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PAGE 4, JULY 6, 2009, THE ISLANDER
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Is anybody out there paying attention?
By Pamela Permar Shierling
"Czarred And Feathered" is an
enlightening look at our "appointed"
Federal Government. And you thought
we elected representatives. Shame on
you! The July 1 editorial on Investor's
Business Daily editorial (www.ibdedito-
rials.com) website discusses the Obama
appointed czars who are currently look
ing out for us.
PolitiFact.com from the St. Peters
burg Times believes the count has
swelled to as many as 28 czars under
Obama. I'd make a good czarette? czar-
rina? as long as there's a crown, or at
least a tiara, involved.
The IDB editorial reveals informa
tion about 10 czars.
"Many of these czars, most of whom
are useless or counterproductive, are
sitting in newly created positions. They
range from Kenneth Feinberg, the pay
czar who is the special master on execu
tive compensation, to Earl Devaney,
who, as the stimulus accountability
czar, will chair the Recovery Act Trans
parency and Accountability Board."
And from NewsMax's MoneyNews:
it seems as though when our govern
ment handed out the TARP money to
banks they also purchased warrants
for bank common stocks. According to
Dan Mangru, MoneyNews, the TARP
law says when the banks pay back the
TARP money, the U.S. Treasury must
sell back the warrants but . . . er. . .
the law, oops, doesn't specify for how
much.
According to Linus Wilson, assistant
professor of finance for the University
of Louisiana at Lafayette, our illustri
ous Treasury only recouped 20 cents on
the dollar of their original investment
in Old National Bancorp. At this rate,
taxpayers will be out a mere $9 billion
or so. Go to MoneyNews.com to the
Street Talk section and click on Trea-
tury Ready to Throw Away Billions.
Who is running this country? □
Cap-and-trade: unread, undead
By Paul Jacob
The House just passed the Wax-
man-Markey cap-and-trade carbon
emissions control act. If it passes the
Senate, expect the president — the
bill's pusher-in-chief — to sign it at
first opportunity.
I have not read the bill, so I should
not comment on it at length. But then,
neither has any congressman read the
now 1000-pages-and-plus wonder. So
they should not have passed it.
We are supposed to believe it is a
good bill because we must trust the
congressional assistants who wrote it.
If anything is a testament to “the
power of belief’ it's the enthusiasm for
a bill that has not been read, much less
understood.
One thing is certain: The cap-and-
trade program will increase the cost
of energy in the United States. It is
essentially a big, fat tax increase on
businesses and consumers ... in the
face of which, businesses and consum
ers will decrease activity, depressing
the economy.
The White House and congressional
leaders say the bill will create new
“green” jobs. But increasing the cost of
doing business does not spur employ
ment in general. It will likely increase
pressure to build plants and factories
outside the U.S., and even the specific
jobs created by such mandates tend to
come at the expense of other jobs.
The most astute commentary on
the bill, so far, rests on a comparison
between today's darkening days and
the darker days of the Great Depres
sion, when that day's Congress and
president rushed through the Smoot-
Hawley Tariff. . . thereby digging the
depression deeper, marching America
into a scary, institution-threatening
poverty that only ended in the after-
math of World War II.
Back in 1930, general political wis
dom had it that protectionism pro
tected the whole economy. There was
scant evidence for this. From Adam
Smith on, the studied understanding
of protectionism was that it helped
some (generally richer) people at the
expense of other (generally poorer)
folks.
But protectionism did make a plau
sible surface sense, like the minimum
wage does to so many, today. And
remember, in those days of yore, econo
mists had not yet been bought off by
the line of state power and the allure of
political prestige, so, almost to a man,
they opposed the bill.
Then and now, politicians hate lis
tening to economists when it comes
to resisting the in-crowd wisdom.
Skepticism about protectionism? How
un-American! Lincoln was for trade
restrictions and the protective tariff!
How dare you oppose Lincoln?
Just so, Democrats, today, think it
bad form to be skeptical of A1 Gore’s
trendy hysteria. Besides, he does have
an awful lot of scientists on his side.
Indeed, the president and his new
guard love to talk of “science” as if
the pronouncements of scientists were
utterly immune from political pres
sure and economic enticement. The
fact that those scientists are generally
paid for with tax-supported research
grants doesn’t faze today's political
leaders. And yet how many of the pres
ident's men — or the current Congress
— would buy the science supported by
tobacco companies? How many would
hesitate to dismiss science paid for by
oil companies?
The double standard regarding the
misapplication of science still leans
to favor those who like to do “great
things” in government, leaning the
other way from those who proceed cau
tiously regarding intrusive regulation,
taxation, and prohibitions.
We witnessed this in the 20th cen
tury. Think of all those economists
who pretended they could guide the
economy. Now we may be witnessing
it in scientists who have pushed the
Waxman-Markey monstrosity.
The parallels here are striking.
Today's leaders in economics and
finance, until about nine months ago,
confidently thought they could predict
the future and manage the economy
and banish risk with an elaborate
mathematical and statistical arsenal.
Just so do today's climate scientists
aim to model the long-term trends of
the global ecosystem. They pretend
they can predict where the “tipping
points” are, and tell us why, with an
air of bracing certainty, we must stop
increasing 002 atmospheric produc
tion immediately.
In a mere decade, we have wit
nessed two financial bubbles, the
tech bubble and the housing finance
collapse. What's the next bubble to
expand only to burst? Columnist Steve
Christ thinks that the Waxman-Mar
key regime would create a cap-and-
trade bubble.
For that to happen, we would need
a compliant Federal Reserve, hell-bent
on pumping up the funds to feed it.
Alas, Ben Bemanke, fearing a Greater
Depression, will likely prove more than
willing.
But the next bubble to burst may
be far more salutary. In a few years
enough data may build up, at long
last, to prick the climate catastrophism
bubble. By this I mean “the science” of
panicky predictions. Yes, “global warm
ing” may soon become an international
embarrassment. And then we will wit
ness a whole lot of experts skulking
off to write their next research grant
proposal in a well-deserved ignominy.
I just hope this happens in time for
a new Congress to repeal Waxman-
Markey - before its most burdensome
caps kick in, ensuring a long, ugly life
to our deepening depression. □
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