Galveston's alternative

In one of the recent Republican primary debates, Gv. Perry mentioned Galveston's opt out from social security in 1981 as a viable way to restructure and save social security for the future generations.  As this article from WSJ Online proves, he was/is right.  In very rough numbers the Galveston government workers who opted out of the SS plan for a privately run investment plan are retiring with about double the amount of the rest of the country's retirees.  Unfortunately this option is no longer available.  Seeing the initial success of this program, salons passed a law prohibiting opting out as of 1983.  Tsk. Tsk.  Suckers!

Contango confusion

This post by John Hinderaker of Powerline provides a perfect example of how the left, withthe aid of George Soros's millions, operates in a free society.  In this case Soros's minions at Think Progress, a blog that feeds the fevered swamp on the left with all sorts of conspiracy theories and smears, have conjured up an attack on the Koch brothers who contribute to conservative groups including the Tea Party.  Contango is a market condition involving the use of futures to hedge prices of commodities and is the subject of the smear y Think Progress.  Unfortunately for TP's "reporter", a young hack in this case who is well in over his head, gets taken to school by John Hinderaker.  There are two lessons in this story.  First, the left's amorality and willingness to make stuff up to accomplish some smear campaign.  Second, the public is well served by the presence on the internet of blogs like Powerline that expose these despicable efforts before they go viral.  Soros should be ashamed of himself.  He came to this country as a penniless (but brilliant) refugee after WWII, made an outsized fortune by legally trading currencies, commodities and stocks in a free market economy, and now turns on his adopted country by sponsoring all manner of unhelpful, destructive  propaganda efforts designed to support his one world view and essentially bring down the very system that allowed his success.  Go figure!

The Clare Spark Blog

YDS is the blog of an historian who appears to be the exception and antidote to the politically correct, liberal mind set of many historians, especially those who have written the history of various eras in America's past such as the The Progressive and New Deal periods from the turn of the 20th century until the present.  An example of this latter type historian is Authur Schlessinger who as a chronicler of the New Deal of the 30's, showed his political stripes by taking an official position in the Kennedy Administration and then subsequently writing the "official" history of that period as well.  From all appearances, Clare Spark is a non ideological sort who believes in rigorous scholarship before weighing in with opinions on any subject matter,  surely a good thing.  These two posts from her site, here and here, deal with the reason multiculturalism became a central tenet of the liberal mantra in the first place, and the unravelling of this odious concept and return to a focus on the importance of the individual as developed during the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century.

The NYTimes at it again

Steven Hayward and John Hinderaker of Powerline both have posts here and here today on the Solyndra defense mounted by the NYTimes editorial page. This defense is a pluperfect example of the Times' take on the subject of economics.  Clearly and unmistakably the Times thinks the government should be in the business of picking winners and losers and that such decisions are far too important, or something, to be left to a free market solution.  It gets worse: the Times also thinks that the policy of increasing the cost of fossil fuels should be encouraged by government policies to continue to rise in order to make the renewable energy sources the viable alternative.  This attitude at a time when gasoline prices have doubled over the past three years of the Obama administration and unemployment has risen in spite of all the new government debt designed to bring it down.  The Times can't seem to put two and two together and come to the pretty obvious conclusion that rising energy costs actually causes unemployment. Duh! Most non economists can figure that one out.  It's no wonder there's so much ignorance out there about how the real world works when so many people take the Times as Gospel on almost any subject.  These two linked posts above are short and to the point.

Outrage in Wisconsin

For some reason Wisconsin is in the news a lot these days, and not in a good way, largely because of the activities of government unions and the policies of the uber liberal University of Wisconsin's admissions policies as they relate to the affirmative action law.

On the subject of higher education this post from Innovations - The Chronicle of Higher Education blog, presents a recent "incident" that occurred at the U. of Wisconsin, having to do with the interruption of a meeting held in a local hotel by a respected organization that studies the effect and results of affirmative action policies (diversity initiatives) by institutions of higher learning.  It seems this organization through the FOIA had acquired the records on admissions at the U of W and was meetig to discuss these results when a student "mob", at the direction of the vice provo of the school's "Diversity" department, interrupted the meeting by taking over the site and threatening the participants.  Obviously the university and the "students" feared the outcome of the meeting, which indeed was discussing the facts of the admissions policies of the school in a most unfavorable light as is seen in this link to a post describing the events.  

This blatantly illegal action on the part of the students, goaded on by a school administrator, is an outrage but in keeping with what is going on at schools all over the country.  The facts of the admissions policies including the graduation rates of the affirmative action admits are laid out in the post and make for discouraging reading if you are at all concerned about the quality of education offered by our universities and the impact of the diversity outreach programs which flow from the affirmative action law.  Thank you Sandra Day O'Connor for your contribution to the official discrimination against white and Asian students now rampant and legal at universities around the country.  Affirmative Action never was a good idea, never mind its dubious constitutionality.  That law has now created an virtual industry of administrators and professoriate who are infusing universities with the twin poisons of political correctness and multiculturalism.  This will come to no good end.

Hayek revival

Steven Hayward is a significant addition to the Powerline blog; it is reason enough to read his contributions just for his knowledge and understanding of the Austrian economist Fredrich Hayek.   Hayek's writings debunk the Keyensian school's economics as wells as all forms of socialism, and his ideas have proved prescient.    In this post Hayward tells us why Hayek makes such good sense and in the process tells us why the Obamanomics has been a failure.  The Austrian School economists, including von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Hayek suggest that the founding fathers had it about right when they proposed a limited central government with checks and balances that would prevent too much power accumulating in the hands of any one branch.  It's hard to imagine what the Austrians and the founding fathers would think about the power grab by the central government that has been going on for many decades in this country and has been accelerating under Obama.