Friday 10 February 2012

FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: The bewigged edition

WinstonParliament is back in session, so by Mark Twain’s standards neither life, liberty nor proper should be safe. But apart from questions about Maori Party integrity and Winston Peter’s wig, it’s been a quiet political week.
Thanks goodness.

On with the show…

  • Steven Joyce talks unusual sense for a politician. He says “Each time we say ‘you can’t’ it carries a cost.” And so it does.  But what’s with the “we,” minister?
    ‘We’ Are a Little Confused - P O L I C Y   M A T T E R S
  • “You’ve heard that America is enjoying a “jobs-led recovery”? Don’t be so sure.
      No Evidence of a Jobs Recovery
    - O B J E C T I V I S T  I N D I V I D U A L I S T
  • And you thought Bill Clinton was the president who couldn’t keep it in his trousers…
    The Truth About President Kennedy – S C O T T  H O L L E R A N ’ S   B L O G
  • How to choose from a bad bunch.
    Ayn Rand on Selecting a Presidential Candidate? – Burgess Laughlin, M A K I N G  P R O G R E S S

“Central bankers are the arsonists of [the present economic] 
crisis who now pose as fire fighters quickly labelling
further monetary debasement ‘stimulus’.”
            - Detlev Schlicter, “There will be no end to ‘quantitative easing’

“What is the difference between animal spirits and the confidence
fairy? Why do Keynesians embrace one but not the other?”
            - Russ Roberts

  • The Europeans have a plan, and like all political plans…
    Why Europe’s Plan to End the Debt Crisis Can’t and Won’t Work -  D A I L Y  R E C K O N I N G
  • Dept. of Yikes: "In effect the EFSF is being used to recapitalize the ECB."
    http://soberlook.com/2012/02/efsf-used-to-recapitalize-ecb-on-greek.html
  • Do government-engineered "soft landings" ever work out as planned?
    Are "Soft Landings" really softer? – Darius Cooper,  P R A C T I C E   G O O D   T H E O R Y
  • Alleged economists suggest printing more to devalue your currency is a good thing and not a disaster. That the job in times of economic disaster is to “boost demand.” The biggest disaster is the economic theory on which such “thinking” is based.
    Will Currency Devaluation Fix the Eurozone? – Frank Shostak, M I S E S  D A I L Y
  • You know about gold and how it can protect you when the times become those about which historians like to write.  And how bonds can provide a return when they aren’t. But where do gold bonds fit in?
    Gold Bonds – Keith Weiner,   K E I T H   W E I N E R ‘ S   P O S T E R O U S
  • What politicians, economists and environmentalists need to learn from the billion-dollar collapse of Obama’s “green jobs” flagship, but won’t.
    Lessons From Solyndra – Robert Murphy,  E C O N L I B

“There are few branches of learning as devoid of history’s
light as economics. Economists are rarely informed by it.”

            - Jonathan R. T. Hughes’s in his book
The Government Habit,
quoted by Don Boudreaux

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[Thanks and hat tips to Geek Press, Marginal Revolution, Watts Up With That, Rational Jenn, Cafe Hayek, The Playful Spirit]

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