Another Sane Perspective on the Bailout

Another rational perspective on what the government is doing from the CEO of a healthy bank.

Please consider and share this with other intelligent people. Perhaps together we can turn things back towards sanity.

The 7 Destructive Ideas at the Root of Washington's Failure

7 destructive ideas that created and are sustaining the mortgage debt mess, courtesy of Rich Toscano at the Voice of San Diego.

1. Financial market prices are always right
2. Debt doesn't matter
3. Consumer spending is the basis of our economy
4. A rise in home prices is the same as saving
5. High asset prices are good for the economy
6. Inflation isn't inflation unless it shows up in the CPI
7. Money supply growth does not matter.
   

Read the article. We need to end this denial of economic reality.

Obama or McCain please hire this guy! Whoever does gets my vote, assuming they listen to him.

What the Fed Should be Doing

Take a look at the 10 year chart for gold. You can see the inflation and the recent instability and deflation. The very last upswing took place when the 700 billion bailout was announced last week.

The dollar has been deflating recently. The Federal Reserve should stabilize the value of a dollar. Only recently it has become concerned with inflation because consumer prices are moving up.

But the Fed looking at the wrong number. Inflation has been happening for years, but its been happening mostly in housing, fuel prices and other commodities, while finished goods have been cheaper due to globalization.

The so-called core rate of inflation does not tell the complete story. It is not a leading indicator of inflation, but a trailing one.

It is not enough for the Fed to change interest rates based upon its feeling about the future direction of the economy. The Fed has got to change its strategy and work consistently to stabilize the dollar.

What the Fed is currently doing is like looking at how much water is entering the storm drains to predict hurricanes. It can't possibly work!

Ah, So Markets Do Work After All

Licenses to catch fish enable fish populations to rebound, according to this article in the NY Times. The tragedy of the commons is avoided when the right to catch can be bought and sold. Prices go up, which restricts demand, which is exactly whats needed to save these populations.

We really need this, especially with robotic fishing almost certainly on the way. Drones that operate completely underwater may not be detectable, though. But legal supplies can be tracked and illegal sources show up after legitimate sources are subtracted from the picture. Licenses also give legal fishermen incentives to find poachers too.

Robotic fishing will greatly reduce bycatch, though, which is other creatures not being fished that are killed by fishing. And fish can be kept in the ocean until a port is reached, meaning less trauma and healthier food.

McCain and Obama Fail to Acknowledge Their Responsibility for the Current Economic Crisis

Both these guys are senators and have been looking the other way as private interests have used and abused the taxpayer. Bloomberg reports both are promising to clean up Wall Street:

The last eight years ``have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression,'' said Obama, the Democratic nominee, in a statement that also called for ``modernizing'' the rules governing financial institutions.

``We will never put America in this position again,'' McCain, the Republican nominee, told supporters in Jacksonville, Florida. He vowed to ``clean up Wall Street'' and ``replace the outdated, patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight.''

The reality is that the government allows business to write its legislation and profits flow to private interests while risk goes to the taxpayer. Its the same old story over and over again.

Congress does not pursue the interests; it pursues the interests of whoever is giving them campaign contributions.

We simply must reform our electoral system so that all the voters have their interests represented. If we don't take action, expect more of the same stupidity.

Killed by text message

Distractions caused by text messaging can be dangerous, as evidenced by this Google search.

What can be done about this, especially for charged with driving trains or buses? Does it make sense to give such operators special cell phones that cannot text or make calls (except to others working for the same transportation agency or 911) while in motion?

The Truth About Mass Transit

thetruthaboutcars.com has a post that uses this photo from China.

The ironic thing is that it shows you some truth about buses too, as the gridlock depicted is clearly caused by buses blocking exits from the traffic circle. Where there are no buses, there's traffic flow. The buses form bigger barriers on traffic circles.

The solution to this particular problem is not getting rid of buses, of course. Its installing signals to stop traffic from coming on to the circle when things get blocked.

I like traffic circles, but there a bit tough for pedestrians, especially handicapped people, to navigate. Signals can help there too, of course. The so-called modern roundabout has this and other features. Wikipedia has an interesting article about them.

Biden His Time

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McClellan Blasts W

Scott McClellan reveals in his new book how screwy the Bush Whitehouse is and how they deceived the country about the Iraq War.

Stay tuned, especially if the Democrats get in. People will be coming out of the woodwork talking about all the arm twisting, data dumping and fabrication committed during this shameful period.

'Sicko': Heavily Doctored, By Kurt Loder - Movie News Story | MTV Movie News

Kurt Loder reviews 'Sicko' and exposes some of the distortions Michael Moore presents as fact. The massive waiting lists for care in Canada and the UK are good to keep in mind when comparing the US system with others.

You can watch Milton Friedman's Free to Choose series online

Friedman is one of the good guys to be sure. I don't agree with everything he says, but most of it is excellent. Check it out!

Iraq War Leadership Needs Shuffling

Bush is replacing all of the worn out blood charged with executing his Iraq war policy. The failures do dictate a change. But the change needs to be made a little higher up. A quick resignation by Bush and Cheney would work better.

Of course, that would leave Nancy Pelosi in the White House. As bad as Bush and Cheney are, I don't think she is up to the job.

The Left Finally Takes a Stand on Freedom of Speech

Turns out they are against it.


I guess the whole idea of having a border is politically incorrect now, as is the notion that you even have the right to lock your own front door to whoever happens to want to enter.

Have we learned nothing from the past? Wasn't the lack of a defensible border what caused the previous owners of America to lose control? Ok, just kidding there, but really, now, a border is a must have and controlling who crosses it is just part of your right to exist on a piece of land unmolested by others. Previous crimes of this nature notwithstanding.

All that aside, a stronger border is not the solution. Getting rid of the distortions in our labor markets will decrease the cost of US labor and removing the citizenship-by-birth carrot will decrease immigrant willingness to put up with low wages.

But, even if we do nothing about this issue, is the situation all that bad? Getting across the border is dangerous to be sure, but otherwise I think everybody benefits. Even those that are getting more competition benefit, as we all do from competition.

White House visitor records closed

Who says the Bush League can't solve a problem? Too many embarassing visitors at the White House? Problem solved! Hide the records!

Recent Chat About Electoral Reform

dude: what would you do to change the world?
Al Brown: i would reform the US's electoral system
Al Brown: switch to proportional representation and instant runoff voting
Al Brown: implement sensible voting machines
Al Brown: that would fix a lot of problems in the world right there
dude: really?
dude: you think that'd get people to vote?
dude: or just give senior citizens more power?
dude: haha
Al Brown: i'd let people select a party to represent them and then keep it for as long as they like or change it as often as the like - rebalance the legislative branch in real time
Al Brown: that way people would not have to vote periodically
dude: would you still keep it a dual party?
Al Brown: but would still get their interests represented
Al Brown: proportional representation would do away two dominate parties
Al Brown: each party would get seats in the legislature
Al Brown: i would also just let the legislature pick the president
dude: so, like the British
Al Brown: that alone would save hundreds of millions of dollars and a lot of agony
Al Brown: sort of like the parliamentary system, but Britain doesn't use proportional representation
Al Brown: so they have two dominate parties
Al Brown: dominant
dude: true, but still have other parties right?
dude: the most we have is maybe a third...
Al Brown: the smaller parties can't get seats because each voting area is winner-take-all
Al Brown: which stops smaller parties
Al Brown: its very anti-democratic
dude: so how do you think your plan would play out?
Al Brown: we are winner-take-all too, so smaller parties never get their share of power in the legislature
Al Brown: well, its not my original idea
dude: yeah
dude: still
Al Brown: but it would result in decisions that better represent our collective interests rather than the interests of the corporationsd
Al Brown: winner-take-all system makes misrepresentation of a candidates views pay off
Al Brown: and then pays off the candidate to vote the way the contributors want
Al Brown: countries that have PR have less expensive campaigns
Al Brown: and a party's candidates are more likely to stick with the party's constituents
Al Brown: since they don't have to vote for a compromise like we do
dude: ic
Al Brown: its like anything else. u hire a guy to represent u in court. he is your guy. he does what u say
Al Brown: isn't that how it should be?
dude: I guess
Al Brown: the legislators still have to trade support for different things to get things done, but that actually results in everyone getting more of what they want when the process is honest
Al Brown: I really care about getting X and you don't care about it either way, well, you will help me on this if I help u in a similar situation, so we both get more of what we care about

Google Patents

Now you use Google to search patents. Just be aware that when are using Google to search, Google is searching you. If you are a person of significance to Google (i.e. an actual productive inventor or investor in inventions), what you are up to is pretty clear to Google.

GOP pays $135K for New Hampshire call jamming

The Associated Press is reporting that the Republicans have agreed to $135 for jamming Democratic phones lines during the last election.

Google has more on Republican efforts to win elections this way. Karl Rove's influence has been pretty strong on the entire party it seems.

Sanity Wins One

The NY TImes reports that rabid anti-peace forces in Pagosa Springs have given up their fight against a collection of fir tree branches hung in front of a house there.

Its unclear if the fir tree branches had tried to interfere with any military operations.

Two-year-old Emirati boy held as airport threat

Bureacracy runs amok again with mindless watch lists.

You have to wonder: if this is how incompetantly governments deal with their citizens, how effectively can they deal with an actual terror threat?

Incidents like this happen every day in US airports. People, who happen to share the same name as someone on the list legitimately, are detained for hours even if they are of a different age, height and race than their namesake.

And this has been the state of affairs for FIVE YEARS! That is what your three trillion dollars is buying for you.