What a difference a week makes

When I wrote my last post, about a week ago, I was feeling pretty down about the direction things are going in my country. Since then, several things have happened to make me more optimistic than I have been in at least a year.

1) Scott Brown wins Mass
2) The Supreme Court actually defends the Constitution
3) Air American shuts down
4) Barney Frank suggests shutting down Fannie and Freddie
5) Ben Bernanke is losing his supporters

The first two points are solid, tangible wins for liberty. The last 3 are simply signs that the American people are coming to the realization that President Obama's change is not really the kind of change that will make things better for the majority of Americans.

On a side note, one thing I find particularly amusing is that so-called-progressives will lament both points 2 and 3 together, without admitting that Air American was, and always has been, an exploitation of loopholes in campaign finance laws that were just struck down. In other words, Air American was a perfect illustration of how useless the McCain-Feingold "reform" was anyway. Air America did nothing but lose money throughout its entire existence, but it provided a mechanism for wealthy left-liberals to funnel huge sums of money into their political cause that would have otherwise been deemed illegal.

Points 4 and 5 simply tell me that the American people are finally realizing that both our government's involvement in housing and the ever ending meddling of the Federal Reserve are somehow connected to the economic problems that we currently face. I believe admitting there is a problem is the first step in the 12 step program to recovery.

Finally, to cap off my happy week, I won a pair of business class tickets to Europe in a drawing on Thursday. So, I'm in a pretty good mood.

Special Interst Group Strikes Deal with Obama

Apparently, "union leaders" now have a seat at the legislative table. I'm actually a bit surprised at how unashamedly, out in the open this is. Remember kids, it's only a "Special Interest Group" if you aren't a member of said group.

I haven't written much lately primarily because I've been quite busy with a new job, but also because I find the whole situation so depressing. A government's regulation of a fractional reserve banking system of its own design fails, as any "Austrian School" economist would predict, yet that same government is able to pin the blame on "market failure" (and the Austrian School economists are still considered loony by the mainstream economists). People are acting like "greed" (or what I like to refer to as "rational self interest") is a newly discovered attribute that is only to be found in lower Manhattan. Yes, regulators could obviously not be expected to anticipate that people might try to profit from regulatory incompetence. So, now the country is running as fast as it can into the brick wall of Marxism and ever-expanding the domain of the state. Yes, because we've never seen that go wrong before.

Of course, it doesn't help that we don't teach economics in our failing public school system (I didn't encounter economics until grad school at a private university) because the teachers themselves place their own economic interest above the well being of those whom they profess to serve (again, that's perfectly rational and to be expected, but our education regulators refuse to see it). In other words, teachers can only make themselves worse off if every student that graduates from High School actually understood the economic consequences of minimum wages and trade unionism.



Those who love liberty see little to be happy about lately. Actually, the fact that the federal reserve will probably devalue my student loans through high inflation is a plus....assuming I can maintain my wages...