The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Obligatory Video: Donald F–ing Trump

Honestly, I ought to ignore this, but it’s already everywhere else so I might as well do it: “Listen you mother f***ers we’re going to tax you 25 percent“ Y’know, there’s good populism — defending the honest interests of ordinary people against corrupt machinations of the elite — and then there’s bad populism: Bully-boy nonsense […]

None Dare Call It ‘Stagflation’

Economic growth in the first quarter slowed to an anemic 1.8% annual rate, which isn’t the only bad news, as Larry Kudlow explained on Twitter: 1.8% growth, 8.8% unemployment,3.8% inflation spells stagflation. It’s as if we have taken a long round-trip back to 1979. We are not surprised that a Marist poll shows approval for […]

Gold Tops $1,500 Per Ounce: Now Don’t You Wish You’d Listened to Glenn Beck?

A little less than a year ago — on May 20, 2010, to be exact — I first took notice of Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner’s attack on Glenn Beck for encouraging people to buy gold. The headline of my post: Everybody Should Buy Gold, Even If Glenn Beck Gets Paid to Tell You So Weiner […]

What Interest Rate Would You Charge Yourself for a Loan of Monopoly Money?

This is the question posed by the Fed policy of “quantitative easing”: The Federal Reserve’s experimental effort to spur a recovery by purchasing vast quantities of federal debt has pumped up the stock market, reduced the cost of American exports and allowed companies to borrow money at lower interest rates. . . . The Fed […]

Matthew Yglesias, Neo-Confederate?

Reporting the findings of a recent academic analysis, our “progressive” (nudge, nudge) friend concludes: The basic story here would be something like northern manufacturing interests wanted to keep the southern client base behind the US tariff wall in order to maintain privileged access to the market rather than compete on a level playing field with […]

Eating Crow About Sprinklerman

by Smitty Indeed, Boehner’s great big little cuts seem hardly a cause for capillary bleeding. The anti-Boehner chorus was a tad too shrill, in my estimate. Then again, I had relatively low expectations for the 112th Congress. You have to understand that our Ruling Class overlords still expect Americans to balk at the pain of […]

‘No Poor Man Ever Gave Me a Job’

As an impoverished American — hey, buddy, you wanna try raising six kids on a freelance journalist’s income? — I look on in amusement at the self-described “Patriotic Millionaires” who insist that they should pay more taxes. I agree with Moe Lane: “Raise Your Own Damned Taxes.” Contrary to all the class-warfare demagoguery pouring forth from […]

Word of the Day: Sharing!

Just as I predicted, Obama’s Big Deficit Speech was big on sharing: As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally borne a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate. . . . To meet this challenge [i.e., ballooning deficits], our leaders came together three times during the […]

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