Monthly Archives: October 2008

Misfits Halloween Consumerism

I was in the supermarket earlier tonight buying candy and they had a rack of Halloween themed t-shirts. I didn’t notice it at first, but the slogan on each shirt was an old Misfits song. “Ghoul’s Night Out”, “Astro Zombies”, … Continue reading

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A Trinity of Republican Decline

Could a liberal lesbian rights activist actually win South Carolina’s 1st congressional district? Sure looks possible, as Linda Ketner has closed to within 5 in her aggressive challenge to incumbent Rep. Henry Brown. Of interest, Ketner is also a member … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Where the Hell is Matt?

This is the greatness of the internet

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Against Galt

Synova wrote a little post that gets halfway to where I would come down on this perennial parlor game of  the John Galt general strike. Sy recognized that to be successful, such a revolt would realistically be a miserable experience … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Culture, Lee's Page, Libertarianism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Going John Galt… quietly.

The idea of “Going John Galt” makes me a little bit uncomfortable, to tell the truth.    John Galt essentially said screw them all, and shut down knowing that a whole lot of people would be hurt.    It was about the … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Hugo Chavez, Libertarianism, Synova's Page | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

The Philippines as Red State

Filipino writer Benjamin Pimentel is surprised to discover that his countrymen were among the very few foreign populations to prefer John McCain to Barack Obama in a Gallup international survey. A happy place for Republicans in a lonely world apparently, as … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Foreign affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

You’re Doing a Heck of a Blog Brownie

Former head of FEMA Michael Brown, now has a blog. And you’ll pardon me for saying but (outside aesthetics which don’t matter a whole lot to me) I find myself liking a lot of his posts! Read some for yourself. … Continue reading

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Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtains

Alan Reynolds at Cato asks “How’s Obama Going to Raise $4.3 Trillion?” Altogether, Mr. Obama is promising at least $4.3 trillion of increased spending and reduced tax revenue from 2009 to 2018 — roughly an extra $430 billion a year … Continue reading

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Is Income Tax Becoming Too Progressive?

Fewer and fewer people are paying income tax and even less will be with either candidates tax plan. I don’t think this would be such a problem if we didn’t have such high spending, growing entitlements, and if so many … Continue reading

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Playmates during crisis

Does the object of our desire tend to change during tough times? Yes, according to this paper on men’s preferences when it comes to Playboy’s models: Consistent with Environmental Security Hypothesis predictions, when social and economic conditions were difficult, older, … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Lance's Page, social science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Man Without a Season

Stéphane Dion, leader of the defeated Canadian Liberal Party, has rather ignominiously resigned his position today. Thereby he becomes the first Liberal Party leader since the 19th century to have never become Prime Minister of Canada. Given his dismal political … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Socialism, Polls, Matt Drudge

You’ve probably heard that John McCain has denounced Barack Obama’s ‘spread the wealth’ formulation for tax policy as socialism. It’s an inflammatory but not unjustified charge, as a good definition for socialism is the equitable distribution of wealth to the … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Not Sure if You’ve Voted?

I’ve been seeing this amusing banner ad for Obama popping up all over the web. Given the behavior of some of ACORN’s representatives, it might not be an illegitimate question.

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Christopher Hitchens & Political Irresponsibility

Video of Laura Ingraham interrogating Christopher Hitchens over his rather weakly supported endorsement of Barack Obama for president. Hitch’s primary position in this chat is that Obama should be supported because he is “evolving” toward support of a more aggressive … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lee's Page | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Buy Ear Protection

The collision of Mr. Obama’s ambitions with the architecture of reality is going to be a thunderous thing to hear. Be prepared.

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Laid Off By Lehman: One Broker’s Story

Heh, heh, heh.

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Joe the Plumber is Evil

I’m experiencing a little déjà vu over the invective that’s starting to pour out of the left against “Joe the Plumber.” It has a decidedly reminiscent over-reactive, hysterical feel to it of the anti-Palin crusade. Here’s a typical example of … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The View From Here

I wonder if the juxtaposition of that headline and that photo was intentional? Anyway, over at Risk and Return I follow up Dale, McQ and my discussion of the markets and the economy during the last couple of podcasts with … Continue reading

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A Childhood Dream of Death

Equal to the horror of this, is the futility.

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The Folly of Heroes

What a day for indignity. Just when I’d stopped shaking my head at the image of Paul Krugman accepting the Nobel Prize, I read two of my most cherished heroes offering rather embarrassing endorsements for bad things. Christopher Hitchens, always … Continue reading

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Are We Maiking Things Worse?

Yves Smith hits a theme I have been harping on, the Federal Reserve, and central banks in general, are making things worse in may ways by destroying the incentive for banks to lend or borrow from one another. She quotes … Continue reading

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Texas = Best State in the Country

Financially according to the Financial Times. Check out this interactive map of the states and their comparative rankings in different financial categories. (HT: Megan McArdle)

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Stock and Awe in Baghdad

The Markets have spoken, the best place to invest in the world is…Iraq! Now it’s stock and awe in Baghdad! As the Dow plummeted nearly 700 points yesterday to fall well below the 9,000 mark, the Iraqi stock exchange – … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Foreign affairs, Investing, Lance's Page | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

105% voter registration in Indianapolis???

Well, with any luck our voter ID law will weed out anyone not legitimately registered to vote.

Posted in Around the Web | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Advice on your 401k

from Megan McArdle. Don’t look. I looked yesterday, but I’m just going to pretend I didn’t.

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FDR Prolonged the Great Depression

New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years. Continue reading

Posted in Chris' Page, Domestic Politics, Economics, Libertarianism | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

JP Morgan, Lehman and Nightmares

I am often asked about individual bank stocks, especially JP Morgan. Generally my answer is that Bank of America, JP Morgan and a few others look to be likely survivors, but how profitable they will be I am really unsure. … Continue reading

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Another Reason To Not Like The Plan

I have argued in the past that the Federal Reserve’s policies may be helping in some ways, but hurting in others. Way too much borrowing and lending is running through the Fed which is drying up lending between banks. It … Continue reading

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In Summary

Tyler Cowen states his basic views on the crisis. My response in italics:

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Lance's Page, regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Strategery Capital Management LLC

A new distressed debt leveraged hedge fund has been launched: Go visit the website for all their competitive advantages!

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How to help loose the election, in 10 easy steps…

I was commenting to my wife the other night when we saw the trailer for “Religulous,” just what the Obama camp needs at the moment, something to remind the right, and especially the religious right, why they hate liberals. Bill … Continue reading

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When are we being Chicken Littles?

Let us look at one of the ways that we are being panicked unnecessarily, and why incidentally we can help many of these financial institutions in the fashion I discussed in my post on a potential alternative plan. In my … Continue reading

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My favorite proposal for helping financial institutions

I do believe we should be doing something as a nation, through our government, to avoid the not insignificant chance of a total financial meltdown. I have seen several things proposed that I find interesting, and I will get into … Continue reading

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Hooray for Mental Health!

If you support the Paulson bailout plan that is. The New York Times has coverage. The Senate proposal would cost more than $100 billion and extend and expand many individual and business tax breaks, including tax credits for the production … Continue reading

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