A Walk with the Girls

Last Friday I took the girls out for a walk in the neighborhood. The weather was great—more summer than spring. The four year old was riding her big-wheel while I carried her little sister.

As we passed one house an older gentleman called out to us. He was excited to see the little ones and proud to list off his children, grand-children, and great-grand-children. He told me about his time in WWII. At 84 he's seen a lot, including Europe from the vantage point of a ball turret on a B-24. His first mission was on June 6, 1944, D-Day.

The four year old had peddled off and was nearly at the next corner, so I had to excuse myself. I told him we would be walking around the neighborhood a lot in the coming months. There would be other times to stop and chat.

On Saturday, I saw another story about a B-24 ball turret gunner: Sippican Cottage: My Father Asks For Nothing. I've printed out a copy to deliver to the one I know.

Walk on the Fed?

Alex Tabarrok of MarginalRevolution notes that safe's are a counter-cyclical asset. Last week I heard a radio advertisement that, in part, went: "whether you need a gun safe for your home or a vault for your business..." Alex includes a graph of the currency component of the money supply. I've included the same here using a slightly different dataset. FWIW, currency has gone from $760B at the beginning of the recession to about $840B. That's about a 10.5% increase in currency, so I think it's more a bank "walk" than a bank run.

How did this happen? I suspect there are a lot of people who have decided to get another $10 back at the grocery store when they pay with a debit card. Others are getting another $20 each time they visit an ATM.

Our Leader

I just saw that picture headlined on Drudge. It's nice to see a picture of our leader, XD-235, but I don't understand why the focus is on XD's voice talent. You'd think the leader of the free world would get more respect!

Unsupervised!?!

Don Boudreaux quotes a letter by Daniel Gallington. In part Daniel says: "...the economic power of the private sector, especially if unsupervised..."

Unsupervised!?! Are you kidding me? Here's a list of "supervisors" that failed to prevent various and sundry aspects of the financial meltdown:

1. Congress (House and Senate, added 3/7/9)
   
2. US Treasury
3. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
4. Federal Reserve ("The Fed")
5. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
6. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)
7. Bureau of the Public Debt (I bet they're busy these days!)
8. Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI)
9. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
10. Federal Inspectors General
11. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)
12. National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
13. Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
14. Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO)
15. Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
16. Fannie Mae
17. Freddie Mac
18. Ginnie Mae

Oh, yeah. Yeah. No one was watching the hen house, Danny! Truth is, none of them did a very good job and some of them had conflicts of interest—Freddie and Fannie both gave generously to Obama.

Let's review the second rule of bureaucracy. Rule 1, of course, is: Spend Your Budget. Rule 2 is: Fail. "Why fail," you may ask, because once you've failed you can ask for more money and more power. Failure is how you grow your bureaucratic fiefdom. With failure you get a larger budget next year. If you were to succeed, then someone might want to "improve your efficiency" by reducing your budget.

Update: Director Blue's Meltdown post reminded me of the most important supervisor: Congress. I've added them to the top of my list. Go back to those rules of bureaucracy and pay particular attention to Rule 3: Cover Your Ass.

Mankiw on Fiscal Multipliers

Greg Mankiw highlights the debate about whether fiscal stimulus multipliers are large or small.
He's explained elsewhere that marginal propensity to consume (MPC) increases (in contrast to average propensity to consume) during times of uncertainty. Therefore, he tends to agree with the Obama administration that fiscal multipliers will be "larger than normal as well".

I wonder if his MPC argument applies to dollars themselves. That is, during times of uncertainty, are consumers more likely to spend the spare change or drop it in a jar at home? In light of the Bloomberg report that the FDIC might run out of money this year, I wonder where consumers are putting their marginal dollars. Are they putting them in Bank of America or their mattress?

Update: Congress is considering a loan to the FDIC.

Such an Obvious Target for Civil Disobedience

Pranksters everywhere, take note: Barry needs his teleprompter. If you're looking to have a little fun, you might unplug it. Personally, I'd like to see a well-loved security blanket thrown over it. How about someone in hockey pads checking XD-235 into the boards?

The best part will be when XD gets his own Secret Service detachment. I look forward to seeing pictures of a teleprompter protected by a battalion of Men in Black!

Pursuing John Galt

Laura at Pursuing Holiness is going John Galt (via Instapundit). She says the following about her spiritual reasoning (emphasis in original):

Do I want Obama to fail? Aren’t I, as a Christian, required to pray for our president? I do pray for him. But I don’t pray for his success, where his success means implementing policies which harm the country’s security, kill babies, increase poverty, and decrease freedom.

I agree with her; however, my theological reasons for going John Galt are a little different. First, I feel that socialism violates the ten commandments. And, second, I believe socialism damages charity.

The socialist argument for redistribution requires a populace that actively violates the tenth commandment and a government that abets them by violating the eighth. Here's a refresher:

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'

EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.'

Leftist politicians promise to steal for their covetous constituents and call it charity. That is the pernicious evil of socialism.

The Christian tradition often references Christ's response to the question: which is the greatest commandment? His answer is found in Matthew 22:36-40 and it makes no reference to a government role for loving your neighbor:

36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[a] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Your obligation to love your neighbor as yourself cannot be fulfilled if the government is doing it for you. In other words, socialism erodes our civic charity. Exhibit A is Joe Biden. Over the course of ten years he earned $2,450,042 and donated $3,690 to charity—about 0.15%. That's about one seventh of one percent.

Note: A valid Judeo-Christian criticism of going John Galt is contained in the fourth commandment (emphasis added):

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

This doesn't bother me because I'm a stay-at-home dad so I've chosen to do work for which I will not be paid. Nonetheless, I think this could lead to an interesting theological discussion.

Update: Dr. Helen is looking for people going Galt to interview for PJTV.

Censorship is Damage

Dave Winer (via Instapundit) observes:

Why journalism is dead 3.0: The sources got blogs.

Perhaps, there are other reasons. Perhaps, the Net has interpreted newspapers as damage and is routing around them.

I am John Galt

Four years ago I decided to back-burner my independent consulting career and become a stay-at-home dad. I continue to do some consulting work, but it's only a handful of hours and it's at a reduced rate. At the time I was making north of $100k/yr doing Java/JEE work and traveling every week—in 2004 I was living in North Carolina and working in Arkansas. My wife works, so let's take a look at our tax situation.

First, assume (incorrectly) that my wife makes $65k/yr and I could bring home an additional $100k/yr. My wife's base salary puts us in the 25% bracket for married filing jointly, so every dollar I earn will be taxed at 25% or more. To keep things simple, let's pretend my income tax is only 25% or $25k. I'm self-employed, so I have to pay both sides of FICA which works out to about 15%. This would only apply to about $40k of my additional income (for 2008) or about $6k. My state income tax would add another $6k, so we're looking at taxes around $37k.

If I wasn't a stay-at-home dad, then we'd need to hire a nanny to take care of the girls. I think that would set us back about $25k/yr maybe more. That leaves us with $100k - $37k - $25k = $38k. Taking an active role raising your children... what's that worth? Obviously, it's worth more than $38k/yr to me. Yeah, the diapers suck, but seeing their first steps, hearing their first words, that stuff is priceless.

If you're Atlas and you'd like to shrug, have you ever wondered why it is that Europeans take so much vacation time? Part of the reason is that time-off is taxed at 0%. If you're negotiating your compensation then you should not only consider asking for more vacation time, but also a shorter work week—a four day work week is like a 20% raise. Of course, the workaholics are probably wondering what to do with three whole days off. Simple: protest, call your congresscritters, and lead us to a brighter future with lower taxes so you can get back to work!

See also: Instapundit, PJTV, and Dr. Helen.

PS: Watch for news stories about compensation packages having lower salaries with more generous vacation and/or flex time. Those companies have to "tighten their belts," but they'll want to "do right by their workers" and try to "maximize the number of employees they retain in these tough economic times." They're "switching to a four day work week to reduce their carbon footprint." That's what you'll read. Then take a gander at tax revenues. This will be an object lesson in the deficiencies of the progressive tax system. Trying to play catch-up by moving the goalposts from $250k to $150k to $50k will be fun to watch.

Update: I have a followup post Pursuing John Galt responding to Pursuing Holiness's post.

Advice for Citizen Journalists

The Washington Post has a great article about the role newspaper journalists have played in checking police abuse. As newspapers continue their downward spiral, citizen journalists need to step up. Here are some quotes:

In the halcyon days when American newspapers were feared rather than pitied, I had the pleasure of reporting on crime in the prodigiously criminal environs of Baltimore. The city was a wonderland of chaos, dirt and miscalculation, and loyal adversaries were many. Among them, I could count police commanders who felt it was their duty to demonstrate that crime never occurred in their precincts, desk sergeants who believed that they had a right to arrest and detain citizens without reporting it and, of course, homicide detectives and patrolmen who, when it suited them, argued convincingly that to provide the basic details of any incident might lead to the escape of some heinous felon. Everyone had very good reasons for why nearly every fact about a crime should go unreported.

In response to such flummery, I had in my wallet, next to my Baltimore Sun press pass, a business card for Chief Judge Robert F. Sweeney of the Maryland District Court, with his home phone number on the back. When confronted with a desk sergeant or police spokesman convinced that the public had no right to know who had shot whom in the 1400 block of North Bentalou Street, I would dial the judge.

And then I would stand, secretly delighted, as yet another police officer learned not only the fundamentals of Maryland's public information law, but the fact that as custodian of public records, he needed to kick out the face sheet of any incident report and open his arrest log to immediate inspection. There are civil penalties for refusing to do so, the judge would assure him. And as chief judge of the District Court, he would declare, I may well invoke said penalties if you go further down this path.

Delays of even 24 hours? Nope, not acceptable. Requiring written notification from the newspaper? No, the judge would explain. Even ordinary citizens have a right to those reports. And woe to any fool who tried to suggest to His Honor that he would need a 30-day state Public Information Act request for something as basic as a face sheet or an arrest log.

Read the whole thing.