Obama's self-congratulatory back-patting from yesterday - which echoed Biden's much dumber Early Show smirking - assumes a lot of things. One of the things it assumes is that the multiplier for government spending is above two:

Did the stimulus help? Sure. But Recovery.gov currently has a nifty graphic showing that of ARRA's $787 billion in budget authority, the government has currently disbursed about $287 billion. You'd have to posit some really remarkable multipliers for the stimulus to think that this prevented us from sliding into the Great Depression. For comparison's sake, in 1930, GDP fell by 8.6% in real terms. In 2009, the BEA says that it fell about 2.4%, or about $300 billion. Had it fallen by anything close to 8%, that would have meant a decline of roughly a trillion dollars. So the administration is claiming that by spending less than $300 billion, it managed to prevent more than $700 billion in economic decline--in other words, that the multiplier for their spending was higher than two. They're saying that every dollar they spent increased GDP by more than $2.

Unsurprisingly, the multiplier is not above 2. Per CBO projections it's actually much lower than 2. And the CBO assumed that funds were being allocated efficiently, not getting bottled up by state-level Transportation Departments or channeled into signs touting the government's awesomeness.

Still, it's good to see that the WH resolved that little internal disagreement they were having about stimulus numbers. Trotting out three different advisers with three different estimates on the same morning - that was just too reminiscent of Obama's knowledge-challenged Afghanistan dithering. It was distracting from all those places where the President was just outright lying.

Like his smug statement about how "every economist from the left and right" agreed that the stimulus created or saved two million jobs. That was a pretty brazen lie.

Seriously. Some of his statements can be explained by simple narcissism. I'm assuming that's his "century of law" Supreme Court attack got into the SOTU because he wanted it to be true, regardless of what even HuffPo acknowledges. Ditto for his declaration that stimulus funds would create Caterpillar jobs, even though Caterpillar's CEO said the opposite. In both cases you can see kind of sort of see how the thinking went: "my theories about the world are super-keen, they say stimulus funds create jobs and campaign funding limits are Constitutional, ergo..."

But he can't really believe that every rightist economist credits the stimulus with two million jobs, right? I mean, not if he has even a basic sense of reality. Right?

References and related after the jump...

Given the choice between indulging in anti-corporate demagoguery or cutting bloated government bureaucracies, Oregon voters have chosen to go the California route. Presumably they looked at Sacramento, saw how well everything is going, and say "yup, that's exactly what we want." Just look how proud they are of their cheap, resentful demonization:

Oregon voters bucked decades of anti-tax and anti-Salem sentiment Tuesday, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to prevent further erosion of public schools and other state services... Measure 66 raises taxes on households with taxable income above $250,000, and Measure 67 sets higher minimum taxes on corporations and increases the tax rate on upper-level profits. The results triggered waves of relief from educators and legislative leaders, who were facing an estimated $727 million shortfall in the current two-year budget if the measures failed...

Tuesday's strong support also validated a strategy by Democratic lawmakers to single out the rich and corporations for targeted tax increases. Campaign ads by supporters highlighted banks and credit card companies and showed images of well-dressed people stepping off private jets... "They did a great job of pounding, 'It's only $10,'" said Bob Tiernan, chairman of the state Republican Party. "We got swamped by the union money."

Washington state Democrats are already planning to model their tax-increase campaign on the Oregon strategy. I'm honestly surprised it took them this long to come to a consensus. Obama has spent the last few months "blasting banks," though there's no word yet on whether he's back to threatening law-abiding bankers with pitchfork-wielding mobs.

I'm not sure if they had any ads about "fat cat bankers" - the eloquent phrase so beloved by our modern-day Pericles - but they did have eyeroll inducing stills of "rich people" holding up glasses of champagne in front of their ostensibly private pool tables. It's like what a high school student would create if they were tasked with caricaturing "the wealthy," which would be funny minus the part where the campaign is moving entire regions of the country:

I for one am glad that Obama told the GOP to stop scaring Americans with the prospect of Democratic wealth confiscation. Much better to go with 1980's stock photography of jet-setting bankers, champagne-swilling philanderers, and big-haired trophy wives. That's the path toward reasoned public deliberation.

References and related after the jump...

You could set your clock by this kind of nonsense. No seriously. Try it yourself. Set up a Google Alert for "unexpected and economy" or "unexpected and housing." Like. Clockwork:

U.S. home starts unexpectedly fell last month as unusually cold weather hampered construction, but a jump in building permits to a 14-month high indicated the housing market recovery was intact. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday housing starts fell 4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 557,000 units, pulled down by a drop in groundbreaking activity for single-family dwellings. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to rise to 580,000 units.

Quite the relief to know that the housing market recovery is intact, huh? I guess all the liberal economists who were pushing for another stimulus package - NYT headline New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step - were just overreacting.

That in itself is probably a good thing, given how the last stimulus totally failed to create surplus jobs even when money was allocated to real projects. Which it usually wasn't. Ergo the White House's asinine "pay raises equal new jobs" accounting. And their "we'll just make it up" approach to Wisconsin and Massachusetts employment. And of course the phantom districts.

At least this all wasn't painfully predictable months ago:

And while we're at it, I never did get around to blogging this from late last year:

The Democratic-controlled Senate on Saturday cleared away a Republican filibuster of a huge end-of-year spending bill that rewards most federal agencies with generous budget boosts. The $1.1 trillion measure combines much of the year's unfinished budget work -- only a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure would remain -- into a 1,000-plus-page spending bill that would give the Education Department, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and others increases far exceeding inflation. The 60-34 vote met the minimum threshold to end the GOP filibuster.

All of which a roundabout way of asking: can someone please explain to me which of Obama's media cheerleaders I'm supposed to be listening to today? Is the economy still in a rut, proving that we need another spending spree on Big Government liberal pet projects? Or is the vaunted economic recovery "intact"? I don't really have a preference one way or another. It's the anxiety of not knowing that's just so gnawing!

References and related after the jump...

You can't really blame them for betting on the strong horse:

While the West is discussing sanctions against Iran, Turkey is discussing the establishment of a joint industrial area with Iran on their shared border the Iranian state news agency, Fars, reported on Friday. Iran's industry minister, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, met on Friday with Turkey's trade minister, Nahat Argon to discuss increasing economic activities between the two nations. Mehrabian said after the meeting that there was a lot of potential for joint economic activities between the two countries.

These aren't just bilateral moves either. The Turks are also boosting their ties with Syria. They've chosen a side and they're making and breaking alliances accordingly:

Two factors in particular seem to have led to Turkey's shift away from Israel and toward Syria. First, Turkey no longer needed Israeli assistance to pressure the Syrian government to change its policy of providing safe-haven to the terrorist Kurdish Worker's Organization (PKK). Second, in the past seven years, once secular Turkish politics have undergone a profound Islamist transformation. At the same time, the dynamic between the Turkish military and the state's civilian leadership has changed. No longer does the military have the upper hand. Today, the Turkish military can do little to impact the policies of the Islamist AKP, which promote solidarity with Islamist, anti-Western regimes while dismissing secular, pro-Western Muslim governments.

That also answers the brainteasers that were getting thrown around mid-2009, about whether Turkey can be politically moved in a secular direction. Turns out when a population keeps electing Islamists who promise to move away from the West, the country ends up moving away from the West. And I was really hoping they were just kidding about all that.

Meanwhile the State Department is trying to jumpstart Israeli-Syrian negotiations via Turkish mediation. Because apparently - at least to George Mitchell - the Turks seem like neutral and objective arbiters. George Mitchell, by the way - there's a guy who's really been building bridges between the US and Israel this week.

References and related after the jump...

Lucky break for the Obama administration: the actual 11% drop in new home sales is nowhere near the starkest demonstration of general economic incompetence. That award goes to whoever settled on the figures indicating that the exact opposite would happen. Thomson Reuters polled economists who projected a 2.3 percent increase in new homes sales. They were off by about 13.5 percent. This follows the "unexpected" rise in new jobless claims last week, which echoed the "unexpected" rise in August jobless claims that Reuters reported.

We've now reached the point where the most generous thing you can say about the media's preferred economists is that they're intentionally making things up. Because if they're crunching numbers and building models and producing something they think is accurate, they really need to reevaluate what it is they think they're doing with their lives:

Sales of new homes plunged unexpectedly last month to the lowest level since April, a sign the housing market recovery will be rocky... The Commerce Department said Wednesday that November's sales fell 11 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 355,000 from a downwardly revised 400,000 in October. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a pace of 440,000. Sales were down 9 percent from a year ago.

It's too bad. The AP was pretty psyched about getting to publish some good news for Obama. Their real estate writer Alan Zibel even filed an initial report last night. The headline was "November new home sales seen rising 2.3 percent" and the lede closed with "the housing market is finally on solid ground." This followed his writeup from yesterday about previously occupied home sales, where the headline was "Tax credit drives surge in home sales" and the first sentence was "Extraordinary government efforts to stabilize the housing market are paying off."

Now you might be inclined it's embarrassing for Zibel to have jumped the gun on a 13% mistake. Which it must be. But don't miss how he should be even more embarrassed about yesterday's declarations of "solid ground" given that today's figures (a) indicate the opposite and (b) trump those numbers:

New home sales data, released Wednesday, are a better indicator of future real estate activity than sales of previously occupied homes, but capture a smaller slice of the market. The new home figures tally sales agreements signed in November, while home resale numbers reflect contracts signed over the summer that were completed in November. So while home resales rose 7 percent last month, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday, most economists expect completed sales to decline during the winter months. "Buyer traffic is likely to be flat until spring," predicted Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wells Fargo Securities.

You have to look pretty hard for this morning's original celebratory article, incidentally. The only reason I even knew to look for it is because I had it in the AP RSS feed. As of about 8am PST there are exactly 3 copies of it left on Google News. Which is good, because if that sort of thing got around it might paint mainstream media outlets as Obama worshiping Big Government cheerleaders.

References:
* November new home sales sink 11 percent [Zibel / AP]
* New US jobless claims rise unexpectedly [AP]
* U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly rise [Reuters]
* November new home sales seen rising 2.3 percent [Zibel / AP]
* Tax credit drives surge in home sales

Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Economy
* Media Bias
* American Politics

Right on cue, a nice little point on last month's news that government agencies wasted $98 billion in taxpayer dollars last year:

The U.S. Postal Service spent more than $792,000 "without justification" on meals and events in one five-month period even as it reported losing $3.8 billion this year, the agency's inspector general says in a report. Employees spent $792,022 on meals and external events "without justification for food purchases, purchased alcohol without officer approval and exceeded the dollar limit for meals," the report says. Among the purchases were crab cakes, beef Wellington and scallops at an installation ceremony for one of several postmasters in the United States, the report says.

Eh. Nothing that can't be covered with a few more Reid-driven soak the rich payroll taxes. And it's tough to begrudge USPS employees the occasional excess, given the superb level of customer service they provide. One of the employees in the downtown LA post office used to hang a sign reading "YOUR LACK OF PLANNING IS NOT MY PROBLEM," which was strange insofar as customer needs are in theory a service provider's only problem.

I don't know if it's still up - I go to the Fedex across the street, where the profit motive is still a thing - but that office has always been a nightmare. Two years ago I saw a rushed woman tear up because, like a schoolchild, she was instructed to go to the back of a huge line and "rewrite her shipping label" on her package. The USPS public servant actually drew a huge half circle in the air with her finger, the better to communicate where the back of the line was and how to get there.

Anyway, Paul Krugman says ReidCare is "an awesome achievement" and Mark Steyn believes it represents an unrecoverable loss of the American ethos of individualism and self-sufficiency. Which means that Paul Krugman and Mark Steyn more or less agree about the kind of welfare state at the end of this road. You'll know we're close when we pass the "liver cancer drugs 'too expensive'" signpost.

But at least in the meantime it'll help pay down the national debt. Gibbs said so himself and he wouldn't have made the promise unless the Obama administration was confident in its projections. Otherwise the press will totally hold them accountable.

References and related after the jump...

From the original moonbat himself, a pitch-perfect concerto of the resigned defeatism that fuels so many statist power grabs. Dystopian populism is always the flip side of Hope and Change utopianism, if only because it's where inevitably frustrated, muddle-headed utopians end up. You have to blame someone or something for why your grandiose plans to lower the oceans aren't working, and it can't be that the whole project was just kind of a stupid. So either you go all-in on the fantasy, scapegoating yet another group of bankers or producers for your failures, or you give up.

Or, if you're fueled by seething resentment like this tool, you swing wildly from one extreme to the other and justify it with self-important pathos-soaked pretension.

I particularly like how the whole manifesto is done in a tone of belligerent pertulance, as if there's something admirable about finally confronting the sheer uselessness of it all. College stoner ethos meets infantalized European abjection. We have to stop trying to defy our natural constraints. We have learn to live within limits. We have to - above all else - learn to be humble and passionless. Those are quotes.

If Monbiot isn't getting paid by Mark Steyn to produce copy, he's getting ripped off:

This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity - It's hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers, but survival depends on accepting we live within limits - Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether to continue living as it has done, until it must make a wasteland of its home, or to stop and redefine itself. This is about much more than climate change...

The summit's premise is that the age of heroism is over. We have entered the age of accommodation. No longer may we live without restraint... In everything we do we must now be mindful of the lives of others, cautious, constrained, meticulous.... There is no space for heroism here; all passion and power breaks against the needs of others. This is how it should be, though every neurone revolts against it.

There is no end to this fight, no line these people will not cross. They too are aware that this a battle to redefine humanity, and they wish to redefine it as a species even more rapacious than it is today.

His broader point is that "economic growth" needs to be forsaken. Even if we fix the climate and curb carbon emissions, the argument goes, we're still all doomed because capitalism encourages companies to "maximise supply." Which it doesn't, but you know - whatever. Hugo Chavez, a guy who's destroying Latin America economically when he's not busy trying to destabilize it with nuclear weapons - is the breakout star of Copenhagen. So this isn't the place for rationality. It's the place to reverse the Industrial Revolution.

She sounds pretty pissed. Which is kind of what you'd expect given how she's always been against the entire auto bailout and its inevitable global market distortions. Even so, GM - which predictably filed for bankruptcy on June 1 - convinced Germany to save their European Opel division in a last-minute deal on May 30, in the midst of the company's freefall.

The deal, negotiated personally by Merkel even though it cost her massive political capital, had the German government underwrite Opel with the understanding that GM would sell the division, recoup the losses, and repay the loan. In the meantime tons of German jobs would be saved (as opposed to functionally fired right before Christmas, which is what just happened).

A normal company subject to normal market forces could be expected to follow through on the deal, since burning G8 countries after they extend you billions in currency is generally considered poor form. Apparently the board of our government owned auto corporation has different considerations, and they backed out of the deal. Now Germany is demanding their money back, though not before laying the entire mess at at Obama's feet:

"Without our involvement there would be no Opel today," Merkel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) daily in an interview to be published on Saturday. "We secured Opel's chances of survival." With US parent company GM struggling to survive, Germany gave Opel a "bridging loan" of 1.5 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars) to keep it running and Opel's 25,000 German employees, half the European total, in a job. In September, GM signed a preliminary deal to sell a majority stake in Opel, a deal backed by the German government with three billion euros in state loan guarantees, but last month GM decided not to sell after all. With Merkel having invested considerable political capital in securing the deal, Berlin was not amused. It is now demanding that GM pay back the money. "Now that the final decision has been taken, GM now has to pay back the bridging loan ... It has now taken over the responsibility of financing Opel itself," Merkel told the FAZ.

You'll be glad to know that GM's European spokespeople were pretty cocky about repaying the loan: "if we're asked, GM will repay the bridge loan in question." Sure it's infuriating to see them being generous with US taxpayer money as a way of brushing away their own incompetence. But (a) they're already bragging about paying back US taxpayer debts with money from US taxpayers and (b) they already gave $1 billion in bailout money to Brazil. Given how much Brazil's been flirting with Iran, it'd be churlish not to throw some money toward a reliable ally like Germany.

Maybe we can mollify Merkel by reminding her of all the sound economic reasons Democrats gave for the bailout. Like how not doing it would have been unpatriotic and "un-American." It's difficult to understand how a plan passed in such a nuanced argumentative context could fare so poorly.

References and related after the jump...

Buried on the second page of Politico's "don't believe the post-election conservative hype" article, this is going to have Mickey Kaus positively tickled. Couple it with how death panels got reinserted into House legislation, and everything old really does seem new again:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted Wednesday that the White House plans no changes whatsoever in its legislative strategy or agenda as a result of this week's contests. However, a White House aide told ABC that the administration will seek to bolster moderates by returning to an argument that health care reform will curb the deficit -- a talking point Obama aides have de-emphasized in recent months in favor of a focus on making the insurance system more secure and predictable.

The way I remember it, Obama aides de-emphasized Orszag's bend-the-cost-curve argument because it wasn't true. It wasn't true before Pelosi started outright lying about the cost of the House bill. It won't be true after politicians incite populist resentment against people who "choose" to be unhealthy - smokers, drinkers, people with dietary choices that Bay Area scolds frown upon, etc. Private ambulances are adding surcharges for obese patients. I'm just hoping they never discover that sex kills just like alcohol and obesity.

Six or seven years into nationalized health care - when citizens have to choose between higher taxes or scapegoating the overweight guy next door - won't that be a pleasant public sphere? I'm especially interested to see how the left handles the soda drinkers they're looking for excuses to tax. The race-infused classist condescension, already on display in some of our more refined liberal outlets, is going to be exquisite.

In fairness, that little dig about fashionable Bay Area health fads was probably unfair. Democrats are floating taxes on wine along with their sin taxes on beer. So it's not like they're being elitist.

References and related after the jump...

Almost difficult to believe that hubristically branded centralized economic control would end up with misallocated funds:

About $270 million in federal stimulus money awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration has gone to more than 90 airport projects that received low-priority ratings by the FAA, according to data by Subsidyscope, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. The funds make up about a quarter of the $1.1 billion the FAA has granted to airports for shovel-ready projects from March through September this year... The FAA says its project priority-rating system is "the first evaluation factor" to categorize airport development but is just one of several tools in determining appropriate projects to fund.

Unless you're Paul "Greenspan Needs To Create A Housing Bubble" Krugman and you really believe the Keynes line about paying people to dig holes and cover them back up, outright waste is probably a negative for you. And the airport fiasco isn't the only transportation-related waste keeping the stimulus a miserable failure. There's also the minor issue of straightforward cheating going all the way back to March:

With the $215 million in federal stimulus funds Metro received (it could go up to $315) for transportation projects, they are giving cities a minimum of $500,000. But... cities were taking that money and trading it for as low as 62-cents to the dollar... one city would trade their $500,000 earmarked for shovel ready transit projects with another city for $315,000 in cash that they could use for anything they wanted... "That was a misunderstanding on somebody's part," Katz told the paper in a follow up story... But another board member, John Fasana, said that "the cities felt the latitude to do this, and Metro frankly was allowing it within the last week.

I won't spoil the ending but suffice to note that the phrase "didn't want some investigation to put any of the money at risk" makes an appearance. Eyes on the prize.

This isn't just a corruption issue. By the White House's own logic it's the kind of thing that ensures the stimulus's failure. That's why Obama banned states from paying off debt with their funds. Even if you buy the Keynesian logic underwriting the stimulus - which I might not but which Judge Posner does so what do I know - you need to have the money used for consumption. The fact that it hasn't been used for that consumption is, then, probably worth noting.

If nothing else, you certainly can't have stimulus cash getting outright devalued as soon as it hits the streets. That's almost like the opposite of a multiplier effect.

References and previously after the jump...

Does pointing this out count as a "myth" or is it merely a "distraction"? I can see how the left might want to hold back "myth" for yes/no questions where they're demonstrably wrong and need to overcompensate. Under that strategy verifiably true statements like "ObamaCare will cover abortions" count as "myths," while "the White House is making shit up about preventative care savings" gets relegated to "distraction" territory:

Preventive services for the chronically ill may reduce health-care costs, but they are unlikely to generate the kind of fantastic savings that President Obama and other Democrats have said could help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health system... Using data from long-standing clinical trials, researchers projected the cost of caring for people with Type 2 diabetes as they progress from diagnosis to various complications and death... However, except for the youngest diabetics, the additional services would add to overall health spending, not decrease it, the study shows.

"There's no free lunch here. Prevention will not pay for everything. But it's not as expensive as it looks at first blush," said Michael J. O'Grady, a senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Begging yet another question: why is Michael J. O'Grady a political terrorist who hates Ted Kennedy?

References:
* Factcheck.org: Tax money will pay for abortion in the health-care bill [Hot Air]
* Study Raises Questions About Cost Savings From Preventive Care [WaPo]
* Video: Democrat can't stop whining about "political terrorists" [Hot Air]
* No One Saw That Coming: Byrd Wants to Name Socialist Government Health Care Bill After Kennedy [Ace]

Previously:
* Liberal Defenses Of ObamaCare Now Literally Define Clinical Denial
* Old Political Terrorists: "Financial Companies." New Political Terrorists: "ObamaCare Skeptics."
* Obama: I'll Talk To "Folks Who Created" Iranian Mullahcracy But Not "Folks Who Created" US Health Care

They're not even talking about the part where Biden bragged that he was delivering money to competitive rural districts. These stunts go way beyond the White House, presenting nice little case studies in how even the most fundamentally economic programs will inevitably get politicized by Congressional reps who are driven by self-interest and ideology and have the taxpayer money to indulge in both. File this where ever you keep "we're not going to run GM" followed by "hey, let's build green cars!"

A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that sees about three travelers a day will get $15 million under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. A government priority list ranked the project as marginal, but two powerful Democratic senators persuaded the administration to make it happen. Despite Obama's promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence....

The Whitetail project, which involves building a border station the size and cost of a Hollywood mansion, benefited from two key allies, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Both pressed Napolitano to finance projects in their state. Tester's office boasted of that effort in an April news release, crediting Baucus and his seat at the head of the "powerful Senate Finance Committee."...

Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency overseeing border projects, allowed the AP to review the list but will not make it public or explain its justifications for deviating from it.

I'm not really concerned that the most transparent administration in history is keeping stimulus measures opaque. After all Romer says that the stimulus is "absolutely" working at its 5 month mark, even though that's definitionally unknowable since most of the money hasn't been spent and any stabilization is probably the result of monetary policy and effects on consumption have been minimal. But why should facts and logic be allowed to get in the way of reckless politicized spending?

Hey, if dead people got stimulus checks in May - and they did - who can really complain about a mansion-style checkpoint or two?

References and previously after the jump...

Smart move ending Cash 4 Clunkers today. Another few days and conservatives could have added "how do you expect to run health care if you morons bankrupted a simple auto rebate program" to their list of anti-ObamaCare arguments.

It's hard to run down all the ways this was arguably the dumbest government program ever. But just to give you a sense of the mind-bending layers of stupidity at work, here are a few excerpts from a MR chat with auto industry insider SPK. Accounting for the needs of anonymity, suffice to say that SPK plays a significant role in marketing and retail at a major dealership.

First the part everybody agrees on: inflation wiped out any gain for any individual consumer, meaning that (a) the taxpayer handout to auto companies turned out to be especially generous and (b) there were literally zero savings on the balance sheet to offset the Obama administration's literal destruction of wealth:

SPK: its crazy. dealers are almost out of cars
SPK: aside from the fact that the govt hasnt paid them back they're drowning in money
SPK: its silly. they're not discounting anything
SPK: avg gross per car is up like 300% vs 90 days ago
Omri: that's the thing you want in a recession triggered by a bubble - a massive market distortion
SPK: well heres the worst
SPK: ppl who arent clunkering are FUCKED
SPK: the govt subsidy caused massive inflation like it was supposed to
SPK: lots are turning down deals today that have like $1800 in profit
SPK: someone who wants to buy a regular camry wo clunker money
SPK: has seen their price go up by at least $2000 in the last few mos
SPK: the shortage basically motivates dealers to eat up most of their subsidy
SPK: if you have a clunker thats worth $2000 on the free market
SPK: you probably dont come out ahead by using the program

Why wouldn't people eligible for Clunkers money still try to strike something close to a bargain? Because i's not just supply and demand. It's also that customers knew that they had to make their purchases by the close of business today. Otherwise no sale. So dealerships were willing to drive up prices knowing that customers needed to buy more than they needed to sell. Game theory 101.

That also means that the dealerships who benefited relative to where the market would have been five years out are those who have the most efficient cars today. Guess who that is:

SPK: this is cementing japanese dominance btw
Omri: bc they've got the most efficient cars?
SPK: yeah
Omri: great. very well thought out
SPK: im telling you cash 4 clunkers is a giant subsidy for toyota dealerships
SPK: this will affect future sales, almost linearly
SPK: for the next few years every month there will be several ppl
SPK: who might have been ready to buy who wont bc they clunkered

Here's where things get particularly fun. A price is a market signal, but it's not a signal only for buyers and sellers of that particular good. Even if auto companies knew that the goosed price signal was garbage - and there's a punchline on that a little lower - people who supply component parts need the signal. And since they're not privy to the "this is all going to end soon" chat around the dealership water cooler, they're pretty boned:

I can't wait for these guys to get into the health care business. They're so awesome at everything they do. From reviving the economy...

The Obama administration used economic stimulus money to pay for 50 airport projects that didn't meet the grant criteria and approved projects at four airports with a history of mismanaging federal grants, a government watchdog said Monday. Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel said he plans to examine the Federal Aviation Administration's process for selecting programs for the $1.1 billion in grant money. Among the projects that Scovel said didn't meet the FAA's minimum score was $14 million that went to Akiachak, Alaska, a town of 659 residents, to replace its airfield. The town has a seaplane and is only 14 nautical miles from the state's fourth busiest airport.

... to manipulating the market in a greener direction...

But what LaHood and other administration officials usually don't mention is that some trucks and sport-utility vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon, like the Ford F-150 truck and one version of the Cadillac SRX Crossover, also are being purchased with the new government subsidies. Both are bulky vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds when loaded that boast at least 248 horsepower. Just how many consumers used the federal rebates to buy these larger, not-so-green vehicles is unclear. The Obama administration has declined so far to release detailed records of purchases under the program being compiled by the Transportation Department, listing every clunker deal requesting rebates. The Associated Press requested the data July 31.

The Transportation Department distributes regular summaries of sales from the clunkers program and has used the electronic sales information from dealers to bolster arguments that Americans are dumping gas guzzlers for gas savers. But its failure to release detailed records means the public can't verify those claims... Even the Top 10 list of mostly smaller, fuel-efficient cars that LaHood has cited as evidence of the program's success is being questioned. A different Top 10 sales list produced by Edmunds.com, an auto consumer Web site, from dealer sales data shows fewer small cars and more large vehicles like trucks and utility vehicles make up the best sellers.

... there's really no task so basic that they can't screw it up through a combination of ideology, "send money back to the district" vote buying, and sheer incompetence. With this kind of talent to choose from, I'm sure we'll have no problem filling up a vast new government health bureaucracy with only the best and brightest.

Of course as of last spring the White House hadn't even managed to fill up existing health care posts. But no worries - no doubt there's a glut of super-competent, super-trained Americans just waiting to fill government ranks. The reason that they haven't pitched in on TARP, the stimulus, or Cash For Clunkers is because they're saving themselves for nationalized health care.

References:
* Gov't watchdog questions airport stimulus projects [AP]
* SPIN METER: $3 billion buys not-so-green vehicles [AP]
* As flu hits, holes in W.H. health team [Politico]

Previously:
* Shh... Massachusetts Proves Mandate-Based Health Reform Will Be A Disaster
* Obama To Lawmakers Concerned About Health Care: Stop Talking
* New Poll: Only 26% Consider Health Reform A Success In Massachusetts

Gather around class, as we open up one of the central passages from Freud's seminal Interpretation Of Dreams:

The term Kettle Logic or La logique du chaudron refers to Freud's mention of the defensive tactics engaged by a neighbor who had borrowed a kettle and was accused of having returned it with a hole. Freud mentions this tale in his Interpretation of Dreams... "The whole plea -- for this dream is nothing else -- recalls vividly the defence offered by a man who was accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition. In the first place, he had returned the kettle undamaged; in the second place it already had holes in it when he borrowed it; and in the third place, he had never borrowed it at all. A complicated defence, but so much the better; if only one of these three lines of defence is recognized as valid, the man must be acquitted."

Democrats and their MSM water carriers on Palin's "death panel" accusation:

(1) We'll have death panels in the plan because they're necessary:

Obama came a lot closer to talking about "death panels" back in April than I'd thought... He's talking about a panel of independent experts making end-of-life recommendations in order to save costs that have an effect at an individual level. And he thought it would be in the bill that emerges... It's also pretty clear that something like the "IMAC" panel is what he has in mind. Whether or not the IMAC would actually do this - Harold Pollack says end-of-life issues are well down the curve-bender's list, for example - Obama thought it would do it.

(2) There are no death panels in the plan:

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says the health care overhaul bill would set up a "death panel." Federal bureaucrats would play God, ruling on whether ailing seniors are worth enough to society to deserve life-sustaining medical care. Palin and other critics are wrong. Nothing in the legislation would carry out such a bleak vision. The provision that has caused the uproar would instead authorize Medicare to pay doctors for counseling patients about end-of-life care, if the patient wishes.

(3) We're dropping death panels from the plan:

"Independent" guidance to seniors about death with an eye to reducing the lion's share of health-care spending. What could go wrong? Tired of the political migraines it's getting from this, the Finance Committee finally decides to, er, pull the plug:

"On the Finance Committee, we are working very hard to avoid unintended consequences by methodically working through the complexities of all of these issues and policy options," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly..." Grassley said. The veteran Iowa lawmaker said the end-of-life provision in those bills would pay physicians to "advise patients about end-of-life care and rate physician quality of care based on the creation of and adherence to orders for end-of-life care."

Do you think nutroots cretins will apologize to Palin for the last few days of "you'd have to be an idiot not to understand that there are no death panels in ObamaCare"? I'm thinking they're such a reality-based community - to say nothing of gracious argumentative disputants - that they'll pretty much have to.

References:
* Kettle Logic [HG]
* Will You/Won't You Be on My "Death Panel"? [Kausfiles]
* FACT CHECK: No 'death panel' in health care bill [AP]
* Breaking: Finance Committee drops "death panel" provisions from Senate bill [Hot Air]

Previously:
* Dems: We'll Finance Health Care With Cigarette Tax That Will Cause People To Stop Buying Cigarettes
* Obama To Lawmakers Concerned About Health Care: Stop Talking
* Shh... Massachusetts Proves Mandate-Based Health Reform Will Be A Disaster

For all the flak the White House is rightly getting for their tone deaf new snitch program and their "calculated attempt to silence" government regulators, it's really here that they get genuinely Orwellian. Even the Associated Press is like "come on guy - you can't brag about transparency about specific programs while you're withholding documents specifically about those programs."

Apparently yes they can:

The Obama administration is refusing to quickly release government records on its "cash-for-clunkers" rebate program that would substantiate -- or undercut -- White House claims of the program's success, even as the president presses the Senate for a quick vote for $2 billion to boost car sales. The Transportation Department said it will provide the data as soon as possible but did not specify a time frame or promise release of the data before the Senate votes whether to spend $2 billion more on the program.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday the government would release electronic records about the program, and President Barack Obama has pledged greater transparency for his administration. But the Transportation Department, which has collected details on about 157,000 rebate requests, won't release sales data that dealers provided showing how much U.S. car manufacturers are benefiting from the $1 billion initially pumped into the program.

In fairness to the White House, releasing the data wouldn't really affect the vote. If Congress isn't going to read the actual legislation they're voting on they're hardly going to crack open audits. Reality is so boring! Let's pass something fun instead!

References:
* White House Blog Seeking Snitches [JWF]
* ABC News: WH Making "Calculated Attempt To Silence" Government Regulators Criticizing Financial Regulation [MR]
* Obama administration withholds data on clunkers [AP]

Previously:
* Great News: Government Slowly Re-Regulating Airlines, Now Actually Mandating Airbags
* Obama Pollsters Now Bragging About Their Poll-Tested Scapegoating
* Watchers Council Results - Actual Literal Wealth Destruction Is Very Nuanced

This would be slightly less poignant if the left hadn't just spent eight years screeching about how expert opinion carries the day in their reality-based community. It would still be exactly as disturbing:

The Obama administration's sweeping financial regulatory reform proposals have been met by criticism from lawmakers and the financial industry, but dissent from fellow federal regulatory agency heads was too much for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to take. Last Friday, Geithner said enough is enough, using a meeting at the Treasury to throw down the gauntlet to officials from other agencies.

"We planned this meeting as a venue to deliver a tough message to regulators that we should work together to get reform done -- and focus less on protecting turf," said Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Geithner directed an expletive-laden critique at the heads of the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the SEC, and other agencies. One source familiar with the meeting said, "It was a sh*t storm."... judging by the tone of last Friday's meeting, Geithner left no doubt that the time for the agencies to air their views had run out. In a calculated attempt to silence the dissenters, the Treasury chief made it clear that the in-fighting had to stop.

I'm pretty sure that at least some of those groups - the SEC, for instance - are supposed to be non-partisan independent agencies insulated from politicized Executive pressure. Actually I'm pretty sure that's true for all of them. Which would probably make this little display of intimidation unseemly at best and borderline illegal at worst. They really do think that they're still pushing around construction yards in Chicago, don't they.

Anyway: does anyone know if criticizing financial reform counts as the kind of "fishy" activity that we're now supposed to snitch to the White House about? I want to make sure I'm not falling down on my civic duty.

References:
* Throw Down: Geithner Blasts Government Regulators for Criticizing Administration's Financial Reform Measures [ABC News]
* Issa to Emanuel: Back Off! [House.gov]
* White House Blog Seeking Snitches [JWF]

Previously:
* Video: Obama Youth March In Lockstep, Chant About Inspirational Leader Who Will Guide Them Into Glorious Future
* Limited Post-Election Activities For Obama's Creepy Worshipers and Devoted Brownshirts?
* Obama Using Full Range Of Federal And State Power To Silence Dissent, Intimidate Voters

Results for this week's Watchers Council contest have been posted under the title "Cash for Clunkers Failure: How Long Until Obama Blames Bush?" Given the increasingly salient point that C4C quite literally destroys wealth, I'd say two weeks. Max:

Rarely do you encounter a wealth-destroying green measure that literally destroys wealth but this is an exception and therefore a sweet, sweet metaphor for Obamanomics. I think some people are under the impression that C4C is just a trade-in program, where the dealer gets to keep the buyer's old ride and sell it for parts or to a used-car dealer, etc. Not so. The whole point is to get fuel-inefficient vehicles off the road, which means the engines -- the most valuable part -- have to be destroyed. The Examiner's Bill Dupray is horrified at the sheer inefficiency of it all.

Between Congressional foot dragging on health care and Obama's moronic comments on Gates - the latter unpacked at length by Council runner up Joshuapundit - it wasn't the best week for the White House. Luckily for them they don't have much to worry about. As Council winner The Razor explained, they're just better at destroying the other side:

Yet another ethics complaint against Sarah Palin has been dismissed. The particular complaint filed by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod* alleged that Palin's acceptance of her governor's salary while running as McCain's VP candidate was illegal. McLeod's sixth (and final) complaint was filed a week before Palin's resignation and charged the governor with failure to disclose gifts in a timely manner. Palin cited the strain and cost of fighting these ethics complaints as some of the reasons behind her resignation.

The ethics charges against Palin displays the power of lawfare... the tactics used by the Left abetted by "Republican" (as late as 2002 McCleod listed herself as "non-partisan") Andree McCleod worked. Palin is out of office - at least temporarily, and her martyrdom at the hands of the leftist press stands as an example of what can befall other women who refuse to pursue power as anything but liberal Democrats.

The post ends by calling on conservatives to fight fire with fire. That's one idea. A different idea is to obsess about Obama's birth certificate. Per non-Council runner up Heretical Ideas, that's borderline incoherent. So naturally it's exactly what a nontrivial sub-section of the right is embracing. Because why not?

Certainly it's a much more important topic than how the Taliban smuggle opium out of Afghanistan, which non-Council winner Michael Yon painstakingly documented. Obviously his incredible photojournalism is much less compelling than enlarged, heavily pixelated scans of photocopies of old documents. So let's do that.

References and previously after the jump...

This is good. The airline industry managed to stagger on after Biden tried to destroy it, and I was worried that the left was done trying to wreck this part of the economy. Nope:

AirFareWatchdog thinks there's a compelling case to re-regulated the airlines. In this view, he cites at length a press release about a study co-authored by liberal American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner. That study is either incredibly ignorant about the manner in which the airline industry was and is regulated, or is incredibly dishonest - conflating issues and blaming things on deregulation that have nothing to do with it whatsoever...

The study's approach seems to be a mish mash of seemingly random complaints, hoping that something sticks. Indeed, the press release describes it as "wide ranging." So what are their proposed solutions? They suppose the industry would be more profitable, it seems, if the government would require "a code of customer service" to mandate specific pricing and rebooking procedures... Kuttner apparently doesn't understand that "monopoly pricing" is precisely what the Civil Aeronautics Board enforced in the regulated era that he wants to return to... Airline deregulation has led to huge growth in traffic and huge declines in prices. It's made air travel affordable and within reach of much of the public. There are problems and complaints about travel, to be sure. But non-sequitors about safety have nothing to do with what actually has occurred in the deregulation fo the airlines thirty years ago.

Bad numbers marshaled to make tangled arguments, insulated with an obnoxious tone of psuedo-sophistication, all in the service of a liberal policy in search of pretexts? Difficult to believe. But at least the government isn't slowly worming its way into the industry via a series of moronic consumer protection policies that do nothing to increase safety but a lot to increase costs:

You may never need them at 35,000 feet, but you'll be glad they're around if you do. Defibrillators, medical kits and life vests are a few examples of the safety equipment the government requires airlines to put on passenger jets. Of course, each item comes with a cost -- from hundreds to thousands of dollars to install and maintain... The issue comes into play for consumers this fall when some airlines put another expensive safety device on new planes to comply with a federal rule related to how sturdy a seat must be -- airbags. As of Oct. 27, all new commercial aircraft must have seats that are able to withstand a crash of 16 times the force of gravity. That's less force than in a 30 mph head-on car collision, according to Phoenix-based AmSafe Inc., the company that makes an airbag that fits inside the webbing of the seat belts it already provides in most U.S. airplanes.

I can't wait for these tools to start running the health care industry. Best civilizational collapse evuh.

References:
* Keenly Perspicacious VP: Please Join Me In Destroying The American Airline Industry [MR]
* Silly Arguments for Re-Regulating the Airlines [View From The Wing]
* Airbags for airliners: What will they cost you? [USA Today]

Previously:
* Obama To Lawmakers Concerned About Health Care: Stop Talking
* Famously Brilliant VP: When Obama And I Both Personally Promised The Stimulus Would "Jolt" The Economy We Meant "Not Jolt"
* Shh... Massachusetts Proves Mandate-Based Health Reform Will Be A Disaster

Moron:

The care with which we are carrying out the provisions of the Recovery Act has led some people to ask whether we are moving too slowly. But the act was intended to provide steady support for our economy over an extended period - not a jolt that would last only a few months.

Now some people might suggest that the use of "... some people..." to set up a straw argument means this op-ed was ghostwritten by Obama's speech team. But the gaffetastic insistence that the stimulus was never supposed to be "a jolt" is a giveaway - pure Biden. Via Hot Air via Swamp Politics, direct from the Office Of The Vice President:

We also came forward with what we're going to talk about today, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, an initial big jolt to give the economy a real head start. But some criticism -- we've not gotten enough money out so far. Well, look, since I was the guy put in charge of it, I want to make sure these first hundred days we do it right. The one thing that could undermine this whole effort is if you had read stories the last hundred days about how this money was being wasted and the tens of billions of dollars.

In fairness to Biden he was just echoing his boss. Behold, the wonders of 45 seconds of Lexis work:

Washington Times, Nov 25, 2008:

In his news conference, Mr. Obama laid out a hefty agenda for his first Cabinet appointment, tasking Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy F. Geithner and the rest of his new economic team with crafting a spending package to "jolt" the economy.

Washington Post, Feb 10, 2009:

"So, you know, we can differ on some of the particulars, but again, the question I think that the American people are asking is: Do you just want government to do nothing, or do you want it to do something? If you want it to do something, then we can have a conversation," he said. "But doing nothing -- that's not an option, from my perspective." Obama defended the role of government in the recovery process, saying that "with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life."

Oh and not for nothing - but it's not hysterical, impatient wingnuttery to give Biden flack for failing to (a) boost aggregate demand via massive government spending without (b) overheating the economy while (c) preventing government waste. That hat trick is pretty much impossible given economic fundamentals and bureaucratic corruption. But that's why conservatives opposed the stimulus. It just can't be done. Something inevitably has to give.

Whining in the New York Times about how he can't spend government money fast enough for it to be effective because he knows if he tries things will go wrong - that's the whole damn point.

References and previously after the jump...

Barack Obama, July 11, 2009:

[Obama] delivered a strong and at times even stern message in words that, had they come from any of his predecessors, might not have been receivedthe same way. Instead, it was cast by the White House as hard truths from a loving cousin who could say what no one else could. "No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said. "No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."

Pihl Kerpen, March 10, 2009:

Cap-and-trade is a way to impose a massive energy tax and pretend it's not a tax. It puts a cap on overall greenhouse gas emissions, and establishes a market for companies to buy and sell the permits. In Obama's version, the permits would all be auctioned off and the hundreds of billions of dollars would be used to fund higher government spending... An analysis... projected the economic impact of last year's bill by 2030: 3 to 4 million fewer jobs, $4,022 to $6,752 in lower annual disposable income per household, an annual hit to GDP of between $631 billion and $669 billion, and much higher energy prices -- 60 percent to 144 percent higher for gasoline and 77 percent to 129 percent higher for electricity.

In fairness to Obama, the administration's been very honest about how they're going to make energy prices skyrocket. So you can't really call this a contradiction (h/t: MR reader PS).

References:
* Obama Delivers Call for Change to a Rapt Africa [NYT]
* Cap-and-Trade = The Biggest Tax Increase In U.S. History [Kerpen]
* Rham Emanuel: You Know What The US Needs? Higher Energy Prices. [MR]

Previously:
* Obama In 2001: "Coalitions Of Power" Need To Be Formed To Redistribute Wealth, Warren Court Neglected "Economic Justice"
* Great News: Global Economy In Full Meltdown, Obama Transition Team Panicking
* Awesome: Obama Now Wrecking Israel's Economy Too

Ambitious!

Whatever the parameters of the settlement "freeze" ultimately agreed upon between Israel and the Obama administration, it is certain that the first to feel its effects will be the companies that build in the West Bank, where 2,500 units are currently in various stages of construction... Construction is one of Israel's largest and most central business sectors. The companies that build in the West Bank and stand to lose from a settlement freeze are some of the country's biggest and most well-known construction firms... with apartments selling for more than NIS 1 million and little hope for full government compensation, many of the companies are looking at possible losses of tens of millions of shekels. In an economy that is slowly emerging from a housing recession, a settlement freeze may mean smaller companies will go out of business.

Maybe some of those Israeli companies could shift their work to Gaza and the West Bank, given that the Obama administration is pouring over a billion dollars into those regions. Since the "tough love" approach to Israel and the "suck up" approach to the Palestinians is going to bring peace to the region, I'm sure that even Gaza's genocidal lunatics will be more than willing to hire Jews.

Anyway, the US and Israel have apparently worked out a deal settlements. The rumors are that Obama will only renege on some of the binding assurances that Bush gave to Sharon in exchange for Israel's disengagement. No word yet on whether that means Israel gets to take back some of the Gaza Strip.

References:
* Analysis: The financial fallout from a settlement freeze [JPost]
* Mere Rhetoric: Savages: Hamas Broadcasts Cartoon Mocking Shalit (UPDATED And BUMPED: Obama Wants Another $400m Next Year, Full Text Of Waxman Email Added) [MR]
* Adorable! Palestinian Kindergarteners Graduate, Do "Victory Dance" Around IDF Bodies. [MR]
* US, Israel settlement deal emerging [JPost]
* Abrams: Of Course There Was A Bush-Sharon Agreement On Settlements [MR]

Previously:
* State Dept. Banning Pro-Israel Obama Officials From Speaking Out
* Obama: We Must Achieve Peace By Forcing Israel To Give Up Jerusalem And Open Its Borders
* Israeli Officials: Hey, It's Almost As If Obama's Trying To Detonate The US-Israeli Relationship

In rhetorical theory we have a description for how people can believe that an objectively crumbling economy is actually on the upswing. It has to do with something called a "terministic screen." It's not too complicated but the way that it links up to identity can get kind of technical.

As an alternative hypothesis, we might want to explore the possibility that the bulk of Obama worshiping Democrats are just straightforward morons:

Democrats in June 2009 are evenly divided as to whether the economy is getting better or worse. By a 58% to 20% margin, Republicans say the economy is getting worse. Among unaffiliateds, 54% say the economy is getting worse while 22% say it is getting better. While there are big differences about where the economy is headed, there is little difference about the state of the economy today. Nine percent (9%) of Republicans rate the economy as good or excellent while 10% of Democrats say the same. Those not affiliated with either major party are a bit less upbeat.

"Is the economy getting better or worse?" That's not a question beyond the realm of human reason. It's not like literature, where people might entitled to their own opinions. There's an answer.

Though in fairness that super creepy Obama idol that's been touring the country does inspire reverence and adoration:

So if he says that the stimulus is working - which, unbelievably, he does - then the stimulus is working.

References:
* Unreal. With Unemployment at 9.5% Obama Tells Crowd: Stimulus Is Working (Video) [Gateway Pundit]
* Partisan Economics: Democrats, GOP See Different Economy [Rasmussen]
* Giant Obama Statue Tours US, Spreading Goodwill, Creepiness [Ace]

Previously:
* Paul Krugman, Economic Guru, 2002: "Greenspan Needs To Create A Housing Bubble"
* CA Dems: Instead Of Cutting Costs, We're Going To Increase Taxes And Destroy CA's Oil Industry
* New Poll: Only 26% Consider Health Reform A Success In Massachusetts

Just a quick reminder that clinical narcissism works two ways: the narcissist belittles the accomplishments of others when they're beyond his reach and he elevates what he's accomplished to their level. Which one's going on here is a little unclear but it's definitely one of the two:

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) enlisted two senior committee members to help assemble the House energy bill... The authors' bottom line was a cap that would gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions... When Obama entered the fray on May 5, summoning all 36 committee Democrats to the White House, he didn't make a single demand. Rather, participants say, he pointed to a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and said, "He had a chance to affect history. You, too, have a chance to affect history."

At first I was inclined to view this as Obama cynically tapping into the MSM's idiotic Lincoln comparisons. But then I remembered that in addition to supporting Cap and Trade, Lincoln also would have supported the stimulus bill." So this seems legit.

Who knows what part of Obama's agenda Lincoln will weigh in on next.

References:
* Despite Majority, Obama to Be Tested [WaPo]
* Historians: Lincoln might have supported the stimulus, or something [Hot Air]

Previously:
* Vote For Obama - Because The Kids Love Him!
* Obama In 2001: "Coalitions Of Power" Need To Be Formed To Redistribute Wealth, Warren Court Neglected "Economic Justice"
* Obama Campaign: "Community Organizer" Is Racist But Rhetorically Linking Women With Pigs Is Just An "Old Expression"

That's 26% too many given what an objective disaster the policy has been. But the really interesting question is how 26% of Massachusetts residents can think it's a success while only 10% think it's made anything better. You don't think they're unblinking partisans embracing the left's ideological Big Government catechism, do you?

Twenty-six percent (26%) of Massachusetts voters say their state's health care reform effort has been a success. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds that 37% say the reform effort has been a failure, while another 37% are not sure. Only 10% of Bay State voters say the quality of health care has gotten better as a result of the reform plan while 29% say it has gotten worse. Most (53%) say the quality of care has not changed.

As for cost, 21% say the reform has made health care more affordable in Massachusetts. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say health care is now less affordable while 44% see no change... By a 37% to 17% margin, Massachusetts liberals consider the program a success. By a 55% to 18% margin, conservatives in the state say it's been a failure.

I hope the Senate passes Cap and Trade quickly so Congress can put partisanship aside and work with the White House to ruin our health care system too.

References:
* Massachusetts: 26% Consider State's Health Care Reform a Success [Rasmussen]
* Shh... Massachusetts Proves Mandate-Based Health Reform Will Be A Disaster [MR]

Previously:
* Paul Krugman, Economic Guru, 2002: "Greenspan Needs To Create A Housing Bubble"
* CA Dems: Instead Of Cutting Costs, We're Going To Increase Taxes And Destroy CA's Oil Industry
* Annals Of Earmarked Pork - Rangel Steered $10 Million In Pentagon Funds To NYC's Natural History Museum

It's apparently "reality vs. liberal Big Government utopianism" week. Yesterday it was the left's weird animus toward measuring teacher performance. Today it's state-managed medicine:

In 2006, [Massachusetts] lawmakers seeking to broaden health coverage made it illegal to be uninsured. It works like this: Employers have to offer you a health plan. If you are jobless or don't like your employer's plan, you must buy your own. If you don't get one, you pay a stiff fine. This strategy--known as an employer and individual "mandate"--forms the backbone of the national health reform bills now making their way through Congress... Something strange happened. Despite having health insurance, roughly one in 10 state residents still failed to fill prescriptions, ended up with unpaid medical bills, or skipped needed medical care for financial reasons. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to insure more Massachusetts citizens, but many people still weren't getting necessary care.

Turns out "really good health care is also really expensive." And setting it up without acknowledging the costs eventually leads to mismanagement and poorer health care. Who knew, right?

But that's not what's really devastating about national health care.

When a country embraces a national health policy, two things happen. The first is that any real decrease on government spending becomes impossible, because now the special interest threat goes from "cutbacks in the programs that educate your kids" to "cutbacks in the things that keep you alive." If there's no private industry to fill in immediately - and their won't be, because devastated institutions take time to recover - no one wants to take the risk. It's a recipe for guaranteed Big Government populism.

The second thing that happens is what always happens when a government embarks on grandiose utopian schemes like ones that promise "lower costs... an annual cap on out-of-pocket expenses and 'an end to rate increases based on preexisting conditions, age or gender'; 'greater choice' and 'peace of mind.'" When those schemes begin to collapse - and they will, because they're financially unsustainable - the government needs to continuously manufacture new scapegoats to explain away the failures.

I'm not entirely convinced that these people know what they're doing:

Democrats who control California's Legislature said tax increases are needed to help close a $24 billion deficit, setting up a battle with Republicans that may leave the state short of cash next month. Speaker of the Assembly Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, said higher taxes and fees are needed instead of all $16 billion in cuts proposed by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. His reductions would eliminate entire welfare programs and leave 1 million children without health insurance. Democrats yesterday suggested a $15 automobile license fee and said they may consider a 9.9 percent per-barrel charge on oil produced in the state.

Those oil fees will then be dutifully passed on to Californians, cascading through the economy as people go out less, make fewer purchases, and take an overall lifestyle hit. As a special bonus, many oil wells will get shut down as imported oil becomes more affordable than locally produced oil.

Rule by entitlement-soaked unions is a wonderful thing.

References:
* California Democrats Seek Tax Boost as Battle Looms (Update2) [Bloomberg]
* CA democrats seek to shutdown state's oil industry [Ace of Space]

Previously:
* Figures: AIG Forced To Issue "How To Avoid Lynch Mobs" Memo
* Great News: Democratic Amnesty Legislation Will Detonate Anti-Terrorism Monitoring
* Dems: We'll Finance Health Care With Cigarette Tax That Will Cause People To Stop Buying Cigarettes

From the political community that brought you "our weakass appeasement of Iran let them get nukes so now we have to continue appeasing them," via Megan McArdle:

The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.

Glittering Eye provides the punchline:

Here's Paul Krugman from March 2008: "Oh, and the man who failed to see the housing bubble and refused to do anything about subprime -- and has yet to admit to making any mistakes -- ends by reaffirming his laissez-faire faith..."

In fairness to Krugman, he just followed up his sweeping proclamations - issued from his perch of self-styled expertise - with petulant and hypocritical tirades. It's not like he's Barney Frank, who after demagoguing the country into a financial meltdown threatened executives with the specter of pitchfork wielding mobs.

But in any case, they really do just say stuff, don't they?

References:
* Paul Krugman's Prophetic Prescience [McArdle / Atlantic]
* Dammit They Did What I Said [The Glittering Eye]
* Video: Guy who helped wreck the economy touts his "work" on the subprime crisis [Hot Air]
* Obama: AIG Is Like A Suicide Bomber. One Of Those Bad Suicide Bombers. [MR]
* FP Blogger: Let's "Use This Crisis" To Eliminate Tech Transfer Restrictions To Rogue States [MR]

Previously:
* Super Smart Stimulus Czar: Knowing About The Economy Is "Above My Pay Grade"
* The Return Of Stagflation
* Stimulus Czar Biden: In Fairness To Me, "Everyone Guessed Wrong" About How Few Jobs Stimulus Would Create

If you write about domestic issues and you're jealous that foreign policy bloggers get to throw around "Carter II" all the time, you're in luck:

In every region, fuel prices are up compared against the week before. Gasoline is increasingly more expensive than diesel fuel per gallon. The national gasoline average is now about a $1.42 below the price this time last year. Despite the increase in price, diesel fuel is still $2.19 below this time last year.

Economic stagnation plus energy inflation equals what again? Stephen Gallo thinks that the current government strategy is going to make it "very difficult" to "manage these stagflation risks that crop up on the horizon." But he's just the head of market analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange.

The wonderful thing about stagflation is that at the beginning, if you limit yourself mostly to the financial side, it looks just like a recovery. It takes a while for the supply-side shocks triggered by high oil prices to take hold, and in the meantime the markets do brisk business. That works exactly until people begin to notice what's going on:

Money is pouring into the markets once again... Is it going to be back to business as usual? Some experts are already seeing a V-shaped recovery. Indeed, the rally in the markets has led to a scramble among analysts to revise their earnings estimates upwards. But as Citigroup equity strategist for the Asia-Pacific region Markus Rosgen put it... "It requires some convincing that the world economy has reached 'normality' as witnessed over the last 10 or 30 years a mere 14 weeks post the March lows seen in equity markets." Moreover, what exactly does "back to business as usual" mean? Does it indicate that we have started on another bull run?

But perhaps the most cogent argument that a global recovery cannot be engineered by liquidity alone has been made by economist Andy Xie... While the rapid growth of China and India led to rising demand for resources, the Soviet contraction offset this inflationary force. The problem, says Xie, is that none of these conditions is now present... "The current party is likely to be short-lived. Next year, inflation expectations may become apparent. That would lead to expectations of interest rate rises. While central banks will still be reluctant to raise rates, rising bond yields will force them to do so. But they won't raise rates quickly enough to stem the inflation momentum. Stagflation will probably take hold."

No worries though. As long as the people who run our economy keep their eyes on the ball we should be fine.

References:
* Average gas prices--June 8, 2009 [Cosumer Reports]
* Fed Rate Rise Speculation "Nonsense": Strategist [CNBC]
* Setting the stage for another bubble [Manas Chakravarty]
* Super Smart Stimulus Czar: Knowing About The Economy Is "Above My Pay Grade" [MR]

Previously:
* Obama To Bankers He's Been Scapegoating: I'm "The Only Thing Between You And The Pitchforks"
* House Dems Trying To Deregulate Predatory Payday Loans After Accepting Massive Campaign Donations From... Payday Loan Industry
* Keenly Perspicacious VP: Please Join Me In Destroying The American Airline Industry

In the last few days the Vice President - the selection of whom proved, according to Michelle Obama, that "Barack's not afraid of smart people" - talked up a car tunnel that was actually for trains. The ostensibly savvy DC insider - with whom, as Barack Obama bragged, you just don't mess - had to issue beltway boilerplate about "fastidious" stimulus oversight after admitting that lots of people are in fact messing with him.

Though a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he committed an amateur hour faux pas by telling police officers that Sotomayor would support them from the bench. Which is not totally surprising, given that he's also the guy who wrecked the judicial confirmation process.

Most reassuringly, Biden explained to reporters skeptical about his economic projections that, despite his role as stimulus czar, he doesn't really know anything about the economy:

But according to The American Spectator, when reporters asked the VP to explain how the White House even came up with the 600,000 number, he asked for a pass, saying a question like that is "above his pay grade" and, "I'm sorry, I'm not an economist. My background is in foreign policy." That is so comforting coming from the guy who President Obama tasked with implementing the stimulus plan.

This lines up nicely with the new GM chairman, who says he doesn't know anything about cars:

Edward E. Whitacre Jr. built AT&T Inc. into the biggest U.S. provider of telephone service over a 43-year-career. By his own admission, he becomes chairman of General Motors Corp. knowing nothing about the auto industry... "I don't know anything about cars," Whitacre, 67, said yesterday in an interview after his appointment. "A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I'm not that old, and I think the business principles are the same."

Actually, it turns out that businesses can be quite different from one another. They operate within industries that have unique dynamics. That's why economists and business leaders spend years specializing in particular areas like, say, telecomm or auto manufacturing.

But whatever. GM's got Nancy Pelosi on their side incompetently trying to give government-owned car manufacturers a taxpayer-subsidized advantage over solvent, private companies like Ford. What could go wrong?

References and previously after the jump...

The sentence where the Reuters hack was parroting the White House's tangled "expects another 600,000 jobs to be created or saved" - that's when the article slipped into outright self-caricature:

The U.S. economic stimulus plan has created or saved 150,000 jobs since it was enacted 100 days ago, top White House economic officials said on Wednesday, relying on projections instead of an actual tally of workers. President Barack Obama pressed the U.S. Congress to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act this winter with the promise it would generate or retain at least 3 million jobs... The White House, Bernstein said, is projecting what the level of employment would have been if the stimulus had not passed in February. It is then comparing that baseline to actual employment numbers. Using that method, Bernstein also expects another 600,000 jobs to be created or saved in the next 100 days.

Still not as entertaining as the White House's inscrutable distinction between a strong and a sound economy.

Apropos of that - and of the way that the media shamelessly spun it in The One's favor - maybe the next round of stimulus money should go to Obama's worshipful MSM sycophants. Flipping their framing has done precisely as much to save jobs as the Democrats' ongoing Europeanization of America, especially if you project out their negative Bush-era coverage. And by "precisely as much" I mean "we have no idea because that's a formulation based on intentionally pessimistic models compared with garbage jobless statistics":

A far more accurate title: "Economists Produce Wild Predictions On Job Growth, Liberals Eat Them Up"... Count me among the sceptics, at least when it comes to job-creation numbers. One of the economists prominently cited in the Post piece is Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, "whose analyses have been cited by White House officials as well as congressional Democrats". And here's Mr Zandi speaking about those analyses: "The models are based on historic experience," said Mark Zandi, referring to formulas he and other economists use to predict economic behavior. "And we're outside anything we've experienced historically. We're completely in a world we don't understand and know."

References and previously after the jump...

At times like this I like to remember what Michelle Obama explained when she was sneeringly smearing Sarah Palin as a bimbo: asking Biden to be his VP showed that "Barack's not afraid of smart people":

Vice President Joe Biden today warned against commercial air travel or using the subway as the swine flu virus continues to spread. "I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said on NBC's "Today Show" when asked what he would tell family members contemplating a trip to Mexico during the flu outbreak. "You're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes; it goes all the way through the aircraft."... Biden today also said he would advise against using the subway for anyone with another means of transportation. "If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing," Biden said. "If you're in a closed aircraft, or closed container, or closed car or closed classroom, it's a different thing."

Remember when the Bush administration was endlessly mocked - literally for the better part of a decade - for highlighting what they thought were commonsense precautionary measures like buying duct tape? That was totally fair since it was a really dumb thing to say. But at least they were explicitly and implicitly urging people to go out and support the economy.

Biden - in the kind of high-pitched whimpering that he seems distressingly prone to - was effectively urging Americans to boycotting a critical US industry that is on the brink of total implosion. I thought the Obama administration reserved that kind of treatment for private citizens who refused to be blackmailed out of their money.

Which brings up a second question: anyone know a "website number" for not being a colossal tool?

References and previously after the jump...

Obama doesn't really believe a lack of universal health care triggered the meltdown, does he? I mean, no way. Right?

As an explanation of our current economic difficulties, this is total fantasy. As a cure for rapidly growing joblessness, a massive destruction of wealth, a deepening worldwide recession, this is perhaps the greatest non sequitur ever foisted upon the American people... At the very center of our economic near-depression is a credit bubble, a housing collapse and a systemic failure of the entire banking system. One can come up with a host of causes... The list is long. But the list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy... And yet with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis.

Bailing out AIG with another $30 billion was a pretty good way to prove that the government has no coherent plan for fixing the economy. But then having the Treasury Secretary give a press conference conclusively proving that the government has no coherent plan - that was a master stroke:

But then came the disastrous Geithner press conference, where he essentially announced the new administration did not have any better ideas on how to fix the banks. It may not have been as bad as letting Lehman go under, but claiming his press conference would contain the coherent plan financial markets were waiting on and then delivering more of the same seems to have been another turning point where things got even worse. It was similar in some respects to letting Lehman fail because it demonstrated that the government did not yet have a grip on how to handle the crisis... Markets are in free fall for many reasons, but a big one is the lack of control the government appears to have over the situation. If we don't want to see the Dow go much lower, a change in tone and a credible coherent plan must emerge from this White House. So far, they have disappointed.

This is a genuine surprise given that Geithner got the last global financial crisis exactly backwards:

Not a parody:

Obama Lifts America's Spirit In Speech Of Hope As He Releases Budget Details. In his first speech before Congress, filled with the soaring inspiration reminiscent of his campaign, President Barack Obama last week promised the nation, "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before." Surrounded by cheering and applauding Democrats and less optimistic Republicans, he said, "The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation... Millions were glued to their television sets for the Feb. 24 speech, looking for a word of hope as Obama prepared to unveil his first budget... The President was realistic... Part of the exuberance among Democratic members of the House and Senate, was no doubt their recollection that it was the eight-year Republican Administration of President George Bush that has led to the crisis.

This gem is from the National Newspaper Publishers Association, aka the Black Press of America, "a 67-year-old federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers from across the United States." At least there's no sign that vapid identity politics has transformed America's once vaunted ethnic press into a parody of college pamphleteering.

I was kind of disappointed that this ode had no mention of how Obama's giving away houses. Or of how Michelle has nice guns and is the coolest First Lady ever. Or of how The One is more heroic than Jesus. Which sucks because how am I supposed to properly worship Him on account of mere "soaring inspiration?"

References and previously after the jump...

It's your fault:

Emanuel was speaking of US automakers "gas guzzlers". "Speaking on CBS' 'Face the Nation,' Emanuel said energy costs are too low, anyway, and U.S. car companies relied too long on gas-guzzling autos and failed to invest in alternative energy vehicle"... Don't worry people, Cap and Trade will help drive up the cost. Hope/Change indeed.

Except we can't have those arguments because the things we used to count on - minimum things like consistency and sincerity - apparently don't matter any more. Four months ago high energy prices were a reason to embrace one-party rule. Now they're the path to a robust renewables market. Democrats have spent the last eight years railing against the spiraling deficit. Now Orszag is claiming that elevated deficits are good. And that's before we even get to Dean's idiotic braggadocio about about undercutting government revenue via punative nanny state taxation.

Democrats have gone from promising to avert financial disaster to just claiming that financial disaster is good. Neat trick if you can pull it off. Which - in this media environment - they most certainly can.

References:
* Hope/Change!!! Rahm Emanuel: "Energy Costs Are Too Low Anyway" [Jawa]
* White House Budget Director Orszag: "Elevated Deficits Are Beneficial" (Video) [Gateway Pundit]
* Dems: We'll Finance Health Care With Cigarette Tax That Will Cause People To Stop Buying Cigarettes [MR]
* Figures: Obama's List Of Pre-Screened Questioners Emerges One Day After Media Celebrations Of How Obama Doesn't Pre-Screen Questioners (Plus: It's Possible That The MSM Is Making Up Excuses For Their Obama Worship) [MR]

Previously:
* Obama: I Can't Believe Failed Wall Street Execs Are Using The Bailout Money We Rewarded Them With To Reward Themselves
* Democratic Catch-22: Executive Salary Caps Unworkable Because Of $10 Billion Tax Revenue Loss
* Watchers Council Nominations - Dissent Is Only Patriotic When It's Filled With Nuance

Hey, remember that time when Carbon markets collapsed in Europe?

Before the US adopts the silly cap-and-trade "market" approach to curbing carbon emissions, perhaps we should see what the recession has done to the European carbon market. The EU has spent a lot of money rediscovering the laws of supply and demand in this recession. Instead of making carbon emissions a scarcity, the economic collapse has created a glut of indulgences... All of which has set off what Julian Glover calls the "Great Pollution Fire Sale". He blames the EU for being too generous in its allocation of carbon credits, but the allocation was calculated during economic growth. The EU wanted to make sure that the cap-and-trade system didn't interfere with the economy, and so made sure that the energy producers didn't get disincentivized enough to create artifical energy shortages that would have stalled growth.

And then remember that other time a few days later the Obama administration announced a Cap and Trade system?

President Barack Obama will propose raising new revenue through a greenhouse gas cap and emissions trading scheme when he unveils his first budget on Thursday, US media reported. The budget he will present assumes an emissions trading system will generate revenue by 2012, the Washington Post reported. Fifteen billion dollars of the money generated would be directed to clean-energy projects, the Post said, citing sources familiar with the document.

These tools have been resentfully stewing for the last eight years, dreaming of the time when they'd get to correct all of the Bush administration's oh-so-ideological missteps. Their understanding of history begins in 2001. Their understanding of sophistication is "whatever's popular in Europe." And now that they're in power, the fact that they were always a little bit pathetic and silly about the whole thing is beside the point.

Seriously: how inadequate is your understanding of political economy when Vladamir Putin has to explain the dangers of statist centralization to you?

Zero executive experience. Zero private-sector experience. A mind filled with vague notions about sexual identity, imbecilic fantasies about international relations, and - above all else - wild delusions of competence. Oh - and he's now in charge of overseeing the largest transfer of private wealth in the history of planet Earth:

On the plus side he only gives himself a 30% chance of totally boning the global economy. With 75% of Americans scared about the financial situation and a stock market at 1997 levels - what could go wrong?

References:
* Noted Imbecile Ponders Nuances of Sexual Personae [Ace]
* Breathtakingly Stupid VP Candidate Very Lucky The Media's In The Tank For Obama [MR]
* Increasingly Pathetic VP-Elect: "I'm The Most Experienced Vice President Since Anybody" [MR]
* Biden: Odds Are 70-30 We'll Screw Up [LGF]
* Poll: 3 out of 4 Americans are scared about state of the country [Political Tracker]
* Thanks Barry... Consumer Index Hits Record Lows- Stock Market Reaches Pre-Bush 1997 Levels [Gateway Pundit]

Previously:
* Global Economy Not Feeling Particularly Hopey, Changey
* Obama: I Can't Believe Failed Wall Street Execs Are Using The Bailout Money We Rewarded Them With To Reward Themselves
* Democratic Catch-22: Executive Salary Caps Unworkable Because Of $10 Billion Tax Revenue Loss

Well that's weird:

The price of oil continued declining today as investors bet on a long recession. Despite OPEC's plans to scale back production, oil dropped below $34 per barrel in light of a glut on the market and no increase in demand in the immediate future. That will help the US ease its economic woes, but bodes ill for the global economy... They literally have no place left to put the oil. It's almost a fire sale, as production has far outstripped demand. Owners have begun to use tankers to keep oil offshore while they try to find storage for the commodity, which increases the cost and the pressure to sell.

And a stock market dive of literally historical proportions? Without Harry Reid talking? At least the Bank Of America is good to go.

References:
* Oil drops below $34 per barrel as glut continues [Hot Air]
* US STOCKS-Wall St hits session lows after Obama's speech [Reuters]
* Insurers dive on Reid's 'bankrupt' quote [CNN]
* Bank of Fuckin'America Getting Bailout Now, Too [Ace]

Previously:
* Obama's Latest Round Of Deeply Ironic Appointments
* WSJ: Enjoy Christmas While You Still Can
* Of Course: Obama Energy Czar Carol Browner Sits On A Socialist International Commission

Kind of a good news/bad news thing. At first I was bummed to learn that sharia banking was the only way to save the global economy...

While ministers and major financiers of major rich countries try to stem the panic of the global financial turmoil, imams of mosques, economists and writers stress that, from Saudi Arabia, Islamic finance is the only remedy against the successive black days. The shock wave from the financial catastrophe has not spared the imams of most mosques in Saudi Arabia. They used the crisis to spread in endless praise Islamic finance which is based on the ban of interest (riba), speculation, and sharing the risk and profit between contractors.

... but then I remembered that both the US government and the British government are embracing Islamic bonds. Plus US students can now learn about the intricacies of sharia finance at MIT. So I guess everything's going to be OK after all.

300 billion is what the US is asking for. If you accept that Democrats are mostly to blame for the financial meltdown - which you should since it's fucking true - does that mean that the political left has stumbled into yet another way to boost political Islam? Or does the meltdown-induced crash in oil prices mean the whole thing's a wash?

References:
* Saudis seek ‘Sharia bail out’ to financial crisis [Middle East Online]
* U.S. Government Embraces Islamic Banking [PJM]
* British Treasury: Hey, Let's Issue Sharia Bonds So Radical Muslims Can Grab Ownership Of Government Buildings [MR]
* SHARIA FINANCE IN THE CLASSROOM [Atlas Shrugs]
* US seeks 300 billion dlrs from Gulf states: report [AFP]
* Jim Cramer: Hey, you know who’s really to blame for the mortgage mess? [Hot Air]

Previously:
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Archbishop of Canterbury Says British Sharia Is "Unavoidable"
* Shariamania Sweeps Across Syria, Britain, and... US Treasury Dept
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Sharia Courts Established In Britain

Marc Ambinder says that Obama's economic team is heading for the bunkers...

It's quite unsettling to talk to members of Barack Obama's transition teams these days, especially those who are helping with the economics portfolio. Without going into details, the sense I get from them is that they are very worried that the economy will get a lot worse before it gets better. Not just worse... a lot worse. As in -- double digit unemployment without the wiggle factors. Huge declines in aggregate demand. Significant, persistent deficits.

... and this post by Dan Drezner may help explain why:

1. Credit markets have yet to really unfreeze, because the underlying problem -- putting a price on a lot of toxic debt -- has yet to take place;
2. It's going to take some time for trust -- a vital public good -- to return to global capital markets;
3. The crisis has done nothing to unwind the global macroeconomic imbalances that contributed to the asset bubble in the first place -- if anything, the crisis has temporarily reinforced it;
4. There is a very dangerous prisoner's dilemma game brewing in the interplay of fiscal expansion and trade policy. Unless export engines like Germany start to signal that they'll prime their pump as well, you're going to start to see some nasty protectionist attachments to any new government spending;
5. Fiscal expansions are going to take a long time to kick in, and the ones being proposed are not necessarily conducive to countercyclical boosts.
6. Beyond the fiscal expansion, this crisis is going to result in a lot more state intervention in the economy. Given what's happened, it would be intellectually dishonest of me not to acknowledge that some of this intervention will be necessary. A lot of it, however, is going to be misguided and stunt long-term growth.

Ambinder's larger point is that an economic downturn - woeful as it is - is nothing compared to the risk of failed, potentially nuclear rogue regimes. Which gives me the perfect opportunity to dump this NY Post article that I've been saving since before the election. The phrase you're looking for is "failures produce catastrophes." Which is actually the optimistic part of the article, before the parts about nuclear terrorism and spiraling great power conflicts.

As a sort of PhD student in argument I don't want to sound partisan. Obviously everyone had a hand in this train wreck. And as someone who lives in LA I don't want to seem ungrateful. Gas prices are pretty awesome right now. And as a rule I want to avoid the impression of shrillness. But did the Democratic Party just allow their unfettered political corruption - insulated by a combination of vapid multiculturalism and aggressive race baiting - to detonate the Western financial system and risk multiple nuclear wars? Because it kind of seems like that could be the case.

References:
* The First New Foreign Crisis [Ambinder]
* I think the World Bank is being optimistic [Drezner]
* BANKRUPT ROGUES: BEWARE FAILING FOES [NY Post]
* NRCC Ad: Naming Names [Ace]
* A great example of how we got to the credit-market meltdown [Hit Air]
* Video: Democrats insist "nothing wrong" at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac in 2004 [Hot Air]

Previously:
* Mideast Muslims: Financial Meltdown Is Allah's Punishment
* Global Investors And Economists Reacting To Obama Election With Total Meltdown (UPDATE: Moran: "Simplistic Notion That People Who Have Wealth Are Entitled To Keep It")
* Liberals Slowly Realizing That Obama Was Serious About His Disastrous Economic Proposals

I'm buried under finals week nonsense so no post from me this week. But the Watchers Council doth not rest. The Razor posted on a topic that I've been playing around with: what if all the pre-election opposition to Obama was, as Obama shills insisted, hysterical paranoia? The preliminary answer: tough to say. What we do know is that he's from Chicago's web of political corruption - which Right Truth tried to untangle - and that the terrorists that he palled around with are tools. See Bookworm Room's post on that last part.

The Provocateur examined how corruption undermines the stability of medical institutions. That - apparently - isn't the only way that institutions can fail. The Glittering Eye focused on the newspaper industry's weaknesses and Cheat Seeking Missiles looked at why the auto industry is failing. Plenty of feel-good optimism in those posts.

Turning to foreign policy, Rhymes With Right expressed skepticism about Obama's ability to leverage soft power in the Muslim world while JoshuaPundit spelled out some of the reasons why the skepticism is justified. Meanwhile Soccer Dad - in a post I've linked to before - remains underwhelmed by the State Department's security assistance to the Palestinians.

Plus it turns out that Colossus of Rhodey is a racist. Who knew?

References and previously moved behind the jump...

Mere Rhetoric, 11/03/08:

Obama has to be the only candidate in history who has people voting for him because they hope that he's lying to them. Gay rights advocates know quite well that Obama is explicitly against gay marriage but write that he "actually has no problem with gay marriage". Ostensibly pro-Israel American Jews know quite well that Obama surrounds himself with anti-Israel radicals but fall back on a vast array of awful pretexts. Mickey Kaus knows quite well that Obama and McCain are indistinguishable on amnesty... but he spins imaginative scenarios where Obama won't do what he has the inclination and the power to do. Christopher Hitchens knows quite well that Obama is "vapid and gutless" but holds out hope that Obama/Biden "show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience."

LAT 12/05/08:

Deep down, we had hoped Barack Obama was fibbing when he bashed the North American Free Trade Agreement on the campaign trail. After all, his senior economic policy advisor had, according to a leaked memo, assured Canadian officials that the talk was "more reflective of political maneuvering than policy." Yet amid reports Thursday that Obama had offered the crucial job of U.S. trade representative to a dyed-in-the-wool protectionist, it seems he was disastrously serious all along. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) could become the administration's point person on international trade. He's a terrible choice... Becerra is a leader of the Democratic Party's protectionist wing, which opposes NAFTA, the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement and most other trade deals.

And of course liberal intellectuals are rushing to justify Obama's disasterous economic policies with psuedo-intellectual nonsense. These are the same liberal intellectuals who just a week ago were talking about how the economy was recovering because of Obama. Because why should being consistently wrong prevent experts from providing smart-sounding pretexts to mindless liberal activists? And while the multiplier argument is utter crap - obviously - it's nowhere near as stupid as the idiotic and contradictory arguments being used ny foreign policy sophisticates to justify Iranian engagement.

I'm actually kind of impressed with the LAT. I figured liberal news outlets would spend years making increasingly dumb rationalizations for their misguided Obama worship. At least I can count on ostensibly pro-Israel American Jews to be more enthusiastic as reality slowly intrudes. They'll end up redefining "pro-Israel" as "the opposite of what the majority of Israelis want" - because obviously Israelis don't know what's good for them. At least it's not unimaginative.

In totally unrelated news: the prospect of Democratic economic prescriptions has the US economy in free fall and the world is gearing up to blame it specifically on Obama's protectionist policies. So much for dampening global anti-Americanism. Or not being a total disaster.

References and previously after the jump...

I'm so far behind on Watchers Council business that I'm getting lapped by a week. Before anything else though - I'd be remiss in not alerting you to the announcement that Debbie Hamilton of Right Truth is the newest member of the Watchers Council. In addition to having posts like this and this she's also a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast and speaks French. So European cultural and demographic trends: probably not a fan.

Now for the top posts from last week's spontaneous incompetence roundup. The top Council post was - by an overwhelming margin - Colossus of Rhodey's acerbic post about the academic results of self-esteem boosterism:

Why are these kids in "honors" classes? One way to get in is to have mom or dad merely complain about it. You’ll get in an "honors" class, no problem. Grades? Test scores? Not a problem. The other reason there are kids who don’t belong in "honors" classes is because of what Shirley wrote – we don’t "want to hurt anyone’s feelings." Y’see, those that aren’t in "honors" classes might feel … "left out." "Stigmatized." It’ll "hurt their self-esteem." Then, there’s that tried and true belief (/sarcasm) that the real honors students might serve to "lift up" those who are not actual "honors" students in those "honors" classes. Yeah, uh-huh. In actuality, the typically worse behavior of non-"honors" students usually "rubs off" on the "honors" students.

The next two most posts were JoshuaPundit's observations about incompetence in Iran and The Provocateur's outline of incompetence on the economy. The top non-Council post was Serendipitous Altruism's account of how fundamental Western values persist among NATO forces in Afghanistan despite global tension and division. Fighting together not to be skinned alive by savages seems to puts disputes over genetically modified bananas into perspective.

Previously and references behind the jump...

Are they doing this on purpose? First top politicians feted Khatami in Germany despite the mullah's charming declaration that Israel is "an old, incurable wound on the body of Islam, a wound that really possesses demonic, stinking, contagious blood." Potentially embarrassing questions about internal Iranian politics - like the ones that cracked Ahmadinejad in NYC - were prohibited. Naturally.

On the economic side it's almost like Germans are going out of their way to flaunt sanctions and keep Iran's economy afloat:

While the United States reacts to reports that Iran had enriched enough uranium for a nuclear weapon with concern and calls for tighter sanctions, in Germany it is business as usual. Today, many of the leading lights of German-Iranian trade will be meeting at a conference in Hamburg in order to discuss how further to promote the "success" of German business with Iran... the Hamburg-based German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce... continues to work with the Iranian Saderat Bank: a bank that was blacklisted by the United States in September 2006 on account of its relations with terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad... The list of conference participants reads like a “Who’s Who” of German-Iranian trade relations.

Strong German-Iranian ties are apparently a matter of... achem... "tradition." Although economic relations are hardly the only common interest shared by contemporary Germans and Iranians. German Jews are actually experiencing anti-Semitic attacks that you couldn't even get away with in Iran (albeit only for technical halal reasons - it's not like the sentiment would be unrecognizable).

Maybe this is just Germany's attempt to reach out to their large, unassimilated Muslim populations. "Interfaith dialogue" and spirited theological disputation kind of spectacularly backfired. So maybe cozying up to the genocidal Iranian regime was their next best option. That and selling cutting edge subs to Egypt.

References:
* Jews slam Germany for hosting Khatami [JPost]
* Sanctions? What Sanctions? German-Iranian Trade Booms [PJM]
* Berlin hearts Iran III [WSJ]
* Pictures Of German Students' Anti-Semitic Pro-Palestinian Rampage (Plus: Not At All Anti-Semitic Berkeley Protesters Keep Attacking Jews) [MR]
* Vandals hang severed pig's head outside entrance to Jewish cemetery in Germany [Ha'aretz]
* German outreach to Muslims backfires [Hot Air]
* Germany-Egypt sub sale worries Israel [JPost]

Previously:
* Rabbis Are Again Being Attacked And Stabbed On German Streets
* Wherein We Almost Entirely Decline To Comment On Iran's Major Trading Partner
* German Anti-Zionists Momentarily Forget That They're Not Anti-Semitic, Trash Anti-Nazi Memorial

Thanksgiving nominations are up. JoshuaPundit focuses this week's big foreign policy story - that Iran has enough material for a bomb - while my own post deals with how the incoming Obama team is more inclined to blame Israel for Middle East instability.

Turning to domestic issues and picking up a libertarian lens, The Provocateur continues his series on the corruption of past bailouts and the all-but-certain corruption of future ones and the Bookworm Room launches a defense of socially conservative candidates.

The media critiques the media on their Obama worship over at Soccer Dad, on their climate reporting over at Cheat Seeking Missiles, and on their understanding of Asian history over at The Glittering Eye. Don't worry: the critiques aren't really too harsh, with the possible exception of certain misgivings in certain quarters about Obama hagiography. The bloggers' observations, on the other hand, tend to have a little more vitriol.

And wow has the self-esteem movement ruined generations of students - The Colossus of Rhodey has news from the front line.

References:
* Thanksgiving Watch [Watcher's Council]
* Zero Hour...Iran Now Has Material For First Nuclear Bomb [JoshuaPundit]
* Obama's Top NSA And CIA Picks: Harsh On Israel, Sympathetic To Iran And Hezbollah [MR]
* Some Perspective on PNC, Fraud, and the Bailout [The Provocateur]
* Halting the schism [Bookworm Room]
* Well, duh [Soccer Dad]
* Sunday Scan - 11/23/08 [Cheat Seeking Missiles]
* Official History [The Glittering Eye]
* Culture of Whine (a rant) [Colossus Of Rhodey]

Previously:
* Watcher's Council Results: So, About This Democracy Thing
* Watcher's Council Nominations: Tension In The American Street, Seething Resentment In The Arab Street
* Watcher's Council Results: Obama's Afghanistan Is Going To Be A Disaster But No One Knows It. Or Anything Else.

I expect that today will be a bargain-hunting day after last week's utter disaster. Which won't change the fundamental reality of impending doom:

Gloomy forecasts from the IMF today: Developed economies will shrink by 0.3 percent next year, the first collective contraction since 1945. More analysis from the WSJ's economics blog: The U.S. forecast was cut to 1.4% growth this year and a 0.7% contraction in 2009, down from last month’s estimates for growth rates of 1.6% in 2008 and 0.1% in 2009.

Luckily, the Democrats have a response: economically disasterous protectionism that is already pissing off our European and Asian allies and a domestic program that we've known for years is mathematically guaranteed to fail:

Two UCLA economists say they have figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After scrutinizing Roosevelt's record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years. "Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump," said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA's Department of Economics. "We found that a relapse isn't likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies."

I guess those of us who talked in sweeping terms about the decline of the "Western financial world" and the challenges to "the entire Western tradition" were a little over dramatic. Or under dramatic. Which one is the one where you're not quite panicked enough?

UPDATE: Sophistication!

References:
* Post-Election Blues Sink Wall Street [CBS]
* Advanced economies to shrink for the first time since WWII [FP Passport]
* Actually "The World" Is Kind Of Unhappy With Obama [MR]
* FDR's policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate [UCLA Newsroom]

Previously:
* Global And Domestic Markets Responding To Obama Election With Something Less Than Elation
* European Anti-Semites Pretty Psyched About Impending Obama Victory
* Israeli Newspapers Not Very Hopeful About Impending Change In US-Israel Alliance

Actually the economies of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are booming, helped in part smuggling tunnels run off Israeli electricity. But why should that get in the way of a little obsessive anti-Israel demonization?

The Palestinian economy has "incredible potential" that could be unleashed if Israel eases restrictions on Palestinian movement, the area's World Bank chief said Wednesday, a day after a high-level World Bank delegation inaugurated a sewage storage facility in a rare trip to Hamas-ruled Gaza. It took three years, rather than the scheduled nine months, to build the treatment basins meant to drain a sewage lake in northern Gaza. The delays were caused by an Israeli border closure of the territory, along with frequent flare-ups of violence that have made it difficult to get construction materials into Gaza.

Presumably those "border closures" had nothing to do with those "frequent Hamas-initiated flare-ups." Because if they did then both this lede and the diplomats who fed it to the AP would be pretty openly misleading readers. And that wouldn't be very ethical, now would it?

The World Bank's been pulling this stunt for years. Like State Department peacemakers, these tools just can't understand why all their sophisticated interventions keep failing. It can't be because they're approaching Palestinian society and Palestinian intentions in fundamentally flawed ways and with fundamentally flawed assumptions. So it's Israel's fault. Naturally.

References:
* Israeli Defense Official: Hamas Takeover Of West Bank Proceeding About How You'd Expect (Plus: Israel In Second Month Of Massive Humanitarian Concessions) [MR]
* Gaza's Booming Economy - Underground Mall System, Hundreds Of Supermarkets, Latest Fashions (Plus: New Gaza Tunnel Wasn't For Smuggling) [MR]
* Hamas Hooks Up Smuggling Tunnels To Israeli-Supplied Electricity Grid (Plus: Hamas Online Courses Teach Math, Genocidal Terrorism) [MR]
* World Bank: Palestinian economy could flourish if Israel eased restrictions [Ha'aretz]
* Israel Foils Massive Impending Attack, Hamas Responds With Massive Missile Attack - It's A Cycle Of Violence! [MR]
* World Bank Blames Israel For Palestinian Poverty. Soon Afterwards, Palestinians Shoot At Each Other In Reaction To New Security Plan. [MR]
* Sure It's Economics, But Is It Art? [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinians Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Crises In Gaza By Refusing To Accept Israeli Fuel
* Condi: Failure Of Inevitably Doomed 2008 US Peace Deal Is Israel's Fault
* New Data Confirms Old Data: Blaming Israel For Gaza's Medical Collapse Is A Vicious Lie

Well, he did say he would bring the world together. International trading partners and domestic investors - everyone seems really excited about a Democratic-managed economy:

A case of postelection nerves sent Wall Street plunging Wednesday as investors, looking past Barack Obama's presidential victory, returned to their fears of a deep and protracted recession. Volatility swept over the market again, with the Dow Jones industrials falling nearly 500 points and all the major indexes tumbling more than 5 percent. The market was widely expected to give back some gains after a runup that lifted the Standard & Poor's 500 index more than 18 percent and that gave the Dow its best weekly advance in 34 years; moreover, many analysts had warned that Wall Street faced more turbulence after two months of devastating losses. But investors lost their recent confidence about the economy and began dumping stocks again.

At least our geopolitical neighbors respect the incoming President. That's why no one launched rocket barrages at Israeli civilians or put missiles put on NATO's borders after the election.

References:
* Actually "The World" Is Kind Of Unhappy With Obama [MR]
* Stocks plunge anew as recession worries resurface [AP]
* Mere Rhetoric: Israel Foils Massive Impending Attack, Hamas Responds With Massive Missile Attack - It's A Cycle Of Violence! [MR]
* Detente In Our Time - Russia Moves Missiles To NATO's Border, Obama And EU Prepare To Cave [MR]

Previously:
* Ohio Jewish Democrats: "Hey, How About We Make The Most Anti-Israel Candidate Evuh The Next US President?"
* Obama In 2001: "Coalitions Of Power" Need To Be Formed To Redistribute Wealth, Warren Court Neglected "Economic Justice"
* Impending Obama Victory Already Trashing US Trade, Economy

It's true. I was obviously not at the meeting where the decision was made - before my time - but I've read the transcripts stored on the Zionist database. In retrospect, totally our bad:

The economic crisis began on August 15, 1971, when President Nixon canceled the Bretton Woods agreement, which linked the old gold dollar to the Jewish gold. Thus, the dollar was severed from gold, and became subjected to the whims and schemes of the Zionist lobby, whose goal was, and still is, to take control of the world's gold, which is deposited in Swiss banks... With the American political and economic pressure on governments around the world to sever their currencies from the gold standard... the Zionist economic war against the peoples of the world – began. That is when the purchasing power of the banknotes collapsed vis-a-vis gold...

This may be called the period of the first death of the dollar. The world governments and their economic advisors at the time should have stopped using the American dollar, which lost, as I said, 90% of its gold value... The economic research that we conducted in 1989 revealed the economic war planned by the Zionists even before 1944, when they promised the US government to back the US dollar with their gold...In the 1960s, President John Kennedy decided to establish governmental banks to protect the dollar, in which the gold that was pouring into America would be deposited. What became of Kennedy? He was killed by the Zionist lobby. This is a fact that nobody is aware of – but a fact it is. That was the reason Kennedy was killed.

Actually this is nonsense. First of all, we don't keep our gold in Swiss banks any more. Obvi. And more importantly - can you believe he brought up Jew Gold? It's actually come to this. Syrian nutjobs are now getting their anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from South Park:

Well, either South Park or Ron Paul. But still.

References:
* Syrian Economist Muhammad Sharif Mazloum: Jews Assassinated President Kennedy and Are Responsible for Economic Crisis [MEMRI]
* The Odd Alliance Supporting Ron Paul [Walden / American Thinker]

Previously:
* Syrian And Hezbollah Conspiracy Mongers: Israel's Defensive Drills Are Clever Ruse For Launching New War
* The Paranoid Style in The Left's Anti-Palin Viciousness
* Austrian Neo-Nazis: Jews Killed Haider (Plus: Jews Also Caused Financial Meltdown)

When Joe the Plumber hit the scene the NY Post blared about Obama's "Robin Hood Warning Shot." Looks like they might have undersold that. I don't want to say that Obama and Lenin might have even more in common than the textbooks about their "Life Of Service" to the people, but suffice to say that Michelle Obama probably isn't the only one who can quote Rules For Radicals from rote:

This is exactly what we need when the most prescient contemporary economist is predicting that the worst is year to come - because the economically disastrous protectionism that's already freaking out Europeans will be good for financial stability:

What does Roubini think is going to happen next? Rather worryingly, in London last Thursday he predicted that hundreds of hedge funds will go bust and stock markets may soon have to shut – perhaps for as long as a week – in order to stem the panic selling now sweeping the world. What happened? The next day trading was briefly stopped in New York and Moscow... Contacted in Madrid on Friday, Roubini said the world economy was "at a breaking point". He believes the stock markets are now "essentially in free fall" and “we are reaching the point of sheer panic".

In retrospect, the mere $800,000 that Obama's campaign's gave to ACORN doesn't seem like such a big deal.

References:
* OBAMA FIRES A 'ROBIN HOOD' WARNING SHOT [NY Post]
* Textbooks About Obama's "Life Of Service" To The People Already Being Used To Indoctrinate Youth [MR]
* Figures. Michelle Obama Quotes Lines From "Rules For Radicals" In Her DNC Convention Speech (Updated) [Gateway Pundit]
* Obama Bombshell Redistribution of Wealth Audio Uncovered [NakedEmperorNews / YouTube]
* Nouriel Roubini: I fear the worst is yet to come [Times Online]
* Impending Obama Victory Already Trashing US Trade, Economy [MR]
* Even Europe gets nervous over Obama, Hillary [Hot Air]
* Obama to amend report on $800,000 in spending [Pitt Trib]

Previously:
* Charming GOTV Videos: Commercial Icon Repeatedly Slams Palin Into The Ground (Plus: Severe PDS In San Fran Preventing Yuppies From Indulging In Effete Wine)
* Obama Using Full Range Of Federal And State Power To Silence Dissent, Intimidate Voters
* Breathtakingly Stupid VP Candidate Very Lucky The Media's In The Tank For Obama

Hot Air flagged this issue all the way back in May. And yet somehow all the press reports about global adoration for Obama miss the crucial part where they're not going to trade with us any more:

Our No. 1 trading partner, Canada, isn't stupid. When Obama threatened last February to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement on his own terms, our northern ally started looking abroad to other markets. They found a big one in Europe, which seems to have few hang-ups about increasing exports and signing free-trade treaties. Last Friday, Canada and the European Union held the first talks toward an eventual free trade agreement between the two... Colombia is also preparing to sign a free-trade deal with Europe, as its own free-trade accord with the U.S. languishes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked it in Congress last April... Canada and Colombia are effectively defending themselves from the anti-trade vortex in the U.S. by turning to other markets.

The only thing populist Democrats like better than not understanding global economics? Taxing to death the few businesses that will be left behind:

This is just how it used to be in Auschwitz, right? Laptops, cell phones, and Gucci?

Rub your eyes in disbelief in the face of the economic boom taking place in tunnel city: Stock markets are crashing and the world is facing a crisis, yet in Gaza 500 supermarkets flourish. A mega-store underground. Each tunnel has a manager, smuggler, diggers who travel from one site to another, merchants, intermediaries, a driver, and customers who provide a shopping list. If you ask for something today, you’ll get it two days from now... They do smuggle plenty of computers and cellular phones, jeans, sneakers, cement, furniture, medicine, food, and mostly chocolate... Welcome to the ungrounded Palestinian mall system. If you walk into the living room, you will see a smuggler carrying a pile of laptops... Yesterday, a new glasses boutique was opened. Prada and Gucci frames arrived all the way from the Dubai, and prices are sky-high.

That doesn't do much for the "Gaza = Auschwitz, Jews = Nazis" narrative so beloved by the anti-Israel bien pensant (although that vicious lie wasn't exactly grounded in levelheaded analysis to begin with). The charming thing is how Hamas is putting their tunnel-making skills to new and diverse uses:

A small item in the Palestinian Arab Firas Press website (Arabic): Witnesses said that a Hamas tunnel collapsed today in the Atatra area north of Beit Lahiya. Witnesses said the Hamas gunmen sealed off the area in order to help rescue and evacuation... This tunnel is not in Rafah. It is in Beit Lahiya. Beit Lahiya is also a border town, but it does not border Egypt. It borders Israel. Somehow, I don’t think that Hamas is building tunnels to smuggle in supplies from Israel. It sounds more like they want another few Gilad Shalits.

While everyone else on the planet sits on their hands and awaits the US election - no one wants to get tagged for interfering - Hamas is apparently trying to start a war. Or maybe they were saving the tunnel until after January, counting on a we scratched your back now you scratch ours nudge-wink. In the meantime, Olmert's weakness on Goldwasser and Regev - releasing a cretinous child murderer for the bodies of two Israeli boys - has encouraged Hamas to up the ante for Gilad Shalit. Of course it has.

References:
* Gaza’s shopping heaven [YNet]
* New Data Confirms Old Data: Blaming Israel For Gaza's Medical Collapse Is A Vicious Lie [MR]
* Not just another tunnel collapse [Elder]
* Summer Camp Funtime For Palestinian Kids - Getting Brainwashed, Learning How To Launch Qassams (Plus: New Anti-Rocket Lasers) [MR]
* Sources: Hamas has raised price of Shalit deal in wake of Kuntar release [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Hamas Creates Humanitarian Crisis By Stealing Fuel For Terrorism, Preventing Israeli Gas Shipments, And Cutting Off Gaza Civilians. Again. (Plus: International Press, Human Rights Groups Blame Israel. Again)
* Hamas Brags About Violating Truce, More Rockets Fall On Israeli Schools And Hospitals
* Nazi Zionist Regime Responds To Hamas Terrorism Attempts, Deadly Ambushes, And Rocket Fire By Renewing Fuel Supplies To Gaza

I don't understand what the big deal is. At worst, it sounds like a bit of overexuberant anti-Zionism:

A senior official will be punished for his racist outburst warning Malaysia's ethnic Chinese minority not to become greedy for political and economic power, the prime minister said Tuesday. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the leaders of Malaysia's 14-party ruling coalition unanimously rejected Ahmad Ismail's remarks and that they "want swift and firm action to be taken" against him. Ahmad, a district chief in the United Malays National Organization ruling party, claimed that the Malay majority was losing patience with minorities, particularly ethnic Chinese politicians. "I urge the Chinese not to become like the Jewish in America, where it is not enough that they control the economy, but they also want to dominate politics," Ahmad told a news conference late Monday in northern Penang state. "Consider this a warning from the Malays," Ahmad said. "The patience of the Malays has a limit. Do not push us against the wall, for we will be forced to turn back and push the Chinese for our own survival."

Walt and Mearsheimer keep insisting that their work isn't anti-Semitic. And yet their work keeps getting used by virulent anti-Semites for virulently anti-Semitic purposes. I wonder if that has anything to do with their insistence that Israel State is the exception to everything else that's true about how the world works. That's certainly one explanation, since "Jews are the exception" has a long and storied pedigree as a basis for anti-Semitism. The other option is that their work is just out-and-out anti-Semitic.

On a totally different note: that faux objective "patience is running out" line - the idea being that the speaker is observing rather than advocating - is a hallmark of anti-Semitic hate speech. The last time it made an appearance on MR, it was in the context of interviews involving UC Irvine administrators. Lovely campus environment they've got over there. Almost difficult to believe that the Senate Judiciary Committee officially called the university out for anti-Semitism.

References:
* Senior Malaysian official to be punished for anti-Semitic remarks [Ha'aretz]
* Realism and 'The Israel Lobby' [Lee Solomon]
* Walt and Mearsheimer's Best Defense For Their Anti-Semitic-ish Accusations Is In Trouble [MR]
* Senate Judiciary Committee Recognizes UC Irvine Anti-Semitism [Red Country]

Previously:
* BBC, CBS Now Just Making Stuff Up About Israeli Military
* Democrats Take a Brave Stand Against Israeli Self-Defense Israeli Self-Defense and Other Stuff Too
* Walt and Mearsheimer Week 3 - Enough With the "Oh But They're So Qualified" Thing

The Israeli MFA just put out their summary of the weekend's cabinet meeting. Top bullet point:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert drew ministers’ attention to an article in The Economist, considered the most important economic weekly in the world, which refers to the Israeli economy as the most successful in the world. The Prime Minister said that, "We know that our economy is successful. The international perspective, when a journal like The Economist presents the Israeli economy as the most successful in the world, is not insignificant. It seems to me that we are entitled to commend Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, and to all those involved in guiding the economy, for this achievement. I think that this is an exceptional moment. There have been many situations in the past 60 years in which the Israeli economy has been seen as improving. There have also been difficult situations. But never have the most senior, the most authoritative and the most objective international elements, that have never been known for their over-fondness for the State of Israel, crowned the Israeli economy as the most successful in the world."

Arutz 7 noted that Olmert didn't bother mentioning which issue of the Economist he was talking about. Now I'm not one to go for the random Olmert bashing - I simply don't have the enthusiasm for it - but his overeagerness here is a little much. First of all, it wasn't actually the Economist doing the crowning as much as it was ECB cheif Jean-Claude Trichet. Plus it wasn't something he actually said as much as it was Yediot's sensationalist headline-friendly interpretation of what he said. Plus it wasn't actually recent as muhc as it was from an interview from last May that was duly picked up at the time by the blogosphere. Other than that, though, he's more or less right.

Which is not to say that Israel isn't a global player in everything from physics to computer science to biotech. But it is to say that the MFA needs to focus more on spreading around pictures of hot Israeli chicks and less on whatever it is they think they're doing. Because they're really bad at whatever it is they think they're doing. And also because the hot Israeli chicks angle pretty much sells itself.

References:
* Cabinet communique 7 Sep 2008 [MFA]
* Olmert Quotes Economist: Israeli Economy Best in the World [A7]
* ECB chief: Israel's economy most successful in the world [YNet]
* ECB chief: Israel’s economy most successful in the world [Israpundit]
* Most Ambitious And Delicate Physics Experiments Ever: "It's All Israeli Development" [Video] [MR]
* Compare and Contrast - High Tech Developments [MR]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Israeli Biotech Industry Skyrockets As Women CEOs Lead the Way [Video] [MR]
* CNN Tries To Describe Maxim's Israeli Hottie Issue, Fails To Adequately Convey Sheer Hotness [Video] [MR]
* Confirmed: Israeli Women Love Sex [Video, Mildly NSFW] [MR]

Previously:
* Turns Out, Israelis Aren't Ready To Abandon Israel After All (Plus: Israel's Awesome Anti-Missile Tech)
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Shameless Montage Of Hot Israelis In Skimpy Bathing Suits From Israeli Tourism Board [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Moran Gros Wants You To Vote For MR In Round 2 Of the JIBs

Last March the Swiss - having bankrolled the last Holocaust - sent their FM to Tehran to wrap herself in a humiliating hijab and beg Ahmadinejad to let them bankroll the next one:

Iran and Switzerland on Monday signed a major agreement for Iranian gas exports to a Swiss company, in a rare energy deal between Tehran and the West as their nuclear showdown drags on. "Today we witnessed the signing of a gas contract between the two countries,"... You might remember [FM] Calmy-Rey as the woman who invited Ahmadinejad to a Geneva conference so he could discuss "various perceptions of the Holocaust. That deal failed when people pointed out that it was kind of disgusting.

Now she can't understand why Israel is grumpy with her:

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has expressed disappointment that no member of her country's government is invited to attend the celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary, according to a Swiss newspaper. Switzerland will be represented at the festivities through its ambassador in Tel Aviv, she told the weekly Sonntag, published Sunday. "But, personally, I am disappointed that our country was not invited at government level," she was quoted as saying.

You can understand her confusion: the international community constantly gives money to genocidal lunatics in Gaza and the West Bank. So why shouldn't the Swiss be allowed to pull the same stunt with the Iranians? Hint:

References:
* Swiss Foreign Minister Dons Hijab, Tosses Iran An Economic Lifeline [MR]
* Swiss FM disappointed her gov't received no invitation to Israel's 60th [JPost]

Previously:
* Swiss President Invites Iran To Offer "Various Perceptions Of the Holocaust" At Conference
* Iran Producing Its Own Nuclear Fuel (Plus: Obama Would Meet With Iran, Give Them Security Guarantees, Etc)
* No New Sanctions On Iran. Sophistication On Display.

One explanation for this picture is that Swiss Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey agrees with Hirsi Ali and was just being a little extra cautious. Another interpretation is that Switzerland decided to punctuate their financial service to a wannabe Islamic empire with a nice little symbolic gesture of dhimmitude:

Iran and Switzerland on Monday signed a major agreement for Iranian gas exports to a Swiss company, in a rare energy deal between Tehran and the West as their nuclear showdown drags on. "Today we witnessed the signing of a gas contract between the two countries," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced at a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey. Financial details were not disclosed but the contract between Iran's state gas firm and Switzerland's Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft (EGL) Laufenburg reportedly envisages Iran supplying 194 trillion cubic feet of gas annually from 2011. Calmy-Rey said the deal was in full compliance with UN Security Council resolutions imposed against Iran for its failure to suspend uranium enrichment, a potential nuclear weapons-making process... The US has also protested the gas deal. "We have conveyed to the Swiss that major new oil and gas deals with Iran send precisely the wrong message at a time when Iran continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions," the US embassy in Bern said in a statement.

You might remember Calmy-Rey as the woman who invited Ahmadinejad to a Geneva conference so he could discuss "various perceptions of the Holocaust. That deal failed when people pointed out that it was kind of disgusting. This time around Switzerland managed to summon up sufficient cravenness to save the economy of a country seeking to murder millions of Jews.

Speaking of which - rumor has it that this deal was almost delayed too. When the Swiss dusted off their standard forms for underwriting genocidal lunatics they discovered - to their embarrassment - that no one had bothered to translate them out of the original German. So that presumably took a couple days.

References:
* Video: Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues with Alan Colmes about Islam [Hot Air]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Ahmadinejad Secretly A Pervert? [MR]
* Iranian-Swiss gas deal irks Israel [YNet]
* Swiss President Invites Iran To Offer "Various Perceptions Of the Holocaust" At Conference [MR]

Previously:
* Red Cross Not So Sure About This "Jews Joining Them" Thing
* Memo to World - Israel Not Occupying Gaza Any More. Please Stop Using That Excuse.
* Israeli Magen David Adom has to Get Approval - From Palestinian Red Crescent

Mainstream Israeli hip hop expressing themes of socio-economic egalitarianism and justice that the international left should be quite supportive of. For some reason they're not. Instead, millions and millions of ostensible social leftists march in the streets hysterically screaming about how the Jewish State has to be destroyed. Must be objective and dispassionate anti-Zionism driving the whole thing:

Translation note: "ha matzav" is "the situation," which is roughly idiomatic for "this situation in which the Palestinians and their Arab allies refuse to stop trying to wipe out millions and millions of Israeli Jews".

References:
* Subliminal:Live From Day to Day Chai Mi Yom Leyom (Eng subs) [davy1031 / YouTube]

Previously:
* The Kids, They Love Themselves Some Israeli Hiphop [Video]
* Afternoon Zionist Hip Hop - Divided and Conquered [Video]
* Miri Ben-Ari and Subliminal: God Almighty When Will It End [Video]

We're shamelessly stealing that line from Mickey Kaus, who's been using it as a mallet to beat comprehensive immigration proponents. There is simply no reason to pursue a peace deal with Syria - they demand a total return of annexed Israeli land, and they have virtually nothing to offer in return except some hollow promises about trying to reign in Hezbollah.

And those would last exactly as long as Assad lasted. Which wouldn't be all that long ,since he and his regime are perpetually in crises. He needs Israel to bail him out. This month's Middle East Review of International Affairs, published IDC GLORIA Center's, has an article Nimrod Raphaeli on one of these dimensions. Raphaeli, a former World Bank official, argues that Syria's economy is not so much with the being healthy:

There are a host of other ways that Assad needs Israel - diplomatically to lift the pressure off of him, domestically so he can show he recovered the Golan, etc. He also desperately needs the US cash that a peace deal would provide. We'd really like to hear a good reason for Israel to bail him out, other than "so he doesn't start a war... that he'd lose... soon".

References:
* SYRIA'S FRAGILE ECONOMY [MERIA]
* GLORIA Center

Previously:
* Why, Exactly, Should Israel Give the Golan Back To Syria?
* Olmert Offers Golan To Assad In Exchange For Worthless Piece Of Paper. Whatever.
* Syria Petulantly Whines To UN About the Golan, Syrians Held By Israel, Unfairness Of Life In General

We originally passed on debunking the Economist's Jan 11 exercise in wishful thinking, "Second thoughts about the Promised Land" aka "Jews Starting To Reject Those Evil Zionists". But on second thought, it's just so factually and demonstrably incorrect - and so obviously an attempt to comfort Israel haters with the thought that Zionism is beyond the pale - that we're going to take a whack at it a week late.

First, the central claim from the Economist article:

Then the article goes into a litany of excuses that its readers can use for not supporting Israel - ultra-orthodox control of Israeli society, the military presence in the West Bank, the fact that Arabs want to kill Jews (no seriously - that's a reason they give!). But here's the trick: the Economist couldn't just publish their "Zionism is evil" list without seeming like they were pushing an agenda. So they made up this frame of how worldwide Jews are rejecting Israel.

And by made up, we mean they are not saying things that are justified either by evidence or logic:

That last passage was from last week's Ha'aretz. It's about how the central Jewish issue of our time - as recognized by the leading Jewish organizations on the planet - is the health and survival of the Jewish State. This is a claim justified with actual evidence (rather than a litany of internationalist reasons why Jews should obviously be rejecting Zionism, because it's obviously bad) - evidence that speaks both to trends and decisions being made on the ground by actual community leaders speaking for actual communities.

Then again, when you need a pretext for publishing over 2,500 words on why Israel is bad... well, if you're a journalist for a major outlet of political and economic sophistication, it seems like any pretext will suffice.

Previously: At This Point, Journalists Are Literally Just Going Through The Motions Of Covering Up Their Bias, LA Times Can Give You Anti-Israel Cycle-Of-Violence Framing. Full And Accurate Reporting, However, Is Not Their Forte., Reuters Pretends That History Is What Reuters Would Like History To Be