This week’s poem of the week is The Writer by Richard Purdy Wilbur.
Poem of the Week: 8/24/08-8/30/08
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Category Archives: Front Page
Rant of the Week: 8/24/08-8/30/08
Charles Murray argues that America’s post secondary educational system is absurd.
Essay of the Week: 8/24/08-8/30/08
Spengler is not the best writer out there. His writing is often hasty, his facts are sometimes dubious (although not as often as some his detractors would have it), and he is not particularly consistent. But he has one merit that outweighs all these sins. His is an original thinker.
That does not make him right, but it does make him an interesting read. His latest essay Americans play Monopoly, Russians chess is no exception. Almost everyone in America from far right conservatives to far left liberals would disagree with his conclusions. But if you are intellectually honest, formulating why he is wrong will require you to rethink your own viewpoint.
Hope the Chinese are prepared to buy a lot more dollars
From CNN Money….. (H/T Naked Capitalism)
Among the nightmares lurking around the corner for the already battered housing and credit markets would be a meltdown at mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Although few are predicting an imminent need for a bailout just yet, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s recently placed an estimated price tag on this worst case scenario — $420 billion to $1.1 trillion of taxpayer’s money.
This dwarfs how much it cost to help banks during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. That cost taxpayers about $250 billion in today’s dollars.
That is just Standard & Poor’s worst case scenario of course. But even if you cut that figure in half we are talking about some serious money. And other people want cash as well. From CNBC…..
Lobbyists for the U.S. automakers—General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler—briefed White House officials, as well as U.S. Rep. John Dingell and other Michigan Democrats, on a possible bailout and plan to unveil the proposal after Labor Day, according to the report.
The plan is for the government to lend some $25 billion to the automakers in the first year at an interest rate of 4.5 percent, or about one-third what the companies are currently paying to borrow, the report said.
Under the proposal, the government would have the option of deferring any payment at all for up to five years, the article said.
Who can argue against this? Iraq gets reconstruction money. Banks get bailed out. Why not the Big Three? But somebody has to loan the money to the Federal Government so that it can do all this rescuing and saving the world type stuff. The Chinese are doing a great job of providing us with free money. Current 30 year treasury rates are 4.57. The Inflation rate has been running at over 5% the last couple of months. At those rates the Chinese are paying us to take their cash.
But their capacity to do this is not infinite.
I know this will shock you all
From the Wall Street Journal….
If anything, preschool may do lasting damage to many children. A 2005 analysis by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, found that kindergartners with 15 or more hours of preschool every week were less motivated and more aggressive in class. Likewise, Canada’s C.D. Howe Institute found a higher incidence of anxiety, hyperactivity and poor social skills among kids in Quebec after universal preschool.
Promises, promises
The plant manager resigned. Very likely he was given some incentive to resign. Here’s a tip for detecting a sudden departure before it’s been announced: everyone who knows about it is having a good day. If they told you they were having a bad day you might ask why and they would have to think Click Here to continue reading.
On Deserving Food
I am a spoiled brat. This is the cause of many of my personality defects.
Last night, I had sandwiches, sweet corn, and lemonade for supper. The sandwiches were made of homemade pheasant bread, marinated chicken, homemade pickles, and tomatoes fresh from the garden. The sweet corn was also fresh from the garden and it Click Here to continue reading.
Too Tall Has Died
Joe Galloway writing on Michale Yon’s site….
Their story was told in a book my buddy Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and I wrote 15 years ago titled “We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young” and in the Mel Gibson movie, “We Were Soldiers,” released in the spring of 2002. Too Tall and Old Snake were ably portrayed in the movie.
Their argument over which of them is the Best Pilot in the Whole World sadly came to an end this week when our friend and comrade-in-arms Maj. Ed (Too Tall to Fly) Freeman slipped the surly bonds of earth and headed off to Fiddler’s Green, where the souls of departed cavalrymen gather by dispensation of God Himself.
Too Tall Ed was 80 years old when he died in a hospital in Boise, Idaho, after long being ill with Parkinson’s disease. He turned down a full dress hero’s funeral in Arlington National Cemetery in favor of a hometown service and burial in the National Cemetery in Boise, close to the rivers he loved to fish and the mountains he flew through in his second career flying for the U.S. Forest Service.
The Next Big Crisis?
From The Telegraph…..
The latest data from the Bank of Spain shows that the country’s banks have increased their ECB borrowing to a record €49.6bn (£39bn). A number have been issuing mortgage securities for the sole purpose of drawing funds from Frankfurt.