…gains momentum. Some thoughts on our justified loss of faith in technocrats, from Walter Russell Mead. One point I would add is that much of the green movement was and is driven by the watermelon socialists, who leaped on to it with the collapse of the Soviet Union and (temporary, unfortunately) corresponding collapse in the credibility of socialism. I’d like to think that the current mess, including the collapse of Eurosocialism, will be the final stake through its heart, but I’m afraid that we’ll have to wage this ideological battle over and over, because every generation or two, we forget what a disaster it is everywhere it’s tried, and the basic tenets are a siren’s song to human nature.
Category Archives: Economics
The Other European Volcano
Thoughts on the impending collapse of the European Union.
The Oil Spill
The arguments never change:
Instead of moving the debate on energy policy forward, the spill is being used to grind preexisting policy axes. Unfortunately, those axes were none too sharp to begin with, and the grinding now in play does more to confuse than to enlighten.
Unfortunately, that’s usually the case.
Freeing NASA
Alan Stern explains why it’s crucial for NASA to go commercial for earth to LEO.
Barbara Boxer’s Anti-Bailout Fraud
A press release from Mickey. I’ll bet he’s having a great time.
[Update a few minutes later]
Mickey has Jonah Goldberg’s endorsement, at least for the primary.
The Oil Spill
…doesn’t make the case for Big Government:
…the idea that because a person or thing can do some things brilliantly doesn’t mean they do everything well. Some writers can’t count past 10 without taking their shoes off; some artists are tone-deaf; some math whizzes cannot learn languages.
Franklin Roosevelt and Albert Einstein were exceptional talents, but asking them to trade occupations would not have been clever. Like Einstein and Roosevelt, markets and government do different things well.
Government is a big and blunt instrument, while markets are smaller and flexible tools. Government acts for the whole, and gives things one direction; markets react to and serve individuals, respond to a great many small discrete interests, and facilitate the pursuit of happiness by creating demands for a great many diverse and various skills.
The frustrating thing is that doing all sorts of things in which it has no business, and isn’t very good at, it’s neglecting the things that it’s supposed to be doing, and being even more incompetent at them in general.
What Is A “Bail Out”?
Can anyone explain to me what Bolden means when he says that he might have to “bail out” commercial space? Does it mean that he’ll have to keep pouring money into them until they deliver the needed product/service? What else could it mean? And if so, are the current cost-plus Ares/Orion contracts “bail outs”? At least with commercial, we have a chance of getting out of that mode. With the POR, “bail outs” (and very expensive ones — fifty billion for both Ares and Orion, though still not as big as GM/Chrysler) are the default.
“Financial Reform Is Hard”
An interview between Rick Santelli and Regulation Barbie.
French Profits
I suspect that the phrase is an oxymoron, sort of like “French victory.” Anyway, if anyone would know how economically crazy the French are, it would be Veronique.
[Wednesday afternoon update]
I’m shutting down comments on this post, because it seems to have become a spam magnet.
The Death Spiral
…of the welfare state. When something can’t continue, eventually, it doesn’t. They’re running out of other peoples’ money.