Former South African President Thabo Mbeki is due in Harare for further mediation aimed at breaking the political impasse in Zimbabwe. The government and the opposition MDC remain deadlocked over a decision by President Robert Mugabe to allocate key cabinet posts to his own Zanu-PF party.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of a power sharing deal agreed last month.
Zimbabwe's government says Mr Mugabe's action do not violate the agreement.
Convenient, that ...
A government list published on Saturday gave the main ministries, including defence, home, foreign affairs, and justice to Zanu-PF. The country's ambassador to the UN, Boniface Chidyausiku, told the BBC that the post of finance minister was still open for negotiation.
Yeah, give the opposition that one and let them get blamed for all the problems ...
On Sunday, Mr Tsvangirai said that if Zanu-PF wanted the defence ministry, the MDC must have home affairs, which controls the police. He told a rally in Harare: "If they [Zanu-PF] do it that way, we have no right to be part of such an arrangement.
"The people have suffered. But if it means suffering the more in order for them to get what is at stake, then so be it.
Under the existing agreement Mr Mugabe remains president while Mr Tsvangirai becomes prime minister.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/13/2008 00:00 ||
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WTG Hooogo!
Venezuela's daily oil production has fallen by a quarter since President Hugo Chavez won power, depriving his "Bolivarian Revolution" of much of the benefit of the global boom in oil prices.
To win allies and forge an anti-American front, Mr Chavez sells oil to friendly countries at low prices. Ironically, the only big customer buying Venezuelan oil at the full market price is the United States, which the president routinely denounces as the "Empire".
"As production falls, the sales to the US become more important," said Pietro Donatello, an oil analyst from Latin Petroleum in the capital, Caracas. "Only the US is paying the full amount for Venezuelan oil and in cash, the rest are in some kind of barter agreements."
Sure wish we could do something about that. Oh wait! We could. Drill, baby, drill ...
The state oil company, PDVSA, produced 3.2 million barrels per day in 1998, the year before Mr Chavez won the presidency. After a decade of rising corruption and inefficiency, daily output has now fallen to 2.4 million barrels, according to OPEC figures. About half of this oil is now delivered at a discount to Mr Chavez's friends around Latin America. The 18 nations in his "Petrocaribe" club, founded in 2005, pay Venezuela only 30 per cent of the market price within 90 days, with rest in instalments spread over 25 years.
The other half - 1.2 million barrels per day - goes to America, Venezuela's only genuinely paying customer.
Meanwhile, Mr Chavez has given PDVSA countless new tasks. "The new PDVSA is central to the social battle for the advance of our country," said Rafael Ramirez, the company's president and the minister for petroleum. "We have worked to convert PDVSA into a key element for the social battle."
The company now grows food after Mr Chavez's price controls emptied supermarket shelves of products like milk and eggs. Another branch produces furniture and domestic appliances in an effort to stem the flow of imports. What PDVSA seems unable to do is produce more oil.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/13/2008 10:52 ||
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#1
When are the Venezuelans going to wake up to the pimping of their country's resources?
#2
I've actually heard that their production is lower than 2.4 million barrels/day, but I can't find the link. I guess google's been gamed again, when I try searching there all I find are caustic leftists (the sort who support Chavez' seizure of TV stations because 'paid speech is different from free speech') insulting the opposition for believing that sort of thing.
--------------------------------
I guess there's a _lot_ of money in making Venezuela's production numbers look bigger than they really are.
Assailants opened fire on the U.S. consulate in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, a Mexican official said. Nobody was injured in Sunday's shooting. Shell casings were found outside the consulate, but there were no witnesses to the attack and no one was in custody, said a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office who was not authorized to give her name.
The spokeswoman had no further details.
Mexican media reported that one man opened fire on the consulate and another man threw a grenade that failed to explode. El Universal newspaper, citing a U.S. Embassy statement, said the attack happened before dawn Sunday. The newspaper said the consulate planned to increase security.
Embassy officials could not be reached for comment early today.
Also Sunday, two grenades were thrown at the state Public Safety office in the western city of Guadalajara. Genaro Pacheco, the Public Safety spokesman, said the explosion injured two civilians outside the offices but guards inside were unharmed. It was the second grenade attack against the Public Safety office in less than six months. The first attack killed a policeman and injured another in June. Four former soldiers were arrested in the June attack.
SEOUL, South Korea -- The 66-year-old man in the photos appeared the picture of health, full of vigor despite reports he underwent brain surgery less than two months ago. He was surrounded by serious, crisply uniformed soldiers and in the background there was plenty of verdant greenery, more reminiscent of summer than mid-autumn in a temperate clime.
To seasoned North Korea watchers, the country's weekend release of photos of leader Kim Jong Il for the first time since the middle of August are raising a host of questions about his health -- as well as the motive and timing behind their publication.
The images came less than 24 hours before the United States on Saturday removed North Korea from Washington's terrorism blacklist, dousing rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear development.
Continued on Page 49
#1
I'm shocked -- just totally shocked -- at charges that this Stalinist regime would attempt to deceive us using photographs. Next thing you know, there'll be claims that Obama's birth records are doctored.
Detailed look at the rapid rise and recent callamitous collapse of Iceland's banking/finance industries, including comments on a mysterious Russian connection which may or may not be coincidental.
European leaders have agreed on a plan to support banks through the financial crisis which ricocheted across the Atlantic to their shores.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
A unpublicized consequence of the credit crisis is developing: "With many importers unable to get the credit to pay for their stock..., both exporters and shipping firms are left short-changed.
The reluctance of banks to issue letters of credit to shipowners an assurance to the shipper that its cargo will be paid for is already starting to have a severe impact on the industry."
The days when a ship's captain was given a chest of gold coins in return for offloading his cargo ended long ago. No credit, no imports is the modern rule.
PARIS, France (CNN) -- The leaders of 15 European nations agreed on Sunday to shore up troubled banks as part of a broad plan to ease the global financial crisis. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the plan would refinance banks, guarantee interbank lending and ensure that troubled banks do not fail. It also will protect individual depositors' accounts and ease some regulations to give banks more flexibility.
The refinancing of the banks and the guaranteeing of interbank loans are good until the end of 2009.
"What we want is to give back banks the means to lend, to support the economy to enable households to borrow for mortgages or consumption and give companies the means necessary to invest for growth," Sarkozy said. "We cannot have a healthy economy and sustainable growth unless we have a solid financial sector."
Sarkozy announced the agreement after a meeting of leaders of the Eurozone countries, which use the euro currency. Sarkozy also holds the rotating European Union presidency.
European officials say the plan is not a gift to bank management and that managers, who contributed to the crisis should be held responsible. The refinancing will be made at market rates and will consider the financial health of the banks. Each country will take slightly different approaches, because they have different laws and banking regulations, but their actions will be compatible.
"We have a tool kit and we will see what suits whom in order to achieve what we are setting out to achieve, which is to make sure that we don't have an economic crisis in addition to the financial crisis. We need to get things moving again, shifting again. And when things have calmed down, we'll go back to our basic training and responsibilities," Sarkozy said.
The leaders wanted to work quickly to reassure investors before the markets open on Monday.
Sarkozy said France, Germany and Italy will hold Cabinet meetings on Monday and will announce concrete plans. "These measures will be implemented in France without delay," Sarkozy said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with Sarkozy and other leaders before the summit and told reporters there was "common ground now about what needs to be done" to soothe the financial markets.
On Wednesday, officials from the Eurozone countries will present their plan to the rest of the European Union at a meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Sarkozy said that they would then urge the United States to hold an international summit to manage the crisis. "The crisis didn't come from Europe. It began in the U.S. It has now become a worldwide crisis, and the issue of European structural institutions may be put on the table at some stage, but right now, we're dealing an emergency. And we have to reform urgently an international financial system that needs to be reformed," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Sarkozy shows the usual pattern of blame shifting. However today this appeared in the NYTimes: "'The same mechanisms that led to the crisis in the United States were operating here,' said Arnoud Boot, a professor of finance and banking at the University of Amsterdam. Its totally misplaced for European leaders to put the blame on the Americans.'"
If the Euros bear their share of responsibility for their financial crisis, then what role did the CRA, the US Congress, the Fed, or W play on the other side of the Atlantic? The world crisis stems from a worldwide financial mania, now unwinding.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to Paris to present Sunday to her colleagues from the euro zone a financial sector bailout plan for Germany that's expected to be more than half the size of what has been enacted in the U.S.
A person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires that the government is considering a total bailout plan of 300 billion to 400 billion ($402 billion to $536 billion), which includes state guarantees and the option to get a direct stake in banks. As part of this, the government is mulling recapitalizing financial institutions by injecting 50 billion to 100 billion in capital, the person who declined to be named said
How did this happen?
Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University and an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science on Monday.
"It's been an extremely weird day, but weird in a positive way," Mr. Krugman said in an interview on his way to a meeting for the Group of Thirty, an international body from the public and private sectors that discusses international economics.
Mr. Krugman received the award for his work on international trade and economic geography. In particular, the prize committee lauded his work for "having shown the effects of economies of scale on trade patterns and on the location of economic activity." He has developed models that explain observed patterns of trade between countries, as well as what goods are produced where and why. Traditional trade theory assumes that countries are different and will exchange different kinds of goods with each other; Mr. Krugman's theories have explained why worldwide trade is dominated by a few countries that are similar to each other, and why some countries might import the same kinds of goods that it exports.
In 1991 Mr. Krugman received the John Bates Clark medal, a prize given every two years to "that economist under forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic knowledge."
Mr. Krugman continues to teach at Princeton. This semester Mr. Krugman is teaching a graduate-level course on international monetary policy and theory, covering such timely subjects as international liquidity crises. According to Princeton's Web site, four students are currently enrolled in the class. In recent years he has also taught courses on the welfare state and international trade.
Monday's award is the last of the six prizes and is not one of the original Nobels, but was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in Alfred Nobel's memory. Mr. Krugman was the only winner of the award, which includes a prize of about $1.4 million. I wonder if he'll pay taxes based on Bush's rates which he views as unfair or will pay a higher level.
#1
We held the line long enough to win in Iraq and save the U.S. military in the process. We better be able to console ourselves with that because an awful lot of other things are going to go south before we see them turn our way again. This award to a lib bonehead is just one more example.
This whole election campaign makes me think me a hell of a lot about what Churchill and the Conservatives must have felt like in May 1945.
#3
From all accounts, Krugman did solid work in his particular sub-fields in economics before burning out and turning to partisan politics. I haven't heard anything about Krugman's life-work which parallels the scathing disgust in which, say, Noam Chomsky's linguistic work is held by vocal minorities of *that* field. It seems Krugman produced actual, useful economic thinking once upon a time.
Anyways, it seems like a less-political year for the Nobels, what with an actual Scandinavian diplomat getting the peace prize instead of some repulsive corrupt toad, like Arafat.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/13/2008 9:56 Comments ||
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#4
I'm not sure anyone should get the prize for Economics this year. I don't remember anyone screaming to the rafters about subprimate mortages. Yeah McCain and Bush said something but fear of Democrats calling them racist tamed them from really shouting loud enough to be heard. I could be wrong but I don't recall any economists saying much.
#6
I wonder if he'll pay taxes based on Bush's rates which he views as unfair or will pay a higher level.
He is welcome to leave a tip.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/13/2008 10:38 Comments ||
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#7
Rigopauly Krugchu...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/13/2008 10:50 Comments ||
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#8
Giving the Nobel Prize in Economics this year is like giving the Nobel Peace Prize during WW2.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/13/2008 11:22 Comments ||
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#9
Um, folks, the man is indeed a brilliant economist.
He's a hack writer and doesn't understand politics very well, but when it comes to international trade, there isn't anyone better than Krugman.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/13/2008 11:39 Comments ||
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#10
Krugman is basically a schizophrenic. So does anyone know if he got the prize for his insightful work as a protectionist or his more insightful work as free trader?
#12
The point is, did Krugman win for his economics work, or for his lunatic rants at the NYT? Because the Nobel Committee so often rewards liberal doomsaying, one suspects the latter.
#13
Come to think of it, what better time to give Krugman a Nobel prize than now, and what better field than economics. A perfect storm of irony! It's kind of like handing out a lifetime award for being a good Nazi in the Spring of '45.
ABC News says Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fla., had an affair with one of his aides and then agreed to a $121,000 settlement when she threatened to file a sexual harassment lawsuit. The Politico quotes a Mahoney spokesman saying that the payment didn't include any government or campaign funds.
Mahoney replaced Rep. Mark Foley after the Palm Beach Republican resigned amid allegations that he had exchanged sexually explicit messages with underage male pages on Capitol Hill.
The relationship between Mahoney and Patricia Allen began while he was running against Foley in 2006, according to the network, which says the affair continued after the Democrat took office and hired Allen to work in his district office. Allen, 50, broke off the relationship and was fired earlier this year, the network says, citing an audiotape that's posted on its website.
She hired a lawyer and the pair eventually agreed on a settlement. "Mahoney, who is married, also promised [her] a $50,000 a year job for two years at the agency that handles his campaign advertising," the network says, citing anonymous staffers.
The affair between Mahoney and Allen began, according to the current and former staffers, in 2006 when Mahoney was campaigning for Congress against Foley, promising "a world that is safer, more moral."
Following his election in 2006, Allen was hired, at taxpayers expense, to work on Mahoney's Congressional staff in Florida, at a yearly salary of $36,000. After complaints about the affair circulated in Washington, Allen was moved to the campaign staff, the staffers say.
Friends of Allen told ABC News that Allen sought to break off the affair when she learned Mahoney was allegedly involved in other extra-marital relationships at the same time. Her friends say she told them Mahoney threatened that ending the relationship could cost her the job.
"You work at my pleasure," Congressman Mahoney told Allen on a January 20, 2008 telephone call that was recorded and played for Mahoney staffers. "If you do the job that I think you should do, you get to keep your job. Whenever I don't feel like you're doing your job, then you lose your job," Mahoney can be heard telling Allen. "And guess what? The only person that matters is guess who? Me. You understand that. That is how life really is. That is how it works," Mahoney says on the call. "You're fired," Mahoney tells her. "Do you hear me? Don't tell me whether it's correct or not."
Allen says, "Tell me why else I'm fired."
"There is no why else," Mahoney responds.
Later, Allen says, "You're firing me for other reasons. You don't, you're not man enough to say it. So why don't you say it."
The portion of the tape provided to ABC News cuts off when the two begin a profanity-laced argument.
#3
From this we infer that only the hint of gay sex involving a Republican is enough for the media and the Democrats to call for his resignation but a full-out hetero relationship involving a Democrat AND the payment of hush money barely warrants a peep from the media.
Oh...and there was a gay sex scandal connected with the sub-prime mess and collapse of the financial sector (Barney Frank and Herb Moses of Fannie Mae) but no one in the media has any interest.
HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro says a "profound racism" in the United States will stop millions from voting for Barack Obama in next month's presidential election.
The ailing, 82-year-old former Cuban president says it is "a miracle that the Democratic candidate hasn't suffered the same luck as (assassinated leaders) Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who harbored dreams of equality and justice."
Castro's written comments were published by state media Saturday. In them, he insists a "profound racism" exists in the U.S. and that millions of whites "cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that a black person ... could occupy the White House, which is called just that: white."
Castro also described Republican presidential candidate John McCain as "bellicose."
#4
If by "racism" he means "a deep distaste for Marxist ideology", then he'd be right.
But El Jefe probably didn't mean that.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/13/2008 15:03 Comments ||
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#5
Funny how it's always the white people who are called racists when all they want is a level playing field. I'm a racist because I think affirmative action is unfair...I'm a racist because I want a secure border...I'm a racist because I blame Barney Frank and his sub prime mortgages for our current financial crisis...I'm a racist because I cringe at the thought of Barack Obama and old Fidelito meeting at the White House...blah, blah, blah.
#6
castro runs a pretty white-bread, all spanish/european dictatorship, with IIUC blacks & mixed races careful kept away from the higher strata of power... so even if he pushes all the right buttons by talking about rrrraaacccism, he's very ill-suited to do so, or would be in a world that would make sense.
As an OT aside, it reminds me that in the Godfather II (I think), Baptista is shown as an aryan blond, most probably one of those south-american nazi refugees, while in fact he was black. Even a couple decades back, hollywood had castro's back covered, racism-wise.
#9
By this time next month he will be proven wrong, and thereby showing the world just how irrelevent he has become. Obama will win, and will more likely than not, be a two term president. This country has had it's sea change, and now begins its decline.
#4
Anti-christ: powerful, charismatic world leader, empowered by unseen forces which draw millions to him; will stop war for only several years, then will head the most oppressive regime the world has ever known; similiar to a "transnational" in that the he will be an ideologue and will amass a political power base loyal, not to any nation or nations, but to himself . . . Farrakan is already calling stupid Obama the messiah. Seems like a dry run on the behavior of humans.
#5
Notice that the editor is not bothered enough by 9-11 to do more than mention it in passing, and is far more bothered by efforts to respond.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
10/13/2008 14:29 Comments ||
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#6
I personally wouldn't want to show my stupidity quite so publically, if I were this very strange person.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/13/2008 15:28 Comments ||
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#7
This is creepy. I'd say, white guilt coupled with unacknowledged longing to be part of a totalitarian (original meaning) society with a Fearless Leader???
#8
The truly bizarre part about it was that if Obama *announced* that he *was* the Antichrist, a lot of his followers would be thrilled, and redouble their efforts to get him elected.
The rationalizations would be impressive. Even the Reverends Wright, Jackson, and Sharpton would be right up there on the podium with him.
Authorities have arrested two men after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a 4-foot by 8-foot campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a southeast Portland yard.
Karen Scrutton said she was asleep inside her home at 7956 S.E. 17th Ave. in the Sellwood neighborhood when she saw her sign go up in flames after 1 a.m. A neighbor heard a crash and chased off one of the suspects. Gene Scrutton said his son-in-law found another suspect not far away.
Not long after, investigators picked up Leslie Brockette Leudtke and Kevin Carl Robinson, both 23. After interviewing them, the pair was charged with four counts each of manufacturing and possession of a destructive device. In addition, Leudtke was charged with a single count of reckless burning.
Witnesses said the suspects threw a Molotov cocktail at the sign and used another as a torch.
The Scruttons worried that their home could have caught on fire. "Our whole house could have burnt down," Karen Scrutton said while thanking her neighbor for intervening.
Despite the ordeal, she said they won't take the sign down. It suffered only minor damage from the fire.
#2
Hmmmm. Obama took a little resort break on St. Thomas, but none of the pictures included Michelle. Plenty of jobs in the region with off-shore banking & tax breaks to invest in the USVI of up to 90%, to manage all those campaign funds coming in from overseas. This is more interesting than the possible affair.
#1
If Mcain's people are smart and have 1/4 of a right testicle between them, they'll keep this item in the news till election day!
like:
Louis Farrakhan (Nation of Islam) calls Obama "the Messiah"
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
10/13/2008 1:55 Comments ||
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#2
The stupid old SOB has capitulated. Won't apply any pressure even though it's laying out in front of him. He needs to be run out of politics completely. Arizona voters, wise up. Throw his ass out.
#3
Then again, Woozle, the man has some class. He also has his internal polls, which are much better than anything you see at RealClearPolitics, and those polls may well be telling him the limits of the types of tactics people are advocating here.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/13/2008 11:44 Comments ||
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#4
On November 4th I will vote for Palin, against Obama, but not for McCain.
At the end of the trunk convention McCain asked me (and others) to stand and fight with him. At the time I thought he was serious and sincere. I was prepared to do and have done so. McCain was not or later changed his mind for reasons not entirely clear. Perhaps he was too sensitve to being called a racist by his former "friends" in the MSM.
#5
Perhaps his former friends in the MSM, the ones who lie about everything that doesn't occur as they believe it must, are not telling you the exact truth?
Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer.
There was a post here about this last month, but this article from The Telegraph has more details.
NEW YORK - Wall Street has stormed back from last week's devastating losses, sending the Dow Jones industrials soaring a nearly inconceivable 938 points after major governments' plans to support the global banking system reassured distraught investors.
The Dow by far outstripped its previous record for a one-day point gain, 499, reached during the waning days of the dot-com boom in 2000.
The market was likely to have a rebound after eight days of precipitous losses that took the Dow down nearly 2,400 points, but no one expected this kind of advance. Still, back-and-forth trading is likely to continue as Wall Street still contends with a crippled financial system and a struggling economy. So some of Monday's big gains may disappear when trading resumes Tuesday.
The Dow is up about 938 points at the 9,389 level. All the major indexes are up more than 11 percent.
#1
"soaring a nearly inconceivable 938 points after major governments' plans to support the global banking system reassured distraught investors"
Uh, no, it's more likely a sign that this weekend a lot of people asked themselves why Warren Buffet is in buying mode.
"Still, back-and-forth trading is likely to continue..."
Tomorrow's forecast: daylight followed by a chance of darkness in the evening. These journalists are so frigging deep.
former Fed reserve chair Paul Volker interviewed by Charlie Rose. Excerpt from about 28 minutes in:
Rose: Is there something about this great American experiment that makes you confident that we will come out [of this financial crisis] OK? Is it somehow that we will just make this happen, rather than any specific thing?
Volcker: We will get out of it. The basic economy interestingly enough until recently was quite strong.
We've discovered that we're more competitive than we thought we were in a lot of manufacturing industries. We are still innovative. We're still the leaders in high tech. I hope we remain that way.
What we need is fewer financial engineers, and more electrical engineers, and chemical engineers and civil engineers to take care of our infrastructure. We've poured too much of our capital into false castles in the financial world. Now that's going to change, I think. ...
The magnetism of Wall Street is going to be reduced, obviously. And I think that's not a bad thing, that we'll get this talent in other areas of the economy.
#2
A huge misallocation is correct. HOWEVER, that's true only if you believe that individuals making as much money for themselves as possible is wrong.
I'm afraid that the misallocation is due to the incentives built into a system that is governed by esoteric regulations and crony capitalism where the cronies are the ones writing those regs.
What is needed, though I don't have a clue how to get there, is an economy / society where the risk reward calculation is real. If all these bozos who go rich on paper from high risk schemes had to suffer the consequences we'd see a lot fewer such schemes. BUT, they always knew that their cronies would bail them out so that the millions would be theirs to keep.
We'll get more EEs & CEs when being one of those provides more incentives than being an FE.
#3
esoteric regulations and crony capitalism where the cronies are the ones writing those regs
--- Complicated regs and cronyism are inherent problems in our regulated system. Those who write the rules have to continually keep track of those who continuously develop cunning evasions around the rules. This is analogous to the engineering maxim: As soon as we make something foolproof, Nature invents a better fool.
--- The other catch is that those whose job is to protect the general welfare have conflicts of interest.
#4
that's true only if you believe that individuals making as much money for themselves as possible is wrong Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are community goals as well as individual ones. That's one reason why murder for hire is outlawed.
#5
I'd rather have the greedy ones working in the financial area where they can only cause occasional panics, than have them become engineers and build dangerous bridges and oil refineries, and put melamine in the milk powder.
#7
Volker is talking about people with strong quantitative analysis skills. Not only do we need the engineers he mentions, they have the aptitude to master engineering.
#8
I'd rather have the greedy ones working in the financial area where they can only cause occasional panics, than have them become engineers and build dangerous bridges and oil refineries, and put melamine in the milk powder.
It's not the engineers who get to make those sorts of decisions about robbing Peter to pay Paul; it's the management, typically. I doubt the melamine-in-cat-food thing was something done by a rogue chemical engineer.
Also, I'd like to suggest that whatever behavior you incentivize, you're going to get.
#9
Capitalism and the great American experiment was built upon a moral foundation and is successful only when all the players have a conscience with an awareness of the impact on others. It must be voluntary, not compulsory, and that is the rub. Human nature always serves self first. The man-made bricks that built the Tower of Babel always eventually crumble but God's ways are eternally solid.
#10
I've been trying to explain as apolitically as possible the difference between Socialism and Capitalism to my son. He got virtually no economics in high school or college worthy of the name and seems to think that socialism is a benign form of welfare.
Danielle has hit on the main problem with Capitalism. How are peopled protected from the rogues and robbers wearing white collars as they are from the rouges and robbers in blue?
If our financial types were given to lending their cynical amorality and cunning to physical crime I'm sure they'd find loopholes that would make rape & murder legal.
Honesty & simplicity need to be the keystone of needed regulations coupled with some serious punishment when breached.
#11
Term limits - REAL term limits will break the crony link. In for a term and then OUT. Get a real job. Not enough time in to the collect the contacts or time in to repay the bribes.
It seems our Constitution requires a certain threshold percentage of the populace to take seriously Judeo-Christian morals in order to work. Furthermore, it requires an even higher number in the cultural/economic elites for it to continue to function.
The converse is also true.
Once a certain critical mass of the people has complete disregard for the Judeo-Christian memeset, the Constitution can no longer function as a governing document for our society. And it takes a much smaller percentage of the elites to fall away for similar results. This has been the aim of Gramscianism and postmodernish for most of the past eighty years, and that critical point may have been reached.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
10/13/2008 14:37 Comments ||
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#14
phil_b, that's exactly what I'm trying to explain.
The one problem with term limits that would need to be overcome (and this is NOT a reason to avoid term limits) is that it increases the power of the standing bureaucracy. Having a very high turnover in "mgmt" gives the workers pretty much free rein.
#16
I don't think you can divorce economics from politics, they are too closely related. The US system does thrive when its participants have a strong moral sense. That doesn't always work, as we are finding out -- therefore our system of incentives, regulations & punishments.
The losses are being socialized, with and/or without government involvement. One of the defining characteristics of modern corporations is limited liability -- corporate insiders and stockholders can get away with comparatively small losses while someone else takes the big ones.
#17
One of the major problems is that the government of the United States has spent almost 90 years engaged in social experimentation. There is no justification for the government to do such experimentation in our Constitution or in generally accepted common behavior. The four "pillars" of today's over-regulated, controlled, mis-managed and disaster-prone financial insitutions are Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Jimmah Kahtah, and William J. Clinton, and the congresses that aided, abetted, and supported them. We're going to have to do some radical surgery on the laws of this nation in order to ensure we don't compound the errors caused by the "Progressives" in our society. Sarbanes/Oxley is one very good place to start. FDR-era labor laws are another. Overturning the 17th Amendment would do wonders, too. Eliminating the power of the States to appoint senators has also eliminated any control the Senate had on actions harmful to the States. Bad, bad move, and we're paying for it in the likes of Dodd, Reid, Kennedy, Byrd, Biden, and a host of other "lifetime" senators.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/13/2008 15:45 Comments ||
Top||
#18
You left out LBJ, OP.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
10/13/2008 16:48 Comments ||
Top||
#19
AlanC I recommend "Economics In One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt for your son. We'll I'd recommend it for members of Congress too, but that audience is mostly beyond hope.
#21
Compare wid TOPIX > PUTIN: WORLD TRUST IN THE USA HAS BEEN LOST + US CAN NEVER REGAIN ITS TRUST, STATUS/LEADERSHIP IN GLOBAL FINANCIAL MARKETS + ONLY CHINA CAN SAVE THE WORLD FROM US CRISIS.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SEOUL, South Korea -- The 66-year-old man in the photos appeared the picture of health, full of vigor despite reports he underwent brain surgery less than two months ago. He was surrounded by serious, crisply uniformed soldiers and in the background there was plenty of verdant greenery, more reminiscent of summer than mid-autumn in a temperate clime.
Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer.
