It is a funny world.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304465604579220052504852822?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

It has always struck my as sadly comical that the man who is largely responsible for the Crisis of 2008 would be put in charge of financial reform.

Kind of like making Roman Polanski Child Care Czar.

Now the UK is ready to drink the Kool Aid too! The world learns nothing.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexberezow/2013/11/20/british-prime-minister-david-camerons-horrible-idea/

When all else fails....

...hammer the minimum wage and the distribution of income. It is sickening to have to listen to the willful economic ignorance that is guiding (if that is what you call it) this country. We have been trying to make the distribution of income more "fair" and "equitable" for decades upon decades. We have spent tens of trillions of dollars doing so. I am tired of saying it but one more time what matters is absolute poverty and not the distribution of income. There will always be a lower 20% in the income distribution and so what??? If a magic bird came by and tripled everyone's living standard, there would still be a lower 20% and that is what the libs and progressives would scream about.  I post the jackass picture in their honor.

 So, what is the president's number one priority for the next three years? Yea, promoting a more equitable distribution of income. Let's face it, everything that man does has one and only one goal in mind and that is the equalization of outcomes and not opportunity. It is not enough to give everyone an equal chance. It is the end all to make sure everyone has the same result, regardless of work effort, human capital, or what have you. If you have something more than the least among us, it was obtained because of a morally bankrupt system. And he is going to make it right.

As H.L. Menchen said, "Democracy is the theory that the common man knows exactly what he wants...and deserves to get it good and hard."

Want some...get some.

You don't need Peter Wallison to tell you this. We have learned nothing. And in case you have not figured it out yet, government caused the crisis of 2008.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304465604579217920377530310?mod=opinion_newsreel

By the numbers...but don't panic.

Amazon handled 26.5 million purchases on November 26, 2013 or 306 per second.

How many the Affordable Care website handle?

It reminds me of the child who "wants to do it all by myself". Making mud pies is fine, but we are talking about your sub-standard insurance here. That's different.

This is worth reading...the end of the end of history.

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/12/02/2013-the-end-of-history-ends/

What do you think Nixon would say?

http://nypost.com/2013/11/18/census-faked-2012-election-jobs-report/

Can China learn from Britain? Probably not. They are looking forward to a de-Americanized world.

http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2013/11/08/professor-barry-eichengreen-chinese-industrialization-and-its-discontents/

It seems to me as I think of it briefly that China is in the middle of the classic Austrian over-investment cycle with all the nastiness still to come that Hayek and Ludwig von

Mises talked about. I have under-appreciated this school of thought in my career and it seems to me China is teeing it up.

Sophie's Debut

My new dog Sophie had her first hunt last Saturday. It was a great success. I am looking forward to many years of hunting with her. When she is finished hunting...I'll be on Medicare if the age stays at 65 which it should not.

"I was all for Obamacare until I found out I was paying for it". Welcome home Leona Helmsley.

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-next-obamacare-fiasco.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGrumpyEconomist+%28The+Grumpy+Economist%29

You know when she comes out, I don't mean it to be very nice.

Neat graphic on the break down of what we owe to whom....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/10/230944425/everyone-the-u-s-government-owes-money-to-in-one-graph?ft=1&f=1006

Money Rates comes knocking on the ECU door.

http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/money-perspectives/fed-acted-correctly-interest-rates.htm

How do the bookies make money?

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/how-do-bookies-make-money-sports-betting

I just did the math....

...with a $775 billion deficit we are borrowing $47, 564.68 a second.

Mike Ditka....and what could have been.

http://deadspin.com/mike-ditkas-biggest-mistake-was-letting-obama-become-1443109185?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

It knows no boundries.

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-shutdown-hits-econonerds.html

Wisdom from U.S. Grant

 "I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution."

America meet Europe.

http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/bpea/latest-conference/2013-fall-coibion-unemployment-persistence

This makes so much sense I want to shed tears....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323595004579065361191486206.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/09/13/argentina-taking-pages-from-kgb-playbook/

Win-Win proposition.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324094704579065432802151184.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

Want to help stop global warming and grow the economy and get rid of nuclear power plants and help the poor all at the same time? Then support fracking. If you are against global warming, and you should be, then you should also be for fracking. If you are against both, then look for "P" in the yellow pages, for psychiatrist.

My happy ending!

As many of you know, my dog Mikka (dog on the right) ran away for 30 days. I thought she was gone...until she wasn't. Here she is with my good friend Kathy Queck who found her in the woods around south Charlotte. My wife and I had committed to adopting a "rescue" English Springer Spaniel from the English Springer Rescue Association, thinking my dog was gone and wanting to do something to help another dog out that needed a forever home. And that is her "Xena" on the left. Mikka turned up two days before we got Xena and the people wanted to know if we were still going to go through with the adoption. I said heck yes! We committed and we are sticking to it. I went from one dog who is at gun dog school to three just like that. A nasty, nasty curve that life had thrown my way has now been nullified. My dog is home and has a new sister. As Winston Churchill once said, "there is no feeling in the world like being shot at and missed." Amen brother.

Detroit...meet Puerto Rico.

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/09/11/puerto-rico-caribbean-blue-commonwealth-on-the-brink/

The NY Times carries water for the murderous thug Putin!

From world chess champion Garry Kasparov's Facebook page:

“I cannot stomach linking to it on my page, but The New York Times has just published an op-ed by Vladimir Putin! You expect a dictator to broadcast propaganda but it is to the great shame of the NY Times they are providing him with their platform, treating it like a serious message. While Putin was writing about peace and international law and God (!) with one hand for the Times, he was signing more weapons orders for al-Assad with the other hand. Putin has also sent Russian personnel to Syria to help al-Assad slaughter the Syrian people. And regarding peace and international law, what of Putin's invasion of Georgia, where Russian troops still occupy Georgian territory?

Again, all this is to be expected from Putin, and it would be predictable and laughable to see this article in Russia Today or one of the many other Kremlin-controlled outlets. But to have it in The New York Times, presented without comment, is a huge blow to their credibility.”

Read Henninger and you know what to think.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323595004579069291111631648.html?mod=hp_opinion

The science behind global warming is dishonest. But it will sure make the economy grow faster.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/Global-cooling-Arctic-ice-caps-grows-60-global-warming-predictions.html#ixzz2eGWhkj3c

Incredible!

ECU vs. FAU this Thursday on National TV!

Take 12 minutes and watch this. This will not end well.

Greg Mankiw had this on his site. I am Pete Klenow. Answer at least 20 questions and see who you resemble.

http://www.whichfamouseconomistareyoumostsimilarto.com/

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design" - F.A. Hayek

Could the above quote from Hayek possibly be more fitting to the debacle that the implementation of Obama Care is turning out to be? How little you really know about what you imagine you can design. And the lack of lawful behavior is a shock too. Don't like something, delay it. Issue a fiat, give it another year. That is not how business is conducted in this country the last time I checked the Constitution. But why should we let something as trivial as that stand in our way? We have a society to engineer. Shove off.

Every American needs to read this.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323639704579015101857760922.html?KEYWORDS=peggy+noonan

Make a buck and keep 31 cents. Sign me up!

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/07/phil-mickelson-open-championship-taxes/

It is easy to understand gold when you hold the price fixed.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/07/18/bernanke-nobody-really-understands-gold-prices/?mod=djemRTE_h

Highlights of Alumni Golf Tourney

"Food is more important than ideas."

http://www.cato.org/blog/muslim-brotherhoods-legacy-controls-shortages-inflation

Ditto.

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2013/06/the_allpowerful.html

Read the last two paragraphs. The politics of central banking.

I remember Rick Mishkin gave a speech here at ECU entitled "Modern Central Banking...Has it become like Modern Dentistry?" Of course this was before our little event in 2008. It is hardly dentistry anymore.



http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-political-entanglement-of-central-banking-by-raghuram-rajan

Inflation? Make mine a double!

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2013/06/just_how_helpfu.html

Jobs? What Jobs?

The president gave his speech yesterday on climate change. 6,500 words and not one mention of unemployment or GDP, as the Wall Street Journal points out. Instead we get a job and growth killing whacko-left set of executive orders that will do nothing to reduce global warming (read: China), but will cost us plenty. If all the other policies and entitlement expansion were not enough to stop the economy, this new set of mandates sure will. But take comfort, there was not much going on to stop in the first place.

I firmly believe we are now on a new 2% long-run growth path for the economy, down from the heady 3% from 1980-2010. After reading the highlights of this speech, I just dropped it to 1.5%.

I remember the president campaigning for the 2008 election and in one speech he said "we have to do something about climate change....no more keeping your home thermostat on 72 degrees." If you don't think that is next then you are delusional. Remember, the New Deal and the National Industrial Recovery Act was gutted by some butchers in Brooklyn named the Schechter brothers. They objected to the rules that even specified how they could pull chickens from a cage without violating NRA statutes and being fined. They took it all the way to the Supreme Court and won. How far of a stretch is it to mandate thermostats that won't go below 76 degrees if big brother FDR thought he could tell butchers how to pull chickens from a cage?

Do yourself a favor...get in shape. I hear it is easier to take the heat that way and you will be less likely to need Obamacare.

Central planning does not work and yet all we are getting is more of it. God help us.

Where have you gone Richard Nixon?

Now we are talking...old school hockey with the Black Hawks and the Bruins...original six.

Breeders' Cup goes back to California for third year in a row. Nuts!

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013306100029

Golf Tourney Update...

We have now cleared over $17,000 from this year's golf tourney and that will fund three student full-ride scholarships for next year. We spent more money than ever and made more than ever. Something must be going right thank God.

The band and sushi bar will be a permanent fixture from now on. If we have to go to morning and afternoon flights because we have so many people playing golf, that would be a wonderful problem to have. I'll handle it.

Next year when you are done playing golf, bring your significant other and let's burn the joint down with a huge party. Or just come for the dinner. We did not stop until 11:30 pm. The bar was open from 10 am until 11:30 pm. Say what you want about me (and many do) but I know how to throw a party.

See you next April 25, 2014.

The smartest woman in the world.

Welcome home Leona Helmsley.

For those of you sleeping at the switch out there contemplating the end of the war on terror, here's a new thought for you. Has it crossed your mind that the Obama administration has taken on a certain "Nixonian" flavor to it lately? Nixon had an "enemies list" and he was out to get them. Even the great Paul Samuelson was on that list. Now we have the president blowing the "dog whistle" and we have the IRS business along with the investigation of leaks and the harassment of the AP and Fox news and all of a sudden it is 1972 again. Welcome home Leona Helmsley.

Start this at about the 5:00 minute mark and reflect on today.

I signed it.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/EconomistsImmigrationLetter05222013.pdf

When the Unthinkable becomes Thinkable.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323398204578489261685554102?mg=reno64-wsj.html?dsk=y

This guy is good.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324216004578480811652337252.html

Golf Fun

Golf Observations

1. These greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow.
~ Sam Snead

2. I was three over today: One over a house, one over a patio and one over a swimming pool..
~ George Brett

3. Actually, the only time I ever took out a one-iron was to kill a tarantula. And I took a 7 to do that.
~ Jim Murray

4. The only sure rule in golf is - he who has the fastest cart never has to play the bad lie.
~ Mickey Mantle

5. Sex and golf are the two things you can enjoy even if you're not good at them.
~ Kevin Costner

6. I don't fear death, but I sure don't like those three-footers for par.
~ Chi Chi Rodriguez

7. After all these years, it's still embarrassing for me to play on the American golf tour. Like the time I asked my caddie for a sand wedge and he came back ten minutes later with a ham on rye.
~ Chi Chi Rodriguez

8. The ball retriever is not long enough to get my putter out of the tree.
~ Brian Weis

9. Swing hard in case you hit it.
~ Dan Marino

10. My favorite shots are the practice swing and the conceded putt. The rest can never be mastered.
~ Lord Robertson

11. Give me golf clubs, fresh air and a beautiful partner, and you can keep the clubs and the fresh air.
~ Jack Benny

12. There is no similarity between golf and putting; they are two different games, one played in the air, and the other on the ground.
~ Ben Hogan

13. Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20% of the time, you're the best.
~ Jack Nicklaus

14. The uglier a man's legs are, the better he plays golf. It's almost a law.
~ H. G. Wells

15. I never pray on a golf course. Actually, the Lord answers my prayers everywhere except on the course.
~ Billy Graham

16. If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play at it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf.
~ Bob Hope


17. While playing golf today, I hit two good balls. I stepped on a rake.
~ Henny Youngman

18. If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.
~Jack Lemmon

19. You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives. Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work.
~ Lee Trevino

20. I'm not saying my golf game went bad, but if I grew tomatoes, they'd come up sliced.
~ Lee Trevino

American Hero

American Hero

Short and sweet policy statement.....

http://www.johnbtaylorsblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-key-issue-in-monetary-policy-debate.html


...with comments by Cochrane..... 


http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2013/04/taylor-on-monetary-policy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGrumpyEconomist+%28The+Grumpy+Economist%29


Giving the Fed a whole laundry list of things for them to do and accomplish is a real bad idea.

Clowning around at the golf tournament.

Here is the Disgruntled Clown at this year's event. Looks like we are going to clear over $16,000 to fund student scholarships this year. It keeps getting bigger and better and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

One more time.

http://www.sbnation.com/2013/5/4/4300856/2013-kentucky-derby-video-orb#ooid=BjNDllYjpg6_8nnpftmbIrLM9B9ExbSF

Read this to the bottom. Greenville, NC is featured prominently...and that's too bad.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/mapping-unwed-motherhood/?hp

My derby forecast.

http://www.pirateradio1250.com/site_htm/mp3_archives.htm

Jeepers Creepers.....

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-persistent-dangers-of-megabanks-by-simon-johnson

And make mortgages "recourse loans" too while we are at it.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/down-payment-rules-are-at-heart-of-mortgage-debate/

Read the text here. There is a balance between financial stability and home ownership. Really? Are you serious? It is this type of thinking that generates financial crises.

The Canadians don't have this type of confusion or play this stupid game of high-stakes Russian Roulette. Thus they have not gone through the same experience we have. Imagine that.

Vidant Medical Center Foundation Planned Giving Advisory Council

I was recently honored to be included as a member of the Vidant Medical Center Foundation's Planned Giving Advisory Council. I was brought on as an economic adviser and I am delighted to be a part of it. They claim I am an MD, but that is only true if they mean Mad Dog.

Anyway, once I had a health scare it made me realize just what a wonderful resource we have here in East Carolina. I figured it was my turn to help out.

P.S. That picture was 20 pounds ago.

And to think this guy's vote counts the same as yours mostly.

I remember in college one spring break some loser called the cops and said someone had stolen his cocaine. They brought a bag to his hotel and asked him if this was his. He said "hey you found it! Thanks guys!" Needless to say he had some time at the Florida cross bar hotel.

Coming for you.....

He sure is.

http://keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/

Golf Tournament is Friday. The Disgruntled Clown is showing up for our 10th Anniversary. No one is safe...fair warning!

Has it really come to this?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323309604578428900867620018.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

Oh NOOOO!

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/flaws-are-cited-in-a-landmark-study-on-debt-and-growth/?src=un

Fracking for you?

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/overcoming-objections-to-shale-gas-by-jeffrey-frankel

And you wonder what the problem is?

Good morning and welcome to the work week for those of you who still consider work to be an obligation and who still have employment.

I had heard of it but only in passing. Now I know it is true. Yep, the federal government spent $2.2 billion dollars last year on the Lifeline subsidy to provide cell phones to low income individuals. That's right, poor people need cell phones too so why not spend billions to provide them. Apparently cell phones are considered as essential as food and shelter. But why stop there? Isn't transportation necessary? Why not cars too? Have the poor go down to their local GM or Chrysler dealer (government owned you see?) and pick out some nice shiny new buggy and drive her home at taxpayers' expense.There is no difference here.

I am sick and tired of hearing about "the poor" and how mistreated they are and how we have so much more to do. Pssshaw! I remember a few years back when Michelle Obama went to a homeless shelter for Thanksgiving and helped serve the meal. A number of homeless folks were snapping her picture with cell phones far better than the one I have. I thought to myself, what have we to be ashamed of when poor people have a better phone than I do?

Now you know where they got those phones. Go back to work and pay up sucker. It is not your money, you did not build that, and you have benefited from a system that is unfair.

H.L. Menchen said "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." And after electing Obama twice, that is exactly what we are going to get. Go back to work, shut your mouth and remember that your society is now being shaped by the likes of Herbert Marcuse and Karl Marx. Have a good day comrade!

April 15th....Welcome Home Leona Helmsley.

There she is. Leona Helmsley God rest her soul. She was sent to the federal prison in Lexington, KY right when I was leaving grad school. She was a tax cheat and was thrown in the can on April 15th by order of the judge. She said "taxes are for little people" and that ticked the judge off.

In her honor, my favorite liquor store put up a sign that read: "Welcome Home Leona Helmsley". I have never forgotten that. So when the grim reaper comes to visit someone that really deserves it I break out the Welcome Home Leona Helmsley phrase.

And also every April 15th.

R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher

I am saddened at the recent passing of who I consider to be one of the icons of twentieth century history. Of course I mean the great Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, one of her greatest quotes is the headliner of this very Blog..."The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people's money." How true and this will become ever clearer with every tick of the clock as we slough toward our brave new utopian welfare state.

To recall, when she took over in 1980, things were so terrible in the UK that they could not even bury the dead. That is correct. Look it up. The government grave diggers union was on strike and the bodies where being stacked like cord wood. Maggie came in with Ronald Reagan and gave us a decade of economic rebirth that I am afraid will be reflected upon as the best of times.

To think that now in the UK they are having difficulty with her legacy and vilifying her as some terrible monster tells you all you need to know about modern Britain. As Johnnie Rotten and the Sex Pistols proclaimed "No future for you, and England's dreaming." The protests going on now are pathetic and sickening and deserving of your pity. The people who are now trying to debase her and her legacy are a bunch of wretched, filthy, dirty wankers. 

Ladies and Gentlemen...here it is!

I am really happy with how it turned out. It can be yours for the low, low price of $180.

Available at Amazon.com:


http://www.amazon.com/Routledge-Handbook-Economic-International-Handbooks/dp/0415677033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365108099&sr=8-1&keywords=handbook+of+major+events+in+economic+history

I have changed my mind...10 reasons to re-establish the gold standard. Now I too have the Midas touch.

http://baselinescenario.com/2013/04/01/go-for-gold/