Barack Obama likes to talk about “failed policies of the past”. That’s funny coming from a guy who reverts to failed FDR style ideas. Now those running for Congress with a “D” next to their name have taken up the same rhetoric.
So which policies failed? They don’t say. Sometimes they use the vague notion that greedy Wall Street executives caused the problem, but greed on Wall Street is not new nor did it flourish during the last 10 years. I wonder if those who use the slogan don’t have the answer or if they think capitalism has failed.
My opinion is that most economic failures are caused by government induced bubbles. Easy money and reduced risk in the housing market were a function of government policies and it led to financial disaster. It was well intentioned. Those who advocated the policies believed that the average American could create wealth buying and holding real estate.
Are the policies that led to the housing bubble really Bush’s policies or were they in place long before George Bush become President? Were they really a failure of the market or was it a failure of government intervention in the market? Can the Obama Administration legislate away the human condition of “greed” without also removing drive and risk taking.
These are honest questions that are never answered. Hell…they are never even asked.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Election on September 28th, 2010
Part of the problem is that the government seems to be encouraging too many students with little prospect of graduating to borrow money to attend college. . . . But by far the largest share of blame for the tsunami of debt falls on the colleges themselves. As Robert Martin argues, “higher education finance is a black hole that cannot be filled.” Colleges have nonetheless attempted to fill the hole with student borrowing. Such greed, when filtered through a well-functioning market, need not be a cause for concern as the market channels it into useful and productive activities. Unfortunately, the higher education sector cannot be characterized as a well functioning market.
My memories of George Blanda bring back good memories of NFL football. I’ve lost interest in professional football over the years. My favorite team was destroyed by a hand-out seeking owner (the Cleveland Browns), players are here one season…gone the next, and the game is run by coaches instead of players. I’ve lost interest in the modern game, but I will think fondly of the days when quarterbacks like Johnny Unitas, Roger Staubach, John Brodie and George Blanda ruled the field.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Common Sense on September 27th, 2010
A while back, I read about a headline about fire in Houston that destroyed some voting machines. I didn’t pay much attention to it. I should have. Everyone should have.
The integrity of the voting rolls in Harris County, Texas, appears to be under an organized and systematic attack by the group operating under the name Houston Votes,” the Harris voter registrar, Leo Vasquez, charged as he passed on the documentation to the district attorney. A spokesman for the DA’s office declined to discuss the case. And a spokesman for Vasquez said that the DA has asked them to refrain from commenting on the case.
The outcome of the efforts grew in importance the day after Vasquez made his announcement. On the morning of Aug. 27, a three-alarm fire destroyed almost all of Harris County’s voting machines, throwing the upcoming Nov. 2 election into turmoil.
If I make the same money and pay more in taxes, then I consider it a tax increase.
According to some liberals, letting the Bush tax cuts expire is not a tax increase. Their logic is that the standard is the rate under Bill Clinton. But why Bill Clinton. Why don’t we go all the way back to their #1 hero…FDR. Using arbitrary liberal logic, you could say that the top tax rate was once 90% and therefore any income tax under 90% is not a tax increase.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Common Sense,Taxes on September 27th, 2010
It is possible that a write-in campaign by Congressman Mike Castle could hurt Democrat Chris Coons more than Republican Christine O’Donnell in the Delaware campaign for U.S. Senate…read more
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Election on September 27th, 2010
Socialist and libertarians couldn’t be farther apart, yet Bill Mahr can’t figure out where he stands…and this putz has the gall to say the American people or “stupid”.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Media on September 27th, 2010
Think the bedbugs are biting? You’re not alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency say the pest that was oh-so last century is making a big comeback in the United States as well as other countries.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Common Sense on September 27th, 2010
Here in my neck of the woods, a neighboring school district is about to start a fight with the teachers’ union. The union is not budging from their 4.9% pay increases.
he teachers relied on a written statement handed out at the beginning of the meeting, which addressed some of the union’s concerns.
Those issues included a 4 percent increase to the “total teacher payroll” over four years and divided among 331 teachers…read more
And the newspaper got it wrong. They teachers want 4.9%. Why? Maybe because 5% would seem greedy?
We have averaged about 2% inflation over the last 5 years, but they want 4.9%. Even if spending was set to zero, it wouldn’t mean that teachers wouldn’t get a raise. They get raised based on experience and time served. It just means the whole ladder would be raised up. So many of these teachers are looking at 10% raises.
Our President (A Keynesian worshiper) argues for stimulus saying if we lay off teachers and fire fighters, then they won’t spend money and that will lead to reduced tax revenues.
Do these government employees spend more in tax than they take in? It’s a foolish argument devoid of common sense, but the proof is in the stimulus results. We have spent a trillion dollars in order to spur the economy. Review after review…audit after audit..shows millions in stimulus spending adding to only a handful of jobs.
Two L.A. agencies get $111 million in stimulus funds but have created only 55 jobs
How much will the 55 workers pay in taxes? 100K? 200K? Let’s be generous. Let’s say those 55 jobs pay $1 million dollars in taxes. Barack Obama is telling us that we needed to spend $100 million so that we can continue to take in $1 million.
See what I mean. Foolish and devoid of common sense…which pretty much sums up the radical left.
I hope to be buying a Netduino Plus with Ethernet and SD card support in the near future…read more
Netduino Plus with Ethernet and SD Card Support
It is a computer chip that can be easily setup as a data longer and web server.
Here are some sample applications:
Set it up as a web enabled thermometer in your home. Let’s say you leave for the beach for a week. You could turn the AC setting in the house so to 80 degrees. On your drive home, you pull out your smart phone and turn down the temperature and turn on the ceiling fans so it’s comfortable when you get there.
Set up as an automatic watering device for you garden. Decide when to turn on the water based on the moisture in the ground and the weather forecast pulled from an Internet source.
Setup as an intrusion detector that email you when activated.
Add a GPS shield and set it up on your bike to record you position and speed
The hope is due to the fact that they are new and are not yet available.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Wave of the future on September 25th, 2010
This video is about the wasting money on Obama Propaganda….oops…I mean stimulus road signs.
It’s not just the federal government and stimulus money wasted. Welcome to Pennsylvania signs have the governor’s name displayed. That means we incur an unnecessary expense every time we get a new governor. It’s a waste.
Please ask the candidates for governor if they will change this wasteful tradition of road side propaganda.
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