Krugman - Genius? Not!

People still not working

 

Inflation-not so transitory

Latest inflation data based on Consumer Price Index shows that inflation continues to run much higher than it did under Biden's predecessors.  

Bailout not needed + not fair

We do not need to, nor should we, bail out Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) depositors because this is primarily protecting “smart“ sophisticated, venture capital investors. 

To prevent contagion, it would makes sense for the FED to announce that GOING FORWARD they will increase the protection for deposits at OTHER BANKS while at the same time they revisit their reserve requirements.  

The SVB  bailout is estimated to cost $15 billion when all is said and done. 

Biden says, “no losses will be borne by the tax­pay­ers, the money will come from the fees that banks pay into the De­posit In­sur­ance Fund.”

This is a lie. Who does Biden think will be paying these extra cost of all of the other banks?

SVB and it’s venture capital partners have pub­licly and financially supported Biden’s ESG and DEI initiatives then lobbied for looser risk lim­its claiming they did not present a systemic risk.

They used these less stringent requirements to invest in longer term securities paying higher interest rates. 

The used these higher interest rates to offer higher returns to customers attracting unusually large cash deposits from venture capital backed early stage companies

Deposits are always short term, meaning customers can ask for their money at any time. 

It is very common knowledge even among those with little financial knowledge, but especially among some of the “smartest“ people in the world managing venture capital, that borrowing short term (deposits) and investing in long-term creates a serious potential risk.

It happened. Interest rates increased, reducing the value of their longer-term investments, while at the same time funding for start ups dried up. 

The bail out will primarily go to rich sophisticated venture capitalists. 

A much smaller amount of the bail out will go to regular companies that may be caught in a bad situation. 

This is a situation where the regulators/supervisors failed to regulate/supervise or even pay attention and the “smart” people managing venture capital funds took advantage of a situation and now we will all be asked to bail them out.

And for those who have heard it is all Trump’s fault, understand that even if the threshold for regulation had not been changed, the 2022 Fed’s stress test requirements only required a 2% interest rate which would not have affected Silicon Valley Bank. 

And, for anybody interested, there’s a simple way for a bank to operate in a totally risk free way: Narrow Bank.  The regulators just won’t let that happen. (1)

(1) https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/safest-bank-fed-wont-sanction

https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2023/03/silicon-valley-bank-blinders.html?m=1

Biden ignores science

The Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board (UKOM) has ruled that national guidelines on the use of puberty blockers and gender-reassignment surgeries need to be revised to reflect the lack of sufficient medical evidence supporting such procedures. (1)  

This brings Norway in line with Sweden, UK and Finland, three countries that have severely limited transitioning of children because they have found that it is not supported by scientific data. 

In the meantime Biden continues to promulgate his crazy policy to increase children’s access to life altering treatments that the child has no ability to understand. (2)

(1) https://www.nationalreview.com/news/norwegian-medical-watchdog-encourages-country-to-ditch-gender-affirming-care-guidelines/

(2) https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/31/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-advances-equality-and-visibility-for-transgender-americans/

Woke hurting America

The Woke Religion has 3 core beliefs that are tearing this country apart:

1. Words are violence
2. Truth is subjective
3. Fragility over resilience 

This promulgates self-identity, fragility, and victimhood

Recent article by Jon Haidt and the currently ongoing podcast “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling” are a window into what is underlying the trend where reasonable people are being attacked and cancelled for sharing views based on facts and logic. 

In part based on what was originally labeled the “snowflake” culture, where everyone was encouraged to be able to identify as a unique non-normative self (snowflake - each being unique) and then guards that identity in a very, very sensitive way and reacts in an enraged way when anyone does not respect the uniqueness of their identity. 

https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/mental-health-liberal-girls

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-witch-trials-of-j-k-rowling/id1671691064

https://x.com/moxlosllc/status/1707004649721528545?s=46&t=Y4fVsDnz2q8uZ3VNKeco4A

WTF? Really? Best he could find?

Biden awards the Internatioal Woman of Courage to a biological man presenting himself as a woman. Really?  That’s the best he could find?  Without much effort I easily found 9 real women of courage and I’m sure there’s many more. Ukraine? Afghanistan?

Beliefs vs Science

 

Follow what Science?

Johns Hopkins University professor Dr. Marty Makary discusses information that was propagated by government and main stream media officials as “known” science when in fact there were significant questions at the time and are now known to not be correct.

• Covid was spread through surface transmission;
• vaccinated immunity was far greater than natural immunity; 
• masks were effective;
• myocarditis was more common after the infection than [after] the vaccine. (it is 4-28 times more common after the vaccine.)
• young people benefit from a booster; and,
• vaccine mandates would increase vaccination rates.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/03/02/marty-makary-testimony-n2620112

Biden’s CHIPS Act Suboptimal

The CHIPS Act has been hijacked by the Biden Administration and is suboptimal because it adds significant costs to the manufacturing of computer chips. If manufacturing computer chips in the United States is strategically important, why would you make it more expensive?

On Tues­day, February 28, Com­merce Sec­re­tary Gina Rai­mondo rolled out the new rules for chip mak­ers daying: “If Con­gress wasn’t go­ing to do what they should have done, we’re go­ing to do it in im­ple­men­ta­tion.”

What has she added:

1. Mandated daycare
2. Davis Bacon pay regulations
3. Buy American
4. Consult, engage, coordinate with unions
5. NEPA compliance
6. Source materials from small, minority, and women owned business
7. Com­pa­nies share with the U.S. por­tion of re­turns above pro­jec­tions 
8. No buy­ing back stock for five years

 https://twitter.com/modeledbehavior/status/1630621044921843725?s=46&t=5GC4GDmUOFbaBEOSPYmWoA

Biden wrong on Student debt foregiveness

If you think that the below language, extracted from the 2003 heroes act to show the relevant parts in question, was meant to allow the Secretary of Education to do whatever they want to whomever they want when there is a national emergency, then you should support the Biden Administration position. 

Note, this means the Secretary of Education could even decide to give away trillions of dollars to any group they want. 

However, if you think the below language limits the Secretary of Education from giving $500 billion to a group where many individuals have good jobs (up to $125,000/y for individual and $250,000 for a couple) and where individuals may not have suffered any direct financial losses directly caused by a national emergency, then you should not support the Biden Administration’s position. 

Given: 

1. the original Heroes Act was written in 2003 to cover individuals involved and affected by their participation in the War on Terror and/or the WTC and Pentagon attacks;

2. many individuals worked hard and paid off their loans;

3. many individuals worked hard, saved money and did not take loans;

4. many individuals avoided taking loans by sacrificing the opportunity to go to college; 

5. many individuals have loans from non-federal sources; and,

6. the Biden Administration’s proposal is giving a very substantive amount to a group where many do not even fall within the Heroes Act; 

I think:

1. opposition to the Biden position has clear standing under the Major Questions doctrine;

2. the Biden position falls outside of the intent of the Heroes Act; and,

3. the Biden position is arbitrary and capricious; and, therefore think the Court should reject it. 

HIGHER EDUCATION RELIEF OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS ACT OF 2003 - 8/8/2003

 

The Congress finds the following:

            (1) There is no more important cause than that of our nation's defense.

            (2) The United States will protect the freedom and secure the safety of its citizens.

            (3) The United States military is the finest in the world and its personnel are determined to lead the world in pursuit of peace.

            (4) Hundreds of thousands of Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard reservists and members of the National Guard have been called to active duty or active service.

            (5) The men and women of the United States military put their lives on hold, leave their families, jobs, and postsecondary education in order to serve their country and do so with distinction.

            (6) There is no more important cause for this Congress than to support the members of the United States military and provide assistance with their transition into and out of active duty and active service.

 

Secretary of Education may waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the Act as the Secretary deems

necessary in connection with a national emergency to provide the waivers or modifications authorized by paragraph (2)

 

Affected individual means an individual who: resides or is employed in an area that is declared a disaster area by any Federal, State, or local official in connection with a national emergency; or suffered direct economic hardship as a direct result a national emergency, as determined by the Secretary.

Truthfully Economy has Issues

 

Last week economic data releases show that the Biden economic "recovery" still struggling.

Real Personal Income and Real Disposable Income trend down under Biden primarily because of inflation.

Then, despite Biden's claim to the contrary, inflation is still a problem with the Personal Consumption Price Index continuing to climb.

Last we see mortgage rate at levels much higher than recent history,

How CRT hurts America

 

Biden trying to limit 1st Amendment

A key principle that helped make America the greatest country is the freedom of speech. No Biden is trying to limit speech to help propagate false narratives. 

Maria Araujo Kahn suggested in a 2020 opinion that courts should criminalize speech that offends "oppressed groups."

Critical Theory is Bad

Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the developing Critical Justice Theory (CJT) ARE PERVASIVE in schools and threaten America because they are indoctrinating children with the false narrative that the primary cause of disparities today is systemic discrimination that exists today. 

CSJ is not being taught as one theory among others but rather, in 7 out of 10 cases, as “truth.”

CSJ increases fear among students.

CSJ is taught in all types of school.

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/school-choice-not-enough-impact-of-critical-social-justice-ideology-in-american-education

So sad. Still lying.

So sad. Still lying.

Original

“He has opposed the teaching of African American studies curriculum as well as the use of some authors and source materials that historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since."

My corrected version

“He has opposed the teaching of [controversial, questionable and unrelated parts of] African American studies curriculum as well as the use of some authors and source materials that [a limited number of activist] historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since."

Stop the Lying

Buttigieg 

We're constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe.

Reality

The Obana law with the braking rule, FAST, would not have applied to the East Palestine train but i will still share the following to obfuscate the situation to avoid any responsibility. We're constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation like the Obama FAST law that required the braking rule to be withdrawn if it was found by the DOT to not be justified. The DOT found that the breaking rule was not justified and as required by the Obama law, withdrew the rule in 2017. 

Detail

The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act or the FAST Act is a funding and authorization bill to govern United States federal surface transportation spending. It was passed by Congress on December 3, 2015, and President Barack Obama signed it on the following day. 

Section 7311 of the Act specifically mandates the study and testing of ECP brake systems, focusing on requirements that were promulgated under the HM-251 final rule. Furthermore, the FAST Act instructs the Department of Transportation to incorporate the results of the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) evaluations and the testing of ECP brake systems by the National Academy of Sciences into an updated regulatory impact analysis (RIA) of the ECP brake system requirements, and to solicit public comment on the updated RIA. Additionally, the FAST Act required that within two years of the mandate, the DOT must determine, based on the updated RIA, whether the ECP brake system requirements in the HM-251 final rule were 

In 2017 the DOT followed the Obama law and eliminated the ECO braking requirement due to a lack of justification. 

And NOTE The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars.

While there were several important accomplishments under Trump (SCOTUS judges, lower taxes, javelins for Ukraine, WARP speed), he is intellectually lazy, lacks gravitas, is coarse, petty, insecure, inarticulate, and, as a result, can’t beat a Democrat and is therefore bad for Republicans.

And while there were irregularities in the 2020 election (votes in key swing states that did not meet their state legislature’s requirements and MSM burying the Hunter Biden laptop story) and Trump was treated unfairly by the MSM and administrative state propagating false narratives (Russian collusion and system racism), he lost the election. 

Please ignore Trump like a crazy uncle at Thanksgiving and hope he goes away. 

MSNBC - Trump won (2016)

Even MSNBC now admits they were wrong. It only took them 6 years, multiple investigations, and years of fabricated news which we’ll never know how much has hurt this country  

New NYU study concludes: “…we find no evidence of a meaningful relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior.” 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35576-9

I’m idiotphobic

I guess I’m idiotphobic 

Biologically you are either male (have testes) or female (have ovaries) - transphobic (though not clear why stating biological fact makes someone afraid of something)

No one should be forced to say something they don’t believe - homophobic (once again, not clear, why opposing forced speech makes someone afraid of something)

Any systemic racism that may exist today is a minor factor for the disparities that exist today - racist (not clear here how facts and logic make someone a racist)

Wokeism and CRT is essentially a religion demanding you believe/adhere despite facts and logic. 

 

Section 230 Protected Earthlink not YouTube

 As best as I can tell, Section 230 "Protection for private blocking and screening of offensive material" was meant to protect the internet service providers from liability from the information users found on the internet from Information Content Providers.  Originally meant to protect companies like Earthlink, AOL, etc., that users dialed into to access the internet that has since transformed into Internet Service Providers such as ATT, Verizon, etc, where users are connecting through internet modems to access the internet,

Some are now claiming that Section 230 also protects Information Content Providers, which could range from individual websites to large internet based social media platforms. 

To me it seems wrong to use the original Section 230 law that protected the internet access providers to now protect companies that actively promote or hide specific information from being treated as a publisher.