Monday, March 8, 2010

What is John McCain Doing to Sarah Palin?

I have to wonder if Juan, (oops I meant John) McCain is as foxy as he looks. The man has been leading Republicans down the primrose path for ages, and it looks as if he may pull if off again. You would think that Arizona is a conservative state, but it looks like the silver fox may be turned loose once again in the Senate hen house to betray the Republican chickens and reach across the aisle.
Even Sarah Palin is campaigning for him, and you have to speculate if the destruction of her presidential aspirations isn't one of the points of the exercise. Of course, McCain wants to be elected, but he's a cunning fellow and I'm beginning to think a bit of a chess player also. After all, it was McCain's staff who did their best to tarnish the image of the bright star who rescued his campaign, but outshone him at every turn. What better way to drag her down to his level than to associate her with issues that will destroy her base? Amnesty? He's for it. Illegal immigration? No big deal. Global warming? He believes in it. Cap and trade? He's for it but not Obama's version. FDA control of the vitamins and supplements you need to stay healthy? He sponsored a bill to help big pharma.
Is there any way Palin can campaign for McCain without implying endorsement for all these positions? Can she say, "Vote for this man, but I disagree with him on all the major issues?" That won't work and McCain knows it. You would think an officer and a gentleman would protect her and her potential career. But no, he, I think despises her base, and just as he betrayed them on the issues, he will now betray their shining, bright hope.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Your Planned Destruction

I am going to tie economics to the illegal immigration question. I am going to do that by asking you a question. It may seem simple but that is the beauty of the question. And the question is--What happens to the price of oranges when you have too many oranges? Does the price of oranges go up or down? What if you have too many apples? Same question same answer. The price goes down. It’s the fundamental law of economics --Supply and Demand-- Too much supply means falling prices. Is this racist? Does it matter if the apples are German apples or Mexican apples? Afraid not amigo. There’s nothing racist about it. Over supply means lower prices and if you have an oversupply of workers you have a lowering of wages. Nothing racist about it, that is just economics.

And that leads us to a new economic breakthrough, a new economic law and you read it here first, on the Greenskys blos, and since I discovered it, I get to name it after myself, and it’s called Ronald Neal Green’s law of national economic governance--and the law is

“The easiest way to create mass prosperity is through a labor shortage and the easiest way to create mass misery is through a labor surplus.”

There it is, the rosetta stone of economic governance. Once you have a labor shortage every law of economics moves to create higher wages which means more spending and buying and more demand for production and more workers and more wage increases. Does this lead to inflation? Absolutely not! Inflation is a function of expanding the money supply faster than the supply of goods and services increases. Anything you hear to the contrary is propaganda.

If you don’t have a shortage but rather you have a surplus of labor, that creates mass misery. How? Too many workers lowers the price of workers, called wages, just like too many oranges lowers the price of oranges. Less wages means less money to buy goods and services, and this we call falling demand. Falling demand means less need for workers and even less demand and so on and so forth. Now business’s can lower prices to stimulate demand but more often they will hold back production to keep prices up by drying up supply. When business cuts back on production it is called sound management and the financial pages praise the self corrective power of the market. When labor holds back production to keep their price up it’s called a strike and the editorialists condemn it as dangerous anarchy.

Now, you’re probably thinking, This can’t be true. Ronald Neal Greens law of economic governance, “a shortage of labor leads to mass prosperity, a surplus of labor leads to mass misery.” Where has this law been all this time? Surely, if this were true, the economists would already know about. If it’s true, why haven’t we heard about it before? Well, friends I’m here to tell you it is true, and, yes the economists know about it, and that will be the subject of a future column.


Monday, March 1, 2010

A Return to Duty

Well, I am back. After a too long hiatus while I pondered my next move I have finally moved on to another sector of the entertainment media spectrum. To wit, I am now a talk show host.
That's right, starting this Saturday, March 6, AD. (that's Anno Domini, the Year of Our Lord, saviour and deliverer Jesus Christ) I will be hosting Love and Duty, 1-2 P.M. CST out of WGSO in New Orleans.
I've done cable access television before, but this will be live and, of course, requires different techniques and skills. If you think I'm nervous you're right.
The first show will be about the judgement of Sarah Palin and the duplicity of the failed Senator from Arizona, Juan McCain. Is Sarah Palin comitting political suicide in campaigning for Mr. Amnesty and does Jaun have devious designs?
I am going to go with devious designs and, so as to build suspense (and audience), I can tell you that you will be surprised and shocked, shocked at what Juan has in mind.
Also, we will be discussing The Rigged Game, with author John Hively. One citizen reviewer in a review posted on Amazon.com called the book "...very unique and highly recommended." In fact I feel so strongly about this book and this guest, I will quote the entire last paragraph of the review, "This is the best book I've read for many years. More exciting than 'the Stranger', more useful than 'the Prince', more insightful than Freud and Nietzche combined (well...). This book is the 'Origin of Species' of modern macroeconomics."
I heartily concur with the opinion of the reviewer. Please listen in to the show Saturday. If you're not in the New Orleans area, no matter. Saturday, March 6, at 1p.m. CST go to radiotime.com and in the search box type in WGSO. Please feel free to call in and offer your opinions about the show, book or guest. If you would like a peek at the book go to Amazon.com.

Random notes and disasters: What is in the health care bill? The details are beginning to emerge. It is not a pretty sight and not for the faint hearted. As Samuel Johnson said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." It is one more planned catastrophe (I don't believe in the "good intentions" part) in the carefully planned destruction of America.
The basic flaw, of course, the overworked and staggering "elephant in the room," is that the problem is unsolvable. Huh! Sorry, but everyone neglects to mention that the more money you make available to solve a problem the more it costs to solve the problem. Where do all the unwed mothers come from? We pay for them via welfare. If we paid people to stay married they would stay married. As long we make vast sums available for cancer research we will never find a cure for cancer.
There is, in my opinion, only one way to make medical care affordable and that is to defund it. Make all medical insurance illegal. Now. For profit, non-profit, private owned, state owned--doesn't matter--make it illegal.
While we're at it, bust up the biggest monopoly union in the country, the American Medical Association (AMA) and it's stranglehold over the medical schools. We need to double the supply of doctors, technicians and nurses. Then the vaunted free market will, with this increased supply of workers, find salaries and costs atumbling down.
Also, a true price system will force Americans to consider alternative treatments and lifestyles, eat organic, exercise (in moderation we hope) more and learn to think of medicine, affordability and effectiveness in the same sentence.
Too harsh? Do you seriously think more money will help? European style single payer? It sounds, at first, better than nothing, but you now have less motivation to invest in innovative techniques, and, consequently, there will be very little growth in medical knowlege. Also, do you really want the government, medical complex having literal life and death control over you and, yes, there will be death panels by another name.
A free and liberated medical system is not a pipe dream. It was once the American way. And it can be again.