Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

The bigger government gets, the more it spends and regulates, the wider the wealth gap between whites and minorities becomes. That's because when you concentrate political power in the hands of a few, economic power also becomes concentrated in the hands of a few. This is both logical and supported by all of history. The economic problems created by government always harm minorities the most. Why can't liberals figure that out?

Why Alan Greenspan was responsible for the 2008 crash.

TAX AND SPEND:

The New York Times exposes Bush's outrageous spending that Republicans pretend never happened.

A friendly reminder that government will never pay off its debt, so increasing it is stupid. How government created our debtor nation.

"Hyman's most enlightening chapter is entitled "Securing Debt." After decades of urging the American public to borrow and banks to lend, in the 1960s the government planted the securitization seed that would grow to tip the financial system over in 2008. LBJ's Great Society looked to push capital into decaying cities, but the buying and selling of individual mortgages was cumbersome. Mortgage paper needed to be bondlike, and the Housing Act of 1968 implemented this vision, remaking "the American mortgage system in a way that had not been done since the New Deal."Along with "privatizing" Fannie Mae, the bill created the mortgage-backed security, directed mortgage funds toward low-income borrowers, and authorized the Treasury to be the buyer of last resort to the market. The federal government's intrusion in the housing market continued to grow. The idea that Fannie Mae was suddenly cast adrift to market forces is fallacious. Fannie was required to buy low-income mortgages and its "larger market actions would remain partially under government control.""

So after all the crap we heard about how businesses created mortgage backed securities, in fact government created them. What a shocker.

"Freddie Mac teamed up with Lewis Ranieri's Salomon Brothers and First Bank of Boston to create collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) in 1983. CMOs could be split into slices (tranches) allowing buyers to satisfy whatever risk appetite they had. "With the right math, a mortgage could be turned into anything.""

And the GSE Freddie came up with slicing those securities to spread the risk. Another shocker.

REGULATION:

Obama's business friendly rhetoric is worthless in the face of his regulatory onslaught. Ignore the words. Watch the actions.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Residents of one Australian city are being squeezed by a heritage regulation restricting building heights to be less than a historic pub and by a regulation demanding floors be raised to guard against rising sea levels. The metaphor becomes real life. With just two regulations, government is literally squeezing this city into ruin.

POLICE STATE:

Plans to fight police corruption in Britain include:

"Army officers could be parachuted into the highest police ranks as part of a major Government shake-up. ... Senior intelligence personnel, civil servants and lawyers could also be fast-tracked into top positions, while university graduates could be put through a Sandhurst-style college to speed their progress."

 More centralization means more power therefore more corruption, not less.

Judge will release the names of Casey Anthony jurors as required by law but only after what he calls a cooling off period.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Aid workers help east Africa's starving. Something is going to blow here to spark a new crisis so Obama can send in US troops.

POLITICS:

Obama's poll numbers reach a new low at 43 percent.

LOCAL:

Unemployment increases in Dayton and Montgomery County.

MISC:

On the success of Mises Academy.

Walmart takes on Netflix with video streaming.

The economics of big cities.