I you think that the $600 billion Ben Bernanke announced in connection with QE2, the second round of “quantitative easing” (otherwise known as “electroinically creating money”) is the upper limit, think again:

Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a strong supporter of the Fed’s easing policy, noted in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the weak economy and low inflation warranted the Fed’s action and that more such purchases might be needed in months ahead if the economic outlook doesn’t turn. “I would continue to want to apply accommodative monetary policy until I had some confidence that that situation was changing,” Mr. Evans said, noting that $600 billion is a “good place to start” the easing program.

The odds that we’ll have to dust off the wheelbarrows are increasing. Here’s one lesson of history the smarties seem to have forgotten — “In Germany the Weimar republic began printing excess money in 1919, but the hyper-inflation didn’t take hold until a few years later.”

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The Nanny Statists just keep going and going (HT Say Anything via Instapundit) –

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said using a cell phone while driving is so dangerous that devices may soon be installed in cars to forcibly stop drivers — and potentially anyone else in the vehicle — from using them.

This proposal represents strike three against LaHood, following these two previous items:

• He’d like to tax every mile you drive (first item at link), instead of (in the real world that means “in addition to”) every drop of gasoline you consume.
• He wants to “coerce people out of their cars.” Yes, those were his words (fourth item at link).

Ray LaHood is in his own way every bit as bad as Norma “No Profiling” Mineta, whom Rich Lowry described in 2002 as having “ignorance (that) appears to be nearly invincible,” ever was.

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Item (HT Powerline), based on a deliberate hit by political operatives in the Obama Department of Justice:

According to the DOJ report, Christie — favored by many conservatives to run against President Obama in 2012 — spent a total of about $2,000 more than his budget allowed on 23 trips he took between 2007 and 2009.

… Tom Fitton, the president of DOJ watchdog organization Judicial Watch, agreed with that sentiment, telling TheDC that his first instinct was that the report was nothing more than a hit job from an “ideological and hostile Justice Department that leaked the report.”

The linked Daily Caller item makes it clear that Fitton is correct.

Powerline notes that the actual amount involved is “a whopping $2,176″ (less than $100 per trip, spread over three years), and that “Most of this was because Christie stayed at hotels where he was to deliver a speech the next day.”

The federal government currently spends the annual amount Christie allegedly “wasted” of $725 per year ($2,176 divided by 3) in less than .007 seconds (seriously), and probably spent far more than $10,000 to produce a report about an alleged $10,000 in overspending.

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From Bloomberg via Zero Hedge:

A deal to extend soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts won’t be completed until December, and some Democrats in Congress said an accord may not be reached this year.

“I don’t even know what the options are at this moment,” Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state who serves on the tax-writing Finance Committee, said yesterday.

ZH translation: “nobody even has a clue what is going on.”

As readers here know, what they’re really talking about is whether they’ll let a tax increase on everyone who pays taxes after eight years of having essentially the same tax system in place (2003-2010) just happen automatically.

Increasing taxes on anyone in an economy that is barely recovering after a recession is a big mistake. It’s among many things that Herbert Hoover did to make a bad situation worse while he was still at the helm in the early 1930s.

Specifically relating to taxes:

By 1931, excessive government spending on these programs created a deficit that could only be remedied by higher taxes. So Hoover approved the largest peacetime tax increase up to that time. Taxes were raised on virtually everything, including individuals and businesses. Raising taxes deterred many from private investment, thus stunting economic growth and preventing job creation even further.

The larger historical lesson — one not taught in the FDR-adoring schools (bolds are mine):

Led by President Hoover, the government embarked on what (Dr. Benjamin M.) Anderson has accurately called the “Hoover New Deal.” For if we define “New Deal” as an antidepression program marked by extensive governmental economic planning and intervention-including bolstering of wage rates and prices, expansion of credit, propping up of weak firms, and increased government spending (e.g., subsidies to unemployment and public works)-Herbert Clark Hoover must be considered the founder of the New Deal in America. Hoover, from the very start of the depression, set his course unerringly toward the violation of all the laissez-faire canons. As a consequence, he left office with the economy at the depths of an unprecedented depression, with no recovery in sight after three and a half years, and with unemployment at the terrible and unprecedented rate of 25 percent of the labor force.

Hoover’s role as founder of a revolutionary program of government planning to combat depression has been unjustly neglected by historians. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in large part, merely elaborated the policies laid down by his predecessor. To scoff at Hoover’s tragic failure to cure the depression as a typical example of laissez-faire is drastically to misread the historical record. The Hoover rout must be set down as a failure of government planning and not of the free market.

80 years later, we’re on autopilot to do the same thing.

From Colorado Springs via Clearwater, Florida (video is at link):

Nov 16, 2010 4:14 pm US/Mountain

He didn’t think he’d see his family again, but on Tuesday Ken Harper woke up home in Colorado.

Harper was involved in an accident while fishing in Clearwater, Fla. He and two friends spent 18 hours clinging to the boat after it capsized. On Monday his family was there to greet him when he arrived at Denver International Airport.

“It’s wonderful to be home,” Harper said. “It’s very nice.”

“Just being able to lay my eyes on him and put my arms around him was the best feeling in all of life,” Harper’s wife Marva said.

Harper said all he did was hold on minute to minute, hoping to get rescued.

“I knew if I could do that, as long as I was physically capable of going that, then I’d be okay,” Harper said.

Many of those minutes involved a battle against 5- and 6-foot waves.

“Every time a wave would come over it would shove the life vest up; and just getting banged against the boat. My legs are sore; jellyfish stings and stuff like that; nothing I can’t heal in a few days from,” Harper said.

Thoughts of his family helped him to persevere.

“A situation like this focuses you significantly on what’s important and what’s really not important and you come to the conclusion about the only thing that’s really important is your friends and family.”

The Coast Guard spotted the group Saturday morning. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

This crap (“TSA Now Putting Hands Down Fliers’ Pants”) cannot be allowed to stand.

The incident described here by Erin (WARNING: graphic and extremely disturbing; HT Matt at Weapons of Mass Discussion, and kudos for his activism on this) is a direct result of the TSA’s new actions.

I’m hoping against hope that Matt Drudge picks up on Erin’s post. I encourage others to at least do what I did (I’m doing more) and leave a tip at Drudge’s home page. That’s because I believe the pressure for this not to become a news story, or at least a story outside of Southwest Ohio, will be immense.

I would encourage anyone and everyone, especially in this area of Ohio, to contact their representatives, and ensure that what Erin, the sexual assault victim, actually happens, namely:

I am speaking out against the TSA and share my sexual assault case to ensure that this does not happen to anyone else, anywhere.

I will not be a silent victim of sexual assault by a TSA agent. Total Sexual Assault.

I am calling for immediate change to this new enhanced body patdown search.

I am calling for the TSA agent who sexually assaulted me to be fired.

I am calling for you, a fellow American, to stand up against these new enhanced full body patdown search procedures of the TSA.

The TSA is an out-of-control rogue agency. If they ever had it in the first place, Janet Napolitano and Homeland Security have lost any and all sense of perspective.

Honest to God, I’m not even sure I recognize my own country any more.

__________________________________________________

UPDATE: I contend that TSA is committing sexual assault even if it informs you of what it intends to do and gets your “permission” to do it, as the “permission” is clearly obtained under the duress of missing your flight and being singled out for causing a scene and further delaying other airline passengers.

From Mike Wilson, in a forwarded e-mail, concerning the race which currently has Wilson trailing incumbent Democrat Connie Pillich by 5 votes, as seen at right (bolds are mine):

Dear Fellow Citizens and Taxpayers,

It’s been a few days since sending an update, but we’ve been continuing to work to ensure that our race is counted correctly. In a race this close, both sides usually examine the results to make sure that any irregularities or potential fraud are investigated fully. That tension between the sides helps keep the process clean.

As you probably know, my background is in mathematics. After the unofficial results were released, my team took some time to analyze the race to understand how the election deviated from the lead we saw in our last poll.

What we found was interesting. In Lincoln Heights in particular, we found that support for Republican candidates dropped from 8% to 2% in a year where Obama was not on the ballot. We also saw significantly increased turnout compared to the last midterm election while the population of the village had declined due to the redevelopment of a housing project.

While the statistics were certainly unusual, it didn’t prove anything. However, it did cause us to start digging deeper to see if there was anything unusual. At 11am and 4pm, poll workers are supposed to post lists of who has voted up to that point. We were able to obtain those lists from the board of elections and what we found surprised us. 36 normal (not provisional) voters in Lincoln Heights voted at an address from which they had filed a change of address with the USPS (i.e. moved). 9 more voted from an address that did not exist and in many cases those were empty lots that were in the process of being redeveloped.

With so many normal votes of already questionable validity, we became concerned over the 136 provisional votes cast. We were unable to obtain a list from the Hamilton County Board of Elections, so yesterday we filed suit to give us the ability to analyze the provisional votes before they are accepted (or not) by the Board of Elections. The hearing for this suit will be held today at 9am.

So where does this leave us?

* We are down 5 votes with what was cast by election day.
* 81 unscanned ballots are leftover from election day – these should break our way
* About 150 valid absentee ballots are expected to have made it in before the deadline.
* About 1500 provisional votes are outstanding from the whole district (typically about 60% of these end up counting)
* Once these are counted, we will almost certainly be close enough to force a state mandated recount.

From here, we will work to make sure that all legal and valid votes are counted. We’ll keep you posted as new developments arise.

In Liberty,
Mike Wilson
Republican Candidate for State Representative
Ohio House District 28

Here’s hoping Mr. Wilson prevails.

Of all the offensive, sickening things we’ve had to witness during this administration, the sight of companies, unions, and other providers of health care plans having to run begging like supplicants to Uncle/King Sam to get waivers to continue their health care plan designs is near the top, if not actually there.

Michelle Malkin articulates the outrage:

At this point, the better question is: Who won’t be on the list after the Obamacare central planners fully acknowledge the destructive consequences of their schemes?

… Make no mistake: Team Obama isn’t granting the waivers out of bleeding-heart compassion for the affected workers, but out of a panicked urgency to avoid a public relations disaster.

As I’ve boiled it down before:

Old Democrat promise: Everyone gets to keep their health insurance.

New Democrat promise: You can keep your health insurance…if you BEG hard enough for an Obamacare waiver.

What King Sam giveth, King Sam can whimsically take away. This meets the dictionary definition of tyranny (“arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority”). It must be stopped.

Update, Nov. 18: In a nicely done post, Mark at WoMD links to a complete list of all of the whimsically lucky waiver winners.

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Howler of the morning, in a story by former WaPo guy Howard Kurtz at the Daily Beast (aka where Newsweek went to quietly die):

From the moment (Keith) Olbermann was found to have donated money to three Democratic candidates, there has been a deepening sense of anger and frustration among his colleagues, according to interviews with eight knowledgeable sources. These sources, who declined to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the situation, say that several of NBC’s front-line stars, including Tom Brokaw, have expressed concern to management that Olbermann has badly damaged MSNBC’s reputation for independence.

Make that Howler of the Month.

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Subtle but very real bias at KSBW.com:

Many Rally To Support Boy’s Flag Display
Motorcycle Riders Back Denair Teen

How “many”? Answer: Hundreds.

Who were these “motorcycle riders”? Answer: “hundreds of members of the American Legion Riders” — their identity is not in the body of the report.

Further, as reported elsewhere:

Cody Alicea, 13, was accompanied to Denair Middle School by a large group of motorcycle riders and several hundred others, all flying the American flag.

I guess KSBW wanted us to think that only motorcycle gangs support flying the flag. Zheesh.

________________________________________

Rhymes with Right has a modest proposal for solving the airport-body scan controversy. Make sure to get to the last five paragraphs.

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Timothy Dalrymple has Obama and his current standing pegged perfectly (HT Instapundit):

The stinging rebuke the American electorate delivered in the midterm election has prompted debate among the professional commentariat and apparently also within the administration itself: is the problem with the policies that Obama has delivered or with a failure to promote those policies and their benefits to the American people?

Democrats would prefer to believe the latter. Since their policies are superior, they believe, supporting them is rational.

… The problem is not that Obama has not been selling. He has never stopped selling. The problem is that the American people aren’t buying it — because they are not buying him. The American people are not foolish; the problem is not with the sales pitch. The problem is, in part, the product.

… The Democrats have paid the wages of Obama’s spin. Independents and moderate Republicans who voted for Obama learned that they had been sold a counterfeit. Now the greater portion of Americans will not care what Obama says until they believe that he is genuine.

If there’s a genuine bone in the guy’s body, it has not yet been discovered.

Remember the Chinese toy recalls in 2007? Here’s a reminder, from the New York Times on August 2 of that year:

Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products are covered in lead paint.

According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China.

Toys are terrible enough. How about human-ingested pharmaceuticals?

Remember the 2008 heparin contamination? As much as I follow the news, I knew it had occurred, but I had no idea it was as serious as described:

The FDA’s handling of the 2008 heparin contamination saga has been severely criticized by leaders of a Congressional investigation into the matter.

In a letter dated April 30, 2010 to FDA commissioner Dr Margaret Hamburg, Reps Joe Barton (R-TX) and Mike Burgess (R-TX), of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, say they are “very troubled” by how the FDA has handled the investigation to find out who was responsible for the contamination of heparin.

The contaminated heparin, which came from China, was linked to more than 80 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions. The contaminant was identified as overly sulfated chondroitin sulfate, but who was responsible for the contamination has not been determined.

Why not? Isn’t pharmaceutical manufacturing done using strict, totally traceable batch controls?

Here, yes. Elsewhere, it seems not. In fact, it’s sometimes not even possible to identify the location of the factory where items were made.

What follows from the May 2010 edition of Manufacturing and Technology News is clearly disturbing (HT to an e-mailer). Some snips from the read-the-whole-thing piece (bolds are mine):

You Don’t Know Where Your Drugs Come From And Neither Does The FDA; U.S. Imports 90 Percent Of Its Antibiotics (And Vitamin A) From China

China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest manufacturer of bulk drugs, vitamins and nutritional supplements and is now exporting a large portion of its production to the United States. Tens of millions of American consumers have no idea that the majority of the over-the-counter drugs they are purchasing now originate in China, where there are “relatively few regulations related to pharmaceutical exports in comparison to industrialized economies,” according to a report commissioned by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The increasing dependence on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients and nutritional supplements “presents a range of issues for concern.”

… The United States needs two tons of heparin per month. Seventy percent of that is sourced from China, says the study. Tainted Chinese heparin (made from pig intestines and used as a blood thinner) supplied to Baxter International caused the death of 81 Americans in early 2008. After a fall-off of heparin exports in 2008, “the situation has changed in 2009,” says the study. “Heparin exports for the first quarter of 2009 increased 155 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008. The price of heparin also doubled (to $4,354 per kilogram) in the first quarter of 2009.”

China accounted for 61 percent of all ibuprofen sold into the U.S. market in 2008, with its product used in Advil, Aleve and Motrin, among others. More than 90 percent of the tetracycline supplied to the United States and used in most antibiotics is now supplied from China.

… In the United States, virtually all companies manufacturing pharmaceuticals are inspected by the Food and Drug Administration. But not imports, which freely enter the country from factories that will never see an American inspector.

… ‘‘… the FDA does not know the number of establishments subject to inspection …” according to the study.

I’m certainly not a big fan of overzealous, excessively costly regulation, a practice that the FDA has domestically developed into an art form during its nearly 50 years of existence. As a quality systems director at a U.S. pharmaceutical company until the late 1980s, my late father was quite familiar with the agency’s “let’s make any molehill we find into a mountain, even if it has nothing to do with safety” approach to inspections. I’m also not alone in believing that the FDA takes too much time reviewing new drug applications, and all too often bases its decisions on specious, overly cautious, and sometimes politically tainted reasoning.

But no one with an ounce of sense would dispute the need to have all pharmaceuticals manufactured using traceable, batch-controlled protocols accompanied by complete supporting records, or the need to have the relevant information readily available and systematically monitored. (Sadly, the portion of the population with an ounce or more of sense may not include Big Pharma execs who are fine with importing and using the stuff. Someone needs to ask them why they’re okay with the status quo.) The fact that we don’t demand these minimal regimens on imports is a disgrace.

To be clear, this is a failure of congressional oversight and executive branch execution that crosses at least two presidential administrations (probably three). It must stop.

From Little Rock (HT CNA):

Nov 14, 2010 / 01:06 pm (CNA).- Father Donald Murrin, SVD, pastor of St. Peter Church and St. Raphael Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas never wavered in the childhood choice to become a priest.

“I always wanted to be a priest. I remember raising my hand in the first grade when our pastor asked who wanted to be a priest or sister — that’s when I first remember the call,” Father Murrin said. “I was at church all the time. It was only a half-a-block away. It was just part of us.”

In first grade, multiple hands shot up when their pastor asked the children about vocations. Over the years, he said he watched the number dwindle. But his hand always remained steady.

“I never changed my mind,” he said. “No one was surprised that I became a priest.”

Father Murrin grew up in Greenville, Pa., which is five miles from Ohio. His mother died when he was only two years old, so his aunt helped his father raise him and his brother. His father later remarried, so Father Murrin also has four half-brothers and four half-sisters.

When he wanted to enter the seminary at 13 years old, his father said he was too young. His brother, Nelson, proposed a solution. He too would go to the seminary.

His brother was a year older than Father Murrin but missed a year because of rheumatic fever, which put the two in the same grade.

“At the time, I didn’t give it another thought other than it meant I could go,” Father Murrin said. “He made that sacrifice to go with me even though he did not have the desire to become a priest. Without him, I would not have gone.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.

As usual, outstanding:

One of the many great statements:

(Illegal immigration) “makes chumps out of honest, hard-working, and motivated legal immigrants.”

Also, don’t miss Whittle make mincemeat of La Raza’s claim that the Southwest belongs to Mexico.

It’s here.

It will go up here at BizzyBlog early Wednesday afternoon (link won’t work until then) after the blackout expires.

The post demonstrates that GM has pushed an unusually high number of cars onto dealer lots. It “just so happens” that the company records a sale when a vehicle leaves the factory, not when the deal sells it.

I believe it has led the company to book about $1.2 billion in “sent-ahead profit” (earnings before interest and taxes) not prudently supported by its level of sales through the first ten months of this year. Evidence that the shipments to dealers have been unreasonable: As of the end of October, they’re sitting on an average 86-day supply.

It “just so happens” that the company’s financials need to look as profitable as possible in advance of its initial public offering.

So the strategy appears to be: Pump up dealer inventory before the IPO, and then dump it in 2011 to get it back to normal levels when the pressure is off, and (hopefully) when the industry will be doing so well that no one will notice the billion-dollar hit in the opposite direction. Just what you’d expect from Obama Motors.

I guess after about a year and a half of dancing around the truth, the Associated Press decided that confession of some of the truth about Government/General Motors is good for the soul.

Conveniently, the AP’s de facto partial confession, delivered via reporter Sharon Silke Carty, comes as the success of the company’s initial public offering seems assured.

Carty’s confession consists of four reasons why investors should consider avoiding the stock once if it indeed makes it to the public markets (and yes, the original uses all caps where indicated):

Reasons to sit out GM’s initial stock offering

… the world’s most charming used car salesman couldn’t cover up major concerns hanging over GM’s initial public offering on Thursday.

… Critics say GM is speeding into its IPO before it has proved that its structural problems are fixed. Other IPOs often leave the investing public a little slap-happy: Each newly minted stock certificate could turn into the next Walmart or Apple, but it’s rare that one does.

Here are some reasons investors may want to sit this one out:

EVEN WITH AN IPO, GM IS STILL GOVERNMENT MOTORS

… This stock offering will only reduce the government’s stake in GM from 61 percent to 43 percent. It will take more stock offerings, staggered over the next few years, before the U.S. government is out of the car business.

For shareholders, that means GM may not always put investors first. Political priorities may trump their demands. [1]

… YEARS OF FUZZY MATH STILL NOT FIXED

GM admits it doesn’t have great control over its finances. It said so in a long list of potential risk factors spelled out in its stock registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [2]

… MEET GM’S NEW STEPBROTHER, THE UAW

The United Auto Workers union has gone from a drag on the company to a part owner. How the new relationship will play out is still unknown. [3]

… ELECTRIC VEHICLES AREN’T A SAVIOR [4]

Notes:

• [1] — Up until now, the press has been treating the IPO as a “See I told you so” exercise (as in, “see, the company isn’t failure, and the government’s takeover was really okay. And this IPO will leave the government as a minority owner”). Now that it’s on the verge of success, we learn this from a professor quoted by Carty: “The government is absolutely going to call the shots, even if they are below 50 percent.” Thanks, Sharon.
• [2] — Though material weaknesses in internal control (the technical term Carty should have employed) have been present at GM for a long time, the press has rarely acknowledged their existence. Even after almost a year and a half of the government calling the aforementioned shots, many of them are still there. At most other companies, this would be treated at least as a bit of a scandal. At many, it would be cause for wholesale housecleaning.
• [3] — The UAW will protest that their health plan owns a share of the company, not the union itself. Okay, fine. But that doesn’t change the fact that the press has as far as I’ve seen never acknowledged the drop-dead obvious conflict of interest the union has when it negotiates with GM archrival Ford (one chance missed was noted in August 2009 at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog). Of course the untion will be tempted to bargain harder with Ford, especially if its GM and Chrysler members and their respective health plans are worried about those two companies’ viability being compromised — especially if they are seriously underperforming.
• [4] — So “electric vehicles aren’t a savior”? Who knew? Certainly not the White House, which has been touting green cardom as a primary reason for getting and staying involved in auto company ownership.

It’s also odd that Ms. Carty managed to write a 1,700-word article about the IPO without using the word “China,” given that as of the middle of last week, GM was “in the final stage of talks to sell equity to long-time Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp in conjunction with its landmark initial public offering.” This should be a fifth concern for investors, as that will make it three political entities (don’t forget Canada) whose primary concerns are political and not necessarily financial.

Here’s a final point to make about IPOs that the most of the establishment press has avoided like the plague: GM is simply not the type of company that would be ordinarily be considered a good IPO candidate, based on the criteria that are usually considered:

• (For established companies) A strong record of growth, particularly growth in earnings — In GM’s case, less than one year of positive numbers wouldn’t cut it, especially since its market share is slipping. The annualized future earnings growth benchmark for companies going public is usually at least 15%-20%. Though you never want to rule it out, that doesn’t seem particularly likely in GM’s case.
• (For start-up and early-stage enterprises) Being in an entirely new and pioneering industry in its early stages — Obviously, that’s not GM.

AP’s partial confession comes nowhere near to making up for its mostly consistent reality avoidance during the past 18 month in news stories about GM.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Open letter and response, as carried in today’s Wall Street Journal:

We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.

We subscribe to your statement in the Washington Post on November 4 that “the Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy’s problems on its own.” In this case, we think improvements in tax, spending and regulatory policies must take precedence in a national growth program, not further monetary stimulus.

We disagree with the view that inflation needs to be pushed higher, and worry that another round of asset purchases, with interest rates still near zero over a year into the recovery, will distort financial markets and greatly complicate future Fed efforts to normalize monetary policy.

The Fed’s purchase program has also met broad opposition from other central banks and we share their concerns that quantitative easing by the Fed is neither warranted nor helpful in addressing either U.S. or global economic problems.

Cliff Asness
AQR Capital

Michael J. Boskin
Stanford University
Former Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors (George H.W. Bush Administration)

Richard X. Bove
Rochdale Securities

Charles W. Calomiris
Columbia University Graduate School of Business

Jim Chanos
Kynikos Associates

John F. Cogan
Stanford University
Former Associate Director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget (Reagan Administration)

Niall Ferguson
Harvard University
Author, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Nicole Gelinas
Manhattan Institute & e21
Author, After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street—and Washington

James Grant
Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

Kevin A. Hassett
American Enterprise Institute
Former Senior Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

Roger Hertog
The Hertog Foundation

Gregory Hess
Claremont McKenna College

Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Former Director, Congressional Budget Office

Seth Klarman
Baupost Group

William Kristol
Editor, The Weekly Standard

David Malpass
GroPac
Former Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary (Reagan Administration)

Ronald I. McKinnon
Stanford University

Dan Senor
Council on Foreign Relations
Co-Author, Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle

Amity Shales
Council on Foreign Relations
Author, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

Paul E. Singer
Elliott Associates

John B. Taylor
Stanford University
Former Undersecretary of Treasury for International Affairs (George W. Bush Administration)

Peter J. Wallison
American Enterprise Institute
Former Treasury and White House Counsel (Reagan Administration)

Geoffrey Wood
Cass Business School at City University London

A spokeswoman for the Fed responded (paragraph breaks added by me):

“As the Chairman has said, the Federal Reserve has Congressionally-mandated objectives to help promote both increased employment and price stability. In light of persistently weak job creation and declining inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee’s recent actions reflect those mandates.

The Federal Reserve will regularly review its program in light of incoming information and is prepared to make adjustments as necessary. The Federal Reserve is committed to both parts of its dual mandate and will take all measures to keep inflation low and stable as well as promote growth in employment. In particular, the Fed has made all necessary preparations and is confident that it has the tools to unwind these policies at the appropriate time.

The Chairman has also noted that the Federal Reserve does not believe it can solve the economy’s problems on its own. That will take time and the combined efforts of many parties, including the central bank, Congress, the administration, regulators, and the private sector.”

From Richborough, England:

Nov 14, 2010 / 06:45 pm

The Anglican Bishop of Richborough told his flock that he plans to become Catholic because Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic constitution “completely changed the landscape” for Anglo-Catholics and he now believes that he must lead the way to union with the Universal Church.

Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough, England said in a pastoral letter to priests and people in the Richborough area that he will resign as bishop as of Dec. 31. He will not conduct any public episcopal services. This “difficult” decision followed much thought and prayer, he remarked.

“I will, in due course, be received into full communion with the Catholic Church and join the Ordinariate when one is erected in England, which I hope will happen early next year.”

Pope Benedict established the proposed Anglican Ordinariate, a special jurisdiction within the Catholic Church, in his apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus.”

Bishop Newton explained that although the issue of the ordination of women as Anglican bishops has been an important factor in his decision, it is “not the most significant.”

Noting the “surprise” of the Pope’s action on Anglican-Catholic relations, he said that most Anglicans have prayed for union with the Catholic Church. However, this union has seemed less likely because of “the new difficulties concerning the ordination of women and other doctrinal and moral issues affecting the Anglican Communion.”

“Although we must still pray for sacramental and ecclesial unity between our Churches that now seems a much more distant hope,” Bishop Newton said. The ordinariates provide an opportunity for “visible unity” and Anglicans are able to retain “what is best in our own tradition which will enrich the Universal Church.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.