Obama Crashes Stock Market

...or Headlines You'll Never See from the Mainstream Media.

This morning's stock market opening witnessed a wild slide for a few minutes. The Dow Industrials saw their largest selloff in history, losing over 1000 points in the first few minutes. As I write this, it has recovered somewhat, but is still down. One TV observer called it the "great progressive reckoning."

Wouldst that it were. And wouldst that people would be aware of the many failures, most caused by government interference and begin to work to eliminate them as quickly as possible so we could get back to a healthy, stable economy.

Today's economy bears no resemblance to any that came before it. What passes for economic wisdom these days is so far removed from sanity that it makes my head hurt. "Popular" economists like former Enron economic advisor Paul Krugman are promoting policies and practices that are pretty much the exact opposite of what one needs for a prosperous country. I put that in quotes because he's propped up as some sort of guru for reasons that I can't quite fathom. His record is less than stellar and his failures are never mentioned. Yet, he's the one we see most often and his every word is held in high regard by policy-makers, most of whom have never owned or operated a business.

Early in Obama's term, we were told that we were entering a "new normal" where unemployment numbers of 9% were the best we could expect. Recent history has certainly proved that prediction true. Our economy has been dragging along for years.

One Recovery Summer after another has had little positive effect out here in the real world. What we hear on the news is "the economy is booming," "there's no inflation," "progressive policies are working." What we see are companies going out of business, empty buildings and many friends who've lost their jobs, their livelihoods and their families.

So, who are you going to believe? The spinmiesters (all of whom are comfortably well-off, thank you) or your lying eyes? My own experience is that grocery prices have more than doubled in the past five years. Gasoline prices are low today but still higher than they were. Many of the little things that I was once able to do like going to the movies or taking a vacation are no longer possible. Now I'm reduced to praying that one of my two ancient vehicles will get me home.

Many people are under the mistaken impression that things like this just happen unprompted. Or they think that George Bush is somehow still responsible, six years after his last day in office. Or that there's some vast right-wing conspiracy engineered by the Koch Brothers. I pity these people.

Danger, danger Will Robinson! Commonsense Solution Ahead!

Allow me to introduce to you, gentle readers, the concept of Cause and Effect. The Cause of our current economic travails is Big Government. What we see all around us is the Effect. If there isn't an economic postulate that states that the larger a government becomes, the worse the economy becomes, there certainly should be.

The Obama administration has implemented the largest intrusion into the private sector in history with its hostile takeovers of the healthcare and student loan industries. Then factor in the tens of thousands of pages of regulations forced upon us. It's little wonder that we're still afloat at all. That we haven't been plunged into another Great Depression is a testament to the strength of capitalism.

The solution is simple: reduce the size, scope and cost of government, anywhere and everywhere. I would even argue that the nearly incomprehensible size of our debt requires the wholesale elimination of entire federal departments, especially those duplicated at the state level.

This will cause the Left to react not unlike a vampire when shown a Cross. "Why, reduce government? How preposterous! We've never heard of such a thing! How dare you threaten my power over you unwashed proles, um, wait a minute, did I say that last one out loud?"

For a few brief, shining years, we enjoyed an economy where the average American was free to climb the economic ladder of success. One-earner households were the norm thanks to not much economic pressure. Kids could look forward to having careers in areas that were innovative and stimulating. The economy grew as only a free one could. There was a diversity of opportunity for all, regardless of ability. The truck driver was as essential to industry as the degreed engineer or  accountant. Thus was the golden era before the progressive leviathan of big government roamed the Earth.

What we have today is pretty much the exact opposite of that. Corporate fat cats buy and sell politicians like commodities, with elections going to the best funded candidate who can hire the best bamboozlers in the business to promise what they never intend to deliver. Laws are written not to solve any type of problems but to erect barriers for competitors (see Uber and the unions who oppose them). As has been amply documented, while the progressives preach loudly about "income inequality," the very real income gap between the rich and poor has never been greater. For the first time in our history, more businesses fail than succeed.

The heavy hand of government has forced the cost of business to increase dramatically, to the point that today's Chamber of Commerce actively endorses the replacement of American employees with cheaper, less capable foreign imports. That they have no empathy for those displaced workers is a sad testament to the American Dream. But I digress...

So the question for today is, "Do we want to tolerate the intolerable and continue to suffer under a government that was never designed to be this large or do we get to work reducing it?"

Your answer lies inside a voting booth. Choose wisely, for your own sake and that of your family. And the rest of us, too.

Minnesota's Repeal of Useless Laws Is a Model for Washington

This news should make your Monday more enjoyable:


Minnesota "unsession" dumps 1175 obsolete, silly laws. (This link looks hinky in my browser)


Although it was done at the state level, it shows that out there, somewhere, lies common sense.

We could use more of this. A lot more.

(h/t to Instapundit)

Depressed? You Will Be After You Read This

I was surfing the Intertoobs this morning and found this link over at Instapundit. It's a short post from the Washington Times hawking an e-book called Enjoy the Decline by economist Aaron Clarey entitled Has America Seen It's Best Days?

According to Clarey, the answer is yes. This is the point where you, gentle reader, should consider removing any sharp objects within your reach.

The author asks why Clarey recommends we lie back, think of Norman Rockwell, and let the wave of Doom wash over us?

“What else are they supposed to do?” He asks. “If they try to stop it, they’ll waste their lives on a problem that cannot be fixed. Instead I’m much more practical. I recommend people take inventory of their lives and find out how to benefit the most from it, regardless of what’s happening in the public sector.”

OK, that's advice, but not necessarily what I wanted to hear. Certainly, What Has Been Done can be Undone? Right?

Right?

Oh, it's not just economics?

Beyond economics, Clarey claims that “Kim Kardashian and the fact rap is more popular than jazz” lead him to believe American social values are crumbling.

I have no particular animus towards either KK nor rap. I prefer art with a bit of substance and celebrities with some depth and I find neither in those examples. We've already seen people famous merely for being famous before. And popular music has always been more about marketing than talent (I'm looking at you, Bay City Rollers).

So how did we arrive at this sorry state?

“The Baby Boomer Generation. Without a doubt. When you go from Frank Sinatra to Jim Morrison in 8 years, that’s not a slow transition from musical tastes of society, that is an immediate change purposely forced by a generation determined to ignore wisdom, taste, culture and value just for the sake of doing so. 

“But music is only one aspect. Fashion turned hideous, divorce became an Olympic event, the idea of outsourcing your children to daycare became standard, nearly every aspect of work, effort, and ethic was thrown out the door and every non-economic aspect of society shows it.”

Purposely forced upon us, you say? Do you mean by, oh, an enemy who wished to defeat us without firing a shot? Like the old Soviets of the 1960's?

Like this...

Gain control of key positions in radio, T.V., and motion pictures.

Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.
 

Break down culture standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and T.V.

Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

So, this wasn't a normal progression of American society, Mr. Clarey? Tell me more.

“People, going back to FDR, Woodrow Wilson, and more recently the Baby Boomer, Gen X and Gen Y Generations actually believe they don’t have to work,” he explains. "The concept of Keynesian economics where we just “shuffle money around and POOF” economic growth occurs, not to mention it’s MAINSTREAM economics is proof as to just how stupid, naive, and gullible the average American is. 

Ahh, Free Market Economics. I can almost remember what that was. That was the arcane idea that innovation, quality, and merit were to be rewarded. A rising tide raises all ships.

How quaint.

Surely our state of affairs can be reversed. But how?

“Eliminate all income taxes and replace it with a single sales tax at state, federal and local levels and make a constitutional amendment limiting the total amount to less than 20% GDP,” he states. “This would assure productive people and businesses their labor would not be confiscated as well as send a signal to the parasitic classes that they will have to work.”

Oh, I get it now: bad governmental policy lies at the root of our problems. Who could've guessed that a bunch of politicians with little to no experience in the private sector crafting ill-thought-out laws could have such a negative effect on everyone's life?

Gosh, it would be nice if we could somehow reacquaint our society with positive values once more. Even nicer would be to gain some control over our government again so we could look forward to a better tomorrow for ourselves and our families and have our elected representatives do the most good for the most people. More freedom, not less.

I'm with Aaron Clarey: I just don't see this happening.

Pardon me while I draw a warm bath. Now where did I put that razor blade...