Greece as Model (Part V)

Private investors in Greek bonds are to take a haircut, as part of the next in an unending series of Greek bailouts.  Unless you think half of their bonds' face value is far worse than a haircut.  Happy Halloween!

This is simple government theft by the abrogation of law protecting property rights and contracts.  It won't solve the problem, which -- as I have written -- is a retired-young, unproductive citizenry that wants German cars, Chinese cell phones, and foreign oil in exchange for... what?

This financial tactic will further discourage future investment and ensure that the return of growth and prosperity in the Eurozone will take much longer than it should.  Our current experience with that is explained here.

However, that theft will also serve as a warning against tucking your money away in high-paying junk bonds issued by some half-baked social democratic government... like the progressivists want ours to become.

Cain's 9-9-9 Plan Endorsed by a Big Name Economist

Herman Cain has been taking heat for his proposal to scrap the Federal tax code and replace it with three flat taxes on consumption, on individual income, and on business income of 9% each. 

Many have criticized his 9-9-9 plan because the sales tax could so easily be raised.  Indeed, giving Congress any tax rate to raise, as P. J. O'Rourke says, is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

From the Tab Bar

In days gone by newspaper columnists would now and then run columns consisting of bits and pieces of flotsam and jetsam they had accumulated in their In basket, heaped there over the course of a week or a month or season or year.  At some point the ink-stained wretch would rummage through the basket, addressing some of the notes and clippings and letters and throwing the rest away.  They were at no loss for ideas, but having so many, they simply had to give some short shrift.  The column that resulted was often as not titled something like "From the In Box."

I similarly accumulate windows in my Firefox tab bar.  Today, it's time to clean them out.  You get the picture.

The Real Herman Cain

I have received from a couple of different people a reforwarded message of the same title as this one including a resume for Herman Cain.  I won't repeat that here, since you can go to the Herman Cain campaign web site and read their version of it.  The resume I received by email does seem to be accurate.

Technocrat and Company (Part III)

And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on.

Today the Wall Street Journal picks up the T-word to describe Mitt Romney.  First used for that purpose ten days ago by William Kristol on Fox News Sunday, it is the word that describes Romney, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton best: technocrat.  Slick Willy Clinton was known as a wonk, but he believed in the idea of economic management by five smart guys in a DC room and repeated their notions and nostrums ad nauseum to any TV camera in reach.

Of Romney, the WSJ says