Going Galt, continued
For the past two weeks, with a big hat tip to Dr. Helen Smith who diagnosed the phenomenon last fall, we’ve had a fascinating and spirited discussion here about the “Going Galt” movement that’s catching on nationwide.
There’s now even a Twitter hashtag for the phenomenon: #goinggalt.
My email box (especially after publication of my recent syndicated column on the subject) continues to fill up with letters from readers choosing in large and small ways to go Galt.
Reader Ron Ruffer of Pa. e-mails:
Dear Ms. Malkin,
First I would like to say that I very much enjoy your commentary column and typically support your point of view. In your column noted above, I can appreciate and certainly do believe that Enough is Enough.
Self-employed for the last 15 years, I have been one of those persons who, throughout my life, I have always – ALWAYS – worked. From age 14, I have always had a job and have always put forth my best efforts to earn money and support myself. I worked through college, worked while I earned my M.S. in Marketing, and worked very long hours and weekends while pursuing my career. My wife and I always paid off our debts – our college loans (early), our credit cards (RARELY having an unpaid balance, and if so usually through a late payment due to issues of the timing of the receipt of the bill), our car loans and our home loans. We started our life together in a rented apartment, then moved to a duplex (which we bought based on my income, not our combined incomes) when our realtor and many of our friends tried to encourage us to move into a bigger, more expensive single home. We bought what we KNEW we could afford comfortably, not what others thought we should have or could afford.
We saved, and we saved. I took a risk and started my own business when my wife was pregnant with our 3rd child. No one was there to catch me should my efforts have failed. No one was going to pay off my mortgage, no one was there to pick up the tab for our health care. Even my boss at the time thought I was making a foolish move. My feeling was that if I did fall – I would simply pick myself up again and move forward. I would rely upon myself, not others.
I did all of these things while others – who were without my education, income or savings levels – were out spending..spending on big homes, lavish vacations, and high end automobiles. Spending money they did not have. Spending away their future. Spending away MY future.
As my income increased, I paid my ever-increasing tax bills. I paid for my company, and I paid for myself. In reality, I was double taxed – taxed on company income, taxed on private income. I paid regardless. I was and am never late. I knew I would most likely never, ever see anything close to a payback on my tax payments. The money went to pay for a bloated, increasingly non-representative government that was run in the interest of the political party in power, not the individuals they were elected to represent.
As you have so noted, there are many within our economy that can be considered “Wealth Producers” (though I disagree with your notion of a lawyer being a “Wealth Producer” as most (but not all) are a drain on our society and on our ability to conduct business – note as well that most of our representatives in Federal and State legislatures are attorneys). These are people who, like myself and my wife, have worked, taken risks, and contributed far beyond the average person. They are people who have acted responsibly and throughout their lives borne the brunt of the taxes and responsibilities of our society. They are the very backbone of our society – and they are under-appreciated and under-represented in our Democratic society.
It is now fashionable and politically expedient to extend blame for the current financial crisis on greedy businesses and predatory lenders. The reality is that individuals and poorly managed businesses were responsible for the bulk of the problems. Government also played a role – and it was both parties – that encouraged and supported unsound business practices. Now the Government “must” step in to “save” these poor people from losing their homes, and “save” these “too big to fail” financial institutions. What about those of us, and those businesses, that chose to act responsibly? Who chose to live within their means? Who chose sound financial decisions over high risk behavior?
Enough is Enough. Let them all fail. It is not too late. I don’t care about the homeowner that borrowed more than they could afford and now find themselves potentially without a home and bankrupt. I don’t care about the businesses that overlooked sound financial decisions in the name of short term profits. We all make choices in life and it is time to let those that made the bad choices live with their decisions and finally reward those that chose to act responsibly. It has come down to this – either we let those that made the bad decisions fail, or we end up sacrificing our nation, our national identity and our very way of life.
The current administration of course feels that more and bigger government is the way to resolve this “crisis”. This follows on the heels of a Republican administration that was one of the worst disasters this country has ever experienced in political, social, and economic terms. Spend, spend, spend – soon to be followed by tax, tax tax. Fewer producers supporting more and more non-producers. Government, as in “Atlas Shrugged”, seems to feel that it is the solution to the problem, not part of the problem. Government seems to think it is a producer..an employer..a creator of wealth. We have a crisis alright – a crisis in leadership, and a crisis in Government. It’s time someone in Government started thinking of ways to “save” the Wealth Producers, because my next step is move to a pond which is not infested with so many leeches.
Long live John Galt.
Blogger Ken Pritchett also weighs in:
If the Left is fighting us, we must be doing something correctly. My wife and I have cut back massively, and are living primarily on her small salary. My Custom A/V business is being scaled back and reworked to survive on under $800,000 in sales per year. Because of this, unfortunately, we are unable to hire the two or three people we originally required within the next twelve months. Those who have small businesses know the absurd levels of taxation we face, from federal, state, and local governments.
Blogger Ross Kaminsky shares his take:
It’s great to see discussions on the web of people “going Galt.” If enough productive members of society decide that it’s simply not worth the risk and effort to strive for the next dollar, it is not primarily they who will suffer economically. It is those who believe in redistribution, who believe that Obama would and should make “government” pay her rent (and we thought she was insane when she said that – turns out she was psychic.) Those so interested in being recipients of government redistribution of wealth, the “looters” and the “moochers” as Ayn Rand calls them in Atlas Shrugged, just let them try to redistribute income from people who simply quit working because we’re not willing to be looted and mooched from. Yes, we are living Atlas Shrugged, and we might as well not quit halfway through the story.
I’ve done this once already…I moved out of the US for nearly 2 years after Bill Clinton raised tax rates, and moved back just in time for the capital gains tax cut. Let me be clear: I gave up two years of at least $200,000 (but probably a fair bit more) per year, just so I didn’t have to pay taxes to Bill Clinton’s government. My money is where my mouth is in a way that few people can claim. And Clinton was a piker and a conservative in comparison to Obama.
So, in case I haven’t been clear enough: As long as we’re already going to have a fairly bad recession, I’m saying let it be worse and longer. Let more people be persistently unemployed, let the economy drag along the sludge-laden bottom of the progressive sewer, let businesses close down or move overseas, let tens or hundreds of thousands of capable people publicly declare how excessive taxation and regulation is causing them to work less, take less risk, and employ fewer Americans, and finally let people recognize that capitalists are not a “necessary evil” but rather that they are a necessary good.
Most people don’t learn truly important lessons unless they are taught in an expensive or painful way. A once-and-for-all repudiation of Keynsianism is a lesson that is too important not to be learned in such a way.
This sentiment is not going away.
Video from the Fullerton CA Tax Revolt:
See what others have said
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I am wondering, even hoping, we have reached the point where producers are finally fed up with looters. And I include the federal government among the looters. I do not think these two factions, those that produce, and those that loot, can continue to co-exist. Soon over 50% of the population will not pay income taxes. Only a small percentage will carry the weight of everyone. That is not possible for long.
The Galt movement will only gain steam the harder government tries to clamp down on it.
Go Galt anyway you can. Even small efforts will count when done by millions.
The choice of freedom versus serfdom needs to be forced on the people.
i have personally assisted 3 people in moving overseas already this year…going Galt? going…going….gone!
Have you noticed too that the people who say they believe in high taxes are the very people who don’t pay theirs.
verogolfer – because taxes are only for the “little people”.
The idea of “going Galt” is a nice escapist thought, but pretty unlikely in reality. The wealth producers are not quitters. They are the drivers and creators that represesent the growth and real progress of the world. Ayn Rand’s philosophies may seem particularly apropos today as a pleasant diversion, but the real creators don’t know how to quit or run away in the face of adversity.
When has government ever created wealth?
By the way, for all you folks who are in LinkedIn, you can also join the Atlas Shrugged and Objectivist Businessmen Groups. Membership to LinkedIn is free.
If all of you could move to different countries trhat would help.
I hear Australia is an intolerant country – you folks should feel comfortable there.
Nah. I’m too conservative to live in an intolerant country. Perhaps when the liberals aren’t so much in power…
More venomous reptiles in Australia than any other place on earth…except congress.
I just saw Forbes list of who pays the highest property taxes in America based on percentage of income. My county is #1 and every county in NJ is in the top 50. When will enough be enough?
Illegal aliens went Galt a long time ago.
They work under the table and send their money back home to C.A. and S.A.. They figured it out.
*I don’t know about your average individual going Galt, but more and more small, medium, and large businesses will; As long as P-BO continues to move away from supply-side economics, people will shelter their money any way they can and revenues will continue to decline; California is the incubator for all this negative growth and will be the first domino to fall.
*It is just so unfortunate that the GOP cannot bring themselves to steer clear of P-BO’s destructive ways and start talking about a flat tax or, even better, the Fair Tax; Many other countries are perplexed at our behavior as they rise up with new economic muscle while they witness us withering away to third world status under Obamanomics.
That is true up to a point. Even the most dedicated producer will stop when they cease to get any benefit for their work. And Going Galt is not just a fantasy. It is a viable option for anyone who wants to, with varying degrees of “withdrawal of services”. But, you are still free to make the choice on your own.
To date, this is the best and well written ‘Going Galt’ letters. Although, he does not conclude that he will stop working and withdraw from further contribution to society. He talks of accepting responsibilty, doing the right thing, and the frustration with those who didn’t.
Yep, he has the ‘Going Galt’ sentiment but is not prepared to cut off his nose to spite his face. Good on Ron Ruffer.
ILMC, you don’t seem to understand do you you impish little idiot. The people here talking about mopving to another country actually mean it, not like all of the libs that swore they would move to France if W was elected. These are the people making the money that is being taxed. That is why even if these producers don’t leave the country, by reducing what they send the government, it will hurt what the government wants to do.
Also, check your facts, Australia is one of the most welcoming of immigrants, check their government website, there is actually an area similar to monster.com and other like sites.
You’ve managed to be both right and wrong. I am gainfully employed, paying my mortgage and love my job.
But I wouldn’t mind extra time to write poetry, post to my blog and hang out with my grandchildren.
No, we’re not quitters. But that doesn’t mean we have to stay on a government-owned treadmill our whole lives. There are other things we can work at, just as hard.
I actually have checked out moving to Australia and their various websites, perhaps what ILMC meant was that they expect you to have a job and contribute – what a concept!
Australia is a “no go” for me. Everything there will kill you! Every time I watch the Discovery Channel I swear I’m not even going to visit Australia!
Ahhh, yes… the tolerant mutterings of yet one more not so tolerant liberal. I thought that dissent was patriotic? I guess not so much, huh?
Or did your Buddhist monk tell you that two-sided phoniness was a good character trait too?
Nothing economically happens in a society until someone takes something and adds value to it by the force of his or her talents. Whether the something is a piece of steel, an artist’s canvas or a farmer’s field. The act of adding value is the creation of wealth.
When the value is taken away from us we will lose our society. I’m afraid.
I can’t wait to shoot the next show of disapproval for Mein Fuhrer’s socialism. It’s going to be a blast.
Just what do you tell to the people that came here specifically to escape the big government tyranny that you so desperately crave?
And, let’s face it. There are plenty of countries that you and yours idolize. We are forever hearing about how absolutely fabulous things are in Europe and Canada. Why don’t you head there, and leave this last bastion of freedom to the freedom lovin’ capitalists? Are you really so greedy that you have to have the entire world?
MarcoPolo….they won’t leave us alone because, like locusts, they have scoured their home countries free of opportunity. They roost here to eat the flesh off our bones.
Fight back or perish!
But then who would pay for everything?
You know, you’re right. We’re not quitter. We’re just going to have to twice as hard to figure out a way NOT to pay as much…legally.
Where loophole exists, we will find it.
Oy, I’m having a senior moment myself. What I meant to say was…We’re just going to have to work twice as hard to figure out a way not to pay as much…legally.
I saw this cartoon – seems to capture the essence of Obamanomics
Okaaaaaaaaay… a little critique here.
Bloody severed heads of the Governator… hussein and biden’s heads on poles… posters of someone (didn’t see it long enough to figure out who, does it really matter?) PEEING on someone else…
And the topper? People use faux swords to ‘sever Arnold’s head.’
This is too depressing for words.
Do we really want to resemble the lunatic left? Do we want to resemble the Islamofacists??? THINK about it.
Future protesters, PLEASE use your heads (pun intended)!!
Let the flaming of Joy begin!
This is just too funny. Going Galt? Really? Where things so bad during the Clinton years? I didn’t realize raising the top marginal tax rate from 35 to 39.6% is socialism? Well if thats the case your hero Ronald Regan was a real socialist, when he was in office the top marginal rates for Regans first 4 years in office were 50%. During Nixons terms it was in the 70′s. Anyone who is willing to stop working rather than pay an extra 4 cents on every dollar over 250k is an idiot sorry to say it.
freemind25 – It’s not just the top tax rate… it’s all the pork and non-stimulus crap that will mean much higher tax rates in the future. It’s Cap and Trade which will the hugest tax increase EVER… it’s universal health care which will drive tax rates through the ceiling in an attempt to cover the costs…
It’s hard working people bailing out freeloaders!
Joy, I’m not going to flame you, but as much as I disagree with some of those things as well, they have finally gotten their hackles up and they are mad. This is what you see when people get emotional — it takes over. That’s why you see those lefty loonies doing stuff like this for every little cause — their entire ideology is based on emotion.
Ours shouldn’t be. We should be able to get our hackles up without going lunatic.
freemind25, it’s called principles. Some of us do live by them. Where the government is concerned, if you give them an inch, they take a mile. Some of us don’t want to give them the inch.
You do realize you are paying right now for the deadbeats who show up the hospitals and can’t pay. Do you realize health care premiums have doubled since 1999. Thats a VERY heavy tax on small business’s as well as large. If you are self employed its an enormous burden. So if theres any way government can drive down those costs I’m all for it. Cap and trade I will have to agree with you on, Im not a fan.
freemind – Universal health care is not the answer. Government never manages anything better than the free market.
Another point is that billions is spent on the health care of illegal invaders. We should be pushing for attrition laws to send them home on their own dimes.
Really? Never? How have the free markets done in managing the banking sector. That didn’t work out too well did it? How about the police, post office, Military? If you put the right people in place it can be managed right.
I don’t think universal health care is the answer, but something has to be done about health care. BTW Obama’s proposal during the campaign was not government run health care.
#37 freemind you’re wrong it will be gov run don’t believe a thing that comes out of his mouth!
Ten specious reasons behind ObamaCareposted at 2:38 pm on March 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Bruce Kesler works methodically to refute the supporting arguments for government-run health care in an extensive post at Maggie’s Farm.
Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress will bet that the American voter has moved significantly since 1993-4, when an attempt at outright nationalization put Democrats out of power in Congress for more than a decade. They’re hedging their bets with some misleading arguments, and Bruce shoots them down one by one:
George Bernard Shaw warned “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” The major overhaul of American health care pursued by President Obama and his supporters is based on many false premises and is excessive and likely to do more harm than good. Tuning up and improvements already always dynamically occurs.
Instead, ObamaCare is aimed at dramatically changing one-sixth of the US economy in ways that are untested or tested and found wanting, primarily involving huge increases in government direction of health care.
The details of ObamaCare are largely being left to Congress, the same body that stuffs the federal budget with earmarks, waste, and other programs that are not requested. ObamaCare is premised on claims for drastic changes in health care and major increases in government programs being necessary. Those claims are largely specious.
Below, the top ten specious premises for ObamaCare are discussed:
1. Comparing US Health Care To Other Developed Countries
2. US Health Care Spending Is More Than We Can Afford
3. Reform Overhaul Will Yield Major Savings
4. Increased Evidence-Based Medicine And Health Information Technology Will Significantly Improve Care and Reduce Costs
5. Present Administrative Costs And Insurer Profits Are Too High
6. US Consumer Dissatisfaction Requires Drastic Health Care Changes
7. Health Care Costs Are So High They Are A Major Cause Of Personal Bankruptcy
8. The Number Of Uninsured Is So Large That Drastic Health Care Changes Are Necessary
9. More Preventive Care Will Better Serve Consumers And Save Costs
10. Health Care Consumers Are Being Served By Drastic Health Care Changes
I’ll give you a taste of one of Bruce’s detailed rebuttals:
Typical of misleading statistics, a US advocate of government-run health care touts a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), comprised of the 30 most developed economies, favoring universal coverage as exists in most of the other OECD countries. The OECD report is actually titled a “working paper” by the three researchers. The encyclopedia defines a “working paper” as “a document created as a basis for discussion rather than as an authoritative text.” This OECD “working paper’s” statistics are misleading.
More accurately, a January 2009 analysis of the data gathered from the OECD points at life expectancy as the single best measure of outcomes. Excluding deaths by injury, to focus on health related outcome, “the US does the best of all the OECD countries” having the longest life expectancy.
Even the OECD “working paper” has to admit that the US’ higher infant mortality rate is misleading: “Even if there were uniform reporting standards of infant mortality across countries, a second limitation to using it as an indicator for health outcomes is the potential effect of certain interventions on the likelihood of a live birth. It is conceivable that additional health care provided in the second or third trimester causes a pregnancy that would almost assuredly be a stillborn to become a pregnancy with an improved chance of a live birth but also an above-average likelihood of dying within the first year. These interventions increase health care expenditures and result in the birth of more low-weight- and very low-weight babies, with significantly greater health problems.” The “working paper” does not address the moral issues or that most such babies go on to productive lives: “43% of children had survived without any impairment. Minor impairment was diagnosed in 39% and major impairment in 18% of assessed children.”
This OECD analysis also corrects per capita health spending to use price parity (comparative purchasing power) instead of oscillating currency exchange rates. The decline of the dollar compared to the Euro in the past decade did not increase the US’ comparative costs per person by 55%. In fact, other OECD countries’ health spending is understated by 56%, and “the US is no longer the highest [spending] country. France and Norway exceed the US in real health care consumption.”
I chose this passage for a reason: cost rationing. Americans spend more on health care than other nations because they demand (and receive) more care. The infant-mortality issue gives us a big clue in that regard. In every state-run system, costs get controlled by care rationing. One need go no further than the VA or Medicare to see this, and the Obama administration wants to limit Medicare even further based on means-testing, generally not a bad principle but certainly the opposite of what they promise with Obamacare.
The question Americans need to ask themselves — and demand from the ObamaCare advocates — is what care they’re willing to surrender to rationing. Research and development? Preemie care? Transplants? Single-payer systems force consumers to forego care in order to save costs, and any Canadian or Brit can confirm that.
Don’t miss the rest of Bruce’s work.
The banks haven’t been operating under free market priciples for quite some time, so that’s really not a fair argument.
As to your police/military argument, those are two things that government IS responsible for constitutionally. Again, not free market related. They are not run for-profit either so that leaves them out of free market arguments….
#37 Freemind you might want to take an Econ 101 class the freee market was not the destruction of the banking industry!
It was the housing burst and the over pricing of property values/loaning money to those that couldn’t afford them and selling bad paper to make more of a profit.
If you really want to blame somebody look at Carter/Clinton/Franks/Dodd/Schumer!
Free markets work if the gov would mind their own business. Every financial market like the climate is cyclical!
Military falls und General Welfare clause of the constitution. Police fall under General Welfare of the states constututions
I want to better understand the collusion between bank corporation boards and the federal treasury, the federal reserve, and the executive branch.
First, with the federal treasury: when the line was blurred between banking, insurance, and securities brokering, why were banks permitted to re-sell worthless mortgage backed securities with the treasury turning a blind eye, as well as the SEC? (anyone else see the connection between Madoff style cons and this phony securities loop?)
Second, with the federal reserve: how does what is essentially a private banking cartel put in charge of re-selling bank debt to foreign agents, when smaller banking corporations KNOW they don’t have to profit on maturing loans- they just have to repackage the debt (sound or not) and sell it at a discount to exploit the time value of money, pad their balance sheets, take more cash to the big FOREX casino (Bank of America made 368 million clear shorting the USD along with Soros and others en masse), and encourage the bad lending via Fannie (Ass) and Freddie (Gas)…..while senators and congressman were dipping into the trough with impunity?
Third: the executive branch- wiilfully didnt enforce borders and allowed by law Bank of America to issue credit cards to illegals and grant mortgages to them….how much? will we ever know? bank bailouts and no transparency….all of a sudden Citibank is turning a profit.
My point: when the truth is a rare commodity in government-business relations, the business builders among us suffer.
There are capitalists that print and abuse currency. And there are capitalists like me that make a dollar grow into something of lasting value.
Let the banks that are sick, fail. If we never hit bottom, we will never set sail again this century.
But i digress..
Bear1909 out.
The next step will be the beginning of the emigration of the wealth producers of this country. Some other nation, with forward-looking governments will realize the fastest way to make their nation prosperous is to make it a haven for those who produce wealth to continue to do so.
Going Galt with a bit more noise: The Shot Heard Around the World at Traction Control.
What an absurd musing. I love how the uninformed American public (okay you too) seem to have the military all figured out. You don’t. The military isn’t something to be managed. Ask any military member (for example the Air Force) what they think of the new management and corporate style of the Pentagon and they’ll tell you something shocking: THEY HATE IT.
The higher echelon of the Pentagon, such as the generals, are hell bent on managing the military like a business. The military isn’t a business. There are a bunch of bean counters in the Pentagon who do nothing but crunch numbers to determine whether or not people will get equipment or the necessary supplies to fight future wars. These decisions aren’t being made in the best interests of the military or the future needs of the military. Bureaucrats (and that includes generals) don’t possess the common sense to guide them through tough decisions.
Then there is the lovely Postal Service, which is in debt, and whose Postmaster General just got a huge raise/bonus. For what? A poorly run governmental department? You’ve got to be kidding.
These are your examples of successful governmental “management?”
Then why is he mentioning univeral health care in his proposals, speeches, and set up a “reserve fund” of taxpayer money to fund it?
Another example of why the government shouldn’t be allowed to manage our healthcare is the military healthcare system… known as Tricare. Tricare For Life was supposed to be a guaranteed, free service for our retired servicemembers and it turns out that the government couldn’t keep that promise. Tricare for active duty service members and their dependents is fraught with ineptitude, disorganization, and bureacracy that it’s a wonder that people get treated at all.
Anything that the government invents or touches goes down in flames. They’re just built that way I guess.
This is a faulty premise… Going Galt is neither running away nor quitting… It is tackling adversity head on: sacrificing personal comfort in a noble effort to destabilize the draconian self-perpetuation of welfare state policies and create freedom for the potential of fellow citizens.
Amazingly well actually… In the Czech Republic where they really have free markets, they’ve had almost no downturn. We should try it in THIS country again sometime.
Seriously, people that rail about their delusions that the banking industry has been a free market in the last 15 years need an object lesson. First, they should be dragged behind a freight train by one leg. Then they can be scolded about how all those injuries must have been caused by how free their other appendeges were. Then they should be dragged again shackled by neck, arms, and both legs. Maybe then they’d appreciate how even a “little” imposition destroys freedom, and how even GREATER interference will not be an improvement. And maybe as an added bonus it would give them a healthy aversion to unsolicited “railing.”
Bears repeating. Seriously, what about us? People like me & my spouse who instead of buying inflated-price real estate, although we certainly could have, prudently chose to remain renters because what was for sale clearly wasn’t worth it. We saved and waited for prices to return to historical, sanity-type levels. What about us?
We were evidently stupid. We saved and waited, only to be “rewarded” with the burden of paying more in taxes to ensure that home prices remain forever out of our reach.
Thanks for nothin.’ Yeah I’m pissed off, forgive my language, but I hope you all understand. We did the right things, we took no advantage, we contributed a whole lot more than we ever took back or got out of it.
Wouldn’t really even be a problem if they weren’t hellbent on taking even more out of our already-depleted hides, but these bailouts for irresponsible homeowners are the tipping-point insult. Enough already. ENOUGH!
Not all who show up for medical care, without insurance, are “deadbeats”. I know one patient recently, who ended up in the ER and needed an immediate operation. It had to be done right away. Unfortunately, though this man had insurance for years, he had just moved/changed jobs and was on the 3 month wait to apply for insurance. He, in plain terms, got caught. He also got stuck with a $18K bill. The man was quite upset and very distressed. Fortunately, and he isn’t rich by any means, a large part of it was covered by the state. Such things happen and I’m in favor of helping out. It’s better than seeing him and his family in bankruptcy court, over an insurance rule. Those who show up in the ER with a “Hey, doc, I’ve got a stuffy nose”, don’t get much sympathy. Under the new ideas of universal healthcare, we would have expand the waiting room, just to see all the “stuffy noses”. I see it in Europe and here in our “illegal immigrant” states. The waiting lists will start and eventually, like Sweden, you’ll have waiting lists to get on waiting lists, just to see a specialist.
Please don’t lecture me about my knowledge of econ, I work in finance and seen what has gone on first hand. Im glad you can regurgitate the uninformed musings of Limbaugh, Hannity, and the like. Where is your mention of CDS’s, credit default swaps. They were an unregulated ticking time bomb on balance sheets of so many companies, and they alone are directly responsible for the downfall of AIG. Unfettered markets allowed companies to write derivitive insurance policies when they had absolutely no way of paying out the contracts. The banks were allowed to get leverage up to 40 times by taking advantage of loopholes in the financial laws in our country. The government stayed out of regulation and allowed banks to become “too big too fail” without adequetly making sure they didn’t fail. Your also right about the housing bubble, but the bursting of the housing bubble was just the straw that broke the camels back.
Freemind – If you work in finance and still claim that banks operated in the truly free market, you really need to take another look at things. My belief is that CRA was the underlying cause of the bank problems. You talk of banks taking advantage of loopholes. Who creates those loopholes? Government! As someone who did work in banking from the 70′s to the 90′s I can tell you you couldn’t sneeze without worrying about some stupid federal rule. Quotas, fines and fed intimidation were everywhere. I watched CRA grow from a nuisance in the 80′s to a nightmare in 90′s.
Yes, some banks did abuse their trust. They should have been allowed to fail, no matter how big. That is the free market, which will work every time it is allowed to work. Over time it rewards the people that deserve it, and punishes those that don’t.
Costa Rica is going to be renamed Galta Rica before too long…
Would that be the same Obama who promised no lobbyists in his administration, transparency, etc., etc.? Tell me again why I’m supposed to believe his promises?
The health care “crisis” could be solved by addressing just two issues:
(1) tort reform
(2) illegal immigration enforcement
And what odds would you put on Obama attacking either of those?
Good News: The Stimulus package is working.
Bad News: It’s the Chinese Stimulus package.
Tax cuts, my friends. That’s how you stimulate an economy.
#49 Freemind then if you work in finance I would ask for a refund from your school because you didn’t learn much.
That is why you got the lecture oh wait maybe your just an assistant that works in finance!
It’s really fascinating seeing this dynamic response to the “static modeling” expectations evident in the Obama/Dem tax increase and their plans to increase their
plunderrevenues. The “static model” assumes no one will respond to an adverse situation like rasing taxes. The “dynamic model” assumes that people will respond to something like a tax increase and actively work to limit the effect of that tax.Human beings are dynamic responders to ALL stumuli. It’s a survival mechanism built into each of us. We’re not going to suppress it for the fools in Washington or any other fools.
Michelle,
There is a wide response to the Tea Partys this group who writes for City Tavern a new blog combined from assorted points of view, including Independents, PUMAS, Sarah Palin Supporters ect…I have been reading Cine’s World and Logistic Monster for a while now.
I like Shtuey also the City Tavern is based on the Tavern our fore fathers gathered at in Pennsylvania.
This Shtuey’s lastest people mention the tea partys in the comments.
http://citytavern.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/a-great-expense-of-blood/