“IQ = Dem candidate > GOP candidate ”

Sorry but I have seen too much of Nancy Pelosi to accept this as a true statement. The simple fact is that there are some very smart people on both sides and there are many idiots on both sides. But having a high IQ can be very dangerous if your fundamental assumptions about reality is wrong. For a perfect example look at all the very intelligent morons that populate most Western university departments.

“I heard this comment myself “Dr. Paul points out that the income tax is not required and should be eliminated” … in the complex society that exists today .. that is a reach to far .. the US Military is a corporation for hire?”

If you eliminated the income tax the federal budget would shrink to the size it was around 1995. Why is that a crisis?

“I agree that the laws are making lawyers and accountants rich thru complexity – real working people are not given the cash on the check to hire the best and therefor these laws favor the corporation cartel funded by the real working people”

The problem is that the laws are arbitrary and unclear. That limits liberty because nobody knows when they are breaking laws. It does not help that judges, who are often ignorant of the laws and have their decisions overturned, claim that ignorance of the law is not an excuse and do not stop to think how any individual could be familiar with all of the laws that effects his/her life.

“I’ve been pushing a long time for a system where the majority or super -majority tell the elected what to do. They do it or are fired by a majority recall. The internet makes this world possible.”

Ok. The super majority tells the government that all people have to be stripped of any wealth in excess of $1 million or that all earnings above $75K have to be taxed at a rate of 90%. Why is that acceptable? Or how about the majority tells the government that it must deport all Jews? Is that acceptable?

No matter how you try to think about it, you have to conclude that a tyranny is unacceptable and mob rule is no more just or legitimate than the rule of an oligarchy or the rule of a solitary individual. Hitler and Mussolini came to power in democracies and used the democratic process to consolidate their power by manipulating the mob. The crimes they committed did not really impact negatively the great majority of the population and as a result they had support for what they did. No amount of dancing around the issues can ever change the fact that one of the necessary conditions for having a good society is the protection of individual liberty and the prohibition of initiating force against others.

IQ = Dem candidate > GOP candidate

I heard this comment myself “Dr. Paul points out that the income tax is not required and should be eliminated” … in the complex society that exists today .. that is a reach to far .. the US Military is a corporation for hire?

I agree that the laws are making lawyers and accountants rich thru complexity – real working people are not given the cash on the check to hire the best and therefor these laws favor the corporation cartel funded by the real working people

I’ve been pushing a long time for a system where the majority or super -majority tell the elected what to do. They do it or are fired by a majority recall. The internet makes this world possible.

Thanks for the banter – I’m not going to write a book here .. I’m a blogger and a voter hope’g my 30 dollars into my 1st election drop .. pay off .. like any lobbist. Ya know $30 don’t get ya much muscle.

“Pretending that housing valuations (or oil, tulips or any other bubble) were driven by underlying demand rather than speculation driven by those who exploited loopholes in the financial system is…worse than useless. It’s criminal.”

Here is something to think about. Demand for oil stands at around 85 million bpd. Depletion from existing fields is running at around 6.5% and we are producing less light sweet crude than we did in 2005. New fields are smaller and much more difficult (and much more expensive) to develop. This means that unless demand falls off a cliff prices will have to rise. My personal guess on this point is that eventually American, European and Japanese demand will fall as developing nations bid up oil prices to levels that indebted American’s cannot afford.

“For those who argue otherwise, a viewing of “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)” will be highly instructive. Precisely the same events happened (and are happening again) less than 10 years ago.”

Here is something else that we should be thinking about. Enron was hoping to make a killing by trading carbon credits and was lobbying the Bush Administration to take the European route on climate change. While Bush resisted the lobbying as he should have (average temperatures fell during the past eight years) we are now looking at an administration that is considering the idea even after Europe showed that it did not work. It is somewhat interesting that Al Gore is a partner in an outfit that is set up to make money by trading carbon credits. I guess that $100 million isn’t enough for Mr. Gore and he is looking for some more gains courtesy of the taxpayers.

“What Obama needs around him are not the smartest guys in the room, but the most ethical, compassionate guys in the room. Unfortunately, the current cadre does not meet that standard.”

Hayek warned of the fatal conceit. Compassion and ethics can do just as much harm if politicians meddle with the economy because motivations don’t mean much if they create false signals and interfere with the marketplace. The central planners in the USSR or Mao’s China were not any dumber or any more evil than the people that President Obama will choose. They failed because nobody can plan an economy and Americans would be much better off if they understood that point.

““failure of government” .. I disagree in a sort … more like circumvented established processes by focused interests for that interests advancement in collusion with others .. a cabal or non-nation fascist effort”

You might want to be a bit clearer because this sounds a but like tinfoil hat gibberish, which is clearly not your intent.

My argument is very simple. When all human beings act they select among various options available to them. If we want a good society we need to maximize individual options and minimize the regulation of voluntary transactions by politicians. The right seems to ignore the fact that you cannot have liberty unless you have social freedom while the left seems to ignore the fact that you can’t have liberty unless you have economic freedom.

“Ron Paul in the GOP would have been another figurehead puppet imo. He is/was functional in place. Obamas IQ and localboy got me in his camp. Could not support a Bush Clinton X2. The other party candidates unfortunately would have been a thrown vote. I think I am see’g the figurehad puppet strings being attached to Barack.”

Obama’s IQ? He is a lawyer who does not understand the Constitution and shows a total ignorance of economics. He certainly has very little understanding of American history and has no clue about the power of the ideas that once made the US the greatest nation in the world.

President Obama is bailing out failed companies, their shareholders and employees and is pushing all kinds of dangerous policies that will make Americans much poorer and less free. He is leaving the most of the troops in Iraq for some time and is promising to increase the troops in Afghanistan. This is in contrast to Dr. Paul’s desire to start pulling troops out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe, Korea, Japan and elsewhere immediately. While President Obama keeps ignoring the bankruptcy of the SS and Medicare Ponzi schemes, which are many orders of magnitude larger than the Madoff scam, Dr. Paul has said that people would be permitted to opt out. While President Obama is cheering the Fed’s attempt to destroy the purchasing power of the USD, Dr. Paul has pointed out that the Fed is not permitted to exist under the Constitution and is a private cartel that exists to transfer wealth from the many to the few. As such Dr. Paul would eliminate the Fed. And while President Obama is for increased fees and taxes Dr. Paul points out that the income tax is not required and should be eliminated. I don’t understand how that makes Dr. Paul a puppet but Obama gets a pass. And keep in mind that the Republican Party has opposed Dr. Paul and keeps trying to run other candidates against him because Dr. Paul points out that there is little difference between the two main parties; they are both run by a political elite that is a danger to the wealth and liberty of Americans. For the record, President Obama made it through the ranks of the corrupt Chicago political machine and has shown that he will appoint the typical political insiders even after he promised change. If you want to look at a puppet you might wish to look at him.

“we want to live in a good society .. we need to limit the role of government to protecting people from the use of force and from fraud” … but that is governments role in a highly engineered world of deceit and specialized real weapons.”

Government needs to stick to protecting individuals from the use of force and fraud. That means a much smaller government and fewer laws that are taken more seriously. It also means that if someone wants help s/he can only ask for it and not demand it by voting into office charlatans who promise a free lunch.

“…mortgage brokers, who also weren’t subject to federal regulation or the CRA, originated most of the subprime loans….only one-third of all CRA loans had interest rates high enough to be considered sub-prime and…to the pleasant surprise of commercial banks there were low default rates.”

There is no dispute on this point. The heavily regulated banks and GSEs were looking for mortgages to repackage into securitized paper and sell to your pension plan, the Chinese government, European banks, etc. The brokers stepped up and filled the need. They certainly were not stupid enough to invest their own money in the toxic paper and pretty much made their money collecting fees. That would not have happened if the government did not push home ownership among low and moderate income groups, changed the CRA to force banks to lower lending standards and if HUD had not pushed the GSEs to be reckless. And let us not forget the Fed, which dropped rates to historical lows to prevent an economic contraction.

“failure of government” .. I disagree in a sort … more like circumvented established processes by focused interests for that interests advancement in collusion with others .. a cabal or non-nation fascist effort

Interesting thread

Ron Paul in the GOP would have been another figurehead puppet imo. He is/was functional in place. Obamas IQ and localboy got me in his camp. Could not support a Bush Clinton X2. The other party candidates unfortunately would have been a thrown vote. I think I am see’g the figurehad puppet strings being attached to Barack.

VangelV I agree with ya “we want to live in a good society .. we need to limit the role of government to protecting people from the use of force and from fraud” … but that is governments role in a highly engineered world of deceit and specialized real weapons.

Speaking of CRA slime, here’s my question: Why is OneUnited Bank in Boston still open? WSJ story from last month below:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123258284337504295.html

Gonna do some digging on this dead hamster and look at when it crossed the line into the bottom decile of the peer group. As of Q3 2008, OneUnited rated an “F” on our system with a stress score of 21 vs 1.5 for the whole industry. That’s more than an order of magnitude above the entire industry. Bank’s in this strata get resolved very frequently, more often than not. Less than 2% leverage and nasty losses, but no charge-offs to speak of and good operating efficiency. IMHO, this bank should have been sold/closed last year. But because Barney Frank (D-MA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) want the bank to remain open, it remains open.

Pretending that housing valuations (or oil, tulips or any other bubble) were driven by underlying demand rather than speculation driven by those who exploited loopholes in the financial system is…worse than useless. It’s criminal.

For those who argue otherwise, a viewing of “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)” will be highly instructive. Precisely the same events happened (and are happening again) less than 10 years ago.

What Obama needs around him are not the smartest guys in the room, but the most ethical, compassionate guys in the room. Unfortunately, the current cadre does not meet that standard.