How do governments die?
There are many ways, but as our friends at Citizens Against Government Waste show, it's the prospect of being crushed under our own debt that America needs to be the most concerned about.
(h/t Hotair)
Read moreKeynes is dead ... in Europe!
With news breaking earlier this week that the UK is cutting 500,000 government jobs, I wanted to write a follow-up post to the piece I wrote earlier this week on how Keynesian economic policies have failed in the United States and Japan.
Fortunately, as I was reading Jonah Goldberg's G-File Friday, I realized he'd written what I wanted to convey (and in a much more humorous manner).
Join me in celebrating the death of Keynesian economics, brought to us by ... Europe.
But While We're on the Topic of Pains in the Krugman
I finally read Steve Spruiell's excellent magazine piece on Paul Krugman. One passage in particular caught my eye:Krugman's claim that the stimulus should have been bigger is consistent with his view that for every macroeconomic problem there is a correct answer that it is within the power of one man to calculate. Not only is such a claim unfalsifiable, but our experience with fiscal stimulus indicates that this particular form of voodoo economics simply steals demand from the future and leaves us worse off in the long run. Krugman urges us to ignore that history: He argues that real fiscal stimulus has been tried only once in recent memory, when massive government borrowing during World War II pulled America out of the Depression. But there are many competing explanations for the post-war boom -- too many to allow us to gamble our prosperity on a World War II-sized stimulus on the chance that the Keynesian view is right this time.This raises a number of points, gripes, grievances, and, well, the dead. Not literally, of course. But not quite figuratively either. Let me take another lithium pill and start again. It raises the issue of John Maynard Keynes, who is dead, literally, and apparently figuratively in Europe. So says the New York Times, which ran an intellectual obit for Keynesianism just this week.
This is more devastating to Krugman & Co. than I think anyone really appreciates.
First of all, liberals like Krugman routinely argue that the Europeans are smarter than us. Not smarter than Krugman per se, because according to Krugman no one is smarter than Krugman. Even imagining such a thing is like asking if God can make a boulder so heavy he can't lift it, which itself is problematic for the obvious reason that Krugman resents the suggestion he isn't God. But liberals generally love to press their noses up against the glass of the social-democratic candy store that is Europe. Oh, the deliciously high taxes! The mouth-wateringly rich vacation times! The succulently egalitarian socialized medicine. The subsidized cheese that smells like urine and tastes like you wish it could be. The state-funded black-and-white movies with no discernible narrative that make insecure people feel smart for understanding and twisted people feel normal by being sexually aroused at all the right parts.
Well, suddenly Europe's breaking up with us, and not over some cowboy war in the Middle East for "democracy" or American "national security" (please note: those are sarcastic air-quotes). Europe is saying they disagree with the New York Times op-ed page! Cognitive dissonance like this might just make MSNBC watchers explode like mice when subjected to music by the Ramones.
But it's not the best part. Krugman, Brad DeLong, and other voluptuaries of Keynes don't merely insist they are right. They insist that people who disagree with them are incredibly stupid or dishonest or both. Suddenly, the smarty-pants Europeans these guys always used as exhibit A in their case for spending money like a New Jersey Turnpike official on crack are testifying for the Tea Partiers. How inconvenient!
The next time some Krugman-worshipping yutz tells you how stupid you are about for opposing another kabillion-dollar boondoggle, you can just say, "Hey, hold on a second. I'm just agreeing with the French, the Germans, and the British. Why are you so provincial in your American exceptionalism?"
Didn't I tell you Goldberg is awesome? Now do yourself a favor and sign up for his weekly Goldberg File e-mail.
Reminder: "Waiting for 'Superman'" opens today in Las Vegas
It's playing at Regal Village Square 18 at 2:00, 4:35, 7:15 and 9:50. The address is 9400 W. Sahara Ave., Las Vegas, NV.
To hold you over, check out this animated version of "Superman" from the Taiwanese animators who've been making waves on the Internet animating current U.S. events.
Harry Reid claims he saved the world from a depression, Las Vegas unemployment hits 15 percent
This is one of the biggest disconnects from reality I've ever seen.
First, here's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claiming he prevented a worldwide depression.
And then there's the news today that Las Vegas' unemployment rate has hit a record 15 percent.
Unemployment in Las Vegas jumped to a new record and an important statistical -- and emotional -- threshold in September.And what was the basis for Reid's claim that he saved the world? The failed, $787 billion stimulus.
Joblessness rose to 15 percent locally, up from 14.7 percent in August, according to numbers released this morning by the state Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation.
Reid stuck by his remark.The problem is that by the standard Obama-Reid-Pelosi set for the stimulus - keeping unemployment under 8 percent - the stimulus has been and is an epic failure.
His campaign noted that the Senate majority leader had maneuvered the $787 billion economic stimulus bill to passage in February 2009.
If Sen. Reid had said he made a mistake and misspoke, this wouldn't be a big deal. Every politician misspeaks occasionally.
But Reid's defense of this statement shows that he actually believes it, which reveals a huge disconnect from the reality those in Las Vegas and Nevada are now living in.
Siena hotel in Reno shutting its doors
Say, didn't the Nevada Legislature increase the room tax on hotel rooms by 3 percent during the last session? Why yes, yes it did.
Surely there's no correlation between higher taxes on hotel rooms and the news breaking today that the Siena hotel in Reno has closed, though.
Of course there's a correlation! You can't raise taxes on a product or a business and not see a negative impact on the business or its employees. And this isn't the only hotel that's had to close its doors after the Legislature hiked the room tax.
On the other hand, you can't say that the tax increase alone caused the hotel to close. As I've written before, the factors influencing a business' success or failure are numerous and complex. What we can say with certainty is that the room-tax increase made it harder for the Siena to stay in business, and when the room tax was combined with all the other factors in the business, the Siena chose to shut its doors.
Let's just hope Nevada's legislative leadership learns this lesson before the next session.
Charity and the free market
David Schwartz has a story in today's Las Vegas Sun that attempts to tug at your heart strings and make you feel guilty for not supporting tax increases in the next session. He details how eliminating personal-care attendants would negatively impact some disabled Nevadans.
Meanwhile, Hawley, who is paralyzed from the chest down since a 2008 motorcycle accident, is clear about what the loss of his personal-care attendant would mean for him - a nursing home.What's missing from the piece is balance, i.e. any consideration of what might be the alternative to government redistribution. Schwartz even ends the story with Paul Gowins, chairman of the Nevada Services for Persons With Disabilities Commission, challenging candidates to find waste in the current system.
He prizes his independence and time he spends on the Internet connected to the outside world, his nightly dinner of rice, beans and exactly 20 bits of meat he portions out from a roast to make it on his budget of food stamps and Social Security. Hawley is excited that his shower was refurbished recently to accommodate a special wheelchair so he no longer has to have his baths in bed, given by his personal-care attendant.
If he ends up in a nursing home, that will cost taxpayers more than twice what it costs now for his attendant, Social Security and food stamps combined. (He pays half his mortgage on the condo he bought with a friend, who pays into it as an investment.)
If only some Nevada organization published a Piglet Book recently detailing millions in government waste or offered tens of millions of dollars in specific budget reductions ... but I digress.
The question I want to answer is: How do believers in the free market address the real needs of the disabled?
The short answer is family and charity. Family is the first and most important safety net. And when it comes to charity, conservatives give much more than liberals, highlighted by this astounding fact.
People who reject the idea that "government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality" give an average of four times more than people who accept that proposition.This fact underscores the liberal mindset - the political position of redistribution can eliminate the need for personal charity.
While conservatives tend to regard giving as a personal rather than governmental responsibility, some liberals consider private charity a retrograde phenomenon -- a poor palliative for an inadequate welfare state, and a distraction from achieving adequacy by force, by increasing taxes. Ralph Nader, running for president in 2000, said: "A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity." ...And who loses in all of this? The ones liberals claim they want to help.
In 2000, brows were furrowed in perplexity because Vice President Al Gore's charitable contributions, as a percentage of his income, were below the national average: He gave 0.2 percent of his family income, one-seventh of the average for donating households. But Gore "gave at the office." By using public office to give other peoples' money to government programs, he was being charitable, as liberals increasingly, and conveniently, understand that word.
[Arthur C.] Brooks [a professor at Syracuse University], however, warns: "If support for a policy that does not exist ... substitutes for private charity, the needy are left worse off than before. It is one of the bitterest ironies of liberal politics today that political opinions are apparently taking the place of help for others."When reading a story that tugs at the heart strings, like the one Schwartz wrote, it's liberals who should feel guilty.
Conservatives/libertarians are more likely to be off doing something to actually help needy individuals than lobbying for the government to give the disabled more of other people's money.
Reminder: Check out TransparentNevada's survey
With early voting underway and Election Day fast approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to remind everybody to check out TransparentNevada's 2010 transparency survey.
The survey has responses from over 60 candidates who shared their opinions on a range of transparency issues. Issues included online checkbooks, expanding open meeting laws for public unions negotiations and the Legislature, requiring 72 hours for the public to review bills before they're voted on and opening up campaign finance reports.
To see how the candidates responded head on over to TransparentNevada's 2010 transparency survey.
Foreclosure moratorium
It's not very often that the White House opposes a particular intervention into the economy on the grounds that it could produce "unintended consequences." However, Mark Calabria at Cato points out why the president is right on this issue.
New Jersey toll worker earned $321,985
Of course, that's nothing compared to the Clark County firefighter who earned $474,559.97 last year (as a volunteer coordinator, no less). But it looks like Nevada isn't the only place with widespread government waste and inflated salaries.
Auditors say the New Jersey Turnpike Authority wasted $43 million on unneeded perks and bonuses. In one case, an employee with a base salary of $73,469 earned $321,985 when all payouts and bonuses were included. ...That's right - a bonus for working on your birthday. And what's the impact of all this waste?
The audit shows turnpike authority employees got bonuses and overtime for working their birthdays and holidays.
Comptroller Matt Boxer says tolls are set for another increase in 2012.Government waste isn't funny, because they're spending your money.
Nevada doesn't have toll roads, but we do have many examples of government waste. Remember this when Nevada's leftists propose raising your taxes in 2011.
Awesome: 101st Airborne soldier parachutes into the Big House
Who's up for something that's a) awesome and b) non-political?
Wish granted.
My two favorite moments are when you can first hear the roar of the crowd and the soldiers who snatch up the American flag before it hits the ground. Hooah!
Related: A great Airborne cadence.
(h/t Cranky Hermit)
