Politics

Addendum to March 29 Entry on Public Education

Posted on

Of course, the government’s doing away with public schools and then giving vouchers to all families for attending private schools would merely be replacing socialism with one of its variants: fascism. A fascist system would still be based on the premise that it is the responsibility of society to provide education for all. A man […]

Politics

Unchanging Socialism by Democrats and Republicans

Posted on

In America, the unwavering longtime acceptance—by both Democrats and Republicans—of socialist premises is laid bare in the field of education. This excerpt from a letter to the editor, published in Barron’s in 1986, applies even more so today: The idea of universal public education is an aberration of our capitalist system. It is bad enough […]

Politics

Public-Private Partnership = Fascism

Posted on

U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner today announced his Plan for Bad Bank Assets, the Public-Private Investment Program. In a press conference with Geithner today, Obama accurately called Geithner’s plan a “public-private partnership.” The notion of public-private partnership is a recurring theme in the Obama administration. See, for example, this “Summary of Health Care Session” from the […]

Politics

Obama Sides with Iran Against America

Posted on

This morning, Obama released a videotape intended “to speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Obama’s words mean essentially this: You don’t have to fight us anymore, because we are changing to be more like you. Obama said this: My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the […]

Politics

Short Memo on AIG Bailout

Posted on

Bailouts are wrong, but the government had always implied that it would stand behind mortgage securities sold by the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The deeper wrong was the government’s creation of the GSEs, which financed homes for the poor on promises of someday robbing the rich. That day has come. And now the […]

Politics

AIG is Left Holding the Government’s Bag

Posted on

1. The U.S. government, armed with the Community Reinvestment Act, forces banks to make home loans to people who cannot afford to repay the loans. At the same time … 2. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs)—create a credit-scoring formula with a very low qualifying score. They give this formula to banks and say, […]

Politics

The Surge in Ayn Rand

Posted on

Betsy Speicher alerted me yesterday to the fact that “As of right now, Atlas Shrugged is the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in the category ‘Literature & Fiction.’” At the same time, another edition of the novel was ranked #6, and The Fountainhead was ranked #23. As of this morning, three different editions of Atlas […]

Politics

Madoff is Small Potatoes …

Posted on

… Compared to Governments. Bernard Madoff has confessed to a Ponzi scheme whereby he swindled investors of billions of dollars. “In court documents, prosecutors say Madoff reported he oversaw $64.8 billion.” Multiply that staggering amount of money by 3,000, and you get roughly the amount of money that Americans have lost over the past two […]

Politics

Immoral, Impractical Socialized Medicine

Posted on

In his March 7th weekly address, Obama said this: [B]ecause we cannot bring our deficit down or grow our economy without tackling the skyrocketing cost of health care, I held a health care summit on Thursday to begin the long-overdue process of reform. Our ideas and opinions about how to achieve this reform will vary, […]