Archive → June, 2008
Mortgage bailout could mean higher gas prices
It may sound like rhetorial suicide to say it out loud, but despite 400,000 mortgage borrowers seeking foreclosure help on their homes, the worst thing the US could do now is a bailout. In fact, the $300 billion mortgage bailout bill currently working its way through Congree could lead not only to a bigger crisis down the line, but could even result in higher prices at the gas pump.
With the Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and spending like drunken sailors, the value of the US dollar has fallen precipitously in the last couple years. That’s because Democrats’ only solution to problems is to treat the US Treasury like a money factory and national lottery.
It’s a pretty simple economic principal; the more money you print, the less each dollar bill is worth. And as a country we’ve been printing way too much of the green stuff lately. Annoyed by high taxes? Here’s $600 as a rebate for nearly every American; not based off a budget surplus, mind you, but just to curry favor with voters.
Having trouble paying for that high-risk mortgage you took out on interest-only payments three years ago without thinking ahead? Heck, let the Fed help catch you up, now that you’re hopelessly behind on your payments because, in reality, you paid two or three times what a property was worth thinking the payments would always be that cheap, or you could flip it in a couple years and quadruple your investment. Sorry, doesn’t work that way.
Suffer an epic natural disaster like a bridge collapse, spring flooding or a hurricane? Hey, let the Fed foot the bill at five times what the actual cost is… what’s a couple trillion between friends, right?
Here’s what a couple trillion between friends is: economic disaster. Hate or only dislike OPEC leaders as you choose, but they have one thing right: one of the biggest contributiing factors to the high price at the gas pump is the weakening of the US dollar.
We’ve printed way too much money without economic productivity to back it up, and if we don’t learn out lesson soon, the US dollar is going to start looking more like the Mexican peso than the British pound. And so it is that the mortgage bailout could quickly lead to even higher gas prices; a $300 billion bailout is just rewarding foolish “predatory” high-risk-credit lenders for loaning money to folks without the means to pay it back.
If Congress were sensible, they’d let the market bear the short-term pain of turning 400,000 home owners back into renters, because in the long run, it would teach banks to stop predatory lending and it would strengthen the value of the US dollar. And that would lead to lower prices at the pump more quickly than any other factor.
Palin for Veep?
While Hillary may have dashed the hopes of liberal women for a female in the White House, the GOP still has a legitimate – if somewhat longshot – contender to be John McCain’s running mate, a heartbeat away from the presidency if he wins in November.
Sarah Palin, the current GOP governor of Alaska, is hardly of the shrill, Hillary-like, progesterone-ingesting style of female politicians. For one, she is ardently pro-life and recently gave birth to a fifth child she knew would be born with Downs Syndrome. She has maverick credentials, going up against incumbant GOP governor Frank Murkowski, who she accused of impropriety, a charge that ultimately proved true.
Furthermore, she is a fiscal conservative. The problem for conservatives with Palin is that she buys into the Al Gore line on global warming, an important battle line in US energy reform; her views on domestic drilling, especially in her state’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, have been kept under wraps since emerging as a potential running mate for McCain.
Palin has potential, but comes from a state too small in electrol votes to be considered a lock; also, while she adds youth to the ticket, Palin has only been governor of Alaska for two years, lacks foreign policy experience and could be seen as underqualified for the second-in-command role.
We’ll see what McCain thinks soon, I’m sure.
Bob Green a breath of fresh air
A breath of fresh air has arrived on the scene in Bloomington, MN, politics. Bob Green, the GOP-endorsed candidate, has decided to take on Ann Lenczewski, the DFL incumbant for the Minnesota House District 40B seat this November, and unlike many Republicans in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, he’s an actual conservative.
Green is hoping to point out Lenczewski tax-increasing shortcomings in the upcoming contest, and certainly her record, which includes voting with her party to raise the state fuel tax in the middle of one of the largest oil price spikes in the last three decades, speaks for itself.
While WonderfulPessimist.com has been hesitent to embrace McCain for president, Pawlenty for governor or Coleman for US Senate, due to their liberal Republican tendancies, we have no such hesitation with Bob Green: if you’re tired of a career politician like Ann Lenczewski sitting in their home theater chairs and voting constantly to keep Minnesota one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, Bob Green is the guy to support this November in House District 40B!
McCain’s electric car contest
Hoping to put a shine on his environmental suit of armor while not completely abandoning free-market solutions, GOP Presidential nominee John McCain on Monday proposed a $300 million award for the first person to, “an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology.” To claim the prize, the car model would have to “deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have “the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”
It’s a unique idea that depends both on the capitalistic drive toward innovation and American ingenuity. The prize would equate to $1 from every American, and would result in a new generation of automobiles that would divorce America from its dependance on fossil fuels, not for reasons of so-called “global warming,” but as a way to save people money, an everyday pocketbook concern.
The foundations of such a solution have already been laid; the Science Channel recently aired a Mythbusters Young Scientists Challenge that featured electric cars that are equal or superior in speed and power to gas models. If such designs can be refined and made economically viable for commercial use without the long recharge times or the severely limited travel radiuses, it would certainly be an economic boon to the US economy, currently weighed down by gasoline costs.
Who would have thought that some of the most innovative ideas on energy reform would come from one of the oldest men to ever run for president?
Brokaw steps in for Russert
In the wake of the unexpected passing of Meet the Press journalist Tim Russert, NBC has turned to a familiar face to carry the network’s top-rated Sunday news program through the November election: former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw.
Brokaw is uniquely qualified to fill not only the Meet the Press role, but fill in as the network’s Washington Bureau Chief and political expert in the short term, as the network news big-wigs plan out the future of the position, which may eventually be split into two or three separate roles. Certainly, in addition to his on-air role, Russert filled at least two admin jobs among his duties.
Still, no one will replace Russert, who embodied the “fair and balanced” ethic Fox News adopted for its branding; Russert asked tough questions of members of both parties, which is the epitome of “fair and balanced,” and his presence on NBC News will be missed, and certainly personalities like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and others are pale imitations at best.
Drill here, drill now, pay less
California auto insurance may soon be cheaper than a gallon of gas in California if prices keep rising out of control. OPEC, perhaps a bit worried by John McCain’s commitment to increased drilling in the US under the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” campaign, has become divided as Saudi Arabia has pledged to increase production by an additional 200,000 barrels a day by July, and up by nearly 3 million barrels per day by the end of 2009.
In spite of these aggressive new commitments, demand continues to outpace supply and refinery capacity, rising at a pace this year of about 1 percent, with production rising by only one-fifth of that pace. Clearly, depending on OPEC is not a winning strategy to guarantee future oil supplies and low prices going forward. Drill here, drill now, pay less.
