Author: Redactor

Categories
government transparency

Sanders versus Bernanke

I don’t side with Bernie Sanders very often, but Vermont’s favorite socialist son occasionally brightens our capitol with something surprising.

Early in March, the senator challenged Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with an interesting question: “Will you tell the American people to whom you lent 2.2 trillion of their dollars?”

Bernanke then said that the Fed explains its policies online. Terms and collateral requirements, and so on.

But that didn’t answer the question, so the senator pushed on. And Bernanke, not being the Master of Obfuscation that former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan was, replied with an honest and unmistakable “No.”

He then went on to explain why he wouldn’t: It might “stigmatize” receiving banks, don’t you see.

Sanders mocked the answer. You see, he believes that the Fed should be transparent, especially regarding the current round of crisis loans. 

I’m with him on this. I believe governments can only be truly republican — run by the public — when their operations are open for all to see. But there’s another reason: A transparent Fed would be a talked-​about Fed. And the more people learn about the Fed, the more likely they will be to dissolve it. 

America didn’t always have a national bank. And, like Tom Jefferson and Andy Jackson, I think we can do better without one at all. 

We just need a good rule of law regarding money. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall term limits

Quinn Is In

Blagojevich is out! Quinn is in! There is gubernatorial hope for corruption-​riddled Illinois.

Now, admittedly, I don’t agree with Governor Pat Quinn on every issue. But few governors can boast Quinn’s long record as an anti-​establishmentarian reformer.

In April of last year, Pat Quinn, then Illinois’s lieutenant governor, was pushing hard for a ballot measure to give voters the power to recall elected officials. This was after the sitting governor, Blago, got in hot water for various corruption, but long before he was caught scheming to sell president-​elect Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Certainly, the first target of a new recall power would have been Blagojevich. The bill passed the Illinois house but unfortunately failed in the senate.

Of course, Quinn’s track record goes way beyond the political battles of 2008. In addition to being pro-​recall, he is also pro-​initiative rights and pro-​term limits. In 1994, Quinn did the heavy lifting to put a term limits measure on the ballot. It would have capped state legislative tenure at eight years had not the Illinois Supreme Court outrageously removed the ballot measure, blocking the vote.

Quinn is in. Illinois reformers should beat a path to his door and urge him to push for these necessary changes harder than ever.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Accountability general freedom responsibility

Good Guys and Bad Guys

There are two types of people, those who divide people into wicked capitalists and saintly victims, and those who don’t.

The folks at ACORN, a lefty activist group, see only evil capitalists and downtrodden everybody-else.

Columnist Michelle Malkin reports how ACORN champions the cause of homeowners crushed by the credit crunch and housing collapse. Except that some of their poster-​child victims are hardly innocent.

A few weeks ago, as a mob cheered and cameras recorded, an ACORN gang broke into a padlocked home in Baltimore. It had been owned by Donna Hanks, expelled when the bank foreclosed. “This is our house now,” ACORN activist Louis Beverly declared, with Donna by his side. 

Man of the people, right?

Except that Hanks was not merely hammered by circumstances. She bought the house in 2001 for $87,000, but later refinanced for $270,000 — money she presumably spent. In 2008 the house was sold for less than the new loan but more than twice the 2001 price. In 2006, Hanks declared bankruptcy, but did not comply with the terms of the court. Malkin gives further details of her irresponsibility, but you get the idea.

There are innocent victims hurting, now, in the current financial collapse. But being a borrower rather than a lender tells us nothing by itself. As the antics of ACORN show, either can be the victim.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets too much government

Doctoring on the Installment Plan

How does a successful doctor deal with patients lacking insurance? Dr. John Muney decided to offer a deal. For $79 each month he would service patients with unlimited office visits, some tests, and even in-​office surgeries — at all his AMG Medical Group centers.

Now, the deal’s not for me. I have insurance through work, and I also have a family, so that $79 would have to be multiplied by four. Real money. But for some people, I bet, this makes perfect sense. 

Yet, if government gets its way, no patient of New York’s five boroughs — where Muney’s clinics are located — need ever consider the good doctor’s innovation. Why? Because the state Insurance Department has declared his service a form of insurance and says it requires a license from the state.

What were you thinking, Dr. Muney? This is a free country, and … you can’t just do what you want, you know. 

Dr. Muney is fighting back. The application form for this contract has THIS IS NOT INSURANCE emblazoned on every page. He is challenging the bureaucracy’s ruling.

Once upon a time, doctors regularly engaged in this kind of pricing. Many doctors — perhaps most — engaged in pro bono work for the poor. Other had special rates, etc. But the American Medical Association pressured politicians to put an end to such competitive practices.

Thanks, AMA.

As for Dr. Muney, my thanks to you is not sarcastic. Hang in there.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
national politics & policies too much government

Bailing Out of the Bailout

Freedom lovers would like to bail out of Washington’s endless bailout … that is, the government takeover of the economy.

The big spenders often won’t even debate the matter. Radio talker Rush Limbaugh is catching flak for saying he doesn’t want President Obama’s scheme to “work,” which sounds goofy until you realize that many of Limbaugh’s critics, including the White House, carefully ignore Limbaugh’s point. Economic upturn, great. Permanent loss of our freedom and permanent expansion of government, not great.

GOP congressmen aren’t exactly the most credible messengers when it comes to opposing massive new spending and intervention in the economy. But I’d rather see them repent and fight than repent and slink away in embarrassment.

Some Republican congressman are indeed fighting the good fight. And some of the nation’s GOP governors are too. Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal just turned down $100 million in bailout funds that he argues would result in permanently higher taxes for Louisiana businesses.

In a message distributed by Townhall, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford notes that the trillion or more dollars “in so-​called ‘stimulus’ money … is really little more than a social policy wish  list of the Left.”

We live in dangerous and interesting times. The only wish list worth pushing, now, is establishing the economic ground rules — and Constitutional principles — that should have been guiding us all along.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets

The Next Market To Melt

“During melting markets, all pension funds come under siege.”

I’m quoting from a February article by John Entine. This Reason magazine cover story is entitled “The Next Catastrophe,” and, like so many things these days, it’s scary. Entine explains how fragile pension funds can become when markets collapse. 

Regular listeners know that I’ve been worried about what we might call the Ultimate Catastrophe. Increasing demands on Social Security and other entitlement programs, like Medicare, added to never-​ending deficit spending, threaten to bankrupt the nation.

But Entine looks at a different economic crisis. He points out that all pension funds can become unhinged in chaotic markets. Old news. What’s new? Well, many government and union pension funds began taking riskier stances regarding stock investing a few decades ago. And with greater risk comes You Know What.

Worse yet, many funds have been hijacked by well-​meaning do-​gooders, investing in “socially responsible” causes rather than reasonably run profitable companies. These funds are worth over $2 trillion. That is, they are until their fundamentals prove weak or worse, and they go down, down, down.

As with the mortgage markets, it seems that pension management has undergone a huge paradigm shift, away from security and savvy, towards … nonsense. 

Things are not looking up, up, up.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.