Arkady's Thoughts

It is a well known phrase around this time of the year, "you are throwing your vote away".  This is a canned response from anyone who discovers that you, *gasp*, are not voting for the major party.  It will take you all of 10 minutes to realize that these words are absolutely wrong and in fact, with the help of the electoral college chances are that voting for a major party *is* throwing away the vote. Let me explain. If you live in a non-battleground state, that is the majority of you, but live in a State with a very definitive shade of blue and red then your vote is decided for you.   Now if you are happy with the decision, then all is well and I envy you, as they say - ignorance is bliss. What about the many of you who are NOT happy with your choice, but you are going to vote anyway?  Let's say you live in Massachusetts and you really dislike Obama.  Sorry to burst your bubble, but a vote for Romney is a waste.   What about if you live in Geo...

Tonight is the 3rd party debate sponsored by Free and Equal and moderated by Larry King. Again, just like the two previous debates I live blogged the content will be reactionary and live.  However the format will be somewhat different due to the debate having four individuals instead of two.  The format is also unknown, but presumably it will be broken down by the questions and the answer that is the most interesting/odd/intelligent/whatever will be discussed.  Trying to address every candidate might result in carpal tunnel.   Watch the debate here:   http://live.freeandequal.org/stream.html The four candidates: Gary Johnson (Libertarian) Jill Stein (Green) Virgil Goode (Constitution) Rocky Anderson (Justice) The format:  Two moderators, streaming online and the audience is allowed to voice their pleasure.  Not sure how I feel about the audience chewing up pressure time, but so be it. The opening rant by the Free and Equal represen...

Just like the previous presidential debate, I will be blogging the VP debate.  I will approach this debate purely from a substantial standpoint and certain preconceived notions;  Paul Ryan is a fraud and Joe Biden is clueless as always.  I am interested in whether or not anything will be said that will benefit America and those that are interested in freedom. The conventional wisdom is that Paul Ryan being an awesome wonk will crush the "gaff-machine" Biden.  I disagree, never count out a skilled politician and orator. Here we go.... Segment 1:  Libya.  was the embassy attack, which is now confirmed (duh!?!??) a pre-planned attack a massive intelligence failure? Arkady:  There is a loaded question! Biden:  Skilfully pivoted, did not answer the question and blasted Romney as a war monger while highlighting how great Obama was at handling our existing wars.  If Ryan is good, he should skewer him on this non-answer. Ryan: ...

The race between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren is much closer than many have anticipated.  As a resident of Massachusetts my personal observation is such that the race has been rather "civil" other than the whole Cherokee kerfuffle.   However one thing that does jump is the occasional reference to Brown standing with Wall St. against the little guy. Why is this odd? Well, because Scott Brown was the only Republican to vote for the Dodd-Frank bill.  In fact you could say he was a critical bill passing vote . This may have to do with him catering to his consistency or it may have everything to do with his principles that are built entirely on quick sand.   A man who wrote a portion of RomneyCare and then beamed with pride while announcing that is not a man who views limited Government as a fight worth pursuing.  Still, the reason for why a politician does this or that is best left to folks smarter than me. So how is it that the ...

Here we go! According to the moderator the role of government and the economy will be focal issues.  Fantastic. First question:  Jobs.  Compare and contrast. Obama:  Economic patriotism is now defined as more spending on education and green energy.  How fun! Romney: Cracking down on big 'ol evil China.  Because everyone knows that protectionism and tariffs work, just like Smoot-Hawley helped the Great Depression.  Oh wait... Obama:   "I want to hire 100,000 more teachers." This is despite the fact that public union pensions are absolutely crushing state budgets and have caused numerous nasty fights (Wisconsin, Chicago, California) between local Governments and teachers.  So why not throw our pretty ideas and let the States the financial burdens. Obama:  "Romney wants to cut 5 trillion dollars in taxes".  Really?  I would love to see that. Romney: "No I am not going to cut that much in taxes".   I knew it.  "...

Live blogging this debate will give me an opportunity to pen my immediate reaction to the drivel that is surely going to be filling the airwaves of so many homes today (at least those homes not tuned in to the latest reality TV disaster). I am reluctant to watch the debate, but feel that it is important to at least document that there is another viewpoint other than the one offered by Obaromney.   There will be two distinct messages offered today: 1)  We need more time to fix the economy that Bush left us and we were already somewhat successful based on a bunch of fabricated statistics.  Nothing wrong with a big government, after all, look at all those jobs saved in Detroit! and 3) We do not need more time because the administration failed, but instead we should revert to what has failed over the past many decades.   Your version of big government is bad, mine is better.  Lets invade Syria. Stay tuned...

The Federal Reserve undertook a very serious decision last week announcing QE3 and while the stock market and commodity market responded positively, it remains unclear what this decision means for the average American. The seriousness of the Fed decision cannot be understated and is hinged on the following commitment : "The Committee will closely monitor incoming information on economic and financial developments in coming months. If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability" The actual plan consists of three primary actions.  Outright purchase of MBSs, buying long term Government bonds and keeping the short term rates near zero until 2015.  What is frightening is that this plan will continue until the economy impr...