I love this comment by Don Boudreaux. He rightly argues that while Palin is unqualified to be VP that doesn’t make her any different than the other three yahoos:
Fareed Zakaria (author of a truly fine book and columnist for the Washington Post) rightly argues that Sarah Palin is unqualified to be president of the United States (and, hence, by extension, unqualified to be V-P). Mr. Zakaria is correct that Gov. Palin’s recent answer to a question about the economy “is nonsense – a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about economics that came into her head.” He’s correct also that she’s unfit to be entrusted with the power of the modern presidency.
But Mr. Zakaria is incorrect to suppose that these traits separate Gov. Palin from other candidates for high political office. Calls by Senators McCain and Obama for cracking down on “speculators” are full of classic and wrongheaded catchphrases, as is Sen. Obama’s vocal skepticism about free trade. Gov. Palin is merely less skilled in passing off inanities and claptrap as profundities.
Jeffrey Mirron of Havard has written a great article about how we got here (government incentives that urged banks to give loans to people who are credit risks) and why the bailout is a bad policy (if these mortgage-backed securities are worth something then someone will pay for them and that doesn’t need to be the American taxpayer). It’s a great article. Give it a read.
This is a day I never thought would come, but I agree with a lot of what Dennis Kucinich said today. Since he’s a socialist, I don’t agree that Wall Street needs additional regulation, but he’s right that Main Street shouldn’t be bailing out Wall Street.
Sometimes libertarians and the socialists can get along.
Today the BBC World Service ran a story where they interviewed a woman in Arizona who supported Obama. The interviewee complained about the price of bread and the price of gas and said that by “focusing on the middle class” instead of given tax cuts to the rich, Obama is going to bring down the price of bread and gasoline. It’s too bad that this woman is misinformed because the programs Obama supports directly lead to higher gasoline prices and higher bread prices.
Obama believes that we should increase the price of energy to fight global warming (that’s the entire point of the cap-and-trade programs Obama supports) and he does not support increasing oil supplies by using American resources. Increasing the price of oil and limiting supply will only make oil more expensive, not less. In other words, Obama supports increasing the price of energy.
Obama supports the biofuel mandates. The biofuel made has driven up the price of commodities like wheat and corn. The mandates causes farmers to plant more corn and then, instead of using the corn to feed people, they are using the corn to make ethanol. In other words, the policies that Obama supports (and President Bush pushed) are making wheat (and hence bread) more expensive.
To vote for Obama because the he talks about helping the middle class is pure foolishness. What matters is looking at the outcome of the policies he supports. If Obama becomes President, he will push for policies that will make energy even more expensive and he will push for policies that make food more expensive.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke into an unlikely snippet of song for bitter ideological foe George W. Bush on Thursday, trilling “you are so like me” about the man he has called a donkey and the devil.The staunch leftist said the world financial crisis had forced his U.S. counterpart to recognise flaws in the economic system that he had been pointing out for years.
“I am sounding like Bush, more or less. What a novelty!” Chavez said, after quoting from Bush’s warning that the United States was in the middle of a serious financial crisis that could push the economy into a long-term recession.
If Bush would listen, he might realize that the bailout plan is socialism. Spending $1.8 trillion upfront of taxypayer money is socialism.