Arkady's Thoughts

"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a "dismal science." But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance." - Murray N. Rothbard I am absolutely delighted to see this for several reasons.  First of all, this is really well done in both substance and style.  Second of all, this covers a topic that most Americans know almost nothing about!  Most Americans believe the inner workings of Keynesian, Monetarist or Austrian theories is not a requirement to understand, it becomes a moral imperative when these very same people passionately argue political viewpoints whose basis rests in the very economic theories they are not interested in learning.   So this presents a conundrum, how can we have an educated voting electorate when politics have become so intertwined with economics?...

This is a very impressive video done by CATO that breaks down Obama's speech and focuses on how realistic Obama's promises are, discusses specific legislation and highlights the good aspects of Obama's administration. In particular, focus on the education aspect of the speech.  As you may be aware, higher education costs are climbing at astronomic rates and other than insurance premiums are probably the fastest rising costs in America.  Because Americans hold collages and universities in slightly higher regard than blood sucking insurance companies these costs are seldom discussed.  However if there is one thing you learn from this blog is that when costs stop making sense, look for government intervention as an explanation.  Nothing distorts free market prices faster and more efficiently than the heavy and reckless hand of government.  Higher education is no exception and the constant grants, breaks, subsidies, incentives and programs stemmin...

This vote split among party lines, 60-40 to increase our federal debt limit to 14.3 trillion.  This really begs the question as to why something like this is split among party ideologies.   Regardless of whether you are a liberal or conservative, is it not obvious that the number one issue poised to destroy this country is our debt?  Is it not further obvious that decreasing this debt should be the most important agenda and spending cuts to neutralize the deficit is the only sensible thing to do?   Sometimes I fail to see the difference between Republicans and Democrats, yet today the difference is quite profound.  When the GOP acts as a minority party they can really make a loud statement and the statement today is this:  Republicans are the only party of fiscal sanity.  Fundamentally this is not true as they spend and expand government as well as the Democrats, but today it is quite obvious and it should enrage all sensible liberal A...

This may be a bit early for the "told you so"s as people are still celebrating their 41st vote, but come on folks, I told you so .  Brown told WBUR today that he plans to meet with our governor and urge the release of federal stimulus money, the same 787 billion stimulus money that has turned into a gigantic boondoggle.   He also plans on meeting with Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday, and said he will urge the governor to speed up the release of federal stimulus dollars. Predictably the states have been somewhat slow at spending the stimulus money, but we have been absolutely swarmed with evidence that the money has been badly mismanaged.  In fact, it got so bad that the liberal Boston Globe ran a piece highlighting some of the disasters.  Trust me, if the Globe went so far as to bash the product of Obama's first legislative win, then you better believe there is something wrong with it.  So while Marco Rubio in Florida is using the fact that Charlie C...

Simple! America has declared war on all of these with surprising results.  Perhaps examining the outcome of the previous wars can guide us on how we should proceed with the ongoing war on terror? War on Alcohol This was the quickest war and roughly began with the prohibition on alcohol also known as the noble experiment.  Starting in 1919 and ending in 1933 America's prohibition serves as a constant reminder on the effects of using the federal government's heavy hand to coerce and control human behavior.   While the war was waged on complex moral grounds and stemmed from noble reasons the results speak for themselves. Believe it or not, consumption of alcohol during the prohibition almost reached pre-prohibition consumption levels according to official statistics despite an outright ban of alcohol. Some sources even suggest consumption increased and with the thousands of speakeasies, black-market distilleries producing moonshine and bootleggers smuggl...

Certainly good news, although doubtful this will translate into anything meaningful.  Three brave Republicans are delaying man of the year's reconfirmation as they  seek out documents pertaining to the bailouts of 2008. First of all, where is the public outrage?  Why is it that when Democrat voters justify their votes, they do so based on some odd perception that Democrat politicians fight for the "little guy" and against the big corporations.  Yet the biggest corporation of them all, Federal Reserve, gets a free pass and yet these same voters do not bat an eyelash?  Is it because the Federal Reserve's presence and function is unclear to people or is this just another case of electorate ignorance.   Just this past election in Massachusetts I personally heard justifications for defending Coakley even though she is completely swimming in corporate money, how is it not blatantly obvious as to where the loyalties of these politicians truly lie?  Ho...

As the Brown supporters run amok in Massachusetts comparing yesterday's election to the battle of Lexington and Concord, Democrats in Washington are scheming.  Indeed, some of the rhetoric has dramatically changed from a full blown liberal charge to a more thoughtful and amicable tone.  While some have proudly declared ObamaCare deceased, I think otherwise and find this new tone troubling.  Allow me to share with you why a Brown victory may have very unintended consequences. As discussed earlier, I objected to supporting Brown for the sole reason of stopping ObamaCare because I refused to believe that six months of negotiations would be flushed down the toilet.  If he were just a slightly  better candidate and had some semblance of Constitutional thought in him I would have gladly given my support, but as a candidate he was and still is more liberal than McCain.  My main point at the time was that ObamaCare would pass as is and indeed still favor that o...