I have a new piece up at Hudson New York called "The Money Myth."  It's here.

I also have a new piece up at Power Line, on the death of major newspapers.  It's here.

FRIDAY,  MARCH 13,  2009

CHEER UP, AMERICANS! - AT 8:58 P.M. ET:  Turns out, according to Rasmussen, that Americans are having a bad case of low self-esteem.  Given what's taught in our schools and colleges, and preached to us by the mainstream "we're a terrible country" media, it's not surprising.  But work needs to be done.  From Rasmussen:

America has a case of low self-esteem. And it’s not getting any better.
Just 34% of Americans now believe the United States will be the most powerful nation in the world at the end of the 21st Century.

Slightly more (37%) say America will not be number one, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty-nine percent (29%) are not sure.

Younger Americans are more pessimistic than their elders. Fifty-one percent (51%) of those ages 18 to 29 say the United States will not be the most powerful nation at the end of the century, compared to 21% of those 65 and older.

If we can get some sanity back into our schools, this might turn around.  I say we have a very strong chance of remaining number one if we recall our values, and keep the left from gobbling up our politics.

On another matter, Americans are right:

But 41% of U.S. voters worry that America’s preoccupation with the ongoing economic crisis will make us more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.

Worries me, too.  We're taking our eye off the ball.  I'm especially concerned about Pakistani exports, and I don't mean rugs.

March 13, 2009

DOW CLOSE - AT 4:03 P.M. ET:  The Dow closed up 54, to 7224, extending its rally. 

COMMENT:  The administration is suddenly speaking optimistically about the economy.  Isn't it remarkable - just days ago, in order to justify vast spending and deficits, we were told the economy was collapsing.  Now, with the spending bills passed and signed, we're told the situation isn't that bad.  Ever feel used?

JAPAN THREATENS - AT 3:47 P.M. ET:  From Britain's Guardian:

Japan today threatened to shoot down a satellite that North Korea plans to launch early next month if it shows any signs of striking its territory.

Tokyo's warning that it would deploy its multibillion-dollar missile defence system raised tensions in the region after North Korea said that it had identified a potential "danger area" near Japanese territory along the rocket's flight path.

The regime told the International Maritime Organisation that the missile would be launched during daylight between 4 and 8 April, and that its boosters would fall into the Sea of Japan – about 75 miles (120km) from Japan's north-west coast – and the Pacific Ocean.

Officials in Tokyo said they reserved the right to destroy any threatening object in mid-flight, despite North Korean warnings that it would consider such a move an act of war.

COMMENT:  The most intriguing thing about this story is the possible role of the United States.  Was the Obama administration consulted by Tokyo before the Japanese made their threat?  If so, did Washington approve the threat?  We'll be following this.

March 13, 2009   Permalink

SUMMERS'S SUMMERY PREDICTION - AT 2:55 P.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

Lawrence Summers, President Obama’s top economics adviser, said this morning that he saw early signs that the economic crisis was beginning to ease. But he emphasized that the crisis would not end anytime soon.

Mr. Summers seemed to have three main goals in his talk, which was delivered at the Brookings Institution in Washington. The first was arguing that the Obama administration was sufficiently focused on the financial crisis. The second was connecting its longer-term plans, like an overhaul of the health-care system, to the resolution of the crisis. And the third was projecting confidence that the crisis would indeed end.

COMMENT:  Larry Summers is a good man who was a breath of fresh air when he was president of Harvard...until his ouster because the air was too fresh.  I hate to see him reduced to spouting the latest Obama talking points, which is what he was doing today.  No real news here.

March 13, 2009   Permalink

TIMES CRIMES - AT 1:27 P.M. ET:  Bush Derangement Syndrome is still alive at The New York Times, and there appears to be no rush for treatment.  Today, the Times offers a scathing, vile piece trashing the Freedom Institute, a policy center that former President Bush wants to attach to his presidential library at Southern Methodist University.  The story starts this way:

WHEN MARINE ONE, the presidential helicopter, bore George W. Bush away from the White House lawn on the afternoon of Jan. 20, the American people turned their attention, and desperate hopes, to his successor.

COMMENT:  "Desperate" hopes?  Well, we know what's coming, don't we?  And The Times doesn't disappoint.  Turns out the Freedom Institute is controversial at SMU.  Of course, anything with Mr. Bush's name on it would have trouble at almost any American university, but the ridicule attached to the idea of a freedom agenda thoroughly typifies today's academic left.  If a Democratic president had exactly the same idea, he'd be seen as an intellectual hero.  The hypocrisy flows.

March 13, 2009    Permalink

DOW INDIFFERENT - AT 1:10 P.M. ET:  The Dow is down four points, to 7166. 

CHINESE CHECKING - AT 9:14 A.M. ET:

BEIJING (AP) - China's premier expressed concern Friday about its massive holdings of Treasuries and other U.S. debt, appealing to Washington to safeguard their value, and said Beijing is ready to expand its stimulus if the economy worsens.

Premier Wen Jiabao noted that Beijing is the biggest foreign creditor to the United States and called on Washington to see that its response to the global slowdown does not damage the value of Chinese holdings.

"We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried," Wen said at a news conference following the closing of China's annual legislative session. "I would like to call on the United States to honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets."

COMMENT:  Pretty humiliating, isn't it?  We sold our souls to this dictatorship for some quick financial fixes, and now they're lecturing us.  One of our great financial nightmares is that the Chinese will stop buying our notes.  That is not change that Washington believes in.

March 13, 2009   Permalink

WARNING - AT 8:10 A.M. ET:  From the Jerusalem Post:

The Islamic states circulated a new resolution at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday that would criminalize defamation of Islam as a human rights violation and encourage the imposition of Shari'a.

According to the nonbinding governmental resolution, titled "Combating Defamation of Religions," anything deemed insulting to Islamic sensitivities would be banned as a "serious affront to human dignity" and a blatant violation of religious freedom.

The resolution would attempt to influence "local, national, regional and international levels" to incorporate such guarantees of this perceived freedom in their "legal and constitutional systems."

"It is a covert package coordinated by Pakistan against the West," said Leon Saltiel, director of communications at the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, on Thursday. "They think there is too much liberty and freedom of expression in the Western world, which therefore defames religion."

COMMENT:  Take this very seriously.  This kind of campaign is spreading.  While most people with common sense will reject it, and recognize it, as Leon Saltiel does, as a threat to our freedoms, not everyone has common sense.  Some of the people who don't are running our colleges and universities, where the Saudis have made huge inroads with large cash grants.  Young people are especially vulnerable to "fairness" and "human rights" arguments that are anything but.  Infiltration, not direct military aggression, may be our greatest challenge. 

March 13, 2009   Permaprint

STALLING AUTOS - AT 7:34 A.M. ET:  Although The One is now spouting the line that things aren't as bad as they seem - see our first posting today, at 7:13 a.m. - folks in the auto industry may not see it that way.  From the Detroit Free Press:

North America’s automotive parts supply base faces an imminent collapse over the next 30 to 90 days unless the federal government provides at least $10 billion in immediate funding, Grant Thornton LLP partner Laura Marcero said today.

If suppliers go out of business, automotive assembly plants could be forced to shut down, bringing the industry to a halt, Marcero said.

“Washington has been focused on the crisis with GM and Chrysler, but …we have an immediate supply base issue that really pre-empts what is going to happen with GM and Chrysler,” Marcero said following a speech to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit.

COMMENT:  Do they know about this in Washington?  If the industry is shut down, does that mean things are as bad as they seem, or is it just more disinformation from Rush Limbaugh?  Inquiring minds want to know.

March 13, 2009   Permaprint

AFGHAN DILEMMA - AT 7:24 A.M. ET:  We forget that The One has declared Afghanistan to be the good war - the one where things aren't going well - as opposed to the "bad" war, Iraq, where we're winning.  Look, I don't get that either, but my mind is not as deep, as subtle, and as flexible as...you know whose.

One of Urgent Agenda's sources in Afghanistan, a Westerner traveling through, writes us today, and asks this question:

Follow discussions about Afghanistan closely as the administration and commanders struggle to come to grips with the fact that, for counterinsurgency force-to-population ratios to work, either coalition forces or Afghan forces or both will have to grow exponentially.  Allowing Afghanistan to drift along in the background was no longer acceptable once Barack declared it the "good" war.  But is he willing to make the massive commitment necessary to really make a difference here?

Ah, that is indeed the key question. Will Obama make the commitment, or are we about to see one of those "leave Afghanistan to the Afghans" statements, or, just as bad, a quick and deceptive deal with the Taliban?  My confidence in this administration is not running too high.  This is the crowd that was willing - until an uproar stopped it - to appoint Samuel Freeman, a China- and Saudi-loving lobbyist, to a sensitive intelligence post.  Judgment, anyone?

March 13, 2009   Permaprint  

TRANSLATION REQUIRED - AT 7:13 A.M. ET:  During the election campaign, many of us complained that we could never figure out exactly where Barack Obama stood.  The problem persists.  It may require speech therapy, something like that.  I never thought of it as a medical issue, but maybe we should look to medical science for some kind of miracle cure.

After weeks of scaring the daylights out of the nation, and using fear to slam through both a hugely expensive "stimulus" package and a budget so loaded with pork that the Muslim community considers it religiously offensive, the president now says that, well, maybe things really aren't that bad.  I am not kidding.  Consider:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Confronting misgivings, even in his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of his blueprint to overhaul the economy Thursday, declaring the national crisis is "not as bad as we think" and his plans will speed recovery.

Challenged to provide encouragement as the nation's "confidence builder in chief," Obama said Americans shouldn't be whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news and he was "highly optimistic" about the long term.

The president's proposals for major health care, energy and education changes in the midst of economic hard times faced skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, as senators questioned his budget outlook and the deficits it envisions in the middle of the next decade.

More economic analysis from the president, as noted by reader Greg Koster:

"A smidgen of good news and suddenly everything is doing great. A little bit of bad news and ooohh , we're down on the dumps," Obama said. "And I am obviously an object of this constantly varying assessment. I am the object in chief of this varying assessment."

You are?  Really?  Well, I guess messiahs always get too much credit and too much blame.  Messiah is a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

"I don't think things are ever as good as they say, or ever as bad as they say," Obama added. "Things two years ago were not as good as we thought because there were a lot of underlying weaknesses in the economy. They're not as bad as we think they are now."

Profound.  Profound.

We are raising a generous reward to assign to anyone who can figure out what's in the president's mind.  If things aren't that bad, why are we doing the panic spending? 

Does the term "con job" resonate with you?  How about "Chicago politics"?  What about "Obamzi scheme"?

March 13, 2009   Permaprint

THURSDAY,  MARCH 12,  2009

BULLETIN - AT 7:23 P.M. ET:  Although it took an electron microscope to find it, some spine involving a foreign matter was detected today at the White House.  From Fox News:

The White House is taking offense at U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's comment that the United States is a "deadbeat" donor to the world body.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Ban's word choice was "unfortunate," given that the U.S. is the largest contributor to the United Nations. The U.S. pays 22 percent of the organization's nearly $5 billion operating budget but is perennially late paying its dues.

Ban made the "'deadbeat" comment Wednesday during a private meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol.

COMMENT:  Good for Gibbs, at least in this case.  The secretaries-general of the UN always get captured by the organization's secretariat and become mouthpieces for the America-doesn't-do-enough crowd.  The UN ought to be happy we're still members of the club, and haven't asked its "diplomats" to leave New York by slow freighter.

March 12, 2009   Permalink

TROUBLED WATERS - AT 7:05 P.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Top banking regulators were taken aback late last year when a California congresswoman helped set up a meeting in which the chief executive of a bank with financial ties to her family asked them for up to $50 million in special bailout funds, Treasury officials said.

Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. Water’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board of directors until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 in stock in the institution.

COMMENT:  Why am I not surprised?  Maxine Waters is one of those pseudo-leftist congressional frauds who constantly reminds us that she represents "my people."  I suspect that "my people" usually means her immediate family.

There's not much chance this will end her career.  She'll just tell "my people" that those coming after her are bigots, and the votes will pour in.  It's so sad when voters are so manipulated.

March 12, 2009   Permalink 

DOW WOW - AT 6:38 P.M. ET:  The Dow soared 240 points, to 7170, continuing Tuesday's rally.  This is a bear-market rally.  Let's see how long it continues.

THIS IS WHAT WE NOW CALL OPTIMISM - AT 2:01 P.M. ET: 

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. shares and bonds rallied after Standard & Poor’s lowered its debt ratings one level and raised the outlook to “stable,” comforting investors who feared a sharper cut as profit falls at GE’s finance arm in a global recession.

The switch to AA+, from AAA and with a “negative” outlook, affects long-term debt, S&P analysts said in a statement today.

GE, which held the top rating since 1956, said in a statement doesn’t foresee “any significant operational or funding impacts.” The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company’s shares rose 87 cents to $9.36 at 11:55 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

COMMENT:  The market rallies because GE's debt rating wasn't cut as much as had been feared.  This counts for good news and a reason for "investors" to get back in.  The language of Wall Street is very far from the language of Main street.

March 12, 2009  Permalink

GM DOESN'T NEED MORE CASH...NOW - AT 1:47 P.M. ET:  From AP:

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. says its restructuring plan is starting to take hold, improving the automaker's fortunes at least to the point that it won't need a $2 billion government loan installment that it had requested for March.

Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said Thursday that GM formally told the Obama administration's autos task force on Wednesday that it wouldn't need the money this month. But in an interview with The Associated Press, Young would not say when the struggling automaker would need more government money or whether it will reduce the size of its loan request.

COMMENT:  The key point here is that GM still has to sell cars - a fact not even mentioned in the story.  It's a car company.  Historically, some of its executives haven't realized that.  It may be able to put off more loan requests, but it can't get back to health unless it builds cars that people want, and unless they buy them.

March 12, 2009   Permalink

DOW UP - AT 1:40 P.M. ET:  The Dow is up 145 points, and has now crossed back above 7000, to 7075.  This appears to be a bear-market rally, which has happened before in recessions, and occurred near the start of the great Depression as well.

AMERICANS TOUGH ON IRAN - AT 8:22 A.M. ET:  Results of a new IBD/Tipp poll show Americans to be tougher on Iran than their government, which means the facts may be getting through:

Americans remain in broad agreement that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons, with 78% taking that stand in the latest IBD/TIPP Poll vs. 77% the last time we posed the question in September 2006. However, unlike in '06, 52% now believe the U.S. should take military action to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons if diplomacy and economic sanctions fail. Two and a half years ago, when we asked if military action should be taken to stop Iran's uranium-enrichment activities, only 39% said yes.

COMMENT:  Fascinating result.  It's especially fascinating when you look at the charts that accompany the story.   As the quote above notes, when respondents were asked whether the U.S. should strike militarily if other means fail to stop the Iranian nuclear program, some 52% said yes.  But only 37% said no.  Remarkably, 48% of Democrats said yes, as opposed to 43% opposed.  The only sub-group saying no, naturally, was liberals. 

Problem is, the president is a liberal, and Congress is run by a liberal leadership.  And that is the message Iran is getting.

March 12, 2009   Permalink 

NO PREZ, NO GLORY - AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  This relates to the story just below.  Andrew Malcolm, of the L.A. Times's great Top of the Ticket blog, has an item this morning headlined:

As Mexico's drug wars rage, Obama lowers U.S. drug czar's job

It turns out the U.S. now has a new drug czar, the guy in charge of the war on drugs.  But announcement of the position wasn't, presumably, important enough for the president:

So when Vice President Who's-Its showed up Wednesday to formally announce the Obama administration's drug czar and make his familiar comment about only being No. 2, the political world got the signal instantly: This job is not important enough for the commander-in-chief to do the announcing.

COMMENT:  And this comes with, as we report below, a drug war escalating on the U.S.-Mexican border.  This administration has a tin ear on foreign policy, as witness the now wrecked appointment of dictator-loving Charles Freeman to be head of the National Intelligence Council.  The president must get a couple of nights of quality sleep, and start to move decisively.

March 12, 2009   Permalink

DOWN MEXICO WAY - AT 7:53 A.M.   From the McClatchy Newspapers:

WASHINGTON — President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.

"We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense," Obama said during an interview with journalists for regional papers, including a McClatchy reporter.

"I don't have a particular tipping point in mind," he said. "I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens."

COMMENT:  Yeah, I would say that killing U.S. citizens would be unacceptable.  I'll go along with that. 

These quotes from the president show a flaw in this administration - an inability to zero in on a serious problem and propose a rapid, effective response.  It's oh so intellectual, almost too reasonable.  There must, in leadership, be the grand gesture, the memorable phrase.  "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"  What we get from this president, an attractive and bright man, is too much mush.

There's a crisis on our border - not a vague problem to be contemplated.

March 12, 2009   Permalink

IRAN SUSPICIONS - AT 7:17 A.M. ET:  From AP:

Two diplomats say Iran's national car company has made plans to purchase large quantities of carbon fiber, which is under United Nations embargo because it could be used in the country's nuclear program. The automaker's chief executive denied it.

The two diplomats independently told The Associated Press that their countries' intelligence agencies had gathered information that Iran Khodro executives were planning international orders for carbon fiber.

Some would be used for fuel tanks in a new car that runs partly on compressed natural gas, the diplomats said.  But carbon fiber is also a component of advanced centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

COMMENT:  Time is on the mullahs' side.  Our government doesn't seem overly alarmed.

March 12, 2009   Permalink

END THE STARVATION! - AT 7:05 A.M. ET: 

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street employees’ base salaries may double as bonuses, which can account for the bulk of pay for bankers and traders, shrink, said Alan Johnson, who runs a compensation consulting firm.

Base salaries have ranged from about $80,000 to $300,000, with bonuses often climbing into the millions of dollars, Johnson said. Now, he says employees who received $250,000 in base salary may get an increase to $500,000 or $600,000.

“Regulators are either requiring it or imploring people to do it,” said Johnson, founder of New York-based Johnson Associates. “Their belief is that part of the reason that firms got in trouble was they had an excessive focus on bonuses because salaries were too low to live on.”

COMMENT:  Another image builder for Wall Street.  Yeah, those salaries were too low to live on.  My great fear is that Wall Street will learn nothing from the current crisis, and will simply figure out a way around new rules.  Our free-enterprise system, the greatest engine of economic progress in history, has been given a black eye.  I'm not sure, considering some of the personalities involved, that the eye will soon be healed.

March 12, 2009   Permalink