Archive for the ‘Capitalism’ Category
If Broadband Is A Right, Then A Car Is A Right
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Why do leftists insist on making everything a right? Why can’t they let the market do its thing?
Here’s the deal: When people say that broadband is a right, what they mean is that the United States should pay for the world’s internet access.
Oh, Come ON NBC, Just Say It: Barack Obama Is The Problem With Consumer Confidence
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010So consumer confidence shocked everyone again yesterday. It’s a shock a minute in the media these days. Anyway, so in the NBC article about miserable Americans, NBC gives this pearl of insight:
Some economists pointed to one more possible source of angst: Congress.
“We suspect the absolute gridlock in Washington also depressed consumers,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, N.J..
“Rather than seek some common ground on health care and financial reforms, both political parties demonstrated legislative incompetence and ideological rigidity. The constant bickering and lack of progress in the nation’s capital doesn’t engender much optimism among households.”
That voters are unhappy with Congress is well documented. The latest monthly Gallup poll showed just 18 percent of Americans approved of how Congress was doing its job, down from 24 percent in January and the lowest reading in the 13 months since President Barack Obama took office.
Since the $787 billion stimulus bill enacted a year ago, Congress has struggled to pass any of the major legislation Obama had put on his priority list, including health care and regulatory reform.
What utter b.s. My feeling is that the American people relaxed during the government-stopping snow storms. It’s not the gridlock that’s making people nervous.
The President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama causes the uncertainty.
He won’t let health care reform die, so it still occupies everyone’s mind. He won’t turn down the volume on his business-hating rhetoric. He won’t say a word to encourage the private sector. He’s ideological. He’s combative.
He is making people nervous.
Well, he’s making everyone nervous, aka UN-confident, and the media refuses to see the obvious.
Sure, the Congress is flopping around but Democrats are in charge of everything. The country feels like its being led by a children. It is.
NBC just demonstrates their obvious bias once again by not noting Obama’s words and actions. While everyone hates Congress, that’s almost a constant in American political sentiment. The President, though, is the communicator. And he’s an able one. What The One communicates, though, is very upsetting.
Unsettled people, nervous people, scared people are not confident people. There’s a reason consumer confidence is plummeting “unexpectedly”…look to the leader.
SCOTUS Deals Socialism And Therefore, Obama, A Blow
Thursday, December 31st, 2009At least I think that’s what happened. Not sure. Here’s the good news, if a little late for the cannibalized companies:
In a summary decision so brief as to slip under the radar of many, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the law about this (at the time) white-hot legal issue with a silent bolt of lightning, vacating the appeals court ruling affirming the original judge’s legal reasoning.
A “summary decision” to overturn is taking this position: the original ruling was so dramatically improper that there’s no point even bothering to hear arguments as to why it should be upheld. Smack-downs such as these are very rare in American jurisprudence.
Now, the Supreme Court didn’t undo the sale of Chrysler; it merely took a stand that there should be no illusion that treating secured creditors – the ones who are supposed to get paid back first, from liquidation if need be – may not be so openly shortchanged in favor of unsecured creditors, such as the UAW and the U.S. government.
While Chrysler is a done deal, those who viewed the precedent established by the Chrysler case as a way to begin a new regime of quick bankruptcies will have to live with disappointment.
More from The Bankruptcy Litigation Blog:
Hard to ignore today’s bombshell summary disposition by the US Supreme Court today on the Indiana Pension Funds’ appeal of the Second Circuit’s decision in Chrysler (see earlier discussion of case here). Clearly, however, the Court’s six line summary disposition tossing the 2d Circuit’s decision in Chrysler requires careful thought. First, here’s what the Supreme Court held:
The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with instructions to dismiss the appeal as moot. See United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36 (1950).
One may be tempted (as this esteemed blogger was) to claim that Chrysler remains persuasive authority, but was simply “vacated on other grounds.” I don’t think that’s the case here, however. For starters, the Supreme Court couldn’t have vacated Chrysler on the basis that the matter was moot at the time the case was decided. After all, the 2d Circuit’s original order of 6/5/09 denying the appeal on the merits wasn’t moot at the time of entry since the effectiveness of the bankruptcy court’s sale order had been stayed by the 2d Circuit itself until it had a chance to rule on the merits. Additionally, the effectiveness of the 2d Circuit’s judgment itself was stayed by the Supreme Court. As such, there’s no basis for the Supreme Court now to have vacated Chrysler based on an argument that the matter was moot at the time of the original decision.
So, I think this restricts the Government’s ability to just take troubled company assets.
Detroit, Michigan: A Warning
Sunday, December 27th, 2009One of my more popular blog posts told my story of going back to Michigan for a family reunion (they all live near Flint) and feeling bereft at the bleak reality there. People wrote their stories–stories of grief and loss explaining why they felt compelled to leave the once-great, now failing state.
I went back to Michigan last year, and the mood and the environment seemed marginally better. Maybe I just was more immune to the shock. I don’t know.
The winner in Michigan? Environmentalists. When people leave and houses are burned down and whole cities fail, Mother Nature survives. That’s right. That environment man is killing? Well, she’s amazingly resilient. And brutal. And untamed. The winner isn’t people. Socialistic policies never help the people.
Following is a video of Steven Crowder’s best work yet. Please watch the whole thing. It is excellent.
Companies Co-opting The Obama Image May Wish They Hadn’t
Monday, December 7th, 2009A friend pointed me to this story at Newsfifty.com from Missouri where schools are recalling paper and pencils with an Obama-like logo. I’m guessing tax-paying parents aren’t thrilled with the imagery. The risk for love-deluded companies is that people will rebel against their product [I'm thinking of Pepsi.]
Here’s the story:
Several Missouri schools are complaining about notebooks and pencils with designs similar to the logos from President Barack Obama’s campaign.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that complaints from unhappy officials at three Missouri schools have prompted the supply company responsible for the materials to travel across the state recalling notebooks and pencils.
The design at issue includes a picture of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Above the coins is the phrase: “CHANGE” and underneath it reads: “WE CAN BELIEVE IN.” Below the words is a circle used by Obama’s campaign, in which the top half is blue and the bottom is red with three white lines cutting through it.
At least one notebook and pencil with the design have been purchased from a school supply machine at a Columbia elementary school. Two families have complained about the design, and Principal Mary Sue Gibson said she planned to complain to the supply company.
“I just don’t want to get into that political arena at all,” Gibson said.
Is Barack Obama Friends With Even One Unrepentant Capitalist?
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Jim Hoft reports that President Obama’s next door neighbor physician friend is a die-hard Marxist. His White House is filled with former non-profit workers–that is, people who have never had to be answerable to shareholders, people used to begging for money rather than earning it.
Is Barack Obama friends with one capitalist? Name just one.
