Why vote for the lesser evil? Bush, of course, launched numerous expensive new programs and entitlements, and failed to restrain the inherent growth of Clinton’s affirmative action easy mortgage program. He encouraged the growth of that program, though to judge by the screaming of the Democrats at the time, probably slightly less than the Democrats would have done. But even if Bush had launched no new entitlements, restraining the inherent growth of Clinton’s mortgage program would have been unthinkably drastic …
Category: politics
Fixing the financial system
We are in trouble, the entire west is in trouble, in substantial part because the financial system has been leaking a lot of money. So has every other part of the governing apparatus, but the financial system is the biggest hole in the bucket. Now a lot of people are saying that this is a revolutionary election, it is about fundamental change. Thomas Sowell, a man I enormously respect, tells us this is a crossroads election. But is not. The …
Sarah Palin proposes an insignificantly tiny reform
Sarah Palin proposes an insignificantly tiny reform. The impressed response to Sarah Palin’s suggestion, the horde of blogs thrilled by her suggestion, shows how rare such suggestions are. She suggests a tiny move rightwards, while normally the extreme right wing of the Republican party merely proposes that we move leftwards at a slightly slower rate.
Winning will be another Republican disaster
Everyone on the Republican side is sucking up to the anti capitalist left – including Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnel. None have the will to reverse the policies that are ruining the economy, making the middle class poor and insecure. So, when elected, will get the blame for the consequences of these policies. Since the supposedly hard core capitalism of the Republicans will not work, obviously the solution must be more socialism. Sarbanes–Oxley, the regulatory door revolving, and Basel, have …
Elections do not matter.
The most extreme of the “right wing” candidates are proposing measures far too feeble to make a difference. Consider for example, the mortgage scandal. Where is the candidate that suggests that to fix our financial system, the bums (the entire financial sector of wall street and the regulators to which they are connected by a revolving door) need to be fired for incompetence and imprisoned for fraud? A lot of people are proposing “solutions†for the mortgage crisis – but …
The whitewash proceeds
One of the bigger criminals in the mortgage scam was Former Countrywide CEO Mozilo. The SEC has made a symbolic settlement with him and a couple of his accomplices for seventy two million dollars, not a dime of which he has to pay personally, and which would be peanuts even if he had to pay it personally. As a part of the agreement, all potentially embarrassing details associated with his crimes are sealed from nosy outsiders. What little money will …
The enormous mortgage-bond scandal
Felix Salmon has found an interesting document in the financial crisis inquiry hearings. It seems the banks not only knew that the loans they were selling to investors generally failed to meet underwriting standards, they were so careless as to have documents lying around saying so in plain English. Seems like they were a bank of morons. When I was involved in criminal conspiracies, none of us would write in plain English, and we would very rarely speak in plain …
Conspiracy
If you watch the reality show “survivorâ€, you will have noticed that in any power struggle, the winners usually have invisible connections – there is a group that conceals from outsiders that it is a group. Conspiracy tends to be a substantial part of any winning strategy. Conspiracies are therefore as common as cockroaches and crabgrass. Conspiracy theory has a deserved bad name because it tends to be invoked to explain away unwanted evidence, as for example Chomsky explaining that …
More astroturf
The one nation rally was largely AstroTurf, students bussed by their teachers, unionists bussed by their unions. If it was not hundred percent AstroTurf, it was close enough to one hundred percent that it was hard to see the difference. Jon Stewart’s “March to keep fear alive” rally is looking like it will be more of the same. On the morning of October 30th, we’re loading up a fleet of buses here at 1515 Broadway and sending as many of …
Astroturf
Casting Call: It’s a Bit Part Playing a Concerned Ordinary Citizen Shannon Love found an interesting job listing at website advertising acting jobs: Casting Notice Search Results New Casting Notice Search 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next 158 Casting Notices found | Posted Date Casting Notice Summary 10/7/2010 PRESIDENT OBAMA TOWN HALL, DC PRESIDENT OBAMA TOWN HALL, DC MTV, BET, and CMT (prods.) are casting the audience for a town hall meeting with President Obama. Shooting Oct. …