All quiet on the western front

I'm not hearing or reading much about the bailout bill, except a report or two that it will take a long time to see positive results -- of course it will.

Is everyone in shock? Is it over and time to go on to something else? Does anyone know what to say?

I would like to make a prediction. After time has passed and objective thinkers study this situation, it will be determined that the bailout was not needed and resulted from politicians seeing an opportunity to seize more power over the economy because they no longer trusted capitalism.

McCain had a golden opportunity to be a leader and stand up to this hurried intervention. He could have called for meetings of the nation's top economists and business leaders to help devise a plan to fix the fundamental problems of our mixed economy. This is a problem of fundamentals, of fundamentals solutions not being applied.

Peter Senge would have been a good man to consult -- he wrote briliiantly in The Fifth Discipline about fundamental and symptomatic solutions regarding fundamental and symptomatic problems. Until we accept that government intervention in our economy will continue to create crisis after crisis, we will be perpetually applying symptomatic solutions with no positive change. 

McCain was right, the fundamentals of our economy are fine -- the productive forces that lie underneath all the political engineering are waiting to be unleashed -- and have been since the creation of this country. The problem is we have gone so far with statism that not many can see a country without income tax, without public education, without myriad regulations, without all the departments to control transportation and welfare and resources and energy and forests and everything else they can control.

A free country would generate a spontaneous order of progress so much greater than the puny designs of politicians that it's amazing we can't see it. Oh, that's silly, they would say -- the world is too complex for such simplistic, risky ideas.

No, the world is too complex for designers. Look around you, then consider the designers..

Get ready for the Raw Deal

"It will be our job to enact — and I think it will be comparable to what Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress did in the New Deal — a set of regulations for all of the financial industry," said House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Many people of this country and congress, in my opinion, have no idea what has been unleashed. Congress thinks they know -- they're licking their lips -- but it's most likely self-destruction. No one knows, really, but it won't be pretty.

Talk about freezing, we're getting ready to freeze entrepreneurship, imagination, innovation, ambition, risk, rationality, spontaneous order, freedom, flexibility, responsiveness and every thing that makes the free market the greatest co-operation known to man.

We are headed to the clunky and ignorant micro-management of bureaucrats, a maze of stifling regulations, profit destroying tinkering from central control that favors politics over economics, social engineering of the worst sort -- we are getting design over spontaneous order. Stop and think who the designers are -- the very ones who designed the problem, plus all the designers to come like them. It will drive good people from the private sphere and attract political types who have no idea how to creatively manage, but only how to control and corrupt.

They will force stability for a short while and then the entrophy will set in. I doubt we will see growth for a long time to come. Move over France and Russia, here we come. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see any good coming out of this.

Update on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 07:50AM by Mike Farmer

The media knows best: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-oped1003pressoct03,0,3142589.story

Our Blessed Obama

They said a Great Change could salvage the hopes and dreams of mankind, and mankind was running low on hopes and dreams -- they'd been frozen. The many were in fear of destitution -- young mothers held their babies and sang Rock of Ages -- men walked the streets crying in solitude so that no one would witness their shame. Young people, confused and diillusioned, moped in malls and vacant lots, their vision reduced to a dark and dreary present in which optimism was an old, tired idea slowly passing. 

The huge machine of free enterprise had failed them, had faltered and ground to an abrupt stop. A figurative, dark fog enveloped the land and hearts were broken on the callous streets where it seemed no one cared.

There was only one hope -- The Great Change. From the miasma of lost dreams and nightmarish tomorrows arose a man who transcended the awful times, for he was timeless, a leader who comes along in times of greatest need. He arose like an angel of mercy and His voice calmed the people and His words healed their despair. They cried "Obama", "Obama" and He smiled. They petitioned Him for change and with His gentle soul and mind He moved the world in a new direction. There was light once more. "This is our second chance", He said, and they all wept, this time in cleansing joy.

"The New Plan has been created and the world will become abundant with all that is good and just", He said. The people went forth, reborn in a fellowship that ended all hatred and strife. Countries around the world soon followed until there was One World -- wars ended and all the people prospered regardless of race, creed or color. There was music like no one had ever heard, colors brighter than eyes had ever witnessed -- at last, there was change. Thanks, O thanks, Our Blessed Obama.

The shadow economy

When government seizes control of the economy there will be a larger shadow economy.  The idea is tempting -- sell everything I own and find a service I can provide without government involvement. I'm handy with my hands but my muscles are getting older -- I need to get in shape.

Rent a little place in the city, just big enough for me and my wife, and do odd jobs to get by. I'd probably come out better on the net income. I'll change my name for internet purposes and send missives from the shadow. The Savannah Phantom saying, "Hi y'all, things are fine underneath -- Power to the ghosts!"

Yours Truly,

(name to be taken at a later time)

Update on Friday, October 3, 2008 at 05:00PM by Mike Farmer

We need to put out signs everywhere:

Please don't feed the pigs!

Damn both parties

The government is quickly becoming a noose around the country's neck. With this much power it won't be long before micro-manangement of our financial system begins and the political pigs begin tearing into the $700 billion slop.

I have lost complete confidence in both parties. Our government is an outlaw government -- a collection of petty thieves who couldn't produce a valuable good or service between them if you held guns to their heads. It's time to stop the petty agruments over presidential candidates and begin the process of turning the whole frigging table over.

When people lose faith in government and believe that government is corrupt, then law and order is at risk. If the government can steal, then why can't we? It won't surprise me if we see a huge increase in tax evasion and a drop in government revenue. The government can't lock everyone up and the best thing we could do would be to starve the pigs by not providing slop.

You will definitely see people working the system to get their piece of the $700 billion dollars, and I can't say that I blame them. I believe I'll make a case why my three homes need to be restructured at much lower interest rates and principal.

----

Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Michigan, said he changed his vote to "yes" on Friday after calls to office changed after Monday's rejection of the plan in the chamber.

"A lot of people change their minds (about the bill) after seeing heartbreak in the streets," he said.

--from some stupid news report

-----

Oh yeah, my heart is breaking -- please mend it. For what it's worth, I will be relentless here in my attack on the present government. I hope there is a cyber uprising, and a real uprising where people take to the streets in protest. I hope the voices are so loud it breaks the windows of the White House and shakes the doors of the Capitol off its hinges. But there probably won't be an uprising. A few will mumble, a few will look for how it benefits them and many will give up and do what they can with what they have.

Yes, something needed to be done, but not this. And the American people said they did not want THIS. They could have lowered taxes, could have done away with irrational regulations, could have removed government from finances and allowed the free market to function, but they didn't have the guts or will or motivation to do it. Why? Because they love the control and they are scared shitless for the country to realize that not only are they unneeded, they are an obstacle to progress.

This is a test of the American will to preserve freedom. If we roll over and allow the government to have its way, we'll lose what makes this country great -- our productive ability, our innovative genius, our free pursuit of happiness. The worst thing about this is that we're squandering future citizens' inheritance of freedom and greatness. This is a disgrace. And if you think this is the end of government takeover of business, then you don't understand the situation.