DOOM: The long grave already dug

The New Republic is stealing my gig! The outrage! The scandal! But no pictures of ugly, lazy, bored felines, so I still have that going for me. I also try to be less clueless in my economic editorializing. (The meat of the article? Apparently, the GOP is evil and wants everyone to starve in the streets or something. Stand well back lest you be struck by flying spittle. Judis is as innocent of economic theory -- and history -- as the weeds in my garden.) EDIT: I just noticed that in this whole screed, Judis never says a harsh word about the liberal saint FDR in spite of the fact that FDR was at least as much to blame (if not more so) for the depth and duration of the Depression. This isn't so much historical anmesia as willfully ignoring the obvious.

S&P downgrades Italy. This is further pressure on the Eurozone, and further evidence that the currency union is on the verge of collapsing in on itself. The more prosperous northern states (Germany especially) will not tolerate the Eurozone turning into a transfer-union.

Reading this piece from Victor Davis Hanson makes me think that California may be moving out of "boned" status and into "DOOMED" status. California cannot go on this way for much longer.

Also, you can add Florida to the list of LOTB members who have moved from “pending boning” status to “fully boned” status.

Greece and the crisis of the governing elite. With a bonus quote from Frederic Bastiat: "Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone."

Teh Krugman: WE’RE BLEEDING TO DEATH, YOU WINGNUTS!!! We need a money-poultice, stat! Transfusions of money! Money will cure all ills! (We can use Krugman's own metaphor against him: if the austerity advocates are like doctors who "bleed" their patients, then Krugman and his ilk are like the carnival-tent faith healer who promises that a mere laying-on of hands will cure everything from gout to paralysis.)

This is the equivalent of a gauntlet being thrown down, a challenge to his adversaries. Obama has declared an ideologcal war against half the country. He doesn’t intend for any of this nonsense to get passed into law; he knows full well he wouldn’t get it past his own party, much less the GOP. No, this is the opening move of the Obama 2012 campaign, Barack Obama in full leftist warrior mode. Obama seems to have convinced himself that his message of “huge tax increases now for tiny cuts later (maybe)” will resonante with voters. He will make no Clintonian move to the center because he doesn't have it in him. He has marinated in the leftist fever-swamps for his entire life; it's the only world he knows, and the only veiwpoint he understands.

Just a reminder to those who think that China will bail out the rest of the world: China has debt problems of its own.

CNBC's Jim Cramer is a perfect reverse barometer. Whatever he says, you can be sure the opposite is actually the case. So working from that model...we are all doomed.

What the--? I thought I smelled something! Man, I just bought these shoes! Gimme a stick so I can scrape it off, willya?

"Applying macroeconometric models to questions of fiscal policy is the equivalent of using pre-Copernican astronomy to launch a satellite." The "experts" fail yet again.

Dr. Doom jumps aboard the Keynesian stimulus train.

Bankrupt and bailed-out GM’s UAW workers get...a $5000 signing bonus! Charlie Brown sez: All I got was a rock.

King Dollar shows some strength. We're still drawing the "safe haven" money, apparently.

We have a popular and growing brand, gentlemen! But I am not satisfied! No, we need to move upward, ever upward. So, here’s my plan: We will charge our customers half-again as much for the same service as before -- and in the teeth of the worst economy in generations! But that’s not all! Let us take the brand-name that made us famous, and change it to something stupid! Let us bifurcate our online presence and make it as difficult as possible for our existing customers to continue to use our service! It can't miss! You may sit back and bask in the heat of my brilliance, gentlemen, as we await the plaudits and praises of our customers and shareholders.

Ask the citizens what they want to do? Well, as a last resort. If lying, cheating, stealing, perfidy, obfuscation, delay, incompetence, cowardice, and stupidity have no effect, we can always fall back on the democratic process.

UPDATE 1: From Arthur comes this tip: The Greek Solyndra? And they're asking the Germans for the money? This seems...ill-advised. On many levels.

UPDATE 2: More and more people seem to be advocating this particular alternative to a Greek ejection from the Eurozone -- have the Germans and strong Northern economies leave instead. France would howl; one of France's goals in the Eurozone project was to shackle Germany to the weaker southern European nations and at the same time increase their own leverage over their Teutonic neighbors. If the Germans and others leave to form a "neue-Duetschemark", it would ruin all of France's plans. And it would throw the rest of the Eurozone into a major financial crisis -- though that will probably happen in any case.

UPDATE 3: Bammer: Everyone should pay their "fair share"! Except for that 47% who pay no federal tax at all. If you want a truly "fair" tax system, then everybody should have to pay something, if only to prove that government isn't free. (I pay about 30% of my yearly wage to the federal, state, and local Leviathan. Even God only asks for 10%.)

UPDATE 4: Keith Hennessey confirms -- Bammer's "balanced approach" is a giant pant-load.

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posted by Monty at 08:57 AM

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