A Bridge Loan too Far

If the President had fired Ron Gettelfinger along with GM CEO Rick Wagoner, he would at least have been intellectually honest. Instead, he hoisted Wagoner's head on the pike (with a $20 million dollar parachute), while preserving the UAW as an innocent in the demise of GM. Us old free marketeers have been calling for CH 11 for GM for a year, yet successive Administrations have kept them on life support with the net result being loan defaults and layoffs culminating in de-facto bankruptcy anyways. Chrysler will be forced into a shotgun marriage with Fiat (financed by our own fiat currency). Ford may actually get their dream of a $2 dollar a gallon gas tax to force consumers to buy their high mileage cars. Depressed yet? And still, with all this federal intervention, the markets will have their way; the weak will fail, the strong will survive. The disciples of Keynes are ruling the day for now, but Smith and Friedman will still prevail in the end.

Daniel Hannan

A young MP named Daniel Hannan dared confront PM Brown, calling him The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government. What makes this noteworthy is the apoplectic reaction by the the UK and US left. They attack what they fear, and they have every reason to fear the man some are calling the next Maggie Thatcher. Now if we could just identify our next Ronald Reagan. In other news, the U.S. Congress is considering supporting failing newspapers as non-profits. Pravda and Isvestia were also non-profits for you gen Y kids out there. May God save the Republic!

Newspeak for Dummies

Global War on Terror to be replaced by Overseas Contingency.
Terrorist Act to be replaced by Man Caused Disaster.
Adding $9 TRILLION to the national debt is now an Investment.
The Civil War was fought by A Nation of Cowards regarding Race.
The Loyal Opposition is now The Chattering Class.
Sensing a pattern here?

Huey Long would be proud

Instead of protesting the government that bailed out a failed company (AIG), then legislated funding for $165 million in bonuses for said failed company, ACORN members (federally funded social agitators) decide to protest outside the homes of the recipients of the bonuses. I pray that Americans eventually direct their anger in the proper direction: towards elected officials that confiscate our wealth to prevent our bankruptcy laws from cleaning up the financial mess. Welfare is an evil concept regardless of who it subsidizes, be it a welfare queen, or a "too big to fail" corporation.

Enter The Dragon

AIG former Chairman Hank Greenberg has found little traction in implicating Goldman Sachs as the main culprit in the current bailout mess. My hope is that David Boies, Greenberg's chief counsel will be able to illuminate the profound power that GS holds in the Administration. Secretary Geithner, former Secretary Paulson, current AIG CEO Libby all have ties to the investment bank that recieved $20 billion plus from the Fed bailout of AIG. The President recieved $100,000 in campaign contributions from AIG. Secretary Geithner directed Senator Chris Dodd to amend the "stimulus" bill to allow $165 million in AIG bonuses. Is this all starting to stink? I respect David Boies as an attorney and hope that he can give the American people a clear sense of the chicanery that has overwhelmed the very center of our government. Stay tuned....

Hillary's new button

When Secretary Clinton presented the Russians with a symbolic "reset" button to declare U.S. intentions to reset our relationship, little did she know that the Russians would choose to reset it to 1962. We now know that they are in talks with Cuba to base long range strategic bombers there. I guess the Cold War was just too much fun to live with out. It is also interesting that the Chinese are more worried about our appetite for massive deficits than we are. Whodathunkit: Maoists having to explain free market Capitalism to the people that perfected it.

Et tu, Buffett?

First, Rick Santelli gets taken to the White House woodshed for calling for a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest the mortgage bailout. Next, ardent Obama supporter Jim Cramer of CNBC gets thrown under the Obama campaign bus for daring to question the Administration's economic policy. Today, Warren Buffett (another loyal Obama supporter) portrays the economy as having "fallen off a cliff." While White House press secretary Gibbs held back from blasting the Oracle of Omaha directly, one wonders how long the White House will brook discension from their greatest show pony of campaign props. I predict that soon Buffett will be cast alongside all those other "Wall Street CEOs that disappear in their private jets" if he doesn't get with the program and support every jot and tittle of the Obama/Pelosi agenda. This current regime is beginning to resemble the Nixon White House at its most paranoid.... and we are only 7 weeks in!

Talking Points ala Animal Farm

After watching a U.S. Congresswoman tick off the talking points regarding the proposed budget, it became obvious that she was positively giddy that she had a) remembered them, and b) wasn't challenged to defend them. I immediately flashed back to Animal Farm in which the sheep dutifully bleated "four legs good, two legs bad." When I first read that book over thirty years ago, I thought "thank God I live in America, where that scenario would never happen." Today I'm having doubts about that.

The stock market is like a tracking poll?

The President's comments on the equity markets yesterday reveal a stunning ignorance of what they are and do. He sounded much like I might if I had to explain String Theory (no clue what it is, although it sounds cool). The markets are not a poll, they are a predictor of future economic conditions and they are currently predicting future catastrophe. My wife witnessed stark evidence of our downward spiral yesterday as one third of her coworkers were laid off. Are they cheered that we are making a $630 billion dollar down payment on European style health care? No, they want their job back. Are they cheered that we are going to tax CO2 emissions to the tune of $600 billion over the next decade? No, they want their job back. Are they cheered that the Marsh Mouse of California will get $50 million to preserve it's pristine habitat? No, they want their job back. Joe Biden is right that Americans care about a three letter word: J-O-B-S (hey, at least he spelled it right). When even liberal Senators like Russ Feingold and Evan Bayh get sticker shock, maybe it's time to reconsider reinventing America!

Does Goldman Sachs own US?

The only "winner" so far in the quasi nationalization of our financial sector is Goldman Sachs. Going down the rabbit trail of AIG loans being passed through to Goldman to the tune of $20 billion will bring conspiracy theorists flying out of the woodwork. Paulson and Geithner both have seemed more interested in protecting their old firm than creating a coherent strategy to stabilize the overall sector. As our retirement funds evaporate, along with our employers an hopes of future wealth, how long can the the Nero of Wall Street fiddle in it's so far fireproof corporate headquarters?

The Audacity of Mopes

The New Deal. The Great Society. Now comes "The Audacity of Mopes." By casting this current economic mess as one requiring massive government spending, the Administration is replacing big government with LEVIATHAN government. Conservatives can argue that the 3 impediments to economic growth are taxes, labor costs, and onerous regulation on industry until they are blue in the face, yet the average voter simply wants the government to "do something." The failed fiscal policies that plague Illinois are now being foisted on our entire nation and yet a majority of the electorate still fails to see we have finally given Huey Long his great victory over capitalism. How much farther down this road will we travel before we realize that America is becoming what we fought so mightily against throughout our history? Did countless thousands die defending freedom and opportunity die only to see us surrender to the base forces of class envy and the ultimate nanny state?