Archive for March, 2008
Sunday, March 30th, 2008Countering the Conservative Story of Outrage
I recently stumbled on an interesting piece of history called the Powell Memo that laid out the conservative plan for winning the hearts and minds of Americans. Written in 1971, almost every facet of the Powell Memo has come to be realized, from the creation of conservative think tanks, to the monitoring of universities, to […]
Friday, March 28th, 2008The Bernanke Rules for Mortgage Lending
Ben Bernanke outlined several basic consumer protection rules in a recent speech at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s annual meeting.
I have to give Bernanke credit for trying to strike a balance and use regulation effectively to benefit both groups: lenders and borrowers.
Here is how Bernanke framed the proposed regulations:
We believe these proposed rules will help […]
The Federal Reserve’s Contribution to Inflation
Though I’m not in favor of a gold standard, it’s interesting to hear Ron Paul talk about how printing more money makes prices higher for the average American.
Think about it this way, if you look at the price of oil in terms of gold, it has remained almost unchanged over the past several years. […]
A Crisis of Confidence: Part II
Newsweek just published an article about how a lack of confidence doomed Bear Stearns.
Here are a couple of interesting points from the article:
“A company is only as solvent as the perception of its solvency,” Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney
Bernanke declared the subprime crisis contained last year even as it was metastasizing
The administration has been out of […]
A Crisis of Confidence
Not long ago, President Bush visited Saudi Arabia to ask the Saudis to turn up the spigots.
The Saudis, however, didn’t bite and stated that the price of oil may be the least of our concerns.
”The concern for the U.S. economy is valid, but what affects the U.S. economy is more than the price of oil,” […]
Saturday, March 15th, 2008Fundraising Letter from the NRCC
This week I received a mailer from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) thanks in large part, I believe, to my communications to Senator George Voinovich.
The NRCC letter contained a survey that was quite interesting. Many of the questions fed on fears spread by talk radio and others just seemed outright manipulative. I have […]
What Do Democrats Want When They Say “Experience”?
Hillary Clinton claims that we should hire the person with the most experience to be President. It’s an interesting argument, but what is really going on here?
There are two ways you could look at the term “experience” when it comes to this race:
Political experience
Experience fighting Republicans
Most people, including the Barack campaign, have focused on responding […]
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008The Irony of “Blame Government” Politicians
In the ’80s, conservatives introduced the frame of smaller government which has transformed itself into “government is bad” or the “blame government” frame:
Here’s some statements you’ll frequently hear from “blame government” politicians:
It’s inefficient
The market can do a better job
End “big government”
Government supports welfare and entitlement programs
Government = bureaucracy = ineffective
Government is the problem, not the […]