All I want for #Christmas is: “An End to Quantitative Easing”

We’ve linked to ReasonTV’s Remy before: he’s original, he’s funny, and he’s right.

And with his latest entry (at the bottom), he has really outdone himself.

But before we get to the video, let’s briefly discuss his subject matter. I’m all too aware that as soon as most folks hear the words “Quantitative Easing”, their eyelids start to flutter. Yeah, I’m with you. But our nation’s fiscal policy is a GIGANTIC part of what allows us to actually enjoy our freedom, and right now it’s a ticking time-bomb.

Will #Obamacare FORCE Doctors to see Patients they don’t want, for Wages they don’t like?

Let’s say that you just had an auto accident. Admittedly NOT a pleasant thought around the holidays, but play along with me for a moment.

Perhaps you skidded into a tree, or maybe it was a hit-&-run. You’re not hurt, but your car is decidedly worse-off for the experience. Now, there’s a particular auto body shop which you trust implicitly, and you want them to repair your car.

With me so far?

Here’s the rub: your insurance company informs you that this body shop’s rates are far in excess of the market average in your area, and you’ll need to either (A) pay the difference between what the insurance company has agreed to cover and what the body shop is charging, or (B) find another body shop.

This isn’t an unusual scenario: in my career, I easily saw it hundreds of times. One option that I NEVER saw, however, was the government considering a mandate which FORCED a body shop owner to fix my car at the insurance company’s rate.

I never saw it because it would be ridiculous, and would make a mockery of a free market and private business. Who’d ever want to start a body shop, knowing that the State could essentially order you to work against your will, for a price that you felt was too low? Some folks, maybe, but certainly not the truly talented ones.

Those shop owners, when faced with such a tyrannical option, would themselves opt out and find a different profession altogether. Count on it.

Welcome to Obamacare, everyone:

“I, Pencil”: A Pointed Little Tale of Economic Wisdom

Do you know how to make a pencil?

You know: those classic yellow wooden #2 pencils that most of us over 30 grew up with? Surely something which has been around for so long, yet which even today can be purchased with just a few pennies, must also be cheap and simple to make.

But you know better than that, don’t you? Even considering that there are only four basic parts–the wood, the graphite, the metal ferrule and the eraser–there is obviously a tremendous amount of specialization involved in gathering all the ingredients and assembling them into a marketable, affordable product.

No one person could possibly do it.

Yet if the government decided that the pencil industry was grievously mismanaged (pencil factories have wood shavings on the floors!, yellow is a racist color!, those sharpened points are dangerous!!) and announced it was taking charge…many would claim that was a good thing, as has been claimed so many times before.

After all, none of us could do any better. If the government can solve the problem, we should let them.

Right?

Columnist Thomas Sowell, in his August 7 editorial, “Busybody Politics”, observes that:

“Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than there are problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today’s problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.”

The Minimum Wage: economist Milton Friedman vs. Elizabeth Warren

Didn’t have a chance to see this until last night, but it’s so groan-worthy that I’m compelled to address it.

Newly elected Senator Elizabeth “Me-A-Heap-Big-Injun” Warren decided to pontificate on the Minimum Wage.

From National Review:

In a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last week on “indexing the minimum wage,” Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren inquired of University of Massachusetts professor economics Arindrajit Dube: 

When The Fed Has To Print Money, Just To Print Money

I’m not an economist, I don’t play one on TV, and staying at a Holiday Inn Express wouldn’t help me one iota. But these days, anytime I hear the words ‘Federal Reserve‘ and ‘print money‘ in the same sentence, I start paying reeeeaaal close attention.

I carved out as much of the economics minutiae in the article below as possible, to make it easier for everyone to follow, …including me.

—–

From ZeroHedge.com: 

“…we once again refer readers to the paper released yesterday by Morgan Stanley’s Greenlaw and Deutsche Bank’s Hooper, which discusses not only the parabolic chart that US debt yield will certainly follow over the next several decades, but the trickier concept known as the Fed’s technical insolvency, or that moment when the Fed’s tiny capital buffer goes negative [***which the ZeroHedge guys refer to as the “D-Rate” ]. 

In short what would happen is that the Fed will be then forced to print money, just so it can continue to print money.“

Hey, THAT doesn’t sound very good! And this sounds worse:

Economics for Dummies…and Liberals

A classic post on the idiocy of our current economic policy, as seen through the eyes of a businessman.

Our thanks to blogger UTAH over at ‘The Rio Norte Line‘ for the loan…

The Rio Norte Line

Originally posted on October 22, 2011 but re-posted in honor of the fiscal cliff. Still true and the math is just this simple.

People say that government can’t be run like a business. I guess that depends on what the true objectives are. Businesses can’t chase every opportunity or customer and they can’t provide every service or product or they will fail. When viewed in this light, business does have a lot in common with government. I think that is why the Founders gave us the Declaration and the Constitution (and made it changeable, but after a long and thoughtful process). If I look at the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, I would compare them to a business’ statement of core values (the Declaration) and a mission statement (the Constitution).

Sort of like the old analogy, “when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a…

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