Roger’s Rules

March 28th, 2009 10:23 am

“What began as an economic crisis is now principally a political usurpation.”

Mark Steyn on the economic vaporizer we call Barack Obama (with a few words on his trusty side-kick “Toxic Tim” Geithner):

If you listen to the principal spokesmen for U.S. economic policy — Obama and Geithner — they grow daily ever more explicitly hostile to the private sector and ever more comfortable with the language of micro-managed government-approved capitalism — which, of course, isn’t capitalism at all. They’ll have an easier time getting away with it in a world of “global oversight” where there’s nowhere to move to. Unfortunately, even then it won’t work. Think about it: It takes extraordinary skill to create and manage a billion-dollar company; there are very few human beings on the planet who can do it. Now look at Obama and Geithner, the two men currently “managing” more money than any individuals in human history: not billions, but trillions. . . .

Barack Obama, even when he’s not yukking it up on 60 Minutes, barely disguises his indifference to economic matters. He is not an economist, a political philosopher, a geopolitical strategist. He is the president as social engineer, the Community-Organizer-in-Chief. His plan to reduce tax deductions for charitable giving, for example, is not intended primarily to raise revenue, but to advance government as the distributor of largesse and diminish alternative sources of societal organization, such as civic groups. Likewise, his big plans for socialized health care, a green economy, universal college education: They’re about extending the reach of the state. . . .

In their first two months, Obama and Geithner have done nothing but vaporize your wealth, and your children’s future. What began as an economic crisis is now principally a political usurpation. And, to return to the president’s “false choice,” that “chaotic and unforgiving capitalism” is exactly what we need right now. It’s the quickest, cheapest, fairest, most-efficient route to economic stabilization and renewal. A regimented and eternally forgiving global command economy with no moral hazard will destroy us all.

Are you depressed yet?

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8 Comments

1. 11B40:

Greetings:

I seem to remember that President and Mrs. Obama were more into charitable receiving than charitable giving.

Mar 28, 2009 - 10:59 am 2. MainStreet:

Not depressed yet, but working on it. I’ve been wondering if there is a legal way to stop this insanity by enforcing the law. The House deliberately passed a law, taxing AIG bonuses, that they knew was unconstitutional. They took an oath to “defend and protect” the Constitutional. Should they not be prosecuted for this?

I, for one, am tired of electing politicians who do anything they want once they are elected.

Mar 28, 2009 - 11:02 am 3. David Thomson:

“Now look at Obama and Geithner, the two men currently “managing” more money than any individuals in human history: not billions, but trillions. . . .”

It is inherently impossible to adequately manage such large sums of money. One could possess the greatest mind in history and still fall far short. The nanny state that tries to achieve this impossible feat will also inevitably take away your rights. You will either conform or be destroyed. Totalitarianism is right around the corner. And don’t let anyone con you with the so-called more moderate European examples. They are rapidly evolving into quasi-dictatorships. This is especially true regarding free speech matters.

Mar 28, 2009 - 2:25 pm 4. Marc Boyd:

We as a country have to come together and stop this nonsense. I am too dang old to do the march and protest thing. I have been sending the letters and faxes but they must just trash them on arrival. Well, I am getting mad now and am ready to do what is needed to turn this around. What is the next step for Pet’s sake?

Mar 28, 2009 - 4:24 pm 5. Roger’s Rules » Why I like Angela Merkel (and you should, too):

[...] Yesterday, I linked to a short but pungent commentary by Mark Steyn about that great wealth vaporizing duo, Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner. Let me quote Mark’s peroration again: In their first two months, Obama and Geithner have done nothing but vaporize your wealth, and your children’s future. What began as an economic crisis is now principally a political usurpation. And, to return to the president’s “false choice,” that “chaotic and unforgiving capitalism” is exactly what we need right now. It’s the quickest, cheapest, fairest, most-efficient route to economic stabilization and renewal. A regimented and eternally forgiving global command economy with no moral hazard will destroy us all. [...]

Mar 29, 2009 - 5:05 am 6. Ed Thompson:

Obama et al are not managing $ trillions. Rather, they are managing to spend it on vague, ill conceived attempts to alleviate a government created financial crisis, while compelling yet unborn taxpayers to join today’s risky experiment. You cannot spend your way out of depression; you cannot borrow your way out of debt. The plan is doomed to failure. All this, while proposing to eliminate the last vestiges of a free society that has devolved in fits and starts from near total laissez-faire (separation of economics and government) at the founding into a mixed economy.

Ayn Rand wrote of capitalism as an unknown ideal. Four decades on, it is still unknown, as conservatives studiously avoid the knowledge that would save us from Obama; they cling to their guns and their god in blind obedience in fear of discovering that their moral code mimics that of Obama’s, i.e., altruism (personal sacrifice) and collectivism (compulsory sacrifice).

For the intellectually honest among us, there is “Man’s Rights” and “The Nature of Government”:

http://tinyurl.com/5sjfuh

http://tinyurl.com/4jaw6e

Mar 29, 2009 - 8:21 am 7. Gaffe Prices:

That any kind of predictable market shift, or correction (real estate bubble, esp. in calif), or “downturn” (2 quarters in a row, negative GDP- recession) could be tarted up into and re-dressed up as a “crisis” to serve as pretext for destroying a free market system, is indeed usurpation of the worst (or best, depending on your viewpoint) kind.

So Mark Steyn is correct in his analogy when he calls it ‘community organizing’ at the (well) fed, not street level. And an open invitation to corruption. Ayn Rand simply calls them looters.

So I’ll see Mark Steyn’s analogy and raise it one shekel: It’s more analogous to the Chinese government; and the incentive which drives their desire to give political prisoners (Falun Gong) a speedy trial and and an even speedier execution. The quicker with which to harvest those youthful organs for transplant into party bosses who want to stay young as long as possible. As long as you have an inexhaustible supply of dissenters then the system is “sustainable”. groovy

A company that engages in “chaotic and unforgiving capitalism” is in fact what we need right now because that system brings order out of chaos and is rigorously unforgiving in how, and how frequently it adjusts to get the job done; abandoning what and who’s methods have become arcane and unproductive: it doesn’t calcify, as government bureaucracies do (DMV).

So, Obamas “false choice” is the right choice, but not for helping an economy recover; but instead for the “community organizing” looters to ‘go on and help’, themselves

Mar 29, 2009 - 10:32 am 8. Al Reasin:

I write and write and receive talking points. Enough is enough. I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! I attend Tea Parties and if that doesn’t work, we’ll picket their offices. If that doen’t work, then I believe only if they fear Americans’ wrath will they change. We will need a modern Shays Rebellion to counter this corruption. Now to find a Daniel Shays to lead us.

Mar 30, 2009 - 8:08 am