Welfare-Warfare State

What Could Go Wrong with the Housing Recovery in 2013? Plenty.

"Given the preponderance of housing in bank assets, household wealth, and the perception of wealth, the key policies of Central Planning largely revolve around housing: keeping interest rates (and thus mortgage rates) low, flooding the banking sector with liquidity to ease lending, guaranteeing low-down-payment mortgages via FHA, and numerous other subsidies of homeownership. At least three aspects of this broad-based support are historically unprecedented." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat Could Go Wrong with the Housing Recovery in 2013? Plenty.

What Could Go Wrong with the Housing Recovery in 2013? Plenty.

"Given the preponderance of housing in bank assets, household wealth, and the perception of wealth, the key policies of Central Planning largely revolve around housing: keeping interest rates (and thus mortgage rates) low, flooding the banking sector with liquidity to ease lending, guaranteeing low-down-payment mortgages via FHA, and numerous other subsidies of homeownership. At least three aspects of this broad-based support are historically unprecedented." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat Could Go Wrong with the Housing Recovery in 2013? Plenty.

“The Government is US?” Not Unless We’re Citigroup

"The supposed 'countervailing power' of Big Government against Big Business turned out to be as genuine as the conflict between 'good cop' and 'bad cop' interrogators. Historian Gabriel Kolko showed that the primary force behind the much-vaunted 'progressive' regulatory agenda at the turn of the 20th century was the regulated industries themselves. Major portions of the New Deal regulatory/welfare state were backed, even drafted, by the most powerful factions of corporate capital. Don’t fall for the line that state functionaries 'work for us.' Take a look at where they worked before they entered 'public service' and watch where they go back to afterward." Continue reading →

Continue Reading“The Government is US?” Not Unless We’re Citigroup

Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy

"The $825 billion stimulus program cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per job, even based on the administration's own inflated job estimates. Cash for Clunkers cost $3 billion merely to shift car sales forward a few months. The PPIP to buy toxic assets from the banks to speed lending generated just 3% of the $1 trillion that the program planners anticipated. And now? Mr. Obama proposes universal preschool ($25 billion per year), 'Fix it First' repairs to roads and bridges, plus an infrastructure bank ($50 billion), 'Project Rebuild,' refurbishing private properties in cities ($15 billion), endless green-energy subsidies, and a big hike in the minimum wage." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLarger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy

America’s Great Depression Quote of the Week: A Visit with ‘Dr. Hoover’

"The recovery in the early 1920s is an example of an economy rapidly recovering as government spending and taxes were cut. Another example is 'The Austerity of 1946', which despite Keynesian economists’ predictions of doom and gloom, was in fact was a period of rapid return to relative prosperity following the massive reduction in government spending which followed the end WW II. Given how poorly the economy has fared following the ‘treatment’ proscribed by Dr. Bernanke and Dr. Obama isn’t it time to try a Dr. Rothbard’s natural cure?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s Great Depression Quote of the Week: A Visit with ‘Dr. Hoover’

Peter Schiff: The Fed’s Tightening Pipe Dream

"The Fed Chairman has been talking about tightening for some time. In 2010, he said, 'As the expansion matures, the Federal Reserve will need to begin to tighten monetary conditions to prevent the development of inflationary pressures.' Back then, the same mainstream analysts were predicting recovery and a reversal of quantitative easing (QE). Instead, we have subsequently seen QE2, Operation Twist, and now QE3 to eternity. While these mainstream commentators are at best guessing as to why or when the Fed might reverse course, I understand that it is extremely unlikely to do so for the foreseeable future. In fact, I've bet my net worth on it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: The Fed’s Tightening Pipe Dream

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin merging operations

"The regulator of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac detailed plans Monday to begin contracting their business while merging their securitization operations. Federal Housing Finance Agency acting director Edward DeMarco said the two, rescued by the government in 2008 in a $180 billion bailout after the housing market collapse, needed to begin reducing their dominance of the market as private financing makes a comeback. One effort planned for this year is to raise the fees they charge to mortgage lenders for guaranteeing their loans, reducing the market’s near-complete dependence on the two." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin merging operations

The Feds Promote Hunger and Poverty in America but the Kids Are Alright

"The tasty little lunch pictured above conforms to newly proposed federal regulations aimed at foods and drinks served in the nation’s public schools. Among other mandates, these regulations would cap serving sizes and calorie counts. Ironically, these proposals are part of the second round of regulations deriving from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, a laughable bureaucratic misnomer if ever there were one. The proposed regulations will also place a hefty fiscal burden on school districts and their long-suffering taxpayers. It is estimated that they will cost $127 million and require 926 thousand hours of paperwork to comply with." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Feds Promote Hunger and Poverty in America but the Kids Are Alright

Thomas Sowell Exposes Dishonest Budgetary Scare Tactics, Cartoonists Mock Obama’s Hysteria

"Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency’s budget were cut, what would it do? The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThomas Sowell Exposes Dishonest Budgetary Scare Tactics, Cartoonists Mock Obama’s Hysteria

Ron Paul: The Sequester ‘Crisis’ And What Should Be Done

"The United States did not collapse last Friday when the package of spending reductions known as 'sequestration' went into effect. The financial markets hardly blinked, as they have come to be more skeptical about these periodic government-hyped 'crises.' What had been portrayed as a drastic reduction in government spending was merely a decrease in the projected rate of increase in government spending over the next decade. Under sequestration, government spending increases by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years rather than $2.5 trillion without it. So we are speeding toward collapse at only 100 miles per hour instead of 110 miles per hour." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: The Sequester ‘Crisis’ And What Should Be Done