Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘money’

Money Mischief

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev’ryone wishes for silver and gold
How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth 

 

Actually according to economist Milton Friedman a lot of people wished for silver and gold as a monetary standard (bimetallism), but the gold standard was slowly and steadily adopted by the world. That is before “fiat” money (currency not backed by a commodity like gold or silver) became the rage and allowing governments to crank up the presses. These are my words not Friedman’s.

Read more…

Consider The Grasshoppers

“Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shade of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shriveled, meager, hopping, though loud and troublsome, insects of the hour.

Edmund Burke

Read more…

Kelly VS Weiner

The following debate between Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) is very interesting.  Also appearing is Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) and the ever annoying Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).  I apologize that I could not edit Schultz out of the clip, but the exchange between Kelly and Weiner toward the middle of the clip is worth the wait.  I love how Rep. Kelly blasts Weiner.  I would LOVE to know what was going through Kelly’s mind as he showed restraint when dealing with the twerp Weiner. 

Read more…

For-Proifit College

Start with a headline to catch your attention.

For-profit college debt brings burdens

Follow up with a subhead that nails it and creates the mood.

Read more…

Ole King Coal

“What I’ve said is that we would put a cap-and-trade system in place that is more — that is as aggressive if not more aggressive than anybody else’s out there, so if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

Read more…

When Pigs Fly

It’s an oft repeated story, government’s abuse of power discriminated against a group.  In this case the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) denied loans to black farmers based on race.  A group of black farmers (I wonder why they are “black” farmers and not “African-American” farmers) sued and after a while the USDA admitted to the discrimination.   The USDA settled the Pigford vs Glickman case and agreed to pay affected black farmers $50,000 per claim.  Here is my first hiccup.  The USDA, while a bloated bureacracy, is made up of people some of whom discriminated against black farmers.  None of the article that I read mentioned anything about people being fired, going to jail, or being fined because of the offenses.  Yet another case of government screwing up and costing us money.

Read more…

Patriotic Millionaires??

“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.  And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.  And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury.”

Mark 12:41-43

Read more…

Oktober Surprise

In politics the vaunted “October Surprise” has been a powerful tactic to turn the tide of past elections.  Perhaps the most infamous was the charges leveled against George W. Bush by CBS News and Dan Rather in the run up to the 2004 presidential election.  CBS News and Rather aired a hit piece stating that “W” only really served in the National Guard to avoid a stint in Vietnam.  Rather’s dramatic use of documents from the National Guard came back to haunt him as bloggers quickly and easily identified the documents as forged and faked.  How embarrassing that a national news organization was unable to determine the legitimacy of documents while folks sitting at home could. 

Read more…

Liberal Alters – Public Education

My own personnel experience with public education was limited to a year in kindergarten at Horace Mann school.  The building still stands today, but no education going on in there anymore unless you consider stabbings and shootings and in particular how to avoid them education.  My parents enrolled me in a private educational system starting if first grade.  Before you get all twisted the private education was Catholic Schools in which I spent the next twelve years.  Going to Catholic grade school was certainly convenient as I could walk there and there certainly was discipline growing up Catholic.

Read more…

General Motor$

I was somewhat surprised to read that General Motors is planning to sell stock sometime in the near future a little over a year from its “bankruptcy.”  I used the parenthesis around bankruptcy because what the Obama Administration did for General Motors was not a typical bankruptcy.  Investors were not protected or given preference as was their right;

Read more…