[Via the Von Mises Institute]
Category Archives: Business
An Even Scarier Jobs Chart
Remember the one I showed this weekend? Well check this one out:
I remember when James Carville demagogued Bill Clinton into office in 1992 with continuous lies that it was “the worst economy in fifty years.” Well, folks, this is the worst economy seventy years. And it won’t improve until we remove from office the people determined to keep wrecking it, who first took power five and a half years ago. There are a lot more scary charts at the link, if that’s not enough for you.
Stealing You Blind
…How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off You
A new book on corruption and rent seeking by my colleague at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Iain Murray, launches today.
[Update a few minutes later]
An explanatory editorial from the author.
…my new book, Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You, doesn’t just talk about the excesses of government pay. It looks at how the modern American state has rigged the rules to support itself at our expense. The Internal Revenue Service is allowed to ignore the Constitution. Regulations cost our economy more than the federal deficit without anyone batting an eyelid, as they turn ordinary Americans into criminals. Worst of all, our education system has ceased to educate our children and now only works to benefit the education establishment—unionized teachers and administrators.
And teach them to allow the statists to continue to rob us blind.
Space Political Action Alerts
As a result of the disastrous initial markup of the House appropriation for NASA last week, the Space Access Society, the Space Frontier Foundation, and Tea Party in Space have all put out alerts for everyone to call your Congressman (extra points if your congressman is one of the chairs of the appropriations committee or subcommittee, Hal Rogers or Frank Wolf).
Briefly, to summarize, the top line of the NASA budget has been cut back to pre-2008 levels (no shock, except to those living in denial), but the real problem is where the cuts are, and aren’t. The Webb Telescope was canceled, which was probably necessary given how out of control it was, but Commercial Crew and space technologies were severely chopped back as well, putting off further the day that we will no longer be reliant on the Russians for ISS, and that we can start moving humans beyond LEO. Instead, the Senate Launch System and Orion-by-another-name earmarks were actually increased, though there is still insufficient funds to build them in any timely manner, and no missions described or funded for them. Go follow one or more of the links, where there are useful instructions as to who to call and what to say. And as always in these matters, be firm, but polite. You have until tomorrow to make a difference.
[Update a few minutes later]
One other disastrous cut, though it’s small, is the CRuSR program. It’s only fifteen million, but it could really help jump start the suborbital industry. Given the trivial amount, it can’t really be about the money. I would guess that it’s pressure from the traditional sounding rocket people, who stand to be put out of business by low-cost reusables.
Just How Bad Is it?
This bad:
It’s Rooseveltian, in that the president inherited a bad situation, and made it worse (and continues to do so). Fortunately, we have term limits now, so he can only do the damage for eight years at most, but if the voters are smart, they’ll preempt the extended disaster next year.
The Most Misunderstood President In History
…I think, was Herbert Hoover.
The mythology about him is truly amazing. As Glenn says, he was the Barack Obama of his day. Except, of course, he actually had accomplishments in the real world before he became president and, as an engineer, at least understood basic math.
Why The “Stimulus” Didn’t Work
…because people aren’t stupid.
Well, except for the people who thought this would work.
More End-Of-Shuttle Links
…over at Instapundit. Expect to see a lot of nostalgia not just for the Shuttle, but for the entire way of doing business-as-usual as it’s been done at NASA for the last half century. It ended about forty years too late, but the future is bright now.
The “Liberal” Project
…has run out of money.
Finally. The problem is, it was our money.
It’s Not The End Of American Leadership In Space
So sayeth Dana Rohrabacher.
[Update mid afternoon]
Jay Barbree has finally noticed that there’s more to the commercial space industry than SpaceX, but he’s still drinking the ATK koolaid:
he key here would be the launch vehicle for Boeing’s CST 100.
Standing by is arguably the world’s most reliable rocket: a U.S.-European vehicle which is an upgraded version of the space shuttle’s solid booster rocket that has flown perfectly 216 times, and France’s Ariane-5 rocket as a second stage that has flown 41 times successfully.
The rocket, called Liberty, is being offered by ATK Space Launch Systems. It’s capable of carrying all crew vehicles in development today.
“Both stages of Liberty were designed for human rating from the beginning,” said ATK Vice President Charlie Precourt, a veteran astronaut and former director of NASA’s flight crew operations. The other rockets haven’t yet gone through the time-consuming process to be certified as safe for flying humans.
Without getting too deep into the details of this nonsense (any discussion containing the phrase “human rating” are almost predestined to be nonsense), he writes this as though Liberty exists in any form other than marketing viewgraphs. Here’s a question I have. Can an Ariane-V even handle the vibration environment on the top of an SRB without major beefing up of the structure?