Archive for the 'Economics' Category

Obama — your typical Democrat

In keeping with my prior post, about the callous illogical shown in one of the Times’ most recent articles, I’d like to highlight Obama’s insistence on a “windfall profits tax” — another “bright” idea showing a rather typical Democratic refusal to recognize cause and effect, not to mention a willful refusal to acknowledge historic evidence:
You [...]

Reports of economy’s death were greatly exaggerated

I recall hearing a guest on talk radio (I forget which show) saying that a recession is defined by very specific economic indicators — and that, despite the loose use of the word “recession” by uninformed media types, those economic indicators were not present. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that the economy is growing, [...]

Obama starting to reveal himself as a — tax & spend liberal. Surprise! *UPDATE*

Obama is going to revitalize our economy by having more government control over the economy and by ending the Bush tax cuts for upper earners. increasing taxes on the middle class. If by “revitalize,” he really means “Carterize,” I guess he’s right. Otherwise, I have grave doubts about the wisdom of his [...]

The problem with the government getting into the market place

The strongest tie that binds me to conservatism is my belief that the principle that “that government is best which governs least” applies most strongly in the area of economics.  I believe that government should make a few big rules — don’t discriminate, don’t cheat, don’t commit fraud, etc. — and then it should stand [...]

Why isn’t he the right man?

Question for you: With economic fears on the rise, wouldn’t it make sense for Romney to play up his money abilities? He turned the Olympics around, and he seems to have a knack for seeing economic systems and turning them to gold. People claim that his economic savvy was what won in [...]

It’s the economy, Stupid!

The title of my post should ring a few bells in the minds of those old enough to vote in 1992. It was, after all, Bill Clinton’s official campaign theme (with “I feel your pain” being the unofficial theme). Perhaps the economy will be the undoing of Hillary’s campaign — although it should, [...]

The ultimate bureaucracy

I’ve disliked the EU ever since, in a moment of absolute insanity, I took a class on EU law when I was in law school. It was a Kafka-esque nightmare — and that was just studying about it, not experiencing it.
If you want some small insight into experiencing it, read this Spiegel article that [...]

Why have the tax cuts been so bad?

Each of the front-running Democratic candidates has promised to raise taxes, to remedy the “disastrous” tax cuts that President Bush put into place.  What I’ve somehow missed from them, though, is any explanation about why the tax cuts are so disastrous.  I’m not saying the Dems don’t have an explanation.  I’m just saying I haven’t [...]

Oil is not really at record high prices

Once again, there’s a news story saying that crude oil prices are at record highs (emphasis mine):
Oil prices rose above $93 a barrel to a new trading high in Asia Monday on growing political tensions in the Middle East, a weak dollar and worries about the supply outlook ahead of the winter.
“The strong price is [...]

The economic nature of Islamic conquest

I just had to share with you Mark Steyn’s brilliant insight into the economic nature of Islamic conquest:
The jizya is the poll tax paid by non-Muslims to their Muslim betters. One cause of the lack of economic innovation in the Islamic world is that they’ve always placed the main funding burden of society on [...]

Money matters

I quickly wanted to touch on a couple of money matters.
First, you may recall the absolute horror Americans experienced a few years ago when they heard about the size of the national debt. We were so broken in many people’s minds that there seemed to very little separating us from a Zimbabwe scenario with [...]

The reductio ad absurdum of government involvement in the economy

Here’s Hillary announcing her desire to use government force to steal (there’s no other word for it) oil company profits:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1PfE9K8j0g]
And in Zimbabwe, we can see what what happens when Hillary’s mindset — that government should take over the market — becomes the only game in town:
Robert G. Mugabe has ruled over this battered nation, his [...]

The law of unintended consequences

San Francisco, in an effort to increase its revenues, raised its parking meter fees to an average of $3.00 per hour. City officials expected a cash cascade. What happened instead, was that people obligated to pay the fees figured out that they’d do better in private parking garages. By doing so, they’d [...]

Blue, right up until it affects you personally

Marin County is one of the bluest of blue counties in America. Lynn Woolsey, the ineffectual and unintelligent Marin representative to Congress garnered close to 80% of the votes in the last election, if I remember correctly. But its easy to be Blue if you’re talking environmentalism and war. How about being [...]

What effect will the good news have?

     If Bookworm were here (she’s on a much needed mini-vacation and will be back tomorrow) she would surely mention that oil prices have dipped below $60 a barrel and are at a 6-month low.  Also, the fed declined to raise interest rates for a change.   Assuming the good news continues (always a dangerous assumption) what [...]

One more reason, this time economic, to keep the Dems out of the driver’s seat

One of the great things about Times Select, which represents the NY Times’ decision to charge for popular columnists, is that I no longer feel this masochist need to read Paul Krugman’s columns.  When they were available for free, I always felt it was incumbent upon me to see what nonsense he had come up [...]

Money, money, money

Governments don’t make money; they just print money.  It’s people who make money.  In other words, if government will stop being so greedy and let people keep their money, people will, in turn, make more money resulting in, yes, I’m gonna say it — more tax revenue.  This is so obvious, and yet the NY [...]

Clearing up a misperception

One of the black marks against Pres. Bush is the fact that the national debt has increased so much on his watch (something I'm less than thrilled about myself).  Heather, however, offers us some perspective:
According to The Skeptical Optimist, an optimist is "one who believes that humans, on net balance, are builders rather than destroyers." [...]