The Asian Conservative

Rick Santelli, vocal Squawk Box contributor on CNBC, voiced his opinion on the proposed mortgage bailout and it’s grown legs and has been running a marathon around the internet this past week.  Rick brings up some very key points in his “rant” and he speaks for many “in the shadows” and I’m not talking about illegal immigrants.  The biggest key to his argument is fairness.  Fairness, in my opinion, will never exist in a society as diverse as the United States.  Not everyone IS the same and, therefore, not everyone will HAVE the same.  The United States was built on a premise that it rewards it’s citizens for hard work, and it gives EVERYONE a FAIR opportunity to make something of themselves.  It’s the citizen’s self motivation that determines his/her success.  Santelli is voicing his opinion on Obama’s plan to help the “losers” in the mortgage game.  The current administration is planning on giving relief to those that are behind on their mortgages.  Where does this leave the mortgage holder’s that are current?  According to Obama, if we pull the people that are behind out, it will help everyone.  Hmmm… that sounds familiar (do the “Joe the Plumber” comments ring a bell)?  In the end, the bottom line to this whole argument is… Why are we rewarding bad behavior?”  With all these bailout’s there are strings attached.  That’s what the people have to watch for.  Everytime the government gives us a hand-out, the cost is generally a little bit of our freedom.

-CN

Here are the clips in chronological order. As always…Enjoy!




chris Economics, People Fairness, mortgage, mortgage bailout, Pork, rant, Rick Santelli

Here is a simple video explaining how the credit crisis came to be.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized Part 1

The Crisis of Credit Visualize Part 2

jeff Economics credit crisis 2008

Happy Chinese New Year Folks, It’s the Year of the Ox, which is coincidentally (?) Obama’s astrological sign according to the Asian calendar.

Obama wants money for education, contraceptives, alternative energy spending, infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.), and tax breaks. Other interesting things include a “buy American” clause. I haven’t read any more into it than that.

Critics dislike the long-term nature of the plan. Infrastructure will inevitably take a long time for the trickle down because of the time it takes to pass the bill, figure out what needs to get built, apportion money, approve contracts and so on. I, for one, like the long view because we definitely need better roads and bridges.

What do you think of the stimulus plan?

Links:

The BBC has a nice rundown –
Q &A: Obama Stimulus Plan. 

Update:

CSPAN compares House vs. Senate stimulus plans American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Interesting proposed changes: increase homeland security allotment from $1.1B to $5.0B. Reduce education spending by $3.0B?

WSJ Map of which states get stimulus help, I’m happy to see that Michigan gets a lot of help per capita for job training. The manufacturing sector people are going to need it.

jeff Economics, Policy stimulus plan

Yesterday President Obama announced a plan to impose a $500,000 maximum salary cap for executives or CEOs of companies taking US bailout money.

Many people, especially those on Wall Street cried foul because it reeks of socialism, or at least non-capitalistic behavior.

Of course on the other hand, the Government wouldn’t have had to do this if the idiots hadn’t given themselves multi-million dollar bonuses despite posting multi-billion dollar losses (or going bankrupt or otherwise). These overpaid executives unfortunately are the face of current modern politicians: mega-wealthy predominantly white males that get away with everything.

The folly of these executives is a clear case why the GOP should “re-brand” itself.

jeff Economics, Events, Policy bailout