I have been seeing a lot of references to “a speculative bubble†Nope. They were not speculating. The crisis consisted of people, mostly members of protected minorities with nothing to lose, buying houses they could not afford with borrowed money in the expectation that they would go up, and if they went down, it was the bank’s problem. So the people who bought houses were taking no risk, since mostly they bought them with 100% loans, had no credit rating …
Racefail 09 explained
Constantinople drew my attention to “This way lies fascism†which explains the conflict of which Racefail 09 is part. The left claims authority to convict people for thought crimes committed in other people’s dreams. The hearer can find an offensive meaning without concern for authorial intent, and the author is guilty regardless of his intended meaning. This leads to conflict, Racefail 09 being part of that conflict. Under Racefail 09 rules, you have no obligation to understand other people’s intended …
The problems with Laissez Faire sexuality
In traditional society, women were strongly encouraged to refrain from sex before marriage, and marry responsible men with good jobs who were able and willing to support a family. Today, women are encouraged to follow their hormones, which tends to result in them have offspring with a long succession of sexy males who disappear, often into jail or dying violently, and who often rough them up and steal their money before leaving. Bryan Caplan correctly argues that the non traditional …
Why Racefail 09 hates John Scalzi
John Scalzi said he wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with the racefail 09 debate, and would ban anyone who brings the debate to his blog. This non statement, and non communication, caused intense outrage, resulting in massive attack on John Scalzi, since all good leftists have to enthusiastically agree with the correct line, and failure to join the chant about the badness of various people under attack is itself a great and terrible sin. One of the posters …
Racefail 09
Hear the sound of the left ceasing to be the smart party, and becoming the stupid party: On the Livejournal science fiction blogs, there is, or recently was, a passionate debate called Racefail 09, wherein lots of bloggers accuse other bloggers of being racists. Those accused of racism are those that are very left wing and very politically correct – they are those least likely to be guilty, most likely to be devastated by the accusation, and least able to …
The crisis has barely begun
“Naked capitalism†explains what has happened, and observes that the Bush-Obama policies caused it, are causing it, and are likely to cause a lot more of it. Government guarantees will be abused – and the broader the guarantees, and more chaotic the situation the more they will be abused. The solution is that existing guarantees must be reduced, and existing government initiatives curtailed or at least allowed to expire.  Extensive state intervention is extremely difficult to do right, easy to …
Obama plans massive permanent reduction in US standard of living
Under current USA nuclear regulations, you cannot launch any new nuclear projects unless the waste is going to go to a federally approved repository, and Obama has announced there is not going to be a federally approved repository. Hence no new nuclear projects. Obama has also announced that carbon emissions are going to be reduced sometime soon, though not yet. If less carbon, then less coal and oil. If no new nukes, and less coal and oil, then less energy …
The Stimulus bill
Bryan Caplan wonders why Brad Delong cannot comprehend those who doubt the effectiveness of the stimulus bill. Assume that creating value is easy, any brainless fool can do it, even the brainless fools at Washington Mutual. It is then immediately obvious that the government can make everything lovely by printing money and giving it to the morally worthy. Are car production lines shut down while unemployed workers idle? Just print money and give it to bureaucrats in government schools, or …
Warren Buffet explains how to lose a trillion
Warren Buffet explained how to lose a few trillion, here and there. Well managed companies, like Warren Buffet’s, don’t get government guarantees. Badly managed companies with good political connections get government guarantees. So naturally all the capital floods to companies with a track record of losing it.This is capitalism in reverse. For capitalism to work, the people who are good at managing stuff have to wind up in charge of stuff, and the people who are bad at managing stuff …
The degeneration of Britain
Three facts that have recently been in the news: The reversal of the Flynn effect. The British youth of today really are dumber. Violence, drunkenness, laddie, and home invasion burglaries, where drunken lads smash into someone’s house and terrify the inhabitants. The British crime rate is about double the US crime rate, and threatens everyone, whereas the US crime rate is very low outside areas with large numbers of protected minorities. Cowardice and surrender by the British army – for …