Things I’d Like to Post About Today ….. (120408, Early PM)
….. But I Don’t Have Any Time For:
- On video (HT Michelle Malkin and Scott’s Slant), a Planned Parenthood worker in Bloomington, Indiana is shown telling someone posing as a 13 year-old teen impregnated by a 31 year-old man that she should tell her that the father is another boy about her age, and then showing her where to go for an out-of-state abortion. I doubt this is unusual.
- I’m not the only one skeptical about the National Bureau of Economic Research’s full-of-crap recession call.
- Crystal Dixon, a 25-year HR professional, should be able to take the University of Toledo to the cleaners. Go to the link and see why.
- Oh for cryin’ out loud — “Gov. David Paterson, upset with the choices a judicial screening panel gave him to nominate a new chief judge of the state’s highest court, today asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to help determine if there are any legal options to add more names for him to consider. ‘We’re outraged by what we see,’ Paterson said this afternoon of the list of names that includes no women.” Those dummies at New York State’s Commission on Judicial Nomination thought they were supposed to submit the names of seven candidates they thought were the most qualified, not the ones who would fill politically correct quota slots. What WERE they thinking?
- Still a PUNK Alert (until the treatment of all nets is parallel) — “Video: Hopenchange finally takes question from Fox News.”
- From the “People Want Cars That Actually Function Well” Dept. — “Electric shock as sales of green cars go into reverse.”
- Edition #144 of the Carnival of Ohio Politics, assembled by Buckeye RINO Dan Williamson, is up.
- It’s an indication of how crazy bailout mania has become that the City of Akron and Olmsted Falls (OH) School District want their place in line, and it’s barely news. Boring Made Dull’s appropriate name for areas that get in line is “Bailoutistan.”
- “GM, Chrysler considering bankruptcy to get bailout” — Just eliminate the last three words, and they’ll have it right.
The recession call was an easy one. I was on the record here explaining in detail why it would be December 2007. I recall trying to explain to those who were hanging their hopes solely on GDP that they were going to be very disappointed. The NBER made the appropriate call and, frankly, I’d rather be one year into it than having it just starting now. But regardless, they nailed it exactly right.
Comment by Invictus — December 4, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
#1. See the updates at the original post. They. Are Full. Of. Crap.
But if you want to indulge in the wrong-headed idea that the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy has inflicted its damage on us for a year, go right ahead.
An economy can grow, shed jobs, and not be in recession. This one just did. If “less economic activity” by various measurements nonetheless begets a bigger economy (esp by 2.8% annualized in one quarter), that’s NOT a recession. It’s not the best of circumstances, but it’s not a recession. Sorry. No other country that I’m aware of twists reality as we do in this regard.
Comment by TBlumer — December 5, 2008 @ 12:59 am
The so-called “POR economy” doesn’t explain the bubble that was inflating in the housing market, which I reference here. It is the unwinding of that bubble — a massive and ongoing delveraging process — that is at the root of our problems, but you don’t want to see that. You’re simply all about finger-pointing.
Comment by Invictus — December 5, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
The so-called “POR economy” doesn’t explain the bubble that was inflating in the housing market,
No it explains the craven disregard for the economy’s need for energy and the grim determination to raise taxes in the teeth of sluggishmes shattered expectations and made conditions infinitely worse than they needed to be.
P-O-R (with O directly involved in his activist days) and the Democratic Party and their crony companies Fan and Fred created the overleveraging conditions with junk debt based on loans made to people who didn’t deserve them under CRA.
There’s nothing wrong with pointing fingers when they go in the correct direction. In fact, it’s wrong not to, and I’m not wrong.
Comment by TBlumer — December 5, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
OMG, here we go again with the CRA argument? Good grief. The CRA argument has been debunked all over the place, not least by Kroszner at the Fed (see here) and Bair at the FDIC (see here). Said Bair: “I want to give you my verdict on CRA: NOT guilty.” But what do she and Kroszner know, anyway?
Are you seriously going to argue that either by their actions or inactions as recently as this JUNE, just six months ago, “POR” will have caused GDP to decline THIS QUARTER by as much as what I believe might be 5% annualized (and would have been much worse had commodity prices –(particularly oil — not collapsed)? Or does it make more sense that we are now squarely in the teeth of a massive deleveraging that began with the popping of the housing bubble approximately 2 1/2 years ago? I’m sorry, Tom, but to assert that policy action/inaction can cause such massive GDP contraction within two quarters simply does not square with reality. Nor does the CRA argument, which has been discredited more times than I’ve been able to count, using real statistical analysis regarding loans originated under that program. I’ve yet to see a supporter of the CRA-caused-the-problem argument back up that assertion with numbers. If you’ve got a cite, I’d love to see it.
Comment by Invictus — December 6, 2008 @ 9:06 am
#5, Tight on time, but damn, I want to smoke what you’re smoking.
“Massive GDP contraction?” The highest SO FAR is -0.5%, but of course P-O-R haven’t worked their magic yet on the 4th and subsequent quarters.
I trust IBD’s take on CRA infinitely more than people who are working feverishly to cover their asses. It put its poison into the markets for at least 11 years (gradually 20 more before that) and you’re arguing that declaring Fan and Fred bankrupt 18-24 months earlier would have solved things. It was DEMOCRATS, their race-baiting obstruction in Congress, and (don’t forget) the UNAUDITABLE books at Fan and Fred (this went on for YEARS) that prevented people from really even getting an inkling of how bad it was.
Nice try, absolutely no sale.
Comment by TBlumer — December 6, 2008 @ 10:05 am
Yes, Tom, “massive GDP contraction.” I suspect Q4 will come in -4% or more, perhaps -5% (with a repeat of that likely in Q1 ‘09). That’s “massive.”
You can take IBD’s word for whatever you’d like. However, those who have debunked the CRA argument have provided actual numbers to support their arguments. What has IBD provided other than empty rhetoric? I asked you for a cite, you’ve not provided it. Do you have numbers to support your claim that CRA should be implicated in this crisis? Yes or no?
Comment by Invictus — December 6, 2008 @ 11:59 am