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Media Infiltrations: TARP Looking More Criminal by the Minute  National Review Online April 24, 2009 Death By Rescue National Review November 17, 2008
"What has been your worst blogging experience? "That's a guy who actually stalks me on the Web and once stalked me personally." "I'm saying this...guy's a jerk."
 The Great Depression and the New Deal Eric Rauchway What I'm listening to:  Langley Schools Music Project What I'm watching:  There Will Be Blood What I'm playing:  Speed Racer Order these from Amazon.com at Amazon's normal low prices... and a fraction of your order goes to help support this site. Thanks!
Thanks to Irwin Chusid, public editor.
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Chronicle of the Conspiracy
Join us as we discover, document, expose and challenge the bad people, the bad institutions and the bad ideas that stand in the way of wealth creation -- and show you how to fight back!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
TAKE THIS SIMPLE TEST
Thanks to the mysterious "Zoogler," who scored 16 also.
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 8:11 PM |
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Friday, January 09, 2009
TVO CEO SHOW I appeared Wednesday on TV Ontario's "The Agenda" with host Steve Paiken, in a panel discussion on CEO pay. Here's a link to a web-based replay of the show. Remarkable how many panelists argue with such passion that the police power of the state ought to be brought into play to enforce their own idiosyncratic ideas of how much people ought to get paid. Remarkable hubris.Update [1/11/09]... Reader Richard Ridgeway comments (and by the way, until I was in the middle of doing this show, I'd never before in my life heard the name C. C. Sebathia.
I bet you didn't know you'd be in a CC Sebathia debate, did ya?Of course, it's totally irrelevant to even compare a component of a true Congressionally authorized monopoly (major league baseball and only 30 "companies" allowed to participate) with an E pluribus unum CEO.
Sebathia is more like a machine or an expensive cog. His agent is the salesman. Sebathia doesn't run anything nor decide anything He may very well blow up every fifth day he marches out to the mound. He will only play in 30 to 40 of the 162 regular season games. While his actions may have a tremendous impact on the outcome of the season, he is not the deciding factor.
No. The only thing in common that CC Sebathia has with any CEO is that he will receive negotiated contractual compensation for his services.
And, I damn sure guarantee you if MLB decides to go on strike--'ol CC ain't a crossin' any picket line!
Pure, unadulterated class envy cards being thrown down, all under the guise of "expert" analysis.
You know, I ain't the brightest crayon in the box-- but I know shit when I smell it ! God help this country...
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 7:53 AM |
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
FLAT WORLD? OR FLAT HEAD? Pompous futurist Thomas Friedman -- he of "what I like to call 'outsourcing'" -- has been taken for a ride by Indian scam-artist Ramalinga Raju, whose outsourcing firm Satyam now stands revealed as a fraud of epic proportions. Here's Friedman in an interview last year:...something I got from my friend Ramalinga Raju from Satyam, the Indian company. We decided that the greatest economic competition in the world going forward is not going to be between countries and countries. And it's not going to be between companies and companies. The greatest economic competition going forward is going to be between you and your own imagination. Your ability to act on your imagination is going to be so decisive in driving your future and the standard of living in your country. So the school, the state, the country that empowers, nurtures, enables imagination among its students and citizens, that's who's going to be the winner.As the New York Magazine blog says,
Competition between you and your own imagination? The old, round head boggles. Maybe it's something like imagining that you have 53.6 billion rupees in assets when you actually have 3.2 billion, an experience Raju (who could teach Friedman a thing or two about metaphors that actually make sense) describes as "like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten."That's what I like to call "embarrassing."
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 3:49 PM |
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JOKE OF THE DAY Recession edition.
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 1:38 PM |
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Wednesday, January 07, 2009
DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT? From yesterday's release of the minutes of the last Fed Open Market Committee meeting, two flatly contradictory phrases from within the same paragraph:...the large amount of excess reserves in the system would limit the Federal Reserve's control over the federal funds rate...and then
...not announcing a [rate] target might confuse market participants and lead investors to believe that the Federal Reserve was unable to control the federal funds rate...
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 10:10 AM |
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KUDLOW REPLAY Omigod! Bulls and bears sleeping together! Can if actually be that Peter Schiff and I agree on something? Well, it seems that we do.
Let's not get carried away, though. I certainly don't believe the madness that the majority of our GDP is "fluff" -- everything except manufacturing, mining and farming. Okay, well, I suppose health care is "fluff." I guess we can do without that. Investment management, too. So Peter -- when are you going to give up your "fluff" job and start digging a mine on your farm? Oh, I get it. "Fluff" is okay for you -- just not everybody else. They are supposed to do honest labor. Right.
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 12:51 AM |
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Tuesday, January 06, 2009
THE GANG FROM THE "111" My DC-insider friend "Mick Danger" is back in town with the new Congress, and files this post-holiday post-partisan report:The 111th Congress begins today.Democrats in the Illinois legislature shied away from a special election for the open U.S. Senate seat, reportedly because they feared a competitive race by Republicans. Stepping up in that vacuum, Illinois's tainted Governor legally appointed Roland Burris, a man whom Harry Reid won't seat.
The legal authority for the Nevadan to say no? Burris suffers from a contagious disease well-known to every grade school child.
Meanwhile, Al Franken was "certified" in a process where the only certainty is that those counting the ballots are accused of fixing the outcome before it's finished reviewing ballots from all of Minnesota's counties.
So, you can't get into the Senate if you have cooties but you should get in the Senate if an obviously suspect, incomplete process which is still under litigation "certifies" you.
Over in House, things are so much clearer. What says Nancy on her big day? We need less transparency and debate! Abolish political speech! Banish the bastards!
Well, true she's not saying that, but she's doing that. Why else remove the measly procedural rights of the shrunken House Republican minority? Some House Democrats point angrily at "abuses" last year when Boehner passed dozens of procedural votes to stop, or slow, the Democrats' production line! Wait, since Republican amendments can't pass without votes from moderate and conservative Democrats, whose rights are being trampled? (All but those of the most liberal voters.)
Check the numbers: Nancy now presides over 257 Democrats; last year she had 235.
While Harry dances with Stuart Smiley and dodges Bobby Rush, and Obama brushes up on Hamas and cutting taxes for non-taxpayers, Nancy is asserting control over policy in Washington. Just ask Rahm Emanuel, President-elect's designated Chief of Staff, whom she "warned" only to cut deals with her -- no going around her to cut deals with Members of the House. What does she thinks she is, a single-payer health czar?
Here's a quote from a poorly prepared Dartmouth professor:
Linda Fowler, a political science professor at Dartmouth College, voiced a word of caution. "A Democratic majority doesn't necessarily mean a compliant Congress,“ she said, citing problems that Democratic Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton had with legislatures held by their parties."Ah, no, Linda. Nancy wasn't Speaker then. Back then, each Member of Congress was considered first a representative of their district and only secondarily a party member. The rules protected greater freedom to offer amendments and vote on them. Sure, there was "party discipline" and even real "abuse." But neither Speaker Tip O'Neill (Carter) nor Speaker Newt Gingrich (Clinton) fixed two years of legislative process on Day One.Ain't "post-partisan" fun? Bottom line: Watch Nancy. She's more Machiavellian than any other single politician in town.
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 9:20 AM |
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Monday, January 05, 2009
KUDLOW REPLAY Here's the YouTube video of tonight's hit. Oops! Just what could I mean when I say stocks in November were "deeply undersold"? And, hey, what does Zachary Karabell mean when he says that following me is like going "from the t-shirt to the tie"? Should he at least straighten his ties, if he's going to draw attention to it? If not, he should wear a spiffy Speed Racer t-shirt like me.Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 8:52 PM |
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BIG GOVERNMENT NEVER NEEDS JUSTIFICATION From Paul Krugman's column this morning:
The biggest problem facing the Obama plan...is likely to be the demand of many politicians for proof that the benefits of the proposed public spending justify its costs — a burden of proof never imposed on proposals for tax cuts.Huh? It's a "problem" that costs should have to be justified? Would Krugman prefer the imposition of costs by government virtually at will, with no rationale, no reason, no purpose, no justification, just whim?
And as to his idea that tax cuts don't apparently need to be justified, reader John Muraro says, "Yeah, that pesky moral claim individuals make to the results of their labor really does complicate life for the central planning set."
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 9:06 AM |
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Sunday, January 04, 2009
NEED I SAY MORE?
Via Paul Kedrosky, thanks to our correspondent "Irrational Exuberance."
Update... A reader tells me, yes, I need to say more. First, I put a link under "Kedrosky," above, as I should have originally -- but here's my take. This is a Google Trends chart, showing the number of times a particular search term -- in this case "Peter Schiff" and "peak oil" -- show up on the web, through time. The idea is that during the last year of economic turbulence, certain ideas gained temporary dominance in the collective mind. In the summer when oil was at $147 a barrel, you got lots of people on the web raving about how we're running out of the stuff, that we've passed the time of "peak oil." Similarly, more recently, when volatility in the stock market has been more on people's minds, we find they no longer want to talk about "peak oil" -- gone! forgotten! problem solved! -- and instead the want to hear the end-of-the-world sermonettes of Savonarolas like Schiff. Looks like we've seen "peak peak oil" and "peak Peter Schiff." Time to move on to some other dumb thing to focus on, I guess.
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 11:24 AM |
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