Poem of the Week: 9/9/07-9/15/07

Isaiah 14:12-21

12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!

13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.

14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”

15 But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.

16 Those who see you stare at you,
they ponder your fate:
“Is this the man who shook the earth
and made kingdoms tremble,

17 the man who made the world a desert,
who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?”

18 All the kings of the nations lie in state,
each in his own tomb.

19 But you are cast out of your tomb
like a rejected branch;
you are covered with the slain,
with those pierced by the sword,
those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot,

20 you will not join them in burial,
for you have destroyed your land
and killed your people.
The offspring of the wicked
will never be mentioned again.

21 Prepare a place to slaughter his sons
for the sins of their forefathers;
they are not to rise to inherit the land
and cover the earth with their cities.

Rant of the Week: 9/9/07-9/15/07

I always have mixed feeling when I read Martin Hutchinson. He is neither a starry eyed free marketer nor a bleeding heart liberal. Rather, he is a conservative in the original sense of the word. He does not like change.

Thus, you can usually count on him to argue that things were better in the good old days. Were markets more regulated 50 years ago? That was better then now according Mr. Hutchinson. Was there less welfare 50 years ago? That was better then now according Mr. Hutchinson.

I don’t have the same kind of uncritical appreciation for the past that Mr. Hutchinson has. But my biggest problem with him is his apparent belief that we can just change the laws back to what they use to be and society will follow meekly along back to the good old days. In reality though, culture changes law, law does not change culture.

All that is just to say that I fully support the central point of Mr. Hutchinson rant against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But I have to disagree with his assertion that the modern day financial elites are just rent seekers who add no value.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. In the good old days, a community would save enough for its own mortgage needs through local financial institutions. That made capital cheaper in absolute terms. But that also required disciplinal and sacrifice on the part of the culture.

The value the current day financial elite provide is that they get the money for mortgage without anyone in this country needing to save. But for such magic to occur you need highly paid magicians. Plus, you have to make a deal with the devil.

But that is what the baby boomers wanted so no one should pretend that they are the unfortunate victims of the evil elites.

Essay of the Week: 9/9/07-9/15/07

This week’s essay is something that everyone who is an adult (or thinking of becoming an adult) should read. Even if you read through Mortgage Origination Channels for UberNerds without understanding anything in it you will still benefit. At least you will have an idea of what it is that you do not understand about how mortgages work in this country.

I am not saying that every adult should read this essay because of the all the problems that mortgages are currently causing in the economy as whole. Rather, it is the way that all this complexity can personally effect you that makes this a must read. Indeed, the one flaw of this essay is that it does not spell out clearly how this can all go wrong for the consumer.

For example, let us say that you take out a loan with bank a. Now let us say that bank a sells the servicing rights to your mortgage (and if you don’t know what servicing rights are that is why you need to read the essay) to outfit c.

Now remember that most mortgages require you to pay your property taxes in with your monthly mortgage payments. This is to protect the people who loaned you the money from having the house get sold for back taxes. If that happened they would losses their money without having any recourse.

With that in mind, let us say that outfit c neglects to put the money you are paying towards your property taxes in the escrow account like they are suppose to. When the tax bill comes due, it is not going to be paid by outfit c. You will most likely be unaware of this until you receive notice that unless you pay the back taxes and penalties, your house is going to be put up to auction by the tax man.

All this because of the actions of a company that you never even signed a contract with.

I would swear that this is a joke, but apparently it is not.

This company sells carbon offsets to people so that they can feel righteous. Here is a description of one of the ways you can offset your carbon…..

The treadle pump is a simple device which uses human power to pump water from wells, streams and lakes. One person – man, woman or even child – can operate the pump by manipulating his/her body weight on two treadles and by holding a bamboo or wooden frame for support. These pumps displace the diesel pumps that are more commonly used.

Benefits
• Replaces polluting diesel-powered pumps
• Allows 2 or 3 harvests a year, instead of 1
• Prevents farmers having to leave their families to work in the city during ‘off season’
Farmers’ income increases, often between two and five-fold

As a guide: 1 treadle pump = 0.65 tonnes CO2 saved per year.

I would think that this whole company was fake except that David Cameron apparently buys carbon offsets from this company.

Megan McArdle is scandalized by the child labor implications of “or even child.” But I can’t get over how funny the whole thing is. If someone did this as a parody I would say that they were a genius. But to have someone try to pass this stuff off for real is just priceless.

I got to get in the business of selling offsets.

A European mayor worth electing

There is town in Germany that is effectively controlled by neo-Nazis. You can read all about it here. But there was a section in the article that I thought demonstrated both why Europe still functions and why Europe is going down the tubes.

It all started in 1992, on April 19 — Easter Sunday. About 120 neo-Nazis raised the Reichskriegsflagge, a symbol used by Hitler’s Nazi party, in front of the old farmhouse at the end of Forststrasse. They wanted to celebrate the 103rd anniversary of Hitler’s birth. “We’ll smoke you out,” the right-wing radicals allegedly told the G. family next door. The family had previously complained about constant neo-Nazi music. And it had paid a steep price for such complaints: break-ins and slashed tires came first. Then one day they found their chickens dead and hanging from the garden fence.

Partying with the Nazis

On Easter Sunday 1992, the family barricaded itself inside the house. The mayor at the time, Fritz Kalf, was there with them, armed with a shotgun. When the police were called, a mere four officers arrived — and they didn’t dare enter the farmhouse where the Nazis were partying. Later, three dozen more cops showed up and put an end to the revelries, but not before the doors and windows of the G. family’s house had been destroyed along with Kalf’s car. The culprits vanished in the darkness. Indeed, the only who received a citation that evening was the mayor — for carrying a gun without a permit.

It is impressive that Germany still has a mayor willing to put himself at risk to defend his people. But it is sadly typical of modern day Europe that he was the only one to receive a ticket.

Poem of the Week: 9/2/07-9/8/07

In the beginning of this week’s essay, Sandmonkey quoted from a poem by Philip Larkin. It seems fitting that I should make Larkin’s poem “This be the verse” poem of the week.

The poem reminds me of Sandmonkey and of very many other bitter young people that I know. It explains why so many people of my generation don’t want to have children and can’t wait to die.

For those that don’t know, I should point that title of this poem alludes to Requiem by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Rant of the Week: 9/2/07-9/8/07

The most basic function of any state is to insure that it is the only organization that uses force to compel people to do things. Therefore, armed gangs are one of the biggest signs of the failure of the state. The more powerful the gangs are, the weaker the state is.

In America, most white people don’t worry about gangs as long as they limit themselves to killing minorities. Thus, the growing power and sophistication of American gangs has escaped the notice of most Americans.

But for how long will this be the case? One thinks of how the failed state of Afghanistan suddenly came to people’s notice. Pockets of lawlessness have a way of making themselves know even on the wealthy and secure.

That is why I think it is worth listening as Stanley Crouch laments the fact that nobody wants to face the reality of the American killing fields.

Essay of the Week: 9/2/07-9/8/07

Want to read about a poor little rich boy who lost his grandmother?

No?

How about if the poor little rich boy belongs to the corrupt upper crust of Egyptian society and was sent off to collage in the US? How about if he does not really believe in anything but loves his grandmother and so goes through with a traditional Muslim funeral?

As you might gather, I don’t really like the Sandmonkey. There is something about his personality that comes through his blog that I don’t like. But I found his essay to be a fascinating window into a world that I don’t really know much about. As the essay went on, I even found that my cruel hard heart managed to feel some sympathy for him.