Archive for September, 2008

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

“No Atheists in Foxholes, No Libertarians in Financial Crises”

No Atheists in Foxholes, No Libertarians in Financial Crises: This is the line that Paul Krugman uttered the other night to some great yucks from the Bill Maher crowd. Not really an original thought for Krugman — see Jeff Frankel’s remarks from last July. Krugman in typical fashion communicates his point in a smug fashion [...]

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Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

A poll result I am pleased to see

Poll: Most oppose govt. intervention: PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 23 (UPI) — A Gallup poll taken this month indicates most people believe government is doing “too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses.”

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Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

Not Buying It Not Buying It – The Current

Not Buying It – The Current What’s clear is that a bunch of financial institutions have made mistakes and lost money. What’s unclear is why anyone (other than the owners and managers) should care. People make mistakes and lose money all the time. Restaurants fail, grocery stores fail, gas stations fail. People pick the wrong [...]

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Monday, September 22nd, 2008

from the New York Times, September 30, 1999

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending – New York Times: Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits. [...] Fannie [...]

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Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Capitalists, Capitalism, and the Siren’s Song of Stability

Capitalists, Capitalism, and the Siren’s Song of Stability: The desire for stability and predictability has been the calling card of dirigisme regimes since the dawn of capitalism, whether they called themselves “socialist”, “fascist”, or just plain “interventionist.” It is but a thinly disguised power grab by those who own the means of production, and who [...]

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Monday, September 22nd, 2008

The Soviets were famous for their economic plans

Sometimes Bobbing and Weaving Just Isn’t Enough: McCain and Obama are tripping over one another to claim they have a PLAN. Everyone wants a plan to fix the financial markets. But the bottom line is that we do not need a government plan, we need a free market unhampered by government intervention. Instead, we are [...]

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Sunday, September 21st, 2008

I post these in the hopes that somebody in government will actually step back and realize the insanity that’s going on

EconLog, An Open Letter to Ben Bernanke, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty: We have excesses. Too many housing units. Too many “homeowners” who don’t have equity in their homes and never did. Too many banks and financial institutions. The excesses need to be worked out by the markets.

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Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Stubborn ignorance

Washington Times – WILLIAMS: Stubborn ignorance The ending quote is fantastic: English philosopher Herbert Spencer said, “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”

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Saturday, September 20th, 2008

Before and after pics of the Plettman beach cabin

My grandparents lost their beach cabin in Hurricane Carla in 1961. After that, my family used my great uncle’s cabin in Gilchrist. When we were going to the beach, this is where we went. Each summer we’d go down for a week, with my dad commuting each day while we played in the surf near [...]

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Friday, September 19th, 2008

The Crisis in One Paragraph and Two Thoughts of My Own

The Austrian Economist: The Crisis in One Paragraph and Two Thoughts of My Own Our friend Larry White at Division of Labor puts it succinctly: On greed, let me repeat: If unusually many airplanes crash during a given week, do you blame gravity? No. Greed, like gravity, is a constant. It can’t explain why the [...]

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