Courtesy of Mr. Darwin Slaughter, our real estate agent from Texas, an issue for our times....
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Nuff Said on Bank "Hoarding"
These are lifted from Mish, and explain why banks aren't lending to the folks clamoring so loudly for more credit...
The problem isn't a credit crisis, it's a solvency crisis. Banks would be insane to continue their profligate lending to people who're already as indebted as the average US'ian. And for those who want the state to step in and rescue people from the results of our collective fiscal insanity (and who clearly haven't read Hayek), don't forget that the tax revenues that people what increased to bail people out have to come from the same people who're feeling the debt squeeze to begin with.
Expect more calls for folks "hoarding" money in their savings accounts to invest like good littlerubescitizens. In the meanwhile, the only way out of this mess will be massive reductions in consumption that will be necessary to accumulate the savings needed to pay back all that debt, with the side-effect of demolishing a large chunk of the consumer-oriented industries and their suppliers.
At least most of you don't live in the land of Wimpy (California, that is, who's voters think "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" is sound fiscal policy. Ugh.), and won't have to watch your state hand out dubious IOUs instead of wages & tax returns.
The problem isn't a credit crisis, it's a solvency crisis. Banks would be insane to continue their profligate lending to people who're already as indebted as the average US'ian. And for those who want the state to step in and rescue people from the results of our collective fiscal insanity (and who clearly haven't read Hayek), don't forget that the tax revenues that people what increased to bail people out have to come from the same people who're feeling the debt squeeze to begin with.
Expect more calls for folks "hoarding" money in their savings accounts to invest like good little
At least most of you don't live in the land of Wimpy (California, that is, who's voters think "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" is sound fiscal policy. Ugh.), and won't have to watch your state hand out dubious IOUs instead of wages & tax returns.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Alice
Well, a kitten got us this weekend; her name is Alice, and she had a policy of "when in doubt, purr." Expect more soon on Foggy Foot Annex.
And, I seem to have a Tom Lehrer song stuck in my head....
And, I seem to have a Tom Lehrer song stuck in my head....
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Obama's First Triumphs
Today I had the sorrowprivilege of listening to the beginning of Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearings in the senate while commuting to work. The introductory fellatio was off the Richter scale even for those occasions when the partisanship of the house and legislature match, and the bipartisan olive-branches that really mean "we expect the other guys to lay aside their concerns and priorities so they can advance our agenda instead" were strewn about in that simulation of camaraderie so well known in Minnesota and the deep South.
What I wasn't expecting was in Clinton’s prepared remarks. Sure, she has a tin ear and she delivers speeches exactly the way her husband doesn’t, emphasizing the parts of the sentence that are intended as lubricant while gliding along the portions that should be emphasized, but, while her public speaking continues to startle and surprise the unwary ear, after suffering through her primary campaign’s stump speeches this is hardly astonishing. What was astonishing was the immense amount of slight-of-mind in the speech – she alluded to nearly known opportunity and vexation that the world faces today, but every time she veered dangerously close to making a prescription she slipped sideways into the sort of generalities and pabulum that any fourteen-year-old girl in front of her civics class might have advocated when required to give a political speech. And it really was an assigned but otherwise meaningless speech, as CSPAN long ago converted public hearings into the toilet politicians use to communicate with their masses. The masses this time around are from the Left, who have a “don’t bother me with the details – I trust your good intentions” mind-set, so this was all spot on for the audience at hand. Meanwhile I’m was trying not to run off the road because of how violently my gorge kept rising….
But then it hit me: what a stroke of genius on Obama’s part. After the Clinton machine insisted on torturing all thinking listeners for over a year, Obama has managed to give us at least four years peace, in which Clinton can take her crash-course in rhetoric overseas. To paraphrase General Patton, “our job is not to have Clinton melt our minds melted like cheap Velveeta, our job is to let Clinton melt the other poor dumb bastards minds like cheap Velveeta!”. For four years at least, the only speeches we’ll hear from Clinton will be in quick sound-bytes on CNN. If nothing else, this is truly a triumph of the Obama regime.
But then I thought: “Wait a minute! To confidently speak at length in tones of grand significance while actually saying nothing – isn’t this truly the heart and soul of diplomacy?” In addition to saving our poor scalded minds from her speeches, Obama may have achieved an even grander triumph even before being sworn into office: he may have figured out something Hillary Clinton’s good for!
What I wasn't expecting was in Clinton’s prepared remarks. Sure, she has a tin ear and she delivers speeches exactly the way her husband doesn’t, emphasizing the parts of the sentence that are intended as lubricant while gliding along the portions that should be emphasized, but, while her public speaking continues to startle and surprise the unwary ear, after suffering through her primary campaign’s stump speeches this is hardly astonishing. What was astonishing was the immense amount of slight-of-mind in the speech – she alluded to nearly known opportunity and vexation that the world faces today, but every time she veered dangerously close to making a prescription she slipped sideways into the sort of generalities and pabulum that any fourteen-year-old girl in front of her civics class might have advocated when required to give a political speech. And it really was an assigned but otherwise meaningless speech, as CSPAN long ago converted public hearings into the toilet politicians use to communicate with their masses. The masses this time around are from the Left, who have a “don’t bother me with the details – I trust your good intentions” mind-set, so this was all spot on for the audience at hand. Meanwhile I’m was trying not to run off the road because of how violently my gorge kept rising….
But then it hit me: what a stroke of genius on Obama’s part. After the Clinton machine insisted on torturing all thinking listeners for over a year, Obama has managed to give us at least four years peace, in which Clinton can take her crash-course in rhetoric overseas. To paraphrase General Patton, “our job is not to have Clinton melt our minds melted like cheap Velveeta, our job is to let Clinton melt the other poor dumb bastards minds like cheap Velveeta!”. For four years at least, the only speeches we’ll hear from Clinton will be in quick sound-bytes on CNN. If nothing else, this is truly a triumph of the Obama regime.
But then I thought: “Wait a minute! To confidently speak at length in tones of grand significance while actually saying nothing – isn’t this truly the heart and soul of diplomacy?” In addition to saving our poor scalded minds from her speeches, Obama may have achieved an even grander triumph even before being sworn into office: he may have figured out something Hillary Clinton’s good for!
Friday, January 09, 2009
Un-Cute Un-Relief
Just in case anyone's feeling cheerful, here's an interview with one of the guys that predicted all this financial mess YEARS ago. I don't think it's necessarily as bad as he makes it out to be, but can't disagree any more strongly than that.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Cute Relief
Just in case you're bummed out by any number of the things going on right now, here's some mindless cute-relief:
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