Comments on: Seeking Honorable Hondurans For Hire

By: M. B. Moon

M. B. Moon — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:38:57 +0000

I would ask Warren Buffet: How much money do you need before you help fix the system you profited off? So, either you are not that bright or what?

By: M. B. Moon

M. B. Moon — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:21:43 +0000

“economist wishes to acknowledge the economy as a total system that will ALWAYS have its booms and busts” Andrew

Well, thank God you are only 20. My understanding of the boom/bust cycle is that is caused by the suppression of interest rates by central banks. The Mystery of Banking by Rothbard should explain that. Sure some industries will rise and fall but that does not account for the economic disasters we have had.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:39:12 +0000

“Wouldn’t it just have been better if the government had paid all of our mortgages – still less money than the stimulus.”

I got an email chain letter making this claim and immediately did the math. According to my calculations the $787 billion stimulus package amounts to about $2300 for every U.S. citizen so this would hardly have paid off my mortgage even with my household of 4.

Still, the point is well taken. That’s a pretty big chunk of change per person/family and I would bet that a direct payment of this kind would have had far more of a stimulative effect than whatever the hell it was they did with all that money.

But what do I know? Surely when they decided on the figure of $787 billion there was some reasoning and some recorded benchmarks involved and now that they are saying it wasn’t enough we can go back and re-evaluate it to judge if what they are saying is true or not.

Just kidding.

By: Barbara Grant

Barbara Grant — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:01:38 +0000

Andrew T., please keep up the postings; you and our friend Alex really give me encouragement. It’s great to know that young people (one or two of you, at least) have activity in the cerebral cortex, great activity I might add; and from this not too young lady, I say, “thanks.”

By: T K Burns

T K Burns — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:28:37 +0000

Wouldn’t it just have been better if the government had paid all of our mortgages – still less money than the stimulus. Just sent us a big whoping check to pay for our homes, in my case only $52,000. Then we could have spent the money we were spending on house payments for clothes, cars, college, insurance. Plus, no one would be out on the streets due to foreclosure. Thus a large boost in the economy triggering a need for more workers. Incidentally, more money for the IRS because we couldn’t claim those nasty interest payments at the end of the year. And just think of the boost to our self esteem!

By: Andrew T.

Andrew T. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:57:40 +0000

Pretty much anyone that has read Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson” wonders why basic common sense and big-picture thinking has long evacuated respected economic thought. Especially troubling is the way our elite uses and abuses the term “jobs” to confuse sound economic thought. One is led to believe that jobs per se (rather than better living standards for all groups in the long term) are the sacrosanct economic value and all else is relative. The terminology is emotionally loaded: nobody but the moral saint or the competent economist wishes to acknowledge the economy as a total system that will ALWAYS have its booms and busts, winners and losers, in spite of all attempts at centralized tinkering, EVEN when his own group happens to be the next to feel temporary negative effects. The common man thinks no more than six months ahead — even regarding his own subjective benefit — when he demands that minimum wage be raised. And the business owner insists that his own case happens to be the single, unique one which demands the government to intervene and rescue it (reductio ad Too Big to Fail). The politician is the biggest scoundrel of all, since he knowingly exploits every economic fallacy in sight to further his own agendas and special interests (getting reelected the most important of these) at the expense of all others.

[And this from a 20-year old!]

By: Robert Glisson

Robert Glisson — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:17:00 +0000

In our case, we need a ‘gross lot’ (144+) -President, vice-president, speakers of both houses; Cabinet, and who else? Do you think we can maybe, get it for wholesale?

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:31:13 +0000

Good column. The mainstream opposition to Obammunist Stimulation is a Republican party with 3 main dysfunctional components: (1) "Christian socialists" like Yeehaw Huckabee - descendants of Southern and Rural New Dealers who mainly object to transvestite nuns teaching EVILution. (2) "Country-club plutocrats" like Bush and Romney who became Republicans out of family ties but who have absolutely no ideological convictions whatsoever. (3) "Global Militarists" like Kristol of McCain who want to bomb Iraqis into becoming Norwegians and don't care about socialism or domestic liberty as long as they can send Predator drones to "democratize" the 3rd World. Well, as Rand might say, you cannot defeat BAD IDEAS with NO IDEAS. [You crack me up; Yeehaw Huckabee. I thought I had called him every name in the book in "More Huckabee Hokum."]

By: robert

robert — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:02:24 +0000

Laura Tyson, eminent adviser to the president … managed to make front-page news—vying with Jackson and the carrion beetles consuming his remains—by asserting that the February stimulus was ‘a bit too small.’

Not a great deal too small, mind you, just a wee bit small.

When issued, the lion’s share of this oh-so carefully calibrated loot ought to go toward hiring a few honorable Hondurans to depose of the bloodsuckers before they do more harm. …”

There is something noble about a woman who can keep her humor during the most mundane tasks such as setting trash out near the curb. You keep us all sane with your keen insights and coy smirks as you survey the times. Thank you.

By: JP Strauss

JP Strauss — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:24:17 +0000

Funny how Warren Buffett also decided to encourage another round of stimulus. Is he also in trouble, Is he really such a fool, or is he in on this greatest of all 419 scams? My money is on the latter.

I will probably die laughing if the next big name to back the lunacy is that fellon Bob Kiyosaki of Rich Dad/Poor Dad fame.