The Irregular Folk have a good post about Michigan Governor Granholm asking, shocker of shockers, that bailout dollars go to subsidize the auto industry. Imagine that, a governor asking for Federal dollars to aid ailing industry in their state.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a piece of work. One of the reasons that Americans elected Barack Obama is that he promised fiscal conserveratism after eight years of George W. blowing the doors out with increased spending. But Schwarzenegger thinks that fiscal responsibility is silly:
“I think the important thing for the Republican Party is now to also look at other issues that are very important for this country and not to get stuck in ideology,” the governor said in an interview broadcast on CNN this morning. “Let’s go and talk about healthcare reform. Let’s go and . . . fund programs if they’re necessary programs and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility.”
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They should not “always just say, ‘This is spending. We can’t do that.’ No, don’t get stuck with that. We have heard that dialogue. Let’s move on.”
Just imagine if I organized my personal finances like Schwarzenegger recommends.
“Hey Laura, we’re buying a new car.”
“Oh really, what are we buying?”
“A Ferarri 599.”
“Daniel, what does a 599 cost?”
“Price does not matter. Arnold says not to get stuck on fiscal responsibility. And I really need a supercar.”
Enough said. Arnold spent too many years in the land of make believe.
Dean Baker, a left-of-center economist, see through blaming everything on the credit crunch:
No one will lend me $1 billion, that’s how bad the credit crunch has gotten. There are probably reporters at major news outlets who would print that.
The news media almost completely missed the housing bubble. They relied almost entirely on sources who either had an interest in not calling or attention to an $8 trillion housing bubble or somehow were unable to see it. As a result they did not warn the public that their house prices were likely to plunge in future years.
Having dismally failed in their jobs to inform the public, reporters are still relying almost exclusively on sources that completely missed the housing bubble. As a result, they are still badly misinforming the public, first and foremost by attributing the economic downturn to a credit crunch.
Greg Mankiw has some good advice for the President-elect:
Listen to your economists.
Embrace some Republican ideas.
Pay attention to the government’s budget constraint.
Recognize your past mistakes.
The Washington Post’s headline admits what we all know–there’s an Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage.
The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.
This is utterly unsurprising. The press has been a organ of the Democratic National Committee for a long time. It also gives some good context for the Democrats upcoming attempt to limit freedom of speech through a return of the Fairness Doctrine. The Democrats want to silence their critics.
Jeff Flake from Arizona is one of the few Repbulicans who is consistenly good on the issues that matter most. On the recent Republican election losses, he writes:
I suggest that we return to first principles. At the top of that list has to be a recommitment to limited government. After eight years of profligate spending and soaring deficits, voters can be forgiven for not knowing that limited government has long been the first article of faith for Republicans.
Of course, it’s not the level of spending that gets the most attention; it’s the manner in which the spending is allocated. The proliferation of earmarks is largely a product of the Gingrich-DeLay years, and it’s no surprise that some of the most ardent practitioners were earmarked by the voters for retirement yesterday. Few Americans will take seriously Republican speeches on limited government if we Republicans can’t wean ourselves from this insidious practice. But if we can go clean, it will offer a stark contrast to the Democrats, who, after two years in training, already have their own earmark favor factory running at full tilt.
Second, we need to recommit to our belief in economic freedom. Adam Smith‘s “The Wealth of Nations” may be on the discount rack this year, but the free market is still the most efficient means to allocate capital and human resources in an economy, and Americans know it. Now that we’ve inserted government deeply into the private sector by bailing out banks and businesses, the temptation will be for government to overstay its welcome and force the distribution of resources to serve political ends. Substituting political for economic incentives is not the recipe for economic recovery.
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As long as we Republicans are willing to admit our folly, get back to first principles and work like there’s no tomorrow, we’ve got ‘em just where we want ‘em.
Has the Down fallen 800 points in the last two days because of the election of Barack? The BBC was quick to attribute a rise after the election to Obama. In reality, the rise on election day and the subsequent fall have nothing to do with Obama. Commentators just need a narrative, whether or not it has anything to do with reality.
…but did the lack of intellect have to be one of them…
The BCS is doomed. Not this year. Mabye not for 10 years. But it is doomed. One reason is that big time coaches like USC’s Pete Carroll don’t like it. America wants a playoff. It will happen, so the BCS needs to hurry up and give it to us. No amount of tweaks to the system are going to help.