Bhopal. A WSJ story does a round-up on the verdict: The Gulf Spill. Jacobinism, cont. This NYT article illustrates the continuing Jacobin demand that all normal life must be set aside in the face of whatever the media define as an all-consuming crisis. Inevitably, this psychology must lead either to a greater and greater hysterial pitch, or else to a “Thermidorian reaction,” in which people say: Enough.
Reading the New York Times is an onerous chore under the best of circumstances, and reading Gretchen Morgenson’s Sunday business column “Fair Game” must be accepted as a penance worth centuries in Purgatory. Still, if one reads Our Gal Sunday long enough, some small pleasures can be found. Today, I found one. Nominally, it was just a 300-word story by wretched Gretchen with the headline “A.I.G. Executive Won’t Be Sued.” Talk about a non-story.
From Gail Collins of the NYT, another assault on Americans’ benevolent sense of life , comparing it to day-dreaming. “Americans have always raised their children to believe in the power of the dream. This is probably why hundreds of thousands of young people are certain they are destined to become the American Idol. Or Next Top Model. Or marry a Jonas Brother. A few of these dreamers grew up to run oil companies. They believed with all the power of their fierce, tiny hearts that they could drill farther and farther down into the ocean without ever having a really big accident.”
The first rule of politics: Treat the symptom, not the cause. From an Investor’s Business Daily editorial : “Overhauling the banking system without fixing Fannie and Freddie is like fighting terrorists without attacking the jihadi ideology motivating them.” Be adults? GE’s Jeffrey Immelt on Goldman : ““People need to tone down the rhetoric around financial services and stop the populism and be adults.” That is so 19th century.
If they want to marry, why should the state prevent them? Here is a depressing story by John Crawley of Reuters, recounting the absurd political interference with the merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines.
Repealer-General This is a truly statesman-like innovation, provoked by our governmental growth. We need a public official who has no responsibility except recommending laws and regulations to be repealed. Indeed, if we could invest the office with sufficient probity, I would like to see the gentleman given a sort of veto, which only a two-thirds majority could override.
Environmentalists Seize a Chance to Oppose Human Production According to an NYT story , “BP officials said on Sunday that about 15,000 barrels of oil from the gulf spill was collected by its containment cap on Saturday, bringing the total since the device was installed to more than 119,000 barrels, or about 5 million gallons.” But the meaning our culture takes away from Deepwater Horizon spill will not be one of human triumph over adversity. Regardless of what engineering triumphs are performed, the message is going to be one of human impotence and need to reject industrialism.
BP CEO Tony Hayward testified before the House Energy and Commerc Committee. It did not go well. Given that the U.S. Attorney General has announced an investigation into possible criminal charges, it seems noteworthy that no one thought to read Hayward his Miranda rights. Indeed, the congressmen rather seemed to expect he should make a wide variety of assertions on the basis of which he and others might later be pilloried, sued, and jailed. The highlight of the committee session was the assertion by Rep. Joe L. Barton (Republican of Texas) that the $20 billion escrow account BP has agreed to set up under threat from President Obama was “a shakedown.” This is what is known in Washington lingo as a “Kinsley gaffe.” (The term arises from a remark by Michael Kinsley: “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”)
A story by Don Clark and Kara Scannell (of the WSJ) suggests that the investigation into Dell (mentioned yesterday) will bring to light the question of Intel rebates. "Such rebates have been a focus of government antitrust suits against Intel in the U.S., Europe, Japan and South Korea, which allege that the chip giant has improperly used financial incentives to its customers to discourage major computer makers from buying chips from rival Advanced Micro Devices . Intel denies the allegations, arguing that the rebates it gives customers are a lawful form of price discounting to meet competition."
Jeff Skilling Speaks Out. Fortune magazine carries a prison interview with the former CEO of Enron. Regime Uncertainty. Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson is beginning to realize that demonizing business makes people reluctant to do business. “Given the housing and financial carnage, most of today's cautiousness and risk aversion-by both businesses and households-were unavoidable. But the Obama administration's anti-business rhetoric and controversial health ‘reform’ may have compounded the effect. These created uncertainties and, in the case of health ‘reform,’ raised the cost of future full-time employees. The administration believes these policies don't jeopardize the economic recovery. Historians may conclude that the goals were at cross-purposes.”
There has to be some word that conveys a level of effrontery far beyond “gall,” “brass,” “nerve,” and “chutzpah.” We need a concept that is capable of referring to Saddam Hussein’s practice of shooting political opponents and then charging their relatives for the cost of the bullets. And we need this concept right now, in order to refer to U.S.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not returning U.S. President Barack Obama’s calls. I’m being theatrical. Obama is demanding that Germany pull its weight in the global-recovery effort by aping the U.S.: spending more and producing less.
As readers of this Journal know, over the past few months the Institute has been fighting socialized medicine, sponsoring a lecture series..
Twenty years ago, on February 24, 1990, George Walsh and David Kelley stood before a crowded lecture hall in New York City to announce the
The Gulf Spill Once again, journalists are speculating about the possibility of bringing criminal charges against BP CEO Tony Hayward...
The following is Chapter 5 from the book The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand: Truth and Toleration in Objectivism, by David Kelley.
For as long as there has been an Objectivist movement, its ranks have periodically been thinned by schisms and excommunications, power...
For Once, Thomas Frank Gets It Right. Commenting on Joe Barton’s description of Obama's demand for an escrow fund, WSJ columnist Frank wrote : “And this, in turn, is merely an expression of the permanently upside-down political universe of the right, in which the law is criminal, cynicism is a form of idealism, and bleeding-heart liberals are really soulless monsters in love with the power of the state for the same reason that gangsters are fond of their Uzis: because it is the weapon that allows them to plunder and loot the productive members of society.” I could disagree with a word choice here or there: For “law” substitute “politician’s arbitrary demand” and for “cynicism” substitute “the virtue of selfishness.” But other than that, yeah: basically correct.
I do not think I am indulging in the broken window fallacy to call attention to this story by Nicole Norfleet of Associated Press regarding the improved prospect that the Gulf oil spill has brought to non-Gulf shrimpers. The broken window fallacy says that destruction is economically advantageous because it gives work to those who must restore the former infrastructure. In the case of the Gulf oil spill, the broken window fallacy would be involved if one cited the economic benefit now being given to those employed in stopping the oil leak and cleaning up its consequences.
UK “Office of Fair Trading” to investigate IPO offerings. According to a story by Erik Larson (of Bloomberg.com): “Britain’s antitrust regulator plans to investigate fees charged by investment banks for arranging initial public offerings and rights offers, work that generated 2 billion pounds ($2.9 billion) for securities firms last year. “The probe, which will start later this year, will include fees, rights issues and other types of equity-raising following complaints of “dissatisfaction” from corporations, the U.K. Office of Fair Trading in London said today in a statement. “
Bhopal. A WSJ story does a round-up on the verdict: The Gulf Spill. Jacobinism, cont. This NYT article illustrates the continuing Jacobin demand that all normal life must be set aside in the face of whatever the media define as an all-consuming crisis. Inevitably, this psychology must lead either to a greater and greater hysterial pitch, or else to a “Thermidorian reaction,” in which people say: Enough.
Reading the New York Times is an onerous chore under the best of circumstances, and reading Gretchen Morgenson’s Sunday business column “Fair Game” must be accepted as a penance worth centuries in Purgatory. Still, if one reads Our Gal Sunday long enough, some small pleasures can be found. Today, I found one. Nominally, it was just a 300-word story by wretched Gretchen with the headline “A.I.G. Executive Won’t Be Sued.” Talk about a non-story.
From Gail Collins of the NYT, another assault on Americans’ benevolent sense of life , comparing it to day-dreaming. “Americans have always raised their children to believe in the power of the dream. This is probably why hundreds of thousands of young people are certain they are destined to become the American Idol. Or Next Top Model. Or marry a Jonas Brother. A few of these dreamers grew up to run oil companies. They believed with all the power of their fierce, tiny hearts that they could drill farther and farther down into the ocean without ever having a really big accident.”
The first rule of politics: Treat the symptom, not the cause. From an Investor’s Business Daily editorial : “Overhauling the banking system without fixing Fannie and Freddie is like fighting terrorists without attacking the jihadi ideology motivating them.” Be adults? GE’s Jeffrey Immelt on Goldman : ““People need to tone down the rhetoric around financial services and stop the populism and be adults.” That is so 19th century.
If they want to marry, why should the state prevent them? Here is a depressing story by John Crawley of Reuters, recounting the absurd political interference with the merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines.
Repealer-General This is a truly statesman-like innovation, provoked by our governmental growth. We need a public official who has no responsibility except recommending laws and regulations to be repealed. Indeed, if we could invest the office with sufficient probity, I would like to see the gentleman given a sort of veto, which only a two-thirds majority could override.
Environmentalists Seize a Chance to Oppose Human Production According to an NYT story , “BP officials said on Sunday that about 15,000 barrels of oil from the gulf spill was collected by its containment cap on Saturday, bringing the total since the device was installed to more than 119,000 barrels, or about 5 million gallons.” But the meaning our culture takes away from Deepwater Horizon spill will not be one of human triumph over adversity. Regardless of what engineering triumphs are performed, the message is going to be one of human impotence and need to reject industrialism.
BP CEO Tony Hayward testified before the House Energy and Commerc Committee. It did not go well. Given that the U.S. Attorney General has announced an investigation into possible criminal charges, it seems noteworthy that no one thought to read Hayward his Miranda rights. Indeed, the congressmen rather seemed to expect he should make a wide variety of assertions on the basis of which he and others might later be pilloried, sued, and jailed. The highlight of the committee session was the assertion by Rep. Joe L. Barton (Republican of Texas) that the $20 billion escrow account BP has agreed to set up under threat from President Obama was “a shakedown.” This is what is known in Washington lingo as a “Kinsley gaffe.” (The term arises from a remark by Michael Kinsley: “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”)
A story by Don Clark and Kara Scannell (of the WSJ) suggests that the investigation into Dell (mentioned yesterday) will bring to light the question of Intel rebates. "Such rebates have been a focus of government antitrust suits against Intel in the U.S., Europe, Japan and South Korea, which allege that the chip giant has improperly used financial incentives to its customers to discourage major computer makers from buying chips from rival Advanced Micro Devices . Intel denies the allegations, arguing that the rebates it gives customers are a lawful form of price discounting to meet competition."
Jeff Skilling Speaks Out. Fortune magazine carries a prison interview with the former CEO of Enron. Regime Uncertainty. Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson is beginning to realize that demonizing business makes people reluctant to do business. “Given the housing and financial carnage, most of today's cautiousness and risk aversion-by both businesses and households-were unavoidable. But the Obama administration's anti-business rhetoric and controversial health ‘reform’ may have compounded the effect. These created uncertainties and, in the case of health ‘reform,’ raised the cost of future full-time employees. The administration believes these policies don't jeopardize the economic recovery. Historians may conclude that the goals were at cross-purposes.”
There has to be some word that conveys a level of effrontery far beyond “gall,” “brass,” “nerve,” and “chutzpah.” We need a concept that is capable of referring to Saddam Hussein’s practice of shooting political opponents and then charging their relatives for the cost of the bullets. And we need this concept right now, in order to refer to U.S.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not returning U.S. President Barack Obama’s calls. I’m being theatrical. Obama is demanding that Germany pull its weight in the global-recovery effort by aping the U.S.: spending more and producing less.
As readers of this Journal know, over the past few months the Institute has been fighting socialized medicine, sponsoring a lecture series..
Twenty years ago, on February 24, 1990, George Walsh and David Kelley stood before a crowded lecture hall in New York City to announce the
The Gulf Spill Once again, journalists are speculating about the possibility of bringing criminal charges against BP CEO Tony Hayward...
The following is Chapter 5 from the book The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand: Truth and Toleration in Objectivism, by David Kelley.
For as long as there has been an Objectivist movement, its ranks have periodically been thinned by schisms and excommunications, power...
For Once, Thomas Frank Gets It Right. Commenting on Joe Barton’s description of Obama's demand for an escrow fund, WSJ columnist Frank wrote : “And this, in turn, is merely an expression of the permanently upside-down political universe of the right, in which the law is criminal, cynicism is a form of idealism, and bleeding-heart liberals are really soulless monsters in love with the power of the state for the same reason that gangsters are fond of their Uzis: because it is the weapon that allows them to plunder and loot the productive members of society.” I could disagree with a word choice here or there: For “law” substitute “politician’s arbitrary demand” and for “cynicism” substitute “the virtue of selfishness.” But other than that, yeah: basically correct.
I do not think I am indulging in the broken window fallacy to call attention to this story by Nicole Norfleet of Associated Press regarding the improved prospect that the Gulf oil spill has brought to non-Gulf shrimpers. The broken window fallacy says that destruction is economically advantageous because it gives work to those who must restore the former infrastructure. In the case of the Gulf oil spill, the broken window fallacy would be involved if one cited the economic benefit now being given to those employed in stopping the oil leak and cleaning up its consequences.
UK “Office of Fair Trading” to investigate IPO offerings. According to a story by Erik Larson (of Bloomberg.com): “Britain’s antitrust regulator plans to investigate fees charged by investment banks for arranging initial public offerings and rights offers, work that generated 2 billion pounds ($2.9 billion) for securities firms last year. “The probe, which will start later this year, will include fees, rights issues and other types of equity-raising following complaints of “dissatisfaction” from corporations, the U.K. Office of Fair Trading in London said today in a statement. “