Tuesday, December 23. 2008
Hugh Hewitt is wrong about this. He seems to want the government (ie, us) to somehow subsidize a renewal of the unhealthy and artificial housing bubble. Perhaps people don't see the bubble as having been a government-created market distortion, but instead see the bursting of the bubble as the problem? Let's let the market determine housing values - as it is doing.
Do the Hokey Pokey and go to jail in Scotland. Well, it is a dangerous song. Sex in the Middle School stairwell? Dang, I grew up too early. There is no hangover cure. Teen morality today. Chavez: Stop buying what you want The death of Deep Throat and the crisis of journalism. Stratfor. The case that Woodward and Bernstein were Felt's tools. I didn't know Bison had beef cattle genes. If they interbreed, does that mean they're races of the same species? (h/t, Jungle Trader) My Republican Party was the town party girl. Am Thinker  From News You Can Lose in The New Yorker:
Newspaper readership has been slowly dropping for decades—as a percentage of the population, newspapers have about half as many subscribers as they did four decades ago—but the Internet helped turn that slow puncture into a blowout. Papers now seem to be the equivalent of the railroads at the start of the twentieth century—a once-great business eclipsed by a new technology. In a famous 1960 article called “Marketing Myopia,” Theodore Levitt held up the railroads as a quintessential example of companies’ inability to adapt to changing circumstances. Levitt argued that a focus on products rather than on customers led the companies to misunderstand their core business. Had the bosses realized that they were in the transportation business, rather than the railroad business, they could have moved into trucking and air transport, rather than letting other companies dominate. By extension, many argue that if newspapers had understood they were in the information business, rather than the print business, they would have adapted more quickly and more successfully to the Net.
The above was linked at a Buzzmachine piece about the decline of newspapers, Downbeat. Nyquist, with a parade of stupidities. One quote: The president indirectly proposes that the government knows better than the market. He is saying that the government knows how to save the market, namely, by violating the market. By way of analogy, this amounts to advocating promiscuity as a means for preserving virginity. It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. “We’re in a huge recession,” said Bush, “but I don’t want to make it even worse.” But President Bush has made it worse by throwing good money after bad, by redistributing the market’s losses, pronouncing in favor of moral hazard, and by making massive decisions for the market. What comes next is hyperinflation. According to a senior economist at Decision Economics, quoted in an AFP news story titled “Fed cuts rate to virtually zero, will expand stimulus moves,” the government is “pulling every lever and pulling them hard. They are going to print money until they get a reaction from the economy.” Well, the reaction has begun. The good faith and credit of the United States is over. Who is going to loan money to a government determined to inflate? Consider the parade of stupidities we’ve seen since the crisis began in September: the bailout of Wall Street, the bailout of the banking system, and now the bailout of Detroit. This is what the president means when he says, “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” So the solution is to spend trillions to save trillions. But nothing is saved!
White House rightly slams the NYT for attempting to blame Bush for the housing bubble. Related: Quoted at Belmont: ...in an attempt to increase home ownership, particularly by minorities and the less affluent, virtually every branch of the government undertook an attack on underwriting standards starting in the early 1990s. Regulators, academic specialists, GSEs, and housing activists universally praised the decline in mortgage-underwriting standards as an “innovation” in mortgage lending. This weakening of underwriting standards succeeded in increasing home ownership and also the price of housing, helping to lead to a housing price bubble. The price bubble, along with relaxed lending standards, allowed speculators to purchase homes without putting their own money at risk.
Sowell reminds us once again about the facts on the Great Depression. People love the comforting myth that government helped. Myth or scam? Green jobs, at Coyote LaShawn wants this book: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism Photo via Theo, who knows how to celebrate Christmas
Monday, December 22. 2008
Sarbanes-Oxley, stock options, etc. WSJ. An important article for anybody who wants to create or produce anything. I have no doubt that the Washington power elite wants to keep us all poor and stupid. And dependant upon them. Their problem is that we are smarter than they are. We the people know how to make stuff happen, and all they do is take our stuff to try to get relected to their phony, no-heavy-lifting sinecures with their amazing benefits. "Don't follow leaders, watch your parking meters." I have always been impressed by doers and makers, but never impressed by political "leaders." Not even once. Including Reagan, who I liked very much.
 From recent news reports: 11,700 years ago, at the close of the last ice age, a time when fully modern humans inhabited most of the globe, Greenland experienced a 22-degree temperature spike in a matter of years. That's the equivalent of changing from New York's climate to Miami's, and on a human timescale.
Meanwhile, climate alarmists eagerly embraced the news that 55 million years ago, Greenland and barren Arctic islands such as Spitzbergen enjoyed year-round temperatures of 74 F - equivalent to West Palm Beach - pointing to it as evidence of the dangers of high CO2 levels. There's only one problem: at that time, temperatures in the tropics were the same or even slightly cooler than today, making for a balmy, paradise-like world devoid of freezing or baking temperatures. At the time, parts of what is now Colombia had an annual average as low as 78 f or less, meaning that CO2 is unlikely to have been the warming agent at work (at the time, CO2 was at approximately 3,500 ppm, vs. 380 ppm today. Mammals apparently flourished like never before or since in this climate). Scientists guess at changing air circulation patterns and ocean currents to explain these phenomena, but the fact is we simply have no idea what was responsible.
 Those are today's temps via Surber.
Skeptical about the warming crisis? Then sign the Big List for posterity. Posterity will thank you.
 Wizbang:
The unspoken truth is that if Charlie Rangel was a white, conservative Republican his Democrat colleagues and the usual suspects in the media would not be satisfied with his resignation from Ways and Means, nor his apology. They would demand his prosecution for alleged felonies.
Britain has lost the stomach for a fight. The emotion of "elevation" Walter Dellinger: The juicy bits of the Constitution (h/t Joe Carter) Obama's pair of Lysenkos 100% of top world terrorists are Presbyterians The ongoing battle for Minnesota. WSJ Dr. Bob on assisted suicide The housing bubble, from Cafe Hayek: There are four factors that helped drive up the price of real estate in the United States and create the housing bubble: The GSEs (Fannie and Freddie), the Community Reinvestment Act, expansionary monetary policy starting in 2001, and the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act that for the first time let people avoid capital gains on home price appreciation without having to rollover the gains into a bigger house.
On addiction, via Dr X: The problem is that the very concept of addiction is controversial and philosophically problematic, touching on great questions of free will, emotion, and even spirituality. Most of this is beyond the scope of this post (and, it must be said, beyond the scope of this amateur philosopher), but it seems safe to say that addictions are never entirely chosen nor entirely determined. They always hover somewhere in between, and it's hard to get one's mind around that (sort of like the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics on a psychological level, perhaps...
Image is this year's Christmas Card from our friend, artist Elissa Gore
Sunday, December 21. 2008
Christmas shopping: All I bought yesterday was some wine. Nothing expensive, but I hate to show up at places with nothing in my hand. And it's snowing hard again this morning. Snow in the city is a lovely thing, and all gals look good in long black wool coats and furry hats.  Winter Solstice at Newgrange.
Christmastime is mating season? No. Every day is mating time. Not my forefathers' Cape Cod. Who let these people over my bridge? Mugabe holds his annual 124 cow feast. Pre-industrial CO2 levels were same as now. How come nobody says so? The war against Rush begins. He's too popular, too smart, and too amusing. Kristof: We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates
Hilarious. Steyn on Bailoutistan Hilarious. Terrapass at Powerline. A greenie scam if there ever was one. Government TARP funds used to pay bonuses? I have a problem with that. Wierd medical story du jour China after 30 years of reform. Forbes The NYT loves the soda tax. How about a chai latte tax for them? Maybe a kiche tax too. Ace prediction: No complaints about Obama deficits This is like many of our towns in the USA too: Recycling stuff goes to landfills. No market for garbage. If there were, they'd pay us for it. The '97 tax break on home capital gains, and the housing bubble. Good point at Conspiracy re card check. I wonder this: If 51% wanted to get rid of a union, could they? I know the law is the law, but should you go to jail for dirty pictures? How different is that from going to jail for having dirty thoughts? What governments do - NYS: “Taxing the wealthy is probably going to be part of the solution if the deficit gets any worse, and all indications are that it probably will,” Mr. Paterson said during a wide-ranging conversation late last week. “If the deficit starts to grow again, then we’re out of moves. I’ve cut as much as I could.” The governor said that increasing taxes on the rich should be “the last place you want to go, because it automatically kicks in less job creation and leads to people leaving the state, but that risk could become a reality if we have further deficit problems.” With the state’s financial outlook growing bleaker, a sense that a tax increase for the wealthy is inevitable seems to be taking hold among lawmakers in Albany, where many Democrats have expressed support for such a step.
"I cut as much as I could." BS. "Don't tax you. Don't tax me. Tax the guy behind the tree." That is how states commit suicide - by punishing the earners. NYS is one giant political boondoggle. NYC is a good place to visit, but working here is like serfdom to the city and state unless you are so rich that you don't care. Image via Theo
Saturday, December 20. 2008
 Humans caused global warming 8000 years ago.
Bulls and Beavers: Outdoor Personals Ford refuses gummint aid. Chrysler (owned by a hedge fund) and GM accept the cash. Related: Excellent summary of how Detroit went wrong by Megan Caroline Kennedy often doesn't bother to vote (h/t, Anchoress) Related, from Capt. Capitalism: A perpetuity of incompetent, spoiled brats who view public service as a cute little hobby and a means by avoiding work at all costs, and the economic mess we've gotten ourselves into.
Never do a good deed: CA OKs suing good samaritans Home ownership. A quote from Boudreaux: Ever-increasing home ownership is not the American dream. It's the dream of the National Association of Home Builders.
Quoted at Villainous: "I was in my own little world,"' the young corporal said. '"I wasn't even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target."'
Mama Government treats citizens like small children. Hawkins Hitchins on Rick Warren. Ridiculous
Friday, December 19. 2008
Laugh or cry? The worst 2008 quotes from the NYT (but there's still time for more...). h/t, Right Wing Prof. I don't know how we missed that site, TimesWatch. Gotta add them to our Media roll. So many sites, so little time.
 Remembering Wallace Nutting, antiquarian (Photo is a Nutting chest of drawers)
Remembering Paul Weyrich. Many posts at NRO 1897: Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus Getting stoned with Barry O Czechs won't fly the EU flag Dems are the new ethics story. WSJ Eau de Meat, for Men Slightly disappointed in Kathleen Parker Viable by March? Who's kidding who? I pay for this because I didn't buy their cars?
Now we understand! From the WSJ “Best of the Web”:
“Someone at FiredOglake.com calls Warren an "eliminationist hate preacher." We didn't know what this meant, so we followed the links and ended up with this definition: “’That's how eliminationist hate works, regardless of its target: Its aim is to threaten and intimidate not merely the immediate target, but anyone who might think of speaking out on their behalf. This cuts the target off from the community support it might normally enjoy and leaves them feeling even more isolated.’
“What, really, is eliminationism? “It's a fairly self-explanatory term: it describes a kind of politics and culture that shuns dialogue and the democratic exchange of ideas for the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through complete suppression, exile and ejection, or extermination.”
What we have just been given is a secret buzzword for the Left’s entire strategy for the last four years. Doesn’t that perfectly describe what the Left has been using in place of reasoned debate? The leftist writer, by using their code word to attack Warren, has given the rest of us the key to, or a new understanding of, the deliberate intent behind what we thought was the “Bush Derangement Syndrome”. We are not surprised.
Thursday, December 18. 2008
A friend sent this to the NYT today: To the Editor:
"G.M. has said that it desperately needs $4 billion to survive through the end of this month .... Chrysler has said that $4 billion would allow it to avoid bankruptcy and stay in business through the quarter." NYTimes Dec 18.
I wish to update the US citizen on my request for $4 billion dollars to survive through the end of this month. I was deeply disappointed that the Congress did not even consider my request and look forward to discussing this with Secretary Paulson.
I too have been for years not selling cars. (In fact, for my entire adult life, I have not sold a car.) In order for me to survive, $4 billion will be fine. I live austerely, so unlike GM, Chrysler or Ford, I am not pressing the US citizen to shell out dough by the end of the month (although a couple million will take care of Christmas gifts for my children, my ex-wives, several girlfriends and my dog, Sam, who must chew a leather shoe, as I have run out of money to buy a chewy-toy for him. OK. A half million.)
I will soon be hiring a soon-to-be-unemployed GM Spokesman who will attest that he still has faith in me as CEO, as he did for the current CEO of GM. Further, I promise the US taxpayer that, like Harley Davidson, I will never again ask for financial support from the US government after the first $ 4 billion. I also will not shelter my money in offshore accounts. As for my private jet, unlike GM, I have never owned one. I do own a Prius, which I am willing to drive to Washington, like the auto exec's did on their second beggary trip, to formally request these funds ... or just to collect the check.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly to the taxpayer, whom I believe will shell out a few million for an honest fellow taxpayer who doesnt' sell cars.
I also will not charge people for not flying in planes.
Respectfully,
Wednesday, December 17. 2008
Once again, posting early because busy in the AM. Outside of the finance biz, lots of work in NYC this year. Just a photo suggestion for the fellas: If you have any $ left, and she is kind and gentle, worries about your contentment, speaks soothingly to you after a tough day, and takes good care of you, why not give her some diamonds?  Fairfield, CT: What sort of dumb town would put 14% of their pension assets into a single hedge fund? And to read about that Orthopedic group is pathetic. Even docs should know better than that. Are these guys going to do hips and knees into their 90s?
The return of the Old Left. Oh man, not again. How many times can they crawl out of their grave? When the economy is good, taxes go up because supposedly people can afford them. When the economy is poor, taxes go up to cover govt deficits. See NYS for example. But people can't raise their incomes to cover them, can they? Where's the $ supposed to come from? For shame! Illegally cutting down trees in a nature preserve. Are they legally culpable? Secular decline of the semiconductor biz, plus the Kondratieff Wave Theory Iowahawk: My Five-Year Plan Failed Rangel Watch: Yet another Rangel scam. Will it ever end? No doubt there wil be more to come. It's the Rangel Circus. Obama talks good, doesn't he? Let's watch the grammar, O, or we'll set a bad example. Only for those without Econ 101. Coyote Watching TV ruins womens' love lives. Want perfection? Try a different planet. Nude models on strike in Paris. Some strikes are good. Via Insty, this is both smart and wise (a rare combo): MATTHEW KAMINSKI: Don’t expect global Obamania to last. “One hates to spoil a good party, but here’s a bet that’s far safer these days than a U.S. Treasury bill: Even with Obama at the White House, they won’t really like us any more than before. It’s not because America’s not a special country, a City upon a Hill, from the Pilgrims to Obama, the Blagojevich couple and other American horrors notwithstanding. It’s because it is. And as ever, our earnest assertion of our superior ontological uniqueness–not to mention its reality in and of itself–is exactly what always grated on the unfriendlies grouped together under the banner of anti-Americanism. . . . The departure of George Bush will change the mood music in America’s relations with the world, but–here’s the heartbreaker for our romantics–it won’t change how most people see America. Because, for ‘anti’ masses, it’s not really about us; it’s about them.”
| Krauthammer on Caroline Kennedy. Is this a family entitlement? Are they really down to a choice between JFK's daughter and Mario Cuomo's son? What are their qualifications? And what happened to her last name? Thought it was Kennedy-Schlossberg. Did Mr. Schlossberg go away? It's the Dem Circus, coming soon to your town. |
Sea levels would drop. Here's why. You can test it at home. Addendum: Well, it's almost true. Slightly off with salt water.
 Do you view college as an investment? If so, see how they stack up in returns on capital.
Would you buy a new car from this company? Why government spending doesn't help in recessions. Betsy. (It's because the money has to come from somewhere.) The Ten Dopiest Leaders of 2008. h/t, Insty Caroline Kennedy? What's she ever done? I guess Teddy wants it done. Major study finds no relation between school spending and achievement Christmas Books: Thomas Sowell Fed rates to zero. That is dramatic, but how about -1%? Kudlow says only tax cuts can help. Pin-up from Theo
Tuesday, December 16. 2008
 A third of hedge funds will go down.
Grim tidings for the news biz. McArdle It's about morality: Thatcher's defense of free markets Politics as fashion statement: Gitmo lawyers and the new Radical Chic. Good grief. Our enemies are collapsing. Dick Morris Neoneo observes, as we have been doing for years, the growing numbers of vocal climate skeptics. She links Sen. Inhofe's most recent press blog. One quote from that: “Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.” - Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.
Related: Who's in denial? Am Thinker Quoted in the WSJ today: When folks like Mr. Madoff create a Ponzi scheme, it's called fraud; when the Federal government creates a Ponzi scheme, it's called Social Security.”
Monday, December 15. 2008
From Bill Gross in Fortune: While 2008 will probably be best known as the year that global stock markets had their values cut in half, it was really much, much more. It was a year in which every major asset class - stocks, real estate, commodities, even high-yield bonds - suffered significant double-digit percentage losses, resulting in the destruction of over $30 trillion of paper wealth. To blame this on subprime mortgages alone would be to dismiss an era of leveraging that encompassed derivative structures of all types, embodying a belief that economic growth was always and everywhere a certainty and that asset prices never go down.
another quote: The outcome essentially depends on the ability of the Obama administration to rejuvenate capitalism's "animal spirits" by substituting the benevolent fist of government for the now invisible hand of Adam Smith. Federal spending and guarantees in the trillions of dollars will be required to fill the gap created by the deleveraging of private balance sheets. In turn, lenders and investors alike must begin to assume risk as opposed to stuffing money in modern-day investment mattresses. The process will take time. Twelve months of the Obama Nation will not be sufficient to heal the damage ...
Hmm. I thought the "hand" was meant to be invisible. I think it's working now, slowly grinding away and doing what it needs to do to adjust and correct for excesses. I tend to be skeptical every time I hear people say "This time it's different..." We're in a corrective recession, and we'll emerge eventually. And America will emerge first, because we have the most dynamic and creative economy in the world. The fantasy that somehow the government can spend the US out of a global recession is, I think absurd. But they have to appear to be doing something. To put it all in context, I borrowed this 20 yr. chart from My Trader's Journal, up through Oct 3. Today the S&P closed around 870, so we have been below the trend line for a while. Whatever that means. To my eyes, this chart shows a double bubble, and when the next one happens, I'm getting off at the top. 
 "Depression lust" on the part of the press.
World's most beautiful woman is Russian. It's true. They make beauties there. It's one of the few things Russia does well. Update on the Marc Dreier investment scam. And re the Madoff scam, look at the "sophisticated investors" he fooled. When a deal sounds too good to be true... I love the way Bush handled this press guy. The Brussels Journal and Tribal Nationalism: LGF Why are we still in Afghanistan? Beethoven and the Illuminati How Tom Daschle could destroy new drug development The change we wanted? Now Richardson under investigation. Dems have a greed problem. Ask Dr. Helen: How can I keep my students from becoming little Marxists?
Sunday, December 14. 2008
I am away tomorrow morning. Busy on a job in Dallas. Yes, Texas is booming with biz and jobs, unlike much of the world.  Have you read Vanderleun's The Star yet?
Classical Values takes a look at the defunct Packard assembly plant Corporate DNA. Coyote Our pal Sipp makes it into the dead tree media. And rightly so - he works with dead trees. The southern auto industry mocks Detroit Jim Rogers says most US banks bankrupt CT's Dodd still ducking. Gee whiz, all he did was to use his job to get VIP mortgages. What do you expect? It's just a perk. Wizbang had New Author Tryouts Where the heck does Steven Chu live? Arizona? Its' been cold as heck up here. We are in trouble. Is the Obama Admin already damaged goods? If so, it's self-inflicted, but John McCain blames the Repubs. Huh? What's up with John? Related: Blago in context: Tiger. Related: Schadenfreude Time? From View from the Right on Madoff: "Madoff—quiet, modest, simple, direct, generous, thoughtful, helpful, and not greedy," I pointed to the apparent contradiction that a colossal crook and robber like Bernard Madoff--a man who cooly defrauded his clients of $50 billion, a destroyer of wealth who wiped out the assets and the endowments of the individuals and organizations that had trusted him--exhibited so many personal virtues.
The community organizer's wet dream. Obama wants to spend a trillion. That's our money. Rahm Emanuel headed to a grand jury. How fun for him. Surber Update: The death of the piano industry. Also, Palin's church and arsonists Michael Yon in Afghanistan. What a guy he is. Santa brings pain and suffering. Bad, bad Santa. Be good, or else... Who is Thomas Tamm? Via Viking: CNN: "Taxpayers: Furious over homeowner bailouts" "All these idiots who bought homes they couldn't really afford are going to be rewarded with loan modifications, but what about those of us who didn't make stupid decisions?" asked Jay Black, a CNNMoney.com reader who rents in Queens, N.Y. Sir, don't you know it's your patriotic duty to bail out your fellow American dummies? Sheesh.
Hey, No fair. Maggie's has a patent on Sheesh! and Good Grief! Conservatives and the Delusions of the Left. Radosh Haven't we had enough of the Kennedys? How long can people politically trade on an Irish name? Another name fetish: Calls for Jesse Jackson Jr. to resign The IPCC wants no more data. Don't confuse me with facts? Our hero Klaus begs to differ. Feminism update: More women criminals. Equality Now! Yikes: THE END OF OBJECTIVITY AT GOOGLE? “Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It’s a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance. . . . None of this would matter, if it wasn’t for one other trend: a paralysing loss of confidence in media companies.”
All dressed up and nothing to do. Joe Biden. He is was a tool.
 Bismarck. Global cooling is our new crisis. New Hampshire is in the deep freeze, with ice storms and unseasonable cold - and their power is out. Not mine.
All we can do to help is to drive our Hummers to the mall. Eagerly awaiting explanation from Al Gore. Oh, he did have something to say: North Pole to disappear in 5 years. Is that a promise? So how come the ice cap is growing? And who cares anyway? His fear-mongering hyperbole has turned him into a joke.
Saturday, December 13. 2008
Anchoress: Getting some hate mail from my piece up at Pajamas Media. I’m being accused of wanting an “American theocracy”. Not at all. I simply am pointing out that a determinedly secular mindset will not make much of a dent against an equally determined supernatural mindset, and so the West should not be so dismissive of the power and usefulness of the vocabulary of faith. And I can’t be completely wrong since, as we see here at Hot Air, most Americans are open to that vocabulary.
 Betty Page died on Thursday at 85. Photo from the article. She liked to take her clothes off, I am told. A sexual freedom icon. Cute girl. Every rose must fade and die.
Speaking of time passing, a 1940 Dodge, like new. Reminds me of Woody Allen's VW in Sleeper. Driscoll: "Dissent: It's the highest form of patriotism. But patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Party time in Baghdad. We done good. Problem was, the UAW didn't "release" the Dems for the vote. The UAW owns the Dems? I thought Soros owned the Dems. Woops. They got it wrong. Fastest-growing states and the election. Scott at Powerline remembers Sinatra's birthday with a remarkable tune. Bailout means payback. Roger. That's what it's all about. By the way, take a look at the 22 lb. UAW contract. Good grief. Does anybody know what is even in there? Two huge Dem scandals since the election: Rangel and Blago. Not a good start. And no, it doesn't please me at all: it just reinforces everybody's terrible opinion of pols. Zimbabwe update. Socialism at work. Two frozen treats from Thompson: How Eskimos build igloos (1951 video), and photographing snowflakes.
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From Drudge yesterday: