Free Republic

Liberals Spinning Economic Uncertainty The American Prospect has partisanship down to a science with Mark Schmitt's new article, Uncertainly Wrong. We have heard a lot in the past 18 months about uncertainty and its affects on the economy but only now did we realize that...it's all Bush's fault. In his own words, “Today's uncertainty was baked in nine years ago, by the same people who are now capitalizing on it.” Schmitt is speaking about the sunset clause on the tax cuts that cause them to expire at the end of the year. This doesn't represent George Bush not shoving policy...

The American Prospect has partisanship down to a science with Mark Schmitt's new article, Uncertainly Wrong. We have heard a lot in the past 18 months about uncertainty and its affects on the economy but only now did we realize that...it's all Bush's fault. In his own words, “Today's uncertainty was baked in nine years ago, by the same people who are now capitalizing on it.” Schmitt is speaking about the sunset clause on the tax cuts that cause them to expire at the end of the year. This doesn't represent George Bush not shoving policy down our throat. This...

It's NOT the Economy, Stupid: It's the Mess in Washington Published: Thursday, 2 Sep 2010 | 10:55 AM ET By: Jeff Cox CNBC.com Staff Writer Despite all the worry about the sluggish US economy, businesses and investors are finding an even bigger reason to be cautious these days: the political mess in Washington. "Businesses—especially smaller businesses, independent businesses—they don't know what their cost structures are going to be because of government-imposed changes," David Kotok, founder of Cumberland Advisors, said on CNBC this week. "Half the US economy's holding back because of this great uncertainty that's coming from Washington." Investors, too,...

At present there's quite a lot to criticize President Obama about when it comes to his administration's economic policies. But with regard to last Friday's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) revision which allegedly points to a weakening economy, the anger should center on what a worthless number GDP is, as opposed to Obama's admittedly limited worth as an economic strategist. One editorial that decried the revised number and the President's surely unfortunate policies noted a big drop in new home sales and weak manufacturing data as symptoms of those policies. It went on to say that during economic recoveries numbers like...

THE BATTLE OVER FISCAL POLICY has been joined. In one corner stands Jean-Pierre Trichet, urging an immediate adoption of austerity. In what the Financial Times described as a "strident" article published in its own op-ed pages, the European Central Bank president last week proposed tax increases and spending cuts throughout the industrialized world. Trichet's call for fiscal austerity in the FT reiterated his assertion last month at the Group of 20 meeting that such hair-shirt policies would boost confidence and therefore the economy, an argument last heard 80 years ago. ("G20 Channels Herbert Hoover," June 8) In the other is...

-- snip -- Government policies designed to stimulate the economy seem to be having the opposite effect. Consumers aren't buying, businesses aren't hiring and those fortunate enough to have some cash on hand don't seem to be investing. I call it the mattress economy...

Whether the 2007-09 slump was the worst since the 1930s or is merely tied with the 1973-74 debacle is an open debate. The economy appears to be weakening again, fueling fears of a double dip. I am certain, though, that the 2007-09 Great Recession didn’t need to be so great. It could have been, should have been, no worse than the 1990-91 recession. Since World War II, the U.S. has suffered 12 recessions. The two worst, not including the most recent, were in 1973-74 and 1982-83. Both lasted 16 months and saw unemployment go over 10%. The 1973-74 recession was...

Markets hate uncertainty, so the conventional wisdom goes. And it is true. But the reduction of uncertainty can be a mixed blessing, especially if what becomes more certain is likely to interfere with recovery from the recently ended recession. Ben Bernanke has been confirmed for another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. But confirmation came at a price -- the further dilution of the Fed’s independence. The leader of the Senate Democrats, Harry Reid, says that in return for his support Bernanke has promised to ease credit further. How that is possible with interest rates already effectively at...

Corporate ‘I don’t know’ factor rises By Peggy Hollinger in Paris Published: June 4 2009 02:53 | Last updated: June 4 2009 02:53 Business leaders have lost their sense of direction in the face of the global economic crisis and 40 per cent are unable to pick growth opportunities for their companies, according to a survey of the world’s top corporate decision-makers. “We have never experienced such a big ‘I don’t know’ before,” said Marc Lhermitte, Ernst & Young partner. “These are people who like to have opinions.” The findings, published in E&Y’s European attractiveness survey, reveal the depth of...

A Darwinist Religious Experience Described April 11, 2009 — As millions of Jews just completed Passover, and as millions of Christians gather to celebrate Easter, a Darwinist reporter was experiencing “existential vertigo” – a sweeping sense of dizziness as her imagination zoomed in and out of the implications of her faith. It may be the closest thing that a secular materialist can call a religious experience. And religious experience is an accurate description: it was the outworking of an all-encompassing world view, with ultimate causes, ultimate destinies, moral imperatives, and heavy doses of faith. Amanda Gefter (see her previous attack...

The Bubble of Uncertainty Is About to Burst by: Jason Schwarz March 06, 2009 We are in the decade of the bubble. This new bubble, which I call the ‘uncertainty bubble’ is different because its price action is negative, however, the bubble-like characteristics are the same as the previous bubbles in tech, housing, and oil. Once mainstream momentum attaches itself to a cause, it will run beyond what the fundamentals warrant. This bubble has been especially dangerous because there is nothing that investors despise more than uncertainty. The bubble of uncertainty has caused a rather dramatic stock market sell-off but...

The Worst Misstep: Geithner Added to the Doubt By GRETCHEN MORGENSON TIMOTHY GEITHNER, the brand new Treasury secretary, was panned last week for how he unveiled the Obama administration’s plan to rescue the financial system from the bankers who broke it. Mr. Geithner was not especially articulate, his critics said, and he provided only an outline of an outline, not the detailed blueprint people anticipated and wanted. To a degree, one of Mr. Geithner’s biggest problems was not of his own making. His boss, President Obama, had fanned expectations for his debut as Mr. Fix-It, leaving the impression that it...

Sarah Palin and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle There is a principle in quantum mechanics holding that increasing the accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another conjugate quantity may be known. In simpler terms, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that you cannot make a measurement without affecting the results of the measurement. The mere fact you make the measurement influences the accuracy of the results. Some thinkers have elevated the uncertainty principle to the status of a philosophical principle, called the principle of indeterminacy. How does this principle apply to Vice-Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin?...

Understanding of Dark Pools is Elusive, Reports Traders Magazine Survey June 17, 2008 By Nina Mehta The dark pool landscape is changing so rapidly that a large portion of buyside traders can't keep up with some of the developments. According to a Traders Magazine electronic survey, 38 percent of buyside traders said they were not aware that some dark pools send out or receive information about resident orders. Nor were they aware that some dark pools send and receive electronic immediate-or-cancel orders from other venues. Dark pools are now stepping up efforts to cater to different buyside constituencies through their...

The accuracy of computer models that predict climate change over the coming decades has been the subject of debate among politicians, environmentalists and even scientists. A new study by meteorologists at the University of Utah shows that current climate models are quite accurate and can be valuable tools for those seeking solutions on reversing global warming trends. Most of these models project a global warming trend that amounts to about 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years. The study titled "How Well do Coupled Models Simulate Today's Climate?" is due to be published this Friday in the Bulletin of...

THERE’S SOMETHING QUAINT about the earliest paintings in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. In these religious paintings, you know who is important because of their relative size. The big people are the important ones. The little ones are less important. That seems like a nice simple way to organise the world. Or rather, there’s almost no sense of the world as a real place in these early paintings. That’s partly because the background is gold leaf. At most the figures exist in some very sketchy religious architecture, or they’re assigned little frames, like fragments of a comic strip. They don’t actually have...

Schwarzenegger Squashes Religious Freedom Thomasson: “Arnold Schwarzenegger has two faces. He speaks at churches and says he believes in religious freedom and family values, yet he’s stabbing pro-family Californians in the back.” Sacramento, California – Campaign for Children and Families is shocked and dismayed that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed SB 1441 (Kuehl). Today’s disastrous action by Schwarzenegger means Christian and other faith-based colleges in California will be forced to promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality if they accept students with Cal Grants. “People of conscience are appalled that Arnold Schwarzenegger has trampled religious freedom to satisfy hyperactive sexual activists,”...

This inherent inaccuracy stems from the violent interaction of the information gatherer(s) with the event being observed, and what emerges no longer represents the actual event. The violence done during the observation phase is not a physical violence, but a disruptive, prejudicial and dysfunctional pattern of thought and action by all members of the news gathering infrastructure, from factors as well-understood as biased reporters and editors, to elements as subtle as camera angles, props, timing, tone and the selection of adjectives. The end result is that no event of any complexity can run the gauntlet of distortion erected between the...

Is there a more powerful modern Trinity? These reigning deities proclaim humanity's inability to thoroughly explain the world. They have been the touchstones of modernity, their presence an unwelcome burden at first, and later, in the name of postmodernism, welcome company. Their rule has also been affirmed by their once-sworn enemy: science. Three major discoveries in the 20th century even took on their names. Albert Einstein's famous Theory (Relativity), Kurt Gödel's famous Theorem (Incompleteness) and Werner Heisenberg's famous Principle (Uncertainty) declared that, henceforth, even science would be postmodern.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to wage a great battle this fall in a special election showdown with the unions, the special interests and - most of all - the Democrats. But with his numbers falling in the polls and a key petition deadline approaching, there is growing uncertainty not only about which measures voters might face but even whether Schwarzenegger still wants the confrontation. "This has been a catastrophe from beginning to end," said Raphael Sonenshein, a political scientist at California State University, Fullerton. "He's proposed a year of warfare with the Democrats on issues that unite...