How the Stimulus Racket Works - Charlie Virgo - Mises Daily: "Have you ever noticed that the failed policies of politicians never really seem to be brought to light? How is it that despite their obvious shortcomings, the same policies are implemented time and time again? These interventions rarely have the promised effects, but they are somehow still deemed a success. In his book The Vision of the Anointed, Thomas Sowell explains the process by which politicians and their supporters are able to either create or take advantage of crises in order to increase their involvement in society. I thought it would be worthwhile to review this pattern as it applies to a more recent issue: the stimulus and bailout packages.
Starting with President Bush, and continuing into President Obama's term, the US government has paid out more than $11 trillion in stimulus money. Remarkably, there are many who believe that amount still wasn't sufficient. This article will show that both presidents believed the additional government intervention would solve our economic problems, not realizing that it was exactly that type of thinking that had led to the problems in the first place. The stimulus package has already passed through Dr. Sowell's pattern of failure, making it an excellent example for review."
Shortened: http://gg.gg/sanity Contact: bob underscore wtf at comcast dot net
QUOTE OF THE HOLOCENE: "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation" - V.I. Lenin -- You're welcome to point out to me any decision that Hugo Chavez Barack Obama has yet made that Lenin would quarrel with. [ crickets ]
RUNNER-UP QUOTE OF THE HOLOCENE: "When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators." - P. J. O'Rourke
DUAL QUOTES OF THE 20TH CENTURY: "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." and "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it." --H. L. Mencken
LAST YEAR'S QUOTE: Washington, D.C. runs "just like the mob, except it's legal," said Schweizer. "If problems are being solved, if things are going smoothly and things are being fixed, a lot of people are not going to give. The party establishments and the political leaders from both sides are collaborating a lot more than they let on," explained Schweizer."