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Noemie Emery points out where the GOP has failed miserably.
During the late and now unlamented campaign of Mitt Romney, the candidate was urged by other Republicans to affect a “separation” from the policies of George W. Bush. They were said by Democrats to have brought on the financial crisis and the “mess” inherited by Barack Obama, which he has been unable thus far to clean up.
They might have done better had they moved years earlier to detach the Bush policies from the cause of the meltdown, since there was little relation between the two. The crash of late 2008 was caused not by Republican dogma, but by efforts going back many years on the part of both parties to facilitate homeownership on behalf of poor people. It seemed like the right thing to do. It pleased both liberals, who wanted to help the downtrodden, and conservatives, who took to heart the old Jack Kemp adage that rental cars rarely get washed. …
… Clinton and Bush were both smart politicians, but there was one thing that both men got wrong. As Glenn Reynolds explained, they tried to expand the middle class by subsidizing things owned by middle-class people — like college educations and homes — assuming that middle-class status would come along with them. But in fact, homeownership was a result of middle-class values — of being willing and able to save, and to defer gratification — and not the cause of them. Instead of expanding the middle class, dodgy home loans for people with no past record of saving merely led to unfunded investments and debt. And to speculation. “All of us participated in the destructive behavior — government, lenders, borrowers, the media, rating agencies,” said Warren Buffett. “At the core of the folly was the almost universal belief that the value of houses was bound to increase.”
Twice, Bush tried to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and twice Democrats (Obama included) moved in to stop him. …
Thomas Sowell points to both parties.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, my newest book — “The Housing Boom and Bust” — shows how both Democrats and Republicans ruined both the housing markets and the financial markets.
Like so many disasters, the current economic crisis grew out of policies based on good intentions and mushy thinking.
For far too long, too many people have regarded home ownership as “a good thing.” It is certainly true that home ownership has its benefits. But, like everything else, it also has its costs and its risks.
Weighing such trade-offs is something that each individual and each family can do for themselves. It is when such decisions are made by politicians — of whatever party — that trade-offs tend to vanish into thin air, replaced by pursuit of a “good thing.”
Beginning in the 1990s, getting a higher proportion of the American population to become homeowners became the political holy grail of government housing policies. Increasing home ownership among minorities and other people of low or moderate incomes was also part of this political crusade.
Because banks are regulated by various agencies of the federal government, it was easy to pressure them to lend to people that they would not otherwise lend to — namely, people with lower incomes, poorer credit ratings and little or no money for a conventional down payment of 20 percent of the price of a house.
Such people were referred to politically as “the underserved population” — as if politicians know who should and who shouldn’t get mortgages better than people who have spent their careers making mortgage-lending decisions.
But, in politics, power trumps knowledge. …
Looking at Egypt, Craig Pirrong says, “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.”
… The timing of this is telling. Very telling.
Mosri made his move within hours of his brokering of a cease fire in Gaza. He received fulsome-sick-making, actually-praise from Obama and Hillary Clinton for his role there. For his peacemaking role, he was lionized.
And more to the point-he was also immunized. Immunized from criticism of his power grab. How could Obama possibly criticize him or take measures to oppose him in response to his putsch after having praised him to the heavens just hours before?
Not for the first time on the international stage, Obama was not a player. He was played.
I wonder if he realizes that. I sort of doubt it. Speaking of immunized, he seems immune to recognizing his errors.
One more thing about the timing. Mosri no doubt has been contemplating this for some time: the judiciary has represented the only check on his power. But he no doubt had to tread carefully, given Egypt’s fraught economic condition (especially regarding its parlous food situation) and resultant dependence on American aid. …
Spengler says the modern day Islamists are the same as other thugs.
… It would be inaccurate to call Islamism a Nazi-influenced ideology, for Islam itself was there before Nazism. Both ideologies are neo-pagan responses to Judaism and Christianity. Writing two decades before Karl Barth, the Jewish theologian Franz Rosenzweig characterized Islam as a pagan parody of revealed religion, and Allah as the whole colorful pantheon of paganism rolled up into a single deity.
f the world is in greater need of reminder than instruction, as the late Fr. Richard Neuhaus liked to say, Dr. Bostom has assembled a set of reminders that are chilling, even for those of us who are steeped in these issues. We tend to forget how open, obvious, and uncontroversial the relationship between National Socialism and the Muslim Brotherhood has been from the 1940s onward. Bostom quotes John Roy Carlson’s interviews with Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna during 1948-1950:
“It became clear to me [wrote Carlson] why the average Egyptian worshiped the use of force. Terror was synonymous with power! This was one reason why most Egyptians, regardless of class or calling had admired Nazi Germany. It helped explain the sensational growth of the Ikhwan el Muslimin [Muslim Brotherhood].”
Sharia vs. Freedom deserves lengthier discussion, but it requires urgent mention right now considering the rising Muslim Brotherhood threat to Western interests.
NFL.com News tells us how the Jets, in a Thanksgiving Day game, gave up 21 points in 56 seconds. We also have the responding front page of the NY Post.
Give the New York Jets credit. When they lose, they sure do it spectacularly.
During a 56-second span in the second quarter of Thursday night’s 49-19 loss to the rival New England Patriots, the Jets somehow allowed three touchdowns.
Here’s how you lose a game in under 60 seconds: …
Leno: Good news for the economy. President Obama is out of town.
Fallon: iPhone texting was down for five hours the other day. It was a disaster! People had to actually phone someone to lie about being “five minutes away.”
Fallon: This isn’t good. Police in upstate New York are looking for a man who stole a truck carrying 350 Christmas trees. So keep that in mind over the next few weeks, if you see anyone selling a bunch of Christmas trees on the street.