Monthly Archives: September 2008

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 … Continue reading →

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.”

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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. … Continue reading →

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.”

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →