Wonder if this research can explain the recent GOP rout of the Democrats in teh mid term elections.

[Logically, an unethical behavior performed yesterday should also be unethical if performed tomorrow. However, the present studies suggest that the timing of a transgression has a systematic effect on people’s beliefs about its moral acceptability. Because people’s emotional reactions tend to be more extreme for future events than for past events, and because such emotional reactions often guide moral intuitions, judgments of moral behavior may be more extreme in prospect than in retrospect.]

A Myth About George W Bush

The racism charge against Bush was vicious. Too bad most of those folks making that charge did not read up on his record. Here is an excerpt from a WaPo piece.

[While growing up in Texas and later serving as governor, Bush constantly befriended and worked with members of his state's Hispanic community and fought for the rights of immigrants. "Once children are in Texas," he said in 1995, "Texans know it is in our best interest and their interest to educate them, regardless of the nationality of their parents." In his gubernatorial reelection victory in 1998, Bush won 49 percent of the Hispanic vote and 27 percent of the black vote - a strong showing for a Republican in Texas. (It is unsurprising that, in his memoir, Bush reportedly describes the accusations of racism he experienced in the aftermath of Katrina as "the worst moment of my presidency.")]

Will Obama's Fortunes Follow Gov Corzine's (D-NJ) ?

According to Rasmussen Reports:

New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Jon S. Corzine, who hopes to win a second term in November, has now fallen behind Republican challenger Christopher J. Christie by 15 points – 49% to 34%.

The survey was taken Tuesday, the day Corzine was announcing $916 million in new and increased taxes as part of his $29.8 billion state budget for 2010.

This might be a glimpse into the mood of the electorate. With Obama's reckless spending, higher taxes, higher deficts, higher debt, lower poll numbers, you can make a strong case that the narrow margin of victory is pretty shaky for Obama.

What is the half life of Obama's after glow?

The election after glow will sparkle and fade in a world that is experiencing one of the worst economic down turns, a society that is hung over from 30 years of consumerism, low rate of saving, and a belief in government to save their economic souls.

Obama's masterful milking of the post election praise will only turn to bitter medicine that will be consumed by all of us. It will be our fault for leading astray from what has made this country so great: individual contribution, individual accountability, thriftiness and that government is not the answer to our problems.

Obama's ponzi scheme of massive deficit spending, like Madoff's $50 billion scheme, will be exposed in time. Hope is not an option!

Is Obama A Symbol of Jean Baudrillard's simulacrum?

Jean Baudrillard wrote:

'The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.'

'Baudrillard claims that modern society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that the human experience is of a simulation of reality rather than reality itself. The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media that create the perceived reality; Baudrillard believed that society has become so reliant on simulacra that it has lost contact with the real world on which the simulacra are based.'

Obama's painting of reality with childlike chants (Yes We Can, Change,) and the multitude of extraordinary promises to artificially lift the nation's somber mood will fall flat once reality hits the fan, unencumbered by liberal media bias and the half life of the after glow!

Secratary of the Treasury Designate Tim Geithner Fails To Pay Taxes!

Looks like Timmy is going to be on the hot seat.

Timothy F. Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in federal taxes over several years early this decade, and also faces questions about the employment papers of a former household employee, suddenly complicating what had seemed to be an easy confirmation process in the Senate.

Obama Outs Closet Keynesian

From the Becker-Posner Blog:

As Posner and others have indicated, there appears to have been a huge conversion of economists toward Keynesian deficit spenders, but the evidence that produced such a "conversion" is not apparent (although maybe most economists were closet Keynesians all along). This is a serious recession, but Romer and Bernstein project a peak unemployment rate without the stimulus of about 9%. The 1981-82 recession had a peak unemployment rate of about 10.5%, but there was no apparent major "conversion" of economists at that time. What is so different about the present recession compared to that one, and to other recessions since then, that would greatly raise the estimated stimulating effects of government spending on various types of goods and services?

But it is not obvious why this should lead to greater confidence in the power of government spending stimulus packages. Of course, perhaps the prior emphasis on crowding out, and skepticism toward the stimulating effects of government spending, were wrong, or that recessions were too short and mild after the 1981-82 recession to call for Keynesian-type stimulus packages.

Obama The Spending Liberal

From WSJ

President-elect Barack Obama says he is planning the largest public-works program since the 1950s construction of interstate highways. He also plans to use stimulus funds to repair schools, expand broadband Internet access and put energy-efficient technologies in public buildings.

For any infrastructure investment to succeed as stimulus, nations must ensure people are hired quickly to work to reverse the downturn -- and don't become part of a permanent program. U.S. governors say their states have $136 billion in "shovel ready" projects that are fully planned and simply lack funding.

But critics doubt those claims. Historically, infrastructure projects have proven to fall behind schedule and over budget. Boston's Big Dig highway project started out in the 1980s as a $3 billion effort but topped $15 billion two decades later.

Lawmakers and a variety of interest groups are already grasping for the government cash. Last month, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, noting New Deal programs that funded zoos decades ago, made a plea for its "shovel-ready" zoo and aquarium projects to be eligible for federal stimulus funding.

Inflation has quickly disappeared as a concern around the world. It's likely to reappear once growth perks up.

Obama Lack of Leadership Shines Through

Obama defended his trillion dollar plan as the nirvana to get us out of this terrible economic funk. The easy road is to spend and create massive deficits, the likes of which we have never witnessed int the history of the nation or any other industrialized nation.

The road less traveled is to do the right thing and cut government spending. entitlements, cut income and capital gains taxes on productive assets such as labor and capital, and use the bully pulpit to encourage Americans to save more, be more frugal, cut waste, be more efficient etc.

His economic team, that does not have a credible track record, seems to look to the past to come up with same old solutions: spend, spend, spend. The WSJ states:

'Still, with the U.S. economy facing 1930s-style threats, the Obama administration is looking back to that period for guidance. President Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration provided jobs to millions of Americans during the Great Depression, though it had critics who said the program wasted money on unnecessary projects.

..limits of Keynes-inspired growth were reached in the following decades. Many countries mistimed their spending, pouring money into their economies just as they were riding out a downturn and leading to economic overheating. Latin America regularly succumbed to hyperinflation, while in the U.S. the "misery index" -- the combination of inflation and joblessness -- climbed to 20.8% in 1980, from 10.8% a decade earlier.

Many nations also wasted their money on unnecessary projects: Japan became notorious for investing in little-used airports and bridges leading into sparsely populated islands. Indonesia started a national car project that lost money and was riddled with corruption.

With the rise of Ronald Reagan and Britain's Margaret Thatcher, critics of stimulus policy came to the fore. The goal became to shrink government.

How The Chinese Can Take Out Obama's Vision

Nice piece in the NYT on the importance of the Chinese in the US debt market. When the Chinese decrease their appetite for US government debt, the Obama admin will have a difficult time funding the $ 1 trillion spending spree.

'China has bought more than $1 trillion of American debt, but as the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home, a move that could have painful effects for American borrowers.

“All the key drivers of China’s Treasury purchases are disappearing — there’s a waning appetite for dollars and a waning appetite for Treasuries, and that complicates the outlook for interest rates,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist in the Hong Kong office of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

At the same time, three new trends mean that fewer dollars are pouring into China — so the government has fewer dollars to buy American bonds. The first, little-noticed trend is that the monthly pace of foreign direct investment in China has fallen by more than a third since the summer. The second trend is that the combination of a housing bust and a two-thirds fall in the Chinese stock market over the last year has led many overseas investors — and even some Chinese — to begin quietly to move money out of the country, despite stringent currency controls. A third trend that may further slow the flow of dollars into China is the reduction of its huge trade surpluses.

More Bla Bla from Oblama!

Obama wants to spend close to a $1 trillion dollars to revive our morbid economy. Any idiot can spend the money we don't have. That is politics as usual. Deficit spending has been the modus operandi for the last 30 years when the normal business cycle heads down.

Where is Obama's so called 'different' kind of politics? Borrowing massive amounts and sacrificing the future generation's earnings is not a sign of intellect! None of his economic advisors saw the economy tanking! Why should we belive them when they insist that massive deficit spending will get us out of this mess. They are relying on a small data set of past policy actions to defend their recommendations.

It takes a different type of politicitian, one who truly understands the trade offs, to cut government spending (including entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare), encourage savings, cut income taxes and capital gains taxes. It takes a different of politician to let the housing bubble correct and send the right message for those that took a risk and lost. Those that saved and avoided risk should be rewarded. Clearly Obama does not understand this.

Republicans need to take a stand, right here, right now.

'Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, and his House counterpart, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, said the extensive borrowing by the government could be a disaster if Congressional Democrats and the new Obama administration did not also work on long-term solutions including changes to Social Security and Medicare. ' - NYT

Obama Has Confidence in Public Schools - NOT!!

Michelle Rhee the chancellor of the DC public school system sends her two daughters to DCs public schools. She is doing an amazing job cleaning up DC schools while fighting the entrenched bureaucracy and the teachers union.

Obama could have boosted her efforts by sending his daughters to DCs schools. He could have walked the talk on improving education by leading from the top. Ah well, being an elitist has its privileges. What happened to change you can belive it? I guess it went by the wayside.

From the BBC
Malia and Sasha are attending Sidwell Friends, a private Quaker school in Washington's north-western suburbs.

Sasha, 7, will be going to Sidwell's elementary school campus, while Malia, 10, will attend its middle school.

Throwing Stones At Obama's Transparent White House

Richardson's withdrawal is a sign that Obama's over confidence has it's limits. The Republicans in the Senate should use this to their advantage and dig deep into every cabinet level appointee's ties. With Blago's ties, Rahm Emmanuel's dealings, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ties, the Senate Republicans can diffuse Obama's momentum effectively.

From the NYT

The Richardson withdrawal, first reported Sunday afternoon by NBC News, raises questions about the thoroughness of the Obama team’s vetting process, which had been touted as one of the most stringent ever. Stories about the investigation of the CDR contract and of the donations by David Rubin — the president of CDR and a major Democratic contributor — to the Richardson-linked political action committees have appeared in news reports at least since August.

In 2003 and 2004, Mr. Rubin gave about $100,000 to two political action committees that Mr. Richardson controlled, according to published reports.

An individual knowledgeable about the grand jury proceedings, who requested anonymity because of the secrecy of the proceedings, said last month that a grand jury was investigating “how CDR gets business in New Mexico and whether the governor’s office was involved in getting them business here.”

Republicans Hope to Hone Their Comback by Defeating Sen. Reid

Looks like if the Republicans play their cards right, Sen Harry Reid might be heading for a defeat in his 2010 re-election bid.

From the WSJ:

Sen. Reid, perhaps the most-vulnerable Democrat who will face re-election in a midterm race that is likely to favor his party once again, began interviewing campaign managers last week. The Senate majority leader also recently stepped up fund-raising.

A recent Research 2000 poll of likely voters put his approval rating at 38% and his disapproval rating at 54%, a possible reflection of voters' displeasure with gridlock and partisanship in Washington. And while Nevada broke for President-elect Barack Obama by 12 percentage points in November, the state voted for President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

By taking out Reid, they will loose a crucial player in executing Obama's grand illusion.

Rahm Emmauel & Blago - Two Peas In a Pod

It was bound to happen. The media blood hounds are sniffing around Rahm! From the AP.

CHICAGO – Gov. Rod Blagojevich is legendary in Illinois political circles for not picking up the phone or returning calls, even from important figures like the state's senior senator, Dick Durbin.

But there was always one call Blagojevich regularly took, say his aides, and that was from Rahm Emanuel — his congressman, his one-time campaign adviser and, more recently — and troubling for Emanuel — one of his contacts with President-elect Barack Obama's transition staff.

The friendly rapport Blagojevich and Emanuel shared over the years has suddenly become a troubling liability for Emanuel and the new president he will serve as chief of staff.

Emanuel and Obama have remained silent about what, if anything, Emanuel knew of the governor's alleged efforts to peddle Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Emanuel did contact the governor's office about the appointment and left Blagojevich with the impression that he was pushing Valerie Jarrett, a close Obama friend, so he wouldn't have to compete with her in the White House for Obama's attention, said a person close to Blagojevich.

Why Tax Cuts are Better Than Spending in This Economy

Obama's economic team is taking a knee jerk reaction to deal with the current economic malaise. Spending our way is not going provide the solution. Enacting REAL tax cuts is far more effective.

According to Greg Mankiw.

Suppose, for example, that tax cuts are not lump-sum but instead take the form of cuts in payroll taxes (as suggested by Bils and Klenow). This tax cut would reduce the cost of labor and, if labor and capital are complements, increase the demand for capital goods. Thus, the tax cut stimulates demand not only by increasing disposable income and consumption spending (the textbook Keynesian channel) but also by incentivizing more investment spending. A similar result might obtain if the tax cut included, say, an investment tax credit.

Obama's Government, Bigger, Badder. Just Nucking Futs!

From Greg Mankiw.

The most noteworthy feature of these data is the substantial growth of government from 1929 to 1945. It is easy to understand why the size of government grew so much during this period: The nation was responding to the crises of the Great Depression and, especially, World War II. But what is noteworthy is that while these crises were transitory, the increase in the scope of government was permanent.

This historical episode is one reason why advocates of limited government are rightly worried about the fiscal stimulus package that the incoming administration is going to propose. Rahm Emanuel, the new White House chief of staff, is reported to have said, "You don't ever want to let a crisis go to waste: It's an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid." It is not entirely clear what he meant by this. But one interpretation is that he wants to use a temporary crisis as an pretense to engineer a permanent increase in the size of government.

Look At Medicaid To See Why Obama's Healthcare Reform Will Fail to Meet Its Objectives

From

The nation’s flawed-but-free Medicaid program discourages most Americans from buying long-term health insurance that could provide better care and spare their life savings, a new study co-written by a University of Illinois professor says.

professor Jeffrey R. Brown says the study is the first to demonstrate how Medicaid stifles demand for private policies by creating financial disincentives that steer people toward the no-cost safety net, which covers nursing-home and other long-term care costs once their finances are exhausted.

“By modeling the lifetime financial implications of the insurance decision, we discovered that it is rational for most people to not buy private policies, even though Medicaid is actually pretty lousy insurance because it forces you to impoverish yourself first,” he said.

A core problem is that private policies require paying for much of the same coverage that comes free under Medicaid once nest eggs dip, said Brown, recently nominated by President Bush to serve on the board of trustees for the nation’s Medicare and Social Security programs.

So while private insurance offers broader coverage and protects personal assets, the net benefits amount to just 20 to 40 cents on every dollar of premiums after taking into account what Medicaid would have covered at no charge, according to the study, which will appear in The American Economic Review.

“You have this low quality public insurance program crowding out potentially better private insurance policies. And yet because the bad one is free to the consumer, it is still in the consumer’s best interest to take the free bad one rather than buy the expensive good one,” Brown said.

As a result, Medicaid – intended as a payer of last resort for the poor – now covers a third of long-term care expenses in the U.S., a problem Brown says will only worsen with medical expenses rising and nearly 80 million baby boomers nearing their retirement years.

Obama may have good intentions like his liberal predecessors, but the private markets are better at allocating scarce resources than arrogant bureaucrats, like Obama.

Bush Should Do the Right Thing - Don't Do Anything for the Auto Industry

It seems like Bush does not want to leave the Presidency with the potential of the auto makers going into bankruptcy. His legacy has already been written into history and any last minute acts to save the auto industry will be destructive to the US economy.

By providing funding from the TARP he sets a dangerous precedent and give his successor some ammo to bail out other industries.

The problem is that if he bails out the auto industry there are going to be other industries from retail, airlines, insurance and on and on that is going to look for handouts.

Obama will use this precedent to enrich his favorite industries, especially with those with high union membership.

Just say no and let the auto makers go into a pre-packaged bankruptcy. Let them emerge as more leaner and more competitive entities. Chapter 11 bankruptcy was designed to allow entities and individuals to get a fresh start and that is what the auto makers need now.

Let them do this before the Obama admin comes in and nationalizes the automakers by taking equity stakes in them. Why would a car czar know more than the auto makers? It is idotic to think that micro managing these entities will get them out of their current mess. They need to do with the help of the bankruptcy court not the government.

Senate Republicans Call The Democrat's Bluff on Auto Industry Bailout

Harry Reid made the threat that there is not second round of voting for the bailout.

Simple game theory analysis shows that he and the Democrats are making a non credible threat.

The Democrats have everything to loose and the country is on the Republican's side. Knowing this the Republicans can defeat the bill and expect the Democrats to come back with another bill on the Republican's terms.

The Republicans in the Senate have stuck to their principles and I believe have indicated how they will deal with the new administration and their agenda.

The Democrats in the Senate are politically impotent while the Republicans have new found vigor.