mpg, you can go 165 miles." Not an altogether bad deal, now, is it?
So despite the dire predictions of the Bush administration, the histrionics of John McCain's campaign suspension and the hysterical ramblings of the Obamacolytes about the need for more government regulation, it all comes down to the same thing: we're not doing nearly as bad as the politicians would have you believe. However, if they didn't engage in these economic and public relations acrobatics, they couldn't portray themselves as the saviors of America's society and way of life, and couldn't gain more power over you!
I encourage you to read Cox and Alm's analysis. They are Federal Reserve members, and they are telling you to get a goddamn grip! Take a look around you. Realize that we're far from crisis stage, and do a little research to find out what and who really caused this recent economic downturn. As Dr. Williams (quoting Thomas Sowell) says, "we don't look to arsonists to put out fires that they've created; neither should we look to Congress to solve the problems they've created."
Think about that before you clamor for the politicians to rescue you!
UPDATE: I'm so angry, I'm not even in the mood to be snarky. I THOUGHT I had respect for Sarah Palin. I thought she was the true straight talker of the ticket. Turns out she's just about as economically dumb (or desperate to gain power) as McCain. There's not an honest one in the bunch, is there...
Listening to a replay of Bush's speech this morning on Fox News, as he tried to convince the nation that if we don't fork over a trillion dollars to reward idiots for making idiot decisions, we'd all wind up destitute and begging on the streets for a sandwich, made me want to hurl! The speech could be boiled down to one simple concept: "If you don't shell out your tax dollars, the nation is doomed! DOOMED, I tell ya!" The only piece of rhetoric missing was a tie-in to terrorism and national security, and I'm waiting for that!
The government's top economic experts warn that without immediate action by Congress, America could slip into a financial panic, and a distressing scenario would unfold:
More banks could fail, including some in your community. The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet. Foreclosures would rise dramatically. And if you own a business or a farm, you would find it harder and more expensive to get credit. More businesses would close their doors, and millions of Americans could lose their jobs. Even if you have good credit history, it would be more difficult for you to get the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college. And ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession.
In explaining how we got to this mess in the first place, he never ONCE placed blame where blame was due. He spoke of piss poor decisions without acknowledging the real culprit - GOVERNMENT REGULATION and lack of personal responsibility. "Many mortgage lenders approved loans for borrowers without carefully examining their ability to pay. Many borrowers took out loans larger than they could afford, assuming that they could sell or refinance their homes at a higher price later on." What he didn't tell you was that government subsidized and regulated the housing market since the inception of Fannie and Freddie, which were created to ensure that more "minorities" got a chance to own homes. They were CREATED to monkey with the free market and provide loans to people who would not have otherwise received them due to poor credit ratings or the inability to pay. They were designed by governments to engineer a Brave New World - and yes, I AM referring to Huxley's dystopia, where humans were engineered to desire specific products to ensure that manufacturers remained in business. Instead of letting the market check prospective borrowers to ensure that they were an acceptable risk, the government engineered two entities to hand out money willy nilly to practically any crackhead on the street, in order to create an "equitable" society, where everyone is somehow ENTITLED to home ownership!
Is it ANY wonder that this particular house of cards is collapsing? And is it any wonder that politicians are now scrambling to cover up the mess they have created over the decades?
McCain's solution? You guessed it - create yet ANOTHER layer of bureaucracy to regulate a problem that was caused by regulation and governmental social engineering. McCain wants to create something called a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust "To ensure that people are able to stay in their homes and safeguard the life savings of Americans by protecting our financial system and capital markets." And no, I'm not even kidding! The "Maverick" who claims to want to change things, simply wants to add another layer of what will no doubt be an expensive bureaucracy to regulate problems created by government in the first place. Oh, and did I mention that McCain's idea of a free market is to ensure that this particular new bureaucracy has the authority to PURCHASE bad loans (at taxpayer expense, of course) should piss poor financial decisions once again cause a panic (fomented, of course, by politicians wanting to gain power).
Yeah, McCain is my guy! NOT! Not even Palin can rescue this pig, no matter how much lipstick you put on it. And if you're wondering if I'm calling McCain a pig - DAMN STRAIGHT I AM! A statist pig, at that!
Bush claimed that this "crisis" is just too large, and these companies too important to the economy to be "allowed" to fail. Let me give you a clue: NO company is too important and too large to be allowed to fail. If its executives make piss poor decisions, they certainly shouldn't be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and allowed to continue running the company into the ground with poor fiscal policies while the government continues to reward them with billions in cash stolen from the taxpayers!
No. Friggin'. Way!
National emergencies, crises, panic... they're all best friends of the statist swine whom we reward with our votes election season after election season. Emergencies allow them to show "leadership," and when the market invariably corrects itself, which is something it would do with or without political interference, they can take credit and continue milking the tragedy and horror.
In his column yesterday, Dr. Walter Williams quoted H.L. Mencken. "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Sound familiar? If not, let your eyes wander up and re-read Bush's words again.
Guess what, folks! I'm going to tell you exactly what Dr. Williams and other prominent economists have said, and I'm going to back it up with expert testimony from Dr. W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. We are NOT facing a crisis!
Yes, we have been experiencing a rough economic period. Is it a recession? No. Despite this rough patch, we're still experiencing GDP growth, and our unemployment is at a very respectable 6 percent. But here's the problem. If the politicians don't foment panic, the sheep won't clamor for the nanny state to lead them out of this so-called "crisis." And if the sheep don't baa for the nanny state, the politicians can't get elected.The American economy is in a rough patch. But the long-term trends are good—and there is a price to economic pessimism.When a presidential election year collides with iffy economic times, the public’s view of the U.S. economy turns gloomy. Perspective shrinks in favor of short-term assessments that focus on such unpleasant realities as falling job counts, sluggish GDP growth, uncertain incomes, rising oil and food prices, subprime mortgage woes, and wobbly financial markets.
So when I tell you that things aren't all that bad, despite the spoiled and the ignorant whining about a marked decline in their purchasing power or the fact that they can't seem to make payments for that 72-inch LCD TV their kid wanted for his room, I point you to the experts' analysis:
Income and wages are often used as gauges of progress, but consumption is the best measure of rising living standards. Products that began as luxuries only the rich could afford in time came within the means of just about all U.S. households In previous generations, telephones, cars, electricity, household appliances, and televisions made life better for the average American. In our times it has been computers, cell phones, Internet access, VCR/ DVD players, digital cameras, and more.
What are we seeing here? We're seeing that the prevalence of items that were once considered "luxury" items has spread to more households now than ever. We are purchasing more and living better than ever before. Hell, even snot-nosed kids working at McDonalds after high school are toting around cell phones! Let's gain a little perspective, shall we?
Yes, food prices have risen, as have fuel prices. This is a global phenomenon, not a national one. And, as Cox and Alm point out, we're doing much better than we were, despite these cost increases. "For example," they write, "in terms of time worked at the average pay rate, the real cost of a 12-item basket of basic foods has hardly budged. And while the work-time price of gasoline doubled in recent years, a gallon of gasoline still goes for less than 11 minutes of work. At 20 miles per gallon, an hour of work will get you 110 miles down the road; at 30 mpg, you can go 165 miles." Not an altogether bad deal, now, is it?
So despite the dire predictions of the Bush administration, the histrionics of John McCain's campaign suspension and the hysterical ramblings of the Obamacolytes about the need for more government regulation, it all comes down to the same thing: we're not doing nearly as bad as the politicians would have you believe. However, if they didn't engage in these economic and public relations acrobatics, they couldn't portray themselves as the saviors of America's society and way of life, and couldn't gain more power over you!
I encourage you to read Cox and Alm's analysis. They are Federal Reserve members, and they are telling you to get a goddamn grip! Take a look around you. Realize that we're far from crisis stage, and do a little research to find out what and who really caused this recent economic downturn. As Dr. Williams (quoting Thomas Sowell) says, "we don't look to arsonists to put out fires that they've created; neither should we look to Congress to solve the problems they've created."
Think about that before you clamor for the politicians to rescue you!
UPDATE: I'm so angry, I'm not even in the mood to be snarky. I THOUGHT I had respect for Sarah Palin. I thought she was the true straight talker of the ticket. Turns out she's just about as economically dumb (or desperate to gain power) as McCain. There's not an honest one in the bunch, is there...
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Wednesday that the United States could be headed for another Great Depression if Congress doesn't act on the financial crisis.
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10/6/2008 11:25 AM
THELIBERTYZONE.COM wrote:
Remember a few weeks ago when I blogged about the need for politicians to foment panic in order to retain power? Scaring the populace into giving authority to the power-hungry is the oldest trick in the book. National emergencies, crises, panic... they're all best friends of the statist swine whom we reward with our votes election season after election season. Emergencies allow them to show "leadership," and when the market invariably corrects itself, which is something it would do with or without political interference, they can take credit and continue milking the tragedy and horror.Well, Michelle Malkin ...
Thanks for this piece. You are correct. But nobody in the Congress, including McCain and Obama, has the guts or the wits to oppose the planned disaster. They claim that moving the s**t from Wall Street to Main Street will make both streets better off. They think we are stupid. Are they right?
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Are they right, Wendell? We have a more than 90 percent incumbency rate. What do you think?
By the way, you accidentally double posted. I removed one for you.
Nicki
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Hey did you know that Fannie and Freddie are huge contributors to Obamah?
Wendell, in some respects they are right. Some of us aren't that dumb. However, many really don't care enough to do the type of research and commit the time to digging and getting at the truth. Then there is the whole issue of voters (that's us) holding these assclowns responsible. My reading indicates that the economy is really pretty healthy. In fact, I saw an interview with Bill Gates last night in which he stated the overall, our economy is still in really good shape. This whole issue just centers around one segement that needed some cleaning out to rid itself of stupidity and greed.
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Yeah, I know about the contributions, but in the end, it really doesn't matter. Both candidates, and our sitting Commander-in-Chief are pulling histrionic bullshit trying to convince the voters that there's a crisis at hand, when there is no such thing!
And then there's the problem of voter apathy. Those may know what's going on couldn't be bothered to vote, and those left just trudge to the polls and vote for the name that sounds most familiar.
Yep, we're screwed.
SGM - you're officially invited to my island... as soon as I buy it.
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VDH has a typically good op-ed at Townhall.com in which he lays some of the blame for this debacle at the feet of John Q. Public. He has a point: when people sold their houses for tens of thousands more than they'd paid for them a few years before, they didn't complain. When our 401k and IRA accounts were swelling at 10% per year, we didn't complain. We enjoyed the good times while they lasted, and now we're trying to figure out what to do now that the party is over.
Much the same may be said about creeping socialism. It's not necessarily that Americans - or even our politicians - are closet socialists (though some undoubtedly are). Rather, we have a belief, pounded into us by a century of progressivism, New Deal, and Great Society, that we CAN control the economy through government action. We believe that we CAN ameliorate financial downturns and prolong boom periods. Hell, Alan Greenspan has been a bit of a hero over the past decade or so due to his perceived deft handling of monetary policy. Given our belief that we can control the economy, is it so strange that people demand that we DO try to control it?
The argument for most people isn't whether or not the government should intervene: the question is merely one of the extent.
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Nicki, I have absolutely no quarrel with what you have posted, or with most of the comments. However, I fear you all are missing the really important part. The hidden agenda that has been creeping up on our society for nearly fifty years.
Wait a minute, this is not to disparage what you have said. You are correct, but, isn't there always a but? But, this is not a matter of ignorance of economics, or deficient morality in our representatives and leaders. This is exactly according to a long term plan.
Let me start by asking all of you this question. Do any of you know the real difference between communism and fascism?
If you do, you realize that under communism the state takes ownership of all industry. Due to the incompetence of political operatives at anything other than kissing ass, economies shrivel and die. In large part because of edicts, target goals, quotas, etc. established by higher political operatives who are even further removed from anything resembling competence. Hence communism is doomed to failure.
Fascism, on the other hand, works. It can be quite productive and profitable. This is accomplished by a government/industry partnership. In this partnership the state protects industry and industry supports the state in a symbiotic relationship that makes each stronger and more efficient. That strength is robbed from the individual citizen by removing his choices of where to do business, who to spend his money with, where he can obtain credit, where he can seek employment, etc.
Before that symbiotic relationship between government and industry can be established, government must first create a crisis that allows them to gain an ownership stake in industry. This is much easier to do if the citizenry favors such an ownership postion for government, hence the manufactured series of crises that innure the public to state involvement in private enterprise.
When accepted as normal and natural the next step is to forego the temporary partnerships and make them permanent. We are just about at that point.
In a fascist state governmnent and business are so intertwined that it is often difficult to determine who is dominant. Historically, it is the party in command of the military, but it is often a close run thing,as each side of the partnership can do great harm to the other. It is much more profitable to for both to relegate the citizen to the status of livestock or other disposable assets.
For the public, it may as well be communism, except the trains run on time.
I have watched this trend for decades in my country. Paradoxically, the great majority of us have feared the advent of communism, but that has never been our danger, only our decoy.
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I think a large part of this problem stems from the fact that people (A)want to be taken care of, in other words security and (
This is why we elect the same people to office even when they screw us time and time again.
This is why people refuse to see the efficacy of free markets, that is when they are truly free as opposed to what we have now in the U.S.
This is why people refuse to acknowledge that forcefully taking the fruit of someone else's labor is tantamount to slavery, even if we do it to give others health care or ourselves the fiction of a secure retirement.
It's why many people I respect can't see the hypocrisy of claiming liberty of all then forcing their moral beliefs on others.
It's a shame people refuse to refute their own belief systems when facts are apparent but the truth is we tend as a whole to act more from emotion then fact.
It's a shame most people will vote from emotion otherwise incumbency would not be nearly so high.
Oh well stoke their fires and you'll never go broke appealing to the lowest common denominator.
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I remember Y2K and I remember all the Weapons of MASS Destruction in Iraq. And I have no money to throw into saving Wall Street - where I have part of my future invested - Gosh, if it disappears I will have to go to work today, which is what I intend if everything is wonderful, still clingin' to my newest rifle, Bible and lady. But they are going to make me pay for it because they are my(?) representatives.
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