The Scratching Post

Yes, but What if I Buy Beer for a Tattooed Prostitute?

2009-11-21T16:37:00.000-08:00

It sounds like it would be a triple win for the economy! Explanation here.

Imaginary Congressional Districts

2009-11-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

By now, you've probably read that money from the Stimuloid Porkgasm™ is completely out of control - that it's been going to congressional districts that don't exist, that it's creating jobs when it hasn't even been disbursed yet, that there is case after case where the job creation claims are quickly and easily debunked. It's a good bet that the government agencies whose budgets have been goosed by tens of billions of dollars have simply blown it. They'd have to, as they are obligated to spend their budgets after a certain period of time. Why was it blown? The simple explanation is that those government agencies don't have the staff to manage an additional, say, $10B of contracts, particularly when they're trying to let those contracts to lots and lots of small companies.

In short, the money may be going up in smoke because there's just enough staff to spend it, but not enough staff to monitor its use. Now if the contracting professionals within these organizations are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the budgets, imagine how the Inspector Generals and auditors are overwhelmed. It's a good bet that these errors in accounting will never be tracked down for the simple reason that there's no one available to do it.

Allow me to suggest a darker possibility. The nation is simply being looted right before our eyes. So we've discovered that money is going to New Hampshire's non-existent 00th district. Now what? After a few barbed questions to Robert Gibbs in a press conference, we will ... do what? How will you, the private citizen, ever reliably find out where the money really went? Do you have any confidence that there is any tracking of this money?

Don't you think the people running those budgets know this?

Photo of the Day

2009-11-21T09:35:00.000-08:00

... our Official Artist has it.

Oink Oink

2009-11-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

Dig this.

Germany’s new finance minister has echoed Chinese warnings about the growing threat of fresh global asset price bubbles, fuelled by low US interest rates and a weak dollar ...

He added: “That low interest rate currencies such as the US dollar are increasingly being used as a basis for currency carry trades should give pause for thought. If there was a sudden reversal in this business, markets would be threatened with enormous turbulence, including in foreign exchange markets.”

Oink.

Oink

2009-11-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

Dig this bit about how the monster liquidity game being played by the Fed and the Obama Administration is screwing over the rest of the world.

Some officials in Asia are ... suggesting the Fed’s record-low federal funds rate -- the central bank’s interest-rate target for overnight loans between banks -- is pushing asset prices in their region too high...

Continuing the zero-rate policy may lead emerging economies “to overheat and experience financial turmoil,” Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said in Tokyo Nov. 16...

Asian policy makers, including officials from India, South Korea and Indonesia, are studying capital controls to limit “hot money” inflows that may stoke asset bubbles and force their currencies to appreciate. Indonesia’s central bank is “seriously” studying a limit on inflows to short-term bills, Senior Deputy Governor Darmin Nasution said Nov. 19. Taiwan last week banned international investors from placing funds in time deposits.

The U.S. shouldn’t adjust monetary policy to account for rising Asian assets, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Nov. 18. “If there are problems in real- estate markets in Asia, it is not very practical to say you should raise interest rates in the U.S.,” he said.

Emphasis mine.

Now that's Smart Diplomacy™!

Oink.

Dave Ramsey, B-Daddy and more Leisure Time

2009-11-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

Over at The Liberator Today, B-Daddy points out yet another income redistribution effort.

...the health care legislation is designed to transfer wealth, the House version includes an income surtax on the "wealthy." Harry Reid's version calls for an increase in the Medicare payroll tax for those making over $250,000 per year.

Marginal tax rates for the wealthy, that is, the taxes paid on your last dollar of income, are going up, up, up. If you lived the Dave Ramsey lifestyle and had a modest home and modest cars while making as much money as you could, the Democrats' effort to raise taxes on the well-to-do could result in lots and lots more leisure time for you!

If you're living below your means, then increases in marginal tax rates could be met by working less and less. You wouldn't have crushing bills to pay, so you'd be able to cut back your hours. And why not, if the government is just going to take those earnings anyway?

Who is John Galt?

The Shape of Things to Come

2009-11-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Mish posted this video of California college kids protesting a monster increase in fees.

California is facing another huge budget shortfall this year, something like $21B, since they have spent and taxed their way into financial ruin. Now all of the recipients of the goodies are starting to get squeezed and they're beginning to go wild.

This is just the beginning.

It's been so long since we've understood that you need to earn what you get that being confronted with it causes a violent reaction.

A Tiny Bit More on Sarah Palin

2009-11-20T09:06:00.000-08:00

... from James Taranto.

An Associated Press dispatch, written by Erica Werner and Richard Alonso-Zaldivar, compares the House and Senate ObamaCare bills. We'd like to compare this dispatch to the AP's dispatch earlier this week "fact checking" Sarah Palin's new book. Here goes:

Number of AP reporters assigned to story:
• ObamaCare bills: 2
• Palin book: 11

Number of pages in document being covered:
• ObamaCare bills: 4,064
• Palin book: 432

Number of pages per AP reporter:
• ObamaCare bill: 2,032
• Palin book: 39.3

On a per-page basis, that is, the AP devoted 52 times as much manpower to the memoir of a former Republican officeholder as to a piece of legislation that will cost trillions of dollars and an untold number of lives.

No one wants to slam the cool kid. If you did that, you'd be kicked out of the High School clique. It's much better to pile on the cheerleader you all hate.

A Little Bit on Sarah Palin

2009-11-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

I'll admit I don't watch the news. At all. Not Fox, not CNN, none of them. My awareness of the media's obsession with Sarah Palin was only second hand, read from the Internet.

The other night, when I got home, my wife was watching NBC Nightly News just about the time Sarah's new book had come out. Over at NBC, they were going completely crazy. They were fact checking and sneering and discussing it with each other, not from any disinterested, third-party point of view, but as if we were in their living rooms during a cocktail party. It was all personal and conversational and incredibly viscious.

While I don't watch the news, I do know that the MSM most certainly did not fact check Barack Obama, Joe Biden or even, for that matter, John McCain, certainly not to the excrutiating level of detail they were going after Sarah. As an outsider coming in cold to the event, I had not been desensitized to the level of venom through months and months of watching them go after her and so it was particularly stunning to see.

The level of hate is obsessive, as if she is their ex-wife or a girlfriend who dumped them or the cute chick in high school who turned them down for a date or the one who stole their boyfriend. The hate is primal, sexual and sick. There are times when I wonder if the schadenfreude over the media's descent into financial ruin is misplaced and then I tune in to something like this and decide they can't die fast enough for me.

I've disinterestedly read analyses of just why the media hates Sarah so much and I'm going to add my own little bit here. The level of hate stems from the lack of balance in the newsrooms. It's a high school in there where everyone is piling on the cute cheerleader and ripping her apart behind her back. Everyone is showing how cool they are by adding one more drop of poison. The participants are proving their loyalty to the clique by joining in the feeding frenzy.

If you don't think so, consider this scenario. Imagine you're back in high school and the Julius Caesar-style mass stabbing is going on in conversation. Some girl who you all think is a snob is being torn apart by your friends. Are you going to be the one to say, "You know, guys, she's actually not that bad. She does a lot of volunteer work at the animal shelter."

That's never going to happen in the high school quad of the media. They'd all be terrified that the knives would turn on them next.

I know that on this blog, I routinely defend Sarah Palin. Just to be clear, I don't think she's particularly bright nor especially prepared for the Presidency. I do think she was the best candidate of the four that ran in the election. Whatever she lacks in intellect or foreign policy experience is utterly trumped by her success as an executive, success totally unmatched by McCain, Biden and the now clearly floundering Barack Obama. We'd be far better off today if we were saying President Palin than we are now.

You asked her out and she turned you down. Don't you just hate her?

My Alarm Clock Went Off

2009-11-19T06:28:00.000-08:00

... but I threw a pillow at her and went back to sleep.

Cheezburger of the Day

2009-11-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

This one hits a sensitive spot here at the 'Post, but we still like it.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Baby Jesus Obama?

2009-11-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

Krauthammer is en fuego in this one.

The points he makes are telling. President Obama's grasp on history is very, very light, whether that's his dreadful Cairo speech or his hysterical claims in Germany during the election or this one where he's completely at sea, so to speak, with respect to US history in the Pacific.

H1N1 and You

2009-11-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

I just took my on-line H1N1 training at work. It tells me that I can be contagious 1 day before symptoms develop. That means I should go home today because I might develop the symptoms tomorrow. Sounds good to me.

It also had a video teaching me how to wash my hands. How to wash my hands?!? If I ran the thing, the video would be short and sweet.

"If you don't know how to wash your hands by now, then you deserve to die. Thank you and goodbye."

Second, it told me to wash my hands for as long as it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice. Or the "Barack Hussein Obama Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" song once, all the way through.

On the plus side, I learned how to sneeze properly.

Good Lord, I hope our ancestors aren't watching us right now.

Gold and a Collapsing Economy

2009-11-18T09:22:00.000-08:00

My wonderful wife loves me very much. I can tell because she got me a subscription to Dave Ramsey's premium content site where I can download podcasts of his radio show, put it on my Blackberry and listen to it in the car, any time, day or night. It's money geek Nirvana as I drive.

With the warm glow of that fact making me smile as I type, Dave made a great point about gold to a caller the other day. The question was about the value of gold in a collapsing economy. That is, if fiscal doomsday comes and the dollar becomes nothing but worthless paper, wouldn't it be great to own gold? Dave's reply was, "No."

The deal is this. If a nation's economy falls apart, people are going to want to be able to feed themselves. The folks with the staples of life are going to be rich, not the ones with bags of gold nuggets. For example, in New Orleans after Katrina, the people with drinkable water were king. In Zimbabwe, it's the ones who have gasoline.

The currency of choice in a country where the money has devalued down to nothing is whatever people need - food, water, clothing, shelter, medical care, etc. Gold doesn't do anything at all for you. Dave claimed that in no nation since the fall of the Roman Empire has gold replaced a paper currency during financial collapse. I doubt the citizens of Weimar Germany were regularly walking into stores and buying bread with gold dust.

Having said that, gold would allow you to carry your wealth from one financial regime to the next. Real estate might be a close second, but as Zimbabwe has shown us, your home ownership is at the mercy of the local thugs should things really break down. If you have to flee, you can't take the land with you. Gold, on the other hand, is portable in small enough amounts. Once the nation stabilizes and a new government and new currency is in place, the gold can be cashed in and your wealth at least partially restored.

Between regimes, however, that gold isn't going to do too much for you.

However, as Woody Allen has shown us, sometimes real estate is portable.

A Question About Noah's Ark

2009-11-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

So on Noah's Ark, when the cats got hungry in the early morning, did they go up and scratch on the door to Noah's stateroom? If the door was open, did they come in and pluck at the carpet until he fed them? Or maybe did they jump on the bed and stick their noses in his face?

How about the aardvarks and armadillos? Did they do that, too?

Cheezburger of the Day

2009-11-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Chairman Mao Had Death Panels

2009-11-17T11:41:00.001-08:00

Lots and lots and lots* of death panels. Maybe that's the connection.

* - and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of death panels.

Pop Quiz Answer

2009-11-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I asked, who said this and when?

A premature withdrawal of monetary and fiscal stimulus could pull the rug out from under the nascent recovery. Yes, the mammoth federal budget deficit is both appalling and unsustainable. But this is not the time to shrink it by raising taxes or cutting spending.

The precise answer is Alan Blinder, formal Clinton economics guru and member of the Federal Reserve Board, writing the WSJ yesterday, but the practical answer was this:

Almost any economist working in any capacity for the past 40 years.

This is no time to be cutting spending!
Bonus tidbit: Here's the best comment from the thread underneath Blinder's idiotic post. The second socialist referred to is probably Paul Krugman.

Blinder is the perfect example of the new paradigm where one socialist gives another socialist a Ph.D. and then they peer review each other's papers. Eventually they gang up, steal a Nobel Prize and present it to themselves for their groundbreaking work.

Cheezburger of the Day

2009-11-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

moar funny pictures

The Law of Diminishing Returns Proves Why More Money Doesn't Make You More Happy

2009-11-16T12:33:00.000-08:00

The Law of Diminishing Returns says that beyond some point, each additional unit of some input (money) yields smaller and smaller increases in outputs (happiness). Here's why.

What's the difference between a sub-$1000 car and a car that costs about $20,000? Quite a bit.

A 1990 Nissan Sentra, $900.
That's a pretty lousy car. It might get you around town, but it's a good bet that it's falling apart and will need lots of work. You won't be picking up any hotties in that car, either. Now the $20,000 car.

A 2002 Corvette for $20,995.
Now that's the car to pick up chicks with. Man, you're a player if you're riding around in that rig. The happiness difference between a 1990 Sentra and a 2002 Corvette is pretty substantial.

Now, let's move up the scale. First, a $60,000 car.

A totally restored 1973 Corvette for $60,000.
In our first example, we had a $20,000 difference between cars, so let's keep it at that and find an $80,000 car to compare with that '73 Detroit iron.

A 2009 Nissan GT R with 100 miles for $84,000.
So how much happier would you be driving around in the GT R vs. the '73 Corvette? Not much. Certainly not nearly the difference you'd feel between the '90 Sentra and the '02 Corvette.

And that, dear readers, is why money, beyond the point where you can live without substantial worries, does not make you happier.

On the Plus Side, This Will Be a Boon to Public Defenders

2009-11-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

So we've decided to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York civilian court. How marvellous! And then what? Will we try every non-uniformed (i.e., all) combatant we capture in the US? This gives American rights to trial to every enemy everywhere. Why stop there? Why are the terrorists special? What about the thugs and pickpockets of Sicily? How about the kidnappers of Mexico? Why don't they all deserve this kind of treatment.

I think I'm beginning to figure this one out. This is actually the Obama Administration's second stimulus and the key to his green jobs plan. We'll become the world's court system. It will employ millions in tiny offices using computers powered by windmills after commuting by light rail. It's a win-win-win!

A Pop Quiz

2009-11-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

Who said this and when?

A premature withdrawal of monetary and fiscal stimulus could pull the rug out from under the nascent recovery. Yes, the mammoth federal budget deficit is both appalling and unsustainable. But this is not the time to shrink it by raising taxes or cutting spending.

Anyone caught searching for this quote on the Internet will get an automatic "F".

Leave your answers in the comments. The real answer will be posted tomorrow.

It's Spamtastic!

2009-11-15T16:22:00.000-08:00

At first, I was going to blog about the hilarious contradiction of the enviros howling in rage over another massively hideous windmill project as detailed in this article from East County Magazine, but when I started reading the comments at the bottom, I noticed they were almost all advertising spam. The comment thread is totally out of control with colon detoxification links and ways to earn money at home. Wheee!

It's multilevel mirth!

Cat

2009-11-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

And the Beat Goes On

2009-11-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

The blob continues to grow and envelop everything in its path! Nothing can stop it!

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration will propose legislation to give the federal government power to enforce safety regulations on subway and light-rail systems, a Department of Transportation official said.