Tag: government
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The Paradox of Government
Today I read Paul Krugman writing about the paradox of thrift. As is often the case, I found it interesting to read and to notice the assumptions that Krugman bases his positions on. While anyone can go read what he wrote I’ll give a quick overview of the paradox of thrift – increases in personal…
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Economic Contradiction
Paul Krugman and I agree on little politically (I have at times agreed with him when he was arguing that TARP was a bad idea – although we disagreed on the reasons why) and despite the fact that my assumptions about the nature of sound economics differ from his most of the time I recognize…
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Banks Giving Back
While it is good news that 10 banks will be allowed to repay billions in bailout funds I would be much more excited if I didn’t already know what was likely to happen as a result. The banks were deemed strong enough to leave the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, after months of lobbying…
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GM Surprise (or not)
Back at the end of March David Brooks made a prediction for GM in the New York Times that came due today. I have been waiting to check in on that. He started with this background of the situation as it stood that day: The Bush advisers decided in December that bankruptcy without preparation would…
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Use the Proper Tool
I have written before about our national propensity to use government when it is not the proper tool for the job. Scott summed my point up very succinctly in a recent post: There is a proper tool for every job. Use of the wrong tool often produces substandard results. Sometimes it is necessary to make…
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Federal-Sighted
Most people have probably heard of the two basic classes of vision problems, far-sightedness and near-sightedness. For those who are not clear on the differences, far-sightedness is characterized by the eye being able to focus on objects at a distance while objects up close are blurry. Conversely, near-sightedness is characterized by the eye being able…
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Federalist No. 66
Federalist No. 66 has me seeking opinions on a few questions. Specifically it got me asking which of the four elements of our federal government (the Executive, the Judicial, the Senate, and the House) is the most powerful? Which Should be the most powerful? The founders clearly had some idea about which they thought should…
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Internal Dissent/Debate
I can’t decide whether it was beyond the scope of what Cameron wanted to write or whether he thinks that the discussion and dissent among the Democratic base really are less prevalent among Republicans. Regardless of which of those options is more accurate, as I read his post I was struck with how I see…
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New Government Website
In keeping with his propensity to launch new .gov websites (e.g. change.gov, recovery.gov, sigtarp.gov) President Obama has launched a new website where he can share some ideas that he knows won’t pass any Congress (Democrat or Republican) no matter how sound those ideas might be. It’s called AprilFools.gov. He includes ideas that are possible but…
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Looking Back
It was interesting to read what Glen Warchol relates today about the first anniverarly of the Texas FLDS raid. Glen gives us the statistics one year later and it is almost identical to what what known weeks before any of the children were returned to their homes. I hope we don’t see such a massive…