war

The strong horse

As a result of our defeat, Arab terrorists have moved into Korengal valley. Now Al Quaeda has safe haven in Korengal and their objectives will not be restricted to protecting the freedom of those in Korengal, but destroying our freedom in lands far from Korengal, murdering Jews and Americans, wherever we may be, anywhere in the world. Here is the Taliban video of their great victory in Korengal valley:

war

Losing in Afghanistan

In trying to impose the Kabul government on them, we are imposing injustice. Thus the only possible ways of winning are to rule them ourselves, colonial style, or slaughter enough of them that the Taliban decides not to tolerate anyone who goes looking for trouble with far away infidels.

economics

The crisis explained

Substantial parts of this article are pillaged wholesale from Ryan Barne’s excellent account of the crisis, and Mortgage Guarantee Insurance’s colorful account of the crisis. I steal from the best. And thanks to the commenters that pointed out numerous errors. In 2001, the Federal Reserve began cutting rates dramatically, dropping to 1% in 2003, in order to stimulate the economy. This produced a boom, and especially a housing boom, in …

economics

Bank “deregulation”

It is often claimed that the disaster was produced by deregulation.  What deregulation you may ask? Well, mostly, the dismantling of Glass-Steagall.  I don’t think dismantling Glass-Steagall caused the crisis, but it is undeniable that if Glass-Steagall had remained in effect, the crisis would have been far less severe, for Glass-Steagall restrained financial institutions from being too big to fail.  It was the biggest institutions, the institutions too big to …

economics

Mortgage Fraud, predatory borrowing:

There have been numberless highly successful prosecutions for predatory lending, even though there is no plausible evidence that predatory lending has ever happened in recent decades, nor has such evidence ever been presented in court, nor is it plausible that predatory lending could be profitable except for lenders who break the borrowers legs and arms in the event of default.

economics

Why socialism needs killing fields

Bryan Caplan asked why socialism turned out evil and proposed three competing explanations.  Volokh Conspiracy followed up, and a horde of socialists appeared out of the wood work, objecting to the premise of the question, claiming that socialism was just fine. So time to re-run my golden oldie:  Why socialism needs killing fields. 

war

In favor of war

Bad people are always willing to fight. If good people are not willing to fight, they will surrender in a succession of small steps, and bad people will rule. Without England declaring war, the Nazis would have ruled by 1942. Without Reagan encouraging a multitude of small wars, the communists would have ruled by 1990