Simple Utah Mormon Politics

According to Establishment cheerleaders and evangelists, the housing crisis is now over. It conjures in my mind an accident scene: "C'mon people. Keep moving. There's nothing to see here." Hmmmm... Just about a week ago, the Federal Reserve contributed mightily to the primary ingredient that caused the housing crisis in the first place. By socializing the liabilities for stupid investments, Timothy Geithner's plan for dealing with bad bank assets makes the economic situation even worse. Those who really think the housing crisis is over don't understand the problem. Problem #1: Federal Reserve Prints More Funny Money. On March 19th, the Federal Reserve produced more of what it's best at producing --funny money. With the country sinking deeper into recession, the Federal Reserve launched a bold $1.2 trillion effort Wednesday to lower rates on mortgages and other consumer debt, spur spending and revive the economy. This is supposed to fix something? The...

I've just become a fan and a participant in "tweeting" on Twitter.com. That's why I found the following cartoon so elegantly funny. If he tweeted, what would Barack Obama's twitter log look like?

People are like seagulls in one important way: when things are done for them that they should be doing for themselves, they not only come to depend on the aid, but they gradually forget how to support themselves at all. Government, in an attempt to be benevolent, has destroyed the thrift and industry of many "seagulls" in the United States. The Social Security program, despite how well meaning it may have been, has contributed to the destruction of the family in the United States. From this behemoth has come a plethora of welfare programs that have squelched the ability of people to provide for themselves. It is important for us to take care of each other in times of indigence. This is the essence of charity. It is the essence of welfare. Welfare works best, however, when it is local. When welfare is local, it encourages the indigent to get back on their feet. Federal welfare programs have been largely a bust because they treat people like flocks of seagulls who don...

While Congress has been putting on a live theater show about how "concerned" they are that some AIG executives got several million dollars in bonuses, you're not being allowed to find out that people in higher places than that have stolen thousands of times as much of that money for themselves. Maybe this will finally convince you than an Establishment Democrat is every bit as vile as an Establishment Republican. They shouldn't have given AIG the stinking bailout in the first place. The tip of the iceberg screams putrescence. If you only knew what's going on behind the scenes, you'd scream. If you want to know, take your heart medication, and read on. The Bush Administration was a den of vipers, no doubt. But the Obama administration is no different, a fact that's coming to light much sooner than I expected. The Barack Obama administration knew about the bonuses even before they gave another $30 billion to AIG , and Obama himself was even in on the tak...

Newsweek's cover story from its February 16, 2009 issue declares smugly that "We Are All Socialists Now." I'm sure at some point along the way they also declared that a consensus exists that man is causing irreversible global warming. The only people who are socialists now are (a) some of those who are in debt bondage and want an easy fix, (b) nearly all of those who want to control other people's lives, or (c) most of those who don't think clearly. Admittedly, that probably includes quite a few of us. But it's nowhere near all of us. Besides, I can't be a socialist. According to the state of Missouri, I'm a Ron Paul-affiliated terrorist . I'll be dead before I'm a socialist. And there are no socialists in heaven. Several years ago, I made a derogatory They can't afford for us all to become socialists anyway. They need at least a fair number of ants to support their grasshopper lifestyles. comment about the spectacles that everyo...

Have you filled out your March Madness tournament picks yet? I have, under the name of one of my all-time heroes--Ben Bernanke. Even though I work for BYU, I picked BYU to win one game. But there is one reputable group that picks BYU to make it all the way to the NCAA Tournament Finals. Determining the real winner is academic...if you know what I mean. In the latest tournament projections from InsideHigherEd.com , Brigham Young University is picked to fall to North Carolina in the championship game. Here's how it could happen: Back by popular demand, Inside Higher Ed proudly presents its 4th Annual Academic Performance Tournament. As in years past, we have broken down the entire men’s tournament bracket and advanced those teams with the better performance in the classroom. So who knows? BYU might get trounced in the first round by Texas A&M like they did last year, but apparently, if this were all based on academics, we could make mincemeat of A&M with one hand tied...

FDR was probably sincere when he expressed his desire to help "The Forgotten Man"--the everyday American. The policies of his administration, however, had the opposite effect. Not only did high wages keep many individual Americans out of work, the draconian rules of the National Recovery Act destroyed hundreds of small businesses. The NRA purposely herded industry into larger and larger corporations. This is one aspect of FDR's failed policies whose negative effects we are still dealing with. When FDR came to power in America, By the time the NRA bull had finished running through the china closet, hundreds of small businesses had been destroyed. This fact, and the fact that small business destruction was largely by design, have been redacted from public school textbooks. Fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was all the rage across the western world. Many of the policies of the Roosevelt administration, though tamer in practice than Mussolini's strong-arm t...

Here's part two of your basic economics quiz. The five questions below deal with inflation and deflation. When you come out on the other end, you might find that your definitions of these terms have changed. 1. True or False: Inflation is a general rise in prices? Answer: Not exactly . Inflation is only that general rise in prices that is caused by an increase in the money supply without a corresponding increase in productivity (goods and services). Any other rise in prices--caused by a reduction in productivity caused by ravages of war, natural calamity, etc.--does not constitute inflation. Non-inflationary rises in prices are much more likely to correct themselves (i.e. when the crisis is past). It is much less likely that inflation will occur if a country is on a commodity standard, such as gold. Higher prices that people generally describe as "inflation" are actually a consequence of the actual inflation, or increase of the money supply. In today's Americ...

How much do you know about free market economics? After reading the answers to the following quiz, you might be surprised at how simple the answers are to what you may have thought were complex economic questions. If the questions have heretofore seemed complicated, chances are that you've attended a government school for most of your life. The major difference between the laws of economics and other natural laws is that government officials haven't yet bamboozled a large segment of American society into thinking that it's possible to violate the law of gravity. 1. True or False: The United States of America enjoys an economic free market? Answer: False . Although central planning has been discredited in the Soviet Union and many other countries, the United States economic market is still controlled by central planning. Rather than allow the market to regulate itself, the Federal Reserve controls the money supply and interest rates. As a result of such control, the US...

Hopefully there'll someday be a consensus on global warming. Right now there is nothing of the sort, despite the fact that a vocal minority claims that there is a consensus that man is causing the bulk of global warming. If, ultimately, we can get enough honest people in the world, the consensus will be that man would have to do far more than we are now to have any significant effect at all on earth's climate. A recent report by the Discovery Channel is the latest salvo to make this inconvenient truth more clear. Humans should be stewards of the earth. But A 30-years hiatus from global warming? Awesome! That will give us easy enough time to recover from our worldwide Establishment-induced economic coma. they should also shake off the chains of hubris that have thus far compelled them to think that humans can collectively destroy earth's climate. Al Gore: Mother Nature sniffs her nose at you. Go get a real job. There is no consensus on the cause of global warming. B...

No they didn’t really break out of the state pen. But those who support an amendment to the Utah Constitution to allow the legislature to limit the number of appeals of death row inmates are apparently afraid that such an event is likely to occur. There are better ways to solve this problem than the "now I'm really REALLY mad" approach. The Deseret News reported recently that "Our current justice system is broken. The death penalty in Utah has become a myth. Death row inmates are winning a war of attrition," [Utah Attorney General Mark] Shurtleff wrote Tuesday in his personal blog on the attorney general's Web site. Oh? Which war is that? Are they back on the street so they can If Utah judicial officers really ARE ignoring the law, then don’t you think they should be impeached? Okay, then. Let’s not clutter up our constitution with unnecessary refuse. murder again? I haven’t had to experience the murder of a family member by someone who is still on dea...

Utah has, for the last several years, been one of the best fiscally managed states in the country. Accepting $1.7 billion of federal money to help fix what Utah has done a masterful job of taking care of on its own would precipitate a financial catastrophe. Utah should reject the so-called stimulus out of hand. The computer project budget Have no fear, though--the federal government is coming to the rescue. Yes, that federal government. The one that couldn't bail itself out of a wet paper bag, let alone anyone else. for my company was slashed by 20% this year. Some of that was compensated for by sweeping funds forward from 2007 and 2008 that had not been used. There is none of that left now. This year, everything looks fine, but for 2010, all bets are off. Budget cuts are looming--unless we can get a government bailout. Just kidding. A government bailout would be the worst thing that ever happened to my company. It would be the worst thing that could ever happen to Utah as w...