“It wasn’t until 1968 that Fannie was privatized….The main reason for the change was surprisingly mundane: accounting. At the time, Lyndon Johnson was concerned about the effect of the Vietnam War on the federal budget. Making Fannie Mae private moved its liabilities off the government’s books, even if, as the recent crisis made clear, the […]
Archive for July, 2008
Jul22nd2008
In Praise Of Personal Interest
Published by in Chicanoism, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and Personal. 7 CommentsOne of the many things I dislike about Chicano Studies as a major is its over emphasis on “nonprofit activism” vs “personal interest”. In the status circles of Chicano Studies students, you are admired more for your desire to ‘build a community outreach center for disadvantaged children’ than for say, getting an engineering degree and […]
Jul21st2008
“In evaluating the need for greater financial regulation, one should also not forget that the American economy greatly outperformed the European and Japanese economies during the past 25 years. Might that not be related in part to the fact that the United States led the way with major financial innovations like investment banks, hedge funds, […]
Jul18th2008
Glenn Beck of CNN reports:
So, what is the uniform of choice when fooling terrorists in Colombia? …
That’s right, the same T-shirts you see Hollywood celebrities, starving pseudo-artists and confused hipster teens wearing around local coffee shops. To all those who decide that you want to be coffee house communist-chic, remember this: When you are wearing […]
Jul17th2008
“The impetus to tighter regulations varies from sector to sector, although there is a growing belief that many activities are insufficiently regulated. Obviously, the current turmoil in the financial sector is stimulating many proposals to regulate extensively various types of financial transactions. Yet it is not obvious that the problems in the financial sector resulted […]
Jul16th2008
“Basically in the late 1990s Congress passed a law tying Medicare payouts to GDP–if they grow too fast, relative to GDP, reimbursements automatically drop. Ted Kennedy came back from medical leave to override that automatic cut, just as Congress has every year in recent years. All very well, and many physicians will tell you that […]
Jul15th2008
The standard argument against rent control, see here, is that while it claims to help the poor - in reality, it is a boom to the well off and well connected. If housing for the poor is your real objective, there are many other efficient ways to do it - without rent control.
Example number […]
Jul7th2008
Our Collectivist Candidates
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Capitalism, Economics and ModernPolitics. 6 CommentsCato Institutes David Boaz criticizes the collectivist remarks of our presidential candidates:
On Sunday Barack Obama urged graduates of Connecticut’s Wesleyan University to devote themselves to “collective service.” This is not an unusual theme for a commencement address. But it was interesting how long he went on discussing various kinds of nonprofit activism without ever mentioning […]
