Arkady's Thoughts

TARP WORKED!!!  Thank the lord.  Some of the headlines do a good job of capturing the level of ignorance that persists in the world of punditry. " TARP: A success none dare mention " one writes while " TARP's Success Proves Washington's Talent " writes another  Oh brother, TARP is continuing to bamboozle people to this day, perhaps we can clear it up once and for all.  By continuing to promote these falsities the writers are also promoting the savior Big Government and instilling within the American populace an idea that any crisis regardless of size can be defeated by the wisdom of our politicians.  These propagandists fail on both accounts, first out of common sense and second for economic reasons. First reason - the common sense. Just because *some* banks have been paying TARP back with interest never made it a good idea.  My analogy is the following:  Imagine if Congress offered each unemployed American an opportunity to play for...

Yeah, we just had a tax hike and it was pretty damn big.  You must be confused, what tax hike, nothing happened in Congress.  Well in case the picture does not give it away, this tax increase was not done by Congress, it was done by the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.  He announced it yesterday and here is the relevant information: The Committee will maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings. In addition, the Committee intends to purchase a further $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a pace of about $75 billion per month.  This will be done because our economy is struggling and housing is depressed, a rather bleak economic assessment, but one that is strangely similar to that of 2008.  After all the spending and all the Fed's machinations we are still struggling and still searching for a recovery, yet instead of reversing course and explor...

That was interesting. Let us start with the local races in my state of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Several disappointments in this state, especially when contrasted to the national backdrop.  Despite my somewhat pessimistic prediction regarding this state , I am left amazed that Massachusetts continues to politically operate in a world of it's own.  While the US House experienced the greatest surge of partisan politics in 60 years, the well greased Democratic machine of Massachusetts hummed with an eerie predictability.  Every single state-wide office went to the Democrats, every US House seat and two of the three ballot measures failed.  What happened?  Is the message wrong?  Are the tea party inspired fiscal conservative out of touch?  Is the repudiation of Obama's liberal agenda incorrect?  If so, then the entire country is wrong and only Massachusetts is right. Most painful of course was the defeat of Question 3, the opportunity to roll...

Here are my predictions for November, 2010 elections.  Incumbents marked with an asterisk. Massachusetts This will be the most disappointing of all for me and for many watching the congressional races. Governor - Deval Patrick* Auditor - Mary Z. Treasurer - Karen Polito Attorney General - Coakley* Beacon Hill - Will get several more Republicans making a slight dent in the one party rule Question 1 - Fail Question 2 - Fail Question 3 - Fail (this one will hurt) All Congressional races will be retained by the incumbents, some will be the closest in decades, but incumbency is a tough thing to shake.  Yeah that is right, it is 2010 and MA will send 9 old Democrats and 1 new Democrat to DC. House The Republicans will pick up a net total of 54 seats.  This will certainly be a tidal wave, but many are overstating the impact.   Some of the painful ones will of course be MA-4, as the most watched House race of 2010.  On the...

The Republicans are coming, the Republicans are coming!   Everyone hide!   It seems like the impending Republican wave is going to hit America tomorrow evening like a tsunami straight out of hell.  People are cheering and dancing in the street, finally, no more spending, no more Pelosi and no more liberal agenda.  Yeah, not so fast.  Beyond the inevitable frustration that will be the lame-duck session of Congress, there is the little issue of Republicans and their promises.  Actually, there are two issues. Issue number one.   The current Republican leadership is inept.  There, I said it. Inept.  By and large the Boehner, Cantor, Ryan coalition in the House and the McConnell Senate leadership are simply vying for power.  They have openly and publicly declared their contempt for anything that resembles the Tea Party and are already scheming how to take control of the incoming freshmen.  Not that there is anything wrong w...

Everyone has focused their attention on the now infamous MA-4th Congressional district and the absolutely vilified Barney Frank.  Meanwhile the prominent conservative websites have completely ignored the MA-3 district.  As a refresher course, Jim McGovern is potentially even more dangerous than Barney Frank because McGovern operates in the realm of the unknown.  In fact, this election season the most wonderful aspect is the heightened exposure that a lot of people get to the multi-term incumbents residing in Congress (watch the video below for an explanation).   McGovern's role on 'ObamaCare' is undeniable and he personally pulled strings in order to expedite the bill out of the House.  Worse yet, he authored and is personally responsible for the legislation that allowed Congress to raise the debt ceiling - yes again!   Of course he justified this by blaming Bush, a correct accusation, but ignoring the fact that Democrats have increased spending since 200...

As the election season winds down we need to ask ourselves, what is it that we want from this new Congress?   What kind of change would strongly impact America and improve the legislative process?  Term limits for Congress should be the first and most obvious choice and one that has the best chance of succeeding.   Term limits will break the all powerful incumbency, will deter and discourage special interests, lobbyists and corporations from spending too much money on campaigns and will constantly rejuvenate Congress with fresh ideas.  We will achieve the goal of the founding fathers in sending citizen legislators to office instead of career politicians. Term limits also has the the best chance of passing in this highly partisan and tense environment. The official organization for promoting U.S. Term Limits cites the following statistic . A recent poll shows that 78 percent of Americans support term limits for the U.S. Congress, including large ...