Put that fire out!

Metaphorical fire, that is. Harvard economist Martin Feldstein sees the forest for the trees in the housing debacle. In the NYT he states: I cannot agree with those who say we should just let house prices continue to fall until they stop by themselves. Although some forest fires are allowed to burn out naturally, no one [...]

Welfare dead-end

In Greece, the sky is falling: “No one warned us,” she said. “I have no hope, not for myself, not for my children, and I am only 50.” But she said some things still make her laugh. “I can’t get it into my mind that my life is such a mess,” she said. “It’s a [...]

Numbers (or: why the post office needs to close, now)

80, 53, 32: The labor costs as a percentage of expenses at the Post Office, UPS, and FedEx. Can you guess which one isn’t unionized? The USPS will go under this winter sans a bailout. What no one mentions: it has operated under a taxpayer bailout forever. A private business could never run like this. Why? the agency [...]

Dude.

There’s nothing left to say after bumping around in SoCal on terribly patched freeways paid for with some of the highest taxes in the nation. But the unions still get their dues and illegals all have free healthcare or something, so who cares that the endless stretches of bumpy highway remind me of recovering socialist countries in [...]

Shared burden

Via CNBC: U.S. state and local governments will need to raise taxes by $1,398 per household every year for the next 30 years if they are to fully fund their pension systems, a study released on Wednesday said. The study, co-authored by Joshua Rauh of Northwestern University and Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Rochester, both of [...]

Inviting “War through Weakness”

Peter Ferrera examines the whys of the economic anti-recovery and paints a frightening picture of what awaits if Obama isn’t defeated in ’12. It isn’t just economic disaster. First, reality: In every other recession since the Great Depression, the overall trajectory of the economy has been dramatically better after two years. But not this time. [...]

No, we’re not out of touch

From the Denver Post: After spirited debate Monday, Denver’s City Council voted 10-3 to tentatively approve a 6.6 percent raise for the next sitting council and every other elected official — an increase to be delayed for half of their four-year terms. The city is facing a $100 million budget shortfall for the 2012 budget [...]

“All military personnel will continue in normal duty status … [and] will serve without pay until such time as Congress makes appropriated funds available to compensate them for this period of service.”

So explains a Pentagon directive about the potential government shutdown. This is a shift from the last shutdown. Via the Army Times: When the government was shut down in 1995, military personnel continued to report to work and were paid, but the planning guidance sent to the services and defense agencies says a shutdown this time [...]

A 300-percent increase in foreclosures looming, or, as The Other McCain asks, “How Screwed Are We?”

Pretty. I saw this last night via Instapundit who asked if this was the hope or the change.   The kicker: So what will this mean when the last moratorium is lifted, the last show-me-the-note lawsuit gets thrown out of court, and the last loan modification has failed? Well by that time you’ll probably be able [...]

“The stunning decline” of Barry O

Sounds like a tv mini-series, doesn’t it? UK Telegraph’s Washington correspondent Niles Gardiner gives his top-ten reasons the O Presidency fumbles perilously close to the edge of meltdown.  He notes the arrogance and extravagance on part of the out-of-touch Obami (#1), and the fact that the majority of Americans no longer trust the President to make the right decision for [...]