Monthly Archives: December 2009

Archive of posts published in the specified Month

Fabricating a Recovery

In  the American Metal  Market magazine Commercial Metals Company’s (CMC) metal fabrication division noted a drop in earnings to a $’17.3 million LOSS  in the most recent fiscal  quarter (three months ending Nov 30) from a profit of $66.6 million

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Rebel Yid Top 21 Tweets of 2009

1.      blaming economic crises on “greed” is like blaming plane crashes on gravity.- Thomas Sowell 2.      “crony capitalism” is to capitalism what National Socialism (Nazism) is to socialism- hko 3.      ‘Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for

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The Devil of Easy Money

Ludwig von Mises “They have all sold their souls to the devil of easy money.  It’s a great comfort to every administration to be able to make its citizens happy by spending.  For public opinion will then attribute the spending

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The Myth of Laissez Faire

The quasi-governmental institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed  mortgages, which Wall Street happily securitized once the credit rating agencies- which had been given a legally protected oligopoly by the government-declared them to be safe investments.  Government owned banks and

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Death by Assumption

a comment on my article at American Thinker : Then there is the “expert” assumption of academic economists who are fond of saying things like “assume a perfect economy.” A joke written in reply to this conceited habit a tale

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Unlimited Fannie Mae

In several past postings reviewing the recent financial meltdown, I have noted the pivotal role played by Fannie Mae. A toxic mix of arrogance and incompetence infected Wall Street.  Bad political, monetary, and tax policy inflated the housing market bubble. 

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The Iron Law of Bubbles

In A Short History of Financial Euphoria(1993), J. K. Galbraith takes a brief look at financial bubbles and draws conclusion about the similarities among them. The most remarkable of the early manias was not in stocks, but in tulip bulbs. The

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Nothing to Hide

tips to Bruce Tuchman

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Iron Bubbles

My first article published at American Thinker– The iron law of bubbles excerpts: But this same infatuation with talent can be attached to more than money; it can be attached to power.  With capitalism struggling to recover from yet another

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How to Reduce AIDS by 60%

French researcher Bertran Auvert  discovered a way to dramatically reduce the risk of AIDS infection  in heterosexual males after trials in South Africa. The results were confirmed in studies in Kenya and Uganda. For reasons not clearly understood circumcision reduced

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Who is Greedy?

From Randall Hoven at American Thinker Graph of the Day December 24,2009

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Rewarding Failure with Power

“When businesspeople and senior executives do a bad job they are -eventually at any rate- thrown out on their ear.  As Fed Governor, Ben Bernanke convinced his colleagues to pump up an inflationary bubble to avoid a crisis; as U.S

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Rebel Yid’s Five Most Retweeted Postings of 2009

By far the most retweeted posting I ever posted 50 reasons to Oppose Cap and Trade– great article! http://bit.ly/4bN7D0 10 surprising facts about American Health Care http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649 Now who are the deniers http://bit.ly/7TxYjb Obama’s has the least private sector experience

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The New Ruling Class

Recent postings on the growing spread between private sector and government sector employment elicited some protest, many who claimed that most government workers could make more in the private sector. This is true for some. Many of the people who

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Political “Solutions”

More generally, what is called a  “solution” in politics is often simply a patch put over problems caused by previous “solutions,” which in turn were patches put over other political “solutions” before that. What never seems to get through to

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Profits, not Credit, is the Key to a Recovery

Obama is now pressuring the banks to make loans to stimulate the economy.  Yet again we have the government creating a crisis and then blaming the private sector. The banks are in the business if making loans. They should not

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Risk, Hazard and Outrage

Academics assign risk based on statistical outcomes and probabilities.  But as individuals we corrupt risk models with emotion.  We look at risk as a combination of hazard plus outrage.  We will spend much more to protect ourselves from terrorists than

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We are Becoming More Dependent on Foreign Energy

At American Thinker Jeffrey Folks writes ” The Obama Energy Fiasco.” While America is restricting energy production through legislative penalties the rest of the world is seeking new energy sources, drilling new well (including 90 miles off our shores), to

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The Boom in Federal Salaries

from National Review- “the Good and Bad of It” by Larry Kudlow “According to Chris Edwards at Cato, there are now 383,000 federal workers earning six-figure salaries, and 22,000 earning salaries over $170,000; the number of civil servants making $100,000

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Where the Jobs Really Went

from Randall Hoven at American Thinker Manufacturing Jobs Government jobs

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