Some would call this blog elitist, because we don’t wish to have the huddled, uncouth masses tracking their dirty feet on our yellow brick road leading to the technological kingdom of prosperity? Because we wish to pull the bowl of entitlement spending away from the parasitical class, with a sneer and a laugh top it off? There’s a funny joke that copper wire was invented by two miserly liberals fighting over a penny. Our founding fathers didn’t want America to have popular or well-liked leaders, only effective leaders. Effective leadership is about making the necessary decisions that are good for the country or otherwise doing nothing at all – not making as many people as possible happy. Doing ‘too much’ to accrete power can have drastic, disastrous ramifications. Just look to history for many examples empires that fallen due to overambitious leadership and no dissent. The best government is one that is there when needed, but otherwise does as little as possible, in the process making both sides of the political aisle frustrated. That’s why I applaud the do-nothing congress and its historically low approval ratings, because through its inaction and perceived aloofness, congress is saying, ‘We don’t care. Do what you (corporations) want. If things go badly, we’ll be there, but otherwise the free market rules.’
Burger King, with the help of Warren Buffett, gives the effete wealth spreader in chief the middle finger, and there was nothing he could do but watch, his hair growing greyer by the day. Everyone knows Obama is not only anti-business, but a pushover and a terrorist sympathizer. Despite leaving office with very low approval ratings, George W. Bush as least commanded respect from foreign leaders, business leaders and technology leaders, while Obama is perceived as an incompetent wimp that can be arm-twisted to do whatever anyone wants. Our allies felt safer with Bush as president. Obama will leave office with the worst approval rating of any president and history will judge him as perhaps the worst president ever.
Scott Sumner on intellectual decay
A good article that I wish I had written about the anti-intellectualism of modern day liberalism and the more radical factions of the conservative party.
Republicans and democrats are saying what voters want to hear, regardless if it’s good economic policy. But we’re also seeing a convergence in left/right policy in opposition to high-tech immigration and globalization. Both sides are united against this caricature of the ‘evil capitalist’. Invocations of class warfare and scapegoating is common during these supposedly hard economic times.
The GOP needs to stop fearing the fed, high tech immigration and deficits and return to the successful pro-growth, pro-innovation optimistic policies of Reagan and Bush. The GOP should embrace scientific solutions to society’s problems such as endorsing eugenics and birth control to control poverty, crime, and out of control entitlement spending, as well as backing a universal basic income for high-IQ individuals. Quixotic? No, it’s good policy that millions of people can get behind if properly marketed. The good news is with stocks surging, foreign tensions and Obama’s approval rating in the dirt, we’re in the perfect economic and political environment for neoconservatism to make a huge comeback.
Interesting article New York Accuses Evans Bank of Redlining
Mortgage loans to unqualified borrowers were a contributing factor to the 2008 financial problem, but an argument could be made the the economic contribution of these individuals from the increased spending attributable to the rise in home equity exceeded the cost of the bailout many years later, which was essentially free, because during periods of crisis, interest rates on government debt plunges due to the flight to safety. We got GDP grow for nothing, except some panic and the need for a bailout. The good news is lending standards today are considerably more stringent than a decade ago and we don’t need low income people to boost our economy; foreigners from the BRIC boom are doing that, combined with the ‘new rich’ in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Instead of a flash in the pan rise in low-income housing, we’re seeing a sustainable, long-term boom in high-end real estate, thanks to all this infusion of capital from overseas and private equity.