"Gordon hopes that out of the current crisis we get a better system of well-capitalized banks regulated by a more unified government supervisory apparatus. My view is that the panic will pass and long-run American prosperity will continue. This may seem Pollyannaish right now, but I have great confidence that our free-market economy will come out better, with a strong financial underpinning, when the storm finally ends.
Paradoxical as it may be, strong government actions to stabilize banking are necessary to preserve the free-market-economy system. No free-market economy can survive without stable banking and credit. Without readily available credit, entrepreneurs can’t put their new ideas into commercial practice. And without that vital innovation, economic growth suffers."
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Perspective always helps...
The Light at the End of the Crisis
Don't doubt it...
The Coming Obama Thugocracy
"In September, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were “false.” I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02. Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis. Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.
These attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals. Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the “fairness doctrine” on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view. The motive was plain: to shut down the one conservative-leaning communications medium, talk radio. Liberal talk-show hosts have mostly failed to draw audiences, and many liberals can’t abide having citizens hear contrary views."
Friday, October 10, 2008
I didn't think it was funny either...
Mark Hemingway
What’s really going on here is that Sarah Silverman has been enlisted to put a smiley face on a dishonest effort to swing the Jewish vote for Obama."
Ain't that the truth....
The Best Laid Plans
"Plans, shmans.
Under Barack Obama’s plan, 95 percent of Americans will get a tax cut. John McCain’s plan will deliver portable, affordable health care to all Americans. Obama has a plan to win in Afghanistan. So does McCain. There are plans for how to implement plans and plans for how some plans will be replaced by other plans. Go through their respective Web sites and you’ll fine more plans than at the hall of records."
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Only in NY...
Wall Street Really Needs Relief:"It has not been a good time on Wall Street, and now it's gotten even lower. Reader Adalis writes, 'Someone spray painted the Wall St. Bulls balls blue. It was gone in a few hours"
Try and remember whom you are dealing with...
Iran’s War
"At dawn on October 23, Geraghty writes, “at the foot of the Beirut Memorial, nestled in the pines of North Carolina, families, veterans, and friends will gather to pay tribute to those who ‘Came in Peace’ on this, the 25th anniversary. Later, a more formal ceremony will include military music, pageantry, and speeches commemorating the legacy of the peacekeepers who paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
On the same day, Geraghty observes, at “the Iranian Behesht-E-Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran, there will be a ceremony at a monument erected in 2004 to commemorate the Beirut suicide bombers. In attendance will likely be some dressed as suicide bombers, chanting the standard ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel.’”
The good news, if there is any, is that Mughniyeh will not be joining the festivities this year. In February, he was killed by a car bomb in Damascus. No individual, group, or government has claimed responsibility."
To each by their needs.....
Belmont Club
An overwhelming desire to live “just so” seems to have infected Western civilization. A woman who immigrated to Britain from Afghanistan has been given £170,000 a year to live in £1.2m house,” according to the UK Telegraph, because the government regulations require that a family with seven children must live in a five bedroom house. And only house available in the neighborhood with five bedrooms was a mansion.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Via Instapundit...
BRENDAN LOY ON TONIGHT'S DEBATE: "This is presidential politics in America -- fundamentally unserious, at a time of grave peril for the nation." And it's hard to argue with this: "It isn't just that McCain and Obama are flawed candidates; it's that there aren't really any better alternatives. Who would you rather see up there? Hillary Clinton? Mitt Romney? John Edwards? Mike Huckabee? Joe Biden? Sarah Palin? Nancy Pelosi? John Boehner? Harry Reid? Mitch McConnell? George W. Bush? John Kerry? Dick Cheney? Al Gore? Please. Our political class is totally failing us, almost as much as we're failing ourselves."
Yes, the political class isn't attracting the best talent in the nation. It's not even attracting the second-best.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Bingo.....
Megan McArdle:
"I have no doubt that this will hurt McCain. But here's the problem with it: John McCain regrets the Keating 5. Indeed, you could say that his entire subsequent career has been one long apology for it. Repudiating what happened has formed the cornerstone of his current career; in a very real sense, it was the father of McCain-Feingold.
Now, I don't like the lessons that McCain seems to have taken from his extremely minor connection to the events of the S&L crisis (even Democrats from the time seem to admit that he was basically just thrown to the wolves to make it look like the Democrats weren't the only ones who had screwed the pooch). And in fact I think that the Ayers connection is too tenuous to be interesting. But there is a nugget of a real critique at its heart, which is that the academic culture Obama belongs to thinks its just fine to be a former active terrorist who has refused to renounce support for the violence committed by his group; that culture has rewarded Bill Ayers with prestigious employment and other positions in a way that it wouldn't dream of rewarding a similarly 'idealistic' abortion clinic bomber. I know it's hard to imagine, but if you're conservative, that seems like a real problem."
Getting "nailed" by Gay Patriot....
Can Barney Frank Acknowledge his Mistakes?
Despite being one of the major players on the House Banking Committee, Frank did little in his tenure to push for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To be sure, he did get his reform bill through last year, but he’d been blocking reform going back at least to 1992, one year after he moved in with a Fannnie Mae executive.
Last Refuge of a Scoundrel
Power Line
"Let's be honest: if Barney Frank had a shred of integrity, he would resign. And no Democrat is any position to weigh in against anger in politics."
You can take to man out of Chicago, BUT....
Hypocrisy Doesn’t Begin To Describe It:
"But this is true of Obama’s entire circle of comrades and associates, of course. He didn’t know who they were, or wasn’t all that close to them, or never happened to be there when their life-long habit of excoriating evil America was demonstrated. It is all of a piece.
But more than hypocrisy is at work here. It is not just far Left, American-hating radicals he now disowns. You get the sense that he believes everyone can be played. Rashid Khalidi can believe that Obama finds no one suffers more than the Palestinians. Jews can buy that he was moved by the Holocaust from a summer camp experience. Voters in his Congressional race in 1990 can be told that there is no difference ideologically between him and 100% ADA-rated Bobby Rush, but the rest of the state in 2004 (and eventually the country) can buy that he’s a post-partisan reformer. Terrorists come to believe he shares their scorn for America, but Iowa voters hear him talk about his appreciation that only in America could his story have happened. Primary voters in Ohio are coddled with protectionist promises - and then privately scorned while he is talking to San Fransciso liberal donors."
Monday, October 6, 2008
Radley lays it on the line....
Here Are My Biases
Obama is a seriously flawed candidate. And yes, Obama united with a Democratic Congress is a scary proposition. But on the issues I cover and that I think are most important this election, Obama is clearly the better choice. Will he disappoint, even on those issues? Almost assuredly.
A conversation nobody wants to have....
Belmont Club
"M R Venkatesh at Rediff asks whether China’s accumulation of 2 triillion in US dollar reserves has an ominious purpose and whether that card is about to be played. The close linkage between economic and foreign security has rarely been subjected to close scrutiny. The recent financial crisis raises the question whether appointing Barney Frank to his position isn’t at least as important as appointing a General Petraeus to his."
Let's do it...
Rasmussen
59% Would Vote to Replace Entire Congress
Congress was front and center in the national news last week and the American people were far from impressed. If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 17% would vote to keep the current legislators in office."
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Beware...
UC Irvine Invites Muslim Brotherhood Leader to Speak:
"It’s an odd form of democracy they want—the freedom to vote in a regime that would end voting forever."
Look ahead - not back
The End Of An Era:
"If the last two weeks have taught us anything, it is that Washington is not going to get fixed, no matter who is elected. The world is moving on. Seven hundred thousand people are joining, via the Web, the Global Economy each day. If the prognosticators are right, we are now only 1000 days or so from crucial turning points in the world economy (the next billion consumers, universal wireless broadband, nanotech, thinking machines, etc.)"
