Bye Bye Barney
Nov 4th
I can’t let this election season wind down without a comment about Barney Frank. Barney was re-elected to his 16th term as the congressman from MA by a wide margin. He beat a fabulous candidate, of Sean Beilat who I hope will seriously consider running again in 2 years.
If anyone wants to see an example of how power corrupts, look at Frank. I maintain that he and Chris Dodd are primarily responsible for the financial meltdown of 2008. Despite frequent and ongoing warnings from George Bush, they refuse to regulate Fannie and Freddie. Barney said during this election cycle that he was wrong about Fannie and Freddie in 2003, carefully omitting that he compounded the error in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
So Barney should not have been re-elected and probably should have been indicted. The icing on the cake is his acceptance speech, which was rude, arrogant, condescending and sounded like a losing speech not a winning one. Apparently Barney was so put off by the notion that he actually had an opponent that he decided to take it out on Beilat, the Boston Herald and Fox News.
Let’s make sure this rude arrogant man is never elected again.
After the election, be careful what you wish for.
Nov 3rd
The latest from Matt’s Meditations by Matt Holzmann:
Nouriel Roubini makes some interesting points about the fiscal train wreck that is about to occur over the next two years. He references Republican fiscal intransigence along with Democrat intransigence on entitlements, both wise statements. But the problem is far greater than even Mr. Roubini states. How does one reform a globally irresponsible economy in the age of globalization?
November 2 will be a watershed for better or worse. Some Republicans are joyous that the Obama socialism machine will have been placed in check, but they had better be careful what they wish for. Economic forces far beyond their acknowledgment are at work, and frankly, it will take all hands to avoid disaster.
Lat week, the EU is meeting to discuss a “haircut” for the bondholders of Greek, Irish, and Portuguese debt. Just as Obama did to investors in General Motors bonds, the investors will take it on the chin for reckless government fiscal policy. This is what is happening as well, in a nutshell, in the U.S. mortgage market, which represents trillions of dollars in equity. Because of political grandstanding, hundreds of thousands of mortgages are now in limbo. The borrowers have a payment holiday, and the real estate market is freezing up as a result. The deadbeats are winning. And this is a very bad thing for investment. And without investment, the economy is bound to go bust.
The one country that has come out best so far is Germany. Sound fiscal policy, belt-tightening, and concentration on manufacturing and exports have led to the highest growth rate in Europe. But this has been achieved at a price. Even Germany’s social welfare model is being cut. And it is Germany pushing the structured bankruptcies in Ireland, Greece, Portugal, and elsewhere. Europe is far from out of the woods, but the German model is one example of economic responsibility. However, if Southern Europe does default, what then?
On this side of the Atlantic, Canada is doing just fine while the sovereign debt of the United States is over $13.5 trillion. Add in another few trillion for Medicare and Social Security, and there is no way in hell we as a nation can hope to pay this back. Throw in the pension bombs in half of the states and many of their municipalities, as well as out of control spending, and the picture becomes more dire. The model of Canadian fiscal responsibility again offers stark contrast.
The Treasury, which is beyond the direct control of Congress, is monetizing debt, as is the Fed. The currency markets are reflecting this new reality. China is purchasing assets all over the world to counter this trend. Monetization of American debt; the failed attempt to do so by the Japanese; and European uncertainty all have China looking to secure raw materials and basic foodstuffs. The problem is that these resources are not portable, and China still has significant unresolved issues in their real estate and banking sectors. And despite owning our debt, China is still at risk. As the old saying goes, if you owe $100,000 the bank owns you. If you owe $1,000,000,000,000 you own the bank. The Saudis are already anticipating inflation by remaining silent when asked their opinion of $90/barrel oil.
Our economy is mired in the real estate mess, and our basic manufacturing and design capabilities are eroding rapidly. Our military is asymmetrically at odds with itself; preparing for high tech wars while fighting on low tech fronts. Afghanistan is still a crapshoot, while sectarian violence in Iraq is on the rise. And just over the borders of both is Iran, who have been moving towards the Bomb month by month.
The health care juggernaut is out of control, and there have been few discussions of the mechanics of actually solving any of the most glaring issues. Already, the first temblors are being felt from the insurance industry in the form of massive rate increases. What next? How do we fix not only the mess enacted last year, but the ongoing systemic issues?
If, as predicted, the Republicans do win in a landslide, what then? We can be sure that the media will rise like a scorned woman and that the volume of the criticism, if not the substance, will increase exponentially. The trend of labeling their opponents as lizards, know nothings, and the great unwashed will accelerate. And all the while as the problems grow increasingly intractable, what gets accomplished?
We are running out of time. This week’s cover story in Der Spiegel is “Is the American Dream over?”. We have met the enemy and he is us. This election is a referendum on the liberal agenda as much as anything else, but we cannot afford to throw the baby out with the bath water. The issues are real and cross party lines. Simple aphorisms do not solve concrete problems. The difference now is that the electorate is as engaged as it has been in 50 years. The whole world is watching this time. We have to get this right.
So goes Massachusetts
Nov 3rd
Frankly I can not believe the Massachusetts results from yesterday. Deval Patrick, Barney Frank and the entire brigade of democrat Congressmen have been re-elected. I could sort of understand all the votes for democrats when the issues were gay marriage and “choice”. We are a socially liberal state. But at a time when waste is sinking this country I just do not understand how anyone could re-elect Deval Patrick, the king of wasteful spending.
Is it simply hate for the other side? Is it a lack of understanding of the issues at stake? Or is it that everyone has a government job or is on the government payroll. NY and CA are going to go under and we will be next. Are the feds going to bail us out? When does the cycle resolve itself?
I’m buoyed by the national results but bummed by my own state.
Election Day
Nov 2nd
At last! Get out and vote.
Just got a message from my neice in North Philly, she was harassed at the polls. When she got to the door of the polling place women were handing out lists of democrat candidates for people to take into the voting booth. Once inside the women who checked her in were very nice until they saw she was a registered republican and then everything changed. They gave her some guff. After voting, leaving the polls the same women were screaming about Obama as she left. They asked her how she voted, when she told them, they screamed at her. Nice.
I voted at 9:00 AM with Amy, which is our usual tradition. There were more people at the polls at that hour than I have seen before. Most of them were older. All the sign holders were for republicans.
Lizards
Nov 2nd
The latest from Matts Meditations by Matt Holzman:
This morning, I woke up to read that in Arianna Huffington’s opinion, the only thing that explains the tide of opposition to many current government policies is that people are thinking with their “lizard brains”. Over at CBS, Katie Couric, the renowned rocket scientist, has been touring “the great unwashed middle” of our country to try to understand the phenomenon. Senator John Kerry added his two cents saying that the GOP and its talk show allies have created a “period of know nothingism” in the country. I might have taken offense but for the sheer vapidity of the three stooges.
Ms. Huffington married well, as they say, as did Senator Kerry. Ms. Couric was a morning talk show host born with looks and the singular ability to animate the words on a teleprompter empathetically. But their attitude is common among those who would rule us. They know better than the great unwashed masses.
And yet America has never been defined as a country of unwashed masses. It has always been the land of opportunity; the land of upward mobility; the land of the fair deal, and the land of invention.
And yet when looks at the leadership class today, one does not see these realities reflected. Across the spectrum of big business, government, academia, and media, one sees a groupthink that is remarkable in its homogeneity and self entitlement. The bases in Judeo-Christian ethics and the Western ideal were long ago left behind. And what is left in their minds has no real structure, no grounding. Ideas flop around in their heads without critical thinking and “we have to pass the bill in order to read it” becomes the operative logic.
What the health care bill resembled most was a leftist Mickey Rooney – Judy Garland play. “Let’s all get together and build a health care program”. No one really knew what they were doing. The cost didn’t matter because it was all a fantasy. The difference is that you can change the channel when the 1930′s fantasy becomes annoying. And in many ways, today’s leftist legislative agenda is a 1930′s fantasy. And yet they wonder why their castles in the sand are being washed away.
And so this might explain the sense of unbelief so prevalent in Washington and New York and San Francisco. Almost the entire New York Times editorial staff have gone shrill in a Continental Baths imitation of Custer’s Last Stand.
I don’t know what Tuesday’s elections will hold and frankly, I don’t trust the Republicans much either. I do know that we as a nation are facing existential choices and that we must come to the best decisions for the good of all of us. I trust my compatriots to make the best available decisions, but in many cases it is the lesser of two evils. Hopefully we can find enough smart people to get the country back on track again.
But I also believe in the innate decency and common sense of “the great unwashed masses” and the lizards. As to know nothings I would urge Mr. Kerry to look up the meaning. America today is more polyglot than any other culture in the world. His use of the term is both historically inaccurate and a sign of pseudointellectualism at its worst.
And in the meantime, I shall be proud to be called “lizard”, for I am the baddest lizard in the valley.
