The bailout of the overnight repo market by the NY Fed has raised a lot of questions. Why was the financial market unable to respond without Fed help? What caused such an unpredictable surge in demand that caused rates to double overnight? Such conditions are ripe for theories and I have mine.
Read MoreThe data counters the false refrain of the Trump cuts only benefiting the rich. While I have repeated this refrain for years, the actual tax rates matter more than the statutory rates. The difference is the Special Interest Spread- SIS- a term I coined in this article: Save the Swamp.
Read More“The U.S. criminal justice system, because of the corruption of the plea bargain system that facilitates the prosecutors’ extortion of perjured inculpatory evidence with impunity, is just an immense kangaroo court.”
Read More“we are on a trajectory to increased sluggishness economically, which will mean increased ferocity politically as we use political power to allocate wealth and opportunity, which we used to assign to markets.”
Read MoreFrom National Review, Kevin Williams’ China’s Population Problem: Governments always operate in ignorance, and authoritarian governments suffer from this more than the governments of liberal societies. That is because in liberal societies, the spontaneous orders of markets, civil society, and
Read MoreHanson’s Jacobin moniker is more accurate than ‘progressive’. It is a far more radical, illiberal, and often violent way to move the political needle. It is different than populism; it shares impatience and passion but lacks a root to the old order. Among populists you sense a love for the country, even if it is an older version of it; with the Jacobins you sense a disgust for the country. One could argue that the Jacobin wing on of the Democratic Party is just a violent radical populist movement, but its lack of civil restraints make it far more dangerous.
Read MoreWhile politics dismisses ideology, it still underlies our differences. The belief in permanent human nature and governing principles is what distinguishes the conservative from the progressive.
Read MoreHalf of Trump’s supporters like his in your face, hit back twice as hard, refusal to be intimidated, trolling, protocol style. The other half fear the poorly thought, lunatic, illiberal, and authoritarian ideas and behavior of the Democrats much more than the ego and unpredictability of Trump. The Kavanaugh hearing was a live rehearsal of how they handle power, like a self righteous mob.
Read More“No theory, no promises, no morality, no amount of good will, no religion will restrain power. Neither priests nor soldiers, neither labor leaders nor businessmen, neither bureaucrats nor feudal lords will differ from each other in the basic use which they will seek to make of power.”
Read More“As a group they are virtually ignored, and yet they are the center of everything. They include those of the left who are no longer comfortable in a new progressive party. And rightists not comfortable with Mr. Trump, or with the decisions and approaches of the Bush era. It includes those experiencing ongoing EID—extreme ideological discomfort.”
Read MoreWhen the masses rise up the individuals suffer in mass. Professed love of humanity often justified horrid treatment of individual humans. The problems of division are not the result of individualism, but the poor substitutes that subvert it.
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