As one commenter noted, wonder what took so long: Dollar-denominated risk assets, including asset-backed securities and corporates, are no longer wanted at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), nor at China’s large commercial banks. The Chinese government has ordered its reserve managers to divest itself of riskier securities and hold only Treasuries and US …
Washington Gets Small Business, It Just Doesn't Like It
Caroline Baum at Bloomberg tries to put on a "rational" face on this problem: “Washington doesn’t get it.” That generic statement is tripping off the tongues of populists and Tea Partiers, business groups and bankers alike. In short, the public is peeved at the politicians. I heard it this week from William Dunkelberg, chief economist …
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Putting Deeds Behind Words: ASCE's Response to Barack Obama's Call for More Infrastructure Investment
Seems to be about all our President hears these days: In response to President Obama's comments on infrastructure in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) has issued this statement by 2010 President Blaine D. Leonard, P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE: We appreciate that the president mentioned in his address …
Elitist Snob Advice: Stop Blaming the Republicans Because Your Agenda Isn't Passing
It's hard to catalogue all of the whining that our President and other members of his party have made because a) the Republicans have opposed their agenda (health care, cap and trade, card check, etc.) and b) it has not passed as a "consequence" of this. If we look at this objectively, however, we come …
Is China Succeeding Because of Its Totalitarian Heritage, or in Spite of It?
That's the question people in the West simply will not ask: The second problem, and this is the most serious, is that Shirk fails to demonstrate that China has made such a great economic leap not only because it engaged in market reform - the former Soviet Union and East European countries did the same …
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State of the Union Takeaway: We Need to Export More Goods. But How?
This, from Black Swan Capital: There exists the potential that this tighter-money posturing, maneuvering, squirming or strategizing by the Fed will ultimately support the US dollar’s value. Well it can’t hurt, considering the overwhelming sentiment that the Fed will opt to inflate away the US dollar. And that brings me to something President Obama mentioned …
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Tim Tebow's Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad: So How Will They Block the Beer Commercials?
This coup has the left in apoplexy: Instead, when Tim Tebow and his mother agreed to tell their story (of how Tim was born even when his mother was advised to abort him) in an ad that’s a part of Focus on the Family’s “Celebrate Life, Celebrate Family” campaign, an ad that cost Focus on …
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Option for the Democrats: Nationalise Medicaid
Now that the necessary "supermajority" in the Senate (a tenuous concept at best) is gone, the Democrats, like Lenin a century ago, are wondering: what is to be done? Here's a suggestion: nationalise (or more accurately federalise) Medicaid. Currently a joint venture of the states and the Feds, making it an entirely Federal program would …
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Canning Ben Bernanke: Hope You've Got a Good "Plan B"
The opposition to his renomination is, in some ways, simply amazing: In a statement Friday morning, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, came out against Mr. Bernanke, who was named to his post during the Bush administration. She said she had “a lot of respect” for him and praised him for preventing the economic crisis …
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Going Rogue in Combat Boots, Indeed
This piece is one of the best pieces I have seen in a long time on the state of the U.S., and where we might be heading: Angry and desperate veterans and mercenaries already conditioned to violence, merging with "tea baggers" and other alienated groups, could one day form our own Freikorps units, rioting for …
Positive Infinity 